Kaleberg Archive for Keyword: food, Page: 1

We haven't been doing all that much, but we have been eating well. On the right is a member of the rapidly vanishing species of Parker House buffalo burgers. That's a Parker House roll, a southern specialty made with butter, lard and milk, named for a downtown Boston hotel. Inside, is a good, solid buffalo burger, melted New Moon cheese, kosher dill pickle slices, walla walla sweet onion, some out of season tomato and a healthy dollop of our home brew Kaleberg Ketchup.

The last of its kind

Chicken shishkabob without the shish, or is it without the kabob?

On the left is one of our favorite dishes, grilled chunks of chicken thigh marinated in lemon, olive oil, oregano, garlic and sumac. Sumac is a tart eastern Mediterranean spice and brings out the best in the lemon. We usually marinate the meat overnight, then grill it in one of those little wire baskets. In keeping with the theme, we also grill up some onions and red peppers, so we have all the ingredients of a lovely chicken kabob without having to put everything on skewers.

Keywords: food

01/28/12 - Cracked Pot

We generally considered our cast iron Le Creuset pot to be indestructible. After all, it was made of solid metal and a fair bit of it to judge by its weight. We were proven wrong the other day when it suddenly cracked while reheating a batch of beef bourguignon. There was a loud bang and a hiss, and there it was, a crack running all the way down the side. Our beef bourguignon was unharmed.

Our cracked pot

Keywords: food

12/10/11 - Cassoulet in Progress

Cassoulet is not one of those dishes you can just throw together from stuff you have lying around the house. It takes a bit of planning and preparation. We made our duck confit last month, and it's been ripening in its jar. We ordered our pig skin and sausages from The Swinery a while back and had everything shipped for our party week.

Then, our cassoulet took over our kitchen. We brought out our stained, wrinkled cookbook and double checked the post it note warning us "Do not TRIPLE this recipe." Some years back we had tripled the recipe and had so much cassoulet we couldn't store it in the refrigerator and had to put an overflow pot of it out in the car. Luckily it was a cold New England night.

As you can see in the photos, making a cassoulet is quite a process, but then again, cassoulet is quite a dish.

The pig skin underbelly

The ragout in progress

Every pot in the house

Andouille in the mesoderm

Cassoulet!

Keywords: christmas, food

09/13/11 - Wood Fired Pizza

For a while they were going to build some luxury condos on this lot. They even dug a deep hole for the foundation, but now it's back to a parking lot and wood fired pizza. We didn't actually try their pizza, but they've got the wood and flames all right. If nothing else, it shows imagination in the face of economic collapse.

You can see the flames

Keywords: seattle, food

09/07/11 - Pickled Tomatoes Our friend Julia dropped by a few days ago to show us how to pickle tomatoes. She makes the most amazing pickled red tomatoes from an old Russian family recipe. For our part, we bought a 20lb box of Sunny Farms Roma tomatoes and dithered around ineffectually. Julia provided the cherry leaves, currant leaves and the jars, as we hadn't even bought the right kind of jars. The recipe is pretty simple. There is the pickling liquor made by boiling 5 liters (or quarts) of hot water, 8 tablespoons of kosher salt, 2 cups of white sugar and 2 cups of white vinegar. For each one to two quart jar add 4-5 cherry tree leaves, 2-3 currant bush leaves, 2-3 tablespoon chunks of fresh horseradish root, 1-2 horseradish leaves, 5-6 cloves of garlic, 1 dill flower "umbrella", 10 black peppercorns, 4-5 whole allspice berries, and 2-3 cloves. All right, maybe it's not that simple. Bring a big pot of water to boiling. Stuff as many tomatoes as you can into each jar. Feel free to squeeze them a bit, but don't reduce them to a pulp. Then, pour boiling water into each jar to sterilize the tomatoes and the pickling spices. Then, using a strainer to catch anything that tries to escape, drain each jar and top it off with the hot pickling mixture. Be careful to shake the jar around a bit to get out any air bubbles. Quickly screw on the lid and flip the jar over. Store all the jars, upside down, wrapped in a heavy blanket. They'll stay hot for at least two days, cooking and ripening all the time.	That's the recipe on the left, in Russian. We're lucky we had a translator.
Currant leaves	Cherry tree leaves
Garlic cloves and horseradish root cut into roughly tablespoon sized chunks	Lots of Roma tomatoes
We had to run around to find the fresh dill with flowers. Albertson's was out, but Safeway had them.	Black peppercorns, allspice berries and whole cloves - Spices are so pretty.
The jars filling with leaves, herbs and spices	Boiling hot water to sterilize each jar
Full of pickling liquor, ready to seal	Put them to bed

Keywords: food, recipe

07/03/11 - Orange Cardamom Cookies

Not everyone likes the taste of cardamom, but it's a wonderful spice, and not just for Christmas. We've been making orange cardamom cookies for a while now. They're really just shortbread cookies, but the cardamom gets an extra kick from the grated orange peel.

