Emily Post's Great Get-Togethers (9 page)

2.
Carefully lower the sage leaves in small batches into the hot oil and cook until crisp, about 15 seconds. With a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Use immediately or hold at room temperature for up to 3 hours.

Buttermilk Feather Cake with Nutmeg

This cake may be plain, but it’s not lacking in finesse. It’s featherlight, moist from the buttermilk, and nutmeg scented—simply scrumptious. Because it’s so restrained, it’s versatile, good with pear compote and crème fraîche or whipped cream, or in season with juicy ripe fruit (like peeled, lightly sugared peaches, pitted sliced plums, or berries), or just pristinely on its own. P.S. Don’t skimp on the multiple siftings—it ensures the featherlight texture.

Makes one 9-inch, 2-layer cake. Serves 8

About 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 stick (¼ pound) unsalted butter, softened

1½ cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

Buttercream Filling (recipe follows)

Confectioners’ sugar (optional)

1.
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake tins. Line the bottoms with parchment or wax paper cut to fit. Butter the paper, then flour the tins and tap out the excess.

2.
Onto a piece of wax paper, sift the flour. Spoon the sifted flour into dry measure cups and sweep level; return the rest of the flour to the canister. Onto a piece of wax paper, sift together three times the 2 cups sifted flour, the nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

3.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium, cream the butter. Gradually beat in the granulated sugar and beat until light and fluffy. One at a time, beat in the eggs just until incorporated. Beat in the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the buttermilk in 2 batches, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.

4.
Bake until golden and the center, when pressed gently with a finger, springs back (20 to 25 minutes). A tester inserted into a layer should come out clean. Let the layers cool in the pans on a rack for 10 minutes. Turn the layers out onto the rack, turn right side up, and cool completely.

5.
Invert one layer onto a cake plate. Spread the buttercream over the layer almost to the edges, using it all. Top with the second layer, right side up. Dust the top of the cake with confectioners’ sugar if desired.

Buttercream Filling

Too much buttercream is sometimes too much of a good thing. That’s why we like this formula, which produces a restrained amount of buttercream that neatly fills but does not overwhelm the delicate feather cake. Makes enough to fill a 9-inch cake

6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons whipping cream

1 tablespoon brandy

Pinch of salt

1.
In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the whipping cream and brandy. Taste. Beat in a pinch of salt, if needed.

2.
Use immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day. Return to room temperature before using.

Too Much vs. Too Little: Getting the Portions Just Right

R
egardless of what menu you’re thinking of serving, it’s always better to have
too much than too little.
When you’re shopping for meat or fish, ask the butcher or fishmonger for their suggested raw weight to buy per person. Or check the recipes in cookbooks to get a feel for how much to purchase per person. Here are some other points to consider:

• Lunch portions are generally smaller than dinner portions.
  
• When you’re serving fewer courses, the portions can be larger.
  
• When you’re serving multiple courses, the portions are smaller. (For example, you might serve a bowl of soup with a sandwich at lunch, a cup of soup before a main course at dinner.)
  
• Take the weather into account as well:
  
  • When it’s very
    hot,
    people tend to eat less. This is the season for food that is light, cool, and refreshing, dishes like ceviche and tuna Niçoise, chilled soups, or anything grilled with a big salad. Or take a cue from culinary India and stimulate the appetite with a spicy curry and cooling raita (yogurt dip)—but keep portions small to avoid overwhelming guests’ taste buds.
    
  • Freezing
    cold
    temperatures call for generous portions of richer, heartier food: pâtés, risottos, pasta with meat or creamy sauces, stews, braised meats in wine sauce, wild game, roasts with potatoes and gravy, casseroles and cassoulets.
    
• Consider the length and timing of the meal—you wouldn’t serve as much food for supper on a work night as you would if you were hosting a long, leisurely multicourse Saturday night dinner with wine.
  
• Men tend to eat more than women.
  
• When you’re serving family style—placing platters and bowls of food directly on the table—you’ll need enough of each dish to encourage seconds. The same holds true when you’re serving a buffet where people help themselves.
  
