Just when you think you can’t eat anymore after Thanksgiving, we at 2Gourmaniacs proved everyone wrong by throwing a small, intimate dinner party for ten the Saturday night after Thanksgiving. Here was our menu:
A Post-Thanksgiving Asian Inspired Dinner
At the Island
* Thin Sliced Pork Belly with Hoisin Sauce
* Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce
* Fresh Uni with Soy-Wasabi Sauce
Amuse Bouche
* Shrimp Infused Lotus Root Dumpling With Fish Sauce Vinaigrette
Dinner
* Curried Butternut Soup
* Arugula, Spinach & Golden Beet Salad
with Asian Dressing
* Pan Roasted Striped Bass
with Fennel-Parsnip Pureé and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Dessert
Persimmon & Sichuan Pepper Ice Cream
with Chocolate Truffle & Raspberry Cream
Talk to Your Fish
A couple days before Thanksgiving, we had a dinner party for our kids’ grandparents. Rosaria loves striped bass. So do I. For an entree I made pan roasted striped bass. It was so good, I put it on the Saturday night menu. Between both dinners I went through almost twenty pounds of striped bass. I get them whole from my fish guy, and then I fillet them. Take a look at the eyes on this ten pounder: it was swimming the day before.
Raw Sea Urchins Aren’t for Everyone
After walking thorough my kitchen door on Saturday night, my friend, Dylan, told me he was shaking with dread that I would serve uni. I love them. While I was purveying the striped bass, I saw that my fish guy had a tray of California sea urchins. I snatched them up and put them out as finger food at my island in the kitchen where everyone hung out before sitting at the table. Believe it or not, there was a little bit leftover which I made into a seas urchin sauce served over pasta the next day. It must have been Dylan’s portion.
But Everyone Sure Seemed to Like the Pork Belly!
With the exception of Rosaria who doesn’t eat mammals, all our guests seemed to enjoy the slow roasted pork belly. I first coated it with a sugar and salt rub, refrigerated it overnight, and then roasted it at 400° for an hour, then I turned the oven down to 250° and continued to roast it for another hour-and-a-half. Funny, there weren’t any leftovers.
Bet You Can’t Guess What Kind of Ice Cream This Is
I’ve been waiting for six months for persimmon season. About a month ago, they started showing up in the markets. But mid-November is prime time for them. I use Hachiya persimmons as opposed to Fuyu. I’ve wanted to make ice cream with them for a while. So a couple of weeks ago I was experimenting with them and I decided to make a simple syrup with a Sichuan pepper infusion. I pureed the persimmons in the food processor, strained them, added heavy cream and the pepper infused simple syrup and poured it into my ice cream maker. It was so unbelievably good, that I made another batch for my dinner party. And of course, no none came close in guessing what flavor my dessert was. In the end, everyone enjoyed dinner immensely, and we were glad to celebrate with our friends, some whom we hadn’t seen in a while, like the very busy Ramona Singer and her husband Mario. In case you didn’t know, Ramona is coming up with her own brand of Pinot Grigio wine and, you guessed it, it will be called Ramona Singer Pinot Grigio – what else? I bet we’ll be trying some of that at our next gathering with Ramona!
