Saturday, February 11, 2012

First Century Dinner!

We got invited to a little dinner party, a different type, but it will be interesting I think. It's a First Century Dinner, using recipes from first century AD, somewhat like the last supper. The hostess sent out the recipes so if we wanted to bring something we could. I chose to make stuffed carmelized dates and pomegranate glazed tilapia!

I looked all over town for the dates and pine nuts and ended up getting them at Sam's Club when I went for the tilapia for 26 people!

I slit open the dates and removed the seed and I saved them (more later on that!) I stuffed them with pine nuts and smoothed them shut, rolling them in a ball and sprinkling with sea salt. Then I fried them in a pan with honey until they were nice and caramelized. I put several in paper muffin cups for individual servings. Of course we had a few left over so we taste tested them.......yummy, just like candy!

The glaze for the tilapia called for pomegranate syrup and of course I couldn't find it and had waited too late to order it so I made my own! 2 cups of pomegranate juice and 4 cups of sugar in a saucepan, brought it to a boil and then simmered for about 15 minutes to reduce it. I let it cool overnight.

I mixed 1/2 cup of the pomegranate syrup with 1 1/4 cups olive oil and 1/4 cup red wine vinegar. Then I minced several (ok 6-8!) cloves of garlic and used the immersion blender to mix it up. The tilapia has been dried and lying in the pan to go over there and meets it's fate with the glaze and the grill! Then I'll garnish it with pomegranate seeds.

The others are bringing lentil soups, fava bean salad, rack of lamb and of course red wine!

I have a feeling this is a non-diet night!!!

1 comment:

Karen said...

Hey Marianne!! this all sounds yummy!!

We'll be heading to North Myrtle in the next month or so - I'll give you a call and see if you're going to be at Cherry Grove!