Big Steve and Singin' D

When your house is stocked with food like mine is, and friends are willing to contribute to the meal, ANY day can turn into a dinner party. Thanks Steve for bringing home the bacon (chicken thighs, actually) for the main course on this one...

Danielle... thanks for bringing the music!

Hearty Butternut Squash/Yam soup (Not for my carnivorous readers)
You'll need a food processor for this one. Any kind will do, but I have this one: BAM!
Total prep/cooking time: 1 hour.

What the websites and cookbooks DON'T tell you about butternut squash soup is the following... (shh... get closer it's so freakin easy, it will make your head spin).
1. Buy a butternut squash that has no breaks in its skin - this is crucial, as the inside of a broken-skinned squash is likely rotten.Wash/scrub the outside of 1 large yam or sweet potato
2. Cut both lengthwise and put into a glass pan with 1 inch of water. Cook at 375 for like an hour.
(Dude, just poke some holes in it first and then put it in the microwave for 2 minutes, then you only have to cook it for 30 minutes)
3. Sautee 1 full, diced onion in garlic and olive oil in the bottom of a large saucepan (crisp up some bacon in here if you don't care about this remaining a vegetarian dish). Pour in 32 ounces of veggie broth (or, again chicken broth if you're a vehement carnivore) and bring to a boil.
4. Scoop out the insides of the squash (the skin you can't eat) and the sweet potato (or keep the sweet potato skin on... i did) and then cut them into 1.5-2.5 inch cubes and add these cubes to the boiling broth/onion mixture
5. Let boil, covered for approx 20-25 minutes
6. Transfer 1/4 of the mixture to the food processor at a time until all of the mixture is blended.
7. Add, to taste: cumin, cinnamon and/or finely ground cardamom. Serve with uber-crusty ciabatta bread and BAM! (too much Emeril?)

Toast the bread first.



Props to Mom for this recipe and for talking me through my mild freakout from having stupidly blended the RAW yams and squash (which, by the way, still works fine)







Chicken thighs stuffed with Spinach and Asiago
Braised chicken thighs stuffed with a basic mixture of sauteed spinach and any hard (I chose Asiago) cheese mixture. If you want the mixture to be more viscous, add some bread crumbs (retrospective recommendation).
Throw em (already stuffed) in the oven at 425-450 and cook for about 20 minutes, covered. Remove foil and put one piece of asiago atop each thigh and then broil for an additional 5 minutes to make them slightly crispy.


Side of Kale chips
Those who have read previous postings may be starting to notice a trend here. This is THE best way to make Kale, my favorite green veggie. Just add lime/lemon.

I purchased an entire Kale plant from Orchard View for $3!!

Dessert: Baked Enterprise Apples

Also, so easy. Shh...
Ok- so core 6 apples, put them into a crock pot, pour in 4 cups of water and add allspice, cinnamon, ground ginger and honey to the apples while they're in there. Put the lid on, put it on high and cook for 4 hours. Or (for us working folks) cook for 8 hours on low. Vanilla ice cream goes great with it and you can use the water for a hot apple cider now!



Happy meals,
D

Impromptu challenge (1 hour notice)

My friend Steve and I were heading into Philly, so I offered a pre-Philly dinner if he stopped by early enough. Here's what I came up with:

I'm on a tilapia kick. So a lot of the upcoming recipes will have it.

Main Course: Curry Tilapia with white wine reduction.
2/3 flour and 1/3 curry powder act as a quick coating before pan-searing the tilapia in a tiny bit of canola oil. Once complete, remove the filets and add 1/2 cup of dry white wine to the pan to extract the "good stuff" renderings (the sizzling is normal) and pour those over the fish

Side dish: Lemon/Parmesan Toasted Israeli Couscous with peas. Leave it in the oven for 20 minutes after adding the lemon and cheese and it gets even better.

Vegetable: Newfound holy grail of easy side-dishes: Frozen spinach! Thawed and cooked with olive oil and a little cayenne pepper.

Sorry, no photos today. Next time.

-D

BarufFeast 2: Middle East, mild

BarufFeast 2. Theme: Middle East meets America
Guests: 9 (Seth, Anna, Glen, Jess, Adam, Liz, Terry, Gina)

Thanks to all who attended! I apologize for the delay in posting. Here goes!

The appetizer: homemade lemon/garlic hommous with toasted pita. Got a blender, chick peas, tahini, olive oil, garlic and lemon? Then you can make it too! The core of the hommous is the soaked chick pea. I find it easiest to use canned chick peas, but if you have the time, and desire a smaller carbon footprint, use dried chick peas, and soak them yourself. (These folks know all about this: Hummus blog).



