Hedgehog Mushrooms

Here in the Bay Area we have yet to have a winter and last night I was able to make a very Spring like meal. On the menu:

~Monterey Bay Squid Salad with Arugula, Cara Cara Orange, Fingerling Potatoes and Fennel
~Local Halibut with Hedgehog Mushrooms, English Peas and Spinach Ragout

When I visited the restaurant Uchi in Austin Texas a few years ago I was very impressed by their innovated take on modern Japanese cuisine. I had a great meal there and now I can try to replicate those dishes at home with chef Tyson Cole’s new cookbook.
This is my pick for cookbook of the year for 2011. I like the section on “components” where you can create “an accessory” or “yakumi” that you can use to accompaniment other kinds of dishes. The book is beautifully photographed and has inspirational recipes to try creating at home. Like last years cookbook pick from NOMA, a lot of the ingredients will be hard to find. I would’ve liked to have seen a sources list to help me find the obscure ingredients.

It was a great weekend at the eatreal festival in Jack London Square in Oakland.  The food truck trend was in full swing and there was a great variety of different foods from the many venders.  If you missed it, make sure to put it on your calendar for next year.  My favorite plate was the fish tacos from Cholita Linda.

Coming:  Asparagus, Avocado, Fennel;

Current:  Hard Squashes, Green Beans, Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts, Citrus, Apples, Pears, Oysters, Dungeness Crab;

Waning:  Chanterelle Mushrooms, Quince, Cranberries, Pomegranates, Grapes

Waning ingredients include all stone fruit, berries, melons, corn, and all of the summer produce that was deprived of sunshine this year.

Ingredients to look for in the near future that will be coming into their peak will be chanterelle mushrooms, grapes, pomegranates, shelling beans, apples, and hard squashes.  Stay tuned for the change of the produce seasons.

When people cook bacon at home on the stovetop, it is very messy and time consuming and requires constant attention. In a professional kitchen it is often necessary to cook large amounts of bacon with limited time.

So I thought it was worth posting this method for people unfamiliar with the “secret” way of cooking bacon and who are looking for an easier, cleaner way: THE OVEN. Simply lay out the strips of bacon onto sheet pans and put into a 350 degree oven for 15-25 minutes depending on the thickness and how crispy you like your bacon. It’s best to drain off the grease halfway through and turn the strips over. You can also cook the strips on a wire rack over a sheet pan but that leaves one more thing to clean.

The two antipasti we ordered were excellent and I felt we were off to a great start when we began with the:

Rabbit confit with eggplant, pine nuts, currants & wild arugula

Squash salad with their blossoms, hen cracklings & watercress

Both dishes highlighted the seasonal produce spot on and all of the flavors came together perfectly.

For our second course we decided to bypass the pizzas and order two of the pastas, and afterwards, we wished we had ordered more of the antipasti.  The two pastas we ordered were:

Mint tagliolini with artichokes, sicilian olives & calabrian chili

Vitello & taggiasca olive raviolini with sweet onion

Both pastas suffered from a flavor imbalance due to over-seasoning.  The tagliolini was too spicy and the raviolini was to salty and that was enough to overpower the dishes to the point of being unpleasant.  When you’re dealing with subtle flavors and ingredients you have to use care when seasoning.  This was probably due to an inexperienced cook in the kitchen that night and I’d be willing to give it another try in the future.

The dining room was Mission hip and compact with a buzz of happy diners.  The service was different from most other restaurants with the servers sharing all of the duties.  This is good and bad because you’ll always have someone there when you need something, and then, you’ll also have the servers repeating a lot of the same questions.

Flour+Water is worth a trip and hopefully next time I visit everything comes together more smoothly.

I was fortunate to be dining with a large group of people and that allowed us to order almost everything on the compact menu of ten items.  Their wasn’t an item that we ordered that I wouldn’t order again.  Here’s the list:

Wood oven-baked oysters with absinthe, breadcrumbs and potato-parsley salad

Grilled tomato toast with cherry tomatoes, black-eyed peas and pounded basil

Grilled pork salad with fire roasted peppers, fried shallots and Belgian endive

Roasted duck consommé with duck lover toast and smoked duck breast

Grilled pork and herb sausages with fresh shell beans, escarole and grilled spring onion

Eggplant gratin with corn and scallion fritters, rapini and yellow lentils

Grilled local KIng salmon with Roman squash, tomato confit, green beans, black olives and preserved lemon

I look forward to my next visit from the Chez Panisse alums that are creating consistent, well crafted, rustic fare in a fun atmosphere.

The restaurant had a very nice looking interior and I’m looking forward to going back and trying it out for dinner.

You know that sous vide cooking is heading towards the mainstream when Costco starts selling the machines, and that’s a good thing. Sur la Table is also selling the Sousvide Supreme Demi in five different colors for sale online only for $299.

I will be getting one of these new machines in the near future and I’ll be reviewing it after I play around with it for a while. I have used the larger unit and think the smaller size will be better suited for a home kitchen.