Tips: The Right Way to Prepare Lemon Wedges

Lemon wedges benefit from a little tailoring. Here’s how:

Begin with unblemished whole lemons.

Trim away a bit of the top and bottom of lemon.

With a sharp knife, cut in half from “north to south” and not across the “equator” or thick middle.

Cut into wedges. I prefer to cut six generous wedges per lemon rather than eight.

Trim away the white membrane at the top of the wedge.

Using the tip of your knife, pry and poke out as many seeds as you can without cutting the lemons into tatters.

Here are six nicely tailored lemon wedges.

For the At Home blog’s complete recipe index.

Quick Pickles

Quick Pickles
I love pickles. Not the kind that you have to carefully process in jars that hold forever in dark pantries. I love quick pickles that only require refrigeration. You simply make an infused brine with vinegar, salt, aromatics — plus I like a little sweetness to my quick pickles so I always add sugar. You simply heat and simmer to infuse the liquid and then pour this hot brine over your raw vegetables and refrigerate. The longer it sits the more flavor is absorbed. This time of year farm stands are loaded with Kirby cucumbers — the diminutive member of the family — and the ideal quick pickle. Keep a container in your refrigerator and serve with backyard burgers, hot dogs or sandwiches.

Do Ahead Pickles will keep in refrigerator for a month. (I have perfectly good Vietnamese Pickled Carrots and Daikon in my refrigerator for more months than I can remember.)

4 crushed garlic cloves
1 pound Kirby cucumbers, rinsed well, lightly scrubbed if necessary and refrigerate overnight to crisp
2 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons Kosher salt
4 star anise pods
1 teaspoon coriander seed
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
2 teaspoons dill seed
1 small Thai chili optional

1. Make brine in medium-sized stainless steel pot by combining vinegar, water, sugar, salt, star anise, coriander seeds, bay leaf, peppercorns and dill seed. Bring to boil and reduce heat to simmer for 15 minutes. Your goal here is to infuse the brine with aromatics. Off heat until cucumbers are ready.
2. Trim cucumber ends and discard. Cut cucumber into half inch thick slices. Place cucumbers in non-reactive bowl like stainless steel or glass.
3. Heat brine until boiling. Pour over cucumbers. Place heavy plate on top to keep cucumbers submerged in liquid. Allow to cool and then place in refrigerator. The longer they sit, the more flavor of the brine infuse cucumbers.

My big bunch of dill weed — dill gone to seed — requires rubbing off seeds from little seed clusters. This process is much easier if you allow stems to dry for a few days. I bought far more Kirby cukes than I needed for pickling so an several occasions I peeled them, cut into long strips, six to a cucumber, and sprinkled with dill seed and sea salt. A simply wonderful light hors d’oeuvres.

Here are the ingredients ready to go. The range of aromatics can vary widely. Essentials are garlic, bay leaf and peppercorns.

Simply trim garlic cloves and crush. Crushing allows garlic’s flavor to readily infuse brine.

Combine everything but cucumbers in pot to infuse flavors. Think of its as making a “pickling stock.”

I experimented with cutting cucumbers lengthwise, but prefer thick slices.

Here a plate – just the right size, fits over the pickles and keeps them submerged in brine.

And the finished pickles, several days later, served as part of a farm stand dinner.

Margin Note from At Home
Technique
Pickling
Before he became an attorney, my father was a pickle packer for a time at Pixie Packers of Yonkers, New York. He would come home with the distinctive fragrance of garlic and traditional pickling spices: cloves, mustard seed, bay leaf and black peppercorns. Though in our culture we tend to have a limited view of pickles as salty or sweet cucumbers, pickling is used to preserve foods throughout the world. Whatever is being pickled is typically added to a hot mixture of vinegar and spices and either cooked a bit and then left to cool or just added to the hot mixture off of the stove; in the latter case, the residual heat and action of the salt and vinegar break down and soften the vegetables. Pickles last for a few weeks stored in their brine in the refrigerator.

At Home by Steve Poses: A Caterer’s Guide to Cooking & Entertaining features five recipes for things pickled. These include Dilly Beans, Moroccan Carrots, Red Onion (from the Zuni Cafe, Sandwich Pickles, and Vietnamese Pickled Carrots and Daikon.

See the At Home Blog Recipe Index on the blog for more than 80 recipes.

