Behold my entertaining prowess!

[Afterburner]

So last night, I had a couple friends over for dinner. They're both foodies (one posts to this forum under the monniker of "fimbul"), and both have been a source of inspiration to me as I've started down the path to being a foodie myself.

Since they don't have cable, I thought it would be entertaining to invite them over to watch the premiere of the new Iron Chef series, and also to serve them dinner while they were here.

Now, the last time I cooked for anyone that I wasn't related to by blood or marriage was...never. So I was (with the help of my wife) forging bold new trails along the lifepath of my existence.

The evening's dinner menu:

Smoked lobster

Mixed green salad

Louisiana Wild Pecan rice (which is not wild and contains no pecans)

Black rice cooked in my "sweep the kitchen" stock

Since fimbul is a foodie, and since he'd expressed interest in my spiffy new Meco electric water smoker, and since lobster only takes 45 minutes to go from "raw" to "fully cooked and smoked," I decided to hold off on starting the cooking process until fimbul and his girlfriend got there.

The lobster tails were 4oz rock lobster tails. Two a piece for each diner, removed entirely from the shell (and I saved the shells to make lobster stock). There was much ooh-ing and aah-ing about my smoker as I placed the tails on the grate and put the little packet of orange wood pellets on the heating element.

For hors d'ouerves prior to dinner, we had some lovely cheeses that I'd purchased at the Whole Foods store down the road from Chez AB. One was a 4-year-old aged cheddar, another was a very mild and buttery Blue Castello, the third was a mild chipotle cheddar, and the fourth was a wonderfully subtle and complex goat's milk cheese from Spain called "Vare".

Also on deck was a small loaf of homemade beer and cheese bread, made with the beer bread recipe from The Joy of Cooking. Despite the fact that the recipe said "1 1/2 cups of beer (not stout)", I went ahead and used a 1 1/2 cups of Dominion Oak Barrel Stout, a stout that attempts to capture the flavor of stout aged in old bourbon barrels by adding oak chips and vanilla to the beer as it ages. The vanilla flavor showed up nicely in the bread, I thought. This was my first time ever to bake a loaf of bread,and as it sat cooling on the rack I would wander by occasionally and just look at it and say "Neat! I made that! Kick ass!"

Also available pre-dinner was a "pesto cheese blossom" made by my wife. This is basically a layered dip, using cream cheese, pesto, and sundried tomatoes as the layers, all encased in a shell of provolone slices.

So we chatted while the lobster smoked, and there was more ooh-ing and aah-ing about 10 minutes into the smoking process, when the smoker was belching out tons of smoke.

As the timer counted down, I got the rice going on the stove. When the timer went off, the Louisiana Wild Pecan rice (which is not wild and contains no pecans) was done and was delectable, as usual. The black rice...wasn't. It had not absorbed much of the stock and was still hard and uncooked. So I left it to cook a bit longer while I fetched the lobster out of the smoker.

Smoked lobster has a lovely orange color to it, and smells like a seaside campfire. If you like smoked foods and you like lobster, and you've never tried to pair the two, you oughtta give it a whirl.

Sadly, my timing was off and the lobster had cooled by the time I had finished melting the butter (a lack of cookware meant that I had to melt the butter in the pot I'd used to cook the wild pecan rice) and the table was fully assembled. And the black rice still wasn't done. Dammit.

So we forged ahead with the wild pecan rice and the salad. And, of course, the lobster. And it was marvelous. I mean, really, it was fantastic. And all throughout the meal I kept thinking "Holy poot, I made this! How in the hell did I manage to cook something that tastes like high-dollar restaurant food?"

Not bad for a guy who, a month and a half ago, couldn't have told you the difference between a sauciér and a saucy bee.

Anyhow, just wanted to share.

Edited January 17, 2005 by Afterburner (log)

[fimbul]

Not bad for a guy who, a month and a half ago, couldn't have told you the difference between a sauciér and a saucy bee.

I think you mean "saucy minx." Hope this helps!

(It was a good meal, AB. Good on yer.)

Edited January 17, 2005 by fimbul (log)

[GG Mora]

Was this dinner officially sanctioned?

[Kim WB]

afterburner, It is a great feeling when something really works out..I served veal saltimboca this weekend to guests,and it was better than any version I had ever had..usually, I'm humble when receiving compliments, but I was nodding my head, saying, "yes, this IS really fantastic, isn't it?"

Glad it went well..wait till you get cookware!

Edited January 17, 2005 by Kim WB (log)

[Chufi]

This was my first time ever to bake a loaf of bread,and as it sat cooling on the rack I would wander by occasionally and just look at it and say "Neat!  I made that!  Kick ass!"

←

isn't that wonderful? Baking bread is one of the things that always makes me feel very proud of myself. Nice feeling to have from time to time!

[fifi]

Bravo! It is kind of an adrenalin rush when you actually pull something off. I have to give you extra points for diving in head first. I am not in lobster country but I might just have to try that next time I fire up the Weber.