Sunday, August 7, 2011

Farmer's Table Dinner Menu Aug. 18

 Lianne has out done herself again!

If you haven't put The Community School's annual summer dinner on your calendar, stop reading this and do so now! Thursday, August 18 from 6-8pm it is, and not to be missed. We're pulling out all the stops with an evening of food which will excite your palate, fill your belly, and give you some bragging rights.

What? Bragging rights?

If you've been following our weekly meal postings, you know that we at The Community School like to make use of all good foods local. We try new recipes, tempt you with flavors you might not have considered, and generally have a lot of fun. Fun it is.

I've spent about three months researching the perfect recipes for this dinner. Now the potato salad and pasta recipes weren't too hard to come up with and tweak for a crowd, even considering that I wanted fresh taste combinations. The tongue and beef heart, however, took some time. Yes. Tongue. Yes. Heart. And you're going to love them.

You'll arrive at The Community School at 6pm, ready for a cool drink and a little nosh with conversation before dinner. You'll have platters of Sandwich Creamery cheese and Big Farm Bakery crackers to start you off, but then you'll be glancing around the room and notice a gorgeous little pile of ground meat with slabs of Sunnyfield Bakery bread nearby. You'll drift closer and the zing of garlic will tempt you to draw in. You'll pick up a hint of tarragon, and you won't be able to help yourself. You'll smear your bread, take a bite, and forget your friends. You might even forget dinner. This stuff is transformative. But why stop now? You've already eaten the tongue, so move on, move on!

Despite the vilification this hard-working part of a cow might get, you must, must, must not confuse heart with its cousin the liver (though liver and I do get along). Beef heart is a finely-grained, lean muscle (hardest working muscle you'll ever meet) that not only looks more like filet Mignon than anything else but tastes pretty darn good. You'll find a platter heaped with thin slices of marinated and lightly grilled beef heart with basil garlic vinaigrette at the head of the buffet table, when you pick up your dinner plate.

If you just can't wrap your head around the whole nose to tail eating experience, then never fear. Leave the meats to your friends and skip right on past to the chilled Thai squash soup with cilantro and yogurt, heirloom tomato and dill linguini with grilled sweet onions, sesame kale salad (would it be a TCS dinner without it?), potato salad with toasted cumin vinaigrette or dilly cukes.

Save room for dessert.

We'll have ice cream from the Sandwich Creamery adorned with the Pearson's blueberries and butter good cookies.

Food for this meal will be grown and produced by at least 15 farmers, growers, bakers, and creamers in our region, including but perhaps not limited to: TCS' own organic garden, Stanton Brook Farm, Windover Farm, Red Gables Farm, Mad Hen Farm, DiFilippe Farm and Greenhouse, the Behr Farm, Sandwich Creamery, Earl Pearson's blueberries, Sunnyfield Bakery, Spiderweb Gardens, Pineholm, BigLove Mexican Diner, Stonehedge Farm, and Young Maple Ridge Sugarhouse. This is a delectable chance for you to support local agriculture and local education while feasting with friends.

The meal is served by donation. Pay what you can or what you think it's worth.

We hope to hear that you'll be coming. An RSVP always ensures that we have enough food to fill all bellies without being wasteful.
Give a call to save a plate or with questions: 323-7000.

See you on the 18th!

Lianne Prentice

1 comment:

  1. Love this post!!!

    I've been writing about offal experiences as well!

    http://tinyurl.com/5ulapeu

    Take care. Look forward to hearing more.

    Carrie

    ReplyDelete