One of my favorite aspects of cooking is preparing a menu for an event. I always use these opportunities to test out ideas, try out new techniques, and expand my repertoire in the kitchen. Usually this also involves allowing time for practice runs, which can at times produce tasty accidents.
By no means am I an expert at menu planning or food pairings, but I love giving the various aspects of a great meal a good deal of thought. Last week was my wife’s birthday, and a significant one at that, so it provided me an opportunity to do something special for her and at the same time have a little fun. I thought I’d share the process I went through in preparing the menu and offer up a few tips that might help the next time you are planning for an occasion.
I firmly believe that every culinary battle is won before it is ever cooked, so you have to have a plan. We’ve recently moved and, unlike the half built Death Star, my kitchen is not yet fully armed or operational. Also, my wife and I have been trying to eat better after nearly a month of take out. Knowing my production limitations and keeping in mind the desire to eat healthy I set out to plan a light, yet satisfying meal that I knew she would enjoy.
Know your audience
My wife is exponentially better than I am in terms of eating a colorful plate and I knew going into her birthday dinner that I would need to keep things fresh and bright throughout. Early on I knew that the bulk of my ingredients for three of the four courses I was planning would be heavy on vegetation. Not only would this keep things light through the meal, but it would provide the opportunity to keep things colorful.
The other main thing I had to keep in mind is that we are trying to get more seafood into our diet. As much as we love a good burger or steak we want to reduce our red meat intake and get more fish into the rotation. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to put this plan in action.
Consider flavors, textures
Almost immediately I knew I wanted to do a soup, a salad, a main entree and a dessert. In doing my research I started with the main entree and worked from the middle of the meal to the beginning keeping the various flavors and textures in mind.
When it comes to celebrity chefs I have two serious man crushes – Chef Michael Symon for all things pork and Chef Eric Ripert for all things seafood. Even though I’ve seen every episode of Avec Eric I have never attempted to recreate any of the dishes he’s made on the show despite them looking quite good and relatively simple. After perusing his recipes, I chose his Scallops in a Curry Lime Brothas the featured dish for the evening, which helped me narrow my choices for the dishes that would precede them.
Since the scallop dish consisted of just scallops, a curry broth and cilantro for garnish it would certainly be light. As a result it lead to me to go a little heavier in terms of a salad dish than I might have if I was serving a denser protein that had a starchier side dish. Ultimately, I chose a beet and citrus salad with a pinenut vinaigrette I found over at Serious Eats. The heartiness of the beets with a nice, bright counter balance from the citrus felt like the right move.
Finally, with the middle two dishes chosen I looked for a soup that would fit with the overall flavors. The curry lime broth for the scallops would have a touch of spice and bright, clean flavors thanks to the cilantro and lemongrass and so I chose to do a gaspacho that I thought would play off those elements as well.
Take a few risks
Risk was my middle name for this meal. I had never made any of the dishes before, so I knew there would be a high degree of satisfaction if I were somehow able to pull it all off. Of all the dishes the scallop entree was the riskiest if only because seafood is the biggest weakness in my culinary game. Working in my favor, however, was the fact that there wasn’t a lot of actual cooking in the preparation. Actually, most of the cooking of the scallops was done by the broth after they had a brief stay in a very hot oven.
Despite never having made Ripert’s dish before I felt very confident as my wife’s birthday approached. So much so that I did the unthinkable – I changed an element of the dish just because I could. Rather than simply garnish the scallops with fresh cilantro leaves, I thought it would be better to make a cilantro cashew pesto to spoon on top of the finished dish. What may in hindsight seem arrogant turned out to be a nice touch that I believe brought a lot of flavor and texture to the dish.
Practice, if necessary
While I didn’t really have the time or the opportunity to practice any of the dishes before the big birthday dinner I have been known to do test runs before major holidays. If you’re thinking of trying something new for a big event or meal, I highly recommend budgeting the time and materials to assemble a test dish well in advance. As an example, after last year’s Thanksgiving Dry Run I scrapped the Cranberry-Hard Cider Reduction not because we didn’t like it, but it just didn’t feel like the right fit as preparations for Thanksgiving approached.
I abhor the “cooking is too hard, let’s dumb it down mentality” because I don’t think that is the case at all. Most kitchen tasks are actually quite simple at their core and that the only time things can become difficult is when you have to coordinate them all.
Have fun
Leading up to my wife’s birthday I’d joke with her by saying “Well, you know what Thursday is”. To which she would respond, “yes, it’s peanut butter lovers day” or “it’s National Pig Day”. Since there was no bacon or other pork products in the first three courses, I decided to get a little playful with dessert. We both really enjoy the contrast of salty and sweet and I struck gold when I found this recipe for bacon almond brittle. The bittersweet flourless chocolate mini cakesI was planning on serving are rather dense and I wanted something with a more savory element to cut through that. As it turned out, the bacon almond brittle was such a hit I could have just served a plate of that.
