Melon Salad with Chili and Lime

watermelon salad with chili, basil, lime from Sycamore Kitchen

Working in the restaurant industry can be a wonderful thing, especially for someone who loves to cook. Some days can be more inspiring than others, but the love of food and a constant desire to create beautiful things in the kitchen is the twine that holds the front and back of house of the restaurant together every day. Coming to work has been especially exciting and fulfilling since I began working with the talented and Michelin star rated husband and wife culinary team, Karen and Quinn Hatfield.

My work assisting the pair open their newest restaurant, The Sycamore Kitchen–a bakery/café and bakery located in the Fairfax/Miracle Mile area of Los Angeles– gives me the opportunity to work with a team of highly skilled and passionate people who express themselves beautifully through the wholesome and flavorful food they make.

The flavors of the food at The Sycamore Kitchen are approachable, wholesome, and ever so sneaky because you find yourself needing to get more and more of the stuff. You just can’t help yourself. In fact, in just a few weeks the restaurant has been open, Sycamore Kitchen has garnered a dedicated following. Not only do customers drive across town for a Salted Caramel Bobka roll, or the Double BLT sandwich with braised pork belly, they return day after day for savory and sweet favorites with determined gusto.

Even though I’m at the restaurant more than full time, I find myself craving certain dishes frequently. It’s almost haunting, these flavors. The cookies and pastries are constantly on my mind and dishes like Sycamore Kitchen’s heirloom watermelon salad with aleppo pepper and lime make me pace my apartment until I can’t take it anymore and have to go to the store to buy all the ingredients so I can recreate the dish (to the best of my ability) at home.

Why? Because these sublime flavors aren’t something I can get out of my head so easily. Just take one nibble of this spicy, salty, sweet dish and you’ll see what I mean. Continue reading “Melon Salad with Chili and Lime”

Restaurant Stock

I may have started working in restaurants when I was 16 years old, but it wasn’t until much later that I began to learn culinary techniques I could use at home.  I can’t blame my lack of development on anything more than circumstance. I started in a small town in Massachusetts where the best seafood was fried or boiled, every restaurant kitchen had a microwave, hamburgers were unpacked as frozen beef patties, and iceburg was the only lettuce we knew.

Graduating from country club catering and seafood shacks, I began working in restaurants where the people in the kitchen weren’t summer help, the stainless steel counters were clean, knives were sharp, and saute pans and gas ranges cooked every dish to order.

The greatest lessons I’ve learned from the men and women of Los Angeles’ best restaurants is to pay attention to the little things. Simple fundamentals—cooking techniques, tools, and ingredients–create memorable food and extraordinary dining experiences.

One recent discovery came from my restaurant’s former chef, Evan Funke. I was inquiring about the minestrone soup we were serving. The flavors of the broth were so round and full of flavor, I was having a hard time believing the soup was vegetarian.

Chef Evan assured me that the minestrone was one hundred percent vegetarian. “The trick to the flavor,” he said, “is from sweating down onion and garlic, and adding Parmesan rinds to the stock.”

Soon after I decided to try out chef Evan’s trick. Rather than staying with a fully vegetarian stock I used left over vegetable scraps, a chicken carcass, and a tupperware filled with handful of leftover Parmesan ends. What resulted was the most flavorful, golden broth I have ever had the pleasure of making in my kitchen.

What kinds of tricks have you learned along the way that have made all the difference?

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Easy stock
I always make stock the day after I roast a chicken. Now that I’m adding Parmesan rinds to the base of the broth, things are really getting tasty. You don’t need to use chicken or any meat (for that matter) to make tasty stock. The key to making a flavorful stock super is to collect your vegetable scraps over a week’s time,  keep them in the freezer in an airtight container, and add as many rinds of hard cheese as you have!

Frozen vegetable stems, tops, skins (carrots, kale, potato, etc.)
Chicken carcass and bones*
Hardened Parmesan rinds

Place the chicken bones and vegetable stems in a pot. Fill the pot with cold water, just until the chicken and most of the vegetable scraps are covered. Do not fill the pot to the top with water. The less water you use, the more flavorful the stock. Turn to high heat. When the stock comes to a boil, immediately turn down to a simmer. Simmer for at least 45 minutes to an hour. Taste. Season with salt and pepper. Strain and pour into small containers. Let cool. Freeze what you can not use within 3 days.

*Chicken carcass and bones are optional! Remove for a fully vegetarian stock!

 

Lemon Garlic Chicken from Made In America

iPhone photo of Lemon-Garlic Chicken from Chef Michel Richard

When people ask me if I’m available for a dinner date or event, I often have to tell them this: I don’t know. Maybe? It’s not that I’m trying to hedge my bets or play hard to get, but the truth is I never really know. I’m building my business as the Service Coach and I don’t have a set schedule.  Because when you’re a consultant, or are in the business of being of service to people, you really have to be available for your clients–new, current, or recurring–all the time.

So when Lucy Lean asked me to participate in a virtual dinner party to celebrate the release of her gorgeous, must have book MADE IN AMERICA a few weeks back, I knew I was going to be in the thick of working with one of my clients. So rather than bow out, I asked if I could be a virtual late arrival. And so I am.

I chose to cook this Lemon Garlic Roasted Chicken from chef Michel Richard for a handful of different reasons. 1) I wanted to check out a cooking technique for chicken (a modified low and slow method?) 2) It looked the easiest recipe for me to make under tight timing constraints and 3) I admire Chef Michel Richard.

The recipe is quite simple but it does require a bit more time than my usual Zuni chicken method. I liked the results and I can’t wait to cook more from Lucy’s gorgeous book.

Congratulations to Lucy Lean. And thank you so much for welcoming me, even though I’m more than fashionably late!

Lemon garlic chicken from Made in America

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Made in America Lemon-Garlic Roasted Chicken
Give yourself 2 hours for prep and cooking and you’ll be happy with the moist and delicately flavored bird.  Though Lucy doesn’t say to, I recommend using the lemon-infused onions and garlic cloves as a garnish for the chicken.

2 onions, sliced
20 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
one free-range chicken (about 4 lbs)
2 lemons cut in half, plus an additional 1/2 lemon
1 branch of fresh thyme
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped, fresh flat-leaf parsley
S&P

  1. Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 300°F.
  2. Cover the bottom of a roasting pan with the onion slices and garlic cloves.
  3. Rinse the chicken under cold water inside and out. Drain and thoroughly pat dry with paper towels. Lightly season the cavity with salt and pepper. Stuff with thyme and four of the lemon halves. Place the chicken in the roasting pan, season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with olive oil.
  4. Roast in the middle of the oven for 1 hour. After an hour, remove the chicken from the oven and increase the heat to 450°F. When this temperature is reached, return the chicken to the oven and roast until golden and crisp. [NOTE: This may take more than 30 minutes, depending on the size of your bird]. The chicken is cooked when a fork inserted into the thigh releases clear juices [or the internal temperature of the bird reaches 165°F.].
  5. Remove the chicken from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. Remove the lemon halves from the cavity.
  6. Slice up the chicken to serve. Squeeze the juice of the uncooked, remaining lemon over the chicken and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
  7. Transfer the onion, garlic, and liquid from the roasting pan to a sauté pan and bring to a boil. Add half a cup of water to the pan, mix well, and return to a boil. Strain and serve the liquid as a gravy with the chicken.

