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6/30/2007 It's Cherry Season! Just in case you hadn't noticed - Bings and Rainiers are everywhere! Time to enjoy! 6/25/2007 Limoncello - Part I A couple of things have happened recently that has caused me to have Limoncello on my mind. If you haven't heard of Limoncello it's an Italian liqueur that is generally sipped after dinner or late into the evening. It is intensely lemon-flavored, packs a good alcohol punch and is pretty sweet. The most common way to sip it is ice-cold.
The first was that a comment came in on one of my old Limoncello posts on The Spirit World and the second was while sitting at Zig Zag the other night we had a little tasting. And then what I started thinking about was the batch I made last summer and how it was good when it was "done" but it was even better two or three months later after the flavors had really blended and become much more integrated. And then I took a little sip out of the bottle I have left in my freezer and I thought this might be a good topic for right now!
I know it is barely the beginning of summer, but this liqueur would make a great holiday gift and if you start it this summer those flavors will have plenty of time to get good and integrated before you get to the gift-giving season. Besides being good on it's own, I have several friends who like to incorporate Limoncello into their Lemon Drops...
So for the next couple weeks I am going to post the original pieces in roughly the same timeline as they occurred in real time.
This first piece talks about what you need and how to get started. The second post will tell you how to know if you are ready for the next step and the final post will help you put all the components together. Then the hard part starts - the waiting until it's really ready. Of course you can sneak a little sip now and then just to see how it's doing.
The Tools
When making limoncello you only want the zest from the lemons, none of the bitter white pith. This is easiest to do if you have the proper tool - a zester. In the photo you'll see a couple of different versions of zesters. The two shorter versions will make long, thin curls of zest. The two grater-type tools will make very small confetti-like pieces of zest. The more surface area we can expose, the better so my choice for this project was the long, narrow zester (the one that looks like a rasp) - it's narrow shape makes it a great tool for round objects. If you don't own any of these tools you could also use a vegetable peeler or even a paring knife - just be super careful to remove only the yellow portion of the skin.
Once the zest has been removed, juice the lemons and use the juice for lemonade, fresh lemon sweet and sour or freeze it for use at a later date.
 The Fruit
For this recipe you will need six good sized lemons. I actually used seven, just because I have a bad habit of trying to intensify flavors when I cook! But the recipe just calls for six. You'll notice these lemons are rather dull and not that pretty. I purposely chose these lemons as they were unwaxed. If your lemons are shiny and gorgeous you'll end up with a bunch of icky wax floating around in your limoncello. We don't want that.
If you can't find unwaxed lemons, prior to zesting blanch the fruit in boiling water for about 30 seconds. Working quickly, remove them from the water and immediately dry them with a rough towel, trying to remove as much wax as possible. Then drop them in ice water to cool them back down.
 The Alcohol
You'll need one 750ml bottle of alcohol. If possible you want 100 proof (50%). This is normally the cheaper vodka in your liquor store and is often found on the lower shelves, not right at eye-level.
The higher proof serves two purposes: it will leach the flavor and color from the zest faster than the more common 80 proof; and when we later mix in the simple syrup we will end up with a nicer level of alcohol in the final product.
If you can't find 100 proof, go ahead and use 80 proof. You'll need to let the mixture sit a bit longer - but you can manage that. When we get to adding the simple syrup, I'll address a couple things you can try to balance out the alcohol levels. By the way, more is not necessarily better. At this point you might be thinking you should just use Everclear (at 95% alcohol) but your finished product will not be what you hope for. It will be out of balance the other way - more alcohol is not always a good thing!
 The Container
The final item you'll need is a jar that is large enough to hold the zest and the bottle of vodka. It should have a good airtight seal. Glass is preferable, stainless steel would also work. Plastic would be okay. Do not use aluminum.
Once you've combined that zest and alcohol and sealed off the bottle, place it in a cupboard or somewhere out of the way. We'll come back and check on it in two weeks. You might want to make a little note on your calendar.
6/24/2007 First Look: Café Presse Café Presse opened about a minute ago and although I normally try to give places a little time before checking them out it just worked out that today was a good day to stop in for brunch. Well, at least it started to be a good day to check it out - that was until I left at about noon, needed to get down to the waterfront and then realized that 4th Avenue was shut all the way through the city for the Gay Pride Parade! Frustrating! Although I did finally get where I was going about 45 minutes later than planned!
