Teriyaki round 2, and beachside adventures

Success! It took me long enough, but I finally had another go around with the teriyaki business. Remember back in October when I made that gorgeous but unbearably salty beef teriyaki? I put out a plea for tried-and-true recipes and thankfully, my blogger (and real life friend, thanks to our meeting in France last year), Camille, sent me her go-to recipe.

Within about a month I have made it three times: twice for chicken and once for mahi mahi. I also happen to be making it this evening. Who knew the ideal chicken teriyaki would come to me by way of Paris?

It's simple and brilliant. For one thing, there's no marinating. You broil the chicken, which takes less than 15 minutes, and while that's in the oven, you simmer the sauce on the stove. Then, you eat it.

Camille's recipe does involve an extra step which I skip--she suggests you buy chicken thighs with skin and bone and cut out the bone. This is a good idea, because then the meat cooks more quickly, and when it's done, you can slice and serve it nicely. But, I didn't want to get into that. I just used the thighs as they were and tacked on a few extra minutes for cooking.

One thing, for those of you inclined to health it up, do NOT remove the skin. You'll just end up with shriveled little chicken nubs. The skin protects the chicken from drying out; plus it gets nice and crispy. If you're looking to feel virtuous, enjoy the fact that this recipe involves not a drop of oil. Hooray!

I added the sesame seeds as a garnish, and the most recent time, I added sliced scallions for a bright and oniony finish. It's a slam-dunk.

Chicken Teriyaki

courtesy of Croque Camille, edited slightly

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

½ cup soy sauce

½ cup sugar

½ teaspoon grated fresh ginger

2 tablespoons mirin

1 clove garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 teaspoon)

½ teaspoon cornstarch

Optional: sesame seeds & green onions, sliced

Position oven rack about 8 inches from heat source; heat broiler. Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper; set thighs skin side up on broiler pan (or foil-lined rimmed baking sheet fitted with flat wire rack), tucking exposed meat under skin. Broil until skin is crisp and golden brown and thickest parts of thighs register 175 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 10 to 14 minutes, rotating pan halfway through cooking time for even browning.

While chicken cooks, combine soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and garlic in small saucepan; stir together mirin and cornstarch in small bowl until no lumps remain, then stir mirin mixture into saucepan. Bring sauce to boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is reduced to 3/4 cup and forms syrupy glaze, about 5-10 minutes. Cover to keep warm.

Transfer chicken to serving platter; stir sauce to recombine, then drizzle to taste over chicken. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and/or green onions. Serve immediately, passing remaining sauce separately.

***

  

New discoveries: It's such a nice surprise when, after 16 years of living in a city, you discover a new pocket to love.

We recently started heading out to the Outer Sunset/Ocean Beach on the weekends, when the weather is decent. In San Francisco, this can mean anything from 80 degrees to simply the absence of blowing wind and fog. We take what we can get. If I can sit on the beach and not be buried in a sandstorm, that constitutes a beach day. If I can do this in a short-sleeved shirt and flip flops, it's really something special.

Sophie digs the beach, too, as you might guess. She lived the first part of her life in Idaho and when we first brought her to the beach she went nuts. It actually was a rather stressful occasion which required calling on (some might say yelling at in a panicked voice) strangers to help us catch her as she tried manically to kill seagulls. Now, Sophie stays on leash.

Sometimes we just walk on the beach. Other times, we find a dune to sit on and watch the sunset. Usually, we find something delicious to eat at some point in the excursion. I'm sure we are not the only people for whom the merest whiff of salty air makes us ravenous.

Our favorite place to eat in the Outer Sunet was, for many years, Cajun Pacific, a teeny outpost about two blocks from the ocean, where you could drag the outdoor tables into a sliver of sunshine and eat po boy catfish  or andouille sausage sandwiches and drink Sierra Nevadas while the waves crashed in the background. CP is still around but in a different incarnation; now they basically just serve dinner, and even that seems sporadic. So, for our lunchtime needs, we've had to branch out.

Happily for us, we've found two excellent places which have shot to the top of our list. The first is Beachside Cafe at 48th & Judah (same owners of Java Beach, at the other end of the block), where we have become obsessed with their fried chicken sandwich, which is juicy, crisp, and delicious on a bed of tangy slaw, and served on a roll that is just the right balance of soft and crusty.

Although not a good shot, the sandwich more or less looks like this: 

In addition, they offer a bottomless mimosa on weekends, which literally means they will walk around with a pitcher and refill your quickly draining glass for as long as required. If you've never eaten a fried chicken sandwich by the beach, washed down with a mimosa, I'm afraid you're missing out. As someone who had never done this until a few weeks ago, you can trust me.

We've also become avid fans of Outerlands which is about three blocks east at Judah and, oh, say, 45th. This place is a bit of a scene, but it's worth it. On our first visit, we ordered open-faced bacon and egg sandwiches on their homemade bread, along with a fantastic farro and beet salad that I later tried to rip off at home, with reasonable success.

