How to serve a five course dinner, part 2
A couple of weeks ago, I had my friend Keith over for a genuine Southern meal.
It was also five courses and it brought back memories of Chris, whom I miss a great deal. Most of the food we had has been cooked at one time or another by Chris or he's given me the recipes for them.
Here's what we had:
1. Buttermilk biscuits. I started off rolling and cutting them but this was a giant pain in the ass, so I just dropped spoofuls of dough onto baking paper and slid this onto a tray. We ate them with butter and honey, as God intended. I've listed this as a course, but we just had them hot right at the start of the meal as a sort of appetizer. They don't really count as a course.
2. Corn bread. Admittedly, I copied my father's recipe on this and it was flawless, although I had to buy a nine inch square baking tin to make it correctly. There's something about the shape of the tin, and if you don't get it right it won't work. Jiffy makes a cheap, effortless and nearly perfect cornbread mix in the States; I wished I had it here. It would serve dozens of uses.
3. Fried okra. Chris and I grew okra once, out back in the small garden, along with tomatoes. It was perfect. I mean this in all seriousness - perfect okra. Perfect little pods, clean, tender, flawless. I'm almost crying thinking of their crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside beauty. The okra here is imported from Zimbabwe (!) and was small and old and the most expensive part of the meal. An absolute crime. I rolled them in corn flour and shallow fried them in very hot lard, and they were genius.
4. Greens. I made these the way I'd always wanted to make them - with much less water than is normally stated. They were, IMHO, vastly superior to "wet greens," which are sitting in water. Instead, I sauteed some onions, added a smoked hock (spelled hough here in the U.K.) and then added a half cup of water. I slowly added greens in handfuls, adding more when the previous bunch was wilted and turning them. We could only get turnip greens (I'd been craving collard, but these turned out beautifully), and they had lots of juice in them. When the greens were done cooking, the water had mostly evaporated and the greens were cooked. I'll be cooking greens this way again.
5. BBQ ribs. Okay, I prefer to cook these over a charcoal grill, slowly, drizzling BBQ sauce over them at every turn. I didn't have that luxury, so I cooked these in a slow cooker with a homemade BBQ sauce (Coca Cola, ketchup, white vinegar, mustard powder, garlic powder, tinned tomatoes, Worcestshire Sauce, some other stuff) and they cooked for a full day. They needed about three days and I should have cooked them for a day with no sauce, removed the liquid, reduced it, added it when it reached demi-glace stage, and added the sauce then cooked the whole thing for another two days. I'll remember next time. I was disappointed with the ribs.
6. Sweet potato pie. I played Alabama's "Song of the South" on repeat play while we ate the sweet potato pie, much to everyone's delight. The pie was perfect. I'd only ever made this from pie filling before, but it's really easy to make from scratch; it's just an egg custard, except with mashed sweet potatoes instead of milk. I cheated and used pre-made easy roll pie crust. Topped the pie with whipped cream.
It was a good meal.
If you were to pick a five course meal, what five courses would you choose?
Comments
Nae, I am coming to Scotland. I want some of that food!
Posted by: Mendon | February 18, 2006 1:47 AM
Mensch, you can cook all of it yourself! We have the ingredients readily available.
Posted by: ma | February 18, 2006 2:20 PM
It's fun to cook with Nathan though- so off to Scotland!
Posted by: Rae | February 19, 2006 9:34 PM
dornbrook.com email remains unresolved. we need to chat about it some time. I'll catch you later, though.
Mensch
Posted by: Mendon | February 19, 2006 10:37 PM
Okay, I can't decide. That's largely why I haven't written.
But yes, cooking with Nathan is much more than cooking - going out to the market and getting fresh ingredients (oops, they don't have talapia, but hey they have some amazing scallops - let's get those!). Mmmm. And in his old place it meant fanning the smoke alarm every 2 minutes - hahaha!!
Posted by: Mara | February 20, 2006 9:25 AM
We held a dinner party for 11 late last year. We did multiple courses.
First was a carmelized onion soup. It took 8 onions, several leeks, and a litte garlic, cooked down then put in the blender to smooth it out.
Then we used our ice cream machine to make a scotch whiskey sorbet. The recipe also called for Stone's ginger wine. It was a delicious palate cleanser.
Then we roasted whole chicken, stuffed with a simple oat and onion stuffing. The stuff really picked up the flavor of the bird. A guest brought brussel sprouts in brown butter with pecans.
There was also a small cheese assortment, and a few chocolate truffles for dessert.
Posted by: Basil Valentine | February 20, 2006 2:20 PM
I think the best stuffing I ever ate, ironically, was in Guadeloupe. The base was chestnuts. Oh. My. Goodness. It was scrumptious. Of course, it was also 80 degrees, my birthday [december] and I hadn't seen a family member or friend for over 4 months . . . I seriously nostalgic [it was my birthday dinner - I had them make the traditional Thanksgiving dinner for me!].
