Busy Days

I've been Tweeting a lot during these busy days- easy to do on my Blackberry. Even Facebook is being ignored due to how crazy its been. I will post on Sunday night, if not sooner, but until then feel free to check out my Twitter feed.

Recipe: Veal with Strawberries & Basil- Blackberry Sauce

(We only use humanely and sustainably raised milk fed veal- no caging!)
This recipe was created out of boredom and the desire to make something I had never seen on any other menu. Fresh strawberries were abundant and luscious that year and the basil I was growing was starting to bolt from the New Mexico heat and I needed to use it up fast. It quickly became a guest & staff favorite. The sauce will last up to a month with proper refrigeration, but tastes best at room temperature- take out the amount you'll need a good hour before using.

• 1 1/2 lbs veal cutlet, pounded thin
• To taste black pepper freshly ground
• 1/2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 1 pint strawberries, sliced and chilled
• 1/4 cup fresh bail leaves, shredded

 FOR SAUCE:

• 1 rounded Tbs basil, dried
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 cup blackberry preserves, seedless
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp shallots, minced fine
• 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch nutmeg

1. Slice the veal into approximately 1 " squares Lightly coat with the fresh black pepper.
2. In a large non-stick pan add the olive oil and heat the pan over a medium flame..
3. Lay the veal in the pan and lightly color- when edges look colored turn over and cook 1 minute more.
4. To serve, lay on the plate a inside a ring of the strawberry slices. Drizzle the sauce over both berries and veal- do not drown them. Garnish with the fresh basil.

TO MAKE THE SAUCE:

1. Pour boiling water over the dried basil and steep for 20 minutes.
2. Drain off excess water through a sieve.
3. Place all the sauce ingredients into a pot. Cook on medium heat for 5 to 6 minutes until simmering, stirring with a wooden spoon. The blackberry preserves should be fully melted.
4. Cool for 20 minutes and then blend on high.

The veal is warm against the chilled strawberries and the room temperature sauce and fresh basil, making an interesting contrast of temperatures as well as flavors and textures.
The yield is approximately 4 to 6 servings and the entire recipe, from beginning to end, can be ready to serve within 45 minutes. Enjoy!

Closing Times, Late Guests & Customer Service

When restaurants close seems to be a squishy thing. Many establishments close at their posted times come hell or high-water. Some places close their doors early if they're having a slow night. I hate when I walk into one of those- rushing to get in at a reasonable time before closing, only to find out that they already did. Others shut down their kitchen before they actually stop accepting people- you can have a drink or coffee and dessert, but no dinner. I once had a restaurant tell me that even though it was opened for another 15 minutes I could get food from them but only as take out. At Shevek & Co. we do NOT have a closing time, we have a time when we will do our last seating- which is the time we post. This can be inconvenient, since it takes an hour and half to two hours minimum to dine with us. But as long as someone doesn't push it- like their being told our last seating IS at, say 9pm, and then they show up at 9:15- we have no problem staying late. (Showing up late like that is just rude.)We want every guest to have a dining experience as opposed to fueling by simply eating food. For that they could have gone to McD's. But we also eventually want to go home.

We are open later than many of the local restaurants. One way I know this is by how many people walk into my place saying they were told I would still be open at some other restaurant. We accept the business gladly. Besides, waitstaff know that later diners often tip better. We even have accepted guests after we have started cleaning the kitchen. Tonight was a perfect example. Two gentlemen showed up about 15 minutes after our last seating and asked if we would serve them. I said yes, but with restrictions since our broiler, ovens and flat top griddle had been turned off about 10 minutes. It had been a slow night, but we still had a table eating their last course and then they would be having dessert. The restrictions was that they could have any soup, salad our summery cold pasta dish or any other cold dish and Pissaladiere which was still hot. I was honestly not going to fire everything back up in the middle of the kitchen clean. If it had been busy and we had several tables which had more courses yet to come I would offer anything on the menu but restrict the amount of courses they can have. After all, not counting dessert, we have many a table share 5 to 7 courses. These 2 gentlemen were thrilled not to have to eat fast food and loved what they chose. They promised to eat at our place when next they returned to Silver City. My question is simply why don't other restaurants understand this level of customer service. It kept us at the restaurant an extra 20 to 30 minutes, but it made us satisfied future repeat guests. That after all is what will keep us in business. I am realistic- if someone comes in and there are no other guests left, the kitchen is completely cleaned and we're in the last couple of minutes of closing procedures I will apologize and refuse to serve them. But as long as there are other guests still eating why not feed a hungry traveler. (If all the people who we have fed under these circumstances over the years would just review us on the various websites that rate restaurants we would have a couple of hundred extra reviews on line.)

Customer Service: not everyone appreciates our attempt to give professional European-style service, but I believe that our attempt to do so is what sets us apart. Knowledgeable staff that can talk about every dish, wine and beer on our menu is more important than their potential entertainment value. If you want someone to tell you jokes, mine is the wrong restaurant- though it does happen. (If you want them to laugh at yours, remember that not everyone has the same sense of humor.) But if you want professional non-intrusive staff who can steer you to dishes and drinks you will like- who will give you a night of impeccable old fashioned service- then come join us. We will gladly give you a Dining Experience to remember. The dress is casual- my statement when asked about the dress code is, "My staff must be dressed up, you need to were a shirt, shoes and something to cover the naughty bits". The dishes include street foods from various Mediterranean countries. But the service is what you used to find in New York at the finest restaurants- though without the attitude, unless you "go there" by choice. Our goal is simply to try to give you the best experience we know how! And that is what customer service is all about.

