08/24/08 - Uni Toast

• 320 grams (four flats) sea urchin roe
• 2 tbsp butter
• 6-8 scallions, cut into little slices
• 1/2 cup fresh coriander, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• lemon juice to taste (perhaps half a lemon)

We recommend serving this dish with either good sourdough toast or Jasper White's breadsticks.

07/28/08 - Luau 2008

You can find out more about the mechanics of the feast on our luau page.

04/20/08 - Russian Easter 2008

In any event, we rounded up the usual suspects, including a particularly deadly version of Trotsky's Bane with a ton of wasabi and serious tequila. If Trotsky had been drinking this, they wouldn't have needed to waste the people's time and money on assassins. We also made some perushki with our own home made sauerkraut and some shitake mushrooms and nettles. For more recipes, check out our Russian Easter page.

The domes of Moscow were particularly lurid this year, with lots of dragee and extra dark red and green food dyes. Those supermarket food dyes are really too pastel for a serious holiday like Russian Easter. In any event, Moscow was once again saved from the monster Napoleon thanks to a liberal dousing of French brandy. As the flames rose, and the Frenchies retreated, we celebrated the irony with, of all things, champagne.

This year, we had even more realism. We had real snow in mid-April, just like they did in Moscow before global warming. It didn't stick, but the white flakes added to the festive mood.

04/18/08 - Sauerkraut

A bit over two weeks ago we took two heads of cabbage and ran them through the slicing blade of our trusty Cuisinart. Then, we tossed in about six garlic cloves for extra flavor. We packed the cabbage into a 3 liter storage jar and made up a pickling mixture of about a quart of water, two tablespoons of kosher salt, a teaspoon of peppercorns, a tablespoon of coriander seeds, and a half cup of apple cider vinegar. We brought this to a boil, let it cool and poured it into the jar with the cabbage. We had to add a bit of tap water to cover all the cabbage, but then, all we did was let it brew out in the garage. It has been mighty cool out in the garage lately.

Now, we have a delicious glowing green mass of preserved cabbage, and it is delicious. The cabbage has gotten that sauerkraut crunch, and the coriander seeds are wonderful in it.

04/06/08 - Smoked Steelhead

We started with a half a fish, filleted. That weighed about five or six pounds before we removed the skin. We marinated it overnight in a pyrex dish with one cup of light brown sugar, a tablespoon of peppercorns, two tablespoons of kosher salt and three tablespoons of whole coriander seeds. We rubbed the fish with the mixture and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, the pyrex dish was full of a thick brown liquid, a mixture of the rub and the water drawn from the fish by the salt. We set up a fire in our trusty Weber grill. We use hardwood charcoal from Hasty Bake. It has a cleaner flavor than briquets. We also throw in a chunk of apple wood from an old stump to give it a little fruit wood flavor.

When the fire is hot with perhaps half the coals turning white, we toss in the apple wood and set up for smoking. That means putting the fish on the grill, but not over the hot coals, and closing the bucket with the vents wide open. In a few minutes, the steelhead is smoking with a white cloud pouring out of the little vent on the grill lid.

We have learned, from a sadly overcooked batch of fish, that we need to keep an eye on the grill. If the fire is too hot, we close the vent a bit more. If the fire has gotten too cool, we have to open the grill for a bit, and sometimes add a bit more charcoal. It isn't like cooking on a stove or in an oven.

Sometimes, the fish is ready in as little as half an hour. That is, if it is thinly cut. Usually, it takes about 45 minutes, or even an hour. Done, of course, is a matter of taste. Once the fish is cooked through, you can smoke it down to leather. We like it a bit more tender, and we find that the flavor ripens after the fish is removed from the grill and let sit.

That's the Kaleberg Labs recipe, and that's some of the fish on the right. We used a real fast shutter to take that snap. You know how long food lasts here Chez Kaleberg.

02/18/08 - Home Made Penne For Macaroni and Cheese

For starters, we make our own macaroni, or rather, penne, using our hand cranked tube pasta extrusion machine. We stuff the pasta dough in the top, turn the crank and every inch or two cut off four nicely formed penne. The pasta dough is basically flour, eggs, salt and water, and we tend to make the dough a touch damp so it is a bit softer.

So, where is the cheese? We put the cheese on the top. Our favorite is a good aged gruyere, but some folks use Swiss cheese instead. We spread a cup or so of grated gruyere on top and pop the whole dish into the broiler. (It helps if you make the bechamel in a sauce pan that can go in the oven). When the cheese is molten, the dish is ready. Comfort is at hand.

02/07/08 - Marrow Bones

Marrow bones are more or less inedible, unless perhaps you are a dog with very strong jaws. The marrow inside, however, is delicious. The taste is somewhere between beef and butter, or perhaps between butter and beef, or perhaps beefy butter. In any event, it is very rich. This is not diet food.

Marrow bones are easy to make. Just put them in a pyrex pan with some white wine, enough to fill the pan to a quarter inch or so. Bake them at 450F for about 45 minutes. The marrow will be oozing and bubbling. You can check it with a meat thermometer if you like, but we'll go with oozing and bubbling. When in doubt, let it cook a bit longer. You don't want to eat raw marrow.

