I’d like to get a poll of people who have not only remembered the details of an occurrence in life but can also recall the things going on around them at the time, the senses, you know like temperature, where the sun was sitting, the prevailing scent in the air, how your shoes felt while walking down a path, even the laugh of someone standing close by, a warm feeling. (I’m such a sap.) I can remember such details from times as a kid but as I get older such memories seemed to just slip by like the leak in my bike tire, slow but steady.

Not long ago however I was part of something that I won’t soon forget and will get goose bumps thinking about it well into my eighties. That significant occurrence was being part an Outstanding in the Field dinner. Some of you might have heard or even been part of one of their outdoor dining experiences. The best way I can describe the company is a combination of Chez Panisse, Cirque de Soleil and the Traveling Wilburys. They’re a group of folks from Santa Cruz who travel through the country in an old air stream bus setting up outside dinners utilizing local food producers, growers, ranchers and chefs to produce extraordinary culinary experiences.

Rootsy, down-to-earth, good people who produce dinners that makes sense. They make sense because it directly connects the farmer to the diner in real time. The events are usually hosted by a farm or ranch where most if not all of the food comes from.

The one Molly and I attended with our good friends Jason and Cary was at Devils Gulch Ranch in Nicasio, California (West Marin). The top dog, rancher and farmer is Mark Pasternak. He bought the land sometime in the 70’s and has done an amazing job of growing grapes, raising rabbits, hogs and lamb. They also grow a limited supply of produce (like the asparagus in our rabbit salad!)

Our dinner took place on May 23rd. We chose the option to camp overnight so that we could enjoy the wine without worrying about taking the curvy roads home at night. After pitching our tents in the cherry orchard our group walked up the hill to the vineyards where the reception took place. The whole group of 175 all met up for wine and apps before heading off down a path to the main table.

After we gathered at the main table, the first course of rabbit was served. Then came the pork, lamb and strawberry tart. All the meat as well as the grapes for the wine came from the farm! It was as amazing as it gets. It was kind of like eating fish right off the boat. There’s nothing like eating something so close to its harvest. I had a chance to talk to the chef and many of the servers. It was apparent that all of them were committed to the same philosophy of down-to-earth dining.

Yes, yes, all the food and service was truly amazing but I don’t want to do a blow-by-blow of the dinner but rather focus on the underlying, not so obvious, opening of the senses. It wasn’t about fine dining it was about connecting. It was about connecting with community and nature. It was a reminder of where our food comes from. It was allowing ourselves the indulgence of letting go in a crowd of people in the middle of nowhere. It was a gust of wind or smell of smoke from the grill that I most remember. It was the rustle of the leaves.

The point I’m trying to convey is that experiences sometimes have different messages. Sure we all might interpret them differently but no one can escape the power of nature - the power of our roots. We’re all part of it so the sooner we realize it and run away from our computers and flat screens the better! And look at me now spell checking… oh well..

This is Chef Stephen from HOG hoping for long summer nights and happy dreams.

Geez, has it been close to a month? Oh my, HOG’s business picked up all of a sudden and yours truly has been on the road a lot lately going to events, picking up fish and mopping floors. What a great life!

So anyway… the story takes us to the Sacramento delta. Our friend Dava invited us up to her parent’s house for a weekend of camping and go cart racing. Serious teeth chattering fun! We all had a blast that weekend trying to ram each other off the track, pitching our tents in the grass and grilling our meals under the stars.

If any of you know the geography you’ll know that it gets pretty darn hot in that part of the world, and that particular weekend was no exception.  It was 104 degrees on Saturday and hotter on Sunday. On the last day we all decided that it would be fun to check out the Galt strawberry festival. It’s kind of funny; I equate the standard community festival to a shopping mall; kind of predictable as to what you’ll find. If it’s not a Victoria’s Secret or Sbarro, it’s a hoop game, dunk the dude in the water tank, funnel cake or shaved ice booth.

Since it was over 104 degrees we decided to forego the fried food and sample the shaved ice. Molly, pictured here, tried the strawberry flavor and I ordered the mango. They were fun to eat but really really sweet! I got to thinking about it and did some research on shaved ice. I wanted to see if there was a way to make syrup that was simple fruit and less sugar. The ones you typically get are flavored with a thick sugary artificial syrup with coloring. I stumbled onto a recipe for Italian ice that sounded more up my alley. I also found that Hawaiian shaved ice is almost always done with artificial syrups and Italian is done with fresh fruit bases. The solution is to do a hybrid ice. You can buy an inexpensive shaved ice machine and make your own syrup. Click on the links to find the machines and recipe.

Shaved Ice Recipes & Shaved Ice Machine

Keep cool this summer!

