Summer Olympics

Hosted by J & A.

Celebrating the London Summer Olympics.

"the cold war" cocktail

amuse buche of "olympic" tea sandwiches

Welsh Rarebit appetizer

Yorkshire Pudding with Smoked Trout Salad

Moussaka

Trio of olympic puddings

Austria!

Hosted by Diane & Harlan

wiener schnitzel with a side of erdäpfelsalat and grüner salat

wine: 2009 FX Pichler Loibner Burgstall Federspiel Riesling

linzer torte

wine: 2009 Husch La Ribera Vineyards Mendocino Muscat Canelli

salzburger nockerl

wine: 2010 Navarro Late Harvest Anderson Valley Gewürztraminer

sachertorte

wine: 2010 Husch Late Harvest Anderson Valley Gewürztraminer

D.I.Y. Southern Comfort

Hosted by HM & B. 

 

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Dishes inspired from the American South that include at least one "made-from-scratch" ingredient that you usually buy from the store. 

Hush Puppies & Corn Bread with homemade cornmeal 

Bacon-y Coleslaw with homemade bacon 

Skillet Fried Chicken with homemade buttermilk 

Biscuits with homemade baking powder 

Green Peas in Cream with homemade butter 

Homemade Hot Sauce 

Fried Okra 

Collard Greens with homemade lemon and duck confit 

Hard Lemonade with homegrown lemons 

Lemon Chess Pie with homemade butter 

Mint Julep Ice Cream

Greek Easter Dinner

Dierwolf

Hummus, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh and bread
Greek salad
Roast leg of lamb with yukon gold potatoes
Spring vegetable saute 

Assortment of greek pastries, yogurt with honey, fresh fruit and dates

Homemade Bacon

I'm still working on my smoking technique.



SLIDES OF THE WORK IN PROGRESS

Momofuku Bo Ssam

Copyright 2012 PDemoreuille


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Menu

Korean Seaweed Soup

Momofuku's Bo Ssam - the skin is basically pig candy - I could not stop eating it and thought about it for a few days afterward.

Mochi-covered fresh strawberries - all handmade from scratch, soft delicate mochi skin covering red bean and a fresh strawberry.  So light I ate two.  Great presentation and it tasted as good as it looked.



Copyright 2012 PDemoreuille

Downton Abbey Dinner

Christmas

Lamb Roast



G's Korean Feast

Crab Season

Clue Dinner

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Hosted by C&J

A dish to hint at clues drawn from the classic board game.

Autumn Salad

Pasta bundle en papillote

Roast Pork with Fruit and Nut Glaze

Shrimp grits on burnt toast from The Gift of Southern Cooking

Pimento cheese with cherry pits on celery

Fried Salmon Balls with a Soy Dipping Sauce

Ice cream-centric dessert

The Filth of July

Achiote Barbecue Chicken with Three Sauces by RSun (c)

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Hosted by R & N.

A summer picnic with no-utensils-required foods.

Deviled Eggs with Basil Aioli and Fried Capers

Deviled Eggs with Sriracha Mayo and Furikake

Pickled Shrimp

Fragrant Lamb Pita Wedges

Achiote Barbecue Chicken with Three Sauces

Lamb Ribs

Corniest Corn Muffins

Ice Cream Sandwiches: mint chip with chocolate cookies; peach/nectarine with ginger cookies

Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

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Hosted by D & H.
Dishes from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Apulia's Olive Bread
Layered Crespelle with Tomato, Proscuitto, and Cheese
Pappardelle w/ Broccoli
Asparagus Frittate
Lasagne with Artichokes
Braised Carrots with Parmesan
Chicken Fricassee, Cacciatora Style w Mashed Potatoes, Bolognese Style
Walnut Cake

Making Old New Again

Hosted by HM & B.
Favorite dish from childhood, but adding a new twist to it.

Ca ri ga (Vietnamese chicken curry)

Mandoo Dumplings

Confit of carrot and cumin

Roasted carrot and red lentil ragout

Taiwanese Five Spice Chicken Wings with pickles

Filipino fresh lumpia

Chocolate Killer Cake / King Cake

Crab Season

Diwali

J&A Hosted a Diwali extravaganza with guest chefs specializing in Marathi cuisine from the region of Maharashtra.

