{"id":799,"date":"2014-03-04T20:44:53","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T20:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/galleychef.org\/?p=799"},"modified":"2019-10-09T21:02:34","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T21:02:34","slug":"guess-whos-coming-to-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/galleychef.org\/index.php\/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner\/","title":{"rendered":"GUESS WHO\u2019S COMING TO DINNER"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night we had our annual \u201cGuess Who\u2019s Coming To Dinner\u201d party to benefit The Opera Society for Florida Grand Opera.\u00a0 Yogi, our little 12 pound Doxi-Poo, was the official greeter.\u00a0 The first guest to arrive was Roy Simmons.\u00a0 Yogi greeted poor Roy with so much gusto that I thought Roy\u00a0was going to have a heart attack!\u00a0 Yogi\u2019s enthusiasm continued when Nancy and Wes Fetzer\u00a0arrived with\u00a0their little Australian Labradoodle\u00a0named Schatzi.\u00a0 The two of them get along famously.\u00a0\u00a0Hanna and Jay Zukowski\u00a0joined the party with\u00a0 arms opened as Yogi rushed to greet them.\u00a0\u00a0Tony and Mary Ann Stefanelli also joined us along with\u00a0Michael Asser.<\/p>\n

The theme of the meal was \u201cA Trip to La Scala\u201d.\u00a0 There is a restaurant in Milan named La Scala that is famous for their smoked tuna so I decided to prepare that for the first course.\u00a0 The preparation got a little tricky since I didn\u2019t have a smoker and needed to jerry-rig\u00a0one.\u00a0 On top of that, I live in a condo and the rules are, NO FLAMES ON THE BALCONY. I decided to smoke the tuna at my office.\u00a0 (I have plenty of outdoor space there) I used a small, table-top, Weber grill and put just enough charcoal in the bottom that it would fit one half of the grill.\u00a0 I wrapped the smoking chips in foil, leaving both ends open to let the smoke out.\u00a0 Then I filled a half-sheet foil pan with water and molded another half-sheet foil pan to fit criss-cross at one end on top of the pan with the water.\u00a0 The sushi-quality tuna went into that pan drizzled with a little bit of olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.\u00a0 When the coals were ready, I moved them all over to one side at the bottom of the grill, then added the smoking chips, then the my concoction of water and tuna with the tuna on the opposite side of grill away from the heat source.\u00a0 Voila,\u00a0 it worked, I got a really good smoke in a short amount of time with little heat resulting in a buttery, melt-in-your-mouth, mouth feel with a hint of smoky flavor.\u00a0 This dish was garnished with lemon and served with a crostini, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and a 20-year-old\u00a0V.S.O.P balsamic vinegar\u00a0 aged in wood and reduced by half.\u00a0 I paired this velvety smooth dish with Whispering Angel rose from Cotes\u2019 De Provence, a light, dry and crisp wine that cut through the smokiness of the tuna and gave it great balance.<\/p>\n

\"smoked
Delicious smoky tuna with twenty year aged basalmic vinegar reduction, olive oil and lemon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second course was creamy pappardelle\u00a0with leeks, bacon, tarragon and pernod.\u00a0 Preparing it is easy, finding that shape was yet another challenge.\u00a0 I finally found it in a local\u00a0Italian specialty store.\u00a0 My original recipe did not call for tarragon or pernod, but since I had the tarragon on hand, I decided to go for it.\u00a0 This dish really has a lot of zing\u00a0to it because you have the pernod\u00a0and tarragon kind of playing off each other on the palate.\u00a0 It is the best pasta I\u2019ve ever had.\u00a0 I served it with Orvieto Classico, a delicate, fruit and floral white wine, accented with hints of pears.<\/p>\n