Friday, October 14, 2011

FFWD: I Can't Be Bothered with the Weirdest Dinner

A few months ago, I was reading about getting kids to expand their food horizons and one mom wrote about how they decide as a family what cuisine they will eat on any given night of the week.  Then, they use that opportunity to pretend they are taking a trip there, learning about the culture and the foods eaten in, say, Thailand.  I thought it was a cute idea and something to file away for the future.

I was reminded of it, though, last night when I made a rather incongruous pairing for dinner.  See, we traveled first to Russia, by way of France, and then we either flew back to France, eating at a French-Mexican restaurant (yes, they do exist), or flew to Mexico to some Mexican-French restaurant.  I needed to make the blinis for FFWD, but then I had these poblano peppers I'd bought at the farmer's market.  I'd already planned to stuff them with goat cheese (used ubiquitously in the French version of Mexican food to stand in for cotija, I think), corn, and black beans, and thought they'd accompany some grilled chicken.  Or something.  Well, they accompanied blinis.  Oh, and we are/were going through a heat-wave so it was 97 degrees yesterday--normal temps are around 70--and we don't "do" air-con in this part of the world.  Yippy.  I don't know what that has to do with anything, that last part, but I wanted to complain.

Anyway, on to the blinis.  I've never made them before, and I never would've made them if not for FFWD, so that's cool.  Part of that never-would've-made-them-thing is that they were sort of an exercise in "I Can't Be Bothered" . . . except for when I could be.  At first, I thought I couldn't be bothered to make them, thinking I'd skip this week.  Then, I was waiting for a prescription and found everything I needed, except for the buckwheat flour and the creme fraiche.  I figured I couldn't be bothered to make buckwheat blinis, as I wasn't going on a scavenger hunt for the flour, and that I'd just make all-purpose flour blinis.  Well, at the 1 silly store here that carries creme fraiche, I just happened to stop by the baking aisle, and whaddya know?  Buckwheat flour.  I got home and realized I'd forgotten to find dill, which is not necessarily easy to find around here (strange since I live in the land of plenty, produce-wise). I figured I couldn't be bothered.  And I really wasn't.  I just snipped some chives off of my yard's chive forest and voilà!

First, I made the blinis Dorie-size, meaning with that 2 tablespoons of batter measure.  They were big:

Big Blinis
 The husband-man had been hovering over me in the kitchen, whining about being hungry, and so I made the two bits above and immediately served them to at least stave off the worst of his hunger.  He sat down and asked, "Why the sexy dinner?"  I have no idea what that means, and he couldn't really articulate it while shoving his blini into his mouth.  So, I sent him back to his cave while I finished off the rest of the batter.

I then decided that I'd make the blinis half-sized, with only 1 tablespoon of batter.  I liked them better that way. I also refused to use only the "barest hint" of creme fraiche, or whatever Dorie said...mostly because I can't say no to something that is creamy and fatty.  Mmmmmm.


Meanwhile, I heard some hollering from the man: "It smells really good!  When can we eat more?!?"

In the end, I think the blinis were a success.  HA!  Really, though, we both liked them and were coming up with other ways to eat the leftovers (like with strawberries, lightly sweetened creme fraiche, and mint).

The only thing missing was the champagne.  Man, I can't believe I didn't think to get some as it would've been a perfect pairing.  I opened a nice acidic, non-malolactic, barely oaked Chardonnay that worked well, but it didn't have that pop (literally and figuratively) that a nice brut would've lent to the dish.

Oh, and then we ate the stuffed peppers.  Thus ended probably the oddest dinner I've made in a very long time.  At least it all tasted good.

My question is: what's the weirdest dinner you've made, not counting those weirdo have-no-money-college-"dinners"?



4 comments:

  1. Ok, "so I sent him back to his cave" - love that! Your story on how you came around to finally making these - very funny. I absolutely understand that train of logic. I have those moments.
    Ever simce I have started FFwD, we have had some very odd combo dinners - especially if I am making something I am not keen on and feel like I need to balance it with something
    "normal".
    Have a great weekend.

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  2. I had trouble mentally making a meal out of the blini until I made the leap from "main course" to "appetizer". The rest of my meal fell into place after that. Weirdest dinner...hmmmm, I'm having trouble thinking of one, but I know there have been some!

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  3. Maybe your combination may read disparately exotic and weird, but it sure sounds delicious.

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  4. Love the part about sending your husband back to his cave. I agree that bubbly would have made the blini experience perfect. The weirdest dinners I've had have usually been just before moves or vacations. Using up what we don't want to transport can lead to some very interesting menus.

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