My ultimate comfort food is a plateful of fried chicken and doughnuts.

Back in January, I raved about Thomas Keller’s buttermilk fried chicken at Ad Hoc in Yountville.  Those were the best fried chicken I have had so far.  The skin is crispy, the meat is moist, the chicken is perfectly fried with an incredible aromatic lemon flavor.  The chicken is brined overnight before it is coated in buttermilk and spices and then deep fried.  I was so in love with Ad Hoc and their fried chicken that I picked up a copy of Ad Hoc at Home, recreated it at home and the results were phenomenal.

Last weekend, we drove back to Yountville to indulge, not in fried chicken this time, but in brioche doughnuts from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery.

I had heard about these doughnuts and had been planning a trek to Napa Valley to try them but these treats are truly elusive.  Bouchon only makes them in tiny batches on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  The brioche doughnuts, a creation by pastry chef Richard Capizzi, are so popular that they are typically gone within a few hours after the bakery opens at 7 in the morning.  Last Saturday, I thought Jun-Blog’s first year anniversary was reason enough to finally try them.  We woke up bright and early at 6, walked Stanford and fed him breakfast, showered and hit the road at 7 to make sure we got a taste of those decadent doughnuts.

The bakery is pretty and quaint with a huge, brightly lit display full of macarons, muffins, eclairs, tarts, and bouchons — small chocolate brownie-like treats shaped like a cork.  But I had my eyes on only one thing and after I spotted them neatly arranged on a cake pedestal next to the croissants and baguettes, I got extremely excited.  It was 8:30 in the morning, there was only a couple of people in line ahead of me and I simply couldn’t wait.

Sometimes, I wonder how I do it.  I wonder how I can keep myself from grabbing the doughnut or the bread pudding I am photographing.  I usually do.  But after spending a good half an hour trying out different shots I threw my lens aside and decided it was time to kick back and enjoy the doughnuts.  The seasonal fruit doughnut was strawberry rhubarb, which is topped with cheesecake frosting and shortbread crumbs.  Bouchon’s weren’t the typical light and fluffy doughnuts.  They were brioche-like.  Denser and richer.  More buttery.  The strawberry rhubarb filling was pleasantly not overly sweet, not overly tart.

But it was Bouchon’s chocolate brioche doughnuts that made me fall in love with Thomas Keller even more.   They are filled with rich chocolate ganache, glazed with dark chocolate on top and generously covered with tiny dark chocolate covered rice puffs.  The decadent chocolate ganache filling simply blew me away.   And the wonderful crunch of those tiny spherical chocolate rice puffs totally knocked my socks off.  Those were the best doughnuts I have had so far.

And of course, Stanford had his share of Bouchon bliss as well.  We figured, he was wondering why it was Saturday and we totally abandoned him early in the morning and so we brought home a couple of foie gras biscuits for the corgi.  Foie gras, bacon, ketchup and cornmeal.  No wonder, Stanford inhaled them in two seconds.

Bouchon Bakery
6528 Washington Street
Yountville, CA 94599
707.944.2253

With still a lot of Venezuelan chocolate left from my strawberry and marshmallow dipping craze and with a dessert task at hand for a dinner party we were invited to, I decided to make brownies from Ad Hoc at Home.

I like my brownies super moist and rich. Thomas Keller has a great simple recipe that makes amazing brownies that truly fit the bill.

Making the brownies

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder
1 tsp kosher salt
3/4 lb (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-Tbsp pieces
3 large eggs
1-3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste or pure vanilla extract
6 oz ~60% chocolate, chopped into chip-size pieces
powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Keller recommends using a 9-inch square silicone mold to keep the edges from being overcooked. Metal or glass baking pans can also be used but make sure to butter and flour the pan before baking.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt and set aside.

Melt half the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Place the remaining half of the butter in a medium bowl. Pour the melted butter over the bowl of butter and stir to melt the butter. The butter will look creamy with small bits of unmelted butter. Set aside until it cools to room temperature.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, mix together the eggs and sugar on medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until thick and very pale. Mix in the vanilla. Turn the speed to low and add about one-third of the dry ingredients, then add one-third of the butter, and continue alternating adding the remaining flour and butter.  Add the chocolate chips and mix to combine. I used Venezuelan chocolate El Rey Bucare that has 58.5% cocoa. Keller suggests to even go darker: 61 to 64% cocoa.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until a wooden skewer poked in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs sticking to it. If the pick comes out moist, test a second time because you may have just hit a piece of chocolate chip. If necessary, bake for a few minutes longer.

