Culinary Fool

Great American Bake Sale

15-Oct-2005

Starting October 16th and going through January 29th, the Great American Bake Sale allows you to get involved in ending childhood hunger in a very personal way. This is a national campaign organized by and managed by Share our Strength.

The concept is very simple and is a great way to get kids involved in community service! You sign up to host a bake sale, have it and then send the funds to Share Our Strength. How easy is that?

$150,000 goes to specific grants to non-profits across the country. Then, 75% goes to meal programs in the communities where the funds were collected. In other words, the bulk of your contribution goes directly to programs in your area. This year 25% of the proceeds will be designated for Hurricane Katrina relief. For more information on the program; how funds are allocated and your choices for allocation; as well as ideas for hosting your bake sale, visit the site.

Columbia City Bakery Opens Its Doors!

14-Oct-2005

For those of you who have visited the Columbia City Farmers’ Market, you may be familiar with the Columbia City Bakery. They’ve been selling bread and pastries at the market for the last season.

This morning they opened the doors on their new permanent location on Rainer Avenue in the heart of Columbia City. Unfortunately, I don’t have their exact address but they are just a few doors south of La Medusa at 4857 Rainier.

They opened at 7:00 am this morning and M visited at about 7:15. The place was packed, the baker beaming and the neighborhood folks were greeting each other and very excited that the long awaited bakery was finally open! I’ve sampled a few of their wares at the market and heard great things about others. If you are in or near Columbia City I think it would be worth your time to check it out!

Sur la Table Winter Classes

13-Oct-2005

You can now register for Sur la Table’s winter classes online. I didn’t check all cities but Kirkland (Seattle) has a great lineup! It was really hard to choose just a couple. In fact, I’ve started with two but will probably add a few more.

Normally, many of the guest chef classes sell out – especially popular local chefs. So if you think you are interested sign up sooner rather than later.

You can find class information (all cities) here.

So far I’ve signed up for Tom’s Big Holiday Dinner with Tom Douglas; and The Chef in the Hat with Thierry Rautereau. And I’m thinking about some chocolate classes and those are all in December! Yikes! January and February also have several interesting options.

Classes start at $50 and go up to $75. Most are demonstration classes but some are hands-on, so read descriptions carefully so you aren’t surprised when you get there!

Beecher’s Cheese Recipe Contest

13-Oct-2005

While checking out some of my favorite blogs I came across information about a cheese recipe contest on The Pacific Northwest Cheese Project.

Beecher’s, in Pike Place Market, is sponsoring the contest and you have to use artisan cheese in your recipe. (I’m sure they’d appreciate it if you used one of theirs…) Grand prize is a nice little overnight package in the Market and there are several second and third place prizes.

You can find all the contest details and entry forms here. Deadline for entries is November 6.

Tom Douglas and Iron Chef

11-Oct-2005

Not only has Tom’s Iron Chef debut finally been announced, he is going all out in celebrating! Here’s the info from the Tom Douglas Newsletter:

TOM’S LETTER

What did we all do before Iron Chef? By the amount of inquiries I’ve received surrounding my appearance on the Iron Chef, you would think it was the most popular show in TV! What fun!

The hype really has been a hoot and so now that we finally have an air date, we are jumping in hook, line and sinker.

We hope to see you there ~ Tom Douglas

It’s Time !
The premiere of Iron Chef Battle Salmon
Masaharu Morimoto vs. Tom Douglas
Sunday, November 6, 2005

Battle Time
6:30 – 9pm
Cocktails & Iron Chef vittles
9pm
Watch the show, broadcast live

Battle Place
Palace Ballroom
2100 Fifth Avenue

Battle Attire
Commemorative Hachimaki
Headband, provided for you the night of the event

Battle Music
‘Tom Douglas Marching Band’
will guide us in to "battle"

Battle Menu
Wild Alaskan Salmon!

Battle Cocktails
Sour Cherry Kamikaze
Columbia Crest Grand Estates Chardonnay
Chinook Cabernet Franc

Does this sound a little kitchy? We hope so!
Join us for the fun and festivities! Taste the same Iron Chef menu showcased at the original battle, prepared by our very own Iron Chef competitors Tom Douglas, Mark Fuller and Eric Tanaka. At the Food Network ‘Kitchen Stadium’ they had to prepare five courses in sixty minutes and present to a panel of judges.

Tonight you be the judge as you sit down to dinner with the secret ingredient ‘Wild Alaska Salmon’. Tom, Mark & ET will cook your dinner, just as they did on Iron Chef, as five complete and unique tasting courses, each containing the ‘secret ingredient’, salmon.

Do you think they have what it takes? Find out as we finish dinner with a live viewing of Iron Chef from the huge screens of the Palace Ballroom.

