Wright Eats

To me, nothing beats pasta made at home.  People think it’s difficult and time consuming, but it’s really one of those things that takes a few times to learn and get the swing of it, and then it’s actually pretty easy to make.  It takes me less than half an hour to go from flour and eggs to fresh noodles for the two of us, including cleanup.

The key to good homemade pasta is good fresh eggs.  We buy ours at the U-District market, usually from Skagit River Ranch or Sea Breeze Farm.  You only need to add flour and you’re on your way.  I’ve seen recipes using olive oil, water, semolina flour, salt, and other things, but I subscribe to the method I learned from Giuliano Hazan, which was passed down from his mother Marcella.  Marcella is an opinionated writer, but many including myself consider her the authority on authentic Italian cooking.  She says:

The basic dough for homemade pasta in the Bolognese-style consists of eggs and soft-wheat flour.  The only other ingredient used is spinach or Swiss chard, required for making green pasta.  No salt, no olive oil, no water are added.  Salt does nothing for the dough, since it will be present in the sauce; olive oil imparts slickness, flawing its texture; water makes it gummy.

I find that unbleached all-purpose flour works really well, and in Italy they typically use 00 soft-wheat flour.  Marcella points out that semolina is primarily used for factory-made pasta, which is in a completely different category than egg pasta:

The boxed, dry pasta one refers to as factory-made includes such familiar shapes as spaghetti, penne, and fusilli.  These cannot be made as successfully at home as they are in commercial pasta plants with industrial equipment.  Dry pasta from factories is not necessarily less fine than the fresh pasta one can make at home.  On the contrary, for many dishes, factory-made pasta is the better choice, although for some others, one may want the particular attributes of homemade pasta.

The Hazans’ cookbooks are great for getting a better feel for which sauces go with egg pasta and which with factory-made pasta.  A good rule of thumb (although there are plenty of exceptions) is to use factory-made pasta for olive oil based sauces and egg pasta for butter and cream based sauces.

Last Saturday evening, I made some fettuccine which we enjoyed with Bolognese sauce from our freezer.  Every once in a while we prepare a big batch of Bolognese so we can make sure we always have some in our freezer for quick meals.

Egg Pasta
Makes 2-3 servings

1 to 1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 eggs

Pour about a cup of the flour into a mound on a wood surface, and set aside the rest to incorporate later if you need more.  Create a hollow in the center of the mound, like a volcano, and break the eggs into the hollow.  Using a fork, beat the eggs lightly while slowly incorporating some of the flour from the walls, a bit at a time until the eggs are no longer runny.  Bring the mound of flour toward the center with your hands and work it together with the eggs.  Incorporate more flour if it is too sticky.  You will know that you’ve added enough flour when you can press a clean finger into the center and it comes away clean.

Using the palm of your hand, knead the dough.  Push forward with the heel of your palm, stretching it a bit, then fold it in half as you pull your hand back toward you.  Turn a quarter turn and repeat this motion of stretching, folding, and turning until the dough is completely smooth, about five minutes.  Immediately wrap the dough in plastic wrap and allow to rest at room temperature for at least 10 minutes.

Set up your hand-crank pasta machine, and lay out a couple clean towels.  Cut the dough into 2-4 equal parts (it’s easier to work with smaller pieces, so start by using four parts).  Leave all but one part wrapped in the plastic wrap.  Flatten the ball of dough with your hand.

With the machine at its widest setting, roll the disk through the machine.  Remove it and fold it in thirds.  With the folds on the sides, roll it through the widest setting 2-3 more times.  Narrow the opening between the rollers by one notch.  Roll the dough through again, just once.  Continue narrowing the opening and rolling through until the pasta is the desired thickness.  When you are about halfway done, the pasta will become very long and unwieldy – you can place it on the towel, cut it in half, and switch between the two pieces each time you narrow the opening.

