Welcome to the new and improved version.  Now I bake the fish in the oven, which reduces the oil use but still leaves it crispy, and cuts the time I spend in the kitchen way down.  Plus now I can make 4 meals at once.

Just like before, you want to choose a flat boneless fillet.  I’ve tried several, but really can’t get better than dover sole.  It’s reasonably sustainable, wild caught, sold boneless, and cheap.  I usually buy it at Costco (can’t vouch for all branches, but mine has a excellent fish counter).

Dover sole washed and drying

The basic directions are to take fresh (or defrosted) fish that is reasonably dry (I always rinse fish before using), coat it in flour, coat it in “egg,” and coat it in flour again.  It really makes a big difference to do the double coating, so I recommend you don’t skip it.  I use the same container of flour for both dips, you could do different ones if you wanted…some people do a fine flour for the first dip and a coarse one for the second.  Use a large roasting pan for the flour.  The 2-3″ lip helps keep the mess down and the large size lets you work with 7 or 8 pieces of fish at once.

It helps a lot to have a wet hand and a dry hand.  I use my right hand to lay the fish on the flour and turn it over, then I use my left hand to dump more flour on the fish to make sure it’s fully coated as I pile them up to one side of the container.  You can follow my suggestions of plates from my old recipe, but I’ve found that to be an unnecessary step.

Next I use my right hand to dip each piece one at a time in the “egg” and let it drip before laying it in the flour and turning it over.  The dry left hand piles flour on top to make sure everything is coated.

The Flour:

In the past I used half soy flour and half brown rice flour plus salt (a tsp or two for every 3 cups) and pepper.  The soy cuts down on the carbs but is too heavy alone.  Brown rice works well but is very carby.  This makes a nice but thin coating.

Then I started using cornmeal, the standard fine grind from Arrowhead or Whole Foods.  Because it isn’t as fine as flour, I do 3 parts cornmeal to 1 part brown rice flour.  Plus salt and pepper.  This batter is slightly thicker and has a nice flavor.

Azure Standard sells a corn flour which turns out to be an actual flour grind.  It gives a thin coating to the fish and isn’t very good on its own.  They also sell a medium grind cornmeal which turns out to be pretty coarse.  Not quite as coarse as polenta but way beyond “meal.”  My last fish batch was about 3 parts medium cornmeal and 1 part corn flour.  Came out thick and very good.  And the “scones” I made with the leftover flour was fabulous.

Do experiment with flours if you don’t like, or can’t have, my choices.  Heck, even wheat.

I’ve changed my seasoning too.  I still use salt and pepper but add cumin powder and paprika.  You can’t taste them in the final product but it gives it a depth and richness it lacked before.

The Egg:

You can use real egg here if you want.  But we use flaxseed, which works very well.  Heat up water and add well ground flax seeds (I use a way oversized glass measuring cup in the microwave).  Stir and let cool.  The standard amount is 1/3 cup water to one tablespoon of meal equals one egg.  I usually make a bunch of eggs worth and then add more water as I get down to the bottom.  I find that a thinner “egg” coating works better on the fish.

Amounts:

Plan on around 1/2 pound of fish per person (measured before coating).  This is an average for children and adults.  A group of just adults will eat more.

It’s very hard to give the amount of flour mix because it varies so much based on how thick the fish fillets are (it’s surface area that counts, not weight), how coarse your grains are (coarser ones weigh less per cup due to more airspace and also make a thicker batter), and your technique.  Count on at least 3 cups of flour mix per 5 lbs of thin fish.  But I add extra to make hushpuppies with.

About 6 eggs or egg equivalent will do 5 lbs of thin fish.  For flax I usually use 6-8 tablespoons of flaxmeal to 2 cups of water, then add 1-2 cups as I go along.  Since I like it thinner, this is enough for 7-9 lbs of fish.  Plan to have extra for hush puppies.

I like to make 9 lbs of fish at a time.  It’s not that much more work than making 4 or 5 lbs but it’s about all I can handle.  Fried this would be way too hard, but baking makes it easy.  I generally bake up 1/4 of it then freeze the rest, for an additional 3-4 meals for 3 people (each time we usually have a serving or two leftover for lunch the next day).

Ingredients:

Dover sole fillets
Seasoned flour mix
Beaten eggs or flax goo
Oil for baking (I use olive)

Baking the Fish:

Coat the fish in flour, dip in egg/flax, coat again in flour, shake off excess and put on a cookie sheet with a good deal of olive oil on it (just enough that it moves around when you tilt the pan).  Do not use baking pans.  The fish will not crisp up.  Use sheets that are flat or have a lip no higher than an inch.

Bake at 400*F until the bottom is browning nicely.  Flip fish over and brown the other side.  Take care not to burn it or let it get too brown.  But you want it crispy.

Freezing the Fish:

Coat the fish in flour, dip in egg/flax, coat again in flour, shake off excess and put on a cookie sheet or baking pan with a piece of parchment or waxed paper on the bottom.  Do not use oil.  The fish can touch but should not overlap.  You can make 3-4 layers of fish as long as there is parchment or waxed paper between each layer.  Stick in freezer.

In theory, you can move the fish to zipper bags once frozen, but we’ve never bothered.  You will want to do this if your freezer gets freezer burn easily though.

When you want to cook them, just remove from freezer.  No need to defrost.  Put the fish (minus the paper!) on a well oiled cookie sheet and bake at 400*F as per above.

Frozen battered fish, direct from freezer (right) or ready for the oven (left)

Leftover Batter:

I’ll make a separate hush puppy post at some point.  I make mine more like scones and they are fabulous.  Mix the leftover flax goo or egg with the leftover flour mix.  Add water or milk (I’ve used soy milk to good effect) or more flour until the batter is thick enough to only partially hold its shape on a pan.  Add more seasoning (dill weed, dill or cumin seeds, chipotle pepper powder are all good) and a pinch of baking soda.  Bake on an olive oil coated pan until fully cooked but not too hard.

Recipe for Tarter Sauce:

Relish (I prefer dill but sweet is fine)
Veganaise or mayonnaise (1-3 times the relish)
A squeeze of fresh lemon
A bit of salt

Serving the Fish:

Serve with tarter sauce and lemon slices (or catsup if you’re like my daughter).  The fish is delicious with coleslaw but goes well with a wide variety of vegetables.

Leftover fish is great cold or heated.

Oven Fried Dover Sole with tarter sauce and roasted vegetables

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Lemongrass Thai Cuisine
109 N McDowell Ave, Petaluma, CA 94954
(707) 789-9777

As we perused the menu, the waitress brought us a bowl of styrofoam.  I mean shrimp chips.  In pretty colors.  With dip.  I asked if there was egg (my daughter is quite allergic) and she was sure there was not but offered to show us the box.  She was right but, given they were from a box and the list of artificial food dyes in them was longer than the list of the other ingredients, we asked her to take it away.

We started with the coconut soup, or at least we tried to.

Tom Kha, “coconut soup based seasoned with lime juice, kaffir lime leaves, mushrooms, onions, and carrots.”  $8.50 for a large (ordered with 3 bowls) plus $2 for “prawns.”  It was served with the rest of the meal, not in the 15 minutes or so while we were waiting.  It came with no bowls and the only spoon was a soup spoon, nothing to serve with.

