For weeks I knew I was inviting people to my Sukkah but no menu was coming into my head, I had no main course inspiration. I looked through all of the recipes I collected over 20 years and somehow nothing inspired me. I called my mother to complain and somehow she turned into inspiration-almost all my meals popped into my head when I was talking to her.
Friday night I am making risotto cakes (a circle on the plate) with a mushroom parsley ragout piled on top. Roast chicken simply stuffed with apples and herbs along with parsley roasted baby red potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts. For dessert I'll make a recipe my cousin made last year for Rosh Hashanna-chocolate chip cookie cups filled with chocolate (batter put into a muffin tin cut a well into the center then filled).
We had much fun on Friday night with a few good friends and 2 new ones-I adored them all! The food came out wonderfully and most of my group, being English brought Pimm's and all the ingredients to make a Pimm's Cup-YUM!! Cut up lemons and limes into wedges, slice cucumbers into chunks, add halved strawberries and throw this lovely garden into a pitcher with ice, add the Pimm's and then top of sparkling lemonade or Sprite etc. Delicious!
Saturday night is an appetizer I may have mentioned once before as its been on my mind to make for several years. My husband and I were invited to a lovely dinner party a few years ago and our friend/host/chef made an appetizer of a roasted orange with roasted cauliflower on top of it with a sauteed scallop on top and an orange juice honey sauce drizzled on top. I can't use scallops as they aren't kosher but I thought duck would be a perfect topper and I realized somewhere along the line that this is a de constructed duck a l'orange!!! I haven't been able to find kosher duck breast for lo these many years but this April I finally did! Pomegranate, my favorite store (it's similar to Whole Foods but all kosher!!) had duck breasts right before Passover. I bought them to taste them, gave some to my father who loved them as much as my husband and I did. Spring going into summer was not the season for this appetizer but I knew fall would come! I called the butcher at Pomegranate in August who said yes, I could and should order them, he doesn't always butcher the ducks. I picked them up on Sunday and they are GORGEOUS!! So roasted orange, cauliflower, duck and I think a less sweet sauce, a stock with a little orange juice and herbs as a gravy, I think instead. The main course will be roasted turkey breast stuffed with sweet potatoes or butternut squash. And a chicken stock, roasted garlic, squash gravy. Some roasted broccoli next to it, with chili flecked mayonnaise along side. Same dessert as Friday night. I tried roasting an orange a few days before and it didn't work, it was bitter. I have to focus more on how my friend of old did this and figure it out, or maybe I saute them, but I know I have to make this appetizer again!! As it turns out I couldn't make the main dish as all my guests but 2 canceled (my glam BF (and his boyfriend) who has so much integrity and I know I can always rely on him do exactly what he says he is going to do, one of many things I love about him) and that would have been way too much food for 4 people, I had a small bison chuck roast in the freezer that I had been wondering what to do with. I went on-line to do a little research and saw that most chuck roasts were treated like pot roast. Ok, not a problem. I sauteed the meat on all sides, sauteedd, carrots, onions, celery, de-glazed with a sweet red wine, and let simmer for 3 hours. The gravy looked and smelled divine and the meat was certainly cooked through but it was hard as a rock. So odd. I tasted a piece and it was good but the chunk of meat was hard. I called my mother and she said cook it longer, so I did. I was sorry, though that I did, I tasted better when I tasted it the first time. My Glam BF's boyfriend, a baker who went to culinary school, thought that I should have cooked it even more. Oh well, it wasn't terrible and I won't buy that cut again, probably bison is too lean ofr the long cooking times of a stew. The duck appetizer was fabulous and gorgeous, the bison was fine and dessert remained terrific. We had a really lovely evening.
Sunday for lunch I invite my Mom's friends each year and this year I'll start out with a tomato basil soup and then make "lobster" mac and cheese (it's fake, I'm kosher). Probably a tomato salad next to it as it's still tomato season. I think dessert will be affogato-a divine Italian dessert, gelato with espresso poured over it. I decided to be lazy however and not make a whole new dessert. Unfortunately, I found the afternoon ruined for me when one or two of my mother's friends were vocally judgmental and got on my nerves. Either I won't invite the two again or I may not do a lunch for her friends again, plus it's hard to have a dinner on Saturday night that starts at 8 and ends about 1ish then get up at 5 or 6 am to prepare a lunch for 9 at 1 o'clock. I might do a dinner instead, for different peeps. Each year my mother tells me I don't have to and next year I might just take her up on her offer.
I actually used basil from my garden in the soup, my mom thought it was a little too basilly and I know I didn't like but didn't have patience to figure out why. Using basil (or anything) from the pots on my deck gives me the creeps, I am so NOT Alice Waters (!) I do not want to know where my food comes from except that it's from Dean & Deluca, Whole Foods, my local supermarket etc. I see the things that crawl around my garden and somehow rinsing the leaves under cold water is not enough-I'd feel better if I could...perhaps...run it through the dishwasher. But the soup would boil so I felt a little better.
Monday for dinner, my family will come over. I'm still thinking of an appetizer but I'm making a stew and the cookie dessert. I was reading the NY Times food section on Wed as I do every week, reading about a chef that served a watermelon and roasted corn salad. I turned that over in my mind...it sounded interesting...and I know watermelon salads are quite fashionable plus, I thought it would be a refreshing light dish against the heavier stew and it was still a little early in the year for stew becasue it was still so hot. I needed a little more inspiration, I thought just watermelon and corn wasn't complete so I drove to Stop and Shop (I rarely go there as I'd pass at least 4 supermarkets and a myriad of small specialty stores on the way so why bother). I bought baby corn and then saw this jar of julienned celery root from Poland, which seemed really interesting and a terrific addition. While the cobs and baby corn were roasting I chopped up the watermelon (a horrible sticky job) and opened the jar. I fell in love with the taste! It tasted like very slightly pickled celery. Once I assembled the other ingredients I spooned it on top and tasted the whole thing-it was really really good. I made a glaze of pear vinegar and threw the watermelon juice into the pot of reducing vinegar. Somehow, though I didn't think it really needed it. When my mom arrived I made her taste and she didn't want dressing either, then my cousin wandered in to the kitchen and she agreed, no dressing. I put the platter on the table and everyone gobbled it up-it really turned out well and I'm going to do it again. I still have that celery stuff! We all enjoyed the stew as well, it was full of winey beefy flavor and the meat was really tender-just the right texture.
Oh and I forgot to mention my pumpkin bread. I never make the same thing twice on Thanksgiving, I made this pumpkin bread in 1986 but not in 1987 and there was rebellion! So I have been making it every year since 1988 and a few years ago my aunt asked if I would make it for Sukkot so I do that every year too. It's delicious but I burned the bottom a little. I cut the burned bits off just before serving. :) Again, we had a really lovely evening.
In case you haven't noticed I thrive on all this!!! People who asked me about the holiday are often shocked that I don't want to make one big casserole or some other really big thing and serve it to everyone, it would be easier they tell me. But yuck! First, my husband would not eat the same thing every day for 4 days in a row and second why on earth would I serve leftovers to guests????? If they have enough respect and friendship for me to come to my house the least I can do is give them fresh beautiful food. And why does everything in life have to be solely about ease?
Next I turn my attention to Thanksgiving though I may do a ladies lunch in October!