tammylc

"Indian-Inspired Grill" Grill Roasted Smoked Pork Loin with Garam Masala White Rabbit (stuffed and grilled tofu) Cucumber and Tomato Raita Curried Rice and Broccoli Salad with Mango Chutney Vinaigrette Mango Sorbet Really good meal tonight. Everything came together beautifully. Slightly smaller crowd than I'm used to - lots of people on vacation, I think, rather than a commentary on my menu. With a few late signups, I ended up with 18 meat eaters, 16 vegetarians, and 9 assorted children. I've made the rice salad before, so I knew how that would be. And raita is pretty basic. The pork was just a variation on a theme from a grilled pork loin I did a month or so ago, but instead of the chili-mustard rub, we made up a garam masala spice rub and used that. Also, this time I had time to go over to Hiller's and get the good pork loin from there. Unlike the pork loin from Meijer, this isn't injected with 15% salt solution, so I got to follow the full Cook's Illustrated technique which involved brining it for 3-4 hours. That made it extra moist and juicy. The tofu, though, now that was a great discovery! I knew I was going to do some sort of marinated grilled tofu, but didn't really give it much thought until this morning. So I pulled out the BBQ Bible, and discovered that it just happened to have this really good sounding recipe for an Indian tofu dish! Awesome. First you press the tofu, then cut each pound into quarters. Cut a slit in each piece of tofu and stuff it with a paste made from cilantro, mint, scallions, oil and lemon juice. For the marinade, you puree garlic, ginger, jalepenos, oil and water, then mix that mixture with yogurt, cream, a bunch of spices, and cilantro. Marinade the stuffed tofu for 4 hours, then grill it for 4 minutes per side. There was only enough for the vegetarians who'd signed up, but I did manage to sneak a taste and it was excellent. I'll definitely have to make it again. I don't think I'm going to co-cook in future work seasons. I end up totally wiped out at the end of the day. Theoretically with co-cooking I should be working the same amount as I usually do, and my co-cook would cover the rest. In reality it just doesn't work out that way, and I end up feeling like I've been cooking all day. I'm sure my co-cook is wiped out too. Having three people in the last two hours just makes things not feel so rushed, even for a meal like today's where so much of it could/needed to be done in advance. Quantities, for future reference: 7 1/2 lbs of pork loin (A small whole loin. It was pretty long and skinny, so I cut it in half and grilled it in two pieces.) 8 lbs of firm tofu 2 bunches cilantro 4 lemons 3 jalepenos big chunk of ginger 2 onions lots of garlic 2 cucumbers 3 tomatoes 4 big bunches broccoli (about 6 lbs) 6 red bell peppers 1 bunch scallions lots of mint from the garden 4 large containers of plain whole milk yogurt 8 oz heavy cream 11 c of basmati rice 3 jars of mango chutney Shredded coconut Cashews Many, many spices from the pantry Mac and Cheese for the kids I did about 3 recipes of the raita, 5-6 recipes of the rice, 4 recipes of the tofu and 2 recipes of the spice rub for the pork. I spent $131 on groceries, which included a 10 lb bag of basmati rice. I scrounged in the kitchen before going so I knew that I had almost all the spices that I needed, so I didn't have to spend money on those. Plus there were some leftover and pantry items around, like onions and scallions and garlic. And I'd bought a package of coconut last time I made the salad, and there was still plenty of that left, so I saved a little bit that way. Still, I'm pretty pleased with the bottom line math - $4.13 or so per adult, and that was with 1/2 lb of tofu 1/3-1/2 lb of pork per person.

The wacky tourism film was my favorite part. Both the original and Tony's take. But generally, I was pretty unimpressed. Vague, amorphous, random, too much focus on the cult of Bourdain, not enough on Iceland. At this point I'm only watching because I liked Cook's Tour so much and I keep hoping for more bits like that. If I didn't know Tony's work at all, I probably wouldn't tune in again after these first two episodes.

Thanks for the update. Especially since it reminded me that it's now August, which means the October reservation book is open. I called and was able to get a Saturday night reservation for my birthday dinner. I'm totally geeked!

