March 25, 2008

View Comments | Post Comment

Vegetarian Dinner Party

Sunday night I had a big dinner party at my house. This time, the "theme" was that the entire dinner would be vegetarian, since I have a number of close friends who adhere to that despised ideology. We did it up real fancy-like, and had a total of sixteen people, six courses, plus mignardises.

Overall, the dinner turned out very well. It lasted longer than intended (3.5 hours total) because courses three and four took a long time. For course three, I'd forgotten to get water boiling way in advance to compensate for my weak-ass stove, so that meant waiting almost 30 minutes, during which guests were encouraged to get up and mingle and play and such. For course four, it just took a while because I had run out of time and couldn't make the yam pancakes beforehand. So frying those, then eggs took a while. Besides those, there were few problems this time!

The realities of making and plating food for sixteen people, with just me cooking and Jeanette helping with plating, means that I didn't get to take many pictures, and when I did, I didn't get to arrange things nicely, or take them from what might be the best angle, or even to choose which of all the dishes to photograph. I just shot whatever dish was closest to where I was standing, so what you're seeing are the "real" dishes that got served, not the product of twenty minutes and a lightbox.

We've found, after several parties like this, that for courses with hot items, it doesn't usually work to plate all sixteen at once. Instead, we plate somewhere between four and eight at a time, then serve those and plate the next batch, and serve. We insist that everyone begins eating as soon as they get their food, instead of waiting for everyone to be served. This system works quite well, since these are friends, but it obviously would not be appropriate in a professional capacity. But then, in a professional capacity, I hope I would have more than four tiny, weak, electric burners, and space to actually put down sixteen plates for plating, if desired.

In addition to the description below, you can see the actual menus we printed by clicking the thumbnail at right. Jeanette insisted on us having menus this time, and it turned out to be brilliant. Yes, it makes it more fancy and... restaurant-like... but it also means I don't have to make a big to-do about explaining each course as it is served. And when I'm working hard to pull together the next course, that's a big advantage. Anyway, here's a more complete description of everything served, plus what pictures I managed:

First Course: Amuse Doigts:
Endive | Korean Pear | Scallion | Daikon | Crispy Onion | Korean Pepper | Soy-Pear Reduction
Pairing: “Pearody” ala Ronn Vigh from The Orbit Room - Pear, Mint, Lime, Cran, Ginger and Peppercorn-Infused Vodka

The idea was to have something that could be quickly and easily assembled and served to allow quicker production of the second course. We settled on some sort of Asian lettuce wraps, though we always intended to use either cabbage, raddicchio, or endive. Raddicchio de treviso was our first choice, but it was unavailable, so we went with the same shape but different color in Belgian endive. They were a great size for an amuse: one bite plus a bit, and were packed with yummy flavor. That said, they weren't really anything out of the ordinary. We served them on long rectangular platters, and invited everyone to grab one (or two) off the platters. Forgot to take a photo, but they were pretty. The cocktail was great. It's one of my favorites from a bar with a ton of great drinks. I copied it as well as I could remember.

Second Course: Cream Corn:

Corn Soup with Smoked Bell Pepper Oil | Fried Cream Corn Balls with Basil "Pesto" | Caramel Corn Cornets
Pairing: Sipacha Garnacha, Castilla 2005

Even though it's completely out of season, I had the idea and wanted to go with it. It turned out wonderfully, the most composed course of the night, and every element was absolutely delicious. The wine pairing worked well, too, though a lot of people didn't get theirs poured until halfway through the course.

Cream corn is one of my favorite things, so here I did three riffs on it. The soup was just a corn soup, nothing but corn cut off the cobs and the cobs scraped, water, sugar, salt. Pureed, then strained through mesh sieve before serving.

The fried ball of cream corn was just a bunch of cream corn with an unhealthy amount of butter, thickened slightly with xanthan gum. Remove kernels from the cob and scrape the cobs. Cook in butter until cooked through. Then pulse mixture in a food processor a few times to break down the kernels, but do not puree. It should still be chunky. Then add heavy cream and cook cream corn until it's a bit drier than normal. Add salt and sugar to taste (amounts will vary depending on the corn). Then add xanthan and stir in to hydrate, and let entire mixture cool to room temperature. Use a cookie scoop to get roughly 2 tablespoon balls onto a parchment lined cookie sheet or pan. Refrigerate until ready to cook, but at least until fully cooled (a couple hours). Then take balls off parchment, work each one into a more perfect sphere with your hands (they'll be malleable at this point). Roll each one in flour, then dip in beaten egg, then roll in panko, and fry for a couple minutes in canola oil (and yeah, it has to be canola oil--remember, it's a corn course) at 350 Fahrenheit or so. I used a multiple of this:

