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I currently own no fewer than a dozen types of salt, and my collection grows every week.  I adore salt.  I love it on all foods, savory or sweet.  I love the sharp, metallic taste of bare crystals on my tongue.  I love the variety that salt has to offer: shapes, sizes, colors, flavors.  When I come home from work, I make myself a plate of salted olive oil for dipping bread.  When I dress my salad, it isn’t complete without a rough crushing of coarse flake salt over the top.  When I’m cooking proteins or plants, I choose my salt deliberately, as that single ingredient will affect the final flavor of my dish more than any other.

However, salt has become a hopelessly neglected ingredient in everyday cooking.  If you were to ask 100 random people to name as many salts as possible, what do you thin the results would be?  I suspect at least 30 people wouldn’t believe that salt comes in more than one form: table salt.  Perhaps 70/100 might be able to name Morton’s iodized salt.  Maybe 50/80 would mention kosher salt.  I’d be surprised if more than 30/100 thought of rock salt (unless they live somewhere snowy or make a lot of ice cream), and I’d be flabbergasted if more than 10/100 conjured up “sea salt”.  I have little hope that 1/100 could produce any of the adjectives that adorn my salt jars: alderwood smoked, red Hawaiian, Niçoise olive, cyprus flake, Australian pink, Himalayan (the list continues).  It’s these variations that make salt so interesting and exciting to me.  Could you imagine living life only eating one type of cheese or drinking one type of wine?  I’d rather suffer through daily waterboarding with a Mexican Zinfandel than being relegated to plain table salt for the rest of my life.  And in a world where the most obscure artisanal products are only a mouse click away from your doorstep, there’s really no excuse to turn your back on good salt.

In celebration of this wonderful ingredient, Rachel and I hosted a salt-themed dinner party for our gourmet club last weekend.  Our mission was two-fold: 1) incorporate, worship and evangelize salt as a basic but richly complex ingredient, and 2) get everyone gleefully drunk (in fairness, #2 applies to every meeting of our gourmet club).  We began the evening with a simple introduction to a few of my favorite seasoned salts, plated with olive oil and soft baguette slices.  These salts included Chili Verde, Black Truffle, Chardonnay Oak Smoked, and Niçoise olive.  The table favorite, in this preparation, was the black truffle salt, which has a pronounced aroma and a very fine grain.  I often use only this truffle salt and a little olive oil to season roasted birds, but it’s also great for finishing pastas or sautéed vegetables. 

Next, we tried something completely novel but totally fun: salt slab tableside cooking!  I ordered a Himalayan salt slab (also available from Sur La Table and Dean & Deluca) which is literally a solid salt brick cut from deposits deep beneath the Himalayan mountains.  The slab is a beautiful shade of translucent pink with light veins and a coarse texture.  Following some tips I read online, I heated the slab gradually for 30 minutes on my stovetop, then brought it to the table and set it atop a rack (my fondue rack, actually).  Unfortunately, we barely got a sizzle, even though the block felt quite hot.  About 10 minutes on broil in the toaster oven helped, as did the Sterno fondue flame I lit beneath the brick.  (Note: I never read anywhere that you’re supposed to place the salt over a Sterno flame, so if you try it and disaster ensues, tough nuggies.  However, it worked pretty well for me, with no obvious resulting structural damage.  Plus, the salt conducted the flame’s heat pretty well, giving us 10-15 minutes of usable cook time at the table.) 

We seared thin slices of marinated hanger steak with a peanut dipping sauce.  Even though the marinade was (intentionally) not very salty, the beef picked up great salt flavor from the brick.  If you try this recipe (which I’ll post soon) be aware that the marinade tends to drip off the side of the block, so you may want to take precautions to protect your table and linens.  After we ran out of beef, we gave a go at frying an egg on the salt brick.  The result was a very salty, but incredibly delicious, umami-flavored egg.  Yum!  I could get quite used to cooking on the salt block, as everything it touches turns to salty gold. 

Next up was the main course: a whole sockeye salmon baked in a crust of Himalayan rock salt.  Since the salmon is cooked intact and with the skin on, the resulting flesh doesn’t end up particularly salty.  However, because the crust provides an insulating layer that heats the fish evenly and traps steam in, you do end up with tender, succulent fish, plus an awesome presentation.  Before entombing the salmon, the salt is mixed with egg whites and a little water to form a slush, not unlike wet sand.  As the dish bakes, the salt crust hardens into a tough shell.  Once the dish is cooked and rested, you can tap the crust with a kitchen knife (or chisel, if necessary) to remove it in (hopefully) big chunks. 

