Iron Chef "Battle Cabbage" Dinner

Since we all had a field trip to David Kinch’s restaurant garden, the Love Apple Farm, and then had a fabulous dinner at Manresa, we have a special place in our hearts for him. After he recently “flayed” Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America with the secret ingredient- Cabbage - he was repeatedly asked to prepare that menu at his restaurant. He created the “Battle Cabbage” Dinner that was immediately sold out so he added two more dates. Sandi Watkins, Willie Pritchard, Bill and I signed on for the dinner on May 24th to celebrate Bill’s birthday as well as partake of cabbage! David takes this most humble vegetable to gastronomic heights and, not surprisingly, we were very impressed!

We’ve been fans of David’s cooking since he was the executive chef at the Quilted Giraffe in NYC and Ernie’s in SF and then locally at Sent Sovi in Saratoga. We’ve been friends with David and Estaban, his Maitre d’, ever since Sent Sovi and have become regulars at Manresa so we know Michael, his restaurant manager; Jeffrey (his sommelier) and Dana, one of the servers who’s been there a long time. It’s always a joy to spend an evening at Manresa.

The amuse-bouche was house-made Pastrami and Eggs and was served with a Hitachino Nest Beer Belgium White Ale. Although we brought wines out of Bill’s cellar, we were so curious about the white ale that we bought a bottle of it to share among the 4 of us. It was a very strange taste…I compared it to Japanese pickled cabbage…that, of course, made it perfect for the dinner this evening. The pastrami was moist and not salty which is what I hate about commercial pastrami. The eggs were scrambled perfectly so they too were moist and custardy. It was topped with a piece of seaweed. A very good start!

The first course was a “Delicate Salad of Sea Bream & Geoduck Clam, Toasted Sesame, Seaweed and Mushroom.” It was one of my favorite dishes of the evening. Thin slices of geoduck were sweet and the sashimi style sea bream was so fresh that the whole dish just exuded of the ocean. The cabbage was bok choy and the mushrooms were shitakes. finished with seaweed and a light sauce of soy, sake & dashi(a Japanese soup flavoring)and a sprinkling of bonito flakes. It was about 4 bites and was perfect since we had 5 more courses to go! We shared a 1997 Chablis White Burgundy Les Clos Grand Cru Jean-Marc Brocard, Chablis, France with this dish and it brought out the flavors of the seafood. It was rich with a clean finish that we all enjoyed.

The next dish was “Red Cabbage and Pear Borscht, Stone Ground Mustard, Pear and Cabbage 'choucroute.'" This dish was a wonderful take on Borscht, using pears and red cabbage instead of beets to add the red coloring. The quenelle shaped choucroute (French for saurkraut, in case you, like me, didn’t know what the word meant) of pear,and cabbage was served in a bowl and then a creamy pink soup was poured around it. Very nice presentation and if you love borscht, you’ll love this dish!

We then had the “Cabbage Patch: stems, leaves, flowers…Benton’s Country Ham.” It was the dish on the Iron Chef that was served on a bed of “Dirt,” composed of roasted ground hazelnuts and ground chicory roots and some other ingredients we couldn’t identify except that we all loved it. It was one of the creations I was most curious about and it did not disappoint. It was crunchy, munchy and yummy! The ham was crispy…my guess it was it was sliced very thinly and then low temp baked to a crisp. It was cabbage at it’s freshest and a dish that simply highlighted the vegetable. David finished the dish with a light sauce of Reisling. Bill opened a 1999 Chateau Ste Michelle Riesling “Eroica,” Washington made by Dr. Loosen who is a well-known German winemaker. The Riesling was very dry and acted as a foil against the forward flavors of the cabbage and ham.

The dish that I loved watching him prepare on the Iron Chef was the napoleon type preparation he calls “Stuffed Cabbage with Forgotten Vegetables, Exotic Spices and natural vegetable juices.” The forgotten vegetables were parsnips, rutabaga, fennel, onions, carrots, & turnips, all minced into almost a mirepoix. They were layered with blanched savoy cabbage. The exotic spice was Moroccan and added a touch of sweetness to the dish. It was finished with what seemed to us to be finely ground panko crust that added just the right amount of crunch to the napoleon. We could have eaten more than 4 bites of this dish!

