Mused Here

I'm not going to make any promises, but I think that this dish will mark the end of my little seafood run for specials. It's not that I have run out of ideas, I just like to offer a more diverse spectrum of proteins from week to week. The funny thing about it is that this is the idea that I came up with first, inspiring the string of dishes, but I had to wait on a new shipment of long plates in order to give it the proper presentation.

The inspiration came when I was sorting through a box of old pastry equipment; metal ring cutters, non-stick baking pads and this silicone mold that I used to bake mini cheesecakes in. It had been a long time since I had made anything with the mold, so it was like a new muse in my hands. Immediately the size reminded me not of the little cheesecakes and other tasty treats that it had formed for me in a dessert capacity, but that of perfectly cooked, medium-sized sea scallops, and from there the idea just snowballed.

The irony of the final product is that I initially wanted to use the mold to create little avocado mousses alongside pan-seared scallops for a natural pairing of shellfish with the subtle fattiness of avocado since it is subtle without overpowering the delicate flavors of the meat, but alas, I couldn't manipulate the avocado in the way that I wanted without it turning brown, so I went with a tried-and-true alternate combo with some of the great corn that is in an abundance right now. Drawing from one of my favorite specials last year I baked tiny flans by first shaving off the kernels from corn cobs and simmering both into a broth that I intensified by then pureeing the kernels and adding back into the liquid, giving me a rich base that was creamy without the addition of cream. To keep it light I only used whole eggs, along with a some moderate seasoning of salt and pepper to keep the flavors true. I slowly baked the custard in the mini-molds and firmed them up in the freezer just enough to remove.

As a contrast in both color and flavor I used an old favorite: black sticky rice from Thailand. It has a high starch content so I like to cook it similar to risotto - in this case with a vegetable stock fortified with ginger, cilantro and a hint of jalapeno and fermented black beans - giving it both texture and creaminess, but the final product is never completely black; just a very dark shade of purple.

Finally, in an exercise of both color and flavor, I created a simple sauce by blending freshly juiced carrots and whole green cardamom pods with a touch of champagne vinegar to offset the natural sweetness of the carrot. By just warming and not cooking the sauce I am able to retain the freshness of the juice and the floral characteristics of the spice.

The final presentation is just as stunning as I had pictured in my mind, with the flavors just as my tongue had expected!!

As a chef I enjoy going on many tangents with cooking because my experience has allowed me to do so, but as a budding mixologist I realize that I need to focus my thoughts in order to create a solid foundation, just the way I did in my earlier days of cooking. That being said, I feel I need to concentrate my cocktail inspirations into the classical theme with a twist even while my dinner specials run rampant. It's the only way that I can master the style.

So, over the next several weeks I plan to really focus on the variations of more common cocktails, starting with one very close to my heart....

Bourbon is big where I come from, and the general consensus is that if it ain't broke don't fix it, but bourbon has a lot of characteristic, giving opportunity to some great cocktails like the Manhattan, but I wanted to play into that notion and add a little spark by way of an elderflower liqueur called St. Germain that is very floral with some citrus notes, elevating a classic drink into something new while still staying refined.

With Love,

Cheffrey

Natural Beauty

I rarely repeat a special, primarily because the most enjoyable aspect of my profession is the strive to create something new, something better than the last; it is that aspiration to outdo myself that drives me to a higher level of cooking and makes me a better chef.

I was again inspired by yet another dinner on Vashon Island at Kurtwood Farms, where every ingredient that comprises the nine courses is grown on his 13-acre farm with the exception of salt, pepper, sugar, flour, wine and coffee (which they buy green from a coffee shop on the island and roast in a pan just before grinding and serving - OUTSTANDING!!!!). The most memorable things tend to be the simplest, like a mixed greens salad with their own cider vinegar, a poached egg on a crouton or the pickled cauliflower, because the focus is on the exceptional ingredients that they produce organically and sustainably, and are picked ripe and served fresh.

