I want to end Volume I of the ‘Dinner Party Chronicles’ with everyone’s favorite. So, Chapter III is all about dessert!

First, let me just say upfront, the dessert almost didn’t happen. Up until the morning of the dinner party, I still had no idea what I was going to serve for dessert. I wasn’t inspired. It was 3pm, I had already done my grocery shopping for the day (actually, I had gone twice) and I was not about to go back.

To say I was a tad frustrated would not be too far off the mark. I was halfway thinking of serving cookies and milk in an old fashion jug and proclaim it to be a ‘retro’ dessert. People were arriving soon, there was no dessert, the other dishes weren’t done and the house was a mess.

Honestly, this chaos is not all that unusual….No matter how much time I give myself, there is always disorder before dinner parties. The kitchen is always a disaster zone and for the life of me, I don’t see how it’s all going to come together in the end. But somehow, two minutes before the first guest rings the door bell, it just does.

Back to dessert. I had ruled out the cookies and milk thing…I’ll save that for another desperate time.

I decided to make ice cream. An amazing fennel ice cream that was published in Gourmet magazine (I found it at Smitten Kitchen) immediately came to mind. I had made it before and loved it – sinfully delicious and thanks to the high fat content, an even more sinful and creamy texture.

Now, I wanted to add another element to complete plate. I remembered that I had store-bought puff pastry in the freezer and caramel that I had made for some recently baked pecan sandies.

With that decided, it was time to start cooking.

If you missed the first two chapters on this dinner party series, here’s a recap of the menu:

THE MENU

Pre-Dinner Cocktails: Lemongrass Caipirinhas

Appetizer: Duo of Lamb (Ravioli & Seared Loin) with Garden Scapes

Soup: Cream of Leek & Parsnip Soup with Lardons

Main Coarse: Port/Orange Sauce Braised Duck Breast & Asparagus Salad

Dessert: Fennel Ice Cream on Sugared Puff Pastry with Caramel Sauce

And if you are not familiar with the ‘Dinner Party Chronicles’ here’s a rundown: The ‘Chronicles’ is a feature of the Ceramic Canvas that recaps the successes AND failures of dinner party menus and recipes hosted in our home. It is divided into volumes and chapters. Volume refers to the actual date of the dinner party. And each chapter (i.e. posting) will focus one specific dish of that night’s meal.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program…dessert.

Before guests arrived I cut out the puff pastry, sugared them, put them on a baking sheet and stored them in the fridge. At that point, all I had to do was pop them in the oven in the middle of the entrée course and they were ready to come out just in time for dessert. They were still warm and flakey when dessert was served – which was ideal because you have the nice ice cold ice cream laying on top of a warm piece of buttery, sweet puff pastry pillow. As you dove your spoon down through the ice cream you could here a audible cracking as the fork broke through the flakey puff pastry. Top that off with homemade caramel. Nice!

It was a nice sweet cap to a fun meal. Our guests had no idea that they were that close to having Keebler cookies and milk.

NOTES: There is no recipe for the puff pastry – it’s store bought. Just thaw it out and cut with a cookie/ravioli cutter. You can make your own but they now have pretty decent pre-made puff pastry dough. Look in your grocer’s freezer section.

The caramel recipe and photographic step-by-step can be found in the recent pecan sandies recipe posting.

FENNEL ICE CREAM (Originally published in Gourmet Magazine; Oct 2007)

1 2/3 cups heavy cream

2 teaspoons fennel seeds, crushed

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar, divided

4 large egg yolks

Bring cream and fennel seeds just to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan, then cover and let steep about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring milk, 1/2 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt to a simmer in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring.

Whisk together yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a large bowl, then add milk mixture in a slow stream, whisking. Return mixture to medium saucepan and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until mixture coats back of spoon and registers 175°F on an instant-read thermometer (do not let boil). Immediately strain custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl, then quick-chill by setting bowl in an ice bath and stirring occasionally until cool, about 15 minutes.

Strain fennel cream through fine-mesh sieve into custard, pressing on solids. Continue to chill in ice bath until custard is very cold, then freeze in ice cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, about 1 hour.

Makes about one quart

I’m starting to think that my friends and I are a bunch of boozers. I mean, you can’t really blame us that much…this cocktail was a fun way to kick off the dinner party and it was so delicious that it was impossible to have just one…or two! This could be my mostest favoritest drink ever.