The last cabbage dish was “Farro Grain cooked like a risotto, Roasted Breast of Duck, Napa Cabbage, both stems and leaves, Fried Brussel Sprouts, meat juices.” I am not that familiar with Farro (a Near East variety of ancient wheat) but it was a grain I’d like to try now after tasting it as the bed for the slices of duck breasts. I am not a fan of brussel sprouts but I definitely would eat them fried! They added a nice crispy note to the duck. Bill opened a 1990 Gevrey Chambertin Red Burgundy 1er Cru Clos St Jacques, Domaine Armand Rousseau that elegantly enhanced the duck.

The dessert was “Joe’s Strawberries, both raw and cooked, Strawberry consommé, Goat’s Milk Fromage Blanc Sorbet.” In case you were wondering, Joe is a strawberry grower in Watsonville. The Goat cheese fromage blanc sorbet was a wonderful contrast to the cooked and raw strawberries. We drank a 1999 Barth Riesling Beerenauslese Hattenheimer Hassel, Rheingau, Germany with the dessert and it was the perfect pairing that complemented the strawberries and visa versa, the strawberries also enhanced the Beerenauslese. There was something that we thought might be a miniature crepe but upon reflection, I think it was the “skin” from heating goat's milk. Very innovative! …and no cabbage!

David came by to chat for a while and David’s parents stopped by to thank us for sharing our wines with them. We also shared a glass with a colleague and his wife who reciprocated with wines that he brought. We were so enchanted with the evening that Bill opened a 2002 Weingut Johann Peter Reinert Riesling Eiswein, Wiltinger Schlangengraben Goldene Kammerpreismunze, Mosel, Germany. After we checked to make sure no one was waiting for our table, we just savored the evening and enjoyed the Eiswein. A great birthday dinner for Bill and a gourmet treat for all of us!

A side note: Watsonville, besides being well know for it’s strawberries, is also where the cream comes from that the restaurant hand churns into butter. Well, actually, it’s a cow that lives in Watsonville who provides the cream….The butter tastes like butter. It’s served soft with a sprinkling of sea salt AND, before I forget, the restaurant’s pastry chef also makes the artisanal bread for Manresa. It is, by far, the BEST bread I have ever tasted. I’ve been an Acme Bread fan for many years and Manresa’s bread knocks the socks off of Acme! Crisp crust, chewy interior and healthy whole wheat adds a nutty flavor to the bread. I’d buy loaves of this bread if I could! I actually take a “doggy bag” home of bread if there’s any left on the table, I love it so much!

As we left the restaurant, Esteban Garabay, the Maitre d’, offers everyone house-made caramels that are to die for! I always make a pig of myself and take several!

So if you want to try this dinner, David is going to offer it again in June on Sundays, June 7, 14, and 21…$135 pp.

Bon appétit!

Try These Recipes!

Marianne tried several other recipes in Jose Andre’s cookbook that you may also want to try…or not, based on her comments!

She made the Roasted Vegetables, Mallorca Style,(p. 89), which was good, but not outstanding. It would serve more than 4 people so you don’t need to double the recipe for a larger group!

The Lentil Salad with Blue Valderon Cheese,(p. 29). Her French Green Lentils did not look like the illustration. She thinks he used regular lentils because they photograph better. She said she’d try making this again because they like lentils. She also used blue cheese instead of Valderon and it was a good substitute.

She really liked the Cold Tomato Soup with Ham and Hard-boiled Egg,(p. 53). She served it with the Serrano ham and hard-boiled egg. Her husband, who can’t eat salt or fat, had it with Crostini and the hard-boiled egg and enjoyed the soup immensely!

She liked the Olive Oil Pancakes,(p. 206), and will make it again. It doesn't use butter and was easy to prepare. She used miniature chocolate chips to reduce calories and it worked out just as well. She and her husband both liked the crunchy edges. She normally uses as little oil as possible when cooking pancakes, but using more changed the pancake's texture. She really liked the change so give this recipe a try! I saw it in the cookbook and wasn’t enamored but after reading what Marianne did, I think I’ll make it this weekend!

She bought a bottle of the Tempranillo wine and tried the strawberry recipe after trying it at our dinner. It was the first time she made a wine reduction for a dessert. Me too! It’s not too expensive if you buy a bottle of the Tempranillo from Trader Joe’s!

I hope you’ll try some more of the recipes after hearing about Marianne’s efforts!

The next blog will be about a fantastic dinner we had at Manresa Restaurant but until then,

Bon appétit!

Made in Spain Dinner, May 16, 2009

I cannot get over how talented this group of cooks is! We all thought that Jose´ Andrés cookbooks make a lot of assumptions about how much a person knows already about cooking. The instructions are very general, often inaccurate (for example his cooking times) and vary from his TV cooking show. We actually thought that some promoter came up to him with a way to make even more money…a cookbook! Because it is an attractive book with a lot of photos and goes through Spain region by region, it was appealing to us.

