I had leftovers like parmesan custards, onion jam, and tarragon oil. If you cook along with me you too can have those kinds of leftovers..LOL! I figured that if I make a simple salad of 20 second blanched radishes and carrots and toss them in a basic lemon dressing (I didn’t even measure…basically one lemon (juice and a little zest to top the parmesan custard), a big squirt of olive oil, a spoon of dijon, tiny squirt of honey, some sea salt and pepper. That’s really all it is…..
For the carrot flower you need a little thingy that looks like a pencil sharpener for carrots.
Most of the radishes are shredded. Some radishes were sliced.
I roasted off some peppers that were getting old. (350 F 30 minutes a spray of oil salt and pepper.
I made the tarragon drops with a chop stick.
I spooned a spoonful of onion jam and used the end of the spoon and dragged it across the plate.
That’s how I did this plate and you can to if you care to.
Radish Carrot Salad with Parmesan Custard, Onion Jam, Tarragon Oil
I had mushrooms that were getting old so I wanted to do something interesting with them. One of or maybe the most talented vegetable chefs in the world is Yotam Ottolenghi so I looked up whatever mushroom recipes that I could find of his on the web. In case you didn’t know….Yotam Ottolenghi is multi award wining and James Beard award winning cook book author, chef, and restauranteur. Anyways I found a few of his mushroom recipes and they all sounded worth trying…..Today I picked the Marinated Mushrooms with Walnuts and Tahini Yogurt Recipe because it used the variety of mushrooms that was similar to what I had at home. After I marinated them I was so surprised at how special the mushrooms were. I only made a few minor changes that were due to what I had at home and they also went marvelously well. I added the Fried enoki mushrooms……I thought they added something to an already FORKING Amazing recipe. You don’t have to add the fried enoki if you don’t want to.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
8oz mixed mushrooms – cleaned, cut off bases
5 oz seafood mushrooms – cleaned cut off base
4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup
1 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice (for marinade)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
fresh cracked black pepper to taste
1 lemon (just the juice for tahini yogurt)
2 tablespoons tahini paste
1 garlic clove – ground to paste
1/2 cup greek style yogurt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup peas
3 oz toasted walnuts lightly broken
2 Tablespoons fresh basil – torn or chiffonade
2 Tablespoons fresh marjoram leaves
optional – 5 oz enoki mushrooms
optional 1/2 cup potato starch
optional 4 oz butter for frying
Directions
In a large bowl mix together the oil, vinegar, maple syrup, juice of one lemon, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and black pepper to taste. Mix in the mushrooms and let them marinate an hour.
In a small bowl combine the juice of one lemon, tahini, garlic, and yogurt. Mix well and set to the side.
After the mushrooms are marinated add the cumin, peas, and walnuts mix well. Top with fresh basil and marjoram. Then dollop with tahini yogurt.
If you are making the crispy enoki mushrooms all you do is a dollop of butter on medium high. Add the mushrooms dragged threw the potato starch. The mushrooms only need 2-3 minutes a side. You do have to clean the pan between the three batches because the butter burns. I usually fry with oil but butter always makes mushrooms crispier….
Enjoy!
Marinated Mushrooms with Walnuts and Tahini Yogurt
A Special THANKS!!!!!! To Yotam Ottolenghi for his FORKING AMAZING Recipe so that I could make this dish.
Ling’s Wok Shop recently opened in North Scottsdale Arizona. By day this is a fast casual Asian inspired food with a small full bar. By night they have wait service. On our visit we ordered at the counter and sat ourselves. Someone ran drinks and the food to us.
As you walk in you see a good sized patio.
It looks like this when you walk in. It’s very small with a few booths and a bench with a few tables.
The other side of the restaurant has seating at the bar.
You order and pay at the counter during the day. They offer small bites such as lettuce wraps, edamame and shishito peppers. They also offer a variety of wok fried dishes that you can add on chicken, grass fed beef, shrimp, scallops, tofu, or salmon. Other areas of the menu are signature dishes, noodle dishes, soups, salads, and side dishes.
We shared a side dish called a complements dish on the menu of Korean Cauliflower.
The cauliflower is fried in a tasty combination sauce of sesame, soy, oil, and is topped with a mild gochujang aioli and micro greens.
We also shared the Buddha’s belly (under Wok-Fried……with grass fed beef). The beef is very tender and the dish has delicate Asian flavors that is described as a stir fry sauce.
and a Ling;s Signature dish of firecracker chicken.
I think the firecracker burned out before it made it’s way to our table ……Everything was all mild here……and a bit one note. Maybe something was left out? Some pieces of chicken are crispy and some are not.
