Brad Gates Catering- Revisit

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I am a fan of Brad Gates from way back to Puck’s and Euphoria days (gosh, I bet many of you don’t even remember those places). Anyhow, Chef Gates has a lunch spot in the City Market, serving quick serve type items and to go things, but he also runs a successful catering business. And he is my go to whenever I need a party catered.

My favorite way to get food from him is to have him do lots of little bites. You know I like a good tapas style meal. So when we had a last minute going away party for some friends, I was thrilled they were available. Here’s a quick rundown of what we ate.

First were wild mushroom shumai with scallion dipping sauce. These were so good. Also vegetarian. I kept going back for more of that sauce to pour all over them. The mushrooms kept the dumplings nice and moist.

I loved the twice-baked fingerlings he does, and I love that everyone likes them. Think of little teeny potatoes stuffed with bacon, chives and cheddar and drizzled with crème fraiche.

The chilied salmon nachos with avocado crème fraiche and pico di gallo are also a perennial favorite in our house, and have been a recurring order whenever we have Brad cater. Another re-order, and something I used to even order at Euphoria was the sweet potato gnocchi with slow-braised Gunthrop Farms pork, Brussels sprouts and Parmesan. We love this one and saved some of the leftovers for a nice meal the next day. Even the kids love this dish.

We had a mixed group, so we wanted some items that were easily recognizable to people as well—so there were lump crab cakes with chives and honey remoulade as well as roasted Italian meatballs topped with a light San Marzano marinara sauce. And you can’t beat the service method for the meatballs—they were on a stick. Made ‘em easy to eat at a party where everyone was milling around.

gnocchi with pork

There was also some crostini with goat cheese, roasted pepper and pine nuts—ok I can’t speak to this one because I was too busy hitting the big money items, but people seemed to enjoy them as well.

Gates Catering is a great chef-driven caterer. I have enjoyed many sit down meals from here as well, but my favorite way is always the small plates. 

Brad Gates Catering

Indianapolis City Market

222 East Market Street

Indy  46204

317/445-0105

www.bradgatescatering.com 

12 Chefs of Christmas Ticket Giveaway!

****HEY EVERYONE, I have picked my winner. Congrats to Patrick Wright! And thanks to everyone who left me a comment. I hope to see you next Saturday!***********

___________________________________________________________________________

I don't do these things very often, but every once in awhile an event comes along that I am excited about--so if I happen to get a couple of tickets to give away, I am going to do it. Brad Gates Catering and Flat 12 Bierwerks got together with a bunch of local chefs and producers to make this event happen to benefit the City Market on Saturday, December 15th from 7:00-10:00 pm.

I love the idea of the event because as you guys probably know, I am not overly knowledgeable about beer and this seems like a fun way to try a bunch of different beers that have been paired with food. Of course, if you actually know something about beer, I assume this is going to be a fun event for you too because I'm pretty sure these chefs know what they are doing. 

A couple of sample menu items are things like duck breast pancetta over white beans and stone spice from Chef Craig Baker of the Local paired with White Beard Wit; a great sounding goose confit from Regina Mehallick of R Bistro paired with Chestnuts Roasting Brown Ale; and Brad Gates is doing scallops over a salad of cod cheeks, Goose bacon, and Eden Farms lettuces paired with Glazed Ham Porter. There are a bunch of other great chefs participating as well (check it out below) and there will be live music. 

If you would like to win 2 free tickets, leave a comment on this post and around 1:00 p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday the 5th), I will choose a random person to win (tickets to be picked up the night of the event). I will post the winner in the comments below tomorrow afternoon (and you'll have to give me your name and phone number to give to the event coordinators). So be sure and check back (if I don't hear back from the winner in 24 hours, I will do another random draw).

Also, if you want to buy tickets, they are on sale at each participating restaurant, by
phone at 317/445-0105 or online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/293079 .

I look forward to seeing you there!

Dig In 2012

I tweeted a lot about this year’s Dig In, so I am going to keep my post fairly brief and just talk about a few of my favorite dishes from this year (in no particular order) (and I didn’t get to try every single item, although I did try a lot of them).

