Recipe: Salmon Nirvana

What a glorious time in the Pacific Northwest! Salmon season has begun with the highly anticipated arrival of Copper River Chinook and Sockeye. Last night, I picked up some Sockeye -- which I believe to be one of the world's greatest delicacies. At the moment, I do not have a grill, so I prepared it my next favorite way, pan-fried. Wild salmon is best when it is just simply prepared. It doesn't need any sauces or even much seasoning. The beauty is in the way you cook it. It always makes me crazy when you go out to dinner, and the wild salmon on the menu is covered in a an orange glaze or has a butter sauce on it. Why? Leave it alone, cook it properly, and taste it in all its natural goodness.

I improvised this salad to go with it, and it turned out spectacular: arugula, shaved asparagus, cherry tomatoes, red onion, sliced Sicilian-style green olives, and toasted pine nuts. I put this all in a bowl and made lemon juice and olive oil dressing. I then added a shake of salt, pepper, and oregano.

Add a good glug of olive oil to a hot pan, and season your salmon with a dash of salt and pepper. I place the salmon skin side up first to get a nice crisp color on the top. Cook like that for a few minutes then flip it over, skin side down. When I have a piece with a good bit of the thin belly of the fish, I take that off first, because it cooks in a few minutes and is the best part of the fish. I don't want that to be overcooked! Just take your spatula and lift that part off the skin. Now cook the rest of it for about 5 more minutes (depends on the thickness of the fish). You can put a lid on it so it cooks through a little faster. You want the texture of the salmon to be moist, and it should practically melt in your mouth -- better undercooked than over-done. It will continue cooking once you pull it off the heat. (Overcooked salmon will stick to your teeth, and you will be searching in your cabinet for ingredients to make an orange glaze!) If cooked right, it will be like butter, and you will be in salmon nirvana.

Recipe: Seared Albacore w/ Lemon Garlic Olive Oil and Fresh Herbs

This is one of our favorite things to eat and because it is so easy, it is regularly on our dinner menu. Get yourself a nice piece of albacore tuna. (It is my choice for this, but you could also use ahi.) Pull it out of the fridge about 20-30 minutes before searing. During this time, make your dressing that will go on top: whisk together some olive oil and fresh lemon juice. You want about 3 parts high quality olive oil to one part lemon juice. Finely sliver a clove or two of garlic, and chop a small handful of fresh mint and oregano. Add it all to the lemon olive oil with a dash of salt and pepper. That's all. Just let it sit until your fish has been seared.

Add some olive oil to a hot pan. Season the fish with salt and pepper and get your sear on. You will be able to see when the fish is ready to turn. It will start getting white up the side of the fish. You want to keep a nice pink ribbon in the middle. Once you think you have a good crust, flip and cook the other side the same. Do not overcook it! You want the middle to be almost raw. Once you plate the albacore, it will continue to cook a little. Spoon the olive oil and lemon dressing over the top of the fish and dive in. We usually have this with a spinach or kale salad. It's also splendid with a side of capellini pasta and some of the dressing mixed in.

Here it is with a side of sesame kale chips. For the kale chips, heat an oven to 400 degrees. Coat some chopped Lacinato kale in olive oil and season with Gomasio and pepper. Bake until crisp, about 12 minutes for a healthy and delicious side or snack.

Wild, Sour, and Funky!

In anticipation of tonight's Sour Fest at Brouwers Cafe, I decided to give a rundown of some of my favorite sour/wild ales that are available in bottles. Sadly, my favorite beer of all time, Rodenbach Grand Cru, is missing from this list because it has not been available in Seattle since last October. Today, Sour ales are generally Belgian-style beers that are spontaneously fermented and aged in wooden barrels for several months or years. There are many different styles from Flanders red and brown, to gueuze and other lambics. I also really enjoy wild ales. They are not quite sour ales, but they display some of the same characteristics, because they are brewed with the addition of brettanomyces -- a yeast strain that gives the beer a funky taste and is also added to many sours. I am no expert on the subject, I just know that these are among some of my favorite beers to drink. Because they are barrel aged, be prepared to spend more than you would for one of those genuine drafts. There is a wealth of material online about sour ales, where you can learn more about the history and styles. 

