Mushroom Flatbread Tostada

It's been awhile since I posted a recipe....but I really have been cooking lately! Here's an easy meatless dinner I've made a few times and really love. It's main ingredient is mushrooms, which I've apparently being sauteing incorrectly, until Scott taught me the professional chef way to do it. Mushrooms contain a high amount of water, which is released at high temperatures. To get perfectly browned sauteed mushrooms, begin with your pan at high heat, add oil or butter, and wait for it to get hot. Add the mushrooms. The mushrooms will absorb all the oil or butter, but do not add more, and don't turn the heat down! Keep tossing or stirring the pan, and soon enough, little bubbles of liquid will begin to "sweat" out of the mushroom. Then they begin to brown, and they are done when they release their liquid. Here I am tossing the mushrooms. Scott was so impressed with my pan tossing skills that he felt the need to photograph it...I'm pretty impressed too, even with a glass of vino! (you can't see the air the mushrooms got in these photos!)

Mushroom Flatbread Tostada

1 lb crimini mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 poblano pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lime
1-2 tsp ground cumin
1-2 tsp chili powder
1 cup corn (frozen, fresh, or canned)
4 flatbreads (I buy the ones in the bread section at Trader Joe's)
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (or anything you prefer)
2 cups shredded cabbage
1 diced avocado
salsa

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the mushrooms, and cook, tossing, until the mushrooms have released their liquid and are browned. Decrease the heat to medium and add the poblano pepper, garlic, juice of the lime, cumin, and chili powder. Season with salt and pepper. Cook about 2 minutes, until peppers are slightly soft. Stir in the corn. Heat broiler. Sprinkle the flatbreads with the cheese and broil until the cheese is melted. Top with the mushroom mixture, cabbage, avocado, and salsa. Serves 4.
Enjoy =)

Bottega

I am thinking of changing my blog name to: Holly Does Napa, since this is yet another Napa post.

Peonie & Scott

I have my favorite places to eat in the wine country: burgers at Taylor's Automatic Refresher, sit down garden fresh lunch at Rutherford Grill, brunch at Bouchon, picnics at Vi Sattui (which our limo driver told us is cracking down on outside food!), and last week I tried a new place that shoots up to the top of my list: Bottega.

Check out the hammered copper water glasses! Very cool, tempted to stuff one in my purse, but I think they would've noticed. They're for sale at Napastyle.com, $89 for 4!

Bottega is Michael Chiarello's re-emergence into the restaurant world. He began as a restaurant chef in Maimi, then opened Tra Vigne in Napa in the 80s, and remained in the Napa culinary circle until 2000, when he left the kitchen for the Food Network.

Hand-cut saffron Fettuccine, Manilla clams, Calabrese sausage,

garlic, basil, parsley, white wine (we re-created this dish for my mom on her birthday...check it out on my mom's blog!)

He hosted Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello on the Food Network, and also Napastyle, a show on PBS. Recently, he opened a store called Napastyle, which sells outrageously overpriced homegoods and kitchenwares. But in 2008, he decided to get back into the kitchen, and opened Bottega, in Yountville.

Congratulations! Running joke of the day after a tasting room attendant looked at Carolina's boobs and congratulated her!

Bottega is an Italian restaurant, and we ate lunch there with Scott's father when we were wine tasting. The server suggested we order food family style, so we can all share, and we took her advice, and were blown away with every dish we ordered.
Here were my very favorites:

Polenta Under Glass

caramelized wild mushrooms, balsamic game sauce

Burrata

Creamy mozzarella burrata with artichoke two ways,

lemon braised and crispy

Hand-cut saffron Fettuccine, Manilla clams, Calabrese sausage,

garlic, basil, parsley, white wine

Garganelli with tomato braised rabbit sugo, wild mushrooms & ricotta

Garlic & Calabrian Chili Roasted Dungeness Crab

crab-saffron aioli, bruschetta

HUNGRY YET?

Schramsberg

This statue is called "Riddler's Night Out", I love it!

I have been on many winery tours in Napa, but Schramsberg takes the cake! This place is amazing!

Scott's father and his girlfriend, Peony, were visiting from Hong Kong last week, and we met up with them in Napa for a day of wine tasting and good food. Scott and I planned the winery stops and lunch, and his dad got the limo. Scott's brother, Jeff, and his girlfriend, Carolina, also joined us.

Schramsberg is a sparkling wine house. They were founded by the Schrams way back before prohibition, but back then they only made still wine. The Schrams enlisted the help of Chinese immigrants to dig a cave for wine making and storage (ok...so maybe they didn't "enlist" the Chinese). The cave is amazing...it was hand dug, and you can actually see the pick marks on the walls! Mr. Schram also built an amazing house, modeled after a ship. However, once prohibition came, the winery had to close. And there it sat, unused caves and a beautiful house, from the 1920s-1960s. The cave was taken over by local wildlife, including tons of bats; and the house was taken over by local teenagers as a secret place to party.

In the 1960s, the Davies family decided to purchase the rundown property and begin to make sparkling wine, since no one else in the valley was doing so. It took them quite awhile to clean out the cave and refurbish the house (especially since Mrs Davies did not want to kill any of the animals in the cave...she actually chased them all out with a broom!). But now, there hard work is greatly appreciated in the beautiful property and delicious sparkling wine.

The Schram house...now a historical building(imagine that as your high school hang out!)

Nowadays, the cave holds 2.5 million bottles of sparkling wine, all going through there second fermentation in the bottle. You can't touch any of the bottles though, since there is such a large pressure build up inside.

Scott, me, Peony...look at all the champagne!!

We also learned about riddling, which is the method of yeast removal from the bottle. The bottles are placed in a riddling rack, where they are turned everyday, and the angle in the rack is increased to coax the yeast to the neck of the bottle; where it is eventually frozen and shot out like a bullet. And a woman came up with this method of yeast removal (actually, Veuve Clicquot...did you know Veuve means widow, she was a 27 year old widow and came up with this method, and kept it a secret from all the other champagne houses for 15 years!) Schramsberg's professional riddler can turn 50,000 bottles in 1 day....and he only works 6 hours! Here is a video about it on youtube if you want to learn more and see the riddler in action: Schramsberg Riddler.

The riddling racks. Notice the stuff hanging off the cave...that is actually moss, and its a sign of a healthy cave. Who knew?

After we toured and learned the history and wine making methods, we had a sit down tasting of 4 sparkling wines and 1 still wine. My favorite was the J. Schram 2002, thanks for the bottle Stephen!

At the tasting: Carolina, me, Scott. The table was made out of a riddling rack...I want one!

Next time any of you are in Napa, make sure to check out Schramsberg...and if you invite Scott and I we can get you the "industry" tour for free =)

Sorry, don't know why this posted so small...but here we all are at Schramsberg.

So, if you noticed, there was no sign of Jeff on our tour. He had an unfortunate foot injury the night before, where he hurt both feet, and was unable to walk. Here's proof he was with us though:

Little brother piggybacks big brother to the limo. Aww!