Holiday Supper Club

Last night, I had 5 friends over for a festive holiday themed supper. I think I prefer a dinner party of 8 to a dinner party of 6. Anyway here's what I learned:

• You can hide the ugly planter that poinsettias come in with a champagne chiller. And you should.
• Truffles don't last in the fridge. 
• Truffles are not kosher. 
• People love comfort food, but you need one high concept menu item for people to remember.

Recipes to follow. Soon!!!!! 

Menu 

Hors D'Oeuvres

(Parmesan Shortbread Cookies, Foie Gras Stuffed Dates with Pretzels, Crudités)

Matzoh Ball Soup

Sole with Black Truffle and Mushrooms

Couscous with Pine Nuts

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Desserts

(Apple Tarte Tatin, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cheese)

Playlist

Mostly Esperanza.

Thanksgiving Challah

The joy of Thanksgiving leftovers begins on a Friday. Just in time for Shabbat.

While challah is a no-brainer container for Thanksgiving sandwiches, it is also an underutilized wrapper for Thanksgiving fillings. My Thanksgiving Challah contained tart cranberry sauce, sweet carnival squash, and buttery turkey because that's what I had handy. But you can (and should) get creative!! The moist, dense challah recipe complements the autumnal flavors of your Thanksgiving leftovers. 

RECIPE

Ingredients 

Challah (inspired by The Challah Blog):

• 1 1/4 cup very warm water
• 1 tbsp active dry or instant yeast
• 3 tbsp honey
• 3 eggs + 1 egg for wash
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 6 cup bread flour
• 2 teaspoon salt

Recommended Filling (although you can use whatever you have leftover!!):

• 1/2 cup cranberry sauce
• 1 cup squash
• 1 cup turkey

Directions:

• In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast with the water. Add in the honey slowly. Mix gently.
• Let the mixture sit until it has developed eruptions and smells like beer.
• Mix in 3 eggs and canola oil.
• If you have a stand mixer, use it to mix in the flour.
• Mix in the salt.
• The dough should stick together as a ball. 
  • If the dough isn't sticky enough, add a bit of water. 
  • If the dough is too sticky, add a bit of flour. 
• Punch ("knead") the dough a few times. 
• Place dough ball in an oiled bowl; cover with plastic wrap; allow to sit for at least 1.5 hours. 
• Punch out the air bubbles. 
• Separate the ball into 4 equal-sized pieces. 
• Using a rolling pin, roll out each piece into a flat triangle, square, whatever. Maximize surface area but don't make each piece too thin; 1/2 inch is a good thickness.
• Spoon the cranberry sauce evenly over the dough, avoiding the edges. Add in other fillings (squash, turkey, etc.). 
• Roll up each piece into a log ("strand"). Pinch the edges so that no precious filling is lost.
• Make sure each strand is at least 10 inches. (You can stretch it, gently.)
• Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. 
• On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, braid the 4 strands. 
• Allow the dough to rise 20-30 minutes. 
• Brush the dough with the 4th egg. (I use the yolk and egg white.)
• Put the challah in the oven for 35 minutes or until the loaf is a perfect golden brown. 
• Voilà! Enjoy.

Cauliflower Soup with Mustard Seeds and Crispy Onions

After supper on Saturday, my brother asked me if a vegan could have eaten the meal. And the truth is MOSTLY YES but ACTUALLY NO, but easily TOTALLY YES. (Learning moment for me!!) I originally made this soup with chicken stock, but a vegan could substitute the chicken stock with vegetable stock -- or even water if there was no stock on hand. Soups are super versatile in that modifications and substitutions are pretty much 1:1, unlike baking. 

I made this recipe a few days ahead of showtime, as it keeps in the refrigerator so well. And if you were wondering, this recipe is 10x easier than the swan - and 10x more nutritious. You could even make it more simple by eliminating the garnish (steps 4 & 7). But personally, I'm on a mustard seed kick right now and think they're so pretty :)

RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 3 tablespoons olive oil (1 tablespoon for mustard seeds, 1 tablespoon for shallots)
• 2 shallots, diced
• 2 heads of cauliflower, cut into florets
• 2 quarts of (chicken or vegetable) stock
• Salt
• Pepper
• Crispy Onions (like these)

Directions:

1. In a stock pot, combine shallots, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and 2 pinches of salt. Over medium heat, mix until the shallots begin to brown. 
2. Put the cauliflower over the shallots and add in enough stock that 3/4 of the veggies are immersed. Raise the heat and cover for 10 minutes. 
3. Add more stock so the that the vegetables are totally immersed. Lower the heat to a simmer, and leave it alone for 20 minutes or until the cauliflower feels tender.
4. In the meantime: combine mustard seeds and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a flying pan. Set over a medium low flame until the mustard seeds begin to brown, occasionally mixing with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat and set aside. 
5. Once the cauliflower is tender, use a stick blender to purée the soup. (If you do not have a stick blender, blend it in a food processor or blender in batches.)
6. Add pepper to taste. (2 teaspoons? Be generous. Flavor!!)
7. To plate this, fill a bowl with the puréed cauliflower, sprinkle some crispy onions in the middle. And using a spoon, drizzle the mustard seeds around half the circumference of the bowl. 

