a dinner party with foraged foods

Last Saturday, Jordan and I hosted a dinner party. And, forgive my lack of modesty, I think we hit it out of the park. The food was wonderful, the company was fantastic, and not a single kitchen crisis befell us.

The Menu

Winter salad with shaved fennel, apple, radish, foraged* miner’s lettuce and foraged wild radish

Pork belly** with pomegranate molasses

Paella, from our recipe posted in Paella Per Se

Green beans

And for dessert …

Passionfruit*** mousse

*A note on foraging: Jordan and I are clearly interested in local foods and we’ve been talking about foraging our own wild foods for quite a while. While it sort of began as a distant possibility and kind of a joke, last week we went to a free lecture about the SF food scene at the library and one of the panelists Iso Rabins of ForageSF is a San Fran forager. Iso inspired us to get out and forage. And so, last Saturday, we did!

**Our pork belly was purchased from the Fatted Calf, a specialty meats and charcuterie shop near our place. The best part: we saw the butchering of the pig where our pork belly came from! More about the Fatted Calf to follow.

*** I am obsessed with passionfruit. Every since I went to Argentina and first tasted the maracuya helado, I was hooked. Sadly, passionfruit isn’t the easiest to track down here in the US. BUT! I have an awesome boyfriend who sympathizes with my obsession and somehow finds secret suppliers of frozen passionfruit puree in the Mission! Yay!

Now a few recipes …

Pork Belly with Pomegranante Molasses, click here

Passionfruit Mousse or Mousse de Maracuya, click here