Adventures in Catering

Hi pals - sorry for my tardiness in posting this week. I've been busy blah blah blah. I have something different for ya'll though! Last Saturday night John, Adam and I catered a birthday party for some good friends of John's. The birthday girl loves appetizers, so our menu consisted of small bites. She also said she loves seafood and is big on cheese. Can do! The picture for this post is of the cheese plate I constructed, and it was pretty fabulous if I do say so myself. Here was our menu for the evening:

Homemade parmesan and thyme short bread crackers

Homemade hummus

Store bought pita chips

Pan fried onion dip with homemade potato chips (made in our deep fryer!)

Grilled asparagus with pancetta and citrus vinaigrette

Scallop ceviche

Crab salad served in endive leaves

Smoked salmon cucumber sandwiches

Carnitas tacos with avocado and mango salsa

Best Cheese Plate Ever with grapes, dried figs and apricots, marcona almonds, and crackers

Chocolate covered strawberries

Lemon sorbet in frozen lemon cups with vodka

Dude. I know, right? Sounds like a lot! There were 20 or so peeps at the party, and we wanted to have a really nice variety of bites for people. The fantastic host (Kevin, the party was for his lovely wife) was mixing margaritas and mojitos, and pouring bourbon and wine all night. I was worried about getting everything together, but it all came out beautifully! We worked as a great team, starting to prep at 3pm after shopping at Bristol Farms. We had the first items on the table for the guests at 7.30pm and continued serving as things were ready throughout the evening.

I'll start with the cheese plate - it included a 2 year white cheddah, rosemary crusted manchengo, cave aged gruyere, maytag blue cheese, triple creme brie, and goat cheese. It was a really nice mix of hard and soft cheeses, and the birthday girl was thrilled. I put out bowls of dried figs, dried apricots and marcona almonds, as well as some tiny grapes on the plate. Turned out pretty nice, if I do say so myself!

Okay, carnitas. I used Rick Bayless' epic recipe. I bought a 3 pound piece of boneless pork shoulder and cut it into three even pieces, then marinated it in 1/2 cup of fresh lime juice and some salt for an hour. Meanwhile I melted 2 pounds of lard (yes, lard - use it) over medium heat in a large pot. Once the lard was melted I added the pork and its marinade to the pot. The lard came to a slow, lazy boil - that's what you want. I kept it at medium heat and monitored the bubbles, because you just want to slowly cook this for now. The pork cooked this way for 2 hours, then I turned the heat up to medium high for a half hour - the bubbles came fast and furious then! This gives your pork an amazing crunchy outside with a melty soft inside. Guhhh it was so amazing. We served the pork with slices of avocado, cilantro leaves, and a delish mango salsa that John made. You'll have to ask him for the recipe.

Speaking of John: Oh hai Guest Blog! I wanted John to tell you in his own words how to make his oh so delicious crab salad. Take it away, Johnny!

"My take on the Crab Salad is inspired from a Swedish “recipe” taught

to me first-hand by a real live Swede.

Get yourself (and check yourself) a big bowl. One sturdy enough to
withstand a flailing drunken limb. Insert into the bowl already cooked
bay shrimp. If you didn’t know that you could purchase shrimp that
way, please stop reading now. Now insert real, cooked, crabmeat. I
find claw meat usually less expensive, unless you oft procure seafood
from the black market, which I strongly encourage. Salt and pepper the
protein. I am told that in Sweden you don’t need to perform this step.
Which step? Yeah…that one… In Sweden Land, they often use imitation
crab.

Dice sweet onion, and insert it into the bowl. Cut fresh dill over the
bowl, and you won’t need to do any inserting. Now add mayonnaise. This
is where you need to be careful…add much less than you think you need,
then blend the ingredients to see if you have the right consistency.
If you need to add more mayonnaise, go ahead and add a little bit
more. Be careful. Too much can be an expensive mistake.

After you’ve done a solid amount of gentle blending, cover it,
refrigerate it, and forget about it for an hour or two. Remember to
taste this sucker at obvious stages throughout. If you need to know
why, please stop reading this now.

Remove the mixture from the fridge and serve in halved avocados (or
endive leaves if a finger food appetizer). Cut the bottoms of the
halved avocados in order to stabilize them on the plate. Use the
removed sliver as garnish, accenting it with fresh dill, salt, and
cracked pepper. Salt and pepper the avocados as needed. Garnish with
lemon wedge. Tell your guests to squeeze the lemon to taste. Chill the
plates in the freezer.

Leftovers are great on crusty bread or crackers the next morning.


Ingredients for 6 (Approximate)

- 1/2 lb. cooked bay shrimp
- 1/2 lb. cooked crab meat
- ½ medium sweet onion
- Fresh dill (use your judgment)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 Lemon"

Thanks John! I hope everyone tries this super recipe!

Okay, one more recipe and then I'll wrap up this uber long post. Thanks to those who are still with us. DUDE. The pan fried onion dip was the SHIZ. I thinly sliced up two large yellow onions and put them in a frying pan with 2 tablespoons of delicious irish butter and a two count of olive oil. I caramelized those suckers well - adding some white wine here and there so they didn't burn, and the sugar in the wine helps the caramelization. Be sure to salt and pepper to taste, kids! I also added two nice pinches of cayenne for a good kick. Once the onions were done I shut of the pan and let them cool. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment I added 4 ounces of room temperature cream cheese, a 1/2 cup of creme fraiche, and 1/2 cup of mayo. I mixed those together until smooth, then added the onions, mixed some more and my oh my. It is the most out of this world onion dip you'll ever have. We made the potato chips by thinly slicing russet potatoes on a mandolin (be so careful! extremely sharp, as one of my fingers found out) into a bowl of water. They were dried thouroghly and thrown into peanut oil heated in our deep fryer. I insist you purchase one and make this dip NOW.

All right all right, I've blatherd on long enough. It was a really great experience, and I must say the guests loved the food. I would do this again, but I think the key is to stick with small bites. Let me know if you'd like any of the other recipes listed above.

See you next week!

xo

d