Birthday Party menu card
Oct. 7th, 2006 07:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wiseheartFirst of all, heartfelt thanks to everyone who came to my virtual party and dropped me a line to let the comments collapse. Let 'em coming, friends, I haven't had so much fun in my previous 49 birthdays counted together. *g*
However, I'm throwing this big fat RL party for a few of my colleagues tomorrow, and since you can't come, I thought I'd post the menu, together with the recipes (or at least instructions how to prepare the food). Save the dessert, these are all transylvanian specialities my Granny used to cook, and I want to introduce them to the rest of the planet.
Sooo....
THE BIG FAT MENU CARD
HORS D'OEUVRES
Eggplant spread on dark rye bread
You bake the eggplants on top of the oven. Then you peel off the burned skin (it has to be really black) and puree the flesh by hacking it with a wooden knife (no frigging mixers are allowed, it would kill the taste) as soon as all what you have on your cutting desk is, well, eggplant puree. You salt it a little, stir it with oil, an onion cut in tiny pieces and a few drops of lemon juice.
You are allowed to buy the bread at the grocer's. *g*
French salad in fresh tomatoes
Yes, in the tomatoes!
You cook a really good, home-made chicken soup. With parsley roots, carrots, a piece of celeriac, a piece of kohlrabi, half a tomato, lots of parsley and an entire chicken breast. You cook a few potatoes in their peel, and boil a few eggs. You are allowed to buy the sour ccucumbers in the can, but you have to fish them out of it with your own two hands.
Now you cut everything in small pieces, which only takes half a day or so. Then we go and prepare real, honest-to-earth, home-made mayonnaise. We stir two eggyolks with oil (always only two or three trops of oil) and a pinch of salt until it reaches the right consistence. Don't ask. Mum says you can see when it's right. Then you add more oil, mustard, lemon juice and two cans of sour cream of kefir. We use kefir, because it's lighter that way and tastes better.
You mix the vegetables and the minced chicken meat with the mayonnaise and let the guys rest in the fridge for a few hours. In the meantime, you carefully cut off the tops of the tomatoes and scrap out the soft inner parts. Then you fill each tomato with the French salad, put the tops back on and toss them into the fridge for the night.
Meatballs
Well, this one is pretty routine. Mix minced meat with an egg, small-cut onions, a soaked roll or two, salt and pepper. Make little balls of it and fry it in deep fat.
Yeah, I know it sounds like hamburgers. The difference is they actually do have a taste and are wondrously soft.
MAIN COURSE
Flecken
Sorry, this is the only name I know. It's a sort of short-fried meat.
You need smoked meat for this one - it's good if it's a big fat, because the fat will come out while you're frying the slices in a teflon frying pan. You fry both sides without additional fat, then cut the meat into small pieces and add some more salt and pepper. It needs to be served fresh and very, very hot. If you're barbecuing the meat, it doesn't need to be a smoked sort, but where would I get a barbecue here, right?
Fried green peppers
Now I'm not sure you guys know the sort of green peppers we have on this side of the pond. Well, Europeans do know them, of course, I'm just unsure about the rest of you. These are fleshy, pale green guys, mild to sweet in taste, and yet spicy.
You fry the peppers the same way you did with the eggplants. You peel off the burned parts (which is the actual skin), but you leave the peppers whole. You lay them in a big, flat dish and soak in a sauce made of water, sugar, lemon juice, and red vinegar. Let them rest for a few hours. They are soft, tasty and even people who susually can't eat pepper (like me) can eat them this way.
DESSERT
Pineapple slices
You need a three-layered biscuit of any shape you want. You make a white butter creme from gr butter, 1 eggyolk, 120 gr powdered sugar, a few drops of lemon juice, a few drops of butter-vanilla baking oil and half a can of pineapple slices, cut into really small pieces. (Are you getting an idea what I've spent my day with?)
You spread the cream on every layer of the biscuit. For the top layer, you'll need pure butter cream, so it's best you save a third of your basic cream before adding the pineapple chunks. Put the layer on each other. Decorate the top layer with the rest of the pineapple slices. Add some coctail cherries for the visuals. Make clear glaze and pour it over the cake.
Little mandarine tarts
Well, that's just an emergency dessert, in case someone doesn't like butter cream. Or pinepples. These are ready-made little tarts, on which. I put some vanilla pudding, a few pieces of mandarine oranges and a spoonful of glaze.
DRINKS
Sunwheel
- believe or not, I learned this one in the convent!
Basically, this is a coctail, made of eggnog and champagne. You can dose it according to the wishes of your guests - if they like it sweeter or less sweet. It makes a really nice, yellow foam. Don't attempt to get up in the next 20 minutes after your first glass, though.
Peach champagne
Not much to tell - you can buy it, and it's excellent.
