Well, It is New Year's Day....and you know what that means !

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

COOKING TIME
I fix a meal for six people every New Year's. This year we decided to do it on Sunday, the 2nd. The prime rib has been dry aging for a week. I will be prepping the food and starting some of the dishes today, and start the meal cooking early tomorrow AM. I will post photos and such tomorrow evening.
I do all the cooking, serving, and clean up myself, as this is my gift to the two other couples and my wife. The dinner is served in seven courses over a leisurely three hour period.

The menu is:
Aperitif
Dom Perignon
Appetizer
Grilled Artichoke Hearts, Escargot,Cheeses, and Fruit
Salad
Baby greens, candied walnuts, mandarin orange, pomegranate infused cranberries, walnut balsamic vinaigrette
Soup
She Crab soup with caviar
Entrée
Herb Encrusted Prime Rib with Blanton’s sauce and Au jus
Fresh Horseradish sauce
Fingerling Potatoes with elephant garlic and Parmesan
Baby Asparagus with wild mushrooms and truffle
Saffron creme fraiche
Desert
Maple Crème’ Brule
Digestif
Port, Cognac, Grand Marnier, Single Malt Scotch, Blanton's Bourbon

Wines
White Zinfandel 2009
Sauvignon Blanc 2008
Merlot 2007
Cabernet Sauvignon 2000
Tawny Port

 

[mete]

Where did you find the elephant meat ?
That's a good way to start the new year !

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Make that 7 if it's ok. ;-)

Happy New Year Stacy.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I'll set a place for you, Patrice. Hope you can get here in time.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks Stacy, I'll be there in spirit that's for sure.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Here are a few shots of some prep work.
The antler looking thing is a horseradish root. The round glass topped tin is filled with saffron from Iran. The cuisine a' la Maison types on the BF will know what a large amount of saffron that is. A small amount of saffron was infused in white wine,strained, and then the threads were grated with the horseradish. This gives the yellow color to the horseradish and the red to the wine. The saffron wine will be used to make the Creme fraiche and the mushroom dish. For anyone who hasn't grated fresh horseradish, it requires gloved hands, and a lot of tears. Until the chemical reaction of the grated root is stopped by adding vinegar, it can literally take your breath away.
Other shots are the creme brulee custard, some truffle slices, and the grilled artichoke mix ( getting ready to blend with mascarpone).

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Here is the artichoke mix

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Looking good! :thumbup:

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Here are some shots of the prep:
1 - Escargot
2 - Asparagus and calibrating my meat thermometer
3 - Kitchen ready
4 - Table ready
5 - Chef

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Shots of the cooking and getting ready:
1 - Roast
2 - Guests
3 - Slicing the Prime Rib
4 - Dusting bowl rims with lime and Old bay
5 - Port , dressed for dinner

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Final shots of plated dishes:
1 - Soup
2 - Salad
3 - Tina's entrée ( Vegetarian, so I made her a lobster and crab casserole)
4 - Everyone Else's entrée
5 - Creme Brule

 

[Troop]

Stacy, I've gotta admit...you know how to live!
Just for the comparison, my New Year's meal was a Beef Stew MRE.
Maybe I should start wearing a kilt.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Then make that your new years resolution.

 

[Justin.Mercier]

Stacy, I've gotta admit...you know how to live!
Just for the comparison, my New Year's meal was a Beef Stew MRE.
Maybe I should start wearing a kilt.

Yes... yes you should! Real men wear kilts... as my Tshirt in this photo says.

http://www.tharkis.com/images/temp/ashokan2010portrait.jpg

Contact your local St. Andrew's society and go to a burns night supper too, get to know some of the people in your area.


Stacy, I'm getting hungry just looking at those photos! That looks superb.

That said... when looking at the thumbnails of the photos, I thought at first that your photo of the soup was the photo of the salad, and that it was a 'minimalist' salad with just a few pieces of random green on a plate, like some of those ultra fancy restaurants charge you 40 bucks to drop in front of you and starve you to death =D In thumbnail the soup looks like a plate =)

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Yes, the detail was not as sharp as it could have been. The bowl is half filled with soup.

The bowls were rimmed with Old Bay, then the she crab soup was carefully ladled in .A thin drizzle of cognac was run across the center, so it would float on the cream soup. Caviar was dotted along the same path. A few shavings of black truffle, some chives and tarragon leaves, and an edible flower finished the dish.

At the time of eating, you stir the soup so as to mix these flavors freshly. Then, you scrape in as much Old bay as you wish to make it spice or mild.

 

[mostho]

wow man this is something tasty and delicious... yummy!

 

[WA Martin]

Another fine display, Stacy.

One of these days...