TableConversation.com

The 5 Top Tastes of November, 2018

This month's top tastes start with wasabi-flavored steak from Henry's Cuisine, where the menu ranges from China through Southeast Asia. Then on to Saudi Arabian lamb and rice, a vegetarian flatbread, Indian-style eggplant and a delectable south Indian banana dessert. 

1. Japanese Filet Mignon with wasabi at Henry's Cuisine in Alhambra. Rather than a powerful hit of spicy wasabi, you get just a hint of it, and a little sweetness too, in this delectable dish of tender steak nestled in salad greens. 

Henry's Cuisine, 301 E. Valley Blvd., Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 576-2088.

2. Kabsa at Olive Tree Restaurant in Anaheim. This Saudi Arabian dish is a wonderful combination of lamb so tender you don't need a knife to cut it and rice perfumed with rich spices. Kabsa isn't on the printed menu, but it was available the day I was there, so ask.

Olive Tree Restaurant, 513 S. Brookhurst St., Anaheim, CA 92804. (714) 535-2878.

3. Za'atar Veggie Flat at Forn al Hara. Vegetarians will love this colorful flat bread topped with cucumber, tomatoes, olives, onions and mint. What makes it really special is the za'atar that lines the bread. It's made daily at Forn al Hara and may be the best za'atar you'll ever taste.

Forn al Hara, 512 S. Brookhurst St. #5, Anaheim, CA 92804. (714) 758-3777.

4. Fried eggplant at India's Tandoori in Brentwood. Crisp and dry, the eggplant slices are fried in oil so hot that none of it penetrates. The seasonings are simple, just salt, turmeric and a dash of chiles. 

India's Tandoori, 11819 Wilshire Blvd, #206, Los Angeles, CA 90025, (310) 268-9100.

5. Banana payasam at Mayura Indian Restaurant. This luscious soupy dessert of bananas, raisins, cashews and tapioca is sweetened with jaggery, which is Indian brown sugar. Typical of Kerala in south India, it turned up on a weekend lunch buffet at Mayura.  

Mayura Indian Restaurant, 10406 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90232. (3100) 559-9644. 

Middle Eastern Flavors at Olive Tree

Lunch at Olive Tree Restaurant in Little Arabia gave me a chance to taste two signature dishes from the Middle East.

One was mansaf, the national dish of Jordan. The other was Saudi Arabia's national dish, kabsa.

Both are meat combined with rice, but that's all they have in common. For mansaf (above), lamb shoulder is cooked with jameed, which is dried yogurt, and comes to the table covered with creamy jameed sauce. The meat is sprinkled with golden brown fried almonds, served on a bed of yellow rice and accompanied by a bowl of the sauce.  

There's a choice of chicken or lamb with both dishes, but lamb is so well cooked at Olive Tree that it's the better choice.  

The lamb shanks for kabsa (above) are cooked for five hours, until so tender they fall apart at the slightest touch.  The rice underneath is fragrant with spices--17 of them, the restaurant says--and includes nuts and raisins too. Very thick cucumber yogurt comes on the side.  

Mansaf is a Friday special at Olive Tree. I didn't see kabsa on the menu but it was there on a Friday anyway. 

Good as these dishes are, they're  almost eclipsed by the lentil soup served as a first course. It's one of the best you'll find, although very plain. The only spice is black pepper.

Olive Tree is located in a large plaza in the section of Anaheim known as Little Arabia. If you haven't been there lately, you might think it has moved. And it has, to larger quarters on the other side of the same plaza.  

Olive Tree Restaurant, 513 S. Brookhurst St., Anaheim, CA 92804. (714) 535-2878.

Everyday Dishes from Dorie Greenspan

Thanks, Dorie, for another fantastic cookie recipe. 

Dorie is Dorie Greenspan, celebrated food writer, baking authority, New York Times dessert columnist, five-time James Beard Award winner and much more.

Greenspan's  cookbook "Dorie's Cookies," published in 2016, is a gem. But the chocolate chip cookies that I'm talking about (they're in the photo at the top) didn't come from there.

The recipe is in the dessert chapter of her latest book, "Everyday Dorie," which is about what she cooks at home. This could be in Paris, where she spends time every year, or her two hometowns, New York and rural Connecticut.

And it's going to have wide appeal, because it's about easy, comfortable cooking, based on what she can find in the supermarket or fridge, and with plenty of tolerance for substitutions.

"The cooking here is basic and really practical," Greenspan said during an appearance at Melissa's Produce. "I have only one rule: You must have dessert."

And that's how cookies  got into the book. "I always have another idea about what would make a good cookie," she said. In the case of the chocolate chip cookies, it's oats. "They're not there to be seen or to be tasted. They're there for texture," she said.

But there's more to rave about in this book, such as stuffed cabbage rolls, the best I've ever tasted. The photo above doesn't do them justice. They're hidden under the veggies on top.

Another winner is her maple-syrup-and-mustard brussels sprouts (above), drizzled generously with crisp bacon, which was served on the side at Melissa's.

"The technique is so simple," Greenspan said. The sprouts are steamed with garlic and shallot, then seared and finally glazed with a mixture of maple syrup and Dijon mustard.


Greenspan says she'll probably make the sprouts for Thanksgiving. Sweet and smoky roasted carrots (above) may also be on the table. The smokiness comes from smoked paprika and the sweetness from a spiced syrup that coats the carrots as they roast and is also stirred into Greek yogurt to make a sauce.

For Thanksgiving, "it's nice to have something that 'pops' in each dish, because there are so many dishes on the table," she said.

Greenspan also likes adding a "surprise" to a dish, as in these stuffed eggs, an idea from a wine bar in Paris. They actually contain two surprises, crab meat and finely diced Granny Smith apple and were a big hit at the tasting of Greenspan's recipes at Melissa's.  

Similarly, she puts chickpeas and raisins in cauliflower tabbouleh (above) and suggests other additions in the book. 

Greenspan also likes audience participation, meaning a dish that guests dress up to taste at the table. This is the way she presents tortilla soup (above). "It's impossible not to have a good time when you are passing things at the table," she said.

There was still more to taste at Melissa's, like marinated, pan-seared steak and what Greenspan calls "ricotta spoonable," a seasoned ricotta mixture that can be an appetizer on crisp bread (above), a topping for vegetables or an addition to pasta.

"Everyday Dorie" is Greenspan's 13th book, and there will be more. "I'll see you in four years," she said at the end of her appearance, meaning book 14, which will focus on savory baking, should be ready by then.

CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Slightly abridged from "Everyday Dorie" by Dorie Greenspan

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
1/2 to 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon fleur de sel or 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 sticks (14 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and still warm
3/4 pound semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped into irregular bits

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat it to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Whisk together the flour, oats and baking soda.

Working in a large bowl with a flexible spatula, stir together both sugars the salt and cinnamon, if using. Drop in the eggs one at a time and beat with the spatula to blend, then stir in the vanilla.

Pour in the melted butter in 2 or 3 additions and stir until you have a smooth, shiny mixture. Add the flour and oats all at once and stir gently until almost incorporated.

Add the chocolate bits and stir until the dry ingredients are fully blended into the dough. 

Portion out the dough using a cookie scoop with a capacity of 1 1/2 tablespoons or use rounded tablespoons of dough and place about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the sheets from front to back and top to bottom, until the cookies are golden and somewhat firm around the edges but still soft in the center. 

Remove the baking sheets from the oven. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheets for about 3 minutes before carefully transferring them to racks to cool to just warm or room temperature. If there wasn't room for all the cookies on the two baking sheets, bake the remainder, always using a cool baking sheet.

Makes about 35 cookies. 

A Guide to Grilling French Style

I don't barbecue, but if I wanted to take it up, my guide would be "French Grill," the latest cookbook by Susan Herrmann Loomis.

In this book, she writes about grilled food as the French like it, meaning local, fresh ingredients, natural flavors and attention to technique.

If you're addicted to loud, sweet barbecue sauces, "French Grill" isn't for you. Reading it has inspired me to throw out the bottle of such sauce that I have in the refrigerator.

