Get out of the frenetic masses and come be our guest at this private event held in amazingly comfortable lodge space right in Union Square.  After being greeted by an almost palpable pine scent from the Christmas tree, you’ll be free to enjoy complimentary cocktails from the bar and a selection of hearty holiday cuisine from local artisans.  With a belly full of cheer, you can then relax to the comforting sounds of football games, play a round of billiards, or do a little bit of shopping from a hand-selected group of local boutiques and artisans.  This is Christmas shopping done right.

The refinement begins at 2:00 p.m. and ends at 6:00 on Sunday, December 18^th.  For tickets and additional information, visit Gilt City for your pass to a classier Christmas.

Hope to see you all there being ‘Debonnaire’!

Merry Christmas

P.S.  The picture of the lodge is just a teaser.  It’s Christmas, the real thing has to be a surprise.  Plus, the one in the photo doesn’t have a bar.

Despite the taboo status of smoke in the Golden State, a few rogue smokers keep those coals smoldering to ensure that we get our fix. One such charcoal slinging renegade, and a Koutáli favorite, is Dan Jablow of Jablow’s Meats. He, along with a few other smokers, is committed to the meat and deli renaissance that California ohhh, so desperately needs.

Once a financier, Jablow, hung up the proverbial tie to attend culinary school and hit the kitchen line. After a few restaurant stints, he found himself working at local SF meat mecca, Fatted Calf, where he discovered his current passion for all things cured and smoked. This passion, coupled with a firm understanding of charcuterie, allowed him to lay the foundation for the newest player in the SF Delicatessen Revolution, Jablow’s Meats.

Dan uses only the finest products available and devotes countless hours to their preparation. The Pastrami gets a good day-long brine and then a healthy fifteen hour smoking in his 22.5″ Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker with the most aromatic wood available . That’s about two days of TLC, resulting in some serious delicate essen. Can you imagine how nice we’d be with that sort of attention?

Jablow’s Meats is a relatively fresh addition to the line-up and can only be found at select locations, so keep your eyes peeled. For now, we can guarantee that you’ll find them this Saturday, December 3rd at Beast and the Hare for their inaugural pop-up. Come out and enjoy the smoke.

Chicken Tortilla Soup
El Metate
The FDA, today, announced that chicken soup can in fact cure any minor malady known to man.  From the common flu to leprosy, the homespun classic can be administered as a remedy.  For the finest medicine in town, we recommend the Chicken Tortilla Soup at El Metate.  The light broth and strong flavors of chicken and tortilla are guaranteed to cure everything, especially hunger.

Gnocchi alla Boscaiola
Vega
It’s all about the simple things.  A perfect omelet. A nice cheese.  A pile of truffles topped with Iranian Caviar.  Or, gnocchi.  That classic Italian combination of flour, potato, and egg.  All blended together perfectly to form a delicious morsel of simplicity.  Our pursuit for elemental perfection often leads us to Vega, for Giuessepe’s Gnocchi alla Boscaiola.  It’s everything we look for in a pasta dish; light, filling, and full of flavor.

Fresh Tofu
Eiji
If you’re looking to graduate from eating rolls at Japanese restaurants, we’d like to propose a tasty stepping stone in your culinary evolution.  Try the fresh tofu at Eiji.  Your palate will say ‘arigatou’, but only after scolding you for all those California rolls you’ve forced upon it over the years.

Creme Brulée
The Creme Brulée Cart
There’s a new ‘burner’ in town and this one wants to feed you something that’ll blow your mind.  You guessed it, we’re talking about ‘The Creme Brulée Cart’.  The man behind the cart is a burner extraordinaire, perfectly torching up some of the finest cream combinations in the city.  You’ll never have trouble remembering the difference between ‘dessert’ and ‘desert’ after having one of these guys.

The food is rustic and restrained.  Think Grandma’s food, but Grandma’s moonlighting as a badass line cook in a busy restaurant.  The space reflects all of these standards as well, but also contributes a bit of warmth and charm of its own.  All in all, it’s the closest anyone is going to ‘eat at the farm’ from the comfort of the city without a 4 a.m. wake-up.

>> Event details & tickets

But, one we’re particularly interested in, is her push to scour SF’s backyards for edible treasures that would otherwise go to waste.  Everything she finds is eaten or preserved.  Those preserves are in turn offered exclusively to the community at local markets.  How often do you get to eat something that is actually from the city?

Mo-Foods is in the process of blossoming into Share | Kitchen which will play host to many of the aforementioned activities, so follow closely.  We’d recommend one eye on their blog and the other on your backyard

Koutáli and Mission Minis hosted our Cupcake Test Kitchen Preview last night in the tiny kitchen at Mission Minis SF. With a big table of mixers in the middle, cupcake extraordinaire Brandon … at the helm, and a liberal helping of red food gel, we created an incredible–if slightly misfrosted mega-batch of Red Velvet cupcakes.

While baking, participants tasted batter, bantered about the mission, drank wine and champagne, and constantly compared their work.

The most difficult part of the class came near the end when the frosting bags came out. With three pounds of fresh cream cheese frosting, and very minute targets each person went to work.

The end products were fantastic and belied the enthusiasm of the group, and the overall goodness of the product! We’re excited for upcoming classes and hope you can attend!

OtG starts at 4:30PM every Friday, and continues until nine or ten. The trick is to get there as early as possible and get in line for the hot trucks–this week it was the Buns at Chairman Bao and the Roast Duck Taco at the Kung Pow Taco Truck.

