The Hidden Kitchen

I had the distinct opportunity to dine at "The Hidden Kitchen" the other night. Words are hard to find to describe this experience. The hosts of the evening, Dennis, his wife Mary and daughter Marina treated us like we were family and took exceptional care of us for the evening. But not only that, they cooked us a really really fantastic meal. As they welcomed us into their beautiful home, we were greeted with a champagne toast, not to bad to start the evening off. The lovely patio had a table set for 12 in their backyard that was rich with beautiful roses and other plants. We took our seats and were told that as much as she'll try, Baci doesn't get to enjoy our dinner. Excuse the quality of some of the photos, I was trying to not disturb other diners with the flash.

Our first course was "Pomodori Al Forno Goat Cheese Crostini". Dennis said that he roasts the tomatoes and keeps them in jars for such dishes. The tomato was delicious and lush and the goat cheese creamy, making a nice start to the dinner.
Second course was "Ahi Tuna Sliders with Sweet Potato Frites and Mango Ketchup". One slider was topped with what I believed he said was topiko and the other was shredded fried ginger, which really enhanced the tuna. The mango ketchup was a great accompaniment to the the sweet potatoes which were perfectly crisp.
The third course was "Apple Fennel Slaw with Kabocha Fingers and Gorgonzola Fonduta". Dennis said that he slices the squash up, then boils them. He coats them in grounded up panko crumbs and then deep fries them. I have never had Kabocha squash before, and it was really good. The sweetness of the squash with the crispy texture paired well with the tartness of the apple and fennel and then the Gorgonzola really just took this dish to a new level. We drank Toad Hollow's Eye of the Toad Rose with the first three courses
Here's a shot of the wonderful kitchen they have as they are preparing the 4th course which was my absolute favorite. "Ricotta Spinach Ravioli with a Meyer lemon beurre blanc" and then garnished it with cherry tomatoes and fresh corn and pancetta.

For our main course, this wine was recommended to me and I am really glad it was. It was a wonderful full body Barbera that was purchased at Corti Brothers for just $26.99. I'd recommend to anyone, it became popular with the others at table as well as with the chefs.
The main course was "Sonoma Rack of Lamb with Rosemary and Lemon Confit, Ratatouille Terrine with Basil Aioli." The lamb was cooked perfectly and the ratatouille was layered with typical vegetables and smoked mozzarella cheese. The basil aioli was made from basil in their front yard.
When I saw the menu, I was skeptic at the description of the dessert. I was thinking, who would serve poached eggs for dessert. Well, this was a winner. The name of the dish is "Poached Egg on Toast Trump L'Oeil. Essentially it was a sweet anise bread that was toasted and topped with a lemon cream and then the "egg yolk" is lemon curd. Very delicious and a fun presentation. Dennis mentioned that he was going to serve them on little cast iron frying pans, but then practicality got the best of him, and opted for black plates, which would be more universally used. Also served was Espresso and Marina's amaretti crema, which I didn't get a picture of, nor did I get a picture of the bonus dessert, ricotta fritters that Dennis made using up some extra fresh ricotta cheese he had left over.
Last, but not least, we sampled a variety of Dennis's homemade cordials. These were delicious. They came in lemoncello, ginger and strawberry. I did purchase a bottle of the strawberry, which was a creamy little milkshake in a glass with a kick. What a great way to end up the meal.

Overall, if anyone has the opportunity to dine at The Hidden Kitchen, I highly recommend it. The atmosphere was fun, the other guests were friendly and the food was just really good. I only hope that I won't have to wait too long to go again.

Wilted spinach salad.

This is a very good salad to accompany dinner, or simply eat it as a meal by itself. After experimenting with it in order to make it into a smaller number of  servings I discovered that then only thing that has to stay constant is the ratio of fat to vinegar. So you can actually make this for one person fairly easily.
Serves four.

You will need:

4 Boiled eggs.
6 ounces of Bleu cheese.
1 Bag of washed baby spinach.
8 Slices of thick cut bacon.
1 Pinch of salt.
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar.
1/2 cup of finely chopped shallots.
1 clove of garlic, minced or put through a garlic press.
1/4 teaspoon black pepper.
1/2 cup of dried cranberries.
 


