I ran across this recipe a couple of months ago while trying to find something quick and easy. The dish itself only takes about 5 minutes of prep work, and about 7 minutes to cook.  It’s one of those dishes that tastes ridiculously amazing, despite being very easy to make.

Jamie Oliver’s website has both the instructions and a great video of how to make it, so in an effort to keep the internet DRY, I’ll let you look at those there. I will say this though, the directions in the recipe are different than in the video. I’ve found the video instructions to be better.

Besides that, I wanted to share a couple of tips to help make this dish awesome:

• Use Prosciutto

  You need to use prosciutto for this. Other salted hams just don’t crisp up the same. Wimpy, limp ham drastically brings down the quality of the dish.

• Lemon Zest

  This really makes the dish awesome, but it’s a balancing act. It doesn’t take a lot to overpower the other flavors, but it’s important there is enough of it to meld properly with the cheese. It may take a time or two before you learn how much to add. Also, I think this goes without saying, but use fresh zest.

• Organic Chicken

  Besides the health and environmental reasons, organic chicken is just easier to work with. The standard, non-organic chicken breasts are freakishly huge compared to their organic counterparts. That makes pounding them flat nearly impossible, which is a must for this dish to turn out proper.

Enjoy!

The girls are interviewing and auditioning cleaning help today, and I made brunch with two goals:

1. make, serve, and have a kick ass brunch with two hot chicks, and
2. make a big mess in the kitchen for candidates to practice on

Brunch consisted of:

• Mimosas
• Scrambled eggs, Gordon Ramsey style with aged gouda
• Sautéed mushrooms
• Toasted baguette
• Avocado
• Crêpes Suzette

Brunch was enjoyed by all, and there was a nice mess to be cleaned up.

While I drop into Bluebottle Coffee Company as often as I can, I haven’t reviewed it yet.  So here goes.

I love Bluebottle’s Mint St. location.  I dropped in for a cappuccino recently with my buddy @stesla. See the collage below. It’s a great looking shop.  The coffee is, of course, spectacular.  The baristas are top notch, and the resulting drinks are amazing.

Not only can you get great drinks there, but you can pick up brewing equipment as well.  Expresso machines, grinders, siphon brewers, and various bits and pieces like steaming pitchers.

I really have to get a siphon pot sometime. I usually get a cappuccino or a New Orleans Iced Coffee (in the summer). Did I mention they do an amazing job of cappuccino? Have a look:

Bluebottle. Check it out. It’s good coffee.

I’m a coffee junkie. I remember vividly when I came downstairs one morning during my undergrad years. One of my roommates was in the clinical physiology program. She’d made coffee. She poured me a cup as I stumbled into the kitchen. Siippp.. *bing* “Aaaahhhhhhh”. “Dave, that was the classic reaction of a junkie getting a fix. You are an adict.” Sweet, sweet addiction.

These days my addiction is centered on Espresso. Espresso, cappuccino, latte, machiato. Back when I was still at Google I decided to take some of my bonus and invest in some serious espresso equipment. I did research and asked on the coffeelovers mailing list. After all that it came down to the Gaggia Classic and the Rancilio Silvia for brewing and the Gaggia MDF and Rancilio Rocky for grinding.

I ended up going with he Gaggia Classic + MDF combo, mostly because I like saying “Gaggia” and becasue I’ve always wanted to have a Gaggia espresso maker:

This worked quite well. The only thing I didn’t particularly like was the doser on the MDF.

Fast forward to Engineyard and the planning for our new offices. It was decided that we should have a proper espresso machine since there are many coffee lovers at EY. I was asked to decide what equipment we should get. For the office I decided to get the Silvia and Rocky combo because it was generally regarded as being more robust. I figured that meant that it would hold up to the rigors of life in an office environment better. Further, I thought the doserless grinder would be good:

This combo is absolutely killer. I liked the Rock so much, in fact that when my GF at the time needed a new grinder, I gave her my MDF (which worked perfectly well) and got myself a Rocky.

I have no hesitation in recommending the Silvia+Rocky combo to anyone that asks.

So I’m happily quaffing espresso at home and at work. Gotta feed the addiction.

I went with my friend and colleague, Gilberto, to Osha for lunch. I love Thai food, and this was not a disappointment. Gilberto and I were heading to lunch to catch up, and he suggested this place. He’d been there several times and thought I’d enjoy it.

The place was popular and we had about a 15 minute wait. The decor and ambiance was nice. It was obviously not your typical thai hole-in-the-wall.

Gilberto got Volcanic Beef, a rather elaborate looking spicy beef dish. Very impressive. He said it was very tasty, and that he’d gotten it before.

I had my usual bellweather when I go to a new Thai palce: Pad Thai. If a place can’t make a reasoable Pad Thai, I usually won’t go back. They did a great job.

All in all, a great lunch experience. A bit of a wait, but a busy restaurant is a good sign, especially when it’s not a cheap place. I’ll be back.

