Innehållsförteckning för December 2014 från SAVEUR

This lively langoustine soup is spiked with paprika and curry powder. p. 93 Appetizers & Side Dishes Bialys 26 Carrots Vichy 64 Field Pea Gratin 64 Leek Bread Pudding 66 Roasted Turnips with Buttered Greens 68 Sautéed Brussels Sprout Leaves 68 Smoked Bluefish Pâté with Hardtack Crackers 82 Caramel-Glazed Potatoes (Brúnaðar Kartöflur) 93 Icelandic Dark Rye Bread (Dökkt Rúgbrauð) 93 Leaf Bread (Laufabrauð) 94 Spiced Cabbage with Blueberries (Kryddað Rauðkál með Bláberjum) 94 Venison Terrine (Dádýrakæfa) 94 Japanese New Year’s Soup (Ozoni) 106 Meat & Poultry Indonesian-Style Chicken Wings (Ayam Goreng Kuning) 40 Maple-and-Mustard-Glazed Ham 68 Yankee Pot Roast 82 Christmas Grouse with Berry Sauce (Jólarjúpa með Berjasósu) 93 Seafood & Vegetarian Finnan Haddie Chowder 80 Seafood Newburg 80 Seared Swordfish with Herb Butter 80 Cod with Egg and Butter Sauce (Þorskur með Eggja…

THE BAR BOOK Jeffrey Morgenthaler (Chronicle Books, $19) The bar manager at the renowned Clyde Common in Portland, Oregon, shares the recipes and techniques that make up his awardwinning cocktail program, from freshly made mixers to artisanal garnishes. The book is geared toward professionals but is engaging for enthusiasts who wish to elevate their home game. BAR TARTINE Nicolaus Balla and Cortney Burns (Chronicle Books, $27) This volume from the team behind San Francisco’s Bar Tartine highlights the dishes at the heart of their success, with stunning recipes like pork-knuckle-and-sausage-stuffed vegetables and hazelnut butter– strawberry jam cookies. BROOKS HEADLEY’S FANCY DESSERTS Brooks Headley (W. W. Norton & Company, $30) The desserts from the pastry chef of Manhattan’s Del Posto have a quiet genius that sneaks up on you— kabocha cake…

In 1983, on my first trip to Bordeaux, France, my host paired chilled white asparagus with one of the region’s dulcet sauternes. An improbable but dynamic combination, it had me falling for sweet wine. In ancient Rome and elsewhere, sweet wines were the most valued. It wasn’t until the 18th century that glass bottles and corks, which keep oxygen at bay, allowed dry wines to gain quality and eclipse sweet ones. Today, with the interest in unique, local winemaking, sweet wines are making a comeback. The best seduce with aromas of honey and wildflowers and flavors of dried apricot, caramel, and candied lemon peel. They roll over your tongue like silk, but zingy acidity keeps them from seeming syrupy. Each has its own personality. France’s sauternes and barsacs (from a…

Like “The Dude,” Jeff Bridges’ dissolute bowler in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski, I have always felt a personal connection to the White Russian. It was the go-to tipple for my grandmother— the same woman who daintily claimed she got tipsy “just smelling a drink” during a Prohibition-era first date with my grandfather. And it’s a point of pride that, in my 20s, I knocked back an unspecified number of White Russians with her at a bar mitzvah, resulting in a family kick line. Oh, the power of that trashy mix of vodka, coffee liqueur, and cream. While it doesn’t have speakeasy roots or a fashionably bitter edge, bartenders have taken a shine to the drink lately, updating it with artisan coffee liqueurs (see tasting notes at saveur.com/holidaydrinks) and…

In Japanese homes on the first day of the year, the dish to eat is ozoni, a soup composed of pink-rimmed fish cake, daikon, carrot, and shiitake mushrooms floating in a rich dashi (kelp and bonito broth) along with mochi, chewy rice cakes, which are oventoasted until they resemble fire-licked marshmallows. The preparation varies by region. Sometimes chicken broth is used; Napa cabbage or pork can be added. Wherever it is served, ozoni is said to bring good luck, but for me, the medium is the message: I feel blessed just to have this steaming bowl in front of me, ready to be devoured in the company of loved ones. Japanese New Year’s Soup (Ozoni) SERVES 4 4 dried shiitake mushrooms 4 cups chicken stock 2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs,…

One spoonful of sticky toffee pudding at a café in northwestern England, and we were euphoric. Surely, this was the last word in extravagance. The pudding before us was warm and spicy, an impossibly moist gingerbread cake larded with chopped dates and sopped with buttery caramel syrup. But when we oohed and aahed, the waitress deflated our culinary egos by admitting that the kitchen secured its pudding from McClure, a big-box restaurant provisions vendor across the road. A clerk at McClure frankly told us, “Our sticky toffee is fine, but if you want the best, you must go to Cartmel. There is none richer.” We set off, heading toward that 12th-century hamlet to hunt for exemplary renditions of the signature dessert of Cumbria County. The landscape there, rolling pastures where…

1. Kuhano Vino In central Europe, winter parties are fueled by this mulled wine. Heat 10 whole cloves, 10 black peppercorns, and 4 star anise in a 2-qt. saucepan over medium-high until toasted, 1–2 minutes. Add 4 cups red wine, 1/4 cup honey, 1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg, peel of 2 oranges, and 2 cups water; boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer 10 minutes. Serve in mugs; garnish with orange slices and star anise. Serves 2–4. “Grog, hot and strong, with two or three lumps of sugar in it, and a squeeze of lemon.” Such was the remedy, a bygone sailors’ winter ration, that London magazine Punch prescribed to readers to beat the bitter December weather of 1879. We merrily concur, with a caveat: Often the trick to a great warm…

