Char's Kitchen

Char's View:
I decided that since Vichu is always gracious enough to invite everyone over to his house for dinner (not to mention I blogged about his last one) it would only be fair if I cooked him dinner. Wish me luck!

I decided to start us off with grilled proscuitto wrapped plums on a bed of greens with gorgonzola and balsamic dressing. I have only made this dish one other time and it was based on a dish I had at Union (South End). I'd have to say that the first time I recreated it was much better. This time I didn't grill the plums long enough so they were still a little bit to firm.

Next, I made a beef tenderloin with a port balsamic glaze. The steak and glaze were underseasoned, but the meat was cooked just right (I guess you can't really go wrong with steak). For the side, I made a potato gratin with gruyere and creme fraiche. For inquiring minds, both of these recipes can be found on Epicurious.com. It said to generously salt and pepper the potatoes. Well, I have always been a generous person so needless to say, the gratin came out oversalted and the gruyere didn't help its case.

For dessert, another Epicurious find. Phyllo nests with strawberries, whipped cream, and honey. This was essentially a disaster until Vichu saved it for me. The nests were a lot more work intensive then I thought they would be! However, the final product I would have to say was really good! I wished I had made more than two!

All in all, I wouldn't say I knocked Vichu's socks off, but I didn't kill him either!

Vichu's View:
As I was climbing the stairs to Char’s apt I could already smell the yumminess that I was about to partake. The beautiful smell of potatoes baking with cheese; enough to sent your salivary glands into overdrive and make you drool like a Basset hound with glandular problems. Growling stomach in tow I was about to be plied with a most excellent meal miraculously produced in a tiny kitchen. We started off with a salad of mixed greens topped with grilled Prosciutto wrapped plums and gorgonzola cheese, followed by a pan seared steak topped with a port balsamic and pan juice reduction, with a potatoes au gratin side (the source of the drool worthy smells) and for dessert a caramelized phyllo basket with whipped cream, strawberries and honey.

The salad was pretty basic, with mixed greens and dressed in balsamic vinegar and oil and topped with Gorgonzola cheese. Nothing really out of the ordinary, but I enjoyed its simplicity. The part of this dish that stood out for me were the grilled Prosciutto wrapped Plums. They was quite tasty! I have never really been a fan of cooked fruits but in this case it was good. The salt and porkiness of the proscuitto really went well with sweet acid fruitiness of the plums. I’ve always been a big fan of the proscuitto and fruit (melons, figs, mango etc…), my-oh-my what salt cured pig does for fruit is amazing, now I’ll add grilled fruit to that list.

What can I say about the beef other than a Texan cooked it! Must be something in the water that makes them one with beef! Seasoned and cooked with amazing precision, my steak was tender with a crispy, and tasty crust cooked to an excellent medium rare. The port based sauce worked beautifully with the beef, lending an extra dimension of taste and aroma without killing the beefy essence. If you own a steak house in Boston, you should think about hiring her as a consultant. The potatoes au gratin side was also quite good, although a bit heavy on the salt and a tad oily. But overall the potatoes were cooked to perfection and the salt and oil most likely came from the cheese, thinking less cheese and it would have been perfect.

The dessert was simple elegant and very tasty. I won’t say this for too many strawberry based desserts, I’m not a huge fan of strawberries (actually commercial strawberries, I love wild strawberries but I can’t seem to find them anywhere in the US), I find them kind of tasteless and uninteresting, but in combination with caramelized phyllo, honey, and whipped cream it was yum!

The overall meal was excellent and if I die tonight I’d die fat and happy!