Monthly Archives: September 2012

Cookbook Author Diane Morgan’s Bay Area Events, MasterChef Casting Call & More

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Meet award-winning cookbook author Diane Morgan. (Photo courtesy of Diane Morgan)

Diane Morgan Visits the Bay Area

Veteran cookbook author Diane Morgan will host a series of events in the Bay Area to introduce her newest cookbook, “Roots” (Chronicle Books).

The book, which features more than 225 recipes, will show you creative ways to enjoy familiar root vegetables such as carrots and potatoes, as well as the more obscure ones such as galangal and crosnes.

Meet Morgan at 6 p.m. Oct. 10 at Omnivore Books in San Francisco, where she’ll be signing copies of her cookbook. The event is free.

Then, join her Oct. 11 at 6:30 p.m. at Draeger’s in San Mateo, when she’ll teach the class, “From Cocktails to Dessert: The Delicious Underground World of Root Vegetables.” Cost is $60 per person.

Do you have what it takes to be America's next MasterChef? (Photo courtesy of MasterChef)

Casting Calls For MasterChef Season 4

If you’re a fan of “MasterChef” (and yes, I count myself among them), you’ll want to make plans for when casting calls are held nationwide to find contestants for Season 4.

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Secret Ingredient Brownies & A Food Gal Podcast

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Fudgy brownies with a sudsy ingredient.

Monday night, as the featured speaker at the Sunnyvale Public Library, I thought I’d have some fun with the audience members.

After all, if you’re going to talk about food writing, people are bound to get hungry, right?

So, I baked home-made fudge brownies for everyone, using a new recipe I recently came across. As folks nibbled away, I asked if anyone could guess the secret ingredient in these brownies.

Don’t even think it was some kind of controlled substance, though one guy did venture that guess. Other folks struck out with guesses of avocado, tofu, prunes, vinegar, black beans, red bean paste and even soy sauce.

In the end, after giving folks a hint that it was a “liquid” ingredient, one woman finally guessed the correct answer to win one of my very snazzy Food Gal aprons.

Of course, you guys reading this post have it easy. The photo above is a complete giveaway. The secret ingredient in these brownies? Guinness Stout.

“Guinness Brownies” is a recipe from the new cookbook, “Tate’s Bake Shop: Baking for Friends” (self-published), of which I recently received a review copy.  The cookbook, which features more than 120 recipes, is by Kathleen King, the owner of Tate’s Bake Shop in Southhampton, NY.

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SPQR’s Smoked Linguini with Clams, Cherry Tomatoes and Basil Pesto

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Smoked linguini with clams, pesto and peeled cherry tomatoes -- all from scratch.

SPQR’s Executive Chef Matthew Accarrino made me peel tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes. A whole cup and a half of them.

He also made me smoke durum flour in a stove-top smoker to make my own linguine noodles.

At this rate, you’d think I was a sous chef at his San Francisco restaurant.

But nope, I was just making a recipe from his new cookbook with SPQR Proprietor Shelly Lindgren, “SPQR: Modern Italian Food and Wine” (Ten Speed Press), of which I recently received a review copy.

“Smoked Linguini with Clams, Cherry Tomatoes and Basil Pesto” was a triumph of a dish, even if it did take a couple of hours for my husband and I to make. Nothing is necessarily complicated; it’s just a dish where every component needs careful attention. If you have a few hours on a lazy Sunday evening like we did, it’s a project well worth doing, not only for the experience, but for the taste of it all at the end.

The cookbook is like an Italian travelogue that takes you through the artisanal wines and handcrafted dishes of central and northern Italy that make their way onto the tables at SPQR in San Francisco.

The recipes range from dried biscotti and nut biscotti with sweet wine granita, and bolognese with egg noodles to the more challenging bone marrow sformato with stuffed baby artichokes.

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SPQR — Where the Chef Has His Hands in Just About Everything

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Veal tongue that tastes like your favorite pastrami -- at SPQR.

At San Francisco’s SPQR, Executive Chef Matthew Accarrino is known for his extraordinary, house-made pastas.

But what about the lovely desserts there? Yeah, he makes those, too.

And the whimsical torched marshmallows and molded chocolates with runny caramel centers accented by a plethora of different sea salts that arrive at the end of the meal? Yup, those also are his handiwork.

