Category Archives: San Francisco

Material developed in San Francisco

11.11.10
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Canning Tomatoes

“Last tomatoes of the season,” Julia wrote in the October 28th edition of Mariquita Truck Farm newsletter. Pick-up was at the nearby Greens Restaurant at Fort Mason, so I got right on it and ordered.

20 pounds flat of San Marzano
12 pounds flat of Early Girl

Ordering the last tomatoes of the season is not an unusual thing for me. But canning is a departure from my normal process.

t_jars_o_tomatoes

So why did I get into this canning thing?

A few reasons. I like to make tomato sauce when the tomatoes are at the peak of season, and freeze the sauce for winter and spring. This is good; but I have limited freezer capacity, and when I use the sauce I have to plan ahead for thawing.

t_kyiv_jar

Canning is totally new to me. My mother and grandmother canned tomatoes and lots of other vegetables, but I never paid much attention; everybody canned back then. Son Eric and Alison can 75 or more quarts of tomatoes a year. Brian’s (new) wife, Natasza and her mother, Ella can most everything from the garden at their dacha outside Kyiv in Ukraine. We visited recently, and noticed beautiful jars of tomatoes and such stored in nooks and crannies around their flat.

Once I picked up my tomatoes I spent a day researching recipes and buying equipment; jars and even a canning kettle. I dug out our book on home canning and fired off emails to Eric and Alison asking for tips or advice.

When I jump in, I go in all the way. No matter the initial investment in research and equipment, it’s way cheaper than a freezer.

t_equip_run

The weekend was consumed by cooking and partying for Games 3 and 4 of the World Series: SF Giants vs. Texas Rangers, and of course Sunday NFL.

t_practice_jarMonday, I went into tomato canning anxiety — the canning kettle package urged use of the Ball recipes and procedures for canning and preserving. It’s not like home canning is a mystery, but I’ve never done it before, thus, read research and generally go into paralysis by analysis. And I couldn’t start canning and have to finish after the Giants game started at 4:58pm. But Monday wasn’t a total waste. I made a trial quart of peeled Early Girls to see how they fit in the jar. Having experienced that, I made juice with those tomatoes. It tasted pretty good, but that’s a lot of work for tomato juice to drink with breakfast. Continue reading →

09.23.10
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Looed Chicken

… and a swell macaroni salad
… and a vibrant rice salad for good measure.

lc_detail

Back in the day, Looing Sauce was a staple in our household. It is a soy sauce based liquid used for poaching meat, primarily chicken, never fish. We glommed onto it back when Jeff Smith’s The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines: China – Greece – Rome was brand new, 1990. I was a big fan of his TVw_the-Frug show and bought the book when I was home on R and R from Jerusalem. I kept jars of Looing Sauce in the refrigerator and used it – at least – once a week. I transcribed it and included it as an early entry in my developing eats4one cookbook.

Years passed and it kind of got lost in the shuffle when we moved to San Francisco in 1992.

Recently, I bought a small half chicken – just 1.8 pounds – at the Mountain Ranch stand at the Saturday Market.

What to do with it? Hey, we haven’t had Looed Chicken for a while. I couldn’t find it in my computer recipe files. I still have the book, of course, but its gotta be somewhere on the computer. I went into the archives and found it in the original eats4one and made a copy for my active files.

I had to go out and find star anise. I still had some broken pieces in my spice cupboard, but its gotta be 20 years old. How else does one use star anise? So I whipped up a batch, and poached my little chicken.

lc_out_of_pot

OK, it ain’t pretty, but it sure tastes good and looks way better on the plate.

I served it over rice with a side of Romano beans and tomatoes. Oh my… it was nice and moist and flavorful.; better than I remembered. Way to go Frug.

lc_served_sitting

Even with that little bitty chicken, we had enough bits and pieces of meat left over to make a swell macaroni salad. When I did this year’s Super Bowl Party I fashioned a macaroni salad with ham, based on a Cooks Country recipe for BBQ Macaroni Salad. They add BBQ sauce to the mayonnaise and it was pretty good. In my version using Looed Chicken, I substituted Looing Sauce for the BBQ sauce. Continue reading →

09.09.10
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Scallops

Scallops with Pimento Relish and Red Bell Pepper Oil

s_scallops_detail
This was a quick dinner, but oh so good. It came down to about 90% inspiration and 10% perspiration. I like that ratio.

