Go check out her introduction post! (click)
Eric
New Post @ SeattleCooks.WordPress.com: Ellen
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Monthly Archives: September 2010
Festa Italiana 2010
MEAT-A BALL-A!!!!
Ericci Riverotti (my self-made Italian name….I still think it’s funny) is back!!!! Last year I went to the Festa Italiana and I was working the event as a chef assistant. This year I was back as an observer (school needed volunteers but I had an opportunity to interview a cookbook author at the event….cool vs. cooler). and I had a great time.
I didn’t have much time because I had to go to work later in the day so after my interview with Mark Leslie (click), I headed over to the main stage to check out one of my favorite chefs, Luigi Denunzio, show everyone what Italian cooking is all about.
I love chef Denunzio’s demonstrations. He opens up and really speaks his mind and gets the crowd involved immediately. I hope one day I can be that comfortable on stage.
Chef Luigi Denunzio’s Deconstructed Lasagna
If you ever get a chance to see chef Denunzio in action then it’s a definite must see….he is f’ing hilarious.
I wish I had more time to see some of the other chefs but that’s the way things go these days…busy!
I can’t wait for Festa Italiana 2011, it will be right around this time where I graduate….maybe they’ll ask a Puerto Rican to cook some Italian food on stage!!!
Eric
Cookbook: Beyond The Pasta-Mark Leslie
I received an email from a PR person asking me if I wanted to interview an author of a cookbook……I’ve never done that before so I was a little nervous. I knew it would be a good person to meet because the always awesome Keren Brown referred the PR person over to me (THANKS KEREN!)
I started doing a little research on Mark Leslie and he has a blog too (click). I researched a bit more and found out that he traveled to Italy and learned how to cook from Italians and not just from a stuffy cooking class or some washed up food writers living in Italy…he learned from a family where grandma showed him the way to true Italian cooking. He took a chance and followed his dreams in order take another step forward in life to achieve the ultimate goal in life…….EAT THE BEST FOOD ALWAYS!! 
I met up with Mark while he was in town visiting Festa Italiana. I had a chance to sit down with him and interview him. When I met him I wasn’t nervous at all, we just started talking about food. He was just as excited about this whole food thing as I was. We talked about how people in the United States are always worried about time in the kitchen instead of worrying about how good something could be if they just took a little more time. We both agreed that it’s frustrating talking to people that don’t have simple things down like a simple marinara sauce but those same people can tell you who won American Idol last year. They’ve never made pasta but they have all seasons of “Lost” memorized and on DVD!!!
Mark talked about his journey through life and told me that it’s not about making an extra $20,000 here and there because at the end of the day you can’t take that with you….the only thing you’ll have left is experiences and quality time spent with people you love. He believes that with food and quality time…experiences can be made for the better. Notice, he said nothing about going crazy in the kitchen and making a stuffy French sauce that takes 5 days, ends up being 4 ounces transformed from 2 gallons and makes the entire house smell awesome (how I roll)…. He likes the simple approach to food that gives love and respect to Italian cuisine.
Why is Italian cuisine so good?
He told me because it’s simple. It focuses on great ingredients and there aren’t that many things you need to do in order to make a great dish….maybe just a little elbow grease and some time with grandma.
His book has recipes amazing recipes like Penne with Proscuitto and Peas, Veal Tips, and Polenta, Zucchini and Onion Frittata, and many more that are wrapped in with his story of his adventures in Italy. It’s a very cool presentation of recipes within a story that helps each recipe tell a story.
I suggest you check his book out. My meeting with Mark reaffirmed my own wishes and dreams.
I’m working on it Mark! Thanks again for your time and good luck with the book tour!!!!
Epic Burger
Start with Painted Hills Sirloin then cube it up.
Mix it together with some cubed up pork back fat.
Then grind it together.
Combine that with:
- Salt
- Pepper
- Parsley, minced
- Bread crumbs…made some from Tall Grass Bakery Bread
- Egg
- Walla Walla Sweet, minced
- Green Onion (MRF)
Then form them into patties.
Make 2 sauces…..one that takes forever……. I have about 5 days into this one. Veal Glace de Viande with molasses/ghost chili starter.
and an avocado puree….you’ll see it in the final picture.
Render some bacon…..start forming the brioche dough and cook it off….finish with a roasted garlic oil that I made earlier.