 

Kitchen Love Letters

A wonderful thing happened. My husband started cooking.

The change came about a month ago. It began with breakfast. While I dressed for work he’d slip into the kitchen and brew a pot of our favorite organic coffee and construct a delicate egg white omelet with spinach and goat cheese. When I emerged from the whir of my early morning rituals—hair drying, make up application, multiple outfit changes—I’d find a folded cloth napkin, a perfectly doctored coffee, and a plate of comforting food waiting for me. On mornings when our window of time together was brief, he’d surprise me with a thick slice of bread dripping with melted butter and apricot jelly. I barely had time to notice he had perfected the careful balance of sweet and savory in the fruit smoothies he’d slip to me as I headed out the door.

I started to see a pattern of culinary devotion as he began adding lunches to his repertoire. Rather than visit our usual neighborhood lunch spot, he’d serve us decadent open-faced turkey burgers he grilled that were draped in a blanket of melted cheese or a thick slice of over-ripe persimmon. He’d peel an orange and have it waiting for us when we found ourselves at that inevitable point of the meal when we started to crave something sweet.

Then came dinners. I marveled at his grilled fish on a bed of Israeli couscous with thinly sliced lemons. On another night, he sautéed perfect squares of halibut with a spiced rub and a spicy yogurt sauce with fresh mint. Then there was the time he roasted a whole bird he bought at the farmers market with muddled fennel seeds and thyme.

After those meals his kisses never tasted sweeter.

With my husband at the helm of our kitchen, I’ve begun to relish the stacks of dirty mixing bowls or the skillet that needs a good soak. Because with every food-stained plate comes a piece of the story of what he learned in the kitchen.

I didn’t think it was possible, but every culinary tale makes me love him a little more. Continue reading “Kitchen Love Letters”

Strawberry Rhubarb Compote with Pistachios

strawberry rhubarb compote with pistachios
Strawberry Rhubarb Compote with Pistachios

Some words carry flavor. Speak aloud the familiar syllables of coffee, chocolate or toast, and the brain fires memories of taste. Flash: a steaming cup of Sumatra, soft and gently acidic washes over your tongue. Your first taste of waxy chocolate Easter bunny as it melted in your mouth. Fresh baked bread, made golden from the heat of a toaster, on a cold winter day.

When I speak the words strawberry and rhubarb, I am given a crystalline remembrance with my grandmother. It’s a summer’s day in the 1980’s. I’m in my Grandmother’s tiny kitchen and staring at a pie she’s placed atop her ancient, four-legged cast iron stove to cool.

“It’s strawberry rhubarb pie,” she tells me. She slices into the golden pie crust and it falls away to expose a pink heart of strawberries and softened rhubarb. I take a bite—it’s the first time I’ve ever tasted these two flavors together—and I am struck by the sweet, earthy flavors of strawberry and tart-like-a-lemon rhubarb. The flavors are complex, almost too adult for me, were it not for all the enticing sugar.

“This is rhubarb?” I say to her, knowing the look of the plant from hours of playing make-believe in our family garden. The stalks of the plant resemble celery and the rough green canopy of leaves grow high enough to make a perfect hiding place for me—a child of five or six–from the sun.

I enjoy another bite of memory and it’s gone.

Though my interest was piqued to recreate Grammie’s strawberry rhubarb pie in my own kitchen, my desire for simplicity got the best of me. Rather than make a crisp (I’m always looking for ways around making a pie crust from scratch), I settled on modifying a recipe for a rhubarb and pistachio compote my friend Louisa Shafia created for her cookbook, Lucid Food.

Continue for an easy, no-bake Strawberry Rhubarb Recipe »

A Healthy Granola Recipe = A Virtual Hug

I’ve been thinking a lot about a very special person in my life that’s about three thousands miles away from a great big hug I desperately need to give her. Bleak hours are the time for embraces, warm cups of tea, soft blankets, silly smiles, and gentle kisses. But my beloved friend is back home on the east coast, in a difficult bog that is so deep and wide I can feel its ripples hit the Pacific.

Since my life is built around food and its comforting pleasures, the one thing I long to do is cook a warm and satisfying meal for her. No shipping container can hold the moment of making a meal together. But a well-made care package that’s filled with healthy and tasty treats may be just the thing that I can do to offer some much-needed sustenance. Perhaps just a handful of happiness.

In hopes of finding a healthy recipe for a mail-friendly package, I turned to one of my new favorite cookbooks: Lucid Food. The author, Louisa Shafia, is a chef and caterer based in New York City; her cookbook is filled with recipes that celebrate the seasons and the idea that food should be sustainable for the planet and our bodies.

Continue for The Best Granola Recipe Ever »

Goodbye to the 'Naughts

new years morning breakfast

This first decade of the new century has been a doozy. In just ten years, life stories have been written and re-written by time, chance, good fortune, and circumstance. These first ten years have been marked wonderful little moments, joyful surprises, and gut wrenching incidents. There have been great meals, new flavors, old recipes, new techniques, and great innovations for the kitchen.

In this decade I have photographed more food than faces.

Continue to Read More New Year’s Wishes, Find Hangover Cures and Chef Resolutions »

Delicata Squash with Browned Butter and Sage Recipe

delicata squash recipe

One of the best things about being a gastronome and a restaurant professional at an award winning restaurant is that my work environment is a constant source of inspiration. Some of the dishes we serve at the Osteria are incredibly complicated and require hours to prepare. Other menu items are based on grandmother’s traditional recipes. The simple, classic dishes that haunt me the most. They compel me to tear off my waiter’s uniform, get into my home kitchen, and cook.

A new contorni (that’s Italian for side dish) went onto the menu last week. Ever since that first pre-shift bite of the buttery sweet squash with browned butter and sage, I’ve been obsessed with the need to figure out how to duplicate those warm, sweet flavors.

Lucky for me and my culinary obsessions, the Delicata squash contorni is a rather simple one to make, and requires only basic cooking techniques.

Continue Reading for a Delicious Delicata Squash with Browned Butter and Sage Recipe! »

A Seafood Recipe–Inspired by an International Fish Market

fish at IMP, Los Angeles

The alarm went off at 6 AM—an uncharacteristically early wake up call for someone who waits tables past midnight. Eyes hazy from a lack of sleep, I stepped into the warm shower with dreamy thoughts of an early visit to an unfamiliar downtown market. Soon there would be coffee. And fish. Lots of fish.

International Marine Products

The day started early at International Marine Products (IMP), a small but world-class fish market open to restaurant professionals only. On the fringe of downtown Los Angeles, chefs from LA restaurants don hairnets or baseball hats while perusing the diverse selection of ice packed fish, mollusks, and shellfish.

brian and bass

Continue Razor Clam recipe »

Thank you, Shelia Lukins


The New Basics Cookbook was the first cookbook I ever bought. The year was 1993 and I was a fish-eating vegetarian (I didn’t know the word pescatarian yet) in search of a way to eat good food on a tight budget. Up to that point I was a ramen noodle, brown rice, stir fry and salad eater with an untouched Mollie Katzen vegetarian cookbook on the shelf.