I think we had about 8 people marginally involved in the actual cooking. Here's what I wrote about it upthread: The "recipe" such as it is: Blanch zucchini in boiling water for 10 minutes. Stem, cut in half and scoop out the seeds. Cut into small dice. Cook in butter and olive oil with some kosher salt until browned and sweet. They said 10-20 minutes, but ours went a lot longer than that and never really got brown. But eventually it started tasting really good and that's when we stoppped cooking it. Stuff into squash blossoms, dip in tempura batter, and deep fry until crispy. Eat immediately. I think we had about 8 med-large zucchini. IIRC, I used a stick of butter and glug of olive oil. When they serve it at the Minibar, it's pureed - we didn't do that for this. We ended up with about 40 blossoms, but I don't know if the limiting factor was the blossoms or the zucchini or if there was just the right amount of each.

Upcoming meals... I only had to cook once in July, so I have to cook three times in August. On August 7th I'll be mixing and matching some dishes from other meals. I'll be making the grill-roasted pork loin, but with Indian spices instead of the chile-mustard rub. Vegetarians will have grilled or baked tofu. To go with it, we'll have the Curried Rice and Broccoli Salad with Mango Chutney Vinaigrette, and some yogurt raita. This is another co-cooking night (only one assistant), so we need something that will be pretty easy, and I think this fits the bill. Out for dinner at our favorite Korean deli last night, and my husband suggested I do bibimbap for common meal sometime. Upon consideration, it seems an ideal dish for common meal, so I've put it on the menu for August 11th. Cook a big pot of rice, make up a bunch of toppings, serve it buffet style with kim chee and hot sauce on the side. The only trick is the runny fried egg, which I consider essential to bibimbap. I'm pondering a couple of strategies. 1) have cooks frying up a couple pans of eggs just as people are going through the buffet, then go around to tables and give one to everyone. 2) Do poached eggs instead - the runny yolk is the important part, and poached eggs are a little easier to hold, especially since they don't have to stay especially warm because of the hot rice. Any thoughts on the fried egg problem? Also, anyone have any favorite bibimbap topping recipes to share?

Sounds tasty. Thankfully, we don't have any vegans, so no need to worry about that. What's the method? When do you add the saffron?

