Holiday Dinner Party

170 Locust Street

January 7th, 2012

Fall River, MA

Abstract

Dinner parties have always been something that we've enjoyed in our house.  Being foodies and since Stephan spent so much of his time cooking in various levels of food establishments, we've taken pride in being able to bring those foods home and to create new and different types of food to present to our guests.  Together as a group, we worked together on this weekend to pull off a (late) Holiday Dinner Party for some of our friends. There were ELEVEN of us all stowed around the table in my kitchen and living room! 

Feedback from the guests says our efforts were a success! We even spent time discussing what we could do different or better for... next time. Yes! There will be a next time!

Read on!

Our House

[Tara] My condo is a pretty good sized place but there are three floors that make up my 1600 sq feet and the middle/entry floor is comprised of the living room, kitchen and the main bathroom. Being a "holiday party", I wanted my Christmas tree up still for the party. This, as it turns out, created an interesting seating challenge for me when it came to determining how to seat eleven of us all at the same table and allow for entry and exit freely into the kitchen!

I managed to rearrange all my furniture "just so" to allow for the eight foot table to marry with our round kitchen table and provide ample space for everyone without over crowding! I think the combination of the tree with my tablecloths and a myriad of Christmas-y decorations still splattered around added to the ambiance and made for a comfortable and enjoyable environment without being too pretentious. Then again... I am talking about my own efforts in my own house :)

But on to the good stuff... I try to always share the menu in my reviews and this will be no different! Here is the pre-released menu that went out to our guests the week prior to the dinner.

Keep in mind that this was "supposed to be" a "tasting" menu for which the concept was that we would offer two options per course (one vegetarian to accommodate one of our guests) and the theory was people would choose between them... the reality is that just two days before the meal, our guests let us know they wanted it all! Not willing to let them down... we delivered!

Look tasty to you too? Let's check out the execution!

Our Food

Course #1 - Cheeses

[Tara] This is the display of our cheese and, unfortunately, it's the only picture of the laid out display because... I forgot to bring my camera down early to take pictures! Imagine that!

Our cheese course consisted of a cheese plate that had six assorted cheeses and quince. The second plate was a baked ricotta tart that I created from a recipe I found in my new Pampered Chef cook books and the final plate had some nice wheat crackers to be used for the cheeses.

The cheeses were obtained at Whole Foods where I painstakingly picked over the various offerings they had to decide what balance of cheeses I wanted and then asked the gentleman at the cheese counter for a few suggestions as well to ensure that I wasn't missing out on any gems that I hadn't noticed. He actually recommended the Taleggio and it was quite tasty!

To the right you see the cheese plate before it went out.  It's missing the top two cheeses but here's what was on the final plate as seen above:

Top Left: Isigny Brie (not shown)

Top Right: Gorgonzola Dolce (not shown)

Travelling down the plate now:

                   Quince

Smoked Gouda        Taleggio

2 Yr Old Cheddar     Mimolette

I tested all the cheeses before I plated them up and was very happy with the variety and balance.  The mimolette is a personal favorite of mine usually (which is why it appeared on my plate... selfishly :) ) but I have to say that the star of the night for me was the smoked gouda which was a Nick request and actually my last selection for the plate. 

On the left is the presented version of my Baked Ricotta Tart that I recently found in one of my brand new Pampered Chef cook books (a vegetarian one no less!)

The ricotta tart itself is ricotta and basic spices. The salad it's perched upon is made up of fresh sliced fennel, arugala and seedless red grapes. On top are some reconstituted cherries that were used to create the Orange Cherry Balsamic vinaigrette that accompanied this dish.

This plate had to be refreshed so the tart went over quite well as far as I could tell. My favorite part was indeed the cherries and dressing. It was quite tasty and I'll be looking for another dinner in which to place either this entire dish or, at the very least, the dressing!

[Nick]  Tara might cheer for the Mimolette, but as a new discovery to me the Taleggio is a new favorite.  It has a pungent odor with catches up with you on the initial bite, but it finishes smooth like a cheddar.  With beer that odor takes a bitterness from your beer just a bit for an added effect.

Second Course: Soups!

For our soup course we served a shrimp bisque and a tomato bisque.

[Stephan] So when it comes to most of the actual food I do my best chef impression.

I have made a lot of bisques before. I love bisque, it is one of my favorite soups. It is creamy and usually just pure flavor.  The two that we chose to server were shrimp (pictured on the left) and tomato, below. 

