Posts in Category: Food, Wine, Urban Farming
Mediterranean Dinner
Shiitake and Chanterelles
Grilled Summer Squash
Grilled Summer Squash
Red Snapper wrapped in grape leaves and grilled
Mixed beet salad with fennel, spring onions, herbs and feta cheese
Tzatziki
We had another couple and their kids come to dinner tonight. I had big plans, but ended not being able to pull it all together. After hearing the NPR story the other morning about the “Mediterranean diet”, I got out my Cretan cook book and started thinking about focusing on greens, herbs and lots of olive oil.
We ended up with grilled snapper wrapped in grape leaves, heirloom tomato and mediterranean cucumber salad, gold and chioggia beets with fennel and feta cheese, grilled then sauteed shiitoke and chanterelle mushrooms, grilled summer squash, a mix of sauteed dandelion, beet greens, and swiss chard, tzatziki with mint, roasted yukon golds with sage, and some nice wines.
It turned out to be enough food, but I really wanted to break out my dad’s old meat grinder and grind some meat for dolmas and kabobs. That was an inspiration that came from a dinner we were invited to last weekend. Alas, I ran out of time.
There’s always next weekend.
The Dowry
Covered skillet
My mother-in-law said, “We have something for you, if you want it. I told Ray it was my dowry. We haven’t used them in a long time.” She was talking about the cast iron pan set that had belonged to Ray’s parents, or possibly even grandparents, and was passed down to them sometime after they were married. I guess she meant it was Ray’s dowry for her. And now, it is Sarah’s dowry for me, some 20-odd years after tying the knot.
“My god, yes! Thank you so much, Marge,” I said excitedly. I looked over the rusty and crusty pans. There were no cracks or chips, or anything a good scrubbing and seasoning wouldn’t fix. This was an interesting covered pan set I had not seen before. The bottom is an extra-deep skillet, and the top a shallower pan with a ridge along the edge that fits snugly inside the rim of the bottom. It wasn’t until I cleaned it up and prepared to photograph it that I noticed that the edges opposite the handles looked like a slot and bump that fit in it to form a hinge. Brilliant!
I gave them a good scrubbing with hot soapy water and scrub sponge. To season them, I wiped them down completely with vegetable oil and baked them in a 450-degree oven for 30 minutes. Then, I removed them from the oven and allowed them to cool completely. I repeated this three more times to put a total four coats on over the next couple of days.
My cast iron collection now includes this set and a smaller 10″ skillet I inherited from my father that’s probably about 80 years old, a small dutch oven purchased at a yard sale for $5, and big Lodge 14″ skillet I received new as a gift. I have to say, it’s heavy, but I love cooking in this stuff. I’m gonna see if I can’t ween myself off the teflon for good.
Dining in Vegas
Spinach and Grilled Salmon Salad
There is no shortage of people who are willing to pay a lot for their meals in Las Vegas. That must be the case, because there was no shortage of places charging very high prices for mediocre food. Being a complete Vegas newbie, I didn’t quite know what to expect. I had always heard that everything was cheap in Vegas because they make all their money fleecing the players. I guess that was before the city became a more broadly marketed vacation destination with high-end entertainment, food, art, etc.
Not knowing the ins and outs of eating on the strip, we had our share of over-priced, dull food. But we did have a few outstanding meals. The very first meal we ate after landing and getting settled was at Mon Ami Gabi at Paris, Las Vegas. It included a spinach and salmon salad, artisanal cheeses, frite, and a couple other appetizers that the four of us shared around. Not to mention a really nice bottle of wine. And it was all reasonably priced.
Perfect over-medium eggs and crispy hashbrowns!
Chicken Crepe at Mon Ami Gabi
Having been so lucky on our first, perfectly random selection of a place to eat, we got the idea most places in the nicer resorts would be really good. It was with breakfast in the Wynn the next morning that we started to learn otherwise. And so it went for the next couple days with nothing comparing to that first meal.
We even at dinner “affordably” at the Cuban place on Fremont St. Yes, it was fun and funky and loud, and while the food was priced more appropriately, everthing beyond the opening chips and salsa was somewhat uninspiring.
