Strawberry addiction

I keep buying flats of strawberries from Mariquita! Today I finished up another batch of strawberry balsamic jam - I have decided that macerating the strawberries in sugar for 24 hours is the best way - I've got about 15 pints.   I am freezing lots of strawberries (3 gallon bags of frozen whole berries now!).

First Date: Kohlrabi

I got Kohlrabi in my Mariquita box and after reading up on all sortso f recipes - was very careful to peel & trim it and it still came out woody, not exciting or interesting for flavor or texture.  I'm pretty sure I'm not going out of my way to grow this in the garden or to buy it again.

Do you have a passion for kohlrabi? How do you prepare it?

Cardoon Pot Pies

First date with cardoon from Mariquita box - made into pot pies, along with english peas, new potatoes, cardoon, red onion, spring garlic, carrots, sweet potato and seitan.  I also made a cardoon and new potato bisque.  Both dishes came out fabulous - reminding me how much I enjoy both pot pies and new potatoes. Cardoon has a delicious artichoke-like flavor but without all the leaves!  I'll definitely try cardoon again, esp for soups and pot pies.

REVIEW: The Wild Muir: Twenty-Two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures by John Muir (5-stars)

 Purchased as an impulse at some park bookstore in the past couple of years, I am so glad I finally sat down to finish this book! It's like a box of chocolates, packed with novel delights - each just as delicious as the other, making it hard to decide which you like best.  The book lacks the excessive, hyperbole laden introductions that typically accompany this sort of thing.  The editor includes a brief paragraph or two to introduce each selection and provide context, along with a nice timeline of Muir's life at the back.  

There's even the inclusion of an article written by a man who accompanied Muir on a hike - and another report showing someone else's view of the same incident.  All in all, showing that Muir's physical fitness must have been quite unusual even for today because he rarely mentions any difficulties on climbs and gives the appearance to the onlooker of a fleet footed gazelle prone to bouts of "amatory botany."  It's funny - I rather had a picture of Muir as somewhat kin of Doctor Who - very intelligent, constantly moving and going and exploring, not really getting upset or stressed out about any scraps: falling ass over teakettle and knocking himself senseless or going snowblind didn't seem to upset him.  All the while admiring, enthusiastically appreciating and overflowing with joy at the amazing lovely wonderful things around him.  

I think one of my favorite stories was about the tree ride because I share this fascination with wind and could totally see the movement of the trees he described.  I most envy his description of the aurora borealis events - never having seen one.  The little dog going along on the hike was a fantastic tale, too.  I quite relished his constant descriptions of the quality of light - and the anthropomorphization - describing "badgers, marmots and other small people who live on the mountain."  

Now, I wish I could hear his voice - so I am going to have to go find some proper Scottish indie films to get that in my head for the next time I read something by Muir.

REVIEW: The Wild Muir: Twenty-Two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures by John Muir 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

A Photo Opportunity Missed: Goat Mower

This afternoon I went for a little hike in the Oakland/Berkeley Hills near Temescal Recreation Area.  I saw a very pretty dog and then was shocked to see a bunch of goats - and then even more goats!  I had a chat with Martin, Bolivian goat herder hired by the city to clean up the grass on steep hillsides with his crew of 300 goats and goat herding dog Willie.  The goats were all very small goats - and some had big curly horns - but they were all very hungry goats!

He said that they will spend the night - he moves around an electrified mesh gate (he uses a car battery) to keep the goats from wandering out of the target area.

Martin also had a mouth full of the most amazing bling that I have seen up close!  He recommended that I visit his hometown of Oruro, Bolivia (see the wiki entry) and the Parque Nacional Sajama which has a biiiiiiiiiig mountain that is well worth visiting.  From Flickr:

Gracias Madre & Cha-Ya

In the space of one day - I took two people for their first visits to two different restaurants!  I met Captain Marty, a pilot of private aircraft, via Twitter.  He publishes reviews of vegan restaurants he encounters in his travels in his blog, Marty's NYC Veggie Review.

We met up for lunch at Gracias Madre and talked our way through a delicious meal.  He had been at Millennium the night before and had noted that the recent death of sous chef Jason Dunbar had, indeed, cast a shadow over the quality of his experience though he had not heard the news.

