Cod Cheeks

Getting Back to Basics

2010-03-03T09:44:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to make this year all about increasing my cooking knowledge and have been reading a lot of different books, and one that is giving me some "aha!" moment is "James Beards Theory and Practice of Good Cooking."

I got one of the original versions (signed) from my Dad for Christmas and was reading this morning about making Chicken Stock. Something fairly easy to do - take a chichen carcass, add some veggies, herbs, water, simmer for a few hours, strain, and there you go, stock. But want if you want to take it to the next level and make some uber-rich stock? His recommendation is to make Poule au Pot (Chicken in a Pot), which you usually do by poaching a whole chicken in water with vegetables, by poaching the chicken in chicken stock. At the end you get a beautiful poached chicken that you can serve right then or shred and use for something else, as well as "double" rich chicken stock. Simple and good - what do you think?

* photo from MLA 2.0

fish baked in salt from jamie oliver

2009-10-28T08:48:00.000-04:00

sometimes its the simplest meals, like this fish baked in salt recipe from Jamie Oliver. I've always had mixed emotions about Jamie Oliver - on the one hand i can never really tell if he is for real, but on the other hand, he puts out some great recipes with simple flavors that pack a punch and are easy for the home chef to prepare. i do love the entire concept of cooking in salt - so easy, yet so good.

how to make a bacon explosion

2009-07-17T09:18:00.000-04:00

i've been a very, very bad blogger. even though i still cook a lot, eat out, stay up on the latest food news, and love love love food, i have been extremely bad about keeping up with sharing it all on codcheeks. i am hoping to change all that and i figured if i was going to have a grand re-opening, i needed to do something big.

this brings us to the bacon explosion, a culinary delight i read about in the ny times and found more information about at the bbq addicts website. my dad and i did a lot of prep work over the last six months to get ourselves mentally ready to perform this task, and it call came together this past 4th of july. of course we taped the entire process, and even after some serious editing, it still comes out to about 20 minutes of video, albeit one that is all about bacon, sausage, bbq sauce, and bloody marys. if you have the time, and love pork in all its forms, you can check the video out here.

if you don't have the 20 minutes to spare, below are a before and after picture of the bacony goodness. we ate this well after the rest of the meal was done, so it really qualified as dessert, and it was pretty much the best dessert ever.

thanksgiving 2008 menu

2008-11-25T21:51:00.001-05:00

i haven't been cooking as much as i would like the past few months and what little cooking i have been doing, i haven't been writing about. thanksgiving has me pretty motivated though, so the goal is to try to catalog my thanksgiving kitchen escapades and get codcheeks back on track!

i spent the last few days deciding on a menu for thanksgiving and completed it, as well as my shopping list, a few minutes ago. any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated! i can't wait to hit whole foods tomorrow at get started.

the jacksons thanksgiving 2008 menu:

roast turkey
bread and sausage stuffing
black truffle butter and white wine gravy
cranberry tangerine conserve
cider glazed carrots
haricots vert with herb butter
olive oil mashed potatoes
roasted sweet potato rounds with garlic oil and fried sage
apple-gruyère pie
classic pumpkin pie

how am i going to sleep tonight??

Farmers' Markets in Louisville, Kentucky

2008-06-24T21:58:00.000-04:00

Since Brendan is taking a break from food blogging, I decided to step-in with an update. We are now entering summer-time in Louisville. It has been lovely so far, not too humid or hot (except for a couple of weeks in late May).

We discovered that Louisville has a few farmers markets during the growing season. Great guide to local farmers market locations can be found here. The first couple visits to the Highlands market were disappointing in terms of produce, as there was only one vendor there selling green vegetables. The situation is improving now as more and more fruits and vegetables are ripening. What a different experience it is to be in a state with four seasons, where one has to wait for the fresh veggies rather then expect them all year round like we did in San Francisco. I have to say, it makes waiting for the spring that much more exciting!

The market had several meat and dairy vendors. We loved to see that, especially that the meat farmers were willing to take special orders for hanger steaks (oh, how we miss the Golden Gate Meats...).

Yesterday, I took advantage of the farmers market chicken and leaks and made a vegetable/leak infused soup. It came out fantastic. First, I made chicken stock. Once that was complete, I melted some butter at the bottom of a stock pan and added chopped up leaks, onion, carrots, baby buck-choy (pretty much whatever vegetable I could find in the fridge). I let the veggies get nice and buttery and soft. Added salt, pepper and some paprika to make things spicy. Then I added some of the chicken stock and let the whole thing cook for a while. After about an hour, I put the veggies and some stock in a food processor only to pulse for a bit (so it wouldn't become baby food). Then I poured back into the pan with remaining stock. I let the whole thing simmer for a bit longer, added additional spice to taste and voila! We had a wonderful spring/summer soup with chicken and toast for dinner. I just ate some tonight and have to say it was even better the second day!

now with more salt!

