The My Food Geek couple were again lucky enough to be invited for a Restaurant Week preview, and were matched up with Morton’s the Steakhouse located in the Gaslamp District. Although a steakhouse is not the type of restaurant we would normally gravitate towards since our food preferences lean towards small portions that are light on meat, we still do appreciate a good steak once in a while, and Morton’s supposedly serves some of the best available.

There was a bit of a mix-up with our reservation when we arrived, but the staff were very polite, and once it was straightened out, we were seated promptly, offered drinks, and brought a warm loaf of egg onion bread, which was light, fluffy and delicious.

We were feeling a little under-dressed, having both just come in our casual work attire, but that didn’t effect the professional attitude of the army of staff that seem to be working. Our server Mary was very friendly and knowledgeable, and treated us to the full Morton’s presentation of food selection, which I found quite impressive, and included a look at the many prime cuts of meat, as well as an ornery looking ~3 pound lobster. We also heard her interacting with a few other tables near us, skillfully and thoroughly answering their many different questions about the food, including about menu items from many years ago that were no longer offered, but smoothly offering other choices and customizations that would be similar.

The Restaurant Week menu included a choice of two different salads. I ordered the Morton’s salad with anchovies, and the geek got the caesar. I was impressed with the blue cheese dressing on mine, because although I like the flavor of blue cheese, I usually find the dressing too heavy, but this dressing was not heavy at all. The anchovies were optional, but I happen to love them, and these ones were particularly good. I’m a little spoiled on croutons since the geek always makes large, olive oil-fried croutons with his caesar salads, and the caesar came with small, traditional, baked croutons, but they weren’t bad, and the caesar dressing was tasty.

We both order the single cut filet minion with Sauce Béarnaise, since it seemed a shame to come to Morton’s and not get steak. The other two entree options were Chicken Christopher in Garlic Beurre Blanc Sauce or Broiled Salmon Fillet with Chef’s Sauce Beurre Blanc. We also had the choice of any side they offered, which gave many choices. I order the sauteed fresh spinach with mushrooms, and the geek got broccoli with hollandaise sauce.

The filet was truly fantastic, in my opinion. It was the tastiest steak I’ve had the pleasure of eating, and the Béarnaise was a delicious accompaniment to it. My only minor complaint was that it came out closer to medium rare than the rare I asked for. I know they would have happily made me a new one more rare if I had mentioned it, but since both rare and medium rare are tasty preparations to me, and I was enjoying it thoroughly as it was, I opted not to mention this. The sauteed spinach & mushrooms were a little heavy on salt, but still very tasty. The hollandaise sauce that came with the broccoli was quite good, and didn’t seem to be separating at all as it sat, which happens so frequently with that sauce.

We were shown the whole dessert spread before moving on to the dessert course. The choices for Restaurant Week are Double Chocolate Mousse or Crème Brulee, pretty standard fair. I got the Crème Brulee and the geek got the Mousse. The Mousse was rich and heavy, and little leaning towards a rich pudding rather than a standard mousse. The Crème Brulee was very well prepared, and served in a shallow dish, which I strongly prefer, giving a higher Brulee to Crème ratio! I finished up the meal with a nice cup of decaf.

Overall, this was a very good meal, and I would definitely recommend Morton’s to anyone looking for an excellent steakhouse with top-notch service. Restaurant Week gives a great opportunity to try out this high class steakhouse for a discounted price.

The foodies here at My Food Geek were lucky enough to get invited for a Restaurant Week preview, and given a small selection of locations to choose from. The geek unfortunately had to work the evening of the preview, so I (the eater) invited another food appreciating friend to join me for a preview meal at Amaya at the Grand Del Mar. It happened to be my birthday that day, September 15^th, which was especially appreciated!

We arrived at the posh resort, which feels quite remote after winding through the quiet local roads and past the guard house, and found ourselves a bit overwhelmed by the huge estate which didn’t appear to have any hint as to the restaurant’s location. It wasn’t clear on entering where there might be self-parking, so we let the valet take our car, and asked for directions to Amaya. With additional help from two friendly staff members on our way, we found our way there.

On being seated, we were soon greeted by Wine Director Jesse Rodriguez offering to help us select wine from his enormous wine list. This is clearly someone who not only loves wine, and loves to share his knowledge, but is also has the knack for drawing his audience in with his friendly enthusiasm for the choices. He found some great choices by the glass for both my guest and I with a light, crisp Spanish white for her and a rich, berry-flavored red in the Parr Selection Syrah for me.