Our lunch at Gracias Madre was in a mostly empty (!) restaurant and our service was impeccable - all the servers were friendly and chatted with us.  We shared scrumptious small plates:

- empanada del dia:  on a small puddle of delicious mole, crispy and filled with sweet, caramelized plantain
- sweet potato quesadillas: perfect tortillas - just enough crispy/soft and filled with sweet mashed sweet potatoes
- gorditas: potato & masa Mexican version of a latke, served crispy on the outside and topped with shredded lettuce, green salsa, avocado and cashew creme
- guacamole & corn tortillas

We were pretty well stuffed on good food and very large horchatas (I think we each had 2!), then headed across the street to Duc Lo vietnamese market where Marty stocked up on all sorts of things he can't find in NYC (imagine!) such as Thai basil, curry leaves, key limes and other delicacies.  Marty has all the pictures so hopefully he'll get his blog posting up now that mine is up!

Later, I took a friend visiting from Florida to Cha-Ya where we had all manner of yumminess - he loves Japanese food and was totally stoked to try all the dishes.  He picked out some rolls in addition to my recommended avocado urumaki, agadeshi tofu and we shared a nice bottle of sake.  He was stuffed and glowing with pleasure as we strolled out of Cha-Ya -- I guarantee both friends will be back to visit those restaurants again!

A Tale of Two Lemon Cakes

As a special treat for a wine tasting trip with Matt, Aaron, Selina, Z-man, Richie - I made up two cakes - done with lemon instead of orange as specified:

Olive Oil Rosemary Semolina cake


Fran Costigan's Orange Almond Olive Oil Cake

The first cake required that the batter proof - it wanted yeast and I found myself up late late at night before I was supposed to be getting in the limo with my friends!  It had a drier, bouncier crumb - downright springy.

The second cake just came out perfectly the first time - it was very moist and dense.  Subsequent attempts to make it find it to be  - terribly fickle - and it just collapeses into a globby heap (not sure if it is because I tried using key lime juice instead of orange or lemon and if there is a difference).

And, of course - I made chocolate peanut butter cups, for which Matthew nearly murdered Aaron (who also enjoyed them).

Spice Blends: Baharat, Herbes de Provence and more

Today was spice blend refresh day in my kitchen.  From Matt's first experiments with tagines, I have been intrigued by baharat - there are apparently two predominant types of this spice blend: Turkish vs Northern African/Tunisian. The difference is that Turkish baharat recipes are all over the internet and feature cumin and a lot of other spices while Tunisian is basically black pepper, rose petals & cinnamon.  I found a great article on Chow with recipes for both: http://www.chow.com/recipes/10562-baharat

Here's a link to the Turkish version I made: whole black peppercorn, whole coriander seed, cassia or cinnamon bark, whole cloves, cumin seed, cardamom seeds, whole nutmeg, ground paprika.

I also put together my favorite version of Herbes de Provence - I love lavender in this blend, though it is not typically something that appears on Southern French cooking - great history on the herb blend on Wiki.

Last but not least, I made up my favorite Za'atar blend - usually sumac, thyme, sesame seeds and salt, but you might include oregano and marjoram.  Wiki offers a great history of za'atar and there are tons of recipes out there - figure out what you like best and enjoy!

Garden 2011

Sadly no pictures - just news that I picked up plants from Kassenhoff (at the Farmer's Market) and Annie's in Richmond and put some plants:

• 12 Tomatoes (in addition to the volunteers)
• 4 peppers
• 2 squash
• 1 cucumber
• 1 giant ground cherry (to keep the smaller ground cherries company)

Seems early enough - let's see how it goes this year!

REVIEW: The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World by Larry Zuckerman (4-stars)

This is really a solid book - sort of a gateway book - it purports to be about the potato, but it's really about land tenancy laws, enclosure, the advent of crop rotation, population growth,famine, fuel costs, social history of home baking & the like.  The chapter "Women's Work" could be an article to stand on its own. He even gets into discussion of the use of utensils, dishes & pots - and given the late adaptation of forks in the US, and the ongoing use of knives for eating in England - it's no wonder that my granddad, who was born in 1910 to English emigrants to who moved SW Pennsylvania to mine coal, perpetually vexed my grandmother with his ingrained habit of eating off his butter knife.  He would always laugh and repeat the rhyme of "I eat my peas with honey..." before switching to a fork to please her.

 

REVIEW: The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World by Larry Zuckerman 

RATING: 4-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.