This is one of my favorite times in San Diego, Restaurant Week! For anyone who has never gone, this is the best time to get out and go to some of the really nice restaurants in San Diego without the huge price tag you would normally pay. Twice a year participating restaurants offer 3 course prix fixe menus for $30 or $40 a person. Some restaurants will offer additional options with a slight upcharge. This year they added more restaurants by offering some $20 menus. In my opinion that didn't make too much sense because it added restaurants you can get meals for $20/person normally. I suppose it's because of the economy and people not wanting to spend as much money, but January's Restaurant Week had record numbers.
This year because of my work schedule, I only got to go out one night (sometimes we have been known to go 3 times). We went to Mr. A's which has a beautiful view of downtown, and if you're lucky enough to go during sunset it’s fabulous! Anyway, I ordered for the first course the Lobster Strudel. This was a mixture of lobster and wild mushrooms wrapped in filo dough served on a reduction of lobster stock. I think this dish was served beautifully, but would have benefited greatly by a nice sprinkle of sea salt and fresh cracked pepper (not worth it for the $5 upcharge). It was a little bland and the lobster was slightly overcooked. The reduction also needed salt and pepper. My second course, a seared sea bass and seafood sausage, was slightly redeeming. The sea bass was well seasoned and the fresh corn it was served over was delicious, even though it had red bell pepper brunoise tossed with it. I hate when people mess up fresh natural flavors with red bell pepper just for the sake of color. The seafood sausage also needed salt and pepper. It was served more as a sausage than a quenelle as I had expected. I also expected it to be more of a mouseline (very light and airy) style forcemeat than a straight forcemeat, not a huge deal. There was also some sort of tasteless sauce and a savory whipped cream (served on a hot plate?!?!). I finished up my meal with a little sundae of caramel ice cream (delicious), with a chocolate sauce (delicious), served in a stale waffle bowl.
All this said, the service was wonderful, as was the wine. I know some restaurants pre-prep their dishes for restaurant week so you don't always get the best quality, but I have only had one other similar experience and that one was so bad I don't even want to think about it. I have been to plenty of restaurants during Restaurant Week that had stellar food and service. Market Bar and Restaurant has consistently been my favorite and we don't wait for Restaurant Week to go there because it's sooooo worth it. In my opinion you should never compromise your quality!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon
Have you heard that sometimes real estate agents will bake cookies when they have a showing to make the house smell “homey”? Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon is exactly just like that. My whole house smells like heaven! This is really such an easy dish to make that there is no reason why everyone shouldn’t master it. It does require a little bit of prep, but once you get that done you really just sit back for 3 hours and relax. It’s a perfect entertaining meal because it only gets better the longer it sits. You can easily make this a day ahead and just reheat it when you are ready. So so so good!
Tonight I’m just served this dish with the suggested boiled potatoes and no other vegetables. The recipe recommends some sautéed peas if you need additional veg, but I didn’t feel like that tonight. I pretty much just followed the recipe word for word with the exception of blanching the bacon. I have blanched bacon before and found it later had no taste, so I skipped that step. I also couldn’t get my hands on uncut bacon with the rind so I just used regular bacon…the center cut kind is my favorite. An additional step not in the recipe that I think makes a huge difference and distinguishes this recipe as Julia Child’s…I wore my pearl necklace!
Honestly, I can't say enough good things about this meal. MAKE IT! It's one of those meals that you just keep picking at saying, oh I'll just have another little chunk of meat, and well, what's a chunk of meat with out a mushroom and so on and so on. Haha. My dog was even going crazy from all the good smells!
Tonight I’m just served this dish with the suggested boiled potatoes and no other vegetables. The recipe recommends some sautéed peas if you need additional veg, but I didn’t feel like that tonight. I pretty much just followed the recipe word for word with the exception of blanching the bacon. I have blanched bacon before and found it later had no taste, so I skipped that step. I also couldn’t get my hands on uncut bacon with the rind so I just used regular bacon…the center cut kind is my favorite. An additional step not in the recipe that I think makes a huge difference and distinguishes this recipe as Julia Child’s…I wore my pearl necklace!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
I aim to post more than just once a week, unfortunately lately that doesn't seem to be happening. I will briefly run down my recent culinary masterpieces.
Labor Day weekend meal- Beer Brats with caramelized onions, baked beans, and potato salad
I must say the baked beans were quite a stretch for me as I carefully opened the can of Bush’s baked beans…haha. In my opinion, why mess with something that is already just so darn good?!
