A Mid-Summer Soiree: Dinner Party Menu

Generally, on Friday nights, I have my children and grandchildren over for dinner and, very often, it isn't until the very last minute that I know exactly who is coming and how many friends of theirs will be tagging along.  

In order not to mess with my open door not-quite-empty-nest policy, I try to do the bulk of my entertaining with a few dinner parties sprinkled over the course of the year.  Because they are generally not on Shabbat, my menu can be somewhat more complex and I don't have to take the constraints of Shabbat into account.

And, yes, I am known for going a little bit over the top with my menus...but when I get in the swing of making and trying out new recipes, I am often having too much fun to stop :)

This was a recent, mid-Summer soirée for a handful of couples.

Hors d’Oeuvres
Armenian Meatballs with Plum Sauce
*Mushroom & Pesto Ears
Fried Olives
White Bean Dip (pita chips, baby carrots, sliced peppers)
Preplated 1st Course
Cold Corn Soup garnished with Sliced Shitake Mushrms & Minced Chives
Salad
Radicchio leaf filled with Avocado, endive, heirloom tomatoes
Buffet
Beef Tagine
Grilled Chicken Cutlets with Grilled Peaches-Sauce in Gravy Boats
Lemon-Pistachio Rice
Roasted Potatoes
Steamed Asparagus
Dessert
Nectarine & Blackberry Galette
Rhubarb & Raspberry Galette
Chocolate Truffles, *Meringues, *Candied Orange Rind
Melon
Coffee/Tea

*recipes on Kosher Cookbook App for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

Gloria Kobrin's Cream Cheese Cake: The Creamiest Yet Lightest Cheese Cake That You Will Ever Eat!

 

Cream Cheese Cake

INGREDIENTS

• 1 ½ tablespoons sweet butter-softened
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (9+ crackers)
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 12 ounces cream cheese-softened
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• pinch of cream of tartar
• optional: 2 pints strawberries/blueberries
• 2/3 cup melted seedless strawberry, blackberry jam

EQUIPMENT

• 8 inch spring form pan*
• electric blender
• large mixing bowl
• electric beater
• pan large enough to hold 1 inch water and spring form pan
• small saucepan
• long spatula

DIRECTIONS

1. Spread butter thickly around sides of baking pan. Sprinkle sides of pan with crumbs by holding the pan at an angle and rotating it to receive crumbs. Pat remaining crumbs on the bottom of pan. Freeze pan for 30 minutes.
2. Separate eggs. Place egg whites in large mixing bowl and yolks in a small dish.
3. Pour cream into saucepan and heat over low flame.
4. While cream is heating, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, egg yolks, salt and vanilla in electric blender until mixture is smooth. Carefully touch cream with the tip of your finger. It should be very hot. Beat scalded cream into cream cheese mixture very slowly. Mixture will be thin.
5. Preheat oven to: 300 F.
6. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add pinch of cream of tartar and beat until stiff not dry. Fold whites into batter gently but thoroughly. Pour into spring form pan.
7. Pour enough boiling water (about 4 cups) in baking pan to reach one inch up the sides. Place filled spring form pan in water and bake 1 ½ hours. Cool 30 minutes before refrigerating for six hours.
8. Remove cake from refrigerator. Take a long spatula and press around the outside of the pan to loosen the cake from the sides; then push up the bottom of the pan and remove cake from ring. If a lot of crumbs remain on the pan instead of on the cake you can pat some extra graham crackers crumbs around it and no one will know. The bottom of the cake pan is another story. I find it easier to freeze the cake and remove the bottom of the pan after the cake has frozen. You can also leave the bottom on and cover it with berries.
9. Freezing advice: Freeze the cheese cake before you wrap it and you will preserve the smoothness of the cake. Conversely, remove the wrapping before you defrost it so you don’t put any dents in the cake.
10. To serve: You can serve the cheese cake plain and it will be delicious. To make a fabulous presentation cover it with strawberries or blueberries or a combination of both. Glaze the berries with melted seedless strawberry or blackberry jam and allow the jam to drip down the sides of the cake. It is stupendous!

