This week's L.A. Times recipes

 

All recipes that appear in the L.A. Times' weekly Food section are tested and perfected in our test kitchen before they're deemed fit to print. (That means you don't have to worry about a trial run before serving one of our recipes to company. Rest assured, it should work the first time out of the gate.)

Here's a look at this week's recipes:

California chicken salad

Loaded meatballs

M Café's scarlet quinoa salad

Mediterranean barley salad

Ojai Valley Inn's apple-wood-smoked bacon and farm-fresh egg risotto

Seed Kitchen's walnut cookies

Spicy fig loaf

--Rene Lynch

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Photo credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Bye bye, delivery guy -- we've turned our kitchen into a pizza parlor

We turned today's Food section over to one of our favorite foods: pizza. We've got everything you ever wanted to know, or needed to know, about pizza.

Seriously.

You probably think you cannot make good pizza at home because you lack a pizza oven. Well, think again. Times test kitchen manager Noelle Carter shows you how to line your oven with fireproof bricks*** so you can achieve that trademark crispy crust. (You can also watch her do it in the video.) All good pizzas start with homemade dough, so we've got a recipe for that as well as recipes for pizza Margherita (and a no-cook sauce) and potato pizza. We've also got a look at variations on that theme.

But let's say you're not the cook-at-home type, or you want your pizza, and you want it RIGHT NOW. Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila takes you on a tour of the best gourmet pizza spots in town and here's a list you'll definitely want to bookmark, as well as a locator map. (And by the way, did you ever wonder how we got from regular old-fashioned pizza to gourmet pizza? Check out this cool pizza chronology flash graphic.)

What's that? You say that you can't get good pizza west of Manhattan? Then check this out. And then check out this list of places were you can buy it by the slice.

Finally, here's a photo gallery look at testing out pizzas in The Times' test kitchen, from start to finish, and here's a recommended wine to wash down that slice of 'za.

(***Note that we said fireproof bricks. If you use the regular ol' bricks you've got piled up in the yard, they could explode. And that's not a good pizza topping.)

-- Rene Lynch

Recession Busters: Get your restaurant deals right here [Updated]

   

The recession is taking a big bite out of L.A. restaurant business -- read more here. Yet there is an upside: There are so many restaurant deals going on right now (yes, thank the economy), it's tough to keep track of them. So we've compiled a list of running bargains -- prix-fixe meals, especially happy happy hours, discounts and specials. If you'd like to keep us posted about ongoing or upcoming restaurant deals, please e-mail food@latimes.com.

Ammo
“Simple Supper Menu”: Available Monday through Thursday (and Fridays and Saturdays before 7 p.m.), three courses for $30: your choice of soup or salad; citrus marinated jidori half chicken with cabbage fennel salad, Oro Blanco grapefruit, pickled red onions and pistachios, or poached Scottish salmon with beets, peewee potatoes, arugula and Meyer lemon, or house-made pappardelle with dandelion greens and pancetta; and build-your-own sundae.
1155 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood, (323) 871-2666, www.ammocafe.com.

The Bazaar by José Andrés at the SLS Hotel
The restaurant has extended its DineLA Restaurant Week offer indefinitely: four courses for $45 per person. First course: jamón serrano with “Catalan style” toasted bread with tomato and olive oil or “organized Caesar salad” with quail eggs and Parmesan cheese; second course: “croquetas” (chicken and bechamel fritters) or “not your everyday Caprese salad” (cherry tomatoes and liquid mozzarella); third course: sautéed shrimp with garlic and guindilla pepper or hanger steak with piquillo pepper confit; fourth course: traditional Spanish flan with fresh cheese and fruit or assorted bonbons.
465 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 247-0400, www.thebazaar.com.

Deep-fried cupcakes? This Is Why You're Fat

Do you like to look at pictures of "deliciously gross food" such as this cupcake that has been deep fried and then drenched in chocolate syrup and topped off with sprinkles?

Well, someone out there does. Within three days of launching this month, a blog and website dedicated to food porn -- the aptly titled ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com -- pulled in more than 3 million pages views. (The blog's subtitle: Where dreams become heart attacks.)

"We thought it was a very good idea, but we were both very surprised at how it caught on." That's one of the co-creators -- she prefers to be identified as Creator No. 1 and declines to be identified because she and her partner are in the media and want to avoid making themselves part of the story behind the blog, to keep the focus on the food.

A little mystery never hurt either.

"It started because we were joking about how there are all these really nasty pictures of fatty foods floating around on the Internet. We’re like, "Do people really eat this? Are people posting these photos as a badge of honor?'"

They started collecting images on Feb. 1 and launched Feb. 9, and it's been pinging around the Internet ever since, thanks in no small part to mentions by Time, The Atlantic, the New York Times, etc.

Trim chefs share their fitness secrets

Chefs often work grueling hours in the kitchen under extremely stressful conditions, tasting much of the food they cook. It's not easy to stay slim under such circumstances -- but not necessarily for the reasons you might suspect.

True, some chefs are tempted to overindulge at work, but others are so busy feeding other people and so sick of what they serve that they rarely take time to eat full meals during the day. Starving by the end of the shift, they gorge on massive meals late at night and then drop into bed with a bellyful of food.

