Chef Laura Goes Snowboarding

I fed a crowd this weekend at Tahoe in exchange for snowboarding lessons. I'm gonna say this was a pretty fair deal, since I spent about 7 hrs preparing dinner, and Kevin spent 7 hours teaching me.

Side tracking from the meal a bit, yes, yes, I know. It's a bit late considering I've lived in Michigan & California for the past 7 years, and it's now spring.... but, better late then never right?

All things considering, I definitely was the model student. After all, following the first run down the bunny slopes, I was able to go down the slopes without falling (yes, still on the board, not walking). And by mid day, they took me up to the top where I had to come down on the blue slopes. Although completely terrified, I made it down without falling! I'm not a speed-monger, so slow and steady is really, good enough for me.

Oh, and did I mention, I can do 180 turns (on occasion), but usually it turns out to be 360, since I can't stop.

Yeah. Modesty isn't my best quality.

Anyway - I had been warned by friends prior that I really would not be in the mood to make food during the trip, especially if I was learning to snowboard! (As if that would make me back down) I knew i had to make things easy for myself, so I planned a menu that could be prepared ahead of time, and was mostly heating stuff up. The verdict? A success of course!

Here's the menu:

1. Saturday Breakfast - Breakfast Burritos with Sausage, Egg, Spanish Rice, Salsa & Cheese

2. Saturday Dinner - Vegetable Miso Soup, Sausage & Mushroom Pasta, Garlic & Herb Roast Chicken

3. Sunday Breakfast - Toasted Bagel Sandwiches with Spinach Omelette, Deli Chicken & Cheese

While everything was a hit, I'd say that the breakfast burritos really made #1, So here's the recipe!

Breakfast Burritos

Makes 4

8 ea Sausage Links or 4 Bratwursts
4 ea Eggs
1 cup Spanish Rice, recipe below
1 cup Easy Salsa, recipe below
4 slices Jack Cheese
4 ea Jumbo Tortillas

1 tsp oil

Bake sausages in a 375F oven for about 20 minutes
Whisk eggs well, in a medium frying pan, heat the oil.
When oil is hot, add the eggs stirring until bottom is set, flip to cook on the other side.
Slice omelet into 4 strips
Place a tortilla on a plate
Spread 1/4 cup rice on the bottom third of the tortilla
Line 2 sausage links or 1 bratwurst on the rice, then the egg and cheese
Top with about 1/4 cup salsa salsa
Starting from the bottom edge, roll the tortilla over the filling once, the fold the sides in and continue to roll the tortilla





Repeat with the remianing 3 tortillas

At this point, you can freeze the burritos, or heat it up in a 400F oven for 20 minutes before eating. If you are planning to freeze the burritos, make all the ingredients ahead of time to chill before rolling. It's best if your thaw the burritos in the fridge before eating, but if you can't wait, heat it up for 40 minutes from frozen at 400F.

Spanish Rice

Make 2 cups

1/2 ea Onion, diced
4 ea Garlic cloves, sliced
1 cup White rice
1 tbsp Tomato paste
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 cup water

In a large sauce pan, heat the olive oil
Add the onions and garlic, sautee till translucent
Add the rice and stir to coat with oil
Add the tomato paste & water, stir to mix
Bring to a boil, and then cover saucepan with lid
Simmer for 15 minutes before serving


Easy Salsa

1 can Diced tomatoes
1 tbsp Hot sauce

In a blender, combine ingredients and puree

2 Weeks Notice

A long standing joke between Chin and Chef Laura has always been that he never gives me enough notice to make dinner for him when he visits.

So - this time, he did give notice. About 5 hours.

1pm - Lunch

Daryl: "What are you doing tonight for dinner?"
Chin: "No plans, why?"
Daryl: "Oh, you want to come over for dinner?"

Chef Laura casually chokes on carnitas burrito

Chin: "Sure!", turns to Randy & Sharlene "You guys?"
Randy: "Yeah no plans, we'll be there"
Daryl: "Ok, 7pm"

Chef Laura: wait... Did I just get pimped out to make dinner?

