Des Moines: Three Foodie Destinations in Thirty-Six Hours

Bistro Montage's Cassoulet

This Thanksgiving, I had the pleasure of visiting one of my favorite cities, Des Moines, Iowa, the jewel of the Midwest that gave us Cloris Leachman, the Academy Award winning actress, Edwin Perkins, the inventor of Kool-Aid, and oh yeah, Kuzak, too.

For many of us, any mention of Iowa instantly conjures up images of corn fields, but in recent years, Des Moines has undergone a serious food renaissance!  In part this is due to the national spotlight it enjoys during the presidential primaries, and this last election, a camp of celebrity-like candidates made the city their home away from home, and a candidate needs to eat more than hot dogs and ice cream, especially one with a professed love for arugula (you know, the elitist Obama!).  But this is also due to the fact that the city boasts a culinary school - the Iowa Culinary Institute at the Des Moines Area Community College. Educate your populace, and the community will reap the benefits, or this case, they'll eat them, literally!

Simple Suppers: Black Cod with Mushrooms & Miso Sauce

Here we go with another simple suppers!  This is one of those easy to make dishes that looks harder than it is, and is sure to impress anyone who tastes it.  The dish can be prepped, cooked and plated in under 30 minutes, which is why I'm featuring it in my Simple Suppers series.

What else?  It's healthy!

Black Cod, also known as Sablefish, has a buttery texture that's made it popular with serious cooks and high-end restaurants alike.  It's a great source of protein, healthy fish oil and minerals, such as iodine, phosphorus, magnesium, copper, iron, zinc and calcium. Also, wild caught Black Cod from Alaska or British Columbia is considered sustainable (less so if it's from California, Oregon or Washington), making it a good choice for the environment, too.

The inspiration for this dish was Nobu's melt-in-your-mouth Black Miso Cod, but that dish requires a 24 hour marinade, and I wanted to come up with a quicker preparation.  I chose to reconstruct the dish by quickly broiling the fish and then serving it with the marinade as a sauce.  I added some lovely, tiny Beech Mushrooms (also known as Bunashimeji Mushrooms) to give the dish an extra component, but any sort of mushroom would work.

The result?

Complete deliciousness!  This is one of my favorite dishes that I've cooked lately.  I served my fish over a blend of whole grain and wild rice.  I also made a salad with baby arugula, dried cherries and pepitos (make sure you get your green vegetables!) for a complete meal.

New to broiling?  Check out this great article I wrote about how to use your broiler!  CLICK HERE TO READ!

Black Cod with Mushrooms & Miso Sauce
Serves 2 people

2 4 oz. fillets of black cod
1 cup beech mushrooms, bottoms cut off (may sub other mushrooms like sliced cremini mushrooms)
3 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper

Miso Sauce:
1/4 cup mirin
1 tbsp white miso paste
1 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
1/2 tsp chili flakes

Directions:

Set the oven to broil.

Rub the fish with 1 tbsp of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Quickly broil the fish for about 5-6 minutes, depending on thickness, until cooked through.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil in a small saute pan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and saute them for a few minutes, until softened.  Season to taste with salt & pepper and set aside.

To make the sauce, using the same pan where you cooked the mushrooms, add the ginger and chili flakes and cook for a minute over medium heat.  Add the mirin and simmer for 2 minutes, then add the miso and tamari and simmer for another 5 minutes until the sauce thickens.

To plate, place a piece of fish and top with some of the mushrooms.  Spoon with the sauce and enjoy!

Source For Ingredients:

black cod, organic white miso paste, mirin, tamari, organic beech mushrooms, organic olive oil from Whole Foods

fresh ginger from Hollywood Farmers Market

chili flakes from Trader Joe's 

Nutrition Facts: 

Black Cod with Beech Mushrooms & Miso Sauce

2 Servings 

Amount Per Serving:

Calories 326.1

Total Fat 21.4g

Saturated Fat 2.9g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2.1g

Monounsaturated Fat 15.1g

Cholesterol 62.3mg

Sodium 862.5mg

Potassium 405.5mg

Total Carbohydrate 4.6g
Dietary Fiber 0.5g 
Sugars 0.7 g

Protein 27.9g

Palate Food & Wine Burgundy Wine Tasting - Saturday December 5th from 1PM to 4PM!

Wow, the holidays really are packed with great events!  Coming up this Saturday, my favorite wine bar in LA is hosting a great Burgundy wine tasting event featuring the 2007 vintage, which I hear is incredible.  It's a walk around tasting the the cost is $30/person, a real bargain since we're talking about piggy-bank-breaking Burgundy here.  In addition to tasting all the wines, they're for sale out of Palate's wine shop, and many of these wines start at under $20/bottle (but range up to near $200).

If you're interested, call or email them to sign up quick!  They say space is limited.  There's a good chance Kuzak and I will hit this up (after we go to Eat My Blog for goodies that morning)!  What's could be better than dessert and Burgundy all in the same day?  I guess Christmas really has come early this year!

Event Information:

What: Walk Around 2007 Burgundy Wine Tasting
When: Saturday, December 5th from 1PM - 4PM
Where: Palate Food & Wine (933 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA 91204)
Cost: $30/person

To reserve call (818) 662-9463 or email merchant@palatefoodwine.com.

The Tasting Lineup: 

Vrignaud, Domaine Chablis $21.99

Lafon, Héritiers du Comte Mâcon-Milly-Lamartine Clos du Four $32.99

Leroux, Benjamin Auxey-Duresses Blanc $39.99

One of our absolute favorite Vosne-Romanée sources, Gérard Mugneret produces wines of impressive purity and richness. Unfortunately, a long list of private clients tend to absorb most of his production though we're happy to take as much as is made available. The Passetoutgrain here, along with that of Michel Lafarge, is as good an example of this as you'll find and a lovely wine to enjoy while the others age. As for the Bourgogne and Vosne Romanée village, we feel that these are peerless, reference standard bottlings.

