- Hi guys, today I'm gonna show you
how to make you beautiful Christmas dinner menu for six.
that is easy, delicious and affordable.
And the best part is, it will not take you all week
in the kitchen, I promise.
And at the end of the episode, I'm also gonna
give you my game plan for how to tackle the prep.
First up, let's talk about the appetizers.
I wanted to give you two ideas,
depending on how you were feeling.
One that's super simple and comes together in a snap
and the other that takes a little bit of time
but you can make it ahead of time,
and looks super beautiful and elegant.
So now for the easy one,
the first thing you're gonna do,
is get some ciabatta bread.
So if you're only making a dinner for six people,
you may not wanna go out and get a full loaf of ciabatta.
I would just actually get two
of the ciabatta sandwich rolls.
You can buy them by the piece and it's much more affordable.
So what you wanna do is slice your ciabatta
just into thin slices, about a quarter of an inch thick.
And for six people, I think two rolls really does the trick.
And you don't want people filling up too much
on the appetizers, when you see what's coming.
Then you just wanna place them on a baking sheet
and brush each one with a little bit of olive oil.
Pop these under the broiler, just until they're nice
and toasted and golden brown.
Then you're gonna take a large log of goat cheese.
Then here's the real easy part.
You're gonna go out and get a jar of sun dried tomatoes
in oil, that have already been sliced.
And then you are just going to drizzle
the sun dried tomatoes, all over the goat cheese.
And don't worry if it drips down the side of the log,
that's actually part of its charm.
And the other thing I like to do
is add a little bit of fresh thyme.
It's a great flavor combination
against the sun dried tomatoes and the goat cheese.
Then all you have to do is add the toast
and not only is this delicious,
but it also looks so Christmassy too.
Now when it comes Christmas,
I love to incorporate a little bit
of smoked salmon into the menu
because I think it's so festive.
And there's just something about a little bite
of smoked salmon, to set the party off right.
So you're first gonna begin by adding 12 ounces
of softened cream cheese into a mixer.
And then you're also gonna add one cup of heavy cream.
This is to lighten the cream cheese.
If you've ever made cream cheese frosting,
that's the texture we're going for.
Then we're also gonna add two thirds cup of diced salmon
do make sure that you've cut the salmon
into small little dice pieces,
because we're ultimately going to pipe this out
in a star tip and you wanna make sure
that the salmon can actually fit through it.
Then for a little bite and crunch,
we're going to add one tablespoon of diced shallots.
Then you want to add two teaspoons of diced capers.
Again, making sure that you've chopped them up really well
so they fit through our piping bag
and then a tablespoon of fresh dill.
And then we're also gonna add two teaspoons
of fresh lemon zest.
There, and then we can just whip this all up until combined.
(whizzing)
Then the next thing you wanna do
is fit a pastry bag with a star tip.
So use one that's a little bit on the wider side,
meaning the opening is a little bit wider,
that will allow all of the mix-ins
that we put into our mousse, to fit through.
Then we're gonna work with a English cucumber.
I liked the English cucumbers
since they don't have a lot of seeds inside them.
They also don't have that waxy finish
that we put on the regular cucumbers to preserve them.
So they have two things going for them.
And then we are just gonna slice them
into about a quarter inch slices.
And then you can go ahead and pipe your mousse.
I think a healthy dollop per cucumber is the way to go.
There you have it.
(upbeat music)
Now for the main course.
Now I know for many of us,
beef can be traditional for Christmas dinner
but a few weeks back, I did a poll on my community tab
and 36% of you guys wanted a budget-friendly chicken dinner.
So we're gonna be making a traditional bouchée a la reine,
which is a fantastic French dish
that's normally made with chicken and mushrooms.
A couple of years ago though,
I did a twist on this recipe with lobster.
So if you were someone who voted for seafood
and you haven't seen that recipe, I'll link to it below
because this would be fantastic with lobster too.
So we're gonna be working with bone on,
skin on chicken breasts.
So go ahead and put it on a sheet pan.
And we are gonna roast this chicken
at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 to 45 minutes,
just until the chicken is cooked through.
