Duty Free

I still have a few ideas kicking around from my trip to Hong Kong a few weeks ago; don't be surprised if you see remnants for months to come.

If you haven't ever gone abroad, let me tell you that one of the greatest things about international travel is actually the duty free shop here at the airport in Seattle. Seriously! The yardstick by which duty free prices are measured: Johnny Walker Blue Label is $138 a bottle!! We held out for Asia only to see that price rise.

Luckily for us duty free extended onto the plane, where we went for the Remy Martin XO cognac that was priced a little less. We sipped glasses of the elixir like royalty in our hotel room; I even mixed it with some champagne which made an amazing cocktail that I promised myself that I would feature at Table 219, but alas, the price would be too much, so I had to draw inspiration from elsewhere...

The second most memorable beverage we had was at Bo Innovation, where aside from some amazing food that you will no doubt see in my specials over the next couple of months (or even years) we had sparkling sake for the first time. As I was trying to figure out my specials this past weekend I remembered that Gary had been duped into buying a bottle of Effen cucumber vodka, I realized how well the vodka would benefit from the unique flavor and effervescence of the sparkling sake, leading me to this refreshing cocktail:

 We muddle fresh mint and sliced ginger with a little simple syrup and ice to help break it all up before dousing it with the cucumber vodka, topping it off with some sparkling sake that Uwajimaya happened to have on sale, like it was meant to be!!

 

Another inspiration came from THE most beautiful restaurant that I've been to (and that says a lot!!), Amber, in the Landmark Hotel which is a part of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel chain. Though my wife Anna giggled over the fact that our server looked like one of our close friends, Tommy Lee, she burst out laughing at a dish that looked like "Asparagus Man with Bone Marrow and Black Truffle 'googly eyes'"! It was delicious, but comical; too bad we were laughing too hard to take a pic...

So I drew from that flavor profile, one of my favorites, and created a dish like it but with more of my own style.

Since asparagus is available locally now I knew that it would be a good time to pair it with the leftover black truffles that I had from the cod dish on the previous menu. I also love black truffle with chicken, so I seasoned an airliner chicken breast (which has the wing bone attached for presentation and flavor) with black truffle salt and pan-seared it while basting it with butter, fresh thyme and garlic. During the long process of roasting I warm thick slices of purple potatoes in butter, steam the spears of asparagus, and whip up a black truffle hollandaise to order with the aid of a hand blender.

Everything is seasoned with some sea salt that has been infused with black truffle that I've been using to flavor our popcorn every since the conception of my Pacific cod dish on the last menu. A wonderful, earthy dish that joins the flavor of winter with that of spring.



Enjoy the past while it lasts!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

Tribute to Hong Kong

I was a little overwhelmed with all of the inspiration that I brought back from Hong Kong, but I simply sat down and wrote out what came to mind first. After a little whittling, this is what I came up with.

Hong Kong is a port city, located on the southeastern coast of China between the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, so obviously seafood is a serious part of the cuisine there. You wouldn't believe the variety offered even out front of restaurants for you to take home to cook. I couldn't believe how bad I wanted to cook on my vacation.

To pay tribute to the glorious seafood I saw I chose these jumbo prawns that I've been wanting to use for a long time now from Viet-Wah, an amazing store in the International District. These things are HUGE!! they're called 2-4s, meaning that there's 2 to 4 prawns per pound, or an average of 4 ounces each. Not your typical salad shrimp!!

Probably the best dish I had was at the Night Market, the area where you can get everything. My wife and I stopped at a sidewalk restaurant that had an amazing cuttlefish dish that was obviously steamed until tender and lightly breaded like a tempura batter with an interesting dipping sauce that I deciphered to be a mixture of shao-xing, a typical Chinese cooking wine, rice vinegar, sugar, and five-spice powder. I feel like I nailed the flavor of the sauce, along with a few of my own special chef touches... ;)

Another major aspect of our trip was (of course) dim sum, and the most predominate dish is glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf, though I used Chinese sausage and dried black mushroom as a filling to make the little package of rice burst with flavor like any good dim sum restaurant would!