Allow the pasta sheets to dry for a few minutes on the towels until they are leathery but not too dry or brittle.  Cut strips using a fluted pastry wheel to make pappardelle, or feed it through the machine’s cutting attachment to make fettuccine.

As they say, the third time’s the charm.

The first time we tried going to Elemental was about two years ago with friends.  They had recently gone for dinner, raved about how good it was, and really wanted to take us.  Great!  They said you need to get there early so we showed up at 5:30 with them.  The five tables were already full, and we got the cold shoulder from the owners.  No reservations, no waitlist, “no we won’t call you on your cell – come back in a few hours and try again.”  Our friends weren’t too thrilled about the response, so we left and had a lovely dinner someplace else.

Later that summer on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon, Dawn suggested we give Elemental another shot.  Having read that you stand a good chance of getting one of the 14 seats for dinner if you arrive before the 5-6 cocktail hour, we left early.  We took a bus down to the U District, strolled along the Burke-Gilman trail, and arrived at the restaurant at ten-to-5, where another couple was standing reading a small handwritten sign hanging there: “Closed tonight due to a hand injury.  See you next time.”  Hm.  Two strikes, I thought.

Fast-forward two years to a cold and gray June day.  Dawn, knowing that I had all but written off Elemental by now, bravely tossed out the idea of trying to go once more.  Our friend DoRon had just declared Elemental his favorite restaurant in Seattle, so shouldn’t we at least try it?  “Fine,” I said, “but this is it.”  We followed the same plan as before: bus, walk, get in line early.  We arrived and took up spots number nine and ten in the line.  However, that was no guarantee we’d get in, given that people ahead of us might have friends joining them.  Dawn could see I was already scheming a fallback plan for the evening, but as luck would have it, we were seated ten minutes later.  The poor group of four in front of us didn’t fare as well – there are only two “big” tables at Elemental (for 4 or 6 people), and they were the third big group.  Lesson learned, I supposed: get there early for two people, or really early for more.

When we sat down, I actually felt relieved!  After all of the anticipation, we could finally sit and relax for a few hours.  Cocktails and truffled popcorn mellowed things out, and by the time dinner started an hour later, we were ready to eat.  Phred, co-owner and our waiter this evening, asked if we wanted to see menus or if he should just bring us food.  Our preference is to always let the kitchen make whatever they want, so we went with that option and never even saw a menu.

And so began our nine-course meal of shared plates and interesting wine pairings.  An intense cold asparagus soup was followed by a plate of delicate scallops, radishes, and watercress drizzled with olive oil.  The one food that Dawn generally avoids is scallops, but these were so tender and fresh that they had practically no resemblance to the bivalve as we knew it.  Next were two stacked blini with salmon gravlax, roe, and crème fraîche, followed by gnocchi in a cream sauce, a puff pastry with chickpeas, and a perfectly-seasoned white fish with sautéed zucchini and a small egg custard.  You might think we were completely stuffed at this point, but the serving sizes were perfect – we were enjoying everything, and still looking forward to more.  The main meal wrapped up with an ancho chili-glazed squab, and a beef tenderloin with cream sauce and cabbage.  Finally, three desserts arrived altogether – buttermilk ice cream and strawberries with chocolate syrup, a thin slice of chocolate mousse cake, and a Greek dessert of cheese-stuffed crepe drizzled in honey.  I could get used to every meal ending with three desserts!

And let’s not forget about the wine.  For an absurdly underpriced $20 per person, we enjoyed nearly a dozen paired wines – dry sherry, dry white, sweet white, oaked white, reds of all kinds (including an amazing Rioja tempranillo that was the perfect pairing for the ancho chili-glazed squab), and several dessert wines.  (Now you know why we didn’t drive to dinner tonight!) Phred cleared each round of wine glasses as he brought the next, which I really appreciated.  With that much wine, I don’t like to feel pressured to drink everything, but it’s nice to enjoy the different tastes with each course.

