Winter Wonderland Dinner: February 12

Finally, the rain has come and it’s beginning to feel like winter. To get you in the mood, Canvas Underground is joining with a couple of talented line cooks from Flora Restaurant for a dinner in an “uncommon” location. Reserve your seats now >

Caitlyn and Thomas’s menu features the all-stars of winter ingredients — and they’ll be paired with the musical harmonies of a folk-punk band who will surely have you stomping your feet and forks!

As usual, BYO wine, beer and hearty appetite!

Menu

Passed Appetizers

Artichoke dip with green tea, preserved lemon

Romesco with poached cod with garlic oil

Intermezzo

Greyhound Sorbet

Entree

For meat-lovers: Duck confit carnitas with pickled huckleberries

For veg-lovers: Risotto with brussel sprouts, Golden delicious apples, manchego

Dessert

Crepe Gateau with Mexican chocolate ganache, cardamom and whipped cream

The Boucherie Marketplace on Dec 4

The Boucherie Market Place is teaming up with Tina Tamale and La Borinquena for a holiday market with some of the Bay Area’s best food artisans. RSVP NOW

• Boucherie Cured Meats
• Tina Tamale
• Andrew Lane Winery
• The Uncommon Pickle
• Baia Organic Pasta
• Urban Preserves
• Semita Dulce
• And more….

Plus get in on the free bacon and sausage making demos! RSVP here >

Opera & Pickles

Do you like all things pickled, creative seasonal cuisine and awesome vocal talent? Then you’ll want to check out our next dinner at a West Oakland Victorian home.

Sample (and purchase if you like) local, organic pickles from The Uncommon Pickle and bask in the beautiful voice of mezzo-soprano Michelle McDowell.

Order tickets via Eventbrite:
http://powerofmusic-efbevent.eventbrite.com/

Enjoy four courses of music inspired cuisine interpreting the songs Michelle will perform:

Batti, batti o bel Masetto
Carpaccio of lamb loin
black garlic battuto
pickled blueberries
chiles softened with tomato

Una donna a quindici ann
Warm terrine of foie gras
pink peppercorn pasta blanket
wild arugula

Voi che sapete
thigh of young chicken, braised tender
wild and cultivated mushrooms
almond milk

Beau soir
rose petal meringue
chocolate mousse
wheat berry praline
raspberry anglaise

Order tickets via Eventbrite:
http://powerofmusic-efbevent.eventbrite.com/

Our Next Dinner: July 11, 2011

Hi y’all! We know things have been a little quiet the last couple of months but we’re excited that Chef Peter is the exec chef at new restaurant, Toast Wine Lounge on College Avenue in Oakland. To celebrate his new gig, we’re throwing a dinner on Monday, July 11, for $35! Buy tickets here!  You’ll also find us at Eat Real again this year and Boucherie is available upon request. We were selling at the Underground Farmer’s Market but it’s future is TBD since health inspectors shut it down last week.

REWIND

We hosted a fabulous dinner at The Corner, a former restaurant that has reopened its doors to a rotating cast of pop-up restaurants. More pics here >

Canvas Dinner @ House Kombucha

House Kombucha - Vera Devera (c) 2011

From the SF Weekly:

The rundown: At the intersection of live cultures and cultural experience, the earnest apostles at House Kombucha are teaming up with the arty foodsters of Oakland’s Canvas Underground for a dinner you never you knew you wanted. With eyebrow-raisers like kombucha bacon with green tea soba noodles; tomatillo and avocado soup with white tea/orange blossom kombucha; and scallop crudo with beet tartare and a kombucha-serrano chile mignonette, this event begs the question: Are you ready to trip the light kombucha?

Our diners were treated to a tour of the brewing facility at House Kombucha and sampled plenty throughout the night. We want to give a special shout out to House Kombucha founder, Rana Chang; Sky, her kick-ass jill-of-all-trades intern (and super volunteer server); and master brewers, Walter and Ben, for having us cook dinner with their delicious kombucha. The sun blossom kombucha is amazing and Vera must’ve drank nearly a gallon by herself (and felt a bit of a buzz — of bliss, perhaps?).