Serves 8. 1 hour total time.

Truffled Turkey

This was the Friendsgiving supper club turkey. It made the whole apartment smell like truffles.

Recipe here. 

Serves 8. 30 minutes active time, 4 hours total time.

The Swan.

My Friendsgiving feast was 90% comfort food. Cheesy, carby, familiar dishes that, while expertly prepared, were not far from the canonical Thanksgiving dinner menu. Except this guy. The Swan: a spicy cayenne pepper meringue with sweet carrot purée that tasted like Thanksgiving but looked like Dominique Ansel. Delicious and photogenic. Time-consuming but not difficult. My little Turkey-day avian invention. 

My advice on this is to make extra swan bodies and necks, as the meringue cracks easily. Also, wait to plate these until dessert, as plating too early will result in the meringues dissolving in the wet carrot purée. 

RECIPE. 

Ingredients

• 9 eggs (whites only) 
• 3 cups of sugar (2 for meringue, 1 for carrot purée)
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 1 pound baby carrots
• 1 stick butter
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions

Meringue:

• Preheat the oven to 225.
• Separate the eggs, leaving the whites in a metal mixing bowl.
• Add 2 cups of sugar to the egg whites. Whisk until sugar and egg whites are evenly combined.
• Fill half a sauce pan with water over a medium flame. 
• Place the mixing bowl in the hot water. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved. (You can tell it's dissolved by feeling the egg white mixture with your fingers - if you still feel a grainy texture, keep whisking over the heat.)
• Once the sugar has dissolved, remove the bowl from the heat. Turn off the stove. 
• With an electric whisk, mix until the egg whites become white. 
• When the mixture is white, add the cream of tartar and the cayenne pepper.
• When the mixture is stiff (i.e. can be turned upside down without anything spilling), line your cookie sheet with parchment paper. 
• Using a large serving spoon, carefully plop dollops of the meringue half an inch apart on the parchment paper. Plop an additional half dollop on top of the existing dollops to increase height. 
• Using the bottom of your spoon, create a shallow cavity in the middle of each meringue dollop and flick toward one side (carefully, people). This will create the swan body / bowl for the carrot purée to sit. Flicking in one direction will make the swan's derriere look like feathers. 
• Make 10 swan bodies. If you run out of room, start on a second parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.
• Put the rest of the meringue mixture in a ziploc bag. Cut a tiny whole in the corner of the ziploc bag, and draw backwards-S shapes with the meringue; these will be the necks. Do at least 15. 
• Put the cookie sheet(s) in the pre-heated oven for 1 hour (or longer if the meringues still feel tacky.)
• Once the meringues feel dry (touch gently), turn off the oven, but leave the meringues in there for a few more hours to dry out completely.

Carrot purée:

• Fill a stock pot with water and add carrots.
• Set over high heat until the carrots are tender (15-20 minutes)
• Drain the water. 
• Add butter, pumpkin pie spice, and 1 cup of sugar to the carrots.
• Using a food processor or hand blender, purée carrots until smooth. 
• Set aside. 

Assembly:

• Place a scoop of carrot purée in the bowl of the swan's body. 
• Insert the swan's necks into the carrot purée. 
• Enjoy.

Serves 8. 1 hour active time, 4 hours total time.

The Best 25-Minute Make-Ahead Cornbread Stuffing

Last night was the inaugural supper club dinner. It was a friendsgiving feast. I just got off the phone with one friend who said she liked the stuffing best, so I wanted to share that dish first. All week, I couldn't stop thinking about the imminence of Saturday and how I would have enough time and clean pans to pull it off. Trader Joe's has a cornbread mix that's good on its own but amazing when complemented with sausage and shallots. What makes this mix worth writing about, though, is that it can be prepared 2 days and 1 dishwasher load in advance. Also, it's super quick to make.

The mix from Trader Joe's is essentially croutons and stock mix. I'm probably paying for the fact that they've assembled the ingredients, but at less than $5, it's so worth it. Also to get this done most quickly, you'll need to manage 2 hot pans at once. You can do it.

