Coaching Cooking

You know the one…

There’s a secluded and quaint garden out back where flowers and vines grow gracefully over the fence and the tables and chairs wait patiently for guests. A small fountain in the middle of the garden sputters at first in the late morning, but then changes its tone to a flowing melody (did I mention the fountain is made of a magnum of wine?). The back garden sits between many other buildings, but we feel as if we’ve discovered Shangri-La in the middle of downtown.

The server has cosmopolitan charm punctuated pleasantly by a friendly and casual manner. He takes our beverage order and gives us plenty of time to linger over the menu. This lovely place adheres to the tenets of Slow Food USA. and the menu warns that each dish takes time to prepare (so ask for the quick items if you are in a Silicon Valley hurry!). Already we realize that this place can not be enjoyed in just one visit. The drinks arrive and V enjoys her chardonnay flight while I sip my sangria and L enjoys her Randy’s special of sparkling wine with a touch of syrah (just the look of this incites a celebration). Hours pass by unnoticed and we continue to marvel that we are sitting in the middle of downtown Palo Alto while completely missing the hustle and chaos of the nearby streets.

We eat fresh tomatoes glistening with olive oil, fresh basil and the most delicious local mozzarella and gazpacho accented with a touch of soy sauce, chunks of tomato, garlic and onion and the irresistible sweetness of the local tomatoes. Glasses of sangria, chardonnay and wine spritzers (with champagne and a touch of syrah) add to this amazing repast. It’s still quiet in the garden, broken only by our laughter (Liz recounts her horror at arriving at a cover band concert where women wear black-sequined ties, big hair and other reprehensible fashions from twenty years ago while dancing the white man’s overbite!!). The afternoon wiles away and we float on a sea of gorgeous food, wine and the pleasant company.

So if we could live here forever then our conversations would pause only for more wine and for more delicious, local food. The crostini is perfect, crisp with a soft, chewy center and topped with thin slivers of cured ham, fresh mozzarella or pate with pistachios or chopped tomatoes, garlic and basil. V eats a luscious green bean and potato salad and L has a wonderful plate of house-made hummus laden with spices and soft pita triangles. We have to have dessert and that includes a chocolate panini with melted semisweet chocolate (a perfect take on pain au chocolate) and glasses of nectarine-honey dessert wine with chocolate truffles made in San Francisco and lemon-white chocolate biscotti made in Redwood City.

If you have the opportunity, the dream can be yours as well right here.

I usually just buy orange juice in the carton, but last Sunday we were in a homemade, juicy mood. I squeezed the oranges and I was completely stunned by the bright orange color of the organic orange juice. It was gorgeous, the most vivid orange color. We used the juice in some killer mimosas (with a sparkling, champagne-style rose).

I know I’m one of many who can sing the praises of organic produce. In this case, I can’t say enough about how sweet and delicious that orange juice tasted. Nowadays you can buy organic oranges in the supermarket too. Of course AB and I love to wander around the farmers’ market sampling juice oranges, fuzzy peaches and ripe cherries. Ahhh, the sweet life!

Yes, several days of tinkering with my new iPhone have led to a minor absence from the kitchen. I tested my new phone by loading movies onto it. I watched several episodes of Top Chef, Season 3. It was like having an extra cool visual appendage at times. Eventually, though, staring at the screen brings me back to the need for sustenance. Particularly, summer is a great time to invent a great, new drink.

Necessity is the mother of a good beverage…

So I had a bowl of citrus fruits left from my Roasted Salmon with Citrus Sauce. I decided to make a quick and refreshing drink with the leftover fruits.

Jenny’s Citrus Soda

Ingredients:

Half of a grapefruit
Half of a tangerine
Half of an orange
1/3 of a lemon
1 slice of lime
1 cup of water
2-3 tablespoons of sugar
3-4 large splashes of club soda
**Note**: This drink would also pair well with a few splashes of rum or vodka or other toasty perk

Directions: This recipe serves one (double or triple if you don’t to share!)

Put the cup of water and the 2-3 tablespoons of sugar in a microwave-proof glass. Microwave for about 90 seconds to a minute. Stir with a long spoon so the sugar is incorporated into the water. Let this mixture cool. If you don’t want to wait, I suggest a quick (and fun!) technique of pouring this mixture in between two glasses (over the sink, trust me…). This cools down the mixture a bit faster plus you look like the world’s craziest barista.

