Pub Grub With Panache

After munching a deliciously messy grilled lamb sandwich or sniffling over a bowl of wickedly spicy gumbo, satisfied diners will ask Brad Fosseen where he learned to cook.

“In cookbooks,” he deadpans.

Fosseen and his kitchen partner, John Grollmus, never studied at a culinary school, but you couldn’t tell that by tasting their intensely flavored food at the Moon Time in Coeur d’Alene.

This casual bar and grill has a short, yet inventive menu featuring dishes the pair picked up at various Northwest restaurants where they’ve worked over the years. The creative pub grub ranges from a vegetarian burger made with anasazi beans to pasta spiked with fresh basil and a salad dressed with a honey-chipotle vinaigrette. The gumbo they serve is credited to the 74th Street Alehouse in Seattle, where Fosseen worked for several years.

The Moon Time’s rotating selection of specials allows Fosseen the chance to dig into his collection of ethnic cookbooks.

He’ll take a crack at fish enchiladas or a lamb and pork picadillo with currants instead of olives, dishes inspired by Mexican food authority Diane Kennedy. Or maybe he’ll try a Thai crab cake, made with a combination of pork and the delicately flavored shellfish.

“I talk to people who just don’t want to try different things,” Fosseen said. “They’ll see a recipe calls for fish sauce and they’ll say, ‘That stuff stinks!’ But you can’t really taste that when you cook with it.”

Fosseen likes to poke around ethnic markets for inspiration.

“I like to pick up stuff I’ve never seen before and take it home and experiment with it,” he said. “But mostly I just like looking at all the stuff like the packages of dried fish and figuring out how they might use it.”

For the 26-year-old Fosseen, grandson of former Spokane Mayor Neal Fosseen, ethnic cuisine is his version of armchair travel.

“I can’t afford to travel, but by reading a cookbook or shopping in an ethnic market, I get a feel for their culture,” he said.

That’s not to say all their offerings are exotic.

Said Grollmus: “We like to think we offer food that’s from somewhere, whether it’s our gumbo or the Sheybogan-style bratwurst.”

Not surprisingly, the menu was designed to complement the rotating selection of beer that the pub serves. Another partner, Jeff Meagher, oversees the 19 taps and is a whiz at offering advice about what beer works best with a particular dish.

But, as Fosseen sees it: “Beer goes with everything.”

Boo Jah (Crab Cakes with Cilantro Pesto)

This recipe was inspired by Nancie McDermott’s book, “Real Thai.”

1/2 pound cooked lump crab meat, picked over for shell fragments

1/2 pound ground pork

2 tablespoons cilantro pesto (recipe follows)

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

A handful of fresh cilantro leaves

1 sweet red pepper, cut into long, thin strips

Sweet-hot garlic dipping sauce (recipe follows)

Prepare garlic dipping sauce and pour into a small serving bowl. Let cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, gently combine the crab meat, pork, pesto, egg, fish sauce, soy sauce, salt and sugar. Mix well, leaving the crab in large chunks if possible. Put the flour on a plate and place by the stove.

Carefully shape the crab-pork mixture into small cakes. Dip each cake in the flour to coat lightly. Heat the oil in a large skillet over mediumhigh heat for 1 minute. Add the crab cakes and saute, turning once, until golden brown and cooked, about 5 minutes per side.

Transfer the cakes to a serving platter and garnish with the cilantro and pepper strips. Serve at once with the garlic dipping sauce.

Yield: 4 servings.

Rahk Pahk Chee-Gratiem-Prik Thai (Cilantro Pesto)

1 teaspoon whole white or black peppercorns

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh cilantro (leaves and stems)

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped garlic

Using a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder, crush or grind the peppercorns to a fine powder. Combine the pepper, cilantro roots, and garlic and work into a fairly smooth paste in the mortar or in a small blender or food processor. (If you use a blender or food processor, you may need to add a little vegetable oil or water to ease the grinding.)

Yield: About 1/4 cup.

Nahm Jeem Gratiem (Sweet-Hot Garlic Dipping Sauce)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup white vinegar

2 tablespoons finely minced garlic

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon chili-garlic sauce (available at Asian markets or in the Asian section of larger supermarkets)

In a small, heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, water, vinegar, garlic and salt. Bring to a rolling boil over medium heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar and salt and reduce the heat to low. Simmer until the liquid reduces slightly and thickens to a light syrup, 20 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the chili garlic sauce. Cool to room temperature.

Transfer the cooled sauce to a tightly sealed jar and store at room temperature for 2 to 3 days.

Yield: About 1-1/2 cups.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: Chef du Jour is a monthly feature of IN Food that profiles area chefs and provides one of their recipes for readers to try at home.