‘Chef’ Dave’s holiday menu—sorry, lutefisk not includedBy Dave Ross
There is no better time than December to talk about family traditions, of which Christmas Eve is one of my favorites.
As a kid growing up in Minneapolis, our Christmas Eve celebration started early that morning. A parade of neighbors stopped by with plates of homemade bread, cookies and candies in exchange for gifts of the same.
Mom would get home from work about 1 in the afternoon with all the last-minute presents and a bottle of homemade Concord grape wine given her by a fellow employee, Sammy Galman.
I remember this because us kids were allowed to have about half an ounce of it to taste, and it always was served in a jelly glass. The rest of the afternoon was spent with friends dropping by and the countdown to opening presents with assorted aunts, uncles and cousins that evening.
I know this all sounds like a Norman Rockwell kind of experience, and for the most part it was.
However, Christmas Eve also had a dreaded side—the traditional lutefisk dinner.
It was a “fast” day, and that meant no meat. This in itself wasn’t too big a price to pay for all the joys of Christmas, but the Scandinavians in Minnesota thought they could get extra credit in heaven by forcing kids to eat lutefisk on Christmas Eve.
For those of you who have never tried this dish, count your blessings.
It is a dried fish that is soaked, then boiled down and served with drawn butter. It turns out translucent, and even the butter can’t help.
I remember sitting at the kitchen table, pushing this stuff around my plate, while my mother told a story of how the grocers in her native North Dakota stored lutefisk in barrels in front of their stores.
The neighborhood dogs would come around and anoint the barrels, which to this day I suspect was where the flavor came from.
Lutefisk is also credited with saving the early settlers from starvation during the long, cold Minnesota winters. I don’t think it was because of any special properties of lutefisk, rather that no one would eat the stuff unless they were faced with starvation.
Christmas Eve lutefisk is one tradition I gladly left behind, although I think my sister still resorts to it when her kids get a little too rambunctious around the holidays.
Enough said about lutefisk.
My favorite Christmas dinner is Traditional English Rib Roast with Yorkshire Pudding.
Here’s what you’ll need to have it on your Christmas menu:
6-pound rib roast. Choose the small end with at least a half inch of fat. (Have the butcher remove the chine bone)
Salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder
Allow the roast to come to room temperature and rub with the spices.
Place on a rack in a heavy roasting pan and put on the middle of a pre-heated 425-degree oven.
Roast for 30 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue to cook for 1½ hours for medium-rare.
Remove the roast from the pan and cover loosely with foil and allow it to rest 20 minutes.
Deglaze the pan with a little water over a hot burner. Remove from heat and skim the fat from the jus.
Yorkshire Pudding
¾ cup milk (room temperature)
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
¾ cup water (room temperature)
1½ teaspoons salt
¼ cup roast beef fat drippings
In a mixer, blend the milk, water, eggs and salt until well combined. Add the flour a little at a time and mix on high speed for two minutes.
Place the batter in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap and allow to stand at room temperature for two hours.
Heat the oven to 450 degrees.
Brush a muffin tin with the reserved beef fat and heat in the oven for 10 minutes. Stir the batter and divide into the heated muffin pans. Place in the lower third of the 450 oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Reduce heat to 350 and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Note: Make your batter before you start the roast; bake the puddings while the roast is resting.
Serves six, with a couple of sandwiches left over.
Have a happy holiday season!
