Gravy Training: Dinner for Six

As many of you know, I love to have dinner parties. There's something incredibly satisfying about sitting in front of a whole table of people scarfing down food you've made yourself. Of course, coming from Denmark I tend to have rather grandiose conceptions of what constitutes a dinner party menu - But I can't just have two courses! There's no starch on this plate!
Another thing I do is test out recipes on unsuspecting guests. As I was reminded recently, Emily Post said never to test-run a recipe on people you're not related to by blood (and even then, be cautious), but honestly, given how much good ingredients cost, who's going to cook beef stew for one? So I generally cook on the fly and trust the source.

Anyway, last Friday I held a dinner party with four courses, the most I've attempted outside of my Mom's kitchen. I got started a little late (hello, grocery shopping at 4.30!) so thank god I had a willing sous-chef in the form of my friend Dave. Dave, who's recently gotten into cooking had specifically requested some form of fowl (my specialty and my weakness), so I told him he was welcome to come over and watch/help out.

The menu was as follows:

Grilled Salmon with Whiskey Carrots
So I recently found the best way in the world to do fish. For this, I rubbed the raw salmon with olive oil, red wine vinegar, cracked pepper and kosher salt, and then placed it directly on the oven rack (place a shallow baking dish below to catch any drippings). This is easier if the fish has skin, which mine didn't.
The carrots are sliced and then caramelised in a pan with brown sugar and a generous helping of whiskey. Even better than it sounds, actually!


Sliced Roasted Duck Breast on a Bed of Stuffing

This was a new recipe to me. First, make stuffing - homemade is better but the box stuff will do just fine in a pinch. Then roll duck breasts in salt, pepper and flour and brown them in a hot pan for a few moments. Then make a nest for the stuffing using aluminium foil place the duck breasts on top, seal it tightly and pop in the oven.


Braised Beef Short Ribs with Rosemary Potatoes and Baby Spinach
Salad with Lime Dressing

I forgot to take a picture of the last two courses, so I'm including Pioneer Woman's picture of the braised beef short ribs from her recipe. Almost melted off the bone, it was so divine! The rosemary potatoes were small new potatoes, boiled and then fried whole in oil with rosemary, and the lime dressing had olive oil, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, a dash of mustard and lime juice.


Roasted Rum-Caramelised Pineapple with Vanilla Ice Cream.
Another one I forgot to take pictures of.. It went super-fast. This is a recipe Katie's Mom gave me way back when, and is my go-to idiot's dessert because it's so fast and easy yet tastes divine. Basically you slice up the pineapple, sprinkle it with butter and brown sugar, pour rum over top and stick it in the oven. Heaven!

I've never posted food-related stuff before, but I might start doing it more often. Yea or nay?

Cheers,
Gitte