"Brut" buffet

[jmacnaughtan]

So, I thought it would be funny to turn my apartment into a gallery space and throw an opening party for a failed selfie exhibition.  It started out as something of a joke, but has since snowballed and there has been a selection process, the photos are currently at the printers (60 x 40cm...), I'm going on a champagne road trip this week and there will probably be around 30 or 40 people turning up.

 

I have pretentiously labelled the movement as selfie brut and the space itself as galérie brut. I thought it would be fitting to have food to match (obviously, the champagne will be brut), but I'm running out of ideas and I thought you all would be the perfect crowd to ask. In this case, I'm interpreting "brut" as raw/unfinished/brutish/unrefined.

 

Here's what I'm thinking so far:

 

A huge pat of excellent salted butter, with good bread to match.

Thickly cut chunks of gravlax salmon.

Some charcuterie of some sort.

And that's about it so far.

 

All suggestions are welcome!

[teonzo]

Beware if you invite someone from northern Italy, since "brut" means "ugly" in the dialects here (there's a famous scene from the cult movie "L'allenatore nel pallone").

 

You can prepare maltagliati (roughly translates as "badly cut"), you just need to roll some pasta at uneven width, cut it in random shapes, then serve it with whatever condiment you like.

On the sweet side there are brutti ma buoni.

Best possible thing would be asking @liuzhou to send you a pig face.

 

 

 

Teo

 

Edited October 2, 2019 by teonzo (log)

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, jmacnaughtan said:

 

I have pretentiously labelled the movement as selfie brut and the space itself as galérie brut.

 

I'm sorry, but the first thing that came to my mind was the aftershave, the smell of which I've always hated.

[Duvel]

Rillons would come to mind, maybe with some sort of “unusual” mustard.

A raw meat preparation - beef with spices, tuna with spring onion, ... - to be eaten with the bread as you proposed.

Fresh fatty goat milk cream cheese with some green allium; also with the bread.

 

 

[chromedome]

The term "brut" is also used for high-grade cocoa, which opens the door to some dessert possibilities.

[jmacnaughtan]

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

 

I'm sorry, but the first thing that came to my mind was the aftershave, the smell of which I've always hated.

 

This may be involved, but it won't be my doing.

 

30 minutes ago, Duvel said:

Rillons would come to mind, maybe with some sort of “unusual” mustard.

A raw meat preparation - beef with spices, tuna with spring onion, ... - to be eaten with the bread as you proposed.

Fresh fatty goat milk cream cheese with some green allium; also with the bread.

 

I do love rillons. I can imagine just a big pile of them, served slightly warm. Also, as it happens, I'm going to Dijon on Friday. Are you familiar with Edmond Fallot?

Not sure about raw meat, as it will be hanging out on a buffet table for a while.

And the goat's cheese is a winner.

 

12 minutes ago, chromedome said:

The term "brut" is also used for high-grade cocoa, which opens the door to some dessert possibilities.

 

I had not thought of this. Something simple and rich for sweets would probably be best - so I don't have to spend much time on them or make too many.  Aside from brownie bites (meh) or truffles (also a bit meh), I'm not really sure which direction to go. Possibly some kind of financier?

[Duvel]

12 minutes ago, jmacnaughtan said:

I do love rillons. I can imagine just a big pile of them, served slightly warm. Also, as it happens, I'm going to Dijon on Friday. Are you familiar with Edmond Fallot?

 

Indeed ... the green tarragon mustard is great. The honey & fig one might work for this idea as well !

 

Enjoy (and post pictures 😉)

[gfweb]

Maybe a few types of gravlax with different cures?

[Anna N]

57 minutes ago, Duvel said:

Rillons would come to mind, maybe with some sort of “unusual” mustard.

The name is new to me but the product not so much. 😂  Probably a somewhat different preparation than I am accustomed to.  But it’s pork. It’s fatty pork. What’s not to love? 

[jmacnaughtan]

25 minutes ago, Duvel said:

 

Indeed ... the green tarragon mustard is great. The honey & fig one might work for this idea as well !

 

Enjoy (and post pictures 😉)

 

I'm a huge fan of their green peppercorn mustard. But it is to be approached with caution

 

24 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Maybe a few types of gravlax with different cures?

 

I'll probably end up doing two big fillets, one traditional and one less so. I've done a bergamot zest cure before, and that worked. Would other citrus work as well?

[Duvel]

44 minutes ago, Anna N said:

The name is new to me but the product not so much. 😂  Probably a somewhat different preparation than I am accustomed to.  But it’s pork. It’s fatty pork. What’s not to love? 

It’s fatty pork, cooked low & slow in its own rendered fat until crispy. Perfect hangover breakfast ...

