At least those were the thoughts going through my head as I wondered about how I was going to fulfill my hasty promise to cater just such an affair - for 27 women - a couple of weeks ago.
In the end, it came down to a combination of savor, size, and surprise. Make it taste good, make it bite-sized, make it pleasantly unique. Here's what we did.
How about we prepare three kinds of chicken breast on bamboo skewers? Chicken breast is nearly magical food - the natural choice of those who wish to display dietary sensibility and restraint, yet also a canvas on which a full palette of flavors can be served. Skewers, for their part, also feature deliberately bite-sized elements, arrayed in a single, satisfyingly slimline silhouette.
Making each bite memorable meant pairing the chicken with the right vegetable or fruit, and then a grilling sauce marrying the two. The first featured sweet bell peppers (three colors), and bathed in Cattle Boys' barbecue sauce. The second - a ginger-spiked teriyaki glaze over fresh pineapple chunks. The third - fresh asparagus slaked with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. A bit of seasoned and kosher salt, a bit of pepper, and all under the broiler in the oven. The charring of the bamboo skewers was the crowning touch, imparting just a hint of exotic smokiness to each.
What does one pair with skewers? Bamboo would seem to call naturally for rice, if we're heading down the Asian path. (Stern note to self - potatoes are right out!) Risotto is too fussy, basmati too whispery, long-grain too mundane...but you know, we in North America are just starting to explore the depth and breadth of the Johnny-come-lately of Asian cuisine - the full glory and power of Korea's kitchen. The answer, then - blend hot cooked sushi rice (or arborio, or other decidedly rotund short-grain) with a sublime blend of soy sauce, lemon juice, butter and sugar - just like halmoni (gramma in Seoul) does, and suddenly, a side dish that very nearly demands center stage.
Do you serve a salad? Only if you want the same old greens to sit forlornly on the side of the plate, eaten only because they announce your commitment to your figure. But what if that salad were fruit? And what if that fruit were slightly naughty - as in tipsy, with Grand Marnier? See, that's a salad worth getting seconds on - because everyone knows there's not nearly enough liquor there to make a difference, and yet, it's so very nudge-and-wink, isn't it? (For those who want the feel but not the buzz, take those drizzled with ginger ale and sugar, instead....)
Should one make dessert? Will one take dessert? Isn't the fruit salad kinda like dessert?
Hmm. No, I think you definitely need dessert. A celebration of this order calls for chocolate, and strawberries, and cream. But how to do that without looking unseemly and smorgasbordedly decadent? If you make some really, really tiny shortcakes - plain, unadorned little muffins, and drizzle them invisibly with a mere sip of Grand Marnier, then a glistening dollop of warm Callebaut chocolate ganache, surrounded with four or five brilliant red strawberry slices, and cap with a puff of whipped cream - then there are only six bites, aren't there? And combined - with enough power to cover every dessert craving known to man. You could even have two....
(I think they liked it.)
