SaltShaker

 The fields from Islington to Marybone, To Primrose Hill and Saint John’s Wood, Were builded over with pillars of gold; And there Jerusalem’s pillars stood.”

- William Blake

Over time, we’ve had quite a few visits from our local puertas cerradas compatriots, as well as visited their dining spots. We’ve had a few from the US and Canada, and, one visit from Australia. With the current burgeoning population of “secret/underground dining clubs” in London, they were due (and, of course, we’re due to visit somewhere overseas as well). So, the opportunity to pull out all the stops and put together a fun dinner for one of our sister soirées from the isle of UK, sounded like great fun. A group of ten arrived one day last week and I think we put on a pretty good show.

Four of the five courses came directly out of past dinners – go with your strong points when you’re showing off, you know? We started with a couple of our favorite middle eastern salads, salatit banjan and salata banadoura, with fresh pita bread and right out of our Syrian Jewish dinner last year. Then on to our trio of chickpea soup, with minor modifications – I fried the chickpeas and put them in the soup crisp, and instead of frying the falafel, made a paste of a fresh chickpea and spice mixture and put it in the middle to be swirled into the soup.

Then on to one of my favorite fish preparations – with a green pepper cream and fried garlic – this time using fresh cod. And finally, a duo, side by side, of small portions of two duck dishes – seared magret with piquillo pepper sauce and mango chutney – without the eggplant puree since we’d started with a very similar one, and confit of duck and goat cheese cream in an open ravioli with fried asparagus.

It was the dessert that I decided to play around with the most – a quartet of chocolate flavors – a base of cocoa bisquit, chocolate olive oil mousse, chocolate chili cake, and a drizzle of bittersweet chocolate glaze – all done as a little tower on the plate.

Hopefully we sent them back to Islington with fond memories!

A few more recent tasting notes:

Santa Julia Extra Brut, Mendoza – Part of the Familia Zuccardi vineyards group – pale straw color, plenty of fine bubbles, this is an interesting sparkling blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Viognier. Strong on the citrus notes, particularly orange, though a bit of lime and lemon creeping in, somewhat floral, good acidity, it falls slightly flat on the finish – the acidity doesn’t carry through and the flavors more or less die out quickly. Still, quite good, particularly with spicier foods, and a bargain at around 40 pesos a bottle.

Padrillos Pinot Noir 2007, Mendoza – A relatively new venture from Ernesto Catena, the Padrillos line is an inexpensive, yet quite well made couple of wines. The Pinot noir, in particular, stands out with strong berry fruitiness, lots of good spice, nicely balanced, good acidity and weight. Not overly complex, but eminently drinkable, a particularly good match with lighter meats like chicken and even a heavier fish. At 35 pesos for a Pinot noir with this much character, it’s a steal.

Zuccardi Serie A Bonarda 2006 – Another entry from Familia Zuccardi, we had this as our first bottle of wine out at Pozo Santo the other night. The Bonarda character shows true – like a strong, big brother to a Pinot Noir – lots of black raspberry fruit, plenty of spice, and a very soft oak note in the background. It has great length, depth and complexity and is absolutely delicious. Retail, it’s probably around 65-70 pesos, so not cheap, but not outrageous either.

Angélica Zapata Cabernet Franc 2003 – On Pozo Santo’s wine list, this was shown as a 2007, so we were pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a typo, and the 2003 was what was in the cellar. This is, I’m fairly sure, the first time I’ve tried a Cab Franc from Argentina with any age on it, so I was curious. It’s held up just fine, and tastes vibrant and fresh. On the other hand, I didn’t get a whole lot of Cab Franc character out of this – tasty a red as it was, it could have been pretty much any red grape with a core of dark fruits, a bit of spice and earth, but no standout identifying notes. Plenty of oak, possibly a touch too much, though soft and well integrated – that seven years has given it time to come together, I’d bet the oak is a bit overwhelming in new releases. At over 100 pesos a bottle retail, while just fine to drink, I think I’d rather something with a bit more varietal character.

García Riccardi Porto Andino 2005 – Quite possibly the most interesting dessert wine I’ve tried in Argentina. I’ve found no information about the wine and the label is of little help, just indicating that it’s a “vino casero”, homemade wine, whatever that may mean – no indication of grape variety or anything else. Despite its moniker and 20%(!!) alcohol, it’s not a Port style wine. In fact, it reminds me more of a lighter Madeira – it has that slightly hot, cooked flavor in it – toasted nuts, a ton of spice, sultanas, plenty of acidity. It has complexity and length, but not a huge amount of depth or weight. What a match with a cheese plate with some dried fruits!

 We’ve traveled almost the full length of the island and can report that every corner of it is wet, every river overflows its banks, every rain barrel is filled to the brim, every wall washed clean of writing no one knows how to read anyway.”

