Cinco de Mayo

Time to celebrate! Ann and I are now three weeks or so past our COVID booster shots and we feel relatively safe to socialize in small groups outdoors with others who have also been vaccinated. To better get to know our neighbors, from whom we've been at a considerable distance over the last year, we're embarking on a series of porch parties, the first of which we held on Cinco de Mayo.

Unlike a lot of previous affairs, we kept this one really simple and now that we're retired, simple will be the model going forward. I made refried black beans with salsa fresca as a chip dip and a large bowl of rajas con crema, creamed strips of poblano chiles with corn, for tacos. Liz brought a platter of pork quesadillas and Sandy brought a black bean salad. Annie made tequila-lime cupcakes for dessert.

Annie was in charge of décor, arranging everything just so and picking some flowers for the bar. Libation-wise, I made a batch of margaritas and put cheap Mexican beer and white wine on ice. Easy.

After everyone left, Ann and I cleaned up from dinner (disposable plates and cups, not very Oregon eco-blahblah, but easy) and then went back outside on the patio to enjoy the first really beautiful night of the year.

This was the most normal we have felt in a very, very long time. What a relief! Maybe the light at the end of the COVID tunnel is not a train after all.

A Vegetarian Fourth

Almost two years post restaurant, I rarely get the urge to cook full meals any longer. But on July 4th, I felt like I wanted to cook a really simple meal that we could enjoy on the front porch with our vegetarian neighbors, taking full advantage of Oregon's delightful summer weather.

I always associate the Fourth with watermelon and Ann had been asking me to make lentil burgers for a week or two, so I decided to build a meal around that: lentil burgers, pita, hummus, arugula, tzatziki, and a watermelon salad. I started around 7:30 in the morning with some really easy tasks, mixing up some pita dough, making tzatziki, and knocking out a quick watermelon salad.

About 30 minutes before neighbors Pat and Mary Jo came over, I baked the pita, keeping them warm under a towel, while simultaneously frying the lentil burgers which then went into the oven after I turned it off, to keep warm for dinner.

Pat and Mary Jo

"What can we bring?"

We started the evening with a stack of warm pita, a bowl of hummus, and cocktails of pomegranate liqueur and Prosecco. I think that if that was all we had to eat, we would have been happy chatting away on the front porch, hearing all the neighbors doing the same on their nearby porches.

Starters: Pita, Hummus, Pomegranate and Prosecco

I love hummus. Just ask anyone who ever worked for me at the restaurant. I probably ate it every day for lunch. I eat it less frequently now, cooking less, but I still love it. Although you can't see it, this hummus has a lot of green olives ground up with the chickpeas. I also use a drizzle of sesame oil rather than tahini. Same flavor, but easier.

For this batch destined for company, I went to the trouble of peeling all the chickpeas, six pounds of them. For regular batches, I don't peel them. The texture is really much better if you peel them, but I'm not working that hard on a daily basis. I am no longer a restaurant chef judged by the slightest nuances in food. I'm now a guy who values time with people more than time in the kitchen.

Hummus with Olives and a Drizzle of Olive Oil

Lentil burgers, black bean burgers, squash cakes: I have a love affair with fried vegetable patties of all sorts. For these, I cooked the lentils with garlic and herbs, drained them, added eggs, sautéed mirepoix of carrot, celery, and shiitake mushrooms, fresh herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme), and panko. I pattied them out and put them in the fridge to firm up before frying.

Lentil Burgers; Local Sauvignon Blanc

Who doesn't love arugula tossed with some lemon juice, olive oil, and salt? It's one of the greatest and simplest salads.

I couldn't celebrate the Fourth without watermelon, so I made a really quick watermelon salad with feta cheese, red onions, mint from the back yard, olives, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. Thank goodness for the smart plant breeders who came up with the infertile (seedless) triploid hybrid watermelons that are so delicious and easy to work with!

Call it tzatziki, cacik, or tarator, it's pretty much the same yogurt and cucumber condiment all over the Mediterranean. I've made a few thousand pounds of it in my life, always preferring the flavor of red wine vinegar in mine, rather than lemon juice. Herbs vary with my mood, but almost always include oregano, this fresh from my back yard.

