Wrap Up

Eight pasta dinners down and so ends my experiment with a weekly dinner party for friends. It actually ended up being a bit more work than I expected, but it was thoroughly gratifying. And I think I learned a thing or two.

The last pasta event formed a perfect ending to the dinner series. A good friend (and fine pastry chef) was on a whirlwind trip through town to participate in her brother's wedding. And she graced us with her presence and a tasty, chique peach pie for dessert. The complete menu follows:

Wine: 2001 Chilean Cab.Sauv/Carmenere
Pasta: Fettuccine with basil/sun-dried cream reduction sauce and grilled chicken breast
Salad: Fresh tomato slices with feta, fresh basil, balsamic vinegar and olive oil
Dessert: Peach Pie
Coffee: Latte

Here are a few more pictures:

Tomatoes with feta, and basil served fresh.

Pasta from week 6


Reality

Week 6 - cherries and chevre

Since making desert for these meals sometimes takes twice as long as the rest of the menu I tend to get carried away. This week I adapted the New York Cheese cake recipe from the Joy of Cooking by replacing 8oz of cream cheese with chevre. We will see if that was enough to make a difference. Unfortunately chevre is roughly double the price of cream cheese so I was hesitant to increase the ratio. Never-the-less, it's a cheese cake complete with a lemon-shortbread crust. I've been marinading cherries in a dash of balsamic vinegar, sugar and brandy overnight and they will go on top (to hide the annoying little crack that reared its head right in the centre of the cake - I admit, that since it finished baking at around midnight I rushed the cooling process a little).

The menu for tonight follows:

Wine: Don David Torrentes (Argentina) - White, Highly Recommended at $14/bottle
Pasta: Fettuccine with roasted eggplant cilantro cream sauce, roasted red bell pepper, zucchini and fresh mango.
Salad: Tomatoes, Red Onion and Feta in Balsamic vinegar and Fresh Basil.
Dessert: New York Cheese Cake
Coffee: Espresso
Tea: Mango Roibos

Basil, Strawberries and Chocolate...and Week 6

These three ingredients have formed a bit of a theme over the past weeks of good food and good company - and good wine I might add. I will be posting a list of the wines we've partaken of - shortly. I also have a mind to photograph the labels but my flash-less camera makes that more of a challenge.

Last week was the first 2-meal week. I kept the menu the same and that worked well. I was able to tweak things a little for the second meal on Friday afternoon. On Friday I used larger tomatoes (ably stuffed by one of my guests) and served them in with the pasta to be eaten along with the pasta - broiled tomato and chevre goodness. The Asparagus (or is the Asparagii) went over well. And I must (be the millionth person to) recommend Romano cheese shredded coarsely on almost any pasta dish.

I have also had recent offers to help with dishes. I guess I'll count those as tips:)

Next up is a birthday supper. I think I'll make a cheese cake infused with goat cheese and topped with fresh cherries. The rest of the menu will follow before Friday.

You can't go wrong...

Some recipes are impressive simply because they incorporate great ingredients. The "chef" need only throw them together with a bit of flare and there you have it - little finesse or mastery of technique needed. So it was with the fabulous, aforementioned (last post), pasta recipe I served up last night. As long as you have more or less the right quantities, who's going to question sun-dried tomatoes, capers, toasted pine nuts, fresh basil and Romano cheese tossed with fresh pasta and olive oil. Believe me - anyone can do it.

Likewise, stuff fresh tomatoes with a mixture of chevre, fresh basil and olive oil - sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and broil for 10 minutes and you have a treat verging on candy - no work, no great skill, just great thinks put together.

I'm doing it all again on Friday - same menu, different people - works for me.

Decadence

And dessert for this week (June 4-8) will be...

Chocolate Hazelnut Torte with single origin Cuban chocolate ganache and raspberry-basil puree.

Week 5

So the food continues.

Recently I was looking for inspiration and found this blog and a fine looking recipe, which I plan to use this week.

Menu:
Wine: Something I bought yesterday - Chilean, recommended by JE my personal sommelier.
Pasta: Fettuccine with zucchini, capers, lemon, pine nuts and fresh herbs.
Salad: Something delightful with fresh tomatoes, goat cheese and balsamic vinegar.
Dessert: Surprise (ie, wish I knew :)
Coffee: espressos (on the rise in terms of quality of coffee and more consistent foam)
Tea: if you must... (just kidding :)
Open Seats: None

I'm upping the price per person to $10 for two reasons: 1. it's more convenient for me and for you and, 2. it's more realistic.

That's all for now.

Cheers,

Week 4 - Strawberries and Porcini

In keeping with my 100,000 mile diet (believe me, I have not deviated from this diet my entire life) we dined on Porcini mushrooms (from who knows where) and Californian strawberries (which were probably picked, flown to China for packaging and then returned to North America in a refrigerated container via Cape Town and London - because it's cheaper that way...or perhaps I exaggerate).

The mushrooms, cooked in red wine (Argentine Malbec) with a bit of lemon zest were...okay (ie, room for improvement). The pasta was not home-made as I seem to have broken my pasta maker-but locally produced and quite excellent (Nature's Pasta, Steinbach, MB).

Salad was fresh vegetables (Peaches, Cherry Tomatoes, Yellow Tomatoes, Anise and Baby Carrots) with olive oil, basil and garlic.

For dessert we made up for the relatively hear-health entree and vegetables by consuming Strawberry shortcake. Strawberries marinated in balsamic vinegar and black pepper (thanks Rachel!).

And, finally, I have some pictures of the event courtesy of my sister recently arrived back from South Asia (travelling not quite as far as the Strawberries to reach my table).

Plating Pasta.

Ahh...Crema!

