Cafe Lucia Healdsburg

Day boat scallops at Cafe Lucia in Healdsburg ©heather irwin

 

Day boat scallops at Cafe Lucia in Healdsburg ©heather irwin
Day boat scallops at Cafe Lucia in Healdsburg ©heather irwin

A new restaurant in Healdsburg that doesn’t have a wood-fired oven? Yes, it’s true. Channeling Mediterranean flavors of another sort, Cafe Lucia, has opened in the former Affronti location on Healdsburg Avenue.

Tucked well back from the street, brother and sister team Manuel and Lucia Azevedo have brought the “Nova Cozinha Portuguesa” or new Portuguese cuisine of Manuel’s highly acclaimed La Salette restaurant in Sonoma to their northern neighbors. Many of the dishes will be familiar to La Salette regulars, including richly-flavored and Portuguese nose-to-tail “tasca” or tasting plates of tripe stew, blood sausage, pig’s feet terrine and sardine pate.

Manuel and Lucia

The menu also includes Manuel’s Caldo Verde (Portugal’s national soup of beef consumme) steak with piri piri (a type of chili) fries and Feijoada Complete (stewed beef, pork and beans) as well as simpler “all-access” sandwiches like a crab melt, pulled pork sandwich or BLT for lunch.

Don’t skimp on the homemade rolls, made with a bit of sugar for a slightly sweet, yeasty taste. If you’re new to Portuguese food, its worth some culinary exploration. Go for authentic eats like Caldeirada, a fish stew with shrimp, sea bass, mussels and lobster fume, pan-seared day boat scallops with Japanese sweet potatoes and a traditional dessert of sweet rice, malassadinhas (tiny fried donuts) and almond ice cream with fig cake. With a glass of sweet Port, naturally.

Prices range from around $10 to $25 for entrees, open for lunch and dinner daily.

Cafe Lucia, 235 Healdsburg Ave. at Mill St., 707-431-1113. cafelucia.net

Diane Peterson wrote a lovely stories about Manuel’s cookbooks, the LaSalette Cookbook and the influence of Portuguese cooking in Sonoma County and beyond. It’s great reading.

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Tribute to Jewish Brooklyn Dinner

Sonoma County Chef Tiffany Friedman is heading to San Francisco for a dinner paying tribute to Jewish Brooklyn on Saturday December 15, 2012.

The menu features half-sour pickles, a mixed plate with golden borscht, smoked sturgeon and latkes, grass-fed brisket with kasha varnishkes gratin and blintzes and egg creams for dessert. $50 per person, seatings at 6:30 and 8pm, 1106 Market St., between Sixth and Seventh. Buy tickets online at Kitchit.

Cider Party

Gypsy Cafe in Sebastopol host a cookie, punch, cider and shopping party from 4 to 7p.m. Saturday, Dec. 15. The cafe will be pouring Apple Sauced Ciders, sourced from local Gravenstein apples. The project is a collaboration between Jolie Devoto and her busband, Hunter Wade, second-generation apple farmers at Sebastopol’s Devoto Gardens. “We’re making New World cider for Californians,” said Devoto. The event happens at 162 N. Main St., Sebastopol.

Rooney at Corks

Two bits of good news for Cork’s Restaurant at Russian River Vineyards. Most importantly, exec chef Todd Davies tells BiteClub that the threat of bankruptcy for Russian Rivers Vineyards has been staid, and “we will be in business for years to come.”

Secondly, Davies has named Dominique Rooney, grand-daughter of actor Mickey Rooney, as Chef de Cuisine. The former model has done local stints at Sugo in Petaluma and with Mark Malicki at Casino in Bodega, as well as a number of restaurant in Los Angeles. She and Davies are updating the menus and throughout December will feature a variety of crab dishes.

5700 Gravenstein Hwy North, Forestville.

Feast of the Seven Fishes

Over seven nights (Dec. 18-24), Healdsburg’s Spoonbar will serve up an eclectic mix of fish and seafood dishes from the everday to the exotic in homage to the Italian tradition of the Feast of the Seven Fishes. The celebration, which dates back hundreds of years, stems from the Catholic practice of abstaining from red meat in the days leading up to Christmas. Chef Louis Maldonado’s menu includes sea urchin with smoked potato puree, citrus-marinated Dungeness crab, Japanese kanpachi, octopus and mussels in coconut curry broth, brioche-crusted branzino and oyster panna cotta. Menus will range from $50-$55 per person, with each night featuring a different menu.

For full details go to the Spoonbar Feast of the Seven Fishes website.

Pear opens in Napa

Chicken and waffles from Pear
Chicken and waffles from Pear
Chicken and waffles from Pear

Pear opens Dec. 11, 2012 in Napa, a Southern-inspired restaurant that replaces Tyler Florence’s short-lived riverfront bistro at 720 Main Street.

Open daily for lunch and dinner, the restaurant will feature a single menu with classics like macaroni and cheese, shrimp and grits, rotisserie chicken, collard greens, chicken and dumplings and chicken and waffles with pear-bourbon maple syrup.

Chef-owner Rodney Worth owns several restaurants in the East Bay including The Peasant and the Pear, The Prickly Pear Cantina and Ferrari’s Cucina Italiana.

Heritage Public House moving to Mendocino Ave.

The relocation of Video Droid — a popular JC campus hangout — to its new (smaller) nearby digs begged the question: What’s going into the high-profile 1901 Mendocino Avenue space? The answer, which has been brewing in beer circles for a while, is Heritage Public House.

Moving from its Cleveland Avenue location, partner Dino D’Argenzio says the expanded public house and gastropub is a better fit location-wise and demographically.

Expected to open in February, they’ll have a small menu, 20 craft beers on tap along with a beer garden and entertainment lineup. D’Argenzio’s son, Roman, will be general manager.

“We are really excited about it,” D’Argenzio said. Heritage joins a growing craft beer movement in the Northbay that includes several new brewpubs, microbreweries and specialty beer retailers.

Chewy Oatmeal Marshmallow Cookie Recipe

Oatmeal Marshmallow Delights ©heather irwin
Oatmeal Marshmallow Delights ©heather irwin
Oatmeal Marshmallow Delights ©heather irwin

Chewy Chocolate Oatmeal Delights

Submitted by Cheryl
Ingredients

1 cup of softened butter
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1 cup PACKED brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups quick cook oatmeal.
2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa

Mini marshmallows and 1/4 cup of butter for gooey center

Instructions
1. In a medium bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time.

2. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour. (This will help keep the cookies soft after they are baked)

3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie with a large fork dipped in sugar. the cookies get much bigger, so make sure they are about 2 inches apart.

4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. When the cookies have cooled, heat marshmallows and butter in nonstick saucepan until completely melted and smooth. remove from burner and let cool for about a minute. take a cookie and turn it upside down. Spread a couple spoonfuls onto bottom of cookie, then, put another cookie on top of that. If you are not fond of marshmallow, the cookies themselves are great.

Cornberry Cookie Recipe

Cornberry Cookies ©heather irwin
Cornberry Cookies ©heather irwin
Cornberry Cookies ©heather irwin

Cornberry Cookies

This is a new spin on a traditional cookie. Vanessa love cornbread and and muffins, so she split the flour with corn meal and added cranberries and pecans. Vanessa found that the base of this cookie works well with any add-in, especially dark chocolate chips. Don’t be afraid to deviate from the cranberries, coconut even mixes well!
This is a new spin on a traditional cookie. Vanessa love cornbread and and muffins, so she split the flour with corn meal and added cranberries and pecans. Vanessa found that the base of this cookie works well with any add-in, especially dark chocolate chips. Don’t be afraid to deviate from the cranberries, coconut even mixes well!

2012 Best Fruit or Nut Cookie Winner
Submitted by Vanessa Kilgore

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup yellow corn meal
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 sticks of butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups chopped dried cranberries
1 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl, set aside. Combine butter and sugar and cream together with a mixer. Add eggs to creamed butter and sugar one at a time. Slowly mix dry ingredients into mixture until combined. Stir in cranberries and pecans by hand.

3. Cover cookie dough and place bowl in refrigerator to let dough chill for about 20 minutes.

4. Once dough is chilled, spoon cookies on to cookie sheet, about one inch in diameter 1-2 inches apart. Place remaining dough back in refrigerator. Bake cookies at 350 for 11-13 minutes.

Note: To keep cookies from going flat, keep dough cold, the result will be a fluffier cookie.

Twilight Vampire Chocolate Cookie Recipe

Twilight Vampire Cookies ©heather irwin
Twilight Vampire Cookies ©heather irwin
Twilight Vampire Cookies ©heather irwin

‘Twilight’ Vampire Sparkle Chip Cookies

The sparkly sugar on these dark and brooding chocolate cookies led Sarina's friend to call them "Twilight" cookies after the vampire movies. This sugar crust gives a nice crisp outside texture but leaves that hint of a soft cookie still so both cookie lovers are satisfied.
The sparkly sugar on these dark and brooding chocolate cookies led Sarina’s friend to call them “Twilight” cookies after the vampire movies. This sugar crust gives a nice crisp outside texture but leaves that hint of a soft cookie still so both cookie lovers are satisfied.

Submitted by Sarina F.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup butter (very soft)
4 tablespoon instant coffee grounds
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp vanilla
½ tsp butter flavoring
Pack of semi sweet chocolate chips (can be swapped with white chocolate chips if desired)
1 cup walnut pieces (can be omitted for allergies)

Sugar for rolling on the sparkle (regular white table sugar, not baking quality, you want coarser grains, can even use raw sugar)
Parchment

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 and pour about a cup of sugar into a pie dish.

2. Mix dry ingredients together first to one bowl (except coffee, chips and nuts). In a separate bowl mix butter and coffee, then add in sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, butter flavoring, & egg and cream it together. Now add the dry mix to the wet mix and mix till dough is even. Add the chocolate chips and walnuts last with a final mix.

3. When you are ready to bake the cookies you scoop the dough with a cookie scoop if you have one for less mess (about the size of a melon baller) then roll the cookie scooped ball into the pie pan of sugar so it sticks to the outside of the cookie ball. Place the “vampire-ised” cookie on a cookie sheet lined with parchment.

4. Bake at 350 for 11-13 min. Let them semi-cool on the parchment before transferring to a cooling rack.