21 July 2010

Picnic Dinner

Picnic dinners on warm summer evenings. The main venue for the Music Academy of the West's events is Hahn Hall, a Spanish Colonial building set in exquisitely landscaped grounds in Montecito. We've been attending their outstanding concerts - opera highlights on Monday night - and we usually take along a picnic dinner which allows us to enjoy the gardens in the early evening. So, I've been preparing fare worthy of the classy venue and classy events. Our summer garden has been my main inspiration for meals this summer.
Growing in mindboggling abundance right now are summer squashes. I have become quite the expert on zuchini dishes! Our picnic menu on Monday night was the following: aubergine caviar, homemade bread rolls, heirloom tomatoes and basil, and zucchini fritters. For dessert we had apricot cobbler. A Santa Ynez Pinot Noir went beautifully with this sumptuous meal.

At the farmer's market I couldn't resist the young, bright purple, firm eggplants. To  make the caviar I roasted the eggplants (while the bread rolls were baking). When they were soft I scooped out the pulp into a bowl and added the following ingredients: some olive oil, yogurt, a large clove of garlic, lemon juice, some chopped flat leaf Italian parsley and some fresh basil. I blended these with a hand blender and added salt and freshly ground pepper. This spread on still warm bread rolls is extremely satisfying.
The zucchini fritters accompanied by sweet, juicy tomatoes and basil made for one heck of a main course. I'll post the recipe one of these fine days.

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