Juice all of the citrus fruits except for the lime slice. Mix into the sugar-water and add three to four large ice cubes. Add the club soda and a straw and some kickin’ tunes. Enjoy!

Purple-hued, red-hued, gorgeous jewel-toned berries are inextricably part of my summer feasts. I love their sweet-tart taste and they are so easy to pair with lots of great foods. Last night we celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary with triple chocolate mousse cakes (thank you, Jean-Yves Charon!) and framboise.

Simple recipes:

Berry Sundaes:

Ingredients:

2 cups of mixed berries (blackberries, sliced strawberries, whole raspberries, blueberries etc.)
1 quart of vanilla ice cream
Framboise sauce (see recipe below)
4 sprigs of mint

Directions:

Choose some pretty bowls to show off the beautiful colors of the berries (try glass bowls or bowls in a solid, bright color such as orange to offset the colors of the berries). Scoop two generous scoopfuls of ice cream into each bowl. Sprinkle the sundaes with a 1/2 cup of berries per bowl. Drizzle the framboise sauce on top and serve with a few sprigs of mint. Serves 4. Enjoy!

Framboise Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup of framboise (try Bonny Doon’s before it disappears! Put in coupon code: Alan for a 5 percent discount!!)
2 tablespoons of water
1 cup of fresh raspberries

Directions:

Cook the ingredients together over medium-low heat until the mixture boils. Mash the berries with the other ingredients in the pan and reduce this mixture to a 1/2 cup. Remove the framboise sauce from the heat. Strain the sauce in a fine mesh strainer over a glass bowl. Cool and serve with ice cream, berries or pound cake and whipped cream.

Sometimes I just want to stare at the “Chez Panisse Fruits” cookbook because the woodblock prints of the fruits are so gorgeous. Today, however, I decided to actually cook something from that lovely book. I’ve been wanting to try the Grilled Salmon with Citrus Sauce, but it always seemed so time consuming.

Cooking Notes for Grilled Salmon with Citrus Sauce:

This recipe calls for 1 lemon, 1 lime, 1 orange, 1 tangerine and 1 grapefruit. Each citrus fruit needs to be peeled and the pith must be separated from the peel. This is the part that takes forever! I tempered this time-consuming task by watching a comedy show on my laptop. And about 45 minutes later I had a beautiful bowl full of citrus peel.

So, my recommendation is to either set aside a large block of time for preparing the sauce or to peel the citrus fruits early (like the day before) and then to assemble the sauce the next day.

This sauce turned out great. It is light and refreshing. I might also add some garlic, red pepper flakes or other seasoning to punch up the flavor a bit. Here are the results, served with mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach:

Here are some prep pictures:

Time-consuming, but don’t they just look cool in the photo?

Step One:

Go to the farmers’ market and buy some beautiful radishes (they sometimes have the gorgeous, purple ones). Stop by the bread stand and buy a fresh, thin baguette also known as a ficelle.

Take a stick of butter out of the fridge and bring it to room temperature. Find a pretty bowl and fill it with several generous spoonfuls of fleur de sel or another coarse-grain salt.

Wash the radishes and cut them into thin rounds. Place them on a small plate.

Cut the baguette in half lengthwise and then put the bread back together and cut into 3-4 inch sections. Spread each slice generously with butter.

Arrange the buttered bread on a plate and serve with the radish slices and the fleur de sel. To eat, place the radish slices on the bread and sprinkle with the fleur de sel. Let the radish slices sit for about a minute so the salt absorbs into the radishes. Eat and enjoy!

Truthfully, I believe in this challenge and I want to eat local more often. And, in addition to that truth, I have a huge load of food in my fridge already and I believe in saving food and eliminating wastefulness.

Soooo…

I’m starting my own personal local food challenge next week. Check out the Penny-Wise site for updates on this week’s challenge. I am inspired by this wonderful group of people and I fully intend to eat locally as soon as my fridge is more empty. Please look at the Eat Local Challenge website. Many people are posting their experiences with the challenge and it is both inspiring and entertaining. Read on…

There are few things in life that are more delicious and wonderful than the taste of a fresh strawberry still sun-kissed and fragrant. Or the sweet crunch of corn that has just been picked mere hours before you purchased it.

I once bought some oysters at the farmers’ market and the owner of the stand shucked them right in front of me. I can recall the sweetness of the oyster coupled with the fresh taste of the ocean and the saltiness…I stood there with oyster juice running down my red face and experienced the simple and glorious pleasure of fresh seafood.

