‘Tis the season to celebrate with intention — and hosting a festive dinner party or Reveillon feast for friends, neighbors and family is a great way to pull out all the stops. Invite those whose company you enjoy the most, and plan a menu that includes one or two truly special dishes like the ones featured here — recipes that require a little extra time and effort but are worth all the love you put into them. Set a colorful, glittery table, let the wine and champagne flow freely, and treat yourself and your lucky guests to the kind of delicious mains that are worthy of becoming an annual tradition.

Lamb Shanks with Garlic & Butter Beans

Lamb Shanks with Garlic & Butter Beans is one of those incredibly flavorful entreés that makes a gorgeous presentation and a beautiful meal. A savory recipe from Chef Jennifer Hill Booker’s latest cookbook Dinner Déja Vu, it features slow cooked Camellia Brand Large Lima Beans (also known as butter beans) and fork-tender lamb shanks in a rich, creamy sauce. Made with garlic, shallots, brandy, ripe tomatoes, and copious amounts of white wine, it’s actually an easy-to-follow recipe, and any home cook can tackle it with a little time and patience. You’ll need a large dutch oven (at least an 8-qt.) with a tight-fitting lid because it simmers first on the stovetop, and then gets baked in the oven, and you should plan for about 4 hours of cook time. (Keep in mind that while a dutch oven is doing the work, that’s hands-off cook time that allows you to prep other parts of your menu.) The wonderful smells wafting from your kitchen will be so tempting, everyone will have trouble waiting to sit down at the table before digging in.

And since Lamb Shanks with Garlic & Butter Beans is both a main and side dish all in one pot, you can simply add a green salad, some crusty bread or soft dinner rolls and a few bottles of your favorite red wine. Your guests will be talking about how delicious it was long after the last plate is cleared.

Cassoulet

Another dinner party-worthy recipe for a rich, slow cooked bean casserole is Chef Jennifer Hill Booker’s fabulous Cassoulet, also from her Dinner Déja Vu cookbook. Featuring four different kinds of pork — smoked ham hocks, boneless pork shoulder, salt pork and Andouille sausage — as well as two pounds of Camellia Brand Pinto Beans and fresh herbs and vegetables, this heartiest of dishes will feed a large crowd of party guests.

You’ll need to start prepping the day before you plan to serve it, but the extra time and care involved is worth every bite. Like the Lamb Shanks & Butter Beans recipe, you’ll need a large dutch oven (at least a 6-qt.) with a tight-fitting lid, as well as about 6 hours to cook (plus more for prep time). After simmering the Cassoulet on the stove and then baking it in the oven, a rich brown crust of bread crumbs adds the finishing touch. With unbelievable flavor and the creamiest pintos ever, this dish is a total show-stopper.

Garlicky Shrimp & Blackeye Peas

Our Garlicky Shrimp & Blackeye Peas dish is also perfect for seasonal celebrations and get-togethers — especially New Year’s. Throughout the South, blackeye peas are popular New Year’s fare for the promise of luck and money (and because they taste so good).

In this recipe, we flavored Camellia Brand Blackeye Peas with bacon and Andouille sausage, lots of garlic and chicken stock, and made them extra special by topping with seasoned, sautéed shrimp cooked in butter, more garlic, lemon juice and white wine. Putting these two Southern favorites together in one dish — blackeye peas and Gulf shrimp — makes for a wonderful combination that everyone will love.

Pan-Seared Snapper with Red Bean Sauce

Another elegant choice is Pan-Seared Snapper with Red Bean Sauce. For the sauce, perfectly cooked Creole Red Beans are added to tomatoes, shallots and chicken stock, puréed in a blender, and then simmered on the stove with whipping cream. Seared snapper fillets are drizzled with the sauce and sprinkled with cubed, browned tasso. Talk about decadent! It’s a fabulous new way to enjoy your favorite red beans.

This holiday season, let one or more of these delicious dishes grace your dinner table, and make your festive dinner party a truly memorable occasion. Looking for great appetizers to serve before the special meal? These will create a colorful spread.

