Stress Free Christmas Dinner! Make-Ahead Recipes | Setting the Table

Happy Christmas everyone! I am so glad that you could join me again. Today I want to share with you my tips and recipes for hosting a Christmas dinner party. I'm serving asparagus soup with creme fraiche and lemon for the first course, wine braised short ribs for the main course, and classic creme brulee for the grand finale. Since all of these dishes can be prepared well ahead of time, you can relax and enjoy a cocktail when your guests arrive. I already have my apron on, so let's get cracking in the kitchen. We are going to start with the braised short ribs. The ribs are always at their succulent best when you make them a day ahead of time. So what I have here are eight short ribs that I bought at the supermarket. Depending on how thick the ribs are, you can plan one per person or two per person. I'm planning two. I'm putting the short ribs on a paper towel lined baking sheet because I do want to pat them dry. I rarely use paper towels except when I'm dealing with raw meat. I will be cooking the short ribs and the vegetables and the stock they braise in in a Dutch oven, but to save time, I'm going to brown the meat and the vegetables in my electric skillet because the skillet has more surface area. But you can absolutely brown your ribs directly in the Dutch oven. My skillet is preheated to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 160 degrees Celsius. You want to brown the meaty sides. There's a bone over here. You do not need to brown the bone side. While the meat is browning, I'm going to go ahead and prepare the vegetables. I'm making a standard mirepoix here. It's just diced carrots, diced celery, and diced onion. The short ribs have been browning on one side for about three minutes. Let's have a look. Ooh, nice and brown. And that's what you want. Onto the onion. You want to use one large onion or two or three small onions. These are the onions that you and I planted and harvested together in last summer's garden. Now, this is the celery that you and I grew last summer and harvested in the autumn. Of course, I blanched it and froze it, so it's all ready to go. The short ribs are nicely browned, so now I'm transferring them to my five-quart Dutch oven. Now, I had neglected to salt the ribs before I browned them, so I'm going to salt and pepper them right now. You do not need a lot of salt here. Set this aside. Now, I need to brown the mirepoix, the carrots, onion, and celery. Do that right in the same skillet. There's enough fat in here that I do not need to add any extra. The reason I am browning the meat as well as the vegetables is to enhance their flavor. Caramelized meat and vegetables always have the best flavor. You can also lightly salt and pepper the vegetables. If you have stuck-on bits or a fond at the bottom of your Dutch oven, go ahead and deglaze it with a little red wine. Since I'm using a non-stick electric skillet here, I don't have any fond to deal with, and that's fine. Add the vegetables to the meat. Now, we need to add some herbs. I'm using flat-leaf parsley and thyme. You could add some sprigs of rosemary, too, and I'm going to tie these together with kitchen string to make them easy to remove later on. So, what I'm making is called a bouquet garni. It's a bundle of herbs. Add the herbs to the Dutch oven, and by the way, my oven has preheated to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, which again is 160 degrees Celsius. Now, these are braised short ribs, which means they cook in liquid, and my liquid today is two cups of chicken stock. That's 480 mils. Homemade, but store-bought will work, of course. And then I want two cups or possibly more, we will see, of a good red wine. I'm using Cote d'Aron. You want the liquid to just barely cover the ingredients. Need a little more wine in here, and I want to add two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar just for the unique flavor it will add. We need to bring this to a simmer on the stovetop. We have come to the simmer, so now I'm going to transfer this to the preheated oven until the short ribs turn meltingly tender. That's going to take about three hours. While the short ribs are braising, I'm going to go ahead and prepare the dessert. I'm making creme brulee. It's a voluptuous vanilla custard topped with a glass-like sealing of burnt sugar. It's very sophisticated-sounding, but it's definitely easy to make. And the first thing you need is a heavy-bottom saucepan, and to the pan add one quart of heavy cream. That's 946 mils. To the cream, add one tablespoon of vanilla extract, or you can add the seeds from a vanilla pod. Since this is homemade vanilla extract, I already have the seeds in here. I'm going to bring the cream mixture to a simmer on the stovetop. While the cream is heating, I'm going to put the yolks of 10 large eggs in a large-ish bowl, and I'm putting the whites in a separate bowl. You can freeze the whites and save them for a souffle. I'm going to beat the yolks while gradually adding one cup, or 200 grams, of granulated sugar. By the way, make sure your cream mixture is over a low flame. You don't want to burn the mixture. Now keep beating this mixture until it turns pale and thick. Well, this looks pale to me, and it is definitely thick. Now I'm going to pour the hot cream mixture through a sieve set over a bowl. This is to strain out any of the gummy milk solids that