Husbands birthday dinner

[Lori in PA]

Good luck with the dinner -- it sounds like you are very prepared, which is half the battle, I think. And, you always strike me as a friendly and welcoming person, which is certainly the other half.

[racheld]

Chufi,

It's 11.06 p.m. at your house (I looked it up just now), and while I have been lazing away the day on a little trip, you have been cooking and serving and seeing your dear Husband's face light up and glow with pride and joy that you two found each other in this big world, and that you care so much about giving him such a lovely holiday. (And impressing all the guests, as well---we all take great happiness in our mates' accomplishments).

By now, I imagine the dinner is over, the last of the wine savored, each dish enjoyed and appreciated and complimented. Brandy and cigars, if that's the thing in your group, demitasse and simple conversation and great satisfaction with such a well-planned, excellently prepared, graciously-offered evening with friends and a birthday to celebrate.

We're hoping you'll hurry and tell us all about it, post pictures and your charming prose, but please---GET SOME REST FIRST!!!

And my very best to the Birthday Boy.

rachel

[Megan Blocker]

Klary, I've been thinking about you, too! As I prepare dinner for three, I keep thinking...oh my god, stop freaking out, Klary is cooking for EIGHT TIMES THAT!!! I'm sure it went swimmingly, and I can't wait to read and see all about it. Sweet dreams. Hope your husband knows how lucky he is.

[Susan in FL]

Oh man, add me to the fans that are anticipating your dinner! I can't wait to hear about it.

I love this place, eGullet.

[Lori in PA]

At this moment, Klary is either:

--washing dishes (possible)

--in jail because she murdered a guest who looked at her lovingly handmade raviolis and asked if she had any Chefboyardee instead. (unlikely)

--basking in the memory of a well-received meal and feeling the luxury of SPACE where all those ingredients and made-ahead parts of dishes had been living inside and outside of her kitchen (my pick)

[jackal10]

I'd hope she was in bed with aforementioned husband for Part II of making it a memorable evening...maybe including the rest of the champagne and some of the chocolates...before a well earned sleep and hopefully husband bringing breakfast in bed...

[Chufi]

You are all so sweet to be thinking of me!!

The party is over, the dishes are washed, the floors are mopped. Rested, I am not.. I'll need another day to recuperate from a day of very hard work, an evening of food and too much wine, and a night that was too short. But. The dinner was a great sucess. I think it was my best one (for a large group) so far, and that's no small thing, considering the amount of guests.

It was a lot of work though. Did I mention it was a lot of work? There was a moment Saturday morning when the panic struck and I just knew I would never finish on time. I was not nice to my husband then. Sorry Rachel, you painted such a romantic picture of the preparations...

Then there was the moment when I dropped one of my cakes on the kitchen floor, right after I had finished decorating it. I wasn't nice then, either. But I rescued it and no-one knew.

Here's what our living room looked like:

First course was put on the table for everyone to help themselves.

caponata

deepfried olives

on the table together with salami, chorizo, ham, white bean puree and bread:

Second course. Here are the ravioli, all 160 or so of them , being tossed with an obscene amount of sage butter:

Main:

here's the fish, before sealing the packages. You can't really see it in this picture but they were huge. There's about 8 kilo's of cod, mussels and shrimp here...

On the table with carrots braised with capers, fennel cucumber salad, sauteed spinach

and zucchini cheese bread

everything on the plate;

There was just the right amount of food.. just a little bit of fish leftover, no vegetables. The food was very good. One of the things I find most difficult when cooking such large amounts, is to get seasoning and texture and cooking times right.. you just can't give it the attention and thought that you give to smaller amounts.. 4 kilos of carrots behave very differently from 1 pound if you are braising them.. and you have to constantly taste and taste to get the seasoning right. But I think most of it was good..

the ravioli were a big hit.. people just could not believe I had made so many ravioli myself.. they gave me an actual applause for it...

The cake was also fantastic. the zabaglione cream was very rich but not too sweet, and the hazelnut sponge cake, which I had sort of invented myself, came out perfect.. And it was the first time I made chocolate curls.. a bit nerve wrecking.. but they turned out very dramatic-looking

there were 2 of those, each cut into 16 slices, not a scrap left-over

Thanks everybody for your wonderful support. The creative process of assembling the menu and the thinking about the party, was almost as much fun as the party itself, thanks to all of you!

