Update to my ahi tartare recipe

I did the ahi tartare thing again this past weekend for a holiday party. Added some minced shallot to the mix, as my chives were looking pretty sad. And served it with cucumber slices, which I have to say was brilliant. Went great with the citrus tang of the preserved lemon, and the texture was a perfect match with the softness of the tartare. Yum. For about 12 oz of minced ahi, I added 1/2 of a preserved lemon, minced, and 1 T minced shallot, salt, and olive oil.

Cooking science is cool

I've always loved to understand how things work, so I guess my semi-addiction to "Good Eats" is really not a surprise. But what I like better, now, is reading Harold McGee, and Shirley Corriher, and "What Einstein Told His Cook." This last book, on loan from Gabe, is a good read because it's essentially a series of short essays answering "why" questions on a bunch of different topics. Usually that means I can pick it up and put it down with ease, but I kept reading last night until nearly 2am. Not good for me, but I was enjoying the education. Now I find that Harold McGee has a relatively new blog (www.curiouscook.blogspot.com) so I guess I have to keep an eye on that, too.

Using preserved lemons

A bit of a hitch in the cooking plans this week. I got really sick so only liquids for a few days. So a hold on the whiskey crab bisque, which is finally cooking today and smells incredible. It has corn and coconut milk in it, a wonderful combination. Recipe comes from cooking class so I can't really republish here, but suffice to say it has bacon, crab stock, coconut milk, onions, garlic, corn (and I added corn cobs to the broth, too), whiskey (I'm using Maker's Mark), and of course crab meat. Since it is a bisque, it's smooth before you add the crab meat. I think Dave is going to love it even if I might not be able to eat any until tomorrow. Anyway, I made preserved lemons a couple of months ago. I love them just plain, I was kind of raised on salty/sour stuff so I like that (so did my mom, when she tasted them at Thanksgiving she just swooned). But traditional recipes only use the peel. And I hate to have waste. With this liquid diet thing, I've discovered two ways to use the salty juice: - in chicken broth. Just a teaspoon or two in a 14 oz can of low-salt broth really perks up the flavor. Add some rice and cook for a while and you have a nice gruel for the bed-ridden! - in low-sodium vegetable juice (V-8). That was icky to me until I put in a fair amount of the lemon juice. Makes me think that when I get to really "drink" again I will have to try this stuff in a bloody mary!

Soup again

I think it must have been the weather. After raining every day except one during the month, we got quite the snowstorm right after Thanksgiving. And now I'm in a soup frame of mind. It started quite naturally with wanting to use up leftovers. That meant the fresh potatoes, leeks, and fennel I had in the pantry went into a nice potato soup. Then I added some of the smoked cured turkey breast from the week before, kind of a smoked turkey chowder. That was really good. Some of that now in the freezer. Then we get to the turkey stock, the first version. First I had to cook down the carcass from T-giving dinner, and made consomme out of that. Because I had spiced the turkey, and some of the skin was in the pot, it has an interesting aroma. Very nice. I took some of that and steeped a prune in it, and served it with homemade preserved-lemon tortellini. This was a riff on the duck/peach consomme with the same tortellini that we had at a Gypsy dinner. We really enjoyed that. Dave wasn't expecting the preserved lemon, so his mouth was pleasantly surprised. And the prune essence was nicely floral. The rest of the consomme is in the freezer for later. Then the second version of turkey stock. This was was because of those 2 $4 turkeys I got (about 19 lbs each!) that I took apart last Monday to cure the legs and breasts for more smoked turkey. I roasted the carcass and the wings and tossed it all into the pot overnight. That stock got onions and celery, and got strained. Then I made vegetable noodle soup with that. Good option for Dave's lunch all next week. Tomorrow, since Dungeness Crab is in season, I'm getting a bunch of it and making a Whiskey Crab Bisque. We made it in class a couple of weeks ago and it was great. So I am looking forward to doing that again.