Okay, but back to Café Presse. R and I met there at 11:00 to check it out. Café Presse is owned by the same folks who own Le Pichet. If you've been to Le Pichet when you look at this menu it will feel very familiar. Not the same exactly, there are a few dishes that appear on both menus, but it's mostly just the French café feel that comes across on both menus.
The layout of the front room is also very similar with a dozen or so seats at the bar which is separated from the tables by a metal divider to satisfy the Liquor Board people. The front room faces East and was very pleasant with the sun drifting in this morning. Café Presse also has a nice backroom, suitable for larger groups, and I think it would be very cozy in the evening hours.
It's a little early to tell but it could be that the service will be similar, too. As I've mentioned before I always find the servers at Le Pichet to be just a bit distracted. They don't seem to really be able to focus on any one table or request for too long. I never eat there if I'm in a hurry as I've just learned that you need to relax and go with the flow. I like the place a lot so it's just the trade-off I've come to expect. Anyway, Café Presse was not too busy this morning but I have the feeling that if they get jammed, as Le Pichet often does, then the same thing will happen here - very nice people will greet you and then sort of forget about you for a little while and that cycle will be repeated a few times during your meal.
 After ordering beverages - tea for me and a latte for R - we settled in to wait for our meals which arrived fairly quickly. R had gone with Oeufs plats (which is also on the Le Pichet menu) and was just as good here as there. I tried something new, Croque Campagnnarde, an open sandwich with hard sausage, Gruyère and tomatoes. Although it didn't really look quite as I'd imagined it was very good. For me, the ingredient that really made it was the thin layer of mustard.
 Café Presse is named as it is as they carry a selection of international newspapers and several handsome, artsy magazines. In fact, they apparently can print newspapers to order! We did not test this offering but have no reason to believe they could not do as they say.
This is another nice addition to 12th Avenue, which is fast becoming one of my favorite places for interesting little places.
 Café Presse 1117 12th Avenue
Capitol Hill
Seattle
206.709.7674
 6/23/2007 "Cheese" Dinner The last couple of weeks have just flown by. Last weekend I had family members in town for four days and did a ton of cooking - which I loved! Cooking for big groups is always fun but does take a bit of time and recovery when you've done several big meals in a row. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos but I will tell you that for one of the lunches I cooked a whole copper rive sockeye and it was heavenly!
The family left Tuesday morning (one of my nephews had high school graduation on Monday night) and then I was busy getting the house back to normal and catching up on work. Then, last night, it was time for a "payback" dinner!
When I took the French Cheese Tasting course during the Seattle Cheese Festival, I had been riding on a friend's ticket when he came down sick. So M and I had decided that we'd do our own version of the tasting to let him get a an idea of what he missed. I changed it up a bit though and decided that we'd do some actual cheese tasting but in addition I"d do a light meal where everything was made with cheese.
 We started the evening on the deck with Gougères and Veuve Clicqout NV Rosé Champagne, a very French wine for our tasting. I "discovered" this champagne last October at a class at Gourmet Institute and immediately fell in love. Upon my return to Seattle I happened upon it one day while at Esquin and snatched up a bottle. While not priced for everyday drinking it's a very nice special bottle of champagne.
 We continued with our conversation on the deck and added blue cheese and walnut crostini drizzled with honey to the food options. Unfortunately, soon after the crostini the wind picked up and the clouds blocked the sun, just temporarily but long enough to chill my guests. So we moved inside.
 After a bit of a rest from the first two nibbles, I made the mushroom and egg dish that I'd had at the Harvest Vine class. It was very good! I love this dish as it really could be anything from breakfast to dinner and combines sweet and salty tastes with several textures for a delightful and comforting meal. By this time we'd switched to a couple of red wines, a lovely Bordeaux and a delightful Rhone, that C had contributed to the evening. Our final dish of the evening was a cheese plate with bread and cherries. We had our choice of Humboldt Fog (from M), St Agur (from C) and a triple cream, Delice de Bourgogne, which is actually more like butter than cheese!
We finally pushed away from the table somewhere around midnight. It was a fun, long and lingering meal. Quite lovely. 6/13/2007 WBW#34: Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon This month's Wine Blogging Wednesday is hosted by Catie at Through the Walla Walla Grapevine. With a blog name like that was there any doubt what her theme might be? Although she really wanted to limit the event to wines from Walla Walla she broadened it to all of Washington state as Walla Walla specific wines might be a little hard to find worldwide. And she chose Cabernet Sauvignon as the varietal we should select for this event.
