Winter Vegetable Ragout and Biscotti for Christmas

Christmas dinner was not a grand undertaking, having worked the weekend before and having to work on Christmas day. No complaints since I spent Thanksgiving week in lovely gregarious, colorful fiesta-laden Oaxaca and Mexico City. Juxtaposed with a flavorful trip to San Antonio. So when Christmas Eve came, I was rushing to the market before the 4pm closing time. Something warm, flavorful, colorful and quick.

A winter vegetable ragout and a simple dessert of biscotti studded with figs, cranberries and almonds - with blood orange sorbet. I wanted to use a big cast iron pot for my short evening of pleasure-filled cooking, and hence, the winter vegetable ragout - by Annie Somerville of Greens restaurant in San Francisco. Soft buttery butternut squash, sweet flakes of fennel, and several teaspoons of aromatic fennel seeds, colorful tangy rainbow chard and sun-dried tomatoes, large Italian butter beans that melt in your mouth like silk pillows under your head, and a herby delight of fresh oregano, thyme and sage. Oh to dip crisp, paprika sprinkled homemade croutons in this winter delight until they soak up the herbaceous juices.

Then came the dunking delights. Pumpkin and plum pies are perfect. I've tried eclectic flavored ice-creams - including the prickly pear (called Tuna in Mexico), soft chewy oatmeal raisin cookies, chocolate chip, and crumbly Italian Christmas cookies that melt into a sugary fountain in your mouth, but the fairest of them all as the mirror on the wall says are the the dunking cookies. I remember as a child - dunking biscuits into a large glass of warm milk until they almost disintegrated, and then rushing them into my mouth before they collapsed and sank to the bottom of the glass. I still remember the cannoli I dunked into coffee in Little Italy  in New York, the sugary creamy rush of life in my mouth. Then came the rusk dipped into warm, sweet, Cardamom Chai on cold, rainy Seattle days wishing for a glimpse of Mt Rainier again. Crispy biscotti sunk into my afternoon latte at work. In keeping with this passion for dunking born rather early in life, is my simple elegant Christmas dessert. The bejewelled biscotti by Rosoe Betsill channels this very passion. This biscotti is bursting with tangy cranberries, soft sweet figs. The recipe called for apricots and cranberries but I used figs instead as I thought the combination of cranberries and apricots to be too tangy for any dipping. And I used sliced almonds since I did not have the time to peel the pistachios that the recipe asked for. Although I would have preferred this ridiculously green, softest and most flavorful of nuts. I served the biscotti with orange sorbet and thyme. Crunchy and yet juicy bursting with the zing of cranberries and the sweetness of Turkish figs. The next day I made coffee all groggy eyed before going to work and I heard Mr Sweet Potato scream, "I shall have my coffee with a biscotti". Coffee and Biscotti, a match made in heaven.

As for a light, but oh so lovely way to make eggs for a Christmas breakfast, I used a recipe by Ms, Butterfish. It involves baking eggs in ramekins with sauteed leeks ( I used red pepper) and chives ( no chives in the fridge and so basil and parsley it was) with panko bread  and Parmesan cheese at the bottom of the ramekin. As you scoop up the baked egg, delicious unexpected pieces of pepper/leek and basil/chives cling tantalizing to the fork. As Mr Saffron chimed in, you could use mushroom and spinach combination too. Such an elegant recipe as Ms Butterfish said.

Bon Appetite
And Merry Christmas to everyone!


                                                   Winter Ragout

The winter vegetable mix, butternut squash, parsnips, fennel, pepper, Swiss chard

Sage,thyme,oregano

Fennel seeds, sun dried tomato, garlic

Dry white wine, pinot grigio

Bake butternut squash in the oven at 400 for 15 min

Saute diced pepper, parsnips, and garlic

Sweet sweet fennel

Add sliced fennel and 3-5 tsp of fennel seeds.

add a cup of dry white wine

Juicy butter beans go in next

2 cups of vegetable broth

Next the Swiss chard

tangy sun dried tomatoes

Add the baked butternut squash

herb bag for the thyme

Bag stuffed with thyme

Sage and oregano next and cook for 10-15 min

Fresh paprika layered croutons on top

                                                     Dunkin delight

1 cup all purpose flour, 1/2 cup almond flour, 2 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp baking powder and 1tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 cup of olive oil.

Whisk together

Cranberries

Turkish figs cut up

Sliced almonds

Add all of the above together

Flatten out

Transfer to baking tray

Bake at 400 for 10 min and then slice into pieces

Bake for another 20 min at 400

Serve with orange sorbet and thyme

                                             Post Christmas breakfast

Saute peppers yellow and red for 5 min

Add basil and parsley

Then Parmesan cheese and panko bread crumbs

Saute for just 30 sec longer

Add to ramekin

Add 1 egg on top and a little Parmesan cheese and 2 tsp of cream or milk

Bake at 400 for 10-12 min

Scoop of happiness!