Of course I have to talk about Thanksgiving dinner

First, though, I apologize for not writing recently. (Some members of my family pointed that out yesterday.) It's not, of course, that I'm not cooking. I've just been kind of busy. Partly because I committed to do T-giving dinner for the family and I don't do much for that that isn't completely from scratch. So this entry will kind of fill you in on some of the cooking adventures over the past couple of weeks that led to the end result. Like: instead of using commercial bacon in my green beans and in the brussels sprouts, I made my own pancetta-style bacon. Cured and roasted to 150 degrees, not dried or smoked. This was my first adventure in curing. It was great. Only did three pounds of pork belly, and it really was on a whim. We were in an Asian market (99 Ranch) and they had great looking pork belly. I'd worked with it last summer in my Preserving class, so figured I'd give it a try. Like: for the dressing, I baked my own seasoned bread. Put extra salt, thyme, rosemary, minced parsley flower heads, and sage in it (does that make it "Scarborough Fair" dressing??). I also used some of the homemade sausage I made a few weeks ago. Like: I made "Le Bete Noire" (see previous post from September 13th). Like: I got a free turkey two weeks before thanksgiving and so I took off the breasts and cured them, too, and then hot smoked them. Boy is that good! I roasted the legs and the carcass and made a couple of gallons of very rich turkey stock, and then reduced it to 2 quarts so I could just take a quart when I needed it and make a gallon of stock for the gravy etc. That worked out great. Like: I tried the Cooks' Illustrated method for salting the turkey instead of brining it. But I combined that recipe with the spice rubbed turkey from the November Bon Appetit, sort of. So I loosened the skin from the entire turkey, and combined some of the spice rub (coriander, cinnamon, cumin, smoked pimenton) with the salt for the rub and put that under the skin for 36 hours. Then I washed it all out and rubbed the skin with more of the spice, refrigerated overnight and so the skin got nice and dry. Turned out very crispy with great juicy meat in all places. And it was beautiful. Like: I made an ahi tartare with minced preserved lemon and some tapenade as accompaniments to the salad, which was baby greens with shaved fennel and red onion dressed with lemon viniagrette. Garnished with supremes of orange. The overall combination tasted great together and the platter was gorgeous. I taught my brother how to make little quenelles of the ahi and he put it together very nicely.

Lobster ravioli

We had an event that called for some over-the-top celebration, just the two of us. So first, we got some caviar. And some very good champagne. And some oysters. But Dave also wanted lobster -- who am I to argue? So I got two 2-1/2 pound lobsters (at only $10.99/lb, it wasn't that outrageous). With that much meat, we wanted to do more than just eat it with butter. So I decided on lobster ravioli. After doing my usual search online, I settled on a couple of starting points for ravioli and sauce. Made a lobster mousse and folded in fresh tarragon and the body meat (yes, these lobsters were big enough that picking the body meat was worthwhile). The lobster mousse was just leg and claw meat (mostly the rubbery stuff) processed to a paste, then cream drizzled in and seasoned. Used wonton skins for the pasta. Then the sauce was reduced wine, chicken stock, and cream enriched with butter and white truffle paste. Used a little lemon juice to balance the flavors. Garnish was caviar and chives. Boy, was that yummy! But filling, what with the oysters and some caviar service. So we saved the rest of the lobster for the next day :) Definitely over the top, but a lot less money to do it at home (and in many ways lots more fun) than going out to a restaurant!

