The meal was fabulous. The flavors went together well and preparations were relatively easy for such a large menu during the hot summer. Guests favs included the toasts with chipotle, the figs (which people raved about and I ended up making three days in a row), the pork tenderloin and polenta. When we got to dessert, I thought we'd just pick at it but we ate almost all the dessert. Guests loved the blueberry bread pudding and asked for the recipe. It's from Cooking Light (I did not exactly follow the recipe, reducing the eggs to 4 whole eggs and 2 egg whites) and the whole milk to skim).
Here's the fig recipe
6 black mission figs (make sure these are not super ripe and they can even be a bit not ripe)
honey
12 teaspoons goat cheese
6 slices of prosciutto
4-6 oz of baby spinach, arugula or lighter lettuce
2 T olive oil
1 T balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat broiler. Cut the stems off the figs and cut off the top until the pink insides are showing. Drizzle honey into the center of the fig (it will be about 1t and some of the honey may leak out). Broil on a cookie sheet for about 3 minutes until the tops just start to char. Remove from oven and put on a plate. Let cool.
Clean spinach, spin and toss with 1 T oil and vinegar. Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and salt to taste. Put a small pile of greens on 6 plates.
Heat 1 T oil in 10 inch skillet on medium heat. Fill each fig with 2t goat cheese or as much as will fit (this works best with cold goat cheese. I used three different kinds and all were equally good). Wrap each fig with prosciutto making sure that the open side is covered completely with the ham. Set the figs into the hot oil with the open side down first. Fry each fig for about 2 minutes on each side. They should sizzle. If the cheese starts to come out, remove from the skillet, or turn them so the cheese will stay in.
Place one fig on each plate. Serve with a sharp knife.
Notes: If lots of honey comes out, you may want to drizzle a bit of honey over the salad.
0 Comments
Dinner last night was an adventure. The menu included tomato and basil bruschetta (from Cooking Light, 6/08), avocado, mango salad (from one of Rick Bayless's cookbooks, but I don't know which one) and pizza on the grill from Cook's Illustrated (7/05). All the food was great. The bruschetta has a quickly cooked tomato topping with capers and balsamic vinegar, and I chopped up some fresh mozzarella as well. It was flavorful and the toasted bread rubbed with garlic was crunchy without being hard. No problems making it either. The salad was fantastic. I had some difficulty procuring the pepitas--strangely the only ones I could find were lime flavored which probably would have gone. I bought them but at the last minute decided to substitute some spicy pine nuts I had instead. The dressing was great--flavorful but mayonnaise like even though there is no mayo in it. Must be the effect of the blender. This course was also great. Light and flavorful for the hot weather. The final course, however, was where the fun began. I made the dough, split it into fourths and rolled out the first of the four. Looked good. I happened to glance back at the recipe and it said to roll the dough out in parchment paper. So I did. I had, neatly stacked, all three pizzas in parchment and then the one I'd rolled out on it's own on my pizza paddle. I put all the topping ingredients on a tray and headed outside to the BBQ. Sunset magazine August 2006 has a great recipe for Bart's Ultimate BLT. This sandwich rocks. It's made with applewood smoked bacon (the recipe says thick cut, but we like the thinner better), tomatoes, arugula, fresh mozzarella and basil aioli. Make sure you get some good artisan peasant bread. I used my own basil aioli recipe made up on the fly: about 2 T finely chopped basil, scant 1/2 cup mayo, 1/2t chopped or crushed garlic and 1t lemon or lime juice. If you have time, let the aioli sit in the fridge for at least an hour. Tonight I'm venturing kind of/sort of into the caribbean to do a beans and rice dish (made with pintos instead of the usual kidney beans) with lots of chile and coconut milk. I'm serving it with a sweet pea puree, a simple dish of peas, jalapeno and a little butter, and some yeast rolls (kind of strange accompaniment but wanted something to dip into the red beans and rice). I made the brownies from the Essence of Chocolate cookbook. See my review in the recipes section. Had a great Heritage Zin from Cline last night. This 06, 15% alcohol was flavorful but light for a zin (not a fruit bomb). Flavors of berry but also, what I called, mushroom. My husband wasn't so keen on that flavor, calling it strange for a zin, but I liked it. It went well with the BBQ ribs we cooked. Sweet and spicy carrots were quite yummy, but my daughter said they tasted like carrots in lemonade and she really didn't like that combination. I substituted creme de cassis for the Elderberry liquor.
Thanks for checking out our new website for foodies. We hope that you check in regularly and let us know your new favorite and least favorite restaurants, foodie travel destinations, recipes, cookbooks, gadgets and gear. |