Real Ultimate Party Cooking

[510dat]

On reaching your educational goal of the previous three years, what is the correct course of action? Throw a party, of course. With lots of good food and good company, which are two of the three best things in life.

Now, being a barely-employed student with high culinary standards, I spent much time soul-searching for the correct combination of ease of cooking, cost and edibility. BBQ is always good for gatherings, but the cost and time involved is fairly high; soup can be tasty but not especially filling… At the suggestion of Aargnzarf, I decided to make a chili. I have never cooked a chili of any kind, save the canned stuff. So, I relied heavily on foodnetwork.com and its system of user-submitted ratings. I figured that if lots of people liked it, then my guests probably would too. After searching high and low, I picked this recipe:

Red Beef Chili by Bobby Flay
Recipes : Red Beef Chili : Food Network



None of the comments mentioned “too hot,” unlike some of the other recipes I looked at, and I already had quite a bit of frozen beef from a split-half cow I purchased last summer. It does call for four kinds of fresh peppers and five kinds of powdered peppers, and that turned out to be something of a challenge to collect.

Now, chili is really good food, easy to dish up, can be used to feed lots of people, but a real party needs something more. What goes with chili? Cornbread!

Corny Cornbread, by Paula Dean
Recipes : Corny Cornbread : Food Network



Note: I used frozen corn instead of cooking fresh corn; we assumed that each ear of corn would make ½ cup of cut-off-the-cob corn. It worked out fine.

It does call for creamed corn, and in stead of buying canned cream corn, I made this:

“Better than Grandma’s Creamed Corn,” by Alton Brown
Recipes : Better Than Grannie's Creamed Corn : Food Network

This was pretty simple to make, and it came out great.

Ok, chili and cornbread; good start. Now, the guests are going to get thirsty at some point. Hmm, a hot Saturday afternoon, lots of people, limited budget. My guests are generally a bunch of wine-drinkers, and my beer isn’t ready yet (more on this another time), and liquor is fairly expensive, soooo….

Aha! Lemonade! But since this is me, it’s not just any lemonade, its
Honey-Vanilla Lemonade
Recipes : Honey-Vanilla Lemonade : Food Network

My friend JM purchased 1 pound of Grade-A Tahitian vanilla beans (about 50 beans) for $15 online at: eBay: 1 LB Cert Organic Grade A Tahitian Vanilla Beans 6~7" (item 260129894851 end time Jun-20-07 18:38:46 PDT) , and he graciously donated 6 of them to me. Of those, four went into this lemonade (which was quadrupled-it normally only calls for one).

What if my guests don’t like lemonade? I should have an alternate;
Horchatas de Coco
Recipes : Coconut-Rice Cooler: Horchata de Coco : Food Network

This is an interesting drink, and when you multiply it by 5, it requires an awful lot of cinnamon. I ground the cinnamon in a blender and vastly sped up that process. I also split and added another vanilla bean to the mix, just on principle. Sadly, people really didn’t go for this; when I handed them a glass of it, they were universally happy with the stuff, but I suspect it’s just too different to be served at a party. I took most of it home with me, and it turns to goo in a couple of days.

Ok, I have chili, cornbread and two drinks. What else might my guests desire? They may want a dessert, and I’ve been craving brownies for a while. This was an easy choice; some of you may remember the Alton Brown vs. Martha Stewart brownie smackdown Aargnzarf and I presented here. I saw no reason to mess with success, and made three batches of the stuff.
Coco Brownies by Alton Brown
Recipes : Cocoa Brownies : Food Network

One of my guests mentioned that she can only eat whole wheat due to her dietary restrictions, so in the interests of variety I added a macaroni salad, as being cheap, easy to make, and universally edible. I used some whole-wheat shells instead of macaroni, and everybody was happy. Actually, this dish was the surprise winner; out of the two pounds of the macaroni, there was only enough left over for two bowls the next day. This is an awesome recipe; highly recommended.
American Macaroni Salad
Recipes : American Macaroni Salad : Food Network



I hate parsley, so I didn’t use any, the tomatoes were put on the side in deference to some guests who can’t eat them, and I used whole wheat pasta.

In addition, I bought a few pounds of red bell peppers, weird-looking summer squash, zucchini and red onions, cut them into quarters or halves, sprinkled olive-oil and dried dill on them, and roasted them on the BBQ.

I apologize for the dearth of photos; I was just too stressed to remember.

I planned for 30 people, invited 40, and about 25 people showed up. I went to Costco, Whole Foods, 2 different Trader Joe’s, 2 different Mexican grocery stores and an Indian grocery store to get all the ingredients I needed, spending a total of $197.38, including $17 on a bottle of rum, and perhaps $40 on sturdy paper plates, cups, plastic utensils and napkins.

Recipe Reviews:

The chili was pretty straight forward; it just had a lot of ingredients. I have half of a split-half of a cow (½ of ¼ of a butchered cow), of which I had quite a bit of hamburger and some stew meat; this was happily used in the chili. When I saw how much chili a doubled-recipe made, I panicked and made a super-fast half-batch, with a 4-pound chuck steak used to provide the meat. I also added several cans of kidney beans and a pound of frozen corn, both of which I think added nicely to the chili. It comes out looking thin until you actually dig in.

The hardest part is actually getting the nine different kinds of spices it calls for; I found that a good Mexican grocery store will have most or all of the chilis.

My brother noticed a couple of people fanning their mouth, but the great majority liked it, both people with huge spice tolerance and those who don’t normally like spicy food.

The cornbread was very tasty, especially with honey on top. I made five pans of it, and I was real happy to eat the leftovers. I made the creamed corn first, and used two batches of that in the five batches of the cornbread, which left me with a small bowl of the creamed corn left over. Once you have the batter mixed up, oil a HOT cast-iron pan, and bake for 35 minutes (a bit longer than it calls for = crispier top). Getting them out of the pan was easy, turn it over and they literally fall out.

The macaroni salad was the easiest recipe of all, and by far the most popular. We didn’t have mayonnaise, but my friend assured me that adding a tablespoon of vinegar to a cup of sour cream can substitute, and he was right. It came out tangy and creamy, with good texture. People usually commented on it before the chili, which they liked.



The brownies are really tasty, and we did a comparison with them here:
Super Ninja Brownie Recipe Face Off! Round 1, Fight! Martha Stewart vs. Alton Brown

All in all, this party was a lot of work, and was completely worth it.

[jeff]

Very nice post!

Something fun to play with when low on cash is turning very cheap meat into great meals.

cube steak and chuck roast are two good meats that come to mind. =)