Galaxy Taco Announces New Season of Taco Tuesday Takeovers

Just got a note from Galaxy Taco's chef/owner Trey Foshee, listing the fall lineup of chefs and others who will be at the restaurant as guest taqueros and create a set of three innovative tacos for guests.

Foshee started this tradition in January with his friend Chef Jason Knibb of NineTen. And, Knibb will be back again on September 27. Tonight's guest chef will be Juan Carlos Recamier of Ceviche House.

"It's a real casual thing," said Foshee, who opened Galaxy Taco in La Jolla Shores a year ago last July. "We happen to have some heavy hitting people coming in but that's because they're my friends. It's not a competition. We kept getting asked all the time what we were going to do for Taco Tuesday and though this would be fun, but we're doing it as something of value and something we're offering in addition to what we already do."

I've been to these Taco Tuesday Takeovers, most notably one with Isabel Cruz. While it's essentially an evening like other evenings at the restaurant in that you can order off the menu, there's a celebratory air to it since friends and family of the chef tend to show up and hang out at each other's tables. And the featured taquero roams the restaurant chatting with them and other guests, answering questions. It takes on the air of a party--and then there are the tacos. You just don't know what creations these chefs and other talents (he's had authors and artists participate, too) will come up with.

Here's the lineup:

September 20: Juan Carlos Recamier of Ceviche House
September 27: Jason Knibb of NineTen Restaurant

October 4: Jose "JoJo" Ruiz, Executive Chef/Partner Lionfish 

October 11: Ruffo Ibarra Arellano, Chef/Co-Owner – ORYX Capital, Tijuana

October 18: Stevan Novoa                                   

October 25: Hanis Cavin of Carnitas Snack Shack

November 1: Dia de los Muertos guest chef dinner

November 8: Gisselle Wellman (Top Chef Season 13) of Pacific Standard Kitchen 

November 15: Brittany Cassidy of CDC Rustic Canyon 

November 22: still open

November 29: Jeff Jackson of The Lodge at Torrey Pines

"Taco Tuesday Takeovers" run from 5 p.m. until close. The guest chefs will create three signature tacos. Customers can order these in addition to regular menu items. Since it's not a formal event, there's no start time, but reservations are suggested.

"I'm doing it for the fun of cooking with friends and seeing what they come up with," Foshee said. "The chef will be available to discuss their tacos and anything else, but I'm not setting anything formal up. Tacos are not that complicated. This is really just for the fun of it. We'll learn from them. They may learn from us."

Galaxy Taco is located at 2259 Avenida De La Playa in La Jolla. You can make reservations by calling 858-228-5655 or on the website.


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Cinco de Mayo Churros from Olivier Bioteau

Those of us who had been big Farmhouse Cafe fans were broken hearted in 2014 when chef/owner Olivier Bioteau and his wife Rochelle decided it was time to close it. We thought perhaps that in the aftermath he was working up a new plan for another restaurant, but, in fact, Bioteau felt that he was done--for now, at least--with the stresses and grueling hours of running his own place. He traveled and thought about his next steps and then discovered that his old buddy Jeff Jackson of The Lodge at Torrey Pines and A.R. Valentien was looking for a chef tournant--sous chef, if you will--and he applied for the job. And got it.

It appears to have been a brilliant move on the part of both chefs. Jackson got a seasoned chef he could rely on. Bioteau found a culinary home that keeps him busy and stimulated. What he doesn't have is the weight of the world on him that chef/owners bear.

"My priority is a balanced life," he said. "I want time with my wife and my dog. I want time to travel."

Then came a surprise announcement. Bioteau was promoted to Executive Pastry Chef. Okay, well then.

Bioteau laughs at the idea that it would be a strange transition. After all, he said, in culinary school you're trained in the basics, including desserts and pastry. And everywhere he's worked since then he's done desserts. In fact, many years ago when he was a private chef, he went to U.C. Davis to take an ice cream course. Laster he took an online chocolate-making course from Ecole Chocolat in Vancouver (remember his beautiful signature chocolates at Farmhouse Cafe?).

It actually wasn't something he was going after. But once he'd been at The Lodge for a year and had his annual review he said he'd be interested in doing pastry. But The Lodge has a long-time pastry chef so he didn't think much about it. And then she left. The job was offered to Bioteau and he's been on that job since Valentine's Day. So far, he's kept pretty much to the existing menu for banquets and the restaurant. But at A.R. Valentien's Thursday Artisan Table dinners, Bioteau's had fun experimenting, with dishes like a green strawberry tart topped with brown butter whipped cream.