Mugneret, Gérard Bourgogne Passetoutgrain $21.99

Mugneret, Gérard Bourgogne Rouge $29.99

Mugneret, Gérard Vosne-Romanée $59.99

One of the highlights of any of our frequent Burgundian excursions is a tasting with the talented David Croix at Maison Camille Giroud, the most exciting of all of Burgundy's « micro » negociants Since his first vintage in 2001, David has managed to establish himself as one of Burgundy's great young winemakers by issuing one stellar vintage after another from his astounding Chambertin down to the most humble Bourgogne bottlings. We feel that there are no better values in the Côte de Beaune and this lineup of sub-$30 from Bourgogne to 1er Cru bottlings is compelling indeed.

Giroud, Camille Bourgogne Rouge $25.99

Giroud, Camille Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune Au Crêtot $29.99

Giroud, Camille Marsannay Les Longeroies $28.99

Giroud, Camille Santenay $29.99

Giroud, Camille Maranges Le Croix Moines $29.99

Benjamin Leroux, young superstar winemaker at Comte Armand for the last decade, started his own negoce business with the 2007 vintage and the results are promising.

Leroux, Benjamin Nuits-St.-Georges Les Allots $54.99

This is one of the most exclusive addresses in Burgundy with holdings in not only all the great terroirs of Chambolle-Musigny but also the famed monopole Clos de la Maréchale in Nuits-St-Georges, a family holding which had been on lease to maison Faiveley for fifty years ending in 2003. While the Faiveley bottlings were impressive for their sheer power, Mugnier has managed to infuse a bit of Chambolle elegance into his version with impressive results.

J.-F. Mugnier Nuits-St.-Georges Clos de la Maréchale $64.99

Sylvain Cathiard produces an impressive array of Vosne-Romanée, none more so than his elusive, dare we say mythic bottling of Malconsorts, one of Burgundy's greatest vineyards, it's premier cru rating be damned. It's proximity to La Tache may be rather suggestive but Malconsorts has it's own charms. Less structured than the premiers crus which lie north of town but generally finer with more flair and fat. this one wine is reason enought o come to this tasting.

Cathiard, Sylvain Vosne-Romanée $82.99

Cathiard, Sylvain Vosne-Romanée Aux Malconsorts $189.99

Wine of the Week: The Ojai Vineyard 2005 Fe Ciega Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir!

This week, I'm sharing with you one of my favorite recent Central Coast pinot noirs from The Ojai Vineyard - the 2005 Fe Ciega Pinot Noir!

While many of the California pinot noirs has been blowing up with big fruit and bigger alcohol, in recent years, Ojai winemaker Adam Tolmach has been quoted as saying that even though his wines were getting high scores from Robert Parker, he was no longer enjoying drinking them himself.  So he made the bold move to pull them back and fashion them in a lighter, more Burgundian style.

The results?

Heavenly!

When I first tasted the 2005 Fe Ciega over a year ago, I was head over heals in love!  It was such a nice departure from the style I'd grown to associate with California pinot - delicate fruit, lighter body, great balance and finish, a daintier, gentler wine, but still a powerhouse.  I immediately moaned in pleasure and then coaxed Kuzak to order more bottles.  So the other week, we popped another one and, not surprisingly, the wine is still drinking beautifully, with hints of strawberries and tart fruit.

Not surprisingly, while Robert Parker gave the 2005 Fe Ciega 91 points, and a decent but not ecstatic review, Allen Meadows, widely considered the leading expert on pinot noir in the world who runs the subscription-only Burghound website, gave the wine a whopping 92 points (that's a big score from a tough critic). I guess it just proves that wine is all about personal taste, and as far as my taste goes, the 2005 Fe Ciega gets a big thumbs up!  Or maybe that's two thumbs up!  But who's counting?

Pricing:

The Ojai Vineyard makes a variety of whites and reds (they produce around 6000 cases per year from 15 different bottlings) with an array of pricing.  Many of the whites start under $20 and the reds not much higher, so they offer a lot of affordable choices. The 2005 Fe Ciega can be purchased from K&L Wines for $49.99, reflective of its high scores and age.

As always, I recommend visiting Ojai's website and signing up for their list to get the best bargains going forward!

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A BOTTLE FROM K&L WINES!

Winery Information:

The Ojai Vineyard
P.O. Box 952
Oak View, CA 93022
(805) 649-1674
info@ojaivineyard.com

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THEIR WEBSITE!

Tuesday Round-Up (for the Week of November 30th, 2009)

Well, it's been quite a week with the holidays, but there have been some great articles!  First up, a new study indicates that eating a low-acid diet (low in meat and grain and high in fruits and vegetables) may be the key to bone health.  Also, I'm finally starting to see more articles about the link between our diets and the cost of our health care!  Major companies are starting to see how improving the health of their workforce will improve their bottom lines.

Also, don't forget about the Eat My Blog charity bake sale at Zeke's Smokehouse on Saturday December 5th from 10AM - 4PM featuring hundreds of baked goods, with all proceeds going to benefit the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank! Food stamp use is at an all-time high (see below), so this is for a great cause.  I'll be baking and donating my signature Bacon Brownies with Bourbon Caramel Sauce, as well as stopping by the festivities to load up on desserts!

Health News: 

Health Care Savings Start in the Cafeteria

Low-Acid Diet Improves Bone Health

Food Stamp Usage Soars

MBA's Move Into Wine Biz

Recipes: 

Savory Cornbread Stuffing Recipe

Balsamic Brussels Sprouts Recipe from Smitten Kitchen