I've discovered Monday night dinner parties. So practical. Your guests don't have the same expectations as they do on say a Saturday because it's a school day, but if you choose your menu wisely, you get the weekend to prepare your dishes AND this weekend, the boy was hanging about Sydney with his Shacker gaming nerd friends, talking about Left 4 Dead and cloud computing whilst singing Karaoke and downing all sorts of trans fatty grossness so i had more time than usual to hunt down fancy recipes and source freaky ingredients. The spread shat on our meal at Maha last week. Our spread wasn't exactly Middle Eastern, although there was some Tahini in the pumpkin dish and we did roll out a variation on the traditional tabouli salad, but it was tres delicious.
We started with the Rosemary and Spice Chestnuts with Almonds and Hazelnuts from my all time favorite Snowflakes and Schnapps book. Had an interesting time peeling the chestnuts. Don't think i boiled them long enough and ended up ripping the flesh under both my thumb nails. Had a 2nd attempt then next day and microwaved them individually for 1.5 mins and boom! Shells and skins came right off. Took a little longer than i would've liked but i refused to be defeated by these little squirrel brains. The nuts were then sauteed in butter and honey and other herbs and then baked in the oven. I thought they were yum but my guests weren't that excited by them. Unfortunately some of the chestnuts were a bit hard, which turned people off the rest of it and get this, Don broke out in a full body rash after dinner and my nana, who is quite knowledgeable it comes to allergies, reckons the chestnuts were to blame :(
Entree shat on nibbles (thank god). We'd spent the night before rolling out pasta for the star of the show, the Ricotta and Artichoke Tortellini that swum about the Chicken Brodo (i think this is posh for 'chicken soup'?) with assorted floaties; chives, tarragon and parsley. Another stuff up saw my soup, which was supposed to generously serve 6, reduce right down to 1.1L. Thankfully i had cute little $2 shop soup bowls which worked perfectly with the token soup.
Our feature side for the night was Roast Pumpkin Wedges with Almonds, Goats Cheese and Tahini Dressing. We did this a couple of weeks ago for the folks and it was a massive hit, although last time the pumpkin was a bit soggy, but everyone was too polite to say anything. This time, Don roasted them upright and we followed the recipe exactly in terms of timing and the edges went crisp and black, just like the picture, and let's face it, there's no point cooking unless your end product does look precisely like the picture and this baby was a site for sore eye! It's a really easy recipe. Even you two minute noodle folk out there could handle it.
Next came our staple Teriyaki Beef. We used a good part of the 6kg Porterhouse we've been saving for a rainy day and threw it on some blanched green beans. Unbelievable. Always a winner. For 600g of meat, mix together 2 tbs of mirin, 1 tbs sake or dry sherry, 1/4 cup soy sauce and 1 tsp of caster sugar. Right before you're ready to serve the meat, heat it up in a pan with spring onions and then pour over meat. Very sexual. Mmmm. Remember, it's important to serve some of your courses on colourful plates that compliment the food.
Having run out of pomegranates, and with an abundance of back-up peas in the freezer, I was forced to stray form my trusty Roast Beetroot and Candied Walnut salad. My trusty Gourmet Traveller spat this at me when i typed 'quinoa' into the search field: Quinoa, celery heart and pea tabouli. Curious. It was quite fiddly (as is usually the criteria) and i still have no idea how the heart of a celery differs from the rest of the stalks and why you need to boil the skin off the tomatoes, but it was fresh and tasty, just like a regular tabouli with loads of bonus bits.
We decided yo keep it simple for dessert this time and went with David Lebowitz's Roasted Banana Ice-Cream in choc-chip cookie sandwiches. Now I know, the smell of ripe banana is vomitous but i managed to block my nose whilst roasting the bananas in the oven with the brown sugar and butter. It was hard (wasn't so bad for my recently diagnosed narrow left nostril, however the right side did struggle), but the reviews suggested it would be worth it. I then schmultzed the mix in the food processor before i added honeyed pecans and turned it into ice-cream. Flavor was phenomenal. Might try a more adventurous vessel next time. A meringue nest perhaps?
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