Beach House Pantry
Above: Ahi Watermelon Tuna with Stir-fried Veggies and Ramen noodles
After a whirlwind weekend of private parties and personal chef dinners (and brunch), we were reminded again, of why we love food and how it connects us all. We spent days prepping for back-to-back parties that at first, seemed to have wildly different menus and dietary needs, but found that like food, people are a lot more alike than they are different, regardless of their backgrounds and tastes. We are all the same in the presence of food and family. And when we sit down to eat together, we do more than open our mouths, but our hearts, minds and souls as well. And when our clients welcome us into their families to share their experience, gratitude and love, we are grateful and humbled.
Okay, enough pontificating, onto the food! For all the differences we talked about, both parties had guests that ate vegan, one for cultural reasons, the other as a lifestyle choice. Whatever the case, this always adds a delicious extra dimension to the meal. For one party, this meant the substitution of cauliflower steaks in place of the breaded chicken cutlets we served for their main course, for the other, we got even more creative with Ahi watermelon tuna steaks.
The cauliflower steaks were thick-sliced and marinated in a spicy flavor profile overnight. When it came time to make dinner, we drizzled them with olive oil, hand made breadcrumbs, then baked them on high heat until they had a crispy, slightly charred crust. We served them with fresh pasta and our also fresh made red sauce. While we are happy that they loved the steaks, we were just as happy to have one of the family's "foodie" aunts, ask us how we got the flavor profile we did on the steaks as well as ask us for our red sauce recipe, which we were also happy to share. Even better, was her sharing some of her favorite spice mix and flavor profiles with us.
The Ahi watermelon tuna was as much a treat for us to make as it was for our clients to eat. It's a dish we dabbled with before, and to which we did a bit of experimenting with prior to the party. We're kicking around the idea of a recipe how-to for this, but until then, let's just say, we're amazed at the virtual transformation the watermelon takes on its way to becoming "tuna". It's incredible. Delicious too! Like our other party, it warmed our hearts when the guest of honor, and matriarchal vegan, shared with us her reasons, journey and insights why she's vegan. She's also going to share some recipes with us, which we can't wait to try.
Events like these, where we get a little more insight into other cultures, ways of life and talking with people who enjoy food as much as we do, adds another layer of "flavor" to what we do.
All Rights Reserved Beach House Pantry