Saturday, November 15, 2014

Friday night dinner

(Sorry, I didn't take any pictures; I'll try to compensate...)

Last night, I had two couples over for dinner; they are parishioners who helped a lot in getting my house put together, so I wanted to show my gratitude.

Since it was Friday, I thought fish would be in order, so I came up with the following menu:

Grilled salmon with lime butter





Risotto Milanese

My risotto did look sort of like this!



Sauteed broccoli




For dessert I had brownies and ice cream; but one of the couples brought a cherry pie and ice cream, so we ate that instead.

(What, you haven't had enough of the silly pictures?)

The risotto took the longest, and I made more than twice as much as needed. Rather than use beef or chicken stock, I used vegetable because it's Friday. I think beef stock is original, but I've used chicken before. The recipe -- from Emeril Lagasse -- involves minced shallots and onions, white wine (I used vermouth -- biretta tip to blogger Chip Ahoy, who suggested this), plus some peas, and saffron, and many additions of stock, and all that finished off with cream, butter and cheese. It was pretty good!

The fish was easy; just salt, pepper and some olive oil. It did stick to the grill a bit, so it wasn't so nice to look at, but it tasted great. I had a little left over which I ate, with eggs and leftover broccoli, for a late breakfast.

The lime butter was something I found online; it involved garlic and unsalted butter and lime juice and salt and pepper and a blender. It ended up kind of frothy, and did taste great on the fish. I'd liked it to have been less citrusy, however.

The broccoli was good, but needed to be sauteed longer. I should have started it sooner, but everything else was ready, so we took it to the table.

The cherry pie was great, thanks Linda! Before and after this, we had some drinks and snacks, and coffee. 

And I had a couple of brownies today -- good, but they needed more added coffee!

3 comments:

ndspinelli said...

Great meal! There is a superb movie named, Big Night. Two Italian immigrant brothers have a restaurant in NJ during the 50's. They have a philosophical argument over risotto, the time and effort it takes, and whether it should remain on the menu. Risotto is really a metaphor for the fundamental differences between the 2 bothers. This movie adores food, and if you haven't seen it, I recommend you do.

rcg said...

Lucky parishioners!

Jenny said...

Yum!!
I would travel all the way from SC for this meal!
I may try it here while son is visiting over Thanksgiving--my husband fishes, and there are some striped bass filets in the freezer. Anyone have suggestions for how to keep the fish from sticking to the grill?