{restaurant} The French Paradox in Dublin, Ireland

On my last trip to Dublin, we went to a little wine store called The French Paradox- and they have some light food there as well for lunch, in a lovely setting.

It was a little on the pricey side for the food (somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 euros for a salad), but the wine flight was reasonable (9 euros for 3 pours) and involved 3 tasty wines, no duds.  Plus it’s in Ballsbridge. Say it a few times. It really rolls right off the tongue. Ballsbridge. Ballsbridge. Ballllllsssssbridge.

Do you know what the term “French Paradox” refers to? I did not, but luckily Ross educated me. I love that they used it as the name of a restaurant! From Wikipedia:

“The French paradox is the observation that the French suffer a relatively low incidence of coronary heart disease, despite having a diet relatively rich in saturated fats. The phenomenon was first noted by Irish physician Samuel Black in 1819. The term French paradox was coined by Dr. Serge Renaud, a scientist from Bordeaux University in France in 1992.”

Find more info on the wine store and restaurant at  The French Paradox.

{recipe} Seductive Strawberry Pomegranate Pie

I wanted to involve pomegranates in a dessert, but I was kind of too lazy to look for a recipe. So I decided on an open-faced strawberry pomegranate pie with a glaze. I found a recipe for a strawberry glaze pie, and then adapted it to pomegranatize it up. It looked beautiful and tasted like a sweet-tart treat! Serve it with sweetened whipped cream.

Strawberry Pomegranate Pie
This recipe is super easy and seems more impressive and difficult than it actually is, especially if you opt to use a purchased pie crust.

Ingredients:

• 1 pie crust (homemade recipe here or feel free to buy one)
• about 4 cups strawberries
• 1 pomegranate
• 3 T cornstarch
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 3/4 cups pomegranate juice

Method:

• Preheat oven to 375.
• Roll out the crust, place in a pie pan, and poke holes on the bottom and sides with a fork. Bake for about 20 minutes, until crust is lightly browned. Remove and cool.
• Combine cornstarch, 1/4 cup sugar, and juice in a saucepan and stir with a whisk. Put on medium heat and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring all the time. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
• While the glaze is cooling, slice or quarter the strawberries. Dip one in the glaze and eat it, to see if the combo is sweet enough, and if not, then add a little more sugar to the glaze and stir it in.
• Split the pomegranate and remove the seeds. Add about 3/4 of the seeds to the strawberries and reserve the rest for sprinkling on top.
• Stir the strawberries and seeds into the glaze and pour into the pie crust. Sprinkle the reserved seeds over the top of the pie.
• Put in fridge and chill for at least four hours to set the glaze.
• The original recipe said this would last for a day or two in the fridge but I can’t say whether or not that’s true because I ate it right away.

{recipe} Spicy Caramely Fruity Upside-Down Cake (aka, I Ate A Cake That Fell All Over The Floor…)

But so did a bunch of other people… not just me. 3 second rule, right? My sister Betsy and I were trying to tandem-flip the cake onto a completely inappropriate platter and somehow the cake landed upside down on the floor. Actually it was an upside-down cake so all the yummy caramelly fruity part landed on the floor.

Here’s what happened. We had so many people around and we had no dessert, but there was all of this fruit lying around, so I thought I would make 2 cakes. For all the people. As usual, I wanted to kind of make something easy and delicious. I remembered this upside-down gingery spice cake we used to make at Rose Pistola but I had absolutely no recollection of how that recipe went. So I looked in a Mark Bittman book to get some coffee cake proportions, then made up a recipe. Sometimes that turns out to be a really bad idea but in this case it was superawesome!

So the deal is that you make a caramel sauce, put it in a pan, put fruit in the pan, cake batter on top, and then when it’s hot from the oven you have to flip it over right away or else the caramel part hardens and you can’t flip it out. I made two- one in a square pan with mangoes, and one in a round pan with bananas. I flipped the banana one out OK, but the square pan made it really hard to flip. I solicited my big sister’s help and before you knew it, there were sticky mangoes and cake on the floor and I was trying to pin the blame all on Betsy despite her loud protestations.

Then Olivia (who is 15) said, “I would totally eat that cake if it weren’t for the fact that all of the dogs have been rubbing their butts on the floor.” Because I forgot to mention there were also 4 or 5 dogs in the house that day. But I saw no butt-rubbing in that particular spot, GROSS. So I grabbed a piece and put it in my mouth and thought, ah who cares. Germs and dirt will make me stronger. Plus that is a &$!?%$ good cake! Yay for floor cake.

Spicy Caramely Fruity Upside-Down Cake
Um, try not to drop it on the floor. ‘Kay?

