I have a group of girl friends, foodies and restaurant people who I go out to dinner with a couple of times a month.  It is a great opportunity to try new restaurants.  As foodies we always order far too much food.  (Pete, my lucky husband, loves the leftovers.)  However one of us is a vegetarian and I have been really surprised by the lack of vegetarian offerings on a lot of the menus that I have seen.  Can’t Vegetarians be foodies too?  Do they have to go to restaurants that are exclusively ‘vegetarian’ to have any kind of choice?  Like a lot of people I flirted with vegetarianism in college, and I abstained from meat for several years.  Eating meat is not an ethical or moral choice for me.  I happen to find vegetables terribly interesting.  I really love the variety of vegetarian cuisine.  I think that vegetarian cooking at its best is exciting, flavorful and delicious.  It is a pity that more restaurants do not have interesting vegetarian foods offered on their menus. We have been eating Vegetarian a few times a week for a couple of months at this point.  It’s easier on the wallet and it is an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint.  Last night for dinner we had a simple dish inspired by Deborah Madison’s ‘Local Flavors’ Cookbook.  It was sautéed leeks that had been cooked down with a little bit of butter until they had a melted quality to them, then we added fresh oyster mushrooms from the market, a generous pinch of cumin, chopped cilantro and salt and pepper.  We devoured this on hearty country bread slices that had been toasted in olive oil.  Served with a green salad this was a lovely light meal.  You could easily top the mushroom toasts with cheese if you wanted to.  I would recommend a dry Monterey Jack or Aged Cheddar.

Oyster Mushrooms and Leeks on Toast

Adapted and Inspired by Local Flavors by Deborah Madison

1 large leek, cleaned, use only the white and light green parts, sliced into rings

½ pound oyster mushrooms

2 Tbsp. butter

1 tsp. cumin

2 Tbsp. chopped Cilantro

Salt and pepper to taste

2 slices of thick country bread

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
2. Add the leeks and cook the leeks for 10-15 minutes, until shiny, soft and translucent.
3. Add the oyster mushrooms and continue to cook until the mushrooms are soft.
4. Add the cumin, chopped cilantro, taste and season with salt and pepper.
5. Set aside
6. To toast the bread in olive oil, heat the olive oil in a sauté pan.  Once the oil is hot, place the bread in the pan and gently toast over medium heat until lightly browned.  Flip and toast on the second side. Set aside.
7. Place the bread on a plate and top the bread with the leek and mushroom mixture.

Enjoy!

Attention:  the number is 720.  Yes folks I sold 720 cooking classes through Living Social two weeks ago.  It’s been really exciting and man have I been busy.  It almost feels like the catering scene during the holidays.  I have been so busy teaching, e-mailing and scheduling I haven’t had a lot of time for my usual Bake-a-thon during the week.  The zucchini that I had in my fridge was supposed to end up as zucchini bread.  But here it was the end of the week and there would be no zucchini bread in our immediate future.   Sigh. It still demanded to be cooked.  With a fridge stocked piled with Basil, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese I decided that a simple Zucchini sauté with a deconstructed pesto would be tasty, healthy and nutritious.  I simply sautéed the Zucchini in a bit of olive oil and garlic, tossed it with loads of chopped basil and toasted pine nuts.  Plated and topped with parmesan it was as good to look at as it was to eat!

I look forward to meeting all the members of the 700 club over the course of the year!

Cheers,

Phoebe

San Francisco used to be a beat (nik) town.  Now, it is a beet town.  What do I mean by this, you ask?  Well, I think that a roasted beet and goat cheese salad is served at 7 out of 10 restaurants in the bay area.  The beet salad has taken over, and everyone loves roasted beets!    Beets come in several different varieties, and you can generally find two or three at the Farmer’s market.  The most common beet is the purple or red variety, followed by yellow beets and Chioggia beets—those are the pretty striped ones.   When you purchase beets at the market, they may have their greens attached.  It’s kind of like a two for one deal.  The greens are absolutely edible, and you can use them in soups (Watch out:  If you are using the greens from purple beets the color will bleed into the soup.) sauté, or stir fry them.  Tender, baby beet leaves are a great addition to salads.  If you are not going to use the beets for several days, separate the beets from the greens, leaving a couple inches of stem attached.  This will stop the greens from drawing out moisture from the beets. Leaving some of the stem attached to the beet root will keep it from bleeding. The greens will keep about 5 days or so in the fridge and beet root can last up to a couple of weeks in your fridge.   Beets are high in sugar, which is why we love them so.  Roasting concentrates these natural sugars.  However beets are also high in folic acid and are a good source of fiber and potassium.  So indulge away!

