Seeing Red on Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day food is just too easy to categorize. You have your aphrodisiacs like chocolate, honey, oysters, and ginger, your suggestive fruits like figs, and your liquid enticers like champagne. But, if you’re someone who just likes to play with your food and associates Valentine’s Day with all things red, break the mold, head to the markets, and have some fun.

It's easy to create gorgeous dishes with red foods, plus you’re giving yourself and your loved ones some wonderful antioxidant nutrients, most prominent of which is lycopene. It can dramatically lower the risk of developing prostate cancer, lung, breast, and stomach cancers, and age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s.

When we think of red foods, what first comes to mind, of course, are tomatoes, apples, watermelons, beets, red onions, and radishes. You can make a magnificent roasted red pepper soup or a divine cioppino with fresh seafood. You can bake an apple pie topped with toasted red walnuts from the Little Italy Mercato.

But branch out a bit. Stunning sour cherry preserves found at our Middle Eastern markets are sexy and delicious spooned on a couple of scoops of French vanilla ice cream. Blood oranges make a colorful mimosa or margarita. Buy a bag of Trader Joe’s Golden Berry Blend of golden raisins and dried cherries, cranberries, and blueberries to create an eye-popping batch of scones or muffins.

Whether you’re preparing a special romantic dinner or having a group of friends over for Valentine’s Day, how about an appetizer of peppadews stuffed with lavender and fennel pollen-infused Cypress Grove Purple Haze goat cheese? Peppadews are a sweet piquanté pepper pickled in vinegar with salt and sugar. You can pick them up at Whole Foods and Bristol Farms, and sometimes at Taste Artisan Cheese, which is where I bought the goat cheese. Mary Palmer, who owns Taste with her husband George, offered a couple of useful tips for making these little treats. Make sure you thoroughly dry the peppers and simply cut a hole in the goat cheese package to  squeeze the cheese directly into the pepper halves. I topped each half with heart-shaped micro cabbage sprigs and a sprinkling of Alaea Hawaiian sea salt that I picked up at Specialty Produce.

In fact, Specialty Produce is a bonanza for finding red foods. They sent me home with a variety of micro greens and flowers from San Marcos-based Fresh Origins. I’ve got beet greens, dianthus, orchid blossoms, miniature radishes, opal basil, the micro cabbage leaves… All make beautiful garnishes not just on solid food dishes but for cocktails.

I also brought home some sweet little red carrots, red scallions, and a head of petite Pirella lettuce. With these I made a finger salad using each spear of lettuce as the utensil. Since the color of red carrots is only skin deep, I trimmed them and peeled just a couple of strands of skin, placing one carrot on a piece of lettuce. Then I sprinkled the plate with the Golden Berry Blend and slices of red scallions. I made a blood orange vinaigrette spiked with chipotle morita flakes, drizzled that over the salad, and finished it with a sprinkling of more chipotle morita. By the way, these chilis are a dark reddish purple variety of chili. They’re not smoked as long as the typical “ahumado” chipotle made from dried, smoked jalapeños, so they’re not considered to be the same quality as chipotles but they’re still very delicious and the flakes are colorful. 

The salad can be a prelude to a dish of baked polenta rounds topped with sundried tomato pesto. It’s an easy dish to make. You can make polenta from scratch and pour the batch into greased ramekins. let them set and unmold, or just buy a tube of prepared polenta at the market, and slice half-inch rounds. Brush each round with olive oil and then slide them into a mound of grated parmesan cheese. Cover them completely in the cheese and place on a greased pan. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. While they’re baking, in a food processor blend drained sundried tomatoes from an eight-ounce jar with a couple of cloves of garlic, Marsala wine, grated parmesan cheese, toasted walnuts, pepper, and enough olive oil to get a creamy consistency. When the polenta comes out of the oven, top with the pesto. You can also use the pesto to stuff chicken breasts or flank steak, toss with pasta, or even top a baked potato.

Of course, you need dessert. Pick up some gorgeous strawberries now growing in Carlsbad at your local farmers market and make my friend Susan Russo's beautiful "Seductive Strawberry Zabaglione." You can also substitute or mix in raspberries. It's easy to make and who doesn't love a rich and creamy dessert? And, if you still feel you need that hit of chocolate, pick up some truffles from Eclipse Chocolat.

