Coastal Cooking with Chef Michael Hutchings

Downey's Restaurant

My chef-friend John Downey has operated one of the bedrock restaurants in Santa Barbara since 1982. Here is an exerpt from John's web page and latest newsletter. Consider dining with chef John. "John Downey knew that he wanted to become a chef at the age of 12 in his native England. By the time he was 16, John was attending cooking school and working in local restaurants. At 19 he was cooking for Britain's Queen Elizabeth aboard her namesake ocean liner QE2 while seeing the world. In 1972 John settled down in New York and learned the finer points of classic French cuisine while working at one of that city's best restaurants; Lafayette. An invitation to join the "New American" food movement put him working under the advisory of James Beard at the World Trade Center's "Market Dining Rooms". Freshness was key. It was very good food. A passion was ignited in New York and Chef Downey was compelled to travel to California where so much of that good food was produced. Arriving in Santa Barbara in 1978, John brought his years of experience; English, French Nouvelle, New American and commenced a seachange of fine dining in this town. About the same time, Alice Waters in San Francisco and Wolfgang Puck in L.A. were also changing the way Californians would dine out. It would be termed "California Cuisine" by the food press. In 1982 we opened Downey's in the very heart of the  best farming region in the country.   The majority of the produce we use in our kitchen is grown organically by local farmers; our seafood is chosen using the sustainable guidelines of "Seafood Watch" and local when available; meats and poultry  sources are classified "Naturally-raised" wherever possible. The wine list is in the care of Liz Downey, who will be happy to guide you through some of the California- produced selections (with a proud bias towards the locally made wines!) We invite you to see a recent edition of our constantly-evolving wine list as well as Liz Downey's philosophy on buiding her wine list. You can find our wine drop-down menu at the top of this page. Our restaurant is small, comfortable and personal. Adorning the soft green walls of Downey's dining room you will find beautiful plein-aire paintings of local scenes by Liz Downey. If you would like to enjoy a true Santa Barbara Dining Experience where you will not be rushed, but cared-for, we invite you to visit Downey's for dinner. To paraphrase more than one satisfied guest, you just may have "the very best meal of your life." Downey's is located at 1305 State Street (at Victoria) in downtown Santa Barbara. For Dinner Reservations please call Liz Downey at (805)-966-5006 News from Downey's Restaurant   Dear E-Club Members…   The Downey family are all back safely at sea-level. This year Liz joined Phillip and me on our annual Sierra trip to the top of Mt. Whitney. Cooking is a little different up there, but suffice to say that I think we all ate pretty well under the circumstances. I usually prepare nutritious dinners ahead and then de-hydrate them to minimize pack-weight. I think my favorite meal though was a very carefully preserved salad that was fresh from the previous Saturday’s farmers’ market. That really hit the spot after a rather grueling summit day! But enough of this…The Celebration of Summer Dinner is next Wednesday and I wanted to share my ideas for the menu. Summertime always offers so much good food to use; in fact it’s difficult to decide what to leave out!   We will start with some of the Wild King Salmon that I’ve been getting from Northern California. I’ll smoke this over alderwood chips and serve it with a little salad of fresh shell beans. I saw some lovely beans from Fairview Gardens last week; I think they were the “Tongue of Fire” variety. (Don’t you love the names of the beans?) Second course will be a Chilled Tomato Soup which is back by very popular demand this year. The entrée will be a nice thick slice of Natural Beef Ribeye served with Choron Sauce and Grilled Summer Vegetables. For dessert we’ll have an updated version of the very first dessert I ever made back in 1964.  Now in 2011 I’ll make a new version of that Classic Peach Melba, using fresh peaches, strawberry sauce and our own ice-cream.   The Celebration of Summer Dinner will be served on Wednesday, August 3rd, and the cost will be $50 per person.  Please call 966-5006 for reservations or visit our website at www.DowneysSB.com and you can “book” through our website!   On another note…We are pleased with the result of our offering online reservations through our website. We hope it is working well for you also. Occasionally the computer may tell you that we are fully booked at a certain time when actually we might have a table available. If this should happen to you, it’s certainly worth a good old fashioned phone call to see if we can help you with a reservation. 805 966 5006.   Cheers, John & Liz"

 

Wedding Cakes

It is wedding season in Santa Barbara. My pastry chef-wife, Christine Dahl, makes up to eight wedding cakes a week during the season. Occasionally, I help deliver the cakes to the various venues around town. Her work is very classical. It's hard to imagine the skill it takes to freehand pipe the intricate decorations. Here are a couple of gems.

