Scott's Kitchen

New Year's Eve Pasta - 2009 Edition

My wife made a wonderful pasta dish for tonight's New Year's Eve supper. She made it up as she went along - something she likes to do and is very good at! I tried to capture the process in real-time!

Here's the gist:

• Bring 6 qts water to a boil over high heat, add 2 Tbsp salt, add 1 lb fettucine. Cook al dente and drain pasta.
  
• While waiting for the pasta water to boil, heat 3 Tbsp olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat.
• Add 3 diced shallots and 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes and saute quickly.
• Add 8-10 oz sliced cremini mushrooms, season with salt and pepper. Saute the mushrooms until softened, about 5 min.
  
• Add 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth, 5 cut-up pieces of cooked bacon, 1/2 lb thin, sliced asparagus and 6 Roma sliced tomatoes (peeled or peel after cooking a bit).
  
• Cook stirring gently for 2 minutes. Stir in 3/4 cup heavy cream (or 1/2 cup cream and 1/4 cup red wine). Immediately reduce heat and cook until thickened.

That's it - a very tasty pasta dish for New Year's Eve. Serve with a special red wine (we served ours with a wonderful Copain Anderson Valley Pinot Noir that was a Christmas gift from good friends)

Happy New Year! Best wishes for a wonderful 2010!

A Dry-Brined and High-Heat Upside Down Turkey

Merry Christmas!

Today, for our Christmas dinner 2009, we'll be cooking a 14-lb Diestel turkey that we've dry-brined this week using this recipe from an article in the Los Angeles Times. Dry brining requires thinking ahead - like three days ahead when the turkey needs to be salted and tucked away in the back of the refrigerator.

We'll be cooking the bird today using our high-heat upside down roast turkey recipe, a family favorite that produces wonderful results.

Friends are bringing a couple of side dishes to have along with the stuffing we'll be making. Yum! - getting hungry already!

Update: Just a quick note to report that the Christmas turkey turned out to be excellent - moist white meat, great flavor! Our little experiment in dry-brining the holiday bird was a big success! Thanks to Russ Parsons for his article and recipe!

Some Tips on Pinot Noir for Thanksgiving Dinner

Last week, the Wall St. Journal's Tastings column by Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher features a list of pinot noirs they recommend for Thanksgiving dinner.

While they personally say they prefer a great aged Cabernet Sauvignon with their turkey, many folks prefer the lighter Pinot Noir. They note that "Pinot Noir, at its best, has elegant, sometimes earthy tastes that would pair well with Thanksgiving dinner without adding yet another big, challenging taste to the table."

What's on their list? (Click here for the complete article):

• Au Bon Climat 2007
  
• Domaine Serene 'Evenstad Reserve' 2006
  
• Robert Mondavi Winery 2007 (2008 shown)
  
• Erath Winery 2007
  
• La Crema 2007 Sonoma Coast
  
• WillaKenzie Estate 'Estate Cuvée' 2007

We're also partial to the Navarro Pinot Noir Méthode à l'Ancienne from the Anderson Valley in Mendocino county. Navarro is one of our favorite wineries and their Pinot is a delight! Enjoy!

Are you doing the cooking the turkey this Thanksgiving and looking for a great recipe? Be sure to checkout our all-time most popular recipe: Scott's High Heat Upside-Down Roast Turkey Recipe!

Looking for something other than turkey? Here's another all-time favorite: Scott's 'Lazy-S' Easy Oven-Roasted Tri-Tips!

Aunt Maxine's Strawberry-Blueberry Spinach Salad

We had this special - and delicious - Strawberry-Blueberry Spinach Salad with our ham and tri-tips on Christmas Eve this year. The combination of flavors is just amazing! This is a delicious and easy to make spinach salad that everyone will enjoy.

Christmas Day Roast Pork Loin with Apples/Shallots

For years, we've enjoyed a roast pork loin recipe titled "Roast pork loin with roasted apple compote" that was originally published in Barbara Kafka's cookbook "Roasting-A Simple Art".

Much of Kafka's book involves roasting at high heat - typically 500 degrees - and her recipe of coating the pork loin in mustard, salt and pepper at the start and then roasting with apples at that high temperature has always worked out well for us. Sometimes (depending upon how clean your oven is), roasting at that high a temperature can result in some smoking - so it takes some care.

On this Christmas Day, though, we're trying some variations - something a bit different.

Scott's Favorite Prime Rib

Earlier this week as part of our holiday get togethers, we had a family group over for dinner and cooked - for the first time in a long time - a prime rib roast. Prime rib is one of those special meals - just right for the holidays with friends and family! It was delicious - accompanied by roasted potatoes, and some spinach.

Elise has a great prime rib recipe over on her Simply Recipes site. We used the 450 degree for 15 minute and 350 for the rest - although we cranked it back up to 450 again for about 5 minutes before taking it out of the oven (a technique mentioned in one of Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa cookbooks).

Everyone reminds you about needing to let the roast rest for 15-20 minutes after you take it out of the oven -- so I will remind you here too! ;-)

Scott's High Heat Upside-Down Roast Turkey Recipe

For our Christmas family dinner this year, we roasted a 12-lb turkey that turned out delicious. For the first time, we tried a new technique consisting of roasting the bird upside down (breasts down) and high-heat kickoff followed by a two step heat reduction while roasting (a total of 3 different temperatures are used). All you do is manage time and temperature - nothing could be simpler.

In the past, we've done brining and that works well to yield a moist bird. But the high-heat upside-down approach used here delivered just about the best, most moist turkey we've tasted - without the hassles of brining. Note: I kind of had to give up brining - my wife just can't stand the thought of open bowls of water and poultry in our refrigerator - she sees salmonella dancing everywhere around! Besides, as she says, there's never enough room in the 'frig anyway at this time of year!

San Francisco Chronicle's Best Way Brined Turkey

A couple of years ago, the Chronicle tested a number of different recipes for roasting turkey and this particular best way brined turkey recipe came out on top - and has become a classic.

Update: We've come up with an alternative - without the mess of brining - that's also just delicious! Try our high heat upside-down turkey recipe instead.