Whether you’re celebrating the holidays on the Mountain at home or in a Clubhouse, delectable food and beverages go hand-in-hand with the festivities. Leave it to our own Director of Culinary Chef Bertrand Bouquin to add the sugar and spice to the tastes of the season. His favorite holiday dishes will soon be yours. Cheers!
On the Mountain: Black Truffle Pasta
“When I think of food in November or December, I think of black and white truffles. A hearty dish that’s perfect for winter—and one of my favorites—is Black Truffle Pasta. It’s easy, elegant and delicious.”
Chef Bertrand generally uses fresh Tagliatelle pasta. The sauce, he says, is simple. “It is a cream sauce with mascarpone, Parmesan cheese and Fontina, flavored with black truffle oil.” He tosses the cooked pasta in the sauce and tops with black truffle shavings. “We serve this dish as a special at Constantino’s and every December we do a black and white truffle tasting.”
At Chef Bertrand’s House: Cinnamon Swirls
“Every Christmas Day, I prepare Cast Iron Cinnamon Rolls for my family. They are very tasty and it makes the house smell very good. It is very festive when we open presents with the kids.”
Chef B makes his Cinnamon Roll dough the day before, and proofs it. Christmas morning, he rolls the dough into a rectangle, spreads the cinnamon butter mixture and finally rolls it into a log. He then cuts and shapes it into the cast iron pan and proofs it again overnight.
“I get up at 5 a.m., bake it and glaze it with vanilla icing so when the kids are waking up, it is ready and I can enjoy it with them. My kids always look forward to this.”
At Your Home: Charcuterie Board
“For something festive that Members can do at home for family and friends, I recommend keeping it simple. What I like to do with the family for hors d’oeuvres or appetizers is to decorate the table with all sorts of charcuterie, breads, crackers, cheese, pickles and preserves.”
Chef Bertrand prefers cheeses imported from France or Italy.
“We want the good stuff made with raw milk. My personal favorites are Comte, Saint Marcellin, Camembert, Robiola and Fourme d’Ambert.” For charcuterie, Chef’s picks include a good prosciutto, saucisson (sausage), pates, chorizo and lardo. His top choices for preserves are fig, which he calls “the obvious one,” apricot and quince paste.
“I use all sorts of little dishes, cast iron and vessels and arrange them on the table over butcher paper. It makes the table look very pretty and very festive.”A Holiday Drink Special
Kris Vickrey, lead bartender at Constantino’s at Chiricahua, fixes a concoction that’s certain to please as an addition to your holiday dishes. Called the “Autumn’s Apple,” it’s ideal as a dessert cocktail, something to drink, Vickrey says, “after dinner, once the kids are asleep.” You can find it on the Mountain around holiday time.
To enjoy the Autumn’s Apple, take a chilled martini glass and dip the rim in a prepared chocolate sauce, such as Hershey’s. The chocolate helps bind the other ingredients—crushed graham cracker and a cinnamon-sugar blend—to the rim.
Next, take agave syrup and add to it three cloves, two to three cinnamon sticks and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix it up and we have the drink’s key ingredient, cinnamon-vanilla agave, of which we’ll use one ounce per drink. The cocktail’s other ingredients are one ounce each of spice rum (such as Captain Morgan), Grand Marnier and heavy cream. Combine in a cocktail shaker, shake them up and then add a splash of Martinelli’s apple cider. In the glass, it appears as white and cloudy as an imminent snowfall.
To complete the seasonal motif, garnish either side of the glass with an apple slice—red or green—and top with a mint leaf. Bottom line: if the proof is in the tasting, you’re in for a treat, says Vickrey. “To me it tastes like a slice of apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream over the top of it.”
This story was originally written by Joe Passov, a Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA) award-winning journalist. Read the article in the Fall 2023 issue of Inside Desert Magazine.
