The Cured Ham

2010 Leftovers and The Look Ahead to 2011

This seems to be a regular year-end post for me. There are always several restaurants that I don't fully review. Maybe it's a lack of attention at dinner, losing my notes, or simply sitting with someone at the table that is more important than the meal.

I kept a couple menus and always keep notes on where I eat, even the small spots. The following posts will come in rapid fire with a brief review, in some cases the full menu. When I'm out of documentation, I'll probably just run the list of restaurants in a single post by city.

I do have complete notes on my trip to Peru and have begun to input them online along with pictures. I may also comment on the hotel group I stayed with, Orient Express Hotels.

2011 has already started with a trip back and forth to New York, a renewal of Platinum Marriott Status, Premier Executive on United, and the typical beginning of the year planning for what towns to travel to. Work, work, work. But then again, "Money Never Sleeps"...

What's next for The Cured Ham? More travel, more food, more experiences. Wish me luck. But, in the end, it's simple pleasures like this picture that some up my day and my year. There still is nothing better than a perfect shot of espresso (5 times a day).

 

Drink, Boston

Great steak tartare, served cold and well seasoned with hints of spicy heat and some of the better brioche toasts points I've had in a while. Tasty caramelized bacon cashews bar snacks. But a very disappointing veal tongue reuben. The meat did not taste fresh, as if it were pre-cut and wrapped in clean film. This wasn't close to any reuben I've had in terms of quality or execution. The bar looked clean, the bartenders hustled like crazy, made good conversation and seemed to recognize several patrons by name. It seems cocktails are becoming generally better across the country these days. Don't know if I would go back for the food, but I'd be happy to have a drink. Besides, Sportello is upstairs, so why bother with Drink for Food?

Vino Cotto of Sonoma County

The wine grape harvest in Sonoma County is obviously a big event, but wine isn't the only thing that you can make with wine grapes. A Southern Italian speciality, although many wine regions in Italy make it for personal consumption. It's not that common here in the States, but many old Italian families have a stash in their freezer and each covet their stash as they would gold.

The Cured Ham has of course participated in the wine grape harvest and has made his own stash of vino cotto for a select group of friends and relatives. I reduced about 1/3 of the large pot into two 375lt bottles that you see in front of the large pot over the course of 4 hours. And yes, the house smells like evaporated grape juice for the better part of 2 days.

So how do you use this stuff? Add a tablespoon or two to rich braised dishes such as short ribs. It has the flavor of plums, figs, grapes, but with a more earthy quality in many cases. However, this earthy quality may be coming from the grapes I used, in this case Cabernet Sauvignon.

A classic Puglian use is to deep fry strands of a modified pizza a dough and drizzle this grape syrup over the top of each fried piece of sweetened dough.

Gleason Ranch Un-Smoked Bacon

Gleason Ranch Un-Smoked Bacon with no nitrates/nitrites vs. Ambrosio Market Pancetta, Florence, Italy 

 

What am I thinking? Italian pancetta is different in style than American bacon, I know, I don’t need a lecture. But the Gleason Ranch bacon survived a critical test, it stayed crunchy and had texture in my risotto. The added benefit of not being smoked brought back the flavor memory of cooking in my tiny kitchen in Florence over a year ago.

Something to consider when frying Gleason Ranch bacon, it doesn’t have the water content that store bought bacon has. It doesn’t shrink much at all and it doesn’t curl up in the cast iron skillet. The fat crisps up more like crackling with barely any resemblance to the whitish fat on commercial bacon. So watch your cooking time and watch the color as it cooks. The lack of water, thickness and meat to fat ration all effect the outcome

I chopped and fried the bacon in a small pan, the same pan I added my rice to. I decided on a more heavily wine based ‘stock’ than normal and chose a local Veritas Ridge sparkling wine as my base adding roughly 2 cups sparkling wine to 1 cup water. I’m pleased to say both the bacon and the wine are two local products. No pepper and only a dash of sea salt. Yes, I kept all of the fat from the rendered bacon in the pan for cooking. I finished my risotto with parmigiano reggiano and a dash of butter.

Rather than incorporate the chantrelles into my risotto, I decided to cook them separately in butter and parsley and circle the plate in decadence. This left a nice area to spoon my risotto into. I paired the meal with a Tandem Sangiovese 2004, as Sangiovese would have been appropriate in Florence.

