vengroff

Specialty's is a San Francisco based chain with a couple of shops in downtown Seattle. I know they brew Intelligentsia, but I have no idea if they sell the beans.

I did the casatiello yesterday and I have to say the recipe produced an outstanding result. It began with a briochelike dough, shown mixing here. That was the sponge, eggs, flour, sugar, and salt. The next addition was butter. Unfortunately, because I was making a double recipe, my little 5qt kitchenaid was overwhelmed and I had to fall back on hand mixing to properly incorportate all that butter. Once this was done and the dough was good and smooth it was time to fold in the meat, in my case Armandino Batali's signature Salumi salami, which had been diced and quickly sauteed. That was followed by aged imported provalone from DeLaurenti at Pike Place market. The cheese had been aged to the point that natural fissures had begun to appear and it was easy to shred into appropriately sized pieces by hand. But it was still soft and creamy enough to melt exquisitely, as we will see a bit later on. I chose to proof and bake the bread in 7" paper panettone molds sprayed with a light coating of olive oil. It took a total of an hour for the center of the bread to fully bake. Here they are piping hot from the oven. Here's one of the two after it cooled a bit and I removed the paper. Just as the book said, the cheese had bubbled through a few thin spots on the surface. But otherwise, a nice crisp golden brown crust had developed all the way around the loaf. I was very happy with the development of the crumb. The sweet richness of the bread was balanced by the salty nuggets of salami, each with just a hint of the ginger that Armandino adds to the recipe. Finally, the cheese, which melted during baking, left some nice voids in the crumb, lined with cheesy goodness. If you haven't tried this recipe yet, I recommend that you give it a shot. A few of my friends initially balked at the idea of "meat bread," as they called it, but once they tasted it they were convinced. I think it would probably also make great toast to pair with some scrambled eggs.

Living in Seattle my friend you should have access to untold amounts of the freshest seafood still alive and kicking.... Sure some of the more exotic items may elude you but, depending on where you live I suppose, somebody somewhere has to have at least a small selection of hyper-fresh fish. Small selection is the key. If I want salmon, halibut, and dungeness crab, it's easy to get great stuff in season. If I want rouget or loup de mer, forget it, any time of year. A fair bit of product in between is available at the retail level, but it just isn't top quality. Actually, I prefer Pure Foods Fish just around the corner from them. Better fish, albeit less entertainment value.

Volterra in Ballard is now open. Indeed it has been for three whole days now, as our server explained. We were planning to hit Carta de Oaxaca down the block, but discovered it was closed on Sundays and went to Volterra instead, not knowing anything about what it was. It was kind of a crapshoot, since the place looked like it might be good from the window, but there was no menu posted for passersby to examine. I think there is some definite promise here, but the third day is far too early to judge. I did appreciate seeing wild boar on the menu, as it is one of my favorite meats. They have also jumped on the Salumi bandwagon for their cured meat needs, which seems like the obvious choice. Warm wild mushroom salad was loaded with warm fungal goodness, but perhaps didn't need quite so many greens. Asparagus was flavorful and al dente. For dessert the poached pear was a favorite. We thought they went far beyond the call of duty in giving us a free bottle of wine to make up for a service problem that I would think is quite common at this stage. They clearly want to be taken seriously and treat their customers right. That gesture alone probably guaranteed that I will make the effort to return. Once they've had a chance to settle in, I'll have more to say.

For quite some time I bought into the idea that I could get ahold of most anything that any professional kitchen could, so quality of ingredients would never be an issue in my attempts to recreate the kind of meals served at top restaurants. Recently, however, a chef friend of mine offered me a sample of some of the seafood he gets at his restaurant. I prepared it simply at home, with little more than salt, pepper, and evoo. It was, by a wide margin, the best seafood meal I have ever cooked at home. I've spent top dollar many times and never gotten ingredients as fresh and flavorful. Granted, my friend's skill in the kitchen would have made it even better, but there is now no question in my mind that he can get better ingredients than I can ever hope to.

Has anyone tried the casatiello? I'm planning to pick up some salami at Salumi in Seattle and give it a shot next week. What could possibly be better than a bread that is it's own sandwich?

If you do go to Elliot's, here's the best way to enjoy it: 1. Sit at the bar. 2. Chat up the bartender about the day's selection of oysters. There will be 10-20 varieties. 3. Order a dozen of whichever suits your taste, creamy, briney, giant, or tiny, and enjoy with a glass of chardonnay or stout. 4. Go to step 2. If you absolutely must have something other than oysters, order a crab or crab cocktail. The rest of the menu is mostly the same seafood standards you can find all over town. The oyster selection is what makes Elliot's special.

I would head to de Laurenti. In the absence of Bayonne ham, you could almost certainly get away with prosciutto or culatello from Salumi. Keller and Cerciello stopped in at Salumi when they were in town and I heard they liked what they saw and tasted. I'm not sure the precise type of garlic sausage you are looking for, but I would give Uli's a call and see if they have what you need.

This week I did more pain a l'ancienne and another apple wheat boule. I think I slightly overhydrated the ancienne. It's was more challenging to work with than in the past.

Dust it with flour.

Guanciale is the best use I've ever seen them put to. Salumi makes it regularly.

It's all relative, I suppose. I have yet to go anywhere in Seattle where I didn't feel safe. But perhaps that because I moved here from a good neighborhood in DC, where good meant the nearest crack house was more than two blocks away.

