RECIPES FROM SALT HOUSE, ANCHOR & HOPE
AND TOWN HALL SAN FRANCISCO RESTAURANT MENUS
Review by Barb & Ron Kroll
Cooking My Way Back Home - Recipes from San Francisco's Town Hall, Anchor & Hope and Salt House
(Ten Speed Press) ISBN 978-1580085922 158008592X
Home cooks can replicate the restaurant meals at Anchor & Hope, Salt House and Town Hall in San Francisco with Mitchell Rosenthal's recipes.
To create these Southern comfort foods, regional dishes and decadent desserts, Chef Rosenthal uses culinary techniques, spices and flavors from his experiences cooking and eating at international and regional American restaurants.
Salt House restaurant
Organized by style of cooking (e.g., slow food), as well as type of food (e.g., cheese), the 263-page cookbook features 100 recipes.
Following each chapter introduction and recipe index, Mitchell Rosenthal explains how to cook specific foods on his restaurant menus. For example, to avoid dry halibut on the Salt House menu, he bakes the fish slowly in olive oil.
He also discusses recipe ingredients, such as the differences between guajillo and ancho chiles. (The flavor of guajillo chiles is bright and spicy, while the flavor of ancho chiles is deep and earthy.)
Most of the recipe ingredients in Cooking My Way Back Home are easy to find, except for a few, such as Peppadew peppers and sea urchins. When he uses regional ingredients in a recipe, such as Farmstead Cheese Company's Point Reyes Original Blue cheese, he suggests easy-to-find alternative ingredients.
Town Hall restaurant
Mitch Rosenthal gives home cooks recipe variations. For the medjool dates stuffed with peanuts and tasso (cured Cajun-style pork) appetizer on San Francisco's Town Hall restaurant menu, he suggests grilling four dates per skewer until the bacon is crispy, rather than baking them.
Dazzling photos by Paige Green depict the delicious restaurant recipes in Cooking My Way Back Home, as well as Salt House, Anchor & Hope and Town Hall restaurants in San Francisco. Photos of Mitchell Rosenthal cooking include step-by-step photos of him showing how to confit a duck.
Sample San Francisco restaurant recipes
Autumn salad with cider vinaigrette and candied hazelnuts. Shrimp fritters with chile lime dipping sauce. BBQ shrimp with toasted garlic bread. Country biscuits with ham and red pepper jelly. Cheesy rosti potato cake with roasted garlic and thyme. Asparagus fondue with truffle oil. Fish tacos with avocado creme and spicy chipotle salsa. Curried chicken sandwich with cashews and currants. Pecan-smoked pulled pork, Carolina style. Apple-glazed St. Louis ribs with spicy bourbon barbecue sauce. Slow-smoked barbecued meat loaf. Garlic studded hickory-smoked prime rib. Seafood risotto with lemongrass. Lemon chicken with olives and feta. Parmesan-crusted lamb shank with garlic mashed potatoes. Butterscotch chocolate pot de creme. Town Hall's infamous hot chocolate. Sticky toffee pudding. Chocolate chunk cookies.
Contents
- Introduction
- Doug Washington's Dinner Party Notes
- Small Bites
- Big Bites
- The Cheese Department
- Sandwiches
- Smoke and Fire
- Slowed Cooking
- Grilled, Roasted and Fried
- Desserts
- Basics
- Index
Author
Mitchell Rosenthal is the co-owner and executive chef at three restaurants in San Francisco—Town Hall (address: 342 Howard St.), Salt House (address: 545 Mission St.) and Anchor & Hope (address: 83 Minna St.), as well as Irving Street Kitchen in Portland, Oregon. Jon Pult co-authored this cookbook.