Celebration Dinner

When I finally announced the completion of a long project to my friends, the first question most of them asked was “What are you going to do to celebrate?” I hadn’t a clue as to what to do, but I knew that I wanted a brief break from my recent rotation of soups and salads. A few of my friends, who were more avid followers of this blog, were very direct in asking me what I was going to drink in order to celebrate. They were certain that I would come up with something fabulous. However, because I wasn’t expecting the news to come during Snowstorm Stella, I didn’t have the ingredients on hand to whip up a celebratory dinner. And I certainly wasn’t going out to gather them! So I also postponed the celebratory cocktail until I could prepare myself a proper meal to go along with it.

The Planning

The snowstorm and a few days of general busyness made a celebratory dinner an impossibility until after the weekend. That gave me time to really plan what I wanted to have. At first, I was thinking an Italian dinner of chicken marsala and fettucine alfredo because I hadn’t had that since October and because it basically screamed comfort food. But then I realized that it had been a few weeks since I had red meat, or anything with substantial iron content. So I started thinking more along the lines of a nice steak, perhaps accompanied by a spinach salad. The more I thought about it, the more I realized what I was craving was the Coriander Crusted Steak with Miso Butter that I had made in early February. That experiment was really good. I had bought white miso during my most recent trip to Whole Foods, so I had that to make the miso butter sauce with. It might be a little less aggressive in flavor than the red miso paste that I had used in February, but it should work out well.

With the main course in place, I thought about what I would want to accompany my steak. My nutritionist has been advocating for me to balance my meals by including a vegetable and a starch with each lunch and dinner. Of course, once the thought of spinach had lodged itself in my head, it was difficult to shake loose. But I felt like having a warm vegetable rather than a raw spinach salad. Creamed spinach from the take out section of the supermarket was the obvious answer, but I wasn’t feeling like all the extra cream and cheese. So I thought that I could sauté baby spinach in a little olive oil with red onion and garlic. Then I realized that I could add mushrooms to the mix and really take the medley up a notch. A baked potato was the obvious answer for a starch to accompany my steak, but I usually end up eating too much sour cream with that. In the family cookbook, there is a terrific recipe for Roasted Red Potatoes and String Beans that uses a lot of rosemary and garlic. That would be a low effort alternative to a baked potato and save me the drama of having to restrain myself with respect to the sour cream.

Of course, since the meal was a celebratory one, there would have to be dessert. I wanted something that would be fairly low effort but still be a delicious treat. And I did not want days of dessert left over. A single slice of cheesecake from the supermarket bakery was the obvious answer. However, I am a spoiled brat when it comes to cheesecake and the supermarket version does not make me happy. My other brilliant idea was to revisit the delicious Bourbon Butterscotch Pudding that I had made in mid-January. This recipe had an easy set up and went very quickly once it was started. It was fairly low yield, and not so terrible that I would regret having two or three days left over. The only trick was that it would have to be done in the morning in order to be set and ready to eat by dinner.

The only remaining question was what I would have to drink with the meal. At some point, I had picked up a bottle of the Chocolate Block, which is a lovely red blend from South Africa. That would nicely complement the steak dinner. But since it was a celebratory dinner, I felt like I wanted something festive and sparkly to drink. I still had baby bottles of prosecco left in the house from my experiments with the summer spritzes at the beginning of February. And the bottle of Italian elderflower liqueur was still fairly full. Combined with some club soda, I could make a Classic St Germain Cocktail according to the recipe in the St Germain cocktail book. That would make me happy.

In the end, the menu for my celebration dinner looked like a “greatest hits” of my blog posts from earlier this year:

• Classic St Germain Cocktail
• Coriander Crusted Steak with Miso Butter
• Sautéed Spinach and Mushrooms with Red Onions
• Roasted Red Potatoes and String Beans
• Bourbon Butterscotch Pudding

The Meal

The Bourbon Butterscotch Pudding did not happen. I had planned to start on the pudding at lunchtime so that it would be set by dessert time. However, for lunch I had launched a massive soup and salad experiment from the Moosewood Daily Special cookbook. By the time I was done cooking, eating, and cleaning up from lunch, I had no energy left to separate five eggs and toss around hot liquids. So I decided that I could use all the ingredients in the refrigerator to make the pudding at a later date. Instead this evening I would have a minimal effort Godiva truffle (or two) for dessert with my celebratory meal.

