Cooks Confab-ulous - Sustainable Seafood Dinner at 1500 Ocean

Last week I attended my first of these events - but if I have anything to say about it, it definitely won't be the last. The Cooks Confab is a group of socially conscious local chefs who throw marvelous dinners every few months, with a stated mission anyone can get behind: to bring good people and great food together and "share the love." At each dinner, each chef prepares a different course based around a theme - in the past they've featured truffles, "birds," foie gras - and last week, Sustainable Seafood.

Andrew Spurgin of Waters Catering, Jeff Jackson and Timothy Kolanko of A.R. Valentien, Jason Knibb and Jack Fisher of 910, Brian Sinnott of 1500 Ocean, Nathan Coulon of Quarter Kitchen at the Ivy, Christian Graves from JSix, Brian Malarky from Oceanaire, and Antonio Friscia of Stingaree are all on board, and the word is more chefs are joining. Given that this list is a virtual "who's who" of the best chefs in town, it's no surprise that the food was amazing, but they really went above and beyond - every detail was lovely and every dish was delicious. That's hard enough to find in a regular restaurant meal, so the fact that they accomplished it at an event attended by over a hundred is nothing short of a minor miracle.


It all started on 1500 Ocean's terraced front patio. They've done a little work on it recently, adding a large walk-up bar and some wide-rimmed concrete fire pits that double as cocktail tables. In this area, they served the first five out of nine courses (with wine pairings) and when we were ready for the rest, we went into the restaurant to be seated for the remaining four courses at a table.

Angie and I started with the grilled baby abalone, served up by Nathan Coulon. Nathan is the son of Michele Coulon and the grandson of the owners of the Belgian Lion - one of the earliest and best loved gourmet restaurants in San Diego's history (where 3rd Corner currently resides.) Sustainably farmed in Mexico, the abalone was served grilled, sliced and returned to the shell with either a drizzle of lemon juice and olive oil or a garlic butter sauce. The flavor is sweet like a scallop or calamari, but it has a little more texture - almost a crunch to it. The abalone shells were an especially nice touch - I think the bussers thought I was a little nuts when I said I wanted to keep mine.

Next we zagged up to Stingaree's station for a taste of the Royal Shellfish Bisque. The chef was making it to order, adding chunks of lobster tail to an incredibly rich base along with a squeeze of oil. It was served in little porcelain cups, and was divine. I had seconds.

Brian Malarky's oysters and Brian Sinnott's crudo were both highlights - impeccably fresh and beautifully plated, served with their own fabulous wines. Last but not least (of the "outside" courses) was Jeff Jackson and Timothy Kolanko's Guerrero Negro scallop mousseline. It was subtle but flavorful and perfect for spring, with the vibrant green garlic puree and pea tendrils.

After we had sampled everything offered outside, we moved indoors. We had a large party of eight - so they kindly seated us in their "wine room" a separate dining room in the back near the bar. The main dining room is lovely there too, with the doors that open onto the view, and the natural wood accented by sky blue armchairs.

Once seated, we were treated to the attentions of Ted Glennon, the hotel's Wine Director and Sommelier, who filled us in on all of the wine choices and poured our glasses. The indoor courses included a seared wild striped bass, a sea urchin pasta with mushrooms, and a sous vide Loch Duart salmon with morels. All were delicious - but the bass was my favorite, crusted with tapenade and served with a drizzle of chorizo oil, purple potatoes the size of a pencil eraser and carrots the size of a baby's pinkie.

The dessert by Jack Fisher was something special. I might not have ordered it if I saw it on the menu, but it really wowed me when I tasted it. It was called "Olive Oil Parfait" - in the French sense, because what came out was not a layered dessert in a glass, but a cold mousse flavored faintly with olive oil and vanilla. It was served with a dollop of strawberry "caviar" - molecular gastronomy style, and a bit of stewed rhubarb and syrup. A perfect, not too heavy and very interesting conclusion to a long and lovely meal.

Tickets for this event were $95.00, including the nine courses, wine pairings, tax and gratuity. In my mind, it was an amazing value, given the quality and work that went into it. Cooks Confab events are held roughly every other month - visit their website at www.cooksconfab.com for more information.

More photos of this dinner can be viewed here.

New Goodies on Home Sweet Vintage!