Arugula, Watermelon Salad, Tzatziki

Behind the Scenes: Frying Lentil Burgers

Not sure why people think pita is hard to make. It's among the easiest flatbreads. I don't have a recipe per se, keying off the amount of water to give me final yield. One cup of water will incorporate enough flour to make 8 pita. Salt, yeast, and olive oil round out the dough, which I let rise twice before shaping into balls. After the balls rested for 20 minutes, I patted and rolled them out and into the very hot oven onto a hot sheet tray they went, three at a time, about two minutes on one side and another minute on the other.

These pita are very similar to the flatbreads and naan that I used to make at the restaurant, but I would typically put some yogurt in the dough for those. I did not for these pita, but it wouldn't have hurt.

Pita, Still Puffed from the Oven

When all was said and done, I was really tired. I no longer stand in the kitchen and cook all day and it shows. But I really am OK with that. I like the word retired in front of the word chef. It suits.

Summer Vegetable Dinner

Since retiring from the restaurant, I have cooked a handful of real meals, meals into which I put any effort at all. After coming home from the winery, I am mainly about getting something on the table rather than being creative. I need a reason to cook now, it seems. And that reason would be our good friends Pat and Mary Jo just two houses down.

We invited them over for dinner and since they are vegetarians, I cooked vegetarian. Because my diet is mainly vegetarian, this is a non-issue and truth be told, I've never needed meat to make my life complete. Well, there is pork belly. If I have any weakness at all, it would be for pork belly.

This meal was guided by the time of the year and what was in season, the very same ethos that drove the menus at OBW. For a first course, seeing some beautiful Kuta squash in the market made me think back to a dish I did for a vegetarian summer squash-themed dinner more than a decade ago. I made a classic vichyssoise substituting squash for potatoes and calling it rather tongue-in-cheek squashyssoise.

Only one problem. I have real problems with lactose and a bowl of the original chilled soup would certainly be painful. No worries: coconut milk to the rescue for that same unctuousness that heavy cream provides. The soup involved sweating squash and leek with a bouquet of Thai basil from the garden (because is not the combination of coconut milk and Thai basil one of the most glorious flavor combinations ever?) and then into the blender.

After the soup chilled overnight, I pulled it out of the fridge 90 minutes before I wanted to serve it to let it warm to the point where the fat in the coconut milk would be liquid, cooler than room temperature. Only one problem: the soup was so desperately flat that I thought of pitching it out rather than serving it.

I don't know if I am out of practice or if my chef mind failed me, but it actually took me what seemed like several minutes to figure out how to rescue the soup. A sprinkle of salt and a squeeze of agave syrup took the soup to a new plane: one of the three best soups I have ever made and I have made thousands. The garnish is a simple relish of raw corn, raw tomato, Thai basil, salt, and agave nectar.

Lacto-Friendly Squashyssoise

Squash cakes. A year ago, I would have screamed "f*cking squash cakes!" at the thought of making another after a decade and a half of having them on summer menus and the incessant requests from customers as soon as spring arrived, "When are you going to put squash cakes back on the menu?" Squash cakes sound pretty bland, boring, and healthy, but these are none of those things and once someone tries them, she is pretty well hooked for life.

A quick fresh salad of black-eyed peas and vegetables dressed in red wine vinegar and olive oil sits under the cake and a quick pickle of cucumber brings a little more acid to the party to complement the incredibly rich squash.

Squash Cake, Black-Eyed Pea Salad, Quick Pickled Cukes

And for dessert, I had to do a sorbet. Why? My wife made me schlep my huge commercial sorbet machine 3500 miles across this country and it had been sitting in the garage, unpacked and unloved. I made a simple syrup of Pinot Noir with a hint of cinnamon and blended it with watermelon to yield a fun summer sorbet.

Watermelon-Pinot Noir Sorbet

Pat and Mary Jo, thanks for all you do for us. We'll do it again. When I get the itch to cook again.

A Lazy Summer Sunday

Money being tight these days, we are spending a lot more time at home cooking and playing on Sundays that we would normally do during the summer. I really, really wanted to go to Glen Manor Vineyard this weekend, but that costs money we don't have, so I shut my mouth and we put together a great menu for the day.

