The Kitchen Table: A Winning Kosher Experience in Mountain View

Living in Los Angeles, I have quite a selection of Kosher restaurants at my fingertips, ranging from fast food to Jewish deli and all the way up the scale to steakhouses. But it's a funny thing how I eat at just one Kosher restaurant in Mountain View, California, and I suddenly realize Los Angeles doesn't have it all.


I'm talking about The Kitchen Table, a new Kosher establishment on the popular Castro Street in downtown Mountain View (just south of Stanford University and a little north of San Jose). I ate here with my parents and sister for Father's Day. My mom secured a reservation, which the restaurant staff tell me is a smart thing to do as tables, which in my opinion aren't so limited, apparently still fill up. The decor inside is sophisticated but with personality as crystal chandeliers and abstract metal artwork are juxtaposed with old black and white photographs of families sitting at their kitchen tables. But Father's Day brought lots of sunshine and good weather and so we opted to eat outdoors on the front patio where lots of cheerful green shrubs separate you from the busy street.

Photographs of families at their kitchen tables cover a wall of the restaurant

The staff are incredibly gregarious. Our waitress Suzanne was fun, honest, and attentive. A co-owner also greeted us at our table. We felt loved. And the feelings are mutual!

My dad with our waitress Suzanne

But ambiance and waitstaff aside, the menu is the real kicker! Prices are very reasonable and the dishes are so creative! Scanning the menu I was drooling. The lunch menu includes a Chipotle BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwich, Knish of the Day, Hand-Cut Yam Fries, Tuna Ceviche with Fried Plantain Chips and Spicy Avocado Relish, Chicken & Matzo Ball Soup, Lamb BLT, Dry Aged Tuscan Salami with Dijon on a Crispy Baguette, House Cured Pastrami Sandwich, and lots more. Dinner includes many of the same items as lunch, but also entrees such as Honey, Thyme & White Wine Glazed Salmon, Tamarind Mango Braised Duck Leg, Masala Spiced Lamb Kabob, and Boneless Rib-Eye Steak.

House Cured Pastrami Sandwich

Salami Potato Knish with Rocket Salad

3 eggs, Hash Latkes, and Lamb Bacon with Whole Wheat Toast

Chocolate Babka with Fresh Fruit

Tunisian Shakshouka

Homemade Grilled Pita Wedges

Since we ate at 10am on a Sunday, we ordered from a small brunch menu of just 5 choices, though we had no trouble finding many things we wanted. In the future, hopefully they'll add one or two more breakfasty items like Challah French Toast and Blueberry Pancakes. I selected the Tunisian Shakshouka, consisting of three eggs in a tomato sausage sauce and a side of homemade pita wedges. My sister's and dad's meals included lamb bacon, and so I was fortunate enough to try a bite. Wow, that alone was worth the trip! My mom ordered chocolate babka, fresh fruit, and a salami potato knish. Presentation and taste were all on point. Even my coffee came with a mandelbrot cookie on a sleek white saucer.

Father's Day Brunch Menu

Coffee and Mandelbrot

Very soon, The Kitchen Table will be offering Shabbat take-out. Now that's something I wish more Los Angeles Kosher restaurants did! I came to this place with no expectations and practically no information about it - just an open mind. It turned out to be a perfect 10 of an experience. I am deeply and madly in love.

Details:
The Kitchen Table
142 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
(650) 390-9388
Lunch/Dinner/Sunday Brunch/Take-Out/Catering

Joyce's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake

I am in love with this oatmeal cake. I've never made it before and I had no idea how oatmealy it would turn out. But you actually can't tell there's oatmeal in it! That's because you pour boiling water over the oats before adding them to the batter, and so they become soft and soggy and un-oatmeal-like. I also changed up the recipe slightly by using chocolate chips instead of the dried fruit the recipe calls for. Chocolate makes anything better. Duh. Forgive me for skipping the Broiled Topping. It sounds delicious, and I've included the recipe in this post, but I just didn't feel the cake needed the topping and I didn't want the added calories.

