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Last week's supperclub was a Korean food fest:- Scallion pancakes with dipping sauce- Broiled kalbi short ribs- Jap Jae (yam noodles with veggies and mushrooms)- Rice- Kimchee and many other side dishes (most store-bought except for bean sprouts blanched and dressed with sesame seeds, sesame oil and scallions - yum!)We also had a couple Korean beers - OB and Hite - OB won the taste test, but the branding is a little unfortunate...Dessert was mango gummy candies from Japan!
With all the depressing economic news swirling around these days, and the darker days post-daylight-savings, I felt a need to make some serious Lithuanian comfort food for last week's supperclub: soup and cepelinai (aka "zepelins"). We also whipped together an Anarchy Cake with some nice French Prune-Plums from the farmer's market (I love this recipe - it's the easiest and goes with any fruit, pretty much).A recipe for the soup was requested - I made it up, and it went something like this:1) Ruin some perfectly good homemade organic beef stock by using super-bitter celery from the farmer's market (I should have tasted it first!) - it tasted like Chinese herbal medicine :-(2) Fix the stock by making consomme with it using egg whites, ground beef and a can of tomatoes (this totally worked - hooray!)3) Make the soup using the corrected stock, more or less like this:1 quart (or so) beef stock1 large onion, sliced thin2 kohlrabis, peeled and cubed1/2 butternut squash, peeled and cubed1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced1 cup leftover soup meat, shredded (from the bones you made the stock with)a little buttersalt & pepper to tasteSaute the onion in a little butter on low heat - let it caramelize a little. Add the rest of the veggies and the stock and the meat - bring back to a boil, then lower heat and let it simmer for about 1/2 hour. Season to taste.Cepelinai are a Lithuanian delicacy - and a great way to use up leftover soup beef! I talked to my great-aunt over the weekend to make sure I got the proportions right, and here's more or less how it works:Per person (so 10 lbs. of potatoes will feed about 6-8 people, depending on how Lithuanian they are): 1 1/2 lbs. peeled russet potatoes (keep them whole in cold water while you work)1/4 cup (or less) leftover cooked soup meat, shredded, that's been sauteed with a little butter and onionsalt to tasteTake about 1/3 of the potatoes, cube them, and boil them in salted water for about 15 minutes, or until soft. Drain and mash the drained potatoes well.Grate the rest of the potatoes using either the smallest-holed "star" grater you own (the kind you grate lemon zest with - a regular Microplane won't work - it make the potatoes too stringy) OR (preferably) with a Kugelator - an awesome "tarkavimo masina" from Lithuania that my sister found in Chicago and gave everyone for Christmas one year. As you grate the potatoes, a little Vitamin C mixed in (make sure it's not flavored - or use Fruit Fresh) will help keep them from turning black.Once you've grated all the potatoes, you need to drain all of the liquid off, reserving it and letting the starch sink to the bottom of the bowl. To drain it well, the optimal solution is a bag that you just happen to have around to make cheese with... or, if you're lame like me and foolishly lost the bag that your great-aunt gave you years ago, you can use a clean flour-sack kitchen towel (I decided regular cheesecloth would break on me). The idea is to squeeze all the liquid out until you have a pretty dry, pasty-looking potato mass in your towel... and remembering to save the liquid in a bowl. This should give your hands a work-out - if it's not, you're probably not getting enough liquid out, OR you're losing a lot of potato mass through too-porous a sieve/cloth.Back to the starch - let the drained potato liquid sit in the bowl for a few minutes (you don't need to get all of it out of the water for 1 recipe - but you could if you wanted to keep it). Drain off most of the liquid, until you are left with just a few tablespoons of water with a white sludge of starch at the bottom of the bowl.Mix the mashed potatoes, the grated, squeezed dry potatoes and the sludgy starch in a bowl, add a little salt, and you're ready to shape the cepelinai.The cepelinai should look like little blimps when you're done - hence the name. Actually, they look sortof a lot like potatoes after you're done, which is pretty ironic given the abuse you've just put them through!To shape, take a small handful of the potato dough and pat it into a thick round in your hand. Put about 2 Tbs. of the meat and onions filling into the center of the round, then bring the sides of the disc together and pinch it shut. Slap it around in your hands a few times until it has a nice, uniform oval shape. So cute! Finish shaping the rest of the cepelinai, lining them up on a lightly floured pan as you work.In the meantime, boil a lot of water in a big pot with lots of salt, like you would for pasta. Once the water is at a rolling boil, drop the cepelinai in carefully (using a slotted spoon is a good idea), one at a time - you'll have to boil them in batches of about 3-4, most likely. Keep the heat on high until the water comes back to a boil. The cepelinai will slowly start bobbing at the top of the water - turn your timer on for about 5-7 minutes after this happens, and fish them out with a slotted spoon to a waiting serving dish (preferably with some melted butter in it). Finish cooking the rest of the cepelinai, and serve with spirguciai (basically bacon bits with all their grease cooked with onions and finished with sour cream) and sour cream on the side. Skanaus!
Last week's Supperclub was an extended Election Night version! We featured "Real America" food (because we're real Americans, damn it) with a few liberal elite touches:- Homemade Corn Dogs, including "New Mexico Swing-State Chorizo," "Vermont Liberal Weenie Tofu Pup," "Ye Olde Nebrasaka All-Beef," "Louisiana Conservative Andouille" and "Pennsylvania Bratwurst"
- Mac-n-Cheese (made by "chefty" Anne - delicious and a huge hit!)
- Arugula Salad with goat cheese, toasted walnuts, cherry tomatoes and asian pear - beets on the side, with Nida's famous dressing
- All-American Apple Pie (thank you Rita!) - with homemade Vanilla Ice Cream (courtesy of pastry-chef extraordaire Heidi!)
- Obama cake - chocolate cake with the Obama "Hope" poster spray-painted on the frosting (how do they do that?? ink-jet printer technology?)
And lots and lots of bubbly beverages and celebration! Given the political leanings of the crowd, the "Liberal Weenies" and Arugula salad were big hits... although the Adouille was quiet tasty!Here's to a new era!
Last week's supperclub was Indian Night - and it happened to occur on the first night of Dewali, almost like I planned it or something! We had:- mango lassis- mattar paneer- red lentil dal with cabbage- cauliflower with black mustard seeds and cumin- rice- raita- carrot halva- delicious pear gingerbread cake courtesy of Anne - which went surprisingly well with the halva!I made the matar paneer ahead of time, so it could sit overnight - everything else came together pretty quickly - we'll have to add more Indian nights to the mix...This week is Election Tuesday - come on over for Obama cake and "Real America" corn dogs if you're around!
