Showing posts with label Supper Club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Supper Club. Show all posts
Supper Club - May: Ethiopian
Asianleo
The theme the hostess chose for last month's supper club was Ethiopian food. I've had Ethiopian food once, and it was quite tasty (it's also generally very spicy, which I love).


Since the hostess is a vegetarian, I volunteered to make the popular national dish Doro Wat - a spicy chicken stew with hard-boiled eggs. Our hostess wanted us to be as authentic as possible, so we were to make the berbere spice/paste and niter kibbeh (clarified spiced butter) from scratch.

I used the berbere and niter kibbeh recipes from www.ethiopianrestaurant.com. My doro wat would probably have been more flavorful if I'd used fresh spices and toasted and ground the spices myself like the hostess did in her wat instead of using pre-ground spices. Still, it turned out pretty tasty.

Once the berbere and niter kibbeh were completed, making the doro wat was relatively simple but time consuming since it had to simmer for almost an hour.

Doro Wat (recipe found at www.whats4eats.com)

INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs Skinless Chicken legs and thighs
1 Lemon, juiced
2 tsps Salt
2 Onions, chopped
3 Cloves Garlic, crushed
1 tbsp of peeled and chopped Gingerroot
1/4 c Oil, butter or niter kibbeh
2 tbsp Paprika
1/4 to 1/2 c Berberé paste
3/4 c Water or stock
1/4 c Red wine
1 tsp (or more to taste) Cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
4 Hard-boiled eggs (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
  1. Mix together the chicken pieces, lemon juice, and salt and in a large, non-reactive bowl and set aside to marinate for about 30 minutes.
  2. While the chicken is marinating, puree the onions, garlic and ginger in a food processor or blender. Add a little water if necessary.
  3. Heat the oil, butter or niter kibbeh in a large pot over medium flame. Add the paprika and stir in to color the oil and cook the spice through, about 1 minute. Do not burn. Stir in the berberé paste and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.
  4. Add the onion-garlic-ginger puree and sauté until most of the moisture evaporates and the onion cooks down and loses its raw aroma, about 5 to 10 minutes. Do not allow the mixture to burn.
  5. Pour in the water or stock and wine and stir in the chicken pieces, cayenne to taste, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Add water as necessary to maintain a sauce-like consistency.
  6. Add the whole hard boiled eggs and continue to cook for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and very tender.
  7. Adjust seasoning and serve hot with injera bread or rice.
This recipe had a bit too much liquid for me (and ended up being wasted since the dish was served with injera - a bit hard to sop up that much liquid). I'd reduce the amount of liquid by at least a fourth and add more as needed during the cooking process.

Also on the evening's menu: honey comb and dabo kolo (little snacks), iab (Ethiopian cheese), atakelt wott, spicy vegetable wott, gomen (collard greens), shro wott (spicy squash stew), miser (lentils), injera (flatbread), Tej (honey wine), mango juice, bunna (Ethiopian coffee), and spiced honey bread.
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Breakfast for Dinner
Asianleo

So this month's Supper Club theme is Breakfast for Dinner. Since there seemed to be a lot of heavy food items already on the menu, I tried to think of a light dish to bring. A breakfast parfait seemed ideal - and this will also give me the opportunity to try Greek yogurt. So, I'm thinking of layering vanilla flavored Greek yogurt with slices of fresh strawberries.

I've also been wanting to attempt drop biscuits. It seems simple enough, and I'd consider it a nice basic recipe to have in one's repertoire. I'm adding sausage gravy to the biscuits - after all, I am a southern girl (and it'll hopefully the awfulness of the drop biscuits if they're a bomb). Now all I need to do is find an awesome recipe for sausage gravy, which I've never made from scratch. I could cheat and use a mix, but I think I want to at least attempt to make everything from scratch. I'll pick up a package of gravy mix though just in case.
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Supper Club - June: Pizza
Asianleo
May10_dishes

This month's supper club theme was pizza. As you can see, we had a couple varieties of pizza and two varieties of pasta salad. Not pictured: an antipasto tray and buffalo wings. One of the members brought craft sodas. Dessert consisted of fruit filled "pies".

May10_Desserts

My Sausage, Pepper, and Mushroom pizza was the only one with a store-bought crust. I had originally planned on using the naan recipe I used for our Indian themed supper club meet for the crust, but I didn't have time to make the dough. The pizza was very easy to throw together though, and it turned out pretty tasty. I'll definitely use this recipe again.

Sausage_Pepper_Mushroom_Pizza
   
Sausage, Pepper, and Mushroom Pizza from Cooking Light (July 2009)

INGREDIENTS:
1 (4-oz) sweet Italian sausage link (I used spicy since I like spicy foods)
1 cup thinly sliced onion
½ cup thinly sliced red bell pepper (I also added yellow and green bell peppers since I had some on hand)
1 (8-oz) package presliced exotic mushroom blend (such as shiitake, cremini, and oyster)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (14-oz) prepared pizza crust (I used the Boboli's 12" original crust)
½ cup fat-free pasta sauce
¾ cup (3-oz) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp thinly sliced fresh basil

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Remove casing from sausage. Cook sausage in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until browned, stirring to crumble the sausage.
3. Add onion, pepper, and mushrooms to the pan; saute 8 minutes or until tender. Stir in garlic; saute for another minute.
4. Place crust onto a large baking sheet. Spread pasta sauce evenly over crust, leaving a ¼-inch border. Top evenly with the mushroom mixture. Sprinkle evenly with cheese. Bake at 450 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove from oven; sprinkle pizza evenly with the basil.
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Supper Club - February 2010: Indian
Asianleo
Feb10_Table_Setting

This month's supper club theme was an Indian feast. Our hosts provided the main dishes: Bhindi Dopiaza (okra with double onion) and Potato and Tomato Korma. They also made a pitcher of delicious mango lassis and chai to quench our thirst. The other dishes included samosas, pakoras, stuffed zucchini, raita, chutney, and kheer.

