Category Archives: recipes etc

handy cross reference catagories

06.06.07
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Rhubarb Cake

Rhubarb and LeafRhubarb is finally plentiful in the East (I’m sure it’s been in the West Coast farmers’ markets for a while now), and it’s a great mark of the seasons change from Spring to Summer. Real rhubarb (grown in a garden or field, not forced in hot houses as the year-round stuff is) is a sharp tangy taste of spring sunshine and cold rain. Classically it makes a great pie — more complex than sour cherries in my opinion — but can pair well with meats, especially pork. Next time you brine a pork loin before roasting, try adding a couple of stalks (chopped) of rhubarb to the brine; you will not be disappointed.

Rhubarb reaches sublime heights, in my opinion, in a brilliant yet easy to make cake that I first found in Susan Loomis’s Farmhouse Cookbook. It’s a moist and buttery sheetcake with just the right amount (not too much) sugar, punctuated by exclamation points of rhubarb chunks throughout. So simple but so good, and worth waiting for that spring sunshine to perk up the palate.
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05.21.07
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Eats after Market

Saturday morning at eight o’clock I’m at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market for the weekly fruit, vegetable, meat and fish shopping. I think I mentioned previously that Carol and I do our own meal thing during days, so this truly is eats for one.

After market, and after the goodies are put away, I make up some eats.e_cucs.jpg

Today, I put a layer of sliced cucumbers on a plate. These are little Mediterranean cucumbers, the skin is tender and delicate and the seeds aren’t yet fully formed, so you just slice and eat the whole thing. The one at the top is a Japanese cucumber, same deal. That’s an egg in the center, for scale.

Slice the cucumber on the bias so you get nice long elliptical slices.

Add a layer of peeled, sliced tomato and sprinkle with sea salt.

Add a layer of sliced fresh mozzarella and drizzle with olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Put the plate under a preheated broiler for about two minutes.

Garnish with a still warm, quartered boiled egg.

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That is so fresh and crunchy and soft and cool and warm, the combination of tastes is heavenly. Continue reading →

05.18.07
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Polk Gulch Lunch

Oops, they call themselves Polk Village now*

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I bought this scooter three weeks after moving to San Francisco in 1992. I was on the bus to work in traffic on Columbus Avenue. I looked out the window and stopped beside the bus was a small woman in high heels perched on a motorscooter. Dang all, if she can handle it, so can I! I bought this baby the next day, a Yamaha Riva 125 for $1,600 used. It had 80 miles on the odometer — had been used at a driving school. Now it has over 18,000 miles on it — all in the city.

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On a recent morning I went to the Kabuki to take some pictures. When I parked my scooter and pushed the kick-stand down, CLANK! the kick stand fell on the pavement. Not a disaster, as it has a wheel stand, but inconvenient. I went straight to Golden Gate Cycles on Pine between Polk and Van Ness. This is a good service shop. The guy said I could pick it up in about an hour. Continue reading →

05.02.07
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Tomato + Beet + Onion + Eggs = Brunch

Slow cooked eggs with tomato and pickled onion relish

My beets were roasting and I remembered a recipe for Quick Pickled Onions I saw on the Coconut and Lime food blog. It is indeed quick and stupid simple:

Place 8 peppercorns in a pint jar. Fill the jar with sliced onions, leaving about 1/2 inch on the top. Add about 4-5 cubes of beets. Fill the jar about half way with red wine vinegar and then the rest of the way with white vinegar. Seal and refrigerate 1-3 days before serving.

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I did that with two jars. I used the bulbous fresh red spring onions, which are available for about a month just now at the Farmers Market. Continue reading →

04.23.07
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Primo’s Saltimbocca

“Melissa’s grandfather Primo ate the Saltimbocca on a regular basis—his favorite dish, in fact— and the one dish Melissa never takes off the menu, for this reason.“Pork loin pounded thin, sautéed, served on a tall bed of garlic mashed potatoes with a sage Madeira shiitake sauce and a garnish of shaved Parma ham on top. The way Primo liked to eat it.”

Primo’s Saltimbocca as described in the story of Melissa Kelly’s Primo Restaurant in Rockland, Maine, in The Reach of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman.

