A wonderful meal at San Francisco’s Middle’terranea

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
First course at Middleterranea

Limonata popsicle with a bit of white peach on top; sadly, this was the only photo I got due to a camera problem.

We don’t generally review specific restaurants on Burnt My Fingers, but will make an exception for an inspiring meal last week at Middle’terranea in San Francisco, a pop-up produced by famed local chef Michael Mina and featuring the work of Adam Sobel of RN74. This menu only lasts until mid-October when the restaurant switches to another concept, so if you’re anywhere close to SF go there now.

The flavors were intense yet balanced with a generous amount of salt. Two specifics I will remember and attempt to replicate were the dried cherries in the hummus (tartness a perfect counterpoint to the richness of the other ingredients) and the “toasted farro” in one of the salads which turns out (I asked Adam about this) to be farro grains (but he says this will work for any grain) that are cooked in an seasoned broth with garlic and herbs, dehydrated then reconstituted in hot oil.

I ate all of what follows. Look at the number of dishes and the complexity and you would agree the price might have been $90 or $135, but in fact it was $45. I also had the wine pairings at $30 which was not as good a value with mostly readily available, middle of the road choices; a broader selection of beers might have been a better choice with this spicy food.

Frozen Limonata and Olive Oil-Drizzled Tenbrick White Peach; Sea Salt and Basil Buds

Warm Yogurt Flat Bread with Za’atar-Cured Salmon
Red Onion Labneh, Shave Ciogga Beet, Fried Zucchini Chips

Lovage, Watercress and Mint Salad, Toasted Pistachios, Persian Cucumbers, Heirloom Melons and Olive Oil-Soaked Haloumi

Brokaw Avocado with Pickled Hot Peppers and Summer Vegetables; Fried Walnuts, Katafi, Schug

Heirloom Tomatoes and Shaved Green Onions, Crunchy Farro, Toasted Sesame, Coriander Blossom, Tahina, Spicy Lime Dressing

Fried Cauliflower and Crispy Chicken Skin Hummus, Roasted Garlic, Dried Cherries and Fresh Marjoram

Harissa-Marinated Whole Roasted Chicken

Roasted Baby Eggplant and Sow-Cooked Cherry Tomatoes, Sumac, Sesame, Pine Nuts, Oregano

Moroccan Sweet Corn, Chermoula Yoghurt, Feta, Cayenne Pepper, Orange Zest, Mint, Green Onions

Smashed and Fried Fingerling Potatoes, Garlic Aioli, Smoked Paprika, Matbucha

Toasted Sesame Mango Tarta, Frozen Greek Yoghurt, Preserved Lime, Cardamom Honey

The restaurant occupies the former Chez Claude space at 2120 Greenwich, corner of Fillmore in the Cow Hollow District. Reservations (very scarce) can be made at http://minatestkitchen.com where you purchase a ticket in advance; walk-ins are also accommodated at the bar. Middle’terranea is open Wednesday-Saturday from 5:30 to 10:00 pm.

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Recipe: Amy Halloran’s Ambassador Pancakes

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
Flapjacks

Pancakes made with whole rye flour and cornmeal

Amy Halloran is author of The New Bread Basket, a passionate book about the benefits of locally-grown grains (including why they taste so much better than mass-market flour brands). To demonstrate how much tastier fresh-ground local grains can be, she makes a version of these pancakes. It’s brilliant ambassadorship because they’re created right before your eyes, and who can resist an offer of hot flapjacks? These rye/cornmeal pancakes are her current favorites, though the recipe is infinitely variable. Amy prepares the mix in advance, then scoops out a cup to make approximately 10 5-inch pancakes.

Ingredients for mix:
2 c whole rye flour (preferably local and fresh-ground)*
2 c cornmeal (preferably local and fresh-ground)*
1 T plus 1 t baking powder, preferably Rumford
1 t baking soda
1 ½ t salt
2 t sugar (optional)**

Method: mix all ingredients and blend with a whisk.

Ingredients for pancakes:
1 c pancake mix
1-2 eggs
3/4 c milk***
1 T yoghurt***

Method: Beat eggs and mix in other liquid ingredients. In another bowl, make a well in the dry pancake mix and pour in the liquid ingredients. Mix with a spoon until most (but not all) lumps are absorbed; the batter does not need a smooth consistency. Cook on a griddle over medium heat with lots of butter (since the pancakes themselves have no fat). Serve with maple syrup or your favorite pancake topping.

