French Fridays with Dorie - Tuna Rillettes

Pleasant surprise...this was much better than I expected!

These days, it's usually Thursday morning when I consider participating in French Fridays with Dorie for the week. I check out the recipe over coffee and decide if it's something I can eat on my own or share, so it doesn't go to waste.

This morning, I was all set to run to the store, grab a few cans of tuna and a baguette (I had everything else), and make Tuna Rillettes for lunch. I grabbed a few other things I needed to survive for the next few days, got through the checkout stand, and then realized I didn't have my bank card or any cash...*&#?*%!!

I went back home, traced my misplaced card back to a restaurant a few nights before, returned to the restaurant when it opened at 4:00, and ultimately retrieved my ingredients from the store in time for a light dinner.

Frankly, what I imagined was something similar to tuna cat food. I like tuna sandwiches, but I always use Bumble Bee Solid White Albacore, packed in water. Dorie's Tuna Rillettes calls for chunk light tuna packed in oil because albacore is too firm and dry for this recipe. The tuna is pulsed in the food processor with a sliced shallot, curry powder, quatre épices, crème fraîche, lemon juice, and salt & pepper, until the mixture achieves the consistency of cat food a nice just-right-on-a-cracker paste. It's then packed into a ramekin and refrigerated for at least an hour before serving. Dorie suggests offering the rillettes as a nibble with wine or cocktails, as it is designed to be spread on crackers or toasted baguette slices.

It worked for me, very nicely, with a glass of white wine. Meow ;-)

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!

Italian Master Class with Chef Suzette Gresham: Swordfish Salad with Roasted Onion and Tomatoes

Today I photographed two of the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival cooking classes. The first was the Italian Master Class with Chef Suzette Gresham-Tognetti and Italian wine expert Giancarlo Paterlini, both of the famed Acquerello in San Francisco. Together, their passion and knowledge has earned Acquerello a Michelin star every year since 2007.

Sergio, Chef Gesham, Jack Persinger

For her first dish, Chef Gesham prepared swordfish using a method she calls leaching. The method was used in Italy, years ago, by fisherman hoping to preserve a portion of their catch. A pot of cold water, 2 sliced lemons, 1 sliced onion, and 3-4 tablespoons of salt is brought to a boil. The heavily salted water is an attempt to mimic the seawater that was used on board the fishing vessels, and it helps to leach out any impurities and acts to sanitize the fish.

Once the water has come to a boil, the heat is turned off and the swordfish goes in the water for about 5 minutes, or until about 75% cooked. A bit of olive oil goes into the bottom of a container that will hold the fish in a tightly confined manner, followed by the swordfish and 2 1/2 - 3 cups more olive oil, enough to completely cover the fish. The fish is allowed to cool in the uncovered container of oil. Once completely cooled, it is ready to be served. Chef Gesham served it with roasted Roma tomatoes and roasted red onion slices, and a small parsley and olive salad.

Plated for the class attendees

For the camera - Classic presentation

A more modern presentation is achieved with smaller pieces of swordfish, with a small mound of roasted onion underneath one or two pieces, pureed roasted tomato added to the plate with a squirt bottle or brush, dots of parsley oil or parsley mayonnaise, micro herbs, and lemon zest.

For the camera - Modern presentation

The second dish was Tuscan White Beans with Sage, from Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure, by Loma J. Sass. The cannellini beans were prepared very simply, and in a pressure cooker, with only a small amount of sauteed garlic, dried sage, and olive oil added to the water. Once cooked, she added another tablespoon of olive oil and salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

The second cooking class was called Southwestern Holiday Showstoppers, with Tiffany Vickers Davis, the Test Kitchen Manager of Cooking Light Magazine. I'll tell you about that one in another post. 

Make a Pickle Out of It: Jerusalem Artichoke Tartar Sauce

"One of the smartest things you can do on 'Chopped' is to take one of those ingredients and make a pickle out of it, because almost every dish benefits from that..."

                                                                                                         -Ted Allen


It's funny how a thick, elongated, nubby, and unsightly tuber can stir up a few great memories. The culprit is the Jerusalem Artichoke, or sunchoke. The recipe I'm sharing today, for Day #6 of NaBloPoMo, is Cornmeal-Crusted Yellowtail with Jerusalem Artichoke Tartar Sauce (you can find the recipe here). Carmen let me borrow her Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen cookbook and there are so many recipes I want to try. I had a craving for a fish sandwich, like they serve at Point Loma Seafoods, and thought this recipe would make a killer fish sandwich. I didn't make it into a sandwich this time, but definitely plan to in the future. I enjoyed the unique tartar sauce with its crunch from the sunchoke pickles and tang from the buttermilk. I added some chopped parsley and lemon zest.

