Family style.

Today we started a new Tuesday tradition at Mallet...family style lunch together.
We hired a fantastic chef, Jessi Aaenson formerly of Le Pichet and Café Presse, now with her own company Peak Nutrition. She made a simply perfect meal today for us, lasagna (with meat, without meat, gluten-free), she covered ALL the bases and hit a home run!

It has been proven that sharing a meal together with your co-workers boosts morale and bringing people from different departments together on a casual regular basis fosters good feelings and helps productivity. Oh, and um...IT'S DELICIOUS and FUN.

In the "old days" a lot of European factories used to have cafeterias where the mama would come in to cook for everyone and it would be a time for everyone to come together and break bread. Now in this fast pace world...even tech companies with cafeterias...people take their food back to their desks and keep working away. This is a great way for us at Mallet to do things the old world way...even if only on Tuesdays.

If you are ever in need of a superb chef...Jessi does it all...caters, cooks, shops, meal plans...whatever you need, in a healthy way.

 

 

 

Indian Summer!

Our fantastic summer of 2013 is not over yet. Any proper Seattleite is relishing in the extra days of summer that is bestowed on us this week. It's downright something you want to celebrate.

Made us want to go out to Ray's Boathouse to enjoy the beautiful new restaurant...enjoy a cocktail, crabcakes and killer view!

Chef Wayne at Ray's was kind enough to share his recipe for simply perfect crab cakes so we can pretend summer is never ending!

Ray's Boathouse Crab Cakes

2 tablespoons butter
2 shallots, very finely minced
2 lemons, zested
2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 cup dry sherry
2 cups cream
2 lbs Dungeness crab meat
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup minced chives
1/2 cup minced chervil or parsley
1 cup panko

Melt the butter and add the shallots and sweat until soft. Add Old Bay and lemon zest and cook for 1 minute. Deglaze with the sherry and reduce until nearly dry. Add the cream and reduce until nape (somewhat thick).  Cool slightly and pour the cream into a mixing bowl along with the remaining ingredients. Gently mix by hand and taste; add extra seasoning as needed.  Shape into small cakes (about 2 inches diameter) and sauté in a small amount of olive oil for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden brown.  Serve hot!

M Kitchen photo shoot

Busy couple days in Mallet Kitchen! Photo shoot for Sur La Table in our space. The natural lighting in there proved to be amazing rain or shine.