Cooking

Change in the Wind

A picture is worth a thousand words

I'm introducing a couple of new features to dinner party posts. The first, obviously, is that I now have a digital camera. So all the space I used to take up with describing platings can now be replaced with a picture. That should make everyone's life a lot easier. But we're still new at the whole thing, so holler at me if you have suggestions. I think our first improvement will be to take our pictures on nice surfaces, not my war-stained cutting board. Just ignore the backdrop.

The second change will start with this dinner party and appear sporadically for other ones. A number of readers have suggested, either directly or indirectly, that I spend some time describing the prep involved to pull off these elaborate affairs. They're a lot of work, and I usually spend a couple full days doing all the cooking, since I hand make as much as possible. So check back in a few days for the "Behind the Scenes" version of this dinner party.

Okay, on to the dinner party itself. I concede Melissa's point that having an appetizer, amuse bouche, opener, main course, cheese course and dessert, each accompied by a different wine, is not standard dinner party fare. Nonetheless, it is the format we have been following for more than a year (which corresponds, not coincidentally, to dinner at The French Laundry). So I'm feeling a bit tired of it. I wanted to shake things up a bit. But Melissa, ever the voice of reason, points out that we do not have an infinite number of plates. Or glasses. Or dishwasher space. So I have to temper my impulses a bit. Still, it should make for some fun experiments. Though, sadly, this will probably be the last dinner party before the wedding; that is taking quite enough of our time and energy.

Appetizer Antipasti platter Wine: 2001 Ruggeri Prosecco di Valdobbiadone
The antipasti platter is featured at the top of this entry, and was greeting our guests more or less when they arrived. Along the left side are fried oranges, an idea I took from the Zuni Café Cookbook. The right is slices of prosciutto salami, the top a tapenade which I also took with some modifications from the same cookbook, and an original red orange-rhubarb chutney sits on the bottom (already nibbled on, because we forgot to take a picture before we sent it out to the table; I told you we're still getting used to this). The center garnish is little radish flowers on a bed of arugula. When I took my presentation class a month ago, I thought I'd have no use for making little flowers out of vegetables. But I have to admit they add a certain something to a plate like this.

Amuse Bouche 1 "Caesar Salad"

Caesar Salad

I had fun with this amuse. Since discovering a good source for salt-packed anchovies, I've been eager to put them to use. So I came up with this little bite, which features a toasted slice of baguette, a single anchovy fillet, some romaine and Parmiggiano-Reggiano, and finally a drizzle of 25-year-old traditional balsamic vinegar. The picture's a little indecipherable, so you'll have to trust me. You'll also have to trust that they were delicious.

Amuse Bouche 2 Saffron Champagne sorbet on a cinnamon tuile cone Alas, no picture for this one. We forgot. This sorbet recipe I took directly from the cookbook amuse bouche by Rick Tramonto. I know the whole savory sorbet fad has mostly come and gone, but it was a way for me to sneak in an extra amuse without using another dish; the entire amuse was self-contained. The sorbet had a very grainy texture, so I think I'm going to have to tinker with the recipe a bit. But as a savory sorbet it was quite good; tart and interesting. And it was a beautiful, well, saffron color. The tuiles I rolled earlier that day, going through the obligatory finger-burning, since you have to roll them right as they come out of the oven.

Opener Ahi Tuna Carpaccio with poached quail egg Wine: 2001 Meulenhoff Riesling Kabinett

Ahi Tuna Carpaccio with poached quail egg

Another original dish. Don't know how I came up with it, exactly, but it came out really, really well. It may have been my favorite flavor combination. I'm not sure though; I did some nice dishes for this party. To make it, I pounded some sushi-grade ahi tuna very flat, placed a poached quail egg in the center (I poached the eggs earlier), and garnished the whole thing with small dice (that's a pretty small plate, by the way; I fit six of them on my cutting board) of conserved lemon, as well as a dash of wasabi oil, which I made with Pacific Farms wasabi paste. The wine went with it very nicely, and everyone commented on it.

I've discussed the wine before, and everyone thought it went nicely with the dish, the acidity in the salted lemon working nicely with the Kabinett's.

Intermezzo Beef soup A very simple dish, one we also don't have a picture of. It was a simple soup made of beef stock, bone marrow, and bread crumbs (which sounds unusual until you realize it was supposed to be a beef consommé with a marrow dumpling, but the dumplings dissolved in the consommé; I was glad we hadn't printed a menu). It was not great, but it was certainly enjoyable. I garnished it with hexagonally sliced carrots (check back in a couple of days for a picture in the "Behind the Scenes" portion).

Main Pan-seared steak with morels and asparagus on a bed of rosemary spaetzle Wine: 1999 Château Clément-Pichon cru bourgeois, Haut-Médoc

Mmmmm

This is a contender for my favorite dish as well. With asparagus in season, I'm trying to use it a lot. Morels are also in season, more or less, but they're still not cheap, so while I'd love to use them a lot, I don't. I poached the morels lightly in some beef stock, which I then reduced and used for the pan sauce I made after I pan-seared the steak. And I'm finally getting my steak cookery down; those pieces were nice and rare. I lightly steamed the asparagus, leaving it with a little crunch but not too much. The spaetzle, unfortunately was the only part of that dish I could make ahead, so I spent a lot of time in the kitchen for this one. Ah well.

The wine was quite nice, very fruit forward with enough structure to stand up to the steak. I meant to get a 2000 Bordeaux (which would have given us a sample of Germany's best vintage in a zillion years as well as Bordeaux's), but this was at the price point I wanted, so it didn't quite work out. Next time, maybe.

Cheese Tete de Moine and Selles-sur-cher with Niman Ranch ham and ginger Wine: 2002 Griffin Sauvignon Blanc

Say cheese!

I've said before that I'm getting a little tired of the "cheese with toasted pain de mie" rendition of the cheese course, good as it is. So I did something a little different. No bread, you'll notice, a little relish on the side (small dice of ginger marinated in lime juice), and of course the ham. It was a nice change for me, and still worked well. The cheeses were great, and the wine matching, especially with the Selles-sur-Cher, was great (not a surprise; Loire valley goat cheeses are phenomenal when paired with crisp Sauvignon Blancs, even if they are from New Zealand).

Dessert Lemon Concorde cakes with strawberry reduction Wine: Bonny Doon Vin de glacière

Lemon Concorde cake with strawberry reduction

Concorde cake was the best name I could find for this dessert, two layers of meringue cookies with lemon curd in the center. I thought that this type of dessert was called a pavé, a chocolate rendition of which I made aeons ago. But that doesn't seem to be right. So I searched for "layers of meringue" and found Concorde cake. So there you go. Two spiral meringue cookies with lemon curd in the middle I'm calling a lemon Concorde cake until I hear otherwise. I couldn't resist adding the strawberry reduction at the last moment; they're just coming into season here.

I'm not sure I agree with the technique behind Randall Grahm's rendition of an ice wine; rather than letting the grapes freeze on the vines (tough to do in California), he pops the grapes into the freezer and then juices them afterwards. I can't find any fault with the wine though; it's a good dessert wine, and well priced. And it went quite nicely with the dessert.

Mignardise Cassis truffles, candied grapefruit peel, anise-hazelnut biscotti Coffee, tea

Just in case people were still hungry

I've been playing around with tempering and molding chocolate, and this was the latest batch. The candied grapefruit peel came out so well last time that I did it again, this time allowing the peels to dry before I sugared them, so they not only tasted good, they looked good as well. And the biscotti came out really nicely.

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