Rooftop Gourmet

I’ve never quite understood the motive behind an open faced sandwich. What is the point of removing the top layer of bread that classifies it as a sandwich in the first place? Is it a precautionary move for sandwiches with too much sauce? Was it created by someone who was trying really hard to stick to the Atkins diet? In Austria and Germany, where open faced sandwiches are common, liver, beef tongue, and head cheese are piled on top of slices of white bread. Wouldn’t you want to hide those stomach turning proteins with an extra slice of Wonderbread?

The reality of the open faced sandwich dates back to the Middle Ages when huge slabs of stale bread known as “trenchers” were used as dinner plates. After the meal, the food-soaked “trenchers” were fed to the dogs or to beggars.

Sunday afternoon was my last chance to have full access to my grill because the builders were coming Monday morning to start constructing our new and improved roofdeck, so I took full advantage of the space and cranked up the propane.

I gave some salmon filets a heavy dusting of ancho chili powder until the already pink flesh turned a deep brick red. The particular chili powder I used had a moderate amount of heat to it so I needed a sauce that would cool down the tastebuds without masking the flavor. Instead reaching for the sour cream, I chose the healthy alternative; 0% fat, plain Greek yogurt. Plain Greek yogurt is like a blank canvas that can transform into any type of flavor imaginable depending on what you add to it.

I have a slight obsession with the combination of chilies and limes. I snack on chili-lime almonds, I dowse my corn on the cob in homemade chili-lime butter, and I add a sliced Serrano chili to my Coronas. That being said, I decided to infuse the yogurt with the zest of six limes and the juice of one lime. After some salt and a slight whipping, the creamy yogurt was speckled with Celtic green and tasted citrusy and tangy.

As soon as my grill was preheated, I wiped down the grates and oiled them, which I usually do when I grill fish. It’s just an added security measure that I take to ensure that the fish doesn’t stick to the grates. Nothing frustrates me more than prying a beautiful piece of fish off the grill, only to watch half of it flake off into a pile of ashes.

 Smoky chili powder aromas filled the warm air as soon as the salmon hit the grill. I closed the lid and let the mouth watering smoke permeate the cast iron drum while I went back inside to slice the bread. Once the fish was flipped, I grilled some slices of Italian Ciabatta bread until the top was charred and crusty. I topped my trencher with a drizzle of quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil and my chili-rubbed salmon filet.

While the fish was still smoking hot, I drizzled the creamy, lime-yogurt sauce over the top and let it run all over the plate. I wanted to eat this sandwich so bad, I almost forgot to take pictures. Thankfully, the wine I chose had a screwcap because I wasn’t wasting any time with a cork screw. The 2007 Chateau Chateau “Skulls” Grenache-Mouvedre is quite the amazing wine. I can’t decide what’s cooler… the wine itself or the artwork on the label.

The optical play on the label is an illustration called, “Ship of Fools”, by artist Istvan Orosz. Up close, you see a black and white sketch of a man adorned in a robe, struggling to climb up two separate trees. His limbs are flailing just as much as the limbs of the trees are and he is dangling along the coast of some body of water. In the background, there is a tiny ship that seems to be transporting a nest of eggs in the water, but it also appears to be attached to the tree by a rope.

This is one of those optical illusions because when you back away from the bottle, all you can see is a giant human skull. If Salvador Dali and Robert Mondavi had a child, this is what it would look like. When I was done getting hypnotized by the label, I actually took a sip of this wine and was blown away. The way it felt on my palate was sleek and sexy. The texture was so smooth and velvety, and it was bursting with earthy cherry, and cranberry fruit. The color of the wine is ruby-red and it is medium to full bodied. The Chateau Chateau project is all about the study of soil and location. This wine was aged in 100% stainless steel in order to show off what Grenache tastes like when grown in the Barossa Valley, Australia.

This was definitely not the typical “fruit bomb” that I was used to when opening a Barossa Valley red. It has some serious Old World flair to it that is pleasantly approachable. Even though there is tons of fresh fruit up front, there is this underlying, earthy, mushroomy, forest floor thing going on in the background. Kind of like the illustration, there is something obvious in the foreground, but when you take a step back and really look at it, there is more complexity that is hidden in the wine.

It was perfect with the grilled salmon because it stood up to the bold flavors in the dish. The char from the grill was a great match with that earthy component in the wine. Every bite of salmon melted in my mouth and left my lips tingling, which was quickly cooled down by the zesty yogurt sauce. There was so much flavor in this open faced sandwich, you couldn’t have paid me to throw my trencher to the dogs.

 Maybe it’s because I don’t have a huge sweet tooth, or maybe my tastebuds are all out of whack, but I love bitter foods. I love hoppy, bitter beers, I drink double espresso straight and iced coffee black. One of my favorite leafy vegetables is radicchio, and I love eathing it raw. Radicchio is an Italian vegetable that comes in a few different varieties, all of which are extremely bitter.

It looks like a purple cabbage and is usually about the size of a softball. One of the most simple ways to eat radicchio (and one of my favorites) is to split the head in half and grill it with a little extra virgin olive oil.

