Hacienda Guacamole

I always try to reproduce recipes that I fall in love with on our travels. The Hacienda pomegranate guacamole is one of them. In the recipe below, you will not see real pomegranate seeds. They are not readily available and when you find them, they are prohibitively expensive. You will also not see jicama. I think it may be available but I have not found any yet. What you will find is a molcajete granite (granite mortar and pestle) just like the one the Hacienda used. I have tried out the recipe using dried cranberries infused with pomegranate juice, and I have gotten rave reviews from my family guacamole experts.

Ingredients:
   2 ripe avocados
   1/4 cup minced green onions
   1 diced serrano chili
   1/4 cup dried cranberries infused with pomegranate juice
   1/4 cup peeled diced apple
   1/4 cup chopped pistachios
   1 Tablespoon chopped cilantro
   2 Tablespoons lime juice
   1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation:
   Place ingredients into the molcajete and mash ingredients with pestle
   until a coarse paste is formed. Serve with warm tortilla chips.

Note: I serve it in the mortar and pestle. You can buy one for $13.95 on Amazon,but it is very heavy, so I recommend having an Amazon Prime account.

One of the top 10 Romantic Restaurants in America

As usual in our travels, I have researched the best Restaurants in the city and made reservations to try it . This time it was Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona and the name of the restaurant is Café Monarch. The chef, Christian Lewkowicz believes in local sourcing and changes the menu daily based on what is good and available from local growers and ranchers. It was definitely romantic, and the food was very good, but not excellent. The roasted cauliflower soup was excellent as it was served with a dash of truffle oil and herb buttered crostini. The winter salad had all the right ingredients, including heirloom tomatoes, poached pear and cabernet goat cheese, but their was so little vinaigrette on the salad that the mix of flavors tasted too raw. The third course of porcini crusted tenderloin was cooked medium rare and blended well with the parsnip puree. The fourth course was, however a disappointment. None of the fancy ingredients, like the Kabocha squash or Pinot Noir glaze could hide the fact that the chicken was dry and not flavorful. The flourless chocolate cake was also not good. It was also dry, and chalky. We had the wine tasting to go with each course, and they were unmemorable. All in all, a 3 star but you need to make reservations 2 weeks in advance. Maybe the romantic setting and great service make up for some of the misses in food preparation.


 

Le Grand Cafe' Capucines

Our last meal in Paris was perhaps the most fun. It is very close to the Intercontinental Grand hotel where we stayed and very near the Paris opera house. The Grand Cafe' is at 4 Boulevard des Capucines right in the middle of the theater district. Sometimes it is the waiter makes all the difference in what becomes a memorable meal. The food was good too, but Maurice was (I am assigning him that name since we never got his real name) so entertaining and personable that he overshadowed the food itself. Maurice served our champagne and spilled a little on the table. He looked at me and said that I needed to put my finger in the bubbly and put it behind each ear like perfume. He said it would bring amazing good luck. He continued to entertain us like that for the entire time. As you can see we became real "buds" by the end of the meal. I will share the recipe for my veal chop, which was out of this world, but Buzz and I will always remember Maurice the most.

Veal Chop

Ingredients

2 veal chops
Olive oil spray
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 small shallot, minced
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 cup beef stock
1/4 cup grape tomatoes, sliced into 2 pieces
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Spray griddle pan with olive oil spray.
Heat over medium-high heat until pan is hot, but not smoking.
Sauté veal chops for about 90 seconds per side (to get those nice grill lines on both sides).
Place chops in an ovenproof dish and bake at 350° for about 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and let rest for about 5 minutes.
While chops are baking and resting, sauté shallot in the olive oil until golden.
Add mushrooms and sauté until they are brown.
Add wine, beef stock, and tomatoes to pan.
Boil down sauce until it has reduced by half.
Remove from heat and finish with 1 Tablespoon Smart Balance.
Pour over chops and serve.
Serves 2



 



Le Grand Vefour in Paris, a Dining Experience to Remember

When Buzz and I travel, we research the top restaurants in the city and make a reservation at the one we deem best by menu, ambience and on line ratings. Paris had more to choose from than any other city we have been to. We chose  Le Grand Vefour and we had an unforgettable meal. The restaurant was started in 1787 and the gold and blue decor is breathtaking. It has been a rendezvous location for political, literary and artistic society for over 200 years. I sat in a seat once occupied by Empress Josephine
no less. The appetizer was Ravioli de foie gras crème foisonne truffee. Your basic ravioli stuffed with truffles and finished with foie gras cream. It only gets more complicated when we got to the entrees. I have decided to share the fillet of lamb in the  garlic crust. It was served with green and yellow zucchini.

