When Azarra was young, we had a Thursday ritual.  Whomever wasn’t busy would drive downtown to O’Sheas and fetch enough New Orleans Artichoke Soup for the whole salon.  It was luscious.  And then O’Sheas closed.  They re-opened as a catering operation under new management (who claimed no knowledge of this magnificent soup!)  It has since become the stuff of legend. The soup against which all others are judged (and found wanting!)  So, as part of the culinary exploration project, we set out to re-create this soup from memory.  This was pretty dang close.  Enjoy! And if anyone reading this worked at O’Sheas back then and has the dang recipe, please let us know if we are missing something!

2 Tbsp Butter

1/2 cup chopped carrots

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 Tbsp minced garlic or shallots

3 Tbsp butter

1/3 cup flour

1 cup chicken broth

2 cups water

14oz. can quarter cut artichokes

1 bay leaf

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning blend

1 cup of warm whipping cream

Melt 2 Tbsp butter in pot, then add carrots, celery, onion. Saute 10 min (until soft) Add 3 Tbsp butter, then add flour and whisk together, simmering for about 5 mins. Add chicken broth, water, artichokes, and all seasonings.

Simmer for 30-40 minutes. Add cream, heat through, and serve.

This is not the final edit.  (The application states that once submitted, the Network owns the content.) The last edit was slightly sassier.  :)

We are very excited to be nominated again for Evening Magazine’s Best of Western Washington. Last year we finished in the top 5!

We are competing in the beauty/hair color category and would appreciate your vote.

You do have to register and you can only vote once. A comment box pops up where you can (but are not required to) say something wonderful about us.

Next month it will be time to vote in the Citysearch polls.  Don’t worry. We will let you know when it is time.  :)

I will never forget my first home made flour tortilla.  My neighbors in Death Valley had 4 boys and 2 girls. One of the girls was my age, and her brothers were cute, so I spent a fair amount of time at their house. Petra made tortillas every morning. I watched and I listened and I ate. I asked her for a recipe and her answer was the kind born of routine: a couple of handfuls of this, a pinch of that.

When we left Death Valley for West Texas, there was no shortage of fresh, soft, delicious tortillas. I grew spoiled.

Then came Tacoma. And the dreaded “store bought” tortillas. What a disappointment! I had a few years of joy when I found Molinar’s Tortilla Factory on South Tacoma Way. Julian Molinar was from a town just down the road from where I spent high school, so the tortillas were lovingly familiar. Sometimes I would take the kids there to have tender, moist West Texas brisket, and sometimes I would just buy a dozen tortillas to eat at home.

As part of  my recent culinary explorations, I got it into my head to make tortillas. I had great luck with biscuits, and I was full of the confidence born of success.  I bought a bag of masa flour and followed the recipe on the bag. It was the same ingredients Petra had used (flour, baking soda, salt, lard, water) but when I made them, they had no flavor. (And I had over floured the board when rolling them out, so they were dusty, to boot.)

Onto the internet I went.  I looked at a what seemed like a million recipes and they all fell into two camps.  Either lard & water or milk & oil.  Try as I might, I could not get the lard versions to work.  I tried two of the milk versions and while the first one was a disaster, the second one showed promise. I put on my thinking cap and tried again.  After batch upon batch of failure, this morning we had success!

I did decide on a recipe using solid fat that I did enjoy.  It is a hybrid of the traditional and the recipe above.

Thanks to all who joined us for our Grand Opening. We had a great time. We had an amazing cheese table from the Traveling Cheesemonger. If you need something fabulous for your next corporate event, we can hook you up. She also does cheese classes!

Other than the cheese, the most popular items were the Wine Sorbet and the Sparkling Sangria.

The sorbet is stupid easy.

Place 1 bottle of wine (I have only made this with red wine, but I am going to try a Rose this weekend. I will let you know how it goes.) in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and use a long handled lighter to ignite the surface. When the flame goes out, add 1 cup sugar, the zest of one orange (use a vegetable peeler to make big strips) and 1 cinnamon stick. Cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently, until you can smell the orange and cinnamon.  Pour through a strainer into a large rectangular (8×13) Pyrex pan.  Freeze until solid. Using a stiff spatula, scrape out in chunks and place in food processor. Pulse first, then blend until creamy and return to freezer. (Can be individually portioned and returned to freezer.) Serve as a dessert or palate cleanser between courses.

We were glad to see so many friends come by for a visit.

