January Recipe #2: Swedish Chanterelle Mushroom Pate

The finished pate, wrapped in the ham shell.

Swedish Chanterelle Mushroom Pate 
       (I am not quite sure if this recipe is actually Swedish or it's just called Swedish by the authors. Regardless of its origin I attempted it.)

• 1 TBSP butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 shallots, finely minced
• 1 TBSP butter
• 1 lb fresh chanterelle mushrooms 
• 1/4 C fresh parsley, chopped
• 3/4 lb ground pork
• 2 egg whites
• 1-1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 C cream
• 10 thin slices smoked ham

A very simple ingredient list.

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan with aluminum foil.
2. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the garlic and shallots; cook and stir until the shallot has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Scrape into a mixing bowl, and set aside to cool. Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in the same skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chanterelles, and cook until the mushrooms are tender and golden around the edges, about 5 minutes. Stir in the parsley, and cook for 30 seconds more, then scrape the mushrooms into the mixing bowl, and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
3. Mix the ground pork, egg whites, salt, and pepper into the mushroom mixture with your hands until evenly blended. Stir in the cream until absorbed by the pork mixture. Line the bottom and sides of the loaf pan with the smoked ham. Pack the meat mixture into the loaf pan and flatten the top.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until the pate is no longer pink in the center, and has reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees F (72 degrees C), about 1 hour. Serve hot or cold in slices.

All the ingredients before the pork and cream are added.

       After having made it and tasted the finished product I don't think it's going to matter where it originates from because it didn't exactly thrill me.

The final mixed pate as I'm loading it into the ham shell.

     It was a very simple recipe to bring together. Simply chop and mix. When I added the cream I was not expecting it to become absorbed, but it did. You can see in the above picture that the mix was not soupy.

2 slices of the final pate.

     It hadn't occurred to me that this would have the same mouth-feel as a traditional meatloaf or a pork heavy meatball. I think it reminds me of both because of the heavy use of parsley. It was a bit more bland than the last meatloaf I made. I chose to eat it with a side of bread, as if I was eating a meatloaf sandwich. I was hoping the addition of a chewy bread would improve it for me, but it did not.
The recipe does say that it can be eaten warm or chilled. I tried it both ways, but chilling it did not improve it for me. 

     I will not be adding this to the TH2. menu. I think compared to the existing recipes the light flavor of the pate will not find many fans. Also, the unusual texture will probably turn a few guests off. A bit too bland and too odd for Thanksgiving 2.7. I have one more Swedish recipe to try out this month. Look for the Swedish Chocolate Balls (not kidding) in the next few days. 

*UPDATE: The leftover pate has been in the fridge for a couple days now and there has been a textural change. It has become more dense and less like a meat loaf. The mushrooms are very springy still and the parsley flavor has intensified.I am just not a fan of that strong of a parsley flavor. The rest of the pate did improve texturally, but not enough for me to consider it for the menu.*

January's Recipe #1: Kladdkaka (Sticky Chocolate cake)

The finished Kladdkaka

The ingredients gathered together.

The Recipe: Kladdkaka

• 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1/4  C unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/3 C sugar
• 1 TBSP vanilla extract
• 1/2 C butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8-inch pie plate.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt; set aside. Stir the eggs into the sugar until smooth. Add the flour mixture, and stir just until combined. Pour in the vanilla extract and butter; stir until well combined. Pour into prepared pie plate.
3. Bake on the lower rack of the preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until the center has slightly set. Allow cake to cool for 1 hour in the pie plate. Serve warm, or refrigerate overnight and serve cold.

 

This is right before I mixed the dry w the wet.

      This is the first attempt at a whole new cuisine, so I picked a relatively simple recipe to begin with this year. The only change I made was a procedural one. I used parchment paper to line the pie plate instead of simply greasing it. I ran into no issues with such a simple cake. 

