“Vulcan was a small planet proposed to exist in an orbit between Mercury and the Sun. In an attempt to explain peculiarities of Mercury’s orbit, in the 19th-century French mathematician Urbain Jean Joseph LeVerrier hypothesized that they were the result of another planet, which he named Vulcan. No such planet was ever found, and Mercury’s orbit has now been explained by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The name was later given to the home planet of the Star Trek character Spock when the series was created in the 1960s.

It was 150 years ago January 2nd when LeVerrier stood in front of the Académie des sciences and held forth his proposal on the existence of the fiery hot ball of a planet that he believed existed. While having no direct bearing on dinner party planning, it at least inspired me to offer up a bit of hot spice on the plates that passed out of our kitchen this last Sunday.

We started off with my take on duck ceviche, only changed in that yuca is out of season so I served it over a base of sweet potato. Toss up as to which I like better – maybe both!

On to a caldillo de congrio, no jalapeños to be found in the market so I used some red Chinese long peppers.

The tian of fried eggplant, butternut squash puree and roasted piquillo peppers was such a hit at our private dinner a week or so ago that I couldn’t resist not trying it out on another group, I think it was just as successful!

And, a further iteration on my ají de gallina lasagna – back to a simple semolina pasta which I like better, a bit more spice in the sauce, and the tuile, this time, made out of trebolgiano cheese, probably Argentina’s finest hard, grating cheese, packed with far more flavor than reggianito. Since they were in season and looked so pretty, a few wedges of pattypan squash (here called zapallito ovni, OVNI being the Spanish equivalent acronym to UFO.

And, finishing up with a lemon-olive oil cake with fresh cherries macerated in kirsch.

While I’m afraid the modern day twist on Vulcans wouldn’t have sat down to dinner and enjoyed this feast, being that they’re all supposed to be vegetarians, I think our gathering of Earthlings had a pretty good time!