2008-03-21T11:34:00.000-04:00

i could list a dozen excuses for why this site for all things food has floundered and then come to a grinding halt over the past few months, but who cares really?! it's time to move forward and start writing about food again!

i'm been thinking about getting back on the horse for a few months, and then yesterday my friend alex linked to this site from his site (check it out at www.thehungryfrenchman.com - i can attest to the fact that he is french and hungry!), and i was embarrassed about how long it had been since i had posted. so here we are. . . .

for those of you who don't know, i am no longer in san francisco. . . but it's ok. we moved to louisville, kentucky, and so far, so good! so now that i am situated and settled, and spring is upon us, and the farmers markets are ready to open, its time to start cooking, sampling, dining, and writing again. i've discovered some great southern cooking items and recipes that i'll start to share as well as anything interesting happening in kitchens around town, or the kitchen in my house (ye, when you move to kentucky you get to buy a house!).

i think my first dispatch from the bluegrass state will be about country ham. . .stay tuned.

Mango's - South Beach, Miami, FL - Guest Writer

2007-02-27T00:06:00.000-05:00

Since the Man on the Street is happily married and when he travels for work, he rarely heads out to any restaurants and simply gets room service. However, when I was in Miami a month or so ago, my colleagues happened to head out to great restaurant in South Beach. I suggested that Matt write up a review of Mango's in South Beach. Here it is:

Sandwiched between a Caribbean breeze and the Vice-like neon glow a few friends and I strolled without plans down the famous Ocean Avenue of South Beach, Miami. A single truth, or what was once believed, shared among the trio of software salesman was that we were starved from eight hours of meetings and banquet food that was as attractive as pastel sport-coats and white pants worn anywhere outside of Miami. We needed a meal and cocktail that would be Miami-like, in order to return home to the January cold of the Bay Area and actually feel like we returned home from some place tropical.

Dropped off at the mouth of Ocean Avenue, we began to work ourselves through the heart of South Beach. While my two amigos may have felt more like Crockett and Tubbs, I felt more like the thug from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City preparing to forcefully hop into a powder blue caddy, incite a riot, and elude the police for hours. Consumed by the ocean air, neon glow, and Donatella Versace wannabe’s we strolled in search of cuisine perfect for the night. Walking among sidewalk diners and freshly legal temptresses spouting discounted meals and free bottles of wine for our business, our options seemed all to abundant and never-ending, however we would soon find they were not.

Ironically, the restaurant that captured our business and attention did not have a single discount to offer, but instead offered us everything our imaginations told us about Miami. Quickly, we were lured into Mango’s by salsa music blasted at deafening levels as women danced on the bar wearing bikini tops and pants that seemed spray-painted on. I do not recall much about the food other than I ate without complaint. The Mojito’s tasted imported directly from Cuba and re-enforced my belief that I too, could dance salsa. Our waitress was a Cuban doll with a smile that said “Sure, I’ll have another,” and provided service that exceeded every expectation when she dropped off our lime-marinated steaks and jumped onto the bar for a routine that took our minds off of the dinner we ordered and the negotiations training we previously went through with the alpha-female. The teamwork by the staff was admirable as everyone worked flawlessly keeping our attention. Another employee busting out of her top with spray-painted pants approached the table with test-tubes of booze, offering a unique, Miami way of taking a shot. Teased and straddled I had the best shot of my life and could not recall, for the life of me, what it was. For any guy within a five-hundred mile radius of South Beach, Mango’s is a must stop. Thirty-six pictures, four Mojito’s, and a satisfied appetite ( among other things) later, I walked out of Mango’s a giggly teenager, having seen everything I ever dreamed Miami of being.

So there you have it. It sounds awesome. I wish I would have gone out too, but the Man on the Street stayed home with my warm milk watching Matlock.

authentic italian episode #2: lamb and fennel stew

2007-01-27T00:39:00.001-05:00

so i thought i would be doing one of these authentic italian posts a week, but reality has set in, so, after a delay of too many weeks, here is the only the second post. . . i would love to say there are more to some soon, but i don't want to lie anymore. . . well maybe a little more. . . so many more posts to come!!!

i was looking to make something quick and easy for some friends who were coming to watch football, as well as something seasonal, and this recipe just jumped out at me. it couldn't have been easier: brown the lamb, add some chopped onion, some DOP tomatoes, let it cook for about 10 minutes, add some chopped fennel, cover, and let cook for about 90 minutes - add some water if necessary along the way. simple recipe, basic ingredients, and it turned out great. i cooked some nice curly pasta as well and served it in big bowls.

