STIR THE POTS

Abracadabra, alakazaam!

My jets haven't cooled from my west coast bread workshop followed by a brief one day layover in NYC and then?

Abracadabra, alakazaam! I am in Istanbuuuuuuuuuuuuul! Back in Istanbul with Dilara!

It's been a few days now (make that a week) since I arrived in Istanbul. Time (bad pun asides) really does fly. Fast paced and whirling like a dervish, I've returned to see what's cooking in m friend Dilara's kitchen. As on my last visit, I am trying to wow her. Not easy, as she seems to inspire every cook or chef within her orbit to make her dizzy with their particular, unique culinary skills. Am I up to the task? Or can I just kick back and just enjoy my return, getting to see my Istanbul-based kitchen friends? 

  

Dilara has already taken me to tour the local food scene. Among the destinations, a market called Yalova. Just outside of Istanbul, it's on the Anatolian side, it's a farmers market with fresh, locally grown products; huge figs, delicious tomatoes, purslane. Dilara tasting everything tells me to pick what I want to use.

 

Back in the kitchen, a constant parade of friends and colleagues come to visit Dilara. She is the muse, the Svengali of the Istanbul food scene that draws interesting characters from all sides of the world to cook for her.

As I get myself re-acclimated with Dilara's kitchen,she keeps me on my toes. She wants me to make a certain tart. She wants it to be prepared with certain ingredients. She wants me to... (honestly?) to make her dizzy. She smiles and closes her eyes. She tells you you're not getting things right. She tells you things are perfect. They're this, they're that. She has you in her orbit. Don't take it personally, whether her responses get you paranoid, pissed off or whatever. She's infectious. All you want is to make her happy.

So I make some levain. Then we make some sour pickles and kimchi. Flavors and pots fly. It's a Turkish circus cooking lab, with Dilara sending me to the high wire. Or the roiling seas of the Bosporus in a dinky rowboat. Somehow it navigates on its own, making the difficult seem possible. For those chefs used to a brigade style system, welcome to la différence!

This next week we have a visitor coming to Istanbul, apparently a famous chef. If I am lucky I may get a photo or shake hands with this legendary bad boy of food. But in the meantime I have met and made new friends, and hope to get to the bazaar and see some more of Turkey before I return home!

Schools out for summer...breaking my teeth on baguettes!

Hydration, percentages, bulk ferment, levain, pre-ferment, biga...

My baking vacation at  Michel Suas's bread baking classes at SFBI left my head packed with, we'll call them, "breadisms."

This first course, Artisan I, was focused on baguettes, difficult yet simple. The egg shelled, soft crumb loaves, considered sometimes holy or holey. My first batches were horrible, I was out of practice, lacking bench time, not to mention without a deck oven at home. Regardless, no excuses! Just got to practice, practice and finally, one day, you can get a perfect baguette. Then you can make anything else; a batard, a boule, or even a miche!

On arrival, my first quest for school was getting there. Or rather, walking there. For whatever reason, each morning I woke up with a first-time-at-kindergarten  butterflies. It's been a decade since my first baking course and I now get stage fright. A lot of dough has passed between my hands since those early days. Today I'm an actual professional chef, but still just baking like a crazed uncontrolled yeast infection in my apartment.

Anyway, each day's brisk walk to and from the school let me work my way through the anxiety, as it led me through an industrialized park, manicured lawns of a DNA company, even a nice creek with wild fennel and birds,and always at the beginning of the day, the rising sun.

Wild fennel with escargot, hmmm nice flavors!

Wild life amongst the industrial park, there is hope for the planet!?

The sun came out of all the San Francisco fog, actually we had a few hot days.

I will write a lot more about the class, but I am heading out tomorrow for the other half of my vacation, sort of a working food trip... more on that later!

Finally just a thank you of course to Erin Bailey, Laura Luna, Safa Hamzé and all the interns who fed us daily! Oh, I can't forget Michel Suas, for providing a rich environment for budding bakers to grow, like a levain, we just keep rising!

