Dinner Parties by nola bean

Almost everyone of my weekends are spent in the company of clients and private dinner parties are always a lot of fun to plan and execute. This dinner party took place last weekend at the home of my clients and they enjoyed a very special evening filled with good food, great wines (hand selected by my clients) and friends.


They started the evening with a salad that was taught to me by Chef Anne Kearney. Recently here in New Orleans, the chef who bought Anne's restaurant a few years ago decided to change the restaurant from what used to be Anne's Peristyle to what will now be Tom's Wolfe's. I have yet to visit Tom at the newly renovated space but I can't imagine how different Dumaine Street is without her beloved "Peristyle".

Getting back to the salad...I don't normally recreate items that former chefs have taught me, but with the passing of Peristyle I thought that recreating one of her signature salads was one of the very small ways that I could pay my respects. The salad starts with oven roasted Beets, thinly sliced and topped with pickled Red Onions. The Onions are pickled with a solution of Orange Zest, Red Wine Vinegar, Coriander and Water, and then allowed to sit overnight so that they turn the prettiest hue of purple. On top of the Onions, a combination of Jumbo Lump Crabmeat, Horseradish, fresh Aioli, Creme Fraiche, finely diced Chives, Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper which is topped off with a small Herb Nage (salad).

It really is one of the most divine and complex, yet still simple and satisfying salads. This salad is responsible for the transformation of many from Beet disgust to Beet love.


The second course was a Garlic Oil marinated, seared and sliced Pork Tenderloin served alongside a griddled Sweet Potato, Caramelized Onion and Parmesan Bread Pudding, Garlic Sauteed Broccoli Rabe and finished with a Steen's Cane Vinegar Demi Glace with fresh Thyme. A really great balance of acidity from the Broccoli Rabe and the vinegar laced Demi Glace and sweetness from the Sweet Potatoes and Caramelized Onions brought the whole dish together.


One of my favorite courses is always cheese! We are so fortunate to have a fantastic Cheese shop here in New Orleans called the St. James! Richard and Danielle are extremely dedicated and enthusiastic about their work and their cheese. Danielle was able to recommend the "Constant Bliss". Constant Bliss is a raw cow's milk cheese made by Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, Vermont. They describe their cheese below;

"Constant Bliss is based on a Chaource recipe, which we modified to suit our production schedule and cheesemaking facility. The result is a cheese which hardly even resembles a Chaource. It is a slow ripened lactic curd made only with fresh, right out of the cow, uncooled, evening milk. We actually begin the cheesemaking process before the cows have finished milking. Constant Bliss is made with raw whole milk. This is not a double or triple crème cheese as is sometimes thought. Seasonal variations in the milk result in variations on the surface and flavor of the cheese. We like to use Constant Bliss to highlight our milk, and rather than overpowering the natural microflora of our milk with cotton white mold, we prefer to see a mottling of diverse molds and yeasts, which are prevalent particularly in the summer months when the cows are out on grass. It is aged 60 days before it leaves the farm, and is a ‘sell it or smell it’ item for retailers.

We named Constant Bliss after a revolutionary war scout killed in Greensboro by native Americans in 1781. He was guarding the Bayley Hazen Military Road with his compatriot Moses Sleeper, who died with him."

I describe it as a sublime cheese! It wasn't too overpowering, grassy and sweet with just a tang that hits the back of your throat. I paired the "Constant Bliss" (how can you not love a cheese with a name like that?) with a thin slice of Quince paste and some Olive Oil Crisps. I instructed the guests that they should place the Quince Paste (just a tiny bit) on the crisp, top it with the cheese and to place the cheese down on the tongue so that the cheese is the first taste they experience followed by the quince and then the richness of the Crisp.

Please pardon my picture of the last course, I call it my "Fuzzy" Pavlova. Smith Creamery Heavy Cream lightly whipped (you can see how rich in butterfat the cream from the Smith's is by the almost butter yellow color) and folded into Creme Fraiche with peeled, chunked Colorado Peaches (which are not local but really out of this world in flavor right now!) that mousse like filling was rolled into a large rectangle of soft cooked Meringue. I served it on top of fresh Raspberry Puree and garnished with Confectioner's Sugar and crushed Pistachio Praline.

It was a great evening!