Fotocuisine

(Read to the end for a FotoCuisine Giveaway!)

Every year, I do a four-course Christmas dinner for family. The number of guests range from 10 to 20 depending on the year, and to which cities family members are traveling over the holidays.

Each year, I do a theme. One year it was “wrapped” foods, one year was green and red. One year we had four hurricanes in Florida, so I picked courses based on the names of the hurricanes (Charley, Francis, Ivan, and Jeanne). Last year, I did an Iron Chef theme where guests picked the ingredient a week in advance.

This year, I struggled with a theme. Work and life pressure has been intense this year, like a good chunk of America. Both of my brothers and their families would be away this year, visiting in-laws, so the guest list was smaller than usual. My mother half suggested Christmas-on-a-budget, and it immediately resonated with me.

I wanted to still do a four course meal, but I wanted to keep it refined, yet inexpensive. We would have six adults this year, so I planned a meal under $100. Cooking staples already present in my parents’ house (flour, mustard, olive oil, sugar, etc…) wouldn’t count in the ingredient cost. I surprised myself when I planned the meal, went shopping, and ended up with a bill of $79.

Menu inside…

One of my favorite local gourmet stores, The Green Turtle, has a wonderful rotating assortment of ingredients. In this small area of Florida, I’ve been able to find foie and truffles, and it’s my go-to place to find staples like champagne or sherry vinegar. Last week, they had a beautifully red, glistening display of peppadew peppers, and I grabbed as much as they could cram into a small container.

Peppadews are becoming one of those instant-trends among foodies, like ramps or heirloom apples. They’re one of those spontaneous pepper breeds that pop up in a particular region and nowhere else, like datil peppers out of St Augustine, Florida. Peppadews are very sweet, with just a little zing of heat to keep things interesting. The heat kick is really mild though, less than a jalapeno and much less than a datil. They’re best when ripened to a bright red, but since the peppadew region is limited to South Africa (and seeds are jealously patented and guarded by the growers), it makes shipping to the rest of the world a little tricky. Therefore, the peppadews we find are usually pickled, which adds an acid-vinegar punch to the heat and sweetness.

One of the “classic” (if such a term exists for a pepper that has been shipped for less than a decade) preparations is peppadews stuffed with a soft buffalo or goat cheese, which plays wonderfully off the sweet, tangy, punch of the pepper. I decided to make the peppers into a sauce for fish, melting in the “traditional” goat cheese.

More inside…