The Flavor Bible, by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg - Book Review

Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, authors of The Flavor Bible

Thanks to Keren (the Frantic Foodie), I recently had the opportunity to join a little blogger's coffee klatsch with Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, authors of the indispensable tomes Culinary Artistry, What to Drink with What You Eat, and most recently, The Flavor Bible. They were in Seattle to promote their new book and catch up on the ever-changing food landscape in our fair city.

If you look on any professional chef's bookshelf, chances are that Page and Dornenburg's books are going to be there, battered and bruised, coffee stained and taped together at the spine. Why this place of pride? Because these books contain the most useful culinary lists ever assembled: lists of traditional and modern flavor pairings and techniques to use with every imaginable foodstuff.

Imagine you just went to the farmer's market and couldn't resist a big bunch of heirloom Thumbelina carrots. You slice a few in your salad, sure; but the next day, maybe you'd like to cook with them. You could go look in the index of all of your cookbooks for carrot recipes, or search the web for ideas. Or you could open The Flavor Bible to page 95, and jog your memory and imagination by reading that carrots have a special affinity for butter, ginger, lemon & orange juice, maple syrup, parsley and brown sugar. Their secondary suggestions include chervil, chile peppers, cinnamon, cream, and ... you get the idea.

Along with the flavor pairings, you get suggested techniques (boil, braise, grill, roast, ...), botanical relatives (fennel, celery, ...), multi-way groupings (carrot + pistachios + tarragon!), dish titles from great chefs (Roasted Carrots, Minted Pea Puree and Moscato Vinegar from Cory Schreiber of Wildwood in Portland, OR) and sometimes thought provoking quotes from other chefs.

These aren't just Karen and Andrew's personal opinions, though Andrew was a professional chef before he became an author. They dine out constantly and dissect every good thing they eat. They've collected thousands of menus. And most importantly, they have built personal and professional relationships with many of the finest chefs in the world. They filter and gather the information from all of these sources, looking for combinations that many cooks are using to confirm compatibility.

If you are the kind of cook that feels reasonably confident in your skills and just needs a bit of inspiration, those lists will light a fire under you. I'd be right in the kitchen, pan-roasting those carrots, glazing them with a bit of orange juice and brown sugar and finishing with minced flat leaf parsley and Maldon salt. Do you really need a recipe for that?

You can use the same lists at a higher level to plan accompaniments and even whole menus. For example, if I made that carrot dish, then maybe I'd look up the oranges and remind myself that they pair well with rosemary, mint and chocolate. So I might serve the carrots with rosemary-infused lentils, or a yogurt sauce with mint, or maybe just plan a chocolate dessert for the end of the meal.

Do you see how you can keep playing this game, and build out a whole coherent dinner? And that doesn't even scratch the surface, taking into account all of their fine suggestions about planning around seasonality, temperature, and balancing the "weight" and "volume" of each ingredient. This kind of thinking, more than any one technique, has the potential to make an ordinary meal special, and a special meal extraordinary.

On a personal level, it was fantastic to have a chance to meet Karen & Andrew. It is inspirational to see a married couple that can work so closely and happily together. Their tale of perserverance, sending proposals for their first book to dozens of publishers and actually financing their own press tour for the tiny initial printing is a great reminder that magic happens when you fully commit to your dreams.

You can follow their blog at BecomingAChef.com, and here are all of their books on Amazon. I can't recommend them enough.

Skillet Street Food - Seattle, WA - Restaurant Review

Skillet Street Food in Seattle, WA

Skillet is easily the most talked about mobile restaurant in America. In many other countries, street food is a highly developed art form, but in America it has been left mainly to "roach coaches", hot dog stands, and (often fantastic) taco trucks. CIA-trained chef Josh Henderson and foodservice veteran Danny Sizemore changed all that when they started roaming the streets of Seattle in their vintage Airstream trailer, cranking out beautifully prepared, delicious, seasonal meals.

I find it incredibly inspirational that there are so many new places to eat that question the very idea of a restaurant. Skillet goes right to the heart of that investigation. To serve top notch food, do you have to have waiters? Tablecloths? A printed menu? Nope. Not even a fixed base of operations.

(Hmm, which makes me think someone should do the opposite and build a white tablecloth restaurant with captains and sommeliers and valet parking, charge $100+ per person, and serve McDonald's burgers and King Dons for dessert).

But can a vegetarian eat at Skillet? Well I knew it might not be easy. They are best known for Kobe beef burgers and poutine (a French-Canadian specialty involving french fries, cheese curds, and gravy). Still, your intrepid Herbivoracious correspondent braved 60 degree weather and partly cloudy skies to answer this all-important question.

