Pear & Rum Tatin - Gordon Ramsey's Sweeter Side

Viewers of BBC Channel 4 have a chance to get to know the lighter side of Chef Gordon Ramsey with his food 'video magazine' show The F Word. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you download a copy (bittorrent via Mininova)...it's got competitive cooking, slow-food perspectives and a slew of blitz-cooking demos from Ramsay.



Elizabeth spotted this awesome recipe for a spin on pear tatin...not only is it gorgeous, but it tastes as good as it looks. Link to recipe here...

What makes it clever is the way Ramsey disassembles the pear and then reassembles it with pastry dough & spices. Star Anise replaces the seeds, a vanilla bean moves in where the stem once was and puff pastry wraps around the peeled pear like a crispy flaky second skin.

Gordon demos this recipe in 1 minute flat...then you can follow along to see how well we copied him.

Here's Gordon doing his best impression of the Iron Chef Chairman

If Gordon went too fast for you, here's what you do.

Set one sheet of puff pastry out to thaw about an hour.

Preheat oven to 400.



Peel, then halve an Anjou pear and remove the stem and seeds. Here Elizabeth cores the sliced pear using a melon baller to create a nice clean cavity.



Then cut out a notch where the stem ran and replace it with half a vanilla bean. A star anise pod is popped into the hollowed out spot where the seeds once sat.

Next, place the pear face side down on the cutting board and lay the puff pastry sheet over it. Trace an outline around the pear with a knife, then fold the puff pastry around the edges...the pastry should be like a skin wrapped around the outside of the pear but leaving the cut-side face exposed to be carmelized.



Next, in a pan place equal amounts of butter & sugar stirred together to create a caramel in a pan. Watch it, this stuff goes from caramel to scorched garbage in 60 seconds flat.

Pull the pans off the heat and pour in a dash of dark rum...BE CAREFUL, it will splatter and hot sugar is very dangerous. Place your pear face side down in the caramel and then dust with powdered sugar.

Throw that pan in the oven for 10 minutes or until the pasty puffs...our pears sat in the fridge for a few hours, so we left them in the oven for about 15 minutes to achieve full puff.



Here's the final result...face down of course. Let it sit for a few minutes to cool, then carefully slide a knife under the pear and plate it face side up.



Serve it with a scoop of good vanilla ice cream and drizzle with caramel sauce from the pan. We're going to experiment with some smaller varieties of pears next to create mini-pear tatins so each person gets two-halves.

New BYOB Saute...Reviews like Night & Day

Seems like BYOBs are becoming a popular 'recession' restaurant trend, with some full-service establishments shedding the bottle, like Gayle. Just a few blocks from Gayle on Fronts St. you'll find Saute, a cozy Contemporary American spot on the periphery of Queen Village.

I saw this place open up back in Late Winter and eagerly awaited dropping by after the opening kinks were worked out.

We went on a busy Friday night, arriving a little after 9. The interior is quite dark, both the soft candle-lighting and the full-length mirrored wood sideboard seem to throw a warm glow over the darkness.

We were seated at a two-top in the center aisle of the restaurant. Although I'm used to typically packed-in seating with Philly dining, at least twice my elbow was bumped by passing customers and wait-staff, nearly knocking the glass out of my hand.

If the seating wasn't vexing enough, our waitress was about to take our orders, but spun around to respond to a table of four that seated about 15 minutes after us. Before taking our order, our server was rushed by the just-seated four-top, who proceeded to order their drinks, apps & mains all before the waitress even introduced herself.

The group snatched the last portions of the duck and lamb entrees we had our eyes on, so, slightly annoyed at being bumped and not really thrilled by the other entree options (there were about 3 choices remaining that evening), we passed on mains entirely and just went with two apps & a split dessert.



It was so dark in here I had trouble capturing this lobster & sepia-ravioli appetizer on camera. The dough was undercooked but the filling was decent..the one of the three that was not undercooked was delicious.