But when I first saw Julie Rosso and Shelia Lukins’ The New Basics Cookbook, I recall thinking (with much remorse) that I was late in joining the gourmet food revolution. The cookbook’s unfamiliar cooking techniques and recipes made me want to get in my kitchen, start cooking, and catch up. Pronto.

The simplicity and playfulness of Lukins’ illustrations were beguiling—like a picture book for a child–and distracted me from my fear of learning something so new and unfamiliar. With Lukins and Rosso’s help, I started simply. I bought olive oil and fresh herbs. I roasted whole heads of garlic. I made fresh pesto. I chopped tomatoes and onions and made something called gazpacho. I cooked down eggplant and peppers for eggplant caviar. I watched in awe as my blender turned egg yolk and olive oil into aioli. With my new found culinary skill, I scoffed at store bought mayonnaise. For the first time in my life, I was using familiar ingredients in strange new ways.

The New Basics introduced me to new ingredients like watercress, fresh dill, and catfish; these were inexpensive items I could afford to experiment with. I learned how to make challa bread pudding with a whiskey sauce and oven roasted catfish with a a lemon dill sauce. I cooked these two dishes again and again until I could prepare them from start to finish from memory. For years, these were my go-to entree and dessert choices for every special occasion.



When Shelia Lukins stopped in for a meal at Pizzeria Mozza last year, I recognized her the moment she walked in the door. My heart rate whizzed as I watched the manager sit the author of my dog-eared cookbook at a table in my section. “Do you know who that is?” I said, as the manager walked past, nonplussed. I scurried to the back kitchen to find Nancy Silverton (my boss) and told her of Lukins’ arrival. Nancy’s eyes went wide and it took only moments for her to reassign her cooking duties so that she could join Lukins at her table. The pair embraced and shared food stories over plates of pizza and antipasti.

When I learned that Shelia Lukins died this week from brain cancer, I was stopped cold by the news. Lukins was my first teacher in the kitchen. Her words, basic instructions, and illustrations set me on my path. Her recipes intrigued me and guided me through a culinary infancy. Lukins’ legacy may not be as flashy as a Food Network chef, but like Julia Child, she was a cookbook author with abilities and recipes that changed the way people thought about food.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to meet Lukins. Though she may have thought the server standing before her was simply offering a perfunctory thank you as she got up to leave, my parting thank you meant so much more than that. In actuality, my thank you was for inspiring me to get into the kitchen and learn more about food.

Thanks again, Sheila. You changed my life for the better.

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Reddened Catfish with Lime Watercress Aioli
From The New Basics Cookbook, Sheila Lukins and Julee Russo

For the Lime Watercress Aioli
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup minced watercress leaves (or leftover greens)
1/4 cup chopped scallions
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp grated lime zest

1. Blend the egg yolk, watercress, scallions, lime juice, mustard, salt, and pepper in a food processor or blender until smooth.

2. With the machine running, slowly add the oil in a thin stream. Blend until the sauce is thick and smooth. Transfer to a bowl and stir in lime zest. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the Reddened Catfish

1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 tbsp lemon zest
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp Kosher salt
1 tsp dried red pepper flakes
1/4 cup half-and-half
1 egg
1/4 tsp sugar
6 catfish fillets (about 3.5 ounces each), skinned
1 cup lime watercress sauce

1. Preheat oven to 450F. Grease baking sheet and set aside.
2. Toss the bread crumbs with lemon zest and herbs on a plate. In a shallow bowl, lightly beat the half and half with the egg and sugar.
3. Dip the filets one at a time into the batter mixture and then the crumbs.
4. Arrange the fish on the baking sheet and bake until sizzling and cooked through, about 12 minutes. Serve immediately with the sauce.

An improvised recipe for Maryland Crab soup


(Photo credit: from Diane at White on Rice)

There’s something really beautiful about having the confidence and skill to improvise. Musicians do it when they see beyond the black notes on a chart and close their eyes to jam. It’s the same with creating something impromptu in the kitchen; it comes when the cook understands more than just the basic chemistry of cooking and ratios and starts to feel their way into a never-before-created dish.

Like a musician that can hear a tune unwind in their head, a chef must be able to cook and taste a dish before ever slicing into product or turning on the stove. The day I cooked crab soup from beginning to end without ever boiling a pot of water, was the day I realized I had started to think like a chef.

Take me to the bridge!

I have my friend Chef Brian—sous chef of Hatfield’s restaurant–to thank for my recent transformation. Over the past year he’s taken me under his wing, described the way he creates dishes and has talked me through the way prepares every ingredient. Thanks to his willingness to share culinary secrets, he’s given me information that can only learned by spending thousands of hours in the kitchen.

I recently invited a handful of my very best culinary friends to our Los Angeles apartment for a night of eating. I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate our love of food than with a casual dinner that celebrated the bounty of California’s farmers’ market featuring freshly caught Santa Barbara crab. With the Hungry Cat Crab Fest–one of my favorite LA dining events–as inspiration, I began to put together my menu.

Standing in the Hollywood Farmer’s Market I saw it all so clearly. I would serve a multi course dinner, starting with a cucumber and lime cocktail. I’d begin with a savory fruit salad (Suzanne Goin style), follow it with a Maryland-style crab soup and corn bread, and finale with a huge Santa Barbara rock crab, mallets and plenty of corn on the cob. I felt confident about the salad and the simple boiling of the crab and ears of corn–but the soup was a different matter completely.

I didn’t have a recipe, nor any hope of finding one. I asked my boss (Suzanne Goin herself) if she had a copy of her husband—Chef David Lentz‘s—soup recipe but she didn’t. Oddly confident I thought, I can figure this out.

I began to doubt my abilities the moment after I had navigated through the crowded Hollywood Farmers Market with bags stuffed full of fresh produce and angry Santa Barbara crabs. Suddenly my mind was flooded with an imagined future of disappointed food bloggers politely eating a watery crab soup.


Just as I was at my lowest low, the culinary gods smiled upon me as I stumbled across the path of smiling Chef Brian—a Maryland native and crab expert.

“My god,” I gasped. “Can you tell me how to make crab soup?”

With my hands occupied with heavy sacks, he ran down the basic procedures of preparing a Maryland crab soup. Unable to take notes, I visualized the cooking of the crab, the messy job of pulling out the crustacean’s sweet meat, the sautéing of the shells and cooking the bodies down with mirepoix to create a rich stock. I saw it all as I repeated the steps all over again at the stove. Thanks to Brian’s advice and my newfound confidence, the soup was a huge success.

Like a family recipe that is shared through generations, this soup is created by feel and instinct. I offer you the recipe here, as it was described to me at the Hollywood Farmer’s market.

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An Improvised Maryland Crab Soup
As shared by Brian Best, Hatfield’s Restaurant

4 large Santa Barbara Crabs
1 large bunch of carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large bunch of celery, chopped
3 large onions, chopped
6 ears of corn
fingerling potatoes (1-2 pounds), peeled and chopped into small pieces
2 small cans of tomato paste
2 dried ancho chili
2-3 tbl Harissa from a tube
Vegetable oil for cooking
Olive oil for cooking
enough water to cover the crabs
left over vegetable scraps or herbs

Crabs should be alive before you cook them. Leave crabs in the coolest section of the refrigerator until you are ready to cook them. Putting them in the freezer for 10 minutes before you cook them will make the cooking process less difficult for the crabs (and you).

