• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Cali Coast Wine Country

all about California's Central Coast Wine Country, including Santa Barbara & San Luis Obispo

  • About
    Us
  • Bubbles
    Trails
  • Paso & San Luis Obispo
    Sparkling Wine
  • Santa Barbara
    Sparkling Wine
  • Other
    Wineries
  • Central Coast
    Restaurants
  • Contact
    Us
  • Food
    Charmer
You are here: Home / Archives for Vegetables

Vegetables

Spring Pea Salad at Mesa Verde

October 24, 2018 By calicoastblog Leave a Comment

Spring Pea Salad - Mesa Verde Restaurant

Spring  |

Chef Greg Arnold’s modern plant-based cuisine at Mesa Verde Restaurant in Santa Barbara stimulates more than your appetite. Yes, the dishes’ vegetables come straight from the weekly farmers market. Yes, the menu’s inspiration comes from Mediterranean influences. But it’s the melding of all this plus art – what he calls “synesthesia” – that makes his food exquisite.

Spring Pea Salad - Mesa Verde RestaurantA vegetarian himself, Chef Arnold elevates plants to starring roles using a Mediterranean mindset. “This style of cooking goes so well with California produce because of our similar climates,” says Arnold. “My salads come from what I find here at the market, because ingredients in season tend to pair well together.” The Mediterranean’s diverse spices also give Arnold’s dishes power: the menu is threaded with bold notes from the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe.

It’s fusion cuisine at its best: street tacos, exotic spices, starring veggies and also art. Growing up painting, playing music and cooking, Arnold realized that with food, our senses mesh. How a dish looks and tastes is intermingled. So, beauty becomes delicious.

To make this simple salad, Chef Arnold roasts carrots in the oven with cumin seeds, thyme and olive oil until soft, then purées them. He also blanches fresh peas in salted water (it should taste like the ocean) for 1 minute, moves them to an ice bath, then purées them with water and lemon. He paints the plate with both, then adds halved peas and okra, torn kale and slices of cucumber, yellow squash, fennel and endive. Topping the salad is a sprinkle of blueberries, wood sorrel leaves and flowers with powdered sumac and chlorella on the side.

The dressing is also simple, yet powerful. Chef Arnold reveals his favorite super-easy vinaigrette based on a classic Levantine salad: fattoush. He blends grapeseed oil (it’s lighter than olive oil), lemon, fresh garlic, fresh thyme, salt and sumac, then lightly drizzles it over the top.

Filed Under: Recipes, Restaurants, Santa Barbara city Tagged With: art, Chef Greg Arnold, Edible Santa Barbara, market salad, Mesa Verde, plant-based cuisine, spring peas, Vegetables, vegetarian, Wine Country Dining

Fried Brussels Sprouts at Sides Hardware & Shoes

August 20, 2018 By calicoastblog Leave a Comment

Fried Brussels Sprouts at Sides Hardware & Shoes Cafe

Sides Hardware & Shoes, a Brothers restaurant in Los Olivos

Of the many Los Olivos restaurants, Sides is one of the best. There are many reasons to eat lunch at Sides Hardware & Shoes: the bright location right off Grand Ave in Los Olivos, the great fresh and local ingredients in the dishes, the ever-changing menu, the brothers Matt & Jeff Nichols (longtime chefs in the Santa Ynez Valley, known for the now-closed Brothers’ Restaurant at Mattei’s Tavern and The Red Barn in Santa Ynez). But the two biggest reasons are the house-cured bacon steak and the fried Brussels Sprouts.

Sides Hardware & Shoes, a Brothers restaurant in Los Olivos

Named for the building’s original shop name (a man named Milburn Sides sold shoes and hardware to townsfolk in the early 1900s), Sides retains its historical charm, just a block off the main flagpole intersection in Los Olivos. And yes, they serve bacon the size of a steak that they cure here in their kitchen. It’s a 4-day process involving maple syrup, sugar, salt, applewood smoke and more, and the meat comes from 
Salmon Creek family farms, which raise natural, sustainable pork.

Sides Hardware & Shoes, a Brothers restaurant in Los Olivos

Don’t miss their daily lunch, and try to get a spot on the outdoor patio on a sunny day (preferably with some girlfriends who don’t have to  go back to work). Then you can really enjoy the fennel and goat cheese crostini, beef carpaccio with arugula and shaved Parmesan and any of the market salads you see on the menu.

Sides Hardware & Shoes, a Brothers restaurant in Los Olivos

Any burger on this on this menu is a must – the Mexicali burger was topped with guacamole with a crispy tostada slid between the burger and bun. Also not to be missed is the sandwich list: thick grilled cheese, hammered pork with mustard seed slaw and roasted turkey with avocado – I take mine with sweet potato fries. The soups, market salads and fish tacos are all fresh and satisfying.

And don’t forget the fried Brussels sprouts with sherry vinegar & capers; if you order one serving per person it won’t be enough! The kitchen team buys as much organic ingredients as they can with much produce coming from local farmers such as Finley Farms, Jacob Grant and Paul Palmer. Beef is from an all natural farm in California (Kobe beef from Idaho), lamb from Colorado and pork from the plains states (all meat is from Newport Meat Company).

Important Note: Choose anything on the dessert list – it’s all excellent, especially the house-made sorbets. Ask for the dark chocolate one!

Bacon steak at Sides Hardware & Shoes

The wine list is as local as you can get, with wines on tap from many spots just around the corner in town. The winemakers themselves are known to dine here, as well as local farmers and cattle ranchers, gardeners and shop owners. Everyone loves a good bacon steak.

Fried Brussels Sprouts at Sides Hardware & Shoes Cafe

The fried Brussels Sprouts feature the acids of Sherry and capers instead of the sprouts’ typical leading star: bacon. At a restaurant known for its house-cured bacon steak and twice-won titles at the annual Bacon & Barrels festival, one notices the lack of pork in this dish.

To make this at home, trim the stem off washed Brussels Sprouts and cut them in half. Heat peanut oil in a deep fryer to 350 degrees – grapeseed and cottonseed oils also have a high smoke point (olive oil won’t work). Fry them for 2 minutes or until golden brown – before they get mushy inside. Remove them and tosses them with Sherry vinegar and kosher salt, then finish them with a handful of capers.

It’s important to use the best ingredients, which means Spanish Sherry – the place where Sherry originates – and when it comes to capers, smallest are best.

Filed Under: Featured, Recipes, Restaurants, Santa Ynez Valley Tagged With: Brussels Sprouts, Edible Santa Barbara, Los Olivos, Los Olivos restaurant, Sides Hardware & Shoes, Vegetables, Wine Country Dining

Before Footer

Instagram has returned invalid data.

Footer

Categories

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2019 · Wellness Pro On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in