This year marked the 70th birthdays for my in-laws, Carole & Mark. Like we did with my parents on my dad's 70th birthday back in 2015, Leah and I planned and prepared an extravagant meal to mark the occasion. For one night only, the Terrier Club was revived for a special six-course celebratory dinner.
Food Prep
The most involved dish involved making beef stock and reserving the marrow to fill tortellini. In sourcing the bones, I found
Webstaurant Store, an online purveyor of restaurant supplies, including bulk food products. I was able to buy 20 lbs. of marrow bones at a very reasonable price, perfect for making a big pot of stock. Unfortunately, I didn't store the bones properly the first time and, long story short, they rotted and had to be thrown out. Another 20 lbs. of bones later, we were once again on track.
The bones were first roasted in two batches for about 25 minutes each, which softened the marrow and allowed for extraction. Then we put the bones back in the oven and roasted again for a while longer, adding tomato paste near the end to get a nice browning effect.
With the bones roasted and marrow reserved, it was on to the stock. We cooked down a traditional mirepoix, then added the roasted bones and water. This cooked over very low heat overnight. All the gunk was skimmed off the top and the remaining liquid reduced by a third and seasoned. This left us with an incredibly unctuous, rich beef stock.
So what did we do with the marrow? First we strained the marrow fat and used it to cook some minced yellow onions. Then we briefly pulsed the marrow itself in a food processor until it had a spreadable, but still chunky texture. This was mixed with the onions and some good Parmigiano Reggiano cheese to create our tortellini filling.
Next came the most laborious part: making fresh pasta dough and filling about a hundred or so nickel-sized tortellini. This was a true labor of love.
With the main labor out of the way, we moved on to some less intense prep, like making this jar of pickled apples. The pickling liquid was a mix of cider vinegar, white vinegar, water, and spices - cinnamon sticks, mustard seeds, and allspice berries.
Dessert prep was next: we used our handy smoking gun to smoke chestnuts with applewood, which served as the base for an ice cream, along with copious amounts of milk, cream, brown sugar, and honey. I wasn't happy with the amount of smoke flavor from just the chestnuts, so I also smoked the ice cream base itself before churning.
Parsnips are one of my favorite vegetables - here is a lovely pot of them simmering away in milk and cream with some thyme.
Speaking of my favorite things, I also bought 10 lbs. of veal sweetbreads from Webstaurant Store when I placed my marrow bones order. I love this strange organ meat, though it requires a lot of prep to get right. I'm happy to say I have perfected my technique: 1) soak the sweetbreads for several days in cold water (changing and rinsing daily), 2) cut into portions and trim excess membrane, 3) poach for several minutes until just gently cooked through 4) pull off any additional membrane (easier to do now that the sweetbreads are cooked) 5) place on a plate with a heavy pot or pan on top and leave in the fridge to be pressed down overnight. All of this results in a clean, pleasant texture once the sweetbreads are finally cooked.
To dress the sweetbreads, we prepared a silky, rich sweet & sour sauce consisting of veal demi-glace, red wine vinegar, apple cider, butter, and a quick infusion of fresh thyme and rosemary.
Rather than shake individual cocktails when our guests arrived, we opted to assemble everything in a big mason jar in advance and store in the fridge. This was a recipe from
Liber & Co., a purveyor of delicious cocktail syrups that Leah and I keep stocked.
Our family loves foie gras. Here I am punching rounds out of sliced brioche in preparation of our foie gras course that would come toward the end of the meal.
The final pre-meal prep was to fry some thin shavings of parsnip, which were later used as a textural component in the sweetbreads dish.
Here we are at the start of the meal! I'm gently scrambling eggs with butter over very low heat until they form almost a porridge-like consistency for our caviar course.
The bone marrow tortellini cooking away, while the warm beef stock awaits.
Some thinly julienned red cabbage, lightly dressed with oil and lemon juice.
The sweetbreads! Soaked in buttermilk and then dredged in a mix of AP flour and rice flour, then fried in a cast iron pan. The result was wonderfully crisp.
Some preemptive dessert prep, whisking egg yolks and whites for our soufflés, which went in the oven at this time.
