Vegetarian Dishes

Skimping on Dessert

September 30, 2017 By Allison

When I entertain, I almost always favor savory over sweet. I’d rather linger over a few small bites before dinner than serve a rich dessert after dinner.

This week, my selection of amuse-bouches required some foresight, but the elements came together easily. I served small portions of quinoa and farro salad with pickled fennel, a white tuna mousse with basil on small crackers, and roasted almonds.

Here’s my strategy for pulling together a harmonious appetizer tray:

The day before your dinner party
*Take stock of your materials. Do you have a sizeable serving tray or platter? Do you have verrines (small glasses), little jars, or shot glasses to serve soup or salad? No worries if you need to mix and match—it adds character and charm. Pull out bread plates, if you have them, and try to get your hands on some square cocktail napkins.

*Make a grain salad or soup. They will both taste even better the day of your gathering. I served this delightful and easily adaptable salad.

*Make a recipe of roasted almonds. I share my recipe at the end of this post. If you don’t have time to roast your own nuts, grab some at the grocery store.

The day of your dinner party
*Lay out your tray and accoutrements.

The hour before your dinner party
*Taste and freshen your soup or salad. Does it need a splash of oil or vinegar? Maybe some salt and pepper? Spoon into serving dishes and garnish with fresh herbs.

*Spread any dips on crackers or thinly sliced baguette. I served this mousse.

*Take a moment to prepare your tray. Resist the temptation of overcharging it with food and decoration. The goal is to whet your guests’ appetites, not stuff them before dinner.

When your guests arrive
*Begin your evening with the aperitif of your choice—sparkling wine, sparkling water, fruit juice, and bourbon are good choices.

*Enjoy conversation and pretty snacks with your guests before the main course. Slip away when you need to put the finishing touches on dinner.

For dessert
*If you served a generous tray of appetizers, don’t feel obligated to prepare a substantial dessert. This week, I finished my dinner party with small madeleine cakes that I had in the freezer.

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Recreating Melbourne

September 16, 2017 By Allison

Oh, how I’d love to slip away to Melbourne for a weekend! Alas! Quick visits to Australia are out of reach for most of us in the Northern Hemisphere. But all is not lost. My memories and pictures bring me back to the mosaic floors of Melbourne’s elegant covered passages and its iconic street art. And in my Kentucky kitchen, I revisit a stunning meal shared with my good friends Stephanie and Jeremy.

Each and every dish at Rumi Restaurant was exquisite—creamy labne, cheese-filled pastry “cigars”, meatballs in tomato and saffron sauce. But one dish stood out, and I’ve been recreating it for months. Each time it evokes early Australian autumn, merriment, and friendship. This salad is made with a Middle Eastern grain called freekeh. Chewy and slightly nutty, freekeh is a substantial grain. Serve it as a vegetarian main or in verrines as a savory-sweet starter. The juicy grapes beautifully juxtapose the tart feta. The pomegranate molasses lends a slight, deep sweetness. The parsley adds a vegetative touch that unifies the salad.

Freekeh, Grape, and Feta salad comes together fairly easily and has the power to awaken memories. Bon appétit!

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My Madeleines de Proust

September 2, 2017 By Allison

“…I brought to my lips a spoonful of tea in which I had softened a piece of madeleine. But at the exact moment when the mouthful mixed with cake crumbs touched my palate, I shivered, attentive to this extraordinary thing that was taking place in me. A delicious pleasure had invaded me, isolated, no notion of its cause. It had instantly made me indifferent to the vicissitudes of life, made its disasters harmless, its brevity illusory, in the same way that love operates, filling me with a precious essence: or more accurately this essence wasn’t in me, it was me.” –Marcel Proust, Du côté de chez Swann

Shell-shaped madeleine cakes were a part of my life before I ever knew about Marcel Proust and the memory-inducing power of his petites madeleines. When I was a student in Paris, a bakery close to my school sold five madeleines for five francs—a deal! At lunchtime, I’d often make my way down the rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs to pick up one of the tidy white bags holding five portable cakes. Sometimes they were still warm. Madeleines were my ideal student snack—simple, toothsome, and shareable. A chocolate éclair or strawberry tartelette would have been more impressive, but the dainty butter cakes comforted me. I imprinted my own madeleine experience well before encountering Proust.

Later, I would discover that Proust, too, found comfort in madeleines. In the first volume of his 3,000 page novel Remembrance of Things Past, tasting a madeleine dipped in tea unleashes the narrator’s memory of taking tea and cake with Aunt Léonie. In French culture, a madeleine de Proust refers to a heart-warming, evocative culinary experience that joins past and present. Madeleine cakes are one of my madeleines de Proust. They bring me back to the sweet, exhilarating sadness of being so far from home. Other sweets unleash my involuntary memory, allowing me a delicious, temporary dance between past and present: Grandma Rose Mary’s orange cookies, Grandma Mary Ellen’s sticky rolls, and the frosted graham crackers Mom served me as a toddler. The frosting was always homemade, and she always served them on a rectangular, strawberry-patterned tray that is still in her kitchen.

What foods bring your past into the present? Tell me about your madeleines de Proust in the comment section.

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Cloisonné

July 8, 2017 By Allison

I eyed the vintage chopsticks for months… two sets lovingly displayed in narrow, silken boxes. I figured the local antique shop wouldn’t sell them right away, so I hemmed and hawed. They definitely weren’t ivory—maybe resin? The floral cloisonné was dainty and delicate. I liked the weight of them in my hands. I slid them back in their case.

One day, much to my delight, a friend bought them for me. More than once, she had seen me gravitate to them.

I come home and waste no time in putting them to use—a Buddha bowl is called for—what can I rummage up in the kitchen? Kale-soba noodles-apple-sesame seeds-Korean red pepper paste-scallions-soy sauce-garlic. With NPR in the background, I set to preparing the dish that will baptize my “new” chopsticks—a concoction of flavorful noodles and vegetables. My dinner is easy on the eyes and happy in the tummy—spicy, sweet, and green.

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