San Francisco: Mission food crawl

Continuing to recall the start of this month, when I was up north....The afternoon of January 2 was sunny and clear, and so Andrew and I drove up to San Francisco for some fun.  First, we soaked up the gorgeous weather and worked up a bit of an appetite by meandering around the SF Botanical Garden.  Then, we drove down to the Mission, parked on Valencia, and walked east on 24th Street toward our first stop, Dynamo Donut & Coffee.  Below is the "Hibiscus heart beet" donut, which was indeed a little tangy with hibiscus flavor and pinkish from beet juice.  Look at the cute little heart!

The donut was very tasty for a baked good and great for a donut, but not mind-blowing.  Then again, my expectations may have been too high, especially as they were almost sold out by the time we arrived (there were only two flavors left).

Then, retracing our steps backward, we stopped at La Palma Mexicatessen and ordered chiles rellenos stuffed with meat.   I had never had chiles rellenos before, and these turned out to be a messy, delicious concoction.

Third stop: Humphrey Slocombe.   We shared an ice cream sundae of one scoop "Secret Breakfast" (bourbon caramel) and one scoop of balsamic caramel, with a brownie, whipped cream, and preserved cherries.    This was certainly some of the best ice cream we'd ever had, and not cloyingly sweet despite the two caramel flavors.

Our final stop, up on 18th Street, was Pizzeria Delfina, where we shared one tricolore salad with grana padano and one margherita pizza.  No pictures, but we'd been before.  This time we were seated cozily at the bar, where we could watch the pizza makers moving rapidly and gracefully around each other in the small kitchen, somehow managing to avoid collisions.

After pizza, we headed home.  The grand total for this culinary adventure: just under $50, and worth every penny.  We'll have to do it again sometime!  There are plenty more donuts, Mexican food, ice cream flavors, and pizza to enjoy along that same route.

New Year's Eve 2012

Happy New Year to all!  After a very relaxing winter break, I'm back at school for the last six months of second year (which includes Step 1 of the USMLE.  Yeah, that's going to be fun).  But as for cheerful culinary memories from break, here's a recap of the dinner that Andrew and I cooked on New Year's Eve.  In preparation, we made several grocery stops:

1) Pedrick Produce (in Dixon, i.e. a convenient stop on the way from Davis to Stanford), for zucchini, squash, giant white mushrooms, and pearl onions.

1) Dittmer's Gourmet Meats & Wurst-Haus.  We bought two pounds of pork butt (which is, as I just learned, actually a particular cut of pork shoulder), after telling the butcher what kind of preparation we had in mind.  Andrew picked up a bottle of hot pepper sauce that looked quite epic.  Dittmer's also has a sandwich counter, and so for lunch we shared a sandwich of mortadella, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, pepperoncinis, and Dijon mustard on Dutch Crunch bread.

2) Whole Foods, for sourdough bread, honey, tea, blood orange bitters, and sweet vermouth.

3) Target, for a meat thermometer.

4) The Milk Pail, for Brie, rosemary, and red currants.

While cooking, we enjoyed a cheese plate of Brie, sourdough, and red currants, as well as an apertif of Prosecco with blood orange bitters.

We started preparing the pork butt with some salt and pepper, as well as some sliced garlic placed into slits cut into the meat, and began roasting it at 350 degF with some pearl onions.  To follow on our success with a rosemary honey sauce back in November, we wanted to try a more balanced honey sauce this time: rosemary bourbon honey, with the rosemary providing some sharpness to counter the sugar.  The three components were simmered together for a while before being poured onto the pork after a little less than 1.5 hrs of cooking (when its internal temperature was nearing 150 degF).  We put it back into the oven until it reached 165 degF.

The vegetables were sliced and roasted with some salt, pepper, and olive oil.  

The pork was perfectly tender and richly flavored by both the sauce and the salt/pepper/garlic, the onions had caramelized, and the simply prepared vegetables provided a delicious complement.

With Manhattans and candles, dinner was complete.  This was certainly one of the best meals that we have ever cooked, and a wonderful way to close out 2012.

Credit to Andrew for the pictures (except the cheese picture, which is quite obviously subpar).

Venice: Tea at Jin Patisserie

This past Sunday, Ivana and I drove down to Venice's Abbot Kinney Blvd for an afternoon-tea-for-lunch adventure.  Our destination was Jin Patisserie, which looked charming based on its website and is also very popular on Yelp.  The patisserie is set a bit back from the street, and the main gate (more of a door) opens onto a small courtyard with tables.

