The Cousin Test Part 3 of 3 or For the Halibut!

Dear Reader,

As a reminder, Arlene's email said "Will be in Florida from X day through X day. Would love to see you guys".

And without a second thought, I saw "dinner party" in my mind.

I envisioned our dining room table full of our crystal and Mikasa off-white china- that I am dying to get rid of and purchase anew. Something a bit less romantic. Michael is more into the romantic and I mostly cringe when I see romantic styles. Leave romantic in Italy- says this observer. I am more into modernism. Give me John Cage over Frederic Chopin any day. Now, don't get me wrong, I do crave for Chopin at times.

The hip Chinese pianist, Lang Lang pretends to capture only a glimpse and spirit of what Ashkenazy or the king of Chopin, Rubinstein, could do. And by no means am I saying that you have to be of European decent to play the likes of Chopin. If that were true, the Koreans would have no purpose. For my money, Lang Lang (who I enjoy tremendously and one recommendation if you are new to Lang Lang-pronounced Loang Loang- and seek something a little larger than life, his disk, Dragon Dragon. A Must. A mix of traditional Chinese themes with contemporary. While listening to it, I feel the government is watching my every move. Exhilarating.) is more a wine cooler with his Chopin and Ashkenazy is a bottle of 1990 Beausejour and Rubinstein is champagne with berries. Any berry will do.

I like champagne, cheap-ish or otherwise. I don't have the developed taste buds to decipher fine from dreck. Yet.

I do fantasize about what a $200. bottle of wine must be like. I imagine lifting the glass to my face. The gasses and scents of the wine flow up through my pours, release toxins in my face and with one whiff, the smells of the French countryside or rich Tuscan earth or a Chilean ladies foot engulf my sensories. Right as I am about to touch the crystal glass to my lips, in a crazy culinary osmosis, vapors from the aged and fermented grapes pre-kiss my tongue. I actually taste the wine slightly before it passes my lips. It's almost like a sun shower! Like a clumsy teenage french kiss at summer camp! I bring the glass to my lips and tilt it downward slightly. Out flows a tiny bit of that golden, warm sunlight into my mouth. My mouth warms.

Most people speak of wines in smoothness. It's easy to imagine drinking velvet. But I'd like to imagine drinking silk or angora. Oddly. Taste. Taste. It's almost like I'm drinking a liquified blueberry blintz. The spell is over.

I thought it a terrific opportunity to invite some other cousins of mine with Arlene and Kurt. It's been a while since I've seen Alan, Fran, Maxine and Falan and thought "why the hell not?".

They live in South Florida and I don't see them as often as I should.

Alan and Fran have a "yours, mine and ours complex". In other words, they both have been married before, both have had two children each in their marriages and have additionally added two children in their new marriage. So this family unit, aside including Maxine and Falan also have Jennifer, Brett, Lisa and Giorgina. Again, all of them closer to my age than my first cousins. In fact, Lisa is a year older than me and Jennifer and I are the same age.

For tonight's dinner party, Falan will be joining her parents. Maxine has to work.

When Michael and I have dinner parties, we put the guest list together and that, as Michael says, "It's like casting a play". "The characters all have to mesh well".

After the dinner party is cast, the menu gets decided. Usually by me since it's me who cooks. Putting together a menu generally is a lot of fun. I have a plethora of fancy shmancy cook books that have come my way via Santa or Hanukkah Harry. This particular Hanukkah, the Gourmet Magazine Cookbook found its way into my hands. The night Michael gave me the book, I drove him nuts reading off recipes into the wee hours. The possibilities were endless. When I finally went to sleep, I, for the first time, understood what, "visions of sugar-plumbs" really meant. I felt like Cindy-Lou-Who from Whoville.

But there was a kind of strange pressure putting together this particular menu. Usually we have either theatre-people or lawyers over the house for dinner. Theatre-people and lawyers eat any and everything.

A) Actors never turn down a free mean and B) Lawyers eat competitively.

Interestingly though, both love living creatively. We'll also have academics at the house, and they too will eat anything. But academics require vodka as a chaser and get emotional by the second course.

But finding a menu for my tonight was more of a challenge. It was the day after Christmas and I wanted something that was festive and elegant. So I thought pork loin. But I remembered Arlene and Kurt don't eat meat. Plus, Fran, Alan and Falan are conservative Jews. No pork.

