What a Crock!

I think I’m getting old because I was really excited to get my new crock pot.  Since I’m not a fan of the word “crock” except for in the negative sense, I’m now going to refer to this beautiful, simple cooking vessel  as the slow cooker.  The slow cooker cooks the food at a low temp for a long period of time.  So far, I’ve found the keys to success are fatty pieces of meat and a fair amount of liquid so the dish doesn’t dry out. 

To become the slow cooking expert I now am, I purchased a mag to study up on recipes.  I decided on Better Homes and Gardens Essential Slower Cooker.  I thought since BGH is as old school as the slow cooker, it would be a good choice to show me the way.  It’s mostly filled with stews, chillis, aps and bbq dishes.  Pretty standard stuff for the pot, but wow – you can also make fondues, desserts and beverages.  Yes, I’m talking about mulled wine and hot apple cider! Who knew?

For my first foray I not surprisingly went with a pork dish called Asian-style barbecue ribs.  Seemed simple enough…and it was! You basically just dump a bunch of stuff in the pot and set it and forget it! (Thanks Ron Popeil for that one!) I was a little worried because it called for a lot of sweet things like plum jelly, molasses, ginger and brown sugar, so I added a few spoonfuls of sriracha to spice it up.  I mixed that up with green onions and topped it on the ribs and seven hours later the meat was falling off the bones.  It was delish!  I served it up with some brown rice with green onions and sautéed sesame spinach. 

 

 

Asian pork ribs with spinach and rice

 

For the next adventure I decided to make…well pork.  It just seemed super suited for slow cooking.  This time I went with chops.  The recipe was pork chops and bacon because there’s  nothing that tops pork better than pork.  The key here was a very thick bone in chop.  I dumped the cooked bacon, bay leaves, soy sauce, onions, cider vinegar and some other stuff in.  The dish turned out great.  Again, the pork just fell off the bone and was infused with an intense flavor – restaurant quality!!  I served it up with the spinach again (sans sesame) and some scalloped potatoes. (Props to Debbie who helped with this one!)

 

 

 

chops

spuds

The third adventure was…wait for it…pork.  Just kidding! It was chicken.  A whole chicken that is, and the easiest recipe yet!  Here’s what you do:  get a whole chicken (mine was a 4.5 pounder) and stuff it with herbs and garlic.  Chop onions, carrots, celery (mirepoix) and dump it around the bird.  I also added some chicken broth and white wine.  Then set it and forget it! Seven hours later I had a nicely roasted chicken – it was very juicy, but I will admit, a bit bland.  Next time I would omit the carrots and cel and add a ton more garlic and herbs.  The best part was I had a ton of chicken for meals during the week, which was the idea.  Today for lunch:  curried chicken salad.  Tonight for dinner:  tortilla soup. Tomorrow:  chicken quesadillas.  

chicken

 

tortilla soup

 The slow cooker may not be a very glamorous cooking tool, but it’s easy, fun and produces delicious food.  My advice is to get one with a timer (mine doesn’t have one)  Go get one!

Epic Roasthouse

Since I moved to San Francisco I’ve been calling things by the wrong name.  For example, North Beach is “Little Italy”, the Ferry Building is “the Embarcadero”, the Muni is simply “the Tram”.  At first it was out of ignorance, but now I purposefully do this because (I think) it’s charming.  From now on, I’m going to call Epic Roasthouse “Epic Roadhouse” mostly because I miss Patrick Swayze, but also because it I don’t eat steak and it just sounds more fun.  

I liked Roadhouse so much that I went there twice this week.  First was Wednesday for dinner and last night for happy hour (HH).   On Wednesday, we decided to start with oysters.  I hadn’t had oysters in a really long time.  It’s really hard to mess up oysters.  All you do is shuck and serve.  Unless they’re bad, it’s pretty much a done deal.  Roadhouse serves there’s up with hot horseradish sauce.  I love hot and horseradish, but it seemed to overpower the subtly of the oyster, so I stuck with the simple vinegar.  

