Sweet and Savory Dinner Party

I did it again. Planned a party and a menu that meant 3 days of cooking. This time though, I enjoyed every minute of it, up until the last 5 minutes before guests arrived and I was frantically working on the cream sauce, and my phone was ringing…that stressed me out a little bit, but I threw my phone at Mr. Roux, and managed to get everything ready in time, so I could enjoy myself thoroughly with my guests.

The original invitation list was for about 15 people, about 10 RSVP’d, and only 4 were able to make it in the end. But I had determined to cook enough food for any number who wanted to come by, in the spirit of sharing the food fun. There were PLENTY of left overs! My ONLY complaint: 3 of the 4 guests were girls, who eat like birds, so they didn’t eat nearly enough in my opinion…

I’ve decided to host dinner parties on a regular basis, and am using my Buddhist group as an excuse. I am a member of this great organization (www.sgi.org - watch the video on the media tab! Or www.sgi-usa.org to find a group near you), and get to practice with the COOLEST people in the world, but after our small discussion meetings, there is NEVER enough time to hang out, chat, catch up, get to know each other… so the spirit of these dinner parties will be Dinner and Dialog – sometimes there will be 2 people, maybe someday 10 – I don’t care, I like to cook and I like to run my yap. The inaugural Dinner and Dialog was fantastic – and we were all shocked to see it was 3AM when the chat fest started winding down! Sure success.

Le Menu:
Roasted Vegetable Tapenade
Hummus
Irish Soda Bread
Parmesan Pepper Crackers

Iceberg wedges
Blue Cheese Dressing

Lemon Fusilli
Tuna Tartare served on Endive
Chicken Veronique

Lemon Yogurt Cake
Orange Chocolate Mini-Cakes
Homemade Grand Marnier Vanilla Ice Cream

I realize how ambitious this all looks. And I suppose it was. Honestly, each recipe was as simple as could be. I made the hummus, blue cheese dressing and lemon yogurt cake on Thursday evening. Friday night I made the orange chocolate cakes and the crackers. This left the roasted veg tapenade, ice cream, pasta, tuna, and chicken for Saturday. I got up pretty early to get started, and had JUST enough time.

I must officially thank Ina Garten once again for her inspiration and recipes! I took the liberty of some variations… here’s one, which is simultaneously an I Love Lucy moment; I added a cup of mayo instead of a half a cup of mayo to the Chicken Salad Veronique. I hate mayonnaise, so it was a tough 10 minutes for me scooping out un-stirred mayo from the mix. I ended up doubling the celery and grapes, and adding roasted pecans in order to bring balance back to the bowl.

Recipes/links** and commentary below! I only put pics of the most photogenic dishes below – sadly, I have neither the artistic eye nor photographic talent of Mallow who can make any dish look like a still life!

Roasted Vegetable Tapenade (variation of Roasted Eggplant Spread - see
Foodnetwork.com)

4 small zucchini
2 red bell peppers, seeded
1 red onion, peeled
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 Tb. Olive oil
1 ½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
1 Tb. Tomato paste

Preheat oven to 400. Cut veg and onion into 1-inch cubes. Toss them in a large bowl with the garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread them on a baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes until the veg are lightly browned and soft, tossing once during cooking.
Cool slightly.

Place the veg in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, add the tomato paste, and pulse 3 or 4 times to blend. Taste for salt and pepper.

(This was so delicious. I used the zucchini instead of eggplant, since it's the one food I hate. I would have liked it with olives and some spicy pepper as well!)

Hummus
2 cans chick peas/garbanzo beans, drained
¼ cup tahini
juice of 2 lemons
1 Tab. Pepper flakes
3-4 cloves garlic
2 Tab. Olive oil

Put everything but the olive oil in a food processor fitted with blade attachment. Blend thoroughly, adding the olive oil slowly while everything else blends.

(This makes a pretty mild hummus – you can really jazz it up with some artichoke hearts, roasted peppers, or any think you like!)

Parmesan Black Pepper Crackers (See Foodnetwork.com)

(I followed the recipe very closely, and ended up with very crumbly dough that was hard to roll into a log. It was much easier to deal with once frozen, but once cooked I found them a little too delicate to dip into either of my spreads. So we ate them for dinner on Friday.)

