Showing posts with label vegetables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegetables. Show all posts
Leif Hedendal Underground Dinner at KTCHN 105
Back in April, somebody forwarded me a message about a secret Chef Leif Hedenddal dinner happening in L.A., with the location divulged upon rsvp confirmation.I was not too familiar with the chef at the time, but the seafood and vegetable intensive menu definitely caught my eye.
The email contained a short bio from the chef. independent chef work in San Francisco, California. He cooked as Executive Chef in Barcelona, Copenhagen and interned at the infamous Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. He promotes the Slow Food movement.
That gave me a good idea of style. I particularly love that he stated he specializes in weird vegetables. There is nothing I enjoy more than getting introduced to new foods and discovering items I've not yet tasted.
The location of KTCHN 105, a studio kitchen in Downtown L.A. that is dedicated to the appreciation of food. They do private tastings, cooking classes and private dinner parties. The location was in a building, recessed from the street. Since the neighborhood was quite empty, I thought I might have been in the wrong place. Rest assured, a few stylish people who looked like foodies started streaming in, so I followed the crowd.
The simple check-in process consisted of paying for the dinner and desired gratuity in advance, as well as leave any bottles of wine.
The table settings looked very organic and clean.
Several chefs cooked and prepared foods in the open kitchen. Many of them were women, which I don't see often, but enjoyed.
The dinner guests spent what felt like close to 45 minutes in the very green and beautiful courtyard outside have drinks and mingling. Although I met a friend for the dinner, we both spent a fair amount of time meeting new people.
Servers passed trays of the first course, an appetizer of live sea urchin, battered artichoke, yuzu kosho, all beautifully stacked together. I've tasted and adore sea urchin, but never tried it with artichoke. The yuzu kosho, a Japanese sauce with citrus zest, chili and salt added to the delicate flavors. Because we enjoyed it so much, they passed a few extra our way, even upon being seated.
From those I met, I gathered that many guests know the chef personally already. Being someone who attends a lot of events in town, I often run into some of the same foodie types at most outings. In this event, I didn't recognize anybody I already new.
I met a fair amount of designers - graphic designers, food stylists, photographers; types to whom I've always gravitated. A couple of people came from the east coast too. Because the tables consisted of two long rows, we did not get a chance to speak with as many people during the meal. However, we sat amidst extremely interesting people.
A case in point, Adam Pearson, who had been recently featured on the Huffington Post's
Food Informants: A Week In The Life Of Food Stylist Adam Pearson, and his charming Photographer partner, Matt Armendariz, who also creates the food blog, Matt Bites. Since both food styling and photography have long been my fantasy careers, they kindly stayed a bit after dinner in the parking lot to indulge my many questions.
The second course, house bread, churned raw butter, cured egg yolk caught the eye like very few bread plates. The vivid orange yolk appeared to be jam at first, surprising many people upon biting into it. I'm guessing the yolk came from a duck egg. All elements very rich and silky, it presented and tasted elegant.
The third course of sel gris roasted Santa Barbara spot prawn, crispy head, favas, Tokyo turnips, brown butter, cress celebrated both the delicate prawn and fresh vegetables, with enough acidity to even freshen the dish up more. Sel gris is a French grey, granular sea salt. The Tokyo turnips come in tiny radish size. The edible flower petals added more color.
I noticed at this point that most people were not taking food photos, which one often finds at L.A. events. It made me feel conspicuous, especially since it was so dark, I had to take some flash photos. If the attendees minded that, they remained very polite about it.
The fourth course, abalone, dashi tide pool, morels, white asparagus, leeks, seaweed, chickweed, stinging nettles brought that element of tasting not one but several new items. The abalone came in very small portions, making the vegetables the star again. Dashi, a Japanese broth, covered the items half way in the bowl. It added a light earthiness. Visually I loved the spiral fiddlehead ferns on each side of the bowl. These nutritious fronds supplied some great crunch.
While we were outside, before the meal, one of the chefs started grilling squid on the grill outside. I didn't recall seeing squid on the menu. Later I looked back to find that the dungeness crab got replaced with the squid. The initial menu stated there may be changes due to market availability. Based on the care in choosing highest quality ingredients, evident in the meal, I trusted any changes to the menu.
