FOOD

OVER THE MOUNTAIN JOURNAL

FOOD Putting on the Ritz

Caterer Talks About Food to Keep Parties and Dinners Festive

By Anne Ruisi

Stumped by what to serve at your upcoming holiday party or Christmas dinner?

Award-winning Birmingham caterer Kathy G. Mezrano, owner of Kathy G. & Co. catering service, has some delicious tips to help you and your guests enjoy the festive season.

As holiday entertaining usually falls into either party or dinner mode, there are two ways to approach the food you’ll serve and its presentation. Just remember that food is a natural centerpiece, said Mezrano, who runs the Gardens Café at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

Take the classic charcuterie, or grazing board. These are simple and easy to make by just arranging a variety of meats, cheeses and fruits on a board.

“Fruits and vegetables are so beautiful on their own, don’t be hesitant, just start and it will all fall into place”Mezrano said.

“Just lay it all out there,” Mezrano said.

The trick to serving party food is to make it look bountiful, with an array of cheeses, dips – spinach dip is always popular – bread, pita chips, pickles and raw vegetables. Garnish it with cranberries, pomegranates and greenery, and guests will head to that first, she said.

Presentation should be festive, and one way to add some holiday glamour is to spray paint gourds and pumpkins in silver and gold. Arrange the food on risers and pedestal cake plates. If the bottom of a plate or riser is a bit worn, chipped or cracked, arrange greenery around it and no one will ever know, she said.

Mezrano cautions against the use of some types of greenery around food. Holly, for example, is poisonous, and using fresh cedar, pine or fraiser fur is just fine.

“It just gives it the look” for the holidays, she said.

Every meal is an event, Mezrano said, so make it one. Don’t forget to pull out the good china and crystal, even if many people, especially young people, eschew it.

“It’s a lost art. The young ones don’t like it,” Mezrano said.

For a party, food stations can offer an array of hors d’oeuvres. One idea from Mezrano’s cookbook, “Food, Fun & Fabulous,” is to serve an appetizer “mini-meal,” such as a small serving of pot roast and mashed potatoes in a martini glass.

Her catering business does a lot of parties with food stations, including a mashed potato bar with different toppings guests can add themselves, such as shredded cheese, green onions and sausage.

“You can put anything on it. It’s inexpensive and easy,” Mezrano said.

Sweet potatoes work just as well, with brown sugar, butter and pecans among the toppings, which makes it more festive.

A tossed salad is nice to have; use stronger greens like kale, arugula and romaine lettuce. Mezrano suggests giving the salad a little twist by adding dried cranberries and nuts and dressing it in vinaigrette. Pomegranate seeds will add pretty color. “It’s healthy and different,” she said.

Some suggested hors d’oeurves on the party menu could be ham biscuits, mini BL T’s or Conecuh sausage pig ‘n a blanket. Mushrooms caps can be filled with spinach and cheese, crabmeat au gratin or sausage and pecans. Mini Phyllo pastry shells are available at your grocery store and make a wonderful vehicle for an hors d’oeurve filled with Brie and cranberry jam.

“A pot roast made with chuck roast that’s done well will be amazing and just as delicious as a prime cut of beef’ Mezrano said.

You have to have a meat on the party menu, so appetizers could run to something like ham biscuits or pot roast. The meat doesn’t have to be tenderloin.

“A pot roast made with chuck (beef) done well will be amazing, fantastic,” Mezrano said.

Courtesy

Award-winning Birmingham caterer Kathy G. Mezrano, owner of Kathy G. & Co. catering service, has some delicious tips to help you and your guests enjoy the festive season.

Party Sweets

de crème served in small cups. Mezrano likes using demitasse cups.

Pound cake garnished with berries and a dollop of whipped cream is always a crowd pleaser. Cookies and fudge are other options.

Having a couple of sweets to choose from is ideal because many people like having an assortment of treats to enjoy, Mezrano said.

Festive Dining

For a dinner, guests can nibble on a big charcuterie board set on a sideboard or coffee table. You could do a soup course, although these days it’s not served at big holiday meals that often. One idea is to serve a crab chowder in demitasse cups and call it crabmeat “cappuccino”.

At any holiday meal, macaroni and cheese is a must and many Southerners enjoy it with baked ham and turkey for their main holiday meal. A standing rib roast of beef is a classic for holiday dinners.

The Birmingham area has a long tradition of immigrants settling here, so traditional ethnic dishes that reflect the heritage of a family are handed down through the generations and will appear on many dinner tables.

Mezrano is Lebanese and said, “You have to have kibbe,” referring to the balls stuffed with a meat filling, usually lamb or beef.

Preparing Christmas dinner doesn’t have to be hectic – a lot of the sides can be made ahead of time.

Casseroles, mashed potatoes or twice baked potatoes made before the big day can be reheated, but meats should be cooked that day, Mezrano said.

Drinks are an important part of any holiday party or dinner, so pour anything sparkling, because it’s festive, Mezrano said.

“Some sort of bubbly” will work, such as Prosecco or Cava, a Spanish sparkling wine, she said, adding that dropping a raspberry or blueberry at the bottom of a flute glass will give it a special finish.

What will Mezrano have for the holiday?

On Christmas Eve, she likes to eat seafood, and on Christmas morning at her home, she’ll serve her family a traditional breakfast of eggs, grits, bacon, ham and chops, with fruit, especially pineapple.

Pot de Crème

In her cookbook, “Food, Fun & Fabulous,” Kathy G says this is her “absolute favorite dessert, this is so decadent!” She loves to serve it in demitasse cups and notes that the better the chocolate, the better the custard. She prefers Valrhona dark.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup half-and-half 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate 2 teaspoons sugar 3 egg yolks ½ teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

In a pot, bring half-and-half, chocolate and sugar to boil. Slowly pour chocolate mixture into egg yolks while whisking. Return mixture to pot and cook over a low heat for two minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour through a fine mesh strainer and fill cups. Refrigerate overnight to set.