The Oxtail Project concludes

My encounter with oxtails is nearly over. My conclusion? They are a pain in the neck (literally!). Saturday of course I started the broth (has to be called broth since meat was included, stock is only bones as I understand it). Saturday night I pulled out the oxtails and cleaned off the meat, that was the pain in the neck. Tedious. Very tedious. Then I put all the bones and cartilage back in the pot and simmered it overnight. Sunday I did the first level of straining, put the meat back in and put the pot in the fridge so the fat could rise and harden (including off of the meat). Monday was consomme day. I skimmed the broth, strained it again, then reduced it until it was tasty. Then I strained it again, let it cool some, and tackled the "raft" to clarify it. We'd done that in class last week so I hoped that I could pull it off successfully (as I never had before). With Dave carefully documenting every step with photos, I got a real raft and -- perfectly crystal clear consomme! I also turned the oxtail meat into "sunday supper oxtail patties" that I would use in the soup I was planning. Tuesday, last night, we finally ate an oxtail-based dish. I blanched leaves of Savoy cabbage (nice and mild) and wrapped the oxtail patties in them. Put those in a 300-degree oven for 20 minutes. Heated a few cups of the (now jellied) consomme. Cut some carrots into a few tablespoons of brunoise and nuked them for about a minute until tender. Cut some leek into fine julienne and fried it for frizzled leeks. Then the assembly: - wrapped oxtail bundle into the bottom of a white soup plate - ladle consomme around it, not covering it - sprinkle carrot on top of bundle and in consomme - pile frizzled leeks on top of bundle - serve What would I do differently if I were ever to do this again? Make the bundles bite-sized, as cutting up the 1x3" bundle in a bowl of soup was kind of awkward. But it tasted great -- not quite like the dish I had 15 years ago that I was trying to recreate, but good and visually impressive as well.

Soups, stock, and oxtails

Class this past week was on "sexy soups." I do happen to think that soups can be very sexy when they are full of flavor. I think Dave does, too, because he really pays attention when I make soup. This week I had roasted chicken frames so I made chicken stock. And, since I had kale in the fridge, and dried beans in the pantry, and homemade garlic sausage in the freezer, well, that means soup. Yummy soup, with lots of garlic since I cooked the cranberry beans first with lots of fresh sage, garlic, and parsley and then added the chicken stock, kale, and sausage. And of course some habanero chile sauce for a kick. Went over pretty well, and the leftovers will make Dave's lunches this next week far more interesting. One thing we learned this week was doing a raft to clarify consomme. So I am now trying to recreate one of the most memorable soups I've ever had, an oxtail consomme with an oxtail patty wrapped in savoy cabbage. So today we are making the basic oxtail stock -- interesting in that the recipe I am using also includes some fresh cranberries and orange peel. Tomorrow we will tackle making a raft to get a crystal clear consomme. Will let you know how that goes. Right now, it's time to go make shrimp dumplings for dinner :-)

The White Dinner

I have no idea how this notion got into my head: create a meal out of foods that are white, and serve on white china. But not just white: white with intense flavors so that you don't notice the absence of color, only the abundance of flavor. It was very interesting! Here's the menu: Moet et Chandon White Star Creamy cauliflower soup with white truffle oil (served in white soup plate) Steamed white asparagus with sour cream viniagrette (served standing up in individual souffle dishes with sauce in center) Lehman Semillon White chanterelle risotto with Forme d'Ambert (blue cheese) mornay sauce Seared sea scallops with cider beurre blanc (both courses served together on large oval chop plates) Vanilla panna cotta One thing that was very interesting was the interplay of the mornay and the beurre blanc on the plate -- because of course blue cheese and apples are a great match, and so were the sauces with those flavors. I'll get photos later this week and post them. I'm pretty tickled about actually executing this off the wall notion!

