http://www.saltshaker.net/20060610/casual-crafting Casting a little flavor (and a few aspersions) on the world of food, drink, and life Fri, 22 Aug 2008 04:00:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://www.saltshaker.net/20060610/casual-crafting#comment-528 SaltShaker » Blog Archive » Opening Night of the Palio Tue, 04 Jul 2006 14:30:54 +0000 http://www.saltshaker.net/20060610/casual-crafting#comment-528 [...] Dinner started off with the idea of bruschetta, those traditional little toasts topped with tomatoes or beans or what-have-you. I had the bruschetta that I’d tried at Craftbar a few weeks back on my mind at the time, and knew I wanted to do something similar to that. I also wanted to do something with mushrooms, based on the panini that I’d had there as well. As the date approached, the panini idea became more interesting, it’s less messy, and I was already seeing that this was going to be a bread/starch intensive meal, so I wanted to lighten it up a touch and use a thin, lighter bread. I decided to more or less make mini-grilled cheese sandwiches. So for one I made a duxelles of portobello and oyster mushrooms on white bread, then topped it with grated fontina cheese, and grilled straightfoward. The other, the filling was smoked white anchovies and caramelized leeks (caramelized with a little leftover sweet wine) on whole wheat bread, and rather than trying to soft cook nine eggs perfectly and situate them into the sandwiches, I decided to make them more like french toast sandwiches. I think I would have liked them a little crispier than they turned out, but I liked the flavors. Accompanying wine, Nieto Senitener Extra Brut sparkling made from 100% Pinot noir, in Mendoza, nice way to start the evening. [...] [...] Dinner started off with the idea of bruschetta, those traditional little toasts topped with tomatoes or beans or what-have-you. I had the bruschetta that I’d tried at Craftbar a few weeks back on my mind at the time, and knew I wanted to do something similar to that. I also wanted to do something with mushrooms, based on the panini that I’d had there as well. As the date approached, the panini idea became more interesting, it’s less messy, and I was already seeing that this was going to be a bread/starch intensive meal, so I wanted to lighten it up a touch and use a thin, lighter bread. I decided to more or less make mini-grilled cheese sandwiches. So for one I made a duxelles of portobello and oyster mushrooms on white bread, then topped it with grated fontina cheese, and grilled straightfoward. The other, the filling was smoked white anchovies and caramelized leeks (caramelized with a little leftover sweet wine) on whole wheat bread, and rather than trying to soft cook nine eggs perfectly and situate them into the sandwiches, I decided to make them more like french toast sandwiches. I think I would have liked them a little crispier than they turned out, but I liked the flavors. Accompanying wine, Nieto Senitener Extra Brut sparkling made from 100% Pinot noir, in Mendoza, nice way to start the evening. [...]

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