I stuffed the inside of the salmon with lemon slices and oregano, which lent a light fragrance to the baked fish.  Once cooked and removed from the salt, we served pieces of the fillet atop fennel and onion confit with a sweet olive jam. 

Finally, after seven bottles of wine and two hours of eating, we arrived at dessert – the course I had been waiting for all evening.  I served a homemade rosemary and vanilla bean ice cream topped with olive oil and sea salt.  The combination of savory flavors with ice cream may sound bizarre, but when these ingredients get together, they make funky, sexy love to my mouth.  You can use any salt you like to top this ice cream (I’d recommend a flake sea salt or a gray salt), but be sure to use an olive oil that will compliment the sweetness dessert.  I chose Villa Manodori ($24 at DeLaurentis, also available online) , which is mild and thin, but has a distinctly fresh olive taste and a spicy bite as it finishes.  My every-day extra virgin olive oil would been a little too thick and greasy, so this dish was a good excuse to spring for a nice bottle. 

Recipe: Rosemary, Olive Oil and Sea Salt Sundae

Throughout the meal, we watered our salty tongues with bites of fresh Tuscan Canteloupe and glasses of light, fruity wines like Sangiovese, Gewurztraminer and Soave.  The melon was a surprisingly effective palate cleanser – I’d recommend having it on the table if you plan on throwing your own salt party.  And in addition to the wine, offering a glass of Port or Muscat as an accompaniment to your dessert, or a store-bought salted chocolate, helps illuminate how salty flavors can enhance sweet ones. 

I feel like we’re at the doorstep of a new renaissance for salt.  With artisanal salt makers like SaltWorks and Secret Stash Salts popping up in grocery stores and farmers markets, and products like Himalayan salt blocks appearing in mainstream catalogs, salt has a good shot at grabbing the spotlight.  And after 8000 years of cooking with this simple, amazing ingredient, isn’t about time we gave salt the recognition it deserves?

 
I’m still on my healthy eating kick to get in shape for the summer, but refuse to resign myself to just baked chicken breasts and steamed broccoli.  This recipe was exactly what I needed tonight – something that involves a little bit of real cooking, fresh seafood, and a ton of flavor.  I will have to keep this one in mind for the upcoming summer evenings.

Makes: Awesome dinner for 2
Total kitchen time: 45 minutes

Shopping list:

Scallops:

• 4 large, or 10 small, sea scallops
• 2 tbsp. safflower oil (or peanut oil, but don’t use olive oil)

Salsa:

• 1 medium shallot
• 1/4 cup pineapple, finely diced
• 1 tbsp. freshly grated ginger (substitute 1/2 tsp. ground ginger, only if you must)
• 1 tbsp. lemongrass, finely chopped
• 1 tsp. cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 tsp. honey
• 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. sesame seeds
• 1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp. + 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (use the best you’ve got)

Optional side: 1/2 lb. french beans

1. Peel the shallot and slice crosswise into thin discs, about 3mm thick.  Place the sliced shallot, 1 tsp. of olive oil and a pinch of salt in a small skillet and bring to medium heat.  Cook the shallot for 5-7 minutes until it has softened, but has not browned.  Remove from heat.
2. In a small bowl, combine the cooked shallot and the rest of the ingredients for the salsa.  Whisk together with a fork and adjust to taste by adding more honey, vinegar or salt.
3. Wash, trim and steam the french beans.  Remove them from the heat before they’re done cooking (still a little crispy) and run them under cold water to halt the cooking process.  Set aside to dry.
4. Meanwhile, heat the safflower oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat.  I highly recommend you use a cast iron skillet, both for its heat retention and for its natural non-stick nature.   Bring the oil just below its smoking point – you should see light whisps of smoke, but not much more than that.
5. Ensure the surface of each scallop is as dry as possible to encourage browning.  Place the scallops in the pan, leaving plenty of space between each one.  Don’t touch them for 60 seconds – they’re busy forming a golden crust and if you move them, you risk tearing it away.  After 60 seconds, lift the edge of one of the scallops to check for brownness.  If it is golden brown, flip it over and give it another 90 seconds.  If not, let it sit for another 30 seconds.  Cooked scallops can still be translucent in the middle, but cook them to a doneness you’re comfortable with.
6. Remove the scallops from the pan and turn of the heat.  Toss in the french beans and let them sizzle for about a minute, soaking up the great flavor the scallops have left behind.
7. To plate, lay down a pile of beans and divide the scallops between two plates.  Top with the salsa mixture, and a little extra sesame seeds, if you so desire.