We’ve been talking dinner, but this year Valentine’s Day falls on Sunday. How about brunch? French toast with homemade challah is a perfect and perfectly easy dish (try the wonderful challah recipe from Peter Reinhart’s masterful cookbook The Bread Baker’s Apprentice). And, sure you can top it with maple or blueberry syrup, but let’s stick to our red theme and go with a gorgeous raspberry puree. Make this a day in advance and then bring it to room temperature. All you need to do is combine a pint of fresh raspberries, ¼ cup of sugar, a tablespoon of blood orange juice, and a tablespoon of cointreau (or just double up on the orange juice) and a small saucepan. Stir in a cup of cold water thoroughly mixed with two tablespoons of cornstarch and bring the whole thing to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes. Let it cool and then either use an immersion blender to puree the mixture or put it in a blender or food processor. You can then strain it through a sieve if you want a pure liquid sauce or enjoy the texture as it is. When you’re ready to serve the French toast, simply pour it over and garnish with some extra raspberries.

 

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Four Emotions Inspire a Four-Course Meal

Art and food are a natural pairing, entangling the senses and engaging the emotions. But, this upcoming event sounds like it will fuel more than just the appetite.

Kitchen 1540 executive chef Paul McCabe is teaming up with "The Painter of Chefs" Christopher M. on Feb. 25 for what they're calling "The Art & Soul of Food." This collaboration will take shape as a four-course dinner with special wine pairings along with the unveiling of new original paintings by Christopher M. -- all fueled by the four emotions of Nostalgia, Blue, Amorous, and Euphoria. With each dinner course, a new painting with be served as well. Following the fourth course, guests can tour a broader collection of Christopher M.'s paintings, inspired by McCabe and Kitchen 1540. And, of course, the paintings are available for purchase.

Not familiar with Christopher M.? He's become know for creating a body of original paintings celebrating celebrated chefs in their environment. He was the featured artist for the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, was featured at the San Diego Home & Garden Silver Fork Awards last year, and was recently chosen as the official poster artist for Art Expo Las Vegas. He's represented by EC Galleries.

The dinner/art affair will begin with a cocktail reception at 5:30 on the Sunset Deck at L'Auberge Del Mar, followed by the dinner and art show at Kitchen 1540. Tickets are $85 per person, which includes champagne, wine, the four-course dinner, and a special gift. For reservations, call Kitchen 1540 at 858-793-6460.



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Comfort Food: The Culinary "Blankie"

Is "comfort food" a culinary or a psychological term? How do you define it? Historically, we can see that it goes back to at least 1958, when a Dr. Gerald Brill, physician in charge of a New York City nutrition clinic at the time, used it in an article in The Catholic Digest (thanks, Erica Peters of the Culinary Historians of Northern California and the ASFS ListServ for finding this for me).

"Psychologists call these 'comfort' foods. Comfort foods are remembered from childhood. The child who scrapes a knee is comforted with ice cream. 'A comfort food,' says Dr. Brill, 'no matter what the food is, helps do away with the cause of stress. It is better, in such cases, to eat it than to eat an unsatisfying 'digestible' dish of cereal."

Bret Thorn, food editor at Nation's Restaurant News, explains that "as a general rule, comfort food is used to describe the cuisine that takes you to a safe emotional place, usually your childhood." He reminded me of the scene in "Ratatouille" when the critic took a bite of Rataouille's food and was immediately transported back to his childhood.

But, of course, some of our cravings for comfort food come this time of year, when it's chilly and perhaps we need an emotional or culinary blankie. But, even that has an explanation, Peters pointed out. Comfort food "didn't really take off until the 1970s. And it didn't become connected specifically with warm, wintery foods until the 1980s when the soup industry decided to market soup as comfort food."

