A few days ago a giant, man-eating shark visited the deck along with 17 dinner guests. Our fourth dinner this summer was another beautiful evening. Some old faces mixed with a few new ones made for a great evening.

We started off with some snacks. We brought back a favorite of ours with the London bar mix. Aimee made a few batches of homemade beet chips as well. For those who are first time readers, Reel Tasty is our summer supper club where Aimee, my co-chef/host, and I  screen a movie on a 2 story building while feeding our guests some of our latest gastronomic creations. Once most of the guests arrived we moved quickly into appetizers. I say quickly because we knew we were racing against the sun. It is later in the summer and things have been getting darker sooner. First up was Cuban corn.

photo credit: Kun Kim

Shortly after that, Aimee served her delicious cantaloupe soup finished with a crispy piece of prosciutto and a basil leaf.

photo credit: Kun Kim

Our final appetizer was inspired by the cinematic honoree for the evening. Mako shark ceviche was served on scoop sized tortilla chips.

photo credit: Kun Kim

Earlier in the day Aimee and I struggled with the ceviche a touch. The prep went fine. So did the dice. The marinating in citrus went well too. When we mixed the citrus cooked shark with the other ingredients we felt the flavor wasn’t bold enough but we could not figure out what it was missing. Some red onion brought it up a bit but it still lacked the punch we both wanted. We finally found that punch in a granny smith apple.

Guests enjoyed as we prepped the next course.

photo credits: Kun Kim

As darkness came, even a bit earlier than expected, our guests kept mingling in the dark. I suspect the hollowed out watermelon filled with rum punch had something to do with that.

As I tended to the grease fire my apricot glazed pork chops had created, Aimee and the rest of the crew started mixing the salads and pasta. “Big Silver”, what I call our largest mixing bowl, was going to have to work overtime tonight. We needed him to finish three of our dishes.

photo credit: Kun Kim

As the guests sat I pulled the pork off the grill to rest and we broke out the good olive oil to dress both salads. Finally staged and ready, we presented the entrees. At the far end of the table was the watermelon kirby cucumber salad.

photo credit: Kun Kim

In the middle, the rigatoni pesto shared space next to the peach and tomato salad. I was most excited to announce this dish because the tomatoes came from rooftop farms a few blocks away. I literally picked the tomatoes off the vine myself that morning. Rooftop Farms is a project started by Ben Flanner. He converted a warehouse roof in Greenpoint Brooklyn into a working farm that produces everything from tomatoes to honey.

Finally, at the close end of the table were two heaping plates of apricot glazed pork chops that were served with fresh grilled apricots and caramelized onions.

photo credit: Kun Kim

Guests started passing and sharing the family style portions discussing each dish and helping serve each other. This is one of my favorite things to watch at these dinners, strangers sharing and serving food to each other. After topping off everyone’s vino and making sure the table didn’t need anything we retired to the kitchen to clean up the kitchen and prep for the next course.

photo credit: Kun Kim

Movie time came 20 minutes later and I fired up the projector drawing the guests attention to the big wall at the end of the deck. I realized that those of you who have not been to a dinner have been missing out on part of the experience that could have been easily shared. Before the movie starts we have a bit of a pre-show. This show is a Trivia Game. Below is the one we created for Jaws. Note that this seamlessly transitions into the movie but for legal and size purposes I did not keep the movie in this video.

About half way through Jaws we served some parmesan popcorn as REEL TASTY tradition mandates. And then, just before jaws got killed we plated and served flourless chocolate cake with fresh whipped cream and raspberry sauce.

photo credit: Kun Kim

That was accompanied shortly with a few pints of homemade strawberry ice cream.

photo credit: Kun Kim

The movie ended and our evening was coming to a close. Our guests started to trickle out but not with out one last treat, a homemade resses peanut butter cup that Aimee whipped up the night before the dinner.

