Supporter Dinner #3, January 22nd
The Sherman Family were major supporters of our project. They supported the Kickstarter first edition of the book in the biggest way possible, with the grand-slam prize of a private dinner party! Dianne, Dale, Mary, Vern, John, Melissa, Jami, and Travis are dear near-family to me, as Sofie Sherman-Burton, Mary's daughter, is my partner!
THE MENU
squash/mushroom rye galette
The one savory tart (though I was inclined to include many, as savory tarts are probably my favorite food) from the book, made a little extra fancy. The squash and roasted garlic were pureed, the mushrooms on top were marinated/grilled maitake, and the goat's cheese of the original was swapped out for fromage blanc. Each plate was dusted with cracked pink pepper, which looked great on Mary's dark blue Dansk plates.
buttermilk potato/leek soup, with kohlrabi
The soup from the front cover of the book! Silky potato/leek soup, with succulent pieces of kohlrabi floating and topped with delicious sunchoke chips, crispy leek tops, and sour cream.
celeriac, fennel, and orange salad
Actually an outtake from the book, this is a favorite winter salad of mine. It only had to go because when we finished shooting we realized we'd shot twice as many salads as anything else– and anything too similar had to go! The recipe is available here. Or, just scroll down a few entries! The citrus from People's Food Co-Op was out of this world when we did this dinner.
fresh cod on top of winter greens, with crispy wild rice and salsa verde
A remix/new dish. For the Sasquatch Books edition of the book, we added a new salad: "Hearty Dinner Salad (Fall Version), which has these fall/winter greens and the crispy wild rice. I had the idea to turn it into more of a dinner entrée. Simplifying the construction, adding a piece of fish and sauce, which could serve as additional dressing once the plate was cut into. The cod was grilled to showcase that trademark flaky butteriness, then topped with large dollops of tangy mostly-parsley salsa verde.
walnut/dried fig cake, with quince liqueur semifreddo
A favorite cake from the book, made as a sort of homage to Mary, Sofie's mom. Mary makes AMAZING liqueurs. I used Mary's quince liqueur twice: to soak the dried figs and to make the semifreddo. A rich, yet not overly sweet, very flavorful, and very satisfying cake.
BONUS DESSERT
Mary purchased these amazing cookies, created by a multitude of Portland lady chefs, to benefit Planned Parenthood. It was one time hot deal, barely on the internet before selling out. She was all of it and popped the cookies in the freezer the second she got them home. On the day of this dinner, she sneakily defrosted them, told me of their existence, and we busted them out along with the cake at the end of the night!
To drink
We served a few liter bottles of Zumm Martin Zepp Austrian Grüner Velhitner, one of my all-time favorite wines, along with assorted wines Mary had pulled from her cellar.
