zemlet's orchid thief menu

Black Orchid Cocktail

Combine:

1 oz. very dark rum (I used Meyers, but Bacardi Black or Bacardi Select will work)
1 oz. Chambord (raspberry liqueur)
1/2 oz. Grenadine (sweetened red lime juice)
1 1/2 oz. Cranberry juice

Pour into a rocks glass and top with Diet 7-Up and serve with something to stir it with.

Fennel Salad with Pomegranate

I had a salad like this at Spretto's Restaurant in Oakland, and saw a similar recipe by Mario Batali that used Blood Oranges, so this is my take on it. Called "sweet anise" at the market, fennel is available in California Oct through May. This recipe makes 4 servings, but I easily made 8 smaller servings from it for a large, multi-course meal.

INGREDIENTS:

2 large fennel bulbs, trimmed
Juice of 1 lemon
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pomegranate's worth of seeds* (about 1 cup)
1/3 cup red onion
3/4 cup pistachio nut meats (available in the bulk section or by the bag at Trader Joes)
Salt & pepper
6-ounce piece of hard pecorino (sardo or Tuscan) cheese

INSTRUCTIONS:

Using a mandolin or sharp knife, slice fennel as thin as possible
Toss fennel in a bowl with lemon juice and olive oil
Add pomegranate seeds, red onion (sliced thin like the fennel) and pistachio
Season to taste with salt and pepper and toss gently to mix
Arrange the fennel salad on plates and top with long shards of pecorino shaved with a vegetable peeler.

*To get the seeds out, cut a pomegranate halfway and open submerged in a bowl of water. As you finger the seeds out, the pith will float and seeds sink for easy separation.

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Roasted Butternut Squash Filling

I love butternut squash. This recipe shows how to roast it, which takes a while and a lot of attention, but you can get squash canned or frozen and go from there, if you like. This filling is great in ravioli or on sage toast, or just on the side of the plate like mashed potatoes. For an elegant appetizer, pipe the filling into 24 croustades (recipe below).

INGREDIENTS:

1 butternut squash
1 whole bulb of garlic
1 tsp maple syrup
1 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper
optional: dried thyme or sage

INSTRUCTIONS:

Slice butternut squash in half lengthwise and core out seed area. Spray or brush with olive oil and place face down on a parchment lined baking sheet. (I've also used a Pyrex casserole dish, but you've got to put something like foil or parchment or a Silpat down or you'll have a helluva time cleaning in.)
Bake squash in a 400° oven, cut side down, for 15 minutes.
Slice through the top of the garlic bulb, exposing the tops of all the raw cloves. Wrap in foil and set on the oven rack in with the squash.
When the 15 minutes are up, flip the squash over and put half the butter and syrup into each seed cavity. Coast the tops of each with salt and pepper and, optionally, dried herbs. I used dried thyme for the orchid thief party.
Put back in the oven for about 55 minutes, basting the surface of the squash with the fluid in the cavity every ten minutes or so.
Remove squash and garlic from the oven.
Scoop the squash "meat" away from the skin and place in a bowl.
Open the foil package of garlic, enjoy the smell, and then smoosh out the soft garlic mush using the side of a knife.
Add roasted garlic mush to the squash and combine with a spoon. (If you want a really fine mush, you can purée with a blender or food processor, but I find that if you roasted them properly, they are soft enough to use right away.)
Salt and pepper to taste- the mush is ready to use.
Serving suggestions include topping with grated parmesan or goat cheese and a spring of fresh thyme or deep fried sage leaves. (Take fresh sage leaves and dip in very hot oil using disposable wooden chopsticks.)

