We’ve come to that time of year when people start planning and hopefully executing their holiday parties. Magazines, television shows and even live demonstrations abound as your attention is pulled from dish to dish, appetizer to entrée to dessert, in an effort to impress, titillate and amaze.
Somewhere in this tangle of holiday merriment, you hopefully will also feed your guests and give them a bit of peace in a busy season. While you’re doing that, give yourself a break as well. Remember that one of the most important guests of the season gets by with milk and cookies.
Holiday entertaining is a billion-dollar, worldwide business. Aside from the other segments of the industry, the food segment occupies a large part of the marketing in an effort to hold our attention. Television, blogs, Facebook, Pinterest and even the printed word are all employed in an assault on our senses and pocketbooks.
While marketers in other seasons might subtly suggest that you buy this or that, in the holiday season, which now seems to stretch form Labor Day to Easter the pitch becomes one long jingle.
All this noise really doesn’t have anything to do with the spirit of the season, but it sure does occupy a lot of our time, and it has become a necessary function which is hard to ignore. We will entertain at the holidays, regardless of the hype. And there is some good that comes from the endless information that pours forth, some nuggets of good advice or helpful tips that might make your event a bit more memorable. But in these stressful times, I look not for memorable, but manageable. I look to entertain in an atmosphere where I’m relaxed and my guests are as well. I expect to be busy during the holidays, but not hectic and, believe me, there is a difference. To accomplish my goal, I start the process far earlier than you may expect.
Preparation is the key when it comes to holiday entertaining.
Case in point, those tomatoes you grow and harvest in September will be on your table in December. If you think that’s obsessive, then your time will be crunched when you can least afford it to be. It may seem romantically creative to whip up a holiday meal on a moment’s notice but you are literally playing with fire. It’s better for everyone involved if you start planning who will be there and what you may serve weeks before you do it.
Pick a focus and stay close to it. Innovation and creative do have a foundation, an initial concept which can make your finished product that much more special.
My goal is usually to mix traditional with some new stuff whether it be new ingredients or techniques. I’ll twist a classic like party mix and finish it with curry spice instead of the standard flavors. By changing the color and flavor of a holiday standard, I haven’t gone too far off the rails, but still created a conversation starter.
I’ll make crab cakes, minis for a party. They will follow my favorite recipe, but I won’t serve them like I do at The Sage Rabbit. I’ll do three sauces instead of one, the chipotle remoulade for the comfort factor, salsa verde for the lighter touch, and maybe that chow chow you put up this summer for the third.
In one relatively simple plating you’ve taken your guests through a roller coaster ride of flavor, color and texture.
What’s the best party food you’ve ever had? Now what is the best party food you’ve ever produced. Chances are its a cross between what you’re familiar with and something new.
It’s not everything new, that would be a nightmare, putting you and your guests high on a tightrope where expectations are not always met.
Go with old standards however and you’ll need to find some other spark to get the party started both in your kitchen and at your table. The best parties revolve around people and food, with stimulating conversation about both. I have a go-to dip that I discovered at a party given almost 40 years ago. Simple, delicious and memorable, it contained four ingredients; crab, cream cheese, cocktail sauce and Triscuits. It never fails to please, people still talk about it with fondness, and it has an adaptability that makes it easy to serve at multiple events.
If you want to make it your own, make your own cocktail sauce, or flavor the cream cheese with chives and toasted garlic. under no circumstances though should you use a different cracker, it turns out that regular Triscuits have just the right amount of salt on them to perfectly flavor the dish.
Chipotle Remoulade
2 cups mayonnaise
1-2 chipolte in adobo sauce
1 Tbl. Dijon mustard
½ cup re-hydrated sundried tomatoes
½ lemon juiced
1 tsp. chopped fresh oregano
1 small shallot diced
1 small clove garlic minced
Salt and cayenne pepper to taste
Re-hydrate the sundried tomatoes in boiling water until soft and drain, reserve the liquid.
Add all the ingredients but the salt, cayenne and lemon juice to a robo coupe. Blend the mix until t softens, using the sundried tomato water to thin just a bit. The remoulade should have texture, chunks, but not too big. Finish with salt and cayenne, add lemon to taste and chill
Crab and cream cheese dip with cocktail sauce and Triscuits
This is not a cheese ball so don’t be skimpy with the crab. Cocktail sauces can vary but you need the acid and the heat to balance the richness of the crab and cream cheese so there really isn’t another sauce that’s better. I prefer a higher horseradish kick, and I stay away from sweetness in this dish.
Make sure that your cream cheese is soft, room temperature or even a bit warmer. The colder the cream cheese the harder it is to mix it with the crab. If you’re using blue lump crab try and keep it as whole as possible. Mix the carb and cream cheese together, make a well in the center for the cocktail sauce and garnish with Triscuits
Tandoor party mix
Using a generic recipe for party mix, (I prefer the ones on the boxes of Chex, very old school) add in a few spoonsful of this powder.
Tandoor masala
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground garlic
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground mace
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 Tbl. ground turmeric
1 Tbl. black pepper cracked
1 Tbl. Kosher salt
1tsp. Fenugreek is optional
Combine and tossed with the warm mix, following the methods given in the recipe. Return to the oven to bake and enjoy.
John Foster is an executive chef who heads the culinary program at Sullivan University’s Lexington campus. A New York native, Foster has been active in the Lexington culinary scene and a promoter of local and seasonal foods for more than 20 years. The French Culinary Institute-trained chef has been the executive chef of his former restaurant, Harvest, and now his Chevy Chase eatery, The Sage Rabbit.
To read more from Chef John Foster, including his recipes, click here.