For dessert there was a perfect chocolate chip cookie and one of their signature salted caramels which are stocked irresistibly (and cleverly) in a glass canister by the cash register. I was irritated that the husband broke his longstanding anti-caramel policy and horned in my treat, but who could blame him? The caramel was shared.

  
These places both seem to have a bit of a following, which may or may not be a good thing for the neighborhood. There's a fine line between driving local business and stampeding residents with increased traffic and unwanted noise. For better or for worse, I would guess that the Outer Sunset is about five years away from being the next Mission or Hayes Valley.  I guess I'd better enjoy it now before the hipster hoards, with their skinny jeans and fixed-gear bicycles, descend.

Strawberry galette

  
Spring has sprung: I'm not sure why this is the case, but some things that arrive in our CSA box just last for ages--and not just the things you would think, like cabbages and leeks--but even lettuces. Sometimes we will have lettuces sitting in our crisper for weeks on end and when we finally get around to using them they are as lovely as can be.

Other items require immediate use. In the summertime, any tomatoes that arrive must go from box to mouth; another day and they are sauce-bound.

The most delicate of all, though, is the strawberry.

Last week we received a pound of small, perfect, crimson strawberries. Since I was looking for a distraction from work, I decided on the spot to make a strawberry galette.

I used this crust (on old standby, at this point) and just took a guess at the filling.  I must tell you, this ranked among the best of my crostatas/galettes in recent years (incidentally, the difference between the two seems to be primarily that one is Italian and the other is French--both are free-form, rustic tarts) and I must attribute it to the fruit. Nothing can trump a perfect strawberry; nor can anything ruin it, even my trademark manhandling of the pastry dough (I've really never quite mastered the delicate touch required for perfect crusts--they usually taste fine but I'm always left cursing while angrily patching them up.)

The galette was delicious served warm with vanilla ice cream, but equally good the next morning consumed at room temperature with a cup of good coffee. With strawberries in season, I suggest you put aside whatever you're doing at the moment and make this. You (and whoever you may live with) can thank me later.

Strawberry Galette

Crust (ingredients and directions courtesy of Giada de Laurentiis)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons ice water

Filling
1 lb ripe strawberries, washed, hulled, and cut into halves or quarters
1/4 scant cup of sugar, depending on the sweetness of the berries, plus 1 T. for sprinkling
1 T. flour
juice from a clementine or half a small orange or tangerine

To make the crust: Mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a processor. Add the butter. Pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add the ice water and pulse until moist clumps form. Gather the dough into a ball; flatten into a disk. (If the dough still crumbles and does not form into a ball, add another tablespoon of ice water.) Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. 

For the filling: Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine the strawberries, sugar, flour, and juice in large bowl; toss gently to blend. Set aside for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, dust a large sheet of parchment paper with flour and, working quickly so that the dough does not get warm, roll out the dough on the paper to an 11-inch round. Transfer the dough on the parchment paper to a heavy large baking sheet. Using a slotted spoon, spoon the berry mixture over the dough, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold the dough border over the filling to form an 8-inch round, leaving the berries exposed in the center. Pleat loosely and pinch the dough to seal any cracks. Brush the crust with the egg wash and sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Bake the galette until the crust is golden and the berries are bubbling but not disintegrated about 35-40 minutes. Transfer the baking sheet to a rack; cool for 10 minutes. Slide a metal spatula under the crust to free the galette from the baking sheet; cool to lukewarm, then serve with ice cream and/or coffee.

Peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate, oh my

Back to basics: As much as I love elegant confections, there's nothing quite as satisfying as the all-American cookie--plain old grocery store ingredients, no chilling or rolling or sea-salt sprinkling. These little guys hit all the right notes: peanut butter, oatmeal, and chocolate chip, the holy trinity (can an atheist say that the day before Easter?)

I used this recipe and was delighted to see that the Brown-Eyed Baker suggested using my favorite cookie technique, stolen from Baking Illustrated, which is detailed here. It's only a bit of extra effort and the cookies always turn out magazine-pretty.

These kept very nicely in an air-tight tin for a number of days, longer than most cookies (or maybe I was just happy to keep eating them after they passed their peak. What's the difference?)

 ***

Girl dogs: This last week has been crazy-busy for me work-wise but lucky for Soph, her BFF Ruby came to stay with us, so she didn't even notice my reduced attention. Those two girls! They played and wrestled and snoozed, slurped water and chomped cookies. What a life!

Frances was more of an independent spirit--she liked other dogs perfectly well, but with the exception of a yellow lab named Sunny she saw once in awhile, we never really observed her playing so exuberantly. She was more of a person-dog. Sophie and Ruby are dog-dogs, like littermates, playing in that mouthy, puppy way, making their odd dinosaur noises, then collapsing in a heap. The other morning we woke to find them deeply asleep in the same bed, although they had started the night each on their own nest.

***

The Hungry Dog goes abroad...again! Well, it's a bit premature as no flights have been booked, but we're planning our first trip to Italy! We'll go in the fall for two weeks, most likely Rome and some time in Tuscany, although nothing is settled yet. Recommendations, please!