Ling

Hey everyone, I've been planning our trip over on www.portlandfood.org, but just wanted to let the Portland EGers know that we'll be at Apizza Scholls tomorrow night at 5pm in case anyone wants to join us for some pizza! Our itinerary is as follows...though plans may change: Thursday: Pok Pok's for lunch Sagahun/Cacao/Alma chocolates (yes, nothing like 3 chocolate shops after lunch!) Apizza Scholls for dinner Pix Friday: Ken's Artisan Bakery (breakfast) Pearl Bakery (breakfast #2) Andina (lunch) Blueplate (ice-cream?) Clarklewis (dinner) after dinner drinks...?? Saturday any (or all 3) of the following: Le Pigeon for brunch, Kenny and Zuke's, Superdogs dinner is the smoked prime rib at Podnah's So if we run into anyone, please feel free to say hi and share some food with us. We'll be at Pok Pok around 12:30pm tomorrow.

Tribute would go to Mario Batali, as I stole the chianti mustard idea from his cookbook. Oops, I made a mistake on the website--the sausage was the cotto from Salumi, not the cotecchino (although we have also served the cotecchino on a number of occasions.) We had a guest sommelier last night, and I think his knowledge added a lot to the evening! I had a great time drinking the extra bottle of wine he decided not to serve...

Hi Beanie, wish I could post a pic of the brownies, but my digital camera is broken. The brownies are a bit fragile because they're so moist. I couldn't imagine, for example, wrapping one and putting it in a lunchbox without it suffering...there is too little flour in this recipe to give it a lot of structure, I think. However, I always get perfectly clean, sharp edges when I slice with a good chef's knife. I let them cool down before I cut them, though. These aren't exactly brownies you can eat out of hand on a picnic--a fork and plate is probably necessary, since they're quite delicate. I should note that the 4.5 tbsp of flour and 6.5 tbsp of cocoa are rough estimates--I just spoon slightly less than 1/3 cup of flour, and slightly more than 1/3 cup cocoa. I've also used AP flour when I was out of cake flour and the brownies also turned out great. (ETA: Yes, I would describe the texture of these brownies as mousselike as well.)

You take absolutely breathtaking pictures. How were the apples in the miso-glazed apple dish cooked? Were they baked?

Hey Susan and Trishiad, glad to hear you liked the recipe! Here's the modified* Scharffen Berger brownie recipe that I like to use now in case you don't have the book. Melt 8 tbsp unsalted butter with 5 oz. chopped, high-quality bittersweet chocolate, and stir in 1/2 cup of sugar. Stir in 4 yolks off the heat. Pour mixture into bowl, add about 4.5 tbsp cake flour, 6.5 tbsp cocoa (I use Valrhona), 1 tsp baking powder, pinch of salt (and some cinnamon or espresso powder if you like) and stir. In another bowl, whip 4 egg whites. Gradually add 1/3 cup more sugar and whip til stiff peaks. Fold chocolate mixture into whites in thirds. Bake at 325 degrees for about 25 minutes. I prefer to see moist crumbs when a skewer is inserted, though the recipe says bake until the skewer comes out clean. (The recipe says 30-35 minutes but I prefer them a touch underbaked so they'll set up a little more as they cool and stay very moist.) I like to top these with ganache. You can also mix in 1/2 cup of nuts if you want in the batter. *The original recipe had 4 oz. of chopped chocolate, and equal parts (1/3 cup) of flour and cocoa, no salt, and a bit more sugar.

Some of my favourite cheap eats: Ezell's fried chicken, Pho Bac (on 7th in the ID), Baguette Box for their coconut-milk/fried tofu sandwich (with daikon slaw), pastries and quiche at Café Besalu, the cotto and porchetta at Salumi, and Porcella for some cured meats. I like the flank steak at Brasa for Happy Hour, and Union has an awesome Happy Hour as well so you can experience that restaurant for cheap ($8 a plate). The ID definitely has some cheap eats, but I've been to some of the more popular places mentioned in the thread and haven't enjoyed the food so much...I do like Green Leaf, though.

Oh, thanks! I actually haven't made that particular recipe in a long time. I have since modified another brownie recipe that I really like. It's very chocolate-y, moist, and melts in your mouth because it uses the meringue technique (whip whites separately, and fold). It uses both cocoa and bittersweet chocolate, and a bit of salt. Sometimes I add some espresso and/or cinnamon, and sometimes glaze them with ganache. ← Ooh, those sound good. Have you posted the recipe? ← No, but it's the "Cakey brownie" recipe in the Scharffen Berger Chocolate cookbook. I don't know why it's called that, but it's not a cakey brownie, at least not when I add an extra ounce of chopped chocolate. I also add a pinch of salt, 1 less tablespoon of flour, 1 extra tablespoon of cocoa, and sometimes espresso and cinnamon, and a ganache glaze. Be careful not to over-bake!

^You can PM Henry to find out his opinion...

Very cool! Can't wait for the next set of photos!

Oh, thanks! I actually haven't made that particular recipe in a long time. I have since modified another brownie recipe that I really like. It's very chocolate-y, moist, and melts in your mouth because it uses the meringue technique (whip whites separately, and fold). It uses both cocoa and bittersweet chocolate, and a bit of salt. Sometimes I add some espresso and/or cinnamon, and sometimes glaze them with ganache. I've tried a lot of the well-known recipes out there (like the Medrich cocoa brownie recipe) and have found them just OK in terms of chocolate flavour. The Katherine Hepburn recipe has many variations--the version in Recipe Gullet (also posted upthread) doesn't have nearly enough chocolate for me, so I've never made them, but the version in Dorie Greenspan's book is a good one.

