NEW YEARS DAY LUNCH

THE SPREAD.

Ok, I must confess this was a very late lunch, it started at 5:30 pm on January 1st, but it was lunch! My good friend Amanda was in town so I invited her and her boyfriend to my apartment for a feast that left our pants tighter than usual.
I wanted a cross between brunch and lunch, but not quite 'lupper', and wanted to make everything from scratch, but realizing this was taking place New Years day I was realistic and prepped a lot of it the night before...because, come on!


 My menu was ambitious to say the least and I recall several moments where I thought, 'there's a heck of a lot of dairy here... :-O  but oh well! onwards and upwards in 2011!

What I served:

Drinks:


Knudsen Fruit Spritzers: red raspberry, tangerine and boysenberry
Red Wine

Starters:

Warm roasted yellow and candy cane beets on field green and mint salad with roasted cippolline onions and garlic, goat's cheese and red wine vinaigrette

Potato and green onion blini with sour cream and salmon roe

Mains:

Scrambled salt and pepper eggs
Montreal style bagels with smoked salmon and all the trimmings
the trimmings included:
meyer lemon wedges
red onion slivers
capers
finely chopped dill and chives
dill, chive and meyer lemon cream cheese

Desserts:


Kawartha Dairy French Vanilla Ice cream with blackberries,. blueberries, meyer lemon zest and mint

Some Recipes to hold on to:

BLINI WITH SOUR CREAM AND SALMON ROE

Potato and Green Onion Blini

4 medium yellow potatoes, peeled and washed
2 dashes coarse sea  salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 green onions finely chopped
fresh cracked pepper
2/3 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup olive oil
olive oil and butter for frying


I made these a day ahead and reheated them. First I boiled and mashed the potatoes with a little salt and pepper, olive oil and milk. I let them cool a bit then transferred them to a metal bowl where I mixed in the remaining ingredients thoroughly. I tweaked the batter with tips from my dad, pancake man. When we got a slightly thick but not too thick mixture that held together, using a non stick frying pan I fried the pancakes in thin ovals 2 at a time. I let them brown on each side in the pan and allowed for little bubbles to form before I flipped them. The next day I heated them up after storing them on a plate over paper towel overnight. I served them warm from the oven with sour cream and salmon roe.



Herb cream cheese

1 small container light Western Dairy Cream Cheese
1 meyer lemon, zest and juice
2 tbsp chopped dill
2 tbsp chopped chives

Simply mix all the ingredients together thoroughly in a bowl, refrigerate and serve with smoked salmon, meyer lemon wedges, red onions and capers.

FRONT: ROASTED BEET SALAD. BACK: HERB CREAM CHEESE

.

Roasted Beet Salad

1 sack mixed beets, yellow and candy cane
1 sack cippolline onions
1 bulb garlic
a little red onion finely sliced
juice of 3 clementines
seat salt
1 tbsp olive oil

Wash and peel the beets. Boil them until almost tender. Drain. Peel the onions and garlic. Toss them all onto a tinfoil lined baking sheet with the juice and oil and salt and roast until golden brown at a temp of 350-400 degrees F. Remove from the oven.

In a small bowl, mix the following for a vinaigrette:

1 tbsp evoo
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp honey
juice of one clementine
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
juice of 1/4 meyer lemon
1 tbsp chopped chives

In a large bowl mix 2 cups mixed greens with 2 tbsp chopped fresh mint. Run the mint under hot water for a second or two to release the natural oils. Top this with the roasted veg.

Add the vinaigrette and toss the salad. Add 1/3 package soft goats cheese in small drops. Mix lightly. Serve immediately.


For a lunch like this a picture says 1000 words:

THE NIBBLER