End of the Fiesta de la Parrillita

I think I've done more cooking this last week and a half than I have all year.

Well, okay, that might be an exaggeration. But it sure feels like it.

When I was dancing I used to wake up with cramps in my legs and back. Now I wake up with cramps in my hands and arms, I suspect, from slicing and chopping and grabbing and plating.

But today I cleaned the stove, which signals the official end to La Fiesta de la Parrillita, our celebration of how much we can cook on the tiniest stove ever. Actually, I dis this kitchen a lot, but it produced this week. Yes it did.

Here's the update. Tuesday after the Wedding Frenzy, we picked up a turkey to brine. No we weren't done with producing food -- not by a long shot. But we did figure we'd go easy on ourselves and merely roast the turkey, instead of smoking it this year.

Thanksgiving was quieter -- well relatively -- this year, at the home of the Pajama Queen (so named for her penchant for a collection of loungewear) and her consort, Mr. Tarte Tatin (one of the few for whom we can be compelled to make the famed classic apple tart.) More on that later.




Mr. Tarte Tatin, gathering strength for the arduous eating that lies ahead.






To prepare, we made yet another pilgrimage with family members to the Ferry Building. Hey, I wasn't the one shopping, so it was fine with me.



















Mushrooms and cheese were our targets, and it was a fine time to forage, since the Fungi Festival was scheduled for a couple of days later. Ms. Art Attack bought some scary good mushrooms for a scary big price. But oh man, did they cook up well.


















A quick stop at the Cowgirl Creamery yielded some Montgomery Cheddar (more on that below) and a curiously intriguing Cumin Gouda from Winchester Cheese. Apparently Cumin Gouda is a centuries old tradition -- and it's also really really good!!

Me? I'm just here for the fish tacos from Mijita. And the guacamole. I started murmuring "...fish tacos..." as soon as we entered the building, hoping that the subliminal suggestion would seep into everyone's brains. And it worked.


















The jicama salad with pumpkin seeds, grapefruit and avocado.








We arrived at the scene of the crime bearing only a picnic basket's worth of food and a turkey, musing that this was a snap compared to the last Saturday.

Like a good Thanksgiving, this one was a joint effort, with the Pajama Queen supplying all kinds of nosh and nibbles, plus the Fig Walnut Dressing, Balsamic glazed cipollinis, Cranberry Relish and salad (not to mention allowing us to use her SPOTLESSLY clean kitchen.) Ms. Art Attack provided the aforementioned Mushroom Saute, along with the season's end of heirloom tomatoes with sea salt, plus a generous supply of cheese and wine from the wedding. Much wine. MUCH cheese.

And supplying the essential Southern Style Sweet potatoes was Mr. Tarte's partner in crime, Blue Ribbon Boy. Can't go without the lovely crunchy crusty marshmallow topping, plus the secret ingredient, which he declines to divulge....

On our side, the Orange-Brined turkey as mentioned and a medley of brussels sprouts, turnips, hazelnuts and golden beets, which had a lovely color. The recipe, which is pretty easy to throw together, comes out of Bon Appetit. Definitely serves more than the 8-10 that they suggest.

Medley of Beets, Brussels Sprouts and Turnips

4 medium-size golden beets, tops trimmed
1 1/2 pounds brussels sprouts, halved lengthwise
1 1/4 pounds turnips, peeled, each cut into 8 wedges
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
1/3 cup minced shallots
1/3 cup finely chopped hazelnuts
3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
3 large garlic cloves, minced

Preheat oven to 375°F. Wrap beets in foil; bake until center is tender when pierced with knife, about 1 hour 45 minutes. Cool. Peel; cut each beet into 8 wedges. Use golden beets, but if you can't find them, red beets can be substituted. Be sure to keep them separate from everything though, until you're ready for the final toss, or else it will look like a bloodbath took place over your veggies.

Cook brussels sprouts in pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 6 minutes. Using large slotted spoon, transfer brussels sprouts to bowl of ice water; cool. Drain. Add turnips to pot; boil until crisp-tender, about 7 minutes. Drain. Transfer to bowl of ice water; cool. Drain. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill.)

Melt butter in heavy large deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots and hazelnuts; sauté until nuts begin to brown, about 3 minutes. Add thyme and garlic; sauté until nuts are golden, about 2 minutes. Add all vegetables; cover and cook until heated through, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl and serve.

The Pajama Queen and I used to dance together, so we jokingly assembled a little "Dancer Thanksgiving Plate" for her. For comparison, we offer the plate of Blue Ribbon Boy, who still dances with ODC.

