I guess that my chances for future visits could be limited after articles about both owner Kurt Timmermeister and chef Tyler Palagi (also of Spring Hill in West Seattle) appeared in the current issue of Seattle Met magazine (sorry, no link; you're going to have to pick up a copy of your own), but due to their exclusivity (not only do you have to be invited by someone who has been there before just to get onto the mailing list, but in order to make your reservation you have to write a short essay about whatever culinary topic he chose for that month) it takes a little more than just picking up a phone. Lucky for me I write me sum pretty good stuffins....

Which leads me to my next special: a simple preparation of heirloom tomatoes that focuses on the quality of the ingredient; a dish that I now feature anually, but with a few variations....

As before, my supply of heirloom varietals is inconsistent, but what I've used so far are Black Krim, Brandywine, Yellow Brandywine and German Green. To accompany them I stayed true to typical preparations like garlic croutons - made from thin slices of baguettes doused with butter flavored with thyme and garlic - and good extra virgin olive oil, but with slight variations like flaky Maldon sea salt (the snowflake of salt that dissolves quickly on your tongue), pink, black, white and green peppercorns ground to order, and a side of balsamic vinegar that I infused with fresh chopped basil by steeping them together all day.

 

Simplicity at its finest!!!

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Due to the tepid summer that we've had here in Seattle it seems that all of our local produce is on a month-long delay; my tomato plants are taller than me and without fruit. Finally, after tasting the watermelon for last week's drink special, it has the sweetness that I had expected in back early July, so in order to get what I want out of this summer I need to make haste!!

I had this idea for a watermelon flavored sangria last summer but too many other inspirations superseded it, and I assumed that I would be able to offer it earlier than this in order to try out other variations of sangria later, but you all know the old saying about assumptions....

Just like last week I pureed and strained fresh, seedless watermelon, leaving me with its pure flavor that I used to sweeten a blended red wine in place of the plain white sugar that is used to balance sangria. To create the true myraid of flavors that is sangria I first marinated chopped pineapple, green apple, peaches, and orange slices in the same cherry brandy that I infused for the Cherries Jubilee cocktail, giving each bite of fruit a little more punch than wine that they are served with. 

Enjoy these little tastes of summer while it lasts!!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

Tropical Storm Tomato

Now that we're into August we are reaching the pinnacle of the summer vegetable season. Favorites like beautiful corn, vibrant greens and Walla Walla onions are abound, not to mention one of my personal favorites - the majestic tomato.

With the resurgence of heirloom varieties in the last several years it's hard to beat their flavor unless you grow them yourself, and the list of different types seems to keep growing. This time of year I usually start off with a gloriously simple tomato plate with a rainbow of slices with sea salt and good olive oil, but lately I've had this idea brewing in my head like a tropical storm, and the more I thought about it the bigger it became, until the tomato plate was put on the back burner for next week because I was just too damn excited to make this one.

My idea entailed an entree-sized gazpacho dish paired with seared tuna similar to the yellow watermelon version I made last year, but far more refined and with more traditional ingredients.

The best way to make gazpacho is to keep it simple, let the ingredients shine on their own. Since gazpacho is made up of raw ingredients, if you don't use the best ingredients the taste will fall flat. That's why I use heirloom tomatoes for mine; they have the best flavor, and since I don't cook them even tomato purist - who believe that a good, fresh tomato should only be eaten as is - can't scoff.

In order to keep the tomatoes as fresh-tasting as possible I had to first cook my base ingredients of chopped garlic and Walla Walla onions in extra virgin olive oil early enough so that they could cool down naturally before adding them into the mix. For the tomatoes I chose a unique yellow variety known as "Lemon Boys" due to their vibrant color and medium size. I blended the stewed garlic and onions with the fresh tomatoes with simple additions like 25 year old sherry vinegar, kosher salt and white pepper and passed the soup through a fine strainer to remove the leftover seeds and skin, leaving me with a velvety-smooth soup with the perfect balance of natural sweetness and tart.