Living in Washington state, Walla Walla wines are fairly easy for me to locate. Although it did mean a trip to my wine shop as I didn't think I happened to have one in my stash which occurred to me while I was out and about one day last week so I just decided to pick a bottle up to make sure. I figured it was the least I could do based on my location and Catie's hopes.
 The wine I picked up was Seven Hills 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, Walla Walla Valley, Seven Hills Vineyard. Seven Hills, established in 1988, is one of the original five wineries of the Walla Walla Valley. They make mostly Bordelais-style wines and produce less than 10,000 cases per year.This particular wine is a deep, deep garnet. The nose is of dried red fruit - plums and cherries were the first two that came to mind - and a little hint of raisin, too.
In the mouth the wine is silky and complex. The fruits are still present and there is a bit more of a berry taste but there are other deeper elements, maybe a little leather. I couldn't quite identify the specific element. There is a nice amount of acidity but it is not overwhelmingly tannic. The night I tasted I was just having a snack for dinner but I found it went well with my salami and cheese. :-) I really would have loved to drink this with a nice steak, though.
This wine needs a little time to open. I finished the bottle a day after I opened it and liked it even better than on the first day.
This wine retails for about $30 (my price was $29) and I think that is a fair price for the bottle.
All in all this was a lovely bottle of wine and one I'd be happy to purchase again. But next time I will plan to have a lovely grilled steak to enjoy along with it!
You'll be able to find a summary of all wines tasted in Catie's round-up. 6/12/2007 Fresh! I love fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice! Even better than fresh-squeezed orange juice - and I like it a lot! And I love Costco for their 15 pound bags of grapefruit that make it easy for me to enjoy this citrus treat on a daily basis.
6/11/2007 29th Dinner Club Meeting: The Herbfarm Cookbook Last night my dinner club group met for our 29th dinner! We are well into our 5th year now and I am happy to say still going strong - in fact maybe stronger than ever!
K was the host last night and for our theme she decided that we should all pick something from a cookbook she has but has not used too often. The cookbook is The Herbfarm Cookbook, the first cookbook written by Jerry Traunfeld, the chef for The Herbfarm located in Woodinville. It is a high-end restaurant where the focus is all on fresh, mostly local and the interesting flavors and uses of herbs. They have a huge garden (and have even added cottages - I guess so you can just fall into bed after consuming for several hours...) Dinners run $160 - $200 per person before tax and tip. They are normally 9 courses and that cost includes the wine pairings. Each night has a set menu, with variations only for vegetarians.
Note: In between the theme selection for our dinner and the actual dinner, Jerry Traunfeld announced his immanent departure from The Herbfarm. He has been with the restaurant since 1990 and is synonymous with the place. In fact I'm certain that many people were surprised to find that he wasn't the owner. Good news for Seattle is that he plans to open his own place. And, I'm guessing, that the reputation and menus he established at The Herbfarm will be continued with his replacement. Still, will it really be the same?
R started us off with herbal champagne cocktails. Made with Prosecco they were refreshingly light and sparkly. Along with our cocktail she served a soup for the starter course. I can't wait to make this soup on a warm summer's day. It was a cold soup made primarily with cucumber. A bit of green pepper added a little heat and Italian parsley, cilantro and mint were the herbs that added a tangy freshness.
 We took a short break while K seared the pork tenderloin on all sides and then placed it in the oven to finish. Once in the oven we gathered around the table to enjoy an Herbfarm salad. M had this course and was amazed to find that the recipe for a fairly simple salad was 6 pages long! The recipe is mostly an instructional chapter on how to select only the best greens, how to harvest them, which varieties will provide variety and interest and then the recipe for the dressing. There is an amazing amount of background information!
 Our main dish was an herb-crusted pork tenderloin, cooked until medium-rare and then topped with a red-pepper and hazelnut sauce. It was amazing! M2 had selected a decadent accompanying dish - a cheesy, herb polenta. Soft, warm and stringy with cheese it was a great contrast for the tenderloin.