would otherwise interfere with the texture of the custard. Now I need to add the hot cream to the egg yolks, but in order to avoid scrambling the yolks, I need to add the cream a little at a time while whisking vigorously. This is called tempering the eggs, and I'm going to put this bowl here in a saucepan so that as I whisk and add the cream mixture, the bowl will not be rocking around. So you just add a little bit at a time, and once you've added a half cup or so, you can continue adding the cream in a steady stream. I took the bowl, actually it's a pitcher, out of that saucepan because it was tilted, and I was afraid there would be some spillage. And there we are. Our custard is made. Then this recipe makes enough creme brulee for eight six-ounce servings. So I have eight six-ounce oven-proof ramekins, and I place them on a baking sheet. Now I'm going to pour the cups to where they are about three-quarters of the way full. All of the recipes we made today will be linked in the description below. It looks like I have enough custard left over for maybe one more ramekin, so I'm going to go ahead and add that. I'm going to put the custard in the preheated 325 degree oven, which again is 160 degrees Celsius, and then I'm going to add about a half inch of boiling water to the pan. I'm going to let the custard bake until it is set, and that means it should just barely jiggle when the pan is shaken. That's going to take from 45 to 55 minutes. And here is the custard all baked, and I don't know if you can see, but it just jiggles a little bit in the center, and that's how you know it's done. Now I'm transferring the ramekins to a wire rack. I'm going to let this cool completely to room temperature, and then I will cover the ramekins. Well, I will put them in a baking dish or roasting pan and then cover that pan with cling film, and then I will pop these into the refrigerator. And look at how golden the color is. That's because I used organic free-range, well, I used eggs from organic free-range chickens. They have very bright yellow yolks. Now I'm going to go ahead and make the first course soup, but first I want to head outside to clip some greens that I will use as a centerpiece for the Christmas table. It's absolutely delicious. It's delicious hot. It's delicious warm. It's delicious cold. I'm going to serve it hot. The first thing I need is a large onion, which I'm going to roughly chop. This is a pureed soup, so you need not chop too finely. Then wash two bunches of asparagus spears and cut them into roughly one-inch pieces. Then we have to move to the stove top. Melt two tablespoons of butter in a large soup pot or a Dutch oven set over medium-low heat. Add the onions, a half teaspoon of salt, grinds of black pepper, stir, and then lower the heat, cover the pot, and let the onions sweat until they are perfectly tender. That will take about five minutes. Then add the asparagus, four cups or 946 mils of unsalted chicken stock, and one cup or 240 mils of dry white wine. I'm using pinot grigio here. Then crank up the heat and bring this mixture to a boil. When the mixture achieves a boil, lower the heat, cover the pot, and cook until the asparagus is perfectly tender. That will take 20 to 25 minutes. The asparagus is perfectly tender, so now I am going to puree this magic in my blender. Now I'm going to fish out some of the asparagus tips so I can use them as garnish. This is hot. All I need to do now is puree the soup until it's perfectly smooth. Now I want to add the juice from half a lemon. If I think it needs it, I'll add the other half of lemon. This was a very small lemon. I'm going to go ahead and add the juice from the other half. Lemon is always a welcome flavor in wintertime. Give this a stir, and then I want to taste this for seasoning. This is delicious, and it will be even better after I add eight ounces of creme fraiche. So the creme fraiche not only adds flavor, but it thickens the soup. When you add the creme fraiche to the hot liquid, the creme fraiche will dissolve very quickly. Well, it will melt very quickly. I'm going to tuck the reserved asparagus tips that I will use for garnish into a little bowl. I will cover this and put it in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, I will let this soup cool to room temperature, and then I will cover it and pop it into the refrigerator. And my oven went off a short time ago, so I need to check on the short ribs. I cannot tell you how inviting this pot of short ribs smells. So the first thing I want to do is remove the bouquet garni, because these herbs have given their all. Let me show you just how tender this beef is. And I want to strain the mixture, so I have a sieve over a bowl. I'm going to let this drain for about five minutes. We are pretty well drained. I'm not going to press down on these ingredients, because I want to use the vegetables tomorrow. So I'm going to transfer the meat and veggies to a bowl, and then I'm going to let this sauce cool to room temperature, along with the meat and veggies, and then I will cover them and refrigerate overnight. Tomorrow, the fat will have risen to the top and solidified, and then I can pry it off very easily. Also tomorrow, we are going to arrange the centerpiece for the table and set the table, and then I will go over the game plan for serving all of these dishes. Sweet dreams, and I will see you tomorrow. Good morning, everyone. Yesterday, we did