Supper Club IV: Appetizers
After we had enjoyed our opening dessert, I served three different items as appetizers. These covered our need for seafood, stuffed things and pasta.
Peppered Pancetta-Wrapped Shrimp
Adapted from MyRecipes
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
Kosher salt, to taste
12 large shrimp, peeled and deveined if desired
12 thin slices pancetta (about 8 ounces)
1 can chunk pineapple
1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl. Add shrimp and pineapple, tossing to coat.
2. Thread two shrimp onto small skewers (I used toothpicks) with pineapple. Wrap with 1 slice pancetta.
3. Grill shrimp, over medium-high heat (400°) for 2 minutes on each side or until pancetta is crisp and brown.
Last New Year's Eve pussygalore66 and her friend BAM and I had dinner at Nighttown prior to the early performance from jazz trumpeter Dominick Farinacci. How is this relevant to Supper Club? We had as an appetizer the Pancetta Shrimp, which is described on their menu as "Grilled shrimp wrapped in pancetta served with a caper vinaigrette and garlic bread." After I had this, I knew I wanted to have some sort of shrimp appetizer for this meal.
After some googling I found this recipe for Peppered Pancetta-Wrapped Shrimp. During some subsequent conversations on Facebook (yes, I posted spoilers prior to dinner), my friend Susan suggested adding pineapple to the skewers, which seemed like sound advice. It was a bit of a pain to get everything on to toothpicks, which I did early in the afternoon. Everything camped out in the fridge until it was time to fire up the Griddler while people were eating dessert. I set the grill in the open configuration, which allowed me to grill 16 skewers at a shot.
Once one batch was done, darlox served as a guinea pig. Upon getting his approval I loaded them on to a plate and passed them around the table. Meanwhile, gieves loaded the remainder on to the grill. In the end I know everybody got at least two skewers and I think some people got three. They were enthusiastically consumed. This was a definite winner. My only niggling complaint is that assembling the skewers is tedious and takes a level of manual dexterity that I only rarely reach.
Mushrooms Stuffed with Walnuts & Tomatoes
From Tapas: Over 70 Authentic Spanish Snacks and Appetizers by Silvana Franco.
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped (I fed them through the food processor)
4 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (mine didn't have oil, and were also fed through the food processor)
1/2 cup cream cheese
12 closed cap mushrooms, about 1/2 pound, with stalks removed (I used Crimini mushrooms)
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup grated Manchego cheese
salt and pepper
parsley to garnish
1. Place the chopped walnuts in a small frying pan. Shake the pan over gentle heat for 3-5 minutes until the walnuts are golden brown.
2. Stir the cream cheese, walnuts, tomatoes, salt and pepper in a bowl.
3. Fill the mushroom caps with the cream cheese mixture.
4. Preheat the broiler to medium. Melt the butter in a casserole dish large enough to hold all the mushrooms in a single layer. Add the mushrooms, stuffing side up. Broil for about 7 minutes.
5. Sprinkle the mushrooms with the grated Manchego, then broil for another 5 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and the mushrooms are hot. Serve hot, garnished with parsley.
I made a double batch, which ended up being about 30 mushrooms and left a substantial amount of leftover filling.
Readers with a keen memory may recall that I used this cookbook extensively for the very first supper club that I hosted, which was tapas themed. Given how successful that meal was and that I'd recently purchased the book, it's perhaps not surprising that I returned to it for inspiration. More surprising is that I decided on the very morning of Supper Club to add these to the menu. I decided at the last minute that I needed one more thing to round out the menu, and this was easy and cheap.
As with the shrimp, I assembled the mushrooms early in the afternoon and then stuck the tray in the fridge. I must admit that I forgot to melt the butter into the tray before broiling them; oops. No matter. The plate that was passed around the table came back empty, and all was well with the world. While they weren't as good as the Ragged Point Stuff Mushrooms, they were still quite delicious. Not only did I get to use my food processor again, I also got to try out the newest kitchen appliance in my collection, the ridiculous Frigidaire Toaster Oven that was latest holiday gift from my day job. It was the first time I'd used the broiler mode, and I'm pleased to report that it worked very nicely.
Potato Gnocchi
From fadat by way of David Rosengarten's Dean & Deluca cookbook (this one, I think)
2 lg. Russet potatoes
1 lg. egg, lightly beaten
1 T. unsalted butter, softened
1 T. minced flat leaf parsley
1 T. snipped chives
1 tsp. minced fresh sage
1/2 tsp. coarse salt
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
pinch of fresh grated nutmeg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1. Preheat oven to 425. Pierce potatoes with a fork several times. Bake for 1 hour or until done. Allow potatoes to cool.
2. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, scrape pulp into a medium bowl and mash with a fork or put potatoes through a ricer. Add egg and butter and mash until smooth. Stir in herbs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Work in about half of the flour with hands until dough becomes thick. Knead in remaining flour until dough is firm and no longer sticky.
3. Divide dough into 4 equal parts. Roll each piece into a 1/2" thick, 24" long rope. Working with 1 rope at a time (keeping the others covered with a towel), cut dough into 1/2" pieces. Roll a fork over each piece, pressing lightly to create grooves.
4. Cook gnocchi in a large pot of boiling salted water for approx. 3 minutes. Drain completely and serve immediately.
Based on potato weight, I made about 2.5 batches. As a batch finished I fished it out with a slotted spoon and put it into a bowl for serving while another batch went into the still boiling water. Everybody ended up with several healthy spoonfuls of gnocchi, and we had a few spoonfuls left.
gieves and I ate at Luxe back on January 20, and I had short rib with potato gnocchi. The gnocchi were phenomenal. Well, actually everything was phenomenal (Luxe is great, I recommend it) but the gnocchi were particularly phenomenal. I considered making gnocchi after that meal, a desire that was cemented later that night when onabus told me that he often made them at home.
A few weeks later I did a test run with a different recipe. It was an utter disaster and never even made it to a point where I could consider cooking them, let alone eating them. I complained about this on Facebook, which led to fadat sending this recipe along. I didn't have a chance to try the recipe prior to the big night, but I figured I could always toss them if they didn't work out.
Fortunately, we did not reach that extremity, but it must be said that they were the least successful portion of the meal. No matter how much flour I added they never quite reached the 'not sticky' phase, which ultimately led me to not try to not trying to put the grooves in the indiviudal gnocchi. Once cooked, they were very bland and definitely could have used more salt. We ended up mixing a lot of butter in with the second bowlful, which definitely helped.
I'm definitely going to try to make these again, but for this dinner they were the weakest link. Fortunately, as everybody chowed down on appetizers the entrée & sides were almost ready to make their appearance...
Peppered Pancetta-Wrapped Shrimp
Adapted from MyRecipes
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
Kosher salt, to taste
12 large shrimp, peeled and deveined if desired
12 thin slices pancetta (about 8 ounces)
1 can chunk pineapple
1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl. Add shrimp and pineapple, tossing to coat.
2. Thread two shrimp onto small skewers (I used toothpicks) with pineapple. Wrap with 1 slice pancetta.
3. Grill shrimp, over medium-high heat (400°) for 2 minutes on each side or until pancetta is crisp and brown.
Last New Year's Eve pussygalore66 and her friend BAM and I had dinner at Nighttown prior to the early performance from jazz trumpeter Dominick Farinacci. How is this relevant to Supper Club? We had as an appetizer the Pancetta Shrimp, which is described on their menu as "Grilled shrimp wrapped in pancetta served with a caper vinaigrette and garlic bread." After I had this, I knew I wanted to have some sort of shrimp appetizer for this meal.
After some googling I found this recipe for Peppered Pancetta-Wrapped Shrimp. During some subsequent conversations on Facebook (yes, I posted spoilers prior to dinner), my friend Susan suggested adding pineapple to the skewers, which seemed like sound advice. It was a bit of a pain to get everything on to toothpicks, which I did early in the afternoon. Everything camped out in the fridge until it was time to fire up the Griddler while people were eating dessert. I set the grill in the open configuration, which allowed me to grill 16 skewers at a shot.
Once one batch was done, darlox served as a guinea pig. Upon getting his approval I loaded them on to a plate and passed them around the table. Meanwhile, gieves loaded the remainder on to the grill. In the end I know everybody got at least two skewers and I think some people got three. They were enthusiastically consumed. This was a definite winner. My only niggling complaint is that assembling the skewers is tedious and takes a level of manual dexterity that I only rarely reach.
Mushrooms Stuffed with Walnuts & Tomatoes
From Tapas: Over 70 Authentic Spanish Snacks and Appetizers by Silvana Franco.