I picked up some lovely, tiny, baby purple beets at the Stonestown Farmer’s Market on Sunday.  They were slightly larger than a marble and perfect for roasting.  (Hint: all beets are perfect for roasting!)  I wrapped them in foil and popped them into the oven at 400F as soon as I got home.  It’s tough to over roast a beet, so don’t worry about overcooking them too much.  There is a far greater chance that you will undercook a large beet than over cook it. I frequently roast beets on Sunday afternoons and put them in the fridge to snack on or toss into salads during the week.   This week however, I was feeling peckish around 5 o’clock and there they were.  Cooked and sitting on my counter, calling my name.  I didn’t quite feel like eating them plain so I rummaged through the fridge and came up with some goat cheese.  Then I stepped outside to grab some arugula from the planter.  I split the beets in half, dabbed them with a smear of goat cheese and garnished them with a sprig of arugula.  Drizzled with a little bit of olive oil and garnished with fleur de sel, it was an easy, tasty and sophisticated hors d’ouerves.   *These beets were bite size.  To make them a little less messy I stabbed them with a toothpick so we didn’t wind up with purple fingers.

Mini Beet, Goat Cheese and Arugula Hors’ d’ouerves

Beets, any color, roasted and peeled

1 or 2 oz fresh goat cheese

A handful of spicy arugula sprigs

Olive Oil, salt and pepper for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. Wrap the beets in foil or alternatively place in a baking dish with a little bit of water and cover.
3. Depending on the size of the beets, they will roast anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 ½ hours.   The small ones roasted for about 45 minutes.
4. Remove the beets from the oven and let cool.
5. Once they are cool remove the tough outer skin.  I generally peel baby beets using my hands under running water.  Split the beets in half and smear a dollop of goat cheese on the cut side. Top with a sprig of spicy arugula, sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.
6. Place a toothpick in the beet for easy access with no mess.

Enjoy!

‘What’s for dinner tonight?’ My husband yelled as he was running out the door with our daughter on his hip.  ‘Washoku’ I muttered, head buried in the cookbook of the same name.    I selected 3 recipes that I had to make.  One was made, the rest merely fantasy.   The one I decided on was the Tonkatsu recipe.  There is a wonderful picture that enticed me on the back overleaf and I was compelled to make it.  It was far easier to make than I anticipated and absolutely delicious.  Tonkatsu is a traditional Japanese dish that consists of a breaded and fried pork cutlet.  This version was far more interesting.   Instead of a traditional heavy Tonkatsu sauce, the pork loin is sliced very thinly—about 1/8” thick then is divided into two portions and rolled with two very different fillings.  One, with umeboshi plum paste and shiso leaves, the other with nori and leek miso.  Once the cutlets are rolled, they are given the flour-egg wash-breadcrumb treatment and pan fried.  They were both delicious and very different.  The leek miso and nori gave an exotic, brooding quality to the Tonkatsu.  If these two rolls were sisters, the leek and miso filling would be the brunette while the shiso would be the blonde surfer girl.  The shiso and plum paste was my favorite—I found these flavors to be particularly haunting.  The Tonkatsu made in this fashion was lovely to look at too.  They would be a fantastic hors d’oeurve at a dinner party.  It ended up being thumbs up all around.  I will definitely make this again.

, adapted from Elizabeth Andoh’s Washoku Cookbook

12 oz. pork loin, cut into 12 very thin slices.

6 shiso leaves, stems trimmed

1 Tbsp. umeboshi paste, available at Whole Foods and Asian Grocery stores.

1 Tbsp. Leek miso (Recipe follows)

2 sheets of Nori, cut or torn to the approximate size of the pork cutlet slices.

Breading

½ cup flour

1 egg beaten with a splash of water

1 cup bread crumbs, Panko, Japanese style bread crumbs are preferred but whatever you have will work.

2 cups of oil for frying

Instructions

Spread the pork slices out on your work surface.  Place the shiso leaves over half of the pork slices and spread a little bit of the umeboshi paste over the shiso leaf.  Roll up and set aside.  Repeat with the nori and leek miso.

Heat the oil.

While the oil is heating, dredge the rolls in flour, dip in the egg wash and roll in the breadcrumbs.  (You can do this ahead of time and refrigerate until you are ready to cook them.) Once the oil is hot, fry the tonkatsu rolls to an even golden brown.  Drain on paper towels, slice and enjoy!!

*It’s easiest to slice these rolls with a very sharp slicing knife.  A bread knife will work, but it will tear the rolls a bit and they won’t be as pretty.

