The Supper Club Gets Zesty with Citrus – Part 1

Photo: Karen Wollins

The Supper Club is a group of friends who love to cook, eat, drink and laugh together – plenty of each occur at our periodic themed dinner parties. Our friends and family like to live vicariously around our feasts so we’ll share the stories, pictures and recipes here from time to time. Click here for previous Supper Club posts, and here for the group’s origin story. 

One upside to winter in Chicago (and other parts of the Great Frozen North) is the 'simple pleasures' type of joy that citrus from the sunshine states can bring. Biting into a juicy orange is sweeter and more refreshing in a cold weather locale than it ever could be in a place with balmy temps and sunny skies year round. There’s an urgency to that orange in Chicago in January, you see, it becomes more than just fruit, it’s representative of summer yet to come. Eventually. Hang in there, li’l Windy City-ans, have a bite of sunshine to tide you over.

That was the thinking behind the Citrus theme for our recent Supper Club dinner party. Not super-difficult as themes go, but still a nice opportunity to explore the wide variety of citrus out there and create a wonderful meal from start to finish. As it turns out, we all leaned towards the classics and then added a few twists of our own. ​

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How to Supreme Citrus Fruits - Part 1

As with many culinary techniques, we have the French to thank for inventing a method which divides the peel and pith from the succulent fruit beneath, leaving your guests free to indulge in citrus without staining their fingernails. This method is called supreming. It is simple enough to learn and a handy thing indeed for those of us wishing to show citrus to its advantage. A bowl of supremed fruit has a place on even the whitest of tablecloths.
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-- The Joy of Cooking
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The Menu:

• Ellyn – Cocktails: Clementine Negroni; Paloma; Assorted wines
• Karen & Kathleen – Appetizers: Fennel and Citrus Salad with Tuna Patties; Brie and Kumquat Chutney Toasts; and Lemon-Marinated Olives with Artichokes.
• Ilise & Ann – Main Course: Smoked Barley, Beet & Grapefruit Salad; Duck a l’Orange; Wild Rice Pilaf; Fennel with Blood Oranges
• Greg – Dessert: Lemon Meringue Tartlets; Lime-Basil Macarons; Blood Orange Polenta Cake; Assorted citrus-flavored liqueurs. (Dan was absent due to a business trip. We missed you, Dan!)

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​Continue reading for all the juicy details about the Drinks and Appetizers, plus recipes, pictures galore and a Lemons to Lemonade playlist. Don’t worry – the Part 2 post will be coming soon featuring the Main Course and Dessert.

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How to Supreme Citrus Fruits – Part 2

To begin, cut off the ends of the fruit--the stem end and the flower end. You should have something that looks like a truncated sphere. Stand the fruit on end, and, with a sharp paring knife, slice off the peel and pith in large strips. Do not cut straight down, but rather, follow the contours of the fruit to waste as little of it as possible. After cutting off a strip of peel and pith, you should be able to see the bright orange fruit beneath.

​Rotate the orange and repeat this process until all the peel is removed and you have a juicy, bright orange sphere left.
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-- The Joy of Cooking

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The Drinks:

Ellyn started us off with a bracing Clementine Negroni – bitter yet flavorful, strong, and entirely welcome to kick off a wonderful dinner with friends on a cold winter’s night. A classic Negroni uses orange peel only as a garnish, but Ellyn’s version kicked it up a notch or three by muddling whole clementines before mixing with gin, Campari and vermouth. Wow! I didn’t think I’ll ever become a Campari aficionado but adding the fresh fruit juice to this cocktail has me rethinking my stance.
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Next up was a Paloma, another cocktail classic often made with tequila and grapefruit soda. Ellyn’s twist made a swap for mezcal and fresh grapefruit juice. Very nice indeed. Once summertime porch-swinging season comes around again I’d like to order up a pitcher of these, please!

Click the photos to enlarge them and read the captions.

Printable Recipe- Paloma Cocktail
File Size:	659 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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Clementine Negroni
Recipe source: Bon Appetit via Epicurious

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 clementines, peeled
• 3 dashes of orange bitters
• ¼ cup Hendrick’s Gin
• ¼ cup Campari
• 3 tablespoons sweet vermouth
• Ice cubes
• 2 clementine slices (for garnish)

 
DIRECTIONS:

• Place 3 whole peeled clementines and orange bitters in cocktail shaker and muddle until clementines are broken down.
• Add gin, Campari and vermouth. Fill shaker ¾ full with ice. Shake vigorously for 30 seconds.
• Strain into 2 Martini glasses, dividing equally. Garnish each with clementine slice.

Yield: Makes 2

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How to Supreme Citrus Fruits – Part 3

Holding the sphere over a bowl to catch any juices, cut out the citrus segments from in between the strips of membrane surrounding them. Lift out each segment and remove any seeds. When you have segmented the entire fruit, squeeze any remaining juices from the pithy part.

​-- The Joy of Cooking
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Image: Scott Bauer

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The Appetizers:

The Ks frequently spoil us with multitudes of appetizers and thankfully that night was no exception. They started us off with Kumquat Chutney and Brie on toasted baguette slices and Lemon-Marinated Olives with Artichokes. The olives and artichokes were warmed in an olive oil bath fragrant with lemon essence. Light yet boldly flavored.

When I tell you that the Kumquat Chutney included tart cherries in the mix you’ll understand why I had to hold myself back from gobbling down the whole bowl. This presented a powerful sweet-tart punch that married oh-so-well with the mild brie and toast. 

The crowd-pleasing Fennel-Citrus Salad with Tuna Patties is a riff on a similar recipe from Saveur which subs charred squid for the tuna. The patties were made using chopped tuna, scallions, chives, lemon juice and zest, a bit of panko, and salt. The sauce is especially interesting thanks to the addition of a pureed whole poached lemon with other citrus juices. 
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Click the photos to enlarge them and read the captions.

Want to try these appetizer recipes yourself? Use these links:

• Fennel and Citrus Salad with Tuna Patties – adapted from a Saveur recipe
• Brie and Kumquat Chutney Toasts – from Food Blogga (they used Camembert)
• Lemon-Marinated Olives with Artichokes – adapted from a recipe by Coley Cooks

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Stay tuned for Part 2 of The Supper Club Gets Zesty with Citrus in which the Main Course and Desserts will receive supreme treatment - coming soon!

If you’d like to read about past Supper Club adventures in dining, you’ll find them here.

Unless otherwise noted, all photos are by Ilise Goldberg or in the public domain.