Thursday Dinner, done right.

I had been wanting to cook a big three course dinner for quite some time, and I finally found an opportunity to do do, my last night in SF before moving to Tahoe for the winter. The menu was ambitions. Roommates and friends were very excited, and I was anxious to try all new recipes. The menu was as followed:

1st Course -
Tuna tar tar served in avocado bowls
Sesame crusted seared ahi salad with sliced mango & avocado, served with a watercress & arugula salad with mango-citrus vinaigrette

2nd Course -
Dungeness crab bisque

3rd Course -
Roast beef with chimichurri sauce


The tuna tar tar came out fabulous. Lightly marinated in a bit of soy sauce, sirracha, sesame oil, and the key ingredient - Lime zest. The lime zest truly helped bring a great brightness to the tuna.


The seared tuna loin came out to perfection and paired very well with the mango vinaigrette.


I was most nervous about the bisque, having never made it before. I actually followed a recipe a read in the New York Times a while back which helped simplify the bisque. It turned out incredible. Fresh tarragon, dry sherry and of course the deliciously sweet dungeness crab truly shined in this delicate soup. Everyone at the table agreed this was the best dish of the night, including me. I couldn't get enough of it.

The roast beef came out delicious, however, it could have used a few more minutes in the oven to make it a beautiful medium rare. Having taken my first shot at making chimichurri sauce, I don't think I would change much. The medley of fresh herbs were fantastic with the salty steak. I highly recommend making this sauce for any piece of red meat you may cook. And, it keeps!

Recipes below:

Chimichurri Sauce:

• 1 cup cilantro leaves
• 1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 1/2 cup mint leaves
• 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 3/4 to 1 cup olive oil
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Crab Bisque:

1 carrot, chopped

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 sprigs fresh thyme

2 sprigs fresh tarragon

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup medium sherry

2 cups fish stock or clam broth

1/2 cup long-grain white rice

1 cup heavy cream

Cayenne pepper, to taste.

Salad Dressing:

mango

cilantro

chives

olive oil

lime juice

salt/pepper

brown sugar

Tuna Tar Tar:

soy sauce

ginger

lime zest

sesame oil

sirracha

Crab Season Part II - Cioppino

Its cold. Rainy. And Cold. What a better winter dish then a big pot of San Francisco Cioppino. San Francisco style because of the dungeness crab, and how it makes the stew very tasty. Having never made this dish before I called upon a few references. My good friend Travis is from Sicilian heritage and having had his cioppino last winter, I called on him for advice. His was of few words, keep it simple. Tomato sauce, white wine, garlic, maybe an onion, and fresh seafood. He added a few other suggestions on what he likes, and one I found really intriguing was to put some fish in at the beginning of the boil. What this does is add a thickener to the sauce, as well as give a really nice foundation of flavor into the tomato based stew. I took his advice and bought some tilapia, mussels and two very large dungeness crabs.

First starting with almost a handful of garlic, olive oil and half an onion. Then adding the tomato sauce, tomatoes, white wine, stock, and seasonings. I let this cook for about 45 min before adding the first portion of white fish. I added half of the tilapia, and then let it cook for about 20-30 min. Then added the crab and mussels letting them stew for about 15 min.

My friends arrived with an abundance of fresh Italian style bread and nice red wine. And then we feasted. No one spoke for about 5 min after getting their first helping of the hearty stew. We went through a full roll of paper towels and the bread was torn into like the vikings would during a feast. It was outstanding. Not much else could be said, other than this one is a keeper.

2 cans tomato sauce
1 can diced tomato
3/4 bottle of white wine
3 cups crab stock (made from shells)
1/2 an onion
bay leaf
oregano
salt
pepper
red chili flakes

talapia
crab
mussels

Mac & Cheese

I've had the itch to make mac 'n cheese for a while now. Coming up to Tahoe for an extended weekend gave me the perfect opportunity to make this body warming dish while outside it snowed two feet.


Through a couple tries I finally have a trio of cheese that I really like to use. Fontina for a great silky texture, white cheddar for that sharp taste, and Grueyer because, well its grueyer. This time, I happen to have some smoked grueyer from a previous sandwich making endeavor. It worked nicely adding a very rich flavor to the pasta.

