The FANTABULOUS Dish means – Top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen and dynamite!
I kept thinking about my recent restaurant week dinner from SWB in Scottsdale. Every dish I tried exceeded my expectations and EACH dish was a FANTABULOUS dish. I zeroed in on this dish because it is offered on the lunch and dinner menu..
I usually don’t even ever like cream based soups but this one was different and was not too heavy and had layers of flavors that were delectable. First your mouth gets the velvety sweet corn accented with the right amount of poblano taste. Just enough poblano to make the corn more interesting….But leaves you with that perfect corn finish. You get more layers in your next spoonful because you go for a little chili oil and maybe some queso fresco and a bright grassy little pop of cilantro.
The cream of corn poblano soup from SWB Bistro in Scottsdale (Hyatt Regency) is one FANTABULOUS Dish and is Worth a Fork!
I came across chef Josh Egglton’s recipe for Charred white and green asparagus with pickled egg and pesto when I was searching for another really great asparagus recipe. I never heard of a brined and pickled egg yolk before so I had to try this recipe. I already had hazelnut pesto that I made recently that I had to use so I didn’t make chef Egglton’s for the pesto. I pretty much followed the brined and pickled egg recipe because I didn’t know how to do that. The only minor difference was that I didn’t have a teaspoon of pickling spice so I used a pinch of each of the ingredients that picking spice is made of (mustard seed, allspice, coriander seeds, red pepper flakes, ginger, bay, cinnamon and clove). I’m sure mine might taste slightly different but it still came out amazing. I did have one issue with the pickled yolk. The recipe is written that you are suppose to brine the eggs for 30 minutes and then pickle them for 30 minutes for runny and longer (it does say how long..) for less runny. I do note that I wanted less runny so I pickled for 45 minutes. Mine came out with a jammy surface but very delicate (they broke very easy) and were runny but very delicious. I will try them again but next time I might try an hour of pickling and see what happens.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
4 eggs (just the yolks)
4 cups water
3 1/2 oz sea salt
8 oz sugar
10 2/3 oz white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon pickling spice (I did a pinch of mustard seeds, 4 allspice berries, coriander seeds, red pepper flakes, ginger, bay leaf, cinnamon, 2 cloves)
1 sprig rosemary
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
2 black peppercorns (I upped to 3)
28 oz asparagus (I did two bunches) – hard woody ends removed
1 large shallot – fine chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
sea salt to taste
lemon juice to taste
heaping 1/4 cup pesto (mine was around a bunch parsley (just leaves), handful of toasted hazelnuts, a good amount of grated parmigiana, smallest amount of garlic (you can leave out) very small amounts of salt and pepper and just enough extra virgin olive oil to blend.
Directions
Make brine for egg yolks.
Combine the water with salt and 1 2/3 Tablespoons of sugar, rosemary, thyme, bayleaf and peppercorns in a pan. Heat till sugar is dissolved. Cover and leave pan to the side to cool.
Make the pickling liquid.
White wine vinegar, remaining sugar, and pickling spice go in a pan. Stir some. You heat it till the sugar is dissolved. Leave to cool. Strain and then set to the side.
As soon as the brine is cool. Separate the eggs and carefully place the egg yolks in the brine for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes the egg yolks get placed in the pickling liquid for another 30 minutes or longer for harder.
Make the asparagus tartare. Take two asparagus and slice extra thin and mix with the finely chopped shallots. Season lightly with some sea salt.
Boil the asparagus for a minute. Then shock them with ice water. Dry them off.
Griddle, fry or grill the asparagus till you get them charred.
Dress the asparagus with lemon and oil and very lightly with sea salt and pepper.
Serve them with the brined/pickled eggs and the pesto.
Charred Asparagus with Pickled Egg Yolk and Hazelnut Pesto
A special THANKS! to chef Eggleton for his Amazing recipe!
Yutaka Japanese Restaurant is located on Bell Road in North Phoenix Arizona. This restaurant offers a variety of appetizers and or small plates, sushi, teriyaki, ramen and noodle bowls. Get here early because the tables fill up fast.
My favorite plate that I tried so far might be the spicy tuna crackers.
The tuna is fresh, flavorful and spicy. It’s a tasty appetizer that you don’t find everywhere.
The sushi menu menu is limited but what they serve you is fresh and clean tasting……..
yellowtail, salmon, tuna
and unusually LARGE. I don’t know how to eat this sushi. It’s about THREE times the size of normal sushi. If I had a knife I’d cut them in thirds. It’s good because it does taste very fresh and the right temperature that it should be but is very hard for me to eat because of the large size. Most sushi here is priced at around $5.00 for two pieces (today subject to change) so that is a great value because they give you more fish than most places……But for some people the over sized sushi can be hard to eat.
