OLIO RESTAURANT IN CAMPBELL

I want to share a restaurant that Bill & I found. Olio Restaurant , 384 E. Campbell Avenue, Campbell, CA.

We were in the area around dinner time and decided to get a bite to eat. We walked down E. Campbell Ave. and first looked at the menu at Cypress Bistro & Café and although it looked okay, we noticed that there was only one occupied table in the whole restaurant…not a good sign. We walked across the street to check out the menu at Olio and walked in! It was not totally packed but only had 3-4 unoccupied tables so it looked like a better bet.

We ordered Mussels, Chorizo and Potatoes to split for our first course. It was a larger portion than we expected and I could have made a meal of that one dish. It was perfectly prepared, the mussels were sweet and tender and the chorizo spices were softened with a touch of cream in the broth and made hearty with the addition of the chorizo flavored potatoes. Although it’s advertised as a “Mediterranean” restaurant, it is really a Spanish restaurant….I asked! They had paella on the menu, but we weren’t that hungry so I ordered a small Beet Salad that was delish’ and Fried Calamari dish that wasn’t so good. Fried calamari is very difficult to prepare. Getting the calamari so it’s tender with a crispy crust and not tough, greasy or soggy is a remarkable skill. While the crust was crispy, the calamari was tough. Too bad :(

Bill had a very well prepared Caesar Salad that comes with anchovies (we usually have to ask for it so it was great to find a salad that actually comes with the anchovies). It rivals the Caesar salad at Osteria Restaurant in Palo Alto…and that’s saying something because we LOVE their Caesar! The Mushroom Soup that he ordered was so-so. That’s because Bill compares all mushroom soups to the one that David Kinch used to make all the time at Sent Sovi in Saratoga and he can't get anymore. Boo hoo! Because we liked the mussel dish so well, we think it’s worth a return visit and we’ll only order the Spanish dishes on the menu! The server was very helpful and provided very helpful information on portions and what to order.

Where are YOU eating these days in the South Bay/Peninsula area? Please educate those of us who don’t go out very often. I find that we tend to go to our favorites rather than take a chance on a place we’ve never tried before. Websites like Yelp and Chowhound often give conflicting reviews AND, I don’t know what the reviewer's culinary preferences are, how sophisticated they are about different cuisines, etc. But I know YOU, so please chime in with your local favorites!

Just click on "post a comment" below and start writing and reviewing!

4th ANNUAL HOLIDAY BUFFET Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009

Wow! I cannot believe our Crowing Coq Cookbook Club has been in existence for 4 years! It started out as just a great idea for me to explore cookbooks with friends and colleagues who love to cook and are willing to be adventurous and learn new skills, techniques and cuisines.

Our annual buffets keep getting better and better as we hone our culinary skills. I must say, I am willing to prepare dishes that have a long list of ingredients now and have several “parts” to them. I’m NOT saying I do it successfully but I now have the confidence to give them a try. Most of the time, I’m pretty successful, but even the mistakes teach me something and I find that I CAN prepare anything.

We served the appetizers first and then the desserts. I must admit, I had my favorites but everything was DE-lish’! I’m going to describe the dishes by cookbooks. The assignment was to prepare an appetizer or dessert from any of the cookbooks that we used this year.

Bay Wolf Restaurant Cookbook by Michael Wild was a popular choice for our buffet. Lisa prepared the Mushroom Tarts(p. 182) that were a big hit with everyone, me included! She said, however, that the pastry was difficult and for any other group, she would have used Trader Joes ready-made pastry! I personally think it was worth the effort because the pastry was tender and flakey. . .perfect! Tina made Crab Cakes (p. 26) that had a lot of crab in them. She learned that she could ask her fish monger to clean the crabs FOR her which sped up the prep process for her by 50%. The first time she tried the recipe she cleaned the crab herself to save money since the cracked crab meat is over $20 a pound! She said that her husband, Bob, called her first attempt “crab crumbs” because they fell apart. THIS time, she pre-prepared the cakes and refrigerated them overnight. Aha! That helped to solidify the cakes. And then, she only turned the crab cakes ONCE in the frying pan and we all got to enjoy her fabulous crab "cakes". . .and as you can see in the photo, they are cakes! Sharon also used this cookbook to prepare Black Olive Tapenade Croutons (p.24) that were simple but complex at the same time. She stated that they were easy to prepare and she’d make them again. Good, because we’d eat them again!