Cook the patties in the bacon fat on high heat to sear each side then spoon bacon fat over each patty….I added 4 sprigs of rosemary and 5 garlic cloves to the bacon fat so it would add more flavor……epic. When the burgers are about 50% done then throw the entire pan in the oven to finish……
Beer batter some Walla Walla Sweet Onions in a Rainier Beer Batter then fry them off. I’m so used to using the fryer at work……..piece of crap Fry Daddy wasn’t cutting it so I had to resort to plan B. It worked.
Give them some vegetables too……at least one healthy thing. Lots of vegetables from MindyRiveraFarms and a persillade I made with herbs from the garden as well. Saute of vegetables with persillade and pumpkin seeds.
Ready to go!
Cheese is Beecher’s Flagship……..
Epic burger by Eric
New Post @ Seattlecooks.wordpress.com: Victor.
Go check out Victor and see what he’s all about. Check him out at my new blog: Seattle Cooks- Aspiring Chefs in the Emerald City (click)
Eric
New Blog: Seattlecooks: Aspiring Chefs in the Emerald City
(Any opportunity to sneak in a picture of Blue is totally awesome)
In the book Charcuterie I read about Brian Polcyn and how awesome he is. He has his own restaurant, teaches butchery and charcuterie at a culinary school, has 5 kids, and still had time to help write a book…..that drove me to do more with my time. I work 40+ hours a week, blog, go to school, and still have some time for Mindy and Blue…….I’m keeping chef hours!
I decided to start a new blog to help out other cooks in Seattle that are in my same position. It’s hard to put yourself out there if you don’t know who to talk to first. I intend to change that. I believe the journey starts at culinary school and while there are a ton of people that will tell you that you don’t need to go to culinary school in order to be a great chef or what not I do believe it helps and it is important….it’s working for me. I have found 3 other people that are as crazy as me and I have created a site to highlight their work.
The site is http://seattlecooks.wordpress.com/ and I urge you to check it out. I have put in a lot of hours into it already and I believe I have found some of the best cooks in the city. Join us on our journey to become chefs.
Welcome to Seattle Cooks: Aspiring Chefs in the Emerald City (click)
Eric
Adobo Spiced Pancetta Update/Tracker/Stalker-Action/News
It’s hanging out for a little bit (7-10 days)…..see you soon! Decided to go against rolling for now…..was only a 1.5# piece.
Eric
Big John’s PFI
I was talking with chef Gabriel Claycamp about veal bones and he brought up Big John’s PFI. It’s a store in Seattle that sells a ton of bulk items and focuses on Mediterranean cuisine. When he told me about it I had to go…..when I went there I was surprised to find the an amazing assortment of exciting and fair priced food products.
Their bulk items are less expensive than most/all bulk item sellers in Seattle. I was so excited about this then the ultimate excitement came when I found they were selling squid in ink. This isn’t a normal product to be found at the grocery store but it makes one hell of a dish with a little bit of white rice.
Chorizo….yes…..everything else…..amazing.
Check it out if you live in Seattle. Thanks chef Claycamp!
Eric
Japones Pepper Oil
I’m trying to clear out a little space in my space cabinets (over 110 spices!) so I decided to make an oil with some japones peppers.
Take a little cooking oil…..not extra virgin…….then food process them.
In a small sauce pan add a little more of that cooking oil then place the contents of your food processor in that pan. Cook on low heat, when the peppers smell toasted then strain through cheese cloth or a fine metal strainer. Then finish with a nice quality extra virgin olive oil. I used an unfiltered contadino extra virgin olive oil that I picked up at Big John’s PFI in Seattle. The peppers are from World Spice.
Eric
Sardine, Tomato/Piquillo Pepper Sauce, Black Bean Puree, Herb & Preserved Lemon, and Rice
I’ve eaten this dish a thousand times. When I was growing up this was something that my dad would make quite often. My dad didn’t cook much so things were simple. He would take a can of sardines that came with a tomato sauce included with it then he would make some white rice and in about 10 minutes dinner! I loved it and to this day it’s one of those dishes I talk about that can take me back.
I wanted to make this dish a few months ago but it’s not very easy to find fresh sardines. After a few calls I found a place in West Seattle (BEST CITY EVER!!!) that carries them. The problem is that they’re not exactly something that is exciting to most people so they don’t carry them normally. I was buying some mussels and clams yesterday and I saw the sardines in the window ready for a little tomato sauce and rice action!
I bought 5 of them and took them home.
I cleaned and butterflied them then dredged them with seasoned flour, cooked them in a pan with hot oil quickly on both sides. The black bean puree is awesome and I’ll never tell you how I make it…..muah hahaha. The tomato/piquillo pepper sauce is made by roasting garlic, piquillo peppers, tomatoes, and a red bell pepper, removing skin, food process, strain, and reducing a little bit more over heat. The herbs on top are a mixture fresh oregano, fresh cilantro, and preserved lemon chopped together. The rice is made with fresh bay leaves and a touch of salt.
Put it all together and eat….still takes me back.
Eric
Clams and Mussels!
I love clams and mussels. I think they compliment each other beautifully and they look amazing when paired up on a plate together. I get a lot of practice cooking clams and mussels at work so what do I do when I have a day off? I make clams and mussels because they’re that awesome.
MindyRiveraFarms has a lot things for me to play with so I ran outside and grabbed these three items to help this dish explode. Banana pepper, cilantro, and oregano (grabbed a lot more oregano than this!).
Alright, looking good. So I took two bowls and filled them with ingredients. In bowl #1 we have
Banana pepper (MRF), minced garlic, minced tarragon (MRF), and pimenton dulce.. This gets a little saute action with a tiny amount of grape seed oil to start the party off.
Then bowl #2 comes into play.
Butter, Cilantro (minced) MRF, Grape Tomatoes (MRF), Chorizo, Sherry, Black Pepper, and Sel De Mer. Bowl #2 gets mixed in with the clams and oysters then it’s thrown into the pot that is cooking the contents of bowl #1. After those little shells start opening pull them out as fast as you can and you’re on your way to having a nice pre-dinner dish!
Serve it with toasted sourdough bread with harissa butter and you’re starting to sound like that crazy Eric guy!
Eric
Butter Poached Fingerling Potato, Summer Squash, Leek, Red Onion, and Chanterelle Mushroom with 64C Egg and Carrot
Life at 40,000 BTU: Hot Line Action at Blueacre Seafood
I’m not going to be taking any cooking classes at school next quarter. Instead, I will be doing my externship out in the real world. The amusing thing is that I already work in the real world. I work full-time hours at Blueacre Seafood in Seattle. School is a little funny with this externship system……I get paid at Blueacre, I’m an employee there, not just a work-f0r-free bright and bubbly intern. I’m a paid bright and bubbly employee! The thing that is weird is that I actually have to pay tuition money towards this externship……pay to get paid…weird…anyway, I knew this was coming.
Unlike a lot of other students that make a ton of excuses as to why they don’t work in restaurants now (there are students that are waiting to graduate in order to start working in a restaurant…..really?!?!?!?!?!) or work as hard as I do I set my priorities to “chef” and have never looked back. I love listening to students talk about how “busy” they are. ”I’m working 20 hours a week at _______ and then I come to class and barely have time to _____ and _____”. Welcome to the world of being a chef but move that closer to 60-70 hours per week and deal with all the struggles of running a restaurant. Luckily, I don’t have my own restaurant yet, I just work in one.
I announced my move over to Blueacre back in June (click). I knew that working for chef Davis would be an amazing experience. I went to a weekly pig roast at Fresh Bistro (click) and chef Chea was talking about his time working at the Oceanaire under chef Davis.
He said it was hard but worth it. I love chef Chea’s food so I knew I needed to learn from chef Davis if I wanted to do things like chef Chea.
By that time I had visited The Steelhead Diner (click) and read about chef Davis in the Coco book (click) so hearing great things from a chef that I respected sealed the deal for me…..Blueacre it is!
I went in for an interview and I met chef Brian.
He asked me a bunch of questions. He asked me what I was doing at my previous employer and what I was doing at school and all that jazz. Then he asked me the most dreaded question during an interview…..”why should I hire you?” I hate that question. In other job interviews I’ve had in my life I have always given some b.s. answer that is very cliche. This time I just put my heart out there and said what I was feeling. I told him I wanted to be the best in the world and learn from the best chefs out there in order to one day take all the things I have learned from great chefs in order to open a restaurant one day that would highlight my teachings….it’s true, that’s what I want (I want to earn the respect of chefs). He looked at me a little weird then I showed him my f’ed up hand and said, “I’m not kidding, I came back from this and I will be the best….just help me get there”.
