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The 5 Top Tastes of August, 2018

It's been so hot this summer that the August top tastes are all cool, starting with two salads, one Vietnamese and the other Indian. Next comes the Mediterranean eggplant dish baba ganoush, which is served at room temperature, followed by the perfect drink for a scorching day, an icy agua fresca.

The tastes end with what may be the best chocolate chip cookies you've ever tasted, that is, if you don't mind a dash of heat, not the temperature kind but from hot chiles. 

1. This clam salad from Nongla Vietnamese cafe shows off brilliant Vietnamese flavors. Along with clams, the salad contains peanuts, onions, shallots, cilantro, mint and chile flakes, dressed with Vietnamese-style vinaigrette. That's green mango in front. The speckled chips on top are rice crackers.

Nong Lá Cafe, 145 N La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036. (323) 938-1188. 

2. Speaking of salads, here's a new take on the popular watermelon salad with feta cheese. This one is Indian, with paneer cheese replacing feta and an Indian style vinaigrette flavored with chaat masala. It's just what you need to go with the spicy food at Kapoor's Akbar Indian Restaurant in downtown Los Angeles.

Kapoor's Akbar Indian Restaurant, 701 W. Cesar E Chavez Ave., Suite 107, Los Angeles, CA 90012. (213) 372-5590.

3. The baba ganoush at Oasis Mediterranean Restaurant is spectacular, with deep layers of flavor that start with flame-grilling the eggplant. Bits of peel are left in to enhance the flavor. Try it along with other delicious mezze at this restaurant. 

Oasis Mediterranean Cuisine, 1663 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035. (310) 276-2747.

4. When it's hot and you're really thirsty, you need this tall, refreshing guava agua fresca. It's one of an array of fresh fruit drinks at the Oaxacan restaurant Expresion Oaxaqueña. Drink it with black mole or a tlayuda.

Expresión Oaxaquena, 3301 W. Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019. (323) 766-0575.  

5. If you're nuts about chocolate chip cookies, don't miss these. They're Hatch chile chocolate chip cookies from Bristol Farms markets. Yes, they contain nuts, also dried cherries and coffee for real flavor oomph, followed by a hit of chile heat. They're made with organic flour, organic brown sugar and cage-free eggs, which should make you feel good about indulging. But hurry to get them. Hatch season ends mid September.  

Bristol Farms markets. These cookies were photographed at the Woodland Hills location, but all the markets should have them during Hatch season. 

Tasting the Wines of Irvine & Roberts

Ashland, Oregon may be famous for its Shakespeare Festival. But it's also a place for good food and very good drink, thanks to wineries such as Irvine & Roberts Vineyards, a beautiful facility at the edge of town.

Completed in 2017, the tasting room is a quiet place to enjoy a leisurely wine tasting, accompanied by cheese and charcuterie.

Just outside is a spacious patio with a wide open view of the hilly countryside--this is where the Siskiyou Mountains and the Cascades come together.

And the wines? Wonderful. And still in progress, because Irvine & Roberts is new and experimenting. Located at an altitude of 2100 feet, the vineyard is certified sustainable. Of its 52 acres, 26 are under production now. This will expand to another 26, dedicated primarily to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but some Pinot Meunier and Gamay will be included. 

"Gamay is the up and coming varietal in Oregon," said Dionne Irvine. She and husband Doug (above) are co-owners along with Doug Irvine's sister Kelly and her husband, Duane Roberts. 

The winemaker is Vince Vidrine, above, who most recently was at Domaine Serene in the Willamette Valley. 

The Rogue Valley, where Irvine & Roberts is located, is riddled with microclimates, so it's not possible to zero in on any one varietal as typical of the area, Dionne Irvine said.

Nebbiolo bombed on their property, but Pinot Noir and Chardonnay thrive. And Pinot Meunier produces a delightful wine that can be paired with almost anything "It's one of the favorites among tasters," she said. Here, it's at the left, with two of the Pinot Noirs. 

These three grapes, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier, are the classic components of Champagne. Therefore, sparklers are in the future for Irvine & Roberts.

The easy way to taste there is with structured flights of Pinot Noir or Chardonnay. Each flight consists of four wines, which can be supplemented with single block Pinot Noirs and a reserve Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Pinot Meunier is in the Pinot Noir flight. The extra on the Chardonnay flight is a rosé of Pinot Noir. 

First up when I tasted was the 2012 Pinot Noir (above), made primarily from estate grapes. The remainder came from a vineyard in nearby Talent.

Next came the 2015 Pinot Meunier, which would be excellent with lighter dishes and spicy flavors.  This is the 2016, which I took away for dinner that night. It was superb.

The 115 block Pinot Noir is from one of six Pinot Noir clones in the vineyard. "Each clone brings a little something different," Dionne Irvine said, noting that 115 on their property offers big, lush, cherry notes. "I'll pick up a little bit of spice, a little bit of earth tones from that particular clone," she said.