Feb10_plate
pakoras

stuffed_zuke

I brought homemade naan and batata vada (deep fried potato dumplings). I thought the naan would be the more difficult dish to make since I'd never attempted to make dough before. The dumplings actually turned out to be more troublesome due to the batter the recipe called for (it ended up sticking to my fry basket). The potato filling was tasty though. I'll probably keep the filling recipe for samosas.

The naan turned out really well and was incredibly easy to make (especially since I used a bread machine). I think it'd also make a very tasty pizza dough. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com at http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Naan/Detail.aspx. Based on the suggestions of those who rated the recipe, I adjusted the recipe a little. Here's the recipe with my adjustments:

naan

INGREDIENTS:
1 (0.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons salt
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1/4 cup ghee (clarified butter)

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large bowl, proof the yeast by dissolving the yeast in the warm water with 1 tbsp of sugar. Let it double in volume and become frothy (about 9-12 minutes).

2. Stir in the remaining sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough bread flour to make a soft dough. Too much flour will make the dough stiff. Knead for 6 - 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place the dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise. Let it rise for 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.

If you're using a bread machine, put the liquid ingredients (milk and egg) in first, then the dry ingredients (sugar, salt and only 3 1/2 cups bread flour) before adding the proofed yeast. Set the bread machine to the dough setting and let it do it's work.

2. Punch down the dough. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll the dough into balls, and place on a tray with space between the balls for it to expand. Cover the tray with a towel, and allow the dough to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

3. Roll one ball of dough out thinly and brush one side with ghee. Heat a lightly oiled grill pan on medium high heat. Place the brushed side of the dough on the grill and cook for 2 - 3 minutes, or until the top bubbles and the bottom is lightly browned. Brush the top with some ghee before turning over. Cook until browned (another 2 - 4 minutes). Remove from the grill and continue the process until all of the naan has been prepared.
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Supper Club - August 2009: Locally Grown
Asianleo
This month's supper club theme was locally grown foods. Our hosts provided the main dish of grilled fish (fresh from the Gulf) and brisket chili. The rest of the group brough zucchini bread, a tomato and goat cheese salad, fried okra, fresh figs, and a peach and blueberry cobbler with bourbon laced ice cream.

I brought 2 side dishes as my contribution: a summer squash stir-fry and stuffed zucchini blossoms. I chose squash as my side dish since it's really easy to find at the farmer's market, and I love zucchini. It's a simple and easy vegetable to cook. I just sliced it up with some yellow squash, onion, and jalapenos; threw it into a pan with some oil; added some salt and pepper to taste; and sauted it until the vegetables were cooked. I capped it off with a splash of soy sauce to taste.

The zucchini blossoms, which I had never had before but wanted to try, were chosen because I figure if I didn't like it someone at the dinner would like it and it wouldn't go to waste. Zucchini blossoms are usually fried, but you can use them in salads or pastas or sauted with onions. There were also various batter recipes for the zucchini blossoms - flour and water/club soda, with and without egg, flour and beer. I chose the Epicurean recipe and tweaked it a bit to fit my taste. The original one called for a goat cheese and cream cheese filling. I think I'd have preferred a lighter batter (like a panko batter), but this was still tasty (and was a hit at dinner).




Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms
adapted by Eva from epicurean.com

INGREDIENTS:

8 Zucchini Squash Blossoms

FILLING:
½ pound of Central Market Love Sauce or any other type of cream cheese based flavored dip

BATTER:
½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ cup club soda
¼ cup milk
1 large egg
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Peanut Oil or Vegetable Oil for Frying
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Directions:

1. Dip the squash blossoms in cold water and drain them thoroughly on paper towels. Remove the stamens from the male blossoms.

2. Place cream cheese filling into a plastic sandwich bag; gather the filling towards one corner of the bag bottom and snip a corner off to make yourself a home-made pastry bag. Fill each squash blossom with about 2 teaspoons of filling. Slightly twist the tops of each blossom to "close" each blossom.

3. To make the batter, in a medium bowl, stir together the flour, club soda, milk, egg and cayenne pepper. Let sit for one hour in the fridge.

4. Fill a heavy saucepan or skillet with oil to a depth of 2 inches. Heat over medium heat to 375 degrees.

5. Dip a few squash blossoms into batter, covering entire blossom, and drop them into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown, about 1 minute, turn over and fry on the other side for another minute (or until golden brown). Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Repeat with the remaining blossoms, being careful not to overcrowd the pan.

6. Add salt and pepper and serve immediately.
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Supper Club - July 2009: Noche Tipica Costariccence
Asianleo
Tonight's theme was Costa Rican food. As I mentioned in my previous post, my contribution consisted of a hearts of palm salad and mixed fruit. The salad was a hit. One of the guys said he didn't like hearts of palm, but he liked it this time - something about the spritz of lime juice changing it completely. There was a lot of shrimp ceviche for our appetizer. We had olla de carne (a yummy beef "stew") along with gallo pinto (with a homemade tamarind sauce). Gallo pinto is basically a rice and bean dish that is a standard staple of any meal. The fried plantains were delicious (although I think they were actually fried bananas). Fresco de frutas and Cacique with Squirt were available to quench our thirst. We finished the night of with a bowl of rice pudding.
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