To Market, To Market with San Diego Foodstuff

Be Mine: Four Local Valentine's Treats

2012-02-07T14:34:00.000-08:00

This is the time of year I get flooded with PR emails touting special romantic dinners at various restaurants. Ah, if only...

I long ago gave up trying to keep up with the tsunami of Valentine's day romance packages, but I do love a heart-felt gesture. So, I thought I'd mention several delicious edible Valentine's Day options for gifts that I've come across.

First up is cheese. Cheese? Yes, Taste's Mary Palmer pulled this out of a cooler at the Little Italy Mercato and, oh, did I want it. It's a Coeur Fleuri Chevre--a heart-shaped French goat cheese decorated with dried pomegranate seeds and rose petals. Truly seductive for the cheese lover. $13.50 at the Little Italy, Hillcrest, and North Park farmers markets.

Then, there's gelato. Not just any gelato, but Millie's vegan gelato--or as owner/gelato genius Susan Sbicca says, plant-based. She's made four special Valentine's Day flavors: blood-orange creamsicle (perfect topped with fresh blood orange marmalade), chocolate mint swirl (I top this with Jackie's Jams new Stehly Farms raspberry jam), coconut bing cherry (lovely with chocolate syrup), and lemon raspberry (crazy good alone but reaches a whole new dimension with Katherine Humphus's balsamic port reduction). (Sbicca may also have a passion fruit gelato. Be sure to ask.) $10 a pint at the Leucadia farmers market.

Finally, chocolate. Well, of course, chocolate! Here are two of my very favorites with some intriguing variations on an age-old theme:

Caxao holds a special place in my heart. You know that saying that you can feel the love in food? Yeah, yeah, but with Beatriz Ledezma's confections, I really can. There's something so pure and soulful about what she creates. Maybe it's just the combination of ingredients, but I think she could be a character in Like Water For Chocolate. There's something of the magic realism in her that is expressed through those truffles and caramels.

For Valentine's Day Caxao has what Beatriz calls the Je Thé Adore Collection--a seven-piece box of ganaches infused with various teas, fruits, and spices. Je thé aime, for example, is an infusion of green tea, papaya, peach, oranges, and marigold petals with a white ivory ganache and covered in 70 percent dark chocolate. $18

Then there's her delightful Pink Champagne Heart Box--11 pieces of silky white chocolate ganache and pink champagne truffles. $35

Her yet-to-be named crispy treats in a take-out box (puffed rice, puffed quinoa, rice cereal, caramelized sesame seeds, almonds, peanuts, and organic 75 percent chocolate) are dressed up for V-Day and are $6.

And, if you just want to give a little bitty truffle treat, give an Emperor Truffle--dark chocolate ganache covered in 70 percent dark chocolate. All of $2.50.

All of these are available online or at her booths at the Little Italy Mercato and Hillcrest farmers market.

For a very different kind of chocolate, you'll want to try David Bacco's truffles. He's got a beautiful 12-piece assortment for $26.95 (at Seaside Market, Albertson's Del Mar, and online). These hand-crafted sweets feature the glossy heart-shaped incantato, a blend of passion fruit, caramel, and milk chocolate ganache.

Then, there's his extravagant hand-painted edible heart box filled with two incantatos, serene (milk chocolate caramel ganache), citral (a fusion of lemongrass and 71 percent bittersweet chocolate, euphoria (a dreamy Hazelnut gianduja), and montserrat (Caribbean spices with ancho and chipotle). This package is $29.95.

Bacco is also collaborating with Sea Rocket Bistro for Valentine's Day dinner, with executive chef Tommy Fraioli using chocolate in each course, with a dessert created by Bacco that incorporates Sea Rocket's bacon jam.

Now, I'm sure I missed a lot. So fill in the gaps with your favorite Valentine's day edibles!

♥♥♥

P.S. My buddy Sam Zien, "Sam the Cooking Guy," is doing a special event on February 18 at 7 p.m. called "Sam Live." He'll be on the stage of the Joan Kroc Theater doing live cooking, showing video clips, telling behind-the-scenes stories, taking audience questions, and then signing books. You can learn how this frustrated biotech exec ended up with a TV cooking show. And, opening for Sam will be Australian bartender Hayden Wood from Woody's Liquid Kitchen (featured on Oprah and known as the most entertaining bartender in the world).

Here's the link for tickets--the big deal about this is that a portion of the proceeds will go to support Salvation Army/Kroc Center scholarship programs. General admission tickets are $60.

I've got two tickets to give away to this event. Just write a comment about the best edible Valentine's Day gift you ever gave or received. I'll pick what I think is the most moving (or funny) comment. The deadline for comments is noon PST on Monday, Feb. 13, 2012.

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Green Thresher Shark Sausage: Sustainable and Delicious

2012-01-31T09:31:00.000-08:00

Green thresher shark sausage with toast and a fried egg

How much of what we eat today is food we wouldn't have considered a menu item 10 or 20 years ago? Perhaps quinoa. Sardines. Octopus. Gluten-free anything.

So, today I ask you to think about adding some green thresher shark to your diet--particularly if you live in Southern California, where it is abundant.

I learned about the shark from Tommy Gomes and Dan Nattrass of Catalina Offshore Products, a San Diego seafood wholesaler that strives for sustainability. They and owner Dave Rudie found that local swordfish fishermen tend to get the thresher shark as by catch. Unwilling to just discard it, the fishermen approached Catalina OP about buying it up to sell to chefs and walk-in customers. In fact, Rudie says, they've been selling it for over 12 years but the wholesale market dropped around 18 months ago when most supermarkets took it off their shelves due to pressure from environmental non-governmental organizations, or ENGOs.

One of the reasons ENGOs were protesting shark harvesting was due to something that's been in the news recently, fishing sharks only for their fins. While this barbaric practice has been illegal in California and banned to U.S. fishermen for years, it continues around the world. So, the big ENGOs have campaigned not only to stop shark finning, but to stop the sale of sharks for meat in California. Additionally, says Rudie, the Monterey Bay Aquarium set almost all shark species to a red rating, meaning they're overfished.

"But NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) does the science to understand if a species is over-fished and they found that the stocks are healthy," says Rudie. "The Aquarium of the Pacific was the first ENGO to stand up and support NOAA and the local fishermen by giving green thresher shark a good rating last year. And now the Monterey Bay Aquarium has also changed their rating to yellow."

And, Rudie and Gomes both pointed out that these sharks weren't targeted for fishing, they were by catch. Unless they were sold, their bodies would be tossed back into the ocean.

You can now find green thresher shark in San Diego at places like Mitch's Seafood, The Pearl Hotel, Lisko Artisan Deli, The Fish Market, Pt. Loma Seafood, El Pescador, Pelleys, Stumps and Harvest Ranch markets.

At Catalina Offshore Products you can buy shark steaks or loins for $3.99 a pound. The fish is firm, like swordfish, with a clean, sweet flavor. They're perfect for grilling, baking, or broiling. Most of the fish is caught during swordfish season--August to February--but Catalina OP and others do freeze it and sell it as "re-fresh" or will make burgers or sausage.

In fact, in a collaboration between Catalina OP, Lisko Artisan Deli, and chef Chad White of Sea Rocket Bistro and soon Gabardine, a delicious green thresher shark sausage came to be. Catalina OP had the shark, Lisko had the sausage grinder, and White the recipe, which he's given to me.

Shark sausage is ridiculously easy to make and has a wonderful spicy smoky flavor. There are any number of ways to use it--and I'm hoping White will add more of his ideas below. But you can start by forming patties and pan frying them. Make a breakfast sausage and serve with toast and a fried egg. Form into a small sausage or hot dog shape and wrap in plastic wrap, then poach for a few minutes, unwrap, and grill. Keep it loose and saute with vegetables and add to pasta or rice or grains. Add to burritos, to stew. Basically use it as you would use ground meat, sausage, or hot dog -- only there's little fat to worry about.

Here's Chad White's sausage recipe:

Green Thresher Shark Sausage
By Chad White
(printable recipe here)

2.5 pounds shark

½ cup garlic, minced

½ cup shallot, minced

½ cup Italian flatleaf parsley, minced

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

2 tablespoons sea salt

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

1 capful liquid smoke

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

3/8 cup white wine

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1. Slightly freeze shark, slice into finger-width pieces and run through grinder (including Kitchen Aid grinder attachment set at largest grind at top speed).
2. Mix shark with the rest of the ingredients.
3. Shape mixture into patties or form into sausages and put into casings and steam.

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San Diego Food Swap: From Soup to Nuts

2012-01-25T11:25:00.000-08:00

I've written about San Diego Crop Swap, but it turns that we have another similarly themed group in town--San Diego Food Swap. This group, which has met monthly since April, has a little broader mission, as the name implies. It's not just about exchanging excess harvest bounties (think zucchini), it's about sharing homemade dishes, beverages, or products (including soap, toiletries, and pet food) that may or may not include homegrown produce.

Anyone in the community may participate--and there are FAQs on the website that explain the parameters. No, you don't have to exchange recipes but, yes, please label your product in case someone may have an allergy to an ingredient. Yes, to homemade beer and wine, but keep it to samples at the event. Make it, label it, sign it up on the website, and then decide the value of it compared to what you want to exchange it for. It's that easy--and that fun.

So much fun, in fact, that organizer Hillary Starbright Condon decided to have a soup contest. The event, held last Saturday at the Ocean Beach Women's Club, drew a couple of dozen people and nine competitors. The judges were Sam Zien (Sam, the Cooking Guy), Ed Decker of San Diego CityBeat, comedian Jesse Egan, and, well, me.

For the first hour, it was all about set up and exchange. Serious exchange. How many jars of lemon curd, hot fudge, or candied nuts would Gia Strang exchange for, perhaps, Peggy Spitz's lavender heart cookies or Lisa Stockton's Meyer lemon meringue pie or Sandy and Jared D'Onofrio's Dangerously Good Irish Cream?

Lisa Stockton's ware: French Onion Soup, Lemon Meringue Pie, and Chipotle Salsa

These folks are serious about their food. Spitz is all about lavender. She makes sugar cookies infused with the herb and lavender jam. She swears that if you dry the herb and remove the flowers, the stems create a wonderful smoke that permeates proteins when added to the grill. She also spent years refining her treasured recipe for her Burgershire Soup, inspired by the Cheshire Inn in St. Louis, a restaurant that she visited before her marriage, now decades ago. This is one of the soup entries in the contest.

Peggy Spitz's Burgershire Soup with homemade crackers

Judging was based on three criteria: taste, presentation, and creativity. Some folks, like Spitz, really got into the presentation. But, of course, the most weight was given to taste and though the competition was tight, we each had the same clear winner: Gia Strang's African Peanut Soup.

This was a rich, stew-like dish, with deeply layered flavors that come from chopped peanuts and peanut butter, chicken stock, ginger, garlic, onion, cayenne pepper, yams, sweet potato, chunks of chicken, and cilantro.

The group's next event--on Feb. 18 from 2 to 4 p.m., also at the Ocean Beach Women's Club--will include a Holiday Bake Off with cash prizes and "celebrity" judges. This is definitely something to check out--these folks are fun.

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Dear Paula Deen

2012-01-18T19:19:00.000-08:00

Dear Paula Deen:
We don't know one another, but it turns out we have something in common. Something we both kept quiet about--but for different reasons, apparently. I waited about 10 months before coming out with my diabetes, mostly because I wanted to wait until I had spent enough time working on changing my diet, making exercise a (mostly) daily part of my life, and losing a big enough chunk of weight that I felt I could offer something to others going through the same thing.

Apparently you waited until you got a juicy financial deal with a big pharmaceutical company.

Okay, I realize that I'm sounding pretty sanctimonious. In fact, I started writing something this morning about the circus you've created in the last couple of days. Then I erased it all because I didn't want to pile on. This diabetes stuff is scary and everyone handles it differently. Who am I to judge? Plus, I truly don't want to become "diabetes girl."

But all through the day, the more I thought about it, the angrier I got. And late this afternoon when I saw that clip of you with your sons on The Chew I'd had enough.

Your diagnosis came three years ago. Yet, for the past three years--knowing (I assume) the impact of diet on diabetes--you continued your very public fat fest, promoting a caricature of Southern food. Hey, not even just Southern food. You have an upcoming episode on Feb. 2, "Cravin' Italian," that features "Cheesy Pizza Dip with Pizza Crust Dippers." What are the ingredients? Cream cheese, Canadian bacon, regular bacon, Italian sausage, pepperoni, and pizza crust dough. Oh, how about that "Smashed Potato Cake" on the Jan. 17 show, "Lovey Dovey Dinner?" We've got potatoes, of course, butter, Cheddar cheese, sour cream, and bacon. Yum. And kiss of death. I heard you recently on the NPR show, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," as you described the food in your kitchen and fridge--cakes, roasts, who knows what else... If it was for comic effect, congrats, you got your laugh. But if it was real, God help you.

Look, Paula, adult-onset Type 2 diabetes is associated with all sorts of health issues, not the least of which are heart disease and stroke. I would guess that you're not only taking your diabetes medication but probably cholesterol meds and baby aspirin as well. This is serious stuff.

You've said that you believe that these high-fat, high-carb foods are fine in moderation. Okay. I get that we all need to indulge periodically. I do it. I did it a bit today, having a few French fries and a couple of bites of a bratwurst at lunch. Then I pushed it aside and gave it to my friend to take home to her kids. I enjoy a small piece of chocolate. Last week I ate a tiny piece of my mom's lemon cake. Butter? Sure, a small bit periodically. Cheese? Yep, an ounce on toast (yes, I weigh it). Pizza? Uh, no. We have to count our carbs, remember? Fried chicken? Biscuits? Cheesecake? No, no, and no. No! Not anymore.

Paula, get real. You have diabetes. I have diabetes. Some 25 million people in this country have diabetes. We're talking total lifestyle change. You can't seriously have thought it was cool to keep pushing butter and cheese, bacon and sausage, plush desserts and deep fried foods on viewers knowing that these contribute to a frightening epidemic of obesity which, yes, leads to diabetes.

I have written that I think of diabetes as my disease of self-indulgence. I can't say that it's also yours. Maybe your family has a history of diabetes. Maybe it was just bad luck. But you've built an empire on promoting over-the-top fatty food. When people think of you, that's the association--fair or not. Karma? Perhaps. But, I think you might have come clean long before your big-time financial deal and taken the opportunity to turn your many fans onto healthy eating and exercise. It could have been your Oprah moment (not that she's much of a role model in this area these days...).

You might take your new pharma windfall and not just donate to the American Diabetes Association, but also spread that largesse on organizations that educate children and families on nutrition, healthy cooking, and exercise.

In fact, let's talk about this new source of income. Basically, the way my doctor explained it to me, my goal should be to lose enough weight that I can get off the medications and manage my diabetes through diet and exercise. I'm grateful to have medication for now, but I am working so hard to put it in my rearview mirror. I'd love to get some pharma money, too. In fact, I reached out to one company to inquire about writing about lifestyle and diet issues on their website to help people with diabetes make changes in their lives so that they can get off the meds. You can imagine that heaping big serving of silence I got. I congratulate you on figuring out how to become their spokesperson. But, after three years, I would have thought that you would have worked hard to get off those meds already. Looking at you today in that big lavender tent blouse, though, it doesn't look like you've been making a big effort to work in that direction. I truly hope you're not one of those people who believes that the meds alone will keep you healthy.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. Who knows where I'll be three years after my diagnosis. Maybe I won't be able to keep this up. Maybe despite my best efforts my body will still degenerate. I have said that I keep the image of an anvil swinging over my head to motivate and focus me. Perhaps, instead, I'll replace it with that image of you--still overweight, hawking diabetes meds--to keep me going.

Dear Paula, I know you have to maintain the Deen machine, but if you really want to get some credibility (and improve your health), you'll do more than promote your "Diabetes in a New Light" program. You'll do more than push pills. You'll show us by example.

And, now, back to our regularly scheduled programming next week.

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Tempting Turnips: Enjoying from Root to Stem

2012-01-11T12:08:00.000-08:00

Whenever I make zucchini pancakes with the kids at Olivewood Gardens I always ask them to give me ideas for other vegetable pancakes they could make using the recipe."Carrots!," they'll shout. "Broccoli! Cauliflower! Sweet potato!"

No one ever shouted out turnips--and I never thought to suggest it. But the folks at Specialty Produce gave me a bag filled with beautiful baby gold, pink, and Japanese turnips last week.

And, it occurred to me that they are among the few vegetables that are edible from root to stem. So, not only could I make pancakes from the root, I could also saute the greens for a delicious side dish.

I'm going to assume that like me, you see turnips as one of those root vegetables that you pick up to add to a chicken soup stock, but otherwise ignore. It's been a big mistake for me. These baby turnips in particular are not only very pretty, with their bold colors, they're really delicious. Raw, they're sweet with just a hint of spiciness--kind of like radishes. Cooked, they're melt-in-your mouth sweet.

And, what I especially appreciate about them is that they're low in carbs. So, for dealing with diabetes, I can create dishes that I would otherwise use potatoes for and have something equally delicious but less problematic. So, mashed turnips instead of mashed potatoes. Scalloped turnips. Sauteed turnips. You get the idea. And, I can eat them raw, chopped into a salad. Can't do that with potatoes.

So, I'm a convert. I took a bunch of those gold baby turnips, trimmed and cleaned the greens, rendered the fat from half a slice of diced bacon and sauteed the greens in the fat with garlic and added the bacon pieces and sliced boiled turnips. They were delicious with a scoop of cooked millet.

Later in the week, I grated more turnips and made turnip pancakes--frying some in rendered duck fat and the rest in olive oil. I think I've come up with a competitive latke dish for next Chanukah. Crisp and sweet, they look so pretty from start--grated and then molded into pancakes--to finish.

Making them is very easy--and they're a great way to introduce your kids to a new veggie (and maybe even yourself). Be sure to use a cast iron skillet to get them extra crispy. They're also freezable. Reheat them straight from the freezer in a 350-degree oven until warmed through and crisp.

Baby Turnip Pancakes
(Printable recipe)
Makes about two dozen, three-inch pancakes

Ingredients
1 pound of baby turnips, trimmed but not peeled
6 large green onions, trimmed
3 cloves garlic
3 large eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup Panko or seasoned bread crumbs
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons fresh, chopped herbs (parsley, oregano, thyme, etc.)
salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil or rendered duck fat for frying

1. Grate the turnips coarsely, using the large holes of a box grater or food processor grater. Put the grated turnips in a colander, set over a bowl, and let the liquid drain from the turnips.
2. Chop the green onions coarsely and add to the bowl of a food processor fitted with the chopping blade. Add the garlic and pulse until the onions and garlic are minced.
3. Put all the vegetables in a large bowl and add the Panko, baking powder, herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper. Stir it all together to fully mix the ingredients.
4. Add the eggs and mix well. The batter should be moist but not runny.
5. Heat 1/4-inch of oil or duck fat in a hot pan. Place a tiny bit of the batter in the pan. If it begins to sizzle, the fat is hot enough for the batter. Use a large spoon and drop the batter into the pan, then flatten into a pancake. Don't crowd the pancakes by putting too many in at one time. Cook for several minutes on each side until the pancakes are golden brown. Put the pancakes on a plate with paper towels placed on top to drain the fat. Then serve (with applesauce, sour cream, or creme fraiche).

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A New Year's Resolution: Keeping the Anvil Over My Head

2012-01-03T08:18:00.000-08:00

On New Year's Eve day, I bought my first pair of "skinny" pants, size M, and a black sleeveless cocktail-type dress, size 10. Now for many many women, this isn't anything worth mentioning (except to your girlfriends), let alone relevant to a food blog. But for me, it was huge (pardon the pun) because neither purchase is something I could ever have considered a year ago when I weighed well, well over 200 pounds.

