Dinner critique
A friend posted report on the dinner she cooked. She said it was a success, not least due to a wonderful wine and a great dessert that accompanied it. Here's what I thought when reading the post.
OK, your guest(s) might be very polite, their tastes might be simple, their attention engaged elsewhere or they just have different priorities. This dinner isn't exactly a stunning masterpiece (few are, of course), although has good foundation. With few simple steps it will improve tremendously.
First, if you do want to present variety of cheeses, it's best to do it as dessert, but then the selection is a bit complicated, as the various cheeses are supposed to complement each other.
Otherwise, if you present cheese as an appetizer, your best bet to avoid it as part of main course.
In this case I'd keep the chicken stuffed with cheese(s), but serve something lighter as appetizer. Like whisking olive oil w/lemon juice with grounded spices and herbs dressing your tomatoes, with added red onion rings for crunchiness.
Second, your main dish. I don't know what recipe you used. If I to make something called chicken stuffed with cheese, I'll pound ch. breasts (say, 4), put slices of cheese on interior side, put on top coarsely chopped basil and parsley, sprinkle with dark raisins, salt and ground black pepper. Roll the breasts, secure with twine or toothpick. Put in a skillet, cover with boiling water, let cook on a slow flame for 1/2hr, turning once. In a meanwhile, in a different skillet lighly brown in canola oil 4 quartered shallots, 1 shredded carrot and 2 gloves of garlic, add one finely chopped green chile, 1/2 glass dry white wine. Do not cover, reduce. Remove twine (or toothpicks)from chicken breasts, relocate with remaining liquid into the skillet with wine sauce, wait till boiled together again. That's it, ready to serve. Your choice of companion dish (asparagus) sounds great, maybe I'd add another small side of wild rice/basmati mix.
Am I getting hungry or what?
OK, your guest(s) might be very polite, their tastes might be simple, their attention engaged elsewhere or they just have different priorities. This dinner isn't exactly a stunning masterpiece (few are, of course), although has good foundation. With few simple steps it will improve tremendously.
First, if you do want to present variety of cheeses, it's best to do it as dessert, but then the selection is a bit complicated, as the various cheeses are supposed to complement each other.
Otherwise, if you present cheese as an appetizer, your best bet to avoid it as part of main course.
In this case I'd keep the chicken stuffed with cheese(s), but serve something lighter as appetizer. Like whisking olive oil w/lemon juice with grounded spices and herbs dressing your tomatoes, with added red onion rings for crunchiness.
Second, your main dish. I don't know what recipe you used. If I to make something called chicken stuffed with cheese, I'll pound ch. breasts (say, 4), put slices of cheese on interior side, put on top coarsely chopped basil and parsley, sprinkle with dark raisins, salt and ground black pepper. Roll the breasts, secure with twine or toothpick. Put in a skillet, cover with boiling water, let cook on a slow flame for 1/2hr, turning once. In a meanwhile, in a different skillet lighly brown in canola oil 4 quartered shallots, 1 shredded carrot and 2 gloves of garlic, add one finely chopped green chile, 1/2 glass dry white wine. Do not cover, reduce. Remove twine (or toothpicks)from chicken breasts, relocate with remaining liquid into the skillet with wine sauce, wait till boiled together again. That's it, ready to serve. Your choice of companion dish (asparagus) sounds great, maybe I'd add another small side of wild rice/basmati mix.
Am I getting hungry or what?