Next week — One the Road: Farm Stands of Mercer County, NJ

If you missed yesterday’s blog, Four Weddings, a Graduation and a Funeral, click here.

Thank you for visiting.

Steve
Your Home Entertaining Coach

Fragrant Peach Butter Recipe

This All-American favorite is given a mildly exotic flavor with the addition of lemongrass, ginger and star anise. Feel free to skip these additions and make plain peach butter. It’s simple to make. The key is ripe peaches. If your peaches are not ripe, place them in a brown paper bag and leave out on your counter until ripe — usually no more than a day or two. In this recipe a syrup is infused with aromatics and the solids strained out. This syrup is combined with fruit.  Use peach butter on toast or a scone, mix into fresh ricotta or use it as a glaze on grilled chicken breasts – brushing the breasts just before removing from grill.

Do ahead Peach butter may be stored in refrigerator for four weeks.

3 pounds ripe peaches, flesh cut from pits
1/3 cup tender lemongrass, tough outer leaves removed, thin sliced and bruised
1 ounce ginger cut into thin slices
4 star anise pods
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup water

1. Combine sugar, water, lemongrass, ginger and star anise in small pot, bring to simmer and simmer slowly for 30 minutes. While doing this, make sure you do not boil away liquid. Off heat and strain out solids, reserving liquid. Measure liquid and add water to bring to 1 cup if it is less than I cup. If you have more than 1 cup, don’ t worry about it. It will cook away in Step 2.
2. In a heavy bottom pot large enough to hold peaches, combine peaches and liquid. Cover and bring to simmer for about 10 minutes to soften peaches and render liquid. Remove cover and continue cooking over moderate heat to thicken. As mixture thickens and peaches begin to disintegrate, reduce heat and stir to make sure peaches do not stick to bottom. When mixture is very thick, remove from heat and allow to cool.
3. Transfer to work bowl of food processor and pulse until smooth. If butter seems too thin, you can return it to your pot to continue cooking, but be very careful not to scorch bottom. Place in storage container and refrigerate.

Yield 2 1/2 cups

Note: A fruit butter is a smooth, very thick puree – usually sweetened with sugar. This same process can be used to make other fruit butters.

Fragrant peach butter uses ripe Jersey peaches, lemongrass, ginger, sugar and water.

Early Jersey peaches are “cling,” meaning that the peach flesh clings to the pit. Using a sharp paring knife, cut the flesh away. Some flesh will be left on the pit.

Cutting up peaches into smaller pieces enables them to cook more quickly and evenly.

Trim away the tough outer leaves of the lemongrass stalks and then cut thin slices.

Bruising lemongrass with a meat pounder enables the lemongrass to more readily give up its flavor. You could use the bottom of a heavy pot or even a hammer.

After lemongrass, ginger and star anise are cooked in syrup to release their flavors, the solids are strained from syrup and discarded.

Transfer peaches and infused syrup into a thick-bottomed pot.

Cover and cook over moderate-high heat for about 10 minutes until peaches render their liquid.

It will now be more “watery” than before peaches rendered liquid. This hastens the process of removing liquid, leaving you with a thick fruit butter.

While there is still lots of liquid, you can cook over moderate heat to begin process of boiling away liquid. Take care to occasionally stir to prevent peaches from sticking to bottom and scorching.

As it thickens, reduce heat and stir more frequently.

As the peaches cook, your butter will require more attention and frequent stirring. You will have a sense that it is thick enough when you run a rubber spatula across the bottom and a bare strip of pot remains visible for a moment before filling back in. My peach butter took about an hour to cook down, but cooking times will vary based on the size of your pot — a wider pot will enable quicker evaporation of liquid — and your cooking temperature. If after you process your butter in a food processor it still seems to thin, you can return to pot to thicken it further.

Here’s the finished Fragrant Peach Butter.

Sweet & Sour Slaw Recipe

This year-round slaw is simple to make. The touch of olive oil just adds a little glisten and can be skipped for a fully fat-free slaw. It pairs well with burgers and grilled chicken or pork chops. You can also add a julienned apple to the mix.

do ahead Slaw can be fully made up to a day ahead. As slaw sits, the cabbage will wilt and render water. This decreases the total volume and thins the dressing some. Re-toss before serving.

1/2 pound carrots, peeled
1/2 bunch scallions, chopped
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh dill, loosely packed
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, loosely packed
1 medium cabbage, about 3 pounds
5 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil

1 Cut cabbage in quarters. Remove the core and discard. Set cabbage flat side down and finely slice. Place cut cabbage in large bowl. Pick through to find any thick pieces and slice them.
2 With a box grater or the largest holes of a food processor attachment, shred carrots. Combine cabbage, carrots, scallions, dill and parsley. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, cider vinegar, salt and pepper and stir well to dissolve sugar. Add olive oil. Pour dressing over vegetables. Cabbage should sit in dressing for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Works well with recipe for Thai Chicken Thighs.

Uncorked on Staten Island

This past Saturday I appeared at Uncorked — a food and wine festival held at Staten Island’s Historic Richmond Town. The festival was a wonderful celebration of the bounty of Staten Island restaurants. Uncorked is the brainchild of Pam Silvestri, former caterer and food editor of the Staten Island Advance.  Tents were spread around the grounds of Historic Richmond Town where guests grazed from delicious taste to taste. In addition, events included a session on food photography by New York Times photographer Andrew Scrivani, two sessions of Cheese School where students learned about cheese and wine pairings as well as food demonstrations. Demonstrating chefs included Staten Island chef Julian Gaxholli, Food Network star and cookbook author Daisy Martinez plus yours truly.

The subject of my demonstration was the Under-appreciated Chicken Thigh. I talked about At Home’s principles and demonstrated three recipes from At Home — Thai Thighs, Za’atar Marinade — also for chicken thighs — and Sweet & Sour Slaw. Just as I was about to grill the twenty pounds of Thai Thighs — plus three pounds of Za’atar thighs — that I brought, I discovered that their grill was out of gas. I suggested to the audience that they return in about 25 minutes — time enough to locate a fresh gas tank and get the grilling started. With the able assistance of three Staten Island Good Samaritans — a sister and two brothers — a hundred plus still hungry Islanders enjoyed Thai Thighs and Sweet & Sour Slaw. My hope was that I uncorked something new on Staten Island. I recommend Thai Thighs and a slaw as a welcome change to Memorial Day burgers.

Here are the recipes.

Thai Thighs
Chicken thighs pack far more flavor than breasts and are much more forgiving of overcooking. They take to the grill particularly well. Given their low price and myriad assets, they’re pitifully underutilized. The sugar in this marinade makes for an extra level of caramelization-and a messy grill. You can also use any of the marinades in this chapter and follow the marinating and grilling procedure above.

do ahead Thighs can be marinated up to three days ahead. It’s best to cook them the day you are serving them.

2 tablespoons chopped ginger
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 bird’s-eye chiles or 1 jalapeño, seeded, ribbed and sliced
1/3 cup lime juice
1 stalk lemongrass
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
kosher salt and pepper
3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
leaves from 5-6 fresh cilantro sprigs (optional)
1 lime, cut into 6 or 8 wedges, for garnish

1 Cut the root tip and dry end of the lemongrass stalk, leaving a length of about 8-10 inches. Peel away the outer leaves, leaving the tender core. Finely chop.
2 Combine lemongrass with ginger, garlic, chiles, lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, oil, salt and pepper and mix well. Add chicken. Toss well and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
3 Just before grilling, add oil to marinade. Preheat grill to medium-high. Remove chicken from marinade, and allow marinade to drain off, but don’t wipe it dry. Place chicken on grill, smooth side up, and grill until nicely charred, about 4 minutes. Turn and grill the other side, about 4-5 minutes. Serve whole or thinly sliced, either hot or at room temperature. Serve with lime wedges. Tear cilantro and sprinkle it over the chicken.

Za’atar Marinade
do ahead Marinade can be made up to three days ahead and stored in the refrigerator.

Combine lemon zest and juice, garlic, thyme, za’atar, salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix well and let sit 5 minutes. Stir in olive oil until incorporated.

finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons za’atar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Sweet & Sour Slaw
This year-round slaw is simple to make. The touch of olive oil just adds a little glisten and can be skipped for a fully fat-free slaw. It pairs well with burgers and grilled chicken or pork chops. You can also add a julienned apple to the mix.

do ahead Slaw can be fully made up to a day ahead. As slaw sits, the cabbage will wilt and render water. This decreases the total volume and thins the dressing some. Re-toss before serving.

