Dispatch no.8: late fall
how I create a menu | a Mediterranean-ish spread that celebrates this bountiful season | bagna cauda, lamb kofta, easy flatbread, chickpea, kale + tomato stew, spiced yogurt!
how I dream up a menu → ingredients first, of course!
stories and thoughts
I think about food in menus.
When my kids were little, the birthday parties we threw for them were borderline, ok actually, elaborate and not because we spared no expense - they were not over the top in that regard at all - but more because we took whatever the “theme” was to a rather ridiculous, even if it was DIY, degree. no one who attended ever seemed to mind;-).
Naturally, food was a major part of those birthday party themes and the resulting menus were carefully considered.
So when one of them had a “hippie” birthday party, along with the crafting of fresh daisy crowns and the tie-dyeing of t-shirts, there was vegetarian lasagna, salad of mung beans and alfalfa sprouts, granola cookies.
There was the Hawaiian party where we built a volcano and “erupted” it, played musical surfboards in grass skirts and straw hats and fresh flower leis, and i served an enormous chicken salad made with pineapple and macadamia nuts, a dish that ended in disaster when i put all the ingredients together the night before and the pineapple’s enzymes turned the chicken into inedible mush, whoops! but, never mind, the tropical fruit skewers and coconut cake saved the day :-).
For years, our Augusts on the Vineyard included an annual paella party that we threw, the enormous pan of paella cooked over a wood fire built in a hand-dug pit on a gorgeous stretch of beach inconveniently located down a miles-long dirt road on the south shore of the island. needless to say, forgetting an item or an ingredient was not an option.
We developed a menu for those parties that became tradition: accompanying the paella were a roasted beet gazpacho, a green salad with Manchego cheese + Marcona almonds in an aged sherry vinaigrette, an orange, almond + olive oil cake, and of course lots of red Spanish wine sangria.
Over the years, as i’ve become more of a “Hardcore Locavore” ;-) as someone once called me, i’ve developed a different (better!) method for coming up with my menus.
Just as when i was creating menus (see below for one from September 2018!) for my barn suppers + events at Dirt Road Farm, the menu “theme” is now a consequence of what is available here and now, aka LOCAL and IN SEASON.
→ also, I wrote about my menu process in a fall newsletter 4 years ago and you can see my words below.
my strategy for creating a menu still holds to this day, whether i’m cooking for a crowd or just the two of us.
it’s the first of october and i am working on a menu.
at the outset, that involves a visceral clocking of the way things are feeling outside — chill and damp, warm golden slanting light when the sun is out, the new darkness of early morning and evening, that smell as fallen leaves cover the earth. this external shift in turn elicits an internal hankering for textures and tastes that fortify and sate. and then the farm stands and farmers’ markets and kitchen gardens oblige in turn, with the high summer glut of tomatoes and delicate summer squash being ever so subtly nudged aside to make room for the sturdy collard greens, winter squash and turnips that signal fall.
suddenly, the brashness of direct fire open-air grilling with the smoke and char that we crave on those eternal hot and humid summer days begs to be replaced with longer slower cooking, pairing warming broths and dark wines with denser cuts of meat and hearty roots, coaxing flavor and comfort out of the contents simmering in cast iron dutch ovens or stockpots. raw and crisp gives way to roasted and braised.
so, that’s the seasonal part.
now, it goes without saying (but i’m going to say it anyway) that the freshest, best-tasting, most nutrient-dense food in season is the food that comes from nearby. local food is beneficial in myriad ways: it provides greater nutrition because the local food you buy was literally just harvested (retaining more of its nutrients), it bolsters the local economy (by keeping the money loop within a smaller circle), it provides for social contact in the connection between farmer and consumer (and chef) as well as through participation in a local food hub, it fosters sustainability, and for this chef (and eater) it offers the best possible flavor available.
the third part of the equation is about narrowing down the local options to the highest standards of quality — non-GMO, organically and sustainably grown heirloom varieties of produce, pastured heritage livestock — having ones own garden, certified organic farms nearby, a local farmers’ market with strict requirements and very high standards all support an insistence on excellence, transparency and purity.
right. back to the menu. it’s beginning to come together, easily and obviously, after all of the aforementioned considerations. the menus i create are a direct result of what is in season, grown or raised with great care, and available locally — fine-tuned by getting in touch with my senses. the ingredients always come first.
OCTOBER 2018
THE MENU (with recipes!) for a Mediterranean-ish spread! to eat with your hands!
This menu came about in the interest of showcasing both the ethos of Julie Pointer Adam’s latest beautiful book Al Fresco (which i happen to be in ! ;-) and the exceptional local produce of the season. it was also the perfect opportunity to savor a gorgeous fall afternoon with a group of like-minded friends — from farmers who grew almost everything on our table, to cooks and artists who helped me pull it all together, to our photographer friend Claire Callagy who captured the beauty of our very casual hands-on outdoor gathering celebrating the bounty of fall here on the island.
A visit to the Beetlebung Farm stand at the last farmers’ market of the year had me gasping at all the stunning fall vegetables and immediately conjuring in my mind what i wanted to do with them. a huge armload and several tote bags later, i began to plan my menu for a casual al fresco Mediterranean-vibe gathering that would include the Beetlebung farmers themselves and be centered around their astounding produce.
The cool weather coupled with the robust vegetables had me wanting (almost) everything cooked instead of raw — some combined in a rustic vegetable stew with chick peas and others roasted until charred for dunking into a full-bodied warm Bagna Cauda dip, with homemade flatbreads and accompaniments like savory spiced garlicky yogurt, pickled chile peppers, and fresh leaves and herbs rounding out the menu.
i knew i wanted to eat this outside (al fresco!) and i knew i wanted to serve it with wine and sangria in the afternoon. not really lunch, not really dinner. and i also knew we would just be standing or sitting randomly because i didn’t even have a table with chairs to accommodate all of us.
So, fittingly, i devised an uncomplicated grouping of dishes (the menu!) to take on a fall picnic, or to spread out on the floor next to a cozy fire, or on laps around a fire pit, without silverware or even plates. it can be lunch, it can be a spread to accompany cocktails (like this was), it can be a light dinner. it’s fast and easy to pull together, the kind of dishes that encourage everyone to participate in the assembling and the eating — tactile and unfussy, a bit messy, bountiful and delicious!
Lamb Kofta, Spicy Yogurt Sauce
The local ground lamb i used for the kofta is interchangeable with any kind of ground meat (turkey! beef!), but i love lamb and it is the obvious choice for a Mediterranean-leaning spread. the warming ground spices in the mixture give it that authentic exotic essence, and the tangy, fragrant savory yogurt sauce is the ideal accompaniment.
Chick Pea, Cavolo Nero (Tuscan Kale) + Tomato Stew
This chick pea, tuscan kale + tomato stew is satisfyingly robust enough to serve on its own, but it really compliments the other dishes here as part of the spread. and it’s even more heavenly drizzled with the yogurt sauce as well.
Simple Skillet Flatbread
This incredibly easy and delectable cast iron skillet-cooked flatbread (no yeast!) is the perfect vessel for the lamb kofta, the chickpea stew and the yogurt sauce. I am a big fan of Farmer Ground flour, considering it’s organic and grown and milled right nearby in New York State, so i try to always have it in my pantry. You will be so happy to have this recipe in your repertoire :-).
It also works really well with a GF flour blend - my favorite commercial version is Bob’s Red Mill GF 1 to 1 Baking Flour.
Of course, if you’d rather skip the flatbread, everything bundled together in a Castelfranco (a larger-leaved, more flexible and exceptionally beautiful type of radicchio) leaf works just as well and is still delicious.