FORGING A FOOD CHAIN Bangor foodies throw monthly dinner parties with themes that fire culinary imagination

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A pot of fava bean soup with blackened tomatoes and parilla peppers simmered on the stove. At the kitchen counter, guests stopped to scoop up guacamole and fill their glasses with chili-mint lemonade or agua fresca. In the corner, friends caught up, pausing to nibble on chicken mole, fresh ricotta tacos and endive cups filled with cilantro and chili-laced shrimp. On the stereo, Johnny Ray’s “Always and Forever” played on one of the Latin stations on Sirius satellite radio.

Sound like a hot night south of the border? Actually, it was a rainy night south of the Canadian border – Bangor, to be exact. But things in Owen and Krista Smith’s spacious kitchen were still caliente at the April meeting of their gourmet group.

Though the Smiths are relative newcomers – they joined eight months ago – this group has been going strong for nearly two years. Its founders, Laura Lindenfeld Sher and her husband, Roger Sher, keep gathering foodies along the way. On this night, 22 people showed up to share and learn about authentic Mexican cuisine.

“We believe in building community around food, knowing where our food comes from and how it’s prepared – having a relationship to the food we eat and thinking about who makes it,” Laura Lindenfeld Sher said during a break from cooking.

More than a potluck, more than a dinner party, the “supper club” concept has been growing in popularity for the last decade. The idea of coming together to cook, eat and celebrate at the table is so appealing that there are at least three informal groups in the Bangor area alone, and dozens of others statewide. Cooking Light magazine began lending its endorsement to supper clubs in 1999, and it now has more than 4,500 member clubs across the United States.

“The media has turned cooking into a very chichi thing right now,” said chef Billy Strynkowski, who heads up Cooking Light’s supper club program. “People are starting to realize, ‘We don’t have to go to a restaurant and spend a lot of money. We can get together, teach each other new techniques and [share] our family heritage.'”

The Shers’ gourmet group uses monthly gatherings to experiment with foods that aren’t readily available in the Bangor area. They set a date, and a week before the dinner they plan via e-mail so nobody duplicates courses; each member or couple is responsible for a dish or drink. Most of the preparation is done beforehand, so there aren’t 10 people competing for stove space. A sampling of recent menus includes Caribbean, Brazilian and Tuscan.

“This is a nice change once a month,” said Diane Weitman, a former New Yorker who was used to eating whatever she wanted whenever she wanted it.

When she and her husband, David, moved to Bangor, it was a bit of a culture shock. The gourmet group has satisfied some of her cravings for culinary diversity, but it has had an unanticipated benefit, as well.

“Another really nice thing about it is I have four kids and I cook dinner every night,” Weitman said. “The dinner table is very important to me. Doing this, you link up and learn recipes from other parts of the world and some of them are great – you can add to what you do.”

She has added black bean and pork stew to her repertoire and her kids couldn’t be happier.

“It really enlightens you to the possibility of foods to feed your family.”

For the group’s founders, that sense of possibility is the exciting part. Though he is now a scientist at The Jackson Laboratory, Roger Sher worked for years as a chef. He sees the gourmet group as a way to challenge himself. Though he has cooked a lot of Mexican food, the fava bean soup and ricotta tacos were something different.

“We make ourselves do something new for food group,” Laura Lindenfeld Sher said.

Still, the couple urges first-timers to start small, with dishes they know. Strynkowski of Cooking Light says the size of the group should also stay small – his own supper club in Bergen County, N.J., has 12 members – and the cooks should use ingredients that are readily available. He also urges people to start a group with people they don’t know well, so the focus is on the food.

The Shers’ group consists of colleagues – Laura Lindenfeld Sher works at the University of Maine and is a scholar of food and culture – and friends from their synagogue, as well as random people they’ve picked up along the way. The result is an eclectic, delicious mix.

“The food is good, the company is good, conversation is intelligent and it’s always a lot of fun,” Ryan Ross, 15, said over a dessert of ice cream and goat’s milk caramel. He started going to gourmet group with his parents, and now he wouldn’t miss it, even if they can’t make it. “I think it’s different from going to a restaurant because it’s more close-knit, a lot more heartfelt because everyone here made this food.”