Fill a large pot with water. Bring the water to a boil. Add the crab one at a time to make sure they are fully submerged in the water. Cook separately if necessary. Depending on the size of the crab, cook for 12-15 minutes but no more. Remove the crab from the water, let cool. Reserve the cooking liquid if possible.

Cover your worktable with newspapers. This is going to be messy. Using a mallet, hammer, or crackers, break the claws to reveal meat. Using chopsticks or picks, remove the meat. Put crab meat in one bowl and the shells in another. Rinse crab’s top shell of the dark internal liquid, as this juice will make the soup bitter. Break down the top shell with a hammer.

Using the same large pot, heat pot over high heat with a little vegetable oil. Add an acho chili or two, the crab shells and pieces. Stir crab shells frequently, making sure to heat all the shells evenly. The crab shells should start to smell of the sea, about 10-15 minutes.

In a separate pan, add half of chopped onion, carrot and celery to a hot pan with olive oil. Sautee down until the mirepoix ingredients begin to soften. Add to the sautéing crab shells. Add herbs and any vegetable scraps you may have. Add cooking liquid or water to the crab shells, being careful to add just enough to cover the shells. Simmer on stove for an hour. Taste. Drain the crab stock with the finest sieve you have. Cook down the stock for 30 minutes to an hour.

In your sautee pan, cook down the remaining mirepoix ingredients until soft. Add softened mirepoix and potatoes to stock. Remove the corn from the cob and add to stock. Add tomato paste, stir to dissolve. Add crab meat. Cook down for 30-60 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Add Harrissa if you desire more spice. Serve immediately or freeze.

Serve with cornbread.

Chef Suzanne Goin’s Savory Fruit Salad Recipe

recipe inspired by Suzanne GoinI love eating salads, don’t get me wrong. But when it comes to eating out, I skip the leafy greens for the instant gratification of ordering a complex entrée that takes just minutes to come to the table, rather than hours of preparation at home. When I go out I want to have fun. When I’m home I want to keep it simple.

Once outside of the restaurant–be it the one I’m working for or dining at as a customer–I find myself craving simple dishes. I long for perfectly composed salads and uncomplicated appetizers that I see service after service as I wait tables at Tavern.

Thanks to my job as a server for Nancy Silverton, I craved Italian antipasti for years. But now that I work at a new restaurant, I find my cravings are colored by the seasonal whims of my new boss, Chef Suzanne Goin. Her food is rustic, Provencal and thoroughly inspired by the market. Go to the market and it becomes clear why a warmed heirloom tomato, a crisp plum, the lingering flavors of a basil stem could inspire entire dishes on Suzanne’s menu. Her dishes reflect California’s bounty and an unabated passion for great ingredients.

A recent culinary revelation was recently delivered to me via a white plate at pre-service (a daily meeting before dinner service begins). Suzanne described the dish as a fruit salad. More savory than sweet, one perfectly balanced bite made it was clear this was no ordinary fruit salad. Suzanne’s greens were lightly tossed with vinaigrette—ingeniously made with left over basil stems and not-so-perfect plum pieces—and studded with just ripe stone fruits and Marcona almonds.

I’ve been craving it every since. This is my interpretation of her recipe, as prepared for my friends on a recent hot summer’s day. I omitted the nuts, but you can add those back in.

[print_link]Suzanne’s Fruit Salad

1 large bag of mixed greens
1 head of radicchio
1 head of frisee
3 large plums, dark purple and heavy with juice
2 large peaches
2 large nectarines
2 small Geo plums (or a tart, crisp varietal)
1 small bunch of grapes
4 branches of thyme
2 branches of basil
3 oz. red wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 small tangerine, juiced
salt and pepper

To prepare the plum vinaigrette:

Staying close to the seed, slice the stone fruit so that you have two perfect rounds per fruit. Slice the fruit “cheeks” into consistent sized slices. Set aside.

Cut the remaining fruit off the seed of each fruit, being careful to save the uneven pieces for the vinaigrette. Place the random pieces into mortar and crush, being careful to extract as much fruit juice as possible. Put the pulpy juice into a small bowl and add the olive oil, vinegar and tangerine juice. Remove the basil and thyme leaves from the stem. Muddle the herbs’ leaves and the basil stem in a mortar and pestle. Add to the vinaigrette, stir and taste. Add salt and pepper. Taste for balance. Add more acidity (in the form of more red wine vinegar or lemon juice) or seasoning if needed. Put in a jar and let sit for a few minutes. When ready to toss the salad, remove the basil stems.

To prepare the salad:

Chop the radicchio into small slices. Chop the bottom off the frisee and pull apart into individual pieces. Toss the radicchio and frisee into the greens. Toss the fruit with some of the plum vinaigrette in a separate bowl. When ready to serve, toss the greens with the plum vinaigrette, using the least amount necessary.

To compose the salad, place a heaping tablespoon of dressed fruit on a chilled plate, then top with greens. Add pieces of the fruit on top, being sure to drizzle some of the juice over the top of the final salad.

Market Vegetables with Meyer Lemon Cream Recipe

As a food lover, working at a restaurant can be a wonderful and cruel thing. You’re surrounded by food and required never to take a bite. You may be hungry but there’s no time to eat (and the last thing the kitchen wants to do is make an employee a meal). Working in restaurants is like being stranded on the ocean in a dingy: You’re surrounded by a beautiful, beguiling thing that you can not consume.

The fact that I handle plates of beautifully crafted appetizers, sculpted entrees and arousing desserts on a nightly basis may have something to do with my obsession to recreate the chef’s dishes at home. And honestly, not eating and being surrounded by food begins to get to you. Especially when you’re so hungry you could eat your own hand.

One dish that’s saved me from nibbling off a pinky for sustenance is a market vegetable dish inspired by my new boss, Chef Suzanne Goin. Goin’s appetizer of market vegetables with Meyer Lemon cream and “burrata” is truly something to behold and a dish I’ve been pushing–I mean suggesting–to guests ever since Tavern Restaurant opened several weeks ago.

The dish is a beautiful combination of colorful blanched vegetables that have been tossed in a light citrus cream and finished with one of the world’s most decadent forms of mozzarella. It’s a celebration of all that is available at our farmers’ markets in one mouthwatering dish that is incredibly easy to prepare and, if done right, is a real scene-stealer.

Market Vegetables with Burrata and Meyer Lemon creamLet the market guide you to the ingredients for this celebration of the season’s freshest vegetables. Let freshness and diverse colors inspire your choices in vegetables! Also, don’t go too heavy on one ingredient and try to pick equal portions.

¾ lb baby carrots (small, fresh and straight from the market), washed and scrubbed
½ lb English snap peas
¼ lb pea tendrils
1 head of cauliflower, stock removed and cut into uniformed florettes
1 small head of purple cauliflower, stock removed and cut into uniformed florettes
¾ lb baby zucchini or baby squash, rinsed well
1 bunch of pencil thin asparagus, cleaned and cut into equal 2-inch pieces.
2 balls of burrata (this California- or Italian-made cream-filled mozzarella is available at specialty cheese stores or Whole Foods’ cheese counter)
Salt (kosher and Maldon) and pepper to taste
2 Meyer lemons (thinly sliced)
Meyer lemon cream (recipe below)
*optional flourishes: flowering chive or fennel fronds

Fill a large pot (preferably a pasta pot with a pasta strainer) with cold water. Add enough kosher salt to give the water a slightly salty taste. Bring water to a rolling boil.

When the water is at a full boil, prepare a large metal mixing bowl with ice water. Fill bowl with ice cubes and just enough water to cover the ice.

In separate batches—one vegetable group at a time–blanch the vegetables. Make sure not to add too many vegetables at one time in order to maintain a rolling boil. Cook the vegetables briefly—1-4 minutes depending—making sure they maintain their structure and become just tender. Feel free to test the cooking time early by sampling a vegetable for taste and texture. When the vegetable is just cooked, immediately remove them from the hot water with strainer and plunge them into ice water bath to stop the cooking process. The ice bath will set the vegetables’ bright color.

Remove vegetables with strainer from the ice water as soon as they are cool to the touch. Put the blanched vegetables on a paper towel-covered sheet tray to dry. Repeat process with all remaining vegetables.

Toss the vegetables with enough Meyer lemon cream to coat everything. Add Meyer lemon slices and toss again. Taste for seasoning. Squeeze more lemon over the salad if necessary. Tear pieces of burrata into the salad and serve immediately.

For the Meyer Lemon Cream
From Suzanne Goin’s Sunday Supper at Lucques

2 tbsp finely diced shallot
¼ cup Meyer lemon juice
½ cup plust 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup plus 1 tbsp heavy cream
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Add the shallot, lemon juice and ¼ teaspoon of salt in a bowl and let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk in olive oil. Then, gently stir in cream, being sure to add a few grinds of pepper to taste.

Think Like A Chef: Quinn Hatfield

cake tester from Quinn Hatfield

I’m lucky to have chefs for friends. It’s one of my most favorite benefits of working in the restaurant business. Not only are professional cooks really entertaining to hang out with* they also are invaluable resources when it comes to anything culinary. And, if you ask nicely and aren’t afraid to embarrass yourself, chefs have lots of great insights on cooking techniques, recipes and how to improve your performance in your home kitchen.

Chef Technique

mise 1

In order to cook like a chef you have to think like one. In a professional kitchen, cooking isn’t done on a whim. Everything is thought out in advance and prep–small tasks like shelling beans, peeling potatoes and making stock–is done before the first diner ever walks through the restaurant’s front door. The chaos of a busy kitchen is powerful enough to ruin any chef–regardless of their training and stature–if they haven’t properly organized, planned and maintained great technique.

Thanks to several recent off-the-clock visits with the chefs of Hatfield’s restaurant, I’ve been able to pick up a lot of great ideas I frequently use at home. Beyond learning about the best inexpensive kitchen tools, I’ve also been able to pick up some key cooking techniques. The following recipe is a great example of how learning an invaluable and time-tested cooking technique can make cooking at home so much easier.

Thanks to the generous guidance of my Michelin starred chef friend, Quinn Hatfield, I now am pretty certain how he makes Alaskan halibut taste so good. This recipe is a slightly modified version of a dish I recently tasted Hatfield’s.

Alaskan Halibut can be sublimely sophisticated when good planning, preparation and technique are employed. Advanced prep is the key to creating this elegant entree without ever breaking a sweat.

Before you start, read the recipe through from beginning to end

Rather than cook as you go, think about meal preparation as a two part process: prep and then cooking. Preparing dish elements in advance is an adjustment, but with all the chopping and complicated busy work taken care of in advance, there’s a lot less stress in the kitchen at dinner hour.

Hatfield's at Home

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Crusted Alaskan Halibut with Shrimp Mousseline and Spring Vegetables**
Makes 4For the fish:
4-6 oz. halibut fillets with skin removed (Check for pin bones. Remove with tweezers, if necessary)
1 small loaf of brioche (to be frozen in advance of prep)
shrimp mousseline (see ingredient list below)
parsley butter (see ingredient list below)
Maldon sea salt

for shrimp mousseline
8 medium to large shrimp, with shells removed and de-veined
¼ cup heavy cream
1 small clove of garlic

for parsley butter
6 tbsp of butter, room temperature
¼ (heaping) cup of parsley leaves (removed from stem)
1 small clove of garlic
salt and pepper

Spring vegetables

3/4 lb of mixed spring vegetables (baby carrots, baby zucchini, baby pattipan squash)
6 sprigs of thyme
4 tbsp butter or olive oil
salt and pepper
Maldon sea salt

Tools needed: metal cake tester, wax paper, pastry brush, steamer, mini-Cuisinart (or blender), mandoline (inexpensive plastic version can be found at Asian markets or at cooking stores like this.

Mise-en-place (can be done several hours in advance):

Cut brioche in half. Freeze the bottom half and save the rest for another use. When the bread is completely frozen, remove the crust and slice the bread into rectangular strips that mirror the shape of the fish fillets. Keep in mind you will only need to slice enough bread to create a single layered “crust” for each fillet. Slices should be no thicker than 1/8th of an inch. Line a sheet tray with a sheet of wax paper then add the brioche in a single layer. Cover with clear plastic and refrigerate.

To make the mousseline:
Place the cleaned shrimp, cream and garlic in the bowl of a mini Cuisinart. Purée until mixture is thick like a paste. Remove from bowl with a spatula and refrigerate in a covered container.

To make the parsley butter

Clean the Cuisinart’s bowl. Add butter, picked parsley leaves and garlic. Purée until smooth. Temper the butter over a low heat in a small saucepan or non-stick pan. When tempered, remove the brioche slices from the refrigerator. Spread parsley butter onto one side of bread. Flip the bread (butter side down) on the wax paper. Save remaining scallion butter for bruschetta or buttering bread.

Fish prep:

Spread a thin layer of mousse on the fish with the back of a spoon. When finished, salt and pepper both sides of the fish. Using the shrimp purée as a sort of glue, flip the fish (mousseline side down) onto the unbuttered side of the brioche bread.Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready.

composing the fish

45 minutes before serving time:

Remove sheet tray with prepped fish. Carefully flip the fish so that the wax paper is top side up. Cut around the wax paper so that each fish has wax paper covering its bread crust.

Add several inches worth of water to a pasta/vegetable steamer. When steamer has begun producing steam add the prepared fish, keeping the covered crust facing up. Do not crowd the fish. Crack the lid with a spoon, making sure the lid is tilted at an angle—otherwise the condensation will make the bread soggy.

Let the fish steam for 20 minutes. Carefully remove one piece of fish with a spatula. Using the cake tester to check the done-ness of the fish, insert the thin metal pick into the fish horizontally so that the tester hits each of the fish’s internal segments. If you feel the ping-ping-ping of the connective tissue, the fish will need more time to cook. Return to steamer. When the cooking is complete, the connective tissue will be buttery smooth and can not be perceived by the cake tester method.

Meanwhile, heat a small sauté pan over a medium heat. Add butter and, when melted, add the spring vegetables (if cooking carrots, add first before softer vegetables). Sauté until just soft. Add a sprinkling of thyme, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust for seasoning and cooking temperature. Remove vegetables.

