Cater Me This

We're all in for the greatest treat today

I've got a friend of mine, Susan Mason, who is the most fabulous caterer here in Savannah

So today, Susan and I are catering for ourselves. We're gonna be starting off, y'all

with Susan's delectable asparagus quiche. Beautiful! And then my irresistible shrimp crostinis

Isn't that good? Ooh! And you don't want to miss Miss Susan's elegant fried oyster spoons

This is like the best eating in the world, y'all. And for dessert, my scrumptious strawberry tiramisu bites

This will pick y'all up, I guarantee it. You have done really some big, big jobs here in Savannah, haven't you, Susan

I have. And you're going to share with us one of your recipes, an asparagus quiche

All right, now, Paula, we're going to make pie crust. I just measured up a cup and a half of instant flour

Now, what is instant flour? It's more fine and rolls out a lot easier

And this is a half a cup of cut up cold butter, so it'll remain flaky

And then if you'll put in three tablespoons of the Crisco and then cut it in

Some people use a pastry cutter, but I use two knives. Now I'm going to add a third of a cup of ice water. Okay

And a half of a teaspoon of salt. Okay. And then you're just going to keep stirring it

I just keep cutting. And then we're going to stir it with one of your wooden spoons until a ball starts to form

Start to form a ball. Okay. So I think there's a big spoon here. Yeah. Okay, so let's stir that

I'll cut the wax paper because we've got to roll a ball in the wax paper

And we're going to refrigerate this for a couple hours? Yes. You have to get it cold so you can roll it out

Okay. So just plain old wax paper like this. Okay, well, I'll get this done for you

Okay, and I'll go again. If you want to move on down there. Okay, I will start the filling for the quiche

So it's going to be three eggs that I'm going to mix in here

This smells good, Susan. Does it smell good? Don't you think it really forms up real fast

A beautiful crust, yes. Now I've got my three eggs in here

Mm-hmm. I'm going to add a cup and a half of heavy cream

I love heavy cream. I do, too, and butter? Do you love butter

I love butter. You don't look like you've loved it as long as I have

I love butter. Okay. All right, in the refrigerator. This is going to be a cup and a half of heavy cream

Okay, what can I do to help you? I need a fourth of a cup of that parsley chop

because it's going in the filling also. Add my cream into my egg mixture

And I'll be chopping the fourth of a cup of parsley. Half a teaspoon of salt and a half a teaspoon of white pepper because you don't want any speck

Okay. Put the parsley in here. Now I need to roll out my pie crust

I have one in here already chilled for you. Great. Well, I see you got a frying pan out here

I got a frying pan. Now what are we going to do with this? Well, I want you to do this for me

If you will cut the asparagus. Now, I don't cut them in half

I just cut them, you know, you can play from there back to it. I snap. Yeah, that's the easiest way to do it

All right, I'm sprinkling some flour out so I can roll out my pie crust. Okay

Here. Now, is this going to be fairly easy to roll, Susan? It is

You just keep rolling it from all sides. I'm going to add a couple of tablespoons of butter in the pan and then toss in the asparagus

So, this is just the way you keep doing it. and then we want to get it about a fourth of an inch thick

before we put it in the pie plate. You have to kind of take your fingers and mold it in here

That's looking good, Susan. Since this asparagus is going to be baked in with the quiche

we're only going to need to cook it for a few minutes, just until it starts getting tender

Now, I'm going to punch some holes in this crust so when we get the filling in it, it won't rise up and bubble

So I'm doing this, and then I'm going to do what my grandmother always did

Crimp it with your time. Crimp it with your time. Then we'll put it in the refrigerator

and we'll let it stay for about an hour and get set. And you know you can always resort to a refrigerator pie crust

Absolutely. Okey-dokey. And we've got one in the fridge that's been cooling for about an hour

and it's ready to go. We're going to put four in this crust

And we're going to fill it with beans to weight it down so your pie crust won't bubble

That big old bubble. Exactly. Those are pinto beans. They make a great weight

Okay. All right. You want to put that in the oven? I will do it. Okay. So in the oven, seven to eight minutes

Right. And then we're going to take it out. On what temperature? 425

425. Okay Now you can see that our partially baked shell is beautiful Seven to eight minutes Seven to eight minutes And I going to put a third of this filling in

And we're going to bake it all so we can then put the asparagus. Okay

Now why are we doing that? It just gives it a foundation for the asparagus to stick into

Uh-huh. So that's about a third. Okay. So if you'll put that in the oven for me

Okie doke. About ten minutes. Okay. And just until it sits. That's 425

It's all set so it doesn't wiggle. Yeah. So we're going to put this in

This is a very important step because we're going to put the asparagus

We're arranging them so that when we serve our quiche, y'all, each slice will get a stalk of asparagus

And the asparagus will float to the top once it's baked, y'all. Now we just need to add the cheese

And Carla, would you grate it for me? I certainly will. You look like a great grater

I am a great grater. Now, I think this probably looks about like a half a cup

Now, we're using a Gruyere cheese, y'all, which is one of my favorite cheeses for melting

