Lazy Sunday - Sour Cream Pancakes with Caramelized Apples

Working in Napa definitely has its perks, fall is in swing and the vines are turning beautiful shades of red. All the late season summer fruits and veggies are still hanging on. And while it may be the end of summer in Napa, it is definitely Fall in San Francisco (yes I know there are the naysayers who say we don't have seasons, some days I am among them, but you can feel the shift).  

The air is crisp and all of a sudden I am in the mood for cozy food, not to mention the fact that working away on Saturdays makes me very very happy for lazy Sundays. So, this last Sunday, lazing around in my pjs, I set to work making sour cream pancakes with caramelized apples.

To make: Combine 1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt. In a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients - 1/4 cup cream, 1/4 cup low fat milk (I know doesn't make sense but it was the combo that I had and it worked beautifully), 1/2 cup sour cream, 1 egg and a splash of vanilla extract. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry.

In the meantime (or before), cube two apples - I like granny smiths, but used fuji this particular morning.  Heat a generous pat of butter in the pan, toss the apples in, and sprinkle with a few tablespoons of granulated sugar. While the apples are sautéing, sprinkle them with some cinnamon. Don't move the apples too much, that way they get nice and caramelize-y.

Cook the pancakes with a good amount of butter on a hot griddle. 

As my mom taught me, the last one you make will inevitably be the best.

Wedding and a Cake

The lovely couple

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of going to a friend's beautiful wedding. Here are some photos of the wedding, and a recipe for a 'celebratory cake' (this cake should definitely only be used in celebration, as it is armed with dangerous amounts of butter . . . I could have eaten the whole thing in one sitting).

Not my hand

I mildly adjusted Ina Garten's chocolate cake recipe and came up with the following:

Sift 1 3/4 cup flour with 2 cups sugar, 3/4 cup good cocoa powder, 2 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp each of salt and baking powder. In a separate bowl combine 1 cup buttermilk, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2 eggs and 1 tbsp of vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, stir to combine and to finish the batter add in 1 cup room temp coffee. Butter and flour two cake pans. Pour the batter in and bake at 350 degrees for just over 1/2 hour (do the toothpick trick to make sure they are done).

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Burrata from Paula LeDuc Fine Catering

For the pièce de résistance - the chocolate buttercream - you really need to block out all health consciousness or thoughts of moderation and forge ahead. I will say that, for the butter cream, you need to have soft butter (especially when doing this by hand). Of course, I forgot to take the butter out.  Not to worry,  I knew I could just slyly microwave it for a few seconds . . . a few seconds later I found that I had a microwave full of melted butter. After scooping up what I could I attempted to let the melty butter cool and re-solidify – fabulous idea. Long story short I got out two new sticks of butter and let them sit out and warm up, au naturale. 

To make the butter cream, melt 6-8 ounces good chocolate (I used bittersweet). While the chocolate is melting beat the two sticks of butter until they are "light yellow and fluffy" – I did it until my hand gave out and it looked a smidgen fluffy. Add in 1 egg yolk and 2 tsp vanilla extract and continue to beat for a few more minutes. Slowly add 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar. To finish add in the melted chocolate and put in a few tablespoons of coffee. Your butter cream is complete. To finish I frosted the cake and then sprinkled the frosting with some nice sea salt which gave the cake a really nice savory end and the tiniest crunch.

