Easy Party Food

We recently hosted our daughter's fifth birthday party in our home. We have been very blessed in the fact that our daughter's friend's parents have become truly our friends too. A great group of people who are tons of fun. I wanted to create a party that catered to our childrens taste, particularly our childs favorite foods(they ate pasta, procuittto and chinese dumplings), while also providing a delicious and more "adult" meal for the parents. I knew that in order to do this with a house full of 10 five year olds the dishes for the parents would need to be able to be prepared before the party and relatively simple. Also, it should be easy for the guests to serve themselves.

First, as the main courses I prepared a seared skirt steak and a poached side of salmon.

To prepare the steak I rubbed the meat down with garlic, rosemary and a healthy dose of salt and pepper. I then seared it at high heat in a little olive oil. Be sure to let the meat rest, uncut, until you are ready to serve it. When you are ready to serve, cut the meat across the grain and on an angle into thin slices. As a condiment I made horseradish mayonaisse. Simply add horseradish to mayo with a little squeeze of lemon. Add salt and white pepper to taste. I garnished the plate with a few radishes.

For the poached salmon I salted and used white pepper on a large piece salmon. In a large saute pan I put two parts water to one part white wine and brought to a low simmer, then gently slid the fish in. Make sure the liquid only goes up to about 2/3 the depth of the fish. In other words, part of the top of the fish should not be submerged in liquid. Be very careful to not let the liquid go above a slow simmer. Cook for about 5 minutes then cover and continue cooking for 3-5 more minutes then turn the heat off and leave the lid on for 10 minutes. Take the fish out of the liquid and place on a plate in the refrigerator. As a condiment for this dish I chopped up fresh herbs (tarragon, chives) and combined with mayo. I used thin slices of cucumber and lemon as garnish over the top of the salmon.

As one of the side dishes I prepared a very simple potato salad. I wanted to make a salad that had a bite and no mayo so as to act as a counter part to the rich meat and fish dishes. This is truly such an easy recipe and was a huge hit.
Boil some Yukon Gold potatoes until tender. Add dijon mustard, a small amount of olive oil, and a small jar of capers to the potatoes. Toss gently (best to use your hands for this). Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Create a bed of watercress and pile the potato salad on top of the greens.











I served some very simple steamed asparagus with the meal.