Here is a section of the vineyard with Pinot Noir clone 115.  


Then I tasted two more "extras," the fruit-forward Clone 777 Pinot Noir, which is in the glass at the top, and the 2015 Reserve Pinot Noir.

Irvine & Roberts does everything first rate. The wine-tasting glasses are Riedel. And the winery has its own chef, Kris Elder (above), who has been a professional pastry chef and a line chef at Amuse restaurant in Ashland.  

Elder creates wine and food pairings, and his cheese and charcuterie boards show off artisanal products such as elk salami from Medford, Oregon; handmade Cheddar from Seattle, goat cheese and Castel Vetrano olives from Spain and some of Elder's own handiwork--pickled onions and cucumbers, violet toffee and five-spice walnuts. 

Events include winemaker dinners and cooking classes featuring Ashland chefs. Just before the 4th of July, Doug Irvine presided at a Pinot burger tasting featuring beef patties soaked in Pinot Noir. 

Another place to taste the wines is the Mission Inn Hotel & Spa at Riverside in Southern California. Irvine & Roberts partners Duane and Kelly Roberts own the inn, and you can be sure the wines are on hand in all of its restaurants. 

 Irvine & Roberts Vineyards, 1614 Emigrant Creek Road, Ashland, OR 97520. (541) 482-9383. 

Get to the Roots of Some Good Food

Photo by Antonis Achilleos

I would feel horribly guilty if I didn't share this recipe. Because it will save your life, at least during heat waves. And you will love it anytime. 

It's homemade ginger ale from the book "Roots" by Diane Morgan (the photo at the top is from the book).

Trailing a long subtitle, "The Definitive Compendium with more than 225 Recipes," "Roots" first came out in 2012 and won a James Beard award the next year. 

But it's worth looking at again to see delicious things you can make with root vegetables. Then you'll no longer ignore them when shopping for produce.

"Roots" covers its roots in alphabetical order. You might hesitate at the first two sections, on Andean tubers and arrowhead, because you have no idea where to get Peruvian papas secas or canned ollucos, and arrowhead is even more rare.

Just move on to beets, carrots, celery root, ginger, jicama, parsnips, potatoes and other staples, then begin experimenting with the rest.

I found a recipe I'm crazy about in the ginger chapter. It's Old-Fashioned Gingersnaps (above), the best ginger cookie I have ever made.

Not only is the ginger/spice balance excellent, but the cookies are rolled in turbinado sugar before baking so you get a pleasant crunchiness when you bite into them.

Ginger wins again in Korean-Style Grilled Short Ribs (above). These were a big hit when Morgan presented her book at Melissa's Produce.

And so was another ginger dish, Dungeness crab cakes (above).

Another winner was a salad with celery in three forms--root, hearts and leaves (above).

Daikon radish joined Asian pears and yuzu vinaigrette in another salad (above). The black specks are black sesame seeds.

I was out of jam and so tried a marmalade recipe from the carrot chapter. It sounded interesting, with a dash of black cardamom seeds.

If you're not familiar with Indian cooking, however, you might buy the wrong thing. The recipe requires the seeds from black cardamom, a spice used in Indian stews and curries, not the familiar fragrant cardamom in small green or white pods. 

Black cardamom seeds don't come in packages. You'll have to buy the whole spice, then pound a couple of pods and extract the seeds. 

The marmalade, which includes lemon and orange as well as carrots, has bright, lovely flavor. Here it is, with toast for breakfast. You can see a black cardamom seed in the spoon. 

An Indian grocer went blank when I asked for "Punjabi spice mix," called for in an Indian potato chaat recipe. What Morgan may have meant was Punjabi chana masala or Punjabi garam masala, which you can find online as well as in Indian stores.

These small quibbles don't invalidate a book loaded with information not readily available from a single source.  Brown researched the book for two years, and her scholarly work shines.

"I made myself an expert because I really wanted to study it," she said of her root work. In the photo, she's showing the section on arrowhead. 

Her ginger ale in no way resembles what you buy in the supermarket. It is laden with freshly grated ginger and is less sweet than commercial ginger ale, making it a healthy way to quench thirst on hot days.

HOMEMADE GINGER ALE
From "Roots" by Diane Morgan

1/2 cup grated fresh ginger
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup water
Ice cubes
4 cups club soda
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon pus 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
4 lime wedges

To make ginger syrup, combine the ginger, brown sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes to completely dissolve the sugar and infuse the syrup.

Remove from the heat and let the ginger steep in the syrup until cool, about 30 minutes. Strain the syrup through a fine-mesh sieve placed over a container with a tight-fitting lid and then cover and refrigerate until well chilled. (The syrup will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.)

Fill four 16-ounce (2-cup) glasses two-thirds full of ice. Pour 1/4 cup of the syrup, 1 cup of the club soda, 1 tablespoon of the lime juice and 1 teaspoon of the lemon juice into each glass and stir to combine. Garnish each glass with a lime wedge and serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.