smallpleasurescateringblog

Winter Fruit Gratin

Winter Fruit Gratin 

 

I'm a big fan of rich decadent desserts, especially cakes and tarts. But as my clientele, my family and I have grown older, I have come to see the wisdom-and sometimes neccesity of a lighter dessert, especially after a big holiday meal. So for the past couple of years, I have sought out interesting non-pastry ways with fruit to end the meal.

 

For my family's Christmas dinner this year, I hit upon a delicious fruit gratin. Normally, I would make a zabaglione sauce to brulée for a fruit gratin, but again, with age, I appreciate scaling down the work load, too. So this fruit gratin which uses mascarpone (always wonderful with roasted pears) rather than a sauce that needs to be whipped up at the last minute, had another advantage. And on top of that, I had recently received a couple of sample bottles of an extraordinarily delicious Caramel Liquer from Lovoka. The liquer was great for sipping on its own (which we did with the fruit gratin), but I felt it also cried out for a luscious pear or apple dessert. Yes, I was happy to come across this Winter Fruit Gratin recipe in Gourmet, which I easily adapted.

 

Everyone's mouth watered as the aroma of the apples and pears cooked in the Lovoka Caramel Liquer wafted over them as I pulled the dish from the oven. I'm cetain you will enjoy this dish as much as we all did. Recipe follows...

Salads for a Holiday Dinner Part 2- Mixed Greens with Asian Pear, Spiced Pecans, Pomegranate and Blue Cheese

 

In Part 1 of this series, I said that I offered two salads at my family's Christmas dinner this year- one a preset Roasted Beet and Burratta Salad and one on the buffet. BTW, it's often the case at buffet parties I cater that there will be two or more salads offered. I guess we Southern Californians are just salad eaters. 

 

The second salad I served, this Mixed Baby Greens with Asian Pear, Pomegranate Seeds, Spiced Pecans and Blue Cheese, is one that became a favorite for me during last year's holiday sesaon. We served a couple of variations of it again and again. I have been captivated by pomegranate seeds in salads for quite a while now, but became captivated by Asian pears about a year ago. Blue cheese has always been a favorite of mine, and then when my sous chef, Rob Lawrence, began making killer spiced pecans- well, a star was born.

 

I use Maggie's Farm's delicious Stellar Mix (available at the Santa Monica farmers' markets) for this salad. The mix contains an abundance of all sorts of herbs and flower petals, which I find especially festive for the holidays.

 

Salads for a Holiday Dinner Part 1- Roasted Beets with Burrata and Pickled Onions

I heard a radio feature on NPR shortly before Thanksgiving where a gentleman shared the opinion that Thanksgiving dinner should not start with a salad. He also said there should be no appetizers (yikes!), but that's for another time. Suffice it to say, I could not disagree with him more. We are salad eaters in my family. Holiday dinners always begin with salad, and this Christmas, there were two, because I just couldn't make up my mind which I wanted.

 

I had been invited to a holiday party, not long before, at a fancy Beverly Hills hotel, where the meal opened with a Caprese Salad. As you may know, serving Caprese Salad (with hard pink tomatoes) in winter is a big pet peeve of mine! Even in southern California where our growing seasons are much longer than most places, tomatoes are never good enough to be showcased in a Caprese sald in December.

I did like their presentation, though- tomato slices stacked with a sort of quenelle of Burrata (the wonderful cream enhanced mozzarella) topping it. When one of my dining companions asked what I thought of the salad, I gave her my little rant about tomatoes in winter, and then out of my mouth popped the idea of doing it with roasted beets (so much better suited to a winter salad) for Christmas dinner. And I'm so glad of it. I served it as an overgrown amuse bouche  set at the table, before we went on to the second salad on the buffet. It's a lovely presentation, and we all very much enjoyed it. Hope you will, too.

 

BTW, some folklore about beets-they're considered an aphrodisiac- an "old wive's tale" says that if a man and a woman eat from the same beet, they'll fall in love. Beets were also favored by Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love, as a means of maintaining her beauty. Finally, they are said to symboize love. Well, I can't swear to any of that, but all of this suggests this little salad would make a great starter course at an intimate sit down wedding.

Recipe follows...

Noodle Kugel

Individual Noodle Kugels

 

In my last post, I started out the week of Hanukkah with an offering of bite sized Potato Pancakes or latkes, perfect for serving as a tray passed hors d'oeuvre. In this post, I'm ending the week of Hanukkah with another possible favorite dish of your Bubbe's, served in individual portions.

 

Now it's true that I didn't have a Bubbe, but as a young woman, I lived in New York City. My first apartment was on the Upper West Side, just a block and a half away from the Fairway Produce Market. The store was a delight for me to browse, with big barrels of pickles and all sorts of exotic (to me, anyway) deli items. It didn't take long before I discovered a wonderful new treat- Noodle Pudding (aka Noodle Kugel). I had grown up eating lots of my New Orleans' grandmother's bread pudding, and even the occasional rice pudding, but noodle pudding? This was a whole new world. It wasn't long, though, before Noodle Kugel became a favorite treat of mine.

 

The good news for parties is, that Noodle Kugel can easily be made in individual portions. They can either be tray passed, or served as a selection on a "small plates" buffet (along with demi-tasse spoons) which have become so popular. All you need is a collection of porcelain ramekins or small bowls to bake the kugels in. The BIA bowls I used are available at finer kitchen supply stores, and even upscale grocery stores. For the Noodle Kugel recipe, just continue to the next page...

