Jun 22, 2011

Upcoming KTC events through mid-2012

OK folks - here is the schedule for upcoming months. I'm posting with the assumption that we'll have our annual business meeting in November and a separate cookie bake event in December - please let me know if this is inaccurate or if we'd like to do something different.

Jun 14, 2011

May KTC Event: Chocolate Adventures with Jessica and Rick

It's that time again, Kissers! And, if by “that time” you guessed “far too many moons since we last published something on our blog,” then congratulations! You guessed right!

Jessica and Rick brought up the oh-so-shapely rear of the “partner swapping” experiment that Meg proposed last fall. You may recall that we pulled names out of a hat at our annual cookie bake during December, and decided to host 'per two Kissers,' rather than 'per household.' Jessica and Rick would be our fifth such pairing, and it was clear as soon as we arrived that they planned to knock this one out of the park.

We convened at Joyce and Jessica’s place and presented with delicious snacks.
Next, we tried an unusual, locally-produced (from Oregon, w00t!) bittersweet vermouth that Jessica had tasted at a recent wine event, called Imbue. Even I, smack in the middle of my self-imposed month of sobriety (what was I thinking with that idea?), tried a teeny sip. It was viscously sweet, but not unpleasant – the consensus was that it would be perfect mixed with a glass of soda and a lime wedge on a hot day. That is, if we ever saw a hot day again.
We got started relatively quickly – Jessica and Rick had done a ton of prep and pre-cooking, but we would still have a lot to do. First up, appetizers.
We would be making a chorizo and chocolate crostini to serve – which sounded like a totally bizarre combination. We began by browning the chorizo. The chorizo that Jessica found, while Spanish in flavor, was “fresh” sausage, instead of the more traditional dry-cured chorizo we initially envisioned. Like the amazing and imaginative cooks we are, we figured we’d try it anyway and see what the results were. So we browned ‘em up…
The chorizo was paired with a bittersweet chocolate-and cream spread and served over crostini. The results were surprisingly tasty, and the flavor combination was just as unusual as we anticipated, but very tasty. We determined that we’d have to try making this recipe again with dry-cured chorizo, which we hypothesize will have a stronger/saltier flavor to contrast even more colorfully against the creaminess of the chocolate. Yum!
Also on the menu was a springtime bonanza of farro risotto – complete with fava beans and asparagus. Everyone’s eyes lit up at the mention of fresh fava beans, but of course everyone looked the other direction when the task of preparing them arose – so Meg stepped up to the challenge. Look at those beauties! Meg rinsed…
Meg blanched…
Meg drained…
And then she peeled…
Somewhere in there, she may have even had a nap (fava beans are a lot of work!). In any case, in what felt like about 3 hours later, our fava beans were ready to add to the risotto!

Shawn got started prepping the ingredients for another unusually-flavored dish: cocoa and smoked pimentón roasted cauliflower. This is how ordinary people prep their cauliflower:
Here’s what happens at a Kiss the Cooks event with cauliflower:
Here’s what happens at a Kiss the Cooks event with cauliflower when Meg is involved:
And last, but definitely not least, here’s what happens at a Kiss the Cooks event with cauliflower when Anne’s creative connections are a-firing:
This is next photo is just a bonus cheesecake shot for all you Anne-and-Joyce lovers out there. Me-ow!
Surprisingly, after all the fun and games, the cauliflower actually didn’t look much worse for wear, and is shown here, ready to season:
Shawn added what seemed like an ungodly amount of a cocoa and smoked pimentón mixture to cover the cauliflower (note: this is twice the cauliflower called for in the recipe, and half the seasoning!), and into the oven it went.
Meanwhile, the risotto got going. This would be another variation on the emmer farro risotto we enjoyed from William’s rice cooker several months ago--this time with asparagus and fava beans!
Consensus is that we won’t ever tire of it, as it is an easy recipe with endless variations, and deeply soul-satisfying to eat and share to boot. It’s so awesome, as a matter of fact, that even William himself will stir it sometimes (the proof is captured here in the photo!).
We even whipped up a green salad with cocoa nibs, dried cranberries, and goat cheese. It was delicious!
With our “from-scratch” recipes already well on their way to deliciousness, attention turned to the other pre-prepped or mostly-finished items on our menu that we needed to tweak and/or finish preparing in time for dinner. Lamb was first – it had been marinated overnight with an aromatic cocoa, red pepper, and clove mixture, and was destined to become kebabs. Granted, it doesn’t exactly look appetizing here:
You can see Joyce here, carefully threading the skewers with chunks of lamb and red onion:
Now that’s more like it! Doesn’t that look good?
And now, for our grand finale of chocolate-themed incredulity…The night before, Jessica and Rick had prepared Bon Appetit’s amazing spiced chocolate torte, and frosted it in anticipation of our chocolate-flavored party. Even more remarkable was that Jessica had even managed to carve out space in their kitchen freezer to freeze the cake—whole—so we could more easily decorate it.