Our favorite dish we tried today was the Budda’s Belly with grass fed beef. It was made with fresh vegetables, tender beef, all laced with balanced mild Asian flavors.
Everyone working there was helpful and efficient. The restaurant seemed sparkling clean.
Ling;s Wok Shop has newly opened in North Scottsdale AZ
Zinc Bistro is a New York Style Parisian Bistro Located in Scottsdale Arizona in the Kierland Commons. They offer ever changing menus of lunch, Afternoon menu, dinner, brunch and more. Whatever you order the food is finely crafted, detailed, and quality. The atmosphere is charming and sort of yesteryear…..Tin roof and classic fixtures with some nods to France.
You can choose patio, limited courtyard dining, bar seating and traditional table seating.
courtyardinside
The tables are set with crisp linen and heavy silverware.
The menus do change but one dish that is on all the menus but IS OMITTED FROM BRUNCH is the onion soup gratinee made with six month aged AOP gruyere cheese.
Traditional French Onion Soup
This soup was featured on Food Network TV Show called, “Best thing I ever ate.”
It really doesn’t taste like any onion soup I had before because it’s better….It taste like very developed onions….The onions are the star and everything thing else is just delicious with it…..
Other appetizers we’ve tried.
roasted beet salad chicken liver mousse, fig and port compote and grilled Noble bread (fall restaurant week 2021)Escargot Bougugnon vichyssoiseScottish salmonKale saladfoie gras raviolis in consomme
Lunches we tried. (We’ve also enjoyed lunches from the Phoenix Airport location called Zinc Brasserie)
chicken curry salad sandwichbrisket pastrami sandwich (this is very small)fries
Someone in one of the food groups that I am in eats various cucumber salads with fish for breakfast. I thought that is a good idea and looked up recipes for fish with cucumbers. There are a lot of them on the web. The recipe is inspired by chef Simon Hulstone and I didn’t use his mackerel recipe because I don’t have fresh fish and but I did use his Pickled Cucumber recipe because it sounded so different and interesting. I also made the mustard seed pink peppercorn tuile for the beet tartar that I made recently. Both recipes make about twice as many tuile as you need and you will have some leftover. The good news is that these tuile keep well in a zip lock bag for a few weeks. Serving size is difficult to judge. This recipe makes around 3 servings of mackerel pate and cucumbers but you will end up with much more tuile than you need…You can also skip the tuile and use crackers or a thin toast instead.
Ingredients for around 3 servings
2 oz butter (room temperature) (tuile)
2 oz flour (tuile)
2 1/2 oz sugar (tuile)
1 egg white – lightly beaten (tuile)
1 1/2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds (tuile)
1/4 teaspoon pink peppercorns – crush with fingers (tuile)
1 long English cucumber – cut in thin slices
3 cups water
1 green cardamon pod
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh tarragon
1/4 cup good quality white vinegar
2 cloves
5 black peppercorns
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
6oz can mackerel drained – shredded (I used Trader Joes wild caught skinless boneless)
2 Tablespoons sour cream (or to taste)
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter – room temperature – or to taste
1/2 teaspoon prepared horseradish – or to taste
pinch smoked paprika – or to taste
pinch alderwood smoked sea salt – or to taste
pinch ground white pepper – or to taste
Directions
Make the tuile dough.
In a small mixing bowl combine the butter, flour, sugar, egg white, mustard seeds, and peppercorns. Mix well. Wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it a few hours or over night.
Make the pickled cucumbers.
Bring to a boil the water, cardamon pod, caraway seeds, mustard seeds, bay leaf, fresh tarragon, cloves, peppercorns and salt. Let cool and then add the vinegar and cucumbers. The longer this sits the better it taste. Refrigerate. Use when ready.
Make the tuile.
Set oven to 300 degrees F.
Leave dough sit out to warm up.
Fill a pastry bag with some dough with a writing tip.
Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.
This dough spreads so you want to do shapes in spirals. Put them in the middle rack of the oven. They are down when they start to brown. Timing will differ because the size and oven will differ. Mine took around 12 minutes. You can give the tuile a different shape if you scrap them off while they are hot and let them cool hanging off a small box, spoon, or pan.
Make the mackerel pate.
In a small mixing bowl combine the mackerel, sour cream, butter, horseradish, smoked paprika, smoked salt, white pepper. Adjust to your liking.
Optional some sweet pickled peppers, capers, fresh dill and edible flowers would be nice to add to this dish.
Easy Mackerel Pate with Pickled Cucumber and Mustard Seed Pink Peppercorn Tuile
ENJOY!
