Sesame Peanut Noodles with Shredded Chicken

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Sesame peanut noodles by Eve Fox, the Garden of Eating, copyright 2007

This recipe is lightly adapted from a 2004 issue of Cook's Illustrated. As with all their recipes, they did their homework and the result is a perfectly balanced mix of flavors and textures.

Scallions for the Thai eggplant salad by Eve Fox, The Garden of Eating, copyright 2015

I've made it many times - sometimes with the chicken, sometimes without, depending on the crowd - and it's always a hit. The chicken-less version is a good vegan option and the version with chicken is hearty enough to be used as a main dish with a salad or other veggie side.

Cilantro, carrots and cabbage by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2012

My only change to the Cooks Illustrated recipe is to add some fresh, chopped cilantro to the final product - either as a garnish or mixed into the dish with the carrots and scallions.

The result is herby, crunchy, sweet and savory. In short, it's delicious. Make the sauce ahead of time if you can as it gives the flavors more time to develop.

Sesame peanut noodles by Eve Fox, the Garden of Eating, copyright 2007

-- print recipe --
Sesame Noodles with Shredded Chicken
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup sesame seeds
  • ¼ cup chunky peanut butter
  • 2 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
  • 1 piece (1-inch) fresh ginger, grated or minced (about 1 tablespoon)
  • 5 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce (such as Tabasco)
  • 2 tablespoons lightly packed light brown sugar
  • Hot water
  • 3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (1½ pounds), trimmed of excess fat
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 pound fresh Chinese egg noodles or 12 ounces dried spaghetti
  • 2 tablespoons Asian sesame oil
  • 4 scallions, sliced thin on diagonal
  • 1 medium carrot, peeled and grated on large holes of box grater (about 2/3 cup)
  • 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, washed, dried and coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Toast the sesame seeds in a medium skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until golden and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Reserve 1 tablespoon sesame seeds in a small bowl.

2. In a blender or food processor, puree the remaining 3 tablespoons sesame seeds, peanut butter, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, hot sauce, and sugar until smooth, about 30 seconds.

3. With the machine running, add hot water 1 tablespoon at a time until the sauce has the consistency of heavy cream, about 5 tablespoons; set the mixture aside (it can be left in the blender jar or food processor workbowl).

4. Bring 6 quarts water to a boil in a stockpot over high heat.

5. Meanwhile, adjust an oven rack to 6 inches from the broiler element; heat the broiler. Spray the broiler pan top with vegetable cooking spray; place the chicken breasts on top and broil the chicken until lightly browned, 4 to 8 minutes. Using tongs, flip the chicken over and continue to broil until the thickest part is no longer pink when cut into and registers about 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, 6 to 8 minutes.

6. Transfer to a cutting board and let rest 5 minutes. Using 2 forks, shred the chicken into bite-size pieces and set aside.

7. Add the salt and noodles to the boiling water; boil the noodles until tender, about 4 minutes for fresh and 10 minutes for dried. Drain, then rinse with cold running tap water until cool to the touch; drain again. In a large bowl, toss the noodles with the sesame oil until evenly coated.

8. Add the shredded chicken, scallions, carrot, cilantro, and sauce; toss to combine. Divide among individual bowls, sprinkle each bowl with a portion of reserved sesame seeds, and serve.

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Agritourism Catching On

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

I thought this piece from the New York Times travel section was both interesting and hopeful.

Apparently, the concept of "agritourism" is catching on with farmers and tourists - a growing trend as people become more interested in learning where their food comes from. Bunch of farms in Vermont and North Carolina have started to offer tourists the opportunity of staying on the farm and working (if they want to) to help reduce the cost of their stay. Sounds like a smaller scale, slightly more touristy version of the WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) network.

The full article "Down on the Farm With Your Sleeves Rolled Up" is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/travel/escapes/23agritourism.html

How To: Making Gravy

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Although it is inevitably a chaotic, last-minute affair, making the gravy is a crucial step in the Thanksgiving meal (or any other meal that involves roasting an animal.) After all, how many of you view mashed potatoes, turkey and maybe even stuffing primarily as vehicles for gravy? I know I do...
I'm still pretty new to gravy making but all my attempts so far have been pretty tasty. Here are a few tips from my own experience.

Much of the flavor comes from the pan drippings. Since they are often kind of hardened by all the heat, you'll need to deglaze the pan first. I like to use white wine for that step. Turn the heat up high and pour in a bunch of wine (you don't have to skimp since much of it will evaporate in the process of deglazing the pan and cooking the gravy down). Stir and scrape constantly to try to loosen all the drippings and incorporate them into the wine.

Add good stock. This is what will make up the bulk of the gravy so it's best to work with a rich, flavorful stock - it'll make your job easier for sure.

Add some finely minced herbs. I added finely chopped thyme, parsely and rosemary. Then season liberally with salt and pepper!

Thicken with flour or cornstarch to get it to a gravy-like consistency. I prefer flour (cornstarch seems wrong to me in gravy, somehow) but regardless of which thickener you use, you should first mix it with a small amount of water to create a thin paste. Adding it to the gravy this way will help prevent lumps and require much less stirring on your part.

Add other flavorings as desired (optional). You can enhance the flavor of the gravy by adding worcestershire sauce, a little maple syrup, pomegranate molasses (a wonderful thing my Aunt Katy introduced me to recently), a splash of balsamic vinegar, a teaspoon of lingonberry jam, etc.

Below is a list of the basic ingredients with some measurements but keep in mind that this is all pretty flexible. If you use more stock, you'll have to cook it a bit longer to get it to cook down to the desired consistency, or use less stock, and cook it a shorter amount. If 4 tbsps of flour is not doing the trick, add more until you get to the thickness you're looking for. Use more herbs for a stronger flavor or none for a simpler gravy, etc., etc. There's no need to feel hemmed in by exact measurements.

Basic Gravy

Ingredients

  • Pan drippings
  • 4 cups stock
  • 1 1/2 cups of white wine
  • 4 tbsps flour
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 tsps minced parsley
  • 1 tsp minced thyme
  • 1/2 tsp minced rosemary
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Optional additional seasonings include worcerstershire sauce, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, etc.

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Restaurant Review: Bakesale Betty

Saturday, November 24, 2007

A place this good needs no sign, apparently. The only hint to its identity is a piece of black paper in the window on which "Bakesale Betty" is scrawled in white chalk.
Bakesale Betty's only sign...
Bakesale Betty is located on the corner of Telegraph Ave and 51st street, in the heart of Temescal. The owner, Alison Barakat, is an Australian cook who worked at Chez Panisse for several years before she donned the blue wig that has become her trademark and opened her own restaurant in 2002. Since then her excellent food, endearing habit of giving baked goods away for free to unsuspecting patrons, and warm, kitschy ways have earned her a bit of a cult following (the fact that she always wears a blue wig probably helps, too.)

The shop is attractive in an old-fashioned yet spartan way. The small sunny area where you place your order looks onto an open kitchen filled with bakers racks and some seriously busy staff. Old-fashioned wooden rolling pins decorate the walls above the glass display cases and marble counters. View of the open kitchen - fried chicken sandwich prep
Outisde, a row of brightly painted ironing boards (in chartreuse, blue, orange, red, and black) and stools provide sidewalk seating (there is only one small table inside.) The food is served in simple paper wrappings on heavy duty baking trays.

Naushon, my restaurant review partner in crime sitting at an ironing board with our lunch order
When we arrived at 1:00 PM, they'd already run out of egg salad but were still doing a brisk business in their famous fried chicken sandwiches. Just ten minutes later, the line was snaking all the way around the corner (good thing we got there when we did)!

I had been hearing about their fried chicken sandwich for nearly a year and was pleased to learn that it does not disappoint. The sandwich is enormous - I could only eat half of it though I happily devoured the other half at home a few hours later. They use a slightly spicy batter (we detected both black and cayenne pepper) and the chicken is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It's served on french bread with a vinegary green cabbage, bell pepper, and parsley slaw and sweet pickled red onions. We both thought the sandwich would have been even more delicious with a few more onions to add a tiny bit more sweetness.

The famous fried chicken sandwich!They were also selling a very tasty lemon ice which was a good complement to the sandwich's light spice and deep fry. The frosty drink was the perfect mix of sweet and sour.

You can find Bakesale Betty at:

5098 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 289-5505
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM
Bakesale Betty in Oakland

Food for Thought: Kitchen Literacy Book

Friday, November 23, 2007

I just finished a fascinating book called Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need To Get It Back by writer and historian, Ann Vileisis. The book traces the history of our relationship to food from the late 18th century to today starting with a simple but probably delicious meal of "bakt lamb with string beens and cucumbers" cooked by a woman named Martha Ballard in August of 1790 in the area now known as Augusta, Maine and ending with some anecdotes from her own garden in coastal Oregon.

Along the way, she covers everything from the first canned foods to the rise of marketing to processed foods to industrial production to home economics to pesticides to additives to genetically engineered food to the organic movement and much much more.

Luckily for all of us, Ann just agreed to an interview so there will be more to come on Kitchen Literacy in a few weeks. In the meantime, I suggest you pick up a copy and start reading -- this is good stuff! You can buy it from either Island Press (the publisher) or from Amazon (which somehow manages to offer the book for roughly $10 less than the publisher.)

