Dress 4 Dinner

Posts Tagged ‘menu’

So in my race to the finish on this stint, I want to hit a few important points.   Again, because I had dinner during the work week, I prepared dishes that I had experience with.  Thai steak salad is really easy and can be any type of salad but the dressing is  important.  Thai dressing does not have any oil,  it seems weird but it  gives the salad a really fresh taste.   The recipe for the dressing is a variation on a recipe from The Dean and DeLuca Cookbook, which is a great cookbook to check out.   You can toss  together almost any combination of salad ingredients,  grill some type of protein and add this dressing and it transforms it into something exotic.

Thai Salad Dressing

1 teaspoons lime zest
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce

10 mint leaves chopped

¼ cup of chopped cilantro

dash of soy sauce

Whisk together all ingredients

Coconut Rice with Butternut squash

Another simple but interesting dish was the coconut rice topped with butternut squash.  I stole this idea from my friend and colleague Liz, who offered both of these dishes individually on a buffet at her dinner party.  First off, making coconut rice is as simple as replacing the volume of water you usually cook rice in with coconut milk.  This is always a 2 to 1 ratio in my book.  I also added a bay leaf and some grated ginger for an extra kick.  One of the added benefits to making this rice is the leftovers, which make great rice pudding.   The butternut squash was sliced, drizzled with olive oil and maple syrup and then sprinkled with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper and roasted at 400 degrees.   I peeled and chopped the roasted squash into chunks and placed it on top of the rice.  Although it was a double starch, the rice and the squash complimented each other nicely.

The Table

I wanted the table to be a little less formal but a little more graphic to appeal to Amy’s  great visual sensibility.    I had seen these weird octopus-looking citrus in the grocery store and look them up on the internet.  They are called Budda’s hand and are not used in cooking but are used for fragrance.  I combined one with oranges as the center piece and then placed the paper “tie napkins” on top of the plates flanked by black bowls.  The table setting would not have been complete if it were not for the napkins.  They were sent to me as a gift from my friend Yasmine, all the way from London specifically to use for Dress 4 Dinner.  They come in four tie patterns and are called Dress 4 Dinner!  My only regret was that I did not get a picture of either one of us wearing the napkin the correct way, as a tie.

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This was an very challenging week at home and at work, but the bright spot was having my friend Amy over for dinner on Thursday Night.  With only one guest and much of my  preparation done before hand, I was not scrambling at the end like I usually do.  Also, having someone over for dinner gave my week a weird sense of normalcy.  It was great to actually catch up in depth with Amy, which is what D4D is all about.  We chatted for so long that it was too late for  dessert so  I made a to-go version for her to take home.

Starter

Spring Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce

Main Course

Thai Steak Salad

Coconut rice w/ Roasted Butternut Squash

Firestick Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2008

Dessert

Hot Milk Cake w/ Blueberry Sauce or Lemon Curd

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D4D Special: Candy Corn Potion

Lots of people don’t entertain at home because of the cost. Putting on the dog (well, not literally, people) can really add up when feasting at one’s own table, especially when the goal is to make it a memorable event.

Our Halloween D4D was an aggressive affair. We feasted on fresh salmon. We poured decent wine. We served five courses, each of which contributed to the bottom line, and, well, our bottoms.

So, how much did this dinner really cost? Readers might be surpised at how inexpensively we threw this party.

• Fresh salmon         $30
• Sweet potatoes            3
• Asparagus                     3
• Proscuitto                     3
• Lollipop fixings        10
• Animal crackers         2
• Wine                              20
• Kit Kat L’Orange       10

We decorated the table with mouldering decorations I found in a drawer. Because I don’t know how long they had been there, I can’t accurately include their cost. I’m just glad to have more space.

So, for a mouth-dripping grubfest with good friends, the tab came to a little over $80. But the meal is the sideshow. Lingering over the dinner table for as long as we want, dissecting every conceivable topic and bonding with good friends is priceless. It’s the reason we do Dress 4 Dinner, every single time.

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From the time the challenge was set down by one of our guests, we cogitated long and hard on the right way to approach this particular halloween candy transformation. The end result seemed to have just the right combination of chocolate goodness and flaky crunchiness, and the hazelnuts gave a nice little smoky sweetness to it all.

