Bacon and Butter

Sharing another foodie escapade story, this time I went on the adventure with my husband. "Bacon and Butter" the name doesn't sound appetizing and was not on my list of restaurant to visit even though I see it often on my drive around town. My husband had heard good things about it and we were looking to try something different so we decided to stop by.

The décor was clean and industrial but not overtly so and even though it has the diner vibe to it, there is a very different energy in this place. There is a parking lot next to it and the wait wasn't too long.

 

The menu was single paged and from the dishes offered you could tell it was very seasonal.
DH ordered Billy Club, chicken breast, jalapeno aioli, bacon, avocado, lettuce and mozzarella cheese along with fries, which was finger link potatoes sliced in half and cooked in fresh butter. I try to avoid white bread but after a bite of that sandwich and potato fries, I was ready to order a second lunch. There is something absolutely heavenly about butter and all things cooked in butter.

I ordered a very healthy seasonal greens salad with fresh sliced and grilled asparagus. It was served with poached egg and grilled cheese (possibly burrata cheese coated with parmesan). It was so fresh and delicious that I was convinced that it can not be as healthy as the other salads I have been eating all these while.

Needless to say, we were impressed by the freshness of ingredients and the unique preparations. We started talking to our server and was blown away. He was passionate about the food he served us, he knew the farms where our food grew, their locations and their owners. The way he conveyed all that information, you could tell its not a marketing tactic, he totally has bought into the farm to fork movement and takes great pride in it.

The last wind that blew us over the top was that the check was brought in an old book. What a wonderful reuse of these old books and best thing, you could totally browse the book while you wait for your server to process your check.

When I went in the restaurant, the name 'bacon and butter' conjured up an image in my mind and as I was leaving it, that image was completely changed. Such a great experience, wonderful fresh food and people who believe in sourcing and cooking from the best local ingredients.

My first time trying El Salvadorian cuisine...

Birds of a feather...
I'm so fortunate to be able to connect with my foodie co-workers, so here's sharing another food adventure story. I call myself an adventurous eater and have tried quite a variety of cuisine but every so often, I come across that I never knew existed and I'm humbled. I guess, I don't know what I don't know until I know about it...

One of my south American friend asked me if I'd be interested in trying El Salvadorian food. We had been working out on the field all morning so a sandwich and iced coffee in the shade of a tree would have been good but actual real food in an air-conditioned restaurant seemed like heaven and could not be refused.

Platano's grill was off interstate I-5 along the frontage road in Lathrop in San Joaquin Valley. I'm pretty sure, I'd not have picked this place on my own but now that I know about it, I'll take my family there.  

These in the picture above are Pastelitos our appetizer. It has a pastry dough shell, filled with chicken and veggies and is deep fried. Really yummy and even though I've had the combination of these ingredients, the flavor was very distinct. I'd recommend sharing as the amount of oil that was soaked in the shell was very evident.



This is what our main course looked like as we started to dig into our food. The small round stuffed bread are called Pupusa. It is flour dough bread cooked on a skillet and comes filled with a variety of flavors. We ordered Chicken and cheese, cheese and vegetable, cheese and beans and cheese and loroco (edible flower from Mexico). They were all extremely fresh and wonderful. I have tried pupusa before (not knowing that its el Salvadorian food) with corn flour dough and I liked those better for the nutty corn flavor but these were so fresh off the skillet that I didn't even remember the other kind till much later.
The black rice dish is Casamiento which is black bean and rice dish and is close to flavor as the rice and (red) beans but the black beans were much firmer and held their distinct taste.
One the on right is Platano (Plantain) served with sour table cream. The plantains were caramelized without any additional flavor and I really liked that. Usual flavoring of cinnamon and sugar makes it too artificial in taste, this was subtle flavor and went very well with the table sour cream.

The cabbage dish is called curtido, to me if felt like a cross between coleslaw and kimchi. Cabbage, carrots and onions are marinated in some vinegar based dressing and has a strong flavor of oregano but the veggies are still crisp and fresh. They served us a jar of it and we promptly gulped it down... one must eat their veggies, right?

We loved their salsa as well. It has robust roasted pepper flavor and was very spicy.
All in all, a wonderful food experience and even though it is a little out of the way from Sacramento, it would be a good family stop as you are heading into or out of town for vacation.

Mother... - restaurant review

Food, nurturing and sustenance seems so synonymous with mother (or parent) that even if an adult is talked to in a patronizing motherly (parentally) tone he or she is going to give in, specially when it comes to delicious food.

My friend chose this restaurant 'Mother' located on K street between 10th and 11th street and even before I entered to meet my friend, I saw this board and I knew its a perfect place to eat food and besides, someone please tell me, how do I refuse to go in after reading that sign...

Vegetarian cooking - Eggplant dishes

For this Friday's foodie talk, I'd like to talk about vegetables; eggplant to be a little more specific.

I know, vegetables aren't looked upon very favorably specially here in America. So I decided to break it up, introduce some eastern spices into the mix and present a few variety of vegetarian eggplant dishes.

1) Eggplant curry: It can be prepared in several different combinations, with potatoes and tomatoes, or bell peppers. Overcooked eggplant provides a good creamy consistency to the gravy and can be a good accompaniment to other vegetables or beans.

Rounding up the Figs!

Its Fig season in northern California and there are some good figs starting to appear in the local farmers market. And you know it's been really busy at work lately so haven't had a chance to visit a good eatery last few weeks. Team lunches these days are sandwiches and salads from the corner deli and while its good for sustenance but not worthy of a blog post. So, here I am talking about Figs from the local Farmer's market.  

First time trying Poke at Fish Face

I was in the middle of an important conversation when my tummy rumbled (it was almost lunch time) and my kind boss suggested we carry the discussion over lunch. She asked what am I in the mood for and I commented anything is good, salads, Japanese food or whatever she might want.

She snapped her fingers and said I have a perfect place for you, lets go for Japanese salad, Poke. I had not tried Poke before but I'm up for trying new food so it was decided that we'll go to Fish Face Poke Bar located at the Warehouse Artist Lofts in Sacramento historic district. Fish Face is a poke restaurant that offers a variety of fresh seafood salads and hand rolls with vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options on the menu.

Love the mural on Wall at WAL

The best part about Fist Face is that they use locally sourced and sustainable ingredients, and use products that are recyclable and compostable.

Wouldn't world be a better place if we only took what we need now and not for the perceived need of the future...

I picked, make your own salad option and it included Ahi Tuna, Octopus, Spicy Kimchi Ponzu, Daikon sprouts, Mango, white and green onions with Hiyashi Wakame Seaweed. They had local beer and Sake on the menu as well but it being a work day I didn't want to drink so I'll have to try that another time. Speaking of Sake, we recently went sake tasting and absolutely loved it, should share that experience soon.

I loved my poke salad, it was simple, fresh and full of flavor. I would definitely go back. My boss had a similar salad to mine and loved her salad, this is her favorite poke place anyways.

With the Sacramento mural festival going on (my previous post) and the pleasant weather this weekend accompanied by Poke salad would be a perfect outing to downtown Sacramento.

 

Apricot preserves: to peel or not to peel…

It was the peak of Apricot season a few weeks ago and since then farmers markets are flooded with them. Producers trying to sell them all, before they overripe and consumers trying to eat, freeze and preserve them for fall and winter.

Once we decided that we’d like to make preserves from our golden apricots, the big decision was whether to peel them first or just chop them up. After some internet research and some peel tasting to make sure the peel wasn’t hard and didn’t leave a bitter after taste, we decided to skip peeling and go straight to chopping and blending.

Pronto –Fresh Italian cuisine…

One of the joys of life for me is sharing food and drinks with friends and family, and being a foodie I love good food, home cooked or not. Most places that I have worked at, have always been good about making Fridays a little slow with more emphasis on team building and of course, team lunches.

So I thought, why not start a virtual Friday lunch with all my friends and co-worker that I left behind in Minnesota and some that are now spread all over the world.

To start with let’s visit Pronto, on the corner of 16^th and O Street in downtown Sacramento. Summer is still young and vibrant in the Golden State and that means fresh produces and delectable salads are what’s appealing to me.

I loved the fresh ingredients and unexpected combinations of flavors on the menu.

 

I had Caribbean Salmon Salad with spiced salmon, mango, red peppers, chopped pecans, goat cheese served with poppy seed dressing. The fried but not battered salmon provided perfect punch of flavor to the mixed greens. Mango added an unexpected burst of sweetness and tanginess complimented by crunch of pecans that are definitely healthier than croutons and of course nothing speaks summer flavor more loudly that the chevre (goat cheese).

All in all, a wonderful combination of ingredients and well proportioned. Easy to re-create at home and light enough for a lunch at work.

My friend tried the Farmer’s Market salad and she loved it. Her favorite thing on the salad was corn croutons which was served on a bed of mixed lettuce, roasted chicken, corn, avocado, tomatoes, dates, goat cheese and almond served with tarragon dressing. Again the flavors were well balanced but most importantly the ingredients were all farm fresh.

