3 Big Batch, Make Ahead Cocktails for a Christmas Crowd
Plus – Fromage fort is a holiday hero
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Quaintrelle is written by me, journalist- turned-sommelier and party host, Erin Henderson. If you have food and drink lovers in your life, please share this post with them.
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It’s been a week of soups and stews and sauces made days ago and unpacked from the fridge and freezer for quick meals.
This is the culmination of my work year. Depending on what day of the week Christmas falls, it’s usually the Thursday or Friday before most people flip on their OOO’s for the holiday break, but this year, the flurry of events will mostly wrap this week. A little early, but a bewildering assault on enjoying wine will do that.
Questionable studies aside, I’m not mad about slowing down a few days ahead of time. The events we’ve hosted so far have been memorable and joyous. And when the weekend winds down and my company closes shop until 2025, I’ll have a few calm days to tie a ribbon around the loose ends of my Christmas menu and plans.
Until then, I’ll be enjoying reheated leftovers for late night dinners after helping clients deck the halls. Tonight’s is a favourite: cream-less cauliflower soup with pancetta and roasted Brussels sprout leaves. I’m thinking about including this in January’s posts which you have voted to include a soup, salad, and non-alcoholic option in each week’s post, so thank you for weighing in. Let me know if you would like the recipe for the cauliflower soup:
Cheese Dreams
I’m a fan of leftovers. Not for days on end, but for me they’re a lifesaver when things get busy or I get lazy. I’m not necessarily going to repeat the same turkey dinner over and over again, but I reimagine the bits and bobs into entirely new meals. Soups are the obvious one, but upgrading leftover fennel bruschetta into a creamy pasta, or Thanksgiving dinner into a riff on shepherd’s pie continuously spins joy along with sustenance.
You will likely enjoy a glut of cheese over the next few weeks, so I’m reminding everyone of a fantastic hack to use it all up. Fromage fort. Last year I hosted an online hang some of you might remember, where I showed you how to do it. We have many new faces here, so I’ll tell the story again.
This ingenious little invention, created by the French, bien sûr, is a little trick I was introduced to years ago when I was working at Canoe, a swanky restaurant downtown Toronto. At the end of the night, when the kitchen handed out any leftover cheese for the staff to enjoy, one of our senior servers, a distinguished gentleman from Paris, Roger (Roe-JHEY), would take his scraps and whip them with butter to spread on baguette. At the time I was alarmed our chain-smoking Frenchman was courting cardiac disaster, but you know what they say about the French Paradox, and he lived to butter another baguette.
Anyway, his was a basic form of fromage fort – an assemblage of leftover cheese, some butter, a bit of white wine, and a few herbs, if you have them. You could also add a bit of Dijon or garlic, but no need to go out of your way. Fromage fort is literally a leftover hodgepodge of cheese, flavoured with things that taste good to you. Because of this, it’s nearly impossible to write a recipe, but let me give you a general blueprint.
Leftover cheese (I’m fromage adventurous, so I always have different styles, but I generally find a nice mix is triple crème, blue, something hard like Parmesan, and perhaps something nutty like Comté or Gruyère.)
Butter
White wine (such as Pinot Grigio)
Optional: garlic, herbs, Dijon, black pepper (I like adding chives after it’s all been blended, along with black pepper and confit garlic if I have it. You may want something else, of course.)
Into a food processor, add the cheese, butter, and optional garlic and begin blitzing; with the machine running pour in the white wine until the cheese reaches a consistency you like (I like it smooth and spreadable; some prefer it dryer and more textured. You do you.)
After it’s blended how you like, taste and adjust for seasoning. Give it one more quick pulse to incorporate any herbs (I like fresh chives and ground black pepper) and serve with fresh baguette or crackers.
Fromage fort is a delicious and inviting way to breathe new life into your cheese odds and sods, and also looks more elegant and considered than just serving the crumbs to your next round of guests.
As the clock ticks down to Christmas, I’ll remind you Wine School is on sale now.
These new classes promise to be so much fun, but, more importantly, useful and practical for your own home entertaining, going to restaurants, bringing a bottle to a dinner party, or just feeling more confident about pairing something for Taco Tuesday.
I guarantee if you come to Wine School, you will leave a more confident wine taster. I hope to see you there.
Mix Once, Drink All Night
I feel like a broken record but I will not stop bull horning about the joy – nay, the necessity – of making your party cocktails ahead of time. At least if you want to join your guests in rocking around the Christmas tree, instead of working your biceps behind the bar.
Below I’ve outlined four fantastic recipes for seasonal cocktails, all easily made in advance. There are a few are the Christmas classics you know and love, and a few are fun, new spins. And even if you’re not inviting the hoards into your house this year, I’ve never met anyone who was mad at having a refreshing tipple ready to pour as soon as they walked in the door.
I’m not a fan of the champagne punches served this time of year. Taste aside, I find dumping of a bottle of fizz into the punch bowl quickly bursts the bubbles, and what remain are popped in short order from floating in such a large vessel, which just allows the bubbles to rise to the surface and escape. Not really much point, if you ask me.