Sunday Brunch

One of my most favorite meals is Brunch. I think this is also the same reason I love the Castro. If there's something the guys there know is how to make a good brunch, and pull off leather hot pants but thats a different blog.

I decided to have friends over on our deck for Brunch.
Good food, good company and good mimosas, What more do you want on a lazy summer Sunday.

Pizza Heaven

Pizza is one of my all time favourite things.
It ticks all the boxes of what you want from a meal. It has carbs, rich tangy sauce, veggies, meat, and as my friend Lauren would say 'HELLA cheese'.

Good pizza recipes are few and far between. They are made predominantly from plain yeast bread dough but this can prove difficult to work with and to manipulate when rolling.

I have run the gammit on pizza doughs but finally I have gathered my own little repetoire of pizza dough recipes that serve their purpose depending on what I'm using them for focaccia, calzone or flat bread.

Here's a recipe I'm fond of. Its easy to make,freezes well and the final product is a crisp buttery dough.
This dough is versatile and I have used it to make bread sticks,flat breads and even a baguette. Its amazing what you can pull out of your hat when you have to.
A little bit of fine cornmeal on the table when rolling the dough gives the base a nice texture and you don't end up with a floury base.



Olive Oil Pizza Dough

1tsp dried yeast
225ml water (body temp)
50ml olive oil
25g butter
1tsp salt
15g sugar
450g strong white flour

~In a large bowl put the flour, sugar, salt.
~Rub in the butter until it resembles bread crumbs.
~Stir in the dried yeast.
~Mix to a loose dough with the olive oil and water. Leave to relax for 5 minutes.
~Turn out the dough onto the counter.
~Knead by hand for around 10 minutes until it forms a smooth dough. Or mix for 5 minutes in a food mixer with a dough hook.
~Put the formed dough in a greased bowl and cover with cling film. Leave to double in size for an 1 ½ hours in a warm spot.
~When the dough is ready punch the air out of it and cut into 6 pieces. Shape into balls and leave to relax on the counter for 30 minutes lightly covered with cling film.
~Use straight away or put in oiled sandwich bags and refrigerate or freeze
~Cook the pizza on the highest temp on your oven. I cook mine at 500of.
~Preheat a tray in the oven and then slide your pizza on to it or put your pizza directly on the bottom of the oven,trust me it will be fine and give a great pizza base.

Everything but the oink!!!!

One Markets weekly beast is a fantastic way to experience the Michelin star restaurants cuisine without paying the a la cart prices. They offer a five course tasting menu for a modest $49, with wine pairing it's $69.

Our weekly beast was a suckling pig. There is only one thing tastier then a pig, and that's a baby pig.
For me the first and last course were the highlight of the meal, which I suppose is the best way to have it. Thee pig head and foie gras croquette was almost sinful. The meat was rich in flavor and the foie gras velvety in texture, a combination that makes for damn good eatin'.

The 3 courses to follow were lovely in their own right, but my favorite was the grand finale, bacon and waffles. A breakfast that seems to drive Americans wild and I can now see why. A soft mini waffle,maple butter and caramelized bacon, heaven. This is my kind of fine dining. When the chef takes something that people are familiar with and puts their own creative spin on it. Dishes like these transport you back to particular moments in your life. Food memories are my favorite kind of memories.

I always shied away from tasting menu's. The reason being I feel the customer doesn't always get the same standard and care that customers ordering off the a la cart menu get. This is just my personal experience from kitchens I have worked in. However this was not the case here.
I'm delighted I stumbled across One Markets "Weekly Beast" and will be keeping my eyes open for the upcoming animals to tantalize my taste buds. I highly recommend you check it out, and make life easier on yourself and go for the wine pairing. They are Californian wines which suites me because I'm a new world wine kinda gal.

I would like to take a moment and give honorable mention to the salted caramel petit fours. Ever since this night I have stormed SF candy stores for something similar but nothing could hold a candle to these salty golden nuggets of greatness. Alas, the search continues....

groupon.com

Check out www.groupon.com/
It's a great free website that sends you an email with their daily deals.
It is usually for restaurants and food vendors in the city but it does cover hotels,spa treatments ,yoga classes etc.
Unlike other similar companies you don't have to pay for the coupons and they usually don't have to be used straight away. Most deals are discounted 50% or more. The terms and conditions are in black and white and very straight forward.

It's well worth signing up. I'm saving my coupons for when I'm short on cash but want to treat myself to dinner out. Also it's a great way to try out restaurants you might never have known existed.

Recently Groupon.com sold a coupon for afternoon tea for two in the Fairmont hotel for $36, a steal (ttp://www.fairmont.com/sanfrancisco/). Unfortunately I missed out but I will not make the same mistake again. They sold out at over 3000 coupons early in the day.

So keep your eyes peeled and your credit card to hand.

The Mission is a funny place.
I've discovered that the best place for me is on the outskirts of the Mission where it is bright and pretty and the cafes and restaurants around are likewse. I'm not brave enough to venture into the depths of it to find my next meal as I'm not sure what I might find. I am up for recommendations of places by friends but going by past experience of getting a burrito at 3am in a random place is a big no bueno.

Tartine on Guerrero street is a beautiful little bakery/cafe in the Mission district and when the mood strikes for a warm pressed sandwich this is the place to go.
Their country levain bread is so far some of the best bread I've had in the city. For me this bread with similar characteristics of a ciabatta and the slight flavour of a sourdough makes for a great pressed sandwich.

I'm a fan of the spicy sopressata, fontina and broccoli rabe pesto. The oil from the pesto oozes through the bread during toasting and makes it all the better, and whomever came up with a broccoli pesto, genius!!

As a baker and a foodie Tartine for me is a great place to lunch when you have time to sit and relax and watch the world go by.

So I get cravings for certain random things like nobody's business. Like fried mushrooms,a baked potato and Heinz beans, scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, baked banana's etc. I have even gone as far as reconstructing dinners I had in boarding school (mashed potato, sausage rolls and tinned spaghetti) but I left the lumps out of the mash.

Anyway recently I have craved roast chicken. Where better to go in the city and get roast chicken then Zuni cafe on Market. Done in their wood fired brick oven their roast chicken for two is their signature dish. It takes an hour to cook so be prepared for the wait.

Being the smart girls that we are instead on filling up on bread in this time myself and my friend Amanda decided it best to save our appetite and get liqueured up right nice on their hose Cab Sauv instead. Thus saving our calories and wetting our appetite for our chicken.

When the wait was finally over our chicken arrives portioned on top of a bread salad with pine nuts and currants surrounded by frisee lettuce (don't get me started on frisee lettuce).

The bread salad had great texture and flavour but the currants and pine nuts were few and far between.As for the chicken, it was just that, a chicken. The skin wasn't crispy and it didn't have exceptional flavour that I would have hoped for.

For $48 I expected the chicken to do a dance on the table. However Zuni is a great restaurant. The ambiance, decor and staff make it a lovely dining experience so I will be going back, just not for the chicken.

FYI -The menu on line is a sample menu in case you go thinking you are having creme brulee for dessert only for the waiter to tell you its not on this present menu. I was devastated but I didn't want the waiter to see me cry so I held it together and had rhubarb crumble instead.