the key of course is getting the best ingredients, and the guys at golden gate meats didn't disappoint. i went in on friday to and asked for some lamb stew meat and came back saturday to a big package of beautiful lamb. i did make a big rookie mistake thought - i wasn’t thinking and put all the lamb in the pan to brown at one time - it let out tons of moisture, lowered the overall heat, and suddenly i had gray meat. i stopped - pulled all the lamb out, got a second pan, and browned them in that pan in batches, then adding it back into the main pan where all the juices had already accumulated. slow and steady wins the race. it does go to show that it's tough to ruin a simple recipe, and that sometimes it easy to forget the basics.

some more photos below (i'm still trying to improve my food photography, so bear with me - you can see the whole set here):

overcrowding the pan

halfway there

dinner is served

coco500... again

2007-01-24T14:06:00.000-05:00

i think i've written about coco500 on more than one occasion, and it has officially become my favorite place to eat in san francisco - loretta keller (no relation to thomas) is my new hero. we ate there again last night (our first official dinner without the little one) and had another great meal. the food is simple, fresh, and excellent. it also helps that it is 1/2 a block from our house, which makes ducking out pretty easy.

food of note was the truffle oil and mushroom flat bread, the house mustard that comes with the duck pate plate, the white anchovies in the salad, the roasted marrow bone appetizer, the peanut butter cups, and a floral and fiery grappa. the place was a mad house, since the fancy food show was wrapping up yesterday (i had a pass, but didn't attend - fodder for another post) and there were a bunch of foodies in town. i was sad to see the duck pot pie off the menu, but hope it returns.

we've decided this will be our place to grab a drink and quick dinner at the bar when the mood strikes, and I couldn't be happier.

pomegranate hell

2007-01-17T12:53:00.000-05:00

for anyone who has ever tried to extract the seeds from a pomegranate, i ran across a link to this technique on e-gullet. be warned that the page loads up incredible slow, but if you have ever tried to get the seeds from a pomegranate, it is worth the wait.

Jura Capresso A8

2007-01-15T23:58:00.000-05:00

The man on the street is not one to kiss and tell. I like to live a decent life, but not too extravagant. I like to keep my personal life, personal and simply share where I eat. However, when it comes to a product that is this good, I had to share.

I've been drinking lattes since my mom took me off the tap. I love them. Until 3 years ago, my wife didn't drink coffee at all. Something snapped when our son was born, but that is a latter story.

For our wedding, we got a Krups espresso maker. It was great and one of the few wedding presents that we used regularly. We had it for several years, but when my wife and I started to drink lattes two or three times a day, the wear and tear ended up taking it's toll. The Krups machine only lasted about a year after that.

When the machine blew up, literally, we upgraded to a Delonghi machine. We didn't need a coffee maker / espresso maker, so we went solely with the espresso maker. The machine again lasted about 2 years, but the pump died. It still made great steam, but no espresso, so it got trashed. Now we were left with a decision, do we buy a cheap machine again and hope that it lasts for a couple of years or do we upgrade to a real espresso machine? We took the plunge and bought a real one.

The Jura Capresso A8 is the Mercedes C Class of the Jura line. It is nice, but it is the cheapest version of this line. It was also way out of our budget, but we didn't buy a Christmas present for ourselves, so we felt we could justify it. Credit, baby, its the American way. Plus, if we do more than 2 coffees a day, which we do easily, it justifies not going to Starbucks in less than a year.

Once we decided to get a real, almost commercial machine, we had two primary requirements for a new espresso maker. The first is that it was fully automatic. Press a button and out comes the exact amount of coffee that we want. Press another button and it steams milk exactly the way that we like. The second requirement, was that it had an awesome warranty. We wanted at least 10 years and would prefer lifetime.

I have to say, the A8 is amazing. It is everything that we wanted and more. The automatic functionality is exactly what we wanted. Press a button and 2 minutes later we have a perfect latte. It also cleans itself, grinds beans, filters water and probably does all sorts of other things that we haven't figured out yet. The coffee is grand. A perfect shot of espresso. Plus, it is an almost commercial grade machine, so we expect it to last a long time. Finally, we bought it from Williams-Sonoma, who offer a life time warranty on all of their espresso machines.

The Jura Capresso A8 machine is an amazing espresso maker. While the cost is a bit steep, it is in line with other fully automatic cappuccino makers. The man on the street highly recommends it.