"I try to keep it as simple as possible with the best ingredients we can get, and made the best we can," he said.

One of the dishes he'd been playing with was churros. He was almost embarrassed at the notion of a French chef (he's from the Loire Valley) making churros. But he was serious. Not only did he scour recipes, but he turned to his kitchen staff--many of whom are from Mexico--to judge his results. In fact, it took him awhile to get the texture right, but he relaxed when he realized that the churro is essentially a pâte à choux, fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar.

So, in anticipation of Cinco de Mayo, Bioteau made me his churros (inviting me to fry some up as well), along with a sauce duo of chocolate and dulce de leche.

Oliver Bioteau's Churros with Two Sauces
(printable recipe)

Ingredients
1 cup water
1/2 cup or 1 stick unsalted butter
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1/2 gallon vegetable oil for frying
1 cup gradulated sugar for rolling the churros
1/4 cup cinnamon for rolling the churros
1 can condensed milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

To make the Churros:

1. In a medium sauce pan, combine water, butter, sugar, salt cinnamon and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the flour at once, stirring for 2 minutes until you obtain a bowl of dough.

2. Transfer the dough into a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. At low speed mix the dough and add the eggs one at a time. Mix until well incorporated.
3. In a large deep sauce pan, warm up your vegetable oil until it reaches 350 degrees.
4. In a shallow pan, mix the sugar and the cinnamon to dip the churros into once they are fried and golden brown.

5. Transfer the churro dough into a piping bag with a star tip. When the oil reaches 350 degrees, squeeze the churros out of the bag, about 4 inches long, using your index finger to cut them off, and let them drop into the oil. Flip them, once until golden brown all over.

6. When done, remove the churro from the oil, transfer onto a paper towel, and roll the churro in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Eat immediately.

To make the Dulce de Leche Sauce:

1. In a large sauce pan, place the actual can of condensed milk (do not open can yet leave contents intact), cover with water, and boil for 2 hours.  Make sure the can is always covered with boiling water.  

2. After two hours, remove the can from the water and let it stand for 15 minutes. Open with a can opener. Pour the golden brown condensed milk, known as “Dulce de Leche,” into a ramekin as a dipping sauce for your churros.

To make the Chocolate Sauce:

1. In a small sauce pan, bring 1 cup of heavy cream to a boil. Remove from heat. 

2. Add the chocolate chips. Let stand for 5 minutes. Mix well. Pour into ramekin as a  dipping for your churros.

The Lodge at Torrey Pines and A.R. Valentien are located at 11480 N Torrey Pines Rd. in La Jolla.



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Tres Ceviches from Oceana

Come holiday season and it seems that everything on our plates is filled with butter, cream, big carbs, and big meats. And, yes, we love it. But how about adding something to your holiday buffet that's a little lighter, a little fresher, and--okay--healthier. And yet still packed with flavor and bright festive color!

Yup, I'm talking ceviche. Fresh seafood married with acid to cure it and mixed together with fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices. Irresistible, right? Absolutely. We tend to think of ceviche as a summer dish because it's so light. But there's no reason not to serve it over the holidays.

I visited the new Oceana Coastal Kitchen at the Catamaran in Pacific Beach recently and got a marvelous tutorial from executive chef Steven Riemer. Riemer doesn't have the high profile of many of San Diego's chefs, but his 25 years as a chef include working with Jeff Jackson at A.R. Valentien at The Lodge at Torrey Pines, as well as 11 years at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, which included representing the culinary team at the James Beard House in New York.

It was Riemer's idea to teach me his ceviche dishes. He loves the versatility and creativity that are part of making ceviches--not to mention that it's a dish that can take full advantage of leftover parts of a fish that don't lend themselves to other dishes. So, ceviche is a bit of a sustainable dish, if you will.

Riemer selected three different ceviches to prepare for me: a shrimp ceviche with cherry tomatoes, cilantro, red onion, pineapple, and jalapeño; a seabass ceviche with mango, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and aguachile onions; and a scallop ceviche with grapefruit slices, and a marinated vegetable medley. All were festive in their colors and offered power-packed bites accompanied by thick, house-made tortilla chips.

If you've never made ceviche and have even been a little wary of doing so, I have to tell you that as long as you have very fresh ingredients, you have nothing to worry about (marinating in acid cures the fish and kills bacteria) and everything to enjoy about the process--which takes little time given the amount of flavor you get in return.

