It was a delicious and very competent show of culinary skill and acumen. Not a weak link in the bunch, that is, unless you want to discuss me. I got there early and decided to prep my dish. Dominick at Dominick's Deli had special ordered me a box of burrata, the special italian cheese similar to mozzarella that has only become widely available in the last several years.
According to what I have read, burrata, a type of cheese traditionally made from water buffalo's milk, should be consumed within 48 hours of importation. The packaging says that that this one is good until the 14th of April. I guess that in Italy it is traditionally covered with a green asphodel leaf. When the leaf loses color the cheese should no longer be consumed. Anyway, we tried it at Cucina Urbana and had to get some more.
Burrata is a squishy mess. Some people can't handle the strange foreign texture. But it is really delicious. A pouch is made in the mozzarella ball during its production. Creme is poured into the center and it is sealed. Very nice served on crusty bread.
I prepared it on a platter of heirloom tomatoes with course salt, fresh basil and an olive oil we picked up in Napa that was also also pressed with basil. We roasted more garlic in olive oil for a topping in case the burrata needed more flavor. It didn't. Dixon pulled out the high grade balsamic and we played with that. Served the whole thing on sourdough bagettes. Addictive stuff.
Everybody laughed at my clumsy knife skills as I attacked the misshapen tomatoes in a crude and unorthodox fashion. They were one of the ugliest garnishes you will have set eyes on but fortunately pretty tasty. Didn't need as much burrata as I thought or brought either.
By the way, Fallbrookians, Dominick has brought me in some nice special order stuff; molinari, prosciutto, burrata. If you need anything, just ask him and he can get it for you. He's more than reasonable and a great guy too.
It was a nice evening and a somber cloud front rolled in and we watched the sun go down and chatted in the living room.
We popped a bottle of Chateau Montelena Zinfandel and various other bottles of varying types and pedigree in order to slake our growing thirst. Prosecco. Pellegrino. All good.
Leslie followed my efforts with her secondi of 100% crab perfect crabcakes with wasabi aioli. They were damn good but not quite perfect, due to her not knowing our host's oven's idiosyncrasies. She made do. She makes the best crabcakes, served with a generous squeeze of lemon.
Jerri brought a delicious antipasto and John served us a contorno of an absolutely insanely delicious eggplant parmigiana with blue corn. It was blue/purple, gorgeous and gluten free. It had been micrograted with parmigiana and was the best we all had ever had. Bummed that Jeaneane couldn't make it for dinner, out with the flu. John also served some of his own superlative basil and cilantro pesto.
We sat down at the beautiful table bedecked with fine crytal and silver and had the more formal part of the dinner. A green salad. Leslie offered her mushroom caranoli risotto with saffron which was unbelievable. Dixon grilled up radichio and asparagus, again simply cooked to perfection. Renée had brought a giant filet mignon that could feed a small battalion. Just rare enough, slathered liberally in a salt brine, it was devoured. I had mine with a dollop of pesto. The perfect crunch and crust.
We were totally stuffed and then Connie served her lemon meringue lemon tarts which would not be denied. She made a gluten free crust that was the equal or better of any gluteny crust you have ever tried.
We all sort of ambled around the kitchen and cleaned up. Cracked a bottle of Robert Hall Muscat that was very, very nice. A perfect evening all in all, that is if you don't mind misshapen tomatoes.
And away we all flew back to our respective haunts, totally stuffed and satiated. I love these collective cooking nights, even though I am an eater and not a cook. It is nice to hang around so many great chefs and even better to live with one full time. 21 years and every meal has been great. Love you, sweetheart. Thanks to all of my friends for continuing to make things happen. You are the best. And thank you to my blogosphere, friends, lurkers, all of you. This blog is one of the great, fun things in my life and thanks for being a part of it.
4 comments:
This food all looks fabulous! I've never heard of burrata cheese and am looking forward to trying it.
Darn! We bought the last one from Dom this afternoon. Somebody said that Major carried it, not sure. Thank you for the compliment.
Water Buffalo Cheese?
What's next marinated King Penguin fetuses? Of course, legally raised on a wind powered environmentally controlled range free glacier in the Falkland Islands owned by Sir Richard Branson, and currently only available in the U.S. on Rodeo Drive and Marthas Vinyard. And boy do they pamper the egg laying mother! All the Caspian Sea Caviar and Portuguese Squid she can stomach! Very expensive to raise and spoil very easy. A labor of love, the fetus must be marinated within 20 minutes after it is snatched from its Mum (only days before it would hatch) And transported within 24 hours to a few select international destinations.
They have a real nice flavor similar to Veal. Taste really good with any $200-plus bottle of wine available, although they taste even better after smoking smuggled Cuban cigars.
You should try them at your next trendy gourmet party. Your dish will be the talk of the party and a real hit with the affluent rich Asians. Although watch them very closely! as they will eat all of the fetuses before you have had a chance to impress your epicure peers.
my choice for Italian is still the lunch buffet at Ciao, in Vista...
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