Cooking Club Info
For those of you who didn’t see the early entries in this blog, I thought I’d explain a bit about the Dinner Club/Cooking Club entries. We’ve actually had our club for two years and we’re starting our third. I wanted you to be able to see the evolution of our meetings, as we’ve learned some things along the way. So, I’m in process of reporting the history of the club. At the top of each Cooking Club entry you’ll see the actual date the dinner took place.
Currently I’m posting those entries every Monday. I should be up to date by the end of February so that I will be reporting our March/April meeting in real time. Photos and commentary should also improve at that time (probably one entry sooner) since the food will be fresh in my mind and I’ll have been thinking more about what photos I’ll want to post as I take them.
If you want to read all Cooking Club entries, select Cooking Club from the list of Categories on the left hand side of the page. That will show all entries from the beginning of the blog.
Hope that all makes sense! B
Pineapple Express, Sarcococca and Apple Crisp
We are having an amazing day here in the Seattle area. Although our temperatures were in the 20’s last week, at this moment it is 65F at my house! We are being affected by what’s called the "Pineapple Express", a weather system that originates in Hawaii and then moves our way bringing warm temperatures and lots of rain to the NW. The bad news is that with all the rain and the warm temps which melt the snow, several rivers are flooding. But I don’t live near a river and today it’s not raining at all so I am really enjoying this little burst of spring!
I’ve opened my doors and windows to air out the house. Near my front door I have a plant called Sarcococca, which has little, tiny white blooms in December and January that pack a powerful punch fragrance-wise. I think it smells a lot like vanilla. So right now the house is full of this fragrance – except in the kitchen where it smells like the apple crisp that I just pulled out of the oven! :-)
Which brings me (finally!) to the point of this post! I always keep a bagful of crisp topping in my freezer so that I can easily throw together a little, personal fruit crisp whenever the mood strikes me. For this apple crisp, I just sliced an apple into a small casserole, covered it with some of the topping right out of the freezer and then popped it into the oven for 30 minutes at 375 degrees. This topping works equally well with berries, peaches, pears – let your imagination run wild! Now I’m going to whip up a little cream and go outside and enjoy both the weather and the crisp. :-)
Crisp Topping
- ⅔– ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup flour
- ½ cup oats
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- ¾ tsp. cinnamon
- ¾ tsp. nutmeg
- ⅓ cup soft butter
Mix all ingredients until crumbly, either with your hands or by pulsing in food processor.
This amount will cover an 8” pan of fruit or can be frozen and used in smaller amounts, as needed.
Good Bites Crustless Sandwich Cutter
The Seattle Times reports there is now a gadget designed to trim the crust from sandwiches and cut the sandwich diagonally in half at the same time. I’m just not sure what to make of this "news" except to wonder what the world is coming to! :-)
If you are interested, or feel you need one of these here’s the scoop:
RSVP Etiquette
Each year I resolve to throw more small dinner parties – in the 6 to 10 person range. My goal is to do one a month and in my mind this small group is sitting around a table talking, laughing and, of course, loving every bite of the food!
And now I’m going to take the chance of alienating people but I’m hoping they will understand…
Each year I do one or two of these small parties before I give up. I don’t give up because it’s too time-consuming or too expensive or because I lose interest. I give up because so many people don’t really understand RSVP etiquette.
When I plan these smaller parties I really try to balance the guest list with a good mix of people who know each other and those who don’t know each other. My goal is that each guest will have a certain comfort level yet be introduced to new elements. I also like to balance the profile of the people. This is the most challenging part for me, as I know lots of single women, a few straight couples, several gay men – either single or coupled and comparatively very few single straight men. If I’m not careful I can easily end up with 7 single women, 1 single gay guy and 1 straight couple around the table. People don’t mind the first time it happens, but the second or third they start getting a little tired of it all. The mix is just a bit off, no matter how nice everyone is or how well they get along.
So, I’ll carefully compile a guest list and even work out the "backups" so if anyone declines I can still fill the seats with a good balance. Well, this all sounds well and good but the reality is that people don’t always answer in a timely manner. Or they answer but they reply "maybe" or they reply, "Well I can make it but I don’t know about (insert partner’s name here)".