Okay, then the next thing you wanna do
is get our mushrooms going.
So in a large skillet,
you wanna heat some butter in the pan.
Then once your butter is nice and foamy,
then you can go ahead and add
a third of a cup of minced shallots.
Then we're also gonna add eight ounces of mushrooms,
in they go, and then you just wanna
cook the mushrooms down until they're nice and wilted
and they begin to release their juice.
Then you can season with a little bit
of salt and pepper to taste.
And then we're also going to add two teaspoons
of Worcestershire sauce.
And you can see we have all of this delicious,
brown bit in the pan here,
that is full of all kinds of flavor.
And we just wanna de glaze our pan
with a quarter cup of a dry white wine.
And now we also wanna add just two teaspoons
of freshly minced thyme.
And then continue to cook the mushrooms
until this sauce has been reduced by about a third.
Then the next step is to create our Béchamel sauce.
So in a deeper skillet because we're gonna
be adding the mushrooms back in and the chicken,
we wanna add three tablespoons of butter.
Then once the butter is nice and foamy, you can go ahead
and add two tablespoons of all purpose flour
and then give it a whisk
and allow it to cook for a minute or two,
just to cook off the taste of the flour.
And then we're also going to add two cups
of just whole milk, in it goes
and then you wanna keep this
on a medium flame and allow it to simmer.
And as it simmers, that flour will start to activate
and the whole thing will start to thicken.
I actually make sure I don't thicken it too much
because I usually make this the day ahead.
And so if you're making this a day ahead
and it sits in the fridge, it will thicken up.
You can always thin it when you reheat it
with a little bit of milk or chicken broth.
Okay, now, time to add our garlic.
Three quarters teaspoon of salt
and some freshly cracked pepper.
(crackling)
And then at this stage, you wanna add
back in the mushrooms, this looks so delicious.
Then we're going to add in our shredded chicken,
that you can just shred off the bone with two forks.
There and now our sauce is pretty much ready to go.
Allow it to cool down
and then you can transfer it
to a container and pop in the fridge.
(slow music)
Okay, now for the puff pastry.
So you wanna roll out two sheets like this
on a floured surface and then using something
that's probably about four inches in size,
I'm just using a ramekin, this is a one cup ramekin,
you wanna create little circles.
Now this does work better if your puff pastry
is a little bit, almost in between frozen and chilled.
Not totally frozen because it'll crack, but not too soft.
It'll just make it easier to cut out the circles.
Then we're gonna use the scraps
to cut out a little decorative ornament.
I'm using a Christmas tree, but you could also use a star,
a little mitten, the stocking, whatever you have,
then you wanna put a little egg wash on each one.
I would even lift up the tree and make sure you get
underneath it, just so that it'll stick.
The only thing that I would not do,
is get too close to the edge,
because if you get too close to the edge
of the puff pastry, it will prevent it from puffing up.
So it's important to just stay on the top and the tree.
And then we're gonna put these
in a 400 degree Fahrenheit oven, just until they're risen
and golden brown and beautifully puffed.
Then to serve with the bouchée a la reine,
I really love to do a Provencal style tomato
because they work really well
with the richness of the cream sauce.
And then in addition to that,
another super easy side dish, is some roasted asparagus,
and we're gonna get to that in a minute.
Make sure you get just a medium size tomato.
You don't want anything too big or too small
and you can go ahead and save these tops.
They're great inside of a tomato sauce or I pop them
in my slow cooker when I'm making my slow cooker tacos,
which is a good recipe too.
Then we also wanna core the tomato.
So I use a melon baller
because I think it is the easiest way to go.
And really just one turn
of the melon baller is all you need.
Then we can just place these on a little mini sheet pan.
I like to use the quarter sheet pan
because that way we can get two pans in together,
which is what we're gonna need
when we actually go to roast our asparagus.
Then the breadcrumb mixture is really easy.
You're just gonna take
three tablespoons of Panko bread crumb.
I like the Pakco because I find
that they just have a little bit better texture
but you could also use regular breadcrumbs
or mix the two if you had both.
