10th Annual Holiday Buffet

The 10^th Annual Crowing Coq Holiday Buffet last night at Annie & George's was another fun and relaxing evening!  We ate well as usual - with samplings from past book selections: My Paris Kitchen, Big Small Plates, Jerusalem, and Bill's Open Kitchen.  Many thanks to Annie and George for again hosting this holiday event.  As always your home, decorations and warm welcome are much appreciated.

While waiting for everyone to arrive, we noshed on Annie’s warmed mixed nuts and drank a Roederer NV Champagne that I continued to drink with our entrés as well because I like how it cleans my palate after eating spicy food.  Of course, what’s not to like about Roederer?  Of course, I could always drink their Cristal instead!!!  ;-)

George prepared Celery Root Soup w Horseradish Cream & Ham Chips from  My Paris Kitchen cookbook.  The celery flavors were mild and the horseradish cream and crispy prosciutto chip were great counterbalances to the soup.   It makes a very pretty presentation as well.  It’s a soup that I will definitely make during our cold, rainy winter months.

We ate the rest of our entrés buffet style in two flights.  Our savory flight of dishes was in sync spice-wise.  We once again enjoyed the Merguez Meatballs with Siracha Aoli & Yogurt sauce.  Sandi W had prepared this dish for our My Paris Kitchen dinner in June.  Sharon made both beef and lamb meatballs for our buffet and we had no complaints!  Bill brought a delicious 2013 New Zealand Matua Sauvignon Blanc that went really well with the spicy dishes this evening.  

David made Burekas from the Jerusalem cookbook.  In addition to the feta and ricotta cheese in this dish, he added some herbs that really made a big difference.  Willie had tried an Armenian pasta version of this dish (it was called Sou-Boreg) for our Zov dinner many years ago and was so disappointed in the flat flavor of the result that he didn’t make it for the dinner.  The Zov version added no additional herbs other than parsley to her Boreg.  She also used Monterey Jack cheese.  David added his own special twist to his Burekas and made them into little purses that burst open when baked . . . yum!  

Michelle made Ka’ach Bilmalch, savory biscuits shaped into small wreaths, from the Jerusalem book.  She served them with a parsley sauce that everyone raved over.   She said that making the dough was very difficult and she wasn’t happy with the dry results.  We all want the recipe for the sauce though!   

I prepared Papas Bravas from the Big Small Bites cookbook.  My potatoes were not crispy, probably from not heating the oil hot enough. . .hard to cook in other people’s kitchens is my excuse. The sauce is to die for though and very easy to make, from tomatoes, chile powders, smoked paprika, Spanish sherry vinegar, herbs and olive oil.  

2007 Rochioli Pinot Noir, Estate was the red wine that Bill chose to serve this evening.   He basically let people pour their own wine so people chose different wines to accompany their plate.  When we combine various tastes in a buffet-style dinner, it usually ends up being what ever variety of wine a person likes.

We then took a break and chose our cookbooks for 2016.  We had many to choose from but narrowed them down to 5 books from which the 2016 hosts (Sharon, David & Michelle and David S.) can choose.  Check your local libraries for the books.  The link for each book will take you to the Amazon page, to give you an idea of price.

#1.  Pintxos, Small Plates in the Basque Tradition by Gerald Hirigoyen of San Francisco.  
He has two restaurants if we want to combine this dinner with a field trip.  Piperade (http://www.piperade.com/) and Bocadillos (http://www.bocasf.com/).  Bill & I have 
eaten and enjoyed Piperade but not yet tried his tapas restaurant Bocadillos.  

#2.  Another Ottolenghi book, Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's 
Ottolenghi  by Yotam Ottolenghi & Jonathan Lovekin, which will be our vegetarian 
dinner for the year. The book comes in a kindle version too!

#3. Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges  by Jean-Georges Vongerichten.  We’ve cooked 
from Vongerichten before and love his blending of flavors and cultures.

#4.  The Silver Palate Cookbook  Sheila Lukins & Julee Rosso.  Everyone has 
this cookbook staple on their bookshelf!  And, by now, I am sure that most of their 
recipes are online!

#5.  Alan Wong's New Wave Luau: Recipes from Honolulu's Award-Winning Chef 
by Alan Wong & John Harrison OR any of Alan Wong’s cookbooks (many of his recipes 
are online)

We then moved on to our traditional kitchen items gift exchange.  Our White Elephant gift exchanges are always fun.  George is now the guardian of the Crowing Coq Chicken mascot - the Arthur Court Rooster Timer.  Sharon is already planning her re-gifting opportunities for next year sans Victorinox knife.  One gift will be making the rounds and passed on at each of our dinners.  The book Provencal, 1970 is a book about the one year that the culinary giants were all in one place and cooking for each other:  Julia Child, James Beard, Richard Olney, MFK Fisher, Simone Beck and food editor Judith Jones. 

With our gifts in hand, we moved onto dessert.  Janice made a lovely Lemon Lime Tart with Strawberries from Bill Granger’s cookbook Bill’s Kitchen.  Bill is a well-known chef in Australia and his book provides wonderful recipes to try!   The lemons and limes were from her own trees. 

Annie tried her first Buche de Noel with great success.  As you can see from the photo, a very pretty presentation of a rolled cake.  The cake was moist and light and produced a comment from Sharon, “I don’t normally like cakes but this is delicious!”  Her meringue mushrooms added the perfect finale!   Bill provided a 1998 Chateau Rieussec to go with these two desserts.  His cellar never fails to provide us with wonderful wines.  

I decided to also make Toasted Coconut Ice Cream from David Lebovitz to go with the tart and cake.  It was a creamy, rich custard ice cream that was sprinkled with toasted coconut flakes to bring out the coconut taste.  

We finally gathered up our cooking paraphernalia and white elephant booty and made our way out into the very Christmas-y Willow Glen neighborhood with good will towards all!

Mark your 2016 calendars!!! First Saturday of every third month: March, June, Sept. and Dec.

Looking forward to our March dinner.    Sharon let us know what book she chose and will start bugging you after the holidays.

Happy Holidays!

(Sandi & Janice wrote this post)