Chicken is common and steak is out of the question. I'd love lamb but a little too expensive right now. The obvious choice was seafood. It kept the evening as an occasion. But it had to be seafood that was not part of a weekly cuisine like salmon or tuna.

I searched through my new Gourmet Cookbook and found a lovely winter dish using halibut. The perfect place to start!

It took me 15 minutes to put together the menu.

The music I chose for the meal was Edgar Meyer playing Bach's Cello Suites on Double Bass. Simple and almost a vocalese. One of my favorite recordings ever. If you happen to listen to the recording alone, make sure you are doing something. The melodic tones of the double bass can turn your mood into darkness.

First Course: Seared Scallops with Curried Pea Sauce.

Now silly me. I was so sensitive to the 'not eating meat/conservative Jewish' thing. I completely forgot scallops were a shell fish. The recipe also calls for the Scallops to be wrapped in prosciutto (ham). Ooooops. But, everybody had the scallops and I was able to take the prosciutto off of the few who were definitely off the pig. Depending on the size, served two or three scallops per plate. Our china is bone-white and the curried pea sauce is a mint like pea-green. The slightly charred scallop wrapped in thin prosciutto rests in a bed of this sauce. On top of the scallop are some chopped mint leaves. The combination of the curried pea sauce mixed with the sweet scallop and savory sweet ham was as natural a a Reese's peanut butter cup. The curry gave the scallop an Eastern quality while the ham brought the who dish back to the Mediterranean. I found this recipe in Gourmet's cook book. Out of 5 stars, I give this one 4.

Course Two: Carrot & Ginger Soup with Fried Scallions

I LOVE pureed soups. I love making them. I love eating them. I love finding new ones and mix matching recipes. The basis of this soup came from an older book I had from Williams-Sonoma called Soup. The stock of the soup calls for a Chicken stock and I have an old school Jewish soup recipe that I use. Jewish chicken soup is miracle water. The catholics have their "holy water" and the Jews have their miracle water. The other veggies including the carrot and ginger are cooked and pureed. The color of the soup is an incredible, healthy, autumn orange. As toppers for pureed soups, a little creme fresh on the top is a great treat. I pretend I am Chagall or Picasso. On top of that, some lightly fried scallions give the soup and presentation a buttery, savory touch. I like to puree my soups for a while so that they are very light off the spoon. Some people like to puree their soups less so. This give a heartier quality and leaves less suspicion of a canned product. 5 stars out of 5.

Course Three: Halibut with Pecans, Shallots & Butter with pan roasted Brussel Sprouts & Israeli Couscous.

For me, this was the most disappointing course. Partly because I am still afraid of cooking fish. There are so many rules. I don't fit into rules. I never have. I bought the fish fresh at Whole Foods and I think I should have asked them to take the skin off. The halibut is seared in butter with the pecans and shallots but skin on the fish makes it for a cumbersome meal. The halibut never really had a flavor. Plus after the color of the last two courses, this was the most bland. The fish rested on a bed of couscous. I couldn't find Israeli so I opted for regular. The difference in in the size of the couscous. Israeli is a bigger pasta. I got regular couscous with no flavor. With my bland fish on it. Thank God for the brussel sprouts. Split in half and pan roasted with olive oil and salt and pepper. A dream come true and a nice, vibrant color to the otherwise drab plate. Both recipes were found in Gourmet. I though of the couscous. The halibut 3 star. Brussel Sprouts 4 stars.

Dessert: Dark Chocolate Rum Brulee with White Chocolate drizzle.

Just as good as it sounds. Rich and heavenly. Good with fruit. This recipe comes from Williams-Sonomas book called Brulee. LOVE THIS BOOK. 5 stars out of 5. If you love chocolate. If you want a traditional brulee, this is not your recipe.

With each course came a surprised collective reaction from the guests. An enthusiasm for the food they were about to eat. The hushed quite that would fall directly before the first bite of each dish and then a cacophony of sound as conversations & memories & sensories explode. The laughing and the eating and the joking around! And the passing of the wine and vodka (there are a few academics in my family). What a great evening I had, reconnecting with and learning about my family. What a great time I had sharing my life with Michael with these people. What a great time I had watching Michael clean up the place after they left! I put my feet up and turned on CNN.

Best,

Stuart