After posting the invitation to the open picnic both on my blog and on Craigslist, I got so few replies that I was ready to throw in the towel on Friday morning, but at the last minute, several of my friends opted in (and recruited others), so that by the time Saturday afternoon rolled around, I had seven people attending. The lovely M—- helped me transport my goods to sunny Ravenna Park, where after a brief search, we found an open picnic table at which to set up. I decided I couldn’t really do fancy food on paper plates, so I purchased some relatively cheap alternatives: Bambu plates, which look outdoorsy without being really expensive, and then reusable (but cheap) Tag glasses, bowls, cloth napkins, and place mats. Everything was green and purple.
When I started planning, I had a few things in mind for the menu. First, my dishes had to be things that I wouldn’t be afraid to cook — that is, nothing that I’d be likely to ruin, like a custard. Second, they had to be things that I wouldn’t have to cook there, since cooking facilities would be nonexistent unless I was prepared to pay a $140 shelter fee (and even then, it’d just be a grill). And third, I wanted to play with summer Seattle flavors. I made a list of ingredients that I think are especially summery: heirloom tomatoes, fresh spearmint, avocados, blueberries, cilantro, cucumbers, goat cheese. Then I simply started searching/brainstorming interesting recipes. Here’s what I came up with:
Crostini Trio of fresh tomato bruschetta, caramelized onion spread, and
roasted red peppers with goat cheese.
Caprese Skewers fresh mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, and
balsamic reduction.
Green Gazpacho with cucumbers, peppers, onions, cilantro,
spearmint, and parsley.
Mushroom Risotto with asparagus and lemon thyme.
Herb-Encrusted Seared Ahi with fresh cucumber and avocado
salad.
Goat Cheesecake with blueberry coulis and a
lavender-shortbread crust.
The week of the picnic, I put in a large order to Spud, and they provided pretty much all of the fresh vegetables. They delivered a ton of Purple Cherokee heirloom tomatoes, which are very mild and sweet, and went perfectly in the Bruschetta and Caprese. I served the Crostini and Caprese family-style and just let people dig in before I started piling courses on them. I liked that skewering the Caprese made it easy to transport and serve, but I’m not sure it was the optimal way to serve Caprese otherwise.
The Gazpacho was an easy call, since I could make it the night before and simply chill it until I served it. The Gazpacho recipe I chose was from the Herbfarm Cookbook, and it was amazing — I highly recommend it. Very zesty, very flavorful; the fresh herbs all managed to shine without overwhelming each other, and the green color was bright and cheerful.
The Mushroom/Asparagus Risotto was also based on a recipe from that book, but I was not as impressed with it. I like the idea of a mushroom risotto, but the asparagus wasn’t that exciting, and the trio of mushroom/asparagus/lemon thyme flavoring just didn’t work for me.
The Seared Ahi was based on a recipe from the same cookbook, but I changed the salad up so that it had a few tablespoons of lime juice, a little olive oil, a little salt, four avocados, two cucumbers, and a handful of chopped cilantro. Coriander and cilantro, as they are sold here, are two parts of the same plant, so that shared flavor tied the Ahi and the salad together.
Finally, the Goat Cheesecake was based on Abbey’s infamous cheesecake, which was featured by the Daring Kitchen, and therefore, by food blogs everywhere. It really is a great recipe; I used goat cheese for half of the cheese, and instead of using graham cracker crumbs for the crust, I crushed up some lavender shortbread that I’d made about a week before, so that there was a subtle lavender flavor in it.
Now, to answer the question which I got seven times that day: What is a coulis? A coulis, as I understand it, is some type of sauce which is made by forcing fruit or vegetables through a sieve, so that any particular materials (seeds, skins, etc) are either crushed up unrecognizably or strained out of the final product. At any rate, that’s how I made mine. I gather some people puree and then strain these sauces, but I didn’t really want lots of dribbly seed bits getting into mine, so I didn’t puree the blueberries. It’s very simple, and you wind up with a sauce that is 100% fruit, has a light syrupy consistency, but it hasn’t been cooked and has no added sugar. The blueberry went great with the lavender and cheese flavors, so I’ll definitely be making that again.
A final note I’d like to make isn’t about anything I cooked. As you may or may not know, public parks in Seattle do not allow alcohol unless you restrict the consumption to a covered shelter and pay some kind of huge - like $300 - fee for it. Now, I’ve seen people openly drinking, a lot, at parks all over the place, and I’ve never seen this enforced, but I didn’t particularly want to tempt fate, especially since this would be going on my blog. So while I’d normally serve wine with a dinner like this, I couldn’t. What I wound up bringing instead were: plenty of still water, Pellegrino, and a couple bottles of Golden Star Tea. At $12 a bottle, it was not exactly the cheapest drink choice on the block, but it was a big hit! It complemented the food well, was refreshing in the hot sun, and delicious. So if you’re looking for a no-alcohol alternative to wine, check this stuff out. We gave it two yums up.
