BOOK/A TABLE - Pea Soup and Mint Jelly

The very thought of fresh mint bouquets fills my head with bright notions of spring, the approaching Kentucky Derby (always the first Saturday of May), and Mint Juleps.* In New York, we’ve had a wonderful spring that has actually felt like a real transitional season, instead of an amorphous gray sheet of rain lasting until somewhere around Memorial Day. Summer has already felt like it is just a breath away.

I love this quote from Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Enchanted April: “Mrs. Fisher...had a curious sensation, which worried her, of rising sap. She knew the feeling, because she had sometimes had it in childhood in specially swift springs, when the lilacs and the syringas seemed to rush out into blossom in a single night, but it was strange to have it again after over fifty years. Yet oftener and oftener, and every day more and more, did Mrs. Fisher have a ridiculous feeling as if she were presently going to burgeon.”

The following recipe for Pea Soup and Mint Jelly is perfect for the blossoming season, and any personal burgeoning is certainly encouraged as well.

Marc Veyrat, a French chef who appeared on Martha Stewart Living nearly thirty years ago, showed us how it’s done. I’ve never forgotten the episode and have recreated the soup many times since myself. Using fragrant mint leaves and bright green peas, it’s a stunning, completely refreshing soup to be sipped out of a glass!

Although the recipe calls for pouring hot pea soup over the firm minted jelly, suspended above in a separate layer, I like to chill the soup first before topping with the jelly. I also like it served with long, elegant spoons. 

Fresh Pea Soup and Mint Jelly
Adapted from marthastewart.com
Serves 8
Ingredients
6 1/2 cups vegetable broth
60 mint leaves
2 tablespoons creme de menthe
2 gelatin packets
1/2 medium leek, well washed and thinly sliced
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
4 pounds fresh peas, shelled
Coarse salt

Method
In a medium saucepan, bring 4 cups vegetable broth to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1 1/3 cups. Add mint and creme de menthe. Using a handheld immersion blender, puree to break up the mint leaves. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve.

Add gelatin packets to broth mixture, and stir to dissolve. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into eight 5- to 6-ounce heat-proof glasses. Each glass should be one-third full. Transfer glasses to freezer, and chill until just set, about 10 minutes (I find it takes more like 20 minutes or so).

Combine leek, butter, and peas in a medium saucepan. Add remaining 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, and simmer until peas are tender, about 10 minutes.

Using a handheld immersion blender, puree soup until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Season with salt. Remove glasses from freezer. Pour hot soup over minted jelly. Wait 4 minutes, and serve immediately. Giddyap!



*For a non-alcoholic julep, try mixing your concoction with Ritual Zero Proof whisky alternative!

BOOK/A TABLE - Mint Juleps for Derby Day

How I love May! When jackets go unbuttoned, lilacs are in bloom and the Kentucky Derby is at hand. And what Derby party would be complete without a Mint Julep in hand? Oooh yes, the Mint Julep—that wicked mistress of the South. She’ll coddle you through an afternoon and then beat you into submission by nightfall.

In New Hampshire, my neighbor Trudy’s annual Kentucky Derby parties were legendary and her juleps were the best I’ve ever tasted. Word is, she was given the somewhat unorthodox recipe from a Kentucky gentleman back in her salad days as a waitress. Somehow, my juleps are never as good as when Trudy made them (the rum, although surprising, is key), but it’s sure fun trying. Apart from any legerdemain, this is what she used to do:

Make simple syrup by boiling one part sugar to two parts water; let cool. Fill a tall Collins glass with crushed ice. Alternate Maker’s Mark (or your favorite Kentucky bourbon) and simple syrup in 1 oz portions, totaling 2 oz bourbon and 3 oz simple syrup. Top with a 1/2 oz floater of Myer's dark rum. Add a mint sprig and insert a straw to sip up the boozy goodness.

Now, you don’t have to wait for Derby Day to enjoy a julep. Just take a cue from F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby. I think this is fabulous: “The notion originated with Daisy’s suggestion that we hire five bathrooms and take cold baths, and then assumed more tangible form as ‘a place to have a mint julep’.”

The Kentucky Derby is always the first Saturday in May—and it falls on the 4th this year. Do enjoy and please ride responsibly!

