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Great Shrimp from the Grill

Put these shrimp on the barbie, and you'll put them there again and again.

The recipe is from my friend and former colleague in the food section of the Los Angeles Times, Mary Ellen Rae.

Mary Ellen is now giving cooking classes, catering parties and private cheffing through her company, Personal Touch Gourmet.

The shrimp are one of her most popular party appetizers. (I tasted them at a holiday party at her home and couldn't get them out of my mind, they were so good.)

Infused with lemony flavors associated with Thai and Indonesian cooking, they also taste of fresh dill, a seasoning from another part of the globe.

The recipe is really convenient. Part of the marinade seasons the shrimp. The rest becomes a dipping sauce. 

If you're not an outdoor cook, you can grill the shrimp with equal success on a stovetop grill pan (that's what I do). Skewer them on decorative bamboo picks for a party appetizer, or serve them over fragrant jasmine rice at a summer buffet.

For more information about Mary Ellen's classes, go to http://www.personaltouchgourmet.net.

LEMONGRASS AND DILL GRILLED SHRIMP
(From Mary Ellen Rae of Personal Touch Gourmet)

1 pound shrimp (21 to 24 to a pound)
3 lemongrass stalks
1/3 cup chopped dill
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
1/2 cup canola oil

Preheat the barbecue grill.

Peel and devein the shrimp.

Remove the tough outer leaves of each lemongrass stalk and trim the stem end. Finely dice the bottom 4 inches of each stalk. Discard the leafy tops.

Place the lemongrass, dill, garlic, shallot, salt and rice vinegar in a blender or food processor.

While the machine is running, slowly drizzle in the oil. Blend until smooth. Add more salt if wanted.

Reserve half of the marinade to use as a dipping sauce. Coat the shrimp with the remaining marinade and set aside for 15 minutes.

The shrimp can also be prepared in advance and marinated in the refrigerator. In this case, remove them from the refrigerator and let them stand at room temperature 20 to 30 minutes before grilling.

Grill the shrimp 2 to 3 minutes on each side or just until no longer translucent in the center.

Serve on bamboo picks with the dipping sauce.

Makes 8 appetizer servings.

What to Eat the Morning After

A late night, an early morning appointment and a fogged brain. This called for a serious restorative, like two big mugs of steaming Colombian coffee and a plate of empanadas de platano.

The empanadas weren't the usual pastry turnovers. Instead of flour dough, the wrappers were made of mashed platanos (plantains). The fillng was a tiny bit of thickened milk. Fried golden brown and sprinkled with sugar, they were heavenly.

The place where I had them was Merendero Salvadoreno, near downtown Los Angeles. This small, neighborly Salvadoran restaurant takes its name from the Spanish word "merendar," which means to snack, have tea or light food between meals. 

The menu offers hearty combinations of meat, rice, beans, salad and tortillas, but I prefer to merendar when I go there, choosing from a list of Salvadoran "antojitos" (snacks).

These include Salvadoran tamales--silky, soft tamales wrapped in banana leaves and filled with a strip of chicken (or pork), bell pepper, potato and a couple of green olives.

Even better are tamales de chipilin, the dough riddled with a nutrient-rich leafy green that is known as chipilin in Central America and as chepil in Oaxaca, where I bought similar tamales for a couple of pesos. 

Merendero fills them with a delicious soft bean puree. They're not on the printed menu, but a sign on the wall one day announced that they were available.

Of course Merendero has pupusas. To say that about a Salvadoran restaurant is like saying that a hamburger stand has hamburgers. 

The same spicy, vinegary cabbage relish (curtido) that accompanies pupusas also comes with pasteles de carne, which are turnovers filled with ground pork, potato, tomato and bell pepper.

After eating a couple of snacks on one visit,  I ordered chilate con nuegados de yuca y dulce de platano simply to find out what it was. Huge and starchy, I found out, but I liked it anyway. 

