pisto.com pisto.com

July 17, 2002          ...           Ask the Chef            ...          John Pisto

Dear Chef Pisto,   I sure enjoy your weekly column in the Herald and get good tips from it. By this time you probably have received many copies of "How to cook a whole abalone" I'll enclose my copy anyhow. I used to live in the Carmel Highlands and my husband would go down into a cave on our rocks at low tide and bring a whole abalone up for me to make abalone pot roast. He would clean and pound it and I would cook it. Cooked this way was so tender you could cut it with a fork. The recipe was out of a 1946 Sunset Magazine. Keep those ideas coming.   Bernice Pratt (AKA Bunny)

Whole Abalone Recipe with Wine: The wine helps to point up the true abalone flavor. Chablis is preferred, but any dry white wine may be used.

2 or 3 whole abalone (larger ones are available from Monterey Abalone Co.)
2 tblsp. Cooking oil or shortening
2 cups dry white table wine
½ tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. paprika
1 tblsp. Lemon juice
1 tsp onion juice

In Dutch oven, brown the abalone lightly on both sides in heated oil. If casserole is used, brown abalone in a heavy pan, and then place in casserole. Add remaining ingredients. Cover tightly and bake in a slow oven (300°) about 1½ hours, or until tender. Serves 6.

Try it you'll like it!

Q:   I have never been able to make a good lemon-butter sauce to compliment petrale sole or sand dabs. Do you have a recipe for someone like me?

Via e-mail

A:   After sautéing your fish (any thin fish or filet will work), drain excess cooking oil and, if pan is dirty, wipe it out. Add a bit of chopped garlic and chopped parsley. Deglaze with an ounce of dry vermouth or white wine, reduce

to a tablespoon then start adding sweet butter in small pieces, a bit at a time, whisking it until you have enough to spoon over your fish (2 or 3 tablespoons per order). Finish with a few squirts of fresh lemon. If this sounds difficult, it really isn't. You may omit garlic and/or throw in a few capers - it will taste really good.

Readers:  Hot tip for caviar lovers: Iranian caviar is now available in the U.S. We tasted the beluga and asetra. They were both of the highest quality and the osetra was spectacular. What makes this caviar so special is that the government tightly regulates it and they are the only country that actively manages their sturgeon stocks. From what I am told, they are not over fished and the water quality is well regulated. Definitely worth trying and if you want more information, contact CIRAM Corp. in Newport Beach, CA. (949-760-5307) - they will ship anywhere.

abaloneshells071702.jpg (10397 bytes)
abalone2sign071702.jpg (9017 bytes)
abalone1sign071702.jpg (8813 bytes)

 

More on caviar:  This from Alicia at Tsar Nicholia Caviar up in the bay area (415-543-3001). She asked me to pass along her recommendation that beginners try whitefish or trout caviar. Both are very mild and can be shipped anywhere. By the way, don't try to eat those salmon eggs that are used for bait. I know that if someone is really hungry they might start looking pretty good, but they are treated with chemicals to keep them hard so, don't eat the bait - okay?

As to eating caviar, here's one of my favorites: bake a potato, cut it open and fluff it up. Add a bit of

butter, crème fraîche, chopped red onion and fresh cracked pepper. Now add a big dollop of trout or whitefish caviar. Warning to you men - all that protein will make you as strong as a bull!

Readers:   So you want to be in the restaurant business? Let me share a recent story from one of my restaurants - initials W.S.  During some kind of sports playoff game (in case you didn't know, I don't pay attention), two men and a woman were watching the game at the bar while waiting for their entrees. My rule is the game can be on as long as the sound is turned down, in honor of what everyone should be there to do - dine.

Well, one of the men asked the bartender to turn up the sound and when told the rule, he went to his car and brought back a radio, which he then placed on the bar, tuned to the game and turned it up. When the manager approached him, politely asking him to remove the radio, the three of them just decided to leave. Of course they didn't bother to pay for their wine, cocktails and food, so my manager followed them down the street until he found one of Monterey's finest who promptly escorted them back to pay their bill. Special thanks to the Monterey Police.

 

For more info about John Pisto's fine restaurants
in Monterey, California, click here.

Last "Ask the Chef" Article  ♦  Index of "Ask the Chef" Articles