The salad course was next.  I obviously went with the salad that has three of my favorite ingredients:  spinach, poached (duck) egg and bacon!  The spinach was slightly wilted with lots of smoky bacon chunks and the runny egg just pulled it all together.  I will definitely recreate this one in the Mogil test kitchen (let’s be honest, I’ll use a chicken egg).  Continuing with salads, my friend had the minutina salad with pork belly and shaved eggs.  Minutina is a leafy herb that is apparently only available for a few weeks this time of year.  It looks like very long, thin blades of grass.  Guess what? It also tasted a lot like grass.  Very earthy, which is probably why they added pork belly to the salad.  Interesting, but that was probably my only stint with minutina.

For my main I had the roasted whole fish, which was dorado.  The server filleted it for me tableside.  At least, that was what he was supposed to do.  Unfortunately, there were a million bones still in this sucker.  I spent the whole time fishing out bones from each bite, this dish was a total bust.

For dessert we had a devil’s food cake, which was chocolatey and pretty standard.  The best part, however, was that it was served with a bourbon milkshake!  Sign me up! The best desserts are served with booze in my opinion.  We also had a strawberry rhubarb tart.  (Has anyone had rhubarb in anything but a dessert?)  It was so fresh and rhubarby – this was a keeper.

Last night we just did aps.  The cured meat plate was average.  My friends got bone marrow, which I didn’t touch.  We also had a few sides.  Sides at Roadhouse are listed under this heading:  “Things You Just Want in a Steakhouse.”  Um, yeah! Mac & cheese, steamed spinach, steakhouse fries, friend onion rings, asparagus and mushrooms.  The mac & cheese was to die for! The only problem was that it was served in a tiny dish and we gobbled it up and really wanted ten more.  We also had the chilled asparagus with blood orange hollandaise.  You had me at hollandaise.

The atmosphere at Roadhouse is pretty swanky and you really can’t beat the views of the Bay Bridge.  It’s a great HH scene, filled with easy-on-the-eyes professionals.  I hope to become a regular.  Epic Roadhouse:  3 stars.

 

The Brixton

I headed to The Brixton on Union Street last night with my peeps. I had been here once before for a cocktail at the bar and was eager to try the comfort food.  After a hellishly long week of work, all I wanted to do was drown my PR sorrows in my regular:  Kettle One Dirty Martini.  Much to my surprise not only did they make an excellent K1D (just the right amount of olive juice), they had the only thing that could ever improve on this smooth libation, blue cheese-stuffed olives!  I can’t think of anything better to satisfy my love of Vodka, salt and stinky cheese, all in one glass!

While not nursing my K1D, I perused the menu.  The cocktail menu was strong with a few subtle twists on classics.  I had one sip of my friend’s Manhattan which had Elderflower and San Francisco’s favorite (that no one else has ever heard of) Fernet.  What a great idea!  The Elderflower added that right bit of sweetness. Couldn’t really taste the Fernet (which tastes like anise), but probably a smart substitution for the traditional bitters. 

Now for food.  We ordered two dips, French onion and spinach and artichoke, why not?  Both were served in these cute little cast iron ramekins.  The French onion dip was made with carmelized onions and cream cheese and served with homemade potato chips.  It was very tasty. Kind of like the fresher, warm version of the powered mix I dump into sour cream. The other dip was a fairly standard spinach and artichoke dip minus the flavor.  Where’s Houston’s (or Hillstone) when you need it?

For my main I had a cornmeal fried chicken salad.  The fried chicken was super juicy and not overly fried.  This was obviously the star of the show, because the rest of the salad was blah:  romaine, green beans, cherry tomatoes.  I had high expectations for the jalapeño bacon buttermilk dressing.  Jalapeño and bacon are pretty intense flavors, which I could barely taste.  The only saving grace was the watermelon radish which added a nice crunch.  I also had a bite of the fiery mac & cheese.  Next time I’ll order my own, but I liked the spice kick, seemed to need more cheese though. 