I love coconut soup and order it whenever I get the chance.  Picking out all the pieces of roots and leaves that make up the complex flavors is part of the fun.  Except there weren’t any.  No flavors from them either.  The mushrooms were white button, cut in half, the onions were undercooked slices of plain yellow onion, and the carrots were flavorless and too uniformly cut (with scallops) to be house prepped.  There were at least a fair number of shrimp (does keeping the tails on turn them into prawns?) for the $2.

How do you make coconut soup?  I imagine fresh coconut milk seeped in herbs and spices and tangy from lime.  I don’t know what recipe Lemongrass used but it was something like: open cans of coconut milk, add to pot with several cups of sugar, add vegetables, cook until light gel stage.  I make coconut ice cream with canned coconut milk and the soup was actually sweeter.  Finally, I gave up and asked for fish sauce (which came in a small bowl, tasting mostly of water and salt)  and dumped it, plus the “hot” sauce from Michael’s dish into my soup bowl, but nothing cut through all that sugar.

Unfortunately, I also ordered a peanut sauce dish.  I expect this to be sweet, but it should fundamentally be savory, with complex flavors.  Like the soup, it felt more like dessert.

Pad Peanut Sauce, “stir fried mixed vegetables and fried tofu with peanut sauce.”  $8.50.

More of the same mushrooms, carrots, and onions, plus some welcome nicely cooked green beans, red bell pepper, pod peas, and a bit of raw cabbage.  No sprouts, no chopped peanuts, just some cilantro and a slice of orange.  We knew this version didn’t come with noodles and we asked for all our dishes to be egg free. The sauce was not thick or cloying, like I feared, but the overwhelming flavor was sugar.

We fared a bit better with the other two dishes.  Miriam of course wanted some chicken.

Barbecue Chicken Rice Pot, “vegetarian fried rice, with sliced barbecue chicken on top.”  $10.50.

Miriam loved the soup and tofu (such a sad comparison to when she was a toddler sucking on a piece of ginger pulled from a bowl of soup at a different, better, Thai restaurant) and ate plenty.  She claimed to enjoy this dish but barely touched it.  Michael says the chicken was pretty good, though a little bit–surprise–sweet.

The oddity was the rice.  Since we saw brown rice on the menu we asked if they could use it here, done with no egg.  Yes, we’ll give you steamed brown rice.  We don’t want steamed rice, we said, the menu says stir fried.  They promised they would do it, in a freshly washed pan.  So what did we get? steamed white rice with raisins.  I’m not joking…raisins.  Had I noticed this early enough I would have sent it back.

Michael’s dish was the best of the night, though not for him.

Prig Pow Seafood, “prawns, calamari, mussels, scallops, and sole.  Sauteed with vegetables in dry chili paste.”  $12.95.

Since it was Father’s Day, I encouraged him to order the dish the way he liked it, even if no one else would touch it.  So he asked the waitress (a different one from above) to make it extremely hot.  What followed was a comedy of sorts.  So no spice? she asked.  No, I want spice, make it the way you would for a Thai person, not an American.  So do you want spice or no spice?  Very spicy, he insisted.  He ended up with a nice bowl of seafood, some beans, peas, carrot, and cilantro, in a sweet mildly spicy sauce.  Mild enough for me to pour into my soup and onto my plate.  At least it had a flavor beyond sugar.

Most of the reviews I’ve seen talk about the wonderful friendly service.  Again, I have to wonder if we went to the same restaurant.  The waitresses were nice enough, and always topped up our water, but they messed up the soup and didn’t provide serving utensils for all the dishes (plus included a steak knife with the already sliced chicken). There were no condiments and it took some doing just to get fish sauce.

Our primary waitress laughed, actually laughed, each time we asked for something or made a comment.  I am sure it was just a nervous titter over her English being so poor she didn’t understand us, but my mind couldn’t help interpreting it as rude.  This is how we ended up with things like mild vs hot spices or the disaster which they called rice.  Instead of telling us she didn’t understand, or grabbing the other waitress (which she did at times), she nodded and told us it was fine.

My guess is that other reviewers have both a higher sugar tolerance than we do (it’s the next day and my head is still buzzing) and happened to hit the better dishes but miss the awful ones.  In fairness, it’s a huge menu and we only had 4 dishes.  If we hadn’t had the soup, we probably wouldn’t be panning the place so badly.  The food was cooked well.  The problem was the ingredients.

Menu Pages:

Page 1 – Page 2 – Page 3 – Page 4 – Page 5 – Page 6 – Page 7 – Wine

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

So this year we decided to go to Gourmet Garden, a non-chain Japanese/Chinese/American buffet with a smaller selection at half the price.  The real plus? it’s 3 miles from our house.

Gourmet Garden Buffet
100 S. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma, CA 94954
(707) 778-3899
http://www.gourmetgardenbuffet.com/
Open: 7 days, Lunch 11am-4pm, Dinner 4pm-9pm
Party room, party trays, and takeout available
Lunch $8.29 (kids 6-10 $5.79, kids 2-5 $3.79)
Dinner (M-Th) $11.99 (kids 6-10 $7.79, kids 2-5 $4.79)
Dinner (F 4-9pm, Sat, Sun, Holiday all day) $12.49 (kids 6-10 $7.79, kids 2-5 $4.79)
Kids under 2 free, Seniors over 65 10% off

We went once before and I came away disappointed, so was reluctant to go again.  On this trip, I realized I had misremembered.  The food is actually pretty good.  Everything is made fresh and tastes like something you’d get in a home kitchen.  The disappointment was simply that most of the food has meat or egg or both and that doesn’t leave much I can eat.  There are several safe dishes to be sure, but not the full variety you expect from a buffet.

Let’s start with the sushi.  At Gourmet Garden, the sushi station is the heart and soul of the place.

Raymond the sushi chef

A young smiling man (his picture doesn’t do him justice) named Raymond creates both standard and masterful sushi and sashimi dishes with the few ingredients he has in front of him. Unfortunately, each and every one of the sushi pieces has wasabi mayonnaise, which means Miriam poison (eggs).

Raymond though is more than happy to make sushi to order.  He offered Miriam a vegetable maki roll but she said nope, she wanted one with raw fish, and chose the salmon.  He also made me a maki roll with eel and pickled turnip and some salmon nigiri (there’s a sushi FAQ with pictures so you can sound as educated as I do).

Salmon nigiri sushi and shrimp dumplings

Sushi is my favorite part of these buffets and it’s hard not to just be able to choose what I want and put it on my plate (some of the creations were just gorgeous too).  So I limited myself to 3 special orders (16 small pieces, which Miriam ate several of) and enjoyed the rest of the food offerings.

My usual way of working a buffet is to grab an employee (not a server, as they rarely know anything about the food) and get a rundown of what is and isn’t safe for me to eat.  Unfortunately, not a single one of the buffet workers I asked spoke English.  Several of them spoke Spanish (which I also speak) but were only guessing about the food ingredients.

Raymond to the rescue again.  He knew how every dish was made.  He was so knowledgeable, in fact, that I asked if he owned the restaurant.  No, he’s just the sushi chef, but he goes through the kitchen to see how all the food is made and then retains it all somehow.  After I got permission to take his picture for my review, he asked me to tell my readers that he’s looking to find a young American girlfriend.  A sweet man who knows how to cook, not a bad catch.

