April Fourteenth 2011
Sir Francis Drake cheese
with fava beans and chive buds
Grilled artichokes
with King Oysters and Spring Onions
Grilled Sea Bass, shaved fennel,
Oro Blanco, mustard greens
and crispy skin
and crispy skin
English pea ravioli with Yella’s ricotta,
pantaleo Sardinian goat cheese,
brown butter, and sage
Lamb chops with creamy lentils, leeks,
roasted olives
Roasted pineapple ice cream
macadamia nut cookies
May is already upon us but we’d like to reflect on last month’s gifts. Our April guest of honor, Corina, chef and owner of Canelé, offered her unmatched charm and insight about the farms SummerWinter has been involved with over the course of the past year. It was an absolute delight to finally get to feed her after relishing in so many exquisite meals at her cozy restaurant, hands down our favorite brunch in Los Angeles. The baked pancake with Meyer lemon custard is sweet breakfast perfection, a proud half-balloon that’s buttery, fluffy, and crispy on the edges. The creamy tanginess of the curd is a flawless accompaniment. We frequently make the trek to the east side just to experience Corina’s delightful, honest food and enjoy the view of her exposed kitchen which is always bustling.
There was also lots of hum about sushi at April’s supper. Mori Sushi. So far it’s been our favorite sushi destination in the area. From what we gather, Chef Morihiro Onadera has recently sold the place to his long-time protégé, and is currently working on another project. Mori accounts for every aspect of the meal he is serving, which is why dining with him has been so extraordinary. He personally supervises his own rice field in Sacramento, and polishes the grains daily. All of the serving dishes or Utsuwa in his restaurant are hand-crafted ceramics by Mori himself. He serves only fresh wasabi using the traditional Japanese method of grating with a sharkskin grater. He even brews his own soy sauce! Some memorable bites have been baby spring squid, his homemade tofu (so soft it melts away at the touch of your tongue), kohada (Japanese sardine), halibut fin, baby barracuda, abalone, and toro. His umeboshi roll makes me giddy, and the house black sesame ice cream hits those delicate and earthy notes just so. We’re not sure if the restaurant will remain the same without Mori, but we’ll definitely be keeping tabs.
Now, enough about restaurants! As for the meal we served, it was springtime at its best. Fresh peas—finally sweet, sweet, sweet! Grilled spring onions from Schaner Farm that dissolve tenderly in the mouth. Giant, and I mean huge, artichokes from Daisy at Life’s A Choke Farm that deliver – warm and deeply satisfying off the grill, nice and charred. An exciting pairing of fresh favas with Sir Francis Drake cheese, a Cowgirl Creamery cult favorite that is only occasionally produced when the culture stemming from their Mt. Tam staple gets a little funky. When this happens, the creamery will bathe the rind of their delightful mistake in a French fortified wine called Beaume de Venise, and top it off with macerated currants to create a once-in-a-blue-moon delicacy. It tastes like a little miracle—like the Pacific Ocean, then more like a marsh, then a burst of wildflowers.
Up next, please come join us for our one-year anniversary dinner at Windrose Farm in Paso Robles. There will be lots of talk, lots of bites, and lots of space to romp around. We’re going to make a night of it, so bring your tent and sleepover after dinner! Come out and play!
Photos courtesy of Joe Lazo.
