Pan roasts have an added attraction for New Year’s Eve. The classic is obscenely satisfying, and it only gets better with 2008 tweaks such as smoked paprika or cilantro as a garnish. Pan roasts are seductively retro but can be as food fashion-forward as you want them to be. Either way, you get a fabulously festive main course in minutes.Īnd it is totally attuned to this particular out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new holiday. If you want to take a more restrained route, you can substitute dry vermouth or white wine for the cream. To make this exercise in excess at its simplest, you heat cream with seasonings, warm shellfish in butter and combine the two. Nothing could be more perfect for a holiday entree with so little effort. In the most classic version, a slice of toasted bread is included to soak up all that great flavor and richness. This is the most luxurious indulgence: oysters or other shellfish awash in cream or pan sauce enhanced with only the subtlest seasonings, so that the essential brininess shines through. But there is no better description of a seafood pan roast.

EXCEPT when it comes to caviar, effortless extravagance sounds like a contradiction in terms.