Let me start with the shrimp bisque, I do not have a food mill and as anyone knows the proper way to make bisque is to roast off whatever your base ingredient is, deglaze your braising pan, add cream, reduce, and then run everything through a food mill.  Well without a mill I had to still pull a ton of flavor out of the shrimp, so I used my dutch oven to braise the shrimp shells, once I had a nice coat of flavor on the bottom of the pan the the shells were fairly charred I deglazed with a sweet white wine.  From there I added cream and let the broth of this bisque reduce.  In a separate pan I sauteed the deshelled shrimp in butter and garlic.  I then deglazed this pan with the same sweet white wine and added that back into the cream.  I took about 2/3 of the 3lbs of shrimp a processed into a pulp, adding that into the shrimp bisque and garnishing with a few of the sauteed shrimp and a touch of paprika for a little smoke flavor and bright color.

The second soup is a simple tomato and basil bisque.  This is a very simple soup to make, as first you want to make stewed tomatoes, taking the whole tomato and cutting them down into quarters and boiling them in a little bit of water (note that some people feel it is necessary to skin your tomatoes, I did not).  Once the tomatoes were completely soft, I used an emulsion blender to make a very fine tomato stock/sauce.  I then added cream and brought back to a simmer.  From there I seasoned with salt and pepper and then re-emulsified the mixture, this ensured that there were no small chunks of tomatoes left and blended the cream and tomato a bit more.  I added in the fresh chopped basil and held this at a summer letting it reduce by about 1/3 to get a thick creaminess.  Right before serving, I took the blended innards of another half dozen tomatoes and added them into the soup to bring a more rich tomato flavor.  This was then garnished with fresh basil and served.

Third Course: Palette Cleansing Sorbets

[Tara] We strongly believe in palette cleansers and considering our soup choices we wanted to make sure that we cleared away the creaminess of the bisque before moving on to the next course!  I found something fun and stepped up the challenge of making two sorbets with a little liquid "refreshment" twist!

Unfortunately I only took a picture of one of the two! Above you see my Cucumber and Champagne Sorbet! On the right you have the sorbet itself which consisted of a simple syrup mixture I made myself before learning to juice a cucumber! Toss in some fresh squeezed lime juice and some sparkling wine that Nick and I gathered up in western Massachusetts at Les Trois Emme Winery. The garnish is a cucumber ribbon that was soaked in vodka and the shot on the left is an ounce of Ketel One Vodka (my common vodka of choice.) We recommended our guests add the sorbet to the vodka and then partake to get the full experience.

The "fun" part of this sorbet definitely was watching it fizz up a little when the sorbet was added to the vodka and the balance of the flavors in the sorbet against the vodka was very nice.

The second sorbet offering was a Frozen Mojito Sorbet! This sorbet and I had an argument in the ice cream maker but with a little added ice and some freezer time it actually came out with an interesting texture that supported the way it was served.  This sorbet was served in a similar fashion as the Cucumber Champagne one but instead of a vodka side kick the mojito sorbet, of course, came with a Don Q Mojito white rum.

I'm not normally a rum drinker but this was one impressive rum and mixed with the very flavorful sorbet (I think the flavor on this sorbet was better than the cucumber champagne one, actually) I thought this was a fantastic mid-course and palette cleanser.

Our guests enjoyed this course but noted that we probably could have kicked down the liquor content a bit. We did remind them that they were supposed to have their choice but noted it for next time!


[Nick]  I am anything but a cucumber fan, but I enjoyed the cucumber and champagne sorbet, it was an effective pallet cleanser.  I thought the mojito was actually very nice, and a little sweet, and could easily make a dessert dish out of it.

Fourth Course: Salads

[Stephan]

Again, since this was suppose to be a tasting dinner we did two salads, the first an Insalata Caprese and the second is what I call my roasted pear. 

The Caprese (on the left) is a salad of fresh mozzarella, fresh sliced tomatoes, fresh chopped basil, a dusting of black sea salt, Extra Virgin Olive oil, and a reduction of balsamic vinegar.  You can see the individual components in the insalata, the couple of notes for anyone who may want to try this.  Make sure you have firm but juicy tomatoes, Roma work very well for this, the tomatoes are your primary texture.  Since both the vinegar and the tomatoes have a high acid, I like to off set the acid with a little bit of sweet, to incorporate sweet into this I make a balsamic reduction, adding a little caster sugar to the balsamic as it boils and making the vinegar into almost a simple syrup. 

On the right you have my roasted pear salad.  This salad is made from bitter greens, in this case we used a mesclun mix, fresh pomegranate seeds, roasted pears and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette.  The two components if this salad which are a little different.  Roasted pears, this is really an easy thing to do, you want to half your pears, then deseed them.  After you want to put the pears in a roasting dish, in the hollowed out part add brown sugar and butter, put in the over for about 30 minutes and you get this caramel glazed pear.  The balsamic dressing on the other hand was an emulsified balsamic and EVOO.

Fifth Course: Scallops & Stuffed Mushrooms

[Stephan]

We missed the picture of a stuffed mushroom, but I will go over that as well as the seared scallops.