App #2: Homemade Eggplant baba ghanoush (Thanks to Liz/Adam) over toasted (Wegman's) semolina loaf


The salad (Vegan): Mixed greens and arugula with goddess dressing (thanks to my brother Russ for this recipe). Equal parts Tahini, Bragg's amino (or lite soy sauce), apple cider (or other flavored) vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil; lemon juice, dried parsley and garlic (to taste), pinch of sugar. Mix well. If you want, you can purchase it at Trader Joes!






The main course: Grilled kebabs of cubed chicken breasts/thighs, cubed bell peppers, white mushrooms, yellow onion and lime (from my own lime tree), marinated for 24 hours in a cumin, garlic, salt, pepper, lemon and olive oil (thanks again to Liz for this spontaneous off-the-cuff recipe).

2 Small tips on cooking kebabs: 
1.breast and thighs on the same kebab: cut the breast chunks larger than the thigh chunks so that the breast and thighs cook at the same pace.
2. do NOT use sliced mushrooms- they don't stay on the kebab. Use WHOLE white/button mushrooms instead.

My new lime tree:

The accompanying wines: (Thanks to Adam!)
Red: d'Anezon Cote du Rhone (French, 2008)
White: Gaia Notios (Greek, 2010)        [*My personal favorite pairing of the evening*]
Champagne: Piper Sonoma Brut-Cali (California)

Dessert: Cookies, cinnamon buns and ice cream, OH MY!
"T" (from our famous sister blog, The AfterDinnerSneeze) blessed us with his home-made ginger chocolate chip cookies. Some of us even made our own open-faced ice cream sandwiches with chocolate/vanilla ice cream.

Next BarufFeast to be announced shortly! I'm looking forward to seeing more of my blog-readers there!

-D

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Happy 34th Anniversary to Russell and Marie! To celebrate, we did the following:

Mixed green and arugula salad with lemon, olive oil, dijon mustard and pepper dressing

Rustic Boule-style loaf 

So, I was a bit torn on the dinner-portion. When I lived in Madrid, I was very accustomed to making (screwing up, at first) paella. But once I mastered it, I made it regularly. Since my return to the states, I made it only one time! My rice-making adventures have been almost exclusively with risotto.

So what's a fella to do for his parent's anniversary? Pae-sotto is the answer, folks!

Scallop, clam and asparagus Pae-sotto with saffron and chardonnay, a slight modification to the traditional scallop and mushroom risotto recipe in the linked book above.

Accompanying the Pae-sotto was pan seared (any white) fish. I used Tilapia. Patted in flour, then pan seared, topped with a diced tomato and pineapple, cilantro, lime and lime zest and thai chili salsa, the basics of which came from here, I improvised the rest.

Vegetable side dish was roasted yellow squash and zuchini topped with "Marrakesh" seasoning (Thyme, cinnamon, cumin and coriander) and olive oil.

Thai breakfast

So, it's not actually a breakfast that they eat in Thailand, but I noticed how much this tastes like a Thai meal:
Green tea with fresh grated ginger and peanut butter toast!

To get the most ginger taste, use 1 green tea bag and grate about 2 teaspoons of fresh ginger (skin and all) into a measuring cup. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then pour through a tea filter into a cup. Add some honey and lemon and enjoy the peanut/ginger flavors!

Inaugural Dinner Success!

Thanks to all who made it to my inaugural dinner! To everyone else, I look forward to eating with you soon.

So let's get down to it. What was on the menu? G, take it away with the photos...

  


Traditional bruschetta, (top) and sweet bruschetta (bottom). The strawberry and chevre was a great combination! Who would have thought that you can eat dessert for an appetizer!


Primi piatti: (with inspiration from Risotto) Bay scallop, clam and parsley risotto. This turned out wonderfully creamy mostly because of the nature of arborio rice, while maintaining a reasonable calorie content. Be sure to add the fish-stock slowly for this recipe.

Side: Homemade crunchy kale chips topped with salt, pepper and lemon, cut into squares, and placed (not crowded) onto a baking sheet at 350F for approx 15 mins.

Segundi piatti: (with inspiration from Julia) Poached tilapia in a scallion, butter and pinot grigio reduction. Turned out wonderfully tender without flaking, just like Julia says. (Insert ridiculous imitation of Julia Child's voice here). Too much wine by this point to remember the camera, so no photos, sorry!

Dessert: 
1. Canele from Market Day. Canele are a crunchy-on-the-outside and soft-on-the-inside cake-ish pastry that is way better than I can describe it here. Plus, nuns make it! (Maybe not, see photo)

2. Chile Mango Fruit Floes (Trader jOES pun). Mango at first taste, converts into chile flavor a few seconds after your first bite!






Wines: All white: 2008 Voga Pinot Grigio, 2005 Leaping Horse Chardonnay, 2006 Blue Nun Qualitatswein.