Cool in the pan until the brownie is just a tad warmer than room temperature.

Invert the brownie onto a cutting board and cut into a dozen rectangles or into smaller brownie squares.  If not using a silicone mold, run a knife around the edges of the baking pan before inverting the brownie onto a board.  An important thing to note when using metal and glass baking pans is that the edges tend to get a bit overcooked.    In this case, trim the edges with a knife and serve just the inner and more moist part.

Enjoy these brownies with a scoop of vanilla or caramel ice cream, a little whipped cream, a dusting of powdered sugar or simply just by themselves. Whichever way, they are definitely decadent.

Now that I’ve introduced you to Filipino roadside fruit stands overflowing with pineapples and produce and I’ve showed you how to cut a pineapple fresh from the farm, I’m going to share with you how to make one of my all-time favorites: pineapple upside-down cake.  Thomas Keller has an amazingly simple recipe that uses fresh pineapples. Canned pineapples will work, too but fresh ones make it more elegant.

Making pineapple upside-down cake starts with making a “pan schmear” of butter and brown sugar and then pouring the cake batter over pineapple slices arranged in overlapping rings.

Making the pan schmear
8 Tbsp (1stick, 4 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1-1/2 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp dark rum
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla paste or pure vanilla extract
Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, combine the butter, honey, rum, brown sugar, and vanilla and beat until smooth and well blended. Spread half a cup of schmear over the bottom of a 9-inch silicone cake pan. A metal cake pan will work as well, in fact, this is what we used here but make sure to grease the pan with butter before using it.

Here’s an important note. The recipe makes more schmear than necessary for a single cake but Keller points out in his book that it is difficult to make less. We tried cutting the recipe in half but had a challenging time beating it in the stand mixer. It was doable but a bit hard. When baking just a single cake, note that the schmear will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge or it can be frozen for future use.

Arranging the pineapple slices

Here is a link to learn how to peel and cut a fresh pineapple.

Cut the peeled pineapple lengthwise into quarters.

Cut off the core from each section and then cut each piece crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick slices.

Starting at the perimeter of the pan, arrange the pineapple slices, with the curved side facing out, and form an overlapping ring as shown in the photo. Make a second ring inside the first one, overlapping the pineapple slices in the opposite direction, working toward the center of the pan.

Making the cake
1-1/3 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
8 Tbsp (1 stick, 4 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste or pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp milk

Sift the flour and baking powder together and set aside.

Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle and mix on low speed to combine, then beat on medium speed for about three minutes, until light and creamy. Stop to scrape down the sides of the mixer when necessary and continue mixing. Mix in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until the first one is fully incorporated before adding the second and again, stop and scrape down the sides when necessary. Beat in the milk. Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, beating until well combined.

Put the batter into the cake pan and spread gently over the pineapple. Bake for 15 minutes. Rotate the pan for even browning and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake in the pan cool on a cooling rack for 20 to 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the cake, invert onto a serving platter, and serve warm.

One final word. Be generous with the schmear, which is really the good stuff that makes the cake extra moist. Keller calls for 1/3 cup of pan schmear, I would go ahead and even put 1/2 cup of this buttery-sugary goodness.

Tired of the gray?

Where can you find the most vibrant winter colors?  Napa Valley.

It’s mustard season in Napa.  It’s the season when the grapes take a winter break and the yellow wild mustard flowers bloom.  Driving down Highway 29 is a delight.  Winter is a great time to go visit when the crowds are low.  You can see rows upon rows of yellow wildflowers in between bare grape vines.  The scenery is truly picturesque.

The Napa Valley Mustard Festival starts January 30th and runs through March.  Click here for more information.

Aside from the incredible scenery and, obviously, the wonderful wine, there is also one other thing that makes a trip to Napa, particularly to the town of Yountville, worth while.

It’s fried chicken.