For the brats, I have learned, thanks to my Wisconsin-bred husband that you must be sure to buy the raw brats and not the ones that are already cooked or already have beer in them or whatever else. I simmered them in beer, Bud Light because that’s all I had around, for about 2 hours. While that was going on I sliced up some onions to caramelize and added a little dried thyme and eventually brown sugar. Once the brats were done simmering, I sautéed them up in the remaining fat from the onion pan. The grill is my favorite, but considering where we live there is no grill that is easily accessible.
Potato salad, in particular my Grandma K’s Potato Salad, is a favorite of mine. I remember for my high school graduation party we made it, along with tons of other things, and I honestly ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for almost a week. It’s a really good old-fashioned potato salad with hard boiled eggs, mayo and mustard.
This was not a light meal by any means, but we enjoyed it immensely. Brandon even said that the brats were the best he’s ever had! Really it was an all around delicious and hearty meal.
Up next in my culinary escapades….NFL Football Kickoff menu…which apparently at this point only has a chocolate cream pie. Isn’t that enough??
Labor Day weekend meal- Beer Brats with caramelized onions, baked beans, and potato salad
I must say the baked beans were quite a stretch for me as I carefully opened the can of Bush’s baked beans…haha. In my opinion, why mess with something that is already just so darn good?!
For the brats, I have learned, thanks to my Wisconsin-bred husband that you must be sure to buy the raw brats and not the ones that are already cooked or already have beer in them or whatever else. I simmered them in beer, Bud Light because that’s all I had around, for about 2 hours. While that was going on I sliced up some onions to caramelize and added a little dried thyme and eventually brown sugar. Once the brats were done simmering, I sautéed them up in the remaining fat from the onion pan. The grill is my favorite, but considering where we live there is no grill that is easily accessible.
Potato salad, in particular my Grandma K’s Potato Salad, is a favorite of mine. I remember for my high school graduation party we made it, along with tons of other things, and I honestly ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for almost a week. It’s a really good old-fashioned potato salad with hard boiled eggs, mayo and mustard.
This was not a light meal by any means, but we enjoyed it immensely. Brandon even said that the brats were the best he’s ever had! Really it was an all around delicious and hearty meal.
Fantasy Football Draft day
It can sometimes be difficult to cook for a group of 10 guys without making a big mess. I just played it easy and got some London Broil (that’s what was on sale) browned it up and served it with some tortillas and salsa and that kind of stuff. I was also lucky enough to find some avocados that were ripe the same day I wanted them so I made some guacamole. Since the meat left a lot of grease in the pan I again decided to caramelize some onions. I did basically the same thing as with the brats, except I decided to reduce down some beer with them and then mount in some butter. Let me say, not a bad idea at all! The boys all enjoyed the food, and it was waaay better than just ordering some pizzas.
Wednesday night Stir-fry
Stir-frys are fantastic for quick weeknight meals. Thanks to my new Scanpan wok they are much easier! I slivered up some pork tenderloin, cut fresh corn off the cob, halved some cherry tomatoes, and cleaned some snow peas. Sauté it all up in ginger garlic oil and serve with rice and voila a lovely quick dinner! I didn’t so much do a sauce as zest and juice an orange and do a quick turn of the pan with some soy. Oh and I did use some Chinese 5 Spice on the pork. It’s a really great spice blend with some nice smoky cinnamon, star anise, fennel, cloves and black pepper. I add it to lots of sauces and in many of my dry rubs.
Ginger and/or Garlic oil can be made simply by smashing a whole clove of garlic or thinly slicing the ginger and sautéing it until it becomes golden in your oil. Remove it with a slotted spoon and then sauté in the remaining oil. This imparts the essence of these aromatics without making the dish overwhelming.
Up next in my culinary escapades….NFL Football Kickoff menu…which apparently at this point only has a chocolate cream pie. Isn’t that enough??
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
What's laying around the house?
Sorry this post has been delayed due to my lazy photographer...haha. I'm just going to post pictures that have not been edited. Please don’t hold that against me. Anyways, it’s still so hot here that I haven’t really been wanting to spend time in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove/oven. Luckily, on Sunday we finally broke down and got one of the last AC units in San Diego county apparently. Now, as long as I make something quick I can run back into the coolness of my room without feeling like I’m going to pass out.
