Look into the whites of their eyes

Meet my new friends-- the Dorade fish, a Mediterranean sea bream that has a nice, delicate texture and flavor that pairs well with just about anyything. I came upon it accidentally, when I was looking for the Bronzino, a similar, highly coveted Mediterranean fish, that is sold at the new seafood emporium at Santa Monica Seafood.


Grilled whole Dorade with bacon, sage, roasted garlic sauce.

A whole fresh fish is best when prepared simply; enjoyed most with intimate friends who take pleasure in making sport out of picking away at the sweet flesh around the bones.

Bacon, Roasted Sage and Garlic Sauce:

To make bacon, sage, garlic sauce:

In a ramekin or oven safe dish combine whole garlic loves, whole sage leaves, and EVOO.

Roast in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the entire kitchen smells like garlic and sage.

Chop bacon into 1 inch pieces and render the fat, until the bacon starts to become crispy. Pour off about half the bacon fat and add some chopped shallots. When the shallots become soft, and the kitchen smells amazing, add the roasted garlic and sage, and a few tablespoons of the sage garlic oil, reserving the rest to brush onto the fish. Before turning off the heat hit your bacon, sage, garlic sauce with a squeeze of lemon (preferably Meyer lemon), chopped parsley and coarse ground pepper, and salt if needed.

Grilling the Fish:

Rinse fish and pat dry.

Brush with roasted garlic and sage oil

Season with salt and pepper (not too much salt as the bacon sauce is already salty)

Grill on each side for about 3 minutes

Top the fish with bacon, roasted garlic & sage sauce.

Game Over

Thanks for playing along with me readers, I enjoyed your guesses from fish intestines to roasted slugs. This was a roasted sage and garlic oil that was created for a fun dinner with My friends, Danielle and Teddy, who were visiting from Miami. It filled the entire kitchen up with the most amazing smells. Here's a tip: When you have guests coming for dinner, sizzle your garlic and onions, or roasted some herbs and garlic in the oven so that the whole house smells warm, and enticing.

Can you guess what this is?

Cult Coffee Alert!

Don't want to get mixed up in the McDonalds versus Starbucks coffee debate? I don't blame you. Bay area caffeine addicts are hooked on Blue Bottle Coffee, which I discovered at the Berkeley Farmer' s Market a few weeks ago. Their organic beans are roasted in small batches and sold within 48 hours of coming out of the roaster, so you're guaranteed to get a truly fresh cup of java. You can order their Chez Panisse house blend or their popular Bella Donna coffee on their website.



Watching coffee drip is like watching performance art, and the smells will transport you to a warm and happy place!

Happy New Year!

What a relief! 2009 is finally here and I am hopeful that this will be a fresh start from the ups and downs of the past year. The dismal economy and ongoing wars around the world has been on my mind. Now this year I don't have a resolution but more of a mission statement on how I want to live my life. My goal is to spend my valuable time here on this earth doing the things that I love: reading, writing, cooking, gardening, doing yoga, and spending time connecting with my loved ones. These are the things that make me truly happy and make me feel alive.

In keeping with this spirit, I decided to make my sweetheart a nice dinner for a quiet, restful New Year's Eve. Beside, I was bursting at the seams to try out all my new cooking gear that he got me for Christmas! I'm sure he had this in mind when he picked out my new Global vegetable knife.



I was in the mood for surf n' turf so I decided to make my version of steak au poivre with Maine lobster tail. We got our lobster at the Ranch 99 Asian Market ($12/lb) in Van Nuys, which has a great selection of fresh seafood at reasonable prices.



Two 1.5 lb lobsters were steamed. See my post on How to Kill A Lobster humanely. I stab the nervous system (about 1 inch from eyes) before putting into pot.

To go with the lobster tail I created a jalapeno citron buerre blanc, which is essential a butter and citrus sauce.



I just read a study that said marinating meats for at least an hour reduced the carcinogens by half. These filets were coated in a mixture of fresh rosemary, hand-ground pepper, garlic, olive oil and salt and left to marinate for an hour before hitting the iron hot grill.