I settled on the Bibb salad and poutine-hold-the-gravy. I shoulda got the berry crisp too in the interest of research. The salad was a huge portion of tender lettuce leaves tossed with crisp pears, red onions, toasted hazelnuts and a dressing describe as "ranchy" - meaning sour cream / buttermilk / fresh herbs. Yum. They even took the time to rub the skins off of the hazelnuts, which is a fine dining touch you would never expect from street food.

Granted, poutine without the gravy ain't really poutine. Cry me a frickin' river. Super crisp, deep brown, well salted, wicked hot fries. Soft, cheddary cheese curds relaxing into the fries. A sprinkle of fresh dill and parsley on top. It might not be authentic, but it was ridiculously delicious. I'd even go so far as to say it is probably better this way because the gravy doesn't sog up the taters.

So yes, a vegetarian can eat very well at Skillet. I respect the fact that they didn't just offer a crappy veggie burger patty as an option on their Kobe beef burger. Most veggie patties suck, so that would just compromise their whole package. Hey J & D - here's the vegetarian item you should make: sabich - the Israeli eggplant sandwich phenomenon. I will then be lined up at your window every morning at 11:00 AM promptly.

Check their website for the location calendar, current menu, private event info and more.

Achiote-Rubbed Butternut Squash Tacos - Recipe

Grilled butternut squash taco filling

Last week was Sarina's birthday, and she requested a Mexican feast for her celebration. These tacos, filled with achiote-rubbed butternut squash were the highlight. I grilled both the squash and some poblanos, then tossed them with crema and cilantro and served them on soft corn tortillas with red onions, queso panela, and Tapatio hot sauce. I think this is one of the tastiest vegetarian tacos I've ever had (if I do say so myself).

If you haven't used achiote before, it is worth checking out. The mildly sour flavor balanced beautifully with the sweetness of the butternut squash. The red color comes from annatto seed, the same plant used to color cheddar cheese. It is typically sold in a small brick, mixed with spices, vinegar and, sadly, red food dye. This mixture is used frequently in the cuisine of the Yucatan penninsula.

The brand of achiote I used was Del Mayab "La Perla". If anyone has an opinion on even better ones, or more natural options, I'd love to know about them. Anyone worked with plain annatto and made the rest of the mix themselves? I would probably have gone that route but didn't find annatto in my very limited search. I found the Del Mayab at a nice Mexican grocery in Bothell, WA.

Among the guests for Sarina's dinner was Geoff Bugbee, who is one of my brother's best friends. He also happens to be a fantastic photojournalist, specializing in humanitarian work. He took the upper picture in today's post for me, with his sweet little Canon G9. A little more prosaic than his normal subjects, but I really appreciated it!

Achiote-Rubbed Butternut Squash Tacos
Serves 8 as part of a feast
Vegetarian and gluten-free; could be vegan if you omit the cheese and crema

For the filling:

• 1 large butternut squash, peeled seeded, and cut into 1/2" thick slabs
• 2 oz. achiote paste (see above)
• 3 poblano peppers
• cilantro
• mexican crema or sour cream
• salt

To serve:

• 32 soft corn tortillas
• 1/2 red onion, medium slices
• 2 limes cut into wedges
• 1/2 pound panella cheese or other soft, mild, white cheese
• more cilantro
• more crema
• Tapatio or other hot sauce
• optional: guacamole, more poblanos

1. Mix the achiote paste with a small amount of hot water. Working in the sink, use your hands to break it up until thoroughly dissolved. Rub it on all sides of the butternut squash slabs and set aside. Wash your hands, this stuff stains!
2. Prepare a grill for direct high heat. Place the poblano peppers on the grill and char them, rotating occasionally until they are mostly black on all sides. Remove from the grill and put them in a covered bowl for 10 minutes (the steam makes it easy to remove the skins).
3. Reduce the heat of the grill (by adjusting the gas or allowing the charcoal to burn down and using the side areas), then put on the squash. I didn't use any oil and had only slight sticking, but you might want to use a little. Cook until thoroughly tender, flipping halfway through.
4. Remove the squash from the grill and allow to cool a bit, then cut into cubes. If you had to remove it early because it was overcooking on the outside and isn't quite tender, you can use a microwave to finish it.
5. Peel and seed the poblanos, then cut into small dice.
6. Toss the squash and poblanos along with a 1.5 teaspoons of salt. Taste and adjust. Place in a bowl and top with a squirt of crema and some cilantro.
7. Wrap the tortillas in a moistened towl and microwave for 90 seconds.
8. Bring everything to the table and let everyone roll tacos to their own taste. Use two overlapped tortillas per taco to make a structurally sound dining device.

The butternut squash tacos with queso panella, onions, cilantro and hot sauce