Vagabond dinner

Monday night we had our first experience with a "legal" underground restaurant, Vagabond. It's gotten some media coverage that unfortunately made it look like an elitist party, which it certainly was not. It was a fine experience, good company and good food. I'd call it a mix of "elite attitude" and "jus' folks" so I was reasonably comfortable. Having dinner in a wine shop (Portalis), with anything available at retail and no corkage, was a great thing. And we were able to share tastes with each other (and the chef). Seating was all over the place -- crammed into corners, up at the bar, a little on the cozy side overall. But since they were planning on family-style service, that wasn't as much of an issue except for us lefties. Regarding the food, the goal is to do sexy one-pot cooking, with a salad and a dessert course. No plate changes between salad and main course, by the way. Salad was almost a side dish: warm pumpkin cubes with roasted cranberries, gorgonzola, and candied pumpkin seeds with a sage viniagrette. The contrast of salty and sweet with the pumpkin was very nice. The poulet au cidre, with Normandy cider, pearl onions, turnips, and chanterelles, was done perfectly. Nice whole-grain bread to sop up the juices and a little braised swiss chard with pine nuts and golden raisins on the side. Dessert was an apple and olive tart, with ginger ice cream. The filling was interesting, as I've never had kalamata olives in my dessert before, but quite good. Unfortunately, the thyme pate brisee crust on my slice was undercooked. But my husband's crust was fine and he enjoyed it. I think there was some challenge with the kitchen as there were only two burners (yes, I know many people do service every night with two burners!). And it didn't look much bigger than an airplane galley. All in all, it was a great evening with great company, and time and opportunity to talk to the people preparing our meal as well as the others enjoying it. I know there are already a number of other prominent Seattle-based chefs who are interested in cooking for the monthly get-together. I'll be very interested in how it evolves.

Thoughts on celebrity chefs

In the past few days I've gotten involved in the Chef2Chef forum. Partly because I ran across it while looking for the menu for Monday's Vagabond dinner. While there I posted my thoughts to a culinary student writing a paper on celeb chefs for a hospitality class. Thought I'd capture those here, since I appear to have an opinion (and when don't I?). I think that there are two levels of celebrity chefs (maybe 3): local, national, and maybe international. All have different effects on food trends and consumer behaviors. In our area, we have a few local celebrity chefs who seem to be happy being local, and of course others who aspire, with varying degrees of success, to share the national or international stage. One thing that seems to distinguish many of the aspirants is a "publish or perish" attitude. You're nobody unless somebody has published your cookbook. The local aspirants can be good for the culinary community as long as they don't forget where they came from. We have a few around here who are doing an excellent job of self-promotion while stepping on every toe they can. I mean, really, is it that hard to be polite instead of a prima donna? Some times it sure seems to be. Time will tell if they get out of the local celebrity and get to the next level. Another thing to look at, btw, are "foodies" looking to be celebrities. Do a google on Michael Hebberoy to see the rise and decline of someone who aspired to change things. Some things he did (and is doing) are very good, but he took his eye off the ball and instead of running the very good and very high profile business he had, decided to write a book, develop a line of gin, ... Now he's going through a divorce and two of the three restaurants in his business have closed. I met him the other day, and he reminds me of those young turks in the dot com craziness who were sure they were going to get rich if only everyone would listen. I think there is a trap there also for celebrity chefs who try too soon to expand their "brand" and lose sight of their foundation. And then there is dear old David Rosengarten, who seems to be trying to expand into selling all his favorite foods at outrageous prices to other foodies who want to be like him. I used to like his newsletter, but now half of it is trying to sell yet another food club of the month...

Lip-smacking lamb shanks

Always wanted to cook lamb shanks, and when Dave found some for $4/lb I had him pick up a couple. Then of course the challenge was how to cook them. I took some cues from the new CIA cookbook "One Dish Meals." Made a paste of spices, including coriander, fennel, cinnamon, pepper, allspice, caraway, curry powder, cayenne, and some salt and rubbed it into the shanks. Refrigerated for six hours. Chopped some dried apricots and raisins and soaked them in brandy. Browned the shanks in some olive oil in a cast iron dutch oven. Took them out and put in a couple of sliced onions, cooked those until they were starting to brown and added a couple of cloves of minced garlic. Stirred for about a minute, then added a couple tablespoons of tomato paste and stirred until it began to brown. Put shanks and juices back in, added a couple of cans of chicken broth and the fruit and brandy. Put a lid on, put it in the oven at 300 degrees for three hours. Served with mashed potatoes. YUMM! One of the best things I've ever made.

