“Red”: a Birthday Meal
“Themed” dinners can be fun… especially so, when you charge a guest with guessing what the theme might be…
I recently made dinner for a friend and the theme was “Red.” In Chinese, she and her two sisters all have the Chinese word hong in their name, which translates to red. This was a 3-course dinner.
See all the photos from this dinner in a slide show.
Course 1: Strawberry Salad with Pomegranate Dressing
- Arugula Greens
- Baby Spinach Greens
- Strawberries, quartered
- Honey-Campagne Vinegar Dressing with Pomegranate Juice
- Candied Nuts (Pine nuts, spicy walnuts?)
- Diced Avocado
Combine all the ingredients. To make the dressing, combine 1 part champagne vinegar, 2-parts pomegranate juice, 1 part honey, and 2 parts vegetable oil, with salt and pepper. To make the nuts, toast the pecans in butter, and add paprika, onion powder, Tabasco-sauce, and a flavored honey. Stir to coat, and place on parchment paper to dry.
Course 2: Crab-Stuffed Roasted Tomatoes with Parmesan Bread Crumbs and Red-Skinned Smashed Potatoes
For this recipe I neglected to “smash” the potatoes. It still tasted great.
- Lump Crab Meat
- Truffle Oil
- Chopped Basil
- Tomatoes, halved, and emptied of seeds
- Fresh bread crumbs
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Grated Parmesan Cheese
Halve-tomatoes, empty seeds. Mix crab meat with truffle oil and basil. Fill tomatoes. Top tomatoes with bread crumbs, grated parmesan cheese, and extra-virgin olive oil. Bake.
- Small red-skin potatoes, skins on
- Garlic
- Parsley
- Basil
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- S/P
Boil the potatoes in a skillet in a small amount of salted water; let water boil-off, or dump excess water at the end of 20 minutes. Add salt/pepper, olive oil, and a diced combination of parsley, basil, and garlic.
Course 3: Sweet Rice Dessert with Red Bean Paste and Red Raspberries
- Sweet Rice
- Coconut Milk, water
- Red-bean paste
- fresh raspberries (may also use raspberry sorbet; we used red grapes)
Cook rice in one-half unsweetened coconut milk, and one-half water. Add sugar. Form into balls, stuffed with red-bean paste. Serve warm, alongside cold berries or sorbet.
In our presentation, my counterpart, the “Clean Chef” followed a Thai technique of steaming the rice, instead of boiling it. Instead of “stuffing” balls of rice, he made small mounds of red-bean paste (purchased in a can from the Asian market), and covered them in rice. We garnished the plate with red grapes. In hindsight, the raspberries would make a better garnish, however good-quality fresh berries were unavailable. The contrast of cold/hot is important in this variation on Thai sticky rice with mango.
One Response to ““Red”: a Birthday Meal”
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Greg and Hongjun
Said this on June 3rd, 2007 at 10:57am:All dishes were great. The potatoes and the salad really stood out due to the dressing and seasoning selection