Pack a picnic like a pro
With picnic season in full swing, we thought we’d check in with a few food professionals to find out what they would recommend for a perfect outdoor spread – whether you’re trekking to a park or just dining in the back yard. Their answers were as varied as their backgrounds.
Terrell Danley of Creme Cafe, Washington: As the chef at Creme Cafe, a restaurant known for its Southern-soul food cuisine, Danley applies his years of culinary experience to elevate comfort food to a higher level.
•Essential ingredients: “I’m a simple flavor kind of guy,” says Danley. He starts with the necessities – chips and dip. Kettle chips and onion dip, to be exact. And when it comes to onion dip, he goes for the classic. “Lipton’s soup mix and sour cream. Leave it alone, it’s perfect,” he says.
He also packs foods that build on each other in combination: ripe Camembert, New York flat bread, kosher salami, thinly sliced roast turkey and lima bean hummus. These components allow people to build their own canapes. Danley also suggests fruits that can stand up to heat, such as grapes and chunks of pineapple.
•Super sides: Roasted corn salad with cilantro, lime juice, garlic and cucumber. Marinated grape tomatoes mixed with an herb-garlic puree served on leaves of romaine lettuce. Salade nicoise made with grilled tuna. Cold baked beans allowed to warm to room temperature.
•Thirst quencher: “Chimay (beer) has a lot of flavor but is light enough that it doesn’t weigh you down,” says Danley. If you’re more of a wine drinker, he suggests Touraine rose or Bonny Doon’s Pacific Rim Chenin Blanc. (Of course, if you’re picnicking in public, check ahead to find out whether alcohol is legal.)
•Dessert: “It has to be the banana pudding from the back of the Nilla Wafer box recipe. Don’t screw around with it. Don’t try to make a creme brulee, just follow the directions.”
Lieu Lai, of Huong Que Four Sisters Restaurant, Falls Church, Va.: Along with her sisters, Lai manages Four Sisters, a Vietnamese restaurant where her mother and a brother are chefs.
•Essential ingredients: “Mom always marinated the meat the night before to make sure the lemon grass, star anise, garlic and all the spices were well-absorbed before grilling. The seafood was cooked as-is because it would later be dipped into salt, black pepper and lime.”
•Super sides: “Corn is a family favorite when grilled and served with chopped spring onion cooked in oil as a spread.”
•Thirst quencher: Fresh-squeezed limeade prepared at the park. “Just a whole lime, two tablespoons of sugar, water and ice,” she says. Lai also likes coconut drinks.
•Dessert: Watermelon, berries, cantaloupe and litchis. “All were bought on the way to (the park) except for the litchis,” she says.
Ann Yonkers of Freshfarm Markets, Washington, D.C.: “Four years in the Peace Corps in West Africa introduced to me really fresh food, such as tropical fruits, seafood, vegetables,” says Yonkers, president and co-director of a farmers’ market cooperative.
•Essential ingredients: “Simple seasonal foods. … Look for anything that jumps off the farm tables with freshness.” Yonkers suggests roasting a rabbit raised in the Shenandoah Valley (available at the Dupont Circle market) with fresh rosemary, marjoram and thyme – served cold. (For a recipe, Yonkers recommends “The Zuni Cafe Cookbook.”)
•Super sides: A salad of sugar snap or English peas and new potatoes. “Peel and steam the potato until cooked but not falling apart,” she says. “Try to keep the potatoes in proportion to the peas.” She suggests dressing the salad with yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, mint and chopped chives. Complete the meal with a baguette and a platter of local cheeses.
•Thirst quencher: Pinot blanc or chenin blanc would both go well with this menu, Yonkers says. She also likes the option of iced tea with mint or sparkling water.
•Dessert: Raspberries and Bing cherries served with slightly sweetened mascarpone or ricotta. For the sweeter tooth, she suggests small fruit tarts.
Eric Ziebold of CityZen, Washington, D.C.: Coming to Washington from Iowa, via Napa Valley, Ziebold is a chef who prefers to keep things simple. For a picnic, he recommends room-temperature food that can resist spoiling in extreme heat and humidity. (This means no mayo.) Oh, and no plastic either, says Ziebold. If you are going to that much trouble for the meal, he says you should honor it with real silverware.
•Essential ingredients: Fried chicken, artichoke salad and German potato salad. He combines bacon and vinegar with still-warm potatoes so they absorb the smoky flavor. He then adds onions and hard-boiled eggs.
•Super sides: If it’s a special outing, there’s always room for foie gras, Ziebold says. He studs his with caramelized garlic and serves it on toasted brioche.
•Thirst quencher: For daytime, Vinho Verde from Portugal (white) has a “clean, grassy flavor with a subtle effervescence,” he says. For evening, Ziebold likes Littorai Les Larmes (red). He chills both reds and whites. “Red wine is usually served too warm,” he says, “and will warm up in the glass.”
•Dessert: A dessert that is heat-tolerant and “crazy good,” according to Ziebold, is banana-white chocolate ganache served with graham crackers for dipping. The recipe is a highly guarded restaurant secret, but by adding pureed banana or banana extract to your ganache, you could approximate a dippable blend.