May 9, 2007

Party Prep

I’d invited my classmates over to Larg’s for one last party at the beach house before I moved into the cardboard box. Folks were planning on joining me on the train directly after class, and I wanted to be sure that everything was prepared the day before. I’d asked everyone to bring a pupu to share, so I thought that just a couple of offerings on my end would be plenty. Louise and I went into Semaphore where I picked up eggplant, red pepper, capers and mushrooms. Louise then took me to a fabulous seafood shop where I secured a kilo of lovely prawns. My plan was to offer caponata, cheese, chilled prawns, and crackers. We got home and I quickly diced eggplant, pepper, mushroom and onion. I tossed the vegetables into a pan with a little olive oil, and added some minced garlic and oregano. When the onions were translucent, I added tomato paste and capers, and deglazed the pan with some balsamic vinegar. Lastly, I added just a pinch of sugar, turned off the heat, and let the flavors blend. While the caponata was cooling, I made a court bouillon of mire poix (look it up), lemon juice, white wine, bay leaves, and water. When it came to a boil I added my prawns and let them cook for about 5 minutes. I quickly removed them and stuck them in the fridge to cool, and had a quick taste of the caponata. It’s going to be a yummy party.