Saturday Night Dinner with Company

On Saturday night we started with soup, followed with healthy steak and finished with Crème Brulee. Jim served an outstanding 1996 Chateau Trottl Vielle. This, is a Premier Grand Cru Classe, Saint Emilion. With the soup we had a Viansa Chardonnay
Butternut Squash Bisque with Crab comes from Private Club’s magazine. This recipe is the creation of Chef Michael Pivoney, Mid-America Club, Chicago.
Ingredients:
I butternut squash, about 2#
Salt and pepper
1T EVOO
1 t garlic, chopped
1C white onion, diced
1C parsnips, diced
1 T fresh ginger, grated
1C chelery, diced
1 C carrots, diced
1 QT. clam juice or fish stock
1 T curry powder
½ t fresh thyme, chopped
½ t tarragon, chopped
1 C heavy cream
1 C lump crabmeat plus more for garnish
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut squash in half from stem to end and season both sides with salt and pepper. Place on an oiled sheet pan, skin side up and roast until tender about 45 minutes. Cool, and scoop out the flesh (should be 4 cubs), and discard the skin. (I bought pre cut skinned squash and microwaved it.)
2. In and 8C soup pot, heat oil on medium and sauté the garlic until lightly brown. Do not burn. Add onion, parsnip, ginger, celery and carrots, and cook for 3-5 minutes. Add stock and curry and cook for 1 hour
3. Add the cooked squash and herbs. Simmer 1 hour more.
4. Puree the soup with an immersion blender, season with salt and pepper.
5. When ready to serve, add cream and crabmeat. Warm and serve immediately with a garnish of crab meat.
Everyone agreed that this soup was a winner.
New York strip steaks with Brussels sprouts hash came from January Sunset magazine. Serves 4 and takes less than 30 minutes.
Ingredients:
1# small thin-skinned potatoes cut into chunks
8 oz Brussels sprouts, quartered
2 New York strip steaks, total of 24 oz.
1T balsamic vinegar
¼ C EVOO, divided
2t pepper, divided
2 C slivered red onion
¼ C dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc (I used the Chardonnay we were drinking)
2 garlic cloved, chopped
2 t fresh rosemary leaves
Directions:
1. Simmer potatoes in large saucepan of water until tender when pierced, 8-10 minutes, in last minute, add Brussels sprouts, cooking just until the turn bright green. Drain
2. Preheat grill or broiler. Rub steaks with vinegar, 1TEVOO and 1t each of salt and pepper. Cook about 8 minutes for medium-rare.
3. Heat remaining 3 T EVOO in a 12” frying pan over medium high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring as little as possible, until well browned, 4-5 minutes. Add potatoes and sprouts and cook until browned slightly, about 4 minutes. Add wine, scraping up any caramelized bits from bottom of pan. Stir in garlic, rosemary and remaining tsp of salt and ¼ t pepper. Serve with sliced meat.
Jim cooked the steaks on the grill while I finished up the hash. This was easy to finish up after serving the soup. I did the prep on the potatoes and sprouts earlier in the day.
Dessert, Lemon-Ginger Crème Brulee, makes 6, 4 oz. servings, came from Cuisine at Home magazine. I have never made Crème Brulee before and should have had a day with nothing to so I could have more carefully waded through the steps. I as making this whole dinner and tomorrow am breakfast at the same time and ended up making a mistake that ruined this dessert.
Lemon-Ginger Crème Brulee
Ingredients:
¼ C chopped fresh ginger
2T sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1C heavy cream
1C half-and-half
3 egg yolks
1 egg
¼ C sugar
½ t ground ginger
Juice of 1 lemon
Pinch of salt
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. You are going to be putting your individual brulee cups in a water bath. Take time before going on to test your containers fit in the pan and do not touch. I had to use two containers for my size cups. The pan should be no taller than 2”. I found my Pyrex to be perfect.
2. Blanch ginger in boiling water for 1 minute; drain well.
3. Pulverize 2T sugar and lemon zest in a small grinder until zest is finely minced.
4. Warm cream, half-and-half, blanched ginger, and lemon sugar in a saucepan over medium heat just until steam rises. Remove from heat; let steep 15 minutes.
5. Wish egg yolks, egg, ¼ C sugar, ground ginger, lemon juice, and salt together in a mixing bowl.
6. S-l-o-w-l-y whisk warm cream mixture into eggs to temper. I then strained the mixture into a measuring cup to make it easier to poor into my ramekins.
7. Place the ramekins in the bath containers and fill half way with boiling water. I have a instant hot water on my sink, so I use that and transfer to the oven. Bake 35-45 minutes, don’t overcook. Mine took the full 45 minutes. Test by gently tapping them in the center with your finger. If runny, bake 3-5 minutes more.
8. Remove ramekins and cool on a rack covered loosely with wax paper. Chill until completely cold, preferably overnight.
9. Caramelize each custard just before serving.
Crème Brulee Sugar
This makes or breaks your dessert and unfortunately it broke mine. I missed the baking part and my sugar did not caramelize.
Ingredients:
½ C packed brown sugar
¼ C sugar
Directions:
1. Combine both sugars
2. Spread on a parchment lined baking sheet. After baking the brulees, turn off the oven and place the sugar pan inside the oven for an hour to dry out the sugars.
3. Transfer sugar to a food processor and pulverize until fine.
4. Store in an airtight container until ready to cartelize.
We have 3 left. I am going to try drying it out the sugar and hopefully will have a topping that is good as the custard is simply wonderful.