Jessica and Rick described our task. As a group, we would glaze the cake with chocolate, and then fabricate and add dark chocolate and white chocolate “ribbons” to decorate the cake as if it were a beautifully-wrapped gift. I can pretty much guarantee that my first thoughts, upon hearing that we would undertake such an endeavor, were, “Pfffft! Like we’ll really be able to do THAT... Whatevs!

Boy, did I underestimate us!

First, we made the glaze…
It was poured onto the cake while still warm, and we worked quickly with William’s help to achieve the appropriate “swirliness” to cover the cake adequately with the finicky glaze.
It was a pretty neat process. See for yourself:

We would add some last-minute touch-ups, but already we had an already-impressive chocolate cake:
There was some chocolate glaze left over, which we enjoyed with some fine sea salt – doesn’t that look yummy?
And, since we’re just tawdry like that, you can imagine where things went from there. I feel like need a shower after displaying this. Or at least cigarette.
Somehow, after all that excitement, we needed to pull ourselves together and focus – we still had many more cake-related tasks to complete! Next up were the chocolate “ribbons.” We’d be creating ribbons of chocolate in two different colors using a pasta maker, which I thought sounded impossible, frankly.

There was some kind of mix-up with the white chocolate, which initially refused to melt despite everyone’s efforts to the contrary. A quick run to the supermarket for a different variety of white chocolate solved the problem, and we fired up the double boiler.
Once the chocolate was melted, we poured it over the back of a sheet pan to create a “sheet” of white chocolate. We’d be using this as the first step in our ribbon-making process.
Once cooled, we were able to jimmy the chocolate, still intact, off the sheet pan.
 
The beginning was a little rough, as evidenced below, but we got the hang of it soon enough.
 
Next, we’d pass the “sheet” of chocolate through the pasta machine, dusting with powdered sugar as needed.
We even made a movie about it!!

Joyce took a turn at it, too.

Rick and Fernando got the hang of it really quickly.
Next up would be to actually create and cut the “ribbons.” Every time the chocolate ribbons came through the machine, they were longer and better-incorporated. We would use a pizza cutter and Joyce’s vintage yardstick (circa 1952? What was the date on it?) to cut out long chocolate ribbons of equal width.
Of course, being who we are, we quickly determined the ancillary benefits (ahem) of having a yardstick in the kitchen:
Now adequately disciplined, Rick got back to the ribbons. Look at that concentration!
 
Meg and Joyce looked on approvingly.
 
This appears to be William inspecting the recipe for inferior techniques.
 
Anne decided to take a break for a while…
Things rolled right along; the chocolate ribbons were ready to use, and the lamb kebabs were ready to grill. The cauliflower had finished cooking and looked amazing.
 
Joyce did us the honor of acting as the evening’s Grill Master…
 
And turned out this phenomenally beautiful result:
 
Now that the risotto had cooked long enough, it was time to add our spring vegetables—and a whole plate full of cheese—for the last few minutes – so delicious!
 
William is overcome with fava bean-related joy:
 
And he even holds still long enough to pose for this oh-so-William photo.
 
Finally, everything was ready for the table. We were all looking forward to a marvelous feast! We went from this…
To this… a scene in which William appears to be praying. Even though I know that wasn't actually the case, I still like to imagine him somberly pronouncing the ever-popular Southern Baptist kids’ grace: “Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub, yea God.”
 
I filled up my plate, and it quickly went from this…
…to this…
 
Prior to dinner, we had decided to digest while we finished decorating our gorgeous chocolate cake. So some of us hopped up to attack that task.
 

Others sat around the table and chatted, which was lovely since it felt like a really long time since we’d all met. Fernando decided to just have a snooze instead.
 
Rosie, not to be outdone, decided she’d have a snooze, too.
 
When we finally scraped them both off their resting places, the cake was ready. Can you believe how incredible it looks? Wow!
 
I know you are dying for the close-up…
 
Wanna know what it tasted like? One word will suffice: Buttercream.
 
Oh, my.

Well, that’s all for this time, kiddos. We’ve skipped June, and decided to standardize our meetings – next up will be Joyce and Damian on Saturday, July 16. Soon, I’ll post the complete schedule with the dates and pairs we selected, and my goal is to figure out a way that we can find it easily in the blog for reference anytime. Stay tuned for that, coming later this week! Meanwhile, happy June to everyone – safe travels to the travelers, and enjoy the warmer days in town, non-travelers! ¡Hasta pronto!