Plate of sushi and hot foods

I ended up with several plates of good food.  Above we have (from top and clockwise): salt & pepper shrimp (very good but messy), green beans (moderately spiced), seaweed salad (one of my favorites), family style tofu (I had a craving for braised cabbage as we drove to the restaurant and this dish satisfied it, the tofu was cooked perfectly too), eel maki, and shrimp with vegetables.

On the plate below we have: steamed cod (the only miss of the night…it was cooked adequately but was too bland, it would have be good with a spicy sauce or mixed into another dish), broiled oysters (delicious if you get them fresh and choose the bigger juicier ones), and more family style tofu.

Plate of oysters, fish, and tofu

Miriam asked for, surprise surprise, chicken and I found two she could eat: teriyaki and 5 spice. She also had noodles, sushi, fruit, and several pieces of marinated sashimi, before deciding it was too spicy.

Miriam polishing off several plates of food

I didn’t ask about dairy but I suspect most of the dishes were dairy-free.  There was cheese in the salad bar and butter in some of the American dishes. I didn’t bother to ask about gluten either.  Though, except for the noodles and dumplings, I would guess that the only gluten we ate was soy sauce (which was in almost every hot dish).  A few choices were breaded but they all had egg in them so we didn’t eat them anyway.

Because it’s a buffet and you can ignore rice and other starches, you can eat here lowcarb.  Sashimi, seaweed, vegetables, tofu, a salad bar, meat, and soups.  Some of the sauces might be a bit on the carby side for those who need to keep their carb counts way down. Vegetarians have good choices too with a lot of the lowcarb items plus rice, noodles, vegetable sushi, and bread.

All of the desserts appeared to have dairy and eggs and wheat.  They had some (out of season) fresh fruit and several canned fruits including lychees.

Fruit bowls

The restaurant is all on one level with easy wheelchair access to tables an the buffet area.  The buffet stations themselves are a bit hard to reach from a sitting position, but no worse than any salad bar.  Nothing was burning inside and there was no noticeable propane or other smells, aside from the yummy food.  We did not check out the bathrooms.

With some careful navigation, Gourmet Garden can accommodate a variety of dietary restrictions.  For those with none, you’ll find a decent variety of hot and cold dishes, all fresh and inviting.

(Note: Prices & website updated as of 9/18/09.)

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Namaste Cafe
1390 No McDowell Blvd., Ste, A
Petaluma CA 94954
(707) 664-9245

Open Monday through Saturday – Lunch 11:30 am – 2:30 pm, Dinner 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Lunch buffet is $8.95 ($5 for kids) and dinner entrees run around $9-14.  Lunch buffet $8.95 ($5 for children).

My brother and his girlfriend got two chicken dishes, tandoori and tikka masala ($14), both of which they liked very much.  Miriam had some too and kept asking for more of the masala sauce spooned over rice.

Chicken Tandoori

Tikka masala is a protein of choice buried in a fragrant fenugreek sauce.  Tandoori has no sauce at all and the protein is baked in a clay oven then served on a sizzling hot platter with some vegetables.  Michael and I got the mahi mahi tandoori and the fish was ever so slightly underdone, but still flaky and flavorful.  That iron platter stayed hot for the entire meal and the vegetables left behind burned.  At that point it occurred to me is what we should have done is to have let it cook for a couple more minutes then quickly transferred it all to our plates.

Mahi Mahi Tandoori

I asked the staff about egg in their food and, fortunately for us, they don’t use very much.  Only in the naan (bread).  They told me most of their dishes have cream added and all of their breads are wheat-based.  Because Miriam and I can both get away with occasional dairy and gluten, I didn’t worry about it.  But another reviewer mentioned getting dishes made without cream, so it seems dairy-free is possible.

We started off with complementary crackers and a tamarind dipping sauce.  They were light and crispy but had little flavor, despite being studded with spices.

Cousins eating crackers

We got ourselves some roti, which is a plain wheat grilled bread (we ordered it without butter, which is how it usually comes) but that turned out to be a mistake.  It was rather plain but hardened up just enough so you couldn’t soak up sauces with it.  The basmati rice with peas ($1.50) was delicious.  My brother’s family ordered aloo paratha ($3) which was a baked flatbread with potatoes and spices and raved about it all night.

Michael’s and my other dish was channa amchaur, a beautifully spiced chickpea dish with enough sauce to justify eating the perfect (but carby) rice.  I could have easily finished the bowl of it myself.

Chickpeas, rice, and bread

Michael had an Indian beer and my brother some chai tea.  We all skipped dessert.

The inside of the restaurant is warm and inviting with no scents except for the lovely ones coming from the kitchen.  Because the place is small, there is a single door to the outside and no way to sit away from the drafts.  It was cold outside and we had to wear our jackets during the meal to stay warm.  In summer it wouldn’t matter, and it has been unseasonably cold here (30′s and 40′s at night).  I didn’t check out the restroom.  The dining area is wheelchair accessible.

I do look forward to coming again but next time I want to try the lunch buffet.  Hopefully it will have more of those chickpeas.

Namaste Dinner

Other Reviews:

Chowhound Places
Chowhound Review Dec 2007
Chowhound Review May 2008

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Finding a restaurant was no easy feat.  Mine and Miriam’s allergies were the least of it (all British Columbia restaurant are nonsmoking (indoors anyway) so that wasn’t a problem for any place without a patio).  Our Burnaby host has celiac and can’t have dairy or eggs and our New Brunswick friend can’t have a long list of items, the worst of which is peanuts (any trace of which could kill her).  Cooking for all of us was fairly easy (well, I like a challenge) but restaurants are a different matter.

Fortunately, I found Food Vancouver, a great listing of area restaurants, including checkboxes for different dietary restrictions, which you can add to a search by location or cuisine.  Unfortunately, it’s clear that some of the restaurants who added themselves (or patrons who added them) didn’t understand the meaning of the checkboxes.  We had a long back and forth with a supposedly gluten-free-friendly Chinese restaurant and decided not to bother.

So we went to an Indian place that sounded promising and was an easy walk from the hotel.

India Bistro
1157 Davie Street, Vancouver, BC
604-684-INDIA (6342)
http://www.indiabistro.ca/
http://www.foodvancouver.com/restaurant.php?restaurant=137

Davie Street is filled with restaurants and people but India Bistro was calm and quiet once we passed through the doors.  No patio, no incense, no peanut oil, no problem getting a table.

Our server Steve was so knowledgeable we assumed he must be an owner, and perhaps he is. He was amazing and really got our needs (aside from one common blip of saying a dish didn’t have any gluten because it was made with white flour).  Four out of the six of us had strict dietary restrictions that only partially overlapped, yet he managed to keep it all in his head and warn us whenever one of us expressed interest in a dish that contained a potentially forbidden ingredient.

Unfortunately, our New Brunswick friend did have an allergic reaction, but it was to some obscure spice she didn’t know she reacted to and it was not the restaurant’s fault in the slightest. But even she says, if she were local, she’d “go back there in a heartbeat,” with some precautions about which dishes she ordered of course.

They don’t use eggs at all (the cheesecake, which is made off site, is the only dish with eggs).  All of their breading is vegan chickpea flour and the fryers aren’t used for anything containing gluten, dairy, or eggs.