We like to use freshly ground cardamom, and often use a bit more than the 1 1/2 tsp recommended. It's great stuff. Our recipe goes something like this:

INGREDIENTS

1/2 pound unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons grated orange zest
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1 teaspoon salt

INSTRUCTIONS

Work the butter until it is soft. Then work in the sugar.
When the mixture is creamy and a bit fluffy, work in the cream and egg yolk.
Add the flour, orange zest, cardamom and salt. (Don't leave out the salt.) WOrk the mixture into a grainy dough.
Make the dough into four "pancakes", rolling them to about 1/4". Wrap them in plastic and let them rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
Roll the pancakes out to about 1/8" thickness and either cut them into cookies with a knife or use cookie cutters.
Bake on parchment covered cookie sheets at 350F for about 8-10 minutes.

Keywords: food, recipe

06/02/11 - Salmon BLT

We first had this sandwich in San Francisco at the old Park Hyatt, now a Le Meridien. It was on their room service menu, available 24 hours a day, and it was perfect for our departure day. We'd order a few of them with a pot of coffee for breakfast, eat one in the room before starting out, another at the airport and finish up on the plane home. They were really good, though they were probably made with farmed salmon.

Now, of course, we can get wonderful wild salmon, and Pane d'Amore has great local bread, so when we started craving a salmon BLT, we didn't try to figure out how to get back to San Francisco; we just made a couple. That's a simply roasted salmon filet in the middle, with just salt and pepper, but there is also some good Hempler's bacon from Sunny Farms, slices of tomato, a handful of lettuce and store bought mayonaise.

They were better than ever, thanks to our local salmon. Now we don't have to go to San Francisco.

Even better than the one at the Park Hyatt.

Keywords: food, salmon

05/27/11 - St. Germain and Champagne

Ages ago, we used to have the wonderful house cocktail at Wallse. It was an elderberry champagne cocktail and quite good. It's hard to describe the flavor. It's sweet, but there is a strong flowery note.

In any event, we recently came across of a bottle of St. Germain. That's the elderberry flower liqueur that they added to the champagne. We tried it at home, and it brought back the memories. Unlike our dubious encounter with Creme de Violette, an overly sweet and rather cloying violet flavored liqueur in the early 80s, St. Germain is a winner.

Keywords: food

04/21/11 - Mangosteens They were selling mangosteens at the local Albertson's. One always hears about mangosteens in books and newspaper articles, but, unlike mangoes which are on sale everywhere, mangosteens are harder to find. Curious, we bought a few. They were hard and husky. Our first thought was that they had dried out and wouldn't be edible. We set to work. It took a bit of doing to crack them open, but we were in luck. The fruit was still moist, and it was delicious. It's hard to describe the flavor. It was nothing like a mango. It was more of a citrus flavor, but not exactly. They are definitely delicious, so we'll be keeping our eyes open if another batch comes in.

Keywords: food

04/14/11 - Willapa White Sheep's Milk Cheese

The folks at the Renaissance day spa sell local cheese at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. We recently tried their Willapa White, a creamy sheeps' milk cheese, and we really liked it. It's a bit like a brin d'amour, but without the rosemary rind. Obviously, we could cover one of these cheeses with dried rosemary, but why bother. It's so good just as it is.

Keywords: farmers' market, food

04/12/11 - Halibut Pot Pie With Fennel

This is sort of a shepherd's pie made with halibut, fennel and shallots. This is based on a recipe from Bon Appetit, but we've played with it a bit, and filled in some blanks.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 lbs skinless halibut filets
2 tbsp butter
2 fairly large heads of fennel or more smaller ones
1 cup peeled and sliced shallots
2 tbsp flour
1 lb spinach leaves (or more if you really like spinach)
1 - 2 lbs potatoes, suitable for mashing (e.g. not hard red ones)

INSTRUCTIONS

1) Boil the potatoes in a pot of water until they are tender. When they are ready, drain, mash in a big bowl adding salt and pepper to taste, and set aside. You can go ahead with the other steps while the potatoes are cooking.

2) Cut off the fennel tops and slice the bulbs into 1/4" (roughly) slices. Slice the shallots, if you haven't already.

3) Melt the butter and saute the fennel and shallots until they start turning a bit golden. This caramelizing gives them some sweetness. (It usually takes us 10-15 minutes, but your stove may vary.)

4) Sprinkle with flour, salt and pepper. Toss and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes.

5) Add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. While you stir, the mixture should thicken.

6) Cut the fish into 2 inch squares. If the spinach is in big, broad leaves, you might want to cut them up a bit, but it doesn't really matter. Add the fish and spinach. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes.

7) Preheat the broiler. Put the fish, fennel and shallot mixture into an oven proof baking dish. Spread the mashed potatoes across the top.

