Dinner Party

Tonight I decided to pretend to be grown-up. I hosted a "dinner party" at my flat and served:

Starter
Fresh Mesclun Salad with diced apples and home-made lemon vinaigrette

Dressing:
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Dollop of Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp olive oil
Splash vinegar (I used wine vinegar—it has a distinctive fruity flavor, less salty than reg. vinegar)

*This dressing went over quite well, and is a tasty citrusy match for the apple. I will make two points about it:
1.) When trying to replicate a similar dressing without fresh lemons (or any lemon juice) at hand, I improvised and used 100% orange juice instead, with olive oil and the wine vinegar (no mustard, though I'd be curious to try it..). This formula went over really well with the kids! The orange juice has a similar citrus tang that they are used to, but less of a bite and a little more sweetness (it is important not to use too much wine vinegar, or else the formula will be too sweet).
2.)With the recipe I used tonight (with lemon) described above, I would like to play a little more with the salad. In my opinion, the greens I used were an absolutely perfect match for the dressing — perhaps I would consider adding some arugula or a little baby spinach (maybe I should try it as a sauteeing sauce for fresh spinach! That sounds kind of good..), but next time, with a little more preparation, I would like to go slightly more Greek. I am thinking that this dressing (either the original or the one mentioned in Note #1) would go quite well with a mesclun salad with halved seedless red grapes, crumbled either bleu, feta, or chevre cheese (depending on your audience's tastes), and yes, some diced apple of the sweet variety — considering the cheese, a sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper might be appropriate.
Wine pairing: Bitch (seriously, it's called Bitch--a sweetish red good to be opened before beginning the feast, and a nice accompaniment to the salad)

Entree

Eggplant Parmesan:
It is always a little different each time I make it. But this is one of the few times people were taking seconds, and thirds, at the dinner table. As usual, I sweated the eggplant slices (sprinkle salt on each slice, layer them in a colander and let them stand. After (ideally) an hour or two (or however much time you have, preferably at least 30 mins), pat them off with paper towels. Then coat them in scrambled raw egg, and cover them in (my version) mixture of panko bread crumbs, coarse salt, and black pepper (I have sometimes included some smoked paprika in this mixture, when I plan to be feeding those used to eating meat) spread out on a dinner plate. Fry these in olive oil, ideally, but veggie oil will do.

I have actually found it is best to do this frying and prep work the night before 1) so that you are not sweaty, gross, and stressed the evening you are serving up this delicious food, but also 2) because when you fry them up the next day (after they have cooled in the fridge overnight) they crisp up better — they already have a bready coating, so don't absorb so much oil, and can just sit in the frying pan without really burning and get nice and crispy.
This time, I used Newman's Own tomato basil pasta sauce--spread a thin layer on the bottom of a baking dish (ideally for a casserole dish, but used what I had), put on the first layer of eggplants, covered those with a smearing of sauce, sprinkled on a shredded cheese mixture of mozzarella, Parmesan, reggiano, and provolone; next layer: same until the cheese, which was a little of the cheese mixture, plus some freshly grated smoked Gouda (see! my substitute for smoked paprika — I find it gives a more substantial flavor for meat-eaters). Third layer was again eggplant, sauce, a minor sprinkling of the shredded cheese mixture, and then some conservative slices of fresh mozzarella, plus all the leftover breadcrumbs in the pan. If by some good fortune you don't have any strays, it would be delicious to sautee some extra (panko) bread crumbs in either olive oil (healthy) or salted butter (decadent!!), and sprinkle a layer on the very top, to add some more texture. I also sprinkled a bit of coarse salt, plus the tiniest bit of freshly ground black pepper (would have done more, but I am a pepper fiend and my friends are not...).
I baked the whole thing for 40 minutes at 325, but I suggest checking in regularly after 30 mins, or if you know your oven to be strong, safely at 300.

A lot of people serve this with a side carb, especially angelhair pasta, but I think if anything it would be best with a light veggie, such as edamame (we did not do this, as one of my friends is allergic to soy)

Wine pairing: Casillero del Diablo — a strong red that stands up to the full bodied flavors of the eggplant parm.


Dessert

Home-made whipped cream with fresh berries

To allow yourself more time with your guests, it is best to prepare the whipped cream immediately before you expect your guests to arrive, then stick it in the fridge. It took me about 7 minutes or so with a manual beater, though probably less with an electric. I added a tiny bit of cream honey, a couple drops of pure vanilla extract, and a sprinkling of cinnamon to about half of one of those school-sized mini cartons of organic heavy whipping cream. It is best to stir in your flavorings with a spoon first, so that they are evenly distributed, then go at it with a beater.
For the berries, one of my guests brought amazing blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries (which we quartered). A refreshing end to a fairly heavy meal.

Wine pairing: Scuttlehole Chardonnay, a fairly delicate white


Surprise palate cleanser

Green tea ice cream with fresh strawberry

While we were watching the Ricky Gervais Show, I ran to the kitchen and served each about two teaspoons full of some lovely green tea ice cream (although any sorbet or peppermint without the chocolate chips would do) that went well with some of the remaining strawberry. They were pleasantly surprised, and it is quite a light and slightly exotic/pleasantly surprising end to the food portion of the evening.

Super tip!! If you are the one left holding the excess eggplant parm, it is actually pretty delicious if you heat it up and put it on a baguette as a sandwich, or eat it cold gradually out of its dish in the fridge--also delicious. Perhaps why it is my favorite to make--it is almost as good as leftovers as it was the night you first served it.

Holy crap, just looked over and realized the puppy was on my bed--was wondering what that giant black blob was...