Chalone Winemaker’s Dinner

WaterScapes is happy to announce yesterday that we will be doing a Winemaker’s Dinner with Robert Cook the winemaker at Chalone.  You will be able to purchase tickets thru www.coastaluncorked.com/  The info is not up yet but if you are interested check back latter this week.

Bellow is some info on Robert Cook..

Robert Cook
Winemaker

Robert Cook joined Chalone Vineyard in 2007 as senior winemaker. In this role, Robert is responsible for creating wines that express the unique character of the vineyards surrounding Chalone Vineyard and managing the production of Chalone Monterey wines from vineyard to bottle.

Chalone Vineyard had a profound effect on Cook long before he accepted the winemaker position. While celebrating his 21st birthday with family, he enjoyed a bottle of 1981 Chalone Pinot Noir, which ultimately enticed him to study fermentation and enology. Before Chalone Vineyard, Cook was at Estancia Winery where he started as associate winemaker and worked his way up to director of winemaking. Cook was responsible for all Estancia winemaking though began primarily with red wines from their Monterey and Paso Robles vineyards, including the Pinot Noir, Meritage and Cabernet Sauvignon. Prior to joining Estancia, Robert worked as a winemaker in Spain for two years for Artadi and International Wine Services. He oversaw all aspects of Tempranillo, Grenache and some Cabernet Sauvignon winemaking while in Spain. While in Spain, he developed a love for all-things-Spanish and learned to speak the language. Robert has held harvest intern positions in Napa Valley at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Opus One, while earning his Bachelor of Science in Fermentation at the University of California at Davis.

Robert was born and raised in Honolulu Hawaii. He is an avid golfer when the grapes and wine allow it, and he travels to Spain frequently.

 

Lionfish

This is a new fish I have not served and I have been hearing about Lionfish for a couple of years now but I have never seen one, cleaned or eaten one before. 

Whats interesting about these fish is that they have little to no predators and they live off eating small Grouper and Snapper Fry, Shrimp, and other shellfish and mollusk that live and help a reef live.  These Lionfish breed and scatter like rabbits and are killing reef habitat.

Here I have taken off the venomous fins. 

 Another interesting thing about these fish is that the fins are EXTREMLY VENOMOUS.  Some say its 100X more painful then a jellyfish and if stuck by one you should run hot water over it and get to a hospital.

The Lionfish are an invasive species and there is few ideas on how they got in our waters.  Look at this website http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1675&category=Environment and it will tell you more about Lionfish.

How did it taste??  Great the flesh is firm and sweet similar in texture to monkfish or scorpion fish but more like to the scorpion fish in flavor.

 

 

Farm Fresh Eggs

I am happy to tell you that WaterScapes now only uses local Farm Fresh Eggs. I have wanted to do this for some time and now I have met Travis and his whole family and they come to pick up our vegetable and fruit trimmings for compost and delivers eggs from his Red Star Chickens! Check out his website here  www.fastonline.org

Here is Tina’s favorite childhood dish “Dippy Eggs” and Toast!

 

Fried Chicken!!!

We have had a little down time for the first few weeks of the year which gives us a chance to do some cleaning, organizing and began to put in place our goals for the new year. We have also been trying some fried chicken recipes that I have been wanting to try from two new books I got for Christmas and we have been working on some ourselves. 

I love FRIED CHICKEN hands down I can easily say it is my favorite thing to eat.  Of course some places are better then others and I do have places that are in my option the best places to eat FRIED CHICKEN.  Now there are some places I have yet to try and this small list could change once I have the opertunity to try them but for now these are my favorite places to eat FRIED CHICKEN!!

1. Carries – Plantersville SC – This no surprise to anyone who knows me I talk about their chicken all the time.

2. Price’s Chicken Coop – Charlotte NC – This is no frills place that is take out only and not only is the FRIED CHICKEN  good but the chicken gizzards are good also.

3. Earl Dukes – Orangeburg SC – Of course the Barbeque is great but the FRIED CHICKEN is really good also.

4. Zender’s in Frankenmuth MI- I know what you’re saying Michigan?? But something about that chicken keeps you up at night craving it.

Now I have wanted to go to Gus’s in Mason Ten., I hear it is the best and I want to try Dave’s take out in Charleston SC and I have always wondered what the big deal is about the Honey Fried Chicken at Yogi Bear’s in Hartsville SC so these are the places I want to try!

If you have a favorite place or have been to any of the places I have listed leave me a note and tell me about it.

Bellow are some of the recipes we have been trying out.

1. David Chang’s recipe from his Momofuku Cookbook is not a traditional southern fried chicken but Korean Style fried chicken which was really good.  You brine the chicken in a simple brine and then steam it for about 40min. and then fry it (No Flour) for about 6-7min and then toss it in this sauce he calls Octo sauce which is ginger, soy and garlic and a few other things (If you want to know go get the book) and you let the octo sauce sep in and its very good.

2.  The next chicken we did was Thomas Keller’s Fried Chicken from his book Ad Hoc at Home.  This chickens brine was more entailed and it brined for 12 hours and then it his seasoned flour, buttermilk and then seasoned flour again and then fried at a lower tep. 320 degrees.  Now I am not bad mouthing one of the greatest if not THE greatest Chef in  the Country but I am not a big fan of double dipped chicken but on the flip side of it the chicken was very very juicy but still too much crust.

Now the two recipes we have made and like are:

2 Chickens cut into 10 pieces

2 qt. of Dill Pickle Juice from the jar strained

4 cups AP flour

4 cups Crackermeal

1 cup Garlic Powder

1 cup Onion Powder

3 tab. Cayenne  Pepper

3 tab. Black Pepper

3 tab. Kosher Salt

Brine the Chicken in the Pickle juice for 12-14 hours ( Now I got this idea from my friend and who is a chef – Brian Owenby who brines in pickle juice all the time and come to find out Chick – Fil-a does the same thing with their chicken breast so if it good enough for them) in the refrigerator.

After Chicken has brined pull out and discard the pickle juice and wash the chicken and set on a rack and place it back into the refrigerator so it can dry 2-3 hours. Mix the flour and spices and pre heat your frying oil to 340 degrees. Pull Chicken out of the refrigerator 1 hour before frying and then dip it in the buttermilk and then into the flour mix and place in the fryer and fry untill it is golden brown and once it floats its done but the best thing to have is a thermometer to check to make sure its 16o degrees.

We really liked this one a lot it was very juicy and had a twang to the meat from the pickle juice,  the crisp on the outside was light,  it was really good.

The Next is:

2 Chickens Cut into 10 pieces

2 qts. Milk

1 qt. Chicken Stock

2 tab. Pepper Corns

12 bay leaves

4 sprigs of Thyme

4 Cloves Garlic Smashed

Take the milk and chicken stock and everything else and mix it together and bring to a 180 degrees.  Add the chicken and poach at 180 degrees for 25min.  ( This idea of Milk Poaching the chicken came from Zender’s when I toured their kitchen, now I dont know what else goes in their chicken flour or poaching liquid except the milk is all I saw).  Once the chicken is poachedpull from the poaching liquid and remove any peppercorns or bay leaves that might have stuck on the chicken and  mix the chicken with the same flour mix as above and fry at 360 for 6-8min.  pull out and let drain and cool for at least 10min. and enjoy.

Now we did not like this one as good as the brined chicken but it was still good.

Again if you have any Ideas on place to go let me know or if you try one of my places or the FRIED CHICKEN recipes leave me a message and let me know!!

 

This is IT!

Here is the last of the Scamp Grouper you will be able to get at WaterScapes untill May 1st .  The grouper closure this year closes not just Gag and Red but every Grouper on the Eastern Seaboard.

As always we will still have great fish from Wayne like these alternatives

White Grunt AKA Black Snapper

And Amberjack

 

Octopus

We also got some fresh octopus from Wayne today they are really good cooked on the wood grill!

 

Oyster Toadfish

They are not the best looking fish but they sure taste good.  They are very similar to a Monkfish with the texture but the flavor is a lot cleaner and sweeter.  They live on eating all types of shellfish.

 

Fall in Full Swing

Well it has been awhile since I posted and things have been busy here at tha Marina Inn. We have been to and hosted some events but I have also made it possible to slip of every now and then and spend some time in the woods.

Speaking of events Tina, myself and a friend of mine Ryan went to the Charleston Greenfair and cooked in the Sustainable Seafood Initiative tent.  It was a Shrimp cooking contest and we did Blackened Shrimp Tacos with Smoked Corn Salsa and Guajillo Avocado Yogurt.  We saw some old friends at the event and even though we did not win we had a great time.  After the event  we went over to Caviar and Bananas which is like a miniature Dean & Deluca and had the Duck Confit Panini which was killer and now writing this post I am craving one.

 

Canning

I have always wanted to do this and we got some killer small Romas from Sarah and Sam at Indigo Farms so we dried a bunch and we canned some also.

Tina got some Figs from Sarah and Sam also and made Perserves.

We also did some Pickled Okra and Dilly Beans!

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Scorpion Fish

I have gotten a few of these from Wayne and he does not have them all the time but when is does I love to get them.  The meat taste and cooks very much like Lobster.  They are also great served raw or Ceviche.

 

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