• Phyllo pastry sheets (5 layers)
• 6 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 cup ground hazelnuts, toasted
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup Mariebelle drinking chocolate
• 1 1/4 cup boiling water
• 4 orange supremes

Prep phyllo sheets according to package directions. Clear a work area and spread out a sheet of parchment paper larger than the phyllo sheets. Lay out one sheet of phyllo, brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with sugar and hazelnuts, Lay on another sheet of phyllo, brush with butter and sprinkle with sugar and hazelnuts. Repeat with more layers until all 5 sheets are used; do not butter top layer of phyllo.

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter four pots of a muffin pan. Using a 6″ dish or plate as a template, cut four 6″ circles of the phyllo stacks. Press each stack into a muffin pot to create a phyllo bowl. Bake the phyllo bowls for 10-12 minutes, or until crisp and just beginning to brown. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Make the chocolate sauce according to the product directions:  In a heat-safe container, add 1 cup of Mariebelle Hot Chocolate powder to 1 1/4 cup of boiling water. Stir until smooth and well melted. If chocolate pieces do not melt completely, steam, simmer, or microwave, for 30 seconds. Set to cool in the fridge.

When ready to serve, remove phyllo cups from muffin pan and place on plates. Divide chocolate sauce among the four cups. Top with a sprinkling of toasted hazelnuts and an orange supreme. Serve. [Somehow, in our eagerness to eat this, we forgot to take photos of the finished product...use your imagination!]

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Ok, we’ll concede that butterscotch candies in your trick-or-treat sack were about as desirable as those individually-wrapped orange and black taffy candies, or a toothbrush, for that matter. But for our D4D, the main event was going to have to be butterscotch….or should I say butter and scotch! That’s right, this grown-up trick-or-treat includes a dish inspired by the haunted moors and firths we sampled on our recent trip to Scotland. Wrap it up in parchment paper with just the right twists at the ends, and the less desirable butterscotch candies become a surprising mouth-watering savory main dish.

• 4 salmon filets, skin removed
• 3 egg yolks
• 4 tbsp butter
• juice of one lime
• 3 tbsp scotch whiskey
• 12 morels (fresh, or rehydrated dried)
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• sea salt and black pepper
• parchment paper

Filet and skin the salmon, and cut into individual portions. Set aside. Set a double-boiler up with an inch of water in the bottom, and heat the water to just below boiling; remove from heat and add three egg yolks and lime juice to the top section of the double-boiler. Whisk until smooth, then add the butter in 1/2″ cubes. Melt while constantly stirring with whisk. When butter is incorporated and the mixture is smooth, remove top section and add scotch whiskey and stir until smooth.

Preheat oven to 425°. Cut four 16″ lengths of parchment. Spread a dollop of the sauce in the center of one sheet. Lay the salmon on top, dress with three morels, a sprig of rosemary, another dollop of sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Wrap up by folding the parchment lengthwise around the salmon; generally you want to have at least two layers of parchment on each side. Twist the ends for the wrapped-candy effect, and set on a cookie sheet. Repeat for each piece of salmon. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Serve as a wrapped package, and let your guests cut them open at the table…the blast of butter•scotch aroma is intoxicating.

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Our first trick or treat D4D course was a version of animal crackers. Since I always think of crackers as a savory snack, the idea was to make something of the misnomer of sweet, cookie-like animal crackers. I guess the trick here is that our Halloween crackers came in costume, disguised as less-than-scary butterflies, chicks, rabbits and duckies: Andra only had Easter cookie cutters.

• 1 cup grated Gruyere cheese
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 cup flour
• 4 tbsp butter, cut into 1/2″ cubes
• chives, snipped
• sea salt

Combine the cheeses, flour and butter in a food processor and process for 60-90 seconds, or until the mix starts to clump. Remove to a sheet of plastic wrap, and knead together. Wrap up in plastic wrap amd place in fridge for 1-2 hours, or overnight.

Remove dough from fridge and press flat on a sheet of parchment. Cover with plastic wrap and roll out using a rolling pin. The dough will be very dry, so you may need to work it a bit to get it to hold together. Once rolled out to a thickness of 1/8″, cut as many shapes as you can. Squeeze together the leftover scraps, roll out and repeat. For something less festive, you could roll the dough into a log, then slice rounds and use them as simple circular crackers.

