Consider the Oyster (Stuffing)!

                        
Back in 1941, M.F.K. Fisher wrote vibrantly, wickedly, about love, death (and stew) amongst the molluscs in her seminal tome Consider The Oyster. So, I got to thinking...how about considering an oyster stuffing for Thanksgiving this year?

If you are curious as to what it’s all about, the recipe is below. Whatever you serve, have a wonderful time with family, found family, and friends. And THANKS for reading Evenings with Peter!

“The oysters were curious too, weren’t they...”
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Oyster Stuffing

In a large pot, melt 4 tbsp butter over high heat until it smokes gently. 

Add 2 ribs diced celery, 1 large diced onion, 1 diced bell pepper, 1 1/2 jalapenos (seeded and minced), 7 cloves minced garlic, and 2 1/2 tbsp poultry seasoning. Lower to medium heat and saute until browned and tender, 15 minutes. 

Stir in 3 cups shucked oysters (purhcase a tin, already shucked!) and their liquid. Cook until edges curl, 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat. 

Stir in 8 cups crisp bread cubes, followed by 1 cup chicken or turkey stock. Add 1 more pack of stuffing mix and 4 eggs to incorporate. 

Season with salt and pepper. Fold in 2 cups chopped parsley, 2 sliced green onions, and 1 1/2 tsp minced rosemary.

Stuff in a 12 lb turkey. Or, bake in a greased casserole at 350 F until golden, 30-45 minutes.

Cheese Fondue in a Pumpkin & Other Delights

Gourmet magazine was most regrettably retired back in 2008. I however, fortunately, was not. For it was there, in the final November 2008 issue (I have another gruesomely sentimental copy still wrapped in the plastic, cuddling next to my beloved Gourmet 70's back issue stash) that I culled together this year's Thanksgiving menu (links provided here by yours truly). And what a wonderful, Dickensian feast in merrie olde England it seemed, once all laid out on the table! Most of it was made the day before (at least in parts), and other delights subtly assembled while the turkey that Baby prepared sat to consider its satsuma tangerine-and-herb-stuffed cavity, at rest. Summoning motes of clarity, I set the table two days before.

Cunning coriander and rosemary goat cheese marbles skewered with parsley leaves were a cozy nibble...

before the great pumpkin fondue arrived, filled with layers of mixed Emmental and gruyere cheeses, a light bechamel, and sturdy slices of miche country bread. We swooned and supped laudably and audibly too over the instantly comforting innards, ladled out into our bowls, with spooned crescents of pumpkin pulled from within for (very) good measure. This was very simple to prepare, except for the careful business of slicing off the stubborn tops. Short of procuring a reciprocating saw, the only thing I might suggest is taking hold of your strongest, most resilient knife (probably a well-sharpened butcher's knife) as I did and nimbly hacking away at the beast with a few deliberate whacks. Although this particular recipe was on the Thanksgiving roster, it will serve you and your guests well anytime through the winter months and act as a wonderful gift for Christmas, tableside. Consider my chicken pot pie in a pumpkin as well, always a favorite!

We paused with a smartly civilized watercress salad with smoked sable (a.k.a. black cod, found at our local bagel place) and beets, diced and stacked like a terrine on top of the green watercress sprigs. The beets marinated overnight in a tart shallot and fresh grapefruit juice (my idea, instead of lemon juice) vinaigrette.

The traditional pork pie course made its way...

highly suited for sopping up with our gravy (see turkey recipe below). I made the pork pies a week ahead of time and froze them--as I suggest you do too--and thawed them out the night before our dinner, back into the oven for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Behold our Tom! Quite carved obviously, having been injected with white wine, and melted black truffle butter (a mixture of purchased black truffle paste with butter), the recipe road map here! Tinker with it as you will. More about tending to old Tom is found here, during our trip to Turks and Caicos a few years ago.

Amiable sides were comprised of our compote, with red pearl onions, quince (I used quince paste!) and fresh cranberries...

Also added to our festive mix was a trio featuring mashed potatoes and roasted root vegetables (thanks super duper delivery service Fresh Direct!) and a stunningly seductive, silken parsnip puree with sauteed Brussels sprouts that I made myself.

