This year Kendall Jackson Winery has added a new Friday night event to its 16th Annual Heirloom Tomato Festival. It’s called Chef Tables in the Vineyard and it’s scheduled for the Friday September 14, 2012. It is a benefit for the Cooking with Kids Foundation, and it will be a fun evening with Guy Fieri, Mario Batali, and more than a dozen other Bay Area chefs including yours truly. Each chef is preparing a special menu for the guests at their table made with local ingredients, and served in Kendall Jackson’s Estate Vineyard.

The Heirloom Tomato Festival the next day is always a sell-out event that highlights the gorgeous heirloom tomatoes we grow here in Sonoma County. There are a few tickets left for both events, but they will go fast! Here is one of the dishes I’ll be creating for the Chefs Tables in the Vineyard event. Hope you’ll come and let me make it for you!

SALAD OF HEIRLOOM TOMATOES, FRESH MOZZARELLA
AND CHICK PEA PUREE

Serves 4

Picture by Jihad Hamad

Chickpea puree (recipe follows)
1-1/2 pounds ripe heirloom tomatoes, cored and sliced
Fresh basil oil (recipe follows)
1 pound fresh buffalo mozzarella, drained and sliced
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Toasted blanched almonds
Slivered meaty black olives such as Cerignola
Corn, Daikon or sunflower sprouts

Spoon the chickpea puree onto plates. Lay the tomatoes decoratively on top and drizzle the basil oil attractively around. Lay the mozzarella slices on top of this and sprinkle on a little sea salt and black pepper. Garnish with almonds, olives and sprouts.

Chickpea Puree:
1 cup cooked chickpeas
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice or to taste
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon honey
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place all ingredients in a food processor and puree until very smooth.

Fresh leafy herb oils (basil, mint, chives, cilantro, parsley, shiso, etc.)
3 cups lightly packed herbs, large stems discarded
2 cups or so cups olive or canola oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Blanch herbs in salted boiling water until they turn a bright green (about 5 seconds). Drain and plunge immediately into ice water to stop the cooking and set the color. This blanching step inactivates the enzymes which causes the herb to turn brown and develop an oxidized flavor.

Squeeze herbs as dry as you can and add to a blender along with enough oil to cover by at least 2 inches. Puree to make a smooth paste. Strain thru a fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth or alternately let sit for a few hours and then decant the oil off the solids. Oil should be a very bright green and fragrant. Season with salt and pepper if desired and store covered in refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

My Grandmother and I would pick the wild asparagus and eat much of it raw, right on the spot.  If you’ve never had just picked asparagus, it has any amazing sweet/green flavor, something that you don’t get with cultivated asparagus.  Raw is still one my favorite ways of eating asparagus but it must be just picked to take advantage of its natural sweetness.  Of course there are all kinds of ways to prepare asparagus beyond just steaming the spears whole. We’d have it every day until its short season was over.  The following recipe, and all of the recipes in this series have their genesis in dishes my Grandmother created with asparagus, so this is really an homage to her!

SHAVED RAW ASPARAGUS SALAD WITH PECORINO AND HAZELNUTS
Serves 6 – 8 as a side salad
You could use this same approach with artichokes or Brussels sprouts.  Once dressed, the shaved asparagus shouldn’t marinate for more than 15 minutes or so because it loses it crisp texture.  If your asparagus has a tough skin then you’ll want to peel it completely before shaving.  If not then follow instructions below and just shave off and discard 2 sides of it.

3/4 pound fresh asparagus (preferably larger rather than smaller), woody ends discarded                                                                                                                                 Honey lemon vinaigrette (recipe follows)
3 cups young arugula and/or upland cress (about 2 ounces)
1/2 cup peeled, toasted and chopped hazelnuts
2 – 3 ounces thinly shaved pecorino (use a vegetable peeler)

Cut off tips of asparagus and set aside in a large bowl.  Lay asparagus flat on cutting board and shave one side of it with a vegetable peeler and discard this first shaving.  Turn to other side and repeat.  Now shave remaining thinly and place in the bowl.  Dress generously with some of the vinaigrette and let it sit for 10 – 15 minutes for flavors to marry and asparagus to soften just a little.
Add arugula and hazelnuts along with a little more dressing and toss with asparagus.  Arrange attractively on plates and top with the shaved pecorino.  Serve immediately.

