Saturday dinner: the new beer makes a showing.

Madison.

I've decided to throw a small, celebratory dinner for the latest batch of homebrew. It's fully drinkable - even if the hops are a bit stronger than I'd intended - and two cases is more than I should be consuming all by myself. As Sharon'll be gone for the weekend, it's also a chance to cook up a meal featuring some of the fine beef and pork that's been filling up the freezer. Not that I can't normally enjoy that sort of thing, but big pieces like the beef cheek - not to mention the ten-pound pork belly - work best with a few carnivorous friends.

After tossing around a few ideas, I've settled on a menu for five for Saturday. Some of this is simply to clear out the freezer; some is to test out some new ideas I've had. Plus, meals with separate courses are something I do so rarely at home. They're more of a "nice dinner out" sort of thing, but there's no reason it can't be done.

The preliminary menu (as it's written on the kitchen chalkboard):

amuse-bouche
Spiced fresh ricotta with hickory nuts and cranberry-blood orange sauce

salad
Mixed greens salad with mustard vinaigrette, poached egg and crouton

main course
Braised beef cheek with winter squash spätzle, parsley pesto and brussels sprouts with bacon

dessert
Apple pie with cheddar cheese

Amuses-bouche aren't a necessary part of a dinner party, but they can really set the tone. Okay, yes, we'll be drinking beer with Futurama labels, and I'll probably be wearing jeans with holes in them,¹ but this is meant to be a little fancier than burgers and brats on the grill. It also says helps explain that dinner may take a little longer than the usual family-style arrangement, without having to say so directly.

Which is a good thing, since our entertainment options for the evening consist primarily of conversation and Scrabble. Maybe cards.

I haven't made ricotta in a little while, so I've had a hankering for it. Especially now that I've discovered the glories of local, non-homogenized milk from Blue Marble Family Farm.² I plan on infusing it with some cloves and cinnamon, curdling out the solids with vinegar, draining off the liquid and shaping it into molds. It's amazingly simple, and my method always seems to give me a very firm curd, which I'm hoping'll hold its shape. Then I should be able to plate it with some hickory nuts - toasted to bring out the flavor - and a sauce made from fresh cranberries, apple cider and blood oranges to contrast the ricotta's richness. At least it'll look sharp on a white plate.

Sharon and I have been enjoying a lot of poached eggs of late, mostly as a followup to the L'Etoile vegetarian dinner. I prefer a fried egg, sunny side up, cooked just about as lightly as a poached egg, but that only works on toast. Soups and salads need the all-around delicacy of poaching to really shine. Fortunately, the fresh, flavorful eggs we've been getting from Blue Valley Gardens hold together really well.³ Until you break open that yolk, that is: instant salad dressing.

The beef cheek and spätzle is just another variation on a regular meal for Sharon and I, where we cook up some noodles and vegetable-filled broth separately, then ladle together into bowls for a warming dinner. (This sometimes gets an egg, too.) I've had a beef cheek in the freezer for quite some time, since my tolerance for braising - and the accompanying warm kitchen - is pretty low in the summertime. John and Dorothy had convinced me to try it, as it's one of their favorite cuts. Though it'll take hours of moist cooking to break down the connective tissue, the constant use this muscle's been through makes it one of the most flavorful parts of the cow. A braise ought to result in fork-tender meat and a rich liquid to spoon over noodles. With a little luck, I'll be able to use some roasted squash as a noodle base, for color and flavor, and a parsley pesto should give some brightness and contrast to the other rich items.

For the brussels sprouts, I'm going to use Tory Miller's recipe, as noted in this Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article. (Scroll to the bottom.) I love brussels sprouts, and I figure bacon can only enhance them.

Now that we're fully into apple season, I'm ready for pie. I'd considered a tarte tatin, but I'd rather go with something I've done before. More or less, at least - I'm planning to give a lard crust a try this time. Vegetable shortening's not doing me any favors, health-wise, and I've only heard good things about lard. So why not give it a shot?

* * * * *

¹Not fashionably so. (Is that still fashionable? I don't really pay any attention.) They're simply jeans that I've been wearing for so long that they're wearing out. Which means they're pretty much at their peak comfort level.

²And I don't even drink milk. I'm trying to learn to like it, but it's just not happening.

³Best poached egg ever was one of Matt Smith's turkey eggs, though I haven't seen one of those for quite some time. They have a richness you just can't get with chicken eggs alone. An even better use for them, if you can find any, is to use them for scrambled eggs; their innate creaminess really shines.