Farewell, Homeland...

Tomorrow we are finally going home. We were going to go home Wednesday, but a home improvement project for my parents took on extra dimensions. It was going to be simple: repaint a bathroom. The discovery of mold and water damage demanded more. While deciding what to do we restored the tile floor in another bathroom. After being told that no handyman was available for weeks, I bit the bullet and learned how to patch sheetrock.

The bathroom is now patched, the mold removed (it turned out to not be as deep as I feared), and it looks pretty good, but it is not painted. However, I have to review three restaurants in the next five days, so we must return. Oakland calls. And if I don't respond the editor will call.

Anyway, here are my observations:

1. I realized that I have not spent this much time in Sacramento for years. It is a nice place. I will be happy to be back in the Bay Area, but I like Sacramento.
2. A week and a half of grandparental spoiling is going to be tough to correct.
3. Home Depot has about three helpful employees. The rest are stupid and malicious. They know less about sheetrock than I did a week ago, and they would rather get rid of a customer than find out the information requested.
4. Target is great.
5. Sacramento is really becoming a good dining town.
6. The mosaic bug is biting me hard. I think I know what the next project around here is going to be.
7. If a cafe posts hours it should stick to them.
8. We are wops. "We have been eating Italian food every day. Let's go out for American food. How does Buca di Beppo sound?"
9. Buca di Beppo makes good food. It is that southern Italian red gravy stuff, which is about as Italian to my Tuscan tastes as Cajun food, but they do it right. Tonight was my first visit, and it was good.

Beef Wellington Menu

For Secret Agent Man.

I am still looking for a recommended Beef Wellington recipe, but here is a menu, so if you have a recipe you like, this should work. Meanwhile I will keep searching:

With cocktails:
Let's start with beef! Beef is the focus, so let's let it make its introduction right here. Beef tartare, with the egg yolks mixed in, and served on toast rounds.

At table:
1. Watercress soup. Make a standard potato leek soup and puree with watercress. Finish with cream, fresh cracked pepper. Float a thyme crouton on each bowl.

2. Celery root and toasted hazelnut salad.

3. Beef Wellington, served with:
3a. Truffled mashed potatoes (standard mashed potatoes, finished with cream and a drizzling of white truffle oil)
3b. Brussels sprouts. If you can buy them still attached to the stalk, do it. Remove. Pick off any leaves that are not tightly bound to the little heads. Steam until soft. Crisp some finely chopped pancetta in olive oil. Lightly brown the sprouts. Finish with lemon juice and freshly shaved reggiano parmiggiana.

4. Since you will probably be serving a cabernet or a Bordeaux, serve a room temperature ripe brie with sweet baguette rounds to go with the leftover wine.

5. Small slices of flourless chocolate cake with a raspberry sauce (get frozen berries, cook with butter and sugar) and freshly whipped cream (a hint of sugar and vanilla).

6. Cognac and cigars. For the men get Sancho Panza Maduros, for the women CAO Moontrance or for both, CAO Earth Nectar. The two CAO cigars are flavored, and, while I normally frown on that sort of thing, they are quite good.

Fun with Fire!

Oh yes. A good friend of ours, knowing (and yet obviously condoning at the same time) my tendency towards dangerous cooking, got me a kitchen blow torch for Christmas. I don't think I have ever owned such a fun toy.

I have often wondered why it is that women do so much of the cooking, since men tend to do it better (no offense to the many good women cooks out there, but on the whole men tend to be all around better in the kitchen). Part of it is that the tools of cooking have "overgrown boy" written all over them: very sharp knives, food processors, flames, inflammable liquids, mallets, chisels, cleavers, etc. Let's face it: a proper kitchen is like a demented laboratory. All it needs is a Jacob's Ladder and a Van de Graf Generator and it would be perfect. Some of us even use saws and blowtorches. This is the stuff of sixth grade mad science experiments.

Anyway, expect some recipes featuring a variety of singed and flamed ingredients. Whooopee! Call me Vulcan!

In Sacramento until Saturday...

By the way, for our friends who are trying to reach us, we have decided to linger in Sacramento until Saturday. Since our voice mail does not seem to be working, if you need to find us, call us here.

Christmas Dinner...

There have been questions about the exact nature of our Christmas dinner. We had 18 guests this year, down from 23 or so last year. We do service a la rousse, as opposed to service a la francaise, as wine pairings work much better when the courses come in order.