Week 3 - Menu "Goat Cheese Dessert Souffle Part 2"

Week 2 was a success, in my estimation. The sauce turned out quite well and the pasta worked, though it's a time consuming process to actually make it. I'm doing the goat cheese souffle again because I think it can be improved. Thanks Jer and Theresa for a most enjoyable evening.

Next: Thursday, May 24
Menu:
Wine - likely the 2003 Spanish Granache that I picked up last week, but we'll see
Entree - Homemade fettuccine red wine and eggplant tomato sauce (see recipe in last post).
Salad - Spinach, onion, toasted almonds, fresh mango with strawberry-balsamic vinagrette
Dessert - Goat's cheese souffle with strawberry and basil purees
Coffee - Black Pearl Espresso
*all item menus subject to change
Seats available: None

Recipe - Strawberry Balsamic Vinagrette
I made this last night for myself with some of the left-over strawberry purree from this week's meal. Sweet and tangy with a great colour.

Purree strawberrys and add suger until sweet enough to serve as a dessert sauce.

Combine about 1/2 cup purree with 1 Tbsp. Balsamic Vinager.

Taste and continue to add small amounst of vinager until the tang of the vinager just balances the sweetness of the strawberries.

Squeeze about half a Tbsp. fresh lemon juice into the dressing, if desired.

The Sauce is Where It's At

I was trying to imagine the meal I made last night devoid of all the sauces - it really would have been a dull affair. Of course had the sauces been poor, the result would have been worse than none at all. In terms of this whole dinner series, what I'm really after is to improve my sauce-making abilities. I've stayed away from the classic French sauces for now-still engrossed in curry sauces and sauces thickened with pureed vegetable - plus, pureed vegetable has certain health benefits over cream, white flour and butter (as delectable as all three can be in the right combinations).

Here's a recipe that I made last week and which I will make again next week for three friends:


Tomato sauce with Merlot and Fresh Basil – Theme and Variations
makes about 2 cups
In a 3L, heavy-bottomed saute pan:

saute
½ cup minced shallots in
2 Tbsp good olive oil
until shallot pieces start to turn brown at the edges
add
1-1/2 cups pureed tomatoes
(tomatoes, of course are the key to a good sauce – I used Aurora canned crushed tomatoes available at DeLuca’s-ripe, fresh, peeled and seeded tomatoes, would be preferable, but this Manitoba in spring)
and simmer for about 5 minutes
add
½ cup merlot
(take the advice of a cookbook author I read recently – "if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it" – I used left over Diablo Merlot)
stir to mix thoroughly.
Here I also added 2 Tbsp. of fresh chili sauce
(made simply by rehydrating dried Anaheim chili peppers, simmering, blending and draining – any kind of store-brand enchilada sauce would only ruin the sauce – in my case, this sauce added a nice kick and turned the colour of the sauce to a deep claret)
finally,
add
as much finely chopped fresh basil as you think you can handle
(about ½ cup loosely packed in my case)
stir again and simmer for another 10 minutes.
salt to taste. add a bit more wine if the sauce is too thick.
serve over pasta tossed with sauteed mushrooms or zucchini or eggplant or something else that meets your fancy.

OPTIONS:
1. to sweeten the sauce add ¼-1/2 cup pureed carrot with the tomatoes
and/or
2. to deepen the flavour, add ½ cup broiled, slivered almonds, crushed after broiling
3. omit the wine and add 1 Tbsp. vodka. after simmering, add ½ cold cream (slowly to avoid curdling)

Week 2

Week 1 was a moderate success, food-wise - and perfect, company-wise (thanks, Kurt, Carla, Ben and Hinke). More that later. Now for week 2.

Next: Tuesday or Wednesday, May15 or 16

Menu: Wine - TBA
Homemade fettuccine with tomato fenugreek cream sauce and oyster mushrooms.
Fresh vegetables with olive oil basil dip.
Goat's cheese souffle with strawberry-basil puree
Espresso
*all item menus subject to change without notice

Seats available: 4

All Hobbits, of course, can cook...

"All hobbits, of course, can cook, for they begin to learn the art before their letters (which many never reach); Sam was a good cook, even by hobbit reckoning, and he had done a good deal of the camp-cooking on their travels, when there was a chance. He still hopefully carrried some of his gear in his pack: a small tinder-box, two small shallow pans, the smaller fitting into the larger; inside them a wooden spoon, a short two-pronged fork and some skewers were stowed; and hidden at the bottom of the pack in a flat wooden box a dwindling treasure, some salt" ("Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit", Book IV, The Lord of the Rings).

Frodo’s and Sam’s journey to Mordor is made all the more believable and poignant by the intense humanness Tolkein creates for them. Sam’s steadfastness, stout heart and hope flag at times but rush to the surface at the slightest break in their dire circumstances. One such moment involves a high, clear star seen out of the smoke and stench of Mordor itself, another is a rabbit stew in a forest. Frodo, Sam and Gollum have finally left the Black gate behind and suddenly enter Ithilien, once the garden ante chamber to Minas Tirith: "As they walked, brushing their way through bush and herb, sweet odours rose about them. Gollum coughed and retched; but the hobbis breathed deep, and suddenly Sam laughed, for heart’s ease not for jest."

There he cooks a stew and feeds it to Frodo. So this is what struck my mind as I tried to think of a name for this new blog about a weekly meal that got underway this Tuesday. Actually mushrooms came first, mushrooms and then Hobbits and finally this scene. Because food is a beautiful thing, but more so the company in which it is enjoyed. And who can actually separate all the components that make food worth relishing. A piece of flat bread, for example, hot and fresh to be sure, but eaten in crisp mountain air under vast towers of snow and rock, or in a smoky hole of a restaurant with a flushed face and friends around drinking hot tea.