eggs – Jim Drohman

Breakfast starting at 9am

Jim — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 17:35:00 +0000

Café Presse is up and serving breakfast Wednesday through Sunday starting at 9am. Omelettes, baked eggs, house-made pastries and Caffe Vita coffee. And coming soon, we will once again be serving our house-made whole milk yogurt with toasted walnuts and local organic honey.

Spring Menu starts at Café Presse

Jim — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 18:15:50 +0000

Warm Yakima aspargus served with Dijon mustard cream, chives and cripy country ham

Cafe Presse chef de cuisine James O’Hern unveiled his new menu for Spring 2018 today with the traditional staff tasting. The staff tasting is sort of a cross between a dinner party and a training class on all the details of the new menu; food, friends and lots of talk about the dishes.

Here are some photos to whet your appetite. Hope you will come by Cafe Presse soon to try the new dishes for yourself.

And watch this space for photos of the new dessert menu coming soon!

Octopus in the style of the Camargue, served warm tossed with aioli, red potatoes, capers and red chili flake, on a bed of arugula and green onions

Salmon-smoked salmon rillettes with house-made rye-black currant baguette and fermented radishes

Moroccan-style beet salad with orange slices, picholine olives, parsley, mint, cilantro, olive oil, red wine vinegar and citrus-fennel pollen yogurt

Half free-range WA chicken served cold with mayonaise and a salad of onion-cucumber pickles, kale, green beans, red peppers and black pepper vinaigrette

Burgundy-stye smoked ham terrine served with grain mustard, rhubarb compote and grilled country bread

Grilled rabbit-pork boudin sausage served on a sauté of fingerling potatoes, Walla Walla onions and spinach and butter-roasted carrot purée

Cauliflower bread pudding, pan roasted and served on a portabello mushroom-asparagus-green garlic ragout with a fried duck egg

Grilled Idaho trout filet served on a salad of French green lentils, radishes, watercress, walnuts, scallions and walnut-sherry vinaigrette

Petit sirloin steak frites served with a creamy leek and blue cheese sauce

Summer Chef’s Dinner photos

Jim — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 19:15:42 +0000

Vinegar cured anchovies and nectarine-basil tartare with sherry and hazelnuts on grilled baguette slices.

The Summer 2016 Chef’s Dinner at Café Presse was last Tuesday and we had a great time!

The theme for the dinner was “Summer in the Pays Basque” and the menu took its inspiration from the recent trip to the French Basque countries taken by our chef de cuisine Patrick MacWhorter.

Keep your eye on Café Presse’s website or this blog for info about the next Chef’s Dinner, coming in November 2016. And if you would like to be on our mailing list for events like this, please sign up for monthly newsletter here.

Eggs scrambled with piperade, on sliced baguette.

Spinach and sheep’s milk cheese croquetas.

Local tomatoes with marinated salt cod, walnuts, creamy lemon vinaigrette and poached eggs.

Penn Cove clams and Pacific calamari in sauce verte

Tolosa beans simmered with sweet peppers, chard, smoked paprika and Basque cider, garnished with boudin noir, grilled pork collar and braised pork short ribs.

Natillas: poured custard flavored with lemon and cinnamon, peaches and almond shortbread

Fall menu 2014 starts at Café Presse

Jim — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 19:58:01 +0000

Fish of the day poached with fennel, Nicoise olives, white wine, lemon and fish broth, served with grilled fingerling potatoes.

Chef de cuisine Dre Neely rolled out his Fall 2014 menu last Thursday, featuring dishes that highlight Fall produce and flavors. The menu also marks the return of seasonal favorites such as raw oysters on the half shell, and French onion soup.

Here are some photos of the new dishes. And check out the full menu on our website.

Salad of escarole, roasted yellow beets, winter pears, toasted pecans and roasted garlic vinaigrette.

Grilled duck-pork sausage served with pumpkin confiture, cornichons, grain mustard and grilled country bread

Crispy calimari, chorizo, red endives, oranges, white beans and creamy orange dressing.

With our cold roasted half chicken, a salad of roasted cauliflower, red onion, capers and anchovy vinaigrette.

Warm salad of roasted root vegetables and Brussels sprouts, confit of duck gizzards, parsley and sherry vinaigrette, topped with a fried egg.

Creamy gratin of Savoy cabbage, roasted pumpkin, chestnuts topped with sheep’s milk bread crumbs, with a fried egg.

Penn Cove mussels simmered with Basque-style sweet pepper compote and piment d’Espelette, with grilled baguette.

Pan roasted petit NY strip steak with caramelized green cabbage, mushroom-brandy-walnut butter and pommes frites.

Natural pork short ribs braised with red wine and grain mustard, with sauteed turnips, mustard greens and red grapes.

Early Fall dishes on the menu at Le Pichet

Jim — Sun, 07 Sep 2014 18:02:28 +0000

Although it still seems like Summer in Seattle, Fall has come to the farm tables in the Pike Place Market. Here are some new dishes recently added to the menu at Le Pichet that reflect the arrival of Fall produce. And you can check out the entire menu on our website.

Grilled pork-black pepper sausage served with a sauté of fresh shell beans, Savoy cabbage, onions, grapes and yellow mustard seeds.

Creamy mushroom soup with bleu cheese from Auvergne, parsley and glazed pecans.

Local troll caught salmon filet served on a saute of sweet corn, chanterelles, turnips, turnip greens and finished with persillade butter.

Grilled Washington albacore tuna loin served with piperade, gascon-style corn cakes and a fried farm egg.

