Culinaria Chronicles

Dinner Tonight

organic wild arugula (farmer's market), organic Asian pear (Farmer Steve), Salemville gorgonzola (American), balsamic and walnut oil

Palmina --were members. So good!

black cod (fresh caught from farmer's market) with cremini ragout and goat cheese and caper stuffed organic tomatoes (from the neighbor)

poached Bosc pear (organic - Farmer Steve) with Italian red wine and Tahitian vanilla bean reduction

Pickles

DJ and I have a great neighbor that organizes both a CSA box and a fruit box from Farmer Steve in San Diego for pick up at her house. Sometimes I like the produce boxes and sometimes I don't. I like the fresh squeezed orange juice in the morning but not juicing the oranges. I like heirloom tomato sauce but not making the sauce and cleaning the food mill. I like pickles and pickled things but not the cutting and concocting a brine. But alas, I'm really liking the refrigerator pickle spears I made two days ago. I recommend playing around with herbs and spices to find the right mix for you. (Gramps, I know you think the more garlic the better)

general recipe for refrigerator pickles
water to white vinegar 3:1
1T salt
half a dozen or so whole black peppercorns
garlic, dill, onions, hot peppers, cumin, tarragon, sage, whatever to your taste

Pan Pizza

We've been making a pan pizza we saw on the current season of America's Test Kitchen. The recipe is called pepperoni pan pizza but we have been adding the toppings we like best: sausage and mushrooms. If you like pan pizza, this really is a great recipe and method. Hint: You bake it in a cake pan.

I heart huckleberries, ice cream, and Dorie Greenspan

I'm a huckleberry freak--like really out there about my huckleberries. Growing up in Michigan I had full access to a hunting camp surrounded by wild huckleberries. FYI...huckleberries and blueberries are not the same. I did find a good scientific explaination here but from my personal experience huckleberries are darker, smaller, and seedier than blueberries which are blue, bigger, and juicier.

Presently, I'm a long way from Michigan in California, so I've settled on urban foraging for blueberries.

Dorie Greenspan has the best baking book published. I've made countless--well more like a dozen--recipes from this cookbook since I received it as a gift (thanks David!). If I could be defined by one ice cream--it would have to be her blueberry sour cream ice cream.

So I say buy the best berries you can, purchase Baking from My Home to Yours, and make some ice cream.

On a side note: This recipe does not call for egg yolks like traditional ice cream recipes, which means it can be healthy. Also, you'll need an ice cream maker. Ours is from Cuisinart.

Bomba Rice in Long Beach

Paella.
At least once a year we have a Spanish party with tapas, sangria, and paella. When we lived in Phoenix I could get bomba rice at both AJ’s Fine Foods and a mountain variety of bomba rice at Cost Plus World Market. So much has changed in a year. Not only are we not living in Phoenix, but bomba rice is no longer readily available? What up Long Beach? Bristol Farms, Pavillions, Whole Foods, and Cost Plus do not have bomba rice. After all that we finally remembered that Wine Country has bomba rice. Doh!

Highly recommeded: You can drive (or mail order) to La Española Meats, Inc., which is all things Spanish.
Bomba in the OC
Online: The Spanish Table , Zingerman's, or amazon.com

Recommended reading for Paella and Tapas recipes:

La Paella: Deliciously Authentic Rice Dishes from Spain's Mediterranean Coast by Jeff Koehler

Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America by Jose Andres and Richard Wolffe

You've got to eat them to save them.

With so much talk of Whole Foods on our blog and now this e.coli beef issue I'd like to just say that I am thankful I don't buy my meat from Whole Foods. Then where might one environmentally responsible person like myself buy her meat? I'm glad you asked because I have 35 lbs. of Red Wattle Pig in my freezer right now and oh, and some grass fed ground beef too! I got it all from Heritage Foods USA! They brought the Red Wattle Pigs across the US and I was lucky enough to go to a dinner and not only eat them but save them. And save them I will. I had the best pork chop of my life Saturday night and their shoulder is good, and their ham is good, and they are a magical animal. Here's their story (from the Heritage USA website):
Red Wattle meat tends to be a little darker than most other pork and is very tender. The variety boasts wonderful hams and sirloin steaks and a juicy and flavorful taste even though the meat is lean. The Red Wattle is perhaps the most severely at risk variety of pork in the United States. This pig, which gets its name from its red color and the wattles that hang under the chin, originated in New Caledonia, came to New Orleans in the 18th century and lingered in the forests of Texas. Larry and Madonna Sorell of Glasco, Kansas, lead a network of four families who are among the last in the world raising the Red Wattle.