Now, I am flattered that people do not want to decline because they’d really hate to miss one of my parties Really, I am. But I wish they understood what kind of havoc this causes. Especially if (and this happens quite a lot) several people have this situation. I’ve tried hinting that, "Well I’ll just make sure you’re on the list for next time", but that doesn’t even work. People insist that this other obligation might not happen or will fall through so they stay as a maybe until it’s too late to graciously invite one of the "back-ups".
And, there are those who accept and then a couple days prior or day of the party cancel. Sometimes they have a good reason (they got sick that morning) but sometimes, it’s just that something else came up or I find out that they accepted without really checking with their partner and the partner also made plans for the same date.
If you are having a larger, unstructured party all of these things are a bit irritating but can be overcome (although there can be other impacts, but don’t get me started on that right now!). With a small dinner party, however, they have a huge impact. There have been times that in the 48 hours prior to a party I’ve gone from a table of 10 to a table of 3. Not only has the food already been purchased and, most likely, the preparation work already been done but I feel badly for the people who come expecting an interesting mix of people and find they are the bulk of the party!
So, it’s January 2005. And again, I’m thinking that I’d really like to do a small dinner party each month. But I’m sitting here struggling with the logistics. I love it when it works but I hate the agony of the "maybes". Hmm, which way will I go? Maybe I should make them really small like for 4 people. But I already do several of that scale. Maybe I should just always invite 20 and hope 10 actually show up; with my luck all 20 would show up or, maybe worse, 12 would. That’s just two too many for my table. :-)
In the meantime, if you are invited to a dinner party, RSVP within a day or two. If you need additional time at least let your host know that you received the invitation and that you just need an extra day or two to reply. And then make sure you reply, when you said you would. And make it a definite yes or no. If you can’t make it your host will miss you – they did invite you after all – but they will appreciate your quick response and you will soon be on their list of invitees again.
February 2004
This is the beginning of our second year! The first went so fast and we are having a great time. I highly recommend starting your own dinner club. It’s a fun and tasty way to broaden your food horizons and expand your circle of friends.
Continuing with our more ambiguous themes, V chose "Romantic" for this dinner.
Here’s the menu:
- Appetizer: Caviar on Toast Points and Cornmeal Blinis (Blini recipe below)
- Cocktail: Champagne laced with Raspberry (recipe below)
- Salad: Crab Towers (From "Dishing with Kathy Casey")
- Main: Stuffed Veal Roulade with Crabmeat
- Side: Zucchini-Rice Tian
- Dessert: Orange Chocolate Mocha Fondue and Orange Poppy Seed Cake with Grand Marnier
Champagne Laced with Raspberry
- 1 tsp. framboise
- 1 tsp. kirsch
- 8 oz chilled extra dry champagne
- Fresh raspberries for garnish
Pour 1/2 of the framboise and 1/2 of the kirsch into 2 chilled champagne glasses. Add champagne and top with 1 or 2 raspberries.
Cornmeal Blinis
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 1/2 cups boiling water
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup flour
- 2 tbsp. melted butter
- 3/4 cup warm clarified butter
Mix the cornmeal and salt and stir in the boiling water. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time; then slowly stir in the milk. Mix in the flour and 2 tbsp melted butter; beat until mixture is smooth. The batter should be the consistency of heavy cream; if it is too thick, thin with a little more milk.
Brush a well seasoned crepe pan with clarified butter and heat. When the pan is hot, pour 3 tbsp batter into it and tilt pan to distribute batter evenly. Cook until the underside is lightly browned, then turn and cook until the other is browned. Repeat with all remaining batter.
7th Dinner Club Meeting – “Romantic”
February 2004
This was a really fun dinner! How could it be anything else considering we started with champagne and caviar? The framboise added a pink tint to the champagne – perfect for the "Romantic" theme. M cut the toast points into heart shapes, topped the toast and the blinis with crème fraiche and two types of caviar, salmon and sturgeon. The dish was whimsical and colorful. Caviar is one of those things that K is a little picky about – not that it has to be perfect but it’s not on the top of her list of things to eat – so a couple of us helped her out with her portion!
