This meal features flavorful sauces for dipping or adding to the lettuce wraps. They can be made a few days ahead and refrigerated. These sauces would pair equally well with any roasted meat—and its visually attractive to have lots of small bowls filled with colorful ingredients dotting the table.
Serves 6
On the menu:
Whole Fried Red Snapper (this page)
Lemongrass Ginger Chicken (this page)
Grilled Shrimp on Sugarcane Skewers (this page)
1 or 2 heads of butter lettuce
Green Papaya Salad (this page)
Chili Fish Sauce (this page)
Sriracha-Lime Sauce (this page)
Peanut Sauce (this page)
Pickled Carrots and Daikon Radish (this page)
Lychee and Lime Spritzer (this page)
WHOLE FRIED RED SNAPPER
1 4-pound red snapper, gutted and scaled, with head and tail intact
1 quart vegetable oil
½ cup all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons ground coriander
1½ teaspoons ground ginger
1½ teaspoons ground cumin
1½ teaspoons coarse salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Clean and dry the snapper, making sure that all of the scales are removed. Taking care not to cut into the fish, use a sharp knife to make 3 slits in the skin on each side. This will allow the fish to cook before getting too much color on the skin.
Pour the oil into a deep pot wide enough to hold the fish and heat to 375°F. (If you don’t have a frying thermometer, drop a small cube of bread into the oil. If the oil begins to bubble and the bread browns quickly, the oil is ready.)
In a large flat dish with a rim, combine the flour, coriander, ginger, cumin, salt, and pepper.
When the oil is hot, dredge the snapper in the flour mixture, shaking off any excess. Using a large spider or slotted spoon, carefully lower the fish into the hot oil and deep-fry until the skin is crisp and the interior is cooked, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately on a large platter.
LEMONGRASS GINGER CHICKEN
Pork can be substituted for the chicken. I like to use a 1- to 1½-pound pork tenderloin, cut into 2-inch cubes.
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for the pan
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 bunch of scallions, minced (both white and green parts)
1 stalk of lemongrass, tough outer layers removed, finely chopped
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 2-inch cubes
In a large bowl, mix the soy sauce, oil, fish sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, scallions, lemongrass, and salt and pepper to taste until well incorporated. Add the chicken and toss in the marinade until all the pieces are coated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. The flavor will penetrate more deeply the longer it sits, but do not marinate more than 24 hours.
Heat a large sauté pan over high heat until very hot (a drop of water will sizzle and bounce off the surface). Drizzle in a small amount of oil to just coat the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken and sear on all sides until nice and caramelized, about 4 minutes on each side. Serve immediately.
GRILLED SHRIMP ON SUGARCANE SKEWERS
Makes 10 skewers
Marinating the shrimp for 30 minutes before cooking makes them juicy and flavorful. The sugarcane skewers add another burst of flavor to the shrimp and an authentic look for the dish—and they’re edible.
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 pound large shrimp (31–35 count per pound), peeled and deveined, tails left on
1 20-ounce can sugarcane, cut into ¼-inch skewers with a point made on one end
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
Combine the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce, and rice wine vinegar in a large bowl. Add the shrimp and toss to coat. Cover and let marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Heat a grill or grill pan to medium-high heat. While it heats, prepare the skewers. Thread 3 shrimp onto each skewer, discarding the marinade. Season with salt and pepper to taste and grill until no longer transparent, 2 to 3 minutes per side. The hot grill will allow caramelization on the exterior of the shrimp without overcooking the centers.
GREEN PAPAYA SALAD
Primarily known throughout Southeast Asia by its Thai name, som tam, this salad contains the five main tastes of hot, sour, salty, sweet, and savory. Look for green papaya in Asian or Latin markets. Choose a very hard fruit with a completely green skin.
2 garlic cloves, chopped
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 small Thai chile, sliced
½ cup peanut or vegetable oil
1 green papaya, peeled, halved, seeded, and julienned on a mandoline
2 large carrots, julienned on a mandoline
1 cup snow peas, julienned
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
1 cup chopped peanuts (optional)
In a large bowl, mix the garlic, vinegar, lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, honey, chile, and oil. Just before serving, add the green papaya, carrots, and snow peas to the dressing and toss until completely coated. Serve with the cilantro and chopped peanuts on the side, if using.
PEANUT SAUCE
⅓ cup hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sriracha or chili paste
In a small bowl, combine the hoisin sauce, peanut butter, lime juice, soy sauce, sriracha, and 3 tablespoons water. If the consistency is too thick, add a few more teaspoons of water. The sauce can be made a few days ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving.