The Inspiration (90%)
1 – Shopping at the Saturday Market, I couldn’t resist the lovely scallops at the Shogun Fish Company stand. You can’t beat fresh sea scallops… as for supermarket scallops, just fuggedaboutit.

2 – Tom Colicchio’s Think Like a Chef, Clarkson Potter, 2000 (before he was all over TV) and Jacques Pepin’s Fast Food My Way, Houghton Mifflin, 2004. Both of these books are about technique and simplicity in cooking; ones to which I refer often.

We didn’t do any cooking on the weekend as we paid a visit to the Carneros wine country. We had a late lunch at the Boon Fly Café on Sunday, so we ate ad hoc from the fridge that evening.

Boon Fly Cafe, Carneros

Boon Fly Cafe, Carneros

Monday, we were ready for those scallops.

The Perspiration (10%)
Sear the scallops and place on a warm plate in a pool of Red Bell Pepper Oil, served with two slices Acme green onion slab fried in butter and olive oil, one topped with Pimiento Relish. Damn fine meal.

s_scallops_served

To do: Continue reading →

09.03.10
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The magic of caul fat

Lamb Crepinettes, potato salad, haricot vert
K-Paul Meatloaf, melted potatoes, broccoli

c_caul_fat_detail

I volunteer at the CUESA Kitchen two Thursday evenings a month (more or less) to help with cooking classes. We prep food for the students, wash dishes and set up and break down equipment and furnishings. The most recent class was “Sausage Making” taught by Dave “the Butcher” Budworth.

On my way to the class I had visions of meat grinders and sausage casings arrayed around the rolling stainless steel pods used as counters. There was none of that. There were mounds of herbs ready to be chopped and spices ready to be portioned, boxes of ground pork, ground lamb and caul fat. The class would not be making sausages in casings as I had envisioned, but crepinettes.

I’m familiar with the word because Fatted Calf sells crepinettes at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, but I had never seen nor eaten a crepinette. That evening I learned how to make a crepinette and Saturday, dined on my own homemade crepinettes.

sage to pick and chop

sage to pick and chop

c_chopped

Sage was only one of many ingredients that went into the sausage. We also picked and minced fresh thyme leaves and parsley, and minced long green Anaheim chilies and garlic.

mise en place

mise en place

Each pod was set up with a tray of sausage making supplies. Ten students worked at each station.
.

Dave holds a piece of caul fat

Dave holds a piece of caul fat

Caul fat is the spider web of fatty membrane that encases the internal organs of pigs, cows, and sheep, and it can be used in a variety of meat-friendly ways. Chef Vuong Loc of Portage Restaurant in Seattle calls it “kind-of like the original combi oven, because it allows the meat to roast and steam at once. It can get to a super hot temp because it’s fat, but it also keeps the moisture locked inside. It gives the meat a unique texture and adds flavor.” Continue reading →

08.24.10
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Mom’s German Potato Salad

…and a visit to German Village

gps_potato_platter_det

Dad–
I raved so much about Gary’s rendition of the German Potato Salad to Alison that now she wants us to make it with our latest crop of potatoes. Therefore you *HAVE* to do an EatsForOne feature on the recipe, especially if you can track down Martha’s version (Gary might be able to help you there, a good excuse to give them a call).
–ER

And so the quest began. I called Amy and Gary.

When Amy answered, I said, “Eric’s on me to write something about “Mom’s” German Potato Salad you guy’s brought to the Pigroast. Can you give me the recipe?”

Amy said, “Gary made it, I just helped and coached.”
“Is Gary there?” I said.

“He’s outside, under his truck,” said Amy. “I’ll call him.”

Gary said, “Gosh, I just started cooking… Amy peeled the potatoes and I sliced them… we were just cooking together…

“I don’t remember the proportions… I know we started with a lot of bacon… 1 1/2 pounds, and a lot of onions… saute the onions until they’re good and caramelized… deglaze the pan with a bit of water, then start adding vinegar and sugar until it tastes like the German Potato Salad in German Village. I’ve never seen the recipe written down. Maybe next time, I can make some notes.”
gv_Schmidt_lunch

After thinking about it, I fired off an email with a couple more questions, to which Gary quickly replied:

Mustard? No mustard, but that could be a worthy secret ingredient.
What kind of potatoes? The potato was a russet  brown skin and Amy states that we once used some red skin potatoes. Peeled, sliced on a mandolin. and parboiled.

I tried to conjure up what I remember about Mom’s German Potato Salad — I’m sure my recollections were heavily influenced by what I had just eaten at the Pigroast.