Leek Miso

*Makes a great dip for vegetables!

1 small leek, trimmed, minced

1 tsp. sesame oil

1/3 cup mugi miso (Miso made with barley and soybeans.  I was surprised and pleased to find it at Whole Foods.)

2 Tbsp. mirin

1 ½ Tbsp. sugar

3 or 4 Tbsp. water

Leek Miso Preparation

Sauté the leek in the sesame oil until it is soft and translucent.   Add the miso, mirin and sugar and bring to a simmer.  Add the water and continue to cook until it has the consistency of tomato paste.

Remove from the heat and let it cool completely.  This will keep in the fridge up to 6 weeks.

Sometimes I just need a little something sweet and different in the morning.  You know the feeling.  Your usual breakfast looks unappealing; dry and completely uninteresting lying forlornly on a plate.  And you say to yourself:  ‘Self, I don’t really want to eat that.’  In my case it’s 2 slices of sprouted grain bread, toasted and spread with all natural, organic almond butter.  It’s so healthy! When I want to eat something, and I don’t know what, it’s like an itch that I just can’t scratch. I start wandering around the kitchen, looking at what I have in the fridge and I start pulling down cookbooks, flipping through them, trying to find something that looks appealing.   The first cookbook that I reached for a couple days ago was ‘The Perfect Finish’ by Bill Yosses and Melissa Clark.  Bill Yosses is the very pedigreed White House chef and Melissa Clark happens to be one of my favorite cookbook editors.  She also writes a column for the New York Times that appears in the Dining section every Wednesday.   I glimpsed a recipe for gingery pumpkin bread. That didn’t thrill me too much, but I did have half a can of pumpkin puree left over from making pumpkin pancakes earlier in the week that needed to be used.  And so, I paused.  I read the intro to the recipe and it said something like this ‘I love to panfry the day old slices in some butter and a sprinkling of brown sugar.’  Now that sounds like somethin’ special. And if day old pumpkin bread is good pan fried in butter I would bet that fresh pumpkin bread pan fried in butter is good too.

Since this cute thing

wakes me at 5am with Hi! Mama! Up!  I have plenty of time to bake in the morning.  Thanks Lils!  LOL

The Pumpkin bread, spiked with ginger was delicious all on its own.  However, once it was pan fried in butter and brown sugar it took on a whole new dimension.   It was warm and buttery with a lovely crunch from the brown sugar crust.  Next time I will garnish it with plain Greek yogurt, diced candied ginger and a drizzle of honey over the yogurt.

My one issue with this cookbook is that with two out of the three recipes that I have tried there has been a discrepancy between the description and the instructions and an ingredient was left out of the ingredient list but included in the instructions.  Silly me – I rarely read the directions thoroughly – I missed that I needed to add 1/3 a cup of water to my pumpkin bread.  It turned out just fine anyway, probably a little denser than it was supposed to, but that’s okay.  It was still incredibly moist.

Here it is:

Gingery Pumpkin Breakfast Bread, adapted from The Perfect Finish by Bill Yosses and Melissa Clark

Makes one Loaf

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. salt

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp baking powder

1 1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

¾ cup of pumpkin puree (you could use sweet potato puree here, too.)

1 Tbsp. freshly grated ginger

1/3 cup chopped toasted walnuts

1/3 cup golden raisins or dried cranberries

1. Pre heat the oven to 350F
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and baking powder into a bowl and set aside.
3. Beat the brown sugar, eggs and melted butter until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
4. Add the pumpkin and ginger to the brown sugar mixture and beat to combine.
5. Add half of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and combine until it is just moistened.  Do not over mix.
6. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until just combined.
7. Using a spatula, fold in the walnuts and raisins.  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour, until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.

*This cake got dark from all of the sugar far before it was done.  I covered the top with foil about half way thru the cooking process.

Allow the cake to cool completely before turning it out of the pan.

Now, to complete the recipe, cut a good sized slice or two from one end of the loaf.  Melt 2 Tbsp. of unsalted butter in a sauté pan.  Once the butter has melted sprinkle 2 Tbsp. of brown sugar over the butter and let it get all melt-y and delicious looking. Put the slices of bread in the pan and pan fry to create a dark crust.  Turn the bread over and toast the other side too.

Enjoy!!

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?

