Iron Chef Millman VII
Rod Dreher can post pictures of food all the time. I pretty much do it once a year. This is that once.
To recap for readers who aren’t obsessives, every year I throw a dinner party on Hanukkah that features a holiday-appropriate eight courses, each showcasing the holiday-appropriate ingredient of olive oil.
This year’s menu:
Antipasto: Latkes three ways, topped with –
- Triple-crème cheese and apple-cranberry compote
- Wild mushroom stroganoff
- Gorgonzola and brandied figs with toasted pine nuts
(I always start with latkes with three different toppings. Since this is my seventh year throwing this particular dinner party, I’ve now tried 21 different latke toppings. Some of them are real keepers; I suspect someone more enterprising than I would see the potential for a book, or at least an article. This year, the figs were a little over-brandied, but the other toppings were hits.)
Zuppe: Chestnut cream topped with fried leeks
(I don’t really have a rule for what constitutes showcasing olive oil as opposed to merely using it. I guess I’d say that I count a dish as showcasing if either (a) it’s fried; (b) it uses olive oil in a modestly non-traditional way, or (c) you can really taste the oil. Even with that leniency, I don’t always make it.)
Insalata: Puntarelle salad with anchovy dressing
(For example: this salad is not fried, uses olive oil in an entirely traditional way, and you can’t really taste the oil because the capers, anchovies and fresh garlic predominate. Well, maybe that’s not fair; you can taste the oil. Anyway, it’s a great salad.)
Primo: Deep-fried risotto “oranges” topped with butternut squash and roast garlic puree
(I’ve been meaning to make these for years. Finally got around to it. That’s my son in the tuxedo t-shirt serving, by the way.)
Intermezzo: Blistered shishito peppers with matcha salt
(Most of them aren’t spicy. But every now and then . . .)
Secondo: Whole snapper baked in a salt crust, served drizzled with olive oil, with a side of sautéed broccoli rabe
Dolce I: Deep-fried chocolate-filled wontons dusted with five-spice sugar, accompanied by rosemary olive oil ice cream and green tea
(The wontons puff up when fried. So after you take a bite of the wonton, you can spoon the ice cream into the opening and you’ve got an ice cream cone.)
Dolce II: Pistachio olive-oil cake filled with fig compote, iced with a cream cheese frosting
Previous years’ menus:
Recipes, as always, available upon request.
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