Friday, April 10, 2009

LOU

Hidden gem is an overused phrase, but Lou really is hidden. As you can see from the picture, Lou is in a strip mall on the corner of Melrose and Vine, sandwiched between a laundromat and the ambiguously named "discount store," which sells party supplies and cell phone cards.

Lou Himself


















I went to Lou with dear old Mum and Dad for their anniversary, even though it's not really their anniversary. Don't ask. I ordered/shared:

Pig candy
Artisanal cheese plank
Roast beet salad with smoked salmon and capers
Fish plate: smoked baccalĂ , albacore confit, smoked trout, wild salmon gravlax


The pig candy was smokey, sugary, and delicious, and I can't wait to try it for myself. As soon as I tasted it I knew I had to ask Lou how to make it. He says they cure and smoke their own pork, then cut it thick and cover it in brown sugar and a little cayenne. The bacon is then placed on a baking sheet with parchment paper, and cooked till it hardens. Here's the trick- when you take the bacon out of the oven, FREEZE IT. Let it cool for a short while and then stick it right in the freezer. That's how it gets that fabulous, crispy, crystallized texture.

I wish I had written down the cheeses, they were excellent, but I didn't get all the names so I'll have to blindly describe them. One cheese, my favorite, was a creamy (I think) goat's milk cheese from the Cowgirl Creamery in California. It tasted like Mill Valley. The cheese was very soft and had so many levels of flavor. First it tasted like a barrel, a sort of old wood flavor on top of the goat. MMmmmMMMmmm. Lou says when he orders the cheese it arrives hard, so he re-wraps it and places it in a cheese fridge to age for two weeks so that it gets soft. The texture and richness were perfect. Way to go Lou!

The salad was small but the perfect size. Perfect red and golden beets- not too hard not too soft. I absolutely hate soft beets. Creamy drizzle of dressing over arugula. The smoked salmon was very salty and had a lot of pepper on it. I am usually not a big fan of pepper but it balanced the salmon well, and I love salt so I won't complain there. Lou says he likes his gravlax salty, they age theirs for ten days, but I'll talk about that when I get to the main course. The capers were not as vinegary as capers that I am used to, and they were very large. However, I think vinegary capers would have been overwhelming with the rest of the salad.

I don't know much about fish so I don't know what was what in my main course. Maybe I do? I will guess. The fish came on a plank with three small tubs with pickled onions (big bite! light pink! wonderful!), creme fraiche, and capers. The albacore and smoked trout each came on toasts soaked in olive oil. It sounds too heavy, but the drenched toast retained its crunch and despite it's drippiness, held the fish well. The baccala was great with a little creme fraiche and it came covered in dill. I loved the gravlax, not as salty as Lou made it out to be but a great bright color with thin slices of onion on it.

We got the guinness cake for dessert, which came with apple slices and whipped cream on top. The spices were delicious, the cake was spongy but still moist, and a very rich dark color with powdered sugar.

When we had finished our dessert Lou came over and gave us a bottle of Creme de cassis dessert wine to make ice cream! We had been talking about making ice cream before and Lou was kind enough to give us the gift of the perfect ice-cream wine. He says it's very sweet and to put it in a pan for a little before mixing it in with a vanilla ice cream to cook off some of the alcohol so it will freeze well. I won't forget. Thank you, Lou!

Sunday, April 5, 2009