I omitted the mushroom quesadillas and the queso manchego, changed the agnelotti to lasagna, and changed a couple of the desserts (someone brought yummy homemade marshamllows coated in shaved coconut, so those where on there, and my breakfast panettone was so good I bumped the panforte for it (it had better have been good, since I did not get back from midnight mass until 2:30, and had to get the dough into the molds for second rise, keeping me up til 3). As for the specific cheeses I served: reggiano parmiggiana, pecorino con tartufi (da Pienza), Purple Haze, Explorateur, fontina val d'aosta.

As for the requested information about a Beef Wellington-centered menu, I will need to do some research and will hopefully come up with something tonight. I can guarantee that it will feature Brussels sprouts. Love them brussels sprouts!

Merry Christmas to All!

This will probably be my last post until the 26th. The cooking has begun. Geese will be roasted, cookies baked, soup simmered, traditional Latin midnight mass attended, friends and relatives fed, gifts exchanged. You know the drill. I will probably check emails at EKeilholtz [at or about] aol [period] com a few times, so if you have any dire cooking questions feel free to email me. If you include your phone number, I will TRY my best to call you with advice. On the 25th itself, it might be dicey, but if you really have an emergency, you can call me in Sacramento (my parents are listed, and you can imagine that there are not too many Keilholtzes in the book). Just try to call before 5pm, as I will be in the throes of kitchen chaos by then.

Anyway, for your amusement and inspiration, here is my menu:

Before sitting at the table:
1. Barbecued Beef Brisket in the Texafornian Style
2. Home cured olives
3. Spuma di tonno
4. Queso manchego con membrillo
5. Mushroom quesodillas with tomatillo chipotle salsa
6. Latkes with apple sauce

At table:
1. Roasted Salsify and Jerusalem Artichoke soup
2. Agnelotti with goat cheese and wild mushrooms
3. Palate cleanser of blood orange granita with Sambucca
4. Roasted goose with fennel
5. Fennel braised in milk and gratineed
6. Warm brussels sprout salad with goose pancetta and hazelnuts
7. Roasted beets
8. Grilled cardoni

Then, the thirteen desserts:

1. Biscotti
2. Holly Cookies
3. Chocolate peanut clusters
4. Candied chestnuts
5. Fudge
6. reggiano parmeggiana
7. a semi-soft cheese
8. a soft cheese
9. a Tuscan pecorino
10. a goat cheese
11. Panforte
12. Salame al cioccolato
13. Homemade torrone

When we feast we feast, and I can think of no better occasion than the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior.

Merry Christmas!

Caffe Warnings

I like a good coffeehouse, especially one that is open on the late side, since I am a night owl and there are many nights when I am in Sacramento without Melanie and like a good spot to drink a proper espresso and to read. Very few bars in America fit the bill. They are too noisy, have too many televisions, and tend to frown on someone who drinks an espresso and (maybe) a glass of grappa. They prefer someone who is drinking higher markup stuff, and plenty of it. Reading in most bars is impossible, and that is what I like to do when I have a night alone.

So I find a good coffeehouse, and a backup and stick to them. Right now, in Sacramento, there are four good coffeehouses, an embarrassment of riches unheard of when I grew up here. We would have one that would be perfect, but then the weather would turn sour, the economy would soften, and they would notice that their last hour was the least profitable. So they would close an hour earlier...and would notice that their last hour was the least profitable and would close another hour earlier. Eventually they would go out of business.

The lesson that these caffes failed to learn was that the last hour is not the hour to pay attention to. It will be slow, because people think "shall we go to Caffe Such and Such? No, they close in fourty minutes. Let's go to Caffe Ventiquattro instead." So a caffe sacrifices the last hour to make sure that people come during the penultimate hour of operations. Chances are they will buy something during the last hour as well.

So when a caffe closes that hour earlier, people who go out for coffee at ten will go somewhere else. Maybe they will not even stay for more than an hour, but they know that they will not feel rushed.

Fortunately a critical mass has been achieved in downtown Sacramento that seems to be able to sustain itself, and there doesn't seem to be any danger of the good caffes making this fatal move. However, the caffe that some of the North Beach Lectura Dantis go to after our meetings is closing early because business has been slow. Now, I can understand the temptation, because the owner thinks, "I am paying these guys and the utilities, and that last hour stinks." But I also know that we have gone to another caffe more times in the last month than ever before.

So, if any of my readers are in the coffeehouse business, heed this warning!

The Christmas Meme

Hot Chocolate or apple cider? Hot chocolate.

Turkey or Ham? Roasted goose with fennel.

Do you get a Fake or Real you cut it yourself Christmas tree? Real, although I want one of the spun aluminum ones from Charlie Brown. As soon as I have access to a good metal lathe, watch out!

Decorations on the outside of your house? No, but we decorate my parents' house, where we spend the week of Christmas.

Snowball fights or sledding? Snowball fights!