Brixton’s atmosphere was pretty good.  Not surprisingly filled with young Marina bucks trolling for love.  I quite enjoyed the black felt wallpaper which added to the rock ‘n roll vibe. Overall, I think it would be a place I would frequent and pony up to the bar if I lived close by (thankfully I don’t).  It’s a nice place to kick back with friends, have a stiff cocktail and some decent food. The Brixton 2.5 stars. 

 

Fried chicken salad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Town Hall

Town hall is the “chief building where business is transacted, often with a public hall for meetings.”  Well, this SOMA restaurant  is definitely the town hall of food where the public should have all their “eatings.” (Yeah, Yeah).  I’ve tried a few times to get a reso here and finally made it last night.  The atmosphere is simple and understated with elegant, multi-single bulb chandeliers that complement the brick walls.  This unfortunately does not provide for very good acoustics, which would be my only complaint.  It was quite loud.  Now, for the important stuff.

I started off the evening with a pony-up to the bar and a Dirty Martini (as I do).   ( Mental note:  cute guys hang out at the Town Hall bar, could be a place to meet Mr. Mogil.)  Menu time.  Um, what the f do I order? There’s too many seemingly yummy things.  In typical Traci fashion, I chat it up with the server to get the 4-1-1 on the food.  Most of the time he or she will tell it like it is, especially at a place as nice as this.  Our waiter, who looked 12, talked up the étouffée, double beef dish (which actually sounded pretty good – I mean it was served with tater tots, how can you go wrong? Too bad I don’t eat beef).    

I was dining with colleagues tonight and we each picked an app which were the following: Cornmeal fried oysters, Herbsaint spinach purée, Hobbs bacon and preserved lemon.  This was my choice.  The oysters were served in the shell with the yummy spinach puree.  I could’ve had a hundred of these.  Next was:  BBQ shrimp, Worcestershire sauce, garlic herb toast. Sounds simple but was so delicious, proven by the fact that all three of us kept dipping our bread in the sauce over and over again. I could’ve taken a bath in that sauce.  Finally:   Duck prosciutto, pomelo, Upland watercress, balsamic reduction, Paesano virgin olive oil.  I love my prosciutto because it’s pork and salty.  I don’t think I’ve ever had the duck version. It’s way heavier.  I wasn’t a fan.  My wine choice was a 2009 Gary Farrell Sav B. I really enjoyed it.  You can’t usually go wrong with a Sav B, and this one was just the right crispness and went well with our entrees. 

All the apps

After much deliberation, I ordered the Alaskan Cod, espelette chili, poached oysters, leeks, spinach purée, oyster chowder jus, which was pretty tasty.  I have to admit I was so blown away by the apps that my main didn’t compare.  Don’t get me wrong, it was awesome, but those apps were just so good.  My friends ordered the buttermilk fried chicken, Anson Mills grits, collard greens, bacon gravy and the Seafood étouffée, Louisiana shrimp, scallop, rockfish, crispy rice, scallions.  I have to admit I only had one bite of the chicken and I thought the crispy skin was a bit dry.  The collards were pretty damn good though.  I didn’t try the étouffée, but my fellow diner said it was good.

Now dessert time and of course, three more dishes.  Against my better judgment, I ordered something I don’t even like:  butterscotch.  And rightly so I liked mine the least.  The three dessert choices were:  coffee and donuts:  warm brioche donuts, Blue Bottle coffee ice cream, chicory streusel; butterscotch and Chocolate Pot de Crème; and warm Date Upside Down Cake with butter pecan ice cream, sherry gastrique.  You had me at dates.  I love anything date flavored and this did not disappoint.  I’m not going to lie, the coffee and donuts def hit the spot as well. 

Coffee and donuts

If you are not full from just reading this you should be.  I would like to write more about how under-rated pastry chefs are, but this is already too long.  Town Hall:  3.5 Stars.