Last Minute Gathering? Make Your Guests Do the Cooking!
It was 10:00 am on a Wednesday. I’d been up for a few hours already and was feeling pretty good; the day was flowing as well as it could have been during the work week. The sun was out and an old David Bowie song was blaring from the radio of our van while driving through produce alley; and that’s when Budd called. I picked up the phone and said…“Hey Joe what gives?” “Oh you know” he replied… we yammered on for a bit and before our conversation ended I said “Hey why don’t you and your people come around for dinner tonight?” Joe graciously accepted and said that he would catch up with us at the house at 8:00 pm.Well… as 5:00 pm rounded the corner I was getting a little tired and realized that I had also called a few more people in the wake of my earlier cloud floating. Oh darn! What had I done?? What to do when you don’t have a moment’s spare time and you really want to put out a happy spread but you’re drive and creativity has left the building?
Well, folks I have a solution for all us weary last minute cooks: have a party that engages your guest’s food sensibilities. That’s right, in plain Jane English, have them make their own food, and if they don’t… oh well, late night arches for them… hehehe …as devilish as it might sound …. it really is that much fun for everyone.
So, this is all I had to do for our dinner party: Organize the ingredients (one hour); place them in nice display dishes (15 minutes), scrub the floor (5 minutes) and fill my beer mug (priceless).Joe, Mike, Molly’s brother Ted, Gordo, Will, Sarah, Roger and his wife Desiree all showed up ready for arts and crafts time…Sarah brought over some killer chocolate chip cookies and captain Roger of course did his thing in big style. Do you see the drink with the straws? It’s Crenshaw melon, prickly pear and tapioca. Wowwyaza! Go Roger!We made sushi, tortillas and some wonderful Indonesian fish falafel that Molly had found in an old edition of Saveur. The fat came from the almonds, the salt from the shrimp paste, mint was the backup singer, Thai chilies made your mouth rattle and fresh lime took it home with a delightful tart citrus sting… Below is the recipe.
So remember…. When time is short; get a little help from your friends!
Sasatay - Banda-Style Tuna Falafel
from Saveur
1/2 lb. boneless, skinless tuna, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 lb. blanched whole almonds
1 tsp. trassi (Indonesian dried shrimp paste)
10 large mint leaves
4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 red thai chiles, stemmed and halved lengthwise
3 shallots, chopped
2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 tsp. cumin seeds, toasted and finely ground in spice grinder
1 inch piece fresh turmeric, peeled and coarsely chopped or 1/2 tsp. dried ground
1 egg, lightly beaten
Peanut oil
Salt
Bring a medium pot of lightly salted water to a boil over medium heat. Add tuna and gently boil until cooked through about 5 minutes. Drain and reserve.Put almonds into a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Add tuna and pulse until well ground and combined with almonds. Transfer to a medium bowl and set aside.Put shrimp paste in center of a 5″ square piece of aluminum foil, fold edges to form a package and press down with the heel of your hand to flatten paste into a 1/4 inch dish. Heat a gas burner to medium-low or an electric burner to medium-high and place the foil package directly on burner. Toast until paste begins to smoke, 1-2 minutes. Using tongs, turn over and cook for 1-2 minutes more. Remove from heat, unwrap disk and set aside.Put shrimp paste, mint, garlic, chiles, shallots, lime juice, cumin, turmeric and salt to taste into the food processor and pulse to a smooth paste. Transfer to bowl of tuna-almond mixture, add egg and mix well. Form half of the mixture into 1″ balls and the other half into small triangles about 1 1/2″ on each side, using 1 tbsp. to make one ball or triangle.Pour oil into a heavy medium pot to a depth of 2″ and heat over medium heat until temperature registers 350 degrees on a deep-fry thermometer. Fry falafel in batches until golden, about 1 1/2 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.
Tags: dinner party, falafel, spare time
