Chicken in Milk

After making and eating the rainbow trout I decided to make Jamie Oliver’s “Chicken in Milk” dish. This dish is pretty easy to make, really flavorful, and Emma loves it.

1 3.5lb chicken

a bunch of sage

4oz salted butter

olive oil

zest of two lemons

10 cloves of garlic

1 pint of milk (preferably whole but I’ve done it with non-fat)

Although the recipe calls for a whole chicken you can also substitute chicken pieces (preferably skin on and bone-in).

Preheat oven to 375F.

Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper all over – inside and out.

Find a pot large enough for the bird and heat it up over medium high. Put a bit of olive olive in the pot and melt the butter.

Add the chicken and brown it on all sides until golden in color.

Once it finishes browning, take the chicken out and set aside. Then dispose of the remaining oil and butter in the pot.

Place the pot back on the stove and re-add the chicken breast side down.

Add the remaining ingredients….milk…garlic…lemon zest…

Don’t forget the sage…

Cover and bake for an hour in the oven.

Once it’s ready, you will notice that the milk-based sauce has curdled a bit. No worries. Just stir it up and serve! It’s delicious!

Baked Rainbow Trout in Foil

I bought two rainbow trout from the San Rafael farmer’s market today and decided to cook one of them for dinner and freeze the other. The girl who sold me the trout told me that I could serve one whole trout per person. She also discounted them by $1 per lb  (bringing it down to $5.99/lb) since they were about to close up.

I had some leftover lemons at home so I thought I’d stuff it with lemon and then season the fish with some thyme and salt and pepper and bake it in foil.

Preheat oven to 425F. I rinsed the fish and dried off with a paper towel before placing on a sheet of tin foil. I proceeded to sprinkle a little dried thyme (would have used fresh if I had some) on both sides of the fish before salt and peppering inside and out. I cut the lemon and placed inside the fish.

I then wrapped the fish up nice and tight so no steam could get out and placed on cookie sheet before putting in the oven.

I baked for 20 minutes although probably could have checked it at 15 minutes. I made a salad from the ingredients I got from the farmers market and whipped up an olive oil, balsamic vinegar and minced garlic dressing to go on top.

After 20 minutes, the fish was moist and tasted pretty good. I probably could have used slightly more salt but I rather undersalt than oversalt.

Here is a shot of the Trout meat.

Vega

I was running some errands and stopped by a new coffee place called Vega in SOMA. They serve Blue Bottle coffee and offer all the usual coffee drinks  – latte, cafe mocha, cafe au lait, espresso, cappuccino, etc. They also have a small display case for baked goods although when I got there it was pretty bare.

But the reason I came was to try the Macau Iced Coffee which is whole milk combined with a shot of Blue Bottle espresso, and sweetened with organic cane sugar syrup.

The stand felt similar to the Blue Bottle location in Hayes Valley albeit a bit larger space. There were a few people milling about who had ordered and were waiting. I ordered the Macau Iced Coffee and the guy goes, “I assume whole milk is ok with you?”. I hesitated a second before saying, “Can I actually get non-fat milk and I can pretend it’s whole milk!”

It cost $3.50 and delicious.

There’s actually two locations with the other one called Special Xtra.

Vega

1246 Folsom St. (near 8th St.

San Francisco, CA

Special Xtra

46 Minna St. (near 1st St.)

San Francisco, CA

Broken Record

I’ve wanted to try Broken Record every since I had heard that these two chefs had started some good food in the back of the bar. I vaguely knew where this place was and kind of kept it in the back of my mind as a place to try.

Then I received the email from BlackBoardEats for 30% food at Broken Record – dine in or takeout.  Perfect!

I tried calling the bar to place my order ahead of time but no dice. I was told I had to come in to order.  I looked up the bar and it was only a 10 minute or so drive from our place. On my way over, I could tell I was definitely in the grittier part of town.

Once I turned on Geneva, I took the first free parking spot I found which was on the intersection of Geneva and Mission. I was in the middle of a commercial area so thought I was close (wrong!) to the bar. I started walking and saw Geneva Bakery and Phillies – both places I want to try.

After a couple of blocks I finally realized I’m not as close as I thought. But instead of turning back I decide to keep walking. It was a little sketchy but not too bad.

I finally saw the place up ahead and was about to enter when I was asked for ID. I forgot that this was a bar. It was pretty happening place. Pool tables. Tvs. Lots of people. Pretty run down as well.

I actually felt a bit of out of place as I headed down the narrow hallway to the back where the restaurant was. And to think I initially thought we could bring the two kids to the restaurant to eat. Uh….No.

Once I got to the back, it opened up to a large dimly lit room. There were a few people sitting at tables eating and drinking, I saw the door to the outside bar area and up on one wall they had a movie playing…Cannonball Run?

