Mat & Emily, Andrew, and Alan joined us for Christmas dinner. We roasted a capon, stuffed with our version of her Mom’s stuffing: whole wheat bread, onion, celery, shiitake, Moroccan lemon, smoked pork broth, lots of herbs, and that which did not fit into the bird got well basted with fat and baked in a pan separately.
Along with the bird came roasted kabocha squash, gravy made from a purée of burdock and dried Chinese mushrooms whisked into a roux made from the hot bird fat, cranberry sauce (sweetened only with maple syrup) and kale. We began with yet another Pleiades, and finished with a 2002 Sirius. Dessert was a pretty perfect pear tart (the glaze was strawberry wine cooked down with orange whiskey and honey to a syrup) and vanilla ice cream. Fantastic.