I started the Roasted Red Potatoes and String Beans before the rest of the dinner meal because I figured they would take the most effort and roasting time. Once I got the pan with the olive and the garlic – I used minced garlic from the jar instead of smashed whole cloves – into the oven, I started cleaning and cutting the potatoes. My timing was impeccable in that the timer for the oil and garlic rang just as I was finishing the potatoes. I gave them twenty minutes at 450F, just like in the recipe instructions, while I prepared my cocktail and sautéed the vegetables. I added the package of French cut green beans right on top of the potatoes because the pan I had used was too small for me to stir everything up in the oven without getting green beans all over the place. I let that cook for ten minutes, while searing the steak. Much to my great disappointment, the potatoes were still crunchy when I tested them. So I set the pan back in the oven for another fifteen minutes to finish roasting the potatoes. As a result, the potatoes finished roasting at about the same time as I finished eating my dinner. Seeing as I was already full from dinner by the time the potatoes had cooled enough to taste, I put the lid on the potato pan and set those aside for another meal.

Since my digital advance reader copy of the elderflower liqueur cocktail book had expired, I relied on my memory to mix their version of the Classic St Germain Cocktail using my Italian elderflower liqueur. Although I’m pretty sure that I got the measurements right for the liqueur, the prosecco, and the club soda, the cocktail tasted a little sweeter than usual. It wasn’t unpleasant, just unexpected. In retrospect, I think that was most likely due to the difference between the French St Germain that I had used before and the Italian elderflower liqueur that I was using today. Regardless, it was a nice cocktail to sip as I sautéed the vegetables, seared the steak, and waited on the potatoes to roast.

The Sautéed Spinach and Mushrooms with Red Onions was the easiest thing on my menu because I wasn’t planning on following any recipe. Once I had my cocktail in hand, I sliced half of a red onion super thinly and sautéed that in olive oil in my largest sauté pan. When the red onion had softened and almost turned translucent, I added the eight-ounce package of sliced baby bella mushrooms. I sautéed that until the mushrooms were soft, shiny, and weeping liquid. Finally, I added a five-ounce package of fresh baby spinach, which filled the entire pan. I cooked that down until the baby spinach was soft and dark green. That was it. After I tasted it, I added a little salt and then declared victory. Of course, since I was hungry by the time I finished the sautéing, I immediately started picking at the vegetables in the pan with a fork as I prepared the steak and fussed with the potatoes.

Being hungry, I decided to take some shortcuts in the Coriander Crusted Steak with Miso Butter Sauce recipe. Like I completely omitted the cracked coriander and pepper crust on the steak because I didn’t have the patience to grind the spices with my mortar and pestle. So I heated some sesame oil in my bright blue cast iron sauté pan and then added the naked steak once the oil was hot. I seared it for four minutes on each side – fussing with the undercooked potatoes at the same time – and then removed it to rest on a dinner plate. I then poured the miso butter sauce that I had made into the pan with some white vermouth (it was supposed to be sake) and cooked that down until thick. Then I poured it over the steak on the plate.

Once the steak was smothered with miso butter sauce, I added the remaining sautéed vegetables to the plate. I left a space for the red potatoes, should they finish roasting before I finished my dinner. Because I had a slight cold, I opted not to open my bottle of the Chocolate Block to drink with dinner. I decided to savor the rest of my cocktail, have a little more coffee, and drink the wine when I could actually taste it better.

The Verdict

Although my celebratory meal did not go as envisioned, it made me very happy. It had been some time since I had enjoyed such a fancy meal. And the entire meal was relatively low effort, especially since I cut some corners on the steak recipe. I would definitely use this meal again as a celebration of a special accomplishment.

The Recipes

Roasted Red Potatoes and String Beans
A quick and easy change of pace from standard mashed, baked or boiled potatoes.

3 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
6 small red potatoes, quartered
1 tbsp coarsely crushed rosemary leaves
1 16-oz pkg frozen french cut string beans, partially thawed

1. Mix olive oil and garlic in 9x12 pan. Heat in oven for 5 minutes at 450F. Do not brown.
2. Add potatoes and rosemary. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Bake for 20 minutes, tossing once.
4. Add string beans. Bake additional 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Alternate spice mixes:
♥ ½ tbsp rosemary leaves, ½ tbsp fennel seed, 1 tbsp curry powder
♥ ½ tbsp rosemary leaves, ½ tbsp fennel seed, 1 tbsp Dad’s Cajun spice mix, ½ tbsp cayenne powder