Food has always been a source of comfort, both historically and from birth. But now in the U.S. comfort food's become culinary slang for dishes like macaroni and cheese, chicken soup, and rice pudding. We eat it in Mom's or Nana's kitchen or in a diner. In different cultures, you'll obviously find different common comfort foods. Congee in China, perhaps. Goulash in Hungary. Bangers and mash in England. Ramen in Japan. Menudo in Mexico. The list could go on and on. And while typically what it's all had in common is that it's inexpensive, uncomplicated, and easy to prepare, we're now seeing upscale chefs adopting the basic concepts of comfort food but using the more refined techniques and ingredients of haute cuisine to create an elevated version of comfort food.

A local chef who has built a restaurant around the concept (and will be launching a second this year in Encinitas) is Matt Gordon of Urban Solace in North Park. He doesn't make macaroni and cheese. He makes duckaroni. Pot roast? Nope. Now, it's beef cheeks. And if dessert is your culinary blankie, try his red velvet cake.

Matt and I will be on KPBS radio's These Days Tuesday, Feb. 2 from 10 to 11 a.m. to talk about comfort food with host Maureen Cavanaugh. We'll talk about our favorite comfort foods and how to make them, traditional winter comfort foods, economical tips for making these dishes, local restaurants that offer delicious comfort foods, and we'll finish with dessert.

Now, just because I've bought into the soup industry's marketing doesn't mean it isn't valid. This time of year I love making big pots of soups and stews that I can freeze in individual servings so that when the overwhelming craving hits, I have it at the ready. One of my favorites is something my friend Laura Levy of laurasbestrecipes.com introduced me to: Green Chile Stew. She's since altered it to include a variety of different vegetables. I still prefer the original because the flavors are purer and the texture is richer. That's the recipe below. Next summer when Hatch chiles from New Mexico are available, be sure to pick up as many as you can afford. You can usually find them at Bristol Farms or at the Hillcrest Farmers Market or Little Italy Mercato sold by Richies Roasted Products. Roast them, peel the skin, and either use them or freeze them for winter so you can make this stew.

Laura Levy's Green Chile Stew

3 cups chopped roasted New Mexico or Hatch chiles - skins and seeds removed
2.5 - 3 lbs cubed pork shoulder
3 Tbsp - Masa Flour
2 Tbsp - Oil
1 large yellow onion - chopped
2 Tbsp - butter
32 oz - Chicken stock
2-3 Yukon Gold potatoes - 1/4 inch cubes
8+ cloves of garlic - chopped
2 Tbsp - Fresh chopped Oregano
1 Tbsp - Fresh chopped Thyme
Salt/Pepper
2 Additional Tbsp - Masa (if needed to thicken)

• Dredge pork cubes in Masa Flour in plastic bag until all pieces are coated.
• Brown in oil in large Dutch oven or pot - set aside
• Add butter to same pan, lightly cook onion until slightly colored (not browned) - then add garlic cook 1-2 minutes until aromatic.
• Add small amount of chicken stock to browned bottom of pot/dutch oven - as stock heats up, scrape browned bits off of the pan to create a roux. After all bits are scraped, add remaining stock to pan
• Add remaining ingredients to same pan (except added Masa). Bring to slow boil, then cover, reduce to simmer and cook until pork is tender - an hour is usually good - too long and the meat will toughen. Make sure it isn't boiling too much as it will cook too fast. Sometimes I turn the stove off after about 40 minutes to make sure it cooks slowly.
• Add salt/pepper to taste
• After 45 minutes, check consistency - if it needs to be thicker slowly add a small amount of Masa at a time and stir until thick - shouldn't be more than 2 Tbsp. The chiles will breakdown into the roux while cooking. Taste for heat - if you like it spicy, add a couple of diced serrano chiles. Garnish with sour cream and cilantro. Serve with corn bread or homemade tortillas... and several Tecate's or margaritas!!

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Winter's Charms at Hillcrest Farmers Market

It's not unusual for farmers markets across the country to close for the winter. But not only are San Diego's markets open, they're packed with gorgeous produce. Looking at the bounty at last Sunday's Hillcrest farmers market, it's hard to believe we just endured a week of heavy, chilly storms.

