First Ever NY eGullet Pot Luck Dinner

[=Mark]

As StefanyB and Rich help clean up, Maria proceeds to butcher the wild mushroom she had harvested earlier.  Large portions were wrapped up for each of the eGulleteers to take home.

[Robert Schonfeld]

Thanks for all the great pictures. This looks like it was a wonderful event.

[Wilfrid]

OOh, nice kitchen.....

[Jinmyo]

And oooh, nice mushroom, Maria.

[cabrales]

I do not know the technical name of the mushroom, but the specimen was a chicken mushroom. When cut into, the young mushroom had areas that were quite moist.  I am continuing my attempts to cook mushrooms later this week using Maria's kind gift.

[Jinmyo]

cabrales, I recommend butter. Lots of butter. And a touch of paprika works wonders with mushrooms.

[=Mark]

My brother Rich wants to thank all the eGulleters for a great time.  I'll get him registered yet...  He rode off into the sunrise this morning riding shotgun on a case of Zinfandel and a hunk of wild mushroom...

[Rail Paul]

With a case of Ravenswood on the bike's shelf, he should keep his eyes alert for Tommy, who's confessed an interest in the stuff.

Great day for a bike ride in NJ, low 70s with a light breeze, a few high clouds

Thanks for posting the pictures!

[jaybee]

Maria looks pretty cute cutting up that big mushroom.  Shades of Babette's Feast!

[tommy]

With a case of Ravenswood on the bike's shelf, he should keep his eyes alert for Tommy, who's confessed an interest in the stuff.

i've already got the box, the bike, and the bro locked up in my basement.  safe and sound.

obligatory on-topic comment:  i find the "vitner's blend" zin to be pretty horrible, especially in recent vintages (2000/99 to be exact).  their "lodi" bottling is especially nice, and i think a good value at 13 bucks or less.

[Rachel Perlow]

I wanted to again express my thanks to B Edulis for hosting this event. It was incredibly generous of her to allow all us almost strangers into her home. Her kitchen is fabulous, makes me almost sorry I'm done with the planning stage of our kitchen (construction countdown - 7 days), however I got some ideas for future bathroom renovations.

Almost everyone had arrived by the time I got there at 5:15, and we didn't leave until nearly 11:30 PM - on a Sunday. What, do we have to start these things at 4 PM?! All the food was so fabulous and everyone was so generous with the wine and quality ingredients. Cabrales must have spend $100 on the chocolates. AHR's lamb was so tender and delicious, my dogs are going to enjoy the bones tonight. I loved Rich's shrimp & pasta salad and SobaAddict's brussels sprouts with farfalle. Sandy's blintzes & raspberry sauce went perfectly with my mango sorbet. The only thing I didn't love was the blue cheese (well, one was OK), Stefany laughed when I made a face. I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, I'm still overwhelmed from all the chocolate.

I'm using my mushroom tonight for dinner. Will let you know how it turns out.

[=Mark]

I'm using my mushroom tonight for dinner. Will let you know how it turns out.

Had my hunk O' shroom tonight!  Broke and sliced into bite sized pieces, sauteed in a great gob of butter along with some diced shallots, hungarian paprika and cracked black pepper.  Quite tasty and I haven't died yet!  

Would post a picture, but I ate it all up...

[Sandra Levine]

I've had a really busy day and too much to drink tonight to be able to post as I would wish, but last night was terrific -- both the food and the company.  Maria, that mushroom was amazing.  I've never tasted anything quite like it.  Mark, your comments on the mushroom's being closer to the animal kingdom than to the vegetable truly illuminated the taste and texture -- savory, in a fleshly way, absolutely delicious, with a meaty texture I feel I understand much better now.  

All the dishes were delicious, and what's more surprising, worked well together for both comparison and contrast.

[mamster]

Hey, that's not the first eGullet potluck!  That's the first eGullet NEW YORK potluck.  We over at Pacific Northwest are wearing knowing smirks.  But I am so jealous of your chocolate tasting;  were there any that especially stuck out as must-haves?