Hong Kong had a lot of alcohol, but nothing made locally other than beer, so I had to take my inspiration for this week's cocktail from the heart of the luscious fruits that are available there, like mangoes, so I decided to make an infusion of green tea and vodka to flavor a martini shaken with mango puree and simple syrup to create a tropical drink that reflects a trip to the South China Sea!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

A New Step

We had a blast is Hong Kong! I have a ton of inspiration, from both the city and all of the catching up I did with culinary publications. But since I had to plan for this week in advance to avoid a last minute scramble, those ideas will have to wait. Until then...

This week we are not only introducing a new dinner menu starting Thursday, but also an upgrade to better our brunch menu by implementing cage-free eggs from local Stiebers Farms, and while they feed their hens mostly organic food, that minute amount that they don't is what separates the cost of the eggs by another 50%. We'll try these out on our customers before we upgrade again - not everyone appreciates the value that a humanly raised animal can cost.

To showcase this new addition to our brunch menu I wanted to feature these wonderful eggs as a dinner special first, along with several other tasty bits:

Many months ago I had already tested the idea of softly poaching an egg and then breading it with panko and frying just enough to crisp the outside and warm the yolk without overcooking it.

I've always thought that it would make a great addition to an awesome salad with other rich ingredients and an acidic vinaigrette, so I started with my favorite green: frisee because it's fluffy, crunchy and bitter; already giving great contrast to the dish. I've been curing my own guanciale, or pork jowl cured with salt, herbs and peppercorns that I then hung to air-dry for a month. I finely julienned the fatty meat that's been compared to pancetta (but with WAY more flavor) before cooking it in its own fat until tender. And, just for good measure I used the remaining fat as part of a vinaigrette made with steamed spring onions, garlic, fresh herbs and extra virgin olive oil.

I also added diced vine-ripened tomatoes, the raw green ends of the spring onions and some nice pistachios for crunch and flavor, creating an excellent early spring salad that has enough heft to enjoy as a small entree or light enough to save room for one of my new menu items!!

I had a few of the dates leftover from the special before I left (like I was hoping for) so I chopped them up in a blender with some rum to macerate while I frolicked in Hong Kong like a fool...

When I got back, the flavor of the date had infused beautifully into the rum as expected, allowing me to combine it with other tropical flavors to brighten up our slow spring, like a splash of Malibu coconut rum, pineapple juice, lime juice to cut some of the sweetness, and Peychaud bitters to balance it all out.

With Love,

Cheffrey

Getting Ahead of Myself

Usually, in the past when I would go on vacation for more than a few days or an extended weekend past Tuesday, I would pre-write my blog and post it on schedule with the intention to elude from the fact that I'm not actually there cooking during that time. The reasoning was because many people believe that whenever the chef isn't at the restaurant, it all goes to shit. This time I'm forgoing all of that nonsense because I am confident that things will go as smoothly as when I'm there.

So, here I am, after work on a Friday night, ending my week just the way that I began it, and after another day of preparation and service, I will be on my second full-week of vacation in nearly four years and my delayed honeymoon to boot. Ironically, my send-off dish will also be my welcome-home one, since I will be putting it on the menu along with other new tidbits the week I get back. Stop by to check out what's new!! In the meantime...

I have to admit that the inspiration of both of these specials came from one source: one of our servers, Justin. Not only did he suggest I offer a sandwich that I made for a friend of his who used to wash dishes here, but he also introduced this week's cocktail special, of which I coined The Nutty Professor. But first thing's first -

I poached firm Bosc pears in Mirin and some simple syrup along with the zest and juice of lemons, infusing the flavors well beyond the first day as they sit in the cooking liquid. I made a sandwich using the same sourdough bread from our legendary French toast by toasting each side like a grilled cheese using Teleggio, a washed-rind cheese that is gooey and a little bit stinky, just the way I like 'em. With the poached pears and a bed of baby arugula for optional bitterness and freshness, the sandwich is a great treat, but it is complimented by some beautiful white, orange and purple heritage cauliflower cooked with butter and chives.

As for the drink, Justin and I share an affinity for whiskey, so he knew that I would appreciate a cocktail that he came across, and while I could be "like a boss" and take sole credit for his idea, I appreciate his enthusiasm to introduce things in order to better our restaurant, so I give recognition here to my friend and employee, and for good reason, too!

He suggested we offer a cocktail that he had tried where a traditional Manhattan was made with Frangelico, a hazelnut liqueur, instead of sweet vermouth. I took it a step further and toasted some hazelnuts to use as garnish that float as if to show their true flavor!!

See You Next Week!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

Sea Shells by the Sea Shore

As I prepare for my departure to Hong Kong next week I needed to get my ducks in a row and carefully plan my specials for this and the next two weeks, as well as an upcoming menu change, making my disappearance go as unnoticed as possible.

I'm lucky that we're in the budding months of spring to inspire me in these times of need, but as the winter was winding down I developed the foundation for this dish, giving me a head start to all of the new dishes that I have to conceive.

I've been wanting to create a compote composed of green apples, dates and some of our great bacon from Bavarian Meats, which would, of course be a great accompaniment to pork, like one of my favorite preparations: pan roasted pork tenderloin; the ultimate in flavor, price and presentation. How could I go wrong??

I was planning on adding spring onions that I braised in red wine, but even though the spring onions weren't up to par to add themselves, the resulting liquid had the exact acidic balance the compote needed, so I drizzled it in instead.

Looking forward to the season I countered the sweet and sour compote components with the buttery, slightly bitter leaves of  Bloomsdale spinach, an heirloom variety that I sauteed in a mixture of white wine and stewed spring onions and garlic in olive oil.

The dish needed a final touch, and some might actually feel that it would be missing a sauce, so I blended some preserved Meyer lemons that I started a month ago as the base of a classic aioli. The preserved lemon gives the sauce another dynamic layer of flavor... the new reason why we preserve them in the first place.


I put a lot in this week's cocktail. A lot of time, a lot of thought and a lot of hard work. Do you know what's the worst thing about putting so much effort into one idea? the chance it will all crumble into an epic failure.

I've been wanting to make my own gin every since my re-introduction to it with a gin sampler in Portland last year, so I tinkered around with infusing a vodka with the standard juniper berries as well as a few of the flavors from my tasting like lavender, lemongrass and ginger. But even though I make my own gin, it's characteristics could go unnoticed; that is unless I pair it with something else I made, like my own tonic water, for instance.

It's the tonic and not the gin that has left a bad taste in my mouth after all of these years, and unlike most spirits, there isn't much variety when it comes to tonic, so I had the opportunity to create my own after reading a blog on handmade tonic using citrus, allspice, lemongrass and cinchona bark for that essential quinine flavor. Both had to be distilled in order to clarify them, otherwise I would have a reddish/brown concoction that no one would believe was a gin and tonic.

In the end, I was more nervous about this drink than any other because how discriminating gin enthusiasts are (just like scotch or whiskey drinkers), but after one regular's comments along the lines of "as good as a top shelf London gin" that he enjoys, my fears subsided... not to mention the fact that one of the two bottles of gin that I made were already gone by the end of Tuesday night --- as in half priced WINE night. If a cocktail sells that good on a wine night, then I must be doing something right!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

Noodle Love

How many different noodles can I make? Oh, let me count the ways....

Sure, there are the Italian varieties, but I only count them as one. Then there's lo mein, chow fun, dumplings, egg noodles, flower and water noodles, and of course there's all of the different mac 'n' cheeses. But what about the Japanese buckwheat noodle, soba? What about yakisoba??

Though the popular dish yakisoba doesn't actually mean that it contains soba noodles, referring instead to a sauce that is like a sweet, thickened Worchestershire sauce, I realized that if I combined the two I could come up with something special.

Buckwheat is actually of no relation to wheat, nor does it contain any gluten like wheat does, but in order to help the dough stay together I did end up adding some traditional flour, but on the underside of a 2 to 1 ratio.

