Dawn and I hosted Supper Club this month. For this month’s theme each couple drew a method of cooking out of a bag filled with cooking methods. The drawn cooking method had to be used to prepare a certain type of dish. The assignments ended up thusly: appetizers (Atlee and Amanda) drew searing, side dish (Evan and Yvonne) drew baking, main Dish (Dawn and I) drew frying, and dessert (Stacy and Jamey) drew microwave. Drinks (David and Karen) were drunk, well at least one of them, and didn’t make it. But Yvonne and Carolyn stepped up to the plate to fill the gap. Drinks were supposed to use the boiled cooking method so Yvonne prepared Thai iced teas for before/during dinner. Carolyn prepared apple-tini’s to go with dessert. Oh, but I’m a bit ahead of myself with listing the actual food courses.
For the appetizers Atlee and Amanda prepared sesame encrusted seared tuna paired with a spicy dipping sauce. I’d had all but given up on seared tuna after receiving several poor preparations in restaurants lately. Atlee and Amanda’s preparation was executed so perfectly that it has re-kindled my desire for seared tuna. The amount of sear and the texture of the tuna were superb. The spicy dipping sauce was an excellent accompaniment (for more than just tuna).
For the side dish Evan and Yvonne prepared a savory bread pudding containing roasted vegetables (red bell peppers and artichokes). Just because vegetables were involved doesn’t mean this bread pudding was healthy and boring, this dish was anything but. The bread pudding took on a soufflé like consistency and was fun to eat with chopsticks.
Dawn and I had the main course and needed to fry it. After dismissing a lot of obvious fried main courses we settled upon fried sushi. Our fried sushi main dish consisted of three items. The first item was a roll of Dawn’s invention which was dubbed burrito-roll. This roll contained chorizo sausage, re-fried beans, chipotle mayo, and fried onion flakes. It was rolled inside-out so that the rice was on the outside of the nori (seaweed wrapper). The roll was dipped in tempura batter and coated with panko flakes then deep fried.
The second item was a roll of my invention dubbed duck roll. It contained chipotle-grilled duck breast, cooked sweet potato, ginger preserves, and wasabi mayo. It was rolled with the nori on the outside, dipped in tempura batter, coated in panko flakes and deep fried. The finished sushi pieces had a bead of pomegranate juice reduction squirted across them.
The third item was another one of Dawn’s inventions; it was a shrimp tempura hand roll. A piece of shrimp tempura was combined with mango and avocado in an easy to eat hand roll. Soy sauce was provided to dip the sushi in, but it turns out Atlee and Amanda’s spicy tuna dipping sauce was the preferred accompaniment. To complement our Asian theme a small glass of Japanese whiskey was paired with the main course.
Stacy and Jamey finished off the meal with a microwave dessert. They prepared a “baked” apple using the microwave instead of the traditional oven. Instead of taking 40-60 minutes to bake an apple it took a mere 5-7 minutes. Alton Brown should hand his head in shame for not figuring that out himself. To accompany the baked apple they also made mixed-nut peanut brittle…. using a microwave! I didn’t even know you could manage melting sugar for peanut brittle in the microwave, but the results were pretty darn convincing. People who spend time slaving over pots of molten sugar are suckers.
Carolyn and Don made an apple-tini to pair with the dessert course. It featured rum, apples juice, and a healthy helping of whole cloves which I heartily approved of. It was served with in a sugar rimmed aperitif glass with a stick of cinnamon in the center.
Phew, that’s quite a supper club recap. I’m sure I missed some details. Dawn and I had a wonderful time hosting supper club; I hope everyone else enjoyed it. I feel it bears mentioning that most of our guests were sipping scotch during the evening….I think it’s safe to say that on Saturday night our house was effectively the hippest, most happening, scotch bar in Huntsville.
1 comment:
I loved the supper club. And the scotch. Oh the scotch! One of the best supper clubs so far.
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