Then I'm also gonna add a half a teaspoon of olive oil,
a little bit of salt and pepper
and then a good pinch of herbs de Provence.
If you don't have herbs de Provence,
you could also use dried basil, dried thyme.
Then we're just gonna give that a mix
and that's all there is to it.
And then you're just gonna fill each of the tomatoes
with the breadcrumb mixture,
about a teaspoon or so does the trick, here you go.
Then they're gonna go in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
for about 15 to 20 minutes, just until they're nice
and soft and tender and the breadcrumbs
look nice and golden brown on top.
So to prep the asparagus, after you give them a rinse,
make sure that you dry them off with a dish towel
because we want them to kind of roast and not steam up.
You'll get better sort of coloring
and texture if they're dry.
And then the only other thing you wanna do
to the asparagus, is just cut off the ends.
You see that real like woodsy part,
that isn't the best texture to eat.
So you just wanna slice that off,
about a half an inch or so.
There, then we can transfer our asparagus to a sheet pan.
You can go ahead and just drizzle it
with a little bit of olive oil
and then season with a little salt and pepper to taste
and that's all you have to do.
And then you can just give them a shake
to get all that olive oil and salt and pepper combined
and it'll save you a bowl to clean.
Then you wanna place these in the oven
at the last 10 minutes of cooking time for the tomatoes,
and that's all it takes.
Then, to split the puff pastry in two pieces,
the best thing to do is actually use your hands.
You can find where the actual natural cracks are
and just pull it apart.
You'll get a much cleaner cut that way,
than if you try to use a knife, this looks so delicious.
Look at that, you've got the mushrooms, we have the chicken
and you can put the little puff pastry
with your Christmas tree, on top.
How delicious does that look.
(slow music)
Now for dessert, I think we end up spending a lot of time,
when thinking about holiday menus, planning the flavors
and making sure that everything is balanced, which is good.
But I think equally important is planning the prep.
So kind of balancing out the amount of work you have to do.
So we just spent a good amount
of work putting our main course together.
So dessert really should be a breeze.
Now the best part about this idea,
is that you will be able to serve
sophisticated, delicious ice creams,
that will feel like they're homemade but really,
we're gonna use store-bought ice cream and mix in instead.
So for our Christmas menu,
I thought it would be fun to do two different flavors.
A fun and festive eggnog flavor and then a rich
and decadent, chocolate hazelnut crunch ice cream.
And the two of them together is just so fantastic.
Now I'm gonna be using my KitchenAid mixer,
just because it's easy but if you do not
have an electric mixer, not a problem.
You can do this with just a bowl and a spoon.
So I have some very softened vanilla ice cream here.
I'm using a one and a half quarts,
So I think that's good for about six people.
Now very important, do not throw away
the container or the lid, we are gonna use this in a minute.
Okay and then to create our eggnog flavor,
we're going to add a half a teaspoon
of freshly ground nutmeg and a teaspoon of rum extract.
Now I really love the rum extract
because I find you get a lot more flavor
of the rum without kind of that boozy after taste.
And then you're just gonna beat it up.
(whizzing)
Just want it smooth, you don't wanna take it too far
where it starts to liquefy.
So store bought ice cream has a lot of air whipped into it.
So we don't wanna lose that volume,
we just wanna combine the flavors.
There, then all we have to do
is transfer the ice cream back into the container.
So we don't need any fancy ice cream container,
we can just put it right back in.
And you do wanna freeze this
for at least 24 hours before serving it.
But that's great, 'cause that means
you get your dessert done way in advance.
Okay, then for our chocolate hazelnut crunch ice cream,
we're gonna get some help from some chocolate.
So for the hazelnut crunch, you're just going to go out
and get a four ounce bar of milk chocolate
that has hazelnuts in it.
It's so much easier because there's no hazelnuts to roast,
no hazelnuts to peel.
It's already in the chocolate and pretty much chopped up.
So we're gonna chop that and then who can resist
a Toblerone chocolate bar, right?
