Thursday, August 25, 2011

Panevino Trattoria

 Was able to meet up with my friend Jamie yesterday. He is visiting Seattle from Virginia, where we attended college. Here are some photos of our lovely meal at Panevino on Capitol Hill. I loved this restaurant. The ambiance was great, the staff were fast/friendly, the wine and food were excellent, and the portions were great for the price. If I'm ever in this area again, I will definitely go back!

Not pictured: That huge glass of Riesling that I normally wouldn't allow myself. It was delicious. 

Antipasto: Bruschetta

 
Antipasto misto, which is a plate of salami, prosciutto, olives, and grana (cheese)

I opted for the scallopine al marsala, which was "shut the front door" good. I've had mediocre and bad marsala dishes, and this was what a marsala sauce should be. Perfect.

Jamie had the house gnocchi with a pesto sauce. (I'm pretty sure he loved it, but it would have been rude of me to photograph his empty plate.)

Dessert. I normally would have chosen cannoli, but after I'd been walking around Seattle on an unusually hot day, this affogato was a perfect ending to an extremely pleasurable meal.

Jamie and I chose our dishes off of a kind of "prix fixe" menu. For our antipasti (starters), main courses, and dessert, the cost was $25/person, and the portions were huge! It was an awesome deal for well made food, and a great experience.

We survived music school together!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Scrambled eggs with salmon caviar

Breakfast this morning:
Scrambled eggs with salmon caviar

I did not use the recipe that I posted yesterday, but kind of did my own thing. Meh. The creaminess of the eggs (I scrambled with plain yogurt instead of creme fraiche) was a nice contrast with the saltiness of the roe, but I couldn't help feeling like I would have appreciated it more as ikuradon. I don't know, maybe I'm too Asian and can only appreciate it as ikuradon or in sushi. Ikuradon will be for dinner tonight!

Salmon "caviar"

Went camping and salmon fishing over the weekend on beautiful Whidbey Island, near Fort Casey State Park. It was my first time fishing for salmon, and I caught 2 of them! After fileting the salmon, I set out to preserve the roe. Ended up using Homebrew Chef's recipe for curing salmon roe. Though the brine itself was easy enough to assemble, it took me a long time to remove the eggs from the membrane. Now I understand why caviar and roe are so expensive!

Town of Coupeville on the island has the BEST mint choc chip at Kapaws Iskreme
Reeling 'em in. "I wants it," said Andrew.
Sunset at Keystone Harbor, where we fished
I worked very hard to make this salmon "caviar"


Uses for cured salmon roe, or salmon "caviar," but I haven't tried:
Ikuradon: salmon caviar with rice and seaweed

Side note: If you'd like to try salmon "caviar," Seattle Caviar Company sells it for $20 for a 4 oz. tin, and I'm sure their process is much more refined than what I did. Or, you could probably find it at a local Asian market for a reasonable price.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Kalbi, again

A long, long time ago, I posted about making galbi/kalbi for Memorial Day. Well...I posted about marinating the meat. Then, I never talked about it again. Oopsies. Sorry.

Here's how it turned out:
Galbi. Galbi preeetty happy eating this. (Get it???)

Galbi is a Korean dish of marinated and grilled beef short ribs. It is marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper flakes, garlic, onions, and happiness. I used the recipe found on Savory Sweet Life's blog, though I cheated and baked the ribs in the oven prior to letting them char on the grill. I think it was faster that way. It. was. awesome.