the sweet savory

gray skies, red soups : goat cheese & tomato soup

2010-10-17T21:53:00.000-07:00

Oh, I do love a good soup day.

There's a chill on the air and a little hungry empty spot somewhere in between your heart and your belly. Each little silver drop from the gray sky is an invitation to stay in bundled in my sweatshirt & head wrap & make a toasted cheese sandwich to dip in a steamy bowl of soup. We are diving headlong into autumn, increasingly an emblematic chill in the air. There is one house down the street, the lawn covered with leaves in the orange scale of fall colors. I want tomato soup. For real. Tomatoes are the hardest to let go when the seasons shift. They are so delicious, August & September are dotted with the jewel toned juicy delicious of ripe tomatoes.A couple weeks ago, I got the last haul of Roma tomatoes from my local market & made up this recipe. I have made it again with canned tomatoes & it was still very delicious. A bit richer, a bit denser, a bit redder. What I am in love with about this soup is the inherent brightness that the goat cheese brought.I do love a good creamy soup, but sometimes the cream does not love me back. So I came to think, why not use a little fresh goat cheese? We never go wrong together. It is one of those rare relationships with nary a miscommunication.I like goats & all that they make & the cheese likes me back. Combined with the sweetness of slowly softened leeks & good tomatoes, its a perfect combination. Sitting here watching the fat gray sky, this will make for a perfect soupy autumn day.

tomato & goat cheese soup

what you need:soup potblenderslotted spooncotton butcher's twine to tie bouquet garniingredients:1.75 # roma tomatoes, peeled, seeded & chopped (or a large 28 oz can of quality diced roma tomatoes)2Tbsp sherry vinegar1 tsp granulated sugar (optional)1 leek, white & bright green, cleaned & sliced thin1/2 medium yellow or sweet onion, diced2 cloves garlic, peeled & diced fine1 Tbsp tomato pastea bouquet garni (i made one with 2 basil stems, 4 parsley stems & a sprig of thyme)a bay leaf4-6 cups vegetable or chicken stock1/2 tsp ground allspiceseveral gratings of nutmeg or a scant pinch of ground2.5 oz fresh goats milk cheese, bring to room temperaturesea saltfresh cracked black peppergood extra virgin olive oila few tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley & basilhow to make it:-toss tomatoes with sherry & sugar, use sugar if you prefer a sweeter tomato flavor-pre-heat a medium, heavy bottomed soup pot over medium high flame, add a few tablespoons of cooking oi & heat-add diced onions & thinly sliced leeks & stir to coat, reduce heat to a medium flame, stir occasionally until cooked through, but not brown. the onions will be soft and see through & the leeks will be soft & bright-add tomatoes & stir to coat with onions, add garlic & dried spices & cook all together for about 5 minutes. season with some salt & pepper. stir occasionally until the tomatoes start to exude liquid that begins to caramelize slightly-add 4 cups of broth, you can add a few more cups of cold water also, if you like a thinner soup or if the broth does not cover the tomatoes.-add bouquet garni. bring all to a light boil then reduce heat to simmer-simmer about 20 minutes & stir a few times while cooking-using a slotted spoon, lift out about 1-1.25 cups of tomato chunks & onions & set aside-discard bouquet garni & bay leaf-remove the center of the blender lid, add broth & tomatoes to fill up to about half of the blender work bowl, cover with lid & cover hole with a heavy folded towel (this allows the steam to escape without burning you or building up pressure inside the blender)-puree until desired consistency, puree in batches if necessary, never fill blender more than half full with hot liquids.-in last batch, add the goats milk cheese & puree-return pureed soup & reserved vegetables to the pot & bring to a simmer-check seasoning & adjust using salt & pepper, add a little sherry vinegar if you want more zestiness-to serve:garnish each bowl with sprinkles of fresh herbs & drizzle olive oil over the top

purloined citrus is best

2010-09-28T21:49:00.000-07:00

okay, so we asked permission for these oranges.

but they sure taste all the more sweet knowing they were not only free of charge, we were saving them from being wasted. there's something so much sweeter about a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice when its made from oranges that would otherwise die the fate of a merely decorative lawn ornament. because that is what happens out here. people grow the most miraculous trees laden with fruit and their yards become littered with rotten fruit. that's just messed up.[/caption]so what does any self respecting food lover do? they convince their girlfriend to get a fruit picker, ask the next door neighbor if they'll be needing all those oranges & thereby secure a steady supply of oranges! you may call it stealing, you may call it foraging, you may call it the most genius thing on earth. this is the most local food a gullet can get.so, most months we have oranges, lemons, oroblancos sometimes. and now pomegranates. and then figs.since moving to LA, i have come to feel silly purchasing citrus when all around us its just weighing down tree branches in every other yard lining the streets. now, keep in mind, while i am not condoning stealing anything, its a nice fantasy/secret ambition to done black ninja outfits & go on a city wide mission to make marmalade.or not. you know, depending on where you stand on free food or ninja costuming.

butterflies on payroll

2010-09-28T21:46:00.000-07:00

it was one of those idyllic days.

we went on a hike on a perfectly sunny day. it got hot, so we took a dip in a lake fed by mountain streams. she swam across, i stayed at the edge catching mudbugs.or crayfish, or crawdaddies, whatever you will. it was as if all of nature was in our groove. we sat down on a tree stump on the bank of the lake & ate lunch. i dropped a little bit of the trail mix we were eating as a side dish, a chipmunk came out, nibbled on it, then stood for a while watching us watching him. a few minutes later, three chipmunks were there, they came right up to us. i named them: green bean, hazelnut & oliver. one of them broke into our backpack & had its way with a baggie full of snacks. i suspect it was oliver.we headed back & i needed to get some good shots of yarrow. i had harvested some a few days prior & didn't get a shot of it. it was one of the last things on my to-do list. and what do you know, there was a stand of yarrow, just above a rushing brook. so i took a picture. then this butterfly came along. and it hung out the whole time i took pictures.i mean really? butterfly? did you know that women with no contest to your good looks make millions showing up for a photo shoot & performing as well as you did? i look at these pictures & all i can think of is when jenelle said, of another equally idyllic picture from the week, is: "damn, that's almost perfect, all we need is some dolphins high-fiving in the back ground & forget about it!"

oregon, i think i love you

2010-09-27T21:28:00.000-07:00

Where does it all go? That vacation glow?

For a few charmed days up to a few prized weeks we vacate the menial pace of our daily lives & embark on a mini-adventure.Taking it all in for some truly special moments. That hint of romance walking down unfamiliar streets feeling like anything can happen. You can fall in love with a place & your work-free heart pumps, flushing your cheeks & filling the brain with endless possibility. When I think of our vacation to Oregon just a few short weeks ago, I get all aflutter.Truly great vacations are magic. They make you feel like all of life & living it is gonna be even bigger, brighter & taste so much better as a result of it. After all, how can it not, everything will be seasoned with the pepper of a week spent exploring.[caption id="attachment_279" align="aligncenter" width="448" caption="ever a mix of mid-19th century industrial design & a proliferation of green, portland is covered in gems"][/caption]Having climbed natural wonders, heard the laughter of beloved friends old & new & felt the warmth of family, you can return to the bones of daily life still invigorated. Your lungs still full of fresh mountain air. Then a few weeks pass & you realize the glow is all but worn off.[caption id="attachment_272" align="aligncenter" width="448" caption="this chipmunk "shared" lunch with us along side the banks of a mountain stream fed lake. poor us."][/caption]Good thing I take good notes. Seeing the pictures can genuinely bring back all that excitement, all those delicious meals & vibrant colors. While I may be hot & sticky in this late summer heat wave, just on the other side of weeks full to the brim with freelance projects & days stuffed with meetings, I am breathing in the cool green air of our trip to Oregon.It started with a trip to Portland, a couple days of eating absolutely nothing but delicious food & taking in the particularly gorgeous blend of lush landscape & old urbanity. Neighborhood streets dotted with galleries & cafes dissemble along old sidewalks to lilting hills of fecund yards full of plants & classic trimmed porches. The hipster supermarket phenomena: thumbs up. Love it. Insurance that there is always a great meal to be had.We covered a lot of ground & took a lot of pictures & so let me get on with it. The only way to do our Oregon trip justice is to break it up into a few entries. Permit the flavors to linger a bit longer.Some non-edible highpoints, little gems along the way. We found the best little independent gallery called ‘land.” Simple & to the point, the layout of the two story gallery/shop allowed for the great paper works to shine, stationary & prints by Jill Bliss were a highpoint.From Portland we took a train to Gresham where we procured some of the most amazing produce, in particular some peaches & berries. The Pacific Northwest grows berries like none other. The slow creeping heat allows, even in the hottest of summers, for the depth of the floral berry flavors to develop before they get heavy with sugar. Simply amazing stuff. I can't express the lust inducing cravings I get for these berries.After a delicious evening at my parent’s home, we drove out to the central coast to a family favorite of Yachats where we stayed at an ocean front cottage. There is nothing quite like the beauty of a nights rest to the tune of tides & salt air. There was arts & crafts night, a stellar coffee cake, kite flying & so much amazing sea food.[caption id="attachment_277" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="i mean, really? you're gonna be this perfect of a day for a hike? who cued the butterflies?"][/caption]We came back to Mount Hood & took a day trip along the river, dabbled a bit with Washington state along the highway, took in Multnomah Falls & ate our way back over the mountain. By the time I came back to LA, my lungs were sweetened with green mountain air, my pulse slowed by the inevitable pace of a state committed to growing some of the most amazing fruit in the world. Every time I return, I fall more in love with Oregon. I can't wait to get back. Yeah, yeah, the rain, you say. I say, bring it. I'll get galoshes & an underwater camera.[caption id="attachment_278" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="some flowers we picked from the side of the road."][/caption]

a perfect day for sun tea

2010-09-26T21:14:00.000-07:00

Did someone say Indian Summer?

Okay, so maybe its not Indian Summer, it's just a late hitting, below the belt sort of heat wave. While friends in the midwest are donning gloves today, we're hiding out in shady corners under fans & air conditioning units in 105° heat. As my friend from Chile says, "what is it you American's say about lemons? Yeah, make something better out of it." So, I vote for heatwave sun tea. Nothing is quite more refreshing in the oppressive heat than a glass of cool tea.And nothing is quite more oppressive on hot days than heat coming from the kitchen. Sun tea is actually just another way of saying "Cold Extraction." A long, low or no heat extraction of tea which will render a delicious tea with no tannins, full flavor & no heat.People are a bit creeped out these days to do a true sun tea, and as they should be, the perfect temperature for growing bacteria is in that 75°-140° range, so yeah, optimal conditions for brewing creepers in your tea. This is why it is so important to use only highly clean, filtered, preferably reverse osmosis, water. Spring water, no. Tap water, oh, heck, no. Also, be sure your container is clean, plastic is not good for this, use only clear, clean glass.Also, nice to know: you don't actually need the sunshine to make a good sun tea. Although there is this summer romance associated with it. You set up your tea on the back porch, go run around all day & come home to a lovely caramel colored dream. It's like magic.With a clean container, good tea, clean-as-saint-theresa-water, and about 8-10 hours, you'll have a great batch of tea for drinking on ice & no heat to speak of. I actually like doing cold extractions even when its not hot out just for the simple fact that you can get rich flavor with no tannins. So, sun or no, you can have your tea & drink it to. Put it together before bed & wake to it in the morning. Its okay, no one will judge your nightshade tea.As with all tea brewing, you need to be sure your proportions are good. For sun teas, I typically do a mix of either black or green tea with herbs, like mint or lavender, or both. I love to do black tea with cinnamon & roses, Japanese sencha with mint & tarragon, the tea in the picture is Chinese green w/lavender, mint & dried stevia leaf. I work in proportions, so this recipe below will really only be useful to you if you're using looseleaf.Either way, brew your tea & pop it in the fridge immediately when its done. Try to drink it within 24-48 hours of brewing. If you see a little ribbon forming, that's a nasty little strand of bacteria forming, pitch it out. While it most likely won't make you sick, unless you have immune problems, it will most certainly will not make for a pleasant arena in your belly.cold extracted iced tea or sun teaper quart of clean water:1/4-1/2 cup of tea & aromatics(per gallon of water, there should be about a cup or so of tea, depending on strength of tea)suggestions:green tea w/mint & lemongrassearl grey w/lavendergreen tea w/mint, lavender & sageherbal blend of mint, lavender, roses, sage & lemongrassdream a little dream & make it into tea!how to make it:-clean a large glass or ceramic container using boiling water or a sanitizing solution & rinse well-add your tea to a reusable cloth tea extracting bag or large paper one, you can also use those funnel shaped coffee filters & secure the top-add cold, clean water to your container, drop in tea & cover securely-steep 4-6 hours in sunlight, or up to 8. steep 8-10 hours indoors at room temperature-remove tea bag, squeeze liquid from bag into tea container, discard bag. sweeten to taste, or don't, refrigerate for up to 48 hours.-serve over ice with a plate of cookies & i'll be right over.

carve your cauliflower

2010-09-09T22:37:00.000-07:00

Cauliflower has a complex, beautiful architecture.

Carve a cauliflower with the same love & respect for structure as you would a game bird.It makes me sad that cauliflower gets a bad rap. So what, it's the only white vegetable, it still has personality.(Okay, the only white vegetable except for white asparagus grown in the dark. That kind of makes them the veal of the vegetable world, doesn't it?)Anyway. Cauliflower. I rather like the stuff. It has a beautiful complex structure. I hate to see them hacked up into little bits like vegetable cheese crumbs. I like to take special care to carve it well; to show the beautiful individual florettes or little cross sections like reverse silhouettes of tiny trees.When you cut up a cauliflower, you should start at the bottom.Turn your pristine head, free of grey spots, upside down. Use a thin sharp knife to carve around the base at an angle so you can remove a sort of dreidel-shaped chunk from the bottom.Trim away the leaves to expose the central "trunk" of the cauliflower.From here all the bases of the cauliflower florettes will be visible to trim free.Also, the base is good eats, especially if you are making a soup or saute, so chop up the center into bite sized pieces once its been freed of all its florettes.

farewell summer

2010-09-09T22:11:00.000-07:00

It is time to say goodbye to summer.

The grey puffy sky outside my window says it so. The $140 bill for my human biology textbook affirms the sigh. Sigh. Bye, summer. You were great.Most of all, what I love about summer is outdoor cooking. I also love camping, though it had been long time since I had done so before our trip this summer. Also nice is the accidental farmers tan just from walking around. Arms still brown, summer still lingers.Several weeks back after a week full of disappointing news about losing jobs, freelance gigs cut short (thank you, economic recession, for that boost of confidence) we decided to cut out of town. Packed up the car with our tent & city-living stresses to shake.We landed in Ojai with coordinates to secret swimming holes. Hiking ensued, feeding burros in a creek happened. My feet slipped happily along mossy rocks & all that stress of the world just slid away into chilly mineral rich waters.Our campsite came with the requisite fire pit & a little charcoal pit. But we forgot charcoal. Somewhere in the neglected recesses of my mind, I gathered up the necessary information for building a fire & set out to cook for the weekend. It was rad. I made a lot of smoke at first, but then, flames, glorious flames! And glowing embers. Some rather proud moments of wilderness lifestyle proficiency.Okay, so, my style of wilderness proficiency; it is decided: I am not a backpacker. I am far too fussy for all of that. Gimme a cooler full of fresh vegetables & sausage, not trail mix & dehydrated proteins. I need to cook, must cook, must have coffee in the morning, even if it was instant. The morning chill bristling through the trees above just sounds that much better with a warm cup of coffee & a hot potato frittata.What I love about camping is the sort of planning-ahead & dependence on common sense it takes to have a great weekend. I made a Sparta-chic meal of grilled Andouille sausage, grilled spring onions & fresh corn on the cob for dinner one night & while we ate our dinner, our breakfast was already starting. I cut up some potatoes, foraged herbs & a sweet onion & set it over the grill to cook while we ate. It was to be the base for a frittata. The potatoes kinda burned, but, who’s counting?See, open fires aren’t consistent, they are far harder to moderate than charcoals, so you have to be patient, play along, don’t take it too personally. What is at one minute a barely simmering heat is the next a blazing inferno.Things cook unevenly, you get smoke in your eyes, things get sooty. It is my idea of a grand old time. Our leftover dinner got chopped up and stirred in with the eggs. All got layered over the potatoes that had spent the night in the cooler & we had a veritable feast both evening & morning.Better than any pricey brunch munching alongside hungover hipsters sipping on mimosas & hiding last night’s makeup behind sunglasses; we had chipmunks rustling in the brush, kids racing along the path connecting the campsites. We had hike-weary bones & and sleeping bag creases on our cheeks.So, if this were a back to school essay on what I did this summer: I went camping, I cooked over open flame. I fell in love with Ojai & swam in secret pools. My cast iron skillet has never been happier. After 10 long years gracing one gas range after another, it had its first go over an open fire. I am still getting charcoal smudges here & there, like little soot kisses, reminders of an amazing summer weekend.

hand blended tea for your mom

2010-09-02T20:23:00.000-07:00

[caption id="attachment_223" align="aligncenter" width="448" caption="tea for your mom"][/caption]

my eddie haskell moment

Okay. A few things you need to know about me: I love tea. I love dried spices. I try to find someone/something or something about someone to compliment every day. If I see something I think is pretty, the words "thats pretty!" practically leap from my mouth. Uncontrollable. I think a year full of small gifts is better than one big snow-bound, travel-rage suffused stampede of gifts. I love parents. They love me. They think I am hilarious. If I had a career as an entertainer, I could pack a house with the parent set.I love drinking teas. I love blending teas. I'd probably rather a plain cup of sencha over anything else most days, but I can't resist tinkering & blending with dried flowers, spices & a range of teas. Mostly what gets me every time is just how damned pretty it looks when its finished.Its the simplest balance of textures. Highlights of the dried mum petals & low lights of little rolled up balls of Chinese green tea, so good looking. The roses are classic & warm with the secret sweet of dried Stevia leaves, so tasty.

So pretty = So delicious.

I made this tea for Whitney's mom's visit to LA this summer. Yeah, I'm a little bit of a kiss-up sometimes, I know. it's not entirely a bad thing though, maybe just a little awkward to witness, but only quickly. The pangs subside, I just like to say thank you: for being alive, thank you for visiting. My you're a cute little pistol, have a bag of tea! I believe that more people should give little gifts like these. It is something I so appreciate about polite culture, truly. So, I mean it when I say, "Hi Mrs. Issaac, its so nice to meet you! Your daughter is one of my favorite people ever, so here's a little packet of tea I blended just for you. Thanks for visiting our fine city!"

sometimes even doing the dishes is pretty

2010-08-30T20:08:00.000-07:00

carrots or unpacking boxes?

2010-08-29T17:37:00.000-07:00

Oh, what to do on a Sunday night?

Perhaps a little dream of a salad. Of fresh herbs, sherry vinegar & a bunch of carrots from the farmers market.

Perhaps make my way through yet another box in awe of "stuff," as in the things we carry along with us from one roost to the next nest. I just returned from vacation to a new bedroom full of boxes. Making my way through the cardboard shanties of my belongings, I am equally flabbergasted by what I decide to save & the proliferation of socks with no match. And how is it that I have found three partial sets of sheets with nary a top flat sheet or blanket in sight? How do these things happen?

Safe to say I am still in the throes of vacation hangover. Or, as I am lovingly referring to it "Meatcation." On our first day we had a lunch of a meatloaf sandwich & a BLT salad. And that fairly well set the pace.

No wonder I am here sluggishly, begrudgingly, trying to make it through unpacking my boxes while daydreaming of a favorite salad. All I want is my top sheet & a week of raw vegetables.

It is a fairly likely thing that I will live on this salad for the next week while vacation hangover subsides & my new bedroom begins to take shape. I love Mediterranean salads best of all. It's a true, very true thing. I love socks that match. I love sweet & savory in one dish. I love fresh bright crunchy things. I love this salad. Maybe I will marry this salad.

moroccan carrot salad

ingredients:
1 bunch (approx. 1 lb or 5 med. carrots) fresh carrots, grated on largest hole
1/2 tsp smoky Spanish paprika (hot paprika will do in a pinch)
1/2 tsp ground cumin seed
2-3 Tbsp sherry vinegar
3-4 Tbsp good spicy olive oil
small handful of cilantro (or parsley), leaves only, coarsely chopped
small handful of mint, leaves only, coarsely chopped
sea salt & fresh cracked black pepper

how to make it:
-in a small bowl, gently whisk together vinegar & dried spices with a pinch of sea salt & set aside about 15 minutes (this will let the flavors meld together & infuse the vinegar with the aromatics)
-scrub carrots well under cold water, no need to peel if they are fresh & bright, if they aren't looking so pretty, go ahead & peel gently
-grate carrots into a large bowl & gently toss with an even light sprinkle of sea salt & pepper to soften the carrot gently-coarsely chop the herbs
-toss the carrots with the vinegar to coat
-gently toss in herbs & coat all evenly & gently with oil
-season to taste with salt & pepper if needed

~*serve as a side dish or as part of a mezzes style meal with several salads & fresh bread
~*store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for a week

cunchy salad

2010-08-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

Say what you want, so maybe you do move to California and somehow become human veg-o-matic.

At least to some degree, maybe its true. Maybe its because its the vegetable haven of the country, farms & gardens flourishing in every nook & crannie of this state.

Maybe when I left the land of meatpacking innovation and sprawling grasslands, maybe I left a part of my ruminant loving belly behind. And, then again, maybe I didn’t.

I do still firmly believe that encasing a meat is the most brilliant, effective & tasty way to present a meat. Sausage. Yes. Hot Dog, yet another sausage. Bratwurst, bring it. However. I have always & will always love my veggies.

They are so pretty, so versatile, so tasty. And I am not gonna lie, it has zero to do with calorie counting, I love a good salad. I love the crunch, I love the variety of flavors & textures. And, yes, I will throw a piece of meat on top in a heartbeat.

I made up this particular salad in honor of decidedly summer outings. Perfect for camping, picnics & no heat meals. There is about a solid month left of great summer outings before school starts and vacation weather dwindles, so I wanted to share this little morsel with you.

