Wednesday, April 29, 2009

C’s Birthday Extravaganza (file under Manna from Heaven)

As I mentioned in the last post, I did all the shopping at the Union Square Green Market. For proteins I had to go to the Union Square Wholefoods. The menu I decided upon was; Organic Stuffed Hudson Valley Mushrooms which were stuffed with Blue Crab meat which marinated overnight in Sake. Once stuffed it was topped with some sea salt, Parmesan and parsley. So good I assure you. As if that weren’t enough at the market I picked up some Raab and made a pesto from it which I put the crabmeat on top of. I also made a nice Bruschetta.

This was followed by a beautiful Spinach Salad into which my Sous Chef L put red onion, crab apples, Monterey Jack cheese and organic Hudson Valley Mushrooms on which I put a delicate Truffle, Balsamic Shallot dressing. On the side (some people were vegetarian) I put some delicious slab bacon which was provided to me at no cost by Paul Dench – Layton from the Violet Hill Farm (strongly recommend to everyone who is ever in the NYC area) because I told him what I was doing and what I did for a living.

One of C’s friends J, who works for a high end Hampton’s caterer made some of the most delicious and visually appealing spring rolls I have ever seen.

I then made a Truffled Parsnip Puree which must have been good because there was none left and it looked as if someone had licked the pot. I have my suspicions as to who (A) but they will remain an anonymous consonant in this post. I also for the vegetarians made a pasta caserole with organic rice penne which had eggplant lining the bottom with red peppers, onions, mushrooms, spinach, raab and basil.

This was followed by gorgeous Truffled organic purple potatoes and a very slow roasted brisket which I also did with a truffle red wine sauce. I did all these dishes with Truffles because I wanted to show the range of flavours that can be enhanced with Truffles.

Dinner served about fifteen to twenty people and all loved it. It was so amazingly gorgeous in NYc this weekend that we actually were able to eat on C's Brooklyn rooftop, sharing laughs, food and fun.My only real critique was that because I had to reheat the brisket due to having but one pot to cook everything in which caused it to be a little overheated. But on the whole, people loved it and I was thrilled. As was C. Happy Birthday indeed. Pictures of the dinner will follow but I have so much to do that I need to do it in another post. Sorry!

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

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