TARTE TATIN with Montgomery Cheddar and Saint Andre

Eric jokes that I hate to make anything again, even if it's a success. I usually retort that, now that I've made it, I want to move on to other things. But he prevailed upon me to do the Tarte Tatin again this year, and we added the twist of turning it into a pseudo-cheese course. Instead of just the usual whipped sour cream topping we added some slices of Saint Andre and also the West Country's Montgomery Cheddar to the plate.

The Montgomery has just the right sharpness and a smooth finish to go with the sweetness of the apple.

Tarte Tatin

For the crust:
1 1/4 cups AP flour
2 Tbsp. Sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter (cubed)
4-6 tsp ice water

For apples:
1/2 cup (1stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2.5 lbs (4-5) Jonagold Apples
2.5 lbs (4-5) Braeburn Apples
(or use 8-9 Granny Smith apples)

For the whipped Sour cream:
1 cup Sour cream
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp sugar

Mix together the flour,sugar and salt for the crust, and then cut in 1/2 cup of butter til it looks like small crumbly bits in the flour. add a few tablespoons of ice water and blend in gently. Gather together dough into a ball and let rest 15 minutes. Then roll out to a 13" circle and set aside in cool place or refrigerate til needed.

Peel and core the apples and cut in half (or have someone do this while you're making the caramel.)

Melt the other 1/2 cup of butter in a 10" ovenproof skillet over medium heat. When it sizzles, add sugar, stirring constantly. set timer for 15 minutes, but stay alert and keep stirring. The alchemy of the sugar will change in intriguing ways:

At 3 minutes: The butter and sugar will seem thick, but liquidy. No caramelization yet
At 7 minutes: Mixture starts turning grainy and golden and looks a bit like wet sand
At 12 minutes: Sugar is still lumpy, but is liquifying and turning darker. Oil from the butter floats on top, but this is okay.
At 15 minutes: Caramel is smooth, peanut butter like, oil is on top.

Remove from heat and let cool a minute or two, but not long! Preheat the oven to 400°F Return pan to medium heat and pack the apples in, standing them on one end and setting tightly in the pan. Cook for about 8-10 minutes, until browning and softening on the bottom. Turn each of the apples around so that the uncooked parts are now down. Cook another 6-8 minutes. Transfer the skillet to a baking sheet and cool 15 minutes.

Take the rolled pastry dough and lay it over the apples, tucking the edges into the pan. Bake at 400°F for 35-40 minutes, until golden and crisp.

Cool 20 minutes. Whisk together sour cream, heavy cream and sugar. Invert pan onto serving plate and serve warm with sweetened sour cream on top or slices of cheddar on the side.

=============================
Now after all that, how is it that we found ourselves on Saturday without much food in the house??? How? How, I ask you?

Okay, fine. I decided to make one last push. We made a lasagne and a Dungeness crab bisque (my menu-planning abilities have declined as the week has worn on, can you tell?) and because I felt like it, we created a cheese plate with slices of Persille du Beaujolais and a Comice pear poached in Beaujolais (C'est Arrive!!)

And then I cleaned the stove. No more cooking for this week.

The Wedding Frenzy: Recap (plus Golden Produce Moments)

The Wedding Deed is done!





Okay, if I really exert myself, I can make my fingertips move on the keyboard -- every other inch of me is so sore and tired from the weekend's extravaganza. The shopping, the prepping, the cooking, the shopping, the prepping, the cooking, the baking, the cutting, the packing up of just about every cooking tool in our house and the hauling up into the Oakland Hills.

I suppose I also shouldn't have taken ballet class on Saturday morning, then cooked a wedding feast for 60 people on Saturday night, and then gone to rehearsal for another four hours on Sunday.

I think I'm broken now.

But here's the good news: the wedding feast went off without a major hitch (except for the bride and groom getting hitched, that is). So even though Eric and I keep looking back on Saturday and musing to ourselves, "WHAT the HECK were we thinking???" It seemed like everyone had a great time, and I have to say, there's nothing that can make a cook more satisfied than to feel like you have a roomful of happy people eating your food.

Here was the menu, with links to recipes:

Hors d’oeuvres
• Humboldt Fog from Cypress Grove
• Saint Andre Triple Creme
• St. George Cheese from Joe & Mary Matos
• Baguettes from Bay Breads Boulangerie
• Mushrooms stuffed w/Red Bell Pepper & Scallion
• French Lentil Pate
• Spicy Chipotle Hummus
• Sundried Tomato Tapenade
• Dungeness Crab Salad on Endive Petals
• Potato Latkes with Pear Cranberry Chutney and Shaved Vella Dry Jack
• Tuscan Table Olives from Nan McEvoy Ranch

Dinner
• Blowtorch Roast Beef au jus
• Homemade Whisky-cured Gravlax featuring fresh wild-caught salmon from Swan Oyster Depot
• Marinated Portobellos
• Wild Rice, Wheatberry & Barley with mixed Wild Mushrooms and Chanterelles
• Butternut Squash Gratin
• Mixed Green Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette

Dessert
• Hazelnut Coriander Wedding Cake with Praline Ganache
• Rich Hot Cocoa made with El Rey Gran Saman (70% cacao) Chocolate

Mr & Mrs Art Attack have travelled and lived all over the world, but they love the idea of featuring foods from the Bay Area as much as possible, so much of the menu was planned around seasonal produce and supplies we could find locally.