Place cut crackers on a greased baking sheet, preferably non-stick. Sprinkle with snipped chives and sea salt. Heat oven to 350° and bake crackers until golden, about 12-15 minutes (you may want to rotate the pan once). Serve immediately, ideally with Kir Royales.

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You remember the experience when you were a kid…after an afternoon/evening of trick or treating, you race back home and first thing you dump out your largess to see what you got. Then the swapping begins, as you try to trick your friends/siblings into trading some of your less desirable treats for their more delectable ones.

Well, for our two guests Kristen and Brian, their plastic pumpkin contained a wild array of twisted Halloween treats:

“Healthy Snacks from Nerdy Neighbors”

Animal Crackers

Spago Nero Prosecco Veneto

·

“Solid Standards with Good Trade Value”

Lollipops

·

“The Big Haul”

Butterscotch

Pixy Stix

SweetTarts

Santa Julia Innovación Torrontés/Pinot Grigio 2009

·

“Bring on the Chocolate!”

Kit Kat

·

“Not Your Grandparents Candy Dish Leftovers”

Candy Corn

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Well, the date has arrived, and we are still assembling our menu. It would be great to be able to go to the store and buy several bags of candy for our Trick or treat dinner.

Well, what we have devised is actually a play off of the Trick or Treat bowl. In candy aisle terms, tonight’s meal will include:

• Three different kinds of Lollipops
• Butterscotch candies
• Animal Crackers
• Pixie Sticks
• Sweet Tarts
• Kit Kats
• Candy Corn

Now, how will we turn this into something adult and palatable? Let me put on my Mad Scientist costume, and see what we can’t cook up!

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What do you do with a competitive trickster?

One of our two guests for this Halloween D4D is more clever than anyone deserves to be, especially with words. While I sometimes can come up with an interesting turn of phrase, this guy spews them out on a regular basis, which I guess explains why he is an award winning playwright. He is the husband of a longtime friend of Andra’s. Brian and Kristen live in Beacon, NY, and they have been kind enough to host us in their home several times, most recently when Andra sent me to the CIA for a cooking boot camp.

Well, when we learned that they were going to be in Charleston for a wedding over the Halloween weekend, we immediately extended an invitation to dinner. When they eagerly accepted, we asked if they had any food requests. Brian’s ironic response: “Kit Kat l’Orange”

Of course, our first reaction was ‘what is that’ or ‘where did he have that?’ Eventually we realized his riposte was half-satire/half-challenge, and then we took the bait: How can we create Kit Kat l’Orange? What would it be? Would it be any good?

Now this is where the convergence happens: the last post in D4D was truly an organic thinking-out-loud about how to develop a Halloween menu. I wrote about the proverbial 7-course meal I could’ve had as a kid on Halloween: seven courses of candy. Upon writing that, I instantly had an idea, and a plan for our menu, and a dessert for our D4D.

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Beyond the whole scary thing, there is something odd about Halloween: it is a holiday with a significant consumption component, but it is without a traditional meal association.

This is something I am realizing just now, as I sit here trying to come up with ideas for our upcoming Halloween D4D. Think of the big American holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July—and you invariably think of the meal, whether it be a sit-down family dinner or a festive outdoor community picnic. You can even take it a step further, and match up a menu corollary…Thanksgiving Turkey, Christmas Roast, Easter Ham, Fourth of July BBQ.

But Halloween? Now, I know as a kid I could think of no better meal than a seven-courser of…CANDY! Of course, you always had those ‘well-meaning’ (cheapskates) who tried to hand out healthy alternatives to candy, but we all know those ‘treats’ would be the left-overs from our Tootsie Roll Tasting Menu.

But once we have outgrown our sweet teeth, or once our word association with “gum” shifts from ‘chewing’ to ‘receding,’ what kind of menu does Halloween inspire? Is this appropriate for a sit-down D4D?

Maybe Halloween is the anti-D4D? Think about it…is Trick or Treat not a set of training wheels for Drive-Thru Dining! And nothing is more antithetical to dressing for dinner and sharing a meal with friends and family.

Note: Just this morning I found this article that speaks to the surprisingly short history of candy and Halloween: http://www.theatlantic.com/food/archive/2010/10/how-candy-and-halloween-became-best-friends/64895/

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