Life Begins at 30

Biggles would be proud

Mom called me last night to report on the success of a barbecue she had at the house.  "I discovered the secret to the perfect hamburger.  Put herb butter in the middle of the patty, and baste with butter.  Biggles would be proud."

Farmers' Market Panzanella

I was overwhelmed today by the bounty at the farmers' market.  The entire market smells of melons, sweet and intoxicating.  Everyone I spoke with was in a great mood.  Stephanie picked up some gorgeous okra to continue her okra adventures. 

Exhausted this evening and consumed with everything I need to get done, I found inspiration from Mark Bittman's 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less and threw together a local foods panzanella.   The bread was an olive baguette from Brickmaiden Bakery (Pt. Reyes).  The Armenian cucumber was over two feet long and was brought to market by Full Belly Farm (Yolo County).  The gorgeous tomatoes were from The Peach Farm (Winters).  I used chives from one of my very favorite farms: Marin Roots Farm (Marin County).  I tossed everything together with some (local) salted anchovies, champagne vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.  One of the few times recently that eating a completely satisfying meal has taken longer than making it.

Thanks to Jeanne for sending me the Bittman article today!

fridge (and freezer), unedited

fridgeunedited, originally uploaded by jen_maiser.

Sam put a challenge to us asking what the inside of our unedited refrigerators look like.  And it's been fun over the weekend to see the shots of bloggers around the web.  It took some restraint to open it and not fuss in order to set up the shot, but I just opened and snapped.

I personally think my freezer is much more interesting, as it has crab and salmon from my father and not much else -- when he visited last month from Alaska, I had to do away with some of my other frozen foods in order to make room for this precious gift. 

Update: this is addictive!  I just added a pic of my freezer and refrigerator doors. Freezer's on top, fridge is on bottom.

Click on the photos to get to the flickr pages and see notes showing what's what.

Cookbooks as Therapy

So remember the other day when I mentioned The Cooks' Library?  I had to go back today. 

I had a meeting nearby, and I couldn't get Apples for Jam out of my head.  It's a gorgeously designed book, with an enticing mix of memories, prose, and recipes.  I hope the recipes are as good as the book is beautiful - but if not, it was worth it for the photography.

Other books I purchased:
Arabesque. A Taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon, Claudia Roden
Counter Intelligence.  Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles, Jonathan Gold
Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian
The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook, Julee Rosso

Cooking for One

One reason that I'm happy to participate in NaBloPoMo is because it's going to help me to get some posts out of my system that I've been working on for a while.  This is one of those posts.

So here's my secret: The past two months are the first time in my life that I've had to cook for myself.  I have lived by myself, but by the time I did I was dating Jason so I was always cooking for the two of us.  And before that, I always had roommates around.  So while I wasn't directly responsible for cooking for anyone, there was always a crowd to help eat the leftovers.

And when Jason and I were living together, there were times when I would completely luxuriate in the idea of cooking for myself.  But now that cooking for just myself is pretty much a fact of life, I am beginning to look at it differently in many ways.

During most of September, I found myself eating pretty sporadically.  A meal a day was really sustaining me most of the time, and I would usually cook too much or not at all.  Most of this month was a blur anyway, and I often ate just whatever would keep me going.  And when I was cooking, I would completely miscalculate the amount that I could eat, and that excess of food around the house would just help push me further into the funk that I was already in.

In October, however, I started to get the hang of things.  I bought a microwave -- spunky and red.  I haven't owned a microwave in years, but when I was at mom's house for a couple weeks recently I realized that it really does come in handy sometimes.  And it was just the thing that I felt would help my singleness be a little easier.  To tell you the truth, I think I've used it once.  To melt butter.  Oh ya, and then this morning to reheat my coffee (please, please James Freeman don't be reading this blog post right now).  But for some reason I feel better having it in the house. 

I bought a small 3.5 quart Le Creuset dutch oven - perfect for small batches of soup and other deliciousness.  This one now sits, all happy and blue next to my beautiful 6.75 quart dutch oven, which is much better suited to having friends over and making something substantial.  I bought the little blue dutch oven two weeks ago, and I think that I have used it every day that I've cooked since then.  Pretty great investment already.  The soup that I made here is a chickpea and spinach soup that was delicious -- the recipe can be found in Mark Bittman's newest book, The Best Recipes in the World.

So as I get into this rhythm of cooking for myself, I've had a series of small successes. 

I've learned how to make a mean risotto for one person.  After a stressful day, it's very therapeutic for me to stand at the stove and stir and stir and stir.  I have always seen cooking risotto as an act of love.  It's not something that can be rushed, and for me to make it for myself, I feel like I am saying that I'm important enough to take the time to make it.

I was able to prepare a "small" batch of cocido, a Mexican beef soup that I learned how to make from grandma.  Once the recipe's perfected, I'll pass it on.  This is a soup normally made for a crowd - and I successfully made it for two people with only a bit of leftovers for lunch the next day for each of us.

I'm remembering the art of making delicious sandwiches.  The one here is a lamb sandwich with arugula and a fantastic spicy mustard that I bought from the Mountain View Farmers' Market.

I definitely don't want to say that this has all been a walk in the park.  Last night I had popcorn for dinner.  And there was a time a couple weeks ago when I ate pumpkin pie for three meals in a row before being saved by a friend's invitation to lunch.  But, when it comes down to it, cooking for one can sometimes be just what is required to get through the tough times.

Two Day Chicken Soup

I have been taking a Boot Camp class very early in the morning three mornings a week for the past few months.  I love the camp, and highly recommend it.  But about ten days ago, we were doing side steps in Golden Gate Park, and I fell.  On to a curb.  With most of my weight.  And cracked a rib.

It hasn't been a very fun couple weeks.  As anyone who has had a rib injury knows, there's really not much you can do for it.  It just hurts, and the only thing you can do is take pain killers.  For the record, you're not supposed to bind your ribs which is an old method of healing that doctors used to prescribe.  Now, they know that the best thing to do is to encourage deep breathing, so that your lungs can stay healthy.  At least that's what my doctor told me.

Anyway, last week in a fit of helplessness, I went to an acupuncturist.  While I had gone to acupuncture before, this was my first time seeing this particular acupuncturist.  She was great, and I am going to go back to her.

At the end of the session, she said to me, "In Chinese medicine, they say that whatever you are deficient in, you should eat it.  Now I'm not telling you to go gnaw on a bone, but do you cook?"

