Cocktail - Orient Apple Martini
Mixed Absolut's Orient Apple vodka with pear nectar and soda water
Delicious! Crisp, light (but sneaks up on you), and the ginger in the vodka also gave it a nice little spice. This is definitely a summer cocktail for the coming season!
Appetizers - Gyoza and Thai Coconut Soup
First let's talk gyoza. These were amazing. Little bites of heaven! We definitely were lax in following the recipe exactly - we excluded the egg, included a couple of splashes of soy sauce and sesame oil, and used a few solid dashes of powdered ginger. Instead of cutting up cabbage and carrots - we simply used a couple of handfuls of cole slaw blend. We also used 2 different bottled dipping sauces that were lying around in the fridge - a sesame ginger and a ginger wasabi. Please note, when cooking - do NOT precook the ground pork or the cabbage mix. Simply mix it all in a bowl, stuff your wonton wrappers, fry and then steam. The frying/steaming will cook the ground pork. (Don't be scared.) And this mixture makes a TON. (But that's ok, becuase Tuesday night has been deemed leftover night!)
Now let's talk soup. As the recipe says... this really IS The Best Thai Coconut Soup. It was amazingly delicious. This could be a meal in itself! The flavors were impeccable and it could not be easier to cook! However, we feel it could have used a little more heat. Probably another tablespoon of red curry paste - but I think that depends on the brand of curry paste you buy. Regardless - home run!
Entree - Thai Beef Noodle Salad
Let's first talk changes we made. We put it over a bed of fresh lettuce and we added peanuts. We also used skirt steak instead of flank steak. (Personal preference.) Other than that... kept the recipe exactly as is.
Way too spicy. Sadly, none of us even finished the meal because the heat was overwhelming. However, we are trying it again on Leftover Tuesday because there is very serious potential in this meal! I would recommend NOT dressing the salad after plating. Put all the salad and noodles in a big bowl, drizzle a little dressing, and then toss a lot. I think by dressing the salad after plating, it soaked into the meal, and therefore was way too spicy. We also may alter the dressing by adding some honey to sweeten it up and use half a serrano pepper. So unfortunately, this was not a home run dish - however we'll keep you updated if Tuesday's changes made any improvement.
Dessert - Pear and Mango Crips w/ Pear Whipped Cream
I don't remember where we found this recipe, but like the entree, it was not our favorite. However, its because it just needs some simple changes. Based on the recipe, there was simply way too much flour and it left the fruit rather dry. Secondly, the topping was not a crumbly crispy mixture. We will try again but using a different "crisp" recipe that includes things like oats, brown sugar, etc.
However, the whipped cream is a whole other thing. We pureed a pear, mixed it with some Poire Williams and then folded it into fresh whipped cream. Now this is what we are talking about!!! Expect future experimentations with whipped cream and fruit puree. The whipped cream in itself was its own dessert!
Appetizer Wine - 2007 Selbach-Oster Riesling Kabinett
Wine Spectator - 90/100
We stumped Harry's again with our Thai night because were weren't sure the level of spice we were going to end up with. To go with our Thai Coconut Soup, they recommended this riesling that is heavy on the honey and green apple flavors. The wine was a little sweet for our tastes, but I think its becuase our soup was not as spicy as expected. A riesling goes extremely well with spicy food because the sweetness counters the spice, however we needed to kick up the spice in our meal. So we'll still give a thumbs up to the recommendation, and make sure next time we do spicy - we make sure we go spicy.
Entree Wine - 2009 Seghesio Sonoma Zinfandel
Wine Spectator - 90/100
This zinfandel was heavy in lovely berries with a little spice of black pepper. We kind of had the same problem we had with the white wine. We thought our meal would NOT be as spicy as expected, so steered away from the zinfandels that would be suited for a super-spicy meal. So because of that, the zinfandel actually almost increased the spice factor (we needed some oakiness). However, after the meal was over, the wine was absolutely delicious just drinking on its own. (This may have been better suited with the soup and the soup wine better suited with the entree.) We'll be picking up another bottle just for casual drinking!
Dessert Wine - SakeOne Moonstone Asian Pear Sake
A-ma-zing. This sake (served cold) has a great pear flavor with a hint of vanilla. It was super easy to drink, and equally delicious to the sake-lovers and non-sake-lovers alike! Necessity for all future asian-themed meals. (And be on the lookout for a possible sake-tini cocktail.)
Next Week - St. Patty's Day (a day late, I know)
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