Dinner for 60?
By Stephen Matteo Miller
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Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................. 4
Why the Menus Work the Way they Do .................................................................... 5
Principles of Food Safety and How Good Organization Promotes It ..................... 5
Saturday 26, April 2008............................................................................................. 11
Balsamic Roast Beef and Goat ............................................................................................ 11
Mashed Potatoes .................................................................................................................. 11
Salad with Pears and Lime-Olive Oil Dressing ................................................................... 12
Tazziberry Pear Upside-Down Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream ............................................. 12
Saturday 10, May 2008 .............................................................................................. 14
Pasta with Lamb Sausage Sauce.......................................................................................... 14
Salad with Basil-Olive Oil Dressing ................................................................................... 14
Homemade Chocolate Truffles with Vanilla Ice Cream ..................................................... 14
Saturday 24, May 2008 .............................................................................................. 16
Curry Beef/Chicken/Lamb .................................................................................................. 16
Salad with Capsicums and Verjus-Olive Oil Dressing........................................................ 17
Apple and Pear Fruit Tart .................................................................................................... 17
Saturday 7, June 2008................................................................................................ 19
Pizza for 60.......................................................................................................................... 19
Salad with Capsicums and Balsamic-Olive Oil Dressing ................................................... 20
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin Tops with Vanilla Ice Cream............................................ 21
Saturday 21, June 2008.............................................................................................. 23
Sausages and “Patatouille” .................................................................................................. 23
Salad with Tomatoes and Verjus-Olive Oil Dressing ......................................................... 23
Mango Upside-Down Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream ........................................................... 24
Saturday 5, July 2008 ................................................................................................ 25
Rosemary Roast Beef .......................................................................................................... 25
Salad with Cucumber and Balsamic and Olive Oil Dressing .............................................. 25
Gnocchi in Tomato Salsa..................................................................................................... 26
Blueberry Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches ........................................................................... 26
Saturday 19, July 2008 .............................................................................................. 28
Sliced Goat Topside ............................................................................................................ 28
Salad with Grapes and Verjus and Olive Oil Dressing ....................................................... 28
Penne with Brocollini .......................................................................................................... 29
Chocolate-covered and Plain Dried Apricots with Ice Cream............................................. 29
Saturday 2, August 2008............................................................................................ 30
Roast Veal ........................................................................................................................... 30
Roasted Potatoes.................................................................................................................. 30
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Salad with Blood Oranges and Celery and Sesame Oil....................................................... 30
Pear and Cherry Fruit Tart ................................................................................................... 31
Saturday 16, August 2008.......................................................................................... 32
Pasta with a Lamb Mince & Mushroom Sauce ................................................................... 32
Turkish Style Zucchini ........................................................................................................ 32
Banana Bread with Ice Cream ............................................................................................. 32
Saturday 30, August 2008.......................................................................................... 34
Chicken Soup ...................................................................................................................... 34
Yearling Roast Steaks ......................................................................................................... 34
Roast Potatoes and Spinach ................................................................................................. 34
Pear Chocolate Chip Muffins with Ice Cream..................................................................... 35
Other Recipes ............................................................................................................. 36
Sweet Potato Soup ............................................................................................................... 36
Minestrone Soup.................................................................................................................. 36
Roast Vegetables ................................................................................................................. 36
Strawberries and Mint ......................................................................................................... 37
Poached Pears ...................................................................................................................... 37
References ................................................................................................................... 38
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Introduction
What follows is a cookbook that attempts to illustrate for non-professionals how
cooking for large numbers of people is not as intimidating as it may seem. Most of
the recipes here are intended to serve about fifty to sixty people, but I also report
scaled-down versions to serve approximately four people. These recipes, recorded
more-or-less as they happened, were served to people attending the Empower food
program at Richmond Assembly of God church, in Richmond, Victoria, Australia
which ran from May 2007 through July 2009. The program was based on a divinely
inspired idea: to cook and serve good food (at no monetary cost) to people facing
hunger and possibly malnutrition and health and dietary challenges.1 What you will
find in the pages that follow is: 1) a cookbook, demonstrating that cooking good food
for large numbers of people doesn’t have to be that hard, and 2) a journal
documenting the process through which actual meals came about, including a few
cooking tips, albeit from non-professionals.
At least from a kitchen standpoint, the Empower food program borrowed some of the
same organizational principles behind Alice Waters’s famed Chez Panisse restaurant.
How? With no professionally trained staff, an excellent formula seems to be to serve
one meal that everyone eats (plus an alternative choice if there are any vegetarians.)
In Thomas McNamee’s (2007) account of Alice Waters’s life and her famous Chez
Panisse restaurant, he points out that the idea to organize the kitchen around the
principle that everyone eats the same meal arose because no one knew how to run a
menu-based restaurant, which requires a lot more specialization in the kitchen. A
kitchen can really only be so specialized if you have lots of people cooking, or if you
have highly trained chefs, who can easily switch between dishes and tasks. Chances
are, in a kitchen staffed by volunteers, there will be few with extensive kitchen
experience, but even without that there are still many great and simple dishes that can
be made for lots of people.
Moreover, the menus are inspired by the principle that you can take a risk and just
walk up to a market and think up a meal right on the spot simply by picking out the
best available ingredients that appear that day. An additional benefit of doing so is
that preparing fresh produce eliminates certain food safety hazards that arise with
transporting and storing food.
There are obvious differences between the food program and the restaurant. First, as
an enterprise Chez Panisse relies on customers willing to pay to maintain its
existence, whereas Richmond Assembly of God supported the program, through
volunteers and funding, right from the start in May 2007. So, while restaurant
managers have to worry about both the revenue and cost sides of the operation, the
Empower program was simpler, as we only had to focus on the cost side, and because
we tended to buy food in season, we were always well under budget.
The idea of a soup kitchen probably conjures up certain images that were due for an
upgrade long ago. The idea that people who live on the street or under difficult
circumstances will eat anything you give them is not true. In a certain sense, the aim
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Luke 14:12-13 says “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives
or rich neighbours; for they may well invite you in return, and that will be your repayment. Instead,
when you have a party, invite poor people, disfigured people, the crippled, the blind!”
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here is to provide an alternative view of the soup kitchen, one in which: 1) only good
soup is served, only if it matches with the main dish of the evening, and 2) the
consumption of processed foods is kept at a minimum. To cook for someone,
especially a person who perhaps arrives off the street for the first time, can have an
amazing effect towards eliminating a sense of alienation, loneliness, isolation, which
only works to reinforce the idea in a person’s mind that homelessness is acceptable.
Therefore, this cookbook will hopefully be inspirational in getting people to believe
that it is possible to change the world, in this case, one dish at a time.
To make that happen, consider that many or even most cookbooks have a long list of
ingredients for each recipe, which make them ingredient and/or process intensive. In
some cases, however, you can still get the essence of the dish, without all of the effort,
and without losing much flavor, by simply eliminating some ingredients. This comes
through in many of the dishes here.
Why the Menus Work the Way they Do
While I hope I have made a convincing case that cooking for lots of people, even if
you don’t really have any experience running a kitchen, is not as daunting as it seems,
there is one drawback to preparing large quantities of food compared to a dinner for
four, namely, food safety hazards. This cannot be understated. In the process of
preparing large quantities of food, the food becomes exposed to the elements, most
importantly, heat and moisture for longer periods of time, which facilitates bacterial
growth that can result in food poisoning. The longer the food is exposed the more the
bacteria grow.
While it will not be possible to apply the same formula for all dinner events, the way
the Empower Food program avoids food safety hazards is that: 1) all two-, and
sometimes three-course meals are served within two hours (usually 80 minutes), 2)
there are few leftovers, which are either discarded (if the ingredients in their
combined raw and cooked form are exposed to temperatures between 5 and 60
Celsius for two hours or more), or kept if they are less susceptible to bacterial growth
(as is generally true of baked goods). For those who are planning dinner events
lasting more than two hours, knowing more about why this simple formula works will
help prevent food poisoning in the home. The basic principles are therefore described
next.
Principles of Food Safety and How Good Organization Promotes It
The Empower program operates in Richmond, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, which
is a highly regulated economy. Food Standard Australia New Zealand (FSANZ)
develops the food safety standards in Victoria. As a result, the Empower program
must have food safety supervisors on the premises to operate. Even if the rules may
seem like overkill, it does work to minimize risks of food poisoning, which is
especially important for people who may be facing malnutrition. Accordingly, some
of the principles are listed below, beginning with a sample daily run sheet. Once you
see how to organize the kitchen activities in a way that facilitates food safety it will
become easier to appreciate how to prepare a good meal for a large number of people
while avoiding food safety hazards.
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Sample Kitchen Run Sheet
The Empower team prepares food on premises for about 60 people (give or take 20)
each Saturday. To prepare the food, it is necessary to follow food safety principles.