Our sushi dinner at Japonais before the show (“Love”, which as fantastic, BTW) was pretty good at the price we paid, which was about half off for happy hour. At full price, I would have been disappointed. That goes for the drinks, too.
Finally, on our last morning there, we went back to the frenchie joint, where we had a great breakfast on a beautiful sunny patio while watching the water show across the street at Belagio.
Yes, maybe someday we’ll go back for another show or two. And we’ll be sure to do better job getting the intel on where to eat.
Birthday Dinner
I didn’t manage to get my daily post up last night as I was out for birthday dinner with the family. We then came back home for dessert and enjoyment of presents, which included a bottle of Ridgemont Reserve 1792 bourbon. Get it?
Dinner for six was at Sea Salt in Berkeley. This has been one of our favorite places over the years, and I was certainly looking forward to this return. The menu looked good on this evening, and so we had a bit of trouble figuring out how to approach it. Some in our party wanted to do large plates which are more or less individual entree plates, while I was leaning toward small plates we could all share so we could taste different things. The waiter had to come back a couple times before he could get an order out of us. But then again, he did nothing to help — made no recommendations of dishes or an approach to the menu, and offered no descriptions of anything.
Eventually, we did manage to order a caesar salad and a beet salad to share around, and they were both excellent. The beet salad in particular, had a certain complexity that was interesting, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on what ingredient was responsible. Perhaps it was the Capricious, or the pistachios, or the pickled shallots. Whatever it was, it rocked.
Then everyone ordered large plates. Sarah and Ray had the char, and reported it was very good. Rocky had the cioppino, and reported it was good but not great. Marge had the pan-seared Hawaiian barramundi and enjoyed it immensely. I was stuck on the idea of small plates, and even though I was now the only one, I stayed stuck.
So, I ordered the grilled local squid you see above. It was served with Italian butter beans and arugula, and topped with an almond-basil pesto. Interestingly, when the food arrived, the consensus was that my small plate was nearly as big as the other large plates, and it looked fabulous. And it was good. But it wasn’t transcendent. My chief complaint was that the squid was not really hot — in fact the edge pieces were downright cold — and that it while it had some grill marks, it really didn’t have the oomph of a decent charring that one expects from “grilled”. I know squid can be tricky, but this really would have benefitted from more grill character.
The major problem of the evening, however, was feeding the child. For Theo, we ordered the Masami beef and bacon slider. It looked good and was the perfect size for Theo. Unfortunately, after slathering a bit of the catsup from my side of fries on there, Theo complained that it was too spicy. Sarah tasted it and had a coughing fit. While the catsup turned out to be a bit spicy (I had not really noticed it, honestly), it also turned out that there was something quite spicy on the burger already. When we called the waiter over he said, “Oh is the black pepper aioli too spicy?” He offered to get another one out to us right away sans aioli. Unfortunately, he forgot to actually order that. So, by the time all the rest of us had finished our meal, we were still waiting on Theo’s burger to come out. Obviously, at that point, there was no point. I told the waiter as he was going by to cancel the order, if there in fact was one. I’m not sure what to make of this. Should we have been more inquisitive? Should the menu mention that there is black pepper aioli on the burger? Should the waiter have mentioned it when he saw we were ordering it for a small child? Where ever the fault lies, we had a hungry child at 9 pm. So, he had turkey slices and carrots sticks back at the house while we started on our dessert: rocky’s apple upside-down cake. Yummm!
And we cracked the Ridgemont Reserve 1792 Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. So all was not lost.
Better Late Than Never
One thing leads to another. For example, a business lead leads to a dinner. For example, a dinner at Greens in San Francisco.
I first heard of Greens in the mid-80s. At the time, I was working at Harland’s Restaurant in Fresno, where friend and chef Sheli Stancato was a big fan of the place. I think my recipe for black bean chili passed along by Sheli originates from Greens. Also, I was studying Eastern philosophy in college about this time, and when I had a course on Buddhism we took a field trip to the Zen Center in San Franciso, the organization that built and founded the restaurant. But we didn’t make it to the restaurant. So, it has taken me quite some time to make the pilgrimage.