Over the past week weeks I've hit up a couple of estate sales and my mom's own kitchen, and come up with some new items for my Etsy store, Home Sweet Vintage. I'm adding new things every few days, and have some cool stuff in the hopper (if I do say so myself.) I'm also going to Palm Springs in a couple of weeks, and expect to find more treasures there. Last time, a lot of the shops were closed, but I still found a vintage copper Mauviel beating bowl in a thrift shop for $7.99. If only I could afford the matching ($70.00 !?) stand from Williams Sonoma.

Just yesterday the shop was also featured on a design blog, Simply Designed and Etsy Finds - in a montage with some other great vintage sellers. Her site is also lovely, so be sure to check it out.

More food posts coming soon!

url: http://www.homesweetvintage.etsy.com/

"Faux" or No, Le Gras C'est si Bon - Homemade Chicken Liver Pate

Faux or no, this gras spread is to die for. Hopefully not literally - everything in moderation, right? I have been saving up the livers from my Womach Ranch (local pastured) chickens over the past few weeks (plus a few extras thrown in upon request) specifically for the purpose of making chicken liver mousse or pate. I've had divine versions of this delicacy at both the Farmhouse Cafe and Third Corner, and I knew it was indulgent, but until I started looking at recipes, I have to admit, I was blissfully ignorant of exactly how much so. Six egg yolks? 2 cups of cream?? A pound of butter???

After puzzling over three wildly varying recipes,* I posted a query on Twitter - asking if anyone had a good one, and Sam reminded me of Michel Richard's recipe in the Happy in the Kitchen book. The recipe is actually the simplest one I looked at, both in terms of the method and ingredients. It's a cinch to make, incredibly inexpensive, and best of all, amazingly delicious.

Michel refers to this as "Faux Gras" because it tastes very much like foie gras torchon. All of the ingredients can be purchased for under $5.00. Add some cornichons or pickled red onions (or pickled cherries if you want to go all French Laundry on your guests) and a Bread and Cie baguette and you're all set. With some champagne and salad greens, you've got yourself a feast!

"Faux Gras" Chicken Liver Pate adapted from Michel Richard's Happy in the Kitchen
(mostly what I've done here is cut the recipe in half, his calls for 1 pound of livers, and this makes one nice-sized ramekin. If you're having a party, you might want to double it, and make two ramekins.)

Womach's fresh, organic pastured chickens are available at the Sunday Hillcrest Farmers Market. If you ask nicely, he'll give you extra giblets (ask for feet and necks for stock) and I think he'll also sell the livers separately - I saw him sell about half a pound to an elderly gentleman for two or three dollars a few weeks ago.

1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 stick butter, cut into 4 equal pieces
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup whipping cream
maldon sea salt
finely ground pepper
5-6 ounces chicken livers, any veins, fatty lumps or dark spots removed

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In a small heavy saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter. Add the onion to the melted butter and cook until soft, stirring often. Using a microplane grater, grate half of the garlic clove into the onion. When the onion is translucent, add the whipping cream. Cook until the onion is very soft, about 5 minutes.

Boil two cups of water, either on the stove or in the microwave. Place the chicken livers in the bowl of a small food processor or 2-3 cup mini-chopper Add the onion mixture and puree until smooth. Place a wire mesh strainer over a bowl, and strain the liver mixture into the bowl. Place a four inch ramekin in a cake pan or other high sided pan, and pour the mixture into the ramekin, stirring the surface lightly to get rid of any air bubbles. Place the pans in the oven on the middle rack, and pour the boiling water into the outer pan until it comes halfway up the side of the ramekin (supplement with hot water from the tap if it's not enough.) Cover the ramekin with foil, and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the middle is set but still jiggles slightly. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

If you like, you can seal the top with some melted butter with a few sage leaves or thyme springs in it, or a gelatin mixture infused with herbs. Michel uses a cucumber gelee with parsley. If you don't seal it (and I didn't) just press plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pate to preserve it. Well wrapped, it will keep for at least three or four days in the refrigerator.

* the other recipes I looked at were from Food and Wine, Gourmet and Paula Wolfert's recipe from the Piret's Cookbook.

