Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
The menu
Back in med school, we used to have dinner parties for our friends. A lot of dinner parties. Paul Prudhomme’s barbecue shrimp was a favorite, since it was easy to prepare, tasty, and impressive. Up north, once we’d made some friends who were foodies (and, thus, would reciprocate in kind), we ventured into more elaborate territory — like raviolis in a browned butter and sage sauce.
Tomorrow night, we’re having my partner and his wife over for dinner. Mind you, I like to get complicated just for the fun of it, but it helps my motivation to know that his wife loves to cook. Thus, there’s at least some thin sliver of hope for reciprocation.
Here’s the tentative menu . . .
Hors d’oeuvres:
Dates wrapped in bacon. The linked recipe stuffs the dates with Parmigiano-Reggiano, but we recently had this dish with almonds inside and found it a tastier version.
Marinated olives. Here’s a typical recipe; I’ll probably cut back on the white vinegar, substitute in some balsamic vinegar, and add a good quality olive oil.
Hummus with pita points. This recipe is okay, except I object to the canned garbanzos. Make them from scratch and peel off the skins — hummus is a whole lot better with freshly prepared beans.
Main course:
Moroccan lamb tagine with apricots — perhaps something like this, or this. I want to add some chunks of yam and rutabaga just to make things interesting.
I’ll serve this with couscous (thus making my garbanzo beans serve double duty) and I’ll probably make a focaccia, too, in deference to my son.
Next course, the show-stopper — b’stila, which Dean immortalized a couple of years ago. Since I’ve had more time to work on this one, I’m going to use a duck confit, which I started on Monday.
There. A real Middle Eastern feast. Now if only I can get Karen to belly dance for us!
Finally, for dessert, bread pudding. I’ll probably make a creme anglaise for it.
Almost makes you want to visit me in Bako, don’t it?
D.
Yam, yes. Having included sweet potatoes/yams in similar dished, I’d say you’re good to go. Rutabaga… I have reservations (& I like rutabaga). It’s got a pretty strong flavor, so it’s kind of a gamble.
If you do use it, I definitely want to know if it worked or not.
Hope it is a fun evening.
Thanks, Lucie. Hope you’re enjoying the holiday.
ps, thanks . . . I think I’ll cube it, roast it separately, and then decide if I want to add it in. Or maybe I’ll just add some potato.
If the b’stila doesn’t knock them out, nothing will.
The goal is to make ’em breathless with the dates, and keep ’em in a similar state throughout the evening. There may be a problem with my plan, but we’ll let the homicide detectives worry about that 🙂
We had 8 family members and one special guest for Christmas Eve Dinner. Various stand-up and munch hors d’oeuvres, faucon salad, roast beef tenderloin with horseradish cream sauce, brussels sprouts with roasted pecans and Meyer lemon sauce, twice baked potatoes, breads & butters, peppermint ice cream in dark chocolate shells with hot fudge sauce, whipped cream and mini cupcakes. It was GOOOOOOOD.
Oh, and on the rutabaga question – I don’t mind it, in fact quite like it when it is properly prepared. My mother always did it just boiled and mashed, which makes it ugh. I quite like it roasted, though.
It just doesn’t say ‘Morocco’ to me. Go ahead, tell me I’m wrong, that you did it and she loved it. 🙂
Lucie: sounds incredible. I had to google faucon salad, which sounds great, too.
Dean: I blew off the rutabaga and made the stew with lots of orange things: carrots, yams, and apricots. That, I think, was more than enough. Garnish with green stuff (Italian parsley and cilantro) and it looks nice, too.