Cauliflower and Salsify Bisque from Table 926

I've probably said it before, but one of my favorite pastimes is spending time with chefs in their kitchens. So, I consider it a huge streak of good fortune that I've been invited to a number of kitchens this summer--which means that this space will be covering a lot of culinary territory in the weeks to come from the likes of Matt Richman of Table 926, Catherine Perez of Con Pane, Miguel Valdez of The Red Door, and several others.

Last week I spent an afternoon with Matt Richman, his sous chef Molly Johnson, and pastry chef Katie Jenkins. The three have an easy rapport and Richman, the restaurant's chef/owner, purposely keeps the atmosphere light and relaxed. Richman describes the intimate north Pacific Beach restaurant as serving California cuisine, and his local and seasonal dinner menu points to numerous influences, from Latin and Asian, to Italian and French.

"Simpler is my style," he says. "I just want to find good ingredients and then let them shine."

The 36-year-old Richman is a San Diego native, attending La Jolla Country Day before heading off to college in New Mexico--only to realize that he really wanted to be a chef. So, he attended culinary school in San Francisco, and then did a series of stints at restaurants in San Francisco and Miami before returning to San Diego, where he worked at Sbicca, Wine Vault & Bistro, Pacifica Del Mar, Ilume Bistro, and The Cosmopolitan, where he worked under chef Amy DiBiase. He opened Table 926 a year and a half ago.

I got to the restaurant about 11:30 and Richman was focused on prepping three dishes for the evening's menu: a rich Calabrese and smoked tomato sauce to be served with his lamb sausage penne, tossed with artichoke hearts, olives, arugula, and pecorino; a minty nepitella chimichurri sauce; and cauliflower and salsify bisque. Each of these has a key commonality: Richman is taking what might otherwise be a lovely but often-made dish--including some his mom taught him to make--and changing it up with a unique ingredient or technique. Or both.

The tomato sauce is a version of his mom's, but he's made it his own with the sausage and smoked tomatoes. The Calebrese sausage is wonderfully fatty and spicy (if you can't find it, just substitute sopressata) and smoking half of the tomatoes adds a smoky complexity to the flavor, which is intensified by simmering for four hours.

Chimichurri is a delightfully herbaceous sauce that's designed to be served with meat. Adding nepitella, a popular Tuscan herb in the mint family (grown at Suzie's Farm), to traditional flat leaf parsley marries the flavors of Argentina with Italy--a mean accompaniment to lamb sirloin. He has a second chimichurri that melds oregano with the parsley, which he serves with chorizo empanadas. In both sauces, he includes apple cider vinegar for mellowness.

And then there's the salsify. This otherwise homely brown root, once peeled and added to the soup, lends a sweet silkiness to the cauliflower. You'll notice that Richman doesn't use a stock in this soup. By design, he likes to keep his soups vegetarian, so he lets the vegetables develop into stock. The result is a creamy cloud of sweetness. He says his customers can't get enough of this soup. It's easy to see why.

Cauliflower and Salsify Bisque
from Matt Richman of Table 926
Serves 4 to 6
(printable recipe)

1/2 cup celery
1/2 cup onion
1/4 cup combination of shallots and garlic
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 medium to large heads of cauliflower
4 salsify roots (can substitute 4 medium sunchokes)
1/4 cup dry white wine
enough water to cover ingredients
salt and pepper to taste
1 2/ cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon sherry or champagne vinegar

1. Peel salsify and soak in a bowl of water to keep it from oxidizing.

2. Chop the celery, onion, shallots, and garlic. Add olive oil to a large pot, heat, and add the chopped vegetables and flavor with salt. You can be a little aggressive with the salt here, since the cream added later will mellow the flavors. Let sweat.
3. Add the white wine.
4. Separate the cauliflower heads into small florets. Slice the salsify. Add to the pot. Then add enough water to cover.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer. Let simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

6. In the last 15 minutes, add the cream and season with salt and pepper. The soup is done done cooking when both the cauliflower and salsify are soft.

7. In small batches, add the soup to a blender and puree. Then press through a chinois to strain.

8. Plate the soup with a swirl of avocado oil and a sprinkling of micro greens.

Table 926 is located at 926 Turquoise St. in north Pacific Beach.


Print Page

Con Pane to Move to Liberty Station

Catherine Perez, the owner of the marvelous Con Pane bakery in Point Loma, says she packing up and moving from her current digs at the corner of Rosecrans and Canon to a larger space at Liberty Station on June 1.

