Quick Eats: Brentwood

Location: 148 S Barrington Ave Los Angeles CA 90049. 310-476-3511

Date: Jan 9, 2011

Cuisine: American

Brentwood is a local bar/restaurant perfect for the Sunday night with-the-kid dinner. It’s pretty straight up American, very tasty, but a bit overpriced. The menu can be found here.

Their bread is good. I (and my two year-old) particularly liked the flat cracker-like bread.

“Tomato & Farmer’s Market Vegetable Salad.”

“Swan Depot Seafood Salad, jumbo shrimp, baby Maine shrimp, Dungeness crab,iceberg lettuce, 1000 island dressing, fresh dill.” This is essentially a crab and shrimp Louis salad. The seafood is very fresh, the dressing good, so if you are partial to Louis (and I am), then that’s all a good thing.

“Fish & Chips, beer battered Alaskan halibut, fries, tartar sauce.” While overpriced, this is a very good fish and chips. The fish is very most and well cooked, the batter perfect, the fries crisp, and the tartar sauce very tangy.

“Short Rib Tacos, vegetable rice, black beans.” Interesting hybrid dish. Fresh corn tortillas, and soft rich short rib.

Paired with beans, creme fraiche, and pico de gallo. I had them cook the pico down because of my raw tomato hate. It tasted like oniony tomato soup.

Combined in the taco it was pretty delectable, mostly because of the rich tasty short rib. Perhaps a little avocado or cilantro might have made this perfect.

The small little bar. Not pictured here is that I had a nice “2006 Sancerre, Rolland Tissier et Fils.” A very crisp white, perfect with the salad. Not absolutely ideal for the short ribs, but it worked well enough.

This is a good little place, and the service is very accommodating. Despite the high price tag the kitchen has a “knack,” so I approve.

Ultimate Pizza in Review

Jan9

Since I have so many Ultimate Pizza posts I wanted to gather their links together into a single page. But I solemnly promise this is the last pizza post for a good while — at least until I prepare another batch of them!

In summary, every couple of months we make homemade pizzas. Like many things at my household, we take this to the extreme in a quest to reach the Ultimate level of quality. Hence Ultimate Pizza. This pizzas are really good (and a lot of work), and to do them justice required quite a number of articles. I broke them down on individual topics.

Ultimate Pizza – The Dough

Ultimate Pizza – The Pesto

Ultimate Pizza – The Sauce

Ultimate Pizza – The Toppings

Ultimate Pizza – New Years (pizza itself)

Ultimate Pizza – Day 2 (more pizza)

Ultimate Pizza – Day 3 (and even more)

Ultimate Pizza – The Birthday (the second coming)

Ultimate Pizza – The Comeback (the third coming)

Between Ultimate Pizza there is Burrata

If you still want to see more food after this, check out the FOOD INDEX which links to all my food related posts.

Also I throw in here a survey of random pizza photos from past pizza nights:

Ultimate Pizza – Day 3

Jan7

The seventh Ultimate Pizza post. Earlier in the series were Dough, Pesto,Sauce, Toppings, New Years Pizza, and Day 2. Woah!
We had family over on Sunday to polish off the seven remaining pizza balls and work our way through some more of the toppings. I made a number of repeat pizzas that I didn’t photo, like another Tuna and another Lox pizza. So there were about four pizzas made but not pictured.

This puppy has black truffle sauce, then a generous spread of caramelized onion marmelade, gorgonzolla, parmesaen, morel mushrooms, marcona almonds, cherry compote, and drizzled honey.

After baking.

Then I added some fresh basil, burrata, and drizzled balsamic glaze and olive oil. It was really good. The sweetness of the onions mixed nicely with the salty blue cheese and nuts giving it that sweet and salty factor that I’m very fond of.

A repeat of my Tikka Masala pizza. Ricotta, Mozzarella, Parmesan, onions, corn.

Dressed with basil and olive oil.

A tomato sauce, fresh tomato, mozzerella, archichoke, sun dried tomato pizza.

Dressed with a little basil and olive oil.

We ran out of balls, and my niece wanted a pizza of her own creation so we used a tortilla. This one has pesto, tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, and sliced tomatos.

