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You are here: Home / Archives for Vegetables

Vegetables

Spring Recipe: Spring Pea Salad

April 24, 2015 By calicoastblog Leave a Comment

Spring Pea Salad - Mesa Verde Restaurant

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

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: Food & Drink, 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

Winter Recipe: Fried Brussels Sprouts

December 20, 2014 By calicoastblog Leave a Comment

Fried Brussels Sprouts at Sides Hardware & Shoes Cafe

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

The fried Brussels sprouts at Sides Hardware & Shoes in Los Olivos are famous! Winter’s the time to head in and try them, then read below to make them at home yourself.

Chef Michael Cherney came to Los Olivos to get in touch with ingredients and be closer to where they come from: the farm. Farms are so important to Chef Cherney that he spent time living on one through World Wide Opportunities for Organic Farms (WWOOF). He worked half days for his boarding and got addicted. He then escaped city life to slow down here in the Santa Ynez Valley where he runs the kitchen at what locals call Sides, and where most everything is sourced locally and fresh.

Fried Brussels Sprouts at Sides Hardware & Shoes Cafe

His 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. Cherney explains “it’s a nod to the Brussels Sprouts with fish sauce at David Chang’s Momofuku,” a progressive New York restaurant. “We want to cook something different. I cook food that I want to eat and when flavors really pop in your mouth, that’s acid.”

Chef Cherney trims the stem off washed Brussels Sprouts and cuts them in half. Then he heats peanut oil in a deep fryer to 350 degrees – grapeseed and cottonseed oils also have a high smoke point (olive oil won’t work). He fries them for 2 minutes or until golden brown – before they get mushy inside. He removes them and tosses them with Sherry vinegar and kosher salt, then finishes them with a handful of capers.

It’s important to use the best ingredients, which for him means Spanish Sherry – the place where Sherry originates – and when it comes to capers, smallest are best. As for the mega popular Brussels Sprouts themselves, this winter brassica can be hard to source locally since everyone wants them! Chef Cherney shops the Solvang farmers market weekly for most of the restaurant’s produce, but after he lost his best Brussels Sprouts supplier here in the SYV he sometimes has to source them further afield in California. Brussels Sprouts farming anyone?

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

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  • #TastyTuesday If you haven't tried #SparklingWine at @biddleranchvineyard in #EdnaValley, now's the time! This wine should satisfy any #Champagne lover with its yeasty notes, flavors of tart green apple, fine bubbles, and crisp, elegant finish. It’s clean, with just a hint of almond, and absolutely #delicious.

Learn more at the link in our bio!
  • There he is! @wheresshelby
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@garagistefestival @visitsyv @solvangusa #fridaynightopening #garagistesolvang2019 #sbcwine #santaynezvalley #lotsofgreatwine #seeyoutomorrow #grandtasting
  • Can't wait to try this #PetNat #SparklingWine from @cutruzzolawine!
・・・
@winetraveleats thanks for the great description of our sparkling #PetNatRiesling, just one of several amazing #Riesling and #PinotNoir we produce and grow in #Cambria 🍷#cheers
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・・・
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the crew was bottling sparkling wine... Order your party tickets today. Link is in our profile. Contact jason@toretti.com for the discount code if you don't have it already. 
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  • Winter's Don't-Miss-Dish in #Edible #SantaBarbara magazine: #GreenHeuvos at #ScarlettBegonia!

On the menu this winter, “Green Heuvos” was inspired by a trip to #BigSur, where Fleming experienced a new kind of #HeuvosRancheros with #grilledshrimp and local garnishes. After collaborating with her culinary team, she decided to make her huevos green, using tomatillos and watermelon radishes from Sunrise Organic Farms in Lompoc, and avocados from AvoGanic in Carpinteria. 
Read more and get recipe at the link in our bio!

@ediblesb @scarlett_begonia1 #SantaBarbara #breakfast #brunch #eggs #tomatillo #yummy #deliciousness

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