Nuegados are chewy fried fritters made from the root yuca (cassava). They're not sweet, but the syrupy. dark banana mixture in which they sit makes up for that.

Chilate is a hot thick corn drink that contains whole black peppercorns. You can buy mixes for that drink, peppercorns included, in markets in the neighborhood.

There is only one part of Merendero's menu  that I would avoid. And that is the "American Fast Food" section, which includes just two items, hamburgers and cheeseburgers.  I'd choose empanadas de platano over those any day.  

Empanadas de plantano are two for $2.50 at Merendero Salvadoreno, 1621 W. 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90017. Tel: (213) 483-3460. Open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

Tasting the Original Malbec

Tasting Malbec at its source does not necessarily mean tasting it in Argentina.

Yes, Malbec is the signature grape of that country. Local winemakers say that it does especially well there, thanks to the sunny, dry climate and mineral-rich rocky soil of Mendoza, the main wine-producing region.

But Malbec did not originate in Argentina. Its birthplace is Cahors, France. And Cahors winemakers are capitalizing on the new interest in Malbec, for which Argentina's plentiful, low-priced wines can take the credit.

Cahors was represented when French winemakers came to Los Angeles recently on what they called a "Delicious Wine Tour." The tasting took place at the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica.

The Cahors exhibitor, Domaine Saint Sernin, brought three blends in which the dominant grape was Malbec.

The Chateau Saint-Sernin Cuvee Demoiselles 2006 combined 85% Malbec with 15% Merlot. To my taste, it was very, very dry, or should I say austere, compared to the lush, fruity Argentinian Malbecs that I am accustomed to.

Chateau Saint-Sernin 2006 reduced the Malbec to 80% and raised the Merlot to 20%. It too was very dry. Both wines were dark, but not as deeply colored as the Argentinian Malbec, a Trapiche Oak Cask 2005, that I opened recently at home. 

The 2005 Cuvee Prestige was still very dry, but smoother. perhaps the result of an additional year of aging and other winemakaing factors, including longer aging in oak.

The Cuvee Prestige is composed of 90% Malbec, 5% Merlot and 5% Tannat, a grape that is also used in Argentina, but is far more prominent in Uruguay.

Argentina blends Malbec too. The most striking that I have tasted recently was Cavas de Weinert, Mendoza 1999, from Bodega Weinert.

A blend of 40% Malbec, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot, it spent time in cement tanks. These, I am told, keep the temperature more constant. After malolactic fermentation, the wine was transferred to large French oak casks.

I have no formal scoring system, but I enthusiastically gave this wine three stars, my top rating at a tasting held at Carlitos Gardel Restaurant in Los Angeles.

I'm not likely to taste it again--the bottle came from the private collection of Maximiliano Bozoghlian of Carlitos Gardel. But Bozoghlian told me that the 2,000 is available in Buenos Aires. And I hope to find it the next time I go there. 

Lunching in a Cabbage Patch

Bright young people, all the way down to babies, crowd into the bright young Cabbage Patch in Beverly Hills.

They line up for fresh, organic, farmers market ingredients put into sandwiches, salads and bowls, and desserts that alone are worth the trip.

It would be nice to drop in just for a whoopie pie and coffee, only there's no coffee. The options are "home-brewed" organic green or organic mint iced tea, homemade organic lemonade, water and sodas.

I ordered a BLTA sandwich in which A (arugula) replaced L (lettuce). It was actually a 3A sandwich, because aioli subbed for mayonnaise, and avocado was in there too. The bacon was what else but applewood-smoked. I guess that makes a fourth A.

The sandwich was good, but what I really liked was the sweet cabbage slaw on the side, crunchy with peanuts and laced with cilantro.  

My friend's pan roasted Jidori chicken breast bowl was full of vegetables and a great mound of brown rice, too much for a tender appetite to deal with. Besides, she wanted to save room for dessert.

As soon as I got there, I scoped out the counter where the desserts sit, individually wrapped and ready to go. 