The result was excellent (not arrogance, confidence). I’ve tried 100% wine based risottos before and don’t always care for the results. I wanted some acid in the base considering the amount of bacon, butter, and cheese incorporated into the dish.

Meal two with my Gleason Ranch bacon challenge was the American Classic, Bacon and Eggs. No need to explain anything here. Just look at the picture.

So where can you find Gleason Ranch products?

Oliver's Market (Santa Rosa & Cotati)
Planet Organics (Sonoma)
Valley Ford Market (Valley Ford)
Willowside Meats (Santa Rosa)
Bi-Rite Market (San Francisco)
Canyon Market (San Francisco)

Urban Farmer, Portland

If I'm on the road, then it must mean steak is on the menu at some point. Urban Farmer in Downtown Portland is a high-end steak house serving prime aged Oregon beef.

I started with a prime beef tartare ground to order with fennel and parmesan and a raw egg on top, served with a duo of garlic toast and chicharones. Unfortunately, the chicharones were not crispy; a bit of a let down. I like the idea of having fried pork rinds instead of bread, but they better be fresh, they weren't. The tartare was mouth filling and rich. The Parmesan rounded the flavor out. The beef was not lean and with a nearer to room temperature for serving. I think the fattiness, cheese, and temperature contributed to the full-palate texture and flavor. I would like to try this again without the cheese, simply because I want I high quality beef to stand on its own.

For my main and at both bartender's recommendation, a 21 oz Highland Oak, Oregon, grass-fed, bone in rib-eye ordered medium-rare and served with a side of (you guessed it) creamed spinach gratin (in a mini Staub iron pot). The steak was rested and not bleeding out when I cut into it. A good start. A well seasoned steak with no part needing salt.  Texture and flavor were good, as good as that steak at Carnevor in Milwaukee or Bourbon Steak in Scottsdale. Beef with flavor, not water and seasoning.

My creamed spinach covered in the pan with buttery bread crumbs. The spinach was well chopped, not overly creamy and best eaten with the seasoned bread crumbs. It was the butter in the bread that opened up the spinach. Having a Staub cast iron pan as the serving vessel was really neat, but the spinach and the pan could have been hotter. The spinach was ready to eat when it was served. If it were served in a flatter glass bowl, it probably would have been cold within 5 minutes of being presented.

Both bartenders that served me were professional, polite, and had lots of knowledge about the menu and their trade. I even sampled some Clear Creek Pine Needle fire-water. I'd forgotten how bad that stuff tastes. The wines I had that night I don't even remember, nothing special.

Eating grass fed Oregon prime beef doesn't come cheap. At $50 a steak or higher, you better enjoy beef and you better make a nice living. But for special occasions and the opportunity to eat one of America's finest products, Urban Farmer does justice to the steaks they serve. I'd come back if I was looking for a great steak in Portland.

Camellia Cellars and The Cured Ham make Cabernet!

It's harvest time in Sonoma County and The Cured Ham teamed up with Bruce Snyder of Camellia Cellars in Healdsburg to crush some Lencioni Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon today. We're talking hand-sorted and picked in small lots. Exciting stuff. The Cured Ham has been drinking Camellia Cellars for years and likes the winemaking style that Bruce presents with his wines. You can find Camellia Cellars wines at:

 http://www.camelliacellars.com/

Sous Vide Bacon?

Sous Vide Bacon...WTF?!

From Wikipedia: "Sous-vide (pronounced /suːˈviːd/), French for "under vacuum",[1] is a method of cooking that is intended to maintain the integrity of ingredients by heating them for an extended period at relatively low temperatures. Food is cooked for a long time, sometimes well over 24 hours. Unlike cooking in a slow cooker, sous-vide cooking uses airtight plastic bags placed in hot water well below boiling point (usually around 60 °C or 140 °F)."

The Cured Ham's definition of Bacon: A crispy and delicious combination of pork fat and meat from the belly area of the pig. Bacon can be served at breakfast, lunch or dinner. Bacon is good and good for you. There's always room for Bacon.

I've been eating lunch and dinner at One Market Restaurant in San Francisco for years. It's a staple for me and many colleagues for the Business Lunch. I'll continue to eat here.

