Sunday, July 18 - Surf and Turf / Zaca Mesa Syrah

Today, Laura and I indulged in a mid-afternoon dinner.  It was a big, colorful meal, a surf and turf dinner with 4 sides - grilled onion, green beans, spinach and sweet potato.

We did the usual with the lobster tail and the NY strip steak ... melted butter and paprika on the lobster and broiled for 7 minutes - teriyaki, honey and pepper on the steak.  The onion was drizzled with oil and seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled 6 minutes a side just like the steaks.  The spinach was wilted in a large frying pan and tossed with a touch of butter, salt and pepper.  The green beans were steamed for several minutes and tossed in a small frying pan with the same. Most of our veggies came from a new farmer's market that opened in Culver City called Sprouts. The lobster tails were on special this week for $4.99 each. The green beans we grew ourselves from seed in our outdoor patio garden. They were delicious!!

Our meal deserved a killer wine. We paired it with the Mesa Reserve Syrah from Zaca Mesa, an incredible central coast winery on Foxen Canyon Road in Los Olivos.  This particular vintage ... 100% syrah, ...726 cases produced ... 93 points from Wine Enthusiast .... delicious and smooth as silk.  Deep and dark in color with flavors of blackberries and smoky oak, it retails for $42 a bottle and can be enjoyed now or over the next 10 - 12 years.

Simple, easy, and delicious.

Now we're off to the movies to get our minds bent by "Inception"!!

Saturday, July 17 - Locanda Positano Review

OK, we've been gone a while. A trip to the Jersey shore with lots of yummy clambakes. Now we're back in LA-LA land, and decided to go out to dinner tonight to the newest restaurant in our neighborhood. Anything with the name "Positano" in the title, where the owners are from Florence, and everything is supposed to be fresh-fresh-fresh, sign us up!

Locanda Positano opened 3 months ago in a tiny space that used to be a dingy Mexican restaurant. It's on a less-than scenic strip of Lincoln Blvd. in Marina del Rey, a few doors down from Walgreen's. (In fact, we recommend parking in the Walgreen's lot, because parking in their lot is dodgy at best.) Make a reservation on opentable.com, because there are only 10 tables in the restaurant. The inside is decorated in shades of pale yellow and cream. It's quite charming, but the tables are very close together. You'll be greeted with a hearty "Buona Sera" when you walk through the door, and it seems like everyone working in the restaurant speaks Italian better than English. There are a few nightly specials written on a small chalkboard. We had to try the melone prosciutto with fresh mozzarella. In fact, we ate it so quickly, Laura forgot to take a picture! The melon was succulent, and the mozzarella was perfect.

We don't know our way around Italian wines as well as we do around California wines, so we asked our server for a recommendation. We love a big Amarone, but their least expensive Amarone was $88 on the wine menu. The server really didn't know what she was talking about, but recommended a Brunello that she said was similar to the Amarone. It was $60.

We weren't blown away by the wine...it was too licorice-tasting and acidic, but you can't win them all. This wine was also available but the glass, so we would have been better served by being offered a taste first before committing to the full bottle.

For our second appetizer, Laura ordered the artichoke salad and Mike ordered the simple insalata mista. Mike thought his salad was over-salted, and Laura didn't like the fact that they put red onions on the salad, because she is allergic to red onion. However, the artichoke salad -- in Italian the Carciofini Con Scaglie di Parmigiano e Arugola di Campo-- ($11.50) did not disappoint. It was quite unique and delicious. It was dressed with olive oil, lemon, salt, pepper and parmesan. It also came with a little bit of rocket (arugula) and some purple cherry tomatoes. Yum! Laura ate every bit of it as well.

For our entrees, we stuck with our favorites. Laura ordered the linguine con vongole ($18), because as she has said before, she can tell a good Italian restaurant from a bad one based on how they make either linguine vongole or a veal piccata. Mike got the seafood risotto -- the Risotto Positano -- for $20. Both our our seafood was a little disappointing. We both had a few soft and gritty pieces of clams or mussels.

The risotto was not cooked to perfection. It tasted a little bit like a rice pudding! So, both our entrees missed the mark a bit.

We were full after meal, so didn't have room for dessert. Still, dinner was $150 plus tip. Not cheap.