Monday night we decided pizza sounded good and the great thing about it is normally you have almost all of the ingredients on hand to throw one together. This dinner really showed how you can put together some store-bought ingredients to make something really wonderful, even if it is only “semi-homemade”. So here are 3 tips for a quick and easy pizza night featuring Shrimp, Goat Cheese and Pesto Pizza.
1. I always keep some raw frozen shrimp in my freezer. They take about 5-10 minutes to thaw out under running COLD water and then only another 5 minutes to cook, depending on the cooking technique. Before throwing these on the pizza I went ahead and sautéed the shrimp up in a little garlic, olive oil, and a dash of crushed red pepper flakes.
2. Pizza dough is easy to make! I go through kicks were I will make a bunch of pizza dough and just keep it in the freezer so that when I need it all I have to do is pop it in the fridge to thaw out in the morning. You can use it for pizzas or for flat bread (my favorite is sprinkling sea salt, fresh cracked pepper and fresh thyme). I usually use this recipe from Tyler Florence on Food Network http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/pizza-dough-recipe/index.html. This time, however, I did use store-bought Boboli mini shells, no big deal. You can get them and freeze them or whatever you need. Trader Joe’s also has some really good dough that is already made and just needs to be rolled out.
3. Pesto is also easy to make….only if you have a food processor! Again, I used store bought because I only have a big huge food processor (which I love) but I didn’t feel like using it and then cleaning it. Pesto is another thing that can be made as a large batch and then frozen. While I have not tried it, I know people who make it, then pour it into ice cube trays to freeze and then keep them in a Ziploc in the freezer so you can have it already portioned. Pesto is great to use with a lot of things from pasta to pizza to tossing it in your mashed potatoes or slathering on a steak. I used basil pesto but feel free to use cilantro or anything else.
This pizza is SOO good; I highly recommend you make it. The goat cheese is creamy and tangy and really is just a fantastic partner with the shrimp and pesto. Oh and I almost forgot, I also sliced some Roma tomatoes on top, which look pretty, and get all roasty!
PS- I also used a pizza stone. It definitely gives the crust a nice crispness in addition to providing even cooking. Preheat the stone with the oven otherwise it can break.
Monday night we decided pizza sounded good and the great thing about it is normally you have almost all of the ingredients on hand to throw one together. This dinner really showed how you can put together some store-bought ingredients to make something really wonderful, even if it is only “semi-homemade”. So here are 3 tips for a quick and easy pizza night featuring Shrimp, Goat Cheese and Pesto Pizza.
1. I always keep some raw frozen shrimp in my freezer. They take about 5-10 minutes to thaw out under running COLD water and then only another 5 minutes to cook, depending on the cooking technique. Before throwing these on the pizza I went ahead and sautéed the shrimp up in a little garlic, olive oil, and a dash of crushed red pepper flakes.
2. Pizza dough is easy to make! I go through kicks were I will make a bunch of pizza dough and just keep it in the freezer so that when I need it all I have to do is pop it in the fridge to thaw out in the morning. You can use it for pizzas or for flat bread (my favorite is sprinkling sea salt, fresh cracked pepper and fresh thyme). I usually use this recipe from Tyler Florence on Food Network http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/pizza-dough-recipe/index.html. This time, however, I did use store-bought Boboli mini shells, no big deal. You can get them and freeze them or whatever you need. Trader Joe’s also has some really good dough that is already made and just needs to be rolled out.
3. Pesto is also easy to make….only if you have a food processor! Again, I used store bought because I only have a big huge food processor (which I love) but I didn’t feel like using it and then cleaning it. Pesto is another thing that can be made as a large batch and then frozen. While I have not tried it, I know people who make it, then pour it into ice cube trays to freeze and then keep them in a Ziploc in the freezer so you can have it already portioned. Pesto is great to use with a lot of things from pasta to pizza to tossing it in your mashed potatoes or slathering on a steak. I used basil pesto but feel free to use cilantro or anything else.
This pizza is SOO good; I highly recommend you make it. The goat cheese is creamy and tangy and really is just a fantastic partner with the shrimp and pesto. Oh and I almost forgot, I also sliced some Roma tomatoes on top, which look pretty, and get all roasty!
PS- I also used a pizza stone. It definitely gives the crust a nice crispness in addition to providing even cooking. Preheat the stone with the oven otherwise it can break.
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