Two Chefs, One Catch: The Holiday Gift for Seafood-Loving Home Cooks

We San Diegans love our seafood. If we have a regional food, for better or worse, it's fish tacos. But the world of seafood is complex and many home cooks are nervous about preparing it, fearing they'll overcook pricey fish or that for all their work, it just won't taste right.

To help home cooks get over their fear, chefs Bernard Guillas and Ron Oliver of The Marine Room have just published their second book, Two Chefs, One Catch: A Culinary Exploration of Seafood (Lyons Press, $35). The book, beautifully photographed by Marshall Williams, contains about 120 recipes, about 80 percent of which were created specifically for the book. In fact, you probably won't find any of these dishes on The Marine Room menu. "They were engineered for the home cook," Oliver says.

With the exception of the first chapter of small bites, the book is organized by species, with plenty of little facts and trivia about them, nutrient information, and recipes listed by country and region. Guillas and Oliver are avid world travelers, who collect recipes and culinary inspiration like tourists collect special trinkets. "The recipes in the book are the accumulation of a lifetime of travel," says Oliver.

In fact, there were surprises. Guillas loves mussels and was surprised to find green-lipped mussels in the Indian state of Goa. Thanks to its southwestern coastal location, Goa was discovered by Portuguese traders back in the 15th century, when they were searching for a trade route. The colonial influences of Portugal still can be found in the cuisine, including seafood curries. Guillas enjoyed these curry pots and created a dish, Goa Mussels Hot Pot, based on his experience--and using green mussels.

Goa Mussels Hot Pot. Photo by Marshall Williams

Writing a seafood book was actually the duo's original idea, before they published Flying Pans, their first book. But, at the time, the publishing world wasn't interested, so they shelved it. Their agent, however, still had the proposal, and with Flying Pans in bookstores, shopped it again to publishers--and surprised them by selling it.

Since their initial idea, they went even deeper, addressing sustainability issues, discussing the pros and cons of farmed versus wild seafood. Their dedication is a virtual mission statement of that approach, "To preserve this enjoyment for generations to come, it is everyone's responsibility to care for our oceans, support sustainable fishery, and make well-informed decisions when purchasing seafood."

Wild Baja Shrimp Cocktail. Photo by Marshall Williams

The recipes are accessible. And they're not all seafood recipes. The chefs create meals with a focus on the seafood, but that also include side dishes, dressings, salsas, salads--anything that they would plate the seafood with. The fun, though, is that while you can create that entire meal as they structured it, you can also pick and choose to pair the seafood recipe in one section with an accompaniment from another. Guillas and Oliver also created a section in the back of the book that addresses seafood substitutions, important given how seasonal and regional various species are. The fundamental idea is to always use the freshest seafood possible. They also include other "bait and switch" options--for pork, fruits and vegetables, herbs, oils, vinegars, spices, and wine and spirits. You'll get quick tutorials on cooking techniques from braising and baking to en papillote and poaching in the back of the book, while in the front they pair their favorite cooking techniques with various seafood species. In the front is also "Ocean 101," which describes the seafood and various varieties, along with how to select and store various fish and seafood. Finally, they include a list of essential tools and utensils that include scales, cast-iron skillets, kitchen shears, fish spatula, and fish descaler.

I visited with the chefs at The Marine Room last week. They prepared their Bacon Wrapped Monkfish Tail for me, accompanied by a green salad with a slice of chevre, cherry tomatoes, and beets. This is a dish created by Guillas, who was raised on the coast of Brittany in France. Monkfish is local to the region and his Uncle Bernard used to prepare it by wrapping the tail in bacon and roasting it over the fire. The result is a sweet and tender fish with a smoky crust.

Bacon Wrapped Monkfish Tail. Photo by Marshall Williams

Last night I made their Olive Oil Poached Salmon with the Crushed Fennel Potatoes. Mine looked much different than theirs, perhaps I overcooked it a bit, but the interior was still a brilliant orange and the texture was luxurious. The aromatics that infused the oil--garlic, sage, thyme, and tangerine zest--gave the fish a sublime, complex flavor--mellow from the sage and garlic, but bright from the thyme and citrus zest. The dish was simple to make, something that the chefs emphasized throughout the book.

"We wanted to focus on simple techniques," says Guillas. "Seafood can be expensive so people want something that will guarantee them a good dish. We're trying to take the intimidation out of preparing seafood."

Olive Oil Poached Salmon. Photo by Marshall Williams

I'm sharing this recipe from Two Chefs, One Catch for you to enjoy.

