I confess to reading cookbooks like some people read good novels.  I like simple home cooking from different countries; as long as it has a lot of flavor, it will be a hit in my family.  Recently I tracked the career goals my children mentioned over the past year.  Two of them mentioned chef and the other, my little gourmand, said she wanted to be a food critic.  You can bet it’s difficult to cook a meal that pleases everyone!  These recipes have passed the test and I have included the cookbooks that were the inspiration behind the dish.  Enjoy and please share your favorite meals!

I have a few cookbook author favorites but Nigella Lawson is probably my favorite cookbook author of all time.  She can cook ANYTHING and she’s also a mom so her expectations are reasonable.  She has cooking show on Style network that is worth taping. 

I love her cookbook Nigella Express, 130 Recipes for Good Food, Fast.  Now, she’s English, so she have a fondness for English mustard and peas that I don’t share but that is not to say that there aren’t great recipes that are easy and delicious.  To buy any book, click on the image of the book to purchase at Amazon.com.

Steak with Lemon

1 1/2 pounds of steak, London Broil is great or Sirloin but any kind of steak is fine

1 lemon squeezed

1/3 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, bruised and minced.

Cook the steak on a grill pan on the stove until medium rare (or more if that is what you prefer.)  Let the steak rest for 10 minutes in the marinade made of remaining ingredients.  Slice the steak thinly and serve with marinade over white rice that you’ve made in a rice cooker. 

TIP:  If you want to mix brown rice with white rice, soak the brown rice overnight.  It will cook at the same rate as the white rice in the rice cooker.

Serve with fruit for the kids or sliced cucumbers and tomatoes.  Or a mozzarella, tomato salad would be nice too.  Just slice the mozzarella cheese and tomatoes and alternate slices on a plate.  Drizzle with aged balsamic vinegar (the best you can afford) and sea salt (Maldon is my favorite).

My kids have asked me to make this chicken pasta dish for them again and again. It’s just chicken piccata served with pasta.  I’ve modified a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated The New Best Recipe.  This is a great reference cookbook.  The good folks at Cook’s Illustrated have tried every variation to come up with the best, tastiest and easiest recipes.  Just follow the recipe to a T to get the same results.  Cook’s Illustrated has a great monthly magazine my husband and I love that we call the anal-retentive cooking magazine.

Chicken Piccata Pasta

1 package chicken breasts, boneless & skinless.  Organic is best.

1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil to fry chicken in

2 lemons, slice one into thin circles and squeeze the other

1 cup chicken broth; 2 garlic cloves, minced; 1 teaspoon corn starch

1 package whole wheat linguine

First boil water for the pasta.  Cook the pasta while attending to the chicken.  Fry the chicken breast in a little butter (about 1 tablespoon) and a little olive oil (about 1 tablespoon) on medium-high heat.  Remove when done, flipping once; about 5 minutes in total or 2 1/2 minutes on each side.  Remove to a plate and rest for a few minutes.  Add the chicken stock, garlic, the lemon slices and juice and a teaspoon of corn starch, and cook down until thickened.  Cut the chicken up into bite size pieces and add back to the pan with the sauce.  Serve over whole wheat pasta such as linguine. 

My husband created this easy and delicious teriyaki sauce recipe by combining a few different recipes.  You can store the leftover sauce in the refrigerator for a very long time and it’s great for chicken or salmon.  We frequently have play dates over for this dinner and everyone seems to like it.

Teriyaki Sauce

1/2 cup sake

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce (we use Kikkoman brand, low sodium)

1/4 cup mirin (a sweet sake; available at asiangrocer.com)

Put the sake in a small sauce pan on medium-high heat and cook until the liquid is reduced by half. (you are burning off the alcohol).  Add the remaining ingredients and stir to dissolve the sugar.  Simmer for 5 minutes and it’s ready to use.

Chicken Teriyaki

This meal idea came from the Bento Box cookbook.  It’s very simple:   to one package of chicken thighs (bone-in or boneless, skinless), add 1/2 cup of the teriyaki sauce , two handfuls of baby carrots and 1/4 inch slices of potato into a skillet and cook on medium heat, flipping a few times, until the chicken is done and the sauce has reduced to a nice, glossy consistency.  Boneless chicken thighs will take about 10-12 minutes and bone-in will take an extra five minutes or so.  Serve with rice. 

Salmon Teriyaki

1 pound salmon steaks or fillets

Lightly salt the salmon and cook in a 350 degree oven for about 7-10 minutes for a thin fillet or about 15 minutes for a thicker salmon steak.  Remove from oven and pour about 1/4 cup of teriyaki sauce as the fish cools.  Serve with rice or, if you want to get fancy, try this soba noodle salad.  The soba salad is perfect for warm weather.  My kids love it but they remove most of the veggies.  No matter, soba noodles are made from buckwheat and are a good source of fiber.

Soba Noodle Salad

12 ounces soba noodles

Julienne (cut into match sticks) the following:  1/2 English cucumber, 1 red bell pepper, 1 or 2 carrots

sauce:  1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 tablespoons sesame oil (toasted Asian kind NOT clear kind), 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.

Follow the package directions and cook the noodles.  Drain and run under cold water.  Add to bowl with the julienned vegetables.  When you are ready to eat, toss everything with dressing and eat immediately.

One of my closest mom friends is Cuban and we’ve been enjoying Cuban food since we’ve met her.  We both cook from In a Cuban Kitchen, by Alex Garcia, a well-known food channel chef and host.  Everyone in my family loves it when it’s sandwich night.  These are no ordinary sandwiches…they are Cubano style.  The reason why this is an easy dinner is that you can marinade several pork  loins on the weekend and freeze them.  For a weeknight dinner, simply remove from freezer before you go to work and roast in the oven for an hour.  Pick up a few baguettes on the way home (our family of 5 needs two), and dinner is a snap.  I have added some fancy condiments that you can either make in advance, buy a jarred version or forego.  This particular recipe is inspired by the Pernil Asado recipe.  This recipe is for one pork loin, so double or triple if you want to make ahead and freeze.  I usually make three at a time; one for now, two for later.

 Cubano Sandwiches

1 pork loin (I buy them from Trader Joe’s because they are the right size)

marinade:  1 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, 1 large orange (or substitute three or four clementines if you have them lying around going bad), 1 lemon, 1 lime (or use 2 lemons or 2 limes if that is what you have in your fridge), 5 cloves garlic minced fine, two pinches of cumin,  1 tablespoon salt and freshly ground pepper, 1 bay leaf crumbled.

Rinse and dry the pork loin and put in a large zip lock bag.  Add the marinade and leave in the refrigerator overnight.  RESERVE the marinade, drain the roast and place on a baking sheet covered in foil.  Roast in a 350 degree oven for about an hour.  Rest for 10 minutes then slice thinly.  Put the marinade in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Cook for a few minutes then pour over the sliced meat.  Serve with a baguette, cut into “subway” sandwich lengths.  Condiments include Dijon mustard, roasted & marinated red bell peppers, and carmelized red onions. 

 I do love Suzanne Goin’s cook book, Sunday Suppers at Lucques.  The recipes are not easy dinners but they are delicious.  This is a riff off her Roasted Bell Peppers.  My version is easier.

3 red bell peppers, broil until charred on all sides (keep flipping).  Put in a covered bowl, then remove seeds and skin but reserve juices.

