La Trattoria

Last night we tried a new (to us) restaurant for dinner.  They've been open since November of 2001 and the restaurant is owned by a husband and wife team.  They serve Italian cuisine, mostly Northern Italian in the winter months, more Southern in the summer.  The name of this quaint little restaurant is La Trattoria which means "the cafe" in Italian.  You won't find your typical Americanized, over cheesed Italian food here.  It's more like something you would get if you visited an Italian family and mamma from the old country cooked for you.  They use mostly local and organic foods, serve vegetarian and omnivore alike and have a nice wine list.  The menu changes daily, so you'll never know for sure what your choices will be for that night.  They're small and busy, so make reservations.  (707-822-6101)

Last night this was there menu:

We started with the marinated vegetables, lentil salad, pecarino and salami.  The vegetables were mostly rutabagas, and carrots and they were subtly marinated.  I usually don't care for rutabagas, but these were quite good.  The lentil salad was extrememely simple, a mild sauce and mellow herbs.  The cheese was excellent and the salami locally made and delicious.  We also ordered a bottle of Il Montaggio from our local Fieldbrook Winery. 

A small house salad that comes with the main course was served next.  A blend of various local and very fresh greens with a mild vinaigrette.

For the main course John ordered the braised pork shoulder in white wine and onions served with scalloped rutagabas and potatoes and barley.  The sauce was so mild that the flavor of the pork stood out on it's own, tender and delcious.  The barley was simply barley, cooked probably, in their own vegetable stock, and was perfectly done.  As I mentioned before I'm not a big rutabaga fan, but the scalloped rutabagas and potatoes were incredible.  John was having what I call a Ratatouille moment. That moment in the movie where the food critic, Antono Ego, is taken back to his childhood with the first bite of his dish or ratatouille.  John felt like he was home having a childhood Sunday dinner.  It was over the top comfort food.

I ordered the potato, leek, and caper ravioli's (they make their own pasta) topped with spinach, fava beans and pecarino cheese (lots of it!) with a basalmic browned butter.
The pasta was perfectly made and cooked.  Like savory little pillows on your tongue.  A perfect blend of the mild soft potato and leek contrasted by the capers.  The spinach was not over done, a brilliant green, and the fava beans were buttery.  The ravioli's didn't have much salt on them, but the pecarino cheese had the perfect amount of saltiness that none was needed, and was an excellent contrast the the basalmic browned butter.  Just enough basalmic to have the flavor, but not be sour.  Heavenly. 

We were too full after dinner to have a big dessert, so we ordered a couple glasses of port.  Benjamin Port, which was served with two small pieces of good chocolate. 

The service was excellent, considering the number of people and that the husband (James Becker) was the only waiter on duty, besides two bus boys, while his wife (Patricial Cambiancica) cooked in back.  There was minimal wait time and the tables were turned quickly but without being rushed.  The prices were reasonable for such good food as well, and I cannot wait to go back and see what they have on their menu the next time.  I highly recommend this restaurant.  It's relaxed, casual, the food is of very high quality, but not pretentious, nor are the owners.  Be sure to check them out.

Cafe Tomo

A couple of weekends ago we decided to have some sushi.  We ended up in Arcata at a pretty good little sushi restaurant called Cafe Tomo.  I still think Kyoto's in Eureka is better, but Tomo's is a definite close second.  You can find them just off the Plaza in Arcata in the Hotel Arcata.  707-822-4100.
Here's a small sample of what we had. 

Pretty huh?  Flying fish roe with raw quail eggs.  Very yummy!

Follow up Bruschetta/Tapenade pics

Dinner the night before Easater.  Simple and yummy.

Kim's Olive Tapenade

The night before Easter we weren't up for cooking a big dinner and didn't want to eat too much knowing we'd be feasting pretty heavy the next day.  John suggested bruschetta, which sounded great and made me think it would be fun to make a homemade olive tapenade.  This is what I came up with and it was delicious!

