Dinner Al Fresco

Hamed and Pascale hosted another great dinner at their place.  We got to sit outside in one of the limited nice weather in Seattle.  Samad and I were the lucky ones to eat great food and have great conversations. 

Sitting outside, we started with Margaritas and Fresh Guacamole with corn chips.  What could be better?

Entree was Grilled Halibut with a Garlicky Herb Sauce and Sauteed Baby Carrots.  Isn't it beautiful!

As the French do, we finished the dinner course with a Simple Salad.

I made the dessert of Orange Spice Mini Bundt Cake with a Orange Sauce.  This was first pass so didn't turn out perfect but I've have since made it again and will post a step by step process with recipe.

Lastly, Hamed and Pascales' cute "little" baby Stella.  She wanted to join in on the food and almost knocked over a margarita with her big tail.  I just love al fresco dinners.  Can't wait to do more in the summer.

Dinner at My Chef Friend's

Today, I had lunch with my chef friend Hamed.  He is the one that is classically trained from FCI, the school in NYC that I had checked out and wanted to go for so bad but couldn't get the timing right.


We had lunch at Matt's at the Market.  Great place with really flavorful food. I was bummed they didn't have the Grilled Cheese Sandwich nor the Tomato Soup, but they reminded me they cook seasonally so they don't have it on the menu, and that it may comeback in the fall.   It makes sense and why they are so good.  I had a Grilled Halibut Sandwich and Hamed had a sandwich of the day which I think was some kind of grilled meat.  We then went to Le Panier for the best Eclairs ever.  The espresso ones are the best.  He told me just the day before, him and his wife Pascale got 16 of them and ate them all.  Crazy!


Anyways, it reminded me a fabulous dinner that they had me and some other friends over for a couple months ago.  His food seem simple but the flavors are amazing and all technically correct.  Everything is always cooked perfectly and presented so well.  Here are some pics below.

Hamed the Chef

These are little Tartines he served first with wine.  This one was carmalized onions and some sort of cheese.

These were made with salted zucchinis and goat cheese and were not cooked at all.  There is a lot of curing vs. cooking these days in the food world.  All the pickling popularity from David Chang's stuff.  This one was delish!

First course was a Red Lentil Soup.  He made this one vegetarian and with water because of me and my sis but it was so good, I couldn't believe he didn't use sort of stock.

Main course was Black Cod flavored with lemon and some spices.  Simple but so good.

The sides were some Glazed Carrots and Boiled Potatoes.  Again, so good!  Carrots weren't too sugary like many glazed carrots and simple boiling of potatoes had that nice "puffy" texture.  

Now, this was Hamed specialty.  It was a Peanut Sauce made with peanut butter, onions, and some spice. It was very spicy.  I've never tasted anything like this.  We ate it like a condiment for the fish and sides.   I need to get the recipe for this and post here.  He really should bottle this stuff.

Update: Hamed gave me the recipe. Yay.  So I had it wrong, this is not the Peanut Sauce.  This is the Onion Peanut Butter Salad.  He did serve the peanut sauce at another time and that looked more like a jar of mustard.  I know, it sounds strange but it's not.  Here are recipes. He didn't give me portions.  :)  But I'm going to take the recipe I can get.  I'll give it a try and take down measurements and repost later.

Onion Peanut Butter Salad

Onions

Peanut Butter

Lemon

Olive Oil

Salt

You slice the onion and let it for a few hours in a salted water, take all the access water out.

Mix with peanut butter, lemon, little olive oil and season.

Peanut Sauce

Hot Green Chili

Peanut Butter

Tomatoes

Garlic

Lemon Juice

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper,

Blend everything together and there you have it.  :)

This is what it looked like on our plates.

I made desserts of an Apple Spice Cake and Lemon Tart.

Here is the dinner gang.  Soung, Pascale, Marisela, Hamed, Dan, and me.  Good times!

Grilled Salmon and Ratatouille

Dinner with Hamed and Pascale

My new chef friend Hamed and his wife Pascale invited me to their lovely home for a nice dinner a few weeks ago. Their home is so lovely...just the old kind of house that I want some day. Their kitchen completely remodel kitchen was even more envious. I met Hamed working with St. Cloud catering. We have worked about 4 gigs together this summer. He is the first and only person that John and Cass has allowed me to work as a team without them. He graduated from FCI, the culinary school in NYC that I so desperately want to go. I also met his super nice wife at the dinner. Here is what they served:

Salmon Tartare on slices of baguette

Beet Salad

Roasted slices of golden and pink beets filled in between with some kind of seasoned herbed goat cheese

Grilled Salmon

Ratatuouille of yellow squash and peppers, it was very nice

Side of fluffy moist rice that was cooked with vegetables. Hamed said he first toasted the rice before adding vegetables and water. I brought dessert but it wasn't my normal up to par, especially to the dinner. I made my mini tarts but I used a different pastry recipe from the Pastry book by Michael Roux that I was reading. It was filled with fresh raspberry and chocolate ganache. I think it tasted okay but didn't look as good. I need to fill a pastry bag or bottle next time, rather than spooning in the ganauch. Not a way to impress a FCI graduate. I have to redeem myself.... I didn't have my camera at the dinner and I couldn't save the pic on my Blackberry, but Hamed gave me all the leftovers so I came home and recreated the dinner on a plate for this picture. :) They were so gracious to even give me 2 squashes that they got from their neighbor. I really hoped to return the nice gesture and have them over for a Korean dinner at my home when I get back.