 After all of that we lingered for some time at the table giving ourselves a bit of time to make room for dessert. I had dessert and decided to make a recipe that I'd wanted to try for quite some time - lavendar shortbread. Since one of our members is not crazy about lavendar I decided to make a second batch using one of Jerry's recommended substituions, Lemon Thyme. I loved this shortbread recipe! It's easy and the resulting cookie is a bit crispy but still tender.
 The cookbook suggested several ideas to serve along with the cookies. I toyed with making some sort of herbal ice-cream but just knew that we would all be pretty full by the time we got around to dessert. So I deciced to stick with a simpler recommendation, fresh fruit.
The raspberries were looking particularly good that day so I simply washed them, sprinkled them with a tiny bit of sugar, topped them with lightly sweetened whip cream and added a sprig of fresh mint for color and flavor for those who chose to eat it!
 Another succesful dinner and another night of friends and laughter! If you've been thinking about starting a cooking club now is the time to do it! I highly recommend it! You can read about how we got ours up and running and see past themes and menus by viewing the Cooking Club posts.
You can also see more photos here. 6/6/2007 Chocolate Chip Cookies I've been craving cookies for a couple of weeks. Finally broke down and made a batch last night. Nothing special - just regular old Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. But there's a reason they are a classic! Made mine with dark chocolate and pecans.
My craving has been satisfied and the bulk of them will go into the freezer for the next time I get an itch for a cookie!
 6/5/2007 In New York Often "New" is Old One of the places I love to frequent in New York is Balthazar. I know I've talked about it before so I won't go into great detail. On the Monday I was scheduled to fly out I was roaming the city on my own and decided to stop in for a late lunch. As is normal I sat at the bar and decided to order their version of Duck Confit. While sipping a glass of wine and relaxing the man next to me struck up a conversation. I was thrilled for two reasons - first this man was very handsome and he also saved me from the guy on the other side who seemed to be a bit unusual. Now you know I will talk to just about anyone anywhere but I had a feeling the unusual man was going to try even my social skills.
Luckily for me George, the handsome man, saved me. Not only was he handsome but he was very interesting. An ER pediatrician (sort of like the other George - you know, Clooney!), he had a slight accent which I learned was from a combination of living situations. He was most recently from Austria but his real background was Greek and there were a few other countries thrown in there in the middle. Well, the conversation soon turned to food (probably after I took a photo of my lunch...) and since he both lived and worked near Balthazar we talked about many of the places in the area.
 Just a quick summary of my lunch - yum! It occurred to me that I might want to be a bit reserved in my eating while talking to my new friend but that notion went out the door after the first bite! While I didn't finish the entire dish that was only because there was an amazing amount of food on my dish. And then he mentioned somewhere I didn't know, DiPalo's (if you follow the link scroll down the page just a bit). And how, although it was a tiny place, he often ended up in there for an hour or so between waiting in line and then sampling everything the owners wanted him to taste. He told me a bit more about it and where it was located and I decided I had to check it out before I left town.
So we said our goodbyes - dang it! - and then I made my way to this new, old place. It was just a small place, as many New York shops are, but it was packed to the gills with all kinds of things that called my name. Not only were there stacks of cheese everywhere you looked, but there was also prosciutto and salami, pastas and sauces and I'm sure if I had looked longer and harder I could have found all kinds of little Italian treasure tucked in the corners.
The owner was working the counter and after I told him that I wouldn't be buying anything that day but explained that I was scouting it out for my next trip to town, he started telling me the whole history of the shop, handing me postcards sporting photos of his Grandmother standing outside the shop in the early days as well as more recent photos of the shop!
I liked the shop, I liked the owner and I would certainly like to go back next time I'm in New York. And I'll do it early in my trip so that I can buy a few things to sample during my visit. And I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that George just happens to be shopping the day I stop by.
DiPalo's
206 Grand Street (near Mott)
Little Italy
Manhattan
212.226.1033
4,5,6 to Canal
Balthazar
80 Spring Street (corner of Crosby)
Soho
Manhattan
212.965.1785
4,5,6 to Spring
 Basil - The Sweet Smell of Summer Thai, Purple Ruffles and Italian Sweet Basil
I know that fresh basil is pretty much available year-round now in the markets. And I purchase it throughout the year. Still having my own basil plant right outside my back door is a summer pleasure that I look forward to. Temperamental little plants, they need temperatures above 50° F at all times to thrive. So in my area, May is the earliest we can plant it outdoors.
