Tom and Shells Christmas Dinner 2014

Christmas dinner for Shells and I is always a fun night.  We crack open some fun wines and then I get to just cook whatever fits my fancy for the evening.  I always start with the wine and then pick the food from there; for this year we went with Pierre Paillard NV Champagne, 2006 Domaine du Vieux Telegraph blanc and 2005 Domaine Hermand-Geoffroy Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru La Perriere as our wine choices.

Shells did a brilliant job of setting the table to be nice and festive!  Maybe one day she'll write up how she does crazy home things like the stocking utensil holder.

The first two courses were enjoyed with the Champagne.

For the first course I did a sauteed scallop served over a truffled potato puree with some buttered French bread.

For the second course I did two Choptank Sweets on the half shell with fresh horseradish.  After this course, we retired to the den to finish the Champagne and open some presents.

For the next course, we poured the white Rhone.

I pulled a recipe from the most recent Bon Appetit for this next course, sizzling spicy shrimp.

For the second white course I stuffed a morel mushroom with some bacon (pre-cooked and cooled) and blue cheese.  I then sauteed the mushroom in butter (why wouldn't I?) until the cheese was melty and then I served it with a little slice of French bread.

For the first of the red courses I pan roasted dry-aged NY strip in a cast iron pan, finishing it under the broiler.  I served the beef sliced over a carrot puree and accompanied by asparagus and a mushroom "gravy".

The mushroom "gravy" was super simple, and incredibly tasty:

I took 1/2 pounds of shiitake mushrooms, removed the stems and sliced them and then added them to a pot with 3 cups of beef stock.  I cooked this mixture down for about 1.5 hours at low heat (you want it to still have liquid in the pan, but to have reduced by about 2/3rds) adding a little more stock if needed.  Once the mixture was done, I blended it in the blender and then put it back into the pan on a warming setting to stay warm until I was ready for it.

For the final red course, we did a cheese selection.  There was desert after this, but I will leave that for Shells to tell you about.