If scallops aren’t your thing, try this recipe with jumbo prawns, calamari, or even grilled octopus!  I can’t wait to bring a batch of that salsa to the next cookout and discover what else I can top it on.

I just returned from the most wonderful brunch – the kind of meal that has me floating on a chorizo bacon flavored cloud all day long.  Barrio (Capitol Hill, Bellevue) just launched a weekend brunch menu, and it’s nothing short of fabulous.  In addition to a few soon-to-be classic dishes (which we’ll get to in a minute), Barrio’s brunch offers an excellent selection of signature cocktails to kick off your morning. 

I tried The Bee’s Knees ($8, pictured left) which is a delightful mixture of gin, fireweed honey and lemon.  Honestly, I could have put back a whole pitcher of this cool, delicious cocktail.  An unusual but welcome item on the cocktail menu, El Borracho ($9), consists of a can of Olympia beer, a shot of tequila, and a hot sauce chaser.  I suppose if you really need to erase the night before, it’ll do the trick.

But, it was the food at Barrio’s brunch that really blew me away.  To start, we sampled a selection of conchas (mexican sweet buns) served with whipped butter.  Then we snacked on a duo of salsas ($7), which allowed us to choose 2 out of 6 different generously-portioned salsas served alongside corn chips.  Since I’m not much of a fire-breather, I opted for the roasted tomatillo serrano salsa and the grape tomato salsa.  Both were richly fresh, with surprisingly complex flavors.  They made me sad to think I had ever wasted time eating salsa from a jar, ever. 

Once I realized what a treat I was in for, I decided to leave my main dish order in the very capable hands of our server.  Reading the innocuous menu descriptions, like “Chilaquiles del Dia – tortilla casserole of the day,” vastly understated the caliber of thought and craftsmanship that clearly went into each dish.  This morning’s “casserole” was a crunchy, slightly sweet mixture of shredded pork, apples and tortillas, topped with a pair of perfectly cooked eggs and sprinkle of cotija cheese ($10, pictured right).  Each bite was heavenly, and only improved by adding a dash of house-made hot sauce, coarse salt and a squeeze of fresh lime. Other must-orders include the cantina potatoes ($3) and the housemade chorizo bacon($3, amazing!).

Overall, I was really struck by the superb quality with which Barrio executed brunch.  From the clearly passionate kitchen staff, to the professional wait staff, to the bartender, everyone there exuded a commitment to the art of a great dining experience.  And nothing speaks louder to Barrio’s commitment to detail than the picture on the left.  It’s just a glass of water, but if you look closely, you’ll notice that it contains perfectly clear, perfectly square ice cubes.  As it turns out, Barrio is one of only two establishments in Washington that uses a state-of-the-art ice maker to produce perfect cubes with a slower melt rate so your drinks aren’t diluted after 5 minutes on the table (the other place that uses this machine is Vessel).  It’s a small but telling touch: Barrio isn’t messing around!  And with a brunch that, in my opinion, eclipses Peso’s Kitchen, I would make your reservations while you still can.  This is the new it spot for weekend mornings!

  Just downstairs from the stunning, Restoration Hardware-esque lobby of the Arctic Club Hotel, Juno is a restaurant struggling to find an identity.  Formerly, it garnered mixed reviews from critics, but was praised for its creativity and use of local, seasonal ingredients.  However, the dining public and Juno never quite met eye-to-eye.

To be fair, I suppose that a hotel restaurant has a natural disadvantage.  When Aunt Gertrude and her three kids come to visit from Oklahoma City, they might count on the hotel menu to offer a burger and fries.  However, given the makeup of the late-20s-early-30s well-dressed bohemians who flock to the Polar Barn just one floor above, it’s in Juno’s interest to serve contemporary, well-executed food with the style and thoughtfulness that Seattlites have come to expect from a high-class downtown restaurant.  Unfortunately, this was not my experience.

When I called a few weeks ahead to make my reservation, I noticed that their menu wasn’t posted online.  The host informed me that the menu was being overhauled, but the new menu was forthcoming.  Restaurants everywhere have been taking a critical look at their menus as the economy has kept more diners at home in recent months, and I believe Juno was doing the same.  Even on the night of my dinner, the new menu wasn’t quite complete; the lunch menu was extended into the dinner hours, but the specials of the night were items that we were told had already been cemented on the new menu.  Unfortunately, that’s where things started to go down hill. 