Spring Menu now at Cafe Presse

Jim — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 20:01:40 +0000

House cured tuna, Yakima asparagus, soft cooked egg and tarragon vinaigrette.

The Spring 2014 menu at Cafe Presse was rolled out on Tuesday April 8, 2014. If you haven’t had a chance to come by and try it yourself, here are some photos of several of the dishes…Hope you will come by and try these as well as the rest of the menu.

Sandwich with house-made smoked pork sausage.

Served with our cold roasted half chicken, lentil tabouleh with red peppers, tomatoes, parsley and cumin vinaigrette.

Creamy sweet garlic soup with marinated scallions and bleu cheese croutons.

Two eggs broiled in a skillet with watercress, spring peas, mushrooms, watercress cream and parmesan.

Assiette de crudites, a selection of raw vegetable salads.

Salad of zucchini, escarole, pecans, sultanas, aged sheep cheese and a lemon-garlic vinaigrette.

Steak frites with creamy bleu cheese sauce with shallots and thyme.

House made lamb-pork sausage, grilled, on white beans simmered with asparagus, spring onions, leeks and a mint pistou butter.

Toureau poitevin: rich ricotta cake with spiced red wine and cognac poached prunes.

Chocolate gateau with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

Winter Dishes at Le Pichet

Jim — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 20:59:55 +0000

Pan seared fish of the day with a buttery carrot puree, Paris style gnocchi, leeks and wilted spinach.

Thought you might like to see a few photos of the Winter dishes recently added to the Le Piche menu by Chef de Cuisine Jack Spiess. Enjoy.

House-smoked black cod filet with pickled vegetables.

Oyster a la bordelaise

Creamy gratin of winter squash, kale and wild mushrooms, topped with butter poached duck’s egg

Northwest Grass Fed beef skirt steak, with braised cabbage and apples and roasted chestnut sauce, with pommes frite

Washington natural chicken roasted to order; with wild mushrooms, salsify, mustard greens and Cantal cheese cream sauce

Green Chard for Dessert?

Jim — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 08:51:03 +0000

Green Chard: not just for dinner
I recently set out to make a Tourte aux blettes, a sweet tarte made with green chard, which is a specialty of the city of Nice on the French Riviera. If you are saying “Green chard for dessert? You gotta be kiddin’ me”, trust me, you are not alone; more than one of my friends and co-workers returned a suspicious look when I offered them a taste. Lets face it, its not an American thing.

Its a hit in Nice
A sweet chard tart may seem a little bit counter-intuitive but I have tried in in Nice can assure you that, if well made, it is very good. It features some of the most iconic ingredients of the Niçoise tradition (chard, pine nuts, lemon, olive oil, golden raisins, Parmesan cheese) and can be found throughout the city, especially in simple eateries offering food to take out, where it shares counter space next to pissaladière, socca, tomato tarts and other classic Niçoise street favorites.

It is interesting to note that, in France, chard is grown primarily for its thick stems and not for the greens. Gratin aux blettes, for example, is a creamy gratin of chard stalks which are first blanched then baked with bechemel and gruyere cheese. Because the stalks are prized over the leaves, French varieties of chard generally have huge stalks, as much as 2-3 inches wide at the base, and very little green leaf. I have heard that in the past, the leafy green of chard was considered as only suitable for animal feed by most Frenchmen. It is only in Provence and the Cote d’Azur that it appears regularly in recipes.

I personally eat both the leaves and the stem of chard, as I do with most hearty greens. Slow cooked with olive oil, a bit of red flaked chili and garlic, the stalks are a healthy treat.

Anyway, my recipe for Tourte aux Blettes, which I am developing for my next cooking class in July, 2013, features pastry flavored with lemon zest and olive oil. The filling is chard, eggs, golden raisins, Parmesan and a layer of apples, all flavored with rum and vanilla.

Here are some photos of the process…will post the finished recipe soon:

The dough, resting.

Filling ingredients

Green chard leaves, blanched and chopped.

The finished filling.

Rolling the dough.

Apples peeled and sliced.

Finishing the tourte.

In the oven.

The tourte is finished.

Our neighbor’s eggs

Jim — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:06:57 +0000

The house next to ours in Orthez is what I would term a manor house; that is, a grand old home in its own modestly sized park. I am sure that the term ‘manor house’ implies something specific, but to my eyes, it’s a manor house.

Although it was originally built as the home for a single family, the current owners, sisters in their 80’s whose father built the house, have converted it to apartments for a number of families, one of which they occupy. The park has been in part converted to garden and a meadow that is home to chickens, rabbits, a calico cat and usually, a number of migrating birds just passing through.

Monsieur Belkir, who keeps the grounds and tends the chickens is kind enough to offer us fresh eggs as often as we like, along with vegetable and lettuce in season.

We in turn contribute all our vegetable trimmings and stale ends of baguette by tossing them over the fence. I think we get the better end of that bargain!

Spring dishes new to the menu at Le Pichet

Jim — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:43:15 +0000

Washington State asparagus broiled with lemon-garlic oil, thinly sliced Iberico lardo, soft cooked egg and crispy waffle cut potatoes.

As more spring vegetables arrive in the market, chef de cuisine Jack Spiess has been adding new spring-inspired dishes to the menu at Le Pichet (he also took these photos…thanks Jack). Enjoy!

Spring lamb soup with lamb broth and shank, white and kidney beans and spring herb pistou butter.

Trout filet grilled on the skin on a salad of grilled bread, arugula, Meyer lemon, Nicoise olives and garlic-white anchovy bagna cauda

Grilled Northwest Grass Fed beef skirt steak, wild ramp butter, rustic mushroom duxelles and pommes frites