Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Aphrodisiacs Galore

My husband and I were invited to an Aphrodisiac-Themed Dinner Saturday night.

Yes, you read that right. An Aphrodisiac-Themed Dinner.

Crab, avocado, oysters (oh, the OYSTERS!), shrimp, arugula, quail eggs(!), passionfruit, nutmeg, cinnamon, chocolate, bananas, chilis…the list goes on and on.

We started our first course at about 8 and didn't finish till after midnight.

A couple who are friends of ours had six couples (for a total of twelve) over for dinner on Saturday night. Each couple was responsible for bringing one course for the meal, and one alcoholic beverage/drink. All had to contain food aphrodisiacs.

We agreed at the beginning of the evening that no one was to ask, "Hey, where did Colette and Mr. Colette go?" if we noticed someone was missing. And our hosts said if we needed to, we could bring A sleeping bag in case we needed to stay over. Only one, though.

This group of people gets together every other month for an event like this (not an aphrodisiac dinner) and they call it Cooking With Friends. They all love to cook, and they all cook well, and each time they get together, there's a theme.

We're not a regular part of the group, but for some reason, we were invited to the Aphrodisiac themed dinner.

Huh. Wonder why that was.

Anyway, the dish I made was fabulous and super super easy. So I thought I'd share it for anyone who's interested.

CRAB AVOCADO COCKTAIL

Can of unsweetened coconut milk (use only one-third of the can for 8 oz of crab)

1 Tablespoon honey

Juice of one lime

1 serrano chili, chopped fine

2 Tablespoons red onion, sliced thin

salt and pepper

8 oz lump crab meat

Mix the coconut milk with the peppers, onion, honey, lime, salt and pepper and then fold in the crab. Let it marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.

Then fold in 1 diced avocado (or less if you like) and let sit for ten minutes. When you're ready to serve, scoop out the crab/avocado mixture with a slotted spoon and put it in a martini glass. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro, serve with a small fork.

Yum.

If I remember later, I'll share the recipe for the drink we made. Passionfruit Punch it was called. Lovely. Very strong. But lovely.

What's your favorite aphrodisiac?

7 comments:

Jane said...

My favorite aphrodisiac is chocolate. I love chocolate covered strawberries.

Celia May Hart said...

Ooh, I've heard about Cooking with Friends! I think I read about it in Sunset magazine or Cooking Light or something.

The dinner sounds like great fun -- alas my hubby can't eat avocado and doesn't like oysters (this from the man who will eat anything including unidentifiable things in Asia).

Pam Rosenthal said...

Oysters does me just fine.

Lil said...

With rich, smooth, buttery flesh the avocado is my favorite though the list you mentioned had several that I love.

The cooking group sounds fabulous.

Am going to have to try that crab and avocado recipe and hoping that you will share the beverage one, too!

Pam Rosenthal said...

um... also dark, dark chocolate. Washed down by black coffee with a hit of leathery old single-malt whiskey.

brownone said...

Mmm...chocolate... I also love avocado, but I don't like the big ones, I like the Haas.
As for Cooking with Friends, I'll just say I'm doing mine a favor by NOT cooking for them! :-)
But it's a cool idea!

Eliza Knight said...

That sounds like an awesome party! You get to learn all sorts of recipes and have fun!