Made me hungry, so I assembled the ingredients.

Here’s what I did:

Pounded two boneless pork loin chops thin

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pounded_pork.jpg Continue reading →

04.20.07
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Tale of Two Salads

Sometime in 2001

Before leaving for work, Carol said, “I’m going to be late coming home and you’re going to be late, so we’ve got all the stuff, there’s the leftover Flank Steak, and a bag of spinach, that avocado, cherry tomatoes and stuff in the vegetable drawer, so we’ll throw together a Steak Salad.”

“Great,” sez I.

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I was tired coming home, after closing the store at nine. It was about quarter to ten and Carol was watching The West Wing, the recipient of many Emmy Awards, recently. She said she had been too hungry, and had eaten about 9 o’clock, and presented me with the big wooden salad bowl. In it was lots of spinach, some cherry tomatoes, bits of celery and scallion. Near the stove, she pointed to a plate with some steak and mushrooms that had been sauteed in butter. “Just heat these in the skillet, throw them warm on the greens, slice this half-avocado on top, throw on some Newman’s, and there you have it.” Continue reading →

04.14.07
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Hungry and Tired? Go for the Pasta

Kinda Sorta Pasta Primavera
Tuesday’s Dinner

I got home late from the Film Society, hungry. Carol is off at the toney Westerbeke Ranch on a “retreat” with her cohorts, no doubt dining on a gourmet dinner.

My weekly menu says leftover something. So I do what any guy would do, open the refrigerator. (Some guys might reach for the Chinese delivery menu, and I have done that on many occasions such as this.) Here’s what I found:

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Some leftover spaghetti from last Thursday’s spaghetti with Tuscan meat sauce, A partial head of cauliflower and a partial head of broccoli from Saturday’s salmon dish. About a cup of my San Marzano tomato sauce, pretty much always on hand, stored in one of the handy POM Tea jars.

I can put together a kinda sorta pasta primavera, and add some ever-present Jimmy Dean hot sausage from the meat drawer.

This looks a lot my Saturday Brunch entry or Sunday Supper from a while back, but it just goes to show that eats for one has an enduring life, from the planned and precise to the thrown-together quickly, as long as I remember to take pictures. Continue reading →

04.09.07
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Dinner This Week

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A ways back, I wrote about my Food Book.

Well, the electronic age caught up with me. I now have a folder on the iMac that contains recipes for the meals I want to cook this week, a menu document and a menu history document. The menu history may seem a little narcissistic but sometimes I remember something for dinner a few weeks ago—what the hell was it—and I can page back and find it. Or, what did we have the last time whosis was here?

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Menu posted.

(On the right, time of day in San Francisco and France.) Continue reading →

04.07.07
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Saturday Brunch

On Saturdays I have time to make whatever I want to eat after the Market. When putting away stuff in the refrigerator, old stuff has to be juggled or taken out so the new stuff fits. This taking out can be an opportunity for what to eat for brunch. (I do this alone, as C will already have eaten a big breakfast while I’m at the Market.) And there’s also the possibility of throwing stuff out, but I hate to do that.

So today, I threw out some leftover garlic mashed potatoes, about half a cup in a way too large container, taking up way too much space, which weren’t very good in the first place.

Oh, but look what I found:

sat_brunch_prep.jpg Continue reading →

04.04.07
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Chili: My Top Five

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I am a chili lover.

Having “discovered” the slow cooker for perfectly cooked beans (thanks Joan), I spied a recipe for Rancho Gordo Chili Con Carne on the Rancho Gordo blog. It was Friday, so the next day, Market Day at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, I stopped by the Rancho Gordo stand and got the necessary Good Mother Stallard Beans and Mexican Oregano. I was able to find the Negra Modelo beer at Whole Food.

I slow cooked the beans and then assembled the chili in a conventional pot. Yum.

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Over the years, I settled on my top four chili recipes, dating back to the 80’s and 90’s, but I’m always on the lookout for a new one. The Rancho Gordo just made the list for its simplicity and pure, rich chili taste. Now I have a Top Five. Here they are, listed alphabetically. I can’t rank them because though they are all built around chili powder, they are very different from one another. The recipes for each follow the discussion.
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