My first experience tasting sunchokes was less than a year ago, during Chefs' Holidays at Yosemite's Grand Ahwahnee Hotel. One of the afternoon cooking sessions featured Peter Scargle, executive chef of Lucy Restaurant at the Bardessono Hotel and Spa in Yountville. Chef Scragle's philosophy is ruled by the seasons, and he says, "If it's not growing in the garden, it's the wrong time to be serving it." Scargle spends his mornings in Lucy's lush gardens looking for just-right ingredients to put on the day's menu. For the demonstration, he prepared and served cups of creamy soup made with sunchokes and garnished with finely diced apple, crème fraiche, chervil sprigs and shaved truffle. I have the recipe buried somewhere and need to dig it out. The soup would be nice for Thanksgiving since sunchokes are in season.

The Jerusalem artichoke has no relation to Jerusalem, and it is not a type of artichoke. It is a species of sunflower cultivated for the edible tuber, which has a delicate, artichokey flavor. It looks like ginger root and has a bad reputation for causing, um, gas, but only when eaten raw. Pickling, roasting, or slow or cooking eliminates that problem.

Raw Jerusalem Artichokes aka Sunchokes

Jerusalem Artichoke Pickles

Jerusalem Artichoke Tartar Sauce

The pan-fried fish recipe will work well with several firm, white-fleshed, medium-oily fish, but it was designed for Charleston's most popular and most sustainable fish: the dolphinfish, aka mahi. Although our market had mahi, it was previously frozen and I chose local yellowtail instead.

The fish is dipped in buttermilk, dredged in a mixture of seasoned flour and cornmeal, and pan-fried in peanut or vegetable oil.

Cornmeal-Crusted Yellowtail with Jerusalem Artichoke Tartar Sauce

I dug up the soup photo from Chefs' Holidays and another photo of the first dish I made one evening cooking dinner with friends...good times and good memories.

Above left: Little Farms Sunchoke Soup; Right: Pan-Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Oyster Mushrooms and Sunchokes with Creamy Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette (Tasting Table), recipe here.

Here's the Point Loma Seafoods' fish sandwich, served with their famous tartar sauce on freshly baked sourdough. The fish, calamari and fried oyster sandwiches are all wonderful!

Pt. Loma Seafoods' Fish Sandwich

                ***

Coronado Concert in the Park: Feeling a Little Blue

Liquid and/or Blue was our culinary theme of the evening for the return of Liquid Blue, a high-energy dance band. It was a challenge to think outside the blueberry box, but we did and there wasn't a blueberry to be found.

Bluefin Tuna Nigiri beautifully prepared and styled by Holli

We don't really judge other people by their picnics because we're too busy being our own worst critics. There's always a little competitiveness in the group, but it keeps us striving to excel in our cooking, plating, and photography.

Of course, Holli lived up to her own high standards with blue everything...fish, cocktail, platter, tablecloth, napkins, blouse and husband.

Blue Hawaiian Punch

Nice try Kai with your ahi disguised as bluefin sashimi...even your daughter and her friends were on to you in no time. Kidding, your dishes always rock. But don't be surprised when Olivia starts begging you to take her to Saiko Sushi when the toro comes in on Thursdays...and please invite me to join you ;-)

Kai's "Bluefin" Sashimi

Discriminating palates

Glazing the Bluefin with a little Shoyu

I contemplated various dishes with blue cheese, blueberries, or blue corn chips, but I had a craving for jambalaya. Like Kai, I took the easy way out by inserting Blue in the name of my dish: Blue Bayou Jambalaya. It's not really Blue Bayou Jambalaya, as in the jambalaya served at Disneyland's Blue Bayou restaurant, but this one from Donald Link's Real Cajun. I will keep making this incredibly flavorful jambalaya again and again (layers and layers of flavor with holy trinity, roast chicken and homemade broth, Cajun-style andouille, and a kick-your-butt spice mix), but my only complaint is that the rice never gets cooked quite enough trying to cook it in the pot with everything else. Next time, I think I'll cook the rice separately until al dente and then throw it back into the big pot to finish cooking. This jambalaya is really better the next day and I'm glad there was a little left over for breakfast!

"Blue Bayou" Jambalaya

Blue Cheese was represented well in the remaining dishes with Alec's Mushroom and Blue Cheese Stromboli, Hillari's Apple, Blue Cheese and Walnut Tartlets, Kellee's Blue Corn Chips served with Trader Joe's Blue Cheese Roasted Pecan Dip, and Crostini.

Alec slicing the Stromboli

Nina chilling with a Blue Hawaiian

Hillari's Tartlets

Alec showing off his new hairdo

Chips and Dip

Random Cuteness

Hillari's Toes

Dogs hanging out on "Dog Row"

Liquid Blue

If you're still feeling a little blue and in search of a blueberry fix, you can find it here with Blueberry Pumpkin Seed Energy Bars, here with Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes, or here with Thomas Keller's Blueberry Cobbler.

Blue jeans are the most beautiful things since the gondola. - Diana Vreeland

Cheers,
Denise & Trapper

How We Roll! Concert in the Park with Hollywood Stones

Coronado welcomed Hollywood Stones, a Rolling Stones tribute band, for the first time to Concert in the Park, and we offered our own tribute to The Rolling Stones with food inspired by the band's name and songs.

