Rosemary Bites Go Green !

While we are all into supporting all effort in a sustaining eco-systems,  but that's the the go-green effort that we are referring here.  We are going green with the 'classic pesto'.   I think first of all,  there are a lot of meals or side dishes that celebrates the wholesome, authentic goodness of fresh ingredients, and we believe the one that definitely stands out is Pesto.

Contrary to popular believe,  the green colored pesto does not taste like raw vegetables,  but it's a well blend of earthly nutty flavors, pungent parmesan's kick, with the tangy splash of lemon juice and well balanced with the all-rounded extra-virgin olive oil.   Just like all our specialty sauce,  it's the many layering of flavors that will wake up those taste buds in your mouth.

Pesto is actually a very versatile building blocks in the kitchen. We love to dress the strings of spaghetti with green pesto,  we also love to add in fresh Mint leaves and create a new Mint Pesto just for the lamb or serve your brushetta with pesto for your next entertaining party,  and see your guests in awe !
Finally,  in a whole go-green spirit, good things are meant to be shared ! Here's the Pesto Recipes for you :)

Ingredients
• ½ a clove of garlic, chopped
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 good handfuls of fresh basil, leaves picked and chopped
• a handful of pine nuts, walnuts and cashew nuts, very lightly toasted
• a good handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• extra virgin olive oil
• a small squeeze of lemon juice

Enjoy and go-green !

Favorite Christmas Pie

Do you have a favorite Christmas Pie that you really need to have during the holiday season ?  Well, yes we do and it's none other than the Deep-Dish Apple Pie !

Crunchy apples diced and cooked in butter, brown sugar until syrupy and further simmered till bubbling in caramel like color.  Oh, by than the whole kitchen smells cozy with the buttery crust baking and chemistry of sugar, spice and everything nice.

If you're like us, we 'try' not to share this pie and thus, this year, we serve individual Deep-Dish apple pie, just like mom's !  Everyone get their own pies and their own hmm and ahhh on the dinning table.

So, come on over and experience it yourself !

Merry Christmas Everyone

As we are listening to the christmas songs,  browsing through the shopping mall with all the christmas ornaments,  preparing christmas gifts and sending mail to Santa in North Pole, the world is remaining us this holiday if it's not already upon us.

Christmas holiday dinner is always an important dinner among family and closest friends.  In the States, we can start off with warm cider to warm the spirit and give the stomach a tease of food to come.  The dinner table is decorated with family favourite's food and because we loved to cook,  the Christmas dinner is filled with best recipes from family and friends. 

This year at Rosemary Bites,  we bring you Christmas Family-Style with the touch of home, prepared from our heart to yours. 

There's the famous Shrimp Cocktail Vegas style that we all love,  grandpa's favourite Bourbon Steak, Clara's Ravioli, Mike's baked beans and Aunty Helen's Santa Fe Roast Turkey !!
Merry Christmas Everyone !!

Scarborough Fair Chicken & Mushroom Ragout

Are you goin' to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme  - Simon And Garfunkel

At Rosemary Bites, we just cannot resist ! 

We had to compose a special meal and dedicate to the duo Simon and Garfunkel, whom release the Single Title “Scarborough Fair” in 1966.

The term ragout (French ragoût) refers to a main-dish stew and is a time-consuming entrée.

Scarborough Fair Chicken & Mushroom Ragout is filled with marinated chunks of chicken cooked together with the infamous foursome herbs and 2 types of mushroom including the oriental Shitake, and the ever popular Button Mushroom.
 

We made Classic Better @ Rosemary Bites ! 

Next Rosemary Bites Weekend Star !!

Introducing Baked Escargot in Garlic Butter Sauce, topped with not just 1 but 2 cheeses ! It's the next Rosemary Bites Weekend Star !!

Glamour-licious !

Escargot is a dish of cooked land snails, usually served as an appetizer. The word is also sometimes applied to the living snails of those species which are commonly eaten.  

History: 

Although mainly considered a French dish, escargot (snails) have been eaten for many thousands of years. Large quantities of empty shells have been found in the caves of prehistoric man, indicating that in various parts of the world they were a common part of the diet at that time. With the rise of civilisation, various cultures (including the Greeks and Romans) have continued to eat snails, often considering them a delicacy.

French Cuisine Influence in American Daily Meals.

One of the most famous dishes in French cuisine is escargot, a preparation of snails which can be served with a variety of sauces. Some American consumers find the thought of escargot somewhat disconcerting, as snails are not associated with food in the United States. However, Americans eat other mollusks, such as abalone, and some adventurous diners do try escargot at least once for the experience. When well prepared, the flavor and texture can be quite delightful, and snails have been enjoyed in many Mediterranean nations for centuries.

Are you ready to taste it ? know what it's like ? If so, come on over Rosemary Bites Restaurant and enjoy this classic French Influenced Cuisine for yourself !  Have a glamour-licous meal.

Salmon with Mango Sauce.

Salmon winds up on our plates all the time for so many reasons. It's good for us. It's versatile and always available. It's not loaded with mercury.

I found this article by chance on an old SF Gate article. Its a unique twist on your basic salmon recipe. The mango sauce definitely imparts a complexity to the salmon. Upon taking a bite, I was hit by the sweetness of the salmon, which was immediately followed by a savory undertone of the fish and sweetness from the sauce. The tartness of the lime juice didn’t surface until a little afterward. I couldn’t make up my mind if I liked it or not, but it kind of grew on me, and I found myself wanting more. The flavors layer upon each other, complementing each other quite nicely.