Chef Stephen shouting out from Hands On Gourmet

When I first saw this picture I was super excited to share the recipe with you. Then it dawned on me that there was a more rich compelling story attached to the image. I’ve heard from a lot of folks over the years that you shouldn’t eat seafood, especially fish, on a Sunday. Heck, even my chef colleagues swore by this rule. Truth be told a “fresh” piece of tuna that was served last night at any random sushi bar might have been caught as much as 15 days ago in the Philippines. Seriously! It’s the well kept secret that the seafood industry doesn’t want you to know.

What the fishermen do at sea is cut the head off, remove the entrails  and blast freeze it. Blast freezing doesn’t ruin the flesh and allows for preservation. The point is that if the fish is properly kept at a certain temperature then it will last up to 15 days.

Good, fresh fish is cut on a Monday AND on a Saturday dispelling the myth about when not to eat it. However, there is always one sure fire way to know if a fillet of fish is fresh… smell it! The nose always knows.

Oh and you might be curious as to what’s in the picture above. At one of our recent HOG events we had some fine yellow tail tuna and the group made a nice dish consisting of seared tuna, smoked gypsy peppers, toasted pistachios, sea salt and saffron jus.  Yuuuum! I love the canvas of food!

happy eats..

Chef, Hands On Gourmet

Fresh, warm mozzarella is great with any seasonal vegetables. At a recent HOG event we made a nice composed salad with English peas, fennel and asparagus. Use this super simple mozzarella recipe and add your favorite veggies. For a short-cut, buy fresh mozzarella from your favorite grocery store.

Chef, Hands On Gourmet

Ingredients
1-pound mozzarella curd
¼ cup salt

With a wooden spoon, begin moving the curd around until it begins to melt. Carefully pour off the hot water. Now, begin lifting and gently pulling the curd with your hands to remove any fibers or bumps. Stretch and pull the cheese back and forth until it becomes smooth and elastic. Before it has a chance to cool, roll it into a ball and squeeze it through your hands to form a smooth sphere.

Over the years the meaning of garnish in regards to cuisine has shifted. By definition, to garnish something is to add visual appeal or impact, and in the case of a plate of food it’s meant to give it that extra zing. So I guess the curly parsley, paprika dust or random lemon wedge has been what we’ve come to know as garnish? Really! So here we are in the year 2009 and garnishing, at least in this neck of the woods, has become synonymous with things that not only boost the visual appeal but add flavor as well.You might hear a cook say that they’re going to garnish something with a sauce or something else that was made specifically to compliment a dish. I got to thinking about how the modern day garnish has been overlooked as an innovative move towards edible finishes. It’s been really nice to see an oven dried tomato or a soft boiled egg take the place of the lonely wilted parsley.

For the trout dish we do here at H.O.G the gruyère tuille not only adds a nice crunch but an earthy, salty flavor component that bounces nicely off of the smoky trout, acidic tomato sauce and creamy egg. This garnish would be dynamite for a lot of dishes. It can even be the base of a canapé. The tuille is easy to make and makes a big statement. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Happy cooking! Stephen, Hands On Gourmet

Find the full recipe for our Cedar Plank Trout with Warm Leeks, Greens, Soft Boiled Egg and Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette here. It is one of the highlights of our 5-course Alsace menu.

Gruyère Cheese Tuiles
3 cups of grated gruyère cheese
fresh ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spread grated cheese out on a parchment lined baking sheet, sprinkle with some black pepper and bake until the cheese melts and begins to brown. Remove from pan and allow to cool to room temperature to crisp up into a tuile.

When I was a kid I use to look forward to Sunday Mornings. That was the time we would all gather around to watch Charles Kuralt and his show On the Road. Something about a bowl of warm oatmeal, one-piece jammies and a grainy, pre-cable broadcast made me feel happy and safe. I still flash to images of a Winnebago rolling over a creaky wooden bridge, kids on sleighs, melting icicles, flowers blooming and horsedrawn carriages somewhere in the Pennsylvania countryside. We were by no stretch a Norman Rockwell painting. More like characters from Married with Children. Instant coffee, cigarettes, hair pulling, neighbor bashing and crude jokes. But we were a family and gosh darn it we loved being together watching quality TV!

I bring up the show On the Road and the imagery that it evokes because it’s a good parallel to my story. Lazy Sunday in wine country was an outing that gave me and a few our friend’s adult warm and fuzzies much like the program did. The oatmeal was replaced by grilled mole chicken tacos and wine was our sleigh ride to giddiness. And after a few glasses, even the cats roaming the farm became the horses … Rockwell became Alice in Wonderland? Ok, just turn me off.. I don’t even know where I’m going with this.