We were next treated to two selections each from the first course items featured for Restaurant Week. First was the Golden Tomato Gaspacho with Avocado Parfait. This was very tart and refreshing, and the creamy avocado parfait matched the strong vinegar of the cold soup perfectly. I have a feeling there may be some people that this selection would be too vinegary for, but as a sour flavor lover, it was perfect to my palate. My guest commented that she enjoyed it much more when taking up a little of the parfait with each spoonful, which smoothed out the flavors nicely.

Second was the Terrine of Smoked Duck and Foie Gras served with mache greens with aged balsamic strawberry compote and grilled baguette. Mache are among my favorites green, being such delicate leaves with just a hint of sweet. They were wonderful with the strawberry preparation. The terrine was magnificent, and brought to mind perfectly melted, smoky butter on the grilled bread.

For the main course, the chef informed us that the Restaurant Week selections were not ready to be prepared yet, so we should select whatever we wanted of their regular menu. My guest got the Seared Sea Bass I selected the Duo of Beef. The sea bass was served on a bed of wilted arugula with king trumpet mushrooms and roasted chicken au jus.

My Duo of Beef included a petite filet on sweet corn and smoked bacon succotash as well as slow-braised short rib on mashed potatoes. One of the Restaurant Week choices will include short rib, and if is anything like the short rib I got, then I highly recommend trying it. It was absolutely melt-in-your mouth tender, and pieces easily fell away when pierced with a fork.

After thoroughly enjoying our main courses, we were brought dessert. The desserts were also not off of the Restaurant Week menu, and this was the first part of the meal that didn’t “Wow” us. My guest was brought toffee cheesecake with citrus tuilles, and I was brought peanut butter chocolate pudding with peanut butter ice cream. These are both very heavy choices, and not what either of us would have chosen on our own. When our waiter discovered my disappointment with my dessert, he offered to bring me something different, and I next got a baked alaska. This was much lighter, with strawberry and mango sorbets and guava chiffon cake inside. The meringue on the outside was extremely sweet, as is normal for meringues, but a bit too much for me. The dessert seemed well prepared, just not the right choices for my guest and I. I imagine one of the planned Restaurant Week dessert selections would have worked out better for us: Spiced Sugar and Lemon-Filled Bombolonis with Raspberry-Buttermilk Ice Cream, Caramel Praline Crunch Bar with Bittersweet Chocolate Sorbet, or Pavlova with Fresh Berries with Lemon-Poppy Seed Sherbet, Minted Vanilla Syrup.

Overall, the meal was a wonderful experience, and I would definitely recommend Amaya. The service was outstanding, and the food was wonderfully prepared and presented. Also, if you want to have a prix fixe meal and can’t make it during Restaurant Week, they offer a chef’s tasting menu for $40 all year round.

The gum arrived last week, and upon opening the box it came in, the first thing that struck me (after getting past the surprise at the large amount of gum we now had available on which to chew) was the fancy packaging. There are three different flavors, all packed in sleek, black, 15-piece packages that look like something that would be handed out at some high-cover dance club. Each package has the number 5 featured prominently on it, highlighted with a subtle splash of color reflective of the flavor. The flavor names are all fancied up, too: “Rain” in green, “Cobalt” in blue, and “Flare” in red. Each piece of gum is wrapped in the Wrigley’s® style foil wrappers with zig-zag edges, but brightened up with color, and decorated with many “5″s. I’m not privy to the marketing spin, so I’m really not sure why “5″, but the whole effect does look pretty.

I was really hoping for some exotic gum flavors such as some unusual spice with the obvious focus that was put on the fancier-than-normal gum packaging, but I quickly found out that despite the names, the flavors are actually standard gum-fare. Rain is spearmint, Cobalt is peppermint/wintermint, and Flare is cinnamon. All are sugar-free. Despite my disappointment with the standard flavors, I did find the gum refreshing to chew and the flavors seemed to be quite a bit longer lasting than the average gum that I’m used to. Overall I would give this new gum my thumbs up.

The other day, the foodie decided to dig through some of my vegetarian cookbooks for veggie burger recipes. After perusing a few he asked me “TVP or Walnut Oatmeal?” Although I do often really like the way textured vegetable protein works in recipes, walnut oatmeal just sounded too good to turn down. I hadn’t tried either recipe before, because despite my many recipe books, I really have never been much of a cook.

