Black Friday Dinner Party

This has become a bit of a tradition for the past few years. I have not always done a dinner on Black Friday but have usually had an "Immigrant Dinner" for all of the ex-pats that don't have families in town. I think it has got progressively more complicated and I really bit off a lot this year with many recipes being first attempts and others being multi-day preparations. Anyhow the menu is at the left. Hopefully it can be clicked on because for some reason I can never figure out how to have the image be expanded.

From the Sea...

King Crab Summer Rolls, Warm Tomato Water with Prawns

The summer rolls were out of the October or November issue of Gourmet. They consisted of King crab leg meat, julienned daikon, carrot and cucumber, cilantro and a sauce made with avocado, mayo and tobiko. This was all wrapped in rice paper and served with a ponzu dipping sauce.

The warm tomato water is simply 5 pounds of tomatoes, pureed and then left to strain for many hours so all you are left with is the clear run juice of the tomato. This has a very mild flavor. I sauteed the shrimp with butter and a bit of garlic and parsely.

Wine pairing for this ended up being the Spanish sparkling and also a Gloria Ferrer Rose.

From the Air...

Duck Confit with Pomegranate-Ancho Chile Sauce

Pear and Beet Napolean with Ginger Vinaigerette

I actually had 4 confit duck legs in the freezer but alas that was not enough so I ended up doing 3 more. Confit legs are not actually difficult (if you have rendered duck fat on hand!) but they are a commitment with 24 hours of curing, a couple hours of cooking, they always improve with rest and then pan searing for final serving. The sauce was pomegranate juice and dried ancho chiles added to a caramel and then reduced down. I can't remember if there was anything additional or not but it was sweet with a hint of smoky spice.

The accompanying salad was roasted beets and red anjou pears cut into disks and marinated separately in a fresh ginger and rice vinegar mixture. They were then stacked and topped with a bit of the vinaigrette and shredded granny smith apple.

This was my favorite dish of the night. Duck was incredibly tender and the New Zealand Pinot Noir we had with it was a good match.

Intermezzo...

Pineapple Granita

No picture on this one. Just fresh pineapple diced and cooked in a simple syrup, then blended and strained. Added some gelatin and then froze. Scraped out with a fork. This was absolutely delicious for the amount of prep. It could have easily been dessert as the remainder got polished off after anyway.

From the Sty...

Pork Belly with Asian Chile Glaze

Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage

Ok, I must have been getting tipsy by this point because there is no picture here. It basically looks like other pork belly dishes I have cooked. I tried a new recipe out of the same Gourmet magazine mentioned above that called for curing the pork belly overnight, braising it, then pressing it for 12 hours and then grilling it while basting with a glaze. Cabbage was just red cabbage braised for an hour with some sugar and balsamic vinegar.

This was the most disappointing to me and not because of the flavor of the pork belly which was still very moist or the taste of the glaze which was a lime juice, fish sauce, chili glaze. The main thing was the call to grill the pork bellies. I followed the recipe exactly and the problem I see is that using a grill doesn't give the surface contact with the layer of fat to render the fat off. As a result you have a very small portion of the main cap of fat that is crispy and then a lot of excess uncrispy fat which doesn't have the most pleasant texture. I also don't get the pressing unless it is to just try to get the belly to be a consistent thickness for grilling. I would do the Asian style glaze and maybe the pressing but say NO! to grilling with pork belly.

Wine was a Rioja Reserva which was spectacular with this.

From the Land...

Rack of Lamb Cutlets

Elk Sausage Cassoulet, Green Beans with Tomato Sauce

I am having to re-type this whole section because my f***ing mouse is broken!! I must have been getting even more tipsy now since the photo is entirely out of focus. The plating wasn't spectacular anyway so I only took one pic. The good: Lamb was cooked perfect in a spice crust, pan seared and roasted, cassoulet was very hearty and nice, green beans were...the token veggie. The bad: I forgot to make the sauce for the lamb. At the end of the day it didn't matter but we are now on a bottle count of 6.

Wine for this was really the 2002 Claret as I thought the Robusto would be too overpowering. I was right. The Claret paired nicely and the Robusto, at 17.5% alcohol, was responsible for me feeling crappy in the morning.

Dessert...

Chilled Strawberry Soup with Fresh Mint Ice Cream

Again no picture :-(.

I had this EXACT same dessert at KAA Restaurant in Brazil. (http://www.kaarestaurante.com.br/) It was so light and refreshing that I had to try and reproduce it. The mint ice cream used a lot of mint leaves but also the bruised stems infused in syrup to flavor it. The mint leaves were blanched and refreshed to preserve color then blended with the strained infused syrup. The result is a vibrant green, sweet minty concoction. Then this is added to a custard mixture and thrown into an ice cream maker.

Strawberry soup was made by cooking the strawberries with sugar in a well-sealed double boiler (or a bowl with saran wrap set in a frying pan with water). The strawberries release all of their juice and color and then you add star anise, orange zest and mint cool this in an ice bath and strain.

We served this with a very tasty Sonoma white port.

That and a glass of grappa wrapped up this meal. Good friends and good fun!