Ideas for what to cook at a cooking club

Hello Toytowners,

I joined a cooking group in Wiesbaden recently and am looking for a bit of advice for my first get together. The group consists of 8 members. Two are American (one being me) and rest are German or have lived in Germany for many, many years. I just went to my first meeting and the members are very good cooks and enjoy trying gourmet recipes. It will be my turn soon and I am a bit nervous. It seems a bit hokey, but I was thinking of making a typical American meal from the 1950s. Comfort foods that your Mom would have made (and many still do!). I am thinking of meat loaf, scalloped potatoes, and green beans. For dessert a Devil's Food cake and/or pie. For an appetizer, I haven't really decided. All will be from scratch and I would give some dishes a modern twist such as using sun-dried tomatoes in the loaf, etc.

Do you think this would be well-received? Any suggestions or alternative ideas? For my second get-together, I would put together something a little fancier. But thought this be fun at first.

I really don't post too often, but read this site almost daily.

Thanks,

GinGin

Give us some examples of what the others cooked.

Absolutely nothing off here

http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards.html

(pretty sure this has been posted before, but I never tire of them)

Dan,

The hostess got pretty fancy. An appetizer of shrimp, a wonderful soup made with fish, beef tenderloin, cheese tray. Lots of wine! That is why I would be a new spin on some of these old favorites. But the other members said other Americans have made items such as Gumbo or BBQ in the summer. They sound like an open-minded bunch. They asked a Chinese woman (who is in town only for a few months) to cook some native dishes for the next gathering. If I could find my favorite cut of beef here (Flank steak), I would use my favorite recipe using that, but alas still haven't found a butcher who cuts beef American style.

GinGin

I was gonna say substitute steak for meatloaf. How ya gonna pair wine with meatloaf? Grab a beef tenderloin and do it up nicely. Scalloped taters are fine, it's a french dish anyway and they'll look great next to a nice steak. Look around for a nice California Red. They're not hard to get over here.

I found a butcher who had worked a few years in Canada simply by asking around at small, family owned butcher shops. I specifically looked for longer established places that would hopefully know everyone and everybody in the surrounding neighbourhoods. I haven't really searched a lot here in my new area, but already know of several butchers who will custom cut & trim on request.

Ask around, and maybe see if you can find online a picture and description or diagram of the cut you want. Print it out and take it with you. A good, experienced butcher might be able to reproduce it. Be prepared to pay quite a bit more though.

This web site showing cuts of meat in various languages was posted a while back on TT, and I still find it quite useful. (I've forgotten who, but thanks again whoever it was!)

As for putting together a menu, as long as it isn't too spicy you should be fine! I actually like the humble meatloaf, and there's so many variations possible with all sorts of sauces. My mom used to make a wicked one with ketchup and hot horseradish mixed into the meat. With garlic mashed potatoes and buttered mixed veggies on the side. Might sound horrible but was really yummy.

And by paying attention and refilling wine glasses immediately, there should be no worries at all

A full red wine would go quite nicely with meatloaf, but nowadays the etiquette is no longer so strict. You could set up a little bar with two kinds of red, two kinds of white, some beer, and let folks choose their own drinks.

Just an idea on appetizers..Germans don't eat chicken livers all that much but it is fairly typically American. You can do them up in bacon or even better make a pâté ahead of time.

Here's your answer - it's authentic fifties fusion cooking - a little bit Goulasch, a little bit Dr. Pepper (That's Herr Professor Doktor Pfeffer, to you)

http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/drpepper/3.html

OK, I'll be serious. Make burgers & chips - but make them Ultimate Burgers and Ultimate Chips. Look up Heston Blumenthal, and take it from there ...

Some of those look like what you can find in a German grocery store today. I steer clear of the gelatin "cold cuts".


Who does? Ick, not ich.

Thanks Guys for the help! I think the key here will be fresh, quality ingredients, if I go this route. For instance, in the loaf I would use a mixture of veal, pork and beef from a recipe I got from Gourmet magazine years ago. And for the wine, as severals suggest a very nice selection including California reds or good Pinot from Oregon would be nice.

Dan, I too thought about a chicken liver appetizer. I cooked Rumaki (sp?) once as a teenager in the late 1970s. It is basically the liver with a water chestnut and wrapped in bacon. Not exactly the thing Mom would have made, but fits the time period/theme pretty good.

If I do decide to go a bit more fancy at first, I am toying with a crab cake recipe I have or possibly chicken cooked in puff pastry.

This has got me wondering, has anyone on Toytown started a cooking group? What are your experiences?

GinGin

I sense a diner theme. Love the meatloaf idea. Apple pie a la mode for dessert would be seasonal. For appetizer, this is so totally martha stewart but how about deviled quail eggs?

As far as cooking club dominated by Germans you're already at a disadvantage. There are more multilingual third-generation or later Brits than there are German foodies. Germans just aren't adventurous when it comes to eats. If you gave a German a week with Heston Blumenthal, Gordon Ramsay, Paul Prudhome, Jose Andres, Mario Batali, Jean-Paul Bruneteau and Graham Clement at their fucking beckoned call, they'd still be dying to get back home and go around the corner to get some fucking Käsespätzle or a Currywurst. That's just how the Krauts are.

The idea of using 1950s and 1960s menus is fucking brilliant. Your menu sounds absolutely perfect for the German palette: Simple, bland, impossible to fuck up. I'd also suggest you look into Lobster Thermador with scalloped potatoes and overcooked Brussels sprouts for the next menu. I'm very serious; that horrid American post-war through 1970s cuisine is absolutely perfect for German tastes and sensibilities. I might have an old American "cookbook" with similar craptastic recipes which I'll have a look for.

Good luck.

woof.

As a German, I suspect your guests will say "meatloaf? That's like our Hackbraten/falscher Hase", without discerning the slight differences. Even for the German taste, meatloaf sounds so conventional (not to say "spießig") that as a contrast to over-the-top exotic recipies, it's an original idea. I'm not sure if your guests will get the idea, but it could be interesting to talk about the food that each one grew up with and how it influenced taste.

As an alternative, in a quick search I found a recipy that sounds non-fussy but different: Alabama Glazed Ham, larded with clove, the glaze resulting from Coke with sugar. I don't think all Germans belong to the group that BD described so nicely, particularly not members of a cooking club.

A savoury pie - that'll scare the bejeezus out of 'em!



K