Traditionally speaking, other ingredients like cucumbers and bell peppers are added into the gazpacho base, but I like to keep them separate, even going as far as creating a cucumber mousse by pureeing seedless cucumbers with cream cheese and a little gelatin before putting the mixture into my trusty iSi whipped cream maker to make a light and airy foam that I sprayed into large ring molds and froze to allow the gelatin to quickly set. Then I removed the rings and allowed them to defrost, resulting in delicate little clouds of goodness.

I chose Ahi tuna again because it is best served seared, or just cooked on the outside yet still raw on the inside, and unlike other fish that isn't sushi, most people can appreciate it served cold. I took it a step further and used its deep red color as a play on ham by marinating it overnight with more familiar flavors like soy sauce, brown sugar, onions, garlic and allspice before lightly smoking the loins.Then I carefully cooked the sides of the tuna with a propane torch instead of searing them in a pan because 1 - I didn't want to lose the subtle smoke in the cooking process, and 2 - I didn't want to burn the sugar that was leftover from the marinade, not to mention the fact that it kept the meat from drying out the way that any portion of cooked tuna can get.

To finish the dish I garnished it with some finely diced cucumbers, red bell peppers and red onions around the mousse and placed a scoop of handmade tomato-basil sorbet on top of a nest of fresh, living pea sprouts for added crunch and decor.

Another undoubted symbol of summer is the colossal watermelon, and since I referenced it in my entree special I thought it would be fitting to use it as a main ingredient for my cocktail special.

It's hard to imagine a more refreshing summer cocktail than the mojito (though I have a few ideas up my sleeve for future use...), let alone a better concept that is open for interpretation and revival. I can - and have - come up with virtuously endless combinations of this favorite, with each one being better than the last. For example...

I start with the true base of the cocktail by muddling fresh limes wedges and mint leaves with ice to break them down and release their oils before adding Bacardi rum (anything better and people complain that they "don't taste the alcohol"), fresh watermelon puree that I strained to keep it smooth, and topped it off with a splash of club soda to brighten it up.

With Love,

Cheffrey

Happy Birthday To Me!

I know, I know.... How long am I going to milk this birthday thing, right? Well, I promise that this will be the last post about it this year, and I'm only doing it for a special reason.

I now have a regular crew that come in every Wednesday night to have my weekly special after reading about it on this blog, and as if having such a loyal following of people just as excited about the food that I create as I am isn't enough of a gift, last Wednesday Chie, Mark and Derek brought me a birthday present. And not just some random thing either, but a pasta cutter attachment for my Kitchenaid because I have ranted about not having one in several past blog posts.

I was blown away.

Not only do they give me and my business their continued support, but a gift from them is above and beyond anything that I have received in my career to date. So, again, thank you guys. It really means a lot.

To honor my prominent fan club I put the new tool in my arsenal to good use by creating this summery pasta dish that I dedicate to my faithful admirers.

Right away I began thinking about the flavor combinations I could do and the first thing that popped into my mind was crab, and since I have yet to use it I decided to go with Dungeness for this one. It's rich and succulent but delicate enough to allow for a lighter preparation. I knew lemon would be a good way to brighten up the dish, but instead of putting it in the sauce I added it directly to the pasta dough, which I made with three parts bread flour to one part semolina flour and whole eggs that made a vibrant pasta that, to be honest, may be a little chewy for some people's expectation of Fettuccine, but with all of the other soft ingredients it's an important textural component.

Now that we have heirloom tomatoes available I thought that this would be a great time to introduce them before the local varieties are ripe enough for a standalone dish. I sliced a few different colors and removed the seeds before chopping to eliminate the bitterness that they can have. To create a sauce, I warmed the tomatoes chunks with Walla Walla onions that had been softened in a combination of extra virgin olive oil and oil leftover from roasting garlic and a little butter along with the picked crab meat, to warm it through. Once the pasta is cooked I add it to the pan with a little of the cooking water to help thicken it before I toss in diced avocado for added richness and creaminess. To finish the dish I added freshly chopped tarragon for it's anise notes and Italian parsley for more brightness.