 

Chef Michael Hutchings

 

Chanterelle Omelet Soufflé

Christine, my Chanterelle "Hound"

Once again, we were lucky finding rare summer chanterelles in the Santa Barbara foothills area. Our spot, tucked into a deep canyon in the foothills, has a micro climate that has fostered a rare bloom. Unlike the winter chanterelles, these little gems have not been larger than 2-1/2 inches. They seem to be growing new buttons as we find more in the same location. In fact, we have taken to watering the area in the hopes of encouraging the erasure-sized buttons to grow. I think there is one more crop to harvest, maybe as late as August!

I have let my wife Christine do the dirty work of searching amongst the detritus and poison oak. I am still recovering from lunging into a poison oak patch when I first spotted a mid-summer bloom of chanterelles some 10 days ago. Gastronomy overcame my past experiences with the nasty weed. The mushroom outcrop seems to run in downhill veins in an area that has high moisture six inches under the surface. The "spot" is only 15 feet wide and is at the bottom of a steep canyon area. They appear to be mini versions of the typical golden chanterelle that we find in the winter, cantharellus californicus. I am wondering, though, if it might be another variant more related to the cantherellus cibarius. In any event, they are delicious and have a crisp, crunchy texture even after cooking.

Now what? We cook them, naturally. Breakfast today was an archaic omelet call Omelette Soufflé. The dish is an egg preparation that involves separating the egg yolks and white, beating them into a froth, folding them together with seasonings and herbs and baking them in an omelet pan. In this case, I made creamed corn with chanterelles because we could. We filmed a slide show of all the proceedings. It is punctuated with our inane ramblings but it will give you the gist of the dish. We do not eat like this all the time, but often!

Tastefully,

Chef Michael Hutchings

Michael's Catering, Santa Barbara

Chanterelles and Creamed Corn


Omelette Soufflé aux Chanterelles
 

The Video

 

Hunting and Cooking Chanterelles

 

Sea Bass or Cod with Olive

 

Cod with Olive, Photo cuisinetv.com

Summer is always a great time to enjoy the local seafood from the Santa Barbara channel. The local catch brings in black cod and sea bass, among other fin fish.  Day boat fisherman pull these from the depths of the channel and off-load them at the Santa Barbara harbor.

Here is a simple recipe that can be prepared in less than 30 minutes. This can be prepared an hour or so before serving and reheated in the oven. Be sure to leave it underdone after the first cooking. Sea bass or halibut are great substitutes. You will need to adjust the cooking time according to the thickness of the fillet and the type of fish.

 

Chef Michael Hutchings

 

 

 

 

Chanterelle Harvest July 2011

Once again, our chanterelle patch in Santa Barbara has produced a harvest of these forest gems. The real oddity is that it is mid-July and well past the local mushroom season. The earth was so saturated this past rainy season, that the chanterelles reemerged with the help of a late rain and morning dew along the coast during June and early July.

They are little buttons not much bigger than a quarter. The handful would not amount to one fully grown winter chanterelle. The mushrooms are just as delicious and have a crisp, crunchy texture even after cooking. We have been watering them in the hopes that doing so will encourage continued growth. There are numerous 1/4 inch-sized buttons that are emerging along a swath of earth. We have to dance around poison oak that is at its most virulent.

We did manage finding enough for a couple of meals. I made a sort of chicken stroganoff for dinner. It was simply sauteed mushrooms in a sour cream and paprika sauce with chicken breast and pasta. Breakfast the next day was a rosti potato made with purple and Yukon gold potatoes, chanterelles and shallots. I dropped a couple of eggs in the middle and sauteed both sides of the rosti potato until it was a little crispy. Enjoy the slide show, I assure you that we did! Drop me an E-mail if you would like the recipes.

