Cooking for groups ...

(Originally published 12/2023.)

The weekend before we traveled to Guatemala, Ann and her colleague, the writer Hester Kaplan, held a writers’ workshop in Providence, RI, wherein a dozen or so writers engaged in a weekend of prompts, writing, and discussion.

Ann enlisted me and Hester’s physician-writer husband, Michael Stein, to tend bar and cook. Once again it got me thinking about time-efficient but satisfying meals for groups that can be made in advance. Here are the menus for the three nights. To our great good fortune, there were no vegans or vegetarians and zero food allergies, all but unheard of these days!

Opening night cocktail:

The Negroni (gin, sweet vermouth, Campari), because it’s one of the best cocktails there is, and it lends itself to a lighter cocktail for those who want less alcohol, the Americano (seltzer replaces the gin, recipes in the last Saturday newsletter). If you’re entertaining and you want to offer more, put a bottle of decent bourbon on the table, for those who might, from these four bottles, want a Boulvardier or a Manhattan.

Meal 1, Beef Bourguignon over egg noodles, and salad, because it’s frigging cold, and what better meal is there on a dark cold November night than beef braised in wine?

Here are a couple of great tips. I often say that I don’t use recipes, but that’s not true. I don’t usually follow recipes. I look at recipes from trusted sources for ideas and quantities. Beef cooked in wine is a no brainer technique-wise (I looked to this excellent recipe from my friend Ina for quantities.) But a couple of things made the cooking easier. I did not spend forty minutes searing 5 pounds of cubed beef. I roasted it in a 425˚F oven (which sets the protein and squeezes out water that would otherwise become foam on the top of the stew).

Also, I don’t like carrots in stews because by the time the stew is cooked, the carrots are dull, mushy, and no longer have any flavor. So I cook whole carrots in the stew. When the stew is nearly done, I discard the now-tasteless carrots, which have given their sweetness to the stew. During the final 20 minutes or so simmering on the stove, I added fresh carrots,