New Year's Eve Dinner Party: Menu!

The table is set...

It's that time again, when we blow out all the stops for our family of choice! The annual New Year's Eve dinner party! Sadly, a couple of us won't be able to attend. I'm always happiest with everyone around my table.

My normal strategy is to pour all my efforts into one or two components of the menu, and for the rest, cook things I've done a million times and can do in my sleep. Here's this year's menu. Recipes and post-meal reviews to follow.

As always, I like to offer my dear guests a choice on some parts of the menu.

Salad

Caesar Salad with Garlic Toasts

or

Baby Greens with Beet, Goat Cheese, and Cara Cara Orange Fillets

Appetizer Plate

Charcuterie  Plate with Housemade Pate de Camapagne

or

Shrimp Cocktail

Cocktails (all non-alcoholic)

Rosemary Citrus Cocktail

Sour Cherry-Pomegranate Sparkler

Elderberry with Mulled Berries Sparkler

 

Main Course

Rack of Lamb

Roasted "Windy Night Farms" Squash with Dates and Seeds

Rice Byrani ala Felgerts

Desert

Profiteroles with Carmel Macadamia Nut Ice Cream and Hot Carmel Sauce

 

Caponata and Lamb Meat Balls

A perfect summer day for us is one that is spent primarily outdoors, either working in our gardens, or shooting pictures. It definitely isn't a day full of household chores! But girls have to eat, and we like to eat well. So I bite the bullet, and from time to time, make up a bunch of yummy stuff, and then we graze on that for the rest of the week.

And so, recently, I made up some lovely caponata, a cold dish of eggplant, raisens, pine nuts, and capers plus a whole lot more. With some wonderful lamb meatballs, tabouli, hummus, and store-bought nan, we had lunches and dinners for days. And many of theme were taken on the patio, with the flowers and birds as company!

Caponata

This is recipe started with one by Mario Batalia. Don't be put off by the strange additions of coco and cinnamon. I promise you will like it!

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
3 stalks celery cut into 1/4" cubes (3/4 cups)
1 medium eggplant diced
6 large green olives, chopped. I like the ones with pimento best, but use whatever you like.
9 good black olives -- the oil cured kind - chopped
1 small roasted red pepper chopped. If you used the green olives with pimento, you could probably skip this.
2 tablespoons capers
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup golden raisins reconstituted in 1/4 cup water in the microwave for a minute or two
1/4 cup tomato sauce. I use leftover marinara
1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
1/6 cup balsamic vinegar

Saute the onion, celery, pepper in the olive oil until the onion and celery are soft. Stir in the eggplant and cook for 10 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and cook for about 15 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding more vinegar or honey as needed.


Lamb Meatballs


Suddenly Wegmans has been selling ground lamb. I love this recipe because they are baked. I cook them ahead and then heat them up at supper.

1 pound ground lamb
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg

Preheat oven to 400 F degrees. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, Form the meat into small round meatballs. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, and bake them about 45 minutes.

Fourth of July Cherry Pie

This year, we were invited down to Keuka Lake where friends have a cottage. The cottage is a charming little house, right on the lake. Even though we were having a scorching hot day (at least what passes for that in Rochester), the breeze off the lake was wonderful. We were all invited to bring a dish to pass, and our hosts provided roast turkey and veg enchiladas. Those might seem like rather odd Fourth of July foods, but since both are native to this continent, I think they were actually spot on! The enchiladas weren't like any I have ever eaten, but they were good just the same.

We also took a bouquet

J and I chose to make pies -- which are kind of our specialty. We have made a lot of apple pies together, and it is soothing to work side by side at something we have done so many times. We decided to make cherry this time, because cherries are in season now, and you can get good local ones. I got up early on Saturday and went down to the city market and scored us 4 pounds of nice local sweet cherries. At noon, yesterday, we set to pitting them. J had done some internet research, to try to determine the easiest way to go about it. But we ended up both working with our little paring knives, cutting the cherries in half and then prying the stone out with the knife. Kind of brute force, but it got the job done. Thirty minutes later we had 8 cups of cherries ready to be employed.

Cherry Pie, strusel topping!

