Hello Friends,
We are on a roll at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen (CBK) with "Come Get Your Goat." This month we are featuring sumptuous dishes from locally raised goat. We'll be serving Goan vindaloo, Jamaican goat curry roasted in the wood oven, and other delectable treats. Each is a perfect match with red wine. Jim will be making fun goat cheese appetizers and salads, and using cajeta, a goat's milk caramel in some of our desserts.
I have stirred up the kitchen at CBK. In December, Executive Chef Jim Leiken joined me from the Daniel Boulud group in Florida and New York. Last month, fellow Minnesotan Anne Bonner was promoted to Sous Chef. And like a rock, our fabulous Sous Chef, Freddy Ambrosio has just marked 12 years working for us. It's a great team and I look forward to you tasting their cooking.
We celebrate spring, and all the lovely ingredients that come in shells for Pour-Off Pair-Off at Mustards Grill. Lovely fava beans and sweet English peas are paired with clams, mussels, and shellfish. Shell steak with "escargot butter," is a play on words as this "shell" is a bone-in New York steak, and escargot butter is delicious on just about anything. For desserts, we feature sweets made with nuts and eggs. Recently, we added a few European white wines so you can compare them to our own fabulous Napa Valley whites.
Chef Jeff Rogers'cioppino stew at Cindy's Waterfront at the Monterey Bay Aquarium received a rave review from a local food reporter, and a thumbs up from the divers who clean the aquarium tanks and feed the marine animals. Do you know that most of the divers and many of the staff who work there are volunteers? It would not exist as a not-for-profit, world-class aquarium without their generosity.
I am honored to be a semifinalist for the 2014 James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur to be awarded in May. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Speaking of accolades, check out the fun video of my business partner Sean and me that our local St. Helena Chamber of Commerce produced for our Business of the Year award.
Cindy's Shout-out - Japanese Soul Cooking by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat, Ten Speed Press. A fun cookbook filled with Japanese recipes, influenced by Western-style cuisine, to be prepared in the home.
See you soon.
P.S. For a sweet treat, this month's recipe is an easy and yummy Pecan-Hazelnut Cookie!
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