Plenty!

We already cooked from Yotam Ottolenghi’s first cookbook, Jerusalem, (see Sept. 2014 ) and decided to try his vegetarian book, Plenty, for this dinner.  It seemed at first that it was going to be a very strange dinner with the recipes that everyone chose to prepare but as always, it turned out to be a fabulous dinner that was delicious, filling and a treat!

I have been writing this blog for our group for 10 years now and I think I’ve run out of new adjective to describe the dinner.  YUMMM sort of sums it up.

There were 9 of us in attendance at this dinner hosted by Sharon & Sukie, with 9 courses, since David and Annie brought 2 dishes each.  And, we had plenty of wine since 2 of the courses weren’t wine friendly; but I’ll get to that later.  If you click on the recipe title, there's a link to the actual recipe in case you are inspired to give it a try yourself.

We started off drinking Roederer NV Champagne while waiting for everyone to arrive.   It is the best of the California sparkling wines and was a festive way to begin the evening.   

Sharon prepared the appetizer for us; Pear Crostini.  A slice of sourdough smothered with an olive oil, pine nut and garlic spread and then baked until crispy.   She then grilled slices of marinated pears and layered them with soft goat cheese and popped them back into the oven before serving.  Another home run, Sharon!  It was a great combination of savory, sweet and crunchy!    Bill poured a 2009 Windmill Valley Vineyards Chardonnay from Sonoma. Some background on this winery.  Everyone was invited to do an overnight stay at the guesthouse in the vineyard 3 years ago.  Janis & Bill and Bill & I enjoyed the visit as well as the wines.  This Chardonnay was one of their wines we enjoyed.  To read about our field trip, click on Aug., 2013.

Our next course was prepared by Sandi W and reminded me of stuffed calamari because of it’s shape and tomato bread filling.  The Stuffed Onions were filled with breadcrumbs, feta, garlic, onions & tomatoes.  I really liked them and from the empty plates, so did everyone else.  What I noticed is that his recipes look deceptively simple but take time.  There are usually several "parts" to his recipes to prepare for the final assembly.   

We moved our wine pairings around and tried a bottle from Bill’s cellar, a 2009 Tour de Tanay Gamay Beaujolais  Morgon Christian Vergier and a bottle from David’s cellar, 2012 Les Heritieres du Comte Lafon Macon-Milly-Lamartine Clos du Four.  The two bottles were also tried with some of the other dishes as well.  This was a very difficult wine pairing for Bill so trying different wines with the different courses was very educational for us.

The next course was a combination of the Garlic Tart that David prepared and the Celeric & Lentils with Hazelnuts & Mint that Annie made.  We all swooned over the Garlic Tart David prepared, using commercial puff pastry dough.  It was savory, creamy and very rich.  The Garlic Tart was one recipe that four of us wanted to bring to the dinner and it did not disappoint.  The Celeric side to the tart was perfect!  The hazelnuts and mint combined with Annie’s new favorite vegetable, celeric, and lentils was a surprisingly great mixture of textures, tastes and flavors.  David brought a 2014 Domaine Chauveau “Le Merennaise” Pouilly-Fume that was one of the more popular wines poured this evening.  What wine went best with which dish seemed to be based on very individual tastes this evening.  Some liked the Pouilly-Fume and others even liked the Beaujoulais with the tart.

Moving on to the next combo . . . David couldn’t contain himself and brought a second dish Stuffed Portobello with Taleggio.  Since he couldn’t find taleggio he used Morbier instead and I thought it worked.  I love taleggio  especially the Pazzo Marco’s taleggio so our next trip to Sea Ranch will have to include a stop at the Surf Market!  The Portobello was served with Caramelized Fennel & Goat Cheese that Michelle made.  I’ve grown to love fennel and this was a great way to prepare it.  The sweetness of the fennel and the tartness of goat cheese was a wonderful pairing of two flavors and textures.  Bravo, Michelle!  David brought a third wine that wasn’t on the menu, a 2014 Moulin de Gassac Rosé.   It was fun to try this wine with several of the courses as well.   All the bottles were crossing the table, back and forth, as everyone wanted to taste different wines with each course.

The pace of this evening’s dinner was faster than previous dinners.  I assume it’s because the dishes didn’t require a lot of prepping and the wine pouring was more informal.  It may be why I and others were beginning to feel pretty full by now so we were ready for lighter fare.  Annie also brought 2 dishes this evening and her second one was a Date & Turkish Ewe’s Cheese Salad that was packed with dates, sheep cheese, and basil leaves.  It used pomegranate molasses and olive oil for the very refreshing dressing.  Sukie’s Cucumber Salad with Smashed Garlic & Ginger had sesame seeds, cilantro, and ginger to give it an Asian overtone.  I loved them both and plan to make them in the future.  

Ottolenghi's ingredients aren’t hard to find, especially in the ethnically rich Bay Area.  Finding Ewe’s Cheese was probably a challenge as was finding freshly made Halva for the dessert I prepared.  I think Annie and I both found what we were seeking at the International Food Bazaar in Campbell.  A fascinating market filled with take out food as well as grocery items.   I’d have to say that converting from the English measuring system over to cups, ounces, etc. was a bit cumbersome so I’m glad my kitchen scale does both grams and ounces, although there was still some conversions to do.

Sandi W. tried several recipes from this cookbook and while some were disappointing, she liked most of them.  I was originally planning to bring the Green Couscous and made it the next day since I had the ingredients.   I have to recommend it to you all.  It is delicious and one that I will make again and again as a side.  It has a fresh herb paste made of cilantro, parsley, dill, tarragon, jalapeño and mint that is mixed with couscous, arugula, cooked onions and toasted pistachios.  A big yum for me!

The Plenty cookbook had no dessert recipes in it but Sharon and I thought we needed to end this evening’s dinner with dessert so I found an Ottolenghi dessert online.  Halva Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce and Salted Peanuts.  I doubled the recipe because his recipe doesn’t make a full quart…or I should say I made the recipe twice since doubling it wouldn’t fit in my ice cream maker.  My first try had a mistake and I added the halva & tahini paste to the custard while it was on the stove.   The second try followed the recipe and the ice cream had more of the halva texture since I added it during the ice cream maker process.  Both versions tasted the same but the texture was more authentic in the second try.   The chocolate sauce and peanuts really help make the ice cream extra special.   He said it was like eating a “Sneakers” candy bar and I Googled it but couldn’t find it so I am thinking he meant a “Snickers” candy bar?  Anyway, pretty yummy!  I served very small portions since everyone was saying they were feeling full but Willie told me that when it comes to dessert, people always find room and he was right.  Several people asked for seconds!
We did not pour any wine to go with this dessert because there wasn’t a wine that would go well with halva.   Nor did we pour a wine to go with the two salads since wines aren’t very compatible with salads.  And we still had wine left in the bottles we'd already opened so it wasn't as though we did't have enough.

And, a last note to congratulate Willie on fabulous photos!  I think you are ready for a second career at Bon Appétit!

Our next dinner will be June 4^th hosted by David & Michelle.   They haven’t decided which cookbook to use for their dinner so stay tuned!

Sharon is polling you all regarding our date in Sept since the 3rd is the Labor Day weekend.  Please get back to her with your choice.

Cook on!