When fish is finished steaming, add a generous tablespoon of butter to the warm sauté pan. When the butter has melted, carefully add one or two of the fish fillets (breading side down) to the pan. The point here is to quickly brown the bread, no more than 30 seconds to a minute. Carefully remove the fish and place on a warmed plate. Repeat with the other two fillets.

Spoon vegetables on the side of the warmed plates. Sprinkle the fish with Maldon sea salt and serve.

Should you decide to host a dinner party and skip going out for dinner altogether (despite the fact that there are plenty of restaurants out there willing to slash prices to get you in the door), this Alaskan Halibut is an excellent choice for maintaining calm in the kitchen as your guests arrive.

*Chefs are like pirates: they like danger, work odd hours, enjoy free time with an undeniable vigor, have fascinating stories to share and fire and sharp steel are their friends.

**This photo shows this dish made with Fregola sarda (a round pasta that resembles cous cous). I chose not to include prep for the pasta so as not to overwhelm!

April Fool In the Kitchen

Butter Lettuce salad

Ask any of my friends and they’ll tell you I can’t lie. At least, I don’t have the skill to lie and get away with it. If there’s a practical joke being played on someone, I want to scurry over and give away the punch line before things get embarrassing.

Being an odd little kid on the playground (read: future writer) probably has a lot to do with my aversion to “little white lies“, bending the truth and practical jokes. The whole business twists up my insides and makes me feel down-to-the-core wrong. Which is why I am NOT posting an April Fool’s recipe. I’d rather contribute to keeping it real on April Fools day and avoid all the pranksters.

I offer you this beautiful, mouth pleasing butter lettuce salad that is perfect for staying indoors, eating healthy and avoiding the truth-bending fools.

This dish was inspired by a beautifully textured salad I had at David Lentz and Suzanne Goin’s Los Angeles restaurant, Hungry Cat. The mixture of market fresh ingredients and shirred eggs give this salad so much flavor and mouth-feel I’ve found myself thinking about skipping a main course and ordering another salad. Which I never do, because their entrees are way too good to ignore, but…

Turns out, making this salad at home is so easy and satisfying I really don’t need to eat anything else with it. I’ve modified this recipe for maximizing health benefits. If you don’t have a problem with cholesterol, feel free to leave the yolks in the hard boiled eggs.

Butter Lettuce salad

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Market Lettuce Salad with Shirred Eggs
Inspired by a dish at The Hungry Cat, Los Angeles

1 head of butter leaf lettuce (red leaf lettuce can be substituted)
3 radish, thinly sliced (use a mandoline for precision. The little radish tops will protect your fingers!)
4 tbsp flax seed oil
1 lime, cut in half for juicing
2 eggs, hard-boiled with yolks removed
salt (regular and Maldon) and pepper

Put 2 eggs in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then cover, turning off the heat. Let sit for 10-15 minutes and then drain and immerse in cold water. Remove shell of egg and yolks.

Meanwhile, pull apart the leaves of the lettuce. Wash the leaves well (immerse in water or rinse under faucet for several minutes) and spin to dry. Put the lettuce and radish in a big salad bowl and season dried leaves with a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Drizzle with flax seed oil and, using hands or wooden spoons, toss gently to coat the leaves with oil. Squeeze half the lime over the lettuce. Taste a saturated leaf. Squeeze more lime juice over salad if it needs more acidity. Taste again, adjust for flavor.

Using a cheese grater, shirr the eggs (grate the egg white) onto the salad. Plate, finish with a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt and serve.

A Beet Recipe for My Mother

beets

I became mortal last week. One phone call and one letter took away that lingering innocence of youth and reminded me that no one, not even myself, can live forever. Here, in the center of my being, is the undeniable understanding that every moment we have is precious; every morsel of food is important; and nothing is to be overlooked.

The phone call was from my mother. She just got the news that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Then, in what felt like seconds later, I received a letter from my doctor. My blood tests came back abnormal. I have high cholesterol.

The news effected me in unexpected ways. When I spoke with my mother, I found zen-like calm, hope and positivity for my mother’s recovery. I felt oddly at peace, without fear and satisfied with the idea that we will find a treatment that will heal her. And then, in the privacy of my own home, I openly mourned the loss of bacon in my life.

Goodbye Guanciale

My off-the chart 250 cholesterol number on the doctor’s letter read like a foodie death sentence. The letter suggested in detail I “replace butter with olive and canola oil…Replace red meat with fish, poultry and tofu…Limit foods with high cholesterol.”

I started freaking out. No more fearless consumption of fennel sausage pizza at midnight? No more bacon draped hamburgers for lunch? No chicken liver bruschettas as a quick mid-day snack? What about those yolk-dripping bacon and egg sandwiches I love so much? No more gobbling up the frosting-heavy corner piece of birthday cake?

I paced my apartment. I was a vegetarian once. I could do it again, right? But now that I know what I know, how could I turn my fork away from all those great foods I’ve come to love and build my whole life around?

The cure for cancer

It’s been days since we received her first diagnosis. There’s still so much we need to find out. But in the meantime my mother and our collective family have been doing our share of internet research. My mother doesn’t care much for “traditional” medicine. She fears the mainstream medical line of thinking and clings to the old ways of healing.

My mother says she can cure herself of cancer with the power of raw food. She says that with lots of whole grains, flax seed oil and raw fruits and vegetables she can bring healing to her body without the use of chemo. There are other people—beautiful young and thriving people like Kris Carr of crazy sexy life–who say such things are possible.

The idea of clean living through a wholesome, locally sourced diet of fresh fruit and vegetables makes sense to me. I’ve seen the awesome power of food. The farmers’ market is my church. But what I don’t understand is HOW raw food can heal cancer. Is the cancer that my mother has responsive to such dietary changes? Will she need other helping factors to make the cancer go away? Will she need estrogen therapy? Chemo?

These are questions that will take time to answer. There’s still so much to learn. In the meantime, I offer this recipe for my mother. Because it’s her favorite dish from when she visited Pizzeria Mozza. And she asked for it.

Mom: I know this isn’t a raw dish. But I did find a way to incorporate some flax seed oil and the flavors of the beets make me feel so alive. I know it will do good things–for both of us.

beets

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Beets in Horseradish
Inspired by a dish at Pizzeria Mozza
Makes 2 servings

1 small bunch of baby beets (golf ball sized)
1 tbsp flax seed oil
1 tbsp fresh horseradish
2 tsp white wine or champagne vinegar
1 tsp Dijon or whole grain mustard
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 425º. Rinse beets well, dry. Place on a sheet pan and tent with tin foil. Roast in oven for 30-40 minutes, or until a knife easily slices through the beets’ center. Let beets cool.

When cool enough to touch, slip the skins off with your hands. Roughly chop the beats into small chunks. Should be about 1 ½ – 2 cups. Put beets in a mixing bowl and drizzle with the flax seed oil. Toss to lightly coat the beets. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix in horseradish, vinegar and mustard. The beets should have a slightly creamy look to them. Taste. Add salt, if needed. Adjust for taste.

Serve cold or room temperature. Perfect as a side dish (literally), since beets have a way of coloring everything they touch!

