5 Star Foodie Culinary Adventures: Project Food Blog Luxury Party: Spicy Flavors of Autumn

Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments, and your votes on the second challenge for Project Food Blog! For the third challenge, I am sharing a luxury party featuring the Spicy Flavors of Autumn! I would appreciate your support - please vote for my entry here!

It is relatively easy to make a luxury meal consisting of fancy ingredients such as lobster, foie gras, or truffles. A more challenging task is to cook with everyday foods, enhancing these flavors through modern techniques to transform humble ingredients into a 5-star style masterpiece. Many 5 star restaurants now take this approach, placing an emphasis on more affordable local and seasonal ingredients. In this spirit, I have accepted the challenge, creating a unique menu for my luxury party this weekend, with five different courses featuring new original recipes.

Putting together a well thought out menu is an essential first step when planning a party. For me, the first step is to examine my pantry, and then follow up with a trip to my local supermarket. In my case, my local Wegmans is only five minutes from my house, and a visit to this incredible store often results in finding something new and exciting to inspire me.

After examining these available ingredients, the next step is to assemble the menu. I typically like to have a theme for my menu, whether it is a specific style of cuisine, an ingredient, a flavor, or a story. This time, in my pantry I found a collection of different chilies, while my supermarket inspired me with its wonderful seasonal produce. These ingredients naturally came together for me in forming a theme of "Spicy Flavors of Autumn".

There are a few important things to note when cooking with chilies for a party. It's crucial to find out your guests' tolerance for spices. If some of them may prefer milder heat or cannot eat dishes that are too spicy, be sure to make a separate version of the spicy dish. In general, keep the heat level around "medium", so guests can enjoy the flavors of the dishes as well as the spice. Toast all your chilies ahead of time, well before the guests arrive, so spicy kitchen aromas are no longer in the air. Finally, some of these sauces can be prepared a little ahead of time, enabling the spices mellow out and the full flavors to develop.

With these tips in mind, here is the "Spicy Flavors of Autumn" meal that I put together for my guests this weekend.

We started with a smooth and silky Butternut Squash bisque with Chipotle, Piloncillo, and Tempura-Fried Hearts of Palm. Butternut squash is one of my favorite ingredients to feature in an autumn soup, and this time I infused it with smoky chipotle chilies and caramel flavors of Piloncillo, or Mexican brown sugar. The tempura-fried hearts of palm were a perfect accompaniment for the bisque, providing both a contrast in texture and helping to absorb the spice of the chilies. Although I only added one or two hearts of palm to top each bowl of soup, I served several of them as bite sized delights on the side as well.

Butternut Squash Bisque with Chipotle Chilies, Piloncillo, and Tempura-fried Hearts of Palm

Our second course featured a Ghost Chile pepper, the hottest chile in the world. I originally explored this chile last year for the first time, having received it from Marx Foods. I was excited to discover that my local supermarket also sells it, under a label with the other name for this chile, Bhut Jolokia. Making a Ghost chile salt is a great way to enjoy this extremely spicy chile pepper.

These Ghost chile salt crusted scallops were excellent, and we loved the pairing of the spicy scallops with sweet maple emulsion and the fresh herb flavors of the micro greens. The edible flowers of autumn colors added a terrific visual appeal for this dish.

Ghost Chile Salt Crusted Scallops with Maple Emulsion

Next, I was very excited to introduce my guests to a new protein that I recently discovered, the Chesapeake Bay Ray. Sometimes the most exotic ingredients are actually found in your own local area! The ray population in the Chesapeake Bay is overflowing right now, and since the rays are eating all the shellfish and crabs, there is a high availability of the rays on the market. It is sustainable and very affordable, costing only $9.99 per pound. The rays are also very tasty. They don't taste anything like fish, and instead are surprisingly reminiscent of veal when cooked. The best way to cook Chesapeake rays is quickly over high heat. To ensure tenderness, the rays need to be pounded, if not thinly sliced, and a marinade provides a great way to infuse extra flavors as well.

I marinaded these ray fillets in a mixture of lemon juice, olive oil, and savory; then grilled them. I paired the grilled rays with the spicy Aji Panko chile sauce and smoky Mexican-style rice, and topped them with refreshing avocado slices.

Grilled Chesapeake Ray with Aji Panko Chile Sauce, Avocado Slices, and Mexican Rice

Next, our main course was Spice Rubbed Medallions of Venison with Balsamic Blackberry Reduction and Whipped Sweet Potato Puree, a terrific dish for the autumn season. The aromatic spice rub included Guajillo chilies, nutmeg and allspice. The balsamic blackberry reduction turned out to be perfectly smooth and highlighted the sweet flavors of balsamic vinegar and fruity flavors of the blackberries, pairing perfectly with the venison medallions.

Spice Rubbed Medallions of Venison with Balsamic Blackberry Reduction and Whipped Sweet Potato Puree

For dessert, I prepared miniature Roasted Grape Tartlettes with Ancho Chile Ice Cream. The grapes were mixed with sugar and a touch of cinnamon, roasted atop puff pastry rounds. My homemade ice cream featured condensed milk, Mexican vanilla, and smoky Ancho chilies. I originally wanted to toast the Ancho chilies but at the last minute decided to grind them untoasted, and this worked well as I really liked the textural effect of the little bits of chilies in the smooth creamy ice cream. Because I took all the seeds out of the chilies, the ice cream was sweet and flavorful, with just the tiniest hint of spice. This was a great compliment to the juicy grape tartlettes.

Roasted Grape Tartlettes with Ancho Chile Ice Cream

My luxury dinner party was a success! My guests enjoyed tasting these new flavor combinations and learning about some new exotic ingredients. We all really enjoyed every course!