Breakfast inspiration

Call it an early wake up, or the presence of 36 eggs in the fridge, I went out and tried something I've been wanting to make ever since visiting Spain. 


My first attempt at a Spanish omelet, or Tortilla.  Simple ingredients treated well and cooked slow.  Started by adding shallots and thin slices of peeled potatoes to a pan with olive oil & butter.  sauteed and covered to soften the potatoes. Once cooked, this was added to 8 eggs beaten with about a 1/4 cup of milk.  The mixture was added back to the pan and slow cooked for about 20 min, until the eggs set. Then in traditional style, a plate on top of the pan to assist the flip of the omelet.  For the 1st attempt, only a few potatoes leaked out.  

Garnished with some fresh spinach sauteed in olive oil & a touch of garlic. And of course, hot sauce.  People were fighting for the last piece. Next time, add bacon. 

Veggie meal w/ a side of protien

I don't often cook a large vegetarian meal mainly because I like meat too much.  However, when a good friend comes to visit, who is a vegetarian, my skills get tested a bit.  My dear friend Regina and her boyfriend Rachid came over to do some riding in north lake this past Thursday.  With more than one vegetarian at the dinner table, my menu was amended to meet their needs.  The two main dishes created for this evenings events were a butternut & acorn squash soup, and a asparagus & mushroom risotto.


The soup base was prepped the evening before by roasting the squash with some brown sugar, nutmeg, and butter.  They were halved and placed skin up on a roasting pan with a bit of water in the basin.  400* for an hour and they came out beautiful. Finishing the soup by softening some shallots in olive oil, the base was added with ladles of veggie stock.  Blended and finished with heavy cream.  The soup (which would have easily fed 12) was completely finished by the end of the meal.


The risotto was simple, but difficult to time due to altitude.  Mushrooms & asparagus added to the rice with some veggie stock and finished with some parmesan cheese and a drizzle of good olive oil.


For the experimental course, I tried to steal a dish made by the Lone Eagle Grill in Incline. Portabellos smothered in goat cheese, dredged in panko and then fried.  Served with a simple tomato sauce made from fresh tomatoes, and a baby spinach salad. This was a hit, and a keeper.  Gone before I could even grab a second bite!


Simply added to the main course for the meat eaters was a few king crab legs which were conveniently on sale at Safeway.  


What seemed like 8 bottles of wine later, a fabulous dinner with great music and conversation!

Park City Indulgence

First and foremost, a huge thank you goes out to Brody for his incredible hospitality.  Brody, thank you for opening your beautiful home and awesome kitchen to me.  After a mellow day on the slopes, and a large evening the night before, we decided to cook in. Brody was gracious enough to thaw out a beautiful whole beef tenderloin strip.  Essentially 8 pounds of filet mignon.  Also on the menu to go with the filet was some brussle sprouts and yams.  I had fun creating this menu.  Lets start with the fliet... 


Instead of just wrapping it in bacon, I used a rub I have tried before but never with this quality piece of meat.  Coffee (espresso roast), brown sugar, nutmeg and cayenne pepper was mixed together and then coated the tenderloin (note: I wanted to add some cocoa powder to the mix but totally forgot until half way through the meal).  With the fat trimmings, I made a simple beef stock with an addition of medium sherry. This would help flavor the sauce.  For the sauce, just a simple balsamic reduction with some of the beef stock added.  Also to the sauce, I added a couple pinches of the coffee rub (next time, I will add a few shots of espresso). This beautiful meat was lightly seared, the roasted at 400* for 35 min.  Perfectly medium rare. 


The yams.  Probably my favorite creation of the night.  Taking a page out of Iron Chef 2, I roasted the yams then mashed.  Added bourbon, butter, brown sugar, cream, salt and a dash of cayenne.  Bourbon and yams are friends. Next time, adding bacon!

Lastly were the brussle sprouts.  Pan cooked with bacon and a little butter & salt.  They added a perfect compliment to the steak & yams.  


