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September

An Evening in Vienna

Duck Pate on Croutons

Cream of Green Pepper Soup

Butter Lettuce Salad with Beets and Goat Cheese

Veal with Sour Cream Raisin Sauce

Buttered Noodles

Sacher Torte

Coffee mit Schlag

Never having actually been to Austria, I take my inspiration from books, movies and my imagination. I make no claims of authenticity, I’m simply creating a mood, an ambiance, that feels like my idea of Austria.

I like this menu for early fall, when green peppers and beets are ready to pick from the garden; when the weather is crisp enough for a fire and it gets dark early enough to warrant lots of candles and a sparkly chandelier.

Decorate your table in as baroque a fashion as possible – white, cream or pale pink tablecloth, fine china, flowers, lots of cut crystal and twinkly lights. Get out your silver pieces – flatware, candelabra, trays, coffee service, whatever you have, and use them with abandon. Put a printed menu at each place, personalized with each guest’s name so everyone knows where to sit.

Since a large number of the world’s greatest musicians were Austrian, I would certainly put together a musical program giving a taste of several. Choose from Joseph Hayden, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, or even the Vienna Boys Choir. Be sure to provide a written program so each guest can follow along, and give a CD of the play list to each couple as a party favor.

If your guests are music lovers, include a listening quiz during cocktails wherein guests match famous Austrians with one of their works. Include not only the musicians mentioned above, but also such personalities as Wolfgang Puck, Sigmund Freud and the Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger. I’ve done this at parties before, and guests have a great time with it. Send the winning couple home with a bottle of Austrian wine.

This menu serves 8.

Duck (or Chicken Liver) Pate on Croutons

If you live in an area where you can purchase very high quality pates, purchase a duck pate with truffles, or a very good chicken liver pate if the duck is not available. You will want a high-quality pate because there are no other ingredients for it to hide behind. If you are going to make it yourself, here is an easy recipe for a great chicken liver pate.

1 baguette

4 tablespoons butter, melted

2 tablespoons parsley, finely minced

8 ounces (more or less) purchased high quality duck pate

Or to make pate:

4 tablespoons butter

1 onion, chopped

1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

2 bay leaves

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 pound fresh chicken livers

¼ cup brandy

1 stick butter

For croutons: Cut baguette on a slight diagonal into ¼” thick slices. Brush very lightly on both sides with melted butter. Broil on both sides until golden. Set aside.

Sauté onions, thyme, bay leaves, salt and pepper in 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat until onions are very soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and sauté one minute more. Add chicken livers and sauté until livers are nicely browned but still pink on the inside. Add brandy and cook until livers are just cooked all the way through. Cool to lukewarm.

Process 1 stick butter in processor until light and fluffy. Add chicken liver mixture and process until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning. Pack into a crock, bowl or loaf pan and chill until firm, at least 2 hours - overnight is even better.

To serve spread each crouton with pate and sprinkle attractively with finely minced parsley.

Cream of Green Pepper Soup

2 slices French-style white bread

2 tablespoons butter

2 shallots, chopped

2 tablespoon butter

6 ounces spinach

4 green bell peppers

4 cups chicken broth

2 teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cups heavy cream

chives for garnish

For croutons: Trim crusts from bread slices to make a square. Cut each square into four squares. Heat butter in a sauté pan. Toss bread squares in butter and sauté until croutons are golden brown on all sides.

Prepare an ice water bath in a large bowl. Stir in a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt. Blanch spinach quickly in a pot of water with 2 tablespoons kosher salt added. Plunge into ice water bath to stop the cooking. Drain. Sauté shallots in butter until soft. Add chicken broth, blanched spinach, green pepper, salt and pepper. Simmer 30 minutes. Cool about 30 minutes. Puree in batches in a blender. Strain into a clean pot. Stir in cream and taste for seasoning. Soup can be refrigerated at this point. When ready to serve, heat gently until hot. Serve in small cups or bowls, garnished with a crouton and some snipped chives.

Butter Lettuce Salad with Beets and Goat Cheese

2 heads butter lettuce, washed and separated into leaves

4 medium-sized beets or 8 baby beets (if available, mix two colors on each plate – red and golden)

4 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

4 ounces soft goat cheese

For the vinaigrette, mix together vinegar and mustard. Dribble in olive oil, whisking constantly, until all olive oil is incorporated and mixture is emulsified. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Wrap beets in foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1½ hours, or until tender. Let cool. Peel beets with a knife and cut into thin slices. Arrange two or three leaves of butter lettuce on a plate. Top with a few beet slices. Sprinkle with sea salt. Dot with small pieces of goat cheese. Drizzle on a tablespoon or two of the vinaigrette and top the whole thing with a few grains of coarsely ground black pepper.

