Culinary Fool

Blueberry Banana Sorbet

08-Aug-2007

This weekend I made another batch of Fresh Mint ice cream and also made up a batch of Banana Blueberry Sorbet – both recipes from David Lebovitz’ book, The Perfect Scoop.

Of course I love the Fresh Mint – otherwise I wouldn’t have made a second batch! But this was my first batch of the sorbet. It is also very good! The banana adds a bit of creaminess to the sorbet and it also mellows the sweetness just a bit – sometimes berries can be a bit too sweet on their own.

I modified David’s recipe by just a tiny bit, adding 2 Tbsp of vodka, as I tend to keep my sorbet for a bit longer. That little bit of vodka, while not affecting the taste, will help keep the sorbet from getting rock hard.

Again I encourage you to buy the book: Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments

Limoncello Update

08-Aug-2007

Well, I’ve let nearly six weeks go by since we started this and I really should have updated you about three weeks ago! :-( As this is a repost of something I did last year, I’m going to pretend that I posted this when I should have – because really that’s the timeline you should use for this project…

Three weeks ago I started my Limoncello project. In this first step, after zesting the lemons you let the zest sit in grain alcohol (in this case 100 proof vodka) until the color is drained from the zest. At first the process seemed a bit slow but between days 14 to 18, the color moved from the zest to the liquid. It actually may have started a bit sooner but was really noticeable in that timeframe.

The fragrance is amazing! When I open the lid of the jar I’m hit with a wonderful strong lemon essence! However, I learned quickly not to inhale too deeply as the strong vodka essence follows right behind!

Later today or tomorrow, I’ll strain this liquid and then mix it with simple syrup. That is actually going to be where the challenge comes in. Of the several recipes I’ve reviewed the most variance is in the simple syrup ratio. "Simple" simple syrup is a 1 to 1 ratio of sugar to water. Most of these recipes call for a more concentrated version so that you don’t reduce the alcohol percent of the final product too much. But I’ve seen everything from a 5 – 4 (sugar to water) ratio to a 2 – 1 ratio.

Next week, I’ll report on which ratio I chose and how it all turned out!

Bite of Seattle

19-Jul-2007

The annual Bite of Seattle event is coming up this weekend. The three days of sampling, classes, demonstrations, entertainment and overall enjoyment will be held at the Seattle Center as is usual.

Unfortunately I have conflicts and won’t be able to partake this weekend, so I’m counting on all of you to make a good showing for me!

The Alley (scroll down) is back this year. Last year it was all Tom Douglas – which was very nice of him but sort of went against the idea of what John Hinterburger’s Alley had always been. This year it’s back to the same idea; each day six restaurants will provide one small offering. You get access to all of them with a single ticket at a price of $8.50 – by far the best way to sample your way through the bite and the best part of it that this is a charity event with all proceeds going to Food Lifeline. And even if you don’t want to go through the Alley, this year you’ll see donation spots as you enter the grounds (getting into the event is free). The suggested donation is $5 and that will also go to Food lifeline.

Besides the Alley, The Bite Cooks where chefs from around the city will do demonstrations to teach you the tricks of their trade. And of course there are beer gardens, wine gardens and multiple stages with free entertainment. So get out and enjoy the (hopefully) summer weather this weekend!

Get all the details on The Bite of Seattle website.

Rotisserie Chicken

18-Jul-2007

I think I may have mentioned that I recently purchased a gas grill. My first one ever. I had resisted for many years because I just love the taste of charcoal grilled food and I liked the whole ritual of using charcoal. But it’s hard to grill for a crowd on charcoal – at least without having multiple grills – so this year I finally upgraded myself to gas.

And of course I love it, and the ease of firing it up, and the fun of outdoor cooking made easy. It’s been really great! When I got my grill I was happy to see that it came with a whole rotisserie setup and had been looking for an opportunity to try it out. A couple of weekends ago, I had a quiet evening and decided this would be a good time to see how the rotisserie worked. I hadn’t used a rotisserie in many, many years and I thought it would be good to practice on myself before subjecting my friends to this process!

I wanted to do a fairly simple preparation and so early in the day, I mashed up some garlic, chopped up rosemary and tossed all that in a little saucepan, covered it with olive oil and let it gently heat for about 30 minutes to make a quick infused oil. I removed it from the heat and let it sit the rest of the day.

When I was ready to grill the chicken I used pretty much the same preparation as I do for oven roasting: I filled the cavity with shallots (any type of onion is fine), rosemary (any type of herb is fine), and lemon; and tied the legs and wings close to the body. Then I ran the rotisserie rod in through the neck and out the back end and put the pointy gripper things (I’m sure there’s a real word for those but either I don’t know it or it escapes me at the moment…) on the bar and into the chicken to hold it in place. Then I basted it with the rosemary-garlic oil.

