The Next Cookbook!

Our next dinner will be May 31, 2008. The time and home/host will be announced as soon as I have it confirmed.

Next cookbook: The Breakaway Cook by Eric Gower. Here's his pic...

and here's his book.

If you'd like to join us, virtually, get the book and start cookin'! We'd love it if you add your comments about the recipes and dishes in this book!

ZOV, Recipes and Memories From the Heart Dinner

March 1, 2008
Our 11th dinner was from the ZOV, Recipes and Memories From the Heart by Zov Karmardian. One of our cooks dined at Zov's Bistro in Tustin, CA and had a delicious meal. After hearing her rave reviews, the group decided this book would be a interesting and different cuisine for us.

Each cookbook club member chose a dish to prepare for the dinner and Sandra set up the order of the courses, created the menu and paired the wines with the advice from our cellarmaster, Bill. It was difficult to decide how to order the dishes because they were all pretty rich and heavy, including dessert. But the resulting feast was another gastronomical delight.

MENU

Spinach & Leek Spanakopita (p. 129) Annie prepared the Spanakopita for the dinner in a smaller baking dish, making the filling thicker and the ending result absolutely fabulous and irresistible! It was difficult to cut through the bottom layers of filo but I don’t know if there is a solution to that problem.
2003 Wolf Family Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley was an appropriate pairing, giving a bit of citrus as well as sweetness to counter the spinach/leek and creamy tastes of the spanakopita.

Puree of Butternut Squash Soup & Rosemary Scones (p. 100 & 227) The soup was on the sweet side but very yummy. Sandi followed the recipe exactly with great results. The Rosemary scones did not have the texture of scones but were more like biscuits. Sandi said that when they first came out of the oven, they were more scone-like.
2006 Trefethen Dry Riesling, Oak Knoll District, Napa Valley was another great pairing with the soup. The acid in the dry Riesling balanced the sweetness of the soup and added another layer of flavor.

Sautéed Calamari with Tomatoes & Oregano (p. 45) Sharon prepared it perfectly and it was difficult to not ask for seconds. She said it was relatively a quick and easy recipe to follow with great results.
2006 Trefethen Dry Riesling Again, the Riesling was perfect with the tomato-y calamari. It added nice notes of fruit and sweetness to the dish.

Moussaka (p.187) When Willie prepared this the first time he followed the recipe exactly but did not like the taste of the ground beef. For our dinner, he substituted ground lamb and doubled the Béchamel Sauce recipe with fabulous results. The resulting doctored recipe yielded a richer moussaka that was flavorful and moist. Willie also tried the Sou-Boreg, Layered Pasta with Monterey Jack Cheese recipe (p. 130). He was enticed to try the dish because of the great photograph (so was I!). but with disappointingly bland flavors. He even made homemade pasta sheets with the Monterey Jack Cheese and the result was tasteless and was so bad, it was tossed out....after all that hard work and a big mess in the kitchen to clean up!
2004 Ferrari-Carano Chardonnay,Reserve, Napa/Sonoma Counties This dish required a wine that would stand up to the richness of the béchamel and the Ferrari-Carano Chardonnay Reserve did exactly that. It was an oaky & buttery style wine with great fruit flavors that complimented the Moussaka.

Mixed Baby Greens with Air Dried Beef & Sherry Vinaigrette (p. 54) Theresa was able to find air-dried beef from A.G. Ferrari. This was an interesting dish with unique combinations of flavors. Theresa used walnut oil instead of hazelnut oil in the recipe since it also called for walnuts in the salad. She thought it was odd to ask for hazelnut oil and then put walnuts in the salad. The Basterma (air-dried beef) reminded me of proscuitto. She said that once you can find the basterma, the salad was easy to prepare.
2004 Ferrari-Carano Chardonnay, Reserve Again, the Chardonnay was a good companion to the salad. The walnuts and beef needed a heartier white wine and this chardonnay came through and showed the salad’s ingredients well. Although difficult to pair wines with vinegar, this one was a winner!