The collar is the best part of the fish so we shared a salmon collar (they also offer yellowtail collar)
It is seasoned just so and taste delicious but is slightly over cooked today.
We also shared a sizzling chicken teriyaki.
It came with miso soup that was a little richer than most miso soups that I’ve tasted. It also had seaweed in it.
I thought that the teriyaki was a large portion. The onions with it were very tasty. For us this teriyaki was sweet forward and very slightly overdone.
That was a little taste of Yutaka Japanese Restaurant in Phoenix AZ – Big Portion Fresh Sushi – Good Value and you won’t leave hungry from here.
www.YutakaJapanese.Business.Site
Everything is subject to change and usually does change.
PA’LA Wood Fired Cooking (downtown there is another more casual PA’LA in Phoenix) is a wood fired, ever changing, fine dining sort of Mediterranean-ish, sort of Italian, laced with Japanese sort of restaurant. Somehow the flavors can be magical together. At this restaurant you will find small plates, a few sandwiches, a couple salads, two pizzas, fresh made pasta, fresh amazing wood fired seafood and a few specials. At the moment this restaurant serves lunch (Tue.-Sat.11-3) but dinner is only on Fridays and Saturdays (5-10) (subject to change).
They have an indoor-outdoor bar.
It looks like this when you walk in.
From my seat I can see the open kitchen and the wood fired oven.
Here’s the view from the other side.
There are a variety of traditional tables and partial booths. You can’t see the large mirrors behind me that make the room look enormous. Bright light comes in from the windows out front and upstairs. They only use the upstairs when needed. The decor sure doesn’t look like Phoenix to me……Look at the chandelier..
There are lots of details and big cherubs on it. It reminds me of Vegas….maybe Chicago….Maybe certain parts of Philly?…… When I see it and the big curved booth I see this in my head.
Robert De Niro with Joe Pesci. I can visualize them dining here.
Or maybe it looks more like this?
Anyways….
We start out with the pickled white anchovies with fennel crackers.
The anchovies are sprinkled with some fruity mildly spicy pepper and have a splash of a quality olive oil. The fennel crackers might be Taralli (Italian fennel crackers)
I went for the fish of the day plate. It was sea bass. It was described coming with Fresno chili and fregola (Italian cous cous shaped toasted pasta).
The fish is tender, moist, and flaky. It has a nice tasty sear. There are all kinds of flavors and surprises in the fregola. I taste bitter greens, pickled fennel, stringy things that I thought were sprouts but taste like spicy ginger…I taste an Asian sauce…. and there is a special red pepper flake. It really just dances together…It’s fiendishly great!
My husband went with the pasta of the day dish that came with shrimp.
The sauce was made with Bianco tomatoes. It’s a very good some sort of wheat or grain rigatoncini pasta and a very well made sauce. I heard that the shrimp were delicious.
We saved room for a little dessert.
We shared a little dish of smooth rich chocolate called pot de creme topped with pistachios and a little pistachio and fruit biscotti that was a great sweet ending to a FANTABULOUS meal out.
I have to say PA’LA Wood Fired Cooking (Downtown Phoenix AZ) is…
Worth a Fork!
Worth A Fork!
www.PalaKitchen.com
We returned.
The menu and special board differed.
Service differed too and we had the same server.
She brought out our appetizer and main meals together.
Our appetizer was the Niman Ranch Prime Beef Skewer.
The beef had mushrooms between each piece. The beef was as tender as butter and did taste very good. The polenta was very plain but creamy.
For my main I had the albacore brown rice bowl.
The fish was lightly seared and seemed very fresh. It had a little Asian rice seasoning and sauce on it. The brown rice was chewy and was adorned with pickled onion, some extra thin shreds that tasted like ginger, cucumbers, tomato, and avocado.
My husband had the roasted mushroom pizza with mozzarella and salametto picante.
I’ve must have done beets over 50 different ways so far but I am still always searching for something new and different. I came across the most FORKING AMAZING white albino beets from from Singh Meadows Farm in Tempe Arizona. I got lucky and found this FORKING AMAZING recipe for beets and a FORKING AMAZING recipe for crispy fried beet leaves both from genius chef Yotam Ottolenghi on www.TheGuardian.com There are more recipes to both recipes but I thought for me I had enough to enjoy. You can add a blend of heavy cream and greek style yogurt to the beets if you want. To the battered crispy beet leaves you can make a tangerine dipping dipping sauce. Serving size here is difficult to call. The recipe says that it makes 4 side servings from 8-10 medium/large beets…..for me that sounds more like 8 servings…?????? I will say 4 servings.
