Halibut season is here!! My first dish of the season is always halibut, simply dusted with flour and sauteed, then served with steamed asparagus- which should be hitting your farmers markets soon as well! Whenever I order halibut, I order a few more ounces than I need, trim off the excess, and save in the fridge for pajun, a Korean seafood pancake, the next day.
Pajun is one of my favorite things to order in a Korean restaurant, along with soon dubu chigae- soft tofu seafood soup (my girlfriend’s favorite!) and bulgogi, Korean BBQ. The simple batter crisps up and is a great combination with the moist, white fish, not to mention the earthiness from chanterelle mushrooms (also in season!) and the sharp flavor from green onions.
Pajun batter:
2 large eggs
2 cups flour
1 to 1 1/2 cups cold water
1 teaspoon salt
Pajun Filling
Handful of chanterelle mushrooms (about 6 or 7 medium)
4 ounces halibut, sliced into 1/4-inch chunks
3 green onions, sliced into 2-inch slices, then halved lengthwise
For the batter, whisk eggs, salt, and flour together in a mixing bowl. Slowly mix in water until a smooth pancake-like consistency.
To prepare the filling: Place chanterelle mushrooms in a pan with preheated canola oil over medium high heat. Cook on both sides until golden brown. Cool and set aside.
Carefully fold halibut, green onion slices, and mushrooms into the batter. In a large nonstick pan over medium high heat, add enough canola oil to create a 1/4-inch layer on the bottom of the pan. Let preheat for 5 minutes (important!) Pour a few drops of batter in the oil. If it bubbles steadily, you’re good to go.
Grab a handful of the mixture and carefully place in the middle of the pan. With your fingers or a spatula, move the mixture out to cover the entire base of the pan- you want an even distribution of solid to batter throughout the entire pancake. Once you see the edges turn golden brown, flip with a spatula and cook for another 4 minutes.
Dipping sauce:
Combine 1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 tablespoons sesame oil, and 1 tablespoon Korean red chili paste in a pan. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 3 minutes. Fold in sliced green onions. Optional: stir in diced strawberries at the last second for a hint of sweetness. (The strawberries were a last minute thought. I’ve seen them paired with halibut so many times, but without any real reason or background story.)
Serve with white rice, Korean BBQ meat, or just a light ale. Enjoy!
I can’t wait for summer!
March 15th, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Saturday, March 13, 2010 @ 3:20pm
UH, Where’s Thierry?
Thierry is out of the studio today, cooking up a storm for Garfield High School! What a lucky group of 450!
So, Tom is left to man the radio waves by his lonesome- however, he’ll have plenty of friends to talk to over the phone to keep him company.
He’ll let the ladies go first today: Amy Pennington will be chatting live from the gardens while she plants the tender leaf, mache. After that, we’ll go straight over to producer Katie O who will be coming to us from the Pike Place Market’s Ghost Tour. Spooky.
During the second hour of the show, Tom will chat with Big Ken of Big Al Brewing Company about Irish Reds and Blacks in preparation for St. Patty’s Day this week. And the boozy fun doesn’t stop there, because Tom will also talk with our weekly wine contributor, Mike Teer of Pike and Western Wine Shop. They’ll discuss a fantastic French wine that pairs nicely with fondue.
All this, PLUS delicious/not delicious: Irish Cheese Edition, AND trivia with great prizes- including pairs of tickets to this year’s Taste Washington.
Listen to the show here!:
First hour
Second hour
Third hour
March 13th, 2010 | No Comments »
Last Saturday, some of Tommy D’s Etta’s folks loaded up our rented Mussel Bus and made a trek over gorgeous Deception Pass and descended on the little community of Coupville for the annual Mussel Fest. Hey, it’s a tough job, but somebody in the company had to do it!
The day was sunny and fabulous, and we gorged on $5 bowls of mussels, cold beer, and homemade brownies! Not to mention fabulous ice cream from the mussel man himself, Rawle Jefferds of Penn Cove Shellfish.
