This cake was on our table at every party event while I was growing up in Oklahoma:
Dump one can of crushed pineapple in a cake pan
Dump one can of cherry pie filling in the cake pan; mix these two
Dump one box of dry white or yellow cake mix on top and cut a stick of butter and place squares all over the top
Bake at 350°F until bubbly and butter has browned on top.
Cool and enjoy- yum, yum!!
(Editor’s note: Robyn is another winner in the staff family recipe blog contest.)
February 15th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Every year for New Year’s Day, my mom makes hundreds of wontons for friends and family. She always fills them with a mixture of pork and beef, water chestnuts, scallions, ginger, garlic, soy, and hoisin. She deep fries them all while she rolls them and then packs them up for personal delivery with a plum and hoisin sauce.
At the Dahlia, Dezi (also a Dahlia sous chef) created a wonton suitable for the menu and serves it poached in a tsuyu broth. The wontons are filled with shiitake mushrooms and a cured foie gras. They float in a light tsuyu broth (housemade dashi, soy sauce, and mirin). The broth and wontons are garnished with roasted honshimeji mushrooms and scallions.
My mother’s wonton recipe:
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef
1 can sliced water chestnuts, finely chopped
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 thumb ginger, peeled and minced
5 cloves garlic, minced
Soy to taste
Hoisin to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
2 packs store bought wrappers
Mix together all of the ingredients (except wrappers), adding soy and hoisin last. The soy, hoisin, salt, and pepper are for flavor, so use your best judgment and then form a small patty of the fill and pan fry it (like you would a sausage patty), let it cool, then check for seasoning. Adjust seasoning if necessary, and then you’re ready to start filling.
To fill the wrappers, you’ll need a small bowl of warm water, the filling, and the wrappers, which you’ll need to keep covered with a damp towel so they don’t dry out.
You’ll work in small batches of 3 to 5 at a time, depending on how quick you are at rolling.
Lay the wrappers flat on the cutting board so they are like a diamond, and then put a small spoonful of the filling in the center of each one. Wet one of your fingers in the warm water and moisten the two sides of the wrapper that are farthest away from you. The two wet sides should meet at the corner like two sides of a triangle. Then fold the wrapper into a triangle, touching the two dry sides to the two wet sides. It is important at this point to get out any air pockets when you are forming the triangle shape. Next, you will want to wet your finger again and moisten the right corner of the triangle. Next, attach the underside of the left corner to the top (moist) side of the right corner… and that should be it! Read the rest of this entry »
February 15th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Here are last week’s Happy Hour sliders at Palace Kitchen (photo right).
On the plate, from left to right:
The Messy Besse- burger, beecher’s cheddar, bacon and blue cheese potato fritter as top bun
Regan’s PB&J- beef burger, peanut butter and jam
Skook’s Slammin’ Slider- beef and pork burger, bbq, cheddar, bacon, onion rings
The Palace cooks responsible for creating last weeks sliders:
Bryan Besse (photo, left), Regan Curran, and Travis Rue
Coming to Palace Happy Hour this week: 3 new sliders from 3 new Palace cooks! C’mon in and check it out!
You be the judge!
(Editor’s note: photo courtesy of Bruce Miyahara of Seattle Foodies)
February 15th, 2010 | No Comments »
A big weekend ahead!
It’s Valentine’s Day weekend… wait no, it’s President’s Day weekend… wait, no it’s Chinese Lunar New Year… wait, no… IT’S ALL OF THOSE THINGS! And, beyond those 3 reasons to party down this weekend- it’s Mardi Gras and that’s what we’ll be celebrating on the show. No need to take your top off because we’re not throwing any beads. Instead, start working on your roux and tune in to our NOLA fun-filled program.
Of course we’ll check in with last week’s substitute co-host, Amy Pennington for our Urban Pantry Report. And she’ll be talking about orange flower water. Why? Well, tune in and she’ll tell you how it all ties into our theme!
We have a wonderful in-studio guest this week: Eric Donnelly of Toulouse Petit the brand new hit restaurant in Lower Queen Anne. He’s the passionate chef behind their creole and cajun inspired menu!
Mike Teer of Pike and Western Wine Shop will be on to talk about a lovely pink sparkling wine- a nice treat for any celebration: be it Mardi Gras OR Valentine’s Day.
Producer Katie O is going to travel out their into the streets of Seattle in search of some New Orleans style food herself. Where will she go?? What will she eat??? Find out soon!
Listen to the show here!:
Second Hour
Third Hour
February 13th, 2010 | No Comments »
The one family recipe that my mother’s purebred Swiss American family can’t live without is actually Latvian.
Brought into my family by a Latvian family that my grandfather sponsored after WWII, we call them Bacon Buns, but I’ve been informed they’re actually piroshki.
No matter how poor we’ve been, as long as we get these at Christmas, we know it will be ok for another year.
My Family’s Bacon Buns Recipe:
1 batch yeasted sweet dough (I use the dough from the schnecken recipe in Seattle Kitchen, which is pretty much the same as my family’s recipe. Omit the filling, etc, and make just the yeast dough. You can find the Tom Douglas recipe here.)