It was an interesting coincidence. A couple of months ago, a friend and I came to hear an electronic music concert, part of the San Francisco Tape Music Festival, in a theater at Fort Mason. Afterwards, cold and dark as it was, we wandered around the grounds for awhile, I realized that this is where Greens is. I didn’t know, even after living the last ten years in the Bay Area. Then, just a few weeks later, we ended up out at Fort Mason again when friends were visiting from Seattle and staying in the City, and went to see the handful of Exploratorium interactive exhibits installed around Fort Mason. This time, we had a great takeout lunch of sandwiches from Greens.
Finally, Angelo called to say we’re going to dinner and had made reservations at Greens, totally coincidentally. So after years of not being anywhere near the radar screen, Greens serendipitously pulled me into its gravitational field three times in just a few weeks.
Dinner was wonderful. Was it transcendent? Well, not quite, but almost. The wild mushroom ravioli above was fantastic, and very generous, as was everything else our group had. I hope it doesn’t take another 25 years to make it back. Something tells me it won’t.
Duck Paté
Duck pate with chanterelle mushrooms.
Sarah and I attended a fabulously fun wine potluck last night at the home of friends Wendy and John in “lower, lower Piedmont,” which is to say, not Piedmont, and not quite Trestle Glen. Whatever all that means, I don’t know. But the house, and the party, were wonderful. Thanks guys!
I had trouble finding something to make, in part because I spent so much time looking for a great recipe I made for a potluck a couple years back. Frustrated, I finally just decided to make paté, which I often do for wine things. It just works well. Only this time, instead of chicken, I thought I’d make something closer to paté de foie gras, with actual duck liver.
So I braved a shopping trip to North Berkeley’s Hopkins shopping area, despite the fact that the time had slipped late into the busiest part of the shopping day. Parking is notoriously difficult, and navigating the narrow isles of the market is nearly impossible once the place gets busy. But it’s all worth the trouble.
First, I picked up a pound and a quarter of duck livers at one of my favorite food shops, Magnani’s. I thought about getting a hind quarter to throw in as well, but it seemed like it would be too much. And I was interested in getting a pretty smooth result, for which the liver on its own is well suited. Note that these are regular duck livers, not force-fed.
After that, I went to Monterey Market to see what there was mushroom-wise for my concoction. As usual, I ended up with a bunch of stuff I didn’t need, but that I hope we’ll get around to eating this week, like beautiful spring onions and green garlic from Full Belly Farm, and a beautiful organic celeriac. I know, “beautiful celeriac” sounds like a contradiction in terms, but everything’s relative, and this one was surprisingly clean and free of tangled roots, bumps and divots. I checked on the truffles, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to spend $12 on a single small shroom. So, instead I settled on a half pound of California chanterelles.
Finally, I doubled-back into the Country Cheese Coffee Market for no good reason, other than that I can’t pass up a chance to buy some good cheeses. I did hold back this time and picked up only one thing, some wonderful French sheep’s milk feta on sale. And an Americano to go. And a dark chocolate bar. Yumm!
Anyway, after all the recipe hunting and shopping, I went home to start cooking. Once I did, I realized the problem would be that there was not enough to time for the pate to set a good six hours before the party. But it was too late to turn back. So, once it was done I placed it in the freezer for awhile to get it chilled and set. I was worried about it, but it went over quite well and several people asked how to make it. Here was my approach to making this one.
- 1 stick butter, cut up into ½ inch pieces and spread out on a plate and placed in freezer.
In a saucepan place
- 1 or 2 celery tops–about ⅓ of cup worth
- 12 peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cups water or so, enough to cover the livers
Bring to a boil. Turn down to simmer. Add:
- 1.25 lbs duck liver
Simmer gently 10 minutes. Do not overcook.
Heat up a saute pan over medium heat and add:
- 2 Tbl butter
- ½ cup chopped shallots
- 1.5 tsps herb de provence
Saute, stirring, about 5 minutes, then add:
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
Saute another two mintues, add:
- big splash cognac or brandy
Cook for two or three more minutes.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the duck livers to a food processor fitted with the steel blade, discarding everything else in there. Then add the sauteed shallots et al, and:
- 1 tsp salt
- a healthy grinding of black pepper
In the saute pan, melt another:
- 1 Tbl butter
Then add:
- 6-8 oz chanterrelle mushrooms sliced.