The photos:
photo top left: beautiful black shells leftover from our mussels feast!
photo middle left: Etta’s crew
photo middle right: giant pan of mussels cooking at the festival
photo bottom left: the “rafts” where the mussels are raised
March 11th, 2010 | No Comments »
Yesterday, Tom was the guest speaker at the Marketing Mixology Conference at Bell Harbor. While sharing his experience and knowledge on branding and marketing as a successful restaurant entrepeneur, Tom kept everyone in stitches as he entertained us with his escapades as a young and struggling chef during his early years at Café Sport!
In this picture, Tom is breaking down a king salmon (right on the podium!) and explaining how he uses every single piece of it to create delicious dishes, even the collar- that most folks deem useless and simply toss away- is actually the most tasty part!
So the next time you see salmon collar at your local market, grab it and take it home and transform it into a tasty little dish:
Brine overnight in soy sauce, honey, orange juice, star anise, and a little grated ginger, plus a little water, and the next day broil that baby for dinner, yum!
March 11th, 2010 | No Comments »
Herschell Taghap, catering cook and demo-er extraordinaire, made a family meal (ie. staff meal) that was absolutely divine! Authentic Chicago style hot dogs!!
All beef dog on a poppyseed bun and here’s exactly what’s on it:
yellow mustard
diced onion
2 slices tomato
kosher pickle
sport peppers
and a fine sprinkling of celery salt
Visit Herschell’s blog here.
March 10th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Amy Richardson, our catering gal, braved the desert to attend the Catersource catering convention. She saw many wondrous things and made it back intact. So look for some fancy parties at the Palace Ballroom.
March 10th, 2010 | No Comments »
Food writer Leslie Kelly raves about Tom’s cast iron deep fryer pan with skillet lid on Amazon’s Al Dente blog.
(Note: photo from Al Dente blog)
March 10th, 2010 | 7 Comments »
Little Tastes of Shepherd’s Grain last week was a bushel of fun!
We were joined by Karl, Fred, and their entourage of farmers to learn all about the truly amazing and inspiring journey of building their company with the goal of bringing sustainable, local wheats to market.
In cahoots with the scientists at Eastern Washington U, they have even been instrumental in promoting new strains of wheat with noticeably improved flavor (which seems to come from whatever it is that makes wheat yellow, largely bred out because of the desire for pretty white noodles, etc. I can’t remember all the details, but it was science-y!) And that’s just for starters. Here are the guys…. sans entourage…. avec martinis!
Our head baker, Wendy, talked about various leavening methods we use to bake breads with very different flavors and characteristics with identical ingredients, while Tom Douglas reminisced about bringing grapes from his yard twenty years ago to start our levain “chef.” How cool!
Brock, our Dahlia chef, had agonized over what to make for the tastes, and finally decided on a brilliantly simple series of preparations based upon the parts of the wheat berry in all its glorious simplicity: wheat berry tabbouleh, bran crepes with goat butter, and wheat germ porridge with fireweed honey.
Please join us for the next Little Tastes featuring World Spice on Tuesday, March 30th!
March 9th, 2010 | No Comments »
Can you guess which month these photos of a farmers market were taken? Even saying it was the Palm Springs farmers market probably won’t help.
What does seasonality mean when midwinter gives you berries, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, asparagus, and citrus? An embarassment of riches to be sure, but I’ll take Washington’s short growing season any day!
March 9th, 2010 | No Comments »
Sean (Operations Manager), Audrey (Corporate Sous Chef), and Kat (Palace Line Cook) rocked the kid/adult healthy family meal class. The tamale pie was a big hit and so was Sean’s homemade granola.
(Editor’s note: our spring series of kid’s cooking classes is sold out. Keep an eye out for future classes on our events page.)
March 9th, 2010 | No Comments »
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