{"id":233,"date":"2014-03-03T23:42:33","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T07:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dwaynejeng.com\/blog\/?p=233"},"modified":"2015-04-27T00:57:30","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T07:57:30","slug":"dwayne-cooks-dinner-march-2014-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwaynejeng.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/03\/dwayne-cooks-dinner-march-2014-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Dwayne Cooks Dinner, March 2014 Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Saturday, March 1, 2014 – Photos of food are great and all, but it’s even better if people can actually eat my food. So I threw another dinner party for my friends.<\/p>\n

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I’ve always wanted to cook a pasta dinner for my friends. But I’ve already cooked this exact dish<\/a> just last December. And the appetizer I wanted to do, I also did last November<\/a>. And I’ve cooked this exact meal for my family on New Years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But that doesn’t mean I can’t do it again. And it means I’ve had practice before, so I know exactly how the meal comes together. So I did.<\/p>\n

The one new thing, though, is the pudding. I’ve made pudding before (though not on this blog), first in late 2011 for the Chocolate Marshmallow Pudding Cake, and again in 2012 as a chocolate custard filling for a pie. But today, I’d be making pudding as a standalone dessert. Unfortunately, I apparently forgot how to make pudding. As it turns out, pudding thickens as it cools, so if I stop cooking the pudding when it looks done, it’s over done. Here’s the first attempt (Saturday, February 22, 2014):<\/p>\n

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As you can see, it came out a little lumpy. (Still delicious, but lumpy.) Also, as you can see, I had layers. Because a big pile of chocolate pudding is boring. Delicious but boring. So I had alternating layers of vanilla and chocolate. For the chocolate, I use cocoa powder. Which was a mistake, because cocoa powder is super dry. Which made the already thick and lumpy pudding even thicker and lumpier. And for the vanilla, I used vanilla extract. Which was a mistake because the vanilla extract has a lot of alcohol and it made the vanilla pudding taste alcoholic.<\/p>\n

The glass is actually an Irish coffee mug<\/a>. I couldn’t find proper parfait glasses. And the Irish coffee mugs were just too perfect to pass up. So Irish coffee mugs it is.<\/p>\n

So the next day (Sunday, February 23, 2014), I gave it a second try:<\/p>\n

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This time, I took the pudding off sooner. And I melted in some Ghirardelli 60% Dark Chocolate squares for the chocolate. And for the vanilla, I used vanilla paste instead of vanilla extract. (Try eating both vanilla paste and vanilla extract, and you’ll see why vanilla paste is better. At least for low-heat applications anyway.) The pudding was much better (not lumpy, as you can see), but I think I can do better. Next time, I should take the pudding off as soon as it’s ribbony. (Ribbony is a technical term. You’ll understand it once you’ve experienced it.)<\/p>\n

At this point, I almost tempted to make another batch of pudding right there on the spot. But I figured that I was close enough, so the next batch would be for the actual dinner party.<\/p>\n

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This was on Friday, February 28, 2014, the night before the dinner party. I prepped a bunch of stuff because, as I wrote on Facebook, “Cooking is like wizardry. Everyone sees the flash and the fire, but most people don’t see the prep work that goes into it. I just spent 4 hours of kitchen prep work, just so I can finish dinner in under an hour tomorrow for my dinner party.”<\/p>\n

The pudding came out perfect this time. Although in batch 2, I felt there wasn’t enough color contrast between the vanilla and the chocolate. So this time, I used half the vanilla paste for the vanilla portion, and I used Lindt 90% chocolate for the chocolate portion. So yeah. The pudding came out perfectly this time.<\/p>\n

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I also prepped the pesto and the vinaigrette on Friday. The first time I made the recipe, I used thyme as per the recipe. The second time, I used rosemary because rosemary is awesome. Today, I used both. In a similar story, the first time I made this particular salad, I made a balsamic vinaigrette. The second time, I made a raspberry vinaigrette. So this time, I had a blend of balsamic and raspberry. Cooking is awesome like that.<\/p>\n

Last time I made the sun-dried tomato pesto, I used Mezzetta<\/a> tomatoes. I wasn’t very happy with these. On Chef Carol’s<\/a> recommendation, I used Trader Joe’s this time, and it made all the difference. One 8.5oz jar makes enough pesto to serve 3 bowls of pasta. And I have 6 people, and I want to make a little extra sauce just in case, so 3 jars sounds about right.<\/p>\n

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The day of. I made a bunch of salads, topped with sliced granny smiths and blue cheese. Since this is more salads than I’ve ever made before, I just rushed through it, so the presentation is a bit lacking.<\/p>\n

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The plating. I like this presentation the best. Fettuccine. Sauce on top, not fully tossed in. Seared top loin along the side. (Note to self: 2×2 min on each side would probably work better.) And since they taught me in cooking class that every outfit needs earrings (where “outfit” is a metaphor for dish, and “earrings” is a metaphor for garnish), I chopped up some parsley and used that as garnish. (So I’m only missing sage.)<\/p>\n

The sauce was finished with 3 cups cream, a dash of salt, a grind of black pepper, a pinch of cayenne, and a dab of Madeira. (If I could taste wine, I would have found a good wine pairing and used that in the pasta. But I can’t taste wine, so…)<\/p>\n

Again, I had some seared top loin steaks. The meat was rubbed with the oils from drained from the tomatoes (because reusing the same flavors everywhere helps make the flavors meld) and black pepper.<\/p>\n

The only thing not pictured is the lemon wedge I used as garnish (and as extra flavoring). Fortunately, I took this photo before dinner.<\/p>\n

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