Diner en Blanc- Cincinnati

The post I'm about to write has very little to do with food. I didn't cook the food for this event, nor can I say the food I bought was particularly spectacular. But the event itself was, well, beautiful.

Diner en Blanc is a flash picnic that was started in Paris in the late '80s. This is the picnic's 2nd year in the US, and I have to say, it was incredibly well organized. Space was limited to 1100, and signups were all online. Once signed up, you had the option to purchase a picnic basket. For $48, I couldn't have put one together myself (basket to boot, no less!) The location of the picnic was secret- we met at one of the 10 "bus stops" around Cincinnati, and had our names checked off a list.

This thing was not easy to prep- I had to buy a table and rent linens and folding chairs. The bf has no white clothes, so white pants/belt/shoes had to be mail ordered. Of course, there had to be at least a modest table setting, so an Ikea trip for votive candles and a white pitcher for flowers became necessary.

So- back to the bus. We boarded around 6pm, and drove 10 minutes down the road to Lytle Park for the event.

 Bus by bus, all 1100 people set up their tables and decorations- some people had insane tablescapes- one table had a canopy with twinkly lights. White napkins waved in the air to signify the start of the event (and the wine!)

Setting up in Lytle Park

Fantastic home-made picnic... wish it was mine!

Eiffel Tower Centerpiece

The table with the canopy!

Our table... flowers and candles are creative by my standards ;)

me at our table

Everyone had to pack a picnic basket with white plates (not plastic- real plates), flatware, wine glasses, and of course, wine. We brought two bottles thinking we'd only open one... good thing we brought both! One was a Hooked! 2011 Reisling... crisp, not overly sweet. The other was a 2009 Urban Uco Malbec- probably one of the best inexpensive Malbec's we've had since Argentina. Really smooth with strong blackberry overtones. My pre-purchased basket had spinach dip with crackers and veg, chicken sandwich, potato salad, tomato mozzarella salad, and cookies... good quality but not as impressive as some of the home made baskets.

All in all- a successful evening. The weather was perfect, and the white lights and balloons in the evening were beautiful. I'll sign up for next year, you should come too.

DEB at night

Sparklers to end the evening

Tomato Take 2

Hi Becky-

Tomato season isn't over, and I've already one-upped my own posting. The recipe of the season has been bumped from tomato corn salad to chicken with seared cherry tomatoes. Can't pretend that I made this one up, but I do have a few comments.

1) Read the entire recipe before you start- this one goes in and out of the oven so many times that you need to watch which ingredients are added in the beginning/middle/end:
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/quick-recipes/2012/08/chicken-with-herb-roasted-tomatoes-and-pan-sauce

2) I know you have a cast iron skillet. For anyone reading this blog who doesn't own a cast iron skillet, buy one... specifically for this recipe. They're listed on Amazon for $20- Loge is a good brand.

3) Grape, heirloom, cherry, roma... any tomato will do, really

4) I don't have Herbes de Provence in the pantry, nor was I going to stock up on a $5 bottle. I know- flippant, considering the demand to purchase a $20 cast iron skillet... the skillet will change your cooking life, the herbs won't. At any rate- sub out the 2 tblsp of Herbes de Provence for 1 tsp dried thyme and 2 tblsp fresh chopped basil. Add the thyme to the tomatoes in the beginning. Stir in the basil at the end, right before serving.

5) Worcestershire sauce + red wine vinegar + tomatoes= magical (sweet/tart/savory all in one bite!)

6) This recipe is flexible enough to use with any protein. Follow cooking times exact if you're using chicken. If using tilapia or other fish, sear on each side 1 minute and bake in the oven 4-5 minutes. Don't check the fish while searing- let it sit in the hot pan a full minute on each side to allow the golden crust to form.

7) The fresh tarragon and parsley are optional, particularly if you used the fresh basil

This is really awesome with ravioli or pasta on the side... the tomatoes act as built-in pasta sauce!

Tomato- Game On

Finally, it's tomato season! (cue dull roar from crowd) And, I've been buying 5 pounds a week from the farmers market.

Any other time of year, I can't stand eating raw tomatoes... they're flavorless with a crunchy yet goopy texture that just doesn't do it for me. I always wondered why winter tomatoes didn't have the magic... according to U of I, tomato flesh degrades when stored below 54 degrees. Meaning: don't pop those suckers into the fridge! http://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/tomato.cfm

Have tried a few fresh tomato recipes & want to try a pasta with raw sauce that I found in this month's Bon Appetit. Last year, I made a few tomato salads with cheeses, bruchetta, and tomato pie. All were ok, but this one is my absolute favorite:

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2012/07/charred-corn-salad-with-basil-and-tomatoes

The recipe is impossible to screw up, and it also happens to be corn & basil season too :) The only kicker is this salad tastes like complete crap if you make it outside of July & August. Eat up while you can, let me know what you think!