Herbed Chestnut Stuffing with Cranberries

Thursday, November 22, 2007

For our Thanksgiving dinner (in about an hour and a half!) I added chestnuts to Aunt Katy's classic stuffing recipe because I love their uncommon taste and texture - slightly sweet, nutty and chewy. I also threw in some dried organic cranberries to spice things up a little bit. My adaptated recipe is below. But first, a few notes.

Peeling fresh chestnuts is a huge pain in the ass! At first I thought it was odd that all the chestnut stuffing recipes called for canned chestnuts (eww, right?) but after wrestling with the hairy little bastards for over an hour, I now understand why. I have not done a taste test comparison of the fresh vs. canned but my guess is that it is probably worth the extra effort required for fresh chestnuts (at least, I hope it is...) They sure are pretty, though.
Fresh chestnuts - difficult but beautiful and tastyAny white bread will do. Some people like the lighter sandwich type bread and others go for slightly crustier loaves. I used two sweet (as opposed to sour which is the default for pretty much all bread here in the Bay Area) baguettes from Acme Bread Company - a terrific bakery based here in Berkeley. My pile of oven toasted bread cubes for stuffingDon't skimp on the herbs! I threw a ton of fresh parsley, sage and thyme in and it lent a lovely herby flavor. The thyme is particularly wonderful-smelling.
Bowl of fresh herbsI used a combination of chicken stock and egg to achieve the desired moistness level. I also did a vegetarian version for my brother-in-law who does not eat dairy and my sister-in-law who does not eat meat! The only changes were that I sauteed the celery and onions in olive oil, wet the stuffing with vegetable stock, instead of chicken, and did not dot the top with butter before baking. The veggie version is very good and a little healthier for you, too. Here's a picture of the finished product.
Herbed chestnut stuffing with cranberries

Ingredients

Makes 8-10 servings

  • 1 lb white bread cut into one inch cubes
  • 1 cup coarsely chopped roasted or boiled chestnuts
  • Half a stick of butter (4 tbsps)
  • 1 - 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock
  • 2 small to medium sized onions, chopped
  • 4 ribs of celery, finely chopped
  • 2 eggs, well beaten
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries or other fruit - currants, etc.
  • 1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
  • 2 tsps chopped fresh thyme
  • 2 tsps chopped fresh sage
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut a large X on the flat side of each chestnut (be sure to go all the way through the protective shell) then place the nuts on a thick baking sheet and pour a cup or two of water on the tray. Bake the chestnuts, flipping them over once, for 15-20 minutes. Leave them in the oven and shell and peel a handful at a time (they will be hot and a bit hard to handle). Chop the chestnut meats coarsely.

2. If you don't have time to let the bread cubes get stale by sitting out, place them in a single layer on a thick cookie sheet or two and bake at 300 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until golden.

3. Melt the butter in a frying pan or saucepan and add the onions and celery. Cook on medium heat until softened - 4-5 minutes. Turn off the heat and fold in the herbs, mixing well to combine.

4. Add salt and pepper to taste. Fold in the chestnuts and dried cranberries.

5. Pour this mixture into the cubed dry bread and stir to combine.

6. Add the stock to the stuffing mixture and stir well until it is moist all over but not soggy.

7. Add the egg if you want to give the cooked stuffing a bit more substance.

8. Pour the stuffing into a buttered casserole pan or baking dish and dot the top with butter.

9. Bake until the top gets crusty - 30-45 minutes.

More Carving Help - Think Like A Butcher

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

The New York Times offered this interesting piece on carving instruction today as a way of maximizing the amount of meat you get off the bird with a minimum of difficulty.

You can read the whole article or just watch the video in which Ray Venezia, the manager of the meat department at Fairway, demonstrates his method. Click here to read and/or watch.

Spicy Candied Pecans

Monday, November 19, 2007

I love the candied nuts people put out at the holidays but am always aghast at how much they cost. After picking them up and quickly putting them back down again after looking at the price at least four times recently, I decided to make my own.

I bought the nuts at Trader Joe's because they always have really good deals on nuts and dried fruits - a 1 pound bag of organic raw pecans was only $5.69. I found plenty of recipes online - below is one from Slashfood that I've modified slightly to make it slightly spicy, as opposed to just spiced.

This seems like something you could play around with quite a bit and always have it turn out yummy. For instance, you could probably replace the sugar with maple syrup or play with the spices to create something with a more middle eastern flavor - cardamom, cumin, etc. Candied walnuts would also be good.
My (much cheaper) delicious candied pecansSpiced Candied Pecans
Ingredients
  • 2 1/2 cups raw pecans
  • 1 large egg white, lightly beaten
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 1/4 tsp cloves
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper
Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, stir the pecans with the egg white.

3. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, cinnamon, allspice and salt. Pour over the nuts and stir until evenly coated.

4. Spread in a single layer on the baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

5. Slide parchment paper (with nuts still on it) off of the baking sheet and onto a wire rack (or the counter) to cool.

6. Break nuts up into a bowl to serve or store at room temperature in an airtight container.

Auntie Katy's Classic Stuffing

Friday, November 16, 2007

Can anyone tell I have Thanksgiving on the brain? My aunt Katy who is considered the "stuffing queen" in my husband's family just shared her basic recipe with me. It's simple and delicious.

Auntie Katy's Classic Stuffing

Ingredients
  • 1 lb white bread -- use a firm white bread; a good baguette will work well
  • 3 cups chopped onions
  • 1 cup finely chopped celery
  • 1 cup chopped white mushrooms (optional)
  • 1/2 cup chopped chestnuts (optional)
  • 1/2 cup minced parsley
  • 2 tsps minced fresh sage (you can use more or less, depending on your taste)
  • 1 tsp miced fresh thyme (you can use more or less, depending on your taste)
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • Butter
Directions

1. Cube it and let it sit for a day or two, or toast it in the oven.

2. Sauté 3 cups chopped onion and 1 cup finely chopped celery in butter.

3. When onion is translucent, add a bunch of chopped white mushrooms and/or chestnuts and sauté until softened.

4. Remove from heat and stir in the minced parsely, fresh sage and thyme to taste.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Toss with the bread cubes until well blended.

7. Moisten it all with the stock (you can also substitute an egg, if that sounds better to you.)

8. Then either stuff the bird loosely (with the stuffing in a removable cheesecloth bag) just before you are about to roast the bird, and not a moment sooner, or put it in a greased pan, dot with a boatload of butter, and bake.

9. If you bake the stuffing in the bird, you must be sure that it reaches 165 degrees (the temperature at which bacteria are killed) before you serve it. This may require additional cooking outside of the bird, hence the removable cheesecloth bag.

Simple Mashed Potatoes

Thursday, November 15, 2007

My Cousin Nina sent me a link to this nice New York Times recipe for mashed potatoes a few years ago, the first time I did any serious cooking for Thanksgiving dinner.

Peeled potatoes by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog

I've made it often since then and it is both easy and delicious.
After all, it's pretty hard to go wrong with potatoes, butter and cream...

Mashing yellow fin potatoes by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog


Simple Mashed Potatoes
Makes 4-6 servings


Ingredients
  • 2 1/2 pounds potatoes (about 6 large potatoes), preferably a combination of russet (baking) potatoes and large Yukon Golds, or all Yukon Golds
  • 4 tablespoons butter, more for dotting
  • 1/3 cup whole milk
  • Salt

Directions

1. In a large pot, bring a gallon of water and 2 tablespoons salt to a boil over high heat. Peel and quarter potatoes and keep in cold water until ready to cook (this can be done up to 4 hours in advance). Add potatoes to boiling water and boil about 15 to 20 minutes, until soft; a knife should go in with almost no resistance. (It is better to overcook than to undercook.)

2. In a saucepan or a microwave oven, heat butter and milk together until butter melts and mixture steams. Drain potatoes well and return to pot. Using an extruding masher or a ricer, mash hot potatoes until smooth. Lightly mix in about half of hot butter mixture, just until blended. Taste for salt and add more butter mixture until seasoned to your liking.

3. Stop here for fluffy potatoes. For creamy potatoes, keep stirring potato mixture, using a sturdy spoon to press it against sides and bottom of pot. Mix until dense and thick. For whipped potatoes, use a stand mixer to mash hot potatoes just until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add all the butter mixture and salt to taste, pulsing machine in short bursts at medium speed. When light and creamy, stop mixing immediately (potatoes can quickly become sticky).

4. To keep hot until ready to serve, transfer to serving bowl, dot top with butter, cover tightly and keep in a warm place, like the back of the stove. Potatoes will stay hot for at least 30 minutes. To keep longer, place covered bowl in a pan holding about an inch of gently simmering water. Before serving, mix well.

Cape Town CousCous with Roasted Root Veggies & Feta

My oldest friend Chloe (we've known each other since we were 1!) has been living in Cape Town, South Africa for the past year or so. She's been learning some great new recipes while she's there. Below is one she sent me recently that sounded very tasty.Cape Town Cous Cous from Chloe
Cape Town Cous Cous with Roasted Root Veggies and Feta
Ingredients
  • 2 cups dry cous cous (whole wheat if preferred)
  • 3 cups root veggies cut into bite size pieces (squash, sweet potatoes, beets, etc.)
  • 1 red onion chopped into large pieces
  • 2 garlic cloves peeled and squashed
  • 1 cup mint, chopped
  • 1 cup Italian parsley, chopped
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 cup feta, crumbled
  • EVOO
  • 2 tbsp black mustard seed
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400

2. Arrange cut root veggies, onions and garlic on cookie sheets, then drizzle with EVOO, salt and pepper, cover with foil and roast in oven at 400f until soft (remove foil as they soften to caramelize)

3. Put cous cous in a wide bowl and add boiling water to just above the top of the cous cous, cover and let stand until all the water has been absorbed, stir with fork to separate the grains

4. While the cous cous is warm, mix in the herbs, 1 tbsp EVOO and squeezed lemon

5. In a skillet over medium heat, add 1 tbsp EVOO and the black mustard seeds, heat seeds until they start to pop, turn off heat and add 1 tsp garam masala (if you can’t find garam masala, use 2 part curry powder, 1 part cinnamon and 1 part coriander)

6. Mix in warm spices and roasted veggies (remove whole garlic), crumble in feta

7. Garnish with a yogurt sauce of chopped cucumber and cilantro

Locavore

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Want proof that people's attitudes towards food are changing?