Goose the Market’s “walking taco”

You can always count on something interesting from Chris Ely of Goose the Market and Smoking Goose and this year was no exception.  (You can also count on some of the longest lines there). You got a little paper bag full of tender goat meat and some crunchy cracklins on the bottom—the “tacos” had a bit of seasoning in the form of some chopped onions, but mainly you got to add toppings yourself.  There was tomatillo salsa, a creamy sauce, corn pico de gallo, cilantro, cabbage slaw (the things I remember off the top of my head).  I put a little bit of most of the things on and really enjoyed it.  And I am sure goat is certainly a meat that a lot of Indy people might not have had before.

Brad Gates Catering Bison Succotash

This dish included a decent portion of slow cooked bison shoulder with lots of great local (and crispy fresh) veggies—corn, cabbage, green beans and tomatoes.  I thought this was one of the dishes that had the most varied flavors and the meat was also super tender.  As it turned out, it was one that had quite a line later in the day as well.

Late Harvest Corn Salad

I loved Late Harvest’s corn, walnut, goat cheese, and housemade pancetta salad.  The pancetta was nice and salty and I really enjoyed that this dish also had a bit of acid to it—there was a lot of rich food to eat at Dig In, and this one stuck out to me because it was different and was a really nice combination of flavors.  I may have to try and recreate this one at home.

Chef JJ’s Sweet Cheeks

This was a dish that was somewhat similar to Brad Gates’ dish, but made with pork—and I loved the crunchy bits of falafel on top.  Few dishes could really give a good crunch under these circumstances and this one was really good.

Duos (Food Truck) Goat Cheese Quesadilla

This was probably my favorite vegetarian option and I really enjoyed that it was also something totally different from pretty much everything else. It was a potato, mustard green and goat cheese quesadilla.  You definitely need to like goat cheese to like this one, but I love goat cheese and thought it was really good.  I liked that there were veggies being used that weren’t the corn, tomato and green beans that were in a lot of dishes (and I love all of those things as well, don’t get me wrong).

I got to go as a VIP (I was given 2 tickets for my work as a gastronaut), which meant we got in the gates at 11:00 and didn’t have to wait in line for much of anything, which was really nice.  Overall, our impression was that the food has continued to improve over the course of the 3 years that Dig In has been around. My general observations about the food this year--tacos and chilled soups were the most popular dish and many people tried to come up with novel ways to serve the food that didn't require a spoon or fork, which was nice since you are walking and eating. (Which reminds me, the little tortilla filled with pork and seasoning from Indiana Downs was also really good--see pic below.)

The good news is they ended up selling out all the available tickets, which was a goal I know they wanted to achieve and it makes me happy that so many people were excited to eat local Indiana food. The downside, from what I saw and have been hearing, is that the lines got really long shortly after 12 and remained that way for most of the afternoon.  Apparently several chefs also ran out of food by 3:00 or so.  I am not sure what the solution is, but hopefully they will get it all worked out by next year (although there will always be lines I think).  I know I really enjoyed my day and nearly everything I ate.

So what were your favorites? And what was your experience like?

Dig In

A Taste of Indiana

www.digindiana.com

City Market Dinner

This isn’t exactly my regular type of post, but I wanted to let you all in on something I have been working on for the last couple of months—an idea from Brad Gates that we talked about back in February when he was dropping off our annual Valentine’s Day dinner.  This past Saturday, I helped to organize what I hope with be the first of many market dinners at the City Market downtown.

We kept it fairly small for the initial attempt. I invited several people I know and several of you I feel like I know through the blog.  There were about 30 of us and we sat upstairs at large tables at the market and enjoyed food from Brad Gates Catering, Circle City Soups and Sweets, Fermenti Artisan, and pastry chef Pete Schmutte.   

Photos courtesy of Brown Sugar Meatloaf

I love the fact that we got to sit in an historic Indianapolis building eating local seasonal food prepared by market chefs—and we tried to keep the price reasonable at $45 per person.  We wanted the dinner to be accessible to lots of people in terms of price and formality.  I think people genuinely enjoyed themselves and it was great to interact with both old and new friends.

Dinner started with cheese and various pickled veggies.  The next course was homemade beet pasta with housemade salmon pastrami and a fennel cream sauce. The main course was bison medallions topped with cabbage, favas, pea shoots and a Vidallia onion demi glace and a baby root vegetable pot pie topped with Capriole farms goat cheese. Dessert was a lovely chocolate namelaka with passion fruit ganache (with lots more to it). The dessert was almost too pretty to eat.  Almost.  We were also treated to a plate of various flavors of macaroons and even more cheese. 