Each team is organized around a food safety supervisor who is supposed to develop
and implement a food safety plan to effectively: 1) monitor all food products coming
into the kitchen (by completing a goods receiving form), and 2) monitor kitchen
activities to minimize the risks of food poisoning.
Typical Saturday Schedule
• 11am buy produce from Gleadall St. Market right behind the church in Richmond
The market closes around noon, and the produce is still be quite good, while
the prices start dropping; if you’re cooking roast vegetables for 60, purchase
about 18-22 kg’s of produce (e.g., 10 kg’s of eggplant or potatoes, 6 kg’s of
tomatoes, and 6 kg’s of zucchini, etc.; buy what looks best, it’s often the
lowest priced because it’s peak season); if you’re buying tomatoes to make a
pasta sauce, buy about 7 kg’s of the best smelling tomatoes
• 11:30am/11:40am drop off produce at church and begin cleaning up the kitchen
After dropping off and refrigerating the produce, and filling out the goods
receiving form for the produce, you may wish to fill up the dishwasher, and
start washing utensils and pots and pans that will be used
• 12-12:30pm go to butcher to pick up meat
A typical rule is 200 grams of meat per person, however, given that some
people do not eat often, we typically aim for 300 grams, so for 60 people you
have to ask for about 18 kg’s of meat (excluding the bone) these days to feed
about 60 people, and to go along with the 18-22 kg’s of produce (if it’s roasted
vegetables); if you buy meat to make a pasta sauce, buy about 7 kg’s of
sausages
• 1pm unload and refrigerate meat and continue cleanup of kitchen
After dropping off and refrigerating the meat, and filling out the goods
receiving form for the meat, continue washing the utensils, pots and pans that
will be used, especially the ones used if baking a dessert
• 1:30pm go to Coles to pick up cordial and baked goods ingredients for dessert
You will normally buy a few bags of groceries, such as 2 bottles of cordial, 2
kg’s of flour if making a baked dessert for 60, 1 kg of sugar, 6-18 eggs, ice
cream, butter, flora (for the bread); if you’re making pasta, you may wish to
purchase 6-7 kg’s of dry pasta
• 2pm unload and refrigerate Coles purchases, finish clean up and begin preparing
dessert
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After unloading the packaged goods purchased at Coles, and entering in the
information in the goods receiving form you can finish cleaning up the kitchen
surfaces and or washing the utensils used in cooking, and set them aside. You
can then prepare the dessert to get it out of the way (baked goods are a
relatively safe product, which is why you can do it first, and not worry too
much about how it’s stored, unless it’s got dairy, or raw fruit, in which case
you should be much more careful and pay attention to the food so that it does
not get exposed to the 5 ⁰C-60 ⁰C temperature zone for more than two hours if
you plan to later refrigerate the dessert, or for more than four hours total).
• 3:30pm begin preparation of mains
When cooking for about 60 people, it may take a while, and you would ideally
like to time the food so that the food comes out of the oven just before you are
ready to serve (cut fruit, vegetables and meat can last no more than two hours
in the 5 ⁰C-60 ⁰C temperature range if you plan to refrigerate it, and no more
than 4 hours in that range, before discarding. Cut fruit, vegetables and meat
exposed to the 5 ⁰C-60 ⁰C for longer than four hours should be discarded. If
you’re roasting meat and vegetables you should begin thinking about the time
it takes to cook; it may well take 2 hours for meat and at least 1½-2 hours for
the vegetables, especially if the oven is very full. If you’re cooking pasta, you
may wish to fill up the pot of water now, but turn it on about at 4:30-5pm.
• 5pm begin preparation of salad
When preparing a salad the ingredients are typically cut, and cut vegetables
and fruit should not be exposed to temperatures in the 5 ⁰C-60 ⁰C range, for
more than two hours if you wish to refrigerate. Therefore, plan to cut the
ingredients for the salad as soon as possible, and refrigerate and cover, until
the meal is ready to be served.
• 6:30pm serve mains
Shortly before the mains are served, prepare any salad dressing if there is any.
Make sure all serving utensils and dishes are in place. About 20-30 minutes
later, there are usually requests for seconds, or plates and utensils begin to
come back in so you can have someone rinse and loading up the plates and
utensils into the dishwasher.
• 7:15pm prepare to serve dessert
As the supper plates begin to come back in it is also time to start serving
dessert, so often you’ll need to get two people to begin plating dessert. Once
the last dessert goes out you can begin to focus on the clean up.
• 8pm kitchen officially closes (but if there's a latecomer we try to accommodate) and
cleanup of kitchen begins
• 9:30pm/10pm leave church
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The run sheet in fact is designed to minimize food safety hazards. The short trips
from the butcher shop are meant to minimize the meat’s exposure to dangerous
temperatures. Fruits and vegetables in their raw form can generally withstand room
temperature, though vegetables such as lettuce tend to wilt fairly quickly. So, it is
good to get them into the cold fairly soon. There are generally few hazards
purchasing the processed and packaged goods from the supermarket. Having
discussed some solutions to avoiding food safety hazards, now we can explore why
there are problems.
A major issue in food preparation is bacterial growth. When preparing food, it is
important to keep track of several risk factors that make bacteria grow: 1) time, 2)
temperature, 3) moisture, 4) oxygen, and 5) low acidity (or high pH). Time and
temperature combine to create the so-called “The Danger Zone,” which is
summarized below:
Temperature
What Happens
water boils
100 ⁰C
sanitizing cooking utensils (and plates) – this can be done with a
82 ⁰C
washing machine that has a hot rinse cycle, a hot water tap or a plate
sterilizer
reheating and cooking food – hot food should be brought to this
75 ⁰C
temperature before it is served at a temperature at 60 ⁰C
heated food – hot food should be kept at or above this threshold
60 ⁰C
Temperatures in the 5 ⁰C-60 ⁰C range constitute the “Danger Zone”
refrigerated/cold storage food – refrigerators should be at this
5 ⁰C
temperature or below
water freezes
0 ⁰C
frozen storage – freezers should be at this temperature or below
-15 ⁰C
Temperatures for Preparing Food
When cooking food, the internal temperature must rise above 75 ⁰C before serving.
While that may be too hot to eat straight away, the aim is to kill bacteria. If the food
temperature falls below 60 ⁰C, then the food has a maximum life of 2 hours if it is to
be refrigerated, and a total life of 4 hours, after which it should be discarded. This is
important to know for those hosting all day barbeques and parties, as the food left at
room temperature may spoil well before the end of the evening.
The “Danger Zone” and Temperatures for Storing Serving Food
Temperature and time combine to create a food safety hazard in the form of bacterial
growth. There are so-called danger zones that lie above -15 ⁰C for frozen foods and
between 5 ⁰C and 60 ⁰C for unfrozen food. For instance, if the temperature of a
frozen item is above -15 ⁰C, then it is in the danger zone; in other words, frozen foods
should be frozen solid.
Similarly, if refrigerated food rises above 5 ⁰C it is also in the danger zone. Finally,
after cooking food to a temperature of at least 75 ⁰C, if the temperature subsequently
falls below 60 ⁰C then it is in the danger zone.
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Sanitizing Utensils
One final and important temperature to know is for sanitizing utensils. To properly
sanitize washed utensils it is important before using them to expose them to a
temperature of at least 82 ⁰C for at least two seconds. This can be done using a dish
washer that has a rinse cycle that reaches that temperature, by rinsing them off in near
boiling water perhaps using a hot water tap, or with a plate sanitizer.
Time
There is a so-called 2-hour/4-hour window that food safety standards must meet in
principle in Victoria. For instance, if you plan to refrigerate the food after preparing
it, then the ingredients must be exposed to above 5 ⁰C for no more than two hours. If
the food’s exposure to temperatures above 5 ⁰C and below 60 ⁰C is more than two
hours but not less than 4 hours, then it must be used immediately, and it must not be
re-refrigerated. Food exposure the so-called “danger zone” for more than four hours
must be thrown out.
High Risk Foods
High risk implies that bacterial growth occurs at a high rate. Meat, fish and shellfish
in almost any form (canned, raw, or cooked) is susceptible to high bacterial growth.
The same can be said of dairy products, in any form. Finally, foods high in starch
when cooked (not in their raw form), and therefore exposed to moisture, are also
highly susceptible to bacterial growth. This explains why dry pasta and rice can be
left at room temperature for long periods of time, while cooked pasta and rice has a
two hour/four hour life span. Fresh fruits and vegetables in their raw form can be
exposed to room temperature for as long as it retains its moisture. However, once
they are cut, then the same two hour/four hour window applies. This is not true of
dried fruits and vegetables, which have much less moisture.
Low Risk Foods
Low risk foods include those high in sugar, salt, or acidity. So, jams and jellies are
resistant to bacteria, as are dried baked goods since all have low levels of moisture.
