Sunday Go to Meating

I've only lately discovered the joys of sautéed or baked calamari. Like many, my experience with Mr. Squid was limited almost exclusively to either the fried version (love the tentacle clusters!) or the cold white rings in some kind of ceviché or whatnot.

So for this week's Sunday Table, I stuffed calamari tubes with Dungeness crab, cilantro, bread crumbs, shredded Parmesan, egg, spring onion and chili flakes. Then I baked them at 350 for 20 minutes. Once they were done, I placed them atop a bed of arugula and frisée and dressed the lot with a dead simple drizzle of mayonnaise, caper juice, Champagne vinegar, powdered Parmesan and a pinch of ground black pepper. I sprinkled paprika around the plate for presentation. I really like the Whole Foods 365 brand paprika because it is flavorful and more vividly orange-red than other brands.

Dinner was a gorgeous Chuck roast of beef (cooked at 350 until 140 degrees at the center - perfectly medium rare) with red currant-balsamic reduction butter and green beans topped with diced shallots sautéed in butter and a dash of white truffle oil.

Dessert was a chestnut cream Charlotte -- with the world's smallest lady fingers -- from Hiroki.

How was your Sunday?

Favorite Diners

Hello, Brian (L) and Mike (R). Two peas out of the same pod. And what a pod it was.

These two are my newest favorite diners.

They're trouble, though. Be careful.

When Good Beef...

...happens to good people.

The Friday Table

Tonight, Friday, October 9, 2009, I had the privilege of cooking for Preston. I had not seen him in a coon's age (in context, that means not for five days or so) so I was anxious to prepare a very good meal for him.

We traveled to Italy together once so I know he likes food indigenous to the Amalfi Coast -- seafood, Campanian wines, mozzarella. I resolved that tonight was going to hit every one of those buttons!

The starter, pictured above, is a classic Caprese salad, constructed of organic heirloom tomatoes, organic mozzarella, homegrown organic basil, organic olive oil and, yes, organic balsamic vinegar. I dispersed black sea salt atop it.

I served a Falanghina wine.

I'm bored with rice and pasta and polenta...all the usual platforms upon which one builds an Italian entrée. I decided that I was going to use a meaty mushroom as my base. Lobster mushrooms are a perfect match texturally and flavorfully, so they were a natural choice.

Next was a consideration of taste, texture and color. I used spring onions, roasted pumpkin seeds, small pitted black olives and the aforementioned mushrooms, all pan sautéed in butter and paprika. I tossed in two handfuls of baby arugula at the very end and removed it from the heat into a stainless steel IKEA bowl. Perfect.

Using the same skillet without a cleaning (but with a spray of olive oil Pam), I seared the diver scallops for four minutes on one side, three minutes on the other, and 30 seconds again on the initial side to ensure a brown sear mark.

I plated the mushroom mixture and an Essential Bakery dinner roll, then added the three scallops. Paprika was sprinkled around the perimeter and and directly on the scallops.

This course earned a Les Crêtes Vallé d'Aosta cuvée bois Chardonnay, one of Italy's grandest Chardonnays. According to their Web site: The wine has a brilliant, straw yellow color. Intense, full nose with nuances of fruits (plum, exotic fruits), spices (vanilla) and a delicate toasty aroma. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, warm and velvety with mineral undertones and a lively acidity at the finish.

For dessert, we enjoyed a tarte tatin from Hiroki. I served a California muscatto.

My hope is that Preston enjoyed the meal.

Does it sound good to you? Let me know!

Sherman, Set the WABAC Machine To...

An occasional series on meals I wish I could travel back in time to enjoy.

...the late 1930s, aboard the New York Central's luxurious 20th Century Limited. Here is a vintage photo of the dining car in all it's art deco glory. I'm guessing the interior color scheme -- including that glorious wall striping -- was Vanderbilt maroon and silver. Starched white tableclothes. Monogrammed ceramic dinnerware. Heavy silver cutlery and table service items.

The train left New York City's Grand Central Terminal for Chicago at 6PM, so I imagine this photo was taken somewhere in upstate New York, say 8PM.

My time-travel dinner might include a Tom Collins to sip while waiting for my food. The first course could be vegetable soup or fruit cocktail, followed by a grilled halibut steak in lemon butter with kernel corn and pimientos alongside Franconia potatoes. All washed down with an American Sauterne and topped off with a butterscotch sundae and Port.

The service would be gracious and efficient, the foods sourced from vendors along the famed Water-Level Route over which the New York Central's trains traveled. The conversations would be lively throughout the room and might include several between titans of business or movie stars.

By the time I pushed back from my table, to head back to 2009, we'd be entering Ohio and, if the night was clear, off the right-hand side of the train the moonlight would silver the waves of Lake Erie.

Look at My Butt

The kindly pig gives us many wonderful cuts of meat, none more delicious than the pork butt (or, as the more squeamish call it, pork shoulder). Fatty, succulent and fork-flake tender after a long, slow cooking, this cut of meat is versatile and can be turned into many different meals over the course of several days. This is important because the market tends to sell pork butts in portions the size of a Volkswagen.

My favorite method of cooking pork butt is in a Dutch oven, 1/3 filled with either cooking sherry or ginger ale. Sprinkle sea salt and pepper (to taste) all over the exposed area of the meat and cover. Then put your butt in a 180-degree oven for one hour per pound.

In the picture here, I have slices of sherry roasted pork butt on a bed of polenta/mascarpone/ red wine vinegar-braised red currants, topped with Sauterne-braised satsuma slices and black sea salt. The next day, I shredded the remainder of the pork and made carnitas tacos with cilantro, Manchego cheese, lime juice and fresh tortillas.

When I roast the pork in ginger ale, I like to stick a dozen or more cloves into the meat before placing it in the oven, just like my grandma used to do!

What's your favorite way to prepare pork butt?

The Best Place...

...to enjoy a pre-trans-Atlantic flight meal: Virgin Atlantic San Francisco Airport clubhouse.

I enjoyed this beautifully presented plate of roasted vegetables with Thai pepper sauce in an Arne Jacobsen Egg chair upholstered in red bouclé; the plate sat atop an Eero Saarinen tulip side table.

Virgin Atlantic still makes an effort to create real excitement around the long-haul flight experience. The SFO Clubhouse, managed by the inimitable Claire, is a gorgeous reminder of how the glory of travel is closely aligned with good food.