"Oh, I cook.  And I have a bunch of chicken carcasses in my freezer."

I think I saw her give me a sidelong glance, but she seemed happy as she told me to go home and make a soup from all those bones to help my rib.  I thought to myself that Nigella would be proud, and headed home.

You must keep stock in your freezer, and also the bones you have saved to make it.  Turn your freezer into your very own Golgotha by throwing in lamb bones, chicken carcasses, and any other bones at hand.  I have been known to take home the carcasses with me after a dinner party once I've found out that (a) they have come from my butcher and (b) they were going to be thrown away. Nigella Lawson, How to Eat

So I went home and began the two-day soup.  Since I am not one for recipes (see some of my fellow bloggers for that type of blog), I can only tell you generally what I did:

The first step was to make the broth.  I put three chicken carcasses into a large pot, added a quartered onion (washed, not peeled), a head of garlic (not peeled), a couple of bay leaves, and enough water to cover the carcasses.  I brought the water to a boil, and then lowered it to a simmer.  After opening a couple windows so that our house wouldn't turn into a sauna, I let it go until I was about to go to bed -- probably a couple of hours.  When I was a kid, we lived in a 100-year old house in Southern California.  Our laundry room was an enclosed porch which was always cooler than the rest of the house.  If we were still in that house, I would have taken the entire pot out onto the back porch to cool overnight.

Since I wasn't in that house, I strained the broth through my chinois (you can use cheesecloth), and then put the pot in a coolish place in the house overnight.  I felt fairly safe keeping it out because of San Francisco's cool nights, but your other option is to put it in the fridge.  The next day, the fat will have raised to the top and it is easy to skim off.

After skimming off the fat, I took a whole chicken, rinsed and trimmed of extra skin, and added it to the broth.  After the chicken boiled for about 15-20 minutes and was cooked through, I removed it and let it cool.  I skimmed the broth once more, added some large pieces of ginger (large enough that they can be removed later) and a diced onion.  After the broth had cooked down a little bit -- probably about 20 minutes -- I added the chicken meat that I had removed from the cooled chicken by hand, added salt, removed the ginger, and spooned the soup into bowls.  I added some fresh basil leaves, a squeeze of lemon, and a spoonful of chili flakes to each serving. 

Delicious.  I'm feeling better all ready.

Comfort Food: Parmesan Toast with Tomatoes

I have mentioned some of my comfort foods before.  There's spaghetti with tamari and mushrooms and Mexican rice made the way my grandmother makes it. In this post, I talked about making spaghetti the way we always made it at home, and mom immediately emailed me asking "Is anything wrong?  Why are you reverting to your comfort food?"

One of the foods that was ubiquitous in our house growing up is shown in a pretty close rendition above:  bread with melted parmesan, tomatoes, and Vegesal.  In our childhood house, it was usually sourdough slices.  Today, I used Acme epi baguette, dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes from Ella Bella, and parmigiano reggiano.  I put the bread with parmesan under the broiler for a few minutes, and then added the tomatoes.

It's tempting to fancy it up with additional toppings or seasonings, but for it to be the comfort food of my childhood it basically needs to be only the ingredients above.  For me, the only allowed substitution is avocados instead of tomatoes if I have them.

Since I've moved to San Francisco, my comfort food repertoire has changed somewhat.  Now I include the following among my comfort foods:

• Pho from Yummy Yummy
• Beef bibimbap from My Tofu House
• Harvest Pork from Henry's Hunan
• Salmon wappa with ikura from Maki
• Lentil soup from Pizzetta 211
• Tacos al pastor from the El Novillo taco truck

I know that in American restaurants, comfort food dishes include meatloaf, short ribs, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, but when it's my turn for comfort foods, I turn to dishes that are slightly more eclectic.

My Eat Local Challenge

We're ten days into the Eat Local Challenge and I thought I'd actually focus for a moment on what we're doing personally for our Eat Local Challenge.

I think that I am in a much different head space this year than last August when I took the challenge.  You might remember that it was last June when we found out that Jason could only eat a very limited fat diet.  So by the time August came around, I was only about six weeks into completely changing the way I cooked.  I was doing okay with that on it's own, but adidng the challenge of eating locally was a little harder than I let on at the time. 

Now, I feel much more comfortable with cooking low-fat.  I've been successfully cooking that way for about eleven months.  You wouldn't know it looking at my waistline, but have you seen J lately?  He lost about 25 pounds.  While weight wasn't the primary issue, the doctors were thrilled.  His triglycerides are now back to normal and will stay that was as long as he continues to eat low-fat and not drink alcohol.

I think that there is a certain comfort that comes with taking the challenge for the second time.  We trained ourselves last August to find out where our food was coming from, and to make decisions based on those answers.  That didn't turn off on September 1.  So the May challenge is, in many ways, a continuation of habits we have applied to our everyday lives. 

To prepare for May, I found myself doing small things that I am thankful for now: I preserved lemons for the first time, I salted local sardines (that's a good story that will wait for another post), and I bought popsicle molds to make local fruit popsicles (we are addicted to popsicles and I wanted to try making them for this challenge). 

The photos in this post are of the first week of dinners at our house.  The pictures kind of make me laugh because they make it seem like we are the most boring home cooks ever.  While the basic premise was the same every night (rice + protein + 2/3 veggies), the flavors were pretty different each night.  Most mornings, I ate strained Straus yogurt,

walnuts (Full Belly), dried fruit (Hidden Star Orchard / Lagier) and  honey (Marshall's).  Lunches were usually leftovers for me, and takeout from the Financial District for J.

Dinner Day One:  Brown rice (Lundberg), calypso beans (Rancho Gordo), steamed chard with lemon and leeks (Eatwell / Hamada), pea shoots (Brooks & Daughters).

Dinner Day Two: Brown rice (Lundberg), roasted asparagus (Full Belly), Dietsel turkey, runner cannelini beans (Rancho Gordo), pickled cabbage (Riverdog)

Dinner Day Three: Brown rice (Lundberg), artichokes (Full Belly), fennel (Eatwell), pickled cabbage (Riverdog), Diestel turkey.

Dinner Day Four:  White sushi rice (Koda Farms), shiitake mushrooms (Solano Mushroom Co.), Snap Peas (Eatwell), rotisserie chicken from Roli Roti.

