Tuesday with Company

Last night’s dinner was a success. We had light appetizers of mixed nuts, olives and Brie with wheat toast squares. Our dinner came from three cookbooks and a magazine. I will go through them in order of making them to get ready for dinner. All recipes said Serves 4. I started with my trusty old New York Times Cookbook. I have made Cold Rice Salad page 429 every summer since the 70’s. What you will get here is my version.
1C raw rice
¼ C EVOO
1/4C Red Wine Vinegar
Salt and Pepper
Can of sliced water chestnuts
1/4C minced parsley
¼ C minced onion
1. Cook the rice and immediately add the EVOO, vinegar, salt and pepper. Let cool.
2. Add the water chestnuts, parsley and onion. Taste to make sure you’ve added enough salt and pepper. Refrigerate until serving time.
Next I turned to Rick Bayless’s Mexican Everyday Cookbook. The dish is called Grilled Chicken Breasts with Tangy Yucatecan Spices.
For the Yucatecan Garlic-Spice Marinade
1 head of garlic, broken into individual cloves (expect about 12)
1/3 C vegetable oil
6T apple cider vinegar
Pinch of ground cloves
½ t ground black pepper
½ t ground cinnamon
1 t dried oregano
½ t sugar
½ t salt
Cut a slit in the side of each garlic clove. Place them in a microwaveable bowl, cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Cool until handle-able, and then slip off the papery husks. One by one, drop the cloves into a running blender or food processor, letting each get thoroughly chopped before adding the next. Stop the machine, remove the lid and add the remaining marinade ingredients and process until smooth.
Use ½ to marinade 4 chicken breast halves, I did 5.
The other half add to 1 C chicken broth and warm on the stove. When ready to eat, grille the breasts and pass the warm sauce. The chicken was unbelievably moist and delicious. You would not believe that there were 12 cloves of garlic involved at all.
The star of the dinner was Grilled Vegetable Salad with Feta from Fine Cooking Magazine.
1 small fennel bulb with fronds attached
1 medium orange bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and cut lengthwise into 4 or 5 pieces
1 medium red onion cut into ¼” thick slices
1 medium zucchini, cut lengthwise into ¼ “thick slices
1 medium yellow squash, cut lengthwise into ¼ “thick slices
¼ C EVOO
Salt
3 T red wine Vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ C grape tomatoes, halved
½ C crumbled feta cheese
3T loosely packed thinly sliced fresh basil
1. Cut the stalks off the fennel bulb. Remove about ¼ C for the fronds from the stalks. Chop the fronds and reserve. Cut the fennel in quarters lengthwise and trim away most of the core, leaving just enough intact to keep the layers together. Slice the quarters lengthwise in ¼” thick.
2. We put a vegetable grilling mesh on top of the grille heated to medium. Spray the grill pan. Arrange the vegetables in one layer and brush the surface with 2 T EVOO and season with ¼ t. salt. Grille fennel 12 minutes, pepper 10 minutes, and the onion and squash for 6 minutes. When cool enough to handle, cut the vegetables in ½” dice and transfer to a large bowl.
3. In a small bowl whish the remaining 2 T EVOO, vinegar 1/4t salt and ¼ t pepper. Toss the vegetables with the dressing and gently stir in the tomatoes and fennel. Sprinkle with the feta cheese and basil.
For dessert we had a Fresh Strawberry Sundae. I did not make the Hot Fudge Sauce. We have a bottle of Tabor Hill Raspberry Pinot Noir Chocolate Sauce that my brother gave me for Christmas. After last night it is almost gone. (Hint to brother) I used my small French water glasses. Start with the chocolate sauce. Swirl it in the bottom of the glass. Add a scoop of Strawberry ice cream, more chocolate sauce, and more ice cream. Top with more sauce, whipped cream and sliced strawberries. I got this idea from the Blue Ribbon Cookbook and it was the perfect ending on a hot summer evening.
Jim brought out the good stuff. I am not even sure how to write this out. Maison Louis Latour, 2005, Montagny 1er Cru, La Grande Roche, Beaune, Cote-D-OR France. It was a divine white wine.