Easter weekend marked the first real spring weekend in New Jersey. A few months ago, our friends were kind enough to invite themselves over for easter supper (haha!), so A and I were left with no choice but to pull together a spring-themed feast.
A handled the shopping. Initially, I thought this was a great idea, as it gave me time to grab lunch with one of my girlfriends. Then A got home. I walked into a kitchen filled with more produce than I had ever seen in my life.
- Honey, what is all this?
- You told me to get baby vegetables, so I got everything that could have been considered a baby.- You what????
- Well, yeah, and I hope that nobody else is planning to buy baby vegetables today because I bought everything they had.
- But we just needed carrots, and a few other root vegetables. Did you get baby beets?
- No, I didn't get beets. But I did get fresh baby corn, baby artichokes, baby fennell, baby turnips, baby potatoes, fiddleheads...
- You bought fiddleheads? But why? We don't even know how to cook those.
- They are baby ferns. I told you, I bought everything they had that was baby.
Seriously? All I could do was shoot him my best "exasperated wifey look" and make a mental note to never let him do the shopping alone again. With hindsight, I must admit, it is a good thing he bought every vegetable they had because everything got eaten. Once the last guest had left, there was scarcely a leftover to be seen.
Here is the menu:
Goats Cheese and Olive Tapenade Crostini
Manchego Crostini with Romesco Sauce
Fresh Fava Bean, Baby Corn and Feta Salad
Roasted Baby Vegetables
Sauteed Asparagus and Fiddleheads with Chanterelles
Strawberry and Orange-Scented Mascarpone Tart with a Port Wine Reduction
Homemade Vanilla and Cinnamon Ice Cream
Pistachio Macarons with Pistachio Gianduja
Guests J-squared (ha!) brought a lovely fig and orange toast with goats cheese that I somehow did not manage to take photos of! Probably because it got eaten too quickly.
Prep for the party took about a day and a half. While none of the recipes were particularly difficult, the sheer volume of vegetables meant several hours of sousing. A decided after peeling 3 lbs of asparagus that we might not ever serve asparagus again. While I do enjoy it, I am okay with sacrificing asparagus if it means I never have to peel them again. Tossed with fiddleheads, chanterelles and tarragon, they were lovely, but probably not worth the trouble.
Prep for the party took about a day and a half. While none of the recipes were particularly difficult, the sheer volume of vegetables meant several hours of sousing. A decided after peeling 3 lbs of asparagus that we might not ever serve asparagus again. While I do enjoy it, I am okay with sacrificing asparagus if it means I never have to peel them again. Tossed with fiddleheads, chanterelles and tarragon, they were lovely, but probably not worth the trouble.
Crostini is definitely our new go-to appetizer. It is very low stress, as the spreads can be made in advance, and the bite-sized pieces are crowd pleasers. For the two varieties we made this weekend, the romesco sauce was leftover from a week night dinner (shh!) and the olive tapenade can be prepped up to a week ahead of time. Garnish with your favorite cheese (in our case goats cheese for the olive spread and manchego for the romesco sauce) and you are good to go. For the bread, I pulled together a batch of pain a l'ancienne from the Bread Bakers Apprentice, a must have book for anyone who is interested in making bread at home.
The weather was very much in our favor - bright sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. If anything, it was almost too hot! A tossed some lemon and mint into a pitcher of water to keep everyone refreshed, and offered up sun-screen to accompany glasses of white wine.
Dessert continued the spring theme. Two of our guests, D and J, gave us an ice cream machine as a wedding gift a few years ago. As such, whenever they come over, I make it a point to whip up a batch of fresh ice cream. Today was no different, and I looked to my favorite recipe for vanilla bean and cinnamon ice cream. A and I had run out of serving dishes, so the ice cream was served as a "palette cleanser" in mini-martini glasses. It looks like we were being fancy, but really, we just didn't have any more dishes.
The ice cream was followed by a decadent strawberry mascarpone tart. I made the mascarpone myself, and added sugar, lemon zest, orange zest, lemon juice, orange juice and vanilla to flavor it. The entire tart was drizzled with a port glaze before serving.
We closed the meal with pistachio macarons because I just don't think I can host a party without them anymore. For the macarons shells, I used the same recipe I have referenced before on this blog, but subbed in ground pistachios for half of the almond flour. I also added green food coloring. For some reason these macs had much softer texture than those I have made in the past. Maybe it was the pistachios?
All in all, it was a successful event. Maybe hosting easter supper could become a tradition for us. I honestly think I enjoyed it more than our annual barbeque.
Honestly, there is just too much here for me to write-up all of the recipes. Recipes taken directly from other sites are linked above. After the jump, recipes for the pistachio gianduja, fava bean salad and the ice cream. If you want other emails, leave a note.
Pistachio Gianduja
150 grams chopped bittersweet chocolate
150 grams pistachio paste
75 grams powdered sugar
Gently melt the chocolate in a double boiler over medium heat. Once the chocolate has melted and is smooth and shiny, turn off the heat and add the pistachio paste and the powdered sugar. Stir the mixture until it is smooth and then transfer it to a bowl. Cool the chocolate mixture to room temperature, stirring constantly. Continue to stir until the mixture is thick enough to pipe using a piping bag. This could take up to 30 minutes.
Fresh Fava Bean, Baby Corn and Feta Salad
Adapted from Epicurious
Yields 8 side servings
4 lbs fresh fava beans in their pod
4 ears of baby corn
1.5 red onions, chopped
1/4 cup feta cheese
olive oil
Remove fava beans from their pods. Blanch the beans by boiling them in water for 1 minute and then immediately throwing them in an ice bath. Once the beans have been blanched, remove their thin outer skins.
Saute the onions in olive oil until translucent. Turn off heat and add fava beans and baby corn to pan. Toss vegetables gently in the pan and then move them to a separate bowl. Refrigerate the vegetables for about a half hour and then toss with the feta cheese. Serve immediately.
Vanilla Bean and Cinnamon Ice Cream
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Yields 1.5 quarts
8 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups skim milk
1 vanilla bean
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 cups heavy cream
Whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan. Add the skim milk, cinnamon and the seeds from the vanilla bean. Let sit for 30 minutes. Then heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens and leaves a coating on the back of a spoon, approximately 12 minutes. Remove from heat and pour the custard through a fine mesh sieve into medium sized bowl. Discard any solids. Mix the cream into the custard, cover the bowl and refrigerate it until it is completely chilled. Pour the custard into an ice cream maker and churn for 20-25 minutes. Immediately transfer the ice cream from the mixer to a container that is air-tight when closed with a lid. The ice cream will be a bit soft. Cover it with plastic wrap so that the plastic makes a layer of "skin" across the top of the ice cream. Cover and freeze for at least two hours before serving.
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