We hosted a local potluck in our home last week. It was a sort of experiment whereby we invited about a dozen relative strangers who we’d met at our various events to come over and chow. The only rule was that everyone bring a dish made with as many local ingredients as possible. It was delicious AND fun and we were able to start plans for our future farm and corresponding revolution.

We like to keep these going, at least once a month. The hope is we’ll rotate to different apartments and generate enough interest from others to get more than one group of strangers going with the concept. In late September, we had a feast. In March, it’ll be rough. But that’s sort of the point.

If you’re interested in potlucking with us, do drop a line: info at bostonlocalvores dot org.

And here is what we ate… (what we drank, incidentally, were varied and many local beers)

Jess: Amaranth greens and Sweet Potato quiche:

First, the crust –

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup white unbleached flour
pinch salt
4 T butter
water

Mix butter and flour till you have a grainy texture, add enough water to soften to doughy consistency. Make a ball and (ideally) chill it in fridge for 30 minutes before rolling out.  Use a 9″ pie plate.

Filling:
6 eggs
1 large sweet potato
1 yellow onion
about 1/3 lb amaranth greens, aka callaloo
olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh rosemary

Chop sweet potato and toss in a bit of olive oil and roast at 400 or so until tender (30 minutes?) On low heat, saute finely chopped onion until it caramelizes, add rinsed and chopped greens and cover to steam until wilted. Beat eggs. Place all veggies into your prepared crust with rosemary, salt, etc. to taste, gently pour eggs in to cover. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes or so.

Ana + Tom: *_Cabbage Gratin_* (pain au chou)*__*

Butter & freshly grated parmesan for the dish (admittedly the parm wasn’t local)

1 ½ pounds green or Savoy Cabbage, diced into 2 inches squares
1/3 cup flour
1 cup milk
¼ cup crème fraîche or cream
2 TBS tomato paste
3 eggs
3 TBS finely chopped parsley or dill
Salt and black pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Butter gratin dish and coat sides with cheese. Bold the cabbage in salted water for 5 minutes, then drain and rinse; press out as much water as possible. Whisk remaining ingredients until smooth, add the cabbage, and our mixture into the dish. Bake until lightly browned, about 50 minutes.

Composed of: locally grown cabbage (Stillman’s) & parsley (our own), and local dairy products. Recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison.
Heather: Pumpkin soup!

onion (red or white)
garlic
milk
vegetable bouillon
cumin
cayenne pepper
butter
salt
sugar

Steam the pumpkin. (Save the water you use to steam the pumpkin.)Saute onion and garlic in butter. Add 2-4 vegetable bouillon to the water used for steaming. (depending on the size of your pumpkin) In a blender add pumpkin, onions and garlic, water and some milk. (I usually add the first four ingredients and then fill the rest of the blender with milk. You will have to do this twice because all of the pumpkin will not fit the first time.) Put your blended mixture into a pot to simmer.  Add cumin, cayenne pepper, butter, salt and sugar to taste and voila, you have a yummy soup that warms the tummy.

Ryan: Ensalada
Red leaf lettuce, carrot, radishes, pepper and very pretty pea tendril flowers
ALSO a mysterious li’l fruit known as a “passion popper” : yummy but not exactly local
AND three pints of Toscanini’s ice cream that never made it to our apartment, but of which I still dream

Us: sausage+peppers+onions+taters

sausage (stillman’s chorizo!)
green bell peppers
onions (from our red fire farm csa)
leeks
potatoes
garlic (miscellaneous farmer’s market buy)
oil, salt & pepper

first we parboiled the potatoes. then we cooked the sausage whole, and let it rest. after sauteing the onion, garlic, leeks and peppers, we cut the sausage into pieces and added it. we cut the potatoes and fried them in oil and the leftover sausage grease and a little olive oil (in the name of crispiness) and added them last.

also .. H-O-T mulled cider and LOCAL rum

1 qt cider (carlson orchards, harvard, ma)
rum (Berkshire Mountain Distillers, made way out in the hinterlands, ma)
whole cloves
cinnamon stix
orange peel

simmer cider, cinnamon, cloves and orange peel for 15 minutes. add 8 oz rum we toured this distillery and tried their stuff (rum, vodka, gin). it’s super high quality stuff, the gin is like stuffing a bunch of sweet and savory herbs into your mouth and up your nose. no crappy alcohol after taste. the rum is more like cognac, and distilled in an olde new englande style that the guy claims holds up really well to the strong flavors of the cider and stuff. all true!

Tags: potlucks

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 1:31 am and is filed under Events, Meals. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.