In France, "grilling is a man's world," Loomis says, so I don't feel bad about not doing it. Loomis (above) can get away with it, because over there she's an anomaly, a tall, red-haired, blue-eyed American. She's also an enormously talented chef, teacher and author--this is her 13th book. 

Resettling in France because of the food, she founded the cooking school On Rue Tatin in Normandie, about an hour from Paris. 

On a book tour here, she appeared at Melissa's Produce, where she showed how tasteful and varied French grilling can be.

Even guacamole starts on the barbecue, where Loomis grills the avocados naked, without their peel. Although she calls the recipe smoky guacamole, there's only a hint of fumes. "The French don't want to eat smoke, they want to eat food," she explains.

At Melissa's, tortilla chips were set out with the dip.  The French would spread it on a toasted baguette. 

Loomis says she gets the best results barbecuing over coals. However, all the recipes in the book were tested on gas grills too, and in the United States as well as in France. 

And each recipe includes detailed advice on equipment needed, how to prepare coals, and special notes on ingredients, preparation and cooking that Loomis calls astuces, a French word meaning tips. The introduction alone is a full guide to barbecuing, and a delightful read.

The recipes take you through a wonderful assortment of dishes, and not always what you would think of as French, like curry beef and zucchini brochettes (above). 

These grilled new potatoes (above) are seasoned with maple syrup, which isn't unusual. The French have been using such syrups since the Middle Ages, according to Loomis.

Chicken wings with herbes de Provence (above) is more what you would expect in a French cookbook. Loomis would like you to make your own herb mixture from fresh rosemary, savory, oregano and thyme, but dried is permissible.

This grilled vegetable salad is "Mediterranean and purely French at the same time because of the vegetables," Loomis says in the book. It can be an appetizer, side dish or a main, with crusty (French) bread and a glass of wine.

Grilling vegetables is new to France, but the French have a thing for composed salads with something hot on top. Loomis's example is grilled bacon-wrapped goat cheese on lettuce with a classic vinaigrette (above).

Loomis even does flourless chocolate cake on the grill, using the heat remaining when the main course is finished.

Her primary way to bake these spice cookies is in an oven. It's only from the astuces that you learn how to do it on a grill. 

As a cookie lover and non-griller, this is the perfect recipe for me. Whatever else I try will have to go onto a stovetop grill pan, which is less than ideal.

Why would I want a grilling book? Because I'm a fan of Susan Herrmann Loomis. I've gotten wonderful recipes from her previous books. And this one I can at least savor in my mind.

And who wouldn't want to savor French food in any form? One of the hallmarks of French food is, "it's not heavy," Loomis says. "The food is really clean because it's fresh. It's the best of what food can be."

Celebrating Food of the Philippines

I love the sour Filipino soup called sinigang, but I've never seen a presentation as beautiful as this small shooter (above).

Where did I have it? At ACE (Academy of Culinary Education) in Woodland Hills, where school founder and chef Cecilia de Castro staged a brunch composed of Filipino small plates.

De Castro put the brunch together on short notice to honor Clara Reyes Lapus (above), president of Mama Sita's, the leading producer of spice mixes, sauces and vinegars in the Philippines. Lapus, whose mother, Teresita Reyes, was the original Mama Sita, had just arrived from Manila for a short stay here.

Although the party wasn't a commercial promotion, De Castro still tried to incorporate Mama Sita's products into the menu. And much of the food was cooked as the guests watched. 

The sinigang was soured with tamarind, but it wasn't brown, like tamarind foods in Mexico and India. That's because it was soured with green tamarind, Lapus explained. This can be done with a sinigang seasoning mix made from fresh green tamarind, a new product from her company (above). For a sinigang recipe on Mama Sita's web site, click here. 

Lapus came to Los Angeles to promote coconut vinegar in order to help farmers in the Philippines. By planting new coconut palms to replace those no longer productive, they can make money from the sap of the flowers, which is fermented to make vinegar. Above are plain and seasoned coconut vinegars, pepped up with such ingredients as ginger, garlic, onion, red chile and black pepper.

