Table Talk: Valley eateries plan festive recipes for holiday fun

By Claire Hopley

Published on December 22, 2006

Pretty soon now, revelers blowing horns and party-goers warbling "Old Lang Syne" will usher us into 2007.

That means a couple of days of potential parties on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, followed by the drear days of January. That's when most folks are partied out, there's furrowed-brow talk of losing weight, work has to be resumed, and the students are not around, so entertainment possibilities are dismally reduced.

Thank goodness local restaurants step in to help us persevere with life. At a time when home cooks are ready to put down their tools, professional chefs in restaurant kitchens do their utmost to create New Year's Eve menus that tempt even the most jaded post-Christmas palates.

Blue Heron

At The Blue Heron in Sunderland, for example, chef-owner Deborah Snow is offering a $55 prix fixe dinner with such appetizer options as Lobster Ravioli with Caviar-Chardonnay Butter Sauce, and Roasted Garlic Flan with Exotic Mushroom Compote, served with Pea Tendrils and Black Truffle Oil.

Main dishes include Roasted Quail, stuffed with Chorizo; Apricots and Prunes, served with a Port and Cranberry Vinegar Reduction; Creamy Grits and Asparagus or Roasted Beef Tenderloin With Foie Gras Butter; Roasted Fig and Shallot Confit and Gorgonzola Whipped Potatoes.

For vegetarians there's a Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Napoleon, and for everybody there are desserts plus a glass of champagne. The dinner has both an early and late seating. If neither fits your plans, the chefs will be up early next morning to make a New Year's Day Brunch with multiple food stations serving so many foods that everyone is sure to find a favorite. For more information about either day's meals and for reservations, call the restaurant at (413) 665-2102 or email info@blueherondining.com.

Chandler's Restaurant

You can also welcome the New Year at Chandler's Restaurant at Yankee Candle in South Deerfield. Served in the Wine Cellar Lounge, Chef Matthew Sunderland's special menu includes Sevruga Caviar on Potato Latke with cr￨me fraiche among the appetizers, as well as an enticing menu of main dishes.

"We offer about 10 main dishes: beef, lamb, salmon all jazzed up a bit because it's New Year's," he said. "There's also a signature dish we do every year because some people really love it, because they believe the black-eyed peas bring good luck. It's a rack of wild boar with cornbread pudding, black-eyed peas and collard greens." Sunderland will also offer some special desserts, including a dessert sampler for two, and a souffle with grand Marnier and cr￨me Anglaise.

"We do the souffles to order so they have to be ordered with the main dish. They're just fabulous when we bring them out straight from the oven," he said.

Diners can enjoy all these delights while listening to live music by Espresso Jazz. Call (413) 665-1277 for reservations.

Deerfield Inn

For many people, a restaurant dinner is not complete without a glass or two of wine, and a bubbly flute of champagne celebrates the New Year in proper jolly style. The problem is driving back home. This is the night when designated drivers have a price beyond rubies. If rubies are not in your budget and drivers cannot be found, or if you really want to relax in pampered comfort, The Deerfield Inn in Historic Deerfield has a winning solution. The inn offers a New Year's Eve dinner, an overnight stay at the Inn and brunch on New Year's Day at a package price of $227.

Early reservations are important if you want to take advantage of this offer. The phone number for reservations for dinner or the special package is (413) 774-5587.

"The Inn is the perfect choice for anyone seeking a reflective, friendly, and intimate evening out," said innkeeper Jane Sabo. "Chanteuse Gisele L'Italien will be accompanying herself as she sings great romantic classics with her velvet-angel voice during the evening. Then, as midnight approaches, we will have a party in the Beehive Parlor with noisemakers to scare away mischief during 2007, silly hats and balloons with fancy chocolates and champagne for all."

January festivities

The Deerfield Inn also works hard to brighten January with its annual Robert Burns Birthday Dinner. This Scottish event celebrates the birth of Scotland's national poet, and the inn maintains the tradition in splendid style. There's a bagpiper, Scottish songs, recitations of Burns' poems, most notably, "To a Haggis," which is, of course, delivered as the haggis itself is paraded into the dining room.

The meal features fine hearty fare with drams of Scotland's own whiskey. It takes place this year on Jan. 27, by which time the Christmas and New Year's fun will have drifted into the past, and the enthusiastic embrace of Spartan diets is losing its grip. No surprise, then, that it has become a sell-out event with many faithful guests adding to the atmosphere by wearing tartan, so making a reservation at (413) 774-5587 is important. Chandler's Restaurant also does its bit to make January a more cheerful month. On Jan. 6 and 20 they will host a Fancy Nancy lunch, when little girls and their moms (or grandmothers) can dress fancy for lunch, and be entertained by a guest who will read Jane O'Connor's book "Fancy Nancy."

"This is a real girlie occasion," says Sunderland. "The kids looks so cute!"

For adults, the Thursday evenings of Jan. 4 and 18 are Comedy Nights at Chandler's, featuring Bobby Darling. Food is a winter buffet of Turkey and Gravy, Vegetarian Lasagna, tossed green salad and warm apple crisp. At $12 per person this is fun at a bargain price. More elegant is Chandler's monthly wine evening, coming up Jan. 5. It will feature an hors d'oeuvres reception and an array of sparkling wines to be enjoyed to the sounds of Espresso Jazz from 6 to 9 p.m.