But this wasn’t just a safe meal, it was delicious.  Some of the best Indian food I’ve had in a long time.  We started off with two chickpea-battered appetizers, both gluten-free by default: fried calamari ($6.95) and chicken pakoras ($5.95).

I don’t eat meat (I do eat seafood) and have been raising Miriam the same.  Michael eats meat (no pork and very little red meat) and we agreed Miriam could have turkey this Thanksgiving with the condition that she understand where the meat comes from.  At the tender age of three, she has demonstrated that she understands death and that animals used for meat need to be killed.

Recently, she has been asking “am I allergic to chicken?”  I had to tell her no.  At the restaurant, she asked again, and Michael and I decided she could have her first taste of it.  She was so excited she told the server and everyone else within earshot, multiple times, “I’m having chicken! I’m not allergic to chicken!”  Well, she loved it.  She ate about half the pakoras by herself.  The rest of us devoured what was left.  I only had the calamari and it was tender and delicious.

We ate so quickly I didn’t get a picture until the very end.

Miriam after her first taste of chicken

For my entree, I chose the Tandoori Trout (trout marinated in fresh ginger, garlic and spices & char-broiled. $13.95).  Although the websites say it’s marinated in youghart, if memory serves me, it was actually nondairy (I can cheat with dairy and gluten once in a while).  Cooked perfectly with a crispy skin and tender meat.  Although the accompanying mint sauce was wonderful, the fish didn’t need anything.

Tandoori Trout

The table shared papadum (lentil crackers, $1.50 times 3), which were the only bread not made with wheat, rice Pulao (basmati rice cooked with cumin, onions & aromatic spices.  $3.95 times 2.  Vegan and delicate and great for soaking up those marvelous sauces), and cucumber salad ($3.95).

Lamb Palak

The other adults ordered Chicken Jalfrazi (chicken cooked with onion, bell peppers, tomato in a light curry sauce. $10.95), Lamb Palak (lamb cooked with spinach & Indian spices. $10.95), Murgh Coconut (boneless chicken cooked in a unique combination of coriander & coconut curry. $10.95, and Lamb Rogan Josh (lamb cooked with onions, garlic, ginger and traditional Indian herbs & spices. $10.95).  I tasted some of the chicken sauces and they plus some rice would have made a meal by themselves.

We were in the process of ordering dessert when our friend (who left early to get some air) became ill and we had to rush out (her husband went on ahead so the rest of us could deal with the bill).  Our server was preparing some samples so we could decide what to order and he sweetly packed them up with our leftovers as we paid.

We ate the desserts the next day.  The rice pudding (kheer) was good but the Gulabjamun (dark brown round shaped cheese balls in a honey syrup) were my favorite.

The prices were excellent.  Our meal for 6 people (5 adults) had two beers, 2 appetizers, 5 entrees, rice, and salad and came to $100 including tax (but not tip).  Parking is a nightmare; take the Skytrain if  you can.

If I were local, India Bistro would be one of my regular haunts.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

A few days later, all was calm and we opted for something closer to where we were staying.  The place we chose turned out to be perfect.

The Xiang Cuisine
aka Alvin Garden
4850 Imperial Street, Burnaby, BC Canada
604-437-0828
Credit and debit cards accepted but only if your bill is over a certain amount ($30?).
Reviews at Chowhound, DineHere, EatVancouver (with photos of the menu (old version)), and some lovely pictures (pre and post-renovation but with the newer menu).

Xiang is this hole in the wall just east of Vancouver.  They renovated a few months ago (based on the pictures I’ve seen, it’s looking much better) and changed their name to Alvin Garden, though they seem to use both names.  We walked in to find a pleasant interior with two rooms of tables and no white faces (a good sign).  There were some larger groups as well as couples there, and both fit in well.

I wouldn’t call it particularly romantic, but it had the right feel to it for an anniversary (or even a date) and you could easily carry on a conversation.

Our waitress was nice and knowledgeable about the food.  Despite warnings from other reviewers about poor English skills, we had no trouble communicating.  She seemed perplexed though when we asked for no meat (in particular, no pork).  Other reviewers report similar experiences: they ask for no meat and are told it won’t be as good, but it turns out to be excellent.  We had no trouble finding several dishes to try and going egg-free was easy too (she just steered us away from a couple of dishes).  Dairy-free is pretty much a given in Chinese restaurants (authentic ones anyway).  Forget about gluten-free; we didn’t even try.  I can eat gluten once in a while, so I didn’t worry about it (but I avoided the leftovers so I wouldn’t have gluten two days in a row).

Not being familiar with Hunan cuisine, aside from knowing it’s the hottest food in China, we didn’t order correctly.  We should have had a raw (or at least cold) salad to balance out the heat.  And we got way too much food.  Our dishes could have easily fed four.  Nor did we eat it right.  You’re supposed to put some rice in the little bowl they give you and then put food on top, eating the rice as it gets soaked with sauce.  Since our bowls still had soup, we used the plates.  If anyone laughed at us, they were discrete.

We started with soup, broiled fish with chili.

Broiled fish with chili soup

At $18.98, this seemed like quite an extravagance, until we saw the pot.  We could have served 8, as part of a larger meal, and it had a fair bit of firm white fish.  Our waitress warned us this one would be hot, and it was blistering.  I had trouble eating it, though I kept doing it since it was so good.  Michael wasn’t fond of the style of putting dried chilies on top as he prefers his heat more integrated.

Our other dishes were fried eggplant with black bean sauce (top left of picture, $8.90); Hunan style shrimp (bottom right of picture, $14.90); steamed dried tofu with special chili (bottom left of picture, $9.90); and a pot of rice.  We both prefer our food lowcarb, which everything was, but wanted the rice to soak up the amazing sauces and, in my case, reduce the heat level.  I can’t recall which of the dishes normally have pork in them, but ours came meat-free.

Michael enjoying Xiang's offerings

The eggplant was like silk and melted in our mouths.  It was the only dish we managed to finish.  It and the shrimp were our favorites.  The chili sauce on the shrimp was similar to the soup’s but the heat was more a part of the dish and wasn’t as intense.  We loved the crispy edible shells.  I ate the tofu without the sliced jalapenos and found it to be a nice contrast to the tomato/chili based dishes.  It had some heat but was fairly mild.  The chewiness of the tofu was also a good counter to the softness of most of the ingredients in the other dishes.

Xiang passed the girlfriend-cry-test, which is now the wife-cry-test.  That’s where if I take a single bite of something and tears start rolling down my face, then it’s hot enough for Michael.  Part of my anniversary gift to him was choosing a restaurant where I knew he’d have the heat he craved, and the joy of watching me suffer with delight.

Michael had a Chinese beer ($4.50) and I had a glass of sweetened and chalky soymilk ($1.50), mostly because I needed something to dial down the heat.  Dessert was pumpkin cake (egg-free) which turned out to be 4 large glutenous pies, filled with a bit of pumpkin and fried.  They had a mild flavor, not as sweet as most Westerners would expect of a dessert, but complemented the meal and had a definite addictive property.

