Chef Matthew Accarrino’s Braised Chicken with Apples and Calvados

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A dish perfect for the home-cook from Chef Matthew Accarrino of SPQR restaurant.

A dish perfect for the home-cook from Chef Matthew Accarrino of SPQR restaurant.

 

Let me just say that one taste of this dish made me feel like I was sitting down to a repast at a charming country inn in the north-west of France.

OK, not that I’ve actually had the pleasure of visiting Brittany.

But it is known for its apples and its Calvados, a spectacular apple brandy.

So, you have to hand it to a dish that can transport you like that.

Leave it to Chef Matthew Accarrino to do so, too. If you’ve ever eaten at SPQR in San Francisco, you know he has a deft hand for creating lusty flavors in rustic-chic dishes.

Of course, most of us don’t have the patience or inclination to make a lot of chef dishes. That’s why we go out to restaurants instead, right?

But “Braised Chicken with Apples and Calvados” is one of those straight-forward, one-pot dishes that anyone can do.

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Best-Ever Browned Butter-Pecan Shortbread Domes

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Buttery shortbread with pecans and plenty of browned butter.

Buttery shortbread with pecans and plenty of browned butter.

 

Your honor, I can’t say I’ve sampled every pecan shortbread cookie in the world. But this one sure does pose a strong case for being the best, as it so claims.

Let me call my first witness — the cookie, itself.

Here you have the melt-in-your-mouth, crumbly evidence. It’s chock-full of pecans, then crowned gloriously with one perfect pecan half.

What makes this cookie even more decadent is that you coat the chopped pecans that get stirred into the dough in two stick of butter that you slowly and ever so carefully melt on the stovetop until the butter turns deeply golden and fragrantly toasty.

Then, add all the other ingredients straight into that pot to finish making the dough — all without a mixer. How easy is that, your honor?
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Some Like It Hot

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Artisan hot sauces that explode on the palate.

Artisan hot sauces that explode on the palate.

 

If you do, have I got the hot sauces for you.

Bob Henry of Henry Family Farm has been growing chiles in Virginia’s Shenendoah Valley for more than 30 years. Now, he’s bottling all that heat in a most pure form.

Henry allows the peppers to ripen on the vine, then hand picks them before extracting them within 24 hours of harvest. The extracts are bottled, with no additional spices or flavors, so that each pepper’s distinctiveness really shines through.

Henry Family Farm Chile Pepper Extracts are now getting a lot of attention, thanks to food and wine critic, David Rosengarten, who has been spreading the word about them and making them more widely available.

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Donostia Debuts in Los Gatos

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A simple, yet sublime, mushroom brocheta at the new Donostia in Los Gatos.

A simple, yet sublime, mushroom brocheta at the new Donostia in Los Gatos.

 

If you had any doubt that Spanish food remains one of the hottest crazes around even years after El Bulli’s Ferran Adria introduced the world to foams, just take a look at what’s happening in the Bay Area.

In January, Chef Paul Canales, formerly of Oliveto, opened Restaurant Duende & Bodega in Oakland. This spring, look for celebrity chef, Michael Chiarello of Bottega in Yountville, to open the splashy Coqueta on San Francisco’s Embarcadero.

Thankfully, the South Bay has not been left behind in all of this. Donostia (the Basque name for San Sebastian) opened last month at 424 Santa Cruz Ave. in Los Gatos to serve up tapas alongside Spanish wines and beers.

The new restaurant is by the same duo behind Enoteca La Storia, just a couple doors away in the same retail-business center. Owners Joe Cannistraci and Michael Guerra, couldn’t resist when this long, narrow 1,000-square-foot space became available.

The two Italian guys traveled to San Sebastian to familiarize themselves with authentic tapas. That’s where they met Agustin Elbert, a native Argentinian who has spent the past dozen years cooking in Spain, including at a number of well-known tapas places. They lured him to Los Gatos to be their consulting chef.

The long, narrow space features a bar with seating, as well as bar-height tables.

The long, narrow space features a bar with seating, as well as bar-height tables.

Last week, I had a chance to visit Donostia as a guest of the restaurant. With a built-in clientele who often spill over from sister establishment, Enoteca La Storia, Donostia is already packing in regulars even if it’s only been open a couple of weeks.

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Sensual Spinach Baked with Ricotta & Nutmeg

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A less rich -- but no less satisfying -- version of creamed spinach.

A less rich — but no less satisfying — version of creamed spinach.

 

This dish is rather cheeky.

It combines the voluptuousness of soft ricotta with the pert green of spinach.

Eggs, whipped to a luscious froth, add a custardy body. And grated parmesan a delicious saltiness.

I rather fancy it, especially late at night when everyone else is asleep, and I saunter silently downstairs in my silk robe to eat it brazenly with fingertips straight out of the fridge.

Forgive me my Nigella impersonation. But I can’t help myself, as this dish surely will have you feeling a little like that British culinary bombshell. “Spinach Baked with Ricotta & Nutmeg” is from Nigella Lawson’s newest cookbook, “Nigellissima” (Clarkson Potter).

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