Wine Line Up: Argyle Pinot Noir and Elk Cove Pinot Gris

It ended up being an Oregon wine day. We had Elk Cove Pinot Gris with our shrimp croquettes for lunch and Argyle Pinot Noir with our mussels for dinner. We had a local Catoctin Creek Petit Verdot on hand as well, but it never got opened.

Annie Frying Her Shrimp Croquettes

Shrimp Croquettes: Roux and Shrimp, Chilled and Breaded

Sometime this past week, Ann had made shrimp croquettes by folding cooked shrimp into a thick roux, chilling it, molding into croquettes, and rolling them in panko. She fried them up for lunch on Sunday. They were delicious with the Pinot Gris.

Watermelon Salad with Mint, Feta, and Red Onions

Mussels with Chorizo, Red Onions, Fennel, Garlic, and Orange Zest

For dinner, I made a watermelon salad by dicing seedless watermelon and feta and mixing that with thinly sliced red onion and chiffonaded fresh mint from the garden. A pinch each of salt and pepper and a splash each of extra virgin olive oil and Sherry vinegar finished the salad.

A big bowl of mussels accompanied the watermelon salad. I started by cooking the onion, garlic, and chorizo, then adding a bit of fennel confit (grilled, slow poached in oil, and covered in a tangy vinaigrette) and white wine. The mussels went in and finished steaming in a couple of minutes. I pulled them out and then reduced the sauce just slightly and poured it over the mussels. A good loaf of crusty bread hot out of the oven finished our lazy summer Sunday supper. A great day at home with my wife!

Father's Day

My Father's Day this year started out pretty rough: I'm juggling too many balls right now and that's got me in a miserable frame of mind. But my Annie and the prospect of having my daughters over for dinner helped me crawl out of my hole a bit and in the end, it was a good day for me.

Awesome Burgers: I Ground Them Myself

These burgers don't look like commercial burgers because they are not. I ground them myself from some really fantastic skirt steak from Martin's Angus Beef, our suppliers at the restaurant. They also don't taste like commercial burgers. They have amazing beef flavor.

Burger, Caramelized Onion-Bacon-Stout-Blue Cheese Jam, Chipotle Mustard

I decided to do a couple of different condiments this year (and at the last second, I decided that my burger was just too good to go on a bun). The first is a caramelized onion-bacon-stout-blue cheese jam made from two very large yellow onions caramelized with a pound of diced bacon then cooked in a bottle of Tröegs JavaHead Stout until the beer evaporated, and then a half pound of really good blue cheese stirred in until melted. The other condiment is a chipotle mustard made from half Maille whole grain mustard and half adobo from a can of chipotle peppers.

No Complaints about the Burgers Here...

...or Here

A Fitting Finish to a Fine Father's Day Dinner

Honeymoon: Friday Breakfast

Friday May 2, Newberg OR

Maybe it was the lack of sleep last night. Maybe it was just time to move on. In any case, by Friday morning, I was feeling kind of wined and dined out and looking for a beer and some simpler food. Nothing against chef's tastings and wine pairings, but a guy needs a break now and again.

The lack of sleep, yeah, that was fun. At 0230, I was awakened by a blood curdling scream in the night. I have heard a lot of coyote vocalizations before, but nothing that ever sounded like someone was being murdered. Until last night. Over the course of 15 minutes, the coyote would sound off at random intervals, but none of his buddies joined in. Strange. I have never heard a coyote call that another dozen wouldn't start yipping and yowling in response. But it seemed that every freaking dog in all of Yamhill County decided to bark back. What a racket! No wonder I couldn't sleep.

We were up fairly early and got ourselves all cleaned up, all packed up, and then came downstairs to spend the final morning in Newberg sitting on deck admiring the splendid views while listening to the spotted towhees call from the tree line below. Kristin came outside after she finished preparing breakfast and asked if we wanted to eat outside, but since the dining room was all set up, we declined, there being no point in relocating everything.

When we sat down to the table, we noticed the butterfly print napkins folded in the shape of a butterfly. Ann and Kristin had got into a discussion about napkin folding the previous morning when our places were set with a fairly intricately folded napkin. And you know how Ann is about a beautiful table, so Kristin was showing her a thing or two.


