UPCOMING CLASSES!

We're very pleased to announce our next series of classes at Sunday Suppers:

Sunday Supper :: Fall Harvest
Sunday Nov 15, 2009
Tickets available online at Brown Paper Tickets
Chef: Casey Solomon

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Sunday Supper :: A Winter Dinner
Sunday Dec. 6, 2009
Tickets available online at Brown Paper Tickets

Guest Chefs: The Jewels of NY
Diana Yen and Lisel Arroyo

Sunday Supper :: Picnic, Fennel Slaw

The last salad from our picnic was a fennel slaw with pickled red onion, raisin, hazelnuts & mint. The fennel and hazelnuts give a nice crispness along with the sweetness of the golden raisins and a hint of mint, it's the perfect bite (way better than coleslaw :). Below are the recipes for both the pickled red onions and the fennel slaw.



All Food Styling + Photography by Karen Mordechai
Recipe Courtesy of Camille Becerra for Sunday Suppers

Pickled Red Onion

1 pound red onions, peeled
3 cups red wine vinegar
1/4 cup red wine
1 cup sugar
10 peppercorns
3 bay leaves
1 Thai bird chili

Cut the onion in half lengthwise and cut thin slices.

In a non-reactive saucepan combine the vinegar, red wine, sugar, peppercorns, bay leaves and the chili. Heat until the sugar has dissolved. Pour over the red onion and allow it to sit overnight.

This can be refrigerated for up to one month and goes great on sandwiches.

Fennel Slaw
pickled red onion, raisin, hazelnuts & mint
Serves 4

1/4 cup golden raisins
4 cups fennel, sliced thin, preferably on a mandolin
1/2 cup pickled onion, drained (recipe below)
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup mint, coarsely chopped
juice of 1/2 a lemon
sea salt
pepper

Place raisins in a bowl and cover with water allowing them to soften and plump up, about 15-20 minutes.
Toss all the ingredients in a bowl, adjust seasoning and serve immediately.
For picnics or parties, layer ingredients to prevent the pickled red onion from bleeding and discoloring the other components. The fennel layer is dressed with the lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper. As well, the pickled onion should be the bottom layer.

Sunday Supper, Picnic :: Tomato & Cantaloupe Salad

A note from Camille : A perfect end of summer salad when cantaloupes at the market are extremely fragrant and sweet and tomatoes are full of flavor. The combination of the two, sweet and acid, is what makes this salad so special. The addition of the mustard seed oil brings in a slight spiciness, a pleasant surprise and the lemon I find enhances all the different flavors. I enjoy using green and yellow heirloom tomatoes in this dish strictly for the color combination in relation to orange of the cantaloupe.




All Food Styling + Photography by Karen Mordechai
Recipe Courtesy of Camille Becerra for Sunday Suppers


Tomato & Cantaloupe Salad
mustard seed oil & lemon
Serves 4

2 cups tomato, cut into 3/4” cubes
2 cups cantaloupe, cut into 3/4” cubes
1 tbl mustard seed oil
1/4 tsp salt
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Mix all together in a bowl, taste and adjust seasonings. I usually add a little more mustard seed oil so the spice is more pronounced. I suggest you play around to suit your preference.

Sunday Supper, Picnic :: Burrata Salad

Camille created this wonderful burrata salad by simply layering, in a small jar we used these:
using a slice of ripe red tomato
a slice of burrata or buffalo mozzarella (if burrata is unavailable) then topped it with a couple heaping spoonfuls of the cauliflower relish.

We are absolutely obsessed with burata ? In Italian it literally means "buttered" - a perfect description...It's a version of fresh mozarella, a silky exterior and a creamy gorgeous inside. It can be hard to find, since it's imported from Italy. But we recently spotted it at the Bedford Cheese Shop in Brooklyn. It can also be used in a classic caprese (tomato, basil and lots of great olive oil). If you haven't tried it yet, seek it out - it's truly wonderful.





All Food Styling + Photography by Karen Mordechai
Recipe Courtesy of Camille Becerra for Sunday Suppers

Sunday Supper Picnic :: Cauliflower Relish

The Burrata Salad was a layering of burrata (more about that deliciousness coming soon) heirloom tomato, and a spicy cauliflower relish. Below is part one...the cauliflower relish. It is absolutely delicious. We packaged small jars of this for our guests to take home as favors...and were very happy to keep one jar for ourselves. It is wonderful over fish, in pasta or on toast with avocados.