Cut the bacon up into small 1/4 inch chunks before cooking and cook them over medium heat until they reach the texture you desire.
While the bacon is cooking, place the spinach into a large bowl. Finely chop the shallots into small bits. In a small bowl mix together the vinegar, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Cut the eggs into quarters long ways, one entire egg will be the required for an individual salad. Crumble up the Bleu cheese.

When the bacon is done, remove it from the skillet and put it on a plate. Pour off the bacon grease into a heat proof bowl. Pour 1/4 cup bacon grease back into the pan and return to the heat. Add the shallots and cook them until they are softened, for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic into the pan and cook for another 15 seconds or so, until fragrant. Add the vinegar to the pot and start scraping up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Pour the hot dressing over the spinach and toss gently with tongs till all the spinach leaves are coated.

Divide up the spinach into bowls. Divide the Bleu cheese, bacon and cranberries among the bowls and toss gently to mix it up. Place the egg quarters on top of each salad.
Enjoy.

Best Dill Pickles Ever

There is one thing that Mark really likes, and that is dill pickles. We've made these for the past three years, and our third batch is chilling out right now. Here are some step by step ways to make your own pickles that you can have in your cupboard all year long. So, get to the farmers market and let's make some pickles.

Obviously, we need cucumbers. You want to get about 2 to 4 inch long cucumbers and you want them to be as green and unblemished as possible. We started with about 17 pounds of cucumbers and that gave us 14 quarts of pickles. When you get them home, wash them really good. You'll want to have a canning pot, and probably get that going on the stove, since they are fairly large and take a while to get the water boiling.Next, you need to get your jars ready. We washed them in the dishwasher, and you want to do that while you get your juice ready, so that when the juice is good to go, you're able to pack the pickles in the hot jars. Put the lids and rims in a pan of boiling water as you do this too. For the juice in the pickles, we follow this recipe from the ball book of preserving and make a couple of additions. For 14 quarts of pickles, you'll need:

2 1/4 cups of sugar
1 1/2 canning salt
3 quarts of white vinegar
3 quarts of water
9 tablespoons of mixed pickling spices

Combine in a saucepan and tie the spices in a piece of cheesecloth to steep in the liquid. Simmer for 15 minutes.

The rest of the stuff that you'll want to put into the jars, are garlic (we used about 5 whole heads of garlic, peeled), a handful of spicy dried chili peppers, bay leaves, fresh dill weed. So get that stuff together.

Since our cucumbers were fairly large, we had to slice them to make them fit into the jars. You can do this or else leave them whole.

Now that you have the jars, the juice and stuff that goes inside ready, you're ready to can. Take your hot jar, and stuff a couple of cloves of garlic, some dill weed, some peppers and bay leaves into the jar, then cram as many cucumbers as you can into the jar. This works good in a tag team effort, one can stuff, the other can fill with the juice. Then fill the jar with juice (a canning funnel works really well here too.) to about 1/4 inch from the top of the jar. Be sure to wipe anything that may have spilled on the rim off. Use the air bubble tool, and swirl around the outside of the inside of the jar to make sure there are no air bubbles in the jar. Take the lid and rim out of the hot water, put on top of the jar and just hand tighten. My canning pot will hold 7 jars, so once they are all done, they are ready to go into the canner.

You'll want the canner to get to a boiling point and then cover. Let the jars process for 15 minutes. Once the 15 minutes is up, using a jar grippy thing, take the jars out and put them on a towel on the counter top and do not distrub them for 24 hours. You'll hear little "pops" that means that the lids were sealed properly. To make sure they are sealed, press down slightly on the top of the lid and if there is no give, you're good to go. Label your jars and put them them away. Let them sit at least two months to ripen up and you'll have pickles.

Since we can pickles and tomato sauce, we bought a canning kit that gives you pretty much everything you need except the food product. Here's one link to show you what is included: http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Home-Canning-Basics-11102/dp/B0000BYCVN

The rims and jars are reusable, the flat lids are not. We just keep our jars in a box, and use them in the next year.

As a side note, to do tomato sauce, you can make your sauce, follow the same directions for having the canner and hot jars ready. Add one tablespoon of lemon juice to a pint jar or two to a quart, add the tomato sauce to the hot jars to a 1/2 inch headspace. Put on the caps and process pints for 35 minutes and quarts for 40 minutes. This works for seasoned or plain tomato sauce. You don't want to add meat to it, since that would be a different process.