Brunch for 60 We want to buy a BIG food processor for the common house kitchen. Depending if we want to go commercial or not, we're looking at $700-$1000. We don't have the money in our community budget to purchase it outright, so we held a fundraising brunch to raise money towards it. We figured we could do a pretty decadent brunch for about $6 per person, so we set the price at $12. We encouraged community members to invite their friends and relatives, so we weren't just fundraising from ourselves. We had about 56 adults and maybe 8 or so assorted children. I usually purchase as much as possible of my common meal food organic. But since we needed to keep costs as low as possible for this one, I just went to Meijer and bought cheap stuff. Then spent more on cheese and fresh fruit from the market and other good stuff for the decadent part. The menu: Assorted bread and pastries (bagels, banana bread, cinnamon rolls, blueberry muffins, raisin bread, chocolate sourdough bread, Paesano) Fried potatoes with green pepper and onions (10 lbs of potatoes, 2 onions, 2 peppers) Bacon (4 lbs) Vegetarian sausage (4 pkgs) Fruit (watermelon, cantaloupe, raspberries, blueberries, pineapple, peaches, plums) Crepes with several filling options (Nutella and banana, cinnamon apples, mushrooms and goat cheese, lemon and powdered sugar) Cheese (4 lbs of excellent cheese from Zingerman's Deli - Camembert, Piave, Garoxta (sp?), and an amazing blue whose name I can't recall) Omelettes cooked to order (10 dozen eggs, and more on that later) Orange juice (2 3/4 gallons of not-from-concentrate, in a variety of pulp preferences) Grapefruit juice (1/2 gallon) Apple juice (1 gallon, needed much less) Cranberry juice (1/2 gallon) Sparkling wine for mimosas (3 bottles of Cava) Coffee (decaf and regular) Espresso, cappucino, and lattes (more on that later) The omelettes and the espresso drinks definitely pushed this over the edge from just a meal to a full fledged event. My husband brought over his good espresso maker and acted as barista - he ended up making a lot more espresso drinks than he thought he would - probably around 30. I was the omelette cook, and spent 90 minutes standing over a hot stove, managing three pans of eggs. I was basically trying to duplicate the hotel brunch omelette experience. As people came to the front of the line I'd butter up a pan, then add whatever fillings they wanted - tomatoes (6), green peppers (2), mushrooms (1 lb), onions (1), scallions (1 bunch), asparagus (1.5 lbs), or ham (8 oz). I'd saute that until the veggies were ready, then add a ladleful of eggs. Stir the eggs into the center and redistribute the liquid underneath, add the cheese - cheddar (3 cups shredded) or goat (8 oz) - when it was mostly done, then trifold it onto a plate. I got lots of comments on how impressive it was, but really, my omelette making technique pretty much sucks. I had a hard time getting my temperatures right, so I had lots of overbrowned eggs. One of my pans was not as non-stick as I would have liked, so I had some sticking, although I only ended up scrambling one guy's eggs when it became clear an omelette as *not* happening in that pan. I've always been impressed by those guys at omelette bars at restaurant buffets, and I'm even more so now. And apparently people were commenting on how tasty and moist the omelettes were - I'm not afraid to leave the eggs a touch runny in the center, and let the leftover heat cook it on the way to the table. All of this meant that people definitely felt like they got their money's worth at $12. We probably could have charged $15 and had people not unhappy, but I don't think we would have sold as many tickets that way. We made our budget goals, and raised about $350. Plus one of our community members invited a bunch of people from her church and gave them a tour of both our community and the cohousing community being built right next store. Three of them are interested in learning more and potentially buying a unit. If that happens, we'll hit up the development company for a finder's fee and that should pay for the rest of our food processor (at least)! I did almost all the shopping (I don't work on Thursdays or Fridays, so I had the availability). Also, the other cooks on the planning team tend to overbuy, so it was my job to keep us on budget. And I think I did a great job, if I do say so myself. We had too much bread and too much cheese, and not quite enough potatoes or bacon or raspberries. There's also a bunch of juice left, and a gallon of milk (nobody wanted skim in their coffee drinks). But for the most part, I think I really managed to nail the quantities. In terms of labor, Person 1 did all of the baking on Friday night, and Person 2 made 50 crepes. Person 2, Person 3 and I started cooking at around 8:30 this morning for our 11:00 brunch. Person 4 went to the farmer's market for fruit, then helped out, and Person 1 came a little later to pitch in. Person 5 set tables and put flowers out. Person 6 collected tickets and cash from people who still owed. Then there were three people who cleaned up from it all. It was fun, fun, fun. But, that said - I didn't cook dinner last night, I'm not cooking dinner tonight, and I'm eating common meal for the rest of the week. And that's just fine by me - I'm happy to have a break from the kitchen!

