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!

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!

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!!

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 found the loveliest Padron Peppers at the Farmer’s Market this weekend.   I first experienced these lovely little morsels at Cesar’s in Berkeley a few years ago.  They are tiny green balls of flavor and are delicious simply sautéed in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt.  The universal tag line for these peppers is ‘some are hot and some are not’. (“Os pementos de Padrón, uns pican e outros non”, if you understand Galician).

Padron peppers are small green peppers originally from the town of Padron in Spain.  I thought that they would be the perfect addition to Green Rice with Chiles, a rough adaptation of a Deborah Madison recipe from ‘Vegetarian Dinners for Everyone’.   It’s a lovely vegetarian dinner dish that is extremely flavorful and has just enough heat to make it interesting. This recipe starts by roasting a few poblano peppers over a flame.  I just use the gas burner on my stove, but you could also use a grill.  Poblanos have much thinner skin than the bell pepper, so it’s best not to leave them unattended. (Trust me.)  Once the skin on the Poblanos has darkened and blistered, remove the peppers from the flame and place in a bag or covered container to steam.   Once the peppers are cool enough to handle, rub the skin off and rinse under running water. Set aside until ready to use.

Green Rice with Chilies roughly adapted from Vegetarian Dinners for Everyone by Deborah Madison.

1 ½ cup long grain rice

3 Tbsp. olive oil

3-5 roasted poblano chilies (see above), roughly diced

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

3 cups of stock or water

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper.

For the finish:

½ cup of mild cheese such as mozzarella, Monterey jack or queso fresco, cubed or crumbled.

½ cup parsley, roughly chopped

½ cup cilantro, roughly chopped

½ cup water

In a blender puree the herbs and water.  Set aside.

Optional: A spoonful of sour cream, crème fraiche or crema for garnish.

1. Heat the oil in a small saucepan.
2. Sauté the garlic for 30 seconds or until it is aromatic.
3. Add the rice and continue to sauté for a few minutes until the rice has lost its translucent quality.
4. Add the stock or water and the poblano chilies.  Bring the stock or water to a simmer and cover.  Continue to cook the rice for about 20-25 minutes, or until done, adding more water if necessary.   When the rice is tender, remove from the heat and set aside.
5. Fold in the cheese and the pureed herbs.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.
6. Place the rice on a platter and garnish with a dollop of sour cream and the Padron peppers.

Padron Peppers:

In a saute pan or a cast iron pan heat a little bit of olive oil.  When it is hot enough to sizzle, toss in the pardon peppers in a single layer. *don’t remove the stems!!  Let them blister and brown, stirring occasionally so that they brown not quite evenly.  Once they have browned, sprinkle with sea salt and set aside.  They are ready to eat, and you should definitely nibble on a few while the rice is cooking.

Enjoy!

Texture.  That’s all I have to say about this delicious and unusual chocolate dessert from ‘Screen Doors and Sweet Tea’ by Martha Hall Foose.  It is cool, creamy, and absolutely delicious.  I was drawn to this recipe equally by the name and the picture.  Now, back to the texture. This dessert—I wouldn’t call it a cake,–is softer and not as sweet as fudge and creamier than a flourless chocolate tort or cake.  It’s perfect for hot summer nights and can be frozen for up to a month, which makes it perfect to have on hand for when guests drop in.

Enjoy!

Darkness on the Delta

Serves 6-8

‘Screen Doors and Sweet Tea’ by Martha Hall Foose

7 oz Bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2/3 cup whole milk

1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp granulated sugar

¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1 large egg yolk

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Place the chocolate in a large bowl and set aside.
2. Combine the milk, 1/3 sugar and nutmeg in a small saucepan on the stove top and heat to melt the sugar.
3. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk with the remaining tablespoon of sugar.  Pour in half of the hot milk, whisking constantly.
4. Return the milk-egg mixture to the remaining milk in the saucepan.  Continue to cook the milk and egg mixture stirring constantly for about 5 minutes or so, until it thickens slightly.
5. Pour the hot milk over the chopped chocolate and stir vigorously to melt the chocolate.
6. Cut the softened butter into pieces and stir it into the chocolate a few pieces at a time.
7. Stir in the vanilla extract.  Set aside while you prepare the pan.
8. Spray a 6 inch round cake pan with a removable bottom with non stick cooking spray and line the bottom and sides of the pan with plastic wrap.
9. Pour the chocolate mixture into the pan and place in the freezer for 6 hours.
10. To serve, remove the sides of the cake pan, place a plate on top of the cake, flip it over and peel off the plastic wrap.  Garnish with powdered sugar and raspberries.
11. Store any remaining cake in the freezer.

