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Party Weotta Style (Part3) "Let there be food"

Now that you have your drinks covered and you know about the most important food to have at parties, cheese, lets step back for a minute and discuss the rest of the food.

Food at parties is a must have. No, not just because without it everyone gets too wasted, but because food can really make an affair. As we wrote about a few weeks back, we love good eats and when we throw parties the food is always a highlight. For those of you who have come to our parties you know what we mean. Here are our rules: Yes they are boring and slightly scientific, but they all taste great.

1. Always have something fatty, like cheese, because fat is filling and slows down alcohol absorption
2. Drinking sucks electrolytes out of your system so have something salty, like cashews
3. Have a little something sweet, like chocolate, everyone loves it and it is actually really good for you
4. Presentation matters… when things look better they taste better… so don’t be the host that serves the hummus in the handy container it comes in
5. No forks or spoons for us… it is all about finger food because it is easy to enjoy while carrying a tasty beverage

The Sweet stuff: Follow Rule #3… as we said before we love chocolate, and one of our favorite things to do is to get big bars of dark chocolate, break them up and put a little coarse sea-salt on them. We often do this in combination with fruit. The large bars from Scharffen Berger Chocolate of Berkeley or the Belgian ones from Trader Joes are perfect for this. On a side note, Scharffen Berger is sadly closing their Berkeley factory where they had quite the entertaining chocolate tour.

Fruit: Berries are always good. We love doing balsamic strawberries or fresh raspberries… both go great with chocolate. Sometimes we will cut up a melon or two and wrap pieces in prosciutto… it just really depends on what is in season. If we do apples or pears we’ll often pair them with blue cheese or a soft brie like cheese (there we go with the cheese again, can never get enough).

Chips and salsa: We don’t usually do chips but when we do we like getting fresh salsa (look  in the refrigerated section) and good all natural crispy chips like Casa Sanchez. O yes, try not to do the Doritos. They are so unclassy, unhealthy and actually are quite expensive for what they are.

Crackers and bread: Bread is always better than crackers… fills the stomach a bit more and is so much more fun to eat. Here in SF we have some of the best bread in the country, so get a nice loaf of acme or beckmans and enjoy it with your cheese and dips. If you need crackers, get basic water crackers or go for pita chips… both are easy to pair with just about anything.

Meat: Deli meats are made for sandwiches and parties, especially cured and force meats. Some of our favorites are Fra’Mani Salumi and prosciutto di-parma. If you have a Crockpot, homemade meatballs can be a fun addition as well.

Seafood:  Usually skip seafood unless you really enjoy cooking like we do. In that case try your hand at a scallop, salmon or tuna ceviche. Here is an easy scallop ceviche recipe… we made something similar at our last dinner party. There is also the standard shrimp cocktail… everyone loves it and it is really easy. Lox is another thing people love, but it always goes too fast and there is never enough. We served it at our New Year’s Party and it felt like it was gone before the party started.

Veggies: Eat your greens, they can be fun too.  When we say greens, we really mean cucumbers; we love serving them with dips. And who can do without baby carrots? Seems like they have to be at every party these days… if you have the time, carrot sticks are a nicer way to go. But if you don’t have the time (and who does?) just serve the baby carrots… they are good for your guests.

Nuts: We prefer cashews because they are something most people really enjoy and they are classy and quite filling, unlike peanuts. Plus, salted ones are a great way to fulfill Rule #1 and #2. They go fast, mostly because people just eat them without noticing. Often times it is good to mix things up with some fancy mixed nuts or rice crackers. If you want to get really adventurous you can roast your own, but that is another post.

Dips: Hummus is always a good one to do with veggies, bread, chips and/or crackers. Often times we will get or make fresh pesto… it goes great with fresh bread. We will also usually do a dipping oil of (olive oil, salt, pepper, crushed garlic, parmesan, and balsamic vinegar).

Cooked dishes: If you want to do any cooked appetizers you will want to prepare them before the party so you can enjoy the company of your guests.  Trust me, I know how this feels… I am usually in the kitchen… lucky for me people always love hanging out in the kitchen

So now you know your drinks and your food, what could be next?

Party Weotta Style (Part2) Cheese

Now that you know all about drinks let’s move on to food.

Let’s start off with our favorite food to serve at parties, cheese. We love serving cheese. It tastes great, and in our opinion, it is a mandatory part of any cocktail party. There are so many different kinds of cheese to choose from… you have hard ones like parmesan, soft ones like brie, fresh ones like mozzarella, funky ones like blue, and salty ones like Manchego. You can have a lot of fun mixing them up, and don’t be afraid to try new ones. O ya, and never get the sliced stuff… it is for sandwiches only.