The choices were Meyer lemon pound cake, a big flat everything cookie, assorted whoopie pies, a Valhrona chocolate brownie and a roasted apple blondie.

The chocolate whoopie pie was lusciously tender and chocolaty. The strawberries and cream whoopie pie was what I would call interesting.

 But I adored my roasted apple blondie. Firm enough to cut into squares, it was almost entirely apple, with just a wisp of crust.

Cabbage Patch operates like  a fast food place (it's painted green, naturally). You order and pay at the counter, then wait for a server to bring the food to your table. I toted my own dessert and drink, which means I owe myself a tip.

Just one thing marred our lunch.  It was Tuesday, not Saturday or Sunday, when The Cabbage Patch serves brunch.

We had to sit there facing the brunch menu, written on a blackboard on the wall. It was painful to realize that we were missing out on chocolate orange scones, old fashioned doughnuts (not donuts) and sticky buns.  Sometimes whoopie pies aren't enough.

The BLTA sandwich is $11, the chicken bowl is $12, and desserts are $2.75 each at The Cabbage Patch, 214 S. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. Tel: (310) 550-8655. Open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, from 10 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

An Armenian Pilaf Update

Here comes Armenian pilaf the second time around--with an update.

The first time, the recipe combined parboiled rice with fine short pieces of vermicelli that had been browned in butter.

This was the pilaf demonstrated at the Armenian Food Fair & Fest held at Holy Cross Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in Montebello.

Then Barbara Harutunian emailed me to explain how cooks working behind the scenes prepared pilaf for the dinners that were sold at the fair. 

That pilaf contained browned wide noodles, not the fine vermicelli used in the demonstration.

There are two schools of thought on this. "The 'old school' prefers the wide noodles, which are really the traditional," Harutunian says. (I liked the way they looked in the dish.)

"The new generation prefers the vermicelli, because they feel it is only being used for color, and the taste does not come into play."

Working in advance, the cooks browned the noodles on baking sheets in the oven, without butter. Frying them on top of the stove would have been difficult. considering they had to prepare 40 pounds of wide noodles and 25 pounds of vermicelli (used when the wide noodles ran out) for 1,800 dinners. 

On the day of the fair, the cooks combined the rice, noodles and broth and then added the butter. "The flavor comes out the same, but it's a lot faster for the cook staff," Harutunian says.  

Keep this technique in mind if you want to make a large quantity of pilaf for a party.

Otherwise, try the way I prepared a smaller batch, following the "old school" method.

"OLD SCHOOL" ARMENIAN PILAF

3 tablespoons butter
1 cup wide egg noodles, in short lengths
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups parboiled rice (Uncle Ben's)
Salt

Heat the butter in a medium skillet. Add the noodles and fry until golden brown.

Bring the broth to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan. Add the rice, the noodles and salt to taste. Cover and cook until the broth is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Stir gently to mix the rice and noodles evenly.

Makes 6 servings.

A Spicy, Cheesy Appetizer

That orange blob you see on the wildly colored plate is a cheese ball. A spicy cheese ball that you can make as fiery as you like with any kind of hot sauce or chili powder.

Would you believe I put in berbere, which is Ethiopian style seasoned red pepper? I happen to live near Ethiopian shops, and I keep that on hand along with hot red chili powders from India, Mexico and Chile. 

The plate, by the way, is from a pottery shop outside Dolores Hidalgo in the state of Guanajuato, so it, at least, is thoroughly Mexican.

SPICY MEXICAN CHEESE BALL

2 1/2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
4 ounces cream cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons brandy
1/2 teaspoon very spicy chili powder or hot sauce, or more to taste
Generous dash ground cumin
Mild chili powder or paprika
 
Place the Cheddar and cream cheeses in a medium bowl. Add the brandy, spicy chili powder and cumin and work together with a fork until evenly blended.

Form the cheese mixture into a ball and coat with mild chili powder or paprika. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours for the flavors to blend. Let stand at room temperature to soften slightly before serving.

Accompany with crackers.

