I’ve been collecting cookbooks since I was a kid.  Although I have re-evaluated and given away, donated or sold some at yard sales,  a few stick out as being invaluable resources in my kitchen.  What makes a great cookbook?  Recipes that actually work.  Although this sounds easy and straightforward, it’s not.    This is the short list.  There are many great cookbooks out there but these are the books that I would take with me to a desert island.  A desert island with a full kitchen and completely stocked pantry that is!

For everyday cooking, I reach for America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.  Although this is a recent publication, it has great pictures, is easy to use, accessible for beginning cooks and a great resource for anyone who is interested in the kitchen.  Want to make a great ranch dressing?  What about a low fat version?  They’ve got it.  Basic cakes and cookies?  They’ve got that too.

I rarely cook from restaurant cookbooks.   A lot of them have unbelievable food photos (porn for foodies!), but are unattainable for most of us.  After all, the French Laundry does not occur on any given Sunday.  (At least not in my house!!)Two restaurant cookbooks that I highly recommend are Fog City Diner by Cindy Pawlcyn and Happy in the Kitchen by Michel Richard.   They are very different cookbooks.  Fog City Diner is what I would call ‘Classic American with a twist’.  You don’t need a ton of experience to cook these recipes.  Happy in the Kitchen is something completely different.  Gorgeous photos, good text, beautiful food and recipes that work make this cookbook a favorite of mine.  However, this cookbook is not for the novice.

Susanna Foo and Julie Sahni are two of my favorite cookbook authors.  Susanna has published two cookbooks, Chinese Cuisine and Fresh Inspiration.  Think of refined, delicious Chinese Cuisine.  The recipe for Kung Pao sauce is a keeper.   Julie Sahni is an authority on Indian food and has published many cookbooks; her Classic Indian Cooking is just that. A classic and a must if you like Indian Food.  Lesser known, but excellent is ‘Savoring Spices and Herbs’.

My Baking List:

1. Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax *A wonderful resource and history of desserts.
2. The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle *Not terribly well known, but simply awesome cookie recipes.  Try the Peanut Butter Shortbread!
3. The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum * A must if you are learning to bake.
4. Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan *Great recipes from the simple to complex.
5. Baking with Julia Savor the Joys of Baking with America’s Best Bakers by Dorie Greenspan.  *A wonderful book with step by step instructions.

What’s your favorite cookbook?  The one that you reach for time and time again?

This week I am having a love affair with ‘The Secrets of Success Cookbook’ Signature Recipes and Insider Tips from San Francisco’s Best Restaurants’ by Michael Bauer.  I have to tell you that this book is out of print, but is available on Amazon. (Seriously what would I do without Amazon.com?  It’s hard to imagine a world without the internet, isn’t it?) This past week I have made no less than five different recipes, and they are all the ‘make again’ kind.  One of my clients flipped through it and earmarked a bunch of recipes that he would like me to make for him—I love it when my clients do this.  They often choose recipes that are not my first choice and it gives me a great chance to expand my repertoire. (It also takes the guess work out of the daily ‘what am I going to make for dinner tonight’ question that I deal with everyday.

Most of my clients give me free reign with the dinner menu—they say, ‘Oh, make whatever, you know what I like.’  This is in turns deeply gratifying and terrifying.  It really keeps me on my toes. ) The first recipe that I chose to make from this book was the Sesame Spinach Rolls with Soy Lime Vinaigrette from the now closed Hawthorne Lane restaurant in San Francisco.  I have a soft spot for Hawthorne Lane. It was one of the first restaurants that I went to when I moved to San Francisco—I had an amazing duck dish there, and my assistant worked in their catering department for a while, so I have gotten some titillating insider stories from her.