Before: a chunky monkey in 2007. At least Shayna was happy.

But, last March the inevitable happened. I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Yes, I say inevitable because a couple of years before I was told I was pre-diabetic. Clearly I was in denial because I made barely an effort to lose the weight that could have prevented the full and permanent onset of what I call my disease of self-indulgence.

The diagnosis in March, however, changed my life. In some ways it was, perversely, the best thing that could have happened to me because I stopped living my life as a slothful eating machine and made a hard right turn. If I was to have a future that didn't include loss of my feet, my vision, kidney functions, or having a stroke or heart attack--all ghastly physiological problems associated with diabetes--I had to take very good care of myself.

By the time I met with my doctor later that month to discuss the diagnosis I had already joined Weight Watchers online and had just begun to take working out as a serious daily endeavor. I think I'd lost about six pounds at that point. By June, I'd lost over 20 pounds and the A1C blood test that measures diabetes fell from extremely bad to just above normal. Nine months into my new life I've lost 60 pounds. To my mind I still have another 30 or so to go. Late next month I have my next A1C test and I'm hoping to hit a normal number.

And that's what I have to focus on this year. Yet, while I'm so tickled to have those new pants, the little black dress, and the hope of good health, with success comes the risk of complacency. I told my friends and family back in March that I felt like I had an anvil hovering over my head and that's what kept me in line, not the promise of smaller sized clothes. But you can't live indefinitely under the threat of imminent danger. Once the perceived threat begins to fade, it's all too easy to regress incrementally into bad habits. That's what I'm fighting now. My immediate goal is not to be thin as a rail; that'll never happen. It is, however, to be at a very healthy weight that leads to a normal A1C result so that my doctor will wean me off the metformin I take three times a day. My long-term goal is to manage my disease of self-indulgence with self control. In other words, commit to a lifetime of good diet and daily intense exercise. This is no mere New Year's resolution.

So, I have to remember things. I have to remember the mortification of sitting in a nutrition class with other newly diagnosed diabetics and of mortification turning into disbelief as participants, also in clear denial, asked the nutritionist if they could still go to McDonald's, still eat their favorite chicken pot pie frozen dinner, still drink Cokes. I have to remember the guy I sat next to at a brunch cooking class I was covering for San Diego Magazine. He downed hefty portions of a croissant bread pudding and stuffed French toast and whatever else was served. I wasn't eating or drinking anything; there wasn't a thing there for me to eat that wasn't full of fat and carbo-loaded and besides I had to measure my blood sugar within the hour. It was a small group and the instructor wouldn't let it go so I finally blurted out in exasperation that I had diabetes and couldn't have the bread pudding, the French toast, or even the proferred glass of orange juice. The guy next to me looked at me like I was a nut case, shrugged, and said, "Oh, I have diabetes, too. I just take my meds and I'm fine. I can eat anything."

Well, let's see if he still has all his toes in a few years. I'm counting on having mine. I need to remember him.

Biology is apparently against me. On Dec. 28, The New York Times published a health story on weight loss called The Fat Trap. According to research, at this point my body is going to do everything it can to try to sabotage my efforts to get rid of that last 30 pounds and try to regain the 60 I've already lost; it will act like I'm starving. My workout won't have as much impact on burning calories. Ghrelin, dubbed "the hunger hormone," will increase while peptide YY, a hormone that suppresses hunger, will decrease. It's why so many people regain weight and why we need to rethink our condescending attitudes toward them. It's not a lack of will power. There are very real biological dynamics going on.

So, I need that hovering anvil swinging over my head if I'm to stay focused, get off the metformin, and wear that new little black dress a year from now or, what I'm actually planning, have it altered to at least a size smaller.

I'm asked a lot how I've managed to take off the weight, especially as a food writer who's always in pretty challenging settings for a diabetic working to shed pounds. The answer is simple--reduce fats, keep portions small, weigh myself regularly (usually twice a week), and exercise. A lot. And, because of the diabetes, I have to drastically limit my carb intake. I'm a fool for carbs but am only allowed 35 grams per meal. I use Weight Watchers online as a tool for tracking diet, weight, and exercise, but it doesn't always help because much of the food I eat--particularly when I go out--isn't easy to measure. So I have to rely on just tasting things or saying no thank you. I also am not shy about explaining this to the people I'm with, including chefs. That way they both know my limitations and back off insisting that I consume everything they set in front of me.

Finally, nothing gets in the way of daily exercise. Not rain or heat. Not clients. Certainly not malaise. In that sense, fear keeps me going. I truly get anxious when there's even the possibility that I can't get on the treadmill in the morning and will do what I have to--get up earlier, reschedule client conference calls, eat breakfast later, whatever--to make sure I get at least half an hour and usually 45 minutes in after a long walk with my dogs. Allowing myself to skip a workout could lead to complacence and I'm petrified that I could easily slip back into my natural sloth mode. I can't afford that.

This, of course, is the time of year for making resolutions, particularly when it comes to weight loss and exercise. So, here are some food-related lessons I've learned that might help you if this is your challenge:

Eat mindfully. Only eat what really tastes delicious to you. If you're going to eat pizza, it should be terrific, not crap. It's amazing how much food we consume indiscriminately that we really don't even much like. I found myself easily saying no to things once I got that in my head.
Stop eating once you just begin to feel full. I learned this lesson once I started having to prick my fingers three times daily to measure my blood sugar. If I overate--even so-called healthy foods--my blood sugar rose dramatically. I pay attention to how I feel when I'm eating and put down my fork once I just start feeling full. The side benefits are that it leaves me with leftovers and I sleep better now, too, as a result.
Enjoy small tastes of favorite foods if you truly can limit them to just small tastes. I can easily have just a small piece or bite of chocolate and I'm good. Same with ice cream. I enjoy sweets but they're not a weakness. A taste is all I need. However, I stay far away from potato chips and other salty/fatty/crispy treats. As the old Lays slogan goes, I can't eat just one. I'm an addict and they're my crack.
When you go out to eat, ask if the chef can make a dish for you that is aligned with your needs. Last spring I told chef/owner Matt Gordon of Urban Solace that I was having a hard time eating off his comfort food menu and he told me he'd just gotten some fresh trout--would I like grilled trout on a bed of greens and sliced apples? Why yes! Okay, sure he'd do that for a friend and food writer, but he made a point of telling me he'd do that for any customer and that most chefs should. He emphasized that chefs have the ingredients in the kitchen; there's no excuse for them not to help if the request is within reason. And, by the way, you have no idea how many food issues many chefs have. They get it. Just ask without being too demanding.
Look for naturally small portions of favorite foods. I'm so tickled when I can find a little five-ounce russet potato. That means I can enjoy a whole baked potato and for some reason psychologically that's important to me. I look for small chicken pieces, like thighs so I can eat the whole thing. I buy small apples and bananas for the same reason (carbs are carbs and most fruits are full of them so I have to limit my intake of them, too, not just pasta, breads, or sweets).
Try easing away from white rice and check out the brown versions. I have come to love the earthy flavors of brown basmati and brown jasmine rice. I also eat whole wheat pasta--but not much of it because even in limited amounts it still makes my blood sugar go up.
Try out various whole grains as a pasta and rice substitute. I love farro, barley, millet, quinoa, and wheat berries. I use them for side dishes; I create salads with them. They have great flavors and textures--they just happen to also be healthy.
Vary your diet and experiment with new ingredients, new ethnic foods, new types of produce. Try new recipes and cooking techniques. Fennel bulbs, for instance, can be sliced into salad, but they're also delicious cut in half lengthwise, topped with olive oil and grated parmesan and then roasted.

There are so many truly delicious foods out there that are also healthy that I really don't find myself feeling too deprived most of the time. Yes, there are times I desperately yearn for pizza, tamales, a banh mi sandwich, or a big bowl of pasta but they pass. And I guess that's where the diabetes advantage, if there is one, comes into play. If I were just trying to lose weight to fit into clothes it would be easier to make excuses and indulge big. Knowing I have to measure my blood sugar, knowing that indulgence carries tremendous ramifications for my health, usually keeps me in line. And, when I do indulge, it's still pretty restrained--as in a big bowl of popcorn as opposed to a big bag of chips. Periodically I have a burger or something else I otherwise avoid, but it's infrequent. And many things I used to love--barbecued beef ribs, roasted turkey wings--I no longer have a taste for. (I have to admit to having had a minor meltdown at Trader Joe's in the beginning when, after reading nutrition labels, it looked like everything I loved was out of range for me, but I've since figured out how to shop there; they haven't missed me at all.) In short, I eat well and make the occasional accommodation. After all, this is for life.

The other thing I've learned in this process is that what works for me may not work for you. (And, vice versa; there are a lot of well-meaning people who offer me lots of unsolicited advice. Oh, and, for the record, diabetes doesn't go away; it can be managed without drugs, but it's a chronic disease. Once diagnosed, you always have it.) You should also always consult your doctor before following anyone's advice or suggestions--including the tips I just mentioned.

And--this is very important--nothing you or I say will change what someone else will do, just as no one ever changed my behavior (and, oh, did they try). I have a relative who is suffering from weight problems and another wants me to counsel that person. I said no. Clearly this person is aware of the excess weight and knows that it has to be dealt with. I grew up with well-meaning people trying to "enlighten" me. Having said their peace, they felt better but it would only cause me embarrassment and shame--and send me off to a Costco-size bag of Hawaiian-style potato chips. It would have the same effect on that relative to have me, uh, weigh in. When that person is ready to make a change and wants to talk, I'm there, anytime. But only then. The drive to do it has to come from within. That's the only thing that powers success.

So, on that note, I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year! I hope you wish me luck as I keep moving forward on this journey. And please share any favorite tips you have for leading a healthier life. We can all use them!

At Rancho La Puerta this past October. Much lighter, healthier, and clearly happier.

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Evie's Snowball Cookies

2011-12-22T18:09:00.001-08:00

No doubt over the last few weeks you've been binging on holiday cookies--or at least recipes for them. I studiously avoided adding to the glut. But here it is approaching New Year's Eve and all I can think about are the beautiful snowball cookies I grew up with.

You may have seen variations on these. I've seen them called alternately Mexican Wedding Cookies and Russian Tea Cookies. In our home, they were snowballs--and why not, what with the double dipping of these spheres into powder sugar.

These cookies are addictive, mostly because they're not overly sweet. Yes, they're coated in powder sugar, but in the cookie dough itself, there's a mere tablespoon of sugar. The rest is butter, flour, vanilla, a pinch of salt, and toasted nuts (preferably chopped pecans). It's that very classic combination of vanilla, butter, and nuts that is so compelling.

And, they have a classic aura of elegance. They can be dressed up on a pretty plate and be a perfect accompaniment to New Year's Eve champagne.

I've always referred to these as my Nana Tillie's cookies. She regularly packaged them in a shoebox and sent them to me in New York from L.A. with her unusual chocolate bit cookies (chocolate chip squares topped with meringue and walnuts) and rugelach. I lived for their delivery and I always became everybody's best friend at my job on the 33rd floor at The William Morris Agency when they arrived. I have Tillie's handwritten recipe for the snowballs and at the top of the page she attributes it to my cousins' grandmother Ida. But, my mother insists that she actually gave Nana the recipe. So, these are now Evie's Snowball Cookies. Whoever came up with them, all I can say is thank you. They remain my favorite.

Happy New Year!

Evie's Snowball Cookies
(printable recipe here)

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon powder sugar
2 generous tablespoons vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup chopped, toasted nuts (I prefer pecans but also use walnuts)
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups powder sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Cream butter. Add the rest of the ingredients up to the 2 cups of powder sugar. Mix well.
3. Form balls about the size of ping pong balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 30 minutes until just brown.
4. Add the 2 cups of powder sugar to a medium-size bowl. When the cookies come out of the oven, start dunking and rolling in the powder sugar. You'll do this twice. The first round, while they're still hot, is to get the sugar into the cookie. The second roll is for decoration.

Makes about 40 cookies.

Note: Cookies can be frozen before or after baking.

Caron, Nana Tillie, Evie

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The Return of an Old Friend: Essential Pepin

2011-12-19T06:41:00.000-08:00

Those of us who came of culinary age watching Jacques Pépin's many cooking series on public television grew up believing that French cooking was actually something accessible. Over the years, Pépin has turned us on to the beauty of salads and maybe introduced us to the Niçoise. We learned the true way to make a creamy smooth omelet with fines herbes. He hooked us on ratatouille--before the animated rat--and to a beautifully roasted chicken. Pépin wooed us with his charming French accent and ready smile--and recipes that worked. Over the years he continued to charm us as he engaged on camera with the venerable Julia Child, often acceding to her preferences. And, his shows with daughter Claudine won us over again. Who can resist a sweet father-daughter repartee?

To think that 60 years have passed since Pépin first began a career as a cook and professional chef is astounding. But the freshness of what Pépin does in the kitchen continues. Yes, his newest book, Essential Pepin ($60/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), revisits favorite recipes. But, as he explains in the introduction, he doesn't just let the recipes molder in the past; he's updated them for the modern kitchen and sensibility. As a result, he writes, this book represents him more today than at any other time in his life.

Essential Pepin is filled with 700 recipes that span the food category continuum--soups, salads, eggs and cheese, pasta, and meat all the way through frozen desserts. There are also little sidebars with useful tidbits of information. You'll learn how to select and prepare chestnuts, the differences between European and American eels, ideas for using that leftover ratatouille, and how to salvage curdled Hollandaise.

There are pretty little illustrations, also by Pépin. What you won't find here is photographic food porn. Non-decorative visuals are reserved for the accompanying DVD, which showcases the chef as he demonstrates techniques such as how to shell peas and fava beans, how to cut potatoes, how to shuck oysters and clams and scale fish, how to clarify stock, and how to make and pipe meringue. In essence, it once again puts Pépin back in your home to give even the beginning cook the confidence to go forth in the kitchen.

Essential Pepin is perfect for two audiences: longtime fans of the "other" and literally French chef and beginning cooks who aspire to the authentic and sophisticated in the kitchen. I'm eager to try his Black Sea Bass Gravlax, Braised Pork with Chestnuts, Artichokes with Ravigote Sauce, and Homemade Orange Liqueur (orange rind and sugar in brandy). It's a book with recipes you can follow literally or use as a jumping off point for your own creations. In this way, too, Jacques Pépin is an inspiration.

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The Food Lovers' Guide to Health(ier) Holiday Dining

2011-12-13T07:39:00.000-08:00

For many of us, the holiday season is like an overwhelming obstacle course. Every gathering has the potential to send us crashing and burning even as we do our best to stay away from high fat or otherwise problematic foods. The challenge may be weight control, diabetes, or heart issues. It may be celiac disease. Or it may be that we're vegetarian or vegan.

Of course, it is the holidays and even some of the most health-conscious people I know in the food world say it's a time for indulgence--balanced by exercise and eating smart when not at a holiday gathering. And, for most of the population they are probably right. But there are those of us who fear going off the wagon of a successful but challenging diet or have health issues that don't allow for a holiday vacation.

Few of us choose to be problem guests and my feeling is that, while it would be nice, hosts are under no obligation to cater to the dietary needs of all their guests, which can be varied. I don't expect it of people who invite me to their parties. Of course, if it's a potluck, it means I can bring something that ensures there's at least one dish I can enjoy whole heartedly.

But the problem remains. How do we keep a semblance of sanity around the food we eat over the holidays--whether we are the host or the guest?

I think there are four approaches to choose from (of course, a menu!):

1. Portion control. For the guest, this can be simply reining yourself in and taking limited small bites or tastes of what's offered, if you have the willpower. For the host, this can mean offering small bites of dishes. Say, tartlets instead of pies or mini cupcakes instead of cake.

2. Switching out ingredients. Instead of ham, how about lean but flavorful pork tenderloin? Everyone loves mashed potatoes but you don't have to use a lot of cream and butter. Chef Jeff Rossman of Terra suggests non-fat yogurt or milk. You could also up it to low fat. Or, instead of potatoes, consider celery root. Instead of serving white rice as a side dish, select some delicious whole grains like quinoa or wheat berries. Robin Asbell, author of Big Vegan, says that wild rice is a perfect native food, has some gourmet cache, and is healthy. Use these grains to create pilafs, stuffings, soups, and casseroles to create a substantial, nutty, and chewy dish.

Wheat Berry Salad

This also is a strategy for vegetarian or vegan guests. Chef Ron Oliver of The Marine Room will frequently substitute a meaty vegetable like a Portobello mushroom or eggplant to create a dish that calls for an animal protein like salmon.

For Hanukah, frying potato pancakes is a beloved tradition. But you can rotate out starchy potatoes and use vegetables like zucchini or add bits of apple to your potatoes. And instead of frying, spray the pancakes with oil and bake on a baking sheet. You still get that hint of crispiness but without all the grease.

Zucchini pancakes

3. Create new classics. This is particularly key for vegetarians and vegans. In addition to serving turkey, ham, brisket, or other animal proteins, consider creating alternate main courses using eggplant, squash, Portobello mushrooms, seitan (a flavored wheat meal derived from the protein portion of meat), tofu, or tempeh (cooked and slightly fermented soybeans formed into a patty).

4. Whatever you do, be sure to have some fresh or lightly cooked vegetables and fruit as part of the menu. As a host, go ahead and offer a fat- and carb-laden feast. But if you could have a beautiful salad mixed in with it or a platter of crudites served with hummus or a yogurt-based dip, that would make many guests a lot more relaxed. Yes, serve the pies and cookies--and also a fruit salad.

And, guests, if you really are concerned about the hazards ahead at a party, have a snack ahead of time so that if it turns out there isn't much on the menu that you can eat you won't starve or go off the deep end indulging. If you have allergies or specific ingredient issues, be sure to ask the host or caterer if those ingredients are in any of the dishes so you can avoid them.

I asked several chefs for their input, since they deal with fussy customers and clients all the time (yes, we are fussy; we want what we want). Here are some of their suggestions:

Robin Asbell: "For vegans, you can makes sides more substantial. Great vegan mains that everyone will want are things like sweet little dumpling squashes stuffed with grains, herbs, and nuts, or roasted veggies tucked into phyllo and baked.

Wilted Winter Greens Phyllo Rolls

"I'm fond of bringing big, pretty salads with a base of greens covered with things like pears, pecans, avocado, freshly cooked artichoke hearts, pomegranate seeds, and maybe a pile of marinated beans or a quinoa salad piled in the middle. Just pile up the plant foods and make a good vinaigrette and you won't be able to keep people away."

She also suggests lightening up side dishes with extra virgin olive oil instead of butter, where appropriate, and to lower the fat in dairy.

Trey Foshee: "Instead of adding bacon to your Brussels sprouts, put some small onions in aluminum foil with wood chips and put on the stove. When they start smoking, put in a 375-degree oven and roast for 45 minutes to an hour. You get the roasted onion and smoke flavor that's a good substitute for bacon.

"Salt roast sweet potatoes. Smash up star anise, black pepper, and ginger. Mix with kosher salt and enough egg white to make a paste. Put a layer of salt down, then the sweet sweet potatoes, then cover with the rest of the salt. Bake at 375-degrees for about an hour and 15 minutes. Crack and remove the potatoes and peel if you want. They'll be perfumed with the spices.

"Serve a shaved raw Brussels sprouts salad with walnuts, pecorino, lemon juice, and olive oil."

Jeff Rossman: "Make stocks and soups from scratch to avoid the sodium and preservatives. Chefs are always making stocks. Call me and I can sell you some for home use. Try and use whole grain flours, pastas, and breads. Make your own dressings and watch what you're putting into them. Use citrus zest and toasted nuts for added flavor. For healthier mashed potatoes, use Yukon gold or Red potatoes for a better flavor than russets, keep the skin on, and use flavoring additions like roasted garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, and fresh herbs. For vegans, try a dish like Toasted Quinoa-stuffed Acorn Squash with caramelized onion, kalamata olives, and golden raisins."

