Meatless Moroccan

This month's dinner was a smash! We had 3 couples - all of whom are musical - professional musicians of one kind of another. A instrumentalist/artist couple with grown children who recently had another. A grammy nominee/producer couple and a jazz musician/singer pair of local fame. (I'm including details about the guests because I've gotten requests to do so - while also maintaining privacy obviously).

Being musical folks - they were late and hard to pin down to a date - I might add! But once everyone arrived we had shrimp purses - which are bundles of shrimp, parsley, cilantro, paprika, coriander and cumin baked inside filo and served with tomato chermoula sauce.

First course was the weakest. Because of my guests' avoidance of red meat of any kind (more common than not) I turned the lamb stew with cardamon and apricot into cod stew ... it was "delicate" let's say - "subtle" another ambiguous word. I served it with barley bread - little soft rounds characterized by their onion seeds - which can be bitter but when cooked infuse the bread to combine with the honey.

The rest of the meal was where the success was in my opinion. Roasted fennel salad with raisins, almonds, saffron and lots and lots and lots of garlic. And for the main course - marinated grouper (also with chermoula (think all those spices plus lemon juice and cilantro to make a pesto-like paste), over chickpea salad (roasted peppers, cucumbers, raisins, capers, and more of that chermoula tossed); served with pomegranate glazed carrots.

For dessert I made mini pastries filled with almonds, marzipan,and orange flower honey.
The conversation was lively and we all enjoyed ourselves until the couple with the infant was finally called home ...

Until last night Moroccan meals were couscous and stewed tomatoes ... the grouper was fabulous and I think that chermoula could go on anything.

An Vegan Meal

When planning last week's dinner I had meat in mind - not sure why I persist in thinking I might succeed in getting 6 meat eating guests at once - it almost never happens. Last weekend was no exception - in fact, it was extreme.

One guest reported - no lima beans or whole olives please. No sweat. Another pair backed out at the last minute and the third couple delivered, the dreaded, "95% vegan, thanks for asking." She of course would be happy to eat the veggies ... but that's not our style. So I called some vegetarian friends (why not maximize the effort and sort of aggregate the non-meat eaters) and went about building a vegan meal.

I started with olive tapenade, tomato and basil rounds ... (the olives were far from whole), avocado soup - room temperature with soy whipping cream. Budda's delight - which is a several-kinds-of-tofu, several-kinds-of-stock, several-kinds-of-mushrooms, sprouts, peas, and glass noodles (think veggie chineese noodle stew). A struddle made with kale, sun dried tomato and cheese for the rest of us, my stricter guest had rice cheese. Dessert was the only exception - we had raspberry lemon soufle - she's willing to eat eggs if they come from freerange hens.

As far as the meal went - the soup was very smooth and tasty but made me think too much of guacamole - probably says more about my limited view of the precious avocado. I enjoyed the Buddha's Delight and could have stopped there. Alas - we persisted to the next course anyway. The struddle was good but I would have added more goo in the form of dairy next time. Souffle - tasty and dramatic and the most amazing pink.

As is clear, I enjoy cooking, and feeding. But what makes these dinners so great is the conversation and energy of the guests, as a group. This last weekend was particularly fun with jovial, intelligent conversation that all held together. The trick is to get a good mix and try to avoid breaking up into smaller side conversations (especially prevalent in parties larger than 8).

It was a hit and I know this because one pair announced the need to leave early to attend to some other obligations - they didn't get up and out the door until nearly midnight. Ha! We win!

A Number of Occassions

We've done these dinners for almost two years. We've been invited back to similar events by our guests twice. That made us feel like losers. We thought back through the history of our relationship and realized we'd been invited - for a sit down dinner - 6 or 7 times in 9 years. We're not counting the family-friends (folks who are "the usual suspects" who might drop by for dinner, nor are we counting potlucks and the like). Work-related dinners don't count either. 

Swallowing our pride we started asking around. Many people said they'd had occasion to invite or be invited to a sit-down dinner 2 or 3 times in the last ten years - that was the most typical response. We had couple of professor-types who said 10-12 but that was the high mark. Many people said none, or, one (ours). Besides serving to make us feel better about such an abysmal social record it made me curious. Then I started asking people without kids ... much much higher numbers. Our study will not be truly scientific until some of those folks have kids and watch their own - quiet dinners with friends - plummet too!

Simple Indian Food

One of my stepdaughters Rose came down for the inauguration with a half dozen friends in tow. We were happy to host and I was happy to cook a big indian meal for them.