300 g corn
50 g butter
10 g sugar
75 g heavy cream
1 g xanthan gum

The cornets were more of a garnish. They were crunchy, but chewy, and obviously quite sweet. I made them by cooking sugar and water to the soft-ball stage (235 F), then adding cream corn to it and bringing it up to 235 F again. Then I poured it out onto a Silpat-lined baking sheet, and cooked it in a 250 F oven for around twenty minutes till it dried out a bit more. Then I removed it and, while still somewhat warm, snapped/cut it into bunches of pieces. I rolled each one into a cornet shape, using a blowtorch to re-warm one when it had cooled to the point of brittleness.

The basil pesto was really fresh basil processed with blanched and shocked arugula, olive oil, and salt. The arugula was added mostly for brighter color.

The smoked bell pepper oil drizzled into the soup was made by heavily browning red bell peppers in a pan with some canola oil, then adding a bunch of extra canola and some Spanish smoked paprika, then letting the whole thing infuse in the refrigerator for a couple days. Finally, it was strained through a paper-towel-lined mesh sieve (I just let it drip for an hour or two). Its color was brilliant red, but it sunk a bit into the foamy top of the soup.

Third Course: Ravioli and Stuff:

Caramelized Fennel-Carrot-Tomato Ravioli | Mushroom Foam | Thyme Caviar | Fennel Pollen
Pairing: Zen of Zin, Ravenswood Old Vine 2004

This course was also very delicious, and very composed. The ravioli filling was quite meaty-tasting and satisfying (but vegetarian), and the mushroom foam was extremely flavorful. The thyme caviar, which were intensely thymey, to the extent that's even possible, added a clean herbal note to the whole thing, and the fennel pollen... well, if you've ever had it, you know how ridiculously wonderful its aroma is.

For the ravioli filling, I roughly chopped three fennel bulbs and three carrots, tossed in olive oil, salt, and a bit of sugar, and then heavily caramelized them under the broiler. Then I added them to a pot with one large can of Muir Glen tomatoes, and about 1/3 of a bottle of red wine (I happened to used a bottle of Sangiovese I had open). I also added a tablespoon or so of fennel seeds and some oregano. I let it cook down until very thick, about an hour. Go elsewhere for instructions on making pasta dough and ravioli. It's a hassle, but delicious. I couldn't remember what pasta dough recipes I'd used the last time I made ravioli, so this time I used Cook's Illustrated's method for making my pasta dough, which was a terrible method. Seriously, do not use their pasta dough method. It yields pasta that is not very rich and will not roll out very well at all. Further, it requires vastly more kneading since the food processor cuts the gluten strands you're trying to stretch.

The mushroom foam was made by adding a whole big bag of dehydrated oyster mushrooms, and a whole big bag of dehydrated shiitake mushrooms, to a big pot of water and boiling for hours, then straining, then boiling for many more hours until reduced to a somewhat syrupy consistency. Then I adjusted salt and sugar, and added a bit of soy lecithin (it was already producing good foam without it, but the lecithin helps the foam hold its structure). Then I whipped up the foam a la minute with an immersion blender and spooned it over the ravioli.

Finally the thyme caviar was made by infusing some simmering water with a ton of dried thyme, then straining, then infusing with a ton of fresh thyme while off the heat, pureeing the mixture, straining, returning to the heat and adding agar (1.5% +/- 1%--it's very forgiving) and bringing to a boil. Then I took it off the heat, stirred in some chlorophyll (produced using the method from the French Laundry Cookbook) to brighten the color of the now brownish-greenish thyme liquid, and then drew the liquid up into a syringe. I drizzled it into chilled olive oil in a metal bowl set over ice water. Every minute or so, I'd shake the bowl to get the caviar to break the surface and sink down to the bottom. I was getting really fast with the drips by the end.

Fennel pollen is available at ridiculous prices from lots of gourmet stores, but I highly recommend it, if you like fennel.

