Skip to main content

La Balena Wine Dinner {Photo Essay}

Tonight De Tierra Vineyards paired up with one of my favorite restaurants - La Balena Carmel - for a wine dinner: warmed olives with fresh bread; grilled octopus, fingerling potatoes, housemade pancetta, and apple mostarda; baby lettuce, pear, walnuts, and moscato vinaigrette; agnolotti with herb ricotta and Fogline Farm pork sugo; chocolate and balsamic-braised beef shoulder over creamy polenta with broccolini; and dolci.








As always Emanuele and Anna Bartolini, La Balena's owners, Chef Brad Briske, and Team la Balena created an astounding dinner. Two courses in, we all decided that we needed to expand our vocabulary. Wow, was all we kept murmuring, mouths stuffed with delectable morsels. Nothing short of amazing. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hot Chocolate Agasajo-Style {Spice It Up!}

photo by D For my Spice It Up! kiddos this week, I was looking for an exotic drink to serve while we learned about saffron. I found a recipe from food historian Maricel Presilla that mimicked traditional Spanish hot chocolate from the 17th century where it was served at lavish receptions called agasajos . When I teach, I don't always get to shoot photos. Thankfully, D grabbed my camera and snapped a few. Ingredients serves 14-16 1 gallon organic whole milk 3 T dried rosebuds - or 2 t rosewater 2 t saffron threads, lightly crushed 3 T ground cinnamon 3 whole tepin chiles, crushed 2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise 1 C organic granulated sugar 1 lb. bittersweet chocolate Procedure In a large soup pot that can hold a gallon plus, combine milk, dried rosebuds (or rosewater, if you are using that), saffron threads, ground cinnamon, chiles, vanilla beans, and sugar and warm over medium heat till it steams. Whisk to dissolve sugar, then lower heat an...

Ki Ngombo = Okra

In honor of Mardi Gras, I searched for traditional recipes for gumbo...only to discover that there is no canonical recipe for gumbo. It seems there are as many recipes for gumbo as there are cooks!  The only two constants in a gumbo: variety and okra. The term 'gumbo' likely comes from an African dialect whose word for okra is ki ngombo .  Gumbos can have meat, seafood, just about anything.  In Mark Huntsman's "The History of Gumbo" he refers to written mentions of using muskrat and owl in gumbo recipes.  I embraced the unlimited potential of ingredients and opted for a combination of fish, chicken, pancetta, oysters, mussels, octopus, shrimp, and squid...and lots of okra!

A Cheese Board Anchored on a Trio of Italian Cheeses + A Pinot Nero from Alto Adige #ItalianFWT on CulinaryCam.Com

I am in the process of migrating over to my new domain. Come on over to read " A Cheese Board Anchored on a Trio of Italian Cheeses + A Pinot Nero from Alto Adige " for December's #ItalianFWT.