Sea scallops,very fresh, lightly floured
butter
finely chopped shallots
grated Greyere cheese (other cheeses with a slightly bitter bite will work)
Noilly Prat vermouth (required-do not use Italian vermouth)

Heat skim of butter until almost smoking in heavy frying pan and add chopped shallots, about one large shallot per pound of scallops. Saute the shallots until some of their tips are just blackening, then add scallops and toss a few seconds until scallops are starting to sear and are thoroughly mixed with the shallots. Then add vermouth, about 1/2 cup per pound of scallops, expecting a huge frizzle and clouds of steam. Stir around a minute or two until scallops are thoroughly hot, and a sauce has formed and thickened. Then tip the whole mess into a shallow buttered baking dish large enough so that scallots occupy no more than two layers, cover with a THIN layer of grated cheese, and pop under the broiler until the cheese begins to brown and bubble. Salt. If the scallops have gone rubbery you have cooked them too long - high heat and alacrity is the essence of this recipe.

Squid in Coconut Milk

This dish was invented by Woody & Paul at this party (!), and is here described by Woody:

Basically, add enough of whatever is lying about and would taste good. The more detailed recipe (with minor embellishment) is (as much as I can remember): chop up garlic (a lot), scallions (some), green chiles (some), ginger (a lot), lemongrass (some), cilantro (some), and grind in a food processor. Add coriander (a lot), cumin (some), black pepper (a lot), fish sauce (just enough: to taste), and grind some more. Then add 1 can coconut milk (cuz that's what we had lying around). Marinate the squid until a burner on the stove is free (about 20 minutes). Cook the squid in a very hot frying pan, with a bit of oil, approximately 1 minute per side (do not overcook). Remove and eat very soon.

Cricket Lane Salsa

Mix together the following: minced garlic (one or two cloves), finely chopped onion (half of a small one), finely chopped tomatillo (five or six), canned stewed tomatoes (two cans), finely chopped red hot pepper (one or two), finely chopped cilantro (a lot, maybe 1 cup?), lime juice (from one lime), some tabasco sauce, some white vinegar (just a bit), a pinch of cumin, salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste (this is important). Let it ferment for a while if possible.

Roasted pepper ratatouille

Put several green peppers onto the barbecue, and grill them, turning them over so that they are black and flaky all over. Run them under cold water to peel off the skin, slit them open and clean out the seeds. Cut the pepper into smallish pieces. For the rest, use whatever vegetables are handy. In this case, saute chopped onions (from one medium sized onion) in olive oil. Add chopped zucchini (from two small ones) and saute some more. Add two cans diced tomatoes (or chopped fresh tomatoes if you have them), and then add the roasted peppers. Add your favorite ratatouille herb(s), in this case I believe we used dried oregano. Cook for a while on low heat (15-30 min). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Liquid Nitrogen Lemon Sorbet

Bring a dewar containing some liquid nitrogen from the lab. Medical grade is supposed to be safe. Into a large container (preferably round bottomed, plastic okay, but also a large pot is fine) pour a bottle of Nantucket Nectar Genuine Lemonade. Add some sugar to taste. Pour in some liquid nitrogen and stir continuously with a long handled serving spoon. As the liquid nitrogen evaporates, add more and continue stirring.; Keep doing this until the mixture starts to become a slurry. Continue with the liquid nitrogen treatment until you obtain the degree of consistency that you like...Variations: use other fruit juices, as well as any alcoholic beverages handy (except beer).

Cricket Lane Baked potatoes

Get a 10 or 20 pound bag of idaho potatoes. Wash them. Cut them in half (imagine your head is the potato, make a horizontal cut). Tear a strip of aluminum foil six inches wide off the roll. Tear this in half so that you now have 2 six inch squares. Place each potato half cut face down on a foil square. Gather the foil around the top of the potato and twist. After doing this to 80 potatoes, place the 160 halves in the oven in neat rows with the flat side down. Turn the oven on to 350 F. After 10 min, take a look at them, check for doneness by impaling with a fork (it is done when it goes in smoothly). If it is not done, become impatient and turn the oven up to 500 F. This way, the potatoes will be done in time to eat with the rest of the barbecue.

