Chef Richard Ruskell
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How? Just go to Twitter, follow the Montage Beverly Hills and tweet this:
I want to taste #ChefRuskell’s creations @MontageBH! http://bit.ly/9liWxc.
Full details and rules here. Contest runs until August 3rd.
Seems easy enough to me. Maybe he’ll teach something like this:
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Anywhoo, one day a loooooong time ago, H and I were standing in line in
We told them what to order, what to expect and so on. It turned out they thought we had said TOPLESS bars and so they were less than enthused. (Did I mention they were a really nice gay couple?) Ever since then, I’ve been very careful with my pronunciation whenever I recommend TAPAS. And, gosh, do I have a place to recommend!
A few weeks ago, a bunch of H’s work buddies, ANOTHER great group, met up at Boqueria, (the one on Spring Street) to try the tapas.
H and I know our tapas pretty well, so we were psyched. By the way, the word TAPA means lid. Traditionally, whenever you ordered a drink at a Tasca or bar, it would come with a little plate of snacks placed on top of the glass, like a lid. The tapas at Boqueria were fantastic, with some real standouts that will definitely have us going back.
Pan con Tomate, grilled bread rubbed with tomato, garlic and olive oil, was really flavorful. It was a like a simple mini-pizza with a great crunch.
Pimientos de Padrón (Shishito Peppers) were slightly sweet and slightly hot at the same time. A nice little bite.
The White Sangria was also sooo refreshing. Be careful, though, it’s easy to drink it by the pitcherful.
We moved on to the Croquetas. Ah, the Croquetas Cremosas! This was my favorite dish of the night. Some were filled with a creamy mushroom mixture, others were studded with Swiss chard. So soft and luscious on the inside, fried to a textbook crispness on the outside. I love them and I loved THESE.
I didn't even remember that the dates were stuffed with almonds AND a Valdeón blue cheese (Dátiles con Beicon), because I was concentrating on the perfectly charred bacon that was wrapped around the sweet, sticky dates. The bacon was muy rico. Charred, yet not burned. I love sweet and savory, so to me that’s a perfect bite.
One aside - One of the gals with us is a part owner of the restaurant. Of course, that definitely got us a table during a busy time, but I have no doubt that everyone there got the same great food we did. AND, as far as the service goes, I looked around to see how the staff was treating the rest of the folks (who didn’t know an owner), and it looked as if they were all treated well too.
Back to the food:
The Tortilla was delivered in a lovely big chunk with some great bread. The board also had some flavorful pieces of chorizo, a must-have on any tapas platter.
Thank goodness they forgot the Albondigas (meatballs), because I’m not sure where I would have put them (my purse, maybe), but there's always a next time.
We couldn't forget about dessert and there were two wonderful renditions of Spanish desserts that I love:
Crema Catalana is my all time favorite dessert, Spanish or otherwise. It’s so velvety, without a hint of the rubberiness that crème caramel can have. Think pudding with a sugar crust. It is pure smoothness on the spoon with the wonderful hard sugar crust as a perfect counterbalance. THIS was a good one.
You can also think Crème Brûlée, even though I think Crema Catalana is much richer and creamier. Spaniards believe their dessert predates
Crema Catalana is cooked on top of the stove, rather than in the oven in a water bath like a Crème Brûlée and that makes it easier to make. Also Crema Catalana is typically made with cornstarch AND egg yolks, while a Crème Brûlée has only egg yolks. You would think I would prefer the cornstarch-less custard, but no, the Crema Catalana is the perfect custard dessert.
Also very, very good at Boqueria was the Spanish flan, which is like crème caramel. (BTW, flan in
Also on the dessert menu are wonderfully hot and crisp Churros with a deep, dark, thick hot chocolate for dipping. In Spain, those would be served for breakfast, but somehow I managed to choke them down. So good!
Boqueria is perfect for a few Tapas with drinks or you could make an entire (delicious) meal out of three or four, or maybe or five or six tapas. ;-)
I would have been happy with just the Croquetas and Crema Catalan, though. And I guarantee you don’t even have to know anyone to have a great time and great food.
The results of Week 3 of the Cookbook Lalapalooza are in!
Sarah wins Eating Local. Chaya wins Tips Cooks Love. (Multiple entries are definitely the way to go!) And Pam wins Cider Beans, Wild Greens, and Dandelion Jelly.