Touch - South Beach, Miami, FL

2007-01-13T01:03:00.000-05:00

Like everything in South Beach, Touch exudes sex. From their name to their furry swing when you walk through the doors to the belly dancers, this place is awash in good looking hipsters out for a bite looking to see and be seen. How did I get in? Work event.

Despite their very annoying Flash based website, the food is excellent. The ambiance is amazing and the entertainment is entertaining to say the least. Wear black.

South Beach, I learned is on Europe time. Dinner starts early if it is 9:00 and the restaurants that we visited typically didn't start to get full until 10 or 11. The service in the town, including at Touch, was painfully inept and slow. Despite these short comings, I loved it. It is a chance to enjoy your meal and a show. Something that is lacking in many other cities that have adopted the dine and dash culture.

Like many, my meal started with a Grey Goose martini, made very dry; the way that I love it. I was soon served the 910 House Salad. 910 is Touch's street number in the Lincoln Mall. The salad was wonderful. A perfect mix of baby greens, dressing, nuts, and bleu cheese.

Once that was digested, I switched over to wine. Unfortunately, living in the Bay Area, you get spoiled on really excellent wines. Touch has a great wine list, but it is also insanely expensive. Wines that are $40 a bottle here are $90 there. I guess there is a shipping and handling charge or something to get them across the Mississippi. The wine, a Cab, was very second rate. I don't recall the bottle, but it was something from Carmel Valley that I hadn't heard of.

For my entree, I had the Peppercorn Filet done medium rare. This filet isn't on the menu, unfortunately, but it is fairly close the Angus beef on that is. It was a little more on the medium side of the fence, but still, very good. I would have licked the plate. It was done over a bed of some killer potato. Not quite mashed, not quite french fries. Almost like a latka. It was damn good.

For dessert, I shared the sampler platter. It had some tiramissau (which I generally don't like), some German Chocolate cake, cheese cake, apple pie, banana something and bread pudding. The German chocolate cake was nuts.

After dinner, we continued to watch the belly dancing show, did shots and smoked cigars in their lounge out in the mall. It was a great night and Touch will always be part of my trips to Miami.

Photo above by Furcafe.

authentic italian episode #1: escarole soup

2007-01-11T19:33:00.000-05:00

i've been really focusing on french cooking the last three years and i've loved every minute of it - stocks, sauces, terrines, 'lesser' cuts of meat, and mastering some dishes i wouldn't have attempted a few years ago, has left me with a full belly and a good base. but as we have been getting more and more winter vegetables lately and with the addition of a little baby to the house, i've been looking to make some more rustic dishes that aren't as complex in preparation, but still put a big smile on my face.

as i went and thought about what to do next, i came across a great cookbook that was tucked away in the corner called "Italy: The Beautiful Cookbook". It's an oversized cookbook with beautiful photos and dishes from all over italy. most of them are of the rustic variety and every recipe starts from scratch: if the recipes includes pasta it tells you how to make fresh pasta. i was actually given this book by the owner of a now defunct italian restaurant in north beach about 7 years ago, and i had forgotten how much i enjoyed cooking from it, as well as just flipping through the pages and drooling over the pictures.

i quickly decided italian cooking would be my goal for the coming year, and this book my primer. i'm going to try to do a couple recipes a week from this book, take some pictures, and let you all know how it turns out. not as exciting as the girl from new york who made every recipe in julia child's cookbook in a years time (and who got a book deal might i add), but this is italian cooking - we don't need all that pressure and structure and the cordon bleu staring over our shoulders....

for my first performance, escarole soup! escarole is a slightly bitter salad green that i was in our box from the farm a few weeks ago. it was about to expire, and i remembered seeing a recipe for soup in the cookbook i am now tackling. it was a pretty easy recipe and made for some good soup. here's the quick recap:

bring chicken stock to a boil and add some carrots, leeks, and onions and let it go for about an hour.
after an hour, shred a head of escarole and saute some pig lard (i used wild boar lard)in olive oil with garlic for about 7 minutes.
add this to the chicken broth and let cook 10 mins.
remove from heat and add two well beaten eggs and stir it all up
serve with some grated parmesan and parsley

adding the egg at the end was new to me, but it ended up making the soup pretty hearty. a little crunchy rustic loaf and some red wine, and we were good to go.

that's all for my first installment of authentic italian - if you want the full recipe, let me know, and if you have any extra pig lard, send it my way.

the drake

2007-01-08T11:51:00.000-05:00

"how could you not like the drake?"