Put roasted bell pepper slices in a glass container with the reserved juices, 2 thinly sliced cloves of garlic, a slug of good, aged balsamic vinegar and about 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar.  You want enough liquid to cover the peppers.  Add salt to taste.  Keeps in the refrigerator for a week or so.

Carmelized Red Onions

Slice a large red onion into fine circles and place in a saute pan.  Add about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and cook over medium heat until the onions soften.  Add the juice of a lime and lower the heat until the onions are a carmelized brownish color.  This takes about 12-15 minutes. 

Carne Picada Burritos

This recipe is from my all-time favorite magazine, Saveur.  I think I clipped this recipe more than 10 years ago.  It’s from the H & H Coffee Shop in El Paso.  My kids love meals where they can make it themselves.  Getting good tortillas is difficult in the North-East where we live.  Try the handmade flour tortillas at Whole Foods.

Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add 1 diced peeled yellow onion and cook until translucent, about 15 minutes.  Trim 1 pound of tri-tip steak and cut into 1/2 inch dice.  Add to onions.  Increase heat to high and brown meat for 2 minutes.  Add 2 diced tomatoes (canned is fine; freeze remainder for another use), and add 1-3 cloves of minced garlic (we like it garlicy).  Crumble in 2 cubes of beef bouillon (secret ingredient!), and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Serve with warm flour tortillas.  Makes 4-6 burritos.

Here are some Saveur Cookbooks.  I don’t have these cookbooks because Saveur is the only magazine I save so I already have all the recipes.

 Marinated Rib Eye Roast

This will be our Christmas dinner.  It’s from an out-of-print Junior League California cookbook; I think from the Los Angeles area.  Our holiday cards are little recipe books and this recipe was in our first one about 10 years ago.  We still have friends that will call, years after receiving our card, and say they are making this recipe.  It’s easy because most of the time is not active time, but sooo delish!

1 5-pound boneless rib eye roast; we also like bone-in, we get 3 bones to have yummy leftovers

1/2 cup coarsely cracked pepper (sadly, you must crush in mortar and pestle; we tried other methods but it’s not the same)

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon

1 cup soy sauce (Kikkoman brand, low sodium is fine)

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon paprika

4 cloves garlic, minced

Place roast in a large zip lock bag.  Combine pepper and cardamon and press firmly all around roast.  Combine soy sauce, vinegar, tomato paste, paprika and garlic. Pour over roast and marinade overnight, turning occasionally.

Remove roast from marinade and discard marinade.  Be sure to scrape off the pepper.  Place roast in a roasting pan.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Roast for 1 hour & 15 miutes  for the 5 pound roast or until meat thermometer registers 140 degrees for rare or 160 degrees for medium.  Rest for 15 minutes and then carve.

 Vietnamese Grilled Chicken or Beef (a.k.a.  Vietnamese Burritos)

This is another kid pleaser.  We had playdates who are a little picky try this and they all loved it.  I think it’s because it’s a do-it-yourself meal so it’s fun for kids to make their own wraps.  I clipped this recipe a long time ago, but I suspect it’s from Bon Appetit Magazine. It’s actually a riff off Lemongrass Beef or Lemongrass Chicken, but I never seem to have fresh lemongrass.  No one seems to notice it’s missing either.

2  tablespoons sugar

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3/4 teaspoon corn starch

1 pound flank steak, thinly cut OR 1 package chicken breasts, thinly cut into strips

1/4 cup Vietnamese fish sauce

Combine everything and refrigerate overnight, turning occasionally.  Discard marinade and fry in a saute pan on medium-high heat, about 1-2 minutes per side.

Serve with:  1/2 head bib lettuce; 1 English cucumber, julienned; 2 carrots, julienned; sprigs of fresh mint leaves; sprigs of fresh cilantro; and 16 rond rice-paper wrappers, 6 inches in diameter.

To make:  put a large bowl of warm water on the table.  Take the rice-paper wrapper which will be still like card board and dip into the water making sure the wrapper gets completely covered in water.  Drain excess water and put on your plate.  In a few minutes, it will be soft and pliable.  Add whatever combo of things you want to eat.  Roll up like a burrito and eat. 

If you would like a Vietnamese dipping sauce, then combine 1 tablespoons of sugar, juice of a lime, and 1/4 cup fish sauce.  Stir to dissolve.

This is a great reference for Vietnamese cooking; the  cookbook author is an editor for Saveur Magazine. 

Panko-Breaded Pork Chops or Chicken Tenders

A mom friend gave me this recipe and the spinach lasagna recipe; both are easy and delicious.

1 large egg

1 cup Japanese bread crumbs (panko), in the Asian section or www.asiangrocer.com

2-3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  A wonderful source of the best Parmesano Reggiano is FormaggioKitchen.com.

1/2 tsp salt and freshly grated pepper

1 teaspoon minced sage (if your kids don’t freak out about green stuff) for pork; 1 teaspoon minced thyme for the chicken

Four 3/4 inch-thick pork chops; about 1/2 pound each and pounded flat to about 3/8 inch thick. 

Beat the egg in a shallow dish.  Mix the panko, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and herbs in another shallow dish.  Dip the pork or chicken first into the egg and then coat with panko mixture.  Bake in an oven, preheated to 350 degrees, for about 15-17 minutes until golden.  Serve with a wedge of lemon for adults and ketchup for kids.

To make this a fun dipping dinner, serve with sliced English cucumbers, baby carrots and ranch dressing.  My kids also like sliced apples that they dip into a mixture of cinnamon & sugar.

Easiest Spinach Lasagna

Barilla brand baking sauce, one jar

No cook lasagna noodles

1 package pre-washed baby spinach leaves, uncooked

1 tub marscapone cheese

1 tub cottage cheese

In a large baking dish, pour a generous layer of baking sauce and add a layer of lasagna noodles.  Add another layer of sauce, and spread a thin layer of both the cottage cheese and marscapone cheese.  Squish down a layer of the spinach.  Do this again until everything is used up ending with lasagna noodles with sauce on top.  I get 3 layers of lasagna noodles.  Cover with foil and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about an hour.

Pork Chops with Roasted Parsnips, Pears and Potatoes

I clipped this recipe from Vogue a long time ago.  It’s a Jaime Oliver recipe, a.k.a. The Naked Chef.  If I recall correctly, he made this for Tony Blair, then the Prime Minister.  The original  recipe is for 8 so I’ve halved it for 4.  I haven’t read Jaime Oliver’s recent cookbooks, but I used to watch The Naked Chef religiously.  He’s a disciple of  The River Cafe, so I’ve included their cookbook as well because I believe they are the “grounding” behind Jamie’s stripped down but amped up Italian style.  I tend to like the first cookbook that each chef puts out the most — I have a feeling the first cookbook is the hardest to get published so it tends to be their best effort —  so  I’ve included The Naked Chef even though this recipe is not in here.  I’ve also included The River Cafe’s Italian Easy Cookbook; it’s not their first cookbook but unlike their other cookbooks, you don’t need a wood-fired oven to make some of their recipes.