Thanks for the helpful link, Traca! No time to do this before our pork feast this Sunday, but we might do this if we can find the space in our very tiny kitchen! I did buy good Chinese cured meats (lap cheurng, lap yook) in Vancouver this week to use for our Chinese meal on April 15th. Glad you enjoyed the evening, Phong! Seema and Dilip did all the work for the meal you ate, so we can't claim any credit. All I did was hang out in the kitchen and snag extra helpings of the coconut crab and mutton curry. Delicious!

No, we haven't started printing menus for guests, but that's a great idea! Pontormo: I can't wait for ramps, but since I don't know exactly which week I'll see them at the market (and because I plan all the menus weeks in advance), they'll just have to be something we try to incorporate into the menu the week I see them. Rocky--that's my pin yin you're reading, are there mistakes? I am rusty...I had to get Henry to repeat each dish like 5 times in Mandarin before I could try to pin it down...

Pontormo, I delete the menus from past events, but you're right, maybe we should keep an archive somewhere. Off the top of my head, the menu for the Eat Your Veggies! night was: -Caché cocktail, gruyere gougeres -truffled, soft scrambled duck eggs with creamed spinach -ricotta gnocchi with dried orange, raw milk Parmigiano Reggiano, and wild fennel pollen (<--that stuff was really expensive!) -English pea soup with wild mushroom pie -cardamom creme fraiche panna cotta and orange lace cookie I forget the wine pairings.

I've seen signs advertising ice-cream cakes at Cold Stone Creamery, but never had one (or any of their ice-cream for that matter) so can't personally recommend.

No, he only braised half the pork belly I told him to buy. Then he braised the rest and wrapped it in bacon for the Tavolata crew when we went in for the dinner we won. But next time, I'll insist on extra BWBs for the table, if they want it.

I love down home food. It's the stuff we cook for ourselves at home, mostly. We have a very casual Chinese meal scheduled for next month, also family style. I also can't wait for Southern Night II. There are so many dishes that I didn't get a chance to make. I used 2 oz. of red food coloring. for 5 layers. So there's a little over an ounce of food coloring in that 3-layer cake you see there. (The other 2 layers were for a smaller private event.) And it's just cream cheese frosting with a squeeze of lemon juice. John, we can't wait to cook for you in the near future, hopefully!

You know, I really wanted to serve two big pieces of bacon wrapped bacon instead of one, but Mr. Lo thought that it would be way too much food. I just put up another encore event with the same "Kill You" dishes and I think I'm going to give people the option of getting another piece if they so wish...though they better have room for everything else to come! The chocolate sauce may have been intense, but I think your plate was licked the cleanest... Thanks for the glowing review--your check is in the mail.

Ketchup. I don't know if it's cheaper to make at home, but it's dead easy and you can adjust the sugar to your taste. Heinz and Hunt's are way too sweet for me. I like making blackcurrant ketchup at home.

The greens were my favourite as well. I should've made more for Saturday's dinner. When we do Southern Night II, they'll be on the menu again.

^Stop revealing my secrets! (Well, the secret is fat and a really long cooking time.) The aforementioned greens...

I didn't have any time between cooking and plating to take any pictures of our past events, but here's the cocktail snack I made for the "Eat Your Veggies" dinner. gougeres

I find most of the items I've tried in this book a bit too sweet as well (I usually cut down 25% and yes, it is probably not *quite* as moist, but not really a huge deal considering I never keep baked goods for more than 12 hours), and always increase things like the peanuts in the Peanuttiest blondies.

double post, sorry (BTW, I've also heard good things about another vegetarian restaurant called Carmelita, but haven't been so can't personally recommend.)

techno foodie: If you're really interested in Chinese food, I'd suggest a day trip up to Richmond (B.C., Canada). It's about 2 hours away. I can PM you a list of restaurants that are heads and shoulders above anything you'll find in Seattle (no disrespect intended). Or make friends with people who make good Chinese food at home. I was very disappointed with Seven Stars Pepper when I went about two weeks ago.

I'm able to buy the best ingredients I can find, cook what I want, experiment with new recipes, and meet fabulous people who love food as much as I do. What's not to like? The truth is, we spend a huge amount of the donation money on ingredients (at least twice as much as a typical restaurant's 30%) because we 'save' on overhead and real servers. (Our servers are always friends who volunteer for a free meal/drinks.) That translates into what we hope are higher-quality meals that are competently cooked. I don't really have a fixed schedule to work on, so I can take as much time as I need to get things done the way I want them to be done. If I want to age confit for a week, or even three weeks, it's fine as long as we have space in the fridge. Our menus change each night and guests sign up for the one that appeals to them, so I'm never stuck making the same dishes (unless a private party books and wants a certain previously sold-out menu.) We also have access to restaurant equipment (like Pacojets, juicers) through the generosity of chef friends if we need. The feedback has been awesome. One diner on Sunday that the "Kill You" menu was the best meal he's eaten in the past year. I live for that stuff, as I am sure most real chefs do! The only downside is the hours of clean-up we have to do after each event!