Add Festive Flavour To Your Menu

Published in Canada Food Service News

Christmas reminds people of tradition and home cooked foods like stuffed turkey with cranberry sauce, sweet potato mash and plum pudding. But the season also presents a culinary challenge for menu planners. How can we incorporate traditional ingredients to create exciting holiday dishes? We contacted a number of chefs across Canada and they suggested some great ways of adding festive flavour to your holiday menus.

Gurth Pretty, known as the "The Adventurous Chef", is a culinary consultant based in Toronto. He travels extensively and provides a range of consulting services to restaurants and food service companies. Pretty says, "Restaurants can draw attention to their menus by offering something a little different during the holidays."

A warm beverage is always enticing on a cold winter day. Pretty suggests serving a hot mulled wine drink. "Warm up the wine, and add sugar, cinnamon sticks, cloves and slices of orange or sweet grapefruit," he says. Pretty explains that the hot mulled wine can be made into a wine reduction sauce for pork, chicken or lamb. It may be also used to poach fruit and create a seasonal dessert! But the chef recommends one small detail to make the fruit even more special. "Garnish the plate with edible sprigs of holly, made of almond paste and marzipan," he says. The Adventurous Chef shows how hot mulled wine creates several possibilities for a holiday menu.

Cranberries can also catch attention. This traditional ingredient adds Christmas colour and flavour to many foods. Chef Damian Liengme, at Il Mercato Ristorante in Halifax, offers some great suggestions for cranberry dishes. "You can make pork tenderloin with a cranberry reduction sauce," he says. The berries can also be served with poultry or game. Liengme likes to prepare a grilled duck breast with a cranberry cream sauce. "Whipping cream is reduced with some fresh cranberries and a little sugar. Then it's puréed," Liengme says.

This chef has also found creative ways to serve turkey. During the holidays he uses turkey medallions to make appetizing smoked turkey chutney. He likes to add lots of spice to this dish. "The spiciness works well with the smoked flavour of the turkey, and the sweetness of the chutney," he says.

Mark Holland, the executive chef at The Bridge House Restaurant in North Vancouver, adds festivity to many items including coleslaw! He adds apples, walnuts, wine, vinegar, sugar and seasoning in a mayonnaise base to make harvest coleslaw. "I also serve a harvest roast potato salad," Holland says. He takes onions, carrots and potatoes that have been roasting in the oven with a traditional turkey and then adds sour cream, bacon and chives. "The potatoes get the flavour from the turkey," he says. "People really seem to like it."

When it comes to holiday meat dishes, the chef likes to prepare a honey glaze, smoked ham. He says, "I use brown sugar, orange juice and seasoning, along with fresh thyme." Holland adds, "The thyme accentuates the flavour, but doesn't overpower it." He also uses traditional ingredients to make a Christmas cranberry cheesecake, and a pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

At The Tasting Rooms Restaurant in downtown Toronto, even the menu itself is designed for special holiday parties. "The paper might have holly, or horses and sleighs around the border," says executive chef, Terry Kennedy. "When people sit down, the menu presents a real holiday feel."
He explains how Christmas items are incorporated into the menu. For starters, Kennedy brazes some duck and prepares a salad with orange wedges and dried cranberries. Then he adds a citrus vinaigrette dressing.

"Citrus items are very popular during the holidays," says Kennedy. "And the dark purple and orange colours work well together." As for entrées, he says that many clients like to have the option of beef tenderloin, a good quality strip loin, or lamb. The chef normally doesn't serve a traditional fruit cake for dessert. He likes to present something a little different, such as plum pudding with nutmeg crème anglaise. "The traditional pudding sauce is too rich for some people," he says. "And nutmeg is very festive."
Cranberries, turkey, and spices like nutmeg, can add wonderful Christmas flavour to foods. However, these holiday items can also create opportunities for menu upgrading. Gurth Pretty consults with restaurants about ways to optimize their menus. "The Christmas season is a time for special dinners with family and friends," says Pretty. "People are often willing to spend more money on dinner." You can feature a premium four or five course meal, where the portions are smaller, and a light sorbet can be served in between courses. Customers will enjoy a longer dinner, and a special evening with their friends or family.

Be adventurous and incorporate any number of festive menu choices for the holidays. You have a whole menu of options.

Cranberry - Ginger Snap Crumb Cheesecake(Makes about 16 servings)

"This recipe is inspired from my days living in Newfoundland. Local favourite ingredients include ginger snap cookies and partridgeberries, similar to cranberries, but more tart." - Gurth
½ cup Unsalted butter, melted 125 mL
2 cups Ginger snap cookie crumbs 500 mL
2.2 lb Cream cheese, softened 1 kg
1 cup Vanilla sugar 250 mL
1 tsp. Cornstarch 5 mL
2 Eggs 2
2 tsp. Finely chopped lemon zest 10 mL
1 cup Strained, puréed and cooked cranberries 250 ml
Garnish Fresh cranberries Garnish
½ cup Whipped 35% cream 125 m

1. Pre-heat oven to 325 F (160 C). 2. In a bowl, mix ginger snap cookie crumbs with melted butter. 3. Using a 10-inch (3L) spring formpan, press crumb and butter mixture evenly onto the bottom and halfway up the sides. 4. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and cornstarch with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. 5. Beat in one egg at a time. 6. Fold in lemon zest and cranberry purée. 7. Pour mixture into pan and bake in hot oven for 30 minutes. Turn off heat and leave cake in oven for 10 more minutes. 8. Remove to cooling rack and run a knife along the inside edge of the pan. 9. Let cool to room temperature. 10. Cover and refrigerate until chilled. Garnish individual slices with dollops of whipped cream and fresh cranberries. 11. Now that's a dessert a Newfoundlander would enjoy at the end of a good scoff! (ie. "good dinner" to us mainlanders).
Joanne's Wine SuggestionMagnotta Winery, Grappino con Mandorla, an almond-flavoured grappa, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Make ahead: Cheesecake can be made 3 days prior to the scoff. That is if it survives that long in your fridge!Freeze: Not suitable.Source: Epicurean Expeditions Inc., 2002

Side Bar

Harvest Coleslaw

Harvest Roast Potato Salad

Smoked Turkey Chutney

Salad with Braised Duck, Orange, Cranberries and Citrus Vinaigrette

Hot Mulled Wine

Hot Mulled Wine Reduction Sauce

Fruit Poach in Hot Mulled Wine with Edible Holly

Pork Tenderloin with a Cranberry Reduction Sauce

Grilled Duck Breast with a Cranberry Cream Sauce

Honey Glaze, Smoked Ham.

Cranberry Cheesecake

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Plum Pudding with Nutmeg Crème Anglaise