Of course, even as I say that, I don’t see why good weather and outdoor excursions should define the time-frame for a great crunchy salad. I love them. And so should you.

I make them year round, it’s just that the elements change up some. It’s corn season, so this one has corn, but in the winter when there’s no corn to be found, I’d make the same salad, just with grated celery root or grated golden beets.

This is the sort of thing I make fairly regularly, especially when I know I am going to be busy and keep in a big container to dole out throughout the week. It is meant to be eaten cold though it can also be sautéed as a hot side dish. We tossed it with vinaigrette one day and rolled it up in a flat bread with white bean spread for a hiking trip. We tossed it with a creamier salad dressing and had it along side some grilled meat another day.

The basic ingredients that you can find year round, that are, however, so decadently sweet and lovely during summer, are green cabbage, cauliflower and kale. For the summer kicker, there’s Blue Lake green beans and the sweetheart of summer, fresh corn on the cob. Blanching is a simple technique that renders great texture, taste & color. In this one I experimented with, for your pleasure, blanching the kale as well. I decided I liked it better left raw & sliced thin. The green beans & corn absolutely come to life with a little love session in boiling salted water, so definitely, do that.

This is a yummy, pretty, easy & satisfying presentation. I love that it’s something you make in advance & that can keep well, a salad that will stay crunchy all day for your picnic & camping pleasure. It is also something that you can dress up quickly to add some fresh vegetables to your evening after a long hot day out or at work.

p.s. you will notice that this recipe doesn't have hardfast amounts, because it really is a formula more than anything & it reflects the fact that you can make it any time of year, the only things I always use is cauliflower, kale & cabbage.

crunchy salad

for 4 main dish sized salads or several side dishes

ingredients
half a small or quarter of a large head of green cabbage
several leaves of green kale
half a small or quarter of a large head of cauliflower
large handful of fresh green beans
one ear of sweet corn

suggested garnishes & dressings:
-a handful of toasted slivered almonds
-a handful of fresh chopped herbs, like basil, parsley, chives &/or chervil
-tasty salad dressing, i like a simple lemon & garlic vinaigrette or creamy green goddess

what you need:
stock pot for blanching
large bowl

how to make it:
-fill a stock pot with cold water & salt until it tastes like diluted sea water, bring to a boil
-snap the fibrous end off of the green beans & pull the fibrous thread from the spine of the bean, if it will come, otherwise, don't worry too much
-clean corn husk & silk -when water comes to a boil, dunk green beans in & cook for about 2-3 minutes, until bright green. remove with a slotted spoon & run cold water over. you can also fill a bowl with ice & cold water & dunk the beans in that, drain well once cool

[caption id="attachment_195" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="dunk in boiling salted water"][/caption]

-once the water returns to a boil, add the corn cob, dunk gently & occasionally roll the cob in the water so it gets even heat, cook about 2-3 minutes & run immediately under cold water, drain well once cool
-take clean leaves of kale & pull stem off by pulling away from you up the length of the leaf, try to get any fibrous stem away from the leaves. lay them on top of each other flat & roll up like a cigar. cut evenly down the length about 1/8"- 1/4" ribbons
-toss in a large bowl
-carefully cut cauliflower into manageable florettes, slice each florette lenghtwise in 1/8"- 1/4" slices
-toss in a large bowl w/kale
-cut 3-4" wedges of fresh green cabbage into 1/8"- 1/4" ribbons from top to core
-pat dry if needed then cut green beans into 2"-3" pieces
-toss in a large bowl w/other veggies

- cut kernels away from the cob,gently break up any big chunks & toss in bowl with others
~*at this point you can either store or serve

to serve:
-season all with salt & fresh cracked pepper
-drizzle over with dressing while tossing until evenly coated
-add coarsely chopped nuts &/or herbs & toss evenly to coat
-check seasoning & adjust

a (redacted) letter to your dad, grape foccacia

2010-08-08T17:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. Ex Girlfrind,

Hi, how are you? I don’t quite understand asking questions in a letter, but oh, well. I hope you are doing great. We have never met before, so you may be wondering why I am writing you this letter. Well, as it turns out, your daughter (was) is absolutely one of my most favorite people ever, in the world, even. And you are one of her favorite people in the world, ever.

In any case, she is out in Pennsylvania visiting you and has been sending me little updates. She told me that you started growing grapes in your garden this year and even sent me a photo. She also sent me a great picture of your new scooter it’s really sweet!

[caption id="attachment_174" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="nellie sent me this photo of her dad's garden. love it!"][/caption]

Well, it just so happens that yesterday I went to the farmers’ market here in Silver Lake and was smitten with some grapes there. It happens sometimes, I fall in love with a beautiful piece of produce and will spend my last dime to take it home with me, if needs be. The grape in question was a very dark purple grape, black almost, perfect globes, super sweet and conveniently: seedless! I wish I had written down what variety they were because I did actually forget somewhere throughout the day.

I was shopping at the market for a work thing, you see, I am a chef, and sometimes I do parties with my partners in crime for a little venture we call On The Lamb, food & beverage. Last night we did an event dedicated to Puglia or Apulia. It’s a region in the southerly part of Italy that is really into simple flavors and using whatever is in season in simple albeit interesting combinations. For the Pugliese, it’s all about letting the integrity and natural flavors of the produce shine.

When I tasted the grapes, I fell in love immediately. They were sweet and juicy, a rich bruise shade of dark purple in a perfect globe. I bought two bunches and rushed home to make up this focaccia recipe. I love salty pretzels and I love mixing sweet and savory flavors. I wanted the best of both worlds, so I made a simple focaccia. It was fluffy and chewy all at once, sweet and salty, good and good.

I used an olive oil made with one of Apulia’s olive oils, a frantoia olive oil: it’s fruity and spicy. Whitney paired it with a pale glass of lightly sparkling Prosecco wine and it was fantastic.

I was incredibly pleased with how the bread turned out and when Nellie sent me a picture of your grapes and boasted about how great your garden is producing this year, I thought you would appreciate this recipe. It is definitely going to work best with a darker, sweeter variety of grape, so the native Concords you are growing should work just perfectly.

I hope you enjoy it! I know I did.

Take good care,

Yours truly,

Rachel~*

[caption id="attachment_177" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="pennsylvania concords"][/caption]

grape & rosemary focaccia

ingredients:

grape & rosemary focaccia

ingredients:

2 cups hot water 105-115° F

2tsp active yeast

4-4 ½ cups AP unbleached flour

2 Tbsp good olive oil, spicy & grassy flavors preferred!

1 small sprig or 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

1 tsp sea salt

1 handful or 1 cup dark purple grapes, cut in half

Good flaky sea salt or coarse pretzel salt

¼ cup + extra virgin olive oil

how to make it:

the dough:

-mix together yeast and warm water and allow to sit until it turns foamy, this means it Alive!

-using your fingers, work the olive oil into the flour and stir in the chopped rosemary

-form a well in the bottom of the flour, add the yeast & water, make sure to use a spatula to get all of the bits of yeast that try to stick to the measuring cup.

-using either your hand, or a mixer at low to medium low speed (do not whisk, messy business) to gradually incorporate water into flour to avoid lumps.

-meanwhile, add salt with about half of the flour is absorbed by sprinkling evenly over the surface of the dough.

-once all is combined, use a dough hook or continue stirring in a slight kneading fashion for a about 1-2 minutes to build a little gluten. The dough should be fairly wet.

-oil a large glass or ceramic mixing bowl with olive oil and put in dough, cover with plastic wrap or drape a damp towel over the top. Put bowl in a warm, draft free spot away from the sun.

-leave to double in size at least, about 1 ½ hours.

-remove cover and press down dough. Knead for about a minute. Grab your cookie sheet & coat the bottom with olive oil, lightly & evenly.

-form a rectangle with the dough in the center of the cookie sheet, fold it into a letter fold, then replace it to the center of the sheet tray. Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap. Place in a warm, dark place with no draft. (I used the empty dishwasher, it held the cookie sheet just fine)

-allow to rise a second time for about 25-45 minutes

-meanwhile, preheat your oven to 425°F

[caption id="attachment_178" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="grapes so dark they look like olives!"][/caption]

the bread:

-remove plastic and stretch the dough to reach the corners. Drizzle a tablespoon or two of olive oil over the top, use the tips of your fingers to make indentations on the dough.

-scatter grapes over the surface, as little or as much as you like, and lightly press them into the surface of the dough. Sprinkle flaked salt or pretzel salt evenly over the surface, again, as little or as much as you like.

-place in oven and bake until golden all over & evenly across the bottom, about 25-30 minutes. rotate once throughout baking time, around 15 minutes through.

-if you like a moist focaccia, which I do, drizzle about 2-3 Tbsp of olive oil evenly over the top of the bread as it comes out of the oven so it will absorb it. You can also leave it dry and serve it with olive oil on the side. Even just a quick drizzle with go great. Spread the oil around with a pastry or basting brush, if you’ve got it.

-cut and serve. It is delicious. I am sure you will find many many ways to serve it!

[caption id="attachment_179" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="i love how the purple of the grape runs into the bread. so pretty."][/caption]

knots & beads, a birthday girl's necklace

2010-08-08T17:22:00.000-07:00

Pretty girls deserve pretty necklaces, it is true.

Especially when they are celebrating another year of living large. I was cruising through my photos and came across a photo shoot I did while working at my friend’s shop. It was a present I made for my dear friend and colleague, Whitney’s birthday. Since returning to the freelance lifestyle, I have had more time on my hands than money in my pocket. In my estimation, I have made a lot more of value with those hands than with the dollars I have let go to the wind in the past. I started making jewelry again. There has been this wonderful resurgence of macramé recently that is inspiring to me. And, yes, I did say wonderful and macramé in the same sentence. I’ll fight ya for that one! When I was a kid in the 70’s (yes, also true) there was a lot of macramé going on, well into the early 1980’s. I loved it. The intricate knot work, the wooden beads intertwined, the excuse to pardon myself from the other girls at day camp… A side note, how come at summer camp boys get to learn how to make knots that could save your life should you be lost at sea or find yourself a participle dangling from the side of a cliff somewhere? We girls learn to tie knots also: cute knots. Knots that can save your life should you find yourself with no accessories or nothing to hang your plant with and all you have is a bunch of embroidery floss or cotton twine. I loved doing macramé in camp, loved it. It is a future sufferer of OCD’s perfect past time; it’s also a perfect excuse to be productive while actually avoiding socializing. (I was kind of a weird kid, socializing was more awkward than bonding.) In any case, lately I’ve been really enjoying combining all my favorite jewelry making techniques, using some simple macramé knots combined with beadwork & simple wire wrapping. It has been rendering these sorts of gypsy shanty décor meets Tina Turner a la Beyond Thunderdome pieces. I totally dig it.

You see, Whitney is a classy lady. She has long black hair, a penchant for classic feminine touches and vintage costume jewelry. In honor of her classic beauty, I intertwined old costume pearls, glass seed beads and black onyx. Being as we live in Southern California, hemp seems a no-brainer for the macramé material. As a rule, I love creating balance through asymmetry, which is what I did here. I imagine this necklace with a basic black dress or to play with a t-shirts and jeans day. Moreover, who doesn’t love opening a pretty package? I had a couple cute sheets of printed tissue paper at my disposal, thanks to Le Pink & Co., and a little down time, thanks to it being a Monday. Therefore, I made a little monogram wrapping for Ms. Whitney’s gift. Wrap it all up in a pretty pink bow & you have yourself and gift fit for a Belle.

tree @ city hall, originally published 08/02/2010

2010-08-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

the view from my seat at the thursday farmers market on the lawn of los angeles' city hall. lunching on sticky hawaiian chicken & rice whilst watching the buddhist prayer flags flicker in the breeze. a good way to eat lunch.

always a good idea to plant love

2010-08-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

I am basically a natural world nerd.

I don’t claim to be a great botanist. Nor some introspective naturalist garnering vast insights into the universal condition via musings on the rhythmic wave of cattails along the petite shores of a pond. (Thought it was fun to pretend there for a minute.)

I just like pretty things. And I tend to lavish attention on things I can eat. It really is as simple as that. As long as I can recall I come home from a day out and find flowers jammed behind my ear, drying to little bits stuck in my cowlick stricken head. Pockets fill with smoothed over rocks or pretty leaves. I rub rosemary on my wrists because it somehow always finds its way into my hands. I don’t buy lemons or oranges anymore, I merely plan my walk past a house with a heavy tree.

: picking orange blossoms to make an infusion (it was delicious!)

I tend to believe Mr. Pollan in The Botany of Desire where he posited that it was the plant-world that have us at their beck and call rather than the other way around. Is it the tenacity of an apple wishing to be a delicious cider that created Johnny Appleseed rather than the other way around? I daresay it might be. Especially when you find yourself, as I did today, walking below a fruit tree & inexplicably find yourself hopping like a fool to reach a low hanging branch…just, one, peach, for, me, Please!

: oh, so, pretty

I love walking and looking. I love climbing trees and picking pretty things. I love that food is everywhere if you just know what you’re looking at. That means if something strikes my fancy, I hit the books. (I believe in the page turning of reverence.) If it’s something I can stick in my mouth or add to a dish, I am smitten. If it has some folkloric medicinal personality, I will go on for days.

jasmine's summer blossoms

2010-08-02T14:52:00.000-07:00

Early August has a mere hint of the heady perfume that permeates the early days of July.

Here in L.A. jasmine creeps up phone poles, winds itself through hedges, hangs luxuriantly over stone fences. Its omnipresence is only rivaled by the cackles & coos of crows & pigeons.

Positively thriving in warm or temperate climates, the white flowers of j. officianale, or Common Jasmine, are everywhere in this Mediterranean-esque climate. To call something so intoxicating as this lusty scented plant “Common” seems, well, so common. Not fair, really. I mean, yes, it does sort of grow like a weed out here, but, my what an absolutely bewitching perennial to take for granted.

Jasmine has always reminded me of faraway places. The first I was aware of this famed scent was from a bottle of Spanish jasmine water my Aunt Jilla kept covetously on her vanity in the master bath, The precious foreign scroll work design of the bottle held inside a scent that was the epitome of class and exoticism to me then.

: from a vine that reaches the top of a light pole.

The mythic white blossoms release their perfume in the evening hours, adding to Jasmine’s romantic airs. Folklore says dried flowers added to a sachet will attract love, one more spiritual than physical. It is associated with the moon, the god Vishnu and highly revered in many religious traditions.

Buddhist ceremonies employ garlands of jasmine where they stand as a symbol of respect. In Java they use lavish garlands in wedding ceremonies and Southeast Asian women dress their hair with the redolent blossoms for special occasions. Some believe Jasmine will draw wealth and money if carried, burned or smelled in the bedroom it will induce prophetic dreams.

: my first foray into enfleurage. fancy.

A member of the Olive family, the shrubs and vines of the Jasmine count up between 150 to 200 different varieties. Called Yasmin, the Poet’s Flower or Jessamine, this lovely little pinnate leaved flower is native to Northern India and Persia. The perfumers’ darling made its debut in western gardens in the English court in the mid-15^th century.

Aromatherapy claims jasmine oils help relieve depression, after an evening walk out here, you can certainly attest to its ability to lift your spirits. The essential oils also help sooth tiredness along with sensitive, dry skin. As the blossoms wane here, I am replenishing an infusion to use in lotions or shampoo. We’ll see how it goes.

In the mean time, I have been enjoying their aromatic company on my walks & plucking a few blossoms to add to herbal teas or a glass of water. You can smell and taste why so many cultures have become beguiled with this plant and if it is "common" then we are lucky to have such commonplace things.

Spin a Hard Cooked Egg

2010-07-11T14:49:00.000-07:00

spin a hard cooked egg to see if the yolk is set

did you know you can check the doneness of your hard-cooked egg by spinning it?

lay it on a flat surface & spin it. if it doesn't wobble & spins smoothly on an axis, your egg is set. and is somehow just a satisfying thing to do, spinning eggs on a counter top.

i love boiled eggs. simply sprinkled with salt & pepper, a dribble of olive oil on morning toast; ramen is best of all when it has a hard cooked egg split down the middle floating in the steaming broth. i love them cooked in tea. "hard-cooked" rather than "hard-boiled", as my much loved former chef called it...what's the difference? it's all in the finished product. a well executed hard cooked egg is free of the sulfur gray line, the yolk a sunny yellow orb with the perfect trace of velvet softness at the very center.

for now i just want to enjoy this pretty little moody egg picture. tomorrow i may just have to boil some eggs for a favorite egg salad recipe i learned for a friend's wedding reception. it has almonds. & parsley. & mustard. all exemplary ingredients. now back to the egg.

Simple Pairs: Asparagus & Eggs

2010-07-10T14:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the best things in life are the simplest things in life.

Try to remember this when things seem to be running amok all around you. That crazy pace of life when several things are happening at once, a whole lot of good & a whole lot of hard, all around.

That’s when I need a little something so deliciously simple & satisfying in that basic pretty way that is made up of one, two, maybe three ingredients. Something more for the pretty of it than the complex of it.

Recently, my life resembles some survivalist trek, without the cozy reassurance of a map, and they certainly don’t make GPS for days like these. I have firmly planted a foot in decision to go back to working freelance. It’s scary & exciting.

Looking for a “traditional” job, I have been getting more “sorry” than “congratulations” and really, how many “no, thank yous” can a girl take? I mean, I show up poised, my resume is a great read, I send cute little personal thank you cards, even.

But that's how things roll these days, everyone is streamlining & going for the cheaper deal, I get it, simply a different game these days. Recessionista is the style that suits me presently, I suppose, I am one of the Recessionista Free Agents.

I’ve had to make a lot of changes in order to ride the waves, I've been housesitting this lovely little bungalow, that's its kitchen in the pictures. Recently, I learned there's going to be a new baby in our family of friends, I can't wait to meet that kid!

I also learned that a dear friend is sick, it’s preoccupying in a way that very few things are. I really want to help, really really want to help. But I am here, halfway across the country. So, find the ways I can help by sending hopes, love and study healing foods for him, dream up some recipes which I'll be cooking here too. I did learn that eggs are miracle food and that asparagus has magical components for healing.

In the midst of these storms, I have been doing my best at a graceful posture and winning gait while navigating the map of a new relationship. It’s one of those super & shiny prospects replete with laughter and exploration, so I want to be good at it!

In general it seems like I need a compass and coordinates to find my way around most days. I count myself lucky for the good parts, the good friends, the real love. As for the struggles, in times like this all anyone can do is show up, do good work and keep it positive. Keep it simple as much as we can.

This is when there is nothing like a very basic, very classic dish. Something that pleases for its straight forward brightness. I love the crisp green familiarity of one of the only foods we are instructed to eat with our hands. I love the sunny yellow assurance of a perfectly hard cooked egg. And we could (and probably will) have many a conversation on the merits of excellent vinegar and tasty oil.

Asparagus and eggs are consummate lovers & I love lovers. A classic pairing. There’s asparagus stratas, asparagus with hollandaise, asparagus omelets. And today: I love asparagus & egg salad.

simplest asparagus & egg salad

ingredients:

1 bunch of asparagus, fibrous ends snapped off
2-4 eggs, hard boiled
Handful of parsley, rough chopped
Sea salt & fresh cracked pepper
Vinaigrette

what you need:

a pot tall enough to stand asparagus or a steamer, if your lid does not leave enough space or is not tall enough, you can invert a pie tin to give some extra space
butchers twine

how to make it:

eggs:

-place eggs into a saucepan, cover with cold water

-over a medium high flame, bring to a boil and reduce flame to just keep an active roll, not a huge boil,
set a timer for ten minutes
-remove eggs from pan & run cold water over, leave to come to room temperature
-peel the eggs by rolling them with a firm/gentle pressure against the counter & peel away
-slice in wedges or in rounds with an egg slicer

asparagus:

-in your pot that the asparagus can stand up in, add enough water to come up a quarter to a third of the way up the asparagus spears standing up in pan
-salt the water until it tastes like diluted ocean water, cover & bring to a boil
-in the meantime, tie your asparagus in a bundle with butchers twine, two ties is good, it should be snug without being too tight

-once the water is simmering strong enough to steam, you can lower the asparagus bundle it, tips up, in the middle of the pan, don't let the water necessarily roll into a boil, keep it active & bubbling

-replace the lid & keep it simmering actively for 5-7 minutes
-to test for doneness, insert a paring knife in the center of the bundle, it should slide in gently, be careful not to cut through

finish:

-use a nice tangy vinaigrette, straight oil & vinegar or squeeze the juice of a lemon & drizzle with great oil, salt & pepper and toss the asparagus
-season egg slices with salt & fresh cracked pepper & drizzle with olive oil or vinaigrette, arrange on plate or platter with asparagus

-sprinkle with coarsely chopped parsley, if you’re using lemon, you could always zest the bright yellow flesh before juicing it & toss the zest with the herbs. um, delicious.

-this can be served with the asparagus whole or cut up in pieces; this whole salad can be tossed with lettuces & vinaigrette & served as a composed salad, it is wonderful with a little great preserved tuna.

~* it is a great side dish for a cookout, a simple combination to pack for a picnic, healthy afternoon snack or part of a simple lunch. I would love to have this with a slice of salty sweet country ham or some toasts with white beans...mmm... beans...

hi, friends!

2010-03-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

Hello to you lovely people!

Yes. It's been a while. And it will be a while longer, I must happily say. Last November I decided to take a hiatus from the sweet savory to give some real thought to whether or not I still wanted to do this here number. I also had a few prospective projects on the table and wanted to give myself a little break to do some soul searching and deep breathing. Then I got moths in my pantry and had to throw away a tear inducing amount of food, so I took it as a sign. Take a break, as long as you need.

So, let me tell you, it's been a wild handful of months. Where to begin, I do not know. I guess I'll start somewhere in the middle. The Sweet Savory will not die! There are some things I just love too much, and telling you about food is one of them. The blog is under construction and will be relaunched: cleaner, faster and prettier. I am really excited! However, it will have to wait. And for good reason: I need to sleep!

