super succulent chicken satay

Carrot-Star anise shooters, micro mizunaSaturday gave birth to our first large scale catering event and it went great. The event was in celebration of Todd Bruce's birthday which was quite the party. This was a brilliant opportunity for us to expand our reach a little further and we had fantastic feedback and comments. For the menu we focused on small hours d' ouvres, skewered foods and self contained items that were easy to pass, and enjoy with just a couple of bites.

 finishing the crab and coconut spoons

 The Menu was narrowed down to include eight passed hour d' ouvres, chinese boxes with a summer soba noodle salad, and then desserts. 

 The passed apps. consisted of the following :

• Chicken 'Satay' , marinated in achiote and curry, with a goji berry mole
• Chorizo & Manchego quesadillas with chive and caramelized onion
• Peeky toe Crab and lime over a lemongrass - coconut soup.
• Scallop ceviche, with tangerine, pickled jalapeno, grapefruit and cilantro in mini corn cups
• Vietnamese stye pulled pork shoulder, with a avocado puree in mini corn cups
• Carrot & Star anise shooters
• mini Kobe beef sliders, with queso fresca, roasted poblanos & lemon aioli
• Pork potstickers with shitake and a chimmichuri dipping sauce.

 Chicken satay with Goji berry Mole, crushed almond and wild borage Close up of potstickers with chimichurri and micro broccoli

skewering the sliders

For the composed salad we tossed the soba noodles in sesame & chili oil, then with mixed greens, cucumber, baby bok choy, red bell pepper, crushed peanut,  and it was tied together with a citrus - peanut dressing. 

 Buffet showing boxes, and candied pecans

Dessert was more of a collaborative effort between us and the client, he had requested some more traditional desserts along with a baklava. No spilt milk, he is paying after all. We put out a really nice spread of mini baklava that was infused with green cardamom, dipped strawberries, in candied sesame seed, coco nibs, goji berry, and sugared cardamom. There were also strawberry shortcakes, and bunellos in a cinnamon - ginger sugar. All of them went off really well, the crowd tore through them, which is always a god sign. 

pistachio baklava with cardamom, clove and cinnamon

 Part of the built in seating in the backyard

The party was hosted by Dr. Peter Georgiou, a Chiropractic Physician here in Chicago at the ReAlign clinic on Belmont, with a beautiful Lakeveiw home recently featured in Better Homes and Gardens. There are terrific terraces as well as a gorgeous outdoor patio loaded with native plantings, imbedded limestone seating and dripping flowers. 

 

• Hello all, were coming off the high of our last, um first Yo Soy tasting. Thinking of summer, and the seashore we drew on these ideas to form the menu. So for this venture we broke it down into four courses, here it is. First was a seared scallop,(marinated in sesame oil with lime and thai chili) served over a sweet chili oil, and with a honeydew and avocado salsa. Next was an egg roll of sorts. The filling was carne asada spiced with chinese five spice, melted sweet onion, jicama, and roast peppers (orange, yellow, and jalapeno). This was all the fried and served over a hot-sour sticky garlic-ginger sauce and alongside a coconut guacamole. 

 

Truly the hit of the dinner there was a refreshing coolness to the guacamole, supplemented by toasted coconut and milk of the same fruit, while the contrast in temperatures  and textures proved to be successful. Dinner was a rustic Enchilado with all the comfort of the cuban tomato-seafood based stew, we upped the ante by spiking the dish with oyster sauce, coconut milk, and enoki
and straw mushrooms. The dish was finished with grilled octopus, shrimp, squid, clams, and mussels. We served the enchilado over pad thai rice stick noodles, which added a pleasant starch and texture. Dessert was composed of a cumin-wasabi-cinnamon rice milk ice cream alongside a toasted fortune cookie all sauced with cajeta.