Monthly Archives: November 2012

Soup Starters for the Cold Season Ahead & A Food Gal Giveaway

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By adding a handful of ingredients, I made my own tom yum soup in the time it took to heat up the broth.

Is it me or is everyone pretty much coughing up a lung these days?

Cold and flu season is definitely here, unfortunately.

Thank goodness for hot, steaming bowls of soup to make us all feel better. I know it sure did the trick when I was felled by a cold a couple of weeks ago.

Luckily, I had just received samples of new Pacific Organic Soup Starters to test out from the Oregon-based company.

They’re soup bases packaged in shelf-stable cartons for easy use. Last year, the company debuted its beef, chicken and vegetarian Vietnamese pho Soup Starters. This year, it added two more varieties: Tom Yum and Tortilla.

The new organic soup bases.

With my stuffy nose leaving me talking like the Snuffleupagus, I reached for the Thai-style Tom Yum for relief.

It couldn’t be easier. You just empty the broth base into a pot and heat. Instructions on the back of the box give advice on what other herbs or protein are good additions. I added chunks of chicken breast, sliced shiitakes, a chopped tomato, broccolini, cilantro and slivers of jalapeno. The instructions recommended cooked rice as an accompaniment, but I went with rice noodles instead.

The soup came together in mere minutes. The chicken broth-based soup starter was flavorful with a faint tang from lime oil. I like my tom yum a little more assertive, so I squirted in more fresh lime juice to kick it up.

A half-cup portion of the soup base has 10 calories and 330mg of sodium. The package says it serves eight. But really, if you’re indulging in a ramen bowl-size portion, one carton serves more like two.

Of course, you could doctor up your own chicken broth to make tom yum. But it’s pretty convenient to have a starter already in your cupboard much like you would canned chicken or beef broth at the ready.

The Pacific Organic Soup Starters are about $3.49 each for a 32-ounce carton at Whole Foods, Sprouts, New Leaf, and select Save Mart stores.

Contest: Five lucky Food Gal readers will each win a trio of Pacific Organic Soup Starters, one each of Vegetarian Pho, Tortilla, and Tom Yum. Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST Nov. 10. Winners will be announced Nov. 12.

How to win?

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The Beauty of Roasted Grapes

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See those lovely roasted grapes? They make this salad something special.

What happens when you roast grapes?

Magical things.

They stay intact, and shrivel just a little. Their natural sugars concentrate and caramelize, creating an explosion of wine-y, sweet juice when you pop one into your mouth and bite down.

They’ll spoil you, because eating a fresh grape just won’t be the same anymore.

Here, try for yourself in this easy dish of “Arugula Salad with Roasted Grapes.”

It’s from “Seriously Simple Parties” (Chronicle Books) by veteran cookbook author Diane Rossen Worthington, of which I received a review copy.

And who couldn’t use more seriously simple entertaining ideas with the holidays upon us?

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Dukkah It Out

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Savory Coconut Dukkah to dip your bread into.

Get a taste of Egypt with dukkah.

The pounded mixture of nuts and spices is traditionally served alongside bread and olive oil for an appetizer or snack. Dip a hunk of crusty bread into olive oil, then into the dukkah mixture. It makes for the world’s easiest hors d’oeuvre, especially with the harried holidays upon us.

Serving dukkah has never been easier, either, now that Kit Crawford and Gary Erickson have come up with ready-to-use packaged blends. You know Crawford and Erickson best as the founders of Clif Bars and Clif Family Winery.

Roasted spices, sesame seeds and pistachios are pounded to create this dukkah blend.

Gary & Kit’s Napa Valley Dukkah come in three varieties: Classic Hazelnut, Toasted Sesame and Pistachio, and Savory Coconut.

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Piperade Still Going Strong After a Decade

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Calamari cooked on the plancha at Piperade.

Years ago, when I was set to do an interview with the one and only Anthony Bourdain in San Francisco, his publicist asked me to pick a restaurant for us to talk over lunch.

Can you imagine the pressure of trying to come up with a place to satisfy the exacting taste buds of the finicky “No Reservations” star, who makes no bones about what he likes and doesn’t?

I settled upon Piperade in San Francisco because I had a feeling its soulful Basque food served in unpretentious surroundings would please even the most jaded palate.

I was right.

In one of the most fun interviews I’ve had the pleasure of conducting, I remember Bourdain and I digging into tender beef cheeks as he lobbed barbs and insightful opinions in answer to my questions. The sweetest moment came at the end of the meal, when a server shyly approached the table with a battered copy of Bourdain’s “Kitchen Confidential” for an autograph. She explained that his book was the only thing that kept her sane when she waited tables in New York. Bourdain, chuckling at her knowing remark, signed the book to her, adding his trademark doodle of a chef’s knife.

Piperade may be a decade old now. It may not be flashy. It may not be the “It” place to be these days. But it continues to be relevant, as well as the type of place you know you can drop into for a meal that will always content.

Wine bottle chandelier in the main dining room.

The new private dining room, all set up for a birthday party.

A very rustic-chic room.

Chef-Owner Gerald Hirigoyen hails from Basque country, which straddles both France and Spain. He’s a rarity among chefs, too, in that he’s trained in both cooking and pastry making.

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Ming Tsai’s Miso Pork Stew

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Dig into a bowl of savory pork stew with miso, sweet potatoes and edamame.

Leave it to Ming Tsai to come up with a Japanese version of Southwestern chili.

The kind that is made for curling up with on a blustery night.

It’s a hearty bowl that will warm you from the inside out with cubes of tender pork, chunks of sweet potatoes, bright green edamame, and a hit of  miso.

It’s from his newest cookbook, “Simply Ming in Your Kitchen” (Kyle), of which I just received a review copy. It’s a clever book of 80 recipes, each of which has an embedded QR code that can be scanned to unlock a video of Tsai cooking the dish from start to finish. Sixteen of the videos — two from each chapter — are free. The others can be purchased from Ming.com.

The chef-proprietor of Blue Ginger in Massachusetts and host of “Simply Ming” on PBS, Tsai has a natural affinity for fusing East-West flavors like the ones in this stew.

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