Yup, it feels like summer in San Francisco and by that I mean an actual summer and not the cold and foggy kind.  Last night was actually too hot for blankets!! Can you believe it?  So today, as I was flipping through cookbooks looking for inspiration I caught a glimpse of a salad with filet mignon. It looked so enticing I had to make it almost immediately.  Sweet cherry tomatoes, cold, crisp lettuce, chilled steak that has been cooked medium rare, intense ‘Roaring 40’s’ blue cheese and a pungent mustardy vinaigrette has almost done me in.  The most wonderful thing about salads is the versatility of ingredients.   If you wanted to you could easily add hard boiled eggs, avocado, pickled red onion, cucumber, bacon or crispy prosciutto.  You could subtract the meats and add grilled or marinated tofu and more vegetable too.

The perfect wine for a dinner salad with complex flavors would be a glass of chilled rose.  (Check with your local wine merchant for recommendations, but I like Cote du Rhone Roses, and domestic producers that I have enjoyed include Bonny Doon, V. Sattui, Lewis Cellars and Etude.) White wine simply can’t handle the flavors; particularly the blue cheese and most red wines are too heavy.

When it is hot out, what do you like to eat?  I have a tendency to run out of ideas in the summer and just repeat old favorites.

I don’t know anyone whose life has not been affected by cancer in some way.   For that reason alone I am pleased to take part in Foodbuzz’s most recent posting challenge.  Everyday Foodbuzz chooses 9 posts to feature as the ‘Top 9’.   July 19^th’s top 9 will be around a banana split theme.  For every featured publisher that takes part by blogging about and picturing a Banana Split, Foodbuzz will donate $50 to ovarian cancer research, sponsored by Electrolux and Kelly Ripa.   So here is my San Francisco Banana Split.  I used Mitchell’s ice cream, of course.  The three flavors that I chose were Chocolate, Buko (young coconut) and Ube (purple yam). The toppings are home made brown sugar- ginger syrup, hot fudge and coconut cream. The cherries are from a Bing cherry compote that I made a month ago and the whipped cream is fresh.

Messy but delicious!

For more information and to donate check out http://www.kelly-confidential.com/foodbuzz.

My new favorite ‘quick and easy recipe for home cooking’ sounds like a character from Star Wars.  It’s called Ja Ja Men (close to, but not quite Jar Jar Binks), and it is from Takashi’s Noodles, a fantastic cookbook that I can highly endorse.  This book is filled with quick and easy Asian noodle recipes that are delicious and perfect for weeknight cooking. I’m all about quick and easy recipes these days, more so than ever.  Pete and I challenged ourselves to stop ordering take out about a month ago to see not only the impact on our wallets, but also how we feel primarily eating homemade food—that is all natural, fresh foods without any additives or preservatives.   I think that we all want something that we can put on the table really fast and we want it to taste good.  I hate eating ill prepared and ill tasting food. (Airport food sends a chill up and down my spine.)  I would rather be hungry.    Relaxing with a glass of wine over a dinner that really tastes good and is healthy is something that I look forward to all day.

Here it is:

Spicy Eggplant Ja Ja Men Udon

Adapted from Takashi’s Noodles, by Takashi Yagihashi with Harris Salat

2 cups peeled, cubed eggplant, about 1 moderately sized eggplant or two small ones.
½ cup chopped red, yellow or orange bell pepper (This recipe originally calls for green bell pepper which is one of the few vegetables that I actively dislike, but if you like green bell pepper, by all means use it.)
1/3 cup drained, canned bamboo shoots, cut into ½ inch pieces
4 scallions, green and white parts separated and chopped

Combine the eggplant, bell pepper and bamboo shoots in a large bowl.  Cover with cold water and set aside to soak for 10 minutes, then drain.

While the eggplant is soaking, combine the following and set aside:

3 Tbsp. sake
2 Tbsp. red miso
2 Tbsp. sesame paste
6 Tbsp. Soy Sauce (I used Tamari)
2 Tbsp. Chinese chili paste, if unavailable, you may use 1 Tbsp. Siracha.  As always with chilies, add more or less according to your liking.
5 Tbsp. Mirin
½ cup Dashi or Water

Combine 1 tsp cornstarch with 1 tsp. water and set aside.

