Monterey, Our Way

Paul and I finally got a weekend off together and decided to go to Monterey, a coastal town famous for Cannery Row, the Aquarium and Pebble Beach. It was also a Spanish settlement many years ago and it still shows. But I digress; Paul is always grousing that we’ve seen everything around here (possibly true) and we need to move away (well, not so fast – where to?) But it’s fairly close and it had been a while and I wanted to see the new jellyfish exhibit at the aquarium, so we headed there.

When we checked in to our hotel I grabbed a Dining Guide and headed for the Mediterranean section. We went for Estéban, which sounded suspiciously Spanish but por qué no? It’s attached to the Casa Munras Hotel, on Munras, and the whole property is really pretty. I was going to book us there, but some rapscallion had snagged the last room a few minutes earlier.

So it turns out Estéban is a Spanish tapas place. When we arrived the servers looked overrun – I think they were short handed. But a managerish looking person finally seated us and a man in a chef’s coat took our order. I suspected he was the executive chef, and I was right. We tried three wonderfully flavorful small plates, starting with papas bravas, thick fries coated in a smoky powder and served with aioli (presumably housemade mayo). I asked the chef about the powder as I have used pimentón de la vera, available as “sweet” or hot smoked paprika, and knew that wasn’t what I was tasting. Turns out it was pimentón de espelette, which I had heard of but never used. It is straight smoky and deliciously different. He mixes that with paprika, cayenne and salt. I might try making it sometime.

May I also suggest the clam dish, in a savory broth with beans and tomatoes and whole garlic. I asked for bread to soak up the juices that I refused to leave behind. Paul had the seafood stew which he really enjoyed, although he allowed that the clam broth was more flavorful. The only thing I complained about was the pita (they were having supplier problems) which was served instead of bread, with hummus (yum), oil and balsamic, and olive tapenade (double yum).

Right across the street from Estéban is Wild Plum, a café that Paul reminded me I really liked once upon a time. I didn’t remember it at all but agreed to go there for breakfast the next morning. We both had 2 eggs with toast and potatoes and shared a side of sausage. The flavors were all great but the potatoes were soft with no crispiness, which I didn’t care for. I would recommend trying it anyway, as there aren’t many breakfast choices in downtown Monterey if you want protein. Grandma’s Kitchen got savaged in Yelp for being filthy, and it did look dumpy from the street. So the following morning we ate at Denny’s, which serves a good breakfast with no unpleasant surprises.

One last recommendation I have for you is Epsilon, a Greek restaurant on Tyler St. It is really cute inside, the staff is warm and welcoming; our server was great. We ordered the saganaki, or flaming cheese appetizer, which was delicious. Burning booze makes the cheese flame; it is served with a flaming flourish and french bread. I would have preferred pita bread, but no deal. Paul and I shared a huge Greek salad with gyros. The meat was well seasoned and there was plenty of feta cheese, which is unusual. We couldn’t. quite. finish. it. I highly recommend you try it. As our dinner progressed it became a busy place, always a good sign. As our flaming cheese was being lit I whipped out my camcorder. Here’s the cheese, unedited and delicious. If you want to see the movie and you get this in your email box, you must click on the article title to go to my blog.

 

I wanted a nice glass of wine, so our last stop was Wine from the Heart, on Alvarado St. It’s a fun wine bar, which also has comfortable chairs to linger in. There are some nice wines, including vintages by Orin Swift, one of my new favorite wineries. I was going to buy a bottle of Saldo, a zinfandel, and get a glass too. Somehow Johnny, our jovial and slightly toasted wine guy convinced us to buy 2 bottles and share part of it with other tasters. He did give us a discount and it worked out fine. Go in for the entertainment value as well as the wine. Heck, just go to Monterey and relax with a glass of wine and some jellyfish.

Algerian Style Lamb Stew

Paul loves to browse estate sales and sometimes he picks up some treasures, for instance, he picked up a cookbook – Real Stew. Being a stew loving kind of guy, that fifty cent cookbook was right up his alley. We looked in the lamb stew section together and decided on a spicy white bean and lamb pot o’ stew. It was delicious, and since Paul had pressure canned white beans last summer and I didn’t necessarily feel like cooking dried beans from scratch, well you know what happened. It calls for Harisa, a North African spice paste that you can make from scratch or buy a tube, like I did. Here’s my version of this Algerian housewives stew. Enjoy.