Olive Oil Poached Salmon with Crushed Fennel Potatoes

from Two Chefs, One Catch

Serves 4

Crushed Fennel Potatoes

2 pounds small gold potatoes, washed

1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced

to taste sea salt

to taste ground black pepper

1 bunch watercress leaves

Add potatoes to lightly salted cold water in large stockpot. Place over medium heat. Bring to simmer. Cook 15 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile add 2 tablespoons olive oil to skillet over medium heat. Add fennel. Cook 3 minutes or until tender, stirring often. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside. Drain potatoes in colander. Add to fennel. Gently crush each potato using the back of a fork. Add watercress and remaining olive oil. Stir to combine. Season again with salt and pepper if needed.

Vinaigrette

1⁄4 cup hazelnut oil

1 tablespoon chopped chives

2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar

1 tangerine, zested, juiced

2 tablespoons chopped,
toasted hazelnuts

1⁄4 cup pitted, quartered
kalamata olives

1⁄2 cup quartered teardrop tomatoes

to taste sea salt

to taste ground black pepper

In small mixing bowl, combine hazelnut oil, chives, Champagne vinegar, and tangerine juice and zest. Whisk together until well mixed. Add hazelnuts, olives, and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.

Salmon

8 sprigs lemon thyme

4 sage leaves

1⁄2 teaspoon cracked
black peppercorns

1 teaspoon sea salt

4 cloves garlic, peeled, sliced

1 tangerine, zested

4 cups olive oil

4 salmon fillets,
boneless (6 ounces each)

Combine thyme, sage, peppercorns, salt, garlic, tangerine zest, and olive oil in wide heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat to infuse oil. When garlic starts to sizzle slightly, turn off heat. Use tongs to immerse salmon into oil. Steep salmon in oil 10 minutes or until slightly underdone. If necessary, return briefly to low heat to finish cooking process. Salmon should be translucent and bright orange in the middle but flake easily. Transfer salmon to serving plate atop crushed potatoes. Spoon Vinaigrette onto plate. Garnish with thyme sprig and sage leaf. 

 

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San Diego Celebrity Chefs Holding Chefs Table to Raise Funds for Neighborhood House Association

No procrastinating--it's time to get your tickets for a very cool and unusual event being held on March 23 to raise funds for the Neighborhood House Association and help them celebrate 100 years of service.

This Sunday afternoon event at the NHA Central Kitchen, Javier Plascenaia (Mision 19), Bernard Guillas (The Marine Room), Andrew Spurgin (Andrew Spurgin Bespoke Event Styling & Menu Design), Deborah Scott (Cohn Restaurant Group), and Chad White (Plancha Baja Med) will each teach a healthy cooking class, demonstrating some stunning recipes.

Along with these chefs and their businesses, there will be a host of restaurants and caterers creating even more dishes to sample. They include:

Alchemy
Bub's @ The Ballpark
Crown Point Catering
Culinary Concepts
Felix's BBQ with Soul
Festivities Catering and Special Events
The Blind Burro
The Wild Thyme Company

Luis Gonzalez, NHA's director of community affairs, says that the upcoming NHA Chef Table and Demonstration is one of five different events celebrating this centennial. "The agency provides services to approximately 24,000 families each year and relies on fundraising efforts to help cover a close to $700,000 deficit for its social service programs," he explains.

In fact, NHA helps thousands of individuals and families through a network of 12 programs in more than 120 locations around San Diego County.

Funds from this event will support the agency mission and its services, but it will also highlight the organization's award-winning child nutrition and education program. What award? Well, the agency has been recognized by First Lady Michelle Obama and the Let's Move Initiative for its efforts in fighting childhood obesity and its approach to building healthy families. In fact, the event will feature menu items from the NHA Nutrition Program.

"I'm doing this event because I was completely blown away by the fact that they feed so many underprivileged children and seniors on a daily basis--4,000 to 6,000 a day Monday through Friday--staggering!," says Spurgin. "And, yet, they've been totally under the radar. We're hoping to give them a little assist."

General admission tickets are $55 and limited VIP tickets that give holders valet parking, time with the chefs, special gifts, and early access to food stations are $100. You can purchase them online on the organization's website.

Chef's Table will be held at the NHA Central Kitchen at 1029 Hancock St. in central San Diego. VIP admission begins at 1 p.m. General admission begins at 2 p.m. and the event will take place until 6 p.m.

Want a taste of what's to come? Here's what Andrew Spurgin will be creating at the event:

Photo courtesy of Andrew Spurgin

Cauliflower Soup, Sheep Milk Yogurt, and Upland Cress
Andrew Spurgin
(printable recipe)

Serves four

Ingredients 

Parmesan Crumb
¼ stick of organic butter
½ cup panko breadcrumbs
¼ cup great quality Parmesan, medium grated
Maldon sea salt

Soup 
¼ cup pine nuts, toasted until golden
2 heads organic cauliflower
White pepper
Maldon Sea Salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 6-ounce container Bellwether Farms sheep’s milk plain yogurt*
Chile flakes
1 lemon
1 bunch of upland cress
 Extra virgin olive oil