Anyway where were we… oh yes, the trip…It all started with an invitation from our favorite-in-the-whole-wide-world winery Medlock Ames. They invited their wine club members and industry friends up to their vineyard for an afternoon of pruning classes and wine tasting. It was an opportunity to get a hands-on feel for what it’s like to grow grapes and talk to the wine maker about process. So early on that Sunday morning a group of us jumped in the minivan and took off on our journey to Chalk Hill Sonoma. It was an early Spring morning car ride that sang “over the bridge and through the woods to grannies winery we go”… I mean I wish you the reader could have been with us to experience the pool full of sensory explosions all around us. Narrow one lane roads shrouded in foliage, the smells of spring onions, damp earth, people in their yards doing chores and farm trucks clogging the lanes.. Priceless!

When we arrived at the winery the class had already begun so we tromped out into the fields, grabbed a pair of shears and followed instructions from the master pruner. There were a bunch of folks in between the vines clipping away. For the most part it didn’t seem that hard and I was joking around with Alfredo about how I could join the crew. He gave me a friendly punch in the arm and said he would see me at 4 AM on Monday. Then he proceeded at lightning speed to prune 12 feet of vines in no time flat. I respectfully quit before I began my new job. Ha!

After about an hour in the fields, we all went back to the winery where the grill was smoking and wine was being poured. We had an opportunity to do a tour of the facility and see all the space age-looking tools they use to make wine. Pretty cool stuff. Modern wine making seems a blend of old and new world technology. Medlock Ames is a small producer that takes time and care to produce wines with a big punch. For example their merlot, regardless of that stupid movie, breaks all the stereotypes and kicks out some AMAZING flavor. Good fruit, mild acid and a wonderful mouth feel.

So check this out. Alfredo’s wife made some mole which was being basted on the chicken. I’m thinking what an odd match with wine. But why? Slightly bitter chocolate, chili, nuts seeds and raisins. OHMYGOD. It was awesome! So awesome that we all sat in the sun and melted like icicles devouring tacos and sipping juice while the sun hovered over us making shadows on the warm ground. It was pure heaven I tell you. One of those experiences in life that you don’t soon forget.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful; the car ride home was smooth and none of us really said much. We rolled over the golden gate bridge, took in the fog and spectacular views and were grateful for living in such a magnificent area. Home. Ain’t it wonderful.

Chicken Mole
Ingredients

Instructions
In a heavy skillet slowly toast the sesame seeds to golden brown and cool. Reserve a little sesame seeds for garnish. Toast the chiles over medium heat in the skillet until they begin to slightly darken. Remove from pan and pour 1 cup of oil in the pan. Fry the toasted chiles in the oil for about 3 minutes over medium heat. Combine the sesame seeds, roasted red pepper and fried chiles in a large bowl. Add a little more oil to the skillet and fry the ginger, garlic, tomatillos, tomatoes, raisins and onion until the tomatoes are charred and the onion is soft and begins to brown. Drain the oil and discard. Combine the tomato/ raisin mixture with the toasted nuts, the baguette and the melted chocolate along with the chilies mixture. Process in a blender with chicken stock and strain. Heat a large stockpot and add 1 ½ cups of oil. When hot, fry the strained sauce and simmer. Be careful when adding the sauce to the hot oil. Add the piloncillo to the simmering sauce and adjust the viscosity of the sauce by adding more chicken stock as needed. Place chicken on hot grill. Brush with mole. Grill until cooked all the way. The breast and thigh will take longer than the leg and wing. Chop meat and serve with fresh warm tortillas and grilled spring onions.

Back to the buckets of rain in the Bay. It’s a misty cold Monday morning and a good day to make some warm, tangy soup. For today’s menu, let’s go down memory lane with some tomato soup and a mouth watering version of grilled cheese.

I’ll keep this super simple. Just click on the links below and make some oven dried tomatoes. Five Roma tomatoes will give you two heaping portions. Pull out a blender and add the tomatoes, 1/2 of a sauteed yellow onion, one cup of chicken stock (homemade is good but low sodium broth does the trick too) , one teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme or oregano, a tablespoon of sherry vinegar, a pinch of salt and some fresh ground pepper. Pulse the blender until the ingredients have broken down and are in a nice fluid motion. Blend for 2 minutes or until nice and well… blended. Pour the soup into a pot and add a 1/4 cup of milk or cream. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Crank up the oven and set to low broil. Slice a piece of baguette and top with some gruyere or fontina cheese. Place on a baking pan and throw in the oven (*not a good idea to cover sheet with parchment paper as the direct heat can cause the paper to catch on fire.) Remove from oven when the cheese is bubbly brown with a nice developed crust. Reheat soup and serve away! If you want, you can garnish the soup with some chopped olives and fresh herbs. I found that the brine of the olives was a good flavor addition to the acid of the tomatoes and vinegar and a balance to the milk and cheese.

