A Dinner with Friends

 

My friend Jon loves to invite himself for dinner. I don't actually mind; most of you will likely know that I love to enjoy great meals, great wine and great conversations (and maybe a little bit of arguing). The pandemic has annoyingly but rightly limited our ability to exercise our social habits. So when opportunities present, we've have to grab hold and wrestle them to the ground.

I was unsure of what to prepare for dinner. I'll admit that for the last 8 months or so I have felt very uninspired in the kitchen. I chalk it up to winter blues and the lingering effects of social isolation. I was excited to prepare food for others but didn't know what. Jenn suggested a salad and BLTs. Perfect.

The salad was shamelessly ripped from one she enjoys (every time we visit, almost without fail) at Highview in Southampton. Look for a review in an upcoming post. It's an arugula salad with cold sautéed mushrooms, thinly sliced celery, parmesan shavings and a citronette. I sautéed a mixture of white button mushrooms and shitakes in a 50-50 mix of butter and olive oil (the oil helps the butter not burn). For the critronette dressing (never made one before) I blended the following together with an immersion blender.

• 1/2 small onion (I'll use a shallot next time)
• juice from 1 lemon
• ~1.5 cups olive oil (~3:1 ratio oil to lemon juice)
• salt and pepper to taste

I makes enough to save some for future salads. I've been enjoying some on my lunchtime salads at work. 

Switch up the critus for simple variations. One easy tip, soak the onion in the acid for about 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients. The acid helps to temper the sharpness of the onions. FYI - this trick works for garlic too if you sometimes find it a little sharp when added to food raw (like in dips).

For the main course, fresh tomatoes, bacon (roasted in the oven to keep it flat), lettuce and homemade mayo adorned toasted fresh country-style white bread from Offshore Bakery. We got a selection of eclairs, butter tarts, almond tarts and Portuguese custard tarts from the bakery for dessert; it was a good decision.

Homemade mayo is super easy and quick if you use a food processor. I used the Cook's Illustrated recipe. If you don't have a food processor, it's pretty easy to make by hand, it just takes longer and you might get a sore wrist. 

Jon generously offered to bring wine. Knowing that I can sometimes tend to have strong opinions and also I that I can lean toward the "snobby" side of wine-loving, he asked what types of wine he could bring. Jenn and I are both taking the Intermediate Wine Certificate from the International Sommelier Guild and through it have learned about new styles and regions of wine of which we were not previously aware. I thought that two such styles, a fruit-forward Rhone from the south of France and a off-dry German reisling would both be great choices.

Jon chose very well. Both the Syrius Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages 'Saint-Gervais' Rouge 2017 and the 2017 St. Urbans-Hof Estate Riesling (Old Vines) where extremely good and paired very well with the meal. The Saint-Gervais was definitely lighter and as such was a very pleasurable red pairing with the savory mushrooms in the salad. My personal favourite of the two however was the St. Urbans-Hof. I have come to love the off-dry style of German reisling with their perfect balance of acid and subtle petrolium notes. Follow the links above to read more about them on Vivino and also my more extensive reviews.

The night ended with scotch and conversation (and almost no arguing). I don't think there's many better ways.

Cheers,
Alex