Spinach Stuffed Leg of Lamb (p. 166) Sandy said that this was a very easy recipe to prepare. She marinated the lamb for 24 hours and the result gave us flavors that penetrated the lamb beyond the outer layer. She had the butcher trim the leg of lamb for her which saved her a lot of time.
Eggplant Stuffed with Garlic (p. 145) Another easy recipe to follow according to Mary. A very tomato-y dish that went well with the lamb. Mary had also tried the Savory Beef Briouts recipe (p. 42) that turned out to be dry beef rolls. It was also too dough-y but there really isn’t a way to make it thinner. She thought maybe if there was a sauce to serve with it to counter the dryness, it might help. BUT, she couldn't get her family to eat it so she had to toss it out.
Rice Pilaf with Lentils & Caramelized Onions (p. 136) Sandra prepared this dish once before the dinner and found the lentils to be overwhelming. She halved the amount of lentils for our dinner and doubled the carmelized onions with delicious results. She topped the pilaf with a sprinkling of French Fried Onions purchased from Trader Joe's. They provided a nice crunchiness to the rice and lentils. Sandra also tried the Coconut Beef Stew (p. 166)which turned out to be very delicious. The coconut and spices in the stew adds new dimensions to an old favorite. She also tried the Pan-Seared Whitefish with Tomato Curry (p. 206) with disappointing results. In her opinion, the curry and fish did not go well together and was not a memorable dish.
1987 Ridge Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, Monte Bello, Santa Cruz Mountains. This wine was rich with fruit, complex berry and cherry flavors that went well with the lamb. It was hearty enough to stand up to the eggplant dish as well. Another great choice by Bill from his great cellar!

Bread Pudding with Chocolate Chunks & Bananas (p. 245) Sandra prepared this dish once before, using semi-sweet chips from See’s Candy and Challah bread and thought the dish to be too sweet and heavy. For the Cookbook Club dinner she used bittersweet wafers from S. Guittard (instead of chopping up blocks of chocolate required by the recipe) with much better results. Using Brioche bread also yielded a lighter bread pudding. Next time she will double the sauce because there really wasn't enough. The group decided not to serve a wine with this dish. It is difficult to pair wines with chocolate and the richness of this dessert called for coffee or tea.

Want to Start Your Own Cookbook Club?

Our first dinner was on March 10, 2006 with 10 members. I belonged to another cookbook club before I started my own so I learned from that experience and knew what changes I wanted to make. This club is for people who see themselves as gourmet cooks. Ours is not for novices but there is no reason not to set up a cookbook club for beginners who are interested in learning more about the "tricks of the trade" from each other.

In the beginning, we had no rules or guidelines. We had some lively discussions about who should dine with us (i.e. spouses invited or not?)? Is it a "supper" club or a "cookbook" club? How many members should we have? How should we serve the food: Plated or buffet style?

Living Guidelines (I hate “rules!”) that have evolved over the past 2 years:

• Membership is limited to 14 members. I generally count on 4 or more people not being able to come to the dinner and most dining tables can accommodate 8-10.
• Members are willing to be adventurous and learn new cuisines, ingredients and techniques. Our club is composed of gourmet cooks. A few are professionally trained but most are just darn good cooks.
• It is not a “supper club” so the diners must cook. Spouses/partners are not invited (unless they are both members). Each member of the club prepares an entrée for the dinner.
• Each course is generally plated so each cook can discuss his/her experience with the recipe. Each course is also paired with an appropriate wine so members also learn about wine pairings. Some dinners are served buffet style when it seems like the best way to show the food.
  
• We generally have a dinner every 2 months.
• The next cookbook choice is a group decision.
• The member who hosts the dinner at his/her home may invite his/her spouse/partner to join us, since we are, after all, invading their kitchen!
  
• Once a year, we plan a “field trip” to a nearby restaurant, specialty farm, or food event. If a restaurant field trip, the chef prepares a tasting menu for us. One of our members provide the wines for the dinner from his extensive cellar. The chef talks about his/her cuisine and answers questions about the various dishes. Spouses/partners are invited to this event
• It has become a “tradition” that December is a Holiday event and the dishes are either appetizers or desserts that can be eaten with a fork and are served buffet style, not plated as is our other dinners. Spouses/partners are invited to this dinner.

Notes and words of wisdom:

• Be patient if you decide to form your own cookbook club. We have a core group of 9 members and 5 “slots” that have been transient. This cookbook club is not for everybody, nor is everyone ready to make a commitment to culinary adventures and learning opportunities. People have come and stayed for a year but other commitments take them away because their lives change, priorities changes, family needs change, etc.
• The range of member skills in this club is from professionally trained personal chefs to very experienced cooks. There are no novices, but it could have just as easily been a group of novices who want to learn to be better cooks.
• There are more women than men but I have tried to keep it balanced (60:40). The age range is 30’s – 60’s.
• We first tried doing dinners on weeknights (since it is not a couples' dinner) but the preparations often took too much time for working adults so we moved to Saturdays.
• There are two couples in the group and each spouse prepares his/her own dish for the dinners.
• We are lucky to have a member who is willing to share his cellar but you could have each member bring a wine that goes with his/her entrée

If you decide to give this concept a try, post your questions and I or one of our members will answer you!

What's with the Crowing Coq Thing?

I love to cook , collect cookbooks, drink good wine and share food with friends. And, what can be better than to do it with friends who love to cook as much as I do? Eight to ten of us get together every 2 months to share a meal prepared from the same cookbook and then select a cookbook for our next dinner. My husband has a very large wine cellar that we could never drink up if we drank a bottle a day for the rest of our lives(i.e…a lot of grape juice!), so we pair each course with a bottle of wine from our cellar. What can be better than to drink our wine with people who love food and appreciate good wine? So there we are, 2 years later, with a cookbook club!

The "Crowing Coq" part of our club came about quite naturally actually. Our first dinner during the holidays in December included a "white elephant" gift exchange. A timer that looks like a laying hen but with an alarm that sounds like a rooster, was one of the gifts. The problem with this timer is that it somehow goes off whenever it wants to so at 3 a.m. you might hear a !!*#&*#! "cockadoodledoo" crowing from your kitchen!! It is now showing up at each holiday dinner and has moved on to it's third home, become our club mascot and part of our name....of course, being a gourmet cookbook club, we had to change it to "coq" ala coq au vin.

If you collect cookbooks like I do, you have books from which you have tried one, maybe two recipes. You have a few books that you return to all the time and the others collect dust on your shelves. What is so cool about a cookbook club is that you get to taste 8-15 recipes out of the same book without going through the trouble of actually preparing them. After each dinner, I dash home to write comments on each recipe page ranging from “yummy!” to “bland” or “pass” and/or add the improvements the cook made.

In 2006 we cooked from any cookbook from Lydia Bastianich, and Julia Child, our personal favorites, and a Mediterranean cuisine dinner. Our holiday dinner was all appetizers and desserts and spouses were invited to join us.

Last year, 2007, we cooked from Daniel Boulud’s Braise, Thomas Kellar’s The French Laundry Cookbook, Cindy Pawcyln’s Big Small Plates, from any gourmet-type magazine AND went on a field trip to the Love Apple Farm in Boulder Creek, CA and Manresa Restaurant (Michelin 2-star restaurant) in Los Gatos, CA. The Love Apple Farm raises food for Manresa and only this restaurant. Cynthia Sandberg raises over 100 varieties of heirloom tomatoes and some beautiful chickens (given our thing with "coqs!"). David Kinch prepared a 3-star dinner using the vegetables from the Farm. A field trip to a restaurant or food event has now become an annual thing. As you can see, we’ve grown over the year and our cookbooks became more sophisticated.

So far in 2008 we’ve had an 8-course dinner using Zov by Zov Karamardian. View the menu and photos of our Zov dinner in the March 1, 2008 blog. Each cook made comments about the recipe, shared what changes s/he made to make the entrée even better from the first time s/he tried the recipe. We also shared recipes we tried from the book that we didn’t like…or even hated! We’ll share those with you too so you don’t have to bother making the dish...that is, if your tastes are similar to ours.

There are also some Guidelines for the group so if you decide to form your own cookbook club, you can learn from our trials and errors over the past two years.

Bon appetit!