Trattoria Brown - BLT Pasta Salad

Okay, confession time. This pasta is not actually a BLT, but it's pretty close. There's bacon and tomato, but lettuce is not to be found. Instead, basil takes its place. Honestly, on almost every level, this dish shouldn't work, but it somehow does. In fact, it's one of our son's favorites. And whatever satisfies the child satisfies the parents.

Ingredients

1/2 pound pasta (penne or shells work well)

5 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped

5 strips bacon, sliced

10 to 15 leaves basil, chopped

1/2 cup mayonnaise

Parmigiano reggiano, to taste

Directions

Place pot with plenty of hot water and salt over high heat. Render bacon in a medium sauté pan over medium high heat until the bacon begins to crisp (about 5 minutes). While bacon is rendering, mix the basil, tomatoes, and mayonnaise in a large mixing bowl. Let stand. When the bacon is finished, place on a paper towel to whisk away excess fat.

When water is boiling, insert pasta and cook according to the directions on the box. When the pasta is cooked, place in a colander and wash with cold water until completely cooled. Remove excess water, and place in mixing bowl with the mayonnaise, basil, and tomatoes. Add bacon, and stir until fully incorporated. Microplane on some parmigiano reggiano and enjoy.

Here's what the finished product will look like. Like I said, before, this shouldn't work, but it does. And, perhaps the best thing about this is if you time it correctly, the dish takes approximately fifteen minutes start to finish.

Trattoria Brown - Morning Hash

We had a dinner party last night, and as happens with most dinner parties, there were leftovers. When the boy requested breakfast this morning, leftovers were on the menu. But how to incorporate them was the question. Usually we would put them in a frittata, but we have potatoes that need usin', so hash it was. Keep in mind, this recipe is for one, maybe two people, so enlarge accordingly.

Ingredients

1 medium sized red potato, cubed

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup caramelized onions

1/4 cup cooked chard

1/8 cup rendered bacon

1/2 cup halved cherry tomatoes

Parmigiano reggiano, to taste

Directions

Heat medium skillet to medium. Add olive oil and potato in skillet and cook for three to four minutes, until potatoes begin browning stirring often. Add caramelized onions, chard, and bacon and cook for an additional four minutes. When potatoes are fork tender, place hash on plate alongside cherry tomatoes. Shave over some parmigiano reggiano and enjoy.

Here's about what it should look like.

K-Rico Peruvian Grill

Address: 250 W 2100 S, Ste B, Salt Lake City, UT 84115. 801.484.0140.

Review: I've had more than a bit of South American food thusfar in my life, but not much if any Peruvian. This is why my culinary adventure friend and I popped over to K-Rico Peruvian Grill to get our grub on.

The first thing you notice upon entering K-Rico is the multiple screens streaming the Peruvian equivalent of CNN. The second thing you notice is, well, the tables, I guess. Honestly, there ain't much going on at this joint other than the food.

Meals begin with this:

It's called cancha. The nut looking stuff is actually a dried, then fried, corn kernel. At K-Rico, the cancha was served with a spicy peanut sauce and a mellow mayonnaise and herb sauce. I'm pretty sure this is beer food more than anything else, but it was interesting and new.

For my appetizer, I ordered the beef heart, which came skewered and served with hominy and a potato.

I quite enjoy most offal, but not heart. Usually, it's dry as a bone, grisly, and just not good eats. This heart, however, was juicy and full of flavor thanks to the spice mixture slathered upon it. (A note of the spice mixture: very cuminy, quite salty. I was actually cool with the level of salt because I use copious amounts, but I would imagine for the less salt inclined, it might be a little much.) That slightly metallic, sort of coppery taste of good offal was present. Every bite brought on the thought, "This big muscle with no fat is absolutely tender. Good work guys." The hominy and potato are nice, if not independently flavorful accompaniments. Ultimately, this was the most enjoyable beef heart experienced I've ever had.

And for the main course, I tried the pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken).