Gourmet suggests an apple granita as a palate cleansing kick-off to dessert but we found a time-saving, luscious Italian pear sorbetti instead, and certainly any brightly tart fruit sorbet will tingle the taste buds to the same effect.

Desserts were unapologetically store-bought pumpkin and pecan pies (courtesy again of Fresh Direct). Our merry band politely nibbled only, as we had naturally become as stuffed as our turkeys, and quite without apology as well at that! I urge you to try all of these terrific recipes over the upcoming months, whatever the occasion--and do enjoy!

Ham Loaf for Everybody!

Okay, this dish was really just for Baby and me (with a simple side salad of greens and plenty of leftovers). Although the tasty little nugget might appear to be absolutely lurid and revolting, it was quite good and could certainly warrant being served at a cocktail party for a number of people as suggested by Arlene's Dahl's cookbook, No Time For Cooking! from 1961. We were assisted by a delicious pre-made potato salad with bacon from Fresh Direct. Couldn't have been easier as we stuffed the goods mixed with gelatin into our Le Creuset terrine to make it extra fancy and then let it chill in the refrigerator until firm and ready to be unmolded.

Also, as the cover indicates, "full-color photos, including Arlene at home." They are preternaturally colored and filled with explosively outrageous table settings.

I started to go hog-wild with the molds and also made what I called an Jell-O Aquarium World in a small copper mold replete with Berry-Blue Raspberry Jell-O, Swedish fish, mini-marshmallows for rocks, whipped cream for waves and crushed vanilla wafers for the surrounding sand. It was all quite hilarious, kids could help and would love it. We did.

Dinner is Served!

When entertaining, I find that simple elegance is the backbone to any dinner. I love these cherry brandy roses! I composed this wonderful menu of dishes that I'd made before, including an appetizer, soup, and salad, but also I endeavored to prepare a new entree that I'd never made before; a classic Steak Diane. Dessert followed these courses, of course. Read on!

Dinner
ON THE COUCH
Mini pre-made Quiche Lorraine courtesy of FreshDirect.com but the proper recipe for Julia Child's whole quiche is shown in this video.
Serve with a bottle of fizzy Spanish cava. Other various mixed concoctions made with cava found here and here

TO THE TABLE
White Gazpacho
Caesar Salad
Steak Diane*
Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

*We were too stuffed already to make the steak. Read about the ensuing morning here.

Pizza and Stromboli!

 

Baby and I recently discovered the most extraordinary, versatile pizza dough! We ordered this frozen wonder from food-to-home delivery service FreshDirect.com and allowed an orb from the package of four to settle down to room temperature for about an hour and a half or so. I'm a huge fan of Fresh Direct, as evidenced here. But back to the dough! We rolled it out very flat on a lightly floured surface while the oven raised to 500 hundred degrees with a pizza stone (aluminum foil or baking sheet would work too) heating up on the middle rack. On its own, I imagine it would be fantastic as table bread, dipped into a fruity olive oil. But we don't leave things to simply languish, do we? No. There are toppings to consider! And naturally, whatever toppings you wish. We added soft and creamy Italian Robiola cheese (a cow, sheep, goat milk blend), ground bison meat, crumbled and sauteed in olive oil and garlic, and reaped spring's ramps, but sliced scallions would also do anytime of year. We retrieved it from the oven once the "leoparding" (that's really a thing, referring to the spots that appear while baking) was achieved, only about 12 minutes. Do not over cook this and do mind your oven in the process with a brief check in or two, depending on the reliability of your oven. Crisp with chewy gorgeousness inside is the goal--almost like out of a traditional Neapolitan wood-fired oven!

A stromboli of a sort was for another guest, where the dough was rolled up with mozzarella, pepperoni, a mixed bunch of sliced wild mushrooms sauteed in garlic, olive oil and butter. I also used an assortment of fresh herbs such as thyme leaves as well as a chiffonade of basil, and a drizzle of white truffle oil.

Over this Memorial Day weekend, I used more bison meat to make burgers, using the cooked dough to act as buns, folded over. The patties were topped with relish, mustard, good old Velveeta cheese slices--and lots of ketchup of course. One frozen orb is left, for now. What wonders await!

