Yesterday was my birthday (please don't ask which-sigh). We are season subscribers to SF Ballet, and had tix to the mixed repertory performance, so I wanted to eat somewhere in the Van Ness area. Now, I'm a huge fan of cooking shows, and have been watching Top Chef religiously the last couple of seasons. I really loved some of the things Jamie Lauren was doing on the show, and so I made a reservation at Absinthe, where she's Exec. chef. I made the reservation through OpenTable, and put in a note that I'd like to meet her if she was there, but didn't really expect that to come to anything.
John and I take BART to the city, and as usual on a Friday night, the train was late, so I called to let the restaurant know. They were very gracious and agreed to hold the table. When we got there, the bar was packed and it was quite noisy, but we were seated promptly and were able to converse easily despite being fairly near the bar.
For my appetizer, I ordered the roasted marrow bone "shared plate", and John decided on the French onion soup. Of course, I ordered the scallops for my entree, thinking of Top Chef's Fabio's comment about Jamie's scallops, "It's Top Chef, not Top Scallops!" John ordered the stuffed chicken. We talked and munched on the good bread and waited and after a rather long wait the maitre d' informed us that Jamie had looked at my marrow bones and decided that they were not good ones, and was doing them over. So, she actually WAS there! And he said she'd be out later to meet me. I was really excited! Then she sent out two appetizers so we'd have something while we waited - the spiced fried chickpeas and the pommes frites. They were both tasty, and the chickpeas were addictive, but we restrained ourselves from downing all the frites in anticipation of our orders.
When they did come out, both appetizers were wonderful. My marrow bones were perfect, with a sprinkling of sea salt, a head of roasted garlic, buttered toast, and a really lovely herb salad (mostly parsley and chives - very nice and not bitter like many herb salads). John could barely talk he was so busy with his soup; it's not often that he relishes food so much, what with his picky tastes. The entrees were also really good - yes, those scallops were perfectly seared, and I really loved the sunchoke puree. John, as usual, didn't eat much other than the chicken, saying he was too full to eat more. His Brussels sprouts looked amazing though, so I'm sure they were really good.
And yes, Jamie did come out to meet us and she was really gracious and sweet. I was just thrilled. She and the staff wished me a happy birthday, and when my dessert, the lemon panna cotta, came out it had Happy Birthday on the plate in chocolate with a candle to blow out. The panna cotta was perfect - light and creamy under a light lemon gelatin, with a nice dollop of huckleberry compote on top and a lemon thyme tuile. Mmmmm.
All in all, despite BART delays and marrow bone mishaps, both dinner and the ballet were wonderful. What a great birthday it was!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Paper Chef #37 - Ingredients Up!
Having won last month's Paper Chef competition, it's my turn to select the ingredients and judge this month's entries. PRESSURE! The random list of ingredients from which to choose was really interesting. Since Spikey Mikey's choices last month were a bit perplexing (at least to me), I thought I should try keep things challenging this month, so my three random ingredients from the list are:
Let's get cooking!
- Liver (and I'm going to specify calves' liver to keep things interesting)
- Cheese
- Oregano
And the "secret" ingredient is (da, da, da, da!):
- Chestnuts!
Let's get cooking!
Ski In, Ski Out
Our timeshare at Park City Mountain Resort is ski-in, ski-out, making eating in very attractive, even at lunch time. Ski up to the gate, hide skis behind a post, tramp up to the room, munch, tramp back to the gate, jump into skis, and hop on the lift. Pretty nifty - and well worth the cost. I always ask myself what we were thinking all those years we booked lodging on a bus route rather than at the base. DUH!
As noted in my last post, we ended up having a whole lot of mussels in marinara sauce left from dinner at Easy Street Brasserie. Hmm. John used to like mussels, but since he's become pickier by the year, they have now been taken off the (short) list of things he'll eat. Well, a couple of nights earlier I'd made some whole grain spaghetti with packaged Bertolli marinara, and had 1/2 box of pasta left. It also turned out that I'd forgotten to put the smoked salmon we'd bought into the sauce, so that pretty much solved the dilemma. I cooked the remaining pasta in the electric skillet, drained it, and added my leftovers from Easy Street and the smoked salmon (cut into chunks). I got the mussels, he got the salmon, and everyone was happy. The sauce was even better the second day. Added a salad, bread (with olive oil and balsamic for dipping), and had a terrific meal even without a stove.