I know that the romantic way to go was to head to the farmer's market at the ferry building for all our fruits and vegetables, but to be honest, we prefer to lay our cash down at the unsung star of the San Francisco grocery scene, Golden Produce, (172 Church Street at Market, (415) 431-1536).

This little family-run place simply rocks. You might stroll by thinking, oh, that's your nice average neighborhood greengrocer. But Golden Produce stocks a choice variety of beautiful organic vegetables, gorgeous seasonal fruits, plus all manner of organic and vegetarian foods, a good selection of bulk foods, and the prices are terrific. Sometimes I come out of there with two giant bags of veggies and fruits, having spent maybe $10.

And look out, after two years, they're almost finished with their second location, just up Church street past El Castillito, where they'll be selling fresh meat and deli items. You'll never want to step in Safeway again!!

But I digress. The wedding. So we had a battle plan worthy of General MacArthur, equipment lists, food lists, timetables.

The only thing we forgot to schedule in was food for us. Yes, it's the age old story. We made a mountain of food and what did we eat? Fritos and Juice Squeezes. And cake -- although I didn't taste any, because by that time, I had had it with the cake.

I suppose if it was any consolation, the bride, as per usual for these events, had seven Jordan Almonds and two Tuscan table olives that evening. (We gave her and her groom a pile o' leftovers though!)

We also forgot to shop for ourselves however. So by Sunday morning all we had in the house was a box of Cheerios, some milk, and some Juice Squeezes and Fritos. I don't count the wedding cake, because by that time, I couldn't look at chocolate any more.

Eric, for his part, would have gone on a murderous rampage if he didn't get some coffee-- of which we had none in the house, of course. Luckily, one of Brenda's oldest friends had generously arranged to buy us all brunch on Sunday morning at the Hotel Monaco's Grand Cafe.

The Wedding Frenzy: Stuffed Mushrooms

This one was an easy winner of an appetizer, and one of several recipes we garnered from Martha Stewart's magazine. I gotta give Martha props though. It's tasty without being overwhelming and easy to pre-prep since you can make the stuffing a day ahead and get the mushrooms ready before the day of the event.

As they baked, they released a lot of water, so next time, I'd consider making them on a rack placed on a baking sheet.

Mushrooms Stuffed with Red Bell Pepper and Scallions

3 oz. day old white bread, crusts cut off (about 3 slices)
2 scallions, trimmed and coarsely chopped
1 red bell pepper, ribs and seeds removed, coarsely chopped
3 oz fresh goat cheese
¼ cup finely chopped cilantro
1 oz dry Monterey Jack or Parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 ½ tsp coarse salt
¼ tsp freshly ground pepper
48 button mushrooms (about 1 ½ lbs.) stemmed and cleaned

Pulse bread in a food processor until finely chopped, and transfer to a large bowl. Place scallions, bell pepper, and goat cheese in food processor. Pulse until finely chopped and well combined. Transferred to bowl with the breadcrumbs, stir in cilantro, half the grated cheese, salt and pepper. (Filling can be made a day ahead and refrigerated in an airtight container.)

Preheat oven to 350F, with rack in center. Place mushroom caps, open side up, in a single layer on the baking sheet. Put a heaping teaspoon of filling into each cap. Bake until mushrooms are tender and filling is hot , 15-20 minutes.

Remove mushrooms from oven and turn oven to broil. Position rack 4 inches from the flame. Sprinkle mushrooms with remaining cheese and then broil til cheese is golden, about 1 minute. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 dozen.

From Martha Stewart’s Holidays 2003

Back to the Wedding Menu.

The Wedding Frenzy: French Lentil Pâté

Martha Stewart strikes again. This pate takes very little time to make, and has a terrific flavor. The non-vegetarians kept asking what went into it, because it has a pretty hearty flavor for a vegetarian dish.

