211 replies to this topic

[_john]

if you pour boiling water from a kettle over the eggs and then shock them in ice water it is easier to separate them. then place them on a tamis and press them through to separate them into single eggs. store them in sea water.

[MelissaH]

Yeah I've ridden a track bike for 9 years, just got the road bike 2 years ago. I use the track bike if the grocery ride is within 10 miles. Aside from heavy grocery trips it's my "daily driver".

I'm just glad to know I'm not the only fixie rider out there!

MelissaH

[Shelby]

Shelby, they were flopping around in the sink when he brought them

Of course sucking the heads of the grilled batch was the best thing ever.

Sorry if this blog is a little random and all over the place but I'm juggling work along with it.

Sure. Rub it in.

[Shelby]

Heidi - My friend chris had mentioned that some of them were packed with roe but wasn't sure what he would do with it. We had the discussion while we were cooking. What applications would you use shrimp roe for, never worked with it. Very curious!

I was equally perplexed and without internet access at the time. I just went ahead and steamed them but the roe got lost and mushy. Perhaps a raw prep with the roe would have been better to preserve the itty bitty brilliant almost red eggs. They appeared to be mounded with abandon on the underside of each prawn. Maybe someone with experience can clue us in.

I did a pasta dish with the shrimp and I just put all of that beautiful roe on top --without cooking it. It was SO good.

I found a picture

Edited by Shelby, 23 September 2011 - 08:04 AM.

[judiu]

Heidi - My friend chris had mentioned that some of them were packed with roe but wasn't sure what he would do with it. We had the discussion while we were cooking. What applications would you use shrimp roe for, never worked with it. Very curious!

I was equally perplexed and without internet access at the time. I just went ahead and steamed them but the roe got lost and mushy. Perhaps a raw prep with the roe would have been better to preserve the itty bitty brilliant almost red eggs. They appeared to be mounded with abandon on the underside of each prawn. Maybe someone with experience can clue us in.

I did a pasta dish with the shrimp and I just put all of that beautiful roe on top --without cooking it. It was SO good.

I found a picture

OH, MY!

[ScottyBoy]

Some shots of Market Hall in Berkeley. Inside is a wine shop, pasta shop and prepared foods counter, cheese shop and my favorite, Marin Sun Farms. I buy a good deal of their product, worked out a deal to get 40% if I mention them durring my dinners.

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[KatieLoeb]

Scott:

Can I be your friend? Pretty please!

Love the "casual" dinners you make with friends. Are they other culinary professionals or just really ambitious home cooks?

[ScottyBoy]

My closer friends are all big foodies and accomplished home cooks. They like that I "test" out dishes and things on them

[ScottyBoy]

Zachary's pizza.

My favorite pizza in the whole wide world! They don't say deep dish, they call it "stuffed", I think it is out of respect for the original deep dish out there in the east.

This one is pepperoni, spinach and mushroom. Key for me personally I think is the sauce, hearty chunks of tomato with a heavy hand of fresh oregano.

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Edited by ScottyBoy, 23 September 2011 - 04:55 PM.

[Katie Meadow]

Greetings from Oakland, Scotty. I was away for a few days and have now caught up to your blog. Glad it's you and not me, but so fun to see pix of my neighborhood. Sounds like you prefer Monterey Market to Berkeley Bowl for major shopping. I like it too, but it's a bit farther to go (and I shop on four wheels, not two!) For seafood I agree, there's no place like Tokyo Market; the only fish counter I know that will clean fresh sardines for me without making me feel like a crank. Ah, Market Hall and the Pasta Shop. Spoiled we are. When I lived in that neighborhood (probably before you were born) Market Hall was just a weedy empty lot. Most of the year my neighbor was allowed to park his overflow Cortinas there. In Nov and Dec it was a Christmas tree lot. Now you can't turn around in that space without knocking over a hunk of $30 lb cheese. Good, though! No wonder my daughter had to work her way through college.

I've never been to Brown Sugar Kitchen, but it sounds like fun. What do you like there besides the chicken and waffles? I'm not a chicken and waffles kind of gal, but any place with shrimp 'n' grits works for me. I took a look at their menu. Interesting. The menu changes somewhat day to day and on the weekends; certain days are grits days, and others not.

Lovely blog, lovely food.