- from In the Time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez

Last year’s Casa S celebration of the Dominican Republic’s National Day was a hit, so we decided on a reprise, with some new recipes.

The pan con aguacate photo from last year is prettier, in this case I didn’t change the dish at all, except that I didn’t have any duck fat saved around so the bread was fried in olive oil and garlic. Paired it up with Chandon’s Brut Rose which balanced nicely with the fruit vinegar flavors in the dressing.

The traditional dish here, guandules con coco, is one of green pigeon peas and coconut in a soup that’s based on chicken stock and seemed to me to be a little light on the seasoning. The peas aren’t available here, but black-eyed peas seemed like a good substitute – I cooked them first separately with bay leaves until they were tender. Then, in the soup pot, I put celery, red onion and carrot, finely diced, some minced garlic, the beans, about half a liter of coconut milk, topped it up with vegetable stock, and let it all simmer together until the vegetables were softened. At that point I added a mix of chopped herbs – parsley, oregano, thyme and cilantro and turned off the heat, letting the herbs just infuse in the pot for a little while before dinner. Seasoned with salt and pepper and delicious! Pulenta Estate’s Chardonnay was an inspired match, if I do say so myself, and I just did.

Sometimes I just thrill myself, I must admit. Taking a simple, basic dish, like boiled white rice that has some scattered chopped onions and flakes of smoked fish atop it and turning it into a simply divine risotto (according to several of the guests), was something that I’m just patting myself on the back for. The base, sauteed a mix of shallots, green onions and leeks in olive oil until softened and starting to color, then added carnaroli rice, let it toast a little, and started ladling in the vegetable stock until we hit that perfect al dente. To finish it, grated sardo, the local equivalent of pecorino, and at least minute, some broken up smoked herring (canned, in olive oil), oil and all. Salt and black pepper to finish. Couldn’t have asked for better. Monteviejo’s Festivo Rose, a blend of Cabernet and Malbec from flying winemaker Michel Rolland.

You know we like simple, comfort food around here. And so pollo con wasakaka seemed to fit the bill – simple roast chicken with a zingy lemon, salt, garlic and onion sauce to moisten it. If anyone knows the origin of the marinade/sauce name, wasakaka, let me know, it seems fairly Japanese, but the ingredients don’t, nor to the best of my knowledge is their a massive Japanese influence on Dominican cooking, though I could be wrong about that. Being a fan of chicken drumsticks, I took a whole bunch of them. Then, into the blender went the juice of a half dozen limes, a white onion, a few garlic cloves, a chili (just because), salt and white pepper. Marinated the chicken in that mixture for the afternoon, then oven roasted in the marinade, turning regularly. Yum! A little wilted spinach, and the roast garlic chipas that I just posted about a couple of days ago, pressed into buttered ramekins rather than on a baking sheet so that they have a bit of a biscuit form to them. Paired with Pinot Noir from Padrillos, comfort food to the max.

That ginger roulade with the dulce de leche cream last week had me thinking along the same lines. Here, the cake is flavored with lime zest (I had all those limes from the chicken marinade) and coconut flakes instead of all the spices and ginger. The filling is the same mix of dulce de leche and cream cheese. The topping is a white chocolate ganache, still warm. Bruno Barra’s Tardí Blanco – late harvest blend of Chardonnay, Torrontés and Pedro Ximenez was stellar with the cake.

A lot of folk have clearly been concerned about friends and relatives in Chile after this last weekend’s earthquake. It didn’t have any direct effect on us here in BA, so we’re all fine, thanks – the near 900 mile distance and the fact that the shockwaves headed west into the Pacific meant minimal impact here to the east (I hear that some folks felt some minor tremors, especially in taller buildings, but don’t know anyone personally who did.)

Liz Caskey, whom I mentioned back in my posts on Santiago, has written up a great post-quake appeal to folks to not drop Chile from their vacation plans, and I wanted to pass on the link. It’s worth a read, whether you’re thinking about vacationing there or just concerned/curious about what’s happening.

 If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.”

- Robert Browning, poet

As always, playing around with new breads.

Nothing quite like good pumpernickel rye. Fairly classic recipe with a couple of minor adjustments:

1⅛ to 1¼ cups warm water
25 grams fresh yeast
1½ tablespoons corn oil
⅓ cup molasses
2 teaspoons salt
1½ cups bread flour
1 cup rye flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons gluten
3 tablespoons bitter cocoa powder
1 tablespoon caraway seeds

Crumble the yeast into about 1 cup of the warm water and let proof for five minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and mix. Add more water as needed to bring it together in a ball. Knead for 5 minutes until relatively smooth. Let rise, covered, in a warm place until doubled in bulk (if you want to develop the flavor more intensely, let rise in the refrigerator overnight. Punch down, knead for 30 seconds and place in a standard loaf pan. Let rise until doubled again. Bake at 400°F/200°C for approximately 35-40 minutes until the bread sounds hollow when thumped on.