I don't know why, but there's something
about almond nougat, that just reminds me of Christmas time.
So you just wanna chop the chocolate
until it's in little tiny shards.
It's really hard not to do this.
And then we are gonna mix this
into just a plain chocolate ice cream base
and then add the chocolate.
Go ahead and beat it up just until it's combined.
(whizzing)
Don't take it too far because again,
we don't want it to deflate
and we don't wanna crush the chocolate too much.
Then you can transfer your new ice cream
into its original container.
Look at that, it is so delicious.
And then you can pop this one in the freezer overnight.
Now to serve your ice cream,
you have a couple of ways you could go.
I think it's really fun and festive to serve ice cream
in a footed glass that you can see through.
It just makes everything all the more festive and fancy.
My personal favorite is a nice martini glass
or you could also do a goblet, that would be nice,
or a margarita glass works as well.
Or another favorite of mine
would be a little vintage champagne coupe.
And because we're putting these in dainty glasses,
I usually do one scoop.
(laughing)
You can always offer seconds.
Then of course our delicious chocolate hazelnut crunch.
Yum, if you wanna add a little extra flourish,
you can grate some bittersweet chocolate
with a potato peeler
and it'll make these really beautiful shards.
And then for the little star cookies,
you can use my sugar cookie recipe that I shared
with you last weekend and just use a star cookie cutter
or you absolutely could use a store bought cookie.
Okay, if you would like to make
my Christmas menu here's your game plan.
Three days before, you can prep your dessert.
So make your ice creams,
put them back into the containers and freeze.
That way they're all ready to go
when it comes time to serve.
You can also make the cookie dough
for the sugar cookie star, two days before
you can make your puff pastry rounds.
Cut out your little ornaments and pop on top.
Cover the whole thing with aluminum foil
and pop in the fridge or freezer.
But don't brush on the egg wash just yet,
you're gonna do that right before you bake.
Then the day before, you can roast your chicken breast.
While that's roasting, you can prepare your mushrooms,
make the Béchamel sauce sauce, add your chicken in,
allow the sauce to cool and then transfer it
to a container and pop it in your fridge.
You can also prepare the tomatoes and the asparagus,
put them on their mini trays and pop them in the fridge.
If you're going the route of the salmon mousse
you can prepare that a day ahead.
Transfer it to a pastry bag and refrigerate overnight.
Then the day of, after you've opened up presents,
had your brunch and there's kind of that low
between Christmas morning and Christmas dinner,
you can bake the sugar cookies.
And then once they're cool, transfer to a container
and allow them to sit out at room temperature.
Okay, two hours before you're ready to serve dinner,
you can brush those puff pastry rounds with your egg wash,
place them in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
for 18 to 20 minutes.
Once they're done, allow them to sit out
on your cooktop until they cool and then place them
in a safe place uncovered, until ready to serve.
You don't wanna cover them because condensation can build up
and turn your crispy puff pastry
into soggy, chewy, puff pastry, not a good look.
An hour and a half before you're ready to serve dinner,
You can prep your appetizers,
can pipe out your little salmon bites
if you're making the mousse, and then 30 minutes
before you plan to serve dinner,
preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit,
place the tomatoes in, set the timer for 10 minutes.
When the timer goes off, put in the asparagus
and set it for another 10 minutes.
Start to reheat your sauce and put it on a nice simmer
and then enlist a family member
to help you start to split apart the puff pastry.
You can plate vegetables and then all there's left to do
is to spoon in that delicious sauce
into each of your little puff pastry mounts.
Then sit down to a lovely Christmas dinner.
Rest assured that dessert is all ready to go
and all you have to do is serve it.
I love that feeling, that is the best.
Then scoop out the ice cream and add the cookie on top.
And there you have it, a fantastic Christmas menu
that I know that everybody is gonna love.
I hope you guys give this one a try
and let me know what you think.
Share your photos with me on Instagram.
I always love to see your successes.
All right you guys, and I'll see you back here next week.
When we're gonna tackle a really delicious,
tasty treat for Christmas morning, I'll see you then.