Sandbar

John and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on Friday. To commemorate this, we went to Sandbar, Andrew Weissman's seafood restaurant in the Pearl Brewery.

We've been to Il Sogno, Andrew Weissman's Italian restaurant at the Brewery, many times. We'd been to Sandbar once before, when it was next to Le Reve (back in the old days before I had this blog). We've gone to Le Reve, before it closed, and Big'z. So yeah, we're fans of Andrew Weissman and his food. And we hadn't gone to the new Sandbar location yet. And it was our anniversary, which is always a good excuse to eat excellent food.

We went early, because they don't take reservations and it's a small place. And we're old. We immediately got a table. When the hostess seated us, she told me I could put my purse on the tiny ottomans, which I recognized from Le Reve.

We started with some sashimi of the day (hamachi) and lobster bisque. I've heard great things about their lobster bisque, but they frequently run out of it, so we jumped at the chance to order it.
I got the skate wings in coconut curry sauce and jasmine rice. I love curry, so I knew I would like this. I think the red thing is a sweet potato. The fish was very crisp and buttery.

John got the wild bass with potatoes and bacon. I knew he would because it has bacon in it. I had a bite of his, and it was very good, moist and not overly fishy. Nice char on the fish too.

I'd heard that we should get the box cake, which is literally cake mix from a box. But I think they make it with sweetened condensed milk, because it tastes very moist and sweet. The icing is ganache. I don't know if you can tell, but the cake is enormous. They serve it with shots of milk. It's so big, we barely made a dent in it and had to take it home to eat for breakfast the next day.

Now, I'm going to rant a bit. Andrew Weissman does great food, but he doesn't put enough effort into marketing. I mean basic things, like a website. There's no website for Sandbar. There's supposed to be a page on the Pearl Brewery site, but nothing happens when you click on it. Il Sogno has a website listed on their matchboxes when you go there, but there is no website. Le Reve has a website, but it's not freakin open anymore. This is 2010. How can you not have a website? This is very irritating to me as a customer, when I can find many high-end restaurants on the Internet. Sure, I could go to Yelp and Urbanspoon to find the hours and whatnot, but those are not reliable sources. This just frustrates me because I know Andrew Weissman is making good food and it doesn't seem to be hurting his business to not have a website, but it makes it harder for consumers like me to talk about his restaurants since I have nothing to link to.

Anyway.

It was a great dinner and we enjoyed looking at all the Alamo Heights cougars trying to emote through their Botox. We had a good time and we'll be back!

Veal Stock

Hey, remember waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in November, when John got that sauce book and veal bones and the ENORMOUS pot and we said we were going to make stock? Ha, that totally didn't happen in anytime soon. We had holidays and marathons and weddings to go to and restaurants to patron and TV shows to watch and dogs to adopt. We had lives, people. LIVES.

But people kept reminding us that we hadn't made the stock yet, even though we said we would. We felt a little bad about that. John tried to get his mother to make it for us (actually, she volunteered). But I insisted we do it. It's our veal bones, our book, our huge pot. We should do it.

So we did! We didn't use the Saucier's Apprentice recipe. Rather, we used one out of Staff Meals, our first real cookbook. Because we loved Staff Meals so much, we got the Chanterelle cookbook to use as our guestbook at our wedding. I've always wanted to go to Chanterelle, but we missed our opportunity, since they closed last year.

But this is a post about stock, not restaurants. This recipe takes a good 8 hours, minimum. But the good part is that it will sit for 6 hours, undisturbed, simmering away on your stove. At some point in the simmering, take a peek and skim the fat off. If it's like my stock, you'll want to do more than skim. There was a good 2 cups worth of fat on the top of it.

We're going to make french onion soup, also from Staff Meals, later this week to try out the stock. And here's a tip: don't get too fussy with the vegetables. They're going to get strained out, so you're adding them for the flavor, not their looks. And I didn't have a big roasting pan, so I used 3 glass casseroles. They worked fine.

About the time - We started at 10 am and just finished doing the dishes and freezing the stock at 10 pm. Sure, we did other stuff between then - I went to the store, John went to poker, we ate dinner, played with the dogs, watched Desperate Housewives. But this is not a short recipe. Make sure you have a day to do this before embarking on this adventure. And make sure you have a enough tupperware to contain it all.