I am always, always looking for new and exciting vegan and vegetarian dishes that look and taste good.  These rolls were perfect served with Teriyaki Glazed Portobello Mushrooms and Brown Rice Pilaf. (Hawthorne Lane served them with Miso Glazed Black Cod—it would be delicious with that too.) I just love the way these look.  The brilliant green of the spinach next to the pale green of the cabbage leaves is just fantastic.  Sometimes I feel like a painter, only I work in the rainbow world of vegetables.  Make sure to season your spinach well with salt and pepper when you make these, otherwise they could be rather bland, and well ‘too spinach-y’.  The vinaigrette is the perfect complement with these rolls and takes them from being just another ‘vegan’ recipe to a crossover dish that will appeal to flexitarians as well.

As Julia would say, ‘Bon Appétit!’

Sesame Spinach Rolls with Soy Lime Vinaigrette

The Secrets of Success Cookbook.  Signature Recipes and Insider Tips from San Francisco’s Best Restaurants.  By Michael Bauer.

Spinach Rolls

2 large Savoy cabbage leaves—I used 3 medium sized Napa cabbage leaves.

Salt

2 Tbsp. plus 1tsp. olive oil

1 shallot, minced

1 garlic clove, minced

2 (10 oz) bags of spinach, about 5 cups

Pepper

1 Tbsp. sesame seeds, lightly toasted

Vinaigrette

3 Tbsp. Fresh Lime juice (1 large juicy lime or 2 small ones)

2 Tbsp. soy sauce (I used Tamari)

2 Tbsp Rice Wine vinegar

1 Tbsp. Shallot, minced

1 small garlic clove, grated

Salt and Pepper

1/3 Cup Peanut oil

½ tsp. sesame oil

For the Spinach Rolls: Blanch the cabbage leaves in a medium saucepan of boiling salted water until limp.  Drain.  Spread each leaf flat, pat dry and cut off the thickest part of the rib. Set aside.

Heat 2 Tbsp of the oil in a saucepan over medium high heat.  Add the shallot and garlic and sauté to release the aromas.  Add the spinach and stir to coat with the oil.  Cook until the spinach becomes completely limp, just a few minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Remove from the heat and cool.

Squeeze out all of the liquid from the spinach.  Place an equal amount of spinach at one end of the cabbage leaf and roll up tightly into a cylinder.  Rub the cabbage cylinders with the sesame oil and roll in the sesame seeds.

To serve cut each spinach log into bite sized medallions using a sharp knife.  Cut straight down—don’t saw back and forth. Arrange on plates and serve the vinaigrette on the side for dipping.

The Vinaigrette

Combine all of the ingredients in a container that has a lid and shake vigorously to combine.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

The Cheese Course

I don’t know about you, but I find it challenging to come up with new and exciting things to pair with cheese.  It’s so easy to fall into a rut!  That’s where this book is a life saver! For a dinner party, I was requested to pair cheddar with ‘something’.  Apples and honey are a lovely, but slightly boring pairing.  Quince paste, while perfect with Manchego is not as enticing with a mature cheddar.  I found a great recipe for a pear, cranberry and walnut compote in my little book.  It was delicious and easy to make too!  The morning of the dinner party I went to the Ferry Building to pick out cheese from Cowgirl Creamery and dessert from Miette’s.  I always ask the folks at Cowgirl for recommendations and I was not disappointed.  I ended up with a fantastic cheddar from Cabot Creamery and the pear, cranberry and walnut chutney was fabulous with it.

Cranberry Pear Chutney

Adapted from ‘The Cheese Course’ by Janet Fletcher

½ cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

6 oz cranberries

1 # pears, (about 2 or 3 good sized pears) peeled, quartered, cored and diced

1 cup sugar

½ cup cider vinegar

1 2-inch pice of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1 cinnamon stick

1 clove

½ cup raisins or currants

In a saucepan, combine the cranberries, pears, sugar, vinegar and ginger.  Add the cinnamon stick and clove to the saucepan.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Continue to simmer until the cranberries have collapsed and the pears are tender, about 15 minutes or so.  Stir the raisins into the chutney and cook for 5 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in the walnuts.  Cool and before serving remove the ginger, cinnamon stick and clove.  Serve the chutney alongside the cheddar cheese.  This chutney freezes well and will last about a week in the fridge.  I also liked this with soft ripened cheese such as Brie or Camembert.

