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Attend a cooking class at Studio of Good Living in San Francisco and you’ll soon discover a new world full of culinary adventures. More than just a cooking school, the Studio of Good Living shares the art of living well with all its students!
Studio of Good Living offers exceptional cooking classes and events in the Bay Area and Beyond. Want to learn how to cook or brush up on your cooking skills? Take a class with us! Escape to San Francisco for a Taste of San Francisco or indulge yourself with Cook, Shop, Spa. Burned out? Drop into Live Well, Eat Well for yoga lovers. Continue the journey with the Art of Dinner Blog and view our video classes for new ideas to spice up your dinner table. . Need a change of scenery? Join us for a total culinary and lifestyle retreat in beautiful Maine. Discover the possibilities with Chef Phoebe Schilla and the Studio of Good Living. Life is Beautiful by Design.
 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
- Place the chocolate in a large bowl and set aside.
- Combine the milk, 1/3 sugar and nutmeg in a small saucepan on the stove top and heat to melt the sugar.
- In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk with the remaining tablespoon of sugar. Pour in half of the hot milk, whisking constantly.
- 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.
- Pour the hot milk over the chopped chocolate and stir vigorously to melt the chocolate.
- Cut the softened butter into pieces and stir it into the chocolate a few pieces at a time.
- Stir in the vanilla extract. Set aside while you prepare the pan.
- 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.
- Pour the chocolate mixture into the pan and place in the freezer for 6 hours.
- 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.
- Store any remaining cake in the freezer.
Every now and again I have a food and beverage pairing that unexpectedly blows my mind. It happened this very week when I made the Hiyashi Chuka (Chilled Chinese Noodle Salad) as part of the monthly Washoku Warrior Challenge that I participate in each month. We are cooking through Elizabeth Andoh’s ‘Washoku, Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen.’ Participating in a round table cooking club allows me to experiment and get my creative juices flowing. I really enjoy reading everyone’s notes and seeing the resultant pictures. (Check out lafujimama.com for more info.)
Anyhoo, this month’s recipe was pretty straightforward. It consisted of chilled noodles garnished with various toppings—ham, cucumber, soy simmered shitake mushrooms, pickled ginger and topped off with a chilled, creamy, sesame miso sauce. I loved the pungency of the individual ingredients and the sesame miso sauce was subtle enough to be a bridge between flavors. It was the Sesame miso sauce that made this dish for me. It’s subtle; a little nutty, a little salty from the miso and a little sweet too. It would be a fantastic dip for steamed vegetables—especially steamed asparagus or bok choy—or even fresh spring rolls. This sauce would be a great addition to a non-traditional 4th of July Barbecue buffet.
But with this kind of dish you just hope to find a beverage that can hang in there with the various flavors and textures. You wouldn’t expect to find something that really enhances the experience in “the sum is greater than the sum of its parts” kind of way. We opened a bottle of beer named La Fin Du Monde (yes, that’s ‘the end of the world’) made by the Canadian brewery Unibroue. It’s a full-bodied Tripel with notes of lemon and coriander and it played off the sesame miso sauce like they were long lost lovers. It gave richness, weight and texture to the sauce. I thought the dish was pretty good on its own, but after one sip of beer it immediately became exceptional. Even the stronger flavors of soy braised mushrooms, ham and pickled ginger were enhanced. It was two thumbs up all the way around.
Here’s the recipe for the Sesame Miso Sauce
Adapted from: Elizabeth Andoh’s ‘Washoku, Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen.’
3 Tbsp. Tahini
3 Tbsp White Miso
1 tsp soy sauce
1/3 cup of water or Dashi
* The sauce should have the consistency of heavy cream. Use more water if you need to—add the extra water in 1 Tbsp or less at a time.
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
I’m sitting here at my mom’s desk in Winslow, Maine, right now, trying to figure out the ins and outs of her laptop. It’s always interesting working on an unfamiliar computer. My daughter, Lily and I took the trip across the US together. It was much more intense to travel with a 16 month old than I anticipated. (I thought she would sleep! But no. The world is a large and exciting place and much too interesting to even think about sleeping!) I was a little surprised that Airport security asked me to take off Lily’s shoes. I’m thankful that she is too young for a belt wearing/jewelry wearing etc.
