Our food...

Skirt steak with spicy slaw












Salmon cakes












A small dinner party we catered. Some of the appetizers we did that night...

Gluten free, no mammals 5-course dinner

One of the best ways to get your name out there is to do a charity event. So since we're new on the catering scene in SLC, we decided to offer a fully catered 5-course dinner for 8 people at the First Unitarian Church's annual fundraiser as a part of their silent auction. One thing to keep in mind about catering is that you always have to accommodate the customer which sometimes can present certain challenges. Maybe it's a theme party or the need for a particular type of venue or flatware. Also common today is the challenge of cooking for diverse dietary restrictions.

When the winner of our dinner contacted me, she quickly mentioned that she wasn't eating gluten (no wheat products, no flour!) and the people she wanted to invite also didn't eat any red meat (thankfully fish was okay). So I found myself designing a 5-course gluten free, no mammals menu. I once worked at an upscale senior residence where one of our clients had celiac disease, so I had a few gluten-free tricks up my sleeve. I came up with this menu:

1st: zucchini and yellow squash crudo
2nd: carrot and ginger soup
3rd: grilled ratatouille with arugula salad
4th: pan-seared Utah trout with rainbow potato gratin
5th: flourless chocolate idiot cake and vanilla rice pudding brulee

The crudo, which is a raw preparation, is always a nice way to start a meal. I shave off thin slices of zucchini and yellow squash lengthwise and marinate in a lemon-dill vinaigrette. It makes a lovely presentation too, as I take the individual shavings and roll them up. The carrot-ginger soup is also a staple of mine, very simple yet really elegant. And I thought grilling the vegetables for the ratatouille would add a nice dimension of smokiness; the lightly dressed arugula would also give some bite to this traditionally stewed dish.

I quickly decided that fish would be our protein of choice given the restriction on red meat. So I let what looked best to me at the market guide what would be on the menu that night. At my local fish monger, I immediately saw beautiful trout caught right here in Utah and quickly snatched up all I could. I wanted some texture to the cooked trout, but had to avoid the use of regular flour since my clients were gluten-free...so I dredged the fish in a blend of rice flour and cornstarch (both are great gluten-free options) before searing it off. This created a nice crisp exterior to the juicy and tender fish.

We finished the evening with two desserts: a flourless chocolate cake (David Lebovitz's chocolate idiot cake) and a rice pudding brulee. Both were a hit and rounded out the evening nicely. Chocolate is always a safe bet with dessert, but I find that an alternative to chocolate is also well appreciated. I mentioned that I worked as a cook in a home where one of our resident's was gluten-intolerant. While I worked there, the clients loved my rice pudding, a great universal dessert since it doesn't contain any flour. So when I heard it had to be a gluten-free menu, my mind immediately went to rice pudding for dessert. For a little twist, we bruleed the rice pudding to make it extra special - audience participation is always a great way to win a crowd over anyway. The hard, caramelized sugar created a crisp crust giving the soft rice some texture.

In the end, the clients' enjoyed their special night. I had a good time meeting everyone and providing this service to them. And luckily...no one burned the place down.
















Quick rice pudding brulee

1.5 C water
3/4 C white rice
salt
3 C whole milk
1 C heavy cream
0.5 C sugar
1 vanilla bean, split with seeds scraped out
cinnamon

1. Add rice and water to a sauce pot and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to low and cook until all of the water is absorbed by the rice (about 10 minutes or so).
3. Add in whole milk, heavy cream, sugar, the whole vanilla bean, and the scraped out seeds. Mix well.
4. Cook over medium heat for about 30-40 minutes. Be careful that the heat isn't so high that the cream boils over.
5. Sprinkle in cinnamon to taste and mix well.
6. Layer a ladle full of rice pudding into a shallow ramekin. Smooth over top with a butter knife.
7. Pour a generous tablespoon of sugar on the surface of the rice pudding.
8. Using a blowtorch, apply close heat to the sugar to create a hard sugar surface.
9. Serve immediately.

Mom's salmon for 40?

My mom has this salmon recipe that we've eaten in our family for the past 10 years or so. It's a really easy recipe that is perfect for a weeknight quick dinner. When I cater events, I often go to menu items that I'm very familiar with so that I know I can produce predictable results on a limited timeframe. When I heard we were going to cater a group of 40 for an office function...and that they wanted salmon - I knew exactly what I would do.

I had just left my line cook job at a major hotel. Although I worked on the hot line for the restaurant and bar, I was also frequently recruited to help out with banquet catering. Catering is a lot different than cooking on the line but there are some elements common to both. Organization, mise en place, and timing are essential to successful catering as well as successful restaurant cooking. Cooking on the line is all about cranking out individual dishes as you get inundated with several orders all at once. In this case timing yourself such that an entire table's order comes out at the same time and making sure every piece on each plate is perfect is crucial. Catered events vary, but the client for this intimate office party wanted buffet. Luckily I had designed my catering menu around buffet friendly food.

On any given menu, cooks generally rely on what they know they can do well in order to pull off a successful meal. This is also great advice for the home cook who throws an ambitious dinner party. Do what you know you can do well. In most cases that means cooking something you're very comfortable with - something that will give you expected results and if something should happen to go wrong...you're cooking something you have enough experience with to be able to fix in some way. Hence my choice of doing my mom's salmon for this event. I decided to modify the salmon bumping up some elements for added texture, adding some of my own style into the dish. In addition to the salmon, we also did a prime rib with jus, classic mashed potatoes as a starch, and mixed roasted veggies. With a few appetizers and chocolate mousse and French fruit tarts for dessert, this was one office party that was enjoyed by all. Someone came up to me at the end of the evening and told me that the salmon was simply amazing. I replied that it was a take on my mom's recipe and she simply smiled and said, "No kidding". No kidding indeed.


Panko crusted roast salmon
*adapted from mom's recipe

4 salmon pieces (4-6oz each)
6 T garlic aioli (store bought mayonaisse works fine)
1.5 C Panko bread crumbs
1 package onion soup mix
2 T butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Heat pan over medium high heat. When pan is hot, add butter until melted and drop in panko bread crumbs.
3. Saute until the bread crumbs become golden brown. Remove from heat and cool.
4. Take salmon pieces and dry well with paper towel. Slather a generous amount (about 1.5 T per piece) of aioli over the top of the salmon, frosting it over almost like a cake.
5. Take the cooled, toasted, panko bread crumbs and mix in with the package of onion soup mix.
6. Take the bread crumb mix and pack onto each salmon piece as a thin coat.
7. Place in 375 degree oven until salmon is about medium, just cooked through...about 10-15 minutes depending on its thickness. Serve immediately.

Note: you might be tempted to overcook your fish for safety reasons, but don't do it. As fish cooks, its inherent oils develop. Your final product may gain an undesirable "fishy" taste because the oils have over developed during an extended cooking time.