well, if you're talking about sf drake, the uber rare cheese from cowgirl creamery, the answer is, you can't! i hit the their store at the ferry building almost every weekend, and as i was looking over he usual soft cheeses, i noticed something new - the sf drake. i grabbed one and was told it's rind is washed in muscat and then fresh currants are pressed into it. it's only made around the holidays when 'conditions are right,' and not every year. to me it sounded like a hidden treasure or that the circus was coming to town and the bearded lady was doing a show just for me. i grabbed one, and we ended up eating it for breakfast on new years eve. it was awesome - it's a medium bodied cheese - somewhere between their redhawk and mt. tam. the sweetness from the currants and the washed rind really set it apart. we devoured it.

since then, i have purchased 5 more rounds and have taken them out when we've had guest over, and they have lasted about 20 minutes each, with people going nuts over the cheese. I have one more left for this week, and may make a special trip to ferry building today and see if they have any left in stock. if you like cheese and live in the bay area, try to get to the ferry building to get some. as a warning though, i will take you out if it comes down to me and you and the last bit of sf drake, and i fight dirty (mostly slapping and hair pulling though, so it's not too bad).

pictures are linked from the website www.forkandbottle.com - since there are no pics on the cowgirl site and i haven't uploaded any of my own yet. it's a cool site - check it out.

holiday cooking

2007-01-03T19:03:00.000-05:00

the new year is here, the holiday's are over, and it's time to catch up on all things food! of course there was never any shortage of food over the holidays, but the most gluttonous period was the new years weekend, where my dad and me cooked up some wintery food goodness as well as partook in some meals that were simple and good. like an idiot, i took zero pictures (even though i bought a tripod so i can take more pictures, so i pilfered a bunch from the web- my new years resolution is pretty
obvious - take more pictures in the kitchen. also, cook with more pork fat.

on friday night we made osso bucco - the biggest debate was whether to do the brown sauce version (northern italy) or the red sauce version (southern italy). we decided on the red sauce version since i had a nice can of DOP tomatoes in the pantry. we added the traditional anchovy gremolata at the end and served it with some pretty tasty parmesan risotto that my dad cooked up. the next argument was over who got the bone marrow from my wife’s shank - we decided to share....

for new years day after a long walk, the cheese steak shop - we decided to reward ourselves with the best cheese steak in san fransicso; i've been going here for about 8 years and figured it was time for dad to taste the goodness too. i had the 15 inch cheese steak hoagie which includes lettuce, tomato, and lettuce, and he went for the 10 inch version with salsa and hot peppers. it was greasy and divine.

that night we went to a new years dinner hosted by a friend and had the traditional san francisco holiday meal - dungeness crab. you can't go wrong with crab, sourdough bread, and some good butter.

new years day we continued our 1 year old tradition of cooking and eating on new years day. we started with eggs, biscuits, country ham and red-eyed gravy for breakfast. for those of you who are unfamiliar with this great southern combo, country ham is a salt cured ham and red-eyed gravy is a combination of coffee and the fat from the cooking of the slices of country ham...it is divine.

mid morning we moved onto the cheese course, which consisted of some fresh chevre, quince jelly, and a cheese from cowgirl creamery called "drake sf" - it was a soft cows milk cheese, medium sharpness, and the rind is washed with muscat and they press fresh currents into the bottom of the cheese. they only make it during the holiday season, and not every year - lucky us, because it was delicious.

our late lunch consisted of dungeness crab (you can never get enough) and a nice bottle of muscadet, as well as watching great football.

finally, for dinner, we had the oxtails i had been braising in red wine and beef stock all day as well as my dad's famous black-eyed peas - a southern tradition that is supposed to bring good luck when eaten on new years day. it was truly a great day! best wishes to all in 2007!

as an aside, it is now wednesday, and i have eaten nothing but salads all week...

sooo sexy

2006-12-15T20:17:00.000-05:00

see, for me it has nothing to do with the fact that the waitresses are doing the whole 'slutty nurse' thing (by the way, make sure to click on that link, then the photo in the story to see the pictures of the slutty nurses), the sexy thing is that burger. holy crap that looks good - i would almost be upset if i didn't have a heart attack after eating it!

*****

on another note, it has been a slow week for posting, but i am easing back into it - i have a bunch of stuff on the burner i want to share, and i will try to catch up this weekend.....now, well, it's cocktail time (i drink vodka gibsons if anyone is interested or wants to buy me a drink)

evoo - no charge!