Maine is lovely—very quiet, peaceful and relaxing. The shops are closed by 8pm and you can’t find an ice cream joint open after 9pm. (We tried.) It is really life in the slow(er) land and a welcome change from the hectic and frenetic pace of life in the Bay area. I wish that I could stay here for a few more days! Lily and I are here to set up for our longer visit at the end of the month(and to see Grandma, my mom who we both miss!) Lily, Pete and I will be spending the 4th of July at our family camp on Pattee pond with my best friend, her beau and her two year old son. This weekend has been a whirlwind of naps, antique-ing, lobster eating and garage sale-ing. This morning we went to the Fairfield antique mall, the largest single antique mall in the state. It boasts 5 floors of antiques and is a dangerous place for me to shop. I love collecting 1960’s California pottery and vintage glass ware and serving pieces. It’s only a few minutes from our house. It is much less expensive here than in California. Actually, it’s really cheap. I like vintage pyrex too. So, maybe you can understand how I ended up with two boxes to ship home. 
We’ve stopped at B and F vegetable and fish stand on China Road almost everyday. They have wonderful, fresh seafood and fantastic local fruit, vegetables and products such as whoopee pies, sour cream and grass fed beef. The sweet corn was fabulous. So good I had two ears without butter or salt and it inspired me to make a corn chowder. A Chowder is a type of soup or stew that is indigenous to New England. To be classified as a chowder you need three specific ingredients: bacon or salt pork, potatoes and a dairy product such as cream or milk. Manhattan Chowder has tomatoes in it and a true Northern New Englander doesn’t consider this to be classic chowder. Boudin Bakery based in San Francisco has made serving chowder in a sour dough bowl fashionable. Although chowder typically contains seafood, there are vegetable versions available. I love a sweet corn chowder that has corn so fresh and sweet the kernels literally pop in your mouth. No overcooked, freezer burned corn here! It should be laced with smoky bacon, and swirled with a little cream at the end to give it richness and weight in your mouth.
I adapted this recipe very loosely from one in Ina Garten’s The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. Enjoy! May your summer be sweet!
Corn and Bacon Chowder
8 oz Bacon
2 Tbsp Butter
1 large onion, small dice
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
½ c. flour
6 ears of corn, kernels cut off of the cob (about 6 cups)
6 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
1 # of potatoes, peeled, small dice
1 ½ cups of half and half or heavy cream
Melt the butter in a large stockpot over medium heat, add the bacon, render the fat and continue to cook the bacon until it is crisp. Once the bacon is crisp, remove it from the pan and add the onion and garlic to the fat in the pan. Turn the heat down a little and slowly cook the onions until they are translucent. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir to make a roux. Cook for a few minutes, until the flour is pasty. Slowly, stirring constantly, add the stock or water. Bring this mixture to a boil and add the potatoes. Simmer until the potatoes are just tender, then add the corn. Simmer for 5-8 minutes, until the kernels are just cooked and the potatoes are tender. Finish the soup with the half and half, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve the chowder in bowls garnished with crispy bacon.
1st and 3rd Friday of the month, 6-8pm
Next Seminar: Friday June 18th 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.
There are many different types of mole sauce, but the one that I remember, the one that I was completely intoxicated with, is the Mole sauce that I had in Paris, while I was studying at the Cordon Bleu. A number of my classmates were from Mexico. They introduced me to a fabulous Mexican joint that was my first experience with authentic, high quality Mexican food—and I fell in love.