Osha Thai Restaurant
149 2nd Street SF, CA
94105

My new roomie has been talking up her mad tuna melt skillz, so when the topic of dinner came up, I suggested she back up the boasting.  She acquitted herself admirably.  A green salad and tuna melt, with avocado:

I’ll see about getting her to post her recipe, but a couple things are worth noting: boiled egg and frozen peas in the tuna salad. “Odd” I thought at first… but is was delicious. Some nice red wine, and our first meal together as roommates was a rousing success.

Brickhouse Cafe and Bar in SOMA is a regular lunch spot for the crowd at work. It’s very casual, with good food and friendly staff.

One of Brickhouse’s claims to fame is their burgers. They have a selection of burgers, of which my favorites are the Soma and Mexican. The burgers come stock with decent fries, but you can upgrade to some very nice onion rings.

@stesla and I have been trying to lighten up our lunches, so no burgers for us. Fortunately they also have a selection of sandwiches, soups, and salads.

In my opinion the “Asian Sesame Salad” is one of the better salads available in the area. Lettuce, asian styled vegetables, mandarin oranges, almonds, noodles, and a sesame dressing. On the side: a fried wonton wrapper. The serving size is plenty (especially along with some soup) for a reasonable lunch.

This is the rainy season in the San Francisco area, and rainy days are made for soup.

The vegie chili at Brickhouse is great, but today I opted for the tomato bisque. This was just brilliant. Deep, rich flavor. Thick enough to be scooped up with the accompanying bread. This was simply a really nice soup for a cold, damp day.

When asked for his comment, all @stesla had to say was OMNOMNOMNOM. He’s a man of few words.

At lunch you order at the counter, pay, and they bring the food to you.

For dinner, things change: You are seated, a waiter takes your order, there bread to start off with, and you get a bill & pay at the end.

Overall, Brickhouse is a favorite spot. Get there before 11:45 or after 12:45 if you want to avoid the lines and have a choice of seats.

Brickhouse Cafe & Bar‎
426 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA‎
(415) 369-0222‎

My buddy @stesla and I moved the initial carload of stuff to the place I’m moving into in the city. After wanting to move into San Francisco to be closer to work as well as more & more friends, it’s great to finally be doing so.

I finally took advantage of an opportunity to move to the city. I’d been planning to find a place on my own, but this opportunity was too good to pass up. It’s a great condo in the Mission area of San Francisco. The commute is fabulous. The neighborhood is pretty cool, with tons of little shops, restaurants, and cafes. My new roommate (who was already a friend) is simply awesome. The opportunity satisfies everything on my wishlist except for the gas range. A really cool roommate to hang out with is an unexpected bonus.

The reason I’m writing about this in this blog is that a) my new roomie is a foodie & a great cook, and b) the kitchen is *to die for*. I’m looking forward to the food that’s going to come out of this kitchen at our hands. You’ll see it here first

Today’s secret ingredient: Collard Greens.  Um… excuse me… but… WTF?

As you may recall, I got a box of produce yesterday.  In it was Collard Greens. I remember hearing about this stuff from my mother. All I remember was that it was something that ‘the old people’ ate. I’d never eaten it. I don’t recall ever seeing it cooked or eaten. In short, I had no idea what to do with it.

My friend, Suzanne, came to my rescue.  ”It’s good in soup” she said.  I figured that the leek in the produce box would be quite good in soup as well.  And I had leftover red wine in the fridge, and beans & tomato paste in the cupboard. Soup would work. I ducked out to Safeway and picked up some nice mushrooms and cilantro.

Back in the kitchen, I cleaned, thickly sliced and browned the mushrooms (don’t crowd them!). While they browned, I split the leek lengthwise (it was massive) sliced one half in about 1/8″ thick slices, and rinsed it well. Then I trimmed the stalks off the greens, washed & dried them.  I split each leave along the spine, and coarsely chopped them.

When the mushrooms were finished, I quickly sauteed the greens with a bit of salt and pepper.  Into a pot went a can of kidney beans, the mushrooms, and the greens.  I stirred.  I put the leek on to sauté, and added wine to the pot.  The pot simmered while the leek softened.  Then the leek went into the pot, and I topped it up with more wine and some water.  I also stirred in some tomato paste and a bit of salt & pepper.

I let this simmer for a while, before adding coarsely chopped cilantro. It simmered a bit more before being served & consumed.  I had a good picture, but it’s on the iMac that got packed up earlier this evening.

Oh. I should mention that the soup was good.

So, I’m very happy with my first collard greens experience, and am looking forward to opening future produce boxes and saying “WTF?”.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve signed up for a produce delivery service. The first delivery arrived this week.  Here’s what was in it, after unpacking:

Clockwise from the top:

• Green leaf lettuce
• Bacon avocadoes
• Minneola tangerines
• Comice pears
• Collard greens
• Leek
• Savoy cabbage

A friend & fellow foodie gave me some advice on preparing the collard greens… which I’ve never run into before.  That sort of challenge was, as you may recall, one of the reasons of getting the delivery service.

I’m thinking about making

• soup with the leek & collards,
• salad with the lettuce, avocado, and pear, with a citrus dressing
• maybe some of the cabbage leaves as wraps for some tuna salad.
• finally, tangerine mimosas might be a nice start to the day tomorrow.

I’ll let you know how it goes.