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2009 dr.com Spring Picnic


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I counted between 85 to 90 of us! What a great time! Thanks to everyone who helped and everyone who came. A lot of new people really enjoyed themselves and I am glad they did! Crazy leftovers made their way home with me including jake's knife and cutting board, jackie"s white utentials, Dean's knife (I think?, you can have the knife, but the pickled veggies are mine!) a huge assortment of table cloths and a couple of bottles of wine. We covered the rental fee, and everyone was already talking about the fall picnic.

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...as it appears I missed a kale ceviché that was amazing. (I managed to sneak a taste from the dregs on the bottom of the bowl)

w00t, that was my contribution.

Lacinato Kale massaged with Laudemio olive oil + Maldon sea salt + freshly squeezed lemon juice + raw hemp seeds = love

Well, lots of Vitamin K anyway. Adore that stuff.

The technique and proportion specifics are available here, have fun customizing with this method.

OUTSTANDING picnic today, such a delight to put faces to names in this vibrant community. From the deftly delicious fennel salad to the borderline spiritual pulled pork to pickled smoked daikon to the my-god-am-i-dreaming burdock root this was a feast for the memory bank.

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What a great time!! The food was fantastic - too many to list and while it's unfair to single out certain items, I just have to give some serious props to the following: Mrs B's pea shooters, Zora's gazpacho, Antonio's chicken (dude...you worked waaaaay too hard. But we loved every delicious bite!), the homemade oshinko, the Bon Chon chicken, the tres leches cake, agm's ribs, the pulled pork, Dean's pate and pickles, Jake's Brooklyn....wow, there was A LOT of food.

Of course, serious thanks to Scott and cucas87 for all their efforts organizing this madhouse. Good friends, food, booze, and weather. Perfect!!!!!

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Another beautiful day of good food and company. Talking and eating took precedence over picture-taking, but what I did take is here: Flickr.

I will link to the bean recipe on my blog once I am done writing it up.

Just seeing that platter of Twinkies again sent me into a swoon. Thanks for taking that picture, Heather.

And Scott, if in any of those leftovers you find the little fire hydrant I brought, please hang onto it for the October picnic.

It was really great meeting many of you. I came away with a full tummy and a few new friends.

Bruce

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And Scott, if in any of those leftovers you find the little fire hydrant I brought, please hang onto it for the October picnic.

I think agm and NotQuickDraw took the extinguisher home, with the intent of bringing it back for the Fall picnic.

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As usual, lost driving in Virginia was a theme of the day. Nice to be with so many old and new friends. Waitmans pork belly was pretty damnned decadent. Antonio's fried chicken was as usual.... damnned good. The Vignarola (Anna Blume's) was damnned good. Didn't eat as much as I wanted to cuz I had to go back to work and could not afford a food coma.

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Thank you, clouds and rain and cold and damp and bleak, gray skies for staying away this time; the only other picnic I have ever attended was in the pouring rain, and fun as it was, it was so much better to be outside on an absolutely perfect June day with so many happy folk and only a little soggy ground underfoot to remind us of what might have been.

Thanks not only to Scott and cucas87, but to goldenticket, too, for keeping up the inventory, the member who brought all those tablecloths and to Jake and ol' ironstomach for coaxing a bit of recycling at the very end.

I enjoyed a number of firsts and, Pat, I'd love to know how you made your Peruvian potatoes. The burdock root, so, so perfect after all the richness! The tres leches cake was new, too, if, apparently, not to hundreds of thousands in the googling world since there are so many recipes on line (but not with boiled :D frosting)! On the list for grocery shopping next week: Tuscan kale and lemons. And, finally, finally, I will stop at Truck Patch since I have now sampled their delicious fare: lots of meat in that jowl, not just luscious, jiggly fat.

Kibbee: I discovered your canister for putting out fires under a table and placed it among other things left at the end, so it should have been saved.

Wonderful food!

Oh, and hillvalley, you're right. 7:20 PM: tall pot on the stove for just a little pesto!

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Please do post your recipes (or links to them) in this thread. There were so many great dishes that I'd like to make at home!

It was a great day - thanks to everyone who showed up!

Good call--I just updated a previous posting on this thread to include a link to the "Kale Ceviche" how-to. Here it is again just in case.

Good thing I tried several stellar desserts to counteract all those antioxidants. Balance, and all that...

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Thanks, KMango. You know, Melissa Clark wrote a recipe for Tuscan kale slaw some time ago and I didn't quite believe it would work, but I think your dish is the perfect thing to do with the greens, pre-frost.

Goldenticket just sent a PM, so although I know I've linked it before, for easy reference, here are three good links for you; there are a whole lot more, including the great collaboration of an international bunch of us over the Cooking & Cuisine of Lazio thread in the Italian Regional forum of egullet, pre-diaspara.

1) Epicurious. Read the two "reviews" from A Cook in Washington; the feedback is mine.

2) David Downie's recipe, more or less. I do like it with itty, bitty new potatoes.

3) Sigh.... Some of you may know Klary from the web site mentioned above. The link (in case it breaks) is to a blog entry on 3-05-09 with photographs taken during a trip to Rome. When you've got the bounty captured in the third photograph, it's time to make vignarola. One variation on the dish is captured in the seventh shot: little artichokes (carciofini) and fava beans so fresh, so tender, so young, you only have to shell them once! :blink: See the little sprouty thingie (oh stop it, :D !) on one side? Sign the beans have simply been slipped from their pods, in this case for a stew flavored with lots of guanciale; I don't see either peas or onions. (See the very final photo documenting another way to eat fava beans.)