Now I have to figure out how to get a foie gras-and-jam sandwich into my sack lunch.

[SobaAddict70]

Maybe we should hold an egullet NATIONAL convention one of these days.

hehe

[Blue Heron]

I loved reading about your potluck and what a great success!  Reading the menu and enjoying all the pictures made me wish you all weren't so far away (from Seattle, that is).  I like the idea of an eGullet NATIONAL convention.  

[Rachel Perlow]

That mushroom has an appropriate name. Not kidding, it tastes like, and has the texture of, chicken! Raw, it smelled a little cheesy. But cooked, wow. I trimmed and broke it into shreddy bite sized pieces. Added some fresh shitake I got in my produce co-op order. Sauteed with butter and olive oil with shallot and garlic. Chicken stock, wine, pasta cooking water, and finally mixed in fresh shelled peas and the pasta. It tasted very meaty, better than any meat substitute I've ever had, not like mushrooms. I want to serve this to someone who doesn't eat mushrooms sometime to see if they even realize it is a mushroom (or should I say fungus?). I'm looking forward to the NYMS walk on July 14th.

[Fat Guy]

Mamster, if I was at the one in Seattle, doesn't that make the one in Seattle the first official New York one? Wilfrid must have an opinion on the metaphysics of this.

[Sandra Levine]

the blintzes were great!  I want the recipe.  

Thanks.  

The crepes:

Mix in a blender:  3 eggs, 1 cup of milk, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 3/4 cup all-purpose flour and a pinch or two of salt.  Let batter rest in fridge for an hour. Yield: 12-14 crepes.

Filling:  Mix together two 7 1/2 oz.  packages of Friendship farmer cheese, (1 salted, 1 unsalted),  one 3 oz. package of cream cheese, 2 eggs, juice of 1/2 lemon, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and the seeds from 4 caramom pods, ground or pounded in a mortar.

Making the crepes:  I use my 8-inch non-stick All-Clad saute pan.  I melt about a half teaspoon of butter for the first crepe. Each crepe is made with about 2 scant tablespoons of batter.  I use a ladle that happens to hold the perfect amount. I start making the crepes on fairly high heat, and lower it as the process continues.  After the butter melts, pour 2 tablespoons of batter into the pan and tilting the pan in all directions, encourage the batter to spread evenly into a thin pancake.  In my All-Clad pan, the pancake extends a little bit up the sloping sides.  Cook until the batter dries out.  Do not cook on the other side.

To remove the crepe, turn the pan over and give it a little shake.  You may need to lift an edge of the crepe with a spatula or your fingers to start the ejection.  You can stack the pancakes on top of each other without any problem.  Re-butter the pan every two or three pancakes.  The first pancake may not turn out too well.  Don't worry, the others will be fine.  Ideally, the crepes should not brown.  If they do brown, they will be fine anyway, but turn down the heat.  Put the filling on the browned side.

Assembly:

Put a generous spoonful of filling on the crepe.  Superimpose

an imaginary analog clockface over the crepe.  Pick up the 9 o'clock spot and fold over the filling.  Fold in 12 and 6 and continue flipping toward 3.  You'll end up with a little bundle similar to the one you ate Sunday night. This is far more complicated to describe than it is to do.  

Finishing:

On Sunday, I baked the blintzes in a buttered pan, with a little more softened butter smeared on top.  You need a pre-heated 425 degree to get them properly brown in 15-20 minutes.  (I didn't set the oven high enough at the potluck, which is why the blintzes were so pale.)

Or, faster and more traditional -- simply saute them in butter.

The raspberry sauce:  This is good with many desserts.  It's simply unsweetened raspberries, thawed, combined with half their volume of sugar and simmered until the sugar dissolves and the berries are mostly collapsed (about 3 minutes.)  Then puree in blender.  Sometimes, if there seem to be too many seeds, I strain the sauce a little to remove some.  I didn't strain the sauce for Sunday's dinner.