     When eaten warm this is a gooey unleavened chocolate cake. The interior texture was reminiscent of a warm caramel or a thick shoofly pie interior. The top and "crust area" reminded me a corn flake's crispy texture. When it was refrigerated the interior texture totally changed and the inside became like a chocolate truffle. The flavor reminded me of one of those lava cakes that you get at a chain restaurant, but chewier. 
I think the ideal way to have this is either right out of the oven with some vanilla ice cream or if you prefer the truffle-like texture, I'd slice it into very thin slices.

You can see the crunchy top layer and the soft, gooey middle.

     I will be making this for the birthday day at work. I have not decided if I will bring it warm or cold though. If warm I will not pre-cut the cake. If I decide to go with the chilled version I will make relatively small slices to encourage many tastings. I will update this entry and say how well this performed. It would be nice to start the year off with a TH2 winner.

Thanksgiving 2: The Recipe Blog?

     A recipe blog? Am I changing my focus from Thanksgiving 2 prep to simply a food blog? Don't worry loyal Thanksgivers (too much?), I haven't abandoned you. I'm just going to add some depth to the recipe test entries. The idea for the addition came while talking with a few of the guests at Thanksgiving 2.6. It occurred to me that I have never posted pictures on the blog. If I add pictures and toss in a better description of the recipes I'm testing, I may attract a couple more readers. If 2 more people read the blog, maybe 1 more person will come to the event or feel like they could throw their own TH2 in their town. Both of which are the ultimate goal.

The new format for recipe testing entries will be the following:
-Name of recipe
-Ingredients
-Procedure
-Length of cook time, and ease of preparation

-Issues I encountered, if any, such as flavors and did any tasters enjoy it or how much was left if I took it to work
-Pictures will be placed where I deem appropriate, but there will always be a finished product picture

     The first birthday day is coming up at my place of business this week, so I will have an opportunity to try out my food blogging skills very soon. I realized that I made too many desserts for TH2.6, so I will have to find a couple sides or main dishes to bring into work. I have no issues with bringing a crock pot to keep food warm, but I am hoping to find a few recipes that can sit out for a few hours and not spoil.

     Now that I have a new format for the food testing blog entries, I have to come up with a method for testing to find the trial recipes. When I looked through my cookbooks, and the internet, I was overloaded with possibilities. I'm finding 3-4 times as many recipes that could work for the menu. The Scandinavians love of the Smorgasbord is right in line with the Thanksgiving 2 feast. However, I think I've come up with a decent concept. Scandinavia is made up of either 4 or 5 countries depending on whom you ask: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and possibly Finland. I have 11 months to find around 10 recipes from 4-5 countries. Every month I'm going to focus on a different country for my recipe searching. I've decided to start with the largest country and January will be Sweden. There is a lot of overlap and redundancy among the 4(5) countries, and they each have a different language. It will take a little extra care each month to make sure I do not test the same recipe that has a different name. If nothing else this new method of blogging will keep it interesting for me. Now on to the recipes. 

Pajama Polar Palooza Preperations

     Now that I am over a month removed from Thanksgiving 2.6 and we're past New Year's Eve I can direct the event portion of my brain towards the upcoming Polar Palooza. This year's event has a pajama/sleepover theme. I get the privilege of pretending I am Sam Malone (not Woody, please) from Cheers one more time. I wonder who will be the Cliff or Norm of this years gathering. To keep the bar-tending interesting for me, I have decided to update the drink menu. Also, I am debating between a making a few adjustments towards my area behind the bar. Because I only have to focus on one small portion of this event I can really concentrate on improving my skills and improving the menu over the next month.

     Last year I had a 6 page menu available. Each page was dedicated to one broad style of drink. (Classic, Dessert, Modern, Sexy, Tropical and the Dueling Shot Menu) While talking to the host he pointed out that I had more drink choices than there were actual guests at the event. I've decided that I am going to keep the categories from last year, but decrease the number of drinks per page from 12 down to around 8. Quinton, the host, suggested I lower it even further possibly down to 5 or 6. I considered this for a long time, but when I started to edit the menus I just couldn't bring myself to remove that many drinks. I don't feel that I'm attached to any of them, but I do remember people enjoying the drinks that I'm keeping. I didn't keep track of what people ordered last time, so I am going from memory in what to remove. The only problem is that I know I am probably going to eliminate a couple of last year's favorites. Since the menu pages will change I will also have to update the "big board". I have an idea on how to utilize the new empty space on the board. I'm going to keep a marker by the board and have the guests put a mark next to the drink they ordered. I'm hoping this will encourage people to try a particularly popular drink or to try one that no one has been brave enough to taste. Marking what drink they have ordered will also let me trim next year's menu too. I think a reduced number of drinks on the menu and a way to keep track of what everyone is drinking will keep it running smoothly and keep it fun for me.