We both agreed that we’ll be back at this restaurant again…

Chicken Biryani recipe

Chicken biryani is one of the simplest meals that I make. This one pot meal combines grain (Rice) and protein (Chicken) in one dish and has its roots somewhere in the persian culture. I have had versions of this dish in Iranian restaurants and it often comes up in discussion with my Turkish friends as well but I think the turkish recipe calls for a lot of mint.
So, what prompted me to share this recipe today? Well, as I was making this dish the other day I was reminded of my friend that I left behind in Minnesota and she had asked me to post it on my blog possibly several years ago. Now that I am severely nostalgia driven, it was easy to take pictures as I cooked and served and publish it in a post…it took almost no time, Oh! the power of emotions.

Here's the recipe and cooking process through pictures:
Collect a few whole pieces of each - jeera, fennel (saunf) seeds, black pepper, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, black cardamom, cloves, dried red chillies (optional) in a mortar and pestle and crush them gently enough to break the pods but retain the shape.

 In a marinating glass bowl, add skinless chicken pieces (12-15 medium sized), salt, chilli powder, jeera powder, coriander powder, whole spice mix from the previous step and a couple table spoon of yogurt. Toss everything and set aside. This step can be done ahead and chicken can marinate for 8-10 hours/ overnight in the fridge.

When ready for cooking, add finely chopped onions to hot oil in a heavy bottom pan. After the onions are cooked to slightly pink, add fresh ginger and garlic. I like my ginger and garlic chopped but my daughter hates chunky pieces of ginger so if I have extra time or if I'm cooking for little people, I add ginger paste instead.
Also wash and soak rice in a separate bowl, I measure about 1/3-1/4 cup uncooked rice per person depending on the other accompaniments/appetizers.

Once the onions have released all its water, add the chicken from the marinade bowl and hold the liquid back.

Cook chicken first on high heat and then on low heat to evaporate all water and release oil from the masala. You can see it at the edges when the clear oil makes sort of a rim. You should see some crisp/browned edges on the chicken pieces by now.

Drain the water from the rice and add it to the chicken and masala in the pan. Toss to make sure rice is evenly distributed. Add water and close the lid. Usually proportion of rice and water is 1 rice:2 water but if you can cooking in a pressure cooker like I am this time, the rice and water ratio is 1:1. This is a good time to add the marinading liquid along with water (follow same proportions).  

I cook most meals in a pressure cooker since its fast but if I am cooking biryani for a larger gathering, I'd use a cast iron pan and pop it in the oven at this point with other things. The oven temperature can be anything from 350F- 420F, it is decided by what else's in the oven; just check often to make sure the rice is not over cooked. For pressure cooker, close the heat after one whistle and let the steam slowly release as it cooks the rice in about 10-15 additional minutes.

Serve… 

Note: I usually don't add haldi (Turmeric) to the biryani masala but on this day I must have. In our household turmeric is the miracle recovery ingredient and after a day of intense physical activity, the girls like to drink hot milk with a teaspoon of haldi (turmeric) and lot of honey. This could have been one of those days when we needed an added boost. 

Gelataria - Venchi

Beautiful thing about taking too many pictures while on a trip is the longer duration required to process them and every single time you revisit those memories, its like a 'staycation'.

I apologize for taking longer to share my Italy trip pictures and intermingling with other posts but I am planning to create a link in the side bar that would show all the Italy pictures and posts at a glance. Till then just go to labels and pick Italy from the list for a series of all Italy related posts. 

Now coming back to the topic, Gelato, as I said before, fueled us during our whirlwind trip through the towns of Italy. Gelato is available at every street corner in a small shops along with café and water and they all carry very similar flavors, strawberry, pistachio, vanilla, chocolate, espresso, hazelnut… etc. Almost every city we went to we tried Gelato and they were all refreshingly delightful but this particular shop remains vivid in my memory.

Rosemary and Garlic Potatoes

This side dish is an off-shoot of my all time favorite dish to make specially on a weekday. I used to make Chicken with Rosemary and Garlic along with baby potatoes until one summer when my parents were visiting us and I had to tweak the recipe for my Mom who is a staunch vegetarian. 

It is very simple to make and I have tried making it on stove top as well by sautéing the potatoes.

Here is the recipe in pictures for making it in the oven.

Wash the baby potatoes and make slits in them. Usually I don't take the time and slice them in twos or fours depending upon the size but following the post about these potatoes in the blog, a beautiful mess, I made parallel cuts instead. It was a time consuming process but the presentation made it worth the time.

I warmed up in the microwave, a stick of butter and added some rosemary, minced garlic and salt & pepper to it.

I rubbed the butter mixture on the individual potatoes with the help of a brush and laid them in an un-greased roasting dish.

I let them bake in the oven for almost an hour at 425 deg F until they were done. In the hind sight I think starting out I should have covered them in aluminium foil for the first half. It took a little longer than usual but in the end turned out good.