Then we moved on to the Crab Towers. These are so elegant looking and although the prep is a little time consuming, it is all done ahead of time so that serving is a breeze. I highly recommend these as an easy way to make an impressive looking and great tasting dish.
The veal was wonderful! Very rich and a little goes a long way. Again, most of the prep can be done ahead of time, so that you just have to pop them in the oven while you are enjoying your appetizer and/or salad. The rice tian was a great accompaniment as it foiled the richness of the veal.
And then there was fondue for dessert! K is a fondue queen, as her family has some holiday rituals involving fondue and she made us proud again tonight! She served several varieties of fruit, along with the Poppy Seed Cake so you could tailor dessert to your own tastes.
Iron Chef America Series Premiers Tonight!
I was never a big fan of the original series but mostly because of the voiceovers and the lack of familiarity with the chefs. Last year they did a little trial version of America versus the original Japanese chefs and I guess it went over pretty well, as now we have our own version.
The fun part of these shows are the interviews they do with the chefs, as you can kind of see their minds working as they plan and prepare the meal based on the "secret ingredient". I also love to see the food presented at then end – the creativity can be astounding.
If you can’t catch the show tonight (in conflict with the Golden Globes in my time zone) I think they are repeating them late on Wednesday nights. And this is the Food Network – they’ll show up a few more times, too. :-)
Tonight’s show should be good – it’s Bobby Flay versus Rick Bayless.
Update Jan 19: I thought the show was a lot of fun, although I was flipping back and forth to the Golden Globes. The secret ingredient was buffalo, which lent itself to both chefs’ cuisine. Bobby’s presentations were especially beautiful. This Sunday it’s Batali versus Roberto Trevino. I am not familiar with Trevino but he sounds like someone to follow.
Via Tribunali
Last night M and I finally got to Via Tribunali. We originally tried to check them out in early November a few days after they were scheduled to open. But, when we arrived, we found they had not quite made their opening date and the people inside were not waiting to serve us but were trying to get the last little touches finished.
Between the holidays and both she and I being out of commission with colds and other ailments the last few weeks it took us until last night to give it another try. And then yesterday The Accidental Hedonist wrote about her experience there! Dang the word is out! Actually, I’m glad though. Via Tribunali is a place I want to go back to. And I decided a long time ago I’d rather spread the word and have my favorite places be hard to get into rather than keep them a secret but only until they close their doors due to lack of business. :-)
Our experience started a little differently than others have reported. We had planned to get there on the early side to try to beat the lines we were sure would be there on a Friday night. We arrived at 6:45 to find that we didn’t actually beat the lines but at least we were ahead of the game by a bit.
We signed in, waved to a friend of ours who works there (and also at Caffe Vita, Via Tribunali’s sister establishment) and then secured a seat in the waiting area that had just been vacated. Just as we were settling in a woman came running from the front room directly at me and yelling with panic in her voice, "Your hair’s on fire!". And sure enough it was! There were candles on the ledge behind the waiting benches and I normally watch for those things but overlooked it last night and got a little too close to one. Thanks to the woman and M the fire was slapped out in no time, although I’m thinking M may have been enjoying pounding on my head a bit too much! :-)
Other than the disgusting smell that permeated the place and the few handfuls of hair that I lost, not much harm was done. I was, surprised though that no one "officially" checked to see if I was okay. The friend came over but only because he was already on his way over and brought us each a complementary glass of wine but he would have done that anyway. So, I think the staff may need to mature a bit in terms of customer service.
Having said that do not let it dissuade you from enjoying a fun and tasty meal at Via Tribunali! As has been reported, the pizza is light and crisp with beautiful, creative and fresh toppings. We started with the Salumi Antipasti platter and, if you’ve read other postings of mine, you’ll know I can’t get enough Salumi products! Then we shared the Pizza Via Tribunali – I always like to check out the item that a place names after itself. That can tell you a lot about the place. It was a richer variation of a Margherita Pizza – squisto!
I also love the ambience and it’s not surprising. It looks amazingly like my favorite hangout, Queen City Grill. And in talking with our friend, we found out that was on purpose. Hmmmm. And the walls resemble another Seattle favorite (I’ll not disclose the name as it’s in the same neighborhood.) When warmer weather rolls around, they will be able to open the "garage door" and have covered outdoor dining. Can’t wait for that.