If round things are a symbol of good luck and prosperity then I think there will be lots of it in the New Year.  We may just need to work doubly hard to find it.

Here’s hoping for the best for everyone. Happy New Year!

I hate to admit it but I have become a very impassive supporter of gay marriage and the health care system overhaul.  Although these are issues that are very dear and important to me, I have become very apathetic, maybe because I have become too jaded after Proposition 8 passed in California.  Or maybe because I just don’t think there’s an immediate need or a clear benefit for Dennis and I to get married.  But I think I need to step it up and be more active in supporting these issues.  More so now that I just learned that Dennis and I can be denied of a right.

Since we are  registered domestic partners in the State of California, both of us are covered in my employer’s health care plan.  Dennis runs his own small business and for all those who are not familiar with the current system, health care for small businesses is very expensive.  And so we decided to get covered through my employer’s plan, which is a far better deal even if the Internal Revenue Service considers domestic partner benefits taxable income, in contrast to spousal benefits that are tax-free.

But if I were to lose or leave my job or, heaven forbid, die, Dennis cannot get health care coverage under COBRA, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1995.  COBRA is a federal law that requires companies with 20 or more employees to continue medical benefits to spouses and dependent children in the event of death, divorce, reduction in hours, termination of employment and change in dependent status.  Same-sex domestic partners are NOT legally included in the COBRA entitlement.  This is just outright discrimination.  A heterosexual married couple can continue to have health care coverage through COBRA but Dennis and I cannot because we are a homosexual unmarried couple.  This just makes me furious.

Marriage is not about religion.  It is not about procreation.  Marriage is about civil rights.  Same-sex marriage is about the rights, happiness and equal treatment of millions of gay men and women.  America has come a long way to embrace gay rights but there’s still a lot of work to be done.  I think it will come eventually but I am hoping that it will come soon.

I am so glad to be back in the city!

Last weekend was our first weekend back and it reminded me very clearly of how much I missed and how much I love San Francisco.  It was a wonderful weekend spent walking around our new neighborhood in the Dogpatch, enjoying breakfast at a café, playing ball with Stanford in the park and then running down the Embarcadero later that day.  I really missed the city a lot, I realized.  And I am so excited to be back!

I first moved to the city four years ago and was instantly smitten by its charm.  I have always wanted to live in San Francisco and even though my job was in Silicon Valley I chose to live in the city and brave the long commute.  Last year, however, I joined a start-up company further down south, which meant an even longer commute. We decided to leave and move down to San Jose. We left with a heavy heart but it did not take long for us to realize that San Francisco is our real home. After ten utterly uninspiring months, we have returned.

I love San Francisco.

I love that the city is where Dennis and I met, where we fell in love and where we adopted our adorable red corgi, Stanford.  We rescued him from a shelter in Utah and drove him through the Sierras back to San Francisco.

I love that the city is where I ran my first marathon.  I can still remember that early Sunday morning when I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge blanketed in fog.  It was truly amazing!  I never thought of myself as being athletic but I have been hooked on running ever since.

I love that the city is wonderfully walkable.  I love walking up and down the hills around Union Square and Dolores Park.  Those hills are never too daunting.  I love walking to the train station, to the grocery store, to the bookstore, to the coffee shop and to almost everywhere.  I love walking Stanford in the early morning when it is cool and quiet outside, my corgi in one hand and my cup of coffee in the other.

I love that the city is a gracious host to film and theater.  I love seeing old films at the Castro Theater, from old musicals like Kiss Me Kate and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas to classic Alfred Hitchcock thrillers.  I love that my all-time favorite Wicked first played in the city before captivating Broadway.

I love that the city is foodie-friendly.  I love scrumptious Sunday brunches at Dottie’s, Brenda’s and Town’s End.  Fried chicken at Town Hall and Hard Knox Cafe.  French at Chapeau and Fringale.  And tasty treats at Bi-Rite Ice Cream, Hot Cookie and Happy Donut, where it’s never too late for a quick sugar fix.

I love that the city is a photographer’s paradise.  I love its cool and interesting neighborhoods, each with its own character and charm.   I love its cool and good-looking people, too.

I am so glad to be back in the city. There is so much to explore and so much to discover. There is definitely no place like home.