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

6 garlic cloves, lightly smashed

2 large branches of rosemary, cut into 2-inch length sprigs

zest and juice of a lemon

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

four 8- to 10-ounce pork rib chops, 3/4 to 1 inch thick

3 parsnips, quartered lengthwise

3 firm but ripe Bartlett pears, quartered lengthwise and cored

1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced into  1/3 inch thick wedges

 Combine olive oil with garlic, rosemary, lemon zest and juice, and pepper in large roasting pan.  Marinate pork chops for 1 hour at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.   Scrape marinade off chops and set aside on a platter but return marinade to roasting pan.  Add parsnips, pears and potatoes to roasting pan and turn with hands until everything is covered in the marinade.  Season with salt, about 1/2 teaspoon sea salt.  Roast for 40 minutes, stirring occassionally until the vegetables are tender.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a saute pan, and season the pork chops with salt on both sides.  Cook over high heat until golden, about 5 minutes total, then return to roasting pan, setting on top of the vegetables and roast an additional 5-8 minutes until pork is cooked through.

In the foodie world, there’s one name that resonates above all others.  She’s been a mother to some, a confidant to others, and a teacher to most of us.  Who am I talking about?  Why, the one and only Julia Child, of course!

You may be well aware of the latest tribute to this legendary foodie – Sony’s (an FH client) Julie & Julia starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams as food blogger Julie Powell. The movie tells a story near and dear to our foodie blogger hearts and has undoubtedly resonated highly with many of you!

We’re excited to announce that the Julie & Julia Blu-ray and DVD hit stores today – and we have one to give away!

These discs are jam packed with some awesome special features sure to satisfy anyone’s appetite.  The DVD offers a behind-the-scenes featurette “Secret Ingredients: Creating Julie & Julia” as well as special commentary by Director/Producer Nora Ephron.  With the Blu-ray, you can enjoy a tour of Julia Child’s kitchen, now housed at the Smithsonian Institution,  cooking lessons with such master chefs as Julia Child, Suzanne Goin and Jacques Pépin, and a movieIQ feature allowing you to bookmark and email select Julia Child recipes while watching the film…just to name a few!

Leave a comment here or on our Facebook fan page sharing your favorite Julia Child memory and we’ll pick a winner on Thursday at 3 p.m.!

As Julia would say, Bon Appétit!

This is one of those restaurants that I have been wanting to dine at for quite some time. I finally had the opportunity this past Friday night. We were seated immediately at a nice table for two on the bottom floor of the restaurant. The design of the restaurant is really modern and chic. The restaurant was well lit which is something I really liked because usually you go and it’s really dark inside. A.O.C. is largely known for their wine selection and their small plates. The portions are small, but not as small as a tapas bar.

As soon as we sat down we were served a basket of bread with a tapenade and asked if we wanted still, sparkling, or tap water. I also ordered a glass of their Riesling, which if any of you know me is not something I ordinarily do. Drink wine that is. However, I am trying to open my mind up to wines because I believe I am missing out on a lot, especially when it comes to pairing wine with food. Turns out that Riesling was really good.

For our first dish, we ordered Young Broccoli with garlic and chili. The broccoli was cooked really well and the garlic and chili gave it a really nice kick. It wasn’t really spicy but it definitely had some heat. The portion was a bit small for the price but it’s what you expect from dining at a place like this.

For our second plate we had the brioche with prosciutto, gruyère and egg. This was probably my favorite dish of the night. I could have eaten the whole thing, but that would have been rude. The brioche was nice and warm fresh out of the oven with the melted gruyère. Then they top it with prosciutto and a fried egg and serve it wit some greens. The egg was cooked really well, the yolk was runny but not too runny. This really would make a great breakfast. Each part of the dish tasted great on its own, but when combined it was a really great mix of flavors.

For our third and fourth plates we had the arroz negro with squid and saffron aïoli and the scallops, sunchokes, pancetta and truffle butter. We got so caught up with the arroz negro that I forgot to photograph the second dish. To be honest, this was the most visually unappealing dish I have ever eaten. I mean really, if you saw this, would you wanna eat it? Well, I did and it actually wasn’t even half has bad as it looked. It was actually pretty decent. The rice is black because they use squid ink. It gives the dish a little tanginess. I am not sure I would order this a second time but I definitely wanted to give it a try. As for the Scallops, that dish was also just alright. I didn’t think it was anything out of this world. Maybe thats another reason I didn’t get a picture of it.

The duck confit and shell bean stew with ham hock was another of our favorites that night. It was cooked and seasoned really well, served hot in an iron skillet. The shell bean strew consisted of a couple different beans, carrots, and brussel sprouts. The duck had lots of flavor and was really tender. This was a rebound after the past two dishes.

One of our desserts was the banana choux à la crème with toffee and bittersweet chocolate. I really enjoyed this dessert. I think it speaks for itself, but if you have a sweet tooth this really will satisfy it.

Our second dessert was the warm pink lady apple crostata with caramel and vanilla ice cream. Is this something you can probably get at any ordinary restaurant, yes. But the quality of ingredients and the skill that went into making the crostata and the home made ice cream is something you can’t get. The homey flavors of apples and cinnamon all baked together and served warm was a really nice way to finish the meal.

Overall I think this restaurant has a lot of great possibilities but the dishes from that night seemed to be hit or miss. There was nothing I ate that I was not happy with but some of the things were just ok. When comparing A.O.C. to Suzanne Goin’s other restaurant Lucques, I would have to go with the latter. There’s a reason she won a James Beard award in 2006 for it.

It was a blustery Autumn night (even for Southern California!) when the book club met to discuss their latest novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows.

Thrilled to be welcoming new member Craig and commiserating that Brandy was out of town and Miriam was stuck on a commercial shoot across town. Especially disappointing since she really loved this book, as we all did!

The evening started out with an almost-disaster when the the unbelievably delicious beef stew that Elizabeth had been cooking for two days decided to become a toxic mess after the saran wrap that Suzanne Goin’s Lucque cookbook explicitly instructed to put over the pot, followed by foil, followed by a lid and then into the oven- seemingly disappeared (aka dissolved) into the stew. What? this heavenly concoction of beef, kalamata olives and thyme was now poisonous and had to be thrown out? A crime against humanity! And then there’s the question of whats now for dinner? Leave it to Elizabeth to be able to whip out an amazing pasta from out of nowhere and the evening was saved! (We are every bite!)

I think the name should be changed to the Last Supper at Lucques!!!

Stew or just plain stupid?

Of course the evening is not all about food however Elizabeth did outdo herself as usual and to compliment the smoked salmon I did some “Potato Peel” appetizers in honor of our book!

Delicious smoked salmon and all the goodies

The book is coincidentally about a book club, or Literary Society as they called it, which was formed rather spontaneously during the occupation of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands during WWll. The story is told through a series of letters and the sweetness of the characters within the rustic beauty of Guernsey is balanced by the grittiness and pain suffered through the occupation making this a really well rounded read.

This book ranks high in Coziness combining friendship and literature, what books mean to people and how they help to educate them and offer the escape to get them though hard times. Love that and believe in it fully!

Also believe in gorgeous, decadent deserts!!! Great job Elizabeth, wow!!!

Pavlova

And we can’t forget our casting which this time made me laugh till I could hardly breath, Sara and Craig I think you especially know what I am talking about!

THE CASTING

Juliet: Kate Winslet
Sidney & Piers: Hugh Jackman & Ellen DeGeneres
Susan: Sandra Bullock
Sophie and Alexander: Scarlett Johanson
Mark Reynolds: George Clooney
GUERNSEY GANG
Elizabeth: Natalie Portman
Amelia: Meryl Streep
Dawsey: John Krazinski
Isola: Kathy Bates/Cher
Eben: Liam Neesen
Booker: Michael Cera (of course…..!)
Kit: Abigail Breslan/Tatum O’Neil/Shirley Temple – yes, that is what we actually said that night!
Remy: Winona Ryder
Sally Anne Frobisher: Kathryn Heigle (we must have been really tired/drunk at this point?)
Will Thisbee:Jamie Oliver
Micah Daniels: Ellen Burstyn
Adelaide Addison: Suzanne Goin (villaness of the night/Author of Elizabeth’s aborted recipe!
Billie Bee: Lindsay Lohan
Cecile Touvier (the Nun): Cloris Leachman
Young Juliet: Ellen Page
Wheelchair guy: William Hurt
Bar guy: John Goodman
Scabies girl: Charlize Theron (I mean, like who else?)
Todt workers: the Olson twins, Adrian Brody, Terry Hatcher, Christian Siriano
Tara Reid was playing someone but I can’t even read my own writing!!! help?
Eli: we never reached a conclusion so by default he is obviously played by Michael Cera
People we forgot who will also be played by Michael Cera:
Gilly Gilbert, Ivor, Oscar Wilde, Mr. Dilwyn, the Benoit sisters, Granny Pheen

So book club, we did pretty good this year! Our next read is The Alchemist, Meredith’s choice We’ll pick a date for the new year and hope to see everyone then! Long live our fabulous Literary Society!

A lighter interpretation for gnocchi.

Ack! All you bloggers out there – ever make a dish and somehow forget about it in your stack of “to post” items? I have no idea how I forgot this one as it’s one of my all-time favorite dishes, but I found it yesterday in my blog photos folder.

And once again…a post from Sunday Suppers at Lucques: Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table. My favorite cookbook evah.

This recipe is typical Goin fashion – a bit overachiever (shocking, I know). First, she wants you to make your own gnocchi. And yeah, making your own gnocchi is HIGHLY recommended. But sometimes on a weeknight, it’s just not going to happen. These are times when I cheat and call in reinforcements. She also wants you to shuck your own corn. Again, I cheat here too. Ok, AND she wants you to use Chanterelle mushrooms. I think they are kinda pricey so I cheat and use Portabellas.  But first…

What are gnocchi?

Gnocchi are Italian dumplings – little pillows of light dough – served in a manner similar to pasta. They are traditionally made with potatoes, but can also be formed from ricotta cheese, semolina, squash, um…I’m sure there are probably other options I don’t even know about. Purists like the potato variety, but I’m a convert to the ricotta kind because:

1. They are way WAY easier to make and

2. I think they are lighter. And that’s really the goal – to make them light.

But we aren’t going to talk about making them here. That’s for another day.

So, ok.  Back to the recipe. This is a dish that is rustic, yet impressive enough for a casual dinner party. And the sage thrown in towards the end makes your house smell just lovely. And you can be a lazy butt like me and make them with fresh/frozen gnocchi purchased at the store. Which just makes things easier during the week.

Gnocchi with Chanterelles, Sweet Corn and Sage Brown Butter

Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups fresh breadcrumbs (I like Panko)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
7 T unsalted butter
3/4 pound chanterelles, cleaned (I use portabellas cause I am cheap)
1 T thyme leaves
1 T sliced sage leaves
3 cups fresh corn kernels (from about 4 ears – or do like I do and use a can of corn)
2/3 cup diced shallots
1 lb fresh gnocchi (I used dried -either way, cook thoroughly and set aside)
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Steps:
First – toast the breadcrumbs:
1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. Toss breadcrumbs with 2 tablespoons olive oil.

3. Spread them on a baking sheet, and toast 8 to 10 minutes, stirring once or twice, until golden brown. Set aside.

Then:
4. If the mushrooms are big, tear them into bite-size pieces (or chop).

5. Heat a large saute pan over high heat for 2 minutes.

6.Add the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, and heat another minute.

7. Swirl in 1 tablespoon butter, and when it foams, add the mushrooms, half the thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a healthy pinch of pepper.

8. Saute the mushrooms about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they’re tender and a little crispy.  Don’t be tempted to move them around in the pan too much in the beginning: let them sear a little before stirring.  Transfer the cooked mushrooms to a platter.

9. Return the pan to the stove, and heat on high for 1 minute.

10. Add the remaining 6 tablespoons butter to the pan, and cook a minute or two, until the butter starts to brown.

11. Add the sage, let it sizzle, and then add the corn, shallots, remaining thyme, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and some freshly ground pepper.

12. Saute quickly, tossing the corn in the hot butter for about 2 minutes, until the corn is just tender.

13. Add the cooked gnocchi and toss well to coat with the corn and brown butter.

14. Season with salt and pepper to taste, add the mushrooms.  Toss to combine, and heat the mushrooms through.

15. Add the parsley.

16. Arrange the gnocchi on a large platter, and shower with the breadcrumbs.  Grate over some parmesan cheese if you like.

Enjoy!
Ms. Pantry Raid

***** WOW | **** Damn Good | *** nice | ** average | * WACK

From the dynamic duo of Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne comes the newest addition to their restaurant empire, Tavern. Located in not-so-parking-friendly Brentwood, Tavern is far from a quaint neighborhood watering hole. The place is big yet cozy, crowded but comfortable, a bit of a scene and a bit rustic all at the same time.

Despite walking into a stiflingly small reception that barely fits more than 3 people, Tavern is a big and complicated joint. To the left is the Larder/Blue Room which serves as their own bakery and takeout deli. On the right is the bar and beyond that is the glorious Atrium. A big, glass structure with potted olive trees and velvet armchairs around the tables, the Atrium is where you want to be. It’s the biggest room in the restaurant but still quieter than the bar. Prices are not outrageous for the quality; dinner entrees range from $20-$30. Besides, with nine (9!) different menus, you’re sure to find something to appease your wallet and stomach.

Tavern is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It also has a brunch menu, a pastry menu, a kids menu, a desserts menu, a bar menu, and a cocktail menu (!). I started with the bar menu that consists of small plates and burgers. While I hear the Pork Manchego Burger is good, I know the fried oyster & bacon brochette with tabasco aïoli is great. Salty, rich, fried and high in bacon content, this thing is dynamite. After a tasty Old Fashioned or two I moved on to the dinner menu. I was far from disappointed. Everything was perfectly cooked and well executed but I did find a couple items a bit heavily seasoned.

In a nutshell, Tavern has great atmosphere, good booze, and very good food at a reasonable price for its kind. Definitely a place worth going back to a couple of times and reservations are highly recommended. This place gets packed but has a good spatial arrangement and high ceilings to alleviate the congestion. With several menus to choose from and service all day, you’re sure to find something to like at Tavern. Hats off to the Goin & Styne tag team.

• Make reservations!
• Sit in the Atrium for dinner; Bar and Blue Room are good for small plates/lunch
• Appetizers are the best
• Good place to bring a date
• Rotating Menu

Sunday Suppers at Lucques have become an L.A. dining institution, a guaranteed splendid evening at any time of the year. This past Sunday, to kill some time while waiting for another Comme Ca Block Party to begin, I stopped by Lucques, not knowing it happened to be the 9th Annual All-American Rib Fest. (Lucques staff wearing cowboy outfits and country music standards on the stereo were big hints, but I digress.)