New Oxford American Dictionary's wordsmiths just chose "locavore" as their 2007 word of the year!

Below is an excerpt from the
Oxford University Press blog's write up of this historic decision.

The past year saw the popularization of a trend in using locally grown ingredients, taking advantage of seasonally available foodstuffs that can be bought and prepared without the need for extra preservatives.

The “locavore” movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to grow or pick their own food, arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locavores also shun supermarket offerings as an environmentally friendly measure, since shipping food over long distances often requires more fuel for transportation.

“The word ‘locavore’ shows how food-lovers can enjoy what they eat while still appreciating the impact they have on the environment,” said Ben Zimmer, editor for American dictionaries at Oxford University Press. “It’s significant in that it brings together eating and ecology in a new way.”

“Locavore” was coined two years ago by a group of four women in San Francisco who proposed that local residents should try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius. Other regional movements have emerged since then, though some groups refer to themselves as “localvores” rather than “locavores.” However it’s spelled, it’s a word to watch.

Restaurant Review: Pizzaiolo

Monday, November 12, 2007

Even though I am not very impressed by their pizzas, Pizzaiolo is one of my favorite restaurants in the East Bay. The food is uniformly tasty and the atmosphere is relaxed and fun.

The dishes showcase locally-grown and raised organic foods. The decor is warm and inviting with a mix of old-fashioned tile, beautiful antique light fixtures, and avant-garde art installations. In addition to a ceramic canister filled with antique wooden pasta rollers, the bar is usually graced with an arrangement of some gorgeous vegetable that is the centerpiece of one of the daily specials. Tonight it was a bowl of cauliflower for the penne rigate with cavolfiore.

The hipster-grunge waitstaff wear t-shirts or tank tops and jeans (but they're pretty expensive jeans) with thinly striped blue and white aprons. The staff is fairly heavy on the tattoos. Our waitress was sweet and fairly attentive, if not very knowledgeable.

I was joined by my restaurant review co-pilot, Naushon. We ordered the:

Annabelle's mixed chicories caesar salad ($9) This was one of the best caesar salads I've had - the mix of lettuce and chicories provides a little tartness which is nicely balanced by the mild, nutty parmesan cheese shavings and the garlicy, salty dressing. The salad did have one unfortunately flaw, though, they gave us only one of the housemade crutons! It was quite tasty (we split it) but we would have preferred to have at least three more to nosh on.
Fantastic caesar salad - you see that cruton? It's the only one!Cardoon soup with new harvest olive oil ($7.50) I had never heard of cardoon before but learned that they are a relative of the artichoke. The soup was very tasty. Our only criticism was that we felt it would actually have been better without the layer of olive oil they'd drizzled on top.
Cardoon soup with a little bit too much oil on topStrozzapreti with Willis Ranch pork ragu ($14) I think strozzapreti (Italian for "priest choker" -
click here for Wikipedia's explanation of this rather odd name) may be my new favorite pasta. Pizzaiolo makes and dries their own priest chokers. The pasta has a satisfying slightly chewy texture. The ragu featured chunks of tender, ropy pork, tomatoes, and red onions.
Delicious priest chokers!Meatballs al Pizzaiolo ($14) Served in a red sauce, these finely blended meatballs were packed with whole pinenuts. Besides the pinenuts I thought I detected pork (and probably some other meats), eggs, breadcrumbs, cheese and parsley.The meatballsBoylans cola ($2.50) I went really wild and ordered a Boylan's cola. Boylan's natural sodas are made with cane sugar and without artificial flavors, colors or preservatives.

Glass of Corvina Valpolicella ($9) Naushon ordered a glass of this wine, which is her favorite. It has a pleasantly balanced earthy, sweet, and tiny bit spicy flavor which goes well with pretty much everything they serve. Although similar to Montepulciano D'Abruzzo, it's apparently a bit less common and a bit more interesting.

Pizzaiolo was opened in the summer of 2005 by chef and owner Charlie Hallowell who lives upstairs with his two kids. Charlie is one of the many Bay Area restaurant owners who got his start at Chez Panisse where he worked for 8 years.

Pizzaiolo is located at:
5008 Telegraph Ave (about three doors down from Dona Tomas)
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 652-4888

Web site:
http://www.pizzaiolooakland.com/

Their menu (which changes daily) is available at:
http://www.pizzaiolooakland.com/menu/

Pizzaiolo is open from 5:30 - 10:00 PM Monday - Saturday. You can call after 3:00 PM to make dinner reservations though walk-ins are welcome (but be prepared for a wait unless you get there before 6:00 pm.)

Pizzaiolo in Oakland

Carving a Turkey

If you don't already know how to butcher your bird, you are in good company! I asked my cousin Nina (who is in culinary school) if she had any suggestions -- she recommended this very helpful video tutorial since diagrams and pictures are harder to follow. On a slightly off-topic note, the site that produced this video is called Video Jug - Life Explained. On Film. and offers how-to videos on everything from how to get chewing gum out of your clothes to how to undo a woman's bra with one hand to how to tie a windsor tie knot. I'm kind of amazed by it...


VideoJug: How To Carve A Turkey

Restaurant Review: LaLime's

Sunday, November 11, 2007

LaLime's is considered one of Berkeley's better up-scale restaurants featuring Mediterranean-inspired California fare. Like many Berkeley establishments, LaLime's uses mostly organic produce.

We'd attempted to have a family dinner at LaLime's last winter but were thwarted at the last minute by a random power outage at the restaurant. So when my mom-in-law was in town for a visit a week or so ago, we all piled in the car for a second try.

A huge carved pumpkin greeted us outside the door (it was a day or two after Halloween). Inside, was a mix of round and smaller square tables and a pleasantly pitched din of clanking forks and conversation. School house lights cast a low, warm light.

Pumpkin by the doorIn a nutshell, the ambience was pleasant, if a little stuffier than I'd prefer, and the food was very good, if more expensive than I'd normally go for.

We started with an appetizer of Lucques olives with orange zest, anise, and thyme. These little green olives were citrusy, herby, and delicious.
Very tasty olives LaLime's menu refers to entrees as "More Substantial Dishes". Here's what we ordered in that department:
  • Grilled Berkshire Pork Chop with Apple-Pear Chutney and Mashed Potatoes ($25) The pork chop was really good (I was very happy with my order.) The mashed potatoes were rich and interesting, the chutney was a perfect complement - sweet and spiced, and the braised greens were also done to perfection.

  • Pork chop, yum!
  • Wild Mushroom Stroganoff with Brocolli Rabe ($19) The stroganoff was also excellent - buttery noodles with a light cream sauce of woodsy, wild mushrooms. My sister-in-law felt that the amount of garlic on the broccoli rabe was a little excessive though the rabe itself was good.Delicious mushroom stroganoff
  • Marmitako: Basque Seafood Strew with Tuna, Prawns, Sweet Peppers and Tomato ($26) I did not taste the Basque seafood stew (too fishy for me) though I did notice that it all got eaten. It was probably the most impressive looking dish we ordered, though.
  • Seafood stew
  • Atlantic Cod with Braised Chard and Spanish Chorizo ($25) The cod was extremely tender and the spicy chorizo was a nice complement.

  • Very tender cod with chorizo and chard
  • Mussels Steamed with Pernod, Garlic and Lemon ($12) I also did not taste the mussels but my mom-in-law reported that the sauce was excellent - lemon, butter, mustard and wine.Mussels

  • Baked Poblano Chile Stuffed With Zucchini, Wild Mushrooms and Fromage Blanc ($9.50) (Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of this) I tend to stear clear of the spicy foods but my mom-in-law informed me that it was delicious.

However, none of us liked our waiter, a young man who seemed to lack warmth and social graces. He lost us early on in the process when he told us, "I just want you to know that if you're not ordering appetizers, it's going to be a 30-minute wait." This struck us all as a kind of thinly veiled threat which was not actually offered out of concern for our comfort but, rather, to push us into ordering more food, thereby ensuring a bigger gratuity for himself.

The busboy who de-crumbed our table managed to thoroughly crumb us all, instead. Any crumbs he did not brush directly on to our bodies went straight on the floor.

But we never lacked for food, water, or silverware, so I would not call the service bad, just not great.

LaLime's is located at 1329 Gilman Street. They take reservations via phone at (510) 527 9838 and, apparently, online via OpenTable.com (though we did not try the online system) www.LaLimes.com

Current a la carte menu is at http://www.lalimes.com/tonight.html

Open:

Monday-Thursday 5:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Friday-Saturday 5:30 - 10:00 p.m.
Sunday 5:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Lalime's in Albany

Green Goddess Dressing

My introduction to Green Goddess dressing will remain a treasured memory. Rewind six months to my first meal at Pizzaiolo in Oakland (review coming soonish!) Being new to the place, I happily let my friend Naushon, who'd eaten there many times, take the reins. Among the dishes she chose was a delicious salad of little gem lettuces from nearby Blue Heron Farm topped with pickled golden, chiogga and purple beets, slices of armenian cucumber, and Green Goddess dressing.

