Ad Hoc Dinner, July 10, 2010

My apologies for taking a hiatus from the blog. I was doing some consulting that took more time than I had anticipated. I am back to being retired again and have time to do some writing….yippeee!

We held our Ad Hoc, Family Style Recipes, by Thomas Keller, Cookbook dinner on July 10 at Tina & Bob’s mountainside home in the Montclair hills of Oakland. What a beautiful area, surrounded by huge trees. There is no sense at all of a huge Oakland metropolitan area just a few miles away.

It was a small group this evening so we “only” had six courses. We all discussed our overall assessment of the cookbook. For some it was disappointing after the French Laundry Cookbook. That book was so exacting that if you follow the recipe, it will come out exactly like it supposed to. The Ad Hoc cookbook required tweaking of amounts, cooking time and interpretation. Several of the recipes turned out to be sort of a “ho-hum, what’s-all-the-excitement-about” entrés. His Chocolate Chip Cookies and Pork Ribs recipes were an example of that. On the other hand, his Fried Chicken recipe is fabulous! A few members had checked the book out of the library and liked it so much that they purchased it.

The group selected some very interesting and appealing recipes to prepare for the dinner.

Our first course was a Sun Gold Tomato Gazpacho, (p. 114) prepared by Marianne, that was served with a chive, cucumber & tomato mirepoix. What makes the soup so creamy is the addition of EVO into the blender (she used a Vitamix blender). The golden tomatoes fooled us at first since it doesn’t LOOK like a “tomato” soup, as you can see from the photo. It looks like it has a bit of cream in it but it’s the olive oil that makes it thick and shiny. It was delicious! The bits of mirepoix made it interesting with the contrasting textures. She served the soup with some very thin crackers you can see in the photo; in case you were wondering what those were! It’s getting closer to tomato season so this is a great recipe for you to try, even with red tomatoes.

We served a 2004 Rochioli Sauvignon Blanc with the Gazpacho. The fruitiness of the wine went well with the sweet tomatoes. It had enough acid to balance the acidity of the gazpacho. Good choice Bill! Bill was traveling and did not attend the dinner but graciously selected wines from his cellar to pair with the courses.

We then had another soup but this one was a warm soup. Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Red Beet Chips (p 127). Deceptively simple sounding but like many of Keller’s recipes, had several “parts” to it. The torn croutons are made by first creating a garlic infused olive oil that takes 40 minutes all by itself. The other unusual thing about the croutons is that they are sautéed in a pan instead of baked in an oven. The beet chips are fried and will travel well as long as you have access to an oven to re-crisp them again. It is difficult to fry them to a crispy consistency without turning them black so buy enough beets to have throwaways! Both the croutons and beet chips are addicting! This recipe was the first to highlight Keller’s two favorite ingredients: leeks and cream! The presentation of this soup is especially appealing with the white creamy soup, piled with torn croutons and red beet chips! It tasted as good as it looked. There were bits of sautéed cauliflower in the soup so again, the different textures of creamy and crunchy made the dish an outstanding one. Kudo’s to Sharon for preparing this recipe and driving all the way from the Grass Valley area to join us for this dinner.

For this course and the next course, we served a 2008 Sbrabia Family Chardonnay from Dry Creek Valley. The chardonnay was a bit too sweet for Annie’s and my taste but it went well with the soup and bread pudding. Of course, we could attribute our disappointment to the fact that we’ve been spoiled by having access to Jeffrey’s Mt. Eden Chardonnays!

Our next course was a double entré of Leek Bread Pudding (there are those 2 ingredients again: leeks and cream!) (p. 21) served with an Endive & Arugula Salad with Peaches & Marcona Almonds (p. 140). This was a perfect pairing! As you can imagine, the Leek Bread Pudding was very rich with brioche, 3 eggs, 3 cups of milk, 3 cups of cream, Emmentaler and Gruyer cheeses and, of course, leeks. Lisa said this was a simple dish to prepare and a great one to make for a large group since it can be served in small portions. As a side to the bread pudding, Annie served the salad that had red and white endive, ripe peaches and arugula. What makes this salad memorable was the salad dressing that used puréed peaches. The dressing brought out the sweetness and “peachy-ness” of the sliced peaches. Annie thought the peaches weren’t as sweet as she would have preferred but this is a bad year for stone fruit since we didn’t have a good freeze this past winter. Prepare the salad, contrasted with the rich bread pudding, and voilá, a ladies luncheon menu!