So this turned out to be a fairly pricey meal for us, but worth it due to the special occasion and the massive amount of leftovers we carted home.  Although any size group (or solo diner) can get a great meal, Xiang seems best geared for large groups who will share the oversized plates and get the opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of dishes.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Challenge #1: Prepare a 30 second promo for what could be their new show. Unlike in previous versions of this, each promo was carefully scripted (including wardrobe) by the Food Network and the contestant had a fair amount of time to do it, with multiple takes, a director, and rehearsals. Each promo was broken up into 2 or more mini-scenes.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t done completely fairly. Aaron just had to walk down a hallway then he had to say something before throwing dice down a craps table. Adam had to stroll along a stage with a showgirl on each arm, with some closeups. But Lisa was harnessed to a rig where she went up a couple of stories, grabbed a bottle of wine from a shelf, and had to say her lines in multiple locations along the way. Needless to say, the quality of the promos was inverse to the difficulty.

Challenge #2: Prepare a buffet for 50 guests (the selection committee, hotel chefs, and Vegas performers). They had a reasonable 6 hours to cook and a $1000 budget. The buffet was supposed to be “over the top, Vegas style” and they had to do an “entertaining” intro before the service. Although they didn’t state any rules for the foods, each contestant appeared to have 3 main courses, one vegetable side dish, and a dessert.

How did things go? My favorite, Aaron, did the best with his promo but totally bombed at the buffet. His intro was embarrassingly bad and all three of his main courses were pasta (the reviews of the food were that it was okay but not great). Lisa did so-so with the promo (hard to do when dangling 15 feet in the air), fabulous with the buffet intro, and well with the food. Adam did decently with the promo, well with the buffet intro, and was the runaway favorite with the food.

It’s been obvious that the selection committee loves Aaron, likes Lisa but has reservations, and isn’t too fond of Adam. But because they traditionally gave immunity to the person who won a particular challenge, they couldn’t get rid of Adam. And they didn’t want to dump Aaron for having one bad week. So they wimped out and are bringing all 3 contestants to the final episode this Sunday. At least it’s in New York.

So, enough of that, what the heck would I make if I were feeding 50 people? The budget isn’t an issue, even with expensive items, because everyone ate all 3 buffets, so portions were small. $1000 is $20/person and you can do a lot with that (catering budgets include labor, not just ingredients, and they weren’t serving alcohol). I’d want to be true to my personal food restrictions, at least the basic ones.

Main Courses:

Sweet peppers stuffed with shrimp paste with a hoisin sauce (hot)
Grape leaves stuffed with fish (cold)
Vegan soup, maybe chickpea with Georgian Walnut paste (hot)

Vegetable/Side:

A beautiful raw salad (cold)

Dessert:

Mango sorbet topped with pine nut cream and toasted almonds (cold, but with hot almonds if possible)

The shrimp I envision is the kind you get in dim sum restaurants stuffed into tofu. You take raw shrimp and process it with some other ingredients. I’ve made it before but it was years ago. I’d add spice and something to bind it, egg or flax goo. Maybe peas or something like that for texture and a fresh flavor. Stuff into those gorgeous colored sweet peppers that are 1-2 bites each. Roast. Serve with a salty intense dipping sauce based on hoisin.

The grape leaves came to me as a great choice but, if I were really in a competition, I might swap them out since I don’t have much experience with grape leaves. I’d cook a mild white fish like halibut and mince (not process) it well with a lot of fresh flavors like parsley then either add chutney or use similar flavors.

I’ve made the soup before from one of my favorite cookbooks, Olive Trees & Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World, and it’s simple but really good. The walnut paste has a unique flavor and is used regularly within the country of Georgia.

The raw salad would have no lettuce but lots of carefully cut items to make it special. Lots of long thin strips like noodles. Avocado, some more of the sweet peppers, pea pods, bean sprouts, specialty mushrooms. I’d have to see what looked good in the store and went together. A variety of colors. Served either with a chimichurri sauce (lime juice, parsley, mint, cilantro, very good olive oil, and garlic) or something else with an intense flavor that would pull all the other ingredients together.

Mango sorbet is very simple, which is the best way to do it. Take very ripe mangoes, remove the skin and pits, and puree them. A touch of salt, a squeeze of lime, some vanilla is all you need. It’s plenty sweet enough. Most people would add simple syrup but mango doesn’t need more sugar and all that water will just dilute the flavor.

I’d serve it with some vanilla bean pine nut cream (because you don’t have to soak pine nuts) and some toasted almond slices on top. If the kitchen didn’t have an ice cream maker, I could freeze half the puree in ice cube trays and then blend it up and then freeze again (watching it carefully so it doesn’t get too hard).

My meal could be done by 2 people (each contestant got a former contestant as a sous chef) in 6 hours with no problems. Granted, it did take me a few days to come up with the dishes, instead of near instanteneously like the contestants are forced to do. And I might not be able to get every ingredient I needed (in January, in the middle of the desert…oh, they’d all be in the store, just not at their peak). But hey, I’m a blogger in front of a computer, not a trained cook trying to smile for the camera. I get to imagine success.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

There was just a single challenge, but it was a long one.  Each contestant was paired with a Brownie (a girl about 8 years old in the Girl Scouts) and had 10 minutes to plan a “kid-friendly” healthy dish with them.  Then the girls left and the contestants had 75 minutes to prep the dish using foods from the Food Network pantry.

The core of the challenge was to appear on Rachael Ray’s talk show and cook that dish in front of a live studio audience, using their Brownie as an assistant while being a guest on Rachael Ray’s show.  The segments were 4 minutes long.

My favorite contestant (from the beginning of the season) is Aaron.  His previous camera work was lacking but this time he really lit up the screen.  And he involved the girl far more than anyone else did.  They made pizza and she was rolling out the dough, with him right behind her helping to guide the rolling pin.

One contestant, Lisa, is an excellent cook who tends to do her own thing.  She’s a mom and related well to her helper but didn’t really listen to her.  She said several times that she doesn’t think “kid food” should be dumbed down versions of adult food.  I couldn’t agree more.  I don’t give Miriam typical kid food and I don’t serve it to other children either.

But “kid-friendly” means more than the food itself.  This was a cooking segment.  The best way, in my opinion, to get kids interested in trying new foods is for them to make it themselves.  I have a folding step-stool that lives in our kitchen for Miriam to stand on.  She knows how to use the blender and the food processor, how to cut food with a knife (right now she is only allowed to use butter knives), and is learning recipes.  Even before she was 2 she was able to identify condiments and get them out of the fridge at appropriate times.

Miriam is 3 now and does more cooking than all but one of those girls in the competition did.  Lisa talked about how the girl had a “sophisticated palate” but she didn’t involve her at all in the cooking (and only barely in the planning).  All that poor girl got to do was spoon some sauce on.

This was a hard challenge and I make no pretense that I would have done anything but bomb.  I’ve done live cooking demos before, but not with a child I barely knew, not with a famous host, not with a strict (short) time limit, and certainly not to a camera.  But I still have some food ideas.

One thing each contestant got right was to ask the girls what foods they liked and pick dishes based on their preferences.  But what I didn’t see anyone ask was what cooking experience the girls had and what they liked to do in the kitchen.

Miriam’s favorite dish to make is bean salad.  It’s super easy because we use canned beans (you could make it with dried beans but each one requires different cooking times).  Miriam can do everything except open the cans and dice the oregano.  She recognizes the oregano in the garden and can pick it.  She can empty the cans, add the other ingredients, and stir.  She doesn’t get amounts right and needs some physical help when it’s heavy, but she has the ideas down.  She even has most of the recipe memorized.