Kim's Olive Tapenade
20 kalamata olives
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp fresh basil
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp olive oi or more as needed
1 tbsp dry sherry
pinch of salt
1 tsp dizon mustard
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
1/2 juiced lemon
1 tsp red wine vinegar

Mix all ingredeints together in a food processor and blend until thoroughly mixed.  Great for topping crackers,  baguettes, and of course bruschetta. 

Cincinnati Chili

Today is my husband's birthday, and the poor man ended up cooking his own dinner.  Not that it was a difficult dinner, but still.

His friend Dale sent him home with a packet of spices from Cincinnati.  Cincinnati chili.  A mid-western delight apparently.  Being born and raised in California, Nevada being my home away from home, I was skeptical.  Especially when this chili involved spaghetti. Spaghetti? With chili?  WTF?  Really?  No Texan or Oklahoman would understand (or Californian).  Well, I decided, lets give Dale and his chili a chance.

It smelled delicious!  Cinnamon being the strongest smell, which I love.  I was worried about it being too salty (which the sodium level was over the top) but it didn't taste that salty.  We took the "5 way" route and were pretty pleased witht he result.  Here's ther recipe:

One package of Cincinnati chilli spices with one 6 oz can of tomato paste and 6 cups of water.
Add one to 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef.  Do not brown.
Beat mixture with a fork and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer uncovered stirring occasionally until desired thickness - 1 to 1 1/2 hrs.

There are apparently 2 to 5 ways to serve this.  We chose the 5 way.  Serve on Spaghetti, with finely grated cheddar cheeese (Dale specified that it must be finely shredded) chopped onions, and warmed kidney beans added to the spagehetti topped wiht chilli. 

Did I like it?  Yes.  It was by no means over the top spectacular, (to me, it tasted just like my expectations of the midwest.  Simple, and plain - that doesn't mean bad, just not complex or outrageous) but, as John said, excellent comfort food.  The spices in the packet were great.  I can only imagine that this recipe homemade would be awesome.  It was quite good from a package.  So thanks Dale, you ended up giving us quite a nice dinner for John's birthday.

Dale - the inspiration for dinner, his packet of Cincinnati chili spices, the chili cooking and the final dish.  Thanks Dale!  Not bad! 

Salmon Cod Chowder

John and I had a nice lunch date  in Eureka a few days ago at the Down Town Express Cafe.  A nice little cafe conveniently located across the the courthouse and within walking distance of work. While we were there we noticed this enormous list of soups that they make.  They feature a couple different soups each day.  I can't remember what they had featured that day, but we did notice a Salmon Cod Chowder on their list.  John's a white fish kinda' guy, I prefer pink fish.  We thought this would be a good chowder for us, a good compromise.  When I Googled for a recipe, there were none to be found, so I figured they must have made this recipe up.  So I started doing some searching and ended up with two recipes.  A Cod Chowder and a Salmon Chowder, and I proceeded to meld the two. This is what I came up with.

Kim's Salmon Cod Chowder

3 tbsp butter
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrot
3 tbsp flour
1 cup clam juice
3 cups chicken broth
3 cups diced potatoes
1 lb salmon diced
1 lb rock cod diced
1 cup frozen peas
3 cups cream
1/2 cup milk
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
3 tbsp flat leaf parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a saucepan.  Add celery, carrot, and onion; saute, stirring for several minutes until celery is tender.  Whisk the flour into the clam juice and add to the vegetables, stir and allow to thicken a bit.  Add chicken stock and potatoes and simmer, stirring occassionally until potatoes and carrots are tender, about 15 minutes.  Add salmon, cod and peas sitrring and cook for about 2 minutes.  Add the cream and milk along with  the cheese and parsley.  cook, stirring until the cheese has melted and the soup is beginning to bubble. Taste and salt and pepper to desired taste. 
Serve with a good french bread. (preferably home made and warm from the oven)
Makes 8 servings.

My attempt at a mise en place (notice the peas everywhere)

mirepoix

Putting in the cheese

The final product - thumbs up from the entire family.  When the kids give a thumbs up, it's gotta' be good!

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