Mole sauce is a romantic sauce, loaded with exotic spices, chilies and touched with chocolate. It is like that tall, dark and handsome stranger that you can’t take your eyes off of. The flavors are rich, complex and totally mysterious. I’ve made Mole sauce many times over the years and come close to my memory from Paris, but never quite got it right. One time I over toasted the chilies which gave the mole a slightly acrid taste and aroma. Another time not all of the ingredients were available and I boldly made substitutions, and the sauce was a watery imitation of what I remembered. However, all that changed this weekend. I had a serious yen for Mexican food and I came across a mole recipe on epicurious.com from archives of the Gourmet magazine. It was a far simpler recipe than I remembered making previously and I had all of the ingredients on hand so I had to try again. (I am such a geek when it comes to cooking!) It was fabulous. It took less than an hour to put together and I loved it. This was the sauce that I remembered! I adapted the sauce a little. I altered the amount of chilies used because I didn’t want it to be too spicy and I reduced the amount of orange zest. Because I wanted to make a vegetarian version I used water instead of chicken stock and I didn’t braise the chicken in the sauce. Instead I grilled chicken (and tofu) separately and served the sauce on the side. We invited some friends over and had a feast fit for a king.
Enjoy!
Mole Sauce, adapted from Gourmet Magazine
3 tablespoons Olive Oil
3 cups chicken stock or water
2 cups orange juice (I used the Blood Orange Juice that I had in my fridge.)
1# onions, sliced
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted to a light golden brown
4 teaspoons cumin seeds
4 teaspoons coriander seeds
3 ounces dried pasilla chiles, stemmed, seeded, torn into 1-inch pieces, rinsed
1 ancho chili stemmed, seeded, torn into 1-inch pieces, and rinsed
1/4 cup raisins, I used golden)
(1) 3 x 1/2-inch strip orange peel (orange part only)
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 3.1-ounce disk Mexican chocolate, chopped
Heat the oil over medium high heat in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan. Add the onions, and caramelize the onions slowly for 20-30 minutes, until they are a deep brown color. If they start to stick to the bottom of the pan, simply deglaze with a little bit of water. Once the onions have browned, add the spices and almonds to the saucepan. Add the stock or water and juice. Bring to a simmer and toss in the chilies, oregano, orange peel and raisins. Continue to simmer for about 30 minutes or so, until the chilies are soft. Turn off the heat and add the Mexican chocolate to the sauce. Allow the chocolate to melt, then puree the mole sauce in batches. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If the sauce seems too thick, thin with a little bit of water.
Serve as part of a meal with chicken, tofu, warm flour or corn tortillas, Queso Fresco and Crema.
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Chicken Mole
There are many different types of mole sauce, but the one that I remember, the one that I was completely intoxicated with, is the Mole sauce that I had in Paris, while I was studying at the Cordon Bleu. A number of my classmates were from Mexico. They introduced me to a fabulous Mexican joint that was my first experience with authentic, high quality Mexican food—and I fell in love. Mole sauce is a romantic sauce, loaded with exotic spices, chilies and touched with chocolate. It is like that tall, dark and handsome stranger that you can’t take your eyes off of. The flavors are rich, complex and totally mysterious. I’ve made Mole sauce many times over the years and come close to my memory from Paris, but never quite got it right. One time I over toasted the chilies which gave the mole a slightly acrid taste and aroma. Another time not all of the ingredients were available and I boldly made substitutions, and the sauce was a watery imitation of what I remembered. However, all that changed this weekend. I had a serious yen for Mexican food and I came across a mole recipe on epicurious.com from archives of the Gourmet magazine. It was a far simpler recipe than I remembered making previously and I had all of the ingredients on hand so I had to try again. (I am such a geek when it comes to cooking!) It was fabulous. It took less than an hour to put together and I loved it. This was the sauce that I remembered! I adapted the sauce a little. I altered the amount of chilies used because I didn’t want it to be too spicy and I reduced the amount of orange zest. Because I wanted to make a vegetarian version I used water instead of chicken stock and I didn’t braise the chicken in the sauce. Instead I grilled chicken (and tofu) separately and served the sauce on the side. We invited some friends over and had a feast fit for a king.
Enjoy!
Mole Sauce, adapted from Gourmet Magazine
3 tablespoons Olive Oil
3 cups chicken stock or water
2 cups orange juice (I used the Blood Orange Juice that I had in my fridge.)