Do you enjoy going downtown shopping? No. Unless we are talking books, tools, art supplies, food or records, I hate shopping.

Favorite Christmas song? Stille Nacht!

How do you feel about Christmas movies? Bad Santa is the best, although Brazil will do in a pinch.

When is it too early to start listening to Christmas music? Before Gaudete Sunday.

Stockings before or after presents? Before.

Carolers, do you or do you not watch and listen to them? Yes.

Go to someone else's house or they come to you? We go to my parents' house.

Do you read the Christmas Story? No.

What do you do after presents and dinner? Drink and converse!

What is your favorite holiday smell? Panforte.

Ice skating or walking around the mall? Walking around San Francisco, looking at the lights.

Do you open a present or presents on Christmas Eve, or wait until Christmas day? Christmas Morning.

Favorite Christmas memory? All of them.

Favorite part about winter? Spring. Or, at least the consolation of rich, dark, braised beef.

Ever been kissed under mistletoe? Yes.

Rosted Salsify and Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

This is a soup I invented a couple of weeks ago. I tried it out at a friend's soup fest, and it worked, so it has earned a place on my Christmas menu.

Salsify might be hard to find, but it is a vegetable well worth knowing. When it is peeled and parboiled in acidulated water (in a pot you don't care about since it leaves a gluey stuff that is hard to remove), it can be sliced and sauteed in butter with some garlic. It has a subtle, oyster-like flavor. For this soup I roasted it, peel on, and scraped the pulp into the soup pot.

As for proportions, use your own judgement. I did not measure the amount of stock, nor did I count the number or weight of the Jerusalem artichokes, although I know I started with a kilo of salsify (actually black salsify, which is all I can get) and roughly the same amount of Jerusalem artichokes. I probably used about two quarts of chicken stock.

Roast the salsify on parchment on a baking sheet at around 375 for about 30 minutes, or until they are soft. Meanwhile peel your Jerusalem artichokes and throw them in the pot of stock. Add a peeled potato (or two or three if they are small). Scrape the insides of the salsify into the pot. Simmer for 40 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft. Puree and return to the pot. Add a splash of white wine vinegar, and salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste. Add about half a cup of heavy cream. A cup will do if you want it richer. Adjust for acidity and salt.

Now, you can serve it as is, although you might find the color kind of greenish drab. I topped each bowl with a slice of parboiled heart of cardoni, and for Christmas I will drizzle each bowl with a red bell pepper coulis (slightly char peppers. Seed and throw in blender with some olive oil and salt. Strain) and thyme oil (thyme and EVOO in a blender). Bring up to heat and serve with rounds of sweet baguette that have been brushed with EVOO and toasted.

Wow! They are gone!

I guess I have Ann to thank, as I came here expecting to continue my battle against pings, only to find all of them blissfully executed.

Thanks!

Global Warming

I have been very worried about global warming these days.

Up until Thanksgiving, everything seemed right on target. Indian summer into the end of November?!? Unheard of! Wonderful! Bring it on!

Then came Thanksgiving and it just got cold, and, with a few exceptions, has been too cold. Not that we have had any frost or anything horrid like that, but I have to wear long sleeves and a jacket when I go out at night, and that makes me grumpy. If I wanted to live in inhospitable nasty climates, I would have moved to, well, anywhere East of Berkeley.

So, what's the deal? We get just enough global warming to take the glaciers out of the midwest, to kill off the mastadon (and to think of all the recipes I could have come up with for it), endanger the California Condor, and then it stops. Bang. Just as I was getting used to the ideas of year round Hawaiian shirts.

At this rate, we'll probably end up with an ice age next year.

Bah. Humbug.

Oh yeah, I am back to blogging, much to your delight and amusement. All of my work is done, for a week at least, so all of my verbal slobber gets directed at the blog. Lucky you. Recipes! Rants! Bigoted screeds! Nasty, backstabbing attacks on kindly men of goodwill! All in the name of amalgamating power! Power! Power! Power! I am drunk with Power!

HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH.

Blog Maintenance

I have several things I want to write about, but I have been spending far too much time (two hours last night, forty-five minutes today) deleting spam Trackback pings. I think that trackback pings may have sounded niftier when they were created, and I find very little legitimate use for them.

As a result, I have changed my preferences, so that new entries will not have pings enabled. Gradually I will get them turned off on all of the archives, but it has to be done one at a time, so it will take a long time to get there. I am also working backwards on pings, and have gotten as far as mid-day Monday. That was what I did for two hours, and I am simply not willing to put that much time into blog administrivia. So, if you like pings, sorry, but I have neither the time nor inclination to have to spend an hour a day deleting spam pings, so I am taking the Draconian approach.