Chef Michael Hutchings

Michael's Catering

Santa Barbara

 

Summer Chanterelles in Santa Barbara

If you have been following this blog, you know that I have a passion for hunting and cooking wild mushrooms. The reigning monarch of Santa Barbara mushrooms is the California Golden Chanterelle, Cibarius Californicus. My wife Christine and I found a rare summer bloom in a downtown Santa Barbara location. The combination of a wet winter, late rains and wet-foggy weather contributed to this late blooming.

"Cantharellus cibarius, commonly known as the chanterelle or golden chanterelle, is a fungus. It is probably the best known species of the genus Cantharellus, if not the entire family of Cantharellaceae. It is orange or yellow, meaty and funnel-shaped. On the lower surface, underneath the smooth cap, it has gill-like ridges that run almost all the way down its stipe, which tapers down seamlessly from the cap. It has a fruity smell, reminiscent of apricots and a mildly peppery taste (hence its German name, Pfifferling) and is considered an excellent edible mushroom." from Wikipedia

 

The mushrooms ranged from erasure-sized buttons to 1-1/2 inch gems. I have never seen them this small and wonder if that are not another genetic variation. I opted to make a simple French omelet with chanterelles, shallots and fresh herbs from the garden. These small mushrooms were crisp, even after cooking. What a treat. Enjoy the mushroom hunt and breakfast!

 

Chef Michael Hutchings

Michael's Catering

Santa Barbara, CA

Stalking the Wild Chanterelle, with apologies to Euell Gibbons

 

Chanterelles - A Rare Summer Treat

California Chanterelles - Found on July 11, 2011, Santa Barbara

My wife Christine and I have a standing, or better put walking joke about chanterelles. This past season was so phenomenal and ran well into the spring, that I offered more and more dollars if we could find just one more chanterelle. The price went from $25 to $10,000 as the season drew to a close. We still walk by and cast furtive glances at out "spots" that yielded some 35 pounds.

 

Yesterday, as we approached our"Spot" Christine asked "How much for a chanterelle?" My reply was, with my best Austin Powers accent, "One Million Dollars!" I glanced into the forest litter on the side of the path as I said this and noticed an apricot colored glint peaking out. I climbed, no I flew without caution into the poison-oak infected brush and realized that glint was a rare summer chanterelle.

I fell backward in euphoria and asked Christine to push my a_ _ back up the hill. I soon uncovered a dozen or so little button chanterelles in a small area. Some are as small as an erasure. Clearly, this was phenomenal. In 27 years of hunting mushroom on the central coast, I have never seen a summer bloom. Christine claims to have spotted the mushroom at or before I did but dismissed it as an orange peel. She has denied my claim to $1,000,000 ;(

I did a little researched confirmed that summer blooms do occur on rare occasions. A wet winter, late rains and moist foggy conditions are the culprit. The location is well shaded, covered in duff and in an area that stayed moist.

I spoke with Cory from The Berryman Produce and she said that they are getting calls form pickers that have mushroom to sell. I am sure the price will be well above the $5.50 a pound that they were going for at the height of the winter season. We have a plan to irrigate some of the button mushrooms to see if we can encourage growth. I will report on those results. In the meantime, I am planning a chanterelle dinner!

In Ectasy,

Chef Michael Hutchings

Santa Barbara, CA

Michael's Catering

Golden Chanterelles

The Apple Tart

La Tarte des Demoiselles Tatin

At the end of the 19th century, two sisters Caroline and Stéphanie Tatin ran a charming country hotel in the village of Lamotte-Beuvron situated in the beautiful region of Sologne of France. Stéphanie managed the hotel and Caroline cooked and prepared meals for the many hunters who spent the weekend in Sologne.

