Dinner Party!

Georg and I and our friends Kim and Daniel all participated in a fabulous dinner party last night at my apartment. The way we've been organizing it is that the host makes an appetizer and the main course, and the guests bring dessert and wine.

I had wanted to make a paella last week and I bought chicken, dried sausage, and little shrimps in anticipation of this, but in the end I decided that saffron was too expensive, and Georg doesn't really like paprika anyway (saffron and paprika being the traditional spices used to flavor the dish).

So for the dinner party main dish, I decided to make a risotto with the chicken, dried sausage, and shrimp in it. I flavored the risotto with lemon juice, lemon zest, celery, garlic, and various herbs. After the final addition of the liquid (chicken stock), I added the meats and some green vegetables (asparagus and peas) for color. I guess you could call it an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink risotto. I just kept dumping stuff in there. It was really good though, the risotto got nice and starchy and had that shiny, creamy look, as you can see in my photos.

For the appetizer I decided to do a variation on the classic ricotta-fig-honey combination. Figs are really just too hard to find (fresh ones, anyway), and they are always super expensive, and sometimes not even that fresh. Instead, I decided to use some pitted fresh cherries. And to make the appetizers more finger-food like, I put the cheese and fruit atop a piece of baguette. For a garnish, I topped these little breads with rosemary honey (honey warmed gently with rosemary) and chopped almonds. I thought infusion of rosemary was an interesting, nice flavor.

For dessert, Kim and Daniel brought the perfect thing, which was pears poached in merlot and cinnamon. They were cored, and had a dollop of cream cheese tucked into the nook where the core used to be. Finally, they were topped with fresh raspberries from Daniel's mother's garden, which had been pureed into a very colorful sauce. It was a light, refreshing contrast to the rich risotto, and I think we all ate at least two of the pears!