The sauce stayed relatively true to tradition by combining soy sauce, rice vinegar and Worchestershire sauce, but while most recipies call for mirin - a sweet rice wine - I used a common dry, white grape wine that I sweetened with local buckwheat honey, which gives the sauce a unique and distinct flavor.

All yakisoba dishes tend to have the some of the same types of ingredients that you would find in, say, generic fried rice, like mushrooms, frozen peas or cabbage, so to stay true to those ingredients I went with shitaki mushrooms, julienned snow pea pods and chopped local, organic swiss chard.

While I could have added a protein directly to the noodles to make it much easier on myself, I felt that a separate fillet on top like wild Coho salmon would play an integral correlation to the Worchestershire base of the sauce, and since I didn't use the mirin wine, I felt that reducing mirin into a syrup to brush the roasted portion of salmon like a glaze would really tie the dish together.



Now that we're officially into spring I'm starting to see some of those season specific vegetables become available, like spring onions and garlic, fava beans, English peas and rhubarb.

That's right - the ingredient most commonly used in desserts like pies is actually a vegetable. And not a fruit that most consider a vegetable like bell peppers or even tomatoes, but a sour, how-did-they-ever-figure-out-how-to-cook-this-as-a-dessert vegetable. Luckily sometime, somewhere someone realized that it went very well with strawberries, thus leaving us with an iconic pairing.

Even though I have yet to use rhubarb in one of my main dishes, I do find that it does make tasty cocktails, especially chopped up to infuse some rum, where its natural sweetness helps breakdown the sour and bitterness of the vegetable.

To fulfill the other half of the pairing I simmered whole strawberries in water until they create a syrup that I helped sweeten with some of the buckwheat honey to bridge the two specials together and create an underlying flavor that gives a little more dynamic to the drink.

To help lighten the drink I implemented one of my favorite new techniques: the champagne float. It gives the bubbles that club soda would without diluting the flavor or alcohol content... hehehe!

 

With Love,

Cheffrey

Toys in the 'Hood

Recently, I moved from my condo in Eastlake to a house in the U District. One of the best things about moving is exploring your new neighborhood and all that it has to offer. Lucky for me there's a surplus of good, cheap food and watering holes there.

My first venture out drinking was a stop at Die Bierstube on Roosevelt, a short walk from my new home. Naturally I was weary; after all, I just moved further away from the great Feierabend in South Lake Union, but I was confident that they'd have my favorite dunkel, or dark style of beer that is still very light. Not only did they have one (and a wheat dunkel to boot!!), but an intriguing concoction macerating in a large jar above the register that turned out to be a house-made "whiskey". While I wouldn't go as far as to call it a whiskey it was indeed tasty, and inspired the base of this week's cocktail special.

The jar was a little far for me to make out everything inside but I did notice golden raisins, so the next week at work I started a simple infusion with the raisins and vodka, leaving me a couple of weeks to figure out the rest until it was ready.

Since it's officially spring I wanted light and bright flavors for this, so I started by muddling fresh mint and ginger, added the golden raisin liqueur and topped it all off with a float of sparkling wine. I call it:

"The Raisinette"!

Since we're just on the other side of spring I get to showcase the best of both worlds - the deep earthiness of winter interwoven with the softness of spring. Some of my best dishes have come out of these intersections of inspiration, and I'm really happy with the way that this one came out.

For some reason I've been really fixated on the idea of a dish with fried brie lately, so I cut discs out of a wheel that I then coated with egg and panko breadcrumbs to be fried as a topping to say, a steak, so that the cheese oozes out when you cut into it like a broken yolk and coats the meat like a sauce.

I initially wanted to try out a buffalo flat iron steak from my specialty company, but when that turned up unavailable I had to scramble Tuesday morning before deciding on an interesting cut of beef called a top sirloin from just above the tenderloin, and I even found an Angus breed version that has more flavor and tenderness. I carefully cut the meat into thick portions that tend to naturally sway on the triangular shape, which made a good visual contrast to the circular brie.

For a vegetable I used some beautiful, locally grown rainbow chard, a green that has a variety of colored stems that also give the leafy vegetable good body even when finely shredded and sauteed in a little butter, onion and garlic.