Veal with Sour Cream Raisin Sauce

You can use pork loin instead of the veal for this recipe. The pork will not be quite a moist and juicy as the veal.

1 cup light raisins

2/3 cup brandy

3 pounds veal cutlets, thinly sliced

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

4 shallots, finely chopped

4 cups chicken broth

1 teaspoon Medaglia d’Oro instant espresso powder

1 cup sour cream

4 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound wide noodles

2 tablespoons butter

Soak raisins in brandy for 30 minutes.

Pound the veal cutlets between sheets of waxed paper or heavy plastic to about ¼” thick. Season with kosher salt. Put on a large pot of salted water for the noodles.

Heat butter and oil in a sauté pan. Brown meat pieces in batches in a single layer over medium-high heat until nicely caramelized on both sides but still juicy on the inside. Remove them to a plate as they finish cooking. Sauté shallots in the fat remaining in the pan. Add more butter if necessary. When the shallots are soft, drain the brandy from the raisins into the pan and simmer 2 minutes. Add chicken broth, espresso powder and raisins. Simmer 15 minutes.

Cook noodles according to package directions. Time them so they are done at the same time as the sauce. Drain and toss gently with 1 tablespoon butter.

Stir sour cream and dill into sauce. Add meat back to the pan and heat gently until hot. Serve with buttered noodles and plenty of sauce, garnished with a dill sprig.

Sacher Torte

6 ounces premium semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

6 tablespoons butter

6 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla

8 egg whites

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

¾ cup sugar

¾ cup sifted cake flour

½ cup apricot preserves

9 ounces premium semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup heavy cream

2 heaping tablespoons confectioner’s sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350º. Cut two circles of parchment or waxed paper to fit the bottom of two 9” round cake pans. Spray pans with cooking spray, place the circles in the bottom, and spray the circles.

Melt chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler. Cool to lukewarm.

Beat egg yolks and ½ cup of the sugar until pale and thick. Stir in vanilla and chocolate mixture. Set aside.

Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Continue beating, adding remaining ¼ cup sugar gradually until all the sugar is added and the egg whites form stiff peaks. Whisk one cup of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it. Add chocolate mixture back into the egg whites. Sift flour over the top and gently fold the mixture together just until everything is incorporated. Divide the batter between the two pans. Bake 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cake layers in the pans for about 10 minutes. Run a knife around the outside of one of the cake layers to loosen it from the pan. Place an 8” cardboard cake round on top of the cake and invert, so the bottom of the cake is up. Invert again on a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining cake layer. Cool both layers to room temperature.

If your apricot preserves are rather chunky, puree in a blender or food processor for a moment to make it smooth and spreadable. I usually puree a bit more than ½ cup so when some of the preserves remain in the blender, I still have the ½ cup I need. Set aside.

For the glaze: Place 9 ounces chopped chocolate and 1 cup heavy cream in the top of a double boiler. Heat over barely simmering water until melted and smooth. Cool until the consistency is thin enough to pour over the cake, but not so thin that all the glaze runs off the cake. It should be slightly thicker than heavy whipping cream.

To assemble cake, place the cake round once again on top of one of the layers and invert so that the bottom is now the top. Spread with the apricot preserves. Invert the other layer in the same fashion onto a thin, rimless baking sheet. (I use the bottom of a removable-bottom tart pan – they are very thin and smaller than a baking sheet so they are easier to handle.) With the help of a thin spatula or knife, gently slide the cake layer onto the apricot preserves, making sure the sides of the layers are even. The bottom of the cake will now be the top.

Remove about 1/3 cup of the glaze to a small dish so you don’t get crumbs in the rest of the glaze. Frost the entire cake with a very thin layer of this glaze. It won’t look pretty – the purpose of this is to seal the surface of the cake so you won’t get crumbs in the glaze. Refrigerate the cake on the rack for exactly 10 minutes.

Remove cake from the refrigerator and place it, still on the rack, on a baking sheet. Pour the glaze all at once onto the top of the cake. With only two or three swipes of a long offset spatula, quickly spread chocolate evenly over the top of the cake so that some of the glaze runs down the sides. Lift up glaze from the baking sheet with the spatula to very quickly smooth over any spots on the sides that are not covered with glaze. Now you’re done. Don’t try to patch or smooth the glaze any more – the more you work it, the more “patched” it will look. Let cake sit at room temperature until serving time.

To serve, whip cream with confectioner’s sugar until soft peaks form. Whisk in vanilla. Serve cake with a dollop of whipped cream. Provide a dish of whipped cream for guests to add to their coffee if desired.