2 Tbsp or so of vegetable oil for sautéing.
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 Tbsp. minced ginger
8 oz. ground pork (If you are vegetarian, you could substitute 8 oz of tofu cut into a small dice.)
2 Tbsp. Sesame Oil
1 # dried udon noodles

Heat the vegetable oil in a large-ish sauté pan over medium high heat.  When the oil is hot, sauté the garlic and ginger until they are a light golden brown.  Add the ground pork or tofu and the chopped green scallion. Use a spoon to combine the ingredients in the pan. When the pork is no longer pink, add the eggplant, bamboo shoots and bell pepper. Cook for a few minutes so that the vegetable start to soften and the flavors begin to mingle.  Add the sesame oil and stir well to combine.  Add the sake/miso/spice mixture and bring to a boil.  Stir the cornstarch and water if it has separated and pour it into the sauce.  Stir well to combine and continue to cook for a few minutes until the sauce thickens and the eggplant is cooked to your liking. Remove the pot from the heat.

Bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the udon noodles according to the directions on the package.  Drain and place a portion of noodles in each serving bowl.  If the sauce has cooled, reheat and top the noodles with the sauce.  Garnish with the reserved chopped white scallion.

Enjoy!

*If you can’t find udon noodles, you can use linguine

1^st and 3^rd Friday of the month, 6-8pm

Next Seminar: Friday June 18^th Sign up now!!

“When you base your food choices on your own intuitive wisdom, that food will nourish and strengthen your body, mind and spirit to help you fulfill the purpose of your life.”
Leonard Perlmutter, American Meditation Institute

I’m happy to announce that I am partnering with Josh Camire, of warriorschoiceyoga.com to create a very unique seminar that unites food and yoga.    This is the perfect way to jumpstart your weekend!  We start with a 30 minute cooking demonstration and discussion about conscious cooking and intuitive eating. Then, move on to an hour long gentle yoga class and conclude with a gourmet three course dinner. What’s the connection between food and yoga, you may ask?  Well, one of the benefits of yoga is learning to really listen to you body’s cues.

I discovered yoga in 2002 as part of a campaign to help me quit smoking for good.  (Smoking is the scourge of the restaurant industry and a bad habit that I picked up and kept for far too long.)  I found that yoga has many benefits—better sleep, more body awareness, a higher quality of breath among others.  I’ve been an active practitioner since then. I believe that yoga has the power to change your life and your relationship with food.   This is a fun, light hearted seminar that will leave you feeling nourished in both body and spirit.  All levels of fitness are welcome and dietary restrictions are happily accommodated.

This is an amazing Curried Chicken Salad that totally nourished me when I arrived home from yoga class, hot, sweaty and ravenous.  It is good whenever you have a craving for a dish with multiple layers of flavor—spiciness and a gentle heat from the curry paste, sweetness from the currants, richness from toasted coconut, creamy-ness from the mayonnaise and salty crunchy goodness from chopped roasted peanuts.   It can be put together in just a few minutes if you have all of the ingredients on hand.  It’s the perfect dish for your next BBQ or get together.

Bon Appetit!  (I wanted to take a picture but Pete and I practically licked the bowl clean!!)

Curried Chicken Salad, Thai Style (inspired by a dish of the same name at the now defunct Cannery Restaurant in Yarmouth Maine)

1# leftover grilled or roasted chicken breast, diced

½ to ¾  cup of mayo depending on how mayonnaise-y you like your salad.  (you could  also substitute equal parts mayo and yogurt)

1 rounded teaspoon of  Green Curry Paste (I highly recommend Mae Ploy brand, available at importfood.com and some supermarkets.)

1 Tbsp. Curry Powder

2 Tbsp. Unsweetened Coconut, toasted to a light golden brown.

2 Tbsp. Chopped, salted, roasted peanuts (Planter’s is perfect.)

2 Tbsp Zante Currants or Raisins

1 scallion, white and green parts finely chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Whisk together the mayo, curry paste and curry powder.  Fold in the remaining ingredients and enjoy!  This is so flavorful it is great on it’s own, over greens or crackers. I’ve also served it on cucumber rounds, garnished with chopped chives or peanuts as a hors d’oeuvres.