We are lucky to live in California where we have so many wonderful cheeses made right here. Some of the California cheeses we love are…

• Cowgirl Creamery’s Red Hawk: It’s a triple cream brie-like cheese packed with layers of bold pungent flavors.
• Cypress Grove Chevre’s Humboldt Fog: It is quite deceptive. Yes, it is a nice mild goat cheese, but inside there is a layer of ash that gives it a tangy cool sharp flavor.
• Rouge et Noir’s Marin French Gold: Roug et Noir’s produces some of the best traditional bries and camemberts outside of France. Their Marin French Gold is our favorite. It is so light and fluffy, perfect with berries or an ice wine.

O ya and once a year we have our very own California Artisan Cheese Festival. This year it is March 20th-23rd. Weotta go enjoy some great handcrafted California cheese.

Some of our favorites from outside California are

• Parrano: It from the Netherlands; although, it thinks it is Italian. It can be best described as mild, a little salty, a little crunchy, pretty hard, and somewhat sweet.
• Cave-aged Gruyere: Ya it is from Switzerland, but it is way different than normal Gruyere.  It is a little harder, nuttier, more rustic tasting, and packed with flavor.
• Raclette: This cheese kinda stinks, but it is packed with flavors that are so lovely. Once you taste it you will either hate it or want more… lots more. It is traditionally melted and served warm, but we love it cold as well. In fact, a few of the folks at Weotta can consume a half pound block of this cheese in under an hour… it really is that good.
• Haloumi: We have mentioned this lovely cheese before. It is the Greek grilling cheese…we love it, everyone we serve it to loves it and no-one can ever get enough of it…just ask Naval. It is quite unique and really only comes to life when pan-fried or grilled. When done it has a nice golden brown outside, a creamy center and the saltiness of feta. Don’t worry, it never gets too soft and yes, it is obvious when it is done. Enjoy it smeared on bread. If you aren’t convinced you will love it watch this short clip…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtToWrL42_o]

So now that you are craving cheese… bet you want to know where to buy the good stuff. Here in SF we are lucky we have some fantastic places to buy cheese, like Cow Girl Creamery in the ferry building and Rainbow Grocery. We go to Rainbow a lot for all sorts of foods, but they have an amazing selection. In fact, Rainbow has all the cheeses we have mentioned above at quite reasonable prices. BiRite also has a nice compact selection of unique things. Whole Foods has a little bit of everything as well. For those of you on a budget or just like a good deal, Trader Joe’s has many of the same things as Whole Foods for quite a bit less… it really is your best bang for the buck. And for those of you who want some really unique stuff go to artisanalcheese.com … you will find all sorts of cheeses you never knew existed.

Wow, never expected to go on about cheese that long, guess we really do love the stuff… if you want to learn more you could always sign up for cheese school.

To be continued…

Good Eats a Way of Life

Here at Weotta we are extremely passionate about food.   We love to cook. We love to go out. We love good eats.

When we cook, we enjoy making dishes to share with our friends. We have been known to make copious amounts of creamy shrimp risotto, succulent buffalo steaks with halloumi cheese and, always, tons of fresh greens and fruit.

When we go out we like going out for things we don’t make at home, like Persian or Burmese food.  In SF, Lavash (Irving @ 6th Ave) is a great choice for Persian food. They have amazing kebabs, and you have try Kashk-e Bademjan — I’ll bet you’ve never had eggplant that tastes so good. Burma Superstar (Clement @ 4th Ave) is also quite fun, although usually the wait is ridiculous. If you can bear the wait, the tea leaf salad is quite the unique sensation.. We also like going out for unique experiences: five-course dinners at a high-end place like Gary Danko (North point @ Hyde St) or northeastern- style lobster rolls, oysters and chowder at Woodhouse Fish Company (Market @ 14th St).

Of course, we don’t go out all the time, just as do we don’t cook elaborate dishes every day. But we do strive for good value and good eats. And making good eats is something you can do, too. Really, it’s not that hard, and doesn’t take much time or cost a lot. Take pasta — If you’re out of college, it’s time to put down the Raman Noodles. We’re talking about real Italian pasta with homemade sauce in under 30 minutes, including cleanup. Checkout Chez Pim’s 15-minute sauce — It’simple and tasty. Or how about steak? Steak is always one of the most expensive things on the menu when we go out, and it is rarely worth our $$$. It really is simple to make an amazing steak at home at fraction of the price — and you don’t even need to fire up the grill. Just ask “Good Eats” expert Alton Brown.

Know your Steak [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KrjeJDNKUA]

Make your steak in 15min [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiQ0VOJmCbg]

So this holiday season, when you want an evening out with friends or family, try going out for something a little different. And when you do go out, make a point to ask yourself, “Is this something I could make at home?” If so, invite a few friends over, get some good wine and try your hand at some new dishes… And if you need help figuring out where to go or what to cook, feel free to ping us for some tips .

What are some of your favorite easy-but-classy recipes?

Good eats – good friends – Weotta do it!