Shroomgirl:
Alas, Sarada's level of Kashrut (which is stratospheric -- much higher than my own personal standard) does not allow us to serve meat and dairy at the same meal and allow the guests to choose one or the other. In fact, I do not know of ANY "real" Kosher caterer who would serve meat and dairy together on the same menu (since this would give the "appearance of impropriety," and would doubtlessly lead to people eating both together -- the "sin" of which would then rest on our shoulders as caterers, and, more importantly, on the shoulders of our supervising rabbi. Talk about BAD KARMA!!!!!
).
This event will be a MEAT meal.
While I admit to a weakness for traditonal butter-and-cream laden mashers, you can make wonderful pareve mashed potatoes using soy milk and margarine, or with non-dairy sour cream or with extra-virgin olive oil. You can also make "skinny mashed potatoes" for those watching their weight by boiling the potatoes in chicken broth of pareve chicken broth and then mashing the potatoes with some or all of the cooking liquid.
For this event, I'm actually thinking of making three different kinds of mashed potatoes -- one with wasabi (soy milk and margarine), one with shitake mushrooms (margarine and extra-virgin olive oil) and one mixed with mashed parsnips and turnips (non-dairy sour cream), and serving thinly-sliced deep-fried Idaho potato sprinkled with sesame seeds, deep-fried sweet potato ribbons and deep fried julienned ginger as accompaniments. Or maybe I'll just do one "regular" mashed potato dish (with non-dairy sour cream and margarine) and put the sauteed wild mushrooms out for an optional topping, too. The possibilities are as limitless as one's imagination!
For the salmon, I'm thinking of a sauce with mayonaise and dill, and another more "piquante" salsa-type sauce (per Saffron's suggestion). Eggs are considered pareve, not dairy, so mayo is fine to serve at a meat meal.
The dessert (another Sarada signature dish) can be made either pareve or dairy -- in this case, I will be making it pareve. Pretty much any dessert made with heavy cream can be made substituting Rich Whip (available at Kosher supermarkets) for the cream -- I am a "food snob" and a purist, and I have to say, I really enjoy Rich Whip desserts (one of the highest compliments you can pay me is to say that you had no idea the dessert was pareve -- and I get this compliment regularly!!!!)
My "mission" as a caterer (besides becoming filthy rich off my cooking -- yeah, RIGHT!
) is to show people that Kosher food can be not only as good, but BETTER than non-Kosher -- and take great pride in the fact that we have so many clients who don't keep Kosher (and who aren't even Jewish!). In fact, our very first event was a dessert buffet for an EASTER PARTY!
Feel free to ask me about Kashrut any time!
Best,
Dawn