If I were preparing this live, I’d probably pre-open the cans and remove the lids.  But everything else could be done right there.  Dump the can contents into a colander and the colander contents into a bowl.  Add the oil and vinegar, stir and taste.  Make a point about the importance of tasting.  When the acid/oil balance is right, add the mustard, salt and pepper, and stir.  Taste again for salt.  Adjust.  Then make a point about how only grownups can handle the big knife and mince the oregano and let the child add it in.  If I were making another dish also, I would pre-measure the bean salad ingredients and put them into small bowls to free up some time.

Another good dish would be a wrap or taco.  The emphasis here would be on using leftovers that are already cooked.  I’d choose a protein (tempeh or fish would be my choices but you can use meat too) and bring it warmed to the counter.  And I’d have some sauteed veggies too.  Or, I could have cooked leftovers that were protein and veggies (like bell pepper strips, mushrooms, onions) and heat them in a skillet on the segment.  The tortillas can be room temperature or get a quick heat on the burner.  Spread the tortillas with some pre-made guacamole, add the protein and vegetables, add some shredded cabbage or lettuce or other fresh veggies, and (optionally) some salsa and it’s done.

If the child I was working with liked fish, I’d make some salmon salad from precooked salmon fillets which we would break up into a bowl.  Show some veggie cutting but mostly add pre-diced celery and red onion.  Add mayo and mustard, salt and pepper.  Serve on endive or small romaine lettuce slices.  Or roll into lettuce, serve on a salad, or put into a wrap.   Or just make a sandwich (to be ordinary).

Another favorite Miriam dish, and a real healthy kid-friendly food, is hummus.  Since I wouldn’t have time to prep dried beans, I would use canned.  But mention the option of dried.  It’s so easy.  You dump the canned beans into the food processor (drain 2 and leave 1 full), add the other ingredients, and push the buttons.  I would serve it with a salad, fresh veggies, olives, and carrots for dipping.  All while mentioning various serving options.  The problem with doing hummus on a short TV segment is the noise of the food processor for perhaps a total of 30 seconds.

If I wanted to use eggs, deviled eggs would be a great kid dish.  Or an omelet.  As an alternative to eggs, I would make a corn pancake with great fillings.  If there was masa in the pantry.

Another can’t go wrong dish is slushies.  Or popsicles if there was time overnight to freeze them (swapping out the freshly poured ones for done ones).  Of course the noise of the blender would be a TV killer, so maybe not.

Can you tell this was my favorite challenge so far?

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Challenge #1: Demonstrate a “basic skill” to the camera in one minute. I remember a couple of seasons ago the contestants had to show they knew some basic cooking skills by performing tasks in front of a judge (without other contestants watching). Each had the same tasks to do. I think they were dicing an onion, filleting a fish, and julienning some carrots.

This time there was a single task, none the same, under a cloth. Position the contestant, lift the cloth, give a sentence description of what they are to do, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go. Some were insanely easy (cut up a pineapple) and some were insanely hard (clean a squid). Though of course, what was easy or hard depended on what you had experience with.

The judges actually didn’t care if you got it right. They wanted “authority” and camera skills. One of the ones they liked was from the guy who was supposed to open a coconut and instead didn’t manage to get a drop of juice out, because he acted like he knew what he was doing.

I would have done well with some (the pineapple, maybe the coconut) and with others I not only didn’t know how but couldn’t have even faked my way through it (cleaning the squid, shucking an oyster).

Challenge #2: Pick one of the offered whole fish (each a different kind) and one of the crazy ingredients (all sweet or odd things like white chocolate, fruit-loop-like cereal, or coffee beans). Fillet your fish and take it, plus 10 lbs of pre-filleted fish, and create two dishes. One is a dish that Red Lobster might put on its menu (the winner had that happen), so it had to appeal to a general audience. The other must use the crazy ingredient. Then plate for 30 people (the judges plus a Coast Guard crew) and give a presentation.

They had some prep time one day then the food was stored overnight and they had, I believe, 45 minutes to finish and plate.

I’m not totally sure what I would have done because I wasn’t familiar with a lot of the offered fish. I’d heard of most, but not cooked with them. One I’d never heard of was Arctic Char. But it was described as a cross between a trout and a salmon. So I wonder…is that Steelhead? If so, it’s one of my favorite fish. You just can’t go wrong with it. Grilled, pan-seared, or roasted. Very tender flavor, but not bland, without falling apart. It’s moist with a good fat mouth feel.

If I had gotten cod or a similar fish, I think a fish stew would have been great. And then a wrap or soft taco with some fried, lightly battered, chunks. The crazy ingredient would have to be in a sauce I think. Maybe on some shredded cabbage in the dish. Grape jelly would have worked, maybe even the chocolate. Coffee could have gone in the stew. I don’t know, this was a hard one. I’m real good on how to leave certain ingredients out. Don’t have experience with forcing certain ingredients to be in.

Others of my standby fish dishes could have worked out. Fish cakes (which I’ve never actually made on my own), ceviche (which I think would have worked out great, if I could have marinated it overnight…they didn’t go for another contestant’s fish tartar, but I think ceviche is mainstream enough to work, at least in California it is…even have it at the county fair), or some fish rolls would have been a nice mainstream dish (especially if I could have made them the day before and cooked them the day of).

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve seen a couple seasons of this series before and it’s different each time. Sometimes the camera skills challenges (pacing a cooking segment, facing the audience (camera) as you do it, explaining things just so) start immediately (which means they expect some bumpiness because everyone’s new) and sometimes they come later (when they expect contestants to be more polished).

For one season, they kept emphasizing choosing recipes for the home cook, yet most of the challenges involved cooking for dozens or hundreds of people. Very odd. And pretty much always, they focus on fast fast fast. You’re lucky if you have a few hours to prep and cook (vs a few minutes) and the longest period I’ve ever seen for cooking is overnight (with no tending allowed). This rules out a huge percentage of dishes: bread, pickles, roasts, marinades, slow cookers, even beans. It’s an odd, but consistent, restriction.

Thanks to my trusty DVR, I’m a bit behind with the shows. I just watched the first one which aired June 1, 2008. Ten finalists were put through two challenges.

Challenge #1: Face the camera, with or without a prop, and state your culinary point of view in one sentence (or very quickly).

I know exactly what mine would be–I thought about it in past seasons too–though I’m still not sure how to articulate it succinctly. No props for me.

Vegetarian? food allergy? special diet? I’m Cyndi Norwitz and I’m going to show you how to turn a dietary restriction into an opportunity.

Challenge #2: The 10 contestants were randomly paired into 5 groups of 2. They had to present a 3 dish meal to 9 Food Network stars and producers (plus make a “beauty plate”). Each person in the pair had to make one dish that represented their culinary point of view, then collaborate on the third. The hard part was they had 10 minutes to plan their menu, a few minutes to shop, then only 30 minutes in the kitchen to prep, cook, and plate everything (with no help).

The time element made this one really hard. Just having a few more minutes to plan and another half hour to cook would have made all the difference. But I think I would have done this dish:

Chopped salad–lettuce, shredded root vegetables, avocado, and tomato–with an olive, sun-dried tomato vinaigrette (blended mostly smooth) and topped with seared salmon and mushrooms.