The dinner was even better than I hoped for food-wise, the setting completely casual, and it was great to bring various Indy food loving people together over a meal.  I know the market vendors hope to make these types of dinners recurring events and that is why I am doing this post.  I want to help them compile an email list for future dinners of anyone who might be interested in attending that I can pass along to them (and also for purely selfish reasons—I want to attend more of them myself!)  When they’re announced, the menu and the price are set (and payment is made in advance).  If you are interested in being included in the mailing list for future dinners, please leave me your contact information in a comment below (or if you were there, let me know what you thought about it) or email me at erininindy@gmail.com.  I can’t wait for the next one and I can’t wait to meet more of you!

***Special thanks to Brown Sugar Meatloaf for having the good sense to take some proper photos (I took a couple, but hers are so much prettier).  The photos here are her work. 

Brad Gates Catering

Indianapolis City Market

222 East Market Street

Indy  46204

317/445-0105

www.bradgatescatering.com

Circle City Sweets

Indianapolis City Market

222 East Market Street

Indy  46204

317/632-3644

www.circlecitysweets.com

Circle City Soups

Indianapolis City Market

222 East Market Street

Indy  46204

317/956-2395

Fermenti Artisan

Indianapolis City Market

222 East Market Street

Indy  46204

317/493-1652

www.facebook.com/fermentiartisan

Pete Schmutte

Pastry Chef

Pete.schmutte@gmail.com

Brad Gates Catering- City Market

The City Market just keeps getting better and better if you ask me.  I love what it is turning into, and I love that you can go even on a Saturday and have lots of great lunch options.  My daughter and I spend many Saturday lunches there and often when I have something going on downtown during the week, I just stop in myself and grab something.  The last couple of times I have been there, I had the opportunity to try one of the newer vendors—Brad Gates Catering.  I am very happy to have an outlet to get his food other than having him make it at my house (which is good too, but this way is much more economical).  He also has a great cheese selection if you are looking for stuff more interesting than what you can get at the grocery.

His menus change daily and some things are in the rotation frequently and others less so. (I regularly check his daily menus on facebook.)  The first time I went in, I was intrigued by the linguine with asparagus and Laughing Bird shrimp scampi ($12).  Pasta is a big lunch for me, but it sounded good and I knew hubby would eat the rest later (which he did).  It was really tasty—lots of slices of garlic and asparagus pieces that were just about the same size as the shrimp and it had plenty of fresh parmesan too.  It was fairly simple, but well done—the shrimp are smallish and sweet and were cooked just right.

The next trip, he had fried chicken ($10). So, well, duh, that was a no brainer for me.  I certainly wasn’t passing that up.  He gives quite a generous portion for lunch. There was a thigh, a leg and a breast/wing combo that I really liked because he had taken out most of the bone.  The chicken was buttermilk marinated giving it a nice tangy flavor under the crust and the breast meat was sort of shockingly juicy.  I love fried chicken breasts done well, but it is almost always dry, so I usually only eat the dark meat, but I think this breast was even better than the dark pieces.  The skin was nicely seasoned and crispy and I really liked the coarse grits served alongside—I am normally a person who nearly always gets mashed potatoes with fried chicken when given the option, but this was a nice variation because of their texture.  There were also collard greens under the chicken with some big hunks of pork—they were good too, although honestly, I was a little more fixated on the chicken. And that was a ton of food for me for lunch.

One of the things I love about the City Market these days is the variety of food you can get there, and Brad’s goes even further offering different options each day which opens up even more possibilities. I have seen many daily specials on the facebook page that I would like to try.  So have you guys been yet? What have you had?

Brad Gates Catering

Indianapolis City Market

222 East Market Street

Indy  46204

317/445-0105

www.bradgatescatering.com

A Few of My Favorite Places: Brad Gates Catering

I haven’t done a favorite places post in awhile, and I thought it would be a good fit to talk about Brad Gates Catering again. Brad has catered a couple of events for me in the last month or two and he is certainly my go to person for this kind of need.  Most recently, he catered my birthday and did a great job.  I’ll just tell you a couple of highlights, mainly because there was a lot of wine consumed on this particular night, and some of my recollections of particular details are somewhat foggy (also explains the lack of pictures).  We had a smallish group, but Brad still provided us with lots of different small tastes to enjoy and the food was great. 