1# onions, sliced
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted to a light golden brown
4 teaspoons cumin seeds
4 teaspoons coriander seeds
3 ounces dried pasilla chiles, stemmed, seeded, torn into 1-inch pieces, rinsed
1 ancho chili stemmed, seeded, torn into 1-inch pieces, and rinsed
1/4 cup raisins, I used golden)
(1) 3 x 1/2-inch strip orange peel (orange part only)
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 3.1-ounce disk Mexican chocolate, chopped
Heat the oil over medium high heat in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan. Add the onions, and caramelize the onions slowly for 20-30 minutes, until they are a deep brown color. If they start to stick to the bottom of the pan, simply deglaze with a little bit of water. Once the onions have browned, add the spices and almonds to the saucepan. Add the stock or water and juice. Bring to a simmer and toss in the chilies, oregano, orange peel and raisins. Continue to simmer for about 30 minutes or so, until the chilies are soft. Turn off the heat and add the Mexican chocolate to the sauce. Allow the chocolate to melt, then puree the mole sauce in batches. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If the sauce seems too thick, thin with a little bit of water.
Serve as part of a meal with chicken, tofu, warm flour or corn tortillas, Queso Fresco and Crema.
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I’m really excited about a new project that I am putting in place. I’ll be doing cooking demonstrations at one of the Farmer’s Markets in San Francisco twice a month this summer. You know all those lovely veggies at the farmer’s market that you have never seen before and haven’t a clue how to prepare? I’ll be on hand to answer any food related and cooking questions you may have. I’ll be doing cooking demonstrations using vegetables and products exclusively from the market. I will also be selling my first product at the market too!
Selling a product and doing cooking demos at the market is far more complicated than it sounds. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time and I finally think that I am ready. I have to find a commercial kitchen (got one, natch.), navigate the San Francisco Department of Public Health, change my liability insurance to cover the farmer’s market space and the commercial kitchen rental….it’s a lot. It’s why I have put off creating a product for so long. It’s time though. I’m looking at this as a test run. If it doesn’t work out, that’s okay. Vendor licenses have to be renewed every 90 days in San Francisco so it is a short term (although pricey) investment. My assistant and right hand, Justine, will be partnering with me on this adventure.
I’m particularly pleased that I will be doing cooking demonstrations in the community. I passionately believe that we need to support our local farmers and in doing so, our local economy. In this modern world of facebook, email and skype we need to have more family connections around a dinner table filled with authentic foods and smells. Food nourishes us and has the power to enrich our lives. I want to share with you how to best utilize your time in the kitchen so that you have more time for yourself, your family and your friends. Cooking for yourself and your family can be like homework. You may moan and groan about it, but you feel good once it is done and you can enjoy the fruits of your labor (in this case a good meal and not a good grade on a test!)
I will be sure to keep you updated as things move along. Wish me luck!!
Phoebe
Not every week, but most weeks I like to try out a few different quick and easy recipes. Most often it’s dessert recipes for my incurable sweet tooth, but I like to play around. I love fresh cherries; the season always passes much too quickly for my taste. I think that Cherries just may be nature’s perfect fruit. So small, so round, so pretty, so full of vitamin C and anti-oxidants. Mostly I just eat them out of hand. However, when I came across a recipe for candied Cherries in David Lebovitz’s ‘Ready for Dessert’ I had to make it. It only has 3 ingredients—well 4 if you add a little almond extract (I did). The other ingredients are pitted fresh cherries (duh), sugar and water. Place 2 cups of pitted cherries in a pot with 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar and simmer until thick and syrupy. The most beautiful thing about this recipe is that it keeps 6 months, yes, 6 MONTHS, in the fridge. These candied cherries are great on their own, over ice cream, folded into Greek yogurt or spooned over lightly sweetened mascarpone. Now I can have cherries for at least half the year.
The next recipe that I attacked was one for fudgesicles. I have an excuse, really I do. They were selling Popsicle molds at the local grocery store and Lily is teething. I thought that if my mouth hurt I would want a chocolaty fudgesicle. They are actually the pudding pops from the ‘Baked, New Frontiers in Baking’ by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito cookbook. I have a distinct fondness for pudding pops. Remember the Jell-O pudding pops that were popular in the ‘80’s? I checked several different grocery stores for them, but couldn’t find any. I guess they stopped making them, so I was very pleased to make my own. These are delicious and just the perfect thing whether your mouth is sore or not.
