One Local Summer Week #2: Liquid San Diego

Oops. I'm a little late this week. Prepared my meal on Monday but haven't had a chance to write about it until now (family in town, and an annual, albeit not quite local tradition-Thanksgiving in July-took all of my energy). But now that the sea has calmed, I'm finally ready to share last week's meal.

As I quickly discovered when starting the One Local Summer challenge, I knew of a lot of local offerings in San Diego, but most of them were in the produce realm. So I set out excitedly during One Local Summer week #2, determined to find products that stretched beyond those that just come from the ground. After a week of exploring and investigating, I ended up with a bounty! Coincidentally, all of them happened to revolve around liquids, which in an iron chef-like way, became the theme of this week's meal.

Water
My favorite discovery of the week was also the most rewarding. Looking at my foodshed map of last week's meal, the first thing I noticed was how uneven my sources were spread out, always coming from the northeast of my neighborhood. There was nothing from the west, the dark blue mass on the map. Which is how my meal this week led me to the Pacific.

Despite bordering the ocean, I had never really explored San Diego's seafood supply. In fact, the seafood I had found in the area was always somewhat disappointing, given my the city's proximity to the sea. It doesn't cease to amaze me that a coastal town sources most of its seafood from hundreds, nay thousands of miles away. While Alaskan salmon, Thai shrimp, and Maine shellfish are always available, never had I run across a store proudly boasting fish from Southern California.

I can't remember where I heard of Point Loma Seafoods, but they have become my new favorite fish source. The crowded market, located directly next to one of the city's many harbors, is little more than one big room, with an enormous counter serving as both store and restaurant. When I arrived, (after calling ahead, and learning they had local halibut), the room was organized chaos, families and tourists hungry for a late lunch, savvy home cooks looking to tote something home for dinner. Lines formed haphazardly clamoring for the attention of the more than 20 employees moving quickly behind the counter. By the time I made it up to the front, it was close to closing time, and the pile of local halibut that had been stocked in the refrigerated case in the morning had dwindled to just one 1/2 lb. piece. Luckily, it was mine.


Proudly toting my local halibut home, I knew there was only one way to prepare it--poached in another local ingredient I had just come across this week: milk.

Milk
Hollandia Dairy in San Marcos is about 45 minute drive from my house. The trip seems a little excessive to pick up a gallon of milk, but not knowing any other local dairy farms, I was willing to take the drive last Saturday. Luckily, calling ahead, I found that the dairy delivers milk to a store a little more than a mile from my house, and hopping on my bike I had local milk in no time. After a quick swing by the farmer's market to pick up some gorgeous summer cantaloupe, the first corn pickings of the season, some plump zucchini and equally tempting basil, it was time to prepare me some dinner.


Well almost. There was one last ingredient to work into this week's meal: beer.

Beer
Vermont has its maple syrup and cheese, Georgia its peaches, and Kentucky its bourbon. If there is one thing that San Diego is putting itself on the map for, it is beer. There are over 20 breweries in the San Diego area, with well over a handful of them being consistently award-winning. The brewing culture is so intense (and likes its beer the same way) that it's created its own style: the San Diego IPA, also known as an Imperial IPA, or double IPA--a high-hops, high-alcohol beer that, while brewed across the state, is perhaps done best by San Diego breweries (I've been told this is due to the hard water); excellent examples include Alpine Pure Hoppiness and Ballast Point Sculpin IPA. So, even though I consider myself well aware of the San Diego beer offerings, I set out this week to get as close to local beer as possible.

Saturday afternoon we set out to visit two breweries in the area: Alesmith and Ballast Point, both of which are located in seemingly unsuspecting warehouse/office parks, and both of which gladly offer tastings, tours, and of course, beer for sale. Surrounded by the equipment in which the beer is made, we gladly sampled the breweries offerings, ending up with a growler of beer from each: Alesmith Summer Yulesmith and Ballast Point IPA (the Sculpin was in short supply, and sadly, not for sale). The Ballast Point brewery doubles as a home brew mart, and I also walked away with a vial of California Ale brewer's yeast, which I intended to use for cooking dinner. The yeast, produced by White Labs, is actually fermented in San Diego, making it local, and I was assured that the California Ale strain was the first produced by the company.

Armed with local yeast and local beer, and a local recipe from another local brewery, I set out to make the most daring kitchen feat in my home cooking career. Spud Buds, as they are called at the Stone World Bistro & Gardens, are essentially fried mashed potato balls, where the potatoes are cooked in beer, whipped with yeast, and dipped in batter made with a second beer. Only in a brewery restaurant, right? (And, only at Stone, the vegetable oil used to fry the spud buds is reused, converted to biodiesel to fuel the company delivery trucks) Since I still had some local potatoes left over from last week, I knew I had to try to make them. The recipe comes from Chef Raymond Scott at Stone World Bistro and Gardens and appeared July's Beer Advocate magazine.

The Spud Buds were admittedly the only component of my meal that was not 100% local, as the recipe called for flour, baking powder, and frying oil (I could have used local oil but it would have cost me upwards of $30, rather than $3, and I just couldn't justify it). Ironically, it was the only recipe that backfired on me, as I couldn't keep the oil temperature high enough and the mashed potato balls, which looked gorgeous pre-fry, disastrously fell apart. (When making, be sure to keep the oil temperature at a constant 350-360 F to avoid the same unfortunate fate.)


Recipes:

milk poached halibut and summer squash with cantaloupe & green tomato salsa

cantaloupe, green tomato & basil salsa

1 small cantaloupe
1/2 green tomato
1 bunch basil

dice cantaloupe, and green tomato into 1/4" pieces
frisee basil by taking 3-4 leaves, carefully rolling into a spiral, and carefully slicing--slices should be curled.
toss basil, cantaloupe, and green tomato in bowl; chill until ready to serve

milk poached halibut & summer squash

this recipe was adapted from several I found that used milk as a poaching liquid. The closest is from UK chef Ed Baines
others are here and here
1 tsp. olive oil
1 shallot
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp ginger
2-3 cups milk (enough to cover the fish, depending on pan width)
5-10 black peppercorns
1/2 tsp salt
1 bay leaf
1/2 lb. halibut filet
1 zucchini, halved and sliced lenthwise into 6 slices
4-5 basil leaves, diced, plus more for garnish

rub both sides of halibut with salt and pepper
heat oil in heavy bottomed skillet
saute shallot for 2 minutes, add garlic, and ginger, stir for 30 seconds or until fragrant
add milk, bay leaf and peppercorns, bring to rapid simmer
add halibut, zucchini and basil
cover and simmer for 10 minutes, until fish is almost done and zucchini is tender
remove fish and zucchini; cover with foil and tent for 10 minutes (fish will continue to cook while resting)
while fish is resting, increase heat to high and simmer milk mixture rapidly, decreasing volume by half
using a slotted spoon, spoon shallots & basil over fish, drizzle some of the reduced milk onto fish
garnish with basil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve warm

par-boiled corn on the cob

this is a perfect recipe for absolutely fresh early summer sweet corn, as the corn barely needs to cook. I use the same method for asparagus and it works perfectly every time.

corn on the cob
water
salt

Remove corn from husks. Submerge corn in salted water; bring to a rapid boil; turn off heat and drain corn. Let sit, covered, until serving time. Serve warm