I helped to choose the menu somewhat, but also let Brad come up with most of the ideas.  There were a couple of things I have had before and a lot of new stuff. It was all good. Really good.  One of the the things I loved was the chilied salmon nachos.  They were chips with some nicely seasoned salmon, pico de gallo and avocado crème fraiche. They were easy to eat which meant I ate a lot of them. And I loved that most everything we had was finger food-ish so we all just sort of munched and hung out.  We also had lamp chops Milanese that surprised me—I was a little skeptical because they were breaded and I worried they might be tough or overcooked. But they weren’t.  They were super tender and perfectly medium rare.  There was also a great pork wonton soup-- he did little individual spoons with a wonton in each.  Those wontons were amazing. Such tender pork.

Anyway, if you are ever in the market for a caterer, I would heartily recommend Brad Gates.  He also recently did the food for an anniversary party for my parents and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it as well (including me). The menu was completely different, and maybe slightly more traditional (per my request), but just as good.  He is also a really nice guy whom you don’t mind having in your house for several hours (there are some I have met I would not say this about).

And, I wanted to get this posted because I just saw on facebook that Brad is continuing one of my personal favorite traditions—delivery Valentine’s Day dinners.  He creates a menu and you can tell him how many dinners you want and it is delivered to your house in a cute basket.  This is a perfect scenario for me because a) I hate going out on Valentine’s Day and b) I love Brad’s food.  So check it out—last year’s pork shoulder was extremely memorable.  It is a great way to get a great meal prepared for you by one of my favorite local chefs without having to have a party to cater.  You can also check out his food locally at the Ball & Biscuit.

Brad Gates Catering & Events

317-292-4259

www.bradgatescatering.com

More Closings....

With sadness, I have to let you all know that two places offering great independent food in Indy have both closed this week.  As I tweeted earlier this week, Z's Oyster Bar and Steakhouse abruptly closed this week (well, it seemed abrupt to me anyway) and last night I received an email from Euphoria stating that they have also decided to stop offering nightly dinner service and focus solely on their private party/catering business, which according to the email, has been a growing business for them.  As I have written here, Euphoria has always struggled somewhat with getting customers in the door, even with 2 superb chefs at the helm--first Brad Gates and now Ivy Denman.  I am assuming Ivy is still going to be the chef for the private functions (if that is not the case, I will let you know), so at least you can still plan a private party and enjoy her wonderful cooking.  And as I have mentioned here and reviewed several time, you can enjoy Brad's cooking through his catering service, Brad Gates Catering and Events.  Z's was a great, but badly located, restaurant where I recently had one of the best steaks I can remember.  I was actually thinking about having an anniversary party for my parents there this year, but I guess I will need to think of another option.

<<<Update: I have heard from Chef Denman, and she is leaving Euphoria, so unfortunately you will no longer be able to enjoy her cuisine at Euphoria.  Honestly, I am not sure if they are hiring another chef, but I can't imagine it being successful for long without a chef. I really hope to see Chef Denman somewhere else very soon. I would hate to see her leave Indy.>>>>

So now, as I have to do every so often (usually whenever another one of my favorites shuts its doors), I am giving you the poke in the ribs to get out there and support local restaurants.  Next time you are tempted to go to a chain, for me, think about it and pick a local place instead.  The only way we can expand our dining scene, encourage new independent restaurants, and maintain the ones we have is by supporting them with our business.  If you are looking for ideas, check out the right hand "labels" column here on my blog, and click on "Independent Restaurants."  Or leave a comment, or drop me a line.  I will be happy to recommend somewhere close to you, wherever you are in the Indy area.

And hey, keep in mind that Chow Down Midtown starts this week, where you can get a multi-course dinner (or two) for $30 at some great independent restaurants in the Broad Ripple Area--what perfect timing to try someplace new! (Tomorrow's post will offer a review of one of the places featured on Chow Down Midtown, and I have reviewed many of the others--again, check the labels column to easily find them).
And feel free to leave a comment and a shout out to your local favorites. Anything we can do to support them!

Now, go eat!

