Fourth of July

Hamptons. Salmon + chicken skewers. Fresh Mango Salsa. Housemade Chimichurri. Local Corn and tomatoes. Wedge + Blue CheeseSalad.Good wine. S'Mores. Great Friends.

Small Bites: Big Flavor

Since finishing my internship at Pure Food and Wine, I have been experimenting with recipes, dabbling into their cookbooks and making new creations of my own. I wanted to bring my favorite dishes from the restaurant into my kitchen, taking some of their flavor inspirations and techniques and layering them into my daily meals. One of my favorite things to plate (and snack on) on the line was their tarts, served as an hors d'ouvre. This is something that seems to change quite often in the restaurant, but I loved the bold flavors that came out of these small bites. This recipe is as close as I can remember, though I believe we used an apple cider reduction as the sauce. There are so many different ways to play around with this. I made my base more of a cracker, instead of a tart, as I did not have tart molds on hand to create the shape. This worked out just fine, and I actually prefer having the leftovers around to snack on. Here is my latest version and what I learned from Pure Food and Wine.

   

Pinot Noir Crisps with Herbed Cashew Cream

Trumpet Mushrooms + Caramelized Shallots

Apricot-Riesling Sauce

The Apricot Riesling sauce, along with the freshness from the herbs brightens up the heavy Pinot Noir, shallot and trumpet mushroom flavor. With the sweetness from the maple shallots and truffle oil notes, this makes for one awesome bite. I used Dr. Cow's Cashew Cream Cheese as a base and added my own herbs, but you can certainly make your own cashew cheese. I added fresh chives and parsley. Serves about 4. 

Black Pepper-Pinot Noir Crisps

1 cup pecans, soaked for 1 hour

3 Tbsp nutritional yeast

3 1/2 Tbsp Pinot Noir

3 1/2 Tbsp ground flax seeds

freshly ground black pepper

pinch of sea salt

In a food processor, blend all the ingredients until smooth. Add more wine as necessary until you get a smooth consistency, like peanut butter. Spread the mixture evenly on a Teflex-lined dehydrator tray, using an offset spatula to spread evenly. 

Dehydrate for about 2 hours, until the surface is completely dry. Use a cutter of your choice (depending on what size/shape cracker you want) to score shapes into the mixture. Dehydrate for another 2 to 3 hours until the tops feel dry. Flip onto the mesh screen, peeling off the Teflex sheet and dehydrate until crisp. 

 Marinated Trumpet Mushrooms

1 cup black trumpet mushrooms (I used dried)

1/4 cup Pinot Noir

1/4 medium shallot, peeled and finely minced

1/4 cup nama shoyu

1/2 tsp white truffle oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Rinse the mushrooms and pat dry. Mix the ingredients in a bowl and toss. Place mushrooms in the dehydrator until ready to serve.

Caramelized Shallots

2 medium shallots, peeled, cut in half, and sliced very thin

Splash of maple syrup

Splash of extra-virgin olive oil

Pinch of sea salt

Toss ingredients in a shallow small hotel pan, or mini loaf pan until evenly coated. Dehydrate until shallots are broken down and the liquid is mostly evaporated, about 2 to 4 hours.

Apricot-Riesling Sauce

1/2 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup dry Riesling

Punch of sea salt

Puree ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth.

To assemble, drizzle the plate with the Apricot-Riesling Sauce. Place a Pinot Noir Crisp on the plate, stack with a spoonful of the herbed cashew cream, a pinch-ful of shallots and trumpet mushrooms. Top off with more fresh herbs and a few drops of truffle oil.

A warm welcome back to reality...

Just back from tying the knot and honeymoon-ing in Italy...it was an incredible whirlwind of a dream and now the only thing that I wanted to do all weekend long was eat comforting, home-cooked foods and settle back into reality. The jet-lag was taking longer than expected to recover from, even after trying to strategically plan our sleeping patterns by drinking copious amount of espresso (my Italian jones) on the long flight home. Two of my friends wanted to do a Sunday night dinner so I (obviously) convinced them to come over so I can cook for them instead. We opened a bottle of Chianti and sat around nibbling on fresh fig, prosciutto and clover honey. After some gossip, I started to make the Cioppino, a San Francisco fisherman's stew with fresh lump crab meat, large prawns, halibut and clams. It's good to be home...

Cioppino
(Recipe adapted from Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Slow Cooking)
Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
2 yellow onions, chopped
2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 bay leaves, broken in half
2 cans (14 1/2 oz each) diced tomatoes
3/4 cups Chianti wine
1/2 cup sauvignon blanc wine
2 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano
2 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme
3/4 lb firm white fish, like halibut, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 lb littleneck clams, scrubbed
1 lb Dungenuss crab claws, or lump crabmeat, picked over for shells
20 large shrimp (prawns), peeled and deveined
1/2 tsp Tabasco
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions
In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the onions and bell peppers and saute until just tender, about 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add the bay leaves, tomatoes, and red and white wines and bring to a simmer. Partially cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes.Remove and discard the bay leaves. Add the oregano, thyme, fish and clams. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 5 minutes. Add the crab and shrimp, cover and cook until the shrimp and fish are opaque and the clams have opened, 3-4 minutes. Discard any clams that failed to open. Stir in the Tabasco sauce and season with salt and pepper.

Divide among the bowls and serve at once.
A warm piece of baguette is always good to soak up the juices at the end. Please do stay tuned for a future post on our wedding and Italian travels...Ciao for now!