Seared scallops with Lemon Buerre blanc and baby arugula.  To sear scallops first you need nice sea scallops, if you go to a local market ask if they have U10 scallops, if they don't know what that is find a better fish market.  U10 is a unit of measurement, it means 10 scallops per pound, or about 1.5oz per scallop.  


In a saute pan, I added about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and then dredged the scallops in flour.  I then placed them into the hot oil searing once side, as the first side is getting seared I season with salt and pepper.  Flip the scallops once they have become golden brown to start the sear on the second side.  At this time add fresh garlic.  This will also slightly swear the scallops due to the moisture in the garlic, once it is roasted, deglaze with a very small amount of white wine and serve.  The Lemon buerre blanc is one of the easiest sauces to make, blend lemon juice, cream and white wine, bring to a boil.  Once about half the liquid has reduced remove from heat and add softened butter. 

For the stuffed mushrooms, this is one of my recipes which involves a carrot stuffing and simple white mushroom caps.  The carrot stuffing is a blend of carrots, mushrooms, spices, bread crumbs and cheese.  The simply bake the mushrooms until they are tender with the stuffing on top, top them with a little cheese and server.

Sixth Course: Mini-Wellingtons & Goat Cheese Pastry

[Stephan]

Beef Wellington is a very classic English/French dish. The mini preparation was done by taking a tenderloin and cutting it into 2oz strips.  First I made a mushroom duxelle, using a food processor I minced crimini mushrooms, shallots and garlic.  I sauteed these in butter until all the liquid had cooked off, deglazed with white wine and reduced again.  Once this mixture was made and cooled I took puff pastry and laid it out, cutting it into appropriate size, I then spread a light coating of the duxelle across the pastry put the wellington in and wrapped them.  I painted some egg yolk across the top to give it a shimmering look.  Server with this was sliced roasted beats and sweet potatoes.

To the left of the wellington and vegetables is the goat cheese puff pastry.  This was an herbed goat cheese with oregano, salt, pepper, and garlic and then baked it the shell.  There was a large goat cheese pastry made for our non meat eating guest.

Seventh Course: Chicken Pestimbocca & Loaded Baked Tomato

[Stephan]

Pestimbocca is one of my signature dishes, which why we finished off with this treat.  A play off saltimbocca, my pestimbocca involves chicken butterflied, then I put a large tablespoon of pesto and layer it across the middle, a slice of prosciutto, and smoked mozzarella.  This is then rolled so you have a stuff chicken breast.  I then lightly coat this in flour and sear off the outside.


The loaded baked tomato was something from Tara's recipe grab bag.  Stuffed with slow cooked barley, spinach, mushrooms, seasoning and parmigiana cheese.  Then baked just slightly to soften the tomato and melting the cheese.


All of that with a side of roasted garlic risotto.  I think this course, which by the time we got here anyone could complete, was the perfect finisher to all the flavors.

The Dessert Course: Peach Puree with Zabaglione & Assorted Pastries

[Tara] I decided that for our "assorted pastries" we would just pick up some of the "best" from the Whole Foods bakery. I was excited at the assortment we were able to get and even though we didn't really see a lot of this go out onto people's plates it was a fun collection and made for a nice option if someone wasn't interested in our homemade option...

[Stephan]

I got this little treat from one of the many chefs I have watched over the years.  You start off by caramelizing some nice Georgia peaches with sugar.  Then deglaze with a peach liquor (we used peach rum).  Add the whole mixture to a food processor and blend until smooth.  Let this mixture rest for 2-3 hours, once it is rested add some creme freche and freshly chopped basil.


The zabaglione is a blend egg yolks, sugar and liquor.  Just like making a hollandaise bring the mixture to temp over a double boiler and constantly mix, making sure you egg does not get warm enough to cook.


It was then topped with micro shaved chocolate and powder sugar with a homemade lady finger.

For this particular treat I could not get great peaches as it was so late season, the peach puree is usually a nice golden orange color from the caramelization.  However, I do think this was the perfect finish a savory sweet dessert and a spin from the normal that are out there today.

Summary

[Tara] The lack of leftovers in our house and the fact that some of our food left the house with our guests would indicate to me that we executed a successful dinner party! Plus we were fortunate to have the opportunity to sit and go through the entire experience with our guests to find out what worked and what didn't. We like to get the feedback so we can formulate new and different ideas for menus, formats and even new dishes to try in the future.

This dinner was a tremendous amount of work but Stephan, Nick, Vannessa, Bere and myself all pitched in to make the entire experience a slam dunk! I can't wait to bring people back to our house for the next round!

Maybe next time... a longer time line or a shorter menu ;)

[Nick]  I had a great deal of fun working on this meal and sharing with our friends.  I cannot believe how much food we managed, both to make and to eat, but it was fantastic to pull off.  Muchos Kudos to Stephan and Tara on making up the menu and guiding the prep work.


I look forward to getting to do more of this.