1/2 pound carrots, peeled
1/2 bunch scallions, chopped
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh dill, loosely packed
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, loosely packed
1 medium cabbage, about 3 pounds
5 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil

1 Cut cabbage in quarters. Remove the core and discard. Set cabbage flat side down and finely slice. Place cut cabbage in large bowl. Pick through to find any thick pieces and slice them.
2 With a box grater or the largest holes of a food processor attachment, shred carrots. Combine cabbage, carrots, scallions, dill and parsley. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, cider vinegar, salt and pepper and stir well to dissolve sugar. Add olive oil. Pour dressing over vegetables. Cabbage should sit in dressing for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Staten Island Postscript: Net Cost
An Uncorked attendee shared with me the challenge of finding ethnic ingredients on Staten Island. It seems they are few and far between. But this very same person pointed me to a “Russian” grocery store just down the road from Uncorked. Never one to pass up an interesting ethnic market, I visited Net Cost. There are Net Costs in the New York area and one in Northeast Philadelphia. Visiting ethnic markets is akin to traveling to far away places — except you get there faster.  Walking into Net Cost I knew I was not in Kansas any more — no less Staten Island. The aisles were filled with foreign speaking people and the shelves were filled with all manner of what for me were exotic products and what for the shoppers was a taste of home.

FROG BURGER
Earlier in this blog I suggested Thai Thighs as a welcome alternative to Memorial Day burgers. Well…do I have some Memorial Day burgers for you! This Saturday we open FROG BURGER, an outdoor burger stand featuring “flame-grilled backyard flavor” on the front lawn of The Franklin Institute. (Frog Commissary provides all of the food service at the Institute.) Frog Burger is the first of a one-two punch with Cleo’s Portico — offering light dining and drinking overlooking the Benjamin Franklin Parkway  — the following weekend in conjunction with the opening of the Cleopatra exhibit on June 5th. Here’s a link to a Philadelphia Magazine blog about FROG BURGER. In particular, look for news in the Philadelphia Magazine about the soon to be notorious “Love Burger” — a creation of my son, Noah with whom I am working on FROG BURGER.

FROG BURGER has been consuming over the past several weeks which accounts for a diminished number of At Home blogs. More details about FROG BURGER to follow.  Here’s our logo.

You can find me this Memorial Day weekend on the front lawn of The Franklin Institute. By the way, At Home will be available for sale at FROG BURGER. If you need a house-gift to bring to your Memorial Day picnic, stop by FROG BURGER and pick-up a copy of At Home. And if you are looking for something new for your backyard Memorial Day, look no further than At Home‘s Chapter 8: From the Grill and Chapter 13: Room Temperature Accompaniments.

Happy Memorial Day. I hope you spend lots of time at homes!

Thank you for visiting.

Steve
Your Home Entertaining Coach

Rhubarb Relish Recipe

Rhubarb Relish
Rhubarb relish retains the crunchy character of raw rhubarb and is perfumed with rosemary. It’s the perfect complement to a citrus sorbet or vanilla or strawberry ice cream.

Do Ahead May be made up to one week in advance.

1 pound rhubarb, leaves and bottom trimmed and discarded
1 cup sugar
2-3 small springs rosemary

1 Cut rhubarb into long, thin strips and 1/4-3/8 thick. Line up strips and cut across creating little cubes.
2 Combine rhubarb cubes and sugar in bowl and mix well. Allow to macerate for 24 to 48 hours, stirring occasionally to make sure all sugar melts into syrup.
3 Strain syrup and reserve. You should have about 2 cups syrup. Return rhubarb to refrigerator. Place syrup and a few springs rosemary in small pot and cook over moderate heat until reduced by half to about 1 cup. Strain rosemary from syrup. When syrup is cool, pour over rhubarb and mix well.

Yield 1 1/2 cups

Company’s Coming Part 5: Countdown to Guest Arrival

Note: This is the fifth post in a series. If you missed Part 1: A Conversation with Myself, click here. For Part 2: Party Parameters and Menu Planning, click here. For Part 3: Organizing Tasks & Time, click here. Part 4: Shopping, click here.

Sunday Morning
All is well. I have planned well and spread my tasks over time. It’s been a pleasure and not a chore. Only a little bit of work remains and my one relaxed hour before guests arrive is within my grasp.

Shopping Update
My Friday shopping did not start so well. I rushed out of the house without my carefully crafted shopping list. I stopped and made a new list as I ran through my dinner menu in my head.

Friday’s Reading Terminal Shopping was a pleasure.