[Kim Shook]

Ok, now I"m ready to book a trip to Paris (actually I'm always ready to book a trip to Paris).  This is sounding like an incredible spread.  The only suggestion that I have is something like the soft boiled eggs in warm olive oil with rustic bread to spread it on that we ate at Cave a’ los a Moelle when we went to Paris.  Of all the incredible food we ate, this dish is the one I think about the most.  

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Sounds divine!    Go to Monoprix (or most any ordinary grocer) and buy several pots of Rillettes de Porc by Prunier, under 4€ a pot.   Oh, and a jar of cornichon.    Empty the rillettes into a bowl and people will think you are Escoffier.    Will go great with everything already on your table.  

\

Er, what was the date again?   And time?

[Kerry Beal]

In the Brut=ugly theme - Ugly but Good Cookies

 

Had I known about this much earlier - I might have just attended the Salon this year so I could come!

Edited October 2, 2019 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

You mean brut doesn't refer to the champagne that you're serving?

[jmacnaughtan]

10 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

Ok, now I"m ready to book a trip to Paris (actually I'm always ready to book a trip to Paris).  This is sounding like an incredible spread.  The only suggestion that I have is something like the soft boiled eggs in warm olive oil with rustic bread to spread it on that we ate at Cave a’ los a Moelle when we went to Paris.  Of all the incredible food we ate, this dish is the one I think about the most.  

I like the egg idea, but I'm not sure how it would work as a buffet dish without covering everyone and everything in yolk and oil...

 

10 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Sounds divine!    Go to Monoprix (or most any ordinary grocer) and buy several pots of Rillettes de Porc by Prunier, under 4€ a pot.   Oh, and a jar of cornichon.    Empty the rillettes into a bowl and people will think you are Escoffier.    Will go great with everything already on your table.  

\

Er, what was the date again?   And time?

 

Rillettes are always a good option though. Hey, if you're in Paris on the 2nd of November, feel free to drop by.

 

@Kerry Beal Those little dacquoise cookies aren't ugly - they look pretty cool to me  But ugly stuff does certainly fit with the theme.

 

@Margaret Pilgrim There will of course be a lot of brut champagne, but the theme of the evening is failed selfies or selfie brut if, like me, you enjoy being pretentious. I try not to do things by halves, so it will actually be an exhibition, with artists present, champagne, and a press release

 

In fact, here it is - this is the level I'm going for:

 

[teonzo]

16 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

In the Brut=ugly theme - Ugly but Good Cookies

 

Sorry to ruin the party, but that page is far from the real stuff. The peculiarity of brutti ma buoni is that the batter is cooked in a pot on the stove before the cookies are formed and cooked in the oven. It's that passage that gives the peculiar taste, texture and appearance of brutti ma buoni. That page totally missed the point.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[teonzo]

Some more ideas.

You can serve raw prawn heads, after all they are the more flavorful part of the animal.

You can serve fish heads in various ways. Pig's head terrine is great too.

Many years ago at a restaurant we had a dish in the menu called "il brodo che ti guarda" ("the broth that looks at you"), it was served in a bowl covered with a cloche, when the customer raised the cloche he faced a normal broth with inside a real beef eyeball (quite easy to get from the butchers since no one wants them).

Tuna's eyeball are one of the best parts of the animal, unfortunately it's pretty difficult to get them.

If you want to be really artsy, then follow the Giuseppe Arcimboldo way, maybe using beef tongue, black-eyed peas, ears of corn or orecchiette (translates as "little ears"), angel's hair pasta, pope's nose.

Langues de chat for dessert. Or "middlefingers": you prepare a ladyfinger batter, then shape it like a closed hand with the middle finger. Mozart balls.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[jmacnaughtan]

@teonzo I'll generally try anything, but I draw the line at serving people eyes.

 

The idea isn't to shock really, it's more the idea of it being unpolished, unfinished, etc.

[teonzo]

"If you gaze into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."

 

 

 

Teo

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

12 hours ago, jmacnaughtan said:

@teonzo I'll generally try anything, but I draw the line at serving people eyes.

 

The idea isn't to shock really, it's more the idea of it being unpolished, unfinished, etc.

 

Samuel L. Jackson, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.  Yum.

 

[MetsFan5]

Raw oysters? Or broiled oysters? 

[jmacnaughtan]

On 10/5/2019 at 4:00 AM, MetsFan5 said:

Raw oysters? Or broiled oysters? 

 

Oysters could be a good option, but shucking enough for 30 people would be a chore.

 

And I can see nothing good coming of letting drunk people try and open their own...

[Kerry Beal]

2 hours ago, jmacnaughtan said:

And I can see nothing good coming of letting drunk people try and open their own...

I will never again...

[teonzo]

So, how did it go at the end?

Can we see a full report please? Thanks!

 

 

 

Teo