a dinner for... bloggers?

For a few months now, we'd been trying coordinate schedules and find some time to get together with a local blogger and his family. Friday morning, we got an email saying that some time had unexpectedly opened up for Saturday night. So it was on... no way we were going to miss this opportunity! Since I was going to be snowboarding that day with another local blogger (whose wife also blogs), why not make this a little blogger soiree?

There wasn't much time to do cooking and prep since we'd be getting home from the slopes about an hour before dinner. The goal was to make some simple, interesting food that would be accessible to E&M's three children as well. I also wanted to feature some form of nori in each of the dishes--I'm currently in the midst of a serious nori infatuation and am trying to figure out some new ways to incorporate the deep, rich flavor of seaweed everywhere.

carte

potato, leek and cauliflower soup
nori paste, croutons, cilantro, chili oil

tuna "carpaccio"
arugula, ruby grapefruit, avocado, dried nori

kabocha squash curry noodles
taiwanese wheat flour noodles, quail egg, dried nori

"ocean and land"
kalbi-marinated braised shortrib, sake-miso black cod, nori seasoning

meyer lemon mandarin orange curd tart
butter crust, dark chocolate ribbon

I love the rich creaminess of potato-leek soup. Here, I reduced the amount of potato and substituted cauliflower to lighten the broth a bit. I needed the flavor of the soup to be a more muted backdrop to the small drop of nori paste in the center. Croutons added for texture and a slight sourdough flavor, with cilantro and chili oil for subtle flavor accents.

I snagged a stunningly beautiful, deeply red block of sashimi-grade ahi tuna at the market. After slicing the tuna into individual portions, I gently pressed the tuna (covered in plastic wrap) with the cutting board to flatten and break down the tissue and form a carpaccio of sorts, making the flesh even more delicate--hopefully almost melting on the palate. Classic beef carpaccio is fantastic with a squeeze of lemon, leaves of arugula and parmiggiano, so we went the same direction here... sweet ruby red grapefruit, arugula leaves, some avocado for richness, dried nori and a wisp of sesame oil.

Lav found some fresh ribbons of Taiwanese wheat flour noodles at the local Chinese market. The texture of these noodles is awesome... soft and silky, but with a faint chewiness to them. She made a wonderful Japanese curry with kabocha squash, which turned creamy and sweet, along with carrots, bell pepper and onion. This was topped with a fried quail egg and lots of dried nori. The nori really transformed the curry to give it a different savory flavor dimension. A bit too spicy for the girls though... oops!

I have to admit, I was a bit worried about this one. I wanted to present the familiar Korean flavor of kalbi in a different context. Rather than having rich, thin ribbons of shortrib, I marinated whole blocks of shortrib in kalbi sauce, then slow-braised them for overnight to melt the collagen in the meat and develop the intensity of the resulting sauce. We matched this with small strips of broiled black cod, marinated sake and miso, which has a completely different element of richness. This dish really could have used something like spinach or pea shoots to cut through the decadence.

While the kids (and their father) feasted on jelly bellies, the rest of us wrapped up the evening with Lav's homemade lemon tart. Since there weren't enough meyer lemons, she substituted some mandarin oranges which actually helped to round out the tartness of the curd with some additional sweetness. The layer of dark chocolate in the crust was key. J declared it "the best lemon tart I've ever had!"

Each of the people at this meal has had an important impact on our life here in Seattle. It was nice to be able to have a little food together... but even better to share thoughts, laughs, and community for a little window of time on a Saturday evening.

settling in and getting to know the Tuk

Now that we have a bit of a yard, Lav's been getting more and more excited each day to get a garden started. The first seeds have been planted and started indoors, and every day, the tiny green shoots of arugula, basil, edamame, shiso, sage and ruby chard start poking out of the dirt and reaching for the sky. There's even some activity from the seeds she planted straight into the ground... so now were dreaming of the nifty little strikingly fresh salads we'll be able to make in the coming seasons.


We ran into our fantastic landlords A&B over the weekend and got to talking about some of the native trees on the property, like the hazelnut and pear trees (pictured below)... the ridiculous amounts of juicy plums to expect... the crazy cherry trees where all the fruit is going to be 20 feet off the ground... not to mention the dozens and dozens of plantings A&B have put in. It's like being surrounded by the ethos of nature's bounty.


We took a little stroll through our quirky, homey new neighborhood. Here are some of the things we saw.


Already feels like home.

Quick afterthought--Ok, I'm watching the first episode of this season's Top Chef right now, and it seems pretty interesting. But dude, there are some SERIOUS chefs on this show this year. Are half of these folks from San Francisco? Coco500 (yum), Le Cirque, and Richard Blais???? As in, the dude whose restaurant we visited in Atlanta? As in, Richard "I've competed in Iron Chef" Blais? And wow, lots more swearing. Crazy.

the most satisfying 20-minute meal I've made in a while

Lav and I were headed home from the eastside tonight after a long day of work (and working out, for Lav). By the time we pulled into the driveway, we were starving and it was already 7:45 pm... we needed something really good, and really fast. We decided to go with a simple, rustic Italian dinner.

I remember a dinner at Anne and Craig Stoll's fiercely elemental Delfina back in 2000, when I first tasted one of their simplest, but most perfect of dishes: spaghetti with plum tomatoes, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and peperoncini. Made from basic dried spaghetti, just the faintest sliver before al dente, dressed just enough with the sauce of crushed tomatoes and olive oil to highlight the wonderful texture of the pasta without overwhelming the sauce-to-pasta proportion. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the intrinsic flavor of pasta, and it made me stop dousing pasta in ladles of sauce.


So tonight, we made our go-to dish when time is short: spaghetti in a crushed tomato sauce with olive oil. Nothing can be simpler. The sauce is made exclusively of high quality (but inexpensive) organic canned tomatoes, a bit of good olive oil, one small clove of garlic, and a sprinkling of fresh, aromatic basil. A good forkful of spaghetti with the sauce barely clinging to the pasta... a good chew where the pasta both resists and gives in... and purity of distinct flavors.


We also had an awesome bunch of swiss chard that I'd been wanting to saute with bacon in olive oil and garlic... just long enough until the chard becomes lightly tender and delectable, faintly sweet and earthy, and finished at the end with a quick blast of high heat to get a bit of char. At the last minute, I added some crushed hazelnut, and was surprised at how well the rich nutty flavor of the hazelnut matched the swiss chard.


A nice wedge of "Trailhead" from Mount Townsend Creamery for dessert, and we were back in a good place. A pretty good return for 20 minutes and $3 of ingredients.