Category Archives: recipes etc

handy cross reference catagories

01.20.07
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Tatsoi

, and Congee

I saw these greens at the Mariquita Farm stand at the Farmers Market. They were beautiful. “What are these called,” I asked the clerk.

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“Tatsoi, you can cook them like beet greens or use them in a salad,” she replied. I bought three and at home checked the Mariquita Farm website recipes. The only recipe listed for Tatsoi was Oriental-Flavor Cabbage Slaw (with Tat soi) from the Greens Cookbook, a regular slaw with a Tatsoi garnish. Not appealing to me, for such a beautiful green.

Googleing “tatsoi” I found mainly salads and a bunch of uninteresting stir frys. Most references that came up on the first page were seed or gardening sites.

The Kitchen Dictionary website, had a pretty good description,

tatsoi, pronounced: that SOY

A dark green Asian salad green that has a spoon like shape, a pleasant and sweet aroma flavor like a mild mustard flavor, similar to bok choi. Tatsoi is generally eaten raw, but may be added to soups at the end of the cooking period. When tatsoi is mixed with other greens it enhances the flavor and nutritional value. Tatsoi may not be available in your regular grocery store. Specialty markets may carry it, or it can be grown from seeds, in warmer climates.

Google also found a few mentions of Rice Congee, where tatsoi is used as a garnish.
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01.05.07
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Happy New Year

The Eve and the Day

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It all starts on New Year’s Eve and we had reservations for 9:45 at Tablespoon (A New Measure of Bistro), a 47 seat bistro on Polk Street, two blocks from our house. No driving.

Sarah, who was joining us, came over early, and I made an appetizer to start the evening properly.

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Broiled Radicchio
From Julia Wiley’s blog 12/05, there’s a comment on a comment dissing radicchio, looks like it might be from Great Britan. It has a great idea for mellowing the bitter radicchio. Continue reading →

09.01.06
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Ohio Eats II

Part 2 — Columbus and the Reunion

This is the second installment of a three part odyssey surrounding my trip to the Columbus West High School Class of January 1956 reunion. It’s all about the food, what I call Ohio food. It’s different than what you’ve been reading about in this space for two reasons: For one, I’m traveling, and for two, the choices in Ohio are different than those in Northern California, much different.

Since I made the long trip to Ohio for a weekend, I extended the trip on each end for some adventures in Cincinnati, and passed through Carol’s homestead in Lancaster in each direction, as well. This epistle is divided into three parts; The Heartland, Columbus and the Reunion, and finally Lancaster Redux and Cincinnati.

Friday, August 18, 2006 (continued)
LUNCH
Short North in Columbus is a district that seems invented. Dream up a cool name and a logo… put some metal arches with lights across High Street every quarter block or so… restore a couple of buildings converted to condos or apartments… encourage the commercial landlords to lease to “proper tenants” and watch it go. It’s located north of downtown, just north of the convention center, and south of the Ohio State campus. My reason for being in Short North is to have lunch at White Castle. “Four Sliders and a small coffee.”

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08.25.06
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Ohio Eats I

heartland.jpg
Part 1 — The Heartland

This is the first installment of a three part odyssey surrounding my trip to the Columbus West High School Class of January 1956 Reunion. It’s all about the food, what I call Ohio food. It’s different than what you’ve been reading about in this space for two reasons: For one, I’m traveling, and for two, the choices in Ohio are different than those in Northern California, much different.

Since I made the long trip to Ohio for a weekend, I extended the trip on each end for some adventures in Cincinnati, and passed through Carol’s homestead in Lancaster in each direction, as well. This epistle is divided into three parts; The Heartland, Columbus and the Reunion, and finally Lancaster Redux and Cincinnati.

Wednesday August 16
BREAKFAST
My flight was scheduled at a reasonable time of 7:40 a.m. but current security regulations obliged me to arrive at the airport at 5:45 a.m. Not reasonable, but that’s the flying life nowadays. Curbside check-in was easy so I had plenty of time to get a coffee and an oatmeal raisin cookie at Just Desserts on the concourse. One would expect that a dessert maker would make a scrumptious cookie, but no. The cookie was large and looked right but turned out to be dry as dust. Half was all I could eat, so I saved the rest for later, but ended up tossing it.
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08.15.06
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West High School

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As toward the West the constant sun proceeds
Day after day across the sky
So will our hearts hold true to you
West High, West High, West High

I’m off to Columbus, Ohio for my High School Reunion, so keep your eyes open for the skinny on Ohio food and good eats.

06.14.06
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Texas Eats

Or… What’s a San Francisco guy to do when he’s stranded in San Antonio and can’t cook?

The first week of June each year, Carol has a National Association of Educators of Young Children (NAEYC) Professional Development Institute with 4 days of workshops “second tier cities,” last year in Miami Beach, this year in San Antonio. She’s been going for many years and the last two years I’ve gone along for the ride. The characters are wife Carol, Sarah of San Francisco and Fran of San Jose, among others.

riverwalk.jpgSan Antonio River Walk

Since I didn’t do cooking and writing for this short week, I did eating and writing. This is a site of experiments and this post is more of a travelogue than a cooking thing; there are lots of pictures. So I’m going to experiment with this link to a slide show, rather than paste the pictures in here. Let me know how you like it.

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04.12.06
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Funky Foodie Getaway

North CoastFood Adventures in Sonoma County and West Marin

The rain in San Francisco in March is unceasing and Carol’s Spring Break is approaching. We wanted and needed a getaway.

On Wednesday, April 5, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco and drove out of the rain. We didn’t see sunshine for a few more miles, but out of the rain is a good start. Our immediate destination is the Anderson Valley Wine Country, particularly the Navarro Vineyards, northwest of Boonville. I like Navarro wines a lot and they’re mostly under $20, but they only sell to the public at the winery or by mail order. Otherwise they sell to restaurants. Frank J. Prial wrote in his NY Times Blog about how pleased he is to now be able to get them delivered to New York. Navarro is a little too far from San Francisco for a day trip, so we must plan for our occasional visits.
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03.31.06
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These Prawns Have A Shell of a Flavor…

Prawn ShellShell of a flavor… get it?

I loved the headline so much that I clipped this recipe from the Boston Globe, sometime around 1980. And good for me… though I don’t cook it often, it is one of my favorites.

In this dish, the shells of the Prawns flavor a stock that is used for cooking couscous to serve with the prawns. An extra dollop of stock sends more flavor back to the Prawns as they cook.

So what if you can only find Shrimp in your market? Use the Shrimp. Technically, they’re different critters, but commercially, the terms are used interchangably. Some think Prawns looks more classy on a menu or in a recipe.

This “trick” can work with lobster, as well, using the shells to make a broth or sauce. In fact, the poached fish dish that I posted earlier, essentially uses the fish juices to help the sauce.
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03.30.06
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Spareribs, Carrots and Romaine

This is the first in an occasional series of Good Eatin’, kind of a sidebar usually involving leftovers (LO), where I will describe an easily put together meal that we enjoyed very recently, maybe yesterday.

Good Eatin’
The spareribs have been wrapped in foil in the refrigerator for over a week. I got the Winter Ribs recipe from Mark Bittman in the New York Times recently, planned for leftovers and now they await.

Spareribs
Pop into preheated Toaster Oven at 350 ° for 15 minutes. About halfway through warming, slather with bottled BBQ sauce of choice.

Carrots
I have a bunch of baby carrots. Trim and wash. These are way too little to peel. In a saucepan, put in juice of a small orange, (actually, I had a tangelo) some white wine (or vermouth or water), a teaspoon of Honey Dijon, and a pat of butter. Bring to a boil, add the carrots and simmer, covered for about 4 minutes—until carrots are tender, but not mushy. Plate the ribs and carrots, reduce the remaining pan liquid to 2 or 3 tablespoons and pour over carrots.

Romaine
Split and trim a head of romaine. Slather on creamy dressing (I had Marie’s Chunky Blue Cheese in the refrigerator).

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Now, that’s Good Eatin’.

03.28.06
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Poached

the_fish_poacher.JPGPoached Striped Bass
with Vodka Sauce

We own an actual fish poacher. It sits on top of our dining room armoire and I can’t recall having it down since we moved to San Francisco in 1992. Don’t look for it on my essentials page.

When I was surfing the New York Times Dining and Wine section the other day, I spied Poached Salmon with Vodka Sauce. That looked interesting, so I downloaded it to my “to cook” folder. There are over thirty recipes in that folder and more coming every week, so I don’t have a prayer of cooking them all. As time goes by, I delete the ones that no longer look interesting. This recipe will just be in the back of my head when I go to market. I didn’t really think about cooking a whole salmon, but I figured I could do it with a fillet.

We bought the fish poacher in Boston to poach a four-pound salmon for a party. In James Beard’s Theory and Practice of Good Cooking there is more than one recipe for poached fish and in my cooking-for-parties phase I poached a few salmon, as well as other fish and shellfish. I especially liked the Poached Fish with White Wine Sauce and Shellfish a la Nage, “,a la nage is the French term for a style of preparation in which shellfish are both cooked and served ‘swimming’ in a white wine court bouillon and eaten hot, tepid or cold.” Shrimp, crayfish or small lobsters are excellent prepared in this manner.
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