Tag: Safeway

In The Limelight

Fog-filtered super moonlight illuminated the beautiful round citrus center stage at ChezHelvetica on this Saturday evening. Limes originated in India or Malaysia, and then were grown on large scale in southern Iraq and Persia. The path of this variety proceeded to Sicily, Andalusia and the West Indies including the Florida Keys. West Indian, Mexican or bartender Limes garnered the Key Lime name in their association with the Florida Keys. A Saveur recipe for Grilled Prawns (posted on Facebook by my friend Phyllis) called for Finger Limes but aromatic Key Limes were a delicious understudy. Basil accented Lemon and Lime Juices drizzled the Gulf Prawns (from Safeway), delightfully spilling over the Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes and Organic Broccoli (from Nunez Farm). Rich Kunde Chardonnay from Sonoma Valley accompanied our entree and also dessert of Tory Farms incredible Peaches and Roasted Inzana Ranch Walnuts. Spilling over – definitely the key words for this evening!

 

 

 

Fish Tail

On an almost tropical evening,”the tail wagged the fish” at ChezHelvetica. Indeed, the deciding factor for our choice of entree was an alluring bottle of Donovan Parke Chardonnay. Mining the Epicurious archive, I unearthed the perfect Grilled Tuna Niçoise recipe – customized to the house pantry. Ingredients included emerald green haricot vert and fingerling potatoes from the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market, Campari tomatoes, arugula, hard boiled eggs, capers and Kalamata olives. Wild, coho salmon from Alaska (purchased at Safeway) replaced the tuna. The salad’s delectable herb dressing – roused by garlic and anchovies –  doubled as a dip for the rustic artisan baguette. Gelato – the quintessential warm weather dessert – topped with pomegranate seeds and balsamic vinegar –  concluded our special night.

Honored Guest #3


ChezHelvetica Hostel opened for summer season with a flurry of reservations from family members. Our honored guest this evening was my Mom. Mouth-watering Shenson’s corned beef, oven-roasted rather boiled, was the featured entree served with Stonewall Kitchen Horseradish Cream Sauce and Grey Poupon Country Dijon Mustard. Crudites and a piquant Danish potato salad completed the main course. A delicious Ficklin Port satisfied my Mother’s preference for sweet wine while we also served a smooth Renwood Old Vine Zin. What better to have for a summer dessert than a Fruit Tart? Apricots, blackberries and walnuts crowned puff pastry, embellished with Safeway‘s Homestyle Vanilla Ice Cream. Welcome to this season of warmth and long days!

Is the Fish Fresh?

The answer to my husband’s perpetual question in this case is a resounding YES, in fact the fish is Wild. A Martha Stewart Living recipe with the magic words “you make the main and side dish all in one pan” got me going! The succulent halibut from Alaska (purchased at Safeway) roasted alongside the baby zucchini while I made the luscious butter sauce, substituting shallots for the onion. Why cut into a whole onion for such a small amount? Whole wheat couscous from Trader Joe’s, studded with delicate shiitake mushrooms from the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market, completed the meal. A Pacific Rim Dry Reisling helped the celebration of warm weather – finally – and beginning of the Memorial Day Weekend. Halleluyah!

Snap Judgements

The intended fish course for this meal was to be salmon, but one look at the beautiful, fresh red snapper at Safeway, that was it – I was off in a new direction. Quickly looking online for some cooking instructions since I hadn’t made snapper in a while, I found a recipe on Epicurious for a Roasted Red Snapper, Lemon and Artichoke dish. The original intention for the glorious artichokes from Castroville (found at Pezzini’s) was to simply steam them. Yet once again, finding I could roast them under the snapper, this lead to one more change in direction. Yam fries completed our meal with everything getting a dollop of garlicky basil aioli. Sometimes, things just fall into place!


Omega-3

Omega-3 fatty acid benefits now rule editorial features in virtually all media channels, salmon being the holy grail in the food category. This evening’s dinner featured roasted wild salmon from Alaska. Although this salmon was purchased at a local Safeway, the recipe used in its preparation dates to a flightseeing excursion to Taku Glacier Lodge in Juneau during our honeymoon. A luscious mix of Meyer lemon juice, honey, butter and white wine basted the fish. The Inner Sunset Farmer’s Market offered the wonderful asparagus and Yukon Gold potatoes, simply brushed with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper and prepared in tandem with the salmon. A Chardonnay from Chateau Ste. Michelle in Columbia Valley completed the “up North” theme of our dinner!

Italian night

A private tasting and tour of A.G. Ferrari Foods for members of the San Francisco Professional Food Society inspired the dinner for this evening. In fact, the featured pasta – artisan produced organic Fusilli Napoletani – topped with incredible San Marzano tomatoes were gifts from that wonderfully educational, epicurean experience. Eggplant from the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market (grilled stovetop and dressed with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Trader Joe’s goat cheese) along with Gallo Italian salami from Safeway and olives from our huge Costco jar continued the theme. An Italian Primativo wine, “A Mano”, from BevMo helped transport us from Land’s End to Italy!

Jump Start on Crab Season

The intent of my 8AM dash to Safeway for some household staples yielded a lovely surprise for dinner – Dungeness Crab, from Canada! As I cruised by the fish counter, these beautiful red crabs stopped me in my tracks. Fishmonger Jim asked me if I wanted to taste some. I did – delicious! This led to the purchase of one of our favorite Chardonnays, Rodney Strong Chalk Hill. With one artichoke left from our recent visit to Pezzini’s in Castroville (wonderful market) and the best radishes I have ever tasted plucked that morning from the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market, we were set for our Saturday Night Live dinner. Happily, I had some brown rice left over from a recent visit to a Chinese restaurant which worked as the perfect accompaniment to this meal. Luscious red grapes from Tory Farms (also purchased at the Farmer’s Market that morning) were served with Carr’s Whole Wheat Crackers topped with Aged Gouda and toasted walnuts drizzled with honey for a simple, sweet dessert.

After Movie Dinner

Inspiration: I needed a dish that required only reheating at 9:30pm after seeing the movie “Waitress”. I had some ricotta in the refrigerator that was about to expire and some ground beef in the freezer from a prior dinner that I wanted to use up. I also had some multi-grain penne — so what recipe would work for these ingredients?


Research: I first looked at Foodnetwork.com and considered a recipe by Giada de Laurentis but didn’t want to fry a bunch of meatballs. So I then went to Epicurious but found no inspiration. I opened Dashboard on my Mac and typed “Pasta Ricotta Beef” into Google since those were the ingredients I had to work with. The Google search revealed this recipe at Cooks.com which I adapted.

Shopping: Ingredients came from Trader Joe’s, Safeway and a little market next to where I had my nails done earlier in the afternoon which had some really good mozzarella.

Amendments: The recipe called for canned tomatoes and I substituted fresh hot house tomatoes. The salad recipe I used was in Food and Wine. It called for spinach, plums, basil with a dressing of orange and lemon zests, juices, etc. I made the dressing exactly but had spring greens and apricots so used those instead of spinach and plums. It was great!

Ambiance: We listened to Tangents Radio. Host Dore Stein played sensual acoustic Mediterranean music.

Prep Time: 1+ hours
Cooking Time: 13 minutes
Cost: about $20
Wine: Ravenswood Old Vine Zinfandel from Lodi 2004 $9.99 (coincidentally, this wine is featured in the June issue of Gourmet as a recommended wine)