The rest of our meals were pretty nondescript - salads, canned soup, etc. We're pretty boring when we ski (even more than usual, that is).
As noted in my last post, we ended up having a whole lot of mussels in marinara sauce left from dinner at Easy Street Brasserie. Hmm. John used to like mussels, but since he's become pickier by the year, they have now been taken off the (short) list of things he'll eat. Well, a couple of nights earlier I'd made some whole grain spaghetti with packaged Bertolli marinara, and had 1/2 box of pasta left. It also turned out that I'd forgotten to put the smoked salmon we'd bought into the sauce, so that pretty much solved the dilemma. I cooked the remaining pasta in the electric skillet, drained it, and added my leftovers from Easy Street and the smoked salmon (cut into chunks). I got the mussels, he got the salmon, and everyone was happy. The sauce was even better the second day. Added a salad, bread (with olive oil and balsamic for dipping), and had a terrific meal even without a stove.
The rest of our meals were pretty nondescript - salads, canned soup, etc. We're pretty boring when we ski (even more than usual, that is).
Park City Adventures
VACATION! SKIING! John and I were in Park City for our annual ski week last week, so no blogging when there's powder out there! Actually, it was a very strange week. Arrived Friday afternoon, and the snow didn't look too good. Saturday it was raining. I wanted to stay in and not waste a lift ticket on crappy skiing, but he talked me into going out. Turned out the snow at the summit wasn't too bad, but after 3 hours we were so wet we were both ready to quit. That's a good thing - we weren't sore the next morning. The weather got better and better through the week - snow showers Sunday, two feet of powder Monday, more snow showers Tuesday, and sun, sun, sun on Thursday and Friday. Only crashed a couple of times, and no injuries, so it was a great week. It was my first time skiing in a knee brace (thanks to blowing my ACL last April), and I only skied a couple of blacks, but we still had a great time.
So, you ask, what about the FOOD?
We usually go out only a couple of times on a ski trip. This year we were pretty conservative - no really pricy meals, but we did get some tasty ones. We didn't go out until Monday, as Sundance was still on when we arrived and we knew it would be crazy in town. Monday we decided to go someplace pretty casual - Easy Street Brasserie. We've been there before and enjoyed it. I had their lobster bisque, which was wonderful, but it was so rich I wasn't very hungry for the "Big Bowl of Mussels" entree I'd ordered. It was good, too, but really, how many mussels can one girl eat? Staying in a tiny condo (it was our year for the "lock-off" studio portion of our timeshare) left us with few cooking options (micro and electric skillet), but the marinara sauce on the mussels was so good we decided to take it with us and have seafood marinara pasta the next night. More on that later. John had the Hill Country Quesadilla and a Caesar salad. He was happy with both, though he complained a bit that there was a drizzle on the quesadilla (he's SO picky!). The quesadilla was stuffed with chorizo, and looked yummy.
Our other downtown dining night we went to Butcher's Chophouse. I was hungry for BEEF. I got the prime rib, and he got a filet (plain, boring). I also had the beet salad, which was WAY too much food, so that ended up being turned into a sandwich for lunch the next day. Butcher's was OK, but nothing to blog/brag about. Beef is beef, after all.
Finally, to avoid a second trip to Albertson's, we went to the little Thai place at the resort base on Thursday. Pretty good larb gai, panang curry, and tom kha goong, but nothing spectacular. Cheap enough, though, considering it's a resort.
The only disappointment was that we didn't get to go to the Blind Dog this year. It's our favorite Park City restaurant, but with Sundance going on we knew we wouldn't get in on the weekend. Oh, well, there's always next year!
So, you ask, what about the FOOD?