Under the heading, "Sexy, Sexy, Sexy! Crush Makes You Want It," Bethany Jean Clement gave Crush quite the glowing review in this week's Stranger. The actual review is sandwiched between an overview of her entourage's social life and a sighting of Joseba Jimenez de Jimenez from down the street at Harvest Vine. But if you look hard you can find it. It's in the print version, but not online yet.

Just out of curiosity, how many people were involved in the plating of the savory courses for those same 400 guests?

I've been hearing rumors the Capitol Hill Farmers Market may relocate to Madison Valley in the near future. Anyone know any details?

I think Ethan may not technically be eligible yet. You have to have been working in a specific reqion for the last three years straight to qualify. Union has only been here for a year and a half. I think before that Ethan spent some time in Atlanta, so until he reaches three years from the time he came back he can't be nominated. If that's not the reason, then he was robbed.

The nominees were announced today: Scott Carsberg - Lampreia, Seattle Joseba Jimenez de Jimenez - Harvest Vine, Seattle Vitaly Paley - Paley's Place Bistro & Bar, Portland Holly Smith - Cafe Juanita, Kirkland John Sundstrom - Lark, Seattle Leslie Mackie of Macrina Bakery in Seattle was also nominated for the outstanding pastry chef award. Congratulations to all the nominees. Now let's hear the eGullet analysis....

Woohoo! Glad to see it's back. Thanks to everyone who worked on this.

I did a bunch of laminated doughs with Plugra for Easter. I bumped up the percentage of butter in the recipes I had so that there would still be enough moisture to generate good steam and thus seperation of the layers. Results were generally quite good. Here's are a couple of examples: I posted a bunch of pictures and descriptions over on an Easter thread in the Seattle forum. Full details here.

Who is he going up against? Mario would make sense; it would be the Seattle native who went east vs. the easterner who won the culinary heart of Seattle.

It's been a while since my last post on this topic, but I've been regularly visiting the ham, and rubbing it down with olive oil. It has begun to take on a deep mahogany color that is just beautiful. Yesterday, Dino showed us how to use a traditional horse bone tool he brought back from Italy to probe the meat. You push the sharp end into the meat and then pull it out and smell it to see how the curing process in going. It looks like we have a few months to go, but things are definitely moving forward. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera yesterday. I'll see if I can sneak in sometime soon and take some more photos. Armandino had some photos he brought back from Italy of a curing facility the size of two football fields where 300,000 hams cure for up to two years each. The entire operation is run by a staff of 18, who still hand-rub each and every ham in the traditional manner. I told him if the Mariners have another bad year he should consider taking over Safeco Field.

Depends a bit on the crowd and what they are looking for, but you might also want to consider Canlis. It's caters to many people's definition of fancy pants, and has a killer wine cellar.

Is this just a matter of putting in two stones, one on each rack, letting them come up to temperature and then sliding the pizza onto the stone on the lower rack? Or is there more to it than that? I have thought of trying this approach but I haven't yet because I only have one stone.

Thanks for the great summary, Really Nice. Don't forget the gougeres with the hors d'œuvres course. I love gougeres. I also thought it was really clever to start with them and end with the profiteroles. They were like matching bookends to the meal. I really enjoyed the rabbit terrine. Rarely has anything that shared a plate with Armandino's cured meats ever stood up to their quality, but this rabbit did. I think they nailed it on both the taste and the texture. Any coarser grind would have felt rustic, and smoother too refined for bistro dining. This managed to bring together a bit of both in one beautiful pink bacon-wrapped loaf. One of my fellow diners mentioned that he could really eat a lot of the rabbit. I would have to agree. If I had a loaf at home it would disappear quickly, whether I had guests or not. The soup was my second favorite course. It was so much lighter and fresher than its appearance suggested. It looked like split pea soup but had a grassy aroma and a light fluffy texture. Swirling in the creme fraice gave it just the tart little counterpoint it needed. Jeff Cerciello said he never decants soups, but he got a real kick out of seeing the whole meal served in more formal surroundings than normal. I agree the portions were large, especially the steak. Plus the fact that the first two courses were really three courses each made for a huge meal. I expected a lot, but not quite this much. Luckily I had only had a cup of soup for lunch so I was prepared. The only thing that really felt excessive to me was the egg on the asparagus. There was just so much of it, especially after the, admitedly very enjoyable, Russian eggs two courses earlier. I don't remember the specific wines so much as I remember the experience of enjoying each with the course it came with. The only exception was the first course, which presented a pretty unique challenge. Charcuiterie, oysters, and a zippy lentil salad are tough to match with one wine. I was happy to consume my glass with the oysters and let the other two dishes stand on their own. Ethan and his crew did a fantastic job putting the meal together. The execution was really flawless across the board. They closed down the kitchen the day before and spent the whole time gathering and prepping ingredients for the meal. One other interesting thing I found out was that most of this book tour consists of appearances at bookstores and interviews at local radio stations. There are only a couple of meals like this on the tour. We were lucky to have one of them here. Thanks to Thomas and Jeff for joining us, Judy and Kim for arranging the event, Hans for brilliantly managing his way through a difficult reservation and cancellation process, Michelle for taking such good care of us, and the entire Union team for a truly remarkable evening.

I originally had a table on the 29th and got squeezed out by the cancellation. But I subsequently got ahold of a single seat reservation at the bar. Since the person I was going with couldn't make the Monday date it worked out just fine. I'm not sure who else will be at the bar tonight, but I tend to meet interesting foodies there whenver I go. I'll post a report afterwards.