Posts Tagged ‘olive oil’
- In: Ballard | Eating | Seattle | USA | Washington
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I’m an expert at booking tickets. I note the on sale details on my calendar and I’m on the website at the precise time to click ‘purchase’. Thanks to this quirk I have learnt to brine and roast chicken, knead and throw pizza dough, bake macarons, and pleat dumplings at The Pantry at Delancey.
Co-owners Brandi and Olaiya send a remainder email several days before the cooking class and the one for macarons recommended dinner prior. It was the perfect opportunity to dine at Delancey!
On a residential street in Ballard adjacent to Honoré Artisan Bakery, Delancey occupies two simply decorated rooms.
I was seated at the counter with a view of the custom made wood fire oven.
A row of lights above the counter were inverted cylindrical Weck jars.
The ornate silverware was engraved with an elegant cursive ‘D’.
Each setting was spaced with a votive candle, and dainty glass bowls of chilli and sea salt flakes.
Chef Brandon Pettit cooks every pizza at Delancey. An assistant stretches the dough and tops the wooden paddle with ingredients. Brandon then slides the pizza into the wood fire oven. As I was eating alone, I observed the dexterous pair in harmony.
I ordered the crimini mushroom pizza with olive oil, onion, mozzarella and thyme. Thin slices of crimini mushrooms were intertwined with slivers of onions and molten splotches of mozzarella. The textured crust had charred blisters, and was both crispy and chewy.
Each bite was a joyful union of flavours, the bread and toppings waltzed in time and sang in tune. After the pizza class with Brandon and being recommended by just about every Seattleite I know, I’m a Delancey convert.
I caressed my flat foil package of leftover pizza home for supper the same night.
I have two pizza classes scheduled within a month. I was at Serious Pie Downtown on a Wednesday morning for the first one. The pizza classes are held on weekdays and Saturdays before the restaurant opens. The city felt lethargic on a cloudy midweek day and it was a little odd walking into an empty Serious Pie.
Coffee and banana chocolate walnut loaves greeted us. I nibbled on the sweet, nutty bread as I leafed through the printed notes.
The Kitchen Table is the new private dining room at Serious Pie Downtown. For dough-shaping and dining parties, the dual purpose room was rustic and decorated in warm tones. Twinkling lights were strung overhead.
Vases of dried flowers lined the window sill as an organic curtain. Metal shelves were laden with commercial size tubs of World Spice herbs and spices.
I was happy to spot a large container of Murray River flake salt in their inventory.
Chef Audrey Spence was ill so Cari kindly shared her expertise with us. The Serious Pie dough recipe is a secret but there is a modified version for the home cook. Cari detailed the three-day dough making process. Bread flour, semolina flour, biga starter, olive oil, honey, salt and water are mixed, proofed and hand-shaped. Cari demonstrated how to stretch the dough.
Silky and supple, the wet dough wobbled and yielded easily to touch. We each dusted the wooden surface with flour and stretched a ball of tacky dough. Gentle and nimble fingers were the key! We sprinkled the pizza board with semolina flour and slid the dough on top.
Mise en place: basil, caramelised onions, clams, fennel sausages, hedgehog mushrooms, pancetta, potatoes, olive oil, roasted garlic, roasted peppers and tomato sauce.
Parmigiano, Provolone, Feta, Mozzarella and herbs were in terracotta dishes for us to sample.
Clockwise from top right: Provolone, tarragon and Parmigiano.
I created a half and half pizza. On the left: olive oil, hedgehog mushrooms and caramelised onions. On the right: tomato sauce, pancetta, roasted red peppers and basil.
My half and half pizza on the rack in the queue for the oven.
Our cheeks were rosy from the heat of the apple wood burning pizza oven.
Gauge of the wood fire pizza oven indicated a temperature of 658 °F (348 °C).
The pizza was placed at the edge of the fiery glow and in one swift motion the board was displaced. An enormous stainless steel paddle pushed the raw pizza to the side and back where it blistered and crisped. After five minutes, Cari dabbed on the Provolone, and the pizza was rotated and cooked for another two to three minutes.
A pinch of marjoram perfected the seasoning. I wielded the mezzaluna and sliced the pizza into eighths.
We settled into the dining room with our artisanal, personalised pizzas.
A selection of Italian varietals was paired with our pizzas. I sipped a glass of Villa Giada Surí Rosso Barbera d’Asti, a fruity red.
It was deeply satisfying to eat the pizza I had handmade, and without any clean up afterwards!
It was fun to be in the Serious Pie kitchen to learn some of the techniques of their famous pizzas!
Disclosure: I received a demo product from Duo PR. This is not a sponsored post.
A dish that I’ve frequently reflected on from the Sharone Hakman and SousVide Supreme event is the eggs with asparagus and brioche croutons. The freshness of the ingredients was highlighted by cooking them sous vide, their essence presented on a plate.
The complimentary Lagana Foods campanelle from the Off The Menu dinner had a shelf life of two to three days. I followed this recipe for sous vide eggs and this recipe for carbonara for the pasta.
I was in a hurry to make a weekday dinner and the components were prepared and cooked in the time the eggs were in the SousVide Supreme Demi. I recommend using the freshest eggs as sous vide accentuates their flavour and colour.
The eggs are placed directly into the water oven without a food grade plastic pouch or vacuum seal. I experimented with different duration at the same temperature of sixty four degrees Celsius and the best consistency was cooking the eggs sous vide for forty minutes.
While the eggs were in the machine, I diced shallot, garlic and bacon, and sautéed them in olive oil with peas and chilli flakes. To serve, toss with pasta and toasted pine nuts, and crack a sous vide egg on top. Break the yolk and gently stir the egg through.
It was a simple yet delicious combination of quality ingredients, a versatile favourite!
Disclosure: I received a demo product from Duo PR. This is not a sponsored post.
Our kitchen is notoriously gadget free. No blender, no food processor, no stand mixer, no sandwich press, no coffee maker. And for many years, no kettle. A toaster is the only gadget on our counter. I attended the Sharone Hakman and SousVide Supreme event a couple of months ago and received a demo unit afterwards.
The poppy red SousVide Supreme Demi was conspicuous on our counter. A modern design with rounded edges, there are only five separate components to the machine. A detachable power cord, an aluminium lid, a perforated grill and a stainless steel rack can all be contained within the machine making it easy to assemble, store and clean. I read the instruction booklet once and the display panel is simple to use.
A vacuum sealer is required to cook sous vide and it’s similar size to a laminator. About the length of the SousVide Supreme Demi, it is light and the power cord can be wound up underneath.
The food grade pouch is placed on the vacuum sealer, clicked closed and either sealed if there’s liquid or vacuum sealed.
Sous vide and modernist cuisine have a reputation for elaborate, deconstructed dishes. I don’t intend to replicate or create restaurant quality food. My goal is to test how sous vide applies to ordinary home cooking.
The first meal I cooked sous vide was salmon. We rarely cook seafood at home as I have an aversion to the lingering smells. The benefit of vacuum sealed poaching is it eliminates that. I followed this recipe for salmon with lemon and dill.
I coated two fillets of salmon in olive oil, finely chopped dill, lemon juice, salt and pepper, vacuum sealed and refrigerated them. The pouches were cooked sous vide at fifty two degrees Celsius for twenty minutes. I served the fish with roasted vegetables. It took a little planning to time the heating up of the water, preparing the salmon and roasting the vegetables. If done in an efficient order, dinner would have been ready in an hour by my calculation.
The plastic bags were cut open and discarded which lessens dishwashing but they are not biodegradable. The salmon retained its shape and the dill remained bright green.
Cooked evenly to a pinkish hue, the salmon was flaky and succulent. The temperature of the protein cooled quickly so ‘serve immediately’ is important. It paired well with roasted vegetables, its varying textures contrasted with the uniformity of the salmon.
My first experiment with the SousVide Supreme Demi was a success!
‘Italy is Eataly.’ And Eataly is the size of all five David Jones Foodhalls in one location combined with the absurd Scandinavian navigation of IKEA.
I was exploring the Flatiron District after lunch at Shake Shack and I found myself at the entrance of Eataly. I stood on the sidewalk for several minutes, observing the speed of the foot traffic in and out. I finally walked in, thinking I’ll do a quick lap and exit.
All my senses were on alert. Cutlery clanging on china, diners conversing and shoppers ordering, the decibel of the din would be near noise pollution. The hum of human activity and the kaleidoscope of colours was a sight to behold. The aroma of freshly ground coffee wafted through the air. I breathed in deeply, to ease the anxious feeling of being enveloped in a large crowd, and to absorb caffeine!
I got lost in Eataly. Unlike IKEA, there were no arrows on the floor, no dividers for a path and no map. Directionally challenged, I weaved and wandered until I took a photo of every section and every restaurant.
The Eataly website lists twenty sections in their market and twelve places to eat. Below is a selection of them!
Wood fire ovens and counter seating at La Pizza and La Pasta for Neapolitan pizzas and al dente pasta.
Il Pesce serves fresh seafood including whole fish.
Paninoteca‘s chalkboard menu highlights regional specialties.
A pretty display of single portion cakes and tarts at Dolci.
With such a concentration of eateries, Eataly is ideal for progressive meals. Apéritif at Birreria, appetizer at one restaurant, main course at another, dessert at Dolci or Gelateria, and conclude with an espresso at Caffe Lavazza or Caffe Vergnano.
A stainless steel espresso machine is the centrepiece of Caffe Vergnano, a standing only espresso bar.
Caffe Lavazza is at the Fifth Avenue entrance and you can while away an afternoon people watching.
Cone, cup or to go, the Gelateria has three sizes and many flavours of gelati.
The market is well stocked with dried pasta.
Shelves are laden with sauces.
Marinated, stuffed and in brine, jars of olives aplenty.
Bottles of olive oil and vinegar of varying grades.
A multitude of packaged biscotti.
Preserves and conserves of every fruit.
Chilled local and imported beer.
Sliced and packaged salumi.
Boxes of cheese wedges.
The butcher has some local and organic meats.
The requisite hanging and dangling salumi.
The bakery bakes daily on site.
Bags of flour are stacked high for handmade fresh pasta.
‘The mozzarella you eat at Eataly is never more than two hours old.’
I had a fleeting urge to roll one of these Parmigiano Reggiano wheels around Eataly.
The fishmonger’s seafood is ‘never frozen’.
The fresh produce are piled high in wicker baskets.
The greens and root vegetables are neatly presented.
Beautiful trays of mushrooms.
Some on vine, others wrapped in protective foam, the tomatoes were glossy and vibrant.
A curated bookstore on Italian culinary culture.
Basic dinnerware and glassware.
Melamine glasses and bowls in rainbow hues.
A ten point manifesto and a motto, ‘eat better, cook simpler’.
I left contemplating how local European style delicatessens and providores can compete with a corporate marketplace that is Eataly.
