Friday, January 25, 2008

a little about me (written by a good friend)

I was about to figure out how I should introduce myself, when I remembered this very flattering article my dear friend Greg Atkinson - chef extraordinaire - wrote in his weekly column in The Seattle Times. Since I couldn't have put it better myself, I took the liberty to drag the article right on over. (No cut and paste in Blogger on this browser!) 
Greg initially told me he planned to write the article about my ceramics together with an idea of what I would serve in them. But while I read out the recipe and Greg cooked and served cocktails  . . . he somehow snuck in an interview. 
The recipe in question, Wheat Crusted Halibut Cheeks, was my first concoction after our move from Miami to Bainbridge Island - inspired by the Asian ingredients and fresh fish that enticed us to move to the Pacific Northwest. I hadn't cooked it in a few years - you know how a recipe is in your fave 5 and then you completely forget about it? And what better way than to have Greg Atkinson cook it to remind me why I liked it so much.
It's always fun to have dinner at Greg and Betsy's anyway. I love their house and the whole family. (They have 2 boys as well - Henry and Eric). Besides being an awesome cook and a fun guy to hang out with, Greg makes those wicked cocktails! If only I could remember what went in them!
Well Greg, thank you for our friendship and thank you for writing my introduction for me. Someday I hope to return the favor, but not until I get a few people to read this blog!

Sunday, May 20, 2007 - Page updated at 02:01 AM

Permission to reprint or copy this article or photo, other than personal use, must be obtained from The Seattle Times. Call 206-464-3113 or e-mail resale@seattletimes.com with your request.

BARRY WONG / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Marielle Macville of Bainbridge Island has mastered not only the art of cooking but also the skill of using a potter's wheel, from which come distinctive tableware such as this fish-pattern bowl.


Served In Style

Greg Atkinson

For a lot of people, simply preparing a meal from scratch is a big deal. But for Marielle Macville, it's nothing. Born and raised on five acres that she describes as "kind of a hippie farm" in Holland, Macville has been preparing meals from scratch pretty much all her life. And for her, preparing the food for the table is just one final step in a long process of coaxing elements from nature into ingredients ready for the kitchen.

"We always raised our own lambs for meat, and I used to ride my bike to and from the neighboring dairy farms to get fresh milk. We would let it sit for one day so that we could take the cream off the top for butter and whipped cream."

On her own "hippie farm," a couple of well-tended suburban acres on Bainbridge Island, Macville and her husband of 20 years, Michael Drake, are busy parenting two teenage boys of their own. But they still find time to raise apples, kiwis, grapes, vegetables and flowers as well as chickens and ducks for eggs.

"The duck eggs have bigger, dark-yellow yolks, and they are better for making homemade pasta," she says. "The dough comes out stretchy, more rubbery, so the noodles have some bounce to them."

Her father is Indonesian and her mother is Dutch, says Macville, "so our household was a mixed bag of Indonesian and Dutch cultures. My father's side of the family included a lot of cousins and aunts and uncles — their exact relationship was never clear to me when I was a kid, but they cooked the most amazing foods." Traditional Dutch foods like potatoes and greens from the garden were garnished with fiery sambals in the kitchen. And Macville's cooking reflects that heritage with layers of the exotic and the familiar.

It must have been a combination of healthy, farm-fresh food and her unique heritage that gave Macville her extraordinary looks. Her bright blue eyes and dark complexion combined with a radiant smile have given her an edge in a modeling career that has landed her on the covers of Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire and Harper's Bazaar. And even though she lives on Bainbridge, she still flies frequently to New York and other cities for fashion shoots.

Artistic temperament and creativity apparently run in the family. Drake, when he is not holed up in his studio working on the latest screenplays, is busy creating special effects as an independent contractor for the film industry. Her oldest son plays guitar with a band of budding young Bainbridge musicians, and her younger son, while still in middle school is a prolific artist.

Some people might find parenting and modeling while maintaining a garden and a flock of birds too time-consuming to take on anything else, but Macville's creative urges are apparently insatiable. A few years ago, she decided she wanted to craft her own dishes for serving her home-cooked meals. So she signed up for pottery classes through the Bainbridge Island Parks and Recreation Department. Within a few months, she had mastered the fundamental skills required to throw plates, bowls and cups on a potter's wheel.

Before long, she had developed a distinctive style of glazing that makes her pots instantly recognizable as hers. Now she has a collection of handmade ovenware in which she serves some vegetable dishes; she serves seafood in plates and bowls decorated with a fish pattern she thinks she may have seen somewhere in a museum. "I can't remember where I saw this pattern first," she says, "but I've used it so many times in so many variations that I think it has become my signature design."

Greg Atkinson is author of "West Coast Cooking." He can be reached at greg@northwestessentials.com. Barry Wong is a Seattle-based freelance photographer. He can be reached at studio@barrywongphoto.com.

Wheat Crusted Halibut Cheeks

in Mirin Caper Sauce

Serves 6

Marielle Macville has a unique way of combining textures and flavors, but she adds a personal touch to some of her dishes by serving them on handmade ceramic plates and bowls decorated with hand-drawn fish patterns. Macville serves this dish with rice and a green vegetable such as steamed bok choy.