We couldn't help but compare Locanda Positano to Mosto Enoteca, which is right at the end of our street in an incredibly unimpressive strip mall. If anyone reading this has ever come to visit us, we have taken them to Mosto, and have never had a bad meal there. While we are always in favor of supporting local businesses, I think the next time we're craving Italian, we're going to blow our $150 at Mosto....

Sunday, June 20: Happy Father's Day

On this beautiful almost summer day, we are going to grill a filet and pair it with the wine that was the hit of our wedding. We got married a year ago at Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez. Laura fell in love with the vineyard the second she stepped foot on it. It reminded her of Provence, with its lavender bushes and rolling hills flecked with sunlight. We had a very small wedding and our dinner was in what they call the Cuvee Cave, which is a cave cut into the side of a hill. It was quite a spectacular location.

The beauty of Sunstone is all of their wines are organic. Everyone's favorite was the 2003 Eros. It's a blend of 75% Merlot, 13% Cab Sav & 12% Cab Franc. This particular year has won many awards (and 90 points from Wine Enthusiast) and retails for a fairly whopping $75. However, they have more current releases for considerably less. Don't hate on the Merlot. This is a BIG wine with a jammy, smooth finish with a hint of cocoa. Perfect for pairing with red meat.

We headed back up to Santa Ynez last weekend and stayed at a vineyard cottage that we rented from VRBO. It was a stone's throw from Sunstone, and we love that they welcomed us back with a free reserve tasting and 20% off any wines we purchased. Of course, we came away with another 2 bottles of Eros, one of which will be gone after this evening!

Friday, May 28: Chicken & Shrimp Fried Rice

This is Mike's attempt to make Laura's favorite dish to order in a Chinese restaurant, but putting our own spin on it.

CHICKEN SHRIMP FRIED RICE WITH EXTRA VEGETABLES

We had a nice boneless chicken breast in our freezer, so we defrosted it, seasoned it, grilled it, chopped it and added it to our usual shrimp fried rice dish.  It worked nicely.

Typically, when we prep this dish, we mince/dice/chop whatever fresh vegetables we have in our refrigerator.  The prep picture is from an evening when we prepared our usual shirmp fried rice.  The rest of the pictures are from this evening, when we added the chicken, mushroom and broccoli and omitted the zucchini.

Shrimp Fried Rice

Ingredients

1 cup shrimp, chopped

1/4 - 1/2 cup of any of the following, diced

onion

celery

carrot

mushroom

zucchini

radish

red pepper

broccoli

one serrano pepper, diced

on clove garlic, diced

1/2 cup rice

1 cup water

soy sauce

salt/pepper

sesame oil

Preparation

Use rice and water to cook rice according to package directions. Set aside.Heat a small amount of sesame oil in a large pan. Stir fry shrimp for a few minutes until cooked. Remove and set aside.Add another drizzle of oil to the pan and cook vegetables on high heat for a few minutes unitl softened. Remove and set aside.

Add another drizzle of oil and add rice to pan. Cook on high heat for a couple of minutes, add several shakes of soy, toss and heat another minute.

Add the shrimp and vegetables, mix thoroughly and cook for another minute.

Serve hot.

Thursday, May 27: Coq au Vin

After returning from a week in Paris for the French Open, I was inspired to recreate this French Classic for Mike. This is not Julia Child's coq. I've tried this many times and I do have to say the secret ingredient is cooking everything in bacon fat. I know, I know. But it makes all the difference in taste. I also substitute sweet (Vidalia) onion thick slices for pearl onions, but feel free to use pearl onions if that's your preference. This takes about 2 hours to make from start to finish, so give yourself plenty of time. I bought a pre-cut chicken at TJ's for about $7. Since I'm not a butcher, this was the easiest way for me. This dish is obviously wine-based, so you want to buy an under $10 Burgundy or Bordeaux to use in the recipe. Don't use pre-opened wine for this. And then you can drink what you don't use while you're preparing the dish!

 

COQ AU VIN

1 chicken, rinsed and cut into 8 serving pieces

2 cups of thickly sliced onions

6-8 strips of bacon

1 stalk of celery

1/2 cup of sliced carrot

6 fresh parsley sprigs

1 fresh thyme sprig

1 dried bay leaf

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 1/2 cups of dry French burgundy or bordeaux

3/4 low sodium chicken stock/broth

1 lb. small mushrooms, halved

1/4 cup cognac or brandy

3 tbsp. flour

1 1/2 tbsp. unsalted, softened butter

Cook bacon in large heavy skillet until it's brown but not too crisp. Transfer bacon to paper towels.