See you next year on this thread.. allthough I doubt there will be 24 for dinner then, it was great do do it this way for once, but I think my husband will go back to the usual group of 12-14 next year. Because it really, really was a lot of work.

Jack, next weekend husband and I are going away to the country for a coupleof days, to end the birthday marathon, just the 2 of us. So don't worry, that part of the celebrations is taken care of..

[Bridie]

I have been reading about your preparations in this thread, and as wonderful as the dinner sounded before you made it, I have to say that it looked even better in your photos. What a fantastic party, I am rather envious of your guests.

[Susan in FL]

Awesome, Klary. I don't have the words to tell you how impressed I am that you made a dinner like this for 24 people. What an event (speaking of which, happy birthday to your husband)! Thank you very much for sharing it with us.

[ludja]

Awesome! Everything looks beautiful and I love the selection of the menu. Congratulations on a job well done and a special evening to remember for a long time.

The cake looks beautiful. I think I may try something like this in the future as a variation on the zabaglione cake I made before as I really like hazelnuts.

Had you made the fried olives before? Were they stuffed with anything? These are one of my favorite Italian antipasti, but I have not tried them at home yet. Any tips on how to carry them off? How far in advance did you bread them and fry them?

Thank you for taking the time to share this with us as well. I'm glad for you and your husband's sake that you are able to photo-document the meal so nicely.

Was your husband involved with the prep work at all? It sounds like you did plan things nicely so that much it could be done in parts ahead of time.

edited to add: I see I used the same opening exclamation as Susan in FL. Notwithstanding that I've lived in surfer dude country for a number of years, it is really the first word that came to mind!

Edited February 26, 2006 by ludja (log)

[little ms foodie]

fantastic job Klary, your husband and friends are very lucky!

[Megan Blocker]

Klary, that looks AMAZING. I am drooling over everything, and over the antipasti and the cake in particular. And the sage butter...wow. Good work, woman!

[suzilightning]

klary, don't bet that you will be back to a smaller number of guests next year!! after the word gets around about your amazing cooking some of them may get - oh, just a little bit testy if they aren't invited next year

what a beautiful dinner and i hope Mr. Chufi properly appreciates the hard, though loving, work you expended to make his birthday wonderful. it was hard work, wasn't it?

till next year - tot ziens

[Chufi]

The cake looks beautiful.  I think I may try something like this in the future as a variation on the zabaglione cake I made before as I really like hazelnuts.

Had you made the fried olives before?  Were they stuffed with anything?  These are one of my favorite Italian antipasti, but I have not tried them at home yet.  Any tips on how to carry them off?  How far in advance did you bread them and fry them?

Thank you for taking the time to share this with us as well.  I'm glad for you and your husband's sake that you are able to photo-document the meal so nicely.

Was your husband involved with the prep work at all?  It sounds like you did plan things nicely so that much it could be done in parts ahead of time.

←

Ludja, the proportions for the 2 large cakes were: 500 grams selfraising flour, 500 grams butter, 500 grams sugar, 9 eggs, 250 grams finely ground hazelnuts. This gave the cake a delicate hazelnut flavor, I'm sure you could up the amount of nuts for a more intense flavor.

The olives were supposed to be stuffed with fresh italian sausage (recipe here, thanks Wendy!) but I stuffed them with fresh chorizo instead. I breaded and fried them about 2 hours before serving and they were very good at room temp. It's a bit of a fiddly thing to do, and I almosted decided not to make them, but I'm glad I did because everybody loved them!

I did most of the cooking and prep work myself, I'm not very good at having helpers. But he did help me scrape the cake off the floor

Edited February 26, 2006 by Chufi (log)

[ludja]

The cake looks beautiful.  I think I may try something like this in the future as a variation on the zabaglione cake I made before as I really like hazelnuts.

Had you made the fried olives before?  Were they stuffed with anything?  These are one of my favorite Italian antipasti, but I have not tried them at home yet.  Any tips on how to carry them off?  How far in advance did you bread them and fry them?