"Stretching southeast of Blois, the Sologne is one of those traditionally rural regions of France that help keep alive the national self-image. Depending on the weather and the season, it can be one of the most dismal areas in central France: damp, flat, featureless and foggy. But at other times its forests, lakes, ponds and marshes have a quiet magic – in summer, for example, when the heather is in bloom and the ponds are full of water lilies, or in early autumn when you can go hunting for mushrooms. Wild boar and deer roam here, not to mention the ducks, geese, quails and pheasants, who far outnumber the small human population." from France for Visitors

One day as legend has it, that Caroline in a moment of distraction, made an apple tart the wrong way, put the apples first in the pan then the pastry. She turned it upside down before presenting it to the customers who found this dessert truly delicious. The caramelized apples were pleasantly sweet and soft, and a new dessert superstar was born. Curnonsky, the famous gastronomy critic, named the dessert La Tarte des Demoiselles Tatin in 1926.

"Maurice Edmond Sailland (October 12, 1872, Angers, France – July 22, 1956, Paris), better known by his pen-name Curnonsky (nicknamed 'Cur'), and dubbed the Prince of Gastronomy, was the most celebrated writer on gastronomy in France in the 20th century. He wrote or ghost-wrote over 65 books and enormous numbers of newspaper columns. He is often considered the inventor of gastronomic motor-tourism as popularized by Michelin, though he himself could not drive." Wikipedia

My recipe for this classic follows below. I have also made the dessert with other fruits including peaches, pears and bananas. Each variation needs a little tweak to accommodate texture an sugar content.

Tastefully,

Chef Michael Hutchings

Michael's Catering

 

Hotel Tatin

 

My Tart Tatin

Rib of the BBQ Type

Chef Daniel Petersen with Ribs on the Grill

BBQ baby back ribs are one of the most primally satisfying pieces of meat on a bone. Washed down with a cold beer, this is a great summer treat. There are three, maybe four components to making perfect BBQ ribs. First off, buy good meat. Next pre-cook them until tender (see the recipe below). Next, build a good bed of coals using oak or mesquite charcoal. lastly, slather on a great BBQ sauce.

My chef-friend James Sly, chef/owner of Sly's in Carpinteria, has a great recipe for terrific ribs. Oddly, they are initially cooked in a savory beer-coca cola broth until tender. The results are tender, succulent, finger-licking-good ribs that have a sweet, smokey tang.

Happy grilling,

Chef Michael Hutchings

Michael's Catering, Santa Barbara

 

Off Loading Sea Urchins, Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara Harbor, Sea Urchin Catch

The Santa Barbara Channel, California has long been a major fishing area for some of the best sea urchin in the world. The urchins are abundant in the channel in waters 60-90 feet deep. Urchins are grazers, feeding on bits of kelp that float around the ocean bottom. Divers in hard hats gather the urchins from the sea bottom.

On most evenings starting around 5:00, you are able to watch the divers unload their catch onto trucks that are standing by to whisk them to processing plants in Ventura. After processing, the urchin roe is shipped overnight around the world and most often to Japan. The LA Times ran a great article about the local fishery.

My preferred way to enjoy them is at Kai Shushi. The chef makes an oyster, uni and quail egg shooter that is a great tasting tonic.

Chef Michael Hutchings

Michael's Catering

Santa Barbara

El Paseo Restaurant - Santa Barbara

The El Paseo restaurant has a long history in Santa Barbara. Once the epicenter of dining, it now is an easy-to-forget place to dine in the heart of downtown. The place oozes old Spanish charm and recent renovations have kept up the traditions of the past. Original painting from the 1920s add charm to the open-roof dining room.

Chef Alex Castillo is at the helm in the kitchen. Chef Alex is a veteran of the Wine Cask, THe Harbor Restaurant, Lucky's to name a few. We had a well executed dinner that started with fresh chips (thin and crisp) and a trio of classic salsas to anoint them with. First course was a table side caesar salad. Flavors could have had more punch and I missed the traditional coddled egg. A nice touch was cutting the lettuce table side as well.

My Mexican spiced salmon was perfect. The fin fish was nested on mashed potatoes, sauced with a red pepper coulis and garnishes with nicely cooked vegetables, all cooked to a proper state. Our other entree was equally delicious with a chicken tamale and a chile relleno flanked by rice and black beans. Put the El Paseo on your dining list.

 

Chef Michael Hutchings

Michael's Catering

Santa Barbara

 

 

 

Chicken Tamale and Chile Relleno

Mexican Spiced Salmon