It was a wonderful side dish and everyone enjoyed it.

Give it a try and let me know.

Grilled Brussels Sprout

I am sharing a vegetarian recipe from my Thanksgiving dinner today. I am not a Tofurkey fan or basically anything that I cannot recreate at home with some effort or if it is made to look like what it’s not; but I wanted my vegetarian guests to have plenty of options and some which would require carving as well to get the full effect of a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

Brussels sprout was part of the original menu but I was going to use my usual recipe of steaming and then sauteing with spices and fresh herbs. Surprisingly we found a whole branch of Brussels sprout at our local Trader Joe’s and DH suggested that I should maintain its integrity and that's what I did when I grilled the whole thing in my oven.

Here’s the process with some visuals:

1) Rinse the branch of Brussels Sprout.

2)Prick them individually with a metal toothpick.

3) Mix in a separate bowl some black pepper and salt with extra virgin olive oil and brush thoroughly over each globule.

4) Wrap it in a foil and put it in the oven at 425 deg F for about 45-50 minutes. The foil helps dissipate the heat evenly and retains the moisture but if the sprouts are kept too close to the heating element, It would be wise to turn them after 20-25 minutes and check the progress.

5) Serve the whole branch as a side with a sharp knife so that the consumer gets the satisfaction of carving it.

It was a good option with the kids as well since the vegetable was served in an unusual way and enticed them to try it. Enjoy!

Of Public Policy, Road-trips and Pies

post courtesy DH

And here we don't mean pie charts depicting income distribution or mix of fuels for energy. We really mean an actual, honest-to-God dessert - a walnut-cranberry torte to be precise - whose name itself conjures up deliciousness.

So what does public policy have to do with dessert one might wonder - quite a bit, as was the case here. Sometimes a foodie arduously pursues his objective - a feast of the senses - by direct action, while at other times, the hand of fate guides him to it. 

We contend that it was fate which made us enroll for a course in Energy Policy, because the real reward for all the toils wasn't a grade, nor even the knowledge of BTUs or Regulatory Federalism, but a rather fine recipe for the pie - which didn't get revealed until the very end of the course.

Jeweled Cranberries

I got the recipe for jeweled cranberries from a co-worker and he even brought little samples of them for me to try and I decided to make jeweled cranberries instead of my cranberries chutney for the Thanksgiving Dinner.

I modified the recipe just a little bit to suit our taste buds, decreased the amount of sugar, omitted cinnamon and chose to not add water but increased the quantity of orange juice.  So the recipe below reflects what I used exactly. 

While exchanging recipes with friends, I realized that original recipe is very popular and the cooking can be done in microwave as well, but since I haven’t experimented with it, I’ll not offer any variations for that.

I made two batches of it, first one exactly followed the recipe, in the second one I skipped the orange juice but didn't add any extra water and it was still moist and juicy. 

As soon as they were out of the oven I poured them into mason jars and allowed it to cool and gel in the containers I was planning to serve it in. I labeled the jars promptly and to the jar which held non-orange juice cranberries, I added 2 tablespoon of Brandy while it was still warm. Now you know why labeling was so important, because one jar was meant for kids and I didn't want cross contamination.    

Both jars were well received at the dinner, of course the one with brandy went down faster. I think this recipe will replace the cranberry chutney for a little bit because it is a dish that we continued to enjoy with breakfast and at dessert too. I stored them in fridge and they last well over 6 weeks. By then we finished them, not that they were getting spoiled or anything.

It was consumed and devoured atop homemade clotted cream on whole wheat crisp rolls for breakfast with coffee.

More on the dessert coming soon…

Since I have a lot of things that need to be shared, I am trying to come up with a plan to share in an organized manner.  I’ll try to share my kitchen experiments on Wednesdays, if things get busier and then we’ll reevaluate but for now I’ll plan on it; and if you are reader that enjoys my kitchen posts then you’ll know Wednesday/ Thursday (based on your time zone) is when a new culinary experience will pop up on this blog (fingers crossed).

Eiffel Tower Cake

I love it when my girls ask me to bake birthday cakes for them. When they were young I tried to get their cakes made at the local bakery but as soon as they were old enough to have an opinion they always opted for me to bake the cake for the party. I think it has less to do with my baking skills and more about the chocolate connoisseur they have become; they love a rich chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache.

Dark Chocolate covered Marshmallow…

We are a Chocolate and Marshmallow loving family. Remember my post about Indoor Smores… I think chocolate can turn any dull moment around. This Dark Chocolate covered marshmallow dish was one of the favorite snack at my daughter's birthday party.  It was probably the most easiest too.