Last month my dad had clients over for a visit in Israel and requested my catering services for a nice dinner instead of something similar out in a restaurant. I was very happy to get the opportunity. There were some restrictions as some of the dinners were vegetarians and some do not eat pork. I came up with this menu:
Every line describes the main ingredients of the dish
After planning, a day before the dinner, I went to buy the ingredients at the market. It was my first time going to the Tel-Aviv market (Shuk Ha’Carmel) since I came back to Israel. I absolutely loved it. It’s a very nice market and I was tempted to buy all sort of un-planned stuff. I didn’t want to leave the market but my trolley got heavier and I had a lot of cooking to get done the day before!
I took some pictures of the preparations but you can jump forward to see just the meal itself.
I started with the onion chutney dish. Using my lovely mandolin I shredded about 6 big onions, red and white, very fine. At that point not only me but everyone in the house started crying.
Slowly caramelizing in a big pan with sugar
Added some apple cubes and many spices: ginger, cinnamon, chilly, black pepper, clove, star anise … Takes a while until it all soften and gets a nice brown color.
I saw these baby purple eggplants and decided to use them.. They are adorable!
Rosemary, thyme, garlic, olive oil and rock salt, to the oven.
To go with the bread and chutney I made a chicken liver pâté. Fried the livers with cherry liquor. Important not to overcook, it should still be pink inside.
Mixed all in the food processor with butter and salt until smooth texture.
Want to get the bacon as crisp and straight as possible? Squeeze it between two oven molds, baking paper both sides.
Bacon is recommended to go with everything.
Poaching syrup for the pears: white wine, apple vinegar, water, sugar, lemon peels, ginger, whole black pepper. Leave to boil.
To prevent oxidizing I kept the peeled pears in lemon-water
Cook for about 20 minutes with a weight on top to keep them covered in the syrup
Making of the ganache
Poor over the chocolate boiling cream little by little and stir in the chocolate.
For extra smoothness – chunks of butter mixed in after the ganache chills a bit.
Sprinkled some grey salt.
Basil chopped for the basil butter.
The butter should be in a cream consistency to mix in the basil.
For the meat dish I bought a big piece of about 3 kg entrecôte beef. I trimmed it to look nicer.
Covered it with the layer of fat..
And trussed it.
Seared all faces on the stove and then into the oven for the rest of the cooking.
The meat is resting
I used the trimmings for the ‘jus’ – the sauce
Added onions and carrots and caramelized on a pan
Some Thyme and garlic and then veal stock and red wine, little by little, while simmering.
Blanched the asparagus, then cooled fast in ice water
Some sauces reducing slowly
For the fish dish I mixed a lot of cooking salt with egg whites
Mixed in some Rosemary and thyme
A 2.5 kg of Corvina fish resting on a bed of salt
Totally covered
Out of the oven, the crust is harden. Okay it was harder than expected and challenging to break. Next time – thinner crust layer.
Tossing the mushrooms with garlic, last minute
The table in our gazebo-balcony
The host and the staff (my parents).
Me and my sous. This is the only picture I have showing the prepared onion-chilly chutney and liver pate.. I forgot to take a better one, oopsi!
The fresh bread came from a bakery, I didn’t bake it, but it was nice
Green butter
Magnum bottle of Castel 2003
Endive / Roquefort / Walnuts
Cucumber / Honey Vinaigrette / Sesame
Quinoa / Cilantro / Lemon
This cold salad was better than expected. I loved how it turned out to be.
Asparagus / Citrus
Served with butter-lemon sauce.
Pallet cleanser: Melon / Ginger / Bacon
Melon-ginger granite with crispy bacon
Entrecôte / Red Wine Jus / Pomegranate
Champignon / Flat Parsley / Rocket
I used Oyster mushrooms and Champignon de Paris
Baby Eggplant / Herbs
The fish taken out of the salt crust
Corvina Baked In Salt Crust / Champagne Cream / Chives
The thick crust messed it up a little bit but the sauce came up pretty good.
The desserts were plated separately
Poached pear
Salted ganache
Poached Pear / Salted Ganache / Vanilla Ice-Cream / Crème Chantilly
There was also some caramel sauce there. Everyone loved this dessert.
Fig / Almond / Bulgarian Cheese / Honey
Not a dessert for everyone but if you like it, you’d love it.
The happy dinners at the end of the meal
The staff (my mom) did a great job helping me out with the arrangements and the service, and the dishes. Thanks!
My conclusions from this night were many. Most important was that I had a great time during the whole process: planning, groceries shopping, prepping and the service itself. Also I took many pointers as to how to improve next time and make similar dishes better. I was not happy with the dishes 100 percent but overall I think it was a good meal and I hope they thought so too.
Thanks dad for insisting on me cooking and hope you were pleased with the outcome.
thank you so much Mashav!!! It’s handy to have a chef at home in case you need to host special guests…
I loved all the dishes… though the fish was a bit too salty…
Dan Cunnie emailed to me this comment:
Looking at pictures is making me hungry. Truly a delightful night. Thanks to you and your family.
Cheers,
Dan
I love the canelles. They look perfect.
Lol Thanks, I had practice 🙂
Looks great
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