Dinner for the Family

[Daniel]

I am cooking dinner for family tomorrow night..6 people for dinner in total.. We are preparing everything today for tomorrow.. Coming home from work and having very little time to prepare for guests is certainly an added stress.. But also a new scenario and I will take a visit however I can get it..

The menu is:

Hors d’Oeuvre

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Crab and Pork Crostini

Dinner

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Oyster Stew

Salad of Rabbit Loin

Shrimp with Cheese Grits

Broiled Quail in Brandy Sauce with an assembly of southern greens and white bean gratin(Ham Hock is getting thrown in somewhere)

Some chocolate things..

Have a bunch of pictures but this is what I will start with..

The Rabbit Loin:

This is my first time trying to debone a rabbit.. Lucky for me, I had 4 rabbits to do.. It was awesome..

Next time I am asking for the fur.

My first attempt.. I was very happy with the results..

Left it in a marinade and will cook it and use it for a salad tomorrow night..

Here are the left over pieces I will cook later..

One of the advantages buying whole animals is having left over parts.. Being able to grab a left over rabbit leg or thigh is a treat..

I deboned a rabbit leg and cooked in shallot oil and served on a parsley salad with a mustard vinagraette.. It was great..

Will post the others dishes and desserts soon..

Edited December 5, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Daniel]

After deshelling a bunch of the shrimp for the shrimp and grits, we made another little something..

Shrimp in a shallot oil with a whiskey and cream sauce.. It was really good..

Bite:

[Shalmanese]

mmm... butchering a rabit was fun but even I balked at the idea of deboning one. Nice work! Personally, I was very underwhelmed with my one experience with cooking rabbit. It was a farmed rabbit and utterly lacking in any taste whatsoever. I've had really good rabbit before in China which I assume was wild and I wanted to duplicate that but the blandness of the rabbit defied my attempts to do anything interesting with it.

[SuzySushi]

Why did you debone the rabbit loin? Why not cook it on the bone and debone it afterwards?

[Shalmanese]

He deboned the rabit leg. A rabbit loin is easy to debone. Just follow the spine along to seperate.

[prasantrin]

Even though the final result looks scrumptious, the picture of the skinned rabbit made me a bit sad. It looked a little too much like a cat...

[Daniel]

Prasantrin,

No need to worry, both my kitties are accounted for..

Edited December 5, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Megan Blocker]

Another great effort, Daniel! Those shrimp look delicious...

[Daniel]

Why did you debone the rabbit loin? Why not cook it on the bone and debone it afterwards?

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Thanks Megan for your usual support...

Suzy, this is going to be one course in a multi course dinner where the majority of dishes need to be cooked right before serving.. So I just felt it would be easier to handle and plate six dishes and deboning ahead of time..

[jrichman]

Daniel - Food looks delicious, are you going to post the results in this thread or in the famous dinner thread?

[Daniel]

Dinner was excellent.. Will post the whole dinner later... It was a great meal..

Here is as little oyster stew love:

[Daniel]

At this point I have the camera in my right hand, I have the rubber wrapped arm, with the one end in my teeth..... What was I just saying...

[Kobi]

Daniel we eagerly await the results of your dinner... hope everything went well!

- KOBI

[Daniel]

So last nights dinner was a huge success.. I of course am measuring it by the company and the time we had.. It was a lot of fun.. Complete with practical jokes at my expense! With two rum and cokes and a lot of things going on, I was an easy victim.. Oh well, I have just posted his phone number on several adult websites so we will see who wins this one..

I will post the appetizers later.. But we had the brined pork crostini with whipped sweet potato bacon mixture I made for the PorkFest. And in addition, we also had a lump crab crostini..

Next we served Oyster Stew.. This was from Scott Peacocks book.. A wonderful book and a wonderful stew.. It essentially is butter, milk and oysters.. A quick pan fry of the oysters in three table spoons of butter before putting them in the stew is the only work I had to do.. Added a little white pepper... Very good.. It was the best oyster I have had.. It wasnt too buttery, had a strong oyster taste from me putting in 3 doz oysters and there liquor..

We put them in these cute wide mouthed mugs we bought for soups..

Here is a repost of the bite:

Served with a truffle roasted garlic corn bread madelines with a bit of rosemary in them.. Excellent..

Next we had for a salad course: Raddichio, watercress and arugula Rabbit Salad...tossed in a shallot, walnut, truffle vinegrette....pear and stilton on the side...

Next we had shrimp and grits.. When going to make the shrimp last night.. (I wanted to cook them right before it was time to eat, to give guests a break in between courses) I discovered that I didnt buy all the ingredients for the shrimp I wanted to make.. And also the day before we scrapped the Inn at Little Washington version of Shrimp and Grits after not liking it too much.. So I made a quick New Orleans style BBQ shrimp on the fly.. It was pretty good..

The grits were oustanding.. I added the ever so Southern Marscapone Cheese.. Went extremely well..

Next was quail.. Never had to broil so many quails at once.. They were very good, but next time I would use a baking sheet or maybe something on a wire rack.. It was very good though.. I brined them for 24 hours.. Just resalted, white peppered and hit with a little brandy..

