Moroccan Dinner Menu

When it comes to our catering, we can create a custom menu to fit any theme or budget - whether you want a buffet of light bites, or a high class sit down dinner. Thinking Thai or tri-tip, fried chicken or Sushi? We're your caterer. And while we sure do love our local and organic produce, we do step out of the box and get a little wild and crazy sometimes. Take, for example, this Moroccan themed dinner we did for a client in Montecito in February:

Appetizers

Falafel with Tahini

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Mini B’stilla

“Pigeon Pie” with Cinnamon, Powdered Sugar & Phyllo Dough

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Platter of Dates & Manchego Cheese

Specialty Cocktails

Cinnamon Sangria

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Moroccan Mint Tea

Entrée

Chicken Tagine

Lamb Tagine

With Figs, onions, Carrots & Potatoes

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Carrot “Labna” with Homemade Pita & Hummus

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Seven Vegetable Cous Cous

Dessert

Turkish Coffee with Vodka & Cane Sugar

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Ricotta-Orange cake with Preserved Oranges

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Rosewater Milk Chocolate Cake Truffles

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Honey Ice Cream.

We're helping bring the farm to the table

Main Course is taking part in the Ojai Farm to Table Tour from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 17th. Participants get to visit three local farms and indulge in a a local-foods lunch prepared by six area chefs, including our very own Rachel Main!

Here's a sneak peek at what some of the chefs are mixing up:

• Rachel Main: salad of beets, citrus and walnuts.
• Carrie Clough: carrot and mixed bean salad with dill, toasted almonds and crispy shallots.
• Susan Coulter: curried vegetables with forbidden rice.
• Tim Kilcoyne: thai beef salad.
• Caspar Poyck: quinoa polenta pot pie.
• Jeri Oshima: citrus olive oil cake

The event is a fundraiser in conjunction with the Ojai Music Festival. Guests will visit Earthtrine Farm, Ojai Olive Oil and Friend’s Ranch. The deadline to purchase tickets for the event is April 10. Tickets for the tour and lunch are $60 per person. Call 646-2094, ext. 100.

Piggin' out at Main Course

Here are a few photos from the porchetta di testa (rough translated this means, um, pig head) that Rachel, Main Course chef and owner, made a few weeks back from a Becker Lane organic acorn fed pig. She cured the pork for 2 days, and these pictures show her tying the head back together and getting it ready to put into the vacuum sealed bag for 19 hours of poaching at 190 degrees. We served it as a grilled manchego cheese and porchetta di testa sandwich with arugula and tomatoes. And boy was it delicious.

Locavore Dinner

So, you've probably figured it out by now, but we're really into local food. We think it tastes better, that its better for our bodies, and we like to support our local farmers. And our friends, Kris and Joanne Young of Ojai couldn't agree more. They are the leaders of a cool project called Locavore Lite 2010, where they are calling upon all of us in the Ventura area and beyond to eat more local food this year, grow more food in our backyards, and support our local farmers markets.
So, because we're so excited about what they're doing, we're hosting a completely local dinner at our bistro on April 8th at 6pm. Here's a peek at the menu. Note: each course will be paired with a perfectly delicious wine from Ventura's own "backyard."

Goat cheese, pistachio and tangerine salad with local
greens and a citrus ginger vinaigrette

Grilled Watkins Ranch steak with glazed baby carrots
and roasted beets, shaved radish, and arugula pesto

Avocado semifreddo with roasted strawberries,
walnut tuille, and lime coulis

To further inspire your tastebuds or to get more info, here's the complete menu.

One of the many stars in our kitchen

At Main Course, we are blessed to have a slew of talented chefs working in our kitchen. And one of these gems is Nadia Licea - both pastry chef and, shall we say, a jack of all trades. She is a graduate of San Francisco's California Culinary Academy, and before joining us, she worked at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks and Tierra Sur, the kosher restaurant at Herzog Wine Cellars.

When it comes to cakes, Nadia is our go-to gal. Here she is, just yesterday, with a cake she made for a client. A 12-inch square chocolate cake with white chocolate mousse, buttercream frosting, and fresh berries. ..

Earlier this week we filmed Nadia, hard at work in the Main Course kitchen, making a delicious salad with locally grown frisee, bacon lardon, brown butter croutons, poached egg, crispy shallots, and a white wine vinaigrette.

BNI Mixer

We catered this event a few weeks ago for Business Networking International (BNI), a local networking group that we belong to. The table was decked out with some of our favorite delicacies. The cheese platter offered blue cheese, manchego cheese, candied macadamias, blood orange slices, and much much more.

We served quinoa cakes with a sweet and spicy bell pepper salsa and sandwiches made with turkey, arugula, mayonnaise, and our red onion marmalade on whole grain bread.

And one of our most popular yummies...chorizo stuffed dates wrapped in applewood smoked bacon.

They are quite the mouthful - the perfect blend of sweet and savory, with a zing from the smoky bacon. Oh, and if they've piqued your interest, they do make an occasional appearance on our dinner menu.