Last week we hosted our first ever cookbook club! Which we quickly renamed to #pinkcouchsupperclub in honor of my pink sofa that we love dearly. Sally whisked away and Dominique brought her beautiful handmade ceramics. We drank wine and listened to music and it was a grand ole time.

Our menu was simple and we drew inspiration from Israeli food in Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi, Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook, aoili from Carla Lalli Music’s Where Cooking Begins and some dessert inspiration from the famed Alison Roman and her Dining In cookbook (my personal favorite).

Supper Club #01 Menu

1. Zhoug (pg 301, Jerusalem)

2. Hummus (pg 37, Zahav)

3. Steamed Veggies and Aioli (pg 126, Where Cooking Begins)

4. Pan-seared chicken thighs with artichoke hearts (From me! Recipe coming soon!)

5. Caramelized honey with cherries and coconut milk ice cream (inspired by Alison Roman’s caramelized fig dessert)

Sally whisking the aioli into submission. Look at her go! The aioli took a lot more work than we thought for this recipe. So much oil! So much upper arm work! It turned out incredible thanks to Sally’s unwavering determination, and Carla’s well written instructions.

We steamed the veggies and paired them with some fresh cherry tomatoes, cucumber, celery, and radishes (which Frank thought were the cherries). The eggs were steamed for 8 minutes and then plunged into a bowl of ice water (per Carla’s notes) which produced the most perfect not-to-jammy egg. We topped them with flaked sea salt and cracked pepper and went to town. We had so much left over that was in the fridge, it fed Frank and I for two more days. The perfect weekend snack.

Pan-seared chicken with artichokes, leeks, parsley and topped with Zahav’s zhoug. Recipe coming soon!

One note here: fresh made zhoug was easy peasy lemon squeezey and was truly worth cleaning the food processor because it was spicy, tangy, and paired perfectly with, well, everything.

Another note: don’t sleep on fresh made hummus either! It was warm, the chickpeas were overcooked and perfect for a fluffy hummus. We learned that there’s a big difference between Greek hummus and Israeli hummus and that is the tahini and tahina sauce. Israeli hummus has equal parts cooked chickpeas and tahina sauce where Greek hummus is heavier on the chickpeas and less tahini. Also, we learned about tahina sauce which is tahini mixed with pureed garlic, lemon juice and a little water. Amazing.

Either way, the only tedious part was soaking the dried chickpeas overnight and then cleaning the food processor, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. You can see the beautiful bowl of hummus below in Nique’s handmade bowl! We topped the hummus with parsley, paprika and olive oil. Trust me, it didn’t last long looking this pretty.

Honey and butter are two things I never combined until last year when I made Alison Roman’s caramelized honey with figs and ice cream. It’s simple, not too sweet, and naturally gluten free. I was a fan for life from the get go. For our cookbook club, we swapped in cherries instead of figs (they looked so good at the grocery store!) and coconut milk ice cream instead of the real deal.

All in all, a very successful first Pink Couch Supper Club! Comment below if you’re thinking about starting your own cookbook club, and if you’re local to Athens, please come join us! Send me an email at hello@marinagunn.com — it’s more fun to eat together.

xoxo,

Marina