When planning out our Dinner Club menus for the season, we try to keep it even; even workload, even expense involved and so on. No one couple is required to foot the bill for the main entrée more than once per season. Everyone gets a chance to be the salad, or some other quick and easier to prepare menu item. We rotate the workload so that it feels like very little work at all; but what about when a meal, such as our Brazilian Churrascaria menu, doesn’t call for the typical soup, salad, entrée, etc. format?
We’ve done many uncommon menu formats over the years, including our recent fondue night, which we’ve also previously done as the food to coincide with a murder mystery dinner. Tailgating food during a football game, tapas; these are just a few of the menus that we’ve had to organize and still keep the work and expense evenly distributed.
For our tapas night back in November of 2007, our host and hostess prepared a gorgeous seafood paella as our main dish. They also put out a spread of nibbles for when we arrived including a Serrano ham and melon tapas. For the other surrounding tapas elements, each couple brought one hot and one cold tapas item; yet another couple provided one tapas and a tres leches cake for our dessert!
What a memorable meal! Flamenquines (look it up – it’s amazing), glazed baby back ribs, assorted Spanish cheeses and olives, sherried mushroom empanadas… Yum! We had sangria along with all of our “little plates” and everyone was able to enjoy because we spread the work out among all the members of the group. We just broke from our usual soup, salad, etc.
For our Churrasca-style meal in a couple of weeks, we’ve done much the same thing. As I described in a previous blog post, a Brazilian steakhouse would offer several types of meat entrees to choose from; therefore we’ve done the same. We have four couples providing meat; flank steak, chicken, lamb and a Brazilian “linguica” sausage. One couple is responsible for a soup starter and the bread, and the final couple will provide side dish and dessert. Perfect!
I’ve included the “Brazilian Collard Greens” recipe below that one couple is preparing as a side to accompany our selection of meats and the cheese rolls. It’s so simple in both ingredients and preparation, but promises a bright flavor and color on our plates! We’ll see and I’ll let you know! That’s part of the fun here; just picking something that sounds terrific and seeing how we feel. I’ve found over the years that there are many, many things we make that I keep in my recipe file and prepare again. See you next week!
Found at: http://www.epicurious.com/
Gourmet | September 2007
By Melissa Roberts and Maggie Ruggiero
Collards are normally associated with long, slow cooking, but cutting them into thin strips reduces cooking time dramatically. The result is a bright, lively flavor that will make you realize these greens are more versatile than most people think. Yield: Makes 4 servings
Active Time: 20 Min
Total Time: 20 min
Active Time: 20 Min
Total Time: 20 min
Ingredients:
1 1/4 pound collard greens, stems and center ribs discarded and leaves halved lengthwise
3 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon olive oil
Preparation:
Stack half of collard leaves and roll into a cigar shape. Cut crosswise into very thin strips (1/16 inch wide). Repeat with remainder.
Mince and mash garlic to a paste with 3/4 teaspoon salt. Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until it shimmers, then cook garlic, stirring, 30 seconds. Add collards with 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook, tossing, until just tender and bright green, 3 to 4 minutes.