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Wheat Croustades

The nice thing about this recipe is that you can make as many or few as you need, quickly and easily. These are a great canapé base as you can fill them with purées, or nestle a rolled up piece of ham in with a green grape, or spoon in a soft cheese and tuck in some fresh chives. You can pair the bread with the filling- use a French bread with a bruschetta filling for a non-drip version of the traditional hors d'oeuvres. For the orchid thief party I piped in the squash mash from above. An easy way to pipe in wet ingredients is to load a ziplock bag with the filling and snip off a piece of the corner and squeeze away. For a fancy finish, I like to snip the corner of the ziplock by about a centimeter or two, shove a star-shaped frosting tip into the corner, load with the filling and pipe it in. You can close the top so nothing splooges out.

Procure a load of bread, thinly sliced and not too dense. I used plain ole wheat bread.
Flatten bread to a thickness of 1/8-inch with a rolling pin.
Cut a 2 1/2-inch in diameter round of bread. You can use a fancy canapé cutter with fluted edges, or what I do is use a juice glass, pressing it into the bread until a round section separates away. Generous slices of bread should yield two rounds.
Press the bread round into a miniature muffin tin. (I suppose you could cut a larger round and use a regular-sized muffin tin, in Bon Appétit magazine I saw big ones made with pita bread and filled with Caesar salad, but the miniature ones are so much cuter and easier to eat.)
Bake in a 375° oven for 10 minutes, cool slightly then remove from pan and cool on racks. (Or, for hot fillings, leave in the pan, cool down a bit, add the filling and pop back in the oven. This works especially well if you want to melt cheese over the topping.)

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Polenta with Mushrooms

You can make polenta from scratch or use the pre-made tube found in the deli section of places like Andronico's. I prefer to use a solid polenta (as opposed to the mushy kind) but the mushroom topping works over either. (Or over pasta, etc for that matter.) What you want is a slice of polenta about 3/4-inch thick and about 4 inches in diameter for a side dish per person. You can grill or bake according to the directions on the package. I baked mine and topped it with:

Slice or (if your guests are arriving in 15 minutes) toss into a food processor mushrooms. I use about 1 1/2 cups of mushrooms per polenta slice, roughly what I can scoop up in both hands per person. Use whatever mushrooms you like, but I suggest a variety with brown mushrooms, or crimminis making up the bulk of the mix. You can add in regular whites, but don't forget to also include some expensive ones. For the orchid thief party I made 8 servings and used about a half pound of crimmini and a third of a pound of oyster variety. I minced the brown mushrooms very thin and left the fancy ones more whole. I like using oysters, since they provide a different texture. Anyway, experiment with your own mix. You can also reconstitute dried mushrooms and reserve the liquid for use in the sauce at the end.
Heat a skillet over med-high heat and coat bottom with olive oil to warm things up.
Toss in mushrooms and sauté for about a minute, then add in a teaspoon of minced garlic.
Pour in about 1/4 cup of sherry to help the mushrooms release their juices. I don't stock "cooking sherry" so for the party, I used good amontillado sherry, because my guests are worth it. Sauté another minute.
Once the juices are visible in the pan, add 2 tablespoons of real butter and a generous dash of more sherry.
At this point, the mushrooms should be juicy and tender, so you can spoon/dump the topping onto the polenta.
OR if you have time you can make a gravy by adding a little water or soup stock or the reserved liquid from plumping dried mushrooms and stir in a few teaspoons of cornstarch or flour to thicken the liquid.

Make sure this is served with salt and pepper on the table. Some find this a little bland, so I pair it with spicy dishes.

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Spicy Eggplant over Rice

Modified from "Sunset Easy Basics for International Cooking" where they list it as from India. I serve this over rice.

INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup olive oil or other salad oil
1 large eggplant (1.25 - 1.5 lbs) cut crosswise into 3/4-inch-thick slices
2 tablespoons butter or margarine (I just used olive oil to keep it simple)
1 medium-size onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced or pressed (I use a scoop from a gar of minced garlic to save time)
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (again I use this from a jar)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 can (about 1 lb.) Italian style tomatoes (Instead I use a jar of plain pasta sauce with extra cumin)
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley (optional and you can use fresh or dried)
3./4 to 1 cup plain yogurt
Fresh cilantro for garnish (also optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Coat the eggplant slices with olive oil and place on a cooking sheet or in a flat Pyrex dish
Bake slices in a 450° oven for 20 minutes
While that's baking, heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and add onion and garlic and cook until soft (10 mins)
Add in ginger, cumin, and tomatoes (with the water, if using canned) and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally until mixture is thickened and liquid has evaporated (10 mins) (this goes quicker with pasta sauce <wink>)
Remove from heat and stir in parsley, season to taste with salt and pepper
About now the eggplant slices can come out of the oven, they should be tender in the center when pierced.
Place an eggplant slice on the plate or serving platter, spoon some yogurt over, then top with a generous spoonful of tomato sauce.
Garnish with Cilantro.
Makes 6 servings.m

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Vanilla Brandy Cake

I cut out this recipe from the November/December 1992 issue of Cooking Light, then altered the flavorings to suit the party theme. They had a lot less vanilla and some grated orange rind. Each slice has 225 calories, 3g protein, 7.8g fat (sat: 1.6g, mono 3.4g, poly 2.5g), and 35.9g Carbs. I topped it with a crown of spun sugar (recipe below).

INGREDIENTS:

2/3 cup margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
4 egg whites
1 cup nonfat buttermilk
1/2 cup brandy
1 vanilla bean
3 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon powdered sugar

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cut open vanilla bean and scrape out seeds with a knife, add bean and seeds to brandy and let soak (the longer the better, so perhaps do this step way ahead of the others)
Cream margarine, gradually adding 1 cup sugar, beating well at medium speed
Add egg whites, one at a time, beating after each addition
Remove vanilla bean husk but leave seeds in brandy
Combine buttermilk and brandy and set aside
Combine flour, baking soda and salt
With mixer running at low speed, add the flour mixture to creamed mixture alternating with adding the buttermilk combo, beginning and ending with the flour mixture
Stir in vanilla
Pour batter into a 10-inch tube or bundt pan, coated with cooking spray unless coated with nonstick
Bake at 325° for 58 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean
Cool in pan 15 minutes, then remove and cool on a rack completely
Sprinkle with powdered sugar and top with spun sugar (recipe below)

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Spun Sugar

Also from Cooking Light, but I've seen a similar recipe in Martha Stewart. There is plenty in this recipe to use getting the hang of it, I dribbled the sugar with a wooden spoon, while some advocate a fork. It also cleans up a lot easier than I thought, I just kept running really hot water over it and eventually it all dissolved away. This addition puts 31 calories and 7.9g of carbs, but no fat or protein per slice, according to Cooking Light.

INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup light-colored corn syrup (I used Karo's)
Dash of cream of tartar (I skipped this)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Pick an area of the counter near the stove and cover the edge with a few inches of newspaper and put newspaper on the floor below- be generous.
Tape 3 wooden chopsticks (feel free to use disposable) about 6 inches apart from each other to the counter, with most of the ends protruding out over open space (with newspaper below)
Combine sugar, corn syrup and cream of tartar in a heavy saucepan.
Cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves, stirring gently
Stirring occasionally, continue cooking until mixture turns a lovely amber color (known as the "hard crack stage" 300°, if you care to measure- I didn't)
Remove from heat and cool mixture slightly (like one minute)
Now when it is the right consistency, you can dip a spoon into it and it will drip down... when you get to the end of the drip, it thins out into a thread that if you wave over the chopsticks will harden into beautiful sugar threads. Once you get a few going you can build up a nice golden nest of sugar threads. When you have enough, remove them from the sticks and gently shape them around the cake and repeat.
If the mixture gets too thick, return it to the heat until it is right again. (I made several trips to the stove.) Again, there is plenty, so don't worry about dripping a lot onto the newspaper, just keep going at it.
When done, don't put the cake in the sun or near a heat source, it will melt the sugar. If you need to make the cake ahead, don't do the spun sugar until the day of.
When serving the cake, cut right through the strands.

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