09/13/11 - Wood Fired Pizza

09/07/11 - Pickled Tomatoes

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.

07/03/11 - Orange Cardamom Cookies

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

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

06/02/11 - Salmon BLT

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.

05/27/11 - St. Germain and Champagne

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.

04/21/11 - Mangosteens

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

04/12/11 - Halibut Pot Pie With Fennel

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)

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.

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.

04/10/11 - Skate Wings

03/23/11 - Country Captain Chicken

• 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

03/14/11 - Hailey's Blue

03/01/11 - Trufflestack

01/28/11 - Toga's Sandwiches

• 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.

12/15/10 - Buddha's Hand

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.

12/03/10 - Duck Confit

09/06/10 - Crespiou

• lacinato kale with anchovies
• baby potatoes and onions
• green beans
• tomatoes, garlic, basil and pine nuts
• zucchini with garlic, oregano, thyme and dry cured black olives

09/03/10 - New, at Least for Us, in Seattle

• Melrose Market - This is a mini-mall of little food shops on Melrose Avenue between Pike and Pine. Rain Shadow Meats alone was worth the visit. There are quite a few interesting places cropping up between Pike and Pine, like Cascina Spinasse, Eliot Bay Books and now Melrose Market.
• Belle Epicurian - This is a pastry place on Fourth Avenue between University and Seneca, and we nearly walked right by except for the wonderful scent of buttery baked goods. To be honest, we didn't try anything. Despite rumors to the contrary, we Kalebergs can only eat so much. Still, everything had the right look and scent, so we'll be back.
• Seatown Snack Bar - This is Tom Douglas's latest addition to his empire. It has taken over the retro-1970s furniture store next to Etta's. (See our review below.)

We had a porchetta sandwich, which was almost as good as Salumi's. We also had an amazingly good beef short rib sandwich. They have a great potato salad made with a simple coarse Dijon mustard dressing. We also had a wonderful dish of thinly sliced octopus with turmeric cucumbers and a plate of heirloom tomatoes and avocado skordalia. We were quite impressed. Not only is the food great, and you can get a light snack or a full meal, but they serve all afternoon and into the evening.

08/26/10 - Salmon a la Costco