2006-12-14T13:01:00.000-05:00

i was sent this link from my friend ande(who will one day contribute to this blog....fingers crossed!)who originally found it at "cooking with amy", an sf cooking site/blog. i ordered two! (one for myself, and one for a lucky family member who should get it soon....) enjoy!

the new cookery manifesto

2006-12-12T14:03:00.000-05:00

thomas keller of the french laundry and per se, ferran adria of el bulli, heston blumenthal of the fat duck, and harold mcgee of "on food and cooking" fame, have just published an "international agenda for great cooking." basically 3 of our greatest modern chefs and the man whose book is called 'the bible' in kitchens around the world have written a manifesto on "new cookery", and it is spot on. instead of commenting on it, here it is in it's entirety - tell me what you think:

The world of food has changed a great deal in modern times. Change has come especially fast over the last decade. Along with many other developments, a new approach to cooking has emerged in restaurants around the globe, including our own. We feel that this approach has been widely misunderstood, both outside and inside our profession. Certain aspects of it are overemphasized and sensationalized, while others are ignored. We believe that this is an important time in the history of cooking, and wish to clarify the principles and thoughts that actually guide us. We hope that this statement will be useful to all people with an interest in food, but especially to our younger colleagues, the new generations of food professionals.

1. Three basic principles guide our cooking: excellence, openness, and integrity.

We are motivated above all by an aspiration to excellence. We wish to work with ingredients of the finest quality, and to realize the full potential of the food we choose to prepare, whether it is a single shot of espresso or a multicourse tasting menu.

We believe that today and in the future, a commitment to excellence requires openness to all resources that can help us give pleasure and meaning to people through the medium of food. In the past, cooks and their dishes were constrained by many factors: the limited availability of ingredients and ways of transforming them, limited understanding of cooking processes, and the necessarily narrow definitions and expectations embodied in local tradition. Today there are many fewer constraints, and tremendous potential for the progress of our craft. We can choose from the entire planet's ingredients, cooking methods, and traditions, and draw on all of human knowledge, to explore what it is possible to do with food and the experience of eating. This is not a new idea, but a new opportunity. Nearly two centuries ago, Brillat-Savarin wrote that 'the discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star."

Paramount in everything we do is integrity. Our beliefs and commitments are sincere and do not follow the latest trend.

2. Our cooking values tradition, builds on it, and along with tradition is part of the ongoing evolution of our craft.

The world's culinary traditions are collective, cumulative inventions, a heritage created by hundreds of generations of cooks. Tradition is the base which all cooks who aspire to excellence must know and master. Our open approach builds on the best that tradition has to offer.

As with everything in life, our craft evolves, and has done so from the moment when man first realized the powers of fire. We embrace this natural process of evolution and aspire to influence it. We respect our rich history and at the same time attempt to play a small part in the history of tomorrow.

3. We embrace innovation - new ingredients, techniques, appliances, information, and ideas - whenever it can make a real contribution to our cooking.

We do not pursue novelty for its own sake. We may use modern thickeners, sugar substitutes, enzymes, liquid nitrogen, sous-vide, dehydration, and other nontraditional means, but these do not define our cooking. They are a few of the many tools that we are fortunate to have available as we strive to make delicious and stimulating dishes.

Similarly, the disciplines of food chemistry and food technology are valuable sources of information and ideas for all cooks. Even the most straightforward traditional preparation can be strengthened by an understanding of its ingredients and methods, and chemists have been helping cooks for hundreds of years. The fashionable term "molecular gastronomy" was introduced relatively recently, in 1992, to name a particular academic workshop for scientists and chefs on the basic food chemistry of traditional dishes. That workshop did not influence our approach, and the term "molecular gastronomy" does not describe our cooking, or indeed any style of cooking.

4. We believe that cooking can affect people in profound ways, and that a spirit of collaboration and sharing is essential to true progress in developing this potential.

The act of eating engages all the senses as well as the mind. Preparing and serving food could therefore be the most complex and comprehensive of the performing arts. To explore the full expressive potential of food and cooking, we collaborate with scientists, from food chemists to psychologists, with artisans and artists (from all walks of the performing arts), architects, designers, industrial engineers. We also believe in the importance of collaboration and generosity among cooks: a readiness to share ideas and information, together with full acknowledgment of those who invent new techniques and dishes.

Sino - Santana Row

2006-12-10T23:16:00.000-05:00

I've bitched and moaned about Santana Row on my other site. I don't like it. When it burnt down, it should have stayed there. The place gives me a migrane and the people bring out the worst of my Philadelphia attitude.

So when I had to go to a work sponsored event at Sino in SR, I tried to come up with any excuse to get out of it. I'd rather swallow rusty razors then go there (figuratively speaking, of course). I ended up going, though, if for any other reason, I got to do a bit of networking with the teams in Europe. Of course, once I got there, I spent the typical 20 minutes driving around the place looking for a parking spot. Remember that episode of the Simpsons when Homer drives around looking for a spot at work only to end up in his back yard? That was me. 20 minutes to find a place to park then a nice walk on a cold night and I'm as pleasant to be around as Karl Rove at a Pride Parade.