A special THANKS!!!! to chef Simon Hulstone for his amazing recipe so I could come up with what I got here.
I had cucumber to use up and came across Kerth Gumbs recipe for cucumber gazpacho with Parmesan Custard….I thought WOW I never made parmesan custard before..this sounds pretty good. I made a lot of changes to the gazpacho part of the recipe because I didn’t have some of the ingredients. Another difference is that I wanted my gazpacho to be lighter and left out the bread that often is blended into most gazpachos. I also used my own jalapeño brine that is infused with great flavors instead of Chardonnay vinegar but you can use Chardonnay vinegar if you don’t have delicious home made jalapeño brine from home made pickled jalapeños . I chose not to add bread to the parmesan custard and kept it lighter. The original recipe is made with basil oil but I used cilantro and chives instead for the oil. Portion size is difficult to to judge because it depends on the size serving. I’d say that it makes at least 4 servings.
2 English cucumbers – rough chopped
1/2 head celery – rough chopped
1-2 green hot peppers (I used 2 guero (greenish yellow chili) peppers) core & stem removed and rough chopped
1/2 cup fresh cilantro – leaves and tiny soft stems – rough chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh parsley leaves – chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves – chopped
1 1/2 cups home made jalapeño brine (pickled jalapenos recipe from www.TheForkingTruth.com) or Chardonnay vinegar
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon Maldon salt
1 cup whole milk (parmesan custard)
2oz parmesan cheese – fine grated (parmesan custard)
Blend the cucumber, celery, chili, cilantro, parsley, basil, brine or vinegar, sugar, and salt. Taste it and decide if you want to add anything. Put it into the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Make cilantro-chive oil (or scallion…if you use fresh scallions use the green parts and boil with cilantro)
Boil the cilantro for 20 seconds and immediately put into an ice bath. When the cilantro is cool you can blend it with about 60% of the oil and chives and then strain it. Keep the solids and blend again with the remaining oil and strain again. Keep to the side until ready to use. I do note that this makes more oil than you need but you can use it for salads and other things.
Make the parmasan custard.
Warm the milk in a large pan and add the parmesan and blend. Strain and let cool.
The custards need to be steamed in ramekins that are sprayed with nonstick spray. I don’t have ramekins so I used cup cake liners in a bamboo steamer.
Put a pan of water on to a medium boil. If you don’t have a bamboo steamer you can always a mesh strainer. The custards need to cook about 12 minutes.
Get your gazpachos ready and add one or two parmesan custards to each bowl. Top the custard with some cilantro/chive oil.
Cucumber Gazpacho with Parmesan Custard and Cilantro Chive Oil
So pretty too I played with the picture on the computer.
ENJOY!
A special THANKS!!!!!! To chef Kerth Gumbs for his FORKING AMAZING recipe so that I could come up with what I made.
It is Restaurant Week here in Phoenix Arizona. Around a hundred and fifty restaurants are participating and are offering three course meals for set prices of $33., $44., and $55. Usually I look forward to going to a restaurant or two that I have never tried before during Restaurant Week. Tonight we made reservations to Fuego at The Clarendon in Phoenix. It’s a Latin Fusion type of restaurant. I do note that this restaurant has earned a 4.5 star average out of 5 stars on Yelp from nearly 900 people so that means that most people enjoy what they order here.
It looks like this when you walk in.
To left is a musician playing the piano.
To the right is the cool looking bar area.
We get seated in the main dining area. It’s early and it’s already a very energetic atmosphere.
All around the main dining area is a wrap around patio. We start with margaritas that seem good.
My husband gets an extra starter and starts with a cubano sandwich off the happy hour menu. (only $5.)
He said that the cubano was very good and tasty……THE CUBANO WAS VERY GOOD!
I soon get my appetizer the salmon croquette.
It looks nice but taste fishy….not spoiled fishy…It taste like the type of fishy fish my local Safeway sells. I’m hungry so I eat it anyway.
My husband got the pernil nachos.
They also look nice. But you can’t see that the pork is dried out tonight. Or maybe this one sat under a heat lamp too long and the fresher ones were carried out first?
I just received my complimentary red sangria. It taste like it was made not good, past it’s time wine. I can’t drink it……………. just tasting it makes me feel queasy now….
I soon get my dinner.
Most of the food on this plate looks great but most of the food doesn’t agree with my palate.
To the right is a cup of jalapeno creamed corn. I can only imagine that someone slipped in the kitchen and accidentally dumped a whole bag of sugar into it. It is so painfully sweet I thought I’d get sick eating it. It’s sweeter than dessert sweet. The green beans are good and very garlic-ee……..I forget what was under them (something like sweet cabbage?). but I couldn’t eat it. The salsa on top of the fish seemed good but whatever the fish is coated with taste unpalatable to me. I tried to scrape the exterior of the fish off but didn’t do so well.
