Ultimate Christmas Dinner Menu

The ultimate Christmas dinner should be sublime. Delicate for the tastebuds but also festive and hearty for the soul. Here is one menu you might want to try to liven things up this year, without spending a fortune. The menu below can be prepared with ease and elegance by even the most novice of hosts and hostesses.

Christmas Dinner Menu

Freshly Shucked Oysters with Shallots and Vinaigrette

They say that the best month to buy and eat oysters is any month that ends in an "r" and December is just such a great month ending in "r". Whether you live on the East Coast or West, or even somewhere in between, ask your fish market to order a selection of oysters for you, for your holiday dinner. As a rule of thumb, plan on six oysters per guest for your first course.

When you bring your oysters home they will need to be cleaned and shucked You can find instructions for shucking oysters in any fine cookbook or here online. Try to do this as close to meal time as you can. Once you have the hang of it, the work will go quickly and there is little other preparation involved than plating. Plating the oysters is fun.

First, on each appetizer or salad sized plate, scoop a cup of rock salt, and smoothe. The rock salt adds a nice briney touch to things, but also keeps the oysters from moving around the plate while they are being served and eaten. On the bed of rock salt, place the freshly shucked oysters on the half shell with the rounded scallop of each shell on the perimeters of the plate. You should have a design that looks like a nice flower. Then in a small ramekin, or small cup, pour in a few teaspons of high quality balsamic vinaigrette. Sprinkle a pinch of freshly chopped shallots into the vinaigrette and serve. The Oysters should be served very cold so, if need be, keep them in a tray of ice in the fridge before plating.

Leave out the seafood sauce, the tartar sauce and the oyster crackers and serve with a very cold bottle of French Muscadet Sevre et Maine. A Loire Valley wine, Muscadet is made for oysters and will perfectly complement your appetizer. Two very cold bottles will easily serve eight guests.

Champagne Risotto with Shaved Black Truffles

Growing up in an Italian household, this course was always the macaroni course for my family. I like risotto better and it can be easily prepared and dressed up for the holidays. As with the oysters above, risotto is a very easy recipe to prepare. Most chefs err on the side of overcooking so be careful not to leave on the heat for too long. Follow the recipe (on the package of arborio rice) for risotto. Instead of adding broth or water to the recipe,susbstitute inexpensive sparkling wine or champagne. Instead of adding meat or vegetables to the recipe, keep it simple by adding a half a cup of lightly sauteed button mushroom caps The caps should be thinly sliced and sauteed quickly over a hot flame. Don't use the mushroom stalks as they tend to be tough even when sauteed.

When "al dente" your risotto is ready, scoop one heaping ladle full into elegant bowls and serve. Offer each guest a fresh grating of black truffle that you serve at the table as you would parmesian cheese. Cheese, grated pepper, and salt are unneccessary. Serve with a good quality champagne like Moet y Chandon Brut or White Star.

Dover Sole Meuniere

My love affair with Dover Sole goes back three decades. This delicate and light fish melts in your mouth when prepared correctly and is the perfect fish course for any ultimate dinner. It is more flavorful than shellfish and less flakey than any fresh or salt water fish I know. Dover Sole is also pricey but worth the extra cost for a Christmas Dinner.

First lightly salt and pepper the fish before dredging in flour. Shake off excess flour and set aside two Dover Sole (so that each of 8 guests gets two small portions of fish). Melt several tablespoons of butter in a heavy skillet while squeezing fresh lemon juice into the pan from pre cut lemons over medium heat. When the pan sizzles gently lay the fish in the pan turning once (about two minutes per side) or until the fish is a golden color. Remove the fish from the pan and add in three more tablespoons of butter and lemon juice and three tablespoons of capers Stir while heating quickly. Pour the butter lemon mixture into a gravy boat and bring the fish and sauce meuniere to the dining room.

The most difficult part of this course is deboning the fish at the table. Don't be intimidated as if you remain calm you will find this a most easy and impressive culinary task. First, press but do not pierce a fork into the center of the fish. With a sharp knife began tugging at the skin along the outer edges of the fish. Tear gently and you will find the fish skin pulling away easily to reveal bone beneath. When you have finsihed both sides of the filet, take your knife and make a two inch cut in the top part of the fish just at the head of the spine. Trace the spine with your knife gently down the body of the fish while pulling away crispy skin. As you reach the bottom of the fish make another crosswise cut. Take your knife and returning to the head of the fish, gently lift the top of the spine out of the fish. The entire spine and bones will come out of the fish in one piece. Set the bones aside and split the filet in two. Serve one of each side to each of four guests and generously ladle the meuniere sauce over the fish. Each filet will yield four pieces of fish. Repeat the same process with the next fish to serve a party of eight.

Your guests will marvel at your skill and be delghted with your fish course. Most recommend a crisp Chardonnay for Dover Sole, while I prefer a Sancerre. Try Napa Valleys California Chardonnays including the Stags Leap or Sterling Vineyards.

