DIY Olives

Olives I have picked and are ready to be cured.
The green olives can only be cured
properly with lye

Weather in the Napa Valley mirrors that of the Mediterranean causing them to share many of the same  crops. The most obvious being grapes and the other olives.
Olives are one of my favorite foods, so as one could imagine I was very excited the first time I found rows of olive trees growing all over St.Helena. Could it really be possible...I felt like I was in a skittles commercial. Ya know, the ones where skittles grow on trees or fall from the sky.  I immediately picked what I thought was a perfectly ripe olive, but disappointment followed the minute that olive touched my teeth. I had never in my life tried so hard to escape the taste of something.

My olive ignorance was in full bloom when I thought that the jarred perfection came straight from the earth. Fresh olives are EXTREMELY bitter and do not get their salty well rounded flavor until being brined or cured for months. Not allowing myself to become defeated by an olive I have decided to make my own. I found a local tree to collect from and did some research. Why buy them when there are perfectly good ones staring me in the face. Is it stealing if they will fall to the ground anyways...

I looked on many websites, but they all led me to the use of lye. Typical in soap making and harmful if used incorrectly it is very hard to find. I decided to ask for tips from my Cuisines of Europe and the Mediterranean instructor, Chef Lars Kronmark, who led me to a seasoned olive processor, Chef Jeff Morgan. Chef Morgan gave me all sorts of ideas on how to cure olives successfully. It is a process that is going to take me a year, but the end product will last for years and I hope will be worth the wait. At least I will have the chance to participate in a method that has been going on for centuries.

I need to steal pick a lot more olives before I can get started, but a recipe with pictures of the process will be coming soon.

Lars Kronmark, C.W.P. Chef-Instructor Lars Kronmark was hand-picked from the finest culinary educators in the United States to open the CIA at Greystone in 1995. He has taught leading industry professionals in custom and catalog food and wine programs, led wine auctions, and been involved with the annual Worlds of Flavors International Conference and Festival since its inception in 1996. Chef Kronmark lives with his family in St. Helena, where he grows Cabernet Franc grapes and makes his own wine, which includes grapes from the CIA property.

Jeff Morgan Jeff Morgan is the former West Coast editor of Wine Spectator. In 1999, he became wine director for the gourmet retailer Dean & DeLuca and wrote Dean & DeLuca: The Food and Wine Cookbook, published in 2002. Since then, he has published three more cookbooks, most recently The PlumpJack Cookbook: Great Meals for Good Living. Mr. Morgan also makes wine in the Napa Valley under his Covenant and RED C labels. ~Culinary Institute of America

Recipe Box

APPLE PIE

What is Thanksgiving without an apple pie. This year being invited to a family friends house in Southern California Apple Pie was one of my contributions to the meal. 

Apple Pie with Whipped Cream

Crust (Pate Brisee)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits

2 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons ice water plus additional if necessary

In a large bowl blend flour, butter, vegetable shortening, and salt until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add 2T ice water, toss mixture until water is well incorporated, add additional water if necessary to form dough. Form into a ball, dust with flour, wrap in wax paper and chill for 1 hour. 

Filling

1 3/4 lb sweet apples (golden delicious)

1 3/4 lb tart apples (granny smith)

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon plus 1/2 teaspoon 

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits

milk for brushing the crust

Preheat oven to 450F. Roll out half the dough 1/8in thick on a lightly floured surface, fit it into a 9 in deep dish pie tin. Trim the edge leaving a 3/4in overhang. Chill the shell and remaining dough while making filling.

In a large bowl toss together apples, each peeled, cored, and cut into eighths, 3/4c sugar, lemon juice, salt,  and cinnamon. Let sit 15 minuites. Once juices have formed mix in flour till all ingredients well combined. Transfer the filling to the shell, and dot it with the butter. 

Roll out the remaining dough into a 13- by 14-inch round on a lightly floured surface, drape it over the filling, and trim it, leaving a 1-inch overhang. Fold the overhang under the bottom crust, pressing the edge to seal it, and crimp the edge decoratively. Brush the crust lightly with the milk, cut slits in it with a sharp knife, forming steam vents, and sprinkle the pie evenly with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Bake the pie on a large baking sheet in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350°F., and bake the pie for 20 to 25 minutes more, or until the crust is golden and the apples are tender.

Whipped cream

Whisk 1 pint heavy cream till soft peaks form add granulated sugar to taste and 1T vanilla bean paste. Continue whisking till stiff peaks form. 

Winery Highlights ('05 Cabernet Sauvignon)

As a Congratulations you finished Cuisines of Asia to myself and a kickoff to my Thanksgiving break a friend and I went wine tasting. I noticed recently that I have accidentally formed a trend of creating a theme for my wine tasting experiences. This one happened to be the Rutherford Region and Weathers Effect on Wine Making.
Three Wineries were visited this day (all in the Rutherford region); Provenance, Sawyer Cellars, and Peju.

