Friday, November 12, 2010

“Just a perfect day”


After a year of not Blogging there is no excuse, so I might as well play it like nothing happened.

We Love Muir Heritage Land Trust http://www.muirheritagelandtrust.org/ For the last 4 years we've catered their annual fund raising event, and for a little extra support we donate something for the live auction. This year we donated a picnic lunch on Angel Island http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=468 in collaboration with OCSC Sailing http://www.ocscsailing.com/ and Doug McConnell http://www.openroad.tv/

So, last Sunday, in a drenching rainstorm, our guests arrived at OCSC, got their sailing on and went out to sea (to bay just doesn't sound right). Robert and I got our catering on and drove to Tiburon to catch the ferry.

I can't say I was excited about the rain, and Robert will attest that I wasn't nice about it either. However, as soon as we boarded the ferry, the rain stopped and I remembered how wonderful it is to live in the Bay Area where the great outdoors is a mindset away, and a short ferry trip on a rainy day lends you at your own private state park staffed with our own personal rangers (hardly anyone was there), a family of raccoons and a buck with amazing antlers. We set up and opened some wine just in time for our sailors to arrive and the sun to shine through just above the Richmond San Rafael Bridge

On the menu: Kabocha curry soup, butter lettuce and grilled pear salad, French green lentil salad, grilled beef fillet sandwiches, chicken Caesar sandwich, grilled portabella sandwich, lavender lemon bars, pecan caramel and chocolate bars.

Anthony from OCSC asked how we make the lentil salad so here it is:

2 cups French green lentils soaked over night

2 bay leaf and 5 whole allspice

½ yellow onion or 1 whole one if small, diced

2 carrots peeled and diced

4 celery stalks diced

3 big garlic cloves peeled and sliced thin

1 Tbs toasted ground cumin (toast whole cumin seeds in a pan, cool and grind in a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle)

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper, canola oil

Drain the lentils from the soaking liquid. Place in a pot, cover with water 2" higher than the lentil. Add bay leaf and allspice and bring to boil. Skim the foam off and reduce heat to simmer. Cook the lentils until tender, add water if needed. Meanwhile, sauté onion with a little canola oil, add garlic, carrot, celery and sauté them all until tender but not mushy.

When the lentils are done cooking turn off the flame and add salt to the pot. Let the lentils sit in the cooking pot with the salted cooking water for 10 minutes.

Strain the lentils, transfer to a bowl, and remove the bay and allspice. Add the vegetables, toasted cumin, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

You can eat this dish hot or cold, it is great as a bed for grilled salmon with saffron aioli.

After lunch the sailors helped us collect and load our stuff onto the ferry for another outstanding trip back to mainland.

Good food, good wine and excellent company

Thank you Anthony, Doug and Sailors

"It's such a perfect day, I'm glad I spent it with you"…

No comments: