August 2008 Archives

Sure, it sounds deceptively carnivorous and a little barnyardy, but this standout sandwich, which we concocted for our most recent grilled cheese experiment, deserves an arresting name. A more accurate description might be "chevre-salad-sammich." See? Not as cool.

The above was the third sammy (the only goat cheese) in our four-cheese sammy series (collect the whole set!). Goat cheese goes famously well with sweet-tart fruits and fresh nuts, right? So we chose grapes and pistachios.. The grapes got a light pickling -- kissed with vinegar for a day or two -- while the nuts were toasted and blended into a fine dust. The real show stealer though was the cheese, naturally. Since Alex's latest obsession has been Haystack creamery, a goat-only regional powerhouse out of Boulder, CO, we centered this creation around their smoked goat cheese. Haystack's smokiness is rich, but controlled, more like hand-smoked nuts sprinkled on an otherwise snowy, rich cheese. Because the cheese comes from the mile high altitude of Colorado, the cheese is very smooth and rich-not nearly as acidic as chevre from France, and not crumbly or bland like so many American knockoffs.

1 cup red grapes
2/3 cup white balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup water
1/8 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbs. Whole black peppercorns.
1 jar

1. In a small pot, combine the sugar, water, vinegar, and peppercorns, and bring to a light boil, stirring all the while to completely dissolve the sugar.

2. Wash and slice each grape, gingerly, in half. (This will help the brine penetrate the grape's skin).

3. Place all the grapes in your jar, and pour the brine over the grapes, making sure the brine completely covers the fruit.

4. Let sit in the fridge for 1-3 days, keeping in mind that the longer it sits, the tarter the taste.

1/4 cup pistachio nuts, shelled
2 oz. Haystack smoked chevre
4 slices brioche
2 Tbs. butter (room temperature)
2 Tsp. Agave nectar
Freshly ground black pepper

3. Toast your pistachios on medium heat in a frying pan for about 5 minutes, shaking often. Remove and cool. Place in a food processor mixer and pulse until it resembles a fine green powder. Set aside.

4. Butter your bread. Make sure you spread butter over the entire surface area of each slice--this is crucial to a successful grilled cheese. We like to butter the bread, and then stack the un-constructed sandwich butter side to butter side, so you can stuff the sandwich without buttering your cutting board.

4. Portion your goat cheese into 1-ounce portions, slicing with a string of fine dental floss to cut pristinely (no mint-flavored floss!) If you are eyeballing it, you want five or six quarter-sized circles. Place on brioche, adding the pickled grapes to the mix and gently press together.

5. Heat a wide, flat pan on medium heat for 1-2 minutes for grilling the sandwiches. Add a sliver of butter to grease (it should slowly sizzle). Now add sammies to pan. Flip after about 2-3 minutes or until the bread is golden, short of brown. Repeat.

6. Once cheese is starting to get gooey and bread is slightly browned you are going to add a crust of toasted pistachios and agave nectar. Drizzle agave on the side that's facing up, and cake on about a tablespoon of the pistachio dust. Before flipping so nut-side is face down, lift sandwich and add more butter. Flip and repeat.

7. When the nut nuts have browned, remove from the pan and let rest for 25 seconds before cutting to let the cheese congeal. Garnish with pepper, and extra pistachio dust.

Beverage: Belhaven Wee Heavy
Soundtrack: Mountain Goats' "See America Right"

Indigenous green thumbs called them the "three sisters": corn, beans and squash. That's partly because they grow in such harmony together, shielding each other from a harsh and beating sun, and because they taste so good with each other. This classic threesome is "calabacitas," a mash of corn and sqaush and beans. We've cooked bastardy versions of it before.

After bottling nearly 2 quarts of sweet zucchini relish you can imagine we were desperately seeking for dishes to help eat though the stuff. So we seized on a deconstructed kind of calabacitas featuring sweet corn taco filling topped with the relish, rather than just sauteing them together. A naturally sugar-kissed Habañero salsa seals the deal. So sweet.