I tasted two of the three soon-to-be menu additions (the third was a halibut).  First was a grilled New York strip steak served with fingerling potatoes.  That, to me, is the food equivalent of a musician releasing a Christmas Album.  You know it will make money, you know people want it because it’s familiar, but it isn’t very interesting and its certainly not art.  I would have hoped for unique twist on the dish, perhaps rosemary- or truffle-salted potatoes, but alas, the chef appeared to wave the white flag on this one.  Fair enough, maybe that’s just what the market demands.

Next was a quartet of pan-seared scallops served on roasted pears with asparagus (pictured at top).  Unfortunately, I can’t come up with any good excuses for this one.  Although the scallops were cooked well, they were accompanied by sauces that I can only describe as a powdered gravy mix, and a vaguely balsamic powdered gravy mix.  The roasted pear slices contributed almost no flavor to the dish, and the bland asparagus was equally superfluous.  I’m not sure if this dish is still in beta testing, but I can’t seem to figure out why all those things shared the same plate.

Thankfully, Dessert was much more up to snuff.  In particular, the almond-crusted goat cheese cheese cake was welcoming both to the eyes and to the palate. 

But, the real standouts of the evening were the drinks!  The cocktail menu, shared between the Polar Bar and Juno, is full of creative, tasty and downright sexy drinks.  Two of my favorites were the Polar Ice and the Hemmingway Mojito (the best Mojito I can remember drinking). 

Even though I was told those dishes are already headed for the full-time dinner menu, it’s totally possible that they might evolve to find some sort of identity along the way.  But, from my experience, Juno doesn’t seem to be striking a balance between fine dining and populist restauranteering.  I do hope the best for Juno – it is a beautiful space, and the dead, white, wealthy founders of the Arctic Club have very high standards.

 
My goal of having 6-pack abs for my honeymoon apparently won’t be met by reducing my intake of foie gras and pork belly alone.  In an effort to trick myself into eating healthier, I’ve been experimenting with other white meats.  Usually, I think turkey is pretty bland.  However, this recipe was so shockingly tasty that it made me forget I was even trying to cook “lite”.  The pungent flavors of the curry and orange marmalade transform plain turkey into a dish I would even serve for company.

Total kitchen time: 1.5 hours
Makes: 2 waists a little smaller

Shopping list:

• 2 boneless skinless turkey breast halves
• 1 tbsp. red curry powder
• 2.5 Oz goat’s cheese (about 1/3 cup finely crumbled)
• 1/2 cup baby spinach, rinsed and dried
• 2 tsp. orange marmalade
• 4 8” pieces of cooking twine
• kosher salt

1. Preheat your oven to 375°F and place the top rack in the middle position. Line a baking sheet with foil or a non-slip baking mat.
2. Working one at a time, place each turkey breast between two sheets of plastic wrap.  Using a meat mallet or the bottom of a heavy skillet, pound the breast until it is uniformly thick.  Be careful not to accidentally rip through the meat.  If you’ve had a long day, this step can be very therapeutic.
3. Generously salt both sides of the breast.  Then, coat each side with curry powder.  Lay the breast flat-side down and top with 1/2 of the goat cheese, pressing the cheese into the meat to help it stick.  Then, top the goat’s cheese with half of the spinach.
4. Roll the breast into a log, starting with the narrow end.  Tie the roulade (rolled meat) in two places using lengths of twine.  Repeat for the remaining turkey breast.
5. Finally, rub the outside of each roulade with 1 tsp. of orange marmalade.  Place on the lined baking sheet and bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted into the center of the roulade reads 160°F.  Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

I enjoyed this dish alongside an artichoke with my favorite choke-dip: light mayo and curry powder.  I suppose other healthy options might include a salad, fruit, or a doughnut.  Wait, doughnuts are healthy, right?

 
Why should oysters have all the fun?  After all, crabs are bigger, meatier and more vicious (making our conquest over them all the more victorious!)  And, I’ll unapologetically claim that this recipe is “healthy” since the crab cakes are baked, not fried, and spinach counts as a green vegetable. 

