Philosophically, I struggle with big big meals between two trends: 1) reuse ingredients in as many dishes in as much as possible and reincorporate flavors, and 2) have a good amount of novelty in each dish. For example, I might pick arugula in my salad and also use arugula later as the main green in a sauce. Curious what people's thoughts are here.
Cooking and my boy are my great loves in life, and I'm going to do this during my spring break so very labor intensive dishes are okay!
He's vegetarian and don't care much for tomato. I don't eat dairy as a structural ingredient for the most part, but we feel fine eating bivalve mullosks.
I'm looking for an overarching theme but the overall pacing looks like this:
6:30 High-concept appertizer + Apertivo
6:50 Little soup or someth
7:00 Moderate course
7:30 Fruit
7:30 Entertainment intermission
8:00 High-concept appertizer (Like a one biter)
8:30 Cocktail
8:45 Heavy Course
9:00 Salad
9:10 Smoke Break
9:20 Dessert
9:30 Coffee
I really really like citrus, and in general my recent cooking interest has been using fruits in a savory way. It being Winter wrinkles that plan somewhat. Tentatively, I wanna end on scallops over some sort of risotto. I see the whole budget being about $60 + $20 of various drinks.
Kinda thinking about making spiced limoncello and using that six different ways. Just gotta pick a central theme.
Do you have any ideas for those high-concept appetizers yet?
Lol it's nothing that fancy. I made something the other day that was just saltines with garlic sauce on top and artfully arranged capers and sezchuan peppercorns. Then a blade of arugula artfully stuck into it.
My idea was that these courses would be one or two bites and based around the plating or aesthetics more than the food itself.
Ah, okay. Since you’re into using fruits in a savory way, I’ll share this idea I’ve had for a while (but haven’t tried yet):
Peel some grapes, saving the skins. Soak the peeled grapes in some sort of marinade (salt, vinegar, oil, herbs… could be anything you want, really; although simple is probably better?). Dry the grape skins completely, grind them into a powder along with some salt, msg, citric acid (or whatever seasonings sound good). To serve, wrap each grape in long, thin slices of… something that functions like prosciutto? Avocado could work, chilled roasted beets could be good… Then top with the powder (lots on half the plate or something) and maybe a tiny cheese crisp or some other crispy element for a garnish.
Edit: you could also slice the leftover peeled grapes really thin to use as a garnish in other courses.
This sounds amazing! I think I could use a peeler to make pickled beet strips and use those to wrap the grapes!
That sounds like a great idea! Pickled beets will probably hold their shape a bit better, and the acidity would be a nice touch.
If you end up trying it, please post a photo and let me know how it is!
Actually I was thinking of trying your grape idea as a test run in the next couple days!
Awesome, I’m excited to hear how it goes!