One of the questions that I am asked most frequently about what I do is:  Where do you shop? The answer is a long list of places all over the San Francisco Bay area.  It depends on where I am cooking, convenience, and who has the highest quality ingredients available.  I typically go to the Farmer’s market on the weekend for most of my produce shopping. For fish, I highly recommend Cook’s Seafood in Menlo Park—I rarely purchase seafood anywhere else.  On the other side of the bay I recommend Monterey Fish Market.  I shop Whole Foods for items such as flour, sugar etc.

Most Tuesday mornings you will find me at Bianchini’s Market in Portola Valley.  Portola Valley has a remote quality that makes it feel very unique.  It is undeveloped and whenever I am there I find it hard to believe that I am just 40 minutes away from an urban city center.   You will probably see a doe and her babies meandering by the side of the road.  If you are driving only a few miles over the speed limit, or come to a ‘rolling stop’, the local law enforcement will surely stop you.  It’s that kind of town.  The easiest way to get to Portola Valley (from SF) is to take 280 south to the Alpine Road exit.  Bianchini’s is located just off of the freeway, on the main road through town.  It is family owned and operated.  Bianchini’s opened as a full service grocery store in 1998.  It now has a second store in San Carlos that opened last spring.   What I like the most about the store is the commitment to quality and their support of local farms.  Of course, they do carry long distance items such as bananas and pineapples but they really make an effort to bring in local produce.  I believe that they have some of the best local produce in the area.  Chanterelle mushrooms when they are in season, a bounty of tomatoes and stone fruit in the summer, squash and apples in the fall.  The meat department is also excellent.  They do a fantastic job trimming and tying roasts, and the butchers are extremely knowledgeable.  They carry high quality grass fed beef from Marin Sun Farms, items such as waygu brisket, as well as Mary’s air chilled chicken.  They have high points for customer service too.  The only department that I am not impressed by is the seafood department.  However, it is worth a stop if you are driving thru Portola Valley.

“Climate change isn’t something that’s going to hit in the future. It’s already changing the weather patterns and water supply in California; a dwindling snowpack, bigger flood flows, rising sea levels, longer and harsher droughts.” CA Dept of Water Resources

Water is a limited resource and California is experiencing its third year of drought in a row.  The time to do something about it is now. We need to use our water supply more efficiently and with a greater sense of responsibility. Here are some simple ways to conserve water in your home.

1. Turn off the faucet when you brush!
2. When you wash your hands, turn off the faucet while you soap up.
3. Stop drips and leaky faucets when they occur.
4. Install a low flow showerhead.
5. Only run the dishwasher or washing machine when they are full.
6. Catch ‘grey water’ by placing a bucket in the shower with you.  You can use this water to flush toilets or water the lawn.
7. Don’t hand wash dishes under a running faucet.  Instead have a sink full of soapy water and a sink or bucket full of rinse water.
8. Use the rinse water from your hand washed dishes to flush toilets or water the garden.
9. Keep drinking water in the fridge instead of letting the cold tap run.
10. When cooking, steam veggies instead of blanching them.
11. Save the used pasta water or vegetable steaming water from cooking to use in the garden.
12. If installing a high efficiency toilet in your home or apartment is not an option, place a sack of marbles or rocks in the tank to displace and use less water.
13. Compost!  You have to in San Francisco.  Encourage minimal use of the garbage disposal.

