A Spring Dinner at My Farm, Part 1
I love entertaining at home, especially when I can incorporate my own garden-grown vegetables and herbs into the menu.
This week, I hosted a dinner for 11 at my Bedford, New York farm. I invited a few riends over to join me for a special premiere viewing of my new show "Clipped" - a fun and interesting topiary competition on Discovery+. I hope you watched it - if not, you can sign up and stream today! Chef Pierre Schaedelin, from PS Tailored Events, and I, planned a delicious menu - spring risotto with black Conica morel mushrooms, Selle D'Agneau with house grown herbs, asparagus, turnips, and baby carrots, Pommes Anna, and for dessert, poached rhubarb Pavlova with whipped cream.
Here are some photos of the preparations.
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- 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.
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- Chef Pierre prepares 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. Both the turnips and baby carrots were picked fresh from my vegetable greenhouse just minutes before they were washed and trimmed. Turnips are smooth, flat, round, and white vegetables that mature early and are best harvested young – when they are up to two inches in diameter. The flavor is sweet and fruity, and the texture is crisp and tender.
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- There is also a lot of delicious asparagus growing in the garden, so we picked everything that was available. It will be added to the risotto.
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- 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.
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- Meanwhile, here’s my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, down at the lilac allee cutting some flowers for the table. I asked that some of every color be cut for our arrangements.
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- The lilacs are looking so spectacular this season. ‘Sensation’, first known in 1938, is unique for its bicolor deep-purple petals edged in white on eight to 12-foot-tall shrubs.
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- The tree peonies are also starting to bloom, so Ryan cut several for the table as well. Peonies come in colors that include all ranges of white, pink, magenta, and dark maroon.
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- I wanted the peonies cut short, so they could be placed in individual glasses.
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- All the flowers are brought into my Winter House and made into arrangements. I wanted to fill the table with gorgeous, fragrant spring blooms. Wait until you see them – you’ll love how they look.
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- Whenever I host dinner parties, I always include a menu for each guest – it is a personal detail that is very important to me. The card stock is printed with the symbol of my farm – this great sycamore tree of Cantitoe Corners.
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- We also prepare place cards for the dining table. I write each guest’s name on a card and place them by each guest’s place setting shortly before everyone arrives.
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- Back in my outdoor kitchen, Pierre places the meringue in the oven. It takes quite some time to bake at 180-degrees Fahrenheit, so he does this earlier in the day. Pavlova is a meringue-based dessert named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. It has a crisp crust and is soft and light inside, and topped with fruit and whipped cream.
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- I have a lot of bright red rhubarb growing in my garden right now, so I decided to serve poached rhubarb Pavlova. 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.
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- For the main dish, I chose to serve Selle ‘D’Agneau or Saddle of Lamb. Pierre’s sous chef, Moises, chops up the herbs for the Selle D’Agneau. All these herbs were grown right here in my garden. Look how green this parsley is – and it smells so wonderfully fresh.
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- The spinach, also from my garden, is sauteed in olive oil and then squeezed dry. Then it is mixed with the chopped rosemary, parsley, and thyme – all for the lamb.
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- The lamb saddle is a cut comprising the racks that are deboned but still held together by the skin. First, Chef Pierre cuts a lot of the fat off and the meat is flattened with a meat tenderizer. The deboned rack of lamb is placed, skin-side down, on a board and then the spinach and herb mixture is spread over the meat.
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- Next, Chef Pierre rolls the meat into a roast and ties it with about eight to 10 rounds of kitchen string one inch apart to keep the spinach and herbs secure inside.
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- Pommes Anna, or Anna potatoes, is a classic French dish of sliced, layered potatoes cooked in a very large amount of clarified butter. The potatoes are peeled and sliced very thin and then placed into small ramekins or muffin cups for baking.
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- All the vegetables are cut and placed on a baking sheet ready for roasting.
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- In the afternoon, Chef Pierre made gougères. A gougere in French cuisine is a baked savory choux pastry made of choux dough and mixed with cheese. The cheese is commonly grated Gruyère, Comté, or Emmentaler. These are always a big hit to serve before the main meal.
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- Look how the gougères puff up after cooking. The secret to gougères’ puff is the addition of eggs – too many eggs and the dough will be too wet to properly puff. It’s also best to use dry cheeses – they puff best.
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- Next, the lamb is pan seared until it is browned on all sides.
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- Chef Pierre pan sears all four of the lamb saddles at the same time.
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- And here’s a tip: when there is a lot of fat collected after cooking, let it cool slightly and then pour it into a small plastic container to freeze. When frozen, it can easily be thrown away – and of course, never pour fat or oil down the drain.
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- And look how beautiful the Selles D’Agneau looks after pan searing. These will be finished in a 350-degree Fahrenheit oven for about 15-minutes before slicing and serving. Tomorrow, I’ll share how the meal was presented and the beautiful dining table we set. 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 it was all worth the effort for a wonderful gathering of friends.
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