It was love at first bite. I found myself instantly addicted to the stuff. As any addict would, I tried to get a second "fix" by recreating the salad at home a few days later. The end result was quite good but also very different. A bowl of my homemade green goddess - it tastes better than it looks...I had used a recipe for the original Green Goddess dressing (see below) which is fairly different from the version Alice Waters pioneered at Chez Panisse. And since Pizzaiolo's chef and owner, Charlie Hallowell, was Chez Panisse's pizza chef for eight years before he opened his own restaurant, it's quite likely he uses the Waters version of the dressing.

Green Goddess dressing was invented in the 1920's at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in honor of William Archer's hit play, The Green Goddess. The original recipe calls for mayonnaise, tarragon and anchovies (among other things). The Alice Waters/Chez Panisse version relies heavily on tarragon but includes avocado and leaves out the mayo and anchovies. See below for both recipes.


Palace Hotel Green Goddess Dressing
Makes 2 cups

Ingredients

  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
  • 1/4 cup snipped fresh chives or minced scallions
  • 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh tarragon
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
  • 3 anchovy fillets, rinsed, patted dry, and minced
  • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions

1. Stir all the ingredients together in a small bowl until well blended (or if you prefer your dressing creamier, throw it all into a food processor or blender and pulse for 30 seconds.)

2. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

3. Use immediately or cover and refrigerate.


Chez Panisse Green Goddess Dressing (as printed in Food & Wine magazine)
Makes 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

• 1 small shallot, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature, pasteurized (optional)
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 ripe avocado
• 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon chopped tarragon
• 1 tablespoon chopped basil
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine the shallot with the garlic, vinegar and lemon and lime juices. Let stand for 5 minutes.

2. In a medium bowl, beat the yolk with a whisk.

3. Gradually add half of the olive oil in a thin drizzle to the yolk, whisking constantly.

4. Add 1 tablespoon of liquid from the shallot mixture, then whisk the yolk mixture into the remaining olive oil.

5. Add the avocado and mash it in with a fork.

6. Whisk in the remaining shallot mixture and the herbs, and season with salt and pepper.

Anyone Can Cook, Even A Rat...

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

A great food movie is being released on DVD today (November 6th.) If you haven't already seen it, go rent or netflix (yes, "netflix" has become a verb, just like "google" did) Ratatouille, Pixar's latest animated feature. Normally, I'm not blown away by animated movies but I really enjoyed this one. Like Jim Henson's Muppets, Ratatouille is equally entertaining for kids and adults, especially for adults who like to cook.

Ratatouille is the story of Remy, a French country rat who dreams of becoming a great chef after he gets inspired by the work of Auguste Gusteau, a Parisian chef whose motto is "anyone can cook." Remy has a highly sensitive nose--he's the designated rat poison sniffer-outer for the colony--but he longs to use his skills to create delicious food. Fate and his love of cooking conspire to tear Remy away from his family and dump him into a fast-flowing sewer drain. After a hellish ride throughy some gnarly tubes, Remy finally climbs up a drainpipe and finds himself in Paris, dripping wet and utterly alone, but miraculously staring up at the sign on Gusteau's restaurant... I won't spoil the rest for you.

Still from movie, Remy and Linguini in kitchen, courtesy of Pixar

I loved the accuracy and detail of the cooking/kitchen scenes. The techniques and ingredients are impeccable; the restaurant scenes are accurate - the chefs, sous-chefs, pastry chefs, bus-boys, and waiters are all zipping around and bumping into each other in the controlled chaos and barely restrained animosity of the kitchen; the lone female chef, Collette, has a big chip on her shoulder about being a minority in a male-dominated field; and little details like the horizontal burn marks across the wrists of the cooks showed an impressive knowledge about cooking and an admirable devotion to realism.

I also loved its message about the power of good cooking. Remy's love of food is so great that he is willing to leave his family and follow his chef's nose to Paris where he risks his life just to save a pot of soup that Linguini is ruining. And Anton Ego, the fearsome restaurant critic whose brutal reviews result in Gusteau's death after his five-star restaurant is downgraded to four stars, becomes human only after his frozen heart is melted by a dish of Remy's ratatouille.
"Anyone can cook", the catch-phrase of the deceased Chef Gusteau, is echoed throughout the film. Although the film does contradict itself a bit because Linguini, one of the main characters, really can't cook, at least not without the help of the culinarily-gifted Remy, I still appreciated the democratic message.

Still from movie of Anton Ego, restaurant critic, courtesy of Pixar

Here's a clip from the movie to whet your appetite (so to speak.)

Restaurant Review: Dopo

Friday, November 2, 2007

My friend, Naushon, and I had been wanting to try Dopo for months and finally got around to it on Tuesday night. My first visit was a good one. I will definitely go back.

Located at 4293 Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, the expanded space features mustard-colored stucko walls with red accents. Four flower and leaf arrangements were hung in green glass vases atop a pillar, lending a nice autumnal feeling. And a legendary chrome
FAMEA E61 1961 espresso maker held court at one end of the tall granite bar.

Our server, Megan, was a delightful mix of knowledgeable, funny, down-to-earth, and attentive, without so much as a hint of pushy. In honor of Halloween, she was wearing a black "Catholic Girl Gone Bad" t-shirt, black skirt, and black and white striped tights. The "crowning" touch - a pair of small red horns sprouting from her head.

We ordered the:

  • Fennel, wild arugala, and parmesan salad;
  • Dopo pizza; and
  • Riccota gnocchi with ragu of house-made sausage and hoffman farm hen
The salad was excellent. The thinly sliced fennel was refreshingly crisp, the grated (not shaved, as is often the case) parmesan was sweet and nutty, and the wild arugala was tender and fresh with a little kick to it. The olive oil and lemon juice vinaigrette was nicely balanced and there was lots of it (I like my salads well-dressed.)


fennel, wild arugala, and parmesan saladThe dopo is their cheapest pizza and is topped with a light tomato sauce, grated pecorino and mozarella, chopped parsley, pepper flakes and anchovies (which are optional and I skipped). Because my stomach rebels at spicy foods, Megan had offered to ask the kitchen to hold the hot pepper flakes. As a result, the pizza toppings were slightly out of balance and tended to be primarily salty (and this was without the anchovies!) It was good, but unremarkable and not a topping combo I'd order again. The crust, however, was perfection! The pizza had the best thin crust I've eaten. It was remarkably thin, tender, and flavorful, but not at all burnt or charred.

Dopo pizza - see how thin the crust is?

The gnocchi was rich (thanks to the ricotta) and tender. The ragu was really excellent. The flavors had been well-married through long cooking and it had a subtle "creeper" spiciness that asserted itself more as you ate. They make their own salumi on the premises and the house-made sausage in the sauce was very tasty. Although the dish was good, we both felt that the sauce would have been even better with a plainer pasta - maybe a tagliatelle.

gnocchi with pork and chicken ragu sauceDopo also has an amateur-friendly wine menu that features a picture of the boot with the wines listed by region. Naushon ordered a glass of montepulciano d'abruzzo ($5) which she enjoyed.

The Acme bread they served us was not quite warm enough but still very tasty.

Their portion sizes are fairly small. We both cleaned our plates. I felt perfectly full at the end of the meal, however, had I been a bigger woman or a man, I feel sure I'd have needed another dish or two to fill me up.

Total bill, with tax and a 20% tip, was $48.

Dopo is Italian for "after"or "later."

Click here for hours and more details from Yelp

Dopo in Oakland

Finding Free-Range Gobblers for T-Day

Thursday, November 1, 2007

This year will be the first time I've ever spent Thanksgiving apart from my family on the east coast. Since many of us "kids" have ended up here on the west coast, we'll be having our own younger generation T-day celebration here in Berkeley. And that brings me to another first - I'll be roasting my first turkey!

Naturally, I am feeling a little nervous -- after all, it's a very large bird and a crucial part of the Thanksgiving dinner. So I am planning to do two things to help ensure a delicious roasted turkey:

1. I am going to brine the turkey before I roast it. According to many sources (including Martha Stewart), brining a.k.a. soaking the bird in salt water for many hours, helps to ensure a moist, flavorful turkey. I'll write more about this soon.

2. I am going to buy the best-tasting, "happiest" bird I can find. Around here, that appears to be a Willie Bird, a free-range, organic turkey from Willie Bird Farms near Santa Rosa. I have to say that I am still recovering from the sticker shock - the smallest turkey they sell costs nearly $100! I am hoping that part of that price is the cost of them FedExing it to you and that it will be slightly cheaper to pick it up from a local grocery store.
Willie Bird Farms turkeys, photo by Justin Sullivan, Getty ImagesFor those of you who don't live in northern California, you can consult the Eat Well Guide (http://www.eatwellguide.org) to find a good source for free-range (possibly organic) turkeys near you.

Slow Foods USA also has a listing of heritage turkey farmers by geographical region on their web site (http://www.slowfoodusa.org/ark/turkeys.html.)