And We're Off! Derby 2014

And we're off, once again! This year marked 20 years of going to and throwing Derby parties--and I don't mind telling you, my my, how a party can wither one. This was rather more the warhorse of the roses. We didn't have a huge crowd this year, there were just about ten of us but among the usual Benedictine sandwiches and tomato and biscuits and fabulous pimento spread (that a wonderful guest brought), while trying to make my shrimp and grits, one of our guests fainted quite away and then I discovered an unexpected, climbing army of marching ants on the bedroom wall that had to be attended to as well. I was so distracted I forgot to put the bacon that I had already cooked and crumbled in the shrimp and grits! After receiving the delivery from Fresh Direct, I prepped all day on Friday doing what I could ahead of time including setting the table and as much as I had done I never had much of an opportunity to sit down on Saturday and enjoy my own party. My calves still hurt from standing for the last two days. This year's event is also sort of a Bon Voyage: Baby is going to Chicago for work for a month before we go to Spain to celebrate our one year anniversary of marriage in Barcelona and Sitgez on the beach. We're taking my mother for her 80th birthday and we'll also visit my niece as she is studying abroad in Valencia.

A colleague sent me this mint julep recipe below from Southern Magazine (now defunct). It took some time to make the mint extract and simple syrup before it commingled with the bourbon and rested in the refrigerator overnight. I should have climbed in with it. A large Mason jar was our charming vessel and we made just the right amount. Warning though, it is a strong drink! As I've always maintained, a mint julep is the wicked mistress of the South, that will coddle you through an afternoon and then beat you into submission by midnight. But oh, such sweet blindness!

We made Grasshopper Mousse and a guest brought Derby Pie for dessert. In a wild fit of pique Baby and I made a version of classic Rice Krispie Treats that we called Kellogg's Kaos Bars, using all six little boxes of the Snack Pack cereals that we had on hand that added up to the six cups needed for the recipe: this included Cocoa Krispies, Corn Pops, Froot Loops, Apple Jacks and Frosted Flakes. After melting the requisite marshmallow minis in butter, all the cereal went into the mix and then cooled before we cut our amalgam into bars and stacked them on a platter. It sounds ghastly perhaps but our guests delighted in making short work of them indeed. The regular Rice Krispie recipe is here.

This years roses, delivered by a kind friend (who couldn't attend) on Friday!

So, off we go and cheers then! 

Play Reading - Gypsy

This month our merry band of players took on the mother of all musicals, Gypsy. Based around a ferocious stage mother named Rose, the show gloriously depicts the old vaudeville circuit and Rose's neglected daughter's later rise to epic fame in burlesque--none other than the legendary stripper Miss Gypsy Rose Lee. As that grand old show tune "Everything's Coming Up Roses" closes Act One, we had to have red roses on the table for a centerpiece and our friend was kind enough to bring such beautiful long-stemmed roses--bunches of them. Aren't they just gorgeous?

I lined up battery-powered candles to make footlights for our "stage" and lit a free-standing antique mirror to create a spotlight on the ceiling. Red paper dinner napkins made a great runway strip, er, runner.

 



Since Chinese food is all they can afford through most of the show, we made what else? A Chinese buffet! 

We ordered a few things for delivery too from our favorite local restaurant. In tribute to a song in the show that extolls the virtues of Chinese food as much as the booking agent who agrees to hire the girls for an act, we greeted our guests with eggrolls, still warm from out of the bag, and extra duck sauce and hot mustard. We also ordered sesame noodles, but I have a great homemade recipe too made with ramped up college-days-Ramen that serves two. The amount of ingredients are entirely suited to taste.

Peanut Butter Sesame Noodles

Ingredients

Ramen noodles

A cube of chicken bouillon, dissolved in water

Smashed garlic cloves, to taste

Some soy sauce

Sesame oil

Suitable seasonings, as you like

A spoon of sweet chili sauce, oyster sauce, or red pepper for spice

Peanut butter

Bangkok Padang sauce

Sesame seeds, for garnish

Chopped scallions, for garnish

Method

Boil the noodles. In another pot add about one-third to one-half cup bouillon, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil and the seasonings of choice, to taste. Mix in the peanut butter and add more water or soy as it thickens. Coat the noodles with Padangsauce and adjust seasonings. Garnish with sesame seeds or scallions, or both.