The chipa of Paraguay, or pão de queijo of Brazil is one of our favorite little addictive snacks. A gluten-free cheese bread puff – a basic batch makes about three dozen and we have trouble making them last overnight…. I’ve experimented with different cheeses (and in the end, less cheese, it was just too much in the original recipe I learned), and just recently, with the addition of roasted garlic, and finally have a cheesy garlic bread that really ought to put The Olive Garden out of business. Hmmm, maybe I shouldn’t post the recipe, they might steal it….

500 grams manioc starch (yuca, cassava, mandioca…)
100 grams of cold butter, cut in small bits
90 grams of Pecorino Romano cheese, grated
1 head of garlic, roasted and the pulp mashed
2 large eggs
200 milliliters of whole milk
1 teaspoon salt

Combine the starch and butter and with your fingers work it through (okay, it’s a weird feeling, I have to admit, handling manioc starch, like cornstarch, tends to send shivers up my spine) until you have a sort of sandy consistency. Add in the remaining ingredients and mix well to form a soft dough (add the milk a bit at a time so that the mixture doesn’t become too soft, it should hold together and not be too sticky). Roll out into small balls, about the size of a walnut and place on a non-stick baking sheet. Bake at 400°F/200°C for approximately 15 minutes until puffed and browned (they’ll end up about the size of a ping-pong ball). Try to resist eating long enough to get them to the table.

 Shellfish are the prime cause of the decline of morals and the adaptation of an extravagant lifestyle. Indeed of the whole realm of Nature the sea is in many ways the most harmful to the stomach, with its great variety of dishes and tasty fish.”

- Pliny the Elder

It was the age of Pisces, not Aquarius, or at least the weekend, and what better way to celebrate the start of this zodiac sign than a seafood dinner? It sort of set the tenor for the evening, and made it pretty clear what we were up to. Still, it wouldn’t have been a typical Casa SaltShaker weekend without a few requests for reservations that included “I don’t eat any kind of seafood, so could you just prepare a different menu for me?” Not happening, sorry, just come another weekend, or if you can’t, well, you’ll just have to dine elsewhere or suck it up and try something new. Actually, I’m amazed, week in and week out, how many people don’t eat any kind of seafood – and not because of allergies, but they simply won’t eat fish, shellfish, or anything related – and often, in conversation, it turns out they’ve never actually tried any – reminds me of the conversation in this post.

You’ve seen versions of this dish before here, the two key differences in this olive oil poached trout with shavings of avocado, are that instead of Romesco sauce, I went with a piquillo pepper sauce – fire roasted piquillos, egg yolk, olive oil, salt and pepper blended together; and a quick grind of multi-colored peppercorns across the plate.

This one was fun – and pretty – it started on August 15, 2007, a note I made after Frank Bruni’s review in the New York Times of Cafe Boulud. He mentioned receiving two starters – a peekytoe crab gelee and a chilled pea soup. My note says, in barely legible scribble, “combine together?” At least that’s what I think it says, and if it doesn’t it was still what I did. The soup itself, quite simple – saute a couple of leeks in a little butter; add a good handful of arugula leaves and just wilt them, then off the heat add a pound or so of blanched and shocked peas (or frozen peas that have been thawed), about a cup and a half of vegetable stock and a liter of milk – puree in a blender, cool and then chill in the refrigerator. Season with salt and white pepper. For the gelee, 4 cups of pureed watermelon and peeled daikon – I used about ¼ of a watermelon and about a 4″ piece of a good sized daikon. Take about a cup or a little less of that and sprinkle in 4 tablespoons of powdered gelatin, mixing it briefly to let it bloom. Then into the microwave (or in a pan) for about 1 minute to heat it up and activate the gelatin, stir it into the rest of the puree. Add some picked crabmeat (cooked), salt and white pepper. Chill until relatively firm. Serve in scoops, or if you want you could mold this – whatever works – with the soup around it.

You may remember my raves about the fussili with braised octopus and bone marrow at Marea on my last trip to NYC. The recipe wasn’t hard to track down, in fact the Serious Eats blog has a step by step illustrated walk through of how to make it. But, bone marrow is difficult to get here, and I also didn’t want to just duplicate the recipe. Instead, an inspiration from it – I braised baby octopi in a mix of chopped fresh tomatoes, garlic, red wine, basil stalks, salt and pepper, until it was very tender, about an hour and a half. Let it cool and set it aside. To serve, I cooked a five grain fussili (didn’t make them, bought these, fussili are pain to make in quantity). I reheated the octopi with a good splash of olive oil, then just before removing it from the heat, tossed in all the basil leaves I’d stripped from the stalks just to wilt them. Tossed the pasta with this sauce and plated it. To top it, I went with more or less the same topping Chef White uses, though a bit more of it and more intense – I sauteed chopped jalapeños and garlic in olive oil, added panko crumbs and parsley, a grind or two of pepper and salt, and spooned the mixture over the top of the pasta.

