Our Txoko continues to grow and mature. Well, except for one dedicated member who went face down on the sofa after a Herculean intake of wine and beer.

More's the pity. After 4 straight nights of burning the candle at both ends it was bound to happen. Complete dissolution has not arrived just yet but it is peeking at me over the horizon.

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Our Basque gastronomic society had Txoko number six last night. We've established a titanium-strength core of seven dedicated eaters/cooks who take this project very seriously.

For the uninitiated, a Txoko is a Basque gathering of men from all walks of life who congregate in a home or clubhouse [in Spain] with big bags of groceries and bottles of wine.

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Our Basque gastronomic society had Txoko number five last night. The core group of seven dedicated eaters combined to put out a 12 course bacchanalia of food and wine with a Mediterranean slant.

Which gave me the perfect excuse to dust off my Turkish cooking skills as Turkey is the dominant culinary player in the Mediterranean region.

As East End wines is the dominant player for under the radar, sleeper wines in Austin we always utilize them as our provider. To the tune of 15 or so bottles.

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Our Basque food society has a serious scholar in our midst.

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Our Txoko is growing up. We have a good solid core of committed gastronomiques who take the tradition very seriously.

When we decided to give our most recent Txoko a culinary theme it was pretty easy to choose the foods of the Basque people as the focus.

The Basque invented the Txoko and two of the founding members of our Austin group are indeed Basque.

It was clearly time to do some serious research.

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About the photo

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This post is going to be a narration of what we're cooking at our Basque gastronomic society.

We've had two Txokos thusly and both have been incredible orgies of food and conversation.

At Txoko one, my contribution was Hoppin' John and rice. The recipe for which is already up on this site.

At Txoko two, my contribution was Chile Poblano stuffed with Alligator Fried Rice and Pork Cracklins.

This was my debut of this recipe and frankly it needed some modification.

I'll post the revised recipe in the next few days.

There's a photo up on this site of a couple ribeyes and a few pounds of chiles on a big fire in the backyard of the party.

All the men in the society are fine cooks and I hope to let them do some guest writing on this site so we can all have access to their recipes as well.

all Txoko coverage here http://www.scrumptiouschef.com/food/index.cfm/Txoko-A-B

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