Gastronomy Blog by Cathy Chaplin

09 Nov 2009

Outstanding in the Field – San Francisco

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Over two hundred food bloggers descended upon San Francisco this past weekend for the first ever Foodbuzz Blogger Festival. For two days straight, The Astronomer and I ate, drank, and socialized our little hearts out along with featured publishers from across the globe. Aside from the wonderful bloggers that we met and the crazy amounts of swag that we were gifted, one of the highlights of the festival was a unique farm-to-table dinner orchestrated by Outstanding in the Field.

Outstanding in the Field is a roving dinner program that sources ingredients locally and celebrates farmers and food artisans. Their feasts are usually held on a picturesque farm during the summer months and feature long tables where well-dressed diners are seated side-by-side.

Since the closest farms to San Francisco are well over fifty miles away, our dinner was held at the next best place, the Greenleaf Produce Warehouse. Chef Dennis Lee of Namu spearheaded the multi-course affair, while winemaker Randall Grahm of Boony Doon provided the libations.

The entire meal was prepared in a makeshift kitchen near the front entrance of the warehouse. This smiley cook was grilling up squid upon our arrival.

Dozens of tables draped in white linens zigzagged in between the warehouse’s produce-lined shelves, transforming the industrial space into a more elegant one. Inspiring quotes by culinary greats lined the walls.

In the center of the room was a colorful display of the season’s bounty, including carrots, Brussels sprouts, Buddha’s hand, persimmons, and pears. Many of these items would later appear in our meal.

Before sitting down to dinner, we mixed, mingled, and munched on ahi tonnato on pain de mie with gochugaru (hot pepper flakes) and parsley. The small amuses were paired with a 2008 Ca’ del Solo Albarino.

Shrimp chips dusted in a spicy, MSG-laced seasoning replaced traditional bread service. My table mate Sandy, also known as The Foodhoe, couldn’t keep her paws away from this basket of addicting crunch.

We were also served a selection of puckery pickled vegetables to start. The broccoli, kimchee, and yellow beans were three of my favorites.

One of simplest and most satisfying dishes of the evening was the mushroom dashi soup with maitake, shimeji, and enoki mushrooms. I loved how the ratio of broth to fungi was seriously skewed, causing the chunky mushrooms to poke above the broth.

With the exception of the mushroom dashi soup, every course was served family style. A vibrantly colored platter of udon noodles topped with grilled Monterey calamari arrived after the soup. The locally-sourced squid wasn’t especially tender (I’ve been spoiled by the squid in Phu Quoc), but its smoky and fresh flavor was definitely to my liking. In fact, after everyone was served, I asked for the platter to be passed back to me in order to fish up the uneaten rings of squid.

The noodles had excellent texture, as did the accouterments—cucumber, kaiware (sprouted daikon radish seeds), frisee, and yellow pear tomato. The only element of the dish that could’ve used a bit more pizazz was the browned butter ponzu reduction, which bordered on watery. This course was paired with a 2007 Le Cigare Blanc.

It took a lot of self control to serve myself only a small portion of the mushroom risotto made with koshihikari rice and topped with crispy maitake mushrooms. Our table could have easily finished another platter of this creamy carbohydrate.

One of The Astronomer’s favorite dishes was the sea trout baked with dashi kombu (kelp), fried garlic, and Japanese curry powder. The texture of the lightly cooked fillet was buttery and supple, and the curry powder provided a subtle, delicious heat.

The roasted Brussels sprouts with ponzu fried garlic, guanciale, and bonito flakes were the next to arrive. The tender Brussels sprouts soaked up the diverse collection of flavors beautifully.

The final savory course was soy braised beef cheeks and oxtails with baby carrots and fingerling potatoes. As anticipated, the meat was fall-off-the-bone tender (ha!) and deeply infused with OB Beer and doenjang (fermented soybean paste). The carrots and potatoes were too undercooked for me, but The Astronomer thought they were just right. The final two courses were paired with a 2005 Le Cigare Volant.

Dinner wrapped up on an unmemorable note with a Koshihikari rice pudding with cookie crumbles and Warren pear. It was paired with a 2008 Vinferno. Considering that each course was prepared from a temporary kitchen inside a frigid warehouse, this meal was a resounding success.

Thank you to Foodbuzz for making this awesome weekend possible. And thank you to all of the terrific bloggers who made the Foodbuzz Blogger Conference one to remember: Foodhoe, Javaholic, Foodaphilia, Let Me Eat Cake, Fries with that Shake, Food Addicts, Hot Pink Manolos, L.A. and O.C. Foodventures, Local Lemons, Teenage Glutster, FoodGPS, Mattatouille, Pepsi Monster, Gourmet Pigs, Active Foodie, Kung Food Panda, Ravenous Couple, Fooding 411, Dishing Up Delights, and The Duo Dishes.