• If you’re serving a plated meal, you control the portions, so you probably don’t need to prepare as much extra food as you would for a buffet or serving family style—but you should still have enough food so you can offer seconds to those who request it.
  

The Bread Box

I
t’s become a puzzle whether or not to serve bread with a meal. For some people it’s a critical meal element; for others it’s a low-carb-diet no-no. The split tends to run along gender lines, with men saying “yes” and women “no thanks.” Many restaurants no longer serve bread as a matter of course, not wanting customers to fill up before the main event. So, when is bread a good thing?

• When it’s artisanal, freshly made, and warm.
  Who can resist fresh bread in all its varieties from a farmers’ market, bakery, or specialty food store? Breads that can hold their own and earn a place at any table include baguettes (long and thin), boules (round), focaccia (a flat, chewy sheet), rolls, biscuits, challah and brioche (eggy) and croissants (flaky), semolina, white, rye, whole wheat, apple-raisin, seeded-crust, and herbed.
  
• When there’s a sauce worth savoring.
  Definitely offer bread when serving stews, bouillabaisse or mussels, hearty soups, sauced pastas, braises, and anything in garlic butter. Pick a good, crusty white bread that stands up to but won’t overwhelm the sauce.
  
• With the salad or cheese course.
  Having already eaten their main course, guests are more likely to enjoy bread guilt-free—and you don’t even need to serve butter or olive oil.
  

How to Serve Bread

At most meals, put sliced bread, rolls, or biscuits in a napkin- or cloth-lined container such as a basket. Bread can be served buffet style or passed at the table and is put on the dinner plate or bread plate. At a more formal dinner, place the bread on bread plates before the meal begins. If you’d like guests to slice their own bread, provide a cutting board and knife, and wrap the bread so that guests don’t hold it with bare hands while cutting.

Butter
is served several ways: Place a stick of room-temperature butter on a small serving dish with a butter knife, or slice a stick of butter and serve the pats on a small plate with a small fork. At a formal meal, pats of butter can be put on bread plates ahead of time along with the bread.

Bread is also served with
olive oil.
Its rich flavor is an ideal and healthy alternative to butter. Use only high-quality extra virgin olive oil, and enhance the flavor with garlic, hot peppers, or herbs for variation. Serve the olive oil in a cruet or small dish with a spoon on a saucer, and plan on using bread plates. Guests spoon or pour the olive oil onto their plates, then dip their bread into it.

DIFFERENT PARTIES, DIFFERENT MENUS

What to serve when? Here are some basic guidelines:

Brunch

• 2 courses, served buffet or family style or plated: a mixture of hot and cold breakfast and lunch dishes
  
• Beverages: juices, hot coffee, and tea; Bloody Marys, mimosas
  

Luncheon

• 2 to 3 courses:
  First course: soup, salad, or appetizer
  
• Main course: soup, composed salad, sandwiches, quiches, poached fish or a small-portion balanced plate of protein, vegetable, and starch
  
• Dessert: fruit, cookies, sorbet, fruit tart
  
• Beverages: water, juices, iced or hot tea or coffee, a light wine or Champagne
  

Tea

• Elegant tea sandwiches: miniature sandwiches of a thin filling on thin bread
  
• Small cookies, scones, pastries, cupcakes, or slices of cake
  
• Beverages: tea and coffee, hot or iced (optional: sherry or Champagne)
  

Cocktails

• An assortment of appetizers (hot or cold), crudités, cheese and fruit, breads, crackers, dips and chips, olives, nuts
  

Dinner—simple

• 2 courses:
  Main course and dessert
  
• Or 3 courses:
  Salad, main course, and dessert or first course, main course, and dessert
  
• Beverages: water, wine, milk, beer, coffee, tea
  

Dinner—all out!

• Up to 6 courses: (hors d’oeuvres, served before the meal)
  
• First course: soup, fruit, shellfish, or small composed plate
  
• Second course: fish (omitted if shellfish is served as a first course)
  
• Third course: main course, usually meat or fowl, vegetables, and starch
  
• Fourth course: salad (may be combined with a cheese course)
  
• Fifth course: cheese and or fruit*
  
• Sixth course: dessert, followed by coffee and cordials
  
• Beverages: water, wine, coffee, cordials
  

*Traditionally the cheese course came after dessert; now it’s up to you.

