Mar 1, 2011

January KTC Event: "Three-from-the-Pantry" by Joyce and Shawn

Hi-Ho, Kissers – another action-packed week at the Caballero-White household has had me running too fast to stop long enough to type anything extra-curricular in the computer! So, my apologies for the delay (again!). Good news? Here it is – as promised! January’s Three-from-the-Pantry recap!


Joyce and Shawn hosted – the first of our pre-selected pairs in this year’s “mix-it-up” partner-swapping challenge. Instead of cooking with our respective household partners, we drew names out of a hat during our December cookie bake at Anne and Rick’s place. Shawn and Joyce would host January’s event; Meg and Anne would host February’s event, Fernando and Frank would host March’s event, and so on.


Joyce and Shawn had a fabulous idea: They riffed on the concept of using recipes for inspiration instead of simply following the recipes outright, and decided to pick three pantry staple ingredients. The group’s task for the evening was to showcase these three ingredients for our dinner.



Extra points for thinking of easily-prepared or “go-to” weeknight-style meals, especially since all three items are relatively nutritious things which most of us probably have on hand at any time in the kitchen during fall and winter in Seattle:
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Kale
  • Goat cheese
The Plan: We would have a short brainstorming session to share ideas about quick and nutritious "weeknight" meals using these three ingredients, all easily sourced locally and abundant during our long fall and winter. Then, we would each team up with 2-3 people. One group would plan and prepare a first/starter course, another would prepare a main course, and the third would prepare a dessert. Each course had to contain at least one of the showcase ingredients.


Resources on hand would include a detailed list of pantry staples, produce, and refrigerated/freezer items which were on hand and available for our use at Joyce and Jessica’s house. Additional resources were a few laptop computers, the Flavor Bible, Michael Ruhlman's Ratio book, miscellaneous recipes and cookbooks on site and a suite of “starter recipes” for each ingredient which Shawn had pulled for us to review and use as thought-starters for our own ideas.



To add even more spice to the night, we had a houseful of special guests: Jessica’s sister Lesley was in from Boston, the lovely Elli was joining us for the evening, and our old friend Jeff Luoma joined us from Ithaca. Jeff also brought along his Seattle-based sister, Gretchen, niece Freida, and nephew Tate. We had some snacks, served some wine, and settled in to discuss business at hand. During Joyce’s extraordinarily informative introduction, our group was focused! On task! Paying attention! No, seriously – see for yourself:


When Shawn’s turn to expound on Joyce’s intro rolled around, folks were still attentive, but already itching to get started. Is that Joyce talking out of one side of her mouth to a smirking Jeff?


Well, probably, but it didn’t seem to hurt anyone’s feelings too much. Here we all are, relaxed and ready to get our brains a-stormin.’


After some spirited discussion (and a healthy dose of indecision), our three teams made their final choices for what to prepare. Initially, the three teams didn’t share much information about what each course would be comprised of, so it was really fun to see different and unexpected things unfolding from the same exact set of ingredients. We assembled in the kitchen to begin.


Yams were peeled and diced for roasting…


Kale was washed…


Thyme was plucked…


We boiled…


And sliced…


And chopped…


We turned out some extracurricular snacks along the way, like kale chips:


Shawn snuck a peek at Group 1’s appetizer inspiration (click on the photo for the recipe itself!):


And then she got a good, long look at the rouille, made in this incarnation from mayonnaise, tomato paste, smoked paprika, and other goodies. Yum!


Group 2 was putting together the main course, loosely inspired by this recipe from Food & Wine. It would be a rustic, free-form tart topped with chicken, kale, sweet potatoes, and a dollop of goat cheese. Here, Frank is melting butter to get the party started:


The group roasted up the sweet potatoes (er, yams?):


Then fried up the chicken:


Finally, sautéed some kale and onions for good measure:


Frank rolled out William’s fail-proof crust recipe (If someone will email it to me, I’ll see that it gets linked to this post!), and the tarts began to take form:


Have a closer look. Aren’t they pretty?


Sadly, the only photo of dessert preparation that we caught (besides the chocolate-chopping pic above) was this one, and as I recall, it was sweet potato and goat cheese ice cream, which we served topped with a chocolaty truffle which I believe also had some goat cheese in it (Can someone confirm? Anyone? Bueller?). Mmmmmm…


In short order, dinner was ready. As we typically do, our table was prepared…


But this time, before we dined, we joined Jeff in a rousing Bob Dylan-inspired version of the ever-popular pre-dinner hit, “Jingle Bells.” *N.B. As a KTC newbie, I wasn’t sure if “Jingle Bells” had some nostalgic significance, or if it was just a good choice since it was a given that we’d all know the words. If you know, pass a gal the 411, will you?


It is my honor to present to you our first course, Potato and Kale Cakes with Rouille.


Oh wait, that was Mango trying to nose in on the pantry-item action. Ahem. And now, Potato and Kale Cakes with Rouille (yummy for our tummies!).


Our main course, a chicken, kale, yam and carmelized onion rustic tart…It made up in flavor a hundred times what the photo displays.


And dessert, which I believe may have been sweet potato ice cream and some kind of chocolate thingie. Can anyone refresh my memory? I remember it was really tasty!


And that’s all she wrote! More coming soon about February’s amazing Gnocchi-palooza, with more people-pics, scout's honor!
[Gratuitous picture of Rosie to sign off, hee hee...]

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