Total kitchen time: 1 hour
Makes: about 6 jumbo crab cakes

Shopping list:

• 1 lb lump crab claw meat (I love the canned stuff at Trader Joe’s – you can’t beat the price)
• 1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced
• 4 green onions, finely diced
• 1 cup bread crumbs (Panko works great too)
• 4 tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2 slices bacon or prosciutto
• 4 cups (uncooked) baby spinach
• 1/4 cup watercress stems
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed and finely chopped
• good salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• olive oil (in a sprayer, if you’ve got one)

1. Preheat your oven to 375°F and set the top rack to the middle position (BTW, this recipe is a great toaster oven candidate).  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or a nonstick cooking mat.
2. In a large bowl, combine the crab meat, diced red bell pepper, half of the diced green onion (reserving the other half) and half of the bread crumbs (reserving the other half).  Mix in the honey and chili powder, then season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. I like to form my crab cakes by pressing them into a 1/2 cup measure, squeezing tightly so they’ll hold their shape.  You can mould them with your hands as well, but be sure to press them together tightly or they might fall apart in transit to the plates.  Arrange the crab cakes on the lined baking sheet, leaving at least 1” between each crab cake.
4. Using your olive oil sprayer (if you have one; or by drizzling olive oil) lightly coat the outside of each crab cake.  This will help with browning and to form an outer crust.  Bake at 375°F for 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
5. Meanwhile, fry the bacon or prosciutto in a large skillet until crispy.  Set aside to drain, then crumble into small pieces using a sharp knife.
6. Finely chop the spinach and watercress stems.  In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the garlic and sauté 1 minute.  Then, add the remaining green onion, bread crumbs and watercress stems.  Sauté 1 minute more.  Finally, add the chopped spinach and cook until wilted, 1-2 minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
7. To serve, plate a crab cake atop a smear of the spinach mixture, then sprinkle the whole plate with crumbled bacon.

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I had high hopes for Genki Sushi, the new conveyor belt sushi joint that opened above QFC in lower Queen Anne.  Unfortunately, the conveyor never brought me what I was looking for: really good sushi.  The staff was very friendly and attentive, though I blushed with sympathy as I was greeted with a clearly rehearsed-in-front-of-the-mirror Japanese greeting forced out of the poor ex-barista (I’m guessing) who seated us.  Like the outside of the Lumen building, there was an unfinished je ne sais quoi about Genki that made it feel more like an airport terminal and less like a sushi bar.  But I wasn’t there for the architecture; I was there to snipe sushi off of a moving belt and stack my plates into a tower of phallic proportions. 

Alas, as the lidded plates rode by, I realized I would have no such fishy conquest that night.  There’s a saying that you eat with your eyes first.  That, I would argue, is never more true than with sushi: it is an inescapably artistic cuisine, normally planned and executed with a meticulous eye towards form, balance and beauty.  But the cross sections of room-temperature maki that passed before me had no such vitality.  The muted colors and careless arrangement of each plate foreshadowed the mostly mediocre food that followed. 

To be fair, I will say that the salmon and cream cheese roll (I know, real sushi snobs will tell you this is not sushi) was OK.  But the rest was far below par, particularly  in a city like Seattle with its blossoming, progressive Japanese cuisine. 

I do wish the best for Genki Sushi, but for now, I’ll have to do my raw fish sniping elsewhere.

 
Making dinner for your date this Valentines day?  No?  Really?  You might want to reconsider.  Here are some excellent aphrodisiac recipes to let your partner know it’s business time. 

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My expectations were set high for Moshi Moshi (yet another) sushi bar on Ballard Avenue’s busy block of boutiques and bars.  Needless to say, Moshi Moshi delivered on its promise of traditional Japanese cuisine mixed in with Pacific Northwest-inspired creations.  If you’re planning on visiting, don’t bother looking for a sign outside – it doesn’t exist, at least not yet.  Instead, look for the diffuse, cool glow of the restaurant’s imposing metal and LED cherry blossom tree, a central feature of the restaurant’s design.  At its base, a wrap-around bar (sushi on one side, drinks on the other) welcomes walk-ins.  The constant dance of sushi chefs and bartenders moving between their ingredients and eager customers stirs up a constant swirl energy that permeates the atmosphere.  This place is definitely buzzing.

With good reason, too.  Although sushi is their staple, the formidable page of starters and small bites simply cannot be overlooked.  My personal favorite was a grilled oyster with spicy miso cream ($2/each, pictured top left).  Also impressive was their selection of shioyaki: salt grilled fish and meat.  I tried the waygu beef loin with soy salt ($14.50, pictured middle left), which was just the type of pungent flavorful dish I had been hoping to find.

Moshi Moshi’s fish selection is extremely fresh, and as diverse as its menu.  I could only identify about 60% of the fish in my Omakase (chef’s discretion, prices vary, pictured top right), and I consider myself to be a bit of a sushi snob.  

