Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants!

Sunday Night Dinner

We haven't had the pleasure of mom's company for dinner on Sunday night for a few weeks as she has been under the weather with a bad bronchial infection. Today she felt well enough to leave the house so we invited her over for a dinner inspired by the cooking class we enjoyed earlier this week.

Paul and I started off with a blender of our favourite 'summer drink' of the moment . . . Bananas on the Side. The recipe is simple:

1/2 cup Banana Liqueur
1/2 cup Mango Rum
2 cups tropical fruit juice blend

Place all the ingredients in a blender with ice and blend until creamy. You can make ice cubes out of the juice so that you do not water down the drink as the ice melts.

The drink is light and refreshing!

It must be good because Paul had 4 and promptly turned beet red (alcohol does that to him).

Mom and Paul enjoyed a cheese tray that Paul had put together while I grilled the next course. Paul is quite good at the cheese course. He puts out a nice variety of cheese, dried cranberries, candied Spanish walnuts, pecans, an assortment of crackers and flat breads, and some sort of tart jelly. Tonight it was Fabia's Berry Blast (strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, and jalapeno peppers) . I think mom overdid it on the cheese!

The first course was a simple one. Grilled figs wrapped in prosciutto. All you do is wrap a fresh fig with a slice of prosciutto. I did three this way and for the other three I cut the figs almost from top to bottom and inserted a piece of Gorgonzola dolce in the centre, closed it up again, and wrapped it with prosciutto. You just lightly brush them with oil and grill them until the prosciutto is slightly crisped.

I served them with a balsamic reduction. We each got two - one with the melted Gorgonzola dolce in the centre and one plain.

The main course was a grilled beef tenderloin steak served on a bed of sauteed mushrooms, leeks, and shallots. I served it with roasted fingerling potatoes and sauteed rainbow chard and fiddle heads. I have never had chard before but it always looks so interesting in the store that I decided to buy some and enjoy it - I am so glad I did because it was wonderful!

   

The chef at the cooking class showed us how to garnish the plate by placing a 'salad' of baby lettuces/sprouts on top of the steak. I bought the mixture of pea, onion, beet, and broccoli sprouts at the market and mixed them with a bit of olive oil and some red wine vinegar which had been infused with rosemary. Yum - a simple but elegant way to finish off the dish.

While everyone relaxed I made dessert. It was the same dessert from the cooking class: Strawberries with Ice Wine Sabayon. The sabayon was not as difficult to make as I had anticipated it would be. I think I used too much ice wine, the recipe called for 1/2 a bottle but ice wine comes in a multitude of shaped bottles, all with a different volume. Grrr Oh well, now I shall have to experiment. Don't get me wrong though - it was still amazing but had more of a kick than I remembered.

I served it in a large martini glass and tucked in a Ossi dei Morti that Paul had bought me for our anniversary. They were really good dipped into the sabayon!

Martini Class

Last night Paul and I went to a Martini class with three of our friends. The class was offered by the LCBO. For those of you who aren't from Ontario, this is our government run liquor monopoly. It is the largest purchaser of wine and spirits in the world and at the same time it pumps billions of dollars into the government coffers and provides Ontarians with an excellent supply of wine and liquor.

The LCBO store near our house is equipped with a large room where they hold tastings and cooking demonstrations three or four times a week. The martini class was to be an hour long and we were to taste 6 martinis. We decided to walk . . . yes, because we were so concerned about producing any extra pollutants!

Now before I am slammed by the 'purists'  . . . we only drank 1 martini. The rest were simply cocktails served in a martini glass. However the term 'martini' is evolving and we should all just get on with it I say.

The pic to the left is what greeted us when we arrived. The tables were set with 6 decorated glasses at each place, a glass for water, a spittoon (as if), recipes, and assorted bottles of booze (sadly merely for decoration).

This class was to be different than the class we took last year. This instructor had pre-mixed all of the martinis and she discussed each one and poured us a 'taste'. Last year we actually all went up to the front of the room and mixed them ourselves. I think I liked mixing it up myself better but Paul certainly was happy to sit back and sip what the instructor had whipped together.

