By Alan Gore
The March Shoestring will be hosted by our founder, Jim Morgan, at his Tempe home. Our theme will be a rather special one, even for us: Ethiopian. Last year, we were so new to this cuisine that we did an Ethiopian restaurant dine-out. This time, we’re feeling confident enough to try this at home. There’s only room for 12 at Jim’s place on Saturday, March 14, so please take special care to reserve early. Don’t even wait until our standard reservation deadline of Thursday, March 12. Call Jim at 831-2170 (home) or daytimes at the office, 941-8112. You can also e-mail Jim at jlmorgan@amug.org. Any way you can reach him early is a good way, for he will provide you with recipes.
Ethiopian dishes are not actually dishes at all. We will prepare such choices as doro wat (chicken and egg in a spicy sauce) and tikil gomen (cabbage and collard greens) placed between us in the center of a table. Then we tear off pieces of thin flexible injera bread and use it to scoop up our portions. Yes, this one is going to be different.
For February, we cooked a tribute to Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott’s film Big Night. The story, set on the Jersey Shore in the Fifties, describes a restaurant rivalry between two brothers recently arrived from Italy. The film culminates in a grand three-hour feast, which we bettered by one hour, featuring – I’ll have to take a deep breath for this…
We started with Janet Fotheringham and Jim Gaspar’s caponata, and antipasto jointly prepared by Ursula Gore and George Miles: prosciutto, olives, cheese, roasted red peppers, green peppercorns, anchovies, albacore tuna, and gorgonzola. Ray Pisar launched his own tribute to the director: flaming shrimp a la Tuccio, some of which achieved orbital insertion. After all, no movie today is complete without an explosion somewhere in it.
Next came Ursula’s (with the gracious assistance of Esther Shaw) risotto in the Italian colors: shrimp and tomato, asiago, parmesan, and romano cheeses, and green pesto parmigiano. This was followed by Chuck and Joice Braden’s la zuppa (soup) of carots in a clear broth with semolina. Marilyn McDonald and Jim Morgan prepared timpano, a pastry drum of meatball, salami and pasta with sliced boiled egg. Our new guest of the evening, Marilyn’s mother Janet McDonald, brought in a whole roasted chicken with laurel and bay leaves, which Diana Toone accompanied with sweet potato marsala, and Ken Brown with grilled vegetables.
With each course we had a variety of Italian and French wines, from Chianti to Bordeaux. Espresso and cappucino were also shared by the coffee cognoscenti among us. I wonder how they slept that night.
By this time, we summoned the last of our resources for dessert. Kebba Buckley’s tiramisu, a layered confection of mousse and chocolate rum with Kahlua, accompanied by mascarpone chese. Chuck and Joice finished up with amaretto almond cookies with strawberries and cream.
And just as in the movie version, Louis Prima was expected, on tape at least, but couldn’t make it, since in the authentic Italian way the cassette deck was on strike. Perhaps next time, we’ll have him on CD.