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The Wood
I met an old friend for dinner at The Wood, one of the many casual dining spots in Culver City, a subsection of west L.A. that has its own mayor, city council, and white hot food scene that gives Silver Lake a run for its money. The venerable cook and gourmet food supply shop Surfas anchors the area, plus there are a couple of small storefront cooking schools. Locally, food is on the brain. And indeed the co-owners ran a coffee shop and a cafe, respectively, and met at a farmer’s market. That would be Demetrios Mavromichalis of Venice Grind and Laurent Triqueneaux of Cafe Laurent.
It doesn’t hurt that there are film studios and media companies nearby to keep the caterers and lunch spots busy. Lest you picture quaint streets and adorable areas to walk, I’ll set you straight. Culver City was a suburb developed in the late 40’s/ early ’50’s at the height of L.A.’s love affair with the car, and has wide, bleak streets and pretty ugly architecture. Style-less Moderne, let’s call it. Travel a block and you will doubtless see an auto repair shop. Not exactly Rodeo Drive.
A bleak corner with good food. There is mostly outdoor dining at meat-and-potato-centered The Wood, but we ate inside as it was 55 degrees, people! The cafe promises locally-sourced ingredients whenever possible, which is quite easy in California. My rose wine was from Santa Barbara, for example, as was my side dish of kale, but my perfectly medium rare lamb chops were from New Zealand. The amount of garlic in the chimichurri sauce on top of them could only be described as fearless, and very possibly from Gilroy, a garlic-growing center in mid state. The lamb stood up to the garlic. I did, too.
My friend’s pork chop was a shade dry, but the accompanying mashed potatoes were way better than mom-style. We started with fritto misto, since the fried brussel sprouts appetizer would overdo me with a double load of winter vegetables. The tempura-battered veggies and a few shrimp were good enough, but oily, indicating less than fresh or double-used oil, as a general rule. Just a guess. It was served cutely in a cake baking tin lined with parchment paper.
I’d go again and try a burger, and the sprouts, and try to find room for the chocolate pot de creme, too. The desire to go again means this is a good place, and, as my friend noted, way better than the tired greasy spoon that used to be there.
Driving back to the freeway you’ll pass an only-in-L.A. series of storefronts, namely a famous sword and gun collectors shop, a relatively new mosque, the headquarters of nfl.com, a Lutheran church, the DMV and Sony Studios.
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Potato Salad Recipe
Whatever market force brought the Yukon Gold potato to the grocery stores over the past decade or so, I am grateful. They take potato salad to a whole new level, well away from the realm of the mealy, runny and soggy taters I seem to recall from childhood picnics.
Ready to dress. Here’s a simple recipe for a side dish for 5 to 6 people. My rule of thumb is one medium-sized (about 2 inches across) potato per person, and then add on 2 extra potatoes. Poke the raw potatoes with a fork so they don’t explode when you steam them. Yes, steam them, no boiling. It’s the only way to avoid that watery texture. If you don’t have a steamer basket, just put 1/2 inch of water in a skillet or saute pan with a tight fitting lid. Place the potatoes in, bring the water to a boil, then place the lid on and reduce the heat to simmer. Check them in 15 minute by cutting one potato in half. It should cut easily. If it does not, put the lid on for a couple more minutes.
Take the potatoes out and chill them on a flat plate, no lid on it, in the fridge.When they are cool, cut them into quarters. This allows for your dressing to cover a good amount of potato, without getting gloppy.
For the dressing you will need:
3 strips of bacon cooked crisp, drained and crumbled. You are making your own bacon bits, basically.
white vinegar (champagne or rice)
1/2 a red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 a small red onion, chopped
red pepper flakes
salt
2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
To assemble, douse the cooled, quartered potatoes, in your proposed serving bowl, with the vinegar, about a tablespoon’s worth, or a few good drizzles. Add in the mayonnaise and coat the potatoes equally. Then mix in the red onion, red pepper and bacon. Finish by shaking red pepper flakes and salt over the salad, to taste. Don’t overdo either one.
Ready to eat. Variations on the above include:
–chopped jalapeno pepper instead of the red pepper flakes
–1 tablespoon of spicy grain mustard mixed with the mayo and skip the vinegar step
–omit the bacon for the vegetarians
–omit the pepper flakes for those who hate spice.
–add more mayo if you like a very dressed salad
All the chefs who judge cooking on t.v. talk about how a perfect dish will have it all: sweet, savory, creamy, crunchy and what they call “mouth feel.” Trust me, it’s in that bowl pictured above.
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Cabbage Salad Recipe
Sure, call it cole slaw. If you are a patient cabbage slicer, or have a Cuisinart handy, make slaw. I am often just cutting cabbage thin enough for a hurried weeknight dinner. We have some kind of salad with every meal but breakfast, and cabbage keeps so well it’s our go-to when the forgotten lettuce has given up the ghost and turned sad and brown. How often do we have salad? One week, through separate, uncoordinated trips to Costco we bought 11 heads of lettuce. Ate them all over a 10 day period.