Potato chips or dried salted foods (such as meat and fish) can be exposed to room
temperature. Finally, acidic foods (those with a low pH) are also at low risk for food
poisoning, and include fresh (uncut) fruit, yoghurt, and pickles.
Tips for Defrosting: When cooking with frozen food, it is important to thaw at
temperatures below 5 ⁰C, but this can take a long time (as long as 48 hours). If time
is an issue, then some shortcuts include cutting the food into smaller pieces before
thawing. Microwave ovens can also be used to thaw frozen food. Finally, running
cold water (20 ⁰C or less) can be used to thaw foods.
Tip for Cooling Food: One problem with preparing a large quantity of food is that it
can take a long time to cool down (if it was above 60 ⁰C, it may take more than two
hours to get below 5 ⁰C, which means that bacteria could grow during that time). So
how do you get large quantities of hot food prepared for refrigeration? If it’s a large
pot of soup, one solution is to pour the soup into smaller containers so that the heat
9
can dissipate. This will also work for large trays of hot cooked food. Another
alternative is to place the tray (not the food itself) uncovered in a cold water or ice
bath.
Tips for Reheating Food: When reheating cold food (food that was stored at
temperatures below 5 ⁰C), it is important to get the temperature to 75 ⁰C (not 60 ⁰C)
as quickly as possible, without burning it. That means the food should not simmer to
75 ⁰C, as this can potentially expose the food to the danger zone for longer than the
two hour/four hour window. Stirring frequently helps to avoid cold spots during the
reheat.
Handling Food: Clean Surfaces, Cross-Contamination and To Glove or Not to
Glove?
One issue that is of utmost importance is avoiding all cross-contamination, whether
it’s contaminating cooked food with raw food, or cooked or raw food with
contaminated surfaces. That’s why in the sample run-sheet above, you see that
sanitizing the kitchen comes before the actual cooking. You may never know where,
when or how bacteria may have emerged on food or a non-food surface, so the best
way is to inspect the food or sanitize the surface yourself. If food is contaminated,
then properly dispose of it. If a surface has been contaminated with food or non-food
substances (your hands, a box or bag that you used to transport the food, etc.) then
you should clean the surface on which food will go.
Related to this is the issue of topping up dishes. You may often see people reloading
a dish of food with freshly cooked food. The problem with doing this is that once a
dish goes out to serve it may easily be contaminated. You do not want to add fresh
food to a contaminated tray, so the best way to avoid this is to put out new food on a
new serving dish.
Yet another related issue that arises when preparing food is whether or not to use
disposable gloves. The easiest way to answer the question is to ask: how many tasks
do I have to do? If you are just doing a few tasks, then wear gloves, but change them
after each task to avoid cross-contaminating food. On the other hand, if you have
many tasks to do, then don’t wear gloves, but wash and dry your hands frequently,
between each task.
The reason for these rules of thumb is again to avoid cross-contaminating food. If
you have ten tasks to complete, then you would have used up to twenty gloves, which
is wasteful, so it is more reasonable and safe to wash and dry your hands. It’s not a
good idea to wash gloves in between tasks since you can’t be sure that you’ve rinsed
off all the soap from the gloves (e.g., removing the gloves to inspect with your bear
hands could contaminate the food).
With the basics of food safety in mind, we can now get on to the menus. Unless
otherwise indicated, the menus are reported as they were recorded.
10
Saturday 26, April 2008
On this particular Saturday, some volunteers met at the Queen Victoria or “Vic”
market, a large partially enclosed, partially covered outdoor market just north of the
Central Business District of Melbourne. No one had any ideas about what to do. So,
we relied on trusty fallback: just pick the best looking ingredients (i.e., the ones that
speak the loudest), and think up the meal on the spot. Walking through the Vic
market, the limes were the first to shout out. We walked past once, but we were
definitely coming back. Then, a few aisles over, it was the Red D’anjou pears; after
squeezing them to make sure their appearance was not deceiving, the deal was done.
It was on to the vegetables. First were the cos lettuces; nothing spectacular, as it’s
probably not the best season. But they looked good. Then 10 kg’s of potatoes (we
decided it was going to be mashed potatoes). We’re almost done, but we still need
some finishing touches. Tazziberries! What a great discovery; spicy but sweet (it
may not sound appetizing, but you might think of them as combining the taste and
texture of a persimmon and a blueberry). They’ll go great in a pear upside down cake
(for 60), so two punnets (2x100g’s) should be sufficient. Let’s get down to the meat.
At the butcher, we’re offered two great looking beef topside roasts (5kg’s worth), and
we also pick up 3 kg’s of goat. The final stop is the super market to get the dry and
other ingredients, listed below.
Balsamic Roast Beef and Goat
For 40
Beef Topside (5kg)
Goat (3 kg)
Balsamic vinegar (roughly ½ bottle)
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
For 4
500 g’s of beef
300 g’s of beef
To prepare the meat, it’s simple, even for 8 kg’s it still takes about 10 minutes, so this
is a technique that you can use for any red meat. First, preheat the oven to 230 ⁰C
(450 F), as the meat will be seared in the oven at this temperature for the first five
minutes. Second, place the meat on an oven rack and lightly coat the surface of the
meat with balsamic vinegar (just enough to darken the color). Third, coat the meat
with salt and pepper (we used about 1 cup of a half & half mixture of salt and pepper).
Finally, pour and rub olive oil over the surface of the meat so that you get a light
coating that hardly drips oil. Once the meat has been prepared, it can go into the oven
for five minutes at 230 ⁰C (450 F); then turn the oven down to about 180 ⁰C (350 F)
so that you cook it about 30 minutes per kilo (the cuts of meat we had were cut
roughly into 1.5 kg pieces). Note, if you’re overstuffing your oven, it helps to add an
additional 20 ⁰C to the cooking temperature.
Mashed Potatoes
For 40
Potatoes (10kg)
500 grams of butter
1 litre of milk
For 4
Potatoes (1kg)
50 grams
100 mls of milk
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Boil a large pot of water. Peel the potatoes. When the water begins to boil drop in
the potatoes and cook until they are easily pierced by a knife. Drain the water and
then mash the potatoes. Add 600ml’s of milk and butter to taste.
Salad with Pears and Lime-Olive Oil Dressing
For 40
Limes 5
6 cos lettuce
6 Red D’anjou pears
Extra virgin olive oil
For 4
½ of a lime
1 small cos lettuce
1 small pear
This salad was inspired by the “Classic Italian Salad” recipe (see p. 258) from the
cookbook called Easy Italian by Ursula Ferrigno. Cut the salad into edible-sized
pieces and place in a glass or plastic bowl to be covered and chilled at a temperature
below 5 ⁰C. Next slice the pears, not too soon before serving time, then add them to
the salad, cover and chill again. Squeeze the juice from the five limes into a bowl,
add to that an equal amount of extra virgin olive oil. Just before serving, pour the
dressing onto the salad and toss.
Tazziberry Pear Upside-Down Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream
For 40
For 4
2 punnets of Tazziberries
handful of berries
3 tins of pear halves in juice (815grams)
1 tin of pear halves 400 gram
1350 grams (6 cups) of butter
1 cup of butter
450grams (2 cups) of dark brown sugar
1/3 cup of dark brown sugar
1350 grams (6 cups) of light brown sugar
1 cup of light brown sugar
18 eggs
3 eggs
2025 grams (9 cups) of organic self-rising flour
1 ½ cups of self-rising flour
ground cardamom
8 litres Bullas Vanilla ice cream
To prepare the Tazziberry-Pear Upside Down cake, it’s also simple. (This recipe is an
adaptation of the Mango upside down cake recipe that appears in the Book of
Caribbean Cooking, McGraw Hill). First, preheat the oven to 180 ⁰C (350 F). Next
pour out the tins of pears into a bowl (a little juice will be reserved to moisten the
batter at the end). Then arrange the pears in the bottom of a clean cake pan. After
that, take about 1kg of butter and break it into pieces and pour into a large bowl along
with the light brown sugar. Mix them up with a fork (or by hand; yes we use gloves)
so that you get something that looks and feels like wet sand. In a saucepan, melt the
remaining butter and dark brown sugar (an equal amount of light brown sugar will
work), and then pour this over the pears into the cake pan. Next break open 18 eggs,
and you can try to remove the colozae, the little white membrane that attaches itself to
the egg yolk; removing it makes it easier to mix the batter, because they do not break
apart. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl. Sift the 9 cups of flour into a bowl, and take
a pinch of the flour and drop and stir into the beaten eggs. Then pour the eggs into the
bowl with the butter-sugar mixture and begin to stir. Once that’s done, pour in flour,
a little at a time, and stir. The batter should be a little stiff at this point, so add about
18 tablespoons of the pear juice. After rinsing off the Tazziberries you may add them
into the batter, along with any other ingredients you may think of (if you don’t have
12
Tazziberries, a good spice to add is ground cardamom). You may cook this for about
55-60 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when you lightly press into the center of the
cake and it springs back. Once it’s done, you can separate the cake from the sides (if
necessary) and let it sit for five minutes. Then place a flat tray or plate over the top of
the cake and flip it over, and remove the cake from the pan.
