Happy New Year’s Eve eve to you all! Do you have your tomorrow-night plans all sorted out? We usually like to stay home, watch an old classic movie and then shimmy into bed right after the countdown. But there have been more effervescent years with friends and noisemakers, Champagne and caviar.
If you’re going the caviar route, Eric Kim has a great new recipe for you, and you don’t have to splurge on the expensive stuff. His brilliant tobiko pasta is like a cross between sushi and a bowl of creamy Alfredo, with the briny flavor of the flying-fish roe brightening the richness of the cream cheese and Cheddar in the sauce. It comes together quickly and goes marvelously well with a glass of anything bubbly, especially sparkling sake.
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Tobiko Pasta
Following a similar creamy-pasta-with-seafood path, Ham El-Waylly’s lobster mac and cheese is about as deluxe as mac and cheese gets. He starts with whole, live lobsters so he can use their shells and head to add a complex, oceanic intensity to the sauce. To get the best textures — no rubbery, overcooked lobster here — Ham cooks the lobster, pasta and cheese sauce separately and then combines them at the last minute, running everything under the broiler to crisp the top just before serving. It’s a perfect party dish.
If you’re looking for a savory little morsel well suited to nibbling with a festive beverage, Hetty “Roll With It” Lui McKinnon’s vegetarian sausage rolls might be just the thing. These get a deeply meaty flavor from mushrooms seasoned with miso, and they’re buttery and flaky, too, from the puff pastry. They do take some effort, but these burnished, brawny little bites are absolutely worth it. (Pulsing the mushrooms in a food processor instead of chopping them by hand will save you some knife work and time.)
Gougères are another classic New Year’s nosh, the airy little puffs served hot and cheesy with your Champagne. If you’ve got the bandwidth (and the freezer space), make them today and freeze the unbaked puffs on the baking sheet. Then slide them into the oven just before your guests arrive.
Looking ahead to New Year’s Day, how about Nik Sharma’s chicken breasts with miso-garlic sauce? Easy-to-eat chicken breasts are zipped up with a lemony, pungent sauce. It’s a crowd-pleaser that pairs well with white rice and maybe a crisp cabbage slaw.
For a dessert that’s showy enough for New Year’s Eve but easy enough to throw together on a sleepy New Year’s Day, Genevieve Ko’s flourless chocolate cake has that irresistible crackly top and fudgy center that makes it seem like a fancy restaurant dessert. But the recipe calls for chocolate chips, and you can whisk it together in one bowl, so it’s about as simple as cakes get. Serve it elegantly plain or topped with a cloud of fluffy whipped cream.
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That’s all for today. I’ll see you on New Year’s Day. Happy New Year to you all!
The post An Easy (and Less Expensive) Way to Ring in the New Year With Caviar appeared first on New York Times.