Jenn Felmley: "I like to play off of traditional meat dishes. One of the ways I differentiate side dishes from main dishes is to make side dishes entirely vegetable and the main containing some kind of starch or meat substitute. Some menu ideas would be Roasted Vegetable Terrine filled with Garlicky Goat Cheese, French Onion Soup with Cheesy Croutons, Pumpkin and Black-Eyed Pea Salad, Vegetarian Shepards Pie (using quinoa, seitan, or smoked tofu) Topped with Parsnip Mash, and Almond Pear Galette with Caramel Sauce."

Felmley also like to made stuffed roasted poblano peppers as a main dish--treated like enchiladas or stuffed with lentils, dried fruit, nuts, and squash.

Ron Oliver: "I want to try to reproduce the ceremonial--the carving of the ham or turkey or the presentation--when I substitute traditional dishes."

Here's a beloved Jewish holiday dish traditionally laden with fat and carbs--noodle kugle--that Oliver switched up to create a much healthier version using spaghetti squash and fromage blanc, a fresh cheese made with milk instead of cream, and cottage cheese.

Spaghetti Squash Kugel

by Ron Oliver

(Printable Recipe)

1 large spaghettisquash

2 tablespoons vegetableoil

1 ½ cups finelydiced white onions

1 cup finelydiced sun-dried apples

¼ cup sherrywine

4 large cage-free eggs, beaten

2 cups gratedgruyere cheese

1 cup fromageblanc cheese (can substitute 1/2 sour cream and 1/2 nonfat yogurt)

½ cup cottagecheese

2 tablespoons freshthyme leaves, lightly chopped

Seasalt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Remove stem from spaghetti squash. Split in half lengthwise. Using a metal spoon, remove seeds. Place one half cut side down on large plate. Add some water to the plate. Microwave on high for six minutes. Remove. Repeat with other half. Allow to cool, then extract the strands of flesh by scrapingwith tines of a dinner fork. Addto large mixing bowl. Setaside.

Preheat oven to 350degrees.

Add oil to ovenproofskillet over medium high heat. Adddiced onions. Cook until goldenbrown, stirring often. Add applesand sherry wine. Continue cookinguntil wine is evaporated. Add tospaghetti squash.

Combine remainingingredients thoroughly with spaghetti squash. Transfer back to skillet or add to a casserole dish. Place in oven. Bake for 45 minutes or until set.

Serve immediately or chill overnight and cut into slices. Reheat slices gently in oven ormicrowave. Serve with a drizzle ofolive oil and sprinkled with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Serves 8

Photo by Ron Oliver

Happy--and Healthy--Holidays!

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Emerging Oenophiles Rec: The Food Lover's Guide to Wine

2011-12-05T10:36:00.001-08:00

Of the many beloved food books sagging the shelves of book cases in my kitchen, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg's The Flavor Bible is among those I turn to regularly. So, when the couple asked me to take a look at their new book, The Food Lover's Guide to Wine ($35/Little, Brown), I immediately accepted their invitation. I've been waiting for a book that would help me understand wine better and, of course, how to select what will make me happy.

What I found is a thoroughly enjoyable primer for culinary enthusiasts who are trying to extend that pleasure to wine. Most of us who take great care about the ingredients we use in the kitchen or expect to be used when dining out have a certain knowledge base and language we access to make choices at the markets or on a menu. But, we need a similar knowledge base and language to make wine selections that make sense for us, for our wallet, and to beautifully accompany the food we so adore.

Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg

Page and Dornenburg draw from their own extensive knowledge (they are also the authors of What to Drink With What You Eat) as well as that of winemakers, retailers, and sommeliers, including San Diego's own Jesse Rodriguez of Addison at the Grand Del Mar, to guide readers through the basics with an eye toward enabling us to have more confidence in our choices. They give a brief history of wine making in the U.S. (Did you know that in 1619 the male heads of households were commanded by law to plant grapevines or that in 1839 the first vineyards were planted in Napa Valley? The grower was George Calvert Yount--as in Yountville.) From there, they take the reader on a journey into every aspect of grapes and wines that starts with the stories sommeliers tell of how they fell in love with wine and takes us into the intricacies of learning how to taste, how to read labels, how to discover our own palate, and how to pair wines with food.

Wine is a pleasure. Learning about it shouldn't be tedious. Ordering it shouldn't be intimidating. By bringing sommeliers into the picture and, in fact, focusing an entire chapter on their strategies and secrets for mastering wine, Page and Dornenburg create a lively conversation among the professionals that makes it clear that their role is to be an educated guide. Contrary to the fear most diners have that sommeliers are simply trying to sell up a bottle or two, sommeliers here make it clear that they are there to help diners suss out what they'll enjoy at a price point they'll be comfortable with. It's what gives them pleasure in their work. Collaborate with an experienced sommelier and who knows what pleasures you'll experience.

Similarly, learning little techniques that boost enjoyment of wine--storage tips, opening tips, advice about using good-quality glassware, inspired pairings with food, and how to taste--should be part of an enjoyable process. Each of these and more are addressed in the book, but importantly, not as finger-wagging directives but as suggestions that could change your opinion about a particular wine and even open you up to possibilities you hadn't considered.

I was particularly taken by the section on composing meals. The authors take readers through the creation of a menu, noting the first principle is to move from light to heavy--both in terms of food and wine. Success in this takes practice and they turn first to The French Laundry to offer guidance through each course and then sommeliers at places like The Little Nell, The Breakers, The Modern, and On the Square. In this chapter is also a very useful guide for matching wine to common dishes--say, an omelet with Champagne--and to common cuisines--Indian or Thai with Gewürztraminer. For one sommelier, Champagne is his go-to wine for Japanese food. Another loves Pinot Noir with Peking duck rolls and mu shu pork because the hoisin sauce's earthy-spicy-sweet personality mirrors that of the wine. That's the kind of insight that makes the book so useful.

The middle of the book is devoted to a comprehensive directory of wines that identify the grapes, country of origin, full flavor profiles, Tannin levels, and other key information--all geared toward novice wine enthusiasts. The authors also include numerous additional resources--websites and blogs, other books, a list of American Master Sommeliers, and wine magazines. The Food Lover's Guide to Wines is truly the perfect place for an aspiring wine lover to get started and gain confidence.

All photos by Tom Kirkman.

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Erizo Cebicheria Redux

2011-11-28T11:15:00.001-08:00

Last April, I wrote about a splendid day I enjoyed in Tijuana that included lunch at Erizo Cebicheria. It was one of those meals that made me shake my head in disbelief at the magic of the seafood I was enjoying. The meal had one of my lunch companions, Chef Trey Foshee of George's at the Cove, transfixed. We just couldn't get over the flavors, the creativity, and the presentation of each dish.

So, when owner Javier Plascencia told me that he had redone the restaurant since then, I had to return to see just how it could possibly have improved. A couple of weeks ago, my friend Dan Nattrass of Catalina Offshore Products suggested another day trip down to Tijuana, this time with Chad White, executive chef and partner at Sea Rocket Bistro. After checking out the fish markets and doing some major damage at Mercato Hidalgo, the public market, we headed over to Erizo Cebicheria. And, yes, change had happened.

First, the size of the place has about tripled. Plascencia also added a small fish market and expanded the kitchen. But what truly struck me was the new decor. It's got a rustic yet modern feel and there was a strange familiarity to the tables and the materials in general that I couldn't put my finger on until Plascencia told us that the design was inspired by the Popotla fishing village in Rosarito, just below the old Fox Studios. Popotla is a favorite place of mine. To say it's rustic would be elevating it, but that's part of its charm as a collection of about two dozen "restaurants." My favorite was Mariscos España. It's on the water and you can watch the fishing pongas pull in with their catch. Erizo Cebicheria now plays off of that casual, seaside feel with white-washed looking tables and patio chairs, but more importantly, clever dishes that highlight the freshness of the seafood.

While the decor has changed, the menu has remained much the same, although with an expanded kitchen the restaurant can now do more.

We started with Chiles Gueros con Camaron, yellow jalapeños stuffed with chopped shrimp and topped with a stunning relish of carrots, red onion, and cilantro.

Chef Chad White about to dig in to the Chiles Gueros con Camaron

From there, the dishes we ordered kept coming. At the fish markets, the three of us were enchanted by chocolate clams, a large bi-valve in a creamy brown shell. And there they were at Erizo's fish market. So we each ordered one and when they arrived, the presentation was so beautiful we could barely stand to dig in and disturb it.

The cooks chopped up the clam to make a light ceviche with tomatoes and cucumbers blended with ponzu sauce. It rested on a plate filled with sea salt and accented with a sprig of salty sea bean. The clam was tender and sweet and complemented by the sweet crunch of the cucumber and the citrusy saltiness of the ponzu.

Then there was a gorgeous Calla de Acha, large sea scallops presented with cucumber, red onion, chile sauce, and chicharron.

The dish is presented on a platter but the server portions out individual servings.

Each bit contains a large piece of scallop, slices of red onion and cucumber, heated by the chili sauce and finished off by the crunchy pork crackling. It's absurdly delicious.

One of Trey, Dan, and my favorite dishes from our first visit was Chicharron de Atun and Dan and I insisted that Chad had to try it. This is a riff on a Chinese favorite, Orange Chicken.

It looks at first like the sweet crispy fried protein you'd expect to eat with white rice. But instead, these are pieces of tuna coated in rice flour blended with cayenne and chile de arbol powder, fried and served with pico de gallo, guac, and corn tortillas.

We also enjoyed a beautiful Ceviche Verde con Camaron -- a shrimp ceviche with cilantro, serrano and habanero chilis, tomatillo, avocado, and red onion.

It sounds like it would be impossibly spicy, but, in fact, the heat is carefully controlled and serves to flavor not enflame.

I was taken with the idea of an oyster tempura taco, and out it came -- crispy and crunchy with a tender oyster in the middle. Add some spicy salsa with ginger, a little kimchi, a sprinkling of lettuce, and a dab of mayo-based sauce, and you've got a great taco treat.

We thought we were done, but we'd forgotten that we'd ordered octopus, another favorite dish from our first visit. Again, the octopus was mesquite grilled, stunning with a tomatillo and habanero salsa.

Prepared poorly, octopus can be your worst chewy nightmare. This pulpo clearly had been well braised before grilling. It was tender and smoky, a lovely conclusion to the meal.

Erizo Cebicheria is located at Ave Sonora No 3808-11 just off Blvd Agua Caliente.

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Easy, Stunning Apple Pie a la Coulon

2011-11-21T11:53:00.001-08:00

I've been making apple pies for decades, having learned from my Nana--who always baked the family Thanksgiving pies. But, her way (which originally used Spry shortening for the crust and then graduated to margarine) has long needed updating and I've been flailing around for a new mentor for a long time. There's no one way to make pies, no one set of perfect ingredients (although everyone boasts theirs is perfect), no one set-in-stone technique. And that diversity is the beauty of pie. But, as many a failed pie maker knows, it's also the source of a lot of frustration.

But, I may have finally found my mentor in Michele Coulon. Her way is the traditional French way. It's simple and straightforward, relies on just a few quality ingredients, and sticking to formula.

Michele invited me into her bakery kitchen last week to teach me how to make her apple pie--and she didn't just demonstrate. She made me put down my notebook and camera and get my hands dirty. It may be the best gift of the season. (And, if you want her pumpkin pie recipe and techniques, you can find them on her new blog.)

So, here are some basics I learned from her:

Use the best ingredients possible. Michele uses unsalted European-style butter. I'm going to use Straus Family Creamery's European-style organic butter. Another good choice is Plugra. For the cream, use heavy or whipping cream--not half and half.

Measure correctly. Weigh apples after peeling and coring. Measure or weigh the ice water for the crust.

Taste your apples and adjust the amount of sugar based on how sweet or tart they are and the effect you want. Also, blend your apples based on flavor. Michele used Granny Smiths but also added some tiny apples from Crows Pass Farm for additional sweetness.

Keep the dough chilled. That would seem obvious, but one pastry chef I spoke with last week said she didn't worry about it. However, Michele insists that it affects how the crust turns out. Chill it.

Pie pans. This is tricky. Michele uses aluminum pie plates for customers but prefers dark metal pans when baking for family to help with browning. She's not fond of ceramic pie plates and is firmly anti-glass (sorry, Pyrex). For this year, I'm sticking with my Emile Henry ceramic pie plates but am researching some cast iron ones I found on Amazon. If anyone has experience with these, please leave a comment.

Finally, don't over sugar or spice the filling. Apple pies are supposed to play up the flavors of the apples. If you have truly delicious apples, let them shine.

As we got started, instead of using a food processor to pull the dough together, Michele had me use a bowl and very simple tools, including my hands. First, we sliced the butter onto a tray. She already had mixed together the flour and salt. I added the butter to the flour mixture and used two knives to cut the butter into the flour. Don't be shy about it as I was. Go at it with conviction and work the butter down to small pieces about the size of walnut pieces.

Then add your water. It won't look like it will be enough to come together using a mixing spoon, but it will. After a few minutes, once it becomes clear that stirring will no longer do the job, put down the spoon and plunge your hands in to scoop and press together the dough until it just comes together.

Now comes the part we all tend to dread--rolling out the dough. Michele thoroughly flours the board but leaves the rolling pin alone. Her method is to flatten and shape each crust into a disk, roll out from the middle and keep flipping and turning the dough to keep it from sticking. The goal is to form a circle just larger than the pie plate. Once she's ready to move the dough circle from board to pan, she folds it gently in half and then in half again, lifts and centers it on the pie plate, and unfolds it. Into the refrigerator it goes. The second (top) crust is also shaped into a disk and rolled out, then, placed on a small cookie sheet lined with paper and sliced into half-inch strips for the lattice. Then it, too, goes into the fridge for 20 minutes to chill and rest.

While the dough rested, we prepped the filling. Michele peeled the apples and then explained that she finds coring takes too much time, so she just cuts the apples in four pieces around the core (which she nibbles on later). Then she measures out what she needs, and slices the pieces thickly. Again, it's all about the apples here.

The apple slices go into a bowl and are tossed with a mixture of sugar, salt, cinnamon, and flour. Then add a few teaspoons of cream and mix. The cream, Michele, says, adds additional moisture to the filling.

By now, it should be time to bring out the bottom crust. Fill with the apple mixture and gently press the mass down to get it settled into the crust. Top with pieces of butter. The lattice is simple. Instead of weaving the strips, Michele just places half across in one direction and the rest across.

Trim excess and pinch the edges around the pie.

And, as you can see, she turns leftover dough into decorations, cutting out cute little leaves with cookie cutters. She then uses an egg wash (a whole egg and a half a cup of cream) to give the lattice its glow and hold the little leaves in place.

Put the pies on a tray and bake. The results? A crisp, flaky, rich crust enveloping tender, sweet, and bright slices of apple. The best ending I can think of to a holiday meal.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Michele Coulon's Apple Pie
(Printable Recipe)

Yield: 1 Pie

1 Southern Pie Pastry (see below)
1 pound, 5 ounces apples (weight after peeling and coring)
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 ounce butter
1 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon (optional)
2 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup cream
1 egg

Pre-heat conventional oven to 450°.

Make pastry and set aside.

Peel and core apples, placing in a big bowl. Sift dry ingredients together and add to apples, mixing well. Add 3 tablespoons cream and mix with apples.

Roll out pastry and put in pie tin, having edges hanging over the sides loosely. Fill with apples. Dot apples with butter. Put lattice on top. Using a fork, pinch edges but do not go all the way through the dough with the fork. Mix together 1/2 cup cream and the egg. Brush egg wash onto lattice and any dough decorations.

Put on a tray and put in the oven for 10 minutes. Turn down the temperature to 350° and bake until apples are cooked--30 minutes at first, then probably another 15 minutes. Use the tip of a sharp knife to check. If the tip goes into apple slices easily, they're done cooking.

Southern Pastry from Michele Coulon
Yield: 2 pie crusts, top and bottom. Cut recipe in half for 1 pie.

4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound cold European-style butter, cut into 1-inch chunky pieces

Mix ingredients until coarse crumbs form. Then add 12 tablespoons or 160 grams of ice water. Mix until just blended.

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Cook This Now! Okay, I Will!

2011-11-12T08:03:00.001-08:00

New York Times food columnist Melissa Clark launches Cook This Now ($29.99, Hyperion), her 32nd cookbook, with White Bean Stew with Rosemary, Garlic, and Farro. After all, it's January and what's better to take comfort in when the weather is chilly than a hearty savory stew. You see, Cook This Now begins with the new year and takes us through each month with recipes that focus on what's in season and what's fresh and local.

Now, yes, I have several books with seasonal themes, but what I always enjoy about Melissa's recipes is that they tend to be simple and straightforward, yet strikingly innovative. I love that I can flip through the book, identify a recipe that sounds inviting and know that I can probably make it spontaneously because I have many of the ingredients already -- or have easy access to them. And, I love the unusual flavor combinations that turn a simple dish into something memorable.

For instance, last week I bought a beautiful firm head of kale at the Mira Mesa farmers market, contemplating making crispy chips out of it. But while I was turning the pages of Cook This Now I found her recipe for Raw Kale Salad with Anchovy Date Dressing in her October chapter. My kale chips suddenly morphed into salad because of that odd yet compelling marriage of anchovies and dates. It was something I'd never considered and immediately found irresistible. And, with Melissa's blessing, I topped it with a poached egg and fried shallots.

It's simple and takes just minutes to make, yet the flavors are deeply complex--the sweet unctuous dates go up against the salty, oily anchovies and, with the help of olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, and zest of both lemon and orange, dissolve into a force that easily conquers bitter kale. The result is a delicious salad that sends tastes buds into overtime. And, with very little effort. Honestly, why would anyone buy bottled salad dressing when they could make this in no time at all...

The same can be said for another October dish I made, Cumin Seed Roasted Cauliflower with Salted Yogurt, Mint, and Pomegranate Seeds. This is a visually stunning dish, again made with little effort, but the seasonings -- the cumin roasting in olive oil with the florets, the sprinkling of perky mint from my garden and acidic pomegranate seeds -- turn it into a mouth party.

I also made one of her "bonus" recipes found in the back of the book, Roasted Eggplant with Basil Green Goddess Dressing. I'm a sucker for eggplant, but with Green Goddess Dressing? Made with basil?

I don't know how she came up with this combination of ingredients, but they work. Earthy eggplant loves sharp basil, but with creme fraiche and mayo the basil is mellowed a bit and creates a unique pairing that is perfect as a topping for any Middle Eastern flatbread.

Now, all I've talked about are vegetable dishes (and they seem to be the majority in the book), but there are a number of recipes made with proteins -- Vietnamese Grilled Steak, Shrimp Scampi with Pernod and Fennel Fronds, Spicy Three-Meat Chili (with a Honey Whole Wheat Corn Bread I'm itching to make), and her mom's Garlic and Thyme-Roasted Chicken Parts with Mustard Croutons. And, there are several desserts, including a wild-sounding riff on Mallomars (every New Yorker's favorite cookie) she calls Mallobars.

Melissa is a terrific storyteller, so her intros to each month and to her recipes are invariably charming and make you feel like you have an old friend with you in the kitchen. She also includes a handy section after most recipes that she calls "What Else?" to offer tips for alternate ingredients or ways to change up the dish.

This is a book to dip into for new ideas to combine ingredients and to create satisfying meals in very little time throughout the year.