As I sat at the bar, endless platters of BBQ and all the fixin’s were sent out from the kitchen. Had I not been stuffed from an earlier dim sum session, I would’ve gladly participated in the $45 protein extravaganza. Here’s a rundown of the menu:

• St. Louis style pork ribs
• Braised beef back ribs
• Spicy lamb spare ribs
• “Too-hot-to-handle” chicken wings

~~~

• Cole slaw & baked beans
• Long-cooked collard greens
• Buttered corn-on-the-cob
• Watermelon and lime salad
• Grilled cornbread & wonder bread

~~~

• Warm peach and blackberry crisp with vanilla ice cream

To wash all of this glorious food down, Lucques offered two special lemonades, one with brandy and the other with Jack Daniel’s. Both seemed to be very popular on Sunday. The only thing missing was a “wafer-thin mint” at the end of the meal.

A Lucques Standard: the Maker's Ruby.

While everyone indulged their inner carnivore, I quickly scanned the cocktail list and decided on one of the Lucques Standards, a Maker’s Ruby:

• Maker’s Mark bourbon
• fresh Fitzgerald Ruby Diamond nectarines
• a splash of Bundaberg ginger beer

The Maker’s Ruby was excellent, tangy and perfectly refreshing for a late Sunday afternoon. I’m sure it would’ve made an excellent compliment to all of the smoke and spice.

Other Standards include the Lucques Gimlet (Hangar One vodka with fresh lime juice and mint) and the Green Hound (Chopin vodka, cucumber and grapefruit juice, garnished with mint).

~

Owner/chef Suzanne Goin is renowned for her seasonal menus, so it’s no surprise that the drinks at Lucques reflect that same commitment to freshness and quality. With that in mind I next ordered from the Seasonal Cocktail list, the Fragola Balsamico:

• Miller’s gin
• strawberries Cointreau
• balsamic reduction

Summer in a glass: the Fragola Balsamico.

If you’ve ever wanted to sip summer in a chilled glass, the Fragola is the cocktail for you. The Miller’s botanical notes are dominated by the upfront, fresh strawberry aroma and flavor, anchored by the bitter orange of the Cointreau and enhanced by the balsamic reduction. The Fragola’s brilliant red hue makes for an easy conversation starter.

The other Seasonal option was the Black on Black: Leblon cachaça with blackberry compote, thyme, black salt rim.

With summer winding down, now is the time to savor the best of the season. At Lucques, that means more than just what’s on your plate; you’ll taste it in your cocktails as well.

Lucques
8474 Melrose Ave
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(323) 655-6277
www.lucques.com

Finally, a diet muffin I can get behind. (Bran, too: my favorite!)

The muffin on top is the bran muffin sold in the bakery at Suzanne Goin’s new Tavern restaruant. The one below is sold at Whole Foods. I think (but this is a guess) it is baked by a company called Il Fornaio. Tavern’s weighs in at 3 ounces, the bottom guy weighs exactly twice that. The small one ,which is dense and chewy and tastes of molasses and walnuts, was much, much tastier. And (I’ll venture another guess here) half the fat, half the calories, of that other one.

Lucques of LA is well known for its superb Mediterranean cusine. The chef and co -owner Suzanne Goin serves this tepenade alongside her rack of lamb , but it is equally delicious spread on toast or crackers.

Courtsey Saveur

Makes 1/2 cup

1 clove garlic

1 anchovy filet

1 tsp salt packed capers , rinsed and chopped

1/2 cup chopped , pitted nicoise olives

1 tbps chopped parsley

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

juice from 1/4 lemon

Crush garlic and anchovy with a mortar and pestle. Then mix in chopped rinsed capers , pitted olives and parsley.

Stir in olive oil and lemon juice. Combine well with a fork.

Designer extraordinaire, Jeffery Alan Marks, otherwise known as, JAM (to close friends) has done it again! This time he put his talents towards new Brentwood hot spot, Tavern! From Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne, the people that brought you, A.O.C., Lucques and the Hungry Cat, the food is re-dunk. Make sure to check out the all glass atrium with hanging chandeliers + the Larder with insane pastries and fresh market goods…

Tavern, 11648 San Vicente Boulevard, at Darlingon Ave. Brentwood, CA 90049 (310.806.6464)

Just opened:

• Tavern From Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne (AOC, Lucques, Hungry Cat) comes the ladies’ newest creation, a restaurant/lounge/marketplace, in Brentwood. Yes, it did open today. I called.

• Pourtal A high-tech wine bar in Santa Monica, Pourtal offers wine via preloaded punch cards and electronic dispensers. Fancy.

To open in the near future:

• Trader Vic’s The Beverly Hills institution moves downtown to L.A. Live. Scheduled to open Saturday, May 2.

• La Grande Orange Cafe The Santa Monica location is scheduled to open May 7. Food being tested and staff being trained, according to tweets from @LaGrandeOrange. Pizza will be added to the menu at the new location, with Pasadena getting pizza some time this fall.

• Playhouse and Sweet Love Hangover The nightclub/24-hour restaurant taking over the Fox Theater space on Hollywood Boulevard is now slated to open June 11. We’ll see. This is like the third or fourth time the opening date has been pushed back.

congrats to this year’s nominee’s! a special shout out to Babbo (NYC), Zingerman’s (Ann Arbor, MI) and Michael’s (Miami.)

below is the partial list from the James Beard Foundation:

Restaurant and Chef Awards

OUTSTANDING RESTAURATEUR AWARD

A working restaurateur who sets high national standards in restaurant operations and entrepreneurship. Candidates must have been in the restaurant business for at least 10 years. Candidates must not have been nominated for a James Beard Foundation chef award in the past 10 years.

Tom Douglas
Tom Douglas Restaurants
Seattle

Keith McNally
Balthazar, Lucky Strike, Morandi, Pastis, Pravda, and Schiller’s Liquor Bar
NYC

Richard Melman
Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises
Chicago

Drew Nieporent
Myriad Restaurant Group
NYC

Stephen Starr
Starr Restaurants
Philadelphia

OUTSTANDING CHEF AWARD

Presented by All-Clad Metalcrafters
A working chef in America whose career has set national industry standards and who has served as an inspiration to other food professionals. Candidates must have been working as chefs for at least the past 5 years.

José Andrés
Minibar
Washington, D.C.

Dan Barber
Blue Hill
NYC

Tom Colicchio
Craft
NYC

Suzanne Goin
Lucques
Los Angeles

Paul Kahan
Blackbird
Chicago

OUTSTANDING RESTAURANT AWARD

A restaurant in the United States that serves as a national standard-bearer for consistent quality and excellence in food, atmosphere, and service. Candidates must have been in operation for at least 10 or more consecutive years.

Babbo
NYC
Chef/Owner: Mario Batali
Owner: Joe Bastianich

Boulevard
San Francisco
Chef/Owner: Nancy Oakes
Owner: Pat Kuleto

Fore Street
Portland, ME
Chef/Owner: Sam Hayward
Owner: Victor Leon and Dana Street

Highlands Bar & Grill
Birmingham, AL
Chef/Owner: Frank Stitt

Jean Georges
NYC
Chef/Owner: Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Owner: Phil Suarez

RISING STAR CHEF OF THE YEAR AWARD

A chef age 30 or younger who displays an impressive talent and who is likely to have a significant impact on the industry in years to come.

Nate Appleman
A16
San Francisco

Sean Brock
McCrady’s
Charleston, SC

Johnny Monis
Komi
Washington, D.C.

Gabriel Rucker
Le Pigeon
Portland, OR

Michael Solomonov
Zahav
Philadelphia

Sue Zemanick
Gautreau’s
New Orleans

BEST NEW RESTAURANT

Presented by Lexus
A restaurant opened in 2008 that already displays excellence in food, beverage, and service and is likely to have a significant impact on the industry in years to come.

