A New Holiday Tradition

I am aware that there are some who go out on Christmas Day for a Chinese meal rather than cook themselves. Because we like to cocoon on Christmas Day with good smells coming from the oven, this never appealed to us. However, the whole family is quite fond of Chinese cuisine so this year we decided to change our Christmas Eve feast to Chinese dim sum. My son-in-law grew up assisting his parents with a Chinese Restaurant and can whip out meat stuffed dumplings and won tons in rapid fashion. So building on these two items of boiled ginger chicken dumplings and fried pork wont tons, we added char siu (barbecue) pork tenderloin, sesame stir fried green beans, szechuan braised eggplant, mu shu pork, yang chow fried rice and shrimp lo mein, all courtesy of the family kitchen. I think this was a successful change from our Jewish deli inspired previous Christma Eve meals of pastrami and corned beef sandwiches. It appears our family is conflicted on which cuisines go best with Christian holidays. But then again, when our oldest daughter got married with Methodists, Catholics and Mormons on one side and Buddhists and Baptists on the other, my daughter compromised and got a Jewish judge to perform the ceremony.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking

One of my Christmas presents was Julia Child's first cookbook. I also watched the Julie and Julia movie over the holidays so - no surprise - I decided to try out a recipe or two, (four to be exact) from the cookbook. With Alli as my sous chef, we attempted a half day cooking marathon. I was a little skeptical that all the different cooking steps that Julia insisted on (which required four different recipes) could beat my previous attempts at bouef bourgennone ala the crockpot. We deftly patted the beef dry and sauteed it carefully in batches so as not to crowd the meat and let it carmelize. We simmered the sauce of wine (a nice Chianti recommended by Julia), beef stock, and herbs and poured it over the meat, stuck it in the oven to braise and made the next two recipes of carmelized onions and golden mushrooms. For the onions, we peeled 24 pearl onions, sauteed them in butter until golden, and added some beef stock to stew them for an hour. I will say the sauce that resulted was meltingly delicious. We set these aside for later. Then we sauteed the quartered mushrooms in butter, again in batches so as not to crowd and prevent browning. These also were set aside. After about three hours of braising the meat in the oven, we removed the meat from the sauce, brought the sauce to a simmer and thickened it with flour. We put the onions and mushrooms in the serving dish with the beef and poured over the sauce. We served this whole delicious mess with crusty bread for dipping. On the side we made buttered peas with pearl onions. Even though we used frozen peas, I could not believe how much better they tasted done Julia's way. My way was to microwave with a few tablespoons of water and maybe a pat of butter if I felt fancy. Julia's is to boil the pearl onions until soft (about 15 minutes), drain, add the defrosted peas and roll around in the pan to get rid of all excess moisture over medium high heat. Once dry, you add six (yes, six) tablespoons of butter, sugar to taste (I used about a teaspoon) and salt and pepper. Once melted you roll the peas in this yellow gooiness until the peas are cooked. No water or broth but it still makes a nice sauce. Best frozen peas we ever made. I wish we could find fresh and try out the recipe again.

Final verdict - this took a lot of kitchen time but the result was delicious. I rarely have time to put all this effort into cooking but that is the point of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Alli noted it was "Delicious. I was surprised how the sugar enhanced the peas". But best of all, Jeff, who usually disdains French food because of the wine, went back for seconds.

Mediterranean Bakery and Little Panda in Embry Hills

This office location at Koger Center lunch options has been pretty much limited to finds along Buford Highway but we recently stumbled across the Mediterranean Bakery & Sandwich Shop in Embry Hills. This little grocery store and bakery also has a hot food counter where you can order Lebanese sandwiches and plates. I ordered the Ground Lamb Kebab plate which had several skewers of perfectly seasoned lamb, a big pile of pita and two sides. I had the hummus and babba ganoush for sides. Baba ganoush was deliciously smokey. My dining companion got the lamb kabob plate with hummus and greek salad. The plates also include a scoop of rice pilaf. Very delicious. While not a glamorous setting, you order at the counter and sit at some tables in the middle of the store, it was quick and delicious and we will go back. I understand their chicken schwarma is supposed to be their best dish but the lamb was perfect.

We also tried the Little Panda, a new little Chinese restaurant in the Embry Hills shopping center. Again, a fast low cost option. The restaurant interior is clean but sparse. Lunch options are standard stir fry with fried rice, choice of soup, and choice of egg roll or wing. The unusual thing was the fried rice was actually flavorful and the wonton soup had slivers of red pork and nappa cabbage. My garlic chicken was fresh but not a wow. But the price was only $4.99. Much better than McDonalds as a quick meal option. We will be back, especially on days, we are pressed for time and money.