[ScottyBoy]

Ah, great to see another local commenting.

As for Brown Sugar, I've only ever ordered the chicken and waffles for the 3 times I'v been...

[ScottyBoy]

MY Commis dinner tonight. First and still the only Michelin Star in Oakland.

Cute little amuse similar to the "rock" they did at Mugaritz. But this one tastes just like a Cheez-it. (Delicious)
Bread and butter made in house.
Soft egg yolk, onion cream, dates, oats and chives. (signature main amuse, very good)
Dry farmed tomatoes, tomato ice, fresh cheese and pickled shallots. (creamy cheese, rich salted tomato and the cold shaved tomato ice, awesome)
Poached gulf shrimp, diakon, carrot juice and purslane. (The sweet elements of shrimp, basil and carrot played off the diakon and purslane, great)
Petrale sole, fennel bulb and pollen, potato and verbena cream. (Perfectly warmed sole from Fort Brag and the anise scents, tastes and the verbena in the cream. Very balanced and very good)
Lamb loin and tender, sunchokes, chantrelles, grass and pistachio (Perfectly cooked lamb, earthy, rich, grassy...yum)
Melon and raspberry chiffon, white corn ice cream (Perfect ice cream, compressed water melon and perfect raspberries....it was great.)
Tangerine gelee
The Txakoli I had durring the meal. I prefer to just sip on a nice palette cleansing wine while I eat.

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[percyn]

Very nice meal Scotty! Looks like that lamb was cooked Sous Vide. If so, how long and at what temp was it cooked?

The conceptualization of dishes reminds me of what I have eaten at StudioKitchen - http://studiokitchen.com/blog/

[nickrey]

Great food, lovely produce. Looking forward to seeing some more of your food, which is every bit as good as what you have shown us from others.

[annabelle]

I'm gonna cry, Scotty. I grew up in Santa Barbara and lived in SF for a long time, too. I'm hating on Oklahoma while I'm reading this. Thank you for all of the beautiful pictures and the food!

[ScottyBoy]

Percyn- They actually take a more traditional route with cooking that piece of lamb. The whole bone in saddle is roasted, you can watch them carve them throughout service. It was perfectly cooked and I can really appreciate the skill it takes to do that. I have followed Studio Kitchen and really hope to experience it some time!

Thanks again all!

[percyn]

Cooking the whole bone in saddle to that perfection is amazing.

Tell you what, if you ever find yourself in the area during a studiokitchen meal, its on me.

[Prawncrackers]

When I first saw those photos of your meal at Commis I thought wow that really reminds me of L'Enclume here in the UK. Very similar techniques creating beautiful food using wonderful seasonal ingredients.

Loving your blog Scotty, food porn galore!

[ScottyBoy]

Percyn - this is an offer I might have to take you up on haha!

Prawn - L'Enclume looks amazing! That's the kind of cuisine I strive to make. Since leaving the line I have to really stay up to date with new styles and techniques through books, blogs and going out to eat more...

Looks like I've got the green light to extend my blog into Tuesday! Fitting this into days when I have all day dedicated to a dinner has been challenging. I have a good amount of back logged stuff I'm going to post and some new dishes of the stuff I've been working on. First off Berkeley bowl.

I've been in a Berkeley Bowl since I was very young. They have since moved out of the old location and opened 2 new ones. I will try to make it to the brand new one tomorrow, it's beautiful! I have posted where I get my sea food (Tokyo Fish) and my meats (Golden Gate Meat Co. and Marin Sun Farms) so i wanted to highlight the giant produce section here.

Between here and Monterey Market I don't visit any farmer's markets. The same exact farms supply to these stores on a daily basis so you can pick up the same seasonal produce all day, every day!

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Edited by ScottyBoy, 25 September 2011 - 10:45 AM.

[CKatCook]

I just now caught up on your blog...DAMN...that grocery store rocks! I am pea green with envy you get to go there! I love all kinds of grocery stores and take every opportunity to stop into them that I can.

Beautiful food on this blog!!

[ScottyBoy]

Oh boy, thunder storms in the East Bay tomorrow, it's going to be a fun time shopping on the bicycle

Inspired by a dish I had at Commis on Friday. This is why I need to go out to eat "my kind of food" a little more often.

