Ingredients & Preparation

• 1 bottle of full-bodied red wine
• 3 tablespoons of the Christmas Black Tea from the box (which already contains spices and citrus fruits)
• 2 large tbsp of honey, 1 slice of orange

1. Heat the wine in a saucepan with the honey and the orange slice. Above all, never let the wine boil!
2. Off the heat, immerse a tea ball containing the Christmas Black Tea and let it steep covered for 15 minutes.
3. Remove the tea, gently reheat if necessary, and serve. A super simple method for a comforting mulled wine.

Chef's Seasoning Tip

Kampot PGI White Pepper has a minty, complex and powerful flavor, perfect for sublimating festive poultry without masking their fine flesh.

1. Massage your turkey or capon with softened butter mixed with fleur de sel.
2. Bake and baste your poultry with its juices very regularly.
3. The secret: put no pepper during oven cooking (it would burn). Only grind the Kampot pepper generously over the poultry when it comes out of the oven, on the crispy skin. The aromatic explosion will be perfect.

Ingredients & Preparation

• 12 very fresh scallops
• A drizzle of a very good olive oil, juice of half a lemon
• About ten Timut berries from the box, fleur de sel

1. Cut the scallops into very thin slices and arrange them in a corolla on the plate.
2. Mix the olive oil and lemon, drizzle over the scallops. Sprinkle with a little fleur de sel.
3. Coarsely crush the Timut berries with a pestle (or crush them between your fingers). Sprinkle over the dish. The pink grapefruit of the Timut will make the iodine of the scallops sing!

Essential steeping technique

For a festive risotto, shellfish dishes or a saffron crème brûlée, never throw the whole pistils directly into the pan or the dish!

1. Take about 3 Negin Saffron pistils per person.
2. Plunge them into a small glass containing a warm liquid (water, milk, veal stock or fish stock).
3. Let steep for at least 15 to 30 minutes. The liquid will take on a magnificent golden yellow color and release its fragrance.
4. Incorporate this infusion (with the pistils) at the very end of cooking in your dish so as not to volatilize the aromas.

For an Unforgettable Pastry Cream

• 2 Extra-Gourmet Madagascar Vanilla beans from the box
• 50cl whole milk, 4 egg yolks, 80g sugar, 40g cornstarch

1. To release 100% of the vanillin, split the oily beans in half. Scrape out the thousands of black seeds.
2. Put the milk, the seeds and the empty beans in a saucepan. Heat to the point of simmering.
3. Turn off the heat, cover and let steep for at least 30 minutes. The longer you let it steep, the deeper the cocoa taste of the vanilla will be.
4. Remove the beans, reheat the milk and stir in the egg/sugar/cornstarch mixture until thickened.

Plate finishing

Your box contains rare peppers (Smoked, Monkajuba Red...). Foie gras is a fat that needs to be "woken up" by a spice with character.

1. Slice your half-cooked foie gras (cold) and place it on a nice slice of toasted country bread.
2. Forget the gray pepper powder! Grind very large pieces of red pepper (for the candied and fruity side) or smoked pepper (for a wood fire effect) directly onto the slice. Add two crystals of crunchy salt.

Daily Tip

On Christmas morning, no time to scrape a bean? Vanilla extract is the chef's "shortcut" for fluid batters.

• In your crepe, waffle or pancake batter, add 2 teaspoons of Bourbon vanilla extract.
• The fragrance diffuses evenly throughout the batter, offering a round and intense flavor as soon as it is cooked in the pan.

The Alternative to Chestnuts

The Amazon Tonka Bean offers incredible aromas of almond, caramel and cut hay. It is magical on chocolate, but also on winter vegetables!

1. Cook and mash your sweet potatoes (or butternut squash) with a little butter and crème fraîche.
2. Take a very fine grater (like a microplane) and grate the equivalent of a third of a Tonka Bean directly over the steaming purée.
3. Mix. This fragrance will create a surprising sweet-savory contrast, perfect to accompany roasted poultry.

To surprise your guests

The red Sichuan berry has a very floral and lemony aroma, as well as an amazing sparkling effect on the tongue.

1. Dry-roast a handful of Sichuan berries in a very hot pan for 30 seconds to reveal their oils.
2. Crush them very finely in a mortar (or grinder).
3. Stir two pinches of this powder directly into your dark chocolate mousse mixture before leaving it to set in the fridge. The combination of strong chocolate and "electric lemon" is an unforgettable experience!

The end of the big meal

Bancha is an "everyday" Japanese green tea, renowned for its very low theine (caffeine) content and its beautiful refreshing and thirst-quenching capacity (vegetal and iodine notes).

1. After the heavy Christmas Eve meal, heat water to 70-75°C maximum (boiling water would make the green tea atrociously bitter).
2. Steep 1 generous spoonful of Bancha per person for 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Serve. It is the perfect natural digestif to end the evening lightly.