RECIPE

Ingredients: 

• 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter (I like salty things, but trust me; this will be plenty salty with unsalted butter)
• 4 cups of water
• 1 package of Trader Joe's Cornbread Stuffing Mix
• 4 sausages 
• 1 shallot
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

Directions: 

• Mince one shallot. Set aside. 
• Take the sausages out of their casing by slicing through it and pulling out the meat. Set aside. 
• In a stock pot, mix the butter, water, and contents of the stuffing packet. Set on a high flame until the mixture comes to a boil for 2-3 minutes. 
• After the mixture has been boiling for a few minutes, remove the pot from the flame and add in the contents of the crouton bag. Mix and allow to sit for 10 minutes.  
• Meanwhile, in a sauce pan, combine olive oil and shallots over a medium flame. Breaking the sausages into bite-sized pieces, add in the sausage meat into the pan as well. Stir with a wooden spoon.
• When the sausage is cooked (gray on the inside, as well as the outside), pour the contents of the sauce pan into the stock pot. Mix, and voilà! The best stuffing ever prepared in the blink of an eye.

Note: If you are doing this in advance, you can put it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. You can reheat it at 350 for 40 minutes before you serve. 

25 minutes total time. Serves 8.

Friendsgiving Supper Club Dinner!

Menu below. Recipes to follow :)

Menu

Various Hors D'Oeuvres 

Cauliflower Soup with Mustard Seeds

Black Truffled Turkey

Sharp Brussels Sprouts

Cornbread Stuffing with Sausage and Shallots

Roasted Butternut Squash

Swan

**Champagne, White Wine, Red Wine.**

Playlist

Inspired by things people knew or feel like they'd heard before. I wanted people to feel at home.

Why I set my table on Tuesday

It's Tuesday night. In 4 days, 7 friends are coming for dinner. Checklists everywhere. 

I set the table first. From a logistical perspective, it's time consuming and helps you consider everything: "Shoot, I only have 6 chairs and need 2 more"; "I don't have enough silverware to change utensils with every course"; "There is no room on the table to do this family style, so I need to set up my kitchen counter to do this buffet style." These are things that need to be addressed way before showtime. 

I also like setting the table in advance because it's a daily reminder of the imminent PARTY. Seeing a festive tablecloth when I wake up in the morning or when I'm chopping veggies reminds me of the point of this whole dance: People are going to be sitting next to each other, eating and learning and laughing. 

Of course, day-of flowers will be added and place cards will be set, but I love setting the table early because it's one thing DONE! It's the first thing guests will see as they come in hungry and excited, and entertaining is about confidence. If you have the table under control, you can be confident in a good first impression. 

Mediterranean Carrot Salad

While these carrots may look like they're from a Michelin-starred-haute-gastro-molecular restaurant in Scandinavia, I swear, it took less than 15 minutes of inactive time to make them curl. 

A weeknight dinner for a guest should be healthy, easy to prepare, and beautiful. Placing carrot ribbons in a tub of icy water makes them do acrobatics, as well as making them crunchy and firm. Moreover, the colors of the carrots, cilantro, and red onions are bright and happy. This dish is light and nutritious but doesn't look boring. 

RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 5 carrots 
• 1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence
• 2 teaspoons fresh cilantro
• 2 teaspoons sliced almonds
• A quarter of a red onion
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Feta cheese
• Salt
• Ice

Directions:

• Using a mandoline, slice the carrots into 1/8 inch ribbons.
• Place the carrot ribbons in a big bowl of ice cold water (lots of ice + frigid water from the faucet) for 15 minutes or until they begin to curl.
• Meanwhile, set the almonds, 1/2 the olive oil, and a pinch of salt in a sauce pan over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon occasionally, until the almonds turn a light brown.
• When the almonds are toasted, pour them, the olive oil, and the excess olive oil in a mixing bowl. Squeeze half a lemon, and add a pinch of Herbs de Provence. Whisk. 
• Cut the onion, cilantro, and feta. Set aside.
• When the carrots have curled, pat them dry.
• Toss carrots with the dressing in the mixing bowl. 
• Sprinkle the onions, cilantro, and feta.
• Enjoy.

30 minutes total time. Serves 2.

Loosely adapted from Lonny.

Apple Cider Cranberry Sauce

Let's be real: people in America eat turkey all year long. What makes turkey on Thanksgiving special is the sides. And the cranberry sauce.

Cranberry sauce's relevance in the Thanksgiving meal makes its quality critical to the meal's success. Homemade cranberry sauce is vastly superior to that of cans -- and takes so little to prepare. I prefer mine sweet (not saccharine) and tart, and here's my recipe.

RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 12-oz bag of cranberries
• 1 cup apple cider
• 1 cup sugar

Directions:

• Place cider and sugar in a pan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture starts to boil.
• Lower heat to low, and allow the mixture to simmer for 5 minutes.
• Add in the cranberries until they pop and the consistency of the sauce is just how you like it. (Note: sauce will thicken as it cools.)
• Enjoy.

30 minutes total time. Serves 10 cranberry sauce eaters or 5 cranberry sauce junkies.