I had a great time with the excellent music, curry burritos and sun. It’s a great warm up for a night on the city.

As we enter the season of the pumpkin and the apple, one thing is certain: pie is back. Breville’s Pie Maker is just one in a slew of clues that we are at the beginning of the Pie 2.0 movement. Others include this year’s emergence of Hand Pies, Pie delivery, and Good Food’s pie making contest. (There have been stirring in popular culture over the last few years as well. The indie hit Waitress, described as “a love letter to pie,” and the now defunct show, Pushing Daisies, each centered their story around pie shops.) This isn’t your grandma’s pie, either. Hipster havens like Silver Lake, CA and Williamsburg, NY have joined the movement. The Machine Project L.A.’s hosting of a pop-up pie store and Williamsburg’s 2nd annual Pie Bake-Off at Spacecraft suggest that, despite America’s historically quaint relationship with pies, this new craze has serious counter-culture appeal.

These kinds of morphs in form and popularity are nothing new to the pie. Its ability to survive, as with most things, stems from its ability to adapt. It has been around since our apish ancestry discovered tools and began grinding oats and barley into dough and filling the dough with honey (stones were the must-have kitchen gadget of the Egyptian Neolithic period.) Through countless name changes, some as unappetizing as coffyn or placenta, and despite a fourteenth century trend involving mounted, cooked birds as pie-topping decor, this sturdy little tart has prevailed, a dessert to be reckoned with. Through the centuries it has changed form and incorporated new ingredients, while staying easy to cook, contain, transport, and keep fresh. Pie may be the new cupcake, but don’t call it a trend. It is nothing if not resilient.

By Laurie Wheeler for Koutáli

Fortunately, with a little help from friends and family, you can recreate the warm colorful feeling of early fall inside. These recipes and ideas should add some unique spice to your home in the coming months:

Spicy Mediterranean Squash Soup (Σούπα με Kολοκύθα):

Ingredients
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup diced carrot, 1/2” dice
2 1/2 cups diced onions, 1/2” dice
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. chili powder blend
1 Tbsp. cumin seeds, crushed
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1 3/4 lbs. cleaned, peeled, and diced winter squash (6 cups), any variety
3/4 lb. peeled and diced potatoes, 1/2” dice (2 cups)
8 cups water
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Optional Garnishes:
2 green onions, finely chopped for sprinkling
2 Tbsp. minced parsley for sprinkling
Olive oil for drizzling
Sour cream for dolloping
Chives for sprinkling

Sauté the carrots and onions, lightly seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper, in olive oil until the onions soften and start to turn golden. Stir in the chili powder, cumin seeds, and red pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the squash, potato, and water and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and cook at a slow boil until the vegetables are soft, about 30 – 40 minutes.

Puree the soup (this is easiest to do with a stick blender). Simmer the soup for 10 – 15 minutes or until it is the thickness you prefer. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce. Taste and add salt or freshly ground black pepper, as needed (squash and potatoes really suck up salt; you may need to add more than you normally would).

Garnish and serve.

Adapted from Chelsea Greigh’s Recipe on Rolling in Dough via MedCookingInAlaska

Maple Vineger Baked Chicken Wings

Football always spices up fall a little bit. For next weekend’s game try this great variation on traditional Buffalo Wings. Excellent spicy flavor and tang make them a hit!

Serving Size : 30
Preparation Time :0:30

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup hot pepper sauce
2 tablespoons Maple
30 chicken drummettes
paprika — for sprinkling
celery sticks — for accompaniment

Roquefort Dressing
6 ounces Roquefort cheese
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
freshly ground pepper — to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet. Mix together butter, hot-pepper sauce, and vinegar. Dip chicken into mixture, then place on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle lightly with paprika.

2. Bake until crisp and brown (about 30 minutes). Serve with celery sticks and Roquefort Dressing.

Makes 30 drummettes.

Roquefort Dressing: Mix Roquefort, sour cream, and mayonnaise together. Season with pepper.

Makes about 1-1/4 cups.

Per serving: 159 Calories; 13g Fat (72% calories from fat); 10g Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; 49mg Cholesterol; 155mg Sodium

Recipe courtesy of Vinegar Connoisseurs International

Lazy Boy from West Coast Libations

This fall ginger drink is great for cool afternoons when sitting by the fire while the leaves blow around the yard is the main activity.

Ingredients
1/2 ounces Bulleit or other bourbon (I used 2 ounces)
1 ounce fig puree (adapted recipe below*)
1 tsp honey simple syrup (adapted recipe below**)
1/2 tsp ginger juice (adapted recipe below***)
lemon twist for garnish

Shake all ingredients over ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

*Fig Puree:
1/4 lb. dried black mission figs
8 ounces purified water

Remove stems from figs and discard. Chop figs into quarters. Combine the figs and water in a blender and puree until smooth. (The original recipe called for the mixture to be strained through a China hat to remove any remaining large chunks, but I skipped this step.) Makes enough for 8 cocktails. Stores in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container for up to one month.

**Honey Syrup: Combine 4 ounces of honey with 2 ounces of hot water from the kettle. Stir until combined. Keeps in the refrigerator in a tightly lidded container up to one month.

***Ginger Juice: While the original recipe recommends juicing the fresh ginger root in a centrifugal juicer, or whirring it in a food processor with a bit of water, then straining it through cheesecloth, I found that a ceramic ginger grater was all I needed to extract 1/2 teaspoon of fresh juice for a single cocktail. Commercially bottled juice is also an option.

Recipe & Photos Copyright Left Coast Libations via The Kitchn