After a quick trip to the store for a few needed ingredients, the burger assembly began. When he got to the browning of the patties, I was amazed at how meaty the burgers smelled. The house filled up with their irresistible aroma and I couldn’t wait to try them.

I was definitely not disappointed when they were complete with these very flavorful burger and their nice meaty texture. They were nutty and delicious and the best veggie burgers I’ve had the pleasure to eat, which is saying quite a lot considering the many many varieties of veggie burgers I’ve eaten in the past. I hope to see this recipe again soon.

The leftover mixture got to make a second appearance as surprisingly convincing meatballs in a spaghetti and meatball dish a few days later.

Walnut Oatmeal Burgers
Adapted from The New Laurel’s Kitchen: A Handbook for Vegetarian Cookery and Nutrition

burger mixture:
1½-3 cups walnut pieces
2 cups rolled oats
½ cup breadcrumbs
3 or 4 eggs, slightly beaten
½ cup skim milk
1 large onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp sage
1 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste

for cooking burgers:
oil to brown patties
3 cups vegetable stock

for serving:
hamburger buns and any desired burger fixings

Grind walnuts in blender and combine with the rest of the burger mixture ingredients.

Let the mixture rest in refrigerator for about an hour to let the flavors meld together.

Form the mixture into patties. The entire mixture will make 8-12 burgers depending on the size patty formed. It is recommended to use half of the mixture now, and reserve the rest for use in another recipe or for more burgers later.

Brown patties on both sides in a lightly oiled skillet, then pour the stock into the skillet and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 25 minutes.

Serve on buns with all your burger fixings.

Wheat berries are very hearty, with a chewy texture, and a slightly nutty flavor. They turn out to be delicious in a salad with a citrus vinaigrette as well as a wonderful addition to chili. The foodie whipped up the following delectable chili based on the EatingWell® recipe, and I ate it up voraciously (as is frequently the case with his yummy cooking!). I hope to be seeing more of these little grains very soon.

Wheat Berry Chili with Black Beans
Adapted from EatingWell® Magazine, April 2007

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp chili powder
1½ tsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano
1½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground pepper
4 cups black beans
4 cups diced tomatoes
1-2 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced
2 cups vegetable broth
2 tsp brown sugar
2 cups wheat berries
Avocado for garnish
cooked rice to serve chili over

Cooking wheat berries:

After sorting through 2 cups of uncooked wheat berries and removing any stones, rinse well under cool running water, and place in a large pot with 7 cups of water and 1 tsp salt.

Bring wheat berries to a boil over high heat, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Drain and rinse.

Heat oil in a Dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat. Sauté onions, garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, ½ tsp salt and pepper until onions are translucent.

Add beans, tomatoes, chipotle pepper, broth, and brown sugar, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes.

Stir in two cups of the cooked wheat berries and cook for another 5 minutes.

Serve over rice and garnish with diced avocado.

Since on top of being a food geek, I am also a computer geek, I spent some time tweaking the layout to fit what we wanted to do with it, and what you see is the mostly final result. You can expect a few more minor changes as we come up with some final touches, but hopefully this is what we’ll be sticking with!

So what do you think? We are very open to feedback and suggestions!

We had gotten beets in our CSA delivery, so the foodie was looking for something to do with them. Being the continuously creative chef that he is, he saw goat cheese in the fridge and decided that goat cheese and beets would pair well together in a pasta dish. I wish I had his knack for thinking of delicious food combinations, but I think that’s why he is the foodie and I am the eater!

Beets tend to make wonderfully colorful dishes, and this one was no exception. The beets in this recipe hide inside the pasta, so a pureed beet sauce added the beautiful deep red color.

Goat Cheese and Beet Tortelloni

Filling:

2 medium sized beets
4 ounces goat cheese
2 tbls bread crumbs
zest of 1/2 a lemon

Bake beets, wrapped in foil, in 400F oven for about 45min or under soft
After beets have cooled, slide skins off and finely grate beets
Place grated beets, goat cheese, bread crumbs, and lemon zest in the workbowl of a food processor fitted with metal blade.
Pulse mixture until it is fully combined

Assembly:

Beet and cheese filling
1.5lbs fresh pasta sheets
(round dumpling wrappers found in Asian markets work, too)

Cut prepared pasta sheets with a 2.5in circular cutter. You should get about 48 rounds
Place 1 tsp of filling on pasta round
Dip fingertip into water and dampen edge of round
Fold in half while trying to push as much air out as possible
Overlap both pointy ends and press together
Repeat until all wrappers are used up
Cook in salted boiling water for 2-3 minutes or until they float to the top of the water

Tortelloni can be made up to 1 week ahead and kept refrigerated

Last week Jef (aka the geek) made the very rich Sarah Bernhardt pastries which he posted about. Something that was not mentioned there was that the almond macaroons that make the base of the pastry are wonderful cookies in their own right. I happen to be an enormous fan of anything flavored with almonds, so this simple almond cookie is one of my very favorites.

