Apr 22, 2010

Pairing idea: Scotch and...chocolate?

Saw this in the Seattle Metropolitan Magazine newsletter. The author was invited to a tasting event at our very own Theo's. The combination was Dalwhinnie 15-year old single-malt scotch and Theo's milk chocolate hazelnut crunch bar.

From the author of the article:
"Now, I don’t even care about milk chocolate. I can’t remember the last time I had any. But the whiskey flatters this particular milk chocolate remarkably. Flatters it like a pair of dark, skinny jeans with a lot stretch in them. Flatters it like an English accent. Flatters it like a aptitude for acoustic guitar. You know what I mean? It makes you look at Theo hazelnut crunch and want to tell it sorry, so sorry, for being kind of bored by the idea of you. For not seeing your deep, sweet, caramelized-butter beauty."

Interested? I'd totally be down for experimenting with this type of thing!
via Seattle Met Magazine

Are you afraid of butter?

Great find, Jessica! Thanks!

Apr 20, 2010

Hate cilantro?: Not your fault!

Meg sent this out recently, and I'd seen it, too - neat article discussing reasons some folks don't appreciate the verdant, aromatic deliciousness that is cilantro.

Turns out there is a chemical reason many describe cilantro as tasting like soap: Both share the same kinds of fat molecules called aldehydes. A recent Japanese study suggests that crushing cilantro leaves may allow these aldehydes to dissipate, and the article says that preparing a cilantro pesto may be a nice stepping stone to go from a cilantro hater to a cilantro lover!

via NYT

Knives Cooks Love

I saw this in the newspaper recently, and it looks kind of neat. I'll check it out next time I get over to Sur La Table!

Here's the description from Sur La Table"
We are so excited to share our passion and expertise on knives in Knives Cooks Love. In conjunction with writer Sarah Jay, we show how to select, use and care for knives so they last a lifetime. Whether you are just building your knife collection or are looking for new techniques, this book answers all your questions about choosing and using knives, including: how to judge a knife’s weight, feel, material, and balance; the difference between sharpening and honing; how to butterfly a whole chicken; plus much more. With many mouthwatering recipes to help you practice using a variety of knives and techniques, as well as advice and recommendations from renowned chefs, Knives Cooks Love is the ultimate guide to choosing and using the most important tool in the kitchen. Hardcover.

via Seattle Times

All you ever wanted to know about vinaigrettes

Fascinating article on vinaigrette, complete with experiments and photos! Answer your most burning questions: What is a surfactant? Which is the best one to use? Is vinegar the culprit when the leaves of my salad turn all funky once dressed? How can I ensure balanced flavor in every mouthful of salad? How important is emulsification? Blender, whisk, or shaker?

Here's a lovely photo from the article to inspire you to vinaigrette perfection:

via Serious Eats' Food Lab

New Slim Chips!

Designer Hafsteinn Juliusson introduced a calorie-free snack food made out of flavored paper. The chips come in peppermint, blueberry and sweet potato flavors, and are organic.
The bag reads: "Instead of getting fat you can now eat paper with flavor. It's like eating tasty air."
I don't know how they taste, but these guys appear to be enjoying them!
via Serious Eats

Apr 7, 2010

Top 10 PNW Foods Bucket List

There is really no way to improve on this, so suffice it to say that you should click here and read the entire post. I vote for perhaps organizing a KTC event around such an idea!

The short list, as a teaser, is below. But be sure to check out the "real" post for the gorgeous photos and wonderful descriptions of these Pacific Northwest favorites!

1. Shuksan Strawberries
2. Geoduck
3. Huckleberries
4. Hedgehog mushrooms
5. DuChilly Hazelnuts
6. Olympia Oysters
7. Montmorency cherries
8. Stinging nettles
9. Sea beans
10. Thimbleberries

via Chef Reinvented

Coolest project ever: The butter tree!

Who wouldn't enjoy carving an evergreen tree out of butter? Here are the instructions from this helpful article, probably published in the 70s:


  1. Take two to four sticks of butter and dip first in warm, then in cold water. Then stick them together to form a cone shape.
  2. Place the butter cone in a serving dish. Use a butter curler to ridge the cone by pulling it up lightly from the bottom of the cone.
  3. Hold the butter curler at a sloping angle and push it into the butter cone around an inch above the stand or tray on which the cone sits. Then bend the curler slightly out to form a petal. Leave about ¼ inch space between each petal and keep working in the same manner around and around the cone towards the peak.
  4. Here we show you three layers of petals completed. You can see how they alternate in their position, each above each other.
  5. In this picture we have reached the top of the cone. Now the final peak is split in two with the butter curler. The butter tree is now completed… refrigerate until serving time.
Note: After forming each petal, the curler should be dipped into a pan of boiling water before going to the next petal.

Sounds like an amazing excuse to throw a dinner party to me!

via Gastronomista

Vegfest 2010


A little bird told me that this is the largest vegetarian food festival in the country. It's this weekend in Seattle Center - only $8 for access to more than 500 free food samples to try! Anyone planning to attend?

Information here.

Giant meatball? Or...?

Hee hee, sometimes things aren't always what they seem to be!


Looks like a gigantic meatball...in reality, it is actually inside-out spaghetti and meatballs! The creative mind behind this mess baked a meat bowl in the oven, then filled it up with spaghetti and sauce, added cheese, and flipped it onto a serving plate. Wow! Or gross! Or wow-that's-kinda-gross!


via No Puedo Creer

March KTC event - Simplicity (and yumminess!) at Meg's place

March has come and gone, and somewhere within the whirlwind was a fabulous KTC event at Meg’s place. Originally conceived of as an exercise in simplicity, the idea was to have no single recipe with more than three ingredients. In execution, I believe we cheated quite a bit and ended up using more than three in many cases, but things were still relatively simply prepared, with delicious results!

The evening began with glasses of champagne and rosé for all. Special treat guests Sam and Michael joined us for a while and brought a boxload of Theo’s confections to sample and enjoy. Yum!

First order of business: to “blanch” the potatoes we planned to fry in the deep fryer. William explained the reasoning for adding this step in this way, via a subsequent email:

“Simple quick frying doesn’t work very well; it gives a thin, delicate crust that’s quickly softened by the interior’s moisture. A crisps crust requires an initial period of gentle frying, so that starch in the surface cells has time to dissolve from the granules and reinforce and glue together the outer cell walls into a thicker, more robust layer. – The most efficient production method is to pre-fry all the potato strips at the lower temperature ahead of time, set them aside at room temperature, and then do the brief high-temperature frying at the last minute.”

As you can see from the above photo, results were far greater than satisfactory. Two words: Truffle salt.

Meg had recently been in Napa and had purchased a number of wines which she generously offered for us to try. We enjoyed some incredible examples from Cuvaison (Chardonnay), Kent Rasmussen (Pinot Noir), Peju (Sauvignon Blanc), and more.

Jessica and Meg got to work preparing the chickens for roasting, which—in and of itself—was a hysterical bout of fun. These brave and fair ladies shoved fresh bay leaves under the chicken’s skin (admittedly not the chicken's best angle)...



And provided spa-quality chicken carcass massage services, as demonstrated in this video:



Once the chicken was ready for the oven, we began working on the other elements of our meal. Meg had the terrific idea of trying to recreate an oh-so-simple but oh-so-delicious salad she’d enjoyed on her recent Napa trip: arugula, carrot, mushroom, lemon juice, and truffle oil. It was heavenly!


Damian and Frank were hard at work preparing extraordinarily buttery-smelling puff pastry sheets for a lovely potato tart. They rolled and cut out what they needed, and baked the scraps up into cute little mini-puff-pastries...


Much slicing of potatoes followed, the puff pastry crusts were placed, and into the oven everything went. A short while later, it was time for step two—the addition of a custard inside the tart via a small vent which had thoughtfully been left in the top crust.

Damian separated the eggs, mastering the old “just use your hands” trick (fine advice for many a situation, to be sure)...


And then whisked the yolk into some heavy cream...


It took three of us to introduce around half of this custard mixture (all that would fit!) into the tart through this tiny hole, but I feel confident stating the effort was certainly worth the trouble. Feast your eyes...


About then, these stunning roasted chickens emerged, flanked by the Brussels sprouts we’d tucked in before slipping the pan into the oven...


The bay leaves beneath the skin were gorgeous...


Brussels sprouts were removed and placed in a bowl to admire for a while before serving...


We placed the chickens on platters to carve, which Rick masterfully performed...


Meanwhile, sensing the real action was close at hand, Fernando and Frank exhibited laudable patience. We snapped them here, in anticipation of the feast...


The herbed potato tart creation proved to be as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside (not to mention as tasty!)...


We didn’t do too badly in picking the chickens over – these bits were packaged up as giveaways for some lucky folks’ homemade stock...


The cheese course consisted of wine-stewed prunes and cheese – YUM!


Dessert was a fried frittery treat: Churros! The deep fryer was turned back on, and we mixed up the super-easy dough to load into a pastry bag...


We fried them up...


And then tossed them “luxuriously” (per the recipe!) in a sugar and cinnamon mix before holding in the warm oven until it was time to serve them...


And serve them, we did – with two kinds of chocolate sauce!


As you can see, the night was a success! Don’t forget to pass along ideas for concepts or ideas of things to learn/re-learn to William. We look forward to seeing y’all in a couple of weeks on the 25th for a super-cheesy afternoon at Shawn and Fernando’s place!

In closing, a gratuitous cool flower photo that Fernando took of Meg’s tulips...

Apr 1, 2010

Table-setting guide - on a placemat!

Of course I thought of William when I saw this product. And also of my Aunt Linda's dear friend and manners-Nazi, Gloria.

Insist on correctness at the table on every occasion - Get help from this paper placemat, which indicates the correct placement of the bread plate, the glasses, meat and/or fish knives (I'm not sure I ever knew there WAS such a thing as a fish knife!), varied forks, dessert utensils, and more.

via No Puedo Creer