Ingredients for around 4 servings.
2 pounds beets with leaves (reserve leaves for frying if desired)
beet greens (I used just the leaves but it is ok to include stems)
scant ounce – dill – torn in small pieces
1/2 ounce fresh mint – torn in small pieces
1/2 Tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns – crushed
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 cup ice water
1/2 teaspoon black sesame seeds
pinch ground white pepper
oil for frying
Directions
Set oven to 425 F. Place beets (not leaves) in a in a baking dish with a thumbs length of water. Add one tablespoon of salt and cover tight with a lid or foil. Bake one hour and twenty minutes or until beets are fork tender. Let them cool and remove skins when cool enough to handle.
While beet are cooking put the butter, oil, lime leaves, ginger and garlic in a sauce pan on medium high heat. Gently cook until butter begins to bubble about 4 minutes. Then let flavors infuse for around 40 minutes. Discard solids and stir in 1 Tablespoon lime juice and one teaspoon salt (preferably flaked salt).
Make lime leaf salsa. Mix the lime leaves, ginger, garlic, green chilli, cilantro and olive oil together. Set to the side.
By now the beets are cool and peeled. Make the hasselback on the beets. Cut slits on the backs….I used chopsticks around each beet as I made the cuts so I wouldn’t accidentally cut all the way threw. Place the beets on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Spoon the melted butter over the beets and into the cuts. They need around 1 hour and 15 minutes in the oven. Baste them around every 20 minutes. They need to cook till they are cooked threw and have crisp edges and are caramelized.
While the beets are in the oven you can make the crisp battered beet leaves. Have a pot of oil on medium heat slightly towards high. In a small bowl add the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, sesame seeds, dill, mint, peppers and salt. Add ice-water till you have a nice smooth batter. Dip a few leaves to fry up. They get done when golden. Use a cooling rack or a baking sheet lined with paper towels. Repeat till done.
To serve – Spoon the butter over them, (if using yogurt cream spoon that on too) Drizzle with salsa and remaining lime juice.
Hasselback Beets with Lime Leaf Butter and Crispy Fried Beet Leaves
ENJOY!
A special THANKS! to Yotam Ottolenghi for his FORKING AMAZING recipe and to the Guardian for putting his recipes up on the web.
Universal Yums is a gift or subscription service for a box of international snacks. You have a few different size choices.
I get the basic Yum Box and it comes with a booklet of facts, trivia, a recipe and information about my snacks.
Lets try a snack.
Ummmm…Now these are tasty! They are little cookies filled with a chocolaty filling that is laced with a small amount of hazelnut and tahini. These are tasty…Now they are gone.
We got a Yum bag with Mastic Toffees and Melon and Lime Chews.
Oh joy……..(not really)…Turkish sour watermelon gummies. I just don’t do gummies and ESPECIALLY Don’t FORKING do sour gummies. But I will ask my husband to eat one.
Next is a coconut & coffee snowball cake.
I like coconut but never liked coffee so far. I thought maybe I haven’t had good coffee yet and that is why I don’t like coffee? I tried two bites. I think I would like this if I liked coffee. The cake is moist with a nice texture and the exterior is very unique. The center cream isn’t terrible. I would like this if I liked coffee, Coffee just taste like bitter coffee grinds to me……
Next……
Baharat spiced cracker chips in taco flavor…??? They are odd to us….They are very powdery chippy crackers……..The powder texture sort of bothers me more than the odd flavors….They are very salty, they are onion-ee, there is sweetness to them, They finish very sweet….They sort of stick to my teeth.
Only two treats left….
Here’s tahini halva…..Not bad…It seems like light fluffy frosting that taste like sesame seeds instead of something too sweet.
Last treat
These are just plain chickpeas that are salted. These are GOOD! The texture doesn’t break my teeth like most bagged chickpea snacks. These you can actually eat in salad and do have a nice natural chickpea flavor. These I would buy if I saw in the store.
Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Universal Yums – Turkey 2021
I was reading about all kinds of Turkish Pepper Paste and I thought that I could make pepper paste out of roasted bell pepper and add Aleppo and Urfa peppers. I roasted those flavored on to a cauliflower. I added sumac dressing and feta cheese and got something tasty. Serving size will differ because our cauliflowers aren’t the same size and we all eat different size portions of food. I’d say that mine made 6 side servings.