Happily Ever Napa

I realize that it has been a few weeks since my last posting and I promise a good reason for this. I recently had a birthday so my boyfriend planned a trip to Napa. We had both never been, and have talked about it for many years. The flights were booked months ago, just as important, the restaurant reservations were made well in advance...

Lunch was scheduled for our first day at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen. After spending one fabulous day walking around San Fransisco, staying at the recommended Clift Hotel and enjoying our first dinner at Conduit, we got right on the road early the next morning to head to Napa. We checked in at White House Inn, a quaint newly-renovated house in downtown Napa. We were greeted by friendly people, dropped our bags and got right back in the car to drive up 29 towards Cindy's (with planned tastings on our way, of course). We stopped into few vineyards, including Laird Family Estate. I notebly loved one partincular wine called Jillian's Blend, a blend of their Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Perfectly light red wine with some body and spice elements to it (just finished off a bottle two nights ago with dinner). Once we made our way to Cindy's we were hungry. We ordered their flatbread to share. I got Cindy's Curried Chicken Salad and he got the Backstreet Burger. Just what we needed. Ready for more. On our way back to the inn we took a different route on Silverado Trail; new view, different vineyards. One I remember liking in particular was Pine Ridge. This was the best day to me. Driving around with no where to be. Good company, good music. Great wine. Fresh air. Relaxation. How else would you like to spend your Friday afternoon? I'll let you ponder on that for a second...

That evening we had dinner at one of the greatest Wine Country establishments, the Restaurant at Auberge Du Soleil. Legacy for it's award-winning menu and wine list, we sat at a table on their famous terrace overlooking olive greens and vineyards. It is supposed to be the best seat in town for sunset but was disappointingly foggy out that night. We were still happily satisfied with the view and about to enjoy a full four-course meal. Dinner was decadent. Seared foie gras with pistachio and bittersweet chocolate sauce, halibut with pea puree, liberty farm duck with artichokes...wine pairings...trust me, there was more. Incredible. We enjoyed every last bit and eventually rolled ourselves home to get set for our final day in the valley.

We woke up early the next morning for a wine tour that James had planned (have I told you the name of the man that I have been dating for the past few years is James?). A woman (quirky, smiley, can already tell she has a great sense of humor) rings the doorbell. I knew then that this was going to be an eventful day. We got in her car and immediately started talking 'wine': how we were complete amateurs only wishing we knew more, knew what we liked when we tasted it, loved when people paired wines for us, enjoyed drinking wine at almost every meal, and so on. She was great. She talked the whole way to our first stop. We learned so much in the first 15-minutes! We preferred the smaller intimate vineyards, so we completely avoided the "commercial" ones (Cakebread, Opus One...we even skipped over Robert Mondavi). We started at Adastra Vineyards. This was special. Family-owned by Dr. Chris Thorpe and his son-in-law, this certified organic vineyard is located on a beautiful 33-acre ranch. He gave us a tour of the entire property, including tasting his organically-grown tomatoes straight from his garden and sniffing-and-guessing herbs as we walked around. His wine was not so bad either. (We bought a case).

From there we visited Shifflett Estate, Tres Sabores, had a picnic lunch at Allora and a tasting in between at Elizabeth Spencer. All-in-all the day was more than fulfilling. At one point we had to take a coffee break at Bouchon Bakery. This was heaven. You already know that sweets are my weakness (I am sure most can relate). Their homemade TKO (oreo cookie) and a Peanut Butter and Jelly cookie!!! Go now. Run before they are all gone.

The day started coming to its end. We made the drive back to our inn already talking of canceling our perfectly-scheduled dinner reservations at Martini House due to the past three gluttonously glorious days. Once back at the inn, James had one more surprise. He somehow managed to drag me outside to a gazebo that we had discovered our first night there. We walked in. He got on one knee. And yes, he proposed! And yes, I said yes! Birthday trip, turned engagement celebration. This is officially one trip we will remember forever. Now soon-to-be Mrs. Stewart (have I mentioned his last name is Stewart?), I have a wedding to plan...with many tastings to come. Do stay tuned...

4th of July Done Right

Hamptons. Piled-high burgers. Corn on the cob. Beer. Local wine. Drinking games. Friends.

Fun.

Vino e Cucina

Nothing beats the winter blues more than flavorful food, a comfy ambiance, good company and...wines from every region of Italy?? Yes. That's because I am talking about 'inoteca- the reputable LES wine bar with the most surprisingly daring menu.  I recently spent an evening here chatting up with friends over a few bottles of vino. In the middle of a wound-up week, this was just the place to loosen up and savor down. Somehow rustic wood tables with a sleek bar in the same room work to create a neighborhood-y feel. I am thinking the enormous windows and the fact that 'inoteca is nestled on the corner of Rivington and Ludlow has something to do with it. Regardless, whether sophisticated or on the cheap- everyone feels at home. Think urban Tuscany.

They have a classic wine bar menu of small plates that includes insalate, panini, bruschette, affetati, and formaggi.  Guided by our waitress, we ordered a little of this and a little of that to be shared. It was the perfect amount of food. She seemed a bit overwhelmed by the buzzing upstairs scene but was more than helpful and led us in the right direction with everything we ordered- especially insisting on their truffled egg toast (bread with egg yolks, fontina cheese and a drizzle of truffle oil!). One word. Amazing. The best order was their insalta d'anatra. Mouth-watering tender duck salad. OMG. 

The generous pours of wine were flowing.  Good conversation.  Incredible food.  My idea of a Wednesday night.

Go early. Beat the crowds.