He told me to come in for a stage. I was working in a restaurant at the time so it was a little awkward asking for time off but this is what I wanted….”no” wasn’t an option.
My stage came up and it was going to be on a Thursday and a Friday. I walked in to my stage and chef Brian told me to “start cooking”. I had no idea what that meant….I had only worked prep and garde manger in a restaurant so this hot line stuff was a little foreign to me. Sure, at school and at home but at this Blueacre things were a little more intense. 6-7 people on the hot line with 2 in the pantry, 1 person (chef) expediting, and 200-300 people coming in for dinner service from 3-10PM. Yeah, different. When I worked prep at my previous job I would get a list of 8 or 9 things that I would complete between 7AM-3PM…..I worked garde manger and it was cold preparations so salads, desserts and things like that…..not too much on the hot side of cooking. Right off the bat I was intimidated and f’ing scared.
So I started cooking! “Put some oil in that pan…..no, too much oil……get a new pan…..ok, that’s the right amount…..alright, sear this………no, that’s too much start over…….we’re coming up on three minutes and that takes 7-8 minutes to cook…..you’re behind….stand over there and watch…….don’t touch anything…………”. Me, “YES CHEF!”. After about 10 minutes I wasn’t “cooking” anymore. I was told to go to the produce cooler and straighten it up, an hour later I came back to the line and said, “produce cooler is done!”. ”Is it, let me go check”. Chef Jaye said, “no, combine this, move this, move that, you need to clean it up more”. 1 hour later, back to the line…..Ok, I’m done chef! “Eric, go to the protein cooler and straighten it up”. Yes chef!
I walked to the restroom first and I looked at myself in the mirror and said, “get your S _ _ _ together, there’s no going back from here, you got this”. I went to the protein cooler and made it look like a museum of fish and meat. Back to the line, chef I’m done! ”Ok, just stand over there and see if anyone needs help. I asked every minute or so and everyone told me they were fine…..ugh. We were extremely busy that night and I noticed chef Brian was drinking ice water with a lime wedge. His cup was empty so I ran to the back and grabbed a quart container, filled it with ice, put a lime wedge on it with a straw then said, “chef!!!!! here’s your water!!!!” He turned over to me and said, “AWESOME, THAT’S AWESOME”. 10 minutes later he walked over to me and said, “I talked to chef Kevin and we want you to come work here, when can you start?”
I looked at him in disbelief. I didn’t even cook anything!!! I didn’t even do anything!! I just cleaned coolers, took a bunch of notes, and got you some water…..ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!!? They were serious. Welcome to Blueacre.
Eric
Dinner, My Place…..This time it’s serious! (awesome sequel title!? Ok, not really)
Heirloom tomato, frisee, red onion (MRF), kalamata olives, pickled brown mustard seeds, maple syrup vinaigrette, Redmondo cheese (click).
My sister just came back from Napa and had fried green tomatoes for the first time. I said I could make a better batch with green tomatoes from MindyRiveraFarms.
After a little seasoned Beecher’s cheese, my own pique on a plate, and a little standard frying technique for fried green tomatoes I dazzled them with this.
My sister brought over some wild sockeye salmon so I put it in one of those bags and cooked it in one of those things.
Veal Stock Squash Risotto with Wild Sockeye Salmon, Chanterelle Mushroom, and Crispy Skin for 2.
Eric
IxaRiveraCooks: Restaurant Bodega, Puerto Rico
Ole!
Two weeks ago we went to the town of Guanica, PR. They have a place called La Bodega de Andreu Sole. It is nicely located by the water and the atmosphere is awesome.
The place is located in his house and he has prepared his house patio to received guest from Friday to Sundays. He makes his own wine and also makes artisan liquors (yum).
He doesn’t have any signs outside announcing his place, it is just word of mouth. They serve tapas, his own wine and beer and drinks made out his artisan liquors.
They have very relaxing music and it is a night to just forget about everything and just enjoy what you have. Love the place and Andreu is great. Oh, the grape vines are everywhere in the yard. Love it!
LYA,
Mom