So, I eagerly await more local food experiences and I also can’t wait to post about them.

“Life itself is the proper binge” –Julia Child

I’m rewatching Top Chef, Season 1. It gets my foodie juices bubbling and always helps me think about new recipes to try out as well as great plating ideas (how to make the food look pretty…).

One fruit that I absolutely adore during the summer is watermelon. I usually just eat it with the juice running down my chin like a waterfall. So, since I’m not always the biggest salad freak, I’ve decided to incorporate watermelon into a salad that has sweet and salty flavors.

**Note**: This salad is also great with strawberries instead of watermelon. Slice the berries in half (or in thirds for large berries).
Watermelon and Feta Salad

Ingredients:

2 cups of watermelon, 1-inch dice
1/3 cup of feta cheese, finely crumbled
2 bags of baby spinach, chiffonade (see below)
1/2 cup of toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup of balsamic salad dressing (see recommendations below)

Directions:

Chiffonade the baby spinach by stacking a few spinach leaves at a time and then rolling them to form a rolled-cigar shape. Cut the spinach leaves crosswise to form thin strips. Repeat this process with all of the spinach. This take a long time, but it looks terrific if you use your best knife and it makes the salad easy and delicious to eat.

Prepare the watermelon and place in a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients (except the toasted pine nuts) and toss them all together. Top the salad with the toasted pine nuts. Serve immediately.

This time, the perfect roast chicken eluded me. Next time I will use the perfect recipe from Barefoot Contessa’s first cookbook. This time I did not cook the chicken long enough so I had to elicit help from my trusty microwave. Even so, there’s nothing like a roasted chicken with potatoes soaked in delicious garlic butter.

***Warning***: Naked chicken pictures ahead…

Jenny’s Near-Perfect Roast Chicken

Ingredients:
1 young chicken (about 7-10 pounds)
1 lemon, washed and quartered
4-6 cloves of garlic
Garlic butter (see this recipe)
3 cups of potatoes (I use fingerlings, cut into 1-inch pieces)
3 tablespoons of olive oil or canola oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash and chop the potatoes. Toss them in a roasting pan with the olive oil. Wash and dry the chicken and remove the giblets. Save the giblets (I eat them! Roast them with the chicken for about 40 minutes) or toss them. Place the quartered lemon and the garlic cloves inside the chicken cavity.

Separate the skin from the chicken with your fingers and rub the chicken with the garlic butter using a pastry brush. Also brush the outside of the chicken skin with garlic butter:

Roast the potatoes for 30 minutes. Then remove the roasting pan and carefully place the chicken on top of the potatoes. Roast the chicken for 30 minutes then turn the chicken over. Roast the chicken again for about an hour until it is cooked through (test by cutting a slit in the thickest part of the chicken breast). Remove the chicken and potatoes and let stand for 20 minutes covered with aluminum foil (leave a small gap so steam can escape). Cut the chicken into serving pieces (drumsticks, breast and back meat) and serve with the roasted potatoes. **You can remove the lemon and garlic from the chicken cavity and save the chicken bones for soup**

This roast chicken also tastes delicious with a sauteed green vegetable (asparagus, brussel sprouts) or a green salad (try this one).

Enjoy!

The triumph of this past week’s farmers’ market is the cauliflower tart that I made a few days ago using romanesco cauliflower, leeks, onion, Gruyere, Parmesan and Marscapone cheeses, heavy cream and eggs.

First I sautéed some leeks and onions:

Then I roasted the Romanesco cauliflower and thinly sliced it:

Then I assembled the tart after mixing together the eggs, cheeses, and heavy cream:

The tart cooked to a golden crisp looking much like a quiche:

AB and I each enjoyed a slice of the cauliflower tart (then we had another slice!):

We relished the tart with a simple salad made of poppy seed dressing, sliced avocado and red onion:

Poppy seed, Avocado and Red Onion Salad:

Ingredients:

1 bottle of poppyseed dressing (we like Briana’s)
1 small avocado
1/3 cup of thinly sliced red onion
1 head of red leaf lettuce

Directions:

Break the lettuce into bite-sized pieces and wash and dry all leaves thoroughly. Thinly slice the red onion and set aside. Cut the avocado into bite-size pieces. Mix together all of the ingredients with about 4-5 tablespoons of poppy seed dressing. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!