My first stop was Fair Food. I had a general idea as to what would be included in my Spring Vegetable Antipasti — but open to unexpected discoveries. Fair Food had beautiful fiddlehead ferns, ramps (wild spring onions), rainbow chard and asparagus — all just-picked and grown within a stone’s throw of Philadelphia. Red scallions will be added to the French lentil salad. I picked up fresh sorrel for the sorrel mayonnaise I planned for the anitipasti. Fair Food also had beautiful Jerusalem artichokes (aka Sunchokes) that I picked up for my missing hors d’oeuvres — a cold, creamy white soup topped with caviar.

A blog reader had let me know that Livengood’s was no longer at Reading Terminal Market and directed me to a wonderful website called Local Harvest. For information about where Livengood’s organic produce will be available, click here. Thank you Ken.

I found an abundance of wild mushrooms at Iovine Brothers — beautiful morels, honeycups and hens in the woods. These were supplemented by the gift of maitakes from a dear visiting friend who is a blog reader and knew of my quest for wild mushrooms. She also brought beautiful edible nasturtium blossoms that I will use with my Spring Vegetable Antipasti.

My regular fish stand was out of striped bass, but I found plenty at another stand.

At DiBruno’s I switched pastas from pappardelle to malfadine. I thought this narrower but still ample pasta would be easier to eat with the wild mushrooms. Picked up some crackers for cheese, Spanish white anchovies and caviar for my hors d’oeuvres soup.

Saturday morning I walked across Rittenhouse Square to the farm stands that line Walnut Street. It was a perfect spring day with a deep blue cloudless sky and azaleas in full bloom. My mission was to buy local cheeses for our cheese course. Cherry Grove Farm from Lawrenceville, New Jersey makes organic cheeses from their own grass-fed cows. I picked an “asiago,” a toma and a blue. I wanted a fresh goat cheese, but the neighboring stand only could offer a goat gouda. At DiBruno’s I found a fresh goat cheese from Shellbark Farm in West Chester. Cheese course complete.

I also picked up wonderful fresh lilacs, apple blossoms, sweet peas and nameless yellow and blue flowers from the Amish farm stand. I love arranging flowers. I think of it as a cross between painting and sculpture.

Honeydew Roulette
I don’t know about you, but I rarely have luck with honeydews. I find that if you don’t find a ripe honeydew, hell may freeze over before an unripe honeydew ripens. Fortunately, I found a ripe honeydew last Saturday at Whole Foods. Unfortunately, it had no flavor. At Reading Terminal Market I found another, pre-peeled and in a plastic bag for 99 cents. Once again, not much flavor — but marginally better than the first. With a little mint syrup mixed with champagne it will be good enough.

Sue’s $1 Packets of Fresh Herbs
My little local produce market is Sue’s on 18th Street between Sansom and Chestnut. Family-owned and well-priced, it is a welcome alternative to Whole Foods and Rittenhouse Market. Among the things I love about Sue’s are the $1 packets of fresh herbs. I only use fresh herbs, but nearly all markets sell expensive packs of herbs that provide much more than you can use before the herbs gets too old. Sue’s breaks down the large packets into small $1 packets that provides plenty of herbs for a meal or two. Sue’s also had nice looking Sicilian blood oranges — not exactly local, but a nice addition to dessert.

Perils of Internet Shopping
I ordered fennel pollen on Monday from Chefshop.com. Standard shipping. I just assumed it would get here by Friday.  By mid-day Friday I started wondering where it was?  I went to the email and tracking number and lo and behold, not due until Monday!!! That’s right, Monday. Not good for a Sunday dinner. A touch panicked, I called Chefshop.com who confirmed 1) it was not due until Monday and 2) it had not even arrived in Pennsylvania. It turns out that Chefshop.com ships from Redmond, Washington and my assumption about when it would arrive was profoundly wrong. It seemed my only option — if available — was to ship it overnight, Saturday delivery with a shipping cost of $55.  Overhearing this, Christina said I should try our neighborhood DiBruno’s.  I said, with a man’s confidence, that DiBruno’s did not carry it. They did not even show it on their website. (This is the shopping version of real men don’t ask directions when lost!)  Ignoring me, Christina called DiBruno’s. Sure enough, they had it…just as I suspected. Thank you Christina.