* You can use a 9 inch spring form pan. The cake will be flatter but just as good.

A Prelude to Cheesecake: A Shavuot Luncheon Menu from Kosher Cookbook

Watermelon Gazpacho*
Fried Fish with tartar Sauce*
Pasta with Cippolini Onions, Broccoli, & Parmesan
Mango, Jicama, Corn Salad*
Cream Cheese Cake*
Poppyseed Cake*
Fruit

*recipes available on the Kosher Cookbook App for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch*

It's all leading up to Chocolate Cheesecake! Another Shavuot Luncheon menu from Kosher Cookbook

Cream of Tomato Soup*
Baked Poached Salmon with Green Sauce*
Avocado Salad with Jicama,Tomatoes & Olives
Spinach & Mozzarella Manicotti
Chocolate Cheesecake*
Mandelbrodt*
Fruit

*Recipes available on the Kosher Cookbook App for iPhone*

Tired of all that heavy stuff? A lovely Halibut salad for your Shavuot lunch!

 

Halibut Salad

A very mild fish salad that gets its kick from cocktail sauce.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 ½ pounds center cut fresh halibut*
• 1 large onion
• 1 bay leaf
• 6 black peppercorns
• 2 large lemons
• 4 large stalks of celery
• 1 cup or more mayonnaise
• 2 12 ounce bottles cocktail sauce

* Ask your fishmonger to remove the bone and tie the pieces together.

DIRECTIONS

1. Rinse fish. Place it in pan and cover ¾ of fish with water.
2. Peel and quarter onion. Add onion, bay leaf and peppercorns to water. Bring water to a boil and quickly reduce it to a simmer. You should barely see the water moving and there should be no odor at all. Poach fish until it is completely opaque. If the halibut is very thick, you should turn it over once during poaching. (Don’t worry about breaking the fish, you are going to flake it anyway.)
3. Remove poached halibut from liquid and place in mixing bowl. Peel off skin. Squeeze lemon juice from both lemons over freshly poached fish. Let it cool completely before flaking it.
4. Wash celery vigorously. Make sure to scrape out all the dirt in the veins. Dry celery stalks and dice. You should have 3-4 cups of celery. Mix diced celery with the flaked halibut. Add one cup of mayonnaise. Mix well. The salad should hold together on a fork. Add more mayonnaise if you prefer the salad to be more moist.
5. Line serving platter with lettuce leaves. Mound the halibut salad in the center. Decorate platter with sliced peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and olives. Serve cocktail sauce and crackers on the side.

Exotic Memorial Day BBQ in Your Own Kitchen! Chicken, Pineapple and Snow Pea Kebobs

 Ever since I can remember, Memorial Day has become synonymous with barbecues.  These kebobs are the perfect solution for those of us city folk without a backyard grill because can be made on a stove top grill pan!  You can even make them and bring them to a friend's backyard bbq, or simply have a family barbecue in your own dining room.

Chicken, Pineapple and Snow Pea Kebobs M Yield: 30 Kebobs

Easy to make, impressive to behold and truly delicious to eat! The stove top grilling caramelizes the sugar in the pineapple and the marinade on the chicken. These kebobs can be eaten hot or room temp-the perfect lunch, dinner or picnic meal.
Prep time: 30 min. + overnight marinating   Cooking time: 16-18 min. (5-6 kebobs at a time) on grill plus 20-30 min. in oven
Ingredients
3 pounds white meat chicken-cubed
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup sesame oil
1 cup teriyaki sauce
8 garlic cloves-smashed
2 tablespoons fresh thyme
2 inches fresh gingerroot-peeled and minced
1 pineapple-peeled,cored and cut into one inch pieces
2/3 pound snow peas-trimmed
Olive oil spray
Equipment
30 eight inch bamboo skewers
Large mixing bowl
Plastic wrap
Foil
Stove top grilling pan
Pastry brush
Two oven to table serving casseroles or one large foil pan
Directions