That, too. And I think it's so... Okay, Paula, that's probably enough

Let's see. Okay. It's about a half a cup. Might be wise for us to put a layer of tinfoil around that because your crust is already nice and brown

Exactly. And I don't like my crust to get too, too dark. No. I'll feel better about that

Yeah, and I think that's a good idea. You want me to open up for you? Please. Okay

In it goes for about 30 minutes at 425 degrees. Coming up is my delicious garlic shrimp crostinis

Mmm. Then Susan's fabulous fried oyster spoons, y'all. Look at these little bite-sized delicacies

Oh, those are so pretty. And later, it's my mouth-watering strawberry tiramisu bites

Y'all, I'm in the kitchen today with one of the great caterers, Susan Mason

And we're getting ready to share a recipe with y'all that's one of those great recipes that are good at cocktail parties, especially passing them on a tray

It's just a garlic shrimp crostini. and Susan is getting our French bread

cutting little rounds for us, and we're gonna toast that off. We've got Susan's elegant asparagus quiche

in the oven baking. So this recipe is gonna come together very, very quickly, Susan

And I'm gonna mix the cream cheese spread for our crostinis. It's just two cloves of minced garlic

two tablespoons of green onions, an 8-ounce package of cream cheese, a fourth of a cup of mayo

and a little black pepper. Okay, Paula, do you want me to put these in the oven

Yes, honey. If you just kind of roast those off or bake them off

Okay. Like I said, we've got our quiche in the oven. What temperature

It's on 425, so we'll have to keep an eye on that bread. Now, right here, I've just got our cream cheese

our mayonnaise, our garlic, and our minced onion. So we're going to go over here now and heat up our skillet

And I'm going to put a couple of tablespoons of butter. And if you want to be working on three cloves of garlic

Okay, you want it mint? Uh-huh, please mince that. And I'm going to get the shrimp ready for our dish

Like I said, if you're having a cocktail party, this is a great dish

Because you can have your little crostini, you know, done up ahead of time

I'm going to be using about 24 medium-sized shrimp that's been peeled and deveined

With the tails. With the tails. Now, Michael and I fuss all the time

Now, he's lived in this very spot for 52 years, his whole entire life

So he thinks he's a master of shrimp and crabs and all that stuff

And we argue all the time about tails on, tails off. Well, I love to do my shrimp tails on because it adds texture

It gives you something to hold on to. And they're prettier, I think

They're just prettier. They're more glazed. Michael said, don't worry about the things being pretty

Just give me two shrimp, and that will make it prettier. So when you get that garlic done, I'm going to throw that in

and kind of let it sweat in this butter. And then the parsley

and then I'm going to throw our shrimp in, and I'm just going to saute those, y'all

until they're just pink. You know, I don't want to overcook them

The worst thing you can do to a shrimp is overcook it

And Susan will need about two or three tablespoons of chopped parsley

While I'm throwing the shrimp in, Susan is going to be cutting a few cherry tomatoes in two

to garnish the crostini with. All right now I gonna take out our little crostinis cuz I bet they ready and we gonna let our oh Yeah they look perfect They look perfect So oh be careful Hot hot hot hot

We're just gonna take a little bit of our cream cheese mixture

And put that on our... I'm gonna bring this back down here

because I'm gonna want a little bit of parsley. And we're just gonna take our shrimp

See that little handle? Perfect. We're gonna set our shrimp up there

and then we're gonna take one of our tomatoes and just kind of prop it on that tomato

And then I'm gonna take a little piece of parsley, just for color

Look how beautiful that is. Oh, that's beautiful. And you just put them on a tray, and people will love them

Okay, Paula. So just that simple, Susan. Oh, it's beautiful. Oh, thank you

We've got them together. Prop a little tomato. And a little twig of parsley

And a little twig of parsley. Oh, I don't know who invented parsley, but it has saved many

I'm telling you. I love the parsley. You just put those on your plate and have someone pass those

Would you have one? I'd love one. Thank you. Me too. Now, how to eat this

I think we should hold the tail. You think we should hold the tail down

Mm-hmm, like this. Okay. And then one bite. Okay. Mm. Isn't that good? Mm

Up next is Susan's tasty fried oyster spoons. Oh, my goodness. This is like the best eating in the world, y'all

And later, strawberry tiramisu bites that are just out of this world

Mmm, mmm. That is delicious. I have got the caterer of Savannah here with me, Susan Mason

And Susan's making the next dish for us. Elegant, delicious little spoons of fried oysters

And over here, I am chopping some shallots. I've got to have three shallots chopped

I'm going to make the tarragon tartar sauce that's going to go with the oysters

You take a cup of mayonnaise. Okay. And we're going to then add your shallots

And would you chop me up two tablespoons of that fresh tarragon

I sure will. And then I'm going to add one tablespoon of tarragon vinegar

It's very easy to make. All you have to do is put your tarragon in a bottle, y'all, and pour your vinegar over it

and then let it sit until they have time to marry together

Mix this a little bit first. Get the vinegar incorporated in here. Yeah

Don't you love fresh herbs? I love fresh herbs. I'm going to add two tablespoons of capers

And these capers will add a nice salty kick to the sauce

Okay, so that's minced fine enough for you. That's perfect. Okay-do. I'm going to just incorporate all of this