Dinner Day Five: Pork chop (Black Sheep Farm), spinach (Eatwell), Florida butter beans (Rancho Gordo), snap peas, shiitake mushrooms (Solano mushroom company).

Some of these meals included a dab of sesame oil and some Bragg's amino acids (nonlocal).

The Locavores guidelines for this challenge are:

If not locally produced, then organic.
If not organic, then family farm.
If not family farm, then local business.
If not local business, then terroir.

1.  What's your definition of local for this challenge? Local will be anything within 100 miles of San Francisco.

2.  What exemptions will you claim?

• Coffee
• Spices when I can't find a local substitute
• Sugar when I can't find a reasonable substitute.
• We use a lot of seaweed.  For this month, I will be using seaweed from Mendocino county.  This is outside of the 100-mile limit, but is as close as I can get it.
• When eating out, anything is game at a restaurant that has a history of supporting local producers.  I don't have to find the "most local" thing on a menu.
• Local breads made by local producers when necessary.
• I will try to limit eating at non-local restaurants, but will probably eat out once a week or so.
• When travelling, I will do my best to find local producers.  However, I won't hope to hold to the same rules that I do at home.
• I will not turn down anything made for me or offered in friendship or love. 

3.  What is your personal goal for this month?

To ask questions.  To  understand if there is a reasonable local substitute for an ingredient.  If not, to find the most sustainable provider of that ingredient following the Locavore guidelines.  To never make others uncomfortable with the choices that I have made for my own diet.

Community Supported Agriculture, Week 17

Once we are adults, there seem to be fewer and fewer things that wholly change the course of one's eating habits.  I have had some people tell me in the past that the issue of food politics, where our food comes from, and supporting small farms, is best taught to youngsters because adults are too "far gone" to really change on a fundamental level.  I am convinced that a huge exception to this rule is community supported agriculture (CSA) and what it can teach us.

In November, we joined a CSA for the first time.  After a lot of research, we decided to subscribe to Eatwell Farm's weekly box.  I have known Nigel Walker, the farmer, for a few years and knew that we would be in good hands with his CSA.  Eatwell Farm is a certified organic farm located 68 miles from San Francisco with a CSA program that is in it's 10th year.

This week, we received our 17th box.  I can say that without a doubt, subscribing to a CSA has completely changed the way we eat.  Our meals at home are now much more reactive than proactive, but in only the best sense of the term.  Instead of doing the work to decide what's at the peak of the season ("I know there are oranges at the market right now, but aren't they almost at the end of the season?  Are they still sweet?  Where are those tomatoes coming from?  How were they grown?"), and what is from our local foodshed, we pick up a box of fruits and vegetables that the farmer has decided he wants us to have because they represent the best that his farm has to offer that week.

One argument that I have heard against joining a CSA is that "I love shopping at farmers' markets each week."  I love shopping at the markets too, and still do.  CSA membership and market shopping go hand in hand, but instead of lugging all the essentials home I use the market to append to what I already have.  I find the market to be a much more pleasant experience when I know that I have the basics at home already. 

Each week in our box, we receive a newsletter from the farm that talks about the week and anything that is going on at the farm.  This type of communication puts me in touch with my food in a way that I have never been connected before.  At the very beginning of the year when we had terrible storms in the Bay Area, we received a newsletter talking about the damage done to the farm (power out, damage to the power source), and the reasons why Eatwell Farm fared so much better than some (the quality of the soil absorbed the rain correctly) -- all things that I may have been able to find out at the farmers' market if I asked the correct questions and if the farmer had time to talk with me.

I still have the note from that week on our refrigerator:

We do not have running water on the farm due to the weekend storms.  Your vegetables are unwashed today and quite muddy.  Instead of lettuce, you have organic walnuts from Dixon Ridge Farms.  You may have a butternut squash instead of sweet potatoes.  We were also not able to wash eggs.  You will receive double eggs with your next box.  Thanks for your understanding.

So much about this note makes me smile.  The fact that there are so many changes to the box, the fact that they substituted lettuce with walnuts (because they're so similar), and fact that the note reminds me of how muddy the food was that week.  I received one item in a plastic bag and I literally had no idea what it was until I washed and washed for about two minutes - to finally find a watermelon radish in a huge clump of mud.  Jason and I were fascinated because we had never seen mud with such a clay-like consistency.  We actually ended up calling Nigel on the way to Sacramento one day to see if we could go see the farm after the storm.  "It's not in very good shape," he replied, but I persisted that we wanted to see it during the winter, and he acquiesced.  The pictures that you see in this post were from that day, and as you can see the farm was gorgeous and in amazing shape. 

As we have turned into a CSA household, I find myself really embracing certain books and cooking methods more than ever:

* In most of his books, Mark Bittman recommends a method of cooking greens that involve heating a small amount of oil in a pan, sauteeing greens for 2 or three minutes over high heat, then adding spices and chicken stock (about a cup for a pound of veggies) and cooking a few more minutes (I usually cover, but it depends on the vegetable).  The beauty of this recipe is how many variations there are of it.  You can cook it with peanut oil, ginger, and a bit of soy sauce for an Asian influenced dish, or with olive oil and red peppers for a more Italian dish.  I have used this cooking method with broccoli, cabbage, spinach, tatsoi, chard, kale, and brussels sprouts. 

* To support our new CSA food routine, I stock large amounts of brown rice, beans, lentils and baked smoked tofu to give us proteins and help round out a meal featuring our CSA veggies.

* Any time you we have root vegetables that we are stumped by, we roast them.  You can try this with one or many types of root veggies combined together.  I dice them all into same-sized cubes, add a small amount of olive oil and salt, then roast them in the oven at 400 degrees.  The amount of time depends on the size of the dice, but it usually takes about 30 minutes.  I have tried this on different combinations of sweet potatoes, butternut squash, rutabagas, and turnips.  The roasting adds a dimension of flavor that is wonderful by itself or added to a dish such as soup, rice dishes, or pastas.

* Elizabeth Schneider's book Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini: The Essential Reference has proven to be a very valuable resource when I get something in the box that I haven't used much before.  While I have bought turnips for specific recipes, I have never had turnips in the fridge and wondered what to do with them.  Same goes for rutabagas.  This book helped me with both veggies, and gives me new ideas for familiar vegetables as well.