The texture of the cookies is light, airy and smooth, with a crisp outside and a slight chewiness on the inside. They have lots of almond-y goodness inside and out. These are the sort of cookie that it is very easy to lose track of exactly how many you’ve eaten!

Almond Macaroon
(makes about 60)

400g almond paste
200g sugar
3 egg whites

Preheat oven to 375°F

Beat almond paste and sugar in an electric mixer

Add egg whites, one at a time, and mix until smooth

Pipe small mounds (about 2cm) on silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet

Bake at 375°F for 10 min or until lightly browned

Let cool on silpat/baking paper

Turn paper over and peel off the back of cookies

There are few things in the world that I find more pleasant than snuggling up with the dog on the couch while delicious food creations are conjured in the kitchen, filling the house with wonderful scents.

I had the pleasure of that experience the other night while Jef created this Thai curry soup. He used coconut oil for this one, so the distinct but delicate scent of coconut was already wafting through the air from the moment the cooking began.

This was a perfect soup for a cold night, with the warmth of soup and warmth of spicy green curry both working to take away the winter chill.

Green Curry Soup
2 tilapia fillets
1/2 lb shrimp, peeled but tails left on
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
3 carrots, peeled and roll cut
baby bok choi, whole – bottoms removed
2 cloves garlic 1 tsp ginger
6 green onions
1 Tbsp Thai green curry paste
1 can cream of coconut (coconut milk may be used)
3 Tbsp oil (preferably coconut oil)
Thai fish sauce (to taste)

Garnish with scallion tops and chopped cilantro.

Such a fitting start, the beautiful French macaron: two smooth and delicate meringue-like rounds flavored however the chef pleases, usually made in some beautiful pastel color that reflects the flavor, and sandwiched with some wonderful, complementary flavored filling between. They are generally made either as standard three inch rounds or small one inch miniatures.

He has made them in raspberry, blackberry, pistachio, chocolate, and orange with various fruit or chocolate fillings. They are always sublime creations that disappear quickly. The outside of the pastry has a slight crispness to it, and a slightly soft moistness inside with the center filling always an irresistible match.

His latest creation is a very Japanese take on the macaron, a green tea, or matcha, flavored pastry with red bean paste, or an, filling.

Matcha Macaron
110g almond powder
140g powdered sugar
7g matcha (powdered green tea)
90g egg whites
60g granulated sugar
Enough red bean paste to fill about five dozen miniature macarons

Preheat oven to 305°F

Place almond powder, powdered sugar, and matcha in a food processor. Process with metal blade until thoroughly combined.

Beat whites in a bowl with an electric mixer at high speed. As the whites begin to foam, add sugar in a slow stream while mixing. Continue mixing at high speed until whites reach stiff peaks.

Fold almond mixture into egg whites in three additions. The mixture will deflate quite a bit. Continue folding until mixture is fully combined and shiny.

Immediately fill a pastry bag fitted with a 11mm round tip and pipe into rounds onto a baking sheet lined with a silpat baking mat.

Leave macarons out to dry for about 30 minutes or until they do not stick to your finger when touched.

When macarons are sufficiently dry, place in the oven to bake. After about five minutes, a ruffled skirt should develop around the bottom edge of each macaron. Rotate the baking sheet by 180 degrees, and bake for another five to seven minutes.\

Check to see if macarons are done by grabbing the top of one macaron and trying to shake it. They are done when the top barely slides against the skirt. If they are not done, extend baking time by two minutes intervals, checking after each extension.

Move silpat to a cooling rack. After macarons have cooled enough to touch, remove them from silpat and place upside down on rack.If they do not easily come off silpat, place in freezer for a few minutes and try again.

Sandwich macarons together with smooth red bean paste.

Keep macarons in the freezer and serve chilled. Macarons are best the day after baking, giving them time to dry out a bit.

Makes about five dozen macarons.

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