Holiday Goodies

One of the simplest yet most rewarding pastry doughs in French cuisine is pâte à choux. Invented by an Italian chef who accompanied Catherine de' Medici to the French court on her marriage to the king, the recipe for pâte à choux has transformed many times over the centuries, but it now consists of milk or water, butter, flour, and eggs. The resulting multipurpose paste-like dough can be turned into many different treats, such as cream-filled profiteroles and eclairs, fried beignets, and gougères among many others. Gougères are the savory version made with cheese, traditionally gruyère. So it's simply a very French cheese puff that's light and airy-hollow on the inside and crisp and cheesy on the outside.

The best part about gougères, and pâte à choux in general, is that the dough can be made in just a few minutes. The key is to have a strong arm to beat the dough into a paste-like consistency. A food processor or mixer fitted with the paddle attachment can be used if preferred. The dough is then piped onto baking sheets using a pastry bag and tip, but if unavailable, a resealable plastic bag with a corner snipped off works just as well. The puffs are perfect for large gatherings and parties. I made them ahead of time for this New Year's Eve and will rewarm them in the oven once the evening festivities begin. The puffs are a very nice hors d'oeuvre before a holiday meal or a New Year's cocktail party. You will want to bake up many batches, because they disappear too quickly.

When I worked in a gourmet retail store as a teenager, I got a chance to try many delectable things. I sampled high quality chocolates imported from Europe, pistachios from Iran, Alice Medrich's mammoth truffles, and panforte made by Margaret Fox of Cafe Beaujolais. I'll never forget those heavy round thick loaves, wrapped in dark red or green cellophane. Thin chewy slices served with or tea or alongside cheese seemed so sophisticated. It was definitely the best fruitcake I ever tasted. 

My parents made panforte too and last year I realized it would be the perfect thing to make with a surplus of candied lemon peel. My recipe uses rice flour instead of wheat flour, which means it is gluten free! If you have nuts in your freezer, and they weren't bought this season, they are probably from last season and now is a good time to finish them off.

Probably one of the best ways to sample Italian wines is in a pairing with Italian cucina especially when chefs of note are involved in the preparation and choices, and so it was one evening. To celebrate the Holiday season this very special event took place at Market City Café in Burbank, California. Together the Executive Chefs from the MCC Hospitality Group joined forces to produce a superb repast – seven courses of fabulous Italian food paired with Italian wines from Tuscany, Umbria, Asti and Friuli Venezia Guilia near the Slovenian Border. The bustling restaurant on the edge of the Burbank Mall was bright and shiny with Christmas decorations and sparkling lights, and a lot of excited and happy people, all looking forward to a very eventful evening and willing to forget all their dietary conditions and the no-nos that many nutritionists and doctors want to place on food loving folks!

The opening course was a delightful array of three cheeses, a pressed goat’s milk Garroxta produced in the Catalonia region of northern Spain, a creamy white New York Camembert and a lovely Fourme d’Ambert which is one of France's oldest cheeses dating as far back as Roman times. Slices of bread, grapes and the slightly sweet pochettes of date preserve and onion marmalade offset the cheeses perfectly. Servers came round pouring a subtle Santa Marina Pinot Noir from Venezia and if I had not known there were many more different wines to be poured, I would have spent the evening with this!

In many European cultures, it's tradition to eat seafood on Christmas Eve. My family's Hungarian traditions always had us eating some sort of fried fish or stew. Italians particularly hold this tradition to the extreme, eating anywhere from 7 to 13 different types of seafood dishes for dinner. It's called the Feast of the Seven Fishes. The odd numbers have symbolic meaning in both Catholicism and numerology. Seven represents the seven sacraments—and sins. In numerology, seven represents perfection. I find that seafood stews are some of the most hearty and satisfying of all the fish dishes. One seafood stew that I find most special is Cioppino, a true Italian-American invention.

Created by Italian immigrants in San Francisco, Cioppino was first made out of necessity. The Italian fisherman made it for lunch on their boats with whatever catch of that day. Now Cioppino has become so famous that it can be found on restaurant menus throughout San Francisco and beyond. Supposedly the word Cioppino comes from the word ciuppin, which in the Ligurian dialect means "to chop," since the seafood that goes into the stew is typically cut into manageable pieces. But the soup/stew can contain more than just chopped fish. Clams, mussels, and other shellfish make great additions, rounding out the wonderful sea flavor of this tomato-based soup.