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Recipe of the Month |
Coho Crab Cakes
Dungeness Crab season runs mid July to September this year, just enough time for your summer beach party. If you have crab meat left over from your cook-out, try this Coho favorite.
Coho Crab Cakes Recipe
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Wine Picks | |
Dave and I participate in a monthly tasting with a group of oenophiles. Each time, we choose a region and year, and blind taste 7 to 9 wines with and without food. It is a terrific way to sharpen our palatte with other-like minded individuals.
This month, we focused on Rosé from France. Rosé is the perfect summertime wine - crisp and light for hot summer days, but with a firm backbone to stand up to a variety of foods. Unfortunately, it has a tarnished reputation due to the proliferation of White Zinfandel.
Here are a couple of my favorite French Rosés, the first from the tasting, and the second from Coho's wine list.
La Mascaronne
Rosé
Quat'Saisons-Cotes de Provence 2009, Provence, France.
Intense nose of raspberry and strawberry with a touch of red current. Beautiful pale pink color with a delighfully clean finish. (Cinsault/Grenache) $17
Chateau du Donjon Minervois
Rosé 2008 - Languedoc, France
"This Rosé brims with red raspberry, strawberries, and melon, with an invigorating hint of herbs, salt, and pepper." (50% grenache, 40% syrah, and 10% cinsault.) Pale pink peach and salmon colored, it exhibits aromas of roses and red cherries, along with hints of ruby grapefruit. And although nicely dry on the palate, it exhibits good body and a rich, silky texture ....a perfect match with chicken, sausage or ham." 89 pts. Robert Parker $12
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Write on our wall - Share your dining experience, a recipe or something about a favorite ingredient or producer and while you're there, check out our
Fan-Only Specials!
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Special Savings | |
Our Chef's Happy Hour Special is still a popular choice for diners looking for exceptional value. Come in between
5:00 and 5:45 p.m.
and partake in our 2 for $70 dinner package. The two of you can enjoy a bottle of wine, soup, salad, your choice of entrée from our specials menu, and a dish of house-made ice cream all for $70. Want something off the specials menu? No problem; there's just a small upcharge for the menu item of your choice.
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Share the News | |
We can only continue to offer our great meals and value prices if people come in and give us a try.
Will you help us spread the word? Please post your review of Coho Restaurant on
Trip Advisor.
Thanks so much!
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Greetings!
Imagine how brave the soul who first tried to eat something recently dug from a pile of dead leaves on the forest floor -especially a fungus looking as spongy and uninviting as a morel mushroom. Thank goodness morels have already been proven; in fact, many top chefs and foodies alike consider them the best of all mushrooms because of their unique earthy, meaty flavor.
 Wild morels are only found seasonally, and demand has rapidly outpaced the supply, which of course, drives costs up. These pruney-looking lobes appear on Coho's current menu thanks to the efforts of Found and Foraged Edibles. This small business employs a dedicated crew of three full-time wild foragers as well as a cadre of free-lance pickers who scavenge in their own neighborhoods and at farmers markets for this thriving enterprise. Tromping through terrain as varied as forests and parks, they collect wild mushrooms, greens, and berries throughout British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Northern California, Idaho and Montana.
With only a few people covering such a grand area, what's remarkable is the volume they collect. Former chef and now sales representative for the company, Jonathan Julia, tells us they are shipping over 1,000 pounds every couple of days to at least 70 Seattle restaurants, 24 outlying regional restaurants, and roughly 30 clients in New York. The product is received by the end user within 48 to 72 hours of being picked, fresh and perky as the day it was found - unlike the drying, withered mushrooms found in typical stores.
For those who may be concerned about over-harvesting and depleting the supply, Jonathan explains that mushrooms are like weeds, almost impossible to over pick. They are often difficult to get to, and those specimens that might be too small or just emerging, will continue to spore for future production. The greens they harvest, such as Miner's Lettuce, will bolt and seed out even faster, growing back thicker, if they are cut back.
Jonathan says it if weren't for all the office buildings and parking lots and condominiums, there would be a lot more product available. But those of us who love these dark morsels from the earth will have to content ourselves with savoring their heady flavor in moderate quantities. With wild mushrooms, the simpler the preparation the better - fresh morels sautéed in a little butter and olive oil with some chopped fresh thyme or oregano, or freshly toasted ground caraway seed are divine; morels and asparagus are a classic combination. Currently, Chef Alphonsine is draping her fresh handmade egg noodles with green garlic, bacon, asparagus, morels and Parmesan. Yum!
