Volk/Watson Christmas Extravaganza 2010: Heavenly Hosts

The Spread

"Heavenly Hosts", aka the 3rd Annual Volk/Watson Christmas Extravaganza can be described as follows:

A selection of dishes with divinity in mind. From the angel food cake to Philadelphia cream cheese sundried tomato spread, each recipe has heavenly associations (ex: the Philadelphia cream cheese commercials) and is fit for angels. Of course, not all angels can digest dairy, so there are always alternatives, even healthier alternatives for all those eco-friendly angels. The "raw" dips are not heated above a certain temperature, are vegan, and are made with nuts soaked in water to remove digestive enzyme inhibitors, for any inhibited angels. Then there are the "Land of Milk and Honey" dishes (ironically, naturally dairy-free) - the Prosecco zabaione (Italian custard) and melomakarona (Greek semolina cookies soaked in honey syrup).

The other dishes are the personal heavens of the Volk/Watson family.

My dad's heaven: pork vindaloo
My mom's heaven: dairy-free, gluten-free dark chocolate hazelnut torte
My brother's heaven: Well my brother likes most things, and I refuse to make sushi with farmed antibiotic-laden Atlantic salmon (unsustainable, at that) so I've created a heaven for him of baguette (the manna of heaven) with Quebec Oka cheese, caramelized onions, smoked herring, crab, and fig jam. That way he can mix and match.

My heaven? Saag. Indian spinach. It's sweet and slippery and delicious. The onions, mustard seeds and asafoetida are amazing, and wrap it up in a fermented rice and lentil dosa and I'm a happy, happy person.

Here are the pictures. The rest of the food included daifuku (Japanese red bean desserts that I broiled), chicken mochi with a sweet soy-sesame dipping sauce (soy and szechuan peppercorn studded meatballs wrapped in savoury rice pastry), frozen grapes (what's heaven without branches of grapes?), home-made caramel (life - and death - are not worth living without caramel), and bottles of natural wines (again, grapes). I think that was everything? Here's most of it in pictures:

Sundried Tomato Cream Cheese Spread, Quebec Oka Cheese, grapes and pistachios

3 "Raw" Dips: Macademia Nut Ricotta, Basil Walnut Dip, Sundried Tomato Macademia & Pecan Dip with a selection of Gluten-Free Breads

 Caramelized Onion, Encircled by Home-made Fig Jam, and Smoked Herring

 Lentil and Rice Dosa with My Heavenly Dish of Choice: Saag

 The Land of Milk and Honey: Melomakarona Greek Honey Cookies with Walnuts

My Dad's Heaven: Slow-Cooked Pork Vindaloo

Raspberry-Blueberry Compote

 Almond Angel Food Cake with Honey Icewine-Soaked Figs, Maple Honeywine-Soaked Apricots, and Home-made Ginger Confit

The Zabaione was incredible...mmm...prosecco foam. The intense sugar of the dried fruit sauces and honey sauces, and caramel...and the mild sweetness of the saag with the chew of the dosa...the crunch of the dips, the sweetness of the fig jam with the caramelized onions and macademia nut ricotta, the basil walnut...the Szechuan peppercorns. Oh I love Szechuan peppercorns.

 

Setting up

Couldn't have done it all without some great help. Thanks to everyone involved, and thanks to everyone who came and enjoyed the party. Merry Christmas. Recipes to come.

"Heavenly Hosts": The 3rd Annual Christmas Party

When I first described the Christmas party I planned for my family two years ago and immediately called it the "First Annual Watson/Volk Christmas party" my parents laughed a little. Wasn't I getting a bit ahead of myself? Work on one before assuming there'd be more. But I never go into something like a giant catered party with anything but the highest expectations. Which is why now, three years later, we've arrived at the "Third Annual" edition of the event. We have a theme. Check. We have some rough menu sketches. Check. We even have excited to-be guests.

This year's theme will be "Heavenly Hosts". Thanks mom. I wanted something angelic to represent the season, but didn't want the kitsch of making it all about heaven and Hell. So we're leaving the devil aspect out of it. Yes, I want to do an angel's food cake, but no, there will be no deviled eggs (or devil's food cake for that matter). It's going to be on the elegant side instead.

So for the rest of the menu (since Newfoundland probably doesn't have enough eggs for me to do a whole party based on angels food cakes...) I was thinking my dad, my brother, my mom, and I would each have a dish labeled "So-and-so's Heaven". My dad's heaven would include a braised beef dish, my brother's would probably be sushi, my mom's? She has her heart set on some brownies, I think. Which leaves a whole lot of room for savoury dishes.

I was thinking philedelphia cream cheese (the angel commercials) would be appropriate, so I could do some kind of cream cheese dip and then do a raw version with nuts, and then I thought I'd just do a few more raw dishes that taste cheese-y. Probably there'll be a lot of cashews involved. That's good for dips and sauces, so maybe...hmm...

I was also thinking I wanted a lot of sourdough involved as the "manna of heaven". It's a more natural and traditional yeast. None of this fast-acting stuff, but it could take 10 days to make a yeast, and that's if everything goes smoothly. A friend here in the city offered me some of his to start mine off but I think I'll kill it by the time I get to Newfoundland. There's one good bakery in St. John's that might give me some of their starter, though I'm not even sure if they do sourdough. So the bread concept is there, and worst comes to worse, I can probably find Premiere Moisson flown in...sad, but true. No, I will try my best and making tons and tons of bread. It'll be my Christmas challenge. Turns out that in terms of glycemic index a sourdough made with white flour is better for you than even a whole wheat bread made with regular yeast!! Not in terms of minerals and vitamins maybe, but in terms of digestibility and spiking sugar levels. The whole wheat is really tough on your system, to the point where old people who eat it have a lot of trouble...Take that, Dempsters.

Anyway, so with my raw dips and desserts, maybe a "piled high apple pie", something beefy, something sushi (no salmon, trout, char or anything farmed Atlantic in this household, thanks, unless it just came off the wharf in unpolluted waters, and I don't know where those are), and then I've got to figure out what my heaven is and it's got to be something savoury. Or it can be sweet and then I have to come up with more "heavenly" or "angelic" savoury dishes.

Thoughts? Suggestions? As my highschool French teacher would say: "Questions? Commentaires?"