Aura’s Awesome Cornbread

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

7:14 PM

Makes 1 muffin pan (either 6 jumbo or 12 regular)

1 C yellow cornmeal

1 C cake flour

1 T baking powder

1 t salt

1/4 C chilled bacon drippings (can be replaced with lard or shortening)

1/4 C butter

1/2 C honey

3 eggs

1 cup whipping cream

Set oven to 400°.

Place paper cups in muffin tins

Combine dry ingredients

Cut in fat until mixture is grainy

In separate bowl, beat honey, eggs and cream

Add to dry ingredients and mix just until combined

Spoon into muffin tins

Bake about 20 minutes or until top is golden brown and probe comes out clean.

Serve with butter for dinner, or with whipped honey butter for dessert or breakfast.

Honey Orange Dijon Roast Chicken

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

5:03 PM

As tender, juicy & delicious as a rotisserie chicken.  I promise.

Brine:

1 quart apple cider

1 quart water

2 bay leaves

12 black pepper corns

1 handful dried herb blend

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup kosher salt

Bring all items to boil in large stock pot.

Remove from heat and add 4 cups ice cubes

When cool (room temperature) place chicken in pot, cover and refrigerate for at least  1 hour. All day is fine.

When ready to cook, rinse & pat dry chicken.  Discard brine.

Bird Butter:

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter at room temperature

2 T dried herbs or 1 handful fresh herbs

1-2 T Olive oil

Place butter and herbs in food processor, start and when butter is well beaten, slowly pour in oil until butter is creamy and moves with blades. Place in refrigerator for a few minutes (can be made ahead, just remove from refrigerator for 20 minutes before using .)

Basting Glaze:

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter

1 minced shallot

1 orange

1/2 C honey

1/2 C Dijon mustard

In sauce pan on medium low heat, melt butter.  Add shallot and cook until aroma wafts upward.  Add the zest and juice of orange.  Whisk in honey and mustard. Simmer until thickened, then remove from heat to cool.

2 red, orange or yellow peppers

2 small Granny Smith apples

1 large sweet onion

3 celery sticks

3 carrots

Preheat oven to 425°

Roughly chop vegetables and place in roasting pan. Toss with olive oil and kosher salt.

Slide fingers gently under skin on breasts and thighs of chicken to separate.  Push Bird Butter under skin and rub over and inside of chicken. Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt and cracked black pepper.  Place juiced orange halves from glaze into cavity. Truss chicken with kitchen twine and place (breast side up) on vegetables in roasting pan. Place in oven for 20 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 350°.

Remove pan from oven and spoon glaze over chicken. Flip chicken to expose back and spoon over glaze. Add one quart of chicken stock and return to oven for 20 minutes.

Flip bird again, basting lightly with pan drippings. Return to oven for 15-20 minutes or until thermometer inserted in thigh registers 160°. Remove from pan and rest.

Remove vegetables from pan. Separate fat from top of pan drippings.

In sauce pan over medium heat, whisk 2 T fat into 2 T flour.  When golden and nutty smelling, add into roasting pan and whisk thoroughly to make gravy.

Salmon:

2 salmon filets (boned)

Brown sugar

Kosher Salt

1 lemon

2 T Olive Oil

Salsa:

1/4 cup onion

1/4 cup orange or yellow bell pepper

1 jalepeno (or chili of choice)

1 peach

1 lemon

1 handful blackberries

1 teaspoon garlic (minced)

1/2 cup tomatoes

1 teaspoon salt

1 handful of fresh chopped cilantro or flat leaf parsley

Sprinkle salmon with brown sugar (cover most of the fish, you will be discarding much of this later)

Sprinkle kosher salt over sugar. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lemon over the whole thing. Sit aside while preparing salsa.

Roughly chop onions, tomatoes, bell peppers & peaches, place in bowl. Add blackberries, minced chili, parsley, garlic and salt. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon and toss with a large spoon. Set aside.

Heat nonstick pan over medium high heat. With fingers or a large spoon, scrape off most (but not all) of the moist sugar from the salmon. Place skin side down in hot pan. Cook 2-3 minutes or until you start to see the fish turning opaque above the skin. Turn the fish over so the sugared side is down and cook for another  few minutes. Do the same for the sides. Fish is done when mostly opaque with just a bit of translucence in the center.

Place on platter, piling salsa in the corners between and around the fillets. Garnish with lemon wedges and more fresh chopped parsley.

