Last week was my week to entertain two of my friends for Scrabble, and we had agreed from the beginning that we’d each eat lunch at home first. No pressure on the hostess except for some cookies and tea. After all, we’re getting together to play Scrabble, not to eat. But I was still sipping on a small glass of my new favorite cucumber soup (my third batch in a month) when the ladies arrived. I had plenty, so I gave both Gloria and Irene a small glass too. Gloria mentioned that it was similar to her favorite chilled zucchini soup. I promptly asked for the recipe, and the next day I had it in my hands. It is similar to the cucumber soup I make, but yet it’s different too. It’s a combo of zucchini and green onions, but this one is thickened with cornstarch, and has some curry powder to give it a little zip. And, you add a shot or two of some sweet white wine (Sauterne, if you have it) to it. So, it is different from the other one. I couldn’t wait to make it.

The recipe is very straight forward – you sauté the onions in butter, add garlic, the sliced zucchini, some chicken broth, seasonings, then whiz it up in the blender. Then you add cold milk mixed with the cornstarch, bring it up to a boil, cool, add the Sauterne, and chill. I had some good Wolfgang Puck’s chicken broth, so added that instead of using canned granules, but then I also added a little spoon of chicken bouillon concentrate. I buy it from Penzey’s, and think it’s better than any others I’ve ever used. Really good chicken flavor.

I added a goodly jolt of curry powder to it – I’d purchased a new one, and it was much hotter than I’d anticipated. So I stirred in some sour cream to the finished soup, to bring down the heat a little bit. Otherwise, I made no alterations to the soup. My DH adored it – he had two bowls of it, and he really enjoyed the heat (curry) in it. Just be gentle unless you know how hot your curry powder really is. Next time I might serve it with a little sprinkling of fresh chopped mint on top. Zucchini and mint go together well. Thyme and zucchini go together well, too, if that sounds more interesting.
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It was fun the other day when I got an email from my friend, Stacey. She’s a very busy mom with two young children, and doesn’t have a whole lot of time to catch up on email or read my blog, but when she did, she thought I might like to try this recipe. Great for a hot summer evening, she said. It came from a friend of hers, but originally appeared in the magazine, Real Simple, in July 2006. You need to plan ahead for this recipe (at least for me, I don’t always have on hand shrimp or avocadoes, or watermelon for that matter).

In the event you live in an area that hasn’t recognized the newest food craze – pairing watermelon with all kinds of savory foods – here’s your chance to try watermelon with shrimp. And maybe it’s the watermelon and onion combination that should be recognized too.

The salad is a cinch to put together once you gather all the ingredients. I bought raw shrimp because the already cooked ones didn’t look that great. Besides, the experts tell us that the raw ones, cooked fresh, have a lot more flavor. These came from Thailand, farm raised. I happened to have had some watermelon, even some limes, but I bought fresh cilantro, avocadoes and a red jalapeno. The dressing is merely lime juice, honey (I used agave nectar since it’s a lower glycemic carb), and oil. How much more simple could that be? Once everything is tossed, the recipe says to let it sit for about 10 minutes to allow the flavors to meld a bit. It was VERY difficult to let the plates sit for 10 minutes while it “melded.” I added some fresh corn (raw, scraped right off the cob) just “because.” It wasn’t in the original recipe, but I thought it would be a nice addition to the salad. My DH took one bite of this salad and went into summer nirvana. He absolutely loved it, and so did I. He said he couldn’t believe how good the watermelon went with the raw red onions – that was a surprise little combo in the mouth. This may become a regular on our summer salad menu. Thanks, Stacey.

And, in case any of you – whether you’re a personal friend or not – have a recipe you’d like to tell me about, that you wouldn’t mind if I shared on my blog – I’d love to hear about it. Email me at ctndt AT cox DOT net. I love hearing from my readers – no, I’m not too busy to read email.
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Some of the stuff from Charlie Palmer’s – the “farewell” brownie wrapped up in cellophane, matches, a biz card from the wine shop and their upcoming wine tasting calendar.