The Bazaar by José Andrés at SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills
Los Angeles
Chef/Owner: José Andrés
Owners: SBE

Corton
NYC
Chef/Owner: Paul Liebrandt
Owner: Drew Nieporent

L2O
Chicago
Chef: Laurent Gras
Owner: Richard Melman

Momofuku Ko
NYC
Chef/Owner: David Chang

Scarpetta
NYC
Chef/Owner: Scott Conant

OUTSTANDING PASTRY CHEF AWARD

Presented by All-Clad Metalcrafters
A chef or baker who prepares desserts, pastries, or breads and who serves as a national standard-bearer for excellence. Candidates must have been pastry chefs or bakers for at least the past 5 years.

Gina DePalma
Babbo
NYC

Kamel Guechida
Joël Robuchon at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas

Pichet Ong
P*ong
NYC

Nicole Plue
Redd
Yountville, CA

Mindy Segal
Mindy’s HotChocolate
Chicago

OUTSTANDING WINE SERVICE AWARD

A restaurant that displays and encourages excellence in wine service through a well-presented wine list, a knowledgeable staff, and efforts to educate customers about wine. Candidates must have been in operation for at least 5 years.

Bin 36
Chicago
Wine Director: Brian Duncan

Blackberry Farm
Walland, TN
Wine Director: Andy Chabot

Le Bernardin
NYC
Wine Director: Aldo Sohm

Patina
Los Angeles
Wine Director: Eric Espuny

Picasso at Bellagio
Las Vegas
Wine Director: Robert Smith

OUTSTANDING WINE AND SPIRITS PROFESSIONAL AWARD

Presented by Southern Wine & Spirits
A winemaker, brewer, or spirits professional who has had a significant impact on the wine and spirits industry nationwide. Candidates must have been in the profession for at least 5 years.

Dale DeGroff
Dale DeGroff Co., Inc.
NYC

Merry Edwards
Merry Edwards Wines
Sebastopol, CA

Garrett Oliver
The Brooklyn Brewery
Brooklyn, NY

John Shafer and Doug Shafer
Shafer Vineyards
Napa, CA

Julian P. Van Winkle, III
Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery
Louisville, KY

OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARD

Presented by Stella Artois
A restaurant that demonstrates high standards of hospitality and service. Candidates must have been in operation for at least the past 5 years.

Daniel
NYC
Owners: Daniel Boulud and Joel Smilow

Emeril’s New Orleans
New Orleans
Owner: Emeril Lagasse

La Grenouille
NYC
Owners: Charles Masson and Giséle Masson

Spiaggia
Chicago
Owner: Levy Restaurants

Vetri
Philadelphia
Owners: Marc Vetri and Jeff Benjamin

BEST CHEFS IN AMERICA

Presented by American Express®
Chefs who have set new or consistent standards of excellence in their respective regions. Candidates must have been working as chefs in any type of dining establishment for at least the past 5 years. The 3 most recent years must have been spent in the region where the chef is presently working.

Best Chef: Pacific (CA, HI)

Jeremy Fox
Ubuntu
Napa, CA

Douglas Keane
Cyrus
Healdsburg, CA

Loretta Keller
Coco500
San Francisco

David Kinch
Manresa
Los Gatos, CA

Daniel Patterson
Coi
San Francisco

Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (D.C., DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA)

Cathal Armstrong
Restaurant Eve
Alexandria, VA

Jose Garces
Amada
Philadelphia

Peter Pastan
Obelisk
Washington, D.C.

Maricel Presilla
Cucharamama
Hoboken, NJ

Vikram Sunderam
Rasika
Washington, D.C.

Best Chef: Midwest (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI)

Isaac Becker
112 Eatery
Minneapolis

Gerard Craft
Niche
St. Louis, MO

Colby Garrelts
Bluestem
Kansas City, MO

Tim McKee
La Belle Vie
Minneapolis

Alexander Roberts
Restaurant Alma
Minneapolis

Best Chef: Great Lakes (IL, IN, MI, OH)

Koren Grieveson
Avec
Chicago

Arun Sampanthavivat
Arun’s
Chicago

Bruce Sherman
North Pond
Chicago

Michael Symon
Lola
Cleveland

Alex Young
Zingerman’s Roadhouse
Ann Arbor, MI

Best Chef: New York City (Five Boroughs)

Michael Anthony
Gramercy Tavern

Terrance Brennan
Picholine

Wylie Dufresne
WD-50

Gabrielle Hamilton
Prune

Gabriel Kreuther
The Modern

Best Chef: Northeast (CT, MA, ME, NH, NY STATE, RI, VT)

Rob Evans
Hugo’s
Portland, ME

Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier
Arrows
Ogunquit, ME

Michael Leviton
Lumiére
West Newton, MA

Tony Maws
Craigie on Main
Cambridge, MA

Marc Orfaly
Pigalle
Boston

Best Chef: Northwest (AK, ID, MT, OR, WA, WY)

Maria Hines
Tilth
Seattle

Joseba Jiménez de Jiménez
The Harvest Vine
Seattle

Ethan Stowell
Union
Seattle

Cathy Whims
Nostrana
Portland, OR

Jason Wilson
Crush
Seattle

Best Chef: Southeast (GA, KY, NC, SC, TN, WV)

Hugh Acheson
Five and Ten
Athens, GA

Linton Hopkins
Restaurant Eugene
Atlanta

Mike Lata
Fig
Charleston, SC

Bill Smith
Crook’s Corner
Chapel Hill, NC

Bob Waggoner
Charleston Grill
Charleston, SC

Best Chef: Southwest (AZ, CO, NM, NV, OK, TX, UT)

Paul Bartolotta
Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare at Wynn Las Vegas

Sharon Hage
York Street
Dallas

Ryan Hardy
Montagna at the Little Nell
Aspen, CO

Claude Le Tohic
Joël Robuchon at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas

Andrew Weissman
Le Rêve
San Antonio

Best Chef: South (AL, AR, FL, LA, MS)

Zach Bell
Café Boulud at the Brazilian Court
Palm Beach, FL

John Currence
City Grocery
Oxford, MS

John Harris
Lilette
New Orleans

Douglas Rodriguez
Ola
Miami Beach, FL

Michael Schwartz
Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink
Miami

The not-so-skinny: bread, custard, chocolate. The recipe is on the menu at The Hungry Cat in Hollywood, a seafood restaurant with scene and substance from David Lentz, husband of Suzanne Goin of Lucques and AOC fame. You can also find the recipe in Goin’s cookbook, Sunday Suppers at Lucques. It’s pretty much perfect as written. One note – I always have leftover custard liquid. I bet it would be good for french toast the next day. Of course, do you really want french toast the morning after you eat this? Oh, and I was out of whole nutmeg, so we just used ground instead.

One more thing—boys go CRAZY for this dessert, so if you were wondering what to make for your Valentine, look no further.

Caramelized Bread Pudding with Chocolate and Cinnamon

From Sunday Night Suppers at Lucques, Suzanne Goin 

GOIN WRITES: This recipe is a lifer. I’ve been making it for more than 20 years, and every time I try to file it away, someone inevitably comes along asking for it. I brought it to my first staff get-together when I was working at Chez Panisse and, from then on, for all of the parties that followed, when I would even thinkof making something different, my friends and coworkers would cry out for this caramelized chocolate bread pudding. A few years later, the bread pudding gained an East Coast fan club, too. I was working at Alloro, a tiny restaurant in Boston’s Italian district. Back then, the Mafia owned all the local cafés and had a monopoly on the dessert-and-coffee crowd. Whereas the other (probably wiser) restaurants on the street obeyed the unspoken law of not selling dessert, at Alloro we broke the rule and secretly served this bread pudding to our in-the-know customers. We worked hard to keep the highly requested dessert under cover, and it seems we succeeded: both the recipe and I are still around. 