Dinner & Viewing is $95/per person all inclusive. Dinner includes the five course Iron Chef menu and two cocktails. Additional cocktails will be available for purchase. Dinner begins at 6:30pm, and will be festival style seating. To make your reservation, please call 206.448.2001 or email your name and phone to office@tomdouglas.com.

Buckwheat Blini

10-Oct-2005

Another weekend, another test recipe. This week it was Buckwheat Blini. I actually think I’ve made these in the past, but it’s been a while so I wanted to try them out. Like most pancake/crepe recipes this one is fairly simple. The main difference is that it includes yeast and you need to allow time to let the batter work before cooking your blini.

If you look for recipes on the web, you’ll find all kinds of variations – basically the same but sometimes with more eggs or changing the order of which ingredients are mixed in when. My guess is that you can’t go too wrong with any of them.

I used one I’d picked up at Seattle Caviar Company a couple of years ago when M, MM, and I stopped in there for a tasting. I figured since they have a vested interest in making sure the recipes are good it would be a good place to start. As a side note, if you live in Seattle or are visiting I highly recommend stopping by for a tasting. If you happen to get the owner, he is extremely knowledgeable and friendly and the sample sizes are very generous!

As I expected the recipe was easy and the blini great! I used an electric grill and found that blini placed in the middle row needed more time to properly brown than those on the outside rows – which makes sense since the rows on the outside are right over the element.

This recipe made a ton of half-dollar size blini. I ate several of them and put the rest in the freezer to be used some other time. To give them a proper test, I topped a few of them with creme fraiche, chopped chives and a bit of Ikura. Ikura is chum salmon caviar and is much, much less expensive than most other caviars. Although it is not as refined in taste, it still has a nice salty, briny tang and I think it is one of the most beautiful varieties. I absolutely love the jewel tones and the brightness it brings to any dish. Although, every time I see it I remember those days spent fishing on a riverbank with my Dad! Ikura looks exactly like the fishing eggs we used for bait most of the time. Or, I guess it’s actually the opposite, the bait looked exactly like the Ikura which it was supposed to do to attract those trout we were looking for!

Buckwheat Blini

1 1/4 cups milk

1 1/2 tsp. dry yeast

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 heaping cup buckwheat flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. melted butter

2 eggs, separated

2 Tbsp. sour cream

Scald the milk, then remove from the heat and cool to lukewarm. Sift the flours and salt into a bowl. Mix thoroughly. Add the yeast and then make a well. Add the lukewarm milk to the well. Gradually incorporate the flour. Beat for 2 minutes until batter is smooth.

Cover with a damp dish towel and put in warm place for 2 to 3 hours until risen and full of bubbles. (Batter will almost double.)

Stir in the egg yolks, sour cream and melted butter until the mixture has the consistency of heavy cream. If it is too thick, add a bit more milk. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold into the batter a third at a time, cutting and folding until thoroughly mixed. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes in melted butter. (I used an electric grill at 350°F and then brushed the tops with a little melted butter when cooked.)

Blini can be made ahead of time and then warmed gently in a microwave or kept warm in the oven, covered in foil until needed. They can also be frozen. One recipe I read suggested freezing them in ziploc bags and then dropping the bag in boiling water to reheat them.

Monday Breakfast

10-Oct-2005

Essential Baking’s seasonal bread, Sweet Perrin, schmeered with Rogue Creamery’s sweet Oregonzola Blue Cheese. Add to this a cup of Tealuxe’s Raspberry Earl Gray (Bin 207) and you have a happy start to a Monday!

PassionateAboutFood.Net

08-Oct-2005

Today I was trying out a new recipe that called for scalded milk. Now I have scalded milk probably a million times in my life but today, for some reason, I suddenly wondered if I really knew what it meant. I mean I know what I do but why do I do it?

I decided to do a quick check to see if I was on target or just repeating something because it’s what I thought was scalding milk. Of course, I turned to the handy-dandy internet to see what I could find.

I came across this site: PassionateAboutFood.Net and a nice glossary of cooking techniques. I soon found that I actually did know how to scald milk. :-) In addition to the cooking techniques they have several other interesting sections. They are based in the UK so some of the information, such as Favorite Wines or Christmas Gifts, are fairly targeted. A lot of the information though, like the Herbs and Spices information, applies across the world.

You might want to check it out.

May Restaurant

05-Oct-2005

On Monday night a few local bloggers (IHeartBacon; Orangette; Gluten Free Girl) got together to catch up on what was going on both inside and outside our blogging worlds.

We met at May Restaurant in Wallingford, a place that has been on my list of places to check out for quite some time. The building is very exotic and on it’s own can transport you to another place and time. And then there’s the food! Lovely, lovely food.

