Yep. Been passing this sign outside Sebastopol for years and finally couldn’t resist pulling over and taking a picture given its current, shall we say, mood. Plus Bill’s is a really great organic market I didn’t know about with a great little coffee shop. So, win/win.
Playing catch-up here after a couple of busy work weeks and then a much-needed week at Wright’s Beach!
ESC #39 had a kind of Chinese BBQ vibe:
- Mapo Tofummus: Mandy Lee is one of those rare cooks who is truly innovative. She’s not just putting out glossy versions of standard recipes, or clever tweaks on standards, which is what like 90% of the foodiesphere is about (and which she herself does frequently enough as I’m sure she would tell you); she more than occasionally comes up with completely new dishes that no one has thought of (but should have). Mapo Tofummus is one of these truly innovative recipes, and it’s easy and will blow the socks off your guests. Lee was also an early and fine practitioner of the dark, Dutch-still-life-style of food photography that ended up dominating the foodiesphere in the 2010s, so her cookbook is beautiful.
- Hibiscus Punch: My friend Tobie made up her own champagne-based recipe that was delicious!
- Master Stock Crispy Chicken: Delicious, but you’re either going to keep that master stock rolling on the back burner for weeks, the way God intended, or make serious space in your freezer—the recipe makes a LOT. Also, you’ll want to take the time to seek out the small-size chickens the recipe calls for or use large Cornish game hens. The accompanying chicken-fat rice and ginger-lime hot sauce were fab.
- Fish-Fragrant Eggplants: no fish were harmed in the making of this dish, whose name is a consistent but misleading English translation of a delicious shallow-fried Sichuanese eggplant dish with garlic, ginger, and chilies. It was the low-key star of the night’s menu.
- Key Lime Pie Parfaits: The recipe is gone from the Interwebs now, but it’s an old Cooking Light joint that we put the fat back into—yummy and light.
ESC #40 had a Vietnamese vibe which was light and perfect for summer:
- Cradle of Life Cocktail. I do love a drink that lights on fire.
- Crispy Calamari and Prawns with Pepper-Lime Sauce. Nuff said. Plus I learned to clean squid!
- Vietnamese Pork Tenderloin lettuce wraps. Recipe 404’d, but pick any recipe that includes grilled meat and rice noodles and you’ll be in the ballpark.
- Sweet Potato and Coffee Cream Pie. Pretty chef-y, but if you just start with a package of Biscoff cookies instead of making cookies from scratch that you will then promptly crumble up for some unknown reason, it goes much better.
Wright’s Beach had a Brittany/Normandy theme this year (though we all forgot our striped shirts). And this was probably the most successful cooking week yet thanks to help from All Hands on Deck. Plus this handy chart from the Boy Scouts of America that tells you exactly how many charcoal briquettes to use for every size Dutch oven to achieve each baking temperature….
- Classic kouign-amann. Seemed like the timing and baking over a live fire were going to be really tricky, but it actually turned out really well (as you can see in the gallery below—first pic). I can see why this was originally made it a big cast-iron pan rather than in the individual fussy little muffin-tin shapes you find in hipster bakeries these days.
- Ina Garten’s Make-Ahead Cocquilles Saint-Jacques. There is a reason the woman was Long Island’s Queen of Catering for so many years (last photo in gallery).
- Galettes Bretonnes. We made both the classic complètes and some vegetarian ones with spinach and mushrooms that were delish! Getting the batter consistency and the temperature right were tricky with the live-fire situation, but we muddled through.
- Cotriade. The runner up for Star of the Week. We left out the tomatoes and carrots for a more traditional white soup, and it was fan-freaking-tactic.
- Champagne and orange-steamed lobster tails en papillote: 404’d sadly, but just make a parchment envelope, layer a lobster tail on the lower half on top of two orange slices, some fennel fronds, and a pat of butter, then sprinkle 2 T champagne over it and wrap it up and cook it at 400°F for 12 minutes. Highly recommend.
- Far Breton: The Star of the Week (3rd to last pic in the gall. Just so delicious, and surprisingly easy to compose and bake in camp. The leftovers were even better the next morning with coffee as we sat and looked at the water for the last time and procrastinated packing up.
The Rookery 
Yum! 😍
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You’ll get to taste for yourself next year! If Stanley doesn’t get to it first….
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