Butterfly Napkin

Besides the napkins, the table was also set with plates of cantaloupe and watermelon with marionberry sauce and feta cheese, a loaf of lemon poppyseed bread, blackberry rosemary jelly, and strawberry orange jam. I'm a big fan of Kristin's unconventional jellies and jams. The marionberry has a complicated heritage, but for all intents and purposes, it is a large, elongated blackberry and probably the most widely planted variety in production in Oregon. After we were done with the fruit, Kristin brought out scrambled eggs with nasturtium pesto and zucchini and lemon thyme pancakes. Certainly the most creative food that I have ever eaten at a B&B.


Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Marionberry Sauce, Feta Cheese

Lemon Poppyseed Bread

Blackberry Rosemary Jelly and Strawberry Orange Jam

Nasturtium Pesto Scramble; Zucchini-Lemon Thyme Pancakes

After breakfast, we settled up with Kristin, thanked her for her wonderful hospitality, and set off via back roads for Portland.

Zaytinya

Long post warning: a three-hour lunch takes a long time to describe! :)

What a hell of a week this one has been! Two big tops and lots of guests on Tuesday, crushed on Wednesday, full house for our Glen Manor dinner on Thursday, and then the weekend! All of this and being down a cook too. No wonder I haven't had time to think about posting about our trip in to DC last weekend.

We look forward to going to see Cirque de Soleil any time that they are in the DC-Balto area. And this year they were at the Verizon Center with their tribute to Michael Jackson. Cirque always puts on a spellbinding show that is well worth the hefty price of admission and so we save our pennies and splurge on this once-a-year extravaganza.

But first things first. Where to eat? We decided to have a leisurely lunch before the 4pm show and within seconds of looking at restaurants in the vicinity of the Verizon Center, Zaytinya was our choice. I've never eaten there before; Ann has. We love tapas and mezze and the restaurant is directly on the path between Metro Center and the Verizon Center. What's not to love?

So, let's get into our nearly three-hour lunch, shall we? First, an apology. I didn't bring the big camera: no way they would let me tote that in to the Cirque show. So we used Ann's little point and shoot and although it pointed, it didn't shoot worth a damn. Crappy picture warning. They'll help us remember our good times, but otherwise not worth looking at.

Despite leaving a lot of slack in our schedule, we managed to walk in the door just at the time of our reservation thanks to Metro and its balky ticketing equipment. If I used Metro more often, I would hate Metro. We were seated promptly and soon enough our server, Paul, came over with the wine list. I know enough about wine lists to know that I know my own and I know nothing about anybody else's so I asked Paul for help.

We wanted a red and probably not a Greek red. I've tasted a lot of reds from Greece and on a really hot day, didn't want to tangle with a mouthful of Xynomavro, Agiorgítiko, or Mavrodafni, uh, I mean tannins. So with Paul's help, we went to old favorite Chateau Musar from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, ordering a bottle of their Jeune Rouge (young red), a deliciously light-bodied Cinsault-dominant blend.

After toasting with a glass of wine, we got down to looking at the menu and there's just too much food on it! And after talking to Paul for a couple of minutes, I asked him to order for us with preference for the dishes that the kitchen would like us to eat, as opposed to customer favorites. I love to be surprised and there's nothing much that I won't eat.

Within minutes food starting arriving with Paul arriving soon after to explain the dishes to us. He did a fantastic job with our table. Kudos!

Htipiti: Roasted Red Peppers, Feta, Thyme

This spread for our pita was good with especially creamy feta. The peppers, though well prepared, just didn't have the flavor I was hoping for. I'm guessing they are red bell peppers and not something more interesting.

Horta Salata: Fava Puree, Kale, Bull's Blood, Smoked! Olives

This horta salata was the best dish we had all day. It seems it is always this way: the simpler the dish, the better. The interplay of the fave, the lightly cooked kale, and the surprising smoked kalamata olives was exquisite. Ann was equally bonkers for this dish!

