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Spring Recipe: House Maltagliati with Fava Beans, Cured Egg Yolk, Local Kombu, Smoked Guanciale and Spring Garlic Soubise

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Spring’s Don’t-Miss-Dish in Edible Santa Barbara magazine

House Spring Maltagliati with Fava Beans at root 246 in SolvangNew roots. Spring brings them every year, along with some delicacies that can only be enjoyed during these warming days…like fresh fava beans. Spring is the time these legumes behave, and taste, more like fresh new peas than later in the year after they mature, when they firmly join the bean clan (mostly dried or canned).

New roots are also springing up for Chef Crystal DeLongpre (known as Chef Pink for her hair color preference) as she takes over the reins at the Corque Hotel’s root 246 in Solvang. After stints at top kitchens of Los Angeles, the Food Network and running her own restaurant, she knew she could only go where her food philosophy would be shared: hyper-local ingredients, responsible sourcing via close relationships with farmers, stewards of the land. Now, Chef Pink is rejuvenating the kitchen at root 246, with 95% of its produce coming from local farms, as she moves the restaurant firmly towards its own rebirth. The dinner and bar menus have already been refreshed (but check for chef’s specials to appear anytime). In coming months, look for more casual, family-friendly dining, with a love for locals and a re-design focused on comfort.

To make this spring comfort dish at home, remove the large outer pods from the fava beans, then take each bean and remove the thin skin covering the split bean.

House Spring Maltagliati with Fava Beans at root 246 in SolvangNext, hard-boil an egg, cool it down, peel it and set aside (or cure it by cracking an egg in a boil over salt, then cover it with salt and plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 week). Tear lasagna noodles roughly (or use any other “badly cut” pasta) and boil per directions in a pot with enough salt to taste like the sea.

Sauté thinly sliced and diced guanciale or bacon over medium-high heat, until it is crispy. Remove the bacon, then add 1/2 cup cut spring onion to the bacon fat and cook over low heat until translucent. Add 1 cup chicken stock and simmer until reduced by half, than add a handful of fresh fava beans to the pan, season with salt and turn down the heat. Add cooked pasta along with 1 tablespoon of butter and a healthy squeeze of lemon. After simmering for 2-3 minutes, sprinkle with bacon and grate the egg yolk over over the top. Chef Pink also adds locally foraged kombu – the “king of seaweed” used to make Dashi – which adds umami richness to the dish.

Spring Recipe: Local Nettle Pasta with Mushrooms & Spot Prawns

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Spring’s Don’t-Miss-Dish in Edible Santa Barbara

Living in Santa Barbara County all but guarantees us locally grown produce year-round, but spring can bring surprises depending on rain. This year, fields are bursting with growth – green hills and abundant vegetation are everywhere. And that gets chef Francesco Crestanelli of S.Y. Kitchen excited.

“The quantity of food available here in spring is so great; it feels like a treasure hunt,” he says. “I just love creating dishes out of what we can find.”

Plentiful rain is causing chanterelle mushrooms – large, fleshy and meaty – and wild nettles – leafy and vibrant green – to pop up in fields all over the County. Crestanelli, brother and partner of chef Luca Crestanelli, loves to gather the nettles and chanterelles himself for dishes in the restaurant, sometimes in a field across from the restaurant in Santa Ynez. Nettles, which have a ton of vitamins, are considered an old, classic ingredient in his native Verona, Italy, and lend a beautiful green color to S.Y. Kitchen’s daily handmade pasta. Crestanelli also adds Santa Barbara spot prawns, which are sweet and so fresh they are sometimes just hours out of the ocean.

To make this Italian “Surf & Turf,” blanch the nettle leaves and drain (make sure to handle raw leaves with gloves). Then blend them with a farm egg, and combine with flour and salt. Knead and rest the dough, then roll out and cut. Sautée garlic, Italian parsley and red chile flakes in extra virgin olive oil (preferably from Italy) over med-high heat. Add the cut mushrooms and prawns (cleaned and shelled) and cook for 2-3 minutes. Boil the fresh pasta in water and salt for 2-3 minutes, then drain and add to the pan along with cherry tomatoes. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute and add salt and pepper to taste.

Wine pairing: 2015 Storm Sauvignon Blanc

Fall Recipe: Herb Crusted Fish of the Day

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Fall’s Don’t-Miss-Dish in Edible Santa Barbara

You might not guess it, but one of the best places to eat local fish is the cozy, modern Danish restaurant inside the renovated Landsby hotel in Solvang: Mad & Vin. Both the ceviche and the Herb Crusted Fish of the Day with crispy quinoa, fall squash and Swiss chard come from our local waters.

The supplier is Buellton native Travis Meyer, who’s been fishing here his whole life. When he recently began selling his local wild Halibut and other white fish to Industrial Eats (or select spots on the valley), newly promoted Head Chef Beto Huizar quickly jumped on board.

Meyers’ local catch is the inspiration for the Herb Crusted Fish, paired with local fall vegetables, crispy red quinoa (a house original) and a sauce from house-made orange shrub (a traditional technique of preserving fruit). Huizar was raised on a farm in Mexico, where everything was fresh and his grandmother cooked from scratch. After arriving here in the valley at 18, he worked in various kitchens, always keeping his eye on local ingredients.