All Food Styling + Photography by Karen Mordechai
Recipe Courtesy of Camille Becerra for Sunday Suppers

Cauliflower Relish
recipe makes about 3 cups of Relish (8-10 servings)

1 head cauliflower, cut into small florets
1/4 cup olive oil
4 Thai bird chilies
2 anchovies
2 cloves of garlic, diced fine
8 sprigs of thyme
2 tsp of course ground peppercorns
1 red bell pepper, small dice
1 cup red onion, diced small
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup of white balsamic vinegar
1 tsp grated fresh ginger, a micro plane works best
fresh lemon juice and salt to taste

Blanch the cauliflower.
Saute whole chilies, garlic, anchovies in oil till the anchovies melt.
Add the thyme springs, peppercorns, bell pepper, red onion and bay leaves and saute till the onion cooks through.
Add the cauliflower and season mixture with salt.
Transfer mixture to a bowl and add white balsamic to the pan just used to make the cauliflower, reduce vinegar by half.
Once reduce add to the cauliflower along with the fresh ginger and lemon juice.
Adjust seasoning.
Allow to sit in refrigerator one day to allow all the flavors to bloom.

Frittata of Rice, Baby Zucchini & Feta + Fennel Pollen Yogurt

All Food Styling + Photography by Karen Mordechai
Recipe Courtesy of Camille Becerra for Sunday Suppers

Frittata of Rice, Baby Zucchini & Feta
served with fennel pollen yogurt

1 cup cooked white rice
2 tbl butter
2 tbl olive oil
10 baby zucchini, sliced length wise
4 scallion, sliced
1/2 bunch of chopped mint
2 tbl of chopped dill
6 eggs
1/4 cup of heavy cream
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3/4 cup feta

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a cast iron skillet saute zucchini and scallion in butter and oil until soft. Mix in the rice and herbs.
Whisk eggs, cream, salt and pepper. Pour over rice mixture. Cook without stirring for 3 minutes. Add crumbled feta on top.
Transfer into oven, bake 12 minutes.

Fennel Pollen Yogurt
1 cups Greek yogurt
2 pinches of fennel pollen
2 tbl olive oil

Combine all the ingredients and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate for an hour to allow the fennel pollen to release its flavor and aroma.

Sunday Supper, Picnic :: Meat Pies with Chicken, Baby Carrots & Nigella

Camille's food focuses on farm fresh and seasonal ingredients, our favorite kind ! The meat pies are a bit of an English tradition with a twist. They were perfect for a picnic outing because they hold well at room temperature. The crust was a flaky buttery outside, complimented with the unique yummy filling inside. Camille also infuses some unique flavors like nigella (an onion seed) which we had never tasted before, and the results are absolutely delicious. Scroll down for the full recipe below.





All Food Styling + Photography by Karen Mordechai
Recipes Courtesy of Camille Becerra for Sunday Suppers

Meat Pies with Chicken, Baby Carrots & Nigella

Savory Pie Dough
3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
20 twist of a pepper mill
2 sticks cold butter cut in cubes
1/4 cup ice-cold water

Measure out flour, salt and pepper into a food processor. Mix well. Add the butter and pulse till butter resembles small pea size pieces. Add water while pulsing processor. Stop once the dough becomes a ball. Lay out a piece of clear wrap, lay the dough on it, flatten to a thick disk while wrapping. Allow to rest for at least 1/2 hour.

For meat pies lightly spray muffin tins with spray oil. Roll out dough and cut individual circles using a cookie cutter or rim of a glass slightly larger that the round of the muffin mold. Lay each circle in the molds and using a pastry brush brush edges with water. Fill with meat filling. Top with dough circle cut out, and with a fork seal edges. Brush top with egg wash and sprinkle with course sea salt.

Bake 20 minutes or till golden brown on the top and bottoms.


Chicken, Carrot and Nigella Meat Pie Filling
1/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup olive oil
4 thai bird chilis
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup sofrito
2 tsp. nigella seed
8 baby carrots, chopped into 1/4" rounds
2 cups chicken pieces
1 bunch cilantro

Gently warm the oil and add chiles allowing them to cook over a low heat. Increase the heat and add the onion, sauteing till soft. Add and saute the sofito and nigella for a few minutes. Add the carrots, chicken and wine. Lower heat, put a lid on it and allow to simmer till the wine has reduced. Remove mixture from pan and cool. Wash and coarsely chop the cilantro. With your hands shred the chicken to allow more of the flavor to be absorbed by the chicken. Add and mix in the cilantro.

Sunday Supper, Picnic :: Flowers

We're kind of in love with these little flower arrangements, we bought a mismatch of glass salt and pepper shakers and created wild arrangements to decorate our picnic. Aren't they cute? xoxo

Sunday Supper :: Picnic

Our last ss was an urban picnic in the park - an ode to the end of summer. Our guest chef was the incredibly talented Camille Becerra.
Camille's menu was the perfect picnic in our eyes... we started off with Watermelon Aqua Fresca Cocktails and served:
Meat Pies
chicken, baby carrots & nigella
Frittatta
rice, baby zucchini & feta with fennel pollen yogurt
Burrata Salad
spicy cauliflower relish & crostini
Tomato & Cantalope Salad
mustard seed oil & lemon
Fennel Slaw
pickled red onion, raisin, hazelnuts & mint

After a class at our loft in williamsburg, we set up our picnic down on the waterfront with a great view of the bridges & city across the river.
We had a great time basking in the last days of sun. Below are a few photos from the day, and coming next will be recipes...class photos and more.