*You can substitute 4 c whole wheat pastry flour for the dry ingredients, or experiment with your own blend.
** Because the base recipe has no sugar, it can be used with sweet or savory accompaniments. But if you’re having for breakfast with syrup, I’d add the sugar.
*** Or use 3/4 whole buttermilk.

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Recipe: Mexican-Style Pickled Vegetables (Escabeche)

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
Escabeche

Escabeche heavy on the carrots (because I had a lot of carrots)

In better California burrito places you always find a container of escabeche alongside the various salsas. Jalapeños and other vegetables (carrots, onions, maybe some cauliflower) are sweated in a bit of oil then simmered with spices and vinegar. I started with this recipe, which in turn credits Diana Kennedy, but made extensive modifications. Proportions are extremely variable and should be guided by what’s on hand, though you always need a few peppers for the heat. Makes 2 quarts.

Ingredients:
2 lbs carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch disks
3 large jalapeños, stems removed, cut lengthwise into sixths, pith and some seeds removed
2 large white onions, peeled and cut into rings
1 head of garlic (approximately 12 cloves), peeled
Cauliflower florets (optional)
1/3 olive oil or vegetable oil
2-4 bay leaves
1 t dried oregano
1/4 t dried thyme
1 T sugar
1 T Kosher salt
2 c cider vinegar
2 c water

Method: Heat the oil to medium heat in a large sauté pan. Add vegetables and sautée gently until onions are just starting to wilt, about 10 minutes. Add spices and liquid and bring to a simmer; turn off heat. Pickles are done when the jalapeños have turned from a bright to a dull green. Serve with Mexican entrées. Lasts several weeks in the refrigerator, or can using your preferred method.

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The five most popular recipes on Burnt My Fingers (2015 Edition)

Posted on July 30, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers

I usually do this on our anniversary in September, but am feeling summer laziness so it becomes a fill-in post right now in late July. Anyway, with thousands of clicks apiece, these five most popular recipes are so far ahead that nothing’s likely to change in the next two months.

  1. Vincent’s Garlic Cole Slaw. It warms my heart that so many people have found this authentic Dallas recipe (instead of a few well-meaning lookalikes on the web) and put it to good use. Garlicky and so good with barbecue or, its original purpose, accompanying Greek-style seafood. UPDATE: I just got word that Vincent’s is closing its last restaurant in Plano, TX as of August 1 so this recipe is sadly timely.

  2. Fried Calamari Chinese Style. This is the right way to eat calamari, with fried peppers mixed among the squid. No tartar or (shudder) marinara sauce needed…. just a generous quantity of available lemon slices.

  3. The Colonel’s Three-Bean Salad. YUM Foods’ decline is likely due not to their troubles in China, but to discontinuing this addictive yet healthy side. It keeps well and doesn’t breed salmonella like potato salad, so it’s great for camping/picnics.

  4. General Tso’s Shrimp with Garlic Sauce. This recipe truly is home-grown on Burnt My Fingers, and it’s the best rendition I’ve tried of a favorite dish. Be sure to have generous amounts of rice available to sop up the delicious gravy.

  5. Chinese Tripe Stew. Really? Is it possible that offal is making a comeback? I would have to say so, since this otherwise simple and stick-to-the-ribs prep requires hunting out a Chinese spice packet in an Asian grocery. Thanks to my friend Chen for the original recipe, which I rendered with only minor tweaks.

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Where to eat in Saratoga Springs during the racing season

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers

The 147th season of the Saratoga Race Course began last week, and my town is choked with tourists. It’s fun to observe the passing crowd with their big hats, limos and cigars, but it can also be very difficult to get a meal. Here are a few suggestions from a local on where to eat in Saratoga Springs during the racing season. I haven’t included links because they are readily available from the touristic websites, and when you investigate you might find other options you want to explore.

  1. Make a reservation at 15 Church (original restaurant or patio) as soon as your travel plans are decided. This is by far the best restaurant in town and wildly popular, but with sufficient advance notice you may be able to score a table. If you do, you’ll be treated with courtesy and an excellent meal instead of being rushed through. The recently opened patio is a more casual place that’s very loud and even more popular than the sedate original, which I prefer.

  2. If you’re going to the races at lunchtime, remember that you’re allowed to bring in food and a cooler full of beer and beverages in non-glass containers. I recommend an Italian Mix from Roma Imports, a vegan buffet box from Four Seasons, or a sandwich and a carton of gazpacho from Putnam Market. All these places are very crowded from about 11 to 12:45 with people trying to get to the track, so go early, phone in your order, or miss the first post and pick up your sandwich around 1. Get the beer at EBI on Excelsior… cans only, remember.