Beefed-Up Veal Stock

• 10 lbs veal bones, preferably with some meat left one
• 1- to 2-lb piece beef shin
• 1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 3 large onions, unpeeled, cut into large chunks
• 4 carrots, unpeeled, cut into large chunks
• 3 heads of garlic, cut in half through the cloves
• 12-15 quarts of water

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place the veal bones and beef in a large, flameproof roasting pan and drizzle with oil. Place the pan in the oven and roast the bones for 25 minutes, turning them halfway. Add the onions, carrots, and garlic, distributing the vegetables evenly amongst the bones. Continue to roast until nicely browned by not burned, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
3. Transfer the bones and vegetables to a large stockpot. Discard the fat in the pan and add 4 cups of water. Place over high heat and deglaze the roasting pan, scraping up the browned bits. Pour the liquid from the roasting pan over the bones and add enough of the remaining water to cover them well.
4. Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, skimming the surface as the foam rises to the top. Then reduce the heat to low and simmer, partially covered, for 6 hours, skimming occasionally and adding water if it evaporates enough to uncover the bones.
5. Remove the bones and the meat and strain the stock through a fine-mesh sieve. At this point the meat and vegetables won't have much flavor, but if you're a fan of overboiled food, by all means nibble away; otherwise, discard them.
6. Let the stock cool before transferring it to storage containers. The stock will keep, covered, in the fridge for up to 4 days, and in the freezer for 6 months. Skim the fat off the top before proceeding with recipe.

Bones and veggies.

So we wound up with 29 cups of stock, in the end. Here's what it looks like:Yeah. It doesn't look totally impressive, because it's just stock. But it's a lot of stock! And I'm sure you'll be impressed when I blog about my French onion soup. Later this week. Once I've had a nap.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Vegetable Curry

Maybe you love curry. Maybe you don't. Even if you don't, I bet you'll like this curry. Regardless, it's a great recipe. And good for you, what with all the kale and sweet potatoes in it.

But before we begin, I gotta talk a bit about how I'm a really efficient cook. Like, I read through the recipe and figure out how much I gotta chop first before I can start cooking. I consolidate pots and pans, I wash the collander while the water's boiling. I'm good.

So let me help you out here. You're gonna need to chop and measure all of the ingredients up to the lime juice. There's a lot of fine chopping and mincing in there, and things are cooked in rapid succession until you get to the lime juice. Also, the ginger, garlic, jalapeno and scallion can go in one bowl, sweet potatoes and bell pepper in the second bowl, zucchini in the third bowl. You can reuse those bowls for the kale, because you can destem the kale during the 20-minute simmering in step 2. You can also chop up the cilantro then too, and start the grill and cook the pork.

And! The coconut water and sour cream are used to cut calories. But the thought of having to halve and drain god knows how many coconuts to get 2 cups of coconut water filled me with dread. So I just bought 2 cans of coconut milk and called it a day. I also used way more sweet potatoes, so I needed the extra milk to portion it. Also, I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, because I like the tang.

OK, now for the recipe.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Vegetable Curry
from Food & Wine

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon minced jalapeño
• 2 tablespoons minced scallion, plus 2 tablespoons thinly sliced scallion
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch-wide strips
• 1 small sweet potato (about 5 ounces), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise 1/2 inch thick
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste
• 2 cups pure coconut water
• 3 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 cups coarsely shredded stemmed kale
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• 2 tablespoons full-fat sour cream
• 4 center-cut pork tenderloin medallions (about 4 ounces each), pounded to a 1-inch thickness

Directions

1. In a large, deep skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the ginger, garlic, jalapeño and minced scallion and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until fragrant, 3 minutes. Add the bell pepper and sweet potato, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until barely softened, 3 minutes. Add the zucchini and curry paste and stir to coat the vegetables with the curry.
2. Add the coconut water and lime juice and simmer over moderate heat until the sweet potatoes are nearly tender and the liquid is reduced by half, about 20 minutes. Stir in the kale and cilantro and cook just until the kale is wilted. Add the sour cream and season with salt and pepper.
3. Light a grill or preheat a grill pan. Rub the pork with the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of oil and season with salt and pepper; grill over moderate heat, turning, until cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes. Let the pork rest for 5 minutes, then slice and arrange on plates with the vegetable curry alongside. Garnish with the sliced scallions and serve.

Notes

One Serving 310 cal, 13 gm fat, 2.5 gm sat fat, 20 gm carb, 5 gm fiber, 28 gm protein, 590 mg sodium.

Thank you!

I am overwhelmed and touched by your responses! I know I sound like I think I'm hot shit, but I don't really think that. In real life, I am in awe that I was selected and put on the same level as some of the more established blogs in San Antonio. Thank you all for your awesome comments and encouragement, thank you readers new and old for reading, and thanks for being awesome!

Hello new followers and visitors!

Yesterday, Bob Gamber (@bobgambert), put out a call for interesting local blogs. He works at WOAI and was putting together a segment for SA Living, their morning show. Debi Pfitzenmaier (@MomOnMars) recommended my blog and a bunch of other blogs. And I made the cut!