For a side salad for 3 or 4 people, half a head of green cabbage is perfect. To make:
Cut out the white “heart” at the bottom – it’s really too tough to eat. If you have a dog, he’ll happily gnaw on it as a veggie bone.
Not shredded, but stirred. Then slice the cabbage into the smallest bite size pieces (or slivers) you have the patience for. In a decent-sized bowl, mix 2 heaping tablespoons of mayonnaise, 1/8 cup of rice vinegar, a teaspoon of sugar, a few grinds of black or white pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon paprika or mild ground chili pepper for color and a bit of bite. Add the cabbage and stir. If the dressing seems a little thick, thin it with rice vinegar. Once the cabbage is coated, chill it in the fridge until you are ready to eat. The vinegar will soften the cabbage and it will “sweat down” a bit.
If you have one on hand, grate a peeled carrot into it for color and sweet flavor. Everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-types add raisins to this but I find it is overkill. I always taste it and salt at the end, but I am a salt head. Lots of people don’t salt their slaw.
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Roast Chicken Recipe
Yes, I posted a roast chicken recipe very recently. I do not need a Twelve Step program for chicken addicts, okay? I can quit making roast chicken any time I want. I just don’t want to. And I have an excuse; Whole Foods had Mary’s Air Chilled chickens on sale for half price last week. Who could resist? They are cleanly fed, humanely raised and not processed with a hefty chlorinated water soaking to increase their weight without giving the consumer any extra protein. Plus I really don’t need a soupcon of swimming pool flavoring in my chicken.
This time I kept the bird whole and doused it with my new favorite rub, Santa Maria Seasoning from Scott’s Food Products. It’s a coarse salt, pepper and garlic powder (plus multiple secret spices, I am sure) rub I use on steak, pork and chicken and somehow it works on all of them. They have not ever sent me products. I buy it myself and if it was awful I would say so!
Anyway, after spicing it all over, I drizzled olive oil on top. I put the chicken in the pan breast side up for 45 minutes at 425 degrees. Then I flipped it and turned it down to 325 degrees for another 20 minutes. When doing this technique you turn the oven off after the final 20 minutes and assemble the rest of your dinner, run a short errand, it doesn’t matter. This seems to “set” the meat. But don’t go to the movies, okay? It will cool off too much. And you may well eat a bunch of junk and ruin your dinner.
I can't tell you how tender even the white meat was. The pan had excellent juices for "au jus" we put over the sliced meat. My late mom was a fretful cook who worried about food poisoning as a hobby and used to check chicken’s doneness by wiggling the drumstick (it should really give) and poking it often with a fork to see if the juices ran clear (no pink). This is a torment-free, leave-alone, way of cooking a chicken I much prefer. By the way, I always roast the giblets right alongside. It makes the “jus” really delicious. Roasted chicken liver is amazing even for liver haters. The heart , kidneys and the meat on the neck (not the bones, duh) go straight to the dog.
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How to Make Asparagus
We live a ten minute drive from acres and acres of farmland dedicated to fresh produce, so our local farmer’s markets are embarrassingly good. Asparagus is typically $2 to $3 a bunch, and has that wild, fresh-out-of-the-ground taste. I know lots of people put cheese or hollandaise sauce all over their asparagus, and only eat the tips as the stalk is fibrous and ropy when badly cooked. Well it need not be inedible and disguised with cheese sauce. Asparagus is easy to do perfectly. And you don’t have to buy one of those stand up special steamers at Williams Sonoma, either (unless you are just trying to get one of those offbeat wedding gifts for a cousin).
You do have to trim the stalks, and you do this by holding a spear in two hands and bending to see where it will naturally break. Snap it off and you have taken off the tough end. If you want to even up your bundle of ends so they do not look ragged, trim them a touch with your kitchen knife. I would clean ’em up for a guest but for just us – meh. You’ll place the stalks in a flat saute pan with very little water, half an inch at most.
In the pan, waiting for the water to boil. Note the ragged, “no guests tonight” ends. When it boils, cover with a tight lid. Cook for about 3 minutes, Seriously. You have a little wiggle room on this but don’t forget about them, or you will be eating the tips only.
Perfectly bright green. The interior should look whitish as in this photo. Take them right out of the water and serve. If planned as a cold course, put them on a plate in the fridge. Just before serving, drizzle olive oil, fresh lemon juice and a sprinkle of salt over them. This same technique makes perfect green beans, as well, with a slightly longer and more forgiving cooking time. I have gotten a lot of asparagus haters to enjoy them, without even mentioning the ancients’ belief that they had aphrodisiacal properties.