I make the shopping list every week, and J does the shopping, so it was my fault that we only had half as much pie crust as we needed yesterday. Yes, me, the queen of all things homemade, uses roll out pie crust. Well, I'll tell you: I'm no good at making a pie crust, so I take the easy way out. So I found myself short of a 2 crusts. We decided to go with a struesel topping this time, and it was a great choice. Easy to make, too -- I just dumped flour, sugar and a stick of butter in the food processor and pulsed a few times. Pour it on top of the pie, and there you go - pie done. The strusel topping got good reviews, too. I usually make a latice top, and although they look nice and impress some people, they aren't as tasty as that struesel topping.

Cherry Pie with Struesel Topping

Cherry Filling

4 cups of fresh pitted cherries. I used sweet because that's what we had. But sour would be ok. just be sure to taste and adjust the sugar as needed.
1/3 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon real vanilla extract
1/3 cup flour. I know most recipes online call for tapioca, but I didn't have any and this is what my Betty Crocker cookbook calls for. So there.

1 bottom pie crust, rolled out and place in a pie plate

Strusel Topping

Brown sugar
Flour
1 stick butter. Yes, butter.

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Mix the cherries, white sugar, vanila and 1/2 cup of flour. Pour it into the prepared pie shell.
3. Put the ingredients for the strusel topping into the bowl of a food processor, and pulse a half dozen times until the mixture looks like course meal. Pour the topping on the pie, making sure it is fairly evenly distributed.
4. Bake for 45 minutes,  until the filling is bubbling. Enjoy!

When Civilization Collapses, Brunch Will Be At My House

We are having quite the week. J flew south to help out with the grandchildren when her son had to have a minor surgical procedure. Upon arriving, she became very sick with the cold and inner ear infection from hell. I have spent the last couple of days pacing around trying to figure out how to get down there to be with her -- a totally fruitless endeavor because all it would accomplish is probably getting me sick.

So it was a big surprise for me to see in my inbox a question about Book Club. At my house. In three hours.

Lucky for me, the house was clean. And I had some ginger cookies that I had made the day before. A quick scan of the Internet turned up a recipe for brownies, a few tweaks, and we were in business.

I am so glad that I can cook things from scratch. The brownie recipe is actually only marginally harder to make than opening a box. You have to measure the ingredients, but other than that, it is the same as a mix. And I know what is in there. No mystery. I keep sugar, flour, baking power, cocoa in the house, so when I have an overwhelming desire for something chocolate, I can whip something up.

Here's the recipe. Give them a whirl and enjoy the feeling of being all pioneer womanish!

Brownies

 Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chopped pecans 

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x9 inch baking pan. 

In a medium bowl, mix together the butter, eggs, and vanilla.  

Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; gradually stir into the egg mixture until well blended. Stir in pecans, if desired. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. 

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Let them cool, then cut into squares.

Planning a Cheese Course

I revised this posting on 2/31/10/
I am serving a cheese course on New Years Eve. I have served cheeses as part of a buffet or with drinks. I usually choose a brie or something Brie- like, a jalsburg or something similar, a cheddar, and, if J isn't going to be there, a blue cheese.

So I wanted to do something a little more exotic, not in a threatening way, but let's all stretch a little on the last day of the year and see if we can't discover something new and wonderful. My web searching turned up gourmet food store that called it's cheese department a fromagerie So off I went to Max's.

There are four Max restaurants in Rochester. One is cross the street from the Eastman Theater, and J took me there for my birthday this year. This was the restaurant where they asked my how I wanted my pork chop cooked. As in, did I want it rare. That was one of those moments when I realized that I had a certain view of the universe, and it was utterly wrong. I had the mistaken notion that pork was to be cooked well done, at least.

Cheese from Max's Market

So the shop I was setting off to is part of the Max's franchise. The front of the store is expensive jams and pickles, and other nonessentials. Nothing too strange, and sadly, nothing as nice as the Simon David  a lovely store where my mother would buy wonderful pastrami and lox. In the back of Max's is a takeaway gourmet meals area, and you can also order something to eat there. And there is the cheese case. http://www.maxmarketmonroe.net/

Chris, of Max's Market, helped me choose. This is what I brought home:

Bellweather Farms "Carmody" "A Bellwether original! Made from Jersey cow milk and aged at least 6 weeks. Naturally golden in color with a smooth texture and wonderful flavor, Carmody is a consistent blue ribbon winner at the Los Angeles County Fair." http://www.bellwetherfarms.com/home/

Manchego. "The intense taste and crumbly texture make it perfect to eat it as is, with a slice of bread. As the focal point of Antipasto, Manchego can be served with olives, sun-dried tomatos, crusty bread and a robust red wine (Rioja) or a dry sherry (Fino).It is equally enjoyable as a snack or dessert with fruit or fruit tarts."

Cowgirl Creamery Mt Tam Triple Cream "Just North of the San Francisco Bay, Mt. Tamalpais rises like a monument to Northern California's natural beauty. In deference, Cowgirl Creamery named its signature cheese MT TAM. It's a smooth, creamy, elegant, 10-oz, triple-cream - made with tasty organic milk from the Straus Family Dairy. MT TAM is firm, yet buttery with a mellow, earthy flavor reminiscent of white mushrooms."

Artisinal Carbecou Feuille. "Cabecou Feuille, a small disc of fresh goat cheese from the Perigord region of France, is dipped in plum brandy and sprinkled with coarse black pepper before being wrapped in two chestnut leaves to mature. Cabecou is smooth and creamy with aromatic brandy flavors and a tangy bite."

Capra Ubriaco al Traminer "Capra Ubriaco al traminer is a firm cheese steeped for a period of 10 days in a red grape must. The Traminer grape is a relative to the Gewurztraminer. The added wine flavor gives the pleasantly milky cheese more complexity and richness on the palate."

I didn't realize that the Carbecou Feuille was dipped in brandy. I considered replacing it with it with this Cowgirl Creamery cheese: "Cowgirl Creamery captures the essence of West Marin with its Red Hawk, a triple-cream, washed-rind, fully-flavored cheese made from organic cow milk from the Straus Family Dairy. Aged four weeks and washed with a brine solution that tints the rind a sunset red-orange, Red Hawk won Best-In-Show at the American Cheese Society's Annual Conference in 2003 and a Gold Ribbon and 2nd Best-in-Show in 2009." It also looked like it was too small to split 5 ways, so I took off for the Pittsford Wegman's to find a replacement.

If you don't live in the Rochester area, or one of the other lucky towns that have a Wegman's, you won't really understand the devotion that we have for this wonderful grocery stores! The Pittsford Weggies, nicknamed "Taj Ma-Weggies" by our friend Sherrie, has not only everything you might want to buy, but the absolute best of everything. And they are staffed by the most friendly, helpful, and customer-centered people that breath air. Seriously, I'm not sure why I didn't buy all of the cheese at Wegmans. Next time I will.

Wegman's to the rescue!

So, a young lady named Sarah carefully listened to my request for a washed rind cheese to complete my cheese plate, and suggested Bourboned Pie D'angloys, a cheese made from French cow's milk. Here's how this website describes this cheese: "Decadently smelly and drippy inside it is reminiscent of a very ripe brie. As you may have guessed from the picture of a tiled roof house, it hails from Burgundy. As far as I know, it is sold in the Francophone zone only (France, Southern Belgium, Luxembourg, Western Switzerland). It seems a recent - post-WWII - invention but what it lacks in pedigree it makes good in taste." This is indeed a stinky cheese. I'm hoping it won't be too off putting for my guests.

Truffle Honey

I will be serving these cheese on individual plates with a smear of truffle honey. I'll also offer three nice breads (also from Wegman's, of course!) One is a sourdough raisin, and I can't wait to pair it with the Pie D'angloys. I also have a nice whole wheat bread, and a white French baguette. Because I bought an entire jar but only needed one for the Remoulade sauce, I'll set out some cornichons. And while I'm at it, an apple and some dried apricots.

New Years Eve Menu and Game Plan

We are having part of our family of choice over for New Year's Eve. I'm going to really do it up big--no holds barred! Here's the menu:

New Year's Eve Dinner

Miniature Crab Cakes with Remoulade Sauce 

or 

Caviar, Smoked Salmon, and Blini Torte

Caesar Salad

 or

 Field Greens with Roasted Beets, Goat Cheese, and Candied Walnuts, in a Hazelnut Citronette

Rib Roast, Twice-baked Potatoes, Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Flight of Five Cheeses served with Truffle Honey, and Two Breads

Ginger Cookies and Coffee

I love offering choices for the first course and salad. I get to make two,and I also can serve things that I know some of our friends don't or might not like. It also makes them fee extra well cared for and loved! My strategy is to make part of the meal something super easy -- in this case, the main course. I also make as much ahead as possible.

My schedule looks like this:

Tuesday: do the major shopping. Make the cookies, roasted beets, iron the table cloth, and assemble and wash the serving dishes. The main course will be served family style. Unfortunately, I have so little room in my kitchen that most of my serving pieces are in the basement and must be washed before using. The plates I will use are also in the basement but are in lovely cloth zippered cases, and won't need washing. They will, however,need schlepping.

Wednesday: Make the Remoulade Sauce, buy the cheese, set the table.

Thursday: Make the twice baked potatoes, wash the lettuces, make the citronette, make the croutons, buy the flowers and make the arrangement. Make the egg salad for the torte.

Friday Morning: Make the crab cakes, to the point of frying, slice the breads, slice the goat cheese for salad, prepare the Brussels sprouts for the oven

Friday Night: Roast the meat, potatoes, sprouts. Make the blinis. Prepare the cheese plates. Assemble the salads. Fry the crab cakes. Open the wine. And ENJOY!

The plan is that when everyone arrives, the main course is in the oven and everything is done, save for the crab cakes being fried and the tortes being assembled. Those represent about 15minutes of work, tops.

Here are the recipes:

The inspiration for my cheese course is here.

Caviar, Smokes Salmon, and Blini Torte
The original recipe is from Epicurious and can be found here. 

 Makes 2 servings
Active time: 50 min
Total time: 50 min

Ingredients

For egg salad
1 hard-boiled large egg, finely chopped
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

For blini
2 tablespoons buckwheat flour
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup whole milk
1 large egg, separated
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled, divided

For filling
1/4 lb thinly sliced smoked salmon at room temperature
2 ounces trout caviar, such as rainbow- trout caviar, or salmon roe

Preparation

Make egg salad:
Stir together all ingredients and a pinch of salt.

Make blini:
Whisk together dry ingredients in a bowl. Add milk and yolk and whisk until smooth. 3Beat egg white with a clean whisk in another bowl until it just holds soft peaks. Fold into batter along with 2 tablespoons melted butter.

Brush a 12-inch nonstick skillet with some of remaining melted butter, then heat over medium heat until hot. Working in batches of 6 or 7, drop 1 level tablespoon batter per pancake into skillet and cook until bubbles appear on surface and undersides are golden, 45 seconds to 1 minute. Flip over and cook 1 minute more. Brush blini on both sides with some of remaining melted butter, then transfer to a plate and keep warm, covered with foil. Brush skillet with butter between batches.

Fill tortes:
Drape smoked salmon on 6 blini and top with egg salad. Spoon caviar onto 6 more blini, then stack on egg-salad-topped blini.

Crab Cakes with Remoulade Sauce

This recipe is from Wolfgang Puck's site and can be found here. 
Ingredients
Remoulade Sauce
1 tablespoon capers, minced
2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley leaves
1 teaspoon minced fresh chives
1 cornichon, minced
1 anchovies (1-2 for 6 servings), minced
1 shallot, minced
Salt
Freshly ground white pepper
1 cup good-quality homemade or store-bought mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Crab Cakes
2 cups heavy cream
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 cup finely diced red onion
1/2 cup finely diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup finely diced yellow bell pepper
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 pound lump crabmeat
2 fresh jalapeño chilies, seeded and finely diced
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil leaves
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
1 tablespoon minced fresh tarragon leaves
2 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs), ground to a mealy consistency
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup clarified butter

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
1. make the Remoulade: In a bowl, stir together all the ingredients until well blended. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and white pepper. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.
2. For the crab cakes, in a saucepan, combine the heavy cream, garlic, rosemary, and paprika. Boil over medium-high heat until the cream reduced to half its original volume. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.
3. Meanwhile, in a sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and red and yellow bell pepper and sauté, stirring frequently, just until glossy but not yet browned. Transfer the vegetables to a plate and leave to cool to room temperature.
4. In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs, crab, jalapeño, basil, parsley, tarragon, 1 cup of the panko, salt, white pepper, reduced cream, and sautéed vegetables. Carefully mix until well blended.
5. Divide the mixture into 12 equal portions, each about 3 ounces, shaping them into round, slightly flattened cakes each about 3 inches in diameter by 1/2 inch thick. Spread the remaining panko on a dinner plate and turn the crab cakes in them to coat them generously.
6. In an ovenproof sauté pan, heat 1/4 cup of the clarified butter over medium-high heat. Place 6 crab cakes in the pan and pan-fry until their undersides are golden, 2 to 3 minutes. With a spatula, carefully turn the cakes over. Transfer the pan to the preheated oven and bake for 2 minutes more. Remove the cakes from the pan and repeat the process with the remaining butter and crab cakes. Serve immediately with Remoulade Sauce.

Fall Brunch

The weather has really been weird this year. Just when I think it is going to get cooler, it warms way up. But the trees think it is getting to be fall, so it must be going to happen.

Brunch is served!

So this weekend, my yoga teacher was out of town, and our friend Julie has decided to take a break from choir, so it seemed like a good time to gather  for a  fall brunch. I decided to make a Spanish Frittata: eggs, Monterey Jack cheese, Anaheim peppers, stewed tomatoes, and cooked onions. I thought this might be a little too spicy, but it wasn't. I should have used even more peppers. I served it with "Rachero Sauce" -- 2 cans of stewed tomatoes plus one can of Rotel tomatoes, and sauteed onion. I use the same sauce for Chili Rellanos.

Potatoes Ala "The Corner"

The fried potatoes were my version of fried potatoes we used to eat at a restaurant in Kansas City, MO called 'The Corner." (Sadly, I just learned that The Corner closed last February. And judging from the reviews on Yelp, the years had not been kind.)  This version calls for left over baked potatoes, onions and yellow and red bell peppers. I cooked the potatoes and sauteed the onions and peppers yesterday, and then this morning fried up some bacon, then browned the potatoes in the bacon grease. I crumbled in the cooked bacon when I served them up. Yes, they were fantastic.

Pomegranate and Orange Salad

We also prepped the orange and pomegranate salad yesterday. I had Joanne separate the seeds from the pith of the pomagranate. I think this was a one-time job. She now is clued into how much effort this is, and isn't eager to do this again! The way I do this is to use a large bowl filled with water, and separate the seeds from the pith. The pith (I love saying that! Pith! Pith! Pith!!!!) is lighter than the seeds, so it floats on the top and can be easily scooped out. I saw someone on tv cut the pomegranate in half and then beat on the back side with a rolling pin, dropping the seeds into a bowl. That works in principle. But as my friend Nancy used to say, "In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are different." Juice spattered everywhere. And here's a clue: pomegranate juice stains. Big time. So I like my method better.

Fall Brunch Menu
Spanish Fritatta with Ranchero Sauce
Fried Potatoes ala "The Corner"
Breakfast sausages
Orange and Pomegranate Salad with Pomegranate Molasses
Assorted Breakfast Breads

Maybe My Next New Dishes? Sophie Conran for Porteirion

I love my everyday dishes, and it was love at first sight about 15 years ago when I first spotted them at Williams Sonoma. They are creamy white with a broad border of maroon on the rim and a tiny edge of dark blue. But they are stoneware, and that means that they have developed a lot of little chips, especially after they became my everyday china.

So I know I need to replace them sometime soon, but I am not looking forward to that angst producing effort. Not one bit. So imagine my surprise when, while window shopping in Niagara-on-the-Lake, I saw these dishes! They are Sophie Conran for Porteirion in Celadon blue. And they are porcelain, much sturdier than stoneware. And the internet tells me that they are on sale right now for about 50% off! That makes things very doable for me!

Early in my life I decided that I didn't need serving pieces that matched. I just needed serving pieces that "go with". So my large collection of platters, bowls and other serving pieces will go very nicely. Now, if only J will feel the same way about these!