Tapas Dinner

I started cooking for Saturday night on Friday. My thought was a grilling Tapas dinner. Jim had a real hard time with the concept as I found out later that he was thinking Dim Sum. He kept saying, “You going to serve this food cold?” It’s 98 degrees outside; I don’t think anything is going to get cold. Most of the recipes came from Food Network Kitchens, Get Grilling. My friend Linda brought Gazpacho from Epicurious.com and dessert came from Williams-Sonoma Eating by Color. A lot of the dishes had to be started the night before as they needed to marinate.
The night before I wrapped the cheese and made the marinated the chicken and the pork.

Warm Goat Cheese wrapped in Grape Leaves 6-8 servings
2 or 3 large jarred, brined grape leaves, stems trimmed
8 oz Bucheron cheese
Slightly heaping 1/2t fennel seeds
Slightly heaping ¼ t crushed red pepper
2T EVOO
I served with grilled French bread
1. Soak the grape leaves in water for 5 minutes, then drain. Sprinkle the cheese with the fennel and pepper. Wrap a grape leaf around the bottom of the cheese. Wrap the top of the cheese with another grape leaf or two using just enough leaves to form a single layer. I then wrapped in wax paper and placed in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.
2. Jim grilled over a medium high fire for 4 minutes. I had brushed the leaves with EVOO before he grilled them. He grilled the bread at the same time.

Pork Pinchos 4-6 servings
These were hotter than we expected
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
1T kosher salt
1T hot paprika
2 t ground coriander
2 t ground cumin
2 t ras al hanout (recipe follows)
2 T EVOO
1 ½ T sherry vinegar
Black pepper
1# boneless pork shoulder cut in 1” cubes. Trim excess fat.
1. The day before mix put all the ingredients in a mini grinder. Process until well combined. Place pork in a plastic bag and add the marinade.
2. Soak wooden skewers. I had 18” skewers that I soaked all day. Jim burned them up while grilling the meat.
3. Prepare a hot fire. Thread 3 pieces of pork on each skewer. Lightly brush with EVOO. Grill 5 minutes per side or perfectly over done and skewers are charred and burned off in our case.

Ras Al Hanout
Makes about ¾ C
3 slightly heaping T 5 spice powder
2T ground cardamom
2 T ground ginger
1 T ground nutmeg
1 T ground turmeric
1T cayenne pepper
Mix all in a small bowl. Store in a sealed container for up to 2 months

Indian Spiced Chicken Wings 4 servings
8 T unsalted butter
1t crushed red pepper
2 slightly heaping T Madras curry powder
1 t ground cumin
¼ t ground cinnamon
½ medium onion, grated
1 1” piece peeled fresh giner, finely grated
3 T lime juice
2 T plain whole-milk yogurt
1 T kosher salt
2 # chicken wings
Mango chutney for dipping
1. The day before melt 4 T of butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the pepper and stir until fragrant. Add curry, cumin, onion, ginger and cinnamon stirring about 1 minute until fragrant and making a smooth paste. Cool completely.
2. Stir 1T of lime juice with the yogurt and salt. Add the curry mixture. Pat chicken pieces dry and place in a plastic bag. Add the mixture and refrigerate over night.
3. Heat the grill to medium hot. Have both direct and indirect sources on the grill. Melt the remaining butter and add the remaining lime juice. While grilling over the direct heat for 4 minutes baste with this butter. Finish the wings over indirect heat for an additional 4 minutes.

Except for the cooking I did all of the above before we went out to dinner on Friday.

Saturday morning I made White Sangria 4 servings
Quite frankly there was not enough liquid for all the fruit. We doubled the wine and amaretto
1 bottle Sauvignon Blanc
¼ C amaretto
Zest of ½ orange removed in wide strips
1 red skinned apple
1 ripe pear
Place all in a pitcher and stir. I put it in the refrigerator so it was very cold when served. I still added ice to the glasses as we were eating on the porch.

I made a salad of mixed greens including spinach, watermelon and goat cheese. I dressed it with the dressing I made last week for the lobster dish.

New Orleans-Style BBQ Shrimp 6-8 servings
½ C EVOO
8 T unsalted butter
12 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs of thyme
1 # large shrimp, shell on and deveined ( I took the shells off. This would be a horrid mess to peel and eat these shrimp.)
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 T kosher salt
1 T sweet paprika
½ t cayenne pepper
2 T dry sherry
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the EVOO, butter, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme in a large oven proof skillet over medium heat until the butter melts and the garlic and herbs are fragrant, about 5 minutes.
2. Toss shrimp, Worcestershire sauce, salt, paprika and cayenne together in a bowl. Add to skillet along with the sherry and transfer to the oven. Bake about 10 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish and serve with lots of bread for sopping up the sauce.

Pomegranate-Glazed Figs, serves 4
2 t butter
8 fresh figs, stemmed and halved lengthwise
½ C pomegranate juice
3 whole cloves
2 T mascarpone cheese
Unsweetened cocoa powder for garnish
This only takes under 15 minutes to make and cook.
Melt butter in a medium frying pan over medium high heat. Add figs, cut side down and sauté until golden, about 4 minutes. Using tongs turn figs and cook for 1 minute more. Arrange 4 fig halves on each of 4 dessert plates, with bottoms toward the center to make a star.
Add pomegranate juice and cloves to pan and boil until liquid is syrupy about 5 minutes. Discard cloves and spoon warm syrup over figs. Place 1 ½ t cheese in center of each plate and sprinkle with cocoa powder. Serve immediately.
My friend Linda made the following soup with fresh tomatoes from her garden. 
Gazpacho Cordobes  Yield:  5 1/2 Cups
2# tomatoes
2 red bell peppers
2 Kirby cucumbers
4 garlic cloves
2T Sherry vinegar
1/2 C EVOO
1/2 round loaf crusty bread ( about 9" in diameter)
1/2 t minced fresh tarragon leaves
2 t salt
1 t black pepper
Preheat over to 350 degrees and line a baking pan with foil.  Arrange tomatoes and pepper in the pan and roast in upper third of oven 30 minutes.  Transfer tomatoes to a large glass or ceramic bowl and continue to roast peppers until lightly charred about 15 min. more.  Transfer peppers, including any juices in pan, to another large glass bowl and let stand, covered until pepper are cool enough to handle. 
Holding tomatoes over bowl to catch juices, peel and cut into pieces.  Holding pepper over their bowl to catch juices, peel peppers and discard stems and seeds.  Tear pepper into pieces and add to tomatoes.  Pour pepper juice through a fine sieve into tomato mixture.  Peel and chop cucumbers.  Finely chop garlic and stir into tomato mixture with cucumbers, vinegar, and oil.  Cut four 1/2" thick slices from the cut side of loaf and trim crusts from slices.  Cut slices into 1" pieces and in a small bowl soak in water to cover 10 minutes.  Drain bread, without squeezing out excess liquid, and stir into tomato mixture with tarragon, salt, and pepper.  Chill mixture, covered at least 8 hours and up to 1 day.  In a food processor pure mixture, in batches if necessary, and return to bowl.  Chill gazpacho, covered for an additionl 2 hours. 

And that was dinner with friends. Aside from the Sangria, we finished 4 bottles of red Spanish wine and one bottle of white Spanish wine.