Diver scallops, puree of fresh english peas and parsnip, I frothed up some fresh juiced carrots with a little olive oil, some frisse, sea beans, pea shoots and then some pickled mustard seeds for people to run into for a little mustard pop.

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[Country]

ScottyBoy - How do you get such a deep browning on your scallops without drying them out? All your scallops on this thread have a nice browning.

[ScottyBoy]

Very hot cast iron, plenty of oil, only one side browned, flipped and quickly basted. Total cooking time should be 90 seconds for scallops this size. I have cooked so many scallops on the line I just have it down. Pan = hot hot hot

[Country]

Very hot cast iron, plenty of oil, only one side browned, flipped and quickly basted. Total cooking time should be 90 seconds for scallops this size. I have cooked so many scallops on the line I just have it down. Pan = hot hot hot

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

[ScottyBoy]

A little unconventional but when I make chicken stock I pretty much just make chicken water... I just like to have a very basic meaty brown liquid I can work with and add vegetables and aromatics if I think it needs it and easily reduces to a pure chicken jus. I use it straight when I make that mushroom soup. Just a couple pounds of chicken wings in a 400 degree convection oven for an hour to get as much brown on them as you can without scorching, no oil just the wings, reglazing the pan of course. Then into the pot with water for 4 hours, skimming along the way.

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Edited by ScottyBoy, 25 September 2011 - 03:12 PM.

[ScottyBoy]

Beautiful mushrooms. Do you wash them or just wipe them to get them clean? I know there are different schools of thoughts on that topic. I usually start by wiping them, but give up after 5 minutes and just rinse them instead...

Sorry that I've missed a couple people's questions. The soup shrooms are just wiped clean. If I was presenting on a plate whole instead of pureed I would put more time into cleaning and trimming.

[Shelby]

A little unconventional but when I make chicken stock I pretty much just make chicken water... I just like to have a very basic meaty brown liquid I can work with and add vegetables and aromatics if I think it needs it and easily reduces to a pure chicken jus. I use it straight when I make that mushroom soup. Just a couple pounds of chicken wings in a 400 degree convection oven for an hour to get as much brown on them as you can without scorching, no oil just the wings, reglazing the pan of course. Then into the pot with water for 4 hours, skimming along the way.

Interesting way of making stock.

You're the chef, so, don't take my question like I'm "questioning" you lol, but around here, wings are really expensive. Do you save the wings from the whole chickens that you use? What do you do with the wing meat that falls off the bone?

[djyee100]

I've been in a Berkeley Bowl since I was very young. They have since moved out of the old location and opened 2 new ones. I will try to make it to the brand new one tomorrow, it's beautiful!

Pix of my favorite supermarket. I am so pleased. Yes, I have shopped at the Bowl a long time too, even during its "bowling alley" days. For people who wonder what that means, the "old location" that ScottyBoy mentioned was the original location for this store (now closed), and it was a revamped bowling alley. The very first Berkeley Bowl was about pins, not food. When the supermarket owners bought the place, they didn't bother changing the name.

I like the new store, Berkeley Bowl West, too.

[ScottyBoy]

Shelby - Yes I keep the wings from butchering but also buy wings. Around here they aren't that expensive (a lot of great local chicken farms), of course more than bones or backs but what I'm looking for is skin surface area to get as much of that fried brown flavor as I can. I was wondering what people would think of it. Maybe try it out sometime. Since there is so much fat that renders from the skin there's no need to oil, the fond that is produced is awesome!

djyee100 - I'm really stoked I can showcase all the local spots that we have frequented. I just remember getting pushed around in a shopping cart at the original Bowl. I was really young so I just remember it being dark and musky with weeeeird fruits and vegetables

Edited by ScottyBoy, 25 September 2011 - 10:32 PM.

[rarerollingobject]

That's the way I make stock too (with wings, I do add vegetables). I find the wings give so much more of that wonderful gelatinousness (collagen? whatever) that makes a good chicken stock great, though I do hack through the wing bones with my cleaver to expose more of the bone. It gives better texture and body to the stock than using just carcasses does. In fact, I think I get better stock from all wings than from when I've used a whole chicken, including meat.

Great blog, Scottyboy, really enjoying seeing your food world.

Edited by rarerollingobject, 25 September 2011 - 10:29 PM.