Check out more photos here >>

and some from diner, Laura:

Chocolate budino prepared by Chef Peter Jackson

House Kombucha brined bacon by Chef Peter Jackson

Happy New Year

We hope you’re having a great start to 2011. Last week, Chef Peter and I  participated in SomArts’ Feast of Words, a really cool project headed by Irina Zadov and Lex Leifheit. In the next two weeks, we’ll be representing at the Underground Farmer’s Market (1/15) and the Commonwealth Club’s INFORUM (1/26). We’re also looking for a San Francisco venue for dinner on February 13 — hit us if you know of a place. Eat with you soon!

Upcoming Events

• Saturday, January 15: ForageSF’s Underground Farmer’s Market, (http://foragesf.com/market). Look for our Boucherie booth where you can pick up some tasso, andouille and Meyer lemon cured bacon. We’ll have samples and recipes available. See you there!
• Wednesday, January 26: Canvas is hosting a booth at the next Commonwealth Club’s INFORUM discussion on Street Food: Off the Grid and Underground. Please join us! Speakers feature our friends Shakirah Simley of Slow Jams and Iso Rabins of Forage SF.

 

Recap + Recipe: Feast of Words

Chef Peter making lefse, mobile photo by Vera Devera

The theme for January’s Feast of Words was “Blurred Identities” and featured the writing of Faith Adiele, who’s Nordic/Nigerian and America. I cooked an African stew and paired it with my version of the traditional Norwegian potato flat bread known as lefse. If you happen to be Norwegian, (or a student of Scandinavian cuisine) you might notice that these are not traditional lefse. I jazzed them up with some dill and lemon, and since I don’t own a correlated rolling pin, a pastry cloth covered board, a lefse stick etc, I came up with my own improvised technique (described below) which I think worked out pretty well. – Chef Peter

• 4 cups riced potatoes (preferably made from mature russets), cooled to room temperature
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 4 sprigs dill, chopped
• Zest of 1 lemon, very finely grated

Add everything to the potatoes and mix until smooth and evenly mixed. Preheat a griddle or large non stick pan over medium low heat for 2-3 minutes. Scoop a ¼ cup lefse and roll between your palms to make a smooth ball. Place the dough between 2 pieces of waxed paper about 1′ x 1′. Roll the dough out as thinly as you can, keeping the lefse as even a thickness as possible. If you are making many lefse at once you can refrigerate the rolled out lefse and then cook them one after another.

To cook the lefse, peel the top layer of waxed paper off the lefse, and place the dough side down on the griddle or pan. Let the lefse cook for a few minutes minutes, then peel off the top layer of paper. Check the lefse after a few minutes. When the under side is light golden brown, flip and cook for another few minutes. Stack the cooked lefse on a plate between paper towels.

New Dates for Vintner Dinners

We received an overwhelming response to move the Beehive Market vintner dinners to the weekends and so we’ve updated our offerings for the following vintner dinners:

Sunday, October 24: Eno Wines at The Beehive Market HQ
December 10, 2010: Stage Left Wines at The Beehive Market HQ
January 7, 2011: Urbano Cellars at The Beehive Market HQ

Here are photos from our last dinner with Periscope Cellar’s Brendan Eliason pouring out of wine kegs!

Photo by Brittany Piehl 2010

Photo by Brittany Piehl 2010

Gaujillo Chile Poached Figs Scream Lemon Sorbet, Cinnamon Dulce de Leche

The Bees’ Knees: Locavore-Wine Dinners

Canvas is excited to join forces with the Beehive Market. Together, we are hosting a series of wine-pairing locavore dinners, with ingredients sourced from the Beehive, like Soul Food Farm Chicken and Rio de Parras produce.

Here are upcoming events:

• 9/28: Periscope Cellars: Buy tickets now!
  
• 10/05: Eno Wines: Get your seats now!
  
• 10/12: Stage Left: Buy tickets now!
  
• 11/2: Urbano Cellars: Buy tickets now!
  