Ingredients:

• 3 bananas or 2 mangoes, cut in slices
• about 3/4 cup sugar (more if you want more caramel action)
• 1/2 cup (1 cube) butter
• 1 tsp vanilla or a splash of bourbon
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp powdered ginger
• 1 tsp allspice
• big pinch salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 375.
• Arrange cut fruit in the bottom of a pie plate.
• Combine 3/4 cup (or more) sugar with equal parts water in a pan. Put over high heat and wait until the sugar turns amber colored. When it does, turn off heat and add 3 Tablespoons of the butter and the vanilla (or bourbon) and swirl the pan to melt and combine. Immediately pour the mixture over the fruit.
• In a mixer, combine the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, spices, and salt (If you like more spice, feel free to double the spice amounts.)
• Cut up the remaining 5 tablespoons butter into small pieces and carefully mix into the dry ingredients, on low speed. Don’t get the butter all incorporated or the cake will be chewy, not tender. Leave the butter in smallish pieces (around the size of peas.)
• Stop the mixer and put the egg and milk in. Mix just until incorporated, still being careful about keeping the butter in discernible pieces.
• Spread the dough over the fruit/caramel action. Cook for about 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
• When it comes out, flip it over within about 5 minutes or it will stick. It should come out super easily. Put a plate on top of the pan, grip it with potholders and flip it quickly.
• Don’t ask your sister to help you or it might fall on the floor.

{recipe} Feta Yogurt Dip, aka A Super Easy Dip I Just Invented Right Now

I had some  good quality feta left over and then I was also hungry and had limited items in the fridge. So I invented a dip on the fly to go with some crackers I had laying around and it worked out really well.

I think this would be great with pita or pita chips as well. I didn’t give any amounts in the recipe, because it’s not an exact science and should be put together to taste. I guarantee you won’t mess it up! I like to use a milder feta and a tangy yogurt like Fage or another Greek or Persian yogurt. If you want to make this lower fat you can use lowfat or nonfat yogurt, but it won’t be quite as rich and creamy.

Feta Yogurt Dip

Ingredients:
1 part feta
2 parts plain yogurt
fresh oregano leaves, roughly chopped (can use a different herb like thyme, mint, cilantro, or marjoram if preferred.)
fresh cracked pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Method:

• Crumble up the feta and combine with yogurt.
• Mix in herbs. Add pepper and a bit of the oil- just so it gets to be dippy consistency.
• Taste and add salt if necessary. You probably won’t need to as most feta is pretty salty already.

{restaurant} FISH in Sausalito, CA – Delicious but Crazy Expensive

I have been several times to Fish in Sausalito and it is always fantastic food. Of course, it is also helllllla expensive. It can be pretty slow in the service department, it’s cash only, and did I mention that it’s hella expensive? As my friend Whitney tweeted just the other day: “only in the Bay Area would you order at a counter and sit at a picnic table and your entree was $22.” The funny thing is, she didn’t mention the name of the restaurant, but I could guess from that description.

The positives: The food tastes great, and the place has a nice view. All of the fish is sustainably caught and organically grown which probably explains the expensiveness to some extent. But it’s kind of an idiosyncratic little spot because the food is delicious and expensive and fancy but the place is super casual- example 1, you order at a counter and then find your own table; example 2, the drinks are served in jam jars.

The best thing I’ve had were the barbecued oysters. I’m not even an oyster lover so I was totally being a martyr by agreeing to order them the first time- or so I thought. I could have eaten about 100 of them. The cocktail sauce was warm and tangy and the oysters were fresh and salty and divine.

One thing we had that was a good value was the ceviche. It was a really big portion and had huge chunks of fish in it and tasted superb.

Other random fun facts. You can get beer by the pint or QUART. I have never seen that before! Saves you the trouble of going back in the slow-ass line. There is also a fish market there where you can buy, uh, fish. Like raw fish. Which is expensive too. Did I mention it’s expensive?

It’s not in the fancy part of Sausalito that you usually go to. It’s on a weird dock thing farther south. So basically if you’re driving on the main drag and you continue south, you turn right on Harbor Drive and then it’s on your right in a parking lot. Weird! But you can’t beat the view from these outside picnic tables, especially at sunset.

So to sum up, in the pros column we have “super delicious seafood” and “great view” and in the cons we have “really expensive for how casual it is” and “spotty service that is sometimes crazy slow.” If you’re like me and find yourself driving between the North Bay and SF a fair amount, I’d say it’s definitely worth a sunset dinner stop some Sunday night when you’re headed back into the city! After a trip to the ATM, of course.

Here’s a link to their site.

{restaurant} La Merenda in Nice, France

I got a request from a friend who was traveling to Nice, France since she is heading there for work. There is a restaurant there that is so good, so special, and so memorable that I wanted to tell everyone even though I myself haven’t been to Nice for about 5 years!

