March KTC event - Simplicity (and yumminess!) at Meg's place

March has come and gone, and somewhere within the whirlwind was a fabulous KTC event at Meg’s place. Originally conceived of as an exercise in simplicity, the idea was to have no single recipe with more than three ingredients. In execution, I believe we cheated quite a bit and ended up using more than three in many cases, but things were still relatively simply prepared, with delicious results!

The evening began with glasses of champagne and rosé for all. Special treat guests Sam and Michael joined us for a while and brought a boxload of Theo’s confections to sample and enjoy. Yum!

First order of business: to “blanch” the potatoes we planned to fry in the deep fryer. William explained the reasoning for adding this step in this way, via a subsequent email:

“Simple quick frying doesn’t work very well; it gives a thin, delicate crust that’s quickly softened by the interior’s moisture. A crisps crust requires an initial period of gentle frying, so that starch in the surface cells has time to dissolve from the granules and reinforce and glue together the outer cell walls into a thicker, more robust layer. – The most efficient production method is to pre-fry all the potato strips at the lower temperature ahead of time, set them aside at room temperature, and then do the brief high-temperature frying at the last minute.”

As you can see from the above photo, results were far greater than satisfactory. Two words: Truffle salt.

Meg had recently been in Napa and had purchased a number of wines which she generously offered for us to try. We enjoyed some incredible examples from Cuvaison (Chardonnay), Kent Rasmussen (Pinot Noir), Peju (Sauvignon Blanc), and more.

Jessica and Meg got to work preparing the chickens for roasting, which—in and of itself—was a hysterical bout of fun. These brave and fair ladies shoved fresh bay leaves under the chicken’s skin (admittedly not the chicken's best angle)...



And provided spa-quality chicken carcass massage services, as demonstrated in this video:



Once the chicken was ready for the oven, we began working on the other elements of our meal. Meg had the terrific idea of trying to recreate an oh-so-simple but oh-so-delicious salad she’d enjoyed on her recent Napa trip: arugula, carrot, mushroom, lemon juice, and truffle oil. It was heavenly!


Damian and Frank were hard at work preparing extraordinarily buttery-smelling puff pastry sheets for a lovely potato tart. They rolled and cut out what they needed, and baked the scraps up into cute little mini-puff-pastries...


Much slicing of potatoes followed, the puff pastry crusts were placed, and into the oven everything went. A short while later, it was time for step two—the addition of a custard inside the tart via a small vent which had thoughtfully been left in the top crust.

Damian separated the eggs, mastering the old “just use your hands” trick (fine advice for many a situation, to be sure)...


And then whisked the yolk into some heavy cream...


It took three of us to introduce around half of this custard mixture (all that would fit!) into the tart through this tiny hole, but I feel confident stating the effort was certainly worth the trouble. Feast your eyes...


About then, these stunning roasted chickens emerged, flanked by the Brussels sprouts we’d tucked in before slipping the pan into the oven...


The bay leaves beneath the skin were gorgeous...


Brussels sprouts were removed and placed in a bowl to admire for a while before serving...


We placed the chickens on platters to carve, which Rick masterfully performed...


Meanwhile, sensing the real action was close at hand, Fernando and Frank exhibited laudable patience. We snapped them here, in anticipation of the feast...


The herbed potato tart creation proved to be as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside (not to mention as tasty!)...


We didn’t do too badly in picking the chickens over – these bits were packaged up as giveaways for some lucky folks’ homemade stock...


The cheese course consisted of wine-stewed prunes and cheese – YUM!


Dessert was a fried frittery treat: Churros! The deep fryer was turned back on, and we mixed up the super-easy dough to load into a pastry bag...


We fried them up...


And then tossed them “luxuriously” (per the recipe!) in a sugar and cinnamon mix before holding in the warm oven until it was time to serve them...


And serve them, we did – with two kinds of chocolate sauce!


As you can see, the night was a success! Don’t forget to pass along ideas for concepts or ideas of things to learn/re-learn to William. We look forward to seeing y’all in a couple of weeks on the 25th for a super-cheesy afternoon at Shawn and Fernando’s place!

In closing, a gratuitous cool flower photo that Fernando took of Meg’s tulips...