Maine Lobster tail with Jalapeno citron buerre blanc, and Minnie's Filet Au Poivre

Trip Notes

Cambridge/Boston

Just returned from a whirlwind trip back to the East Coast where I had many fun adventures and wonderful family times. In spite of two back-to-back blizzards I did manage to reconnect with some Boston food scenesters like my dear friend Chris Young, and Matthew Curtis, who hosted us for a nice glass of wine by his fireplace. I was most intrigued when he showed us his "cheese cave" packed with brightly colored tins of the cult cheese made by Washington State University. Look out for the new Harvard Square restaurant venture from Curtis and his partners, which will be located in the former Greenhouse space, it's sure to be a highlight of 2009!



I met Chef Rachel Klein, who heads the kitchen at Aura restaurant in the Seaport Hotel. Klein, who was formerly the Chef at Om Lounge in Cambridge, was impressive and I intend on following her career to see where she lands next.

I made it to Vanessa and Rebecca Alssid's house for a lovely dinner by the firelight. I love going to dinner at their house because they always finish a meal with a beautiful cheese plate. We sampled a hulking block of Parmesan Reggiano that was hand delivered from Italy; a decadent truffle cheese; and wonderful cheese from Vermont that I must track down.



Stomach Alert: I have a new favorite breakfast spot called Sofra, in Watertown. Yet another fabulous eatery from the visionaries behind Oleana, my favorite Cambridge restaurant. Get the Turkish Breakfast, which features a soft boiled egg deep fried in crispy fideos alongside an pitch perfect tomato sauce with toasted sesame seeds. It will really challenge the way you think about eggs for breakfast.

Providence



Thanks to Facebook I organized a little mini reunion with friends that date back to elementary, junior high and high school at Temple, a stylish, subterranean bar and lounge located in the Rennaisance Hotel directly across from the Rhode Island state house.



With my family we feasted in our annual Christmas dinner of Thai seafood hotpot. Every year we all look forward to this communal meal, where everyone takes part in filling the lemongrass and kaffir lime scented hotpot with fresh seafood, (some of which my father actually caught off the coast of Rhode Island) fragrant herbs, napa cabbage and water spinach.

Pittsburgh

On to Pittsburgh, where I finally got my fill of good Italian cooking thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Silver's collaborative meatball dinner. Oh how I love a good meatball!

I went to the famous Primanti Brothers for their legendary sandwich filled with french fries, coleslaw and your choice of meat. Too big for my slender jowels, but it's a Pittsburgh institution.

We practically had to fight to get a booth at Fiori's Pizzaria but it was worth the wait. Thick, crusty, and generous with the toppings, Fiori's is the kind of East Coast pie I crave out here in Southern California.



Down to the Strip District where I salivated over the bounty of specialty food shops from the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company, which had huge drums of olive oils, those highly coveted Bella San Marzano canned plum tomatoes, and a cheese counter full of wonderous delights. I made a pit stop to pick up some spices at the Penzeys shop, including, aleppo pepper, Za'atar, a Middle eastern mix of sumac, thyme, sesame, and salt, Tuscan oregano, and an assortment of dried peppers. I like to mix my Za'atar with oregano and sprinkle it on pita bread with olive oil and salt before it goes into a warm oven. An easy and satisfying snack!



We picked up some fresh oysters at Wholey's and though we didn't pack an oyster knife, we somehow managed to pry them open. We taught Nick Silver how to shuck oysters and watched him as he tasted his first bivalve.

I can't believe all of the good eating I've experienced in the last few weeks!

Adventures in Latkes

I think I must be a Jewish Grandmother trapped in a Vietnamese Buddhist's body. The sound of Yiddish is music to my ears and I have been known to crave chopped liver. But above all else I love making and eating latkes!

I like to make my latkes with a mixture of sweet potatoes and russet potatoes to give it color and more of those good vitamins. Served with light sour cream and applesauce, these latkes make a festive, easy-to-create party treat or snack.

