Catching Up...

Missed a few in here...

• Sept '09 - Fresh and local at Becky & Etan's
• Nov '09 - Protein/veg/starch contest at Matt & Erin's
• Dec '09 - New Orleans! at Flora & Jon's
• Jan '10 - Asian at abode of Heidi-san & Robby-san
• Mar '10 - Earl of Sandwich supper at Shosh & Eyal's
• May '10 - Greek party at Dani's
• June '10 - First annual supper club outing - Tibetan food
• ?
• Sept '10 - Balkan night (complete with bouncy meata ballz) @ Dani's
• Nov '10 - Fall foods at Flora & Jon's
• Jan '11 - Aphrodisiacs and Cravings - Bman's
• Feb '11 - All American Family Dinner (and Oscar party) at Rob & Heidi's
• Mar '11 - Springtime foods at Becky & Etan's

There was wine. Lots of it.

August 9th brought french food galore, and lots of wine. Shosh and Eyal put us up in style, and it was quite the feast. French feasty foods like stuffed mushrooms, vichysoisse, salad nicoise, quiche, steak au poivre, chicken confit, haricot verts, butter cookies and chocolate souffle! Pastis was passed. Cigarettes were smoked. All was as it should be. And I had to go into work late the next morning to recover.

Previously on dinnaclub, there were picnics and other events that may or may not have happened due to summertime. We're on for at least the next few months. Noah and Tara are up for September. Barman for October.

Barman's Zucchini Fritters

2 zucchini cut diagonally into 1/4' pieces
2 eggs
2 Tbl milk
1/4 cup seasoned flour
veg oil

Place the zucchini slices in a sealed zip-lock with the seasoned flour and shake well. Shake off extra flour and dunk each piece into the egg/milk mixture until well coated. Cook in the hot veg oil 1-2 min on each side until golden/brown. Place on paper towels and blot to remove excess oil. Dip in your fav sauce or salsa and eat.

Jon's Shrimp Tacos

12 small soft taco shells (flour preferably ;))

1 lb medium shrimp

1 avocado

sauce:

1/3 cup olive oil

4 tablespoons of chipotle pepper paste (more/less depending on smoke preference)

2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper (more/less depending on heat preference)

1 cup of brown sugar (more/less depending on sweet preference)

1/2 of one lemon

1/2 of one orange

salt to taste

sautee shrimp til cooked, then add sauce till warm, and serve with raw taco/avocado

Heidi's Tomate, Jamon Y Manchego Tapas

Ingredients:
-wedge of Manchego cheese
-1/4 lb jamon, thinly sliced

-10 plum tomatoes, halved
-head of garlic
-olive oil
-baguette (whole grain)
-salt,pepper
-Oregano, about 1.5 tsp
-1 tsp Smoked paprika

~preheat oven to 350. Place tomato halves on baking sheet, sprinkle with olive oil, salt,pepper and oregano. Take garlic, slice off top of garlic, revealing all of the garlic cloves. Place it in tin foil, pour a few glugs of olive oil on it and warp it tightly. Place that on the baking sheet as well, roast everything for 1.5 hr to 2 hrs.
~take everything out of oven, let cool. squeeze out the soft garlic into a bowl, and pour in the remaining olive oil from the tin foil. add smoked paprika. smash up with a fork add more olive oil if you'd like.
~chop up the tomatoes to the size you like, add more of the seasonings to taste. we like paprika so we're heavy on that.
~slice up baguette, and shmear the garlic olive oil mash on each slice. Give it a quick toast in the oven.
~Assemble. add tomatoes to each slice, then a slice of manchego, then a slice of rolled up jamon.
ENJOY!

Umberto's Chorizo y Calimotxo

Step 1) Buy expensive chorizo that taste good.

Step 2) Heat the chorizo in a cast iron with some olive oil.

Step 3) Yum.

-------------------------------------

Step 1) Buy some inexpensive wine that tastes like shit.

Step 2) Mix equal parts Coca-Cola Classic with the wine.

Step 3) Jrunk.

Flora's Mexican Wedding Cakes

from epicurious

Polvorones

These "cakes" are really festive cookies.

Yield: Makes about 4 dozen

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup pecans, toasted, coarsely ground

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until well blended. Beat in flour, then pecans. Divide dough in half; form each half into ball. Wrap separately in plastic; chill until cold, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk remaining 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and cinnamon in pie dish to blend. Set cinnamon sugar aside.

Working with half of chilled dough, roll dough by 2 teaspoonfuls between palms into balls. Arrange balls on heavy large baking sheet, spacing 1/2 inch apart. Bake cookies until golden brown on bottom and just pale golden on top, about 18 minutes. Cool cookies 5 minutes on baking sheet. Gently toss warm cookies in cinnamon sugar to coat completely. Transfer coated cookies to rack and cool completely. Repeat procedure with remaining half of dough. (Cookies can be prepared 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature; reserve remaining cinnamon sugar.)

Sift remaining cinnamon sugar over cookies and serve.

Comeonshakeyabodybabydothatconga!

We had a wildly successful dinner last night at Dani's. Spanish tapas night was one of the best yet - everyone brought their A-game with goodies like shrimp tacos, artichoke dip, chorizo, serrano/manchego/tomato toasts, spanish tortilla, fried zucchinis with special sauce, and ze mexican wedding cakes.  We were of course all surprised by Dani's secret wild card addition-Pulpo! (octopus!)  Dani's first hosting gig was fabulous - bravo! The Spanish mix soundtrack really made it a party!

Our next suppa club will be a picnic Saturday June 20th in Prospect Park.
This is our first picnic so let's bring it!  Classic picnic fare is great - potato salad, burgers, pasta salads, BBQ chicken, lemonade.  Or how about grilled corn on the con with lime butter and cayenne, jicama slaw, shrimp kabobs, curried lamb kabobs, rhubarb crumble. mmm...

Because Supper Clubs Are Blowing Up

From Not Eating Out in NY - Check it out.

"You see, every supper club, in New York City at least, has their own flavor. Or every dinner they hold — and this is key, that they’re so occasional — has their very own pomp and circumstance. What in the world is a supper club? you might be asking. Well, it can be as formal as the ones I receive bi-weekly dinner announcements from. A team of well-organized chefs and servers who host dinner parties out of someone’s home kitchen. But really, if you don’t want to run a committed club, all it takes is a home chef with wiles to spare."

We may not be "well-organized chefs", but we've got spirit.

Shosh's Chicken Paprikash

pap-ri-kash.  paprikash.

INGREDIENTS 

• 1 (2 to 3 pound) whole chicken, cut into pieces (I used all thighs shredded)
• 1 bell pepper diced
• 3 diced garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 tbls cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup hot and sweet hungarian paprika
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2-1 cup sour cream (I used soy, came out great!)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large skillet, heat olive oil and brown chicken on all sides. Season chicken with salt, paprika, cayenne pepper and pepper. Remove chicken and set aside.
2. Add onion, garlic and bell pepper to skillet. Cook just until tender, but not brown. Stir in most of paprika. Return chicken to skillet, turning to coat with paprika/onion mixture. Add wine and broth. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked and tender. (I cooked it in the oven at 300 for like 2 hours) Remove chicken and keep warm.
3. Boil skillet drippings until reduced to 1/2 cup liquid, about 3 minutes. Stir in 1/2 cup sour cream. Heat through. Serve chicken atop spaetzle (Hungarian egg noodles) or dumplings.