It has been an insanely busy month.  Tons of parties to cook for, new clients, old clients changing eating habits ……I haven’t had much time to read between work, baby and sleep.  The month finally closed with Lily’s nine month check up.  She had to get a couple of shots and my reaction to that is to buy more cookbooks.  (Lily got the tiniest bit of ice cream for her troubles, and she loved it!) Luckily there is a book store with a great selection of cookbooks a couple of blocks from the doctor’s office.  Added to my collection are:

Rose’s Heavenly Cakes, by Rose Levy Beranbaum

Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan

Clay Pot Cooking by Paula Wolfert

And ‘Best of the Best Cookbook Recipes’ from the editors of Food and Wine

I’ve already heavily earmarked the Best of the Best book with the recipes that I am going to cook this week.   Sometimes I just like to go through a cookbook, mark all the recipes that I want to try and go on a tear—cooking all of those recipes in the space of a month.  My clients absolutely love trying new recipes—I’m really lucky in that regard.  It gives me an opportunity to really work a cookbook and expand my repertoire.

The one book that I have perused late in the evenings this month is Deborah Madison and Patrick McFarlin’s ‘What we eat when we eat alone’.  It’s a nifty idea for a book. There are some unusual combinations and some intriguing recipes.  People eat odd things when they are alone.  I like the idea of ‘Open Faced Melted Cheese Sandwiches with Tapenade’.  I’ll have to try that sometime.  When I am alone, I admittedly eat strangely.  If I am really exhausted and have been tasting and cooking food all day I love to end the day with buttered popcorn.  If I have more energy then I’ll make myself a huge bowl of Pad Thai or an insanely spicy Thai Basil Chicken, with steamed rice on the side.

What do you eat when you eat alone?

*I really don’t want you to think that I just read cookbooks or books about food—I’m secretly (or not so secretly in my house) addicted to thrillers and murder mysteries.  Historical novels and science fiction also fit the bill—it’s all speculative fiction in our house. Recently I read ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ by Steig Larson and thoroughly enjoyed that and the follow up ‘The Girl who Played with Fire’.  The writing is sharp and well paced, the characters well drawn and the story line will keep you entertained until the very last page!  Much to my chagrin, Mr. Larson passed away before he could finish writing the entire series.  (He had originally planned 10 books in the series.) So awful!  But I’m really looking forward to reading ‘The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest’ when it is released next May.

‘Like death and taxes, composting happens – whether we want it to or not.’  I love this quote taken from composters.com.  If you live in San Francisco, composting will be required by law on Oct. 21^st.  Here’s what I found out—there is a big difference in composting for your garden and composting for San Francisco’s green bin.  Composting for San Francisco seems to be straight forward—in terms of food scraps, put anything that used to be alive in the green bin.  This includes meat scraps and citrus fruits, two items that I would not put in my garden compost.  Meat scraps, greasy food and dairy products attract rodents (ick!) and citrus fruits have naturally occurring chemicals that inhibit the composting process, so skip it for the garden.   Do not put any ice or liquids in your green bin.  However, leftover liquid from steaming vegetables or cooking pasta is perfectly acceptable for home compost.  Include coffee grounds, pizza boxes, soiled napkins etc. in your city composting pile. Never put any cooking oil, animal feces, kitty litter or diapers in your green bin or home compost pile.

For a complete list of what to compost for the city go to sfrecycling.com.  You can purchase a kitchen pail at any local hardware store—just make sure that it has a good seal to keep odors to a minimum. There are many websites that offer lots of information about composting for the home and garden.  I liked composters.com but let me know if you have any favorites.

Good Luck and Happy Composting!

This was a darling book—it left me with such a warm glow for Judith Jones.  The title is a little bit of a misnomer.  Yes, it is about her life in food, but more than that it was a beautifully written love letter to her husband.  Judith was the editor for the cooking gods Julia Child and James Beard among other lesser known but still exceptional cookbook authors.  The book concludes with recipes, and they are terrific!  I may not be into fried chicken, but I am a sucker for well made chicken croquettes and her recipe is great.  I especially love the ‘cooking for one’ section because it can be so hard to scale a recipe down for one or two people.  I highly recommend this book not only for the recipes, but because it reminded me how much food connects us to those that we love.