As we had read before going, Phred doesn’t like to tell you what you’re eating or drinking at Elemental, at least not until you’ve finished the course.  He obligingly confirmed (or corrected) a few guesses I made about the wines as he cleared glasses.  Not knowing what you’re having is all part of the experience, reminiscent of some of our fine dining adventures abroad.  Rather than lazily allowing your analytical process to tell you what’s in front of you (”the menu says this is a pinot noir”), you find yourself relying instead purely on your senses to interpret the food and drink (”hm, this wine has a slight acidic taste on the tongue initially, then starts tasting like raspberries”).

I’m glad DoRon threw down the gauntlet and declared Elemental his favorite restaurant, otherwise I might have completely missed this amazing experience after having dismissed it years ago.

What are your favorite restaurants in Seattle?  Where have you had a particularly memorable dining experience?

Elemental @ Gasworks
3309 Wallingford Ave N, Seattle
(206) 547-2317

Years ago, if you asked Eric or me what our favorite Seattle restaurant was, we’d instantly say The Harvest Vine.  It was the place we’d head to when we were tired and hungry after work and wanted to kick back, or we’d go to celebrate a special occasion and splurge on one of their excellent bottles of Spanish wine.  There was a time when you’d find us there at least a couple times a month.

Then, something happened.  I can’t even pinpoint what it was exactly, but a few years ago, we started to mention it less frequently when people asked us where to go eat in Seattle.  It was mostly that it became a kind of hit-or-miss place to go for dinner.  When they were on, they were on.  Sitting at the bar and watching them cooking amazing dish after amazing dish, we’d order whatever caught our eye.  But then it seemed like there were too many nights where things weren’t on.  The food was just ok and a little routine, or the service even a little off-putting at times.  And somehow it always happened when we brought friends.  Things were generally great when the right people were there – Juan Carlos, Fernando, and of course the owners Chef Joseba and Carolin – but not necessarily as good when they weren’t.

Not anymore.  They are back on their game and back on our list of top restaurants in Seattle.  We went a couple months ago, wondering how things were going since they’d opened their second restaurant, Txori, last fall in Belltown.  Despite their attention being divided between two restaurants now, the food at The Harvest Vine is better than ever.  Every dish was spot on delicious.  We went again on Saturday, and again, amazing.  The menu was more creative than ever and each dish was perfect from the presentation down to the seasoning.

We started with a dish of simple but impeccable ingredients: house cured salmon, cucumber gelée, crème fraîche, and a tiny dab of caviar.  Delicious – I was happy to hear that they plan to keep that one on the menu for a little while.  We also had braised eel on a generous bed of morels, which was melt-in-your-mouth tender.  Then, piquillo peppers stuffed with hake and potatoes and served with butter lettuce.  This was a dish that highlighted the creative talent of the kitchen.  I adore butter lettuce, but it seemed odd served in the bowl with a hot entree.  That is, until the first bite – something about the crunch and flavor of the lettuce took the dish from very good to great.

We were transported back to Spain when the braised chorizo with smoked pork belly, breadcrumbs, and red grapes arrived.  The smoky aroma reminded us instantly of the fabada we had in Asturias, even without the beans.  Our last dish was beef tongue dredged in flour and egg, then fried and served in its juice with fresh peas.  It was incredibly tender, and we sopped up the flavorful juices with our Columbia City bakery baguette.

We were almost full, but not once have I walked out of The Harvest Vine without dessert.  I’ve mentioned this before, but I think that Carolin is the best pastry chef in the city.  We’ve been known to go late at night simply to get a taste of one of her desserts.  Tonight’s were no exception.  We split two desserts: a moist corn cake in a pool of the most delicious rhubarb sauce with strawberries, along with a frozen almond parfait presented beautifully with spun sugar on top.  They arrived with Eric’s shot of espresso and my café bonbon, which is sweetened condensed milk layered with espresso on top.  You stir it up, and then your neighbor turns to you and asks you what you’re drinking because the aroma is so good.