Several people in the group think that some of his ingredients, are too hard to find unless someone goes online and orders the ingredient from some exotic importer (and pay a fortune in shipping). I tried the Sweet Fried Dough, otherwise known as “Churros” to those of us who live in California and he wants it fried in EVO from Spain…and, after I roll the Churros in sugar, who can taste what it was fried in? I reduced almost a whole bottle of Tempranillo wine into a syrupy sauce for his strawberry dish. But because the recipe calls for 4 tablespoons of sugar to be added, as well as zests of an orange and lemon (and a bay leaf), I not sure the subtlety of the type of wine makes that much of a difference.

I did try his Baby Squid with Caramelized Onions (p. 163) and thought it was very good and worth the effort. His Cabrales Blue Cheese with Apples and Olive Oil (p. 105) is also a very good side dish for a pork dinner. I didn’t find any Cabrales cheese but used a good substitute from Oregon.

ANYway…on with the dinner results. We had 11 people and therefore 11 courses for our Made in Spain dinner. Everyone brought small portions so we could make it through the dinner. Bill selected Spanish wines that scored above 90 from the Wine Spectator magazine so we could explore wines throughout the evening as well. Jeffrey brought a bottle of his Mt. Eden 1990 Cabernet Sauvignon to share with his dish that everyone swooned over.
Our first tapa was Cherries as Olives (p. 72) prepared by Sandi W. She also brought a variation of the dish and stuffed them with anchovies or Pimentos. I personally really liked the anchovy stuffed cherries. It was a salty, sweet, tart, savory taste all at once. She also made the La Serena Toast with Lemon Marmalade (p. 106). She had to send for the cheese from Spain, via Virginia,so this cheese deserves it's own photo! It was a wonderful flavor combination of brioche bread, salty cheese and sweet/tart marmalade. Sandi said that it was her first attempt at a marmalade and it was pretty easy to do. Bill found an Aria Sparkling Wine Pinot Noir Brut, NV, from Segura Viudas Spain that everyone really enjoyed and thought was the perfect pairing to stand up to the intense flavors of the cherries as well as the lemon marmalade.

Next, Sandy P. served the Cold Almond & Garlic Soup with Figs & Marcona Almonds (p. 46). She initially thought it was going to be a very simple, quick recipe but he doesn’t mention that she was going to have to run the soup through cheesecloth several times and even after that, pass it through a fine sieve to get the silky texture that truly made the soup memorable! Also, since figs aren’t in season, we had to forgo that burst of sweetness. It was a wonderful dish that several people thought was one of the best dishes of the evening and would try it themselves. George made the Omelet with White Beans & Green Onions (p. 110) We each got a small pie shaped slice. It is a very savory dish that would be a wonderful light supper dish on a weeknight. A quick preparation that rewards with a delicious result. For these two dishes, Bill selected a very dry Roussanne wine from J. Scott Cellars 2007, Columbia Valley, Oregon. Although not sure how it would pair with the soup and omelet, it turned out to be perfect. It made a nice contrast, while enhancing the delicate flavors in these two dishes.

We enjoyed a second soup, this time a warm one, Basque Potato Leek Soup (p. 50) that Mary prepared. The recipe called for a cod but it is a very difficult fish to find so she substituted halibut that is more readily available in California. She tried the dish at home with halibut and found it to be a great compliment to the potato leek so it was what we had on Saturday as well. We then had another one of my favorite dishes of the evening, Mussels, Steamed with Bay Leaf, Pimentón & Potato (p. 160). A new member of our club, Marianne, prepared it and served it at room temperature. It could be that I happen to really love mussels but it had very subtle flavors that were enhanced by the simple potato bed upon which they were served. It’s a dish that I intend to try, now that I’ve tasted hers! Bill found another Spanish wine for us to try with these two dishes, Huguet de Can Feixes 2007 Blanc Seleccio Penedes Spain. This dry, white wine paired well with the simple flavors of the soup and mussels.

It was perfect that there was about 10-15 minutes in between courses that allowed for chatting, digestion and for Willie to get his photos taken of each course. His photos speak volumes in terms of the dish that he prepared. Seared Piquillo Peppers Stuffed with Roncal Cheese (p. 58). This dish is visually a beautiful presentation, a reason by itself, to serve this tapa. He was able to find the Roncal cheese but it’s a pricey cheese so he also served a version of this dish with Machengo cheese. The Roncal is a harder cheese (like parmesan) but when it was heated, it had a very nice soft chewy texture. The Machengo is a much softer cheese with a milder flavor. It was a nice cheese to try with the peppers as well.

