Santa Barbara Sea Urchin à la Jean-Georges

Santa Barbara Sea Urchin

Santa Barbara Sea Urchin à la Jean-Georges
Black Bread, Butter, Jalapeño, Yuzu, Maldon Salt

I was sitting in the dining room of my virtual restaurant, the Borage & Basil Bistro, reading about Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Santa Barbara Sea Urchin.

“This dish is the perfect example of how uncluttered Jean-Georges’ cuisine is, as well as the volumes he can make his dishes speak. The bright iodine from the uni marries perfectly with the buttered pumpernickel toast. It’s just delicious from both a textural and flavorful standpoint,” said Chef Wylie Dufresne.

Contemplating getting on a plane to NYC to try this utterly sublime dish, it occurred to me how silly it would be to travel across the country from LA – to eat Santa Barbara uni! 

Not only is the uni local, we also have the rare yuzu tree (an important component of this dish) growing in our garden. So that is how Santa Barbara Sea Urchin à la Jean-Georges ended up as the appetizer on tonight’s dinner menu at the Borage & Basil Bistro, this summer’s virtual restaurant where all the menu items feature fresh snipped herbs, exotic ripe fruits, and edible flowers from our garden.

With its salty, clean ocean scent and hues of gold and deep orange, its sweet, exotic, haunting taste and creamy, buttery texture – the captivating sea urchin roe makes for an elegant appetizer, indeed.

Santa Barbara Sea Urchin à la Jean-Georges Recipe

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Sublime Franco-Korean Elderflower Soju Martini

Sublime Franco-Korean Elderflower Soju Martini

Sublime Franco-Korean Elderflower Soju Martini

St-Germain Liqueur is created in the artisanal French manner from freshly hand-picked elderflower blossoms. Its sublime taste hints at pear, peach and grapefruit, yet none of them exactly. It is a flavor as seductive as it is elusive.

Soju is a Korean alcoholic beverage distilled from rice that has slightly floral and barely sweet flavors. Pleasantly light with a round mouth-feel and an alcoholic content of 20% (about half as much as vodka), it is usually enjoyed neat, sipped from a shot glass.

Angostura Bitters, a product of Trinidad, is an aromatic preparation of botanically infused alcohol. Just a couple dashes of its distinctive herbal spice flavor enhances the other components by adding another layer of complexity.

To create an Absolutely Bewitching Martini, pair soju with elderflower liqueur and angostura bitters, and enjoy a fusion cocktail that is delicate, captivatingly complex, and impossibly irresistible.

Elderflower Soju Martini Recipe 

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Mixed Berry Pavlova with Elderflower Lemon Curd Yogurt

Mixed Berry Pavlova with Elderflower Lemon Curd Yogurt
PAVLOVA
A Caramelized Meringue Cake with a Crisp Shell and a Marshmallowy Center
Filled with Elderflower Lemon Curd Yogurt
Elderflower Macerated Cherries, Blueberries, Blackberries, Raspberries

This enchanting global dessert ~ named after a RUSSIAN ballerina, created in either NEW ZEALAND or AUSTRALIA (both countries claim it as a national dish), flavored with a FRENCH liqueur (St. Germain Elderflower), filled with GREEK yogurt ~ happens to make a festive red, white, and blue addition to our Independence Day menu, here in the UNITED STATES.

4th of July Mixed Berry Pavlova with Elderflower Lemon Curd Yogurt

Over the years I have made several pavlovas, cooked in different ovens, at different temperatures from 250° to 300°F. This incarnation was cooked at the higher temperature and resulted in a delightful caramelized meringue with the signature soft marshmallowy center. (I suggest cooking at the lower temperature if you prefer a pale meringue). After it is baked, turn off the oven and slowly cool the meringue with the oven door slightly ajar to achieve the perfect texture and to prevent it from deflating.

Mixed Berry Pavlova with Elderflower Lemon Curd Yogurt Recipe

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Lemon Risotto Balls with Edible Flower Confetti

meyer lemon arancini, lemon rice balls, ciao fiore appetizer

Meyer Lemon Risotto Balls with Parmesan and Mascarpone
Edible Flower Confetti

Crispy on the outside – warm, creamy, cheesy, and lemony on the inside – these little risotto balls (arancini in Italian) are simply irresistible. And if the texture and flavor aren’t enough to make you swoon, I’m dressing them up with pretty flower petal confetti and lacy Parmigiano-Reggiano. Serve them with your favorite Italian white wine and enjoy happy hour!

Meyer Lemon Risotto Recipe

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Teacher Appreciation Luncheon ~ Farmers Market Theme

Teacher Appreciation Luncheon ~ Farmers Market Theme

Teacher Appreciation Luncheon ~ Farmers Market Theme

Well, they did it again. The amazing parents of the students at Rolling Hills Country Day School hosted yet another over-the-top Teacher & Staff Appreciation Luncheon. This year’s theme was extra charming ~ a Farmers Market! Their dedication, creativity, and attention to detail blew all of us away.

A few weeks before the event, we received a handmade invitation in our mailboxes, inviting us to “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” at the RHCDS Farmers Market. And to “Come Meet Your Local Farmers.” The invitation cleverly proclaimed “Crafting Kids Since (our inception) 1961.”

teacher-appreciation-192-copy

Welcome to the Farm House

On Teacher Appreciation Day, we arrived to find the school auditorium completely transformed into a colorful organic-dining farmstead. Draped over the back of each chair was the gift of a reusable cloth shopping bag, printed with an artsy RHCDS Farmers Market label. In the bag, a fresh baked baguette with plenty of extra room to shop the market after lunch and fill it with a bounty of local fresh fruits and vegetables.

Menus were printed on paper bags so that after dining, we could take the bag to visit the various market stands and fill it up with sweet treats and goodies. Lastly, we would stop at the fresh flower stand “Oops-a-Daisy” to hand-pick our favorite blooms and have the talented moms arrange them into beautiful bouquets to take home.

The enchanting table decor included rustic wooden centerpieces overflowing with vibrant vegetables, soft white linen tablecloths and blue striped tea-towel napkins, silverware tied with twine, milk-bottle beverage containers with jaunty red striped straws. Wooden pallets with woven and wire baskets of fruits and vegetables adorned the walls. We felt pampered…and comfortable.

The parents sported snappy t-shirts with Country Day logos branded for each particular farm stand: Farmhouse Crepes, Coffee Stand, Original Kettlecorn, Bakery, Pick UR Own, and Flower Stand. These thoughtful parents consciously considered the dietary restrictions of some of the teachers – offering many vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, and dairy-free menu choices.

Following the fabulously fresh veggie-centric luncheon, we stopped at the coffee stand for a custom-brewed cup of java and some chocolate covered espresso beans for a boost, then “shopped” the Farmers Market – giddy with delight to take home potatoes, onions, carrots, home-grown citrus fruits, apples, pears. Even the centerpieces were included in the “shopping” experience – eggplants, artichokes, bell peppers and more. Our little paper bag menus were full of cookies and pies and peanuts and popcorn.

Let’s ride our bikes over to RHCDS and I’ll show you their re-creation of a Farmers Market…inside a school auditorium!

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