An unfortunate disappointment was a lack of creativity in Moshi Moshi’s “new style” maki sushi rolls.  I’m a fan of the type of inventive interpretation you’ll see at places like Mashiko and Umi Sake House, and I had high hopes for clever suprises at Moshi Moshi.  With the exception of a self-titled roll, the rest were predictable and even a bit pedestrian, especially when compared to the diversity found elsewhere on the menu. 

All told, I believe Moshi Moshi has a bright future in Ballard.  I look forward to eating my way through the rest of their menu, and perhaps claiming a new happy hour hangout.  $4 maki and $1 edamame?  Count me in!

Usually when I threaten to order half the menu at a restaurant, I’m joking.  But at Lark, I was quite serious.  Located on an easy-to-miss block of Capitol Hill, this gem specializes in intricate, small plates with bold flavors and surprising combinations.  For example, the roasted eel with saba and new potato salad ($12, pictured above, left) paired a predictably sweet and sticky eel fillet with a most unlikely and delicate (you guessed it) potato salad.  This was one of my favorite dishes – my only regret was sharing it with three other people. 

Lark’s menu is designed for family-style ordering, but with more than 2 people at your table, each plate portions out to an amuse-bouche or so.  As a result, we nearly ended up ordering most of the menu!  Every dish was delectable and I appreciated the variety of our dinner, but I couldn’t help feeling unsatiated.  I respect the “small bites” philosophy and I enjoy that manner of eating, but with flavors so compelling, there was a discord between my stomach and my wallet.

Even so, I would recommend Lark for foodies and adventurous eaters. Of particular note were the Carpaccio of Yellowtail with preserved lemons and green olives ($15, pictured top right), the Crispy Liberty Farm duck leg with watercress and pomegranate salad ($11, pictured middle right), and the Valrhona chocolate hazelnut mousse with cocoa ladyfingers and candied hazelnut ($8, pictured bottom right).  You may want to consider ordering two of each!

If you love to entertain, but your wallet is still sore from Christmas shopping, try a few of surprise bargains.  Just because your stocks tanked doesn’t mean its time for canned cheese.

Oysters Rockefeller (pictured above)

Nothing says “classy party” quite like a plate of oysters.  However, not everyone enjoys the slimy, raw mollusks as much as you do.  This classic recipe adds chopped greens, bacon and bread crumbs, then bakes the whole shebang for delicious, elegant bite.  If you shop with a keen eye, you can get 1-2 oysters for a buck, making them a reasonably priced treat after all.

Mini Beef Wellington Hors D’Oeuvres

Serving beef doesn’t have to mean breaking the bank.  Rather than serving this rich entree, try my bite-size version.  I ended up paying less than $1 per piece, but all the guests just remembered getting to eat great beef!

Rosemary Fudge

A lot of chocolate and a little rosemary goes a long way to producing memorable dessert bites.  Rather than splurge for artisanal  bonbons, try this bulk-batch recipe.  Your guests will ooh and aah at the sophistication of what would otherwise be regular fudge.

Dark Chocolate Tart with Gingersnap Crust

If you’re not an expert baker (I’m certainly not), but you’re somehow in charge of dessert, try this easy chocolate tart with a kick of ginger.  Thinly sliced candied ginger says “Celebration!” and the richness of this tart means you can serve small slices, stretching your dollar all that much further. 

The Christmas shopping season is upon us and that means its time to find the perfect  present for the food geek in your life.  The list below include some of my favorite socket stuffers for 2008. 

Space Invaders Cutting Board

This is probably my favorite item on the list this year!  This very clever cutting board uses dark and light end-grain “pixels” to represent those pesky aliens from the classic video game Space Invaders.  Also, it gives you an excuse to make the PEW PEW noise when cutting vegetables.  Now, if they could only build a Leisure Suit Larry cutting board…

$129.99 from ThinkGeek

300-Watt Cruzin Cooler

If there is a better way to drink and drive, I’ve never seen it.  This motorized cooler travels up to 15 miles on a single charge.  That’ll get you far enough away that you won’t recognize anything when you wake up naked and covered mustard outside a Dunkin Donuts off the Jersey turnpike.  With a maximum load of 210 pounds (you plus your chilled Chardonnay), it won’t haul your lazy ass up any steep hills, but you should be able to smoke those Rascal drivers on the quarter mile.