Jeffrey prepared a very time consuming dish that had disappointing results. He made the Chicken Wings Confit with Green Olive Puree (p. 194). The part of the wing that is used is the section with 2 bones and the recipe calls for deboning that wing once it’s been poached in the oil. Jeffrey used goose fat that he renders and saves from his roast geese dinners but the recipe called for olive oil. Deboning the wings into ONE piece is very frustrating and rarely turned into one piece. And, while it was an interesting experience, he would not make this dish again. However, the Green Olive Puree was absolutely delicious and everyone thought this puree could be used with other dishes very successfully. Jeffrey brought and decanted his own Mt. Eden 1990 Cabernet Sauvignon to go with his chicken wings. It had luscious California style fruit, very smooth after 19 years in the bottle…thank you Jeffrey for sharing! Bill also selected a Spanish wine, in keeping with the dinner theme, that was not as fruity as Jeffrey’s cab. Torremoron 2006 Tempranillo Ribera del Duero Spain. Tempranillo is a drier and lighter wine and for the lighter flavors of the Chicken wings, was a good pairing.

After all this food, you’d think we would be done but there were 5 more courses to partake! The main course, prepared by Annie, was the Pork Loin Baked in Sea Salt with Sliced Spanish Cured Ham (p. 184) . The preparation was beautiful. Annie even thought to put 2 little sticks inserted on the top of the loin and salt crust so she could insert a meat thermometer. Now there’s a cook who thinks ahead! When she cracked the salt crust, the loin had herbs across the top, creating a beautiful pattern. She thought the loin dish was rather “common” and not as extraordinary as she was expecting. The salt crust does create a moist roast but Mary thought it could be created without the hassle of a salt crust. The star of the evening was the Canary Island Style Wrinkled Potatoes (p. 90) with Mojo Rojo (p. 244). The potatoes were good but the Mojo Rojo was fabulous! We all thought it could be used as an accompaniment to other dishes and used often! Yummmm, I can still taste the garlic and pimentón! Janis, newly returned from her annual sojourn to Australia, brought Green Beans with Tomatoes & Pearl Onions (p.110) from another one of Jose Andres’ cookbooks: Tapas, A Taste of Spain in America. They were delicious and were the perfect side dish to the pork loin and potatoes. Bill paired the main courses with another Spanish wine, Raimat 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Bottled Coniusa. This cabernet was very different from Jeffrey’s but then it’s a 2001 vs his 1990 and it’s grown in Spain, not California! It went well with the pork loin and even stood up to the mojo rojo!

At last, finally, we came to last course of the evening. I decided to fry the dough at the last minute so we could have hot Sweet Fried Dough, “Churros” (p. 219). And because Annie was curious about the Strawberries with Madrid Wine, Herbs & Orange Zest (p. 208), I decided to make it to go with the fried dough. I doubled the recipe in order to have enough sauce for 11 people that took a bottle plus 1 cup of Tempranillo wine. I think the sauce can be made with any wine however since I added the zest of 2 oranges and lemons, 2 bay leaves and 8 tablespoons of sugar.
The recipe recommends that the fried dough be served with hot chocolate but since it was 90+º outside, I opted for Dr. Bob’s chocolate ice cream instead. Dr. Bob uses Scharffenberger chocolate and is a pretty dense chocolate ice cream. Bill’s general complaint is that ice creams are not chocolaty enough. I tried the Hagen Daaz Amazon Valley Chocolate ice cream and although it tastes creamier, it was not as chocolaty as Dr. Bob’s (which can be purchased at Andronico’s Markets). I have been on the eternal search for a wine that goes with chocolate…some people like Cabernet Sauvignon or port with chocolate but I personally don’t think they stand up to gourmet chocolate. I’ve tried FroZin by Meeker Vineyards, a wine made to go with chocolate but for this dinner I found a wine by Koda that actually has chocolate overtones, Koda Dessert Wine NV, Olde Shandon Port Works, Shandon, California
By winemaker standards, it is not a well-made wine because the chocolate is far too pronounced, however, it does go with chocolate desserts and even complements the flavors. It’s currently available at Trader Joes and very reasonably priced.

Other cooks tried other recipes in the cookbook and I hope they will add their comments to this blog. (hint! hint!)