This chicken, like he heart, is all about the spice rub. And there are a lot of similarities between the two rubs: lots of cumin, garlic, and salt. In fact, the pollo, like the heart, was heavily salted, which, again, I dug. I could have used some more variation between the two meats, but both meats worked well. The chicken was tender and juicy and permeated with the rub. Very enjoyable. The salad and potatoes: a little less so. The salad was a typical iceberg thing with some salad dressing. Meh. The potatoes were, far as I could tell, prototypical South American potatoes. They were thick-cut and once fried. Amazingly though, there was absolutely no salt on them. Not one granule. This cooking and serving method ensured (1) the potato would be somewhat soggy (frying a fresh potato once almost invariably produces a dense, soggy fried potato; think In-N-Out), and (2) the potato would have no flavor of its own. Not a fan am I.

So, K-Rico was a mixed bag. The meats were perfectly cooked and tasty, if of a somewhat homogeneous taste. The items that surrounded the meats, not so great.

Rating: 6/10 (5/10 is average).

Trattoria Brown - Pocket Pies

Tomorrow is the first day of school at the University of Utah. My wife is getting her doctorate in vocal performance, and my son is working on his doctorate in playing-with-other-kids-at-preschool. In preparation, I decided to make a new, and portability conducive food: pocket pies. Traditionally, these pies are called pasties, but when I told my wife I was making pasties, she shot me a grin then laughed. From then on, pasties became pocket pies.

The nice thing about pocket pies is you can put whatever you want in them. We decided to use some of the mixed berry preserves on hand, as well as nutella. We even made a savory pocket pie, filled with eggs and bacon. Like I said, you can do whatever. In England, savory meat pies are wildly popular. One thought is to fill them with shepherd's pie, because, come on, everything's good with shepherd's pie.

The crust recipe come from Alton Brown and the Food Network. I cut-and-paste it here without changes. The fillings, however, are my own.

PASTRY

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

6 tablespoons shortening

3/4 cups milk

1 egg mixed with 1 to 2 teaspoons water

Directions

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the baking powder, salt, and flour. Pulse for a few seconds, then pour into a large mixing bowl.

Add the shortening and knead it into the four with your hands until it is crumbly. Add the milk all at once and mix it with a spatula until it begins to come together. Lightly flour your hands and the countertop and turn the dough onto the countertop. Knead the dough ball, folding over ten to twenty times. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to 1/3 to 1/2 inch thickness, then cut into rounds using a 2 1/4 inch ring. Roll each round as thinly as possible, or to five to six inch diameter. Spoon one to two teaspoons of filling onto the dough, brush the edges of half of the dough lightly with egg wash, fold over and seal the edges together with a fork, dipping it into flour as needed. Gently press down to flatten and evenly distribute the filling and snip or cut three slits into the top of the pie. Dock pies that are going to be deep-fried, instead of snipping or cutting slits.

To bake pies, preheat the oven of 350 F. Place finished pies onto an ungreased baking sheet and bake to twenty-five to thirty minutes, or until golden brown.

And here are the fruits of our labors.

I must say, we quite enjoyed the baked version of the pocket pie, but we also tried the cooked-in-butter version. It was, quite simply, the bomb. Ain't nothing made worse by cooking it in butter.

For this method, simply heat up butter in a pan and cook the pocket pie on each side for about two to three minutes, or until golden brown a rockin'.

Trattoria Brown - Pasta Italia

Okay, disclosure. This pasta is named "Pasta Italia [Italy Pasta]", but it is not exactly Italian. In fact, Pasta Italia was developed by Mormon missionaries serving in Italy sometime before 1996. The first time I ate it I had just spent 32 hours in planes and airports. Under those circumstances, nothing would have sat well in my stomach, and Pasta Italia did not. Thankfully, I tried it again about six months later. It soon became one of my favorite summer pasta dishes, thanks to its nature as a cold pasta salad.

Upon returning to America, some recipe tweeking had to take place. Most notably, bacon was substituted for pancetta, and that's fine because bacon is better than pancetta. Anyway, enjoy this Italian pasta that isn't.

Ingredients

1 pound pasta

8 ounces (two balls) of mozzarella

6 roma tomatoes (deseeded and chopped)

1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano

15 fresh basil leaves (or 1 tablespoon dried basil)

7 strips bacon

5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt (to taste)

Directions

Heat water over high heat. While water is coming to boil, place bacon in a sauté pan and warm over medium high heat. Cook until crispy but not burned. While bacon is cooking, cut the mozzarella into small cubes, and place them in a large bowl. Cut tomatoes in half, Seed them and cut them into small cubes, and places them into the large bowl. Now that the bacon is done, remove the bacon and cut into ½ strips and set aside.

