I’ve never been to Stissing House, Clare de Boer’s restaurant in Pine Plains, N.Y., but reading her recipes makes the FOMO feverishly real. The holiday menu she created for New York Times Cooking reads like some sort of Christmas poem: spiced orange duck with ginger, thyme and anise. Leafy winter salad with a honeyed vinaigrette. And — be still, my fluttering, rice-loving heart — this rice and squash bombe encased in crisp pita and pebbly pine nuts.
“The technique of encrusting pilaf in crisp bread is inspired by fruit-studded Azerbaijani shakh plov and Persian polo ba tahdig,” Clare writes. “It’s a bit fiddly, with three components to prepare — rice, cumin-roasted shallots and squash, and saffron butter — but none of them are complicated.” You can make those components in advance, assembling and baking your bombe when everyone’s out on that predinner walk (which is absolutely not something I just made up to give you a few moments of kitchen peace).
Featured Recipe
Rice and Squash Bombe
Clare serves her bombe with the aforementioned duck, but it would be a lovely vegetarian main, too. Pair it with something luscious and green, like her simple boiled greens or Ali Slagle’s sautéed kale with hot honey.
But a gorgeous holiday feast doesn’t have to involve lots of dishes; many of our one-pot wonders would be a welcome centerpiece. Case(s) in point: Kay Chun’s one-pot Japanese curry chicken and rice, which needs only some jarred pickles and sliced scallions to achieve its highest form. Or make Ali’s one-pot tortellini with prosciutto and peas, which gilds creamy cheese tortellini with crisp, crumbled prosciutto. It’s a good “treat yourself” dish. “I doubled the shallots and prosciutto,” writes Carol Turner, a reader. “Never have frozen green peas been so fabulous.”
A salad can also feel feastlike, as long as it’s warm and hearty with big flavors. This brussels sprouts Caesar salad from Melissa Clark fits the bill. The lemony, garlicky dressing she uses on the roasted sprouts doesn’t include anchovies, so I’ll drape a couple of fillets over my finished salad because I love those salty, funky little fishes.
To finish off, here’s a bit of baking. The topping on these chocolate cherry magic cookie bars from Yossy Arefi is a who’s who list of my favorite goodies: sweetened condensed milk, sweetened flaked coconut, pecans, bittersweet chocolate and dried tart cherries. (You might know magic cookie bars as seven-layer bars or Hello Dolly bars.) And of course I must share Claire Saffitz’s beautiful challah bread recipe. It’s wonderful for Hanukkah, of course, but also: challah bread pudding.
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