At Provenance we did a vertical tasting of Cabernet Sauvignon, meaning all the same varietal but of a different vintage year. There was an '05, '06, and '07. The '05 was the best cabernet I have ever tasted. It had a personality and a boldness, but was extremely smooth and  almost tannin less. It is a Cab I could see pairing with a piece of Salmon.

Sawyer Cellars,  We started by tasting many different varietals and were once again introduced to the '05 Cab. It again had very similar characteristics. We mentioned this to the wine educator and she poured us a '99 and a '00 to compare. I still enjoyed the '05 more. the '99 and '00 did not seem to be as smooth. Both very good, but I would choose the '05 any day.

Our day ended at Peju. This winery seemed to be more about the entertainment then the actual wine, but their grounds are beautiful and they also had an '05 cab that paralleled those we previously tasted.

What I gathered from speaking with all the different vineyards was that 2005 was such an excellent year do to the warm weather and little rain or heat spells.
At over $100 a bottle, free tastings of  this wine may be the thing to keep me in St. Helena.

Stars come to Chicago

The Michelin guide has had their own 2 year long Taste of Chicago. After visiting restaurant upon restaurant, some many times, they have finally compiled a guide for Chicago.  I was very happy to see Charlie Trotters was one of three restaurants to earn 2 stars. One more honor for Chef Trottter to add to his list of achievements.

Three stars

Alinea

L20

Two stars

Avenues
Charlie Trotters
Ria

One star

Blackbird
Boka
Bonsoiree
Crofton on Wells 

Everest
Graham Elliot
Longman & Eagle
Naha
NoMI
Schwa
Seasons
Sepia
Sixteen
Spiaggia
Takashi
Topolobampo
Tru
Vie

Worlds of Flavor

Entertainment

Marketplace

I took a break from blogging for awhile, but am back to share an amazing opportunity I had this past weekend. The CIA every year puts on a huge conference called Worlds of Flavor. This year the theme was Japan. It was a three day conference consisting of 90 of the top Japanese Chefs, including the Prime Ministers chefs and 2 Iron Chefs. This year it was extremely special. The level of skill present was impossible to not stop you in your tracks, but more importantly history was made. Japanese culture consists of hierarchy and because of this many of the chefs that flew in would never agree to consult with each other, until now.  What changed their minds was the unanimous decision in the importance of teaching about Japanese cuisine.

   

Iron Chef Morimoto-San

                                        Some interesting numbers:

                                         2 million plus dollars- sponsorship

                                         60 thousand dollars- Fish shipped from Japan

                                         1,295- Cost of ticket to attend conference

                      

Chef Lee Anne Wong with Iron Chef Sakai

Making Soba Noodles

Sukiyaki from Chef Lee Anne Wong
(suvee & seared Kobe, raw quail egg, cabbage, shittake, scallion, stoke, micro greens from the Chef's Garden in a broth of saki, soy, sugar, water)

Morning Meeting

         To put on such an enormous conference sponsors were needed. One extremely exciting one for me was Lee Anne Wong with Korin (Top Chef Finalist, Top Chef Producer, Restaurateur, Author...). I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with Lee Anne all week. She has become a great mentor to me. Amongst the many amazing opportunities Lee Anne has already produced for me, was a dinner at Michael Chiarello's Bottega in Yountville, Ca. The Chef prepared for us a special tasting menu. We dined for three hours chatting over wine, delicious Italian cuisine (much needed after a week of Japanese food), and it was even more special when Michael Chiarello himself came out and sat with us.

ahi tuna over a pink Himalayan salt rock with orange supreme and crispy taro

braised chicken pieces (feet, head, thigh), cold cucumber and red onion salad

Some of the wine pairings;
2005 Schramsberg, Blanc de Blanc, Napa Valley
2000 Dom Perignon, Moet & Chandon, Epernay
2006 Newton Chardonnay, ‘Unfiltered’, Napa Valley
1999 Turley, Hayne Vineyard, Napa Valley
2006 Badia Coltibuono, Chianti Classico, Toscana
...

Crispy Potato Gnocchi, english pea & tallegio fonduta, spring vegetables, prosciuto crisp

Piedmontese Beef Rib-Eye sherry vinegar-honey glazed shallots, potato terrine

Ricotta Gnocchi, salsa di pomodoro della Nonna, pecorino

Wood Grilled Octopus olive oil braised potatoes, pickled red onion, salsa verde

Wild Nettles, Swiss Chard, Ramp; Ricotta Raviolo, farm fresh egg yolk, sage browned butter, parmigiano - reggiano, white and black truffle

Marcona Almond Sbrisilona “Affogato”
vanilla bean gelato, espresso granitehoney-almond milk espuma

Vanilla Goat’s Milk Panna Cotta
saffron kumquat marmelleta passionfruit citrus gelee