Willie prepared the Coquilles Saint-Jacques á la Provencale from Richard Olney’s Provence the Beautiful Cookbook. Most of the time Coquilles Saint-Jacques is a very rich, creamy dish. This dish, while rich because of the butter, is not creamy. It ended up being a very light version of the scallop dish that everyone raved about. I liked the fact that it wasn’t a heavy creamy dish and prefer this version. A small note about the scallop shells in which this dish is traditionally served: They are hard to find! Willie tried Williams-Sonoma, Pier One Imports, Cost Plus, and the Pantry where he finally found a few. I went online to see where else they are sold and found a website but they are not cheap! The conchking.com had some and another site was out of stock. There were several sites that sell porcelain shells so maybe that’s the answer to the quest. Janis prepared a dish from Olney’s book: Tapenade Stuffed Eggs (p. 34), a great interpretation of the traditional “stuffed eggs.” NO mayo!! The yolks are mixed with black olives, parsley, spices, and a teeny bit of softened cream cheese to bind it all together. Much better than the mayo loaded stuffed eggs our mothers prepared for pot lucks! Each egg is topped with one small leaf of cilantro and a half a cherry tomato that really made it spectacular.

Mary used one of Deborah Madison’s books, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, and made a Leek and Goat Cheese Tart (p. 498). Another great dish for me to prepare for an appetizer in the future. Mary said that she tried it the first time with a savory pie crust and her family liked it. But since this recipe calls for a yeast dough crust, she made one for the buffet….and didn’t like it. The dough was difficult to work with. If you’ve ever made pizza dough from scratch you know how hard it is to roll one of these suckers out…they keep shrinking the minute you lift your rolling pin! It’s enough to make me send out for Round Table! And, she said it was very hard to slice into wedges once the tart was baked. Maybe she needed a pizza wheel! The savory pate brisée was much easier to slice and eat and she thinks it tastes better. As hard as it was to prepare, everyone liked the tart, just as is!

I used the Made In Spain cookbook by José Andrés to prepare the Valdéon Blue Cheese with Apples and Olive Oil salad. I tried this recipe when we were cooking from this cookbook a few months ago and loved the contrasting flavors and textures of the crisp Granny Smith apples, creamy pieces of blue cheese and crunch of the Marcona almonds, touched by the bite of chopped chives. It was the perfect foil for the other rich dishes, giving us fresh light flavors. I used Valdéon cheese although the recipe calls for Calabres blue cheese. I couldn’t find Calabres and decided that at least the Valdéon is a Spanish blue cheese. I also used Spanish olive oil, mainly to see if I could taste the difference between Spanish and Italian or Californian. Unless I taste them side by side, I’m not sure I can tell the difference or if it's worth the money. The dressing is very, very simple: Spanish EVO, apple cider vinegar and S&P. Easy peasy! The only thing about this recipe is that you MUST have a mandolin to slice the apples thin enough. Sigh…another gadget that I have to find storage space for.

Bill pulled Roederer Estate, nv Sparkling Wine Brut, Anderson Valley, L’Ermitage, 1999 Sparkling Wine Brut, Roederer Estate Anderson Valley and a still wine, Ferrari-Carano, 2007 Chardonnay Reserve, Carneros Napa Valley to go with the appetizers. Everyone must have liked them because we had empty bottles by the end of the dinner! The 12 year old Roederer Estate lost some of it’s bubbles but still retained it’s yeasty champagne flavors. The 1999 was, of course, more youthful and better balanced. It was good to compare the years and to see how champagnes age. The Ferrari-Carano Chard was, as expected, oaky and buttery, and went well with all of the appetizers.

We took a break between the appetizers and desserts to have our annual white elephant kitchen item gift exchange. People were not so polite this year and there was a lot of stealing going on but without going into detail, our “crowing coq” timer has a new home with Janis. It’s starting to croak so we are all hoping that Janis’s husband Bill will be able to utilize his engineering expertise and get the coq crowing again! We’ve been searching the web to replace it but it is nowhere to be found. If you know of a timer that looks like this and “cockadoodle doo’s” when it sounds off, let me know! We can’t have a mascot that can’t crow!

The desserts were all from the Bay Wolf Restaurant Cookbook. They were decadent (why else call them dessert?) and rich and oooooh soooo goooood! Annie made the Chocolate Mousse Filled Almond Cake with Créme Anglaise (p. 15). The cake was both light and moist while the chocolate mousse was rich. We were talking about this dish and thought that the crème anglaise was too much and simple whipped cream/Chantilly would have sufficed. Sandi made the Cherry-Cheese Tart (p. 97). She hated the yellow color that the egg yolks gave the tart. She thought about not bringing the dessert because of the icky yellow but decided to bring it to demonstrate that not all dishes turn out how we envision them. She used Morello jarred cherries for the dish…I was wondering where she found cherries this time of year…! Regardless of the yellow, the tart was very yummy! The tart cherries were a nice contrast to the rich, yellow pudding-like custard. It just goes to show what happens when you cook from a recipe that has no photo!! And, last but not least, Marianne prepared Pots de Créme, Meyer Lemon (p. 75) in individual small ramekins with Chantilly cream on the side. If you love Meyer Lemons, this is a wonderful way to use them! This dish also got rave reviews and even though we were getting full, everyone practically licked the ramekins to get every last bite!