8) When the broiler is ready, put the baking dish on an upper shelf in the oven and let bake until the potatoes start to turn golden brown, usually about 10 minute, though this will vary with your oven and your potatoes.

Keywords: food, recipe

Ready to cook

04/10/11 - Skate Wings

They had skate wings at Sunny Farms. They had just been caught the day before. We love skate wings, but rarely get to have them. We dredged ours lightly in flour then cooked them up with butter and capers. It's a simple dish, but it captures the richness and real flavor of the skate. If you like black cod, you will probably like skate. The only downside is the numerous gelatinous bones. Unless you are a big fan of duck's feet or cock's combs, you'll probably want to remove the bones carefully. (They are a good source of calcium though.)

Keywords: food

03/23/11 - Country Captain Chicken

There are all sorts of dishes that one hears about but never gets to try. They often have wonderful evocative names like Country Captain Chicken. This is a southern dish that gets its name from those sea captains who took their trading ships to the country of India, most likely because the dish contains curry. We used a recipe from Cold Weather Cooking. It's a three layer recipe:

Lightly floured and seasoned (with paprika) fried chicken thighs
Curried red and green peppers with bacon, red wine, tomatoes, currants, mango chutney, onions and garlic
A topping of coconut, almonds, butter and lime jice

The layers all bake together and get scooped out and served together. We used a really good, spicy curry. The dish was a tad sweet, but quite good. It's sort of a stylized version of a ten boy curry, a perfect casserole dish for the cold season.

Country Captain Chicken in all its glory

Keywords: food, recipe

03/14/11 - Hailey's Blue

We recently dropped by Dungeness Valley Creamery to pick up some of their milk. While there we also bought some blue cheese made with their raw Jersey milk. It is Hailey's Blue, and it was delicious, with a good bite backed up by the creaminess of the milk. It's made by Whiskey Hill Goat Dairy in Port Townsend which is turning into a local hotbed of cheesemakers. They opened in 2008, and we haven't tried any of their goat cheeses yet, but now we're curious about their goat based feta and cheddar.

Keywords: creamery, dungeness, port townsend, food

03/01/11 - Trufflestack

We've long been fans of Mount Townsend Creamery's Seastack cheese, and now they've made an even better version, Trufflestack. It's based on their creamy Seastack cheese, but flavored with local black truffles to give it an even richer flavor and a lot of deep truffle scent.

Keywords: mount townsend creamery, food

01/28/11 - Toga's Sandwiches

We finally tried Toga's in its new incarnation as a soup and sandwich shop. We had noticed the change over a few years back, but, as you know, it takes us a while to try new places. Toga's specializes in hot sandwiches, so we tried a few:

The Ultimate Reuben - This was a good honest reuben on toast with good caramelized sauerkraut, a well balanced cheese and fairly good corned beef. We're spoiled by the likes of Carnegie Deli and Katz's in New York, but it was a good enough corned beef by Seattle standards. All told, a nice hearty sandwich.
Toga's Original Schnitzel Sandwich - This was a lot lighter, with a lightly breaded, broiled pork cutlet, melted jarlsberg and some lettuce, tomato and red onion. This would make a good sandwich to pack for the trail.
Baked Dungeness Crab Panini - This sandwich has a nice helping of Dungeness crab with cheese, onions and, we gather, artichoke hearts. The caramelized onions were great with the crab, but this is another messy sandwich, so we ate it at home.

All told, we were pretty impressed. Toga's has some pretty nice sandwiches. They are open from 10 to 6 at 122 West Lauridsen Boulevard. That's on Route 101, just west of the Albertson's. They have a Facebook page - sorry, we don't link to Facebook for security reasons - where they post their specials, and we've posted their menu online here.

The reuben and the crab - It sounds like a fable.

Keywords: togas, reviews, food, port angeles

12/15/10 - Buddha's Hand

Buddha's hand, that's what they call this peculiar looking citrus fruit. In the monkey folk novel of China, Buddha's hand, when he is subduing Monkey who has challenged heaven, stretches to the far horizon. Clearly that was not the reference in mind when this fruit was named. To be honest, we're not exactly sure what they were thinking when they came up with that name.

As for the fruit itself, it has a wonderful scent, part lemon, part orange, tangy and fresh. We tried it with seafood, grating a fair bit on some sauteed oysters with garlic, parsley and butter. We were quite impressed. We also used it in a braided hoska bread along with the almonds, raisins, candied lemon peel and orange peel. It smelled great and it brightened the flavor. The fruit is all rind, so we're hoping to try to find a few more uses for it.

Keywords: oysters, food

12/03/10 - Duck Confit

We just finished the last of our first duck confit of the season. That's how far behind this web log is. We preserved four ducks in their own fat and ate every last scrap. We even used up all the fat frying potatoes and the like. All that is left is this picture.

Duck confit, duck fat fried potatoes and lacinato kale salad

Keywords: ducks, food

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