Last weekend I wore
myself out along with my family and many of my friends by preparing and serving
a seven course dinner which was auctioned off this spring at YSB’s Blue Tie
Event. The successful bidders opted to
have the dinner for 12 in the upstairs dining hall of Reddick Mansion, an old
Italianate Mansion in Ottawa on the town square. It’s the default dinner site, although we’ll
prepare and serve a meal anywhere the bidder chooses (within reason) providing
there’s a suitable kitchen.
Sadly we’ve lost track
of how many years we’ve done this, but it’s gone on for a while now. I started out doing it mostly myself, but
quickly I recruited help. It’s pretty
clear now I couldn’t pull it this meal off without the help of my family and friends. Here’s a description of the courses and a few
other random thoughts about the ingredients and all. Eating is one of the real pleasures in life,
and eating well is a bonus. The only thing better than eating fine food is
writing about it. I hope you like
it. Who knows? Maybe you’ll buy it at YSB’s fundraiser next
year.
Dinner at the Mansion
November 7, 2015
- · Fancy cheeses with crackers, olives, hummus with warm pita bread
- · Fresh greens with handmade dressing
- · Smoked Pork Belly with Apple Chutney and carrots
- · Jumbo Shrimp in Cajun sauce with Polenta Cake
- · Sour cream Gnocchi with red sauce (grated cheese?)
- · Prime Rib with horseradish sauce, green beans, and carrots
- · Pumpkin crème brulee, espresso, and liquers
We have prepared some new and old dishes for you Saturday
night. Let me tell you a little about
them.
The appetizers
are uncomplicated finger foods to get you started. My son Dean makes the hummus from scratch soaking
good dry garbanzos and adding the best tahini and olive oil he can find. He won’t tell you all the spices he
uses. We offer some cheeses you might
not usually buy for yourself, and fresh olives to go with them along with warm pita
bread. Enjoy the appetizers as you have
a glass of wine, meet the other guests, and get ready for a serious meal.
The salad is made
from seasonal greens and is simple, topped with goat cheese and hot pear slices
sautéed in butter. My daughter Moe makes
a vinaigrette dressing by hand with Champagne vinegar and other good stuff which
is served on the salad. If you would
like an alternative, or would prefer to have it on the side please let us
know. Again, pretty straightforward up
to this point.
Your group will be the first to experience our seared pork belly. This idea comes
from Moe’s friend Don and has been fun to do.
I bought a local pork belly from the Wyanet Locker, which keeps them on
hand to make their own bacon. Pork Belly
is just what it suggests, the belly or bottom cut, between the front and rear
legs of a mature hog. It is uncured, and
includes a layer of rich fat. We brined
that belly overnight in a mixture of water, kosher salt, brown sugar, bay
leaves, peppercorns, and garlic. The next day Tom Gardner smoked it for about
four hours on the South Side of Ottawa using applewood chips for flavor. Prior to serving we seared it in a hot iron skillet,
plated it on a bed of homemade apple chutney, and drizzled it with a bourbon
and brown sugar syrup. We think you’ll
like it.
On the chance that he might know, I inquired to the butcher
at Wyanet Locker about the pig from whence the belly originated. Wyanet is a small farm town west of Princeton
and the locker plant there not only does its own butchering but arranges its
own slaughtering, often buying local pigs from area farmers. He was unfamiliar with that particular pig
but knew the farmer who sold it and promised to talk to him. I gave him my cell phone number.
The next day the farmer called. He remembered that particular hog he recently
sold to the people at Wyanet and told me a little about him. Actually he told me a lot about him. I had the feeling he missed him.
He recalled that as a young pig he was rambunctious, full of
life, and a vigorous eater. He came from
a big litter and enjoyed his time with his litter mates. He was, if not the biggest, certainly one of
the biggest of all the shoats on the farm, and could always be found cavorting
around the pig pen.
“Happy as a pig in shit,” the farmer recalled.
He was castrated at a young age, which mellowed him. As a barrow he settled into a life of
solitude, often seen standing alone at the edge of the sty gazing beyond the
horizon.
“Dreamy like, you know?” the farmer said.
I know full well.
Contemplative, meditative, content with life.
His life was short.
He was slaughtered at eighteen months, his body cut to pieces with his
best parts on sale in the Wyanet display case.
Miscellaneously, he can be found in their sausage.
His belly will be on your plate, soon to be a part of
you. Enjoy.
The next dish, Jumbo
Shrimp, is a McClure variation on shrimp and grits. The polenta, the Italian version of corn
meal, is fashioned into something of a soft cornbread slab.
Over that are lightly cooked jumbo shrimp
topped with a bayou inspired Cajun sauce.
The shrimp are local from the Fox River.
No they’re not. I’m putting you
on. We have no idea where the shrimp
came from. Whole Foods. Wild caught somewhere in the Pacific.
We sneak in a new vegetarian course next, simple gnocchi with a red sauce. We were going to put them on the next plate but
we thought the plate, and your palate, would be crowded with too many
tastes. Gnocchi are a little dumpling
cooked like pasta, popular again in Italy and places crawling with Italians,
like Argentina. These are a variation,
made with sour cream added to flour, which makes them light and
delightful. Don’t you delight in light
food? Hence delightful.
We serve them with Caton Road marinara sauce,
not enough to overpower them but enough to give you that nice tomatoey garlicky
taste. That’s Caton Road garlic too by
the way. We might give you fresh grated
Parmesean Reggiano cheese on top of that dish, and then we might not. We don’t know if we can line up enough
graters. We’ll surprise you with that.
We finish the entrees with an old standard, prime rib of beef served with homemade
horseradish sauce (made from horseradish root dug from my garden in Field’s
Hill). The prime rib, bone in, is I
think the best cut of beef from our friends the McGrogans at Handy Foods in Ottawa. We serve it with freshly steamed and sautéd green
beans and roasted organic carrots. The
carrots were grown in Sharon Loudon’s raised bed backyard garden just across
the river. Sharon is one of your servers and her garden is only, I’d say, a good
drive, a solid three wood, and a five iron (maybe an easy four) from where
you’ll be sitting. The carrots were in
the ground till yesterday. This dish is not
fancy, but it is damn good. You can
screw up good food trying to be sophisticated.
We keep it simple and hope you appreciate it.
We finish with an old favorite, crème brulee. Owing to the
season we will add some pumpkin and pie spice.
We make this ahead and burn the sugar on top just before serving it to
you. It is rich and sinfully good, if I
do say so myself. We like serving this
to our dinner guests, because they like it so much. With it you get, if you wish, espresso coffee
in teeny cups and saucers with tiny spoons (NO DECAF-DON’T ASK) and
assorted shots of three after dinner liquers, take your pick, in fancy ass little
glasses.
And that’s it. We
hope you like the food, the surroundings, the wine and the company. Enjoy yourselves. Drink plenty but not so much that you don’t
remember the meal. Be kind to your
server, they’re both volunteers and our friends. And feel free to tip them. All gratuities go to YSB.
Thank you for supporting the kids and families Youth Service
Bureau of Illinois Valley works so hard to help. They’re not eating as well as you are
tonight, I guarantee.
Bon appétit,
Dave McClure
P.S.-That farmer didn’t really call me.
Photos by Wynn Venard
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