 
Inhabitants of our pu-pu platter included skewers of ginger teriyaki marinated beef skirt steak from Fresh Direct--all we had to do was run the sliced meat through with bamboo skewers (that had been soaked for a while in water so they won't burn) and cook the meat for a short time in the oven. An old friend sent me a wonderful recipe for chicken wings came from an issue of Gourmet magazine from December of 1999.

Chicken Wings in Lime, Apricot and Soy Sauce

Ingredients

8 lb chicken wings (halved at joint, tips cut off)

1/2 cup fresh lime juice (from 4 to 5 limes)

1 cup apricot preserves

1 cup soy sauce

2/3 cup sugar

4 large garlic cloves

Method

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Divide wings between 2 large disposable foil roasting pans, arranging in single layers. Purée remaining ingredients in a blender and pour mixture over wings, dividing evenly between pans. Bake wings in upper and lower thirds of oven 60 minutes. Turn wings over and switch position of pans in oven, then bake 20 minutes more, or until liquid is thick and sticky.

Serve wings warm or at room temperature.

 
Roast Pork enlivened with red food coloring may be found here. From a Polynesian cocktail party we threw years ago!

In a snap we had fantastic ginger cookies to follow the curtain, aptly named Ginger Grants from Stud Muffin Desserts that everybody just loved. Flavors of orange and lemon with a ginger kick had a soft center and a sugary exterior.

And so, we take our bows; the final rose. Read more about roses that play an important part in my harrowing novel, the pale of memory available on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. Go to peter-sherwood.net for more info. 

A Dinner to Die(t) For

As Baby was away on business for three weeks and rigorously dieting all the while, I wanted to create a celebratory dinner for him upon his return; one that was delicious but also mindful, regarding pounds and ounces. I had read an article in New York magazine about the influence of cauliflower in terms of the city's tables--I was instantly intrigued as it set my mind to work on what was to be the centerpiece of our dinner--cauliflower steaks! This cruciferous vegetable has been blanched, sliced and griddled all over town apparently as of late. I was drawn to a particular description of the cauliflower first being "milk-pickled" at Blue Hill in Greenwich Village before being cooked sous vide and then seared. For a number of hours, I thought to let our halved head of cauliflower sit refrigerated in low-fat milk with a few tablespoons from a tin of buttermilk brining powder we had bought at Williams-Sonoma, shaking the mix about now and then. The cauliflower was then ready for a sear in a cast iron skillet. I wasn't sure if the whole thing would fall apart but it didn't, clinging firmly to its leaves at the base, which added a fine flavor. I think our veggie friend could have even withstood more time in the pan for an even markedly deeper char.

Garlicky kale from Fresh Direct was a great side and we absolutely fell in love with our easy-to-make, beautiful summer squash salad so fresh and full of flavor from basil and parsley with crunchy red quinoa and complementing walnuts from Epicurious.com.

Rosie Daley, Oprah Winfrey's spa chef from years ago, provided a recipe for Chocolate Tofu Cake from In The Kitchen With Rosie for a wonderful dessert! Tofu, cocoa powder, cinnamon, maple syrup, low-fat ricotta cheese and cream cheese, a few tablespoons of Godiva chocolate liqueur and Patron coffee liqueur were first all whipped up and then chilled (no crust!) to lead us to a most satisfying, guilt-free conclusion! 

Veal Prince Orloff

This particular evening was inspired by the hilarious, classic "Dinner Party" episode of Mary Tyler Moore, where Sue Ann Nivens cooked everything and Mary played host. Unlike other parties that Mary threw, this meal of Veal Prince Orloff for Congresswoman Gettys was a success. And so was our dinner! I used Julia Child's recipe but this recipe from epicurious.com is very similar.

I wanted an elegant table to feature our 'haute cuisine' palely painted in mostly white.

 

 Simple cuts of silk celadon ribbons served as napkin rings.

As involved as the dish of Veal Prince Orloff was, it's great to make the day before and merely re-heat when dinner time comes round.

