On Mon, 06 Dec 2004 11:21:23 -0500, Dave Smith
> wrote:

>MJ wrote:
>
>> Does anyone have any good xmas breakfast recipes that they would care to
>> share?..It doesnt matter what kind..im open to suggestions..It is just for
>> my family of 4 so it doesnt have to be in a large quantity.
>> Thanks
>>
>
>We usually have scrambled eggs, side bacon, peameal bacon and a coffee cake
>made with the recipe in the children's version of the Better Homes and Gardens
>cook book. My son loves that coffee cake and thought that it wasn't Christmas
>the year we didn't have it.
>
>One thing we do not have is a Champagne breakfast. We did that one year. I
>don't know why we ever though Champagne would go with scrambled eggs.
>
We are usually in a rental car on Xmas morning, so breakfast is
whatever the diner (if we are lcky) can do. However, we had a
Champaign breakfast once in the Amtrak Adirondak to Montreal.

Not supplied by Amtrak, but we stocked up. Smoked salmon, chevre, and
a Sullivan Street baguette. If we are in a place to do it this year,
the smoked salmon will be replaced with gravlax made from a wild King
Salmon fillet. I did the gravlax for TG this year and we were all
astonished at how good it was.

I recognize that gravlax originated with wild Atlantic salmon
(_salmo_salar_ or _salmo_salmo_, IIRC) and that King is not even a
close relative, but I was babbling when I tasted it. I never guessed
how it would come out.

For TG, we wanted everything domestic. The bubbly was Gruet, from New
Mexico.

I suppose anyone who does gravlax has his or her own recipe, but FYI
here is what I did. This was to serve on TG, Thursday early afternoon.

On Sunday morning, I saw fillets of a big king salmon that spoke to me
while I was there on another errand. I said I't like a 2-lb piece of
that. He said "from which end?" I said "thick end."

He cut of a piece that was about 1.75 lb, and was about as long as it
was wide. Quite thick toward the top of the fish, but hollowed where
the cavity was.

I mixed sugar and sea salt 50-50, about a pound of each, which was
more than necessary perhaps.

laid down a 1/4-in layer on the bottom of a rectangular pan. Put
fillet skin side down. sprinkled a little rum on the fish. Spread a
bunch of fresh dill weed on it, followed by a thicker layer of the
salt-sugar mix. Covered with plastic wrap, which only touched the top
of the sugar-salt mix, not the fish.

Weighted with a frying pan and a stack of plates. Left on the table at
room temperature for 12 hours, then put a-in the fridge at about 11 PM
Sunday.

On Tuesday evening I took the fillet out of the cure and rinsed off.
Dried and wrapped in wax paper and put in a ziplock, back in the
fridge. On Wednesday traveled to Cape Cod in rental car with fish in
cooler, and put in fridge at my cousin's house.

Sliced it about 1 PM on THursday. It was cured to the center. It was
gone within minutes. Even the young people that distrust me for
putting foie gras in things scarfed it up with enthusiasm.

A sure fire repeater.



Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC

Let's Put the XXX back in Xmas