Congratulations and thanks to everyone for entering. I’ll be in touch with the winners for mailing info.
This is the last week of my Cookbook Lalapalooza with Andrews McMeel Publishing. A big thank you to them for their wonderful cookbooks and thanks so much to everyone who has entered so far. This week’s cookbooks should inspire any cook. Check out the rules for entering at the end of this post.
Mary Mac’s Tea Room, 65 Years of Recipes from Atlanta’s Favorite Dining Room by John Ferrell is a fantastic collection of Southern recipes served in a well-known
Georgia Peach Cobbler (serves 8 to 10)
from Mary Mac’s Tea Room by John Ferrell
Posted with permission
2 pounds fresh fruit or 1 (16-ounce) can sliced peaches in heavy syrup, undrained
1 cup plus 3/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cornstarch
8 tablespoons (1 stick) salted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup ice water (with crushed ice)
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Peel and slice the fresh fruit. (If using canned fruit, taste before adding the sugar.) Place the fruit in a bowl and add 1 cup of the sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and cornstarch. Toss together gently. Pour the sweetened fruit into a 13 by 9-inch baking dish and dot with the butter pieces.
In the work bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, on medium speed, beat the shortening, salt, and the remaining 3/4 teaspoon sugar. Gradually add 1/2 cup of the flour to the shortening mixture and mix together lightly. When the mixture becomes stiff, add 1 tablespoon of the ice water. Repeat the process until all the flour and water is used. The mixture should be soft, but not wet. Cover and let chill for 30 to 40 minutes. Roll out on a floured surface to a 13 by 9 1/2-inch rectangle.
Cover the fruit with the pastry, crimping the edges. Make 3 or 4 slits in the pastry with a sharp knife for steam to escape. Brush the crust with the 2 tablespoons of melted butter. If using fresh fruit, cook for 1 hour. If using canned fruit, cook for 25 to 30 minutes at 400˚F. The cobbler is done when the pastry is golden. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
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The next two books are by Sara Engram and Katie Luber, the founders of The Seasoned Palate Inc., an organic spice company. In The Spice Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices, they’ve put together a great collection of recipes that use their different spices in wonderful ways.
I love the sound of the Blackberry Vinaigrette with white balsamic vinegar and dried orange zest. Their Spicy Middle Eastern Chicken Skewers, fragrant with, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, ancho chile pepper AND turmeric, would make be wonderful wrapped in a warm pita.
Chicken Salad on Croissant
from The Spice Kitchen by Katie Luber and Sara Engram
Posted with permission
This salad also works well with turkey. In fact, it’s the perfect day-after-Thanksgiving sandwich.
½ cup mayonnaise, plus additional for spreading
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon dried orange zest
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups diced cooked chicken
½ cup Cardamom Candied Walnuts (page 112), chopped
½ cup sweetened dried cranberries
¼ cup finely diced yellow bell pepper
¼ cup finely diced celery
¼ cup finely diced red onion
2 tablespoons shelled sunflower or pumpkin seeds, preferably roasted and salted
4 croissants, halved horizontally
Whisk together the mayonnaise, coriander, orange zest, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Stir in the chicken, walnuts, cranberries, bell pepper, celery, onion, and seeds and gently toss the salad until evenly coated. Spread additional mayonnaise on the croissant halves if desired. Evenly divide the chicken salad between the four croissants and serve. Makes 4 sandwiches.
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Mango Sorbet with Cumin and Cinnamon (makes about 3 cups)
from Spice Dreams by Sara Engram and Katie Luber
Posted with permission
This recipe for mango sorbet is a winner even without the spices. But cinnamon and cumin lend an appealingly adventurous streak to mangoes, so it’s a shame not to let the spices shine. We like the full teaspoon of each spice, but it’s fine to start with ½ teaspoon.
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
¹⁄8 teaspoon salt
½ to 1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ to 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 mangoes, peeled, pitted, and cubed
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Combine the sugar, water, and salt in a medium, heavy saucepan. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring gently, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the syrup is clear, about 5 minutes.
Whisk in the cumin and cinnamon, and continue to cook, whisking continually, for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and place in a bowl of ice water to quickly cool the syrup. Let it cool, stirring often, for 5 minutes.
While the syrup is cooling, place the mangoes and the lemon juice in a food processor and puree until smooth. Strain the mango puree through a mesh sieve into a medium bowl. Add the syrup to the puree and whisk until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until completely chilled, at least 4 hours or overnight. The sorbet mixture may be stored in the refrigerator for 1 day.
