Category Archives: San Francisco

Material developed in San Francisco

03.25.08
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Creamed Greens

For some reason, Creamed Spinach is a staple side dish at steak houses throughout the land. The creamed Spinach entrenched in my taste memory is one that I ordered in a steak house in Chicago, near the Drake Hotel. It was rich and creamy with a fine pure taste of spinach coming through.

I can’t remember ever making it at home and I probably haven’t, although that’s one of the few ways I like spinach. The cream takes the edge off, for me, literally. For me, spinach raw or cooked has a characteristic that sets my teeth on edge. Other greens, dandelion, chard, turnip, beet, mustard, collard, don’t affect me that way.

In our California winter there are few green vegetables at the Farmers Market other than greens. As I was thinking about what would be good as a side dish for leftover Tuna Balls and Spaghetti, that creamed spinach from Chicago came to mind, but I had no spinach. Why not creamed Swiss Chard?

Step one, Google “creamed spinach.” Whole Foods Market was on the first page, so I took a look. Spinach and cream sauce were prepared separately and combined. Their recipe used grated Parmesan cheese as a thickener for the cream. That would work. Other recipes that I checked used flour as a thickener, basically a béchamel sauce, or with the addition of cheese, a Mornay sauce. One, from Boston Market (“That’s my home.”) surprisingly started with chopped frozen spinach and used no cream at all. Continue reading →

03.12.08
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Jambalaya

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and file’ gumbo
‘Cause tonight I’m gonna see my ma cher amio
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-o
Son of a gun, we’ll have big fun on the bayou

Hank Williams

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Jambalaya; music to my ears. The mere mention takes me back to New Orleans in the spring of 1984, alone near the end of a long line waiting for a table at K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen. A woman came back the line asking, “Any singles?” When I shouted and raised my hand, she took me right inside and sat me with a dentist and his wife and son. They were in town from San Diego for a dentist convention. At K Paul’s in those days, no seat was left unfilled. Christmas brought me Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen, from good friends and neighbors, Robert and Katy. It’s a cookbook I use to this day. Continue reading →

03.07.08
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Cincinnati Chili: A New Experience

Feel like you don’t get enough email? You want more? Subscribe to cooksillustrated.com. I get four or five emails a week from them, mainly shilling their books or magazine subscriptions, but maybe one a week will have kitchen tips and recipes.

Recently, an email touting Cook’s Country, CI’s “down home” magazine, featured Cincinnati Chili. That got my attention! Cincinnati Chili is one of my Top Five chili recipes. I got my version from a neighbor in Newton back in the 70’s, we’ll call it “Sally’s” Cincinnati Chili. Years — hell, decades — later, I experienced the “real deal” at a Skyline Chili franchise outside of Cincinnati on a trip to find the Ohio Heartland. I’ve got to check out this Cook’s Country version.

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I downloaded the recipe and made it the next day for dinner. Of course CC had to put their “best way” spin on it, but it’s pretty good. It has the distinctive sweet-sour taste and the five ways and the ground beef. I polished off my dish and was pleased and satisfied, but sorry CC, I like the Sally version better. Continue reading →

02.27.08
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PLANKED

Planked Seafood

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I’ve fried, broiled, and grilled,
I’ve poached, baked, and braised,
But I’ve never planked.
Sounds kinda risqué,
like something that might be
mentioned in a folk song.*

I heard the term “planked” about a year ago. Maybe on Food TV, or the Saturday Morning PBS cooking shows. Planked Salmon. Put your Salmon fillet on a cedar plank and put the plank on a gas grill. Cover and cook.

Not long after that I got a gas grill, not for that reason.

Cedar planks appeared on or near the fish counter at Whole Food. They seemed to be about 15 inches long, half that wide and maybe 3/4-inch thick, topped by full color glossy paper with a picture of a gorgeous salmon fillet, promising cooking instructions on the back; all shrink wrapped in plastic. Hmmmm, planking is going mainstream. I was curious, but not compelled to buy a plank.

This led to two recent events in rapid succession:
1. Alton Brown cooked trout on a plank on his Good Eats show. “We haven’t had trout in ages,” Carol said. My fishmonger at the Farmers Market almost always has whole boned trout, so I got a pair and poached them. Continue reading →

02.25.08
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Winter Market

This Week at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market

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My vegetable selections for February 23 included Swiss chard, big ol’ artichokes, little bitty cauliflower, wild arugula, baby carrots, radishes, and two kinds of dry farmed potatoes.

The chard accompanied Shrimp Scampi over noodles. (recipes below)

The artichokes were steamed, halved, de-choked and dressed with vinaigrette while warm.

Potatoes were grilled along with Trout onna Plank (story to come).