2 ½ pounds (about 18 pieces) halibut cheeks

½ cup mirin (sweet rice wine)

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

¼ cup naturally brewed soy sauce

1 cup toasted wheat germ

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, or to taste

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ cup peanut oil

¼ cup (½ stick) butter, cut into bits

3 tablespoons capers

3 tablespoons fresh chives, snipped into 1-inch lengths

1 lemon, sliced into thin rounds

1. Marinate the halibut cheeks in the mirin, ginger and soy for 10 minutes.

2. On a dinner plate, combine the wheat germ with the black pepper and cayenne pepper. Lift each piece of fish out of the marinade and dredge it through the wheat-germ mixture to coat it evenly on both sides. Save the marinade to make a sauce.

3. Heat the peanut oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until it is hot but not smoking. Add half the fish pieces and brown them for about 2 minutes on each side. Lift the fish out of the pan, set them on a platter and cook the remaining pieces in the same way.

4. When all the fish has been browned on both sides, pour the oil out of the pan, pour in the reserved marinade and when it comes to a boil, swirl in the butter to make a sauce.

5. Pile the fish pieces back in the pan with the sauce and allow them to simmer for a few minutes, or until they are heated through. Transfer the fish and sauce back to the platter and garnish the finished dish with the capers, chives and lemon slices.

Marielle Macville, 2007

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

rosemary blossom ice cream and sorbet





Well obviously I didn't get to post the results as promised yesterday - I spend most of the day at the pottery studio - but here it is!

I am more than a little proud of this creation. It looks pretty good too I think in my Greek inspired ice coupe. I would probably try a savory version of the sorbet as a palate cleanser after something like a rack of lamb. It fulfilled that job even this time as the wafers were quite rich and not too sweet. I am very happy with the ice cream though. It really succeeded in capturing the piny, nectareous scent that comes through the kitchen window from the rosemary hedge.

That's it for descriptive food-writing for the moment. I should just say: "It was delicious!" and you take my word for it. As far as I'm concerned every flavor has been described to death. It's all re-hashing and regurgitating the same cud. Better to try the recipe and judge it yourself.


 The Ice Cream   

                                 

4 cups rosemary blossoms                        

2 cups heavy cream                                             

2 cups milk                                              

1 cup sugar                                                                                  

a pinch of finely ground black pepper

3 egg yolks


The Sorbet


4 cups rosemary blossoms

4 cups water

2 tbsp. lemon juice

1 cup sugar


Pick only the freshest blossoms, preferably early in the morning when the blossoms are most fragrant. Measure 4 loosely filled cups and put them in a saucepan together with the heavy cream. Bring to a simmer over low heat, then let it cool off and steep for at least 4 hrs. or overnight. For the sorbet use 2 cups of water instead of the cream.

Strain though a sieve.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan whisk the yolks together with a little cream. Continue stirring with a spoon over low heat, while slowly adding all the infused cream, sugar, pepper and milk. When the mixture starts to coat the spoon, remove from heat, cover with a lid and cool.

In another saucepan heat the infused water with the other 2 cups of water and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon juice and let cool.


Refrigerate until chilled, then follow the instructions on your ice cream maker.


Let the sorbet and ice cream thaw a little before serving them together with the: 


Crunchy Rosemary Ice Cream Wafers


2 oz. butter

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

2 tsp. flour

1 tbsp. cream

1/16 tsp. finely ground black pepper

1 tsp. finely ground fresh rosemary tips

grated peel of 1/2 lime


Preheat the oven at 375ºF

Stir all the ingredients in a saucepan over low heat until sugar and butter are melted.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. This is a must - trust me, the cookies will stick to anything else.

Drop level tsps. of batter spaced out evenly on the baking sheet. On a full sheet you should fit 12.

Bake for5 min. until caramelized and golden.

You can open the oven to check as no tsp. is ever eequally level and no oven heats the same.

Slide the parchment paper on a rack and let the wafers cool.

Use a new sheet of paper for the next batch.

Serve when cooled, or store in an airtight container until ready to serve.


You should have about 20. (Unless, like me, you screwed up a few).


Pretty quick to prepare and best made on the day of serving, but that goes for all cookies in this house. They usualy disappear in seconds.




Monday, January 21, 2008

rosemary



It's a sunny day in January . . . Pacific North West. I'm not complaining. The kitchen doors are open, time to air out this place and plant myself in a chair on the deck. Dogs are welcome, noisy kids NOT. Husband wanting lunch - NOT either. I'm going to sit and not move. Air myself out too if you want to call it that. 
It takes a bit to clear out enough of the tinnitus from the incessant humming of my PowerPC G4 mirror door - yes that noisy beast - to notice the whir of hummingbirds buzzing their fly-by snack-bar. With that I mean the 3 foot high, 20 foot long rosemary hedge planted around said deck that I'm sitting on. They, the hummingbirds, could care less that either I, the dogs or the cat are watching them. They're having a feast. And that, feast that is, is enough to get me to be done with sitting and be up with a basket gathering rosemary blossoms for a feast of my own. Well, our own - I'll be sharing. 
This is what I'm thinking here. If the hummingbirds are so excited about the blossoms of my rosemary that they aren't even bothered by a stalking, drooling cat, then they have to be onto something. Honey of course. I can smell it now. Lot's of honey. There are plenty of blossoms for a flock of hummingbirds - if there is such a thing - and my little family of 4. So in my basket they go. Four cups before I get tired of picking; they're kind of small.
I think ice-cream or sorbet will be the thing to make. Or maybe both, be good to know what tastes better. Eggs and cream can enhance the flavor or overpower it. I'll know tomorrow.
It's hard to sit down when you get inspired to cook. Cooking? It's ice cream making, it's freezing. Well, it still involves some cooking.