  3. Take at least a couple of your evening meals as picnics in Congress or Spa Park instead of waiting on line for restaurants. Any of the above lunch suggestions are good, and since we’re not going to let the food sit around I would add a Comfort Burger or Mac and Cheese from Comfort Kitchen (note that they close at 7) or a bucket of take-out chicken from Hattie’s Chicken Shack in the Wilton Mall.

  4. For breakfast, have at least one meal (or take out a box of pastries) from Mrs. London’s. You can also get an excellent diner-style breakfast at Triangle Diner or Compton, two locals-only places that are remarkably free of high rollers (though you may have to wait in line with the working stiffs).

Most (not all) of the above places are right downtown, so don’t even think about driving. Leave your car where it is and walk to the track (it’s about a mile). The exercise will do you good after eating all that food.

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Recipe: Texas Schoolburgers (IMPROVED)

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
Texas Schoolburgers Improved

Texas Schoolburgers, ready to be covered and put in the oven. I ran out of burger buns and hot dog buns worked fine.

After preparing a palatable version using my recollections of school lunches in Dallas and ideas I’d found on the web, I finally bit the bullet and converted the original institutional recipe. Guess what: it is terrific. No idea why we hated this as kids or why the Dallas Morning News food editor wisecracked “I’m not making this up” when sharing the recipe. It’s a commonsense mass-produced burger that will work in any situation where you want to make a lot of them in advance, like a kid’s birthday party or a prison. Makes 12 schoolburgers.

Ingredients:
1 ½ oz white bread, the cheapest you can find (I used a couple extra buns)
½ c beef stock
4 oz potatoes, peeled and cooked very tender
½ to 1 t salt (depends on how salty the beef stock is; there was a very small amount in the DISD recipe making me think they used a salty canned stock)
3/8 t ground pepper
2 lb ground beef
¼ lb chopped onions
¼ c green pickle relish
¼ c yellow mustard
2 T white vinegar
Additional beef stock as needed (I used additional ½ c)
12 hamburger buns

Schoolburger meat

The meat

Method: tear the bread into bits and soak in the beef stock till hydrated. Add potatoes and mash with a potato masher into a slurry. Add beef, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Transfer to a shallow baking pan and cook in a 425 degree oven until meat is thoroughly cooked (about 25 minutes), frequently using the potato masher to break up any lumps and make sure the meat does not brown and crisp. Pour off any excess fat after cooking. The above steps can be done well in advance and the meat can be refrigerated until needed.

Schoolburger Mix-ins

The mix-ins. I added a bit of green food coloring in hopes of recapturing the neon relish of my youth but it didn’t make a difference.

Combine chopped onions, relish, yellow mustard and vinegar in a bowl and mix in the reserved meat. Taste for seasoning and add salt if needed. If dry and crumbly, add a bit of beef stock to moisten. You don’t want it as liquidy as sloppy joes but you do want a cohesive mixture. Spread on hamburger buns (about 1/3 c per bun); place in a hotel pan or other pan that will allow you to stack the buns and arrange them in a double layer then cover with aluminum foil. (This steaming procedure is essential to the texture of the finished product.) Heat through in a 350 degree oven, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately, or allow the burgers to sit around so the flavor sinks into the buns. Any leftovers may be reheated in microwave and served for breakfast the next day with little loss in quality.

Schoolburger Breakfast

Just as good for breakfast the next day.

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Recipe: Go-To Sourdough Bread

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
Go-to baguettes

Baguettes made with my go-to recipe

This is my favorite sourdough bread recipe which I’ve been tweaking for the past couple of years. I am obsessed with making presentable baguettes, but it also makes excellent and reliable boules and batards for sandwiches and everyday use. It was inspired by Maggie Glezer’s description of the Acme baguettes in Artisan Baking, though I’ve replaced the yeast with sourdough starter and made a few other tweaks. You’ll end up with about 1200 g (2 1/2 lbs) of dough, enough for one miche or two boules or four baguettes.

Ingredients (more on proportions later):
All purpose flour (I use King Arthur brand)
White sourdough starter at 60% hydration
Water
Salt

Method: this is a leisurely prep that evolves over several days. Timing is extremely variable and depends on how lively your starter is and how warm the room is. As Jeffrey Hamelman says, “man drools, bread rules!” meaning you have to be guided by when the dough is ready for the next step.

Day 1: simultaneously make the pate fermentée (unless you’ve done this before and have some “old dough” from a previous batch), poolish and refresh your starter.