Preparation

Parmesan Crumb 
• Melt butter in sauté pan
• Add panko, stir, and toast until golden
• Remove from heat and gently fold in Parmesan
• Taste; you may need a touch of sea salt

Soup 
• Turn oven to broil
• In a large pot bring salted water to a boil
• You’ll need 14 each ¼” thick slices of cauliflower, approximately 1” in diameter. Lightly toss with olive oil and sea salt, pop under broiler until deep brown and slightly caramelized. Reserve.
• Remove stalk from cauliflowers. Cut the rest of the florets apart and place in boiling water. Cook until just soft but cooked thoroughly through. Remove (keep the water). Important: you want just enough water to cover the cauliflower.
• Place HOT cooked cauliflower in blender and add just enough HOT cooking water to make into a soup consistency. Blend until ultra smooth. Taste, season with sea salt, nutmeg and white pepper, blend, taste, and adjust as desired.

Plating
In warmed soup plates pour cauliflower soup, add a good squeeze of lemon juice and stir in. Top with a layer of the sheep’s milk yogurt to cover (you MAY need to thin slightly with milk for correct consistency). Sprinkle with Parmesan crumb. Arrange three toasted cauliflower slices in center of the plate, garnish with some of the pine nuts, just a few chile flakes and a sprig of watercress, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and serve. Great with a slice of grilled bread!

This soup can also be chilled and assembled for a summer’s nosh.

*Available at Whole Foods




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8th Annual Chef Showdown, Iron Chef Style

Well, I'm beginning to feel like San Diego Foodstuff is morphing into San Diego Food Events--but there's so much good stuff happening that it's hard to sit on my hands and not let you know about it.

So, let me tell you about the Sept. 13 Chef Showdown, which benefits the programs and services of the Center for Community Solutions, a local nonprofit that provides prevention and intervention support for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and elder abuse. They were founded in 1969 and assist more than 30,000 men, women, and children annually. They operate the only Rape Crisis Center in the City of San Diego, along with a 24-hour bilingual crisis helpline and hospital and court accompaniment services for rape survivors. CCS also provides two, 24-hour emergency shelter and transitional housing programs for victims of domestic violence and their children. In short, they do critically important work.

If you've never been to this event, you've got to get tickets and go this year. Think Iron Chef only with our local chefs and judges. The chefs are divided into two teams, given a secret ingredient, and have a limited time to create eight dishes during the evening. Sam "the Cooking Guy" Zien hosts this crazy circus.

Last year's winning team

Who are the chefs? A culinary who's who in S.D.: Amy DiBiase of The Shores, Dawn Parks from Wild Thyme Co., Joe Magnanelli of Cucina Urbana, Paul McCabe of Delicias, Bobby Marine from Viejas, Hanis Cavin from Carnitas Snack Shack, Matt Gordon of Urban Solace, Rachel King of Searsucker, Anthony Sinsay of Burlap, Augie Saucedo of Donovan's, Scotty Wagner of Chi Cuisine, and Chris O'Donell from La Villa.

The judges for the evening will be Chef Bernard Guillas of The Marine Room;  restaurateurs Ingrid Croce, Joe Bussalachi, and Michelle Lerach--and two judge spots offered to guests for bidding during the live auction portion of the evening.

Chef Showdown, which is co-chaired by Isabel Cruz and Dee Dee Castro, will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. at NTC Promenade in Point Loma (Liberty Station to you and me). Tickets are $125 each or $200 for a VIP reservation. Order them by calling 858-272-5777, ext. 120.

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Eat.Drink.Read. on KUSI!

Chefs Anthony Calamari of Suite & Tender and Bernard Guillas of The Marine Room were featured this morning on KUSI to talk about Wednesday's Eat.Drink.Read. event supporting the San Diego Council on Literacy. The organization's exec, Jose Cruz, was there as well. But the real stars were the gorgeous dishes they had on display which we'll be enjoying at the event! You've got to take a look at them -- and then go to Eat.Drink.Read.'s website to buy tickets.

See you there!



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The Incredible Edible Wall

The kitchen garden. It's something those of us who cook at home hope to have just outside our kitchen door, accessible for quickly snipping a few sprigs of oregano, picking some lettuce leaves, or pulling a few radishes. But if you live in a condo or apartment you're probably limited to a small balcony or terrace. And, if you're a chef in the city, you may not even have that surrounding your restaurant.

Enter Jim Mumford, owner of the San Diego-based plant company Good Earth, and his edible walls, an idea so cool in concept that chef Mario Batali is his first restaurant customer. According to Mumford, Batali wanted a roof garden at his restaurants Osteria Mozza and Pizzaria Mozza in Los Angeles, but couldn't get it to work with the building specs. So, if he couldn't go horizontal, how about vertical? After doing some research on his own, he found Mumford, who has been playing with the concept with several types of materials and styles.

