It's time to celebrate Christmas the Creole way: Corn Cakes with Caviar, Sugarcane Baked Ham with Spiced Apples and Pears, Jiffy Pop Firecracker Shrimp (yes, you do make it with popcorn)--these are the dishes guaranteed to make your holiday season festive. Your guide to this Creole Christmas is Emeril LaGasse, renowned chef and owner of several restaurants in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and also the host of two television cooking series, The Essence of Emeril and Emeril Live. In addition to great appetizers, entrées, and desserts, Emeril includes some terrific stocking stuffer ideas--everything from his Homemade Worcestershire Sauce to a delectable recipe for Orange Pralines that are so good you might just decide to keep them for yourself. And if the recipes themselves weren't mouthwatering enough, the book is studded with gorgeous color photographs guaranteed to send you running for the kitchen--or your travel agent. Spend Christmas in New Orleans with Emeril Lagasse and laissez les bon temps roulez!

From Library Journal
Here are three new cookbooks from popular restaurant chef-owners. Peel and Silverton are the husband-and-wife team behind Campanile, the popular Los Angeles restaurant, and its adjunct, the La Brea Bakery. Peel is the chef, Silverton is the baker, well known for her desserts and delicious breads (Breads from the La Brea Bakery, LJ 5/15/96). They've already written about the simple food they like to cook with their kids (Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton at Home, LJ 2/15/94); now they present their favorite dishes from the restaurant, including earthy, flavorful, often Mediterranean-inspired food that is more sophisticated but not pretentious: Roasted Chanterelle Salad, Crisp Flattened Chicken with Wilted Parsley Salad, Rustic Cherry Pie. Although some of the recipes take time, they are clearly written and thoroughly accessible to the home cook. Recommended for most collections. [BOMC Good Cook Selection.] New York City's three-star Gotham Bar & Grill is known for Portale's flavorful, often visually stunning food; his elaborate, tiered, stacked dishes are often described as "architectural food," and the color photographs in his cookbook show why. This is elegant food to be sure?Roast Lobster with Beet Couscous and Baby Bok Choy, Duck and Foie Gras?and some of it is probably better enjoyed at the restaurant, but not all the recipes are complicated or extravagant, and the instructions are clear and often include advance prep suggestions. The headnotes, however, are rather stiff and pedantic, sometimes sounding more like a publicity release than anything else. For area libraries and other collections where chefs' books are popular. Lagasse (Emeril's New New Orleans Cooking, LJ 3/15/93) is the exuberant chef at Emeril's and two other New Orleans restaurants and one of the TV Food Network's most popular personalities. With Bienvenu, he presents four festive menus for the holidays, from Christmas Eve Dinner for Ten, featuring Truffle Risotto and Beef Tenderloin with Fresh Horseradish, to New Year's Day Supper Family Style, with Jiffy Pop Firecracker Shrimp, Roasted Skillet Duck, and Chocolate Bread Pudding. There is also a selection of his other favorite holiday dishes as well as Stocking Stuffers, gifts from the kitchen. Recommended for most collections.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
Emeril kicks it up a notch Louisiana-style for the holidays.

The holidays should be a time for fun and family, but the planning can be murderous. Let Emeril guide you through it in high Louisiana fashion. Equipped with New Orleans traditions and over 100 recipes, Emeril's Creole Christmas provides complete menus down to the shopping lists, for a Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day brunch, and New Year's Eve and Day suppers. Emeril likes a party and at the holidays he kicks it up a notch, with food that impresses and satisfies Corn Cakes with Caviar, Brandied Baked Ham with Sugarcane Sauce, Funky Stuffed Oysters, and Chocolate Truffles are just a few of the recipes that will make your celebrations memorable. Emeril also makes a gift a lagniappe of his very favorite dishes such as Quail and Sausage Christmas Gumbo and Lobster Cheesecake. And there are the stocking stuffers gifts from the Creole kitchen including Emeril's Homemade Worcestershire Sauce, Buttercream Mints, and Cocoa Rum Balls. Filled with beautiful color photography to celebrate the season, Emeril's Creole Christmas will be a gift to give yourself as well as family and friends. The holidays should be a time for fun and family, but the planning can be murderous. Let Emeril guide you through it in high Louisiana fashion. Equipped with New Orleans traditions and over 100 recipes, Emeril's Creole Christmas provides complete menus down to the shopping lists, for a Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day brunch, and New Year's Eve and Day suppers. Emeril likes a party and at the holidays he kicks it up a notch, with food that impresses and satisfies--Corn Cakes with Caviar, Brandied Baked Ham with Sugarcane Sauce, Funky Stuffed Oysters, and Chocolate Truffles are just a few of the recipes that will make your celebrations memorable. Emeril also makes a gift--a lagniappe--of his very favorite dishes such as Quail and Sausage Christmas Gumbo and Lobster Cheesecake. And there are the stocking stuffers--gifts from the Creole kitchen--including Emeril's Homemade Worcestershire Sauce, Buttercream Mints, and Cocoa Rum Balls. Filled with beautiful color photography to celebrate the season, Emeril's Creole Christmas will be a gift to give yourself as well as family and friends.