Easy fish

I was reminded this week how easy it can be to cook great fish fast. I was at a client offsite and we were fixing our own dinner. Not surprisingly, I volunteered to cook the entree. They had four-pound chunks of halibut and salmon. Many different dietary restrictions in the group, but fortunately absolutely fat-free isn't one of them. So I made a marinade of lemon zest, pepper, and grated ginger in olive oil, skinned the fish, and brushed on the oil. Found some broccoli stems, celery, and red onion. Set the oven to 425. Peeled the broccoli and then julienned all the veggies, tossed them with a little of the flavored oil, and spread them on a baking sheet. Put the fish on top, sprinkled the fish with salt, and roasted it for 25 minutes. Turned out just perfect, nice topping for the green salad with lemon-dijon dressing that others made.

I can't believe I ate the whole thing!

Another Gypsy Dinner last night. Four chefs and TWENTY COURSES!!! Truly, more than a little overkill. It was great, and some incredible flavors. But by the time we got to the end, I could barely eat the interesting and intriguing desserts (bacon baklava, anyone?). An incredible cured scallop carpaccio with a Thai-style cucumber salad. A corn agnolotti with chanterlles that I could bathe in happily. Wagyu beef tenderloin, slow roasted with butternut squash. Some things were a little too complicated ("too many notes," said Dave, quoting from Amadeus). But others were a symphony of combined flavors and textures, like the suckling pork chope with a clam and house-made fresh chorizo, seared off and slow roasted -- so incredibly juicy I would have sworn it was brined, but it wasn't. Duck eggs scrambled with black truffles, served in an eggshell -- the ultimate aphrodesiac, if you ask me. Mussels in cider with smoky bacon, one of absolute favorite things of the night. There were many times where I was just giggling in joy over the flavors, over the combination of wine and food, over the surfeit of incredble stuff and interactions with such great chefs. Now, to be realistic, this was an exorbitantly priced meal -- nearly $600 with tip for two. But a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get farm-fresh inspriations from some of the best chefs in Seattle, and learn how their minds work in pulling them together. Oh, and the most interesting challenge to get my mouth around? Black truffle ice cream. Loved it, I think, but way different. Not Dave's favorite.

Beef with wild mushrooms

My favorite butcher in Pike Place Market, Don and Joe's, sells trimmings from steaks and roasts for about $7/lb. Mostly these are tenderloin trimmings, so when I see a nice little pile of them in the back of the case I ask for them. Last week I got 14 oz of mostly tenderloin trimmings. Figured that since it's getting to be mushroom season (it's a little late, really, since we've had practically no rain) I'd try a little braise with some wild mushrooms. Picked up 3/4 lb of white chanterelles, hedgehog, and lobster mushrooms and 1/2 lb of fat white mushrooms (vendor was selling for $1/lb, thought they'd carry the flavors nicely which they did). Cut the beef and the mushrooms into 3/4" cubes. Tossed the beef with a couple of tablespoons of minced shallot, pepper and some kosher salt and let it sit for a few hours. Then I slow-cooked the mushrooms in a couple of tablespoons of butter with a little salt, pepper, and a sprig of thyme until they were well-cooked, about 30 min. Set the mushrooms aside (removing the thyme) and sauteed the beef and shallots, deglazed the pan with some Pinot Noir, and put the 'shrooms back in. Sprinked a couple of teaspoons of flour over it and stirred it in, then added another half cup of wine. Simmered for about 20 minutes while I cooked some radiatore pasta. (Garofalo brand is great, I finally found a pasta that is worth eating naked because the flavor is so good. And Costco carries it!) Served the beef over the pasta, with a quick gratin of some thin-sliced zucchini and tomatoes roasted for 20 minutes sprinked with some grated aged Gouda. Dave says I can make this meal anytime :)