Gazpacho gives me the cold shoulder.  I immediately think thin, cold, totally uninteresting, insipid tomato soup.  Yech.   However when I came across the picture of Salmorejo with shrimp, tomato and avocado in  Sam and Sam Clark’s Moro East cookbook and read the description as being the ‘prawn cocktail of Andalucía’ I was immediately and completely intrigued. Salmorejo, go ahead, let it roll off of your tongue—is a classic chilled Córdoban soup or sauce, similar to but richer and thicker than gazpacho.  It is thickened with day old country style bread.  It is wonderful.  Heady with the flavor of ripe tomatoes and pungent olive oil, touched with garlic and laced with the herbal notes of fresh oregano I stood by my blender compulsively eating it off of a spoon.  It was delicious.  This fragrant sauce served as a bed for sweet- tasting, sustainable bay shrimp, creamy avocado, citrusy sun gold cherry tomatoes and slivers of pungent red onion.  It was a completely satisfying meal, and I will definitely make the Salmorejo sauce again soon to complement grilled vegetables, chicken or fish.

Salmorejo with Bay Shrimp, Tomato and Avocado

Adapted from Moro East, by Sam and Sam Clark

Serves 2

1 quantity of Salmorejo Sauce, see below
1 ripe avocado, sliced
A handful of cherry tomatoes cut in half
A few slivers of red onion, more if you like or none if you don’t
¾ # bay shrimp
2 tsp. fresh Oregano leaves as garnish

Salmorejo Sauce

1 pound ripe tomatoes, diced
1 garlic clove mashed with a pinch of salt
1 thick slice of country bread or leftover baguette, crust removed, diced
5 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil—Pull out your best!  This is the kind of recipe that lets that expensive olive oil shine!
1 Tbsp. Sherry Vinegar
2 tsp. fresh oregano

Put all of the Salmorejo ingredients in the blender and puree until smooth.  The sauce should be the consistency of applesauce.  Taste and season with salt and pepper.  Set aside.

Assembly:  Pour equal amounts of the Salmorejo Sauce on two plates, and garnish with the avocado, shrimp, tomato, onion and Oregano leaves.  You can drizzle a bit of olive oil over the top if you like.  Serve with flatbread, crackers or baguette.

Enjoy!

I am so excited to have purchased a new camera I have done nothing but take pictures all weekend long!  Especially of this lovely lady:

And of course I’ve been playing around with food pictures too:

The remains of truly amazing Peach Nectarine Pie

Baby Cauliflower from the Farmer’s Market

The Guacamole Series.

And yes, I love making guacamole in my mortar and pestle.  Kids especially love to make guacamole in this.  You can get really terrific, inexpensive mortar and pestles at any large Asian grocery or restaurant supply store.  Here in San Francisco I went to Kamei on Clement Street in the Richmond.   I think that I paid about $25 for mine.   I keep my guacamole simple—I like it to have a little bit of a rough texture, a squirt of lime juice and a couple of drops of Siracha,(chili garlic sauce)  just to enliven it a bit.

Doesn’t just reading that make you mouth water?  It does mine!  Rich, creamy, avocado, sweet, ripe tomatoes and savory salty porky bacon.   I love avocados, and I love that they are good for you too.  With high levels of potassium, vitamin E and fiber, they just may be the perfect fruit. Avocados also have high levels of linoleic acid and oleic acid which may help in lowering cholesterol level.  There are three major varieties of Avocado.  They are: Guatemalan, Mexican and West Indian.  Avocados can range in size from 8 ounces to 30 pounds.  The most common hybrids in the United States are Haas, a Guatemalan type that has pebbly, thick skin and an oval shape.  The Mexican ‘Fuerte’ avocado is also popular and has smooth, thin, green skin and a pear shape.  When ripe, each of these varieties will yield slightly to a firm touch.  Avoid overly soft, squishy and black avocados.  To ripen avocados, place the avocados in a bag on your countertop.  Once the avocados have ripened to your liking, place them in the fridge to halt the ripening process.  Once you have cut into an avocado, you should consume in within a day or so.  If you do have any avocado left over, store it well wrapped, in the fridge with the pit in place.

Back to the sandwiches….I used whole grain bread for mine, because I like the contrast between the creamy avocado and the hearty-good-for-you bread.  I sliced into the avocado, scooped out the sweet pale green flesh and smashed it onto the bread with a fork.  Sprinkled with sea salt and topped with sliced fresh tomatoes, you could stop here and be perfectly happy.  However, I had some leftover bacon lying around that was whispering my name.  Sure enough, it found a home on top of the tomatoes and soon I was blissfully, sweetly occupied with the best sandwich I have had in a long time.

Try this quick and easy cookie recipe!  Makes 1 sheet pan of cookies.  No dropping, rolling or slicing involved.