While I had been preparing the chicken I pre-heated the grill by turning all three burners up to high so that the grill was super hot, but before putting the chicken in to cook, I turned the burners down to low to keep the temp at about 375F. I put the rod into the motor and the little chicken was slowly spinning in no time!

I basted the chicken about every 15 minutes with the oil and at an hour I started checking temperature. My guy (which was a 4lb+ chicken) was done at about an hour and 15 minutes. Beautifully browned but still moist on the inside. For a first try it was pretty good!

A couple of things I would do differently next time though. I needed to tie the legs much tighter to keep the vegetables that I’d placed in the cavity, in the cavity! During the cooking process nearly all of it fell out. Also, I had planned to place a tray of vegetables under the chicken as it turned to let them roast in the chicken drippings but the grill pan I had was a little too tall so that didn’t work as planned – I could have just placed the veggies on perforated foil (to keep them from falling through to the flame) or I can look for a grill basket with lower sides, as that is still a good idea.

Overall I was happy with the whole process, though, and will be doing more experimenting soon. I seem to remember a pork loin in the freezer that might be just perfect for the next round!

McCormick and Schmick’s Harborside

17-Jul-2007

A couple of Fridays ago – or maybe it was just last Friday, this summer is going by so fast – R and I decided to take advantage of our flexible schedules and the gorgeous weather and head down to Lake Union to one of my favorite places. In fact is has been such a favorite place in past years that another friend and I spent just about every summer Friday here for about three or four years in a row!

You just can’t beat the deck at McCormick and Schmick’s Harborside on the Southwest corner of Lake Union. While the deck is not large, you can still get a decent number of people out there and it’s really the only deck on the lake that sits just inches above the water level. And, as an added bonus, they are one of the few places that extends Happy Hour prices out to the deck. In so many of the lakeside restaurants the discounts are only available in the inside bar area.

We arrived early to ensure we’d get a spot on the deck but were met with a disappointing turn of events. The deck was under construction! Who’s poor planning was that?? According to the bartenders it was one of those remodel jobs gone bad – they were about 6 weeks over schedule at this point and it looked like they still had a few weeks to go. Bad deal!

But we decided to just sit at the bar – even the lounge with it’s big windows looking out at the little marina and the lake beyond is a very pleasant place to perch.

All the McCormick’s have basically the same Happy Hour – no drink specials but the food is cheap! It used to be that the entire Happy Hour menu was $1.95, now there are three prices levels: $1.95; $2.95; and $3.95. My two favorite items are still on the menu – one of them is the best value in the city. They offer their burger for $1.95 and this is the regular full-sized 1/3 or 1/2 pound burger with all the extras and a generous serving of fries! You can’t beat it. My second favorite thing is now $2.95 and they have slightly reduced the portion – their hot chicken wings are what I judge every other places wings by. For me they are the de facto standard. Spicy, a little greasy, tender and large – what more can you ask for?

And, what I love about their cocktails is that anything with any sort of citrus juice is fresh-squeezed when you order your drink and if you are sitting at the bar, you can watch them go through a ton of fruit during the evening.

I decided to order a Papa Doble, although they actually called it something else. But it’s basically a daiquiri that’s been jazzed up a bit in the style preferred by Ernest Hemingway. Tasty! R went with Margaritas as the fresh juices in that drink will win over anyone and if you already love Margaritas this will take you all the way to obsession. At least that’s what I have gathered from my friends who drink Margaritas. They are a forbidden drink for me. ;-(

I don’t really know why I’m writing about Harborside right now. I really don’t want any of you going down there this summer – it’s hard enough to get a place on the deck as it is! But I guess I always have been good at sharing. So if you are looking for a place to enjoy our great summer weather you may want to give them a try.

McCormick and Schmick’s Harborside

1200 Westlake Ave N

Seattle

206.270.9052

WBW#35 Summary Is Posted

17-Jul-2007

Michelle and Kevin have posted the summary, and all the links, from this month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday which featured good value Spanish Wines. Reds, whites, sparklers and a few other rose besides the one I tasted.

Go check it out – you may find a few new favorites!

Fun Teacups

15-Jul-2007

I was early for an appointment in Kirkland on Friday and so spent a bit of time strolling around looking in the few little shops that comprise "downtown". I had never been in Simplicity Decor before and found several interesting little things that caught my eye. One display was a set of teacups with tea "definitions". I picked up the Sereni-tea cup but there were several others to choose from. The part you can’t see in the cup says "while drinking tea". Which is how they all end – kind of like reading fortune cookies "while in bed".