1 1/2 pounds slab bacon(uncooked)
1 medium onion
1. Grind the bacon and onion. Season with a little black pepper.
2. When the dough has risen, punch down and start forming buns.
3. Take walnut size lump of dough and stretch to 3-inch diameter
4. Put 1 1/2 teaspoons filling in center. Fold in half and seal edges like a turnover.
5. Bake at 350ºF for 10 to 12 minutes until nicely browned.
(Editor’s note: this is the first entry in our staff blog contest for family recipes.)
February 11th, 2010 | 4 Comments »
When I think of Valentine’s Day, I don’t usually think of chocolate, roses, or rings. Typically, for me my romantic memories return to traveling. Places Jackie and I have explored along the path of 28 years of dating and marriage include Paris (France, not Texas), Rome, Milan, London, Tokyo, and quite literally hundreds and hundreds of other bergs, hamlets, and villages. Recently I have been enjoying a collection of R.W. Apple’s food and travel writings, Far Flung and Well Fed, that is a mantra on the glorious gluttony that world exploration can be.
Read the rest of Tom’s Letter here.
February 10th, 2010 | No Comments »
4 Ladies
24 hours
10 Bakeries
Molly Melkonian (Dahlia Bakery Manager), Wendy Scherer (Head Bread Baker), Stacy Fortner (Exec Pastry Chef), and Adrienne Lasko (Dahlia Bakery Chef) head to Portland for a bakery tour.
What: Bakery Tour
Where: Portland, OR
When: Feb 7
Why: Check out where we’re at compared with other notable bakeries and get inspired!
After visiting 10 bakeries all over the Portland map, we conclude that the Dahlia Bakery maintains a competitive edge with other top bakeries in the Pacific Northwest.
Portland bakeries with concepts most similar to ours: Pearl Bakery, Grand Central Bakery, Little T American Baker, St. Honore Boulangerie, Two Tarts, and Ken’s Artisan Bakery
Portland bakeries with concepts not so similar to ours: Voodoo Doughnuts, Bakery Bar, Pine State Biscuits, and Saint Cupcake
While we found deliciousness everywhere we went, quality varied greatly. We found that what we considered “misses” generated great conversations amongst ourselves about how we do it, and how it can be done better. We loved some of the packaging and talked about how to implement new ideas into our bakery.
We are looking forward to making some changes with our sandwich bread, some of the packaging, and practicing more frequent rotation to keep things exciting.
In the future, we will be hitting up some local Seattle bakeries for ongoing R&D. The photos: Read the rest of this entry »
February 10th, 2010 | No Comments »
I had dinner at the Harvest Vine and it was simply incredible. I started out with an amuse of chilled prawn topped with a mixture of aioli, chopped chickpeas, cured olives, lemon juice, and pepper (photo top left). Great combinations of heat & cool, crunchy & soft.
Next had one of my favorite dishes at the Vine: the chilled beet salad (photo top middle). It is a combination of thinly sliced chilled beets, lots of Spanish olive oil, garlic, sherry vinegar, and pinches of salt. So sublime and so delicious! There is bread to wipe up the remaining vinegar and oil- don’t ask for butter for your bread; they won’t give you any. The bread is not there to top it with butter, but rather to catch the remains of any sauces.
Started out with a delicious fruity Rioja.
Kylan, the sous chef, proves that dreads aint’ dead!
A beautiful assemblage of sliced meats and marinated vegetables followed: duck prosciutto, cured pork, ham prosciutto, chorizo, blood sausage, and veal sausage (photo top right). Best charcuterie!
The Atlantic cod was seasoned perfectly with salt and pepper and had a nice crispy skin and some sauteed arugula and mixed peppers (photo bottom left). So delicious.
Moved on to an amazing in-house duck confit with incredible, crispy skin (photo bottom middle) prepared by the awesome Jeremiah. It had a light chestnut puree and rich duck demi. I ordered a fabulous, full temperanillo- and now I am in heaven!
The last dish was a surprise from Kylan: a fried egg on top of spicy goat sausage and sauteed spinach with garbanzo beans (photo bottom right). I sat at the counter and was able to watch him make the goat sausage from scratch: add duck fat, seasonings, and pepper, and then make quenelles and wrap each one in caul fat and saute it. So, so satisfying!
February 9th, 2010 | No Comments »
Tom and Jackie were the honored guests at this swanky fund-raising event for Pike Place Market Foundation. Tom is wearing a silk chef’s coat smoking jacket handmade by Petra, a server at Etta’s. Not to be outdone, Dahlia Chef, Brock, also wore a smoking jacket. (Brock is seated with Patty, Dahlia’s GM, and Colleen, Lola’s GM.)
Posted by Shelley Lance, Blog Editor
February 9th, 2010 | No Comments »
South Seattle Community College has an annual fundraiser which we always try to be involved in. This year Brock, Chef of the Dahlia, cooked a Balinese styled dinner for 20 lucky guests. The hit of the night for both our guests and our culinary interns was the Nasi Campur, which as a literal translation is mixed rice. The rice itself isn’t the star, but the accompaniments are. Our Nasi was saddled up next to a whole pig that Brock roasted at the event. The students were excited to see such an undertaking as most had never seen this done before.
My highlight, however, was Brock’s soup course. He made some spicy shrimp dumplings that were poached in a lemongrass and coconut water broth. each delicate flavor could be tasted with no one flavor dominating over another. My type of dish.
February 8th, 2010 | No Comments »
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