I served an assortment of greens cooked in pork stock.. With bacon and shredded ham hocks..

Boiled the hocks for a couple of hours

Shredded and added to some bacon I had cooked up.. Schaller and Weber double smoked thanks to Fat Guy's reco a few months ago this has been a bacon we use a lot..

Then I took the left over water that the ham hock was cooked in and added Kale,Collard Greens,Spinach,Escarole, and Swiss Chard amd cooked white beans into the pot.. Threw in some Apple Cider Vinegar the Ham assortment.. I also topped with some quarter mushrooms I forgot to add to the salad .. Solid..

For dessert we started with two different types of shortbread cookies.. We made regular ones and one with rasberry jelly..

Cute shot.. You can see the ones baking and the others waiting..

Cookies

Then we had Bourbon Chocolate Ice Cream.

And finally we had the most amazing cheese cake.. Marscapone cheese cake.. This thing was outrageously good.. Basically I took maple syrup reduced for about an hour...then poured in some cream...whisked cream cheese, mascarpone and confectioners sugar blended in maple mixure...cooked in water bath and chilled over night...sprinkled some of the reserved maple mixture on top!

Geeze.. It exhausting just remembering everything we ate.. I am very happy I decided to not serve Welsh Rarebit as a cheese course after the quail..

It is really such a joy to be able to entertain so smoothly and with no stress. In total we might have spent out of a 4 hour dinner 15 minutes away from our guests. And it was the best 15 minutes of the whole night!!!

Edited December 6, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[SuzySushi]

Wow!!!

I've gained 10 pounds just looking at the photos.

[Rebecca263]

Oh my holy oats! You must keep very 'busy' at home in order to work off all of the delicious calories that you often seem to be consuming! I think that you and Ling have reverse metabolisms! <jealous Rebecca shuffles away>

[I_call_the_duck]

My goodness, Daniel. BRAVO!!

You probably don't need this visual, but I just want to take a bath in that oyster soup.

[Jake]

I have no idea where you find the time to do all that Daniel. You guys must not sleep. However, the meal looks absolutely delicious as always and is making me crave shrimp and grits in a big way! Not to mention pork/ham and I have a big ole ham bone in the freezer I rescued from a dinner over the weekend. (Don't ask, people look at you strangely when you leave with the bones!)

[Daniel]

Hey thanks everyone, I really appreciate your kind words.. And Jake, I could see the two of us flipping a quarter for the ham bone, while others watch on in disbelief..

Edited December 6, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[I_call_the_duck]

…and I have a big ole ham bone in the freezer I rescued from a dinner over the weekend.  (Don't ask, people look at you strangely when you leave with the bones!)

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I do that all the time—not just hambones, but osso buco, steak, pork chops. (I’m also still a bit upset that my brother called the turkey carcass at Thanksgiving.) I’ve received everything from strange looks to inquiries about what I’ll be making. My only problem is resisting the temptation not to just sit down there and gnaw off every last bit of meat off.

[Daniel]

You see.. You were to busy calling the duck.. You should have called the Turkey..

[Jake]

…and I have a big ole ham bone in the freezer I rescued from a dinner over the weekend.  (Don't ask, people look at you strangely when you leave with the bones!)

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I do that all the time—not just hambones, but osso buco, steak, pork chops. (I’m also still a bit upset that my brother called the turkey carcass at Thanksgiving.) I’ve received everything from strange looks to inquiries about what I’ll be making. My only problem is resisting the temptation not to just sit down there and gnaw off every last bit of meat off.

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Both of my SO's brothers think I take all the prime rib bones home to make something. Helloooo, I EAT the damn things!! They can both cook a perfect (rare to med rare) prime rib, and NONE of them eat the bones. A sprinkle of Maldon, some horseradish on the side....heaven. I occasionally share with the dogs.

[Kobi]

Amazing looking meal, Daniel.

What was the prep time (if you can even guess)? Do you have any particular tips for scrimping on costs... it looks/feels like this would be an expensive meal?

Thanks!

KOBI

[Daniel]

I can tell you exactly how long it took.. I started Sunday afternoon.. I finished Sunday Night.. So that would be about 10 hours.. Then another 2 hours yesterday.. So in total 12 hours..

In terms of cutting costs.. I really dont have any suggestions.. I really need to start thinking about ways to do so.. One big thing is Butchering your own meat.. I inquired about buying boneless rabbit loin.. They wanted 30 bucks a pound.. I paid 28 bucks for 4 rabbits.. And have enough meat and bones for 5 meals for two people.. For the oysters I bought them in their liquor already.. I couldnt justify spending 60 bucks on just the soup.. It cost $30 that way..

Another way I save is after the dinner.. I dont just eat the left overs.. But cook with the left overs too.. There are meats, vegetables, stocks and everything.. So sure it was like 220 bucks (including truffle oil )for this dinner.. But how many dinners will I now have from this one meal.. I have left over rabbit, quail, greens, vegetables, at least two soups, cookies, cheese, and all the way down the line.. If I really wanted to I could eat for the next week on left overs from just this meal..

Edited December 6, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[I_call_the_duck]

You see.. You were to busy calling the duck.. You should have called the Turkey.. 

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A-ha! So that's what I did wrong!