Irish Soda Bread (from “Barefoot Contessa At Home”)

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for the currants
4 Tab. Sugar (optional)
1 tsp. baking soda
1½ tsp. kosher salt
4 Tab. (1/2 stick) Cold unsalted butter, cut into Tabs.
1¾ cups cold buttermilk, shaken
1 extra large egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp. grated orange zest
1 cup dried currants

Preheat oven to 375. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silpat.
Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the butter is mixed into the flour.
With a fork, lightly beat the buttermilk, egg and orange zest together in a measuring cup. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Combine the currants with 1 Tab. Of flour and mix into the dough. It will be very wet.
Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and knead it a few times into a round loaf. Place the loaf on the prepared sheet pan and lightly cut an X into the top of the bread with a serrated knife. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. When you tap the loaf, it will have a hollow sound. Cool on a baking rack. Serve warm or at room temp.

(I decided to make this easy slightly sweet bread to dip into the savory spreads, as I really like the combination of sweet and savory – go figure. It was particularly good with the veg tapenade. I might leave the sugar out next time if serving with savory stuff.)

Blue Cheese Dressing (from “Barefoot Contessa At Home”)
½ lb. Roquefort cheese (I used crumbled blue cheese)
1 cup mayo
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. tarragon wine vinegar
2 Tab. Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (optional)

Place half the cheese, the mayonnaise, heavy cream, vinegar, 1 tsp. salt and ½ tsp. pepper in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and process until combined but still chunky. The other half of the cheese should be crumbled over the top of salad, but I added it to the mix. It was too thick. If you’re using this as a dip, its fine to add all the cheese, but as a dressing, you only need half.)



Lemon Fusilli with Arugula (See Foodnetwork.com)

(This was SO delicious. The arugula wilts just so, and the tomatoes get tender and juicy! A great dish for feeding the masses.)


Tuna Tartare (See Foodnetwork.com)

(I was a little disappointed that the tuna absorbed the soy sauce enough that it turned sort of a brown/gray color, rather than a pretty pinky color. GREAT flavor, and so lovely with the avocado. The peppery endive is a great edible spoon.)


Chicken Salad Veronique (See Foodnetwork.com)

(Again, I hate mayonnaise, but if it’s a good balance and not too gooey, I can take it. This worked out perfectly. I really liked the added crunch and depth of the pecans.)

Lemon Yogurt Cake (See Foodnetwork.com)

(Once I poured the juice and sugar mixture over the warm cake, all I could think about was the fact that most of the syrup was ending up on wax paper on the tray below. Once the cake had cooled, I wrapped it in the syrupy wax paper, then wrapped the lot in plastic wrap, hoping the cake would absorb more as it rested. Success! Also, instead of the glaze, I used butter cream frosting, with added lemon zest. I probably won’t next time.)

Mini Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake (See Foodnetwork.com)

(Um… Yum!? These almost didn’t need the chocolate syrup. I think I would have preferred them with a glaze instead, so the chocolate isn’t so overwhelming. I could eat these all day on into the night.)

Vanilla Grand Marnier Ice Cream
4 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 cup cream + ¾ cup milk, scalded
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 ½ tsp. Grand Marnier liqueur

Beat egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer using paddle attachment on med. For 3 minutes, or until very thick. Reduce speed to low, and add cornstarch.

Slowly pour the hot milk into the eggs, with the mixer still on low. Next, pour this mixture (now like a custard) into a sauce pan and cook over low heat until the spoon coats with cream. (Don’t allow the temp to rise above about 150-160).

Pour the sauce through a fine strainer, add vanilla and Grand Marnier. Freeze using an ice cream maker per manufacturer’s instructions. Freeze in an air-tight container until ready to eat. Serves 4-5.

**My sincerest apologies! The hyperlink function is not currently working?! I have to annoyingly direct you to www.foodnetwork.com for recipe reference.

