122 replies to this topic

[Daniel]

Hey Shal,

I was wondering about the service you are going to do.. If I were doing it, I would break it down into 5 different phases.. .

Phase I. Breakfast: 3 dishes 7-930 am

Here I would do like a pancake, bacon, eggs, waffles, all very traditional fair...

Phase II. Lunch 1: 6 dishes 11-2

Here I would do all the heavy stuff...

Phase III. Lunch II. Here I would do like 4 dishes... 3-6

You have the snacks and stuff you were going to make.. Because dinner is going to be heavy too..

Phase IV: DINNER 7 Dishes

Phase V: Late night

Those awesome burgers you were talking about.. I really need to make those suckers.. To me 21 thing is limiting But I think we both suffer from the same over cooking problems...

In terms of spacing I was thinking there should be two big meals.. So an early big lunch I and a late dinner. Who knows, what are your thoughts?

[Shalmanese]

Pretty close. I have breakfast, sourdough bread and the dips coming out before 10. A series of light, small bites from 10 to around 2ish (carrot soup, braised shanks, duck salad, oysters, Coca Cola chicken, ravioli) interspersed with sorbets as palate cleansers. Around 3pmish is when the big food comes out for lunch, the brisket, risotto and bread and butter pudding. Then more sorbet, Another series of small bites (ceviche, pumpkin soup, ultimate bar snack). This is the light part of the day in preparation for dinner and this is probably going to be when the bulk of my socialising occurs. Dinner lateish, probably around 8pm. Starting with the rack of lamb, then the pizzas, cake and some creme brulee to finish, all rich foods. should be done around 10 - 11ish.

I dont want to keep a rigid schedule though. I want to keep a bit of sponentaity to it so I'm theres no absolute timing to everything. Logistics will constrain it a bit but it'll be what I think is right for that time.

It's amazing how closely we have the schedule.

[Shalmanese]

a question: The outer skin of a truffle has to peeled before using right? If I steep those trimmings in EVOO overnight, will that be enough time to make truffle oil? Should I finely dice it? blend it? steep and then strain or dont bother straining?

edit: also, what would be the difference between using a truffle slicer and a vegtable peeler?

Edited by Shalmanese, 19 July 2006 - 11:03 AM.

[BryanZ]

This is so spectacularly bad ass, seriously. I'd offer to help, but I'm too far away.

You shouldn't have to peel the outer skin of the truffles, but you will likely have some trimmings left over. I might suggest making a truffle infused stock. Given the amount of time and truffles your have, I would probably prefer that.

[Kim Shook]

Shal, I am drooling! Do not forget to chronicle this in photos - including the prep. We food dweebs like prep shots !


edited because cronicle is actually spelled: chronicle

Edited by Kim Shook, 20 July 2006 - 05:28 AM.

[Shalmanese]

Oh, most definately. One of the guests has a digital SLR so there should be some nice shots on the day. I'll take some photos of all the shops I visit as well to give you guys a sense of what the food shopping scene is like in Syd and so I have some record of it when I leave.

[BryanZ]

This will be like its own mini-blog. I'm pumped.

[Shalmanese]

Oh god, the enormity of this is finally hitting me. I just finished drafting a very basic shopping list and menu plan and the full scope of this project is finally evident. On my very preliminary run, my shopping list has run to 80 items and there are over 250 seperate things components to be assembled. Theres probably going to be another 30 or so things that I've forgotten on the first pass and I'm going to have to comb through this carefully and plan the logistics out VERY well.

For those who are interested, I've put the excel file up here so you can see what stuff I'm going to be needing. Among other things, I'm going to be needing 60 eggs, 5kg of flour, over 2L of cream, 50L or so of drinks, about 8kg of sugar... oh god.

Slowly starting to fall to pieces.

edit: updated list. 110 things to buy, 274 components to assemble. 60 eggs, 2L of cream, 6 sticks of butter, 1.5kg of cheese, 8Kg of flour, 6kg of carrots, 25 lemons, 20 limes, 8kg of sugar, 21 bunches of herbs, 6 bottles of dried spices...

Edited by Shalmanese, 21 July 2006 - 12:17 AM.

[Rebecca263]

Hey, you're still 20! Plenty of youthful energy to draw from, kiddo! Go for it!
edited by me:oops, you're already 21! Maybe you're getting tired in your old age.