If you happen to live in Vermont, I'll save you the trouble. Below are links to the two places my Aunt Katy (the owner of Healthy Living Natural Foods market in Burlington, VT) recommended. I'd take her word for it, she's definitely done her homework.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Sesame Peanut Noodles with Shredded Chicken

Sesame peanut noodles by Eve Fox, the Garden of Eating, copyright 2007

This recipe is lightly adapted from a 2004 issue of Cook's Illustrated. As with all their recipes, they did their homework and the result is a perfectly balanced mix of flavors and textures.

Scallions for the Thai eggplant salad by Eve Fox, The Garden of Eating, copyright 2015

I've made it many times - sometimes with the chicken, sometimes without, depending on the crowd - and it's always a hit. The chicken-less version is a good vegan option and the version with chicken is hearty enough to be used as a main dish with a salad or other veggie side.

Cilantro, carrots and cabbage by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog, copyright 2012

My only change to the Cooks Illustrated recipe is to add some fresh, chopped cilantro to the final product - either as a garnish or mixed into the dish with the carrots and scallions.

The result is herby, crunchy, sweet and savory. In short, it's delicious. Make the sauce ahead of time if you can as it gives the flavors more time to develop.

Sesame peanut noodles by Eve Fox, the Garden of Eating, copyright 2007

-- print recipe --
Sesame Noodles with Shredded Chicken
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup sesame seeds
  • ¼ cup chunky peanut butter
  • 2 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
  • 1 piece (1-inch) fresh ginger, grated or minced (about 1 tablespoon)
  • 5 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce (such as Tabasco)
  • 2 tablespoons lightly packed light brown sugar
  • Hot water
  • 3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (1½ pounds), trimmed of excess fat
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 pound fresh Chinese egg noodles or 12 ounces dried spaghetti
  • 2 tablespoons Asian sesame oil
  • 4 scallions, sliced thin on diagonal
  • 1 medium carrot, peeled and grated on large holes of box grater (about 2/3 cup)
  • 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, washed, dried and coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Toast the sesame seeds in a medium skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until golden and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Reserve 1 tablespoon sesame seeds in a small bowl.

2. In a blender or food processor, puree the remaining 3 tablespoons sesame seeds, peanut butter, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, hot sauce, and sugar until smooth, about 30 seconds.

3. With the machine running, add hot water 1 tablespoon at a time until the sauce has the consistency of heavy cream, about 5 tablespoons; set the mixture aside (it can be left in the blender jar or food processor workbowl).

4. Bring 6 quarts water to a boil in a stockpot over high heat.

5. Meanwhile, adjust an oven rack to 6 inches from the broiler element; heat the broiler. Spray the broiler pan top with vegetable cooking spray; place the chicken breasts on top and broil the chicken until lightly browned, 4 to 8 minutes. Using tongs, flip the chicken over and continue to broil until the thickest part is no longer pink when cut into and registers about 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, 6 to 8 minutes.

6. Transfer to a cutting board and let rest 5 minutes. Using 2 forks, shred the chicken into bite-size pieces and set aside.

7. Add the salt and noodles to the boiling water; boil the noodles until tender, about 4 minutes for fresh and 10 minutes for dried. Drain, then rinse with cold running tap water until cool to the touch; drain again. In a large bowl, toss the noodles with the sesame oil until evenly coated.

8. Add the shredded chicken, scallions, carrot, cilantro, and sauce; toss to combine. Divide among individual bowls, sprinkle each bowl with a portion of reserved sesame seeds, and serve.

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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Agritourism Catching On

I thought this piece from the New York Times travel section was both interesting and hopeful.

Apparently, the concept of "agritourism" is catching on with farmers and tourists - a growing trend as people become more interested in learning where their food comes from. Bunch of farms in Vermont and North Carolina have started to offer tourists the opportunity of staying on the farm and working (if they want to) to help reduce the cost of their stay. Sounds like a smaller scale, slightly more touristy version of the WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) network.

The full article "Down on the Farm With Your Sleeves Rolled Up" is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/travel/escapes/23agritourism.html

Sunday, November 25, 2007

How To: Making Gravy

Although it is inevitably a chaotic, last-minute affair, making the gravy is a crucial step in the Thanksgiving meal (or any other meal that involves roasting an animal.) After all, how many of you view mashed potatoes, turkey and maybe even stuffing primarily as vehicles for gravy? I know I do...
I'm still pretty new to gravy making but all my attempts so far have been pretty tasty. Here are a few tips from my own experience.

Much of the flavor comes from the pan drippings. Since they are often kind of hardened by all the heat, you'll need to deglaze the pan first. I like to use white wine for that step. Turn the heat up high and pour in a bunch of wine (you don't have to skimp since much of it will evaporate in the process of deglazing the pan and cooking the gravy down). Stir and scrape constantly to try to loosen all the drippings and incorporate them into the wine.

Add good stock. This is what will make up the bulk of the gravy so it's best to work with a rich, flavorful stock - it'll make your job easier for sure.

Add some finely minced herbs. I added finely chopped thyme, parsely and rosemary. Then season liberally with salt and pepper!

Thicken with flour or cornstarch to get it to a gravy-like consistency. I prefer flour (cornstarch seems wrong to me in gravy, somehow) but regardless of which thickener you use, you should first mix it with a small amount of water to create a thin paste. Adding it to the gravy this way will help prevent lumps and require much less stirring on your part.

Add other flavorings as desired (optional). You can enhance the flavor of the gravy by adding worcestershire sauce, a little maple syrup, pomegranate molasses (a wonderful thing my Aunt Katy introduced me to recently), a splash of balsamic vinegar, a teaspoon of lingonberry jam, etc.

Below is a list of the basic ingredients with some measurements but keep in mind that this is all pretty flexible. If you use more stock, you'll have to cook it a bit longer to get it to cook down to the desired consistency, or use less stock, and cook it a shorter amount. If 4 tbsps of flour is not doing the trick, add more until you get to the thickness you're looking for. Use more herbs for a stronger flavor or none for a simpler gravy, etc., etc. There's no need to feel hemmed in by exact measurements.

Basic Gravy

Ingredients

  • Pan drippings
  • 4 cups stock
  • 1 1/2 cups of white wine
  • 4 tbsps flour
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 tsps minced parsley
  • 1 tsp minced thyme
  • 1/2 tsp minced rosemary
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Optional additional seasonings include worcerstershire sauce, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, etc.

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Saturday, November 24, 2007

Restaurant Review: Bakesale Betty

A place this good needs no sign, apparently. The only hint to its identity is a piece of black paper in the window on which "Bakesale Betty" is scrawled in white chalk.
Bakesale Betty's only sign...
Bakesale Betty is located on the corner of Telegraph Ave and 51st street, in the heart of Temescal. The owner, Alison Barakat, is an Australian cook who worked at Chez Panisse for several years before she donned the blue wig that has become her trademark and opened her own restaurant in 2002. Since then her excellent food, endearing habit of giving baked goods away for free to unsuspecting patrons, and warm, kitschy ways have earned her a bit of a cult following (the fact that she always wears a blue wig probably helps, too.)

The shop is attractive in an old-fashioned yet spartan way. The small sunny area where you place your order looks onto an open kitchen filled with bakers racks and some seriously busy staff. Old-fashioned wooden rolling pins decorate the walls above the glass display cases and marble counters. View of the open kitchen - fried chicken sandwich prep
Outisde, a row of brightly painted ironing boards (in chartreuse, blue, orange, red, and black) and stools provide sidewalk seating (there is only one small table inside.) The food is served in simple paper wrappings on heavy duty baking trays.

Naushon, my restaurant review partner in crime sitting at an ironing board with our lunch order
When we arrived at 1:00 PM, they'd already run out of egg salad but were still doing a brisk business in their famous fried chicken sandwiches. Just ten minutes later, the line was snaking all the way around the corner (good thing we got there when we did)!

I had been hearing about their fried chicken sandwich for nearly a year and was pleased to learn that it does not disappoint. The sandwich is enormous - I could only eat half of it though I happily devoured the other half at home a few hours later. They use a slightly spicy batter (we detected both black and cayenne pepper) and the chicken is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It's served on french bread with a vinegary green cabbage, bell pepper, and parsley slaw and sweet pickled red onions. We both thought the sandwich would have been even more delicious with a few more onions to add a tiny bit more sweetness.

The famous fried chicken sandwich!They were also selling a very tasty lemon ice which was a good complement to the sandwich's light spice and deep fry. The frosty drink was the perfect mix of sweet and sour.

You can find Bakesale Betty at:

5098 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 289-5505
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM
Bakesale Betty in Oakland

Friday, November 23, 2007

Food for Thought: Kitchen Literacy Book

I just finished a fascinating book called Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need To Get It Back by writer and historian, Ann Vileisis. The book traces the history of our relationship to food from the late 18th century to today starting with a simple but probably delicious meal of "bakt lamb with string beens and cucumbers" cooked by a woman named Martha Ballard in August of 1790 in the area now known as Augusta, Maine and ending with some anecdotes from her own garden in coastal Oregon.

Along the way, she covers everything from the first canned foods to the rise of marketing to processed foods to industrial production to home economics to pesticides to additives to genetically engineered food to the organic movement and much much more.

Luckily for all of us, Ann just agreed to an interview so there will be more to come on Kitchen Literacy in a few weeks. In the meantime, I suggest you pick up a copy and start reading -- this is good stuff! You can buy it from either Island Press (the publisher) or from Amazon (which somehow manages to offer the book for roughly $10 less than the publisher.)