The rounds of brioche slowly being griddled in a warm pan while I punched out discs of foie gras to sit on top. Eating the foie gras scraps was a luxurious indulgence as we worked.
The finished soufflés! Nicely golden brown, though they deflated slightly.
Our after-dinner cocktail being mixed.
Dinner
Welcome and happy birthday Carole and Mark!
Ginger Apple Cider Cocktail - Liber & Co.
Old Home Distillers Brothers Cut Bourbon, Fiery Ginger Syrup, Lemon, Angostura Bitters, Apple Cider
Popcorn
Butter, Spices
Years ago we had the idea to serve popcorn and cocktails to our guests at the start of each Terrier Club meal. We always season the popcorn according to the...season...in this case using cinnamon, ginger, clove, and nutmeg to represent winter.
Critz Farms Harvest Moon Rippleton Original, Cazenovia NY
It's of course traditional to serve caviar with champagne, but Leah and I aren't fans and instead opted to use a local product from Carole and Mark's area. Critz Farm's driest cider drinks like a champagne and the apple notes paired very nicely with the caviar.
Egg Caviar - Jean-Georges, NYC
Smooth Scrambled Egg, Vodka Whipped Cream, DeSietra Siberian Caviar
Aside from messing up and having to redo the whipped cream, this dish, a shameless copy of the signature version served at Jean-Georges, turned out great.
Gevrey-Chambertin "La Justice" 2017 Domaine Antonin Guyon
I'm a relative novice when it comes to wine, so I phoned and a friend and asked Al for his expertise - he recommended a red Burgundy. Leah and I have a nice little wine store downstairs from our apartment, and we found a few options that fit Al's suggestions (depth of flavor but not too heavy), ultimately settling on this bottle, which hit all the marks. This was served with both of the next two courses.
Tortellini in Brodo - Faun, NYC
Bone Marrow, Onion, Parmigiano Reggiano, Nutmeg, Beef Stock
I watch a lot of food videos on YouTube, including reruns of Mike Colameco's Real Food. A few years ago, he visited a small NYC restaurant called Faun, and one of the dishes they spotlighted was this amazing sounding tortellini in brodo. They described how the dish was made, but not the exact recipe, so I sort of reverse-engineered it as best I could. The results were spectacular, though we're never making tortellini this small ever again!
Crispy Winter Sweetbreads
Parsnip Purée & Chips, Pickled Apple, Red Cabbage, Sweet & Sour Demi-Glace
When we all got together for Mark's birthday in January, he mentioned that he loved sweetbreads and hadn't eaten them in a while. It was a lightbulb moment, and Leah and I dusted off this old recipe I came up with years ago. It didn't turn out great the first time, so we worked to refine and perfect the technique, which really paid off. This turned out incredibly well, and was a particular hit with Carole and Mark.
Critz Farms 20 Below Ice Cider, Cazenovia NY
Back to Critz Farms for some ice-cold dessert cider, which bridged the gap between our savory and sweet courses.
Duck Torchon, Griddled Brioche, Raw Sugar, Maldon Salt
This dish just popped into my head one day a few years back, and I served it at an earlier Terrier Club dinner. It's simple and perfect, two bites of savory-sweet deliciousness.
Smoked Chestnut Ice Cream, Chestnut Honey
I love a good soufflé and have made several different types over the years. Thinking of winter fruits, pear came to mind, and I felt it would go nicely with the nutty flavors in this smoked chestnut ice cream I first made a few years ago. We sourced some good chestnut honey online, which added a pleasant bitter component to the otherwise sweet dessert.
Casamigos Añejo Tequila, Tempus Fugit Crème de Cacao, Chameleon Cold Brew, Cinnamon Simple Syrup, Bitter End Mexican Mole Bitters
A dessert cocktail I invented for one of my dinners with Al. I named it after the bard Dandelion's opus collection of poetry from The Witcher (nerds will understand what I'm talking about).
This wasn't a planned part of the meal, but it was right after Valentine's Day, so Leah and I had this big box of chocolates laying around, which served as mignardises.
The end! Thanks for everything guys - it was a ton of fun celebrating together.