Edited by Rebecca263, 20 July 2006 - 10:38 PM.

[Shalmanese]

Rutherglen has apparently had a huge backlog of orders since a media piece on their lamb and cannot fulfil my order :(. I'll get some from the snooty butcher down the road but I was looking forward to the Rutherglen.

[Daniel]

Hey Shal,

I am thinking its something like Wednesday the 26th over there, but here its your birthday!!!! Happy birthday. Hope you have a great year and lots of luck in Seattle..

Edited by Daniel, 21 July 2006 - 05:15 AM.

[Shalmanese]

A sneak peek at the menu as it currently stands:

Edited by Shalmanese, 22 July 2006 - 02:04 AM.

[Daniel]

Menu looks and sounds awesome.. I am going to start digging now, I will hopefully be there by the Chimichurri Lamb.

Edited by Daniel, 21 July 2006 - 06:37 AM.

[Shalmanese]

Onto the drinks,

I'm thinking of having a general drinks table where people can serve themselves. There will be homemade Lemonade and Sangria a couple of bottles of cheap but decent red & whites some spirits with mixers, fruit juices and soft drinks.

I'm also thinking of doing a mini wine pairing with the food as well for those who are interested (not everyone there is a big drinker). I'm not too experienced with wine pairing or wines in general so I would appreciate some help in this area. I'm thinking a fairly assertive white to go with the oysters, duck and carrot soup. Then a switch to a big heavy cabernet for the Shank, Risotto and Brisket. A nice, minerally NZ Sav Blanc for the Ceviche, Ravioli and Chicken then a lean Pinot for the Soup, Lamb Pizzas and finish off with some Champagne for the desserts. 5 wines in total aiming for about 2 - 3 glasses total per person at maybe 16 people. Should work out to be 10 bottles or so right? 2 of each wine?

What about a basic cocktail bar? What would a minimal set be? Keeping in mind, this is a rum & coke, gin and tonic crowd, not martinis and manhattens.

How much liquid should I budget per person? How much alcohol?

edit: From here

At a standup party, guests typically consume an average of two glasses of wine per hour. Therefore, if you expect fifteen guests for a three-hour hors d'oeuvres party, you will need thirty glasses of wine, or five bottles roughly one bottle for every three people enjoying wine in moderation.

So for 21 people in 21 hours, I'm going to need 882 glasses or 147 bottles of wine . I hope they'll throw in a stomach pump as well.

Edited by Shalmanese, 21 July 2006 - 06:50 AM.

[Shalmanese]

So... did a bit more thinking with a foodie friend. The vanilla creme brulee is far too boring. Going to replace it with a granny smith apple one with apple chips.

Had too much chilli/lime on the menu as well so the chilli lime sorbet is going off. Had a tough time deciding on a replacement. Managed to come up with something which I think should be fairly cool: a cucumber gin sorbet. The backing notes of the juniper should pierce through the nice iciness of the cucumber. Dunno if it'll work but I can taste it in my mind. We'll see. Probably going to me more of a granite than a sorbet though. Any thoughts?

Still wavering on the Duck and the Ceviche. The recipes sound pleasant enough in my head but they don't grab me like the others do. If anybody wants to suggest a modification, I would be happy to hear.

[Daniel]

Do like a cooked duck thing then.. A duck quesadilla or a t-basil duck spring roll... Or duck on skewers with a basil dipping sauce.. Or little duck pizza's.. And replace that for the ceviche..

Edited by Daniel, 21 July 2006 - 03:00 PM.

[Kim Shook]

Do like a cooked duck thing then.. A duck quesadilla or a t-basil duck spring roll... Or duck on skewers with a basil dipping sauce..  Or little duck pizza's.. And replace that for the ceviche..

Yep, I second this! Love the idea of a duck quesadilla. Or you could borrow this recipe and make it with duck.

Shal, I read your shopping list. What is 'speck'? And if you keep track, I'd love to see a total at the end of this project. Don't forget to have fun!!!

[racheld]

A sneak peek at the menu as it currently stands:

Chris just walked up beside me, looked at the menu and said, "What is he, a Hobbit?"

[Daniel]

I just posted this duck quesadilla in the 3 am thread.. I was drinking so I dont recall the recipe.. But I would smoke my own duck.. And then do something nice with it..

