Category Archives: Restaurants

March 14, 2015 · 1:52 pm

PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD – PLEASE

When our kids were growing up, I sometimes fussed at them at the dinner table, “Don’t play with your food!” That was usually when they didn’t want to eat the broccoli and so moved it back and forth on the plate.

We’ve been in the Bay Area (again) for the last several days. As usual, that has given us the opportunity to eat out a lot, as well as to do some cooking for our family. What I have taken away from all of this is that you want professional chefs to be creative while – even if the cook wants to experiment – home meals suggest not so much.

One night I made bucatini all’Amatriciana for my son’s family including 7- and 9-year old girls. The recipe was from Diane Darrow’s wonderful Italian cookbook, La Tavola Italia. I knew it was delicious because I had made it before. I also knew that the girls preferred very little to no tomato sauce, so I cut back on the tomatoes. At the same time, they both insisted that they loved pasta, so I felt reassured. When the dish arrived at the table (delicious, I might add) they both recoiled in horror. Bucatini was not pasta to them, and so they wound up eating something else.

The next experience was at a wonderful bistro, Cuisinett, in one of the towns of Silicon Valley. It is run by two French ex-pats, one of them a classically trained chef who simply grew tired of cooking in white-linen-tablecloth restaurants. The two owners take pride in offering French comfort food along with a big selection of French wines by the glass. They usually have croque monsieur on the lunch menu, but the day we visited, they did not. The waitress said that they did not have the appropriate ingredients. Instead, they had what they called a French-style grilled cheese sandwich. It turned out to be thick slices of crunchy French bread filled and topped with melted Brie. Lamb merguez on a bun was slathered with mustard. Salmon was served with a sauce Provencal. Delicious and creative! That’s what I call playing with your food.

French-style grilled cheese sandwich
Lamb merguez sandwich
Salmon with Sauce Provencal

Finally, we ate one evening at Rich Table. Everything was excellent, and everything was a play on old standards: the “carrot cake” was deconstructed and unlike any carrot cake I had ever tasted, topped with a carrot ribbon turned into fruit leather; the New York strip steak was topped with broccoli chimichurri , shaved crispy caramelized onions, and coriander flowers; their signature chocolate sable came with drops of chocolate ganache that looked like Hershey kisses; chicken liver mouse served on plancha bread with fruit preserves and micro greens did not taste like my mother’s chopped chicken livers; avocado and trout roe was delicious; sea urchin was almost too beautiful to eat. But perhaps the most creative dish was the “fish and chips”. The fish was a creamy brandade de morue made with cod and potato and seasoned beautifully. The chips were kale, but not your usual kale chips. The kale had been lightly steamed, then pureed and mixed with a tapioca binder, dehydrated on parchment, and seasoned with a dried malt-vinegar powder to capture all of the flavors of traditional English fish and chips. That I call playing with your food – all with a special outcome.

Fish and chips
Chicken liver mousse on plancha bread, fruit jam, micro greens
Sea urchin, brown rice, buttermilk
Avocado, onion jam, radishes, and trout roe
New York strip steak with broccoli chimichurri, crisp onions and coriander flowers
Deconstructed carrot cake with passion fruit

I think that all of this is well beyond my skills, but for the home cook, regular kale chips and brandade would likely be a delicious and worthwhile substitute.

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March 11, 2015 · 6:22 pm

CHAD ROBERTSON’S TARTINE BREAD FOR HOME BAKERS

San Francisco is one of those lucky cities that has lots of really great bakeries turning out really great bread. If you are a bread lover, as I am, that’s important. Of course, it is arguable as to which is the best bakery or best loaf, but Tartine Bakery and their basic country bread have to be on just about everyone’s lists.

Chad Robertson, the co-owner of Tartine Bakery, has  roots in West Texas, but he has travelled to France and probably other places to perfect his craft. He still bakes 250 loaves of bread a day when he is in town. He is driven in his quest to make the best loaf of bread he can, along with pastries and other baked goods. But he is generous in sharing his knowledge. Other chefs in San Francisco have been mentored by him, and now their bread is well-known. An example of that is Outerlands in the Outer Sunset district of San Francisco. Their grilled cheese sandwich on thick slices of house-baked bread is justifiably famous.

Robertson is now getting ready to install a custom-made behemoth of an oven in a new space in San Francisco so that he can increase his baking production. He is planning to open bakeries in Tokyo and maybe London and New York.

He has also written or taken photographs for several cookbooks, including a beautiful book, Tartine Bread (Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2010). That classic (already) gives detailed instructions and beautiful photos for the home baker. The book also describes Robertson’s method to replicate the characteristics of a baker’s oven in the home. The problem is that the chapter on the basic loaf is 38 pages long, and the recipe itself is 26 pages long. That might be enough to put you off from trying your hand. That would be too bad, because by using those instructions, even a novice (me) can produce the best loaf of homemade bread that he or she has ever made.

You will need to be ready with your own sourdough starter that you have developed, stored, and if necessary rejuvenated by daily feedings of flour and water.  I have previously posted several methods to begin your own sourdough starter. You should also have the equipment for the process. These items can be purchased from King Arthur Flour, Breadtopia, and of course, Amazon if you can’t find them locally.

The recipe is based upon weight rather than volume (the standard for professional bakers), so you will need a reliable kitchen scale capable of registering metric weights.

One essential piece of equipment is the Lodge cast-iron combo-cooker. It has shallow and deep halves. The shallow half serves as the baking surface while the deep half covers the loaf and provides the necessary heat above the loaf for the steam needed for good lift and crisp crust. You can use a regular Dutch oven with the deep half on the bottom, but that makes it awkward to handle the loaf at 500°F and with oven mitts. Undoubtedly I would burn myself seriously with such an arrangement.

For the fermentation process, you can use any large, clear plastic or glass container, but the container from King Arthur Flour or Breadtopia is especially convenient.

Two bowls lined with clean dish towels will work to hold the loaves during their final rise before baking, but woven bannetons with their special liners are very handy. They are available from Breadtopia.

To make it easier for me to follow Robertson’s instructions without ruining my pristine copy of his book with flour-covered hands, I have condensed the instructions to numbered steps on a sheet of paper that can be stuck on the refrigerator door. Here are those instructions.

Dough mixed by hand in a large metal bowl
Clear plastic container perfect for fermentation
Dough starts the rising/fermentation process in the clear plastic container
Dough cut in half and shaped into two loaves
Two woven bannetons and white cloth liners
Lodge combo-cooker. The bread is baked in the shallow half, and the heat and steam are provided by the deep half.
Finished loaf straight from the oven
The bread needs to cool before slicing (Hard to wait)
Sliced and ready to eat

RECIPE

Tartine Bakery Basic Bread

Equipment

  • kitchen balance reading in grams
  • large metal mixing bowl
  • rubber spatula
  • 8 quart plastic or glass fermenting container
  • bench knife
  • 2 bannetons with cloth liners
  • kitchen towels
  • Lodge cast iron combo cooker
  • oven mitts
  • lame (you can use a new single-edged razor blade or sharp knife)

Ingredients

Leaven

  • sourdough starter
  • 200 grams warm (78°F) water
  • 200 grams 50/50 flour blend (white bread flour/whole wheat flour)

Bread

  • 700+50 grams water (80°F)
  • 200 grams leaven
  • 900 grams white bread flour
  • 100 grams whole wheat flour
  • 20 grams salt
  • 50/50 rice/wheat flour mixture
  • rice flour

Method

The night before: Developing the leaven

  1. Discard all but I tablespoon of starter.
  2. Add 200 grams of warm water.
  3. Add 200 grams of 50/50 flour blend.
  4. Stir until well mixed.
  5. Cover loosely with a towel and let stand in a warm place over night.

Baking Day

  1. Test the leaven by dropping a spoonful in a cup of water. If it floats, it is ready to be used. Otherwise let it work until it floats.
  2. Pour 700 grams of water into a large metal mixing bowl.
  3. Add 200 grams of the leaven and stir to mix.
  4. Add the bread flour and whole wheat flour. Mix thoroughly by hand until there is no loose flour.
  5. Allow the dough to rest for 30 to 40 minutes.
  6. Add salt and the remaining 50 grams of water to the rested dough. Squeeze the dough between your fingers to incorporate the salt and water.
  7. Fold the dough onto itself and transfer to the fermenting container. The dough will not rise much at this stage.
  8. Allow the dough to rise for 3 to 4 hours at 78 – 82°F, giving the dough one turn every half hour for the first 2 hours. Turn by dipping one hand in water, grab the underside of the dough with the wet hand, stretch it up, and fold it back over the remaining dough, repeating three times. After the second hour, turn the dough more gently so as not to deflate.
  9. Continue to let rise, with the turning process, until the dough releases from the sides of the container, ridges left by the turn hold their shape for a few minutes, and the dough increases by one-quarter to one-third in volume.
  10. Pull the dough out of the container onto an un-floured work surface with the spatula. Lightly flour the surface of the dough, and then cut it into two equal pieces with the bench knife. Flip the two pieces of dough so that the floured surfaces are on the work surface, and seal the raw dough with the floured surface.
  11. Work the dough into loaf shapes using your hands and the bench knife. Then let them rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Lightly flour and cover with a towel to prevent drafts.
  12. Form the final loaves by lightly flouring the top surface and then flipping the dough rounds so that the floured surface rests on the work surface.
  13. Working with one round at a time, fold a third of the dough closest to you over the middle third. Stretch the dough to the right and fold this over the center. Then stretch to the left and fold over the previous fold, anchoring with your fingers. Then grab the dough closest to you, and wrap it over the loaf while rolling so that the smooth underside is now the top, and the seams are on the bottom.
  14. Put the ball of dough between your hands and pull it toward you, rounding it at the same time to stretch the surface and close the seam. Let the shaped loaf rest for a few minutes while you repeat with the second loaf.
  15. Dust the lined bannetons with the rice/wheat flour mixture. Transfer the shaped loaves to the baskets with the bench knife so that the smooth sides are down.
  16. Let rise, covered with a towel, at 75-80°F for 3 to 4 hours.
  17. About 20 minutes before you are ready to bake, place the combo cooker with its lid in the middle of an oven preheated to 500°F.
  18. Dust one of the loaves with rice flour. Then remove the shallow lid of the combo cooker from the oven, and place it on the stove, using oven mitts, and leaving the deep half in the oven. Turn the dough into the hot pan. Score the top of the loaf with the sharp lame or razor blade. Then return the filled shallow pan to the oven, and cover with the deep half. Immediately reduce the temperature to 450°F.
  19. Bake for 20 minutes. Then using the oven mitts, remove the top and continue to bake for 20 to 25 minutes
  20. Again wearing oven mitts, remove the pan from the oven and transfer the loaf to a cooling rack to cool completely
  21. For the second loaf, wipe out the cooker, reheat for 10 minutes in a 500°F and repeat the process used for the first loaf.
  22. Cool completely before slicing.

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March 7, 2015 · 2:17 pm

LOUISIANA-STYLE CRAB-STUFFED SHRIMP

Within the USA, there seem to be two major schools of thought on how to stuff a shrimp (prawn). In New England, most recipes call for crushed Ritz crackers in the ingredient list, and then the shrimp are usually baked. (Parenthetically, Ritz crackers seem to be a basic staple in New England.) Along the Gulf Coast, especially in Louisiana, shrimp are stuffed with a spicy crab mixture and then deep-fried.

My first experience with crab-stuffed shrimp was at Freeman and Harris Café in Shreveport, Louisiana. It is claimed that  at one time Freeman and Harris, established in 1921, was the first and longest operating African-American-owned restaurant in the United States. Those seem likely to be highly arguable claims, but what is not arguable is that the food was delicious. Even though the café was located in a poor black section of Shreveport (Saint Paul’s Bottoms or just “The Bottoms”, later renamed Ledbetter Heights), the food attracted politicians, business people, and prominent citizens – black and white – to enjoy chicken and dumplings specially prepared one day a week, other Southern favorites, and the cafe’s famous crab-stuffed shrimp.

Freeman and Harris long ago became Pete Harris’s Café and then eventually closed. But even today  descendants of the original families and some of the early cooks still serve up their versions of the stuffed shrimp, to the point that locals think of them as Shreveport-Style Stuffed Shrimp.

This recipe is a pale imitation of the stuffed shrimp I first ate at Freeman and Harris, but it still brings to mind Louisiana cooking.

Red, orange, and yellow miniature bell (snacking) peppers
Chopped bell pepper, celery, and green onion
Minced garlic
Butterflied shrimp
Butterflied shrimp sprinkled with seasoning mixture
Deep-fried crab-stuffed shrimp
Crab-stuffed shrimp served with rice

RECIPES

Crab Stuffing

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • ½ cup finely chopped celery
  • ½ cup finely chopped bell pepper (I used miniature red, orange, and yellow “snacking” bell peppers, but you may use whatever you prefer.)
  • ½ cup finely chopped  green onion
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled between your hands
  • 6 ounces crabmeat
  • ¼ cup dry breadcrumbs
  • ¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • salt

Method

  1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Stir in the celery, bell pepper, onion, and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes until the vegetables are wilted and the onions are translucent.
  2. Stir in the garlic powder, black and red pepper, and oregano. Remove from the heat and stir in the crabmeat, breadcrumbs, and Worcestershire sauce. Adjust the seasoning with the salt.
  3. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Crab-Stuffed Shrimp

Ingredients

  • 1 pound of unshelled extra-large shrimp (13-15/pound or larger)
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • cayenne pepper (optional and to your taste)
  • 1½ teaspoons salt
  • 1½ teaspoons paprika
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • ¼ teaspoon ground thyme
  • ¼ teaspoon ground oregano
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 egg beaten
  • fine bread crumbs
  • peanut oil for deep frying

Method

  1. Shell and de-vein the shrimp, leaving the tail.
  2. With a small, sharp knife butterfly the shrimp by cutting along the central line, being careful not to cut completely through. Open like a book. and set aside. You may see another black line (not the intestine. This is the shrimp’s nervous system, so don’t worry about it.)
  3. In a small bowl, combine the pepper(s), salt, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme and oregano. Reserve 2 teaspoons for sprinkling on the shrimp.
  4. Combine the flour with the remaining seasoning mixture. Place the seasoned flour in a bowl or pie pan.
  5. In another bowl or pie pan, combine the milk and beaten egg.
  6. Put a good amount of breadcrumbs in another bowl or pie pan.
  7. Sprinkle the shrimp with the reserved seasoning mix.
  8. Place a generous tablespoonful of the reserved crab mixture on each of the butterflied shrimp. Press firmly so that the crab mixture sticks to the shrimp.
  9. Working in batches, dip the stuffed shrimp in the flour mixture, then in the milk and egg mixture, again in the four, and then in the breadcrumbs.
  10. Have ready about 1-2 inches of oil heated to 350°F in a deep, heavy-bottomed pan.
  11. Fry the shrimp, 3 or 4 at a time, until browned on all sides. Drain on layers of paper towels and keep warm in the oven until all the shrimp are fried.
  12. Serve immediately with your favorite seafood sauce – tartar, cocktail, etc.  Allow 3 to 5 stuffed shrimp for each serving.

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February 20, 2015 · 10:01 am

COOKING FOR THREE-YEAR-OLDS: GNOCCHI, CHICKEN, MUSHROOMS, PEPPERS, BEURRE NOISETTE

Susan and I just returned from another trip to San Francisco. We babysat our 10 months-  and 3 years-old grandsons while Sarah and Evan travelled to Dallas. They were invited to cook with the staff at a hot, new Dallas restaurant, FT33. Sarah and Evan and the local chef alternated dishes for an 8-course tasting menu with wine pairings. The place was sold out, and Sarah got to see Corey and Megan, school friends of our other daughter, along with a fellow member of her crew team at the University of Texas.

My cooking task was more challenging: I was charged with feeding the two little ones. Actually, the 10-month-old was not difficult. He is still drinking a lot of liquids, and he will eat anything else you put in front of him.

The three-year-old was another story. The first morning, he wouldn’t eat his cheerios until I added some milk, so the next morning I anticipated him and poured in the milk. That morning he decided he didn’t want milk, so I had to scrap the first bowl. The next morning I made French toast with maple syrup. He didn’t like it, but the 10-month-old polished it off.

My greatest failure turned out to be lunch. I put together some things for his lunch box for nursery school. My first thought was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. What child doesn’t like PB&J? Besides, PB&J is not forbidden at his nursery school as it is in many places. As I was planning my menu, Sarah sent a text message that the toddler doesn’t like peanut butter. I made a quick change of plans and substituted some chèvre that I found in the fridge. Then, I reached for a jar of fig jam when he announced that he didn’t like jelly. For that, I substituted some hummus. I thought a goat cheese and hummus sandwich on whole wheat bread looked pretty tasty, so I packed it with freeze-dried strawberry slices, crispy apple chips, and a stick of string cheese. Imagine my disappointment when the lunch box came home at the end of the day with only the string cheese gone.

We took advantage of the kids being at nursery school by taking a little trip to the Embarcadero and enjoying a good lunch at the well-known Fog City Diner.

The iconic TransAmerica Tower and the classic Fog City Diner
The Star Princess at dockside waiting for a new group of passengers
Pigeons in front of the Exploratorium
Coit Tower
Daredevils stabilizing Telegraph Hill.

I was more successful with dinner one night. I found some packaged gnocchi and a cooked chicken breast in the refrigerator along with some mushrooms and colorful “snacking peppers”. I put it all together with some brown butter sauce, and it turned out to be a huge favorite with both kids.

RECIPE

Gnocchi, Chicken, Mushrooms, Peppers, and Beurre Noisette

Three-Year-Olds-1

Ingredients

  • ½ cup unsalted butter
  • juice of  ½ lime
  • ½ cooked chicken breast
  • 6 white button mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 each, red, orange, and yellow snacking peppers, sliced crosswise
  • 1 package prepared gnocchi
  • ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • ½ cup grated Romano cheese
  • salt and pepper

Method

  1. In a small saucepan over low het, melt the butter. Heat gently until the milk solids float to the top and begin to brown. Skim off the solids with a tablespoon. Pour the melted butter into a small bowl, leaving any remaining solids on the bottom of the saucepan behind. Wipe the pan clean, return the clarified butter, and continue to heat over a low flame until it turns a nut-brown color. (hazelnut to be specific) Stir in the lime juice and set aside.
  2. Shred the cooked chicken with two table forks. Set aside.
  3. Sauté the sliced mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of the butter sauce over medium heat. Add the remaining butter sauce. Stir in the shredded chicken and pepper slices until heated through.
  4. In the meantime, boil the gnocchi in a pot of boiling salted water according to package instructions. Drain. Return to the pot, and stir in the butter sauce, mushrooms, chicken, peppers, and grated cheeses. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
  5. Serve.

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January 26, 2015 · 9:20 am

THIRTY YEARS OF CHEFS’ HOLIDAYS

There’s no recipe in this post or much discussion of food. Honestly, I just wanted a chance to show some of my images from our recent visit to the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park.

Yosemite National Park is one of the true gems of the national park system in the United States. It was viewed as a treasure by the Native Americans who lived in it, and by early settlers and prospectors. Even shortly after gold rush days, there were efforts to protect Yosemite Valley. In fact, it celebrates its 125th anniversary as a national park this year. If you have visited the park, you know what a special and magical place it is (sans other tourists, if you could wish it). If you have never visited, it is a must on your list of places to visit.

El Capitan and Half Dome in the background, Yosemite National Park
Morning on the Merced River, Yosemite National Park
Upper Yosemite Falls, Yosemite National Park

The Ahwahnee Hotel, by itself, is a place that deserves its own spot on your list. The hotel was opened in 1927 at a cost approaching $2 million – a huge sum in those days. The story is that earlier lodging in the park could best be described as “rustic”. Many wealthy tourists including Lady Astor refused to visit because of the primitive conditions. For that reason the hotel was envisioned for that clientele. It was built in a grand style but in a fashion that blended into the beautiful mountain surroundings. Fearful of fires that had already destroyed more than one national park lodge, the builders used reinforced concrete stained to resemble California redwood. Even today, the eye of the visitor will be fooled by the exterior of the building.

Of course, the hotel has been modernized to remain attractive to demanding guests, but many of the original details including giant fireplaces, intricate woodwork, artwork, detailed floors, and even wooden ice chests on each guest wing have been preserved. The main dining hall is in the impressive style of many of the classic national park lodges. The food is definitely a cut above the fare in other national park lodges.

The Ahwahnee Hotel
Beautiful original woodwork near the front desk of the Ahwahnee Hotel
Fabric used in the Ahwahnee Hotel at its opening
Hand-painted ceiling and chandeliers in the main room of the Ahwahnee Hotel
The warm fireplace in the lobby of the Ahwahnee Hotel
The massive fireplace in the main hall of the Ahwahnee Hotel
The main dining room at the Ahwahnee Hotel
Windows of the main room of the Ahwahnee Hotel look out on beautiful mountain scenes including Half Dome

Most agree that the best time for a visit to Yosemite and the Ahwahnee is in the spring when the many waterfalls are at full flow. Next-best may be the autumn with colorful foliage and Indian Summer weather. Summer is beautiful with the only downside being the wall-to-wall humans.

Winter is clearly the low season. Snows can be fierce, and more than one visitor has gotten lost and frozen during an ill-conceived hike. The plus side is that there are many fewer visitors. That has posed a problem for the famous Ahwahnee Hotel. Unlike many of the grand old hotels of the national parks, the Ahwahnee stays open all winter, so it needs to attract as many guests as possible. They do that with various special activities.

The Bracebridge Dinner is a tradition that goes back to the first year that the hotel was opened. The dinner is a festive occasion with English period costumes, entertainments, and foods. It is extremely popular and becomes oversubscribed very early.

The Vintners’ Holiday is a gathering of thirty or more California vintners and guests who talk about things wine-related and wind up with a festive dinner complete with carefully paired wines.

For the past 30 years, the hotel has been sponsoring its Chefs’ Holiday. There are back-to-back sessions that run through January and early February. This year, there will be a delay of a few hours on Super Bowl Sunday so that football fans/food enthusiasts will not need to miss either event.

The Chefs’ Holiday attracts many well-known chefs and food writers, predominantly from California, but actually from all around. This is the second year for Sarah and Evan, but other chefs and writers include Kent Rathbun from Abacus in Dallas, Nancy Silverton and Mary Sue Milliken from Los Angeles, as well as Duskie Estes, Elizabeth Faulkner, and Zoi Antonitsas of television competitive cooking fame.

Guest chefs provide a short demonstration of one of their signature dishes and then host a tasting. Each session ends with an elaborate dinner prepared by the chefs, complete with carefully paired California wines.

Sarah and Evan Rich demonstrating plancha bread, Ahwahnee Hotel
Sarah and Evan Rich in the demonstration kitchen answering a question from the audience
Plancha bread with roasted cauliflower and crispy shallots – demonstration
A participant memorializing the demonstration of plancha bread
Participants sampling offerings from the cooking demonstration, Ahwahnee Hotel

It is fair to say that the Ahwahnee staff  is doing their part to assure a successful winter season in Yosemite.

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January 17, 2015 · 5:21 pm

ANOTHER YEAR IN YOSEMITE – PLANCHA BREAD

It has been nearly a year since I last reported from Yosemite. Sarah and Evan have been invited again to demonstrate the preparation of one of their dishes and to prepare a dinner at the Ahwahnee Hotel.

The Ahwahnee Hotel
The main diniing room at the Ahwahnee
Some of the original woodwork from 1927 in the Ahwahnee lobby
A blazing fire in the lobby of the Ahwahnee Hotel
Half Dome through the window of the Great Room at the Ahwahnee

During the past year, things have changed in our family and with the park. Last year, Sarah was trying to cook while 8+ months pregnant. This year we were charged with watching a nearly four year old and a 10 month old while Sarah cooks.

The park is still suffering from the results of last summer’s fires. There are great stands of blackened tree skeletons, and huge logging trucks are pulling enormous tree trunk s down the road.  The drought and warm weather have both had their impact: there is no snow, and Yosemite Falls, usually frozen by this time of year, are without ice. In the Central Valley below, the reservoirs are nearly empty. Everyone is hoping for the rains and snows that don’t appear to be coming.

Perhaps the biggest current news is the successful climb of  the Dawn Wall of El Capitan by Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson. Sarah and Evan’s demonstration was interrupted by the announcement, and since then the hotel has been abuzz with the news. All of the television networks appeared with cameras and had the climbers get up at 4 AM (After being on a sheer rock face for 19 days.) to give interviews for Good Morning America, Today, etc.

Today, Susan and I took a drive while Sarah, Evan, and the boys were taking a walk – the first time they have had a chance to get out of the hotel and the kitchen.

Our drive took us past El Capitan. There were still three bivouac tents hanging from the Dawn Wall, and there was a huge traffic jam of television trucks in the meadow where Caldwell and Jorgeson were giving yet more interviews. Then we drove past Bridal Veil Falls to the Tunnel View Point to get an obligate image of the whole valley including El Capitan and Bridal Veil Falls with Half Dome in the background. It is a cliché image, but it is so breathtaking that you can’t avoid it. Neither could a big crowd of people even in the middle of winter.

Upper Yosemite Falls in January
Dawn Wall of El Capitan
Yosemite Valley

Tonight, Sarah and Evan will serve a wonderful dinner to include aged duck lasagna and an almond-chocolate dessert.

here’s the menu:

  • Onion soup: radish and dried plum salsa verde, fried shallots
  • Aged duck lasagna: chickories
  • Bone marrow roasted cauliflower: kumquat
  • New York strip steak: lemon verbena curry, pommes fondant
  • Bittersweet chocolate ganache: marshmallow fluff, citrus

But I thought I would share recipes from their demonstration:

 

The demonstration
Sarah and Evan displaying their plancha bread and dips
Plancha bread with roasted cauliflower dip and caramelized shallot
Shelling bean dip with radishes and chives

RECIPES

Rich Table Plancha Bread

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup bread flour
  • 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
  • 2 tablespoons Sevillano olive oil

Method

  1. Mix together the water, yeast, honey, and olive oil.
  2. Add flour and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the dough hook, add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix to form a ball.
  3. Keep the dough in the mixing bowl and wrap the whole thing with plastic wrap. Let dough proof in a warm area of the kitchen for one hour.
  4. Once the dough has proofed, divide it into 70 g balls. Roll each ball out into an oblong about 1/4 inch thick.
  5. On a griddle or large cast iron pan heated to medium-high and seasoned with oil, sear each flat bread, cooking and browning on both sides.

Roasted Baby Cauliflower Dip

Ingredients

  •  1 head baby cauliflower
  • 3 tablespoons butter, browned and reserved
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • salt to taste

Method

  1. Clean cauliflower to remove most of the greens leaves and stem. Cut in half.
  2. Blanch cauliflower in boiling salted water until jus tender
  3. Sear the blanched cauliflower on a griddle or heavy cast iron pan until golden. Then bake in a 350 degree F oven until tender.
  4. Season cauliflower with lemon juice, brown butter, and salt. Puree if desired or serve as is.

Shelling Bean Dip

Ingredients

  • 1 pound fresh cranberry beans
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 3-4 tablespoons pure olive oil
  • salt to taste
  • 1 teaspoon Douglas fir powder
  • 1 teaspoon fennel pollen

Method

  1. Cook cranberry beans in water with bay leaves until soft. Strain beans and reserve the cooking water
  2. In a mixing bowl, season the beans with pure olive oil (e.g. Mission Trail from Sciabica), some of the reserved cooking water, salt, Douglas fir powder, and fennel pollen.
  3. Using a fork, mash everything together until the desired texture is reached. The puree should be as smooth as hummus.

Note: With both dips, you can spread them on pieces of reheated plancha bread and garnish with tiny cauliflower florets or thinly sliced radishes and caramelized finely sliced shallot.

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January 11, 2015 · 3:12 pm

FISH STEW AND THE REDONDO PIER

During our recent visit to Los Angeles, we stayed just a short walk from the pier at Redondo Beach, so we made a family outing between the various  holidays. Everyone else for miles around decided to do the same thing, because the boardwalk was jammed with multi-generational families. Many of them were visiting with other multi-generational families giving a festive air to the occasion. The Redondo Pier is filled with attractions similar to those in other seaside tourist towns: restaurants, glass-bottomed boat tours, candy shops, and an arcade with an indoor Tilt-A-Whirl.

One attraction, though, stands out. The Quality Seafood Fish Market, “Largest and Finest Selection of Seafood on the Coast”. It stretches for much of the length of one side of the boardwalk, complete with its own  very popular seafood restaurant around the corner. The best part, though, is the seafood market where you can buy fresh fish and shell fish, some of them live. The place advertises albacore, anchovies, barracuda,  blue runner, bonito, bream, catfish, etc., etc., in alphabetical order. This is Dungeness crab season on the West Coast, and there were Dungeness crabs aplenty. But there were at least four other varieties of local crabs, wiggling in their watery holding tanks. There were also oysters from a number of places along with mussels, several kinds of clams, and even some geoduck – pronounced “gooey-duck”. (Which my daughter declared she would not eat. Not too surprising since she avoids  “objectionable” foods including all allia – onions, red onions, scallions, shallots, leeks – like the proverbial plague.)

Fish
More fish
Crabs
Geoduck
Clams
Sunset at Redondo Pier

Carol bought some live crabs, shrimp with their heads still on, clams, mussels and a couple of varieties of fish, planning to make a fish stew from one of her favorite cookbooks. New Classic Family Dinners, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2009, is written by Mark Peel, owner/chef of the Campanile, widely regarded as one of the best restaurants in Los Angeles but now closed while Peel gets involved in his next venture.

Recipes in the book are patterned after simpler meals Peel served in the Campanile on Monday nights (Family Night) and are supposed to be easy enough that the home cook can prepare them.

Carol did all the cooking, but as I peeked into the kitchen from time to time, it did not look that easy. Regardless, the end result was delicious, and there was plenty for 6 adults and 4 kids.  Note that Carol’s recipe has substituted crab for lobster and contains no onion or its relatives except for a bulb of garlic. Also, the recipe is considerably simplified from Mark Peel’s original. For my part, forgive the images. I only had my iPhone on our excursion.

Crabs steaming
Stock
Cooked crabs
Fish stew is served
My plate

RECIPE

Rich Fish Stew with Crab, Shrimp, Clams, and Sea Bass

Ingredients

BROTH

  • 3 medium Dungeness crabs
  • 1 quart boiling water
  • 3 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1 medium carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped
  • ½ small fennel bulb, diced
  • salt
  • 1 14½ ounce can tomatoes with juice
  • 1 garlic head, cut in half crosswise
  • shells and heads from 2 pounds fresh shrimp
  • 1 cup dry white wine (Sauvignon blanc is a good choice)
  • bouquet garni of bay leaves, parsley, tarragon, and thyme
  • ½ teaspoon cracked peppercorns
  • 2 quarts of liquid: crab boiling liquid+water
  • 3 slices country bread, toasted

STEW

  • Crabs from above
  • ¾ pound Yukon gold potatoes,  boiled until tender and cut into chunks
  • 1 pound white-fleshed fish (sea bass, halibut, snapper), cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 2 dozen clams
  • 2 dozen mussels, de-bearded if necessary
  • 2 pounds shrimp, heads removed, shelled, and deveined
  • 3 tablespoons Italian parsley, chopped coarsely

Method

BROTH

  1. ALERT: DO NOT ASK YOUNG CHILDREN TO HELP WITH THIS STEP. In a large pot lined with a steamer basket, bring the water to a boil. With tongs, lower the crabs into the pot. (Be careful – they will fight back.) Cover tightly, and cook for 12 minutes. Remove the crabs from the pot being careful to save the liquid. Chill the crabs in ice water. Drain and set aside. Measure the cooking water and add more water if needed to make 2 quarts.
  2. Heat the canola oil in a large pot. Add the carrots, celery, and fennel, stirring for a few minutes until lightly browned. Then add the remaining broth ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes
  3. Strain through a chinois or other strainer, pressing the solids to remove any additional liquid.
  4. Return the strained broth to the cooking pot.
  5. Add the potatoes to the broth; return to the simmer.
  6. Add the fish and simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Then add the clams, mussels, and shrimp and simmer until the clams and mussels have opened and the shrimp is pink, about 5 minutes.
  7. Add the crabs, breaking off the legs and claws. Adjust the seasoning and garnish with chopped parsley. Serve immediately with slices of toasted baguette seasoned with garlic and olive oil. Be sure to have some tools to break open the crabs along with a bowl for shells and plenty of napkins.

 

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January 5, 2015 · 4:06 pm

BOOK REVIEWS: COI, BAR TARTINE, AND FLOUR+WATER

For Christmas, Sarah and Evan gave us autographed copies of cookbooks written by some of their San Francisco colleagues and friends. They are all beautiful books, and certainly worth a place of honor on my cookbook shelves. Good and successful restaurants seem to go through the same sort of trajectory. First, there is the nervous anxiety after the opening and before reviews appear. Then, there are professional reviews, almost always glowing. Next come the Yelpers (I call them Whiners) with their smarmy comments: “Why do they charge so much; who do they think they are?” ” I could do better at home on my hot plate.”  “They seated someone else at my table even though I was only an hour late for my reservation.” ” When I told them I didn’t like the filet mignon after I had eaten it all, they refused to comp me.” After the whiners, the real customers take over, and the restaurant is wildly popular. Then there are demonstration tours, and finally a thick, beautifully illustrated cookbook appears so that the diner can try making the dish at home – ha.

Coi, Bar Tartine, and Flour+Water are three of the best, most popular, and most successful restaurants in San Francisco, so it is not surprising that they all have beautiful cookbooks. Here are some of my random thoughts on all of them. Cookbooks-3 Coi: Stories and Recipes by Daniel Patterson (Phaidon Press, London and New York) is really more of a memoir than a cookbook, and it is illustrated with lush images of the California countryside along with relatively few food shots. Daniel Patterson is an accomplished writer as well as a Michelin-starred chef. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Lucky Peach, Food and Wine, and the Financial Times among other publications. The photographer, Maren Caruso, clearly knows how to operate a camera. Besides all that, Patterson is gracious in recognizing many of the cooks who have helped to make Coi a success. To be sure, there are “recipes” although they do not appear in the typical format of lists of ingredients and the steps in putting them all together. In my view, you can reproduce some of the dishes only if you study the instructions very carefully and already possess a high level of cooking skill. The most engaging parts of the book are the personal stories and philosophical statements – meditations, really – that accompany each of the recipes. The feeling that the reader comes away with is that of understanding the author as a thoughtful person as well as an accomplished cook. Cookbooks-2 Bar Tartine: Techniques & Recipes by Nicolaus Balla and Cortney Burns with photographs by Chad Robertson (Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2014) is reminiscent of Chad Robertson’s already classic Tartine Bread except that there is a lot more color. If you have been lucky enough to eat at Bar Tartine, you know that Nicolaus and Cortney have fun with their cooking. It has the same precision that you expect in high-end food, but at the same time it is playful. The chefs delight in using ingredients you may never have heard of, or in ways that you have never thought of. And that’s sort of how Balla and Burns approach their cookbook. There are delicious recipes and gorgeous images aplenty, but the emphasis is on ingredients  The first sixteen chapters are devoted to topics like “Drying”, “Assorted Powders”,  “Spice Mixes”, “Sprouting and Soaking”, “Oils & Animal Fats”, “Vinegars”, “Pickles & Preserves” along with suggestions about how to use ingredients like dried strawberries (The two love their dehydrator), kefir butter, schmaltz, and even burnt toast. The recipes look accessible but you will definitely need to expand your pantry. For me, the book is more like a beautifully illustrated instruction book than a conventional cookbook, and there are detailed instructions about how to make all of the powders and dried foods that serve as the basis of or as seasoning for the fabulous foods of Bar Tartine. The images by Chad Robertson add greatly to the final product, and in the credits, Balla, Burns, and Robertson also do all of the food and prop styling. The book is beautifully done and truly a labor of love, just like a meal at Bar Tartine. Cookbooks-1 Flour+Water: Pasta by Thomas McNaughton with Paolo Lucchesi and photography by Eric Wolfinger (Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA) is a detailed treatise on pasta, but it is fascinating reading and studying. There is a two-page spread immediately after the frontispiece showing the author intent on rolling out a length of pasta dough. From that single image you get the feeling that McNaughton wakes up and goes to sleep thinking of pasta. His descriptions about seemingly arcane topics such as the differences between Italian 00 flour and semolina flour turn out to be fascinating reading. And coupled with detailed, well-organized images, the narrative provides step-by-step instructions that even a tyro is willing to try. There is also an abundance of recipes for what to do with the pasta once you have made it. “Mouth-watering” does not adequately describe the images of some of the spectacular dishes: spaghetti with black trumpet, poached egg, and cured yolk; burrata triangoli with preserved lemon, summer squash, and mint. A bonus is the back story of McNaughton’s pilgrimage to Italy and his long, humbling hours of learning how to make pasta  under the tough guidance of a room full of Italian grandmothers. With that, the reader realizes that anything done well requires commitment along with hours, days, and years of practice.

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December 7, 2014 · 5:36 pm

AZIZA AND THE OUTER RICHMOND

A while back I wrote about the great restaurant, Outerlands, located in the Outer Sunset District of San Francisco. Outer Richmond is a bit different. First, it is not to be confused with the City of Richmond located north of Berkeley and Oakland and home to the (in)famous Chevron refinery. Outer Richmond lies just north of Golden Gate Park and south of the Presidio and the very toney Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights, and Seacliff (home to the Barber family of the popular radio show of the Second World War, One Man’s Family – if you are old enough to remember.)

Outer Richmond does not lack for restaurants. It is home to many immigrant groups including Russians, Vietnamese, Koreans, Greeks, and Chinese. In fact, some people say that San Francisco’s REAL Chinatown is in the Richmond rather than the touristy version near Union Square. There are whole blocks with nothing but ethnic restaurants, many of them quite good, but none exactly a tourist destination.

Aziza is the exception. A number of years ago, it started out as a Moroccan restaurant serving the traditional cuisine. With time, it has morphed into an upscale California-American restaurant but with Moroccan overtones. And the food is delicious. Aziza has a Michelin star to prove that.

Main dining room

Main dining room

We spent a great evening there in the recent past. One of the secrets of our success was booking an early reservation. The place got very crowded as the evening wore on. On top of that, Aziza  sits on the corner of Geary and 22nd, so parking is impossible. You should definitely begin your hunt for a parking space well in advance of your scheduled reservation.

