Cooking Club Ideas

[Genny]

Hello fellow food fanatics!

I am in a cooking club and I thought I'd open it up to you to help me decide from month-to-month what to cook and point me to the right methods and recipes for the different dishes. Once it is decided upon and the kinks worked out, I'll post the recipes and photos on RecipeGullet!

Our theme for October is "Get Stuffed!"

I'm fairly set on Seafood Rellenos for my main dish but I'd love a great sauce for this. I was thinking a light cream sauce would be good but haven't found anything that is "Mexican" enough for me yet. Any suggestions?

Also, I was thinking about a stuffed dessert but haven't even begun to brainstorm that yet. Whattaya think??

Thanks in advance everyone! Hopefully this will be fun for all!

Genny

[emilyr]

Stuffed baked apples are a good fall dessert. I usually stuff mine with a crisp topping mixed with dried fruit like cranberries, cherries, or raisins. If you wanted to tie it to a Mexican theme (to match your entree), my friend makes a good fruit stuffing with corn tortillas (torn into shreds, as I recall), brown sugar, cinnamon and butter, then tops the apples (or pears, or once - sweet potatoes) with dulce de leche in the last few minutes of baking to get a caramel-y coating over it all.

I don't know any cream style Mexican sauces much myself, though. I seem to recall one I had in a restaurant that had a cheesey base, some sort of pepper (chipotle? I'm bad at recognizint peppers), and cinnamon that was really yummy. It was on a shrimp dish, so that might be good for Seafood Rellenos.

[Genny]

Hi Emily, thanks for playing!

So she shreds the corn tortillas and stuffs that into fruit? How interesting. Is it too "corny" tasting?

Stuffed apples is a thought I'm willing to consider. I like the idea of drizzling the dulce de leche over it to match it to the rellenos.

The cream sauce was cheezy with chipoltle (or something like that). Hmmm, that is a thought. Has anyone else heard of this who can provide some insight?

Keep 'em coming!!

[ludja]

Would empanadas count as stuffed?

If so, you could make pumpkin filled/stuffed empanadas and serve this with a cajeta sauce and vanilla ice cream, if you liked.

Bayless has a roasted poblano cream sauce in Mexican Kitchen. Here's an online link: http://www.appetites.us/archives/000451.html

[Marlene]

Desserts. I don't suppose molten cakes, or fruit turnovers count as stuffed? Two crust pies could be sort of stuffed.

I have to think about this for a little bit to see what else comes to mind dessertwise, but stuffed green peppers, stuffed raviolis etc come to mind imediately for other courses.

[emilyr]

Hi Emily, thanks for playing! 

So she shreds the corn tortillas and stuffs that into fruit?  How interesting.  Is it too "corny" tasting?

Stuffed apples is a thought I'm willing to consider.  I like the idea of drizzling the dulce de leche over it to match it to the rellenos.

The cream sauce was cheezy with chipoltle (or something like that).  Hmmm, that is a thought.  Has anyone else heard of this who can provide some insight?

Keep 'em coming!!

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Yes. I think she just mixes the torn up tortillas with a paste of butter, sugar, brown sugar and spices and stuffs them into the apples, but she may toast or sautee them first. I haven't had them in a couple of years. I really like the nuttieness of the tortillas and don't think it's too corny. They absorb the flavors of the apple and the suagr and spices, so just a good sweet toasted corn flavor - goes well with kind of tart apples, IIRC.

[FabulousFoodBabe]

I'm fairly set on Seafood Rellenos for my main dish but I'd love a great sauce for this.  I was thinking a light cream sauce would be good but haven't found anything that is "Mexican" enough for me yet.  Any suggestions?

Also, I was thinking about a stuffed dessert but haven't even begun to brainstorm that yet.  Whattaya think??

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Sounds great, Genny! Here's what I use for enchiladas: one egg to 3/4 cup cream (I use light, or heavy mixed with half and half). I blend it with tomatillos and green chiles. Just hull, stem, seed and rough-cut the tomatillos and toss them into the blender. Add whatever seasoning you want. Yield is 1 1/2 cups.

Dessert ... I love banana and chocolate stuffed wontons, but you'd have to fry a la minute. How puff pastry stuffed with a blend of white chocolate, mascarpone, amaretto, and chopped pine nuts? Make them into little raviolis and toss in a bag with powdered sugar when they're still warm.

What fun -- may I ask how you organize a dinner/cooking club? I'd like to do that once my kitchen is finished and life settles down some.

[Carrot Top]

So October is "Get Stuffed" month?! Why, fancy that! Fine weather for it.

Suitable to the theme might be imam bayildi. A dish so luscious that, as its title infers, the priest whom it was originally presented to fainted (for whatever reason - this is often in dispute as to *exactly* why) because of it!

Eggplant is still in season in your geographic location, I think, Genny. . .?

[Gifted Gourmet]

How many ways can you stuff an onion? discussion

[duckduck]

I was curious too about how your cooking club works. I have someone here trying to put one together and we're tring to figure out how to do this. It would be great to hear about yours. Maybe it would be great to start a cooking club thread and share pictures if of what we're doing together and inspire others to do the same. Let us know what you decide to make. Tortelli or pierogi are the first things that come to my mind.

[Franci]

Our cooking club was called (Bibmamachef), I miss it so much.

A stuffed dessert? Something like this: pozzi d'amore which I guess could be translated in wells of love (ehm, in Italian just sounds better). Or the pesche that you can see on the lower side of the picture

[Genny]

Sounds great, Genny!  Here's what I use for enchiladas:  one egg to 3/4 cup cream (I use light, or heavy mixed with half and half).  I blend it with tomatillos and green chiles.  Just hull, stem, seed and rough-cut the tomatillos and toss them into the blender.  Add whatever seasoning you want.  Yield is 1 1/2 cups.