Okay, Nae, I guess if I was going to seek out a 5 course meal it would include seafood (lobster's my fave at the mo'), carbs, veggies, fruit & cheese. Any way you'd like to prepare it :-)
Posted by: Mara | February 20, 2006 2:51 PM
Basil beat me to it! Yes, our five courses were wonderful. A few more details: the creamy caramelized onion soup also had shallots, and the onions were sweet onions - not regular yellows or whites. It was all blended to silky goodness and then topped with sliced caramelized onions (almost to the point of being burned).
The scotch whisky sorbet was served on a shortbread round and topped with crystalized ginger.
Our friends brought the best cheese of my life. There were three kinds, but the triple cream brie was TO DIE FOR. Everyone was served a plated arrangement of the three cheeses, table water crackers, an almond-stuffed green olive and a halved dried fig.
Also, because I am a big dork who worships the likes of Martha Stewart in secret, I printed menus on No.10 sized cardstock (with a poinsetta printed on top) which was folded into a shiny red enclosure (came as part of the package). They were keepsakes to take home.
Also, everyone had a little ornament placecard holder with a hand written placecard on their bread plate at the start of the meal, and I bought these gorgeous black velvet and gray herringbone placemats and napkins.
It was the best tasting, prettiest dinner party I've ever hosted, and the best part was that we all had a great time.
Posted by: merseydotes | February 21, 2006 4:42 PM
Hey, guys!
I'm glad some answers came in. It's good to know what the people I love like to eat.
Mara, I'd probably make you Crab Newberg. It was Poppop's favorite. It may not be as fancy as lobster l'americain, but I'd tell you a story about Poppop talking about Crab Newberg while he made it out of crabs that he'd caught using chicken necks out on the pier at Mrs. Whitley's (was that her name?). And how I had to pick a few tiny pieces of shell out of my mouth when I ate it, small like grains of sand, because Poppop's hands were too old an gnarled to be able to handle the delicate crabs perfectly, but I didn't care, because it was so good. That same day, he told Mommy that he wanted to be called Grandad, and then when I called him Poppop and Mommy said "He wants to be called Grandad." and I said "But he's Poppop!" and Poppop said, "It's alright, Nannie, he can call me what he wants." and then something in French. I felt so happy. Poppop likes me! He let me give him a new name!
That was a great meal. Any perfect meal for me has to have Crab Newberg in it.
Sorry about the fire alarm. The new place is just a flammable death trap. No fire alarms here! :)
Basil, Merseydotes! I'm glad you posted. The halved fig with the cheese is a nice touch. I like the leeks and shallots in the onion soup; when I make onion soup, I use shallots and purple onions. And I bake beef bones to boil to make demi-glace to fortify the broth. I'm going to steal the sliced, caramelized onion on top of the soup; that's a brilliant idea. Your dinner party sounds lovely and sophisticated; I'm jealous.
Posted by: Nathan | February 22, 2006 12:24 AM
1. Bruschetta Parmesan
2. Garden Rotini in a rich pesto sauce (because once you start using parmesan, why stop? oh hey, look, there's an excuse to add more basil!)
3. Honey cloved ham (I've had this once, in Gambia, it was the best pork I've ever had)
4. Asparagus de Modena (with sea salt and cracked pepper, oh! so good)
5. Negro de camisa blanca (spanish for, well, you know)
I'm pretty sure that this would actually result in a great deal of sickness due to its overall richness (except the asparagus) but it sounds great right now. Perhaps we would have another course
6. Tums.
Posted by: Mendon | February 22, 2006 2:03 AM
Maria Wiley. Her husband, Ralph, was a well-known boat builder. What a pair they were.
Posted by: Ma | February 22, 2006 2:15 PM
Courses 1 - 5: pancake varieties. Including blinis, crepes, funnel cakes, waffles, also pancakes from different countries (Egyptian, German, American, Latvian etc.)
"In the UK, there is a much-loved tradition of making and eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, which falls between February 2 and March 9, depending on the date for Easter. Shrove Tuesday (‘shrove’ stems from old English word ‘shrive’, meaning ‘confess all sins’) is the day before Lent—which incidentally means both ‘spring’ and ‘goodbye to meat’.
According to Christian beliefs, Lent commemorates Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness, and observant Christians mark this period by fasting. So Shrove Tuesday was cleverly invented to use up the ingredients that were given up for Lent—milk, butter, and, particularly, eggs—which may not be eaten again until Easter."
Religious loop-holes again! Talk about a carbohydrate coma. Tasty goodness.
Posted by: Ingrida | February 27, 2006 2:14 PM
Sounds Yummmy! And beats the 'Latvian diet', hands down. I think I wanted french toast yesterday, but we only had weak bread. Plus I didn't feel like actually cooking, so I sort of have to eat what I am served. Maybe tonight.
Posted by: Ma | February 27, 2006 3:22 PM
I'm making pancakes tomorrow!
Posted by: Nathan Dornbrook | February 27, 2006 9:42 PM