Pour into a crock or other container, smooth the top and cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate several hours until it sets and the flavors blend. Remove from fridge and allow to come to room temperature, about 30 minutes, before serving.
Keeping the Flame Alive on Fourth St
We were so excited we started eating before I got the camera out!
Dinner tonight was at Zut! on Fourth St in Berkeley–to celebrate Rocky’s birthday. I’ve lost track of how many restaurants have been in this spot, and while it was, of course, remodeled yet again, Zut! really reminds me of the one that got it all started here: Fourth Street Grill. There appears to be some old wood around the banquette we sat in, and I wonder how much if any of the interior was there when it was the Grill.
Sarah and I were practically kids when we first started coming up from Fresno to visit my cousin Tommy in the Bay Area. Often, Tommy would insist on taking us out to dinner, and often it was Fourth Street Grill to which he would his maniacally maneuver 6 series BMW. It’s been over 20 years since those dinners, so I don’t remember all the food details. But I’m pretty sure that was the first time I had Caesar salad with whole leaves, always perfectly coated with tangy dressing and grated parmesan. Perhaps the I’ve ever had. And wonderful little french fries, and the best roasted chicken ever, and fabulous burgers, and…
Tommy loved, LOVED to share good food with his peeps. Nothing made him happier than to take friends and family somewhere and turn them on to his latest discovery of culinary excellence. There were many other wonderful places we went, but Fourth Street was always high on the list of places to go. Thinking about the satisfaction and excitement he felt whenever we ate together makes me miss him so much, all over again.
Tommy would have been content; tonight’s meal was outstanding. Even before our appetizers arrived, we were all loving the bread, and Theo declared it the best bread EVER. Then came the beet salad with feta and mandarin and mint. Fabulous! Next came a bowl of crispy fried smelt with mayo for dipping. They disappeared almost immediately. Although I have to say that to me they didn’t quite live up to what we often got on our last trip to Greece. But I’m not complaining. They were pretty darn good.
Then our entrees came. Theo had a giant cheeseburger off the kids menu ($10), and since he doesn’t really eat french fries, he had Caesar salad on the side instead. I had to QA it, and while it was not a rival to the old Fourth St Grill Caesar, it was very good. Rocky had seared Ahi with grilled sunchokes, young chickories, treviso, blood orange and dates ($23). It was beautiful, perfectly cooked and ample. Sarah had the halibut with roasted brussel sprouts in lemon, brown butter and capers ($24). Her only complaint was that there was no starch on the plate, but we got a second round of bread to take care of that. She ate every bite on her plate. I had the rotisserie chicken with horseradish mashed potatoes and escarole ($17). It was fabulous. The escarole was perfectly cooked and had just the right acid tang to be the perfect foil for the creamy potatoes. The chicken was very slightly smokey, wonderfully moist and delicious. But it was both whole halves of a poussin! I would have had to eat through the pain to eat it all. I might have, if I didn’t know we were committed to dessert. Instead, I brought half home for lunch tomorrow. Yum!
Finally, for dessert, we shared a couple of things. Chevre cheesecake with gingersnap crust and blood orange. Outrageous! And also mandarin sorbet with Greek frozen yogurt–like the best 50-50 bar you’ll ever experience. And they made a special little chocolate sundae for Theo.
And before I forget, a nice surprise of the evening was the wonderful Greek wine. The 2008 Santorini, Asirtiko/Athiri, Sigalas ($34) was bright with a hint of gravel, had nice fruit, and was perfect with all the food.
All in all, a wonderful evening sharing good food with the family.
Vegetarian Duck Fat Burger
Veggie Burger Mix
We needed a quick and simple dinner. Digging around in the pantry produced a box of veggie burger mix. It wasn’t too exciting but it would meet the criteria, along with the added benefit of reducing the number of forgotten boxes in the pantry by one.
The only question was how much of this stuff to make. The directions gave amounts for making three patties, or six patties. I needed four patties. To hell with it. I’ll mix up the whole thing and just make four big patties.