To Make Latkes:

2 large sweet potato, grated by hand or in a food processor
1 large russet or Yukon Gold or Russet potato, grated by hand or in a food processor
1 medium white onion, grated by hand or in a food processor

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup flour
salt
pepper
pinch of cumin
olive oil, for frying

1. Combine all ingredients except oil into a bowl and mix well.
2. Heat frying oil on nonstick pan.
3. Using a 1/8 cup measure spoon mixture into frying pan. Flatten mixture with a spatula to form a small cake.
4. Fry latkes in batches for 2 minutes on each side, or until golden.
5. Place on paper plates to drain oil, and season with salt if needed.
6. Serves with applesauce and sour cream.

Gifting: Homemade Peppermint Bark

Peppermint Bark is my holiday eating downfall. During the holidays there are nights that I cannot fall asleep knowing that there is Peppermint Bark in the house. Last Christmas, while I was in the middle of finishing up my book, I caught myself thinking, there's no way that I ate that whole tin of Peppermint Bark. I frantically searched the entire house for the missing bark only to find the final piece hidden in a mountain of papers on my desk. Use your imagination to figure out how happy I was.

Tonight I'm headed to my friend, Chef Erik Fischer's house for a holiday party. I have a rule never to turn down an invitation to a Chef's house, and so far it's served me well. If you want to be popular among chefs and lay-people, do make your own edible holiday gifts, like some of this homemade Peppermint Bark. Be sure to put it in a nice box and present it like the special gift that it is.



To Make Peppermint Bark:

Try to buy the finest chocolate that you can afford. Use chocolate chips or discs to avoid the messy task of having to chop up the hard chocolate bars. I got some Callebut Belgian chocolate discs from Surfas.

1/2 pound of dark chocolate chips

1/2 pound of white chocolate chips

1-2 teaspoons of peppermint extract

1/4 cup crushed candy canes or peppermint candies

nonstick spray

wax paper

1. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray and line with wax paper. Spray more nonstick spray on top of the wax paper. Set aside.
2. In a double boiler melt the dark chocolate until the chocolate comes off your spatula in a nice stream.
3. Pour dark chocolate onto cookie sheet, using your spatula to spread a thin, even layer.
4. Rest the melted dark chocolate in the freezer for 5 minutes.
5. In a double boiler melt the white chocolate and peppermint extract. Take out the frozen dark chocolate sheet.
6. Pour white chocolate on top of the frozen dark chocolate, gently spreading into a thin, even, coat.
7. Sprinkle crush candy canes all evenly over the top of the melted white chocolate and freeze.
8. When the bark is completely frozen, remove from the freezer and remove the wax paper.
9. Using a sharp, knife, cut the bark into chunks.
10. Place the bark into a nice box, tin, or cello candy bag.

Thanksgiving Wrap Up

I was blessed to be invited to a lovely Thanksgiving dinner in Beverly Hills, where good friends, old and new, gathered to enjoy a beautiful meal in a gorgeous setting. It was a perfect way to spend my first Thanksgiving in LA.

Our hosts, Richard and Jeff, had a glass of Champagne in my hands within 30 seconds of our arrival. Now that's the mark of a truly good host, to make everyone comfortable and at ease from the moment you cross the threshold.

My contribution to the dinner was an assortment of shellfish, which went perfectly with the bubbles-- oysters, shrimp cocktail, crab dip, and my aromatic marinated mussels.




Shucking is so much fun.


Festive oysters with cucumber water and pickled cranberries


Mussels marinated with lime juice, ginger, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, and a touch of coconut milk


The delicious spread


Lighting the candles was a communal effort, since there were so many to create that beautiful candlelight which casts everyone in a good light. The peonies were eye popping and in full bloom!



I missed out on all of these great vintages because I was enjoying a post-prandial nap, but the rest of the gang thoroughly enjoyed them.


Having a Martha Stewart moment.