This is what I left on the plate. I tried to eat it but couldn’t.
I’m surprised that nobody said anything to me……….about this.
Anywho-
My husband had different issues from his meal (surf and turf pasta).
It is very hard to eat a steak that is served in a bowl of loose pasta. My husband said that the steak and the pasta had little flavor. The person that ran the food promised to bring salt and pepper but never came back with any………….My husband said, that the beans had an unusual taste in them that he didn’t like. The signature jalapeño corn bread was tasty but very sweet and very rich. At some point during dinner someone did ask how things were….I lied and said ok. My husband was surprised that they accepted the ok the way I said it………. I’ve worked in restaurants. Some chefs are professionals…..and some are not. Some chefs get very unhinged when food gets sent back. You don’t want to know how some chefs get and what they might do to your food that gets “re-fired.” I pretty much never send food back when it isn’t an open kitchen.
Moving on…
For our third course we shared the key lime pie and the ancho chile torte.
These are both very good.
The good news is that currently Fuego at The Clarendon has a 4.5 average on Yelp from close to 900 people so that means that most people order dishes at Fuego at The Clarendon that they enjoy.
BUT The FORKING Truth is – Not every dish a restaurant serves is for your taste…..or maybe they just had some screw ups in the kitchen?
Remember that the cubano sandwich, key lime pie, and ancho chile torte are recommended.
Pomo Pizzeria is an Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria with around four locations in Metro Phoenix Arizona (Scottsdale, Downtown Phoenix, Biltmore Phoenix, Gilbert). Pomo Pizzeria specializes in serving certified Neapolitan Pizzas made with high quality ingredients. Other pizzas (and focaccia) that they offer are North Italy Style crispy ultra thin pizza Light Crispy Rimini, Pinsa Romano Focaccia (72 hour leavening) and paper thin Focaccia Di Recco filled with stracchino cheese with black salt. Besides pizzas Pomo also offers appetizers, charcuterie, soups, salads, handmade pastas, seasonal foods and amazing house made gelato.
Pomo offers a modern dining room and a cozy patio with screen shades and a mister system.
This day I went for the salmon salad with salmon from Chula Seafood.
Oh my goodness this is a really great salad. It is made of spring mix, gold beets, fennel, grape tomatoes, lemon dressing. The salmon could not be more perfect. The skin is crisp. The fish is so succulent and fresh with nice grill marks. This fish just melts in the mouth. The grilled lemon is a nice touch. The pink peppercorns taste so great with lemon. It’s a brilliant combination!!!!
My husband got a pizza called the toto sapore (sausage, prosciutto cotto, hot soppressata, salame parma, tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil) My husband enjoyed the pizza.
They have some amazing house made gelato here so we enjoyed a gelato dessert made with Luna flavored Luna gelato. (Luna flavored is a pistachio/chocolate flavor)
These are some of the other dishes that we enjoyed from Pomo Pizzeria.
seasonal special estiva (cold Italian soup)
seasonal special – porchetta panini
seasonal special – fregula salad with added chicken
seasonal special – stracchino & rucola (arugula) pizza
focaccia di recco (filled with stracchino cheese and black salt)
focaccia di recco with house made pesto, stracchino cheese, and black salt
diavola pizza – hot soppressata, tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil
parmigiana pizza rimini (this is an extra thin pizza with eggplant)
take out both are specials – tortelloni tartu and bianca truffle pizza
calzone napoletano stuffed with hot soppressato, ricotta, mozzarella, basil and topped with tomato sauce.
bacio di dama – chocolate gelato, gianduia gelato, chocolate mousse, chocolate pearls, a cookie, more chocolate, and hazelnuts
I was starting to do someone’s recipe for cauliflower salad and I didn’t like it so I changed the recipe into something completely different. The one thing that is pretty cool and interesting is from pickling the cabbage gets a nice texture. I thought that the pickle taste would work really well with the tarragon and it does. The onion jam puree just elevates it some and isn’t too sweet. Portions are difficult to judge because everyone likes a different amount. Also the size of the vegetables do differ as well. I’d say you should get 6 or more servings.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
1 cauliflower – broke down into florets
1 cabbage – core removed – quarter and quarter each quarter
3 cups white vinegar
3 cups water
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon honey
3 bay leaves
5 juniper berries
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
optional – a little paprika to sprinkle on the cauliflower
2 large onions – thinly sliced (onion jam puree)
2 Tablespoons olive oil (onion jam puree)
sea salt to taste (onion jam puree)
optional 1/2 a cooked beet – chopped (onion jam puree)
1 teaspoon sugar (onion jam puree)
1 teaspoon honey (onion jam puree)
splash of red wine (onion jam puree)
splash of red vinegar (onion jam puree)
1 cup tarragon
1/2 cup olive oil (about)
Directions
Bring the vinegar, water, salt, honey, bay leaves, juniper berries, and peppercorns to a boil. Add the cauliflower florets and boil for two minutes and let them drain. Then use the same boiling liquid and boil the cabbage for two minutes. Take that out and let drain. Remove and discard bayleaves, peppercorns and juniper berries that you come across on the cauliflower and cabbage.