I am helping to open a really wonderful coffeeshop in Los Angeles called Coffee Commissary where I am working as a creative director & consultant. I am writing this, in fact, while I watch one of the owners put a final coat of polyurethane on the counter. It's been a lot of work, zero sleep, amazing experiences and flavors. I've met some of the most fascinating people from artisan roasters and bakers to the coolest staff of newly hired baristas in this side of Stumptown. It's been full throttle the past month plus a few living on caffeine and takeout, I can't recall the last time I was so sleep deprived, but I'm surviving with only one meltdown on record. Soon I will get to re-aquaint myself with a full nights rest and a homecooked meal.

For the love and ladies, I am now officially part of the most gorgeous three headed monster in the universe. I am the savory component of On The Lamb, Food & Beverage. I cannot express how incredibly exciting and fun it has been to work with these girls and the events we've already pulled off have been nothing less than totally amazing. We have been scheming for our return in April and damn, its looking mighty fine. These ladies are so incredibly talented and the heights of delicious we can reach together makes me want to hop & holler daily from the sheer pleasure of it.

And if that wasn't enough to wear you out, I have also started taking students again. Once more I get to warp the minds of paying students into cooking how I do. Its all part of my malicious scheme to disseminate simple delicious lipsmacking good times all the time. Good times, folks, good times.

So, if you will, bear with me, a few more months while I wrap up these crazy starts and get simmered down and turn my attention once more to the keyboard, all will be rewarded. In the meantime, feel free to take a look around. And to those of you keeping in touch, I always appreciate your kind words, you keep me inspired and on track. You guys rule.

Deliciously Yours,
Rachel

photo by cris moris
me making wild boar & homemade pickle sliders for OTL's one night stand speakeasy

things you need: delicious friends, spice grinders and pancakes

2009-11-05T09:01:00.000-08:00

Maybe it's the fall air. Maybe its the veritable whirlwind pace of daily life, lately I've been downright nostalgic. For days way back when and for days just a few months ago. You see: somehow I have been blessed with the presence of some really amazing people here in LA. All I ever heard about upon moving here is how hard it is to find great people. Well, if you are going looking amidst the nightlife in Hollywood, then yes, I imagine it must be hard. But when you take that leap and say hello to that dashing person who peeks your curiosity, odds are you'll be just fine. But you have to take that leap.
As with all friendships, we go through cycles, and lately I've been missing people and saying goodbye, that's just all part of it. Last week I helped to send off a beautiful lady on her way to write an album nestled amongst trees and idyllic silence in that far away mystical land called the Pacific Northwest. One of my most favorite living creatures in the universe and I have been exchanging messages while she's hard at work in that faraway land called Kentucky. And my gmail/facebook accounts have been getting all kindsa action far and wide. I have been tracking the travels of our dearest girl, Whit, while she treks across Italy during the wine and olive harvest. Through the stories we share, a part of my imagination can go wandering through fern lined paths or ancient Etruscan highways.

When given the good fortune to find them we need to cultivate thesefriendships. They are the magic that takes the uproarious pace of life and slows it down to savory moments. Just like everyone else, when I get nostalgic, I look at my pictures. I am still filing through all the pictures I took this summer that I wasn't able to access due to the death of my Dell Dimension 3000, RIP. For weeks, my dear friend, Joy, and I have been salivating remembering these little chickpea pancakes. This summer we had a farewell wine tasting for Whitney's travels. As it was hot and sultry, pink wines were the call for the day. I have often wanted to post this recipe and realized why I haven't. Because I need to get a little bossy in order to do so.

See, people, there are things that you need. Some of you may have them, some of you may not. A well stocked pantry is a petite domestic museum where you can touch everything and play till you drop. These are key to a particular fullness of a life in the kitchen. The textures and colors and aromas are pure inspiration and satisfaction. All of these things that I am about to mention (and many down the road) are things that I have come to love as a cook, which is why I want to share them with you, my friends. Things like exotic spices and flours, tools like spice grinders, they are just like those really interesting people you may see while out and about. All you really have to do is take the leap, say hello, trust that a new experience is a good one and could turn into a lifelong friendship.

Let's start with great whole dried spices, like in the case of this recipe: whole coriander and cumin seeds. Whole. Not ground, whole. In order to grind them, you will need a small mortar and pestle, a nestling bowl for your food processor, or the handy go-to coffee grinder that is dedicated to spices only. It's funny, every time I make this recipe, I start with the food processor then realize that the coffee grinder always does better, so I end up grinding in there anyway. I like to use the food processor to mix the batter altogether. If you are not ready yet to dive into getting a dedicated spice (coffee bean) grinder, that's okay, some high quality ground will do, I mean, lets be realistic, not everyone gets as stoked as I do about grinding spices. I get it.

You also need to explore various grain and legume flours. For this recipe I use chickpea or garbanzo flour, but I have jars and bags in the freezer of cool things like millet flour, almond flour and buckwheat flour. The fact is, you can throw a handful of these into any recipe to add flavor, nuance and overall health value. Yes, you can add some garbanzo flour to a cake recipe or millet flour to a muffin. I realize that we don't all live in a big metropolitan area with a readily available Indian/Pakistani grocery nearby with stacks and piles of gram or besan flour (garbanzo flour). You can always check out your health food store where I am fairly certain they will have it in the bulk bins or Bob's Red Mill bags. If not, you can go online and search it out. Same goes with the spices, which you can also find at the Indian grocery. I have had great luck with Penzeys and Kalustyan's. Bob's Red Mill is online also. So, go out there, get a spice grinder and get to exploring.

But there again, Bossy Mc Bosserton here: you have to be proactive about using them. They do not last forever. Trust your nose. Open the freshly purchased bag and breath in deep the redolence, what you are smelling is aromatic oils, they are volatile and will go off eventually. All great things are fleeting, after all. They can become oxidized and bitter, some spices come to smell and taste just like dust. Some people say spices last a year. I think that is a good rule of thumb. Though I'd be a big remiss liar if I said I threw all my spices away after one year. I do give them a good sniff and have made a vow of honesty, when they smell off, into the bin they go. Sometimes its a year, sometimes its two, sometimes its a woeful six months. But I love them nonetheless, who am I to say how long they ought last? I am sure there will plenty more times where I will wax on about whole spices, for now let me get back to this post.

These little pancakes are beyond delicious and incredibly versatile, just like a great friendship ought be. I have made them as ham and cheese sandwiches, I have smothered them with mascarpone, ricotta, chopped nuts and maple syrup. I have eaten them cold and leftover from my hand standing staring into the refrigerator with that early morning blear only fitting to a bathrobe and errant cowlicks atop my head. I love them, the pancakes that is, not with the cowlicks I find myself in daily battle. Always. I have made them a few times for our little gatherings. I somehow find myself surrounded by beautiful smart brunettes a good lot of the time and who am I to not fulfill their request?

They went beautifully with the pink wines and played nicely with all the other beautiful finger foods that were spread for the occasion. I would love to revisit the wine tasting when our girl Whitney returns because it was such a great learning experience and so much fun to share, I'd like to share it with you.

Okay, so, without much further ado, here's the chickpea pancake recipe. For this particular occasion I made a little salad out of a variety of sprouts from the farmers market, a small handful of parsley and mint chopped coarsely and tossed them with lemon and olive oil. To finish there was a little spot of tzatziki style yogurt cucumber sauce that was thinned out with lemon and white wine vinegar. It was delicious. I hope that you will try these out and let me know what you think. I always love to learn from you about how to better my recipes. Okay, friends, enjoy!

Chick Pea Pancakes
makes enough for several crepes or dozens of appetizer sized cakes
dinner or snacks

1 tsp whole cumin seed*
1 tsp whole coriander*
a pinch of dried chili flakes*
1 large clove garlic, crushed and peeled
1 tsp salt
a handful of flat parsley with some tender stem still attached
1 cup of garbanzo/chickpea flour
1-1/4 (up to 1 1/2 cups depending on how thin you like them) milk, I use almond milk, I like the crunch and flavor it lends
3 tablespoons hearty flavored olive oil or melted butter
cooking oil (canola, grapeseed or even ghee, if you've got it)

*if you are not yet ready to embark on grinding your own spices, a half teaspoon each of ground coriander and cumin along with a pinch of cayenne pepper will do just beautifully

how to:
-in a spice grinder grind the first 3 dried spices together
-add the garlic and salt to grinder and make a paste
-transfer to a food processor with the parsley and process once more to a nice paste
-add flour to mix thoroughly
(at this point if you don't have a food processor, you'd just need to grind the spices, mince the parsley and you can mix the rest by hand with a whisk)
-slowly add the milk with the food processor running
-scrape the sides so there's no flour sticking and making big lumps, process again
-let rest for about 30 minutes to an hour. this will let the flour saturate with all the great flavors and will add to the overall moisture goodness
-add the oil
-preheat a large skillet over medium flame. line a large plate with paper to drain
-add a few tablespoons of oil to the pan to cover bottom of pan, when the oil is dispersing quickly and sort of shimmery, you are ready to go
-ladle batter into pan, i used a little ice cream scoop to portion control ours
-allow to cook evening along bottom before turning, they will stick if given the opportunity, rotate the pan a quarter turn over the heat to keep it even
-the pancakes will start to look a little dry and golden brown around the edges, with a thin metal spatula, sneak a peak at the bottom
-flip and finish the second side, it takes a lot less time on the second side

apples and fennel, hello autumn salad

2009-10-23T08:32:00.000-07:00

Aaaah. Finally. The nights are crisp and cool, a scintillating breeze over the night air and we all sleep so peacefully snuggled under blankets that have been missing from our beds for months. Depending on where you live, the leaves are all turning that vibrant array of colors that look so dashing against the blue sky and along the sidewalk. There are a few streets in Los Feliz and West Hollywood that are lined with deciduous trees, I do my best to drive/walk down them this time of year so that I can smell that delicious warmth of autumn and watch as the leaves turn then fall. The only real reminder of what time of year it is here in L.A. Silly blue skies year round. It's easy to lose track of time.

Autumn. My favorite time of year. Halloween! Roasting pans come out of retirement and stew pots get to percolating. Huzzah, friends.
My favorite thing to start with when the weather cools off is roast chicken. I love it. Truly like no other. Though, perhaps I love roast chicken even better on the second day. Maybe I love leftover chicken almost as much if not more than freshly made. Just maybe. Yeah, I do. Chicken salad. Love it. No lie. The kind that's all kindsa whipped up with mayonnaise and pickles, that's pretty great. Or a grown up green salad with all the fixings. Yeah, she's the one. I also love anything that lets me get multiple meals out of it. Thank you chicken, we like you, no we love you, a lot.

It's also the time of year that apples are hands down delicious. Crisp, sweet, floral. A fruit in the peak of its season is like nothing else in the world. Honey Crisp apples have become a new favorite the past couple of years, their name couldn't describe them any better. They are excellent eating apples, so I like to use them raw in dishes whenever possible. It's also the time of the year that fennel gets particularly sweet. It is in season all summer into fall, so now is the time of year to put the two together when ever possible. Just a word to the wise, make sure your fennel is white and bright on the outside, avoid ones that are browning. Although we gravitate towards the bigger more round bulbs, our old grocery store bargain eyes lighting up, you will want to veer over to the flatter more oblong ones. They will have more flavor and be more crisp than fibrous.

I think you get where I am going here, a salad. A huge beautiful delicious salad just for autumn loving. Tender lettuce with hearty kale cut into fine delicate ribbons. A hearty two handfuls of fresh herbs and a straightforward vinaigrette to let all the natural flavors shine. I will later down the road provide a recipe for an apple vinaigrette that would go beautifully for this salad, but for now, let's stick with lemon so you can just taste. Taste the early autumn crispiness. And use up that leftover roast chicken. And love it.

honey crisp and fennel salad
for two

left over chicken, sliced, about 6 oz each
half head of butter leaf (cobb, boston) lettuce
4 large leaves of kale
handful each of: basil leaves and parsley leaves (see note)
a small or half a large fennel bulb sliced thinly
a small or half a large honey crisp apple, sliced thinly
lemon garlic or apple cider salad dressing

set chicken aside while you prep the salad ingredients
start your vinaigrette, see recipe below
make sure lettuce and kale have been dunked in cold water, cleaned and dried thoroughly
tear lettuce into bitesized pieces
remove fibrous stem from kale leaves. lay the leaves on top of each other and roll like a cigar from base to tip of leave. slice thin rings, about 1/8-1/4 inch max, from roll and you should have a nice little pile of ribbons
pull herb leaves from the stems, tear the big ones, leave the others whole
cut away stems and fronds from fennel bulb, reserve fronds to use as an herb and stems for vegetable stock....i mean, if that's how you roll.
cut bulb in half lengthwise and lay cut side down on surface. slice a large piece from base to remove the oxidized fibrous parts. slice in the half moon direction thinly, about the same as the kale
cut concentric slabs from the apple, about 1/4 inch thick
lay apple slice rings on top of each other and slice through to make batons
toss apples in vinaigrette to keep from oxidizing, especially if you have a little time before you eat
toss all greens in vinaigrette, put on plates and top with sliced cold chicken

note: i am lucky enough to spend time in places where there are nasturtium plants nearby in abundance. i think everyone should find themselves in this position. if you are: add about 4-6 leaves and flowers to the ingredients list. slice leaves into ribbons and pull the petals free and toss with lettuce

lemon garlic vinaigrette

one clove of garlic
the juice of one small lemon or half a large
salt and pepper
extra virgin olive oil

cut the dry brown bit off of the garlic, crush it with your knife or the bottom of a coffee cup to release it from its skin and to break the clove up
slice thinly then sprinkle generously with salt and continue to mince and smash with knife until its very fine, almost a paste consistency
put in a medium smallish bowl with several turns of fresh cracked pepper and lemon juice, let sit about 5-15 minutes to infuse flavors and mellow the garlic
whisk in oil to taste, depends on how strong both lemon and oil are as to how much you need. i like mine very tangy. usually for a citrus vinaigrette its a ratio of oil:juice(acid) 2:1

stirring the curds

2009-10-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

open vat cheesemaking at beecher's handmade cheese

Do you ever wonder what it takes to get cheese from being milk to being this? How can you not, really? It is such this magical transformation. From plain old white milk to the myriad of delicious, there are many steps in between. Beecher's in Seattle is one of the forerunning artisan dairies on the American cheese front. Here you can observe the process of small batch open vat cheese making while you wait in line for your soul satisfying mac and cheese or to buy a wedge of an American dairy beauty.

Did you used to make those little illustrated flip books when you were a kid? With little drawings of a stick figure doing a jig or planting a tree. Two stick figures running towards each other or jumping rope? I love those.
I made a sort of grown up one recently while visiting Beecher's on Pike street in Seattle. I have become a huge fan of Beecher's since hocking their wares this past year. Their reserve cheddar that has been rubbed in butter intermittently over the course of a few years has become nothing less than legendary in these parts. I was mesmerized by the process we all watched through the picture window, so I thought I'd share. So, join me here: take a seat and enjoy the show.

stirring the curds: a flip book animation

thank you, bainbridge: here's some homemade tea

2009-10-12T00:22:00.000-07:00

There are are so many ways to say thank you. It's true. You can send a little card on heavy paper stock with a sweet little picture and precious words. You can send a pound of chocolates or salt water taffy, a potted plant or box of meaty treats. I like that someone can send a package of steaks or parcel of bacon to say: "Hey, you, that was really nice what you did for me. Thanks."

Most often for me, a thanks is better homemade. Tins of cookies, jars of sauce, paper mache boats or folded over pretty papers with notes inside. Retired mason jars full of hand blended tea. I love tea, the whole experience, from smelling to scooping, to steeping and drinking. And I want to give to you, someone whom I appreciate and who has given me such a treasure, well, I want to give you something of equal pleasure.
Enjoying a good cup of tea, you truly can't help but conjure up good feelings and scrumptious ideas as you breath in the steamy tendrils emanating from a mug. It seemed the only proper thanks to give in exchange for an invitation I recently received to stay in a dear friends family home on Bainbridge Island.

Whenever possible, I'll tend toward a pre-emptive thanks. Its so easy to loose track of time once in the swing of day to day and the questions it gets one all wrapped up in. More than once a cause of me forgetting to send things in a timely fashion. So, if the opportunity presents itself, I will do the thanking in advance.

That is how it went in the weeks leading up to my vacation. I had the moment when I knew the folks at the Nute house would love some tea, so I decided on the flavors. I started my thank you gift about a week and a half before I left. I bought three big bunches of organic spearmint from my Sunday farmer's market. My mom was here visiting again, so I put her to work while I made dinner that evening. I believe that was the evening I made green chili chicken stew with the Hatch chilis my folks had picked up along side the road in New Mexico.

She broke the bunches up into several smaller bunches and tied them on a length of butcher's twine. Next would be to determine the best place to hang it dry. Not outside: too hot, too bright, too many chances for disturbing. Not in the window, again, in my California home: too hot, too bright. You don't want to cook it before it dries.
I thought over the doorway to the kitchen, indirect light, plenty of circulation, relatively dry air. Alas, that particular weekend, there were a whole lot of bodies coming and going through that door with three house guests and two roommates. We settled on the handles of my great grandmother's buffet.

This was quite obviously the best choice because it was fairly practical, provided I didn't need to get inside the buffet much for the upcoming week. Most of all it was really lovely to look at all week while the mint dried gently to a uniformly dense green. It didn't get cooked by the sun to that sad brownish black which can make it taste exactly like mint dust. Upon tasting the brewed tea later, it certainly retained a sweetness from the gradual drying. From farmers market to drying on the line, I'd say that was the best process. No refrigeration in between, lessening any shock on the freshly cut stems.

I had a good amount of lavender that I got from work along with some elder flowers. Catnip from the bulk market, along with the organic English breakfast that was to be blended with cinnamon and roses from a purveyor at the Silver Lake farmers market, I was set to make two types of beautiful tea. Two of my favorite blends that I've been perfecting over recent months and years.

The best part of making thank yous like this is getting to share something you are also so stoked about. I love these teas, they bring me such daily joy. It's an equal measure of joy to what I was sure lay ahead at that beautiful home in the magical green of the Pacific Northwest. Of course, while making these, I didn't know to quite the extent of the magic that my vacation would hold. But I am sure glad that I took the time to do my little dried treasures alchemy in honor of their invite.

I was particularly pleased with my little mint extracting rig I made with clothespins and gallon freezer bags. It will be used again. You can't help but get excited with that rousing scent of mint oil on your fingers from loosening the leaves from their branches. It just smells so good.

Blending the elements together is in and of itself a sensory excursion of scents, textures and colors. The subtle hues of the elder flowers, catnip and lavender all interlaced with the bold leaves of mint. I just stirred until each tablespoon sized scoop I could take from the whole of the tea had a little of everything in it. I decided each cup needed an ample dose of lavender and just a whisper of elder and catnip.

Then came the black tea. Simple and spectacular this blend is. Cinnamon, rose and heady English style tea, its a robust and elegant beauty all at once.

I have this really classic mortar and pestle made of dark gray granite that my mother gave me years ago. It is party to many a brilliantly smelling kitchen adventure. It is heavy and hard enough to crack the cinnamon sticks into aromatic shards just the right size for going into a tea infuser. The rosebuds I crushed distributing the petals throughout and again stirred until it looked like each tablespoon had exactly what I'd want in my teacup. One day, I swear, I will bust out a postal scale and measure these amounts.

I had some labels left over from earlier experiments. I made them by scanning a little collage I made this winter and pasting the image into a free Avery template on Word. Easy as pie, so they say. And cute as a button. I sealed the tea up into two pint sized mason jars that once had preserves in them and nestled them into my luggage between hiking boots and sweaters the evening before I left.

And there's the story of my thank you, in advance, for a eagerly awaited vacation. Come to find out: I was utterly bewitched by the Puget Sound and had many a memorable moment there. This little rag tag group of friends became more like family than before. We had the most delightful meals and howled at the moon a night or two. The hikes were nothing short of epic and smell of the fresh briny air and rosemary from the garden... It was such a needed adventure. One of those trips that defines a time and place in our lives, sometimes vacation reminds us more about ourselves that what we do everyday. Trips like that only come so often, as often do we get to appreciate such fine people and surroundings. So, thank you, friends. Enjoy some tea, on me.

bubble gum

2009-10-11T13:19:00.001-07:00

just in case you are wondering what to do with your bubble gum when you are done with it.

you could stick it to a wall. for like 20 years or something.

what i did this summer 3: shared meals with delicious friends

2009-10-02T08:27:00.000-07:00

As a human I count myself very lucky to be surrounded by friends and family with voracious appetites and excellent instincts when it comes to chowing down. I come from a family obsessed and have sufficiently surrounded myself with an equally ecstatic lot of beautiful folks ready to take a meal down heroically.
Though as a trained chef, I often count myself kinda bummed. People get scared to cook for you, the invitations will be meek at best sometimes. How do I fully express that I love eating above all else? So much so that I sought training for it? I cook because I love to eat and love to feed the people I love and I will be as happy eating your mac and cheese as your bouillabaisse, because, friends: food is love. And it would do no good to go around judging that kind of love.

No matter your training or status in foodiedom, someone who revels in flavors makes the best meals. When a passionate eater and zealous cook works it out to create a spread of their very own comfort foods: this is a feast to end all feasts. A person in love with each layer, each flavor, each texture, a person's soul food that they've known on a visceral level down to the very ions, every whisper is a familiar flavor with a history that is lifelong, this is food to put haute cuisine to shame. This is the food to knock down doors for. Homestyle cooking from a passionate, soulful knowing hand, this is king, queen and the whole damn royal court.

This past summer a fantastically talented couple of our acquaintance, Ren and Ryan, invited us to dine at their loft in an historic building in downtown Los Angeles. Ren had been wanting to create a feast of his favorite native Korean dishes for us. I was aflutter from the first mention of this delectable prospect. I love great Korean food and it has been since my childhood in my best friend Leslie's Mom's kitchen that I've had really great homemade Korean food. Oh, joy! Oh loveliest of lovelies! Ren made us a feast of bulgogi, chicken curry and dumplings galore.

Bulgogi is historically amongst my favorites, and his was a wonderful rendition with just the right hint of sweetness: swoon. What truly beguiled me, what drew me in with its redolent spices and haunting slow heat was his curry. Oh, my. I have craved it several times since. A soulful cook can't help but make a dish to seduce your every sense. Every one was happy as clams digging into this gorgeous feast. How could you not, it was all so dreamy. Intoxicating spices, sheer multitude of dumplings and little seafood cakes, it was as if the meal could never end, and we would never have wanted it to.