Last night my kitchen was filled with the wonderful sweet-spicy fragrance of this gorgeous herb. I wasn't cooking with it but simply needed to pinch back my plants to they wouldn't get too leggy. I'll keep all those little pinched off sprigs and dry them for use next winter if they don't get used fresh in the next day or so. If nothing else just inhaling the fragrance is enough to make me happy! Things Are Growing! My little garden - such as it is - is pretty much planted for this year. Among other things, I grow a few peppers in pots on my deck. This year I'm growing Ancho/Poblano, Corno di Torno and Thai Dragons. I may add one more variety but really I already have more than I need. The Thai Dragon (above) is already showing off little babies. I love this plant - it seems to always be very prolific and the peppers are one of my favorites. They dry really well. And while they are very hot if you add just a little to any dish it will just add a little extra dimension of interest without really adding heat. At least not that you are aware of.
6/3/2007 Menu for a Winery Concert Last night we kicked off the summer concert season in style! First, the weather did its part which was so wonderful! When we entered the concert grounds at Ste Michelle Winery the temperature was in the mid-80s, the sun shining brightly and the air stayed warm for most of the evening.
Harry Connick Jr was our entertainment and I only wished he had played a bit longer as we really weren't ready to leave as they finished the last encore. It was a great night and one I hope we are able to repeat several times this summer.
A little hint if you haven't been out to Ste Michelle before; although they sell wine within the concert grounds they normally only offer four or so options. And what they offer is great but sometimes you just want something a little different. Instead, go into the tasting room where you can purchase from their entire offering of wines. For last night's event we started with a Sauvignon Blanc - which I think is a perfect warm weather wine; then we moved on to the Columbia Valley Merlot and ended with the Cold Creek Syrah.
Here's the menu with photos following!
Winery Concert Feast
Mixed Nuts and Pub Snack Mix (to keep everyone happy while the rest of the meal is assembled)
Smoked Salmon with thinly, sliced red onions; capers; and cream cheese on crackers
Charcuterie Plate with Cornichons, Olives and Truffle Mustard
Fresh Baby Carrots and Radishes
Cheese Platter with Bread, Apples and Apricots
Dark Chocolate Truffles
        6/1/2007 New York: 'inoteca Our third stop of the night, was my very favorite! 'inoteca (not to be confused with Mario Batali's Otto Enoteca) is a warm, lively, inviting spot also on the Lower East Side and located on Rivington.
When we walked in, the place was packed with people waiting all over the place for seating. We decided to take our chances as they were happy to serve us a beverage while we were waiting for a place to open. And it turned out that a projected 45 minute wait was only about 10 minutes!
  We got a place at the bar and were able to talk with the very knowledgeable and friendly bartender. 'inotoeca's wine list is exclusively Italian wines and the bartender was great at helping us negotiate our way through both the familiar and unfamiliar options. Something I really liked was that you could order wines by the taste, glass or carafe and then there was also a very extensive list of wines by the bottle (like 500 options!). And we found the bartender more than willing to just pour us a little sip to try something before ordering it.
 For my money, 'inoteca has the perfect type of menu: small plates, meats and cheeses form the bulk of it, although there is also a nice selection of salads and sandwiches to choose from. I love eating this way as it's easy to try several things and experience a wide range of tastes without getting stuffed.
For our wines I went with a Montepulciano and M tried a Nebbiolo. We also decided to try Suppli, risotto balls filled with mushroom and cheese and alla toscana & rucola tramezzini, the small finger sandwiches of Italy. Both plates were amazing! As we were sitting there we were also watching other plates being taken out to the tables and often our gaze would follow one all the way out to it's owner as we tried to figure out what it was. More than once that evening a friendly diner offered us a bite of their meal, although we declined as we had pretty much reached our limit for the evening.
At least I had. M ordered an Affogato to end her meal. Affogato is basically vanilla ice cream "drowned" in espresso or kind of a coffee float. It looked delicious and she said it was!
I really loved this place for so many reasons: the menu; the people - both the staff and the other customers; the overall feeling of warmth and welcome; and the lively atmosphere of it all. This is the kind of place that I would go out of my way to get to. And I'm sure on some upcoming trip I will do just that!
'inoteca vino e cucina
98 Rivington st (at Ludlow)
Lower East Side
Manhattan
212.614.0473
F, J, M, Z, to Delancey St. at Essex St
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