Area Chefs Offer Recipes For People To Try At Holiday Dinners And Parties In Coming Weeks

BY MAUREEN WERTHER

Whether people will be home for the
holidays preparing a feast for company, or
planning to bring a dish to a holiday gathering,
there is always an interesting holiday
recipe to share.

Rebecca Newell-Butters, executive chef
of Morgan & Company, “a new American
restaurant in downtown Glens Falls,” loves
the holidays and one of her favorite snacks
when she is entertaining is cheese and paté.

“We make our own paté at Morgan &
Company … This will make the house smell
delicious for days,” she said.
Rebecca Newell-Butters’s recipe calls for:

2 cups chicken livers

2 oz. whole butter

2 shallots, diced small

2 6-oz. duck breasts

12 oz. ground pork

1 cup panko bread crumbs

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup toasted crushed walnuts

2 tablespoons green peppercorns

2 large eggs

1 cup cognac or brandy

10 strips of bacon, preferably smoked

1/2 cup dried cherries

1 teaspoon dried tarragon

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon allspice

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

“Season the duck breasts with salt and
pepper and place them in a medium pan,” she
said. Crisp up the skin until golden brown
and place in the oven. Cook until the internal
temperature reaches 125 degrees. Remove
from the oven and cool.”

She said in the same pan, add butter and
shallots. Add chicken livers and allspice.
Cook for three minutes stirring constantly.
Season with salt and pepper. Add cognac and
cherries. Simmer for one minute. Turn off the
pan and place in a bowl to cool.

Using a large cutting board, chop up the
duck breasts as small as possible using a large
chef knife. Chop up the liver mixture as well
and add the rest of the ingredients, except
for the bacon. Spray a small 8-inch loaf pan
and line with plastic wrap.

Next, line the loaf pan with bacon in a
‘book fold’ pattern and spoon in liver filling.
Wrap with bacon And Saran Wrap. Bake at
375 for 50 minutes or until internal temperature
reaches 160. Cool overnight. Remove
from pan and serve with spicy mustard,
cornichon, grilled baguette.

Chef/owner Francis Willis Jr. of Gourmet

Café in Glens Falls offered a recipe for soup.
Spiced pumpkin bisque is a favorite of his.

Francis Willis Jr.’s recipe calls for:

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

2 cups onion (finely diced)

2 cups carrot (finely diced)

2 cups celery (finely diced)

1 1/2 tablespoon Chinese five spice powder

8 oz. brown sugar

1 ½ cups cider vinegar

Juice from one orange

6 cups pureed cooked pumpkin

8 cups vegetable or chicken stock

1 quart heavy cream

salt and pepper

Cinnamon spiced croutons

Willis said sauté the chopped garlic in the
olive oil in a heavy soup pot until translucent.
Add carrots, onions and celery and cook
until soft and vegetables are beginning to
caramelize on the bottom of the pan. Add
Chinese five spice, stir well and then deglaze
pan with cider vinegar and the juice of one
orange. Reduce cider vinegar by half and stir
in the cooked pumpkin puree. Add stock and
bring to a simmer for 30 minutes.

Add heavy cream and return to a simmer
for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper
and serve with a handful of cinnamon spiced
croutons.

To make the cinnamon spiced croutons,
Willis said take three cups diced bread
squares, a half cup butter (melted), a quarter
cup of sugar, a tablespoon cinnamon and
a teaspoon Chinese five spice powder. Mix
together sugar, cinnamon and Chinese five
spice powder. Toss bread cubes with melted
butter until evenly coated. Toss with sugar.
Place on a cookie pan and bake at 350 degrees
until golden brown. Set aside to cool.

Chef Rod Russo of Log Jam Restaurant in
Lake George offered a recipe for the entree he
calls “tournedos greque,” twin filets seasoned
and char-broiled. The amounts in this recipe
depend upon the number of people being
served, he said.

First, season the filets with salt, pepper,
and extra virgin olive oil. Then, char-broil
until they are cooked to the desired degree
and, when done, place them atop grilled
garlic bread. While the filets are cooking,
saute jumbo shrimps in a pan with a splash
of white wine, garlic butter, diced tomatoes,
and fresh oregano. Add feta cheese and toss.

Spoon shrimp mixture on top of filets
and serve.

Russo has been preparing fine food at Log
Jam since 1989.