$399 from Smarthome

Infinite Circulon Portable Induction Burner

Folks, we’re living in the future.  This induction burner is a portable, heatless, electric cooktop, which must have been sent back through time from the year 2025, at least.  Induction cooking uses a yet-to-be-discovered principle of electromagnetics whereby a strong magnetic field in the thingamajigie causes heat due to some electrical resistance voodoo in the bottom of your frying pan.  The result?  Heat with 90% energy effeciency.  Now, if we can only reduce our dependency on foreign olive oil…

$244.31 from Amazon

Good Chemistry Salt & Pepper Shakers

Proudly declare your geekdom with these sodium chloride and  Pe +(Pe)r shakers.  After all, cooking is chemistry, so why not make your kitchen look more like a laboratory?  Order a whole mess of these things and keep them neatly arranged in a crystal formation. 

$14.99 from ThinkGeek

Salt: A World History

Just can’t get enough Salt?  I sure can’t.  This book discusses the profound impact that salt and the salt industry have had on world civilizations since, uh, a lot BC.  From the production and harvest of salt, to salt’s use as currency, to our modern-day culinary love affair with the compound, this book is a fascinating read.  And, when you’re done, you can use the pages to kill snails.

$10.29 from Amazon

Geek Shot Glass

If 1 out of 10 geeks suffer from alcoholism, does that mean the other 9 enjoy it?  If so, its probably because they one one of these sweet geek shot glasses!  Use them for your next happy hour, all-night coding session, or anytime you’re drinking with the other Matheletes. 

$3.99 from ThinkGeek

Star Wars Cookbooks

That’s right, there are multiple Star Wars cookbooks.  And you can have them both!  Learn how to make Jedi Juice Bars, Dark Side Salsa, Boba Fett-Uccine, and more delicious meals to eat by myself in my mother’s basement, er, I mean, to cook for dates.  With women.  Real life ones. 

$14.99 from ThinkGeek

Deni LED Cake Tray with Lid

OMG, OMG, OMG.  This has got to be one of the all time most superfluous kitchen gadgets I’ve ever seen.  Which means it’s perfect for the food geek in your life.  Just place your cake in the middle, then use the buttons to select between 2 and 12 slices.  LED lights on the outer ring shows you where to cut.  And, if that isn’t reason enough to buy this breakthrough digital portioning system, it even plays “Happy Birthday”.

$39.99 from Amazon

Cuisinart Brick Oven with Rotisserie

I’ve been drooling over these toaster ovens since they first came on the scene.  With a .9 cubic foot capacity, this little oven is perfect for smaller jobs like pizzas, casseroles, and shrinky-dinks.  Plus, the ceramic brick-lined interior promises even cooking, and the 500-degree temperature means you can tandori the night away!  The built-in rotisserie is another reason to keep your big oven off.  We are in an energy crisis, you know.

$279.99 from Amazon

Sylvania LED Fiber Optic Lighted Table Runner

Are your Star Trek: The Next Generation-themed dinner parties lacking a certain flair?  You’ve got the costumes, the 3D chess set, even a sage, black ex-comedian to dispense advice and lend a friendly ear.  But something’s still missing… a fiber optic table runner!  Fret no more, Ensign Billy.  You may now boldly decorate as no man has decorated before.

$85.99 from Smarthome

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I had the recent privilege of attending a “Farmhouse Dinner,” a sort of underground dinner club hosted by a Seattle-area farmer and prepared by a local chef.  Underground dinner clubs are neither new nor rare in Seattle, but I will remember (and rave about) this meal until I’m old and senile. 

Usually terms like locally grown, organic, hormone-free, hell, even fresh have a distant, intangible relationship with the foods we normally eat.  When I stand in front of a pile of organic grapes at Whole Foods, I’m not necessarily moved by the extra care and attention paid to the grapes in order to earn that badge of superiority.  But, when you eat a meal knowing that all of its components were grown, raised, picked or slaughtered within a triangle bell’s ring from the dining room… there is a tangible relationship. 

Anyone could, presumably, go to the farmer’s market and grab a dinner’s worth of locally grown ingredients and invite some guests over – I’d even recommend it.  But that is child’s play compared to the dinners served at the farm.  Literally everything except salt, pepper, flour, coffee beans and wine came directly from the farm.  Everything.  That includes butter, cheese, pancetta, pickles, chilies, and of course all the meat and vegetables you can shake a fork at.  And if you’ve ever doubted that freshness makes a difference, I hope you get an invitation.