Freeze the chilled sorbet mixture in an ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer the sorbet to an airtight container and freeze in the freezer for 2 to 4 hours before serving.
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Rules for Cookbook Lalapalooza
To win Mary Mac’s Tea Room, The Spice Kitchen or Spice Dreams, all you have to do is tell me which one you want - one of three ways:
1) Send a comment to this post. (Include your email address, if your name doesn’t link to it.)
2) Send me an email with Cookbook Lalapalooza in the subject line at FNMusings@gmail.com.
3) Tweet me at http://twitter.com/SueonFood
Enter as many times as you wish. ONE ENTRY per comment, email or tweet please. Contest open to US residents 18 years old and above.
This week's giveaway ends on Saturday, July 31st at 11:59 pm eastern time, when winners will be chosen randomly.
Top Chef DC – Cold War
Various chefs say they miss Timothy. I do too!
This week's Quickfire is totally weird and has nothing to do with anything. There are disgusting proteins on the table when the chefs come in. Then in walks Padma and Michelle Bernstein.
Wouldn’t it have been better to have Andrew Zimmern with all that funky stuff? Oh wait, they did that on Top Chef Masters. It didn’t particularly interest me then either.
The only funny thing is when Angelo picks Duck “White Kidneys” and Michelle tells him they’re actually Duck Testicles. Who knew?!! That ducks even HAD testicles, I mean. He decides to treat them like sweetbreads. I suppose that’s smart.
The other noteworthy thing is that Andrea is concerned that Michelle Bernstein is the judge. They compete in the
For whatever reason (and I’m totally with Andrea that it wasn’t entirely food oriented), Michelle puts Andrea in the bottom of the Quickfire. Michelle delights in telling her that her boar needed to be cooked longer. She says twice, in a very patronizing way, that her sauce was wonderful BUT…there were problems with the meat.
Alex and Stephen are also in the bottom. Michelle likes Tamesha’s Duck Tongue, loves Amanda’s Llama and Kelly wins with her Emu Egg Omelet.
Oh, one more thing about the Quickfire. Halfway through or so, Padma comes in and barks to the chefs to step to the left and take over THAT protein. I hate that! It’s soooo pointless. But it was positively amazing what the chefs came up with. Many of them DO have quite developed culinary chops.
The Elimination Challenge is to make a cold dish. Big deal. Oh, the way it’s going to work could get ugly, and thus, exciting. They’re divided into two teams by knife pull.
Absolutely amazingly, Angelo and Kenny are on different teams. Why is that important? Because the chefs from team A will taste AND JUDGE the food from the chefs of team B and vice versa.
THEN they’ll vote on one chef from the other team to be a winner and one to be up for elimination. Obviously, Angelo will engineer it so that Kenny is up for elimination. And probably, Kenny will do the same to Angelo.
They go off on the USS Sequoia to plan their dishes. WHY are they going for a pointless boat ride? AND in their chef’s coats, although there’s no cooking going on.
We learn that JFK held important Cuban Missile Crisis meetings on the Sequoia and Kenny makes the point (to us) that the tension between
Ed, sounding weirdly slurred, says the other team of Tamesha, Tiffany, Angelo, Stephen and Andrea will be judging his food and he doesn’t “think there will be no personal attack” on him or his food. Poor English aside, why are his eyes dilated?
This is good. Amanda gives Alex a piece of her Chicken Galantine to try and he doesn’t tell her he tastes a bit of cartilage in there. Funny.
The judges and first group of cheftestants go into the dining room. Angelo’s team is tasting the other team’s food first.
Oy, back in the kitchen, Kevin isn’t that sure about his dish. Ed presents his dish to the judges as a Vichy-Sway. Why are people so dumb? Vichy-SWAZZZZZZZZZ. There’s an “E” on the end of Vichyssoise, so you have to pronounce the “S”. It’s a simple as that. I vote for ED to go home, because he can’t speak clearly or correctly and he looks a bit cross-eyed at the moment.
Tiffany and Angelo are being horrible about Kenny’s lamb. OH, COME ON!!! Angelo even uses the word slimy. They weren’t nice about Alex’s dish either, but not as bad as what they said about Kenny’s.
