I am excited about this video for several reasons. One, it features the Dean of my culinary program, Cesare Casella, in Rome with Anthony Bourdain. (Note to the International Culinary Center, this would have been a great excursion for students to tag along on). Two, it underscores one of the most repeated mantras of my culinary professors: use seasonal ingredients. Three, it features the most beautiful city in the world. Oh, and did I mention I'll be there on Sunday night?
In case you are traveling to the Bel Paese any time soon, here's a link to Cesare's Top Five Restaurants in Italy. My friend Riccardo, who I worked with at my stage last year is working at La Calandre, his No. 1 pick. I'm thinking I might have to drop in for a visit.
--StellaCadente*
P.S. Mr. Casella or Mr. Bourdain, let me know if you are in need of an assistant. I can be extremely resourceful, at times.
When my nana was still alive, she'd visit us in California from Boston, always deplaning with an ice-packed box full of live lobsters. Despite her diminutive stature, when we were ready to prepare them for dinner, she'd remove them from the box, grab our sizable butcher knife, and unceremoniously lob their heads off while us kids squealed in disbelief.
I recently decided to surprise my Boston-born mother by bringing a couple of these prized crustaceans back from the fish market. (She won't often splurge for them out here in California as the price tag seems outrageous to an East Coaster.) The surprise was on me, however, when she couldn't bring herself to, well, you know...That means the dirty work fell to me. I grabbed that same gigantic knife, positioned the lobsters on a cutting board, and, one, two, three. They never knew what hit 'em. And, as far as I am concerned, that's the way to do it.
The above video chronicles the lobsters' brief journey from our sink to table. We stuffed the torsos with butter-saturated breadcrumbs and baked them. The claws ended up in a finger-lickin' tomato sauce.
We all found Grace Young's expertise invaluable when she showed us how to season a wok. But what if your wok isn't new? What if you tried out the wok thing years back, shoved it in the back of your cabinet in frustration because you didn't have an inspiring guidebook, and now it's a rusty mess? (No. No. You would never do that. I meant to say, what if you bought an old wok at a garage sale, and need to know how to clean it?)
No worries. The Wok Doctor is in, and she shows us here how to use salt and oil for a "wok facial" to clean and rehabilitate even the worst woks. Hooked? There's more in Young's new book, Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge.
Andrew Bohrer is one of the best bartenders I know, and currently manages the bar at Seattle’s Mistral Kitchen and writes the (sometimes PG 13) awesome behind-the-bar blog Cask Strength. He may also be the fastest beer bottle opener in the world. In the below video--the sound’s a bit low, so turn it up--he actually challenges all other bartenders, and then shows off (the real opening-of-beer is at about the 32 second mark) how fast he really is. And he’s pretty amazingly fast. So, if you think you’re faster, step up, make a video, and let him and us know about it.
This morning I woke up with a giant smile on my face. You see, last night I had the pleasure of dining at The Bazaar by Spanish culinary wizard José Andrés, and I was rehashing the meal in my head. The dining room at The Bazaar is a stunning amalgam of blacks and reds, back lit glass cubes, and graffiti-laden chalkboards: a marriage of modern design and organic lines. Whimsical, yet not over the top. Dramatic, yet inviting. And the best part, despite a world-renowned chef and a Beverly Hills zip code, completely *not* stuffy. Loud, boisterous, and elegantly casual would be a better description.
I documented every plate that Antanas, John and I consumed with photographs (see above slide show), so I will spare you every last gorey detail here, save for some highlights. Oh, there were many highlights. I was pleasantly surprised to note that The Bazaar offers both traditional and modern tapas as I am an old-fashioned girl at heart. With one exception (the Watermelon Nigiri, which my whole party thought was overpowered by wasabi) every dish we ordered was spot on. Well executed, well presented, and and absolutely exciting to eat. Among my favorites: cotton candy foie gras (hurray!), chicken and bechamel croquetas, (crispy on the outside with a molten bechamel center) and pa am tomàquet (the perfect bread, not too dense, not too airy, with a perfectly crunchy crust, porous enough to soak in the tomato goodness.) And the mini-brioche sandwiches with quince and foie gras...well, they had me singing "hallelujah." We moved to the quieter patisserie for dessert and a change of scenery. The patisserie space is dominated by a gorgeous white glass curlicue chandelier and is dotted with high (think bar height) and low (think pint-sized) seating and shared the Coconut Floating Island with Roasted Bananas and Berries with Coconut Cream and Lime. Both light, airy, and dreamy.
I was fortunate enough to eat in a couple of Michelin star restaurants in Italy this summer, and I have to say I was underwhelmed. Too often a restaurant with a daring or elaborate interior can't back it up in the kitchen. Or the service falls flat, or conversely, is overbearing. Or the chef just plain takes him/herself way too seriously. It is *only* food after all. The Bazaar's expertly balances all three and the result is a visual and sensual delight rarely experienced when dining out.