The granddaddy of living walls is Patrick Blanc in France. Le Mur Vegetal, or vertical garden, grows without soil, indoors or out, and is designed to be lightweight. Mumford has taken some of these concepts and begun trials with five different systems, not just for edible plants, but also succulents and tropicals.

There's a foam-based unit with foam cells holding onto air and water. A drip emitter with fertilizer is injected into the foam or sprayed onto the surface. There's another that's a synthetic fabric pocket system. The indoor version has a rubberized liner to prevent water leaking.

And, there are a couple of units that have dirt-filled modules covered with landscape fabric to keep the soil in when the wall is erect. Cut a slit into the fabric to plant each seedling, let the units rest horizontally while the plants root and grow, and then install them vertically.

That's the process Batali's wall is undergoing right now. His walls are eight inches thick, compared to the usual five inches. There are three units totalling 18 modules that when put together will create a wall 12 feet wide by six feet high and an opening on the top is allowing the planting of lettuces. No space goes to waste.

What's in Batali's garden? Edible geraniums and mints. Parsley, sage, rosemary, and Chinese celery. Beets, spinach, dandelions, and chicory, with lettuces along the top. The garden is still taking root, but the plan is to install it at the end of January. And, it'll look something like this demonstration wall:

The soil is a blend designed to be lighter in weight. And, yes, you'll always see the frame to some extent. The trick is maintenance--watering, pruning, feeding, and replanting plants that have reached the end of their life or just thinned out.

Another issue Mumford is working out is the installation itself. He'd like these to be accessible to homeowners, particularly those with small outdoor spaces. "The problem is we have to put holes in the walls, plus you need automatic irrigation because hand watering creates too many failures," he points out. So, he's working on the engineering to figure out a workaround that would enable people in condos and apartments to install them in their outdoor spaces and have a way to grow their own fresh produce.

"As we become more dense in our urban areas, we need to come up with new ways to garden," he says. "Vertical farming is a way to do that in small spaces."

Good Earth Plant Company is located at 7922 Armour St. in Kearny Mesa. The phone number is 858-576-9300.

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The Gourmet Club Returns to the Sea

We love Chef Bernard Guillas and so back he comes to The Gourmet Club to chat about his recent travels, cooking classes and the menu transition from summer to fall at The Marine Room. I saw him most recently at the Taste of Slow Food San Diego where he was handing out bowls of vibrant orange cold carrot soup with crab and caviar. Oh, the flavors and textures in that refreshingly sweet chilled soup on that warm summer night!

And, since it's the first Wednesday of the month, we'll be hearing from Mike Mitchell with his Mitchell Report on the best of the new restaurants that have opened.

If there's time, I'll share some of the highlights of the Taste Pavilion at Slow Food Nation in San Francisco last weekend as well as the experience of being at one of the most astounding farmers markets I've ever seen -- The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. The size of the market and the breadth of the offerings were a revelation. And, fortunately, I was making dinner for friends that evening and got to actually buy wonderful products to use later.

And, Maureen and Robert will fill us in on their latest culinary adventures.

So, tune in for the hour. The Gourmet Club is the tastiest meeting in town. Join Robert Whitley, Maureen Clancy and me this Wednesday morning on signonradio.com from 11 a.m. to noon Pacific. You can also podcast the show and listen at your convenience.


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A New Day and a New Time for The Gourmet Club

The Gourmet Club now meets on Wednesday mornings at 11 a.m. Pacific on signonradio.

This week, our in-studio guest is Chef Bernard Guillas of The Marine Room. We'll talk about what's new with the restaurant and some of his interesting products, like his line of fennel pollen, which I discovered at the Fancy Food Show in town last January (try the "Divine Desserts" spice blend for baking).


Mike Mitchell of The Oceanaire will be calling in with "The Mitchell Report" and fill us in on his latest local cooler than cool dining experience.

Ron James will be off this week, but join Robert Whitley, Maureen Clancy and me for good conversation about food and wine on Wednesday from 11 a.m. to noon Pacific on signonradio.com -- or podcast the show to listen at your convenience.


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Back to the Ballpark on The Gourmet Club

Opening day was this week and the Padres are back swinging. Maureen Clancy, former U-T food writer and critic, will be on The Gourmet Club this week to give us the latest on what some of us think is the best part of going to a game: ballpark food.

We'll also have Mike Mitchell of Oceanaire calling in with his weekly report on new restaurants in town. And, we're going to hear from his Oceanaire colleague, executive chef Brian Malarkey, on the latest installment from Bravo's Top Chef. Brian writes a blog for Bravo, which you can read here.

It's going to be a busy meeting of The Gourmet Club. Join hosts Ron James and Robert Whitley--and me--on Friday at 1 p.m. PDT online on signonradio.com. Or you can podcast it and listen at your convenience.


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