Potatoes were sliced, not cubed
Potatoes were firm, not mushy
No other vegetables or eggs.
Sweet and sour taste.

I looked for German Potato Salad recipes on the internet. Surprisingly, none were very close to the picture in my mind. One, from House & Garden, February 1957, on Epicurious, by Eloise Davison was just potatoes, bacon and sauce, but she used cubed potatoes, and only four teaspoons chopped onion, coupled with flour to make a roux with the bacon fat.

The best clues came from Recipes from a German Grandma

What makes a good German Potato Salad?
The Potato
Any potato works well but it is good to understand the qualities of each potato to their advantage in your salad. ?Many Germans like the firm red skin potato but the russet works well as also.
The Dressing
The typical dressing is a very simple vinaigrette that is equal parts water, vinegar and sugar.
Trouble is, the pictures showed a mooshy mass of potatoes, so I didn’t read that recipe carefully before I started writing my own and cooking. (Looking back, its pretty close to what I did.) Continue reading →

08.03.10
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Spring Cassoulet

… peach and tomato salad
Gone again… back again

the farm lane

the farm lane

This time we were off to Ohio, a land of heat and humidity, but one of family celebrations, as well. This one was Carol’s brother Alan’s annual pig roast on his farm just south of Lancaster – where Carol grew up – which is just north of Logan – my birthplace – and about 30 miles southeast of Columbus – where I grew up. Having lived in San Francisco for nearly 20 years, a trip “back east” is July is like a hot, wet slap in the face, and Carol tends to obsess over the heat. To my way of thinking, it’s good to go someplace really hot from time to time – not too often. I don the Ohio July uniform of a loose tee shirt, shorts and sandals and live with it. It’s the clammy, usually way too cold air conditioning that gets to me.

dude... check out these Ohio tomatoes!

dude... check out these Ohio tomatoes!

All of that, to say that I haven’t contributed to eats for a while.

sc_beans_sausages

I found this recipe for Spring Cassoulet in the CUESA newsletter and though it’s a bit past spring, I had all the ingredients and SF is cool enough just now to enjoy a bean dish.

So, you make a pot of beans and throw some sausages and pancetta on top, and sprinkle that with baby lettuces and edible flowers. How easy and yummy is that? Quite.

But Dominique Crenn of Luce at the InterContinental hotel showed me a few tricks to make this simple thing sophisticated and sublime.

For the beans, she cooked bacon, shallot, garlic, celery and carrot in a generous amount of olive oil and deglazed the pan (I used my bean pot) with white wine. OK so far… that’s the way I start beans. For the twist, she tied up that vegetable bacon mixture in cheesecloth and put it back in the pot for the beans. Viola… no pesky vegetable and bacon pieces in the beans, just their flavor. She used Rancho Gordo White Runner Beans, I used Golden Eye.

Chunks of lamb sausage, pork sausage and chopped pancetta, sautéed with onion and garlic, then cooked with red wine and chicken stock, made it a cassoulet. I used Fatted Calf Merguez and Mild Italian sausages. Continue reading →

07.15.10
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Grill it all

…sausages, beans, cabbage

What’s for dinner?

My question to myself each day.  Carol likes to cook, so she has taken over on days she doesn’t work. We reached agreement on that a few weeks ago. But the day was Wednesday and I was pondering, “What’s for dinner?”

It was a beautiful day for grilling and I had some fennel sausages from Fatted Calf. That’s a good start. But do I light up the grill just for sausages? The fridge offered cooked Mariquita pinto beans… red beans and rice would be good, but Carol is not a lover of beans. Braised cabbage also had a place on the second shelf. A nice fennel sausage nestled in a bed of braised cabbage would please Carol. Beans, rice, cabbage — that’s stovetop work; I would be back and forth between the kitchen and the grill. Of course the beans, rice and cabbage will hold, but still.

g_ready_for_grill

Why not do the beans and cabbage on the grill? They can sit over the gas flame – hardly different than being on the gas range – and I can turn off the center flame and grill the sausage there. Good idea.

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g_sausage_in_pan

And I can cook the rice in lots of boiling water – like pasta – on the stove while the grill is heating up. That takes about 12 minutes and the grill takes 15 to warm up. That’s a plan!

“When I’m making rice salad, a huge pot is just right. Boiled like pasta in too much water, rice gives up its starch. Drained and cooled, it drifts apart into separate grains, no clumping.”