Smoking turkey

Dave picked up half a bone-in turkey breast on sale last weekend. I brined it for 7 hours in 1 qt water with 1/4c kosher salt and 1/4c sugar. Then I rubbed it with a spice mixture (cayenne, paprika, cinnamon, cumin). Wrapped 1 cup of soaked mesquite chips in a foil pouch and poked holes in it. Put the left side of the gas grill on high and put the chips on that side (under the grate). Kept the right side off, and when the chips started to smoke put the turkey on the other side. Left it on there for about two hours, until the internal temp was 160F. Nice and juicy! It's great sliced for sandwiches or rollups (sliced up turkey and apples, put in warmed tortilla with lettuce leaves, a little shredded mozz, and a little mayo). Today I chopped some up along with some pears and gorgonzola, mixed with some butter lettuce and raspberry vinaigrette. Made a nice lunch.

Pizza on a gas grill

We bought a fancy pizza stone a couple of months ago. It sits on our gas grill and does a very nice job of cooking pizzas, even though it doesn't do 800-degree cooking. However, I've had a hard time finding just the right dough for pizzas. Pita dough is okay but not quite right. Neapolitan dough is okay, but ends up too tough on the bottom due to the longer cooking time at the lower temp, and it's way too salty. Finally, yesterday I think I got the right thing. It involves Caputo 00 flour, which I picked up at PFI. I did a lot of searching to do a survey of recipes, and this is what I came up with: Pizza dough for four indiviual or two large pizzas 211 g water 430 g flour (Caputo 00 flour, or bread flour) 5 g salt 32 g starter (I use the same starter I use for my bread, which is 50/50 flour and water) 1 g dry yeast Mix 300 g of flour with the rest of the ingredients until just blended. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes. In mixer (I use a KitchenAid), mix with dough hook on low speed for 5 minutes, then gradually add rest of flour and mix for another three minutes. Scrape down bowl as necessary. Put dough into oiled bowl, cover and let rise for about two hours. Divide into two or four portions. For four portions, I put them into 16-oz plastic containers and cover them, set them aside for an hour. Now they are ready to stretch into crusts. Bake on a hot stone, either in your oven heated as high as it will go or in a gas grill. Instead of using cornmeal on my pizza peel, I use Wondra flour. It's nice and granular and I prefer the texture.

Dim sum

Boy, do I love dim sum. The ultimate appetizer meal, I think. So of course I took a class on them last week. I've made steamed hom bow before, but nothing else. I really wanted to learn some of the wrapping techniques, like how you get all the little pleats in the ha gao (shrimp balls). I did, and it was fun. We also made baked shrimp toast, sticky rice in lotus leaves, shu mai, potstickers (but we steamed them, so I guess they weren't really potstickers!) and a few other things. Fun but hot and hard work. The sticky rice packets are also some of my favorites, so I was happy to get a chance to try those. We used fresh lotus leaves and soaked them in hot water, but I think you should use dried, pre-cooked leaves and then soak them. The leaves just disintegrated when we tried to fold them around the rice and meat filling. Also, I think the rice needs to steam a lot longer, either before or after putting it in the leaf. Only 15 minutes wasn't enough to get the nice sticky texture and get the flavor of the leaf infused into the rice. Good things to learn. Other thing I learned was that I had some shrimp toast topping left over and I put in into a couple of potsticker skins and put them into the steamer -- it was great. So great, in fact, that I made that at home last weekend for dinner, along with some pork potstickers using filling left over from class. We really enjoyed them. Turns out that Dave is really really good at shaping the potstickers with very even little pleats. I still rush too much so mine aren't nearly as precise. But then, I've never been a real patient cook, one of the things I fight in myself all the time.