We ate 10 or so courses, beginning with thin crust, wood oven fired pizzas eaten casually with a glass of wine as the evening’s guests arrived.  We moved to the table to enjoy a divine beef broth and pea soup.  Next we tasted thinly-shaved pigs heart with pickled shallots, braised ox tail, tomato jam, fresh pickles, and an assortment of homemade cheeses.  Then there were several vegetable courses: the freshest, most vibrant carrots I’ve ever seen, a slaw of brussels sprouts and roasted peppers, and a superb roasted squash.  The main courses (yes, there were multiple) included handmade pasta with braised lamb shoulder and what I declare to be the best roast beef I’ve ever tasted.  I guess it helps when the guy cooking the beef knew the cow personally.

So, what’s the message here, that we should slaughter our own cows and only eat carrots that we’ve personally removed from the ground?  Of course not.  For most of us, its infeasible – both economically, and practically.  However, if you have the opportunity to experience the staggering impact of really fresh ingredients in a place where you are one degree of freedom away from the person who grew your food, don’t let it pass you by.  I guarantee it will be an meal to remember!

 
Coronets may be a little oldschool, but I’m a sucker for shapely finger food.  These fish cones are a little labor intensive, but totally worth it.  Plus, there’s something I love about toiling over the intricate details of hors d’oeuvres in anticipation of a party.  If you don’t have coronet molds lying around, you can use large pastry tips, or anything else cone-shaped to roll the parmesan crisps into a lovely conical form.

Makes: about 9 cones
Total kitchen time: 1 hour

Special equipment

• 9 coronet molds (or large pastry tips)
• 1 Silpat Nonstick Silicone Baking Mat
• 1 pastry bag
• 1 4” circle pastry ring (optional)

Shopping list:

• 1 lb. parmesan cheese, very finely shredded
• 1/2 lb. lox (smoked salmon fillet)
• 1 shallot, finely diced
• 2 tbsp. chives, finely diced
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 tbsp. butter
• crème fraîche, to garnish

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F and place the top rack in the middle of the oven. 
2. Prepare the silplat on a baking sheet.  Place the pastry ring on the silplat and gently sprinkle with an even layer of the shredded parmesan.  The layer should only be thick enough so that there are no large holes.  Repeat, leaving at least 1” of space between circles.  You’ll probably have to make parmesan rounds in 2 batches.
3. Lightly salt the parmesan rounds and bake for 5-7 minutes.  Keep a close eye on the rounds – once the cheese is completely melted and just barely starting to brown around the outer edges, remove the pan from the oven and rest it on the open oven door.  The heat from the door will keep the cheese soft and warm as you shape the rounds into cones.
4. Working one by one, roll each round of cheese onto a coronet mold and place on a stack of paper towels to dry.  The cheese will be hot to touch, and you may want to use an offset spatula to help lift the first edge of cheese off the silplat.
5. Once all of the cheese rounds have been formed onto the molds, let them rest for at least 10 minutes to cool.  Wipe any grease off the silplat, then return the cheesy molds to the baking sheet and bake 2-3 minutes more, until lightly browned.  Its important to keep the molds in for this step, otherwise your cones will deflate into triangles.  Place the cones on paper towels to drain until ready to serve.  Can be made the day before and refrigerated.
6. Using a knife (not a food processor) finely chop the salmon lox.  In a large bowl, smash the butter with the back of a fork until it is lightly whipped.  Stir in the salmon, shallot, chives and lemon juice.  Can be made up to 4 hours ahead and covered and refrigerated.
7. When you’re ready to serve, pipe the salmon mixture into the cones carefully using a pastry bag with a wide tip (or no tip at all).  The cones will be very fragile, so you may want to recruit a second pair of hands for this part of the operation.
8. Finally, using a small, decorative tip, pipe a dollop of crème fraîche on top of the salmon.  Serve on a platter, or standing up on a plate full of holes!

If you’ve been paying close attention to my timestamps, you’ll notice a gap in recent posts.  You’ll have to forgive me, I was on a “business trip”.  Since I don’t make my living as a food blogger, occasionally I have to spend time doing actual “work”.  In this case, that work involved spending a week in Barcelona, then, due to an AirFrane pilot strike, spending 4 days unexpectedly in Paris.  Oh, and I got to bring my girlfriend, Rachel.  Oh, and due to the overwhelming romance of Paris, we’re engaged now!  Isn’t work just the worst?!

Here are some food shots from the trip.  I’m pretty convinced there are no bad meals in Europe (♫ and the streets are filled with chee-eze ♫).