Looking forward to having you for dinner!
Fondly,
Anna Maria & Dave |
Island Food & Wine News
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Suzy Pingree Shows Off Her Beautiful New Copper Still |
San Juan Island Distillery / Westcott Bay Cider Company opened to the public for tastings on Memorial Day weekend, showing off their beautiful new copper still. It looks like a glitzy mate for R2D2, but proprietors Hawk & Suzy Pingree and Richard Anderson have coaxed some intriguing elixirs from it. Samples of Eau de Vie (which is the initial stage of calvados brandy) and their Spy Hop Gin will definitely leave you wanting more. The Spy Hop gin has pleasingly fragrant floral notes, an exotic mix of botanicals, is beautifully balanced, and super smooth. Suzy even has a card with nine cocktail recipes using Sky Hop Gin, including the San Juan Island 48, though we think the flavor shines best when served straight up with just a tweak of dry vermouth.
Speaking of cider, if you haven't yet tasted their cider, you can purchase a bottle at the restaurant, or head out to the press one summer Saturday afternoon. They make Traditional Medium Sweet, Dry, and Very Dry, and all are outstanding. If you'd like to taste their entire line of products paired with foods, make plans to attend our Distillers Dinner on October 28th.
Pelindaba Lavender Farm will host their 10th annual Lavender Festival on July 16 & 17. Coho co-owner Anna Maria de Freitas will again be presenting one of her popular cooking demonstrations at 12:30 - 1:00 and 2:00 - 2:30 each day. She'll have lots of samples, and loves to answer questions so it's a very casual presentation. In addition, you can enjoy tours, workshops, demonstrations, lavender baked goods, refreshments, music, and
self-harvesting at this free event.
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Anna Maria answers questions about cooking with lavender. |
All Pelindaba's fields are organically certified, and the essential oils are extracted from these flowers right in their own on-site distillery. From these extracts, they create a wide range of culinary, personal care, therapeutic, household, and pet care products. We think just sitting and gazing at the beautiful fields in bloom, and smelling the lavender scent in the air is therapeutic as well!
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Other Island Arts News
Island Stage Left continues their 12th season of presenting "Shakespeare Under the Stars," July 15 through August 20. This year's production, The Winter's Tale celebrates the triumph of love, nobility, and all things good. Part family drama, part fairy tale, it's the perfect play for a summer's evening. Book the early 2/$70 special at Coho, then head out to the play - it's FREE - and you'll have a great evening at a budget-friendly price. Location of play varies by date, so you'll need to check their website.
If you've admired the wall murals on Nichols down the street from Coho Restaurant, you can now take lessons from the artist who painted them. Annie Howell-Adams will host workshops on July 15-17, August 12-14 and September 9-11. Annie is a plein air master, so locations will vary with maritime and pastoral views of San Juan Island. Call Annie for more info, (360)378-2637 or check her website.
 We feel that good food, wine, art entertainment all tie in together, and we could even go so far as to consider beautiful cars a work of art as well. You can view some vintage beauties at the 5th Annual Concours d'Elegance on Sunday, August 28th at San Juan Vineyards on Roche Harbor Road. The Featured Marque this year will be Mercedes Benz, in honor of 125 years of history. For full details of the event, go to the Sports Car Club of the San Juan Islands website.
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 Dinner Theatre
Thursdays through Saturdays July 29 - August 12 
The San Juan Community Theatre and Coho Restaurant team up this summer for dinner and a play within a play. "The Real Inspector Hound " is a mystery, a farce, and a very sophisticated satire written by acclaimed British playwright Tom Stoppard in the early 1960s. Murder, intrigue, and romance unfold as the audience discovers they too become part of the story.
The pre-performance dinner at Coho Restaurant will be offered Thursdays through Saturdays, July 29 through August 12, and includes a 3-course meal, glass of wine, and special treat sure to please the most sophisticated British palate. The package is only $42 per person, tax and gratuity excluded. Call (360) 378-6330 to make your dinner reservations, and (360) 378-3210 to order your tickets for the performance and your meal voucher. Vouchers will need to be presented when dining, so you'll need to pick them up before your dinner date.
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