Step 5: Organizing Space
Step 5 in my Plan to Entertain is Organizing Space. A critical early task is to clean out your refrigerator to make room for what is likely to be something than its normal line-up. By dinnertime on Sunday, my counters will be clear of everything but what I need to turn-out our dinner. That will include an empty dishwasher and dish rack. Next to my sink I will have a bus pan (like you find in restaurants) and small plastic tub filled with soapy water for flatware. My sink will be empty and I will keep it empty because I know that once my sink is full, I’m sunk.

Step 6: Setting the Table
Step 6: Setting the Table provides suggestions and tools to get your table together including a Setting the Table Worksheet. My preference is to use re-positionable labels.  See At Home Page 12 for more about re-positionable labels. As I watched the Phillies loose to the Diamondbacks on Friday night, I created my re-positionable labels for setting the table. On Saturday Christina used these to pull, pile and label everything we needed to serve our guests with a need for only the occasional menu question. It seems as though Christina has worked hard getting our apartment together. I know she enjoys entertaining and likes an excuse to get things organized, but I hope she has found this to be a pleasure and not a chore.

Prep Work
By Friday mid-day my shopping was well in hand. My plan was to do prep work on Saturday, but I was more in the mood to cook than go back to my desk. Doing my prep work on Friday would make for an even more relaxed Saturday than I had planned. So I trimmed the mushrooms and finished the mushroom broth, portioned the striped bass, pureed the honeydew, made the Jerusalem artichoke soup, cooked and peeled the fava beans, made the sorrel mayonnaise and figured out my rhubarb relish.

Rhubarb Relish
I had to resolve what to do with my rhubarb. The rhubarb had been macerating in sugar since last Sunday creating a pinkish syrup. I love the crunch of raw rhubarb and despair of cooking it. But I I had never seen it used un-cooked — something about not eating raw rhubarb. I had nibbled on quite a bit and I seemed none the worse. Some internet research revealed that the prohibition extended only to rhubarb’s leaves and roots. I strained the rhubarb-infused syrup, added a few sprigs of rosemary and reduced my two cups to one cup of a fragrant syrup. After allowing the syrup to cool fully, I poured in over my rhubarb. Now I have my relish to serve with the Meyer lemon sorbet.

Rhubarb Relish
Rhubarb relish retains the crunchy character of raw rhubarb and is perfumed with rosemary. It’s the perfect complement to a citrus sorbet or vanilla or strawberry ice cream.

Do Ahead May be made up to one week in advance.

1 pound rhubarb, leaves and bottom trimmed and discarded
1 cup sugar
2-3 small springs rosemary

1 Cut rhubarb into long, thin strips and 1/4-3/8 thick. Line up strips and cut across creating little cubes.
2 Combine rhubarb cubes and sugar in bowl and mix well. Allow to macerate for 24 to 48 hours, stirring occasionally to make sure all sugar melts into syrup.
3 Strain syrup and reserve. You should have about 2 cups syrup. Return rhubarb to refrigerator. Place syrup and a few springs rosemary in small pot and cook over moderate heat until reduced by half to about 1 cup. Strain rosemary from syrup. When syrup is cool, pour over rhubarb and mix well.

Yield 1 1/2 cups

Looking Ahead and Looking Forward
My tasks today are primarily getting the Spring Vegetable Antipasti together plus a few other pre-dinner odds and ends. The antipasti is designed to be a celebration of our local harvest — seasonal cooking that reminds us of our place and time. This will will include baby artichokes, wild ramps, fava beans, fiddlehead ferns, rainbow chard, asparagus and beets (more homage to winter past than spring present, but some needed color). These wonderful vegetables are best left to “day-of” preparation.

I have arranged for a helper from Frog Commissary to assist in serving. Before dinner I will group the elements of each course together on the kitchen counters. I will have posted my menu and my re-positionable labels with my final tasks and reminders. I will post a sign reminding myself to “KEEP PORTIONS SMALL” as we have lots to enjoy. And enjoy has what I have done so far.

Christina and I are looking forward to meeting our guests and, as I say in At Home,” sharing the warmth of our home and a good meal. ” (OK, maybe a very good meal!)

Coming on Tuesday
On Tuesday — my day job permitting — you can read about whether I ended up getting my one relaxed hour and how the evening went including photos. More importantly, I will share with you the central lesson of Company’s Coming.

Coming Next Weekend
I know posts have been coming hot and heavy with an unusual number of pretty long blogs over an unusual few days. I hope you have enjoyed reading them and how to do More Parties. Better. Easier. After a break of several days, I will post Don’t Try This At Home, a behind the scenes look at Frog Commissary’s catering The Franklin Institute Awards dinner this Thursday where the guest of honor will be Bill Gates.