Dick Swagger, as Mick Jagger

A quick review of Rolling Stones songs revealed only a few obvious culinary ideas:  Brown Sugar,  Little Red Rooster and Potted Shrimp. Of course, with the band's name, we could go with something rolled or something with stone fruit. Getting creative with the names and/or lyrics of the songs provided many more options. With such a fabulous group this week, I think we covered the band quite nicely.

Although these Who Loves Ya Baby-Back? ribs from Alton Brown have a good amount of Brown Sugar in the dry rub, I preferred to name mine Anybody Seen My Baby? baby back ribs. I amped up the finishing glaze with a little stone fruit - tart cherry jam. The racks are braised low and slow in white wine, white wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, honey and garlic resulting in tender, moist, fall-off-the-bone deliciousness...and, I might add, Sticky Fingers.

I loved the dry rub ingredients and cooking method, but I didn't care for Alton's method of reducing down the braising liquid and using it as a glaze to finish the ribs under the broiler. It never reduced to a "syrup" consistency and, as some reviewers said, was a bit too salty. I had about a half cup of tart cherry jam leftover from my cookies, so I added that into the braising liquid which helped thicken the glaze and balance the saltiness.

Anybody Seen My Baby? baby back ribs

Dry Rub

Anybody seen my baby

Anybody seen him around

Love has gone and made me blind

I've looked but I just can't find

He has got lost in the crowd

I was never a Rolling Stones fan, but I do love the song Wild Horses. Michele jumped on that one with a few bottles of Wild Horse Cabernet!

Childhood living is easy to do

The things you wanted I bought them for you

Graceless lady you know who I am

You know I can't let you slide through my hands

Wild horses couldn't drag me away

Wild, wild horses, couldn't drag me away

Carmen came up with some great ideas during the week. Her first thought was to track down squid ink for these Grissini or to make pizza dough - Paint it Black. She also contemplated raw rainbow cheesecake using natural food dyes - She's a Rainbow. What ended up coming to the park was this gorgeous Summer Beet Borscht - Beat Beat Beat album. I had to ask Kerry to pose for a photo with a cup of borscht because it complemented her ensemble so well!

Summer Beet Borscht

Kai had Potted Shrimp covered...

Potted Shrimp

Alec's creative juices were flowing when he came up with Short Ribs and Curly Pasta inspired by Short and Curlies. He even printed out the lyrics for me!

Too bad she's got you by the balls

You can't get free at all

She's got your name

She's got your number

You're screamin'

Like thunder

And you can't get away from it all

Succulent Short Ribs and Curly Cavatappi Pasta

Also at the top in creativity, and voted best dish of the night, was the DeLauro's Shrimp-Athy Fra Diavolo - Sympathy for the Devil. Here's a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis.

Shrimp-Athy Fra Diavolo

Performing Sympathy for the Devil

Tell me baby, what's my name

Tell me honey, can ya guess my name

Tell me baby, what's my name

I tell you one time, you're to blame

Shrimp-Athy Fra Diavolo

Stone fruits were represented with Pammy's Apricot & Arugula Salad (with candied walnuts, fennel and goat cheese) and my Stoned Cherry & Chocolate Jammers

Apricot Salad

My Jammers were an adaptation of Dorie Greenspan's Port Jammers. I used dried cherries instead of cranberries in the dough and Amaretto instead of port to macerate the cherries and to spike the cherry jam. I also added a halved Luxardo cherry to the top of each cookie.

Amaretto Cherry & Chocolate Jammers

I wish I had my camera ready when Kellee rode up to the park on her bike with her basket overflowing with bags from Clayton's Mexican Take-Out! She unloaded boxes of taquitos with all the fixings and then proceeded to cut the taquitos in half with her kitchen shears...something "rolled" for Rolling Stones, or was her inspiration from the song Out of Time...?

You don't know what's going on

You've been away for far too long

You can't come back and think you are still mine

You're out of touch, my baby

My poor discarded baby

I said, baby, baby, baby, you're out of time

Rolled Taquitos from Clayton's 

More Rolling inspiration with these meatballs... (Here's a recipe for Grandma Maroni's Meatballs)

And Brown Sugar-inspired with Pam's Brown Sugar Cookies with Brown Sugar Frosting, Bryan and Kelley's Brown Sugar-Crusted Baked Brie, and Michele's Roast Chicken Focaccia Sandwiches with Brown Sugar-Caramelized Onions...

Brown Sugar Cookies

Brown Sugar Crusted Baked Brie

Roast Chicken Focaccia Sandwiches

A few more desserts - Under My Thumb Thumbprint Cookies aka Hershey Kiss Cookies, and Stoned Brownies, not really - the brownies were herb-free ;-)

Hershey Kiss Cookies

Brownies (safe for the kids)

And finally, more people and band photos as promised!
(Note: Captions are just for fun and nothing is implied from the songs' lyrics)

"Start Me Up"

"Honky Tonk Women"

"Street Fighting Man"

"Some Girls"

"Wanna Hold You"

"Waiting on a Friend"

Will Hyman

Rick Taylor and Keef Riffoff 

Dick Swagger

"She Smiled Sweetly"

"I Wanna Be Your Man"

"Mother's Little Helper"

"She a Rainbow"

Have a great week!