Clearly, it's not strawberry or tomato season yet. Or is it? There were a couple of farmers from Carlsbad with flats of bright red juicy strawberries. And there were several stands with tomatoes, including gorgeous heirlooms of vibrant shades of green, red, yellow, and orange at Valdivia Farms. Are they grown in greenhouses? I asked and was told they're growing outside under the sun. Now, I don't think they have the depth of flavor that long hot summer days provide, but it's kind of nice to have fresh local tomatoes in the dead of winter.

I bought several after tasting samples chopped in a delicious spicy chile mix they're selling. But instead of buying the chile mix, I more or less replicated it, first making a simple little chopped salad of the tomatoes, tiny Mexicola avocados from Koral's Tropical Fruit Farm (more about them below), green garlic, and stemmed red onions-also from Valdivia. These were tossed in a dressing of locally produced avocado oil from vendor Bella Vado,green Hatch chile powder from Richies Roasted Products (whose stall is near the Joe's on the Nose orange coffee truck), fresh lime juice from limes in my garden, and salt and pepper. You could also marinate shrimp in this dressing, grill, and add to the salad, served with homemade corn tortillas. Or serve the salad as a salsa-like condiment with fish, chicken, beef, or pork. It's a wonderfully bright flavor surprise in the middle of winter.

Leafy greens are abundant this time of year. I saw a lot of Swiss chard on Sunday. At Sage Mountain Farm, I picked up some beautiful rapini (also known as broccoli rabe) and a bunch of broccoli. Now, while rapini has those little yellow buds that look they they're going to explode into little broccolis, they're actually not even in the broccoli family, but related to turnips.

These greens are slightly bitter, but it works for them when you counterbalance it with other flavors. After you trim the ends of the stalks, use everything else on the plant, including the yellow buds. Cut the stems into one-inch pieces and blanch in boiling water for about a minute. Then drain and sauté in olive oil and garlic. I like to add about a teaspoon of chopped preserved lemon to it as well, along with toasted pine nuts, dried pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. You could also add pancetta or bacon. Rapini makes a nice side dish, of course, but try tossing them with pasta and add some feta cheese.

As you're walking down the main aisle of the Hillcrest market, rising over the sounds of live music will be the energetic voice of Barry Koral.

 
Playing the part of the carnival-style barker, the 68-year-old Koral, who owns Koral's Tropical Fruit Farm in Vista, is hawking the flavors and nutritional value of his produce, which this time of year is mostly citrus. I saw oranges and tangerines, limes, sweet lemons, Meyer lemons, and conventional lemons. But he also had some interesting fruits like guavas and Mexicola avocados.

Mexicola's are a tiny avocado variety with a thin purplish, almost black edible skin. They have a nutty, almost almond taste to them. Don't use them to make guacamole. Slice them in half and serve with a tray of crudités or chop them and add to the tomato salad I described above. Look for fruit with smooth shiny skin and that are firm but give a little when you touch them. You don't see these beauties  regularly in the markets, so grab these as a special seasonal treat.

Spotlight on 30th St.

The 30th St. corridor running through central San Diego is known for its wonderfully quirky and interesting independent restaurants and bars. How better to publicize what's happening in the area than with a website and blog. The new site is 30thstreet.org.

So, what's up? Just starting in January is a monthly event called 30th on 30th. The Linkery's Jay Porter explains that on the 30th of each month -- okay, it'll be on the 28th in February -- various restaurants and bars on or near 30th St. will offer specials, such as a feature appetizer for $2. Participating restaurants this month include Alchemy, The Station, The Linkery, Urban Solace, The Whistle Stop, Ritual Tavern, Jayne's Gastropub, and Sea Rocket Bistro.

Also on the website is information about who's serving local craft brew and cask conditioned ale, which places have sunny patios, who serves lunch or late nite eats or breakfast. It's a great micro resource for a very popular up-and-coming neighborhood.

The Incredible Edible Wall

The kitchen garden. It's something those of us who cook at home hope to have just outside our kitchen door, accessible for quickly snipping a few sprigs of oregano, picking some lettuce leaves, or pulling a few radishes. But if you live in a condo or apartment you're probably limited to a small balcony or terrace. And, if you're a chef in the city, you may not even have that surrounding your restaurant.

