Port

How to Mix Drinks or the Bon Vivant’s Companion offers a recipe for English Bishop that involves sketchy directions and an open fire. It took some trial and error, but we adapted it to a standard oven. The infusion can be a cocktail sipped on its own, or an ingredient that can be mixed into other cocktails; we use it in our Jersey Devil cocktail (page 99).

These fanciful tartlets are easy to construct with make-ahead components. The fresh figs can be roasted and then chilled, with the flavorful cooking syrup, for up to a week. The cream filling can be made a day ahead and refrigerated; the fluted pastry shells also can be baked the day before and held overnight at room temperature.

Chocolate and caramel are enhanced with port wine, Spanish Marcona almonds, and fleur de sel, a delicate sea salt, for ultra-rich miniature tarts that are wonderfully unctuous, like fine truffles. The large yield of this recipe makes it perfect for parties; just don’t expect to have any left over. These tartlets have a tendency to disappear rather quickly.

The filling for this Italian-style tart begins with a flavorful reduction of port wine and brown sugar; half a fresh Thai chile is added for a subtle—but entirely optional—bit of heat. Start with the best fruit you can find. Small, oval Italian prune plums are firmer and sweeter than other plums; plus, since they are a freestone fruit, their pits are not attached to the flesh and are therefore easily removed.

A friend of ours is a hunter, and we created this ball after he brought us back the goods from a successful outing. It’s based on a classic Cumberland sauce, and we’ve added a touch of chocolate and butter to add richness and the extra fat that the lean and gamy venison requires. Venison is typically paired with juniper berries, which we like to crush and mix in along with a splash of port wine. Serve with Mushroom Gravy (page 63) and Smashed Turnips with Fresh Horseradish (page 80).

Pork works well with many kinds of fruit, including figs. Keep fresh figs in the refrigerator and use within a day or so. This recipe calls for roasting an extra pork loin to use in making two quick dishes on the following page.

This velvety sauce, made with a bottle of red wine and a bottle of port, a sweet fortified wine, enhances any meat it is served with. The wines are reduced with chicken stock for a sauce more intense than the average red wine sauce.

CUT FROM THE SHORT LOIN SECTION, beef tenderloin is a succulent cut of meat. Grilling adds flavor, and with a sprinkling of dried herbs and an intense red wine sauce, the beef is even more flavorful.

WHY IT’S LIGHT French onion soup is usually capped with a molten crown of cheese, but each cup of this trimmer version is topped with a piece of cheese toast instead—a cup of cheese is enough for all eight servings. Well-caramelized onions are the true key to this soup’s appeal; be sure to cook them until they turn a deep golden brown.

Nothing can match dried fruit for convenience and intensity of flavor. And when you poach an assortment with port and a few spices, the results belie the ease of preparation. This is not a summer dessert—no one would mistake this for fresh fruit—but it is delicious, low-fat, and a welcome change from heavy winter desserts. One tip: Use a port you’ll enjoy drinking (or buy a half bottle), because you’re going to use less than a third of a full-size bottle in this recipe.

A logical combination and glorious once you taste it, with the sweet juice of the peaches deftly cutting through the richness of the lamb without being piercing. A hint of cinnamon (or an even smaller one of allspice—maybe an eighth of a teaspoon) gives the dish a great aroma as it cooks and a slightly mysterious flavor at the table. A pinch of cayenne or other red pepper makes a nice addition. Whereas most braises begin with browning, this one ends with it, like the Braised and Grilled Lamb Shanks on page 188. This method reduces both spattering and time—since the lamb’s liquid is mostly gone by the end of cooking, it doesn’t go flying from the hot fat, and the meat browns faster. And the peaches, browning lightly in the same cooking liquid, contribute some of their juices to the pan while becoming meltingly tender.

Why do so many recipes have you brown lamb shanks and other tough meats when the long braising needed to make them tender ends up breaking down the lovely, crisp crust? The simple answer is that browning creates complex flavors, but it also creates a spattery mess. So here’s a solution: grill or broil the shanks after braising. This will give them the ultimate crust, and the braising liquid will serve as a succulent sauce.

Traditionally served at Christmas parties in Sweden and elsewhere, this is powerful stuff, as you can see by its ingredients. Nevertheless, it goes down easily, so be careful. The wine and port should be decent but obviously need not be fantastic; most of their flavors will be overwhelmed.

GINA Outside of England, I know it may seem out of the ordinary to have prime rib, but after having so much ham or turkey, we like to mix it up a little bit—and Pat loves a juicy steak. That’s one thing that’s nice about the Neely household: you can expect the unexpected. I remember, the first time we served it, everybody was shocked and talked about how it looked so pretty, they didn’t want to slice into it. But if you know my brother Ronnie and Pat’s brother Mark, that thought about not slicing the roast didn’t last very long. And tasting this ruby port sauce is almost as fabulous as opening that present you’ve been hinting at all season.

My backyard fig tree is not always the most reliable producer, but when I have figs I make this dessert. It pairs an old-fashioned pound cake (recipe courtesy of my great-aunt Emma) with a chunky sauce made with my homegrown Brown Turkey figs. I love this dessert’s down-home elegance—a figgy topping poured over individual pound cakes baked in cupcake pans. You can use any fresh fig that’s available—light green, brown, or purple. In Texas you’ll most likely find Brown Turkeys, which I’ve been told were planted throughout the state by early homesteaders. If fresh figs are not available, use Bosc pears or tart apples. If you want a large, belt-busting dessert, use Texas-size cupcake pans. Standard-size cupcake pans will give you double the servings.

A wonderful syrup to pour over fresh fruit, this is not overpoweringly sweet, thanks to the orange zest. Choose a decent, but not expensive, port for this. Depending upon what you will use it for, opt for the cloves, cinnamon, and pepper. The spicier port syrup is great for reconstituting dried figs, apples, pears, and other dried fruit. You can also use it as a glaze on chicken or pork. Port syrup keeps in an airtight container for a few months in the refrigerator.

Cranberries are native to North America and were used by indigenous peoples long before the Pilgrims arrived. They were mashed with deer meat for pemmican because their natural benzoic acid helps slow spoilage. For a slightly untraditional cranberry sauce, the dried berries, citrus flavor, and port beautifully complement a juicy turkey. Serve with wild rice pilaf or mashed potatoes.

I thought I knew all about chocolate truffles until I enrolled in an advanced course in chocolate making at a school for professionals next to the Valrhona factory in France’s Rhône Valley. I spent three very intense days there learning how to combine three simple ingredients—chocolate, cream, and butter—into silky smooth ganache. In the class were eight of the top chocolatiers in the world, plus a ninth person, who quickly realized that he had a lot more to learn about chocolate than he thought he did. Ganache seems simple, but chef Philippe Givre taught us how to whip these three ingredients into a velvety paste that needed several days of rest before it was ready to be tasted. (It’s worth the wait!) It would take a whole book to explain his technique and a professionally equipped kitchen attached to a chocolate factory to try it out, so for this recipe, I’ve shortened the process a bit. Of course, to make these truffles, it’s worth seeking out the best chocolate you can find, which, if you’re lucky like I was, might be right next door.