Sino was crowded and loud. The food, 'Asian Fusion', was like an expensive P.F. Changs. Since I can't think of a worse review, I'll leave it at that. Come on, how do you screw up an extra dry martini? It's just a glass of vodka.
MoTS

thanksgiving....two weeks late....i suck

2006-12-07T18:42:00.000-05:00

turkey day is two weeks past and i am finally posting about it - i know i am horribly late, but it's been a bit hectic with the new baby, family visiting for the holiday, and going back to work. i have turned the corner though, and i'm back on the codcheeks horse (does that even make sense?), and i've got a bunch of things to share, but first, let's tackle thanksgiving and our beauty of a turkey. . . .

we had a good crew in the kitchen: me, my dad, and my brother-in-law (who has a new found interest in cooking), and we divvied things up pretty well, which basically means i was in charge and told everyone what to do . . . we picked up our vegetable box on wednesday night, and were happy to find leeks, potatoes, yams, onions, carrots, butternut squash, and a host of other goodness. i still had to make a supplemental trip to whole foods to pick up a few things, but i bought much less than i ever had in previous years. I also picked up a heritage turkey from our local butchers which turned out to be pretty tasty and i cooked without basting, which still resulted in a beautiful, brown, crispy skin. the main lessons learned: truffle butter makes anything taste good and dungeness crab is a great pre-thanksgiving dinner snack!

ok, time for the menu and pictures:

italian sausage and sourdough stuffing and fennel
parsnips with truffle butter
carrot soup
mashed potatoes
braised yams
butternut squash with sorghum and curry spice
ginger and garlic green beans
fresh cranberry sauce
biscuits
turkey gravy
heritage turkey

here's a side view the pretty bird:

raw butternut squash (with martini on the rocks in the background):

the set table:

the feasters:

Crunchy French Toast

2006-11-29T02:00:00.000-05:00

So we are building a house. We are excited about this project for a bunch of reasons as you can imagine, but we are especially excited because for the first time in our lives, we will have a real kitchen. With an oven that isn't the cheapest thing at Sears. This means we have to learn to cook. Since I can't make toast, this has been an uphill battle.

Recently, Holly got a great cook book that I can't find or I'd recommend. I think that it is called Cooking for the Blind with No Appendages or something like that. Advanced apologies to blind people with no appendages, but I'm guessing you aren't cooking much these days. It is super dumbed down. Anyway, there was a great recipe for Cruchy French Toast that I made the other morning. Seriously, this was the first non-microwave /non- pasta thing that I've cooked since I made lasagna in 8th grade 'Single Survival' class.

Total aside: In 8th grade I had to take a course called 'Single Survival'. Don't ask me why as now that I look back on it now, there was no chance that I'd be living on my own for at least 5 more years and I would have forgotten how to sew buttons and bake brownies in that time. I did learn to make a mean lasagna, though.

It came out really well, but despite my doubling of the recipe, we were still pretty short.

Prep Time: 20 minutes (ready in 2 hours 40 minutes) - Yield: 8 slices; 4 servings

3 eggs
1 cup half and half
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups cornflakes cereal, crushed to 1 cup
8 slices (3/4-inch-thick diagonally cut) French bread
Strawberry syrup
Fresh strawberries

1. Grease 15x10x1-inch baking pan. In shallow bowl, combine eggs, half-and-half, sugar, vanilla and salt; beat well. Place crushed cereal in another shallow bowl. Dip each bread slice in egg mixture, making sure all egg mixture is absorbed. Coat each slice with crumbs. Place in greased pan; cover. Freeze 1 to 2 hours or until firm.

2. Heat oven to 425Â°F. Bake bread slices 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown, turning once. Serve with syrup and strawberries. If desired, garnish with whipped topping.

I also pre-cut the bread into little quarters. This made them more bite sized and I didn't feel like I was really eating 4 pieces of french toast. It was, however, some of the best french toast that I've ever had. I was really stoked. I can't wait to get our real kitchen so that I can make this on weekend mornings, drink lattes and read the paper online.

St. John's Bar & Grill - Tri-Tip Tuesday - Sunnyvale, CA

2006-11-29T00:46:00.000-05:00

As a lot of you know, I recently started a new job. Jodi, one of the key members of my team, immediately started raving about how great Tri-Tip Tuesday is at St. John's and how we need to go out there for a team event. Sure, sure, I thought. Who is this crazy person and why did I come to this company again? Tri-Tip? WTF?