Sunday Supper 3.8.09 - Homemade Caesar Salad

I have to confess, I'm taking some creative liberties with this post. You see, what we had on Sunday is something that I wouldn't suggest you - or anybody else - ever make. It was rich and full of good ingredients, but turned out strangely bland and uninteresting. We did have this earlier in the week though, and I haven't done a Sunday Supper in a while, so I figure it's acceptable to engage in a little bit of revisionist history here in the interest of sharing a good meal with you.

Sunday Supper
March 8, 2009

***

Caesar Salad with Homemade Dressing and Croutons

Pan Grilled Brandt Flank Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

Shuna's Butterscotch Pudding
***

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I wanted to pull out the recipe for Caesar Salad. This salad was one of the first things I ever learned to cook, and thus holds a special place in my heart. I started making it in college when I was a nanny for a family in Irvine. Room was included with my deal, but not board - but the family loved this salad so much that at least once or twice a week, the mother would ask me to make it and let me eat with them in exchange. It was a pretty good deal, actually. Now that I think about it, she was pretty tolerant of my experiments in the kitchen, maybe even more so than my own mother. I think I even did my first holiday baking extravaganza in their kitchen (wherein I learned glossy black countertops are not a good idea, in case you're considering a remodel.)

I had just started learning to cook the summer before, poring over James Beard's Theory and Practice of Good Cooking and the New York Times Cookbook (which was waay out of my league) and at their house I had the Wolfgang Puck Cookbook and the Silver Palate Cookbook to peruse. Over the intervening years, I've made a lot of Caesar salads - for dinner parties in my apartment on Olive Street, where I was a single girl making it on my own for the first time, for pretty much everyone I've dated, even for my parents who pronounced it way too garlickly (I've toned it down a bit.) In all those years, a lot of things (and people) have come and gone, but the Caesar Salad is still around.

The other night, I decided to shake the dressing up in a jar instead of whisking it, and decided it's my new favorite method. I added some homemade croutons and sliced romaine hearts, tossed them together and it was as good, if not better than I remembered. Despite the fact that I have toned the garlic down from five(!) cloves to just three, this is a pungent dressing, which is the way I like it, but you can of course adjust it to taste. More olive oil and less mustard/vinegar will make it more mild. One thing I don't recommend is the use of a food processor or blender. The dressing will emulsify - changing both the texture and the flavor (it becomes creamy and a little bit sweet.)

The steak we had the other night was a Brandt flank steak purchased at the Hillcrest Farmers Market. Brandt's steaks come pre-packaged - and a 1.5 pound flank steak sells for the same price as one pound of Rib Eye or New York Strip, about $15.00, and I like the flavor as well or better than more expensive cuts. I seared this one in a grill pan on the stove, and sliced it against the grain. The chimichurri sauce almost a relish - made of garlic, parsley and oil - it came from the empanadas guy at the farmers' market (conveniently located right next door to the Brandt stall) - it's $4.00 for an 8 oz tub. (I also encountered this stuff for the first time in college, but I'll tell you about that later!)

More revisionist history: I am on a bit of a dessert moratorium myself (sad, I know) but if I were to serve a dessert with this meal, I would go retro-comfort with Shuna's Butterscotch Pudding. I've always wanted to try this recipe. I am sure it's a good one - if you try it, let me know. I've also done chocolate pudding, so if that's more your speed, check it out.

Alice's Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons

2-3 hearts of romaine

1 loaf of sourdough bread, day old
olive oil (garlic olive oil works really well - I like Temecula Olive Oil Company's)
salt and pepper

2 anchovies (good quality, in olive oil)
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1/3 cup mild olive oil or other vegetable oil
juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/2 cup shredded reggiano parmesan cheese
1 egg (preferably farm fresh from an extremely trustworthy source)

Wash, trim and dry the romaine hearts, wrap loosely in paper towels and place in the refrigerator until ready to use.

To prepare the croutons, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the bottom crust off of your loaf of sourdough bread, cut the loaf into 1 inch thick slices and slice each piece from side to side into thirds - then cut into one inch cubes. Place the cubes into a large bowl, and pour olive oil all the way around the inside of the bowl, just above the bread cubes - so it flows down the inside of the bowl. Lift the bowl and start tossing the cubes to coat them evenly (or use tongs or your hands, if you prefer.) Add a liberal sprinkle of sea salt and a few grinds of pepper halfway through the tossing. Spread the croutons in a single layer on a rimmed sheet pan, and bake at 350-375 for about fifteen minutes - until they start to brown and the edges are crisp. Toss them around and bake for a few more minutes, then remove from the oven and let them cool completely before storing.