Because everything is better with bacon, that's where I started. Some bacon diced up and fried until crispy. Then I added some minced shallots. A splash of white wine and let that reduce for a bit. I added about 1/2 up of whipping cream, some pepper (would have preferred white pepper, but none in the Tahoe pantry...) and then I added my cheeses. A dash of paprika and stirring until smooth.

I added my cheese mixture to the half cooked pasta elbows, topped with panko bread crumbs and popped it in the oven at 375* until golden brown.

Upon first dig, I realized my final product wasn't quite what I was looking for. Not all cheesy and gooey, but rather some very delicious and lightly flavored pasta. Note for next go, add more cheese.

All in all, the mac & cheese was delicous, and will be even better as a lunch!

Crab Rolls

It's crab season. One of the greatest things about living in San Francisco is its plentiful supply of fresh seafood. Crab season is the granddaddy of them all in my opinion, and not as celebrated as it should be. I was walking through whole foods yesterday and too my delight I saw a big display in the seafood section. "Fresh Crab, cooked at pier 45 - $5.99/lb" I pumped my fist. I made some calls, and figured what better way to watch a great monday night football game than with some crab rolls.

So, I bought a crab, painfully cracked & fished all the meat out and set it aside. When I was a little kid, my japanese grandpa had this incredible dipping sauce for fresh crab. It was the only way they could get me to eat the tasty crustacean. But, simply the right portions of soy sauce, lemon juice, and brown sugar makes this crab sing. I took this sauce and lightly marinated the crab in it. Not too much, just enough to coat the meat. Being in this wonderful state, there is no better addition to a sandwich than fresh sliced avocado. The bread was Acme cibatta, toasted with olive oil & butter. This sandwich on its own is incredible. San Franciscans, and those that live somewhere near fresh crab, do this! Added to the center point was a no-mayo coleslaw comprised of carrots, cabbage, radishes, cilantro, and jalepenos. Dressed with redwine viniger, dijon mustard, and a touch of honey. Great contrast to the rich crab. To make it complete with the football theme, a baked potato.

What a great start to the week. Go eat some crab!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. Arguably the greatest holiday of the year. When else do we get 2 days off to celebrate food and family. A holiday centered around one huge meal, and subsequent side meals of sandwiches made from leftovers (my favorite meal of the year happens to be the post-thanksgiving sandwich). My family, like all others, has its traditions and general hoopla surrounding this epic meal. We are pretty traditional in our turkey dinner with all of the normal things you would see on a thanksgiving table. Ive been trying in the past few years to push the envelope and get my family to try new things at thanksgiving. This year I was handed the assignment of appetizers, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. Given that my family doesn't deal with a change in tradition to easily, I took these standard assignments and tried to dress them up a bit without fully straying from the traditional flavors of the dishes.

My appetizer was a take on bacon wrapped figs. With a minor miss communication on a shopping list, I was handed 2 boxes of dates, and crumbled goat cheese. Not really ideal for starting this dish on Thanksgiving day. So, I ran with it. I've never used dates in cooking before, and realized quickly that they are much sweeter than figs. So my first step, fry some bacon. 'Cause bacon is just magical. I took the rendered bacon fat and added some fine diced shallots. Once those were soft I added the dried dates. Seeing that the mixture needed some liquid, I quickly found a cheap bottle of red wine and added it to the pan. Now, I was getting somewhere. I decided that no one really would like a big chunk of date being stuck in their teeth before dinner, so I took the mixture and put it in a food processor. Capriciously, I added a little bit of goat cheese and hit blend. Not bad, I thought. So, i added the whole lot of the cheese, while taking out some of the date mixture. The puree was delicious. To finish this dish, I had decided earlier with the figs I was going to serve it in an endive wrapped in prosciutto adding salt, bitterness, and a nice crunch to the app.
So, I piped the mixture onto the endive and quickly realized I had to completely hide it with the prosciutto due to its unappealing look.
All in all, it turned out pretty good. The family dusted the tray before the Turkey went into the fryer.

