Meet Sep 27, 2010

September 27, 2010. 11th meeting; JC host and chef, NS sous-chef. MENU, RECIPES

The flan was prepared in the morning. The stuffed chicken was prepared in the afternoon (all but the coatings for the outside). The rest of the preparation was delayed until the start of the meeting, scheduled for 6:30 pm. This was the 3rd day of an unusual heat spell (90+ temperatures during the day), so the kitchen was expected to get pretty hot. The meal itself would be eaten on the patio.

The sous chef arrived at 6 pm. The plan for preparing the meal was discussed. The main hors d'oeuvres were ready by meeting time when the first wine was opened.

Next some figs and peppers were sauteed in a skillet, also some Balsamic vinegar added. In the photo at left the white bowl on right has some of these. There were 23 problems: 1) the jalapenos peppers were much too hot, should have been de-seeded; 2) since the Calimyrna figs were sauteed in the same skillet as the peppers, they picked up some of the hotness, which countered the natural sweetness of the figs. John claimed to like hot things, so he tried a pepper to his regret. After he had run around screaming for a bit, the picture at right was taken. The remaining peppers were deep-sixed.

Coating the stuffed chicken was messy and should have been done earlier. This was followed by sauteeing in a skillet while the bean were steaming in a double boiler.Meanwhile the potatoes were microwaved for 5 min and then put in pot to boil while the various additional ingredients for the potato salad were prepared.Just before the first course was served, the heat for the beans was turned off, the chicken was put in the oven (cooking time about 20 min) and (unfortunately) the liquid addition for the potato salad was left to boil--it quickly boiled away leaving a blackened pot. The liquid mixture was easily redone later.After course 1, the potato salad was quickly finished off, then course 2 was served. By this time we had switched to the red wine.For course 3, coffee was prepared, the flan served. Judy's homemade lemoncello was available.The meeting adjourned at 10:30pm.