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped (I fed them through the food processor)
4 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (mine didn't have oil, and were also fed through the food processor)
1/2 cup cream cheese
12 closed cap mushrooms, about 1/2 pound, with stalks removed (I used Crimini mushrooms)
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup grated Manchego cheese
salt and pepper
parsley to garnish
1. Place the chopped walnuts in a small frying pan. Shake the pan over gentle heat for 3-5 minutes until the walnuts are golden brown.
2. Stir the cream cheese, walnuts, tomatoes, salt and pepper in a bowl.
3. Fill the mushroom caps with the cream cheese mixture.
4. Preheat the broiler to medium. Melt the butter in a casserole dish large enough to hold all the mushrooms in a single layer. Add the mushrooms, stuffing side up. Broil for about 7 minutes.
5. Sprinkle the mushrooms with the grated Manchego, then broil for another 5 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and the mushrooms are hot. Serve hot, garnished with parsley.
I made a double batch, which ended up being about 30 mushrooms and left a substantial amount of leftover filling.
Readers with a keen memory may recall that I used this cookbook extensively for the very first supper club that I hosted, which was tapas themed. Given how successful that meal was and that I'd recently purchased the book, it's perhaps not surprising that I returned to it for inspiration. More surprising is that I decided on the very morning of Supper Club to add these to the menu. I decided at the last minute that I needed one more thing to round out the menu, and this was easy and cheap.
As with the shrimp, I assembled the mushrooms early in the afternoon and then stuck the tray in the fridge. I must admit that I forgot to melt the butter into the tray before broiling them; oops. No matter. The plate that was passed around the table came back empty, and all was well with the world. While they weren't as good as the Ragged Point Stuff Mushrooms, they were still quite delicious. Not only did I get to use my food processor again, I also got to try out the newest kitchen appliance in my collection, the ridiculous Frigidaire Toaster Oven that was latest holiday gift from my day job. It was the first time I'd used the broiler mode, and I'm pleased to report that it worked very nicely.
Potato Gnocchi
From fadat by way of David Rosengarten's Dean & Deluca cookbook (this one, I think)
2 lg. Russet potatoes
1 lg. egg, lightly beaten
1 T. unsalted butter, softened
1 T. minced flat leaf parsley
1 T. snipped chives
1 tsp. minced fresh sage
1/2 tsp. coarse salt
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
pinch of fresh grated nutmeg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1. Preheat oven to 425. Pierce potatoes with a fork several times. Bake for 1 hour or until done. Allow potatoes to cool.
2. When potatoes are cool enough to handle, scrape pulp into a medium bowl and mash with a fork or put potatoes through a ricer. Add egg and butter and mash until smooth. Stir in herbs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Work in about half of the flour with hands until dough becomes thick. Knead in remaining flour until dough is firm and no longer sticky.
3. Divide dough into 4 equal parts. Roll each piece into a 1/2" thick, 24" long rope. Working with 1 rope at a time (keeping the others covered with a towel), cut dough into 1/2" pieces. Roll a fork over each piece, pressing lightly to create grooves.
4. Cook gnocchi in a large pot of boiling salted water for approx. 3 minutes. Drain completely and serve immediately.
Based on potato weight, I made about 2.5 batches. As a batch finished I fished it out with a slotted spoon and put it into a bowl for serving while another batch went into the still boiling water. Everybody ended up with several healthy spoonfuls of gnocchi, and we had a few spoonfuls left.
gieves and I ate at Luxe back on January 20, and I had short rib with potato gnocchi. The gnocchi were phenomenal. Well, actually everything was phenomenal (Luxe is great, I recommend it) but the gnocchi were particularly phenomenal. I considered making gnocchi after that meal, a desire that was cemented later that night when onabus told me that he often made them at home.
A few weeks later I did a test run with a different recipe. It was an utter disaster and never even made it to a point where I could consider cooking them, let alone eating them. I complained about this on Facebook, which led to fadat sending this recipe along. I didn't have a chance to try the recipe prior to the big night, but I figured I could always toss them if they didn't work out.
Fortunately, we did not reach that extremity, but it must be said that they were the least successful portion of the meal. No matter how much flour I added they never quite reached the 'not sticky' phase, which ultimately led me to not try to not trying to put the grooves in the indiviudal gnocchi. Once cooked, they were very bland and definitely could have used more salt. We ended up mixing a lot of butter in with the second bowlful, which definitely helped.
I'm definitely going to try to make these again, but for this dinner they were the weakest link. Fortunately, as everybody chowed down on appetizers the entrée & sides were almost ready to make their appearance...