In pisco country on Peru’s southern coast, my bus rattled past windswept dunes. Improbably, grapes grow here. In the 1550s, the colonizing Spaniards planted grapevines, which they irrigated with water from the rivers flowing from the Andes. The wine was soon levied; by distilling fruit rather than making wine, producers could avoid paying taxes. Thus was born pisco, a white spirit made from fermented grape juice. It hit the States during the gold rush. At San Francisco’s Bank Exchange bar, pisco punch hooked devotees with the inclusion of (then legal) cocaine. Prohibition and Peru’s political turbulence soon dampened pisco’s fortunes. Though the spirit found renewed domestic interest in the early 2000s, producers struggled to entice overseas admirers. Legal controls helped. Today, production is strictly regulated. Rather than a tall, modern…

Discoveries and Techniques from Our Favorite Room in the House Truffle salt, truffle honey, truffle-infused chocolate—a lot of these products are less than delicious, but that’s not the truffle’s fault. Blame it on cheap “truffle” oil made with 2,4-Dithiapentane, a synthetic flavoring that’s a far cry from the fresh fungus’s earthy brilliance. At the Oregon Truffle Festival, however, I found that chefs were using the real deal to enhance ingredients. Here’s how: Wrap a fresh truffle in a paper towel to protect it from moisture. Then nestle it with another ingredient—whole eggs, butter, salt—in an airtight glass container, and place it in the fridge. After two or three days, the truffle will have imparted its heady perfume to its cabinmate. Then shave the truffle for use afterward—a fresh one will…

How far would a sane person travel to find an onion roll? I’m afraid that I know the answer. While researching my book The Bialy Eaters (Broadway Books, 2000), the search for the roll known as a bialy took me to Poland, Israel, Argentina, Australia, England, France, and various cities in the United States. For those not yet privileged to know it, the bialy is a squat, squashy bagel alternative characterized by a slightly crackling yet softly puffy rim encircling a crisp center well, all mantled with pungent golden brown flecks of caramelized onions and crunches of poppy seeds. Since then, it has become ever more difficult to find convincing examples. For decades, New York bakers turned out excellent bialys, but with changing times and tamer palates (“What? Me eat…

One morning last December, I found myself crouching over emerald green moss digging for truffles, those famously aromatic fungi that grow among the roots of oaks and evergreens, most notably in Italy and France. I wasn’t in Europe, though. I was in Eugene, Oregon, with Chloe and Ilsa, dogs trained to smell for ripe truffles. They barked as they lit upon a promising patch. Forager Connie Green, who has been truffle hunting since the 1970s, knelt beside me, pushing aside loose soil at the foot of a Douglas fir. As we worked, she explained the symbiosis between truffle and tree: The firs provide food (carbohydrates, basically) to the fungi, and the fungi break down organic matter that fertilizes the tree. Finally, I caught a glimpse of ivory in the dirt,…

Typically strong, malty, and full-bodied, holiday beers have a history as deep as their flavors. As far back as the Viking days, Scandinavians drank beer at the winter solstice, and medieval monks brewed a potent beer to celebrate the birth of Christ. The English made mulled beers in winter, as we would cider. The 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys drank his beer hot and infused with sugar and ginger, the spice actually a remnant of an older tradition that harkened back to the days before hops were commonly used to flavor and preserve beer. Though we drink them chilled, today’s holiday season brews tend to be spiced as well. With notes of cinnamon, pine, and chocolate, plus a lingering boozy kiss, they go great with game, cheeses, and desserts.…

The Sazerac and the Ramos gin fizz may be better known, but the Roffignac, named for New Orleans’ last French mayor, is the city’s finest liquid secret. Count Louis Philippe Joseph de Roffignac served from 1820 to 1828, bringing cobblestones and gas lighting to the French Quarter. The concoction that celebrates him, served throughout the city in the 19th century, was a signature drink at Maylie’s restaurant until 1986. When Maylie’s shuttered, the Roffignac faded away. But recipes survive in books like Stanley Clisby Arthur’s 1937 Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ’Em, which calls for whiskey, sugar, soda, and the curious “red Hembarig.” This, says local bartender Paul Gustings (pictured above), is raspberry shrub, a berry-infused syrup made with vinegar that adds a balancing zing to the…

IT’S DOUBTFUL WE’LL EVER HAVE A WHITE Christmas in Athens, Georgia. When I was growing up in Canada, there was always snow in December, but in the 18 years I’ve lived in the South, snow has been more of an apocalyptic rarity than a seasonal event. We don’t deal with it well; our towns aren’t equipped with a fleet of plows, and our old water oaks can’t bear its downy weight. The tree limbs snap, knocking out power, the streets become littered with abandoned cars, and the grocery stores empty out like in a scene from The Walking Dead. This year brought no such end-of-days anomaly. It was a suitably beige holiday, festive in its own way. On Christmas morning, I woke up happy but in need of coffee. Nursing…

Fare Use Red Star fresh yeast from Whole Foods ($3 for 2 oz.; wholefoods.com) to prepare bialys (see page 26). Routes Buy Guinness Extra Stout beer ($3 for 12 oz.) and Plugrá butter ($3 for an 8-oz. block) from Whole Foods to make sticky toffee pudding (see page 35). Memories To prepare Indonesian-style chicken wings (see page 40), buy tamarind pulp ($13 for 14 oz.; kalustyans.com) and use it to make tamarind paste; order candlenuts ($13 for 6 oz.; amazon.com); buy Taste Nirvana unsweetened coconut water from Whole Foods ($5 for a 24-oz. bottle); and order galangal from Temple of Thai ($6 for 4 oz.; templeofthai.com). Drink Prepare wassail (see page 44) using Blandy’s 5-Year-Old Bual madeira ($27 for 750 ml; astorwines.com) and Farnum Hill Extra Dry cider ($12 for…