Do you have any other ideas for using fresh summer tomatoes?

Kick-N-Chicken

When I was a little kid, I used to spend 2 months every summer at my grandparents' house in upstate NY. Not the Westchester county version of Upstate NY... I'm talkin' about the back country road, old farmhouse, pig farm, corn field Upstate NY. And every Sunday was chicken day. What was chicken day, you ask? Chicken day was when smoked rotisserie chicken owned the kitchen- the smell alone was enough to attract every member of the family like flies to sugar water. 

Every weekend during the summers, the chicken stand would light a wood smoker early in the morning. Imagine a massive pit with a 15 foot rotisserie spit spread across. On the spit were 20 perfect chickens, bound together with twine, seasoned with BBQ seasoning (Bucks), and gently rubbed in butter. The chickens would slow roast over the smoky embers for a couple hours, until the meat fell off the bone. *Fell off the bone* Imagine a slow roasted pork butt shredding between your fingers- that's what this chicken is like. This isn't a chicken with flavor reserved only for the skin, or the chicken that requires a heavy coating of sauce to be called barbeque. The meat itself is infused with smokey flavor, and the slow roasting melts the tendons to lock in moisture. Equally moist white and dark meat- impossible to achieve in the oven without dissecting the bird before it's fully cooked.

Yesterday, I encountered the infamous Upstate NY chicken for the first time in over 5 years. What the hell was I thinking, skipping all of those summer family visits? The chicken alone was worth the flight (and grandma too).

Here's a picture of Kick-N-Chicken in Palermo, NY. The pit has been replaced with a wagon. Clearly this ain't your Kroger dual chicken electric rotisserie.

Grandma with the birdies

Dosa Back

Hey Becky-

I have three very awesome food months to catch up on (Korea! New York! Cupcakes! Blueberry smashes!) In the meantime though, I can't help but wax a little poetic on dosas.

I had my first dosa 4 years ago at a place called Dakshin in Louisville (http://www.mydakshin.com). Dakshin is probably the best Indian food I've had in a restaurant, and it's located in a veritable shithole of a shopping center. But the massive half moon, size-of-a-Carolina's-tortilla, crispy, delicately browned dosas with the mashed potato filling were worth transferring the hefty contents of my car into the trunk for safekeeping every time. I liked them so much that I bought rice flour thinking I might try to recreate them at home- no such luck so far.

Was the uttapam similar to a Korean pancake? Yet another unsatisfied reason for the rice flour purchase.

Dosa on Fillmore next year?

Left My Heart (and Stomach) in San Francisco

Dear Anna,

Gosh, it’s been … 2 years since I last posted on the blog. I suppose I’ve been busy in the meantime: finishing graduate school, getting married, working. That reminds me, I should probably update my bio on the left side bar, hm?

I thought I would herald my return to the blog with a restaurant review – Dosa in San Francisco, specifically Dosa on Fillmore (there’s also a Dosa on Valencia). But first, the story. My good friends J and J (I figured I would keep it limited to initials since this is a blog and not Facebook) live in the Bay Area, and they are foodies as well. On a visit last year, they took Husband and I to an Indian restaurant called Dosa, and I have to say it’s astoundingly delicious and unlike any Indian food you’ve probably ever had before.

The Interwebs at Wikipedia tells me that dosa is “a fermented crepe or pancake made from rice batter and black lentils … and is a staple dish in the southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.” Uttapam is a thicker pancake with toppings like onions, chiles, tomatoes and spices are cooked into the batter. I’m no expert, but I think the kormas, paratha, roti, and other dishes in which we used to drown our Cornell studying sorrows and typically think of as “Indian food” is northern Indian cuisine.

So, continuing the story: our friends J and J got married earlier this month, and Husband and I flew in to San Francisco for the wedding. (May I just say that in our experience, it’s a lot more fun to be guests at a wedding versus being the marrying couple.) We made it a point to go back to Dosa while we were there… well actually, it was more like a “hurry-up-and-get-through-baggage-claim-because-we’re-having-dinner-at-Dosa-now” kind of point.