Our main course was Meatballs with Pappardelle (p. 50). Tina made the pasta herself with the help of her friends…it’s almost impossible to make it all by yourself, IMHO. She used her Kitchenaid pasta-making attachment to make the sheets and then cut the pappardelle by hand. The meatballs required that she grind the FOUR types of meats herself, again, using her trusty Kitchenaid! The meatballs are stuffed with fresh mozzarella cheese and although she was willing to make the cheese herself, she couldn’t find all the right ingredients without purchasing enough to feed an army….especially since she only needed 4 oz for the recipe! The sauce was surprising in that Keller uses canned tomatoes for it. . . specifically San Marzano Whole Peeled Tomatoes AND, of course, leeks! It wasn’t a thin or smooth sauce but quite dense and chunky. Very yummy!

We served a 1990 Chianti Rufina, Fattoria Selapiana from Italy with the pasta dish. It was a very nice Chianti, aged 20 years, but still had fruit and soft tannins. Very nice with this dish!

By this time, we are all feeling stuffed and not ready for dessert. We discussed our next dinner using the Zuni Café Cookbook and possible future dinners. Because there were so many people who could not make this Ad Hoc Dinner, I suggested that we do another Ad Hoc dinner for those who couldn’t make it (plus any of 6 who want to try it again). We also talked about the fabulous French Laundry Cookbook dinner that was to die for! Should we do another one? It was one of those dinners that will stick in our memories for a long time but Sharon thought it was one of those “great but I’ll never do it again” type dinners and we all regaled our newer members with the trials and tribulations we went through to prepare each dish! What are your thoughts on this? I’m willing to get it another go because it WAS such an outstanding dining experience...one of the OMG dinners!

The dessert for the evening was the Pineapple Upside-Down Cake with Caramel Ice Cream. (p. 310 & 321). The pineapple must be very ripe for this to work or increase the schmear of butter, brown sugar, rum & honey. He used a silicon cake pan but I used a regular one and it did brown a bit on the edges so if you want a perfect cake, buy the silicon pan. The ice cream uses 10 egg yolks, 2 cups of cream and 2 cups of whole milk so you can imagine how rich and decadent his ice creams are! The caramel ice cream went well with the cake. I did make the cake with Vanilla Ice Cream (p. 320) for a Fourth of July party and it was delicious too but I thought the caramel might go better with the caramelized pineapples. To be honest, I liked both of the ice creams with the cake. I did not increase the schmear for that cake since it was the first time I made it and it was a dryer, less sweet cake.

As an aside, if you’re wondering what to do with 10 egg whites you have left over from making the ice cream, I made French Meringues with them. A wonderful dessert Bill and I had while visiting France last month was simple berries with cream, topped with a meringue that one crumbles into the bowl. I shaped them into ruffled logs but you can try different shapes to fit your fancy. After this rich dinner, it might have been a better dessert. But I must say, his Pineapple Upside-down Cake is one to prepare often. It's one of those "presentation" desserts that is sure to wow your guests!

We served a NV Martini winery Moscato Amabile with the dessert. This wine is one of my favorite dessert wines. It used to have effervescence but the winery now makes it as a still wine. It still tastes wonderful and even has a teeny bit of effervescence to it. It didn’t stand up well to the sweetness of the caramelized pineapples though. This wine is best drunk by itself, to be enjoyed for what it is rather than to complement food, perhaps.

And, so we left the beautiful Montclaire hills to drive back across the Bay to our part of the universe, sated and happy!