Edited by Daniel, 21 July 2006 - 08:03 PM.

[lexy]

Are you going to have assistants to help you out? I enjoy cooking for friends too, but if attempted solo this menu looks like it could become a bit of an ordeal.

[Shalmanese]

Yes. Currently, I have 3 people to help me with shopping in the morning, 6 people to help prep on the friday and as many people as I can rope into doing the cooking on the day. I'm trying to have an "executive chef" model where I'm rarely in the kitchen and everything is delegated out. We'll see on the day how well that theory will work.

[Shalmanese]

A clarification about the duck/ceviche thing. I wasn't really very clear on what I meant. I still want to do pan seared, sliced duck breast on some sort of salad and I still want to do a ceviche. It's just that I'm not sure what type of salad and whether avocado and corn for the ceviche is the right choice.

Daniel I love the idea of quesadillas but the logistics of it just doesnt work out. I can only do 4, maybe 6 servings of quesadillas in a pan so I would need to fill my cooktop for a solid hour or so just to get a single course out. With duck breasts, I'm allocating 1/3 of a breast per person so at 4 per pan, I can get them out in 20 minutes.

[Daniel]

One more suggestion.. I was just at a dinner party wednesday night.. They had radishes cups hollowed out and filled with scallop ceviche being passed around.. You ate the whole thing in one little bite.. It was awesome..

[CaliPoutine]

Your menu plans leave me uncharacteristically speechless, so I've only been lurking here until now.  But I was all set to post "Shalmanese is a girl???"  Whew, I knew you had to be a guy!

I always thought Shalmanese was a girl too!! I don't know why though, I just did.

[Shalmanese]

Nope, just checked. Definately a boy... I mean man! MAN! So... uhh... Those Seahawks huh? Think they can go all the way this year? Where was that T-bone and tool belt I had lying around? Lets go and get drunk and then senselessly vandalise some public property!

[Shalmanese]

PS: Still need advice about drinks.

[Verjuice]

Nope, just checked. Definately a boy... I mean man! MAN! So... uhh... Those Seahawks huh? Think they can go all the way this year? Where was that T-bone and tool belt I had lying around? Lets go and get drunk and then senselessly vandalise some public property!

Happy Birthday and best of luck with all of this.

For the cucumber gin sorbet, definitely use Hendrick's gin. You might already know that it is ambrosial, very floral with lots of cool cucumber notes. Even its producers recommend serving martinis made with the stuff with a slice of cucumber instead of olives. Ditto gimlets. It make a great gimlet. Mmm. Gimlets.
I think those went out of style like 21 years ago.

I highly doubt you'll need that much wine. 147 bottles for 21 is 7 bottles per person- Maybe I missed this, but are you serving any other forms of liquor as well?

If so, then, some ideas:

I suggest champagne cocktails with your Breakfast. Kir royales, Bellinis. Mimosas. Bloody Marys or spiked shots of gazpacho with your Second Breakfast.
Dirty martinis and ouzo or arak with Elevenses.
Some kind of dark, robust, unpasteurized Belgian beer with Lunch.
Sake with Tea! Well, why not!
And maybe some blood orange margaritas would be nice while the burgers are cooking.

[H. du Bois]

Wonderful menu! Best wishes to you for an amazing event.

[little ms foodie]

happy birthday girl! looking forward to having you in our part of the world.

I'm a dude.

I'm sooo sorry, I guess I always think only women are organized enough to throw this kind of a party! seriously my apologies!

In an email reply I just got from one of my vegetarian guest:

...My god. If you honestly make those burgers, I will hit you with my puny
muscles and then fuck my morals. Then eat the burgers.

That is seriously funny!

Nope, just checked. Definately a boy... I mean man! MAN! So... uhh... Those Seahawks huh? Think they can go all the way this year? Where was that T-bone and tool belt I had lying around? Lets go and get drunk and then senselessly vandalise some public property!

ok, I'm glad I wasn't the only one!

PS: Still need advice about drinks.

I would definately do pitcher type things- margaritas on the rocks, capriahnas (sp), mojitos, stirred martinis.

With the cucumber sorbet it is great with a grind of black pepper on top!

FANTASTIC menu!

[Mallet]

good luck!