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Showing posts with label chelsea market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chelsea market. Show all posts

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Design For Dining

As Baby and I had invited a few friends from the design biz (two interior designers, a lighting designer and an event director for an interior design magazine) over for dinner, I set out to design a menu, having already designed a perfect salon comprised of guests with shared interests.

The new Gourmet magazine arrived and in it I found the Garden Party article which reaps the bounty of August's best. I didn't make all of the line-up (nor was any of it presented in a garden, as I don't have one) and took some shortcuts here and improvised there, but it's a great menu and I think ultimately, it all came together very well. My goal is to always spend as much time with my guests and as little time in the kitchen (Baby is even teaching me to use pots and pans more economically) and here, Gourmet's recipes are also very helpful in offering what to prepare beforehand in the Cook's Notes.
To begin with, Melon Coolers were far more interesting with a few splashes of prosecco instead of seltzer or club soda. Reggie absolutely swooned! I have long loved serving salted radishes and butter as an appetizer, the leafy greens still attached, colorfully spread out on a serving platter or a wooden cutting board. BNO went for the elegant, elongated, pink-tinged French Market radishes, less strident than the rounder, bright red variety. Alongside, the anchovy butter was delicious, and frankly I can't wait to make again and slather it on a lobster.

The shortcakes for the Chive Shortcakes with Smoky Corn and Okra Stew didn't happen. I very unapologetically used scrumptious Pillsbury Grands and sprinkled fresh chopped chives on top instead. Having browned the corn in a skillet (the cobs, corn silk, and a smoked turkey leg stewed separately first before being removed) and combined all with simmered okra and onions, it was very good. And despite our own designs, some things are a happy accident--I didn't know Southern has a penchant for okra, having grown up in Virginia.
I didn't make the Cool Jade Soup or the Pickled Baby Squash made with maple syrup, preferably dark amber, but since I just happened to have some on hand, I thought to pull out a single element (the syrup) used in the Squash recipe as a wonderful drizzle for the Stew, as sweet and smoky are amiable companions. So yes, the syrup made it to the table but I forgot to tell anybody to try it.
Ace loved the Baked Tomatoes with Hazelnut Bread Crumbs--a gorgeous display, easily prepared, and can be made ahead of time, as it certainly holds its heat for a while. But I would toast the hazelnuts only a short time before you need them as they can become soggy. Farmers Market Salad with Aged Gouda and Roasted Portabellas went over very well and the unique flavor of the cheese, simply dressed and mixed with the mushrooms and an assortment of spicy greens was a welcome addition to the table.

A whole sheet cake for the Yogurt Cake with Currant Raspberry Sauce seemed a touch taxing, so I purchased a striking Sorbetto di Lampone, raspberry sorbet, from Buon Italia in the Chelsea Market instead, topped with a chiffonade of basil. Having swallowed oceans of delicious Sancerre wine, we still had designs for a little after-dinner drink (or two), so we finished off with some cherry brandy, St. Germain elderflower liqueur and shared a bar of Swiss chocolate filled with the shameless pear liqueur otherwise known as Poire William.

Soundtrack: Bossa Brava, Tropicale!, Bebel Gilberto, Tanto Tempo; The Girl From Ipanema, The Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook, Sergio Mendes and Brazil '66, Foursider; The Mike Flowers Pops, a groovy place

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A Little Lasagna Lunch

None of us could decide where to meet up before going to an early evening concert over the weekend on the far side of town (although I won't tell you what concert it was, I will admit that it was a regrettable, crashing bore), so Baby and I suggested our friends come over to the apartment first, while we served drinks and made a late, little lasagna lunch! How were we to know that we should have all just stayed in, snacked on more lasagnette, found more wine and played a rousing game of Philadelphia Rummy?

I had been itching to make the gorgeous Little Lasagnas with Tomato, Burrata and Pesto that graced the cover of the June issue of the fantastic La Cucina Italiana magazine, which I always pick up at Buon Italia (a fine purveyor of the best, imported Italian foodstuffs) in the nearby Chelsea Market.

Baby and I hit the Market before noon, intending to plunder Buon Italia of their meats and cheeses, but the rest of Chelsea and beyond had beat us to much of it! We had never intended to make our own pasta as we often rely on the easier, fresh sheets of it that we can cut to our liking--but they were sold out. After some rooting around, I did find frozen sheets that managed to work out quite well. The extraordinary burrata had also vanished, the beasts! Circling burrata buzzards probably descend as soon as the doors open. But that's not so surprising: after trying this mozzarella cheese with an oozing buttery cream and mozzarella interior just once, there's no turning back. We purchased stracciatella instead to sub for our burrata; we felt its similarly creamy consistency could pinch-hit.

I grabbed a 28-oz can of chopped Valle tomatoes for the sauce, since we were limited on time, and as I'm always loathe to blanche, peel and chop vine-ripened tomatoes anyway. Italy's vibrant San Marzano tomatoes always work out to my taste. We found some walnuts, pine nuts and Parmigiano-Reggiano for our pesto, ordered a quarter pound of speck (smoked proscuitto) from the meat counter, and picked up a package of grissini (elegant, elongated bread straws) for appetizers. We paid and high-tailed it out of the bustling Buon Italia!

Manhattan Fruit Exchange in the Market usually has great produce, but the basil was lacking this trip, with brown spots, although it was good and fragrant enough to use in the pesto that our recipe required. Onions and garlic were for our tomato sauce.

As we had fresh pasta, we found ourselves with extra time and made the pesto first, as it needs an hour to chill. I'd made pesto before many times but the interesting inclusion of a little effervescent club soda was good news to me.
We found more time by using our can of San Marzano tomatoes, already chopped. It was added to the mix of oil, butter, onion and garlic with double concentrated tomato paste (available at Whole Foods) and a few basil leaves. I also added a little sugar, which I find sweetly perks up any tomato sauce.

The sheets of frozen pasta thawed on the countertop as we busied ourselves with the filling of pesto, sauce, stracchiatella and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Cutting the pasta sheets in half, they were larger than the 4 " x 4" serving that the recipe suggests--but the edges crisped just the same in the oven and there was that much more to enjoy!

When our guests arrived, we had already juiced a yellow watermelon for cocktails with Leblon cachaca, a natural sugar cane liquor, muddled with mint, limes and sugar. Once we sat down to eat, we put a slightly chilled, fine bottle of Pepperwood Grove Pinot Noir on the table.
A simple salad of shredded red and green leaf lettuces was tossed tableside with fresh lemon juice, olive oil, finely ground Darling Buds sea salt perfumed with rose petals, and freshly cracked pepper. As we'd brought back a glut of chocolate from our recent trip to Switzerland, for dessert we unwrapped a Frey bar with the most fascinating crystalized chocolate filled with boozy Poire William pear liquor.
After such a nice lunch, no wonder the concert we slogged our way to in the rain was disappointing!