Everything is under control here! Do not be alarmed by the three foot tall flames coming out of that frying pan. It’s 100% intentional.
Well, maybe not 100%.
In my recent visit to San Francisco, I got too cook with my food blogger friends Sabrina (@thetomatotart) and Kimmie (@fullcircleadv), both who I had met at Foodbuzz Festival last November. It was a real treat working with Sabrina. She has the same enthusasiam for crazy food and wild ingredients as I do.
When I arrived at her home she told me that she wanted to light things on fire with her blow torch. I was onboard with this idea and I contemplated the details as we went to the store for ingredients.
Sabrina described Bi-Rite as “the happiest 1000 square feet on earth.” I’d be inclined to agree. San Fran’s most popular neighborhood gourmet grocery was bustling with foodies and full of amazing ingredients. Exotic produce, amazing cheeses, lovely wines and natural meats were all great inspiration for our dinner. As of course was the idea for lighting things on fire…
I couldn’t help but think of saganaki, a dramatic Greek dish that involves igniting liquor to melt cheese. I have fond childhood memories of my family going to a Greek restaurant and ordering the saganaki. It was quite the thrill when the server lit the cheese on fire at the table.
So we procured a lovely smokey Spanish sheep’s milk cheese and decided to run with the theme of smoke and fire.
How could we say no to seasonal specialties like fiddlehead ferns and ramps?!? These got to play in the fire too.
Up until this point, I have never even attempted to make saganaki before. Remembering back to a failed attempt to ignite rum for bannanas foster, I decided that we needed to use the strongest booze we could get our hands on. Yes, Bacardi 151. It’s got a “Warning: Flammable” stamped on the label.
“We don’t need to be safe,” said Sabrina, half joking before we began.
So I sauteed the fiddleheads and ramps with some garlic and chili, then topped it with slices of the cheese. Sabrina got out her blow torch, and then this happened:
There was a brief moment when the flames started licking at the kitchen cabinets above when I thought to myself “Wow. This could actually happen. We could start a house fire.”
Fortunately, the liquor burned off quickly and the cheese started to melt. It actually took a few rounds to get the semi-hard cheese to melt completely.
We topped it off with a drizzle of yuzu juice and some fresh parsley and served it with local “Firebrand” bread (because that fit with our fire theme!)
With our pyromanic yearnings satiated, we moved on to the entrée portion of the program. Another first for us: savory rhubarb application!
Rhubarb is in season and we jumped at the opportunity to incorporate it into the meal. I cooked the rhubarb in butter with sweet red onions, then deglazed with a bitter india pale ale. I let the mixture cook down for about an hour and then finished with a splash of sherry vinegar to brighten the flavors. This all worked surprisingly well. The bitter IPA complimented the bitter rhubarb and the sweetness of the onion balanced everything out.
It was a lovely compliment to some simple seared scallops topped with smokey fried speck. On the side there is just some brown rice.
Did I say “just some brown rice.” I mean brown rice cooked in homemade pork stock (of course Sabrina would have pork stock in her freezer!) then bejeweled with minced fava beans and fresh chives. Hello delicious.
For dessert, we made up a crazy frozen yogurt flavor! Sheep’s milk yogurt and a splash of agave nectar was the base… then it went places with yuzu juice, sudachi lime juice, Hawaiian coral salt and lavender sugar. I’m not sure how to describe this other than that it was really stupid good…
Made even better with bourbon berry sauce. What’s that, you say? Just bourbon that had berries soaking in it. Of course Sabrina just had this lying around from an earlier project. We reduced it down a little bit and drizzled the warm sauce over the cold froyo.
An exciting meal and we didn’t burn the house down! I can’t wait to cook with Sabrina again.
to the tune of “Burning Down the House” as made popular by The Talking Heads