My dinner on Friday went really well! The meal flowed perfectly and the local flavors from the farmers market added extra depth to what would already be a flavorful meal. In this post, I will go through each dish I made and experience with them as well as how they were received by my guests.
Clam Soup
I have never cooked clams before, and I haven’t eaten them in years so going into this I was a little nervous. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was! I just sort of threw the clams in the pot and waited around ten or fifteen minutes and they were done! The flavor of the wine, onions, and parsley boosted the natural flavor of the clams, adding depth to the broth they threw off. I paired the clam soup with some slices of baguette that I got from the farmers market and toasted in the oven. I thoroughly enjoyed this dish. It was salty and rich, the warm broth filling my belly quite well. The clams were silky and buttery and tasted of the ocean. The majority of my guests had not eaten clams before and I am not sure if they enjoyed it as much as I did. Half of them ended up warming up to them towards the end of the course, after being encouraged to keep going. The other half tentatively picked at them before giving up completely. One remarked that she could not eat the clams because she felt like she was eating all the pollutants in the ocean. My frustration with picky eaters remains a constant it seems, but I do not hold a grudge. All five pounds of clams I had bought ended up being eaten, the bulk consumed by my boyfriend and I. This dish is for sure something that I would make and eat again. Truly delicious and a real treat.
Halibut and Parsley Sauce
The halibut I bought from the farmers market may have been the most beautiful piece of fish I have ever seen. It was glossy and pink, the flesh was almost glimmering. I thought about it all day before cooking it. After eating the clams, I encouraged people to take a bit of a break and stretch their legs. Hazan writes in her book that between the first and second course, most people usually take a bit of a break. While my friends were out having a cigarette, I started to prep my fish. The first step was to take the very beautiful silver skin off its back, something that was both difficult for my lack of experience but also because of how pretty it was. The fish was meaty and thick so much so that I had to add an extra two cups of water to cover it. The actual cooking of the fish itself went swimmingly (pun intended). It only took about 12 minutes and when it came out it was extremely tender and melting apart. The sauce I had made ahead of time and only had to add a bit of lemon juice when it was reheating to get it back to its original consistency. It is a thick sauce, made thicker by the flour dissolved in broth that is poured into the onion parsley mixture. It is truly a delicious sauce, adding an extra fishy layer with the presence of anchovy paste. It is the perfect balance between umami and fragrant flavors while remaining just mild enough that the natural flavor of the fish can shine through. I topped it with some lemon slices and gherkins that I sliced up really small. It was a bit difficult to transport the fish from serving platter to plate because it was so tender and falling apart a bit. The halibut triggered somewhat of an emotional response from the table, people exchanging stories they had about fishing with their parents or eating fish in their childhood. Everyone including myself enjoyed this bright, fresh, and fragrant dish and all plates were cleared.
Asparagus with Parmesan Cheese
Despite this being a sort of last minute decision, this dish may have been the quiet hero of the meal. I tasked my eager to help boyfriend to make this but by the time the second course rolled around, he was in no state to finish the cooking of this dish. The asparagus I got was so fresh that I had to stop myself from eating it straight out of the pot after boiling it. This was perhaps the most green asparagus I have ever seen. The spears were tender and silky in texture. Roasting them covered in butter and cheese only added to it. The next time I cook this dish I would definety cook it for a few minutes more so the cheese has more time to brown in the oven, but that did not stop this from being a delicious vegetable side. The heads got nice and crispy while the stalks stayed melt in your mouth soft. I think the quality of the asparagus I had added the extra oomph that this dish needed to go from good to great. The saltiness of the parmesan paired with the fresh spring flavor was exquisite. My friends and I found ourselves picking and eating the crispy cheese that had melted off the asparagus onto the tin foil off the pan. The greenness of this dish paired very well with the fish despite Hazan saying that the fish needed no vegetable side. It was truly an ode to Olympia terroir and merroir.
After Dinner Salad
Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the salad I made but to truly would not be anything to look at. Despite its humble appearance, this salad was delicious. A simple salad at the end of a meal is there to aid in digestion and free the eaters of the tastes of the dinner they just had. That is exactly what this salad did. A simple greens mix from the farmers market with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and lemon juice made up the entirety of this dish. The bitterness of the greens and the acidity from the vinegar and lemon juice made it feel somewhat medicinal, I could feel it sort of freshening up my insides and cleaning out the remnants of the meal I just had. Funnily enough, the salad was the one dish from this meal that I got asked for the recipe for.
Cheese and Fruit
Before I started cooking, my boyfriend and I went to the co-op to get some things to finish off the meal. I had prepared some apricots by just slicing them up with some sugar and leaving that to sort of marinate but we wanted some cheese as well. I do not remember the names of the cheeses we got but they were all so tasty. We selected a goat brie (which was my favorite), a blue cheese, and a spicy sheeps cheese. We got some Marcona almonds, rose hip jam, and crackers to go along with it as well. The Italians are truly genius for putting a cheese course at the end of a meal. It carries the spirit of a dessert, excitement, something new, a treat, without introducing a cloying foreign flavor profile to the meal. The cheeses were all delicious and the rose hip jam paired well perfectly with almost everything. Everyone crowded around the cheese plate eagerly sharing combinations that they had tried. The room was filled with warmth, laughter, and an enthusiasm for food: the perfect way to end a meal.
Afterthoughts
This dinner truly made my heart so full. It has been a long and lonely year, filled with lots of anxiety and apprehension. Going into this year, I felt as though I did not have any friends, stranded on an empty campus to fend for myself. Being in this state made me quite sad because I am sort of a golden retriever person, all I really want to do is love people and make them smile. Having no one to do this with left me with a big hole in my life. Looking back on this time, now surrounded by friends all enjoying a meal that I made for them, shows me just how far I have come and it makes my heart sing. The joy of cooking for other people is something that I feel is unmatched by any other experience. Watching people become more comfortable with the idea of semi-hedonistic eating as the meal progresses, getting more excited and more observant of flavors made me really happy. I love to share my passions with people and this was the quintessence of that. The meal flowed perfectly dish to dish and left (I hope) everyone feeling satisfied. I look back on Friday night and feel a smile in my whole body. I thoroughly enjoyed cooking, eating, and sharing this meal and would do it every day if I could. It was a perfect way to finish up both this year and this project, representing what I feel the point of food is that I gathered from all my work this year: bringing people together in warmth and love. Good food has a funny way changing up the atmosphere of a room, bringing people together in a way nothing else can. It is a true joy to be in the middle of it, or better yet, the cause of it. The afterglow of this feeling is still resonating within my stomach. Love love love is all I can say of this meal.
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