Enter Jim Mumford, owner of the San Diego-based plant company Good Earth, and his edible walls, an idea so cool in concept that chef Mario Batali is his first restaurant customer. According to Mumford, Batali wanted a roof garden at his restaurants Osteria Mozza and Pizzaria Mozza in Los Angeles, but couldn't get it to work with the building specs. So, if he couldn't go horizontal, how about vertical? After doing some research on his own, he found Mumford, who has been playing with the concept with several types of materials and styles.

The granddaddy of living walls is Patrick Blanc in France. Le Mur Vegetal, or vertical garden, grows without soil, indoors or out, and is designed to be lightweight. Mumford has taken some of these concepts and begun trials with five different systems, not just for edible plants, but also succulents and tropicals.

There's a foam-based unit with foam cells holding onto air and water. A drip emitter with fertilizer is injected into the foam or sprayed onto the surface. There's another that's a synthetic fabric pocket system. The indoor version has a rubberized liner to prevent water leaking.

And, there are a couple of units that have dirt-filled modules covered with landscape fabric to keep the soil in when the wall is erect. Cut a slit into the fabric to plant each seedling, let the units rest horizontally while the plants root and grow, and then install them vertically.

That's the process Batali's wall is undergoing right now. His walls are eight inches thick, compared to the usual five inches. There are three units totalling 18 modules that when put together will create a wall 12 feet wide by six feet high and an opening on the top is allowing the planting of lettuces. No space goes to waste.

What's in Batali's garden? Edible geraniums and mints. Parsley, sage, rosemary, and Chinese celery. Beets, spinach, dandelions, and chicory, with lettuces along the top. The garden is still taking root, but the plan is to install it at the end of January. And, it'll look something like this demonstration wall:

The soil is a blend designed to be lighter in weight. And, yes, you'll always see the frame to some extent. The trick is maintenance--watering, pruning, feeding, and replanting plants that have reached the end of their life or just thinned out.

Another issue Mumford is working out is the installation itself. He'd like these to be accessible to homeowners, particularly those with small outdoor spaces. "The problem is we have to put holes in the walls, plus you need automatic irrigation because hand watering creates too many failures," he points out. So, he's working on the engineering to figure out a workaround that would enable people in condos and apartments to install them in their outdoor spaces and have a way to grow their own fresh produce.

"As we become more dense in our urban areas, we need to come up with new ways to garden," he says. "Vertical farming is a way to do that in small spaces."

Good Earth Plant Company is located at 7922 Armour St. in Kearny Mesa. The phone number is 858-576-9300.

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Move Over Kettle Corn, Green Kernel Debuts

I adore popcorn. I've loved it since JiffyPop and Cracker Jacks. Since it made family trips to Fedco and Sears as a child palatable. In the last several years, Kettle Corn made me swoon. I love the crunch and the sweet and the salt but more recently I've come to love it with truffle oil and parmesan cheese. I just love it.

So, when my friend Kristine Valenzuela announced her intent to launch a new business called Green Kernel, selling flavored organic popcorn at the local farmers markets, I was like the woman in the old Mervyn's commercial... Open, open, open! Well, this morning, Kristine was at her spanking new booth at the Little Italy Mercato with her inaugural bags of popcorn, choosing three flavors to start: Italian, Spicy Thai, and Mexican Chocolate.

 All of the ingredients are fresh and organic. I enjoyed bitefuls of the Italian that yielded a bit of citrus flavor from lemon zest, followed by a clear zip of rosemary. The Spicy Thai has a nice kick to it. What I ended up buying, though, is the Mexican Chocolate. Made with organic milk chocolate, ground cinnamon, butter, raw cane sugar, and canola oil -- and, of course, popcorn kernels -- I just liked this combo of savory and sweet. And, I like that the popcorn isn't greasy but actually feels like you're treating both body and taste buds well.

Kristine is selling concession cones for $2. Bags are $6 apiece or $16 for three bags. A bit pricey, but hopefully with brisk business she'll be able to bring the prices down.

Catch Kristine's Green Kernel popcorn at the Little Italy Mercato on Saturdays from 9 to 1:30.


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