First off, SushiCat and jscarbor - I am so sorry to have neglected to answer your questions. I suck. :-( I will post my recipe for the Morrocan Chick Pea and Carrot Stew - won't help you this year, SushiCat, but it sounds like it might come in handy in the future. It feels like I've been cooking or shopping for food for the last four days straight, and it's sort of true. Wednesday I went shopping for my Thursday common meal, and Friday I went shopping for a special fundraising brunch we held today, and today I cooked for the special fundraising brunch. Thursday night - Cook's Illustrated "Ultimate Veggie Burger." It was a good recipe, but a bit too complex for the constraints of common meal, I think. Especially when I was down one assistant cook and ended up co-cooking (just two people, but with a longer time committment). Although, to be fair, we also had a bunch of people pitch in, and it still required working in fits and spurts all day long. Not sure of the exact numbers, but it was somewhere around 25 veggies, 15 meat eaters, and 10 kids of various ages. Here's the process: cook lentils, drain them, spread out on paper toweled cookie sheets to soak up as much water as possible. Soak bulgur in boiling water. Drain, press through a mesh strainer to get out as much water as possible. (Are you seeing a trend here? The idea is that the key to a good veggie burger is controlling the moisture content.) Okay, next step, dice up onions, leeks and celery and saute them with minced garlic until carmelized and dry. Slice mushrooms, saute until golden brown. Now, get out your food processor. Pulse raw cashews until very finely chopped. Mix them in to the rest of the ingredients, along with some mayonaise. Then (nope, not done yet) pulse the mixture in batches in the food processor until it's cohesive. Stir in some panko breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Then, form it into patties. Finally, grill (or cook on the stovetop). See what I mean? LOTS of steps. Quantities for 36 veggie burgers: 2 1/4 c bulgur 2 1/4 c lentils 6 onions 3 ribs of celery 3 leeks 6 cloves garlic 3 lbs mushrooms (white and crimini) 3 c (about 1 lb) cashews 1 cup mayo 6 cups panko breadcrumbs Other foods - 5 lbs of local "happy" ground beef for meat eaters who didn't want to try the veggie burgers, 7 packages of hamburger buns, 2 heads of romaine lettuce, lots of tomatoes (for topping burgers and for salad), three big tubs of organic greens. Oh, and 20 lbs of the Cook's Illustrated potato salad described earlier in this thread. This was at least 5 lbs too much potato salad. Dessert was easy, as it was one of the kid's birthday, so we just had cake and ice cream. Total cost of groceries was $181.81. Today's brunch was really fun, but I'll write about it in a separate post.

I'm on the "less impressed than I wanted to be" side. The absinthe bit - way too long, staged and campy. Ditto the tunnels (although the wine cellar was way cool). I also loved the "breaks all the rules" bistro at the end - my husband and I just kept saying "you'd never get away with *that* here..." Definitely worth watching, and I'll keep watching, but I'm interested to see how the show evolves.

Thanks for the suggestions! Please keep them coming! Any commentary on shelf life?

A couple of my good friends are expecting their second baby in the middle of September. We're planning to cook up a bunch of food for them to freeze and pull out after the baby is born. I'm looking for suggestions on foods that would freeze and thaw well, or could just go straight from the freezer to the oven. Suggestions? Also, wrapped well and stored in a deep freeze, what's the shelf life of frozen items like this? Thanks!

Can anyone refresh my memory on the deal with reservations? How far in advance can they be booked? Is there a special line for eGullet members? After the opening crunch, have people had a hard time getting in when they want? I've got a trip to Chicago and dinner at Alinea planned for my birthday at the end of October, and I want to confirm my reservation asap, since it's the point of the whole trip!

Probably not. Hard to do these sorts of things with the little guy. But you know... my parents live halfway to Toronto and would love to have the baby all to themselves, so perhaps I should give it some further thought. If you're not sure what CaliPoutine is talking about, check out the thread.

Just in case you're not sick of this thread yet, here's some pictures from Friday night's small gathering (again courtesy of Sam Iam) Jefferson Market If the Friday crew were a little worried about me leading them down this grungy alley, they didn't let it show... Our table in the back garden Dinner: Excellent food, and Axis of Evil Finger Puppets - what more could one ask for in a restaurant? If you'd like to see all of Sam's pictures from the weekend, I've uploaded them here.

You're welcome, Jean - so glad you decided to make the drive from Chicago. And I love that Banyuls vinegar - it's a fine, fine thing.

