Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Eating Around LA County Fair

The annual LA County Fair started this past weekend at the Fairplex in Pomona and will go on until September 29. Yes, there's petting zoo (and milking demonstration), Esmeralda's Traveling Circus, magic show, safari show, sharks, and all that, but you know I'm all about the food. As usual, there are tons of fun food around. Fair food!

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Chicken Charlie's always has some fun items. This year's includes Krispy Kreme Burger or Sloppy Joe (two mini glazed donuts with either a burger patty or sloppy joe in the middle), deep fried Twinkies, bacon wrapped pickles ...
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Deep fried twinkie
There's also a deep fried Dodger Dog although I didn't try this. Where's the chicken in Chicken Charlie, you ask? They do have chicken kebabs which looked pretty good, but everyone's here for the deep fried creations.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Recipe: Evan Kleiman's Chicken Pot Pie With Duck-Butter Dough

Remember when I took that pie making class with Evan Kleiman and Sherry Yard as a fundraiser for KCRW? Well, here's Evan's amazing chicken pot pie recipe. I get hungry thinking about this pie!

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The first part is, of course, the pie dough. Evan uses part butter and part duck fat for her chicken pot pie dough. Love ...

Evan Kleiman's Duck-Butter Dough
Ingredients:
12 oz flour
pinch of salt
5 oz high fat butter (Plugra, Kerrygold) cut into 5 pieces, chilled
3 oz rendered duck fat, pulled into 3 pieces, chilled
4 to 5 oz ice cold water

Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Toss the butter and duck fat lumps around until they are coated with flour. Use a pastry cutter or your fingers to mix the fats and flour together until you have a mixture with uneven crumbles, some as big as almonds and some as small as peas.
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Add the water a tablespoon at a time, fluffing up the mixture after each addition with a fork. Once you can create a clump by squeezing the dough in your fist it has enough water. Don't worry if it's a little shaggy, as long as it sticks together.

Divide the dough in half and form into flat discs.
Dump the crumbly mixture onto your work surface and bring the mass together by first pushing it away from you with the heel of your hand then gathering it up with a bench scraper. Repeat if necessary. Here's a video of Evan's instructions on rolling the dough:


Sunday, September 1, 2013

Help Beat Childhood Cancer at LA Loves Alex's Lemonade on Sept 28

Summer isn't over yet and there are still more great food events coming up! One of my favorites is LA Loves Alex's Lemonade (see my recap from the 2011 event) which raises funds to fight childhood cancer and it all started from a little girl called Alex and her lemonade stand ... The LA event last year raised half a million dollars!

This year's event will take place on September 28 and is hosted by Chef Suzanne Goin and business partner Caroline Styne (AOC, Lucques, Tavern), and Chef David Lentz (The Hungry Cat) and brings in LA's superstars like Providence, Bestia, Animal, Trois Mec, Rustic Canyon and more. Mixologists, sommeliers, and wineries will also be there including Eric Alperin from Varnish, Silverlake Wine, Hitching Post and many more.

There will be guest chefs from out of town including Matt Acarrino (SPQR in SF) and Chris Bianco (from Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix!), Michael Tusk (Quince in SF), Jonathan Waxman, Adam Perry Lang, Brian Huston (Publican in Chicago), Giada de Laurentiis and more.

Oh, as a bonus, Neil Patrick Harris is an honorary committee member. He was there in 2011 so you might catch a glimpse of him again.

Here are the details of the event:
When: Saturday, September 28, 2013, 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Where: Culver Studios, Culver City, CA 90232

Tickets are $175 each and can be purchased here, or if you have the funds you can get the $1200 Meet and Greet tickets (includes ticket to chefs dinner on Sept. 27, access to a Top Sponsors reception prior to the event, and early admission including a behind the scenes tour of the event to watch the chefs prepping)
Children 12 and under get in for free with accompanying adults.

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