Mashed potatoes. Pretty sacred in my family. One way, simple, kinda boring. I saw a trick on Food Network that called for boiling the potatoes in milk. So, I tried it. Whole milk, water, fresh thyme, salt & white pepper boiled the yukon gold potatoes. Once tender I just added some butter, and placed some of the milk mixture back into the potatoes. Finished with a handful parmesan cheese and these potatoes were outstanding. Try this, you wont be disappointed.

Chili Lime Shrimp w/ citrus cous cous & grilled broccoli

So, going back a few months on this post too. Summer provides a great variety of fruits, vegetables, and cooking methods like grilling. On a sunny Sunday, our adventures took us to the grill. After the purchase of some Tahitian Lime butter from a local festival (also mentioned in the Fish Taco post), my good friend Chris and I headed out to make a delicious meal around this ingredient. We bought some shrimp, broccoli and some white peaches. And built from there. We rendered an incredible summer meal, complete with a delicious white wine.

Chris took care of the broccoli with a spicy marinade, I took the shrimp and the cous cous. The shrimp were marinated in the tahitian lime butter, garlic pepper sauce, olive oil, and some fresh lime for good measure. The cous cous had some fresh parsley, lemon juice, and a touch of balsamic added to it. We complemented the meal with a half a peach toasted on the grill, and being californians we completed the plate with a big heaping portion of fresh avocado to top.
Summer sundays are fabulous.

Iron Chef 2

So, after the first Iron Chef Pine St. my roommate wanted another challenge. I gladly accepted. We had a few more people, a simpler score card, and some more fun indgredients:

Shrimp, Fennel, Serrano Chilies, Yams (really?), and Mushrooms.

My dishes:

Tequila shrimp cevice
- Lime juice, a nice blanco tequila, finely diced serrano chilis, finely diced fennel, and some nice sized chunks of white peach. Garnished with a big slice of the peach for a nice sweet finish.

Chili fennel shrimp w/ mushroom risotto
- The key to this was adding all of the shrimp shells & discarded pieces of fennel to the stock.

Cajun shrimp with bourbon yam fritters
- Having never made fritters before this event, the experiment worked out with flying colors. First roasting the yams, then mashing together the yams, egg, bread crumbs, bourbon, maple syrup and a touch of salt. These puppies were deep fried to a beautiful dark caramel color. Garnished with a maple bourbon butter sauce. The shrimp were simply prepared with some cajun seasoning and married next to the fritter.

Sausage Penne w/ Brown butter sauce

An impromptu lunch invite led me to Whole Foods for a quick and cheap lunch. Pasta was brought up, and pasta is what I made. Simple, easy, and quite delicious:

Penne
Loose mild italian sausage
Zucchini
Mushrooms
Browned butter sauce with sage
Topped with fresh basil & parmesean cheese

Instead of drowning the sausage & veggies in butter, I mixed in all the goods to the pasta first, then coated with the brown butter sauce.

A great cheap, Autumn lunch!

Iron Chef 1

Being food network junkies, my roommate and I had talked for ages about doing an Iron Chef battle. Dividing the kitchen, having friends bring over the secret ingredients, and doing battle the best we could.
Not only was it a blast, we surprised ourselves on how good we did in 90 minutes.

Secret Ingredients:
Cherries, Mint, Pork Loin, bay scallops, Polenta, Heirloom tomatoes, chives.

My dishes:
- Crostini w/ goat cheese, cherries marinated in balsamic, heirloom tomato, and a sliver of mint to top.
- Heirloom tomato stuffed with polenta & parmesean cheese
- Roast pork loin, stuffed with cherries, mint, chives & shallots. With a cherry, cabernet reduction to top.
- Cherry Polenta crostini topped with goat cheese.
- Deep fried heirloom tomatoes, topped with a bacon wrapped scallop.

Short Ribs

I recently had dinner with my friend Ruthie who is an aspiring chef getting prepared to attend culinary school in St. Helena this winter (read her blog! - http://ruthinfood.blogspot.com/).

Upon talking about & roaming the store for what to cook for dinner, we settled on short ribs, which we would marinate in an asian style, rice, and green beans.

