Noshing Out – Selfies

Every month on the second Friday a Meetup group of friends and I get together at someone’s house for a zaney-themed cooking extravaganza. This month, the event took place in Middletown, half in the kitchen, and half under a warm, starlit sky. The theme, as usual, was scarcely tangentially related to food “Selfies.”  After deliberation (and an inspection of my pantry), I decided on creating a dish reflective of my cooking style, a selfie of sorts. I tend to use ingredients that are in season, and go from those ingredients to eating within an hour. Mixing flavors in a novel manor, be they ethnically diverse or culinarily contradictory, is also recurring theme for me. In this case, apples were my base. Cinnamon first came to mind, but that wasn’t enough, as a flurry of other spices passed my mind, I realized I was considering the building blocks of chai. But the dish still needed body, substance, so I added cream and rice with a dab of honey for refinement and my dessert was ready.

My girlfriend and I arrived around 7. The cooking was already underway, with one of the foodies putting together ingredients for a chicken curry. Our gracious host, Terry, always one for healthy eating, was in the process of creating a buffalo flavored cauliflower. She used frozen bunches and bestowed them with a smokey aroma by dressing them with hot sauce and a variety of Cajun and BBQ spices before laying them on a baking sheet in the oven to roast.

The real action was outside. Laughter and a din of food preparation came up from the patio below. A stone slab staircase descended onto a gazebo and rock enclosed grill. Already, other guests were imbibing in the variety of wines, the corks laid next the bottles from whence they came. More foodies arrived, some dishes coming fully prepared, like a Moroccan stew, sprinkled with peanuts and squirts of lime before service. Heady spice scented steam billowed out of the carafe when he revealed his creation, claiming it met the theme as an homage to the fact that we all came out of Africa. Amateur chefs quizzed one another over ingredients and preparation styles. One foodie expressed themselves by making a salad from heirloom tomatoes grown in their garden. The golden varietal had been roasted in a cast iron skillet and tossed with feta cheese and a homemade pesto.

Our favorite dish however was the pork loin. Wanting to highlight the side sauce, the pork was unmarinated and seasoned simply before hitting the grill, cut to thin, medium rare slices and were laid out next to the chutney. Both sweet and savory, onion, red pepper, garlic, and peach played in a viscous sauce which I liberally adorned my pieces of loin.

The remainder of the evening was spent sampling wines, noshing on the smorgasbord of offerings, and reveling in the like-mindedness of food focused friends. An event that I look forward to every month, made even better when I dont even have to drive myself home.

Apple Chai Rice Pudding

2 C white rice

1 C peeled, chopped apple (sweeter varieties like gala, fuji, or honeycrisp)

½ C cream

1 ½ C chai tea (strong)

½ C honey

1/8 t salt

1 t vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a medium pot over med/high heat and cover. Bring to a boil, stir, reduce heat to low and let simmer until rice soaks in all liquid. Serve warm.