NYE 2010

We decided to keep it pretty low key this year for New Years.  Just a nice dinner at home and some Modern Family (great show by the way).  I decided to make a few small plates that we could eat over the course of the night and try to pair it with some various wines/spirits.  The menu for the evening was:

Creole boiled shrimp w/ spicy vodka cocktail sauce -- paired this with a dirty martini for me and a "lemon-drop" martini for Crystal.  I used Emeril's recipe for the shrimp and they turned out great.  Peppercorns, Coriander seeds, celery, onion, thyme, tarragon and parsely were all brought up to boil with some water and white wine.  Once it was boiling for 5 minutes, I added the shrimp, covered and removed from the heat.  After 5 minutes or so I pulled out the shrimp and chilled in the fridge for an hour or two.  The cocktail sauce was homemade with freshly grated horseradish.  Lets just say St. Elmo's in Indianapolis had nothing on this sauce, whew.  Sinuses were cleared up after that.

Cheese plate with rosemary pecans, dried cranberries and fig marmalade -- paired this with a California Sauv. Blanc.  Cheese selections were great, we had a tete de moine swiss, port salut from France and a semi-hard goat cheese from Spain.  The rosemary pecans, cranberries and fig marmalade were all store bought, but really livened up the plate.  Nice second course that was light, but also very savory. 

Sausage, mushroom, carmelized onion and garganzola pizzette -- This was an inspiration from one of our favorite restaurants, Socca, that we order most every time we go there.  I wish I could tell you I paid it the respect it was due, but the crust fell apart on me.  The toppings were great, I bought a spicy Italian sausage from Whole Foods, split the casing open and then browned the meat inside, added to that roasted shitake mushrooms and carmelized onions, finally topped with some gargonzola cheese and baked it up. However, my crust was rolled out too thin and it ended up sticking to pan.  We kind of ended up with some sort of pizza nacho type thing.  Delicious flavor, awful presentation.  

Homemade Potato Gnocchi with brown butter, sage and acorn squash -- this may have been a rather ambitious effort to make for the first time on NYE.  I boiled russert potatoes until fork tender, removed the skins, fluffed with a fork and then slowly folded in flour (all-purpose and semonila) until it formed a dough.  Rolled out the dough into thin logs and then cut each one inch pillow shaped dumplings.  Boiled in batches until the gnocchi floated and then topped with a sauce made with brown butter, fresh sage, roasted acorn squash and freshly grated parmasean cheese.  The gnocchi's texture was a bit off (too much like a true dumpling), but I must say the sauce was excellent.  A very simple, but delicious rich sauce that would pair well with roasted chicken or on any pasta.

We paired both of the main entrees with a California Zinfadel.  Quite tasty.

Dessert was store-bought and did not get eaten until breakfast on the 1st, so I will skip that part of the meal.

Overall, a fun, relaxing night.  Good company, good food, room for improvement on the execution though.

Shrimp cocktail with HORSERADISH!

Delicious Cheese plate and Joel Gott Sauv. Blanc



Makin' the Gnocchi Dough