We told the chefs how everything was spot on, and they mentioned that it’s been a lot easier lately to turn out great food since they recently started changing the menu only every other week.  Now, they say, they have time to get to know the dishes, rather than recreating the menu every day and opening up the kitchen at 5 to a whole new set of items to learn.  Now it all makes sense – it’s not coincidence that the place is really shining right now.

They do take reservations, however only for the downstairs wine cellar area.  It’s nice to eat down there, but we always prefer the atmosphere upstairs, watching the food come off the grill and the chefs arranging the plates.  There’s often a wait for a bar seat, but we consider it well worth it!  Especially on a beautiful sunny summer evening when the wall door is opened and you feel like you just might be eating in Spain.

The Harvest Vine
2701 East Madison, Seattle
(206) 320-9771

After a long week at work, we were ready for a Friday night out.  Our destination was the week-old Italian restaurant Branzino, the newest addition to the Second Ave restaurant row in Belltown.  I called that afternoon for a reservation, and we scored a table with a view of the open kitchen – we always prefer that to a view of the street!

The atmosphere and clientele are as you might expect of a new restaurant in Belltown – a bustling, small space filled with young, hip diners.  The menu is typically Italian – antipasti, primi, secondi, contorni – and our server explained that dishes are meant to be shared, served one or two at a time.  After some difficulty figuring out how much to order (our server kept saying “everything here is served à la carte” but not answering our question of how many dishes would be appropriate for two people), we settled on panzanella (bread salad with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil), gnocchi with lobster and spring peas, maltagliati (flat pasta) with morels and rabbit, a veal chop with fresh cherries and mushrooms, and a bottle of Barbera d’Asti to go with it all.  When we ordered the veal chop, our waitress mentioned that the price had gone up $5 (to $36) since the menu was printed.  We looked at each other, considering switching to a more reasonably priced fish or octopus secondo, but we stuck with it since the cherries and mushrooms sounded so good.  (Dawn often orders dishes just for the sides!)

The panzanella started off nicely, until I hit a pocket of salt on one of the pieces of mozzarella.  I’m a big fan of salt, but this was far too much, and basically ruined the dish for me.  It must have been an isolated spot because Dawn enjoyed the rest.  Next came the pastas; good, but (ironically) they both could have used more salt, given their somewhat bland flavor.  The veal chop was also a surprise – after several bites we realized there were no mushrooms or cherries.  We asked our waitress if there was a mix-up, and it was then that she realized that we had been given an old menu when we sat down; the veal chop had changed to being simply served with lemon zest and chopped parsley on top.  Since we’d already started, we decided to keep it, but explained that we had ordered the dish for its original description.  Our waitress made up for the error by offering us a complementary grapefruit sorbetto with strawberries for dessert, which turned out to be excellent and was Dawn’s favorite dish of the night.

Would we go back?  If we found ourselves in Belltown looking around for a bite, then perhaps.  The wine selection was quite nice with some reasonably priced bottles, and the staff was very friendly the whole evening, even when things got hectic.  Let’s hope the inconsistencies in the dishes were simply part of being a new restaurant. 

Branzino
2429 2nd Ave, Seattle
(206) 728-5181

Before we headed over to see Good Food on Wednesday, we stopped at Pike Street Fish Fry a few blocks away to grab some dinner.  Good stuff!  Our halibut, sturgeon, and asparagus came out piping hot and lightly battered and fried.  Intermingled with the fish were thin sliced and batter fried lemons – these would make a great side dish on their own and were awesome with the fish.  For our dipping sauces we chose the housemade tartar, curry ketchup, and lemon aioli.  I liked ‘em all, but my favorite was the tartar.  The aioli was particularly tasty with the perfectly cooked asparagus.  This is finger food, but we found that the sauce containers were just a smidgen too small to fit two fingers plus the fish, so if a small piece of fish slipped while dunking, it was impossible to retrieve without a fork.