8.12.10

Ad Hoc, Part II - Too tasty not to post.
First course - Broccolini Salad with a poached hen's egg (why would they specify "hen". . . as opposed to a rooster's?), radishes, red onion, croutons (actually fried bread fresh-baked from Bouchon), lardons (aka bacon), and (tondo) balsamic vinegar (other worldly).
Main course - a pork porterhouse from Snake River Farms. I got curious about the term porterhouse, having never heard it in reference to pork, and discovered that for a steak to be classified as porterhouse the tenderloin must be at least 1.25 inches thick, I think ours was close to 3.
It was served with sauteed romaine, which I thought would be terrible but was actually pleasant and wonderfully sweet, red quinoa, cauliflower, shaved shiitakes, stewed nantes carrots with a very delicate curry sauce and finally a small drizzle of parsley puree. The cheese course consisted of a sheep's milk cheese, Cana de Oveja, with flavor flav plums, candied pecans, and honey. For dessert they served a peach and nectarine pie with housemade vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

7.17.10

Wedding season is upon us apparently. Which in my mind normally means not very good catered food that has been left too long in a chafing dish but recently things have turned around. This weekend I got to attend a lovely wedding at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa. The ceremony was short and sweet, the couple warm, the weather delicious, and the food exquisite. After the ceremony they served champagne garnished with lavender sprigs (a nice complement) and appetizers circulate around. They served chicken liver mousse with a shallot jam on toast, bay scallop ceviche served on wonton spoons, vegetarian spring rolls (simple but good), and the best idea ever - lamb chops. Not only do I adore lamb - and this was cooked perfectly very pink and tender with a nice bit of salt crunch crust but I LOVED being able to pick up my appetizer by the bone and dig in. Maybe not everyone's idea of clean, refined wedding fare but I thought it was perfect.

The groom's parents are fish mongers and for the wedding they traded fish for wine with some local producers and focused on nice wine pairings with the main meal. The reception was held in an old barrel room in the huge castle-like CIA. To start they served a wild mushroom and ricotta raviolo with a small-fortunes' worth of truffles in a mushroom herb broth. The raviolo was good but the broth was exquisite infused with a strong taste of truffle. They paired it with a 2008 Truchard Roussanne from the Napa Valley (all of the wines were Napa wines) which was very light and fruity. I wasn't sure if we would be getting fish or meat (I hadn't been in charge of the rsvp so it was a surprise) and it turned out that we were served both with both a white and red wine pairing! The fish was a moist herb crusted Alaskan halibut and for meat they served a horseradish crusted filet of beef (I love horseradish but this wasn't very horseradish-y and could have just been left to stand alone). They paired a dry 2009 Joel Gott Sauvignon Blanc with the fish and for the beef they chose a 2006 Judd's Hill Cab Sauvignon.
By the time I finished my many appetizers, too many glasses of champagne, appetizer (and some of my dates because they couldn't finish), main course and wine I was too stuffed to really eat dessert and stumbled onto the dance floor to try to burn off some of the millions of calories that I had gleefully attained.

7.3.10 (cont'd)

The Keller Garden

7.3.10

My first Thomas Keller meal - and I have nothing but savory remembrances. After a day of wine tasting and absorbing as much of the 90+ degree heat as possible, we made our way to Ad Hoc, Keller's establishment offering a four-course, $48 prix-fixe menu.

As our first course we were presented with a very straightforward salad with a melange of squash and endive accompanied by little sugar-bomb tomatoes. It was laid atop a luscious lemon cream dressing.

The salad was fresh and the vegetables were just cooked - celebrating them at the height of the season. For the main course, I had the pleasure of eating the most tender veal ever known. It was served in a cast iron pan alongside sous vide purple potatoes (finished under the broiler with a generous pat of butter), turnips (from the French Laundry's own garden), and morel mushrooms (oozing earthiness). and snagged bar seats at Keller's restaurant offering a four-course, $48 prix-fixe menu.

A delicious companion to the cheese (capra valtellina, an aged goat cheese) - local apricots with toasted almonds and a fig agrodolce. Everything worked together beautifully and when all taken in one bite it was exquisite. To close the meal we had a chocolate cake (imagine a moist dense instensely flavorful brownie) with a small piece of salted almond brittle and coconut ice cream (which we learned was made by the pastry chef who, for lack of an ice cream machine at the restaurant, had to run back and forth to Bouchon - Keller's bakery down the street - to make the dessert).