It was drizzling quite steadily when we arrived, and there is in fact no indoor seating, but we got quite lucky in that the staff immediately offered to set us up inside - it turns out that there is just enough floor space inside the shop for a two-top.  The only other guests were five or so women having a merry bachelorette party on the porch.

First, the tea selection.  Jin Patisserie serves and sells teas from the French company The O Dor.  Ivana decided on Pu-erh and I chose a milk oolong, which is either an oolong tea that naturally has flavors of sweetness and creaminess, or has been flavored to a similar end result.  Given that The O Dor is supposed to be awesome, I'm hoping this milk oolong was the former, naturally-flavored type, but either way it was fragrant, smooth-tasting, and had a pleasant finish without any artificial aftertaste.  Ivana enjoyed the rich smokiness of her pu-erh, as well.

Pu-erh at top, milk oolong at bottom

The plates of savories and sweets were set down a bit later.  Each person's plate had two scones (served with clotted cream and jam), two egg salad sandwiches, a slice of spinach mushroom quiche, four little cakes (two chocolate-based and two fruit-based), a small piece of butter cake, and a little chocolate.

The scones and quiche were served warm, which was a nice touch.  I thought the scones were on the dry side, but still tasty, and the quiche was very tender and flavorful.  The egg salad sandwiches were simple, but contributed to the plate's savory side, and all of the cakes were delicious.  Our chocolates were herbal ganaches - I think a peppery flavor - with dark chocolate shells.

Photo courtesy of Ivana

We thought this afternoon tea was wonderful!  Each person's tea set - including a small pot of tea, which provided three cups, and the sweets/savories shown - was $19.  (Note that Jin Patisserie does not include free refills of hot water).  The quality of both the tea and the snacks, plus the patisserie's pretty atmosphere, made it a place that we'd happily return to.

Potatoes, pancetta, pomegranates

Simple dinners have been the norm this week, with Trader Joe's purchases as a starting point.  Yesterday, I sauteed kale and paired it with a cup of that trusty tomato-and-roasted-red-pepper soup (the low-sodium version), which I simmered for a while with chopped shallot, frozen corn, and finally a beaten egg, salt, and black pepper.  Pretty good, especially with the thickness from the beaten egg.  Tonight I sauteed the shallot first before adding the soup, and then added some corn and a couple frozen shrimp.

Boring picture, I know

Over the summer, when there was plenty of white corn and cheerfully colored potato varietals at the Farmer's Market, I started making Smitten Kitchen's bacon corn hash, using pancetta instead of bacon, parsley or green onion, and loosely following the recipe's proportions.  Making a single big batch would provide me a week of breakfasts (usually reheated with an egg) in fine fashion.  Now corn is out of season, so tonight I just cooked potatoes with pancetta, adding some rosemary for extra flavor.

Dinner is served.

Corn may be out of season, but pomegranates are definitely in.  A family friend in Davis brought over some delicious homegrown pomegranates during Thanksgiving break, and on Monday Kelly surprised me with another lovely fruit from her boyfriend's tree.  That same afternoon, I listened to Martha Stewart's "Not My Job" interview on Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me and learned about her technique for isolating pomegranate seeds.  I cracked open Kelly's pomegranate during tutorial on Monday night, breaking two plastic knives in the process, but without a bowl or wooden spoon, fingers were still the best (if very messy) approach.  Tonight, though, with one more pomegranate (from Trader Joe's, surprise surprise) sitting on my counter, and my full kitchen armament available, I decided to try Martha's technique.

Step 1: Make 4 cuts through the pomegranate skin, no deeper (so you don't cut into any of the seeds).

Step 2: Separate one of the quarters.  Hold the segment over a bowl and repeatedly whack it with [the edge of] a wooden spoon, which will loosen the seeds.  The whacking requires quite a bit of force, but provides excellent stress relief.

Whack, whack, whack!

One segment emptied, three to go.

Step 3: Repeat with the other segments. 

Step 4: Clean the counter (and in my case, cell phone as well).  Enjoy seeds.  This method is definitely less messy than picking out all the seeds with one's fingers, but some drops of juice still get dispersed.  It helps if one's shirt happens to be pomegranate seed-colored :-).

Pear and chocolate chip scones

Last Tuesday evening, I was sitting at my desk feeling restless, and decided that instead of finishing my summary of the PBL journal club article, I wanted to bake.  So, I pulled out a recipe from Smitten Kitchen that, as is my habit, I had bookmarked a while back: roasted pear and chocolate scones.

My changes to the recipe:
- Instead of three Bartlett pears, I used two Bartlett and one Asian pear.
- Instead of 1/4 cup heavy cream, I used just under 1/4 cup soy milk combined with 2 tbsp melted butter.
- I added some cinnamon and vanilla extract.

