where the image is meant to titillate and inspire the cook
One of my most cherished creative outlets is to re-create historical events through food. The Abraham Lincoln Dinner at Delmonico’s on February 12, 1900; Barack Obama’s 57th Inaugural Luncheon; and Julia Child’s First Meal in France are a few examples of many of my favorite re-creations.
Continue reading “Inaugural Lobster and Shrimp with Saffron Sauce and Peanut Crumble”
How much you wanna bet this is your next chicken dinner? Is there any meal more satisfying than a perfect chicken dish? Ease of preparation, striking presentation, crispy skin, bright sweet winter citrus balanced with tangy artichoke hearts, salty olives and capers. Served over healthful quinoa flavored with the irresistible pan juices…You gonna take the bet?
It’s not the elegant soup I would serve at a dinner party, but rather a rustic soup I absolutely crave on a winter night. This soup is kimchi guk on steroids.
Kimchi guk is a simple Korean soup where chopped napa cabbage kimchi is simmered in beef broth. Sometimes daikon, meat, or tofu are added. It is usually garnished with scallions.
This version with ground beef, buckwheat noodles, seaweed, and swordfish is much more hearty, and served as a meal. The broth is sour, spicy, savory, salty with a hint of sweetness, and really explodes with flavor.
There are a few non-traditional foods that I like to pair with napa cabbage kimchi such as cheddar cheese, mashed potatoes, and BBQ oysters. Swordfish is another, with its mildly sweet flavor and a juicy meaty texture with a good balance of fat, it just goes well with sour and spicy kimchi.
Continue reading “Sour and Spicy Kimchi Soup with Soba and Swordfish”
I had been traveling for the holidays. When I came home I wanted to reward my sweet old pooch McIntosh with a bone. He loves these bones from the butcher, and with his old teeth, he does not break the bones into dangerous bits like some of our other dogs would have done. He simply gnaws and licks the bone to his heart’s content. And then he saves them in his boneyard (see below).
Continue reading “Risotto Milanese (saffron and bone marrow)”
Roasted Red and Golden Beets, Humboldt Fog Goat Cheese
Willamette Valley Hazelnuts, Turmeric-Black Pepper-Maple Yogurt
Arugula, Arugula Flowers, Beet Vinaigrette
A soft-ripened goat cheese accented with a line of bluish ash reminiscent of the fog often blanketing the expansive Humboldt County, California coastline is the centerpiece of this salad.
Pioneering American cheesemaker Mary Keehn of Cypress Grove conceived Humboldt Fog Goat Cheese in the early 80s in homage to cow’s milk French Morbier, with ash separating its light cakey layers.
Beets are available at California Farmers Markets year-round. And hazelnuts come from our wetter neighbor just to the north, Oregon (close enough).
Peppery arugula, earthy beets, toasty hazelnuts, and a tangy yogurt harmonize with the elegant and luscious goat cheese in this quintessential West Coast salad. A sweet-tart beet vinaigrette adds sunny notes with hints of herbs and fruit.
Blooming in January, pretty arugula flowers come from my Southern California garden. Arugula flowers make a delightful garnish, they taste like light arugula leaves, maybe with a hint of sweetness.
Cypress Grove describes their cheese with flavors of buttermilk and fresh cream, complemented with floral notes, herbaceous overtones, and a clean citrus finish. As Humboldt Fog matures, the creamline develops, the flavor intensifies and the subtle tanginess grows more pronounced.