from I.T. to High Tea: The Dinner Party

A couple of months ago my friend Patrizia and I decided to host a dinner party for some of our friends. P is a lawyer by trade but has done numerous cooking courses and has studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. She too has a passion for cooking and a love of entertaining. It took a few weeks before we could actually get together and plan the dinner, P being an international jet-setter and me having to go to Jamaica to get me student visa for FCI.
We finally managed to get together last week and started hashing out a menu for dinner. At first the intention was fine French dining. We would do an elegant, formal meal that combined top quality meats with rich complex sauces. After much debate, a final decision seemed impossible!.
With both of us wanting to try something we’d never done before, coupled with limited access to ingredients on island, what to cook became a real dilemma! We also didn't want to be cooking when the guests arrived and instead enjoying drinks and food with them. Eventually we drifted away from French cuisine and settled on something less formal; gourmet pizzas. We figured everything could be prepared in advance and all we would have to do was assemble the pizzas and throw them on the pizza stone as our guests were getting hungry.

With this in mind we came up with the following menu for 7 people:

Appetizers:
Cantaloupe melon balls, drizzled with a port wine reduction
Crispy bread sticks wrapped with Prosciutto
Heirloom tomatoes with mozzarella, fresh basil and a sweet balsamic drizzle
Green olives marinated in Sambuca
Moroccan lamb meatballs

Main Course:
BBQ Jerk Chicken and Mozzarella Pizza
Mixed Mushroom Pizza with Shitake, Morel, and Porcini mushrooms
Perfect Pear Pizza with caramelized onion, gorgonzola cheese and sliced pear
Pancetta and Spinach Pizza with Mozzarella
Roasted Garlic and Brie Pizza with fresh basil
Moroccan Sausage Pizza

Desert:
Homemade Cannoli

Simple enough, we schedule Thursday for shopping. For those of you who don't live on an island, trying to find good, high quality ingredients locally, is extremely difficult trying to find it all in one place, mpossible. We spent the better part of Thursday shopping, having to go to every major supermarket on the island and both of the Big Box wholesalers. After all of this we still weren't able to find the Typo 00 flour needed for the pizza dough. All purpose would have to do! With the shopping done we parted ways with the intention of meeting up at P's house on Friday morning to start prepping the food.

The day of the dinner party

The day didn't start out very well . After an early morning downpour,the sky looked like it had more in store for us. The weather forecast wasn't much help either as it showed a 50% change of rain. I might as well use a coin to determine the weather here on island. In addition to this P woke up with a migraine due to afore mentioned weather pattern (apparently her super power is being able to detect low atmospheric pressure).
We discussed our options and determined rain would destroy our plans for the Pizza party. The pizza was to be cooked outside on the grill and served under the stars. Do we dare chance it or do we switch the menu and have something inside? We threw caution to the wind and prayed the skies would clear and they did.

So we began, and the cannoli was the first item on the prep list. Making the dough wasn't too hard and passing it through the pasta machine until it was paper thin, it only took 5 or 6 retries.

With our dough rolled, out it was time to form the shapes. Now, neither P nor myself had cannoli forms however we read in the interwebs that dried Cannelloni shells could be used as a form. We decided to make one test cannoli to see how it would come out using the pasta form. The pasta was greased, the dough wrapped around and both were dropped into 375 degree oil. After about 2 minutes we had what looked like a real Sicilian cannoli floating in the oil. We popped it out and put it on a cooling rack to drain.

After what seemed like a lifetime (probably 4 minutes) it was time to remove the form. Holding the cannoli as delicately as possible we attempted to slide the pasta form out from within it. A little push, a little pull, a half inch of movement but no progress. Both of us tried, there was no way we were going to remove this crispy piece of pasta without breaking the cannoli. Never fear, a good chef always has a backup plan; A Cannoli Napoleon! Cut rounds from the dough ns and layer them with filling in between, kinda' like a ice cream sandwich. Cut rounds, drop them in the deep fryer and watch each become a light, flakey, golden brown disk.

Next was the filling which was easy enough. This was put in a piping bag and stored in the fridge for assembly later.

After this we moved on to the lamb and pork mix that was to be used for the Moroccan meatballs and pizza toping. Combine, season, let sit, pretty simple.
After a quick break for lunch it was time to make the pizza dough. This was new territory for me, I had never had much luck with dough or any sort of baking. The dough recipe was supposed to make 4 small pizzas so we decided to make a batch each. Sort of hedging our bets. In two bowls we measured out equal amounts of ingredients. Combine and knead. Right away my lack of doughy prowess shone through. P's dough was coming together nicely, while mine looked like a hard, sun cracked piece of plaster. After a lot of work and some help from P the concoction somewhat resembled pizza dough and was covered and put to rest.

The next few hours were spent cutting vegetables, frying bacon and balling melons.

It's getting late in the afternoon, the guest are expected at 7pm. Just enough time to roll out the pizza dough, let them rest and have a shower. Again, I had a hell of a time with my dough. While P was getting out evenly thick, somewhat round pizzas I was making lumpy, rectangle shapes with tears throughout. Oh well, it's dough, roll it back into a ball and try again. Eventually we had 8 distinct pizza-like shapes sitting on the counter. Just in time too, 7pm, good thing out guests are late!

The Results:

The evening was a hit. All of our guests enjoyed themselves, and no one reported any gastrointestinal problems. I can't wait to do it again.