Recipe of the Month: Not Your Average Carrot Soup

This is one of Chef Nadia's recipes. It's not your usual carrot soup because it doesn't have any ginger, but it does have apples and beer! Enjoy.

Peel one and a half pounds of carrots, and cut into wedges. Toss with 3 TBL olive oil.

Roast at 425 degrees until golden brown, approximately 25 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Peel and chop 1 fuji or gala apple. Slice 2 stalks celery. Dice 1/2 yellow onion or 2 small shallots.

Saute the apple, celery and onion in 2 TBL olive oil in a medium sized pot on medium heat for about 10-15 minutes or until very nicely caramelized. Sprinkle in 2-4 TBL ground cumin and cook for another 2 minutes.

Add carrots and deglaze pan with 3/4 bottle of dark beer and keep cooking until beer is half reduced. Turn off and let come to room temperature.

Blend with 1-2 qts veggie or beef stock (tastes WAY better with beef stock) until creamy to desired thickness. Add 1/2 cup cream if you like (optional). Add salt and pepper to taste. Can be frozen up to 1 month. We like it served with a dollop of sour cream. You can also substitute squash or pumpkin for the carrots.

Soulmates Bridal Soiree

It's not everyday you get married. Which is why selecting your wedding location, the caterer, your cake, and the all important dress can sometimes feel like some of the biggest decisions of your life. We know, you want everything to be perfect. That's where we come in, like a superhero, eager to save the day and ease your worries.

This week we participated in the Soulmates Bridal Soiree at one of our favorite new venues, the Museum of Ventura County. We met soon to be brides and grooms, future mother in laws, and hard-working maids of honor, all in the throws of wedding decision making. Throughout the evening they met with photographers, cake bakers, cupcakers, makeup artists, videographers, DJ's, and more. And, since its what we do best, we fed them. Here's a peek at the menu:

Fried Mirliton with black bean pico de gallo and ranch dressing
Goat cheese stuffed figs with pomegranate molasses
Baked apple mac n' cheese bites
Mango, mint, and crab summer rolls with chili lime dressing
Pomegranate macaroons
Coffee macaroons with hazelnut ganache
Vanilla bean macaroons with white chocolate rose ganache

Thanksgiving extras...

Sautéed Chard & Kale with Sweet & Sour Raisins

Serves 8-10

INGREDIENTS

2-3 tbs olive oil

2 shallots, minced (can substitute red onion)

½ cup raisins

2 tbs white sugar

¼ cup red wine or sherry vinegar

A little thyme, picked

¼ cup olive oil

4 heads chard, cleaned and chopped

3 heads kale, cleaned and chopped

Salt & pepper to taste

PREPARATION

1. In a medium pot, heat the 2-3 tbs olive oil. Add the shallots, and sauté until soft.

2. Add the raisins, sugar, and vinegar and cook over medium heat until the raisins are soft and the liquid is nearly gone. Sometimes I need to add a little water or juice as well. Just keep an eye on it. Stir in the thyme when the raisins are juicy and the liquid is nearly gone.

3. In another large pan, heat the remaining ¼ cup of olive oil. Once hot, add the kale and chard, and cook, stirring often, until the kale and chard are soft, about 10 minutes if using one large pot. You may not have a pot that is big enough in which case you can easily sauté the greens in two or three batches. Remove the greens to a casserole dish, and pour the raisins over the top.

4. Keep in a warm oven until the rest of the meal is ready to serve, or if you only have a hot oven, pour a little stock in the casserole dish, put a cover on it, and bake. Either way, the greens taste great

Apple Ginger Fizz

Serves 8

Ice Cubes

3 c Martinelli’s Apple Cider non-carbonated

1 c lime juice fresh

1c lemon juice fresh

¼ c simple syrup

2 Bottles of Ginger Beer (Reeds Brand Ginger Beer)

1 Bottle of Martinelli’s Sparkling Apple Cider

Garnish glasses with sliced apples or sugar cane sticks

1. Fill 8 highball glasses with ice.

2. Fill a large pitcher or bowl with the apple cider, fresh lime juice, lemon juice and simple syrup, stir all ingredients

3. Pour in the ginger beer, pour in the sparkling apple cider

4. Pour or ladle above mixture into glasses, garnish with apple slices, serve at once.

Thanksgiving turkey in three hours, really.

The Simplest Roast Turkey from Gourmet | November 2005

Yield: Makes 8 to 10 servings

Active Time: 20 min

Total Time: 3 hr

You'll rejoice as white and dark meat alike come out juicy and tender in a bird you can set and forget — and then enjoy. We do not recommend this high-heat roasting method for turkeys weighing more than 16 pounds. However, for turkeys weighing less than 14 pounds, start checking the temperature earlier. If you only have a dark-colored metal roasting pan, add 1 cup water to the roasting pan before putting the turkey in the oven.