The restaurant is called La Merenda- you will not find much about it online, if anything. There is no phone, so you have to stop by during the day in person to make a reservation, then go back in the evening when it’s time to eat. It is a sublime example of well-done simplicity. The place is tiny and has extremely personable, professional service. The food is largely no-frills and totally divine. When I’m a billionaire I’m going to hire the chef to open a branch of the restaurant in my living room. I wish it was close enough to be my local neighborhood haunt! If you find yourself in Nice or nearby, don’t miss it.

the info:
La Merenda
4 rue Terrasse
Nice, France

{recipe} Pork Adobo

Adobo is one of my favorite easy recipes and one of the tastiest ways to enjoy pork. In this case, Adobo refers to a common Filipino dish that combines just 4 ingredients: soy sauce, vinegar, black pepper, and garlic, to create a spicy, tangy sauce. A lot of Adobo recipes are saucy to the point of being more like a stew, but I like this one because it produces a rich, reduced, almost caramelized coating over the pork.

What’s surprising about this combination is that once everything is cooked together it doesn’t taste how you would expect it to taste. To wit: the pepper is spicier than you expect, the garlic is mellower, the soy sauce isn’t as salty, and the vinegar isn’t as pungent. It all marries together in a sauce that is greater, and more complex, than the sum of its parts.

There are probably thousands of Adobo recipes out there, and as you may have guessed I’m totally not Filipino so I make no claims to authenticity. I will, however, make claims to deliciousness! I like to serve it over rice to neutralize the spice of the sauce.

Pork Adobo

serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 2 lb. boneless pork roast
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 2 cups white wine vinegar
• 2-3 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tblsp vegetable oil
• 12-15 cloves garlic, sliced as thinly as possible

Method:

• Trim the major fat off the pork roast and cut into 1/2 inch chunks.
• Put pork, soy sauce, vinegar, and pepper in a saucepan and bring to a boil, ensuring all pork is submerged in liquid. Lower heat to medium and boil 30-45 minutes.
• Heat oil in saute pan over medium high heat. Use a slotted spoon to transfer pork pieces to oil. Saute 10 minutes, stirring or flipping often, to brown on all sides.
• Add garlic to pan and cook 30 seconds, stirring. Add adobo sauce and cook about 10 more minutes, until sauce thickens.
• Serve over rice.

{recipe} Steve-O’s Beer Beans

The other night I made a big batch of carnitas for some family and friends. Of course, you have to have beans on the side, and no one makes better Mexican beans than my brother-in-law Steve-O. He was kind enough to walk me through the process. Since then I have adapted and changed them to my liking.

There are some reasons these taste better than regular beans. One reason is the beer. Another is the method of adding a whole bunch of liquid and then cooking the s*** out of them so all the liquid reduces back into the beans to flavor them.

There is no picture because you know what it’s impossible to take a good picture of? Smooshed up refried beans. I even thought of pulling a picture off of some other website but they were all unattractive too. Go ahead. Do a search. You’ll see. Plus I think it’s safe to assume that you all know what beans look like already.

UPDATE: I was wrong! I added a pretty good picture of beans that I took yesterday.

Steve-O’s Beer Beans

Ingredients:

• 2 T lard or vegetable oil
• 1/2 large onion or 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 cans beans (pinto or black, or a combo)
• 1 can or bottle of beer- the yeasty ones are good, or use Mexican beer since you’ll probably be drinking it with your meal anyway
• 1 can chicken broth
• 1 or 2 envelopes of Caldo de Pollo, or some chicken broth concentrate (they have a new product at Whole Foods called “savory choice liquid concentrate chicken stock” that is my favorite. Steve uses the Caldo de Pollo from the Mexican foods aisle. You can use bouillion cubes if you must.)
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• In a large saucepan (preferably nonstick), heat the lard or oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook over medium heat until soft and aromatic.
• Add the beans with their liquid and stir. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring. With a potato masher, smash up about half the beans.
• Add the beer, chicken broth, and Caldo de Pollo to the mixture. It should be pretty liquidy.
• Cook over medium low heat, stirring and scraping the sides, until the liquid has reduced and the beans are the consistency of refried beans.
• Taste and add salt and pepper and/or more Caldo de Pollo if necessary and cook, stirring, until deliciousness ensues.
• Go ahead, try and take an attractive picture. YOU CAN’T.
• These will keep for a couple of days in the fridge and can be made ahead.
• To make this vegetarian/vegan, substitute vegetable broth or mushroom broth for the chicken broth and caldo de pollo.

