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Christmas feasting...
Dec. 25th, 2002 07:25 pmI was feeling somewhat out of sorts - tired - last night, and made something of a pest of myself before going to bed early. Once up this morning, I worked quietly around the kitchen until Galina rose, and then went at the job of cleaning the place with gusto.
The cleaning more or less done, I commenced cooking. The meat dish was going to be the second turkey we'd bought during the local Thanksgiving sale. I planned to supplement the bird with mashed yams and mushroom gravy.
Of course, no meal is complete without some salad, so I sliced some radishes and mixed in about a tablespoon of sour cream to (re)create something I'd eaten at Feht's the other night. A second, tossed salad came mostly out of a bag bought at the supermarket, supplemented with sliced tomatoes. My third salad was the happy result of some serendipitous research on the Internet regarding Burns Night.
* * * Burns Night (also called Burns Supper) is a dinner affair celebrated by people of Scottish extraction to celebrate the life and works of Robert Burns, who was born on January 25, 1759 and died at a young age in 1796. A traditional Burns Night is a carefully choreographed deal, including the menu and a set order of after-dinner addresses and toasts. (I've written about Burns Night before, including the Selkirk Grace and the recipe for cock-a-leekie soup.)
The centerpiece of the menu is haggis, which in a traditional rendering consists of a sheep's stomach filled with various cuts of meat and meal. (I seem to recall there being a similar Russian - or Ukrainian - dish described in the pages of Gogol's Dead Souls, but have never gone to the trouble of tracking down an actual recipe.) In doing my Internet research, I've found a source that will prepare and send a "presentation" haggis that weighs between 8 and 10 pounds for a mere $75, plus about $50 for 2nd day shipping and handling (three weeks notice, please). I'll return to this theme in a later post. :^)
Anyway, it turns out that the traditional accompaniment to haggis on Burns Night is something called "neeps and tatties," or rutabagas and potatoes cooked the traditional Scottish way. In the description of these dishes, I come to find that the reader is warned away from using American turnips (instead of rutabagas, which are somtimes called Swedish turnips), as "the taste simply will not work as well."
This got me to thinking. A couple of years ago, we were visiting the Fehts and Maria served a simple dish consisting of thinly sliced turnip drizzled with a little salt, lemon juice, and olive oil. I tried to replicate the dish a couple of times, but never succeeded, as the "taste simply did not work as well." While shopping for today's meal, I went out of my way to track down a couple of baseball-sized rutabagas at the grocery store and used them to create that dish.
As you probably have guessed, the duplication was achieved.
What was the problem? An unintentional miscommunication. Maria had described the vegetable she used as 'repa' (which I dutifully understood to mean 'turnip'). I wasn't too far off, but enough.
* * * The kids were a little late coming over, but we had a great time anyway. Huntur got to tear into yet another small mountain of presents, and the rest of us also exchanged gifts. We broke out the digital camera and took around 30 pictures, but I am in no mood to go through the grind of moving them to my desktop (I'm using my Linux laptop to write this post), and making them presentatble. Maybe tomorrow.
But tomorrow, I must start on the translation work that arrived Tuesday. Between words, I have to give some thought to replacing Brady, who is going off to hunt treasure in Chile (no joke) starting the third week in January. (I've been bugging him, softly, to borrow some Spanish tapes so as not to be completely at sea when arriving in-country, but he appears to be one of those fellows who insists on enrolling as a full-time student at the School of Hard Knocks, but I digress...) Between everything else, I must give thought to reviewing the past year and planning for the new one, taking care of pressing paper chase issues, and creating an RSS feed for my professional web site. :^)
* * * Anyway, the quantity of leftovers is staggering, and the fridge is again full to almost bursting. (Did I mention the pot of borshcht that we also made, having found all the ingredients for it while ransacking the fridge for the "main" meal?) Galina's feet have been rubbed, and I am well and truly tired... but in a good way.
I hope everyone's holiday has been a good one.
Cheers...
The cleaning more or less done, I commenced cooking. The meat dish was going to be the second turkey we'd bought during the local Thanksgiving sale. I planned to supplement the bird with mashed yams and mushroom gravy.
Of course, no meal is complete without some salad, so I sliced some radishes and mixed in about a tablespoon of sour cream to (re)create something I'd eaten at Feht's the other night. A second, tossed salad came mostly out of a bag bought at the supermarket, supplemented with sliced tomatoes. My third salad was the happy result of some serendipitous research on the Internet regarding Burns Night.
The centerpiece of the menu is haggis, which in a traditional rendering consists of a sheep's stomach filled with various cuts of meat and meal. (I seem to recall there being a similar Russian - or Ukrainian - dish described in the pages of Gogol's Dead Souls, but have never gone to the trouble of tracking down an actual recipe.) In doing my Internet research, I've found a source that will prepare and send a "presentation" haggis that weighs between 8 and 10 pounds for a mere $75, plus about $50 for 2nd day shipping and handling (three weeks notice, please). I'll return to this theme in a later post. :^)
Anyway, it turns out that the traditional accompaniment to haggis on Burns Night is something called "neeps and tatties," or rutabagas and potatoes cooked the traditional Scottish way. In the description of these dishes, I come to find that the reader is warned away from using American turnips (instead of rutabagas, which are somtimes called Swedish turnips), as "the taste simply will not work as well."
This got me to thinking. A couple of years ago, we were visiting the Fehts and Maria served a simple dish consisting of thinly sliced turnip drizzled with a little salt, lemon juice, and olive oil. I tried to replicate the dish a couple of times, but never succeeded, as the "taste simply did not work as well." While shopping for today's meal, I went out of my way to track down a couple of baseball-sized rutabagas at the grocery store and used them to create that dish.
As you probably have guessed, the duplication was achieved.
What was the problem? An unintentional miscommunication. Maria had described the vegetable she used as 'repa' (which I dutifully understood to mean 'turnip'). I wasn't too far off, but enough.
But tomorrow, I must start on the translation work that arrived Tuesday. Between words, I have to give some thought to replacing Brady, who is going off to hunt treasure in Chile (no joke) starting the third week in January. (I've been bugging him, softly, to borrow some Spanish tapes so as not to be completely at sea when arriving in-country, but he appears to be one of those fellows who insists on enrolling as a full-time student at the School of Hard Knocks, but I digress...) Between everything else, I must give thought to reviewing the past year and planning for the new one, taking care of pressing paper chase issues, and creating an RSS feed for my professional web site. :^)
I hope everyone's holiday has been a good one.
Cheers...
