Dinner Parties

The last couple of weeks have brought many adventures with food. I'm going to begin with sharing a couple of menus I've developed with my clients for their upcoming dinner parties. 

Two person intimate dinner menu

Pink Peppercorn Tuna Tartare

Toasted crostini drizzled with olive oil and goat cheese

 Crab salad lettuce wrap

 Miso glazed Chilean Sea Bass with a miso sake reduction sauce

 Thai red rice (mold)

 Baby Bok Choy simmered in a ginger vegetable broth

 Lemon and a mango sorbet w/ a selection of berries and sliced mango

A taste of the South meeting the West 10 person dinner party menu

South Western yellow squash soup with an ancho chili cremma, chilled

 Batter fried pickles

 Buttermilk garlic and herb biscuits

 BBQ ribs with Lester’s Espresso Rocket Bomb Sauce

Grilled Texas corn on the cob with lime, cilantro, butter and cayenne

 Stewed seasoned collard greens

Macaroni and cheese (not just macaroni and cheese, this is Lester’s).         

Peach cobbler ala mode drizzled with Fat Toad Farm from Brookfield Vermont Goat Milk Cinnamon Caramel sauce

Food travels

I'm back from a very inspiring trip that included a seven day cruise on The Norwegian Epic. The restaurants on board were very good. I'm still wanting more of that Carpaccio I had on the ship. Other food highlights were,

South Beach Miami, ox tail stew, ham croquettes, oysters on the half shell, grouper and pressed cuban sandwiches. In St Maarten we had, Guava Daiquiris, Duck liver pate, Conch salad, conch patties and escargot. St. Thomas I bought juicy sugar apples at a fruit stand and in Nassau, Kalik gold beer, Fried Snapper, Caribbean rice and conch fritters. 

Loved it all and I'll be adding even more Island, Cuban and Latin style dishes to my menus.

Travels

I'm in South Beach trying to decide where our late night dinner will be. It must be Cuban/Latin. I could use another coffee from David's Cafe on Collins Ave. 

Mango Mania

In my spare time this week, I've been playing around with mangos. The mango raisin curry cardamom ice cream is great. I had no recipe, but the flavors came out perfect. I have a recipe now, what I did worked. This would be great served with a homemade coconut cookie and a rum sauce for an over the top dinner party desert. I'm just happy with it on its own. Don't let the curry scare you, it's very refreshing.

Also made a mango and pepper glaze BBQ sauce for some beef ribs. I'm sure this would also be perfect with baby back pork ribs, grilled chicken, fish and even as a gaze for grilled pineapple.

The mango strawberry smoothie for breakfast was very refreshing.

Somewhere I have a recipe for mango banana ketchup for grilled meats. I'll be playing around with that one soon. 

Mangos are packed full of vitamins and antioxidants.

I once read that there are 1000 different varieties. Wow, I've only seen a few.

As always 

Eat well and do something good for the world each day

That reminds me, I need to compost some kitchen scraps.

Lobster Mac and Cheese

 I would love to serve my lobster macaroni and cheese at a dinner party or buffet. It's filled with big rich flavors.  I use whole wheat macaroni and even a little bit of jalapeno pepper.