The grilling or roasting does reduce the bitterness level quite a bit, and most chefs usually balance the bitterness with something sweet (like balsamic vinegar). I made a sweet vinaigrette that I served warm over the raw radicchio salad because the heat doesn’t really wilt the vegetable like most leafy greens would succumb to. I started off by sauteing some shallots and golden raisins in pancetta fat.

 Once everything was soft, I transferred the entire mixture to a blender where I then added some whole grain mustard and extra virgin olive oil. The vinaigrette is a perfect balance of rich, tangy, and sweet…perfect for the raw bitter greens. I simply pan roasted the salmon until is was crispy on the top and pink and moist in the center.

 I consider salmon to be a more oily, denser, meatier fish that has a sort of woodsy quality to it depending on how it’s prepared. This quality makes it extremely versatile when it comes to pairing with wine or other foods. I love the combination of earthy mushrooms and salmon because they play so nicely with each other. I grilled some meaty portabello mushroom caps and stuffed them with some minted peas; fresh peas that I simply sauteed with chopped, fresh mint.

Both side dishes to my salmon had impeccable balance which really brought the dish together as a whole. The peas and mint, freshened up the earthy mushrooms, and the sweet vinaigrette balanced out the bitter radicchio. It was a great, wintery fish dish with loads of complexity.

I served an Oregon Pinot Noir with the salmon because I feel that unless it is poached, salmon needs a red wine. The 2008 Forefront Pinot Noir is made by Pine Ridge Winery and uses 100% Pinot Noir grapes from the Willamette Valley, Oregon. Oregon is a great place to grow Pinot because of the warm days and cool nights, which produce tons of overly ripe, generous fruit; a major characteristic of great Pinot Noir.

The fruit in the Forefront bottle is finished for ten months in French Oak barrels which gives it a little more structure and spicyness. The wine has silky tannins, and bundles of fresh ripe, red fruit such as raspberry and pomegranate followed by a spicy, star anise finish. There’s plenty of acidity too which is a reason why it works so well with seafood.

It’s a good thing that I got another healthy dish under my belt before this weekend, because more playoff football and friends from college coming to town equals lots of unhealthy party food.

Over the past few years there has been a huge increase in popularity and demand for artisanal microbrews and specialty beers. The gourmet beer craze has officially swept the nation and people are now buying $30 22oz. beers like they would Bordeaux. I came across a beer the other day that I couldn’t resist trying based on its description; “the first beer specifically designed to be paired with food”. The Estrella Damm Inedit is a blended beer created by world renown Spanish chef Ferran Adria’ of elBulli restaurant.

It is a hybrid barley-malt lager and Belgian Wheat ale, brewed with a blend of spices and yeast, that is double fermented in the bottle to add weight and complexity; in other words… this is not your typical beer pong, red cup filler. The brewmaster recommends serving it slightly chilled in a white wine glass for it to reach its maximum potential. Since I had not yet tasted the beer, I decided to play it somewhat safe by looking for a classic beer snack to pair it with.

I am a huge fan of wasabi peas whether they’re on their own or buried in a snack mix because they’re crunchy and they have just the right amount of heat that always makes you want to take another sip. I figured that if I pulsed the wasabi peas in the food processor just a little bit they would still keep their crunchy texture and add an enormous punch of flavor to anything.

I decided to use them to encrust a piece of salmon along with some fresh lime zest, which I eventually baked in the oven. Since I was already using some fake peas, I decided to pair the fish with some sauteed snap peas (yes they’re real) and a quick cabbage slaw. In order to cool down the nose burning, horseradish heat I had to make a sauce with a touch of sweetness.

Sticking with  the Japanese theme, I thought about the typical sushi accompaniments… wasabi, ginger, and soy sauce. The base for my sauce was sauteed shallots, fresh ginger, and garlic which I then deglazed with tons of Ponzu vinegar and soy sauce. Ponzu has a strong citrus flavor and the soy is pretty salty so I added some honey and let everything reduce to a sweet, sticky consistency.

The salmon baked for roughly ten minutes until it was pink throughout and the wasabi crust gained a touch of golden brown. I put a pretty good chill on the beer, maybe because I am used to drinking ice cold Bud Light, so at first the aroma didn’t impress me too much. After I let the beer open up in the glass for a while I was completely blown away!

The fruity nose smelled like dried apricots and honey, and the lightly carbonated beer was so rich on my palate. It started off filling my mouth with a creamy texture reminiscent of a fine White Burgundy; flavors of pear, orange, and toasted pine nuts.

The beer then finished smoothly but with a touch of spice that reminded me of a Gewurztraminer. The finish was so memorable and seemed to last forever. I found that all of the characteristics that make wine and food work so well together were equally abundant in this Spanish beer. It seemed to work beautifully with the wasabi-pea encrusted salmon too.

I totally see where the chef and brewmaster were coming from when they created this food-friendly beer. In my opinion, Ferran Adria’ has set a benchmark in the history of craft brewing that I assume other celebrity chefs will soon follow. Look for specialty beers to start popping up on wine lists all over the country and paired with gourmet dishes… not just a bowl of snack mix.