Derby 2015

Behold the lovely, fragrant lilacs! I do hope your Derby was fun (and profitable!) this year. I bet, as is my foolish wont, and once again, I didn't win a dime. At my party, I put out the usual spread of Martha Stewart's shrimp and grits, Benedictine sandwiches with cream cheese and cucumbers as well as sliced tomatoes sprinkled with freshly ground pepper and salt that filled flaky Pillsbury Grands biscuits. Cornbread was another addition this year and chocolate chip and sugary gingerbread cookies provided a fine finish to the race. And of course, there were mint juleps!

Here's this year's steaming stew of shrimp and grits, laced with thyme and parsley and topped with crisp bacon!

Lazy afternoon views of the table just before the guests arrived...

and more of the room, flooded with flowers!

Giddyap, everybody--and do enjoy!

Pete's Dish - March 28

What's going on in and about town! 



Grab a smart jacket, get your fancy hat, leaves your troubles on the doorstep and head to Eleven Madison Park as they host their 6^th annual Kentucky Derby Party on Saturday, May 3^rd. The most exciting two minutes in sports and one of my favorite days of the year! This year, the Park has partnered with Esquire magazine, Woodford Reserve and Nat Sherman among others as they all partake of some mint julep tippling, Derby dishes and live music. Go to MadeNiceNYC.com/events for tickets immediately—I’ll wager they go fast.

Pinkies up! From May 9^th- 13th, the fifth anniversary Manhattan Cocktail Classic will get thing shaken in Manhattan. High spirits with prevail over five days in three boroughs. Apart from all the boozing there will also be educational seminars and pig roasts, lunch and dinner travails and a cocktail party at the New York Public Library. Please knock it back with kind consideration for others and heed these words of wisdom: behave and keep your legs crossed. Get your tickets at ManhattanCocktailClassic.com.

 

Entrepreneur Miki Agrawal (WILD, THINX) has partnered with fellow restaurateur Walid Hammami (former owner of Café Rafaella, Angelina and Atlas Cafés) and together they are set to open a new farmhouse-chic location of her gluten-free pizza and Italian specialties restaurant concept at WILD in Williamsburg to form a triptych with the other locations in Manhattan’s West Village and Las Vegas, which are already serving healthy and farm fresh fare. Forage for black quinoa and kale salads as well as spinach and artichoke pizzas, comforting gluten-free pastas dressed a la vodka, and wild chicken Parmesan entrées. Don’t forget about the homemade, vegan kale cupcakes for dessert. So stick a fork in it! WILD is located at 340 Bedford Ave, 347-599-0699, EatDrinkWild.com. 

Me & Martha

Giddyap! The Kentucky Derby strode heartily past on May 5th, coinciding with Cinco de Mayo. So we called it Derby de Mayo! I threw my Derby party, replete with icy mint juleps, shrimp and grits,
chicken mole, Benedictine sandwiches, and tomatoes with biscuits. This year my friend brought a perfectly peachy peach cobbler to delightfully devour, found in Saveur magazine. Although I didn't win any money on the horses (discrete betting is always permitted), I feel I won something much richer. I recently had the breathless privilege of meeting Martha Stewart and in this captured picture I am telling her about how I've made the shrimp and grits recipe from her classic Menus for Entertaining cookbook for my Kentucky Derby parties for 17 years now. She looked absolutely stunning and was entirely gracious. Look at her silver shoes! She nodded thoughtfully and agreed about the shrimp and grits recipe, saying, "Yes...that's a good one." My guests over the years certainly agree too.

The galloping, gallant horse I'll Have Another was the triumphant winner in a most amazing race and continued on to a follow-up victory at the Preakness. Here's hoping the Belmont will bring a Triple Crown!

My grand Derby top hat, cut with a swath of scarlet chiffon, hung up to rest...

And the chicken mole before it completely vanished!

 

Of course, the shrimp and grits, simmering before being served.



The decimated table, having once been filled with the spread, oceans of bourbon and bottles of wine! I spread open the recipe for the Benedictine sandwiches from Saveur magazine, as well as my storied copy of Ms. Stewart's Menus for Entertaining on the table for decorative purposes along with a glorious bouquet of peonies and white hydrangeas. Who brought the Coca-Cola?



My etching below is a tribute to the run for the roses that I made several copies of to line up and suitably outfit a runner for the table. "A rose is a rose is a rose..."

Make Mine Mint

If you've been reading Evenings With Peter you know of my long love affair with the Kentucky Derby. I've thrown a party for years now, barely have ever made a dime on a bet, but on the first Saturday of May I like to offer up a shindig in honor of the run for the roses. Once again we are ready to pull out of the starting gate! I've already started plotting what my table will look like, and shopping for ingredients that will make Mint Juleps, Benedictine Sandwiches, Shrimp & Grits, Corn Bread, Tomato & Biscuit Sandwiches, and Derby Pie for dessert.

As there are so many Julep recipes, here's another one to try out from the folks at Steinhauser, while we celebrate the two most exciting minutes in sports. I just found this tucked in the pages of my Martha Stewart's Menus for Entertaining cookbook that I have filled with other recipes, receipts and other remnants of Derby parties past such as pressed lilac leaves!

Mint Julep
Adapted from Steinhauser
Dissolve 1 teaspoon of powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons of water into a Mint Julep glass. Fill with finely shaved ice and 1 1/2 ounce of Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, such as Jim Beam. Stir until the glass is heavily frosted and add more ice if necessary. Don't hold the glass while stirring. Garnish with 5 or 6 fresh mint sprigs. The tops should be about 2 inches above the rim of the glass. The mint is meant for fragrance, use a short straw so that you can bury your nose in the mint.

Please ride responsibly.

Kentucky Derby Bon Voyage Party

For the first time in the 15 years that I've been throwing Kentucky Derby parties, I actually had to make more simple syrup for the Mint Juleps! Probably because I made Trudy's Mint Juleps for the first time too, which our guests found irresistable. This Derby party was also special since Baby and I are going overseas for a few weeks and we wanted to be with some of our nearest and dearest before we take off. Hence, a Kentucky Derby Bon Voyage Party!

When folks arrive, Benedictine sandwiches are always on the table, the recipe pulled from an issue of my beloved Saveur magazine collection. To whit, cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, with a touch of Tabasco, lightly spread on Pepperidge Farm Very Thin White Bread. We also juiced a parsley bunch and whisked it in for some color and flavor, instead of the curious use of green food coloring.

Martha Stewart's Menus for Entertaining has always been epic in my mind, instrumental in planning my Derby parties--stuck in between its pages, my sentimental copy has grocery receipts, shopping lists and pressed lilacs from years past. From the "Fried Green Tomatoes" Brunch, the simple to make Buttermilk Biscuits with Red Tomatoes are always a crowd pleaser. I don't actually make the biscuits, as Ms. Stewart suggests, I just buy Pillsbury Grands; I don't think biscuits get much better than that. We purchased Homestyle, Southern Style and Buttermilk for a decent variety, sliced the tomatoes somewhat thinly, with a widge of salt and pepper and served in a colander lined with a cunning cloth napkin.

We introduced a vat of the legendary Chasen's Chili to the Derby party, which I think is probably the best chili I've ever had! We ordered Gebhardt's chili powder online (for cheap!), but also threw in some of Penzey's Chili 9000 powder, which features cocoa powder in its list of ingredients. We served with grated cheddar cheese, sour cream, scallions and Frito's, like a Frito Pie. Mama yo quiero! How do you say delectable, divine?

Now to the race itself, the most exciting two minutes in sports, nobody at our party had bet on the winner, Mine That Bird, but since my pal and I had both bet on Pioneer of the Nile, who came in second, we split the pot. Another first! I had never won a dime ever at any Derby party!

Apres le competition, we served Ms. Stewart's Southern Shrimp with Grits, this time incorporating tender, flavorful rock shrimp as opposed to regular shrimp which is a pain in the neck to devein. We broke out and served it on individual spoons, with a dollop of grits, covered over by a fine dice of red, orange and yellow peppers with the shrimp and a topping of bacon and parsley. Just between us, anything presented on an individual spoon is sure to elicit innumerable 'oohs' and 'ahs.'

I think we all had a wonderful time and thankfully, the weather was with us once again for the Derby as we sipped our minty juleps with the breath of spring in the air, having pushed the windows wide open, even as we lingered into the evening.

Soundtrack: Sippie Wallace, Sippie; Atlantic Blues, Vocalists; The Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 Foursider; Antonio Carlos Jobim, The Man From Ipanema, Disc 2; XTC, Skylarking; and later, The B-52's Anthology, Nude on the Moon.