Food Bling

W
e’re talking luxury food here—caviar, truffles, and fancy chocolates. Sure they’re expensive, but a little goes a long way—and in these instances, less can be more.

Caviar

Caviar is the salted roe (eggs) of sturgeon. Caviar has a wonderful briny, nutty, mineral flavor; each little grain literally pops in your mouth. The most celebrated caviars—sevruga, osetra, and beluga (from least to most expensive)—come from the Caspian Sea and are black, grey, or golden in color. Because of overharvesting, however, the fish have become endangered, resulting in periodic bans on the import of Caspian Sea caviar and limits on production. American-produced caviars provide a more ecologically responsible—and much less expensive—alternative. Red caviar is actually salmon roe, and each grain, or berry, is quite large. It’s usually used as a garnish.

Store caviar on ice in the coldest part of your fridge, but don’t freeze it. It’s best used as soon as possible after opening. Serve it icy cold so the grains don’t collapse. When serving it straight, put it in a glass dish on top of crushed ice or snow. Never put caviar in contact with metal—it will develop a horrible metallic taste. Little spoons made of horn or mother of pearl are made for serving caviar, but a wooden spoon will do in a pinch. Don’t mush up the caviar—it’s very delicate. Lift and spoon it gently.

How much caviar should you buy? It depends on how you’re going to use it.

One ounce of caviar =

• Four 1-teaspoon servings
  
• Eight to ten ½-teaspoon servings
  
• Twenty scant ¼-teaspoon servings
  

A 2-ounce jar will do nicely for four people if it’s served with crackers or toast points.

How to Eat Caviar

When caviar is served in a bowl with a little spoon, gently scoop a spoonful onto a toast point, cracker, or your plate. Then, if they’re offered, top off the caviar with sour cream, crème fraîche, chopped egg, or onion, using the little spoons provided. When caviar is presented already prepared or as an appetizer, just pop it into your mouth. Most important: If you have to share caviar, don’t be piggy.

Best Ways to Serve Caviar

• On toast points—little triangles of thin, crustless, lightly toasted white bread. (Pepperidge Farm thin white bread is perfect. Place small triangles on a baking sheet and bake at 200ºF until just browned.)
  
• On toasted, great-quality, thinly sliced whole grain or rye bread.
  
• On top-quality home-style potato chips (fun!).
  
• Accompanied by sour cream or crème fraîche, chopped onion, chopped hard-cooked egg, or thin lemon wedges.
  
• To garnish omelets, with a dollop of crème fraîche.
  
• With blinis (tiny yeast-leavened buckwheat pancakes) and sour cream.
  
• Scoop tiny, steamed red potatoes, slice off the bottom, fill with sour cream mixed with minced red onion, and top with caviar.
  
• Any of the above with Champagne or chilled vodka.
  

Truffles

The very name makes our mouths water and our noses quiver. A truffle is the edible fruiting part of underground fungi of the genus
Tuber.
The fungi have a symbiotic relationship with certain trees, like oaks, and are harvested in the late fall to early winter, “sniffed out” by pigs or trained dogs. The most famous are the
white truffle
(
Tuber magnatum pico
) from the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, and the
black truffle
(
Tuber melanosporum
) from the Périgord region of southwestern France. Each has a fabulous, distinct aroma and a flavor that brings sauces and egg, potato, risotto, and pasta dishes to sublime heights. Speaking of sublime heights, truffles may be the ugliest and most expensive food items on the planet. White truffles can, in a good year, average $4,000 a pound (a record $330,000 was paid in 2007 at auction for a 3.3-lb. white truffle). Black truffles are less pricey, averaging $300 to $800 per pound, depending on the season. If you find fresh truffles featured on a restaurant menu, be sure you’re clear about the price before you order or you’ll be in for severe sticker shock.