Pate fermentée: dissolve a pinch of starter in 60 g warm water. Mix in 100 g flour and a pinch of salt. Knead with your fingers until ingredients are incorporated and some gluten development is happening. Cover and set aside.

Poolish: dissolve a generous dollop (about 5 g of starter) in 147 g warm water. Add 148 g all purpose flour and mix thoroughly. Cover and set aside.

Starter: refresh your 60% starter (after removing the pinches for the poolish and pate fermentée) with 90 g water and 150 g all purpose flour. Cover and set aside.

Poolish after rising

Poolish after rising

Day 2 (or possibly later on Day 1): when the poolish has turned from a paste to a liquid covered with tiny bubbles (see photo) you are ready to move to the next step. Add 120 g of refreshed starter to the poolish, reserving the rest for future use. Add 287-315 g* lukewarm water and mix thoroughly, dissolving as much of the solids as you can. Add 500 g all purpose flour and mix thoroughly. Autolyze 30-60 minutes, but before you do this tear the pate fermentée into scraps and place on the top of the dough along with 2 t kosher salt.

After autolyze, proceed through several stretch-and-folds according to your preferred technique until there is good gluten development and the dough is starting to puff up. For me, this takes half a dozen stretch-and-folds over an hour or a bit more. As you do this, taste the raw dough for salt and adjusted as needed. I’ve deliberately under-salted the initial recipe expecting you will add more. The final dough will be slightly on the salty side but not overwhelmed by salt; the salt will be offset by the sourness of the finished bread.

Cover and set aside for bulk fermentation for a couple of hours. You just want the process of rising to begin.

Now, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and toss it in the refrigerator for a couple of days. If the dough has risen significantly during the bulk fermentation, punch it down first so it doesn’t climb out of the bowl.

Day 4: after 48 hours or so (you can adjust the timing by a few hours to fit your schedule) remove dough from refrigerator. Remove 150 g dough for pate fermentée, label and reserve for next time. Divide the rest of the dough into loaf portions and preshape. Recipe will make four 300 g baguettes or two 600 g boules/batards or you can just make one giant loaf.

After preshaping, let the dough rest a bit, especially if you are making baguettes. Once it comes up to room temperature (possibly 45 minutes or an hour) shape into your final loaves then place in bannetons or on couche for final rise. When it starts to puff out and fill seams created by shaping, turn on the oven to 500 degrees and preheat dutch ovens/baking sheet/baking stone depending on how you are cooking. Dough is ready when it’s puffed up enough that you can make an impression with your finger and it will slowly recover; if the dough pops right back then it’s unfortunately overproofed.

Load the bread and turn the oven down to 480 degrees. Manage steam according to your preferred method; I use a cast iron dutch oven for boules and remove the cover after about 20 minutes. For baguettes, I now use this method and have also had recent success dumping a bunch of ice cubes into a preheated aluminum tray in the oven. Continue to cook until bread is rich brown but not yet charred, maybe 45 minutes. Remove, cool, enjoy!

*This apparently small range of water amounts makes a huge difference in the final result. At 287 g it’s at 67% hydration which is a very manageable dough that’s fine for batards and boules. 315 g is an upper range over 70% that will be difficult to handle but can produce attractive open crumb in baguettes. My advice is to start the low end of hydration and add more water as you feel comfortable with it.

**Variation: for extra sweetness and complexity, I’ve been substituting about 10% spelt flour by total flour weight, which is 80 grams or so.

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Recipe: Pickled Beets

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
Pickled Beets

Pickled Beets

I followed the pickled beets recipe in Food in Jars, which is an excellent source of canning advice, but reduced the sugar content significantly. These are nice with arugula or green lettuce, blue cheese and glazed walnuts and a mustardy vinaigrette like they used to serve at Vicolo’s in San Francisco. Makes 3 pints.

Ingredients:
2 lbs red beets (you could also use pink or chioggia beets)
2 c apple cider vinegar
2 c water
2 T kosher or pickling salt
¼ c sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 chunk of ginger, about 2 inches by ¾ inch, peeled and thinly sliced.

Method: Scrub the beets and remove greens and long roots, but don’t trim too much because the outsides will come off in cooking. Bring a big pot of water to the boil and add beets; when it comes back to a boil reduce heat to a simmer and cook until beets are tender, about 45 minutes. Plunge into cold water to stop cooking; when cool enough, scrub with your hands to remove skin and any residual roots/stems. Cut into quarters or eighths, depending on the size of the beets.