Set oven to 400 degrees F.
Spread out cauliflower (if desired sprinkle the cauliflower with a small amount of paprika) on a baking sheet and spread out cabbage on a baking sheet. When oven is at 400 F put the baking sheets on the middle rack till the vegetables at slightly browned. (in my oven this took twenty minutes…but all ovens do differ) Take out vegetables when they are done.
Make the onion jam.
Put a sauce pan on medium low heat with the olive oil, onions and some sea salt. Mix well and cover the pan loosely. Stir occasionally. Cook till onions are clear. Add the sugar and honey and cook till it lightly caramelizes. Add the splashes of vinegar, wine and the beet. Let it cook about 10 minutes then take off the heat and blend up. (It will be safer to use a stick blender. (if you use a regular blender then you might want to wait till mixture cools some.
Make the tarragon oil
Boil the tarragon for twenty seconds and put right away in an ice bath. When cool pull off all the leaves and blend with oil. Then strain. I re-used the blended tarragon that I strained and blended with oil again and strained again.
Serve.
Pickled and Roasted Cauliflower & Cabbage with Tarragon Oil and Onion Jam Puree
Peoria Artisan Brewery is located in North Peoria Arizona. They are a bar that serves craft American foods and their own hand crafted beers, and other local and regional beers as well as a full bar. They have around twenty beers on tap. According to The Arizona Republic Peoria Artisan Brewery does make a Top 25 Burger in the valley. They do use Arizona beef for their burgers.
It seems to be always busy.
I noticed that many people are ordering the pretzel…..I don’t know how many pretzels were served by me……….but it was a bunch…..The pretzels do smell delicious..I got to smell many of them.
They also have patio seating.
I’m not a beer drinker so I went with the cocktail of the day.
A hibiscus mai tai …..(that seemed pretty darn strong)….and my husband tried some sort of blond beer. I did try a small sip of the beer and it was smooth and had a softer hops taste than what I usually taste in beer.
They have all kinds of things on their menu. They have a selection of bar type foods like pig ears, sliders, and wings. They also offer a smoked dish of the day, salads, sandwiches, entree plates like salmon, flat iron steak, and Macaroni and cheese with added meat options, sweets, a children’s menu and more.
Today we started with a garden salad.
It was accented with crispy onions and the gorgonzola cream was tasty.
My husband went with the BBQ special.
Today it was brisket, turkey breast, pickles, links, and beans. Everything was prepared reasonably well. The pickles are very good.
I went with the smoked trout. I thought that it was odd that the server asked me how I wanted the trout done……. ( My BAD……..I should have changed my order…but it was the reason that I wanted to dine here tonight)
Anywho-
It looks nice……
I tell The FORKING Truth so here it is…………This meal is described as with AZ citrus, herbs, and a fennel blood orange salad…….The fennel blood orange salad is mostly bitter fizzy lettuce with sour oranges. The herbs are very good and I do like the citrus. The trout didn’t taste good to me. It taste like a combination of ammonia, fishiness, smoke, and deep funk to me. My husband tasted it and to him it just didn’t taste good and was fishy. I couldn’t eat it. Our kind waitress did offer to get me something else, I declined and she took it off our bill.
On a previous visits we had
French Dip
Scottish salmon with crisp skin, baby spinach, grilled pineapple, and confit garlic. This was very good!
On a return visit I wanted to get that really great salmon that I had last time……… When I got the salmon this time I thought the chef was replaced. I was so bothered by this that I called them up the next day and inquired about the chef and was told same chef.
I tell The FORKING Truth so here it is……….salmon with less finesse as the first one over couscous that taste like seawater accented with some vegetables.
Same visit as above salmon – cubano good but missing the mortadella from the menu discription.
Take out – salmon salad and an Italian Beef. These were ok.
www.PeoriaArtisanalBrewing.com
Strong cocktails, smooth beer, food is a bit hit and miss but the pretzels sure smell good.