REMINDER: If you plan to order At Home’s Mother’s Day Special, Mother’s Day is only two weeks away and you need to order in time to allow for shipping.

Thank you for visiting.

Steve
Your Home Entertaining Coach

Shephardic Charoset Recipe

Shephardic Charoset
As most American Jews – including yours truly — trace their roots to Eastern Europe, most of our Passover charosets are based on the fresh apples of the Ashkenazi tradition. The Sephardic charoset is based on dried fruit and has the advantage of being able to prepare well ahead. You may substitute pomegranate juice for the red wine. You need lots of different dried fruit for this, but you can buy just what you need from the bulk food bins of health food stores or Whole Foods. If you buy the individual packets you will likely have more dried fruit than you need. Resist making a larger batch as a little Shepardic charoset goes a long way. Leftover dried fruit and nuts, mixed together, makes for a welcome after dinner sweet snack with coffee at a future meal. Try adding some chocolate chips to your after-dinner snack mix.

Do Ahead May be prepared up to two days before serving. If adding fresh mint, add a few hours before serving.

½ cup dates, pits removed
¼ cup prunes, pits removed
¼ cup dried figs
¼ cup dried apples
¼ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup raisins
1 cup red wine
1 tablespoon honey
¼ cup pecans, whole or pieces
¼ cup walnuts, whole or pieces
¼ cup pistachios
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup chopped fresh mint, optional

1 Place dates, prunes, figs and apples on a generous cutting board. Chop until pieces are quite small – about the size of the cranberries and raisins. It may be easier to do this in batches – one fruit at a time. Dried fruit is sticky and not easy to chop. Transfer to medium mixing bowl. Add cranberries and raisins. Add wine and honey. Allow to sit until liquid is absorbed.
2 Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine pecans, walnuts and pistachios on rimmed baking sheet and bake until lightly toasted, about 10-15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3 Coarsely chop nuts. Add to fruit mixture. Add salt. Add optional mint.

Yield 1 quart

Sephardic Charoset

I would like to thank everyone who reached out to me with expressions of sympathy on the death of my mother. Your comments were helpful and healing.

Holiday meal traditions observed at home reconnect us to our roots and the generations that preceded us. Those roots too often get gobbled up by the day-to-day challenges of just getting through the days. It never ceases to amaze me that on the night of the first seder, Jews around the world are experiencing a giant dine-in — gathered and sharing essentially “the same meal” simultaneously — and have been for thousands of years.

Our holiday traditions are filled with flavor memories. With good reason, we repeat these memories, and innovate at the risk of the wrath of our dinner guests. With regard to Passover, brisket always feels de rigueur. But traditional holiday meals can get tiresome as we “arrest the usual suspects.” It is the courageous host who dares serve something new to family and friends who came expecting the same old thing! I encourage you to be such a courageous host.

A simple way to introduce something new is to work around the edges of the menu. Not the brisket, but the accompaniments like this year’s Asparagus with Mustard Butter in place of the the usual string beans. Or At Home’s Upside-down Caramelized Matzo Kugel. A very simple way to innovate is to simply add something new without taking anything away. Last Passover my sister-in-law Nancy added a delicious Sephardic charoset to the seder table. It provided a rich and complex counter-point to the crisp, simple freshness of the traditional chopped apples and walnuts that she also served.

Shephardic Charoset
As most American Jews – including yours truly — trace their roots to Eastern Europe, most of our Passover charosets are based on the fresh apples of the Ashkenazi tradition. The Sephardic charoset is based on dried fruit and has the advantage of being able to prepare well ahead. You may substitute pomegranate juice for the red wine. You need lots of different dried fruit for this, but you can buy just what you need from the bulk food bins of health food stores or Whole Foods. If you buy the individual packets you will likely have more dried fruit than you need. Resist making a larger batch as a little Shepardic charoset goes a long way. Leftover dried fruit and nuts, mixed together, makes for a welcome after dinner sweet snack with coffee at a future meal. Try adding some chocolate chips to your after-dinner snack mix.

Do Ahead May be prepared up to two days before serving. If adding fresh mint, add a few hours before serving.