Then dressed with bail. The tortilla actually worked incredibly well. It came out like a water cracker, incredibly thin and crunchy. The overall feel of the pizza was very light and crispy. I was surprised. Different than our chewy tasty pizza dough, but good.

With that I conclude the endless saga of Ultimate Pizzas. It will be at least a few weeks before I have the energy to do them again.

Ultimate Pizza – The Toppings

Jan1

When making Ultimate Pizza fresh ingredients are one of the most crucial elements. I already went over the preparation of the Dough, the Pesto, and the Sauce. Now I’ll cover the bulk of the shopping and for toppings.

I get most of my “fancy” condiments at Bay Cities Italian Deli and Bakery. This is a convient one-stop-shop spot for all sorts of Italian (and other) goodies.

I have never been in there when they aren’t mobbed. The deli counter wait alone is usually 30-45 minutes.

They make some darn good hoagies, and they have a bit of outside seating. Even though it’s December 31 the weather is gorgeous.

I had them make a “Jersey Style” Italian Hoagie. No mayo. No mustard. Just cold cuts, provolone, and oil and vinegar. Oh and don’t forget the onions, lettuce, pepper-chinos.

I went to the Gelsons for produce. Bay cities doesn’t really have produce.

The loot nestled in the trunk. This is pizza only for five!

Dairy. Next after the dough, and possibly the olive oil, nothing is so important as the dairy. Burrata, world’s greatest fresh cheese, fresh from the local creamery. Mozzarella (balled and blocks from shredding), Creme Fraiche, Gorgonzola, Parmesan, Ricotta, Bay Cities House Blend (parm and pecorino grated), and Bucheron (very fancy goat cheese). I threw in some Egg Nog because of the season.

Some jarred and canned stuff. Anchovies (in vinegar and in oil), black truffle oil, Italian tuna, capers, roasted peppers, sun dried tomatoes, artichokes, tomatoes, various compotes, jams, corn (sometimes I’ll roast it fresh but I was too busy), and more.

Polenta to use as “pizza lube” (getting it off the stones and peels). Olive Oil (single vineyard), balsamic must (the Romans used this), honey, garlic, vinegars, onion marmelade, balsamic glaze, black mission figs, marcona almonds. I have white truffle oil too, but I forgot to stick it in the photo.

Produce. Five types of mushrooms, including morels and fresh chanterelles. Basil, Thyme, Rosemary, Oregano, Chives, Dill, Sage, Cilantro, Mint, Arugala, crushed red pepper.

More produce. Italian squash. Red onion, avocado, lemons, meyer lemons, roma tomatos.

Every item needs to be prepped and put in a bowl or similar so it is accessible during the pizza making. Here is the basil. In total, this is a huge amount of work.

Mozzarella is grated.

Arugala is coated in Meyer Lemon and fresh ground pepper.

Gorgonzola crumbled.

Dried mushrooms rehydrated, fresh ones washed.

White asparagus boiled and blanched.

Vegetables chopped.

In aggregate, this prep takes 2-3 hours, even after all the shopping. The the above is just a sampling of photos.

Here is the complete spread prior to guest arrival.

Please CONTINUE HERE WITH THE PIZZA ITSELF.

Ultimate Pizza – The Sauce

Dec31

This is part 3 of my comprehensive coverage of our New Years pizza making, following the article on Dough and the one on the Pesto. Upcoming will be toppings and the pizzas themselves.

Here are the ingredients. Two types of marzano tomatos from Italy. Crushed and pulped. Garlic, lemons, salt, pepper, oregano, and fresh basil.

We use this recipe from the excellent pizza making book American Pie as a basis, but wing the proportions.

Dump a bunch of stuff in, and blend. This is super easy and makes a much much fresher and better tomato sauce than any canned sauce. One could use fresh Marzanos, but they can be a bit of trouble to find.

The vat.

As a tease, here is the “pizza oven” in preparation. I have two ceramic pizza stones and I shove them in a Viking outdoor gas range. If one pre-heats an hour in advance it will get up to 800-900 degrees F — hot is good for pizzas.