FYI: They were not in great shape, but Whole Foods on P Street had fava beans for the best price I've seen in town: $1.99. I spoke to the very nice guy at Customer Service given their condition and the huge quantity I was buying and the low yield I'd get for spending so much. He gave me an even better price, the sweetie. (None at all in HT today, so I was lucky!)

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I had a great time yesterday! Everything was great as usual, but I am in love with XCanuck's terrine! Antonio Burrell thank you for working so hard! I have also a newfound appreciation for Martian Pig Slop from Hell! Thanks Mark!

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Pat, I'd love to know how you made your Peruvian potatoes.
I drew from a number of different sources to come up with a recipe. The yellow color comes mostly from Aji Amarillo yellow hot pepper paste, but the recipe also uses yellow potatoes. I used Doí±a Isabel brand for the pepper, which I found at the Shopper's Food at Potomac Yards. I intended to serve the potatoes molded and had oiled the bowls towards that end, but they did not want to cooperate and unmold, so I left them as they were for the picnic. I discovered with the leftover plain potatoes that they unmolded easily because they had been sitting out. I had thought having them very cold was the answer to unmolding, but it turned out that they need to be a bit warmer. I don't know how well unmolding would work with the layered version.

This recipe made enough for two decent-sized batches. I made about 1 1/2 with the chicken filling and then kept 1/2 batch plain.

Causa

potatoes
2 kg. Yukon gold potatoes (approx. 4 1/2 lbs.), cooked, cooled, and peeled
1 cup corn oil [or other vegetable oil]
1 cup lime juice
5 Tbsp. aji amarillo yellow hot pepper paste
salt and white pepper to taste
minced onion [1/2 vidalia sliced fairly thin, soaked in water, dried, and minced fine]

Mash potatoes and combine well with other ingredients.

chicken filling
2 chicken breast halves, poached in water with s + p for about 30 minutes. Cooled. Meat shredded.
Mix chicken with 1/2 cup mayo + 1 tsp prepared mustard.

Layer in clear glass bowl: potatoes, avocado slices,* chicken, potatoes. Refrigerate until close to serving.

To serve molded, oil a mold or glass bowl before adding potato mixture. (It's easier to unmold once it has sat out for a while than when it is very cold.)

For serving, top with hard boiled egg halves, pitted kalamata olives, and more avocado slices.*





*Squeeze additional lime juice on avocado slices during assembly to prevent browning.

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This recipe made enough for two decent-sized batches. I made about 1 1/2 with the chicken filling and then kept 1/2 batch plain.

Causa

potatoes

2 kg. Yukon gold potatoes (approx. 4 1/2 lbs.)

Thanks for posting this Pat - this was another of my favorites (there were so many!) from Sunday.

I'm going to ask the silly question (which probably has an obvious answer) ... do you boil (or otherwise cook) the potatoes before mashing and combining with the other ingredients? I need all the steps in a recipe spelled out or I'm in trouble :D

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Thanks for posting this Pat - this was another of my favorites (there were so many!) from Sunday.

I'm going to ask the silly question (which probably has an obvious answer) ... do you boil (or otherwise cook) the potatoes before mashing and combining with the other ingredients? I need all the steps in a recipe spelled out or I'm in trouble :blink:

Oops. I pasted in what I had written for myself after the fact and just made a few minor adjustments. I obviously didn't think all the steps through :D.

Yes. You boil the potatoes until they're fork tender but not falling apart. Or you can cook them in a small amount of water in the microwave. Cool until they can be peeled. Then mash. (Or peel in advance.)

[edited original post to reflect this]

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Good call--I just updated a previous posting on this thread to include a link to the "Kale Ceviche" how-to. Here it is again just in case.

Good thing I tried several stellar desserts to counteract all those antioxidants. Balance, and all that...

KMango: So, I bought Tuscan kale yesterday, intending to make the "ceviche" and just read the recipe you posted on flickr again.

Puzzled. In true ceviche, it is the citrus juice that "cooks" seafood.

Granted there is a ridiculously low quantity of olive oil in the recipe (only 1 1/2 teaspoons of oil for an entire bunch of kale), but it seems odd to add the citrus after the oil coats the ribbons of kale unless the lubricating oil is supposed to help the coarse salt abrade the surface of the leaves.

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KMango: So, I bought Tuscan kale yesterday, intending to make the "ceviche" and just read the recipe you posted on flickr again.

Puzzled. In true ceviche, it is the citrus juice that "cooks" seafood.

Granted there is a ridiculously low quantity of olive oil in the recipe (only 1 1/2 teaspoons of oil for an entire bunch of kale), but it seems odd to add the citrus after the oil coats the ribbons of kale unless the lubricating oil is supposed to help the coarse salt abrade the surface of the leaves.

The oil and "massage" technique help break down the leaves, and the citrus juice further breaks them down. The salt just punches up the flavor, from my experience. But I am not the most scientifically adept at these things, so if you have further insight into the "why" behind the "how", that is always welcomed insight.

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