French Lentil Pâté

1 cup French green lentils
2 cups homemade or store-bought low sodium vegetable broth
½ onion, cut into 3 wedges
4 sprigs fresh thyme, plus more for garnish
1 bay leaf
1 ½ tsps coarse salt
¼ tsp freshly ground pepper
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
8 oz of thinly sliced shallots (about 1 ½ cups)
8 oz cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced ( about 3 ½ cups)
1/3 cup dry sherry
½ cup toasted hazelnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
2 hard-boiled eggs, whites finely chopped (yolks reserved for another use)

Bring lentils, stock, 1 ¾ cups water, the onion, thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper to a boil in the medium saucepan. Reduce heat, simmer, adding water as needed (about ½ cup at a time) to prevent lentils from drying out, until they are tender, about 30 minutes. Discard onion, thyme, and bay leaf; set lentils aside.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over a medium heat. Add shallots and cook, stirring often, until golden 10 to 12 minutes. Add mushrooms; cook until mushrooms have softened completely and shallots are deep golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Add sherry, stirring to scrape up browned bits. Remove from heat.

Reserve 2 heaping tablespoons of shallot mixture for garnish, refrigerate covered until ready to use. Process remaining shallot mixture, the lentils and nuts in a food processor until coarsely combined. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the egg whites.

Line a 5 by 10 inch loaf pan with plastic wrap, allowing 3 inches to hang over each long side. Spoon lentil mixture into pan and fold plastic over the top. Top with another loaf pan filled with heavy cans. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

To serve, unwrap top and invert onto a platter. Bring to room temperature. Garnish with reserved shallot mixture and thyme sprigs. Serve with bread or crackers.

From Martha Stewart Living, Nov 2006

Back to the Wedding Menu.

The Wedding Frenzy: Sundried Tomato Tapenade & Chipotle Hummus

Two dips/ spreads for the veggies and bread that we laid out. Both of these were totally simple to make up and we did them the day before, so no cooking necessary.

Chipotle Hummus
Adapted from Bon Appetit, Oct 2001

2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons tahini (sesame seed paste)
3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
21/2 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chilies
1 large garlic clove, roasted and minced
11/2 teaspoons ground cumin -- toast and grind the cumin seeds
1 4-ounce jar sliced pimientos in oil, drained
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Reserve 3 tablespoons garbanzo beans for garnish. Blend remaining garbanzo beans and next 7 ingredients in processor until smooth. Add pimientos; process, using on/off turns, until pimientos are coarsely chopped. Transfer hummus to medium bowl. Stir in cilantro. Season hummus to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with reserved garbanzo beans. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature before serving.)

Sun-Dried-Tomato Tapenade
Adapted from Bon Appetit, Sept. 2002

1 cup pitted Kalamata olives or other brine-cured black olives
3/4 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
2/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup drained capers
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano

Using on/off turns, finely chop olives and tomatoes in processor. Add 2/3 cup oil, capers, and oregano; blend to coarse puree. Transfer to bowl. (Tapenade can be made 3 days ahead. Cover; refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before using.)

Back to the Wedding Menu.

The Wedding Frenzy: Dungeness Crab Salad on Endive Petals

It's Dungeness Season. Oh, yes. We timed it just perfectly. Down at Swan's on Wednesday, the guys said, "Yeah, they just pulled the traps this morning. If you can come back by this afternoon we should have some for you."

I love, love, LOVE this town.

This little item went like hot cakes (or crab cakes, or crab salad) at the reception.

With all the insanity going on, I couldn't have put this one together without the extraordinary help of our kitchen assistant, pictured left. He also arranged our crudite platter, saying he was just pleased to have a task within his skill set. Thank goodness everyone can cook in this town!

We made double this recipe. There were no leftovers.

Dungeness Crab Salad on Endive Petals

7 oz cooked Dungeness crab meat
2 inner stalks of celery finely chopped
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 Tbsp freshly grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 ½ tsp Dijon mustard
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
5-6 firm, fresh heads Belgium endive
Fresh chopped parsley for garnish

Cut 1/2 inch off the bottom (root end) of each head of endive. Separate the leaves, and set aside 24. Trim the leaves to measure about 4 inches in length. The leaves may be kept, in a single layer under a damp paper towel, in the refrigerator for up to 4 hours.

Cut Dungeness crab meat into chunks. In a medium bowl, combine celery, mayonnaise, mustard lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper to taste. Add Dungeness crab meat and mix well.

Place a tablespoon of the Dungeness crab salad on the base of each endive petal. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Holidays 2003

Back to the Wedding Menu.

The Wedding Frenzy: Latkes with Pear Cranberry sauce

If I'm being wholly honest, this is the one recipe I think we shouldn't have had on the menu. It sounded yummy in principle, and the photos of it looked great, but making fifty latkes at the site was way too much trouble. Plus, all the pre-prepped potatoes turned an icky brown from oxidation, even though we had them in acidulated water.

The Pear Cranberry chutney was really wonderful though, and if you could overlook the appearance of the latkes (which I tried to fry up to a better looking color) the whole thing was very tasty. Just too much trouble.