The Reveillon Tradition and History
The sharing of an opulent repast following the holiday Mass on Christmas Eve and again on New Year’s Eve was a custom inherited by Louisiana’s Creoles from their European ancestors. Though guests were invited for New Year’s Eve, the Christmas Reveillon was strictly a family affair with grandparents given places of honor at the table, the choicest selections from the meal, and the attention and adoration of the younger members of the family. Only the most exceptional foods would suffice for these feasts. While their European relatives dined on escargots, foie gras and turkey stuffed with chestnuts, the south Louisiana celebrant would have enjoyed a regionally adapted menu of oyster stew or turtle soup; rich puddings and custards; cold beef daube glace; and fragrant roast game or sausage, perhaps braised in a savory pie or casserole with beans or legumes. Copious amounts of wine, brandy and cordials would have loosened things up for participants on either continent and candied fruits and fanciful desserts like bûche de Noël or croquembouche would have completed the meal and sent the devout tottering off to bed stuffed and satiated, probably as the sun came up.

Reveillon’s Rebirth
By the 1930s, the tradition of the old Creole Reveillon dinner had largely disappeared from the roster of holiday celebrations. However, by the 1980s, the Creoles’ descendants embraced anew those historic customs that distinguished them from everyone everywhere else. The custom of lavish holiday dinners was resurrected. Restaurants started offering multi-course “Reveillon” dinner menus during conventional dining hours throughout the holiday season, and ambitious home cooks eager to show off their talents (and their fine china) re-adopted the practice as well.

The Contemporary Reveillon Dinner
The contemporary Reveillon dinner can take virtually any form so long as the foods bear an air of luxury in either their composition or execution. This is the time to trot out the delicacies or slave over something complicated and impressive. Being at the peak of their season, oysters are often chosen to start the meal, followed by a rich bisque or hearty gumbo. A course of roast game or a lavish cut of meat might follow along with a rich savory pie or casserole. A once-a-year showstopper dessert should round out the meal.

Cassoulet, a rich white bean casserole, is perfect for the Holiday Table
This cassoulet of fresh Gulf shrimp, Louisiana’s famous smoked andouille sausage, and creamy white beans is a rich and fragrant one-pot dish that can simmer away on the stove as you work on other parts of your celebratory meal. It pairs beautifully with roasted meats and game as well as fish. The regionally-adapted stew would have been familiar to our French ancestors. Though traditional European cassoulets vary by region, they were historically built upon a base of white beans and cooked in a sealed crock with slanting sides, known as a cassole, from which the dish takes its name.

Camellia’s Shrimp, Andouille and White Bean Cassoulet

1 (1-pound) Camellia navy beans soaked overnight
5 bay leaves, in all
Creole seasoning
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound Andouille sausage, cut into 1/4-inch pieces (another smoked sausage or bacon may be substituted)
1 medium onion, diced
4 ribs celery, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 28-ounce can whole peeled Roma tomatoes
2 bay leaves
3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
1 bunch green onions, chopped
3 cups low sodium chicken broth
3 cups Panko breadcrumbs
1 1/2 cups shredded Parmesan
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
4 pounds medium Gulf shrimp, peeled and deveined
Hot French bread

Add the navy beans, three bay leaves, and Creole seasoning to taste to a large saucepot. Add enough water to cover the beans by 3 inches. Bring to a boil and cook, adding additional water as necessary, until beans are soft, about 1 hour. Drain and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven, preferably cast iron, over medium-high heat. Add the Andouille and cook until brown, about 10 minutes. Add the onion, celery, garlic, oregano, and Creole seasoning to taste; cook until the vegetables are tender and translucent, about 7 minutes.

Crush the tomatoes with your hands over the contents of the Dutch oven before adding them to the pot. Add the 2 remaining bay leaves, Worcestershire, reserved navy beans, thyme, and green onions. Add the chicken broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the beans have absorbed the broth, 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile set a low broiler. Combine the Panko, Parmesan, oregano or thyme leaves, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Add the shrimp to the Dutch oven, and cook until they are thoroughly pink, 8 to 10 minutes. Top the contents of the Dutch oven with the Panko mixture. Place under the broiler and cook until the Panko is lightly golden, 2 to 3 minutes.

Alternatively, the cassoulets may be broiled and served in individual ramekins.

Makes 8 servings.