Drink Pink 2011 posterpdf

CAFÉ  CAMPAGNE ‘S    LA   FÊTE   DU   ROSÉ

 Celebrate the coming of hot summer days and warm summer nights with our annual rosé party!

 Thursday, June 9, 2011 from 4 pm- 7 pm

 Cyril, our Wine Director, has sourced some fantastic and varied  rosé wines

foryou to taste, explore and enjoy!

The $15 admission includes your first glass of rosé wine and passed hors d’oeuvre provençal:

Tomate Farci   tomatoes stuffed with goat cheese

Fennel Beignets   deep-fried fennel

Socca  seasoned  chickpea crèpe

Pissaladière  caramelized onion pizza with anchovy and olive

DRINK PINK WILL BE HELD IN THE  UPSTAIRS COURTYARD

 Drink Pinks  of the past have been  great fun and we look forward to having you with us again this year.

Happy Halloween, friends, family and followers!

Halloween means a lot of things to many people: gorging oneself on chocolaty sweets, putting together an amazing and clever costume, hitting the town for a night of revelry, playing practical jokes to “trick” your friends and colleagues.  But for many, Halloween is when we realize that November starts tomorrow and that means we’re only a month away from the holiday season – Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s.

These are festive times worth celebrating, for whatever reason suits you.  It’s the month of holiday parties with co-workers, end of year family reunions, weddings and new arrivals.  We often have a lot of people ask us about booking larger parties during November and December and we always encourage them to join us.

Philip Pichette, a long time server upstairs at Campagne, serves as our private dining coordinator.  Over the years he’s put together everything from a big brunch for friends to weddings and the following reception, all in the restaurant.

We’re looking forward to making this year’s functions unforgettable for many companies and families who have already contacted us about event. But the fact that we’re booking up quickly does not mean there’s no availability yet.

If you’d like to arrange an amazing party, for whatever the occasion, feel free to contact Philip by email or by phone at 206.612.8519.

With this month’s venture into the Normandy region, our wine director, Cyril Frechier, has brought glass pours on to the menu that highlight the region’s popular apple and pear farming.  This region is renowned for its great variety of heirloom species, over 100 varieties are found thriving by generations of Normand farmers.  Through the processing of these apples and pears come two famous beverages: cidre bouche and Calvados.

Cidre bouche is a low alcohol, fruit laden and full flavored cider customarily produced in three different styles: sec – dry, demi-sec – off-dry, and doux – sweet.  Our featured apple cider, the Cidre Bouche de Cru, by Duche de Longueville, is a dry cider that is clean and light with crisp apple flavors.  The producer of this cider has gained a reputation as the only French company specializing in naturally-fermented ciders with no additional ingredients presented.

The featured pear cider, the Poire Autehntique, by Eric Bordelet, is Bordelet’s “Grand Cru” pear cider with just a hint of residual sugar.  It is very classy with the texture and taste of ripe pears and has a good amount of acidity and length. Bright, crisp, and delicious, these two ciders are a great match to the local cuisine of Normandy, which is traditionally rich in dairy and bursting with autumnal flavors.

Calvados, or apple brandy, comes from the distillation of apple cider. Production methods are strictly regulated; provenance, ageing period, and the distillation process chief among those regulations.  It is common for Calvados producers to use over 100 specific varieties of apple to produce their eau de vie and the ageing regime is quite lengthy, with a minimum of two years.  The Café’s apple brandy, Calavdos Pays d’Auge, Grand Solage Boulard, ranges from crisp Rome apple and white blossom aromas to sweet, mellow, baked apple flavors.  With this glass pour it is easy to see the many pleasures of the Calvados and as cozy as autumn.

Come join us in the Café for all that Normandy offers, and let our featured glass pours bring you in to the season of apples, pears, and warmth.

Pike Place Market Sunday Chef Cooking Demonstration July 25, 2010

I love carrots.  I like the flavor and the color and the endless ways to prepare it.I like them raw, roasted marinated, baked, fried and pureed. Their tastes can range far and wide depending on the variety and how they are prepared.

In my early days as the chef at Campagne and Café Campagne my love of carrots went a bit too far.  I had prepared a summer menu to be evaluated by the owner.  He said: “what’s up with all the carrots?”  Apparently it was a menu fit for Bugs Bunny.

I had a particular recipe where I diced them really really small and blanched them in salted water and then marinated them in truffle oil.  I called the preparation vegetable caviar.  I think I tried to put it on every fish special I made for a while.  But that’s how it is when you get obsessed with things.  You do not realize that the rest of the world doesn’t love it as much as you do.

My goal now is to get you to share my obsession with carrots and give it the rightful place in you cooking repertoire.  In the summer when they are in abundance, I think it is good to have some options. These are three ways that we prepare it a Campagne and café Campagne.

Carrot Salad

1 # organic carrots

12 each garlic cloves, fresh

3 lemons, juiced

1 T Dijon mustard

Sea salt

Fresh ground black pepper

Blender

Wash, then peel bunched organic carrots. Make thin slices by using a Japanese mandolin. In blender, combine 12 medium fresh garlic cloves and the juice of three lemons, 1 Tablespoon of Dijon mustard, puree until smooth, and then add olive oil in steady stream until thick and creamy. Pour vinaigrette over carrot slices and marinate at least 1 day. Adjust seasoning with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. These need a minimum of one day to taste good. The day of marinating will allow the carrots to release some of their juice and mix with the marinade and then you will get this pale creamy carrot colored vinaigrette that is really delicious.