Zuni Café Whole Chicken and Bread Salad Recipe

 

Zuni Roasted Chicken


Perfect Sunday Supper–Best Whole Roasted Chicken recipe

Great restaurants are beguiling, addictive places that create dishes so captivating that guests are rendered awestruck and wanting more. Great chefs—people like Keller, Achatz, Goin, Adria, Batali, Waters–can turn ordinary diners into devotees with just one astonishing, well-made morsel. Transformed diners are rendered helpless and willing to do anything to recreate those first orgiastic moments of consumption. Sometimes, these dish-craving regulars beg the chef for the recipe. Or, if the guest happens to frequent an especially popular restaurant, they buy the cookbook and pray that their skills are up to the task of recreating the dish of their obsession.

Then there are other times, when diners come to know a great chef via their cookbook first. In lean times such as these, cookbooks are a food lover’s best tool to getting to know the style and flavors of our world’s best chefs from the comfort of their own home.

Zuni Café Cookbook

Though I have never been to Zuni Café in San Francisco, I consider myself a fan. Not only are Chef Judy Rodger’s recipes easy to follow and well constructed, her cookbook is written to teach the reader how to think like a chef. Her words are clear, direct and always informative. Reading a Judy Rodger’s recipe is like going to cooking school, one recipe at a time.

Continue For the Zuni Café Whole Roasted Chicken Recipe »

Dinner with Infinite Fress

Black Cod at home

In my rule book, the sign of a great dinner party is a sink full of dirty plates and a table covered in empty wine glasses. Our dinner last night with Marisa and Steve, the lovely couple behind the erudite food blog Infinite Fress, was that kind of a party.

Self-admitted restaurant regulars (The chefs at Hatfield’s and Jitlada know them by name), Steve and Marisa know good food and aren’t afraid to criticize. Cooking for them would not only need to be good, but also needed to show them who I am as a fellow food blogger via my kitchen.

On their blog Infinite Fress, Steve and Marisa craft their true life food adventure stories and restaurant reviews with the care of a fiction writers. The food blog, built as an amusement for themselves and friends, has begun to collect something of a small cult following of hard-core Los Angeles food bloggers. Despite themselves, Infinite Fress is starting to get noticed.

I read a fair amount blogs (maybe too many, my husband would whisper) so it was rather surprising to realize that Infinite Fress may be one of the few (if only) food blogs out there that 1) doesn’t rely on food porn (or any photography for that matter) 2) has me reaching for a dictionary every few sentences. Infinite Fress may be text heavy, but I never want to miss the meaning of any of Steve and Marissa’s well-chosen words.

Dinner Menu

Using a favorite Dan Barber cauliflower recipe as a starting point for the evening’s meal, I found complementary ingredients that helped me create a meal that showcased my talents in the kitchen. To start would be a simple salad of fennel*, wild spinach and mixed grapefruit and nutty cow’s milk cheese. For dinner would be black cod, sauteed oyster mushrooms and cauliflower two ways. For dessert I would follow a Cafe Zuni recipe for chocolate pots de creme and put them in antique tea cups. My husband Hans visited the Wine Hotel for some inspired wine collections (thanks Dan! Thanks Paul!) and Steve and Marisa came bearing examples of two of their favorite wines.

The dinner, for the most part (I mistakenly shorted the dessert two egg yolks—creating a low fat and slightly milky pudding) came together without a hitch. The cauliflower steaks and the pot de crème were a big hit, but by far the most winning element of the night was the company. Steve’s hysterical food adventure stories had the four of us weeping in our wine glasses.

I enclose the following two recipes:

Black Cod at home

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Cauliflower Steaks with Cauliflower Puree Recipe

Adapted from a Dan Barber recipe
originally published in Bon Appetit February 200
8

Makes 4 servings

The key to this recipe is to heating a heavy skillet on high heat and properly caramelizing the cauliflower. This is a recipe that is easily doubled when having a big dinner party.

Ingredients:
2 large heads of cauliflower
3 cups water
2 cups whole milk
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1-2 tablespoons olive oil for brushing
fresh whole nutmeg, for seasoning
sea salt and white pepper

Preheat the oven to 250˚F. Trim the base of the cauliflower to remove the green leaves and part of the base of the cauliflower. Place the cauliflower root-side down onto the cutting board. Using a sharp knife, make two vertical cuts to cut away two one-inch steaks (cut from top to stem). Put steaks aside.

Cut the remaining fall-away florets into golf-ball sized pieces; this should measure about 6 cups worth. Combine florets, water and milk in a sauce pan large enough to fit the mixture. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and cook the mixture until the florets are very tender, about 10-15 minutes. Strain, reserving 2 cups of the cooking liquid. Spread the drained florets onto a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake ten minutes until slightly dry. Transfer florets to a blender in batches. Add about a half of cup of warm milk mixture to the blender and blend until smooth. Continue until all of the soft florets are blended to a smooth texture. Return puree to same saucepan. Taste for seasoning. If desired, add a fine grating of nutmeg to the puree for an additional flavor boost.

Increase oven temperature to 350˚. Heat 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a heavy, ovenproof skillet over medium high heat. Brush the cauliflower steaks with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the cauliflower steaks in the heated skillet and cook until each side is golden brown, about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer skillet to oven and bake until cauliflower steaks are tender, about 10 minutes.

Divide puree equally and top each serving with a cauliflower steak.


*This recipe can be made in advance of meal. Re-warm puree over medium heat.

Chocolate pots de creme

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Chocolate Pots (Tea Cups) de Crème Recipe
Recipe adapted from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook

Makes four servings

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (save the extra for a garnish!)
1 half pint of heavy cream, ¾ cup for pot au crème the rest for whipping
¾ cup whole milk
2 tablespoons sugar
4 egg yolks
A good bourbon (or Calvados, Frangelico or Cointreau) (Optional)

Preheat the oven to 300˚

Melt the chocolate with ½ cup of the cream in a double boiler (a small metal bowl over a pot of simmering water). Stir occasionally, until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and set aside.

Warm the remaining ¼ cup cream, the milk and sugar in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk the yolk, then slowly stir in the warm milk mixture. Pour the mixture (through a sieve) into the melted chocolate. Stir to combine. Stir in a splash of your flavoring liquor of your choice.

Making chocolate pots de creme

Pour the mixture into four china tea cups and place them at least an inch apart in a baking pan or rectangular casserole dish large enough to hold the cups. If you don’t have tea cups use 4- to 5-ounce ramekins or custard cups. Add hot water into the baking dish (be careful not to splash water into the cups!) trying to get the water as high up as possible, without the water overflowing the baking dish. The hot water should come to almost an inch below the top of the tea cups.

Chocolate pots de creme fresh out of oven

Bake until custard is just set at the edges, but still quite soft in the center, about 45 minutes. To check, lift a tea cup and tilt it: the center should bulge. The eggs will continue to cook after you pull the custards out of the oven. The chocolate will harden as it cools. If the custard is already firm when you first check it, then remove the tea cups from the oven and set the cups in shallow bath of salted ice water to stop the cooking.

Cool, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. (They will keep for several days but are best eaten within a few hours of cooking!)