We recently resubscribed for another 13 weeks, and I have some goals for this next term of the CSA:

* I plan on using the CSA box when entertaining as well as in every day cooking.  At the moment, I am still depending on recipes and menus when friends come for dinner, instead of letting the box dictate what we'll have. 

* I plan on starting to put vegetables "up" for the May Eat Local Challenge, and for out of season use.  We often think of that in the summer, but I wouldn't mind saving some of my spring and winter vegetables as well.

* I need to revamp our kitchen area in order to give myself a good cool, dark place to store our root vegetables and other long-term storage items.  Right now, most items go into the fridge or are put on a table, neither of which is an ideal solution.

While I think that Eatwell Farm is an exceptional CSA to belong to and a great fit for us, I would encourage you to look into joining any CSA near you.  It's an amazing way to get local food easily, feel more connected to your food than ever before, and to support small local farmers who work so hard at providing food for the community.

***

 

If you live in the Bay Area, this post I wrote for Bay Area Bites gives a good overview of local CSA's.

Photo credit: Flourphoto

New Year's Eve - Washoku style

Jason and I have a New Years' Eve tradition that I often fear makes us sound boring, but it is such a wonderful way to take a deep breath after the hustle of the holidays and to ring in the new year: we stay home and cook together.  I don't know how this started, but we did it the first year we were dating and it has continued ever since.

This year, Jason had just bought me Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen (Ten Speed Press) and we planned the entire meal from recipes from this book.  If you have any interest in replicating Japanese cooking at home, I suggest you check out a copy of this beautiful book. 

Each recipe that we made from it was a success and I feel that it has so much to teach me.  The book has a chapter on "The Washoku Pantry" that's greatly informative.  The author, Elizabeth Andoh, recognizes her audience and not only gives a thorough explanation of an ingredient, but she tells how to choose it at a store, what to look for, and gives the reader sources for finding it.  She also gives recognition to a traditional way of cooking, while also giving shortcuts if you don't have the time.  The fish that we made had a recipe for traditional marinating which involved 2-3 days of marination, and an "impatient marinade", which we used, requiring a few hours.

The principles of washoku cooking are designed to create harmony and balance in a meal - in taste, aesthetics, and methodology.  One of the ways that you can create balance is through the colors of your food - balancing white, black, yellow, red, and green.  Using this principle, we decided on the following menu:

Miso soup with mushrooms
Watermelon radish with two salts
Whole fish marinated in miso
Sweet potatoes simmered with kombu and soy sauce
White rice with black sesame seeds

Each recipe was slightly adapted to our own style of cooking.  For instance, Ms. Andoh's recipe for fish was for fillets, but we adapted it to be used for whole fish - a dorado from Ports Seafood at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market.  The white rice I originally wanted to make had an ingredient called zakkoku mai which I couldn't find, so I substituted black sesame seeds.

The radishes with salt were a revelation.  We chose to make two salts from the book: kuro goma salt made by mixing salt with toasted black sesame seeds, and ao nori salt made by mixing salt with ao nori - a marine alga that is harvested from shallow ocean beds and dried.  Both were delicious in very different ways -- I was partial to the earthiness of the ao nori salt, and Jason preferred the roasty, toasty taste of the kuro goma.  I could see these salts becoming a regular part of our cooking, as I could imagine that they would be delicious on tofu, noodles, rice, and many other foods.

Going into 2006 in true Life Begins at 30 style, many of the ingedients we used for this meal were from local vendors.  I posted on Bay Area Bites this week about our trip to the farmers' market to purchase ingredients for this meal.  We used:

• Black sesame seeds from Full Belly Farm
• Watermelon radish from Heirloom Organics
• Mushrooms from Far West Fungi
• Sweet potatoes from Eatwell Farm
• Lemons from Jason's mom's house

Other blogs discussing Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen:

Hanashi Station  |  Superchef Blog  |  Brooklyn Washoku  |  Cooking for Margy

Eating Local in November

This is our eat-local dinner from last night.

Butternut Squash (Eatwell Farm) roasted with salt, pepper, brown sugar and a dab of olive oil.

Scarlet Runner Beans (Rancho Gordo) sauteed with shallot, spinach, and tomato (Eatwell Farm)

Rosie chicken breast with black sesame seeds (Full Belly Farm) - marinated with soy sauce, ginger, and garlic.

Yes, you just read that right ... I had a local, organic, non hot-housed tomato in November.  Eatwell Farm is still providing a few in their CSA boxes.  The one I used last night in the spinach was delicious. 

I finally joined Eatwell Farms' CSA program.  For years, I had gone back and forth about a CSA, feeling as though I still wanted to be able to go to farmers' markets and choose my own produce.  The main reasons I decided to join are:

1) price.  I believe we are going to spend less money on the CSA box than we usually do for our produce.  We pre-purchased 13 weeks of the basket and are spending $19.50 a week.

2) convenience.  My real epiphany came about a month ago when I was struggling to carry home several bags of food from the farmers' market.  It is a lot to purchase all the produce for a high veggie-eating household at the farmers' market on any given weekend.  This way, I am hoping that I will still go to the market and be able to focus on purchasing specialty items instead of all the basics.

3) support of the farm and the CSA concept.  Of all the farms that are out there, I have the closest personal connection with Eatwell Farm, and I know that the CSA program is a great way to be a consistent supporter of any farm's work.  While farmers love and are thrilled with support at a farmers' market, dollars received as a part of a CSA subscription have additional value in that they are dollars that are pre-paid, consistent and can be counted on when the farm is making plans upgrades or large purchases.

I will keep you apprised of how I do on the CSA program, and let you know what I am receiving in my box.  If you would like to read more about local CSA programs, you can read my wrap-up which was written for Bay Area Bites.

My most recent post for Bay Area Bites was posted today entitled "Noshing through West Marin County".  You can always check the most recent posts I have done by checking column to the right of this post entitled "I write for KQED's Bay Area Bites".

Holy Tomato

... a tomato shipped by slow boat from the Caribbean, without the “benefit” of refrigeration, would likely taste better than the shrink wrapped, ice-box-cold tomato you’ll find in most supermarkets—gulp—even at the height of the tomato season.

I just found this link through "I'm Mad and I Eat".  It's a tomato primer put together by Lark Creek Restaurant Group and has tons of information and recipes for tomatoes.  Worth a peek.