The Bollito Misto That Never Was

I started with this recipe: (Bollito Misto). My first “mistake” was the meat I purchased. In my little neighborhood of Brooklyn, it can be hard to find good meat. We have a corner grocery that I like to call “Third World” because for some reason there is often sawdust on the floor, and the only thing I feel I can safely purchase there are canned goods. Other than that, it’s kind of a haul to the better grocery stores, and even then I mostly find what I call “questionable meats”. In New York, we have something called Fresh Direct - an amazing online grocery store where you order your goods, and they are delivered right to your door. The only problem is that they have yet to add our zip code to their delivery area. So I often end up buying meat and other specialty items in Manhattan on my way home from work, at the usual Manhattan marked-up prices. I found a beef brisket at Food Emporium, a pre-packaged national brand, and figured it was worth a try.
I got tied up in the hell that is Manhattan on the weekend – I had to go to Bed, Bath and Beyond for some things, then Macy’s for some sheets (hell-on-earth any day of the week in NYC, even if you use a non-Perfume Department entrance). So after hauling 5 bags home on the crowded train, I categorically refused to go back out again for special ingredients for this recipe, and decided to make do with what I had in the kitchen. As I had promised Ms. Mallow that I would cook and take pictures this weekend with my inaugural Sweet and Savory site recipe trial, I scoured the refrigerator for appropriate substitute ingredients to try this yummy looking recipe.

I pulled out green cabbage, red cabbage, red onion, chicken bouillon cubes, and some leeks. Then I pulled out the package of beef brisket, and noticed it actually read “Corned Beef Brisket”. A different beast all together.

But then I realized what a great combination the cabbage would make with the Corned Beef! My German ancestors sang "Jawohl!". I also figured the leeks would make it even heartier. Even though using chicken broth with beef was in my mind a horrible faux pas, I was determined to make this meal.
Over-all, it was very simple. I hadn’t planned on making a dipping sauce as the original recipe called for simply because I lacked the ingredients. Since it was a completely different recipe now anyway, eliminating that last process made it all the easier.
After the initial searing of the meat (my apologies in advance to Mallow and other vegetarians for the carnal nature of these the pictures), it was just a matter of chopping and adding. I have to admit I’m very ignorant about herbs and spices. I have a general idea of which types of spices go with which cuisines (like, cardamom and curry are Indian, basil and oregano tend to be Italian…) but I am clueless otherwise, and probably tend to create ridiculous interpretations of what would otherwise be very sensible aromatic dishes. In this case I think I added Mexican Oregano, for no other reason than I was emptying a bag of the imported herb into my new magnetic spice containers, and had some extra I didn’t want to throw away. Not sure if that counts as a method when it comes to my madness.
The purple and green cabbage, combined with the deeper green of the leeks sure looked pretty in the red Dutch Oven (One of my favorite wedding gifts. Thanks Rose!) (Speaking of leaks, does anyone have a suggestion for getting these really clean? I chopped them into big chunks, and then rinsed each piece as thoroughly as I could. Is there a better/smarter way?) Once boiling, I lowered the temp to simmer, then covered the pan, and went on to more important things; drinking a beer and watching an episode of The L Word with my husband. As I sipped, I considered that adding a beer instead of the chicken broth may well have been genius! Ever cooked meat with beer?
Once the timer went off, and I had removed the meat and veggies, I boiled down the broth. It was a deep brownish-purplish color, very pretty, but a little too watery to be “gravy”, even once reduced. I ladled a little over the serving dish, and decided to save the leftover broth in case I am inspired later (suggestions anyone?).
The end result was very flavorful, though the cut of meat was horrible – there was a layer of gristly fat on the bottom of each slice that we had to cut off before taking a bite. My husband’s earlier “Leeks? Blech!” and my “You love leeks. I’ve cooked them before” were cancelled out by his “you’re right, I do like leeks. These veggies are good.” I always know I’ve done well by him when he shoves food down his gullet so fast, it’s as if he has never eaten.

The flavor of everything was great, but overall because of the bad cut of beef, it was a little disappointing. Also, looking at the pictures now, it looks kind of vintage East German, a little...grey.
I wonder what a real Bollito Misto would taste like? Once I track down a good cut of meat, I’ll give it a proper and less-improvised, whirl.