Cindy's Supper Club : meals from around the world to share with family and friends

284 Pages·2012·7.4 MB·English

by  Pawlcyn

Some of the recipes in this book include raw eggs, meat, or fish. When these foods are consumed
raw, there is always the risk that bacteria, which is killed by proper cooking, may be present. For
this reason, when serving these foods raw, always buy certified salmonella-free eggs and the
freshest meat and fish available from a reliable grocer, storing them in the refrigerator until they
are served. Because of the health risks associated with the consumption of bacteria that can be
present in raw eggs, meat, and fish, these foods should not be consumed by infants, small
children, pregnant women, the elderly, or any persons who may be immunocompromised. The
author and publisher expressly disclaim responsibility for any adverse effects that may result
from the use or application of the recipes and information contained in this book.
Text copyright © 2012 by Cynthia Lynn Pawlcyn
Photographs copyright © 2012 by Alex Farnum
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a
division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com
Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House,
Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pawlcyn, Cindy.
Cindy’s Supper Club : meals from around the world to share with family and friends/Cindy
Pawlcyn; photography by Alex Farnum. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “A collection of 125 chef-worthy global recipes presented in international dinner
menus, drawn from renowned chef Cindy Pawlcyn’s informal gatherings”—Provided by
publisher.
1. International cooking. 2. Cookbooks. I. Title.
TX725.A1P36 2012
641.59—dc23
2011047934
eISBN: 978-1-60774207-4
Food styling by Katie Christ
Prop styling by Christine Wolheim
v3.1
DEDICATION
TO MY STEPCHILDREN WITH
MUCH LOVE: KIRSTIE AND
KEVIN TWEED, PETER LAIRD,
AND COLE WATANABE—YOU
ALL KNOW WHY.

CONTENTS
Introduction
THE AMERICAS
Hawaii
Mexico
Brazil
Peru
EUROPE
Austria
Belgium
England
Ireland
Sweden and Norway
France
Greece
Italy
Spain
Hungary
Russia and Georgia
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Ethiopia
Morocco
South Africa
Lebanon
Turkey
ASIA
China
Japan
Korea
India
Thailand
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

INTRODUCTION
Cindy’s Supper Club is part travelogue of places I have been and part
inspiration from places I want to visit. It is a culinary journey acted out
at Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, my restaurant in the heart of the Napa
Valley. The club was started by my friend Marianne Agnew, who is also
the graphic designer for the restaurant. We were talking about how nice
it would be if people could come after work and dinner would be ready.
Marianne put together a great design of a copper saucepot that looks like
a classic 1930s-era French poster, and soon so we were serving elaborate
four-course dinners with wine for, I think, sixty bucks a head.
The debut dinner was held in August 2003, and I prepared my mom’s
home cooking. At first, we sent out mailers announcing the upcoming
menus, and then we did an in-house calendar. In the beginning, we
scheduled one Supper Club each month. Some months the dinner sold
out and others it didn’t. For example, Zen Den, a Japanese menu, was
popular. But the Supper Club that coincided with Halloween in 2007
was just the opposite. For inspiration, we drew from The Taste of Black
by Björn Lindberg and Jonas Borssén, a book about food and the color
black. Although the dishes were tasty, it was just too weird for folks. I
think only four people, besides the staff, tried the whole menu.
Over time, we realized that four courses were too much for a lot of
people to eat midweek. I wanted the Supper Club to be more popular, so
in addition to the set menu, we started offering all of the items à la
carte. This change proved successful, but I was still getting comments
like, “Oh I have a meeting on Wednesday night and can’t be here.” So
we started serving the club menu two nights a week, which has worked
well. It keeps both the front-of-the-house staff and the kitchen staff “on
their toes,” because each week they are dealing with brand-new dishes,
ingredients, and cooking techniques.
I’ve been traveling all my life. My first trips, seated in the backseat of
the family car, were summer vacations to see America: Yellowstone,
Jackson Hole, all ten thousand lakes of Minnesota (my dad loved to
fish), Williamsburg, and Wall Street. We got around. Since the age of
sixteen, I have been going to Europe on a regular basis. In the 1980s, I
went to China, Hong Kong, and Japan, and later I added South America
and Africa to my ever-expanding “hood.”
Wherever I have gone, I have always been happiest in a grocery store,
farmers’ market, or food emporium. In the 1960s, my mother and sister
had to drag me out of the food halls of Harrods after four hours. My
cookbook collection also reflects my interest in the global table. I started
out with both volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia
Child and the Gourmet magazine series books, then I moved on to the
Time-Life series Foods of the World and Time-Life’s The Good Cook. I
collect cookbooks from all kinds of sources, but one of my favorite
places to shop is Kitchen Arts & Letters in Manhattan, which carries
thousands of books, both contemporary and out of print, domestic and
foreign, on food and drink. The first time I visited the store I spent three
hours going through every section, and it is still one of the things I like
to do best when I am in New York. In 2008, Celia Sack opened
Omnivore Books in San Francisco, which, like my New York haunt, is
devoted to volumes on food and drink. Of course, it is much easier for
me to visit Omnivore and therefore more dangerous to my bank account.
But it is far better than many other addictions.
Many of the dishes served at the Supper Club have come from these
two sources: travel and books. Some of them have been huge hits, some
not. The recipes that follow are the hits; there are my favorites plus what
our customers picked as the most popular and their personal favorites.