Next dinner to be announced shortly! Thanks again everyone!

Funky grilled cheese

Quick Lunch: 
Honey Wheat bread Cabot Sharp Cheddar, minced kalamata olives and Texas Pete hot sauce. Apple juice

Just another Monday

Mixed panko and regular bread crumbs to fully coat the Pan-seared chicken chops. The spinach/ricotta tortellini were a nice starchy addition, topped with a lot of fresh ground black pepper. These torts are salty, so you really don't need any additional cheese.

The Merlot was TJ's 3 buck chuck!  (thanks E and L)

I nearly forgot to mention and thank my friend, Renee, who has graciously sponsored the flowers for BarufFeast!

Want to buy flowers for your next event? Sikking farms is conveniently located at the Collingswood Farmer's Market (henceforth known as CFM)

Russ and Marie visit

As Marie astutely pointed out this evening after the meal, BarufFeast could also double as BaruffEast, since I am one of two Baruffi Brothers, one of whom is in San Francisco- "BaruffWest" AKA Russ.


(Here's Marie totin' the evening garden contribution: Fresh basil and sage, Pinot Noir grape, apples, peaches and some lettuce)

So what WAS dinner? Good question. It was my parents' turn to experience BarufFeast, and I had to make it a good one!


As arugula is my favorite salad base, so yes, I went with it YET AGAIN, and dressed it up with a basic balsamic vinaigrette and added some goat cheese.

I tempted fate a bit this evening as I planned the main course: Indian food-mild cuisine for my parents. Don't get me wrong, I love Indian food, but my parents haven't explored it much, so I had to tread lightly. Well, I think I've got them hooked with this recipe from the Better Homes and Garden's Cookbook. Pay attention, all you folks striving to pull your parents from their pasta-eating comfort zones, here comes Basil chicken in Coconut-Curry Sauce (p. 427).

Basil straight from Marie's garden, 4 chicken breasts, KPs fantastic old-country curry recipe, Onion, garlic, jalapenos and coconut milk. Since coconut milk can be high in saturated fat, instead of 1 can (14 oz) coconut milk, I used 1/2 can of coconut milk and 1/2 can of vegetable stock (no complaints)

I think that sweet fruit juice pairs best with indian food, so I would choose a Mango puree, but Acme disappointed, so I opted for the next best thing: Arizona Mucho Mango (which you can mix nicely with gin or vodka).

The recipe didn't call for this kick, I added a surprise ingredient: KPs famous homemade curry! 

 Russ, Marie and Gia at my new low-table. Thanks G and T!

  

A big thanks to Russ for his help with installing my shelves!

Marie and Russ signed their names on the BarufFeast chalk-board wall, now it's your turn!


Inaugural dinner to be announced tomorrow. Stay tuned!




-Baruff-East

Photos

Next time, I will post the photos and the words together! I'm still learning how to do this stuff!

Pre-Inaugural Dinners at 1212

Thank you all so much for your contributions for name ideas and welcome to my blog!

You can see which name received the (overwhelming) majority of votes. Second place was DanCanCook and third, to my dismay, was a pun involving the Philly-derived preposition "wit" (see How to order a cheesesteak in Philly for details)

As the blog evolves I'm sure things will change but for right now, here's my mission:

To provide an open space for friends and family who feel welcome to come and enjoy my variant of 'slow-food' dinners, 2 times per month. Bring friends, (but puhleeeeease RSVP at least 3 days in advance with how many and any diet restrictions.) Bring whatever you would like to contribute- it will be a much appreciated offset to my dinner costs.

Note: Once I list a dinner as "closed," you can still come and even bring people, just don't expect food, cuz I didn't plan to feed you!

The BarufFeast pre-inaugural dinners kicked off this past week with a small cohort of tasters who were serendipitously in town.

Below is the menu from the dinner (Friday) and the brunch (Sunday) of this past week with links to where each component comes from, should you be interested.

Dinner:

Arugula salad with locally made Feta cheese and lemon/ginger vinaigrette (modified)

Honey wheat crostini with homemade basil pesto

Whole wheat spaghetti with homemade turkey-sausage bolognese sauce

Participants: Christopher

Brunch:

Chive, thyme, sage and sundried tomato omelette topped with shredded Cabot sharp cheddar

Repeat of arugula salad listed above

Fresh, blueberry cinnamon buns wih crumb topping

Participants: G and T

Thanks to G and T for the wonderful housewarming ideas and photos that are sure to surprise and excite any future visitors with a creative side... Hint: you can now leave the chef a secret message on the wall!

Culinary inspirations from Marie (Pesto, Bolognese sauce) and Alice Waters (Vinaigrette)

Creative ideas from: the afterdinnersneeze