The September dinner is already in the works and we will release details soon. The seats have been going really quick so if you have been thinking about joining us on the deck snap one up for September. Make sure you are on the guest list by sending us a note at dinners@forkingtasty.com. We only have September and October left in our summer dinners. We are currently looking into moving things inside for the winter so stay tuned for that. Thanks again to our guests and killer crew that make these dinners a success. We hope to see some new faces on the deck in September and October. As always, below are some of the recipes from the evening.

Recipes:

Watermelon, Kirby Salad

ingredients
kirby cucumbers peeled and seeded (cut like halfmooms)
scallions
juice of 1 lime juice
watermelon cubed (not too ripe)
salt+pepper
olive oil
mint -finely minced

directions
1. mix all ingredients together except olive oil
2. drizzle with olive oil and mix again
3. serve immedialtely

Tomato-Peach Salad

ingredients
tomatoes
peaches
red onion
cider vinegar
olive oil
salt, pepper, sugar

directions
1. cut tomatoes and peaches into wedges
2. slice red onion thin ribbons
3. mix all ingredients and serve

Apricot Glazed Pork Chops

Ingredients
10 pork chops (bone in)
1 jar apricot preserves (preferably with whole fruit)
Juice of 1/2 medium lemon
3/8 teaspoon hungarian red pepper flakes
1/8 teaspoon cumin
6 apricots pitted and halved
1 onion sliced thin

directions
1. mix all ingredients in bag except the apricots
2. put in pork chops and marinate up to 3 hours
3. grill chops 7 mnutes per side (approx based on thickness)
4. grill apricot for 2 minutes each side
5. carmelize onions in saute pan
6. plate chops and place apricots and carmelized onions over chops

Dad’s will be dad’s. To know mine is to have a teacher and a comedian at the ready at all times. Most times we are laughing at him but he seems to revel in that. Come Father’s day he is never short on requests for what he wants. So, to appease and repay him for all the lessons and laughs I made the following two ceviches for the pepster.

Striped Bass Ceviche

ingredients
1 whole bass
1/4 cup lime juice2 jalapenos, seeded and sliced thin1 red bell pepper diced
scallions
chives
perar tomatoes sliced thinbasil finely chopped
olive oil
salt and pepper
1/3 cup guanbana nectar
kalamata olives
1 cup lime juice to marinate fish

directions
1. soak fish in lime juice for 30-40 minutes
2. drain
3. mix all ingredients together and let sit for 3 hours

Shrimp/Scallop Ceviche

ingredients
1/2 lbs bay scallops
1/2 lbs medium shrimp
1/4 cup cachacca
1/2 cup lime juice
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
olive oil oil
salt and pepper1/4 cup coconut water
3 cucumbers seeded and diced
3 oranges diced
1 shallot minced
1 cup lime juice for marinating

directions
1. soak fish in lime juice for 30-40 minutes
2. drain fish
3. mix with oyther ingredients and let sit for 3 hours before serving

Last Saturday I competed in the risotto challenge. Me and 14 other contestants went head to head for best dish. The challenge was a lot of fun and it was great to see so many familiar faces but also meet a bunch of new ones.

I did not win, nor place, but I was doing it for the love of food and friends who love food, not for a prize. Noah, my competition neighbor won judges first prize. I will let Cathy explain the rest of the contestants and their dishes along with the winners over on her blog. She will do a much better job anyway.

Next challenge I hear is hotdogs. Stay tuned.