INGREDIENTS

1 (14- to 16-lb) turkey, neck and giblets (excluding liver) reserved for stock

2 1/2 teaspoons salt (2 teaspoons if using a kosher bird)

1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper

Special equipment: pliers (preferably needlenose); a small metal skewer (optional); kitchen string; a flat metal rack; an instant-read thermometer

PREPARATION

1. Remove any feathers and quills with pliers (kosher turkeys tend to require this more than others).

Put oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 450°F.

2. Rinse turkey inside and out and pat dry. Mix salt and pepper in a small bowl and sprinkle it evenly in turkey cavities and all over skin. Fold neck skin under body and, if desired, secure with metal skewer, then tuck wing tips under breast and tie drumsticks together with kitchen string.

3. Put turkey on rack in a large flameproof roasting pan. Roast, rotating pan 180 degrees halfway through roasting, until thermometer inserted into fleshy part of each thigh (close to but not touching bone) registers 170°F, 1 3/4 to 2 1/2 hours.

4. Carefully tilt turkey so juices from inside large cavity run into roasting pan. Transfer turkey to a platter (do not clean roasting pan) and let stand 30 minutes (temperature of thigh meat will rise to 180°F). Cut off and discard string from turkey.

For a Stuffed turkey:

Twelve cups of stuffing will fill both cavities and leave you extra to bake separately. Just before roasting, spoon room-temperature stuffing loosely (stuffing expands as it cooks) into the neck (smaller) cavity. Fold the neck skin underneath the body and secure with a small metal skewer. Then loosely fill the body (larger) cavity, and tie drumsticks together. If you don't want any stuffing to spill out, cover the opening with a slice of fresh bread, tucking it inside the cavity before tying the drumsticks. Follow roasting directions above. (Timing for a stuffed bird may be slightly longer, but start checking the temperature at 1 3/4 hours.) Immediately transfer stuffing from body cavity to a shallow baking dish (separate from one for stuffing baked outside the turkey). Take temperature of stuffing in neck cavity and if less than 165°F, add it to the baking dish. Bake (covered for a moist stuffing or uncovered for a crisp top) until it reaches a minimum of 165°F. This can take 20 to 45 minutes, depending on the temperature of the oven, which you may have lowered to reheat side dishes.

Roast turkey breast:

The same method used above can be applied to a whole turkey breast (instead of the entire bird). For a 6- to 8-pound breast (with skin and bone), reduce amount of salt to 1 1/2 teaspoons and pepper to 3/4 teaspoon. Use a V-rack instead of a flat rack. Roast, rotating pan 180 degrees halfway through roasting, until thermometer inserted in thickest part of each breast half (close to but not touching bone) registers 170°F, about 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 1/2 hours. Let stand 30 minutes (temperature in breast will rise to between 175°F and 180°F).

Big changes this holiday season...

Dear Friends,

When Robert Jacobi and I came to Ventura 2 ½ years ago to open our catering company, we knew this was a great place to have our business. It is halfway between our two major catering areas: Malibu and Santa Barbara. We thought we'd do a little take-out lunch business on the side - nothing major. This lunch business evolved into our bistro and we began to offer sit down service with wine and beer, too.

In the meantime - and in spite of the horrid economy - our catering has continued to pick up. We've done our best to keep up with our fabulous lunch bistro customers - many of whom are great friends of ours - as well as grow our corporate and private catering and our private chef divisions. Amazingly, we've been doing all of this with a talented yet very small staff.

Yet, while we LOVE running our bistro, it is getting harder and harder to maintain a thriving, service-oriented bistro while growing what we really do best: catering. We have occasionally needed to close the bistro due to catering events, and we know how frustrating that is for all of you when you think we're open but then we're not. Much to our dismay, we cannot provide the level of customer service we demand from ourselves while running a bistro and catering company during the same hours.

We liken our lunch bistro to the rocket boosters on a space ship - absolutely necessary to provide the lift off the rocket needs, and once the rocket is in space on its journey, the rocket boosters are no longer needed. Having our bistro and building relationships with you has been a true gift, but we are ready to move forward.

Therefore, we are both saddened and very excited to share with you that we will be closing our lunch bistro as of December 4th. We know it is bad news for many of you, and we wrestled with the decision for a long time, but the truth is, we'd be closed most of December anyway because we have lots of catering events that necessitate our Chefs' and Servers' time.

The silver lining is that we hear you all loud and clear that you LOVE our cooking classes, and you've been asking for them to be more frequent for many months. We will now have the time to present you with more classes as well as special dinners that are not only focused on a theme - such as the excellent German wines we brought back from Europe last year (and have been waiting for us to put on a dinner for y'all) - but also offered at a good value - something you can come back to Main Course over and over again to enjoy.

And of course, the entire reason why we are doing this is so that we continue to excel at what our purpose is: provide unparalleled service and flavorful food for our discerning clientele. We welcome you to come in for one more bite within the next few weeks. We'd love to see you, and remember, we are here, having fun, catering events - for you!

Sincerely,

Rachel Main and the Main Course California Staff

Imperfect is the new perfect

In the wedding and catering industry, trends change as fast as the speed of light. It used to be fondant cakes were all the rage, now there has been a shift back toward old faithful, thick and creamy butter cream icing. For a while it was tiny, bite size architectural bites that often left people wondering, what is this? Yet, now we’re seeing more of a shift back to comfort food, foods that are recognizable to the eye and comforting to the soul…like little grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, and fried green tomatoes.

We even laugh sometimes around Main Course that “imperfect is the new perfect.” While, yes, we do strive for perfection in our kitchen, at our events, in our interactions with clients, and in our service…we don’t always believe that “perfect” makes for the best food or the best atmosphere at an event.

We use all local, organic tomatoes in our soups, sandwiches, and salads. And if you know anything about tomatoes, you know that while the tomatoes you pluck from the produce section at the grocery store may look perfect, often times they can be mealy and tasteless. On the flip side, that rugged looking tomato you get at the farmer’s market that looks anything but perfect – just might be the sweetest thing you’ve put in your mouth all week. And since we’re in the business of making stop you in your tracks good food, we tend to err on the side of imperfect, if it means the end result is a dish that makes you say, “wow,” and leaves a lasting impression on your palate.

When it comes to presentation, our table designs are impeccable and classy, but oftentimes rustic, drawing inspiration from nature and local produce, both of which are beautiful in their imperfection. Maybe it’s an artisan cheese display on an old wine barrel, where twigs and herbs mingle with decadent cheeses and refreshing local fruit.

Maybe it’s a table topped with flowers cut from a client’s garden early that morning…imperfect and stunning at the same time.

Another time, using an old family recipe, a bride's mother in law baked the wedding cake in our catering kitchen, making for a perfectly delicious imperfect cake full of soul and family history.

Recipe of the Month: Baked Apple Mac n' Cheese

This is one of our most recent recipes, created for a client who wanted a casual autumn supper. This just might be the perfect addition to your holiday table, a new holiday tradition, a dish that both adults and children will gobble up with delight.

Baked Apple Mac N Cheese

Serves 8-10

1 pound Small elbow noodles

1 T Salt

5T Unsalted butter

6T All purpose flour

¼ tsp Hot Sauce

¼ tsp Sugar

½ tsp Minced garlic

6 cups Whole milk

¼ tsp Salt

¼ tsp Pepper

1 ½ pounds cheese, shredded (we used cheddar, swiss, and Parmesan)

3 cups Curry Roasted Apples (recipe follows)

1 tsp dried thyme

For the Pasta:

1) Bring 4qt of water to boil over med high heat. Add the elbow noodles and 1 tablespoon on salt. Cook until the pasta is tender. Drain the pasta in a colander and set to the side.

For the Cheese Sauce:

1) In a medium saucepan, heat the butter over medium- high heat until it is foaming. Add garlic, sauté for 1 minute, add the flour. Whisk well to combine. Continue whisking until mixture has a nutty fragrance, and cool deepens, about 1 minute.

2) Gradually whisk in milk and hot sauce; bring to a boil, constantly whisking. Mixture must come to a full boil for mixture to thicken properly. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, whisking occasionally until thickened to consistency of heavy cream, about 5 minutes.

3) Remove pan from heat, add in the cheese whisking to fully incorporate and all the cheese has melted.

4) Add the cooked noodles to the melted cheese mixture; add thyme and curried apples. Taste and add the salt and pepper as needed.

5) Pour the noodle and cheese mixture into a prepared baking dish that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

6) Bake in pre-heated oven set at 365 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Until mixture is bubbly and golden brown on top.

Roasted Apples

6 apples, medium dice (we like Fuji)

2 stalks celery

¼ cup olive oil

2 tbs curry powder

1 tsp sugar

Kosher salt & fresh ground black pepper

1) Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

2) In a large bowl, toss all ingredients together. Pour the apples onto a sheet tray, and bake for about 25 minutes, or until they are just soft.

*Note you can do some of the prep ahead of time, just keep the apple mixture and the macaroni mixture separate. On the day of your meal, mix the two together and bake.