Easy Easter dinner
A foolishly simple menu for an April 1 Easter
We offer you a foolishly simple menu for an April 1 Easter.
Easter and April Fools’ Day coincide this year — and not again until 2029 — so it’s an irresistible opportunity to prepare a holiday meal that’s ridiculously good, but deceptively easy.
❚ Keeping things simple doesn’t mean you have to abandon tradition. But a few foolproof innovations can’t hurt.
❚ One person with inspiration, cooking expertise and recipes to spare is chef David Magnasco, of Milwaukee’s Chef ’s Table, 500 S. 3rd St., a private dining room and event venue where you’ll also find themed dinners and cooking classes. In addition, he’s culinary director for Milwaukee’s University Club.
❚ He’s well-practiced at putting together special events such as rehearsal dinners or corporate gatherings. And he volunteered to prepare the recipes for this springtime menu at the Chef ’s Table kitchen, inviting me to watch, learn and help where I could.
Magnasco debated ham or lamb for the menu, but decided that “while both are pretty traditional, ham is more forgiving.”
So, Bourbon Maple Glazed Ham it is, along with Tarragon Vinaigrette for the salad and a platter of roasted asparagus and bite-size potatoes.
For the perfect Easter dessert, I had checked in with nationally acclaimed Chicago-based pastry chef Gale Gand, who suggested a fruit-crowned pavlova as the concluding flourish for this menu.
“Since Easter falls on April Fools’ Day, maybe dessert first?” she joked during our phone conversation. “Anyway, if you invite me to Easter at your house, this is what I’m bringing.”
She often makes the meringue for the pavlova the day before and then brings it to the party right on the baking sheet, along with the already-whipped cream and prepared fruit.
“People like to help assemble it — I’ve had little kids put the fruit on and it looks fine,” she said, noting that she arrives with a whisk to give the whipped cream a last-minute boost.
Also from Gand is the do-ahead recipe for green pea and garlic dip. She serves this hummus-riff as a crostini topped with slices of beef tenderloin or smoked salmon. And at Chef ’s Table they placed the dip alongside raw vegetables and toasted slices of baguette.
Gand, a James Beard award winner who hosted the Food Network series “Sweet Dreams” for eight years, teaches classes in the Chicago area. For information and some of her recipes, check out galegand.com.
But maybe this menu seems too ambitious? “Sell people on the idea that they don’t have to make the whole menu,” said Magnasco. “You can just do one thing — substitute one of these recipes for what you usually make. Or you could bring any one of these things to someone’s house if you’re invited for dinner.”
“Of course,” he said. “You’ll want to make as much as possible ahead.”
When I arrived at The Chef’s Table — carrying a couple bags of groceries — the ham glaze had already been made and the meringue for the pavlova was in the oven.
I was greeted by chef de cuisine Dana Landis, who had just finished all the chopping and measuring, right
down to the herbs, for each recipe, using a separate baking tray to hold the ingredients for each recipe.
“On the day of the dinner, your life will be easier if you do all your prep work ahead—have all the mise en place done,” she advised.
Home cooks might not be quite so organized, but they can more casually get everything ready in advance “so all you have to do is cook,” she said.
It was Magnasco who tackled the bone-in spiral cut ham, brushing the glaze between the slices and over the top just before it went into the oven and then again halfway through the baking period.
To make sure the fully-cooked ham was heated to the recommended 135 to 140 degrees, he reached for a digital meat thermometer.
And no excuses for not having a thermometer: “Everyone should have a meat thermometer because then you can rely on temperature rather than time.”
The idea with this menu is to accomplish most of the cooking — ham, asparagus and potatoes — in the same 375-degree oven.
That means you “have to time everything out,” said Landis.