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Herbed Chestnut Stuffing with Cranberries

For our Thanksgiving dinner (in about an hour and a half!) I added chestnuts to Aunt Katy's classic stuffing recipe because I love their uncommon taste and texture - slightly sweet, nutty and chewy. I also threw in some dried organic cranberries to spice things up a little bit. My adaptated recipe is below. But first, a few notes.

Peeling fresh chestnuts is a huge pain in the ass! At first I thought it was odd that all the chestnut stuffing recipes called for canned chestnuts (eww, right?) but after wrestling with the hairy little bastards for over an hour, I now understand why. I have not done a taste test comparison of the fresh vs. canned but my guess is that it is probably worth the extra effort required for fresh chestnuts (at least, I hope it is...) They sure are pretty, though.
Fresh chestnuts - difficult but beautiful and tastyAny white bread will do. Some people like the lighter sandwich type bread and others go for slightly crustier loaves. I used two sweet (as opposed to sour which is the default for pretty much all bread here in the Bay Area) baguettes from Acme Bread Company - a terrific bakery based here in Berkeley. My pile of oven toasted bread cubes for stuffingDon't skimp on the herbs! I threw a ton of fresh parsley, sage and thyme in and it lent a lovely herby flavor. The thyme is particularly wonderful-smelling.
Bowl of fresh herbsI used a combination of chicken stock and egg to achieve the desired moistness level. I also did a vegetarian version for my brother-in-law who does not eat dairy and my sister-in-law who does not eat meat! The only changes were that I sauteed the celery and onions in olive oil, wet the stuffing with vegetable stock, instead of chicken, and did not dot the top with butter before baking. The veggie version is very good and a little healthier for you, too. Here's a picture of the finished product.
Herbed chestnut stuffing with cranberries

Ingredients

Makes 8-10 servings

  • 1 lb white bread cut into one inch cubes
  • 1 cup coarsely chopped roasted or boiled chestnuts
  • Half a stick of butter (4 tbsps)
  • 1 - 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock
  • 2 small to medium sized onions, chopped
  • 4 ribs of celery, finely chopped
  • 2 eggs, well beaten
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries or other fruit - currants, etc.
  • 1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
  • 2 tsps chopped fresh thyme
  • 2 tsps chopped fresh sage
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut a large X on the flat side of each chestnut (be sure to go all the way through the protective shell) then place the nuts on a thick baking sheet and pour a cup or two of water on the tray. Bake the chestnuts, flipping them over once, for 15-20 minutes. Leave them in the oven and shell and peel a handful at a time (they will be hot and a bit hard to handle). Chop the chestnut meats coarsely.

2. If you don't have time to let the bread cubes get stale by sitting out, place them in a single layer on a thick cookie sheet or two and bake at 300 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until golden.

3. Melt the butter in a frying pan or saucepan and add the onions and celery. Cook on medium heat until softened - 4-5 minutes. Turn off the heat and fold in the herbs, mixing well to combine.

4. Add salt and pepper to taste. Fold in the chestnuts and dried cranberries.

5. Pour this mixture into the cubed dry bread and stir to combine.

6. Add the stock to the stuffing mixture and stir well until it is moist all over but not soggy.

7. Add the egg if you want to give the cooked stuffing a bit more substance.

8. Pour the stuffing into a buttered casserole pan or baking dish and dot the top with butter.

9. Bake until the top gets crusty - 30-45 minutes.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

More Carving Help - Think Like A Butcher

The New York Times offered this interesting piece on carving instruction today as a way of maximizing the amount of meat you get off the bird with a minimum of difficulty.

You can read the whole article or just watch the video in which Ray Venezia, the manager of the meat department at Fairway, demonstrates his method. Click here to read and/or watch.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Spicy Candied Pecans

I love the candied nuts people put out at the holidays but am always aghast at how much they cost. After picking them up and quickly putting them back down again after looking at the price at least four times recently, I decided to make my own.

I bought the nuts at Trader Joe's because they always have really good deals on nuts and dried fruits - a 1 pound bag of organic raw pecans was only $5.69. I found plenty of recipes online - below is one from Slashfood that I've modified slightly to make it slightly spicy, as opposed to just spiced.

This seems like something you could play around with quite a bit and always have it turn out yummy. For instance, you could probably replace the sugar with maple syrup or play with the spices to create something with a more middle eastern flavor - cardamom, cumin, etc. Candied walnuts would also be good.
My (much cheaper) delicious candied pecansSpiced Candied Pecans
Ingredients
  • 2 1/2 cups raw pecans
  • 1 large egg white, lightly beaten
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 1/4 tsp cloves
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper
Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, stir the pecans with the egg white.

3. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, cinnamon, allspice and salt. Pour over the nuts and stir until evenly coated.

4. Spread in a single layer on the baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

5. Slide parchment paper (with nuts still on it) off of the baking sheet and onto a wire rack (or the counter) to cool.

6. Break nuts up into a bowl to serve or store at room temperature in an airtight container.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Auntie Katy's Classic Stuffing

Can anyone tell I have Thanksgiving on the brain? My aunt Katy who is considered the "stuffing queen" in my husband's family just shared her basic recipe with me. It's simple and delicious.

Auntie Katy's Classic Stuffing

Ingredients
  • 1 lb white bread -- use a firm white bread; a good baguette will work well
  • 3 cups chopped onions
  • 1 cup finely chopped celery
  • 1 cup chopped white mushrooms (optional)
  • 1/2 cup chopped chestnuts (optional)
  • 1/2 cup minced parsley
  • 2 tsps minced fresh sage (you can use more or less, depending on your taste)
  • 1 tsp miced fresh thyme (you can use more or less, depending on your taste)
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • Butter
Directions

1. Cube it and let it sit for a day or two, or toast it in the oven.

2. Sauté 3 cups chopped onion and 1 cup finely chopped celery in butter.

3. When onion is translucent, add a bunch of chopped white mushrooms and/or chestnuts and sauté until softened.

4. Remove from heat and stir in the minced parsely, fresh sage and thyme to taste.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Toss with the bread cubes until well blended.

7. Moisten it all with the stock (you can also substitute an egg, if that sounds better to you.)

8. Then either stuff the bird loosely (with the stuffing in a removable cheesecloth bag) just before you are about to roast the bird, and not a moment sooner, or put it in a greased pan, dot with a boatload of butter, and bake.

9. If you bake the stuffing in the bird, you must be sure that it reaches 165 degrees (the temperature at which bacteria are killed) before you serve it. This may require additional cooking outside of the bird, hence the removable cheesecloth bag.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Simple Mashed Potatoes

My Cousin Nina sent me a link to this nice New York Times recipe for mashed potatoes a few years ago, the first time I did any serious cooking for Thanksgiving dinner.

Peeled potatoes by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog

I've made it often since then and it is both easy and delicious.
After all, it's pretty hard to go wrong with potatoes, butter and cream...

Mashing yellow fin potatoes by Eve Fox, Garden of Eating blog


Simple Mashed Potatoes
Makes 4-6 servings


Ingredients
  • 2 1/2 pounds potatoes (about 6 large potatoes), preferably a combination of russet (baking) potatoes and large Yukon Golds, or all Yukon Golds
  • 4 tablespoons butter, more for dotting
  • 1/3 cup whole milk
  • Salt

Directions

1. In a large pot, bring a gallon of water and 2 tablespoons salt to a boil over high heat. Peel and quarter potatoes and keep in cold water until ready to cook (this can be done up to 4 hours in advance). Add potatoes to boiling water and boil about 15 to 20 minutes, until soft; a knife should go in with almost no resistance. (It is better to overcook than to undercook.)

2. In a saucepan or a microwave oven, heat butter and milk together until butter melts and mixture steams. Drain potatoes well and return to pot. Using an extruding masher or a ricer, mash hot potatoes until smooth. Lightly mix in about half of hot butter mixture, just until blended. Taste for salt and add more butter mixture until seasoned to your liking.

3. Stop here for fluffy potatoes. For creamy potatoes, keep stirring potato mixture, using a sturdy spoon to press it against sides and bottom of pot. Mix until dense and thick. For whipped potatoes, use a stand mixer to mash hot potatoes just until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add all the butter mixture and salt to taste, pulsing machine in short bursts at medium speed. When light and creamy, stop mixing immediately (potatoes can quickly become sticky).

4. To keep hot until ready to serve, transfer to serving bowl, dot top with butter, cover tightly and keep in a warm place, like the back of the stove. Potatoes will stay hot for at least 30 minutes. To keep longer, place covered bowl in a pan holding about an inch of gently simmering water. Before serving, mix well.

Cape Town CousCous with Roasted Root Veggies & Feta

My oldest friend Chloe (we've known each other since we were 1!) has been living in Cape Town, South Africa for the past year or so. She's been learning some great new recipes while she's there. Below is one she sent me recently that sounded very tasty.Cape Town Cous Cous from Chloe
Cape Town Cous Cous with Roasted Root Veggies and Feta
Ingredients
  • 2 cups dry cous cous (whole wheat if preferred)
  • 3 cups root veggies cut into bite size pieces (squash, sweet potatoes, beets, etc.)
  • 1 red onion chopped into large pieces
  • 2 garlic cloves peeled and squashed
  • 1 cup mint, chopped
  • 1 cup Italian parsley, chopped
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 cup feta, crumbled
  • EVOO
  • 2 tbsp black mustard seed
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400

2. Arrange cut root veggies, onions and garlic on cookie sheets, then drizzle with EVOO, salt and pepper, cover with foil and roast in oven at 400f until soft (remove foil as they soften to caramelize)

3. Put cous cous in a wide bowl and add boiling water to just above the top of the cous cous, cover and let stand until all the water has been absorbed, stir with fork to separate the grains

4. While the cous cous is warm, mix in the herbs, 1 tbsp EVOO and squeezed lemon

5. In a skillet over medium heat, add 1 tbsp EVOO and the black mustard seeds, heat seeds until they start to pop, turn off heat and add 1 tsp garam masala (if you can’t find garam masala, use 2 part curry powder, 1 part cinnamon and 1 part coriander)

6. Mix in warm spices and roasted veggies (remove whole garlic), crumble in feta

7. Garnish with a yogurt sauce of chopped cucumber and cilantro

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Locavore

Want proof that people's attitudes towards food are changing?

