Saturday Night Dinner With Maxine.

While prepping dinner, Maxine and I opted for a few appetizers.
Here, I've wrapped dates in prosciutto.

And sauteed them in a little butter.

Maxine sliced apples and made pesto for them.
I had never thought about that combination but it's very good.

Pesto and apples.
Dates and prosciutto.

And what's really good is topping the dates with a bit of blue cheese, in this case
Rosenborg Danish Blue.

Delicious combinations.

Now, on to supper.
I'm starting off with Blue Cheese Souffles.
Yes, I know I've blogged about them before, but Maxine has never had them and they're worth doing again. And again.

Here, I'm preparing my roux.
Melt 2 TB butter, add 2 TB flour, and cook a bit to get rid of the raw flour taste. Don't brown.
Gradually add in 2/3 cup milk/cream mixture and whisk until nicely thickened.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks until they become light, frothy, and lemon colored.

Add yolks into roux mixture.

Then add in about 1/2 cup blue cheese and a tablespoon of sugar.

Beat egg whites with a bit of cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.
The cream of tartar stabilizes the whites.

Now, when I'm beating egg yolks or whites, I beat them at room temperature.
That way, you can incorporate more air into the eggs and get more volume.

(If you're beating cream to make whipped cream, then the cream should be very cold along with the beaters and bowl.)

I stirred in about 1/3 of the whipped cream to make a lighter roux.
Then I gently folded in the rest of the whites and poured into little buttered and sugared ramekins.

Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

And here are my souffles ready to be served immediately.

Next, I'll show you what I prepared for the rest of the meal.
First, I'm making an orange-soy glaze
which looked pretty darn good when I read about it in Carol's French Laundry Blog.

Maxine juiced enough oranges to make about 2 cups of juice.

Then I sloooooooow-ly cooked it down until it was reduced to about 1/4 cup.

This orange flavor is very concentrated and intense.


I whisked in about 2 tablespoons butter.

And 2 tablespoons soy sauce.
Set aside and keep warm.

Next, I rinsed my scallops and patted them dry, salted and peppered them, added a little freshly squeezed lemon and orange juice, then rolled them in panko bread crumbs.

I sauteed them in butter and oil.

Maybe two minutes on each side.
Then drained on paper towels.

Next, I decided to try a version of Carol's radish salad.

I julienned carrots, radishes, green onions, and cucumbers and kept them in ice water to keep them crisp.

For my dressing, I have olive oil, salt and pepper, and a splat of balsamic vinegar.

I added in some fresh lemon juice and ginger, whisked all together, then poured over top of the julienned veggies.

This is very light and refreshing.

Now, on to plating our dinner.

I put a little pool of the orange/soy glaze and topped it with edamame and placed two little dates alongside.

Next a couple of scallops on top.
(Scallops, not moi, seeing as I, unlike Carol, don't have a fishmonger with, shall we say, the types of feelers and connections, questionable or not, necessary for the procurement of moi.)

I added the radish and carrot salad on top.

Then I plated the blue cheese souffle and sprinkled powdered sugar over top.

And finally drizzled some sourwood honey over top.

Here's Maxine's table.

The sweetness of the dates and scallops was perfectly complemented by the lightness and freshness of the radish salad. The orange/soy glaze was a wonderful addition. The souffle was light, creamy, delicious. The crunchiness of the salad was a nice textural contrast to the creaminess of the souffle.
All in all, a winning dish.

Our dinner table conversation went something like this:

M: Ohh.
R: Oh yeah.
M: Oh my.
R: Mm.
M: Mmm.
R: Mmmm.
M: Mmmmm.
R: Mm...Mmmmmm.
M: Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

We probably spilled some food since our eyes were closed the whole time.

This was an excellent meal.
Sometimes the flavors and textures all just POP and this was one of those times.
It was so good, that I'm making another version of it tonight, only I'll be using tile fish.