Vespertine Christmas Dinner at Home in Los Angeles
December 23 2021
As christmas was coming up, my dad had wanted to do a feast at home and as we enjoyed the last meal so much. he booked an early christmas dinner as christmas eve and christmas day dinners were already sold out.
started off with a nice warm glass of mulled apple cider
Savory christmas cookies with aged cheddar cheese decorated by us with crème fracîche and chives
farmer’s market crudité as an add on, served with a creamy dip made from fromage blanc, preserved lemon and crispy shallots
parsnip soup served with warren pears roasted with crispy pancetta and chestnuts
not pictured- white castelfranco salad with black winter truffles and hazelnuts
honey squash and smoked bacon wellington with medjool dates and sage, served with sauce périgueux
baby white sweet potatoes with charred brown butter marshmallow and black pepper
Wagyu beef brisket braised for 24-hours with thyme, garlic and rosemary, served in au jus with roasted shallot molasses.
winter linzer tart with spiced maple frangipane, brown butter and winter berry compote with whipped maple cream
white chocolate-peppermint Bark of white chocolate ganache, peppermint candy nougatine, salted cashew FEUILLETINE and dark cocoa sablé
what another amazing dinner, although we tried to warn my dad to order less portions he did not listen. Therefore we had leftovers for days.
It started off with a nice cup of warmed mulled apple cider, forgot to take a picture as we were busy preparing the rest of the food as we had 10 people to feed. hot apple cider what better way to start a holiday meal. as the savory cookies and PARSNIP soup were warming up in the oven, we snacked on the farmer’s market crudite, which we ordered as a add on. we were 10 people and we barely finished two of them, some types of vegetables i have never seen or tasted before. it was a nice colorful arrangement of vegetables. next was the fun part of decoration the cookies, UNFORTUNATELY as the cookies were really fragile they were already broken beforehand. it was a fun family activity to decorate, each having their own ideas and designs. we then had the parsnip soup in cups and continued eating and snacking around the kitchen.
we finally sat down when it was time to eat the salad. the salad only had three ingredients but it was pretty tasty. castelfranco tends to be quite bitter but then when paired with hazelnuts for its slight sweetness and the black winter truffle ranch dressing for its richness and creaminess, the bitterness isn’t so strong. Next were the main courses of wagyu beef brisket, honey squash and smoked bacon wellington and baby white sweet potatoes. I was already quite full from the starting dishes but did save a little room. The beef brisket was good however slightly a bit too sweet. The wellington was very interesting, i would have never thought of using squash which is a good vegetarian SUBSTITUTE, but then the smoked bacon gave that slightly meaty smoky flavor. Sweet potatoes with marshmallows is such an american thing but i love it and this version with the salted brown butter, made it even more rich and DELICIOUS.
we took a little break so that we would have a little more room for dessert. I do not know how someone is supposed to eat half of a linzer tart by themselves. we split two between 10 people. But my favorite was the white chocolate peppermint bark, i am a huge fan of peppermint or mint and chocolate so it was the perfect dessert for me. besides to chocolate and mint flavor, i loved the salted cashew FEUILLETINE it gave a slight saltiness and crunch to the dessert.
All in all another amazing meal from vespertine but remember when ordering, order half to two thirds the headcount unless you want to have leftovers for days.
Vespertine
3599 Hayden Ave, Culver City, CA 90232, United States