all of our heavy lifting. Today, the only thing I need to do as far as food prep goes is to make the mashed potatoes, and I will be using dehydrated potato flakes because, in my opinion, they make the best mashed potatoes. Also, they are the cook's best friend. For four servings, I'm using one and three-fourths cups of water. That's about 414 mils, and one cup, or 240 mils, of whole milk, three tablespoons of butter, three-fourths of a teaspoon of salt, and two cups of the dehydrated potato flakes. Now, these are just potatoes that were dehydrated. There's nothing fake about them, and whenever I serve mashed potatoes this way, the comments are, Kevin, how did you make such creamy, smooth potatoes? Well, now you know. Just cover this with cling film, pop this into the refrigerator, and we will cook this off later. It requires only eight minutes in the microwave. I'm going to clean up my workstation here, and then I want to make a short trip to a shop called American Pie in Chatham, New York. I want to find some Christmas crackers that I can use for the Christmas tablescape. So, come take a drive with me. Yesterday, there was sun and there was rain, beauty in the mundane, and as the light startled our eyes, we let go of disguise. There's something in the air. American Pie is a fun store. I found plenty of Christmas crackers there. I could not make up my mind as to which design I wanted, so I ended up buying two different designs. I also selected some pale blue candles that I think will show well on our tablescape. Home again, I laid the dining room table with a white cloth and an off-white and tan table runner. To determine the appropriate length of the evergreen garland that will serve as a centerpiece, I arranged dinner plates at each end of the table and then measured the distance between the plates with a length of jute twine. Now, I am forming bundles from the greenery that you and I clipped from the garden yesterday. I am attaching the bundles with green wire to form a garland. If you would like to learn more about garland making, be sure to check out my Christmas extra glamour, I clipped holly sprigs from the shrubs in my garden. I also added some small pine I placed them in a pair of silver candelabra to complete the centerpiece. I am using my old Liberty Blue cups and saucers for the soup course and matching plates for the pull on each end of the cracker. When the cracker breaks, a small toy falls out. Here's the game plan. On the day of your party, take the juice from the short ribs, the juice that we strained from the short ribs, and pull off all of the fat. Of course, we put this in the refrigerator, so all of the fat rose to the top and solidified, so it's super simple to remove. So now we have this gorgeous gelatinous stock. So then take a Dutch oven, pour the stock in. There doesn't look to be very much stock here, and that's perfectly fine. We're going to add some more stock to it. We are going to rewarm the short ribs and vegetables in this stock, so I want enough to reach at least halfway up the sides of the short ribs. Then I'm going to return the short ribs and the vegetables, and then either in a 200 degree Fahrenheit oven or over a very low flame, heat this about one hour before your guests arrive. About 30 minutes before your guests arrive, bring the soup to a simmer on the lowest flame on the stovetop. And here again, once the soup is hot, you can keep it hot in a 200 degree Fahrenheit oven. Just before you serve the first course soup, take the mashed potato mixture and put this in the microwave. Set the timer at high for eight minutes, and you do want to make sure that the potato mixture is covered while you microwave it. I like to plate the soup in the I am garnishing the soup with the asparagus tips we reserved, plus some grinds of black pepper. A dry white wine is the ideal pairing for the soup. I will serve a full-bodied red wine with the main course short ribs. After the soup cups are cleared, give the potatoes a vigorous stir. Then divide the potatoes among the plates and make a basin in the center of the potatoes. Add one or two short ribs, along with some of the diced vegetables and a generous spoonful of the aromatic stock. I like to garnish the short ribs and potatoes with snips of fresh chives. Although I have a knife here, this short rib is so tender, you can cut it with a fork. It's time to move on to the dessert. So here is that gorgeous creme brulee that we made yesterday. I covered it and stored it in the refrigerator. So now all I have to do is sprinkle a thin layer of sugar on top, then take a culinary torch. I bought this from Williams-Sonoma, and I can link it in the description below. Let's see, I want the flame on, and then we are going to burn the sugar, by which I mean to caramelize the sugar. Of course, I have to try the dessert for you. It's great fun to break through this glass ceiling of burnt sugar. This is a very sophisticated dessert, but as you've just seen, it's a really easy dessert to do. I hope you found this video useful, and that you picked up some tips and tricks for hosting a wintertime or Christmas dinner party. Thank you so much for hanging out with me yesterday and today. I can pop a couple of my other videos up here, or up here, that you can watch between now and my next upload. In the meantime, please take good care of yourself, and I will see you in the next episode. Bye for now, and Merry Christmas!