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!
Tag: Safeway
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)