Pulling Out All The Stops

K

kyheirloomer

Well-known member
Sometimes, when entertaining, we really want to go whole hog with something our guests just aren't going to see just anywhere. I thought a thread featureing such dishes would be fun.

Here's one of mine:

SEAFOOD SAUSAGE

1 lb raw shrimp, peeled

½ lb raw tilapia, red flesh trimmed

6 oz crab meat, cooked

12 oz crayfish tails, cooked

1 tsp fennel seed, coarsely ground

1 tbls dry tarragon

2 tbls parsley, minced

3/4 tsp white pepper, ground

2 egg whites

2 tbls cream

Cut tilapia in small pieces. Toss tilapia with shrimp, crabmeat, tarragon, parsley, fennel seed and pepper so that spices are evenly distributed. Run through medium plate in grinder.

Mix in the crayfish evenly.

Lightly beat egg whites with cream. Incorporate into seafood mixture.

Lay seafood mixture out on a rectangle of plastic film, using 4 tablespoons for each sausage. Roughly shape into a log about 3 inches long. Wrap film tightly around seafood. Twist one end and tie off. Twist other end, compressing mixture as much as possible and tie off.

Poach sausages in water, stock, or wine about 12 minutes. Use immediately, or hold in a cold water bath until ready to use.

Makes 16-18 sausages.

Poached sausages freeze very well, so can be made long ahead if necessary.

Can also be used as bulk sausage, formed into patties and pan fried. Do not overcook.

I make these ahead, then, just before serving, reheat by lightly sauteing in butter, and serving on a puddle of roasted red pepper sauce.

 
Joe, I just saw that posted at Epi

and was amused that the original poster had a thing about getting cakey flour on her fingertips.

I also noted there that this is an ideal time to use a cookie cutter as I mentioned in the appetizer thread.

Start with a regular eggplant if you can't find the Japanese long ones. Cut the slices, then use the cookie cutter to punch out equally sized rounds. No need to worry about successive slices.

 
Overly-fussy food, KYHeirloomer. Too many tiny steps, too many sauces, too many bits of

ingredients or all of the above. Also recipes within recipes-i.e. a recipe calls for 2 tbsp of a particular sauce that you have to make first in order to glean 2 tbsp of it. You get the picture.

 
Pat in TO made a comment awhile back that sums it up for me.

"As I get older I really like classic, simple prep of excellent product better than food that is tortured into something it shouldn't have been in the first place."

Yesssss.

Michael

 
KYH, maybe it's why I started catering part-time. I love to put together a perfectly tortured meal

for an appreciative audience where I'm not the host. It's a creative expression and I'm freed by the fact that I don't have to socialize as well.

But when it comes to entertaining friends and family I've learned to tone it down so that 1) I'm not too exhausted by the time of the party to enjoy it, and 2) it's not so fancy that none of the guests will dare reciprocate for fear of feeling inferior. If only they knew how much I love to be invited over, and how much I love a really good hot dog!

 
I don't much care whether I have to socialize or not, Joe.

I'm just as happy preparing a great meal or party for my own guests as I am doing it for strangers. A lot of the difference is how much pre-prepping gets done, because I want to enjoy my guests.

I can't paint. I can't play an instrument. I can't carry a tune in a bucket. So woodwork and cookery allow me to expand my creative energies.

I haven't had a really good hot dog in years. :>(

Michael, we could carry that thought to the exreme. The way a steak was meant to be is to cut it off the cow and start munching. Anything else---even introducing it to some charcoal and allowing no further conversation-would be torturing it the way you expressed it.

Any amount of manipulating food ingredients is a difference of degree, not a difference of kind. So it boils down to how much work the cook is willing to put into a dish.

 
Your point is a good one, and it's not lost on me. I do torture food, and...

...on occasion, I even torture food in the name of good, old-fashioned comfort food. Some of those dishes seem simple, but they take a day and a half, two large stock pots and whole lotta fussin'.

Cooking for family feasts always involves a ton of planning and effort. I wouldn't have it any other way.

There are also the times when I feel creative and express that creativity by cooking something that involves a bit more talent and mastery than sauteeing chicken breasts and making a pan sauce.

So, even though I lean philosophically towards high quality ingredients prepared in simple, delicious ways, I do understand that there is a place for fancy schmancy, and I do engage in it now and then, to good ends.

Charlie Trotter gives me a headache,

Michael

 
I'm on my way, KYH. I'll bring the hot dogs if you make those seafood sausage smileys/wink.gif

 
Normally

I'd of said, "come on down," Joe. Only you already sent some of that snow---this is the most I've seen in three or four years---and you probably won't be able to get down the drive.

Tell me again why I moved here. :>)

 
I was the original poster on this one, lol. It's not a fear of cakey fingertips,

it's just that more breading ends up on your hands than on the eggplant as you try to keep the layers together. Lots of paper towels are involved.

 
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