From Pete Wells in a New York Times column on boiling

We have a rice cooker, but once I tried the boiling method, that’s my method of choice. Once cooked, I drain the rice and put the strainer in the empty rice pot with the lid on to hold.

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That gives me time to sit on the back porch and contemplate the Pacific Heights skyline while the grill is going. I love that. (OK, a bit of Pacific Heights and a lot of the Alhambra roof and my neighbor’s trees.)

g_served

So everything went just right. I loved my beans and sausage and Carol loved her cabbage and sausage. We slathered the sausage with Raye’s mustard, had a bit of the tarragon potato salad on the side and that made a simple, easy, beautiful dinner.

07.14.10
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Three Egg Whites

…aioli, vinegar, cookies and halibut… and tomato.
Along with the cherry tomatoes from Mariquita Farm, we got three bunches of tarragon. That’s a lot! I have a jar of tarragon vinegar waiting in a cool dark place until ready to bottle in a few weeks, but there is plenty of tarragon still to be put to use.

tarragon

tarragon

a_cookies

I’ve had my eye on a tarragon potato salad recipe made with aioli. This converges with the recent purchase of a Kitchen Aid stand mixer that I’ve wanted for ages. I’ve used it to make a couple batches of cookies and figured it would be perfect to make the aioli. Well, new things take a lot of agonizing for me. I’ve made mayonnaise in the past with the Cuisinart, but I gave that to Brian when I got the mixer; besides, that’s why I got the mixer.
So, I looked up the mayonnaise chapter in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It’s called “Julia Child’s Hand-Beaten Mayonnaise” and doesn’t mention using a mixer, but the principle is the same. I hit the Internet and found some recipes that allow as how a Kitchen Aid can be used for mayonnaise. In Instructions and Recipes for your Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer it says to use the Wire Whip for mixtures that need air incorporated, such as mayonnaise. And the introduction to one of the “hand beaten” recipes suggests, for electric beaters, use the large bowl and the “moderately fast” speed. That’s enough information to agonize over for a couple days, so I did.

potato salad, oven roasted halibut on bean salad with ponzu soy vinaigrette

potato salad, oven roasted halibut on bean salad with ponzu soy vinaigrette

The potato salad was a component of yesterday’s dinner… I could wait no longer. Mayonnaise uses three egg yolks, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, a pinch of salt and dry mustard, says Julia Child; and to make it aioli, use olive oil and 1 teaspoon garlic for each egg yolk, says freeculinaryschool.com. I went old school and crushed my garlic in a mortar and pestle.

Dribbling in two cups of olive oil takes a while, even with a snazzy mixer, otherwise things went smoothly, producing a lovely, smooth aioli.

aioli

aioli

Now I have three egg whites. Being a saver of all things edible, I put them in the fridge, envisioning breakfast this morning.

After my morning walk, I got out the egg whites, added a whole egg and a dollop of crème fraiche, and beat those guys. I cut up half of a previously grilled Italian sausage and got out my cherry tomato sauce. Viola, scrambled eggs with sausage topped with a bit of tomato sauce… a fine breakfast.

a fine breakfast

a fine breakfast

“Bill selects a few tomatoes for lunch, and we walk up the gravel road to the farmhouse. For a few minutes, we make mayonnaise and tomato sandwiches in silence, spreading a healthy layer of mayonnaise over white bread, putting on layers of tomato thicker than the bread itself.
With each bite, my fingers press through the bread and dissolve into the tomato.”

From the chapter The Seed Saver,
Food Heroes by Georgia Pellegrini, Stewart Tabori & Chang, New York
a_tomato_sandwich
Now that I have my mayonnaise, now that it’s tomato season, guess what I had for lunch. Now that’s eatin’.

As for the tarragon vinegar, cookies and halibut dish, I’ll write about those later, or not.

07.13.10
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Cherry Tomatoes

…five ways

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Andy and Julia at Mariquita Farm went and added a new service for us San Francisco folk: The Ladybug Buying Club Truck Farm.
In this iteration, instead of sending us a prix fixe Mystery Box, they allow us to actually make up our “dream order,” albeit from a short list of goodies.
This time it was French fingerling potatoes, tarragon, mint, Sungold cherry tomatoes, and Youk’s Hot Sauce (made from our chiles!) Julia always includes a short informative and entertaining marketing pitch and instructions on how and when to order.