Sweet-Cream Habañero Salsa
(Makes 2 cups)

Canola spray
2 Tbs. tequila (100% blue agave)
2 cups yellow cherry tomatoes
1 white onion
2 green onions
1-2 habañeros
1 Tbs. olive oil
Sea Salt

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Slice the tomatoes in half one-by-one. Coat a deep pan lightly with canola spray and place three-fourths of the tomatoes in the pan face-down. Toss the rest in a bowl and add tequila as a marinade.

2. Add the white onion, chopped in half, and the green onions to the pan. Slice the habañero in half and add it too. Salt veggies and add a dash of olive oil.

3. Let veggies roast for 25-35 minutes, or until tomatoes are mushy and translucent and white onion is soft. Set in a pan to cool for a few minutes and then puree with a handheld mixer or in a cuisinart. Salt to taste and serve with chips (careful of the spice level, it wanes as it sits). Save some for the tacos. Make tacos...

Corn-Squash Tacos
(Serves 4)

1/2 red onion
1 clove garlic
1 jalapeño
1 red bell pepper
4-6 ears of corn
1/4 cup vegetable stock
1 can refried beans
8 fresh corn tortillas

4. In a sauté pan on medium heat, add the diced onion, jalapeño and red bell pepper. Toast for 30 seconds before drizzling olive oil. Slice the corn off the cob with a knife and then add to the pan. Roast for 2-3 minutes or until corn starts to brown slightly. Add vegetable stock and cook for another 5 minutes or until liquid is virtually gone.

5. Cook (or re-heat) veggie refried beans. These will serve as an apoxy for your corn mash.

6. Heat your tortillas on the stove and plate: Place refried beans on each tortilla, followed by one scoop of corn. Top it off with a smaller spoonful of sweet zucchini relish and finally a dollop of salsa.

Beverage: Pabst Slushies (1 can Pabst, 1/2 cup lime sorbet, 1 tsp. sat)
Soundtrack: Sonic Youth's "Sweet Shine"

Want this sammy? It's yours! We weren't going to say anything about our latest grilled cheese exploits because, well, the thing was sold out. But now we're told that there's two seats left, so here ya go. It's not so exclusive, it's just a smallish fun thing. Hot Knives is grilling sandwiches for a 12-beer and 4-cheese tasting at one of our favorite beer stores, Red Carpet Wine & Spirits in Glendale. It's the second of two events and it's tomorrow (Aug. 24). The tickets are half price ($20). Rather than raffle them off, we thought we'd throw a cheesy contest. But first, consider these sammy courses...

So here's the deal: The first person to rock this cheese trivia can claim the tickets tomorrow and take their seat at the grilled cheese and beer bar. Leave your answers as comments. The first dude with the most right answers, wins. Here we go...

1. Place the following cheeses in order of their fat content (from most to least fatty): sheep, cow, goat.

2. You've found mold growing on a piece of cheddar in your fridge, should you a) toss the whole thing out b) cut off the moldy bit and eat the rest c) scarf it mold and all.

3. Which of these cheese is not traditionally made in the town it is named after: Roquefort, Stilton or Gorgonzola.

4. What is the most popular cheese in France (per kilos sold)?

5. True of false, there are cheese produced in Italy, France and Spain whose ripeness is determined by maggots or mites being present?

Still summer! Summer can be a season of plenty. For those of us with quant home gardens, "plenty" is no problemo. But for friends of ours like Aubrey White, who helps run a dozen-or-so acre community garden, plenty can mean a small conference room filled with zucchini. That makes summer the right time to dust off your bottling and pickling skills.

Aubrey and her Davis, CA crew did just that last month when they pulled a glut of green zukes from the ground and turned their plethora into relish. The recipe came via sweet karma: A nosy neighbor came by and asked if they wanted to give away any produce and was sent home laden with zucchini. The next day he came back with a 'thank you' note. The guy had apparently convinced his wife to pen their family recipe for sweet zucchini relish and hand it over to the farm hands. Aubrey has, in turn, handed it over to Hot Knives. On a recent trip to L.A. she coached us through it by leaving a hand-scrawled note and the groceries and letting us play with the quantities.