We had an interesting take on a wedding party last week.  No bride! She and her friends were at her regular salon, and we had the groom’s family. It was a completely different energy in the salon! Maybe that can be our new schtick: Wedding parties welcome – as long as the bride goes somewhere else!

Filling:

1/2 cup each Romano (grated), Parmesan (grated)

1 cup each fresh ricotta, mozzarella (grated)

2 eggs

Handful each of flat leaf parsley, basil (chopped)

Leaves from 4-6 thyme sprigs

Zest of one lemon

Salt & pepper to taste

Combine in stand mixer or food processor, chill for at least 30 minutes.

Ragu:

1 sweet onion (diced)

1 red or orange bell pepper (diced)

2 medium carrots (diced)

2 celery stalks (diced)

1 T garlic (minced)

2 T Olive Oil

2 T Butter

1 pound ground beef

1 pound ground Italian sausage

2 – 8oz cans tomato sauce

14oz can tomatoes (diced or crushed)

2-4 T Dried Italian Herb Blend

Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 200°. Brown beef & sausage in enameled dutch oven , drain & set aside. Add oil & butter to same pan, add onions, peppers & celery. Cook over medium low heat until softened (about 8 minutes) stirring frequently. Add meat & garlic to pan, stir to combine. Add salt, pepper & dried herbs, then all tomatoes. Stir to combine and place in preheated oven for at least 2 hours. Longer is fine. Alternately, ragu can simmer on stovetop or in electric slow-cooker for same duration.

Ravioli:

Cut fresh lasagne sheets into four squares, then cut squares in half to form rectangles roughly the size of a business card.

Place a spoonful of filling slightly off center of the rectangle. Dip two fingers in warm water and paint the edges of pasta. Fold end to end, gently pushing out air and making a tight packet. Crimp on three sides with tines of fork to seal.

Place gently in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Lift out gently with slotted spoon or spider strainer, place on wire rack to drip dry a moment before plating.

Place 3-5 ravioli on a plate, ladle ragu over top and sprinkle with chopped parsley, shredded Parmesan & Romano cheeses (alternately, place ragu on plate first, then ravioli and parsley & cheese.)

Aura is auditioning for The Next Food Network Star!

The process goes like this:

Submit application, photos and video by mid-September.

Call backs will be October & November.

Filming of show is scheduled for January/February.

Since we have no way of knowing how many hundreds (or thousands!) of applicants attempt this,  the goal is to sparkle in the first round so that the application catches the judges eyes.

The first step to that is new photos (the last publicity photos were done for the book in 2005 and that is way too long ago to keep using!)

Yesterday was a photo session with an inspired local photographer, Jason Ganwich. He did a marvelous job of getting the real Aura Mae on camera.

Next step is the video. Some footage will be filmed at our Grand Opening Open House on August 22 ( “Aura as the Sparkling Hostess”) and then at home for a quick kitchen demo.  Still pondering what to demo…something easy and quick because it is only a 3 minute video!

If chosen to be on the show, Aura would be out of the salon for about 5 weeks. As luck would have it, January is traditionally a slower time in the salon and a great time to get away.  New York in January, however, sounds a little chilly!

We will keep you posted!  If you want the most timely info, add Aura Mae as a friend on Facebook.  (Lots of food photos there, too!)

Here are a couple of the pictures from yesterday.  We can’t speak highly enough about the photographer. Next time you need some professional shots for work or home, call the Fabulous Jason!

Oh, and if anyting comes of this and Aura gets an infusion of cash,  a fancy new stove is in her future!

And don’t worry. Even if she wins the whole thing and gets her own show, she will still be in the salon seeing clients!  Hosting a TV cooking show is not a full time, year round job requiring a relocation to New York!

Boy,  have we been busy! For starters, we have a new staff member. Say hello to Jennifer Strong next time you pop in. Her room is on the way to the Tasting room, so you can’t miss her!

And speaking of the Tasting Room, it is up and running and we have had two events now. All our wine and beer stock is shelved in there (except for a few items by the front desk.)  Each week we have a few featured wines available for sampling. Ask your hairdresser to take you back for a tasting!

We are still slowly decorating, and we just got some sassy new couches for the Client Lounge (that’s the room with the window!)

And since the wine is all in the back Tasting Room now, Aura’s room was mighty empty and she got a new sofa, too!

One last thing: we are trying to have an ongoing gift with purchase deal (buy 4 bottles of wine and get a free tote bag.)

Here’s this week’s bag.

You never know what will change before you come in next.  See you soon!