Palate
933 South Brand Blvd., Glendale

We visited Palate Sunday @ 12:30 pm
Dish we will try to cook – Potted Planked Smoked Trout $6

Restaurant Visit
One of the best parts about writing this blog is finding hidden gems of restaurants tucked away all over the greater Los Angeles area. And this week, our readers once again sent us an expedition to a part of town we don’t normally frequent for dining out. Like Noir Food & Wine, Palate is an unassuming restaurant that will soon be one of your favorites.

Palate is part restaurant, part tasting bar, part cheese cellar, part wine merchant and part lounge. All of these parts are equally strong and combine to make the experience memorable. Lunch is served only on Fridays and Saturdays, while dinner is served Monday-Saturday. On Sundays, they offer a sessions menu in the wine bar during the afternoon and a set 3 course meal in the restaurant for their dinner menu. Since Glendale is a bit of a drive from the west side, we decided to visit them on a Sunday afternoon. Thus, we enjoyed our meal in the wine bar.

We knew we were running the risk of not being trilled with our meal since the sessions menu consists of only one daily special, but our doubt was soon cast off upon hearing the daily offering was a duck leg confit with figs, sweet white corn, fingerling potato, and sherry vinegar, $12. It’s like they crafted the dish around all of our favorite foods. We ordered two. And since we were sitting in the wine shop, we also ordered two glasses of wine, of course.

The dish tasted just as delectable as the description implies. For a lunch menu, the plate was quite large and very filling. We had a fun time discerning the different flavors and picked up on thyme and orange (probably orange peel) as the main flavor enhancers, second to the listed apple cider vinegar which gave a nice bite to the dish. The duck itself was evenly cooked and was so tender it simply fell off the bone. And all that for only $12 a plate!

Why, you might be asking, did we not choose to decipher the recipe of the duck confit for the blog this week? Well, it came down to the fact that we’ve prepared duck a few times already for our blog and we thought their might be backlash if we kept it up. So with keeping the dishes we’ve already written about in mind, we chose to start our meal with the potted planked smoked trout, listed under the Mason Jars section on the wine bar menu which is also available on Sundays.

Beyond the obvious inclusion of smoked trout in the dish, we weren’t quite sure what we’d be receiving. The section of Mason Jars on the menu was soon explained as the dish is served, in fact, in a mason jar. One mystery solved. On first bite, (and sorta just from sight), we realized the appetizer is like a tuna salad, but with trout. Second mystery solved. From such an ambiguious description of the dish, we were blind sided by the explosion of flavors the simple plate embodied. We tasted lemon, dill and tarragon right off the bat. Combining those three flavors with the trout and a light mayonnaise created a dish that is full of flavor yet also light. The smoked trout is served with buttery toast which enhances the creamy taste. It was a challenge to make ourselves leave some of the trout on our plate to bring home and use to compare our version too. We forced ourselves to leave a few bites. Sacrificing for the betterment of all our readers.

It just so happens, that the Sunday we visited Palate the final world cup game was also being played. Which means, it was only us and one other couple in the entire place. We chatted with them a bit and it seems they are Sunday groupies and they said the place is typically quite packed. There is seating around a large tasting bar and also several tables dispersed between the bar and the wine merchant area of the back part of the building. To reach the wine merchant area, tasting bar, and lounge area you enter through the back of the building. The restaurant faces the front street. The whole building itself is quite intriguing, having once been an old storage depot.

After fully enjoying such a wonderful Sunday lunch, we couldn’t wait to be home and get in the kitchen to start cooking. And we hope you don’t wait long to reward your taste buds with a meal at Palate for yourself. We look forward to hearing from those who eat in the restaurant itself, as we have no doubt the experience will be just as rewarding. The menu changes weekly, so you’ll always have an excuse to drive to Glendale.

All this, and we didn’t even give praise to the diverse selection of wines they have to offer. The atmosphere is relaxed, and fun so even if you aren’t very hungry definitely swing by Palate for a happy our sip or after work drinks with friends.

Shopping
(prices reflect the cost of the package, not the portion we used.) The rest of the ingredients we already had in the kitchen.