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Finding Your "Inner Chef" at Hipcooks

2011-11-08T07:56:00.000-08:00

I'm a cooking class slut. Okay, that's pretty dramatic. But, I just love them. You just never know what great little tip you'll walk out with, what techniques you'll end up adopting, what new ingredient will become your new passion.

So, I was eager to check out Hipcooks, a new cooking school that opened in North Park in September. It's one of a chain of five cooking schools first launched in L.A. in 2004. The manager of the San Diego location is Tristan Blash.

I know Tristan a little because we both have volunteered as cooking teachers at Olivewood Gardens. Tristan, a self-taught cook, learned a lot of her skills from the French chefs she worked with as an event planner for a French catering company in New York. She's volunteered her cooking skills as a teacher with the Oregon Food Bank as well as Olivewood Gardens. She's also got her masters degree in teaching and while teaching middle school in Portland, she took a part-time job at the Hipcooks Portland and went through months of training with the owner.

Long story short, she moved down to San Diego, continued with Hipcooks in L.A. and trained in their management program, then opened the San Diego school, located on 30th St. just north of University, a couple of months ago.

And it is certainly hip. And urban. Cool colors, sleek modern furnishings. The latest appliances. Yet, surprisingly, there are no built-in stovetops. Instead there are portable propane burners that are easy to move around a large semicircular teaching island that turns a demo into a hands-on class in moments.

You also won't find any measuring tools or recipes (although recipes are e-mailed later to participants) in class. "My hope is that my students become, or stay, relaxed in the kitchen," says Tristan. "That they learn to trust their instincts when it comes to cooking, maybe even finding their 'inner chef.' By 'banning' measuring implements and tasting and using our own senses to determine how much of this and that goes into a dish, a person learns to trust their own likes and dislikes and depends less on following the recipe line by line."

The idea, she says, is to, "play, create, you may mess up, so learn from that and start over. That you leave class believing that you know more about cooking and creating than you thought you did when you walked in and that the final product is up to you, not the chef that wrote the recipe."

The three-hour+ class I took was all about soup making, with seven soups -- watercress, carrot ginger, potato leek, butternut squash sage, Moroccan lentil with prunes and cinnamon, corn chowder with tarragon and sundried tomatoes, and creamy mushroom with thyme and sherry -- on the menu. Prepped veggies and herbs were strategically placed on the island, where there were also about 10 round solid wood cutting boards and Wusthof chefs knives marking each place. The class of about a dozen was launched with what was essentially a knife skills mini-class as Tristan first demonstrated how to hone a knife, then different ways to approach slicing, dicing, and chopping.

We got tips for cleaning leeks (peel away the green little by little to get the most out of the vegetable, chop, then wash to get out all the grit). And a fascinating, if noisy, tip for stripping the paper off garlic cloves: put them in a metal bowl, place another metal bowl the same size over the rim to make what looks like a ball (the two rims should meet) and then shake. The motion will release the peel off the garlic cloves. It'll also freak out dogs, cats, and small children -- but all for the common good, right?

The soup-making tasks continued along those lines as students learned how to build a soup so that on their own they could riff on creating other soups based on available ingredients and tastes. We were divided into teams to work on each soup, four in the first half of the class, then partaking of the finished soups, followed by making the next three.

As mentioned, there was no measuring. So with Tristan guiding the way and explaining why we were doing what we were doing, it was a handful of this, a pile of that, some spoonfuls of stock, dashes of wine, herbs to taste. Cook it down. Then ladle it into the Vitamix. Get a little whirring action going and then start tasting and adjusting the seasonings and consistency.

The results were pretty darned good. We first sampled the watercress soup, after drizzling it with creme fraiche. It was herbaceous, but finished with a lovely lemony flavor.

Then there was a very pretty table set family style so we could dine in plain view of people walking on 30th St.

We filled it up after serving ourselves with the carrot ginger (a bright stunner); the hearty potato leek with layers of flavor thanks to white wine, thyme, and lemon; and a thick and woodsy butternut squash soup punctuated with white beans. Then on to the next batch. From what I could tell, my fellow students were having a lot of fun and learning a lot.

Carrot and Ginger Soup
From Hipcooks
(Printable recipe)

Carrot & Ginger Soup
1 ½ lbs carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
3 celery sticks, roughly chopped
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
4 inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped (or grated!)
4 cups veggie stock or water (in this case you can use water since this soup isso rich in veggies)

Heat some olive oil (or 2 T. butter!) in a nice soup pot and add the onions,carrots, celery and ginger. Have your heat on low, cover the pot and cook untilall the veggies are soft and buttery until softened (about 20 minutes). Pour inthe veggie stock or water (add 3 tablespoons of honey here for carrot, gingerand honey soup) (or 1 sliced ripe pear for carrot, ginger and pear soup!) andcook for another 10 minutes or so, until the stock is hot. I am guessing theamount of stock to cover the veggies plus an inch or so, to make blending easy.So you can always add more or less stock as necessary. Blend safely in batches.Season if necessary, and taste for ginger-content. You can always add more. Ifyou add too much, a swirl of cream in the soup will tone it down, as will thehoney. A handful of chopped cilantro (coriander) would be a gorgeous garnishfor this superlative soup.

Hipcooks San Diego is located at 4048 30th St. Classes are $55 each and range from beginnerish (the soup one would qualify) to classes geared to more advanced cooks. A schedule of classes is on the web site. You can also arrange three-hour private classes for groups. Additionally, they've got some terrific kitchen tools, gadgets, and condiments for sale. (I fell in love with the Chef'n Flex Trio Spatula Set.)

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Pie Making with Rachel Caygill of Bankers Hill

2011-11-01T08:13:00.000-07:00

We're heading into holiday pie-making season so when pastry chef Rachel Caygill invited me to her house, where she was hosting a group called the San Diego Food Bloggers for a pie-making class, I had to go. See, Rachel is the superb pastry chef at Bankers Hill Bar and Restaurant, where her husband Scott is the chef de cuisine. I love to go there with my friend Tina Luu, also an extraordinary pastry chef and someone who never orders one dessert off the menu but all of them. So, I've tasted many of Rachel's creations, including her pies. And I wanted to learn her secrets.

Now, this is really going to be more of a pictorial post because so much of pie making is technique and watching Rachel take us through creating the crust for an apple pie was fascinating. But, it's not easy. It involves a lot of physical effort. Rachel throws her whole body into the rolling process. But the results -- a rich crispy and flaky crust encasing a bright apple filling layered in spices -- is so worth the effort. I've also got a number of tips from her that I'm including with the photos. Her apple pie recipe will follow below.


So the first thing you'll notice is that instead of mixing the flour and butter in a food processor to break up the butter, Rachel is rolling slices of it into the flour. Gluten doesn't form until you add water so no worries about over working it. The flour is a half-and-half combo of all purpose and cake flours. After a lot of trial and error over the years, she's settled on a 3-2-1 ratio of flour, fat, and liquid, with a teaspoon of salt per pound of flour.


Still a little chunky. Then she cuts in lard. Her ratio is 3-to-1 butter/lard.


Rachel then makes a hole in the middle of the flour/fat for a well she fills with water (similar to making pasta).

This gets tricky because the water wants to escape. But use a scraper to pull the flour into the water (and to retrieve the errant water) to form a loose dough.


Rachel pats the dough into a square and then starts rolling to incorporate the ingredients.


Keep the dough moving to prevent sticking and put your whole body into it. It'll grow long. Use the scraper pick up the ends and fold it back into a square and roll it again. You'll do this two to three times.


She's not seeking perfection here, just for the ingredients to begin to come together. For now, the aim is to shape what looks like a loaf.

And, here's the beginning of the loaf.


This goes into the refrigerator to chill and rest for 20 minutes. Or, you can freeze it for later (defrost overnight in the fridge).


The now rested and chilled dough is ready to be rolled out. Rachel cut off a chunk to make the first crust. You can see layers of unincorporated fat. This will help make for a crispy crust. Rachel helps ease the rolling process by pushing the dough out with the heels of her hand. Again, full body work.


Rachel admits she can't roll the dough into a circle -- and doesn't even try. But she says to roll from the middle, keep the dough moving, and flip it over to keep it from sticking.


Rachel rolls the dough onto the rolling pin and eases it over the pie plate. (She uses oversized pie plates that she finds at places like Target.) It's best to have lots of overlap for trimming and rolling the edges.


In goes the filling.

Next comes the top crust and the beginning of crimping the edges. Rachel trims the overhang with scissors. See how the edges of the crust layers align and she folds them together, under, and then down into the side of the pie plate.

Like that. With well-floured hands, she pushes the dough between two fingers for this crimping effect.

Rachel brushes the top with an eggwash, followed by a generous sprinkling of granulated superfine sugar she stores in an airtight container thick with fragrant vanilla beans. Make slits in the top crust to create vents (and separate the vent sides a little to let the air escape so the liquid from cooking apples evaporates. Then bake low and slow -- say, 375˚ for half an hour, then lower the temp to 325˚ for another hour (but this depends on your oven; you may need to start at 400˚). Her reasoning is that it helps the juices evaporate and prevents the top crust from burning. So you get a golden, crispy crust on top, avoid a soggy bottom crust, and create a firm filling.


Cool under pressure with a gorgeous apple pie.

Remember low and slow keeps the filling intact, as you can see here.

A slice of heaven...

Apple Pie
by Rachel Caygill*
(Printable recipe here)

Rachel Caygill loves cardamom and includes the floral spice in her apple pie filling, blended with cinnamon, ginger, clove, allspice and nutmeg mixed with sweet and tart apples -- in this case Granny Smiths and Fujis. And the crust? Well, the top crackled between my teeth and I loved the thick crisp sides that had been crimped to perfection. This is the pie you want to serve at your Thanksgiving dinner.

*The ingredients and amounts are Rachel's. The instructions are mine based on her directions during the class.

Pie Crust Ingredients
(for two crusts)

15 ounces flour (half all purpose, half cake)
10 ounces fat (7.5 ounces butter, 2.5 ounces lard)
5 ounces water
1 teaspoon salt

1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup superfine sugar

Combine the flour and salt. Spread the flour mixture on the counter or a cold marble tile and cut the butter into it. Then roll the butter into the flour. Use a scraper to chop up some of the flour and roll a little more to incorporate. Then cut the lard into the mixture.

Make a well in the flour/fat mixture and add the water into the middle. Scrape the flour/fat into the water to create loose dough. When the dough is formed, roll it out into an rectangle, then fold into thirds and roll again. Repeat once more if necessary and shape into a loaf. Refrigerate for 20 minutes and make pie filling.

Preheat the oven to 375˚. Cut the dough roughly in half -- one part should be a little larger for the bottom crust. Roll out that piece large enough to fill the pie plate with a couple of inches overhang. Gently place the dough into the pie plate, then add filling. Roll out the top crust large enough to hang over the the filling and bottom crust overhang. Trim the edges of the crust to even out. Then holding the edges of both crusts, fold under together and tuck into the pie plate. Crimp the edges between two fingers.

Make the eggwash by mixing together the yolk and milk. Brush onto the top crust. Sprinkle the sugar on top. Then slice vents into the top crust and spread the edges slightly. Bake at 375˚ for half an hour, then lower the temperature to 325˚ and bake for another hour until the crust is brown and thick juices run out.

Apple Filling Ingredients

2 pounds apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced (use a combination of sweet and tart varieties)
6 ounces sour cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks
3 tablespoons cornstarch
8 ounces dark brown sugar
4 ounces granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped -- or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
zest from half an orange
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon clove
1/8 teaspoon allspice

Combine all ingredients in large bowl, then add on top of bottom crust.

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Invite a Boar to Dinner

2011-10-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

A meal of boar sounds so exotic. So wild. So feral.

And, yes, that would be true if we were talking wild boar. But, in fact, a domestic boar is simply an intact male pig. As opposed to barrows, or castrated pigs. And, in case you're wondering, female pigs can be either gilts--never bred--or sows--those females that have had at least one litter.

Meet a boar. Photo courtesy of Dave Heafner

So, now that we've clarified that, on to the boar. Dave Heafner of Da-Le Ranch in Lake Elsinore and a longtime farmers market vendor is now selling boar meat from animals he and his family are raising. Since they're processing the boar at a custom facility, he's not allowed to sell individual pieces so he's selling them in packages of eighths, quarters, halves, and whole. A quarter, for instance is $6.75 a pound and generally runs between 25 and 35 pounds. Cuts can include neck bones, shoulder roast, shoulder steaks, pork chops, tenderloin, ribs, belly, leg roast, leg steaks, shank, foot, jowl, sometimes organs (if requested), and even sausage. Yes, that's a lot of meat -- but families have been known to get together and share orders.

Dave sent me some samples of chops that he cut up for his family and last week I prepared one simply indoors on my stovetop grill, accompanied by a savory apple pumpkin chutney, made with Jackie's Jams pumpkin butter, fresh sage leaves, and honey crisp apples from Smit Orchards.

This particular chop was about 11 ounces, so it was large enough for me to enjoy for two meals but some of the chops are smaller and suited for one portion. They come frozen, so defrost overnight in the refrigerator and then let it sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature before grilling. I just added salt and pepper to each side before putting it on the heat.

Give it about five minutes on each side. While it's cooking you can prepare the chutney. You'll be sauteeing the sliced apples with sliced red onions and sage leaves in olive oil. Then add a couple of splashes of Madeira and a pinch of salt.

Pull the chop off the grill and let it rest. Then remove the apples from the heat and stir in a couple of tablespoons of the pumpkin butter, which includes the piquant spices you associate with a chutney, and mix it up.

I cut off the long strip of fat along the side but the rest of the fat within the chop seemingly melted away, leaving a tender, moist, sweet piece of meat with far more flavor than the plastic-wrapped chops you'll find in the supermarket. The apples, onions, and pumpkin butter add an earthy, tangy sweetness that's intensified with the Madeira. It's truly a cozy fall meal, even better served with bitter sauteed greens like Swiss chard or kale.

Grilled Boar Chops with Apple Pumpkin Chutney
Printable version
Serves 2

Typically, chutney is a mix of fruit with spices and herbs. And that's what you'll find here, except that since the pumpkin butter already is filled with cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg, there's no need to add any more spices. I added common sage from my garden to give some warm pungency. Plus, sage is known for aiding in the digestion of fatty foods and is the perfect--and traditional--accompaniment to pork.

2 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thin
2/3 cup red onions, sliced
6 fresh sage leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
A couple of splashes of Madeira
Pinch of salt
4 tablespoons Jackie's Jams Pumpkin Butter

1. Oil the grill and heat to high. Season the chops with salt and pepper and place on the grill. Cook about five minutes on each side for medium doneness.

2. Heat olive oil in a saute pan and cook the onions at medium heat until they just turn brown. Add the apple slices and sage and cook for five minutes.

3. As the apples soften, add a couple of splashes of Madeira and a pinch of salt. Turn up the heat to medium high and continue cooking until the apples start to brown. Add a tad more liquid if the mixture dries out. You want the liquid to just evaporate when done.

4. Remove the chops from the heat and let rest. Remove the apple mixture from the heat. Stir in the pumpkin butter. Plate the chops and serve with the chutney.

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Robin Asbell's Big Vegan Blogger Potluck: Matcha Scones with Golden Raisins

2011-10-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

I met Minneapolis chef, cooking teacher, and food writer Robin Asbell about a year ago at Rancho La Puerta when I was writing a blog for them about their cooking classes. I spent the day learning about her approach to food and cooking, which I wrote about for RLP and also published on San Diego Foodstuff.

Robin is a self-described "occasional pescatarian." She is basically vegetarian but periodically indulges in seafood. But for her new book, Big Vegan ( Chronicle Books, $29.95), she's delved into the Big Monty of natural foods: veganism.

You can have a chance to win your own copy of the book. See directions below.

Now, while I don't eat a lot of meat anymore I'm neither vegetarian nor vegan. I enjoy my animal products. But if I were to think about it, I certainly do prepare a lot of meals that would fall under the category of vegan, so it was no stretch for me to accept Robin's invitation to participate in a "blogger potluck" she's organized to introduce her book. For the next few days, participants listed below will be rolling out posts around recipes from Big Vegan for everyone -- even non-vegans like me -- to enjoy.

My pick was her Matcha Scones with Golden Raisins. I love matcha--the delicate green powdered tea, usually whisked into hot water to make a frothy beverage in Japanese tea ceremonies. Matcha is easy enough to find at Asian markets.

Robin explains that, "I think I originally came up with the idea for a Tea and Food Pairing class, and I liked the color. I carry matcha with me when I travel just in case I can't get a cup of tea, and I sometimes put it in my smoothie. I'm really into tea, too."

The ingredients for the scones are pretty basic, but it was the first time I'd baked scones without using the traditional butter and cream that go into them. Instead, Robin uses Earth Balance margarine and coconut milk. And, I liked her suggestion for grating the margarine into the dry ingredients.

First, mix together the dry ingredients.

Then add the grated Earth Balance (it does come in sticks for easier measuring).

Rub it in with your fingers and then add coconut milk.

Finally, you'll add the plump golden raisins and mix it together with your hands before pulling out the dough onto a floured board and shaping it into a disk. The dough is a little sticky so be sure to have extra flour on hand for dusting.

Cut into wedges and then brush with more coconut milk before baking for all of 14 minutes.

Let cool and then enjoy with a cup of coffee or, of course, green tea! The scones are light and have subtle overtones of the matcha -- perfect with the bright punch of the raisins interspersed in each piece. And they certainly fit in with her philosophy about food -- and life:

“I’m an enlightened hedonist,” Robin said back when I first met her. “I want to have fun but I don’t want to suffer.”

Matcha Scones with Golden Raisins
From Big Vegan by Robin Asbell
(Printable Recipe)

For a treat, try these pale green scones, made with cake flour--the whitest flour of them all. It shows off the delicate color and flavor of the tea. You can go back to whole-wheat tomorrow!

2 1/2 cups/315 g cake/soft-wheat flour, plus extra for the counter*
1/4 cup/50 g sugar
1 tbsp matcha green tea powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup/55 g Earth Balance margarine, frozen
1 cup/240 ml coconut milk, plus extra for brushing
3/4 cup/130 g golden raisins/sultanas

1. Preheat the oven to 400℉/200℃/gas 6. Line a baking sheet/tray with parchment/baking paper. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, matcha, baking powder, and salt. With a pastry blender or grater, cut the margarine into the dry ingredients and work it in with your fingers. Pour the milk into the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Add the raisins and mix with your hands.

2. Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and form it into a dish about 3/4 in/2 cm thick for eight scones (or make two rounds for sixteen smaller scones; slice each round into eight wedges). Place the scones on the baking sheet/tray, 2 in/5 cm apart, and brush with milk. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until the bottoms are browned and the edges are golden brown (bake smaller scones for about 10 minutes). Let them cool on the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool on racks. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

* Note: Robin tells me she had included cake flour in the recipe but the publisher changed it to pastry flour. I made one batch with whole wheat pastry flour, which was all I could find at my local store, but the results yielded a heavy doughy scone. When I checked with Robin I learned about the change and made a second batch using cake flour--which is what is shown and written about above. What a difference. These scones were light and the flavor of the matcha came through. So, use cake flour or try white pastry flour. Let me know the results.