REWIND

We hosted a fabulous dinner on the docks at Aloha Seafood last Saturday, September 18.  Thirty-five adventurous foodies braved the trek out to Pier 45 and were the envy of tourists en route to Alcatraz by boat. As the sun set, everyone braved the fog and feasted on Crispy Scallop Hash, Day Boat Scallops, Back Yard Gravenstein Apples, Avocado, “Sea Foam;” Spicy Gazpacho, Wild Caught Texas White Prawns, Crème Fraiche “Ice Cream;” Local Albacore Tuna “Confit”, White Corn, Fresh Legumes, Lobster Mushrooms, Wild Arugula and Chocolate Miso Cake with Sour Peaches, Ginger Caramel Sauce.

Mitch Gronner, co-owner of Aloha, gave our lucky guests a tour and an insider’s view on Aloha’s elite list of clients, including French Laundry, Bouchon and Ad Hoc. Singer-songwriter, Adriana Marcela, entertained guests with witty songs like “Scooby Doo.”

Canvas Aloha Dinner 9/18/10 - Pier 45

Aloha Seafood's Top Clients

Canvas' Tuna Confit over Black Eyed Peas

The talented Adriana Marcela

Hot August Nights: Canvas at Eat Real!

Fast Forward.

We’ve got exciting news — Canvas will be at Eat Real Fest (Jack London Square) on August 29! Please follow @canvasundergrnd on Twitter and tell your friends! We’re sharing a stall with Devil’s Gulch Farms and serving up delicious pulled rabbit and pulled pork sandwiches. We’re also unveiling our newest project: Boucherie!

August 15: Wine maker, Patrick Bowen, of Fat Grape Wines, just finished bottling his wines. The few diners who snagged tickets to this exclusive event got to sip on selections from his labeled and non-labeled private reserve. Here’s a peek at the menu that Chef Peter Jackson dished up: Golden Tomato Broth with White Corn Ravioli, Summer Squash and Blossoms, Opal Basil; Black Eye Pea Crusted Halibut with Pea Shoots, Grilled Boucherie Tasso, Rock Shrimp Perlau, Roasted Gypsy Pepper Remoulade; Rye Whiskey Chocolate Cake, Blueberry Caramel, Toasted Lemon Marshmallows and more! 

Rewind.

July 25: Canvas hosted “The Great Porchetta” at Patti and John’s awesome loft in West Oakland. Bread n’ Butter, featuring Melissa Hudson Bell, Celine Alwyn and Hannah Schwadron kicked off the soiree with porchetta-inspired choreography. Check out their inventive performance involving a bulb of fennel and more here. Expert butcher, Enzo, showed us how to debone a suckling pig and diners feasted on porchetta alla romana, stuffed with fresh Italian sausage and over polenta. More photos here>>

July 11: About 30 guests flocked from as far as Sacramento for a summer-inspired dinner — on a basketball court — in the Oakland Hills. We stuffed ourselves with sweet corn soup topped with roasted garlic mousse and barbecued beef bavette marinated in Linden Street Black Lager. The Kerchers of Hidden Kitchen indulged us with their famous crema di limoncello with dessert — a stonefruit tart. More photos here>>

Shout out to Brittany Piehl for snapping such beautiful photos of these two events as well as the all-volunteer crew including Christina of East Bay Dish, Jeni C., and Dario B.!

Hold onto your forks ’til next time,

Vera + Chef Peter + Canvas crew

Get Involved >> Volunteer to Host or Help Out!

Become a Fan on Facebook.

Follow us on Twitter @canvasundergrnd

A Busy July

Hi y’all! July was a busy month for us — it’s been a while since we did two events in a month. July 11, Bobbie and Henry K. had us over for a summer-inspired dinner in their basketball court nestled in the Oakland Hills. Check out more pics by Brittany Piehl at her Flickr page here.

Photo by Brittany Piehl | Cocktail hour - Canvas Underground

About 30 guests flocked from as far as Sacramento to feast on a menu including sweet corn soup with roasted garlic mousse and barbecued beef bavette with Linden Street Black Lager and fresh shelling beans over grilled summer squash. The Kerchers of Hidden Kitchen indulged us with their famous crema di limoncello with dessert — a stonefruit tart.

Photo by Brittany Piehl - Ceviche - Canvas Underground

Photo by Brittany Piehl - Canvas Undergroudn

Photo by Brittany Piehl | Crema di Limoncello by Dennis Kercher