Southern California, December 31, 2010. 62 Degrees and gorgeous.

At the last minute I decided to try and make some of this herb oil.

I through all sorts of herbs together, including fresh rosemary from the garden, and some garlic.

Dumped in some olive oil and stirred vigorously (picture is before the stirring). We’ll see how it tastes in a couple hours.

Please CONTINUE HERE as we get closer to Ultimate Pizza.

Ultimate Pizza – The Pesto

Dec31

This is part 2 of my series on Ultimate Homemade Pizza. For Part 1 (on Dough) CLICK HERE. We prepare a lot of different toppings, including homemade pesto, which makes an excellent substitute or compliment to tomato sauce. Most toppings will have to wait for the day of, but pesto can be made a day or two in advance.

The ingredients. Fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil (fine single vineyard), and parmesan.

One can do this by hand or with the Food Processor. Today was rainy, and we felt lazy. It’s also hard work to get a really fine texture with the mortar and pestel.

All ingredients in.

Bass-o-matic! A little pepper tossed in too.

The final result. Intensely basil — and green!

This is a photo of another time when I did it the hard way. Takes some serious elbow grease.

The Ultimate Pizza guide continues HERE.

Ultimate Pizza – The Dough

Dec30

For New Years those with toddlers tend to stay in, but we’re having friends over and making our Ultimate Homemade Pizzas. This is an involved process so I’m going to split both the prep itself and the event itself into multiple posts. We’ll begin with the dough. I’d put our pizzas up against even the likes of Mozza, and it all starts with the dough. While it doesn’t take long to make, you have to do it 48-72 hours in advance. Slow fermentation in the fridge is key to yummy dough with the right texture.

And high quality ingredients like this single vineyard olive oil.

Here is the slate of ingredients. Olive oil, two kinds of flour (more on that later), salt, ice water, and bakers yeast.

The righthand flour will be familiar, but on the left we have an essential ingredient to great Neapolitan pizza. Farina “00”. Imported from Naples. This is finer and makes a stickier dough than American flower. It’s key to a very thin crispy pizza. However, 100% “00” makes for a very thin and challenging dough — difficult to shape and maneuver. So we mix the two 50/50.

Flour, yeast, and salt go in the mixer under the “dough hook.”

The hard part is getting the consistency right is hard. You slowly add ice water.

And olive oil.

Until you can get it shaped into a big alien cocoon-like blob. It takes some practice.

Then you flour up the board.

Do some serious whacking of the dough to break up the glutens.

Then slice and ball.

The waiting pizza larve.

We wrap them up in plastic wrap and toss them into the fridge for 2-3 days. The cool temperature retards the fermentation of the dough, slowing it down to allow nice small bubbles to form. When the time comes, I take them out of the fridge two hours before baking time to warm them up.

Ultimate Pizza CONTINUES HERE.

Lasagne Bolognese Minus the Meat

Dec28

Layered between our obsessive holiday restaurant forays we did sandwich in a little home cooked meal. As the main course was lasagne I reached into the cellar and pulled out some Italian.

Parker gives this Barolo a 93, “The 1997 Carobric, also tasted from magnum, presents a more evolved set of flavors including tobacco, earthiness and over-ripe, cooked fruit. Though it shows excellent length it is the wine that most clearly reflects the adverse conditions of the hot vintage in its wilted, somewhat tired quality. 90/Anticipated maturity: 2006-2012.”

Parker gives this one 90, “The 2000 Barolo Bricco Rocche is fragrant with important aromas of roses, anisette, and cinnamon. Polished and elegant in style, it benefits from the additional freshness and continuity provided by the sensations of mint and tobacco on its lingering finish. Drink: 2005-2016.”

This second was smokier than the Carobric.

A little Campari and soda was also in order, with fresh blood orange from one of our trees.

As we cooked (and drank) this 2 year old vermont cheddar was enjoyed by all — including my 2 year old.

The lasagne in the oven. We wanted a vegetarian Lasagne Bolognese, so the “meat” is actually soy. In searching low and high for some fake meat that actually tastes decent — the Boca was the best we found. By making a from scratch Bolognese sauce with the fake meat, it inherits a more complex flavor and does a decent job pretending.