Bockor Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge was my introduction to sour ales and remains the most sour I've tasted. It has just become available in bottles, and I've seen it many places on tap in the past. This is a great example of a Flanders red ale. It is mouth-puckering with a nice cherry flavor -- not too sweet, like some sours that I am not crazy about. It is around $6 a bottle, so you will want to savor every eye-twitching sip. Rodenbach Grand Cru is also a Flanders red which is cheaper and not quite as sour. These are two of my favorites. 

Sanctification is brewed by Russian River in California. They have gained quite a following and are revered as one of the top breweries in the US. They do a few different types of sour ales. Sanctification is brewed with 100% brettanomyces, and I have only had one bottle of this. Russian River sours are amazing beers, and if it wasn't for the price they would be my beer of choice. Because a lot of time goes into producing a beer like this, all of their sours are about $12 for a 12 oz. bottle. If you can do math, that is $1 per ounce! They are more of a special occasion type beer, unless you are George Clooney. This has a good amount of funk and is slightly sour.

Supplication and Consecration (not pictured) are my favorite Russian River beers -- really incredible sours that will have you trying to find things to celebrate. Supplication is aged in Pinot Noir barrels for one year with sour cherries added. Consecration is aged in Cabernet barrels with currants added. These are both some of the most complex and tasty beers I've ever tried. You can really taste the wine barrels, and they are both perfectly sour. They even have a hint of a brandy-like quality. Start a beer piggy bank and save up for a Russian River party! I have also had another of their sours called Temptation (also not pictured), which is aged in Chardonnay barrels. While it is also a beer for the kings, if I have $12, I am spending it on one of the other three.

Lindeman's Cuvee Rene is a gueuze style of beer from Belgium. This is a great summer refresher with a taste somewhat like slightly sour champagne -- nice and light with a dry funkiness. I love this style and have not had many others, because some of them are really steep in price. This one is about $6 for a 12 oz. bottle and is regarded as a solid offering of the style without breaking the bank.

Liefman's Goudenband is my least favorite of the beers on this list. It is a sour brown ale closely resembling Duchesse De Bourgogne, which is probably one of the most popular sours. Nowadays, everyone seems to be drinking a Duchesse. It is both light on sour and heavy on sweet. This style reminds me of a cherry coke and, while it is refreshing, it's just not that interesting to me. Perhaps it would be a good choice for an introduction to the wild, sour, and funky. Monk's Cafe (not pictured) is another one to seek out if you like a sweeter style of sour.

Petrus Aged Pale is my most frequently purchased sour ale. Once I couldn't find Rodenbach Grand Cru anymore, I was really excited to discover this beer at Seattle's best Belgium bar, The Stumbling Monk. I even persuaded a few local grocery stores to carry it. I thought this was the sourest of the bunch, until I revisited Jacobins Rouge. Petrus Aged Pale is a very crisp, refreshing ale that is simply sour. At around $4 a bottle it is also one of the cheapest. This is a spectacular beer that I am happy to drink anytime. You can pay 4 bucks (including tip) for a tall boy of PBR at the local Streamline -- I will stay at home and have a Petrus on the porch.

Reinaert Wild Ale is not really a sour, but it's another one of my favorite styles of Belgian beers. It's basically a strong ale brewed with that wild strain of brettanomyces yeast that I love. This one is a good value, at around $10 for a 750 ml bottle. It is also 9% abv so you can definitely get your funk on after you crack open a bottle.

Warning: I don't recommend trying all of these in one night! 

LloydMartin & the Dead Milkmen

A few weeks ago, my friend Reece and I had what I considered my best meal of the past year at LloydMartin. Located on the top of Queen Anne hill, it is thankfully way closer to where I live than most eateries. As this article eloquently explains, the LloydMartin menu rotates according to what's local, fresh, and inspiring each day. That night, Reece and I enjoyed arugula salad with bacon, dates, goat cheese, and spiced pecans; cavatelli pasta with a farm egg, asparagus, pea vines, and fonduta; bruschetta with mozzarella and fava beans; veal meatballs with oyster mushrooms; and gnocchi in a marsala wine sauce. We enjoyed unpretentious service and candle-lit, church-pew atmosphere.

Jay and I returned there last night before a Dead Milkmen show at El Corazon. Preparing for some punk rock sweat and confinement for three hours, we ordered light. Jay had poached frog legs with capellini pasta, currants, and pine nuts with riesling, while I had wagyu beef with truffled potatoes, asparagus, and a foie bearnaise. We shared the cavatelli, which Jay referred to as "glorified mac n cheese" -- glory well-deserved, I say!

Unfortunately, this was a case of the first time being so amazing that a subsequent visit is comparatively disappointing. The wagyu was described as a coulotte cut, so I asked the waitress if that was like a beef skort steak! She didn't understand, explaining that she was "born in '88". (I immediately took this as a dig and held it against her.) The portions were smaller than the price justified, and the best part was the starter. Jay thought his frog legs were tough and a bit boring, compared to pan-fried varieties he's had in the past. It was the priciest light dinner of all time, including the increasingly expensive Harvest Vine. We enjoyed our food, but it was slightly underwhelming.

LloydMartin chef Sam Crannell has a homemade ethic, tweaking variations every day -- which I very much respect -- however, not every night can be a winner. On the other hand, the Dead Milkmen show was phenomenal -- the kind of band that's better after 20 years and bring as much excitement and fun as in the good old days -- when culottes were an unfortunate fashion trend, not a culinary one. We were still hungry when we got to the show, so it's a good thing they were serving up some surfing cow. 

Battle: NY Pastrami

Oh my! How can anyone ingest such a monstrous pastrami sandwich from one of NY's legendary delis? Yet, you look around, and it seems everyone is doing it -- even with a side of fries! Regan and I decided to split one. We knew if we would've tried to knock one down each, we would have had to sleep it off on the sidewalk out front. Katz's is perhaps NY's most famous pastrami sandwich, and with good reason. It has been in business since 1888 and continues to draw hordes of drooling folks looking for the ultimate NY sandwich.

They slice all their pastrami by hand and what you get is a thick pile of juicy, smoked beef served on rye bread with deli mustard. They also give you an enormous pickle and a couple pickled green tomatoes, just in case the 2-pound sandwich wasn't enough for ya! The sandwich carries a hefty price tag at $15.75, but when you consider it could almost feed a family of four, this is quite a bargain.

We really enjoyed Katz's, and no trip to NY is complete without trying it once. On our next visit to NY the following year, we had finally digested the pastrami and decided to give another much-loved deli a chance for best pastrami in the city. 2nd Ave. Deli is a proper kosher deli that first opened in 1954.

Walking in, you can see the love put into the deli case. 

This place feels like a neighborhood gathering spot and doesn't have the full-on tourist vibe like Katz's. Cozy little booths adorn the interior. You get the feeling that over your shoulder you may hear Frank and Estelle Costanza ordering tuna on rye and complaining about the booth they are in.

The pastrami is sliced super-thin but piled as high as the one at Katz's. Now it just becomes a matter of personal preference. I loved this pastrami and prefer the thin, melt-in-your-mouth version at 2nd Avenue. Regan also agrees that this is the superior version of the east coast heart clogger. We again split the sandwich, but all around us people were shoveling down the entire thing! 

We were so full -- but what the hell! -- we were only in NY for a short while, so we ended the perfect pastrami sandwich with a piece of warm, chocolate babka. That created in Regan an obsession for finding an authentic West Coast babka that even came close -- a desire that remains to be fulfilled. Now we know why Jerry and Elaine didn't want to settle for anything less. ("Might as well get a Mengele!")

Recipe: Seared Halibut Cheeks w/ Cucumber-Kale Salad and Crispy Potato Rings

Monday night: Regan's new spiral slicer arrived!

I'd bought some halibut cheeks and a cucumber earlier in the day. Back at home, I had some lacinato kale, a couple Roma tomatoes, and a red onion. I sliced the kale into thin slices chiffonade-style, along with a small amount of radicchio. I cut up a few slivers of red onion and the Roma tomatoes (without the innards) and added a couple cloves of freshly chopped garlic. Regan spiral-sliced me a good-sized cucumber, and I added all that jazz together, along with a nice swirl of olive oil and balsalmic vinegar. (Spanish sherry reserve vinegar is a great balsamic substitution, and it is cheaper than a high quality balsamic. )

Now it was time to cook the cheeks. I pulled them out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking, and seasoned them with a little salt and pepper. I got the pan nice and hot and added some olive oil. I'm working with an electric stove top that doesn't like to cooperate. Sometimes it gets too hot and other times not hot enough. Just try your best to get a nice brown color on the fish and flip it after a few minutes. The key is not to overcook the fish and to get a nice sear and crispness on the outside.) This time I didn't quite achieve maximum searing, but at least the fish was not overcooked and still tasted great.

For the finish, Regan spiral-sliced a potato into thin curls that I soaked in water and air- and towel-dried. I threw those into an oven at 425 degrees until nice and crisp. This helped compensate for the lack of proper searing of the halibut. I plated the salad, added the halibut, and placed the crispy potato rings on top of the halibut.

Ingredients (for 2 people)
4-6 halibut cheeks
1 potato
1 large cucumber
1/2 bunch of lacinato kale
1/4 head radicchio
2 roma tomatoes
a few slices of red onion
balsamic or Spanish sherry reserve vinegar
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
olive oil
salt, pepper

Ristorante Doria & the BJM!

This weekend, we had tickets to see The Brian Jonestown Massacre in Seattle's U-district at a venue which once housed the Neptune movie theater. We don't get to this area very often, and we were looking for a nice pre-show dinner with our good mates Alex and Laura. Ristorante Doria is a place we've wanted to try for awhile. It used to be another Italian restaurant called Mamma Melina's, where we had dined a few years ago. Mamma Melina's was decent, but word was that Doria was magnifico!

We were greeted by a waiter with a thick Italian accent. The service couldn't have been better. However, I do think he must've known that we have this spectacular blog. We started by sharing a couple appetizers. We had a Caprese salad and Zuppeta di Gamberi alla Toscana (prawns in a spicy tomato broth with spinach and garbanzo beans). They were both well prepared, and tasted like a good.

Doria's menu is about as basic as it gets for an Italian restaurant. Not a lot of unusual dishes, just straight-up classics done simply, and all at a great price. None of us wanted to over-indulge, because we would be doing the mashed potato at the rock n roll show. Between the four of us, we shared two entrees. I let Regan decide for us, and she chose one of her favorite dishes -- Saltimbocca alla Romana (veal). I don't think I'd ever had it before, so I couldn't really judge it against other Italian restaurants. I thought it was splendido! Nice flavors of sage and prosciutto complimented the tender scallopine. It came with a delicious side of penne in a tomato cream sauce. The picture above is half of the dish (they split it for us), plenty for one person! If I 'd eaten the whole thing, I would've felt like Dom DeLuise!

Alex and Laura split the Penne alla Puttanesca. I tried a nibble, and it was definitely a robust gathering of anchovy, capers, and olives. They both enjoyed it and said that it was spicy, tangy, salty, and tasted like it was prepared by one sultry puttana. All the food went lovely with a good bottle of Nero D'Avola. The wine list is also simple and on the cheaper side. Most bottles are around $28.

After our meal, chef and owner Marcello came out of the kitchen to ask if everything was okay. Again, I think he might've thought we were some sort of food gurus that could take down his kitchen with one negative word about the quality of his tomatoes. We skipped dessert, wiped the sauce from our lips and headed for the stairway to the best party in the universe.