Carnitas Roasted in Banana Leaf

These carnitas came from the same Williams Sonoma cooking class. They were quite delicious, a little time consuming to make, but good all the same. Banana leaves were found at the Asian Market on Broadway, in Sacramento, so its probably safe to assume that you can find them at an Asian market near you.

6 lb boneless pork shoulder, cut into 6-8 chunks
2 Tbsp Achiote paste ( I found it in the Mexican aisle at the Nugget)
1 Tbsp chopped garlic
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup lime juice
2 tsp Mexican oregano, toasted
1 white onion, chopped
1 pkg banana leaf

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine achiote, garlic, orange juice, lime juice and oregano in a blender and puree until smooth. Place pork in a bowl and pour marinade over. Massage marinade into pork. Add diced onion and mix to combine.

Holding both ends of a banana leaf, drag leaf over a burner on moderately high heat slowly until it changes color slightly and becomes shiny, then turn over and toast other side. Toast remaining leaves in this same manner.

Line roasting pan with leaves, shinier side down, by arranging 1 leaf lengthwise and 2 leaves cross wise, letting excess hang over sides. Transfer pork mixture to banana leaves, then fold overhang of leaves over pork to enclose completely. Cover pan tightly with foil and place in the oven. You may also chill at this point if you want to cook at a later time. Bake for 30 minutes, then reduce heat to 300 degrees and continue cooking for 3-4 hours more, depending on the size of the pork cuts. Here is what it looks like after cooking for about 4 hours:

After you roast it, then you want to start shredding it into smaller pieces and removing any fat pieces that you want to get rid of. After that, put it on a cookie sheet and then stick it under the broiler for a bit, to crisp it up. After that, garnish with salsa, avocado, pickled onions and serve on a homemade corn tortilla or store bought ones. Enjoy!

Pickled Habanero Onions

This comes from the same cooking class as the salsa. These are great on carnitas, tacos, fajitas. Slightly spicy, but you can control that with the pepper and if you use the whole thing or not.

3 cups finely sliced white onions rings
4 cups boiling water
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/2 tbsp dried Mexican oregano, toasted and crumbled
1 Habanero chili, finely sliced

Put the onions into a colander and immerse them in the boiling water for a few seconds. Drain and put into a glass or non-reactive bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Set aside to season for about 2 hours before using.

Smokey Tomato-Chipotle Salsa

This salsa recipe is courtesy of Jim LaPerriere, a chef that gave a cooking demonstration at Williams Sonoma. Its a very good, smokey salsa that you can change up any way you want. You won't end up using the whole can of chipoltes, so you can freeze them and use them at another time.

1 lb ripe roma tomatoes (for extra smoky flavor, you can grill them if you'd like)
4-6 chipotle chilies in adobo
1/3 cup rough chopped white onion
1 garlic clove
1/2 cup rough chopped cilantro leaves and stems
lime juice to taste
salt to taste
I added two jalapenos (whole thing) to add additional heat

Place chiles and garlic in a food processor and chop fine. Add onions, tomatoes and cilantro. Process until desired consistency is reached. Transfer to a bowl and season with lime juice and salt.

Meet the Sous Chef and his Assistant

So, we have two new cats, and very early on, we've been able to establish that our black and white cat, Peabody is quite the foodie. Anytime Food Network is on tv, he sits and stares at it. Whenever we cook, he likes to sit in the kitchen and tell us what he thinks about what we're doing. So he is our honorary sous chef, we just don't let him handle any knives yet.
Apparently, while we are away, he must be taking sommelier courses online, since here he is picking out the evening's wine selection. This cat also loves to have little tastes of wine...now don't go calling animal control, a drop isn't going to kill him, and it may give him a healthy heart.
Now, this is the other cat, Mr. Pickles. Mr. Pickles's only interest in food is to eat it. Here he is sitting on the dog's bowl after licking it clean after she ate. For being about 6 months old right now, Mr. Pickles weighs probably close to 12 pounds. This picture was taken a few months ago.
This picture was taken recently of Mr. Pickles after a feast and destroying the mini-blinds. I took it far, so that you can see how big he has gotten...