So, while this is our take on the recipe (for better or worse), we gotta give massive props to the unidentified fam for leaking their heirloom recipe -- and probably an apology for blogging it. This sweet stuff's just too good not to share. Right now we like to slather it tacos and squirt it on hot dogs.

Zucchini Relish

(Makes about 2 quarts)
4 cups zucchini
1 cup red onion
1/4 cup kosher salt
2 cups cane sugar
1 cup white vinegar
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 large yellow bell pepper
2 jalapenos

1. Start by drawing out the water in the vegetables. Finely dice your zucchini and onion, so it looks about the size of a rustic pickle relish, and place in a large bowl. Add salt and let sit for at least 3 hours (overnight works too).

2. The zucchini should have released a fair amount of water, drain this out and rinse the veggies thoroughly to get the salt off. Set aside.

3. In a large pot, combine sugar, vinegar and spices but not the cornstarch. Put pot on medium heat and bring to a near boil. Add the cornstarch and stir slowly for 2-3 minutes or until dissolved. Liquid should thicken slightly. Now add your zucchini and onion and place on simmer, or very low heat.

4. Dice and add to the pot your yellow bell pepper and jalapenos.

5. Let everything simmer for about 30 minutes, watching carefully that it doesn't reach a boil. Set aside to cool. Use warm, room temperature or refrigerate. Will store for up to 2 weeks.

A scrub is a guy that thinks he's fly and is
also known as a buster
always talkin' about what he wants
and just sits on his broke ass
so (no)
I don't want your number
no I don't wanna give you mine
and no I don't wanna meet you nowhere
no I don't want none of your time and no
- TLC, "No Scrubs"

Pliny (the elder) is famous among brainiacs for being the first renaissance man -- a naturalist, a historian, a lawyer, an outdoorsman and intellectual, an officer and a gentleman -- but, of course, he's much better known around the beer aisles of Southern California for being the dude who purportedly named hops.

Except the word for "hops" in Latin is, apparently, "lupias salictarius." Which translates roughly into "wolf among scrubs." Or so we're told by the men at Russian River Brewing Co., who have dedicated one of their fresh-hop concoctions to Pliny. The ultimate shout-out! Like the man, Pliny succeeds at making a lot of West Coast brewing crazies look a little like a buster, a broke-ass, or a scrub.

And Pliny the Elder is a wise brew. Take the most badass California varietal of pineconey brew, your fave West Coast IPA, and then strip it of all that inevitable (sometimes tasty) cane sugar afterburn or the in-your-face cactusy aloe vera water. Refine it, and spoon beatific, yeasty baked bread foam on top and you have a close approximation of Pliny. With its tangerine pale hue, it looks a lot like a dreamy ale you might find in nature, perched on a rock by a stream considering its own virginal purity. Its nose hits a bunch of forest notes: damp oak, twigs, mossy stones. But its tongue is mostly squeaky clean sunshine. One of the few beers you can find (around L.A. at least) for under $5 that fits the bill of idyllic brew, even beer-style perfection, by making a now-common hop flavor into an authentic and imitable natural art.

Soundtrack: Leonard Cohen's "I'm Your Man"
Dairy Pairy: Haystack Mountain's Sunlight: a raw washed rind goat tomme.

Over the last week we've been experimenting with pickling and sprouting, two ways to make awesome components for whatever you like to eat. Techniques are still being formulated, so those recipes are forthcoming.

With our first batch of pickled onions we made a sprightly little white bean hummus, flavored not with tahini, but a roasted and spiced pistachio puree. The sweetness of the spice and all the niceties of the nuts really make a rad platform for the briny crunchy onions, a recipe we'll post soon.

We made a little sandwich of the hummus in between two tiny tortilla chips, and topped it with the pickled onion, some cumin sprouts and veganaise. This stuff's perfect for a midday snack or as a component for a clever canapé for the next time you're friends wanna hang.

