Cookfest at Emily's [plus recipe: Smoked salmon pâté with cucumber]

Not pictured: way too much booze.

Back in May,  we had a little wine and dine fest at Emily's apartment the weekend after our Tainan trip and before they left for Vietnam, and I, for the Mediterranean. Veronica, Emily, and myself went grocery shopping at CitySuper and proceeded to cook and booze the afternoon away. Emily insisted on making her famous (and delicious!) guacamole from scratch, so Vee - not knowing what to cook - opted to be my little assistant and wine pourer for the time being. 

Let me very quickly go over what's in that cover photo above. Clockwise from top left: Duck lettuce wrap with sliced red onions, mango, parsley, and balsamic vinaigrette; Homemade guacamole with chips; Homemade bruschetta with toasted baguette; Smoked salmon pâté with cucumbers; and - in the center - vegetable couscous. Not pictured is the main course (keeping warm on the stove), Coq au Vin. 

To compensate for this lack of wholesomeness in the group photo, here are some action shots of the coq au vin.

That last shot looks a little less than appetizing, but it's simply a top-down view of hand quartered mushrooms boiling in the stew with onions, wine, butter, and chicken. "What are hand quartered mushrooms?" you may wonder. Well, hand quartered mushrooms are when you get too drunk by the time you start handling the mushrooms and decide that, instead of neatly chopping with a knife, you'll just take a mushroom cap and break it in halves and quarters with your hands.

I highly recommend it.

The entire meal was planned around the fact that I was DEFINITELY going to be drinking during the cooking process, so some of the recipes were simplified to accommodate that fact. Okay, don't judge me. I was going to cook coq au vin, and you only really need half the bottle, so it's kind of obligatory that the other half gets finished. And once you've had half a bottle of wine, you can't really say no to another 2 or 3. So yeah.

But either way, here are some of the simplifications that I made. Please don't be insulted.

The chicken stock in the vegetable couscous was made out of chicken bouillon cubes, and I didn't even boil the stock separately - I just threw the couscous in after sauteing the vegetables (zucchini/courgette, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, garlic) and poured in some water then threw in the bouillon cubes. Lazy, lazy. Sue me.

Next blasphemy? I lazied up the bruschetta. First off, I didn't bake the baguette slices, I simply threw them on a skewer and fried them a bit on each side. Second off, I didn't bother spooning the tomato mixture onto each individual bread slice, I left everything in a bowl with a spoon. Third - brace yourself - I used pesto instead of actual basil. GASP. It actually watered down the mixture way too much for my taste, so I don't think I'll be doing that again. But the second laziness is actually a nice way to make your guests feel "involved" in the process, because DIY always helps boost egos.

For the wrap, it was actually a last minute impromptu decision. Emily and I had went to a great restaurant the night before, and my main course - seared duck breast - turned out to be of MASSIVE proportions, so I packaged it up and threw it in Em's fridge. When I had bought the ingredients, I initially planned on making a salad, but decided last minute to simply slice up the duck breast and do a sort of tropical/western twist on the Peking duck pancake. It turned out to be quite a hit, though maybe next time I will try to incorporate some sort of spicy and sour sauce to drizzle over the wrap.

The only reason the guacamole would count as a laziness for me is because I didn't make it, but that's about it. It was quite delicious. God I love avocados.

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[Smoked salmon pâté with cucumber]

-Serves up to 6 as one of many appetizers-

Ingredients:

•1 not-so-large package of smoked salmon

•2 filets of fresh salmon

•1 sprig of spring onion, finely diced

•1 lemon, juiced - reserve a few slices for decoration

•2 small cucumbers, sliced on a diagonal

•As much mayonnaise as it pleases you (I love mayonnaise)

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Place the filets of salmon in a pot, and cover with an inch of water. Add a little salt, and bring water to a light boil on very low heat, then turn off the heat.

While the fresh filets are poaching, start to prep the rest of the ingredients. I personally couldn't wait to move onto finely mincing the smoked salmon, simply because in between chops, I would stop and steal a little morsel here and there to nibble on. Om nom nom nom nom nom nom. So delicious. But, yes - finely mince the smoked salmon until it is almost a paste.

Clean the spring onions, remove the root end and a bit from the tip, and finely mince both the white and green parts and add to the pile of smoked salmon paste. Refrain from grabbing the whole thing and stuffing it in your mouth right then and there.

Take a fork and poke the filets. If they are light pink in color and easily flakes off, then remove from the water, drain on a paper towel, and put into a bowl. Remove the skin - if that hasn't already been done - and flake the poached filets with a fork until very fine.

Once finished, add the spring onions and smoke salmon paste to the flaked fresh poached salmon. Mix loosely, then add in lemon juice, and as much mayonnaise as you see fit until the texture of the mix is just stick enough to stay on your fork once you lift it and turn it upside down. Taste the mixture to see if you need to add salt and pepper. In the few times that I have made it, I've never had to add salt and pepper, but everyone's tastes vary, so feel free to do so.

Once that mixture is done, plop it in the fridge and start working on the cucumbers. Clean them, scrub them up, and chop off the ends.

What I did to fancy things up was a.) zest a little lemon skin into the mixture, and b.) peel the cucumber skin off in long slices, but leaving every other inch of skin on. Once the cucumbers are peeled, then slice at a slant. The half sliced intervals will show up as a nice little pattern around the edges when arranged on the platter.

Remove the mixture from the fridge about half an hour before serving, spoon into a platter, and arrange the cucumber slices around the mixture along with a few lemon slices. Sprinkle a little bit of spring onions over the top, and voilà! A little healthy, low-calorie, bite-sized snack that is perfectly refreshing for a summer potluck.

Enjoy!