If you go, make sure you know the address is 913 Pike. That’s the only marking you’ll see. It seems to be part of the planned mystique to not actually have the name on the establishment. Seems rather contrived to me. Especially considering that a bit later in the evening I was wandering back that way, when a confused Italian woman asked me if I knew where the place was. Her husband was parking the car but they weren’t sure they were in the right place and with her limited English I could see she was feeling a bit frustrated. Of course, I was happy to direct her to the entry way but wouldn’t it have been easier if she had just been able to locate it herself?
Right now they are open only Tuesday – Sunday, 5:00 pm – 11:00 or a little later. Plans do include training more people so that they can extend hours, which may or may not help the lines. In the meantime, plan on putting your name on the list, grabbing a glass of wine and waiting for a bit – just beware of the candles on the ledges!
Update Feb 21: I should have posted this some time ago but just remembered to do it…. sorry! On January 27th I returned to Via Tribunali with K. We were hitting the Century Ballroom for Salsa a bit later and thought this was a perfect spot to grab a bite. The evening didn’t get off to a great start when the hostess estimated our wait time to be 15 minutes and 45 minutes later we were still waiting. Finally, at just over an hour we were seated. All things considered I wasn’t too concerned – the time had passed fairly quickly with K and I catching up on several things. We ordered a salad and the mushroom pizza. And that was the problem. Don’t under any circumstances order the mushroom pizza or anything that includes mushrooms. They are canned and slimy. Bleah! On top of that the pizza wasn’t cooked quite long enough or maybe it was that the slimy mushrooms made it soggy. Either way, it just didn’t work. I’ll still go back again but I’m not going anywhere near mushrooms!
Sorbet!
I had TV on for a bit this morning and Alton Brown (on Food Network) was discussing "Melondrama". :-) One of the things he covered was Melon Sorbet. Yum!
Last summer I became fascinated with sorbets, especially using them as a palate cleanser mid-meal. But, as fall and winter set in my thoughts turned to other concoctions. This show, however, has me thinking about them again. It’s time for more experimentation!
In the meantime, here’s one I came up with last year that I really like:
Mojito Sorbet
- 1 cup sugar
- 1½ cups water
- 2 ½ to 3 cups coarsely chopped mint
- Juice of 1 juicy lime
- 1 heaping Tbsp lime zest
- 2 to 3 Tbsp finely chopped mint.
Bring sugar and water to a boil, and then boil for 1 minute until sugar is thoroughly dissolved. Remove pan from heat. Add coarsely chopped mint, cover pan and let sit for 1 hour.
Strain mint from syrup and then chill syrup for 2 hours. When chilled, add lime juice to the syrup and then add mixture to ice cream maker. Chill in maker for 20 minutes, then add lime zest and finely chopped mint and chill for 5 more minutes. Remove from ice cream maker, place in storage container and freeze approximately 2 – 3 hours until desired consistency.
Cooking Classes
Sur la Table’s spring schedule of Cooking Classes is now available online. I’ve attended several of their classes and have had great luck with instructors and topics. They use both their own set of chefs and guest chefs – many times those promoting new cookbooks will be on the schedule.
Some classes are hands-on and some are demo style so if you prefer one type or the other make sure you check the descriptions and icons carefully. In my area the most popular classes (especially those with guest chefs) will sell out quickly, so if you see something you’re interested in, don’t waste time – Register!
Although Sur la Table started in the Seattle area they are now nationwide so check the information above to see if they have a class in your area.
So far I’ve signed up for the Knife skills (I really want to be able to chop vegetables quickly without losing a finger!) and a Puff Pastry class. Although, I make a decent puff pastry, if I do say so myself, more often than not I seem to pull it out of a frozen food case in one store or another. Which is fine, there are some great pre-mades out there. However, this class promises to show the quick and painless method that "real" chefs use! :-) If there is a true quick method, I’d probably be more inclined to throw it together myself. The instructors are local renowned bakers, so what do I have to lose? There are several other classes that look good, too, but that’s where I’m starting.
It’s the new year – learn something new!
Culinary Fool 