Enjoy your day Soup Lovers! I’ll be back soon.
Instructions for Roasted Tomatoes - Click Here
For a Quick Tip Video about Roasted Tomatoes - Click Here

When I was a kid the word eggplant made me giggle. I’m like, “what kind of a plant grows an egg? must be delicious though.. can I get one scrambled with butter and cheddar..”Mom didn’t know how to cook eggplant (I learned how to cook because… well, growing up she was not so good) so it turned out that I had to wait until much later in life to really enjoy the diversity of the nightshade. But, NOW I love them so much..love em’ grilled, smoked, fried, baked and mashed. I love them in Indian food, Greek, Mediterranean or Thai.. I love all the varieties of them from Italian to Japanese. Eggplant has a nice semi-bitter earthy flavor with a starchy mouth feel. It can take the place of potatoes or rice as part of a meal or is good simply as a dip like the one pictured above. Many years a go when I worked at a French restaurant we had this thing called “eggplant caviar” harumph! Such highbrow names. It was a puree with roast eggplant, caper, garlic, lemon and parsley. The one I made is with tahini and lemon. It is super simple to make and is a great dip to have on hand for when you have the munchies or when you are entertaining guests.Give it a shot and I bet that you too will scream from the mountain tops “I love eggplant!”Happy eats..Chef Stephen from HOG

Eggplant Sesame Dip

Serves 10 people

Ingredients

1 large eggplant
2 tablespoons tahini
juice of 1 lemon
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons chopped parsley

Instructions
Roast the eggplant in a 475ºF oven until soft in the center and charred on the outside. When cool, peel off skin and purée in an electric blender with the remaining ingredients. Add water as needed to achieve a smooth consistency, and fold in parsley.To ServeGarnish the eggplant sesame dip with extra virgin olive oil and sesame seeds. Garnish the red pepper walnut dip with toasted walnut pieces and extra virgin olive oil.

It’s been raining buckets here in the bay for the past few days and I’ve had a hunkering for warm bowls of comfort.  Not sure if I have been getting too practical as a cook, but I’ve been really enjoying easy one pot meals or slow cooked meats and braised veggies. The prep time is decreased and you don’t have as many dishes to wash. For this particular one pot wonder I tore a page of inspiration from Middle Eastern and North African flavors. I wanted something hearty but also spicy and light.

The stew is loosely from a Tagine recipe that I used to make.   I left out the raisins and almonds and finished it with some nice tart citrus and fresh aromatics to take it in another direction. I really loved the flavors in this dish and hope you give it a try. Pull up some crusty flat bread and a cold crisp beer or dry white wine while you slurp your way to happiness. Chef Stephen

Moroccan Lamb Stew
Serves 4 people

Ingredients
2 teaspoons *ras-el-hanout
2 teaspoons salt
¾ teaspoon black pepper
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon saffron threads
blend all spices together..

3 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, rough chopped
1 large carrot, large diced
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon *harissa
Pinch cinnamon
2 lb lamb sirloin, cut into small cubes
1 cup chick peas, drained and rinsed

Garnish
Fresh lime wedges
Chopped cilantro

Instructions
Start by blending the first five ingredients together. In a medium size sauce pot add the chicken stock and bring up to a simmer. Add the mixed spices and let simmer for 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste and whisk in the stock base until it breaks down and there are no clumps. Add onions. Carrots and garlic and cook for 10 more minutes or until the veggies become soft (but not all the way cooked). Whisk in honey, harissa and cinnamon and cook for 2 minutes. Then add the lamb and chick peas. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the lamb is tender.

To Serve
Ladle in bowl and garnish with fresh chopped cilantro and lime wedges

harissa * A north African chili sauce with a tomato baseras-el-hanout* The spice blend typically includes cardamom, clove, cinnamon, ground chili peppers, coriander,

In the past couple of months we’ve had several pot luck dinner parties featuring sexy slow cooked meats and old school comfort food. When Douglas and Kim of Living Room Events (LRE Catering) brought this pot of happiness over to the house it inspired me to write volumes. One look at the fondue and my imagination went into overdrive of times past. You know, like parties at Grannie’s house, a classic Julia-style recipe, the 70’s and the smell of Aqua Velva and cheap scotch. But it had occured to me in a brilliant flash, that like the old cliche, a picture really is worth a thousand words. So for this post I’d like for all of you to tell me what it invokes in you. Let your imagination rip and please paint some words worthy of this image. I can’t wait to read the stories.

Bon Voyage!