So here are some more baguettes.

Eating my way through my vacation!

Ever on a quest for something that tastes good, what to do for vacation? Clearly, the right thing is to go to San Francisco for a week long bread course. Below are my first set of pictures from the sunny Bay Area. 

The eating started with a food deprived flight via Jet Blue, albeit I did scarf down two bags of terra chips with a few bottles of water. Jeezus 5 hours of crap to sustain me! My only thought on landing was a non-stop binge in America's Golden Gate food mecca 

First stop, the Ferry Building Marketplace!

 

Cow Girl Creamery Artisan cheese shop was packed. Mmmm.

 

The sign say's it all, it's an institution!

 

I was starving and this place, Il Cane Rosso, looked great;  spit roasted Porchetta on Acme bread, duh-licious!

 

Then I doubled back for a loaf of bread before the bakery was closing. Man they crank out some loaves!

 

Levain and more levain!

  See you later!

When in the neighborhood do as the locals do, Sorriso's!

For years, I have ridden my bicycle countless times to and from  Queens to my mother's Connecticut home in southern Fairfield County. The ride usually takes me through Astoria, a multi-ethnic neighborhood rich with food markets and restaurants.

One of my stops after a long ride is, you could say, a canoli pick me up. My specific destination is someplace I divulge with hesitance. Gian Piero. Okay, I've let the secret out. The folks behind this place deserve recognition. Their pasticceria makes the classic Italian pastries, cannoli, biscotti, sfogliatelli, etc and the  meanest and most incredible espresso. 

Anyway, last weekend brought me back there, but not with my bike. Rather, my wife and I were driving  to shop at a nearby Costco. After she heard my description of their coffee and desserts, she suggested we make a stop. As we sipped a macchiato (and after we bought a box of cannoli's for my sister in-law) I noticed a sign on a store front window across the street, "Salumeria Sorriso's." Costcos would have to wait, because I had to check it out. I wasn't disappointed. It was a delight, filled with dried,hanging Sopressate, various Italian cheese behind the counter, all sorts of sundries and specialties, from olives, anchovies, capers, oils and vinegar. Buonissimo, food orgasm!

Since I have been on a roll making pizza of late I couldn't think of a better thing then some fresh mozzarella cheese, some 00 flour, this place had it all, and why not some homemade fresh percatelli?

Frank, the helpful owner, made suggestions for the fresh pasta. When I asked about making my own mozzarella, he gave me some fresh curd. We couldn't resist the  homemade sopressate, with just a slice to sample of the fennel and orange perfumed sausage. And it goes on and on, from good to better and all in the old world charm of a neighborhood family store with value and homemade feel without having to go to another borough.

Sorriso's 44-16 30 AVE.Astoria, NY 11103

WD-50, what I can't say...

While just off the operating table a few weeks ago, I invited Susan of wild yeast out to dinner at WD-50. I have been curious  about all the fuss made about these new "nouvelle" style restaurants. Failing to get a table for my first choice at Le Bernardin, I opted to try a cuisine that's less known and, perhaps even controversial in some cooking circles.

Keeping my mind open to something new sounded like a good idea, albeit with one of the leading senses not working, namely my nose due to recent surgery. As I chewed and tried to decipher flavor, it proved virtually impossible. Regardless, I had the genuine pleasure of watching Chef Wylie Dusfrene and his staff go about doing what they do, specifically their reputation for alchemy around molecular gastronomy. Most of my fellow chefs and foodies (from mainstream critics to online bloggers to just passionate eaters) are just curious about what they are conjuring from mysterious and odd sounding ingredients.

