Brave Horse Tavern
I realized some time ago that although I visit Brave Horse Tavern on a fairly regular basis I’d never written a blog post about them. Well, it’s time to rectify that!
Over the last couple years Tom Douglas has expanded his bevy restaurants quite substantially. The Brave Horse Tavern is one of three restaurants housed in the historic Terry Building in the South Lake Union area. The two-story building is a warm respite from the modern, but a little cold, glass and steel Amazon buildings that surround it on three sides. In the same building you’ll find Cuoco and Ting Momo.
The Brave Horse is a little different from Tom Douglas’ other locations in that the bar has a much more significant part in the scheme of things. This location is about beers, burgers, pretzels; watching games on the many TVs; gathering after work with friends for a quick game of shuffleboard or darts. Having said that, it’s much more than a standard tavern or standard tavern fare.
The aforementioned burgers are available in three varieties - beef, turkey, or black bean and chile – and are customizable with several options. A specially designed brick oven roasts the soft, bread-like pretzels which feature gourmet spreads, such as sour cream with crispy onion. Or the pretzels sometimes play a role in one of the weekly rotating specials.
There are enough tasty appetizers, creative sides and entrees to keep you and everyone in your group happy, no matter what they are looking for. Menu items often feature produce from Prosser Farm – either fresh from the farm or preserved from the seasonal crops.
One of my favorite times to visit is for weekend brunch. Baked eggs, smoked brisket hash, cornmeal pancakes…. these are just some of the options you may find on their brunch menu. And the Bloody Marys aren’t bad either!
But I mostly go for the burgers. I love burgers and I love being able to create my own masterpiece from the selection of add-ons. The burger in the photo above is a “simple”100% painted hills chuck house (the beef burger) with a slice of delicious cheddar. Sometimes simple is the best.
Brave Horse Tavern
310 Terry Avenue North
South Lake Union
Seattle
206-971-0717
Meyer Lemon Upside Down Cake
A couple weeks ago a friend and I had dinner at Bar del Corso. The entire meal was delicious but my favorite part of it was dessert. I don’t often order dessert but when I heard that Meyer Lemon Upside Down Cake was one of the options, I had to give it a try. Meyer lemons are one of my favorite fruits! My friend and I tried to dissect the cake ingredients that night – it probably would have been easier to ask the chef but we didn’t think of that.
It seemed to me that the cake was basically an olive oil cake made with polenta. We couldn’t really see Meyer lemon on the top, which was odd since that is the normal “upside down” presentation but it seemed there were flecks of zest in the cake and some sort of fruit composition on the top.
This last weekend my wine club met for our first tasting of 2012. We were tasting wines from Sicily and Sardinia. Sicily is especially known for citrus fruit and I decided to try to create that same Meyer Lemon Upside Down Cake. I found a similar recipe on Epicurious and, although it wasn’t olive oil cake, I decided to try it with just a few changes.
The biggest change was that I made small individual cakes instead of one large cake. Overall I was really happy with the result, although the cake was not as delicate as an olive oil cake would be. I’ll work on that for next time.
I forgot to take a photo of the final presentation where honey-sweetened crème fraîche topped the cakes. The tangy-sweet cream complemented the tangy-sweet cake perfectly, although it covered the pretty design the Meyer Lemons created on the cake. I think next time I’d put a swish of cream on the plate and then place the cake on the cream or put the dollop of cream on the side. That would provide both the complementing flavors and preserve the design.
The recipe with my adaptations is below. The original recipe is here.
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Oysters Rockefeller
I first “discovered” oysters in a real way while I was in college. Oh sure, I’d known about oysters and probably even had them cooked in a few things but they weren’t really part of my culinary awareness. Which actually seems a little odd to me since childhood trips to the Oregon coast were full of clams, mussels and Dungeness crab. Somehow oysters never made the cut.
I remember my first real experience with oysters as if it were yesterday. I was at one of those casual college barbecues. Friends and friends-of-friends wandered in and out contributing food to the party. There was a keg sitting in a garbage can full of ice providing chilled refreshment for the group, and we sat on the grass or stood in conversation about deep topics and minor trivialities, as college students do. Suddenly energy pulsed through the relaxed afternoon. Some guy had arrived carrying a bushel bag of oysters over his shoulder. Such an unexpected surprise and a generous contribution for cash-strapped college students.