Honey Lemon Vinaigrette
Makes 1 generous cup
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
6 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons fragrant honey
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Whisk all ingredients together and season with salt and pepper.  Store covered and refrigerated up to 3 days.

Photo taken by John Ash

I just returned from a couple of weeks in Viet Nam.  It was an amazing trip.  In Viet Nam you’ll find the whole cultural spectrum of primitive to ultra modern often chock-a-block to each other.  The foods are wonderful, the best being what you find on the streets everywhere.  Flavors and ingredients differ in this long, narrow country.  In Hanoi, the capital in the north, food is more hearty and rustic, no doubt driven by the weather there which can be pretty cold in the winter.

As you move south, the beautiful beaches of the China Sea in Da Nang are quickly being developed into first class resorts.  Reminds me of the beaches in Mexico 30 years ago.  Probably says get there before it becomes too touristy.  Europeans are flocking there to buy homes and condos because of the temperate weather and cheap prices.  As you’d expect, cuisine is heavily seafood oriented.

Saigon in the south is tropical and lush.  The nearby Mekong Delta is one

Photo taken by John Ash

of the most important food-producing spots in the world.  Every where you look are rice paddies, bananas, fish farms, ducks and four-footed animals of all kinds.  The food here reflects that diversity.

Though you don’t see much of the French influence today (with the exception of the delicious Bahn Mi sandwich made with a classic French baguette) the French dominated the region from 1887 when French Indochina was formed which included what we know today as Viet Nam along with Cambodia and Laos.  This ended in 1954.

My observation is that Vietnamese food differs from Thai not so much in terms of ingredients but more a subtlety of flavor (probably a contribution from the French) in seasoning . . . Vietnamese being not so fiery chile influenced as Thai often is.

A dipping/table sauce that appears everywhere is Nuoc Cham.  There are as many variations on the recipe as there are people who make it.  Below is my riff on Nuoc Cham in a fish salad.  This particular recipe is one that I’ll be preparing for this year’s Cooking for Solutions event at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in May 2011.  Go to www.montereybayaquarium.org/vi/vi_events/cooking for more information.

VIETNAMESE SALAD WITH FRESH TROUT

Serves 4

Any crisp vegetables that you like could be added or substituted here.  There are several inexpensive tools on the market which make julienning a snap.  I’m pan cooking the trout here but you could also grill or poach it.  I love serving this in little Asian to-go boxes!

2 completely boned trout, about 10 ounces each

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Lime juice

3 tablespoons olive or canola oil

2 ounces thin rice noodles softened in warm water and drained

Toasted sesame oil

2 cups very finely sliced green or Nappa cabbage

1 cup or so carrot cut in fine julienne

1 cup or so finely julienned daikon radish, crisped in ice water and drained

1 medium red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and cut into fine julienne

2 cups seeded and thinly sliced English cucumber

Nuoc Cham (recipe follows)

1/4 cup or so loosely packed tender cilantro and/or mint sprigs

2 tablespoons chopped toasted peanuts

Season the cavities of the trout with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lime.  Add oil to a large skillet and, over moderately high heat, cook the trout until just done.  Remove and set aside to cool.  Remove skin from trout and break fillets into large pieces.  Set aside.

In a bowl toss the noodles with a few drops of sesame oil. Combine the cabbage, carrots, daikon, red pepper and cucumber and gently toss with the noodles.  Add the trout and artfully arrange on a plate or in a small Asian to-go box.  Spoon the Nuoc Cham over and top with cilantro and chopped peanuts.  Serve immediately with chop sticks.

Nuoc Cham

Makes about 1 cup

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

4 tablespoons Asian fish sauce

1 teaspoon minced fresh red chile or to taste

2 teaspoons finely minced garlic

5 tablespoons sugar or to taste

1 tablespoon cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped

Combine all ingredients and stir until sugar is dissolved.  Let stand at least 30 minutes before serving for flavors to develop.  Adjust salt/sweet/tart/hot flavors to your taste.

John Ash © 2011

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