Crunchy asparagus with garlic butter was courtesy of Fresh Direct, served as our starter, and both bags took about five minutes to come to life in the microwave. Devoured.

The lovely veal is shown below, cooked to a bare pink, smothered in a sumptuous sauce passed down from the hands of French nobility! Components are listed in more detail here, but basically, onions simmered with rice created the soubise; chopped mushrooms in butter served as our duxelle preparation; the flour and milk bechamel turned into veloute with the addition of our veal liquid and then became mornay with the addition of grated Swiss cheese. After a swift puree from the heft of a hand blender, all danced together and we had the lyrical sauce for our Veal Prince Orloff.

Two sturdy bunches of braised celery to accompany the veal was basically my own invention, lightly tossed in melted butter and slowly simmered in shallots, then I added a half cup of dry white wine and a half cup of French court bouillon stock to the mix, garnished with chives and flavorful celery leaves. Devoured.

The Baked Pears Alicia was a made up dessert created for the Mary Tyler Moore episode and I did a riff on the recipe that I found online. I don't mind telling you I used canned pears so I wouldn't have to peel, split and core them. I marinated them overnight in their own juices, some water and white wine, with vanilla beans, reconstituted dried lemons slivers, cinnamon bark and baked them in a 350 degree oven until warm.

P.S. Devoured.

We set up our beautiful vintage chocolate service and made a steaming batch of hot cocoa, laced with a few shots of Patron coffee liqueur-flavored tequila.

Our guests, mid romp!

Thanks, Mary!

Soundtrack: Henry Mancini, Martinis with Mancini; Equivel, Christmas!; Herbie Hancock, Cantaloupe Island; Antonio Carlos Jobim, The Man from Ipanema; Frank Sinatra, A Jolly Christmas.

Crepes Corbie

When Corbie was eight years old, she used to hang around the smoke-filled green room in the theater wing of my college, where her mother taught students about the world of musical comedy. I suppose we baby sat Corbie in a way, so naturally we all tortured this precocious, tousled-haired little girl. She recently turned 30 and now I find myself friends with a successful, slyly beautiful, talented young woman. To celebrate in our way, Baby and I made her dinner headlining our own creation, flaming Crepes Corbie. Think of a savory Suzette, with lobster (we are both from New England, of course) with vanilla chive sauce, brown butter, pearls of salmon roe and of course, Cognac.

I set a reasonable table for the three of us during the day with these outrageous tall stems that dangled sprouted pods from the top as a centerpiece, and other autumnal branches that had delicate orange and yellow flowers,  reflective of our petite pumpkins and ghoulish gourds.

Baby made the stacks of crepes ahead of time as well. To make the thin pancakes, a basic recipe can be found here. And always throw the first one out for luck!

About an hour or so before our guest of honor arrived, we started to saute the lobster shells (from the reserved lobster meat) in butter and wilt the leeks, carrots, celery and tarragon chiffonade in prep for the vanilla chive lobster sauce. This requires heavy cream and I forgot to buy it, but you know what? You forge on (and don't tell anybody your dish didn't come out the way you wanted it to be). The end result was still pretty tasty, just thinner, and well, less fattening too.

We made the scallion mashed potatoes ahead of time too, and quickly microwaved our bag of haricots verts with almonds from FreshDirect, as we reheated the potatoes later and topped them with lump crab before serving.

When we all sat down to dinner (after a few glasses of rose, which turned into a few more) we enjoyed a wonderful salad composed of mesclun greens, Napa cabbage, Mandarin orange segments and toasted brioche croutons tossed with a silky shiitake and sesame dressing, courtesy of Annie's, which frankly could be served with a straw.

The Crepes Corbie were a delight to make, as we rolled up three at a time in a buttery saute pan, with the lobster tucked inside. Then we added about a quarter cup of Cognac, removed from the heat and lit the whole thing on fire! A note: before the flames rapidly die down, the dish should be presented theatrically to the table (at a distance) and served once the incendiary crepes are quite out.

We had yellow cupcakes with vanilla frosting for dessert. After all, whatever our age, I hope we are still children at heart.

Happy Birthday, dear Corbie!