Yesterday was my birthday. Our family already celebrated my birthday (and the 4 other birthdays in our family in a 2-week period), so my DH said he’d take me out to dinner. We’d heard so much about Charlie Palmer’s, so decided to give this new restaurant a try. I give it a full five stars. It’s located inside the Bloomingdale’s store in South Coast Plaza. There’s an outside entrance also at one corner of the building.

This is a very upscale restaurant – the kind that serves an amuse bouche at no charge. Where there are several layers of tablecloths, including a silky, shiny one that puddled on the floor around our feet, and a variety of crystal glasses surrounding our place settings. The kind of restaurant that requires you to order vegetables if you want them ($7.00 per order, enough for two people). The kind of restaurant that has about 5 different people to serve you – one for water, another for cocktails, yet another to serve their fresh baked breads, the “main” waiter who takes your order, and lastly a busboy to clean up after us through all of our courses. The kind of restaurant that hands you another treat as you leave – we got a choice of popcorn or brownies.

First we were presented with a cocktail menu and their wine list. Now, when I say we were handed a wine list – well. This was in another league of wine lists. It was a tablet kind of computer (a flat panel type, measuring about 9 x 11 inches, with a stylus to meander your way around the different wine menus. The restaurant is associated with a wine shop adjacent to it, and they indicated that all the wine was charged at normal, retail prices. That’s a really nice touch! I ordered a blood orange mojito, since mojitos are a kind of favorite of mine. It was really, really special. The fresh mint, the just-right chemistry of sweet to sour (I asked them to use less sugar since I like it more tart). Dave ordered a Spanish grenache, from Las Rocas. He liked it so much he wants to buy some for our cellar.

Since this was a special evening, and we were anxious to try several things, we decided not to share anything (except the side vegetable and dessert). We ordered starters, main courses, one vegetable and one dessert. The waiter told us that the chef is a real guru in the first order when it comes to pork. Initially I was going to order their house-made pate, but having just watched a TV program last week about pork belly, I changed my mind, upon the waiter’s recommendation. My previous knowledge was that pork belly was all fat. Not so. I ordered it – “Crisp pork belly with melon, pickled onion and aged sherry vinegar.” Apparently the chef has a long cooking process for it – it was absolutely fabulous. Dave ordered their “Heirloom tomato and watermelon salad with arugula pesto, burrata and lemon verbena.” It was such a huge plate, he couldn’t eat it all. The yellow watermelon (which played a very minor role on the plate) was rubbed with a variety of spices and quickly grilled. The heirloom tomatoes were slices from several colors (red, yellow and green). There were a lot of flavors running around his plate, and the one bite I had was outstanding.

For our mains, Dave ordered their “Liberty duck breast, braised endive and toasted cumin.” I didn’t taste the duck – Dave had devoured it in a matter of minutes. It was exquisitely served. We ordered wild mushrooms as our side dish (they have 3 or 4 different mushroom preparations – they’re part of their “signature” sides). I ordered “Grilled Berkshire pork loin with sweet corn and Black Mission figs.” I couldn’t eat it all, so will enjoy the leftovers for lunch today. It was so succulent and moist, and I loved the combination with the figs, and probably a fig jus of some kind. I’d order it again in an instant.

They have an extensive dessert menu, and I was tempted, but decided just to try an order of their house-made ice cream. The waiter wanted us to order the sweet corn ice cream, but when he checked in the kitchen, he found out the pastry chef hadn’t made it yesterday, but had cognac and chocolate chip instead. Also two other chocolate flavors too. The cognac angle sounded wonderful. Almost as delicious as the ice cream was, what it was served in was almost as interesting: a triangular stand with 6 small cups, each mounded with the ice cream. It was served on a large plate with “Happy Birthday” drizzled in chocolate on the plate, and a single candle. Very understated (no singers, thank you) and subtle. All and all, a delightful dinner in every way. We will return, no question. Our dinner, including Dave’s two glasses of wine, my aperitif, all the food, was $150 not including tip.

Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale’s
South Coast Plaza
3333 Bristol St.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 352-2525
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For those of you who don’t write your own food blog, you likely don’t realize how difficult it is to photograph some foods. Notorious amongst the toughies: any food, absolutely any food that is brown. It’s blah. Indifferent. No pep or vigor to it. The trick is to get some contrast – light and dark, forward and backward interest. Color, etc. I do think about it when I’m photographing food for the blog. And then there are those times when nothing I do seems to work. Take this time.

We had salad for dinner. And yes, I have some salad dressings in the refrigerator (a store-bought mango dressing that doesn’t seem to go well on greens), and the lemonade one I made last weekend. It’s very good, and we’ve eaten it several times in the last 8 days, but it’s sweet. I wanted something savory. A quick perusal of my recipe binders and I decided on one of The Silver Palate’s staples – their Basic Vinaigrette. I’ve made it innumerable times, and always liked it. It seemed like a good fit for the clean-out-the-produce-drawer salad we had. (We attended our youngest grandson’s baptism today and had an ample lunch afterward, so we weren’t hungry for a full-blown dinner.)

I whipped up the dressing in a bowl – using my favorite O (brand) cabernet vinegar, and good French Maille Dijon mustard. I added salt, pepper, a bit of sugar (actually Splenda), some parsley (Italian) and then I drizzled in some Lucini brand olive oil. Using a whisk, I whipped until the dressing had emulsified. I haven’t looked it up, but emulsified means until it thickens – it’s when the oil and the vinegar come together and become one, like homogenizing milk.

All was going well, and then I decided I needed to photograph it. Yeah, sure. So, I poured it into a plastic bottle and did a couple of side shots of it (photo below). Blah. Brownish dressing, some smeared on the side of the jar. Not very appetizing! I poured it out on the salad, and took a picture of the salad itself. Great shot of a salad, but you would have no idea what the dressing looked like. After dinner I glanced at the empty bowl I used to whisk up the dressing, and snapped a photo of that. Perhaps more interesting than the bottle.
I’ll give you both, however. No matter what you think of the photo, the dressing is just great. Perfect for my mixed greens (watercress, some spring mix, thinly shaved fennel, radishes, celery finely minced, radicchio sliced thinly, and a bit of Greek feta cheese). We had some leftover rib-eye steak which I sliced thinly and lapped that on top of our salad. Okay, so I’m done ranting now about photographing brown food. Tell me you got the picture? Comments are always appreciated!
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It intrigues me, always, when I read a recipe and find some new or different technique. Such was the case with this recipe. It’s not exactly an innovative instruction, but normally you don’t cover a cobbler or cake while it’s baking. In this case, you cover it with oiled foil for half the baking and uncover for the second half. And this fruit pudding cake requires about 80-90 minutes of baking. That’s a heck of a long time.

Before we get to the recipe itself, I want to talk about peaches and nectarines for a minute . . . I know (because Carolyn knows all, tee, hee) that some of you, my good readers, who subscribe or use a reader, chose not to read my instructional pieces about how to buy great fruit and vegetables (I’ve done two so far – peaches/nectarines, and cucumbers). I suppose in the big scheme of things, I shouldn’t care, but I’m merely telling you, it’s worth the reading. Really it is. (If you want to read it now, just click on the links above to go to each of those posts.) I’ve learned things from the book this info has come from. In this case, when I was shopping for peaches, I remembered what Russ Parsons had told me – and I’m doing this from memory – firstly that peaches and nectarines are interchangeable, for all intents and purposes, (okay, good so far, so I chose nectarines) – then he said choose the white-fleshed fruit if it’s available (check), and choose fruit that has less rosy tinges to them – in other words, choose the more yellow skinned rather than the red skinned (I did my best, check). Once home, I placed them on the kitchen counter (check) for about 4 days, actually, until they were perfectly ripe. That day wasn’t one when I could use them, so I popped them in a plastic bag and into the refrigerator (check). It’s been 3 or 4 more days since I did that, and amazingly, they were perfectly okay once I removed them from cold storage. I’m a happy camper.