The Little Red Tomato Primer (pdf)

A story about my grandmother

A couple of years ago, I decided to make taquitos.  I don't fry foods very often, so the idea of so much hot oil in the pan was a little foreign to me.  I made a couple and they seemed to come out okay.  And then I reached over the pan to grab something behind it (kids don't try this at home) and pulled the entire. pan. down.  It was horrible.  The oil was everywhere.  I promptly slipped in it, and just had this super hot oil all over me.

I actually felt okay afterward.  I ended up going to the emergency room just to be checked out, but was very lucky in the fact that I only had slight burns.

A couple of days later my grandmother called me.  "You know," she began "I have been thinking about it, and you didn't have that taquito oil hot enough.  If you would have been cooking them correctly, you should have gotten much more burned.  So next time make sure you turn up the flame."

Grab Bag

Sites I have been reading:

the hungry tiger.  I really enjoy this blog - always interesting posts and tempting recipes.

U.S. Food Policy.  An new blog with a food economy perspective.  (via someone else's blog ... I can't remember who!  If it's you, let me know so I can credit you)

Blue Bottle Clown College.  One of the guys over at Blue Bottle Coffee Company has started a blog with stories about working for the best coffee company in the world.  In case you missed it in the Chronicle, BBCC is opening up a coffee kiosk in Hayes valley ... on Linden Street (b/w Hayes and Fell, west side of Gough)

What I have been cooking:

White Beans with Black Kale and Savoy Cabbage, Local Flavors, Deborah Madison
Meatloaf from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook

What I have been reading:

Eat Here: Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket by Brian Halwell.  Halwell's argument for buying locally grown goods is sound and makes complete sense.  I suggest this book to anyone who is either on the fence about buying locally, or who needs more backup information in order to talk to others about buying locally.

Nothing to do with food:

This is an article about why Alias is such a great show.
I am currently listening to this new album by Tegan & Sara, and it is fantastic.

Pasta alla Carbonara, The Zuni Cafe Cookbook

There are some dishes that I refuse to eat when I am far from the point of origin.  Spaghetti Carbonara is one of those things.  After discovering this dish made perfectly in Italy when I was in college, I was disappointed every time I tried to order it in the States.  It was either too fancy, too soupy, or just wrong.  I gave up years ago - deciding that I would only have this dish, with it's egg cooked only by the heat of the spaghetti, and it's delightful bacon when I am in Italy.  Recipes I have tried for it have always disappointed.  I could never achieve that effect where the pasta is almost dry, and the egg clings to the spaghetti in small clumps. 

For Christmas, I received the Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers.  Yesterday was the first real chance I had to look through it.  The pasta alla carbonara recipe caught my eye, and I decided to try yet another carbonara recipe.  This rendition was a delight -- it was exactly what I have been seeking.  Ms. Rodgers adds ricotta to the recipe.  I have no idea if this is authentic, and I don't really care.  It achieves the effect that I have been looking for all this time.

My notes on the recipe:  Halving it yields plenty for two people.  This recipe is going to be fantastic in the springtime, once the fresh peas are in season.  I can't wait to try it then.  Until that point, I used frozen peas.

View Judy Rodger's Pasta alla Carbonara recipe here.

Photo Credit

A new favorite: Patak's Chile Relish

Jason's mom made lunch for me and my family this summer in Southern California, and she served this wonderful chile relish by Patak's alongside the tacos.  It was delicious.  My mom and I are fiends for spicy new delectables, and this one was really unique.  The ingredients are simple:  chile peppers, canola oil, salt, ginger, mustard, fenugreek, spices, acetic acid, citric acid, and flavorings.  The thing I liked about it was that there wasn't a surprising sweetness to the relish, as I find with many Indian condiments -- I am not a huge fan of unexpected sweetness.

Since we tried it, I have kept a casual eye out for it and have been unable to find it.  This week I stopped by the fantastic new Harvest market at 8th and Howard, and found it!  Since then, it has gone on everything - tacos, rice, eggs, anywhere that you want a bit of spice.

There are many reasons to check out the new Harvest market, and this relish is definitely one of them. 

Aloo Anardana: Potatoes with Dried Pomegranate Seeds

When I was a kid, we would go to the local YMCA every day after school.  During the season, we would steal away to a remote area of the running track and sit under a pomegranate bush and make a huge mess eating the ripe fruit.  Then we would try to return to the group, pretending we hadn't done anything.  Of course, our red faces and drips on our clothing always gave it away.

After that, I kind of forgot about pomegranates until this season.  About a month ago, someone at the farmer's market handed me a piece of pomegranate fruit.  "I don't think I like pomegranates," I replied as I decided to taste it.  "What am I supposed to do with the seeds?"  The others around me encouraged me to chew them up as I worked my way through the fruit.  The taste was intoxicating.  It was a completely ripe fruit just bursting with flavor as I ate it.  Since then, I haven't been able to get enough of fresh pomegranates.  A friend wrote a blog post last month which suggests that Alice Waters' method of peeling pomegranates is to do it underwater, as the seeds sink and the pulp floats.  Additionally, you make much less of a mess.  Several times a week, I can be found in our kitchen, pomegranates in a large bowl of water being peeled.

Shalini Balla is a friend who I met in the past year who has taught me more about home Indian cooking than I have ever learned before.  Through her snacks and little bites of concoctions here and there, I have learned that Indian home cooking is nothing like you eat at the $5.95 curry buffet down the street.

Shalini taught me recently about Anardana, dried pomegranate seeds, that are used in Indian cooking.  The seeds are dried and can be purchased as a spice (locally at Vik's in Berkeley)  The tang to the seeds adds a dimension to the flavor that is specific to Indian food. 

She was kind enough to pass along a recipe for Aloo Anardana, a potato dish using Anardana.  According to Shalini, "These potatoes are great on their own as a snack. They also make good sandwich stuffers. Serve then as a side to any meal instead of mashed potatoes, etc."

Aloo Anardana

1.5 lbs potatoes (yukon gold, red skin or a good boiling potato. Do not use Russet potatoes)

1/4 cup Pure ghee
3 to 4 whole red chillies

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
1/2 tbsp coriander powder
3/4 tsp Cumin powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup Anardana (dried pomegranate seeds), finely powdered.

Boil the potatoes till tender and let cool completely. I prefer not to peel my potatoes for this dish. Chop the potatoes into 1 inch pieces.