This is ukoy, fried vegetable fritters to dip in a sauce made with coconut vinegar, seasoned with garlic, pepper and salt.

Crisp fried lumpia (above) is also dipped in a vinegar sauce. This lumpia was vegetarian. More common in the Philippines is meat-filled lumpia Shanghai. De Castro says she wants to change that name to lumpia Manila to give proper credit to the country where she was born. 

Chicken sausage (above) was really tasty. A similar dish, beef meatballs seasoned with a mix called caldereta, is in "Mama Sita's Cookbook." 

This was one of the two cookbooks that Lapus brought with her. The book on the left is in Tagalog. The title "Lutong Bahay" means home cooking.

De Castro also served empanadas filled with beef caldereta and vegetables, brushed with an egg wash and baked (above).

In the Philippines, "tapa" isn't a small appetizer plate but beef marinated with soy sauce, sugar and garlic. The usual accompaniment is garlic-fried rice, but De Castro served the meat with salad (above) for a lighter effect. 

Here, she chops up meat for barbecue plates of chicken and pork.

Instead of green papaya salad, a typical accompaniment to barbecue, she added a salad of pickled cucumbers, red onions and carrots (above).

Pancit, or rice noodles (above), made a pretty plate with shrimp, chicken and vegetables. 

These tiny tastes are pork adobo on steamed rice (left)  and grilled pork on garlic-fried rice topped with an egg, its yolk runny enough to mix with the rice.

Brunch ended with tiny cups of coconut crème brûlée (above) that De Castro torched to make a crisp topping. 

The gathering, attended by consular and civic officials, also paid tribute to Filipino American History Month, which takes place every October.  

Interestingly, the number of Filipino restaurants in Southern California is small, compared to the large Filipino American population, about 850,000 from San Luis Obispo to San Diego. The reason may be that Filipinos love getting together and sharing food. With such good home cooking readily available, they're not inclined to eat out. 

An ardent promoter of the cuisine, De Castro likes to encourage young chefs who want to introduce Filipino food to this country. Although some may resort to fusion cooking, that's OK, she said, as long as they maintain genuine flavors and cooking techniques. 

Getting to Know Mastiha from Chios

Can you guess what's different about the dishes on this plate?

Answer: They're all flavored with mastiha, a resin from a tree cultivated in the southern part of the Greek island of Chios.

Mastiha may be unfamiliar, but it has a wide array of uses including in cuisine, as these examples show.  

The grilled tofu, which is at the top of the plate and above, is marinated with mastiha adobo and combined with shiitake mushrooms and edamame, then dressed with a mastiha honey and chile vinaigrette.

The Tuscan kale salad at the right of the plate has been tossed with mastiha oil and lemon. It's a really healthy dish, containing quinoa too and farro, currants, apricots and sunflower seeds.

These baby carrots are glazed with mastiha honey. They're also seasoned with coriander and poppy seeds. 

The appetizer above is mastiha liquor-cured salmon with rosemary and juniper on brioche along with lime crema and baby arugula.

An example of mastiha in desserts is a chocolate pot au creme tartlet (above) topped with mastiha whipped cream and candied orange. 

Mastiha is used in drinks too, like the Chios Mastiha Bramble made with Kleos, which is a mastiha spirit from Greece; vodka, lemon, blackberries and mint (above). 

All this mastiha cooking took place at Fellow restaurant in Westwood, arranged by the Chios Mastiha Growers Association. 

Exported from Chios to 47 countries including the United States, mastiha comes in a variety of forms: crystals, powder, oil, capsules and gum. It's also known as mastic and  appears in such products as chewing gum, Turkish ice cream, baked goods and in therapeutic and cosmetic products. 

I came away from Fellow with a few mastiha crystals (above) that I would like to try in baking, perhaps in a Greek bread. I saw a tiny bottle of mastiha once at an international supermarket where I shop, and a Turkish friend says she finds it in Middle Eastern markets.

In the meantime, look for it on line and go to www.precious-drops.eu for recipes and more information.