While the marrow roasts, toast up some good bread in the oven. We had some pain levain which was great. Chop up some garlic and rub it on the toast. Sprinkle lightly with a little fleur de sel, or other good coarse salt. (Yes, this garlic toast is pretty good on its own, but it's even better with marrow). When the marrow is ready, poke it out with a fork, a spoon, a chopstick, a crochet hook, or whatever you have handy. Professionals may use a marrow spoon, but we Kalebergs are strictly amateurs. Cover the toast with a nice layer of molten marrow and take a bite. Smile.

01/01/08 - Updated Cassoulet Recipe

11/29/07 - Lacinato Kale Salad

The recipe is simple. Take a bunch of lacinato kale, clean it, remove the stalks, roll it up and cut it into thin strips, perhaps a 1/4 or 1/3 of an inch across. Toss it with a couple of cloves worth of minced garlic, a teaspoon of dried red pepper flakes, a tablespoon of olive oil and lots of lemon. Some lemons are juicier than others, so sometimes a half a lemon will do it, but sometimes we'll need as whole lemon's worth.

It's a light, refreshing salad, and real taste of the North Olympic Peninsula.

10/03/07 - Moroccan Steamed Lamb Shank

Now, set up the steamer with lots of water. The cooking time is an hour and a half to two hours. You want the shanks tender. Rub the shanks with the saffron-pepper butter. Put the parsley in the steaming basket as a base layer. Then put in the shanks and the peeled onions. Seal the thing up. Check now and then to see if the steamer needs more water, and after 90 minutes start checking to see if the meat is falling off the bone.

When the shanks are ready, mix a few teaspoons of ground cumin with some salt to make the dip. Use gray salt, fleur de sel or kosher salt for better balance and a nice crunch. This is an amazingly good dish. The lamb will be silken and redolent of saffron.

08/05/07 - Black Douglas Cod - A Northwestern Treat

This dish was suggested by a dish we had at Coupage, a Korean fusion restaurant in Seattle. They served arctic char marinated in fir eau de vie, and it was quite good. This dish has a slightly stronger flavor, and the light green notes of the fir buds come across as rather bright and fruity. No, it doesn't taste like wood pulp.

You might want to check out Clear Creek Distillery, the folks who make the eau de vie, or check out the Washington State Liquor Board for availability.

05/05/07 - Peashoots and Asparagus at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

We are just back from the Farmers' Market, and we have to report that spring is moving along.

Westwind Farm has the most amazing asparagus. We've never tasted any this good before. Go for the big fat ones, if there are any left when you get their. When you get them home, peel them and steam them, or boil them. Also, this may be the last week they have their nettles, so hurry up if you want to dry making nettle soup or ravioli.

The Johnston Farm is selling pea shoots, a sure sign of the season. They also have their baby potatoes, lots of herbs, carrots and coriander.

Harley at Dry Creek Farm says that his salad greens are doing nothing, but he does have his eggs. His organic oats are also doing well, but the cold weather has slowed things.

Nash Huber has great looking Swiss chard and lots of little cauliflowers. We bought three bunches of the stuff, so we'll be making our Swiss chard and tuna spaghetti again real soon.

10/12/06 - Boarlets

We recently took advantage of Arianne's freezer sale at d'Artagnan to buy some wild boar miniroasts, as she calls them. We called them boarlets, and we bought two. We used the recipe from The D'Artagnan Cookbook, except we used Westwind Farm shallots instead of onions, and Westwind's excellent carrots. We cooked it in a Dutch oven in the oven instead of a casserole on the stove top. We left the bouquet garnis in the mix while it cooked, and we ate the vegetables.

So, how were the boarlets? Kaleberg Kitchens says that they were great, or as Variety would put it, Boarlets Boffo!

10/01/06 - BLTs and Fire

When there are good tomatoes, there are good BLTs. There is nothing like a well made bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. We at Kaleberg Research have been episodically tinkering and improving this good thing, and our latest product is a winner. In a recent breakthrough, we have applied our experience working with nature's perfect food, pizza, and produced what may be the perfect BLT.

Our grilled pizza experiments, building on the work of others, have demonstrated the superiority grilled pizza crust. Grilled pizza crust is just grilled flat bread, and with a topping of olive oil and chopped garlic, what could make a better base for a BLT? So, we made up a batch of pizza dough, fired up the charcoal grill, and set to work. The olive oil and garlic served as the traditional mayonaisse, comprising 2/3 of an aioli, and with fresh local salad greens, Sunny Farms' bacon and our own tomatoes, we produced the masterpiece on the right.

09/14/06 - Goan Spiced Shrimp With Summer Vegetables

We are making the most of the late season romano beans, and we've been craving spices as of late. In fact, we've been craving the spices of Goa, much as the Portuguese were when they took over the place over 400 years ago. So, we made up some white shrimp with Goan spices and romano beans, and we threw in some New Zealand spinach as well. For our recipe, and the results, click here.

08/23/06 - Summer Harvest - Johnston Farms

We were out at Johnston Farms today and decided to grab a few items that don't even make it as far as the Farmers' Market. To start with, we grabbed some pumpkin flowers, and we plan to fry them tempura style. We also grabbed their entire basket of Costoluto tomatoes, fresh from the greenhouse. These are a relatively dry, firm tomato, with an incredibly rich, summery flavor. We just had to fire up the grill and make pizza with minced garlic, olive oil, basil, Costoluto tomato slices and grated parmesan cheese. If you have never had a grilled pizza, you don't know the heights to which pizza, nature's perfect food, can ascend. We'd do an entire web page on these pizzas, but the fire is hot, and our hands are full grilling them. We couldn't resist. Check out our grilled pizza guide.