Asian Salad

This is a big favorite with several of my friends. This is adapted from Greg at the Raven's salad recipe. Make a big bowl since it is made with cabbage, it doesn't wilt as fast. As with most stuff, you can add or subtract just about anything you like. This also goes great with some grilled teriyaki chicken breasts too. You can come up with the amounts, I'll tell you what's in it.

Napa Cabbage, shredded
Shredded carrots
Celery
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Cucumbers, sliced
Red bell peppers, diced
Yellow bell peppers, diced
Orange bell peppers, diced
Red onion, diced
small can of Mandarin Oranges
Peanuts for garnish
Cilantro

Cut up all of your vegetables and place in a bowl. Drain the oranges, and reserve the juice. Add them to to it. Cut up the cilantro and also toss into the salad.

To make dressing:

juice of 1-2 limes
juice from mandarin oranges
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
sesame oil--a little bit
2 tbsp Soy Sauce
salt/pepper
2 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tsp garlic if you want
vegetable oil

Mix the lime juice, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger and garlic together. You need to do the liquids in increments, and taste along the way to your liking. Add the sesame oil, a little goes a long way. Then add the mandarin orange juice, in increments, it adds a little sweetness. When it tastes the way you want it after adding more or less, then add a little vegetable oil, I hardly use any to make this a really healthy salad.

Toss the dressing with the salad and garnish with peanuts.

Potato Soup

I learned how to make the base of this soup in my 7th grade Home Economics class. When I need comfort food, this does it for me. Super easy to make, and you can change it up a million ways.

3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cup milk
2 potatoes peeled and diced
1 medium onion, diced
few slices of pancetta diced.
1 1/2 cup cheddar cheese grated
1 bottle favorite beer
salt/pepper to taste
Sour cream and green onions for garnish.

Put your potatoes in salted boiling water and boil until they are tender, about 10 minutes or so. Saute the pancetta in a small fry pan until crisp. Remove from heat, drain on paper towel. Saute onion in the drippings until they are slightly carmelized. When potatoes are cooked, drain them, reserving a little of the cooking water, that you can use to thin the soup out if need be.

Make a white sauce by melting the butter, and then adding the flour and cook stirring constantly for about a minute or so. In increments, whisk in the milk. Be sure to incorporate all the flour/butter totally. Keep on medium or so heat, stirring occasionally until it starts to bubble. At this point, take off the heat, and stir in the cheddar cheese until it melts. Then slowly stir in the beer to taste. Add the potatoes and onions and stir well to incorporate. If it's too thick, add a little of the cooking water or more beer. Salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with the pancetta, sour cream and green onions.

Chili Encrusted Pork Tenderloin

This is a recipe I got from one of the egulleteers, Purplewiz. I sort of changed it and you can too, since you can use any types of chili peppers/powders that you have on hand. A good source locally for chili powders, and probably most anywhere, would be a Mexican Supermarket. La Superior in Sacramento had a huge assortment of them. I purchased pre-ground up bags, but you can also buy dried whole chili's and grind them up yourself. I served this with the sauce below and some fried polenta triangles.

Pork:

1 2-2.5 lb pork roast--I used one tenderloin

For the rub:

3 tbsp mild chile powder (see note)
1 tbsp medium hot to hot chile powder (see note)
1/2 tsp chipotle chile powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt

olive oil

For the sauce:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
1/2 tbsp leftover rub
2 tbsp rum (see notes)
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the rub ingredients together. Reserve 1/2 tbsp rub for the sauce. Rub the rest on to the pork roast. Coat well and heavily, but let the stuff that falls off fall off. Let sit covered in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350F. Drizzle roast lightly with olive oil, then roast until your preferred level of doneness. I prefer 135F, which took about 35 minutes. Tent with foil (and a towel over that if your kitchen is as cold as mine) and let rest 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute the garlic clove in the 1 tbsp olive oil until just fragrant and barely starting to turn color. Add the reserved rub and saute about 15 seconds. Add the rum, chicken stock, and honey, and reduce to roughly 1/4 cup. Remove from heat and beat in the 1 tbsp butter. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.

Slice the pork thinly and serve with sauce over.

Notes:

The chile powders are pure ground chiles. If you don't want to do rum, some fresh squeezed orange juice and a little grated orange zest would probably be excellent.

The cinnamon added a surprising sweetness to the roast. I might add a tsp of sugar to the rub next time, or maybe even Splenda.