They move on to Amanda’s dish. Angelo actually holds it up and SMELLS IT and says Amanda’s Chicken Galantine wasn’t cold enough and he could taste it congealing on his tongue. Goodness! Is he going to describe how he’s digesting it too?
Tom looks appalled at their reactions. Luckily, he stands up for Kevin’s dish. Oh, I think Kevin will win. Padma asks about the least favorite. Angelo speaks up, of course. THIS IS APPALLING. WHO do you THINK he says? He says Kenny’s vision was convoluted. It’s pretty clear that HIS isn’t and he wants Kenny out now. PULEEZZZZZ.
Surprise, surprise, Kenny is up for elimination and Kevin is up for the win. I am sooooo tempted to fast forward and see what happens…but I won’t. I DO always read the ends of scary books, though, and I love to hear EXACTLY what happens at movies. I can’t relax if I’m worried about who is going to be offed. If I know the end in advance, I can enjoy the whole thing much more.
BUT here, I don’t want the outcome to color my view of what’s happening. Plus it’s fun to almost always guess wrong.
The second team is no way as horrible as the first. Let’s see what they say about Angelo’s. Kenny says the topping on Angelo’s fish overpowers the rest of the dish.
Padma asks first who is up for the win. Kevin says he prefers Angelo’s. SEE? He’s nice and not going for all this gamesmanship. Tiffany is also a favorite of the others. The least favorite? Even Kenny says Tamesha, so he’s not skewering Angelo at all costs.
It's Tamesha and Kenny up for elimination. Whew, I feel better. It’s obvious it will be Tamesha who goes home. It has to be. IF Kenny gets sent home, I'm boycotting Top Chef and going home too. Oh, I AM home...whatever.
In the stew room, Angelo actually says in front of Kenny that Kenny was his least favorite. Kenny is amazed, but takes it like the man that he is.
Kevin and Tiffany are called in and told they had the top dishes. I think Tiffany will win. And it’s…Kevin. Gosh, I AM bad at this! My local guy wins 6 nights at the Hilton Hawaiian village (including airfare, Padma adds. Duh!). He’s thrilled.
Kenny and Tamesha are called in.
If Kenny goes home, then I will eat my…I don’t know what, but I’ll be disgusted. It was soooooooooooo obvious that Angelo was spearheading a challenge.
Michelle is kind of witchy and tells Kenny that she didn’t enjoy ANY part of his dish.
OMG, ANOTHER commercial, promos, finally we’re back. Who’s going home?
It’s (it better be Tamesha)…so, WHO is it? Tamesha. WHOA, of course, it’s Tamesha. It couldn’t have been Kenny. Thank goodness, how could I ever have thought that it would be Kenny?
Tiffany says (to us) that Tamesha shouldn’t have let Angelo take so much control over her dish and Tamesha herself says that (to us). Whew, that was a close one. I need a drink(s).
Two interesting things on the Top Chef site:
In Tamesha’s exit interview, she says that when she saw Padma stroll into the dining room in high heels, she was absolutely awestruck. Well, actually, I couldn't understand a word she said, but that seemed to be the general sentiment.
And Eric does a video blog after each episode, which I usually skip because I have no patience for videos...after watching these episodes as closely as I do. But, I did watch this one.
(There was a transcript of his, unlike Tamesha’s. I guess that’s for folks who can’t stand videos like me or because his accent is a bit too strong.)
Anyway, Eric mirrored my remarks from the beginning of this post about Michelle. Describing Michelle’s treatment of Andrea, he makes a growling cat noise (or maybe it was the motion). I don’t like stereotypical portrayals of women’s dealings with each other usually, but I don’t think he was wrong. And, actually, even if Andrea had been a MALE chef from
To enter ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS TELL ME WHICH BOOK YOU WANT:
Cider Beans, Wild Greens, and Dandelion Jelly,
or Eating Local
Tell me in one of three ways:
1) Send a comment to this post or the original Cookbook Lalapalooza post. (Include your email address, if your name doesn’t link to it.)
2) Send me an email with Cookbook Lalapalooza in the subject line at FNMusings@gmail.com.
3) Tweet me at http://twitter.com/SueonFood
Enter as many times as you wish. ONE ENTRY per comment, email or tweet please. Contest open to US residents 18 years old and above.
This week's giveaway ends on Saturday, July 24th at 11:59 pm eastern time, when winners will be chosen randomly.