Oh, yes, sour cream is traditional with blintzes, but I forget to bring it and we obviously did not miss it.

Let me know how you fare.

[stefanyb]

I just finished the best mushroom omelet I ever had.  I followed Jinmyo's suggestion of using gobs of butter (oh boy did I ever) sauteed lots of Maria's mushroom cut into small pieces, salt and pepper and then added two eggs whisked until foamy.  This mushroom turned bright orange, maintained a really meaty texture and melded with the eggs beautifully.  I then sprinkled on some of the Valdeon blue from Spain and voila.

Also, the pot luck was the first time I had ever met Cabrales and SobaAddict.  Meeting them was as wonderful as the food.

The chocolate tasting was so illuminating.  I couldn't get over how a tiny piece of chocolate could be so overwhelming in my mouth.

And to think, we all went home with some of Rachel's mango sorbet.  I'll be having that for dessert right now.

[Sandra Levine]

I sauteed my mushroom to accompany veal cutlets.  I added some paprika and a dollop of sour cream and called it Hungarian.

Rachel's mango sorbet is holding perfectly in my freezer, with no loss of taste or texture, remaining the best mango sorbet I've ever eaten.

I still smile when I think about the evening.

[Rachel Perlow]

We had some of the original sorbet I made (checking...) three weeks ago. This was stored in a no-frost freezer*. Still fine, although there were some ice crystals on the cover of the container.

* We had discussed that storing the sorbet in a non-frostfree freezer (chest deep freeze) probably helped mainstain the texture of the sorbet. I'm sure the quantities you all took home (containers ranged from 1/2 pint to about a quart) will be fine for a week or two.

Oh yeah, unlike the first batch, which I put through a food mill, the batch I brought on Sunday was simply blended in a blender. Much easier and I didn't even have to strain it (when I tried, it all went through the strainer anyway). Other than mango pulp (about 24 Mexican mangos (the yellow ones)), there was about 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of water, the juice from about 5 sour oranges and 2 limes (or just use lime juice, I happened to have some oranges that were too sour to eat). This made A LOT of sorbet. I think around 3 quarts? B Edulis: you still have that container I left? It was about 3/4 full of sorbet, how much is that?

[ahr]

I had a blast.  Special thanks to Maria for hosting and Stefany for arranging.  The marvelous mushroom provided two delicious meals: an omelet, and a sauté with shallot, garlic, and fresh thyme.

[mamster]

Mamster, if I was at the one in Seattle, doesn't that make the one in Seattle the first official New York one?

It would, except that you were at the SECOND one, doofus.  It's a good thing you have me as your archivist.

May I have some more of that mushroom?  Thanks.

[=Mark]

Recipe for the Piquant Salmon Rolls

8 oz. cream cheese

1/4 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped

1/4 cup green onion, chopped

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp cayenne

1 stalk celery chopped

2 tsp lemon juice

8 oz. (3/4" by 2") thin slices smoked salmon

thin sliced cucumber

freshly ground pepper

your favorite crackers (I use wheatsworth)

fresh dill sprigs

hot sauce*

Habanero powder*

Fresh habanero slices*

1. In a bowl, soften cream cheese and stir in chives, green onion walnuts and celery.

2. Add lemon juice and spices and mix well.

3. Spread mixture on salmon slices and season with pepper, roll up to form neat rolls

4. Place a cucumber slice on each cracker and place a sprig of dill and a salmon roll on each cucumber.

5. Drizzle with remaining lemon juice and garnish with chives if desired.

* To add some more heat you can add a couple drops of habanero sauce to the top of the cucumber during assembly. The sauce I use has cloves and honey which seem to compliment the flavor of the salmon.

For Chilehead sensibilities I also used dried powdered Red Savina Habanero flakes as well as adding a slice of fresh habanero to the filling of each roll. You might want to play around with the seasonings...

salmon rolls may be prepared several hours in advance, and assembled just before serving to prevent the cracker from getting soggy.