Four Days to Party Time!

So far we’ve got embutido (not my recipe, but something similar), samosas, chicken wings (sweet-spicy and Buffalo), crab cake bites, Thai-flavored mussels, morcon, scallops-in-bacon, chicken sate, and mango sorbet done.

The recipes linked are not the ones I’m using but no time right now to post recipes for those… Working on: Chicken with Green Mole and White Beans, Spanakopita, stuffed mushrooms and rainbow cookies for the cookie platter.

And this bagna cauda recipe. Many bagna cauda recipes call for butter, but I’ve omitted it for dh (dear husband).

A whole head of garlic, peeled and minced (at least 1/2 cup)
2 cups extra virgin olive oil
12 anchovies
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Touch of freshly squeezed lemon juice , to taste, or some white wine if you like
Minced parsley to be added at serving time

I just heat everything up in a small saucepan, until the garlic is softened and the anchovies have disintegrated. Now that I think about why I love bagna cauda so much these days, I recall that it’s very similar to something called “October Sauce” which I found years and years ago in a garlic lovers’ cookbook. Stinking Rose or something like that; the author invented the sauce from whatever he had in the pantry on an evening when he found himself confronted with unexpected guests. It was in October so he called it October Sauce.

We will be serving this in a fondue pot, with cut up vegetables all around — broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, carrots, peppers, etc.