So today, Chapter II of ‘The Dinner Party Chronicles,’ Volume I, will feature the recipe for the Pre-Dinner Cocktail – Lemongrass Caipirinhas. And oh boy, let me tell you, you’re gonna love this cocktail. The drink is refreshing and complex and it has a nice almost, floral overtone. A great summertime or brunch drink.

Before I go on, a quick note for those not familiar with ‘The Dinner Part Chronicles.’ The ‘Chronicles’ is a feature of this blog that recaps the successes AND failures of dinner party menus and recipes thrown by yours truly. It is divided into volumes and chapters. Volume refers to the actual date of the dinner party. And each chapter (i.e. posting) will focus one specific dish of that night’s meal.

Here’s a quick recap of the menu for Volume I (June 20, 2009):

THE MENU

Pre-Dinner Cocktails: Lemongrass Caipirinhas

Appetizer: Duo of Lamb (Ravioli & Seared Loin) with Garden Scapes

Soup: Cream of Leek & Parsnip Soup with Lardons

Main Coarse: Port/Orange Sauce Braised Duck Breast & Asparagus Salad

Dessert: Fennel Ice Cream on Sugared Puff Pastry with Caramel Sauce

With that said, on to Chapter II: The Pre-Dinner Cocktail.

The idea of this drink started with one ingredient…the lemongrass. I had a few stalks on hand. I wanted to use them somehow in a dinner party we were hosting but I wasn’t sure how. At first, I was thinking about using them in the main dish….maybe, some type of poultry in a lemongrass braise. But I decided against that. Or a dessert…maybe, a lemongrass and buttermilk ice cream. Nope. I had already decided that I was going to make Fennel Ice Cream with Sugared Puff Pastry (to be featured in the next chapter).

And then the idea of making a cocktail came to mind. I wanted to play up the inherent tropical nature of the lemongrass. Immediately, two drinks come to mind….Mojitos or Caipirinhas. I had some cachaça on hand, a Brazilian liquor made from sugarcane juice and the main ingredient of caipirinhas. So, caipirinhas it was. (NOTE: The last time I worked with cachaça for was this Fresh Coconut & Cachaça Sorbet.)

Instead of mashing the lemongrass to release its flavor into the drink I though it would be more flavorful to use a lemongrass simple syrup. A flavored simple syrup also solved another problem – I hate when using sugar in cocktails. A good bit of the sugar always settles to the bottom of the glass, leaving you with an unpleasant, gritty finish to the drink.

With a plan in mind, I set out to find the right ingredient balance. On that note, recipe development/testing for cocktails is a lot more fun than testing chicken soup recipes– I can promise you that.

I think the final drink hits the mark. As I mentioned in the intro, the lemongrass syrup adds a beautiful almost-floral like quality to the cocktail. I can totally see Carrie and the rest of the Sex in the City girls ditching their tired ole’ Cosmopolitans for this far more refreshing and complex drink. On that note, while I wouldn’t necessarily serve this drink at your next Super Bowl Party, I think that your average guy can also get into.

Enjoy!

LEMONGRASS CAIPIRINHAS

I prefer to make this in one big batch for parties. But you could easily make this on a glass-by-glass basis – 1 oz each of lemongrass syrup and cachaça, plus splash of club soda and crushed ice.

I recommend that before you mix the entire batch, that you test out the proportions with one serving to make sure that the sweetness of the drink is to your taste. If need to, you can adjust the balance.

1 cup lemongrass, cut into 1″ dices

3 cups water

2 cups sugar

2 cups cachaça

9 limes, cut into eights

In a medium sized, heavy bottom sauce pan over medium-high heat, bring the lemongrass and 3 sups of water to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, cover with a tight lid and let lemongrass steep for 30 minutes.

Strain liquid and discard the lemongrass. You should have about 2 cups of liquid. Pour lemongrass back into sauce pan and pour in sugar. Heat liquid enough to completely dissolve the sugar. Set syrup aside until it is room temperature. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate.

Blend cold lemongrass syrup and cachaça in one pitcher.

To serve, place 4 pieces of a quartered lime in the bottom of the glass. Using a muddle or the back of a wooden spoon crush the limes to release their juice. Pour in about ½ cup of the syrup/cachaça mix. Add finely crushed ice. And top off drink with club soda (to taste, in order to adjust the sweetness of the drink).