Heat the ghee in a kadhai / wok. Add the whole red chillies and fry till they begin to change colour. This takes a few seconds. Add the chopped potatoes and fry till pink and crispy. Add the powdered spices and mix to ensure that all the potatoes are coated in the spices. Add the powdered pomegranate seeds and mix. Fry for another couple of minutes.

Serve hot.

For much more information on pomegranates, including history, please check out World on a Plate's post.

Fresh pomegranate photo credit

Just call me Susie Homemaker

Yesterday, I was eating freshly made beef stew at noon. That meant that I was up and cooking beef stew at about 7.30. It was the first day in quite a while where I didn't have to do work immediately upon waking up, and I took advantage of my morning by setting a stew to cook in the early a.m.

I had purchased stew meat from Highland Hills Farm on Saturday and it needed to be cooked. Looking through my cookbooks, I landed on Nigella Lawson's recipe for Beef Stew with Anchovies and Thyme. I took tremendous liberties with the stew -- substituting shitake mushrooms and turnips for the recommended carrots and celery, and it came out wonderfully. I either used too many anchovies, or her recipe is a little heavy on them, because it came out very strong. Luckily, we both love anchovies so it was no problem. But next time I will probably cut back a bit.

I ate the stew over rice for a wonderful lunchtime meal.

Meditating with Marcella

It was a busy day. I didn't get up from my computer for hours on end, and when I did I had a ton of things to do. I went to the gym, only to find the pool so full that I left. I am not a good workout swimmer, and am slowly gaining confidence but wasn't prepared to jump into a packed pool today. I was going through the day with a heavy heart thinking about a tragedy - the worst kind of tragedy - that had befallen a family I have known for my whole life.

I had about 7 pounds of heirloom tomatoes from the weekend sitting on my counter. I had brought them home with the idea that I would spend Sunday making sauce and storing my tomatoes for the winter - taking advantage of the last gasp of tomatoes before the chill of the fall sets in. Sunday had come and gone. They were begging for attention, threatening not to last a minute longer and couldn't be put off until tomorrow.

So I paused.

I opened up Marcella Hazan's The Essentials of Italian Cooking, found the easiest recipe, and started to cook. Tomatoes, salt, pepper, garlic, and basil. Looked easy enough. I began to prep the tomatoes, per Marcella's specifications. Dunk each tomato in boiling water, remove and allow to cool only until you can touch it. Then remove the peel. I got into a rhythm. Dunk, peel, wait for the water to boil again, repeat until all tomatoes are done

According to the recipe (which I doubled), I needed two large bunches of basil.

"Pull all the basil leaves from the stalks, rinse them briefly in cold water, and shake off all the moisture using a colander, a salad spinner, or simply by gathering the basil loosely in a dry cloth towl and shaking it two or three times. Tear all but the tiniest leaves by hand."

Come on, you have got to be kidding me, Marcella. I hung with you for the tomato preparation, but tear the basil? By hand? I took a deep breath and decided to just trust and go along with the recipe. That's the thing about Marcella Hazan and the great cookbook writers. You just trust. She takes you by the hand, and shows you her craft. You are the apprentice. As a person who is constantly changing recipes and revising them to my tastes, it is unusual that I take a recipe word for word and just follow with blind faith.

And something interesting happened as I followed. I didn't have to exert any energy worrying about adjusting, tinkering, tasting, changing. A couple of leaves in, I started to notice the noises around me. A dog barking, the water bubbling, a bus passing on the street. And I started to think. My mind wandered and quieted. I tore and tore. All but the tiniest leaves. The recipe had asked me to expend some energy in tearing, dunking, peeling and gave me energy in return. I walked out of the kitchen, sauce complete and delicious, with a renewed energy. The process of cooking and following this recipe had left me rejuvenated and re-centered.

Birthday Dinner at Home

A few weeks ago I began thinking about Jason's birthday and made reservations at Quince. Neither of us have been, and he had mentioned maybe going for his birthday. Perfect, I thought. Birthday plans done.

About a week ago, he asked that we do something mellow for his birthday. When I mentioned the Quince reservations, he asked that I cancel them. All of a sudden my perfect plans were out the window and I had to come up with a new idea - a new way to celebrate his birthday.

I set out to make a dinner that was fun and elegant, and something that we don't usually eat. We cook a lot, but tend to stick to the same types of meals and I wanted something that was a little more exciting.

With a menu in mind, I set out into the city to find my ingredients.

One of my dishes called for preserved lemons and I ventured off to a Middle Eastern market that is on Sutter and Larkin. (Update: The store is called Queen of Sheba) It is hard to describe what a great experience I had at this market. The owner of the store really took to me, and she and her Moroccan friend were so excited that I was buying authentic Moroccan ingredients. Everything that the owner pulled out of my basket she would show to her friend who would ooh and ahh at the fact that I, the white girl, was purchasing these items. The adventure concluded with at 15 minute lesson by the Moroccan friend about how to make couscous (that's another story - I am very anxious to figure out what exactly she was talking about and am going to need to investigate further).

I also made a stop at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant. It was quiet in there, and so I had a lot of attention as I carefully went through each dish with the guy helping me, and he made wine recommendations and also made some very good menu suggestions as well.

My plan all along was to have a starter of grilled sardines on a bed of greens, so I called Swan Oyster Depot to check on their sardines. "We have them, but they're about the size of trout right now." Uh, no -- not exactly my idea of a starter. "Anchovies?" I inquired. Nope. So I decided on scallops. This is something we eat fairly often, so it wasn't as special, but still was a great starter.

With the menu set, all I had to do was cook. The only thing that was going to be out of the box for me was going to be the tagine. I am used to making lamb stews, but usually make it up as I go along. This time, I decided to follow a recipe from one of my favorite books and committed to sticking to the recipe as much as possible. The spices used were not ones that I am used to using, so it was a leap of faith to try it out. I am happy to report that it was a great success. It was one of those recipes where you aren't sure until the end whether the dish is going to come together. And then all of a sudden, it does. I was thrilled.

The final menu for the birthday dinner was:

Seared scallops on top of frisee and greens
Couscous with toasted almonds and parsley
Moroccan lamb tagine served with harissa
A trio of cakes from Citizen Cake

The recipe for the tagine can be found here. I made some modifications to the original recipe, and those are reflected in the link. I would highly recommend trying it out.

When all was said and done, Jason got his mellow evening, though it was a lot more work for me than just going out to a restaurant. It was a fully satisfying dinner for both of us, and I am glad we did it.

