May was quite the busy month. I had barely recouped from my trip to Holland and publicity for the Dance Parade (which was 3 days after later) before I was cooking away for this TEST NEST. I do love doing these dinners, and I’m getting better at being more efficient and timing things so they are hot and ready, but they are a lot of work. I had a few last minute cancellations for the 26th which left me scrambling to fill the slots but in the end I had five wonderful testers join me (Adam Russell, Camas Hunter, Gabriel Jones, David Caine and Ashley Groesbeck). Here are the results:
This is the third recipe I’ve tried from Blu water that was too boring, so I threw the rest of the stack away. The mix of cranberry with fresh squeezed lime juice and sparkling water was good, but didn’t have enough of a punch. It needs ginger ale or sprite.
Almost all of my guests commented that they don’t usually like gorgonzola cheese, but that the mix of pear and toasted walnuts gave a great taste to the endives and they really enjoyed it. I couldn’t find cherry tomatoes so I used grape tomatoes which were too small so I cut them in half instead and filled with the ricotta mixture. While this worked just fine my testers felt it was a little bland and I agree. Maybe throw a bit of thyme or basil in with the parsley. It could use some fresh crushed salt and pepper as well.
This palette pleasing mango chicken dish with mango rice was delightful. Marinated in a tandoori style yogurt sauce and I let the rice sit in water and the spice mixture as well, really brought out the flavors of the spices. The mango adds a complementary sweetness to the dish and helped balance the palette. One guest mentioned that the rice could have used a bit more flavor, but I think what it could have used was a little more mango inherently giving it more flavor.
What is it about cobblers and crisps that make them so perfect? This phenomenal blend of blackberries with cinnamon and lemon made for a delightful flavor in each bite. Not only was this a hit, but it was wicked easy to prepare and served with a perfect pairing of vanilla bean ice cream.
One Comment (Leave a Reply)
Nice apron, where ever did you find it?
Looks fabulous yet once again. Mike would love the mango an would say add more as he loves mango anything. I think you should make the cobbler at the reunion. Mmmmmm