Dessert ... I love banana and chocolate stuffed wontons, but you'd have to fry a la minute.  How puff pastry stuffed with a blend of white chocolate, mascarpone, amaretto, and chopped pine nuts?  Make them into little raviolis and toss in a bag with powdered sugar when they're still warm. 

What fun -- may I ask how you organize a dinner/cooking club?  I'd like to do that once my kitchen is finished and life settles down some.

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I'll try your cream sauce recipe in my testing!!! That sounds great and easy too.

If I make the banana/chocolate wontons, my darling husband won't let me share!!! The puffed pastry sounds like high-class doughnuts!!! I think those sound soooo yummy!!

[Genny]

So October is "Get Stuffed" month?! Why, fancy that! Fine weather for it.

Suitable to the theme might be imam bayildi. A dish so luscious that, as its title infers, the priest whom it was originally presented to fainted (for whatever reason - this is often in dispute as to *exactly* why) because of it!

Eggplant is still in season in your geographic location, I think, Genny. . .?

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Ohhh Carot Top, I'm pretty sure this is going to make it onto my table!! My birthday is coming up and I've asked for the book Silk Road and I bet a version of this is in there too. Thanks for the contribution!! You know, I think I'll see if one of the other gals wants to do this one.

[Genny]

Our cooking club started about a year ago. Cooking Light has a section of message boards just for cooking clubs. I went on and posted that I was interested in joining or starting one in my area. We found about 9 gals who were interested so we all met out at a coffee shop to chat about what we thought we wanted the club to look like. Here is what we decided:

1) Meet once a month at a different member's home

2) Each month the hostess would decide a theme

3) We created a Yahoo Group to share information and post recipes

After an unfortunate "cumin" incident, we decided to cull the heard. We found that there were a couple gals that were in it to find friends but didn't really have an interest in good food (and didn't know the difference between "good food" and "bad food") We also had a couple other gals drop out for various reasons.

So now we have 4 gals who LOVE to cook and LOVE great food and everyone has a really good palate so it makes it so much fun. We try to do an ingredient tasting each time. One month it was chocolates, one month it was salts, etc.... We've decided that we are happy with this very small group and although we allow guests, we all have to really like anyone in order for them to be invited to join us long term.

[bergerka]

Do eclairs count as stuffed? I like eclairs. You could stuff them with dulce de leche.

Yes, I'm obsessed.

[Genny]

OK friends, I've decided to approach thusly:

Seafood Rellenos: I will try both creamy sauce recipes provided in my testing (lucky husband!) starting with the one from Rick Bayless...thanks for the link ludja!

Dessert: Yanno Fabby, the stuffed puffed pastry sounds delicious, easy and beautiful so I'm going to play with that! Thanks for the thought. I am thinking I may just TOTALLY CHEAT Semi-Ho Style and take the store bought puff pastry (yes, right from the store) and tuck one of these incredible frozen chocolate banana treats called Buon Bons (has anyone else discovered these gems???) inside and bake and see what we get! What the hell, its great ingredients to start, right???

I'll start this week and post results. Its a busy week anyway (every week is though) so bear with me!! Bug me if I don't have anything posted by Thursday, OK?

Hugs,

Genny

[Carrot Top]

October is officially here, Genny! What was the final menu? Do tell.

Rather compelling topic, actually, "stuffed things".

It comes to mind that throughout the annals of history, many things were stuffed.

A rather homely activity. One must wonder whether it is the thing to be stuffed or the thing that is stuffed that is more important in the recipes. A chicken or egg question, rather.

So many recipes! For all courses! And undoubtedly there would be many more things that would benefit from being stuffed if any decent stuffings could be found.

In the category of 'Things Stuffed that are Odd' I would probably list Stuffed Derma, Stuffed Deep-Fried Pizza, and Haggis. But that is just me. These things are absolutely not odd at all to many many people.

In the category of the Ultimate Stuffed Thing I would have to list 'Turducken'. Just take any assortment of birds and start stuffing them into one another till no more can be done. One might say "obsessive". But then again one might just say "thorough and detailed" about this dish.

Myself, I like to think of nuts being stuffed into things. The mind wanders through the possibilities!

Nuts inside dates, nuts inside roasted birds with other savory things, etc etc.

.................................................

Anyway, I guess everyone has some favorite stuffed things. Mine would be, not imam bayeldi (which is lovely and has a great story of course) but a roast breast of veal stuffed with rice, spinach, sausage, cheese. . .artichokes with a simple breadcrumb/butter/anchovy/garlic stuffing. . . .squid with tomatoes, onions, raisins, parsley. . . .fruits like grapes with gorgonzola or figs with mascarpone. . . and for true comfort really what can beat stuffed cabbage?

..................................................

Looking forward to hearing the details of your own "Getted Stuffed" activities!

Sounds mouthwatering.

[Genny]

Alas for those awaiting with baited breath... we have pushed this meeting back until October 16... our collective lives were not able to accommodate the meeting any earlier. I have a helluva week but I will be attempting the poblano relleno and cream sauce hopefully some time this week. Perhaps there will be a photo of the first attempt. Hmmm, I actually have "extra" figs about and should stuff them with blue cheese for a small starter taste....sounds great!

I've no reports from the other gals yet what they are doing so I'll have to nudge them for hints!

I'll be back soon!!!!!