Riemer gave me some tips for how to do it well:

• Marinate your seafood in a combination of lime juice and salt; that combination gives both a great flavor and kills bacteria.
• Considering using vinegar instead of lime? Riemer isn't a big fan of this. He finds that it can be so acidic that it can be too strong in flavor and that it will cure the exterior of the proteins faster than the inside. So, stick lime juice and salt.
• Avoid mussels for ceviches; Riemer says they just don't work well. Clams, however, are a great choice.
• Also avoid oily fish, like mackerel, sardines, and salmon. They don't tend to look as good following a marinade in lime juice and their flavors are too strong. You can, instead, use them in an escabeche, which is like ceviche in that you marinate them in lime or lemon juice, but then you'll also sauté them in olive oil.
• The secret to a great shrimp ceviche is to chop the shrimp into bite-sized pieces so they cure more quickly and evenly. Don't leave the shrimp whole. If you want to use cooked bay shrimp, don't turn it into a ceviche. Instead mix the shrimp with salsa.
• Be creative with the vegetables and fruits you include in your ceviche. Riemer suggests including everything from spicy pickled asparagus and jicama to avocado cubes.

• Be sure to drain most of the liquid from the cured seafood when you're ready to mix it with other ingredients. This drier version will make it easier for your guests to lift it up with chips.

Shrimp Ceviche

Shrimp Ceviche

From Steven Riemer of Oceana Coastal Kitchen

Serves 4 to 6

For marinade:

12 ounces raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

Fresh lime juice to cover—approximately 2 cups

¼ teaspoon salt

½ jalapeño, minced seeds and veins removed.  Unless you really like the heat.

12 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

½ bunch cilantro, rough chopped

Salt and pepper to season

3 teaspoons red onion, minced

1/3 cup fresh pineapple, diced

Slice the shrimp into ½-inch pieces. Place in bowl and add lime juice and salt. Marinate for two hours. Drain the shrimp. Mix in a non-reactive bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Serve in a single bowl or individual dishes with tortilla chips or place on crispy tostada and top with Mexican crema.

Seabass Ceviche

Seabass Ceviche

From Steven Riemer of Oceana Coastal Kitchen

Serves 4 to 6

For marinade:

12 ounces raw seabass diced into ½” pieces

Fresh lime juice to cover—approximately 2 cups

¼ teaspoon salt

½ bunch cilantro, rough chopped

1/3 cup fresh mango, diced

10 drops of toasted sesame oil, more or less

½ cup mango puree

For garnish:

½ small red onion, thinly sliced

½ cup lime juice

1 teaspoon white and black toasted sesame seeds

½ serrano chile, shaved

Slice the seabass into bite-sized pieces. Place in non-reactive bowl and add lime juice and salt. Marinate for two hours. Drain the seabass. Mix in a bowl with the cilantro, mango, and sesame oil.

Combine the red onion and lime juice to marinate so it pickles—about 20 minutes. Drain the onions. This is your aguachile onion mixture.

To plate, place a dollop of the mango puree into a margarita glass. Add the ceviche. Top with slices of pickled red onion, a sprinkling of sesame seeds, and a few slices of the shaved serrano chile.

Scallop Ceviche

Scallop Ceviche

From Steven Riemer of Oceana Coastal Kitchen

Serves 4 to 6

For marinade:

8 ounces raw scallops

Fresh lime juice to cover—approximately 2 cups

¼ teaspoon salt

1 Oro Blanco grapefruit, peeled and sectioned

1 Pink grapefruit, peeled and sectioned

For the lime-cured garnish:

½ small red onion, peeled and thinly sliced

4 small carrots, shaved

2 Japanese cucumbers, sliced into thin rounds

¼ cup poblano chile, shaved

¼ cup sweet red and green chiles, shaved

½ cup lime juice

¼ teaspoon salt

Slice the scallops into bite-sized pieces. Place in non-reactive bowl and add lime juice and salt. Marinate about 45 minutes, then drain.

Prepare the onions by marinating them in half the lime juice and salt for about 20 minutes. Combine them with the carrots, cucumber slices, and chiles. Add remaining lime juice and marinate for another 20 minutes. Drain.

Combine the scallops, pickled vegetables, and grapefruit in a serving bowl or individual dishes. If you want, you can dice some avocado and add that to the ceviche and then serve it inside avocado halves.

Oceana Coastal Kitchen is located inside the Catamaran Hotel at 3999 Mission Blvd. in Pacific Beach.