After all the thought and planning that went into the big birthday dinner menu I’m pleased to report that it came out just as I had played it out in my head. I was very satisfied with the dishes I produced and, most importantly, my wife was amazed with dinner which made all the effort worthwhile.
What tips do you have for planning a menu for a big dinner or event?
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Avoid the Slime
March 28th, 2012That picture looks awfully appealing, no?
Awful by itself is probably a more apt description. That right there is pink slime, a seemingly unnatural combination of lean beef trimmings that have been separated from the fat and are passed through a centrifuge, then commonly exposed to an ammonia gas to kill bacteria such as e coli. You might have heard of it, as it has been in the news quite a bit over the past week.
If you have a package of ground beef in your refrigerator, then there is about a 70% chance that your meat contains this filler product. Some times called boneless lean beef trimmings or finely textured lean beef, pink slime is an industrial product created by those in the beef industry in the interest of not wasting any bits of meat that travel along the production line. The USDA has declared pink slime to be a safe source of nutrition and does not require companies using it as filler in their ground meat products to specifically label its presence or the quantity thereof because they consider it beef.
ABC News recently published an article titled “Where you can get ‘pink-slime’ free beef” where they sent out inquiries to a number of grocery store chains to determine whether or not their ground beef contained any of this filler product. One of the most disturbing parts of this article was from an interview with Kit Foshee, a former corporate quality assurance manager with Beef Products, Inc., the creator of pink slime, who stated that it “kind of looks like Play-Doh. It’s pink and frozen. It’s not what the typical person would consider meat.”
Foshee went on to say that “pink slime comes from a low grade of beef trimmings unlike what they called real ground beef…The low grade trimmings come from parts of the cow most susceptible to contamination, often close to the hide, which is highly exposed to fecal matter. But, because of BPI’s treatment of the trimmings – simmering them in low heat, separating the fat and tissue using a centrifuge and spraying them with ammonia gas to kill germs – the USDA says it’s safe to eat.”
It was also recently reported that the USDA had purchased millions of dollars of pink slime for use in ground beef that is intended to be sold to schools. And while the USDA has gone on record saying they are leaving it up the individual schools to decide whether they want to purchase beef either with or without the so called lean finely textured beef, it is still unsettling that some schools will serve meat containing up to 25% pink slime to children across the country.
Now I rarely get on my soap box about food matters, mostly because what you eat or don’t eat really should be a personal decision. For my family I do my best to keep processed foods out of my home, I ensure the labels of whatever I do buy show that there is no high fructose corn syrup, and I work hard to do most of my shopping around the perimeter of the store, specifically in the produce, meat and dairy departments. But that is what works for us and I wouldn’t pass judgment on anyone that doesn’t think this way. However, I can’t bare to stand silent on the matter of the slime.
I don’t care what the USDA says, what BPI’s “pink slime is a myth” website purports to explain away, or what any “expert” might say to defend this practice. Pink slime isn’t food and shouldn’t be consumed, especially when you consider that it’s original use was as an additive to dog food. Anything that has to be cooked at low heat and then sprayed with ammonia (regardless of the fact that it is considered a naturally occurring substance and can be found in some quantities in beef itself) in order for it to be edible shouldn’t be considered a food product.
The ABC News article does a nice job breaking down the response from the various supermarket chains and provides good information for consumers to make a educated choice about where they can purchase pink slime free ground beef. However, if you’ve read any of my columns with any regularity, you know there is only one true way to avoid the slime.
Grind it yourself!
Now you might be saying to yourself that grinding your own meat takes time and possibly an investment in some equipment. Sure, it does. Anything worth doing, or in this case avoiding, takes time and money. To be perfectly clear, I’m not advocating for anyone to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a professional grade grinder. In fact, some the best grinders for home use that money can buy are less than fifty dollars.
I have been grinding my own meat whether it is beef, pork, chicken or lamb for the better part of five years. It is very rare that I ever purchase pre-ground meat and it is usually poultry from a source that I trust. I own a heavy duty electric grinder with a one horsepower motor that can churn out upwards of four hundred pounds of a meat an hour. It was pricey, but it is fantastic for big jobs like when I make fifty pounds or more of sausage. However, I don’t use that it all that often.
My favorite is actually a simple cast iron manual grinder that can attach to my countertop. It is easy to clean and great for when I have less than ten pounds of meat to grind. When I finish the island I’m building in the kitchen of our new house I have another manual cast iron grinder that I’m going to bolt onto the countertop so I always have a grinder at the ready.
It doesn’t take much to get started and you can really get creative in the meat blends you make. Whether it is a custom burger blend or a meatball mix there are so many possibilities when you are grinding the meat yourself from whole roasts, loins or shoulders. Some time ago I wrote an article about demystifying homemade sausage that gives a little more insight to how I approach grinding meat at home.
So, go get your grind on and avoid the slime. While it will take a little extra effort the higher quality meat you will have and the half inch you’ll add to your biceps will make it all worthwhile.
Photo credit: jamieoliver.com
Tags: commentary, Cooking, Food & Drink, jamie oliver, pink slime
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