At this point in the meal, I appreciated that the courses tapered off to a light salad. On many tasting menus, getting the heaviest protein at this point really pushes me over the edge of fullness.
Periodically during the meal, Chef Hedendal came out and read off his list to explain what we were eating. His casual and humble manner really impressed me. He also stood by the door, greeting people and chatting as they left.
Sixth came the cheese course. At this point I got up to walk around a bit, and take more photos. One of the chefs stopped what she was doing and staged some of the plates for me, which also was unexpected and nice. I usually try to quietly take photos without intruding, and it's always impressive to find a chef who can talk through their work at the same time.
The plate included Andante Creamery Etude, green almonds, zahidi dates.
Etude an extremely small production cheese from the Andante dairy in Petaluma, California. The cheesemaker uses musical names for the cheeses, influenced by cheeses of the Pyrenees region. She uses goat’s milk instead of the more traditional sheep’s milk. The aged cheese had a firm yet creamy texture.
The original menu listed white mulberries, but the green almonds blended in very well also. They were a bit past that gel stage inside in maturity, however, they added some freshness and greenery.
In large meals like this, at the seventh course, I appreciate either a fruity dessert or something sweet and salty, not an overly sweet and heavy ending to the meal. The adorable, colorful and fresh dessert. Out came a strawberry galette, peas, creme fraiche, lemon thyme. On top the garnish of an edible sweet pea flower provided a charming play on the peas idea. I've never had peas in a dessert. The fresh, sweet and crunchy peas worked with everything.
This was not your childhood strawberry pie with thick red glaze. Everything tasted natural, with a tiny amount of sweetness.
Amedei chocolate, an exclusive handmade Tuscan chocolate, arguably considered the world's best. And those suggesting this are world classs French pâtissiers and visionary Spanish chef Ferran Adrià. Food and Wine magazine declared it the best chocolate in the world. This brother and sister team bypass brokers and acquire their cacao directly from the Chuao plantations in Venezuela.
Even with dessert, the chef introduced several things I haven't tasted and didn't think I'd be able to taste. The mark of a great and memorable meal.
Garden Lifecycle - A Fresh Start After Storm Cleanup
It has been quite a while that I've been out of the groove of writing posts. All I can say is that December was an extremely difficult month, and January consisted mostly of the cleanup and aftermath.There were multiple deaths of a close relative, a lovely neighbor and others. A fair amount of business travel. More family gatherings. Less sleep. And more.
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| Nasturtiums - one of the many storm casualties |
In this case, my go to stress reliever of gardening also went bye-bye in December due to thousands of leaves, debris and dried out plants to clean up both outside and even inside the house. They blew in through the tiny gaps under doors and around windows.
My whole yard got completely wiped out in the L.A. area windstorms in late November, and I mean completely in the sense of having a blank slate to begin with in the Spring.
So let me illustrate what 2 months can do.
The California oaks growing all over my neighborhood and in the back slope used to look like this. In fact they grew so tall last year that they began blocking my view completely.
You might have seen on this post about the storm damage how the largest, middle tree toppled and looked like this. Even on it's side, it reached up to the upper level deck.
It took me almost 6 weeks to even accept and process this enough to start calling for quotes to clean it up. The good thing is that although I was expecting sky high prices and lack of availability, some very fair rates came through.
Eventually, the once majestic tree starting getting chopped up. It took less than half a day for it to look like this on the slope.
My desire was to somehow keep that tree around as mulch, but the wood chippers much like the chainsaws, were hard to come by in town after the storm, so they disposed of it for me.
And the view? Well let's say, I can peek in between the smaller trees that still stand and see right through to the Colorado Bridge and Rose Bowl Stadium. Be careful what you wish for, right?
Rest assured, the remains of the trees serve a great purpose as firewood, and the stack looks quite cozy as well. Some of the wider trunks may get re-purposed as outdoor plant tables.
That brings us to the vegetable component of the story. I've blogged before about my beloved bitter melons.
These nutritious veges get eaten more in Asian cultures, a weekly staple in my family. Many people buy them from Asian markets, so the chance to grow them at home cut out the middle man for me.
These nutritious veges get eaten more in Asian cultures, a weekly staple in my family. Many people buy them from Asian markets, so the chance to grow them at home cut out the middle man for me.