And, here's the rest of the potluck group with their Big Vegan recipe posts:

Robin Asbell: Maple Barley Granola
Leinana Two Moons: Baguette French Toast with "Cream Cheese" & Apple
Susan Russo: Mango-Jicama Salad with Lime Dressing and Pepitas
Bryanna Clark Grogan: Armenian Red Lentil Stew with Sesame Brown Rice
Nancie McDermott: Korean Miso-Tofu Soup
Jill Nussinow: Squash Quesadillas with Cranberry-Jícama Salsa
Sandra Gutierrez: Green and Red Spaghetti
Robin Robertson: Bengall Curry of Cauliflower and Kidney Beans
Julie Hasson: Spanish Chickpea Fritters
Pat Tanumhardja: New Potato Rendang with Green Beans
Leinana Two Moons: Sundried Tomato-Kale Calzones and Pumpkin Cherry Bundt Cake
Tara Desmond: Peanut Butter Tart with "Ganache"

Big Vegan Giveaway

Finally, I have a copy of Big Vegan to give away. Even if, like me, you're not a vegan, I think you'll find the recipes in this large book thoroughly intriguing and delicious. I've got a list of ones I've marked to try. So, I recommend you enter the giveaway.

Simply leave a comment below about the best vegan meal you've ever enjoyed. Comments must be posted by noon PDT, Monday, Oct. 24. The person I think wrote the most persuasive comment will win the book. I'll reveal the winner in my email newsletter on Tuesday, the 25th. You can sign up for it here or via the invitation on the right. So, enlighten us with your experience!

Need some extra encouragement? Watch Robin here tease her book and what you'll get out of it:

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San Diego's Top Brewers

2011-10-11T06:43:00.000-07:00

San Diego is one of the nation's top craft brewing cities. And we've got no shortage of innovative chefs. Beer. Food. It can be a blissful union. So, with this in mind, Chef's Press has just published a beautiful new book called San Diego's Top Brewers: Inside America's Craft Beer Capital ($24.95). Written by Bruce Glassman and photographed by Paul Body and Michael Pawlenty, the book features 17 top breweries--from Stone and Mother Earth to Alesmith, Ballast Point, Karl Strauss, and Iron Fist--and plenty of bars, taverns, and brewpubs, like the popular Blind Lady Ale House, Live Wire, and Hamilton's Tavern.

And, there's no shortage of delightful sounding beer/ale-oriented recipes created by forward-thinking chefs who clearly have an affinity for brews. After all, beer is a splendid and endlessly versatile ingredient for both savory and sweet dishes. You can use it as stock, for braising, for creating sauces, and as the liquid in pastries. The distinctiveness in brewing styles and tonality means that the chef or home cook can create a unique flavor and texture by astutely selecting their beer or ale. And that's what these chefs did. You'll want to check out recipes like the Green Flash Trippel-Cured Salmon with Smoked-Onion Flan and Barleywine Syrup from Terra's Jeff Rossman; Black Garlic Fondue from Karl Strauss Brewing Company's executive chef Gunther Emathinger; and Shrimp-Imbap from The Marine Room's Ron Oliver.

The book offers pairing tips, describes the brewing process, and tosses in resources for other beer businesses. There's even a section devoted to my favorite cupcake maker, Misty Birchall of Pubcakes, who I've written about in my Local Bounty column in San Diego Magazine. She's got the market on beer-flavored cupcakes like the Red Velvet Glove, that is made with Iron Fist Brewing Co.'s Velvet Glove, and Cup o'Helen, with Ballast Point Wahoo Wheat Beer (the recipe for this is in the book).

San Diego's Top Brewers is a refreshing insight into the idiosyncratic world of brewing with an inside look at the characters that inhabit it and what it's taken to turn their passion into liquid gold.

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Hangin' with Sam the Cooking Guy

2011-10-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

The first time I met Sam Zien, aka Sam the Cooking Guy, was a couple of years ago at Congregation Beth Israel, where we were both judging a temple cooking contest. Every time he and I would stand together to discuss a dish, a different elderly woman would come over and literally shove me aside so that her husband could shoot a photo of her snuggled up with Sam.

Sam is clearly a rock star with the bubbe set.

But, Sam's popularity spans across generations or he wouldn't be as popular a figure as he is in San Diego's food scene and beyond, and he's reinforcing that with a new online show, The Sam Livecast, where Sam cooks but also chats about whatever happens to interest him at the moment. And, yes, you can still find Sam the Cooking Guy on TV locally, in LA, Orange County, Las Vegas, and Arizona -- and even on the East Coast in Georgia and Virgina. You can catch videos of him preparing recipes from his shows. You can even shop Sam at "Sam's Store," where you can buy his three cookbooks or kitchen gadgets and gear. Sam is an industry.

He's also a very nice guy and, yes, a terrific cook, as I discovered when I was invited to appear Sept. 26 on The Sam Livecast. The live streaming show is pretty relaxed. He chats with his very young crew and people--like me--who hang out on the couch in the kitchen with Sam's wife, Kelly, his interns, perhaps his sons and their girlfriends. And the two dogs. It's very casual with the periodic f-bomb dropped. But don't let that fool you; Sam knows what he's doing. Ingredients are prepped in a home kitchen any food person would envy. He does his schtick, but then the cooking begins and as easy as he makes it looks, that's how delicious the dish is.

When I was invited on, the idea was basically an appearance with idle back and forth from the couch about my writing. But I thought it would be fun to show him a little of what I do--and promote Olivewood Gardens--so I offered to make corn tortillas with flowers pressed in them with him on the show--as I've been doing with the kids I teach at Olivewood Gardens. Well, the counteroffer was for me just to bring in the tortillas, already made. Which I did, along with homemade tomato salsa.

And that was the inspiration for Sam, along with bluefin tuna that he'd acquired, to make seared bluefin tuna tacos with mango salsa. Prettiest tacos around, what with the gorgeous yellow salsa and being encased in tortillas highlighted with orange and yellow nasturtiums or purple and white violets.

You can catch the livecast on his website, where you'll also find recipes. And I describe there how to make the tortillas. And stay tuned for more shows. The livecast airs live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 6 p.m. pacific time. I hear he's going to have more food writers/bloggers on the show as guests. You never know who will turn up.

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Sage Mountain Farms Amps Up Sage Mountain Beef

2011-09-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

Farmer Phil Noble is just a little busy these days. He's still working his Hemet farm, producing beautiful vegetables that you can find at various farmers markets around San Diego. But he's also ramped up the offerings of his beef production, which he officially launched a year ago June. Instead of customers just being able to buy a half, quarter, or eighth of a cow, we have some choices via his online store and at the Hillcrest Farmers Market.

First, you can join the Green-Fed™Beef CSA he launched. Green-Fed means that his cattle are eating what Noble refers to as a "salad-bar buffet," basically the organic watermelon and squash, alfalfa, wheatgrass, and other forages they come across in the pastures. In fact, Noble told me years ago that he'll let his cattle feed on the remnants of his farm harvests to clear the field and give the cattle a hearty meal. Now, I guess, he's started an actual program. And the beef is all the tastier for it.

The CSA has six- and 12-month subscription options and even then you can choose a price point for shares that range from five to 20 pounds.

You can also buy one-off packages from the online store, which meat lovers outside of San Diego should consider. You can get ground beef or London Broil. Or you can get a sampler of cuts totaling about 22 pounds of meat. Or, you can go with the eighth, quarter, half, or whole "pledge." That is, you're not actually ordering the full amount then and there, but pre-ordering that portion for purchase and pick up when it's available.

Of course, as a single person, I'm actually focused in on what Noble brings to the Hillcrest Farmers Market, which is the market where he sells his beef, along with his vegetables. Until recently, all you could get were one-pound packages of ground beef, which is very good. I've made very juicy burgers with it, as well as meatloaf and chile.

But now Noble also carries about 32 cuts at the market, ranging from filet mignon and Porterhouse steaks to rib-eyes, skirt, short ribs, soup bones, and breakfast sirloin. Many of the packages are in the one-pound range.

You can find Sage Mountain Beef at the Hillcrest Farmers Market on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. alongside the DMV parking lot.

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Mexican Modern: Mision 19

2011-09-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

I'm always intrigued by Javier Plascenia's food. If anyone can shatter the cliche that most people--other than Mexicans--think of as Mexican food, it is the Plascenias. My friend Beatriz Ladezma of Caxao Chocolates, who grew up with Javier and with whom I had dinner with at the new Mision 19 in Tijuana, explained to me that chefs throughout Baja look to the Plascencias as the epitome of creative and striking menus and techniques. Certainly, they've been doing that at Romesco on the U.S. side in Bonita--with Mediterranean-inspired dishes using local ingredients. Erizo Cebicheria, which I visited in April, melds local seafood with forward-looking approaches--octopus carpacio, for example, or chicharon de tuna.

So, I'd been eager to travel to Tijuana again to try Mision 19, one of the newest additions to the Plascencia restaurants. But this one is truly Javier's. Here, he's cutting loose and making his own imprint without worrying about how it fits in with the rest of the family's dining spots.

The restaurant is housed in Zona Urbana Rio, the city's business district, in a new concrete building--very cool and modern, but the space is warmed by an infusion of wood--whether the long thick planks that hang along the windows or the sleek wood tables and chairs--and color--the red upholstery and the tint of green in the glass.

The food is just as cool and modern, presented on white dishes sitting on squares of lava or slate. Everything pops.

Beatriz and I decided to go with the Chef's menu, which started light--a parfait of avocado meringue, thick housemade yogurt, diced Baja scallops, Persian cucumbers, soy jelly, chiltipin--a local wild chili--and a sprig of salty sea bean surrounded by corn sand. While the layers are beautiful shades of cool green, they are meant to be stirred together and the resulting flavors are an amalgam of sweetness with a tad of heat, umami from the soy jelly and salt from the sea bean.

Next came a petite salad of cured nopal strips mixed with Meyer lemon and grapefruit juice, topped by locally farmed abalone chips, micro arugula, and a chili de arbol salsa--creating a hot, crunchy dish with the slightest undertone of grapefruit. The dish, Plascencia said, was inspired by a dish he had at a local Chinese restaurant. In fact, there is a distinct Chinese influence in several dishes, due, explained Beatriz, to the large Chinese community in Tijuana. Like the Jewish community I grew up in north of the border, Tijuanans have a tradition of enjoying Sunday dinners at their favorite Chinese restaurants. The Plascencias clearly among them.

Our third dish was deceptively simple--a salad with a thin slice of beef, heirloom tomatoes, and olives. But the beef had been sous vide for more than 48 hours--or, as the menu says, "cooked to high empty for 48 hours and sealed at the moment."

Intriguingly, the waiter, also named Javier, placed spoons in front of us and instructed us to use it to pick up the olives. Okay. The greyish brown olive, reminiscent of a kalamata, was, in fact, not an olive at all. Hello, molecular gastronomy. This was the essence of olive, but a tiny balloon of olive juice with all the salty brine you get when you bite into the real thing.

Fortunately there were several in the salad--and I felt like a kid playing with her food. What fun!

We then segued from light to more substantial. Risotto. But, here too tradition was upended. Think of this as a Mexican version of risotto made, yes, with arborio rice, but also heirloom goat eye beans and pearl barley. No cheese in sight and totally not necessary. The richness of the risotto came from wild mushrooms, zucchini blossoms, black truffle and black truffle oil, and a healthy helping of huitlacoche--also known as black gold, fungus on corn that is a true delicacy. Topping the risotto was epazote foam and what looked like tiny geranium petals.

Easing into fall, this spins traditional rice and beans into an elegant yet earthy and filling dish. I loved the distinctiveness of the textures of the arborio, the barley, and the beans--all chewy but different in their own ways.

How to beat this? Well, our last course was perhaps the one Beatriz and I enjoyed most. Pork belly. Was it a taco? Well, kind of. But again, Javier turned tradition on its head and merged two, actually three, cultures.

The slate tile held what looked like a taco with three sauces. But instead of a corn tortilla was a masa and maiz crepe with a hint of cilantro peeking out. The three sauces? From the left a soy mixture, chili de arbol, and then tomatillo and habanero. Then we each removed our toothpicks.

Inside was revealed more cilantro and slices of scallions topping strips of creamy pork belly. I gingerly added the spicy sauces and finished it with a drizzle of the soy, picked it up and took a bite. Then laughed. Clearly Javier had recently had Peking Duck. The pork belly was a combination of juicy flesh and crispy skin. The soy sauce and the richness of the pork was so "Peking Duck" but then there was the cilantro, the scallion, and those spicy salsas. Taco. Encased in a crepe. This isn't the Mexican food that people go to TJ for--but it should be because it clearly expresses the ingredients and cultural influences that are so key to the region. And so bypasses the cliche of what outsiders think encompasses Mexican food which is, well, just street food.

We finished with a colorful dessert plate centered around panacotta. A long tube of panacotta. Tossed in and around the creamy sweet was pineapple sugar ice, a brilliant blue colored jiricaya--like flan with cream, eggs, and sugar but not ordinarily blue--pistachio brittle, strawberry leather, cacao sand, a whisp of cotton candy, white chocolate raspberries, and a slice of roasted, then poached peach. Altogether it was a circus of a plate. I'm not sure how it fit in with the train of courses we'd been on, but it was a colorful and fun end to a surprising and delicious meal. Next up? Caesar's Restaurante Bar, the birthplace of the Caesar salad, but now, with the Plascencias' ownership, the epitome of Baja's new gastronomic culture.

Mision 19 is located at Mision de San Javier, 10643 in Zona Urbana Rio, about a five-minute drive from the border crossing off the 805.

Chocolatier Beatriz Ladezma and her childhood friend Javier Plascencia

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Heart of the Harvest: A Weekend Fundraiser for Olivewood Gardens

2011-09-13T08:04:00.000-07:00

photo courtesy of Cass Green Photography

When I was growing up there weren't many kids you could call fat. Most of us were fed well by (primarily) our mothers and were always shooed outdoors to play unless we were to do homework. TV was a treat. There were no computers, iPads, play stations, or other distractions--except books.

Today, of course, children run a greater risk of becoming obese. Life is more sedentary, both parents often work outside the home, and the ease of fast and packaged foods has made home-cooked meals from fresh fruits and vegetables much rarer. The result is today's kids aren't learning how to eat well, aren't learning where their food comes from, how to grow it, or how to prepare it. And, they run the risk of getting obesity-related diseases like diabetes.

There are a number of programs in San Diego that are working to address this crisis. My favorite is Olivewood Gardens & Learning Center, a seven-acre oasis in National City that teaches children and their families (primarily low-income) how to raise organic produce and then how to prepare the fruits of their labor in the kitchen, creating delicious and nutritious fresh meals. The side benefits are that the kids are educated about nutrition, and the programs support math and reading skills and their science studies, and help them become more self-sufficient. The students are introduced to foods that may be unfamiliar to them and activities they've never tried.

Planting a three-sisters garden (corn, squash, and beans)

My days volunteering as an instructor in the kitchen are the most fun I have and the most rewarding. Julie Darling--who recruits the kitchen instructors--has gotten many of San Diego's best chefs to participate. They include Amy DiBiase, Chad White, Andrew Spurgin, Hanis Cavin, Sara Polczynski, Marguarite Grifka, and more.

Chef Chad White and his students

Molding the perfect Olivewood Garden Burger patty

It's a moving experience to help elementary school kids who have never dug a trowel into the earth to plant a seed or crack open and beat an egg learn these skills--and then also enjoy the dishes they create, trying fresh vegetables and other ingredients that may be totally foreign to them -- and then falling in love with their flavors.

All this is to say that we want to be able to continue to do this work -- and even expand it to bring in more children. So, we're repeating last year's successful fundraiser this fall on Oct. 1 and 2. Our theme is Heart of the Harvest and it's going to be even better than last year's events!

The first event: A Moonlit Soiree, will be an intimate, multi-course gourmet dinner Saturday, October 1 at 6 p.m., with each course prepared by a different prominent San Diego chef (please see below for list of participating chefs) and served under the stars at Olivewood Gardens on tables individually decorated by many of San Diego’s top designers (please see list below). Chef Andrew Spurgin of Campine will be our Master of Ceremonies. Chef Amy DiBiase of The Shores is organizing the chefs. We will also have our first garden-themed art show and opportunity drawing. The 10 participating artists are listed below.

photo courtesy of Cass Greene Photography

The second event: A Day of Play. Art of the Harvest, held Sunday, Oct. 2, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., will be a lively outdoor family day with garden tours, games, swimming, crafts and children’s garden projects, food demonstrations with both local growers and chefs, “Olivewood Garden Burgers” by SoNo Trading Co., and custom Olivewood Garden paletas (Mexican-style fresh fruit popsicles) from Viva Pops. And, we'll be featuring student art work, which will be for sale.

Moonlit Soiree Chefs (list anticipated to grow)
Chad White: Sea Rocket Bistro
Katherine Humphus: Bo Beau
Daniel Manrique: The Red Door
Hanis Cavin: Carnitas’ Snack Shack
Ricardo Heredia: Alchemy
Joe Magnanelli: Cucina Urbana
Craig Jimenez: Craft and Commerce
Sam Burman and Aldo Negrete: Quality Social
Anthony Sinsay: Harney Sushi
Chris Powell: Bali Hai
Rachel Caygill and Scott Caygill: Banker's Hill

A Day of Play
Zach Negin and James Magnetta : Sono Trading Co (OWG Burgers)
Lisa Altmann: Viva Pops

Table Designers List
Thomas Bui Lifestyle
LaVonne of Adorations
Wedding Elegance by Nahid
Amy Vargas of First Comes Love
Frankie of Hartworks Floral
Wyn Austin Events
Helena Parker
Swan Soiree
Bradley of Fun with Jack
Ana of Floral Works and Events
Dawn of Embellishment
Arturo of ArtQuest Floral and Fine Gifts

Artists
Pablo Aztlan Acevedo
John Baldessari, signed exhibition poster
Lynn Cyi
Helen Shafer Garcia
Jim Gibson
Cassandra C. Greene
Tom Hatton
Suda House
Wendy Kwasny
Patricia Patterson
(Note: a preview of the artwork may be seen at www.olivewoodgardens.org)

Activities for Sunday's A Day of Play include:
Paint pots and plant succulents
Make seedballs
Pinecone art
Self-guided garden scavenger hunt
Garden Art - Harvest Themes (sketching, drawing, painting, oil pastels, and sun prints)
Singalong with Pablo & Friends
Eat This, Not THAT!
Lavender Wands
Rock Painting
Croquet
Swimming in the Pool

A Moonlit Soiree is for adults, with tickets priced at $200 per person. Tickets for A Day of Play. Art of the Harvest cost $15. Free admission for children age 12 and under. We really want to encourage families to come down on Sunday and have a great day playing in the gardens and just having fun outside! Tickets may be purchased online at olivewoodgardens.org/heartoftheharvest.

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Organic or Not? How to Prioritize When on a Budget

2011-09-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

I'm often asked if the produce we buy always has to be organic. Let's face it, organic usually costs more than conventionally grown fruits and vegetables and we don't all have a budget that can manage strictly organic.

A few years ago I interviewed Urvashi Rangan, project director of Consumer Reports' Greenerchoices.org. The environmental health scientist believes that it's a matter of prioritizing. The site provides a number of interesting articles on food products related to health, safety, and other food-related news.

Rangan pointed out that berries, for instance, tend to have very high levels of pesticides. "So organic can get you a lot of value," she said. "On the other hand if you're weighing the difference between buying conventional or organic avocados, the thick skin and the fact that avocados may not require as many pesticides to produce means there's not as great a health value in buying organic."

She also noted that parents with young children should be aware that organic food in their children's diet can make a significant different in lowering the amount of pesticide residue they consume. "They're neurotoxins and when they build up in the body, even at low levels, for a child's developing brain and neurosystem, reducing the amount of these agents is a much healthier way to go."

All this, of course, gets back to the main issue. What fruits and vegetables pose the most challenges where pesticides are concerned and which ones are less problematic?