¼ cup pistachio meat
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1 Tsp. Ground Cumin
1 Tsp. Ground Coriander
½ Tsp. Ground Cardamom
6 Mint leaves
¼ cup cooked (or caned) cannelini beans
¼ cup parsley
¼ cup grape seed oil
2 Tsp. Salt

1. Heat a small frying pan on high heat. Throw in the pistachios and cover with the olive oil. When the nuts begin to sizzle turn off the heat. Add the spices and let cool for about fifteen minutes.

2. In a food processor, combine the now cool nuts, the beans and the herbs and puree until the mixture stops "moving." Slowly add the grape seed oil, and continue pureeing until the mixture has a smooth consistency. If you've added all your oil, and the mixture is still not smoothly pureeing, add small amounts of tap water until it does. Salt it.

3. Serve with our aforementioned accoutrements, or on whatever needs souping up.

Beverage: The Bruery's Saison Rue
Soundtrack: The Brian Jonestown Massacre; "Free and Easy"

The Summer often finds us posing many questions as to the appropriateness of our intake. We will never ever fully settle on which beers we really want in the summer, and our penchant for broiling, braising and grilling usually trump our desire to stay cool. This weekend, we focused on the heatless preparation of salad using the two most cool and soothing elements of any summer feast: avocados and watermelon.

Avocados and watermelon?! Its not so preposterous guys... As with some other seemingly unusual flavor combinations (pickles and peanut butter, chocolate and cheese...) the great thing about these two fruits working in tandem is that their individual tastes are heightened, while forming a cool secondary flavor marriage. The butteryness of the avocado is set off by the sweetness of the watermelon and vice versa. The aspect of this pairing that we couldn't get over was how well it went with the sour and grainy flavors of last weeks' obsession: Geuze.

1/4 ripe haas avocado
1 Tsp. aged sherry vinegar
½ tsp. kosher salt
1 Tsp. grapeseed oil

1. Take a knife to your ripe avocado. The fruit should not be too squishy; just ripe enough to be able to indent the flesh through the skin with your finger. Make an incision at the top of the avo, where the stem once was, working the knife very delicately to the pit. Turn the avocado along the knife, so that you are making a perfect separation between the halves. Keenly knife one half in half. To peel, try lifting the tip of the skin at the top of the avo, where the stem once was and slowly peel it away. If this doesn't work, scrape the fruit away fro the skin with a spoon.

2. Mash the ¼ in a bowl with a fork. Add the sherry vinegar and salt and keep mashing. Now, add the oil slowly and beat it into the mash until you have a smooth puree.

2 Tbs. Geuze
1 small shallot
1 Tbs. Tuscan XV Olive Oil
½ Tsp. Kosher Salt
2 cups mixed baby greens

3. Mince the shallot, and set aside in a bowl with the Geuze and the salt.

4. Wash your greens and dry 'em. Now, take about ½ cup of the greens and gently roll them into a ball. Holding the ball o'green together gently, slice the greens as finely as you can: a chiffonade. Repeat till your done.

5. Toss the greens with the Geuze and then the oil, mixing with your hands.

Watermelon
¼ Avocado
Salt and Pepper to Garnish

6. Take a 1" thick slice of a watermelon, not dissimilar to a slice your mom would've made for you as a kid, and cut off its rind. Slice two pieces off the pie shaped origional slice, along the outer edge, and trim them to make two little rectangular prisms. The Remainder should look somewhat triangular. It it don', make it so.

7. Skin the second half of the avocado, and lay it face down (so curved edge up) on your cutting board. Slice it top to bottom as thin as you please.

8. Place a dollop of the avo-puree on each place, and press a rectangle of watermelon into it. Top each slice with additional drops of puree.

9. Gently bunch the greens together into little piles.

10. Serve a nice tall slice of unadulterated watermelon flanked by slices of avocado. Sprinkle with pepper and salt.

Beverage: Geuze Fond du Tradition
Soundtrack: Pavement, "Summer Babe"