Make every bite count: adventures in food, recipes, eating out & love
Ever wanted to know how restaurants make their dishes sooo delectable? Well, check out our series on chef’s recipes from the best restaurants in Santa Barbara County here!
All recipes originally printed in Edible Santa Barbara magazine.
The best summer meals are inspired not only by the seasonal produce freshly picked from the fields, but also the smells and tastes of long, hot days and vacations. Lazy sunny days at the shore and thirst-quenching fruit and citrus and herb gardens baking in the sun all influence what we’re eating. As these dishes start popping up in restaurants and backyards across the country, all you have to do is find the right wine, then sit down and dig in.
I love this grilled Mediterranean vegetable plate above from Trattoria Uliveto in Orcutt, California. A great vegetarian summer meal.
The taste of the sea, perfect for a summer meal: mussels + clams from Trattoria Uliveto.
I ♥ tomatoes: cherry tomatoes with olive oil + cured pork plate above from Trattoria Uliveto.
Food pops are everywhere! These are salmon pops above, also known as smoked salmon lollipops.
Smoked Salmon Lollipop Recipe
Ingredients:
Whip cream cheese and sour cream (or crème fraîche) together, form into little balls and push the stick in. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. When ready to serve, wrap each one in smoked salmon, dip in caviar and top with chopped chives. If you can’t find caviar, you could try black sea salt to get the same look and level of saltiness.
Lemon goes so well with herbs in summer desserts! Try these Lemon Rosemary cupcakes from A Classic Twist.
Don’t forget the rosé to perfectly complement your summer meal and enjoy those hot days, late sunlight and great vacations!
September 30 is the last day of California Wine Month so I thought I’d pair one of my favorite Italian sauces with some California white wines made from Italian varietals. And I added a twist to the pesto that I learned from Luce, on a recent trip to Portland.
The Food:
Luce is a very small market and restaurant dedicated to simple Italian cooking in Portland Oregon. Every dish on the menu was so simply made that at first glance, it seems too easy, too sophomoric. But after a bite or two, the flavors this kind of cooking imparts transports you to the traditions of Italy. Bon Appetit called it “bare bones…Italian home cooking at its core.”
The pesto at Luce was made with basil, avocado, almonds, walnuts and garlic. This is pesto in Southern Italy. And it was incredible! The avocado replaces the olive oil, making the dish lighter, full of flavor and oh-so-good for your skin. To make this easy on me to make at home, I used store-bought pesto as a base, placing about half the container of pesto in a bowl, then mixing in one whole ripe avocado and serving it over al dente pasta. A perfect late summer meal.
The Wine:
I wanted to pair this with an Italian varietal made in California, and I found 2 wines that worked perfectly. Arneis from Palmina Wines in Lompoc, CA, has a bright lemony quality, and enough acid to zip along your tongue with the pesto, cutting the oils and balancing the meal perfectly.
Another wine, Bianchetto from Moretti Wines in Los Olivos, CA, is a blend of 3 Italian varietals from different regions: Arneis, Malvasia Bianca and Tocai Friulano. You won’t see this blend in Italy, but it’s lovely flowery nose and fruit and acid balance also really enhanced the dish.
In Périgord, Dordogne France, it’s always foie day. It happens to be the foie gras capital of France (and the world), producing 90% of all foie consumed in France. And the French consume a lot of foie: 18,450 tons — 78.5% of the world’s estimated total production. This region also produces high-quality almost-Bordeaux wines at a fraction of the cost, sometimes poured for you in the wine maker’s own kitchen.
But back to foie. Ducks and geese are inclined to eat as much food as you give them, so force-feeding is actually not a necessity. This is something we’re all familiar with; it’s not unlike the US population residing in middle America. Producers should give up force-feeding machines and let the birds eat three times their weight naturally so we can still eat foie in California! Alas, with the recent foie gras ban in California, we are now forced to travel to nearby Los Vegas, where it is plentiful and permanently on the menu — no morals there — or preferably to the Dordogne in France.
It was there that I actually ate 5 different kinds of foie gras in one day! And it just might have been the best day of my life.
After visiting Bergerac’s town market that morning, we found the only Michelen-starred restaurant in the area: La Tour des Vents. We sat on the outdoor deck, overlooking the valley of grapes and geese.
First course was traditional foie gras mousse served in a small ramekin, with a hard brûlée top and a bite of salad on the side, shown above. It was like a foie-savory creme brûlée…quite possibly the most delicious thing I will ever put in my mouth.
