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A huge-ish bunch of 11 people met at Adit's farmhouse on the outskirts of the city on September 22nd for cocktails and to eat the good food they'd cooked out of Gizzi Erskine's Slow.
The folks had the enthusiasm, nay courage, to visit Tokyo Bakery for breakfast knowing there would be SO much food for lunch.
Leela's Dirty Prawns, Spring Onions & Bacon came together in 15 minutes and were quite boozy and a hit. Amita also ended up with a coq au vin and flambeed her food and even posted it on her Instagram when she did. It had brandy and orange wine (which Amita fashioned by using white wine and orange rind because orange wine is IMPOSSIBLE to find in this country). What the folks ended up with was braised chicken with shallots, orange wine and brandy that was a little tart but absolutely delicious. She also used dried thyme instead of a few fresh sprigs and small onions instead of banana shallots. She chose not to add any sherry vinegar because she did not have it and the dish was already quite tart. Taruna made a pork meatloaf and used dried bottled herbs instead of fresh ones, again because buying fresh herbs in India is never just a sprig or four but a whole 100 grams (that could feed a village).
Janhavi didn't know where to go looking for wild garlic either, so she used shives and garlic instead, to impart that mild flavour and the herbaceousness of wild garlic. She made a chicken and wild garlic pie. Husein made the beef and potato stew and used boiled onions instead of leeks, to remove the strong flavour that onions give. He, too, used dried mixed herbs instead of buying fresh ones.
Getting a lot of the ingredients in Indian supermarkets proved to be a task and most folk used substitute s for some of the veggies and fresh herbs.
Again, since savoy cabbage is hard to find here (and expensive when you do), so Varun used his instinct and used regular cabbage to roll his golabki. Shubra, too, was unable to find Toulouse sausages, so made do with pork hotdog sausages for her “Lightly Braised Toulouse Sausages”
Adit's slow-roast goat shoulder called for an 8-hour cook but when he checked 2 hours ahead of time, some of the meat was crispy. His second batch was, therefore, only a 1 kilo piece instead of 2.5-3 and took only 4 hours. Priyanki took some of the overcooked goat home to make sandwiches for her family and I'm so proud of her. Using up leftovers creatively has a special place in my heart. She made the
Priyanki made the Lemon Surprise Tart and though it didn't brown as much as they've shown in the book, but was scrumptious nonetheless.
Reva and Neha were new members and it was their first time attending a cookbook club meet. They cooked Ultimate Salt-Baked Potatoes and "Under The Weather" All the Veg Soup.
There were a handful of cocktails floating around - Old Fashioned and Manhattan, Mint Julep and some martinis. It was quite late by the time some of the people left. Though those who couldn't attend in Pune, have their second chance on the 29th.