For the dressing, cut the anchovies into small pieces and smash the garlic cloves - mash to a paste together with the salt and place this mixture in the bottom of a small jar. Add the mustard, worcestershire sauce, pinch of cayenne, oil, vinegar and lemon juice and shake well. Just before serving, add half of the shredded reggiano parmesan, and crack the egg into the dressing.* Whisk with a fork to break up the egg, and shake again.

To prepare the salad, slice the romaine into one inch ribbons and separate. Pour about 1/4 cup of dressing in the bottom of the salad bowl, and add the lettuce. Toss - adding more dressing as needed (it should be well coated, but not too drippy.) Top with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, a few grinds of pepper, a generous squeeze of lemon juice, and some croutons.

If you have dressing left over, immediately seal the jar and place it in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Throw away any leftover dressing that is not properly refrigerated and don't leave this salad sitting out very long, due to the raw egg it contains.

*This salad really is not the same without the egg. If you can't or don't want to eat raw eggs, I believe there are pasteurized products out there, but I haven't tried them. If you do, please let me know how it turns out!

Home Sweet Vintage is Open for Business!

Just a quick note to let you know that my new Etsy store is open!

I love to shop, as anyone who knows me knows - but more than anything else, I love to hunt. I love flea markets, estate sales, thrift shops, anywhere I can pluck a gem out of the muck and shine it up. Since I can't keep it all myself, I'm putting it up for sale!

Home Sweet Vintage is the name - and vintage housewares and kitchen items from the 50's to the 70's are the game. I am particularly interested in vintage cookware, and will also feature mid-century modern decor items, classic and vintage cookbooks, and other shiny objects that just happen to catch my eye. Take a look around - I hope you see something you like!

Cheers everyone, and have a good weekend!

Where I've been...

I haven't been around much lately - if you've wondered where I've been, here are some answers:

1. Shopping at Mona Lisa in Little Italy for fresh ricotta, San Marzano tomatoes, prosciutto, basil, pasta, broccoli rabe, fresh sausage and fresh mozzarella.
2. Working on perfect pancakes (they're close but not quite there yet.)
3. Cooking out of the Jamie's Italy cookbook (see no. 1)
4. Procuring and photographing items for my new Etsy store featuring vintage homegoods, cookbooks and kitchenwares (more on that later this week.)
5. Eating at Mama's Lebanese, Saffron, In N' Out, Jaynes Gastropub, Alchemy and The Linkery.
6. Practicing the violin and going to yoga classes again.
7. Waiting for Vicky Cristina Barcelona to come out on Apple TV (it finally did this weekend)
8. Plotting trips to the Amalfi Coast, Palm Springs, San Francisco and Esalen - in my head.
9. Arguing with Honkman about Farmhouse vs. Better Half on Chowhound.
10. Eating the Chuao Chocolates Lisa and Luis sent home with us after a fantastic dinner party on Saturday night.
11. Making salads with the greens from our friends' garden.
12. Shopping at North Park Produce for labne, housemade hummus, olives, pita bread, dolmas, and zataar spice.
13. Reading Molly's book (which I highly recommend!)
14. Keeping up with friends on Twitter and Facebook
15. Worrying about our friend Raquel, who is undergoing treatment for brain cancer.
16. Fantasizing about making homemade Twix from Sherry Yard's recipe.
17. Hanging out with Jora and C Man and Baby J
18. Scouting a hiking route to the top of Mt. Helix that avoids the busy streets.
19. Working on a recipe for "healthy" peanut butter cookies using agave nectar and whole wheat flour. First batch was a little too heavy, second was a little too bitter. We'll get there.
20. Shopping at the Little Italy and Hillcrest Farmers Markets - where we now get nearly all our produce and meat. Certainly I won't be buying any tomatoes anywhere else (though I'm not picking them off my In N Out burgers just yet.)
21. Working, of course!

photo is Jamie Oliver's Chicken Cacciatore - from Jamie's Italy - using aforementioned San Marzano tomatoes and the legs of a Womach chicken procured at the Hillcrest Farmers Market. He now sells smallish ones for $15. I have one air drying in the fridge right now for tonight's dinner!