Ginger Molasses Cookies
For years I’ve made Molasses Crinkles, a standard recipe in many bakers’ repertoire. I used the recipe my Mom did and was completely happy with it. But it used shortening as the fat and I’ve been trying to move away from shortening in my baking, mostly replacing it with butter. That didn’t work for this recipe. In addition, something else changed – I’m not exactly sure what, but the cookies didn’t quite have the same texture or shape they’d had in the past. I don’t know if I changed my technique or what, but something was definitely different.
I’ve perused other recipes off and on and found a recipe in The Grand Central Baking Book
Since the recipe is for the cookies they sell at their bakeries, it made a very large bakery-type cookie. I wanted something smaller and reduced the size substantially.
The resulting cookie was not what I expected but was delicious anyway. Mine did not come out as puffy as I thought they would – this could have been due to the smaller size and my not taking into account something that affected. However, I loved the cookie I got which was kind of a cross between a ginger snap and a molasses cookie. They were thin, crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside. Delicious with a cup of tea or glass of milk. I’m not a cookie dunker but if you are they’d be great for dunking!
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Hot Buttered Rum
Finally. Snow in Seattle. We’ve had a gorgeous winter – mostly clear and crisp – but it feels good to have a little of the white stuff falling from the sky. As is normal, some areas are getting hit much harder than others. No matter what the situation is in your neighborhood, today is a great day for hot-buttered rum!
I hesitated to post this recipe but looking back I see I haven’t mentioned it for a few years. I guess it’s safe to post it again!
I love that you can make a batch and then store it in the freezer so it’s ready at a moment’s notice. One morning’s “work” equals lots of days of spicy, warm pleasure.
Hot Buttered Rum
1 qt vanilla ice cream, softened (let it get almost liquid-y)
1 lb. soft butter
1 lb. brown sugar
1 lb.powdered sugar
2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Cream butter, sugars and spices. When they are thoroughly blended mix in the ice cream.
Store in freezer until ready to use.
To make drinks
Put a generous tablespoon of batter into a mug.
Add a shot of rum. (I prefer a golden rum.)
Mush it around until the batter is soft.
Add boiling water to fill cup.
Stir.
Grate a little fresh nutmeg on the top.
Using Leftovers
Not only is homemade soup delicious and soul-satisfying, it’s a great way to use up all sort of leftovers you may have in your fridge. Sometimes this even leads to new flavor combinations you may not have otherwise tried.
The ingredients that inspired the soup in the photo were a partial onion, a small bag of mushrooms, a couple of carrots, leftover elk steak and some beef broth.
I started by sweating the onion, a few cloves of garlic and a small piece of ginger. Then added the carrot and a couple of bay leaves and sautéed a few minutes longer, then added the mushrooms. Next, about 2 or 3 cups of broth went into the pot. I brought the soup to a boil and let it simmer for about 15 minutes to allow the flavors to develop and merge. Next I added some rice noodles and when they were about half way done I added the chunks of elk, which was already cooked. I wanted to warm the meat without cooking it to death.
After scooping the soup into bowls I topped it with a little chopped green onion. Add a couple of slices of bread and maybe a nice green salad and you have dinner!
Linguine with Crab, Lemon, Mint & Chile
Citrus fruit is another of my winter favorites – it brings a little sunshine to the dark, dreary days we often have. I was happy to see the great collection of citrus recipes in the January issue of Bon Appetit magazine . Doubling my delight, I noticed a pasta recipe that featured both crab and lemon!
Yes, crab with lemon is a classic combination but this recipe adds a couple of nice twists: mint and chile.
Pasta, dried chile and lemon are nearly always in my pantry. And I still have some usable mint in my garden, which is unusual for this time of year but probably due to the dry winter weather we’ve had. As you may have guessed from my last post I had crab in my refrigerator, too. With this ingredient convergence I was meant to make this recipe. And so I did.
It all comes together in a few minutes. You have to allow time for the pasta to cook, but that gives you plenty of time to get the sauce ingredients ready to go. I sautéed the onions and garlic, then pulled the pan off the heat until the pasta had about 5 minutes remaining. At that point I continued on with the sauce and added the pasta as soon as it finished cooking.
This is a light and delicious meal. It’s extremely satisfying yet a nice break from all the rich foods from the holidays. The mint and lemon keep the dish fresh, while the butter and crab add a silky plushness to each bite.
I pretty much followed the recipe as is. At least as much as I follow any recipe…. When you add the crab at the end of the recipe make sure you just warm it and don’t over cook it. You don’t want it to dry out or become tough.
You can find the pasta recipe here.