New Oxford American Dictionary's wordsmiths just chose "locavore" as their 2007 word of the year!

Below is an excerpt from the
Oxford University Press blog's write up of this historic decision.

The past year saw the popularization of a trend in using locally grown ingredients, taking advantage of seasonally available foodstuffs that can be bought and prepared without the need for extra preservatives.

The “locavore” movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to grow or pick their own food, arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locavores also shun supermarket offerings as an environmentally friendly measure, since shipping food over long distances often requires more fuel for transportation.

“The word ‘locavore’ shows how food-lovers can enjoy what they eat while still appreciating the impact they have on the environment,” said Ben Zimmer, editor for American dictionaries at Oxford University Press. “It’s significant in that it brings together eating and ecology in a new way.”

“Locavore” was coined two years ago by a group of four women in San Francisco who proposed that local residents should try to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius. Other regional movements have emerged since then, though some groups refer to themselves as “localvores” rather than “locavores.” However it’s spelled, it’s a word to watch.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Restaurant Review: Pizzaiolo

Even though I am not very impressed by their pizzas, Pizzaiolo is one of my favorite restaurants in the East Bay. The food is uniformly tasty and the atmosphere is relaxed and fun.

The dishes showcase locally-grown and raised organic foods. The decor is warm and inviting with a mix of old-fashioned tile, beautiful antique light fixtures, and avant-garde art installations. In addition to a ceramic canister filled with antique wooden pasta rollers, the bar is usually graced with an arrangement of some gorgeous vegetable that is the centerpiece of one of the daily specials. Tonight it was a bowl of cauliflower for the penne rigate with cavolfiore.

The hipster-grunge waitstaff wear t-shirts or tank tops and jeans (but they're pretty expensive jeans) with thinly striped blue and white aprons. The staff is fairly heavy on the tattoos. Our waitress was sweet and fairly attentive, if not very knowledgeable.

I was joined by my restaurant review co-pilot, Naushon. We ordered the:

Annabelle's mixed chicories caesar salad ($9) This was one of the best caesar salads I've had - the mix of lettuce and chicories provides a little tartness which is nicely balanced by the mild, nutty parmesan cheese shavings and the garlicy, salty dressing. The salad did have one unfortunately flaw, though, they gave us only one of the housemade crutons! It was quite tasty (we split it) but we would have preferred to have at least three more to nosh on.
Fantastic caesar salad - you see that cruton? It's the only one!Cardoon soup with new harvest olive oil ($7.50) I had never heard of cardoon before but learned that they are a relative of the artichoke. The soup was very tasty. Our only criticism was that we felt it would actually have been better without the layer of olive oil they'd drizzled on top.
Cardoon soup with a little bit too much oil on topStrozzapreti with Willis Ranch pork ragu ($14) I think strozzapreti (Italian for "priest choker" -
click here for Wikipedia's explanation of this rather odd name) may be my new favorite pasta. Pizzaiolo makes and dries their own priest chokers. The pasta has a satisfying slightly chewy texture. The ragu featured chunks of tender, ropy pork, tomatoes, and red onions.
Delicious priest chokers!Meatballs al Pizzaiolo ($14) Served in a red sauce, these finely blended meatballs were packed with whole pinenuts. Besides the pinenuts I thought I detected pork (and probably some other meats), eggs, breadcrumbs, cheese and parsley.The meatballsBoylans cola ($2.50) I went really wild and ordered a Boylan's cola. Boylan's natural sodas are made with cane sugar and without artificial flavors, colors or preservatives.

Glass of Corvina Valpolicella ($9) Naushon ordered a glass of this wine, which is her favorite. It has a pleasantly balanced earthy, sweet, and tiny bit spicy flavor which goes well with pretty much everything they serve. Although similar to Montepulciano D'Abruzzo, it's apparently a bit less common and a bit more interesting.

Pizzaiolo was opened in the summer of 2005 by chef and owner Charlie Hallowell who lives upstairs with his two kids. Charlie is one of the many Bay Area restaurant owners who got his start at Chez Panisse where he worked for 8 years.

Pizzaiolo is located at:
5008 Telegraph Ave (about three doors down from Dona Tomas)
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 652-4888

Web site:
http://www.pizzaiolooakland.com/

Their menu (which changes daily) is available at:
http://www.pizzaiolooakland.com/menu/

Pizzaiolo is open from 5:30 - 10:00 PM Monday - Saturday. You can call after 3:00 PM to make dinner reservations though walk-ins are welcome (but be prepared for a wait unless you get there before 6:00 pm.)

Pizzaiolo in Oakland

Carving a Turkey

If you don't already know how to butcher your bird, you are in good company! I asked my cousin Nina (who is in culinary school) if she had any suggestions -- she recommended this very helpful video tutorial since diagrams and pictures are harder to follow. On a slightly off-topic note, the site that produced this video is called Video Jug - Life Explained. On Film. and offers how-to videos on everything from how to get chewing gum out of your clothes to how to undo a woman's bra with one hand to how to tie a windsor tie knot. I'm kind of amazed by it...


VideoJug: How To Carve A Turkey

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Restaurant Review: LaLime's

LaLime's is considered one of Berkeley's better up-scale restaurants featuring Mediterranean-inspired California fare. Like many Berkeley establishments, LaLime's uses mostly organic produce.

We'd attempted to have a family dinner at LaLime's last winter but were thwarted at the last minute by a random power outage at the restaurant. So when my mom-in-law was in town for a visit a week or so ago, we all piled in the car for a second try.

A huge carved pumpkin greeted us outside the door (it was a day or two after Halloween). Inside, was a mix of round and smaller square tables and a pleasantly pitched din of clanking forks and conversation. School house lights cast a low, warm light.

Pumpkin by the doorIn a nutshell, the ambience was pleasant, if a little stuffier than I'd prefer, and the food was very good, if more expensive than I'd normally go for.

We started with an appetizer of Lucques olives with orange zest, anise, and thyme. These little green olives were citrusy, herby, and delicious.
Very tasty olives LaLime's menu refers to entrees as "More Substantial Dishes". Here's what we ordered in that department:
  • Grilled Berkshire Pork Chop with Apple-Pear Chutney and Mashed Potatoes ($25) The pork chop was really good (I was very happy with my order.) The mashed potatoes were rich and interesting, the chutney was a perfect complement - sweet and spiced, and the braised greens were also done to perfection.

  • Pork chop, yum!
  • Wild Mushroom Stroganoff with Brocolli Rabe ($19) The stroganoff was also excellent - buttery noodles with a light cream sauce of woodsy, wild mushrooms. My sister-in-law felt that the amount of garlic on the broccoli rabe was a little excessive though the rabe itself was good.Delicious mushroom stroganoff
  • Marmitako: Basque Seafood Strew with Tuna, Prawns, Sweet Peppers and Tomato ($26) I did not taste the Basque seafood stew (too fishy for me) though I did notice that it all got eaten. It was probably the most impressive looking dish we ordered, though.
  • Seafood stew
  • Atlantic Cod with Braised Chard and Spanish Chorizo ($25) The cod was extremely tender and the spicy chorizo was a nice complement.

  • Very tender cod with chorizo and chard
  • Mussels Steamed with Pernod, Garlic and Lemon ($12) I also did not taste the mussels but my mom-in-law reported that the sauce was excellent - lemon, butter, mustard and wine.Mussels

  • Baked Poblano Chile Stuffed With Zucchini, Wild Mushrooms and Fromage Blanc ($9.50) (Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of this) I tend to stear clear of the spicy foods but my mom-in-law informed me that it was delicious.

However, none of us liked our waiter, a young man who seemed to lack warmth and social graces. He lost us early on in the process when he told us, "I just want you to know that if you're not ordering appetizers, it's going to be a 30-minute wait." This struck us all as a kind of thinly veiled threat which was not actually offered out of concern for our comfort but, rather, to push us into ordering more food, thereby ensuring a bigger gratuity for himself.

The busboy who de-crumbed our table managed to thoroughly crumb us all, instead. Any crumbs he did not brush directly on to our bodies went straight on the floor.

But we never lacked for food, water, or silverware, so I would not call the service bad, just not great.

LaLime's is located at 1329 Gilman Street. They take reservations via phone at (510) 527 9838 and, apparently, online via OpenTable.com (though we did not try the online system) www.LaLimes.com

Current a la carte menu is at http://www.lalimes.com/tonight.html

Open:

Monday-Thursday 5:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Friday-Saturday 5:30 - 10:00 p.m.
Sunday 5:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Lalime's in Albany

Green Goddess Dressing

My introduction to Green Goddess dressing will remain a treasured memory. Rewind six months to my first meal at Pizzaiolo in Oakland (review coming soonish!) Being new to the place, I happily let my friend Naushon, who'd eaten there many times, take the reins. Among the dishes she chose was a delicious salad of little gem lettuces from nearby Blue Heron Farm topped with pickled golden, chiogga and purple beets, slices of armenian cucumber, and Green Goddess dressing.