Tabella

Wine is also on the mind and menu of Adrian d'Errico of Amherst's newest restaurant, Tabella, whose tapas menu has already proved a hit with weeknight diners. Starting Jan. 21, Tabella, at 28 Amity St., will be open on Sunday nights. D'Errico will inaugurate the new schedule on the 21st with the first of a planned series of Wine and Farmer Dinners.

"The idea is to feature some of our suppliers from local farms and show how to team their products with wine," he said.

The initial event features Larry Katz of Wheel View Farm in Shelburne, who will discuss his organic grass-fed beef, which is used by Tabella's chefs in several menu offerings. Sean Green of Boston Wines will also be on hand to suggest wines that team with it. For more information, call the restaurant at 253-0220. D'Errico promises more such food-and-wine dinners in future months, and other restaurateurs are equally eager to attract guests with special dinners and events. So even though the pace of festivity definitely slows down as Father Winter holds sway, at least it doesn't stop all together.

But what if you have totally had it with eating out? Or you'd love to eat out but it's snowing like mad, or the family treasury is exhausted by end-of-year spending? Then making something New Yearsy at home is the answer. In many communities that includes something coin-shaped - such as lentils or sliced sausage - to bring luck and good fortune for the coming year. Here are some recipes to try.

SHRIMP COCKTAIL WITH CRANBERRY SAUCE

At this time of year, celebratory food should be easy - we've all done a lot of cooking already! And ideally, it should not be packed with calories. Shrimp scores on both counts. The cranberry sauce in this recipe provides a tart variation on the more usual lemony sauces served with shrimp.

1 cup cranberries

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

small pinch red pepper flakes or cayenne

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 pound cooked large shrimp

zest and juice of 1 lemon or lime

Crushed ice

1 lemon cut into half slices

Put the cranberries in a pan with half a cup of water. Bring to simmering point and simmer until they pop. Stir in the sugar, the Worcestershire sauce, and the pepper flakes or red pepper and salt.

Remove from the heat and when cool, taste and adjust the flavors adding more salt, sugar or Worcestershire as you like. Also, if necessary, thin with water to a sauce-like consistency.

Wash and dry the shrimp. Toss with the zest and juice of the lemon or lime. Serve on crushed ice with the bowl of sauce in the middle and lemon slices on the side. Or make 4-6 individual servings in sherbet glasses.

PASTA WITH RED WINE-LENTIL SAUCE

Here's a dish that is easy, tasty and meatless, especially welcome after holiday festivities that typically highlight meat. Serve the sauce with any kind of pasta.

11/2 cups lentils

2 tablespoons oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 clove garlic

15-ounce can chopped or crushed tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato paste

about 2 cups red wine

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon dried oregano

salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon or more sugar (optional)

grated Parmesan for serving

Soak the lentils in enough cold water to cover them by about 2 inches. Keep them soaking for half an hour or longer if more convenient. In a large pan, heat the oil and soften the onion in it for 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic, then drain the lentils and stir them in, along with the canned tomatoes and tomato paste.

When mixed, add 11/2 cups of the wine (which could well be left over from the night before), the bay leaf, oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for about 30-45 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Add more wine as necessary to maintain the consistency of a thick sauce - it should be about as thick as Bolognese sauce. Before serving taste to adjust seasoning. Add sugar at this point if the wine and tomato combination is too acid for your taste. Discard the bay leaf.

YELLOW SPLIT PEA AND FRANKFURTER SOUP

This recipe is adapted from one in Nigella Lawson's "Feast" (Hyperion, 2004). Here the split peas are a variation on the lentils of Italy, while the frankfurters recall the German New Year's habit of eating soup with coin-shaped slices of sausage.

1 onion, cut in chunks

1 carrot, cut in chunks

1 clove garlic

1 stick celery, cut in chunks

2/3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon ground mace

21/4 cups yellow split peas

5-6 cups chicken or vegetable stock

2 bay leaves

about 8 frankfurters, cut into disks

Put the onion, carrot, garlic and celery into a food processor and process until they are finely chopped. (Or do this by hand.)

Heat the oil in a wide saucepan and add the chopped vegetables. Add the mace, and then the split peas, and stir until they are mixed with the vegetables. Pour in 5 cups of stock and add the bay leaves and bring boil. Cover, lower the heat, and cook for about an hour or until tender and sludgy, adding more stock as needed. Add water as necessary. Add the frankfurters toward the end of the cooking time, leaving them in the soup just long enough to heat up. Or microwave them and add slices to each person's serving.

HOPPIN' JOHN

This dish is the classic southern dish for eating on New Year's Day, as it is supposed to bring good luck for the rest of the year. The black "eyes" of the black-eyed peas have the disk shape associated with coins, so that may have played a part in establishing its popularity. This version comes from "The Good Home Cookbook," edited by Richard Perry (Collector's Press, 2006).

1 cup dried black-eyed peas, rinsed

6 cups water

2 small smoked ham hocks

1 medium onion, chopped

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 cup long-grain rice

hot pepper sauce such as Tabasco to serve

Combine the black eyed peas with the water in a large pan. Add the ham hocks, onion, crushed red pepper, salt, black pepper and thyme. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer until the peas are soft, but not mushy, about 11/2 hours. Remove the ham hocks and set aside to cool. Drain the cooking liquid into a 4-cup measuring cup. You will need 2 cups of liquid to cook the rice. Discard any extra liquid, or if necessary, make it up with hot water to make 2 cups. Pour this liquid back into the pea mixture.

Cut the meat from the hocks and add to the pot. Stir in the rice, cover and cook over low heat for about 20 minutes. Without lifting the lid, set the mixture aside to steam for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve with hot pepper sauce.