A few things make this bread pudding better than most. I love custards and am often disappointed by bread puddings with too much bread and not enough pudding. So be careful to use just a single layer of brioche, which creates a crispy crust but won’t absorb all the rich, silky custard underneath. Once you break through the caramelized, toasty top layer and dig down through the luscious custard, a treasure of melted chocolate awaits you at the bottom. 

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 
4 or 5 slices brioche, or good quality white bread (I like Pepperidge Farm), 1/4-inch thick, crusts removed 
3 extra-large eggs 
2 extra-large egg yolks 
1/4 cup brown sugar 
1 1/2 cups heavy cream 
1 1/4 cups whole milk 
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 
3/4 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate 
1 tablespoon granulated sugar, for caramelizing the top 

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread the softened butter on one side of the brioche. Cut each slice in half on the diagonal and then again into quarters. 

Whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, and brown sugar in a large bowl. Add the cream, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt, whisking to combine well. 

Sprinkle the chocolate over the bottom of a 9-by-9-inch (or equivalent) baking dish. Arrange the brioche, buttered side up, with slices overlapping just slightly, on the chocolate (there should be just a single layer of bread). Pour the custard over the bread, pressing down with your fingers to make sure the bread soaks it up. Place the bread pudding in a roasting pan, and pour warm water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the pudding dish. Bake about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the custard is set and the bread puffs up slightly. The pudding will be springy to the touch. 

Let the bread pudding cool at least 10 minutes. 

If you have a kitchen blowtorch, sprinkle the sugar over the top, and torch to brown and caramelize. You could run the pudding under the broiler to caramelize if you don’t have a torch, but be careful not to curdle the custard underneath. Serve the bread pudding from the baking dish at the table, using a big spoon.

Sunday Suppers at Lucques, by Suzanne Goin with Teri Gelber (Knopf/New York, 2005)

Sunday suppers — not something you associate with high-class dining. Right?

Wrong.

Award-winning California chef, Suzanne Goin, of Lucques and A.O.C in Los Angeles, started serving Sunday suppers at Lucques in 1998. Each Sunday supper – always a three-course extravaganza of appetizers, main courses, and desserts – costs $40, to the joy of her regular clients and also those unable (or unwilling) to pay premium prices for the fresh, seasonal ingredients Goin coaxes into culinary masterpieces during the rest of the week.

And — for those of us unable to swing a trip to Los Angeles every Sunday for supper — late in 2005, Suzanne Goin published her first cookbook,

On the cover of that stunning book, Sunday Suppers at Lucques, baby new potatoes spill wildly out of a simple white bowl, still clinging to their earthy roots, suggesting tiny umbilical cords. The olive green and yellow-orange colors adorning the cover remind me of coastal California hillsides, where the least spark of fire burns and the merest drop of water causes lush vegetation to spring forth.

But I don’t judge a book by its cover, and certainly not a cookbook.

The proof of the book is in the cooking. And cook I did, once I grabbed my wooden spoon and my chef’s knife.

Suzanne Goin (Photo credit: Carlos Serrao)

All the recipes in the book all naturally stem from Goin’s Sunday supper menus.

I started with the Roman Cherry Tart with the almond crust, because I tend to cook a lot of Italian food these days. Ruby-red cherries poked out of the thick, but not too sweet sauce, while the buttery toasted-almond crust crunched pleasantly with each bite, much like a giant piece of shortbread. Served with huge dollops of lightly sweetened whipped cream, the tart left small paths of cherry sauce on the plate and it was all I could do to keep from picking up the plate like a little kid and licking it clean.

While the tart cooled, I went to work on the Herb-Roasted Pork Loin with Haricots Verts, Spring Onions, and Mustard Breadcrumbs. Finding a true haricot vert where I live requires a 30-mile drive, so I just used regular-in other words, enormous-green beans. Big mamas. Once the marinating period ended, and I put the pork in the oven, the smell of the roasting meat gripped my imagination (and activated my salivary glands) the whole time the pork bubbled away.

Since the book’s photographs portray the final “look” of many of the 132 recipes, I was able to compare my finished pork dish and the cherry tart with what the dishes look like when Goin prepares them. That my first attempts nearly cloned Goin’s professional products says much about Goin’s recipes and her ability to translate her art into something that less gifted cooks can also enjoy, especially if they don’t live within driving distance to Lucques.

There’s nothing like old-fashioned recipe writing here, where writers assumed a certain amount of a priori cooking knowledge. Goin’s recipes read clearly and informatively. She arranged her book by the changing seasons of the year, making it easy for the cook to find seasonally relevant recipes.

And it’s in seasonality that the book’s richness shines like the jewel that it is.

Another wonderful layer of Goin’s work is the teaching she does, almost as if she’s a mother introducing new food to her children.

Take the Sunday supper that I actually ate at Lucques in late June 2006, for example.

sunday june 25, 2006

jamon serrano and brooks cherries

with dandelion and ricotta salata

***

wild alaskan white salmon with torpedo

onion ragout, tareh [fresh chives] and creme fraiche

or

slow -roasted veal loin with cantal [a cheese],

summer squash gratin and salsa verde

***

strawberry and almond crepes

with vanilla ice cream

40 dollars per person

At first glance, the idea of combining dandelion greens with cherries didn’t float my boat, so to speak. And what was torpedo? Tareh?

I soon learned.

To begin with, the waiter brought bread and a little tray of appetizers: good-quality sourdough bread sided with mild green Lucques olives, toasted buttery almonds, fleur-de-sel, and European-style butter.

Each dish came out of the kitchen on large round white plates. The real surprise was the cherries with the dandelions. The bitter greens married with the sweetish red cherries in a sauce usually meant for ice cream, accompanied by the salty ricotta and Serrano ham, all napped with dollops of drained creamy fresh ricotta, produced a taste sensation close to rapturous.

And that is what is so amazing about Goin’s cooking — she takes ingredients and puts them together, forming a palette of flavors that amazes and yet sounds rather, well, unusual and even unappetizing when “tasted” with the eye via the written word.

Real food connects us to the earth and Goin’s food is real, coming as it does from local farmers and producers.

That is the essence of Goin’s restaurant and her book, too: as Alice Waters, of Chez Panisse, says in the forward to Sunday Suppers at Lucques, “When I take friends there, it’s like giving them a wonderful gift.” Indeed, it is. The glow begins at the door and lasts all the way home, even if home is half a continent away. Or just a few paces from armchair to stove and wooden spoon.

We have a story on dinela.com about Los Angeles chefs that have written cookbooks. One of the chefs mentioned but not quoted in the piece is Suzanne Goin, author of “Sunday Suppers at Lucques.”

Here are some of her thoughts:

Victor: Sunday suggests a meal that is a little bit special. What made you decide to take that angle for your book?

Suzanne: At Lucques and to me, Sundays are special because we do a different set menu on Sundays. I felt that this was more accessible and approachable to people at home, and also I liked the idea of a menu book because people ask me all the time, “So I’m making x for dinner, what should I make to start?” I didn’t want it to be just a Lucques restaurant cookbook. I wanted to try to convey the ideas and feelings of a family dinner, which often happen on Sundays.

