Preparing for a Special Autumn Dinner at My Farm

November 9, 2019

Preparing for a Special Autumn Dinner at My Farm

I love entertaining at home, especially when I can incorporate my own garden-grown vegetables and fruits into the menu.

Yesterday, I hosted a Moroccan-style dinner for 16. Chef Pierre Schaedelin, from PS Tailored Events, and I, planned the delicious dishes. The first course was Bisteeya, a traditional Moroccan dish, followed by Couscous Royale, made with chicken, lamb, sausage and a variety of fresh vegetables from my garden. Our dessert was homemade pomegranate and quince sorbet served with quince paste and brown butter shortbread cookies - the quince was picked from my trees just last week. Preparing for any party takes a lot of effort, a lot of time, and a lot of advanced planning - it was a busy day of cooking, cleaning, and table setting, but all worth the effort for a wonderful gathering of friends.

Here are some photos, enjoy.

: I always personalize my dinner table with handwritten place cards and menus for each guest. The card stock is printed with the symbol of my farm – this great sycamore tree of Cantitoe Corners.

: Eggs are gathered from my wonderful hens and saved for the bisteeya.

: Inside the Flower Room kitchen, just a few steps from my Winter House, Chef Pierre Schaedelin, from PS Tailored Events, is busy preparing our delicious meal. Follow him on Instagram @pstailoredevents.

: Chef Pierre is cooking on my new Kitchen Aid Commercial Style Range – these appliances heat so evenly and work so efficiently. https://www.kitchenaid.com/

: I wanted to have pomegranate sorbet, so we got these great big pomegranates from my friends at POM Wonderful. https://www.pomwonderful.com/

: The first course is bisteeya, a traditional Moroccan dish most like an elaborate meat pie combining sweet and savory flavors, and using a phyllo dough encasement. Ours is made with chicken that is simmered in broth with onions, garlic, lemon juice, herbs, cumin, and saffron until it is falling off the bone. After it is cooked, Chef Pierre removes the chicken pieces and places them on a cookie sheet. Next, the bones are removed completely and the chicken is moved into a large bowl and mixed with herbs.

: My large Brown Room is a great space for entertaining. The long table is set for 16-guests. Here, Sanu places several small salt and pepper bowls down the length of the table.

: All the necessary silver utensils are pulled from the drawer and added to the table settings.

: Enma folds white napkins for each setting. For this meal, we selected crisp white linens embroidered with my initials.

: Here are the tagines, ready to be filled in my kitchen. A tagine cooking base is wide and shallow, and the tall lid fits snuggly inside. I love serving couscous royal in these handsome dishes.

: These fruit glasses are also placed on the counter – all ready for the dessert service. They will look lovely with the deep red pomegranate sorbet.

: And, here is some of the lamb that is being prepared for the couscous dish. The other meats include chicken and Merguez saucisson, a red, spicy sausage from North Africa.

: There are also ground lamb burgers seasoned with salt, pepper, olive oil, and spices. All the meats are placed into the refrigerator until it is time to sear them and finish them off in the Winter House oven.

: The juice from the pomegranates is placed into the sorbet machine. This machine churns the liquid at freezing temperatures making more than a quart of sorbet in about a half-hour.

: Chef Pierre goes into the dining room to check that all the necessary plates and utensils are on the table. This is an important step, so no one is scrambling for more forks and spoons during the meal.

: We used about 30-eggs for our bisteeya.

: The eggs are scrambled in butter with lemon juice, salt, and pepper until fairly stiff. Then the eggs are cooked and placed in cheesecloth over a bowl to remove the excess liquid.

: All the vegetables harvested from my garden the day before are cut and ready for cooking.

: Look at the vibrant colors of all the fresh vegetables. They will be served with the Couscous Royale. Here are the vegetables as they simmer in the broth.

: The couscous and raisins are also poured into a separate pot. Couscous is made from tiny steamed balls of semolina flour.

: Sous chef Alain Allegretti prepares the brown butter shortbread cookie dough. The recipe is from my December 2011 issue of “Living.” https://www.marthastewart.com/865711/brown-butter-shortbread

: The dough is chilled and then cut and placed onto a cookie sheet for baking.

: To construct the bisteeya, Chef Pierre and Chef Alain start by carefully buttering the pans.

: Then they drape layers of phyllo dough over the pans – two sheets at a time. They add another two more buttered sheets of phyllo to completely cover the bottom. Phyllo is paper-thin sheets of dough used for baking pastries in Middle Eastern, Balkan, and Moroccan cuisine. The edges are left draped over the sides.

: Next, a layer of the scrambled egg mixture is placed into the pan.

: Followed by lots of chicken and fresh chopped herbs.

: Bisteeya also calls for almonds tossed with confectioner’s sugar and a bit of ground cinnamon. These almonds were sauteed in olive oil until slightly browned and then tossed with the sugar mixture.

: More of the chicken mixture is added, followed by more eggs until the dish is full.

: Here, this pan is completely full with the layers chicken, eggs and almonds. Here is my bisteeya recipe from season-4 of my show, “Martha Bakes”. http://www.marthastewart.com/1103743/bisteeya

: Brushing each sheet of phyllo with butter is important so that it bakes golden, crisp, and flaky. Both Chef Pierre and Chef Alain pull the edges of the phyllo to cover the mixture and then add more phyllo to cover the top completely.