An oyster pot pie for the main course – fairly classic – sauteed chopped bacon, white onions, celery and lots of fennel in butter until they were soft and the bacon browned. Added some white wine and the liquid drained off of fresh oysters and a good number of tiny Andean potatoes. Just a splash more water to cover and let it all simmer together until the potatoes were cooked. Added the oysters, cut into bite sized pieces, and cooked 3-4 minutes, just to firm them up. Poured in a bit of heavy cream. Seasoned with salt and lots of black pepper. Ladled into the serving dishes, left to cool, then topped with empanada pastry. To serve, about half an hour before we needed them, into a very hot oven (425°F) and baked until browned and bubbly.

In Paia, Hawaii, there is a famous restaurant called Mama’s Fish House. For many years they’ve had a dessert called the Black Pearl. How to make it has remained a secret, and although many brave attempts to duplicate it have occurred, I gather no one really ever has. What we know is that it involves chocolate and passion fruit, a favorite combination of ours already. I made no attempt at reproducing the dish, just used it as the inspiration for this passion fruit curd tart in a cocoa shell, topped with dark chocolate ganache and surrounded by fresh passion fruit pulp and seeds briefly simmered with some sugar. The filling, quite simple, I used the same recipe I use for the lemon curd tart from Marion’s, just substituting strained passion fruit juice for the lemon juice and leaving out the zest – You could also do it without straining the juice and have the crunchy seeds be a part of the curd.

 If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.”

- Henry David Thoreau

Really, disappointing is not the correct word, as in order to be disappointed, you must have had a level of expectation which exceeded the outcome. And, in the case of these two mini-reviews, I had no particular expectations about either place – they were more or less random encounters, last minute decisions of spots to just simply try out because they were there. Let’s go with Dissatisfying Duo.

I’m not sure that I even want to know just how they managed to get this vivid teal color into noodles at Prosciutto, Sarmiento & Junín. They were cooked to a point slightly past limpness, they were dressed in a tomato sauce that seemed nothing more than a watered down tomato pulp from a tetra-pak, they were, did I mention, teal? But then, this dish was off “el menú”, the daily lunch plate special, which is often not all that exciting. So how did the a la carte selection fare? A vitel thoné was thin, chewy slices of beef buried under a pasty mayonnaise that likely was tinged only with the liquid drained off the tuna can, a couple of anchovies and basil leaves placed in opposition. The canelones de verduras themselves were once again overcooked noodles wrapped around a filling of ricotta – if there were vegetables in the ricotta, they’d been pureed, perhaps some spinach? The putanesca sauce, on the other hand, was actually quite passable – anchovies, garlic, olives and capers all in abundance, and even a bit of chili heat. The place was busy, and people, in general seemed to be enjoying their meals, so perhaps it’s just best to avoid the blue plate special….

On the other hand, Tataki, Rodriguez Peña 433, requires a complete avoidance. This causa limena, dense and devoid of flavor, was the poorest excuse for this dish I’ve yet to encounter – how one can take that many different layered ingredients and still come out without flavor escapes me. The tamal was little better, and the kitchen couldn’t, apparently discern the difference between their pork and chicken ones. After being told that there was no white fish in the house for sushi, and getting, instead, some average at best, sushi rolls that were best left not examined too closely (and very sweet rice to boot), both a tiradito and a ceviche of white fish were offered – sampling them proved the kitchen’s point, the fish was old and bad and we sent back both dishes – covering up fish that’s past it’s point to be used for sushi by dousing it in lemon or another dressing is a sign of a restaurant that doesn’t deserve my, nor anyone else’s, patronage.

On to better things one hopes. Damn, now I’ve set myself up for a disappointment….

 But, my dear sirs, when peace does come, you may call on me for any thing. Then will I share with you the last cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and families against danger from every quarter.”

- General William Tecumseh Sherman

Is there really anyone out there who doesn’t snack on crackers of one sort or another? I thought not. So when the idea came up to offer a class on quick breads and crackers, and maybe a little dip of some sort to go with them – the vegetable caviars we made for our recent Ukrainian dinner were mentioned – I thought it’d be fun. Add to that that this was part of our vegan series, so no milk, cream, cheese, butter, honey… and we had our structure. Just thought I’d show y’all some of the fun stuff we made:

A whole grain soda bread

Rye Crisps

Saltines

And how could we not make Goldfish?

I had envisioned that the class would just involve sampling a little and then the students packing up the leftovers and taking them home, but we ended up sitting around snacking on these and the eggplant and mushroom caviars, and by the time they were ready to go, there was really almost nothing left!