However, one thing last week challenged my palate, Sous Vide Bacon! As part of the One Market Heirloom BLT, sous vide bacon acts as the base to a creative interpretation to an American classic. The heirlooms were varied and delicious, the greens were fresh, and the ring of bread was crisp. But the bacon was never intended to be crispy. Bacon when cooked under sous vide becomes gelatinous. The bacon tastes the way it's supposed to taste, but the texture is unfamiliar, think thin slices of bacon flavored Jello.

As someone who likes all things pork, I may have found an exception...Sous Vide Bacon. But I'm glad I tried it and it made for good conversation at lunch.

Pork Souvlaki at Kokkari

First off, I'd like to thank my Brother Two Eggs for joining me.

Kokkari has long been a favorite of mine and my brother's for years, both at the bar and in the main dining room. We may have eaten here 20 times over the years, maybe more. The lamb riblets are to die for. The fried smelts are my standard bearer for all other restaurant fried smelt dishes. Of course their moussaka is not to be missed, but only during lunch. Why? It's so much food you might want to have the remainder of the day to burn it off.

But I want to focus on one of their recent lunch specials, Pork Souvlaki-pita. The pork was being roasted on the spit for lunch that day and looked and smelled amazing. As the souvlaki pita was the special, it seemed the natural thing to order. The lamb and chicken souvlaki are regular menu items for lunch.

I almost take for granted that the pork would be cooked properly roasting on a spit for hours and it was. What stood out was the pita. Not a flimsy paper thin piece of dry bread, but a wonderfully fresh, thick and seasoned compliment to the pork. Inside the Wrap of Life was thinly sliced red union, tzatziki, and tomato. The pita was presented initially with a large ‘skewer’ of rosemary to hold the wrapped pita’s shape. The pita held its shape with each and every bite, even after I put it back on the plate. As will commonly happen with a variety of pedestrian street offerings of souvlaki pita, a foil wrap is the only thing keeping your lunch from making a mess of your clothes. Make no mistake, the souvlaki was moist from the pork and condiments and had a generous ooze from the bottom of the pita. I look forward to trying their lamb and chicken varieties.

And yes, we did have an order of the riblets to start.

Roni Sue Pig Candy

Pig Candy, also known as chocolate covered bacon. Crispy bacon dunked in chocolate. Shaherazade found this little item for me while I was out in New York. We stopped at the source, the Essex Street Market. The chocolates looked just like a chocolate covered walnut from See's Candy frankly. The taste, well sort of what you would expect, salty bacon and chocolate. Good? Sure. But if I had to choose between one of the these and a chocolate covered caramel with sea salt in it, I'll go for the caramel. I'll keep enjoying my bacon with eggs. But it was worth trying.

Tacos...The Series

I've wanted to features tacos since I first starting writing The Cured Ham. I think it was all that time driving up and down the Central Valley of California in late 2008 and early 2009 stopping at strip malls and gas station taco trucks eating wonderful Mexican food. Not glamourous places like Topolobampo, just a road side stand.

Luckily, I don't have to travel the way I used to. Living in Sonoma County offers some of the best and most varied cuisine in the world within 80 miles. I would include tacos in both "Best Foods Ever" and varied. Each taco shop, truck, and sit down restaurant offers their version of the taco and of course fillings and condiments with no two places alike.

I've concentrated much of my taco eating recently in Healdsburg, California. As I continue to explore Sonoma County, I've been making notes on where the taco trucks park, what backroads have a corner market, and of course, the recommendation of friends. I generally order 3 tacos, carnitas, pastor, and asada. On occasion I will only order two, carnitas and pastor. It really depends on whether or not I took a hike that day. Here's the list I've eated at so far:

• Taqueria Guadalajara
• El Farolito
• Taco Grande
• Guanajuato Taco Truck
• Agave Restaurant
• El Sombrero
• Los Mares

...And a random truck in Merced called Tacos Sinaloa. Why a random taco truck in Merced? I was driving back from Father's Day festivities in Fresno and made a stop at a truck I haven't been to before. So add one truck in Merced County.

Over the coming weeks, I'll be highlighting each experience as a single post. I will continue to seek out new taco trucks and new taquerias throughout Sonoma County. As usual, if I've missed something in Healdsburg or Geyserville for that matter, send me an email. Enjoy.