The restaurant itself is quite beautiful, with tables both upstairs and downstairs and at the bar, in that sexy urban restaurant kind of way.

I can’t quite remember if we ordered both dosas AND uttapams during our first visit, but it was the uttapams that we remembered. At the restaurant, you can order a chef’s selection of five different uttapams (South Indian Moons) if you have a hard time making your choice. And you can get both entrée-sized dishes or small plates of meat, fish, and vegetable dishes. The small plates are particularly nice if you, like us, just want to taste EVERYTHING.

I’m trying to think how to describe an uttapam to you … all the descriptors say “pancake,” but that’s like saying that a loaf of ciabatta fresh out of an oven in Tuscany is bread; technically true but misses something important. The texture is dense and moist, with pops of flavor from the toppings and spices.

*sigh*

Too bad this restaurant is 750 miles away from me in Arizona and 2,400 miles away from you in Ohio.

So… when can we go? =D

Love,

Becky

http://dosasf.com/fillmore_home.htm

Ode to Queen Creek Olive Mill

Becky-

Admittedly, I was a little jealous when I found the bacon olive oil at your house in February and I had only hand-carry luggage. So when you called a couple weeks ago to tell me you'd purchased olive oil for my birthday gift, clearly it was a good day :)


Birthday package arrived in the mail yesterday, and I'll have you know that I've made good use of the contents.

Bacon Olive Oil... with Green Beans
2 tblsp bacon olive oil
1 lb french string beans
1/2 cup minced red onion

Heat 2 tblsp bacon olive oil in medium hot pan. Saute onion until soft. Turn up the burner to medium high and add string beans. Saute 3-4 minutes, until string beans are crispy. Season to taste.


Roasted Garlic Olive Oil... with Popcorn
3 tblsp garlic olive oil
1/2 cup popcorn seeds
salt

Heat olive oil in covered soup pot over medium high heat until smoke point is reached (you'll start to see steam coming from the pan). Add popcorn seeds. Cover & shake pot over heat. Remove from heat as popping slows... don't wait until the popping stops, it'll burn every time. Season with salt.

Orange Olive Oil... with Baby Back Ribs
(1) 3 lb rack of baby back ribs
Dry rub- 1 tblsp paprika, 1 tblsp Caribbean sea salt (or jerk seasoning), 1 tblsp steak seasoning
Marinade- 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/4 cup red wine, 1/4 cup BBQ sauce (bottled), 1/8 cup honey, 1/8 cup sorghum, 2 tblsp Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
1 cup water
2 tblsp orange olive oil
Extra BBQ sauce (bottled)

Prepare ribs by removing the transparent membrane from bottom. The membrane is slippery and tough to grab onto, so cut the rack in half if you need a place to start peeling. Once you peel a corner, the rest should come off. Don't skip this step if you want your rib meat to "fall off the bone." Rub with dry rub & place in large plastic zipper bag. Cover in marinade and seal, pushing to remove air. Marinate 2-12 hours in refrigerator.

Pre- heat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking pan with foil, spray with nonstick, and place ribs ontop. Pour marinade from bag ontop of ribs & add 1 cup water to bottom of pan. Drizzle with orange olive oil. Cover with foil. Bake 2 hours.

Preheat grill to 400 degrees. Remove ribs from baking sheet & drizzle again with orange olive oil. Grill ribs 3-5 minutes or until crispy. Brush with extra BBQ sauce.

Link to Queen Creek Olive Mill in Arizona where Becky found these super-fun olive oils: http://queencreekolivemill.com/

Yam Fajita Momma

Hey Becky-

One day back from your house, and I've already made the yam fajitas.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chorizo-Poblano-and-Yam-Fajitas-with-Lime-Marinated-Red-Onions-350963

They were so beautiful... pretty pops of orange yam and green poblano peppers sprinkled with the creamy white feta (French feta... less salty than regular Greek style feta). Very wise of your man to suggest slicing the red onions mandolin-thin. The lime juice seriously broke them down in a pliable yet still crispy, tangy way.

I meant to share a photo with you, but by the time I remembered, there was a set of teeth marks in the fajita wrapper (compliments of Carolinas: http://carolinasmex.com/)

Becky, you are so lucky to have Carolina's flour tortillas in driving distance. Thin, floury, yet stretchy at the same time (but not moist like at the average burrito place). I'm happy to have 3 packages in the freezer, but really wish Carolina's had a shipping service. In the meantime, I just need to keep making trips to Phoenix :)