Erin

Brad Gates Catering - Valentine's Meal Delivered

This is kind of a random review, but this meal was so good, I had to share it with you. And you will know, next year, if Indy is lucky enough to have Brad Gates preparing a delivered Valentine’s Day meal again, you should totally get it. (Sometimes he does the same concept for other holidays as well).  So the way it worked was he had prepared a set menu and you could just order it to be delivered for $40 a person.  They dropped it off in little foil carry out containers with heating instructions –they were really easy to follow and not screw up.  Oh, and they brought a nice red rose too. (Keep in mind the pictures are the way I plated the food, possibly not the way he might have had in mind, and certainly not as pretty as any chef would have done I am sure.)

The first course was a smoked trout and crab cake with a frissée-onion salad and mustard remoulade.  The very good sized cake was tasty—it had a lot of the smoked trout flavor to it, reminding me a little of brandade—or those little potted dishes of salt cod.  It had a fair amount of crab in it too, which mellowed the fish flavor just the right amount.  The salad with the insanely thinly sliced red onions was a nice accompaniment to the rich, almost creamy cake, giving a nice texture variety—the only thing I would have changed would be to add a bit more vinaigrette to the greens to add a punch of that zinginess I like.   I used the remoulade to dip the cake into—it had a nice bit of heat from the mustard that was a nice balance to the slight smoky taste of the fish.  These cakes were mainly meat, not a lot of filler, but enough that they were moist and not dry (sometimes I find those really super crabby cakes to end up dried out because they don’t put enough liquid ingredients to bind the meat properly).

The next course was one of my favorites—and one of the dishes Chef Gates delivered to me on my birthday as well.  Mushroom gnocchi with Parmigiano cream sauce, little slivers of prosciutto and some fresh spinach leaves mixed in.  I have said it before, but I think Chef Gates does some of the best Italian food in Indy.  These little tender, earthy pillows were so good-just the right amount of mushroom flavor coming through.  And the cream sauce, while rich, was not so heavy that you felt like you were clogging your arteries with each bite.  The sauce was just a little thin, and mostly tasted of the salty Parmigiano.  He provided just enough extra cheese to sprinkle on top as well.

The main course was Italian-style steamed Gunthrop Farms pork shoulder.  Now, I am somewhat picky about pork, because it seems like it so often dry and flavorless.  This just may have been some of the best pork I have ever had. It was sliced in a bit of the broth—you just heated it up along with some veggies on the side (fingerlings and carrots) and finished with a wonderfully fresh, salsa verde—lots of green flavor and a bit of crunchy texture from chopped parsley and red onions.  I loved that salsa verde and put quite a bit on my portion.  He even provided a little container of coarse sea salt to sprinkle over the top, which we did, and which totally finished the dish.  But the pork was just so moist; it was like the world’s best pulled pork with Italian seasonings.  This dish was so amazing.  Hubby ate the rest for lunch a couple of days later and enjoyed it just as much, if not more.

For dessert, there were two little flourless chocolate cakes and a little side of vanilla crème brulee and little vanilla syrup to drizzle.  It was a nice, reasonably small dessert to finish off a great Valentine’s dinner.  The chocolate was rich and the flavor of the crème brulee was a nice addition, although, it was hard to get the super crunch top on it the way you do at restaurants (although it did come already caramelized on top).  The vanilla syrup was light –not super syrupy like you might imagine. It added a delicate flavor that was better just with the crème brulee because it got lost a little if you ate it with the rich chocolate.  From top to bottom, this was one of the best meals I have had in awhile, and even though I had to do the dishes, it was totally worth it.  I hope Chef Gates continues the Valentine’s Day tradition of delivering meals, and next year, if you are looking for something different, give it a go (and keep your eyes out, like I said, sometimes he does similar carry out meals for other holidays).

Brad Gates Catering & Events

317-292-4259

www.bradgatescatering.com

Brad Gates Catering- the Next Dinner Party

It was my BFF’s birthday, and we wanted to do something special, and I had been itching to hire Brad Gates to cater another dinner for us.  So I talked to my friend about putting some items on the menu that she would really enjoy, and planned a dinner.  It is really easy to work with Brad—we tend to communicate via email and sort out a dinner.  This time my friend had requested a couple of things, and then I let Brad come up with the rest (subject to my approval). 

