Catching the Wedge in Seal Beach

Look, I'm not going to argue that it's better than Alain Passard's harlequin of spring vegetables with sweet and sour sauce followed by a stroll through the gardens at the Musee Rodin. But at the end of a warm summer day, I can't think of much that beats a walk on the beach and a Wedge salad at The Abbey bar and grill in Seal Beach.

It's Southern California beer food at its best: a wedge of crisp iceberg lettuce, topped with a gloppy blue cheese dressing and sprinkled with bacon, diced red onions and tomatoes and chopped cilantro (blue cheese and cilantro, great combination!).

Follow that up with one of the restaurant's pizzas or -- if you took a really long walk -- one of its monument-sized hamburgers, and a craft beer (in this case, a refreshing orange-wheat from Hanger 24 in Redlands) and you've got a perfect summer Sunday dinner.

Be warned, it's a lot of food -- pictured above is half of a Wedge.

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The chef recommends ...

April Bloomfield's rhubarb fool

-- Russ Parsons

Photo credit: Russ Parsons / Los Angeles Times

Refreshing endive, tangerine and kumquat salad from Bradley Ogden

This weekend I was poking through cookbooks looking for something new to do with the tangerines weighing down our 3-year-old tree. It's armed with some powerful thorns and getting at the fruit in the center of the tree involves some deft maneuvering, not to mention thick gloves. I managed to pick a small basket. Now what?

In "Holiday Dinners with Bradley Ogden," I found this recipe for endive salad with tangerines and kumquats. Especially lovely if you use both regular and red endive. Trader Joe's actually packages them in three -- one white and two red. Added bonus, the recipe enabled me to use the kumquats on the potted tree outside the kitchen door. I needed to pick them so the new crop will come in.

I love the sweetness of the tangerines with the bitter crunchy endive and sweet yet tart kumquats. Peeling the tangerines is easy: just remember to remove any stringy pith. Endive isn't the exotic green it once was and can be found at most markets, which makes last-minute less of a chore.

Adapted from "Holiday Dinners with Bradley Ogden: 150 Festive Recipes for Bringing Family and Friends Together" (Running Press, 2011, 280 pages, $30).

To make six servings, separate the leaves of six heads Belgian endive. In a medium bowl, mix 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice with 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Add the endive leaves and toss to coat. Peel six tangerines and cut into 1/4 inch slices. Cut 18 kumquats into 1/8 inch slices. Arrange the leaves on six salad plates, top with tangerine slices and sprinkle with the kumquats. Serve immediately.

I added ribbons of fresh mint.

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Perry, as in fermented pear juice 

-- S. Irene Virbila
twitter.com/sirenevirbila

Photo: Endive salad. Credit: S. Irene Virbila / Los Angeles Times

Spotted at the Hollywood farmers market: La Nogalera walnut oil

La Nogalera walnut oil comes from the combined efforts of three walnut growers in Santa Barbara County. Hibbits Ranch, La Nogalera and Rancho La Viña have orchards along the Santa Ynez River between Buellton and Lompoc in the Santa Rita Hills wine appellation, where deep fertile soils and a cool coastal climate make for not only a prominent Pinot Noir but a premium flavored walnut oil, too. 

The walnuts -- older heritage varieties such as Concord, Placentia, Payne and Lompoc -- are roasted before being pressed, resulting in a nutty aroma and flavored blend (from $17) that can be drizzled over salads, pasta, even a bowl of ice cream.

La Nogalera walnut oil is available at gourmet markets and wine tasting rooms in the Santa Ynez Valley, Lompoc, Orange County and Los Angeles regions. The oil is also sold at the farmers markets in Santa Barbara, Solvang, Ojai, Santa Monica and Hollywood.

8615 Santa Rosa Road, Buellton, (805) 245-9457,lanogalerawalnutoil.com.

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-- Caitlin Keller

Photo: Hibbits Ranch walnut grove. Credit: Sblandtrust.org

This week's L.A. Times test kitchen 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:

Swordfish with tomatoes and fennel

Lentil salad with tomatoes, zucchini and arugula

The cucumber, pineapple juice and ginger aqua fresca served at Akasha in Culver City

-- Rene Lynch

Photo: Ricardo DeAratanha  / Los Angeles Times

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More recipes from the L.A. Times test kitchen

Sampler Platter: Fried chicken, type-A sandwiches and summer salads

Thank goodness it's Friday's food news roundup...

• Guests taking the 10-finger discount at restaurants. Squid Ink
• The secret to your inner self is located in a sandwich. Chicago Tribune 
• "If the human tongue has a secret password, then [the McGriddle] is the code. How the preference for bacon wrapped in sweet pancakes is an unfortunate side effect of human evolution." We're doomed. Science Blogs 
• KyoChon's fried chicken is coming to the Glendale Galleria. Tropico Station 
• 101 summer salads. (To eat after your McGriddle.) New York Times 
• Cocaine-laced Skittles. News4Jax
• Comedian Michael Ian Black shills for Klondike with a series of amusing videos.
• Invent your own potato chip in Kettle's Create-a-Chip Challenge.

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Fried chicken wings with cabbage salad and pickled radish. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

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

RECENT & RELATED

Join us on Twitter @LATimesFood

Want more tested recipes? Try latimes.com/recipes 

Photo credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Tax day deals for those tax day blues

 

Restaurants are offering an edible tax break today. Among them: T.G.I. Friday's and P.F. Chang's. At T.G.I. Friday's, diners earn $5 Bonus Bites cards for purchases (excluding alcohol and taxes) of between $15 and $25 or $10 cards for purchases of more than $25. P.F. Chang's is offering 15% off your food bill. McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants is also offering cheap drinks, a $10.40 menu, and diners can get a $10.40 certificate toward future purchases.

$10.40, get it? 10-40?

-- Rene Lynch

We're all a-Twitter @LATimesFood

George Wilhelm / Los Angeles Times

VIDEO: How to select the best seasonal strawberries -- and what to make

Watch this video about buying the best strawberries, and then consider making this, this, this, this or this. Or this or this.

The Biggest Little Garden: A box of grow-your-own vegetables

The Biggest Little Garden is a compact, three-tiered planter made of a handsome (and rot-resistant) cedar -- just the right size for a small balcony. The 32-inch-wide planters are narrow enough to squeeze through small apartment doors, raised high enough so no stooping is required for planting and picking, and built with a trellis on the top tier to support bean and squash vines. And for residents of New Westminster in Canada, it's free. Click to read more.

-- Deborah Netburn

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What to do with those greens once they're grown? Here are some recipe suggestions from The Times' Test Kitchen.

Join us on Twitter @latimesfood.

Photo: Fraserside

Sampler Platter: Jelly molds, marshmallow Peeps & bizarre diets

      Midweek food news from around the webosphere ...

• How marshmallow Peeps are made. Chicago Tribune
• From tapeworms and ear stapling to cavemen and bibles, the 10 craziest diets in history. Neatorama
• Eat Food With Me gets stuffed on the never-ending salads at Itzik Hagadol in Encino.
• Domino's is NOT giving away free pizzas after all. Sorry. The Consumerist
• How two young Eton and University College grads have quickly become England’s kings of the jelly mold art scene. New York Times
• Whole Foods makes an in-house knock-off of Amy's frozen roasted veggie pizza, but it doesn't hold a candle to the original. To Live & Eat in L.A.

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Faceless marshmallow Peeps being hatched on the conveyor belt at the Just Born Inc. facility in Bethlehem, Pa. Credit: Mike Mergen / Bloomberg News