I would wash and slice mushrooms, sear the fish with mushrooms, then pop it in the oven (7-10 mins total, could save 3 minutes if I had pre-sliced mushrooms). Then wash and prep the salad veggies and blend the dressing (7-10 mins, assuming I had an electric shredder and a salad spinner, or I could save time with prepacked salad greens). The fish would be done in 10-15 mins, leaving a couple minutes to plate it all up. And with time to work on whatever dish I was sharing (as the fish cooked).

What would go with that dish? Let’s see…

Pine nut cream over fresh fruit (pine nuts can be creamed without any soaking, or they could soak for 10 mins if timed right)

Baked mushroom caps topped with vegan pesto and some toasted pine nuts (at last minute to warm them but keep from over cooking the pesto or making the seeds soggy)

Soup made with finely chopped butternut squash or carrot and ginger, cooked for as long as possible then blended smooth with plenty of spice and a boxed pre-made broth.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Recipe:

(Makes enough for 8-10 people, or 5 adults/children for two meals)
About 5 lbs of fish fillets
About 3 cups of flour (I use half soy and half brown rice flour)
Teaspoon or two of salt
Black pepper
6 eggs (I use 6 TB flax meal in 2 cups hot water, add more water as needed)

Start with fillets (defrosted if previously frozen) of your fish of choice.  They must be free of bones and fairly thin, in the neighborhood of 1/2″ is good.  I like Dover Sole.  Talapia is good too.  Cod works well if you get the right thickness and there are no bones.  Cod is the traditional fish and chips fish, but remember that thicker cuts need a deep fryer to cook all the way through without ruining the crust.  2 lbs of fish works well for 2 hungry adults, one fish-loving child, and lunchtime leftovers.  Trader Joe’s is a good source for less expensive frozen fish of good quality (I only buy wild fish from them).  Costco has excellent fresh, wild Dover sole at a great price.

Wash the fish if needed and lay on paper or cloth towels to get excess moisture.  Partially frozen fish is okay if it’s thin and you get the ice off the outside.

Make the egg substitute (or beat several eggs if you prefer).  1 tablespoon of flaxseed meal, ground fine in a coffee grinder or other machine, in 1/3 cup of water equals 1 egg.  (Store flax whole in a cabinet then grind a bunch and stick in the freezer for easy access without anything going bad.)  Put flax and water into a container that is 3-4 times the volume and nuke for a minute or so.  Let cool to warm or room tempature.  Mix with whisk or fork.

Mix in a flat bottomed container with sides.  A baking pan is great and those plastic boxes 1 lb of salad comes in works well too.  I like half brown rice flour and half soy flour.  This reduces the high carbs of the rice and adds some protein.  The soy alone is too heavy and the rice is too light, so this is a nice balance.  I’ve also made it with 100% corn flour (fine cornmeal) and with half rice and half corn.  These are fine but cornmeal has a distinctive texture and flavor so it’s personal preference if that is what you want.  Add salt and pepper to the flour mix, stir with fork.

Coat fish with flour mixture, put aside on plate.  I have done it without this initial coating several times and it really does make a difference.  The finished breading not only is a bit thicker (this is not a thick commerical breading anyway) but it stays on the fish better.

Dip fish in egg or flax goo.  Let excess drip off but make sure all sides are well coated.

Dip again in the flour mixture and coat well.  You can pile flour over the fish to ensure full coverage; don’t just dip lightly.

Fry fish in oil (I use extra virgin olive oil, but others are fine) at medium to medium-high heat.  Too low and the breading gets really oily; too high and the breading browns and burns before the inside of the fish is done.  Fry to golden brown on each side, adding more oil as needed.  I use a 12″ cast iron pan which works very well.  You might want to have two pans going if you’re doing a lot of fish.

Remove finished fish to a plate with a paper towel to soak up excess oil.  Do not put fish on top of other fish, even with paper towels between them.  This will make the breading soggy.  You can use the microwave to warm fish or to finish cooking fish in the middle, but it will ruin the breading.  You can use the oven for the same purpose but watch for burning.

Mix the leftover flour into the leftover egg, adjust with water or flour to make a very thick pancake batter.  Add more salt if desired and some seasoning (I like an Italian herb mixture).  Fry until light brown on the outside and set in the middle (I turn the heat off under the cast iron pan after the first flip).  Good warmed up the next day.

Serve the fish with condiments of your choice.  I like fresh lemon wedges (not slices) and vegan tartar sauce.  My niece uses catsup and turned Miriam on to it too.  I usually serve with vegan coleslaw.

Recipe for tarter sauce:

Relish (I prefer dill but sweet is fine)
Veganaise (2-3 times the relish)
A squeeze of fresh lemon
A bit of salt

Leftover fish is great cold in a sandwich or wrapped in a tortilla.  Or just as is.  I always make extra because the leftovers are so good.

Tip:

I bought way too much fish and foolishly used only one pan, so I got sick of cooking and just took the floured fish (no batter) and lay them in a single layer in a baking pan with olive oil on the bottom.  Then I baked it while we ate dinner.  Although not as flavorful as the fried fish it was still delicious (had it cold for lunch the next day and warm for dinner, with tarter sauce & lemon)

(My brother Mike, Michael, Miriam, and my niece Stephanie)

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

This year, a first-night seder on April 19, 2008, wasn’t the most stressful, but it was the weirdest.  All the food came out well but, otherwise, everything that could have gone wrong did.

I always find dietary and other restrictions to be a challenge (in a fun competitive sense) and I pride myself on creating a safe space for all of my guests, with food they can eat (perhaps not everything, but a decent meal).  But this year pushed me to the brink.

We had our own restrictions: no meat, nothing that Miriam is allergic to (she can get sick from crumbs and I want her to have a few days a year with other people where she can eat anything she wants), no chemical products on the guests, etc, but they’re seamless for us.  And we can still have a full seder.

(In foreground: matzoh plate next to my seat; in background: the main table with Miriam (brown dress), her Aunties Connie and Jan (holding babies), 3 other friends, and Grandma Julie standing at right.  The note on the door to our bedroom warns people not to open it, since that’s where the kitties spent the evening.)

This year, due to medical issues with guests, we had to leave the doors and windows wide open but couldn’t turn on the heat, we couldn’t light our candles (beeswax even), we couldn’t take photographs (except when the reactive guest left the room, so my food and other photos are lacking), we had two guests who invited themselves at the last minute (and one arrived scented and had to scramble to change clothes and wash-up), dinner was completely out of order and late, we had 4 (yes, four) cancellations the day of the seder, there were 2 guests who simply didn’t show up (medical emergency and they had a bad email address for me), oh and we nearly killed one guest (her fish allergy, which we always managed to accomodate in the past by being careful, was far worse that day, and we did more last minute cooking than usual, which made for more fumes)

Add to that the fact that I dropped a few of the usual rituals and customs to save time, but then ended up with even more gone due to the above restrictions.  We didn’t start with eating hardboiled eggs like we have in most years, due to Miriam’s allergy.  Two years in a row now I’ve had the idea of using whole walnuts instead, but then I can’t find any.  We skipped the handwashing and didn’t sing a single song.  And the post meal sections got lost entirely.  No Elijah’s cup, which I’m still upset over.  We only did the hunt for the affikomen.  It felt more like a dinner party than a seder.