Total Cost
Estimated number of diners: 40. The total cost for this menu was 189.45 AUD
(which at the April 25th, 2008 exchange rate of 1.07 AUD/USD comes to 177.06
USD).
13
Saturday 10, May 2008
This meal started when Ali asked if we could make chocolate truffles again. Truffles!
They’re really easy to make. So then the only trick this time was to organize a meal
that sort of went around the truffles. The other issue was that the number of
volunteers for this week was a bit uncertain, so a simple main would be in order: pasta
with a sausage & tomato sauce, and a salad as well.
Pasta with Lamb Sausage Sauce
For 50
5.7 kg’s of Moroccan Sausages
6 kg’s tomatoes
6 kg’s spaghetti
salt
pepper
olive oil
For 4
4 large sausages
800 grams of tomatoes
750 grams of spaghetti
There’s a really easy pasta sauce, which helps when cooking for a large number of
people: take flavourful/spicy sausages and cook them up in olive oil (less than usual
as sausages tend to have a good amount of fat), and chop them into smaller pieces,
then add tomatoes (either canned whole Italian or fresh ones), and finally add salt,
pepper.
Boil the water and add the pasta. With large pots you may need to cook the pasta a
little longer as the temperature of the water may not get up to a rolling boil. Cook to
taste.
Salad with Basil-Olive Oil Dressing
For 50
6 cos lettuce
2 mignonette
basil (about 1 fresh bunch)
1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
olive oil
salt
For 4
1 small cos lettuce
a few leaves of a mignonette
handful of basil leaves
4 tablespoons of extra virgin
salt
Cut the salad into edible-sized pieces and place in a glass or plastic bowl to be
covered and chilled at a temperature below 5 ⁰C. Next cut the basil into small pieces
and drop into about 1 cup of extra virgin olive. Add a little salt to this mixture. Just
before serving, pour the dressing onto the salad and toss.
Homemade Chocolate Truffles with Vanilla Ice Cream
Chocolate Truffles
For 50
For 4
2 kg’s of Nestle Dark Cooking Chocolate 200 grams of Dark Cooking Chocolate
900 ml’s of cream
90 ml’s of cream
cocoa powder
cocoa powder
8 litres Bullas Vanilla ice cream
14
The chocolate truffle recipe comes from the Donna Hay collection on Chocolate. It’s
just 3 ingredients, which is why we do it. The first step is to break up the chocolate a
little while still in the packet (and without breaking the package) with a sturdy object
(a rolling pin, or sturdy ladle). Turn on the flame to low, drop the chocolate into the
pan, and add the cream and start stirring with a wooden spoon. Don’t delay adding
the cream as you risk burning the chocolate. After five to ten minutes, you’ll get a
thick ganache. Line a baking tray with baking paper, and pour the chocolate into the
tray. Place this tray into the freezer to cool it down fast. Once it becomes firm, take
another baking tray and line it with baking powder and lay down cocoa powder.
Plastic gloves come in handy at this point. Take teaspoons of the ganache, roll them
into little balls by hand and then roll them in the cocoa powder, and place in a baking
paper lined bowl (which will be kept cool once they are done).
Total Cost
Estimated number of diners: 50. The total cost for this menu was 192.90 AUD
(which at the May 9th, 2008 exchange rate of 1.06 AUD/USD comes to 181.98 USD).
15
Saturday 24, May 2008
The inspiration for this meal was the fact that we had not done a curry in a while.
This is a simpler (and hence faster to prepare) version of Jessica B. Harris’s (1991)
Trinidadian curry. There are many people of South Asian origin living in the
Caribbean, and their influence can be directly observed in many Caribbean
specialties. A nice complement to this main is a fruit tart, in this case one of apple
and the other of pear.
Curry Beef/Chicken/Lamb
For 40
For 4
8.5 kg’s gravy beef
800 grams of gravy beef
100 g (about 1.5 tins) of curry powder
1 ½ tablespoons of curry powder
10 kg’s of potatoes
1 kg of potatoes
1 head of garlic
3 large cloves of garlic
8 white onions
1 large onion
salt to taste
salt to taste
pepper
pepper
water (a sufficient amount to double the meat-potato volume)
Olive oil
Beef can be substituted with chicken thighs, or lamb. For vegetarians, we used
paneer.
Preparation
This curry dish is an excellent example of how increasing the quantity requires
changing the way the dish is prepared. When preparing this dish for four people the
order of operations is to cook the curry, onions, garlic and meat before adding water
to boil and finishing with the potatoes. The dish can be prepared fairly quickly,
within one hour.
For a large proportion, preparing this dish can take up to twice as long, and it is
necessary to start by boiling a large pot of water. The remaining ingredients are
cooked on the side, and then added to the boiling water, starting with the potatoes.
All remaining ingredients are cooked on the side in the same order, and this mixture is
then added to the boiling potatoes.
First, bring a large stock pot (a 100+ quart size) of water, filled 3/5 to the top, to a
boil. While the water is heating, finely chop the onions, and set aside (cover and
refrigerate if not cooking immediately). Then chop the potatoes in 6 (8 if they are
large), cover and refrigerate if not cooking immediately. Next, grate the garlic on a
plate against the tip of a fork. Alice Waters suggests this technique, and it really
seems to get the best part of the garlic. She also suggests removing any green parts of
the garlic; this eliminates unwanted bitterness. Finally, cut the meat in pieces similar
in size to the potatoes (cover and refrigerate if not cooking immediately).
Cooking
When preparing this dish for four, first chop the onion and grate the garlic. Then heat
the oil and drop in the curry powder in a pot (or large frying pan). Once the powder
begins to darken, and before it burns (about 40 seconds), stir in the onions and garlic
16
so that they are evenly coated with the oil and curry. Cook on a low flame for ten
minutes until they soften and brown slightly. While the mixture is cooking, chop the
meat into cubes. Add the meat to the mixture once the onions have browned. Add
salt and pepper. When the meat has cooked, add water and bring to a boil. Chop the
potatoes and add to the pot once the water is boiling. Cook for roughly 20-25
minutes, until the water boils down to a thickened sauce. The preparation changes for
larger portions.
Begin by bringing the water to a boil, and add the potatoes. While the water is
coming to a boil, in a large pan, pour enough olive oil to cover the bottom. Heat the
oil, drop in the curry powder, stir in the onions and garlic and let cook for 8 to 10
minutes. When the onions begin to look cooked, add in the meat and stir. Add salt
and pepper (note: it may be best to under-salt at the beginning, and then to add more
salt to taste at the end, because the saltiness intensifies as the water reduces and the
sauce thickens). Once the meat has been thoroughly browned, you may add it to the
boiling potatoes. Cook further until the water reduces and the potatoes begin to
disintegrate, which will cause the sauce to thicken up (this may take 20-40 minutes
depending on how much is being cooked).
Salad with Capsicums and Verjus-Olive Oil Dressing
For 40
For 4
4 cos large lettuce
1 small cos lettuce
4 red capsicums
1 small red capsicum
1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Verjus
In Australia, Verjus has regained popularity thanks to Maggie Beer. None of us had
ever used Verjus, which is the sweet but tart juice that comes from the first pressing
of not so fully ripened grapes. This salad dressing actually came about by accident,
after someone found it in the vinegar section of the supermarket and picked it up,
thinking it was Verjus vinegar. The taste of the verjus olive oil dressing goes well
with the sweetness of the red capsicums. To prepare the salad, simple cut the salad
into edible-sized pieces and place in a glass or plastic bowl to be covered and chilled
at a temperature below 5 ⁰C. Cut the red capsicums into small pieces, add to the salad
and return to the refrigerator. Make a half-half mixture of Verjus and extra virgin
olive oil. Just before serving, pour the dressing onto the salad and toss.
Apple and Pear Fruit Tart
For 40
8 cups of flour
4 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
48 tbsp. butter
28 tbsp water
4 kg’s of seasonal fruit
(Tasmanian Snow Apples and Red D’anjou Pears)
Optional:
Cinnamon powder
Brown sugar
17
For 4
1 cup of flour
½ teaspoon of sugar
1/8 teaspoon of salt
6 tbsp of butter
3 ½ teaspoons of water
500 grams/1 lb. of seasonal fruit
(Tasmanian Snow Apples and
Red D’anjou Pears)
8 litres Bullas Vanilla ice cream
This fruit tart is made with a dough inspired by Alice Waters’ Apple tart. The tart is
easy to make. First start with the dough. Mix flour, sugar, salt, and add 1/3 of the
butter until you get something that resembles corn meal. Next add in the remaining
butter. Dribble in the water until you can make a ball. Add more flour if the dough is
too sticky, or more a little more water if it does not come together as a ball. Flatten
out the dough on a baking sheet and place this in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Next
cut the fruit into nice slices. Once the dough is sufficiently chilled, arrange the fruit
into appealing patterns on the dough. Finally, you may sprinkle cinnamon powder
and brown sugar on top. Bake for 45 minutes at about 190 ⁰C.