There are two websites consumers should pay attention to. The first is a list put out by the Environmental Working Group. This list ranks 53 fruits and vegetables based on pesticide residue data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. The lower the number, the more pesticides. So, you have apples, celery, strawberry, peaches, and spinach in the top five. Asparagus, avocado, pineapples, sweet corn, and onions are at the bottom--meaning they have the fewest amount of pesticides. Less than one percent of sampled onions, for instance, were found to have any pesticide residue.

The EWG's executive summary is the most direct, with a list of what to buy organic and what is lowest in pesticides. For a quick reference, this is quite useful. The group is also developing an iPhone app.

Another group doing some fascinating work in this arena is the Pesticide Action Network. Here you'll learn that 888 million pounds of pesticides are applied annually in the U.S., averaging three pounds per person. So, what's on your food? Go to the site and select a product and click. A page will open listing how many pesticide residues are found on that product, what they are and the toxicity risks to humans and the environment. So, click on green beans, for instance, and you'll find it has 44 pesticide residues--chemical names that are pretty unpronounceable. Some, like carbendazim, are suspected hormone disrupters. Others like diazinon, hit that along with bee toxins, developmental or reproductive toxins, and neurotoxins.

"We have found that folks are grateful to see which pesticides are linked to particular health threats--so the brain, DNA, child, and bee icons have been helpful points of orientation/interpretation," explained Heather Pilatic, PAN's spokeswoman. "In sum, pesticides are enormously variable in their toxicity. That's why we cross-referenced the residue data with toxicological info from www.pesticideinfo.org."

PAN also has an iPhone app. And, like EWG, they have a quick and easy top 10 list--with research caveats.

Altogether, these are a good start for consumers who are trying to eat purer food and want to better identify how what they buy will impact their bodies.

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Chinese Wing Beans Take Flight

2011-08-30T06:58:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I stopped by Chino Farms to buy corn for my Labor Day Local Bounty blog post in San Diego Magazine. As I was trolling around the displays, also picking up some heirloom tomatoes and French strawberries, my attention was drawn to some very strange looking vegetables. Wide and wavy along four distinct edges, they were nothing I'd ever seen before.

Nina McConnel Chino, wife of Tom Chino, who runs the farm, was working at the stand that morning and saw me staring at them. She smiled at my confusion and told me they were Chinese wing beans. Yes, beans.

Wing beans, also known as winged beans, Manila beans, and Goa beans, are thought to be native to Southeast Asia. The plant itself is completely edible--not just the pods, but also the shoots, leaves, flowers, and seeds. Even the tubers, although they're very small.

What I found at Chino's stand, of course, were the pods, which have a grassy, salty flavor in a crisp bite. Nina explained that they can be eaten raw dipped in a Vietnamese-style sauce. They're also commonly included in curries and pork dishes. Or, they're delicious sauteed with ginger, garlic, and sesame oil. Add some corn and you're set.

Well, I had corn, so I bought about half a pound of the beans ($8 a pound but so light, you get a lot of beans for the money), took them home, trimmed both ends and then sauteed them in a little butter with corn kernels I shaved off the cob.

It just took minutes. Then I added a little soy sauce and oyster sauce. Just enough to suggest the flavors, but not so much that they overpower the sweetness of the butter and corn. Top with some toasted sesame seeds and you've got a delicious and wonderfully easy if unusual looking dish.

Sauteed Chino Wing Beans and Corn
Serves 3 as a side dish

1/2 pound of wing beans, trimmed on both ends
Kernels from 1 ear of corn
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon lightly toasted sesame seeds

Melt the butter in a medium size saute pan. Add the garlic and saute until it releases its scent--about half a minute. Add the corn and toss briefly. Then add the wing beans. Saute for about five minutes. Don't overcook the beans. You want them al dente.

Add the soy sauce and oyster sauce. Mix well, then turn off the heat. Transfer the beans and corn to a serving dish and sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds. Serve. It's also good the next day as a cold dish.

Printable Recipe

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The Forager: 1500 Ocean's Aaron Martinez

2011-08-23T06:44:00.000-07:00

Like many San Diego diners, I was surprised and saddened when Brian Sinnott left the kitchen of 1500 Ocean at the Hotel del Coronado. A terrifically talented chef, he was going to be tough to replace. But, it looks like the management has found a worthy new team for the restaurant, led by chef de cuisine Aaron Martinez.

Martinez, who joined 1500 Ocean in June, arrived from across the bridge and just up the road at The Restaurant at Rancho Valencia in Rancho Santa Fe. Martinez also spent three years under William Bradley at Addison and was a sous chef at The Prado. But, intriguingly, he rounded out his training in two very different European countries: Belgium, where he interned at In de Wolf, and Spain, at the three-star Michelin-rated Restaurante Martin Berasategui in Lasarte-Oria.

Raised in San Clemente, Martinez has a fierce appreciation for locally raised fresh ingredients. And, that includes wild plants. Martinez honed his foraging skills in Belgium. "That's what we did in Belgium," he says. "It just makes sense. Foraging makes you that much closer to the food. It's all about respect for our terroir."

Fortunately, San Diego's canyons yield plenty of bounty. Martinez lives in South Park and often forages in nearby canyons. He says he's found nettles there and the baby sorrel in our grouper dish came from a canyon expedition. Of course, the Del has recently redone its gardens and the beds surrounding the restaurant are filled with herbs and produce that he and his staff can wander outside to pick.

Martinez's menu is simple and focused on clean flavors that emphasize the ingredients. He describes his food as "modern American with French influences." Even the descriptions of each dish on his tasting menu are stripped of pretense. Tomato. Spot Prawn. Scallop. Grouper. Ham Hock. Beef Cheek & New York, Mille Feuille. A few accompanying ingredients are listed to give a hint of what you'll encounter, but there's no attempt to bedazzle through words. The food is all.

So, my friends and I made our way through beautifully presented dishes on the chef's tasting menu.

The tomato with currants, basil, and fresh cheese--house-made burrata--was set off with a light and fresh heirloom tomato consomme.

The cherry tomatoes popped with sweetness but were kept from being cloying by the tartness of the currants, the spicy anise flavor of the basil, and the creaminess of the cheese.

Then came the Santa Barbara spot prawn, lightly cooked and accompanied by concord grapes and a tangy ginger verjus reduction. What I especially enjoyed was the shaved celery. The light bitterness and crunch was more than a pretty garnish but a complement to the sweet and tender shrimp.

Next up was a gorgeously seared scallop.

Martinez played off the scallop texture and color with an artichoke heart quarter, then created a diversion with a salty slice of olive and a sparkling Meyer lemon froth.

We moved on from that light dish to a more deeply toned one of grouper with sea urchin sauce.

I loved this dish. The grouper had a brilliant crispy skin while the flesh was delicate with a wisp of citrus tones. The sea urchin sauce beneath was satiny and rich with an ocean brine finish that was set off by the sour sorrel leaves. And how cool to roast and smoke the carrots. It's something I'd like to try at home with root vegetables.

That roasting and smoking theme carried over to the next dish, the ham hock. It was sweet and salty and oh so tender. The ham hock was accompanied by a mustard duo of emulsion and tiny fresh flowers. I enjoyed the roasted turnip--and, by all means, show us the root--and the peppery nasturtium leaves.

The last savory dish of the menu was the combination beef cheek and New York steak.

Both pieces of beef were precisely cooked and both benefited from dollops of sweet and salty corn pudding, studded with tiny sauteed chanterelles. And, what a lovely idea to combined slices of charred onions with a dab of onion jam on the New York steak. A little green, thanks to floating arugula leaves, provided a splash of color and tinge of bitterness. A perfect ending.

Except, of course, for dessert. Sweets are a challenge for me these days, but I couldn't resist dipping into Martinez's confection of chocolate mousse between paper-thin chocolate wafers with orange and coffee purees and a small scoop of house-made vanilla bean gelato. In fact, I dug in before I realized I hadn't gotten a photo of it. My apologies, but this was tremendous. Martinez focused on pastry making while in Europe and it will be fun to see what he does with pastry going forward.

Each of these dishes were paired with wines presented by wine director and manager Joe Weaver. I'm not drinking these days, so I can't speak to the pairings, but Weaver has an established reputation at the Del as a distinctive sommelier and manages the wine program--with over 800 labels--for ENO, the Del's wine, cheese, and chocolate room. Weaver kept his pairing presentations simple and concise, explaining each wine's provenance and the elements to look for in each sip.

With Martinez and Weaver collaborating at 1500 Ocean, plus the beauty of the oceanfront setting and the comfortable and attentive service, the restaurant should be a destination for locals as well as the Del's tourist trade. I'm looking forward to seeing how it will evolve as Martinez settles in.

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The Square Deal at the Farmers Markets

2011-08-16T06:37:00.000-07:00


photo by Nick Bastone

It can sometimes get frustrating while shopping at the local farmers market when the items we want to purchase are a little too pricey for cash or add up to more cash than we have on hand--and the vendors can't take a credit or debit card. True enough, the merchant fees for the cards can be steep and some of the smaller guys just can't afford them. But, who wants to lose a sale because the customer didn't have enough cash? And, who wants to be the customer who really wants that beef brisket, bacon, and package of sausages but has to walk away because of a lack of ATM twenties?

So, it's been interesting to see a new card technology called Square showing up at the markets. A project of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Square launched last October, it's a combination mobile app and small white hardware device that plugs into the headphone jack of an iPhone, iPad, or Android. Vendors simply download the app, plug in the device, and then swipe debit or credit cards to have payments deposited directly into their bank accounts within 12 to 36 hours, depending on the bank.

photo courtesy of Square

The beauty of this is that there are no contracts or hidden fees for the vendors. It's a flat rate of 2.75 percent per transaction. If vendors enter credit cards manually, the fee is 3.5 percent plus 15 cents a transaction. Nick Bastone, who works for Square, also says that Square meets and exceeds all industry-standard security practices. Square's network and servers are housed in a secure facility monitored around the clock and the software uses industry-standard security best practices, including encryption of customer information. And, Bastone adds, unlike typical credit card processors, Square can track the location of a sale and send receipts via SMS or email. (Actually, I don't think that's quite right. At least two vendors I know using more traditional payment systems have asked me if I wanted my receipt emailed to me.)

Square already is being picked up locally. At the La Jolla farmers market, for instance, six vendors already are using it. And, people I spoke to at the Little Italy Mercato on Saturday told me that they had made purchases from vendors using Square.

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A Peck of Peppers

2011-08-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

Every once in awhile my friend Kelly Orange at Specialty Produce does the Twitter equivalent of whispering something enticing into my ear. "@carondg, we've got French heirloom potatoes," she'll tweet (knowing these are my favorites). Well, last week it was, "We've got peppers." No sooner had I seen this irresistible note then I raced over there to see what was available from the Santa Monica farmers market trip made that day by the other Kellie--Kellie Palermo.

Okay, local, right? And I asked them about that. These peppers were from farms in Northern California and, well, this is San Diego Foodstuff and I do write a column for San Diego Magazine called Local Bounty and here I am surrounded by peppers grown hundreds of miles away.

But, according to the Kelly/ies, it turns out that not many peppers are grown locally. Yes, I've seen them--primarily poblanos, shishitos, and padrons--at Suzie's Farm and Chino Farms, but they don't sell to Specialty Produce and that's about it, they say. (And, yes, I welcome any corrections/enlightenment someone wants to offer.) Okay, I'm also growing my own. I have jalapeños, chocolate, and spicy Thai chiles in my garden right now. But these... You have to take a look before I chop them up, pickle them, grill them, or whatever else I decide to do.

So, here are Sweet Bananas peppers. These can be pickled or stir fried.

These Guernicas are huge--five or six inches long--by contrast to what they're typically compared to: Padrons. Yes, like Padrons you can toss them in oil and salt (and maybe add some lemon zest a la Searsucker) and then grill them to eat as a snack. They're also perfect stuffed with cheese.

Piment d'Anglet are a curious-looking Basque sweet frying pepper. Long with a curl and they want to hang together like those plastic toy monkeys of childhood. These are great raw in a salad, fried or sauteed. Or, again, like the Padron, toss with oil and salt and grill.

The vibrant red Lipsticks are so visually compelling. Slice them up and saute with onions and garlic, stuff them with chopped crabmeat, stir fry or roast them with eggplant, or chop them and add to a salad.

White jalapeños are just that, so they are going to go into a salsa this weekend. They're also delicious grilled.

Hungarian sweet peppers are a little controversial. There are also peppers this color that are much smaller and rounder and also called Hungarian sweet peppers. These look like pale yellow bells. Fry these up with onions and sausages or chop into large pieces and pickle them.

You can pick any of these peppers--and even more varieties--at Specialty Produce. And, I'd love to get some inspiration from you about how you use them.

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Dig That "Dollar a Dish" and Support Food 4 Kids Backpack Program

2011-08-01T08:19:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the year again when we raise money for the San Diego Food Bank's Food 4 Kids Backpack Program. This year, the focus is on Dollar a Dish and Alice Robertson and I have handed over the reins to the Food Bank so they can continue the tradition.

So, starting today, August 1, we have over 30 restaurants and food trucks participating. Each one has pledged to pick one popular dish on their menu and donate $1 to Food 4 Kids each time it's sold during August. The money goes to buy food and backpacks for elementary school children who receive free school meals during the week, but who go hungry over the weekend or school holidays. The program currently serves 800 children in 22 schools. With our help and the support of the community, the Food Bank will serve 1,050 children in 26 schools in the 2011-2012 school year.

All you have to do is go out to eat at the participating restaurants and be sure to order the featured dish. So, you'll have a nice meal and help make a difference. Me? I'm launching the fundraiser with lunch today at Blueprint Cafe and ordering the signature salad. Where are you going?

Here's the list of participants and their dishes:

Food Trucks
Chop Sooey: BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich with Cilantro Lime Cole Slaw & Lobster Roll
Devilicious: Burger DuJour
Corner Cupcakes: Six Pack of Cupcakes
Flippin Pizza: Buffalo Chicken Pie
Food Farm: Soyrizo Chili Fries
MangiaMangia: Meatball Panini
Ms. Patty Melt: Patty Melt Burger
Two for the Road: Cap'n Crunch Crab Cakes

Restaurants
Blueprint Cafe: Signature Salad (first week only)
Burlap: Red Chili Rock Shrimp
Cowboy Star: Pan Roasted Chicken Breast
Croce's Restaurant and Bar: 2 Appetizers: The Seared Sea Scallops and the Charbroiled CAB Filet Mignon
Cucina Urbana: Any pizza during lunch
Flavor Del Mar: Heirloom Tomato Salad with Sweet Corn Relish and Banyuls Vinaigrette
Flippin Pizza: Buffalo Chicken Pie (4 locations)
Kensington Grill: Sweet Chili "fall of the bone" pork baby back ribs with jalapeño cheddar cornbread + lime butter
Nine-Ten: Nine-Ten Burger
Prep Kitchen: Salted Caramel Brownie
Rimel's: Potstickers
Ritual Tavern: Seafood Bouillabaisse
Searsucker: Artichoke Hearts
Sprinkles: Cinnamon Sugar Cupcakes
Terra: Potato, Brie & Red Onion Quesadilla
The Red Door: Turkey Meatloaf
The Wellington: Beef Wellington
Whisk n'Ladle: Chocolate Pot Du Creme
Zenbu: Hot Rock

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Julie² or Just Call Us Dining Details

2011-07-27T15:56:00.000-07:00

Two of the San Diego food community's favorite Julies have just announced a unique collaboration that begins August 1.

Julie Franz (l) and Julie Darling (r)

Julie Darling of Just Call Us -- Catering, Volunteers, and Kitchen Rental -- and Julie Frans of Dining Details personal chef and catering business have just signed an agreement that turns over Dining Details's El Cajon commissary kitchen to Just Call Us Kitchen Rental so that Julie Frans and her husband Robbie can move to Miami and Julie can spend more time with her two young kids as well as follow her dream to write a book, develop recipes, and participant in the local food movement as it impacts children.

Frans explained that five months ago she and her husband started re-evaluating what they wanted and realized that they needed to make some big changes. They love catering, but with two small children and a growing business, their family life was being short changed.

"I was back at work four days after Cassidy was born," she said. "The path was to get busier, busier, busier at the expense of raising the kids."

So Robbie decided he'd be the primary breadwinner and Julie would get some flexibility. He got a lot of offers but decided to return to work as a private chef for a family in Miami he'd worked for before. He's already started with them and the family will join him in Miami in October. Julie plans to dig into the local Slow Food group, develop her blog, and get involved with lunch programs at local schools as she did with her Chickpeas program here. And, yes, Julie, who has a lot of family here, will regularly return to San Diego to work with her Dining Details clients and their events.

Julie Darling, who runs a rental kitchen in Clairemont and has been looking to expand the business, will take over the Dining Details space and inventory and keep working with their chefs to work events. She's already got a couple of businesses interested in becoming tenants and is hoping to attract East County food artisans who need a licensed kitchen where they can make their products.

"I'm as excited for Julie as I am for us," Frans said. "The universe brought us together for a whole new chapter for each of us."

For Darling, it means she has an additional 1,750 square feet of kitchen space for what's been an under-served culinary community in East County. "The joke is that's out in the wilderness, but close to the kitchen there's North Park Produce, Sprouts, Harvest Ranch, Costco, and Smart & Final," she noted.

And, the space will continue to be a CSA pickup location for Be Wise Ranch. Julie Frans will continue to create recipes for the CSA, which are included in each week's bags of produce.

"This has been a very cooperative transition," Darling said. "Julie will still be here periodically for events and the Dining Details food will be consistent because her staff will remain. And, I can offer a great space for people who need to rent a professional kitchen in East County."

If you're interested in renting space from Just Call Us Kitchen Rental, you can reach Julie Darling at chefjulie@me.com. If you have an event you want Dining Details to cater, you can reach Julie Frans at julie@diningdetails.com

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Cooking with Friends: A Dinner Extravaganza

2011-07-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

Those of us who love to cook can often find no greater pleasure than hanging out in the kitchen with friends who are just as passionate about good food and the joy of cooking as we are. So, when my great and oh so talented food writer friend Brandon Hernandez and his wife Heather invited me over for dinner recently -- and then put me to work -- we were all blissed out. It was the best possible way to unwind from a busy weekday of work.

Now, first, get a load of the menu he sent me in advance:

Fennel pollen-dusted scallops over zuchinni and summer squash angel hair with toasted garlic shingles, and Berliner wieze Sauce Grenoble, paired with Lightning Brewery Sauerstrom Ale

Dual pork tenderloin - rosemary-crusted and cinnamon-spiced with bacon-infused sweet corn grits and truffled grilled asparagus, paired with Green Flash Treasure Chest Belgian Pale Ale

Oy! What in the world would I bring for dessert? (And could I ever invite him over for dinner in turn?) I settled on David Lebovitz's Red Wine and Raspberry Sorbet, which I made with a rosé, along with Chocolate Heath Bar Cookies and I brought along some fresh raspberries.

There's an art to having people over and feel welcomed and wanted. Here's Brandon's first gesture:

The second was to hand me a knife and ask me to slice garlic cloves verrrry thin. My second job was to sear the scallops while Heather created the "pasta" with the squash using a mandoline. This truly was an act of friendship since I can't eat much regular grain pasta these days.

Dinner, of course, was stunning. The pork duo was tender, with just the right amount of herbs and spices to complement the meat. The grits were creamy, but I loved the addition of fresh corn kernels, which added sweetness to the smoky essence of bacon and a nice bite of texture. Here's the pork and grits course:

And, I was so taken with the bright flavors of the pasta and scallops that I asked Brandon if I could share the recipe here. Trust me, he has many magazine outlets where this could go, so this was another act of friendship. Thanks, Brandon -- and Heather -- for a perfect evening of food with good friends!