Of course, you can’t have fish without fries, especially since this was the former home of Frites.  Fries are ordered separately here and we opted for the Spanish version, which came smothered with sour cream and sweet chili sauce.  We were hungry, and polished off everything with a glass of wine and beer.

The place is tiny with only a couple seats along with some standing-room-only tables.  It’s “smooshed in-between” (as their business card says) Neumos and Moe Bar, so the place was thumping with sound checks while we ate.  Opened since late April, Fish Fry is owned by Michael Hebb, former restaurateur from Portland, Oregon, who is also underground with his One Pot suppers in Seattle.

Pike Street Fish Fry
925 E Pike Street, Seattle

When I hear Lauren Adler talk about the nuances of artisan chocolate, I think of someone describing a fine wine.  She explains how all five senses are used to evaluate chocolate: the shininess and color (sight), the snap when breaking off a piece (sound), the texture and smoothness (touch), the aromas (smell), and of course, the flavor as it melts in your mouth (taste).  You might hear her describe the cherry notes, earthy aromas, and the “finish” of a chocolate bar.  And like wine, she recommends you save the sweeter chocolates for the end of a tasting.

Lauren started her company Chocolopolis last year to help others learn about artisan chocolate.  I met her last summer when she was testing her chocolate tasting classes.  Eric worked with her a number of years ago, and we jumped at the opportunity to taste test chocolate at her home together with mutual friends.

We learned about single-estate chocolate bars, where the chocolate in the bar comes from one estate, just like a single-vineyard wine.  We also discovered vintage chocolate – I had no idea that you could obtain chocolate bars made from beans grown in just one particular harvest.

She has been hosting tasting events and selling fine chocolates through her web site for a year now.  Since then, Lauren has been looking for the ideal space for her Chocolopolis retail business, where people can come to experience and learn about chocolate.  She finally found a spot atop Queen Anne hill, right next to Bricco wine bar.  Construction is nearly completed, and late this month she plans to open what she anticipates will become one of Seattle’s premiere chocolate shops.

Lauren has relationships with some of the finest chocolatiers in the world.  Chocolopolis will sell over 200 different chocolates, including rare vintage chocolates that can’t be found anywhere else in Seattle, and coveted chocolate from producers like Amedei.

We got together with her last week and had the opportunity to try chocolate samples from one of the new chocolatiers in the U.S., Patric Chocolate.  I recently read about this tiny chocolate producer on David Lebovitz’s blog, so I was excited to get a chance to try the 70% and 67% Madagascar bars.  I honestly think these were among the best chocolates I’ve ever tasted!  They were incredibly complex, and even Lauren, who clearly has tasted much more chocolate than I have, was amazed at how there was no bitter aftertaste, as there is with most dark chocolate.

Lauren talked with Patric founder Alan McClure last month.  He was so interested to hear about Chocolopolis that he will be sending some of his autumn batch of chocolate to Lauren to sell in her store.  He said that he hasn’t heard of anyone out there doing quite the same thing as her, with the educational aspect of her business.  I will be among the first to purchase Patric Chocolate when it arrives!  Lauren, maybe you need to start a newsletter to announce new arrivals!

Lauren doesn’t want Chocolopolis to be intimidating and hopes the store will appeal to Seattlites of all ages.  During the grand opening in mid-July, she’ll have an entire week of events for both kids and adults to come celebrate and discover chocolate.  Stay tuned to the Chocolopolis web site for details.

UPDATE 7/6:  Chocolopolis is now open!  For photos of the new store, check out our latest blog posting.

Chocolopolis
1527 Queen Anne Ave N, Seattle

We’ve purchased our tickets to Wednesday evening’s SIFF documentary Good Food.  This will be the world premiere of the film, but there is another screening Saturday afternoon, too.

This lively tour of various Washington state farms and ranches that have adopted healthier organic methods in raising their products offers several lucid arguments in favor of smaller, more efficient farms, and purchasing locally grown crops. Still, none are as convincing as the marvelous bounty laid before our eyes in this film.