Total Cost
Estimated number of diners: 40. The total cost for this menu was 186.95 AUD
(which at the May 23th, 2008 exchange rate of 1.05 AUD/USD comes to 178.05
USD).
18
Saturday 7, June 2008
On this Saturday, we were aiming for simplicity. Dessert came first. Initially, it was
supposed to be chocolate chip biscuits, but at the market it became banana chocolate
chip biscuits when we saw ripened bananas at the market. What else can be simple?
Pizza. At least this pizza dough, which we got off the internet, is really simple; you
don’t even need to let the dough rise. In the past, we have had some out of the
ordinary toppings, including minced venison, but on this day, we used sausages, red
capsicum and ham.
Pizza for 60
Tomato Sauce
For 60
Garlic (1 head)
8 tins of tomatoes
Olive oil
For 4
3 large cloves of garlic
1 tin of tomatoes
You can prepare the pizza sauce just as you might a Napoli sauce. First grate the
garlic on a plate against the tip of a fork. Next open the tins of tomatoes. Then heat
oil in the sauce pan, and then add the garlic. Let it cook about 30-45 seconds, and
then add in the tomatoes. Cook this on a medium flame for about 15-20 minutes,
stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid cooks off and you are left with a fairly
thick, but not dry or burned, sauce. Set the sauce aside.
Dough
For 60
42 cups of flour (about 6.1 kg’s)
14 packets of yeast
1 ¾ cups of olive oil
¼ cup + 2 teaspoons salt
¾ cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
14 cups of warm water
For 4
3 cups of flour
1 packet of yeast
2 tbsp of oil
1 tsp of salt
1 tbsp of sugar
1 cup of warm water
This is a great pizza dough because it tastes good and because you don’t have to wait
for the dough to rise. To make the dough, we used dry yeast, and stirred it into warm
water. You may mix the remaining ingredients together, and then slowly pour in the
yeast mixture. Form a dough ball that does not feel too sticky (if it feels too sticky
then add a little flour). Take part of the dough and lay it down on a baking sheet, no
more than about ¾ cm thick (it will rise, so if you want it thinner, maybe flatten it to
about ½ to ¾ cm). You can do this by hand; you may also use a rolling pin at the end
if you’d like to smooth things out, especially if you are running short of time. Preheat
the oven to 190 ⁰C.
Topping and Baking the Pizza
For 60
3-3.5 kg’s of mozzarella
Tomato sauce
For 4
500 grams of mozzarella
Tomato sauce
19
First ladle out the tomato sauce on the dough, then generously sprinkle the mozzarella
on top of that. Then add toppings listed below. Bake the pizza in the oven at 190 ⁰C
for 20 to 25 minutes.
Meat Pizza
For 60
3 kg’s of sausages
200 grams of shaved ham
For 4
3 large sausages
a few slices of shaved ham
We made 1.5 large pizzas using the sausages. The first time we tried this out, we used
minced venison as a topping; no one seemed to have a problem with that. This time
we just got a nice lamb sausage. Another small pizza was made from the 200 grams
of shaved ham, which was added to the pizza after 15 minutes of cooking time, so that
it does not dry out.
Hawaiian Pizza
50 grams of shaved ham
1 tin of pineapple rings
We made a Hawaiian pizza with these ingredients. Lay out the pineapple rings and
bake. After roughly 15 minutes, you may add the ham on top, so that it does not dry
out.
Red Capsicum Pizza
For 60
2.5 red capsicums
For 4
1 large capsicum
We made 2 large pizzas using the red capsicums. Simply lay them out on top of the
cheese.
TIP: How to Fix up a Mistake with the Dough
Unlike running a restaurant where you throw out any mistakes and start over, we tend
to try to capitalize on the mistakes, simply because we try to buy enough food for that
evening without leftovers, at least not leftovers with a short shelf-life. We were a bit
short of baking sheets, and we made a mistake with the last two pizzas because the
dough was too thick and the pans we used were too small. However, we had already
laid the tomato sauce on top. In attempting to transfer the pizza dough to a larger
baking sheet, it began to rip apart, as it was getting soggy. To correct this mistake, we
just made a new ball of dough by mixing it all up together, not knowing if it would
work, and added more flour until it had the same feel as the earlier dough. This gave
us a tomato-infused crust. It was brilliant. The lesson learned from this experience is
that when you don’t have the luxury of being able to throw out your mistakes, have an
open mind to fix up your home cooking.
Salad with Capsicums and Balsamic-Olive Oil Dressing
For 60
For 4
4 cos large lettuce
1 small cos lettuce
2.5 large red capsicums
1 small red capsicum
20
Extra virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar
cracked pepper
1 tablespoon of raw sugar
To prepare the salad, simple cut the salad into edible-sized pieces and place in a glass
or plastic bowl to be covered and chilled at a temperature below 5 ⁰C. Cut the red
capsicums into small pieces, add to the salad and return to the refrigerator. Make a
half-half mixture of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We added some
pepper cracked in a pepper mill, and some sugar to cut the acidity of the vinegar (an
alternative to this dressing is to add sugar and some mustard). Just before serving,
pour the dressing onto the salad and toss.
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin Tops with Vanilla Ice Cream
This recipe is a derivative of the Jessica B. Harris’s (1991) banana bread recipe that is
reported below.
Banana Chocolate Chip muffin tops
For 60
18 ripe bananas
360 ml’s of butter
6 cups (1100 grams) of brown sugar
6 eggs
12 cups (1800 grams) of flour
6 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. baking soda
6 tbsp. vanilla extract
400 grams chocolate chips
For 4 (with leftovers)
3 ripe bananas
60 ml’s of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups of flour
1 tsp. of baking powder
½ tsp. of baking soda
1 tbsp of vanilla extract
large handful of chocolate chips
While prepared just like cookies, they are called muffin tops because they are soft and
rise to form what looks like the top of a muffin. Begin by lining baking sheets with
baking paper. When preparing this for 60, line as many large baking sheets as you
can find (we had 8) because you will be producing at least 120 (depending on the size
pieces), and with only 12 per tray, you will need to rotate the trays.
To prepare the batter, in a bowl, take ¼ cup of butter and cut into pieces, pour in the
light brown or natural sugar and the dark brown sugar, and mash together with a fork
until it feels like wet sand (until there are no lumpy pieces of butter). Doing this task
with a fork for 60 will take a long time, and an effective substitute is to use your
hands (wearing disposable, dust-free, latex, food-handling gloves will be very
helpful). Smash the three bananas with a fork (or by hand if preparing the version for
60) until the lumps are gone and add to the sugar-butter mixture and mix together.
Drop in the egg and mix (tip from America’s Test Kitchen: time permitting, remove
the Chalazae, the small white wrinkled membrane that hangs from the yolk by hand,
because in its raw state, the Chalazae keeps its form and will not blend into the
batter). Sift in the flour, the teaspoon of baking powder and the baking soda, and mix.
Add the vanilla extract (to taste) and any remaining dry ingredients (blueberries, or
chocolate chips, or other things) and mix. When preparing to cook for 60, consider
21
that you may need to refrigerate the batter along the way as it may take a while to
cook over 100 pieces.
Once the batter is prepared, lay out heaping tablespoons of the batter in alternating
rows of two and three, roughly 5 or 6 for a normal sized sheet or 10-12 for a large
baking sheet, to prevent the cookies from overlapping. Bake 16-18 minutes, until you
can lightly press into the center of the cake and it springs back. Leave the muffin tops
to cool. When ready to prepare dessert, simply spoon one or two scoops of vanilla ice
cream over one cookie and lay a second muffin top next to it.
Total Cost
Estimated number of diners: 60. The total cost for this menu was 218.35 AUD
(which at the June 6th, 2008 exchange rate of 1.04 AUD/USD comes to 209.95 USD).
22
Saturday 21, June 2008
Once again, there was little time to plan out the dinner, so we aimed for something
simple. It started with a mango upside-down cake, which we hadn’t done in a while,
and which is generally popular. So then it came down to thinking about what else
might go with that. At the market, the butcher had some sweet chili mango sausages,
which as a main should be nicely complemented by the mango upside-down cake for
dessert, so then we just had to decide on the side-dishes. As it’s winter, we decided to
make a ratatouille-like dish, we’ll call “patatouille.” Ratatouille has eggplant but on
this day we bought purple potatoes, and since “patate” is French slang for potato, it
seems an appropriate name.
Sausages and “Patatouille”
Having purchased 10 kilos of rather large sausages, and as we had to serve about 50
people, the sausages were grilled and then cut diagonally in three pieces.