1. Rinse off chicken cubes. Make sure all fat and pieces of membrane have been removed. Separate cubes according to thickness so you can place cubes of like thickness on skewers.
2. Mix sesame oil, vegetable oil, teriyaki sauce, smashed garlic, thyme and minced ginger in mixing bowl.  Mix well. Pour chicken cubes into marinade and stir until all the cubes are covered with marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
3. Soak bamboo skewers in water for one hour before you plan to use them.
4. To form kebobs: Push one cube of chicken on to skewer, then pineapple, and then a snowpea. You can fit three chicken cubes on each skewer. Repeat this process until all the components have been skewered. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate if you are not cooking them immediately. Reserve marinade for basting and refrigerate as well.
5. To grill: Spray grill pan with olive oil. Heat pan over medium high flame.
6. Preheat oven to: 400 F.
7. Brush five or six kebobs (depending on the size of your pan) with marinade. Carefully, place kebobs on grill pan. Grill about eight or nine minutes  before turning kebobs over , basting them again and grilling an additional eight or nine minutes. You should see significant grill marks on the chicken and the whole kebob should look shiny and caramelized.  I find the constant turning of the kebobs to ensure that the chicken is completely cooked on a stove top grill very time consuming and tiring. It’s easier to place grilled kebobs into oven to table casseroles  as you finish them and set them aside until all the kebobs have been grilled. Cover  them with foil and place them in oven for 20-30 minutes. Check one of the thicker kebobs to make sure the chicken is cooked through. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Getting Ready for Shavuot: Mushroom Manicotti--Can Be Made Pareve!

Mushroom Manicotti D Yield: 14 Manicotti

The richness of the mushrooms is almost decadent.  The sauce is pure essence of mushrooms thickened with flour and milk-You can’t beat it. Should you need to or want to make it pareve, use vegetable broth for the milk and leave out the cheese. It’s still delicious; but not as decadent.
Prep time: 30 min.  Baking time: 30 min.
Ingredients
1 box manicotti (14 manicotti)
2 pounds mushrooms-sliced
1 bunch scallions
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup whole milk
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
¼ cup chopped Italian parsley
Olive oil spray/ 1 tablespoon olive oil for greasing casserole
Optional: 4 ounces assorted gourmet mushrooms sautéed in 1 tablespoon olive oil
Equipment
Large pot
Large skillet
Colander
Mixing bowl large enough to hold colander
Oven to table casserole large enough to hold manicotti in a single layer
Directions

1. Boil manicotti according to package directions. Using a slotted spoon, lift each manicotti out of the pot separately and let it rest on a piece of waxed /parchment paper so that it won’t stick. Do not rinse manicotti. Set them aside.
2. Wash scallions. Discard root ends. Slice green and white parts thinly.
3. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium flame. Add sliced mushrooms and scallions. Sauté until mushrooms have given up their juices and have browned slightly. Season with salt and pepper. Taste. Adjust seasoning. Remove from heat.
4. Place colander into a large bowl and allow mushrooms to drain completely. Return liquid to skillet.
5. Heat mushroom liquid over low flame. Add flour and stir vigorously until mixture is smooth. Slowly pour in milk until a sauce has formed. Set aside.
6. To stuff manicotti: Forget using utensils. They just complicate the job. Hold each manicotti shell with one hand and stuff it with the mushroom mixture with the other. Nothing should come out of either side. Add any extra mushrooms to the sauce.
7. Preheat oven to: 350 F.
8. Spray casserole with olive oil.
9. Arrange stuffed manicotti in a single layer in casserole. Pour mushroom sauce on top; and then sprinkle the top with parmesan. Sprinkle with chopped parsley right before serving.
10. Optional: If you can’t get enough mushrooms and you want to bring this dish up a notch: sauté gourmet mushrooms and scatter over the top of the cooked casserole right before sprinkling the parsley before serving.