Anna’s Party — Recipes and Pictures

As you can see from the previous blog post, last night Anna and I had about 20+ people over for some drinks, food and fun (that sounds like an advertisement). It ended up being a great success. More desserts were added to the cake that I made (well, it was a box, don’t judge), along with some bubbly, brews and wine. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures during the party, but I did get a lot of the food prior to everyone eating. I’ll post some pics, and recipes (even though you can find most of them through my previous post).

I suppose I should start out with the one failure. I attempted to make my own goat cheese, from the Kiss My Spatula blog. While I was able to get some goat cheese (that tasted AMAZING), I didn’t set up the cheese cloth that well and lost a bit of the curdled milk. Also, I think that I was a little too impatient and opened it up early and lost a bit then too. Next time, I will succeed. Here is the recipe for those interested in trying it.

Ingredients:

1 quart pasteurized goat milk (avoid “ultra”)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 clove garlic
herbs de provence
freshly chopped parsley
salt to taste

In a medium sauce pan, slowly heat the goat milk. I started it at low and slowly moved up to medium. Measure temp and when it reaches 180, remove from heat and add lemon juice. Stir in and let curdle (about 15-20 seconds). Add more juice if it doesn’t curdle.

Line a colander with several layers of cheese cloth over a large bowl (make sure its a couple and is in a large square in order to making tying easier). Ladle milk into cheese cloth. Pull up and tie corners on a wooden spoon. Place over large pot. Let sit for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until cheese is like a dry cottage cheese (don’t do what I did and remove too early). Transfer to a bowl and fold in herbs. Keeps for 1 week.

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Green-Olive tapenade (from Paolo’s in Georgetown):

Ingredients:

(serves a party of 15-20)
(recipe wasn’t Paolo’s website, so it came from the Chili Fire)

1 large Eggplant
1 16 oz. can Chick Peas (Garbanzo Beans) in water, drained
1 24 oz. jar Green Olives with Pimento, drained
1 Red Pepper, roasted, peeled and seeded (or one can)
1/4 bunch Parsley, roughly chopped
2 Garlic Cloves, peeled
1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Slice eggplant and season with salt, pepper and olive oil. Cook for 20-25 minutes. Let cool and scoop out eggplant from skin.

Take the rest of the ingredients except oil and pepper and blend in a food processor in batches until they are all chopped.

Place into a bowl and slowly mix in the olive oil. Add pepper to taste. Serve with toasted bread or crackers.

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For my cornbread recipe, I borrowed recipe from The Little Chef. I added a bit of ground chipotle to add a little heat, but I didn’t go with a heavy hand like I should have, and it didn’t add too much. This recipe is quite good, and yields a nice flakey and moist cornbread.

Ingredients:

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 cups fresh corn (or from a can, drained and patted dry).
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup honey or brown sugar ( I used honey)
1 1/3 cup butter milk (if you don’t have any, you can make it easily with white vinegar)
3 Tbl unsalted butter (melted) or vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425. Butter an 8″ square dish or cast iron frying pan.

Whisk together corn meal, corn, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In bowl of a mixer, beat eggs on medium until blended. Add honey, buttermilk and melted butter. Cook until blended. To make buttermilk you need white vinegar and milk, about 2 tbsp for each cup of milk. For this recipe add 2 1/2 tbsp and milk up to 1 1/3 cup. Let rest for 10 minutes and you have butter milk.

Add dry ingredients to bowl and mix on low speed until blended. Pour into prepared pan and cook 20-25 minutes. Test center with a toothpick. you can put your finished bread into a broiler for a couple minutes for golden color (careful not to burn).

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White bean dip. Easy as it gets, but sooo tasty.

Ingredients:

1 Can white beans
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
Fresh Oregano and Rosemary

Drain and rinse beans. Add to food processor along with salt, pepper, oregano, rosemary and lemon juice. Blend until almost smooth. Slowly pour in olive oil while blending until smooth. Add to a small bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.

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Chile Non-Carne

(Anna’s mom’s recipe, with slight variation of veggies)

1/2 large Onion, chopped
2 cloves Garlic
2 teaspoons olive oil
¼ Teaspoon Basil, Cumin, Oregano
2 Tablespoons Chili Powder
4 chopped Carrots
28 and 14 oz Cans crushed Tomatoes
1 Can Kidney Beans
1 Can black beans
1 Cup Bulgar
Chicken Broth (about 2 cups)

Saute Onions, garlic; add spices, then veggies – cook 2-3
min. Stir in tomatoes, beans, bulgar. Bring to boil. Simmer 30+ minutes, until bulgar is cooked/veggies not crispy. Add veggie broth to thin out/reach consistency you want. Add tobasco sauce and/or more chilli powder/other spices to taste.

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Phyllo Cups

12 sheets phyllo dough
3 Tbl butter melted

Preheat oven to 350.

Lay out first sheet on a totally dry surface and brush gently with butter. Top with second sheet, and repeat brushing. Add final sheet and brush again. Cut into 12 squares and place into a buttered muffin tin. Bake at 350 for 5-8 minutes. With only muffin tin, I repeated the process 4 times.

Let cool on rack until filling is completed.

The filling:

14 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 small chicken breasts
2 small green peppers
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Adobo seasoning
Shredded Cheddar Chesese

Dice veggies. Saute garlic, onions and green peppers until less crunchy, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, and season to taste. Cover and continue to cook over low-medium heat.

In another pan, cook chicken seasoned with adobo. Once cooked, dice chicken. For veggie cups, just don’t add chicken. For others, line cup with chicken and then sauce, top with cheese and put in broiler for 2 minutes, until cheese melted.

Here are some added pictures: