A few margin notes from Murray Circle plus a recipe from a master
Cavallo Point, originally uploaded by caseyell.
Snicker if you will, but J and I recently booked the “date night special” at Cavallo Point — the gorgeous resort housed at the foot of the Golden Gate bridge, its historic buildings once the officers quarters for Fort Baker.
Included was a four-course dinner at Murray Circle, the resort’s restaurant, a night in a charming room and breakfast the next morning. With the exception of a long-delayed third course that then included barely cooked, much less: “confit”-ed fennel, the dinner was wonderful and my “Southern breakfast” the next morning –soft-scrambled eggs, great bacon, sublime cheese grits and the best biscuits I’ve ever tasted, North or South–was sublime.
I didn’t garner any recipes, although I’m hopeful of obtaining both the biscuit and cheese grits secrets, but I made a few notes of ideas for my own kitchen:
*Instead of adding persimmon wedges to a mixed green salad, make the persimmon the star–arrange several medium-thick slices on a rectangular plate and garnish with micro-greens and a sprinkling of crumbled goat cheese. Drizzle with a champagne vinaigrette.
*Pair a piece of grilled fish with a parsnip puree and add some textural contrast by deep-frying a few paper-thin slices of parsnip to top the puree.
*Garnish a rectangular slice of pear tart with ultra-thin slices of pecorino cheese, standing upright like little sails.
*Accompany a scoop of fresh apple sorbet with small cubes of fennel-seed- flecked pound cake, sauteed in butter as though they were croutons.
Until I can deliver the restaurant’s biscuit recipe, here’s one I love from the late, great Jim Beard.
Cream Biscuits
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 TB. double-acting baking powder
2 tsp. granulated sugar
3/4 to 1 cup heavy cream
melted butter
Sift the dry ingredients together and fold in the heavy cream until it makes a soft dough that can be easily handled. Turn out on a floured board , knead for about one minute and then pat to a thickness of about 1/2 to 3/4 inch. Cut in rounds or squares dip in melted butter and arrange on a buttered baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 435-degree oven for 15-18 minutes and serve very hot. Makes about 12 biscuits, says Beard. Depends on the size of your cutter, says I.
In my ancient, autographed copy of “Beard on Bread” is a margin note written in now-faded green ink: “Very good!” I usually dislike exclamation points, but still agree with that long-ago reaction.
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 8:38 pmand is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 19th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
LOVE the idea of pecorino slices upright with the pear tart; would it work as well with apple? It’s so nice for people like me who don’t like sweet things, to give a sweet a nice savoury excuse!
November 19th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Of course it would work with apple–though you might want to experiment with a slightly different cheese. After all, it’s just a contemporary riff of the old Pennsylvania Dutch tradition of pairing apple pie with a slice of cheddar cheese.
In fact, a really good, light cheddar could be wonderful
November 19th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Of course you’re right, and I’m now thinking that apple tart/pie and a really young Stilton might be nice? Or the Cornwall Blue I had from the Good Food Show?
November 19th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Sounds good to me.
December 3rd, 2009 at 10:38 am
Not sure what type of cheese grits you had, but my favorite way to make them is by cooking regular grits with cheese. pat the mixture into a loaf pan then refrigerate. When it is cool and set, slice it then fry it. Yum! Sounds like all the restaurant dishes you tasted, outside of the undercooked fennel, were excellent and this was a delightful trip.