Whole Foods
Large Brown Free Range Eggs $3.99
Lemon $.79
Tarragon $1.99
Dill $2.00

Santa Monica Seafood
Trout Fillet, 1.74lb $17.33

Recipe
Below is our take on smoked trout. While we have no idea exactly how they prepare theirs, we looked around online for recipes to smoke trout, how to make mayonnaise from scratch and then combined that knowledge with the flavors we tasted in the original dish and went from there.

Makes 3-4 servings.

Smoked Trout-

3 Trout Fillets, about 1lb total
2 cups water
2 TBSP salt (for brine)
1 tsp salt (for mayo)
Wood chips (such as pecan, apple, or oak),
soaked in water for 30min – 1hr, then drained
2 fresh large egg yolks
1 cup olive oil
2 TBSP fresh lemon juice (plus additional for spread)
1/2 TBSP fresh dill
1/2 TBSP fresh tarragon, chopped
Oil (to grease grill grates)
Additional salt to taste

Make a brine for the trout by mixing water and 2 TBSP salt. In a shallow dish, place trout and fully cover with brine. Soak trout in brine for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, create mayo by adding egg yolks in a food processor (you can also use an electric whisk, hand whisk, blender, or emersion blender). Blend egg yolks very well. Next, very slowly add in oil, a few drops at a time with the food processor on until all oil is incorporated. Add the lemon juice, a few drops at a time. Alternate between adding the olive oil and lemon juice to the food processor. Slowly, you will see the mixture begin to thicken. Go slowly, allowing time for the food processor to blend well before adding more. Once mayonnaise is fully formed, add 1 tsp salt and blend again. Transfer mayo and refrigerate.

Next, oil grill grates. Heat a grill or smoker at 150 degrees. Add the wood chips. Place fish on grate, close lid and smoke. After about 20 minutes raise temperature to about 225 degrees and smoke for another 20 minutes. Once done, flake fish into small chunks. Combine trout, mayo, dill, tarragon and lemon. Add additional salt to taste.

Plating
You can serve the trout in a shallow, wide mouth mason jar as Palate does or even use a short, glass juice jar. Scoop 1-2 portions of the dish, depending on the size container you are serving it in, into a container and garnish with chopped dill and tarragon. Serve with buttery toast, crackers or bread of your choice.

Rating- We give our dish 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Our thoughts- We really feel we came as close to recreating their dish as we possibly could have without having their exact recipe. The differences lie mostly in the heaviness of our mayonnaise compared to theirs. Having made ours from scratch, which creates a rich, pale yellow mayonnaise, we wonder if Palate does the same or uses a pre-made spread as theirs is lighter both in density and in color.

In fact, the mayonnaise proved to be the most difficult part of this recipe. We have to admit that when one reads the recipe, it seems quite easy. Yet we had to start over from the beginning three times before we were finally successful in creating mayonnaise. That meant we went through our eggs and a bottle of oil quite quickly. Our best advice is to have a lot of patience. When the recipe calls for the olive oil and lemon to be added slowly, it means it. We practically added it drop by drop and the entire process of adding the cup of oil takes about 30 minutes. We had the benefit of using a food processor, otherwise beating it by hand will make for some really sore arms. However, we hope you will give it a shot. Once we finally saw the egg yolks and oil start to thicken, it became an educational process of truly seeing how mayonnaise is made. We may not be making it from scratch every time we want a sandwich but we do have a greater appreciation not only for the skill required to make mayonnaise by hand, but also the flavors that a store bought spread simply cant replicate.

And now that we’ve figured out how to smoke trout on a grill, we will be preparing fish this way for many meals to come.

This dish works well in the summer time was the trout lends for a lighter flavor compared to a more dense fish or meat. You can make it for appetizers to impress your guests or simply prepare it for an afternoon treat for yourself.

How would you rate our recipe? We look forward to hearing feedback from you guys on your first attempts to make mayonnaise at home. It’s truly amazing that someone figured out how to mix egg yolks and oil to make such a creamy, yummy condiment. Feel free to email us if you have any questions on the recipe and don’t forget to vote for next week’s restaurant!

Tags: Palate, trout

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Seafood, Side Dishes. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.