Everyone loves the food, but the academics in the group also savor the opportunity to research and share knowledge about different cultures and cuisines.

“It probably started with liking to eat and talk about food,” said Kristin Langellier, one of the group’s charter members. “We cook at home, but not always in a way where there’s this social activity around it. … To me, as a communications scholar, a lot of it comes from the talking. The ‘Oh, I went here, I tried this, I saw that.'”

For her colleague Nathan Stormer, a hard-core foodie and a vegetarian, the allure of the supper club was a bit more straightforward: “If you know people who are good cooks and they like to cook, that’s it.”

Clearly, this group likes to cook – and eat. As the evening drew to a close, there were leftovers, but not many. And their minds were already on May. Krista Smith grabbed a calendar out of her pantry and Laura Lindenfeld Sher called out, “May 6? May 6, everyone?”

People around the room nodded their heads. But what to cook?

“Korean!” Roger exclaimed, and the room began to buzz with conversation – and anticipation.

Kristen Andresen can be reached at 990-8287 and kandresen@bangordailynews.net.

Green Tomatillo Mole

Makes 3 cups sauce

3 ounces hulled raw pumpkin seeds

3 ounces sesame seeds

3 cups chicken stock (no salt)

2 jalapenos or 2 to 3 serrano chiles

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds or ground cumin

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

5 large Romaine lettuce leaves

Salt to taste

3/4 pound tomatillos, husked and washed

1/2 medium onion, rough chopped

1 medium plantain

4 to 5 cilantro sprigs

3/4-inch cinnamon stick, or 2 whole cloves, or a pinch ground clove

1 tablespoon safflower or sunflower oil

Toast pumpkin and sesame seeds in a dry frying pan, shaking pan or stirring constantly until they have browned and popped. Remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl. Pulverize the seeds in a spice mill in batches and sift into a bowl. Stir in 1 cup of the stock and mix well. Set aside. Simmer tomatillos in water to cover with the chilies (remove stems, seeds and membranes from chilies) and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and place in the blender jar. Alternatively, for a slightly smoky flavor, you can roast the tomatillos and chilies and add them along with the pan juices to the blender jar. Add the onion, garlic, plantain and cilantro to the blender jar. Grind the spices in a spice mill and add to the blender jar. Add the lettuce leaves and salt. Blend until the mixture is smooth. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan or casserole over medium heat. Add the seed mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatillo mixture and cook again, stirring for about 5 to 10 minutes, until the mixture is thick. Stir in the remaining 2 cups chicken stock, bring to a simmer, cover partially, and simmer for 30 minutes. Taste and correct seasonings. If the mixture seems too thick, stir in a little more chicken stock. Serve with grilled or poached chicken breasts as main course. Use as a dip with crudites, as a topping for nachos or enchiladas. Add lime or lemon juice or vinegar and use as a salad dressing. If using with chicken, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Sauce freezes well.

Note: For a vegetarian-friendly version, replace chicken stock with vegetable stock. For gourmet group, Owen and Krista Smith tripled this recipe.

Tips to start your own supper club

Chef Billy Strynkowski of Cooking Light magazine offers these tips for starting your own supper club. He also holds supper club events that are open to the public. For the New England portion of his tour, he’ll appear at Johnson & Wales in Providence, R.I., on Nov. 8. For information, recipes or a downloadable tip sheet, visit http://www.cookinglightcentral.com/clc/supperclubs/index.html.

. Find out if people in your area are interested in starting a club. If you’re interested in the Cooking Light clubs, log on to Cookinglight.com/community and enter your ZIP code.

. If you don’t all know one another, meet at a central location to see whether or not these are people who can cook and interact well together.

. Have a meeting to determine logistics. Who and how many will be in your club? When and how often will you meet? Will you cook beforehand? Will it be a lunch or dinner club? How will you decide where to host each party? How will the costs be split up? How will you determine menus? Does anyone have food allergies?

. Establish a contact sheet with information for each member.

. Plan via e-mail and make sure nobody duplicates dishes or courses.

. Establish rules and choose a secretary to make arrangements and a “sergeant at arms” to make tough decisions – “If you have to ask members to leave, it gets a little feisty,” Strynkowski said.

. Once you feel confident in your ability, push yourself out of your culinary comfort zone.