The ubiquitous pink fish has become such a fallback choice that it's easy to miss the point: The flesh of this hard-swimming Pacific native tastes wonderful, especially when it's caught wild, in season, close to USA.

Now is the time. California's wild salmon season opened May 1 and the fishing fleet sped straight out to the Farallones, chasing reports of a monster school of glittering, fat kings gorging themselves on ocean critters. That sets their flesh apart from their pallid, artificially colored, farmed cousins.

Ana Mandara is a popular Vietnamese restaurant located in the heart of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. The restaurant specializes in Asian fusion. Upon visiting San Francisco and each time I’d take out-of-towners to the touristy Fisherman’s Wharf area, I’d see this restaurant packed full of people.

Now you don't have to fly across pacific ocean to enjoy this, Rosemary Bites is serving Pan-Seared Salmon with Mango Sauce this weekend.  That's right !  This weekend's special with limited time and limited quantity.  Bon Appetite !

Mommy Dearest @ Rosemary Bites Restaurant

Mother has always played an important role in our lives.  There's a lot of poems and songs written to showcase mother's unconditional love.  At Rosemary Bites we wanted to show our appreciations to all mothers and thus aside from our weekend specials, we rolled our sleeves and created more delicious REAL MEAL for you and your mom.  We really love to see you dine and share a laughter across the table,  have a heart-to-heart conversation with your mom,  let mom relax, slow down, savor the food and cherish this important moment.

That is why,  we had also created this Rosemary Bites Only Photo-frame for you!  You can then digitized the wonderful moments with mom with our special digital frame. :)   -- click on photo to download.

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers !!  I love you mom, you've always been my inspirations !

I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me.  They have clung to me all my life.  ~Abraham Lincoln

Steak with Béarnaise Sauce @ Rosemary Bites Restaurant.

Béarnaise sauce (French: Sauce béarnaise) is a sauce made of clarified butter emulsified in egg yolks and flavored with herbs. It is considered to be a 'child' of the mother Hollandaise sauce, one of the five sauces in the French haute cuisine mother sauce repertoire. The difference is only in their flavoring: Béarnaise typically uses shallot, chervil, peppercorn, and tarragon while Hollandaise uses lemon juice.

The sauce was likely first created by the chef Collinet, the inventor of puffed potatoes (pommes de terre soufflées), and served at the 1836 opening of Le Pavillon Henri IV, a restaurant at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, not far from Paris. Evidence for this is reinforced by the fact that the restaurant was named for Henry IV of France, a gourmet himself, who was born in the former province of Béarn. The sauce has appeared on US restaurant menus since at least 1882.

"A Béarnaise sauce is simply an egg yolk, a shallot, a little tarragon vinegar, and butter, but it takes years of practice for the result to be perfect," wrote the restaurateur Fernand Point (1897-1955) in ''Ma Gastronomie.''  It is a traditional sauce for steak.Julia Child (1961), ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking''.

At Rosemary Bites Restaurant, we are happy to introduce our very own New York Strip Steak With Bearnaise Sauce during this labor day weekend.  We will be making our own Bearnaise Sauce in house, surrounded by the tarragon, butter, egg yorks and shallots all day :) 

[Yes, our passion is good food and cooking so surrounded by the ingredients for Bearnaise Sauce is definitely a good thing ! do u agree ? ]

Steak Diane @ Rosemary Bites

One of the classic comfort food that we loved is the Steak Diane. While it's a fairly unknown dish here, Steak Diane has actually been making its presence as early as 1907 ! 

Steak Diane was originally a way of serving venison, and its sharp sauce was intended to complement the sweet flavor of deer meat. It was named for Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt, and since Diana was also the moon goddess, the small pieces of toast used to sop up the delicious juices are traditionally cut in crescent shapes.

When was Sauce Diane invented? The earliest mention we find of a sauce with this particular name is 1907, from Escoffier:
"Sauce Diane

Lightly whip 2dl of cream and add it at the last moment to 5dl well seasoned and reduced Sauce Poivrade. Finish with 2 tbs each of small crescent shaped pieces of truffle and hard-boiled white of egg. This sauce is suitable for serving with cutlets, noisettes and other cuts of venison."

---Le Guide Culinaire, A. Escoffier, translated by H. L. Cracknell and R. J. Kaufman recipe 44[1907] (p. 12)

Evidence suggests Steak Diane is an American invention of the late 1950s/early1960s, when French cooking (think Julia Child & the Kennedy White House menus) was all the rage. Rich wine sauces and flamboyant presentation were the norm for many top restaurants. If Steak Diane is an American recipe, then New York City is the most likely place or origin. Jane Nickerson's article "Steak Worthy of the Name," (New York Times, January 25, 1953 p. SM 32) offers three likely candidates: "The Drake Hotel, the Sherry-Netherland Hotel and the Colony Restaurant each said, not knowing that any other dining place had done so, that their patrons praised their steak Diane.

Nino of the Drake claimed he was the first to introduce this dish to New York and, in fact, to the entire United States. Essentially it consists of steak cooked in butter and further seasoned with butter mixed with fresh chives; usually the beef is pounded thin. The chef of each establishment has his own version."


Let us re-introduce Steak Diane to you, either to re-unite with the huntress in you or for a remembrance of old New York !  At Rosemary Bites, it's served with our own Rosemary Sauteed Potatoes and Peas.