I have to say that the menu was a challenge in trying to mesh the foods from areas around the world in some sort of cohesive way. I might have been successful. You tell me.
A few months back I had all my dinner guests throw the name of a region or a type of cuisine into a hat and I pulled them out one at a time to assign to various aspects of dinner. Here's how it went down:
Appetizers - China, Lebanon
Salad - Greece
Entree - Escargot (that's right a food, not a region or a cuisine), Mexico, Wales
Dessert - Persia, Southern Spain
I ended up with one left in the hat - Poland - so decided to make a beverage from there.
What had I gotten myself into? I also strive to cook items I've never cooked before, use new techniques, or just try to learn something new each month. A double threat to my success.
Here's the menu I came up with:
CHINESE CHICKEN WINGS
LEBANESE LAMB MEATBALLS
GREEK ROASTED BEET SALAD
ESCARGOT WITH MARGARITA JALAPENO SALSA
STEAK FAJITAS
WELSH FISH CAKES
PERSIAN DAINTIES
MISSION FIG FLAN FROM MALAGA
POLISH CHERRY KOMPOT
The next challenge was to source the ingredients. Where would I find escargot in Portland? I found an Asian market that had them live but I didn't want to have to clean and prep them plus the recipe called for canned snails. Wouldn't you know it? I ended up finding everything at Wal-Mart. Who would have guessed?!?!
The wings had been marinated and baked in a mix of soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger and other aromatics. All were consumed so I guess everyone liked them.
I thought there would be no way Wal-Mart would have ground lamb, but sure enough they did. It was mixed with breadcrumbs, fresh mint and dill, then rolled into balls and baked. I served it with a chive sour cream. Again, these went quickly and I was so proud that everyone gave them a try...even the ones that I thought would never eat lamb.
The salad from Greece seemed to be a no brainer but since I made and served a typical Greek Salad
so was looking for something different. I found a recipe for a roasted beet salad from Greece and went that route. I've never roasted beets before and can I say right now, they were delicious! I ate waaaaay too many of the slices just prepping the salad. After roasting the sliced beets were marinated in a dressing of red wine vinegar, olive oil, fresh mint, dill, and chives, and other dried herbs. When ready to serve I dressed greens with the remaining dressing and piled on top the beets. This was a crowd favorite for sure.
The fish cakes were pretty simple. Mashed potatoes, butter and poached and flaked salmon combined and made into little cakes then fried to golden brown. Another crowd favorite.
On to the escargot. I was surprised when I removed them from the can to discover how large they were and how much they looked exactly like snails. I wasn't trying to hide this fact from my diners so left them intact and baked them in the oven in garlic butter and topped with a margarita jalapeno salsa I had prepped earlier in the day. I had one fajita made from several of the escargot in addition to a steak fajita. They were really delicious. And again, I was so proud that almost everyone at least gave them a try. And many enjoyed them too!
On to dessert. I tried to find some kind of common denominator between the two so made a Persian dessert ball of dried dates, raisins, figs, nuts and orange peel. Then I made a fig flan to accompany it. Both were enjoyed by the crowd, but the flan was definitely the fan favorite of the evening.
Oh yeah, the beverage. I wanted something non-alcoholic so discovered that in Poland, many families will boil fresh or dried fruit in water, add a bit of sugar and serve cold. I had a big bag of fresh cherries so gave that a try. It was actually quite nice.
All in all, a wonderful meal. It made me all warm and fuzzy knowing that not only did people enjoy the evening (this was the latest people stayed in a long time), but were adventurous enough to give everything a try. Ahhhhhhhhhhh......until next month.
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