Ingredients:
4 lamb fillets about 2 inches thick
4 cloves of garlic mashed
2 Tablespoons of whole grain mustard
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
2 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons chopped rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
Salt and pepper fillets of lamb, aside
Mix mustard and crushed garlic to form a paste
Brush mustard mixture on both sides of each fillet
Combine Panko, olive oil, and rosemary in a small flat bowl
Roll each fillet in Panko mixture to coat well on both sides
Roast fillets on oiled sheet pan  in 425 degree oven for 12 minutes, turning once
Serve

 

 

Chez Paul Veal Stew

Veal stew is a classic French dish. I tried it our first night in Paris at a small bistro on the Place Dauphine. We arrived early( 6:45 for a 7PM reservation) and had to wait for the staff to finish their dinner and begin serving. Apparently they never heard of the early bird special so popular for seniors in the US. The dish was delicious. In your kitchen, you could use your crock pot. I favor slow cooking in a 325 degree oven. The smell in the kitchen is divine.

Ingredients:
3 pounds veal meat cut in 1 inch cubes
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 onion minced
2 cups dry white wine
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups tomato puree
2 cloves mashed garlic
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 pound of button mushrooms

Preparation:
Dry the veal in paper towels.
Heat the oil in a casserole dish
Brown the veal pieces in the heated oil
remove veal from casserole and set aside
Turn down the heat and then saute onions in the dish
Add the veal back to the dish, salt and pepper the meat and onions
Add the flour to the meat and onion mixture and brown the mixture for 2 minutes
Add the wine and stir, being sure to scrape up all the luscious juices in the casserole
Add tomato puree, thyme and mashed garlic
Bring the stew to a simmer, cover and place in 325 degree oven
Simmer in oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until meat is easily pierced by a fork
Add the mushrooms, bring to a simmer, and return to oven for another 15 minutes
Remove from oven and serve

High Tea at the Savoy in London

Before I go on with recipes from our trip to Paris, I would like to write about our High Tea at the Savoy hotel in London. I have become a real fan of afternoon tea both at home and in local tea shops or venues. So I was naturally anxious to try this experience in the place afternoon tea was invented. First you must understand how seriously the British take their tea time. We were almost unable to get a reservation for High Tea at the Savoy. The Atrium was packed every single day from 2:30 to 5:30PM. The first thing I noticed is champagne was used to whet the appetite before tea was served. I like this custom . After champagne you pick the kind of tea you want. I particularly like the Buckingham Palace black tea but you can choose from black teas to herb teas or green teas. After your pot of tea is delivered, scones with clotted cream(see my recipe for scones in a previous post). These were marvelous. They were warm and buttery without the addition of any condiment. Next comes tea sandwiches. These were not so good. The bread was like  a white Wonder Bread with the crust removed. They were filled pimento, cucumber, egg salad or chicken salad. They were cold and tasteless for the most part. Next came a wealth of different pastries with chocolate éclair being my favorite. Believe it or not, we were then offered two different types of cake. By this time we were already on a sugar high. All in all I was somewhat disappointed. If you live in the DC area, the best afternoon tea I have found is the one offered from 2 to 4 PM each Thursday at the Black Market Bistro in Garret Park .For a terrific atmosphere try the Tea on the Tiber in Ellicott City.

Don't Eat The Pigeons Near Trafalgar Square

From time to time I do evaluations of foodie trips I have taken or food related events I have attended. This time I am actually going to review and compare my recent dining experience in two very different cities; London and Paris. This is a trip my husband and I have been planning for quite sometime. I planned the trip around dining at a family run place, a mid level establishment and a gourmet restaurant considered one of the top ten restaurants in the city. To no ones surprise, I am sure, Paris wins hands down. Now to the quirky title of this particular blog. Since I am not a seafood eater, when my husband and I dine out, I usually eat a chicken dish. To my dismay, at both a pub and a top 10 restaurant in London, the closest I could come was pigeon. In both cases, it was served rare. It was awful. At the gourmet top ten restaurant ,it literally made me sick. Five Fields in Chelsea was where I had my second pigeon, and although the service was impeccable and the salad and desert was fine, I could not recommend spending $400 for the experience. The pub pigeon was actually some what better than the gourmet place. Of, course, our Hotel being right off of Trafalgar Square, we both joked about how few pigeons there were and whether the remaining ones were to be some ones dinner that night. In the next few blogs, I will talk about some of our other dining experiences.