Filet Mignon Bernaise with Roast New Potatoes and Juliennes of Winter Vegetables

Nothing could be easier or more elegant than Roast Filet Mignon for Christmas Dinner. Take a break after the fish course and offer guests a chance to stretch or sip wine while you finish preparing the beef course. Have your husband or best friend, cork and decant (if needed) the red wine for this course to give the wine time to breathe during the dinner break.

Ask your butcher for a trimmed silver skin filet of beef weighing between five and six pounds. Place the silver skin in a roasting pan and set the oven to 350 F. You do not have to season the beef before roasting although I like to lightly salt and pepper mine before I put it in the oven. To keep things really easy you can put baby new potatoes (sometimes called red potatoes) of uniform size along side the silver skin. The potatoes should be scrubbed clean and seasoned with salt and pepper. You can toss a half cup full of finely diced onion in with the potatoes and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil Don't go overboard with the oil.

On the other side of the silver skin place juliennes of winter vegetables including squash, carrots, turnips and even beets. I toss my vegetables with a thin coating of brown sugar and a few drops of honey before placing in the roasting pan. Both your side dishes will be roasting alongside the beef.

Filet Mignon should never be served any hotter than medium. Well done and medium well done destroy the flavor and texture of the beef, so plan on serving when the meat is medium rare or when your meat thermometer registers between 125 and 130 F. Take the roast out of the oven and let cool on a rack for 15 minutes.

While your roast and vegetables are cooling prepare the Bernaise Sauce on the stove top and put your dinner rolls into the oven at 200F for warming until dinner.

You can use any Bernaise recipe found online or in a fine cookbook, but today there are many prepared versions you can simply heat up on the stove top. The quality is good and it is worth knowing that your Bernaise Sauce will not break and thereby ruin dinner by using one of the prepared versions in bottles or with little preparation in packets. Be careful not to over cook the sauce and stir gently while it heats.

Heat the dinner plates in your warm oven for five minutes before plating.

Now take your Filet Mignon ouf of the roasting pan and with your sharpest carving knife slice thin slices of meat and arrange in a fan like pattern on dinner plates. Remove your dinner rolls from the oven and ask someone to serve them to your guests while you finish plating the dinner. For butter pats I like to use a special mold that I prepare days before dinner. Using softened stick butter I fill the butter molds into small pats and keep in a bowl with ice during the early dinner courses. When the dinner rolls are served I ask that two pats of butter also be placed on each bread plate.

Once you have sliced and plated each serving of the Filet you can gently spoon your winter vegetable mix and roast new potatoes onto each plate. Garnish with a sprig of fresh parsley and serve with the Bernaise on the side in a gravy boat. As an added touch, after serving your roast potatoes you might want to offer a light sour cream and mild caviar to garnish the potatoes. As long as you are certain to use a good sturgeon caviar you will not detract from your filet mignon.

There are many fine red wines of varying vintages and costs that you can serve with dinner. If you don't want to spend a bundle and your areas of expertise do not include how to decant wine, stick with an American Merlot, the Sturgis 2009 Merlot is my recommendation for this year.

You may skip the salad course but you must serve a cheese course with fruit before dessert.

Cheese and Fruit Platter

In December you can find fresh clementines, oranges and tangelos. Hot house apples and pears are plentiful and still delicious. Arrange an assortment of fruit on a beautiful platter and serve with three or four favorite cheeses. I have a friend who insists no cheese platter is complete without Saga Blue, but you can count on a wedge of good French Brie, a good domestic Wisconsin or Vermont Cheddar, a nice Goat Cheese Chevre or Montrachet, and any other cheese you might like. Stay away from the port wine rolls in nuts and other store made conncoctions, Keep it simple and fresh and yes do spend some money on quality cheeses.

At this point my European friends usually bring out their liquers and finish the wine service. I like to finish off the champagne from the risotto service but also serve sherry, port and any liquers I know guests like. Save the brandies and single malts until coffee is served.

Dessert and Coffee

I don't dare recommend a dessert for Christmas dinner after knowing so many families who have their traditional favorites. You can get away with just about any cake or pie or pudding but it should be sweet and it should not echo your Thanksgiving Holiday. Everyone has had enough pumpkin pie weeks ago. Do something different and be adventurous. I serve two desserts every year. My perennial favorite is the limited edition holiday Peppermint Stick Ice Cream served with a good quality hot fudge sauce. This year my adventure dessert is an authentic English Christmas Pudin' I began preparing two weeks ago.

I have a good friend in London, an Irish lady who is as cagey about her recipes as she is her film reviews. I beg her indulgence often for recipes and she was kind enough to send me her favorite. That Christmas Pudin is suet soaking up brandy in my pantry as we speak. I hope it will be ready in the remaining 8 weeks before
Christmas.

For the coffee service, be sure to serve demi tasse. No huge mugs or coffee cups filled to the brim. Serve one half cup of coffee in your finest cups and saucers. Place all your brandies and liquers on a nice tray and serve as requested.

You will sleep soundly and well tonight.

NEXT: THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS DINNER FOR THE RECESSION. HOW TO CELEBRATE WELL ON A SHOESTRING.