The Bite Club's last stab at Ottolenghi

Last night's meeting was a great feast of dishes, all adventurous, all good, and we all applauded one another's work!  my contribution was marinated mushrooms with walnuts and tahini sauce, from Plenty.  

I used that supply of mushrooms I splurged on at the recent Farmer's Market,  a bag of mixed ones, including oysters which I'd never had.  The little dish on the left is fresh picked herbs, oregano and parsley, and the dish on the right is the sauce.  You put your helping of the mushroom/bean/walnut mix on your plate, sauce on top, pinch of herbs on top of that.

I did sub out tahini, which I don't like, from the sauce, and used half and half almond butter and peanut butter, but other than that, I was pretty good, even to shelling all the beans, what a long time it took, very meditative.  And it went over quite well.

After eating solidly for the entire club meeting, about ten different dishes to sample, all good, I came home with a little bag of sumac, from a generous cook, since I had not been able to find it.  And we're moving on next month to Deborah Madison, of whom I'd never heard, well, I've hardly heard of anyone in the food world, so this will be fun to discover.

But Ottolenghi will definitely be a big part of my menus from now on.

Then this morning it was Harvest Time for the Cherries.  

This puts things in perspective wrt my agricultural exploits, when you see this entire harvest from the bushes on the patio. About two dozen. You know you have a small output when you can count it by units. There are more ripening, though.  At least a dozen more! They're ripe but sour, so I think I'll see if I can make a little preserve with them. Toy jam!