Iron Chef Dinner Club

Over the last few years Renée and I have had the pleasure of joining with a group of friends every other month or so for dinner club. When we started, each couple would prepare a different course, with the hosts making the entrée. Then we moved on to specific cuisines: Italian, Asian, Mexican; then to decades: 50s, 60s, 70s. It has always been fun to make different dishes and we have enjoyed some really terrific meals thanks to the culinary talents of our fellow dinner clubbers.

With the excitement surrounding last year’s Next Iron Chef competition involving Northeast Ohio’s own Michael Symon, we thought it would be fun to have our own Iron Chef-like competition for dinner club. We talked through many iterations of how we would conduct this event and what the rules would be and finally decided on the following:

- Ron Kooser–who apart from being the father of our friend and fellow dinner clubber Sheree, is President and COO of Cini-Little International, a world-wide provider of facility planning and operational consulting for all types of commercial foodservice facilities–would act as our Chairman and choose the secret ingredient.

- The morning of the dinner, a meeting would be held at our local Eagles Aerie where drinks would be consumed and the secret ingredient would be revealed.

- Courses to be prepared would be drawn from a hat to determine what each couple would bring to the dinner.

- Chairman Ron and his wife, Linda, along with friend and fellow Cornell School of Hotel Administration graduate Kent and his wife, Olivia, would act as the judges.

- Each couple would present their preparation to the judges and explain their use of the secret ingredient.

- Everyone would eat great food and drink great drinks.

And so it was that at 10:00 on a Saturday morning the secret ingredient was revealed: Blueberries!

And…They’re Off!

Each team then set out to find unique recipes, shop for ingredients, and prepare their dish. I was on a training ride that morning and had to help coach three lacrosse games that afternoon, so Renée attended the morning meeting. Our course was Appetizer, so we met at noon to choose our recipe: Goat Cheese Mousse with Red Wine Caramel.

We wanted something that combined sweet and savory and this recipe seemed perfect. (We didn’t find out until later that it is from Karen Small at the Flying Fig in Cleveland!) The original recipe called for crostini topped with goat cheese mousse, red-wine caramel and strawberry compote. We thought it would work well with blueberries, too, so we went for it. (The recipe below prepares 4 servings; we had to make enough for 20.)

1. In a saucepan, bring the wine, port, black peppercorns, shallot, thyme sprigs and 1 cup of the sugar to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Using a moistened pastry brush, wash down any sugar crystals on the side of the pan. Cook over moderate heat, without stirring, until syrupy and reduced to 1 cup, about 35 minutes. Strain and discard the solids. Let the caramel cool slightly.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, toss the blueberries, orange zest, water and the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and let stand until juicy, about 30 minutes.
3. Bring the blueberries to a boil and simmer over moderate heat until slightly thickened and jammy, about 15 minutes. Transfer the compote to a bowl and let cool.
4. In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the goat cheese, cream, ground pepper and chopped thyme until creamy. Spoon the mousse into a bowl and serve with the compote, caramel, crostini and walnuts so guests can assemble their own.

The caramel, compote and mousse can be refrigerated separately for up to 3 days and brought to room temperature before serving. Each component can be used in a variety of sweet and savory ways: The caramel, for instance, is great drizzled over just about any cheese or vanilla ice cream.

The evening was fun, and of course, delicious! Here are the dishes enjoyed by all that evening:

Appetizers:

Carmenere-Marinated Skirt Steak with Blueberry Chimi-Churri

Goat Cheese Mousse with Red Wine Caramel and Blueberry Compote

Salads:

Marinated Shrimp with Blueberry accent and Merlot Reduction Sauce

Blue Cheese, Greens, and Maple Blueberry Dressing

Entrées:

Blueberry Turkey Burgers with Lemon Mayonnaise and Blueberry Slaw

Grilled Cedar Plank Salmon with Fruit Chutney and Blueberry Sauce served with Parmesan Fingerling Potatoes

Dessert:

Blueberries over Pancotta with Homemade Chocolate-dipped Biscotti

Our Judges:

Kent, Linda, Ron, Olivia

Tagged as: biscotti, Black pepper, blue berries, compote, Cream, dinner club, goat cheese, Iron Chef, lemon, mayonnaise, Merlot, Michael Symon, pancotta, salmon, shrimp, steak, Sugar, turkey, Wine, Zest