I was first drawn to the recipe because of its name: Joyce's Oatmeal Cake. My mom's name is Joyce, and as she is my baking inspiration and the one who got me into this hobby in the first place, I felt it was a sign that I have to make this recipe.

The 9x13 Pan Cookbook is really fun because every single recipe uses the same pan. And it happens to be one of my favorite pans. It serves enough people and it's easy because you just pour the batter into the pan and when done, slice to serve. It's a much bigger pain to shape drop cookies individually and place them evenly apart on a cookie sheet. Low maintenance is key! Also, this cookbook, which visually is half the height of most cookbooks, is part of the Nitty Gritty Cookbooks family. I love Nitty Gritty! How much? Let me count the ways.....I own 26 Nitty Gritty cookbooks!


Joyce's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake
Recipe by Barbara Karoff in The 9x13 Pan Cookbook
Serves 10-12

1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped dates or raisins (I used chocolate chips instead!)

Pour water over oats and let stand. Cream sugars with butter until fluffy. Add vanilla and egg; mix well. Combine flour, salt, soda, baking powder and cinnamon; add to creamed mixture. Stir in dates (or chocolate!). Add oatmeal and water. Batter will be quite thick. Spoon it into a buttered 9x13 pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes or until it tests done. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

Broiled Topping
2/3 cup chopped nuts
2/3 cup flaked coconut
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 tablespoons milk or cream

Combine all topping ingredients in a saucepan over low heat just to melt sugar and butter. Do not cook. Spread on baked cake and place under the broiler, about 4 inches from heat, until brown and bubbly.


Step-by-Step in Pictures

Pour boiling water over the rolled oats...

Cream the sugars with the butter until fluffy...

Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl...

Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture...

Add chocolate chips...

Add oatmeal and water mixture...

Pour into 9x13" pan and bake at 350 degrees F for about 35 minutes...

Test for doneness with a toothpick...

So moist. Perfect for breakfast or any time of day!

Kiss My Bundt Bakery Has Classes!

You know all about the national, if not international, cupcake craze, I'm sure. But individual-sized gourmet, creative treats are also found in the form of donuts and even mini bundt cakes! Sadly, I live 400 miles from my new obsession, Psycho Donuts in Campbell, CA. But fortunately I live just around the corner from Kiss My Bundt Bakery in Los Angeles! And these treats look, smell, and taste amazing.


Kiss My Bundt Bakery sells bundts in mini, a-little-larger-than-mini, and full size. The price is right, too, at $2.50, $4.50, and $32 respectively. Among the many flavors are:

• 7-Up Pound Cake
• Bailey's Irish Cream Cake
• Chocolate Cabernet Aphrodisiac Cake
• Chocolate Mint Cake
• Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake
• Strawberry Lemonade Cake
• Red Velvet Cake
• Peanut Butter Bundt Cake
• Pineapple Upside Down Cake
• Pina Colada Cake
  
• and a LOT more!!!

But besides going to the bakery and purchasing a treat for now or later, Kiss My Bundt Bakery also hosts baking classes and tasting sessions! I am dying at the thought of this! Isn't it every sweet tooth's dream to go behind the glass display cases at a bakery and be able to work in the kitchen there? I want to see where the magic happens!


Currently, I am aware of four events you should check out:

• Bundt Cake Baking and Wine Tasting on Friday, June 12th at 7pm
• Hands-on Intro to Baking Class on Sunday, June 14th at 5:30pm
• Introduction to Cake Frostings Class on Friday, June 19th at 7pm
• Cake Tasting on Saturday, June 20th at 8pm

Remember the scene from My Big Fat Greek Wedding that, in my opinion, reintroduced bundts to today's generation? Here ya go...



And for true bundt-a-holics, follow Kiss My Bundt Bakery on Twitter at @KissMyBundt.

The Details:
Kiss My Bundt Bakery
8104 West 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Cross Street: Crescent Heights Blvd.
Phone: (323) 655-0559

Ice Cream Sundaes with Homemade Philadelphia-Style Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

It's a great feeling to have people over and be able to offer them homemade everything. You watch as your guests' jaws drop open when they request something like ketchup and you can say, "No problem, I just whipped up a batch last night."

My mom is the perfect example of this. Her pantry and fridge are chock full of homemade goodness. It's practically an obsession. If she needs a loaf of bread, she makes the absurd decision to start a loaf right then because that's less work than running to the store. Since when is homemade bread less work than, well, pretty much anything?

If my mom needs mayonnaise, she makes her own, again, to avoid going to the grocery store. Ok, and also because she's scared of storebought mayo for health reasons. She makes her own jam, too, and usually from fruits in her backyard. During fig season last year, she had quite the field day of canning. Doing all this at home is certainly not the faster, more convenient method, but to my mom, it's a no-brainer.

If my mom needs vanilla ice cream for hot fudge sundaes (and that need arises frequently!), she might just take a David Lebovitz recipe and do it herself. It's not that hard to do and it tastes a million times better than anything you can buy at the market. And it goes without saying, the hot fudge will be homemade, too. In fact, the only things that aren't homemade in that sundae are the sprinkles, although I wouldn't put it past her to figure out how to make sprinkles next.


I'm not a homemade-ist to the same extreme as my mom, but I get where she's coming from, and I feel that same need every once in awhile to opt out of the grocery store and do it the old-fashioned way. And when it comes to hot fudge sundaes, sprinkles really are the only forgivable storebought item.

This vanilla ice cream recipe is ridiculously easy because it's Philadelphia-style, meaning it does not contain eggs like the more challenging and time-intensive custard or French method. If you can master this vanilla recipe, and I promise you you can, then you pretty much have a base for a million other flavors. Add chocolate chips in the last few minutes of churning and you have chocolate chip ice cream. Swirl fudge in and drop pieces of brownie in the last few minutes of churning and yep, you've got vanilla fudge brownie ice cream. You get the idea; the sky's the limit. But first thing's first: master this recipe. You'll never buy vanilla ice cream again.


Vanilla Ice Cream, Philadelphia-Style
Recipe by David Lebovitz in The Perfect Scoop

3 cups heavy cream, or 2 cups heavy cream and 1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pour 1 cup of the cream into a medium saucepan and add the sugar and salt. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the saucepan and add the pod to the pot. Warm over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved.

Remove from the heat and add the remaining 2 cups cream (or the remaining 1 cup cream and the milk) and the vanilla extract.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator. When ready to churn, remove the vanilla bean, rinsing and reserving it for another use, and then freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Makes about 1 quart (1 liter).

Chocolate Cream Dream Pie, AKA Leave Your Man at Home Pie

I recently hosted a girls' night with a couple of girlfriends. We watched Waitress, that very feminist, female-empowering (read: awesometastic) movie with creative pie recipes woven into the storyline. Main character Jenna, played by Keri Russell, makes pies for a living, but what's unique about her pies is that her life experiences often drive the kinds of pies she makes.

Here are a couple of examples:

• Jenna finds out she's pregnant and names a pie, "I Don't Want Earl's Baby" Pie. It's a pie made of egg and brie cheese with a smoked ham center.
• "Baby Screaming Its Head Off in the Middle of the Night and Ruining My Life" Pie: New York-style cheesecake, brandy-brushed and topped with pecans and nutmeg.
• "Earl Murders Me Because I'm Having an Affair" Pie: smashed blackberries and raspberries in a chocolate crust.
• "I Can't Have No Affair Because It's Wrong and I Don't Want Earl to Kill Me" Pie: Vanilla custard with banana. Hold the banana.
• "Pregnant Miserable Self-Pitying Loser" Pie: Lumpy oatmeal with fruitcake mashed in. Flambeed.

That list is probably only half the pies Jenna invents during the movie. What could be more appropriate during this pie-themed Girls' Night than for me to make a pie, too. I chose a Dorie Greenspan chocolate pudding pie recipe with a graham cracker crust. Dorie calls it "Chocolate Cream Dream" Pie. It's quite a cute name, but in honor of the film, I had to rename it "Leave Your Man at Home" Pie. After all, this is girls' night. And I wrote the word P-I-E on the top with chocolate chips, you know, in case anyone thought we were eating, um, baked alaska? It was the perfect pie to get us in Waitress mood.


Chocolate Cream Dream Pie
Recipe by Dorie Greenspan in Sweet Times

1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon pure vanilla

Bring milk and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks, flour, and cornstarch together by hand until thick, smooth, and pale. Very gradually add the hot milk, whisking constantly. Pour this mixture through a strainer and back into the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon, until the cream thickens and one bubble comes to the top and pops, about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat and blend in the chocolate and vanilla. Scrape the cream into a clean bowl, lay a sheet of plastic wrap against the top of the cream, and chill for at least 1 hour. The cream can be made up to 2 days ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator.

The Crust
1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs (from 11 double crackers)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar (Dorie calls for 2/3 cup shredded or flaked coconut but I've replaced that with sugar)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl or a food processor, mix together the crumbs, melted butter, and sugar until uniformly moistened. Press mixture evenly into a 9-inch pie plate, bringing crust up to top of plate around the sides. Bake for 5 to 8 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on a rack. Crust can be made ahead, covered, and refrigerated for 2 days or wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 1 month.

Topping
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Whip cream until it holds soft peaks. With a rubber spatula, fold in the sugar and vanilla.

Assembly
Fill the crust with the chocolate and top with whipped cream. Refrigerate up to 3 hours.


Step-by-Step in Pictures

Combine egg yolks, flour, and cornstarch...

Whisk together till light yellow and thick...

Pour the hot milk-sugar mixture into the egg mixture slowly while whisking in order to temper the eggs (you don't want omelet like I tend to do!), then strain the mixture through a sieve back into the saucepan...

Cook until the milk-egg mixture thickens, remove from heat, and add vanilla and chocolate...

When it resembles chocolate pudding, transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap directly across the surface of the pudding (to avoid a skin forming), then refrigerate...

To make the crust, blend together graham crackers, melted butter, and sugar...

Press into a pie pan and bake for 5-8 minutes at 350 degrees F...

To assemble, fill the pie crust with the pudding...

Whip up the heavy cream...

Fold in the confectioners sugar and vanilla...

Spread on top of the pudding, then refrigerate the pie until you're ready to serve...

You've got pie!

"Leave Your Man at Home" Pie!

Toasted-Coconut Rum Banana Bread

I came home from work completely exhausted, put my keys and purse on the kitchen table, readying to settle in on the couch for the evening, and then instead realized there was going to be a change of plans as I stared annoyingly at my blue hobnail Fenton glass bowl of four very ripe bananas. Four of them! Doh! Why did I wait? Or more fairly, why did I buy so many bananas when I knew I couldn't eat them fast enough? Or maybe it's not my fault at all. Why does Mother Nature let bananas turn brown so quickly? :(

Back in November, I blogged about a similar experience where I came home to find very ripe bananas on my countertop and had to decide what to make with them. Back then, I chose not to be as predictable as banana bread, and instead made Banana Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. It was incredible.

This time, I decided I would make banana bread. But this is no ordinary banana bread. It's got the flavors of Jamaica with coconut and rum mixed in with the banana. And as exotic and unconventional a banana bread as the title conveys, it's still an easy bread to make. Beatrice Ojakangas continues to be an excellent source for recipes.


Toasted-Coconut Rum Banana Bread
Recipe by Beatrice Ojakangas in Quick Breads

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 tablespoons dark rum
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 3 medium)
1 cup flaked coconut, toasted 5-8 minutes in a 350 degree F oven

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x5-inch loaf pan or three 5x3-inch loaf pans.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, rum, and almond extract. In another bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt together, then add to the creamed mixture. Blend in the banana and coconut. Turn into the prepared pan or pans. Bake 55 to 60 minutes for the large loaf or 45-55 minutes for the smaller loaves, or until they test done. Cool in the pan 5 minutes, then turn onto a rack. Makes one large or three small loaves.


Step-by-Step in Pictures

Cream the butter and sugar, then add the eggs, rum, almond extract, and dry ingredients...

Place your very ripe bananas in a bowl...

Mash them!

Here's your batter...

Pour into your well-greased pan...

Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-55 minutes (it took me about 55 min)...

Delicious cross-section with flecks of coconut...