To compliment the colors of the chard while countering the richness of the brie I roasted red and golden beets and peeled them before pureeing with red wine and champagne vinegar respectively along with a little sugar to give me a duo of sweet and sour sauces to balance the plate.   



With Love,

Cheffrey

Green with Envy

St. Patrick's Day is here on Thursday, though I don't think that many of you reading this will end up being dragged out of a bar by friends at the end of it, but I've been surprised before!!

For those of you who are looking for an alternative to puking up green beer, I have just the thing for you!

This week I'm continuing with my twists on the traditional corned beef and cabbage dish like the previous years while keeping with the spirit of the holiday.

For this year I wanted to do something unusual and create an interpretation of our own dish, the 219 Benedict, which is already a take on the classic by dicing the Canadian bacon and adding it to cooked, grated potatoes along with smoked gouda and scallions that we then top two with poached eggs and a creamy tomato and mushroom sauce.

The funny thing that people don't see about restaurants is the way we cooks snack on the food you enjoy, but in a different way. Take the Benedict for example: there's always an odd ball (literally) leftover that brunch chef Alejandro likes to deep fry for himself. This combination reminded me of corned beef hash, another item on our brunch menu, and the rest just fell into place.

Corned beef has nothing to do with corn; it actually refers to the kernel-sized salt that was once used to cure beef brisket. I used to make our own, but due to a shortage of refrigeration I couldn't just let forty pounds of beef cure in there for a week at a time, so we started buying it made locally by our sausage company, Cascioppo Brothers, which may not be as good as mine (hehehe), but it's pretty damn good.

After a long, slow cook in just enough water to help the meat stay moist it's left to cool overnight so that it's firm enough to dice finely. Meanwhile, I simmered peeled, whole potatoes until just done and allowed them to cool completely before grating them by hand and tossing in chopped scallions, eggs and the corned beef. I shaped them into three, three ounce eggs.

Why eggs? Why not!!

You can't have corned beef and cabbage without the cabbage, but I really don't like the time it takes to braise traditional white cabbage, let alone the stinky sulfur it can give off, so I went with a new favorite: napa cabbage sauteed in butter, onions and garlic, yellow and black mustard seeds and chopped parsley. Perfect.

I also prefer a little nice mustard to go with my CB&C, plus the dish needed some moisture in form of a sauce, so I simmered a stock with the usual suspects: parsley stems, bay leaves, onion, garlic and peppercorns to name a few, and then I added an equal part of white wine and reduced it until almost dry before adding heavy cream and seasoning it. The sauce is then strained and, once reheated to order, finished by stirring in a heaping tablespoon of Dijon mustard.


I thought long and hard about what kind of drink to offer this week. I wanted to focus on the two most commonly known Irish beverages; either Guinness or an Irish Whiskey like Jameson, (but don't think I don't know about the others, like Poitín, aka Irish moonshine).

After an experience at an Irish bar in Brooklyn, NY I realized that there are some people in this country that prefer to drink a certain spirit distilled in a certain region of a country by a certain religion, like Jameson, believed to be made in southern Ireland by Catholics, and Bushmills, which is produced in Northern Ireland and thought to be produced by Protestants (and possibly the world's oldest licenced distillery in the world) - one of stupidest forms of ignorant bigotry that I've come across... and I've seen a lot!!

Bigotry aside, I personally prefer Jameson whiskey for taste alone, so after researching cocktails containing Irish whiskey I came up with an ingenious name for a drink that also helped form it's foundation.

The Irish Redhead!!

I filled a pint glass of ice 3/4 full with Jameson's (hey, some stereotypes are for a reason; we do love our booze, after all..) and added honey, fresh lemon juice and egg white powder that I shook vigorously and finished with club soda. To help balance the drink and solidify its moniker I topped it with several dashes of Peychaud's bitters that were stirred into the foam created by the egg white powder, giving it a red-hued float!

Chicago can keep the green dye for their river; I prefer red!!

With Love,

Cheffrey