The menu changes fairly often, so you may not have the choices we had, but you can buy the cook book if you want to sample what’s available: Mourad: New Moroccan by Mourad Lahlou, Artisan, 2011, $40.00.

Spreads: eggplant, yogurt-dill, and piquillo-almond-tahini served with flatbread

Not your usual Middle Eastern dips and spreads, although they are clearly based on the traditionals. They are creamy-smooth with distinct but subtle flavorings.

Spreads

Spreads

Beets  with cabbage, persimmon, cheese, peanuts, and rye tuiles

These days, nearly every restaurant serves a beet salad, but not like this. The beets are roasted and come with the root completely intact, nestled on a soft cheese with purees of seasonal fruits and vegetables. The delicate rye tuiles make a perfect foil.

Beet salad

Beet salad

Couscous

The couscous is hand-made in house. Ours came with thin curls of fresh pumpkin, delicately cooked pieces of winter squash, and cranberries. Two dollops of harissa were served alongside so you could season to your liking.

couscous with pumpkin, winter squash, cranberries and harissa

couscous with pumpkin, winter squash, cranberries and harissa

Market fish

The night we were there, the market fish was black bass. It was served with Dungeness crab, which is in season, along with shaved, roasted brussels sprouts and oyster.

Market fish

Market fish

Lamb shank

Cooked exactly as it should be, it was falling off the bone and wonderfully seasoned. It came topped with shaved tart apple along with fennel, barley, and nettle.

Lamb shank

Lamb shank

Desserts

Don’t pass up desserts, because the pastry chef is a James Beard-recognized chef in her own right. We got a medley of bites, all of them delicious. Her version of Turkish delight (lokum) was the best I have ever tasted.

Dessert

Dessert

Aziza is definitely worth your making the trip to Outer Richmond. Besides, San Francisco is only nine square miles in size. How long a trip can it be?

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December 4, 2014 · 12:23 pm

CIOPPINO AND THE OLD CLAM HOUSE, SAN FRANCISCO’S OLDEST RESTAURANT

The other evening, Peter and Rene treated us to a night out as an early Christmas present. Cirque du Soleil had a touring show in town, so we went to see it. For old fuddy duddies who have never gone to  one of these productions, it was quite a treat. It is still hard to believe that humans can do all of the things that they do in such a spectacular event.

Before the show, we went to dinner at the Old Clam House, reportedly the oldest still-operational restaurant in San Francisco. That is not hard to believe. It sits on a grimy thoroughfare in the middle of an industrial area that was once on the wharves of San Francisco. The restaurant had its start in 1861, as the first wave of the Gold Rush was winding down.

The place is an old clapboard building with a peaked roof. It is now painted, but it apparently spent many of its days as a raw wood establishment similar to those you see in old western movies. Inside, the original embossed tin ceiling is preserved, and the bar is a huge mirrored, ornately carved wooden structure that is at least twenty feet high.

Before and after

Before and after

I was prepared for the food  to be ordinary and tourist-driven, much like that at Fisherman’s Wharf, but I was wrong. Tourists probably don’t get there much, and the customers all looked like they were regulars, especially those sitting at the bar.

As soon as we sat down at the table covered with a blue-checked tablecloth, the waitress brought us a round of warm clam broth served in little glass cups along with a big loaf of Acme bread. That gave us a chance to study the menu.

The menu is fairly long and largely restricted to seafood, especially shell-fish. There is a nod to some California specialties like sand dabs, and because the season for Dungeness crabs has just opened there are several crab dishes. Susan ordered clam chowder – she always does, even at the Grand Central Oyster Bar in New York. Rene ordered crab cakes, and Peter ordered a whole crab, thus requiring the obligate bib.

I ordered the cioppino because, after all, this is San Francisco and it occupied a prominent place on the menu. With a wink, the waitress assured me that this was the original version of the dish. I’m certain that is not true, but I am equally certain that this version is delicious and enough for a longshoreman, if there is such a person around the place anymore. The bowl was a cast iron pot, piping hot and filled with a tomatoey broth rich with crab, clams, shrimp, mussels, and calamari along with new potatoes and chunks of corn on the cob. One local food critic claims the soup is diluted bottled marinara and the clam broth is mostly chicken stock.  I don’t believe either of those assertions, but I don’t have the cultivated palate of a food critic.

Cioppino
Clam broth and Acme bread

Here is a recipe for cioppino that has been in our family for nearly 40 years. It was given to us by our friend, Nancy Swanson, who prepared it for a group of couples with the ski patrol in Park City. Of course, there are many versions of cioppino. I am certain the food critic would declare this one not to be authentic, but if it tastes good, why worry about authenticity?

RECIPE

Cioppino

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 1/2 cups onion, chopped
  • 3/4 cup green pepper, chopped
  • 11 1/2 ounce can, clams
  • 2 pound can, tomatoes
  • 6 ounce can, tomato paste
  • 1 3/4 cups red wine
  • 2 teaspoons oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon basil
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 3/4 cup fish stock
  • 1 1/2 pounds cod or halibut
  • 1/2 pound raw shrimp, peeled

Method

  1. In a large, heavy-bottomed stockpot, saute the garlic, onion, and green peppers in the oil
  2. Drain the clams, reserving 1/4 cup clam juice. Add the remaining clam juice to the sautéed mixture.
  3. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, wine, herbs, salt, pepper, and fish stock. Bring to the boil and simmer 10 minutes.
  4. Cut the fish into bite-sized pieces. Add the clams, fish and shrimp to the soup and simmer, covered, for 35 minutes.
  5. Remove cover and simmer for 15 more minutes. Serve with good San Francisco style bread.
  6. (Add fresh calamari, clams, crab, mussels, or other shell-fish as you wish)

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