Lunch at Home with Farmer's Market Goods

I love weeks when the abundance of food that I have brought home from the farmer's market dictates our meals. This is one of those weeks. On Sunday, I picked up a good amount of tomatillos and some poblano chiles and our Monday meal was Chile Verde (I want to post that recipe, but am going to try it another time or two to get it right first).

Today for lunch, I made a quick pasta from some other fresh ingredients I have this week. It's not a fancy recipe, but it is one of those meals that punctuates how a meal made with quality, in-season ingredients -- even a quick meal -- can be extraordinary. I cooked up a Fatted Calf Fennel Italian style pork sausage, added a chopped red tomato (I used New Zealand Pink Paste from Eatwell Farm), a chopped Green Zebra tomato, a small amount of olive oil, a handful of chopped Italian parsley a small amount of cracked black pepper, and a small amount of romano cheese to some penne pasta and stirred.

With this meal comes a new pledge to myself: Fresh tomatoes only for the next few weeks until tomato season is over. Canned tomatoes are for winter, and I will be able to have plenty of those then. Until the last tomato leaves the market, however, I am going to commit to making the most of this summer season.

Is my blog burning: Dumplings - Summer Slump

"Is my blog burning" is a theme event where many bloggers post about the same food topic on the same date. This IMBB event was hosted by redbeard of Food Porn Watch - a great aggregator of food blogs.

I chose to make Summer Slump - a dessert from Nigella Lawson's book How to Eat. I made mine using blackberries and raspberries as a garnish (Thanks, Shuna, for the garnish idea!)

Adapted recipe follows:

Note that the fruit layer in this is quite liquid - most like a fruit soup. If you haven't got fresh fruit to make it, use frozen red berries (not strawberries).

Serves 6

2 1/4 pounds fruit -- raspberries, blackberries, pitted cherried, blueberries. Fresh or frozen, in any combination.
About 1/2 cup sugar.
4-5 tablespoons water
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
2 tablespoons superfine sugar
2 tablespoons ground almonds
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small dice
about 2 tablespoons milk.

Preheat oven to 375. Put the fruit in a oven-proof dish that will hold a 10 cup capacity. Add about 1/4 cup of sugar to the fruit, add more after tasting if necessary. Add the water, cover, and put in oven for 15-35 minutes until it simmers (time variance is dependent on frozen or fresh fruit).

While that is cooking, make the dumplings. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add salt, superfine sugar, and almonds. Stir them together and then add the butter. Rub into the dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly. Using a hand mixer or free standing electric mixer will work, but don't food process.

Add enough milk to bind the dough. It should be soft not sticky. "Form into balls the size of small walnuts". Take the fruit out of the oven, remove cover, stir fruit and taste for sweetness adding more sugar as necessary. Top the fruit with the dumplings, cover again, and bake for 15-20 minutes longer.

Can be garnished with ice cream or homemade whipped cream.

View all IMBB Entries here

Lamb's Quarters

I am convinced that farmers bring some things to market that were never meant to be a crop. I know for a fact that this has happened with purslane and seems to be the fact with lamb's quarters as well. "If you stand on a street corner waiting, perhaps, for a bus and you happen to notice something green flourishing in a crack in the sidewalk, between the lamppost and the cement, you'll most likely be looking at Lamb's-quarters."

I have tasted lamb's quarters at farmstands and deemed it delicious, but this week was the first time that I brought it home and made a commitment to cook with it. Tasting it raw, I felt as though I could munch my way through the bag without any further preparation. The leaf has some body to it which gives it a meaty or nutty depth. Lamb's quarters are most often compared with spinach -- and they have the added benefit of not having that weird tooth feeling that you sometimes get when you eat raw spinach. Nutritionally, it is closely related to beets, chard and spinach with 11,60 IU vitamin A and 80 milligrams vitamin C per 100-gram serving.

When young, you can eat all parts of the lamb's quarters. As they age, you probably want to trim the tough stems. Unlike many leafy greens, lamb's quarters' taste does not change with size.

When in doubt, use lamb's quarters in any way that you would use spinach - raw or cooked. Ideas in my books include:

* Boiled, steamed or braised with citrus or spice.
* Creamed Spring lamb's quarters.
* Carpaccio of Lamb with Lamb's quarters.
* Lamb's quarters soup. A pureed soup with chicken stock and celery root.
* Gazpacho of lamb's quarters with shrimp.
* Tacos de Quelite. (Rick Bayless)
* Slow-Cooked green tomato with pozole, peppers and lamb's quarters
* Lamb's quarters spread. A spread with garlic, onion, avocado, walnuts, olives, mustard leaves, miso, and chile pepper.
* Lasagna with lamb's quarters
* Lamb's quarters, cucumber, and tomato salad.

I chose to make a soup that was pureed, much like a spinach soup. I sauteed garlic, onion and a small amount of celery. To that I added chicken stock, salt and pepper, and quartered raw potatoes (with skin) along with the lamb's quarters. I allowed that all to cook for quite about 45 minutes and then pureed using an immersion blender. The soup was delicious. Next time I will strain with cheesecloth (didn't have any in the house).

My lamb's quarters greens were purchased from Heirloom Organics (Watsonville) at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market.

References:
A City Herbal, Maida Silverman. Ash Tree Publishing, 1977.
The Wild Vegetarian, Steve Brill. The Harvard Common Press, 2002.
Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini. Elizabeth Schneider. Harper Collins, 2001.

Mom's Caesar Salad on Father's Day

Went to Southern California this week, and had father's day with my family. We had an outdoor barbecue and my mom made a caesar salad. She prepped it tableside, and you can see the pictures of her preparation here. The recipe that she has been using lately is based on Melinda Lee's Classic Caesar Salad recipe -- I would highly recommend it.

You can tell that I am a chip off the old block when it comes to cooking. Although she doesn't tend to take pictures of everything she eats, she definitely gets an A for presentation here.

Is my blog burning: Rice - Horchata

"Is my blog burning" is a theme event where many bloggers post about the same food topic on the same date. This, the fourth IMBB event, was hosted by Pim.. To see the hub of IMBB for the current rendition, see this link.

This is my first time participating in IMBB. My contribution: Horchata.