The wonderful meal was not without incredible wine.  Brody and Travis picked up 3 fabulous bottles.  Wine lovers - buy Altamera.  Wow. 

And then, an hour or so after our 2nd glass of scotch I stumbled through making dessert.  Grilled peaches with a balsamic-honey whipped cream. Awesome meal. Awesome company. Thanks Brody! I'm looking forward to cooking in your kitchen again soon.

Thursday Dinner - Tahoe Edition

So, a long and overdue dinner was finally constructed this past Thursday eve.  Amidst the blizzards and heaps of snow, a small group of good people made it over for a wonderful dinner.  I had the itch to cook and try new things, and take whatever Safeway could provide to throw together a fun winter meal.  Everyone had just finished an epic day of skiing & riding and hungry for a big meal.  
Ali P provided the wonderfully refreshing spinach salad with feta, asparagus, and strawberries.  The main course was a roast chuck which I treated like roast beef, seasoned, seared and then roasted in the oven.  Because the piece of meat wasn't exactly ideal, I decided to try and flavor it up a bit.  I covered the roast with bacon after searing, and then used a few cups of red wine in the base of the cast iron to help keep the moisture in.  Along with an onion quartered, the roast cooked in the oven at 325* for about 2 hours. All told, it came out great.  I deglazed the pan with a touch of balsamic vinegar and more red wine. I then added the bacon back to the reduction with the onions for a sauce/relish. This was definitely the highlight of the dish!

I had the idea of using a chimichurri sauce as a side for this roast, but instead I decided to use it as a dressing for the starch & veg portion of the meal.  So, I roasted some Yukon gold potatoes and quartered brussel sprouts.  Once cooked, I took some of the chimichurri sauce and coated the side dish.  
And to finish off, I cooked some radishes (thanks Frankie B.) to use as palate cleansers. (if you haven't tried cooked radishes, they are amazing.  Cook in butter & olive oil until golden brown).

A few bottles of wine, some good records, and pumpkin bread & neoploltin ice cream for dessert made this night a blast!  Thanks for braving the storm! 

Sunday night inspiration

After neglecting a few posts and recipes, I finally got a chance to take a night and cook a nice meal after a long day of snowboarding. A quick back log moment; I was recently placed on the personal chef list for Tahoe Luxury Properties (www.tluxp.com). For the lovely ladies that work at TluxP I cooked them an array of dishes I had made before: Traditional Tuscan Bruschetta, Crab Bisque, and Vietnamese Sandwiches (pork loin marinated in soy, plum sauce, mirin, ginger, sirracha, sesame oil, and cilantro).

Anyhow, I was craving something that I knew I wouldn't be able to stop eating. Inspired by San Francisco's Zuni, I put together a chicken & bread salad dish that is usually a summer treat. Every time I've been to Zuni, I have always figured that the chicken was just a vessel for its bread salad, and not the other way around. Bread salad is something that we don't usually order or make, but man is it delicious. I think it should take the place of a lot of sad salads you see on restaurant plates.

The method to the madness was a technique I read about in the NY Times a few years ago. By roasting chicken on day old bread. Well, I skipped that step this time because I wanted to reduce the cooking time. Instead, I seared some drumsticks which had been marinating in the vinaigrette listed below, and then ripped apart the bread and placed it around the chicken in the cast iron pan. After drizzling the bread & chicken in the marinade and a bit of white wine, I put the pan in the oven at 400* for 30 min.

The chicken came out fabulous. I deglazed the pan with the rest of the marinade and used it to dressed the ripped crusty bread. Something a bit different this go around, I added a few julianne leaves of basil and chopped Italian parsley. Usually, I like to add roasted corn, however its not corn season sadly.


This is a great and easy recipe. Eat some bread salad! (not the best picture...)

Chicken - Zuni style

Marinade/Dressing:
1 orange
2 limes
balsamic
olive oil
honey
pepper
salt
cayenne pepper
dijon mustard
italian parsley
one basil leaf

Marinated, then seared drumsticks in cast iron pan in butter & olive oil
Rip bread and add to cast iron pan

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!