Tag Archives: family

July 4th Guinea Pig Hoedown

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I capitalized on the 4th of July holiday to party-host and try out of few of my potential menu items on my family.  My desired outcome was some honest, usable feedback that would guide me towards improving my recipes. My relations are people of opinions – strong opinions.   Saturday, I came to understand that they are people of conflicting opinions.  Nine conflicting opinions, to be exact.

 We began the afternoon with my appetizers of eggplant and lamb meatballs in a garlic-walnut dipping sauce served with a few different flatbreads.  My sister, S., thought the meatballs were a bit greasy and she has determined they would be better if baked.  My sister-in-law’s brother-in-law (no joke) and my brother decided they needed more binder (egg or breadcrumb).  S. said the binder was fine, but the dipping sauce was too garlicky (my brother, B., disagreed).  I served three kinds of flatbread.  Before the party, I had already settled on the Moroccan “pita-style” flatbread for my menu.  Well, S. thought the traditional, cracker-style flatbread was better.

 The main dish was Tamarind-glaze baby back ribs.  Everyone (surprisingly) liked them and told me not to change a thing.  Sister-in-law’s brother-in-law thought they would be undercooked (I baked them at 350 for 90 minutes), but had to take it back as they were perfect. The main course was “opinion intermission”.

 I finished the evening with two desserts.  The first was a pile of sticky honey-glazed yeast fritters dotted with crystallized ginger and golden raisins.  S. didn’t think they sounded good when I described them to her, but changed her mind once she took a bite of their sticky and crunchy goodness, although, she kept trying to convince me to dust them with chopped walnuts.  She also thought they needed to be smaller and encouraged more ginger.  My brother, B., said they needed more raisins.  I also served a tart with sucree crust, fig and sesame layer, topped with an orange-cardamom pastry cream, and finally decorated with Chantilly cream and sesame brittle.  My sister is the pastry expert.  She thought the crust was undercooked (I would agree) and we both agreed that the pastry cream was too “floury”.  She also didn’t like the texture of the sesame brittle.  My sister-in-law, T, loved the sesame brittle.  My brother’s mother-in-law said “10” on both.

 So what the fuck do I do now?

Triumphs

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The menu is coming along – but slowly. During my vacation, I played with a few recipes that had been floating in my head. The results fall into three distinct categories: menu-worthy, needs tweaking, and ‘The Graveyard’. One of my first attempts was a hummus and baba ganoush baked timbale. After an evening of trial and error….and error, the timbale was the first dish to be placed in ‘The Graveyard’, hopefully never to resurface. There’s a reason no one bakes hummus. My next attempt was a lamb tagine. While not bad, I wasn’t intrigued enough with the final product to tweak it for the menu, but it could be resuscitated if needed. So, the lamb tagine ‘needs tweaking’ but it has one foot in ‘the graveyard’ – and still sits uneaten in my refrigerator. Last night, I held another tasting for friends and had a few successes. I made two different empanadas – beef filet with tomato, orange and green olive as well as Spanish chorizo and potato with Spanish smoked paprika. I served them with a roasted red pepper and yogurt dipping sauce. They were a big hit. It was split on who liked which best – a good sign. I will serve one of each. For dessert, I made a fantastic tart – Dark Peruvian chocolate with coriander and preserved lemon on an almond, pistachio and shortbread crust with crystallized ginger and whipped cream. It was naughty. The empanadas and tart have made it on the menu. Small triumphs, but I’m two steps closer.

We’re placing the weekly Sunday tastings on the side until mid-July due to traveling schedules and such. I’ve invited the family over for July fourth. I’m going to work on Moroccan dry rubbed baby back ribs with a tamarind bar-b-que glaze. I will be trying out a few other recipes as well.

Side note – is writing about food my escape from writing about what’s in my head and my true feelings? It’s been a few weeks since I’ve vented, ranted, or even just pulled some of the junk from my brain. Sometimes avoidance can be your friend.