Hello, Ladybug Friends: Saturday, July 3rd, from 10am to 11:30am (4 days from today) I’ll be at Local Mission Eatery (24th between shotwell and folsom). Potato Salad, Cherry Tomatoes, Tarragon (vinegar!? infused drinks? or tarragon potato salad! recipe links are below.), Mint… If you’d like any of this email me back. (parking concerns? There are many 1 hour and 2 hour meters throughout the neighborhood so parking is suprisingly easy.)

If you want an order for Saturday return this email with your name, cell phone number, and your dream order. I’ll email back a confirmation within 2 days. thank you. -julia

I was nearly out of sauce that I made from flats of their Early Girl and San Marzano tomatoes last fall, so the notes on cherry tomatoes caught my eye.

three baskets

three baskets

Julia’s cherry tomato sauce & notes:
-I like these as a snack as is.

-Basic (cherry) tomato sauce: Wash several baskets worth, then put in a pot with onion, garlic and oregano and cook down for about 1/2 hour over medium heat. (olive oil can be added if you like). Then let it cool some, put through a food mill, and voila: tomato sauce.

I generally don’t add any seasoning when I make my tomato sauces because I’ll season when I use it, depending on the dish. In this case, I made it as she suggested since I wouldn’t be making much and this is a new tomato type for me.

So, I cooked up five baskets of Sungold cherry tomatoes plus about a half basket of red from last Saturday’s Farmers Market. (I held out one basket of the tomatoes for snacking and stuff.)

1 onion, rough chopped
1 teaspoon Rancho Gordo oregano
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
Sautéed onions in olive oil, added garlic and oregano, added tomatoes and cooked for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Put through food mill with the small disk. Cooked down about 20 minutes. Yield, 7 cups. Continue reading →

06.15.10
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Spring Vegetables garnished with Steak

Pan-Roasted Spring Vegetables with Brown Butter Sauce and Hanger Steak garnish

Leftovers + leftovers + new vegetables = a good meal; and the right equipment helps.

My brother accused me of openly coveting his Circulon skillet the last time we visited his South Carolina home. I believe we were cooking shrimp and grits.

My covetous manner paid off. Last Christmas; he gave me a Circulon 10 1/2-inch open skillet, 3-inches deep. Since I’m a mature home cook, I already had a 10-inch cast iron skillet and 10 and 12-inch stainless steel sauté pans, but to my mind, this was something special. Often, when I’m thinking about what to cook for dinner, I think about the pan to use and visualize the cooking procedure.

I had some leftover grilled hanger steak and a couple sprouts of broccoli, not used when I did a veal scaloppini with morel sauce, steamed broccoli as the vegetable. I thought of a pan-roasting procedure from a Cooks Illustrated recipe for Pan-Roasted Broccoli with Lemon Browned Butter. It’s something I’ve cooked many times, one of my favorite broccoli recipes. I can pan-roast the broccoli and garnish with the steak. Viola, a meal easily prepared in my Circulon skillet.

mise en place

mise en place

As it turned out, there was a bit less broccoli than I thought, and a bit more steak than I thought. I needed other stuff I could cook in the same pan with the same procedure. Summer squash and tiny new potatoes from the Mariquita Mystery box will work. More vegetables than meat, that’s good. All cook in about the same amount of time. Good again. While I prepped the meat and vegetables, I put some rice in the rice cooker to catch the juices.

the vegetables brown

the vegetables brown

Brown the broccoli stems, squash and potatoes with a little oil… add the broccoli flowerettes and brown… add some seasoned water, cover and cook for a couple more minutes, uncover and cook off the liquid. Reserve the vegetables in a bowl.

b_steak_browns

Brown the steak in the same pan and reserve on a plate in a warm oven. Deglaze the pan with butter while making a brown butter sauce with a chopped shallot, garlic, salt, pepper; finish with lemon juice and fresh thyme. Add the vegetables to the sauce and toss – easily done in the deep skillet. Serve over rice, garnish with the steak.

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Carol noted that the potatoes were superfluous with the rice, but I consider those fine tiny new potatoes a vegetable, rather than a starch.

b_caprese_salad

But wait… there’s more; the Caprese Salad also featured leftovers. Half of a big pineapple tomato – I had the other half for lunch with cottage cheese (a favorite lunch in tomato season). A bit of Buffalo Mozzarella – most of it used on pizza Sunday night. The basil, OK, fresh from the Mariquita box.

One fine meal. Yum. And I have only the one pan to wash and a bunch more refrigerator space.