This isn't exactly a recipe for good health. Several prominent Los Angeles chefs, however, have managed to avoid these professional hazards and get fit while working around food. Six of them share their secrets here.

The Bazaar: It's a four-star experience

If you follow the culinary travels of Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila, you know that four-star reviews are almost unheard of. (Check out this list of our top-rated restaurants of the last five years, and you'll see that her last four-star review came in 2005.)

Well, move over Joel Robuchon. You've got four-star company. Here's how Virbila starts this week's review:

Olives that flood your mouth with flavor. A foie gras lollipop wrapped in cotton candy. The definitive shrimp with garlic. Innocent-looking bites that shoot smoke out of your nostrils.

How to describe the experience at the Bazaar by José Andrés in the new SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills? Fellini-esque, a gastronomical circus, a flirtation with the flavors and soul of Spain?

Los Angeles has never seen anything remotely like this exciting restaurant from Spanish chef José Andrés.

Read more about S. Irene Virbila's four-star experience, and check out more photos of the Bazaar -- as well as its signature dishes -- here.

And the video is must see.

--Rene Lynch

Restaurant Spotting: This week's openings, more to come

Despite an economy whose outlook is increasingly grim, restaurant openings are continuing apace. This week's openings bring you: Fig, the "seasonal" bistro at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows in Santa Monica; Toscanova in Century City; and Tonys in West Hollywood.

At Fig, there's an extensive bistro-by-the-beach menu with tarte flambee, steak frites, rillettes, plenty of salads, and what might be an overabundance of references to "locally sourced," "organically grown," "principles of sustainability," "indigenous ingredients," etc. 101 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 319-3111.

Toscanova is the latest from restaurateur Agostino Sciandri (Ago on Melrose and more recently an outpost in the Greenwich Hotel in New York). It's family-style "northern Italian," located in the Westfield Shopping Center in Century City (near Houston's). 10250 Santa Monica Blvd., Century City, (310) 551-0499.

We've said plenty thus far about Tonys West Hollywood, set to open today. It's the casual Italian steakhouse from Tony Riviera of Primo Hospitality Group (Caffe Primo). In these times, it's probably worth noting again that the menu promises nothing over $25. 8570 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 289-1145.

And just on the horizon: Cabbage Patch, from former Rustic Canyon chef Samir Mohajer, is expected to open any second now in Beverly Hills. And in the weeks to come, there will be some majors, such as Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne's Brentwood restaurant Tavern (not to be confused with Westside Tavern, the project from former Whist chef Warren Schwartz, opening around the same time), the Rustic Canyon-adjacent bakery Huckleberry and Susan Feniger's Street. Stay tuned.

-- Betty Hallock

Photo courtesy of Tonys

Caramelized onions, Part 3

Caramelizing onions from Simply Recipes on Vimeo

You really like your caramelized onions.

This Food section story was a hit with readers, quickly ranking as one of the most viewed, most e-mailed and most commented-on stories of the week. Thanks to all who wrote to offer up their tips for putting an end to all those tears while chopping onions.

We also noticed that one question came up again and again: Could you make this process easier by doing it in a slow cooker?

Well, we haven't tried that, so we cannot give a definitive answer. But several readers said they'd had great results by using a slow cooker, over eight to 10 hours. Some readers advised high heat, while others, like Madeline O, advised keeping it low, low, low:

Put the onions in your food processor. Bam! Minced. Put the onions in your SLOW COOKER! (I have a 5 qt Westbend, that adjusts to VERY low. Leave the top off, and stir about every 15 minutes once they start to brown up...

If you try it, please let us know how it turned out.

In the meantime, check out the mesmerizing video we found over at one of our favorite blogs — Elise Bauer's Simply Recipes. And click below for two recipes from Leslie Goldenberg of Woodland Hills, who kindly passed along her favorite ways to use caramelized onions:

— Rene Lynch

Settle in for some more tea talk

In our ongoing tea talk, for all you naysayers who thought tea wasn’t hot (pun completely intended), check out Sunset Magazine’s tribute to the Top 10 teahouses on the West Coast.

Locally, it names Le Palais de Thes in Beverly Hills at No. 5. Le Palais serves over 250 teas from around the world and boasts a selection of cast iron Japanese teapots.

Now do you think there is something in the air?

--Lori Kozlowski

Photo: At Téance in Berkeley, owner Minnie Yu pours a whole-leaf white tea from China.

Credit: Jen Siska

Eight great three-hour dates on a $25 budget

Our Business section shows you how to wine and dine your sweetie -- and still stick to your budget. Business editor Sallie Hofmeister tells you what's on the menu:

"My partner, David, and I had missed celebrating the New Year with a couple of our friends, so we made plans to meet them at the Malibu Seafood Fresh Fish Market and Patio Cafe a few Sundays later to satisfy our craving for raw oysters and champagne.

"I packed a little cooler with a couple of bottles of Blason de Bourgogne's Cremant de Bourgogne, a delicious French sparkling wine sold at Trader Joe's for $9.99. I dug out a box of cheap champagne flutes and tucked an oyster knife into my pocket. Off we went at about 2 in the afternoon, giving us enough time to enjoy the day and take in the sunset."

Read the full story on cheap dates here:

Photo: Nate Bressler / For The Times