Fennel Pollen-dusted Sea Scallops

with Squash Angel Hair & Grenoble Sauce
(Printable Recipe)

A huge fan of craft beer, specifically San Diego craft beer, I’m always looking to turn people on to it, not only as a fine beverage, but a great accompaniment to food and ingredient in recipes…like this one. A more petite version of this dish was served as the amuse bouche for a big beer-pairing dinner I developed all of the recipes for at Trattoria Acqua last summer. It was a huge hit and is a recipe I’ve prepared at home several times since. Instead of white wine, I like to use a local saison-style ale (usually Carnevale Ale from The Lost Abbey in San Marcos). It does a great job of working with the natural tartness of the lemon juice and balancing, rather than adding to, the acidity of the capers.

Yield – 8 servings

2 zucchini, mandolin-sliced into thin noodles

2 yellow squash, mandolin-sliced into thin noodles

2 tsp unsalted butter

2 tsp olive oil (garlic-infused, if available)

16 sea scallops

2 Tbsp fennel pollen (or fennel pollen spice blend, such as M Ocean, to substitute)

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 tsp extra olive oil

¼ cup shallot, finely diced

2 Tbsp capers, rinsed of brine

½ cup saison-style beer (or dry white wine to substitute)

¼ cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice

1 cup unsalted butter, diced into ¼-ounce cubes

1 tsp Italian parsley, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 200° F.

Bring lightly salted water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the zucchini and yellow squash and blanch for 1 minute. Remove from water and set aside in a strainer to drain.

Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Stir in the oil and bring up to temperature. Season the scallops with the fennel pollen and salt on both sides and place in the pan. Sear until golden brown on each side, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Remove scallops from the pan and place in oven to hold.

Heat the oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the shallot and capers, season with pepper, and sauté, stirring, for 1 minute. Deglaze with the beer and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and reduce the liquid by half. Whisk in the butter, a cube at a time, until it is fully incorporated. Season with salt and pepper as needed and stir in the parsley. Add the zucchini and yellow squash to the sauce and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

To serve, spoon a mound of angel hair in the center of a bowl and place 2 scallops on top. Serve immediately.

– Recipe courtesy Brandon Hernández

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Reeds: The Summer Avocado

2011-07-19T07:08:00.000-07:00

While everyone is rhapsodic about the emergence of stone fruit, tomatoes, and melons--all that marks quintessential summer food--I'm blissed out over the arrival of Reed avocados.

Think of these as summer avocados. Fuertes are beginning to fade away with the season. Bacons are now months away. And, okay yes, Hass are everywhere almost year round -- but Reeds are a rich, buttery delight of an avocado in the form of a softball-sized globe. Like the Hass, they have a thick peel, easy to remove. And, my experience is that the seed also easily separates from the flesh. I've read that this variety remains firm even when ripe, making it a lousy candidate for guacamole, but I haven't experienced that.

In fact, one of my favorite ways to enjoy Reed avocados, is smashed on toast for breakfast. And, of course, I top it with a sprinkling (heavy handed) of Tajin. The salty and sour (thanks to dehydrated lime) qualities of the Tajin complement the gentle flavor and richness of the Reed.

Atkins Nursery of Fallbrook grows them. I found their stall at the Friday evening Mission Hills farmers market on Falcon St. The other local grower who has them is Paradise Valley Ranch. They're at the North Park, Little Italy, and Pacific Beach farmers markets.

Looking for a unique guacamole? When chef Jesus Gonzalez ran the kitchen at Rancho La Puerta he introduced what he calls "Aztec Guacamole," which includes peas to boost the nutritional content and reduce the fat. It creates a slightly different flavor from traditional guacamole, but that creamy goodness from the avocado remains and you have a healthier, irresistible sauce perfect for dipping and topping tacos and tostadas on a sultry summer night.

Aztec Guacamole
Makes 2 cups

1 cup frozen peas, slightly thawed
1 medium avocado, peeled and pitted
2 tablespoons fresh lime or lemon juice, or to taste
1 medium tomato, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1/2 red or sweet onion, cut into 1/8-inch dice
1 jalapeño or serrano chile, seeded and minced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1. In a blender or the bowl of a food processor, process the peas until smooth.
2. In a medium bowl, mash the avocado with a fork or potato masher. Add the juice, tomato, onion, jalapeño, cilantro, garlic, salt, and black pepper. Add the peas and mix well.
3. If the guacamole won't be served immediately, press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent browning.

Variation: Instead of peas, use 1 cup of well-cooked broccoli, edamame, or cooked asparagus tips.

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Caprese Beef Bacon and Heirloom Tomato Salad

2011-07-11T06:59:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Mexico, for always sharing the remnants of your humid summer storms with those of us who live in San Diego. We're just recovering from a bout of hot and humid days that were the gift of a tropical storm south of us and I don't know anyone who's in the mood to do any major cooking. Me included.

So, when I took a look Saturday afternoon at my accumulated farmers market purchases to figure out what to make for dinner I was overjoyed to realize that I had a summer feast in front of me that required only a little bit of heat. On Friday evening I'd been to the Mission Hills farmers market, where I picked up a package of Brandt Beef's beef bacon, and Saturday morning I acquired an enormous and beautiful heirloom tomato picked hours earlier at Chino Farms, along with an unusual elongated green and yellow pepper.

I coveted this tomato while chatting with the Chinos--and it was still there when I was ready to buy.

Plus, I had some mozzarella (sorry, not from a farmers market, but Henry's), a red onion from Schaner Farms, basil from my garden, and, in my pantry, lovely Temecula Valley Blend olive oil from Temecula Olive Oil Company. Oh, and smoked salt from Salt Farm.

In short, a bonanza for a hot Saturday night at home with the dogs. Only one thing to do: make my version of a Caprese salad for dinner.

Look at how beautiful this is--inside and out.

Do I have a recipe for this? Nah. Just gather your ingredients, slice what needs slicing, cook what needs cooking, then layer one on top of another and sprinkle some salt and pepper over the pile. Drizzle the salad with olive oil and vinegar (my vinegar of choice was a strong Sherry vinegar from Spain that I picked up at Pata Negra), and dig in. You'll get a mix of flavors--acid from the tomato and vinegar, savory smokiness from the bacon and salt, sweet anise from the basil, more sweetness from the red onion, heat from the charred pepper, and that always lovely umami from the mozzarella. And you can't beat the mixture of textures--crunch from the bacon and onions, silky softness from the cheese, gentle chew from the vegetables. It's bright and refreshing, but, of course, its success is totally dependent on the quality of the ingredients--there's no hiding anything here.

The only cooking here was crisping up the beef bacon and roasting the pepper.

So after the salad, surely I must have had dessert, right? Oh, yes. How about half of a petite Snow Leopard melon (like honeydew but prettier) and sweet-like-candy Mara des Bois strawberries from, yes, Chino Farms. These are strawberries that make you believe in the magic of summer.

Mexico, I'm not wary of those thunderheads off in the distance. Bring it on again. I'm ready.

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Dill Pickle Lust Revived

2011-07-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

I have this childhood memory--shared to my knowledge with at least one of my cousins--of going to see my Nana and Poppa (i.e., my maternal grandparents) on weekends and invariably seeing several quarts jars of dill pickles soaking in the sun on their front porch. And that meant one thing: that we'd be sent home with these oh so sour, garlicky pickles with instructions to shake the jars periodically and let them sit for several more days before opening.

Ah, they were good. Nana, a magical cook and baker in your basic Eastern European Jewish immigrant tradition, used small--perhaps three inch--pickling cucumbers and tons of fresh dill. She'd make a slit into the middle of each cuke so they would absorb the flavors of the spices and herbs that she stuffed into the jar with them. The pickles would have a bit of a crunch and then spill out a delicious sour garlicky dill juice that I still associate with summer and the knockwursts that my dad would split lengthwise and pan fry, then smother with bright-tasting Ba-Tampte deli mustard and crunchy sauerkraut. If we had a batch of Nana's pickles around, my dad's coming-home-from-work ritual would be to head straight to the fridge after entering the house, pull out the jar and reach in for a pickle or two for a quick snack before heading upstairs to change. My dad was obsessed with them, as was the rest of our family.

Nana's been gone for close to 20 years, but I have her recipe. And my mom, who made them sporadically over the years but not lately, not only also has that recipe of her mother's, but also very similar ones from Nana's sister Goldie and daughter-in-law Lois. So, my mom and I got together a couple of weeks ago and pooled our recipe resources to create a batch.

There was a bit of a hiccup, though. Back in the day, these ladies all used alum to keep the cucumbers crisp. But it's hard to find and now regarded as not a good chemical to consume. Also, it was hard to find small pickling cucumbers and whole dill plants (My mom tells me that during the Depression, Nana grew hers in her victory garden; she also made her pickles in a large bowl, not in jars). Specialty Produce contributed to the cause with the cucumbers they had in stock, which were much larger. And I picked up some of the packaged baby dill sold at the supermarkets. To compensate for the alum, I also bought a container of Ball pickling spice for kosher dill cucumbers because I noticed it included pickle crisp granules. (I've since bought the granules and pickling salt online through Ball's website.)

With everything in hand, we set to work.

First things, first--scrub the cucumbers.

Here's my mom, Evie Golden, volunteer model for the photos and the best cook/baker I know.

Then, I like to set up all the ingredients:

We didn't process the pickles (Nana never did), but we did wash, then boil the jars and lids. Then the big strategic question: How to fill the jars? First, because these cukes were so big, we could only squeeze three in if I really worked them. Not a viable solution, so we cut them into thirds (and a few even smaller to fit more into each jar). Then Mom tried putting in the cukes first before adding the spices.

But that made adding the dill too difficult. So, we pulled out the cucumber pieces and put the spices and herbs in the jars first. Much better.

After that, you fill the jars with boiling water, leaving half an inch of head space. Top the jars with the lid and screw the band on tightly before turning the jars upside down for a few days.

That's it. Sit them out in the sun for a day or so to expedite the curing process. Then bring them in the house and let them cure for five days. Once you open the jars, keep them in the refrigerator. I'm going to try processing them in a water bath next time so I can put spare jars into the pantry for eating later in the year.

Here's the recipe pulled together from the three I mentioned:

Badion Family Kosher Dill Pickles
(Printable Recipe)

By the way, this will also work for green tomatoes. When Valdivia's green tomatoes show up at the farmers markets, I'm going to try this recipe with them.

Makes 8 quarts (use wide-mouth glass jars)

24 large pickling cucumbers or more if they are small OR
5 pounds green tomatoes

For each jar:
2 or more large sprigs of fresh dill (you can't use too much)
4 cloves garlic, roughly sliced
1 dried chile pepper
4 bay leaves
5 or more peppercorns
1 pinch Ball Pickle Crisp Granules
1 rounded tablespoon kosher salt
Boiling water

(optional for color: baby carrots, celery)

1. Prep washed jars and lids by sterilizing in boiling water or running through the dishwasher. Wash the bands in soap and water.

2. Wash and scrub the cucumbers/tomatoes.

3. If the cucumbers are large, you may need to slice them into thirds to fit them in the jars. If they're small, just cut off the tips so the cucumbers will absorb the liquid. For the tomatoes, you can leave them whole or slice them in half to fit.

4. Fill the bottom of each jar first with the dill, garlic, chile pepper, bay leaves, peppercorns, Pickle Crisp Granules, and salt. Then pack in the cucumbers/tomatoes--but don't force them in.

5. Fill each jar with boiling water, leaving half an inch of head space.

6. Top with the lid and screw on the band tightly. Turn each jar upside down to spread the pickling spices throughout the jar. You can put them in the sun to cure for a day or two. They should be ready in five days but you ought to let them sit longer (up to 10 days) to get more sour and flavorful.

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Agretti Frittata with Diable-Roasted Yukon Golds

2011-06-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

Last week at the Little Italy Mercato, while picking through the citrus usually sold at the Polito Family Farm stall, I came upon a cloud of greens that I'd never seen before. Meet agretti, a Mediterranean plant originally from the Adriatic with the Latin name Salsola soda and also known as "opposite leaved salwort," "opposite leaf Russian thistle," "Barilla plant," "Barba di Frate," "roscana," and "Liscari sativa."

The only two farms I know of that grow and sell it are Polito and Windrose (who sells it through Specialty Produce), but it's a short season in the spring and that's it.

Well, as I wrote in my Local Bounty column for San Diego Magazine, the season's short and it's now, so get on it quick. It's a strange, wild looking vegetable, sometimes confused with the equally strange sea bean. But instead of being infused with saltiness like the sea bean, the flavor is grassy. It's long stemmed with little leaves reminiscent of rosemary leaves. When you buy them, look for the slenderest of stems or just use the tops and leave the thicker stems at the bottom of the plant.

At the Polito stall, I was told that agretti is traditionally sauteed in butter, olive oil, and lemon -- and maybe a little shallot -- then tossed with pasta. But, they'd also heard of chefs using it to top pizza. Of course, you can always use it fresh -- chopped into a salad. Since I'd also just bought fresh eggs from Schaner Farms, I decided to make a frittata.

Regardless of how you end up using your sauteed agretti (and I sauteed mine just in olive oil with garlic and the green onions above), keep in mind that they will cook down, rather like spinach. Just don't cook them so much that they lose their crunch.

When these were ready I simply added two eggs and one egg white that I had beaten with a little milk and let them cook until set. Earlier, I had pulled out my French diable and added coarse sea salt and about half a dozen small Yukon gold potatoes. I've written about the diable before.

It's a marvelous clay pot from France (I bought it online from L'Atelier Vert) that cooks root vegetables and chestnuts without oil. Between the steam and the heat, the salt, and the rustic red clay's inimitable properties, you end up with a crispy potato that's creamy on the inside with a smoky flavor.

And that's it. A very easy dinner that's about as seasonal as you can get.

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When an Octopus Comes to (Be) Dinner

2011-06-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

I've gotten lots of intriguing invitations over the years to witness chefs doing what some would consider bizarre activities in the kitchen. But, I hadn't been invited to an octopus break down.

That is until North Park's Sea Rocket Bistro issued an invitation. Chef/partner Chad White had picked up about 20 pounds of local La Jolla octopus from Catalina Offshore Products and had grand plans for them. Some were headed to sushi heaven as "octopussy sushi" while others would be grilled and served with smoked cod Brandade, white peach romesco, roasted local almonds, and basil salsa verde. In the past, White's also used octopus in a seafood cassoulet that also included a tremendous skate wing sausage.

I had visions of some behemoth sea monster sprawling over the counter towards the stove of the rather small kitchen. So I was surprised to see these little three-pound creatures.

Male or female? Who knew? But they were fresh from the coastal waters just up the road and White was going to show us how he breaks them down, poaches them in a unique court bouillon, and then grills them for any number of dishes.

I videoed the first steps (my apologies for some blur--my first time using the video feature on my Canon 60D):

So, basically, you fold back the forehead and gently remove excess tissue on the top, remove the beak and then the eyes, which look like little pieces of tapioca.

And, what was this? Looks like we had a girl because White found an egg sack. And, don't think he's not going to figure out a way to use it.

Before we arrived, White had put together the ingredients for his bouquet garni: raw sardines, sliced serrano chiles, lemon peel and half a lemon, a bay leaf, parsley, thyme, and garlic.

He carefully rolled the ingredients in cheesecloth and tied the package with twine.

This would go into one of three boiling pots of water. According to an old fisherman's tale, to cook an octopus you first boil three pots of water. Dip the octopus into the first one for 10 seconds or until the water stops boiling. Then dip it into the second for 10 seconds or, again, until the water stops boiling. And the same with the third. Then return the octopus to the first pot for 20 minutes -- and add wine corks. They apparently help tenderize the octopus.

The octopus is then removed to drain and cool. Notice, the change in color from grey to red and the new curl to the tentacles.

White already had prepared a mixture of olive oil, parsley, and garlic. Once out of the pot, he sliced the tentacles off the octopus and tossed them in the herb mixture.

Now, it was time to hit the grill. These take no time at all to cook. You can add some smoked salt to the tentacles once they hit the grill to enhance the flavor.

Off the grill and into a bowl, where they're first tossed with some greens and then plated here for us into a gorgeous salad.

Spontaneous salad with grilled octopus, endive, arugula, mustard mayo, White's spicy tomato jam, and a squeeze of orange juice

I've seen a similar approach taken with squid--for they both need braising or poaching before grilling or else you get one tough sea creature--but the octopus show was particularly fascinating. Like biology class but with a delicious meal at the end instead of a pop quiz. The octopus has a slightly chewy texture with a sweet smoky flavor that's very appealing.

Sea Rocket Bistro will have octopus on the menu this week and when it's available. It is highly sustainable and you can't get more local than La Jolla.

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Pickles for Opopie

2011-06-16T07:38:00.000-07:00

My dad loves to reminiscence about his cherished Brooklyn childhood and, in particular, about The Park Manor. This was the kosher catering hall his grandfather, Henry Denmark, owned on Brooklyn's Eastern Parkway and ran with seven of his sons and daughters in the 1930s, 40s, and early 50s. My dad describes it as the premier kosher catering establishment of its day and it was certainly the center of my family's world. Back then, most Jewish couples in Brooklyn were married there, posing for photos on the grand marble staircase, just as my grandparents, Sam and Anna, did here. Don't you love that veil? Sadly, somehow it got lost over the years.

Young boys celebrated their bar mitzvahs at The Park Manor, including my dad--but his was held on a weekday, not Shabbat. My great-grandfather wasn't about to lose a night's business to family, even his oldest grandchild.

The Park Manor clearly was my dad's home away from home from the time he was a young boy, and his favorite thing to do was hang out in the basement kitchen taking snatches of the kishka, knishes, and kreplachs being made for the huge affairs. He learned how to carve a beautiful fruit bowl and make a variety of appetizers, thanks to a cook there named Rosie. His favorite was made with a rectangular piece of crustless white bread on which was spread a mixture of skinless and boneless sardines mashed with lemon and mayo, topped with slices of hardboiled egg whites and garnished with pimento and green olive. My dad still loves skinless and boneless sardines prepared like this. Um, this explains a lot about our eating habits.

But what my brother, sister, and I heard about endlessly as children were the temptations of the pickle barrels stored along with containers of huge Spanish olives in the kitchen's walk-in refrigerator. From the age of 10 or so, he'd steal into the refrigerator and grab a couple large kosher dills at a time, only sometimes shooed away by his favorite person there, Izzy, who worried that the kid would get sick from them. Never. My dad loves sour kosher dills, specifically new ones.

He had to say goodbye to all that when my grandfather moved the family to Los Angeles when Dad was 16. But LA is where he met my mom and it turned out that one of the side benefits of marrying her was continuing the pickle obsession via her mother Tillie's homemade dills. Tillie has been gone for almost 20 years and Mom doesn't make them anymore so about that time my dad switched his affections to bread and butter pickles.

Well, of course, when I learned how to make bread and butter pickles from Quality Social's Jared Van Camp and Sam Burman, my first batches went to Dad -- long called "Opopie" by my nieces and nephews -- as a birthday gift. He asked for more. This Sunday is Father's Day and what better gift for him than more pickles. This time, however, I combined Jared's recipe with the traditional Ball recipe from The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, which has what I believe are the best instructions on how to do the much-dreaded water bath. Follow them religiously and you'll find it's actually a breeze.

Thank you to Specialty Produce for these gorgeous pickling cukes!

I found that the Ball recipe called for too many onions and not enough liquid, so for the second batch, I made adjustments, reflected below. Then, since I had leftover pickling cukes, I made a small batch of Jared and Sam's recipe, which has more liquid in proportion to the vegetables, fewer onions, and doesn't actually cook the cukes over heat. Instead you heat the pickling liquid and pour it over the raw vegetables, which then sit for a week in the fridge. So Dad gets two versions. Wonder which he'll prefer... Happy Father's Day, Opopie!