     After I started the reduction of cocktail options I had a request from the host  to create a new page of drinks specifically for the Palooza. I did a bit of research and found that there are very few cocktails named for sleeping/sleepover/pajama parties. This caught me by surprise because I would have thought this was an easy topic to create drinks about. I found a few cocktails that I thought would be good, and tweaked them a bit to create 4 wholly new cocktails. The 5th choice is one I created 2 years ago using a cereal infused milk and vodka. The drinks are: the Pillow Fight, Snowball to the Face, Teletubbie, Power Ranger and the Cap'n Crunch Shooter. These 5 drinks are brand new and unique as far as I know. The nice thing about having to create a new page of the menu was that the menu will still be reduced by around 1/3. It goes from 60 drinks to the low 40's not including the shots. If nothing else this will hopefully make the choices a bit easier for the guests.

     The Dueling Shots game menu gets a fairly large overhaul. I wanted the shot game to have a more even distribution of tasty shots to adventurous/exciting/awful shots. It is a game after all and without consequences what kind of game would it be? I have added the Battery Acid shot, Bear Droppings, Nuclear Fallout and The Facial. 3 of these are of the adventurous variety.The Dueling Shots game still requires 13 shots and will work the same as last year. To refresh everyone's memories, you play Duel Shots by first having the 2 people "pop" the 12 sided die. The high roller then gets to chooses between the 2 numbers rolled, then both players drink that shot. If it is a tie then the duelers get to drink the #13 shot. Overall, the game was enjoyed last year, and I don't think there will be a drop off. 

     Last year I wanted to add a bit of extra fanciness to the presentation by bringing some glassware to replace the plastic cups. I was saddened to find that this was an idea that didn't really work because of the limitations of the space and there is no way to add a sink to the cabana area. I enjoyed the fancy level that the glass brought, but I had an issue with getting the glasses cleaned quickly enough. I would need a whole new system to clean the glasses quickly enough to allow me to use them. I have been unable to come up with system that lets me rinse, wash and then dry them easily. I don't exactly have an unlimited amount of room, which also hinders this idea. These factors have helped me decide that I will not attempt this again.This time around I am going to get some nice clear plastic cups in a couple of different shapes. Party City has great prices on their clear plasticware and it happens to be on my way home from work. However, I will be bringing a handful of "Old Fashioned" glasses because I have a couple flaming drinks on the menus. I will only have a few actual glasses to deal with so I know the upkeep will be fairly simple.

     It will be a fun month. I have to finish up the menus and once that's done I get to test taste a few new drinks that I found. I'm also going to test out my counting ability when making cocktails. I'm going to see if I can remove the measuring devices and do it by eye. If I learn this skill I should increase my serving speed by 1/3 a least. This should be fun. .

For a sneak preview of the menu, here is the new Polar Palooza list of drinks created specifically for the gathering. 

    
    

Post Thanksgiving 2.6 thoughts.

     Now that I am far removed from the actual day I can look back at Thanksgiving 2.6 with a mostly positive eye. It took until 4pm for me to really start having fun, but I did have many hours of fun. When I started these blogs to help me to keep track of my ideas, and possible changes I knew I would have to be objective. There will be a lot of objective statements about the most recent TH2 because I did not feel that this was my best event. I did some things well, and I definitely found some items that I can fix for next time. From the feedback I have heard, the positives outweighed the negatives for the 55-ish people that stopped by to enjoy the holiday and eat some turkey. 

