Off the turntable, into the kitchen

So, I usually write about music or at least music-related stuff here, but I’m going to derail the train for a moment and talk about food.

I love food. I grew up in a commercial kitchen. I had a breadbox for a playpen, and my earliest memory is standing in it, looking up into the strings of all the extra aprons hanging on hooks above me. I made forts out of bread delivery flats and bakers’ twine like most kids make out of pillows and blankets. My dad’s an executive chef and my mom was a garde’ manger (and his sous for years, before she’d had enough!). I love inventing recipes, buying weird shit at the grocery store, and doing pretty much anything except baking sweets, which I’m just not very good at.

Tonight is my honey’s birthday. We’ll be away playing the Johnstown Folk Fest this coming weekend, and have been in rehearsals for weeks, so exhaustion and lack of time precluded throwing a party. But I wanted to make it special, so I’m doing a 5-course French service tonight. Mostly its a French service because my apartment is small and the galley kitchen is about 3 feet from the dining table–you could consider showering at my house to be “prepared tableside”. But I digress.

The general theme is fresh fruit and vegetables, cooked simply; as we look fall in the face here in New England, I’m also looking a lot of months of subpar produce. So we’ll enjoy it while it lasts! Here’s the menu:

Cheese course:
Dill Havarti
Smoked Dutch Gouda
Kerrygold Dubliner
Sliced apples
Wine–Prosecco

Salad course:
Field greens
Mandarin oranges
Slivered almonds
Blueberry-pomegranate dressing

Fish course:
Sea scallops persillade–Basically, the easiest scallop dish on earth. Persillade just means that you finely chop fresh parsley and garlic; add it at the beginning of the dish for a milder flavor, at the end for a stronger one. I’ll dredge the scallops in bread crumbs, salt, pepper, lemon and a little cayenne, broil one side, flip and add persillade, and broil the other side. Easy-peasy.

Main Course:
New York Strip Steak with mushroom red wine sauce
Homemade mashed potatoes with roasted garlic
Roasted baby carrots with dill
Broccoli al’olio — Just fresh broccoli, quick steamed and then sauteed in olive oil and garlic. I serve it with a little lemon zest. Its my honey’s favorite thing I cook.
Wines–I have both a Goats Do Roam (nice South African table wine) and a Georges deBoeuf Beaujolais Nouveau. Simple, not fancy, but both things we like a lot.

Dessert Course:
Homemade blueberry pie — Its the last gasp of blueberry season, so I’m making the best of it!!
Lemon sorbet

After dinner drink: I’ve invented one for the occasion!! Prosecco, Lemoncello, and a twist. I am hoping its as delicious as it seems in my brain. I haven’t found a name for this combo online, but I’m sure it exists already. But til I find out otherwise, I’m calling it a Lobster Muffin, for reasons too personal and ridiculous to explain.