This was my first time making horchata. I gathered a few recipes from the web and tweaked here and there to create my own. I enjoy purchasing a good, housemade horchata when I am out, but I will probably never make it again. Not that the result was bad by any means, but given the work involved, the straining of finely-ground rice, and the mess in my kitchen I expected the result to be spectacular - which it wasn't.

Oh well, live and learn.

At first I thought it was my recipes, but a friend today confirmed that this is the way to make it, and that Susana Trilling's recipe is basically the same. Another friend suggested I ask my grandmother how to make it -- which I kind of cracked up about. While I actually do have a Mexican grandmother, I just talked to her and she has never made horchata. "It's not up my alley," I think was her exact phrase.

Horchata

6 tablespoons long grain white rice
1 1/4 cups blanched skinless almonts
1 cinnamon stick
approximately 1 tablespoon lime zest
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups water

preparation time: 24 hours (approx 45 min active time)

Grind the rice using a blender or coffee grinder, as smooth as possible.
Combine ground rice, almonds, cinnamon, lime zest, and 3 cups of water.
Cover and let stand overnight.
Blend the rice mixture until as smooth as possible - several minutes.
Add 2 more cups of water, half the sugar, the vanilla and blend a few seconds more.
Pour the liquid through a fine mesh strainer to get out most of the solids.
Pour the strained liquid through damp cheese cloth.
Add more sugar and water to taste.
Cover and refrigerate.
Serve over ice.

Source credit: Gourmet Sleuth, Food Network

Candied Citrus Peels

I have never been much of a baker, or a sweets cook. But last year, I picked up some interesting varieties of citrus and decided to make candied citrus peels. They lasted me through the summer, and I made them again this year. I adapt Jacque Pepin's recipe, and just used whatever citrus I could pick up. This year, I told my favorite citrus woman what I was doing, and she picked out some fruits with extra thick peels (ie., pomelos). It's fun, and they are great in drinks or just to snack on. I am sure the bakers out there could also do some pretty cool things with them in baked goods.

Pepin's recipe is extra easy because he uses the white part of the peel as well as the outer peel. Makes the process pretty simple. I am not very exact about using his exact citrus types, but will post them here so you get an idea of proportions.

The most important part of this recipe is rinsing the citrus and the pot in the middle of the process to get rid of some of the bitterness.

3 large oranges with thick, shiny skin
1 grapefruit, preferably pink
2 large limes
2 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar, plus extra sugar to roll the peels in

With a knife, make incisions through the skin of each piece of fruit to separate it into six sections. Separate the skin from the fruit.

Place the peels in a pot and cover with cold water. Use enough water so that the peels are well covered. Bring to a strong boil and let boil for about 30 seconds. Pour into a colander, rinse under cold water, and rinse the pot. Return the peels to the pot, add water, cover, and repeat. Return the peels to the clean pot again and add 8 cups of water and the sugar. Bring to a boil and boil gently, uncovered, for about 1 1/2 hours. The skins should be almost transparent, and there should be just enough thick syrup to coat them.

Transfer the peels to a cookie sheet covered with sugar.

Roll them in the sugar, arrange them on another cookie sheet, and let them cool, dry, and harden for at least 1 hour. Strain the sugar and return it to the sugar bin.

Store in a jar in the fridge.

Recipe Credit: Jacques Pepin, jacquespepin.net

10 Recipes

Yesterday on a comment in an Epicurious recipe, I saw a person make reference to a "10 Recipe" rotation -- 10 recipes that she has in her household that she rotates through. I had heard of this idea before, but have never attempted to implement it myself. But, given the amount that I should be focusing on other things at the present time, I have decided to try this out. As much as I'd like to think about it more, I think that this will help me focus my efforts in other directions besides dinner, and will help focus my shopping. It's so easy for me to go off on shopping tangents for a specific recipe.

The recipes I am choosing are pretty open-ended, and most have a lot of variations that will keep my interest. So .. Jason and I put together an initial list. I am sure it will change as we get into it, but I am excited about it. (By the way, looking at this list, it will be pretty obvious that we are not on Atkins ... ha ha)

1. Simple Stir-Fry with chicken or tofu, veggies, ginger.
2. Soft tacos with veggies or ground beef
3. "Crack Salad" with warm lentils and bacon. The crack salad reference is Jason's -- just referring to a green salad with good addictive dressing (for example, this salad counts as crack salad). Warm lentils and bacon recipe is from Mark Bittman.
4. Risotto with Farmer's Market veggies
5. Panini with whatever's around
6. Fish Stew from elise's simply recipes. So easy, and delicious.
7. Spaghetti with whatever's around. (ie., this spaghetti)
8. Grilled fish
9. Black beans with green rice
10. Frittata with whatever's around.

Spring Salad

Realized that I had a lot of produce left this week, and so made a quick dinner for us of this salad along with warm lentils with bacon (lentil recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything -- a fantastic recipe that I make often).

The salad was just made with the fresh ingredients that I had on hand. So often in a salad, you look for something to add "just a bit of color" but this dish was remarkable in all it's greenness -- it was fresh looking and delicious.

I used (amounts are approximate):

1/2 cup shelled sugar peas.
1/2 cup asparagus, blanched in salty water for one minute and cooled.
2 cups arugula, torn or cut
1 tablespoon lemon zest
olive oil
juice from 1/2 lemon

In a bowl, mix asparagus with lemon zest.
Add peas and lemon juice. Toss
Add arugula, some olive oil. Toss.
Adjust taste with salt and pepper.

Weeknight Dinner: Japanese Spaghetti

Jason got home and we were talking about my work projects while I was making dinner. Kind of distracted, and wanting something simple I ended up making a dish that I have eaten for years. It ended up being the perfect comfort food meal, and as I am sitting here writing this I wish there was a little bit more to snack on!

When we were young, we used to go to a place called Spoon House in Gardena. Spaghetti noodles served Japanese-style -- my favorite as a kid had mushrooms, soy sauce and spaghetti. Over the years, my mom adapted this and would serve it to us often. The noodles are fairly dry when served - don't have much soy sauce to make it too soupy. She would often make it with parmesan cheese as well.

Tonight, I tossed fettucine noodles cooked in salty water with a sauteed mixture of mushrooms and asparagus tips. I added a couple dashes of soy sauce to the sautee mixture, and also used about a half a ladle-full of the boiling water from the noodles for moisture. Add some cracked pepper and serve!

Illustration Credit: A Perfect World

Great Pasta Sauce