Graduation Dinner

This is the first time I am giving you a complete dinner menu. And it is the first time I am writing it a day after cooking it. The reason for that is easy, I don't want to forget how to do the dishes! ( Mind you it is raining all day too!)
I have cooked many dinners for many people in my time and the most memorable ones have been the family dinners for special occasions. This time, the occasion was Stephanie's graduation. Ok, the dinner is a little late, but better late......

The task was to create a dinner with Mediterranean influence. I looked at a plethora of cookery books and got ideas here, a recipe there and somehow in the end we had a menu.

work in process

The following is the result of my endeavors.

Appetizer:          Italian-Style Verrine

Starter:               Fritto Misto a la Grecque

Main Course:     Moroccan Roast Chicken with Almond and Raisin Rice

Dessert:              Persimmons in lime syrup with Sicilian  lemon drizzle cake

                                                    Appetizer

I had seen this dish in a big Italian cook book in the local library and was taken by the "look" of the starter. It is based on the tradtional mozarella/tomato salad. I decided to create an "amuse bouche" with a difference.
(According to Wikipedia a verrine is usually a small thick glass container which is used to present a starter in different and aestetic way.)

Verrine a la Annegret

Ingredients 

Buffalo Mozzarella 

2-3 tomatoes

Tapenade

125 g pitted black olives

Juice of one lemon

2 tbsp capers, drained

1 tbsp parsley

Little olive oil

Blend all the ingredients to a smooth paste

Green Pesto ( this is the recipe from January 2016)

1 cup of pine nuts ( you can use half pine nuts and half almonds if you wish)

1 cup of grated parmesan

1 cup fresh Basil

3 or 4 cloves of fresh garlic

1/2 juice of lemon or lime

1 cup of Extra Virgin olive oil ( I like to use Italian olive oil from the Puglia region)

Put all ingredients into a dish and blend them until you have a fairly thick consistency.

The flavour depends on the quality of your oil and parmesan cheese!

Fill the glasses first with the tapenade, then a thick slice of Mozarella, followed by a layer of fresh tomato pieces. Top the glass with a thick layer of green Pesto

                                                      Starter

Fritto Misto

Ingredients
1 aubergine
1 gourgette
1 red pepper or any other vegetable which can be cut into this slices

Slightly salt the aubergine slices, that stops discolouring

Batter
1 cup plain flour
1 cup cornflour
1 egg
salt/ pepper
sparkling wine or cider or sparkling water
Mix the flour and the egg, add enough liquid to make a smooth batter, set aside for minimum 30 min.
Heat oil in a deep saucepan and dip the vegetable slices in the batter and deep fry them untl they are golden brown

Serve with a Greek style dip.

Greek style Dip

1 cup home made Mayonaise ( or the commercial one you lke)

1 cup of greek yoghurt

1/2 cup fresh cream

1 crushed clove of garlic

juice of 1/2 lemon or lime

salt and pepper to taste.

Mix all the ingredients to a smooth dip.

                                                Main course 

Ingredients

1 large Free Range chicken ( important, for the flavour, it is Free Range)

2 Tbsp Rapeseed oil/ Good olive oil

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

salt and pepper

some parsley,

some fresh thyme

1 lemon

1-2 clove of garlic

2 Tbsp running honey

Moroccan chicken ( what was left before I realised I forgot to take the photo)

Method

Mix the oil, juice and spices and rub the mixture over the chicken. Cut the lemon into half and stuff the chicken with it and the herbs and garlic.

Put the chicken breast-side down in the roasting. This prevent the breast from drying out. Add about 4-5 Tbsp water in the roasting tin.

Roast the chicken at 200 C for approx 50 to 60 min depending on you oven. Turn the chicken breast up and keep roasting for a further 40-50 minutes. Keep basting the chicken with the liquid in the pan. About 20 min before the chicken is cooked brush it with the honey. At this stage you can reduce the heat to 175C. to prevent the top to get burned.

Almond and raisin rice

200g Brown Rice 

2 Tbsp raisins soaked in water ( or fortified wine) for a minimum of 15 min

2 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

1 tsp ground cinnamom

50g roasted almond slices

50g butter

Method

Boil the the rice until it is just done, drain. In a bowl mix the rice with the raisins, orange juice, almonds and cinnamon. Put the rice mixture into an oven proof dish and put the butter in small blobs on top. 20 minutes before serving put the dish in the oven to heat up. 

The rice can prepared well in advance.

                                                     Dessert

Deciding on the dessert was difficult as by nature I am not a "dessert" person.  I wanted something fresh and not too difficult or arduous to prepare. Best something which could be done the day before. I had seen a recipe in my Italian cookery book, which looked appetizing and quick and easy to make, but the author was advocating Mango as the fruit to be used. Now the chances of getting a properly ripe mango in Cork are nearly nil. In the shop this turned out to be true but I found a replacement. Sharon Fruit or Persimmons. I had not used them before so I thought it was worth a try.

Persimmons in  Lime Syrup

Persimmon or Sharon Fruit

1Persimmon per person
1/2 cup of unrefined sugar

the rind and juice of 2 limes

2 Tbsp water

Fresh mint leaves for decorating.

Peel the limes and slice the peel lengthwise into thin strips.

Squeeze the juice into a pan, add the sugar and the water. Heat for a few minutes until reduced to a syrup. Add the lime strips.

Cut the Persimons into slices discarding the top of the fruit. you end up with a star pattern on the slice

Pour the syrup over the fruit and refrigerate for a few hours.

Sicialian Lemon drizzle cake

To stay with the theme and the flavours of the Mediterranean I thought this cake would go perfectly with the fruit dessert.

I had seen a recipe for a lemon and Lime cake in the book "Recipes from the English Market".

So I decided to adapt it to what I had in mind. Bearing in mind the advice from one of my daughters, "follow the recipe exactly the first time to see if it works". Well, I did not follow it excatly and it worked out  fine!

Ingredients

180g butter                                                 Syrup

200g unrefined sugar

finely grated rind of one lemon                  120g icing sugar

2 eggs                                                          50ml fresh lemon juice

200g self raising flour

some milk

Grease and line a 1lb tin.

Preheat the oven to 175C

Cream butter, sugar and eggs together, add the lemon rind

Sieve in the Flour, use some milk to make a smooth consistency. It should fall heavy from the spoon.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes

When the cake is cooled, make some perforations with a skewer. Heat the syrup ingredients in a saucepan, stir until you have s syrupy consistency, pour over the car. Before serving dust with some icing sugar.

Have fun trying out the above recipes!