Makes 8 to 10 servings

Feasting at an Armenian Fair

"Don't say rice pilaf," the woman behind me warned. "That's like saying rice rice."

Okay then. I scratched out the word rice from the recipe I was writing down and left only "pilaf."

We were attending a cooking demonstration at Saturday's Armenian Food Fair & Fest at Holy Cross Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in Montebello.

The topic was pilaf--rice simmered in broth along with fine vermicelli browned in butter. Simple to make, rich and delicious.

The teacher was Ara Balayan of Montebello-based Catering by Herach & Ara. Balayan cooked the pilaf on a burner, but a large quantity can be put in the oven, which gives "more control and a finer product," he said. Balayan should know, because he caters events for up to 6,000. 

Beyond the demo booth was a tented dining area that could seat hundreds. People had come to eat, and church members had worked tirelessly to show how genuine Armenian food should taste.

Although I bought two dinners, one with lamb kebabs and another with ground meat lule kebabs, and a box of pastries, I couldn't sample it all.

The demo booth offered tastes of Armenian cheeses and sarma (stuffed grape leaves). And Balayan set out rice flour cookies scented with rosewater and sprinkled with poppyseeds.

Long skewers of kebabs cooked over coals. These were transported to an assembly area where they were packed into dinners along with pilaf, Persian cucumbers, pink pickled radish slices, tomatoes and lavosh, which is unleavened flat bread.

Nearby, a pastry booth offered savory pastries and sweets with names that were new to me, such as sheker lokoom and nazook, along with baklava and  slim sugar-dusted pastry rolls called finger cookies.

Non-stop entertainment included Armenian music, folk dances and a class in Armenian line dancing.

Booths sold edible bouquets, toys, silver jewelry, purses, Armenian logo T-shirts, balsamic vinegars and offered hookahs (water pipes) for rent. And guests were invited to tour the cathedral.

The Holy Cross community began in 1907 with a handful of Armenians living in Los Angeles. By 1922, the group had increased to about 3,000 and established its first church at 420 E. 20th Street in Los Angeles.

As growth continued, the original Holy Cross Church was sold and constuction started on the present cathedral, which dates from 1981.

I know all this because I read the introduction to the "Holy Cross Cathedral Ladies' Aid Cookbook," which was sold at the festival.

The Holy Cross Ladies Aid dates from 1917, and vintage photos illustrate the book, which is a valuable source of homestyle Armenian recipes including, of course, pilaf and kebabs.

Following Chef Balayan's advice, I went to the Montebello Ranch Market, where I found spices for seasoning kebabs, Aleppo pepper, which is called for in the cookbook, and the fine broken vermicelli that goes into the pilaf, which I made almost as soon as I got home.

There'll be another food fair next year, so here is the address of the cathedral, as well as addresses for Ara Balayan's catering company, the kebab purveyors and the Montebello Ranch Market. The recipes follow.   

Holy Cross Armenian Apostolic Cathedral, 900 W. Lincoln Ave., Montebello, CA 90640. Tel: (323) 727-1113.

Catering by Herach & Ara, 1460 S. Greenwood Ave., Montebello, CA 90640. Tel: (800) 810-0272.

Golden Skewer, 2212 W. Beverly Blvd., Montebello, CA  90640. Tel: (323) 727-2952.

Montebello Ranch Market, 1801 W. Whittier Blvd., Montebello, CA 90640. Tel: (323) 728-2615.

ARA BALAYAN'S PILAF

1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup very fine vermicelli, broken in small pieces
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup parboiled rice
Salt to taste

Heat the butter in a small skillet. Add the vermicelli and fry until golden brown. Meanwhile, bring the broth to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the browned vermicelli, the rice and salt to taste and stir.

Cover and cook over medium heat until the broth is absorbed, about 15 minutes, stirring to blend the ingredients toward the end of the cooking time.

Makes 3 to 4 servings.

