Beef Wellington
Ready for dinner.
Good-bye 2020!!! Get out of here.
The holidays are almost over and at least for me, they were surreal. No family gatherings, no travel, no cocktail parties or informal get togethers. I have taken this pandemic very seriously. It’s hard not to when I’ve lost five family loved ones since March, most due to COVID. In 2020 I didn’t have to listen to the complainers saying “I can’t believe Christmas is here so soon” because this year Christmas could not come soon enough. People were ready to decorate just after after Halloween. If you’re anything like me, a planner, I’m sure planning for Christmas meals begins in early November. The arrival of the December issues of all my favorite food magazines signals it’s time to be inspired by the stylish, beautiful pages. But, this year, a lot of my inspiration came from watching IG reels and YouTube posts. As inspired as I was by so many amazing recipes and videos, in the absence of my family, I longed for the most traditional holiday meals.
Our tradition for Christmas Eve is a crowded and raucous open house at my parents home in California and Mexican food is always served; tamales, my Mom's corn pudding, rice, beans and our Yankee introduction of a ham. This year, it was a quiet affair for three, but not to disrupt tradition, tamales, rice and beans were on the menu. My daughter and I made the tamales because we could not find any ready made ones to buy in Virginia. We could not even find “masa preparada” (prepared dough) so we made that from scratch too. With my kitchen helper, Violeta, at my side we made a small batch and I have to say, they turned out quite good. We also decided to keep tradition and dress up to look our best for each other. So, festive clothes, hair done and make-up were “de rigueur”.
Christmas dinner, on the other hand, is normally a sit-down dinner at my house, and the menu has varied greatly over the years. I’ve flirted with and occasionally given into non-traditional menus, but this year I came back to the classics, which to me means beef, potatoes, a nod to vegetables and and a custard dessert. I’m not English so I don’t know why I consider this my tradition, but beef just seems uniquely appropriate for the most special dinner I prepare during the year. Several years back I started making Beef Wellington, and even though some protested it was too fancy, they all wanted it every year after that. This year the Duke of beef, Beef Wellington, had a social media moment. I started seeing it constantly pop-up on my IG and YouTube feed. I was being reminded that even tough there were only going to be three of us, Christmas dinner needed to be special. As luck would have it, I received an amazing William Sonoma food gift courtesy of my boss. Part of the gift was a prime tenderloin of beef. The dinner menu now set in stone.
To go with the “Duke”, My daughter made the Barefoot Contessa recipe for potato-fennel gratin. It’s rich, creamy and decadently delicious, yet pretty easy to put together. My nod to veggies was quick roasted asparagus. For dessert, instead of a trifle, this year we had a scrumptious chocolate and mocha buttercream Buche de Noel, or Yule log, which was also part of the best food gift ever. Overall, this was one of the easiest holiday meals to pull together.
Instead of the frantic days before dinner spent shopping, prepping and planning, and the day of the gathering, from 9 AM to 5 PM spent hands-on executing the meal and setting the table. We spent our morning FaceTiming with my eldest daughter in New York and then my parents in Los Angeles. We opened our gifts and enjoyed each others’ virtual company. Because of the circumstances of this year, Christmas was more solemn and special because we were reminded, by virtue of the absence and loss of many loved ones, of the meaning of this special holiday.
I hope this is the last year we all find ourselves in this pandemic state and that life will go back to some modicum of normal. I hope that my two girls will remember the good times we spent in the kitchen over the years, prepping and cooking, enjoying the smells and witnessing the magic of all the dishes coming together. I hope that one day they will create their own kitchen magic and I will be there to share it with them and “yes”, selfishly, I hope when the time comes, it crosses their minds as they are laboring over the stove, that I did this for them for all those years, because that’s what family does.
I encourage you to make this Duke of Beef for New Year’s Eve or day. Even If there are only two of you, the sliced and pan-fried leftovers make another delicious post holiday dinner.