Sprinkle chicken with salt & pepper. Brown chicken in skillet with bacon fat. Depending on the size of your skillet, it might take 2 batches, so make sure you have enough bacon fat reserved for both batches. It will take about 5 minutes per side to brown the chicken. Transfer to a plate.

Cook onions in skillet, until starting to brown -- no more than 10 minutes.

Take a 5 quart pot.  Add the onions, a few pieces of chopped up bacon, the wine & the stock. Add the herbs and simmer (covered) to 10 minutes. 

Now, add the chicken to the pot and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, re-heat the bacon fat in the skillet to cook the mushrooms & carrots for about 5 minutes. Add the cognac and cook on high heat until the liquid starts to reduce, in about another 3 minutes.

Add the shrooms and carrot mixture to the chicken pot. Continue to simmer until chicken is tender and fully braised, another 30 minutes at least.

Once the chicken is cooked to your liking, remove the chicken, bacon & vegetables with a slotted spoon and place on a serving platter.

Mash the butter and flour in a small bowl. Bring the remaining liquid to a simmer and whisk in the butter/flour mixture a small but at a time. Whisk until sauce is smooth and thickened, about 2-3 minutes.

Season to taste with salt & pepper, then spoon over chicken. Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley.

Bon Appetit!

Mike thought this was the best version of this recipe I've ever made. 

In the spirit of full disclosure, I don't remember the name of the wine I picked up for this meal. It was a decent bordeaux from the St. Emilion region.

For dessert, I brought home some overpriced La Duree macaroons from Paris. They were a hit and went quickly!

Sunday, May 16: Cannelloni & Amarone

Bruschetta

8 slices baguette

3 plum tomatoes

2 cloves garlic

10 basil leaves

1 tbsp shredded parmesan

1 Tbsp evoo

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

salt/pepper

Cut tomatoes in half and remove seeds and pulp.  Dice tomato.  Mince garlic.  Chop basil.  Combine ingredients in a bowl and mix together thoroughly.  Add evoo, balsamic vinegar, salt/pepper and shredded parmesan.  Mix thoroughly. 

Slice baguette on diagonal to achieve long, thin slices.  Brush bread with olive oil and toast until lightly browned.  Top toast pieces with mixture.  Top with a thin slice of fresh mozzarella.

Laura's appertif....A Lambrusco purchased today from Trader Joe's. It sort of tastes like a wine soda. It's a little addictive, as it goes down very easily.

We also bought the Amarone we've been craving since Friday night, to have with the meal. This one is smooth, strong and tastes a lot like licorice, which can be a good or bad thing based on your tastes.


Chicken Cannelloni

Cannelloni Filling
2 chicken breasts (about 8-10 oz)
1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
¼ cup onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
16 ounces ricotta cheese
3 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
salt/pepper
12 sheets home-made pasta (4”x4”)

Cannelloni Sauce
16 ounces tomato sauce
1 cup seeded diced tomato
½ cup half and half
3 ounces shredded Parmesan cheese
5 large basil leaves, torn
Salt/pepper


Preparation
Mix together sauce, cream, basil, salt/pepper in a large frying pan and bring to a simmer. Cook chicken breasts in sauce on low heat until fully cooked. Remove from sauce and dice or shred cooked chicken.
Place chicken into a large mixing bowl. Sautee garlic, onion and pepper in hot oil for 2 minutes. Add chopped spinach, sautéed vegetables, ricotta, mozzarella, pepper and salt, and mix thoroughly.

Roll fresh pasta and cut into 4” squares.

Place two rounded tablespoons of filling mixture down the center of each pasta sheet and carefully roll pasta around filling. Coat the bottom of a baking dish with a few tablespoons of sauce. Place the rolled cannelloni, side by side, into an shallow baking dish.

Pour sauce over cannelloni covering completely. Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over top of sauce. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 20 minutes.

Remove foil and continue to bake for an additional 20 minutes. Remove from oven and serve family style or on individual plates.

Saturday, May 15: Dolsot Bibimbap

Tonight we will be making a bibimbap for dinner ... a dolsot bibimbap, to be exact.  Huh?  What the heck is a dolsot bibimbap?  Until about two years ago, I had no idea.  Then one night, Laura and I went out in our neighborhood to Wharo for some Korean barbecue. 

We ordered the typical stuff any Korean barbecue novice would order, kalbi beef and spicy shrimp for grilling.  We understood that the entrees would be served with a fine variety of Korean side dishes, including of course, kimchi.  We ordered some sake.  The server turned on our grill.  We had been to Wharo before and knew we were in for a treat.

As we sipped some sake, we spied a great looking dish at a table near us.  It looked like a sort of stir-fry - a hot stone pot filled with rice and vegetables.  However, after the server brought the food to the table, she cracked a raw egg into the pot, added a few spoonfuls of a red sauce and folded the the elements of the dish together in the pot.  You could see the food steaming and hear it sizzling.  It looked and sounded delicious.

So, we called our server over and asked him about this mysterious, delicous-looking, fun new food.  He handed us a menu and pointed to the item ... vegetable dolsot bibimbap - bean sprouts, carrot, radish, mushroom and spinach over rice, served in a hot stone pot - with egg, add $1.  We ordered one with egg ... and another carafe of sake.

When the food came, the server did as we had seen earlier.  He cracked the egg on top of the vegetables in the stone pot and asked how spicy we wanted the dish.  We're not afraid of the heat, so we told him to kick it up pretty high.  He added a few hits of the unidentified red sauce and mixed the ingredients together.  *sizzle-crackle-sizzle* 

We spooned some of this concoction out onto appetizer plates for each of us.  Delicious!  We scarfed down a few forkfuls and dove in the dolsot pot for more.  The rice was getting crispy against the sides and bottom of the bowl.  We spooned out a few more bites on each of our plates.  The rice is delicious as it continues to cook in the pot, similar to the rice in a properly prepared paella.  This rocks!  I'm hooked ... time to find some stone pots and a recipe and try this at home. 

Our bibimbap recipe has morphed over time and I can honestly say that after making it a dozen times or so, we have never used the same combination of ingredients.  We swap out and use different combinations of the meats and vegetables in the recipe depending on what we have in our refrigerator or freezer and/or what we pick up at the farmers' market or grocery store.

This can require a bit of prep, but it's worth it.  Think positively ... the more you prepare this dish, the better your knife skills will get.

Servings:

2

Ingredients:
Marinade
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp green onion, chopped
Salt/pepper to taste

6 oz. rib-eye steak, thinly sliced
6 oz. shrimp, sliced or chopped

1 cup white rice
2 cups water

1/2 portabello mushroom, thinly sliced
1 cup fresh spinach, wilted
1 cup zucchini or cucumber, julienned
1 cup carrots, julienned
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup onion, thinly sliced
4 large radishes, julienned

2 eggs

sesame oil
kochujang sauce (chili paste)


Preparation:
Make the marinade. Combine ingredients for marinade in a bowl. Add sliced beef and shrimp and refrigerate. 
Cook rice.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees and place 2 Korean stone bowls in oven for 15 minutes.
Wilt spinach in a work or large frying pan.  Set aside.
Preheat wok with sesame oil to high heat.
Cook vegetables separately until soft (i do two at a time).  Set aside. 
Cook steak/marinade mixture in wok for 4 or 5 minutes.
Remove stone bowls from oven and place on suitable heat resistant surface. Brush bowls with sesame oil. Put rice into bowls and gently pack to the bottom. Arrange the vegetables and beef over each portion of rice. Add one uncooked egg (or sunny side up egg as we prefer)  to each bowl.
Serve with Kochujang sauce.


Prepped and ready to cook.

Sabrina endorses the kochugang sauce.

The finished product.

To complement our meal tonight, we went back to our wheelhouse ... the Cambria pinot noir.  This particular bottle is a 2007 Bench Break Vineyard.  It retails for $30 and I can easily mistake it for one of the very limited production Cambria clone pinots that approach $50.   (NOTE: Sabrina is in the background pretending to watch TV ... she's just trying to get in the picture.)

This wine should work well with tonight's version of the bibimbap ... steak and shrimp in a sweet soy marinade, vegetables stir fried in sesame oil, a spicy sauce ... only a pinot can dance with such a wide variety of tastes and textures.  It worked perfectly.

P.S. We're very excited for the first Federer/Nadal clash in a year in the Madrid Masters final, tomorrow at 9:30am Pacific, only on Tennis Channel!! Feddy won the last one a year ago, but Nadal is looking like his old bad clay self. Even Sabrina is sending good energy by spending the day on the racquet Feddy gave Laura several years ago (and, yes, we keep it under the bed)....