For my main, I ordered a trio of foie gras — just to make sure I tried them all! All three were terrines: 1) marbelized black pepper (center), 2) maple and spice cake with mango/cherry jelly (left) and finally, 3) traditional on toasted brioche with seasonal fruit chutney and aged balsamic (right). It was heaven, especially paired with the local sweet wine that actually works better than Sauternes: Monbazillac.
And when we returned to the hotel later that day for dinner, we found our hosts busy cooking in the kitchen for us. And guess what they were preparing for us that night? You guessed it, homemade foie gras, pan grilled and served with lentils and cured duck slices, shown above. It really was the best day ever.
TGIFoie.
Matching the right wine with specific foods/dinners can dramatically enhance both the food and the wine, as well as the dining experience. And sometimes your dinner company too.
To accomplish this, the wine needs some acid, good balance and something interesting to offer for pairing — like a pleasing mix of spice, fruit aromas or bold flavors that don’t overpower other elements. And please, no extra oak or residual sugar designed to trick your palate into liking it. (Which is more than I can say for some of the company I’ve kept.)
This French wine, 2008 Château Bouscassé, Les Jardins de Bouscassé, Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh Sec, was the most local thing on the menu. Literally. Our waiter said it was the wine made closest to the town of Eugénie-les-Bains, the town where famed chef Michel Guerard cooks works of art and improves your figure at his restaurant/spa hotel Les Prés d’Eugénie.
The beautifully balanced wine was 80% Petite Courbou and 20% Petit Manseng, two grapes indigenous to southwest France, and it paired very well with all courses in this meal and the elegant restaurant itself. Beguiling and lovely in its acidity and floral-ness, understated with the promise of more to come, this wine from this small corner of the world was deserving of much more attention than it ever receives (much like this relationship with the Baker).
It was perfect. We drank in its beauty, trying to hold the brightness inside ourselves. And we ate gloriously for this one last night, temporarily averting a creeping sadness and slowly devolving palate for each other.
Santé!
Breakfast/Brunch is probably my most favorite meal of the day. I love the morning sun, the smell of pork belly, coffee and mimosas. Levain sourdough toast with butter and strong coffee with cream is all I need to feel happy and well-fed. Add a fried egg on that and it’s gonna be a special day.
So I am very familiar with all the traditional and regular breakfast/brunch menus and dishes. And frankly, a little bored. So now that farro appears on breakfast and brunch menus all over town, I am again excited about the first meal of the day.
This ancient grain is most often grown in Italy, where the people have the lock-down on how to eat fresh, delicious and healthy. And it’s perfect with eggs.
At Canelé in Atwater Village, I had this fried farro with egg, bacon, kale and sriracha. Farro is the perfect nutty platform for fried egg, kale and bacon. It satisfies any craving for that classic eggs-and-bacon-breakfast, while adding a dimension of flavor. And sriracha never disappoints.
Then, at Lazy Ox in downtown Los Angeles, I had this creamy farro with wild mushrooms, fines herbs & pecorino. Savory, creamy and perfectly salty-sharp, this dish feels more like a pot roast than a simple whole-grain dish.
Thanks farro, for making my day.
Simple Farro & Eggs
Montgomery Alabama is, as one would expect, full of down home cookin’ and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. Being from a central mid-western state myself, I loved the barbecue, mashed potatoes with mounds of butter, baked beans and hot dogs with all the fixin’s. And don’t forget the grits!
But I was very excited to find a new-fangled restaurant in town that uses local produce – sourced from its neighborhood farm just across the street – and a fresh approach to Southern cooking. The Ham & High, in the new Hampstead urban living space (you may have read about it in Food & Wine) changes their menu every day, and serves brunch on Sundays…with grits on the menu.
My brunching partner and I decided to kick it off with cocktails, above. Him: Ham & High Farm-Fresh Bloody Mary. Me: Basil Shrug with gin. Who doesn’t love a garden-to-glass basil drink in a jar? (Get a similar recipe here to make it at home.)
We couldn’t resist ordering something Southern..steak and farm eggs over creamy, cheesy grits. I’ve had a lot of grits in my life and these were perfectly cooked: a delightfully red-necked rendition of risotto.
Next was the French toast Monte Cristo sandwich with maple syrup and strawberry preserves, served with shoestring fries and smoked ketchup, shown above. Gruyère, ham, French toast, syrup and fries? I can’t think of a better heap of grub for one dish.
And to round it out, we had to try the house-made sausage of bacon and jalapeño, which was easily the best thing we ate that Sunday.
But the best thing we did that Sunday was what we did next: head home in the heat and humidity – bellies full, gin settled in – and hit the hay for a long afternoon nap.
If I get the chance to eat my fill in Montgomery again, I’ll be back here for a proper dinner. Right after my afternoon cocktail. And a nap.