The ribs were delicious, and could easily be improved with a longer marinade time.

Marinade:
Soy sauce
Mirin
Fresh ginger
Seasame oil
Siracha hot sauce
Brown sugar


Cooking - Meat side down to start. Rotate until cooked through (about 12-15 min total cooking time, depending on thickness)

We also had some savory cilantro rice - cooked by adding cilantro stems, soy sauce and a dash of seasame oil to the rice cooker.

For my first ever attempt at cooking short ribs, I concluded with "I like short ribs."

Tortilla Soup & Pork Sliders

Thursday football.
Good beer. Good food. Horrible game. And then, a night out.

Tortilla soup:
All good soups start with a great stock.
- Homemade chicken stock
- Chicken thighs - dredged in flour, browned with a bit of oil.
- Corn tortillas cut into strips
- Leeks, cut the same size as the tortillas
- Can of diced tomatoes
- Cilantro
- Jalepenos
- Pablano pepper
- Chili powder
- Cayenne pepper
- Seasoning salt
- Paprika
- Hot sauce

Soups are pretty straight forward. Cook everything a little, then throw it in to one big pot and let it cook for a while. My steps were to crisp some of the tortilla strips up first, then add leeks, then add a can of diced tomatoes. Let that simmer for a bit, then add it into the stock pot. Once the chicken is cooked, remove, then shred, then place back into the pot. I garnished this dish with crispy tortilla strips, fresh cilantro, and fresh diced tomatoes.

Pork Sliders - Keith, please comment and leave your bbq sauce recipe.

Sunday Perfection

Sunday; a day of relaxation, sunshine (hopefully), and hangover management. This past Sunday was one for the books. A corner market cigarette run, brewing another batch of coffee at 1pm, a move to the park complete with blanket, portable speakers, and ice cold beer, some delicious cheese, and some of the best people I know (take that for a run-on sentence).
My ideal Sunday was exactly what was written above, with an addition of a great, big, enjoyable family style dinner. And, we had one:

Skirt steak marinated in honey mustard, Dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt & pepper.
Fingerling potatoes boiled whole, then fork mashed with some par boiled brussel sprouts. Browned in butter, a little garlic, green onions, salt & pepper. And some fresh parmesan to top.
Spinach salad with avocado, pear, goat cheese, and shallots with a balsamic vinaigrette.
And some fresh bread toasted golden brown with a subtle butter & olive oil topping.

The neighbors brought over an incredible Cabernet from the Wente vineyards.

This was truly a treat, and an incredible day.

The toast of that night: "Happy Sunday"

Fish Tacos

I have made fish tacos dozens of times, and each time yielded a different result. This one, may have been my best yet.

Fish - Alaskan Halibut (Courtesy of my good friends Jess & Brandon)
Batter - Egg wash w/ a little water, Flour w/ chili lime salt.

Fish was broken down into managable strips, lightly battered, then pan fried in about 1/2 inch of vegetable oil.

Salsa - 1 mango, 2 avocados, 1/2 red onion, 1/2 bunch of cilantro, 3 limes, honey, mustard (sweet & spicy, and tahitian lime butter.

As always with food, especially fish, the better and higher quality ingredients, the better the food will turn out. This fish was incredible. I got a little lucky by finding a jar of this sweet, delicate butter I got suckered into buying at SF's Aloha fest. But, it turned out to be a great rediscovery in my fridge.

Mission Statement

Hi, for those who may actually read this thing, this is going to be my sort of online recipe book. I have failed at keeping recipes from capricious meals scraped together from left overs in the fridge that turned into outstanding meals. This blog will hopefully reconcile that.

I love food. I love to eat. I love to cook. I love a great meal that brings friends, family, laughter and memories all to one table. At my current residence in SF, we have had a small tradition of Thursday night dinners. These meals have yielded outstanding cuisine by my self and also my roommmate. They have produced a fierce Iron Chef rivalry between us, and also produced some of the best nights of the year.

So, although this is mainly going to house recipes, I encourage any of the followers to take, steal, manipulate and comment on the food published here.

Happy cooking.