Since I had promised that this will be my last post in reference to my birthday I had to scramble to get this one done in time for this week.

For my birthday dinner my wife and I chose an unusual place for voracious foodies like us. Those who know us expected to hear that we were going to a place like Spur, Tilth or maybe even The Herbfarm for a celebratory occasion, but since we don't need a special occasion to go to those places, I simply wanted a HUGE STEAK!! So we went to The Metropolitan Grill for my favorite cut - Prime Rib. In the end, even after protests from my stomach, we ordered the Cherries Jubilee dessert that they flambe table-side, and even before the flames subsided I knew that I wanted to try and turn it into a cocktail.

Just like last week's drink I started with three scoops of my own handmade vanilla bean ice cream, to which I added a couple of splashes of brandy that I quickly infused with cherries by blending the liquor with dried, tart cherries just enough to break them down a bit. Then I poured a good amount of "Just Cherries" juice from Trader Joe's (the name says it all) and topped it off with Cherry Lambic for sparkle and fresh Rainier cherries!!!

Enjoy these tasty treats!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

The Art of Subtlety

Last Wednesday was our second attendance to Farestart's Guest Chefs on the Waterfront down at Pier 66 and we had a wonderful time! We offered our Deviled Eggs once again and I really thought that we were going to win the Best Appetizer competition after all of the buzz that was going around about our offering, but alas, no dice. At least we gained some exposure while benefiting a great cause. If you are unfamiliar with the event it's an annual fundraiser for their organization that not only gives job training and placement to the homeless and disadvantaged but also provides over 4 million meals to other disadvantaged while doing so. It's a great thing to be apart of and a win-win situation for everyone involved.

My favorite booths (that I got to try) were Salty's on Alki, Cantinetta and Roxy's Diner (their house-smoked pastrami that they offered both this year and last year was outstanding!!). Though they could be considered our competitors I wanted to showcase them here because I'm proud of the work that they've done and the delicious food that they had made. Even though my special wasn't inspired by the food that I tasted, it wasn't due to a lack of trying; I simply knew what I wanted to do beforehand!!

One of my favorite greens is baby arugula and we get a wonderful organic variety here locally that I use in my wildly popular Sauteed Gnocchi with Duck Confit dish. It is sleek, tender and less bitter than its grown up version but still enough to bring balance to a dish. I love it especially now that all of these great stone fruits are available (like, say, nectarines) because I can pair them together for a savory dish without all of that great sweetness becoming overpowering. By thinly slicing small segments of the nectarines they easily suspend within the greens and give the salad hidden bursts of flavor.

For some much needed texture and added richness I did what only a chef with my obsession for pork could do: I deep-fried thin slices of prosciutto into salty, crunchy and chewy spears of goodness that is guaranteed to turn any serious carnivore into a salad junky. And if that wasn't enough meat, I shingled the plate with fine slices of veal that I spiced with freshly ground coriander, juniper berries, fennel and mixed peppercorns before searing, roasting and chilling. In the end I had a subtle base of flavor that was perfectly pink, wonderfully tender and interesting undertones.

I also added a new personal favorite, wheat berries, to give the salad more heft and make it more of an entree. Wheat berries are the dried, whole kernel of wheat before it is ground down into flour and I have found them incredibly filling due to their high fiber and the fact that you can't get any more whole grain! The only downside? It takes an obscene amount of time to cook. I mean, all of the research that I have done says to simmer them for about an hour, but even after soaking them overnight like dried beans I still ended up cooking them for over five hours in chicken stock before they were perfectly tender. A long time, yes, but still worth the wait if you ask me.

To tie it all together I made a vinaigrette by reducing Californian Chardonnay by three-quarters, allowing the naturally occurring acid to concentrate enough to make a vinaigrette with only a little help from champagne vinegar. In my typical style I blended it with shallots and garlic as well as a little fresh thyme, but instead of using just extra virgin olive oil I replaced half of it with the leftover prosciutto frying oil, giving the dressing another little boost of flavor while complementing the ingredients.