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Celebrate the Craft with Pickled Watermelon Gherkins

This Sunday afternoon I know where I'll be: at my very favorite annual food event, Celebrate the Craft at The Lodge at Torrey Pines. This intimate food festival extolls the collaboration between San Diego's best chefs and our growers, vintners, and culinary artisans. Led by A.R. Valentien exec chef Jeff Jackson, the chef round up includes Paul Arias (The Fishery), Pete Balistreri (Tender Greens), Antonio Friscia (Gaijin), Katie Grebow (Cafe Chloe), Matt Gordon (Sea & Smoke), Javier Plascencia (Misión 19), Monica Szepesy (Q'ero), Jason Knibb (Nine-Ten), and so many more. And the setting, on a pristine lawn overlooking the golf course and the sparkling Pacific Ocean, couldn't be more stunning.

One of the great traditions of Celebrate the Craft is having jars upon jars of house-made pickles and preserves from A.R. Valentien for guests to take home. In recent years, chef de cuisine Kelli Crosson has taken on the task of creating them--all 320 jars, divided this year between bread-and-butter pickles, pickled watermelon gherkins, and stone-fruit mostarda. She invited me to their sprawling kitchen to help her make a batch of the pickled watermelon gherkins. It turns out they're quite easy to make and even the canning wary should give these a try.

These unusual heirloom gherkins are known by numerous names, including Mouse Melons, Mexican sour gherkins, Cucamelons, and Cuka-Nuts. They're tiny, about the size of a grape, and look just like ultra-mini watermelons. They're terrific for pickling, but you can enjoy them raw, add them to a salsa, or even to a cocktail. When they're in season, I've found them at Suzie's Farm farmers market stalls and Specialty Produce.

Crosson, who has been with A.R. Valentien for four years, is originally from a small town called Exeter in Central California, having grown up on a citrus farm. As a child, an aunt's gift of cooking tools got her hooked on cooking--to her it was a way of creating community around a table, whether it was her family or friends, or, later, restaurant customers. Like many, Crosson got sidetracked and, in her case, she went into advertising in San Diego before she chucked it and left for the East Coast to attend the French Culinary Institute (now The International Culinary Center) in New York. "It was one of the best experiences of my life," she says. From there she headed to Washington, D.C., where she worked in catering at the Ronald Reagan Building and even catered for the Supreme Court. But, she realized she was more suited for the discipline of working the line and creating food à la minute so she returned to San Diego and started work at A.R. Valentien as a line cook, before being promoted to sous chef and, six months ago, chef de cuisine.

It was at this juncture that we met. And now, all these months later, we spent the morning making  pickles.

We started, of course, with sterilized half-pint glass jars and lids. Crosson set out a bunch of them, and I started adding the herbs and spices.

Since I was wearing contact lenses, Crosson sliced and distributed the serrano chiles.

Then came the little gherkins, followed by a classic pickle brine of water, distilled white vinegar, sugar, and kosher salt that Crosson had already brought to a boil. I absolutely want this stainless steel confectionary funnel we used to inject the water/vinegar mixture into the jars. It gives so much control with hot liquids!

We screwed on the lids and placed the jars into steel containers that would then go into the kitchen's large steamer for about 10 minutes. For us home cooks, we'd be placing them into a water bath.

Since then they've been sitting in a pantry and will be ready to eat by this Sunday.

I broke open a jar early and found that even now, they're itty bitty flavor balls--crispy with a little saltiness, a hint of clove, and a pleasing hit of heat on the palate. I'll be making these for myself. You can, too. Here's Kelli's recipe:

Pickled Watermelon Gherkins
from Kelli Crosson of A.R. Valentien
(printable recipe)

Makes 2 pints

1/2 pound watermelon gherkins, washed with stems removed
1 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1 cup water
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 serrano chile, halved
4 garlic cloves
2 cloves
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1. Wash and sterilize two pint jars and lids, per manufacturer instructions.
2. In a non-reactive saucepan, bring the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar to a boil.
3. Meanwhile, divide the serrano, garlic, clove, bay leaf, mustard seed, and peppercorns between the jars, and pack with the watermelon gherkins.
4. Pour hot brine over the gherkins, leaving a 1/4-inch headspace.
5. Close the jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
6. Store in a cool, dry, dark place for at least two weeks before eating the pickles. After opening, store in the refrigerator.

Celebrate the Craft takes place on Sunday, Oct. 6 from 11:30 to 3 p.m. at The Lodge at Torrey Pines (11480 N. Torrey Pines Road) in La Jolla. Tickets are $85 a person and can be purchased online here.

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