First, I want to apologize for the plating and photography in this post – not my best work – and it doesn’t do the dish justice. But…

I’m excited to introduce what will be a fun feature on this site – ‘The Dinner Party Chronicles’ – where I will recap the successes AND failures of dinner party menus and recipes. Each posting of the ‘Chronicles’ will highlight one specific dish or coarse (i.e. appetizer, main, soup, cocktails…) -with subsequent postings featuring other dishes of the same meal. Sometimes the dishes will turn out well and other times, it probably would have been best if I had just ordered a pizza and called it a day. Either way, I’ll chart the good, bad and the ugly.

My objective is twofold. First, to just share things I learned in putting the meal together. And secondly, provide a place for readers to share their thoughts and recommendations on doing it better.

With all of that said, let’s get started with Volume One: June 22, 2009, Chapter One: The Appetizers.

First, let me say, that this was a fun party – which is to be expected when you blend, booze, designated drivers and my looney group of friends. It’s always a good time.

Here’s what we had:

The Menu

Pre-Dinner Cocktails: Lemongrass Caipirinhas

Appetizer: Duo of Lamb (Ravioli & Seared Loin) with Garden Scapes

Soup: Cream of Leek & Parsnip Soup with Lardons

Main Coarse: Port/Orange Sauce Braised Duck Breast & Asparagus Salad

Dessert: Fennel Ice Cream on Sugared Puff Pastry with Caramel Sauce

First up, the appetizer: Duo of Lamb (Ravioli and Seared Loin).

A very good friend of mine, Roderick (who happens to be an amazing chef) offered to bring me some fresh scapes from his garden. I immediately said, “Yes! I’ll take them!” Upon hanging up the phone, I logged on to Google and typed, “What in the hell are scapes.” Yikes. Unlike me, many of you probably know that scapes are the top portion of the garlic plant – the bud part of the plant before it blooms. I thought to myself, “Hmmmmm, I had no idea that people actually ate this. What a strange world we live in.”

So with doubt swirling around in my head, I used the scapes as the jumping off for the dish. Here’s how my train of thought went, “scapes…OK, a mild garlicky flavor…what goes with garlic…lamb…what about a lamb ravioli…good, but that’s not enough for a entire course…I’ll pair the ravioli with a lamb chop…I can do a sweet-savory balancing act…I’ll make the ravioli rich (braised lamb shank), creamy (mild goat cheese) and slightly sweet (a tad of honey) and balance that with a simple salt and pepper crusted loin from the chop…it can also be a play on textures, soft ravioli and the crunch of the seared salt and pepper crust on the loin…I can serve them both on top of the scapes…maybe, thinly slice some garlic to make chips and sprinkle them on top as a final layer and play on the scapes.”

And that’s roughly how this course came together.

In my opinion this dish was pretty damned good. There was this wonderful marriage of flavors and textures that worked well together.

The trick in pulling this dish together is all in the timing. The raviolis should be assembled well ahead of time, covered and stored in the refrigerator and ready to cook just before serving. Likewise, the scapes should be pre-boiled, shocked with ice water to lock in the color and stored in a Zip-loc bag in the fridge. Fifteen minutes before you want to start the meal, start boiling a large pot of salted water. Directly, before serving I suggest sautéing the lamb loins and setting them aside. Cook raviolis in boiling water and remove. Drop scapes in the water to heat through and remove. This entire process should only keep you away from your guests for no more than seven minutes. They won’t even know you’re gone.

I make pasta a lot. Often, I will make seven-yolk pasta (sometimes with beets some times without). But not this time – the menu was a very involved one already. So, I went with my easy ‘3-2-1 pasta dough’ recipe – three eggs, two cups of flour and 1 teaspoon of olive oil. This dough is not as silky as the 7-yolk version but it’s relatively fast and easy.

SCAPES

12 garlic scapes

1 tsp kosher salt

Using a sharp knife, trim off the bottom of the scapes to just below 2” of the flower bud. Cut each scape into cross-sectioned halves.

Bring about 4 cups of water to boil in a medium sauce pan. Add kosher salt. Boil scapes until they are cooked through and their color turns bright green, about 3-4mintes. Remove scapes from water and immediately plunge them into an ice bath to stop cooking and preserve their color. Set aside until ready to use.

LAMB ‘LOIN’

8 lamb chops

4 tbl canola oil

Kosher salt and fresh and roughly cracked pepper, to taste

Using a sharp knife, cut the round lamb meat away from the bone. Salt and pepper each side. Set aside the bone and its attached fat for another use (perfect for making lamb stock).

Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Pour in canola oil and heat until it shimmers (before reaching its smoking point). Sear each side of the lamb meat until desired doneness – about 2.5 minutes per side.

Remove lamb from pan and cover until ready to use.

RAVIOLI

For the Pasta:

3 large eggs

1 tsp olive oil

½ tsp kosher salt

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading

For the ravioli filling:

3 tbl extra virgin olive oil

2 lamb shanks, pat dry and salt & peppered

1 medium onion, diced

1 celery stock, large diced

1 carrot, large dice

2 garlic cloves, diced

2 cups chicken stock, low sodium if using canned

1 cup red wine

1tsp thyme, dried

1tsp Sichuan pepper corns

3 tsp kosher salt, divided

Goat cheese, plus more to taste

1tbl honey, plus more to taste

1 tsp ground pepper, plus more to taste

For the filling: Preheat oven to 240˚.

In an ovenproof sauté pan over medium-high heat, warm olive oil until shimmering. Sear lambs shanks, turning occasionally, until all sides have caramelized, about 7 minutes. Remove shanks and set aside. Add and sauté onion, celery and carrots until the onions are translucent, about 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook for an additional minute. Pour in stock and red wine. Deglaze pan by stirring up any lamb or vegetable bits that may have been seared to the bottom of pan. Add thyme, peppercorns and one teaspoon of salt. Return shanks to the pan (if shanks are not completely covered, add water). Bring to a boil. And place in oven. Braise shanks for 3 hours – until they are fork tender and the meat easily pulls away from the bone.

Removed cooked shanks from the pan and place them in a medium bowl until they are cool enough to handle. Meanwhile, strain the vegetables and peppercorns out of the braising liquid and pour back into the original braising pan. Over medium-high heat, bring liquid to a simmer and let reduce to about a quarter of its original volume, about 25 minutes. Set reduced sauce aside.

When shanks are cool enough to handle, pull meat from the bones with fingers. Stir the meat, goat cheese, salt and pepper. Ideally you want the filling to have a slightly sweet flavor but add more of filling ingredients to suit your taste. Set filling aside.

For the pasta: In a medium bowl, mix together the eggs, olive oil and salt.

Mound the flour on the countertop creating a well in the center large enough to hold the egg mixture. Pour egg mixture into the flour well.

Using your finger or fork, begin making a circular motion in the egg mixture to slowly start incorporating into the flour. If needed, occasionally push a little of the flour into the well. Continue until the egg mixture becomes incorporated with the flour. Once the dough begins to form, mound it together into a rough ball.

Knead the dough on a clean, lightly floured area of the countertop. The dough will be sticky at first, but will be come smoother as you continue kneading. Sprinkle with a bit of flour if the dough is too sticky to work with. Knead the dough by pushing down and away from you with the palm of your hands and turning the dough onto itself. Knead dough for no less than 10 minutes. After kneading, the dough should have a smooth texture. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand for 1 hour.

Assembling the ravioli: Cut dough into 4 equal parts. Starting at the widest setting, run each piece through the pasta press attachment of KitchenAid mixer. Gradually, press the dough through smaller and smaller settings until you get about 1/8″ thick (setting “4″ on the KitchenAid pasta press). Work pressing only two pasta strips at a time.

(Alternatively, you can roll out the pieces of dough with a rolling pin on a lightly floured counter top until you reach the desired thickness.)

On a lightly floured countertop lay out the first press strip. Mound about 1 ½ tablespoons of filling on the pasta strips. Continue, mounding the filling about 3” apart in a row down the pasta. Dipping your fingers into a small bowl of water, wet all around each mound of filling. Place second strip of pasta on top of the one containing the filling. Carefully press the top sheet of pasta around the mounds making sure to press out any air bubbles and creating a tight seal around each mound.

Using a lightly floured, 2” ravioli or cookie cutter, separate and remove each ravioli. Place the ravioli on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper that has been lightly covered with cornmeal. Repeat process for remaining 2 pasta pieces. If not immediately using, drape the raviolis with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator. This should yield about 10 extremely plump raviolis.

PLATING THE DISH:

Cooking ravioli: In a sauce pan of rapidly boiling water, cook raviolis until the pasta is cooked through and the filling has been reheated. About 4-5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Scapes: Plunge scapes into boiling pasta water to reheat, about 30 seconds. Remove and place on a paper towels. Pat dry.

Sauce: Warm reserved and reduced braising liquid.

Plating: Put one lamb loin in the center of each plate. Place three scapes around the lamb. Set one cooked ravioli on top of the loin. Dress plate with braising liquid. Serve.

Serves 8