Now that cooking is so popular and the Food Network has two channels everyone is always spouting off the key buzz words "big, bold flavors" and how it exemplifies their style of cooking, but the truth is that it takes a dish like this, with its subtle nuances, to show a true mastery of flavor.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

I don't like to flaunt my birthdays, but I do like to make them memorable, and like everyone else, I still want to get my way. Fortunately for our friends what I want is something new and exciting!

A while ago I promised (or threatened) the idea of making a beer float after we received an accidental keg of stout beer and my beer-loving friends showed their enthusiasm. Now that we have a nice milk stout from Left Hand Brewery on the menu I knew that it would take an excuse like my birthday to justify why I would offer such an unusual drink, but since I make my own ice cream with real Madagascar vanilla beans I'm happy with the way that the two play off of each other: its almost as rememberable as your first root beer float.

To be honest, I don't plan to sell a lot of these due to their obscurity and tendency towards being a dessert instead of an actual cocktail, but to my regulars like the Wednesday Night Crew I ask of you: Why not give one a try? Think of it as a updated throwback to the yesteryear of soda jerks, but with a kick!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

Healthy Fare

I remember back when I was awaiting my admission date to culinary school my father jokingly said: "Nobody trusts a skinny chef." I was twenty years old and twenty pounds underweight; nothing a crash course in classical French cuisine couldn't cure. I gained thirty pounds in two months. Thirteen years later I am literally embodying my father's words.

My weight now isn't so much of a result of my success as it is a result of my love for rich, fatty foods; if there's a Bacon Anonymous group I should be a member. I'm still not a huge guy, but I'm starting to push the index and with my 34th birthday just around the corner it's all downhill from here if I don't make some changes soon, so after I came home from NYC back in May I decided to really concentrate on my diet.

With a hereditary disposition to cholesterol I had already been focusing on chicken, turkey and fish, but that had proved not enough so I had to start focusing on my culinary nemesis: tofu.

Even as a chef I had problems coercing tofu into something satiable enough for a serious meat-eater like myself, but with perseverance and a little imagination I came with some delicious uses, the easiest of which is by using the silken variety as a substitute for cream in purees, which led to the sauce component of this special, as well as the notion that I could create a dish that not only tastes fantastic but is healthy too.

The main focus of the dish was inspired by a Asian-style marinated beef that I grilled and made into tacos to celebrate our server Tommy's 40th birthday last month, and after the great response I realized that I had to let our customers enjoy this amazing flavor as well. The marinade consists of ground, dried chiles, fresh lemongrass, lime juice, ginger, garlic, scallions, sesame oil, soy sauce, and black sugar, a unique variation popular in Asian cultures. I stuck with beef for the special - a Flat Iron steak - merely for presentation and consistency, though it is fantastic with chicken and could easily have been done successfully with a block of "extra firm" tofu if I had the gall to offer it!

Since I had this Asian theme going I knew I could put my new tofu techniques to good use by creating a sauce from two totally different ingredients that are actually of the same plant. Edamame is a popular soybean snack that originates from Japan but is now enjoyed all over the world, but the most famous soybean product is tofu, which is simply a vegan cheese made from soymilk. I used this adjusted thinking to make a surprisingly rich puree by blending the cooked soybeans with garlic, green onions and a touch of wasabi with soft tofu before pressing it through a fine strainer, leaving me with a refined sauce that stays true to the art of Japanese cookery.

To keep with the light theme I decided on a slaw based with jicama, a high fiber, low calorie root vegetable that I tossed with shredded carrot, unsweetened coconut, scallions and sea beans, a plant grown in salt marshes that has a bite like green beans and a fresh sea salt flavor. To bring the slaw together I made a vinaigrette with tamarind pulp, shallots, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and rice wine vinegar. By using the tamarind along with the lowly acidic vinegar I was able to reduce the amount of oil that's usually needed to make a vinaigrette by half!!!


Who knew that healthy could be this delicious?!?!