Ingredients for around 6 side servings
1 large head cauliflower
3 roasted red bell peppers – skin, seeds, stem removed, keep bell pepper liquid
2 Tablespoons Aleppo pepper
1 Tablespoon Urfa Biber pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil + plus a little extra to oil pan
3 garlic cloves – ground to paste – dressing
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil – dressing
1 + 1/2 large lemons (just the fresh squeezed juice) – dressing
1 Tablespoon honey – dressing
Reserved pepper juices from roasting the cauliflower – dressing
sea salt to taste
3 oz crumbled feta cheese
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley leaves
Directions
Set oven to 400 degrees F
Cut the cauliflower in serving size wedges….(depending on size of cauliflower it will be 4,6, or 8 wedges)…
Lightly oil a baking sheet and set it to the side.
Blend together the roasted red peppers, Aleppo, Urfa, sea salt and olive oil. Rub this mixture all over the cauliflower wedges. Thee cauliflower goes on a baking sheet in the preheated 400 degree F oven for 10-13 minutes. Carefully remove the cauliflower and add the reed pepper juices to the dressing. Clean off the baking sheet and put the cauliflower back on. Broil lightly on each side till slightly caramelized. (around 5 minutes a side)
In a small mixing bowl mix together the feta with some of the dressing and add it to the cauliflower with some fresh parsley.
Chili Pepper Roasted Cauliflower with Sumac Dressing and Feta Cheese
Namaste is an Indian Restaurant located in a shopping center in North Scottsdale Arizona. This is a small family ran business. The owners are the cooks and their son serves tables. During the day (10:30-3 ) they offer their menu and a lunch buffet with a little over a dozen items that change every day. They offer some dishes that you don’t find at other Indian Restaurants like BEEF vindaloo.
Across the buffet is a series of paintings telling the story of the Taj Mahal.
There are other paintings around the restaurant.
It’s small but cozy. They offer both booths and traditional tables.
Bright light comes in threw the glass front windows.
We decided to try the buffet today.
With the buffet they made us fresh naan. We started with hot steamy garlic naan and they later brought us plain naan.
All the dishes that we tried were all very flavorful but nothing was spicy. We were told that they don’t put out the spicy dishes on the buffet so it can appeal to everyone. A few of the dishes that they offered today were – tandoori chicken, curry chicken, butter chicken, a ground lamb dish, dal, salad, chutneys, sweets.
The buffet was good so we decided to take out a few spicy dishes to see how they really are. We tried chili chicken chef hot.The chicken is tender…It’s flavorful and MIGHTY HOT! The rice was cumin scented.
and BEEF vindaloo chef hot. Also scotching molten HOT! The stewed beef cubes were very tender. The chunks of sweet potato gave some relief.
OMG! They are scorching molten hot! I’m so glad that they don’t dull the food.
Then we went back and tried some other things.
onion bhaji
Onion Bhaji – garbanzo bean flour coated spiced onion fritters with tamarind sauce…tasty and delicious!
aloo tikki choley
aloo tikki choley – potato patties with hot North Indian chick pea curry, mint chutney & tamarind date chutney.
onion chili naanonion chili naan have lots of flavor insideachari fish masala & kadai chicken
Achari fish masala ( achari spice blend, yogurt, onion and ginger) & kadai chicken (spicy chicken with onions, tomato, ginger, bell pepper, and kadai masala spice)
That was a Little Taste of Namaste Indian Restaurant in Scottsdale AZ.
The SWB Bistro (A southwest bistro) is located in Hyatt Regency in Scottsdale Arizona. It’s kind of a blend of fine dining in a casual resort atmosphere. It looks like this when you enter.
It’s just a few steps down or you can use an elevator.
Here is the other end of the restaurant.
Tonight it was around 100 degrees F but the outside was nice cool and refreshing with the misters so we sat outside tonight and saw a friendly duck or two splashing around in a water feature.
It was restaurant week so not all but most of the goodies aren’t normally on the menu like the nicely detailed Dungeness crab and octopus with piquillo cream, red onion, huitlacoche and preserved lemon.
Everything was tender moist and delicious.
We both thought the cream of corn and poblano soup was amazing. My husband gave me the most wonderful compliment and said, This taste like something you would make.”
The flavors were amazing…..You do taste the poblano and it finishes with sweet creamy corn. The soup is rich and has delicious accents of queso fresco…pops of medium spicy chile de arbol and cilantro…Just amazing! This soup is on the lunch and dinner menu so you can enjoy it just as we did.
It was hard to decide on what dinner to pick but I went with the free range stuffed chicken.
