The time has come for us to literally and figuratively close the book on our cooking the Toro Bravo cookbook parties. Over the years, since the book came out from McSweeney's in the fall of 2013, we've had six big and raucous dinner parties at the homes of a very special group of hungry, good cook friends where we all cooked different dishes from the book. You can check them out here, here, here, and here. I didn't post the fifth dinner from fall 2015 and I'll do that soon too.
We looked through the Toro book's table of contents at the end of our grand finale Toro book dinner party last weekend, and it turns out that we cooked about 85% of the book. None of us are completists in life, so we feel pretty dang good about cooking all of those awesome recipes and not cooking every single recipe.
The biggest holes were in the Charcuterie and Cocktails chapters and meat dishes throughout the book. The first because those recipes take a good amount of time and special equipment (although our group tackled the Coppa Steak twice, the Pork Rillettes, and the Sherry Chicken Liver Mousse), the second because that's a lot of cocktails for six dinner parties (we made the Toro Martini, Venus 75, Jerez Negroni, Casa Rita and White Sangria), and the meat dishes because we have a few vegetarians and pescatarians amongst us (we made the Harira Lamb and Lentil Stew, Coppa Steak, Drunken Pork, Moorish Meatballs and Chicken and Clams Cataplana). I might have left a few out of those lists but that's most of them.
So, we ate, drank and were quite merry, as always, and I'm posting a bunch of the photos here for you. We'll probably do one more Toro party, that's not strictly recipes but that includes the Paella and Rabbit Fideos, this summer because that sounds like a lot of fun. After that, we're going to do a one night only James Beard cook from the book night -- everyone will choose a dish from whatever cookbook of his they'd like.
After that I'm really hoping that the group chooses Hello! My Name is Tasty: Global Diner Favorites from Portland's Tasty Restaurants, which comes out August 15th, as its next cook from the book cookbook. More than a little biased. I love that we can have brunch and dinner parties with that one.
If you want to watch a fun video that Rebecca and Fred Gerendasy of Cooking up a Story did of our dinner party series you can check it out here. Love that they captured it.
Alright, without further ado, photos from the night.
Toro Bravo: Stories. Recipes. No Bull. dinner party menu
Toro's White Sangria made with my Concord grape wine Boquerones with Toasted Bread and Piperade Bacon-Wrapped Dates Tapenade Octopus a la Plancha Sauteed Spinach with Pine Nuts and Golden Raisins Butter Lettuce Salad Harissa-Stewed Butternut Squash Coppa Steak with Salbitxada Panna Cotta two ways Limoncello *We also had really yummy Olympia Provisions ham, pork rillettes, chorizo and sopressata that Josh and Sarah brought. Josh is Olympia Provisions' plant manager.
e started off the night with Toro’s White Sangria that I made with my homemade Concord grape wine. It was really citrusy and yummy with sliced oranges and kiwi. Tastes like summer.
Next up we had my Boquerones with Toasted Bread and Piperade. I made these for our first Toro cookbook dinner at Loly and Faulkner’s so it was fun to make them again at their place for the final one. This is one of my favorite recipes from the book. So simple and delicious.
A little closer…
Josh’s Olympia Provisions spread. It wasn’t from the Toro book obviously but it was a super tasty addition. Pork rillettes, manchego, soppressata, ham, chorizo +++.
Tom working hard on his Bacon-Wrapped Dates ;). And I love that I captured Alec in the mirror.
Most of Alec’s Toro Tapenade on charred bread got snapped up before I got a photo. Love the Toro Tapenade!!
Loly with one of Tom’s yummmmmy Bacon-Wrapped Dates.
Faulkner and Loly cooking up there Octopus a la Plancha. We are the luckiest. I ate two of these and had a hard time stopping myself from eating more. There was so much more food to come.
Loly with the finished dish.
Dana cooking up another one of my favorites — Toro’s Sauteed Spinach with Pine Nuts and Golden Raisins. If you love spinach I HIGHLY recommend making this dish at home.
My niece’s first grade class is doing the Flat Stanley project right now so she sent me her Stanley from Cincinnati and I brought him with. He had a few too many of the Toro sangrias and not enough food to start so we let him doze on the Toro book for a bit.
Chris who was the ringleader for most of these dinners made the Coppa Steak again. It was awesome! Perfectly smoked, tender and juicy. Alec made the Salbitxada to top it with.
Dana and Oliver made the Harissa-Stewed Butternut Squash. Mmmmm.
Loly and Faulkner’s tasty Butter Lettuce Salad. Nice to have some fresh crisp greens in the middle of the feast.
Mid-way through the night we took a walk around Columbia Park to get some fresh air and walk off a little of the food. Beautiful spring night.
Once the Coppa had rested Chris carved it up. Perfectly pink and delicious.
Izzy kitty enjoyed the festivities too.
Eating, drinking, and more eating, drinking. Good times.
With dessert we did a Toro Limoncello taste-off from a couple batches — mine and Loly and Faulkner’s. Both were awesome.
Some of Faulkner and other’s instant photos from the dinner.
Chris’s Toro Panna Cotta. Really good as always. The one in the pie dish is topped with red wine braised pears and apples with cinnamon, cloves and star anise. The individual ones are with his blood orange Campari topping. YUM! Great way to finish the meal.
Cheers to you for reading this! Maybe you'll put together one of these for a cookbook too? I highly recommend it. So fun. Happy Friday!