Potato Pancakes with Smoked Salmon

 

This weekend marks the beginning of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. There is a tradition of eating fried foods at this time, especially latkes, or potato pancakes. Not that I wait until Hanukkah to serve them, we like them all year round. I most often serve them as a tray passed hors d'ouevre, topped with a bit of sour cream and smoked salmon and garnished with chives. It happens to be a favorite with my clients, too.  Enjoy, and Happy Hanukkah!

Recipe on next page...

Cranberry Pear Chutney- Just in Time for Thanksgiving!

Cranberry Pear Chutney

 

This recipe is so good, that one of my regular Thanksgiving clients asked if I could please send her more of it this year. 

 

It started out as a recipe in Gourmet Magazine, underwent some changes in the kitchen of a catering kithcen where I worked in New Yorlk City for several years, and then went through more changes as I worked from memory to restore it after starting my own catering business in L.A.

 

I hope you'll emjoy it as much as my clients do. Click through to the following page for the recipe...

 

A Purple Season at The Farmer's Market

Ever notice that a season's produce is closley identified with a color? A few weeks ago- about mid winter-I was browsing through my local farmer's market, taking pics. When I got home I noticed that pretty much everything I shot was purple-ly/mauve-y.

 

Red Collards

Purple Kale

 

and Cauliflower

even the new Spring Onions had purple roots

and let's not forget the Sweet Peas- see what I mean?

 

Well, this except for this cat resting on a shopper's shoulders. Guess they didn't get the memo...

Come back for spring's colors.

Stacked Crepe Cake- Part 2 in a Series

Stacked Crêpe Cake

I first was introduced to this lush and tasty crepe cake over 25 years ago while taking classes at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School. When I was looking for a new dish last fall, to spruce up a client's annual Post-Thanksgving Brunch, I reached back in the annals of my memory for this truly special occasion dish. It's elegant showstopper on a holiday brunch buffet (hint-since we're approaching Spring, it'd be great for an Easter brunch), but you don't have to wait for a party to serve it. It would be great served for an intimate supper, too, with a salad of mixed baby greens alongside.

Crepes- First in a Series-Mushroom Stuffed Crepes with Mexican Sabor

Mushroom Stuffed Crêpes                                                                               BWN4YQJ6V87X

Crêpes feel like a special occasion dish, and often a crêpe bar is requested for weddings or special occasion parties.

They're wonderfully versatile. They can be rolled and stuffed with cheese, seafood, spinach or mushrooms (as in this delicious recipe), or all of the above for that matter. They can be stacked into a fancy crêpe "cake" with luscious fillings spread between the layers, or simply folded on a plate and sauced or served with berries and whipped cream. And, of course, crêpes are the basis for one of my favorite brunch dishes, Blintzes.

They can go sweet or savory, as large as a dinner plate, or cut into minis for cute little tray passed hors d'ouevre.

Over the next few posts, at this blog and my painperdublog, I'll be sharing some favorite crêpe preparations, beginning with these very special Mushroom Crêpes with Mexican Sabor, adapted from Patricia Tausend's great cookbook, Savoring Mexico: Recipes and Reflections on Mexican Cooking, flavored with cilantro and chiles. I know it's not what most of us in So Cal think of as Mexican food, but it's not that odd, really. The French were in Mexico for quite a while, during the colonial era, and being lovers of good food, well, it's no wonder the Mexican people incorporated crêpes into their cuisine.

And while some may try to present crêpes as being intimidating to make, they are really quite simple. I've had my friend Kenneth tape me making them, so you can see for yourself.

By the way, they would make a perfect dish for an intimate little Valentine's dinner. Keep reading below for the recipe and the video...

Top Catering and Wedding Trends for 2012- Part 2

Okay-now to continue from our last post where we looked at projected catering trends for 2012. In that post we covered food trends, except for dessert (hold on I'm getting to that). This time we'll look at trends in drinks, décor, and yes, dessert. 

 Dessert Buffets are predicted to be big this year (sounds good to me- who doesn't love dessert, and as I've said before, it's just not a party without great desserts), even for wedding as a supplement to wedding cakes. 

Dessert 'Scapes (i.e. several related dessert elements on one plate) are big, as well.

Cupcakes I think Dana Herbert, winner of Cake Boss: The Next Great Baker, speaks for a lot of us caterers, as well, when he says "I still see cupcakes hanging around, and...as a cake designer, you think. if I see another cupcake, I'm going to lose my mind.' But sometimes people say they want cupcakes so...I'm going to continue to go in that direction." What else can we say?

Herbert also says Color is in for cakes for wedding cakes, and Groom's Cakes are a growing trend, too. I, for one, am glad to hear that. Who couldn't use more chocolate in their lives!

Custom Beverages of all sorts are in. This includes flavored and artisanal beers, unique and custom designed cocktails, and food and drink pairing menus.Here's a thought. Combine two of those trends with a menu to complement artisan beers.

Vibrant Colors and Textures are popping up all over the place-in exotic flowers for wedding, in table and buffet linens (so glad to hear Dupioni mentioned by Nancy Stoltz of Creative Coverings, as it's always been a favorite buffet décor linen of mine), and even in card stock for invitations according to wedding guru, David Tutera. Peonies, hydrangeas and rananculus are mentioned over and over again, along with those perennial favorites, orchids and roses-which after all, come in all sorts of vibrant colors. Hot colors are purple, orange (mentioned over and over again in various incarnations-i.e.papaya and tangerine) and green.

And finally, as always,Theme Parties remain big. Hot themes for now include Green and its cousin, Local-folks still want to show off their environmental awareness- Rustic and Seasonal. Are you seeing a pattern yet? Some other popular themes include island/Tropical, Historic/Nostalgic. A combination of Rustic and Nostalgic is popular for Vintage weddings.

 In summarizing, it's clear that whatever the style, theme or trend, creativity and expressing one's individuality are key for this year's best parties.