I don't have a paddle attachment for my hand mixer, so instead, I worked the small chunks of butter into the dry ingredients with my fingers, and then used a spatula once the wet ingredients were added.  Two scones were baked immediately, and the other four were frozen on parchment paper.

The results were very satisfying: a crusty top, tender insides, lightly sweet, and with the surprisingly complementary bursts of chocolate and pear.  Perfect for breakfast!  Next time I might toss in some more chocolate chips, or actually use more substantial chunks as the recipe specifies.  Needless to say, the recently-released Smitten Kitchen cookbook just moved to the top of my cookbook wish list.

West Hollywood: Animal

Sunday night was date night and a rather visually stunning one: Skyfall, followed by dinner at Animal.  I'd been thinking about trying Animal for over a year, since Andrew's first visit to LA, and his upcoming birthday seemed as good a time as any.  We arrived more than 15 minutes early for our 8:15pm reservation (turns out Sunday evening traffic is actually light in West Hollywood?!) and found that the restaurant was packed.  Animal doesn't have an inside area to wait, but their little heated "patio" outside the entrance is a surprisingly cozy place to peruse the evening's menu.

We were seated on time, water was poured, and our server soon came over and told us that for two people, 4-6 dishes is typical.  Here is what we ordered (names/descriptions copied directly from the menu):

Hamachi tostada with herbs, fish sauce vinaigrette, peanut:

Tandoori octopus, tamarind, mango, raita:

(Partly eaten before I remembered to take the picture)

Marrow bone, chimichurri, caramelized onions:

Grilled quail, plum char-siu, pear, apple, yogurt, pomegranate:

Our reactions to all of the dishes centered around the following three thoughts: "Wow, that's attractive," "Wow, that flavor combination is amazing," and "Wow, that portion is really small for the price."  The hamachi tostada - bracing, both refreshing and assertive - was Andrew's favorite; the tandoori octopus was velvety with some zing from the tamarind, and would be my choice out of the four.  Of course, all four dishes were beautifully presented, interesting, and delicious, and we understood why Animal is so popular.  That said, even being aware beforehand that it would be an expensive meal, we found it overpriced for the small portions, and I don't know that we'd go back even on a night when we were ok with splurging.  (After tax and a 20% tip, our bill was $73.30.)

Xavi, Elisa, and one of Xavi's coworkers had just been seated as Andrew and I headed out, which was a happy coincidence.  Nothing on the dessert menu had called to us, so instead, we went next door to Canter's Deli for some coffee and two massive hamentashen.  Less refined, yes, but it all cost less than almost any one dish at Animal, and in its own way, was no less satisfying.

Roast chicken and vegetables with rosemary honey glaze

Andrew came to visit this past weekend, and in anticipation of cooking dinner one night, we tossed around some food ideas last week.  "Maple syrup and pecans" came up, which evolved to "honey and pecans" (because I already had honey and didn't want to buy maple syrup).  Ultimately, we decided to make roast chicken, carrots, and potatoes with rosemary-infused honey glaze.

Chicken after baking (turned pink from the purple carrots underneath)

On Saturday morning, I bought potatoes (red, purple, and yellow), carrots (crazy purple- and rainbow-colored!), and rosemary at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market.  Boneless/skinless chicken thighs and pecans came from Trader Joe's.  The potato-stand owner at the Market gave me some tips once I told him what we were planning to cook: 1) Anything other than salt and oil will get scorched when roasted at 400 degF, so add pepper or glazes towards the end; and 2) Spread out potato pieces or else they won't get crisp in the oven.

Potatoes, dutifully spread out

In the evening, we arranged the chicken pieces on top of the peeled/chopped carrots, coated the chicken with some safflower oil and a sprinkling of salt, and baked it all at 400 degF.  The potatoes were baked separately.  Meanwhile, we gently heated honey with some rosemary on the stove for nearly half an hour.  The fragrant sauce was poured onto the chicken, followed by a generous sprinkling of pecans, for the final 10-15 minutes of baking.  On the side we had some salad (spicy lettuce/frisee blend plus cherry tomatoes) and a little raisin-hazelnut-multigrain bread, also from the market, and poured some Chianti.

Our verdict: this cooking experiment was a success!  The melding of sweet, savory, herbal, and nutty flavors, with contrasting textures from the chicken, vegetables, and nuts, made the dish particularly satisfying, and somehow reminiscent of Thanksgiving dinner.  In any future iterations, we would want to add some acid, such as red wine vinegar, to help cut the sweetness; on Saturday, the salad (which we ate without dressing) provided that balance.

Yum!