The Bazaar is smart, flirty, bold, well-groomed, technically competent, extremely good looking, and has that European accent that I love. If I could marry a restaurant, I would propose right this minute to The Bazaar. Or at the very least, I'd like The Bazaar to know I have a mad, mad crush and I'd like to hang out again real soon.
My friend Joe is the GM at San Diego's new hot spotJimmy's Famous American Tavern, right on the water in the Point Loma area. I recently made a visit at dinner time so I could try a one of their fabulous Cowboy burgers, and "research" their cocktail menu.
Their bartender, Mitch, was nice enough to show me how they use the Breville Juice Fountain Elite to make the fruit juice for their signature cocktails, including the stellar Strawberry Ginger Deluxe. (Man, that machine has a lot of horsepower!) The ginger, lemon, brut Champagne, and bitters help to balance out the sweetness of the simple syrup and strawberry in this concoction that's perfect for sipping on Jimmy's outdoor patio while watching the boats go by. If you can't make it to San Diego, though, you can whip one up at home. I snuck the recipe out just for you:
Jimmy's Famous American Tavern's Strawberry Ginger Deluxe Cocktail
Ingredients:
1 ounce Skyy vodka
1 ounce Canton ginger liqueur
½ ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
¾ ounce freshly-extracted strawberry juice
½ ounce simple syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 ounce brut Champagne
1 whole strawberry, for garnish
Directions:
1. In a pint mixing glass, add all liquid ingredients, except brut Champagne.
Fill glass with ice and shake vigorously for 6 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with whole strawberry.
My college roommate, Tammy, heard that I spent yesterday afternoon making strawberry lemonade with my amazing goddaughter yesterday afternoon and wrote in to ask for the recipe, adding that she and her mom are faithful Al Dente readers. (Thanks ladies!)
As luck would have it, I've been working on a strawberry lemonade tutorial all evening featuring my aforementioned four-year-old goddaughter Marisol. (Bear with my feeble first attempt at movie editing with iMovie. Fairly intuitive, but I have a way to go on the learning curve.)
Marisol and I got to spend some q.t. together yesterday. Shortly after she arrived we ventured into the backyard, and she made a beeline for the meyer lemon tree and starting picking. A woman on a mission!
When faced with a basketful of lemons, Marisol and I say make pink lemonade!
Homemade All-Natural Pink Lemonade
Ingredients for simple syrup:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Ingredients for the lemonade:
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (4 to 6 medium lemons) 3 to 5 fresh whole strawberries, cleaned and hulled
3 to cups cold water
1 cup ice cubes
Directions:
1. Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely. The liquid should be clear. Turn off heat and cool. [By using simple syrup instead of straight up sugar, you will avoid having a mound of undissolved sugar at the bottom of your lemonade pitcher, the sweetness will distribute throughout.]
2. Use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.
3 Add the juice and the sugar water, one cup of ice, and the strawberries to a blender. Blend add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, to desired taste. (Add more lemon juice if you find it to be too sweet).
4. Serve over ice.
Serves: 6
We used the kid-friendly juicer attachment on our Cuisinart to make the lemonade, but the old school method works just as well.
A few years ago the urban garden moved from the ground floor to the rooftop, and now it's climbing the walls. Just a few days ago Mario Batali unveiled the edible, vertical garden he commissioned for his Los Angeles restaurant, Pizzeria Mozza.
Covering more than 72 square feet of outside wall and filled with more than 20 types of herbs, it will serve more as art than garden for the busy pizzeria. In fact, Batali acknowledged that there was no way such a small space could furnish even a fraction the greens needed for his wildly popular restaurant. But, I wonder, how about an urban family of two, four or six?
I think the vertical garden is a game changer. Some say it's simply a passing fad. What do you think? I want one filled with herbs and petite edible flowers. How about you?
I watched Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits for the first time over the weekend. What a gorgeous film! Worth watching for the art direction alone. And the hats! (Lady GaGa, eat your heart out!) I was particularly taken by the almost ritualistic preparation of sangria in the above clip, and now have an insatiable desire to put a red scarf on my head and sip sangria on the patio. If only José was around to prepare it for me...
Sangria
Ingredients:
3 1/4 cups ( 26 fluid ounces) dry red wine
1 tablespoon sugar
Juice of 1 large orange
Juice of 1 large lemon
1 large orange, sliced thin crosswise
1 large lemon, sliced thin crosswise
2 medium peaches, peeled, pitted and cut into chunks
1 cup (8 fluid ounces) club soda
Directions:
1. Combine all the ingredients except for the club soda in a large punch bowl or serving pitcher, mixing well. Refrigerate overnight. Immediately before serving, mix in the club soda for added fizz. Ladle into cups with ice cubes.
Serves: 4
Recipe credit: www.spain-recipes.com
I love this beautiful hand-painted pitcher from Spain with a pinched spout to keep the ice and fruit from tumbling into your drink. But I am torn. It's such a lovely punch with brightly-colored fruit and citrus floating against a red backdrop. It'd be a shame not to show it off simple glass pitcher. What's your vote?
