The Night before the Dinner Party

I’m hosting a bit of a dinner party tomorrow night, a small affair. Originally inviting 2 couples, work commitments mean that that only 3 people are coming. There is a bit of an old fashioned theme going on, think early 80’s; courses are asparagus soup, prawn cocktail, beef wellington and finally a tiramisu..
Now I will try to bring these up to date but the retro feel is important. Lots of Soft Cell and Human League as ambient music.
Shakira has shopped for me and so tonight I thought I could prepare a few things to get them out of the way for tomorrow, namely the soup and the duxelle for the wellington.

Asparagus Soup

1kg of asparagus stalks including woody bits
900ml of chicken stock
150 g of water cress
1 medium onion
75g butter
2 cloves garlic

Melt the butter in a v large pan and chop onion and garlic. In a separate pan bring the chicken stock to a simmer. I have to admit here, given the paucity of chicken wings / thighs in the supermarket here in Jamaica, I bought the stock ready made. This is fine particularly as it was unsalted stock, do not use a stock cube as it will overpower everything else in the soup.
After the onion and garlic have fried for about 3 minutes, so softened rather than browned, add the asparagus. To make life easier, you should chop this into chunks, but not necessary. After about 10 minutes, cover the asparagus with the simmering chicken stoc. Put a lid on the pan and simmer for abot15 minutes. After 5 minutes add the watercress, chopped.
Separate the veg from the broth with a colander and whizz up the veg in a blender. Put the pureed veg and about ¾ of the broth in a pan and brong back to a simmer for 5 minutes. This is when you season, and don’t be afraid of the salt.
Now the hard part. Not difficult, just strenuous. Because we used the full stalks of the asparagus, we need to sieve out the woody bits. Pour the soup into a sieve and press through with the back of a wooden spoon. Because I am serving this tomorrow, and I want to protect the delicate flavours, I sieved this into a metal bowl, which was in an ice bath of a bigger metal bowl. This is a very good idea as it would be a pain in the arse to do all this contemporaneously with guests and preparing all the other stuff would render the effort / effect ratio too much on the effort side.
Chilled now, I will be microwaving tomorrow night and serving with a truffle cream. I think this might need livening up with a shot or two of cinzano bianco, or possibly a pastisse, but we’ll wait for the reaction tomorrow before we decide.
The more well read recipe heads wil have spotted thia as a slight bastardisation of Gordon Ramsay recipe. Gordon if you chance upon this blog, sorry, but good ideas are good ideas.

Mushroom duxelle.

For me the duxelle is the difference between a dry beef pie and a good wellington. The wellington is coming tomorrow but the duxelle can be made tonight and chilled.

500g mushrooms (brown caps would be nice but I’ll take anything available in Jamaica)
50g butter
1 large shallot
2 cloves garlic
1 cup marsala
1 cup Armagnac
1 fois gras entitier

Poach the fois gras in the Armagnac. After 5 to 6 minutes or so, remove the fois gras, add the marsala and turn up the heat, reducing the liquid.
In a separate skillet melt the butter, and add the garlic and after a minute add the mushrooms. For a really rich flavor some black truffles could be added, but I felt this would be overkill. When the mushrooms have cooked in the butter, transfer to the reduced brandy and marsala mixture. Mash the fois gras through the mixture. Simmer the mixture until the liquid has evaporated. You will need to keep stirring this. This can be stored in the fridge overnight. The butter will harden in the fridge, so the mixture has to be removed for a hour or so to be allowed to soften for spreading around the beef.