CHILI FISH SAUCE
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sambal chili paste
In a small bowl, combine the sugar, rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, chili paste, and ½ cup water. Taste and add more fish sauce, if desired. The sauce can be made a few days ahead and refrigerated until ready to use.
SRIRACHA-LIME SAUCE
1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
½ cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons sriracha
In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, and sriracha. The sauce can be made a few days ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
PICKLED CARROTS AND DAIKON RADISH
1 cup ume plum vinegar
1 quart warm water
3 tablespoons sugar
1½ tablespoons coarse salt
3 medium to large carrots, peeled and sliced thin on a bias (2 cups)
2 daikon radish, peeled and sliced thin on a bias (2 cups)
In a medium bowl, mix the vinegar and water. Add the sugar and salt and stir to dissolve.
Place the sliced carrots and daikon in an airtight container large enough to hold both the vegetables and the brine.
Pour the brine over the vegetables. Cover and let sit for 1 hour at room temperature. Marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour more, then drain. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
LYCHEE AND LIME SPRITZER
1 20-ounce can lychees in syrup
¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
½ cup vodka
Chilled sparkling water
Pour the lychees and their syrup into a blender or food processor and pulse until smooth. Transfer to a cocktail pitcher and stir in the lime juice and vodka. Serve over ice, filling each glass about three-quarters of the way, and top with sparkling water.
PICNIC ON THE LAWN
A picnic with family and friends is all about being easy. These sandwiches are homemade, but they could just as easily be purchased at the local gourmet shop. Add a tray of your favorite cheeses and charcuterie, fruits and vegetables in season, and a good loaf of bread, and you have a delicious array to spread on a blanket in the park. A chilled bottle of rosé is the perfect complement to the meal. The key to a stress-free picnic is portability, so we serve the panna cotta dessert in lidded jars to ensure there’ll be no spills en route.
Serves 6
On the menu:
Avocado BLTs on ciabatta rolls
Fresh radishes
Fresh figs
Sliced melon
A selection of cheeses
Prosciutto
Bresaola
Cornichons
Crusty baguette
Water with lemon and fresh mint
Rosé
Panna cotta jars
BARS, CARTS, AND SPECIALTY DRINKS
Fun and Unique
Service Scenarios
With the rise of the craft cocktail, specialty drinks have become more and more important at events. Bar service used to be (and still predominantly is) glasses placed attractively on the tabletop, with a few bottles of alcohol and a few small bottles of soda. You put your condiments in a glass, and you’re done. You might have some specialty drinks in pitchers toward the rear of the bar.
The bartender may tell the guest what the specials are, or there might be a menu card on the table. We put these vivid specialty drinks in attractive carafes or decanters, floating above the table on a riser. We do that by making an acrylic board with feet and placing it on the bar, perched above the glasses. Your eye is drawn to the board, and you’re thinking, What is that? In this way the specialty drinks become the decor of the bar.
We also put chilling boxes on the end of the bar to chill the wine and Champagne and let guests see what we are offering. These are square boxes similar to a wine bucket, which could also be used. But, most important, the specialty drink is front and center. We started that years ago and now it’s become the standard.
MOSCOW MULE
Makes 1
1½ ounces vodka
½ ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
½ cup ginger beer
Crystallized ginger, for garnish
Mint sprig, for garnish
Lime wedge, for garnish
Mix the vodka and lime juice in a copper mug or highball glass. Add ice and top with the ginger beer, stirring once. Garnish with crystallized ginger, a sprig of mint, and a lime wedge.
MOSCOW MULE CART Moscow Mules have been around since the 1940s. They have become popular again, particularly when served in copper mugs, which I first discovered with my son while skiing out west. I like to serve them on a cart with both full-size and mini mugs, so a guest can have half a drink or even a quarter of a drink—they don’t have to make a full commitment! Sometimes we bring the carts out following dinner, if the client wants the party to continue afterward.
FIREBALL COCKTAIL
Makes 1
½ ounce Fireball cinnamon whiskey
½ cup Angry Orchard cider
In an ice-filled shaker, combine the Fireball and the cider. Shake well and pour into a rocks glass filled with ice.
FIREBALL CART
Fireball, the cinnamon-flavored whiskey-based liqueur, has become popular among young groups. The recipe for the classic version of the cocktail is on this page. The graphics on the bottle are part of its appeal, so we replicate them on the cart and decorate the edges with sparklers. We put labels on small glass bottles and have fireball candy stoppers on top. We drill a hole through the stopper and insert a straw. Roll one of these carts around a party after dinner and the message is loud and clear: “Please stay and let’s have fun!” There are many variations on this cart, including one for kids with a nonalcoholic fireball-candy spritzer.