I had the sauteed sweetbread...crispy outside and soft inside, the sweetbread was perfectly cooked...I was tempted to order another.



We finished with a berry empanada & ice cream...the flaky dough and tart berries were bright and buttery.

Normally we'd write a place like this off, but the atmosphere, minus the elbow-bumps, the warm service, minus the breakdown in handling the table orders, and the food, minus the undercooked pasta, all promised that once the opening kinks were worked out, Saute could be a decent neighborhood BYOB, along the lines of Salt & Pepper or Cochon.

I mentioned Saute to another chef later that night and he agreed that they needed to work through some opening issues but that the overall outlook was promising.

We went back for brunch about two weeks later with an out-of-town friend and it was literally like night & day. The food came out perfectly, the service was still a little disjointed but warm and helpful, while the overall atmosphere was relaxing enough that we lingered over a bottle of sparkling wine.



Here's a shot of our friend's French toast, serve with roasted pears. He was pleased with the flavor and was a bit surprised at the soft consistency of the pears. They also had a buttermilk pancake one the menu.



Although the truffled Eggs Benedict looked good on the menu, I ordered the Croques Madam, tuna confit with a sunny egg, mainly because I wondered what a tuna confit would taste like. Mingled with the egg, the tuna had a smooth consistency, but packed plenty of flavor and did not resemble a warmed tuna salad in the least, which was my fear. There was a kalamata sauce that was drizzled across the plate that, while good, made the bread a little soggy. The accompanying salad was lightly dressed in a vinagrette.



Elizabeth's Salmon BLT was the sandwich I was wishing I'd ordered...crunchy bacon, tomato and cool salmon, served atop a dill sauce, made for a clever twist on a classic sandwich. Again, if the sandwich had not been served atop the sauce, the bread would've been toasty good and gone great with the bacon & salmon.

I think with a earlier reservation and request for a table alongside the wall, Saute could be a good BYOB option.

UPDATE: I've been contacted by the restaurant and they're interested in having us back out to dinner again...we'll let you know how it goes!

UPDATE to UPDATE: I'm happy to report that the service issues were smoothed out and the kitchen was firing on all four cylinders...sweetbreads were still delicious...also, they've recently started outdoor seating in the side courtyard...nice to see a non-sidewalk outdoor option...plus Front St. location makes for an idyllic BYOB option.

Bells are Ringing at Kanella

Ever since Craig LeBan's glowing 3-bell review of Kanella, the place has been packed. Every evening as I walk by I see happy diners digging into delicious dishes. Elizabeth & I finally got our chance to be among them last week.

We went on a Wednesday night around 8:30 and, after putting our name in the book, ended up waiting about 30 minutes down the block at Tria for a table to open up. The chef charged out of the kitchen and was taking bookings on the phone, darted around the tables checking in with diners, and then strode back into the kitchen all in the time we were being seated and settling in. This place was definitely buzzing.



We were greeted with bread & dip and warm and friendly service. Although it was obvious that they were a bit behind, they were still handling the rush well.



We started with the fried Halloumi cheese, served with a fresh, zesty salad. Crispy coated with a dense, firm texture..this satisfied our craving for cheese.



The dolmades arrived alongside a cabbage salad and a softer cheese-like yogurt ball (labneh?). We weren't familiar with the stuffing inside the dolmades, somewhat more savory than the bulgar-based dolmades we've always made, but the leaves had that great tannic flavor and were toothsome enough.



This feta & thyme stuffed pastry was delicious; firm, chewy cheese combined with butter & thyme, it was like a Cypriotic version of cheese-stuffed sopapillas. While the honey made for a sweeter-than-normal appetizer, the sweet beet salad brought a more earthy & subtle sweetness to the flaky pastry. The combo of beet & honey salad was something we'd run across at Zahav recently, but paired up with the pastry it completed the dish.

At this point we were getting excited about the accompanying salads with each successive dish as plate after plate came out with a different fresh garnish.



The veal cheeks were on special that evening...fork-tender and oozing with a moist pan-sauce. This was the first time I'd even eaten a veal cheek, but I'd say this is a step up from something like a lamb shank...similar texture but much less pronounced and without the more gelatinous character you get with shanks sometimes.



Everything I read about Kanella said to try the lamb salad...let me add my voice to the chorus. We're suckers for good warmed green salads, but the ground lamb was perfectly cooked, with enough grill flavor but still moist and without alot of binding agent.If I'm in the neighborhood around lunch time, I'm stopping in here with my own pita and scoop the contents of this plate up in it.

As our meal was winding down, the chef stopped at our table and asked us genuinely enough what we thought. I hinted at a question about how much business had picked up after the 3-bell review, but we didn't really get a sense that it had made a difference on the way they handled service or prepared the meals. Our waiter jokingly said that he was the one whom CraigLeBan called in his review the 'soft-talker'...I didn't spot the Masterpiece Theater waiter that evening.

Braised Artichoke & Tarragon-Butter-Cream Ricotta Gnocchi

We spied these Globe Artichokes at the Italian Market...2 for $3. One cookbook we have based on Roman cuisine had a recipie for braised artichoke that we wanted to try out.



After cleaning and breaking down the artichoke to the stem and heart, you place it in a saucepan for a snug fit, add olive-oil and sear the chokes. Once the chokes take on a slight sear, you add the braising liquid.

I used aboout 1/4 cup dry white wine, 1/4 cup Shaoxing wine (Chinese Sake cooking wine) and then enough water to cover the artichokes.



Simmer the braising liquid, covered, for about 30 minutes or until a knife goes through the cap completly. Then remove the cover and reduce the liquid. Take the artichokes out carefully, now that they're delicately cooked.



The finished results are an intense, almost nutty flavor...immediately Elizabeth smelled buttered pecans when I pulled the chokes from the braising liquid. Cooked tender, these were the perfect alternative to a starchy potato and accompanied our grass-fed strip-steak we bought at D'Angelo's.



Although the artichokes were a flavorful surprise, the star of the meal were Elizabeth's pillowy soft ricotta gnocchi.

We served these gnocchi in a sauce that was inspired by the escargot dish that we enjoyed at Zinc last weekend. We sauteed high-quality butter, shallots, garlic & tarragon in a pan for about 15 minutes, then finished it with another tablespoon of butter, 1/4 cup of cream and a teaspoon of Pernod...the anise-fennel liquor rounded out the unctious buttery sauce, already made sweet by those sauteed shallots.

Homemade Fridge-Raid Pizza

The best way to get rid of all those little antipasti, meats and cheese nubs leftover from weekend small-plates dinners? Throw it on a pie!

I hand-knead the dough, let it rise about 45 minutes, toss it up, brush in olive-oil then bake it around 400.

Cooking the dough first without a topping helps to keep the pie from getting soggy...I've never been able to get a home oven to hit the pie with the heat you need...you can't immerse the pie in that all-around pocket of heat you can from a real pizza oven, so you've gotta do this pizza in a two-step process.

Once the dough has been cooked into a perfect golden disc (say 15 minutes? You'll be able to tell when the center 'holds' without giving and the edge won't fold)I'll pull the crust out, crank the oven to 500F and start putting on the toppings.



Here's the finished product. We've got some good pepperoni from Di Bruno Bros., along with some leftover Sicilian olives, goat cheese, mozz and some roasted red-pepper slivers.

Road Trip - Stoudt's Antique Mall & Brewery

Halfway between Philly and Harrisburg you'll find a clever day trip destination for the antique obsessed and beer-seeker, the Stoudt's 'Compound'. There is plenty of good ink spilled about the history of Stoudt's in Pennsylvania brewing, but they've built a mini-empire around the brewery. There's also a bakery, a restaurant and a sprawling 400+ vendor antique mall in on Sundays.