Fourth Course: Breakfast for Dinner:

Garnet Yam Hashbrown | Fried Egg | Brioche Toast | Red Pepper Jam | Caramelized Brussels Sprouts
Pairing: Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout

This was definitely the ugliest course. The garnet yam hashbrown was delicious and crispy. The egg was delicious and crispy around the edges and with (in many cases) runny yolks. The idea was to pierce the yolk and allow it to run down over the hashbrown. I froze a red bell pepper and grated it over the egg just before a plate was served, and sprinkled the egg with sea salt. Also on the plate was a rectangle of toast (it was gonna be brioche, but it didn't rise quickly enough for me to bake it in time for dinner--stupid Keller). On top of the toast was some delicious red pepper jam, which was made using this recipe as a starting point, modded to use a less sugar, and only adding the seeds of a Korean red pepper (spicy) after processing so no seeds get broken up during processing. I also had to use a ton less pectin, because I was using Genupectin, rather than Sure-Jell or some such thing. Anyway, it was awesome, and we got lots of requests for people to bring home some of the jam, which we obliged. Oh, and we also had some heavily caramelized brussels sprouts, which are my fave. Continuing with the breakfast theme, I paired this course with an "oatmeal" stout, get it? But it's my absolute favorite beer, and it went really well with this course. The only problems with the course were, again, the delay in serving it, and the eggs that I know were cooked through.

The garnet yam hasbrowns were made by peeling three garnet yams and then chopping them finely into the "hash" in a food processor. Then I dumped them onto a clean kitchen towel and squeezed the fuck out of them until they were as dry as I could get them. Then I added four egg yolks, some salt, and just enough flour to get them to stick together. Then I pan-fried them in some canola oil, and cooked them through in a 400 F oven.

Fifth Course: Fruit and Cheese:

Carbonated Muscat Grapes with Queso de Mano Haystack Mountain (Goat) | Pineapple and Danish Blue Cheese “Ravioli” (Cow) | Partially Dehydrated Grapefruit and Fulvi Pecorino Romano (Sheep)

This was my favorite course. The carbonated muscat grapes were amazing. I've now carbonated oranges, strawberries, and these grapes, and the grapes were by far the most dramatic. They even had fizzy bubbles popping up all over them, and they felt extremely fizzy in your mouth. Everyone was wowed and amazed by them, except one person, who felt that the fizzing sensation was too much for her tongue. I searched quite a bit to find a good cheese to pair with the honey sweetness of the Muscat grapes, and finally settled on a Haystack Mountain raw goat milk cheese called Queso de Mano that was wonderful.

The other two pairings are things I've had before and think work very well. The pineapple-blue cheese wraps were delicious, and will get their own post as part of TGRWT #10. The partially dehydrated grapefruit segments with pecorino grated on top was an exact copy of part of our amuse at Jean-Georges a couple weeks ago. Anyway, all three worked perfectly, in my opinion, and I wish I had taken pictures. All I had for pictures after the fact was this extra pineapple-blue cheese wrap that we didn't serve cause it was one of the crappy-looking ones.

Sixth Course: Bananas and Peanuts (and Chocolate):

Peanut Butter Curd | Banana Bread | Soft Chocolate | Roasted Peanuts | Banana Ice Cream | Chocolate Oil
Pairing: Pedro Ximénez Monteagudo Dessert Sherry

This was the "finished" version of the in-process dish about which I posted here. The best part was the wonderful banana ice cream. I started with this recipe, but omitted the spices, tripled the quantity of banana, added a couple grams of stabilizer, and a tablespoon of rum before freezing in an ice cream maker.

The final soft chocolate was excellently pliable, made with iota carrageenan and pectin. I'll post about it on its own. The peanut curd was alright. It was better the last time I made it, but this time I tried it with locust bean gum plus kappa carrageenan (instead of just kappa), and it turned out too rubbery and with only fair flavor release. I don't know why I changed it, since it worked so well last time.

The chocolate oil is from Sam Mason's recipe here, which is super easy. The peanuts I roasted last week, after boiling them in salted water. The banana bread is just banana bread, cut into rectangular prisms.

Mignardises:

As the ultimate expression of how fanciness a dinner was, places will often feed you little treats after dessert (or in some cases, even send you home with them). We decided to do the same. Jeanette made little boxes out of card stock, and we included in each one a couple pieces of chocolate-covered candied grapefruit peel, a small baggie of roasted peanuts, a piece of pineapple-lime pâte de fruit (from Emeril's recipe, which was delicious), and a small butter rum caramel.

Posted by Barzelay at March 25, 2008 3:45 AM | Comments (2) | Veggies, Fruit, Grain, Cheese

Comments

Post a new comment

Post a new comment