Christmas carols from the kitchen
Hanukkah began its eight-day run yesterday, signaling the start of the holiday season proper.
To help tradition flow, I enlisted the help of local experts and The Oklahoman archives to share recipes teeming with holiday cheer.
Bartender and beverage expert Jeffrey Alan Cole of the O Bar atop Midtown’s Ambassador Hotel met with me last month at The Barrel Room in Edmond to demonstrate how to make wassail.
Cole explained that wassail began as a pagan tradition that assimilated into a Christian one during Medieval times. Whether pagan or Christian, wassailers agreed it couldn’t hurt for the community to use any means available to inspire local apple orchards to have a strong year, including hoochfueled community singalongs. Wassailing is the precursor to caroling. Early singers arrived at the stoop seeking a few minutes shelter from the cold, including a dip of the ladle in the wassail bowl.
Next, I asked The Pritchard’s executive chef Shelby Sieg, who came up as a pastry chef, what kind of pastry she recommended folks attempt for the holidays, and her answer was profiteroles.
“They’re just so simple,” she explained. “You can make them literally in minutes, and there’s just a few ingredients.”
So, she took some time out of her busy schedule to demonstrate how to make a simple pate a choux, which is the foundation for profiteroles (and éclairs and a number of other pastries). Puff pastry can be made in minutes with a little practice, then all that’s left is a little imagination for fillings and toppings.
As promised, I recently took an Instant Pot cooker for a test drive to make posole. The holiday favorite popular in Arizona and New Mexico can take a few hours to make, but I was able to whip up a strong batch in less than an hour.
There are new videos online at NewsOK.com to help you follow along with on all of these recipes.
And, for fun, I’m reprinting my recipe for Figgy Pudding from five Christmases ago.
All of these recipes can be accomplished by a single cook, but are so much more festive if made with friends and family.
Don’t miss the recipe demonstrations on NewsOK.com; here’s hoping they inspire some holiday cheer in your kitchen.
WASSAIL
1.75 liters apple cider
1.5 liter mead
12 ounces Calvados
6 Eggs
1 tablespoon whole mace 2 tablespoons cassia chips 1 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon powdered ginger 1 teaspoon whole cloves 20 whole allspice berries Glass Irish Coffee Glass, or a mug works as well
Preparation Heat Spices and Apple Cider at 160 F for 4 hours covered (crock pots are awesome for this on low.) Add mead and Calvados. Separate eggs, whisk yolks to light yellow and whip whites to stiff peaks. Fold whites back in. Temper egg mixture into cider mixture.