French Macaroon Tower

Diwali Slideshow

  

- Fresh lime soda

- Chaat: samosa w/chickpeas, pani puri, pakora, aloo vada from Vik's

- Shankarpari

- Daal

- Cauliflower/potato bhaji

- Cabbage/pea bhaji

- Aloo sukhi bhaji, two ways

- Eggplant bhaji 

- Fish curry
- Raita w/cucumber and peanuts

- Pooris

- Ghee and spicy chutney 

- Rice

- Shrikhand with melon/mango salad

- Cardamom-pistachio kulfi

- Sparkling Tower of French Macaroons with chocolate and salted caramel filling

Sound of Music

Swiss raclette sausages

Hosted by R.
A dinner inspired by the the music, setting, lyrics, or anything related to The Sound of Music. 

Swiss raclette with salt-roasted marble potatoes, pickled vegetables, and an assortment of sausages

"The lonely goatherd" braised goat shanks with spaetzle

Austrian Weiner Schnitzel and Rotkraut (Red Cabbage)

Creamy Sauerkraut Gratin with Duck Confit

Sauteed Kale with Garlic

"A Drink* with Jam and Bread" aka "Cream-Colored Ponies"

The Baroness's Pink Lemonade

Black Forest Cake

Austrian Jam Cookies

Turkish Night

Hosted by S & E.

Bulghur Turkey Kofte by Rsun (c)

Photos by RSun:

What a Gas!

Slideshow

Cooking with some form of gas.

Menu 

Edible Cocktail - Gin & Tonic Gelee

Smoked Cheese Plate

Feta, "Watermelon", Mint and Apple

Endothermic Caesar Salad

"Burgers" - Smoked Beef, Steamed Bun & Pickled Roots

"Ketchup" - Roasted Gazpacho w/ Smoked Fish & Creme Fraiche

"Milkshakes" - Kumquat-Ginger Milkshake w/ kumquat smoke

Chocolate Honeycomb & Coffee

Tet, Lunar New Year, Mardi Gras and Valentine's Weekend

With Lunar New Year, Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day falling on the same weekend what else was there to do but have a three day festival of food and nature in Yosemite.  The first day we celebrated Tet and Chinese New Year, the second Mardi Gras, and on the third day we celebrated Valentine's Day with a snowball fight.

Tet & Chinese New Year Menu
Bang Chung w/ pickled veg
Xiao Long Bao
Seafood Noodles
Braised Pork Belly w/ Egg
Mangosteens
Nian Gaw

Tet was kicked off by Bang Chung a traditional Vietnamese dish of mung bean paste wrapped in glutinous rice wrapped in banana leaves and boiled for a long while, then toasted in a pan.  HM made them from scratch using a family recipe.  When it was described to me, I thought it was going to be a starch bomb, in fact it was a beautiful study in textures.  Toasted exterior crunch with a sticky and somewhat chewy glutinous rice interior and then a soft earthy bean paste.  Nothing like what I imagined.  HM pickled some vegetables to go with it and accompanied the whole thing with a side of steamed pork ("fancy pork").

Next came a dumpling course, which was originally sway jiao ("water dumplings"), but we decided to challenge ourselves to make xiao long bao (XLB).  C dutifully made the soup aspic the day before then prepared the filling that evening.  All of us then got to work in our little dumpling sweatshop making the xlb and placing them in steamers.  It was fun playing around with the amount of soup that would be in each dumpling.  We went for some super soupy ones.  They looked great.  After some complications with steaming them, including scorching my lip with some soup from a sample dumpling, we realized that the wrappers were the source of the difficulty.  Next time we'll need to adjust the wrappers, but the flavor was good and the dumplings were full of soup!  We also had a seafood noodle interlude, a recipe from R's mother.  A good balance of seafood flavor and fresh noodles.

Crab Dinner

Taking advantage of the bountiful crab season, we had a crab dinner and watched the TC Finale.  We had a E's beautiful salad with pumpkin seeds, persimmons and pomagranate, and polished off five crabs, but not without some difficulty earlier that day.