½ cup dates, pits removed
¼ cup prunes, pits removed
¼ cup dried figs
¼ cup dried apples
¼ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup raisins
1 cup red wine
1 tablespoon honey
¼ cup pecans, whole or pieces
¼ cup walnuts, whole or pieces
¼ cup pistachios
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup chopped fresh mint, optional

1 Place dates, prunes, figs and apples on a generous cutting board. Chop until pieces are quite small – about the size of the cranberries and raisins. It may be easier to do this in batches – one fruit at a time. Dried fruit is sticky and not easy to chop. Transfer to medium mixing bowl. Add cranberries and raisins. Add wine and honey. Allow to sit until liquid is absorbed.
2 Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine pecans, walnuts and pistachios on rimmed baking sheet and bake until lightly toasted, about 10-15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3 Coarsely chop nuts. Add to fruit mixture. Add salt. Add optional mint.

Yield 1 quart

Tomorrow: Annette Fine’s Matzo Toffee Crunch

Design Within Reach Event Postponed
The event originally scheduled for Design Within Reach at 1708 Walnut Street has been postponed. Apologies for any inconvenience. We expect to re-schedule.

Thank you for visiting.

Steve
Your Home Entertaining Coach

Gingered Cranberry Orange Sauce

A good cranberry sauce should balance the natural piquancy of cranberries without being puckeringly sour. It should have a texture in which you can clearly differentiate the cranberries — with a lots nearly whole so that the berries pop in your mouth. Cranberries and oranges have a natural affinity that can border on cliché. This sauce uses orange peel to add character to the taste of orange and a generous amount of ginger to add another layer of flavor and a slight undercurrent of heat. Use this cranberry sauce with your Thanksgiving turkey, add some to post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches or use with roast pork or grilled chicken.

Do ahead Sauce may be fully made and refrigerated up to three weeks.

1 large orange
1 1/2 cups orange juice, fresh preferred
12 ounces fresh cranberries
1 1/2-2 inch piece ginger, depending on how thick it is
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries*

1. With a vegetable peeler, remove the peel from one half orange taking care not to remove the white pith.  Make several piles of peel. If the peel strips are long, cut in half lengthwise to make cutting more manageable. Cut stacks of peel into a julienne (thin strips) of irregular thickness. Cut julienne into irregular, but small pieces yielding 1 1/2 tablespoons.
2. Peel ginger completely removing tough outer skin. Dice ginger into small, but irregular pieces yielding about 2 1/2 tablespoons.
3. In a 1 1/2 quart pot, combine orange juice, sugar, orange peel and ginger. Bring just to a boil and immediately reduce to simmer. Slowly simmer for 10 minutes to infuse mixture with ginger flavor. You do not want to reduce liquid.
4. Add fresh cranberries to pot. Increase heat to moderate. Stir occasionally and cook for about 7-10 minutes as cranberries pop and begin to break down. Berries will continue to break down in the hot liquid as it cools. Remove from heat and stir in dried cranberries. Chill. Serve cold or room temperature.

Yield 3 1/2 cups serving 12-14

Adjusting thickness of cranberry sauce: This cranberry sauce should have a firm consistency so that it will hold its shape on a spoon and then fall off when you tilt the spoon. If it just sits on the spoon it is too thick. Thin by stirring in a little water, but take care that it does not become runny.

*Leftover dried cranberries make an excellent addition to a mixed green salad with some walnuts and fresh goat cheese.

What Guests Can Do To Help
Numbers of readers have offered great suggestions for our list. Please post your suggestions for What Guests Can Do To Help on this blog by using the “Leave a Comment” under this post or send an email to me at steve@athomebysteveposes.com. I need your help now to come up with a great list to share with Thanksgiving hosts and I will need your help later in sharing the list. Let’s work on this together over the next two weeks.

The Perfect Gift for Your Thanksgiving Host
At Home by Steve Poses: A Caterer’s Guide to Cooking & Entertaining with At Home Online, the companion website for book owners, is the perfect house gift to bring to your Thanksgiving host. At Home is not available in bookstores, but only from athomebysteveposes.com. Order now in plenty of time for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Planner
For the Organized Entertainer looking for their one relaxed hour prior to guests arrive for Thanksgiving, this coming weekend is a key time to get lots done. Our Thanksgiving Planner tells you what. Our Top Ten Thanksgiving Host Pitfalls and to how to avoid them plus our Thanksgiving Planner is available at athomebysteveposes.com.

Warm regards,

Steve