To my right was the menu board up above the semi-open kitchen area where two guys were busy cooking and one guy taking orders.

After spending a few minutes taking a look at the menu, I decided to order a bit more food than I normally would because 1) I had the 30% off discount and, 2) I wanted to sample as much variety as I could.

I ended up ordering Pulled Pork Sandwich with coleslaw and spicy mayo and a Chicken Fried Sandwich with heirloom tomato, lettuce and honey mustard and mayo sauces. To complement the sandwiches, I ordered a basket of sweet potato fries which came with ranch dressing dipping sauce (dill taste?).

I got a baked Mac ‘n Cheese and was asked “with or without bacon” – with bacon which by the way was nitrate free. Finally, I ordered Tomato Toast which was grilled texas toast with heirloom tomato, burrata cheese, chopped basil and olive oil.

Total cost: $25 after 30% discount. Cash only.

I sat down and people watched while waiting for my order to be ready. The place slowly got packed. I think I got there just at the right time. I saw a lot of burgers being ordered which looked good and made me hungry. It looked like everyone was eating in except me.

During my wait, I realized I not only felt out of place…I looked out of place as well. This is what I was wearing.

Thank god I had my Leafs ball cap on…not that anyone would know hockey in this bar.

It took a good half an hour before my order was ready and the guy who took my order said they were running out of bags and wondered if it was ok if they packed my food in a box (which was fine).

Off I went back to my car. The box actually was a good idea as it prevented my dishes from flipping over by accident.

Once I got home we cracked open all the containers and chowed down. Everything was excellent.

The tomato toast was great. Emma couldn’t get enough of this one especially the tomato which was sweet and juicy.

The pulled pork sandwich had a slight kick to it.

The chicken fried sandwich had a good sized piece of chicken breast and was moist.

The sweet potato fries were great and the dipping sauce addictive.

The mac ‘n cheese was tasty but it wasn’t as creamy I would have liked. I’m guessing it’s because we didn’t get a chance to eat it hot.

Broken Record

1166 Geneva Ave
San Francisco, California

Pomelo

With my parents in town we headed off to Pomelo which is only  2 blocks from our condo. I must admit I was skeptical since I’m always leery of places that serve Asian or other fusion food.

The place was more or less empty when we arrived. I think we got there when it opened. We got seated right away by the window. The wait staff working there were super friendly.

The menu had a good selection of dishes. From what I could they take cuisines from around the world and put their own spin on it.

We ordered a mix of appetizers to share and main courses. I also ordered a rose and my dad got a German beer.

One of the appetizers was called hania which was crispy greek zucchini cakes served with mint yogurt and cucumber ($7.50). The other was albi which was duck rillettes – house made coarse pâté with porcini and chive, peach-balsamic compote, whole grain mustard and crostini. Both were good.

For the main courses we ordered the havana, sanuki, lanzhou, and pacifica which is a daily fish or seafood special. All portions were very decent size and you are able to switch out the protein for any of the dishes. For example, my mom had the lanzhou which is supposed to come with ahi tuna but she got the grilled skirt steak instead.

When we ordered the waiter saw Emma and immediately asked us if we wanted to bring her a bowl of pasta and grated cheese. We were pleasantly surprised he would acknowledge the needs of the parents like that and provide an option.

We asked if he could include tomatoes which wasn’t a problem. When it came out it was huge! And if I remember correctly only $6.50. I also sampled it and it was good.

The havana was cuban style fried rice with black beans, plantains, chipotles,
ginger and cilantro, served with grilled skirt steak, sautéed onions and cuban avocado salad ($16.50). I sampled Anna’s dish and it was good. Probably my favorite out of all of them.

The sanuki was seafood yakisoba – japanese style stir fried buckwheat noodles
with scallops, prawns, kamaboko fish cake, cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, shiitake mushrooms, garnished with dried bonito fish flakes, seaweed and pickled ginger ($15).

Although I enjoyed the dish, it wasn’t anything special.

The lanzhou was fresh egg noodles stir fried with ginger, scallion and garlic, grilled skirt steak (substituted out the peppered ahi tuna) and topped with a miso-sesame drizzle. My mom liked this dish overall but she has an aversion to green onion (of which there were a lot) and picked them out. The beef was supposed to be medium rare but was overcooked and was more medium.

I tried the noodles which had a strong ginger flavor to them but good. I did feel the balance between meat, noodle, and veggie could have been better. There was a ton of noodle, decent sized steak but the veggie seemed to be lacking with only the sprouts.

Finally my dad had the pacifica (and enjoyed it) and for the life of me I can’t remember the type of fish it was.

All in all it was an enjoyable meal with friendly warm service. They converted the skeptic in me and I’d come back again.

Pomolo

1793 Church St
(between 30th St & Day St)
San Francisco, CA