{recipe} Mac N Cheese of Epic Proportions

Macaroni and Cheese has become a standard of the hipster food scene, and seems to be on almost every trendy menu. Yet surprisingly, I’m not sick of it yet! Maybe that’s because it’s just cheese, noodles, butter, bread crumbs, and often some form of bacon or ham. What’s not to like? Seriously, how could I get sick of that combo?

I will say that in addition to Mac N Cheese being hella good, it is also highly changeable and adaptable. This was what I hope to be the first in a series of many experimental Mac N Cheeses. For this one I added roasted garlic, shallots, and a bunch of cheeses including Affinois. If you’ve never had Affinois, it’s a triple-creme brie-style cheese from France that tastes ridiculously good. I had a tough time deciding if I wanted to use the outside crusty part, and in the end I decided to just use the insides. It added a subtle flavor and increased the creaminess.

And then, for the piece de resistance: crispy prosciutto on top. I crisped prosciutto in a low oven, crumbled it, and mixed it with toasted bread crumbs, butter, and freshly grated parmigiano. Once you’ve crisped prosciutto, you’ll start putting it all OVER the place. It’s especially good on salads. Then again it’s also just good on its own- good luck resisting its charms!

Macaroni and Cheese of Epic Proportions
Serves 6 as a main course, 8-10 as a side dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole bulb garlic
• 4 oz. prosciutto
• 1 1/2 lbs. pasta (I used fusilli)
• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup chopped shallots
• 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 qt. whole milk
• 1/2 lb. Affinois, inside scraped out
• 1/2 lb. emmenthal or Swiss cheese, grated
• 1/2 lb. sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 1/3 cup toasted white bread crumbs (I like them a little chunky)
• 1/2 cup grated parmigiano
• olive oil for drizzling
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Cut top off garlic. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Wrap tightly in foil. Cook for 45 minutes. Remove from oven, open foil, and set aside to cool. When cool, squeeze out garlic innards and set aside.
• Meanwhile lay prosciutto out in a single layer on a rack over a sheet pan. Cook on the bottom shelf of the oven for 20-30 minutes, until crispy. Remove and set aside to cool.
• Cook pasta according to directions, drain and set aside.
• Melt 2 Tblsp butter in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Saute shallots with thyme sprigs until soft. Add 6 Tblsp butter and melt. Add flour and bring to a boil, whisking, until mixture pulls from sides of pan.
• Add milk and continue to whisk until sauce thickens. Remove thyme sprigs. Season with salt and pepper.
• Add Affinois insides, emmenthal, and cheddar, and stir to melt. Taste and re-season if necessary.
• Mix cheese sauce with pasta. Pour into deep 9×13 dish.
• Make topping by crumbling prosciutto in a bowl. Mix with bread crumbs, parmigiano, and 1/4 cup melted butter. Season with pepper. Sprinkle on top of pasta.
• Cover with foil and bake 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake 10-15 minutes, until topping just starts to brown and cheese is bubbly.

{recipe} Robert’s Chewy Amazing Oatmeal Date Cookies

The other night my friend Robert made these fabulous cookies. I am going to go ahead and make the bold statement that they are now my favorite kind of cookie, officially. I actually don’t even generally gravitate towards sweets much at all, but when these are in the room I find them very hard to resist. I think it’s because they have a ton of butter in them, and also because they are a little bit salty and sweet, and because they have that perfect chewy soft texture going on. Strangely, they have stuff in them that I don’t even like- I am not a fan of walnuts in a cookie at all, unless they’re ground up, and I am usually not so interested in coconut or dates in the cookie setting either. Yet somehow they come together in a magical synergistic explosion of deliciousness.

Robert got the recipe from his mother so props go out to Senora Perez, as well as Robert himself who sacrificed a whole night last week to help me make tons and tons of these and other cookies for my holiday party. So I have a lot of love for the whole Perez familia right now!

Robert’s Chewy Amazing Oatmeal Date Cookies
This is a huge recipe, it makes a LOT of cookies. Don’t even think about doubling it, 2 batches won’t fit in your mixer.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 cups oatmeal (not quick oats)
• 1 cup of dates, chopped into raisin-sized morsels
• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup coconut

Method:

• Preheat oven to 375.
• Cream butter and sugars in a mixer. Add egg and vanilla.
• Add flour, baking soda, and salt and mix with the butter mixture just until combined.
• In a separate bowl, combine oatmeal, dates, walnuts, and coconut. Stir together and add to dough.
• Spoon large tablespoon portions onto baking sheet. Bake for 8-9 minutes. Allow to cool on baking sheets for 4-5 minutes after removing from oven.
• These are very moist so will keep for a couple of days, and still be soft and chewy if you put them in an airtight container.

UPDATE: click here to see this recipe updated with whole wheat flour and agave nectar.