Not to mention, he and owner Shelly Lindgren just came out with their new “SPQR: Modern Italian Food and Wine” cookbook (Ten Speed Press).

It makes you wonder not only if this Matt-of-all-trades ever sleeps, but how he manages to do all of this in a kitchen that is smaller than a starlet’s walk-in-closet.

Three years ago, when he first took over the helm at this San Francisco restaurant, whose name is an acronym for Senatus Populesque Romanus or “The Senate and People of Rome,” his food was quite good. Now, it’s a revelation, as evidenced by a recent dinner my husband and I splurged on there.

It’s rustic-refined. It’s all bold flavors and great ingredients fashioned with real finesse by this chef who has cooked with the likes of Chefs Charlie Palmer, Todd English, Rick Moonen, Tom Colicchio and Thomas Keller.

At this always-crowded, long, narrow restaurant, menu prices are moderate, with appetizers running $12-$19, pastas $18-$20, and mains about $28. Accarrino volunteered to just cook for my husband and I, fashioning a personalized tasting menu of a multitude of dishes off the regular menu but in smaller portions.

Strawberry-tomato gazpacho with fried bread and dehydrated strawberries.

It began with an amuse of creamy tomato-strawberry gazpacho garnished with dehydrated strawberries that added a crisp-chewy texture.

I can never resist Hawaiian Kona Kampachi, an oil-rich, silky fish served crudo-style — its raw slices accented with creamy avocado, crunchy sea beans and clever “caviar” fashioned from summery cantaloupe juice.

Kona Kampachi crudo with cantaloupe "caviar.''

Seared albacore with the brightness of capers and citrus.

Albacore was served barely cooked, its meaty texture playing off the softness of eggplant. Golden raisins and capers added big bursts of Italian flavor.

Next, the supremely clever and absolutely fabulous veal tongue pastrami with onion jam and caraway. The tongue, sliced thinly, had all the peppery taste of pastrami, but a silkier texture from the veal.

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My New Cards — and A Food Gal Giveaway

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My photos on my own greeting cards -- courtesy of Moo.com.

When you’re your own start-up (ahem, yes that would be me), it pays to have some snazzy business cards — ones that are eye-catching, stand out from the pack, and show off a little of your own personality.

Now, I do — thanks to Moo.com.

Don’t get me wrong. My old cards were fine. But these? Even my husband says I can only give these out to people who are “worthy.” Is that a high compliment or what?

Founded in 2004 by Brit Richard Moross, Moo allows you to design your own custom business cards, mini cards, greeting cards, stickers, stickers and labels — using your own photos or logos.

Recently, the company gave me the opportunity to try out their services for free to see what I thought about them. I decided to create both business cards and greeting cards, using both my Food Gal logo and photos I’d taken that have appeared on this blog.

The results were amazing. First, the quality of the paper is top-notch. These are business cards with heft. The weight of them is substantial, so much so that anyone you hand one to is definitely going to notice. Second, the card can be designed with color images on both the front and back. Third, you can mix up the design in your order, too, choosing a couple of them instead of just being stuck with one. Third, the paper is sourced from sustainable forests. Fourth, for an even more environmentally correct option, you can choose to have your cards printed on recycled paper that’s been manufactured using wind power.

My cool new business cards sure to make anyone hungry for dessert.

For my business cards, I chose to stick with just one image — one of my all-time favorites that I photographed, the modern German chocolate cake created by Pastry Chef Bill Corbett of Absinthe Brasserie in San Francisco. Anyone who knows me, knows my sweet tooth, so it was only fitting.

For the greeting cards, I chose an assortment of food images I’d taken over the years — from my late Mom’s chicken and rice dish to the simple beauty of fresh, ripe figs. The images reproduced beautifully on the cards, which again were quite sturdy and had a nice satin coating.

The cards are not necessarily inexpensive: 100 business cards are $39.98; and 25 greeting cards with envelopes are $39.99.

But the Moo team prides itself on quality design and it definitely shows.

You can put an assortment of images on one order of cards.

Contest: Three lucky Food Gal readers will win a chance to design their own set of 50 Moo business cards for free. One of those three also will get a bonus prize — a chance to design 25 Moo holiday cards for free in addition to their business cards.

Entries, open to anyone since Moo ships worldwide, will be accepted through midnight PST Sept. 29. Winners will be announced Oct. 1.

How to win?

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