"Our goal is to close one day here and be open the next day there," she said. "This, of course, may not be realistic. I would like to minimize the impact on our business here. I'll be better able to judge it when we are a little closer."

The new space gives Con Pane almost 4,000 square feet inside along with another 1,000-square-foot patio. That means Perez will be able to expand her wholesale business (she already supplies bread to The Pearl, Roseville, and Tender Greens) and will offer more sandwiches, teas, and pastries to retail customers.

Con Pane’s new address at Liberty Station will be 2750 Dewey Road.



Print Page

Con Pane: The Rise of Dough in Pt. Loma

There's dough and then there’s dough, and Catherine Perez is an expert at both. An Illinois native, Perez arrived in San Diego 20 years ago to attend San Diego State and became a financial analyst. Several years ago, however, Perez decided she wanted to start her own business. What it would be she had no firm idea. Before Hillcrest’s Bread and Cie had arrived, it was her personal quest for a good loaf of bread in San Diego that led to her first “aha” moment and the birth of her Point Loma artisan bakery, Con Pane Rustic Breads & Cafe.

She regularly checked out artisan breads on her travels and studied baking with a French master baker in Minneapolis. Then came her second “aha” moment. On a bike ride with a friend through Point Loma, she took in the charming homes and feeling of neighborliness and realized that it was the perfect place for her gestating business. After scouting locations, she set her sights on the former Wells Fargo Bank at the corner of Rosecrans and Cañon. Some intense negotiating in the form of bread tastings won some interest from the new owner; what sealed the deal, she says with a smile, was her now signature Turkey Cobb sandwich.

Con Pane opened in June 1999. Perez lured her best buddy, Emanuel Burgin, from Prague, where he was writing a book, to help her out. His first project was to paint the large airy space, and help put together the 10-ton oven imported in pieces from France. Then Perez taught him her baking skills and she says he’s become quite the baker himself.

Con Pane now has five bakers who produce more than two dozen varieties of bread—everything from traditional French baguettes to olive bread, challah, ciabatta and Cranberry Orange Walnut.

Among the favorites are the Gruyere & Chive bread (made Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday), the daily-baked Point Loma Sourdough, and her Portuguese Sweet Bread (made on Sunday). But, she also bakes hamburger buns and pastries like scones, brioche cinnamon rolls and outrageous Milk Chocolate Chunk and Walnut, and Butter Toffee Peanut Butter cookies. Con Pane also makes and sells luscious sandwiches, and coffee. The space is filled with tables and chairs for dining in, but everything, including box lunches for concerts or picnics, is available for taking out.

The breads are Perez’s own recipes. “I’ve taken the European way of baking bread, and added American taste,” she explains. “We like to add things like cheese and herbs and nuts.” And, she adds, she even makes her own yeast.

Recently, Con Pane has started selling their breads wholesale. So, if you dine at 1500 Ocean at the Hotel Del Coronado, Jordan Restaurant in Pacific Beach’s Tower23 Hotel or The 3^rd Corner Wine Shop and Bistro in Ocean Beach, you’ll enjoy Con Pane breads with your meal.

Yesterday, I picked up a big bagful of baked goods, starting, of course with the Gruyere & Chive bread. I went home and used it in a veggie sandwich with home-roasted red peppers, romaine lettuce and a slathering of roasted garlic humus. With the idea of eating more healthfully, I also bought a loaf of the Artisan Multi-Grain. A good choice since the bread has a deep, rich flavor, both nutty and earthy, completely unlike the processed whole wheat breads you find in the supermarket. It will be perfect for a turkey sandwich or simply toasted with a little honey spread on top.

I can’t wait to try the Gorgonzola, Red Onion & Walnut Focaccia that was fixedly staring me in the face on the top of the counter.

I admit, I also picked up a couple of the cookies and an Apricot Spice scone. The scone is moist with bursts of plump dried apricot; the sanding sugar topping provides a nice crunch. The cookies speak for themselves. Chocolate chips and walnuts are my perfect combination for a cookie and Perez does it more than justice with a very sophisticated milk chocolate. The sweet butter toffee in the peanut butter cookie is the perfect foil for its salty nuttiness.

By the way, a nice end note for Peres that customers should know is that all of the breads that are unsold at the end of the night are donated to St. Agnes Church, which distributes them to area shut-ins and St. Vincent de Paul’s Homeless Shelter.

Con Pane is located in the Point Loma Village at 1110 Rosecrans St., Suite 100.

Have some thoughts about Con Pane or other artisan bakeries in San Diego? Add to the conversation by clicking on comments below: