Christmas Dinner 2018

This was our Christmas dinner in 2018.

The main dish was rosemary rack of lamb with crusted potatoes. I adapted a recipe from New York Times. As the recipe says, "it's quite easy to prepare. A brief marinade of pounded garlic and anchovy, Dijon mustard and olive oil heightens the flavor." The seasoning met our "Italian" theme. Such an easy and delicious cooking was very helpful on a Christmas day. The roasting time for lamb was supposed to be about 20 minutes according to the recipe although mine took much longer than that, which pushed the dinner time back a bit but didn't cause a major problem, I think. Fingerling potatoes were tasty by being cooked with lamb. Their long stubby shape was cute on the plate.   

Sides were stuffed mushrooms and sautéed whole radishes. Filling for mushrooms included mushroom, spinach, onion, garlic, toasted walnuts, and goat cheese, flavored with dry sherry. The recipe was from Cook's Illustrated. I have made stuffed mushrooms a few times before and I have always liked it. Actually the mushrooms weren't really Italian things, but radishes were. The recipe of sautéed whole radishes, or Ravanelli Saltati, was by Lidia Bastianich. Quickly sauté radishes with olive oil and garlics, and braise them with chicken broth. They were nicely crunchy and cheerful like Christmas tree light bulbs.

I was personally happy with the result of the dinner. I hope everyone enjoyed their plate and saved some space for desserts. Of course, there was a dessert. To be continued...