In the end, we made about two dozen, and then bagged it. We've watched Top Chef. We know you can't send out icky dishes... Still here is the recipe:

Potato Latkes with Pear & Cranberry Chutney and Shaved Vella Dry Jack

For the Latkes:
1 yellow onion, roughly grated
1 ½ tsp coarse salt
¼ tsp ground pepper
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup matzo meal
2 lbs (4 large) russet potatoes, peeled and grated
peanut oil for frying

For the Pear Cranberry Chutney:
5 ripe but firm Bartlett pears (about 2 ¼ lbs) peeled, cored, cut into chunks
2 tsps freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup fresh cranberries
½ cup dry white wine
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ cup sugar
pinch of coarse salt

8 oz shaved Vella Dry Jack

Place all Pear Cranberry sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan, toss to combine. Cook over a medium heat, stirring occasionally until fruit breaks down to form a sauce, about 40 minutes. Transfer to a bowl to cool completely. Serve at room temperature.

For the latkes, in a large bowl, combine onion, salt and pepper. Add eggs, stir until incorporated. Stir in matzo until smooth, add potatoes and toss to coat.

In a large, heavy-bottomed skillet, heat about ½ inch of oil over a medium heat until almost smoking. To test, drop a small amount of batter into the skillet – it should sizzle. Working in batches, spoon about 1 tablespoon of batter into the oil for each latke. Lightly tamp to flatten. Cook each until golden on each side – 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel lined rack to drain. Serve warm, topped with sauce and shaved Vella Dry Jack.

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Holidays 2003

Back to the Wedding Menu.

The Wedding Frenzy: Blowtorch Beef

So, regular readers may recall that we've been working on the Blowtorch Beef for a while. With varying degrees of success. Varying. But, the flavor has always been there, it was just our technique of getting the meat to medium rare that was the problem.

In addition, I know almost nothing about meat cuts. The dizzying amount of roast beef literature we had read suggested anything from eye round to rump round to rib roasts. (Why can't we just call these cuts something normal, like "Cow leg, upper side near the butt cheek," or "Cow neck, left side"? I need a freakin' scorecard every time I walk up to the meat counter.) Interestingly, a courtesy issue of Cook's Country (from the folks who bring you Cook's Illustrated) featured a fine roast beef, and suggested that the best bet was Top Sirloin Roast (aka top butt, top sirloin butt, center cut roast, spoon roast, or "cow hip") since it had marbling (good for juiciness) and tasted great.

Herewith are the final cooking times and temperatures we settled on to achieve what we felt was incredibly tasty beef. The picture above is just of the leftovers (which, even cold, are REALLY good!). We couldn't slice the beef fast enough to keep the platters full out there. In the end, we cooked four of these babies for the reception, and had about a half a roast's worth left over.

Blowtorch Roast Beef
adapted from Heston Blumenthal

The original recipe relied on long, slow cooking at about 130F to give tender, perfectly cooked meat. Like most home ranges, our oven, sadly, won't go below 200F, so we adjusted Heston's 20 hour cook time to match a higher temperature and the results were still great.

4 lb Beef Top Sirloin Roast
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Walnut oil
Propane Blowtorch

One day ahead, rinse the beef roast and pat dry with paper towels. Generously season the beef with salt and pepper, cover and refrigerate overnight.

When you’re ready to roast, preheat the oven to 200F (if you have a gas oven, set it to the lowest setting, and use an oven thermometer if possible).

Wipe the beef roast with oil. Then using a blowtorch, brown the meat all over. This may take a few minutes depending on the size of the beef and the power of the blowtorch.

Place in a roasting tray on a rack and roast for 2 ½ hours. But most importantly, keep the meat thermometer handy and feel free to pull it out as soon as the beef reaches 120F. It will rise another 8-10 degrees as you rest it for 20-30 minutes, but will be lovely for medium-rare beef.

To carve, slice thinly across the grain, so that when you eat it, your teeth will bite between the fibres, not across them, giving the meat a more tender texture.

Serves 6-8.

Back to the Wedding Menu.

The Wedding Frenzy: Marinated Portobellos

This was the craziest danged thing.

So we had a fair number of vegetarians at the wedding, and since there was a lot of meat and salmon, we decided to work up some sliced portobellos to put on the side for the veggie people, so they'd get a little something extra.

Well, none of the vegetarian ever got to these because, as Ms. Art Attack puts it, "You damned meat eaters, you just eat everything, our food and yours!!"

Thing is, these were literally just portobellos with some Soy-Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki sauce tossed over them, seared in a pan and sliced. Nothing more. But everyone, EVERYONE kept asking about them! Go figure.

