Culinary Fool

Fremont Oktoberfest

20-Sep-2005

Also this weekend, the Fremont Oktoberfest! Three fun-filled days of beer tasting, food sampling, crafts gazing and, of course, chainsaw pumpkin carving. This is Fremont, after all!

Also this year Tom Douglas will be broadcasting his radio show, Tom Douglas Seattle Kitchen, live at Oktoberfest from 4-7pm on Saturday or you can hear it on Newsradio 710 KIRO.

It’s that time of year again – time for Festa Italiana! You’ll find it at Seattle Center on September 23rd – 25th. There’s always great food, a bocce tournament, a grape stomp and an Italian car show, as well as other entertainment. Check the website for schedule and information on all the events.

Flank Steak with Summer Veggies

19-Sep-2005

I know that I’ve been talking an awful lot about fall and the produce I’ve been finding in the market or that I’ve been preparing. And you may think that I’m rushing towards fall, arms wide open anxious to leave the summer and all it holds behind. And in some ways you’d be right, because I love fall, but I’m already missing summer. And so, last night I made a complete summer meal. Light and full of the burst-in-your-mouth over-the-top flavors that summer is famous for.

I first marinated a flank steak in a couple tablespoons of olive oil, two pressed cloves of garlic, a tablespoon or so of dried thyme; a little hot and spicy paprika, a quarter cup of red wine, and a bit of salt and pepper for about three hours. I then grilled it over hot coals for about 5 minutes per side.

While it was grilling I mixed together several quartered cherry tomatoes and a couple tablespoons of purple basil, both from the garden; a thinly sliced shallot and corn kernels from an ear that I boiled on Saturday – both from the U-District Market; a little bit of balsamic vinegar and a dash of salt and pepper.

After removing the steak from the grill I let it rest for 10 minutes (that part is soooo hard!) and then sliced it at a 45 degree angle across the grain. I enjoyed this meal with a glass of San Juan Vineyards Syrah and I was pretty dang happy! :-)

Applesauce Donuts – Round 1

18-Sep-2005

After watching Sylvie on Food 911, I decided to try my hand at making donuts. I especially like cake donuts and especially at this time of year. I’m having a few people over for brunch next Saturday and I thought it might be fun to have fresh donuts when they arrive. However, I was pretty certain I needed a trial run first!

Before just jumping into Tyler’s recipe, I looked at a couple other recipes but then decided to go with his and just make my own adjustments to make them applesauce instead of chocolate glazed. And I decided to make just half a recipe, since I didn’t need to be eating massive amounts of donuts today! :-)

Basically I replaced the milk in his recipe with applesauce (homemade last year) and added some cloves and nutmeg in addition to the cinnamon. The dough was really soft! Since I’d seen the TV show I thought I knew what to expect but this was even more loose than it appeared in the show. I kneaded in quite a bit of flour and got the dough to a workable consistency. However, later as I moving the donuts around from cutting board to holding pan to frying pan it turned out I should have added a bit more. They were pretty sticky and it was hard to keep them in shape as they were being moved.

The instructions in the recipe say to roll the dough out to 1/4". Well that is just wrong, I rolled it out to 1/2" and that was pretty good. The donuts will puff quit a lot when dropped into the oil but 1/4′ would have been too thin.

My 1/2 recipe made 10 donuts, easily. The full recipe says it makes 6! Something is a little off there! Plus I used the scraps to make little square puffs of dough (because, you know, 10 donuts isn’t enough for me!) :-)

Anyway, I liked how they turned out. They are cakey without being heavy at all. I’d probably add a bit more flour to the dough before letting it rest and I’m going to play a bit with the flavorings and spices but overall these are good! And relatively easy, too. Not sure yet if they will make it on Saturday’s menu. But if they don’t it’s only because I decided I needed my pre-brunch time for something else or once the menu is set they don’t seem to work. I’ll let you know next week!

Another Night at Ste Michelle

18-Sep-2005

Last night was another night at Ste Michelle Winery for a concert. My what a difference a month makes! Even though the sky was mostly clear and the day had a fair amount of sunshine, once the sun dropped and the dew started falling it was a bit chilly and very damp! This time I avoided the camera question and took just a couple shots.

As you can see from the first photo there was a full moon – we had one last time, too! It’s so cool to watch it come up over the Eastern horizon while enjoying the show. It was M’s turn to bring food. We started with a beautiful plate of figs and cheese. An earlier trip to the tasting room yielded a lovely Syrah to accompany our luscious snack.

For our main course there was a beautifully grilled chicken, an oh-so-comforting dish of mixed grains and a fresh-from-the-garden salad. The grains were so satisfying that I actually just wanted to dive in and curl up on a hearty bed of them. Perfect "summer’s almost over but it’s not quite full on fall" food!

As the show started we settled in with a final glass of wine and pulled our little blankets up around us to keep us warm and dry. It was a nice way to end the summer concert season.

Fall Produce

17-Sep-2005

Dine for America

16-Sep-2005

Another way to dine out and help Katrina victims – Dine for America. This one takes place on Wednesday, October 5th. From the site you can select a state and then a city to find participating restaurants in your area.

Fall Food

16-Sep-2005

The Autumn weather is creeping in… the mornings and evenings are cool, fog drifts in over night and hangs around until late morning, the air is a bit (or sometimes a lot) damp. All of these things make we want to cook hearty meals. Sage always come to my mind in the fall. The earthy, heavier flavor feels like it will stick to your bones. And pork is one of my favorite meats to pair with sage.

Pork Chops with Sage, Onion and Apple

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Heat a light drizzling of oil in a sauté pan. When the pan is hot, add pork chops searing and browning on both sides (about 3 minutes per side). While chops are browning, peel and slice one medium yellow onion into rings. Place onion in baking dish that is large enough to hold all pork chops in a single layer. Core and slice one medium apple and then add to baking dish. Tear or chop several sage leaves and sprinkle over onions and apples. If desired, finely chop one dried cayenne or other hot pepper and sprinkle over the onions and apples. Add salt and pepper to taste.

When pork chops are browned place in baking dish on top of the onions, apples, sage and pepper. Place in oven and bake for about 45 minutes.

To serve, place a mound of Bonus Mashed Potatoes in center of plate. Place a pork chop on one side of the mound and add the cooked apples and onions alongside.

Pull up a place by the fire and enjoy!

Restaurants for Relief

16-Sep-2005

On Tuesday, September 27th, restaurants around the country will be contributing a portion of their dinner sales to Hurricane Katrina relief.

For a list of participating restaurants in your area visit Restaurants for Relief and just plug in your city or zip code.

A Blogger on Food 911

13-Sep-2005

Don’t forget to set your Tivos/VCRs – whatever recording device you have – to capture Sylvie on Food 911 on Thursday September 15th! Airing at 3:00 pm Pacific & Eastern, this is a show that was recorded a couple years ago and shows Tyler teaching Sylvie how to make donuts! (In the meantime I bet she showed him some great soul food!)

Check out Sylvie’s account of how it all came together!