I also bought red and white wine, just in case, but since they didn't tell me which sort they prefer, they'll have to drink what I found. I hate wine and bought it by colour, so... ;))
Okay, hungry now?
However, I'm throwing this big fat RL party for a few of my colleagues tomorrow, and since you can't come, I thought I'd post the menu, together with the recipes (or at least instructions how to prepare the food). Save the dessert, these are all transylvanian specialities my Granny used to cook, and I want to introduce them to the rest of the planet.
Sooo....
HORS D'OEUVRES
Eggplant spread on dark rye bread
You bake the eggplants on top of the oven. Then you peel off the burned skin (it has to be really black) and puree the flesh by hacking it with a wooden knife (no frigging mixers are allowed, it would kill the taste) as soon as all what you have on your cutting desk is, well, eggplant puree. You salt it a little, stir it with oil, an onion cut in tiny pieces and a few drops of lemon juice.
You are allowed to buy the bread at the grocer's. *g*
French salad in fresh tomatoes
Yes, in the tomatoes!
You cook a really good, home-made chicken soup. With parsley roots, carrots, a piece of celeriac, a piece of kohlrabi, half a tomato, lots of parsley and an entire chicken breast. You cook a few potatoes in their peel, and boil a few eggs. You are allowed to buy the sour ccucumbers in the can, but you have to fish them out of it with your own two hands.
Now you cut everything in small pieces, which only takes half a day or so. Then we go and prepare real, honest-to-earth, home-made mayonnaise. We stir two eggyolks with oil (always only two or three trops of oil) and a pinch of salt until it reaches the right consistence. Don't ask. Mum says you can see when it's right. Then you add more oil, mustard, lemon juice and two cans of sour cream of kefir. We use kefir, because it's lighter that way and tastes better.
You mix the vegetables and the minced chicken meat with the mayonnaise and let the guys rest in the fridge for a few hours. In the meantime, you carefully cut off the tops of the tomatoes and scrap out the soft inner parts. Then you fill each tomato with the French salad, put the tops back on and toss them into the fridge for the night.
Meatballs
Well, this one is pretty routine. Mix minced meat with an egg, small-cut onions, a soaked roll or two, salt and pepper. Make little balls of it and fry it in deep fat.
Yeah, I know it sounds like hamburgers. The difference is they actually do have a taste and are wondrously soft.
MAIN COURSE
Flecken
Sorry, this is the only name I know. It's a sort of short-fried meat.
You need smoked meat for this one - it's good if it's a big fat, because the fat will come out while you're frying the slices in a teflon frying pan. You fry both sides without additional fat, then cut the meat into small pieces and add some more salt and pepper. It needs to be served fresh and very, very hot. If you're barbecuing the meat, it doesn't need to be a smoked sort, but where would I get a barbecue here, right?
Fried green peppers
Now I'm not sure you guys know the sort of green peppers we have on this side of the pond. Well, Europeans do know them, of course, I'm just unsure about the rest of you. These are fleshy, pale green guys, mild to sweet in taste, and yet spicy.
You fry the peppers the same way you did with the eggplants. You peel off the burned parts (which is the actual skin), but you leave the peppers whole. You lay them in a big, flat dish and soak in a sauce made of water, sugar, lemon juice, and red vinegar. Let them rest for a few hours. They are soft, tasty and even people who susually can't eat pepper (like me) can eat them this way.
DESSERT
Pineapple slices
You need a three-layered biscuit of any shape you want. You make a white butter creme from gr butter, 1 eggyolk, 120 gr powdered sugar, a few drops of lemon juice, a few drops of butter-vanilla baking oil and half a can of pineapple slices, cut into really small pieces. (Are you getting an idea what I've spent my day with?)
You spread the cream on every layer of the biscuit. For the top layer, you'll need pure butter cream, so it's best you save a third of your basic cream before adding the pineapple chunks. Put the layer on each other. Decorate the top layer with the rest of the pineapple slices. Add some coctail cherries for the visuals. Make clear glaze and pour it over the cake.
Little mandarine tarts
Well, that's just an emergency dessert, in case someone doesn't like butter cream. Or pinepples. These are ready-made little tarts, on which. I put some vanilla pudding, a few pieces of mandarine oranges and a spoonful of glaze.
DRINKS
Sunwheel
- believe or not, I learned this one in the convent!
Basically, this is a coctail, made of eggnog and champagne. You can dose it according to the wishes of your guests - if they like it sweeter or less sweet. It makes a really nice, yellow foam. Don't attempt to get up in the next 20 minutes after your first glass, though.
Peach champagne
Not much to tell - you can buy it, and it's excellent.
I also bought red and white wine, just in case, but since they didn't tell me which sort they prefer, they'll have to drink what I found. I hate wine and bought it by colour, so... ;))
Okay, hungry now?