Thank you for taking the time to share this with us as well.  I'm glad for you and your husband's sake that you are able to photo-document the meal so nicely.

Was your husband involved with the prep work at all?  It sounds like you did plan things nicely so that much it could be done in parts ahead of time.

←

Ludja, the proportions for the 2 large cakes were: 500 grams selfraising flour, 500 grams butter, 500 grams sugar, 9 eggs, 250 grams finely ground hazelnuts. This gave the cake a delicate hazelnut flavor, I'm sure you could up the amount of nuts for a more intense flavor.

The olives were supposed to be stuffed with fresh italian sausage (recipe here, thanks Wendy!) but I stuffed them with fresh chorizo instead. I breaded and fried them about 2 hours before serving and they were very good at room temp. It's a bit of a fiddly thing to do, and I almosted decided not to make them, but I'm glad I did because everybody loved them!

I did most of the cooking and prep work myself, I'm not very good at having helpers. But he did help me scrape the cake off the floor

←

Thanks much for the pointers on the cake and on the olives.

I notice that you've made a few cakes where there is a cake split in half and then filled with a wide band of creamy filling, no frosting. I love this type of cake and have had some very good one in Austria like that.

Two favorite types I've seen there are for the middle filling to ba a sweetened lemony "topfen" (in Austrian German) or "quark" (in German German). I''m not sure but there may be a little gelatin and cream in there also to stablize and smooth the filling. The other type has a wide band of chestnut cream (no chocolate) and is amazing as well. The one French style recipe I've made like this had a thick band of raspberry mousse in the center and was served with a Chambord- or Kirsch-enhanced smooth raspberry coulis.

I've also had fried green olives stuffed with anchovy. The combination is very good and has an incredibly savory or umami kick. I'd think that many people that don't normally like anchovy even might like it because the total flavor is something unique. There are some places here that sell anchovy-stuffed olives so one could bypass the stuffing step.

Thanks again!

[Marq]

I'm afraid I'm going to make a lot of people jealous around here but I was one of the 24 actually eating the dinner Chufi served Each year this is one of the highlights of the winterseason for us, the Chufi dinner in februari. Each year it is amazing. Yesterday was absolutely fabulous!

Thanks again Chufi! I gladly open the doors to your balcony (the temporary fridge for all the food) for you next time again

[Shaya]

I am in awe, Klary. This is a formidable feat and you carried it off with great success. The food all looks wonderful; I can only imagine how much butter went into those raviolis! There is no better gift, in my mind, that the one you just gave to your husband and loved ones.

[Dana]

My compliments as well!! I would also like to hear about the zucchini and cheese bread. That looks terrific.

[racheld]

Schoon diner, Chufi!!! Schoon en heerlijk!!!

Now, go put your feet up and have some tea.

ETA: I once dropped the top tier of a wedding cake upside down into the trunk of the car and smushed the frosting daisies all to heck. Three hours before the wedding. (Empathy smilie)

Edited February 27, 2006 by racheld (log)

[fou de Bassan]

What a beautiful dinner, Chufi! Congratulations! Enjoy your well earned country weekend.

[Lori in PA]

I have experienced few exhaustions like the exhaustion I feel after cooking a big dinner for a big crowd. Kudos to you!

Edited February 27, 2006 by Lori in PA (log)

[I_call_the_duck]

WOW. Klary, that was a beautiful dinner.

Kudos to you, and a belated happy birthday to your very lucky hubby.

[Kevin72]

Sorry I just now found this thread, Klary. You did a great job! Those ravioli in particular . . . I want to say I feel your pain, but the most I've cooked for is 16, and even then not everyone showed up so it wound up being 10. But I was wiped. And those cakes and the bread look spectacular.

[Pille]

and zucchini cheese bread

Everything looks delicious, Chufi, but I'm especially tempted by this courgette cheese bread. Any chance of the recipe?

[Chufi]

The bread was a Jamie Oliver recipe. I was supposed to add 6 large zucchini, grated, (and 200 grams grated cheese) to a basic bread dough made with 1 kilo flour.

I used 2 kilo's of flour and about 7 large zucchini and the dough was extremely wet, sticky and unmanageable. I ended up adding at least 500 grams extra flour.

So, how large is a large zucchini?