The Soy-Vay is Kosher parve AND vegetarian, so I know I'll be asked about them again, therefore, I'm putting up the recipe:

Marinated Portobellos
4 large portobellos, cleaned and stemmed.
1 cup Soy-Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki sauce
a little olive oil for frying

A few hours before you're planning to serve them, place the mushrooms in a medium glass dish and coat liberally with Soy-Vay. Let stand at room temperature.

Heat olive oil in a non-stick frying pan until hot, then sear mushrooms on each side in the oil.

Slice and serve.

Back to the Wedding Menu.

The Wedding Frenzy: Mixed Grain Pilaf

God bless Martha Stewart. She can trade whatever she wants whenever she wants, but by George, her recipes work great! We used a number of her appetizer recipes for this event and they were a snap to pre-prep. This was the only main course dish that we cooked start to finish at the reception venue though. Mainly we wanted the smell of frying onions and garlic to permeate the air... And yes, it worked. In ten minutes, we had a substantial volume of people wandering back to the kitchen to ask what was coming in the next course.

Above, Eric's two-fisted action, as we simultaneously cook batches on the stovetop and in our electric fryer.

Mixed Grain Pilaf
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cups sliced white mushrooms (about ¾ lb)
¾ cup cremini mushrooms, sliced (about 2 oz.)
2 cups pearl barley
1 cup soft winter wheatberries
1/2 cup millet
1 cup wild rice, rinsed
7 cups heated vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground pepper

In a large ovenproof pot with a tight-fitting lid, melt butter over low heat. Add oil, garlic, and onion. Cook until softened and translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Raise heat to medium high, and add mushrooms. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes.

Heat oven to 350°.

Add grains, and stir well, coating them with oil. Cook stirring often, for about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in stock, and bring to a boil. Cover pot, and put in oven. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes (check after 30 minutes; remove lid and cook a little longer if grains need to be softer).

Season with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.

To reheat:
Place the pilaf mixture in a buttered, ovenproof casserole. Cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve. When ready to serve, bring the pilaf to room temperature, about 20 minutes. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the top of the casserole, and butter it. Place the parchment on the pilaf, butter-side down. Place in the oven until heated through, about 30 minutes.

Serves 12.
From Martha Stewart’s Living, Nov, 2006

Back to the Wedding Menu.

The Wedding Frenzy: Butternut Squash Gratin

Oh, Jacques, Jacques Pepin. He makes the simplest things taste unbelievably good. We made it mainly for the vegetarians at the reception (tripling the recipe), but of course, everyone dove into it. Most people were amazed when we recited the recipe, which has only 5 ingredients. This one might show up at our Thanksgiving table.

Gratin of Butternut Squash

1 large butternut squash (3 1/4 pounds), peeled and seeded (2 1/2 pounds)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (We used Vella Dry Jack)

Cut off and discard the stem of the squash, then cut the squash into two pieces by cutting through it horizontally at the bottom of the neck. This will make it easier to peel.

Peel the cylindrical neck lengthwise, removing enough skin so that the orange flesh underneath is revealed. (Under the outer skin there is a layer of green, which should be removed.) Peel the round part of the squash by cutting around it in a spiral fashion with a sharp knife; it is easier to peel a round object in this manner.

Cut the rounded part in half lengthwise, and, using a spoon, scoop out the seeds. Then cut the squash into 1/8-to-1/4-inch slices, either with a knife or in a food processor fitted with the slicing blade.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the squash slices in a large saucepan, cover them with water, and bring to a boil. Boil over high heat for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, then drain in a colander. The pieces will break a little in cooking. Arrange pieces in a gratin dish, and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Pour on the cream, and stir gently with a fork to distribute the additions properly. Cover with the cheese, and bake for about 30 minutes.

At serving time, brown the top of the gratin by heating it under a hot broiler for 4 to 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

Back to the Wedding Menu.

The Wedding Frenzy: the Best Hot Cocoa Ever

A total and complete winner. I'd serve this any winter day. For this recipe we used a good quality El Rey Venezuelan chocolate which melts very easily. We didn't add any sugar, but rather allowed the guests to put in however much they wanted when they served themselves. Amounts in parentheses are how much we used for making this recipe for fifty people.

Rich Hot Cocoa

1/2 lb (1.5 lbs) bittersweet (70% cacao) chocolate, chopped
pinch (1 teaspoon) salt
dash (2 teaspoons) cinnamon or cardamom or nutmeg, crushed toasted coriander (optional)
2 1/2 cups (1 quart) boiling water
8 cups (1 1/2 gallons) hot milk

Get the water boiling and then stir in the chopped chocolate and salt to form a syrup. At the same time heat the milk.

Mix milk with syrup and add vanilla extract.

