This summer, I was lucky enough to have met Kate Whittle-Utter, who has been helping me out with Wallflour while on her summer break from college.  We had been inspired by the more apparent trend of lavender in food these days and wanted to try our hand at it as well.  Up to now, the only time I had used anything with lavender was in hand soaps or on the occasional DIY facial mask.  The usages for lavender are endless for both the body and soul.  It is used as a soothing scent, a healing potion, treatment for skin irritations and just plain old relaxing.  There’s a great list of usages as well as how to make lavender oil on this Zephyr farm site.

A couple recipes we pulled were a lavender panna cotta (to be posted shortly) and a lavendar and honey fleur de sel caramel.  Lavender and honey and lavendar and cream are an amazing combination.  Apparently there are several kinds of lavender and the ingestible kind is Lavandula Angustifolia. I have had artisanal ice cream and pastry cream infused with these flavors and found the floral hints surprising and soothing.  There are also traces of lavender found in herbes de Provence, a great dried herb mix I fall back on a lot in the kitchen for Mediterranean dishes as well as for grilling meats and veggies.  A lavender creme brulee is next on my list.  

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Deviled eggs are either loved or abhorred.  Personally, I love them. Always have. But I have always liked egg salad sandwiches too.  And mayonnaise. These deviled quail eggs were an idea I came up with, inspired by the smoky bacon essence amuse bouche they serve at Hatfield’s in Los Angeles.

Since this was part of a tasting menu for the Upscale Patriotic foodie Fourth party I co-hosted, I wanted to still have some remnants of traditional picnic foods and casual BBQ’s on the menu.  The delicate and tiny quail eggs were made more delicate and rich by using homemade aioli instead of store bought mayo and a touch of Sriracha rooster spicy sauce, the green tipped bottle common at pho Vietnamese restaurants, for a kick of added heat.

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Once again- I have enlisted the help of a friend and bar enthusiast, Jonathan Miertschin. Please read on for his insightful, un-sugar coated impression of his experience at a relatively new drinking hole in Echo Park, Los Angeles, El Prado. The fact that he would order a michilada and collects art with any member of the feline family on it is enough to hear what this lad has to say.

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Part of the effort to turn Sunset and Echo Park into Abbot Kinney and Venice, El Prado is not what I call a local favorite. I don’t know if I went on some sort of theme night or what, but everyone there last Saturday was so 80’s retro’d out, it was kind of weird.  In one corner were a group of young hipsters that looked like a cross of Buddy Holly and Anthony Michael Hall from Weird Science.  They all seemed like they were cowering away from the crowds, as though they were trying to avoid having Robert Downey Jr. dump an Orange Julius on their heads.  

The bartender looked like Jennifer Grey, and she was pissed off as though her brother was skipping school and not getting caught/someone was putting her in a corner.  I ordered a michilada after she brought it, she yelled the price.  No big deal, it’s a noisy bar.  However as I was reaching for my wallet so I could pay, she yelled the price at me again, letting me know I wasn’t paying fast enough.  The drink itself was actually pretty good.  They make their michialada like a bloody Mary with beer instead of vodka.  I’m originally from Texas and down there (the only other place I’ve ever had a michilada) they made it with just beer, ice, salt, and lime, so this was an unexpected change, albeit a nice one.

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I have never had success making mayonnaise in a food processor or blender.  The velvety richness of homemade mayo is worth the added effort of whisking it by hand in a small bowl.  I used to make it with a fork, but the small whisk has worked wonders.  It is not about the speed of the mixing but the consistency of the mixing direction and the point at which ingredients are added to the bowl.

HOMEMADE AIOLI

takes about 15 minutes to make.

will keep for about 1 week, covered and refrigerated.

2 large egg yolks, reserve whites for other use

1 tbs Dijon mustard (not the full grain one)

2 tbs fresh lemon juice

1 clove fresh garlic pressed or to taste

1/4 tspn kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup vegetable oil or canola oil

1/8 cup olive oil

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A few weeks ago, I was flipping through one of my many food magazines and came across an ad for Domaine de Canton, a ginger liqueur, looking suspiciously of the same makers of St Germain, the elderflower blossom liqueur that I adore. This was my call to action to hunt it down and test it out. The packaging and website had the same flair and sleekness.  In comparing the two bottle and package designs side by side, I still think St Germain prevails in both design and flavor, but as always those two things are completely subjective.

I have never had a ginger liqueur, but I do recall giant ginger roots shoved in large glass canisters, hidden in a cupboard in my parents home.  These things always scared me when I would open the cupboard and reminded me of some weird mad scientist experiment.  Aside from this spooky childhood visual association, I decided to give Canton a whirl.  Needless to say, I am already in need of replenishing my stock of the frosted, bamboo inspired bottle.  

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I am finally getting around to writing up my visit to the Modernica factory in downtown Los Angeles.  Between hosting mulit-course food tasting parties, working fulltime, and keeping up with every new food destination popping up in town, writing about the things I love sometimes have to wait. I figured since I am still on my sugar high from Scoops, I should get to it right now.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to get a lowdown as to how things are done, by the co-owner and founder of Modernica, Frank Novak.  What ensued for the next couple hours was not a heated debate about design authenticity, but more a discussion of what two enthusiasts of good design had to share with one another. My guess is that I was invited down there by my honest display of confusion that I proclaimed in my article regarding the Eames Demetrios letter in Dwell magazine last month.  As for making sense of my messy note taking while walking and talking, well I hope what I recap is accurate.

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Don’t overlook the recipes that are printed next to wine advertisements in Food & Wine magazine.  Sometimes these are the best recipes in the issue.  Simple, tasty and great for pairing.  This is what I call Baconoki which was adapted from a recipe from F&W.

Anything with the words “bacon wrapped” are an instant hit.  At the holidays, I make a bacon wrapped date or bacon wrapped scallops or shrimp.  I came across this recipe for bacon wrapped enoki mushrooms in Food & Wine and I do believe it is my new favorite bacon wrapped item, at least for summer climate it is. Some might think having a recipe for this is silly.  Well after the holidays, I had a few people ask me how to make the bacon wrapped dates so I figured I should have some notes on this one.

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My friends say that I have officially crossed over into yuppie-dom.  I, of course, would beg to differ, though I find myself going back to LA Mill Cafe quite often and frequenting Barneys New York.  The tell tale sign of course would be when hot dogs and hamburgers don’t quite cut the mustard anymore for the Fourth of July.   

This year would officially mark that for me.  My friend Stephen had been asking me to “co-host” an event with him since the beginning of the year.  He is a recent foodie convert, trading in his cigarettes and Monster energy drinks for the more palatable taste of food, and has become quite adept in the kitchen. 

Since both of our busy schedules were getting harder and harder to coordinate the perfect day, we decided to host a Fourth of July, out of the ordinary, chez me.  He appropriately coined the term “Upscale Patriotic”.  We came up with a seasonal tasting menu which basically changed up until the last minute as certain items were not “tested” enough prior to serving for a crowd.  I’m all for making guinea pigs out of guests, but he was a bit more reluctant.  Our final tasting menu involved seven courses, not counting the amuse bouche.

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