Like most of my plants, this one started as a baby plant with about 3 leaves last June, as shown in my previous garden post about summer edibles.
The graceful leaves and blossoms grew so quickly until they reached a point where they were ready to be picked.
The prolific plant yielded so much fruit that I passed them on to my mother, aunts and others several times.
Fully ready to cook they look shiny and green with white seeds inside
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| bitter melon sliced and sauteed in a pan on the stove |
If left on the vine too long, they'd over-ripen and turn a crazy, bright orange and the seeds turned blood red! My mother still found some way to cook them at this stage.
It's always a bit of a battle figure out the point (in a super small window of time) to let them grow bigger, or harvest them before they turn orange and mush.
For a long season this potted plant, almost as tall as I am, yielded a bounty of luscious veges that I'd sound crazy complaining about.
Sadly after the wind storm, literally overnight, the plant shriveled up to this sad state. It compounded my already mellow feelings after so much loss and upheaval the previous weeks.
There was no choice but to pull it out of the soil and throw it into the compost bin.
This coming spring, it's time to start fresh.
It's always a bit of a battle figure out the point (in a super small window of time) to let them grow bigger, or harvest them before they turn orange and mush.
For a long season this potted plant, almost as tall as I am, yielded a bounty of luscious veges that I'd sound crazy complaining about.
There was no choice but to pull it out of the soil and throw it into the compost bin.
This coming spring, it's time to start fresh.
End of Summer in the Garden
With daylight savings, my time in the garden gets cut back drastically. It's fully dark by the time I get home. Growing slows down. I limit myself to light maintenance and watering.During the summer, it was a different story. This post covers the whole summer's garden activity, until about mid-October.
All in all a fairly high yield of plants bloomed despite the heat mid-summer.
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| black mondo |
The black mondo with its adorable lavender blooms is something I chose for my large, new redwood planter. I hope it spreads sideways.
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| sensitive plant |
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| sensitive plant |
When you touch the leaves, as I'm doing on the 2nd photograph, the leaves close up.
They don't last long so I'm trying to plant it into the ground, hoping it will spread and grow a bit.
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The asparagus fern thrives in sun or shade, little watering or through rain. This new, yellowish leaf sprouted and eventually turned green.
This one may also eventually live in the redwood planter since it can tolerate shade.
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| sea drift and verbena |
This cute sea drift didn't last long but looked cute while it lasted. I'll try this one again next time they return to the nurseries.
I use these marigolds to plant around my tomatoes and eggplants, as they serve as a natural, organic pest and animal repellant.
This hydrangea started growing from a branch cutting. Due to the shade in this spot, it grows slowly but surely.
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| dahlia |
I didn't expect the dahlia to bloom in late summer and fall, but it quickly sprouted up, rested on the adjacent lemon tree and bloomed.
My neighbor gave me cuttings of these succulents, which grow beautifully year round, it seems.
These shallow pots with mismatched, glazed saucers work well for starting off various succulents as well.
I combined several plants that grew in smaller pots. It will be fun to watch how they grow into each other as the plants get larger.
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| ice plant |
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| green, unripe guava |
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| rosa bianca eggplant, growing from seeds |
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| Japanese eggplant |
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| green, unripe tomatoes |
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| mint and shamrock |
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| lemon cucumber |
My curry plant grew a new floor or two! After a long period of shock, it's great to see the plant getting larger and healthier.
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| purslane |
Purslane appeared on its own in the yard and in some of the potted plants. With such graceful leaves, I let them grow wherever they'd like. It's always fun to have edibles to pick as well.
Ivy can never get accused of not being fertile. I've tried to eliminate the ivy from the front planter and side slope from day one, but it grows back in any little spot it can wedge itself into.
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| new trellis - at planting |
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| trellis after 3 months - with Black Eyed Susan vines |
The hefty trellis came up to serve as a makeshift screen against the neighbors' sewage pipes, storage area and den of coyotes!
Once again, in the shade, it's amazing how fast the sweet little Black Eyed Susans are filling in. The trick is to disentangle them from the neighboring bushes because they do tend to overtake everything in their way.
I'm grateful for all this activity as it gets colder, and plan to post another update for the next season or two.