BLOODY MARY
Makes 4
1 quart tomato juice
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1½ teaspoons Tabasco sauce
2 tablespoons freshly grated horseradish
½ teaspoon celery seed
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground coriander
1 cup vodka
4 small celery ribs with leaves, for garnish
Combine the tomato juice, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, horseradish, celery seed, cumin, coriander, and vodka in a pitcher and stir vigorously to mix well. Fill four highball glasses with ice, pour in the Bloody Mary mix, and garnish with the celery ribs.
BLOODY MARY BAR Bloody Marys these days are all about the garnishes, so we provide everything that anyone could want to add to their glass. Yes, there’s the traditional celery, but also shrimp, fried oysters, watermelon radishes, asparagus, artichoke hearts, capers, saffron threads, cornichons, cured olives, and celery salt. We often provide pitchers of plain tomato and other juices and let people mix their own Bloodies, providing hot sauce and clam juice on the side. It’s like a bar buffet.
DRUNKEN PIGS
Makes 12 to 16 bacon pigs (depending on bacon shape)
12 slices thick-cut applewood-smoked bacon
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Line a quarter-sheet pan with parchment paper and lay the bacon strips on the parchment. Place another sheet of parchment and then a second quarter-sheet pan on top of the bacon to keep it flat.
Bake until the bacon is almost cooked but still flexible, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and uncover the bacon. With a 2-inch pig-shaped cookie cutter, cut the bacon into as many pig shapes as possible. You may have to use a paring knife to make the edges clean.
Return the uncovered bacon to the oven and cook to the desired doneness, another 5 minutes or so. Transfer to a paper towel–lined plate to drain.
Prepare the Apple Bourbon Fizz (this page) as directed and pour into mini copper mugs. With kitchen shears, cut a small slit in the bottom of each pig and attach one to the rim of each mug.
DRUNKEN PIGS AND BOURBON COCKTAILS
We love to serve bacon and bourbon together and have many variations on the theme. We use our 3D printer to custom-make a pig-shaped cookie cutter for cutting the bacon. Here are our Drunken Pigs: the pig-shaped bacon are cut with slits to sit on the side of a mini copper mug.
APPLE BOURBON FIZZ
Makes 12
1 quart fresh apple juice
1 cup honey
5 ounces bourbon
¾ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Chilled sparkling water
In a large pitcher, mix the apple juice, honey, bourbon, and lemon juice. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. Pour into mugs and top off each cocktail with sparkling water to taste.
BACON AND BOURBON BUFFET My dad had a sailboat we could cruise on and the “refrigerator” was an ice box cooled by a big block of ice. When it was time to make himself a drink, he would just take an ice pick and break off a chunk. With all the interest in mixology and its emphasis on clear ice, it can be very expensive to purchase all those fancy ice cubes. Plus that’s been done. My new thing is to buy a big block of ice and let guests chip off their own with an ice pick. It makes for a great design element.
Here we’re doing a tasting of both premium bourbons and a variety of bacon types: duck bacon, lamb bacon, chicken pancetta, and Mangalitsa pork bacon.
WINE STAND A large-format wine bottle is like an event all by itself. The bottle pictured here is called a jeroboam: at 4.5 liters, it’s equivalent to six standard 750-ml bo
ttles. The size draws people over and creates a special, festive atmosphere. If you had ten nice bottles of red wine sitting on a table, they won’t create excitement the way a large-format bottle does. Even pouring from it is entertaining. Here, we display it the way one might a sculpture, with its own pedestal, because it deserves that kind of attention. We offer these at cocktail time, during dinner if it is a buffet, or after dinner.
ICE SHOTS I often do a drink moment at the end of the meal to indicate that the party is to continue. Nothing says more clearly that the host wants you to stay than bringing out shots. We don’t ask the guests; we simply bring out three shots and place them at 12:00 above their plates. In this case, it’s a shot of Hendrick’s gin with cucumber, a Vesper with a lemon twist, and a classic martini with an olive. It brings the energy of the party up from the slower pace of dinner.
SNOWBALLS A tray of these beautiful snowballs greeted guests at the door to a winter wonderland–themed party. The tray was laid with shaved ice to hold the snowballs in place. No gloves were needed—we carefully measured the amount of the drink to be commensurate with the time that a guest could comfortably hold the snowball. It’s a quick-drink moment that served as a fun start to the evening.
Peter Callahan's Party Food Page 14