2:15pm Costco Trip & Farmer's Market

The goods -
5.5 lbs Ribeye Roast
1 lb Lump crab meat
Ramps
Chives
Baby Yukon Potatoes
Various types of oranges: Blood, Cara Cara, Navel
Ripe Melon ( hard to find usually)
Strawberries
Eggs
Creme Fraiche

Menu after much grumbling -

Crab & Citrus Salad with Melon Consomme
Prime Rib
Roasted Asparagus with Lemon & Parmesan
Smashed Baby Yukon Potatoes, roasted with Ramp Aioli
Meyer Lemon Butter Cake with Homemade Dulce de Leche and Strawberries

3pm: Nap Time

4pm: Start work after a large cup of instant coffee

Preheating the oven is always the first thing
Prepare the cake batter & bake
Meanwhile, set the evaporated milk & sugar on simmer, get Daryl to stir, since he volunteered
Set a large pot of water on the stove to boil potatoes
Kim & Joon arrive for a chat - send Daryl to entertain them for 20 minutes, buying me enough time to finely brunoise the onions for the crab salad, and spin the melons in the food processor without distraction
Chat with guests while prepping the rest of the ingredients, finely knife chives, zest & segment oranges, prepare ramp aioli, smash potatoes and lay them on trays,make crab salad.

The Finished Roasted Potates Roast Beef Dinner with Chin

Prep Rib Roast

5:15pm: Cake comes out of the oven and Roast goes in for 20 + 90 minutes

Salt & Pepper Roast Beef Roast Beef Dinner with Chin

6pm: Guest arrive one hour early!!! WHAT! Kim & Joon take off.

Chef Laura sends the early guests out to the citrus trees to work for their food. Meanwhile, portion the desert, slice strawberries and whip cream for desert.

Dulce de Leche Cake with Strawberries Roast Beef Dinner with Chin

Chin comes back with a bag of citrus - dang, now we have to use it. Slice & juice citrus, while making simple syrup.

Side of Asparagus Roast Beef Dinner with Chin

7:10pm: Bathroom break to freshen up

7:30pm: First course served!

Next time - 2 weeks notice please!

Happy Chin & Cal Roast Beef Dinner with Chin

Second City Bistro

What I had for lunch:

Pork tenderloin spinach salad, with roasted beets, gorgonzola, granny smith apples & carmelized apple vinagrette from Second City Bistro in El Segundo.

What I would have done differently:

1. Cook the pork a la minute - Pork just isn't good cold. Especially the tenderloin that can dry out pretty easily. It isn't like beef that can be served rare, marinating in it's juices while it cools.

Let rest for 10 minutes at least before slicing

2. Use golden & red beets for livelier presentation - Golden beets also turn slightly pink when their flesh comes in contact with the red beets, so a combination varieties always makes for such pretty amalgamation of colors. I would also have sliced them with a mandolin instead of cutting them up with quarters for easier eating.

3. Same with the Granny smith apples - a julienned cut after being sliced from the mandolin would make piercing the food with a fork easier, instead of having larger, chunkier slices.

4. Crush the roasted hazelnuts, to sprinkle over salad - have you ever tried to pierce a whole roasted hazelnut? This brings me back to point 2 & 3, where I firmly believe a well composed dish not only contains elements that come together well, but that are able to be savored together in one bite. The thing that annoyed me most about this salad was that I would take my fork and stick it into the salad, and all i would get was spinach leaves. Then, I'd have to knife a slice of beets, or scope a hazelnut into my fork to eat them separately.

Why force a deconstruction from a composed dish?

5. Since I also suggested serving the pork a la minute, I'd say to also say to serve the apples & beets at room temperature

Overall, it was a good salad - the flavors were well thought out and married well. Would I make it? Yes - with all the changes above!