When ready to serve, whip the cream (do by hand with a whisk for a great arm work out or a blender for speed) until soft peaks form. Add a splash of bourbon to taste.

Before serving, sprinkle a pinch of Maldon sea salt onto the top of the pudding (believe me, you’re going to love it!), a hearty dollop of whipped cream and a fine grating of chocolate over the top. Enjoy!

*Marisa claims that this dish converted her from being a fennel hater.

Eggs al Forno Revisited

Open most refrigerators in America and you’re likely to find an egg.

As food groups go, the egg is one of our most versatile ingredients. Prepare it simply, dress it up with common or elegant ingredients, manipulate it with good technique; the versatile egg has the ability change into something completely unlike itself.

An egg can be a snack, a meal, a condiment or a building block for something grand. In the home, an egg is a culinary hero. In professional kitchens, a poorly prepared egg can be a career killer. In my case, the egg marks my relationship with cooking.

Early in my days of cooking, I mangled even the simplest preparation. Later, I simply advocated my egg-cooking duties to boyfriends and feigned ignorance. A handful of years ago I gathered my courage and began cooking eggs with an experimental attitude. Now, after a year of serious cooking and culinary studies, I see a dozen eggs as an opportunity to step up to the stove and prove what I’ve learned. Sometimes, my eggs turn out to be really, really good.

This Eggs al Forno dish (Italian for baked eggs) is a recipe I developed after tasting a baked egg on toast that my friend Bryant Ng (former Chef of Pizzeria Mozza) pulled from a pizza oven. Though simple, the dish has all the bells and whistles: creamy soft eggs, crunchy fresh bread, the smoothness of a great olive oil and zing that only a well-made cheese can offer. Eggs al Forno is an effortless show stopper that requires great ingredients and a chef’s confidence.

I submitted this recipe to La Brea Bakery* and recently learned that they decided to feature it on their website recipe page. I include the recipe here with these suggestions: Hand select your ingredients: a great bread (wedge from an artisan bread like a sourdough, pullman or herb are good choices), a flavorful melting cheese (preferably Fontina or medium bodied sheeps milk cheese), a good finishing olive oil and maldon sea salt. Throw some prosciutto or bacon on top for some extra bacon love.

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Eggs al Forno (Baked Eggs) For Two

2 miniature casserole dishes (6×4 inches)
4 eggs
1 tablespoon butter, softened
¼ of a La Brea Bakery Demi Baguette or regular sized Baguette (any variety), cut into 4 1-inch thick slices
¾ cup Fontina or mild cheddar cheese, grated
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
¼ cup olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven 500°F. Meanwhile, rub the inside of each mini-casserole dish with a portion of softened butter. This will prevent the ingredients from sticking to the dish. For each individual serving, place one or two slices of bread (in a single layer) on the bottom of the butter-lined casserole—making sure the bread fits snuggly—adding or trimming if necessary. Drizzle the bread with one tablespoon of olive oil. Then, add a sprinkling of half the grated Fontina cheese. Gently crack two eggs, adding them to the layer of grated cheese. Drizzle with one more tablespoon of oil. Repeat process for the other dish.

Place the two casserole dishes in the oven (you may place a cookie sheet underneath to protect your oven from bubbling ingredients) on the middle rack. Bake until eggs are set, about 10 minutes. Carefully remove the casseroles from the oven. Top each serving with one tablespoon of Parmesan and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Using oven mitts, carefully place each casserole onto a dinner plate topped with a folded cloth napkin (this will ensure a more stable surface for the hot dish to rest on). Serve immediately, making sure to warn your loved one of the dishes’ hot temperature!

Full disclosure: I do freelance copy writing for La Brea Bakery’s marketing department.

Meyer Lemon Trifle: a Bittersweet Recipe

meyerlemons

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” –proverb

When life gives you Meyer lemons, make as many things as possible.” –Food Woolf

After eating a mouth-puckering Meyer lemon trifle at Suzanne Goin and (her husband) David Lentz’s restaurant, Hungry Cat, I decided to try my hand at recreating the dish for Leah of Spicy Salty Sweet and my annual New Year’s celebration.

With sweeter juice, supple peel, and approachable acidity, the Meyer lemon appeals to cooks seeking bright and floral citrus notes. For a desert-phobe like me, this one hundred year-old lemon hybrid’s approachability is a siren song that inspired me to go beyond my comfort zone. The process of making the dessert required my utmost attention and care; in the end, the trifle was a bright finale at the close of an incredible meal (Matt Bites polished off his trifle in two, happy minutes).

As I prepared to collect information about the history of Meyer lemons and recipe information, I discovered that the cookbook that could make this dish possible had gone missing.  I checked under the stacks of papers on my desk, scoured the trunk of my car, examined the space behind the stove, eye-balled under my bed, lifted dishes (just in case it was hiding between them), and scanned all of my book shelves. From what I can gather, a hungry black hole swallowed the hardcover whole. Surely Suzanne Goin doesn’t have a legion of muses that require karmic payment for inspiration…Or does she?

Ah well, despite the loss, I’m happy; with a dessert this good and relatively easy (this coming from a dessert-phobe), I willingly give an offering to the culinary muses.

photo by White On Rice Couple

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Meyer Lemon Trifle
Inspired by a dish at the Hungry Cat
Serves 8

Ingredients:

2 2/3 cups sugar
3 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 1/3 cups fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons grated lemon peel
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 large eggs, beaten to blend

small container of heavy whipping cream (1/2 pint)

two lemons
3/4 cup sugar

Optional: home made or store bought cookies or pound cake for crumbling between layers

For lemon curd:

Combine first 5 ingredients in heavy medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Slowly add the beaten eggs—being careful not to cook the eggs by adding them too quickly—and whisk constantly. Once you have added all of the eggs to the mixture, return to a medium-low heat. Whisk constantly, until curd thickens (this may happen within 3-4 minutes). Be careful not to let the mixture come to a boil. Strain curd through a sieve into bowl or medium sized casserole dish if you need to chill the mixture quickly. Press plastic wrap directly onto surface of curd and chill, preferably overnight.

For candied lemon zest:

two lemons
3/4 cup sugar

To make your own candied lemon zest:

Wash lemons. Using a vegetable peeler, cut wide strips of zest, being careful to avoid the white pith. Place zests in a small saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Let boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat, drain water, and repeat process two more times.

Next, add 3/4 cup of water and ¾ cups sugar to zests. Cook over low heat until the sugar mixture starts to thicken. Cooking time will be approximately 10 to 15 minutes. *This recipe makes more zest than needed, store extra zests in their candied liquid in an air tight container. Perfect for topping ice cream.

For whipped cream:

In a deep (chilled) metal mixing bowl, beat the half pint of heavy cream until soft peaks form. Use a mixer or a whisk if you want to get an upper arm work out.

Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar and ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract. Beat until soft peaks return, being careful not to over beat.

To make the trifle:
Fill individual glasses (or bowls) with a layer of lemon curd and whipped cream. Sprinkle crumbled cookies or pound cake on top. Add another layer of lemon curd and whipped cream. Top with candied lemon zest and a cookie.

* Meyer lemon season in Southern California starts in January and can extend to April.

Author’s Note: The missing cookbook was later discovered. It was hiding underneath a stack of ignored bills.