Clockwise, starting from the top: Squash blossoms waiting to be stuffed, peaches grilling, zucchini roulade.
The most anticipated event of the weekend was the big Saturday night dinner, where eGullet members displayed their culinary prowess and cooked a multi-course feast fit for royalty. With time a-wasting, after the wine tasting, Steven Shaw and Tammy put together a timeline for the courses and everyone got to cooking. Well, most of us. I just got in the way with my camera.
The craziness reminded me of some of my and Joe's early group Thanksgiving dinners, where nine chefs stuffed themselves into our kitchen. The turkey's roasting in the oven, three more dishes are on the stove top -- each with its own chef -- more prep work is happening on the counters, and everyone gets elbowed and stepped on everywhere... until the last moment when the dishes are done, the turkey is resting, and the gravy chef shoos everyone out, out, out-of-my-way, out to the dining room! (Making gravy is serious business.) And the craziness collapses to one stove top burner where the gravy chef is whisking frantically and swearing (just a little) while her mom hovers, with words of assistance just a breath away. Then some unlucky person gets pegged to carve the turkey ("unlucky" because none of us knows how to carve a turkey), and the feast begins.
Except there's a lot more room at Great Oak, and thus there was correspondingly less elbowing. And with lots of last minute cooking for the dishes, there was plenty of space between the courses, giving this meal a leisurely quality and creating a memory of a dream-like moment stretched and suspended in time. (The absinthe may have helped.)
The 2006 eGullet Heartland Gathering Menu
Where I know who made what, I attributed dishes to their chefs. All the dishes were wonderful, but I've added a few comments on my favorites.
Cheeses from Zingerman's: Camembert, White Cheddar, Point Reyes Blue, and a Lincoln Log of goat cheese along with fig jam made by eGullet member CaliPoutine
Artisan breads made by eGullet member tino27. Wow. Just wow. Amazing breads. And unbelievably, all made at home in an ordinary apartment stove. We all gorged ourselves on this bread all afternoon. (click on image)
Charcuterie buffet with eGullet member ronnie_suburban's italian sausage, wagyu pastrami, and duck and cured ham terrine, and eGullet member edsel's andouille sausage. This was perhaps my favorite course of the night. That pastrami was out of this world, and the sausages delectable. What kind of brilliant madness does it take to use wagyu brisket to make pastrami? The good kind, believe me... (click on image)
Trio of squash preparations: tiny patty pan squashes with guanciale and fig preserve sauce, squash blossoms stuffed with cannelini bean puree (with garlic, parsley, olive oil, lemon, and salt), and grilled zucchini roulade. The patty pan squashes were my favorite, even if the sauce was a bit too salty. But the others had their fans, too.
Green salad with grilled peaches and seared foie gras. Delicious. I am now a convert to foie gras. My first taste of foie gras didn't leave me wanting more, but I give most foods a second chance. Steve Shaw seared these to a perfect medium rare, with a smooth texture and rich taste. This, this was heaven in a bite. And it paired very well with the grilled peaches.
Grilled bacon-wrapped porgy, pasta primavera, and Greek salad. We were all getting rather full by now, but that didn't stop us. I liked the multi-colored pasta with all the vegetables in cream sauce.
Chilled heirloom tomato soup with avocado sorbet. Beautiful, delightful, and refreshing. And a great presentation. (click on image)
Beef braised with chilies and Michigan cherries, with tomato salsa and sweet corn. Mighty tasty, and the sauce had a good spicy burn. I was stuffed at this point and only took a bite or two. Joe adored this, and ate a lot more.
Dessert Buffet:
Kitchen Chick's English Trifle (original recipes from Martha Split)
Palladion's plum dumplings (from Micol Negrin's Rustico: Regional Italian Country Cooking — this looks like a fabulous cookbook). These were delicious!
Joe's now-infamous peanut butter ice cream
CaliPoutine's triple chocolate cookies from epicurious.com. Joe made an ice cream sandwich out of two of these with the peanut butter ice cream, and says they were perfect.
The squash team assembles the squash blossoms: L to R, eGullet member Shannon Elise, Lisa, eGullet member tammylc.
Tomatoes cooking for the heirloom tomato soup with avocado sorbet.
Plating the salad course with grilled peaches and seared foie gras: L to R, eGullet co-founder Fat Guy (Steve Shaw) and members torakris and ronnie_suburban.
I made the ice cream the other night for Robin( ultimate pb freak). I couldnt find Jiff crunchy here(only creamy). I stired in some chopped up reeces into her portion. She loved it.
Posted by: Randi | August 13, 2006 at 07:04 PM
That's an absolutely gorgeous photo montage.
Posted by: Tammy | August 13, 2006 at 07:49 PM
Keep up the great work on your blog. Best wishes WaltDe
Posted by: WaltDe | August 31, 2006 at 11:50 PM