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In a rare coincidence I am able to offer a cocktail special that actually compliments the dinner special!!!

I say coincidence because I've had this drink on the back burner of my mind for a little while now, and since fresh orange and ginger already go together so well on their own, they will flourish alongside the Asian and citrus components within the marinade.

I wanted to go with a variation of our house margarita where we muddled fresh limes and oranges, but also with the addition of ginger slices and leaning more heavily on fresh orange juice and less on the manufactured triple sec and sour mix, ending up with a drink/food combo that has been called Chino/Latino, but I've lovingly referred to it as Latinasian.


With Love,

Cheffrey

To Curry Your Favor

Even after it happens time and time again, it has yet to amaze me where my inspiration comes from and the chain of ideas that link inception and execution.

Due to the heat and humidity I had to switch the caramel garnish on the Banana Bread Foster dessert to a more resilient plantain chip. As I peeled the green, starchy cousin to the banana something sparked in my mind, and like a fire I had to fan and nurture the idea by adding a little bit here, taking away some there and move things around before it really got going.

I quickly realized that I could grate the plantain and pan-fry it in metal rings to make perfectly shaped pancakes that were seasoned with onion, garlic, brown sugar, salt and pepper, but that was only a base, and considering that plantains are grown and used in every tropical country from Hawaii, Egypt, Malaysia, Australia and back again, I had a broad spectrum of cuisines to draw from. After cycling through my mental Roll-A-Dex of unused ideas I remembered one about cashews and curry, and I was off from there.

Cashews are a staple in vegan cuisines for their fiber and protein and are high in delicious fat, making a butter that blows away peanut and almonds, which is why I chose it; I wanted to create a cross between an Indian curry and an Asian peanut sauce to help give richness to the starchy plantain cake. Instead of a soupy base, though, I opted for more of a powerful sauce-like consistency that I achieved by blending raw cashews with coconut milk, hot curry powder (similar to the sweet version, but with a touch of cayenne and spicy ginger) and a touch of dark soy sauce to give it that fifth dimension of taste: umami!

To continue my avoidance of the typical curry stew I went with pan roasting Cornish game hen breasts to have a white meat version that is not overcooked by braising, like so many Americanized curries that I've seen. Since Cornish game hens are sold whole I had all of the leg meat leftover I decided to make my own crumbled sausage by chopping and cooking it with freshly ground fennel and fenugreek seeds and extra virgin olive oil, mirroring some of the curry powder flavors while excluding the typical ones.

To balance some of the sweetness of the dish I went with an ingredient that I've had my eye on at Uyajimaya for over a year now, and despite all of the common greens now available it was the only option in my mind: Chinese spinach. Its beauty was the initial draw, but the fact that it had a mild bitterness made it a keystone to the dish. I sauteed it with the handmade sausage from the leg meat along with a little butter, onions and spring garlic.

What I ended up with was a special that combines ingredients from other countries that would be considered blasphemy in their own, yielding something uniquely American, referred to as the melting pot, but decidedly my own.


"Damn, what the hell am I going to with all of these cheap strawberries!!" was the first thought that crossed my mind after a recent pricing update, but that's really just the same question that has been asked for centuries.

Strawberry cocktails are very popular, especially this time of year, probably because it represents summer in full swing, and I came up with a drink that is so dated that it has now become retro. I have to admit that the combination of strawberries and balsamic vinegar has outdated even my career, but like a boomerang and bell-bottoms, everything comes back eventually.

I'll be the first to admit it though; the rich vinegar does compliment the beautiful little berries perfectly, so why not try the combination as a cocktail??

With the abundance of ripe strawberries I simply chopped them up and simmered them in a little water, allowing their natural sugars and water to create a true nectar. While that was working I reduced traditional balsamic vinegar with some corn syrup to keep the acidity from becoming too overwhelming. Once both were cooled I poured the strawberry syrup over ice in a tall glass along with some Skyy vodka and a little strawberry puree and topped it off with a healthy squeeze of the balsamic reduction that slowly mixes itself into the drink as it settles.


After the hot weather predictions that have been forecasted for our Seattle area this week, it's nice to know that there's a place that you can go to experience a drink as cool as this!!

With Love,

Cheffrey

All About the Family

It's hard to believe that at the end of this week it will already be July, with the Fourth landing on Sunday. Normally we close on the holiday, but when it breached the weekend the last couple of years we decided to stay open for brunch, before the festivities begin.

Since the Fourth is the biggest grilling day of the year in our country I knew that I wanted to create something that not only reflected this truly American tradition, but what it has also come to represent: being with family (hey, freedom was last week's topic).

On our last trip to NYC my wife and I spent some much needed time with her family, starting with our ritual family dinner at Frannie and Phil's, where Uncle Phil and I collaborate on the menu. A true "foodie", Phil's taste is on par with my own, but due to a bum wing (shoulder surgery) he made a better advisory than sous chef, leading me on a Sunday hunt for the freshest ingredients that Cobble Hill, Brooklyn had to offer.

Frannie and Phil's pantry could astound even the most seasoned chef, from the best olive oil, to muscat vinegar (his AMAZING secret ingredient to a warm beet salad) and even a selection of dried chiles smuggled from Mexico. And then there's the built-in grill on top of his stove... how could I not cook in this kitchen?!?

What I ended up making was large, one pound hamburgers topped with foccacia and a grilled tomato version of salsa that was a mix of something American, Italian and Hispanic; the perfect taste of American summer to offer as the ultimate tribute to the birth of our nation.

Since I couldn't offer gigantic hamburgers, I chose to do a variation of pork cutlets by pounding thin slices of pork loin and breading them with finely ground popcorn, which not only gives them an airy crust but also allows the ever-growing gluten allergic the opportunity to enjoy a fried breading.

I made the salsa by grilling tomatoes and sweet Walla Walla onions that were then chopped and tossed with ground, dried New Mexico chiles that are mild and smokey. I finished the "salsa" by adding freshly chopped cilantro and parsley, and an added bonus of pancetta that was braised to not only tenderize it but also remove the excess salt required to cure it.

As a final note I swirled the plate with Chinese black vinegar that I had reduced with some corn syrup to replicate the common balsamic vinegar reduction that normally adorns these simple dishes but with another dimension of spice and complexity.

I thought about featuring a fancy cocktail with red, white and blue layers to honor the 4th of July but two important truths made me reconsider: 1 - Tommy, our resident bartender/server would deal me a well deserved slap in the face for forcing him to tediously pour layer after agonizing layer, even if it's in honor of freedom, and 2 - the only truly blue liqueur is Blue Curacao (which is dyed) and the only white colored ingredients are cream, and maybe even chilled Ouzo... not a great start for a tasty beverage, so I went another route.

We all go through our cocktail fazes; like for me there was one summer in college where spent tonic bottles leftover from gin and tonics were so prevalent that we started to use them to hold up windows, prop open doors, etc. It has taken me 14 years, until just now, to start appreciating gin again. I'm sure you all have your own sagas; feel free to send them to me if you want.

My older brother, Craig, naturally introduced me to many, many things, including my first drink as well as new (to me) cocktails. Once, he was on a Sloe Gin Fizz kick; another time, when we lived together in NYC, there was the Cherry Lime Rickey. It was by his account a non-alcoholic version made with an Italian cherry syrup, fresh lime and soda water, but eventually ended up with vodka added to it without knowing that the true origin lies with gin.

Now that I have come to terms with using gin's botanical aromatics (thanks to my confusing love for juniper berries) I feel that I can finally offer my own version of this cocktail that combines a little of my past with my present.

Although cherries were once my favorite fruit it's still too early to offer them, so here I went with raspberries instead. With their sweet and tart balance they made a beautiful base for this refreshing drink. After cooking them down and straining out the pulp I poured the remaining syrup over gin and ice along with a healthy squeeze of fresh lime juice and a good douse of club soda to keep it light and bubbly, a true representation on the original.

With Love,

Cheffrey