SS's Modernist Dinner Party

SilverSage

Resident Crone
A couple weeks ago, I hosted a small party where the "meal" was a series of small plates, mostly just bites, and every dish used either modernist techniques or special equipment. I was not in charge of the camera, so I'm missing a couple pieces of the story, but most of it is here.
I started with a deconstructed tomato. Puree, then strain the tomato water from the solids. (The water has all the flavor). Add gelatin sheets to the water and chill. Strain the seeds from the pulp. Made a frico from Parmesan and peppercorns.
To assemble, break the gelled tomato water into 'crystals' with a fork, spoon into small dishes, top with a bit of the red 'sauce', garnish with tiny basil leaves and a small frico, sprinkle with flaked salt.
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SilverSage

Resident Crone
The next 'course' was a smoked scallop with a mango chipotle sphere. Pureed and strain the mango, then combined it with calcium lactate for reverse spherification. Freeze in half round molds, then drop in a bath of sodium alginate to make the spheres. I seared the scallops, then smoked them in wine barrel chips with the Smoking Gun. To plate, place one scallop and one mango sphere on a shell.
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SilverSage

Resident Crone
To continue my Modernist dinner party, I made a gazpacho ala Thomas Keller. Hand diced all the veg, then marinated and pureed. For serving, used a pastry tube to pipe a sour cream 'stick', added more bits of fresh diced veg, and drops of reduced balsamic glaze.
The following course was a shrimp with no pictures. First, I made a highly flavored infused oil, with ginger, garlic, habenero, and orange peel. Then I lightly sauteed shrimp that had been dusted in flour, and served with a bang-bang type sauce. I only have pics of the oil!!!
Next up was a sous vide pork belly, which was sliced and crisped in a skillet. The pineapple chili salsa was set with agar, then pureed with the Bamix into a rough salsa.
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SilverSage

Resident Crone
To complete my modernist thread, there were 3 other savory dishes that I didn't managed to get pics of, and 4 dessert dishes.
The first sweet was yogurt & OJ. I was going to make carbonated caviar out of fresh orange juice, but that went awry. So plan B was more spherification. Then I thinned some vanilla yogurt with cream, and charged it with 2 nitrogen cartridges in the iSi. For serving, I layered squirts of the yogurt with spheres of the navel orange juice, and garnished with mint leaves.
The second sweet dish was a ball of wine poached pear, drizzled with a chocolate balsamic vinegar.
This was followed by a katie pie. Bourbon (lots of it), ginger and apples, cooked in the Instant Pot and blended to a coarse puree. Made a sour cream based laminated dough, and filled 1 inch pastry squares with the apple filling.
The last dish, I didn't get any photos of the finished cake, only of the first filling in the freezer. I made half spheres of coconut filling and froze them. Then larger half spheres of almond filling, and pushed the smaller coconut ones into them. Leveled off the top of the mold and froze. Cut out small circles of flourless choco-almond cake, and laid the inverted spheres of double filling on top. Poured ganache over everything and topped with a whole almond.
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QSis

Grill Master
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
In - FREAKING - credible!! It was all so beautiful!


So, questions:
  • Was it fun to prepare? Did Judy help?
  • Did it all taste good? Did your guests enjoy all the dishes? Did you? Would you do any again?
  • I'm sure you had to buy special equipment, but did you buy all the dishes, glassware, etc. that the food was presented in?
  • Were your guests full at the end (or craving a cheeseburger)? ;)
Truly a masterful feat, Kathy! Brava!

Lee
 

Doc

Administrator
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
I have to agree with Lee. Incredible. :tiphat: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: I love each pic post you shared. I'm sure the ones not shown look just as scrumptious. I was inclined to WOW each post but that seemed a bit much, so I liked them all.
I suspect your guests were in awe. And all would go away full no doubt. What a unique experience for all the lucky guests.
Amazing idea. I love it.
 

SilverSage

Resident Crone
In - FREAKING - credible!! It was all so beautiful!


So, questions:
  • Was it fun to prepare? Did Judy help?
  • Did it all taste good? Did your guests enjoy all the dishes? Did you? Would you do any again?
  • I'm sure you had to buy special equipment, but did you buy all the dishes, glassware, etc. that the food was presented in?
  • Were your guests full at the end (or craving a cheeseburger)? ;)
Truly a masterful feat, Kathy! Brava!

Lee
It was great fun! I've always wanted to do it, and I finally had the chance.

Judy was a huge help. I could not have pulled it off without her.

I enjoyed it all. My guests enjoyed most everything. There were 2 that said they don't like scallops, but ate them and at least pretended to enjoy them. The pork belly, shrimp, and tomato were huge hits. The desserts, too. Everyone loved the pot pie. I have done the tomato before. I've done the mango spheres before, but on a coconut tart, not a scallop.

I already had all the equipment, the serving dishes, the molecular ingredients. Below it one cupboard (out of 8) in my laundry room devoted to excess kitchen stuff.

There was too much food. I actually skipped one planned dish in the middle because I didn't think folks could eat that much. It was a fusion dish - a mini Korean taco with Mexican carnitas.

Thank you.
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