We served it with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, mini marshmallows and whipped cream which the guests could add at their option.

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The Wedding Frenzy: Hazelnut Coriander Cake

Here is the recipe for the Hazelnut-Coriander Cake with Whipped Praline Ganache, which went over VERY well at the wedding. I first saw it on the Gastronome website and Ms. Art Attack loved the idea of it. It's a recipe that's not too sweet, as we used 70% (bittersweet) chocolate throughout. The coriander also adds an unusually tinge to the flavor -- just enough to make guests go, "What is that I taste?"

I think it's worth seeking out the hazelnut paste (also called praline or filbert paste). We got it at Spun Sugar, in Berkeley at about $10 for a pound. When we made the test recipe, I did it with chopped hazelnuts, which I thought made for a rough chewy texture although the overall cake was moister. Below is the final recipe, which I made four times: once for the 8" layer (we cut the final cake in half to make 2 layers), once for the 10" layer (we also cut this layer in half), and two separate times for the 12" layer. It easily fed 60 people, with the top saved for the bride and groom, and a little bit of the bottom tier left over.

Hazelnut-Coriander Cake with Praline Ganache & Chocolate Glaze

Adapted from the Hazelnut Torte in Claudia Fleming's The Last Course (and in turn, hers was adapted from Lindsey Shere's almond torte). The ganache and the glaze are from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible.

Equipment list:

One 8", one 10" and one 12" cake pans or springform pans
Cake racks for cooling and for decorating
Baking sheets
Cake turntable
20 cake dowels or plastic straws
One 8", one 10" and one 12" cake round cut in cardboard and covered with foil
(8" and 10" rounds should have a 1/4" hole poked in the center.)
One 14" cake plate or a foil covered cake platform.
One 1/4" wooden dowel, or a thick wooden skewer

For one 8" tier, one 10" tier, or one layer of the 12" tier:

1 cup (2 sticks unsalted butter)
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
8 oz unsweetened hazelnut paste (aka filbert paste or praline paste)
6 large eggs (Separated yolks and whites)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground coriander

Preheat the oven to 325F. Butter your cake pan.* Line the bottom with parchment paper, and then butter the paper and flour the entire pan.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and coriander and set aside.

In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and smooth. Add the hazelnut paste and beat until just incorporated. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Sift a third of the flour mixture into the butter mixture and using a rubber spatula, gently fold to combine. Sift in the remaining dry ingredients in two additions, folding gently after each.

In a separate VERY clean bowl, with VERY clean beaters, beat the eggs whites until you can form soft peaks, but the whites are not "dry." Fold one third of the whites into the batter until the mixture is combined. Add another third and continue folding, then add the remaining whites, and fold until just mixed.

Pour the batter into the pan and give it a couple of jiggles or taps to smooth the top. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean when inserted in the center. The torte should be puffy in the center and should spring back when lightly pressed.

Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before serving.

Whipped Praline Ganache
The followign makes enough to fill a 10" 2 layer cake, with some left over. We doubled the recipe to make enough for all the tiers.

NOTE: Be sure to allow the cakes to really, truly, all-the-way cool before you fill them.

8 oz bittersweet chocolate (we used 70% cacao El Rey Gran Saman chocolate)
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup hazelnut paste, or if you'd like more texture, 1 cup toasted chopped hazelnuts

Break the chocolate into pieces and process in a food processor until very fine. If you're using hazelnut paste, add it here and process until combined.

Heat the cream to the boiling point, and with the motor running, pour it through the feed tube in a steady stream. Process a few seconds until smooth. If you're using chopped hazelnuts, stir them in now.

Transfer mixture to a large bowl of an electric mixer and refrigerate until cold, stirring once or twice. Don't let it get too cold, or it will be too stiff to incorporate air.

After chilling, add the vanilla and beat the mixture just until very soft peaks form when the beater is raised. It will continue to thicken after a few minutes at room temperature.

If the mixture gets overbeaten and grainy, it can be restored by re-melting, chilling, and re-beating.

To add the ganache layer: First, carefully level off the tops of all of the cake layers by cutting off the "dome" with a long bread knife. It's easiest and fastest to put the layers on a cake turntable for this process.*

Set down your first layer on a cardboard round* (if you're working on the 8 or 10" round, make sure you've punched a small hole (1/4") in the center first. Put down a thick layer of ganache (about 1 1/2 cups) on the cake and spread evenly, adding more to plug up any gaps. Lower the other layer onto the first and settle them evenly. Fill in gaps on the sides to make the whole cake tier a "solid cylinder."

Chocolate Cream Glaze
Makes 2 full cups, enough to glaze a 1-layer 10" cake. We made a little more than double this recipe for the entire wedding cake.