It was love at first bite. I found myself instantly addicted to the stuff. As any addict would, I tried to get a second "fix" by recreating the salad at home a few days later. The end result was quite good but also very different. A bowl of my homemade green goddess - it tastes better than it looks...I had used a recipe for the original Green Goddess dressing (see below) which is fairly different from the version Alice Waters pioneered at Chez Panisse. And since Pizzaiolo's chef and owner, Charlie Hallowell, was Chez Panisse's pizza chef for eight years before he opened his own restaurant, it's quite likely he uses the Waters version of the dressing.

Green Goddess dressing was invented in the 1920's at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in honor of William Archer's hit play, The Green Goddess. The original recipe calls for mayonnaise, tarragon and anchovies (among other things). The Alice Waters/Chez Panisse version relies heavily on tarragon but includes avocado and leaves out the mayo and anchovies. See below for both recipes.


Palace Hotel Green Goddess Dressing
Makes 2 cups

Ingredients

  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
  • 1/4 cup snipped fresh chives or minced scallions
  • 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh tarragon
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
  • 3 anchovy fillets, rinsed, patted dry, and minced
  • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions

1. Stir all the ingredients together in a small bowl until well blended (or if you prefer your dressing creamier, throw it all into a food processor or blender and pulse for 30 seconds.)

2. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

3. Use immediately or cover and refrigerate.


Chez Panisse Green Goddess Dressing (as printed in Food & Wine magazine)
Makes 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

• 1 small shallot, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature, pasteurized (optional)
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 ripe avocado
• 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon chopped tarragon
• 1 tablespoon chopped basil
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine the shallot with the garlic, vinegar and lemon and lime juices. Let stand for 5 minutes.

2. In a medium bowl, beat the yolk with a whisk.

3. Gradually add half of the olive oil in a thin drizzle to the yolk, whisking constantly.

4. Add 1 tablespoon of liquid from the shallot mixture, then whisk the yolk mixture into the remaining olive oil.

5. Add the avocado and mash it in with a fork.

6. Whisk in the remaining shallot mixture and the herbs, and season with salt and pepper.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Anyone Can Cook, Even A Rat...

A great food movie is being released on DVD today (November 6th.) If you haven't already seen it, go rent or netflix (yes, "netflix" has become a verb, just like "google" did) Ratatouille, Pixar's latest animated feature. Normally, I'm not blown away by animated movies but I really enjoyed this one. Like Jim Henson's Muppets, Ratatouille is equally entertaining for kids and adults, especially for adults who like to cook.

Ratatouille is the story of Remy, a French country rat who dreams of becoming a great chef after he gets inspired by the work of Auguste Gusteau, a Parisian chef whose motto is "anyone can cook." Remy has a highly sensitive nose--he's the designated rat poison sniffer-outer for the colony--but he longs to use his skills to create delicious food. Fate and his love of cooking conspire to tear Remy away from his family and dump him into a fast-flowing sewer drain. After a hellish ride throughy some gnarly tubes, Remy finally climbs up a drainpipe and finds himself in Paris, dripping wet and utterly alone, but miraculously staring up at the sign on Gusteau's restaurant... I won't spoil the rest for you.

Still from movie, Remy and Linguini in kitchen, courtesy of Pixar

I loved the accuracy and detail of the cooking/kitchen scenes. The techniques and ingredients are impeccable; the restaurant scenes are accurate - the chefs, sous-chefs, pastry chefs, bus-boys, and waiters are all zipping around and bumping into each other in the controlled chaos and barely restrained animosity of the kitchen; the lone female chef, Collette, has a big chip on her shoulder about being a minority in a male-dominated field; and little details like the horizontal burn marks across the wrists of the cooks showed an impressive knowledge about cooking and an admirable devotion to realism.

I also loved its message about the power of good cooking. Remy's love of food is so great that he is willing to leave his family and follow his chef's nose to Paris where he risks his life just to save a pot of soup that Linguini is ruining. And Anton Ego, the fearsome restaurant critic whose brutal reviews result in Gusteau's death after his five-star restaurant is downgraded to four stars, becomes human only after his frozen heart is melted by a dish of Remy's ratatouille.
"Anyone can cook", the catch-phrase of the deceased Chef Gusteau, is echoed throughout the film. Although the film does contradict itself a bit because Linguini, one of the main characters, really can't cook, at least not without the help of the culinarily-gifted Remy, I still appreciated the democratic message.

Still from movie of Anton Ego, restaurant critic, courtesy of Pixar

Here's a clip from the movie to whet your appetite (so to speak.)

Friday, November 2, 2007

Restaurant Review: Dopo

My friend, Naushon, and I had been wanting to try Dopo for months and finally got around to it on Tuesday night. My first visit was a good one. I will definitely go back.

Located at 4293 Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, the expanded space features mustard-colored stucko walls with red accents. Four flower and leaf arrangements were hung in green glass vases atop a pillar, lending a nice autumnal feeling. And a legendary chrome
FAMEA E61 1961 espresso maker held court at one end of the tall granite bar.

Our server, Megan, was a delightful mix of knowledgeable, funny, down-to-earth, and attentive, without so much as a hint of pushy. In honor of Halloween, she was wearing a black "Catholic Girl Gone Bad" t-shirt, black skirt, and black and white striped tights. The "crowning" touch - a pair of small red horns sprouting from her head.

We ordered the:

  • Fennel, wild arugala, and parmesan salad;
  • Dopo pizza; and
  • Riccota gnocchi with ragu of house-made sausage and hoffman farm hen
The salad was excellent. The thinly sliced fennel was refreshingly crisp, the grated (not shaved, as is often the case) parmesan was sweet and nutty, and the wild arugala was tender and fresh with a little kick to it. The olive oil and lemon juice vinaigrette was nicely balanced and there was lots of it (I like my salads well-dressed.)


fennel, wild arugala, and parmesan saladThe dopo is their cheapest pizza and is topped with a light tomato sauce, grated pecorino and mozarella, chopped parsley, pepper flakes and anchovies (which are optional and I skipped). Because my stomach rebels at spicy foods, Megan had offered to ask the kitchen to hold the hot pepper flakes. As a result, the pizza toppings were slightly out of balance and tended to be primarily salty (and this was without the anchovies!) It was good, but unremarkable and not a topping combo I'd order again. The crust, however, was perfection! The pizza had the best thin crust I've eaten. It was remarkably thin, tender, and flavorful, but not at all burnt or charred.

Dopo pizza - see how thin the crust is?

The gnocchi was rich (thanks to the ricotta) and tender. The ragu was really excellent. The flavors had been well-married through long cooking and it had a subtle "creeper" spiciness that asserted itself more as you ate. They make their own salumi on the premises and the house-made sausage in the sauce was very tasty. Although the dish was good, we both felt that the sauce would have been even better with a plainer pasta - maybe a tagliatelle.

gnocchi with pork and chicken ragu sauceDopo also has an amateur-friendly wine menu that features a picture of the boot with the wines listed by region. Naushon ordered a glass of montepulciano d'abruzzo ($5) which she enjoyed.

The Acme bread they served us was not quite warm enough but still very tasty.

Their portion sizes are fairly small. We both cleaned our plates. I felt perfectly full at the end of the meal, however, had I been a bigger woman or a man, I feel sure I'd have needed another dish or two to fill me up.

Total bill, with tax and a 20% tip, was $48.

Dopo is Italian for "after"or "later."

Click here for hours and more details from Yelp

Dopo in Oakland

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Finding Free-Range Gobblers for T-Day

This year will be the first time I've ever spent Thanksgiving apart from my family on the east coast. Since many of us "kids" have ended up here on the west coast, we'll be having our own younger generation T-day celebration here in Berkeley. And that brings me to another first - I'll be roasting my first turkey!

Naturally, I am feeling a little nervous -- after all, it's a very large bird and a crucial part of the Thanksgiving dinner. So I am planning to do two things to help ensure a delicious roasted turkey:

1. I am going to brine the turkey before I roast it. According to many sources (including Martha Stewart), brining a.k.a. soaking the bird in salt water for many hours, helps to ensure a moist, flavorful turkey. I'll write more about this soon.

2. I am going to buy the best-tasting, "happiest" bird I can find. Around here, that appears to be a Willie Bird, a free-range, organic turkey from Willie Bird Farms near Santa Rosa. I have to say that I am still recovering from the sticker shock - the smallest turkey they sell costs nearly $100! I am hoping that part of that price is the cost of them FedExing it to you and that it will be slightly cheaper to pick it up from a local grocery store.
Willie Bird Farms turkeys, photo by Justin Sullivan, Getty ImagesFor those of you who don't live in northern California, you can consult the Eat Well Guide (http://www.eatwellguide.org) to find a good source for free-range (possibly organic) turkeys near you.

Slow Foods USA also has a listing of heritage turkey farmers by geographical region on their web site (http://www.slowfoodusa.org/ark/turkeys.html.)

If you happen to live in Vermont, I'll save you the trouble. Below are links to the two places my Aunt Katy (the owner of Healthy Living Natural Foods market in Burlington, VT) recommended. I'd take her word for it, she's definitely done her homework.