But like Old Faithful, every Tuesday, Jodi went to Tri-Tip Tuesday at St. John's and every Tuesday, she came back to the office and praised the gospel of St. John. I wanted to go at some point just to shut her up, but some how I would have meetings or what have you and miss out on the venture off campus to get tri-tip sandwiches.

This past Tuesday, I happened to be talking with Jodi while she was in line at St. Johns and asked that she please bring back a Tri-Tip sandwich so that I could sample it and write a typical nasty post about how the food tasted like burnt play doh or some other catchy, multi-glass of wine metaphor.

You know what they say about assumption being the mother of all fuck-ups. To Jodi, I owe an incredible apology. While I'll admit, I'm a novice when it comes to tri-tip sandwiches, I've had a few in my time. St. John's makes a sandwich that is head and shoulders above the rest. In fact, it is so good, that TTT, as it is called, is now in the regular rotation.

For those that don't know, St. John, AKA, John the Baptist, is who baptized Jesus. He should have baptized Jesus in the marinade that his namesakes bar and grill uses for their sandwiches. I don't believe in heaven, but these little morsels are probably as close as it comes.

First, the steak is amazing. I don't know how some dive in Sunnyvale can pull off getting such a great cut of beef, but they have. It is like St. John baptized all the cows that they serve. Secondly, and this was new to me, but the put a little bit of salsa on the sandwiches. This gives it just a bit of a kick and a very unique taste when it comes to tri-tip. Imagine the best beef taco you've ever had. Double that, put it on the cream and the clear and you're almost there.

If you are near Sunnyvale and dig on Tri-tip, you need to get your sexy back down to St. John's. One word of caution, get there early. Seriously early. After 11:30, the line is out the door.

Once again, to Jodi, I sincerely apologize. You were right about TTT. I've been to the altar and am a believer.

Blasphemy and beef. There it is from the man on the street looking for something to eat.

Kelly's French Bakery - Santa Cruz, CA

2006-11-29T00:10:00.000-05:00

The weather in the Bay Area over Thanksgiving weekend was amazing. So nice in fact, the wife, kids, dog and I packed up the car and headed over to Santa Cruz for the day. We figure we'd let the kids and the dog exhaust themselves running on the beach, then grab a bite at Emily's or Saturn Cafe.

We were lucky and bumped into some friends who had the same idea and they highly recommended hitting Kelly's Bakery on Swift St for lunch and even said that Kelly's has the best fish tacos north of the border.

While I would disagree that they were the best fish tacos, they were fairly good. I don't think that I would order them again, though. They had a very thick sauce and they came with a salad that had a yucky dressing on it. Holly went out on a ledge and got the same thing and didn't like it at all. The kids had chicken and fries and were a bit perplexed by the fact that it was actually chicken on the bone and not fried strips. Since I bat clean-up when we go to eat, I also ate the chicken which was really good. The fries were also pretty decent.

What blew me away about Kelly's was the location and the atmosphere. The overall environment was amazing. Of course it helped that it was 75 and sunny, but that is why we live here. Kelly's is located about four blocks from the beach in an old industrial park that has been converted into nice boutiques and art galleries. It would be a great place to have breakfast (next time, I'm getting pancakes) or just to sit and have a beer or a glass of wine.

I think that I struck out with the fish tacos, but I'm certainly looking forward to getting back to Kelly's. That's it for the man on beach looking for something to eat.

tis the season

2006-11-21T10:48:00.001-05:00

tis the season for new additions to the family as well as thanksgiving, where here at the cod cheeks test kitchen on brannan st., we will be making a feast! we have some family coming to town, including the gourmet dad and the brother-in-law who is starting to find his way around the kitchen. that leaves me somewhere in the middle.....

i'll be documenting the whole thing of course, and this year is a bit more interesting since we won't get our box of veggies until wednesday night, so we won't really know what we're making until then, with one exception, a fennel sausage stuffing for the heritage bird we are getting from our favorite butcher. hopefully the new little boy will appreciate all the good food we are making that he can't eat.

also, we have the mother-in-law visiting from poland, and she has been wowing us with some great soups, my favorite being zurek, a sourdough soup, as well as many great potato based dishes including pierogi's and kopytka (polish gnocchi). i think we are going to be doing a big feast saturday as well, with another braising experiment coupled with a polish food infusion - it should make for some good food, and some good fodder.....

the newest codcheek member

2006-11-11T00:02:00.000-05:00

i probably won't be able to post for week or two as we had a new addition to the codcheeks family on wednesday and he is going to take a bit of my time. . .welcome ben!!!