Red Table Dinner Party

The theme for the 3rd challenge of Project Food Blog is a Luxury Dinner Party. I have a very old red table and four chairs that I’ve wanted to use for something for the blog for ages. So, my theme was red. The challenge said we had to make a party for at least 4 guests. The location is my country house in Grocka and the guests are Svetlana, Sanja, Saša and my boyfriend Mateja. Thank you guys for the help! Love you and hope you enjoyed the party

Red Currant Champagne

For the drinks, I decided to make a very simple Champagne cocktail. Pureed frozen red currants placed in the bottom of the glass, then Champagne added. Very nice and refreshing.

Notes and tips for organizing: One day in advance, Sanja and I came to my country house to begin the preparation. We prepared ice-cream the desert, liver pate and rolled the meat. This was a life saver as alone in one day I could have never made everything I imagined.

On the day of the dinner, while baking veal roulade, when you lower the temperature to the 180°C, you can bake the potato pies alongside the meat. This will save a lot of time.

And by the way, the centerpiece is a real Red Delicious apple. Cored and filled with white wild flowers. Just don’t core the apple completely, only to top part.

Liver Pate

Liver Pate

(recipe adapted from Sale & Pepe magazine, Serbian issue for January/February 2008)

300 g chicken livers
1 celery stick
1 small carrot
1 small onion
2 tsp tomato puree
50 ml white dessert wine
30 g capers
2 anchovy fillets (optional)
salt and ground black pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil

Heat oil in a pan. Add finely chopped celery, carrot and onion and sauté for 5 minutes on medium heat. Add chopped livers and sauté for another few minutes more on high heat, then add wine. When wine evaporates add tomato puree, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Continue to cook on low heat for another 5 minutes. Add anchovies and capers, stir and remove from heat. When cooled puree in a blender. Line 2 cupcake holes in a cupcake pan with a cling film and fill them with pate. Leave in a fridge for at least 4 hours before serving.

To serve: Remove pates form cupcake mold. Place them onto plates upside-down. Cut toast bread into circles that are the same diameter as the bottom circle of your cupcake mold. Toast bread either in a toaster or on the highest level of your oven. take 2 bread circles and put them on top of each pate. this will be enough for 4-6 people as an appetizer.

Herbed Veal Roulade

Herbed Veal Roulade

(recipe adapted from Sale & Pepe magazine, Serbian issue for September 2010)

1,2 kg veal leg (in one piece)
a bundle chives
a couple of thyme branches (or 1 tsp dried)
1 large rosemary branch (or 1 tsp dried)
40 g butter, on room temperature
white wine
salt and ground black pepper

Finely chop the herbs and mix with butter. Season with salt and pepper. Cut meat spirally to prepare it for stuffing (very useful video on how to do this here). Flatten it with a kitchen hammer. Spread herbed butter over and roll. Tie the roll with a kitchen rope.

Bake for 20 minutes in a preheated oven on 220°C. Pour about 1 glass of wine over, lower the temperature to 180°C and bake for another hour. While cooking brush the meat with the juices. If needed, add more wine.

Potato Pies

Potato Pies

(recipe adapted from Sale & Pepe magazine, Serbian issue for January/February 2010)

800 g white potatoes
3 egg yolks
1 egg
80 g grated Parmesan
butter
breadcrumbs
nutmeg
salt and ground black pepper

Cook potatoes with the skins for 40 minutes from the moment water boils. Remove the skins while they’re still hot, puree and stir in Parmesan, 40 g butter and spices. Melt some butter and use it to brush the sides of mini molds. Sprinkle the molds with breadcrumbs, shake to distribute evenly along the sides. Now add egg and yolks to the potato mixture and stir well. Put in molds. Sprinkle each pie with more breadcrumbs on top and bake in a preheated oven on 180°C for about 25 minutes.

Serve topped with fresh arugula.

Spiced Pears

Spiced Pears

(recipe adapted from Sale & Pepe magazine, Serbian issue for October 2010)

4 long pears
10 g sugar
150 g brown sugar
orange zest
120 g butter
1 egg
40 g flour
80 ml milk
a pinch of ground ginger, cinnamon and cloves
4 cardamom pods
oil
125 g smetana (substitute with 20% milk fat sour cream)
120 ml heavy cream
60 ml sugar syrup
a pinch of salt

To prepare the ice cream whisk together smetana, heavy cream and sugar syrup. Freeze.

Melt 15 g butter until brownish. Beat flour, milk, salt, browned butter and egg with a mixer. Heat a non stick pan and fry small crepes.

Mix brown sugar with spices. Peel pears and brush them with 80 g melted butter. Roll them in brown sugar. Cut 4 pieces of baking paper. Spread the remaining melted butter on top of each, along with the remaining brown sugar. Put 1 cardamom pod and a piece of orange zest on each paper. Wrap pears in papers and bake in a preheated oven on 150°C for 1 hour.

To serve: Just before the serving, deep-fry each crepe. Place one crepe on a plate, put baked pear on top, scoop one spoon of ice-cream and put it next to the pear.

Cheers!