I would also recommend meat from Niman Ranch.

Who says you can have too many heirloom tomatoes?

Oooo….Mr. Kotter…..me, me, me! Two people + five tomato plants = tomatoes at every meal. It’s blasphemy I know but after gazpacho , salsa, panade, tomato bruschetta , BLTs, BLT Ranch Dip, caprese salad, zucchini pancake and ricotta fritter stacks with tomatoes, countless mache salads, and a cherry tomato tart (see July 2005 Cooks Illustrated)---I cannot eat another meal with tomatoes!

A Drink Pilgramage

A few months ago I found myself in Seattle, and in the spirit of the Summer of Gin, I made my way to the greatest bar I've ever been to (yes, even better than Absinthe)
It's a booze paradise: the Zig Zag Cafe. I'd heard about it from various sources, and I was not disappointed. It's tucked away below Pike Place Market, near two of my other favorite Seattle destinations, the Spanish Table, and World Spice.

My plan was to settle in for some serious drinking, and luckily one of the bartenders (named Eric) came to our table, and helped direct my exploration (once I mentioned a couple of cocktails I'd made at home but never had at a bar).

So here's a report on the drinks, with links to the recipes from Drink Boy's excellent site (one of the sources that sent me to Zig Zag in the first place).

Aviation
An excellent drink, and my starting place into the world of classic forgotten cocktails.
Last Word
This is an amazing cocktail that deserves a comeback. The herbal notes that might scare you off are in fact perfectly balanced. This is the only mixed cocktail that I would use Old Raj gin in--counter-intuitive since Old Raj is so subtle, but the saffron and other herbs marry well with the Chartreuse and maraschino (not to be confused with the day-glo cocktail cherries, maraschino is a wonderful dry liqueur).
AuntEmily
The link goes to Bols, but if I remember correctly, Zig Zag was using this drink to show off some great apricot brandy and calvados (apple brandy).
Corpse Reviver #2
A pity this one has such a weird name, because it's just wonderful. I'm not sure what recipe Zig Zag uses, but I think it's closer to Dr. Cocktail's than the one I link to here (the book I just linked to is a must-have if you want to explore forgotten cocktails).
Fin de Sicle He uses equal parts gin, Cointreau, Lillet Blanc, and lemon juice (and just one drop of pastis).
Blue Moon
Follow that link--this is really a wonderful cocktail that has returned to the world now that violet liqueur is available again in the United States. Of course, Zig Zag used a different one that they had someone get for them in Japan.

And, yes, I shared the cocktails with a coworker, so I was able to stumble back to the hotel without too much difficulty. The food at Zig Zag was excellent too, but this is a serious booze destination and I highly recommend it.

Tracht's Long Beach

I want to like this restaurant. It's across from my workplace. It's the only truly upscale restaurant in Long Beach. It has La Quercia pork. La Quercia pork for god's sake!!! But everytime I go I'm either disappointed or embarassed for them.

The first time we dined there was probably the best. There were three of us, we ordered three from each section of the menu. The food started off great then excitment dimished by the time we hit the main courses. We went again for dinner and the service was slow. I've been to lunch twice. Once was for business so best behavior meant no griping. Today was the second time. The food was bland despite the greasiness of both lunches. I had the guyere sandwich with roasted tomato soup...it's called salt and pepper people and it only takes a pinch. Tran had the Cuban and plantains. The Cuban was okay but off balance because the pork was half and half--half fat and half meat. The plantains might as well been fried cardboard. They were dry and bland.

Their wine list is way over priced -- this is not Beverly Hills guys!

Spring in a Pod

I distinctly associate fava beans with spring. In fact, fava beans are my favorite springtime vegetable, but they are so labor intensive to prepare. Last Friday at the Long Beach Downtown Farmer's Market I picked up half a bag full. I thought that I would have to prepare them as I normally do: taking them out of the pod, blanching them, and then taking off the thin skin. But.....with a quick Internet search I thought I'd found a better way. (That Internet)
Sunday we decided to grill and prepared favas from a recipe (found here) --just toss with salt and olive oil and give them to the grill master--ha,ha I got out that one....or so I thought. I still had to take them from their pods, and get them out of their thin skin--same amount of work just a different cooking technique. We had them as a side to our grilled dry aged beef--fan-cay. Either way--grilled or blanched--they're still spring in a pod.

My favorite fava dish was one I'd had at Region (my one true restaurant love) with fish over favas in a broth. Very simple yet very delicious. I can see it on the plate now all flakey and green and brothy...mmm.......

NPR has a story called Fava Beans: A little Spring on your Plate.

Here's 9 Fava Bean Recipes

Speaking about gaining ten pounds...how I'm trying to lose them

Okay, so let's just say that I have a slow metabolism and an undiagnosed hypothyroid problem---is that the reason that I've been practically eating like a bird (still drinking like a fish however) and have NOT...I'll repeat....NOT lost any weight. I've been exercising too, people...like at the hellish hour of 6:00am. Yikes!

What does a bird eat you say? Home cooked meals from Eating Well Serves Two and Rick Bayless's Everyday Mexican

Eating Well Serves Two is great because it gives me portion control. Recipes are well laid out, healthy, and most can be cooked in 30 min. or less. Healthy in a hurry!

Everyday Mexican works because it too is uncomplicated unlike other Bayless cookbooks. It has potatoes, epazote (I know that's a link to Wikipedia and yes I am librarian), and chipotle in most recipes. Lucky for me, I can usually find fresh epazote--and with my midnight drunk Internet shopper buying fan-cey chipotles from cooks.com. I've got the makings of healthy Mexican on hand. These dishes are full of flavor and have many clean layers of Mexican goodness.

But one cannot be expected to slave in the kitchen every night and eat leftovers for lunch everyday. Check out health.com's America's Healthiest Restaurants for a glimpse at some healthy chain and fast food places. For me it doesn't get much healthier than some Vietnamese take out.

Three years and Ten pounds later

I've eaten my way through San Diego, Phoenix, some of Napa, and now Long Beach. It's been years since I've written on this blog and since my current job has blocked me from other social networking, I've decided to take up writing on my blog again to waste time at work.

In my hiatus, food blogging has become this super hot thing (who knew?) with Julia and Julia and others following her lead by cooking their way through things. I once thought I would cook my way through a year of vegetables at Chino Farms--yeah, I had more ambition then. I was a wine steward for a brief period and thought I would become a master sommelier--yes, more ambition. Alas I've become a librarian again, in architecture for now. Not exactly food focused but I spend many hours fantasizing about food (more about office food later).

My current residence is in Long Beach and I'll round up my favorite local restaurants:

Benley - A Vietnamese Kitchen -- my favorite close by, go to, I don't want to cook tonight restaurant.

Tracht's --This is all Long Beach has to offer for great fine dining. Service is iffy and the wine list is totally overpriced but they do have the La Quercia Pork.

Frenchy's Bistro --So the decor is a bit dated but their salad lyonnaise is now a craving.

Volcano Burger -I'm drunk...I want a burger

Hard Nut to Crack

Today at the La Jolla Farmer's Market, our favorite purveyor had macadamia nuts. When we got home, a little research told us that one reason these nuts are so expensive is that they are very hard to open. The nutcracker wasn't effective, and so we used a vise. It was tedious...I understand there are some special tools for this, but this might be one of those things that isn't worth the effort.

Amusement Park of Food

Whole Foods goes Disney at their headquarters, according to this USA Today story.

Lovely Coconuts

There's nothing more wonderful than finding a new ingredient and exploring its potential. I remember doing that with garlic when I was young, and truffles more recently. Now, I'm loving young coconuts. I get them at Whole Foods.

There's a good video at this site on how to open them. I'd note, though, that in the last step where you spin the knife around, you should put your hand low on the coconut, in case the knife slips. But it's easier than it looks.

And what is inside is very worth it. The coconut meat is softer than you expect (the coconut meat you usually see if from older coconuts, and often dried). But it's not the meat I'm after. It's the coconut water. It's also not what you'd expect from watching Gilligan's Island. It's not coconut milk; that's made from the meat. The water is pure (so much so that it was used by doctors in World War II for I.V. fluid), and full of electrolytes. It's also delicious. I'd drink it everyday if I could.

Next, I'm tackling older coconuts. And, no, I promise not to make any "tougher nut to crack jokes." But I am a little intimidated by them...

Update: Here is an interesting website about young coconut water. It overpromises, of course, but it's nutritious stuff. But the water is old coconut--bleh. Not good.

Morels

On property owned by United States Gypsum and behind the county library storage, morels grew. If someone else got there before we did all we would find would be little empty stems in the ground. If we got there too early they wouldn’t be big enough to pick. But if we timed it right, the sweet taste of success was ours. I remember my dad telling us two things about finding morels: 1. Don’t step on them! 2. Pluck them and do not pull up their roots! I have to admit I rarely spotted this honeycomb-like mushroom and my dad would say “Look Carrie, what’s that over there?” and point to one camouflaged by dead leaves. My sister always found some, and my mom often kept a look out for cars or people as if we were robbing a jewelry store.

Once the ground had been scavenged we would take our paper sacks home, fill up the kitchen sink, and watch dirt and bugs come from the crevices. My dad would gently pat them dry and cut them in half with his fillet knife. Finally he would take out the cast iron skillet and put several pats of butter in it and add the mushrooms. Water would fill the pan and then slowly evaporate leaving a mushroom half the size of what we started with. The mushrooms were then placed on a plate with paper towel and taken to our kitchen table. We would all grab a fork and eat them right off of the paper toweled plate. We always savored morels for just being morels. Never were they made into a gratin or used as a garnish for a meat dish. No, they were the main dish with their sweet earth flavor and delicate texture.

Recently I visited Michigan in the spring and was honored with fresh picked morels at our house. Having become a bit of a foodie, I tried desperately to convince my dad to eat the morels with something and to have some wine with them. But, there was no compromising in this situation. So at 2 o’clock in the afternoon my mom, dad, and I sat down at the kitchen table, forks in hand, and ate morels sautéed in butter.

Here is a particularly Northeastern Michigan recipe that I wish I could convince my dad to make: Michigan Stuffed Morels with Smoked Whitefish Mousse
*Dad if you are reading this I strongly suggest you make this. I mean come on, you can get smoked whitefish from Lixey's Fish House right out of the smoker!"

Michiganders are crazy about morels and I found these web sites to prove it:
Michigan Morels
Michigan Morel Madness
Lewiston Mushroom Celebration

Sauces

Sauces have history. Ancient Greeks and Romans used cheese and oils in addition to the garum used by the Romans. The Middle Ages added spices but still sauces were without the texture we have come to appreciate today. Jellies, jams and other fruit preserves came about during the Renaissance and their gardening interests. Finally in the 17th century French cooking started to become notable and roux as a thickening agent was born. In the 18th century roux becomes the liaison of choice and chefs used the natural juices from roasting as base for sauce. Careme took the lead in sauce making in the 19th century by creating derivatives. And in the 20th century it was Escoffier who brought the mother sauces to the forefront and to simply earlier recipes. Today sauces are still changing although this drive to change is because of nutrition and a health conscious society. (Paraphrased from James Petersons book Sauces)

Sauces though are rich and contain vast amounts of butter, cream, and other ingredients that are full of fat. This makes a chef think about how nutritious the meal they are serving really is. This has caused an evolution of sauces. James Peterson in the preface of the book Sauces says this, “Most of the training available to chefs does little to explain these newer sauce making techniques, and the typically beginning cook is forced to learn them on the job. No amount of book learning can provide a substitute for hands-on experience, but it is helpful to understand the concepts of sauce making and to have a rudimentary knowledge of how ingredients behave and why.” Recipes are objective and in no way are black and white like baking.

Peterson also comments on the evolution of sauce by saying this, “Although French cooking also has an elaborate vocabulary for discussing sauce making and general cooking techniques, much of the traditional nomenclature is confusing and contradictory. Many of the cornerstone sauces of French cooking have changed or are made in new ways.” This kind of change is seen with small sauces that although derivative of mother sauces allow for experimentation and the ability to put a new spin on an old sauce.

Mastering the sauce takes time and practice. Escoffier believes that “sauces represent one of the most important components of cookery.” Sauces are temperamental, involve nurturing, and often rely on science. However, they also involve a lot of brawn. Sauce though, when done right can add an unexpected dimension to meat, poultry, veg, and even fruit. It also allows one to experiment with flavors and textures.

Organization=Library+Kitchen

Another cross over trait I have discovered is organization. The library is a place of strict organization, as too the kitchen and one's mise en place. Mise en place in its strict translation means: to put into place or everything in its place. In order for the library to function properly all of the books must be mise en place. In the kitchen, mise en place is everything from having the ingredients washed and chopped to having your tools readily available for use. The whole purpose of the mise en place is that you don't have to go running back to the pantry because you forgot something or you don't have to go searching for the bird's beak knife because you realized you had to tourne the potatoes.

In order to succeed with the mise en place, the chef must deconstruct her/his meal or menu in order to understand exactly what tool is needed for the job and what exactly needs to come from storage. My experience thus far has yielded good results. I am able to place the tools in the exact order that I will need them. I am able to categorize my ingredients by various methods in order to determine which kind of storage I need to find them. I find all of this somewhat tedious as I do this same sort of thing all day everyday at my job. At the same time I feel that this is my advantage, that although my knife cuts may not be straight I can organize my mise en place in 20 minutes.

Lookie here, there is even a blog called mise en place. It has lots of pretty pictures, although none of them are actually of mise en place.

Culinary School and Librarianship

I am going to Culinary School at the Art Institute of California - San Diego. I am also the Director of Library at the Art Institute of California - San Diego.

Although I have not actually been to a class, I have read the Bibliography and Recommended Readings at the end of my textbook. Most of the books in this bibliography are out of print. When I went to find books in print on the major food movements: Boulanger's Restaurant, Grand Cuisine, Classic Cuisine, Nouvelle Cuisine, and New American Cuisine and subsequently the major chefs of those cuisines: Careme, Escoffier, Fernand Point, and Alice Waters there were simply 0-2 books, if you don't count all the Chez Panisse Books. And I am asking myself, if food is so important to people, and if food has gone beyond the "I've got to making a living to feed my family" notion, then why hasn't anyone written a book on these food movements. Sure you can find these movements listed in any food reference book but isn't there more to it than a reference listing, these movements dominated half of their centuries. There are many books on art movements, literary movements, fashion movements (how about those corsets ladies), but not on food movements, cookery movements, restaurant movements. There are books on film and photography and although there are some chefs that have succumbed to the empty Hollywood celebrity hole, there are still very few good books on this profession.

As a librarian I took several classes on the history of information and organization. Everyone in just about every other profession is required to take a history class in their field of study, of how history shaped the profession today, and of course we all know the past heros in our profession, I mean who doesn't think of Dewey when the library is mentioned. But how many people think of Escoffier or Careme (the first celebrity chef) when they go out to a "nice" restaurant?

Morocco

My enchantment with the food of Morocco comes from some great essays written by Anias Nin. At Shakespeare and Company in Paris I bought a book called In Favour of the Sensitive Man for which Nin talks of her travels to Casablanca and other Moroccan cities. Just reading these essays conjures up dust devils and spicy air...

Saturday for dinner we made Lentil Salad, Tangia Marrakachia (braised Lamb), and Beghrir (yeasty bread).

For dessert I made Almond and Sesame Fingers and we drank sweet mint tea.

We listened to dj Cheb which was perfect.

We had a lot of fun. We ate at our coffee table, on the floor, and surrounded by pillows and candles. We drank lots of champagne and wine.

We eat out too much.

The only other experience I've had with Moroccan food was in Boulder, CO with my sister and mother. I was moving away and we were celebrating. The food was so good and we were entertained by a belly dancer, who also happened to be my belly dance teacher. I was persuaded into joining her and danced for my sister and mother. I think they were a little embarassed. My sister gave me a present at the restaurant: a retro phone to only be answered with "Hello, hello, Hong Kong Fuey"

...More on the plum/apricot

In Jeffrey Steingarten's book It Must Have Been Something I Ate he writes about Chino and this tidbit:

Pioneers like the Chinos use test plots rather than cover several acres with what may turn out to be a difficult or repulsive plant. (They are now testing white nectarines, crosses between apricots and plums...)

We can infer that the crossing of the apricots and plums worked but still no pluot or plumcot determination.

Pluot or Plumcot

Several weeks ago on a trip to Chino, Taylor (the nicest and most helpful person I've encountered there) showed me the plumcot or was it a pluot? This curious fruit, on one side of an unobvious argument not more than a mere plum, but on the other side a cross between a plum and apricot. I myself do not prefer them to the plum or apricot.

In the Summer 2004 issue of Gastronomica, there is an article by William Brantley entitled "About Pluots" in which he writes:

Floyd Zaiger was just beginning to see his first generation of truly promising plum hybrids, which he patented and trademarked as "pluots" because the varieties were of plum and apricot decent. ("Plumcot" is the generic name for a cross between a plum and apricot.)

As you can see this is where the controversy starts, and according to Brantley it was the Dapple Dandy that took pluots mainstream. But the pluot is not just in competition with the plumcot but also with the just the plain old plum:

As some growers saw that the novelty of the pluot as "pluot" was wearing off, they wanted to label their varieties as "plums" but were unable to do so according to state agricultural code.

And the plot thickens......

More info on Zaiger and his Pluot, Aprium and Plumcot