Nicely browned.

Salad, with apples, mushrooms, and walnuts.

Dressing, a lemon vinagrete made with meyer lemons.

Some Broccoli Rabe, blanched, then sauteed with garlic and peppers.

Finished up.

And a fruit salad to finish. The grapefruits were from our tree too.

Food as Art: Chanukah in Style

Dec7

Some old friends invited us over to their place for a Chanukah party. Now, as many of you may know, the traditional food for this occasion is potato latkes. These are basically shredded potato and onion deep fried. Like any fried thing, if fresh, they can be tasty.

Now bear in mind that I didn’t do any of the excellent cooking depicted below. The hostess of this party has always been an amazing cook, and this was a collaborative effort between many members of her family. I brought the wine.

Four different kinds of latkes were made (details below). This is the batter from the cheesy one. My one cooking contribution was to fold in the whipped egg whites. This is basically blintz filling.

Some frying. Latkes are usually pan fried.

The wine. Given that applesauce and the like are traditional latkes accompaniments, I brought a very fine sweet Riesling. Parker gave the 2008 a 95, but the 2009 hasn’t been reviewed yet by him. But I have some notes: “Sweet mineral and hay notes, with defined notes of fresh cut grass, honeysuckle, and lemon drop, are apparent in the intense perfume of the Wehlener Auslese. The bitter yet sweet flavors of citrus peel and white pepper enrapture the palate, while sweet lychee and melon notes become pronounced on the mid-palate, opening and expanding with the wine’s rich and nearly searing minerality. Yet this is a rich and creamy example of Auslese, its bold concentration and grip becoming more apparent on the back palate. Lingering cherry and apricot flavors are spent savorily on the minute long finish. This wine promises to take its place with the many of its ilk on the high-90s rating panel!”

Then one of my all time favorite wines, The M Chapoutier ‘Ermitage Le Pavillon. It always scores between 95-100. “Year in and year out, one of the three greatest Hermitages made is Chapoutier’s Le Pavillon. The 2001 Ermitage Le Pavillon exhibits a saturated ruby/purple color as well as a big, sweet nose of camphor, ink, creme de cassis, and hints of licorice as well as smoke. Although dense, rich, and full-bodied, the 2001 reveals more acidity in its delineated, nervous personality. Unquestionably great and intense, it will be less charming and precocious than its 2000 sibling. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2030. (I disagree, but Michel Chapoutier feels his finest three Le Pavillons to date have been 1991 followed by 1995 and 2000. I retain a preference for the glorious trilogy of 1989, 1990, and 1991.)”

Classic potato, but made totally from scratch.

On the left are the carrot latkes, and the right sweet potato. Personally, I thought both superior to the classic, but i’m not a huge potato fan. These were both awesome. Some of the sweet potato ones had nuts in them, which i liked.

The cheese latkes, made with the batter shown above. Raisons were mixed in. These were delectable, tasting like blintz filling, with a nice light fully ricotta flavor. Personally, I found them to be a bit reminiscent of a recipe from Apicius where the Romans mixed ricotta, herbs, lightly fried it, and drizzled it in honey.

Top shelf condiments. Two sorts of sour cream, two hand made apple sauces (from two apple types) and strawberry jam. Latkes go well with sweetness, cuts the fat.

A blend of various chilies, in case the above is just too sweet and mild.

This was an amazing salad. It had a bit of everything in it, and was delicious.

Two homemade deserts. The hostess makes the most incredible deserts. On the left is a praline cheesecake, and on the right is a bavarian cream tart.

All that needed an expresso.

Saturday is for Salt

Nov28

Traditionally, the ThanksGavin continues on Saturday with the deli brunch. In LA you just can’t get deli like you can in Philadelphia, with the partial exception of Brents. The locale was moved this year to cousin Abbe’s downtown.

A homemade frittata is whipped up.

Cousins Abbe and Matt prep in the kitchen.

The spread: fruit, munster cheese, kippered dish, fresh cut red onion, cucumber and tomato. In the back you can see cream cheese with fresh chives, and whitefish salad. I love good whitefish salad.