I wish the mug was just a tad bit bigger but I love the shape, the pastel interior and the sayings. A nice way to drink my morning cuppa.

WBW#35: Passionate Spanish Wines

10-Jul-2007

This month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday (WBW) event is brought to us by the folks at My Wine Education, Michelle and Kevin. Their challenge for us this month was actually a three part challenge:

Taste a Spanish wine – either white or red
Try to keep it under US$10
Stay away from Rioja!

Well it just happened that I had the perfect wine on-hand that I’d been hoping to open soon. However, it actually wasn’t either white or red but instead is a rosé! And it turns out with the heat wave the country is currently experiencing – even here in the Seattle area the temperatures are predicted to be close to or at 100°F for the next couple days – this wine would be perfect for cooling you down!

I actually bought this wine last year as one of the wines for my (overly) ambitious plans for rosé tasting all summer long. I don’t remember the exact price but I’m fairly confident it was between $10 – $12. And it is from Penedes, which is about an hour south of Barcelona and is known for whites, reds and cavas – Spain’s version of sparkling wine.

This rosé I selected, 2005 Pares Balta Ros de Pacs rosé caught my eye for a couple of reasons. The color is intense! Way darker than most rosés, yet still crystal clear. Upon examining the label more closely I noted that the grapes were Cabernet Sauvignon & Merlot something I don’t remember seeing on a rosé label in the past.

As you can see from the photo this wine is very pretty and almost the color of strawberry or cherry Koolaid! I served this wine very chilled. The nose is super delicate, much lighter than expected given the deep color. I could just get a whiff of creamy strawberry, if I worked at it.

The taste, however is much more assertive! There was still some strawberry and some cherry – but more like dried fruits than fresh. A hint of floral. I thought that rose didn’t seem quite right that it seemed more like geranium and so I consulted my wine wheel to see what description was closest to geranium and was very surprised to see that is an actual descriptor! I believe this is the first time I’ve ever used it!

This wine is off-dry, not really sweet but not quite as acidic as some. Each sip pleasantly lingers and then fades leaving you feeling refreshed.

I thought it was quite nice on it’s own but also paired it with a Thai inspired chicken recipe that had a bit of heat to it and caprese salad. The wine went well with this meal the coolness of the rosé negating the heat of the chicken.

The only thing I did not care for was when the wine warmed up the flavor became very maraschino cherryish and sweeter. I don’t like maraschino cherries so I did not think this was a good thing. Then again, I like my rosé chilled so normally this would not be an issue.

I think this is a great choice for summer sipping! It’s beautiful, tasty, will cool you down and at this price could easily be a party wine – what more can you ask for?

Another Look at Copper Gate

09-Jul-2007

The first time I visited Copper Gate it was more to get to know a fellow blogger than to check out this recently renovated and reopened Ballard institution. But I got a good enough sense of the place that I wanted to come back and had hoped to bring some Scandinavian friends along for their take on the place. Last Thursday I was able to partially accomplish this – although one of the couples I was hoping to bring along was not able to make it.

We arrived for Happy Hour and set to work trying out some of their cocktails. Unfortunately their menu is not online and I had been thinking it was so I didn’t write down the names of anything (dang it) but I remember enough about them so you would be able to figure it out, if you were so inclined. My friends both ordered a cocktail that’s a sweet-tart rendition of a rhubarb flavored drink. Pretty in pink, it was a refreshing sip on that warm evening. For a change of pace I ordered a twist on iced coffee made with a licorice flavored liqueur. It too was refreshing. So far everything I’ve tried here, cocktail-wise, has been tasty, well-balanced and while slightly updated is made with a nod to tradition. I really like that whole idea. Later we got into the aquavits, which Copper Gate has a small but good selection of.

For food we each started with something different. H had one of the day’s specials which was a sausage, wrapped in lefse (a potato pancake) and served with dilled fries. I only had a bit of the fries but loved the taste! H said the sausage was very good. D tried the Swedish meatballs which I’d had on my previous visit. I don’t think I specifically asked her how she liked it but her nearly licked-clean plate seemed to tell the tale. I had thinly sliced, marinated ribs that were rich and tasty. Very good!

Since the plates were small, H & D decided to each order a plate of Swedish pancakes which they deemed good but still not as good as the ones served at the Swedish Cultural Center. I tried a plate of gravlax which was silky smooth and a nice light treat.

My second visit confirmed what I thought the first time. This is a great little spot – especially if you happen to live in the neighborhood. Even if you don’t it would be worth your while to check it out.

Copper Gate

6301 24th Ave NW

Ballard

Seattle

206.706.3292