I haven’t done much cooking of late. No particular reason, other than I’ve been busy doing other things (like painting, for instance, going to my weekly art class, shopping, going out to lunch with friends, movie-going to see Mama Mia). And, we had lots of leftovers in the refrigerator. I don’t mind leftovers at all, and my DH is wonderful about eating them. In fact he rags on me something fierce whenever we have to throw out something. Alas, we do now and then. But our refrigerator, finally, is more or less bare. Well, that’s not exactly a truthful statement. If you opened my frig you’d find nearly all shelves half full – of bottles and jars of things that have to be refrigerated all the time (pickles, dressings, marinades, mustards, some liqueurs, crème fraiche, still some Devon cream leftover from the tea about 6 weeks ago, oils, jams, condiments, hot peppers, and on and on it goes). The vegetable drawer is crammed full too, as well as the shallow cheese/salami drawer. Of course, there’s also some milk, fat-free half and half, some cream, sour cream, fresh salsa, and lots of Greek yogurt too.

So, now we get to talk about the recipe. Sorry for the diversion . . . I went to my recipe trove and searched for something to do with the nectarines. Out popped this recipe. I adore pudding cakes – you’ll find that I posted a lemon sponge cake and a gingerbread pudding cake in months past, both really tasty. I’d never made a peach (well, nectarine) one. First I peeled and sliced (and measured) the nectarines. I took two little slices to taste – oh my goodness were they fabulous. Now, a slight confession: the original recipe called for 4 cups of sliced fruit. I had 4 rather smallish nectarines, and I thought I’d be lucky to have 3 cups. Actually, it was a bit over 2 cups. So, I halved the recipe. The list of ingredients, when halved, was difficult (I hate it when you have to measure 7/8 of a cup or 3/8 of a cup). So, the recipe you’ll see below is the full 9×13 size, since I didn’t think you guys would want to have to do all the odd-estimating measurements, either. I baked mine in an 8-inch round cakepan. I don’t own an 8-inch square pan (just a 9-er), so figured the 8-inch round cakepan would be a better use of the volume/space.

The recipe appeared in Bon Appetit, in August of 2007. It was in the column where people write in to ask for restaurant recipes. When I searched online for it, it wasn’t AT the epicurious website (odd), but I did find it at somebody else’s food blog. Before I made it I wanted to read what others thought of it. Several people who have eaten at the restaurant, and had moved away from Austin, were thrilled to find the recipe online (per the comments to the blog). Apparently the pastry chef at this restaurant is Asian, as the recipe on the menu is called Wom Kim’s Peach Pudding.

Remember, pudding cake is a unique chemistry – the batter separates into a pudding layer, and also has a second layer more resembling a cake. When this pudding cake was sliced and served, it didn’t have much ooze left (probably because I baked it too long). In this particular recipe you spread the batter into the baking dish, then spoon the freshly sliced peaches/nectarines on top. Once baked, the fruit has settled (mostly) to the bottom and the cake is on top. In my instance, since I was using a smaller vessel, I cut down the baking time. Next time I’ll bake it less time. You can see from the collage of pictures, the one with the shiny center is halfway through the baking – from then I probably needed to bake it about 30 minutes and check it with my tester in 5-minute increments. And next time I’ll know to make the full 9×13 glass pan full, and to have at least 8 peaches or nectarines on hand to make it!

The results? It was delicious (is that my most favorite word on this blog? sorry . . .). Ahem. It was very good, but I think the cake overpowered the delicate flavor of the nectarines, though. If you want straight, unadulterated peach or nectarine flavor, cut them up and serve with cream or eat out of hand. If you don’t mind the mingling of flavors (the cake part was a bit crunchy on top – which was a great texture  . . . I liked it, it was perfectly baked, a bit darkened around the outside edges from sugar caramelization, just as the recipe recommended). I served it with a small globe of vanilla ice cream rather than whipped cream – I wanted the cold contrast.
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