A Spring Dinner Party at My Farm

June 7, 2017

I always enjoy entertaining at home.

This week, I hosted a special dinner at my Bedford, New York farm for my friend, Dan Hinkley - plantsman, author, horticulturist and nurseryman. While Dan was in town, I thought it would be fun to invite other gardeners, growers and horticulture enthusiasts to join us for a tour of my gardens and a delicious spring meal. Chef Pierre Schaedelin, from PS Tailored Events, and I, planned a menu for about 25-guests, which included a wonderful risotto with asparagus, peas and Morels, a saffron bouillabaisse, rouille herb croutons, and rhubarb crisp with homemade buttermilk sorbet for dessert. It was a wonderful meal.

Enjoy these photos…

: I always love to add beautiful fresh flowers to my dining table. Ryan cut a variety of colorful blooms, and I placed one or two in individual glasses to spread along the length of my long dining table in the brown room.

: My friend, Chef Pierre Schaedelin from PS Tailored Events, arrived early to start preparing another one of his delicious meals. He uses the flower room kitchen for most of his preparations.

: When I host dinners at my farm, I always plan the menu myself, but Chef Pierre and I will also discuss what’s in season at the time, and what I may have growing in my gardens.

: Chef Pierre prepared the vegetables first. He says, “mise en place” is extremely important when cooking any special meal. This is a French phrase meaning “putting in place”, as in set-up. It is used in professional kitchens when referring to organizing and arranging all the ingredients for the menu, such as these vegetables for our entree.

: I have a lot of bright red rhubarb growing in my garden right now, so I decided to have rhubarb crisp for dessert.

: Here is Pierre chopping it up. Because it’s so tart, rhubarb should always be cooked with a sweetener. It’s usually used in baked desserts like crisps and crumbles, cakes, and pies. You can also toss it with honey, roast briefly, and then add to salads or serve with meats.

: Once it is chopped, it is placed in a large stainless steel bin and mixed with sugar.

: There is also a lot of delicious asparagus growing in the garden, so we picked everything that was available the morning of the party. It will be added to the risotto.

: Pierre got some wonderful Morel mushrooms. Morels, edible wild mushrooms that are prized for their smoky, nutty flavor, need thorough washing, since they are riddled with nooks and crannies. These will also be added to the risotto.

: For this dinner, I selected bouillabaisse for the entree. Pierre got all this wonderful fresh seafood. Bouillabaisse usually calls for fish native to the Mediterranean, but some may be hard to come by. We chose red snapper, monkfish, tilefish, sea bass, shrimp and clams, which are all very delicious for this dish.

: And look at the size of the shrimp – so large and wonderfully fresh.

: When selecting fish, the fish should not give off an odor. The skin should be shiny and adhere tightly to the flesh.

: This is American red snapper – so shiny and beautiful.

: Pierre cuts the fish into sections for our bouillabaisse.

: Here is the rhubarb with all the dissolved sugar.

: Next, Pierre strains a lot of the liquid out of the rhubarb.

: Pierre also prepared rouille. Rouille is a sauce that consists of olive oil with garlic, and saffron. Our version included egg yolks, potato and some hot sauce. It is served as a garnish with fish, fish soup and, notably, bouillabaisse.

: Pierre continued to whisk in the olive oil until it was smooth.

: Pierre’s sous chef, Aron, sautéed the Morels in olive oil.

: And then placed them all on a large tray. Morel mushrooms are so delicious.

: One of the key ingredients in a traditional Marseille bouillabaisse is saffron. Just a little bit of saffron helps give this seafood stew its fragrance and beautiful hue. Saffron is a spice from the saffron crocus, Crocus sativus. Saffron crocus grows up to four flowers, each with three crimson colored stigmas, which are removed, dried and used for seasoning. Saffron is among the most expensive spices in the world by weight.

: After the bouillabaisse is cooked, it is poured through a sieve to remove all the solids. Then the liquid is returned to the pot. Here is the wonderful rich-colored bouillabaisse broth.

: The risotto was cooked and placed on a tray. To make a great risotto, one needs to use a high-starch, short-grain rice, which has the ability to absorb liquids and release starch, giving a creamy characteristic to the dish. Arborio and carnaroli are both good choices.

: Hamlet, also part of Pierre’s team, puts rhubarb in individual ramekins.

: Each dessert cup looks so delectable.

: For the crisp topping, combine oats, flour, butter, brown sugar, and salt and then bake until golden brown.

: My brown room dining table was set for 16-guests with another six at a nearby table.

: Feathers from my beautiful peacocks adorned the coffee table.

: I always include a menu at all the parties I host at my farm – a simple card featuring the great sycamore tree that is the symbol of Cantitoe Corners.

: Here are some of the peonies and other flowers picked from my gardens. It’s a simple way to create centerpieces to any dining table.

: My herbaceous peony collection has been blooming beautifully. I love looking at the peony beds every morning to see the gorgeous flowers.

: And this is a bloom from a magnolia macrophylla. The bigleaf magnolia is a deciduous magnolia native to the southeastern United States and eastern Mexico. This species boasts the largest simple leaf and single flower of any native plant in North America.

: The table looks so gorgeous and inviting.

: Here it is from the other side.

: My housekeeper, Laura, always sets a beautiful table – and the flowers I added look great with the green and white tablescape.

: Hamlet and Aron have moved into the Winter House Kitchen to prepare for dinner.

: The plates are all ready to go – they were collected from the table and stacked on the kitchen counter.

: Sauces and vegetables for the risotto and rouille are placed strategically at one end. Pierre and his team create a very efficient production line when plating the food.

: The bread is placed on large baking sheets.

: Aron mixed an herb butter spread using greens from my vegetable greenhouse he cut earlier this day. He spread a generous amount onto each piece of bread and placed them in the oven.