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party of five
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June 30, 2002
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Hosted a little soiree this evening. Rebecca, Darrell, and I had over Lisa and Else from the scavenger hunt. Mostly this was an excuse for Darrell to gawk some more at Else, but hey, any reason to have people over and eat and drink and play games is a good reason, as socially impoverished as my life is right now.
Last week I'd considered what I wanted to prepare, and I'd begun grandiose plans: duck and cherry puff pastry, spanikopita with ground lamb and moroccan spices, somehow exotic crab cakes... that sort of thing. Then I realized that a) it was a game-playing party, so we should probably serve finger food, and b) there's no way in hell I was going to spend the evening in the kitchen making all that crap when everyone else is in the living room playing games.
So I altered my plans somewhat. First, Rebecca and I made our salsa, only this time without the pears and poblanos and with mangoes. Turned out well, even though we forgot to serve it.
I wanted to mess around with serving cheese in a spring roll format. Here are the variations I came up with:
Cheese Spring Rolls Two Ways
Spring Cheese Variation #1 brie jam (a berry jam of some sort works best) finely diced walnuts Spring Cheese Variation #2 stilton fig jam diced proscuitto, or diced roast duck skin Directions: Roll and fry as you would a spring roll.
The second, as you can see, betrays my continual fascination with the ingredients in my favorite sandwich . I'm providing them with a different context in order to forestall the inevitable demise of my obsession.
Normally they sell cheap diced proscuitto at Trader Joe's. If you can get this near you, don't dare pass it up. It's a much more flavorful substitute for ham and an excellent alternative to bacon. Deli proscuitto is much too expensive to use freely in everyday cooking, and the cheap thin prepackaged slices that you can find in most stores are entirely the wrong format for most dishes. The diced stuff, while not nearly as good as what you would get at a deli or meat market, is still passable and is a great improvement over regular ham.
Today, though, Trader Joes failed me; they were out of diced proscuitto. Since I had the skin of two roast ducks on hand (you'll see why later), I used some of that instead. Seemed to work out.
The rolls were well recieved. Some (including myself) preferred the Stilton rolls, others the brie. I suspect those that preferred the latter were people who are not great fans of bleu cheeses to begin with. Otherwise, I think, there'd be no contest. The flavor of the Stilton rolls is so much more robust. Next time I may change the brie roll recipe some; perhaps add more jam, or put less jam in and serve with a jam-based dipping sauce.
I'd also decided to do something with duck. The idea of a duck cherry puff pastry had gotten me all excited. But rather than follow my ostensibly simple roast duck recipe, this time I thought I'd leave the duck roasting to the experts in Chinatown.
Turned out to be the best decision I'd made all week. We bought two roast ducks at a random chinese roaster on Stockton, and it was better than any roast duck I've ever had at a chinese restaurant. And cheap! At $7 apiece, it's only a tiny, tiny premium on top of an uncooked duck and quite a bit cheaper than buying a frozen duck at a grocery store. They even chopped it up for us.
Here's what I did with it:
Duck Pizza Two Ways
Red Pizza: shredded duck red bell peppers shiitake mushrooms fresh oregano tomato sauce storebought pizza crust (Boboli or similar) White Pizza: shredded duck crimini mushrooms brie heavy cream chopped figs (less sweet) or fig jam (more sweet) storebought cornmeal pizza crust Directions: Place the cream -- about 3/4 cup per pizza -- and the brie in a pan on medium-low heat. Make sure the cream is steaming but not boiling. Let it sit, stirring occasionally to mix in the brie, until the mixture is reduced by about half. (It's OK if the brie never mixes in completely.) Put all of the other ingredients on both pizzas. Pour the brie/cream mixture over the white pizza. (This is why it's good to have a cornmeal crust for the white pizza -- it usually has a well-defined "lip" so that the white sauce doesn't just pour off the pizza in the oven.) Cook for 9-15 minutes (depending on their size and the type of crust).
These also turned out very well. It was a successful meal all around, I think, especially considering how easy it was to prepare.
It was a good time. We played some of our favorite games, including Carcassonne , Web Of Power , and Falling . We sat down to eat and play around 5 o'clock and the next thing I knew, it was midnight.
Else again seemed out of Darrell's reach with her aloof German personality, but then surprised us all once again by baring her inner nerd for him. She came out of his bathroom proclaiming the utter coolness of the Lord of the Rings poster he has on the wall in there. She loved the movie and is now re-reading the books.
I think she wants him.
June 30, 2002 in appetizers, main_dishes, menus, old_site, recipes | Permalink