All right, now we're going to fry our oysters, which you measure up a cup and a half

and this is an all-purpose coating. You can get it at the grocery store

They're all different brands, but if you'll measure that into this plate

This is an all-purpose coating? Uh-huh, for our oysters. This almost looks like that instant flour

Mm-hmm, it does. Like, this is real, real fine. It does. It's the same consistency. And I've already picked through these oysters

These are Bluffton oysters. Uh-huh. And the thing that I love about Bluffton oysters are they're small and they're sweet

Yes. You can use the standard or the select-sized oysters and just, after you fry them, cut them in half

Because what you want is a bite size since we're going to put them in these spoons

I'm going to take this over and I'm going to put just a dollop of this in each spoon

We just want a dollop. Can y'all tell that she's got sea salt

Sea salt. It almost looks like rock salt. Just put a little dollop of your tarragon tart

Now we're ready for the oysters. Okay. So just lay them in there sort of one by one

and the peanut oil is preheated to 350 degrees. Susan, you want to get the quiche out of an honeycomb

Oh, sure. I bet it's ready. Oh, sure. While I'm getting these ready to go in our fryer

And that quiche looks good. Now, I'm going to drop the oysters in

So, Ned, this takes probably, what, five minutes? Oh, I don't know that it would take that long

I mean, these are super tiny. Okay, that quiche looks delicious, Susan

I can't wait to taste all this wonderful stuff. And these little oysters are adorable

How they do Oh see they beginning to look Look at these little bite delicacies Oh those are so pretty Now they done but if you want a crispy oyster I think we ought to leave them a little bit longer

It's beautiful. It's beautiful. And that crust looks like... It's grandmother's bachelor that did. Yes

Oh, my gracious. It looks beautiful. All right, now, what are you thinking about these oysters

I'm thinking they're about to get there. Okay, I'll take them out. Oh, my goodness

This is like the best eating in the world, y'all. Mm-mm-mm. Keisha's good

Look at that. Now, we're just going to stick one on our spoon

There you go. There you go. Love it. Just like that. Love it

And you just pass this hors d'oeuvre. When I pass it, I pass it on a round tray with a bowl in the center

so your guests can just take one, eat it, and throw the spoon in the bowl

and the waiter keeps going. Yes. Let's taste this quiche. That crust is wonderful

Uh-huh. I mean, it looks like you've done it with lard. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm

That is delicious. Mm-mm-mm. If I say so myself. That is so good

I've got to have an oyster. Oh, yeah. Have an oyster. Tell me what you think. Heavenly

Heavenly. And so simple. Heavenly. This is such an easy... Order. Mmm

Ha-ha! Coming up next, it's Dakata Strawberry Taramisu Bites, y'all. Oh, my goodness

That's the perfect ending for me. Mmm! Mmm! Y'all, I'm in the kitchen today with my friend Susan Mason

She just is a fabulous cook and caterer here in town. And I'm going to be making a little strawberry tiramisu

I have just squeezed a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice into this bowl

And I'm going to take a carton of mascarpone cheese. I love mascarpone cheese

I do too. You just can't have tiramisu without mascarpone cheese. Now, Susan is down here filling these little tart shells

and I love using these, Susan. I do too. You can find them in the freezer department

near your pie shells, in your grocery store, and she's just spooning about a half a teaspoon

of strawberry jam into the bottom of these tart shells, y'all. I'm going to put in about a fourth of a cup of lemonade

Now, you can use the limoncello. Oh, I love limoncello. But if you're serving children... Right

...might want to stay away from the alcohol. So I'm going to substitute this with my lemonade

And I'm going to just beat that together. You know what tiramisu means

I can't remember. When I was in Italy, they said it meant pick me up

Like, you know... Yes, pick me up. Pick me up. This will pick y'all up

I guarantee it. All right. So I've got that pretty creamy. Now I've gotten some fresh whipped cream over here

I think I started with like a cup, cup and three quarters of fresh cream

along with a fourth of a cup of powdered sugar, and I've whipped that

Now all I'm going to do is just fold these together, and then we're going to put a little dollop of this on top of the little tart shells

that's holding our strawberry preserve. So here we go. Do you want me to just put one strawberry in it

I think one strawberry is just beautiful, don't you? There we go

Now, how quick is that? That is so beautiful. And how beautiful

Beautiful. This is so beautiful. I hate to mess it up. I know it would

Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Oh, my. That's the perfect ending to a meal

Mmm, mmm. That is delicious. And you almost feel like you're eating fairly light

Mmm, mmm. Because these little crusts are like air. Mmm, mmm. They can't be that bad for you

They can't be that bad for you. Mmm. All right, I have a little gift for you

because I know that you really love your grandmother's spatula. Yes, I do

And I've seen you use it. Uh-huh, I did. But my daughter thought you needed something a little glitzy

And my daughter Christine made this for you. No, she didn't. And it was put out like that

Look at this beautiful bag. You have the best taste. Oh, thank you

Oh, my gosh! Look! Diamond study spatula. Susan, I love it. Until next time, y'all, happy catering

Thank you. Thank you