Once the patties were made, I set about getting ready to fry them up. Got out the pan. Got out the olive oil. Got out the, hey! Wait a minute… Why use olive oil when you can use something magical?
Duck Fat
Yes, that’s right. Duck fat!
I started with a couple of tablespoons of that and threw some onions in. Then I fried the patties in there.
To be perfectly honest, the burgers did not turn out all that great. Making four big patties probably had a lot to do with it. The patties were about 3/4 inch thick, which meant that the outside was getting pretty dark by the time the middle was approaching done. But the real problem I think, is that one can really only eat so much of this dried and reconstituted grainy mix. Even though a 3-inch patty as directed on the box seemed too small in theory, the bigger patties we ended up with were too much in practice.
On a side note, another problem here was the arugula for the burgers. I have basically written off all Trader Joe’s produce, but every once in a while I give in and try again with something like the bags of arugula. This is absolutely the blandest arugula I have ever come across. You may as well just use iceberg lettuce. Really. Not only that, but it only lasts a couple-three days after you get it home, and then it’s on its way to becoming arugula soup, right in the bag.
So, ummm, yeah, the duck fat was about the best thing about it. I should’ve used more.
More Duck Fat
Duck fat fried potatoes - © Neo Serafimidis, All Rights Reserved
It happened again. I came home from work and immediately started on dinner. I decided we’d have potatoes with the healthy turkey sausages. What would it be, baked with just a spot of butter and plenty of salt? Mashed with some 2% milk?
Then I heard it calling my name from the fridge: “neo, put me in the pan… let me lube your spuds… let me caress and envelop your earthy apples.…” That naughty duck fat!
Before I knew it, I was at it:
- peel and slice the pototoes
- steam them for just a few minutes, so they soften up a bit but are still a bit undercooked.
- remove potatoes to a bowl and sprinkle with salt and pepper, and dried Greek oregano, then squeeze a half a lemon or so and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Toss gently to mix and coat being careful not break them up.
- Heat a couple tablespoons duck fat in a big skillet over high heat. throw ’em in. After they release from the initial stick, keep turning to brown as evenly as you can manage.
- Eat them hot and crispy.
Joy then Disappointment
Olives
Although getting last night’s post done kept me up super-late, once I shook off the rich food and wine hangover, I was still totally psyched about meeting Nancy Pelosi last evening, and I was sure it was going to be a great day.
Near the top of my list for the day was to finally harvest olives from Clara’s trees across the street. I spent more than a couple hours on a ladder out there and ended up with a 5-gallon bucket about two-thirds full. And I barely made a dent in the crop. Since the trees are right on Brighton, there were lots of passers-by and I met a couple people who live in the area.
I was very excited to score the olives and couldn’t wait to get to work prepping the and getting them soaking. At home I started sorting through what I had, tossing the sticks and leaves and obviously bad ones. That’s when my joy started to erode into disappointment. I had inspected some pretty closely last week when I went to ask Clara about picking some. They seemed to not be infested with the dreaded olive fly. But now, in my kitchen I could see that the crop was moderately infested. Total drag.
I have been wanting to cure olives for years, and I’ve been waiting for my own young trees to produce enough fruit to make the effort worthwhile. But even the first tiny crops had fly infestations. Now I am ready to totally throw in the towel on curing olives. It is just to much of a pain in the ass.
In the first place, picking olives doesn’t go as fast as one might wish, and there were a couple times I thought I would topple off the not-so-level ladder. Then, when I started sorting and realized that some, maybe 30% looked infested, the sorting and inspection process slowed dramatically. Just image facing a 5-gallon bucket of little nicoise-size olives and checking every single one carefully for signs of entry by fly larvae. God only knows how long it will take just to get through this step. And the result of the step is throwing out a third to half of the crop. And after that is the knowledge that you have surely missed some and will be getting a little extra protein here and there (although, I guess this is just a plain fact about purchased olives too).
So, I’ll sort a couple jars worth and forget the rest. I can use the time saved to get back to other things, like learning jQuery and ASP.NET, or just reminiscing about the time I shook Ms. Pelosi’s hand.