9 oz bittersweet (70% cacao) chocolate
1 liquid cup heavy cream

To prepare cake for glazing:

Brush all crumbs from the surface carefully. Suspend the cake on a rack set on a baking sheet to catch the excess glaze. It's best to have enough glaze to cover with one application: touch-ups don't produce as flawless a surface.

To prepare the glaze: Break the chocolate into pieces and process in a food processor until very fine. Remove the chocolate to a small heavy saucepan.

Heat the cream to the boiling point and pour three quarters of it over the chocolate. Cover for five minutes to allow chocolate to melt. Gently stir together until smooth, trying not to create air bubbles. Pass through a fine strainer, and allow to cool until just tepid.

Check for consistency: At a tepid temperature a small amount of glaze should mound a bit when dropped from a spoon before smoothly disappearing. If the glaze is too thick and the mound remains on the surface or if the glaze seems curdled, add some of the remaining warm cream by the teaspoon. If the glaze is too thin, gently stir in a small amount of melted chocolate. When the consistency is correct, use at once or store and reheat.

The glaze should be poured onto the center of the cake, allowing the excess to flow down the sides. Smooth quickly and evenly with a large metal spatula, moving it lightly back and forth across the top until smooth.

Allow the cake to set for at least 3 hours at room temperature. Don't refrigerate.

Cake Assembly

I don't like to travel with the layers already assembled, but i do like to put it all together once to make sure the whole thing looks right. Then I can take apart the layers and box them up for transport.

When you're ready to assemble, take one cake dowel* and insert it into the center of the 12" tier. With a pencil, mark the height of the cake remove the dowel and cut about 8-10 of the cake dowels to this length. Insert the dowels around the center of the 12" tier in a circle about 2" from the center. Do not place a dowel at the center: this is where the wooden dowel or skewer* will go.

Repeat above the process for the 10" tier.

Measure the heights of all three tiers and add them up. Subtract about 2 inches from the sum. Cut the wooden dowel or skewer to this length. Insert it (point side up) into the center of the 12" cake and stake the cake by sliding the 10" cake over the skewer and letting the cardboard support sit on the dowels. Repeat for the 8 " layer.

*Some equipment notes:
We used two springform pans (8" and 10") and then a 12" cake pan for this recipe. From past wedding cakes, I've learned that a cake turntable is a great investment. Mine is plastic and not very expensive, but it does the trick and it really simplifies things like glazing and decorating.

You can buy the pans and also to turntable as well as cardboard rounds to put under the cake at Sur la Table or cake supply places like Spun Sugar. This is also the place to look for cake dowels, which look like lollipop sticks. You'll use these to space the layers of the cake. For the long wooden dowel, I recommend checking your local hardware store. You can use a long wooden skewer too, but the dowel is more stable.

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Scenes from the Four-square: Dinner for fifty

So maybe you thought our days were leisured and lazy. Making nice breakfasts for ourselves and doing crosswords with a cat on the lap....

In actuality, we lead panicked -- I mean packed lives filled with projects and tasks. If we found ourselves with ten seconds free, we'd immediately start to work on curing cancer.

So this week's project is the wedding reception for Ms. Art Attack. Fifty to sixty guests.

It will be at a local party spot up in the Oakland hills which is lovely and atmospheric -- with a nice kitchen -- but of course most of the cooking will take place in our Four Square foot kitchen.

"I'm so scared for you guys!" said Cindy from Food Migration with wide-eyed sympathy as we discussed our beef blowtorching techniques over some Zuni chicken.

We're kinda scared too, to be honest. We've catered other weddings -- we did our own, but never for quite this many people. Still, I trust our powers of organization (I like to label everything to within an inch of its life) and we're counting on the calming vibes of the Cheese Kitty will keep our blood pressure down.

We spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday shopping. Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Smart and Final, Bed Bath and Beyond, Swan Oyster Depot, Spun Sugar, Cowgirl Creamery, Sur la Table.... I'm shopped out. No really, I don't want to go into another food store for a while. Hah. Not likely.

Here are some scenes from the kitchen frenzy:

As noted many times before, we don't have a lot of space, so I started the wedding cake on Wednesday.

We're making a Hazelnut Coriander cake with a praline ganache filling.

With that many peoploe I'm a little worried about making enough, but we're doing three layers of 12", 10" and 9".

Don't ask how many eggs we're using...







Kitty has some opinons about the 12" layer. Needs some chocolate he thinks...










Everyone's a critic.












Eric is also quietly curing his famous Whisky-cured Gravlax in Ms. Art Attack's fridge (cause we have NO ROOM at the inn. Salmon from Swan's -- we love the guys at Swan's. More from them when we get to the Dungeness Crab madness....