Second City Bistro is located in El Segundo's Old Town, just outside LAX, and is open for Lunch Mon-Fru from 11:30am - 2:00pm, and for Dinner Mon-Sat from 5pm.

Meyer Lemon Oyster Mignonette

Mignonette sauce has traditionally been the perfect accompaniment to raw oysters, along with cocktail sauce - which I often find masks the flavor of the oysters, and so don't like.

Typically mignonette is made with a vinegar (cider, sherry, champagne), minced shallots and cracked black pepper.  I'm not a big fan of vinegar, so I decided to jazz the mignonette up with another classic condiment to oysters - lemons!  What's better than oysters with lemon? 

Oysters with meyer lemons!

Meyer lemons are a cross between the traditional lemon, and oranges, (often thought to be mandarin), and came to California from China as an ornamental plant.  They are less sour than regular lemons, and have a gorgeous citrus bouquet, that makes me heady every time I put one close to my nose.   In my opinion, you can substitute meyer lemons for regular lemons in almost any recipe for a little hint of surprise to the palate.

Take this mignonette sauce along when you're at an oyster picnic, or serve up with your raw bar for a great spring appetizer at home!

Meyer Lemon Mignonette there on the left - also good with grilled oysters

Meyer Lemon Mignonette Sauce

1 ea Shallot, brunoise (fine mince)

2 ea Meyer Lemons, Juiced, and strained to removed pulp and seeds

1 tsp Sugar

2 tsp Black Pepper, Coarsely Ground

Mix all ingredients together and shake to combine well.

Chill before using.

Keeps 2 weeks in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer

Tomales Bay Must-Have Steamer Base for Clams

My Mom and little brother, Ed, came to visit recently, and since they both love oysters, we figured that a trip to one of the Oyster Farms at Point Reyes was appropriate.

We visited Tomales Bay last time when my friend Darryl came to visit, and were caught completely unaware at the possibilities of what we could do with the fresh catch (Oysters in 5 different sizes, mussels & clams)! This time, we came prepared, with steamer base for the clams, and chowder base for the oysters.

Everything turned out delicious, but the one must have that I'm bringing on all these picnics, is the Steamer Base.  While you can BBQ the large oysters, clams are pretty little, and you end up losing a lot of their delicious clam liquor when they open up on the grill.



I brought a portable gas stove and a pot for the clams, but if you don't have a stove, you can simply put a pot on the grill, slowly let the clams open up and cook. Yum.

This is also perfect for non-picnic days, as an impressive, elegant appetizer.  Toss with spaghetti for a filling main, and I guarantee that folks will be coming back for more.

Make the base up to 3 days ahead, or freeze for up to 3 months

Steamed Clams with Fennel and White Wine Broth

Serves 6-8

4 lbs Manila Clams

12 oz bag Baby Spinach

1 batch Steamer Base, Recipe below

Bring the steamer to a boil in a large pot

Add the clams and spinach

Cover pot, and lower heat to simmer

After 8 minutes, check to see that most clams have opened, if not, cover and check again in 5 minutes

Discard any clams that are unopened

Garnish with parsley and serve immediately

For a main course, toss with 1 lb of cooked spaghetti

Steamer Base

1/2 ea Yellow Onion, thinly sliced into half moons

1 ea Leek, white part only, thinly sliced

1 ea Fennel Bulb, thinly sliced - I used a mandolin for this

5 ea Garlic Cloves, thinly sliced

2 tbsp Olive Oil

1 bottle Crisp White Wine, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, or Riesling will work

1 cup Clam Juice or Chicken Broth

3 ea Roma Tomatoes, diced

1 sprig Thyme

1 ea Bay Leaf

5 ea Pepper Corns

2 tbsp Parsley, chopped to garnish

Heat the oil in a large saucepan

Add the onions and leeks, and saute until translucent

Add the garlic and fennel, and saute for 1 more minute

Add the rest of the ingredients, and bring to a boil

Turn to to a simmer, and cook until liquid has mostly boiled off, but vegetables are still moist

Cool and chill for later use