We usually go out only a couple of times on a ski trip. This year we were pretty conservative - no really pricy meals, but we did get some tasty ones. We didn't go out until Monday, as Sundance was still on when we arrived and we knew it would be crazy in town. Monday we decided to go someplace pretty casual - Easy Street Brasserie. We've been there before and enjoyed it. I had their lobster bisque, which was wonderful, but it was so rich I wasn't very hungry for the "Big Bowl of Mussels" entree I'd ordered. It was good, too, but really, how many mussels can one girl eat? Staying in a tiny condo (it was our year for the "lock-off" studio portion of our timeshare) left us with few cooking options (micro and electric skillet), but the marinara sauce on the mussels was so good we decided to take it with us and have seafood marinara pasta the next night. More on that later. John had the Hill Country Quesadilla and a Caesar salad. He was happy with both, though he complained a bit that there was a drizzle on the quesadilla (he's SO picky!). The quesadilla was stuffed with chorizo, and looked yummy.
Our other downtown dining night we went to Butcher's Chophouse. I was hungry for BEEF. I got the prime rib, and he got a filet (plain, boring). I also had the beet salad, which was WAY too much food, so that ended up being turned into a sandwich for lunch the next day. Butcher's was OK, but nothing to blog/brag about. Beef is beef, after all.
Finally, to avoid a second trip to Albertson's, we went to the little Thai place at the resort base on Thursday. Pretty good larb gai, panang curry, and tom kha goong, but nothing spectacular. Cheap enough, though, considering it's a resort.
The only disappointment was that we didn't get to go to the Blind Dog this year. It's our favorite Park City restaurant, but with Sundance going on we knew we wouldn't get in on the weekend. Oh, well, there's always next year!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Paper Chef #36 - I Won!
Well, this is very exciting! Mike, of Spikey Mikeys has declared me the winner of the February Paper Chef competition. There weren't a lot of entries this month, but the ingredients were pretty tricky, and I have to admit that my dish (pepper crusted London broil with chili-vanilla balsamic cream and chili-avocado barley pilaf) was pretty tasty and just what I needed after all the heaving eating in December. Anyway, thanks Mike! I'm looking forward to judging next month's competition and coming up with a fun/challenging secret ingredient.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Chili-Vanilla Balsamic Creme
Everyone seems interested in the creme, so here's a "recipe" (I'm a cook-by-tasting person, so it's not going to be exact). I used about 1/4 cup of creme fraiche, and about 1/4 tsp each of crushed green and pink peppercorns. I did not have a vanilla pod handy, so I added some Madagascar vanilla extract, and some (like 3/4 tsp. maybe?) balsamic vinegar. Added salt, then more vanilla, tasting until it was not too sweet. The vanilla surprisingly offset the sweetness of the balsamic - probably because I used extract. I just kept adjusting the flavors salt, balsamic, and vanilla until I had something I liked. Then I added some spice by adding a bit of the chopped guajillo pepper I had soaked in the barley tea used for cooking the barley.
Barley tea is a Korean beverage - it comes in "tea" bags. I buy packages of them at the 99 Ranch Market. I'm kind of a barley tea addict!
Barley tea is a Korean beverage - it comes in "tea" bags. I buy packages of them at the 99 Ranch Market. I'm kind of a barley tea addict!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Paper Chef 36
For this month's Paper Chef, my entry is pepper crusted London broil with chili-vanilla balsamic cream and chili-avocado barley pilaf. I thought this month's ingredients were really challenging. The randomizer selected barley, dried chili, and vanilla, and this month's judge, Spikey Mikey, was kind and gave us beef as the fourth ingredient. I've been really busy so I thought I'd do something simple with some leftover rare London broil that I made Monday evening. When I made it, I sort of had Paper Chef in mind, and coated it in a dry crushed pepper mix before searing in a grill pan. I love chilled rare beef, so I just sliced it thinly and plated it with a cool chili-vanilla-balsamic sauce with some creme fraiche as the base. Surprisingly, it took quite a bit of vanilla extract to balance the flavors. On the side I added a barley pilaf made by soaking dried guajillo peppers in barley tea to rehydrate them, and then cooking the barley in the liquid. I find barley pretty bland, so I added quite a bit of chopped chili and some pink and green peppercorns, plus a bit of shallot, avocado, and lemon juice, and sprinkled it with additional chopped chili from the barley tea. It was really tasty - the cream had some sweetness to balance the acidity of the pilaf and since the chilis were not hot the peppercorns added just the right amount of bite and a bit of crunch. It was yummy!
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