Sunday Dish

Reposting Review Of a Great Little Spot in Calabasas

One of the many things on my plate this days is doing some food writing for a SFV focused blog called 

I don't know if you can read the fine print there but it says "rolling out the red carpet for community in the San Fernando Valley".  The editor, Karen Young, and I are both pretty passionate that the Valley is in fact a great place to live.  For those of you not from the So Cal area the Valley is kind of like the red headed step child of Los Angeles, a label that I feel is undeserved.  Anyway, My Daily Find is all about showing off the cool people, places and things in the Valley.  My small contribution to the endeavor is finding restaurants I love (that are yes, in the Valley)  and sharing them with the readers.

The latest spot I found is called blue table .  It's a small wine and cheese shop that also serves soups, sandwiches, salads, pizza and wine by the glass.  Oh, and one thing I didn't mention in the piece I wrote was that you might even get a glimpse of some real paparazzi.  The shop happens to be in the same center as the Kardashians store "Dash."  It was quite the "LA moment" and the best part was getting to take pictures of the paparazzi as they took pictures of the Kardashians.  Sometimes life it just too surreal for words.  

But don't let that scare you away, the food is yummy and if you are in the area a great place to stop and grab a bite.

 To read more about blue table Click here...

Kotopoulo Stifado - Say That Three Times Fast

 

Kotopoulo Stifado.  For the love. I've been exposed to the tongue tying names of Greek food since I was a kid, and this one got to even me!  

"Koh-TOH-poo-loh"  "Sti-FAH-tho".  I think the hardest part is not putting the wrong em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LA-ble.    

Pronunciation aside, this is a really tasty dish and one that my Grandpa Pete liked to whip up from time to time.  The basics of this dish are his.  I added a few things here and there and I feel confident that he'd approve of my tinkering. 

Kotopoulo is the chicken and Stifado is the sauce.  And the sauce is what makes this dish sing.  It's perfect food for a cold rainy day.

Oh and for those of you not in So Cal we are actually having some weather.  Not that wimpy "oh it's misting, get your umbrellas and slam on the car brakes"  kind of weather, real rain.  We're on day five of cats and dogs, hail, thunder and lighting.   It felt really nice to be hunkered down in the kitchen cooking last night while Mama Nature did her thing.   

This dish is perfect over potatoes, rice or noodles.  A good crunchy French bread is a must to sop up the flavorful cinnamon and clove infused "gravy".

Kotopoulo Stifado

- olive oil
- 1 lb. purple boiler onions - peeled and left whole
- 1 lb. white or yellow boiler onions - peeled and left whole
- 1 whole, cut up chicken (throw away the innards or save them for something else fabulous)
- 6 cloves of garlic - minced 
- 1 cup white wine
- 1 can diced tomatoes, no salt added, with juice
- 1 1/2 lbs. tomatoes - chopped
- couple shakes good quality balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon oregano
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 pepper corns
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 whole allspice berries
- salt to taste

 Cook the onions for about 3 minutes in boiling water and drain.  Once they are cool enough to handle use kitchen shears to trim the top and bottom off then peel off the out layer.  

 Heat up some olive oil in a large pan and saute the onions until they are brown on the outside and bouncing nicely around the pan, set aside.

In a large Dutch oven heat a very small amount of olive oil and brown the chicken pieces taking care not to crowd the pan.  If you need to, brown in batches.  Once the chicken is brown, drain any excess rendered fat if needed and then add the garlic and let it soften up for about 2-3 minutes.

Next, deglaze the pan with the white wine, making sure to scrape of any tasty brown bits from the chicken left on the bottom of the pan.

From there, add all the remaining ingredients and pop the onions back into the pot.  Let it come to a boil then lower then heat, cover and let it simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. 

After 1 1/2 hours remove the chicken and then onions to a platter, covering to keep them warm.  Check the sauce in the pot and adjust your seasonings to taste.  If the sauce feels a little thin let it continue to cook for another 10 minutes uncovered.  Fish out the bay leaves, cinnamon stick and other whole seasonings before serving.  

Serve over potatoes, rice, noodles, cous cous or quinoa might be nice as well.  Like I said the crunchy French bread with lots of butter is a must, as is a glass of wine.  

I thing either red or white will work, but I found a nice dry white (I did Savignon Blac) cuts through the headiness of the sauce. 

I hope you enjoy it - I'm gonna go heat myself up a plate of leftovers right now!

How To Get My Groove Back

It's sad right? Almost 3 months between posts and ain't nobody has come a visiting. Who can blame them? 

I am turned off instantly when I click on to a blog and see the last post is ancient history. Words that come to mind? Dead, done, gone, finito, terminado, kaput! Sometimes, I'll click back a few days or weeks later in hopes of finding new information and if I don't, then oh fellow blogger we may well be totally over.

So, I fear, as I write this that the only one who will read it is the same handsome guy I'll be telling this all to over a glass of wine later. I love him, don't get me wrong, but one tall lanky guy does not an audience make.
 
So the question is, how to get back to it?
 
I'll start by where I've been and what I've been up to over the last 3 months.

Exhibit A:   

 Yes, this is me being carried over the threshold.  No, there was no white dress or cake involved, just months at looking at awful houses before finding the right one (you gotta kiss alot of frogs people, alot of frogs before finding the prince!) then, days of nail biting negotiation, followed by ridiculous amounts of paperwork.  This and more is what's  involved in buying a new house!  

When I entered into the endeavor I'd heard it was stressful, but I actually poo-pooed the notion.   How naive I was.  How naive.  But there's more to the house buying saga.  We didn't buy just any old house we went for an old school fixer.  Which leads me to...

Exhibit B:

Our kitchen, not exactly turn key.  This room had been lovingly painted by the previous owner with a God awful crackle finish on every cabinet and drawer front.  Stripping it all took me 3 full days.  To say I felt I'd conquered a mountain when I'd finished would not be exaggerating. 

In addition to the kitchen there was 4 bedrooms to paint, 2 bathrooms to redo, carpets to rip up, floors to be put down and the list goes on.  

Please don't misunderstand, I understand that fixing up a new house is what you might call a high quality kind of problem. It  was and continues to be a major labor of love and one that is quite needy of my time and attention.  Before and after shots will come at another time.

So, there was the whole house thing!  Then there was Exhibit C:  a little thing called "The Holidays"

 

So that dear readers (dear reader?) is where I've been.  

But the past is just that and I'm looking forward - so now on to where I'm going. 

My next great adventure will actually culminate during the next holiday season.  I have big plans!

I am in the process of gathering family recipes, Greek recipes, delicious recipes, good enough to sell your soul for recipes.  Things like:  

 Spanikopita 

Stifado

And Avgolemono soup.   

I am really looking forward to the process.  Of course I'll still be up to the old tricks, an occasional restaurant review or perhaps a random rant here and there.   But I am excited to get started.  I have alot to do! So until next time....