I made sweet and sour eggplant, dry spiced potatoes and cauliflower, chicken tikka, fish curry, 3 kinds of chutney, chipati and raita. We fed 12 people and it took about 90 minutes to make. That's crazy isn't it? Rose wanted to take the spoils back to school so I went to our indian market and picked up all the basics ... mustard power (she doesn't have a grinder), cumin, coridander, red pepper, garam marsala, ghee, and ginger-garlic paste.

Off they went after the inauguration and I thought .. she could do a lot of damage with that stuff if she doesn't have a sense of the proportions. Imagine equal parts mustard, chilli and cumin ... yikes! Sure enough she had a go at it last night ... and called in distress.

She needs some simple recipes:

Sweet and Sour Eggplant:
dice eggplant
dice shallots
sauté
pinch of kosher or sea salt
toss with dolop of tamarind concentrate to taste
pinch or two of red chili

Dry Spiced Potatoes and Cauliflower
dice potatoes - boil for 10 minutes until slightly soft
dice cauliflower
put potatoe and cauliflower in a deep sauce pan with vegetable oil or ghee
toss with garam marsala, cumin, corriander, mustard (3 parts garam marsala, 1 part cumin and corriander and 1/2 part mustard - unless they are seeds) ... jut to give a sense of the proportions.
dump in a bunch of peas a few minutes before serving and cover.
salt to taste.

Chicken Tikka
yogurt (soy or regular), 3 tablespoons of the spice mixture from the potatoes and 2 tablespoons tumeric - mixture should be very bright.
cube chicken and marinate in yogurt with half a lime's juice for 30-90 minutes.
pour in one layer in a backing pan and roast until internal temp reads 170 degrees.
sqeeze with the other half of the lime

Raita
Drain one whole plain yogurt in a dish towel or cheese cloth for 3- 6 hours.
Add lime juice, salt and mint to taste
(also good very dry - drain all day - with chopped garlic, salt and olive oil).

Chipati
sometimes I use the yogurt drainings for this ... otherwise water and flour to make a stiff dough. Add salt to taste.
Roll into small balls and flatten into 6 inch rounds with a rolling pin (or run through a pasta maker).
Fry both sides in a vegetable oil.

That's all for now ... chutneys and the fish curry another day ...

Co-Cooking

Photo by: http://virginiaparrott.com/

I had the unparalleled pleasure to co-cook for the first time last week with my friend Michael Stein. Michael is a techy, a fiddle player and a great cook. Usually people have the good sense to stand behind the bar with a glass of wine when I'm in the kitchen but of course one must expect something else when it comes to cooks present.

Michael and Doria brought over ingredients for Tadke Ladkes - an indian twist on potatoe ladkes. We also had braised chicken thighs with root vegetables. I always keep lots of indian spices on hand to grind fresh and overdue the tastes. I usually have fresh herbs - even in winter so we had plenty on hand.

The ladkes are made by grating the potatoes with onions, squeezing the moisture out (which we didn't do and wished we had) and mixing in spices to taste: garma marsala, freshly ground cumin, coriander and red pepper. Kosher salt and white pepper to taste. I'm embarassed to say Michael introduced me to spiced oil - olive oil with whole spices : peppercorns, mustard seeds, cumin ... fry up the formed ladkes.

The chicken was browned first with shallots and garlic and then put in a deeper pot with root vegetables, broth, and plenty of white wine. Simmer slowly and add spices toward the end. We used a lot of fresh herbs here - oregano, thyme, and sage. We sort of groped around at the end to push it over the edge and put some healthy dolops of that indian essential ginger-garlic paste.

I thought the results wwere smashing ... and all in a kind of dance with Michael and I at the stove. He said it was every bit as fun as playing music with someone (made me wish I played a musical instrument).

Cooking for Community

This is my first post but not my first bit of content. Cindy and I have been cooking big meals (4-6 courses) for 6-8 guests for the last 2 years ... we've missed a month here or there so it's going on something like 20 meals. It's become a big part of our lives and one of the only consistently social things we've found time to formalize.

We've got rules for the dinners - no repeat guests, no repeat food (though I will admit that the goat cheese, bacon and date struddle has made more than one much-appreciated appearance). The dinners have become a very significant part of our community - but we're aware that without repeat guests - we're benefiting the most! And most of all, I benefit. The dinners are 4-6 courses, include 4-6 bottles of wine and last about as long. But for me I also get to plan, shop and prepare the meal - so my experience is more like one of 8-10 hours.

This blog is about those dinners - and other choice cooking experiences - and the people that enjoy them.