To make this dish, Huizar dries fresh thyme, oregano and sage in the oven, then mixes in salt, sesame seeds and sumac. He salts the fish, presses the herb mix on the non-skin side, then sautÈes it in oil over medium heat – crusted side down first, then flip, 2 minutes on each side. To crisp red quinoa, cook as directed, then deep-fry in small batches for about 1 min. (You can also pan-fry over medium heat in oil for 5-6 mins.) Slice the vegetables and roast in a 350 degree oven with olive oil, salt and pepper until done. Blanch the chard, then sautÈe with sliced garlic.

Finish the fish in a 350 degree oven for about 6 minutes or until done and reduce the orange shrub or vinegar by one-third, and add vanilla paste. Top the vegetables and quinoa with the fish, and add the reduced sauce and some edible flowers.

Spring Recipe: Local Veggie Farro Bowl

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Spring Farro Bowl at Plenty on Bell

Spring’s Don’t-Miss Dish in Edible Santa Barbara Magazine

Plenty on Bell, the latest addition to the Los Alamos dining scene, is also a distant relative of Edible magazines! Co-founders of Edible Communities, Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian, opened their modest farm-to-table eatery in January, now serving lunch every day from 11-4.

At the helm is long-time Los Alamos chef Jesper Johansson, who has cooked on this street for 16 years. A native of Sweden, he’s gained a large local following with his down-to-earth dishes and scrumptious breakfasts.

At Plenty on Bell, Johansson will focus on local, farm-to-table comfort food. Dishes on the menu are influcenced by his family background of traditional baking and cooking from scratch, as well as the local produce here in Santa Barbara county – with much of it coming from the owners’ gardens right here in town.

Bowls are a signature dish, featuring weekly and seasonal specials and vegan options with around-the-world flavors like white beans & sausage, mussels & frites or Italian pastas. This Spring Farro Bowl features tender Spring vegetables and locally-grown farro from Kandarian Organic Farms. An ancestor of modern wheat, emmer farro is a heritage grain that’s nutrient-dense, GMO-free, nutty and chewy. And it’s 100% organic.

Johansson first rinses the farro, then puts about a cup in 2 cups of water with a pinch of salt and cooks it for about 20 minutes. It should double in size and be al dente when it’s ready. Meanwhile, he blanches the peas and asparagus for about a minute, then transfers to an ice bath. He chops or thinly slices the asparagus, carrots, leeks, radishes, spinach, mint and parsley. To make the dressing, Johnansson puts sherry vinegar, a mix of whole grain and Dijon mustard, lemon, olive oil and salt and pepper in a small jar and shakes it to combine. He then mixes all ingredients together and tops with fresh herbs to serve – grated cheese or harrissa would also work.

Restaurant Week in SYV: 3-Course Meals for $20 & change

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It’s late January and that means Restaurant Week in Santa Ynez Valley is here! This means 3-course meals at restaurants around the valley for only $20 and some change. It’s a great time to try different restaurants for such a great price; choices range from steakhouses and California fare to Greek and Italian and much more.

The menu last year at Los Olivos Cafe & Wine Merchant was delicious as usual, and this year’s menu is similar. Take a peek!

Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Café

Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Café

Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Café

Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Café

Fall Recipe: Carbonara Pizza (aka Breakfast Pizza)

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Breakfast Pizza from Industrial Eats - Santa Barbara wine country

Fall’s Don’t-Miss Dish in Edible Santa Barbara Magazine

Industrial Eats owner/Chef Jeff Olsson has been cooking from locally sourced, organic ingredients long before “farm-to-table” was born. In the late 80s, deep in Amish farming country in Pennsylvania, Tuscarora Organic Growers co-operative took root, supplying restaurants in the Washington D.C. area with locally grown, organic produce. This co-op helped keep small farms afloat by coordinating crop production to complement each other rather than compete. Restaurants had more varied produce and farmers made more sales.

While cooking at Miller’s Red Sage and Restaurant Nora (the first certified organic restaurant in the U.S.) Olsson felt lucky to have access to such diverse produce grown organically nearby, and remembers faxing his orders to the co-op. This kind of farm-to-restaurant link was radical at the time, where chefs could even tell farms what they’d like planted for next year. or Olsson, this kind of food just tastes better – it’s great because it was in the ground 36 hours ago.

Now at his Buellton restaurant, most everything is sourced locally, including pork. He sources heritage breeds like Kunekune, Mangalitsa and Berkshire crosses exclusively in Santa Barbara county, where the pigs are raised humanely. Butchering and curing is done in-house, with Valley Piggery even helping teach a Butchering class in Olsson’s kitchen one weekend every 2 months. Restaurant cuts from the class are used in the dishes.

The Carbonara Pizza (or Breakfast Pizza before noon) features pancetta from those local pigs, Parmesan cheese, a seasonal vegetable and a farm egg on top. To make the dough, Olsson uses only 4 ingredients: Italian 00 pizza flour, yeast, water and salt – anything more only brings the quality down.

After kneading, he lets it rise in the fridge for 24 hours. He then stretches the dough by hand, spreads olive oil across the top, then adds salt and pepper, Parmesan cheese, pancetta and vegetables. He cracks an egg in the middle and slides it into an 800 degree wood-burning oven for 4-7 minutes. To cook at home, place a cast-iron skillet upside down in your oven and turn the heat all the way up. When the skillet is hot, cook the pizza on the skillet for 10-12 minutes or until dough is done.