A Night of Citric Fun...

For dinner #20 we took a recommendation that came from one of our past guests, Amy Chow and invited one of our neighbors. Now, truth be told, they found out about us through some other friends instead of a spontaneous invitation, as Amy originally recommended. Regardless, it was a blast having some neighbors come down a couple of floors and join us for a great dinner. Along with them we also invited another couple, who we have been trying to have over for a bit as well as a good Argentine friend.  Also, Julie, from DNAinfo joined us as our guest journalist (she wrote a really cool article about her experience at Worth Kitchen)

This dinner's theme was all about using citrus fruits. I know what your thinking... not very autumny, but hey it turned out great! The inspiration from this  has actually been coming from Tamy, something which I have seen more and more often. Personally I love it. It really shows how she is coming into her own within the culinary world. As with the menu for upcoming dinner #21, most of it was all her idea. Not only has the sous chef learned a lot about helping with the prepping, but she is actually working hard on creating the dishes. 

Now back to the citrus fruit and last week's menu...

Appetizer - Fennel & orange salad with shallots, blood orange juice and champagne vinaigrette. Topped with Parmesan cheese chips

Entree - Miso glazed Sole with grapefruit accompanied by bok choy  with shallots and walnuts and sauteed oyster mushrooms with ponzu sauce

Dessert - Grapefruit sorbet drowned in muscat

Friends gather as the salad is prepared and the hunger in the stomach grows. (They actually ate all the Parmesan chips TWICE before the salad was ready...) 

The fennel is a delicious vegetable with a very aromatic flavor, resembling a smoother anise.  However the flavor on its own can be overpowering. The Valencia orange and the Parmesan chips were added to balance that flavor. The vinaigrette was created by mixing one chopped shallot into 1/3 of a cup of champagne vinegar 1/4 of blood orange juice and 1/4 cup of of olive oil. The shallots should sit for about 1 hour in the vinegar before mixing for best flavor.

Preparing the Sole before backing it. On top of a parchment paper, I brushed the miso glaze (purchased at The Lobster Place in Chelsea Market with the fish) salt and white pepper, chopped scallions & topped with grapefruit slices. This is then wrapped and backed for about 15 minutes at 350°.

I know they are all very hungry... at least they had some amazing wines from Franlky Wines!

The dish as it was served.

Grapefruit Sorbet with a lemon zest on top. This was my first sorbet, but it was very easy to make. Since I didn't have an ice cream maker it took a bit more time, but it all came out delicious.

Adding the muscat to the grapefruit.

The final dessert, grapefruit drowned in muscat.

Post dinner conversations always get very funny. I think he was talking about a penalty shot blocked by a goalie in the World Cup. But to tell you the truth, he could have been talking about how tall he wants his future son (or daughter) to be.