The ratatouille is rather simple, and the ingredients are listed below
For 50
3.5 kg’s of tomatoes
3.5 kg’s of purple potatoes
4 kg’s of zucchini
1 large head of garlic
Olive oil
For 4
4 large tomatoes (600 grams)
3 medium purple potatoes (400 grams)
4 zucchini (400 grams)
2 large cloves of garlic
To prepare, first cut the purple potatoes into small pieces. Then cut the zucchini into
small pieces. Roughly chop the tomatoes as they will be cooked down. Grate the
garlic against the tip of a fork. Heat a pan and pour in enough olive to cover the
bottom of the pan. Shortly after, once the oil is hot, drop in the garlic and let it cook
for 30 to 40 seconds. Then add the tomatoes, and them until they begin to break
down. Then add the zucchini and potatoes. Cook on medium heat, stirring often until
the tomato sauce thickens and potatoes are cooked (it will take about 45-50 minutes).
Salad with Tomatoes and Verjus-Olive Oil Dressing
For 50
For 4
4 cos large lettuce
1 small cos lettuce
1 kg of tomatoes
1 large tomato
2 butter lettuces
a few leaves of a butter lettuce
Extra virgin olive oil
Verjus
Here again, the verjus-olive oil dressing goes well with the well with the lettuce and
tomatoes. To prepare the salad, simple cut the salad into edible-sized pieces and place
in a glass or plastic bowl to be covered and chilled at a temperature below 5 ⁰C. Slice
the tomatoes and add to the salad and return to the refrigerator. Make a half-half
mixture of Verjus and extra virgin olive oil. Just before serving, pour the dressing
onto the salad and toss.
23
Mango Upside-Down Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream
For 50
3 large tins of mango slices in juice (815 g)
1350 grams (6 cups) of butter
1800 grams (7 cups) of raw sugar
18 eggs
2025 grams (9 cups) of organic self-rising flour
ground cardamom (optional)
For 4 (with leftovers)
1 tin (400g) of mango slices
1350 grams (1 cup) of butter
1 1/3 cups of raw sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ cups of self-rising flour
ground cardamom (optional)
This recipe is from the Book of Caribbean Cooking, McGraw Hill, and it is reported
here just to demonstrate that by substituting one ingredient, (mangos for the pears
used in the earlier recipe) you can get a different, more caramel-like dessert. First,
preheat the oven to 180 ⁰C (350 F). Next pour out the contents of the mango tins.
Arrange the mangoes in the bottom of a clean cake pan. Mix 1kg of butter cut into
pieces along with the raw sugar. Mix them up with a fork (or by hand; again, we use
gloves) so that you get a wet sand-like mixture. Melt the remaining butter and sugar
in a saucepan and pour around the mangoes in the cake pan. Beat the 18 eggs into a
bowl, and you can try to remove the colozae, the little white membrane that attaches
itself to the egg yolk; removing it makes it easier to mix the batter, because they do
not break apart. Sift the 9 cups of flour into a bowl, and take a pinch of the flour and
drop and stir into the beaten eggs. Then pour the eggs into the bowl with the buttersugar mixture and begin to stir. Once that’s done, pour in flour, a little at a time, and
stir. The batter should be a little stiff at this point, so add about 18 tablespoons of the
pear juice. We added ground cardamom to the final batter, which gives the cake a
lemony taste. You may cook this for about 55-60 minutes. You’ll know it’s done
when you lightly press into the center of the cake and it springs back. Once it’s done,
you can separate the cake from the sides (if necessary) and let it sit for five minutes.
Then place a flat tray or plate over the top of the cake and flip it over, and remove the
cake from the pan.
8 litres Bullas Vanilla ice cream
Total Cost
Estimated number of diners: 50. The total cost for this menu was 243.55 AUD
(which at the June 20th, 2008 exchange rate of 1.05 AUD/USD comes to 231.95
USD).
24
Saturday 5, July 2008
Having looked at the recent menus we decided to have roast beef, and the menu
proceeded from here. Gnocchi are a great accompaniment to roast, and on this
evening we faced our biggest challenge, as we replaced potato with Japanese
pumpkin, which has more water content than potato, so the gnocchi were a bit more
firm than they should be. The original fail-safe recipe from Maggie Beer’s Maggie’s
Table is what is reported instead. Along with this would be salad. For dessert, ice
cream sandwiches. The original plan was to make chocolate chip cookies to make the
sandwiches, however, at the market one merchant had ripe blueberries, so we made a
last minute change: blueberry cookies.
Rosemary Roast Beef
For 50
10 kg’s of yearling beef
small bunch of rosemary
salt
pepper
Olive oil
For 4
800 grams of yearling beef
2 sprigs of rosemary
This is a really simple recipe for roast meat. You may substitute pork or lamb in this
recipe. First, heat the oven to 230 ⁰C (450 F). Next, make a half-half mixture of
cracked pepper and salt. Then remove rosemary leaves from two 6 cm long sprigs.
Finally, pour olive oil over the meat, enough to lightly coat it, pour the rosemary and
salt pepper mixture on top, and lightly rub into the meat. Place the meat in the oven
and after five minutes turn the oven down to about 180 ⁰C (350 F) so that you cook it
about 30 minutes per kilo.
Salad with Cucumber and Balsamic and Olive Oil Dressing
For 50
4 cos large lettuces
1.5 kg of cucumbers
2 mignonette lettuces
Extra virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons of dijon mustard (optional)
2 tablespoons of raw sugar (option)
For 4
1 small cos lettuce
1 medium sized cucumber
a few leaves of mignonette lettuce
1 teaspoon of dijon mustard
1 teaspoon of raw sugar
The salad dressing, described below will go well with roast meat. To prepare the
salad, cut the lettuce into edible-sized pieces and place in a glass or plastic bowl to be
covered and chilled at a temperature below 5 ⁰C. Slice the cucumbers and add to the
salad and return to the refrigerator. To go along with the salad, the plan was
originally to make a balsamic-mustard-sugar dressing, which was popularized by
Martha Stewart. However, we forgot to get mustard, so we simplified the dressing to
just balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Simply combine the oil and vinegar (roughly a
half-half mixture), then add the mustard and sugar, and stir to get a light brown
dressing.
25
Gnocchi in Tomato Salsa
For 50
7.5 kg’s of potatoes
3 kg’s flour
Olive oil
salt
For 4
1 large potato (500 grams)
200 grams of flour
Olive oil
This recipe is a simplification of Maggie Beer’s from Maggie’s Table (the missing
ingredient is the basil, and we replace the butter with olive oil). The key to the recipe
is to have a 500g:200g ratio of potato (or other similarly waxy starch) to flour. First,
boil the potatoes. Meanwhile, pour out the flour on a space large enough to do the
work. One the potatoes are cooked, crush the potatoes over the flour, using a ricer, or
other similar instrument that will remove the lumps. Pour a little olive oil, and a little
salt to taste, onto the potato. Then begin to mix the ingredients to get a soft, unsticky
dough (if it’s too sticky, add more flour, and if it’s too dry, add a little more oil).
Finally, roll out the dough to get a “sausage” 1 cm in diameter, and then using a fork,
or pastry scraper, cut the sausage into 2 cm long bits of dough. Bring water to a boil,
and drop in the gnocchi. After 1 to 2 minutes, the gnocchi should begin to rise to the
surface of the pot, at which point you can spoon them out.
Salsa
For 50
3 kg’s of tomatoes
1 head of garlic
Salt
cracked pepper
olive oil
For 4
3 large tomatoes (750 grams)
2 cloves of garlic
Grate the garlic on a plate against the tip of a fork. Heat olive oil in a pan, and drop in
the garlic. Cut the tomatoes in two pieces (as the will disintegrate while cooking).
Blueberry Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches
The batter for these cookies is also derived from Jessica B. Harris’s Banana Bread
recipe. In this case, we take out the bananas, and triple the egg quantity.
For 50 (with leftovers)
360 ml’s of butter
6 cups (1100 grams) of brown sugar
18 eggs
12 cups (1800 grams) of self-rising flour
6 tbsp. vanilla extract
4 punnets of blueberries, rinsed
For 4 (with leftovers)
60 ml’s of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups of self-rising flour
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 generous handful of blueberries
To prepare these cookies simply follow the recipe for the chocolate chip muffin tops.
Finally, just before baking, add in the blueberries, to minimize crushing. Take soup
spoons, or tablespoons of batter and lay them out on a baking sheet, lined with baking
paper, with sufficient space, roughly 5 or 6 for a normal sized sheet or 10-12 for a
large baking sheet, to prevent the cookies from overlapping. Bake 16-18 minutes,
26
until you can lightly press into the center of the cake and it springs back. Leave the
cookies to the side. When ready to prepare dessert, simply spoon to scoops of vanilla
ice cream over one cookie and cover with the second.