Grilling made simple
The history of barbecue really took off after mankind learned how to start a fire. But just as no two people have the same CA1 neurons, no two people light a fire the same. Here at Cricket Lane, after many discussions, here is a general concensus about this activity. First, it is important to clear out the remnants from the last barbecue, which includes ash as well as sausages that have slipped through the cracks. Second, the charcoal briquettes should be started in a pile rather than all spread out. We all add more lighter fluid that we think we should, and some more than others. Lighting the fire is another individual process, ranging from the ten foot flick (usually not successful due to cross winds), to the "I used to have hair on the back of my hands" approach. After a big flare up, the fire dies down. Five or ten minutes later, there's usually no flames at all. This is a critical point, because one has to decide whether to re-start the fire. The charcoals are partially gray. One school of thought says that if there is a bit of red showing deep in the pile, then leave it alone, and all will be well. Another school of thought says to encourage the fire by dousing the pile with more lighter fluid. Aside from being extremely dangerous (as you could start a rip roaring fireball), this usually puts the fire out. In this case, go back about 7 sentences and start again, but when you get to this sentence again, just leave it alone.

The object of all this is to reach a point where most of the charcoals are gray, the interior of the pile is glowing red, and some small flames are coming out of the pile. At this time, it is safe to spread out the charcoals to a uniform layer on the bottom of the grill, and to begin the next project: cleaning the grill. One school of thought is to say "screw it, the fire will just burn it off". Another is to clean it, for instance by crumpling up some aluminum foil and rubbing it over the grill to dislodge the rest of the sausages remains. Once you have passed this stage, at last, you can start to grill.

Once you have put the food on the grill, the key thing is when to take it off, i.e., When is it done? Fish is one of the easier ones, because it is fast, it turns color, and flakes apart when it is done. Sausages are also easy because there is a wide range of degrees of doneness that is acceptable. Beef and chicken are more difficult, and usually are thought to require some invasive test, namely cutting into the meat and seeing if it looks done inside. Additional problems are to decide when to turn over the piece of meat, whether it is done on both sides, whether to put it over the hot part of the grill, and what to do when the grease coming out of the meat falls on the coals and causes a flare up. in view of all these subtleties, some say that grilling should be left to someone else.

Argentinian chimichurri* sauce (*not chimichanga)

The Basic Version: Water and coarse salt (over saturated). This is very simple. You can get more and more complicated by adding more and more things, as we do.
Variation 1: add 20% red wine vinegar and chopped onion per 500 ml, and lots of chopped parsley (such as a whole bunch)
Variation 2: in addition to the ingredients of Variation 1, add olive oil (apporsimately 10%)
Variation 3: in addition to the ingredients of Variation 2, add juice of limes plus six chopped garlic cloves plus chopped sweet red pepper (one)
Variation 4: If you still have anything left in your kitchen, you can make this last, super variation: the ingredients of Variation 3 plus fresh blacked peppers or mixed peppercorns plus chopped red onions plus a splash of tabasco and a pinch of sugar.
This is not a marinade, you apply it to the beef as it is cooking, i.e. cook the beef first a little bit before brushing some of the chimichurri sauce on it.

Country bread from Entre Rios Argentina

Mix 4.5 cups white king arthur flour, 1.5 cups whole wheat king arthur floor and 1.5 tablesppons fleishman's yeast. Mix in 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1.5 tablespoons salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, and rub between hands to mix in the oil. Gradually add tap water (2 or more cups. Mix with a bread whisk. Knead it. Let it rise 1 hr. Stretch again and put into a cloche. Let rise until it is half the size of the cloche. Cut slashes on top. Wet surface with water and sprinkle surface with sesame seed. Let it rise to 3/4 size of cloche. Bake at 500 F for 45 minutes.

To be Added:
Grilled tequila pineapple
How to make steel head trout taste like salmon perhaps to be added: how to clean a squid
thai cashews