Birthday dinner

Dave celebrated a birthday last weekend. He doesn't really "celebrate" per se, but he does like me to cook some of his favorite things and I am more than happy to oblige. This year that meant seared duck breast with Gorgonzola polenta. The duck is easy, I brine it in a brine seasoned with juniper, allspice, and garlic. For the polenta, I am a firm believer in the microwave oven as a great way to make polenta. I've seen some purists sneer at me about this, but you just can't argue with the results. I learned the technique and proportions from "Microwave Cooking" by Barbara Kafka and have since of course put a few spins on the recipe. I use medium grain polenta; you really can just use cornmeal (called for in the original recipe) but the texture isn't as interesting. Gorgonzola Rosemary Polenta 3/4 C polenta 4 C water 1 t minced fresh rosemary 1 t minced fresh thyme 1-2 T minced shallot 2 t salt 3 T butter 1/3 C Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled (or more if you really like it) Mix everything but the butter and cheese in a 2-qt. microwave-safe dish. Cook, uncovered, on high power for eight minutes. Stir and cook for another six minutes. Remove from oven and stir in butter and cheese. (Note: if you use regular cornmeal, only cook it the first time for six minutes.) The "birthday cake" was "La Bete Noire," the cover recipe from the September issue of Bon Appetit. Wow. Another in a string of flourless chocolate cakes, it got additional creaminess by using sugar syrup instead of granulated sugar. Better be sure you have quite a few people to feed, though, since it serves about 16 and it is really rich! Dave wanted it served with flaming cherries, but I decided that would not be a good idea since it would melt the ganache and it would run all over the place.

Date night -- Brasserie Margaux and 94 Stewart

We haven't been out to eat at restaurants much lately, so decided that last night was time (as Dave noted, I've been "cooking a lot of good stuff lately" so no need to go out...). We had a really nice dinner at Brasserie Margaux a couple of months ago, and since at that time everything on the menu looked good, we thought we'd see if we could confirm our initial impressions. We were a little disappointed. Service, while friendly, was pretty slow and forgetful. They did comp a couple of glasses of wine to make up for some of the service issues, which was quite kind. Dave's pork chop had nice flavor but was overcooked (we prefer them medium, this was cooked well-done and was somewhat dry). The prime rib from the carving station was okay, but medium instead of medium rare. I love the truffled risotto with parmesan, but they forgot to bring it to me and so for a while I had to gaze longingly at my dish of risotto sitting in the kitchen. Overall, okay meal but not "over the moon." What was fun was dropping into 94 Stewart for a post-dinner glass of wine. It just feels good to stop in somewhere where they know you. The restaurant was slammed, so we sat at the counter and hung out watching the kitchen until Lindsay, the sommelier, had a chance to chat with us. In the meantime I got plenty of time to exchange ideas with Jeff, the sous chef, as he stood at the stove. Watched him slice off a beautiful strip steak from a loin he was dry-aging himself, about 14 days. It was mouthwatering (and we weren't hungry!). It got us talking about meat curing in general. He also dropped off a spoonful of the red wine-port-shallot reduction he was using on the tenderloin. It was great, both in flavor and in texture. When Lindsay finally had time to catch her breath (she was serving as well last night) she let Dave try both Pinot Noirs she had by the glass so he could pick the one he liked better, always a nice touch. He picked the "funkier" of the two, demonstrating his continuing adaptation and appreciation of the nuances of Pinot. As for me, I tried the "Brown Bag" special where I had to guess what I was drinking. It was easy for me to tell what it wasn't, and Lindsay's hint that it was Old World but not French finally helped me narrow it down to Tempranillo from the Ribiera del Duero, a very nice wine (and quite a bargain at $8/glass). Jeff and I talked more about charcuterie and he shared his current favorite book on the topic, when skimming it I realized that Gabe was using the same book as the source for many of the recipes in the charcuterie part of the Preserving classes I took. I have to get a copy of that book...Jeff brought out some foie gras they are in the process of turning into a torchon -- I felt a little ungracious after I blurted out that frankly I thought it was too salty. But I think he took the comment in the spirit of frank and hopefully helpful commentary. Dave seemed to get a real kick out of watching me interact with Jeff and "talk shop." I know I sure enjoyed it, it was worth spending $40 on wine there for that nice social experience. We've got to get back there to eat more often! (and so should you, if you're reading this...)