It was the moistest, most tender, most flavorful, chicken that you can ever hope for. It seemed like it was in a marinade that broke it down and then was sous vide and finished somehow to crisp the skin up….The chicken was truly astounding and was placed in this marvelously great green mole sauce sauce accented with crispy cancha corn. On top of that a mound of ricotta, a crisp squash blossom and some micro greens adorned the plate.
The sous vide venison was just as incredible.
This came with yuca, English peas, pistachio and chimichurri rojo.
TWO desserts (and two glasses of wine) were included with restaurant week. Both of the desserts were WORTH EVERY CALORIE!
Cherry cheesecake empanadas with the most delicious chocolate sauce ever.
Tres leches cake with caramel croquant, strawberry and Chantilly cream.
It was a FANTABULOUS dinner!
Parking does cost here. Tonight it ran $8. an hour for self park and the valet cost $10. plus tip.
Worth a Fork!
Worth A Fork!
www.Scottsdale.Hyatt.com
Everything is subject to change and often does change.
I had a bunch of eggplants that I needed to cook and wanted to do a dish that was new to me. I thought the most intriguing eggplant recipe that I found was called Aubergine ‘Cochinita Pibil’ Habanero Salsa, X ni pek by chef Nud Dudhia. I read the recipe. I have most of the ingredients. It makes sense and sounds delicious so I gave it a try. I didn’t have to change much at all here. I didn’t have seville orange juice so I used regular fresh squeezed orange juice. I did round the metric measurements to American. But WOW! It IS FORKING DELICIOUS….It’s a recipe to keep and would be pretty easy to use with meat. For me it came out slightly different. Instead of four 1/2 eggplants stuffed with eggplant I got two halves…(most likely because I stuffed Tham more). I also got extra salsa and extra onions….(no big deal as they are delicious and will be easy to adapt to meals). According to the recipe this makes 4 servings.
Ingredients for 4 servings
3 red onions – very thinly sliced and soaked in ice water for ten minutes (X ni pek)
5 Tablespoons fresh squeezed orange juice (X ni pek)
1 Tablespoon fresh squeezed grapefruit juice (X ni pek)
4 limes – just the fresh squeezed juice (X ni pek)
1/2 fresh habanero – remove seeds and stem – finely chop (X ni pek)
3 large tomatoes – rough chop
1 onion – peeled and halved
3 fresh habaneros or scotch bonnets – stems and seeds removed
3 cloves garlic skin on
3 1/2 oz water or chicken stock
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 pinch salt
2 eggplants
4 garlic cloves peeled
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 Tablespoon achiote paste (I used a 1/2 brick)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 clove
1 cinnamon stick
1 Tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 Tablespoon cumin seeds
4 allspice berries
1 orange – fresh squeezed juice
2 limes – fresh squeezed juice
2 Tablespoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
2 Tablespoons mint leaves
2 Tablespoons scallions (sliced thin)
1 lime – cut into 4 wedges
4 Tablespoons sour cream, creme fraiche or queso fresco
Directions
Broil the tomatoes, onion, garlic cloves and habaneros. Remove them when they turn blackened. Set them to the side to cool.
Make the X ni pek. Drain the onions and place them in a bowl. Add the orange, grapefruit, lime juices and 1/2 habanero. Mix well. This stays on the counter till onions turn pink. ( a little over an hour)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Peirce the eggplants all over with a fork. Cook them till the eggplants are cooked all the way threw. (Mine took an hour.) Put on counter till cool enough to handle.
While eggplants are cooking make the marinade. Add oil to a fry pan on medium heat. When hot add the cumin seeds, oregano, cinnamon, allspice, peppercorns and achiote. Toast 2-3 minutes or until aromatic. Brake down the achiote while you cook.
The contents of your pan get blended and add the garlic cloves, orange juice, white vinegar and salt. Blend until smooth.
Cut each eggplant in half longways. Scoop out flesh while keeping the skins intact. Place eggplant flesh in a bowl and mix in marinade as desired. Spoon the mixed up eggplant back into the eggplant skins and return to the oven for ten minutes. To the remaining salsa add the blacked garlic, onions, habaneros. Add water, salt and vinegar. Serve the eggplant with the X ni Pak (onions) salsa, sour cream, herbs and lime wedges. Add tortillas if desired.
Vegetarian Eggplant Pibil with Habanero Salad and Citrus Pickled Onions
It’s FORKING Delicious!
A special THANKS to chef Nud Dudhia and www.GreatBritishChefs.com for this FORKING AMAZING Recipe.
