Wandering Through Grand Case, Saint Martin

With the holidays over, the blog returns to Saint Martin in the Caribbean.  We stay on the French side of the island in Grand Case on the Anguilla Channel.  The town has a long white sand beach and is known as the "Gastronomic Capital of the Caribbean" due to its large number of high-quality restaurants offering a variety of cuisines on the mile-long (1.6 km) main street (Blvd. de Grand Case).

We get quick peeks of the ocean and the beach as we walk down Blvd. de Grand Case.

Glimpses of the sea

Blvd. de Grand Case

The street in the morning is quiet as restaurants prepare for service later in the day and the rest of us stroll or start a non-strenuous day.

Lazy morning

At the edge of town, the holiday decorations light up in the evening to greet the people who walk in and drive in for dinner and drinks.

Holiday greetings!

We return to Grand Case every year for the quiet, the beauty, the beach, the sea, and, of course, the food (upcoming blogs).

New Year's Dinner: Paella Mixta

The theme for New Year's Eve and Day dinners is seafood.  New Year's Eve we make crab cioppino again, using leftover cioppino sauce from Christmas Eve with new Dungeness crab, scallops, shrimp, and rigatoni.  To that we add a kale salad with homemade bread crumbs, avocado, pecorino cheese, and a dressing of garlic paste, pecorino cheese, lemon juice, olive oil and salt/pepper.  All accompanied by a sliced baguette and a light-bodied cabernet sauvignon which complements the spice of the cioppino sauce.

New Year's Eve

On New Year's Day, we make paella mixta with chicken, chorizo, and shrimp.  We soak saffron threads in hot water for 15 minutes while we cook chicken, shrimp, and chorizo in a paella pan until browned.  Our old aluminum pan won't work with our new induction cooktop, so we're cooking dinner on the grill.

Ingredients

Cooking the chicken, shrimp, and chorizo

We remove the shrimp from the pan and continue cooking the chicken and chorizo with paprika, garlic, chopped tomatoes, bay leaves, and minced onions until the onions are soft.  We add the saffron mixture and  homemade chicken broth and bring to a boil.  We then add bomba rice along with artichoke hearts, peas, and roasted red peppers. 

Add in the tomatoes and onions

Add stock,  rice, artichoke hearts, peas, peppers

Continue cooking

When most of the liquid is absorbed, we return the shrimp to the pan, nestle mussels into the mixture, hinge side down, and continue cooking until the mussels have opened, the liquid is absorbed, and the rice is al dente. We remove from the heat, let it all sit for a few minutes and then serve.

With shrimp and mussels

Finishing up

Done

Served

What a great holiday dish.  We'll have to declare our own holidays occasionally in order to make paella mixta more often!

Happy New Year!  Wishing you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2025!

Christmas Dinner: Beef Wellington

Christmas Day we make beef wellington, accompanied by green beans with lemon and capers, duck fat potatoes, and a simple lettuce salad.  We start by cooking diced pancetta until crisp and then adding butter, assorted mushrooms, and diced shallot.  Once the mushrooms are browned, we add garlic, thyme, and vermouth and, after a little more cooking, set the mixture aside.  The beef tenderloin is tied into a log, browned on all sides, and set aside to cool.  We make a layer of sliced speck, cover it with the mushroom mixture, place the beef on top, roll the speck tightly around the beef, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate.  Several hours later, we roll out a puff pastry sheet, place the chilled beef/speck/mushroom log on it and roll the pastry tightly around the log.  We then brush with egg wash and bake.

Ingredients ready

Pancetta, mushrooms

Beef tenderloin, speck

Speck/mushroom roll

Wrapped in puff pastry

Done, ready to serve

We start with a cheese dip appetizer with crackers and sliced baguette while we set the table and pull together the salad, green beans, and potatoes.  Accompanied by pink champagne.

Cheese and champagne to start

Table ready

Salad

Preparing the vegetables

We blanch the green beans in boiling water, allow them to cool, then cook them in butter, garlic, and red pepper flakes, adding lemon zest at the end.  The potatoes are boiled until tender, cooled, carefully smashed in our hands until flat (but still in one piece), drizzled with duck fat, and baked with rosemary and garlic.  We  plate and serve dinner with a red Saint-Émilion Bordeaux wine,

Dinner is served!

Merry Christmas!

What a festive and delightful meal!