You'll notice that each of the glasses was decorated/garnished. Personally I don't think I would use the coloured sugar as a garnish because it tends to overpower the drink (to say nothing of the rather coloured tongue you get as well).  The chocolate garnish is great for anything you're making with a chocolate flavour. I make a snickers martini in which I rim the glass with chocolate and then dip the still soft chocolate in crushed peanuts. Similarly, at Christmas we make candy cane martinis in which we dip the still soft chocolate in crushed peppermint candy.

First up was the Classic Martini

2 oz Ultra Premium vodka or gin
splash of vermouth

Stir lightly over ice (shaking 'bruises' the alcohol). Strain into a martini glass. Garnish with an olive.

The consensus was that our the group preferred their martinis diluted with juice and other liqueurs. I have to admit that after years of trying I am finally getting used to a 'real' martini. Perhaps it was just the HUGE olive that did it for me.

Next was a martini that our instructor told us was the hottest thing in New York (clearly this is some sort of an arbitrator if taste and style). It used a Japanese liquor that has just been added to the LCBO 'list'. It was called a Rising Sun.

2 oz Shoshu (Japanese barley spirit)
1/4 oz lemon barley squash drink mix (purchased in the grocery store)
1/4 oz orange liqueur (we used triple sec)

Mix with ice and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with an orange slice.

I quite liked this one. It was cool and refreshing. Ours was not served in a martini glass though - perhaps the instructor ran out.

The third martini we sampled was called a Feng Shui. It featured a new liqueur called Zen. It is a green tea liqueur.

1 oz Zen liqueur
1 oz premium vodka
4 oz cranberry or pomegranate juice.

Stir together with ice in a martini shaker. Strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.

We really liked this one - so much so that I had to buy a bottle of the Zen Liqueur before we walked home. Luckily Paul was there to carry the bottles home for me.

Next up was Bellisimo Bliss.

2 oz ultra premium vodka
1 oz peach schnapps
splash of sparkling wine

Mix the vodka and schnapps in a shaker with ice. Pour into a glass. Top with the sparkling wine. Garnish with fresh raspberries and blueberries threaded on a skewer.

This one did nothing for me (probably because I generally despise anything flavoured with peaches). By now I think I was getting snoggered (spittoon? Not this guy) and I was forgetting to take pics. Luckily Paul hadn't drunk all of this so I managed to snap a pic of his . . . mine had evaporated apparently (even though I didn't like it).

The next one more than made up for the previous taste. It was called Death by Chocolate.

1 ox ultra premium vodka
1 oz Bailey's Irish Cream Mint Liqueur
1 oz Creme de Cacao
1 oz coffee liqueur (we used Starbucks but you could use Kaluha)

Stir the ingredients with ice. Strain into a glass which has been garnished with melted chocolate. You can add a mint chocolate 'stir stick' on the side.

The final taste of the evening was called a Miami Ice Cosmo (a take on a classic Cosmopolitan). Before you gasp at the amount of alcohol in the recipe, it is for more than one drink!

4 oz ultra premium vodka
2 oz Triple Sec
3 oz Pama Liqueur (Pomegranate liqueur)
2 oz Lime Cordial
2 oz Cranberry Juice

Mix in a large pitcher with ice. Strain into a martini glass.

Ruth and Catherine were wondering why I was snapping all of this pics. I mentioned it was for my blog and they gave me a look. It turns out I had neglected to tell them I had a blog. This opened me up to some ridicule but I'm a big boy and can take it. The ridicule was followed by 'ohh, take a picture of us, we want to be in the blog'.

From the left: Ruth, Catherine, and Jane.

This is after 6 martinis in 45 minutes so if they look a bit looped there is a reason for that!

Oh and Catherine, if you scroll down to near the beginning of the posts in January you will get to another post with your pic in it from when we went ice wine picking.

Paul and I walked home with our purchases. We decided we needed a nightcap (because apparently the 6 drinks we had just sucked back was Not enough). I whipped up some Feng Shui and we sipped away. Needless to say it was a grand evening.