One of the great things about Brad’s business is his enormous love and stock of cheese.  We started with a cheese plate for our hors d’oeuvres.  He does a fabulous job with cheese.  He served us Beehive Barely Buzzed, Mont Enebro, Colston Bassett Stilton, and Forsterkase.  The cheeses were served with wafer thin crackers and fig jam.  It was a great selection of cheeses, and all 7 at the dinner commented on how much they enjoyed them.  The “Barely Buzzed” cheese is a fairly firm cheese with quite a deep flavor. The rind is rubbed with a combination of coffee and lavender which gives the cheese an even nuttier flavor.  It was unique and quite tasty. 

The Mont Enebro was a nice fairly soft goat cheese with the characteristic tanginess that so often goes along with goats.  The Stilton was our blue cheese of the evening, and had the characteristic veining and sharp flavor of a blue.  Stiltons are dryer blues than most.  It tasted amazing with the fig jam.  Finally the Forsterkase is a Swiss cow’s milk cheese that is wrapped in bark—this gave the creamy, slightly stinky cheese a  bit of a woody flavor.  It was also really good.  Ok, I am trying not to go on and on about cheese, because I could, but I want to get to the next parts of the meal.

For our first sit down course, we had one of our (and the BFF’s) perennial Brad favorites, the tuna tartare.  Seriously, I can think of only maybe one other place that can do it as well (although with completely different seasoning). Why is this so hard?  Anyway, he served nice individual portions of the layers of tuna, finely diced sweet onion and tomato, avocado and horseradish-Dijon vinaigrette. The thing is, the layers were layed out individually, but even if you just picked up a couple of pieces of the tuna without the rest, you could taste that it had been nicely seasoned with lemon and salt.  Of course, once you mixed it all together, it was even better.  The only disappointment was that this time it was served with warm pita. I really missed the crunchy seeded wontons we have had in the past. (Hey, I saw some yummy looking seeded crackers at Zest a couple days later that looked like they would be delicious with the tuna).

The next course, and the other one requested by the birthday girl, was something we had had at Euphoria together when Brad was the chef there.  It was sweet potato gnocchi with shaved Brussels sprouts, braised pork shoulder and Parmigiano Reggiano.  This was probably the favorite course of the evening for most.  Little pillows of sweet potato gnocchi (but not overpoweringly sweet) with super tender rich slivers of pork and the Brussels sprouts giving it a little crunch.  And the portion was not overwhelmingly  large, which I appreciated.

The last savory course was tender, juicy wonderful Cook’s Farm bison tenderloin served with caramelized Cipollinis, 3-Grain rice pilaf and pomegranate coulis.  I liked the sweet and tangy nature of the coulis, although others at the table felt it may have been a little too sweet.  The little onions were soft and tasty and while maybe slightly less of the coulis would have been perfect for me (and for others), I thought the flavors were nice together.

Finally, we were served a little warm chocolate-anise truffle cake with candied Anjou pears and Crème Anglaise.  I didn’t get the anise that much, but the little molten chocolate cakes were delicious and rich, and the perfect dessert for the BFF, who LOVES a chocolate molten cake.

The service (which was Brad’s lovely wife Meggin) was stellar.  I love that they work together so well and are efficient and on top of everything, but unobtrusive.  And they are very friendly and fun to have in your house.  And when an issue arose with one of our guests, who as it turns out didn’t eat pork or red meat (bad hostess for not asking!), Brad quickly whipped up a portion of the gnocchi without the pork, and served her a lovely piece of seared tuna in place of the bison.  I was impressed since he obviously wasn’t prepared in advance for this situation (again, bad hostess!).  All in all, it was a top notch meal, and I am so glad we still have Brad available to cook for us, even if he isn’t in a restaurant.   

Brad Gates Catering & Events

317-292-4259

www.bradgatescatering.com

Brad Gates Catering and Events

This is not my typical review, because it was my birthday dinner, and it was a catered dinner I had at my house. I wasn’t going to review it at all but then I thought, hey, anyone can hire them as well, and well, the food was so damn good, I needed to share the info. And really, when you think about how much you spend on a nice dinner out, it really isn’t any more expensive per person—so get your closest friends together, pool your money and have a dinner party!

I hired Brad Gates Catering & Events to do my birthday dinner, because he is one of my favorite chefs in Indy, and since leaving Euphoria, has started his own private catering company. And hey, a small dinner party with a few friends at my house sounded pretty good to me right? Someone else cooking and serving but in the comfort of your own home…and it was one of those milestone-type birthdays (damn, I am getting old) so I figured why not?

It worked like this—Brad sent me a sample menu, and I made a couple of small changes to a couple of the courses, mostly based on what I thought my guests would like, but overall, he supplied me with a menu for dinner that sounded amazing and I went with his instincts for seasonal food. It was quite a menu for sure but I couldn’t really say no to any of the courses so we went with what ended up to be a couple of appetizers served before dinner and then a 6 course seated dinner.

The appetizers were amazing- 2 of my favorite things from when Brad worked at Euphoria—the tartares- tuna and beef. He served them in individual portions, the beef on potato chips and the tuna on crispy wontons. The beef was amazing-super fresh (has to be) mixed with the onions, capers, a slice of the cornichon and a part of a fried quail egg on each one and with mustard on the side to put on yourself. Perfect. The tuna was also really good—served with a tomato, onion and avocado mix and horseradish vinaigrette on crispy wontons. I loved the way these were served in individual portions—I sorta thought they would be served communally, but this was even nicer and even though hubby and I argue about how to best mix (or not mix) the ingredients in the beef tartare, this was the perfect solution—someone else did it and did it perfectly—you got a bit of every flavor with each bite.

Ok, obviously, I cannot go into great detail with every course because there were so many and I know I will probably lose you all at some point, but the first course of the seated dinner was certainly one of my favorites—(and coincidentally one of the few I remembered to take a picture of). It was Edgartown bay scallops in a shallot-verjus nage. Wow. These scallops were amazing. It was also one of the ones I was most concerned with because I had a couple of people at the table who didn’t think they liked scallops. But everyone loved these. Everyone. They were super fresh, very sweet and the sauce was perfectly balanced—the right amount of acidic flavor with a touch of butter and the little pieces of shallot. Outstanding.

The next course was also great—skate Meuniere with sage mashed potatoes and hedgehog mushrooms and lemon-thyme pan sauce. This is one of the courses I added in place of something else because I love skate so much. It was also great—the fish was lightly pan fried and crispy and the sauce had just the right amount of lemon. Several people at the table hadn’t had skate before and really liked it.

The next course, which was probably the richest, and thus the one I could eat the least of, was pork cheek risotto. It was risotto, with a nice piece of slow cooked pork as well as roasted cauliflower, cipollinis and Parmigiano Reggiano. It was really good—the risotto was properly cooked (hello! not hard as a rock) and the flavors were totally winter and hearty and everything you look for in such a dish. So rich though. Wow. I could only eat about half. But really tasty.

Our next course was lamb chops with butternut squash puree and roasted Brussels sprouts. The chops were small and tender and had a lot of flavor. They were seasoned with a balsamic reduction and had a slightly sweet taste, which may not be to every one’s taste, but I quite liked them and they were nicely prepared medium rare.

We also had a couple of great cheese boards and a small trio of desserts including a vanilla profiterole, a caramelized banana tart and a molten chocolate cupcake. Of course my favorite was the banana tart—I have loved that banana tart since when Euphoria used to have it. I do have to admit though, a lot of wine was consumed at this dinner, so by the time we got to the last two courses, it became hard to remember all the fine details.

Oh, and let me mention the wine as well—I know usually I don’t get into the wine part of my meals as much—but in this instance, we had our friend Ashley from Cork and Cracker pair wines with each course. Wow. This was amazing—the wines were beautiful and made this dinner extra special. I have included a picture of the wine list that Ashley chose and as you will see, she worked hard on it. Every one of them was great, and I can’t wait to go buy some of them at the shop.

I am telling you, this was from top to bottom one of the best dinners I have had in Indianapolis—and it doesn’t hurt when you have good friends, great wines, and your own music playing (and I even got to use my own china at my request). I am seriously thinking that more small catered dinner parties are certainly in my future.

(P.S. I also tried some of Gates Catering’s “to go” type items—there are several products you can order and have delivered. This was also a great way to have some really good food at home for a reasonable price).

Brad Gates Catering & Events
317-292-4259
http://www.bradgatescatering.com/