Bread and Butter Pickles
Adapted from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

3 pounds sliced, trimmed pickling cucumbers
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup kosher salt
2 cups white vinegar
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon allspice berries
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 stick cinnamon
3 cloves garlic, peeled

1. In a glass or stainless steel bowl, combine cucumbers, onions, and salt. Mix and cover with cold water. Let stand at room temperature for 2 hours. Then transfer to a colander, rinse with cool running water and drain.

2. Prep the jars and lids while the cucumbers are marinating.

3. In a stainless steel pot, combine the vinegars, sugars, mustard seeds, celery seeds, allspice berries, turmeric, cinnamon stick, and garlic. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugars. Then add the vegetables, stir and return to a boil.

4. By now the jars should be sterilized and hot. Remove one, drain the water, and pack the vegetables to within 1/2 inch of the top, then ladle hot pickling liquid into the jar to cover the vegetables but still leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove the air bubbles and make adjustments to the headspace if needed by adding more pickling liquid. Wipe the rim, center the lid on the jar, and screw the band down until it's just tight. Put the jar back in the canner and fill the remaining jars one at a time.
5. Add more water to the canner and make sure that the jars are completely covered with water. Put the lid on the canner and bring to a boil. Process for 10 minutes. Remove the canner lid and turn off the heat. Let the jars sit in the hot water for 5 minutes, then remove the jars, let them cool, and store.

Should make at least 6 pint-size jars of pickles.

And here is the Quality Social Bread and Butter Pickle. You choose which to try.

Quality Social Bread & Butter Pickles

5 pounds pickling cucumbers
1/2 cup salt
1.5 cups water

1 onion, sliced
2.5 cups cider vinegar
2.5 cups white vinegar
2.5 cups white sugar
2.5 cups light brown sugar
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon allspice berries
1/2 each cinnamon stick
1.5 teaspoon yellow mustard seed
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 cloves garlic

Slice cucumbers in 1/4-inch disks and set aside in a large bowl.
In a medium sauce pot, mix half the water and salt together and heat to dissolve the salt.
Remove mixture from heat and place in a measuring cup. Fill the cup with ice to reach 1.5 cups.
Place the cooled mixture over the sliced cucumbers and allow to sit overnight in the refrigerator.
The next day remove the cucumbers from the brine and rinse well.
Mix all the other ingredients in a medium sauce pot and bring to a boil.
Remove mixture from heat and pour over cucumbers. Place back in the refrigerator and allow to sit for one week.

What this doesn't say is that you'll put the cucumbers in clean glass jars, then pour the mixture over the cucumbers in the jars. Put the clean lids and bands on the jars and store them in the fridge. Jared was unsure how many pint-sized jars this would make, but I'm guessing about 10. And, you'll notice, no water bath.

Happy Father's Day!

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Artichokes with Summer Garlic and Tarragon Dipping Sauce

2011-06-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

Those who know me know I'm in weight shedding mode. More on that some other time, but it's been, well, an adventure for someone who adores good food, is around it all the time, and writes about it.

And I mean that in a good way for the most part. There's so much delicious food out there--not all made up of lots of carbs and fat--that it's not terribly difficult to find combinations that are both a treat to eat and even, dare I say it, healthy.

It gets even easier as we head into the warm weather months, when gorgeous produce is plentiful. I'm not a vegetarian, but on a sultry evening I appreciate a light, meat-free meal that doesn't require much or any laboring over a stove. And steaming an artichoke only requires work from the stove, not me, so that's just fine. The challenge has been what to dip the leaves in. Melted butter with garlic salt--what I grew up on--is out. Plain yogurt doesn't do it for me. Ah, but yogurt mixed with other flavorful ingredients can be transformed into a rich, velvety dip that doesn't feel at all virtuous.

I've been playing with different ingredients--and different yogurts--and came up with something I keep returning to that has the texture I crave with a garlicky anise-like flavor that feels decadent: Fage 2% Greek Yogurt (very light and almost fluffy; you can go with the nonfat version but for one serving the difference in fat isn't great and the difference in texture and flavor is), light mayonnaise, Majestic Garlic (a local company's paste of organic garlic, safflower oil, organic flax seed oil, omega 3, lemon juice, and sea salt), Meyer lemon juice, chopped tarragon, and a little salt and pepper. If you can't find Majestic Garlic, raw minced garlic and a little olive oil will do fine.

To prepare the artichoke, just slice off the first half inch or so of the top and trim both the tips of the leaves and the stem (be sure to peel and cook the stem; it's as tender and sweet as the heart). Place the artichoke in a large pot and fill with cold water to cover. Cover and bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, depending on the size of the artichoke. It's fully cooked when you can easily slide a fork into the bottom of the choke. Drain and serve with the dip and some crusty sourdough bread.

Summer Garlic and Tarragon Dipping Sauce
2 servings (if you're generous)

2 tablespoons light mayonnaise
1/3 cup low-fat yogurt
1 teaspoon Majestic Garlic (found at San Diego farmers markets)
1 teaspoon Meyer lemon juice
2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix together ingredients and chill for an hour before serving.

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Gardening at the Grant

2011-06-02T07:27:00.000-07:00

Farm and fork are growing closer in proximity. Chefs searching for even more inspiration for their dishes are taking on a new role as gardener. It's no longer good enough to buy from the farmers market when you can actually select seeds, then grow and harvest your own produce.

San Diego is seeing a proliferation of restaurant gardens and even farms. I just visited Bistro West and West Steak & Seafood's one-acre farm in Carlsbad--at the same time that my friend Trish Watlington, owner of The Red Door and The Wellington was breaking ground on her property in Mt. Helix on a large garden for the restaurants, designed by Karen Contreras of Urban Plantations.

It's not just a suburban phenomenon. Last week I visited the U.S. Grant Hotel in the heart of downtown San Diego to see the rooftop garden that a company called Brickman installed last summer. Now the garden has become the passion and responsibility of Grant Grill Chef de Cuisine Chris Kurth and Mixologist Jeff Josenhans. The two are literally watering, pruning, feeding, and harvesting their little culinary oasis.

What are they growing? They're heading into a new season, but when I was there tomatoes and peppers were ripening. There was cabbage, broccoli, fennel, and the remnants of Brussels sprouts. Dwarf kumquat, tangerine, and Meyer lemon trees were dripping with fruit. And, there were lots of herbs: basil, cilantro, thyme, chives, tarragon, and anise--all grown from seed.

It was impressive to taste the bounty, too. I sampled a lovely light Persian cucumber soup (see recipe below) and a petite tomato tart, both made by Kurth.

Josenhans was handing out Cinnamon Basil "French" Julips, made with Pierre Ferrand cognac, Moet Chandon, muddled cinnamon basil, and orange blossom sugar. And, there was the Rooftop Garden Tour, a cocktail combining Angelica-infused Tangueray Sterling vodka, muddled Russian tarragon and Florence fennel, and white peach puree.

Grant Grill's Cucumber Soup
(printable recipe)

Serves 4

16 peeled and seeded Persian cucumbers, roughly chopped
2 yellow bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped mint
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped dill
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons kosher salt (add more or less, depending on taste)
1 1/2 cup yogurt
1 cup sour cream
3 teaspoons tarragon vinegar (add more or less, depending on taste)
Extra virgin olive oil to taste (about 2 tablespoons)

Add all of the ingredients except the oil and vinegar into a high-speed blender and blend until smooth. Pour the soup into a mixing bowl and adjust the seasonings. Next add the olive oil and vinegar to taste. Chill one hour before serving so the flavors can meld.

If you'd like to get a taste of the garden, mark your calendar for the week of July 15, when the Grant Grill, located at 326 Broadway, will be holding harvest/mixology dinners.

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Create Your Own Food Truck Dishes

2011-05-26T11:58:00.000-07:00

Early this spring I was on a cooking class blitz, scouting fun and unusual experiences to recommend to San Diegans for a just-published San Diego Magazine piece. Among my most favorite classes was the one I took from Chef Pam Schwartz of Sur La Table. America's Food Truck Cuisine introduced participants to four dishes from trucks around the country. It was a hands-on afternoon that yielded not just delicious tastings but a variety of new skills and ideas to transfer to home kitchens.

Schwartz, a CIA graduate who has worked at Nobu in Las Vegas and the Pamplemousse Grille in San Diego--and cooked at the James Beard House, led a group of about 15 students through Portland (KOi Fusion's Spicy Korean Pork Taco), Seattle (Skillet Street Food's Grass-Fed Beef Burger with Arugula, Cambozola and Bacon Jam), L.A. (the Border Grill Truck's Poblano Quesadillas), and New York (Street Sweets' "Macarella" Nutella Macaroons).

What I enjoyed about the class was not just the theme, although that's what drew me to it initially, but both the classroom set up (counter-high tables are outfitted with ingredients and tools around which four to five students work together) and the thorough and encouraging manner in which Schwartz and her team of helpers talk their students (including many culinary novices) through each recipe. They demonstrated knife skills and walked around coaching individuals attempting to chop onions, mince garlic, seed avocados, and grill pork. And they offered tips for working with unfamiliar ingredients.

The Spicy Pork Taco was a delightful explosion of flavor--no surprise since the marinade itself has some 16 ingredients, including pear and kiwi juice, mirin, sesame oil, honey, Korean red bean paste, and rice wine. We made a tasty cabbage slaw with rice vinegar, lime juice, sesame oil, and sugar, grilled the marinated pork and then put all of it together in a corn tortilla, garnished with pico de gallo, bean sprouts, cucumber, cilantro, and kimchi.

From the taco we moved on to the burger. It's a simple dish, of course, but many in this class had never tried grass-fed beef and the herbaceous beef flavor was a revelation. It was also a great primer on how to effectively grill the lean meat so you keep the moisture intact. The best part, though, especially for one of my table partners, Alicia, was making the bacon jam. The many ingredients include applewood-smoked bacon, garlic, espresso, light brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, cinnamon and cloves. It's pretty simple to make, too. Just cook the bacon and render the fat, remove the bacon pieces, saute onion and garlic, add the other ingredients and the bacon pieces, then cook gently for about 40 minutes until the jam is soft and brown.

While Alicia was busy at the stove, the rest of us were molding the sliders and prepping the rest of the components before they finally all came together between a sliced Hawaiian sweet bun.

Burgers done, we moved on to the quesadillas, which, though simple, had several components needing preparation--the flour tortillas, the chipotle salsa, the roasted poblano chiles, and the Border Guacamole. It was fascinating to watch the flour tortilla demonstration. I've made many a corn tortilla, but flour tortillas require a whole different skill set--more like making pie dough, which makes sense since you're also combining flour with fat and water.

Standing at a high-BTU stove grilling first the chiles and finally the quesadillas was an event for most of the participants. Everyone took a turn but also circled their tables working on slicing avocados, seeding and dicing jalapeños, and chopping cilantro or cooking up and pureeing the Chipotle Salsa (which I learned can be frozen for several months, as can individual chipotles left over from the can).

Finally, dessert. These delightful sandwich cookies are easy to make and if you don't love Nutella, fill them with jam (bacon jam?) or chocolate ganache. Here's the recipe:

Street Sweets' "Macarella" Nutella Macaroons
Yield: approximately 12 sandwich cookies

3 cups dessicated/unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large egg whites
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Nutella for filling the cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place a rack in the center. Place coconut, sugar, egg whites, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Stir thoroughly until the mixture reaches a soft and pliable consistency.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Place 1 to 2 heaping tablespoons of the coconut mixture on cookie sheet and press into 3-inch circles about 1/8-inch thick. Continue making circles with the remaining dough to create an even number of dough rounds.

Place cookies in preheated oven and bake until edges are golden, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool for 10 minutes.

Using a flat-metal spatula, remove cookies from baking pan and coat the bottom of half of the cookies with a generous amount of Nutella. Place another cookie, bottom side down, on the top of the Nutella on the coated cookies to make a sandwich. Continue making sandwiches until all the cookies are used.

Classes are taught at Sur La Tables across the country. In San Diego, Sur La Table is at the Forum at Carlsbad, 1915 Calle Barcelona Space #130. You can get their full schedule of classes on their website.

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Nat Decants Has New Mobile App

2011-05-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

I got to interview Canadian wine maven Natalie MacLean years ago when I co-hosted San Diego Gourmet back in the day. I still enjoy learning about wines from her from her e-newsletter and website and was delighted to learn her FREE mobile app, The Natalie MacLean Wine Picks & Pairing, now lets you scan bottle labels and bar codes to get info you want at the wine shop.

Whether you have an iPhone/iPod Touch, a BlackBerry, or Droid, you can use your camera to instantly scan from among 150,000 wines to get tasting notes, scores, and food pairings. You can also track your purchases in a virtual cellar, create a wine journal with your own wine notes and photos, and share your wines and pairings on Twitter and Facebook.

Natalie is also the author of Red, White and Drunk All Over. Her second book, Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World's Best Bargain Wines will be published this fall. I also recommend you subscribe to her free e-newsletter via her website.

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2nd Annual Eat. Drink. Read.: Can You Read a Menu?

2011-05-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

If you can read a menu or a recipe, you're way ahead of many adults who, sadly, are functionally illiterate. In San Diego, the San Diego Council on Literacy supports numerous organizations that have programs to help adults and children become readers and improve their chances of success in life.

Once again, this year -- on Wednesday, May 18 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. -- the San Diego Council on Literacy is holding Eat. Drink. Read., a fundraiser that will help them support these programs. And this isn't like your other restaurant-focused food events. We (Yes, "we." I wrangled the restaurants.) asked our 10 restaurants to come up with an original dish inspired by a favorite book. You won't believe the splendid ideas that are the result. These are dishes you'll want to savor. Here's what we've got (the chef/book links will take you to a video of the chefs showing off their dishes):

Alchemy (Ricardo Heredia's book is Rikki Tikki Tavi): Bihari Aloo Paneer Potato Cake with Garam Masala and Green Peas

Craft & Commerce (Craig Jimenez's book is My Side of the Mountain): Shroom, Tubers, and Wild Game Pinxtos

Flavor Del Mar (Jason Maitland's book is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas): Terrine of Duck Rillette with Smoked Chino Farms Strawberries, Buffalo Trace Bourbon Syrup, and Chevre Powder

Photo by Stephanie Thompson

The Marine Room (Bernard Guillas and Ron Oliver's book is their own Flying Pans): Hibiscus-Infused Lemon Bars and Chocolate Kahlua Tarts

Photo by Stephanie Thompson

Quality Social (Jared Van Camp's book is The Confederacy of Dunces): House-Cured Cheddar Stuffed Dog with Sauerkraut and Creole Mustard

The Red Door (Brian Johnston's book is Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs): Lamb Meatballs and Mashed Potatoes

Searsucker (Brian Malarkey's book is Green Eggs and Ham): Braised Pork Belly with Poached Quail Egg and Greens Hollandaise on Brioche Bread

Sessions Public (Abel Kaase's book is The Dot): Duck Confit Thai Summer Rolls with Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce

Tender Greens (Peter Balistreri's book is Lord of the Flies): Porchetta Sliders on Pretzel Bread with Dijon Mustard

Urban Solace (Matt Gordon's book is Secret of the Tsil Cafe): Spiced Sweet Corn Cake, Confit of Turkey Leg with Ancho-Dried Blueberry Mole

Photo by Stephanie Thompson

Plus, we'll have a "Manmosa" (blackberries, maple syrup, bulleit rye, and Prosecco) from Ian Ward of Snake Oil Cocktail.

Photo by Stephanie Thompson

And, delicious coffee drinks from Cafe Moto.

And that's just the eats and drinks. You'll want to bid on some amazing silent auction opportunities, including SDSU football tickets, a one-night stay at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, passes to several terrific local museums (Natural History, Museum of Art, Museum of Man, U.S. Midway Museum, Automotive Museum), tickets to the San Diego REPertory Theatre, In-N-Out coupons, and so much more.

So much more? Oh, yes... Sea Rocket Bistro is donating a four-course dinner in the winning bidder's home for up to six people, with a personalized seasonal menu created by Executive Chef Chad White -- plus wine pairings for each course. This is brilliant!

The event will be held at the McMillin Event Center on 2875 Dewey Road in Liberty Station. Tickets are $60 and may be purchased online at www.eatdrinkread.com. They are going fast, so hurry up and get yours now!

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Three Olives Olive OIl

2011-05-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

Regular readers know that I'm something of an olive oil geek. There are few things more fun for me to do than cozy up to an olive oil bar and taste different varieties from an assortment of countries.

But I'm a big fan of our California oils and a new one was sent to me by Anna Zoitas, the owner of The Artisanal Kitchen. I have to admit I was a skeptic. After all, she's a New Yorker, but her oil is a combination of three olive varieties grown in California--hence the name Three Olives Olive Oil.

But Zoitas, whose family owns the New York City specialty food chain Westside Market, explained to me that "making olive oil is in my family roots, as both my grandparents produced their own olive oil on the island of Lefkada in Greece." That's where she spent her summers and she admits that trying to replicate in New York the kind of farm eating and artisan living she experienced in Greece has been a challenge. She chose olives grown in California because they had the standards she'd been searching for and she could have the oil certified by the California Olive Oil Council, or COOC. Additionally, she could work with the farmers to optimize the flavor with the varieties she wanted.

What she ended up with are the small, fruity Arbequina--a native of Spain, the nutty and peppery Arbosona (also from Spain), and a Greek variety--the fruity and aromatic Koroneiki. The result is a rich and complex unfiltered oil with just a hint of a kick to it, thanks to the Koroneiki. This is not a cooking oil. You'll want to save it for dressings, dipping bread, or finishing a dish so that you can pull in all the flavor possible.

Three Olives Olive Oil is available only on The Artisanal Kitchen website.
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6th St.: Tijuana's Seafood Alley

2011-05-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

You'd expect a major seafood district to be ocean side, but in Tijuana, it's downtown along a stretch of 6th Street. There are something like 20 individual markets, some catering primarily to the public, others to restaurants. But even mid-morning on a weekday, the area is bustling, looking like a street ceviche party waiting to happen.

Okay, the day I was there was the Thursday before Easter, so massive shopping in anticipation of the holiday was in full force. But the ceviche party metaphor remains. Parked on the street and included in many of the shops are stalls brimming with all the makings of a fresh ceviche--chiles, tomatoes, celery, cilantro, onions, limes--the ultimate one-stop shopping.

Much of the fish sold by the wholesalers there go to Chinese buyers, but you'd never know that by the throngs of locals there to buy everything from clams and octopus to red snapper and grouper. I was there with Catalina Offshore Products' Dan Nattrass, who visits regularly to buy for the company which has a warehouse a block away, and Chef Trey Foshee of George's at the Cove. With every turn, I could almost see the wheels in his head spinning as he took in the possibilities and periodically asked Dan to get him some of this and some of that for the restaurant. It was an object lesson in culinary creativity at work.

Me? I was gawking at the brightly colored fish, the brilliant mix of seafood cut up and sitting in bins for Caldo de Siete Mares (Seven Seas Soup), and all the people patiently waiting their turn to be served by (mostly) men in blood-stained aprons butchering fish. It's a remarkable scene and worth a visit if you're planning a day trip to Tijuana.

Dan Nattrass inspecting fish in a wheelbarrow

Burdillo--used a lot for fish tacos

Brown Baqueta--a member of the grouper family


Brilliant red Huachinango at Las Playas, one of the more popular fish markets


Sienas stacked up in Las Playas -- frequently used at George's California Modern

A Cabrella, or leopard grouper. Dan says only 1 percent turn this bright orange color.


Sorting fish at Las Playas

A split fish head, perfect for grilling, according to Trey. The best part? The tender cheeks.

Wholesale workers showing off the catch of the day, a black sea bass

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