Competition- Friendly and Otherwise

I've lived a lot of places- here in the US and overseas. There is always competition between rival restaurants- but it can be friendly with cooperation between venues, the parties can mostly ignore each other and just do their own thing or it can get nasty with various chef's and owners going out of their way to cut each other down. In Silver City most restaurants just do their own thing and ignore the others. They might cooperate if you desperately need to borrow something, they won't go out of their way to recommend you but they won't go out of their way to cut you down. A few work together- as an example, Diane of Diane's Restaurant as well as Diane's Bakery & Deli and I borrow items frequently with one another, we send each other guests and exchange information about how our businesses are doing. We have shared ideas as to how to get through this- as Paul Krugman now calls it and I have been claiming all along- lesser depression.

When asked I'll recommend to my guests any of the restaurants I have and will eat in, even when I know the owners and chefs would not reciprocate- though in several cases I have no idea if they ever recommend us. There is one chef-owner who has told people I know that he thinks I'm crazy & stupid and can't understand how I give away business by calling up and making reservations at his restaurant for people. What he has never understood is if the food they're craving  is not what I make and his is, no matter how good my food is they will not be as satisfied. By getting them a reservation for what they REALLY want that meal, when they are ready to dine in my place they enter already having a wealth of good will towards us and will have an even better dining experience than if I had convinced them otherwise.

There are 2 places I will recommend for breakfast, 7 I recommend for lunch, 4 for dinner and 1 for ice cream- dependent on if the restaurants' open on the day my guest is wanting to try something new. I do so whether I believe the chefs or owners recommend me because of the quality of food and experience. I just think that its a shame that more of the restaurants in this town won't cooperate with one another.
Now that I've got you curious I'll share what I tell people but in particular order: Diane's places of course, Alotta Gelato, Vickie's, 1zero6 (just NEVER call it 1-o-6), Mi Casita, Curious Kumquat, Tre Rosat, Country Kitchen Mexican & Jaliscos. You'll have to dine with me to hear which ones I recommend for what meals!

I just wish all of the local restaurants would "just get it" and reciprocate the same way- though I know a few of the above owners do! My thanks to them! Either way, I do recommend the above- after all, their food is also VERY different from what I offer.

Scratch Versus Homemade, plus Bread

I just read that chefs in Chicago are serving various dishes in wide mouth mason jars to, according to the article, make the dish appear more "homemade." I have no problem with the concept of presenting food in any creative way you want. Though I personally don't like food as sculpture where one needs to deconstruct it before you can begin eating. This can also have comic consequences as happened to me in a restaurant in Las Cruses, NM- the food had this massive fried tower on top that proceeded to fall off the plate and onto the table even with the waitress attempting to gently and carefully lay the plate in front of me. She was embarrassed, but it had obviously happened before.

A restaurant can make a dish from scratch, using nothing but raw ingredients to get there. An example would be my Chicken Marsala. We start with raw chicken, vegetables, herbs and spices to make the chicken stock that will be in the broth. We chop all the mushrooms and mix the various kinds I like to use. We slice and flour the chicken breast, etc, until the dish is cooked and plated. No premade sauce or bullion is used. The chicken isn't already sliced, floured and frozen by a factory. This is scratch cooking, and all fine dining restaurants do this.

Homemade cooking can only occur in a home. And though I spend more hours in a day at the restaurant then in my home, though I sometimes jokingly call it my home and even have mistakenly said, "I'm heading home," when I meant the restaurant, it is not my home. Only if the chef actually lives in the restaurant can you call it homemade. It might be a technicality but it is a difference that counts. Besides, at my mom's home, like many American households these days, homemade means jarred pasta sauce with a few things added to change the flavor. That is homemade, but not scratch cooking. Chefs should be proud of scratch cooking and use the word when they are doing it. Implying homemade can imply shortcuts they aren't even taking.

With that in mind.... I have never told my guest at the restaurant that our bread was homemade or scratch. Up until last night we used a frozen dough that needed to be defrosted, shaped, allowed to rise and then baked off for that day. Yesterday I made a scratch baguette using half organic stone ground whole wheat flour. The texture was great and I'm proud of it, though I am not the most accomplished bread baker. I also created a roasted garlic- rosemary roll using the same flour and my favorite challah bread recipe as a base. This was less successful- the rosemary flavor was almost perfect, but I need to triple the garlic next time. Live and learn. But once I finish off the case of pita bread I already have, ALL the breads we serve will be from scratch. (Pita bread is actually quite simple and I used to bake batches in a restored 1800's wood fired oven when I live in Tennessee.) Its time I used those skills once more.

Recipe: Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

This recipe is the sauce for our Grilled Stuffed Portabello Mushroom. Its also makes a great accompaniment to pasta and fish. Try it on a burger with provolone or Parmesan cheese.

• 3/4 cup roasted red bell peppers, drain if canned
• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 bunch parsley leaves, chopped
• 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese grated
• 1 1/2 Tbs garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 Tbs pine nuts
• 1/2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/4 rounded tsp salt
• 1/4 rd tsp black pepper
• 1 pinch nutmeg

Put all the ingredients into a food processor. I prefer a slightly textured/chunky pesto versus a smooth pesto, but how far you blend the ingredients is up to you.

Yield is approximately 2 cups. Keep refrigerated in a sealed container for a week to 10 days.

New Look

Got a couple of comments that the blog was hard to read due to the background. Is this better? I like it, but if its hard to read its worthless. Please leave comments. Tonight I'll post another recipe. Off to see the new Harry Potter.