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My Sunday Night Dinner Club took on a new form this past weekend – it was a task that we’ve not undertaken in quite sometime. What was supposed to be a nice quiet dinner for twelve turned into a debacherous affair for twenty-four. But what a night it was. If you are familiar with my Sunday night dinners then you will know they are themed, like last weeks picnic, for instance. Our spring tour continued with our good friends Summer Camp and his ladywife hosting (they are available for all future Sunday night dinners).
This past Sunday was the 28th anniversary of the eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington State, and with Summer Camp being from Washington he thought what better way to celebrate this than to have a meal dedicated to all that is volcanoes. We planned the menu meticulously, and ensured that most, if not all, ingredients came from a region with a volcano.
To start we served a white bean and herbed crostini; we had Korean inspired lamb, albeit from New Zealand; and Japanese and Peruvian inspired miso garnet sweet potatoes, courtesy of our resident chef, T2. There was also a tomato and mint keftedes from Greece and last but not least, a Pacific-rim Fuji apple salad. Not forgetting dessert we created an amazing chocolate molten cake from Mexico (not really from Mexico, but we claimed that region for the dish). We even sought out Assyrtiko wine, which is made from a grape grown in volcanic ash in the Santorini region of Greece.
The lamb, keftedes and molten cake were simply amazing. I have included some pictures after the jump and more details re the lamb.
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by BS
As you all know, I’ve been having some beef problems lately. Shopping at the food co-op sometimes does this weird ethical conscious/healthy eater thing to me and has turned me off of big-farm, corn-fed beef, but I just can’t learn to like the grassy stuff.
Oh, and don’t worry, I’m still planning to shell out for that $30 grass-fed filet mignon, as you all ordered. Just waiting for the right occasion.
In the meantime, I decided to branch out and try the whole buffalo craze that everyone is talking about. Before we begin, a few facts about buffalo that I gathered in my research.
1- Bison/Buffalo: Same thing – well, for our purposes anyway. Bison is the correct name, and they’re not the same thing that makes buffalo milk mozzarella. But any meat you see in stores here – usually called buffalo, but sometimes bison – is just plain old North American buffalo, like from the movies.
2- On the Grass: There are no bison mega-factory-farms, so all these guys are raised on pastures, eating the green stuff (although many are “finished” on corn at feedlots, shortly before they make it to your plate).
3- This tip is from me: It’s good but it’s not cow. So don’t expect it to be. Think of it more as trying a totally new type of meat, not as a replacement for steak, because that’s just not going to work.
Full details of my dancing with the buffaloes after the jump.
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by BS
I’ve never been a ginormous fan of yuca. I’m not sure why, it just hasn’t come up that much. The only time I really ever see it on menus is as a side at Hispanic restaurants, but there’s usually a choice between that and either plantains or french fries, so I don’t think I’ve ever ordered it. No disrespect to the yuca, but that is some tough competition.
However, last time I was down in D.C. we all went to dinner at Mayorga Cafe, where there were no plantains or french fries at all, and the yuca fries were the only fried starchy goodness to be had. And let me tell you, they sure made me forget about french fries for the evening. Golden-crispy, not too oily, and with just a little more actual taste than spuds, I was hooked.
So even though I had NO idea how to cook with these, I grabbed one on a whim last time I was at the food co-op.
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