Somewhere in between Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, Michael Ruhlman’s ‘Making of a Chef’ and Julie and Julia I lost my appetite for food memoirs. I mean, there are so many of them out there!! I don’t have a lot of time for just pleasure reading these days, but when I read the Food Gal, Carolyn Jung’s blog, about Kim Severson, the New York Times food writer and her memoir, Spoon Fed, I knew that I would have to read it. It’s flat out wonderful. It takes so much courage to tell your story and Kim does it so well, with grace, wit and compassion. I highly recommend that you seek out your own copy.
Cheers!
Phoebe
Tags: Anthony Bourdain, Cook, cookbooks, David Lebovitz, Home, Kim Severson, Kitchen Confidential, memoirs, Michael Ruhlman, New York Times, recipes —  Send to a Friend
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 Yes, it’s true. I suffer from OCD. That’s Obsessive Cooking Disorder, not that other one. This past Friday was my first day off in 2 weeks. (Every mom knows that it wasn’t really a day off—more like a ‘spend the day with Lily and catch up on laundry’ day) That means I wasn’t cooking for Other People, just me. I got to make us whatever I wanted, and I went a little nuts. You see, I had just picked up my copy of ‘Good to the Grain’ Baking with Whole Grain Flours by Kim Boyce. It’s the cookbook that all the food bloggers are discussing right now with rave reviews and I had to have it. This book inspired me to go to Whole Foods and pick up not one, not two, but five different flours to play around with. (Oat, Barley, Graham, Buckwheat and Rye, if you must know.) So, Friday morning, baby on my hip and blender at the ready I made two different batches of crepes. It’s a good thing that I perfected cracking an egg with one hand years ago. For those of you not in the know, crepe batter is a marvelous thing; you can make it in the blender and put it in the fridge to use for breakfast the next morning. Just wake and bake, or griddle rather. I also made the Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip cookies and—drum roll please—homemade Grape Nuts! I have never seen a recipe for homemade Grape Nuts before and I was hopelessly intrigued and powerless to resist. The recipe was fabulously easy and was calling my name. They were delicious the next morning with Vanilla Almond Milk and fresh blueberries. They tasted just like Grape Nuts, only better. I also selected the Barley Crepe recipe, with beer and molasses and the Ricotta Crepes substituting Graham flour for the spelt. (Whole Foods was out of spelt flour—this book must have started a craze!!) Lily and I loved the Barley crepes. This batter was quite tender and a little finicky to deal with. The crepes broke easily during cooking. However, they were delicious and I ended up stuffing them with creamed mushrooms and asparagus for dinner. The Ricotta Crepes were delicious too. I had to thin the batter as suggested with extra milk, and I served them with butter and maple syrup for breakfast. The chocolate chip cookies were good too. I mean really, what’s not to like about a Chocolate Chip Cookie? Next up, next week: Sand Cookies
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I almost didn’t make this recipe. It was a side dish to an Indian Curry dish from Cook’s Illustrated, and quite frankly I was almost out of time. However, I did make it and boy, am I glad that I did. This is the ‘Sauce of the Summer’ (every summer, I have a new sauce that I am crazy about and put on everything—Chicken, fish, vegetables, goat cheese–you name it.) This sauce made the cut. I was impressed with the ease of production and versatility. I’ve already made it three times and served it to a wide variety of people and they all loved it. It was particularly good on poached halibut. I adapted this recipe a bit. I cut the amount of cilantro and mint in half but I didn’t change the other proportion. I used my Vitamix blender to create a smooth, homogeneous sauce. You could use a Cuisinart or regular blender; just keep in mind that the sauce will separate, although it will still taste fantastic.
Happy Cookin’!
Cilantro Mint Chutney, adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
1 cup of cilantro leaves and stems
½ cup of mint leaves
1/3 cup of yogurt
1 Tbsp. lime juice
Salt and Pepper to taste
Place all ingredients in the blender and hit power. Blend to a smooth, homogeneous puree.
*For a spicy version add one Thai chili to the recipe or ½ a Serrano pepper.
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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.
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