A Note on French Restaurants in LA

My buddy Billy has a penchant for french onion soup, so at his behest, we have gone to a few swank French restaurants in LA.

Cafe des Artiste
1534 N Mccadden Pl
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 469-7300

Despite our walking in at 10 pm on a Sunday night, wearing classically collegiate attire (zip-hoodies, skinny jeans, etc.), and not ordering entrees or alcohol, we received perfectly respectful service. The french onion was good, but we will continue to explore LA until we find the one we cannot substitute. We also ordered from the dessert menu and I have to say: the Brioche Pudding with caramel sauce, I die!
However, the real winner was the ambiance of this tiny, reclusive restaurant. Most of the seating is in the front or back patio, supplemented with plenty of heat lamps and dim lighting. I'd love to come back to this place a little older, a little richer and a lot in love.


Mimosa
8009 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 655-8895

Next we tried Mimosa, owned/operated by the same Chef as Cafe des Artistes. It has a home-y, comfortable and simple interior, though some of the 'flame' lamps didn't quite go with the rest of the decor. We were a bit more prepared in terms of attire, but the host and service were on point regardless. A jar of olives, a jar of cornichons and a basket of bread were immediately brought to the table. Once again we sampled the french onion soup, which overall I preferred to the previous spot, but it could have used a larger proportion of cheese and fewer onions. We also split two appetizer's: the House Country Pate with onion marmelade, and the Mac and Cheese gratin with prosciutto. The pate was not what I was expecting-I suppose I prefer a smoother texture. The mac and cheese, while oily, was really damn good and the bits of bacon were a nice touch. I often steer away from Mac and Cheese cuz Kraft just does it so well, haha, but in terms of 'gourmet' mac and cheese, this succeeds.

The prices at both places were, ahem, what you might expect of a French spot. So, go collegiate like us, and stick to appetizers/dessert, or win a lot in Vegas and splurge.

link for both:
http://mimosarestaurant.com/client/mimosa/index.html

Have I been watching too much Top Chef? Methinks yes. But I am no Padma. Thank God.

Greg's Birthday: Salmon Fillets with Mango Salsa and Yellow Cake with Lemon Cream Frosting

So Lena, Alex, and I made dinner for our friend Greg for his birthday last weekend. I made my favorite salmon dish, which features a zesty mango salsa. I had originally imagined this salsa myself, then input all the ingredients into the search site on Epicurious and adapted their recipe.

Salsa recipe:
2 mangoes, diced (should not be fully ripe yet)
1 large red onion, diced
1 small jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
1/4 C lime juice, freshly squeezed
2 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Mix all ingredients in large bowl, adding last four ingredients last. Start with adding only a portion of the onion and jalapeno pepper, and add more to taste.


Salmon:
2lbs salmon fillet
1 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup mango salsa, above

Lay fillet(s) out on foil-covered cookie sheet or broiler pan. With brush, lightly coat fillets in melted butter. Spread salsa over salmon, massaging lightly into fillets. Be sure to rub salt and pepper into fillets for flavor. Can add more salt, pepper if there's not enough from the salsa.

Bake at 350 F for roughly 15 minutes. I suck at this part and compulsively check the salmon with a fork to check if it flakes. When it flakes, it's done.

Serve with mango salsa. Pairs nicely with wild rice, spinach salad, and white wine (I think chardonnay goes well).

So I also made a yellow cake with lemon cream frosting, as per Greg's request. I used a yellow cake recipe from Epicurious:

2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs, kept at room temperature for 30 minutes
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup whole milk ... I didn't have whole milk so I used 1/4 C heavy cream and 1/2 C skim milk

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 13- by 9-inch metal baking pan (not dark) or 2 (8- or 9-inch) round pans.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.
Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla, and beat until thoroughly incorporated, about 5 minutes. Mix in flour mixture in 4 batches alternately with milk at low speed, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix until batter is just smooth, then spread evenly in pan.
Bake cake in middle of oven until it begins to pull away from sides of pan and a tester comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes (cake will be pale in color, not golden brown like a cake-mix cake). Cool 5 minutes in pan, then invert onto a rack and cool completely.

The frosting I made from a recipe on Epicurious. I only used half the amount the recipe called for and had more than enough frosting.

So, adjusted to the amount I used is the recipe:

1 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in powdered sugar. Beat in lemon peel and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until just firm enough to spread, about 15-20 minutes.

Hannukah Party: Yeast Dough for Israeli Rugelach

For my brother's housewarming/Hannukah party, I offered to bake something. I am not a particularly experienced baker, and have no favorite recipe that I turn to time and again so I went browsing, and hit upon this rugelach recipe which seemed fitting for a Jewish holiday. Usually they are made with a cream-cheese based dough but this recipe said yeast-based is more common in Israel. Also, I've never tried baking with yeast before so I went for it.

First, for the yeast dough (which can be used for any number of pastries, not just rugelach):
5-6 cups flour
1/2 cup lukewarm water
3/4 cup lukewarm milk
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
150 gr. melted\soft butter
Zest from half a lemon (I kept forgetting to add this, the two times I made the dough)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs

Mix all the ingredients and knead the dough (adding flour until it no longer sticks to your fingers). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it sit until it doubles in volume (about 1-1.5 hours). Since it was December during a wicked freezing period, I actually put the bowl into the microwave to sit so that it would be in an enclosed, relatively 'warmer' place than the rest of the house. Do not actually microwave the dough!

For filling, I used three different kinds:
Chocolate - as described in the recipe (which came out ok the first time, a bit dry the second). Essentially, over the stove (I did double-boiler style) mix 50 gr. bittersweet chocolate, 100 gr. butter, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 3-4 tablespoons sugar, 1\2 teaspoon cinnamon powder, and then let this cool a bit.
poppy-seed - from a can, because I didn't have time to make my own, but will attempt that at a later stage.
apple-cinnamon - on stove, heat diced apples (I had granny smith) with butter and a little water until soft. Mash with cinnamon and sugar.

Once the yeast dough is ready, you can take parts of it and roll it out to 1/2-1/4. Then spread the filling and cut into shapes, which you roll wide side to point. The recipe suggests a rectangular shape which you then cut into triangle slices, but I found it was easier to roll out circles and cut triangular pie slices.
Note: if you put too little filling, the pastries may seem dry? But if you put too much, they're hard to roll and stick, plus filling will squeeze out anyway. Also, it's important to get the little pointy end to stick or else it'll pop up and the rugelach won't look so pretty. Play around with how much filling you use and whether you leave the edges empty of it.
Once they are rolled, brush the tops with a beaten egg.
Bake for 15-20 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius which is 338 degrees F.

Overall, the dough came out perfect, but I don't think it's best for rugelach. I think this same dough would work much better for a different kind of pastry (still thinking about which, lol). However, when baked the perfect amount of time, with the apple filling or the poppy seed, mmmm! Not over-baking was actually more difficult to accomplish than it should have been as my parent's oven runs way too hot and I can never quite figure it out, but I'm excited to try it back with my well-calibrated oven in LA. Also, poppy seed filling for pastries is my favorite, as long as it has no nuts or raisins, but it is a painstaking process to do it yourself, and it's hard to find prepared. If only I could replicate the little 'makos' pastries from the Budapest subway station bakeries...I would be so pleased!

I did also try a batch with a cream-cheese based dough but I wasn't blown away by the dough so I'll wait until I find a recipe I'm happier with.

Ultimately, the rugelach baking endeavor will continue until I find the perfect way of doing it. But this yeast dough was a success so if you ever need it, enjoy!