Outdoor Wedding Buffet

Last weekend, I was out camping with about 2500 of my closest friends at the Potrero War, a medieval and renaissance re-creation event. At the event, two people I care for got married, and they asked the spouse and I to help with the food. The spouse made pasta salads and desserts, which I may cover in another post, if I can get the recipes from her. She also provided sliced cheese, rolled cold cuts for deli platters, bought melons that were cut up, and cut up veggies for a veggie tray. She did the bulk of the work, because I had to be on site on Wednesday for other duties, and we wanted the food to be as fresh as possible.

I made two dishes. One was a Persian chicken, walnut, and pomegranate stew called fesenjan.  The recipe I used for inspiration can be found here. The stew is sautéed chicken flavored with onion, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper, and pomegranate molasses. It uses ground walnuts as a thickener. I prepared this at home, froze it, then it was thawed and reheated at the event.

To go with the fesenjan, I made rice, which I also froze and reheated at the event. For both the stew and the rice, I double bagged them in heavy duty freezer bags to be reheated by placing the bags in a large pot of boiling water.

I like this a lot. The walnuts add a great flavor, and the pomegranate molasses gives it a mildly tart, almost sweet and sour, taste that is quite different from most chicken dishes you'll run into.

I also made some stuffed dates. I worked from a recipe by a friend of the brides. There were stuffed
with a mixture of cream cheese, honey, ground pistachios, and cinnamon. I worked the mixture in my stand mixer until smooth and creamy, then placed it into a piping bag with a plain tip with an opening about the same size as the opening in the dates. One thing I will do next time is run the nuts through a colander to remove the largest pieces. I had my pastry tip clog a couple of times on a larger piece of pistachio. I piped the dates full of the mixture.

These turned out really nice. The creaminess of the filling contrasted well with the firm date.

Recipes

Fesenjan (Chicken, Pomegranate, and Walnut Stew)

2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs and breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 medium white onion, diced
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup ground walnuts
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. butter
4 Tbsp. pomegranate molasses
1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
salt to taste

Add butter and oil to a skillet over medium to medium high heat. Sautéed chicken pieces until lightly browned on all sides. Chicken need not be fully cooked. Place in a stock pot..

Sweat onions in pan until translucent. Add to stock pot.

Use a little of the stock to deglaze the pan. Add to stock pot. Cover chicken with remaining stock.

Cook at a simmer for 20 minutes. Add pomegranate molasses and spices. Stir in walnuts. Simmer another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve over long grain rice.

Stuffed Dates

5 lbs. pitted dates
16 oz. by wt. cream cheese
1/3 cup honey
1 cup ground pistachios
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. sea salt

In the bowl of a stand mixer, work cream cheese with a paddle until smooth. Add honey, work again until creamy.  Add sugar, nuts, cinnamon, and salt. Work for five minutes, or until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag with a plain tip that will just fit in the dates.

Pipe into each date until it is just full. Refrigerate dates until serving time.

Happy Eating!

A Medieval Islamic Dinner

A couple of friends have been enthusiastically asking me to cook for them for awhile. We finally found a mutually acceptable date, so the spouse and I went over to their place, and I had the pleasure of cooking for them. I'd been wanting to try some dishes that I'm thinking about for a feast I am co-ordinating in November. I wanted to give them maximum bang for their buck, so to speak, so did the full meal thing: appetizer, main dish, dessert.

For the appetizer, I made a chickpea paste with pita bread. This is an ancestor of humus, but without tahini. It's flavored with preserved lemons, white wine vinegar, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, and served with fresh mint and parsley, and olive oil. I really liked it. The pickled lemons gave it a unique tang. I did have to run the food processor longer than I usually do to make humus, the lemon was resistant. The fresh herbs added a nice contrast.

For the main dish, I made spice rubbed sauteed beef cubes with almond stuffed dates, on a bed of walnut butter couscous, with fried eggplant with a sweet and sour sauce. The beef is a London broil, cut into cubes. I tossed it with a spice rub of coriander, cinnamon, black pepper, ginger,and kosher salt. It was sauteed with dates stuffed with whole blanched almonds. The sweet dates added a nice contrast to the spicy beef.  I cooked the beef just to a nice medium rare. It came out juicy and tender. The walnut butter couscous was rich and fragrant, I'm particularly happy with it. The eggplant was fried in shallow oil, until brown. It was dressed with a sauce of lemon juice, white wine vinegar, sugar, cilantro, parsley, mint, garlic, black pepper, ginger, and cinnamon. The acid of the sauce helped cut the richness of the beef and couscous.

For dessert, I kept it simple. I made fried bananas with pistachio syrup. The bananas were fried in a little butter on the griddle, until golden brown. The syrup was a simple syrup of sugar and water, with a little salt, and rough chopped pistachios. For all it's simplicity, it was very good. It was missing a cold component and a little acid, though. I think next time I will serve it with a little cardamon-honey creme fraiche.




All-in-all, I'm very pleased with this meal. I feel I'm starting to get a handle on plating. I felt really good about timing and multi-tasking to get all the components of the main dish to finish at the same time. I think the balance of flavors, and textures was spot on.

Recipes

Chickpea Paste with Preserved Lemon

1 8 oz. can chickpeas
1/2 a preserved lemon
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tbsp. chopped mint
1 tbsp. chopped parsley
2 tbsp. olive oil

Drain chickpeas, reserving 1/4 cup of liquid. Place chickpeas, chickpea liquid, lemon, vinegar, spices, and salt into a food processor. Process until smooth. Place on a platter, sprinkle with fresh herbs, drizzle with olive oil. Serve with wedges of flat bread, like lavosh or pita.

Sauteed Beef with Dates

1 1/2 lbs London boil
8 oz. pitted dates
1/3 cup blanched whole almonds
2 tbsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tsp. whole coriander seeds
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tbsp. olive oil

Carefully insert an almond into the cavity of each date, set aside. Cut beef into 3/4 inch cubes. Grind up coriander in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle. In a small bowl, mix salt and spices. Toss beef cubes with spice mix until well coated. In a frying pan over medium-high heat, add olive oil. Add dates, saute for a couple of minutes, then add beef. Cook until meat is browned, but still pink in the middle.

Walnut butter couscous

2/3 cup walnuts
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. kosher salt
2 cups dried couscous
4 cups boiling water

Place walnuts in a food processor. Process, drizzling in olive oil until walnuts are a thick, peanut butter-like paste. Set aside. Place couscous in a bowl, pour on boiling water. Let sit 10 minutes, until water is absorbed. Use a spoon to fluff up couscous. Add walnut butter and salt, stir until butter is incorporated.

Fried Eggplant with Sweet and Sour Sauce

1 eggplant
juice of 1 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. chopped mint
2 tbsp. chopped parsley
2 tbsp. chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
canola oil for frying

In a small saucepan, simmer juice, vinegar, spices, herbs, salt and sugar over medium-low heat. Cook until sugar dissolves, and garlic is tender.

Slice eggplant into 1/2 thick slices. Put a thin layer of canola oil into a frying pan over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, fry eggplant on both sides until brown, place on paper towels to drain. Plate eggplant, drizzle with sauce.

Fried Bananas with Pistachio Syrup

3 bananas, sliced diagonally into 1/2 inch thick slices
1/2 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
1 tbsp. butter
1 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt

Place water, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Simmer until sugar and salt are dissolved, let cook until slightly thickened. Stir in nuts, set aside.

Heat a griddle or frying pan over medium heat. When hot, lightly coat with butter. Fry bananas on both sides until bananas are caramelized, and softened. Plate sauce, arrange bananas on top.

Happy Eating!