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Events in Season
SF Chefs 2011
San Francisco
August 5-7 

Chula Vista Lemon Festival 

Chula Vista, Calif.
August 7 

Woodland Tomato Festival 

Woodland, Calif.
August 13

Paso Robles Olive Festival

Paso Robles, Calif.
August 20

  
Hot Off the Grill!           
We love to cook over live fire. So much so that we grill year-round - sleet, snow, rain, or shine. And extra virgin olive oil plays a starring role: as a Photo by Frettie, couresty of Wikimedia Commonsmarinade; in a vinaigrette or other sauce for topping the grilled food; and as a basting liquid. We also like to finish a grilled dish - like flavorful eggplant, juicy whole chicken, or sumptuous porterhouse steak - with a healthy drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Grilling gurus share our enthusiasm for extra virgin olive oil. "It's great stuff," Steven Raichlen, best-selling author of Planet Barbecue (Workman Publishing Co., 2010) told us. "Use it where you're going to get the best bang for the buck."

The chef and best-selling cookbook author Chris Schlesinger of East Coast Grill in Cambridge, Mass., uses extra virgin olive oil in his grilling, too. "I like to use it mostly as a finishing oil," he told us. Schlesinger also adds it to vinaigrettes and the tangy sauce called mojo - both of which provide a big flavor boost for any dish hot off the grill.

To help you with your grilling, here's our list of grilling tips compiled from grilling experts:Grilled Shitake Pizza, courtesy of Neil Reiter
  1. Be organized. Get all your equipment, food, marinade/basting sauce/seasonings/etc. beside the grill before you begin grilling.
  2. Start with a clean grill. "There's nothing less appetizing than grilling on dirty old burnt bits of food stuck to the grate," Raichlen writes in his best-selling Barbecue! Bible (Workman Publishing Co., 2008).
  3. Oil the grill after it's hot and right before you place the food on the grate to prevent food from sticking.
  4. Build a two-level fire with two temperatures: a hotter area and a colder area. That allows you to sear and caramelize your food or slowly finish cooking.  "It gives you flexibility," chef John Ash told us. He noted a two-level fire was particularly important for foods that take longer versus, say, shrimp. Schlesinger told us a told us a two-level fire is "the single most important thing."
  5. Check frequently to see if your food is done to avoid overcooking.
  6. Keep a spray bottle of water next to the grill "to put out any grease fires and also to cool things down" if necessary, Ash advised.Steven Raichlen
  7. Don't stab your food with a fork. You'll lose the precious juices. Instead, use tongs or a spatula to turn your food.
  8. Let beef, pork and chicken rest a few minutes after you take them off the grill. This allows the juices to flow back into the meat.
And while we're passionate about using extra virgin olive oil in our grilling, we also believe in safe grilling. In particular, you want to avoid flare-ups.

So we'll leave you with this advice from Steven Raichlen:  "You never want to have something dripping with olive oil when you put it on the grill."

Happy grilling!


 Our Favorite Grilling Recipes  
 Lemon Halibut with Caper Sauce

Lemon Halibut with Caper Sauce











Recipe courtesy of Weber's Big Book of Grilling (Chronicle Books, 2001), by Jamie Purviance and Sandra S. McRae

Reprinted with permission from Chronicle Books 

 

 

Marjoram-Grilled Lamb with Arugula and Port-Mustard Dressing
Marjoram-Grilled Lamb











Recipe courtesy of Grill It! (DK Publishing, 2010), by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby

Reprinted with permission from DK Publishing  

 

 

 Grilled Leeks with Pomegranate Vinaigrette
Grilled Leeks











Recipe courtesy of Fire It Up (Chronicle Books, 2011) by Andrew Schloss and David Joachim

Reprinted with permission from Chronicle Books 

 

 Moroccan-Style Grilled Sea Scallops with Spicy Green Sauce
Moroccan-Style Grilled Sea Scallops











Recipe courtesy of Grill It! (DK Publishing, 2010), by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby

Reprinted with permission from DK Publishing  

 

Grilled Ratatouille
Grilled Ratatouille











Recipe courtesy of Mastering The Grill (Chronicle Books, 2007), by Andrew Schloss and David Joachim  

Reprinted with permission from Chronicle Books  

 

 Tuscan-Style Chicken Under a Brick
Tuscan-Style Chicken











Recipe courtesy of Planet Barbecue! (Workman Publishing Co., 2010), by Steven Raichlen 

Reprinted with permission from Workman Publishing Co. 

 

 

 Q&A With Our Featured Chef     
Guy Frenette
Moody's Bistro
Truckee, Calif.
(530) 587-8688
Becoming a chef wasn't on Guy Frenette's radar while growing up in Maine. He was like any other kid, playing with other children in the neighborhood. He first grabbed a frying pan in high school,
Guy Frenette

"Fresh, local and simple is our mantra. We take what's available and make the best of it."

working as a line cook to earn some cash so he could buy a set of wheels. Frenette caught the culinary bug 10 years ago, when he moved to California. He trained with the nationally recognized chef Paul Bertolli at the Oakland restaurant Oliveto.

Today, the 35-year-old Frenette is chef de cuisine at the highly acclaimed Moody's Bistro in Truckee, Calif., 15 minutes from North Lake Tahoe. There, he's teamed with Moody's executive chef and co-owner, Mark Estee.

How did you become a chef?

I was a line cook for many years in high school. I lived in Portland, Me., where I cooked a lot of seafood. After moving to California about 10 years ago, I decided to make cooking my career. That's when I became a chef at Oliveto. Much of my cooking comes from the Italian cuisine I prepared there.

Moody's is devoted to promoting local, fresh ingredients. How did that approach evolve?

It's not been easy. Nothing grows here much of the year because of our cooler climate. Truckee's elevation is more than 5,800 feet. During the summertime it's fine. Almost all of our produce comes from California's Central Valley. We mostly try to get California fish and meats. We also support local lamb farmers, and we get local duck eggs. Everything that we can get local, we do. We definitely try to walk the walk.

Local food purveyors like to knock on the door of Moody's offering you their goods. What do you do if someone approaches you with an item you don't need?

If a farmer has 20 pounds of something we don't really need, like radishes, we'll still take it and see what we can do. Or if somebody gives us some arugula that's got little bug holes, we'll take it and braise it, maybe, so the holes don't matter. We also try to help local foragers, using their mushrooms or wild California King salmon. We'll just throw things like that on the menu to help these people out.

Did you grow up thinking you wanted to become a chef?Moody's Bistro Salmon

I didn't cook much as a kid. Initially, cooking for me was just money so I could get a car in high school. I didn't get passionate about it until I moved to Berkeley in 2000. I realized it was much more than a job that would pay my rent. I also realized I was good at it.

How would you describe the dishes you prepare at Moody's?

Fresh, local and simple is our mantra. We take what's available and make the best of it. We use a lot of braising. We make our own pastas. We also make our own ice cream. One of Mark (Estee's) favorites is vanilla ice cream with olive oil. We make a lot of our own salamis, too.

How do you use California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil in your cooking?

All of our vinaigrettes are made from California Olive Ranch. We use it in our pestos and sauces, too. We use it to braise cipollini onions, or we'll confit shrimp with it. We'll first put a little dry rub on the shrimp. We then pour a lot of olive oil in a pan, and slowly confit the shrimp in the oil. People love that.

What do you do when you're not behind the stove?

I like to go boating at Lake Tahoe, or hiking with my wife Heather and our dogs in the mountains there.


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