A meal in their home is a treasure, Ryan being the consummate host never lets a glass go empty. Their table stands testament to this lovely pair, a place to behold the proximity of classic Southern hospitality and pure Seoul. We all ate to our hearts content. Had the most wonderful conversations and winded it all down with calorifically colorful desserts. We were all plum tuckered by the end of the night and left with smiles for miles.

There is nothing quite like a feast enjoyed with delicious company, ah, sigh. Magic, indeed.

how i spent my summer vacation, part 2: being a brat

2009-09-23T08:39:00.000-07:00

Aaaaaaaannnnnnnd, then we went to the gardens. Moma & me, that is.

(A poet of my acquaintance that says most Ands and Buts are disposable. Therefore I needed an extra special drawn out And today...)

As much as I'd like to say that we were giggling like two school girls and reminiscing about the good old days for her whole visit, it wasn't exactly so. What happens to we adults when our parents are around? It's not every time, and thankfully the frequency lessens with each passing year. But sometimes, it's like taking brat elixir. I was being a total brat. I guess somewhere deep down inside we know that they'll still love us, even still brag to their friends about us, even when we're being impatient and slightly sulky. It takes the patience of a saint to be a parent, this I have learned.

Anyway, yes, we went to the Huntington Gardens. This is perhaps the most beautiful place I've been to since moving to this fecund wonderland of green. It's a big old pretty to get in: 2,000 pennies to be exact, but...
While it was certainly worth it, and I would say this only partly because my Moma paid. Being of the recessionista ilk myself, $20 spent means $20 planned well for. We went to the gardens on merit of its existence, with little else planned beyond the dozens acre park that is Huntington's. Moms always want to pay for things like this. So, yes, Mom, Let's party, botanical garden style.

But in all honesty, the Huntington is gorgeously satisfying on first view, though its a place that begs for all sorts of good future planning. This visit will certainly stand as a first. Truthfully can't wait to come to know this place inside and out via many many adventures through the gardens. Hailing from my favorite era of urban and parks planning, Huntington boasts some classic turn of the 2oth century embellishments and structures that make a girl swoon.

We originally wanted to go to the tea room, but it's booked like fifteen years in advance, so we decided to take a trip to an independently owned tea house some other time. And we, did, and I will post that in some other portion of this essay mini-series. Since making that decision which first gave me such pang, (we want our parents' fist visit to our new homes to be perfection and I totally screwed the pooch on making reservations for this weekend) I have heard that the tea room is highly over rated, that the tea is "meh" at best and the service is mediocre. They do have a little quicky tea room in the Japanese garden with a few good Asian style teas and little Asian fast food bento boxes. This seems a far more likely bet for the next visit.

I am from Missouri, see, and we have a spectacular botanical garden there. Truly, a treasure nestled in amongst some of the best examples of turn of the century urbanity. Therefore I am a little jaded. But, really, Huntington? Good lawd. Such a special place. At this point in my mother's visit, I was fully possessed by the spirit of 14 year old Rachel, poor Moma. It was really like out of the exorcist, every time she said something, I basically hiccuped some sarcastic sigh. Eegads, so unattractive. Why does this happen? I am an adult. I really am, Moma, Dad, you too, I swear, it's like Pavlov or something...I really am a well adjusted adult most every day of the year.

Well, it appears to have taken a mutual adult appreciation for me to simmer down and for us to have an enjoyable stroll through this magnificent wonderland nestled just north of Los Angeles. Unfortunately, it was about this time my camera started down its death walk, so I was only able to capture few of the treasures. This is indeed only a glimpse of these spectacular gardens. It's a bit of a haul, and its a pricey entrance fee, but its a wonderful treasure. Now that I know better, I think I'll have a better plan of action next time.

Definitely I'd pack myself and Moma up in the car the minute she tromped out of bed and gave that little, "perhaps its time for coffee," sideways smile (Moma wakes late, people, late) with a thermos of coffee and a clutch of baked goods for the ride. I'd pack a small and sensible picnic lunch and blanket in a backpack. It is a place that deserves a whole day to stroll through each of its gardens, to smell and touch every green leaf nodding its head in your direction. And the museums! Lets not forget about the museums and library.

I'd be at Huntington gardens all damn day, because this, this right here, is so beautiful. I want to swim in it, sleep in it, wake to it. Or just visit it for a picnic lunch.

how i spent my summer vacation, part 1

2009-09-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

Wow. Have you heard? It's autumn.

Or, almost. It's that twilight moment of late summer and early fall. Students are folding their knees under desks, the back-to-school sales have all died down and business is slow for the moment while we all exhale. People have done their best to slide in under the labor day deadline for that last little getaway. There's almost an audible hush as we wait for the squashes to get bigger, the leaves to intensify in color and put on that spectacular autumnal flash. The hush of parsnips, celeriac and sun chokes plumpening under the dirt.

And I, like those tasty tubers, am back to work. How did you spend your summer vacation?

Mine was nothing less than epic. There was comedy, tragedy, friendly romps and even a little romance. I emerged from the three month spell with some scars, literally, figuratively I emerged with some memories and a character that has been reinforced much like those great sauces of the French kitchen. Most notably for the fates of the sweet savory, I have become like some Bermuda Triangle. Nearly all of my technology died on me at exactly the same time my preferred form of transportation also took a nosedive. But rather than go into all that, I thought I'd share a little pictorial look back of the months I was away from the keyboard.

It was a sweet summer, bitter sweet, much like this amazing eucalyptus honey that was given to me as a gift. I have been using it on everything. It is the most perfect amber color! And the flavor is so subtly nuanced. Please get some if you can find it.

My Moma came to visit, isn't she cute? We went to the Getty Villa in Malibu. What an incredibly special place. I fell in love with everything.

Do you know anyone that could make me a set of these? I mean, antlers may be on their way out in the design world, but in my mind they've been in fashion since this guy was made centuries ago. How'd you like to make a toast with this? Gorgeous.

Everything about the villa was beautifully laid out. Every color, every nook and cranny was just monumental. I love these muses dancing across the water with each other.

My room mate has a collection of tiny chairs. I wonder if the Villa could part with this little guy to help round out the historical representations of Chelito's diminutive obsession?

As I often do in collections like these, I became slightly obsessed with the jewelry. It inspired me to get back to making jewelry, which I did this summer. I discovered that I am in love with Scythian aesthetics. Do you know the Andrew Bird song about Scythian Empires? It's a beaut.

That night my good friend Louise came over for dinner and I made fresh corn polenta. It's one of those spectacularly simple recipes that just requires some patience. And a little agility on the grater is good too! I nearly lost a knuckle with all the chatting we were doing.

I served the polenta with snapper from the farmers market prepared in my favorite French classic style: Meuniere. Simply dredged in flour, sauteed in butter and a little pan sauce of that butter, a squeeze of lemon and some fresh parsley. I threw in a bit of white wine as well. On the side I did a quick saute of blistered green beans and sauteed fennel. We washed it all down with a nice chilled white wine from South America.
Yum. This is making me crave summer all over again.

Sadly, I have to run to work. I'll be back with more summer snapshots. I hope you are all doing swimmingly and enjoying this last gulp of summer. See you soon!

notes from the underground

2009-08-30T21:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends, Family and Readers,

Unfortunately, I have to make this quick, I am on someone else's computer. But I just had to say hello and to let you know that: yes! I am still here, I am still alive, kicking, screaming, laughing and best of all: cooking.

What I am not doing is posting. This is a sad story.

Unfortunately, in the midst of being in an accident that gave me an 8 week recovery and took my vehicle from me, my camera began to die and my computer followed suit. Every time I try to load pictures to show you: the sadness, it begins....crank, crank, crank, sputter, stall, stall, oh, wait, is that a...nope, sputter sputter, spit, kerplunk, dead. You can almost see the smoke emanating from my old clunker Dell Dimension as it cranks along trying in vain to load just one more picture. My MP3 player also took a nosedive, leading me to believe that I am some human variation of a bermuda triangle for household technology. Maybe I should put my stand mixer in hiding so its safe till the storm passes...

Well, things are slowly coming back together. I have a new (to me) car coming in a few weeks and a loaner laptop on the horizon till I can get myself all back up to date. I am going to be on the lookout for a camera and am certainly looking for suggestions. This show will be back on the road, but for now, it's old school. Like old school back when I just did stuff and wrote about it in my journal and told friends about it. I have made more lists in the past two months than I have in the past five years...all stuff I wanna tell you about, all stuff I swear I want to do when I have more time and technology.

So, here's what I propose. I am going to drive that computer off a cliff. I will attempt to update you on all the great stuff I've been doing this summer, its just that it might take me a few days per post (for real, no exaggeration). Will you take this mission with me? Help me put the Dell out to pasture with a few last hoorays?

I'll be working to soon be in possession of some technology, even if just interim technology, cause, you know what? I miss you.

I was really getting on a roll there and I loved coming here to tell you about all the delicious experiments and inspiring moments that have been coming my way. I've been delving into my California dreaming and I want to tell you all about it!

So, check back, and thanks for the love. And say hi on Twitter, I'll tell you some delicious stuff there also! And once again, keep on loving this delicious life, eat what you like and don't crowd the pan!

Yours truly,

Rachel

clavicles are fer the birds

2009-07-01T18:31:00.000-07:00

It's true, I am working stiff, I love my job. I am more of the working spaz than stiff variety any day of the week. Laying here this week with my arm in a sling and my knee swelled up to the size of softball plus some, I miss my stinky little department...a lot.
I get to work with cheese and salumi...all day, every day. I am surrounded by some of the finest examples of artisan products to be found in the world. Except for this week... a little worklorn tear streaks down my cheek...I also miss the full use of my right arm. This one-handed-left-handed typing...for the birds. Come on clavicle, reattach already, so I can get back to work.

me in the employee dining area with a case of bijou: little crinkly rinded goats milk cheeses from vermont

heroes: so i bailed

2009-06-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

yes, i bailed on the heroes challenge.
so be it.
i'd hate to undermine the very real reverence and respect i feel for the people i admire by trying to force myself each day.
so,
lemme tell you a few more heroes about whom i haven't yet written this month and encourage you to either remember them or research them.
because they are great. in no particular order:

assata shakur
fred kirschenmann
mfk fisher
margaret wertheim
arran stephens of nature's path
alice waters
julia child
jacques pepin
henri viain
sixto alonso
ruth reichl
mark ruhlman
patti smith
amelia earhart
julia ward howe
gloria steinem
mongolian warrior women
and a few others that maybe will come up and maybe won't but that will always inform me.

and remembering that every day's a good day for heroism, especially if its sincere.
now back to the food.
xx

heroes: keeping in the game

2009-06-12T22:44:00.001-07:00

cleopatra, she's a hero.

heroes: you for a day?

2009-06-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

I intended to write about a particular person this morning. Instead came to the keyboard and realized that I needed to take a break from the hero worship a little bit. Writing about Viktor Frankl last night in the midst of finishing cleaning my house in preparation for my mother's visit, well, I guess I got a little reflective.

What makes a hero?

So many things could make a hero for me, some of them could be the same for you, and there could be so many wildly divergent paths between. Growing up, I prided myself on having no heroes. Being as I grew up in the era that was post-Vietnam, knee deep in the cold war, surviving the vacuum of 80's pop plasticine culture, having no heroes was the only viable option. Or so we believed then. Truthfully my heroes were the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Sylvia Plath, The Bolsheviks, Sid Vicious, Exene Cervenka, David Bowie, Andy Warhol, Amelia Earhart and Annie Oakley.

My generation was to be dubbed the Generation X, the 13th generation of Americans. This suited me incredibly well. Though the proliferation of plaid flannel and phat pants that marked our era, well, very glad that passed. We were the generation that saw the scam in the scheme, the revolution had happened before us, so we were in that lull of history. Heroes were few, heroes were rebels.

As I've grown older, I am glad my youth was experienced with a healthy angst and anger, it made me question the value of nearly everything. As a person in her 30's now, I must wholeheartedly apologize to my parents for the acceleration of aging all that angst must have caused them. But thank them with an equally full heart for allowing me to roam, for allowing me grow into my own in all those fits and bursts that are the violent but beautiful truth of growth. Perhaps they're my heroes today, my parents. All four of them.

Thanks to all the questioning, thanks to years spent convinced of the meaninglessness of it all, thanks to the nihilist ilk of so many gen x moments, I eventually found something new to rebel against some time ago: Apathy. That inevitable circumstance that came along with 90's culture I've eschewed in my maturing into adulthood (adulthood-ish). Much as I learned from years obsessed with the paranormal and the existential, our existence is what we make of it, our truth is what we believe it to be.

The wall came down in my lifetime. For me, heroism is abundant these days in that persons are striving to lead fuller lives and in doing so are affecting change in the everyday. And isn't that what a heroic act does? It makes things better than they were before that act or intent. Heroism is not necessarily setting out to be a hero, but to stop bitching and start making things better.

Heroism is being a force for beauty. Heroism is not wanting to lull away into an apathetic cocoon and instead stepping up to that proverbial plate. Heroism is alive and well if we choose to see it that way. Not that John Wayne pull up your boot straps and hate blacks and queers sort of macho way our once weird white patriarchal society would to paint it. Heroism in acts of humanity, heroism in acts of responsibility, heroism in an abundantly respectful pragmatism.

There are going to be a lot of people to live after we die, so maybe we could all try a little heroism in our living so that things don't suck for those people we don't know yet. And you know, have some fun while you're at it because paying the bills can be a drag. But all else in between there are so many opportunities to live heroically. Not to say that we all need to go out and be annoying show boats, but I'd say the most heroic acts are those that are intentionally for the better good, for the better strength, for the better beauty, for the better truth.

I now hand over my soap box so you can use it for something better.

heroes: viktor frankl

2009-06-10T21:48:00.000-07:00

today's hero is a man from whom i have found much solace over the years since being introduced to his work. he was an austrian jew, survivor of the holocaust, neurologist and psychotherapist. through the unspeakable inhumanity that he survived, he emerged with an incredibly simple truth: there are two kinds of human: decent and non-decent. he also believed that if you feel you have a purpose in living then you can survive anything, even a concentration camp.

he founded a school of psychotherapy called logotherapy. it uses existentialism as its basis. we all, at critical times, feel alone in this universe. in this universal sort of longing how do we find ways to see the meaning in our lives? when we find ourselves feeling like life isn't giving us what we need, then yes, we do feel very very alone and existentially emaciated. instead of questioning what life ought give to us, dr. frankl's theories posit that the real question we are better off asking is, "what does life want of me?"

in this very simple turn of perception, suddenly we are able to find a path toward a more fulfilled life. one very much worth living, one very much on a note of strength and inspiration. and that a man who has seen some of the most horrifying moments of humanity can emerge with such a simple and life affirming approach to human contentedness is an inspiration beyond measure.

heroes: doug sohn

2009-06-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

doug sohn: owner, proprieter and mastermind behind hot doug's in chicago. and quite possibly the nicest human to have ever lived.
there are too many superlatives to use for the work this man does. his singularity of purpose is mindboggingly inspiring. his wealth of spirit and unflappable good nature is a lesson to all of us in the service industry.

i feel like so many good things have been written about doug, that there's not much i can really add, so lets let this be a pictoral homage to the place i crave most about sweet home chicago.

okay, two things: he has my favorite food of all in a glorious, dizzying variety, it makes me drunk on anticipation thinking about standing in front of his selection of hot dogs. (hot dogs are most likely my favorite food)
and, he has celray soda.
dedicated fan for life.

(doug's portrait up top is used via creative commons from an article on daylife.com, the rest are mine)

heroes: books

2009-06-08T08:04:00.000-07:00

CHAPTER 1
I am born

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.

-David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens
written in serial May 1849-November 1850

heroes: taro gomi

2009-06-07T15:31:00.001-07:00

and today's hero: author, illustrator, taro gomi.
for writing the most unifying book of our time:

heroes: path to freedom

2009-06-06T11:09:00.001-07:00

today will be a short one, because i want you to follow this link and find out more what these lovely folks are doing in pasadena.
my hero today is a family living in the city and living almost entirely off the grid. i have met them at a couple of green themed, sustainable agriculture, farmer's market, good food movement focused events and they are honestly the happiest people i have ever met.

its like they have a secret language that none of us will ever understand. well, not until we've figured out how to make a completely sustainable farm out of our backyard and have an intricate gray water system, etc. et al...
i went today to check their website before i gave you the link and it appears to be under construction, but no mind, go see their blog, its pretty amazing to see what they've done and how incredibly generous they are to share all these great resources. here's a link to their original website that seems to be working at present.
i know its more than most all of us are willing to do, but even just the smallest gestures or changes in how we regard our use of our home and resources towards using less and gaining more goes a long way. there's just something so satisfying knowing that you've done a little something for the longevity and beauty of the days to follow.

heroes: ongina

2009-06-05T01:35:00.000-07:00

like will allen i may have come back to ongina. she represents so much more.

but for now, early friday, late thursday, thinking of daily inspiration:

ongina

ongina ryan.

the spritely, talented shoulder shakin beauty from downtown dance party

that we found winning our heart at our weekly night out along with yours:

Ongina Ryan

Hero

Hero--essse

Survivor, Queen, most of all, woman unafraid, human unabashed

She's fabulous, beautiful...

He's an inspiration for all of us naturally...She's a lady like no other

when i am not ready for bed like nobody's biz, we'll be back for more hero worship of Ongina Ryan.

heroes: rabbi susan talve

2009-06-04T08:31:00.001-07:00

Pretty much none of you have heard of this woman, and that's okay. She's not the kind of person that needs you to know her name. She was my rabbi in the last several years that I practiced Judaism with my mother in St. Louis.

I was raised as a reformed Jew. It formed a structure to our weeks, our days, it provided for me a cultural heritage rich in story and humanity. When I was young the only congregation my mother could find that suited our needs and locality was a more conservative place than the family that we are. Yes, even kids in Sunday school can be jerks, and I always felt really out of place. Then Rabbi Talve appeared. She and her husband Jim Goodman became prominent roles at our synagogue. They brought with them a warmth and honesty that was entirely magnetic. Then Susan branched away, and we followed her.

She founded the Central Reform Congregation which began as a sort of mobile congregation. Her services were eye opening, refreshing and altogether connecting for our community. A community that she envisioned as including everyone: black, white, Jewish or no, gay and lesbian. Her services were musical, in message and metaphor, and literally: she had two musicians that would perform and inspire us all into song. Her influence made my religion one of open arms, of God between all, of song, celebration and laughter.

I think of her so often in those reflective moments that we all are bound to have, looking at where we came from and how we got to where we are. There are certain people always attached to those lessons, Rabbi Talve is one those positive forces. She's incredibly grounded and honest. No airs about her. She speaks with a sort of irreverent timbre, with humility, inspiration and humor. She's politically active, founding and/or serving organizations that bring education to under served populations, that fight for civil rights of the lesbian and gay community, that unites across race and religious lines to build true community.

Today I came across a quick little oral interview of her that really encompasses the kind of woman she is, if you have a few spare seconds, go check it out, it's refreshing. It gladdens me to know that through her experiences in life she's not only maintained her sense of humor and awe, but that she is an overtipper! That's a holy gesture in my line of work indeed.

variations on a theme: green goddess

2009-06-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I was the fortunate guest to a birthday party that boasted a menu of chicken, waffles and rootbeer floats. I wish there were a way to type it with the enthusiasm I felt for it, especially since it was to be homemade by a Dad... allow me to try:

there was homemade Chicken !...cooked with KIELBASA!!! and onions in perfectly seasoned sauce (go Cliff, use that salt shaker!)...with HOMEMADE waffles, woohoo, he had two, count'em, two waffle irons working, aaaaaaaannnndddd freaking RootBeer Floats in which we dipped the childhood favie fave: pecan sandies!! Shut it. I had two and a half plates of said chicken, kielbasa and waffles.

Nearly impossible to have all things that I love as much as these things in one day, and for a birthday! I love birthdays. Living your life one spectacular and most-likely-partially mundane day after the other: Celebrate, its great. A day spent with a small bunch of lovely humans in the family home of a much loved friend, with homemade comfort food is a day to be ecstatic about. Then all of that tied up with the big shiny ribbon of a game of Balderdash? It was a great day.
(Um. By the way: I love Balderdash. I kicked some Balderdash ass in a very dark horse sort of way. I'd never played before this very fortuitous day and realized that I am born to play these parlor games of the nerdout ilk. Word game? Dictionary-esque? Yes. Me. All over it.)

Anyway, so when you are given the honor of attending a family birthday party, it is a grave offense to enter empty handed. While I may belch like a trucker and swear like a sailor, I do have good home training. My grandmother, Mary Alice, would knock me upside the head should I dare go to an event like this empty handed. Knowing that the menu was essentially glorious meats with sides of starch and sugar, it seemed logical to offer my salad making prowess. I decided to make a salad with a homemade variation on Green Goddess dressing. After all it was a salad to be served for the party of a veritable goddess.

I have always loved this salad dressing. The first time I had it was from a jar made by Annie's, they used tahini instead of anchovies in order to better serve the vegan/vegetarian population Annie's was set up to serve. It was my favorite dressing to be had from a shelf stable jar for a long time. But then, as I am wont to do, I just wanted something...something more. Once I found out that this was one of those classic old school dressings of the robust persuasion: see Caesar and Mayfair, I loved the Green Goddess all the more.

You will notice they all have one thing very much in common: Big Flavor. As I was making my variation on the Green Goddess this particular afternoon, I had a little daydream of all these terribly fashionable people in the 1920's with big sated stinky breath from all the garlic, anchovies, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce in their lunches. They were not afraid of flavor back then. It seems we have decided only certain flavors are suitable, only certain stinky breath foods are acceptable. I am a fan of garlic, of anchovies, of any and all delectable treats that just may give me kitty breath.

While Green Goddess does traditionally employ the fines herbes of French classic cuisine: tarragon, chervil, parsley and chives, we can't always get our hands on those all at the same time. Therefore, I make a variation on a theme. To me Green Goddess is: a boat load of green flavorful herbs, some oniony component, lemon, black pepper, mayonnaise and another dairy treat of the sour persuasion.

The day I made this I had a little jar of pesto made from amaranth and lemon on hand so I used that. But I could have easily used any other pesto, or any other handful of flavorful herbs for that matter. When it came to assembling the salad, I had picked up a head of green leaf and a head of lolla rossa lettuces, I filled a bowl with torn clean leaves of these. I also had a ton of beautiful sprouts from the market, so I put those in the salad, the more I piled on young tendrils of sunflower and pea plants, it screamed green goddess. For color contrast I had some sprouted lentils and radish sprouts, delight. Just before I ran out the door with my dressing in had I remembered that I had two nasturtium blossoms that had opened since the dinner a couple days prior, so threw them on top for more contrast and more goddess appeal.

The salad was beautiful, the afternoon was gorgeous. Each and every element inflected with simple love and reverence. And a bunch of made up definitions of weird-ish words. It was a perfect afternoon all in all. There is nothing quite like a day like this to remind me of what a charmed life I lead, indeed.

green goddess, variation for joie:

2 spring onions (scallions are permissible), small dice
zest and juice of half a lemon
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
2-3 anchovy fillets, the oil packed kind, diced small
1/2 cup parsley chopped
2 Tablespoons pesto, I used a homemade amaranth pesto, but 2 T of any combination of fresh chopped herbs will do beautifully*
3/4 cup mayonnaise, homemade or good quality store bought
1/2 cup greek yogurt, the really thick stuff
a lot of fresh cracked pepper
salt
olive oil to thin to good dressing consistency

how to make it:
-put your chopped onion, green and white in a medium bowl, squeeze lemon juice with a pinch of salt over it and stir to coat, leave to mellow together while you prepare the rest
-dice anchovy fillets tiny, stir in with onion and vinegar and a few turns of pepper from the mill
-coarsely chop parsley, add to bowl
-add pesto or more herbs, your choice
-stir in mayo and yogurt. i think trader joes should give me a grocery voucher for all their products i use in my recipes! (i live across the street from tj's)
-stir well, adjust flavor with salt and pepper, add olive oil to thin out to desired consistency
-great for salads or just dipping stuff into.

*if you are not using a pesto, I'd recommend using a 1/4 cup of finely chopped herbs, my favorites for this recipe are: tarragon, basil, mint, oregano, chives, nasturtium leaves or marjoram. truthfully, anything goes, i just don't recommend herbs like thyme or rosemary for this dressing.

p.s. thank you, joy, for the party pictures!

heroes: elizabeth david

2009-06-03T08:15:00.000-07:00

Beautiful, forward, intelligent and staunchly opinionated with impeccable taste and a lifetime of exploration.

Part of me wanted to leave my post as just that fragment of a sentence, truthfully in my mind little more needs be said as to why Elizabeth David is a hero to me. Every time I need a lesson in good cooking or in fearless writing, I go to Elizabeth. While she was known to be rather insecure about her writing, she was prolific and seen immediately as a force to be reckoned with and source to be trusted. Her writing style is known to be terse on occasion, I like to think of it having the sort of direct impact and economy of word as does Hemingway.

She did not set out to be one of the most influential food writers of history, she set out to be an actress. Her sense of adventure and romance found her in a boat along the European coast with her married lover at the onset of World War II. Eventually they were deported to the Greek island of Syros and from there to Crete. She spent her days there learning to cook from locals and cavorting with other deportees of the artistic ilk. From there she ended up in Egypt then eventually in India where she made the decision to marry Lieutenant-Colonel Tony David. The marriage was short lived and he went on to be somewhat of an emotional irritation and financial strain on her for many years after.

She ended up back in post-war Britain in the winter. After so many years abroad in the sun drenched places, I am sure already bleak Britain was stultifying. She began to entertain herself by writing out recipes from her time in the Mediterranean. When it was published Britain was still in an era of rationing. It outraged some, how could she be so bold as to write a recipe that called for a hundred cloves of garlic when not even a fresh head of garlic was to be found. But that was Elizabeth's style, she wrote about what interested her and trusted that her audience would follow.

She is truly the first food writer that inspired me to try and write about food. Each book is peppered with her own dry wit and seasoned with histories and little personal stories. Her recipes are forward, to the point. She writes assuming we are capable and intelligent beings, able to trust ourselves. I respond to this manner of teaching tremendously well, it fosters exploration and honesty. Several years ago when I was trying to find a good Avgolemono (traditional Greek soup with rice, egg, lemon and chicken) recipe, I searched everywhere. And every recipe I found was a veritable novel with notes on this and unreliable tricks for that. Then I remembered Elizabeth's first book, A Book Of Mediterranean Food. And there it was, a quick paragraph of 6 lines, forward, direct. And it worked, beautifully. I just now opened the book and next to the recipe is my handwriting the word "finally!!!"

As a longtime devotee to this woman's work, I would have to say her first book will always have a special place in my library, while An Omelette and a Glass of Wine is perhaps my favorite of her selections. She was truly a first of her kind and wrote numerous articles for Vogue and other magazines with somewhere around ten books published in her lifetime and a few published posthumously. Her biography, Writing at the Kitchen Table, written by the superlative Artemis Cooper, reads like the most fascinating novel. Hers was a life lived fully and her food is still some of the best you will find.

heroes: the urban market gardener

2009-06-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

This was a hard choice to make today. Do I make this blanket hero worship or individual? There is one urban farmer in particular that made me aware of this special breed of human, Will Allen of Growing Power in Milwaukee. He is truly a hero. I began reading his Good Food Manifesto again this morning and was once again so thoroughly inspired and taken aback by this man's sincere love for his fellow person and perseverance for true sustainability in a food system.
And while I may still yet dedicate a post to Will, I decided today was going to be a blanket hero post. My hero today is the urban market gardener.

When we go to the farmers market there is a general tendency to imagine our produce coming from some idyllic lush pasture in some far away rural enclave where life is simpler, the air is richer. Where neighbors say hello from tractor height and where the pace is slow as molasses. We forget, or are maybe not even aware, that there are a good many small garden plots, indeed micro-scale farms, within our own city limits. And not just in Los Angeles, in dozens upon dozens of cities across the United States and Canada. For over 30 years there has been an urban market garden movement, however in the last decade or so, it has become a burgeoning and profitable movement, they even have their own news site, in addition to several fantastic online educational resources.

I applaud these indefatigable souls working tiny plots of land within the urban landscape and bringing to the market grand heaps and piles of every vegetable and fruit imaginable. By utilizing ideals of biodiversity and integrative farming techniques, they are able to make the most of these small gardens. These limitations have been the impetus for ingenuity, there are farmers even growing things from walls. In these times of budget crisis and food deserts, its a heartening and inspiring thing to see people taking action and making a change by creating truly sustainable food sources. Little farmers markets are popping up in the most desolate neighborhoods thanks in part to their efforts. Take for example the Healthy Farmers Market in Watts, a notoriously desolate and disparate neighborhood in south LA now has a weekly market full of locally produced goods and food.

I could go on for days about the restorative power of Urban Gardening: for individuals learning a new craft through various urban gardening workshops and sustainable farming resources, for neighborhoods gaining self-reliance through sources of wholesome beautiful foods, for creating weekly sources of fresh food through the creation of CSA's (community supported agriculture), for the impetus to creativity, for the creation of a more viable and tangible sustainability. I know there is some controversy about market gardeners taking up plots in some areas that were once reserved for community gardens. On a micro-economic scale this is a real issue, however upon looking into my own ethical response to this, it seems a sacrifice for greater good. A small local economy is grown from using those gardens as market gardens. The idealist in me hopes it will also push people to claiming other empty lots or underused plots of land and turning them into gardens. In many cases these urban market gardeners are taking what was once underused or abandoned land and turning it into a profitable business that feeds bodies and hopefully inspires minds.

heroes: the girl king

2009-06-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

At the end of 2008 I did a month of blogging daily for the NaBloPoMo challenge. It was kind of awesome. I have a tendency to be easily distracted by the simple living of life and while I have every intention of writing and publishing multiple times a week, I tend to find that I have a new interest multiple times a week that surpasses the one from before. Thereby keeping me from keeping a regular pace. Is this short attention span or is this the result of an active imagination peppered with all consuming curiosity?

(pause for rhetoric)

When I do these write everyday sort of challenges I find it just the kick in the pants I need to get me back to something called discipline. This month, June, NaBloPoMo has informed us on its roster that the theme will be Heroes. To add to the challenge is to find 30 of them. A few weeks ago while finishing my little office sectionof my room I began tacking up pictures of women who inspire me. It seems a fitting endeavour to look around and pay it forward to those who inspire me in some way, who are in their own way, big or small, a hero. And in saying this and committing to this, I am keeping it in mind that not all heroes are spelled with a capital H. Not all heroes are Heroes, and not all Heroes are heroes, if you catch my drift. Not everyone who is recognized for some great action is actually a great human throughout and not everyone whose living goes measures at bettering our humanity is recognized as a hero. I hope I can find 30. I am sure that I can. I am feeling a need to be gracious, feeling a need to reach out and recognize the humanity that carries us. I was just thinking the other day what a great thing it is to be human and to be aware, and most of all to be a appreciative and surrounded by such inspiration.

My first hero has nothing at all to do with food. She does however have a lot to do with many of the other things I find essential and entirely inspiring in life. Her name is Kristina Augusta Vasa, also known as the Girl King. Born in the 1600's, Kristina's genderbending life was all the more extraordinary. Of course, being born to royalty fairly well gave her a carte blanche to do anything, but her natural intelligence, wit and active curiosity made her legendary. Her father knew from the very first that he had a very clever child on his hands and decreed that she be raised as a prince and upon his death in battle, as heir, she was inducted as a King. The Girl King.

Throughout her life she was given the best, most diverse education in the humanities, sciences, philosophy, even in fencing and shooting. Apparently she was beyond expemplary in all these things and spoke foreign languages like a native. Most all of her time was occupied with pursuits of the mind and of outdoor activities typically reserved for the men of her day. She loathed all the frippery that came with being a woman in court and was known to often cross dress or to combine elements of mens and womens costumes. Her trademark was a wild mane of dark curly locks, I can only imagine what a striking sight she was.

She was a very controversial and exalted personage in her time. I imagine she would be in this time also. Her story is fascinating and incredibly inspiring to me. As my first hero entry for the month of June, I give you fascinating and brilliant gender bender of the Swedish court, The Girl King, Kristina Augusta.

quick pickles: the first kirbies

2009-05-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

Pickles pickles pickles! I love them. Love them love them. I especially love a quick pickle, or a Quickle, as my pun-tastic coworker has deemed them. It's the time of year that the farmers market is beginning to explode. Each weekend is regenerated with freshly harvested goodness. Lately my Saturday spot has been lusciously boasting the first crops of string beans, cucumbers and diminutive okras heaped to overflowing on the tables. It's all I can do to keep from buying everything. And this is where its a good thing to know a thing or two about pickling. Because I invariably come home with far too much food to eat when the summer gems come to town.

Early summer is definitely the best time for cucumbers. And not the watery big green suckers you see at the grocery store. I am talking Persians, Black Diamond Kirbies, Japanese long cucumbers, yellow Lemon Cukes: beautiful, crisp and flavorful. All of these varieties boast thicker skins and smaller seed pockets which translates to excellent pickles. They are typically far crispier and their bumpy skins are full of crunch and flavor. These guys hold up beautifully to vinegary brines. Whichever ones find their way into your shopping bag, just be sure they are slender, small and firm with no discernible soft spots or egregious bruising. I was so excited to get my hands on a little haul of ten Kirby cukes last week. They were so incredibly cute! I gawked and cooed at them so much a guy at the market told me to simmer down or else I'd become too attached to them to eat them! Little does he know...novice. The cuter, the more delicious, the more I eat of the coveted food.

Proof: by the time I finally got around to making my pickles, I was down to four cucumbers, yes, from 10 to 4 cucumbers. Oops. Cute, eat, just one more... ah well. So, yes, pickle day: I cut each cucumber down into 4 wedges but somehow by the time I got the brine poured over my pickles I only had 12 wedges. You do the math. So freaking adorable I barely noticed them passing my lips and down my gullet. I hope you understand and will be forgiving, I kinda ate my homework. I meant to have a perfectly sculpted recipe...'take these cucumbers weighing exactly this amount and'....

Instead, I'll show you how to make a mild tasty pickling solution. Its versatile, though I think it does best with these small green cucumbers with almost bitter tasting skins. Trust me, this will be but one quick pickle recipe. I am kind of obsessed. I have been daydreaming about super garlicky green bean pickles and spicy okra pickles and bread and butter watermelon rinds. Um, yum.

I also love that this is a quick pickle because provided you have your ingredients, once you have that hankering for a good pickle, you can have one in about an hour. I made a bloody mary brunch for my most lovely of house guests, Becky, this weekend and realized I didn't have pickles, no worry, quick pickle to the rescue.

Yes, eat them up, yum. Go, Quickles!

little tart quickles

this is for approximately a pint of brine, adjust accordingly depending on how many cucumbers you have.

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar, preferably brown rice vinegar
1 1/2 cups filtered water
1 Tbsp coarse sea salt
1 Tbsp flavorful honey
3 large cloves of garlic, sliced into thick slabs
10-15 juniper berries
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
8-10 kirbies, sliced into spears**

clean glass container*

-place vinegar, water, salt, honey, garlic and spices into a small non-reactive sauce pan and bring to a low boil over medium heat
-allow all honey and salt to dissolve and simmer actively to open up flavors in the aromatics, about 3-4 minutes
-remove from heat
-place all your cucumber spears into a clean tempered glass or ceramic container, packed fairly tightly, but with a little wiggle room
-pour brine over
-sit with lid off for a few minutes to let steam off
-cover and cool to room temperature, about twenty minutes
-refrigerate until cool.
-eat, eat, eat. you will find that the garlic becomes a delicious pickle also
-you can reuse the brine if you'd like, though i'd only do it once, it starts to take on the bitterness from the skins, just bring it back to a boil for about 2-3 minutes before pouring over the fresh batch of cucumbers

notes:
-i prefer brown rice vinegar for its subtle flavor nuances, but any rice wine vinegar will do for this recipe
-**the actual number of cucumbers is hard to say, it depends on how big they are and how many of them you end up eating before you make them. just make the brine so it covers the cucumbers, if you need more, make more, its easy as that
-*be sure to use a sanitized glass or glazed ceramic container, especially if you plan to store these for a while. i don't recommend plastic for this and metal will react creating, well, metallic flavors. the easiest way to sanitize the container is to submerge it in water and bring it to a boil for a few minutes.

millet: i eat birdseed and so should you

2009-05-25T08:19:00.000-07:00

We are most familiar with millet as being the little round seeds in commercial bird feed. Our feathered friends are indeed being treated to a delicious meal in millet. Recently it is finding a new life as a non-gluten grain, but I find it fantastic all on its own right. Its ridiculously healthy, full of B vitamins, protein, a ton of essential amino acids, fiber and minerals. And it cooks in about 20-25 minutes. Hmm, quick, healthy, very delicious and all in a tiny little grain? Yes, I'll buy, I'll cook it.

Besides, I have a bit of a dried goods habits and love seeing my rows of jars filled with all shape and size of grain and bean. I crave diversity in my life and it shows up in my cooking. I've been giving a lot of thought to this the past few years as I have been diving into food politics and trying to live more sustainably. But also in the pursuit of healthier, more delicious foods in order to support my cured meats habit. Millet fits perfectly into this, its also very tasty: lightly nutty, mellow and diverse. For those who suffer from gluten allergies, it is one the least allergen forming foods you can find. And as some of you know, I am on a cholesterol scare, so this little number goes the distance for keeping our tickers ticking and our arteries strong.

There are so very many reasons why we should pursue a diverse diet. It's hard to know where to begin. Do I start with our duty to bio-diversity, to supporting a healthy agricultural culture? Do I begin with our very guts, supporting a healthy, inspired digestive system giving our bodies all kinds of fun things to process and store and make us vital? Do I begin with just the plain novelty and inspiration of trying new things? Do I exalt shopping at bulk places and farmers markets, challenging us in the most positive way with fascinating beautiful things as far as the eye can see? Do I begin with flavor, the sheer tastiness of it all?

Answer: All of the above. But mostly the tasty parts. I first cooked with millet a few years ago when I was on a pilaf quest. I was making pilaf from everything I could find. Millet quickly became one of my favorite key element for this simple preparation. It soon became a mainstay, especially as a lemon black pepper millet pilaf. I just love that you can make something so winningly tasty and healthy in relatively little time.

Millet is one of the oldest grains known in the human larder, it dates back to prehistory on the Asian and African continents. It was popular in the United States in the late to early 19th century but fell out of favor to things like rice, oats and barley. As a commercial crop, it makes far more sense to me in water starved places like California and the American southwest because it can thrive in arid soils and will be prolific with a portion of the irrigation resources.
Millet refers to a variety of similar grains, much like the catchall of rice or corn. Millets tend to be small, beige, round grains that are about 1-2 mm in diameter with each grain packing an impressive 15-22% protein content. That's fairly huge. According to the gospel that is Harold McGee, compositionally millet has as much protein quinoa and about 50% more than the health foods pageant beauty, brown rice.

Whenever I use millet I typically make a double batch because I have found that the leftovers make excellent little savory cakes. A while back we had a little potluck for which I made a millet pilaf using orange zest and parsley, I had some leftover so was able to make a delicious breakfast a couple days later of sauteed pea tendrils and millet cakes. Had I been in the mind for a poached egg, it would have gone beautifully, instead i drizzled a little Hojiblanca olive oil to finish it and couldn't have been happier. I was reminded of this delicious meal and had to come share it with you. Millet cooks quickly, it can go from a couscous like texture to mush in under a couple of minutes. Thankfully its delicious either way, so I don't tend to take it personally if it gets a little mushy. It's a beautiful side dish to things like roast chicken, braised beans, or as savory cakes. Anywhere you would serve couscous or even polenta, millet will do beautifully.

the two meal approach to millet
basic rule of thumb: 1 part millet: 2 1/2 parts liquid
1 cup millet will serve 4-6 people, if you want leftovers to make the millet cakes, plan accordingly

millet pilaf with orange and parsley

a few tablespoons good cooking oil
1 shallot, diced
1 cup millet
the zest of one orange
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth, warm or at least room temperature
a good handful of flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil to finish

-heat a medium to medium large sauce pan over medium flame
-reduce to medium low, add oil to shimmery hot, add shallot and saute to tender
-increase heat back to medium, add millet and saute to coat and toast grain a little, about 1-3 minutes, stirring, season with some salt and pepper
-add orange zest, stir, add broth
-bring to a simmer and cover on low heat about 25 minutes
-stir in parsley and remove from heat to steam with lid on for about 5 minutes
-before serving adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, finish with some olive oil and fluff with a fork
* if you plan to make millet cakes, you will want to lightly oil a glass or ceramic dish and press the leftover millet in an even layer, about 1" deep, while the millet is still pretty warm, this will allow the starches to really bind together.

millet cakes with sauteed market greens
this is a favorite preparation for me, kiss simple and using whatever mild green is in season

leftover millet, pressed, cooled overnight, and cut into shapes ( a biscuit cutter is great for this)
good cooking oil
1 clove garlic, smashed and released from skin, thinly sliced
1 bunch mild greens, cleaned and chopped coarsely: pea tendrils, spinach, amaranth, chard
a pinch of crushed chilis, optional
dash of lemon juice or vinegar
a poached egg, optional
salt and pepper

-heat a medium saute pan over medium heat until you can feel heat radiating from it when you hold your palm about an inch above the cooking surface of the pan
-add about 4 tablespoons oil to pan and heat to shimmery hot
-add a few millet cakes, don't crowd the pan
-after about a minute or two, turn the pan a quarter to half turn to keep the heat even, don't fuss with your millet cake yet
-after about 3-4 minutes or until brown, use a thin sturdy metal spatula to release, or if you are using a non stick skillet, just use a thin spatula, and flip
-cook in the same fashion, rotate the pan to keep even heat.
-once both sides are golden brown, drain on paper
-gently wipe out the pan and use it to make the greens
-heat a little more oil and add your garlic to infuse over medium low flame
-when the garlic is a little brown all over, about 3-4 minutes, remove from pan and set aside
-add greens to pan in a heap, allow to wilt a little and add more if needed
-sprinkle with salt and pepper and stir
-if the greens stick, just put a splash of water in the pan
-add crushed chili early on if you want a little heat
-stir well, season with salt and pepper, cook until just wilted, should only take a few minutes
-splash with a little lemon juice or vinegar to finish and remove from heat, stir the softened garlic back into the greens
-serve a little bed of greens on top of the millet cake
-putting a poached egg on top makes for a beautiful brunch presentation
-drizzle with a little high quality olive oil to finish.
-delicious.

and if you want to learn a ton about millet, Karen Railey wrote a wonderfully informative article on it here.

the perfect picnic sandwich: muffuletta

2009-05-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

It's May. My birthday month.
This year I was walloped with the knowledge that, um, I am getting old! Try as we may to do these things gracefully, it's not always possible. Upon realizing that the sheer number of my age this year was making me, well, a little crazy, I decided to diffuse the shock of the The Big Day by absconding the entire month for celebrations of all ilk, big and small. I kicked it off the first weekend of May with a little potluck picnic. I've been a little busy with this celebrating business, so please forgive me for taking so long to post this recipe (I promised it to my brother almost two weeks ago!)

I love a good picnic and I love a good sandwich. It seemed only logical to make one of the most legendary sandwiches of the American culinary larder: the Muffuletta. Invented in 1906 by the famous Central Grocery, it is hands down one of my favorite sandwiches. I was lucky enough to grow up with New Orleans on the incredibly short list of places where the family would vacation. I have very fond memories of being sent outside to "catch dinner," a.k.a. parental ploy to fulfill two very important parenting roles: get the kids out of your hair, make them feel useful. Getting dinner meant going to the creek and catching crawfish to add to the boil. Oh, no, don't let me digress...

Anyway, going into town meant a trip to the Central Grocery for a muffuletta sandwich. These big round pillows were full up with meats and cheese and the intoxicatingly piquant olive salad. This is a sandwich that gets you to hankering for it, so I had to learn to make it. Being as it needs to sit for a good while before you eat it, the Muffuletta is an excellent picnic sandwich. It originally takes its name from a Sicilian style of bread called muffuletta, it's a dense, soft round loaf with a texture very similar to focaccia. If you can find a plain focaccia, that should suffice, a large ciabatta could do, but its not my first pick. If you are lucky, like I was, you have a friend that is a pastry chef and bread maker at a wonderful Italian marketplace and cafe and he will give you a dreamy loaf of sandwich bread. Its hard to find good bakery bread, so if you are a person that frequents Costco, I have heard tell they carry some breads from LaBrea bakery, I am sure you can find a suitable vehicle there.

Equally important is the meat, it must be good tasty Italian meats. No turkey breast here, sorry folks. I made a little break down of the meats in the notes section of the recipe so I won't get too far into it here. Just make sure they are delicious and that you have a nice variety. Traditionally its a mix of Cappocollo, Mortadella and Salami. I have made up my own blend of favorites. The cheese almost always has provolone, but if you want to mix it up, you can add mozzarella or emmenthaler depending if you want to go tangy or mild. I typically stay mild because I want the meat and olive salad to shine. Next comes the Olive Salad. Very important. As much as I wanted to use fancy olives, I had to respect tradition and stick with a good brand of pimento stuffed green olives. It's just the way of things.

Once you've ventured into the land of Muffuletta, it is essential you pull together a fantastic group of people and have a picnic. It is one of the simplest celebrations of spring and summer and simple pleasures. We decided on this picnic that we were going to become Picnic Masters, so be looking forward to more picnic posts.
For now, it's back to more dancing and laughing and learning to grow old gracefully. Though how my back and hips are feeling this week, I think next week's Birthday Month theme is going to be "Gentle Celebration..."

creole olive salad for muffuletta

1/4 - 1/2 cup onion, tiny dice: red, yellow or fresh young onions, not white
a thinly sliced clove of garlic
2T red wine vinegar
1/3 cup of chopped green olives with pimento
1/3 cup of chopped black olives, preferably kalamata, something with flavor!*
1/2 cup tiny diced celery*
2T capers, optional
the zest of 1 lemon
fresh lemon juice to taste
1/4-1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

for the sandwich
1 large loaf of soft dense bakery bread
1/4 pound thinly sliced ham, I used a sweeter Italian ham: grilled Tuscan ham*
1/4 pound spicy coppa, thinly sliced*
1/4 pound mortadella, thinly sliced*
1/4 pound Calabrian salami, thinly sliced*
12 oz mild cheese, sliced, provolone and/or mozzarella

how to make it:
-once your garlic and onion are cut thin and small, put them in a small bowl with a pinch of salt and the 2 Tablespoons of red wine vinegar, stir to coat and set aside while you prepare your other ingredients. this will help mellow the flavors
-coarsely chop your olives and celery. the pieces should be fairly small, but not a mush.
-zest your lemon, using only the bright yellow part, and cut in half
-coarsely chop your parsley, trying to avoid the thicker parts of the stem. i usually start with a big handful of leaves and truthfully, that's my measurement for the amount
-put all together with the marinated onions and garlic, stir well and season gently with salt but generously with pepper. the olives and capers will impart a good amount of salt.
-let sit about 10 minutes, then add olive oil
-slice your loaf lengthwise and pull out some of the bread inside, save for dipping in oil or stuffing or making bread crumbs.
-smear each side with some of the olive salad, reserving some for sprinkling between layers
-use a brush or the back of a soup spoon and work some of the oil from the salad into the bread
-start layering! i start with one of the chewier meats, make an even layer, then put a layer of cheese, sprinkle some more olive salad on the cheese (i find it easier to spread the salad on the cheese as its texture is somewhat more resilient than the meat)
-continue layering like this. i like to put my softer pillowy ham in a center layer just because it looks pretty when its cut
-once all is on, cover it up, wrap it tightly and leave it alone for at least twenty minutes up to three hours.
-slice in generous portions, dig in.

*notes:
-when it comes to black olives, please try and avoid the canned "Spanish style" olives, they really have very little redeeming qualities. Kalamata is a flavorful and readily available option
-celery is essential to this recipe, I used celery from the farmers market so the stalks were teeny tiny thin, therefore three stalks were necessary, though from standard market celery, one stalk should be sufficient
-don't be intimidated by the meats, I just happen to have a great resource for great Italian meats. With this said, do try and get the most flavorful options you can find, any combination will do, a good rule of thumb: you should have a spicy meat, a mild meat, a cured chewy meat and a soft pillowy meat and all together they should equal one pound and be thinly sliced.
-bread: if you can find a good plain focaccia or actual sicilian muffuletta loaf, go for it, if not a fresh bakery style Italian loaf is great.

the 101: zesting

2009-05-14T23:36:00.001-07:00

As many cooks find: acid, a.k.a. vinegar or citrus, adds another layer to your cooking, it brightens flavors and draws out unexpected complexities. This goes for the juice as well as for the zest. I typically will use zest when I want that extra little something. I love adding the zest of citrus fruits to any number of dishes. The volatile, essential oils that are packed in the outer most colorful layer of the citrus skin are where you will find the most concentrated citrus flavor.

It can go to use just about everywhere: sweet or savory. There are times when you want a citrus flavor but worry the acid in the juice could curdle another ingredient, this is a great time to use the zest alone; or in the case when you don't want to offset texture by using too much liquid, say in a meringue. I used to teach a recipe that was a lime shortbread cookie, the little flecks of lime zest were not only adorable, they were little extra wisps of flavor that completely reinvented this simple little cookie. There are some recipes in my personal stockpile that absolutely must have that extra little kick of zest along with the juice: lemon garlic chicken, coriander orange pilaf, my rendition of guacamole, muffuletta olive salad, grapefruit vinaigrette for scallops...just to name a few.

The trick to zesting is to use only the brightest colored portion of the skin. Once you get into the white pithy parts the flavor becomes bitter. Just the brightest part for the brightest flavor. For great results it is essential to use a microplane. I don't know how cooks survived before these things were invented. I highly urge you to purchase one if you don't yet have it, those other zesters just simply can't do the job, there's so much more waste and it's just hard to get the zest free.
With microplane in hand, I have found the best technique to ensure you get just the zest, and get the most you can, is to act almost as though you are peeling the fruit. Rather than scrape it all around willy nilly as we are wont to do, take a more methodical approach. Using the microplane, start zesting from one end in a steady stroke down to the other. From north pole to south pole in straight continuous scrapings. This way you can see more clearly how deep you've gone, and you don't have to go back over any spots you've missed, unwittingly digging into the bitter pith. Since it will all be zested evenly in steady strokes, it will be easier to focus your attention on only the delicious parts.
Easiest thing in the world and it renders just beautiful bright results. So the next time you find you want an extra little something something, don't forget the zest.

the bean bandit: an introduction to beans

2009-05-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

Beans have historically been seen as the food of the poor, the staples of the meager. The food of the undesirables. In maligning certain immigrant communities terms like bean-eater, bean bandit or simply, beaner, have been used to sniff disdain on these various cultures. It used to be used to refer to certain Italian families and now to certain Mexican families. Well, I say, bean bandits, you are my heroes.

There are myriad reasons to love the humble bean, and truthfully, with companies like Rancho Gordo out there exploring the rich landscape of heirloom beans and grains, I am hard pressed to truly think of beans as "Humble" food. Rather it's beautiful food, simple food, healthy and delicious food. The past few years its become increasingly obvious to me that I am going to have to think about what I put in my body. Gone are the days of wrapping pork in bacon, or frying chicken in duck fat, I will miss those days, and I will visit them on occasion, hopefully not too rarely! But in all honesty, I feel better when I eat better, we all do. I know that I have an internal inheritance of bad cholesterol. Women over thirty, well, let's say things slow down and you find gravity doing the most interesting things to the parts you once thought of as perky. And, well, I eat cheese for a living. For me, dieting is the most unspeakable heinous of food crimes, so I won't go there. But variety and experimentation, that's where its at.

My family always ate beans, mostly pinto, lentil, navy beans, kidney and black beans. My mother makes a senate bean soup that I still crave. Perhaps I can persuade her to teach it to me on her next visit out! As a seven year on again, off again vegetarian, I came appreciate beans for their ability to create a whole protein meal when eaten with whole grains, another love of mine. Take all of that with some transcendental meals eaten in rustic cafes in Italy and France, family meals made by Mexican coworkers, and I am only slightly obsessed. Some of the best food in the world comes from places that exalt the bean. Latin America, Spain, Italy, the Middle East and the Mediterranean alike. In fact studies have come the conclusion that cultures with the longest lifespans also eat the most beans. That works for me considering its been decided that I will have to live to be at least 150 years old in order to read all the books, learn all the languages, make all the things, eat all the meals, see all the places that I intend on in this lifetime.

Recently, I've been doing some experiments for my own good. For good digestion, good energy and helping keep my arteries in good shape, it's been recommended that I include beans into my daily diet. Because of the general view of beans as a lowly uninteresting food, I haven't paid much mind to documentation or writing about them for you. But then again, I've been wrong before, maybe you too want to find a delicious and beautiful variety to add to your daily diet.

I prefer to work with dried beans to not only lessen the unnecessary amount of sodium, but also to get more flavor and variety. When shopping for dried beans, I can't say enough about Rancho Gordo. Though not everyone is ready yet to pay $8 for a bag of beans. I encourage you to try purchasing them from your health food store at least. Those little dusty bags for less than a dollar at the supermarket are very appealing in concept, but rarely give you the tasty results I am hoping for you to have. No matter where you buy them, make sure they are firm and the skins shiny. Once they are looking dull and dusty, what you are seeing is a little clue to the chemical reaction in your future. There is a lot of calcium compounds in the skin of the bean, as they get old, they get hard. Once in contact with the minerals in water, you are going to have a tough bean. The younger, the better.

Once you have your young firm little shiny treasures home, you'll want to be sure to store them in a relatively cool area in your kitchen. Avoid direct sunlight, the heat can cause all kinds of interesting chemical reactions that will again make cooking with the beans not so fun. Once you are ready to cook with them, rinse them well in cool water a few times and check for any pebbles or twigs that may have come along for the ride. Then soak them, overnight or 6-10 hours, in cool water. I tend to prefer using my filtered water just to cut down the odds of off flavors or unexpected chemical reactions. (While fulfilling and delicious, cooking is also all about science and chemistry after all.) Especially with young, less than two years old, beans, you will be amazed at the difference in size after a night of soaking. If you didn't allocate yourself enough time or if you are working with beans that are a little older, you can put the beans in a pot covered about 2 inches in cold water, bring it to a simmer then turn it off and set it aside to plump for about 1 1/2 -2 hours. In either case, discard the soaking water and start with fresh cool water for cooking. This will lessen the amount of insoluble sugars, aka, the source of the toots. In fact, if you have someone in your home that takes the magical bean song to new levels, you can discard the water during cooking a couple of times and start over with fresh cool water. It will increase the cooking time but lessen the potential for...well, you know.

All beans take differing amounts of time to actually cook to soft. Some take twenty minutes, some take two hours. And while it's tempting to think that size matters in this, it does not. I was very surprised to find that teeny mung beans were still firm after over an hour of simmering. The key is the simmer, as with cooking all proteins in liquid, you do not want to let it boil or else it will make the proteins seize up and get tough. Once you set the pot over a flame, it will come up to a boil, some white foam will come up, ladle or skim that off and discard it, then put the pot at an active simmer. If a rolling boil, the way you want your water to look when you cook pasta, is a big eye tearing belly laugh, then you want your beans cooking in water at a nice fulfilling chuckle. Be careful not to salt your water, it can sometimes react with the calcium compounds in the skin and make it tough, prolonging your cooking time. However, you do want to make it delicious, so add things like bay leaf, parsley stems, use the leaves to garnish or mix in later, thyme, chunks of carrot and celery, the outer layers of the onion or the stalks of the fennel that get discarded. I always add a couple cloves of garlic and poke it with two cloves. You'll discard these aromatics when the beans are done, so don't use your most precious farmers market finds, but do put a little love in the pot. Simmer until tender and from here it's to infinity the possibilities.

Recently, I've made a posole with christmas limas, little panisse pancakes (Mediterannean chick pea flour pancakes) with a white bean salad, homemade felafel of two varieties, white bean stew with kale, the perennial favorite of Tuscan white beans with tuna loin. The recipe list can read like a Pliny volume all on its own. I am looking forward to putting these all into recipe format and sharing them with you. I've run out of time today, but I also want to share with you all the great information and history I've learned. So stay tuned as the Bean Bandit rides on.

little saigon grocery store porn

2009-05-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

JB, Lazy Susan, this one goes out for you. A little Friday night Grocery Store Porn.
Truthfully not everyone can look at pictures from a grocery store, though I find these to be absolute things of beauty.
Have a great weekend and I encourage you: go explore and see what you can find. I look forward to seeing what you do.
Enjoy.

shiso galore
perhaps the most beautiful thing in the world: a window of roasted, glazed ducks.

a gaggle of sea snails

hey fish, nice tails

frozen crab, beauty

fish heads, fish heads, eat them up, yum

more chili paste? yes, please.

tommy was right, these are the best noodles. ever.

eat.devour.
go, butter.

blood pudding. yowsers.

every meat under the sun. there were also whole rabbits. all frozen.

black foot chickens.

squashes as far as the eye could see.
have a fantastic weekend, now go eat something.

orange county's little saigon

2009-05-01T08:09:00.000-07:00

Many times I've uttered the phrase : "that's my favorite food." All food is my favorite. However, it's true that Vietnamese food is the tops, there aren't enough superlatives to describe the simple perfection of it. It's got all the best of Southeast Asian flavors: hot, sour, salty and sweet with the inflection of fresh and fermenty flavors in each meal. They balance texture and flavor like few others can. With their own rich culinary traditions created by sumptuous local fauna, there are tasty palpable inflections of Chinese and French influences. I would have to say French and Chinese are up there in my favorites as well. Though standard Chinese food has always suffered the fate of aiming to please the once bland American palate, so I am hard pressed to find real Chinese food with those stunning flavors.

When it comes to Little Saigon in Orange County, you won't be finding the same watered down varieties of the cuisine. The sprawling community is anything but small and is populated by a hierarchy of first and second generation families. This means that as a community of cooks, they are aiming to please their own community, not to try and assuage the unadventurous white middle class preference for predictability at the table.
This is real food, great food. I have been hankering for good Vietnamese food something fierce, and knowing that I will not be able to get myself to Vietnam for a good long while, it's been a mighty itch! I never realized growing up in St. Louis that we had some fantastic Vietnamese food, thankfully I discovered as much not long before I moved away early in college. The Vietnamese food in Chicago was never as good as I wanted it, though one gorgeous place did a great job but suffered the location, location, location curse and closed. In New York I found some and was kept sated on a few dishes. When I moved here I thought for sure I would find AMAZING Vietnamese food. Not the case until my trip to Orange County. What I found in the Los Angeles metro proper, thus far that is, has been what I like to think of as hipster Vietnamese. It's $6 banh mi's and bowls of bun made with romaine lettuce and too sweet vinegar sauce, it's pho with nary a tendon to be found. It kinda makes me mad. Just saying.

We had an excellent tour guide on our visit to Little Saigon. Tommy grew up here with his immigrant mother. He took us to three of his favorite spots, we were meant to go to a fourth for dessert, but we had to throw in the towel. Instead we went to an amazing grocery store where I nearly fainted in an overstimulated tizzy. The first stop was to get Pho.

As Tommy was the first to admit, we came here because this is where he's come his whole life and to him, this is the best. Though each Vietnamese kid says the same about their Pho joint. Finally, the opportunity to have a real bowl of Pho. How does one start the letter home, "Dear Mom and Dad, Never before have I had such an aromatic dream of tendons, tripe and tenderloin..."

It was truly spectacular. I couldn't eat it fast enough, my god. The flavors, textures, amazing. What I love about this food is the phenomenal interplay of loads of fresh herbs and aromatic broths and sauces. For my early meal beverage, I was introduced to a first, apparently the surefire weekend morning beverage for some out here is a light lager on ice. Who knew, better than iced tea, for sure. I have literally been daydreaming about this bowl of pho and the little side dish of scallions in broth that accompanied it.

From here we went to the bakery in the same strip mall. Not before passing the place with all the amazing roast ducks. Why do they want to hurt me like that?
Like many southeast Asian bakeries, this one had slew of jellied treats, to me more interesting for the colors and vibrancy than for the actual flavor and texture. However, in one of these shots you'll see little coconut cake wedges in the bottom left of the frame. Um. Oh. My. Goodness. So delicious. I couldn't stop eating them, I was like a child whose mother needed to take it away from me.

Despite Tommy and Michelle telling me I was going to make myself too full for the next stop, I couldn't be helped, they were chewy without being tough, they were only lightly sweet and the perfect coconut flavor. No cloying Snowflake coconut here. We also got some beautiful mochi treats. Hooray.
We hopped in the car and headed to another strip mall. Who knew these ugly architectural behemoths could house such wonders. Our next stop was for rolls. Pork rolls. Ay, mami! Hurt me.
At this point: belly full of pho and iced heineken, full of coconut cakes and a car ride, I was slipping into the food coma danger zone, so we immediately ordered a round of Vietnamese ice coffees.

Okay, I've had no less than a bagazillion iced coffees, and this one was the best. Where did they get that sweetened condensed milk? Was the coffee brewed by some vietnamese seraphim?

We were about to endeavor a tri-pork take down. The first was the ground pork with some mushroomy number, um, yeah, awesome. The second was with the Chinese style sausage, which has never been my favorite, but amidst all the crunch of sprouts and complexity of the herbs, perfection. The third and final roll was absolutely my favorite: Barbecued Pork. I need say little more. Okay, I'll say more.

Asian barbecues are the perfect symbiosis of sweet and salty, all flavor. This particular roll is what they call a wet roll, the thick rice wrapper is literally wet, and in a good way. The moisture against the chew of the pork is texturally perfect. All of these rolls had beautiful wrappers, these are not like the rice paper sheets you find cracking in its package at the market, these are fresh, hand made and divine.

From here none of us could take another bite, so we headed to the grocery store to fill the time before I had to hop on the train home. I love Asian markets almost as much as I love a farmers' market. I decided just to take a whole lot of pictures to keep myself from shopping since about a week prior I'd hit up a great market in Gardena. However, I have to say, once I picked up the tofu to straighten it and found that it was still warm, no, hot, in my hand, I couldn't resist. I think I actually said, out loud, "Are you kidding me? They just made this thing," and into the basket it went.

I also left with the wonton noodles as per Tommy's suggestion. He waxed supreme about the many varieties of noodles, earning him in my mind the name, reminiscent of a gangster of old: Tommy Noodles.

My favorite aisle is always the pickled aisle. Colors beyond colors. And one after the other of chili and fish sauce preparations. It truly is a jarred aisle of heaven. I cannot wait to go back and eat my way through another corner of Little Saigon.

my dreamy orange county affair

2009-04-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

All I have every heard of Orange County has been either mouth twisted maligning or hohum. Yes, it is a land of strip malls and air conditioning. Cars roam the asphalt like dinosaurs, huge and lumbering. But that is the easy part to see. I had a great weekend down there recently. It's true. We did a lot in two days and I took a lot of pictures to prove: a place is what you make of it.

When Michelle asked me to come help her take some photographs (this included a very cold cast iron bathtub at dawn, bbrrrr) I welcomed the idea of a little weekend getaway. Granted, had she said, oh, and I live in Baja, well, I may have been a bit more excited. A weekend away from your everyday is a treat no matter where it is.
I arrived in OC late in the evening, the fireworks had started at Disney, it was quite a reception OC! Thanks, bow, bow. Oh, yeah, that's for the tourists. Anyhow. We went and had a dinner at a real live Mall! You know, those famed gathering places of ancient lore, the Shopping Mall. Orange County is full of them. We ate at a wine bar called Pop the Cork. Our saccharin server greeted us with his best Disney grin and kept it up at a stultifying rate for the remainder of the meal. That much conjured cheeriness makes me want to growl at things.
More than anything, we were there for the company, Michelle and Tommy have been friends since they were kids, they have a particular camaraderie that's just cozy to be around. Tommy picked two really great wines and we ate a few plates of easy pleasers: a small pizza, the mediterranean platter with dolmades, hummus, the usual ubiquitous finger foods, and a plate of bruschetta. I actually really liked the olive one a lot, but me and brine, we're pals.

The following day was reserved for a whirlwind tour of the best parts of Costa Mesa and nearing communities. We went along the coast and it is truly beautiful. Warm sand between your toes and old hippies wandering around, it's a nice way to start a day.

We took a ferry across to Balboa Island. Something about ferries that is always very enchanting. Once there I was hungry something fierce, so Michelle took me to the legendary Sugar & Spice frozen banana stand. I couldn't help but hear myself say ,"there's always money in the banana stand, Michael," a la Arrested Development. Whilst there I had a meal comprised of not one thing on a stick, but TWO things on a stick. Dream a little dream.

Corn dog, that tasted oddly reminiscent of a banana. And a banana double dipped in chocolate and rolled in almonds. I love this picture M. took of me, I do believe the words verbatim were, "does this look like I am about to eat a piece of doo doo, cuz it looks like that to me."
There's just no elegant presentation for a chocolate dipped banana. My only regret is that the banana was a bit under-ripe. But over all, classic.

From there we went to a public beach. I have to say that the public beaches I am used to from New York, I was expecting trash everywhere and people literally falling all over each other from being so full. Not the case. This place was actually idyllic. There was a Vietnamese family placing fuchsia flower blossoms along a natural stream, when does that happen at a public beach? Familial public art. Beautiful.

We went for a long walk and caught up on our lives as lived in the month since we'd last hung out. It had intrigue, romance, conflict and resolution. And, it had: a mussel bed! Thank you, California. Food is everywhere in this place. I have seen a stranded string of mussels before, but never have I seen a mussel bed like this. This is my dream, friends, my dream. We plucked a few beauties to test them out and headed back to the car. On our way there I was accosted by a proliferate bed of nasturtium. Flirtatious flowers, they are. I decided right then what I was going to make for my contribution to dinner, it now required a small haul of blossoms.

Somehow, I was starving. Again. When in Rome, my dears, you go to In and Out burger, just on the border of a mall parking lot. One double double animal style. While feeling a little concerned about the ramifications of a hot dog on a stick and a burger in one 12 hour span, I enjoyed it wholeheartedly from my fist. Naturally, it was eaten OC style: in the car on the way to shop. We found ourselves at the Best thrift store. Ever. We both left with some treasures, a fantastic shawl type shirt that is a new fave, red leather boots and a great edition of Edgar Allen Poe. My boy.

From there it was a race to get apples and to catch some afternoon light for the photo shoot. We were successful in that regard, then something happened: I was starving. Again. OC makes me hungry I think. M. had been craving lamb and her mother craving shrimp. We devised a beautiful menu, three simple course. I made a simple classic mediterranean shrimp dish, garlic and onions sauteed to soft in butter and olive oil, shrimp tossed in and finished with white wine and the whole thing finished with nasturtium blossoms. We served this with little toasts and a home-made aioli. I like mine more traditional: lots of garlic! Michelle made beautiful little lamb chops with fresh rosemary and herbs de provence which she finished with a simple pan sauce using lamb's resting juices and white wine. I made sauteed collard and kale greens with chili peppers and sauteed onions. My first foray into pressure cooker, it was fantastic! Collards usually need a good long while to get tender, but in the pressure cooker, it was a fraction of the time. We also made a beautiful mixed salad.

Truth be told we never made it to the salad. Ah, yes, and our mussels. We had only plucked a few in order to see their quality. Simple simple, we used some of the same mixture from making the shrimp and steamed them open. They were mild and quite good. Definitely going to take full advantage of that natural treasure the next time I find myself in Orange County along their fantastically beautiful coast.
The following day was spent primarily traversing the Vietnamese neighborhood. I am literally swooning in anticipation of telling you about it, but this post has already gone on quite long. The edible treasures of little Saigon were amazing. So amazing that they warrant their own post.
For now, thanks Michelle and Tommy for giving me a whole new frame of reference for Orange County.

what would you do if you had a change of fortune?

2009-04-21T08:38:00.000-07:00

Sadly, that is a very real question for a lot of people right now.
However, I am referring to the Beales. The lady Beales of Grey Gardens, East Hampton, New York.

This weekend was the premier of the HBO historical drama entitled "Grey Gardens," the same title of the Maysles brothers' famous documentary. Grey Gardens the documentary has become more than just a cult classic, it has endless references in American creative culture whether spoken or implied. There's something about the story that entrances you. I was obsessed with the documentary when I first became introduced to it a few years ago, how can you not be, truly?

These women of fallen fortune that have completely eschewed all laws of "polite society" and created their own bizarre reality. It's charming, frightening, appalling and beautiful all at once. I honestly could not finish watching the second documentary "The Beales of Grey Gardens" the first time I watched it, it embroiled in me a visceral reaction. Simply, it was too much, to see how far indeed from the rest of the world these women resided. But you love them, regardless.

This weekends' premier inspired a little gathering of lovely women, a Grey Gardens viewing party. I was incredibly skeptical and very worried about what HBO could possibly be up to in creating a movie about these women. What could they do or say? I was sick to my stomach thinking they were somehow going to try and recreate what could never be duplicated. But they did create a nice little historical drama. I had to put away my fine comb and white gloves and give them creative space. And, you know, I have to admit, Drew did her work, you can tell she put a lot of love and sweat into working on her speech, not a sentence was dropped from the side of her mouth. I enjoyed it. It didn't change my life, but it was nice to see an interpretation of the story behind the story. Stylistically, the movie was spectacular. The costumes, sumptuous set styling and the make up were all fantastic. The costumes were nothing short of brilliant. And the make-up! How they recreated Little Edie's sunspots is incredible! Nice job, for real.

Naturally, we had to dine. Because that's what we do. Initially there was a toying with the idea of nibbling on pate and ice cream, a la Big Edie. We could guzzle down cheap cans of beer. Burp. Ouch. Sometimes a theme can go too far. Instead we made a lovely little dinner of a salad and a quiche. I made the salad, a farmers market green salad with roasted almonds, marinated fennel and cucumbers. Molly, our gracious host, made a gorgeous quiche with ham and apples. Sumptuous! The apples were unexpected and absolutely gorgeous. Dinner was paired perfectly with a Vinho Verde by our sommelier in the making, Whitney. Hunter and Dean brought along fabulous ambiance. All in all, a fantastic meal enjoyed with fantastic ladies.

It goes without saying that I had to accessorize appropriately. I made some earrings the night before in honor of fallen fortunes. A few months ago I became re-obsessed with another Edie. Sedgwick. And her trademark wearing of one earring. Therefore, in honor of all these Edies, I made a pair of mismatched earrings made from small chandelier crystals. I got them from a hodgepodge little box full of dismantled chandelier parts at the Long Beach swap meet. To best honor that old chandelier, I used all the wire that was also original to these pieces. They are fabulously tinkly sounding and can be worn together or as a single.

So, what would you do if you had a change of fortune? I suppose we all have to create our own little universe sometimes to undo the cruel mishap of the one society deems. If fortune makes you strange, then does falling from it make you insane or just fabulously eccentric? I guess this is a question I'll not be answering or even really asking since I am not from fortune. In fact, I have to go because I am going to be late to work! Gotta make those dollars before I know what a fortune feels like, after all. I'll post the recipe for the salad later and will beg Molly to share her quiche recipe with us. And if you are not familiar with the story of Little Edie and Big Edie, please do seek them out. They will change you, even if just for a day.

cinnamon rolls for the weekend warrior

2009-04-17T08:54:00.000-07:00

I know all week you have been wondering, what the h-e-double-hockey sticks am I gonna do this weekend?
Well. I have decided.

You are going to make cinnamon rolls!
(And help me test this recipe!!)
Because cinnamon rolls are simply the best. The haps. The absolute Cat's Pajamas.
(Can anyone tell me why a redundant thing like pajamas for a feline have come to mean The Best Thing In The World?)

I love cinnamon rolls.
So much.
Not sticky buns. Not even cinnamon buns, but cinnamon rolls.

When I first took up baking as a teenager, it was a direct response to the hormonal confusion that besets those erratic years. To be 16 and make something on a weekend morning that takes over 2 hours: that is the sort of dedication we are hard pressed to find in our short attention span universe.

And I am not going to lie, once I'd occasioned upon the actual effort that a good batch of cinnamon rolls required, I went back to the Pillsbury rolls. The ones that were like a dare to open, the yeasty dough all but rocket launched across the kitchen once you popped a metal end. I knew they weren't as good as the batch I'd made from scratch, but I loved them for the hall-pass into Little Effort. Most distressing, however: there was never ever enough glaze. Never. Eventually I had to learn how to make a passable glaze because as it turns out, I am a bit of a vanilla glaze junkie.

It's been years since I've even eaten a cinnamon roll. Mostly because it's often disappointing and sadly I have actually turned that corner of over-30-something where the calories spent are a serious wager. I'd rather not waste the calories on a cross-dressed dinner roll dusted over in lame cinnamon flavor and varnished with some corn syrup concoction profaning to pass as a cinnamon roll. Waste of time, pass, step up to the ice cream counter...

But when you get a hankerin... A real deep down all the way to your toes hankering, you gotta make it your own. Which is what I began: making up a cinnamon roll recipe that will send me to the moon. And you know what, my lovely friends and family?
I came really close.
Close enough that I am going to have to make this recipe numerous times over coming months to ensure that I have gotten it exactly right. Perfection takes time, takes multiple repitions in the case of the cinnamon roll. Oh, boo, what a sad calorifically glorious story.

As I have already learned from this batch: cinnamon rolls make fast and steady pals. It's amazing the sacrifice a person will make in the name of science. Hey, I'm working on this cinnamon roll recipe, you want one? Who is really going to say no to that?

Cinnamon rolls also make for a perfect Sunday morning paper with a pot of coffee dreamland. I love the process of making any yeasted dough, but it is a lot of work. You spend a couple of hours making something brilliantly tasty then watch it disappear like a wind through the kitchen. I wanted to create a recipe that made multiple batches of cinnamon rolls at once. This one is meant for two logs to cut into a dozen rolls each. One for now, one for later, in fact, the recipe goes comfortably into four logs and does gorgeously from the freezer. I may have liked the batch we baked from the freezer better, the flavors from the filling had melded and were dancing together heroically. I made the filling a little salty, it's a fetish of mine: salty caramel flavors.

What I was looking for was a toothsome dough with a tender pillowy nuance, the flavor shouldn't be just sweet and cinnamon, it should be complex and nutty to make the warm rosy cinnamon sweetness sing to the heavens. And the glaze, well, typically I am not a quantity girl, but it should be simple and delicious enough to make as many gallons as is necessary to sate the harlot glaze habit.
I also wanted to be sure that I could make these beauties without having to go crazy gathering special ingredients. I love the idea of whole wheat pastry flour, but I don't make pastries all that often and I want my ingredients to be multi-purposed. I love oatmeal, but I only eat it on the random occasion. And wheat bran? Wha? Always goes bad. So, I got some Bob's Red Mill whole grain hot cereal, something I eat often (maple syrup, dried cherries, slivered almonds and a longing gaze out the window, anyone?)

And the nutty delicious? I always have a smattering of almonds, walnuts or pecans, so I am flexible there. The slivered almonds have become choice being as they star in my appropriated egg salad (more on that for a later post) The rest of the ingredients are fairly standard, except of course the yeast, which, yes, you will have to go pick up.

I am working out the kinks of this recipe. I think perhaps they are few, because I am of course, aiming to please...well, yes: Me. I like a toothsome dough, I love yummy sugar nutty texture and flavor. I will put almonds, pecans, walnuts, oats and bran in whatever I can. Not because it's good for you, that's an incidental fabulous consequence: it simply tastes good. I love nuance, layers, textures and why should a sugar sweet breakfast treat cheapened by mall stalls be robbed of that potential?

It shouldn't. And it isn't. It is simply delicious and satisfying. I will add one note, however: These are best eaten warm, so pluck them free from the pan, fresh from the oven. Or be a peach and reheat them gently for your pal when you heat one up for her with a warm cup of tea.

As always, I'll try to include notes for you for little variations. Depending on your morning ilk: you can get up early and begin this about 2 or so hours before you hope to serve them, or you can avoid any potential morning hunger crankiness and start it the night before and pop it into the fridge once mixed, make your filling and set aside your glaze ingredients. The dough will rise slowly in the refrigerator. Come morning, all you have to do is pull the dough out, roll it out, preheat the oven, bake and make your glaze. Oh, yes, and brew a wickedly dark pot of medium roast South American coffee for me. Cream, no sugar.

the perfect sunday morning cinnamon rolls
approximately 2 dozen

this recipe is designed to have an excess. i cut the final dough in half after the initial rise, roll out& dress up both, then freeze one. in fact, i've deciding that making 4 "logs" total suits my lifestyle perfectly. when i get a hankering, all i have to do is pull one from the freezer, preheat the oven, slice and bake. indeed...

dough
1 c milk (preferably whole, 2% will pass, skim is profanely wrong)
1 cup hot water, 110-115 degrees farenheit (really freaking hot tap water)
16T/2 sticks unsalted sweet cream butter (this is not south beach, people)
+ a little butter nubbin for greasing your pan
2 pkg/4 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1/2 cup sugar (bakers, raw, whatever you love)
2 large eggs + 2 large yolks (see the 101 on separating eggs)
1 1/2 tsp salt (fine-ish grind)
8-9 cups flour mix : 2 cups whole grain hot cereal ground fine in food processor + 5-7 cups unbleached white flour

filling
2 cups chopped nuts: pecans are first choice, though a mix of walnuts and slivered almonds: yea!
6 T good cinnamon, mix types if you've got them, just be sure that you have a fresh jar
1 1/2-2 tsp salt (fine-ish-coarse-ish) if you like salty caramel: go 2 tsp
1 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

glaze
* this, like a vinaigrette, is ratio recipe, only you know how much glaze you need to douse on your cinnamon roll babies, I think we eventually tripled this recipe...for the first batch!

1 cup 10x/powdered sugar
1 1/2- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Milk, 1 T at a time

how to
-put just over two cups of oat and bran hot cereal mix into food processor and turn it on. process until its essentially dusty. you may need to turn the machine off and stir on occasion to keep it an even texture

gather the rest of your ingredients and...
-melt butter into milk and set aside to cool to 110-115 degrees farenheit
-meanwhile, dissolve yeast in hot water, set aside until bubbly and/or foamy looking
-in a mixer with a dough hook or briskly with a sturdy wooden spoon by hand, mix together milk, sugar...then add eggs, sugar and salt
-mix quickly to combine and dissolve
-add water and yeast, stir to combine
-add flour mixture, 1 cup at a time, fairly briskly, once the first cup starts to disappear, dump the next one on
-once all is in, stir well, essentially kneading the dough together until dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl and is all one happy coherent flexible mass
-turn from bowl on a barely floured surface and knead a few times, you should press your finger into it and feel a subtle tension that will hold your fingerprint
-cover with damp cloth or plastic wrap or an upturned plate and place bowl of dough in a draft free place to rise for 1 -1 1/4 hours
* *you can also chose to put the covered dough into the fridge to rise over night and pull it out in the morning to come up to room temperature while you get all the other stuff ready, this will save you a good chunk of time.

make the filling
-i used a mix of cinnamons, one was spicier, the other warmer scented. just be sure it's a good quality or at least recently purchased
-in a food process or in a bowl with a whisk, comhine the sugar, salt and cinnamon well
-add the nuts and pulse gently till you get a pebbly texture, alternately you can chop the nuts by hand and stir them in

make the glaze
-place the powdered sugar into a small bowl and whisk in the vanilla
-add the milk one tablespoon-ish at a time until you get a thick but viscuous liquid, when you drizzle the glaze over itself in the bowl, it should hold a shape momentarily on the surface before dissolving
-let it rest about 20 minutes, so be sure to make some before you put the rolls into the oven
let the sugar crystals really sit and soak in the milk and vanilla, it does wonders for the flavor and texture or mouthfeel...if you will (and i will...)

back to the rolls
-divide dough into 2
-preheat oven to 400 degrees farenheit
-lightly butter either a large cast iron skillet, a reliable ceramic roasting dish, or large muffin tin cups
-roll out both halves of dough into a rectangle about 1/8-1/4" thick, I go 1/4"
-confession: i am horrible at pastry geometry, rarely is my rectangle a rectangle and never are my circles circle, but a close approximation of a rectangle is desired here. once rolled you can sort of stretch the sides into submission
-divide sugary nutty filling into two and spread each half over each half of dough, starting at the end closest to you all the way to the side edges and leave about 1"strip with no filling at the top end of rectangle for pinching over and securing the log.
-gently fold over about an inch of the short end of the rectangle nearest you and use this as your guide to begin rolling
-filling will start falling out every where on the edges, no worry, stick it back in or sprinkle in onto the dough ahead
-when you reach the end where hopefully you remembered to leave a clean strip of dough, gently fold it over and pinch together to secure a seam
-roll dough over onto this seam onto a cutting surface
* *another alternative is to now wrap this log securely in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer, asap so the yeast doesn't wear itself out.
-cut into 1 1/2" thickness
-lay swirl side up in pan or stuff into muffin cups, if using a single pan, be sure to leave between 1/2-1" space between rolls so they can grow in the oven
-bake approx 20-25 minutes until a deeper golden brown or 180 degrees internally
-cool momentarily and sprinkle glaze over them
-allow to cool about 5 minutes before serving

these are the sunday mornings dreams are made of. or the saturdays. however, just enjoy your weekend, sweet warrior!

the season opener...bourbon lox

2009-04-15T08:11:00.000-07:00

Hello Lovelies! It's been a while, indeed. Sweet Savory command central has been working it out over here. I've been on a sort of imaginary spring break, and believe me, I've been running around whooping it up and acting like a fool. But a charming fool nonetheless, a charming fool that keeps losing her voice from all the exuberant shouting. I have been possessed, what can I say. Call it spring fever.

I just read someone saying that the east coast spring gets a D- for performance. That is a sad sad story. It's been chilly here too, it's true. Thankfully someone is getting it right this spring, the King Alaskan Salmon. I stayed up late, late, late last night reading one of my favorite food authors, Waverly Root, to see what he had to say about salmon.

It was perhaps one of the saddest stories I've read in a long time. A once king of the universe, a multitudinous creature that would fill rivers from shore to shore during spawning so full that one early Pacific salmon trader said you could walk across the river on their backs, Waverly feared in 1980 that salmon would face extinction. Being a migratory creature that depends on clean, cool river water for its spawning rituals, salmon populations have been hard hit by the ubiquitous pollution of rivers and streams.

Thankfully there have been a lot of people that care about the integrity of the creature and have done good work to help bring back the populations. Most all of the salmon we eat here is farmed, which when you taste a sliver of wild king salmon, you'll be aghast at the difference. The most important thing is to be informed about the salmon you buy, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has a great online resource called the Seafood Watch and the Environmental Defense Fund has appropriated OceansAlive.org's handy buying guide, helping us find our delicious friends hailing from thriving species and humane practices.

king chinook on the hook...
The king salmon is also known as Chinook, he earns his name of King because he's a fighter on the hook. The Chinook spends the longest amount of time in the chilly waters, about 8 years, slurping away at the plankton that colors them pink, swimming around over 2,000 miles developing the strength of character that makes them so delicious. When we talk salmon and flavor, I have to quote Waverly here:

...that mysterious law of nature which decrees that food, whether animal or vegetable, develop taste to its full potential only when they have been put to the test of the struggle to survive against the perils of their environment.

Sage words, I feel the same way about humans, not for eating of course, but for enjoying as cohorts. The king salmon has lived a long and full life in his chilly waters and brings every ounce of that great experience in the form of ridiculous tastiness and sublime texture to your table.

And what do I like to do with my fresh shiny perfect specimen of chinook? Bury it.
You are familiar with lox, it is a misnomer of the Nordic gravlax, or gravad laks, or graavilohi. Basically it means buried salmon. Fishermen used to lightly salt it and ferment it in the sands just above the high tide line. Now you don't get the fermentation, but traditionally it is made with some lemon somewhere in the mix which is a little nod to the sharp taste of fermentation.

I was first taught how to make gravlax by a dear friend of mine of Finnish heritage. She made hers with salt, sugar, white pepper, dill and lemon. I love it, still to this day those flavors hold such nostalgia, despite my typical dislike of white pepper. Over time I've learned a handful of different preparations including the very traditional French style that has the guy doused in madeira or brandy and packed in salt for days before smoking. I have come to really dislike most smoked salmon and most lox. Like many things, I'd prefer to eat salmon in moderation than to continue supporting the ubiquitous farmed salmon that populates many a tub of bagel schmear. I highly recommend you do it yourself, DIY is infinitely more delicious!

When I was offered a side of wild caught king Alaskan salmon at wholesale price, you better believe I was all over that business. Being as I am newly on a budget, I have a serious grocery/farmer's market problem, considering starting a support group....anyway, the budget determines that I use what I have at home rather than buying new stuff for my gravlax. Thankfully I have delicious stuff. And now, upon eating the final product for a few days straight, I am adding this new recipe to the files. While not at all traditional, the flavors worked beautifully together. I am going to include a streamlined recipe because I want you to make this. There are a few ingredients that are harder to come by, so don't feel like you shouldn't make this because you don't have them. Make it! Do it! It's delicious and the season for really good wild Alaskan salmon is shorter than you think.

In the venerable words of Joy, here is a recipe for your face:

bourbon lox
you will need 3 days to prepare
and very few minutes of active time
for every 2-3 pounds of fish, skin on, you will need approximately:

1 T Kentucky Bourbon

dry brine:
2T coarse-ish salt (not rock, not fine)
1T brown sugar
1T whole coriander, crushed in mortar & pestle
1 tsp good quality smoky paprika
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp mix: fennel pollen and a pinch of fennel seeds *totally optional

1/2 bunch of flat leaf parsley
small handful of complimentary herbs: thyme, basil, I had shiso and used it

-rinse and pat dry your side of salmon, typically anywhere from 2-5#
-using a mortar & pestle, grind the salt, sugar, coriander, paprika & fennel pollen together until much of the coriander is broken down
-gently sprinkle the bourbon over the salmon and massage it in
-evenly sprinkle your dry brine mixture over and massage in
-cover with the herbs evenly and gently push them into the salmon, it's as if you were snugly tucking the guy in
-place on a plate that has a little lip on it, the sugar and salt will melt and create a little liquid that you want to hang on to.
-cover with plastic and another plate, weigh down with a couple of cans or a small skillet.
-place in the bottom, coolest part of your fridge.
-the next day, pull it out and spoon the liquid that has collected back over the whole fillet, this is just like basting.
-do this once or twice a day for 3 days.
-day 3: remove herbs, rub most of the spice rub off, slice it, eat it.
-i had a little sliver with a bergamot flavored olive oil. SHUT UP! so good.
but it was equally as amazing on a bagel with cream cheese.
EAT IT!

day one

day 2

day 3

the 101: separating eggs & cutting butter

2009-03-25T08:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first installment of The 101.

Which is, by the way, also the name of a now defunct pop band in Brooklyn whose drummer, J.J., is one of the finest home cooks you will ever dream to know. I really miss sharing a kitchen with him....sniffles.

Today we'll talk about two great baking tips that I use at every opportunity I get. I am not a natural baker, so any thing that can better my performance, I am all over it.

separating eggs 101

First, eggs. There are egg separators, there's the shell, you say, a built in separator. But may I suggest the best separator of all?

Your fingers.

Have three receptacles ready, one for yolk, one for whites and one for shells. You want to crack the egg on a flat surface, rather than the edge of the bowl. Gently but quickly slide the egg into your fingers and let the white spill out through very subtly parted fingers.

Why, you say?
When you crack the shell on the edge of something, it introduces the shell into the egg. There are two major reasons why this isn't the best idea. 1.) if there is going to be any harmful bacteria going on in the egg, it's going to be on the outside, so you want to lessen the exposure of the shell to the interior as much as possible. 2.) Cracking the shell into the egg also introduces craggy edges to our delicate yolk, running the risk of breaking it.

Reason #2 is also the reason why you don't want to use the broken shell halves to separate the eggs, you dip them back and forth from one shell to the next with sharp edges. Danger.

And when it comes to separators. If you like them, go for it, I just find them to be clumsy and one extra thing to clean. I am a hands on kinda lady, I like to use my hands wherever they can go.
As goes the egg whites, I like to keep them in a jar and label them with the date and the amount of whites to use for later projects. I haven't yet experimented with the results of frozen whites, but I'll let you know how it goes.

cutting butter!

I really don't get as much time as I'd like to bake, but that's because I tend to be in a million places at once and baking takes a certain level of dedication I rarely afford myself. I have begun to store my unsalted butter in the freezer. Slightly blasphemous, I know, but it's better than when the butter soaks up all that refrigerator smell. Blech.

Well, I also always. ALWAYS, forget to pull my butter from the freezer in time for baking. So cutting it can be an interesting prospect.

I recently discovered that my Rosle cheese knife is also the perfect knife for cutting frozen butter. Any cheese knife of similar ilk will do, it's the big holes in it that make the difference.
I tested it on butter that wasn't frozen, equally effective. The serrated blade is perfectly sharp and the amount of open space in the blade leaves little for the butter to stick to. No more trying to coax butter off a sharp knife with slippery butter fingers. Go cheese knife.

spring time p's & q's

2009-03-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

Good morning dearest readers.

Like a good many of you, spring fever is infecting our house. I'm getting all fervid and flushed with schemes of organizing closets, finally finishing filing 2008's paperwork, making french lace screens, cooking everything under the sun, including a coulibiac. We will soon be painting our living room and I am presently trying to decide if my bedroom will be a cerulean or more Moroccan blue. I am leaning towards Morocco. Last night I made a glorious mess in my bedroom where I once again moved my "office." I am writing you today from within a cityscape of piled books, but I think Sweet Savory Command Central is once and for all in its place. My inner southern belle is getting fired up to pretty this place up, fluff the pillows and invite you over for tea and tiny sandwiches. Watch out.

It's also time to mind my P's & Q's. Firstly, the Q's. As you have seen the past two weeks, Le Cheesehead is on break. She's on spring break, if you will. Perhaps doing body shots in Cabo. No, more likely she's under a palm tree reading a book. Fromage Fridays will return in April.

I often get really great questions from friends and family about cooking tips, recipe substitutions or simply kitchen related suggestions. I've always wanted to include a little ditty on those, so today will be the first installation of a sometimes series called The 101.

Lastly of the Q's, I am going to be updating the layout of this little blog. It needs a little freshening up. I am of the more Cretaceous period of technological dinosaur, so it will indeed be a learning process, but I am quick on my feet and not too terribly behind. Be sure to check in and feel free to give your input on changes. I will first start with the searchable labels. There's far too many of them presently.

Now, most importantly. Thanks is in order. Firstly, as always, to those of you, my little lovely group of readers, I love you guys and I am so glad you come to visit me. You are indeed the reason I am here. Well, you and the delicious food we all love so much. So thank you for coming here and showing your support!

thank you, gold star! Back in late January I received an email from a charming lady named Marni from Gold Star. If you are not familiar, I highly recommend checking it out. It's a great resource for any number of good times to be had. She wrote to let me know that Gold Star likes the sweet savory and wanted to prove it with a gift certificate. Yea! Pressies!

I have long wanted to get a new juicer, but we all know those suckers are a spendy toy, so unless you are fully dedicated, beware. I decided on the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Pro. I mean, come on, Big Mouth Pro, practically screams "Rachel Humphrey."

For its price range it's a powerful machine. I highly recommend getting the one with the metal clamps, it's motor is surely going to rattle the whole thing loose at some point, it is so strong. So far I am very happy with it, I especially love that it has a toggle switch. I love toggle switches. So, thank you Marni and Gold Star for my juicer!

I am looking forward to many beautiful healthy glasses of juice, but most importantly, that means I will finally get to dive headlong into Taste by Michel Nischan. It uses a wide variety of whole food juices as key elements to some truly gorgeous dishes. A beautiful book by an incredibly inspiring and all around kind, talented and inspiring man.

Happy Spring Cleaning, folks!

there's no place like home?

2009-03-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

Oh, Dorothy, you silly girl.
Fabulous shoes, though.

I have not been at my computer much lately. In fact, I haven't been home much at all until this weekend. You see, I have recently fallen in love...with Los Angeles. My new home, indeed. We are taking to each other like peanut butter and jelly, like tea and honey, like linen to leisure.

I've been exploring, meeting new people, having wonderful accidental whirlwind adventures and basically an all around good time. It is becoming my home. Finally. Graciously.

There really is so much to catch you up on. I've needed to take a break from writing in order to do the living part, I hope you don't mind too terribly. I promise I'll be hitting the books again soon and tapping away on my freakishly loud keyboard much more in coming days. I am months behind on projects, but thankfully no one is breathing down my neck about it. Unless it's just that I can 't feel it, maybe that's the breeze over my desk.

In any case, I'd like to share some of my eating adventures along the way. The key to this however is that I have to start remembering to bring my camera! It reminds me of a Fresh Air episode I once heard where Terry Gross (hero!) talks about how sometimes you can't sit down and write about life or document life, because you are too busy living it.
And you know, that I've been eating. A lot.

My culinary outings of recent weeks have started to show a theme here in Los Angeles. Much like the movies it spews out in droves, they've got the ambiance down, but there's little other substance. It's a shame. Thankfully I chose good company, so as with Hollywood fare, a great cast can make a lame script far more palatable.
As it was with Home.

We visited the original Hillhurst location on Sunday morning for brunch. I was accompanying the most beautiful and talented Erica. A woman whose company can entrance even the dead from a nod. She's charming, appreciative and a lively conversationalist, which makes for a great breakfast anywhere. She had already warned me that this place was about ambiance, comfort, you go there to feel cozy and eat fairly lame breakfast.

She is so right. The courtyard is ridiculously charming with a coy pond and plastic dinosaurs placed playfully along the edges of the lion's head fountain. Three historically favorite things for this lady: coy fish: check; plastic dinosaurs: check; lions head anything: check. Food: Meh. The menu reads like a laminated graphic novel only without the "Pow!"; "Zoom!" Half of it is drinks, which goes to show, if you keep a fully stocked bar, people will come regardless of the fare.

There was a lovely cross section of Angelenos and their guests streaming in and out at a reasonable pace. We had bloody mary's that were so-so, but passable. Erica seemed to order most correctly with the sausage egg sandwich on a croissant. Thankfully due to our locale, the fruit salad was very good. I ordered Huevos Rancheros, which in a huge cranking it out kitchen like this is usually a good bet considering the median ethnicity in kitchens. Mexican food is definitely comfort food, soul food of the standard restaurant. And it was pretty good. Far too much cheese, but the beans were good, the flavor was in general spot on, a little more love and inspiration could've gone a long way. What really got my goat though was my potatoes. They were rotten. And I mean rotten in the most literal sense of the word. When potatoes go bad, they take on a sort of greenish tinge under the skin, a greenish acrid flavor accompanies it. And that was the overarching flavor of my breakfast potato. Too bad.

Home is cute. And I may go back there when I have a gaggle of people uncertain of what they want to eat. I will refer them to the egg sandwich. And encourage to order heavily from the several pages long drink menu. Though on second thought, I might just take them on a walk past Home just to see the courtyard on our way to Fred 62, who does a far better rendition of breakfast Americana.

oh, go stuff a squash

2009-03-16T08:19:00.000-07:00

I have a friend, who will remain unnamed, that insists on calling me the Hippie Hipster. I like to think it's lovingly. But the day she dubbed me that it came with such a style of guffaw I suppose there's some schoolyard humbling in it. Yes, it's true, I moved to Chicago in the mid-90's because the rock and roll scene was amazing: Amazing. Yes, it's true, my first job there was in a health foods store and I had a 7 year on-again-off-again foray into vegetarianism. I still feel at home in a city only after I have found my nearest bulk bin source. What of it? So what, I am kind of a slave to fashion, albeit my own weird interpretation. I love munching on meals comprised of ancient grains, squashes stuffed with rice type stuff, there is healing goodness to food like this. I'd like to think of myself as a recovering hipster and having had only a brief lapse in my age 16-17 year that I experimented with a tie dyed Jimi Hendrix shirt and a pair of birkenstocks, the hippie was a minor lapse. See, I did it, I admit it. Now let's move forward.

There are days when you need the healing satisfaction of natural foods. No big sauces, no calories through the roof. There's a humble elegance to it all. It takes a special hand and certain love to make it satisfying, please no bear mush. Vegetables, nuts, grains, fruit and beans. Staples of the hippie and hipster diet alike. But labels, dear friends, are for fabulous jeans and for making fun. Delicious food transcends all that, whether it's ingredients list reads more bird seed or gastro-scientific, as the haute cuisine of today is wont to do, if you love it, it loves you back. Lately my diet has been meat-and-dairy-tastic. My body screams for grains, for vegetables, please please please! And while I prefer to cook with the seasons, when someone gave me a big ass spaghetti squash in March as a gift, it would be a Jerk Move (label) to snub it. It's not that squashes fault someone forced it out of it's normal realm, it's still dinner to me.

I love flavors, big, small, subtle or aggressive. Just so long as there is flavor, something coaxed and encouraged to envelop you and entrance your palate for the moment it's there. North African and certain Moorish influenced Mediterranean flavors are particularly fun. Squash loves them and they love squash. Peas in a pod, hand in hand, yin yang, hippie hipster. This squash I opted to flavor with a blend of spices that hearken to that part of the world. I had some fruit laying around and some leftover beans, so was born the very satisfying stuffed spaghetti squash roast. I love yogurt sauces, so I used some of the zest from the orange and fresh parsley to top off the meal. It was incredibly satisfying and put a big smile on my face to eat it. Not to mention, it would and will make a divine partner sometime to a big hunk of roasted animal. So dig in.

stuffed spaghetti squash roast
this will roast about 1 1/4 hours

preheat oven to 375

1 large spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise, seeds and attaching strands removed
2-3 T of your favorite cooking fat, eg. melted butter or a nut oil, I used walnut oil

rub the interior of the squash with the oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper

1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp whole coriander
2 cloves
4 allspice berries
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

grind these all together with a pinch of salt either in a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder
start with the dried spices, then add the salt and garlic
rub the interior of the squashes with half the spice mixture
lay the squash halves split side down on a parchment, silpat lined or lightly oiled cookie sheet and put in center of oven.
puncture the squash all over to allow some steam to ventilate and keep the skin from splitting
roast 30-35 minutes

1 teeny tiny hot pepper or pinch of chili flakes
1 clove garlic thinly sliced
1/2 cup whole almonds
1/2 cup whole walnuts
1/4 of an orange, diced small
1/2 a red sweet eating apple, diced small
salt and pepper to taste
a little drizzle of oil to moisten

grind the chili, garlic and part of the nuts together
chop the remaining nuts. when chopping the fruit, be sure to get the orange pretty small since the white pith part of the zest can be very bitter, it's never fun to bite into a big hunk of it
stir all together

optional but tasty:
1/2 cup cooked beans
1/2-3/4 cups cooked grains: rice, barley, millet
1/4-1/2 cup raisins

this is a great opportunity to add more flavor, health and to use up any leftover bits. I had some great heirloom beans leftover from the other day, not enough for a whole meal, but perfect for adding to the roast.
stir in with the nut and fruit mixture
after 35 or so minutes of roasting, pull the squash from the oven
flip over and stuff the cavities with the fruit and nut mixture
return to oven for remaining cook time, about 45-50 minutes
in the meantime, make your yogurt sauce so the flavors can meld
when the roast is easily skewered with a paring knife that slides out easily, pull the squash out and let it cool a few minutes before serving
bon apetit, my sweet hippie hipsters. i like to slice it and finish it with a drizzle of good bold flavored olive oil and a sprinkle of spanish paprika

herbed orange yogurt sauce

1/2 cup plain yogurt
zest of 1/2 an orange
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
small handful of herbs, chopped-parsley, mint, tarragon, basil, whatever you have handy, one or all, it's up to you

in a small bowl, using a fork or small whisk, thoroughly mix together the yogurt, vinegar and zest
chop the herb, but don't pulverize them. fold them into sauce.
serve on side or directly on top of roast.

braised beef is love

2009-03-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

In any given week we are expected to be many things. In any given month, week, year, moment. Recently, I have been all over the place, but mostly I've been at work. This is my personal curse: over achiever, workaholic. I love my work and I find it a great use of my energy and passion. It's delicious, it's beautiful, it connects people with the world around them. It's chock full of inspiration to love and tedium to tackle. It's inspiring. It also becomes a refuge from personal life. Terrible to admit but its true. Personal life has been pretty all over the board recently. I re-learned a valuable lesson this week, it's time to slow down and take a look around.

There's been a lot to keep me busy and to keep me from sitting still long enough to digest the waves and currents of change in my life the past several months, most pertinently, the past several weeks. I've been running around like mad with a crooked smile on my face and a whirlwind in my belly. Then there's moments like this morning. I get out of the shower and realize that I am out of lotion. Quickly thereafter I realize that I have been so distracted the past few weeks that I hadn't even noticed I was getting low. And then I have to admit to myself, no matter what it is that I am to everyone else, I cannot forget to to be that one thing I am meant to be to myself: my own keeper, my own hero.

There are little rituals that I have set in place that make my world a better place. By nature my constitution is allergic to regimen, but ritual is another thing all together. When I find myself working two six day weeks in a row, each day I keep staying at least an hour longer than intended. Then I wonder why my lip is twitching, it's because the rituals slipped out of the schedule somewhere. Sunday I decided, as my Nanny would have said: come hell or high water, I am going to make this damned roast. Because one of my rituals is long, slow cooked foods. Braising is the gift of the gods to fill your home with sumptuous vapors and tender falling apart bites of love.

I had 1 and a half days to fill with truncated versions of my most cherished rituals. Mostly I just focused on cooking and took out my frustrations on a deep cleaning of the bathroom. I made sure to not rush through a brunch with Elinor. We had a surprise visit to a great antiques shop with a charming human whom I hope to get to know better soon. Then I braised. In order for a braise to be suitably lovely, it has to be dedicated to the belly of someone dear to you, so I made a roast for my room mate and his sister, Elinor, to enjoy along with me. Due to a childhood traumatic experience, Chelito doesn't eat pork. So beef it was to be for my expedited Sunday love fest. I had a hankering for guacamole, so I finished the braise mole style and added some hot peppers to the broth. I made dirty brown rice, aforementioned guacamole and a cilantro and cumin laced slaw. We piled our beef and its friends onto these beautiful tortillas I found at Nature Mart. For the evening, our universe was set at ease. It made me happy to fulfill my need to create something delicious and to know that two lovely humans got to eat a warm satisfying meal. And most of all that I took the time to do something I loved.

So there you have it, food is love. And love is the best place to learn a few lessons about who we are and what we are. That is truly what it comes down to. We can be a great friend, an inspired cohort, a loving partner, a good time single friend, a capable manager, a devoted daughter, but if we are not our own best defender, then we have little else to show for it when it all comes down to it. In the words of the venerable Ru Paul: "'Cause Honey, if you can't love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else? Can I get an amen?"

What says love more than Chocolate and Wine?
Make sure you have at least 5 hours to hang out and make this.
In this braise, there are two optional steps, you can omit the chilies and the nuts at the end. Leave the meat more or less whole and slice it served with the sauce and it is absolutely divine. I have included two optional endings for you. One is the more mole inspired style to serve with tortillas, dirty rice and salsas. The other is the original way I developed this recipe which I love to serve with polenta or root vegetable puree.

braised beef with chocolate and wine

a 2-3 lb chuck roast

season generously with sea salt, black pepper and unsweetened cocoa

1 large yellow onion or 2 small, cut in thick wedges
3 cloves garlic, smashed and removed from skin, left whole
3 cloves
7 allspice berries
2 cinnamon sticks
a star anise or two-if you got them
a scant teaspoon of cumin seeds
10 whole peppercorns
3 Tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine

*deliciously optional: 2 small dried hot chilies & 3 dried mild chilies, I used some jalapenos from this summer that turned red and that I dried slowly in the oven, remove stem and seeds

in a large heavy bottomed, high sided pot, heat about 3 Tablespoons of oil over a medium heat, get it hot, almost smoking, but not
sear the meat, leave it on the flame until it releases from the pan easily,be careful not to sear the meat on too high a heat or the cocoa could burn. you should have a nice deep brown crust forming. turn and brown on all sides, this will take about 25-40 minutes total
set roast aside in a lid or plate that will catch the resting juices
put onions in pan over medium heat and scrape all the brown bits into the onion, when they become slightly transparent, add the garlic and spices, toast about 30 seconds
stir until it smells like heaven, add tomato paste, stir to slightly caramelize, about a minute
dump the red wine in and stir, stir stir

2 cups of beef or vegetable broth, your choice
2 small or one large bay leaf

replace roast into pan over bed of spices and onions
using a spatula, scrape all the resting juices into the pan with the roast
add the beef stock and bay leaf
bring to a simmer, not a boil, a simmer
if you think of a rolling boil, the way your water is when you make pasta, as a big belly laugh, then a braising simmer should be more like giggling. a little laughter. some active bubbles.
cover.
step away and breath in the perfume
every half hour to 45 minutes, I'll check on it and flip the roast over
simmer 3 1/2 hours

the two alternate endings for the love story, both are good endings:

1) mole style:
2 Tablespoons pine nuts, lightly toasted
1/2 cup walnuts, lightly toasted
1/2 cup almonds, lightly toasted
2 ounces good dark chocolate
1/2 cup red wine
1 Tablespoon honey, or more to taste
1 Tablespoon red wine or apple cider vinegar
1 large or 2 small stale or toasted tortillas
salt and pepper
- remove roast and set aside, lightly cover
- strain braising liquid into a large bowl or measuring cup, discard spices, etc.
- return braising liquid to pan, add nuts and honey, simmer about 35 minutes
- add tortilla about halfway through
- place in blender with middle portion of lid removed and cover with a cloth, blend all to smooth, do in two batches if needed.
- simmer all together with remaining wine and vinegar
- shred beef if you'd like to make tacos or burritos, slice if you don't have any designs
2)food is love style:
1/2 cup red wine
2 ounces good dark chocolate
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar, optional
salt and pepper
a handful of fresh chopped parsley
- remove roast, set aside and lightly cover
- strain braising liquid, discard spices, etc.
- put braising liquid back in pan
- add wine and chocolate to braising liquid
- bring to an active simmer, not quite a boil and let some liquid evaporate
- this will also condense flavors. skim the fat and impurities that come up to the surface
- when the sauce will slightly cling to a spoon, run your finger down the spoon and if the sauce creates a little tunnel from your finger, you are good to go, about 20 or so minutes
- add vinegar if it seems a little flat, adjust salt and pepper to taste
- pour resting liquid from meat into pan with sauce
- slice beef thinly, place on a platter, pour sauce over and sprinkle with parsley
- i love to serve it this way with a good polenta or mashed root vegetables.

le cheesehead presents: petit agour

2009-03-06T08:25:00.000-08:00

It occured to me that I haven't talked with you about two very very important things: the Basques with their culinary prowess and sheeps milk cheese!

Must do good by our shorn lovelies, this week is: Petit Agour.

Petit Agour: France/Firm/Sheep/Basque Pyrenees

taste in a nutshell: buttery with a great milky sweetness, gentle nuttiness and floral herbs, but gently

Sheep. They're noble animals who graciously make for us some really great stuff. They make good sweaters. Even better rugs. Most importantly, they make really good cheese. Typically an ewe's milk cheese has that almost bestial smell like wet wool, often creamy and heady all at once. The cheese we are meeting today is handcrafted by some of the most illusive people in history: the Basques. Continually beguiling with an inexplicable language full of x's and strange consonant combinations, a long rich history of dining societies, apple cider houses, mysterious prehistoric fishing practices and excellent fashion sense with their legendary berets and corsets. This culture has been making some of the best food in the world from their historical home spanning a cross section of the Pyrenees and the Bay of Biscay. The Basques are legendary sheep herders, so it goes without saying that this fascinating culinary culture would make a fantastic sheep's milk cheese.

I mean, look at this sheep! So not messing around. A sheep looking like this, this sheep means business. And the ewe, she's gonna make a mean ass cheese. Brought to us from the Pays Basque of the Pyrenees mountains is the Petit Agour. A small tomme, about a pound in weight and a few inches high, it's a ridiculously easy cheese. A pleasing cheese.

And very beautiful. It comes with incredibly high accolades as a two time gold medalist in the Paris Salon de L'Agriculture. Made by the Fromagerie Agour, it is uncooked and slightly pressed, formed into it's little cylinder and set to age three months. Over time as the Petit Agour ages further the pale tawny natural rind develops a brazen red-orange mottled mold. It's really very lovely. The interior is a pale ivory, dense, firm and very smooth. The initial aroma is buttery with the faintest hint of damp wool, like you got caught at dawn in your favorite wool sweater, dew kissed, not drenched.

Biting into the uniformly dense paste you are greeted with a milky sweetness, a gentle buttercreaminess. Faintly whispering are little floral notes, but more like the leaves of the flower with the blossom somewhere nearby tickling your nose. There's a wonderfully balanced complexity to it, a bit of nuttiness plays gently along. If there were a dairy almond, this would be it, it has the same coloring and hits all the similar notes of a good raw almond. I love this cheese with honey, but there are few that I don't love with honey. Sheep's milk loves honey, it's true. I enjoyed this little Basque beauty with dried apricots and almonds. It would go beautifully with a plushy gentle red wine or slightly fizzy white one. I also think I'd love it with a cup of Darjeeling or Jasmine tea with fruity flatbreads drizzled with a pale raw honey. Sheep Dreamy.

Once again we have to hand it the the Basques for creating an absolutely classic edible wonder. I do believe if you could get your hands on any Basque ewe's milk cheese, you will be very very satisfied. I know I am. These are my favorite sheep's milk cheeses out there.