By now, the water should be boiling. Add salt and put in pasta (preferably shells). Poor over tomatoes and mozzarella the balsamic vinegar and olive oil and stir together. Chiffonade the basil leaves and set aside. When the pasta is cooked and still al dente, remove front heat and poor into a colander. Once in colander, run cold water over it until pasta is cooled. Shake off excess water and place pasta in large bowl. Place bacon, basil, and parmigiano over the pasta. Incorporate everything. Add salt to taste. Enjoy.

Bohemian Brewery & Grill

Address: 94 Fort Union Blvd, Midvale, UT 84047. 801.566.5474.

Review: So, German food. I'm an Italophile, so German food wouldn't seem like a natural fit for my taste buds. However, my brother was stationed in Frankfurt when I was young, and we visited (read: used him as an excuse to vacation in Europe) him often. It was during these trips I experienced foods such as schnitzel, fries covered with mayonnaise (quick note: if you have not tried mayo on your fries, you, my good friend, have not lived. Amazing.), and apple strudel covered in warm honeyed cream (still, possibly, the best dessert I've ever tasted). It is with these memories in mind, a buddy and I frequented Bohemian Brewery & Grill.

The large container next to the building is used to manufacture beer, which means Bohemian is a microbrewery. Now, there seem to be two types of microbreweries. First is the type that makes beer, and then serves some food as well. Second is the type that takes as much thought of its food as its beer. Because I don't drink, I don't have much use for the first type. So, which type is Bohemian? Let's find out.

I started with the potato pancakes, which were served with sour cream and apple sauce.

The difficult thing about these pancakes is if they're too thick, they become incredibly dense and starchy. Bohemian's version generally avoided this problem. The outside was crispy, and they weren't too thick. Near the middle, however, things became a little too starchy and a little too not crispy. The sour cream was beautifully light and tangy, which helped cut through the natural density of the pancake. The apple sauce was interesting. I've never had it before and didn't think it would work well, but it did. It's slight sweetness complimented the only lightly salted pancakes. Good stuff.

Now, on to the entree. And schnitzel is was.

This is my all time favorite German food. Pounded out pork, breaded, and then fried in butter. Little could be better. We ordered an innumerable amount of this meaty goodness from German street vendors, and I was always surprised by the quality. Bohemian's schnitzel was tender, and the pork had good flavor, not heirloom pork breed good, but good. The breading was okay, but not as crispy as I really enjoy. The white cream sauce that accompanied the schnitzel contained a good amount of lemon, and a good amount of lemon is essential to any good schnitzel. The mashed potatoes were creamy and light (i.e., not weighed down with loads of butter). The mixed veggies were okay, nothing special.

In the end, solid food, and pretty good schnitzel. Definitely worth another meal.

Rating: 6.5/10 (5/10 is average).

Leslie's French Pastries

Address: 2308 Murray Holladay Rd, Salt Lake City, UT 84117. 801.278.3341.

Review: After mailing some court documents at the Holladay Post Office, my son and I thought we'd stop by Leslie's French Pastries on the way home.

We have driven past many, many times, so it was only fair we stopped in.

Now, to be honest, I don't rightly know baked goods. First, I don't bake well; I cook. Second, I don't often eat baked goods --- I'm a salt guy. I say this because I don't know the name of what we ordered, so pictures will have to do the 'splainin'. I ordered this.

I do know the topping was a pecan streusel. I also know the pastry component was light and buttery. The streusel had some brown sugar and, of course, pecans. The unfortunate thing about using nuts in pastries like this is they lose their crunch as soon as they soak up liquid from the glaze and streusel. This notwithstanding, the pecans had some bite left and provided the only textural contrast. The glaze was, well, sweet and glazy. In all, I liked it.

My son ordered this.

Below the dense pink topping, was a series of light, flaky pastry levels interspersed with a vanilla cream. The real star here was the cream. It was light, not too sweet, and addictive. Likewise, the pastry levels were flaky and light, a perfect accompaniment to the cream. As I said before, the topping was dense and overly sweet. It didn't seem to go well with the rest of the pastry. In the end, we removed that layer and ate the rest. Pretty good stuff.

Well, that ends our pastry experience at Leslie's. They also make cakes that looked darn good. One day, we'll have to come back and try one.

Rating: 6.5/10 (5/10 is average).