Recipe

06 Nov 2009

Old Fashioned Cornbread

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The first time I ate cornbread down South, I was convinced that someone in the kitchen hadn’t performed their job properly. The texture was coarse and crumbly, while the taste was plain and bland. Up until that point in my life, I had only consumed sweetened Yankee cornbread and was completely unaware of the savory Southern variety. Even though it wasn’t love at first bite for unsweetened cornbread and me, I eventually learned to appreciate its rustic quality after a few more tries. While I still prefer the sugary stuff that I grew up on, old fashioned corn bread appeals to me in a different way.

This recipe was clipped from a package of cornmeal years ago by The Astronomer’s mother, a native of Tennessee. While the recipe specifies that butter or shortening can be employed, The Astronomer’s mother insists on using only bacon fat because it yields a gorgeous golden crust and an unbeatable smoky taste.

2 tablespoon bacon fat, butter, or shortening
2 cups cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon honey
1 egg
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
3 slices of bacon, cooked but not crispy (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spoon the bacon fat into a cast iron skillet and place it into the preheated oven. While the skillet is in the oven, whisk together the cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the honey, egg, buttermilk, and bacon (if using) into the cornmeal mixture and incorporate well. Lastly, add the heated bacon fat into the batter and pour the batter into the heated skillet.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and crusty. Serve warm with butter and honey.

Serves 4 to 6.

[For Printable Recipe Click Here]

Restaurant Review

05 Nov 2009

Highlands Bar & Grill – Birmingham

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Whenever I tell someone that I’m visiting Birmingham, I’m usually on the receiving end of a sympathetic smile and a less than enthusiastic, “Well, have fun down there.” Alabama’s bad reputation among liberal-leaning city dwellers is quite unfortunate because culinarily speaking, the state’s got it going on. In addition to finger-licking good barbecue, Alabama is home to hundreds of small farms growing spectacular produce year-round and an extraordinary chef named Frank Stitt.

Born and raised in Cullman, Alabama, Chef Stitt stumbled into the culinary world serendipitously while studying philosophy at Berkeley. He spent time in the kitchens of Jeremiah Tower and Alice Waters, and worked alongside famed food writers Richard Olney and Simca Beck, while living in The Bay in the 1970s. Following California, Chef Stitt traveled to Provence and Burgundy. He eventually returned home to Alabama and opened his first restaurant, Highlands Bar & Grill, in 1982

Chef Stitt’s culinary approach reflects his roots and training. On the menu at Highlands Bar & Grill, stone ground grits and country ham effortlessly mingle with red wine reductions and creamy beurre blancs. Chef Stitt masterfully reels in hearty Southern flavors with French technique and refinement. In 2001, Gourmet magazine ranked Highlands Bar & Grill #5 on their list of ‘The 50 Best American Restaurants.’

To celebrate the peak of muscadine season and our third visit to Highlands Bar & Grill, The Astronomer and I started dinner off with glasses of bubbly Prosecco enhanced with a splash of fresh muscadine juice ($9). The little corn muffins delivered to our table along with the drinks were just as good as I remembered. The secret to outstanding corn bread is the liberal employment of smoky bacon fat.

I was tempted to order my standby starter, the stone ground baked grits with country ham, mushrooms, thyme, and Parmesan ($10), but The Astronomer encouraged me to branch out and try the beef carpaccio with shaved Parmesan, arugula, and horseradish sauce ($11). The flavors were light, clean, and a little spicy with both the arugula and horseradish packing heat.

We also shared a succulent roasted quail, which was served with a cornbread stuffing containing apple-smoked bacon, muscadines, and Muddy Pond Sorghum, a natural sweetener ($13). We cleaned the meat off the quail’s tiny frame and enjoyed the drippings-soaked grits immensely.

For my entree, I ordered one of the evening’s appetizer specials—grilled and butter-poached lobster served with a scallop and a corn cake ($18). The local Floridian lobster wasn’t nearly as tender as its northeastern counterpart, but I appreciated the restaurant’s effort to keep the number of food miles in check. The scallop, on the other hand, was supple, well-seared, and seriously fantastic.

The Astronomer’s pan-roasted venison with Coosa Valley grits, pears, muscadines, and red wine ($29) was served just as he requested, medium-rare. The fruity accompaniments provided a lovely sweetness to balance out the meat-intensive plate.

Per our waiter’s suggestion, we also shared a bowl of Cullman County sweet potato soup with collard greens and apple-smoked bacon ($8). The chunky soup was good, but forgettable compared to our other offerings.

For dessert, we split a thick slice of sweet and salty cake ($8.50). Unlike the one-note wonder I ate a week earlier in Brooklyn, the salted caramel-soaked chocolate cake with whipped caramel ganache was distinctly sweet and salty. I should’ve known better than to doubt a Southern-made layer cake. To accompany our dessert, we were treated to two glasses of Sauternes Chateau Villefranche (2006). The wine paired so perfectly with the caked that I squealed a little. I need to indulge in post-dinner libations more often.

Throughout our dinner, Chef Stitt came into the dining room several times to meet and greet with longtime regulars. I think it’s quite cool that even after twenty-seven years in the business (and three other restaurants to tend to), he can still be found working the line on a weeknight. Now, that’s classy.

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Highlands Bar & Grill
2011 11th Avenue
Birmingham, AL 35205
Phone: 205-939-1400