Avgotaraho: Cured Mullet Roe in Beeswax

Chef Michael Costa brought this plate of pressed mullet roe (avgotaraho, botargo, botarga, bottarga, boutargue) to the table himself and we chatted for just a little bit. I've eaten a lot of roe in my life: I grew up eating herring and shad roe from the Chesapeake Bay and every roe-laden fish that we process in our restaurant kitchen yields a delectable chef snack. I've never seen botarga presented at the table still in its beeswax coating, but it makes for a great presentation. Carter gamely tried it and when Paul asked him about it, Carter said he liked it but wasn't a fan of the texture.

Halloumi, Compressed Watermelon, Watermelon Rind, Tomato

Seriously, who doesn't like seared halloumi? Compressed watermelon, though it makes for a good presentation, has never impressed me. It seems that no amount of work with a vacuum sealer imparts any significant flavor into the watermelon. Hopefully this is a fad that will just go away.

Falafel, Carter's Sole Request

Falafel is not something we would have ordered for ourselves as we've eaten a lot of it in our lives. Delicious, yes; shows something unique about a particular restaurant, no.

Soujouk Pide: Kasseri Cheese, Soujouk Sausage, Egg

Too bad this picture is so awful because the soujouk (sujuk) flatbread in the shape of an eye was really cool! It has kasseri cheese down with hard, dry, fermented, spicy soujouk over. My first experience with this sausage: it's a winner! Really cool to have a poached egg (OK, so theirs is done in an immersion circulator: show-offs!) on top of a flatbread. Chef Michael served this dish himself. Me gusta mucho.

Lamb Shank, Eggplant-Kefalogravieri Mousse

And here is one of the shining stars of the day, not the lamb shank, but the orgasmic eggplant and kefalogravieri mousse/puree. This puree was the single best flavor bite of the day, though the horta salata was the best overall dish. As soon as our eggplants start coming in in our garden, I am certain that Ann will be demanding that I make this. And I will. I will rip this off and make it my own!

Mushrooms! With Dates and Toasted Almonds

Nice hard sear on these mushrooms; great job by the line cooks! What is not to love? I saw beech, porcini, and chanterelles in this mix, but honestly, I was in stuff-face mode and not really in dish dissection mode.

Octopus Santorini: Yellow Split Peas, Capers, Marinated Onions

I wasn't wowed by the octopus. It is a fine dish, but the spice crust dominated the octopus. Nothing wrong with the dish, but one of the weakest on a menu of standouts.

Crispy Brussels Sprouts Afelia

Once again, awesome job on the sear on these sprouts, guys! Just delicious!

Kibbeh Nayeh: Beef Tartare

Kibbeh I have had dozens of times and dozens of ways and this was, to be perfectly frank, boring. The weakest dish of the day. Technically very fresh and very correct. Exciting, no. Is it a contradiction to say that I liked it, though? Pomegranate seeds would go a long way towards bringing some needed acidity to this dish.

Apricot Parfait

What a great presentation! A fun little dessert. I'm not into dessert so I probably didn't appreciate this or the rice pudding as much as I could have. Still, great attention to detail and very nice presentation.

Rice Pudding with Pear Sorbet

Carter Ate a Dozen Pita!

Not pictured is a dish of roasted cauliflower with golden raisins, pine nuts, and caperberries. I liked the flavors, but the cauliflower could have roasted a bit longer to my taste. I loved the caperberry treatment: it was unique in my experience, sliced into rounds and deep-fried. We also had a shrimp dish, Garides Me Anitho, shrimp with dill and lemon that vied with the kibbeh for boring honors. Extremely popular with the masses I am sure and probably the Zaytinya equivalent of our crab cakes: a huge revenue generator.

Ann's son Carter went with us and I have got to say that I was amazed at his performance. In addition to eating four baskets of pita (that's a dozen pita folks: welcome to our food bill at home!), he ate some of every single dish with face-stuffing gusto! When have you ever seen a 12-year old do that?

My hat is off to Chef Michael Costa and his crew, our server Paul, and especially the backwaits and food runners who ran their behinds off in serving us. I was very impressed with the physical facility, the service, the menu, and the food. Zaytinya truly deserves its ranking as one of the best in DC.

Oh yeah. We also went to see Cirque de Soleil. We left at intermission. I want my money back. It sucked that bad. 'nuf said.