Walking around the labrynth of cast-away decor and kitchsy clutter, you could find an interesting thing or two to stop and look at. One of the more interesting objects in the mall was an old post office cabinet, complete with combination-lock P.O. Boxes...made me think of what checking your mail was like in some rural post-office 80 years ago.



Elizabeth was on the hunt for Bakelite bangles (there was rumored to be one vendor amongst the hundreds with a decent collection), I was on the hunt for beer. They have a 'festhaus' of sorts that sits between the brewery & mall. After bagging a few good bangles, Elizabeth & I tucked into a pint at the bar.



I was a bit disappointed with the taps selection, as I wanted to try their seasonal barleywine but theywere only tapping the stuff you can get in the bottle.



I had the Fat Dog Stout...rich and heavy...not too bad, but one was enough.

Elizabeth's red-tinged Scarlet ESB was a more balanced beer...I can see why this is one of thier better-known beers.

After scoping out the 'festhaus', we navigated our way through the mall and back into the restaurant. The bar was a mob-scene; the bar-tender swore he'd never seen it so busy.

We waited about 30 minutes for a spot at the bar, then ordered up some beer-friendly food.



The schnitzel was delicious...thin but not tough, perfectly breaded and not greasy. Resting on a bed of spatzle that was perfectly tender but not at all mushy. The dish was lacking seasoning though...we vigourously shook the salt on this one.



The schnitzel and stout had already pushed me across the oh-so-bad-for-you food line, so we threw some onion rings on top of the order. Huge and chunky, full onion rings...no chopped-reformed rings here.

ZINC Bistro a Vins for Post-Valentine's Day Dinner

If you're suffering from Bella Vista Bistro Burn-out, then head up to 11th & Locust for Zinc...just don't go after the culinary equivalent of the Bataan Death March...Restaurant Week X 2 with Valentine's Day for the caboose.

My wife & I had dinner here one night after the dining Apocalypse that is Valentine's Day. We were one of three couples in Zinc that night and were quickly seated and served; the decor was evocative of 'Bistro' , but the calm and comfort of the room seemed to echo the relaxed vibe of the service.


Little did I realize that I mistook the quiet, easy manner of the server as deliberate...as we ordered our meal it slowly dawned on me that the kitchen & wait-staff were suffering from PTDD..Post-Traumatic Dining Disorder.

The battle-ravaged menu bears witness to the intensity of a restaurant being enjoyed-to-death...three of the entrees we were hoping to try had been 86'ed by the hordes of diners that we had witnessed last night packed into the dining room...we walked by Valentine's Night and even remarked..."Wow, that place is packed?!?! Let's go tomorrow night."

Normally I'd go three-stars when met with such setbacks, but the highlights of Zinc's menu were enough to suggest better times lay ahead for me...on a regular night, the promise of good food, drinks and atmosphere has forced me to slide the star-o-meter one more notch over to the right.



Drinks were the initial attraction. The selection suggested a forgotten 'sophistication'...if you want to venture off the beaten-path of wine, the aperitif and digestif offerings point the way to some forgotten classics. My wife had a Cassis & red-wine cocktail and I tried a martini w/ Lillet & orange. They have an arsenal of brandy. I finished the meal with a glass of Framboise Eaux De Vie...the pleasant burn and aromatics reminded me of a more flavorful grappa.

The wines themselves are offered simply by varietal... glass or bottle...the service made decent recommendations...they had a red from Loire (Chinon) that I'd never heard of and paired nicely with the Calf's Liver (server recommended after we already decided on it).

HIGHLIGHT OF THE MENU:




Escargot Pastis - Little sauteed escagot floating on rafts of puff-pastry adrift in a sea of buttery pastis-spiked sauce. The escargot were delicious, with an earthy texture, but the combo of top-half flaky, bottom-half butter & pastis soaked puffs were beyond description. I was using the usually ignored starter bread to sop up every drop of this sauce...it had a fennel-tarragon/anise layer that soaked into every bite of pastry.