Now the magic of this dish is in two places.  First: the carrots.  Then it is in the garlic cloves.  When the garlic is relatively fresh in the growing season, it has a softer slightly moister consistency, since it hasn’t been left to dry as most of the garlic you find in the store (which are perfectly good, by the way). Most of the time when we make creamy vinaigrettes in restaurants, we use an egg or at least and egg yolk as an emulsifier (this stabilizes the vinaigrette and keeps the oil from separating). The fresh garlic is a great emulsifier, so along with a little mustard you are able to make a purely vegetarian vinaigrette which has great creamy consistency.

Currently at Café Campagne, we use this salad on salad Nicoise plate along with lots of traditional things like egg, tomato, tuna, potatoes and marinated vegetables.  We also use it on a tartine which is made with this fantastic bread from Grand Central bakery.

I must give credit to one of my culinary heroes, Joel Robuchon (  http://twitpic.com/28nen7 )as I was inspired by a preparation years ago in his first book Simply French.

Glazed Carrots

I pound organic carrots, peeled and sliced thinly, discs or sticks, your choice.

Water to cover

2 Table spoons butter, unsalted

1 teaspoon sugar

1 pinch sea salt

Fresh herbs: parsley, basil or mint

A shallow stainless steel sauté pan (straight and short sides)

The heart of the glazed carrots is the French technique of glazing vegetables.  This is one of those things you learn very early on at culinary school or in French kitchens and I think it remains very useful. It is a technique that can be used with other root vegetables: celery root, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, even beets, though I think it is best with carrots.  At the heart of things is keeping the flavor by keeping the juice.  Typically when carrots need to be cooked, they get boiled.  Boiling gets the carrots to a point where they are easier to eat and digest-meaning softer.  The problem is, when you dump the water, you dump most of the flavor and vibrancy that was in the carrots.  Glazing helps you keep that juice and that is where the flavor is.

Here is the procedure:

Place prepared carrots in sauté pan.  Add enough water just to cover the carrots; and a pinch of salt, little sugar and a couple tablespoons of butter.   Bring the water up to boil, then, turn it down to a simmer.  At this point, allow the carrots to cook gently until they just get tender.  If the water goes down below the level of the carrots, before they are finished cooking, add more water. When the carrots are ready, remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon and hold them on a plate.  Turn up heat and return the liquid to a boil.  Continue to boil until the liquid reduces and begins to get a little thick and glossy and there is just enough to coat the carrots.  At this point return the carrots to the pan and gently coat in the glaze.  If more time is needed to heat the carrots, add a little water and heat until hot and glazed. The combination of sugar, butter and the carrots juices create the glaze. Finally finish the dish with your favorite soft herbs, parsley, basil, mint, tarragon, even chervil.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EasyFrench

and at  http://twitter.com/daisgord

Last fall I visited Kelley Moore’s “Moore to Life” TV show which was focusing on charitable work in the community. I still had loads of beautiful basil pesto puree which I had made during the bountiful summer and I had been featuring a mussel dish on Cafe Campagne’s menu. Here is a link to the video of the show. My part is about six minutes into the segment.

Basil and Tomato Mussels with Kelley Moore

Cheers,

Daisley

Sunset magazine did a story on the Pike Place Market which was featured in their May Travel Issue. Here’s a groovy picture of me on “le grande scooter rouge”
Sunset Scooter

This month the Café is focusing on the Loire region of western France. Following the longest river in France, the Loire, some of the area has shifted sovereignty throughout history between the French and the British, with even a bit of linguistic influence from the Celts in nearby Breton. Famous for its illustrious Châteaux, it also brings an incredibly diverse offering of wines and cuisine.

The first course is a Salade Tourangelle, which means a salade made in the style of the city of Tours, located the middle to middle-east part of the Loire region.  Common vegetables in the region are artichokes, asparagus, green beans, and mushrooms, most often the Champignon de Paris, so you’ll find the latter two marinated and then tossed in a creamy mustard vinaigrette for this salad.  We dress some celery with lemon and toss all this together to be finished on the plate with a couple rillons.  These are chunks of pork belly that are marinated with white wine and herbs for twenty four hours, braised and then crisped in fat to make a rich, textured addition to the salad.

The second course is Cuisse de Lapin aux Pruneaux.  Although often a dish made with pork, this rabbit variation is exquisite.  The leg is marinated in red wine, browned then braised in red wine and chicken stock.  The last half hour of the braising, port-soaked prunes are added.

The third course, the traditional Pain d’Épices, which literally translates as “Bread of Spices”, is a dense bread made with cinnamon, clove, cardamom, anise seed and honey.  The bread itself serves as a wonderful bed for a house-made honey ice cream.

We’ll have this available for dinner all month long.  We first started serving it last night and sold out of it by about 8:30! Needless to say, we’ll be happy to prepare more to meet the demand.   The whole meal is $35.00 per person.  Hope to see you soon!

Keep an eye out for another post later this weekend about the wines we’ll be featuring this month too!

Matt Longman

IN THE HEAT OF THE BATTLE

Hey Friends,

here is a shot of me during my Iron Chef America battle against Bobby Flay.

We are having a viewing party on October 11th starting  at 6PM.  The entry is $25 for assorted charcuterie and snacks.  There will be a cash bar. Reservations are required.  If you can’t make it to the party, be sure to tune in on the Food Network