ARMENIAN PILAF FOR A PARTY

6 to 8 tablespoons butter
1 cup very fine vermicelli, broken in small pieces
8 cups (2 quarts) chicken broth
4 cups parboiled rice
Salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Heat the butter in a medium skillet. Add the vermicelli and fry until golden brown.

Meanwhile, bring the broth to a boil. Add the vermicelli, the rice and salt and stir.

Turn the rice mixture  into a large baking pan. Cover tightly with foil. Place in the oven and bake 30 minutes.

Uncover and stir until evenly mixed. Cover again tightly with foil. Continue to bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until the broth is completely absorbed.

Makes 15 to 20 servings.

Try Italy's Versatile Malvasia

Italy's Malvasia is worth getting to know. Floral and spicy, it's the perfect wine for anything from shellfish to highly seasoned Asian dishes.

Think of it as a companion to Gewurztraminer and Torrontes, two other aromatic whites that pair well with lively food.

Malvasia isn't exclusively Italian. The wine is made elsewhere, including in California. I just happened to taste an excellent Italian version when I was lunching at Il Fornaio in Santa Monica.

It was the 2007 Malvasia "Tasto di Seta," Castello di Luzzano, from a property that borders Lombardy and Emilia Romagna.

Made from Malvasia di Candia grapes, it was dry and crisp, delicately floral but with enough backbone to hold its own alongside richly flavored foods.

Best of all, I've seen it offered online for as little as $13.99, although the more common price is around $19.

Discovering La Guadalupana

La Guadalupana has only five tables, and these are so small that very few people can fit into this modest Mexican restaurant.

One table is partly taken up by a vase of flowers set before a wall mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe--La Guadalupana--Mexico's patron saint. That makes for even less space.

On the opposite wall, a kneeling woman embraces a bunch of calla lilies, a likeness borrowed from a Diego Rivera painting. In the Rivera painting, the woman is nude. In this one, she is clothed.

Blue and white checked cloths give a sparkling fresh look to the tables, and ropes of ivy crisscross the ceiling. Someone took pride in making this a pleasant place despite its inconspicuous location in a mall near downtown Los Angeles. 

Most lunchtime customers order food to go, so the tight space doesn't matter. Two who stayed to eat the day I was there spooned up caldo (soup) from big bowls. I ordered barbacoa de res (barbecued beef).

The beef wasn't grilled American style but simmered long and slowly in its juices, which formed the sauce. The taste was pure and rich, without chiles or spices. 

The meat had character. It was chewy but pulled apart easily into shreds. The accompaniments were rice, plainly seasoned whole boiled beans and handmade tortillas so thick that I couldn't finish even one of them.

A small plate on the side held chopped onion, cilantro and lime halves for seasoning. And the waitress brought bottles of hot sauce.

On the counter stood big jars of agua de mango and the rice drink horchata, which was so thick with powdered cinnamon that it was beige rather than white.

The dishes pictured on the menu over the counter range from red and green moles, carne asada and pollo a la plancha (grilled chicken) to chiles rellenos, enchiladas, tortas (sandwiches) and beef and chicken soups.

There are breakfast dishes too and weekend specials such as pozole, menudo and goat barbecue.

Calabacitas (squash) in the steam table looked so good that I took an order home. The chunks of Mexican white zucchini had been simmered with corn kernels, fresh tomatoes and onion. 

Prices are modest. My beef plate with its accompaniments was $6. Tacos are $1 each Friday through Sunday from 5 to 11 p.m. with fillings such as carne asada, carne al pastor, tongue, chicken and chorizo.

Places such as this are worth venturing into. Although unpretentious, they sometimes have better, more genuine food than ambitious, upscale Mexican restaurants.

I spotted La Guadalupana as I walked along 6th Street. It took a few trips to that area before I finally went in, not expecting anything memorable. The food turned out to be quite good, however, and I wouldn't hesitate to eat there again.

Restaurante La Guadalupana, 1422 1/2 W. 6th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017. Tel: (213) 483-2973. Open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Closed Wednesdays.