8 litres Bullas Vanilla ice cream
Total Cost
Estimated number of diners: 50. The total cost for this menu was 235.40 AUD
(which at the July 4th, 2008 exchange rate of 1.04 AUD/USD comes to 226.35 USD).
27
Saturday 19, July 2008
The challenge we faced this evening was that another group was also using the
kitchen at the same time, and with considerable time and space constraints, we
adjusted the menu accordingly. The menu began earlier in the week with an
inspiration to do chocolate covered dried apricots, which can be prepared in five
minutes. For the mains, the next challenge was to find something quickly done. The
butcher we were going to has sliced goat top-side, and with that we would make a
penne dish, and salad.
Sliced Goat Topside
Our numbers had been up, two weeks in a row, so this time we increased our meet
purchase to 11 kilos.
For 55
11 kg’s of sliced goat top-side
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
For 4
800 grams of sliced goat top-side
Because the meat is already sliced, this is fast and easy. First, heat the oven to 230 ⁰C
(450 F). Next, make a half-half mixture of cracked pepper and salt. Pour the salt and
pepper mixture over the meat and then pour the olive oil over that. Place the meat in
the oven and after five minutes turn the oven down to about 180 ⁰C (350 F) so that
you cook it about 25 to 30 minutes.
Salad with Grapes and Verjus and Olive Oil Dressing
For 55
For 4
4 cos large lettuces
1 small cos lettuce
2 mignonette lettuces
a few leaves of mignonette lettuce
3 kg’s of black grapes
400 grams of black grapes
Extra virgin olive oil
verjuice
To prepare the salad, cut the lettuce into edible-sized pieces and place in a glass or
plastic bowl to be covered and chilled at a temperature below 5 ⁰C. Pull the grapes
off of the vine, rinse in cold water, and add to the lettuce. Make a half-half mixture of
Verjus and extra virgin olive oil. Just before serving, pour the dressing onto the salad
and toss.
28
Penne with Brocollini
For 55
5 kg’s of dried penne
5 bunches of broccolini
1 head of Garlic
olive oil
salt
pepper
For 4
500 grams of dried penne
4-5 stalks of broccolini
2 cloves of garlic
This recipe was actually inspired by a photo of “Penne with Rapini, Almonds and
Currants” (see page 196 of Maggie’s Table). In this case, we use broccolini instead of
rapini and omit most of the other ingredients. First, boil water for pasta. Next, grate
the garlic against the tip of a fork. Rinse the broccolini in cold water and cut in pieces
about the same length as the penne; keep the tops of the broccolini as well. In a pan,
quickly heat the garlic in olive oil (not more than 1 minute) and stir to avoid having it
harden. Then drop in the broccolini and continue stirring. When the water has boiled
add salt to raise the boiling temperature of the water and stir before adding the pasta.
Remove the pasta about 1 minute before you normally would, drain in a colander and
then pour it into the broccolini-garlic mixture. Add more olive oil if the pasta is not
coated, and stir until it has a cooked texture.
Chocolate-covered and Plain Dried Apricots with Ice Cream
For 55
250 grams of cooking chocolate
70-80 dried [Turkish] apricots
For 4
50 grams of cooking chocolate
15 dried apricots
Strike the chocolate while it is still in the package with the dull edge of a cleaver to
break it so that it takes less time to melt. Once melted, simply add in the dried
apricots, and stir to make sure each one is completely coated. Once done, transfer to a
pan or baking sheet and place in the freezer for 20-25 minutes, so that the chocolate
hardens again. Serve with uncoated apricots and ice cream.
Total Cost
Estimated number of diners: 55. The total cost for this menu was 265.55 AUD
(which at the July 18th, 2008 exchange rate of 1.03 AUD/USD comes to 257.82
USD).
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Saturday 2, August 2008
On this particular Saturday, we were a bit under-staffed, but with great teamwork, we
managed to serve on time. The main dish will be roast veal and potatoes, along with a
salad.
Roast Veal
For 55
Veal Fillet 11kg
Red Wine vinegar (half a bottle)
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil
For 4
800 grams of veal fillet
Preheat the oven to 230 ⁰C (450 F), as the meat will be seared in the oven at this
temperature for the first five minutes. Second, place the meat on an oven rack and
lightly coat the surface of the meat with vinegar. Third, coat the meat with salt and
pepper (we used about 1 cup of a half & half mixture of salt and pepper). Finally,
pour and rub olive oil over the surface of the meat so that you get a light coating that
hardly drips oil. Once the meat has been prepared, it can go into the oven for five
minutes at 230 ⁰C (450 F); then turn the oven down to about 180 ⁰C (350 F) so that
you cook it about 30 minutes per kilo (the cuts of meat we had were cut roughly into
1.5 kg pieces). Note, if you’re overstuffing your oven, it helps to add an additional 20
⁰C to the cooking temperature.
Roasted Potatoes
For 55
Potatoes (15kg)
Olive Oil
For 4
Potatoes (1 kg)
Peel and halve the potatoes. Preheat oven to 180. Cook for roughly 1½ hours.
Salad with Blood Oranges and Celery and Sesame Oil
For 55
For 4
10 blood oranges
1 blood orange
3 cos lettuces
1 small cos lettuce
2 large celery
2 large celery stalks
Small bottle of sesame oil
This salad was inspired by the “Sicilian Fennel and Orange Salad” recipe (see p. 265)
from the cookbook called Easy Italian by Ursula Ferrigno. Cut the salad into ediblesized pieces and place in a glass or plastic bowl to be covered and chilled at a
temperature below 5 ⁰C. Cut the oranges in slices and then pull wedges apart. Slice
the celery at 1cm intervals. Finally, add sesame oil and mix together.
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Pear and Cherry Fruit Tart
For 55
8 cups of flour
4 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
48 tbsp. butter
28 tbsp water
12 Bosc pears
800 grams of cherries
For 4
1 cup of flour
½ teaspoon of sugar
1/8 teaspoon of salt
6 tbsp of butter
3 ½ teaspoons of water
1.5 Bosc pears
2 handfuls of cherries
8 litres Bullas Vanilla ice cream
This is prepared just as with the apple pear tart.
Total Cost
Estimated number of diners: 55. The total cost for this menu was 215.95 AUD
(which at the August 1st, 2008 exchange rate of 1.07 AUD/USD comes to 201.82
USD).
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Saturday 16, August 2008
On this particular Saturday, we were a bit under-staffed, but with great teamwork, we
managed to serve on time.
Pasta with a Lamb Mince & Mushroom Sauce
For 55
Minced lamb 6kg
6 kg’s of mushrooms
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil
For 4
500 grams of minced lamb
500 grams of mushrooms
This lamb-based pasta sauce differs from the sausage-based sauce.
Turkish Style Zucchini
There is a recipe for green beans that is often served in Turkish cuisine. So you can
try this recipe with green beans, but here we replaced the green beans with zucchini
and added some basil.
For 55
3 kg’s of tomatoes
6 kg’s of zucchini
1 large head of garlic
Olive oil
For 4
3 large tomatoes
500 grams of zucchini (about 3)
2 cloves of garlic
To prepare, first cut the tomatoes into small pieces. Then cut the zucchini into small
pieces. Roughly chop the tomatoes as they will be cooked down. Grate the garlic
against the tip of a fork. Heat a pan and pour in enough olive to cover the bottom of
the pan. Shortly after, once the oil is hot, drop in the garlic and let it cook for 30 to 40
seconds. Then add the zucchini and potatoes. Cook on medium heat, stirring often
until the tomato sauce thickens and potatoes are cooked (it will take more than 30
minutes).
Banana Bread with Ice Cream
For 55 (with leftovers)
18 ripe bananas
360 ml’s of butter
6 cups (1100 grams) of brown sugar
6 eggs
12 cups (1800 grams) of flour
6 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. baking soda
6 tbsp. vanilla extract
For 4 (with leftovers)
3 ripe bananas
60 ml’s of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups of flour
1 tsp. of baking powder
½ tsp. of baking soda
1 tbsp of vanilla extract
Coat a cake pan with butter (perhaps from what’s left on the foil), and lay some wax
paper inside the pan (when preparing for 4, choose a 9 in. x 9 in. pan, for 60 choose a
deep dish food pan approximately 20-3/4" long x 12-3/4" wide x 2-1/2" deep).
Excluding the chocolate chips (though they can be included here too), the banana
bread batter is prepared just as for the banana chocolate chip muffin tops. Pour the
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mixture into the pan and bake for 45-50 minutes at 180 Celsius/350 Fahrenheit. Near
the end of the baking time, insert a knife into the center and if no batter sticks to it.
When scaling up the portions for 60, the center is often not be sufficiently baked after
50 minutes, so place a loose sheet of baking paper or aluminum foil on top of the
bread (without tucking it in) and continue cooking, until the center is sufficiently
cooked (this can sometimes take 20-40 minutes, depending on how much the bread
has risen).
8 litres Bullas Vanilla ice cream
Total Cost
Estimated number of diners: 55. The total cost for this menu was 252.10 AUD
(which at the August 15th, 2008 exchange rate of 1.15 AUD/USD comes to 219.22
USD).
33
Saturday 30, August 2008
On this particular Saturday, we were a bit under-staffed, but with great teamwork, we
managed to serve on time.
Chicken Soup
For 55
2 kg’s of chicken drumsticks
1 kg of boneless chicken thighs
1 bunch of spring onion/scallion
300 grams of shitake mushrooms
2kg’s of potatoes
1 kg of Thai noodles
Salt & Pepper
For 4
2 chicken drumsticks
1 boneless thigh
1 spring onion
2 shitake mushrooms
2 potatoes
1 packet of Thai noodles
Boil a pot of water. Slice the spring onion into small pieces. When the water boils,
add salt. Then add the spring onions and the potatoes. Next break the chicken
drumstick bones and add them to the soup (this will give more flavor to the soup).
Slice shitake mushrooms and the chicken thighs and keep them refrigerated until the
end.
Yearling Roast Steaks
For 55
11kg’s of yearling roast
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil
For 4
800 grams of year roast
Roasting meats can be tough if cooked like a steak. One trick to prevent that from
happening is to keep the meat at room temperature for a before cooking (but well
before the two hour window, perhaps 40 minutes). Turn on the grill to high and cook
about six minutes on each side.
Roast Potatoes and Spinach
For 55
3.5 kg’s of spinach
10 kg’s of potatoes
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
For 4
1 bunch of fresh spinach
1 kg of potatoes
To prepare, first fill the sink enough water to soak the spinach to remove any excess
dirt and sand. Remove the ends of the stem and any damaged leaves. Rinse the
potatoes and cut them into small pieces. Heat a pan and pour in enough olive to cover
the bottom of the pan. After the oil is hot, drop in the potatoes. Add pepper, and stir
frequently at the start, then turn down the flame and cover. Cook for about 70
minutes (40 minutes for a small portion). Just before the potatoes finish cooking, in a
separate pan heat some olive oil and drop in the spinach leaves, just long enough to
heat them with letting them wilt.
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Pear Chocolate Chip Muffins with Ice Cream
For 55
3 tins of pear halves in juice (815grams)
1350 grams (6 cups) of butter
450grams (2 cups) of dark brown sugar
1350 grams (6 cups) of light brown sugar
18 eggs
2025 grams (9 cups) of organic self-rising flour
250 grams of chocolate chips
chips
For 4
1 tin of pear halves (400 grams)
1 cup of butter
1/3 cup of dark brown sugar
1 cup of light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ cups of self-rising flour
generous handful of chocolate
8 litres Bullas Vanilla ice cream
The base for the batter used to make the muffins is identical to the Tazziberry-Pear
Upside Down cake, except that Tazziberries are replaced with chocolate chips. First,
preheat the oven to 180 ⁰C (350 F). Next pour out the tins of pears into a bowl (a
little juice will be reserved to moisten the batter at the end). Then arrange the pears in
the bottom of a clean cake pan. After that, take about 1kg of butter and break it into
pieces and pour into a large bowl along with the light brown sugar. Mix them up with
a fork (or by hand; yes we use gloves) so that you get something that looks and feels
like wet sand. In a saucepan, melt the remaining butter and dark brown sugar (an
equal amount of light brown sugar will work), and then pour this over the pears into
the cake pan. Next break open 18 eggs, and you can try to remove the colozae, the
little white membrane that attaches itself to the egg yolk; removing it makes it easier
to mix the batter, because they do not break apart. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl.
Sift the 9 cups of flour into a bowl, and take a pinch of the flour and drop and stir into
the beaten eggs. Then pour the eggs into the bowl with the butter-sugar mixture and
begin to stir. Once that’s done, pour in flour, a little at a time, and stir. The batter
should be a little stiff at this point, so add about 18 tablespoons of the pear juice. You
may add the chocolate chips at this point. Pour the batter into greased muffin trays.
You may cook this for about 20 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when you press into
the center of the muffin and it springs back. Once it’s done, you can let it sit for five
minutes. Then place a flat tray or plate over the top of the cake and flip it over, and
remove the cake from the pan.
Total Cost
Estimated number of diners: 55. The total cost for this menu was 223.75 AUD
(which at the August 29th, 2008 exchange rate of 1.17 AUD/USD comes to 191.24
USD).
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Other Recipes
We have tried a number of other recipes, and a few of them are reported here.
Sweet Potato Soup
This recipe is a slight adaptation of one that appears in Mackley’s (2000) the Book of
Caribbean Cooking (see page 14). While that recipe recommends pureeing the soup
before serving, it can also be served without, which is good to know if you do not
have a food processor.
For 55
6 tablespoons of olive oil
16 onions
2 large bunches of celery
2 kg’s of sweet potato
4 kg’s of tomatoes
10 blood oranges
8 litres of water
Bush spice mix
For 4
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 onions
2 celery stalks
1 small sweet potato
3 large tomatoes
1 blood orange
750 ml/3.75 cups water
Dice the onions, and cut the celery in thin slices, then cover them and leave in the
cold until ready to begin. Cut the sweet potatoes in small cubes, and roughly chop the
tomatoes. Finally, juice the oranges, and you may use a little of the rind to enhance
the flavor. When ready, in a large pot heat the oil and drop in the onions along and
celery for about ten minutes. When the onions have browned
Minestrone Soup
This is a simple soup suggested by Mark Bittman.
For 55
2 litre’s of vegetable stock
2 kg’s of tomatoes, chopped
2 large bunches of celery, sliced
2 kg’s of soup pasta
8 litres of water
Fresh thyme
Fresh rosemary
salt
pepper
For 4
250/ml’s of vegetable stock
2 medium tomatoes
2 celery stalks
250 grams of soup pasta
750ml’s/3.75 cups of water
Heat the vegetable stock in a large pot, and add the chopped tomatoes. Add four litres
of boiling water. While the stock is coming to a boil, cut the celery in thin slices, and
add them to the stock.
Roast Vegetables
There’s a really simple way to roast vegetables that Mark Bittman has written about,
and yes, it is really simple. Bittman’s recipe has more eggplant, and includes garlic,
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but the recipe here reflects the fact that the proportions can be easily changed to taste
and in response to available produce.
For 55
20 tomatoes (3 kg’s)
8 large capsicums (3 kg’s)
20 zucchini (3 kg’s)
5 small eggplants (2 kg’s)
10 red onions
10 white onions
Fresh rosemary
Olive oil
For 4
1 large tomato
1 small capsicum
1 large zucchini
1 large eggplant
1 red onion
The first step is to preheat the oven to 200. Then coat the roasting pan with olive oil.
Dice the onions and keep in a glass bowl. Cut the zucchini into pieces about the
length and width of penne, cover and keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Slice the
eggplant at one centimeter thick intervals. Chop the tomatoes and store in a glass
bowl. Cut the capsicums in one centimeter wide strips. When all the ingredients are
prepared, begin to layer them in the pan; the order doesn’t matter. Pour a little more
olive oil over the vegetables and add salt and pepper to taste as well as the fresh
rosemary. Cook for about one hour, occasionally pressing down on the vegetables
with a spatula. When the vegetables are tender you may remove them from the oven
and serve.
Strawberries and Mint
This is a really simple recipe that goes well with ice cream. Cut the strawberries, dice
the mint and mix into the strawberries.
For 50
12 punnets of strawberries
1 bunch of mint
For 4
1 punnet of strawberries
handful of mint
Poached Pears
This recipe came about because our initial intention was to serve fruit salad, and while
the pears seemed ripe, after testing them, they were quite hard. So, on this occasion
we poached the pears. Fill the pot with enough water to cover the bottom 2.5 inches
(roughly 2 inches for the smaller portion). Simply bring water to a boil, add sugar,
stir and add pears.
For 55
pears (3 kg’s)
1 cup of raw sugar
Water
For 4
4 pears
2 tablespoons of raw sugar
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References
Beer, Maggie (2005) Maggie’s Table. Camberwell, Victoria, Australia: Lantern.
Ferrigno, Ursula (2005) Easy Italian. London, UK: Quadrille Publishing Limited.
CFT. (2003) Food Safety Training, Level 1: Hospitality, Retail, Health & Food
Processing.
____. Food Safety Training, Level 2.
Harris, Jessica, B. (1991) Sky Juice and Flying Fish: Traditional Caribbean
Cooking. New York, NY: Fireside.
Hay, Donna. (2007) Simple Essentials: Chocolate. Sydney: Australia: Harper
Collins Publishers.
Mackley, Lesley. (2000) The Book of Caribbean Cooking. New York, NY: HP
Books.
McNamee, Thomas. (2007) Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic,
Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution. New
York, NY: The Penguin Press.
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