1 ¾ pounds boneless lamb shoulder, trimmed of fat and cut in ¾ inch pieces
1 tablespoon salt, more to taste if needed
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Harisa paste (available in Mediterranean markets)
1 ¾ pounds onions, coarsely chopped
1 ½ pounds tomatoes, chopped (I used 1 pint home canned)
1 cup water
½ cup chicken broth
2 cups cooked white beans
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish

Season the meat with salt, pepper and cayenne. Brown in a heavy pan – I used a 3 ½ quart enameled cast iron pot. Brown the meat with the bones if you have them. Add the harisa, stir, then add the onions and tomatoes, water and chicken broth. Cover and cook in 350° oven for 2 hours.

Add beans, stir, put back in the oven until meat is tender, 1 to 1 ½ hours. Taste for seasoning. Serve with cilantro.

No pictures this time, but I did put together a short lamb stew making video, my first attempt. I hope you don’t get bored!

 

You may not have heard of Jonathan Waxman, but he’s a chef of great renown. And he’s really renown for his roast chicken, of which he is an acknowledged master. Recently I was reminded of this and decided to roast me up some chicken after finding his recipe online. Mainly he splits the chicken down the middle, removing the spine, salts and peppers it and roasts it in a hot oven. Now, I like my chicken really tender so I ended up reducing the heat and roasting it longer. When I make it again I plan to roast at 425° for 30 minutes and 350° for 30 to 45 minutes. Now what really makes this chicken sing is his salsa verde. It’s a sauce of garlic and several herbs and olive oil, etc. It does include tarragon, not usually a favorite, but it does give an interesting flavor. Leave out anything you hate. I used it for pizza sauce on my thin crust pizza. You can get the recipe here. Try it, I dare you!

Thin Crust Pizza

I have loved thin crust pizza from the very first bite. Who needs all that crust? Bring on the toppings! More places are offering thin crust now; Amici’s in the Bay Area is one of my favorites. The Red Grape in Sonoma tickles my palate also. I had been on a pizza making kick for a while; I have a baking stone and a pizza peel. But I didn’t know how to make a thin crust, admittedly not actually looking for a recipe, just sighing a bit.

One of my favorite cooking shows is America’s Test Kitchen, which I love for its great tidbits of information, and its sister show, Cook’s Country. Recently on Cook’s Country there was a rerun episode on St. Louis Pizza, with thin crust. Huzzah! Looked good to me, so I wrote it down and this week I tried out just the dough recipe. The rest was my own doing. So I made it the other night, but unfortunately my baking stone still has residue on it from past projects which tend to, shall we say, smoke up the house at high temperatures, which, shall we say, really ticks Paul off. There is nothing like having to open up all the doors and set up fans at night in February.

So my darling husband rather huffily scrubbed the stone and I said I was going to try it again at lunch and pre-open the doors. Whereas he hated the first try because of the smoke, miraculously he liked the second one because of less smoke. And I must agree it was delicious, great toppings with a nice thin golden crust.

What makes this dough different is the leavening; yeast has been shown the door. Baking powder is in. The addition of cornstarch makes a crisper crust.

Yields dough for 2 each 12 inch pizzas

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons corn starch
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons water

Whisk together dry ingredients. Mix liquids together then add to dry, stir together. Knead into a dough ball and divide into 2 pieces. A little bit sticky is good. Roll into 12 inch circles on sheets of parchment. Arrange toppings, bake on parchment 475 degrees for 9-12 minutes until golden and cheese is bubbly.

If using a baking stone, preheat stone in oven for 30 minutes. A stone makes a crisper crust. Sliding your pizza laden parchment onto a peel and then slipping it onto the stone makes it easy. Use the peel to remove it also. If you don’t have a peel, use a baking sheet.

For your toppings you can purchase pizza sauce or you can make your own. I chose to use some of the tomatoes I canned last summer. I pureed a pint of tomatoes. In a small sauce pan, I sautéed some chopped red onion in a little olive oil for a few minutes along with some red pepper flakes. I added a clove of crushed garlic, and cooked until fragrant and then added the pureed tomatoes. Some oregano (I had dried), a sprig of rosemary and a bay leaf, and let it simmer for 15 minutes to concentrate. Easy and delicious. You are welcome to use canned tomatoes.

The rest of the toppings are cook’s choice. I used what I love – prosciutto, provolone, red onion and oil cured olives. Next time I’ll try something different. Maybe I’ll try the Trentino, my fave pizza at Amici’s!