Victor: It seems like a smart idea to include the name of the restaurant in the book title because it can serve as a subtle invitation. Has that been the case? Do out-of-towners who have read the book make a point of
visiting?

Suzanne: Yes, it was definitely a good idea to put the name of the restaurant in the title. The great thing about a book is that you can touch people who don’t necessarily live anywhere near you. We have people come in all the time who tell me they cook out of my book all the time but have never been to Lucques.

Victor: As someone born and raised in LA, did you want that SoCal sensibility toward food (fresh, diverse, etc.) to come across in the book even if there are inspirations from elsewhere?

Suzanne: I feel like my cooking is very personal in that my style has developed over time through many influences: People I worked with and for, what I ate growing up, the farmers markets, how people live and eat in LA. So it wasn’t that I wanted a certain sensibility to be there. I was just trying to communicate what I feel and think about food and eating. But I do think a part of that is definitely SoCal, and that is probably why that comes across.

Lucques not only made L.A. Magazine’s Top 75 Best Restaurants in 2008: it made number one. Yes, according to the publication, this Melrose Ave hot spot is THE best culinary destination in all of Los Angeles. This report came out just after we secured Lucques as our second location for a Sunsweet-inspired dinner (see my post on TRU for the first).

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not really L.A.-esque. I mean, I don’t have a teacup Chihauhau dressed in designer doggy-wear; I don’t know the latest B-list celebrity up-and-comers; and you probably won’t find me in line for the latest club openings, or any club opening for that matter. Nope, just not my cup of tea.

That said, Lucques is just the right amount of trendy and substance, centrally located on Melrose Ave. The space is comfortable and relaxed and the food is amazing. I think that anyone would find this restaurant welcoming and delicious.

Co-owners Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne have operated Lucques for more than 10 years. In 2006 Suzanne (whose resume includes a stint at Chez Panisse) received the James Beard Foundation’s Award of Excellence for Best Chef in California. Last month a group of us got to taste for ourselves. Here’s a sampling of some of the menu items that hit my palate that night:

Our first course started us off with a Blood Orange Salad with Arugula, Dates, Almonds and Parmesan. Unfortunately, my picture for this course didn’t turn out, but let’s just say that any salad with blood oranges is okay by me. Our second source was grilled Hawaiian tuna with farro, black rice and pickled raisins.

Next up we had liberty duck breast with turnip-parsnip gratin and sweet-and-sour prunes.

And for dessert we were treated to a walnut galette with candied orange zest and prune-armagnac ice cream. Yummmmmmmm.

By Christine Moravec

Another busy weekend for the third annual BB&T Charleston Food & Wine Festival which the numerous photo albums on Charleston Picture Company show.  On Saturday, March 1, our client Chef Matt Bolus (Red Sky) was signing issues of his book, Simply Vanilla, in the Charleston Cooks! tent.  Other authors included locals Donald Barickman of HMGI (Cypress, Magnolia’s and Blossom’s) and Bob Waggoner of Charleston Grill and Suzanne Goin (Lucques) who was in from California.  I had the pleasure of sampling her food at the FIG Dine Around along with Chef Mike Lata, with his innovative dish – sunny-side ravioli – which burst with an egg yolk once you cut into it.

Coastal Cigars unveiled their new “Boss Box,” at their booth in the Culinary Village which were specially designed with the 2008 poster for the Festival. Their weekend continued at the Bubbles & Sweets party where they were rolling cigars in the outside lounge.  Sales & Marketing Director, Julie Ann Oldham, was the Chair for the event and ensured that this year’s event had exciting new elements such as a woman in a bathtub covered in chocolates (which you had to eat since one lucky dessert had a prize under the gold “Willy Wonka” style wrapper), a man on stilts handing out bubbles at the entrance and a woman whose extravagant costume was built into the table topped with Di Sarrono liqueurs.  And there were culinary celebrities such as Sam Talbot (Top Chef)and Michael Laiskonis (Le Bernadin).

– Lee Deas

Yesterday the restaurant was closed for the staff holiday party – yes, it’s nearly March.  I didn’t go so I could just take it easy at home, however I ended up prepping for a dinner that I’m making tonight for our friends.

This morning I ended up skipping school for the far better option of sleeping in.  I got around 8 or 9 hours of consecutive sleep and feel like a million bucks for it.  And I still have two full days off of work.

Yesterday I was a server in the cafe at school and pretty much sucked at it, granted I got no help from the kitchen when they totally fucked up an order. 

What’s been amazing (I can’t recall if I mentioned this in my last post) is how quickly tensions have arisen amongst a group of people who’ve been together for nearly a year once were were divided into front of the house and back of the house.  To be fair we didn’t really like each other to begin with, just now we have a reason to dislike each other.

At work we had the two prep cooks start last week which has helped some.  My hours have vastly improved, though somehow Saturday when I arrived at 5 (we open at 5:30) I had to make a batch of empanadas which is a pretty lengthy process.  I never really caught up after that and felt off during service all night as a result of the empanadas and extreme exhaustion.  It wasn’t that I was turning out shitty looking plates, I just wasn’t able to keep up all that well and the other guy who works my station had to do more work than he should have.

Two things I’ve learned at work recently:

1. A beurre blanc doesn’t have to be made fresh daily, it can be saved, chilled and used for tomorrow’s service.  Everyone’s natural inclination is that it would break, but low and behold it can be restored by cheating just a little bit with some cream that’s been heated up and then by whisking in the chilled beurre blanc.
2. The sous chef and I learned by accident on Sunday night was that a caramel sauce won’t seize up on you if you add more sugar to it.  We were cooking apple slices in the caramel which was running low, so we added more sugar with the attitude of “what’s the worst that could happen?”  To our surprise nothing happened other than that we had more caramel sauce.

And one observation from Sunday’s service – why do people order the seafood special on a Sunday night?  Have they not read Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential?  I happen to work at a place that treats the seafood well, but on Friday and Saturday nights how many times do you think the door to the reach-in opens?  Do you really think it’s kept consistently below 41 or 40 degrees?  Is that what you really want to be eating on a Sunday night, especially in the case of a seafood special? 

In our case on Sunday we had product that needed to be moved - the scallops which we had too many of along with the knowledge that the restaurant was to be closed the next day.  People gobbled the special up though, which is good for us, and I’m sure nobody got sick, but still.  The sous and I even commented on how we wouldn’t do this ourselves.  So take it from me, don’t eat the seafood special on a Sunday night, and I might even forgo the Monday night special as well.

Moving on, all I have to do today is finish prepping and making dinner for tonight, which will consist of:

1. Goat cheese, chive and black truffle oil ravioli served in a vegetable consomme.
2. Stuffed chicken leg “poule au pot” – I’m finally getting around to making Suzanne Goin’s recipe from Mark Bittman’s PBS series Bittman Takes on America’s Chefs.  The recipe is here, but you really need the book as you’ll find out since there are many references to “see recipe in companion book”.  I also opted to leave out the chicken livers since I’m pretty much the only one of the four of us who will be dining that likes liver.
3. Cranberry bread pudding, vanilla bean ice cream (really a gelato, the ratio’s I got from Mario Batali’s Molto Italiano cookbook).  I’m undecided as to what type of sauce to make for this, though I’m leaning for a caramel sauce.

And that’s it.  I’ll post pictures tomorrow of the dinner.