Cauliflower, carrots, and radishes were served on the side as crudités enhancing Spaghetti with Crab sauce. We snacked on the rest.

Arugula made a nice salad as well as a bed for Artic Chard.

That’s all well and good, but I yearn for asparagus, green beans and English peas. They’re in the Supermarket now — from Mexico — but we can wait. They’ll be in the Farmers Market in the next few weeks. Oh boy. Continue reading →

02.21.08
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One Handed Breakfast

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On Saturday I had brunch with a friend at Namu on Balboa at 6th Avenue — fine place that — and broke into a rant about Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food. I really believe in his way of eating and can’t help going on about it.

On the subject of breakfast, Lisa said she would like to eat fresh food but she has two pre-teen daughters and teaches. Mornings are hectic, to say the least. Her first class is at 7:30, so she eats a Trader Joe’s power bar in the car during her commute. “I have to be able to eat with one hand,” she said, “something not messy. I don’t like what I eat for breakfast, but that’s the way it is.”

I don’t have that problem, but was thinking about her plight the next morning. I put together a breakfast that was not messy, and while I ate at the table, what I had could have been eaten in a car with one hand, from a container rather than a dish.

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  • Piccoline olives
  • Anchovy stuffed olives
  • Hard boiled egg, quartered
  • “Mikes” cheese curd (with peppers) from Spring Hill Farm, available at a Farmers Market near you. Continue reading →
02.20.08
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IN DEFENSE OF FOOD

An Eater’s Manifesto

I tacked this onto the end of Super (Bowl) Food, but it’s too important to be hidden there, so I’ve reprinted it here.

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FOOD IN THE AFTERMATH
The day after the Super Bowl, I went to a talk and book signing by Michael Pollan regarding his new book, IN DEFENSE OF FOOD, An Eater’s Manifesto at a local bookstore. His mantra is on the cover: Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants. I’m reading the book and urge you to do so, as well. Michael Pollan is an engaging speaker and packed the house. He has a lot to say and his talk was peppered with humor. You can see an NPR story on the book here.

Back home, Carol had already eaten dinner. With Pollan’s words in my head, I started my dinner. Leftovers from the Party crudités were in plastic bags in the crisper, and I had saved the trimming scraps from the prep, as well. Yellow and green bell peppers, broccoli stems, and celery sticks, as well as some slices of the Speck ham would make a nice stir-fry.

I sliced an onion and sautéed it in olive oil, added the other vegetables and cooked those with a little white wine until it had nearly evaporated. While that was going on, I sliced the ham into strips and stirred those in along with some beef broth. That cooked down nicely for a few minutes and I had dinner.

Food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Yum.

Then Tuesday, for lunch, I mixed the leftover stir-fry with noodles and a touch more broth. Oh, my, Yum!

02.06.08
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Super (Bowl) Food

Food and the Super Bowl

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This year we hosted our XIth Annual Super Bowl Party for Super Bowl XLII, the New York Giants vs. New England Patriots. Having lived in Newton, Massachusetts for 24 years while raising our kids, we are dyed-in-the-wool Patriots fans; but not all those invited shared our views.

In years past, we themed the food around the teams playing (Baltimore Crab Cakes, Carolina BBQ, are examples,) but last year we ran up against Indianapolis. What the heck would you do with Indianapolis??? So we punted and did a country ham, because we like country ham.

In any case, this year we had some good theme choices (New England Clam Chowder vs. Manhattan Clam Chowder, Lobster vs. NY Steak,). We recently returned from Europe, and particularly Spain, where we delighted in the Tapas. What great food for a party, finger food, little paper plates are good; eat bites of what you want, when you want, as much as you want, throughout the game. Continue reading →

01.28.08
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Sunday Supper III

Sunday Supper was so good and quick and easy, I just had to share it.

Sunday supper is a time when cooking and eating is an imposition, especially the cooking part. Whether we’ve been watching football, on a day trip, coming home from a Giants game, cooking a soup or stew for later in the week or just vegging out and trying to get through the entire Sunday New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, it’s a time for ordering in Pizza or Chinese. But we can’t do that every Sunday. (We can’t?)

We’ve gone through a few phases:

The ordering in phase,
The leftover phase,
The peel and eat shrimp phase, that was the latest, and frankly, I’m tired of shrimp — or easy substitutes such as squid or scallops.

It’s January and the market is full of roots: beets, carrots, potatoes, and celery root, parsnips, turnips and the like. I scored a few pounds of beets and a couple of fine celery roots. The beets went to Harvard Beets and Pickled Beets and a couple of pounds are left for Borscht. That’s a lot of beets, our pee will flow red for days and days. Continue reading →