More photos, these courtesy of Sam Iam, who sent them to me for posting. Wine (BTW - who brought the white Bordeaux? Yellow label on the left? It was great.) The beautiful Mrs. Sam Iam (Joyce) Kris' friend and nephew check out the assortment of things to put on bread Fat Guy tends to the veal roast Liam gets some Mom time amidst all the hubbub Alex's braised shiitake mushrooms Kris' couscous salad Kris frying squash blossoms Ready to eat

We posted the preliminary menu, but I thought we should commit to posterity how it actually ended up going out. We had a little cook's meeting to discuss the order of the courses and what to serve with what, and this is what we ended up with: Crostini with Fig Jam and Goat Cheese Tempura Zucchini Blossoms, Stuffed with Caramelized Zucchini Cream of Mushroom Soup Caprese Salad Guajolote's Beet Salad with Bacon Couscous Salad with Butternut Squash, Green Beans and Yogurt Dressing Lake Trout with Lemon Caper Sauce Green Beans and Bacon Watermelon Cubes with Gold Label Balsalmic Braised Veal Shoulder Roast with Sage, Garlic and Dried Figs Roasted Red and Purple Fingerling Potatoes with Rosemary Braised Shiitake Mushrooms Barefoot Contessa's Outrageous Brownies Musician's Tarts Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream Zingerman's Gelato Carrot Cake Chocolate Mousse Cake

I'm crazy enough to be willing to host it again next year, assuming anyone wants to come back and do it again. Is your trip from Japan a yearly occurence? We could attempt scheduling congruity...

Guess that means I "win." Liam had me up at 6:45. I agree that the squash blossoms were the best thing we made. I'm writing up a report write now for my personal journal/blog, and here's what just I wrote about them: The "recipe" such as it is: Blanch zucchini in boiling water for 10 minutes. Stem, cut in half and scoop out the seeds. Cut into small dice. Cook in butter and olive oil with some kosher salt until browned and sweet. They said 10-20 minutes, but ours went a lot longer than that and never really got brown. But eventually it started tasting really good and that's when we stoppped cooking it. Stuff into squash blossoms, dip in tempura batter, and deep fry until crispy. Eat immediately.

The Heartland Gathering is in the books. Everyone's gone home and most of the dishes are even done. Thanks to everyone for coming, touring, shopping, cooking, and of course eating. It was excellent to meet and eat with you all. G'night, folks.

Two little bites that we forgot - watermelon cubes with gold label real Balsalmic and Alex's braised shiitake mushrooms. Not food, but important to the ambience - Joyce picked up flowers from the farmer's market to give us some lovely centerpieces.

Yuck. We'll have our fingers crossed that you'll feel better by tomorrow.

Thought you'd appreciate that box, Ronnie. To let everyone else in on the joke, Ronnie fed-exed me his knife, because he wasn't checking baggage and couldn't bear the thought of cooking without it. Now that's dedication. Or is that obsession?

The Friday crew is back at my place, sipping port and Armagnac and petting the cats. L-R: alex, tammylc, Joyce, Sam Iam, Devilkitty and Mrs. Devilkitty (Eric, my husband, is taking the picture) People were as pleased with Jefferson Market as I expected. Sam Iam took pictures of all of our dinners, but I don't have those here, so the descriptions will have to suffice. Two of us had the lingunie with pan-seared scallops, shrimp and pesto, asparagus, roasted red pepper and toasted bread crumbs. Alex had the grilled flatiron steak with avocado salsa, black beans with cumin, rice and grilled vegetables. I had the pork scallopine with lemon, rosemary, and roasted peppers, crisped polenta sticks and green beans. Sam Iam had the grilled salmon with sweet and hot tomato sauce, cracked wheat salad and grilled vegetables. Yummm - see what you're missing not being here? I spent the afternoon showing Alex some of Ann Arbor's hidden treasures, Big Ten and Village Corner. We got a couple treats that we'll share tomorrow.

Hey Alex - as the keeper of the list, can you please give us a rundown on attendance as of today? Everybody else - it's not too late to join us! People arriving on Friday - if you're coming for dinner, you can meet up with us at Great Oak anytime after 5 and we'll carpool together (leaving around 6:45). Follow the directions in your PM, and go to #20. Otherwise, feel free to meet us at the restaurant, which is located at 609 W. Jefferson (I leave it up to you to you use your mapping program of choice to find the way). If you're arriving too late for dinner but would still like some social time in the evening, we'll be drinking wine and noshing at my house (#20) post-dinner and you can meet up with us there. Just call my cell if you need more info, or if you'd be arriving after 10.