About the Author
Emeril Lagasse is the chef/proprietor of two New Orleans restaurants: Emeril's and Nola (an acronym for New Orleans, Louisiana) and most recently, he opened Emeril's New Orleans Fish House in Las Vegas's MGM Grand Hotel.Emeril is also a national television personality, hosting Television Food Network's highest-rated program, "The Essence of Emeril," and he has also become an established cookbook author, sharing his inventive cuisine in Emeril's New New Orleans Cooking and taking the backroads through the bayou to uncover Louisiana Real & Rustic.Emeril, who is of Portugese and French Canadian heritage, grew up in the small town of Fall River, Massachusetts, where he worked in a local Portuguese bakery and learned the art of bread baking and pastry. As a teenager he turned down a music scholarship to follow his dream of cooking and worked his way through the culinary program at Johnson and Wales University, from which he received an honorary doctorate. Emeril trained in France and then returned to work in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Persuaded to move to the Big Easy, Emeril fell in love with New Orleans and worked as executive chef at the legendary Commander's Palace for seven and a half years before opening his own restaurants.Marcelle Bienvenu Born and raised on the Bayou Teche, Marcelle Bienvenu, graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana and worked as a feature writer for the New Orleans Times-Picayune. She operated her own restaurant, Ches Marcelle, near Lafayette, Louisiana and has worked for many of the top restaurants in New Orleans. Marcelle currently writes for several Louisiana publications including: Louisiana Life Magazine, Teche News and Times of Acadiana. She has co-authored two cookbooks with EmerilLagasse and is the sole author of many other books. Bienvenu still resides on the Bayou Teche in St. Martinville, Louisiana.

Excerpted from Emeril's Creole Christmas by Emeril Lagasse, Marcelle Bienvenu. Copyright © 1997. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Smothered Veal Chops with Tasso Mushroom Gravy Makes 4 servings 4 double-cut veal loin chops (12 to 14 ounces each)
4 teaspoons Creole Seasoning
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup bleached all-purpose flour
2 medium-size yellow onions, thinly sliced (about 6 cups)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 pound assorted exotic mushrooms, such as shiitakes, chanterelles, and oysters, wiped clean and chopped (about 3 cups)
2 1/2 ounces tasso, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 1/2 cups Chicken Stock
1 tablespoon choppedfresh parsley leaves
3 tablespoons chopped green onions (scallions), green parts only
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Season the chops with the Creole Seasoning, rubbing it in evenly. Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Sear the chops until golden brown but not charred, 5 to 6 minutes, and turn over. Sear for 3 minutes on the second side for rare, or 5 minutes for medium-rare. Remove from the heat and transfer the chops to a heated platter. Add the flour to the skillet and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Return to the heat. Cook, stirring constantly until the mixture is the color of chocolate, about 3 minutes. Add the onions, salt, and cayenne and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the mushrooms, tasso, and garlic and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the stock, bring the mixture to a gentle boil, and simmer for about 2 minutes. Return the chops to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes, basting often, Remove from the heat and stir in the parsley, green onions, and black pepper. Serve the chops warm with the pan gravy. Stocking Tip: Tasso is a heavily seasoned smoked ham used often in Louisiana for flavoring vegetables, stews, gumbos, and sauces. It can be found in some supermarkets. Spiced ham can be substituted. ------------------------------------------------------------- Chocolate Macadamia Nut Brittle Makes about 1 1/4 Pounds 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips (about 1 pound)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
One 4.5-ounce can macadamia nuts (about 1 cup) Line a baking sheet with parchment or waxed paper. Put the chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon of the butter in a stainless steel bowl set over a pot of simmering water over medium heat. Stirring, melt the chocolate, about 5 minutes. Heat the remaining tablespoon butter in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add the nuts and shake the pan often to lightly toast them, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the nuts to the chocolate and cook, stirring the mixture often, until the chocolate is completely melted and the nuts are well coated, about 5 minutes. Pour the chocolate mixture into the pan and spread it evenly with a rubber spatula over the bottom, making a 4-inch-thick layer. Cool. Refrigerate until it sets, about 2 hours. Break it into pieces, like peanut brittle. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It will keep up to 2 weeks.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Put a little BAM! in your holidays with Emeril's Creole Christmas. Emeril gives you menus, shopping lists, timetables, and, of course, recipes to create traditional New Orleans versions of Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day brunch, and New Year's Eve and New Year's Day suppers. Corn Cakes with Caviar, anyone? How about Sugarcane Baked Ham with Spiced Apples and Pears, or Banana Cream Pie with Caramel Drizzle and Chocolate Sauces? Emeril's Creole Christmas is a recipe for festive holiday celebrations, Creole style.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Equipped with New Orleans traditions and over 100 recipes, Emeril's Creole Christmas provides complete menus, down to the shopping lists and suggested wines, for a Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day brunch, and New Year's Eve and Day suppers. Corn Cakes with Caviar, Sugarcane Baked Ham with Spiced Apples and Pears, Beef Tenderloin with Fresh Horseradish and Black Pepper Crust, Jiffy Pop Firecracker Shrimp (yes, you do make it with popcorn), and Caramelized Andouille Spoon Bread are just a few of the recipes that will make your celebrations memorable. And the desserts - delight your guests with Chocolate Chocolate Pudding Cake with Chocolate Ganache, Creole Christmas Trifle, Creole Christmas Fruitcake with Whiskey Sauce, Banana Cream Pie with Caramel Drizzle and Chocolate Sauces, or Chocolate Bread Pudding with Spiced Cream. Emeril also makes a lagniappe - a gift - of his very favorite dishes, such as Quail and Smoked Sausage Christmas Gumbo, Lobster Cheesecake with Christmas Caviar Sauce, and Crawfish Quiche. Finally, there are the stocking stuffers - gifts from the Creole kitchen - that include Emeril's Homemade Worcestershire Sauce, Butter Cream Mints, and Orange Pralines.

SYNOPSIS