Bill found three wines that he thought would go well with the chocolate or creamy desserts: Chateau De Fesles, 1995 Chenin Blanc, Les Deux Allees Bonnezeaux, France that was on the dry side and went well with the Cherry Cheese tart. The Maury, 1928 Solera Grenache, Vin Deux Naturel, Maury, France was a unique wine in that it is a solera of wines from 1928. It went well with the Chocolate Mousse. And the last wine of the evening: Royal Tokaji, 2005 Aszu 5 Puttonyes, Tokaji, Hungary was my favorite and went really well with the Pots de Créme as well as the Cherry-cheese Tart. The Maury was the hit of the evening having a tawny port like quality to it and not many people get to drink a 1928 wine!

We wish a Happy Holiday to those of you who read this blog and hope you'll enjoy our culinary adventures for 2010!

Stay tuned to see which cookbooks were chosen for 2010!!

FRIENDS & FAMILY IN THE KNOW…

As you know, I’ve been trying to eat local sustainable and organic foods. So I think that buying food from Farmer’s Markets is better and that buying Rosie’s free range organic chickens are better, etc. I’ve been deceived!!!

My nephew is a graduate of the California Culinary Institute and has worked for several Bay Area restaurants. He now works at Whole Foods and was educating me about fish and chicken, as well as Farmer’s Markets. I was also tailgating with some friends, one of whom used to work for Consolidated Grocers, who was telling me even more info those huge food conglomerates!!

1. Don’t buy your fish from your local Farmer’s Markets unless you KNOW the fisherman or fish monger. Most of the time, the people who are selling the fish are not the persons who caught the fish. They are paid a commission for the fish they sell and will TELL you the fish was caught in Half Moon Bay, for example, when it was not. Also, the handling conditions, i.e. ice chests, are not regulated and you have no idea how the fish was stored. If you are buying a whole fish, you can use the typical guide to seeing if the fish is fresh but if it’s been filleted and packaged, it’s too hard to determine freshness.
   
2. I’ve always used the Monterey Bay Aquarium Endangered Fish Guide to buy fish and I asked my nephew about the Chilean Sea Bass that Whole Foods sells, since it’s on the list. He said that’s his issue with the list. It’s not detailed enough to be a reliable guide. For example: the Sea Bass that they sell at Whole Foods is line caught and from the Argentinian waters where the fish is not endangered. So he recommends that I talk the to fish monger about any fish in their cases that I am worried about.
   
3. We also talked about Farmed Fish. Some Fish Farms are run sustainably and where the waters are filtered and the current is strong. So not all farmed fish are bad to eat and it’s a better option than depleting our oceans.
   
4. And, now, on to CHICKENS. Did you know that Rocky and Rosie chickens are Foster Farm Chickens? I thought I was buying chickens from the “little guy” and not a huge conglomerate. BUT what we should be buying are local, free range and organic AIR CHILLED CHICKEN. I went online to research his advice and here is a blog that explains what air chilled chickens are: Scott's Chicken Blog and here is a source of local air chilled chicken so maybe I’ll start looking for “Mary’s” Chickens instead of “Rosie’s” chickens! . Whole Foods does sell air-chilled chicken but I don’t know where it’s from….I’ll have to ask the next time I go shopping there.
   
5. I’ve also been buying the organic kosher chickens from Trader Joe’s but I don’t think they are air chilled either.
   
6. And, lastly, the produce from Farmer’s Markets are not always grown by local family-owned farms. Some are and some are just venders from the huge conglomerates who sell at Farmer’s Markets as well as your local grocery stores. I know that Happy Boy Farms are local and family-owned but I think some of the others where I can see the same packing boxes that I see at the grocery stores are not…AND I pay MORE at the farmer’s Market than at our grocery store sometimes!!! Not simple is it?
   

So now you know what I know. . .which seems to be less and less as I get older. Like “Local Knowledge,” it helps to have friends and family “in the know!”

P.S. For thanksgiving we had 2 BBQ Turkeys and I prepared a green bean side dish that had a simple EVO/Butter garlic drizzle and sprinkled with meyer lemon zest bread crumbs, Trader Joe’s fried onions, Hawaiian salt & fresh ground pepper. I was going to use a recipe from Bon Appétit that had a dressing of meyer lemon juice, heavy cream, EVO and S&P but found, after I made it, that it was too tangy and made the beans taste more like a salad.

I also made the traditional Candied Yams but deep-fried the yam skins to sprinkle on the top with some salt to add some salty contrast to the sweet instead of the marshmallow topping that was called for. And, for dessert, I made Baklava. This recipe created 3 layers of nuts instead of one fat layer in the middle. It came out much more flakier this way. I followed the recipe but next time would make more of the simple syrup to pour over it. It didn’t quite stick together like I think baklava should. This recipe didn’t use honey either and I think I’ll add some honey next time. It was delicious though and very simple to make. Much more simple than I was expecting it to be!

Our annual Cookbook Club Holiday Dinner is coming up next Saturday so you will get a blow by blow account of the dishes as well as Willie’s fabulous photos of what was prepared. Each dish will be from one of the cookbooks that we used this past year. Start salivating!!