Tag parties that cook

Parties That Cook Proud to Participate with Pacific Community Ventures

0 comments By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in General Tagged with cooking class, cooking parties, coporate team building events, Pacific Community Ventures, parties that cook, Small Business Community, Wild Mushroom Crostini Recipe October 27th, 2009 @ 4:14 pm

Parties That Cook recently participated in the Pacific Community Ventures (PCV) Partner Company Showcase for the 2nd year in a row and what a great day! The sun always seems to shine at the Pacific Athletic Club where PCV entrepreneur advisees busily put up posters and displayed promotional materials at their booths. As a cooking parties and corporate team building events company, we thought it only right that Parties That Cook provide live cooking demonstration along with our business cards! We had a blast chopping fresh herbs and slicing chanterelles for small plate samples of Wild Mushroom Crostini with Teleme and Thyme.

As we greeted passersby and chatted with fellow advisees, we realized just how lucky we were to have found a fantastic resource like Pacific Community Ventures. PCV is a non-profit organization that offers entrepreneurs access to valuable business development resources. And boy have we utilized those resources! At this annual fundraiser, business advisors and investors are invited to network and learn more about the portfolio businesses PCV supports.

We are continually impressed by the professionalism and touched by the kindness of every PCV employee and member of the network we’ve worked with. Looking across the lawn at fellow exhibitors, we also felt proud to be amidst such remarkable businesses as Equator Coffee, New Leaf Paper, Sheila Moon Athletic Apparel and Galaxy Desserts. We enjoyed stimulating conversation at the luncheon that followed and returned to the office with renewed enthusiasm and a feeling of true community. Maybe the Chef at Galaxy Desserts can even show us a thing or two when he redeems his Parties That Cook cooking class raffle prize!

Cookbook Club The World of Street Food

0 comments By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in Cookbook Club, General Tagged with Cookbook Club, food trucks, mobile food, parties that cook, sf street food, street food, street food vendors, street vendors October 20th, 2009 @ 10:28 am

Like most of San Francisco, Parties That Cook can’t get enough of the latest trend: street food. So for this month’s cookbook club, we chose The World of Street Food: Easy Quick Meals to Cook at Home by Troth Wells and we feasted on flavors from Mumbai to Colombia’s Antioquia.

Ragda Patties (India) – In preparing this recipe, Mary stumbled upon a few ingredients she’d never used before and we’re sure glad she gave it a whirl! These delicious potato patties were filled with a mixture of peas, green chilies, cilantro and ginger and pan-fried to golden perfection. They were topped with thinly sliced red onion and the ragda, made of chickpeas and potatoes. The tang from fresh tamarind was perfectly balanced by brown sugar and an array of exotic spices, including the most pungent spice in the pantry, asafetida. We agreed each dish would be just as good on its own.

Tagine (Tunisia) – Unlike a traditional Moroccan tagine, Michelene’s dish was more of a casserole. She couldn’t imagine how the ingredients would come together, but it turned out to be a group favorite. The mixture of cubed chicken, cannelloni beans and monterey jack cheese was flavored with cinnamon and paprika, topped with a layer of scrambled eggs and baked in a rustic clay dish until browned and bubbly. Luckily, Mich took it upon herself to add salt to the recipe even though it didn’t call for it!

Bandeja Paisa (Colombia) – Crissy was also intrigued by the sides suggested to accompany this simple dish of ground beef, tomato and lightly smashed kidney beans. Though she skipped the rice, fried eggs and arepas, the meat was served with fried sweet plantains and crispy bacon. The recipe could have been improved by the addition of a few spices, but the salty bacon and sweet plantains made for a tasty flavor combination.

Eggplant with Coconut Milk (Indonesia) – Bibby tried her best to stick to the recipe, but knowing better, she made a few necessary changes to this one. The recipe called to simmer cubed eggplant, tomatoes, chilies, shallots and garlic in water until tender before adding the coconut milk. Bibby fought her temptation to sauté the vegetables first and instead salted the eggplant first to remove the bitterness, boiled off extra liquid and finished the dish with a dash of fish sauce, lime juice, and cilantro. Her rendition was delicious served over Erin’s red rice.

Ha Gow, Potstickers and Sesame Buns (China) – Having forgotten her recipe over the weekend, Carolyn resurrected the situation with dim sum to-go from Wing Lee Bakery in the Inner Richmond. No complaints here! Though not found in the cookbook, we doused our dumplings with soy sauce and enjoyed the sweet and chewy sesame buns for dessert.

Hungry for more? Check out this great List of Street Food Vendors using Twitter on Serious Eats. Go on, track down Roli Roti or the Mobile Pho Truck and take to the streets!