I arrived just at the tail end of Happy Hour (I’ll be going back to specifically check it out at a future date…) and sat at the bar. The place was almost completely empty, although it was a Monday night. I asked the bartender about a couple of the drinks – you know me; I don’t want anything too sweet! She volunteered that she could make any drink to order. So I requested the Melon Cosmo and asked for a "non-sweet’ version. She did a great job! The drink had the flavor of melon but the tartness of citrus. Lovely!

I’m not going to go into tons of detail here. At these dinners we try not to be obnoxious bloggers with each other so, while I took a couple photos, mostly I just enjoyed the food and the camaraderie. I will give you a bit of an idea of what you can expect, however.

Once the crew arrived we took the stairs up to the dining area. We decided to share everything and started with the Papaya Salad. It didn’t really seem to match the menu description, but who cared? It was light and luscious. The shredded papaya was arranged on one side of the plate, white rice on the other side. We served ourselves a bit of each and enjoyed the resulting mix of taste and texture.

Next up was Pud Gramao Sumui. The scallops were especially perfect in this dish but it was all wonderful. A mix of scallops, shrimp and calamari all topped with a Holy basil sauce – put this with a little rice and you have the makings of one very fine meal.

We also ordered Pad Thai as several of us mentioned that this is the one dish by which we judge Thai restaurants. Well, this one passed the test with flying colors. First, the dish arrived as you see it to the left. Our server then removed the banana leaf and proceeded to assemble it at the table, according to our tastes (which was basically, yes, we’ll take everything and 3 stars, please!")

I don’t remember the name of the reddish item in the photo but our server told us that to relieve the burn from the heat of the chili we should eat one of the inner leaves. None of us felt the need to relieve the burn but at the end of the meal we decided to try this new item. While the taste was okay, even interesting, as you chewed the leaf the texture suddenly changed and left your mouth feeling really chalky, earthy. None of us particularly cared for that part of the experience but it was interesting.

To finish off the meal there was an order of Lychee Sherbet, which tasted much more of citrus than lychee and so even those who normally don’t care for lychee liked it! :-)

This place was really great and I would like all of you in Seattle to go check it out – I’m worried that if business doesn’t pick up they won’t last and that would be a real shame! So go check it out this week – and then go back next week! :-) I’m sure you’ll see me there – or any of a number of other local bloggers, too!

May Restaurant
1612 North 45th St
Wallingford
206.675.0037
Happy Hour: 5pm – 7:00pm & 11:00pm – 1:00am

Tagged! The “23rd Post” Meme

05-Oct-2005

Kate over at Accidental Hedonist, has tagged me for the latest meme making it’s way around the blogging world. This meme is a look back at the "past". For some that’s more distant than for others – in my case it’s about 10 months ago…

Here’s how it works:

Look back at your archives
Find the 23rd post
Find the 5th sentence
Post it in an entry and reminisce about it’s meaning or any insight you now have about it
Select five more ~~victims~~ people to do the same :-)

Here goes!

I started this blog in December of last year. My first post is dated December 2 but I wanted a few entries before I went live so I first published publicly on the 9th. I was anxious to have a small body of work as early as possible so that people coming to the site would find at least a little depth. My 23rd post was actually on December 23rd! It was my "Holiday Party Post Mortem". Every time I have a party or people over for dinner or brunch or whatever, I document what I did, what worked, what didn’t work, if I had too much or not enough of something, etc. For me it’s been both a way to look back at the party and enjoy it again and also to get better at entertaining over the years.

For this specific post the 5th line is mostly just a recounting to give the reader some perspective but it’s also about the challenges that sometimes face a host, "I had a total of 24 guests, 8 people cancelled in the last 24 hours (always a little frustrating since by then I’m well into the prep and can’t really adjust amounts) and 2 no-shows, however, 3 who were "maybes" were able to make it, which was nice. "

I don’t know that I can find a lot of insight about this except to say that that the shifting number of RSVPs is something I find personally challenging and I strive to have a more relaxed attitude about. :-)

I will say that over the years I’ve really enjoyed looking back at my entertaining diaries. When I look at the menus, lists of guests and my notes, the parties come back to life for me. It’s as if I get to experience them again! Although I now document these things in this blog, I still keep a paper version. I tape in the invitation or menu or a sample placard, maybe some pictures – whatever little things I have around that will capture the essence of the party. And now, I print off my blog entry (instead of hand-writing as in the past) and attach it to a page. If you entertain at all I highly encourage you to start this type of reference!

Okay, now for the tags! Hmmm… I wonder who has yet to be tagged? Okay, let’s try: