fidzu : Cooking

From the recipe archive for the hot days of summer.

With the warm days of summer upon us, a great way to cool off is with ceviche. Ceviche is typically made with red snapper that is "cooked" by the acidity of lime and lemon juice (see this ceviche recipe.) This version is prepared with shrimp, which is first lightly cooked, and then marinated in the citrus juice. My father, who generally doesn't really like shrimp that much, loved this ceviche. (Gotta love it when they eat it up and ask for more.)

Continue reading "Shrimp Ceviche" »

22 Jul 2008 8:40am GMT

From the recipe archive.

My friend Steve-Anna recently sent me this wonderful recipe for ginger chicken and claimed that it was one of her all time favorites. My father doesn't eat ginger if he can avoid it, so when I made it I just warned dad ahead of time that he might have to settle for yesterday's leftovers if he couldn't bring himself to touch it. Well, everyone loved it, even dad. Strips of boneless, skinless chicken breasts are briefly marinated in ground coriander, ground ginger, vinegar and oil, then they are stir-fried with scallions and julienned ginger. The are mixed with a little mango chutney and sprinkled with toasted almonds before serving.

The whole dish can be made in half an hour, especially if you do a lot of the prep while the chicken is marinating.

Continue reading "Ginger Chicken with Almonds" »

22 Jul 2008 1:45am GMT

First let me say this is not a post about the weather in San Francisco. I am currently working on a new recipe development project that involves freezing. My assignment is to create recipes that can be prepared in multiple individual portions, then frozen and cooked before serving. Each recipe is like a fun little puzzle to try and solve.

The real challenge is finding things that actually benefit from this treatment. If you read the widely circulated recipe for chocolate chip cookies in the New York Times recently, then you know that letting cookie dough rest, makes for a better cookie. I have it on good authority that freezing gnocchi dough also improves the final product. In the past I've frozen things like crepes and dumplings very successfully.

So far my list of completed recipes consists of chicken apple sausage patties, chocolate chip cookies, jerk-rubbed chicken wings, and sesame ginger beef and I plan to try using ice cube trays and muffin tins to make individual portions. Ideas I am pursuing include herb biscuits, calzones, meat pies, puff pastry turnovers, pesto and variations, stuffed mushrooms, gnocchi, spaetzle, ravioli, dumplings, spanakopita, blintzes, meatballs, stuffed peppers, crepes, and veggie burgers.

But I'd like to hear from you. Is there anything you freeze in individual portions for serving another time? Links to posts, recipes or pictures would be great too. I look forward to your comments!

21 Jul 2008 3:32pm GMT

Please welcome guest author Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic who turned a few of our ripe plums into a "wow-that's-good" sorbet. ~Elise

I developed this recipe out of necessity rather than noble ingenuity. Every summer Elise's mother loads me up with so many plums I can't eat them all in time, and many begin to get a bit over ripe, their skins bursting at the slightest touch sending their juice down my arms and onto my clothes and floor.

Taking these plums and churning them into a magenta hued sorbet just seemed like the most logical thing to do in this heat. Sweet, tart, and smooth it's a wonderful way to enjoy fresh plums at the height of their season. This sorbet is just sweetened enough in my opinion, but taste as you go and add more or less sugar accordingly as some of the plums we used were very tart. In addition, this recipe could easily be adapted to overripe apricots or pluots as well.

Continue reading "Plum Sorbet" »

18 Jul 2008 6:35am GMT

Looking for a great summer picnic salad to take to your next potluck? I recently enjoyed this rice salad while visiting my friend Chigiy who was hosting a summer BBQ. "Enjoyed" is the polite way of saying I ate a lot of it, and pretty much all of the leftovers the next day. The recipe is from Chigiy's friend Wendy (thank you Wendy!) who has generously passed it on to us. Made it here for my folks, and I still want to eat it all.

Don't know about you, but I love rice salads. If you have a favorite one, please let us know about it in the comments.

Continue reading "Wild Rice Salad" »

17 Jul 2008 4:42am GMT

Mid July is about the time of year when tomatoes start coming full steam into season. I have 5 tomato plants in my garden that are now producing more tomatoes than we can think up ways of using them. (Gazpacho anyone?) One quick and easy recipe that I played around with this week is to simply grill the tomatoes, cut side down, and season with olive oil, salt, pepper, and sliced basil. When you are working with garden fresh tomatoes, sometimes doing less is more, because the produce is so good to begin with.

Do you have a garden that is full of tomatoes? What are your ways of using up the bounty? Please let us know in the comments.

Continue reading "Grilled Tomatoes" »

15 Jul 2008 1:33am GMT

Lots of recipes (creamed corn, corn chowder, corn salad) require stripping the corn kernels away from the cob. In practice, it's a bit tricky as the corn cob can slip from its position, and the kernels can go flying all over the place. I don't know where I first heard of this trick of using a bundt pan, but it's great for helping to steady the corn cob and to catch the kernels as they come off the cob.

Continue reading "Easy Tip for Getting Corn Off the Cob" »

14 Jul 2008 10:06pm GMT

This year the BlogHer conference is being held in San Francisco and many food bloggers will be coming to town. I'm excited to attend and get a chance to meet other bloggers. But attending the conference isn't the only way to meet up with food bloggers.

Local food bloggers and food blogger conference attendees are invited to meet at the Americano patio at the Hotel Vitale this coming Sunday July 20th at 1 pm. It's just a block or so from the Ferry Plaza at the foot of Market street along the Embarcadero. No RSVP necessary and you can order a drink or food, as you wish. Since it's attached to a hotel you can also check your bags or get a cab to the airport.

I hope to see you there!

What: San Francisco Food Blogger Meet Up

Where: Patio at Americano @ the Hotel Vitale, 8 Mission St, San Francisco

When: Sunday July 20th, from 1 pm till whenever

See photos from this event:

Cookie Madness

Bunrabs

14 Jul 2008 3:47pm GMT

It hasn't opened yet, but I'm already excited about the Clock Bar at the Westin St. Francis. Union Square could use a cool rendezvous and I love the romantic tradition of couples meeting under the circa 1907 clock tower in the lobby. I like that the bar is looking to focus on traditional cocktails such as the Pisco Sour and Pimm's Cup and I get a kick out of the coasters printed up with old fashioned bar tricks.


Speaking with Marco Dionysos, the head bartender, I learned that they'll avoid molecular gastronomy but utilize the restaurant kitchen to make fruit purees, homemade grenadine with hibiscus and more. Of course I'm curious about the food. I do know they'll be doing nibbles like charcuterie, truffled popcorn and steamed mussels. As soon as I get a chance to try it I'll report back.

The Clock Bar officially opens Tuesday, July 15th.

Clock Bar in the lobby of The Westin St. Francis hotel
335 Powell Street @ Geary
San Francisco

12 Jul 2008 12:17am GMT

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11 Jul 2008 11:40pm GMT

Please welcome guest author and pastry chef Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater, who shares with us her secrets for making snickerdoodles. ~Elise

While people argue about where the name Snickerdoodle comes from, few people who love them waste time with words. Here is a cookie with a following! Tender and crisp, plain and aromatic, sweet with a dash of salt, the Snickerdoodle has made quite a place for itself in the canon of cookies. But as loyal as its fans are, it’s not the easiest cookie to find on bakery shelves.

A Snickerdoodle has two signature characteristics: an exterior of cinnamon sugar, cracked on top, and a perfect textural balance of crunchy and pliable.

With other cookies born from the same method-- creaming, getting just the right texture can feel like an impossible journey with way too many cookies to eat along the way. Snickerdoodles, on the other hand, have a built-in fail proof ingredient, saving them from the place where cookies that aren’t “just right” go. Cornstarch.

Continue reading "Snickerdoodles" »

10 Jul 2008 9:04pm GMT

I've hinted at it for a long time but finally I can tell you about writing my first cookbook, New Flavors for Appetizers. Since it is now up on Amazon.com it's feels more real than ever. Here's how it all happened. The end of August last year I met with one of the senior editors at Weldon Owen, a publishing house that does lots of branded books. I learned about a new line of Williams-Sonoma cookbooks that was going to be launched in November of this year. They were looking to work with new writers and recipe developers, people who were comfortable with a variety of specialty ingredients and could develop fairly easy to execute recipes.

Not long after my first meeting I was offered a work-for-hire contract. So that means I got paid for developing the recipes and some headnotes (the little description that goes with the recipe title). This is unusual since most writers get an advance and then make more money based on how many books are sold. I was confident the book would be gorgeous, because Weldon Owen has been working with Williams-Sonoma on cookbooks for a long time.

The series is called New Flavors and focuses on ingredients that are becoming increasngly common such as wasabi, smoked paprika, cilantro, pomegranate, etc. All the recipes are organized by season and the photography is bolder and a bit more contemporary than in previous books. The cookbook I worked on was all appetizers. There are several other books coming out in the series, but doing appetizers was particularly fun. I can't imagine what it must have been like to do 45 chicken recipes! It may seem unusual, but I was given a list of recipe titles to work on. In some cases I suggested some changes but almost all of the ideas were really solid as is.

There were 45 recipes and only 8 weeks to get the first draft done. But I only had 6 weeks because I was in Japan for two of the weeks. I took copious notes and lots of pictures to help me document the process. Some days I worked on 4 or 5 recipes. Somehow it all came together. I had two more chances to test and make changes as the manuscript moved through copyediting and photography. This was fortunate because some seasonal ingredients were a bit hard to come by. But if you have to do a seasonal cookbook, the Fall in the Bay Area is a pretty good time to do it.

Since I started in the Fall and finished my last round of revisions in the Spring, I have cooked several of the recipes and served them at parties. I'm glad to say they have been very well received. It seems odd to have to ask for permission to reprint recipes I created, but that's how it works when you create recipes for a client. I do hope you will enjoy the book as much I enjoyed coming up with all the recipes. It will be available in Williams-Sonoma stores in September and in bookstores in November. Oh, and the photo on the cover? It's Buckwheat blini with Smoked Salmon and Horseradish Cream.

09 Jul 2008 10:26pm GMT

Call me unadventurous, but I had never even heard of a watermelon feta salad before versions of it started popping up on food blogs everywhere. Even then, the very thought of it gave me pause. Watermelon, with salty cheese? Yeah, right. But watermelon sprinkled with salt is how many people enjoy the fruit, so perhaps it isn't too far of a stretch to consider that it might be good with salty cheese? Last week my curiosity was finally satisfied when I was served such a salad at a dinner given by my friend Peg. I couldn't wait to recreate it and experiment as well with a more Southwest version with cilantro and cumin. Both versions are wonderfully refreshing and light, and perfect for heat-wave days like we are having now in California.

Continue reading "Watermelon Salad with Feta or Cotija" »

09 Jul 2008 4:49pm GMT

Conventional wisdom says a good cookbook is one that allows you to reproduce a given recipe with consistently successful results. Another opinion is that the recipes should be really special, not run-of-the-mill or the best versions of classics. I may be in the minority, but I most appreciate a cookbook that inspires me, gives me good ideas, and points the way. Adventures of an Italian Food Lover is such a cookbook.


Italian food is probably my favorite cuisine. I learned to cook Italian food when I lived in Italy but I've never stopped learning. What I understand best is that Italian cuisine is about balance. It's about just the right amount of sauce and just the right texture to the pasta. It's about high quality ingredients combined, often simply, to create something magical. It's this elegant simplicity and balance of flavors and textures that appeals to me. The perfect combination of ripe tomatoes, luscious mozzarella and basil leaves. No balsamic vinegar, no embellishment. Or melon draped with slices of prosciutto. It's like the well-dressed woman who takes off one thing before she leaves the house. Sophisticated and refined but restrained.

This past weekend I made enchiladas. Roasting and shredding the chicken, making the sauce, stuffing then assembling the enchiladas in baking dishes took the better part of a day. But another meal I made this weekend was equally satisfying and took a fraction of the work and the ingredients. It was Spaghetti with Walnuts and Anchovies, from Adventures of an Italian Food Lover.

It was the second time I made the dish, and I tweaked it a little bit. The combination of ingredients is most important, after that, as with all recipes, find the balance that works for you. Just a few other recipes from the book that I find intriguing include Campari Cocktails with Salami and Figs, Pasta and Bean Salad with Celery Pesto, Leek and Sausage Orzotto, Risotto with Almonds and Broccoli and Baked Cherry Tomatoes.

Spaghetti with Walnuts and Anchovies (adapted from Adventures of an Italian Food Lover)
Serves 2 as a main course, or 4 as a first course

2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
3-4 filets of oil packed anchovies
2 Tablespoon chopped walnuts
pinch of chili flakes
3 Tablespoons minced parsley
8 ounces spaghetti

Heat the olive oil over low heat and cook the garlic until it softens and barely begins to color. Add the anchovies and mash until they dissolve into the oil. Add the walnuts, chili and parsley, stir and remove from the heat. Cook the pasta in boiling water until it is 3/4 of the way done.

Drain the pasta and reserve some cooking water. Toss the pasta with the sauce and cook over high heat, adding about 1/3 cup cooking water. Cook, adding more cooking liquid as needed, until the pasta is al dente.

Enjoy!

07 Jul 2008 2:01pm GMT

Please welcome guest author Garrett McCord, who grilled these chicken skewers with me the other day to rave reviews from the 'rents. ~Elise

I've always been a fan of combining sweet fruits with savory spices, it sets up a certain flavor balance that just works so well. Mango with chili pepper, peaches and thyme, rhubarb and rosemary. They're all delicious, so can there be any question that blackberries and rosemary would just be a match made in heaven?

Elise and I found the inspiration for this recipe in a tattered old cookbook; it needed a quite a bit of tweaking but we finally nailed it. The sweet sauce really makes the rosemary pop on these summer time chicken skewers. Believe me, we were sopping up this marinade with bits of watermelon, lettuce, strawberries, anything we could get our hands on.

Continue reading "Rosemary Chicken Skewers with Berry Sauce" »

07 Jul 2008 7:20am GMT

After one of the best July 4ths on record (70s in Sacramento in July? unbelievable) we're gearing up for another heat wave. If the smoke clears enough for us to go outside again, I'll make another batch of this wonderful limeade. There are 3 tricks to this simple drink. The first is to make simple syrup by boiling water with the sugar first, so that the sugar is completely dissolved. The second trick is to infuse the simple syrup with some of the zest from the limes; this makes it taste even limey-er (yes, not a word, but you get my drift, and thank you Shuna for the tip). Finally plop some fresh mint sprigs in the serving pitcher, and besides being half-way to a mojito, you have a cheerfully refreshing summer drink. One that my nephew Austin has mentioned 3 times in the last 2 days as being "like really good".

Continue reading "Limeade with a Touch of Mint" »

05 Jul 2008 10:55pm GMT

My dessert obsessed father was at it again today; he just couldn't resist this berry crumble recipe he found in the New York Times. He used fresh strawberries, blueberries, and some of our frozen boysenberries. Our boysenberries tend to be pretty tart, so with the 3 Tbsp of sugar, the crumble ended up rather tart. Perfect for my dad and me, but my mother complained ("why can't you make it the way I like it? Why do you always have to make things like this so tart?") Mom knows she's welcome to bake anything she wants the way she likes it, so this conversation didn't go very far. But check your berries if and when you make this recipe. Add more or less sugar depending on your preference and how sweet the fruit is. By the way, one thing we've noticed lately is that the strawberries we get by Driscoll haven't been very sweet, and don't have nearly the flavor of the strawberries we get at the farmer's market or at the local fruit stand.

Happy July 4th!

Continue reading "Berry Almond Crumble" »

04 Jul 2008 6:22am GMT

Please welcome guest author Hank Shaw who shares the recipe for his favorite BBQ sauce with us. This sauce is, btw, outrageously good. ~Elise

All barbecue cooks have their own "secret sauce," but for the most part, each relies on some sort of sugar, something acidic like vinegar, fat – typically butter – and something else to make it special. This sauce uses molasses, lemon juice, bourbon and Worcestershire sauce as its main flavors. It has that tart, sweet, salty, rich and spicy combination that I think all great barbecue sauces need. Use this with ribs, pulled pork or even tri-tip.

Continue reading "Hank's Barbecue Sauce" »

03 Jul 2008 12:49am GMT

Hank Shaw spent a day this week with my father and me, showing us how to smoke ribs on my kettle grill. As worried as I was that the ribs were going to end up dry, they weren't, and they were the some of the best I've ever had. Here's the process from Hank. ~Elise

Barbecue can be a serious business. Hard-core 'cue mavens buy or build special smokers with custom-made rotisseries and fireboxes in order to precisely control the level of heat and smoke needed for each type of meat or fish. Most of us aren't ready to drop several hundred – even several thousand – dollars on a special smoker. But you can 'cue at home, even with that simplest of grills – the "egg" or kettle grill Weber made famous in the 1950s.

No, you will not get competition-class barbecue every time, because you cannot control your temperature with a kettle grill as well as you can with the expensive smokers. But you can still easily achieve the proper "slow and low" cooking so critical for barbecue.

Continue reading "How to Turn Your Kettle Grill into a Smoker" »

02 Jul 2008 11:39pm GMT

The world of food blogs and the Internet is indeed a serendipitous one. A while ago I discovered a fellow named Hank Shaw in the comments section on Michael Ruhlman's blog. Hank seemed to know what he was talking about, especially in the area of preparing game. After a few emails back and forth about various ways to cook rabbit, it turns out Hank lives just a few minutes down the road from me. And not only is he one of those rare people who hunts, fishes, or grows almost all his own food, but he's a gourmet cook to boot. Last year Hank started his own food blog, Hunter Angler Gardener Cook in which he writes about charcuterie, wild game, fish, the fruits of his garden, and Greek and Italian cuisine. (BTW if you're into game, check out Hank's girlfriend Holly's hunting site, NorCal Cazadora.)

The purpose of this introduction is to let you know that Hank is joining us as a Simply Recipes guest author and will be writing a post here and there, focusing on meat. Please help me in welcoming him to Simply Recipes. ~Elise

02 Jul 2008 11:13pm GMT

Not to rub it in or anything, but I recently spent 10 glorious days in Italy discovering the charms of the Campania region, home of Naples and the Amalfi coast. But there is so much more to the region than that. I already had a soft spot for Sorrento, but this time around I got to visit the area around Mount Vesuvius, Benevento and the Cilento.

I learned a fair amount about the less well-known areas before I ever left home. I took a lot of books out of the library, but these are the ones I kept by my side and treasure.


If you are going to Italy, and you care about food, you must get Osterie & Locande D'Italia A guide to traditional place to eat and stay in Italy. I can't speak for the places to stay, but some of the best meals I had were places described in amazing detail in this Slow Food book. I yanked out the section on Campania and took it with me. It is by no means comprehensive, but the places it designates are winners and the detail on what to order the stories about the food and places and the people are fantastic.


The next book was my bible, The Food and Wine Guide to Naples and Campania. Carla Capalba is a thorough researcher and lovely writer. She spent years getting to know the people, places and stories behind the food. Her passion for the region comes through and I learned so much from her book I feel like sending her a personal thank you.


Faith Willinger's most recent book, Adventures of an Italian Food Lover with recipes from 254 of my very best friends is a charming book. It's filled with sweet watercolor portraits and of course, Italians and recipes. The section on Southern Italy and the Islands gave me not only names and addresses, but also a great feel for the people and the land. It's a storytelling book with recipes.


Upon my return, I really enjoyed perusing My Love for Naples The Food, The History, The Life is a really dear cookbook told by Anna Teresa Callen who was born and raised in Naples. The title says it all, really. Her recipes are very personal and so are the stories behind them.

While I didn't get his book in time, Arthur Schwartz "The Food Maven" is another aficionado who has not only written about the region but leads classes and tours there. His web site is a gold mine of tips and recommendations.

02 Jul 2008 4:53pm GMT

My father should have a t-shirt that reads "I've never met a dessert I didn't like" or in this case, "Got Plums? Will Bake". His baking endeavors might not always look their bakery best (please don't ever ask him to frost a cake and sometimes his pies are downright scary-looking) but more often than not the results taste fabulous. This plum upside-down cake is actually quite pretty and is based on a recipe he found in an old issue of Fine Cooking magazine. The taste idea is that of slices of tart plum balanced by a sweet cake base. He used red Santa Rosa plums that are just now coming ripe. My mother thought the cake was just a bit too tart for her, but dad and I love it just the way it is.

Now that I think about it, the t-shirt should simply say "Real Men Bake". Because if you could just see my 6'2", 200 lb, works out 3 times a week at the gym, mows the lawn, splits the wood, 78-year-old father in his striped apron, gently arranging plum slices on top of melted butter and sugar in ramekins, that would be the T that fit the best.

Continue reading "Plum Upside Down Cake" »

02 Jul 2008 5:23am GMT

Forget the popcorn. Nothing goes with movies like Japanese food. This year I was generously given a courtesy pass which allows me and a guest to attend as many movies as we like at the Sundance Kabuki movie theater in Japantown. As a result I end up eating meals in Japantown just about every time I go see a movie.


This Saturday I had a ridiculously cheap lunch in Japantown at Takara. This little restaurant tucked away behind the Hotel Kabuki and often packed with local Japanese folks is well worth seeking out. Their special lunch combo is tempura plus a choice of breaded pork cutlet (tonkatsu) white tuna sashimi, chicken or beef teriyaki or deep fried fish of the day. In what has to be one of the best bento box deals, I got white tuna sashimi, tempura, a California roll, salad, rice and miso soup for $6.95 and it was delicious. But next time I'm ordering the tonkatsu which I noticed several other patrons had ordered, it was dark golden brown, thin and crisp. The tempura is light and crunchy and includes all of my favorite items--shrimp, sweet potato, carrot, green bean and eggplant and thankfully no broccoli, zucchini or onion.


If you're willing to shell out a little more you can get a variety of rice bowls (donburi) for under $9 or a lavish chirashi for just over $11. Takara also has tons of "appetizers" which are really izakaya style dishes, such as grilled eggplant served with bonita flakes (yakinasu) braised pork belly (butakakuni) and deep fried marinated chicken (torikaraage). These dishes range from $3-10 each, order several and make a meal out them. And if you need a movie date, call me.

Takara
22 Peace Plaza Suite 202 (inside the plaza, next to the Kabuki Hotel)
San Francisco,CA
415. 921.2000

Mon - Sun 11:30 - 2:00
Mon - Sat 5:30 - 9:30 pm
Sun 5:30 - 9 pm

30 Jun 2008 2:20pm GMT

I know, things are pretty quiet around here, but I've been really busy lately with work. However you can check out some other posts I've written recently, better yet, bookmark or subscribe to GlamDish and Bay Area Bites.

I am fascinated by the fifth flavor, umami. The Umami Information Center is hosting what sounds like a terrific symposium in San Francisco with very famous chefs, next month. Read about umami, the symposium, dinners and get a recipe at Bay Area Bites.

Cookbook Giveaway! Every month there is a giveaway at Glam Dish and today you can win one of three Tastebooks. Haven't heard of Tastebook yet? It's a great way to make your own custom cookbook. Check it out here.

Other recent posts on Glam:

Best of Barbecue Burger Roundup--learn about grass-fed, American Kobe-style and naturally raised Black Angus

Wedding Shower Tea Party Ideas--cool ideas, gifts and favors

10 Tips for Using Honey

I'm taking tomorrow off for my birthday, but I will post more soon, I promise, including a recipe for spaghetti with walnuts and anchovies, a twist on tiramisu, and a whole bunch more about my recent trip to Italy.

25 Jun 2008 5:11pm GMT

You probably think you know what this is. Right now are you saying to yourself, "those are a couple of slices of bread" or if you're really in the know, "that's bread made in a bread machine because of the little indentation in the slices." And you're right, but there's more to the story. Those are slices of bread from the very first loaf of bread I made with my new Zojirushi BB-HAC10 Home Bakery 1-Pound-Loaf Programmable Mini Breadmaker.


I actually have another bread machine that I've never used. It's too big to sit on my sliver of a counter and it makes a big loaf of bread, too big for a household of two. But the Zojirushi takes only a smidgen of room and makes such a nice little loaf that it gets used before it turns stale. For my first loaf I used the King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour I wrote about a while back. Next time I will try using the stoneground whole wheat bread flour I bought at the Bale Grist Mill in Napa. Only a couple of slices have those funny indentations, by the way, most come out looking very normal.

The Zojirushi has options for different styles and firmness of bread and crust. It comes with a booklet with tons of recipes and it has a timer so you can set it to bake the bread when you wish. Next time around I'm going to set it before I go to bed and wake up to fresh, warm bread in the morning. Now I can't compare it to other bread machines, but it was super easy to use and it gets nothing but great reviews on Amazon.

There are lots of reasons to make your own bread. The price of bread has really gone up recently. You can control what does and doesn't go into your bread and make it to your taste. But best of all? You get fresh, tasty bread and the deep satisfaction of having made it yourself. It might not seem like much, but you've got to try it. Quick breads like muffins and biscuits are fun to make now and again, but real bread? It tastes great and it is so easy to do using a bread machine. Just measure all the ingredients, push a button or two and voila! Fresh bread you made yourself.

23 Jun 2008 2:37pm GMT

Mustards Grill celebrated it's 25th anniversary this past Monday with the ultimate garden party. A favorite in the valley for it's comfort food and reasonable prices, these days the Mustards menu also features many wonderful dishes that use the bounty of the sprawling two acre kitchen garden.

At the party many of the classic menu items were served in nibble-sized portions--the onion rings with homemade ketchup, pulled pork sandwiches, barbecued ribs, oysters on the half shell and even mini lemon meringue pies. To wash it all down, local wine makers poured a variety of styles and vintages. Entertaining the crowd was a hip bluegrass band who countrified everything from Guns N' Roses to Happy Birthday. Two old time photo booths enticed party goers to make their own memento of the evening. There was lots to celebrate beyond the 25 years and most of it had to do with Cindy Pawlcyn.

Chef and restaurant owner Cindy Pawlcyn is a restaurateur whose successes are many. In addition to Mustards Grill she also runs Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen and Go Fish. She has been nominated for a James Beard Best Chef award twice and wrote the James Beard award-winning Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook, Fog City Diner Cookbook and Big Small Plates.

In the era of the celebrity chef Pawlcyn is delightfully unpretentious and a tremendous supporter of the people who work with her. Perhaps the best case in point is her Executive Chef and Partner at Mustards, Erasto Jacinto who emigrated from Mexico in 1985. He began as a dishwasher at Mustards and truly worked his way to the top. Don't be surprised if you catch a glimpse of Jacinto dashing from the kitchen to the garden to pick fresh herbs. Congratulations Cindy, here's wishing you continued success and more delicious times ahead.

19 Jun 2008 7:24pm GMT

You've got to admire a chef like Dennis Leary who goes from working in a prestigious and elegant restaurant to taking over a diner with only four booths for four and a counter. Eating at Canteen is always a treat because even though it looks like a gussied up lunch counter the food is nothing short of outstanding.

After eating at Canteen a couple times for lunch and more than a few times for breakfast and brunch, I decided it was high time to try it for dinner. It's not often you get to order everything on the menu, especially when you're a party of four, but when there are only four appetizers, entrees and desserts it's not so hard to manage. What made it all the more possible was the most genteel dining companions who went along with the plan.


At Canteen the dinner menu changes every week. You can check it out online, though I notice sometimes it's behind by a week. The meal began with an amuse bouche, a shot glass was filled with a refreshing buttermilk cucumber soup. There was also a buttery and hot-from-the-oven dinner roll. The Chilled Pea Soup with parmesan cream ($7.25) was light and creamy, perfectly in tune with the season.

The pork belly served in crispy strips with a salad of endive and celery and a drizzle of a honey-like vinegar syrup was a nice balance of textures and flavors. But it was the squid dish that blew me away. The most tender, small, fresh squid was served over a bed of the most perfectly cooked black lentils with a a dab of red chili paste and a slightly crunchy topping of bread crumbs. It was out of this world and would have made an excellent entree.


For entrees we had something called Sweet Corn Clafoutis ($20.25). It was super rich and crisp around the edges. More of a fallen souffle or pancake than a clafoutis, it was nonetheless delicious. The asparagus and slightly melted goat cheese added juiciness and tang. The swordfish was very tender as if it had been poached in oil and was served with a swiss chard, beet and barley salad with walnut vinaigrette. The crunchy salad on it's own was terrific. I may have to try making a version of it at home. The veal filet and guinea hen with divine sauces were just like something you would find at a more upscale restaurant.


We agreed the desserts covered all bases--there was a vanilla souffle, bittersweet chocolate custard, strawberry shortcake and braised apricots with bitter almond ice cream served with some strips of cake, maybe pound cake. Each dessert was a knockout. The souffle converted a non enthusiast with one bite. The custard was ridiculously rich and creamy and the shortcake had the most ethereal topping that was like a puff of cake.

One word about the wines, not only is the selection good, but the markup one of the lowest I've seen. Just a couple of examples--Robert Sinskey Pinot Noir which retails for $44 was $67 and Longboard Sauvignon Blanc which retails for $24 was $36. While not a fancy place, four years after opening, the food couldn't be better at Canteen.

Canteen
817 Sutter St @ Jones
San Francisco, CA
415.928.8870

Tue-Wed, Fri-Sat 6:00 pm-10:00 pm
Wed-Fri 11:30 am-2:00 pm
Sat 8:00 am -2:00 pm
Sun 8:00 am-2:00 pm

13 Jun 2008 6:17pm GMT

Not that long ago I wrote that we should ban bottled water, I received a lot of comments on that post! Here are some of the reasons why people said they buy bottled water:

My water isn't safe or doesn't taste good.
Fortunately there is a very good solution, even better than buying bottled water. Drink filtered water. There are many types and styles of water filters.

I recently got a chance to try the Aquasana Water Filter. After the initial set-up cost, which is $99.99 for a counter-top unit or $143.98 for an undersink installation, filtered water costs about 9.6 cents per gallon. Replacement cartridges last for 500 gallons and cost $48.00. The taste of the filtered water is markedly better than non-filtered water, not to mention more pure. How small is it? My countertop model is perched on a ledge which is only 3 inches wide.

The advantage of a countertop filter as opposed to a pitcher filter is the contaminant removal capability. Pitcher filters are generally very small and are only capable of removing limited contaminants at lower percentages. Faucet-mounted filters are larger, offering more surface area in the filter media, and are able to remove more contaminants to a higher degree. The start-up costs for pitcher filters are generally less, but the filters need to be replaced more often and the per gallon price is higher as a result.

Sink mounted water filter systems are too expensive.
Pitchers are cheap! If you prefer a pitcher style filter system, one of the more popular brands is Brita. The pitchers and faucet mount systems are very inexpensive to purchase. Once you've purchased a Brita system ($20-$30 for a reusable pitcher or faucet mounted system), the cost of filtered water is less than 23 cents per gallon if you're using a pitcher, or 20 cents per gallon for a faucet-mounted system.

One Brita pitcher filter can effectively replace as many as 300 standard 16.9-ounce bottles. The average Brita pitcher filters 240 gallons of water a year for about 19 cents a day.To get the same amount of water from disposable water bottles would cost around $4.98 a day.

Head to the Filter for Good site and by signing a pledge to reduce bottled water and switch to filtered, you can get a coupon for $5 off a Brita system and $1 off a filter.

But in my household we want sparkling water!
No problem. You can get a seltzer machine to use at home.

My father uses one from Soda Club USA (which is not actually a club). The machine takes little space and costs under $100 (there is a fancier model that uses a glass bottle for $250) . After your initial purchase of a machine, seltzer and sparkling water in Soda-Club's reusable 1-liter PET bottle costs just 18 cents per liter. The water bottle does not use does not use polycarbonate materials or any materials that can produce phthalates or PCBs. You can also control the amount of carbonization to make your water as fizzy as you like.

I'm not polluting. I reuse my plastic water bottle.
Not a good idea. Those disposable water bottles are not meant to be reused. They are hard to clean and keep sterile and they breakdown over time. What's the best reusable water bottle option? That's a tough call. Some people are concerned about the safety of Lexan or Nalgene plastic bottles. You may want to consider Sigg bottles from Switzerland which are safe, durable, economical, and come in an amazing number of colors and styles. Some are very fashionable!

Sigg bottles are aluminum, with a liner made with proprietary technology. They have been thoroughly tested both in Europe and in the USA to ensure 0.0% leaching, so there is no migration of either the liner or the container into the beverage. You can even review the test results online. These bottles are so popular that they had to stop selling the bottles online because they couldn't keep up with demand. Find a retailer here.

I hope these suggestions help encourage you to decrease your bottled water consumption.

06 Jun 2008 10:24pm GMT

I am hoarding rice. It's not what you think. I have fallen in love with the precious samples of Koshihikari rice I was sent by an Arkansas farmer. Mark Isbell grows a Japanese premium variety of short grain rice and Isbell Farms has been exporting it to Japan since 1995. He has only recently begun selling it in the United States under the name "Koshi Rice."

Last Spring I got bored with white rice and virtually stopped cooking it. It just tasted flat and mushy to me. Then in the Fall I went to Japan and knew I would be eating a lot of it. What I didn't know is that the quality of rice I would eat was far superior to what I was used to eating. It was the harvest season and the rice was "new" and didn't just have a tender texture but an almost floral, fruity scent. I was hooked. Often the rice had just a bit of a garnish on it and that was all. Once I spent $18 for plain freshly harvested rice cooked in a stone bowl. I know it sounds insane, but it was worth every penny and I'd order it again if I could.

So I was curious to try Mark's rice. I've not been very impressed with California rice, could Arkansas rice be that different? All I can tell you is: yes. It is that different. As Mark describes it, koshihikari rice is shiny, smooth and mildly sweet. It holds it's shape very well and is a typical choice for sushi because it is a bit sticky, but in my experience it is fabulous with almost anything. After cooking it for the first time Lee begged me to cook it again and again. But because it's expensive, I have saved it for special meals. But life is short. Regardless of the price, I am going to stop hoarding and just start stocking up (especially since it is available online).

05 Jun 2008 2:51am GMT

Every profession has some form of continuing education. But even for the non-professional, what could be better than sitting in on a master class for pastry chefs put on by Valrhona, one of the most highly regarded chocolate companies in the world?


Started in 1922 by a chocolatier in the Rhone Valley who desired better quality chocolate, the company buys directly from farmers and forms long-term partnerships to ensure both high quality and the best compensation for the farmers. You may have heard of "fair trade chocolate" Valrhona goes beyond fair trade and pays 100% higher than market value. Their chocolate is not always certified organic, but they ensure no pesticides are used on crops. The focus of Valrhona is primarily with chefs, so you will rarely see their products at retail but they are often the chocolate used in elegant plated desserts.


I've always known that baking and pastry was akin to chemistry and this class really brought that home for me. With scientific precision award-winning Corporate Pastry Chef for Valrhona USA Derek Poirer began the session by asking the chefs how they make ganache. Most chefs explained that they combine chocolate with heated and then cooled cream.

He explained that ganache is an emulsion because cream is mostly made of water and chocolate is mostly comprised of fat. The taste test of ganache made with melted versus non-melted chocolate made everyone a believer. In addition to impressing the heck out of me by using a laser thermometer, here is what I, as a non-professional learned from Chef Poirer:

1. In order to make the best tasting and most stable ganache, use the rules for any emulsion, make sure both the chocolate and the cream are warm (35 degrees celsius is the fusion point). This means you need to melt the chocolate before combining it with the cream and to beat it vigorously with a hand blender to emulsify it.

2. In order to fix a broken ganache, heat the base if the temperature was too low, and add more cream if the temperature is fine.

3. When beating cream or egg whites, do so at 3/4 speed, not full speed. Why? Smaller bubble structure will lead to less collapse and better texture.

4. When making caramel, before deglazing, the sugar should just start to smoke to ensure the proper flavor, and use a hot liquid to deglaze the pan.

5. For marshmallows, using powdered gelatin may be preferable because leaf gelatin can over-absorb liquid.

6. Streusel is sweeter than "crisp" or "crunch" topping. This means it will stay crisper longer.

While many of the finer points of crystallization were beyond me, I found the class fascinating, not to mention, delicious! I have all the more respect for pastry chefs who create fantastic desserts, now that I have seen what it takes to make them. Check out my colleague Michael Procopio's take on this sugarific day here.

02 Jun 2008 6:39pm GMT

It's been an awfully long time since I've been personally tagged for a meme. I am busy unpacking, sorting the accumulated mail and plowing through email, but since I don't have time for much of a real post this meme is a nice stop gap measure.

Thanks to Sarah of Suite Apple Pie for tagging me.

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules
2. Share 5 facts about yourself
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names, linking to them.

4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. I'm sending them direct messages via Twitter instead.

5 Facts (you probably don't know about me)


1. Last week in the Italian city of Benevento I was one of the judges of a student cocktail competition with the theme "Cucina & Magia" which means cooking and magic. The winning cocktail used white rum, Strega, lemon and blueberry juice, muddled basil leaves and was garnished with a spiral of zucchini. Refreshing and light, I wish I had the recipe. The winner was the only woman contestant. Brava!


2. Last night after seeing a movie I dined at a very inexpensive North African restaurant called Cafe Zitouna on Polk street. The fantastic homemade merguez was served over couscous with a big bowl of vegetables, and the fragrant chicken b'stilla was moist and flavorful. I look forward to going back.


3. A few weeks back at the Maker Faire I was totally smitten by these knitted cupcakes and donuts. Utterly useless but so darn cute!


4. At the Frankfurt airport I ate a surprisingly delicious sandwich of thinly sliced ham, green apple and horseradish cream on a wheat roll studded with pumpkin seeds. It helped steady my nerves after being frisked by German airport security.

5. My first breakfast after coming home from Italy was a smoked fish platter at Miller's East Coast Delicatessen. It had whitefish salad, belly lox and sable. There was so much fish I bought extra bagels and it was enough for another breakfast--for 2 people! The coleslaw, potato salad and pickles are still in the fridge.

5 people/bloggers I'm tagging are--Gluten Free Goddess, Hedonia, Lucullian Delights, Vanilla Garlic & Ms. Adventures in Italy. Each are bloggers who inspire me in one way or another, they are also all on Twitter. Are you?

26 May 2008 7:19pm GMT