Combining new  methods and techniques that sound more like something out of a science class, these folks are not "old school" cooks and chefs  in the Fernand Point traditions of food preparations, the latter focused more on traditional flash in-the-pan rather then crayovac packets and meat glue. Trying my best to cast reasonable and grounded judgment  on this new school of cooking, I have decided to come back in the future and smell and taste - as well as see - what it's all about. Meanwhile here are some pictures to let you in on what we had that evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's the nose that knows, Bar Boulud revisted!

Yes I know, my nose is back in action, so I had to get it into some more pâté, terrines, and the like.  Today when my wife suggested we celebrate out 22nd wedding anniversary at an impromptu lunch, I couldn't say no!

First she wanted to go to Aquavit, claiming it was the food but I secretly knew it was to see that handsome chef, Marcus Samuelsson. But lunch there was finished at 2:30 in the afternoon. At two o'clock, we were still in Queens, so initially we settled for a less interesting location. But wanting to give my beautiful wife something special, I Googled a few more places on on my i-Phone. Thank you technology! It turned out we could still make Bar Boulud since they served lunch till 4 o'clock!

Pop, off we went into the taxi across Central Park. There in front of  Lincoln Center was the red canopy of the outdoor tables of the restaurant. I felt like I already knew everything about the place. Boy was I in for a surprise!

The wine list, a short one or a leather bound book of paper filled pages  was offered. We opted to do things by the glass rather then the bottle. God knows I could knock one bottle back myself if it were my choice!

 

For every bottle or glass of Summer Rose, Daniel gives a portion of proceeds to Breast Cancer Research Foundation. So my wife aptly picked a floral scented gem of a wine, Thierry Puzelat, "VDT" Touraine, FR 2008. I am gonna get that for my mom as she will love it. So will you!

I didn't snap a shot of my own wine, too busy sniffing it, a Clos Du Mont Olivet, Cotes Du Rhone 2007. The first sip was a nectar, pure cassis and fruit explosion.

The service was attentive, the staff really knowledgeable, and they were happy to hear I was blogging about my second visit as the promised to make sure I would enjoy this visit. They kept their word. First things first; nice sliced wheat bread served with butter with a flurry of salt crystals. Terrific! And to think, it's just bread and butter.

Then the choices. It's a small menu, and that makes it even more difficult to choose.The last last visit, my heart ached as I couldn't make out a morsel from the platter of charcuterie we had ordered. At the time, I was just through nose surgery. All I could sense were textures. And then I couldn't recognize any of the nuances and perfect feel to the mouth. This time was different.  I went with the braised beef cheeks. Wonderful. It  reminded me of the picnic me and my wife had on the Seine a few years ago with a bottle of wine. Just closing my eye's I could almost be back in France.

My wife had gazpacho drizzled with both  basil oil, cucumber dice and olive oil.

My entree could kill a cat, croque Monsieur, a lactic overdose of enrobed ham, bread , melted golden brown crusted cheese with an obscene bechamel oozing from the inside out!

All the while I envied my wife's choice of Boudin blanc, an airy saucisse that lay over truffled pomme puree encircled by a meat jus. Next time!

I knocked off my first glass of wine. My wife and the server suggested another to burn off the artery clogging dish I just devoured. No problemo!

A change of terroir. I chose,Terre Nere, Etna Rosso, Sicily 2008, a spicy and cherry and vanilla scented bouquet. Nice!

Then onwards to dessert. The waiters suggested the gateau Basque. Okay!

 

The missus ordered some multilayered coupe de something with cardamom mousse, brioche and chocolat.  I helped her knock it off as she nibbled the remains of my brandied cherry and anglaised gateaux Basque...whew!

Between appetizers and entrees, I quickly snapped some pictures of the bar area where the pâté, sausages and terrines are well displayed behind a glass case.  In the front of the case a large shiny slicer, conspicuously clean and well preserved. Perhaps an antique.

 

 

 

 

The visit was worth the return. This time I could taste everything. Delicious. Spot on. Before leaving I noticed the staff gathered, perhaps having a wine tasting. It made me wonder if perhaps I should moonlight and work here on the weekends. We'll see.