Name: Craft Seasonal Dumplings with Chef Preeti Mistry
Start: 2026-05-17T05:30:00-07:00
End: 2026-09-13T07:30:00-07:00
Location: Napa

Winter 2018 Issue

By Moe Good Finigan
| December 3, 2018

The holidays are upon us. Whew.

My family and friends often hear me remark that I would rather be happy on a random Tuesday in May than have to don what may be a mask of gaiety and “familial love” de rigeuer during the holidays. Thankfully, most Tuesdays in May find me happy, and they definitely always find me grateful for all the blessings, and even the seeming curses, of my life.

Georgeanne Brennan’s story in this issue on the 13 desserts of the traditional Provencal Christmas Eve dinner gave me occasion to consider the food traditions of my own family during the holidays. On my mother’s side, we had turkey with all the fixings for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I always felt like the bland broad-breasted turkey was a waste of valuable real estate compared to the bourbon brown sugar sweet potatoes (stuffed into orange rinds and topped with marshmallows, of course—this was the South), cornbread dressing and green bean casserole topped with French-fried onions (again, of course). The holiday pies were also lost on me. Pass the gravy, please.

On my father’s side, we had turkey for Thanksgiving but delicious fried wild quail with wild rice on Christmas. These, too, were accompanied by gravy—reason enough to come to the holiday table.

Bourbon-spiked milk punch was another holiday-morning tradition in my childhood home. Daniel Ojinaga’s recipe for a Frozen Caffe-Cino cocktail in this issue that includes a coffee liqueur distilled by Petaluma’s Griffo Distillery using Equator Coffees & Teas coffee, as well as Straus Family Creamery ice cream, takes the milk punch notion up a notch, or several, and will definitely be gracing my holiday celebrations this year.

Since moving to Northern California over 20 years ago, I have wholeheartedly embraced the holiday tradition of serving Dungeness crab, and this year’s crab season seems to be off to an auspicious start. I have a strong suspicion that the Roasted Dungeness Crab with Garlic Butter dish contributed by Chef Matthew D’Ambrosi of Healdsburg’s Spoonbar, Pizzando and the rooftop bar at the newly opened Harmon Guest House in this issue is going to become a new tradition among our family and friends.

Whether you choose to adhere to your childhood or cultural food traditions during the holidays, or strike out to create your own, I wish you nourishing and delicious celebrations this season, shared with those you love.

2019 Good Food Awards Finalists

Dried Beans

Featured Farmers’ Market Directory Winter 2018

Homemade Chai Masala Spice Mix

Mushroom Mania

Nationwide Awards with Bay Area Roots

Punta Mita

Tabletop Perestroika

The 13 Desserts of the Provencal Christmas Eve Dinner

The Escoffier Questionnaire: Chef Matthew D’Ambrosi

The Perfect Pairing: Holiday Party Time!

Related Stories & Recipes:

Recipes

Basic Recipe for Cooking Dried Beans

Steve Sando, owner of Napa’s Rancho Gordo New World Specialty Food, has cooked many a pot of beans and this is the way he recommends. I concur. Soaking dried beans can speed up the cooking process and help the beans to cook more evenly, but it’s not necessary if you start with good-quality beans and use them within two years of harvest. Adding broth, seasoning or vegetables will make the beans more flavorful, but I generally cook them very simply, adding a bay leaf while simmering, and salting near the end. Salting earlier will toughen the skins. No matter your source for dried beans, it’s always a good idea to pick through for small stones and debris, and rinse them before soaking or cooking.

Recipes

Chai Masala Spice Mix

Drink

Frozen Caffe-cino

Petaluma’s Griffo Distillery collaborated with Marin-based Equator Coffees & Teas to create a dynamite Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur that tastes like a rocket-fueled cup of coffee without any of the cloying sweetness often found in coffee-based liqueurs. Delicious on its own, I decided to feature it in my twist on a frozen Irish coffee cocktail. I combined the Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur with Griffo’s Stout Barreled Whiskey for additional coffee notes, along with chocolate, toasted oak and a nutty sweetness that gives this drink layers of flavor. Fernet Branca lends its notes of mint, ginger, anise and other earthy flavors to the concoction. Monarch Bitters Chocolate Bitters add a rich mole and cinnamon touch that I found brought these ingredients together and ready to be brightened up by Straus Family Creamery’s Lemon Gingersnap Ice Cream. The ice cream’s ginger notes further the wintery theme, and the citrus element elevates this smooth and creamy cocktail to something unique and unexpected.

Drink

G & G French 75

A French 75 is known for being refreshing and bright. I wanted to ensure that this variation stayed true to the classic libation, but added a few wintry twists to make this cocktail special for the holiday season. Sonoma County–distilled Ginny’s Gin is made with grapes and grain for an exceedingly smooth spirit, enhanced by a unique blend of botanicals including lemongrass, sage, lemon peel and coriander. Healdsburg’s Alley 6 Spiced Peach Liqueur is made from fallen peaches from local organic orchard and farm stand Dry Creek Peach, infused with warming spices evocative of evenings by the fire. Rounding out and binding the cocktail are Monarch Bitters Honey Aromatic bitters. Phaedra Achor, proprietor of Monarch (and bottle label muse), handcrafts her extensive line of bitters from organic and wild-harvested roots, barks, aromatic herbs and flowers sourced from the Sonoma County countryside and bottles them by hand in Petaluma. The honey flavor really shines in this new addition to her offerings. Gloria Ferrer Sonoma Brut sparkling wine adds its own flavors of toasted almonds, pear and citrus, while being dry enough to keep this sparkling cocktail refreshing and bright.

Recipes

Loubia

If you like your beans spicy, you’ll love loubia, a spicy North African dish that’s also popular in France. Deep red and belly warming, it’s thick with white beans, tomatoes and aromatic vegetables, and may be prepared with or without meat. Like any traditional dish, loubia—which also means “white bean” in Arabic—has multiple versions, but the flavor is defined by the array of spices. The beans are served accompanied by extra-virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar to drizzle on top, a finish that provides amazing results. Don’t omit it. Loubia is a main-dish stew or it can be served, as I also like to do, as an accompaniment to grilled steak or lamb chops, or even hamburgers.

Recipes

Pelmeni–Siberian Meat Dumplings

The Russian word pelmeni translates into “ear-shaped,” and these little ear-shaped dumplings were traditionally made at the onset of winter and stored outside, the frigid Siberian weather serving as a natural preservative until the dumplings were needed. These dumplings are typically small and served 12–15 per person for a meal. I added lots of fresh herbs to make my pelmeni atypically vibrant and added a bit of vinegar to the usually heavy sour cream and butter topping to achieve a lightness that feels noticeably healthier, while still achieving the feeling of comfort that a good dumpling should deliver.