     The positive comments (from virtually everyone) made me feel a lot better after the gathering. Whenever someone ate a particular dish, and said they loved it, or when I saw someone go back for thirds I felt like I had some success. TH2 is mainly an eating event, and the eating went very well. This year I did a much better job at judging how much food to make. We had the lowest levels of leftovers ever. I think that if we had hit 60 people I would have had virtually nothing to put away at the end of the night. 

     The biggest “problem” I encountered this year was a time one. Now I have mentioned it in the past that I like having people arrive early to Thanksgiving 2 because it emulates how my family's Thanksgiving happens. Usually not everything is done and the early birds get to help. That may seem like an accident, but I plan it like that. The issue of time that I created for myself was probably 5 times worse than last year. To anyone with eyes I was very busy up until around 4 pm when I stopped cooking and finally sat down. Even with the help of the few early birds I was still severely behind schedule. I made the mistake of back loading my schedule to try and take advantage of the days I had taken off from work. This was a huge problem. I accomplished the set-up during the previous week, but I left too much of the cooking until the last days. All week I was following the schedule and keeping up with it. I felt very comfortable for most of the week. It turns out I was comfortable because I should have done one or two more items each day. Thursday the 5^th and Friday the 6^th should have had at least 2 more items cooked on each of those days. For example: the vegetarian turkey loaf needs to be pre-made in some fashion next year. I believe the inner stuffing can be made on Friday and then have the shell placed over it on the day of and then baked. The deviled eggs I made early on Saturday, and this is definitely a dish that can be made Friday night. I now know 100% that the only food that should be made on Saturday morning is the food that HAS to be made that day. Next year’s prep schedule will look significantly different. 

     The experiment with the indoor fire pit and the tenting of the yard did not go quite as well as I would have hoped. I am pretty sure that the smoke issues were created solely by the use of wet wood. I did not really how wet the wood on my back porch had gotten. The weather on Friday the 6^th was horrendous. It rained over an inch that day and even with the back yard tented off the wood got very wet. Thankfully, the smoke was only an issue for around an hour or 2 and there weren’t many people at the house. Once I smothered the fire and the “exhaust” hole was closed the yard area became a fairly pleasant area to hang out. One guest brought a “jet” style heater and when we fired this up around 8 or 9pm it created a genuinely warm atmosphere under the tent. I will be asking him to bring that next year. It was a great addition to the small propane heater I purchased.  As for the tenting of the yard, this was almost a complete success. The outdoor room was fairly cozy and it did create a much nicer space than a naked backyard would have been. The only downside was the smoke early on in the day. When Quinton came over to help disassemble the tenting we came up with a few ideas for next year’s enclosure. First of all, 40 feet of extra back yard was a bit of overkill, 30 feet is probably enough space. Secondly, if we change the roof shape to allow for an actual chimney I think we can try the indoor fire pit one more time. This is a decision that does not have to be made today though.  

      The final issue that isn't too much of an issue was the beer. What could be wrong with the beer you ask. Well, I bought 3 times more than was necessary. I did have fewer guests than I was expecting, but I would have needed 50 more people. The overabundance of beer has left me with several cases of beer that will not last until next year. I am thankful that around half of what I purchased has a high enough alcohol by volume (ABV) and is the right kind of beer that I can store it for a long while. I was left with 3-4 cases of beer that have to be consumed relatively soon. Thankfully, I was able to give out some well received Christmas presents this year. My family really enjoyed their variety packs. I have a feeling that I will be bringing some beer to the Polar Palooza too.

     Finally, I want to just mention that even with these issues I ran across that everyone seemed to have a generally good time. I know I did once I had caught up with the food. I noticed many beers were tried, and the ox-tail and sauerbraten were greatly enjoyed. The fried turkeys were a hit as always. Now I know to buy less beer, make fewer desserts, make more side dishes and 4 turkeys is an absolute necessity. It is time now to take a break and think only of Thanksgiving 2 in the light terms. I found a few Scandinavian cookbooks, and I have a few weeks to look them over. Let's see if I can make the viking Thanksgiving a good one.