Monkfish Risotto

time 45 min + prep
yield 1 gallon

ingredients:
4 zucchini diced
2 monkfish fillets
1 bunch tarragon
2 containers fish stock
1/2 bottle white wine
5 shallots
olive oil
3 cups arborio rice

directions:
1. roast zuchinni and set aside
2. season monkfish with salt, pepper, paprika and cardimum
3. sauted monkfish until carmelized. finish in oven until cooked (stop just before it is done). reserve juices for risotto. strain them.
4. dice monkfish same size as zuchinni once cooled
5. add minced shallots and olive oil to risotto pan
6. add 3 cups arborio rice to pan. cook until taranslucent
7. add wine
8. once wine is absorbed add fish stock to just below rice line
9. keep adding stock until rice has absorbed most of the stock. check for donness.
10. add minced tarragon and white pepper to taste. add small dashes of cardimum until flavor can be recognized
11. add a tablespoon of roasted halibut juice
12. add a tablespoon of roasted halibut juice
13. mix through

Christmas day starts off with a bang, and I am not talking about a frenzy induced, wrapping paper ripping, gift mania. I am talking about food. For better or for worse, my family does not do much if there is not food involved. I woke up in my grandmothers house which is covered in Santa Claus’. My parents were already stirring. My father had on coffee and my mom was making eggs. It was only about 9:30am. The tree, gift ceremony and “real” food would be back at my Uncle Doug’s. Kickoff? 10:30am.

Ant woke up, grandma came out of her room in her favorite new Christmas outfit. I have one of those awesome grandmas that has several outfits for each holiday. Love her! By this time the coffee and eggs were ready and the family had a quick Christmas breakfast before loading into the car and heading over to my uncles.

On the left is out breakfast and on the right is meat pie. Meat pie is a specialty made by my Uncle Brian’s favorite deli in Tampa Florida. He has the same feelings about this pie that my Aunt Joy has about an Apple Crisp, but we will get to that a little later. As we enter my Uncle Doug’s house before you see any people you see meat pie. The warm and delicious scents set off olfactory alarms as you get bombarded with Merry Christmas hugs, kisses and the occasional hi-five. As the hellos subside I wandered into the dining room to find a table already filled with antipasti.

Homemade eggplant caponota and fresh made hot soppressata. We noshed for a while but then some of the prep for dinner could not be put off any longer. The trick was to get all of the big dishes going and then start the 4 and a half hour present ceremony. The idea is, once we are done with gifts dinner would be ready. Tonight we had a turkey and a prime rib as the main event. As sides, there was probably 4 or 5 of them. But before all that we had to rig up the Prime rib on the, now standard tradition, Ron Popeil Showtime Rotisserie.

The roast and the turkey go into their respective warming vessels and the gift giving, getting, ripping, playing begins. Highlights from this year include a special golf club, a Yankee Shakespeare mask, an awesome truck for little Nate and a convertible for my grandma. Just as planned about 30 minutes after we finished with the gifts, dinner was piping hot and ready to go.

23lbs Turkey and 8lbs Prime Rib

My now famous cauliflower dish(recipe at bottom). Roasted Asparagus with toasted breadcrumbs. Moms Italian stuffing (some goes in the turkey but we always do a separate dish too because it is a crowd favorite). And of course we can not forget the fettuccine alfredo (pictured at top). Shortly after that we slide into, yep you guessed it, dessert.

This is a homemade, giant peanut butter cup made by Amy. I have never seen anything like this before. It was outstanding.

Of course it was accompanied by several familiar friends from last night and the apple crisp I mentioned earlier. Forgive me for not having a picture of it. In my meat and sugar induced coma I must have forgot to snap a pic of the deconstructed, crustless, apple pie. My aunt made quick work of it anyway, so the chances of getting an appropriate picture would have been low.

As the evening came to a close I think my grandma expressed it best with her simple, wordless expression in this picture.

If you are interested in the full Florida set, check it out here.

Cauliflower and Chick Peas
ingredients:
1 head Cauliflower-cut into small florets
2 Lemons juiced
zest of 2 lemons
1 can garbanzo beans
capers-just a little
caper brine if so desired
Parsley-chopped
olive oil

directions:
Coat cauliflower lightly with olive oil. Roast cauliflower in Baking dish for an hour at 400 degrees. Let cool. Mix with all other ingredients. Serve warm or at room temperature