Text 34827, 105 rader
Skriven 2016-01-04 09:21:54 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: auctioned meal 761
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So here's what happened.

Day before, I made the beef rendang. I'd at one point told Annie
that the bottom round she had in the freezer would be perfect for
this, but she ended up pulling out two 1+-lb Highland ribeyes that 
her friends had brought from their farm in Maine. OK, whatever.
I fried up a small piece of meat to try - it was your standard
grass-fed beef but extremely tender. The steaks got cubed 3/4" or
so and cooked with onion, coconut, garlic, turmeric, cumin, 
mild chile, cinnamon, ginger, clove, coriander seed, cardamom, 
and maybe a couple other things that I'll remember when time
comes to make it again. Put it on the back porch (it's getting
cold) for overnight. Annie made star-shape cookies out of cheese 
straw batter and a trifle that featured 2 packs of ladyfingers,
a quart of custard, and a couple quarts of berries. Huge thing.

Day of. Annie made root vegetable soup (quite good, actually)
and a Moroccan lamb thing with artichokes that was decent but
would have been tons better if she'd used a lighter oil than the
duskiest, greenest Tunisian olive oil that she insisted on and
whose smell pursued me all the way upstairs. She had two boneless
legs of lamb; I told her to use one only, that would be plenty.
After dinner, there was a tad under one leg's worth left over,
which she said she was going to throw out. No wonder the trust
department is telling her she's overspending. I told her to 
Ziploc it and freeze it and I'd somehow find a home for it during 
my travels. 

Around 12:30 (1 pm start) Vicki the head of the local SPCA and
Mindee the director of publicity showed up to help and do the
service, which was in the almost never-used formal dining room. 
They were pretty useful in the kitchen as well.

In order.

Cheese stars, very good, made with sharp Cheddar. Almost as
flaky as puff pastry; a hair on the greasy side. Annie made
these as before from the Gourmet Viennese recipe, cutting 
them into Edelweiss-like shapes.

Grilled shrimp with satay sauce - she'd bought a pound of Gulf
18s under the impression they were ready to go with tails on.
When I opened them up to give them a quick brine, I discovered
to my discomfiture that they were merely headless, and I had
to do the cleaning myself. After a while Vicki pitched in, and
this course ended up only 15 minutes behind. Quick 30-minute
brine in a seasoned sugar-salt mixture, rinse, broil. Peanut
sauce the usual - coconut and coconut fat, peanut butter,
Madras curry powder doctored with ginger, lemongrass powder,
garlic, cumin, and sweet spices. It turned out that the
winning bidder's mom doesn't eat shrimp. I took a piece of
leftover chicken, sliced it up, nuked it for half a minute,
and dished it with that satay sauce. It was well received.
Otherwise, 2 shrimp per person on a bed of sauce, parsley
garnish. There were 4 shrimp left over, thanks to the mom.
The four galley slaves got one each after the party was over.

The vegetable soup - root vegetables and winter squash and 
chicken broth, some recipe Annie found. It smelled pretty 
good, so I actually tasted it. It was pretty good.

Rice and three. Cheap rice done in the cooker, no problem.
The aforementioned Moroccan lamb and artichoke thing, which
tasted way too green but was reasonably well received. I
think the chermoula seasoning also contributed to the violent
grassiness. Annie had found a so-called harissa at the grocery.
It was exceedingly bland, not a trace of heat. Chicken with
bamboo shoots and cashew nuts was a big hit. It was the 
normal thing, but I put a tablespoon or two of hoisin in in
the way that less-authentic Chinese restaurants do. There 
remained a shred or two of bamboo shoot left out of a couple
pounds of food. I knew that would happen, the hoisin does it
every time. And the rendang, which I deliberately made as
unhot as possible (zero hot chile) but made a moderately
spicy coconut sambal and a very hot sprinkle sauce to jazz
things up. Equal quantities of water, tepin bits, arbol bits,
and oil, cooked up together, seasoned with a touch of salt,
sugar, and garlic. Sad to relate, the rendang mostly went,
and I'm left with a bunch of leftover lamb, when rendang is
what I wanted.

The trifle, not trifling at all and weighing in at nearly 5 lb,
was almost completely consumed. I can't report on it.

Wines: 3 bottles of Domaine Chandon brut and 2 bottles of Sofia.
2 bottles each of Ledson Pinot Noir and Alamos Seleccion Malbec.
The Chandon was pretty nice, clean, dry, refreshing. Sofia is
somewhat sweeter and was okay with dessert. As it turns out, the
Alamos is very, very tasty and stood up well to the rather robust
food. I don't know what Annie was thinking when she pulled out
the Ledson, but that kills her supply of it. I actually don't
know what she was thinking when she bought it, as it costs twice
what comparable Pinots cost and three times what the Alamos did
for a similar quality and satisfaction. Give it some credit,
though, it was a pretty concentrated wine and better than I
remembered it being.

Totting things up on my fingers I believe she dropped close to
$400 on provisions, of which less than half is documentable. 

Nadine got a huge deal when she won the auction for $250, all
proceeds going to give aid and succour to the doggies and 
kitties of Lycoming County.
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