Oy.

We were supposed to have 20 guests (including 5 children) but, with all the additions and subtractions, we ended up with 16 (including 4 children).  Three were new to our seder (2 had never been to any seder).

We had two tables.  The main one is our regular dining room table.  Michael always sits there, at the end furthest from the kitchen.  Then we move a buffet and desk back to add another table.  I always sit at this one, in the chair nearest the kitchen (behind the wood doors to the right).

(Main table to left has Grandma Julie (white shirt) and 2 friends; secondary table has my cousin Sara next to Miriam (visiting from the other table) and 3 friends)

Ritual Foods:

Oat flour matzoh
Horseradish
Parsley
Wine
Grape juice
Charoset
Salt water
Roasted beet (an ancient alternative to a roasted lamb shank)
Roasted egg

(Seder Plate: Parsley, horseradish root, roasted egg, roasted beet, salt water, charoset)

Dinner Menu:

Beet borscht
Gefilte fish
Mushroom and olive compote
Baked yams
Pan seared roasted halibut with rosemary
Drinks: Wine (red & white), grape juice, water, seltzer, lemon slices
Dessert: Macadamia Nut Torte

(Connie offers a toast)

(Sara gets Miriam some yams, as a friend looks on)

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

This is only the second time we’ve made gefilte (gelfilte, gelfelte, gefelte) fish. The stuff in jars is pretty good (some people hate it but I grew up on and adore the stuff) but every last brand has eggs in it. And pretty much all have gluten (matzoh meal), many have MSG, and some even have preservatives. The eggs make it forbidden food in our house.

For Passover 2006, we used a recipe I adapted from two found online:

Yahoo Food
About.com Home Cooking

We used 3 lbs of halibut (I made the mistake of getting it on the bone–what a pain!–though it did mean we had skins for the stock) and simmered it in stock for a couple of hours. It came out well, with good texture (not as compact as the jarred kind, but still firm) but quite bland. With extra seasoning and horseradish, they were quite acceptable.

I would have liked to use carp, but the only decent source is 45 mins away and we didn’t have time. So this year I decided to use rockfish. Partly because it has more flavor than halibut and partly because we were serving halibut for the main course.

I used less fish because it was boneless. And I doubled most of the seasonings.

Gefilte Fish Recipe:

2.5 lbs fresh fish fillets (you can use any white fish or even non-white; we used 2.57 lbs of rockfish
6 large carrots
4 large onions
4 eggs or flaxseed goo replacement (we used 4 TB flaxmeal in 1 1/3 cups water, heated
8 TB almond meal
3 TB salt
1.5 TB white pepper
3 TB sugar
3/4 cup ice water (or as needed)

Bone and skin fish, if necessary (save for stock). Food process carrots and onions until fine, transfer to large bowl. Gently pulse fish in small batches. You don’t want total mush but it should be chopped well. Add seasonings in with a fish batch to distribute them more evenly.

Add the almond meal and cooled flax goo to the bowl and mix well with a pastry blender to break up chunks. As you mix, add the water as need to make the consistency right. Don’t add it all unless you need it.

Get the stock going (we didn’t have stock prepared so we used plain water). Then form the mix into small firmly packed ovals.

Gently drop into the simmering water.

Okay, so now you simmer (meaning medium-low heat, no boiling) for 2 hours, remove with a slotted spoon, and chill completely before serving. Easy, right?

Well, no. Our balls totally and utterly fell apart. I figured out that much of the problem was that the water got up to boiling and the pressure of it (all those bubbles) destroyed the fragile balls. But what made them so fragile?

I have a few theories

1. I made Michael a cup of water (chilled in the fridge), with strict instructions to add a little bit at a time, as needed, and not use it all. He misheard me and dumped it all in at once.
2. The almond meal was homemade (most of it went into the dessert) and pretty coarse. Almond flour would have been better.
3. Maybe there were too many carrots and/or onions.

Whatever the reasons, we had fish soup on our hands. Even the best balls were a mess. So I decided to try straining the fish (with pressure on it to squeeze out as much liquid as possible) and sticking it in a mold to chill. I saved the fish broth and froze it.

Guess what? it worked! I would have loved a pretty mold, but couldn’t find one (aside from a plastic Christmas mold I have no idea how I got). So I used a glass Pyrex baking/storage dish and cut the gefilte fish into squares.

It came out pretty good. Decent flavor and texture. But next year I’m going to stuff it in a mold and use the water bath method to cook it. Without eggs and wheat (and fancy machinery), it is always going to be a delicate dish.

Serve with plenty of fresh horseradish.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Don’t fuss over ingredients. I made this out of what I found in my fridge and freezer. Next time I’ll make it with completely different vegetables. And why are there 4 carrots in the picture but 3 in the pot? because I always grab an extra one to munch on while cooking.

Ingredients (this time):

Rock cod/fish, about 2 lbs of fillets, diced
3 carrots
1 green pepper
Cup or so of chopped fennel stem/leaf (frozen)
2 cups or so of thinly sliced onion (frozen)
Crimini mushrooms, a couple big handfuls
Diced tomatoes, 1 can
Salt & pepper
Olive oil
Water as needed

Saute the onions in olive oil until they sweat. Add carrots, mushrooms, and pepper and saute for 5 more minutes or so.

Add the other ingredients. Turn down heat, cover, and simmer for about half an hour, stirring frequently and not letting it come to a boil.

Would be absolutely amazing with Monica’s Olive Bread. We ate it plain, for two days.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

It’s an international list, with most subscribers living in the US. Monica lives in Los Angeles, and I got to meet her when I was in LA for Expo West last year. This year, we planned a potluck and invited all local Foodlab members. Unfortunately, there were some last minute cancellations, but we had a lot of fun.

(Miriam, Cyndi, Jessica, Monica)

Monica and Matt, and 3.5 year old son Donovan, hosted the event. Jessica came with 2 year old daughter Roxie. And Michael and I (Cyndi) were there with barely 3 year old Miriam.

(Monica & Jessica)

(Cyndi & Monica)

Our first order of business was to go through the several supermarket-sized bags of samples and literature I’d brought from Expo West to share.

(Jessica, Roxie, Monica)

Next we started cooking.

(Jessica making vegan curry)

(Jessica & Cyndi making tortillas)

And then we ate.

(Miriam, Donovan, & Roxie ready to eat, with Michael in the background)

All of the food was amazing. We banned any ingredient that none of us could eat (dairy, gluten) and anything that would cause a problem for someone if they got a trace (soy, canola, orange, egg, chocolate). We allowed but discouraged foods that one or more people had a problem with (reaction or a choice) but where a trace wouldn’t matter (meat, corn). And it was a given in this group that everything would be fresh and free of food additives.

(Jessica’s vegan curry)

Here’s what we ate:

Monica:

Olive bread
Crab cakes
Misc pre-dinner snacks (veggies & chips)

Jessica:

Keifer (non-dairy keifer grains fermenting apple juice)
Curry
Hummus with eggplant
Cashew cream with fresh strawberries (similar to my recipe)

Cyndi:

Pickled red onions
Corn tortillas (made on site with Jessica)
Halibut ceviche

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.