So many of you are here now because you saw the post on WOAI's site, or follow me on Twitter, or found me on Twitter, or are friends of mine on Facebook. If we've never met before, welcome! I do review a lot of food, restaurants and recipes, but I also blog a lot about my life. I think I'm pretty funny, mainly because I won "Most Witty" in high school. But other people have told me so as well.

Facts: I have two dogs, one husband, and countless pairs of earrings. I like pie. A lot. I really don't like it when people don't know the difference between loose and lose. I really wanted to work at Entertainment Weekly, and tried like crazy to get a job there. I went to college at Trinity University. I think my grandparents are awesome. A friend of mine once told me that I have small fingers, like a carny. We are still friends. I made weird faces in photos. I am addicted to lip balm. I hate Kevin Costner, and flaky people. But I love flaky crusts, in a pie. (See how I brought that full circle?)

So that's me. And here you are, reading about me. I hope you like what you've read here. Let me know if there's other things I should be writing about, if you know any cool places I should be going, restaurants I should be eating at, recipes I should be cooking.

Cheers!
Lauren

Molecular Gastronomy at Bin 555

Chef Jason Dady tweeted the other day that he now has liquid nitrogen to make food with. Of course, I had to be there to witness this. Melissa and I ventured out to Bin 555. When we came in, they seated us at the bar, which was great because that's where Jason Dady had set up the liquid nitrogen. That's him up there, making us some white wine sangria. It looked like a Slushie, but kind of melted immediately in your mouth. Like cotton candy.

Another dish I got, not made with liquid nitrogen, was the steak tartare. I don't normally like steak tartare, but I do when Jason Dady makes it. It had whipped cheese on top and was served with flatbread, a play on Philly cheese steak.

For the piece de resistance, deconstructed strawberry shortcake. The strawberry ice cream and some of the nuggets are made with liquid nitrogen. The rest is graham cracker crust, sour cream, and jam.

Someone said on Foodspotting that it doesn't look pretty, and food should look pretty. I disagree. In photos, it doesn't look pretty, but it is quite striking. I think, for most chefs, they want their food to be presentable and intentional on the plate. They don't want it to look thrown together. I don't think food always has to look beautiful, because that's so subjective. This looks really haphazard in this photo, but it looked very presentable in person.

Anyway. It tasted great, which, if you've ever had my food, always makes up for presentation.

Food Memory

Do you have foods that evoke specific memories? I'm eating Cheez-Its right now, and they remind me of my grandmother, my mother's mother. She lived with us one summer, and I would watch TV with her in her bedroom. We had these small rice bowls that we used for ice cream, and I'd fill one with Cheez-Its and watch TV with my grandma. She preferred unsalted peanuts.

She liked to watch old westerns, Wheel of Fortune, even Nickelodeon. She didn't understand a great deal of English, so she liked programs she could understand by the images. Westerns, it's pretty clear what's going on, no dialogue needed. We used to watch a lot of Hey, Dude!, because it was on a ranch and you could figure out what was happening pretty easily.

I remember that my grandma was there, but not particularly warm. I know now that she showed her love with food, that when she was trying to force you to eat a rack of ribs, she was saying "I love you." When she let me watch TV with her in her room, she was trying to be closer to her grandchildren. I didn't know that then, but I know it now.

Another food that takes me back are grilled cheese sandwiches and pickles. Plain wheat bread, plain American Kraft singles, and sweet pickles. My dad would make this for us after church on Sundays. It makes me think of the sweet relief of being home again, after sitting through church, of getting to wear non-formal clothes. It was a meal that prepared you for the chores you'd have to do on Sunday afternoons, dusting and weeding and mulching and washing cars.

We always ate grilled cheeses with sweet pickles. I'm not sure why. I think it's because my dad liked sweet pickles. To this day, the combo makes me think of a respite, a time to breathe a bit in between Sunday duties.

Beef with broccoli. My mom used to make simple Chinese dishes, meat, veg, brown sauce, white rice. I remember watching TV in the other room while my mom hacked a piece of meat into pieces, cooking it in the red electric wok. She'd take a few pieces out and lay them on a cutting board for my brother and I to snack on while we waited for dinner. In the rice bowls, soy sauce and cornstarch would mix to make a flavorful brown sauce. In goes the broccoli, in goes the meat, out comes dinner.

When I was really little, my parents tried to get me to eat broccoli by dunking it in the brown sauce. I would suck the sauce off of the broccoli, and then hand the broccoli back to them. I knew then it was the best part.

What are your food memories?