[NOT PICTURED]

Lobster Bisque - This may have been great when it peaked around dinner time, but we usually dine late and by 9:30, the soup had crossed over into that too-thick stage...lobster flavor was overwhelming, but a harsh salty note killed that rich-savory taste of lobster that lingers on the palate when it's in a bisque.



Calf's Liver - This was NOT how I imagined liver. Far from the flat shoe-sole filet I always see in the grocery store, this was a veritable Gibraltar of deep, earthy meat. Seared and medium, drowned in a sweet shallot and sherry vinegar sauce, the liver was a dish that opened my eyes to how good offal could be. I kept trading fork-fulls of my now humbled mignon for slabs of the pink-center, crispy seared liver with my wife. Paired with the soft but aromatic red from Loire, Chinon, this dish was a return-trip on a plate.

[NOT PICTURED]

Filet Mignon - It was perfectly cooked and served with a side of root puree, which seemed to accompany many entrees...the puree was excellent and could fool you into thinking it was a whipped mashed potato. Having said that, I really wanted to try Skate & Pork Belly (86'ed strike 1), the Roast Quail (86'ed strike 2) and the Sea Scallop & Buerre Blanc (86'ed strike 3).



The desserts were mercifully modest proportions of chocolate pot de creme and an praline studded ice-cream with tart raspberry sauce.

Median Meals? Quotations Offers Anything But.

We found ourselves in the suburbs of Philadelphia and in need of a decent weekend lunch. Last time on a pumpkin-gathering excursion, we enjoyed some apps & brews at Iron Hill in Media. I noticed Quotations from across the street...the front windows covered in wise words extolling the virtues of a well-poured pint and time spent in good company.



The tap list here is stunning for the suburbs...I enjoyed the Bells Hopslam, like Dogfish 120 Minute, the 10% ABV had plenty of muscle. Pictured here is a Winter Warmer...Elizabeth enjoyed De Dolle's Oerbier...a semi-sour Belgian.



What better to chase down some mid-day beer than with steamers; these little beauties came 1 1/2 dozen with a decent broth...a bit too much salt for my taste.



This is indulgence...fries smothered in crab-meat and cheese. I thought fries were a necessary evil when having steamed shellfish. I would've preferred a shredded cheese to a whiz, but it wasn't horrible...the fries were coated with Old Bay and made covered the usually metallic taste of Whiz.

Although Iron Brew was a great place to try some local brew, especially the samplers, I liked the tap selection at Quotations and have officially made this my go-to place for decent beer in West DelCo.

Main Line Monk's? Try Teresa's Next Door

Elizabeth & I drove out to a gastro-pub on the Main Line with a friend where they were hosting a Troeg's Nugget Nectar Firkin night. Bar staff went the extra mile and squeezed every drop out of that firkin...I kid you not, my pint was the last one to be had from that keg...



...see the one on the right? Last pour.

The atmosphere is between hip wine-bar and exposed-brick beer-bar, but very inviting. The hostess was nonexistent after we put our names on the waiting list...we even got passed over...but once we had a spot in the cushy booths, everything went smoothly.



We shared the artichokes...the stemmed marinated 'chokes were halved and sauteed. The crispy tops and firm stems made for great textures...the only problem was that there were only four 'chokes on the plate.



Most of the table ordered the mussels and they were plump, swimming in delicious buttery broth...comes with enough fries and bread to sop up the last drops. Like Monk's you've got an assortment of preparations...spicy...creamy...classic...hearty.


Elizabeth's croq monsieur was a fancy ham & cheese sandwich...nothing too telling.


The draft beer list is extensive...I bounced between bold stouts and hoppy IPAs all night without even coming close to trying everything they had to offer. I noticed that Teresa's has become a sort of beer-event HQ for Beer Week, which tells me that this is the go-to place on the Main Line for beer hunters