Beets In Salad

Beet, walnut, gorgonzola, arugula salad

In a saucepan, bring all other ingredients to a boil and reduce to a simmer; heat 5 minutes to allow the flavors to blend. Add the cleaned beet chunks and turn off the heat. When cooled to lukewarm, transfer to pint jars. If needed, top off with 50% water/50% cider vinegar. Keep in refrigerator for up to 2 months (they’re ready to eat after 5 days). You can also put them up using sterilized jars and your preferred canning method.

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My first barbecue judging

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers
pulled pork variations

Look at the variety in the pulled pork submitted for barbecue judging at the Troy Pig Out

Although I am very judgmental about barbecue, I had never officially judged a barbecue event until last Saturday, when I got to give my opinion on chicken, ribs, brisket and pulled pork at the Troy Pig Out thanks to an invitation from my friends at Albany Yelp.

Most of the judges other than me were KCBS (Kansas City Barbecue Society) certified. This means they’ve taken a 5 hour class in what to look for in barbecue and how to apply those standards consistently. My friend Melanie is a KCBS judge and was kind enough to prep me with some links, such as this blog that describes the barbecue judging process in some detail.

I found the group to be earnest and diligent at their work and I have no doubt the contestants got a fair shake. The three criteria are appearance, taste and tenderness, each given a separate score. I learned that smoke ring does not figure in the judging process and that you can be disqualified for using red leaf lettuce as a garnish. (Green lettuce and parsley are fine.) Also, because this was not itself a KCBS sanctioned event, we were able to exchange comments on the tastes though we were all careful to wait until after we’d voted to do this.

How was the barbecue? I feel a little reticent due to my novice status, but will say that chicken had the greatest range of preparations (you should know that judges like thigh meat because it’s easy to make it tender, and that the portions should be uniform in size). It’s hard to mess up ribs, and most people didn’t. I was most disappointed in the brisket, which tended to be lean grey strips, but that’s where professional standards come in because others didn’t seem to feel as I did.

Pulled pork was where things got interesting, and I gave the highest score of the day to a dish I generally avoid. Look at the variety in my photo. It ranges from what most people settle for as pulled pork—well sauced strands that could have been cooked in a crockpot—to discrete chunks to pork shoulder which had been smoked into submission and then pulled apart with fingers or forks, which I think is what pulled pork was like before the chain restaurants redefined the genre.

By the end of the event my table mates were asking if I was ready to get myself certified and the answer is, quite possibly. The class costs $100 and that includes lots of barbecue. However, there’s nothing scheduled in the Northeast for the remainder of 2015 so this will have to go on the bucket list.

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What a great meal!

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Burnt My Fingers

I put together a Yelp list of my regular dining rotation in Saratoga Springs, New York, and was embarrassed to discover I’d used the word “great” in almost every review although maybe never coming out and just saying “what a great meal”. This was painful because I pride myself on being very specific about my experiences.

Mine is a tourist town chock-a-block in restaurants most of which are decidedly not great. The dozen or less places I visit again and again rise above the average for a variety of reasons. There’s a burger place, a fine dining place, a couple of delis that craft generous and well-balanced sandwiches, an Italian bistro that makes a standout pizza with home-made mozz, and even a passable Thai/Japanese place (sadly, no Chinese). All are “great” in my eyes.

I think I’m using the word “great” as in “Alexander the Great”—to describe a consistency of performance over a span of time. It also recognizes that there are ways a place can be measured with identifiable levels of accomplishment. Excellent service, quality ingredients, imaginative recipes, superior execution of a familiar job like smoking meat are examples.

So what I need to do, and will do from now on, is spell out why an experience is great. That also tells a review reader my thought process to sync up with theirs. I like a nice setting, for example, but I’m not going to give a lot of points for it, so if that’s your “great” it may not be mine.

After this embarrassment I used the handy search function to your right to see if I was also sloppy with the use of “great” on this blog and it appears you guys are getting better work from me. In several cases I use “great” as I should, setting it up as a standard and then describing how a restaurant (15 Church), a sub and a bahn mi (which is not the same as a sub, as we know) can be great. But I also use “great” too liberally in describing an accompaniment (Annie Somerville’s couscous salad) and a bread base for sandwiches (my country style miche). So there’s work to be done.

P.S. While still in the mood for self-flagellation, I looked up occurrences of the vastly overused “amazing”. I’m happy to report there are far fewer of those than “great” and most of them are used correctly, as in a discovery or experience or stat that totally takes you by surprise. If you are very bored, use the handy search box and see what else I am or am not abusing.

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