Monthly Archives: February 2019

Salt Fat Acid Heat — And A Whole Meyer Lemon

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This lively Meyer lemon salsa will add more punch to most anything.

This lively Meyer lemon salsa will add more punch to most anything.

 

Meet one of the easiest, most useful recipes you’ll ever encounter: “Meyer Lemon Salsa.”

Of course it’s from the best-selling Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking (Simon & Schuster, 2017) by Berkeley’s extraordinary Samin Nosrat.

If you haven’t yet picked up a copy of the book, do yourself a favor and get one pronto. With whimsical illustrations and a warm, engaging voice, it will teach you instantly and painlessly how to be a better cook.

Salt Fat Acid Heat

And if you haven’t yet caught Nosrat’s “Salt Fat Acid Heat” four-part Netflix cooking show, binge-watch it this week. It’s thoroughly captivating and will make you fall in love with this natural-born teacher and food personality with the winning, infectious spirit.

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RightRice — That’s Not Really Rice

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It looks like rice, but...

It looks like rice, but…

 

When is rice not really rice? When it’s RightRice, a just-launched, rice-like product that’s actually made from lentil flour, chickpea flour and pea fiber.

While it does contain a little rice flour (less than 10 percent), it’s designed to be a viable alternative to folks who love rice, but want to cut down on carbs and starches.

It was created by San Francisco’s Keith Belling, the founder of Popchips, that wildly successful, addictive potato snack that is neither baked nor fried but ends up crisp as can be from a combination of heat and pressure. It also boasts half the fat of regular potato chips.

It's actually RightRice.

It’s actually RightRice.

With RightRice, he’s created a product that has more than double the protein, five times the fiber, and almost 40 percent fewer net carbs than a bowl of white rice. It’s also non-GMO and vegan.

So just how does it taste?

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Greek Spicy Aromatic Braised Lamb Shanks with Chickpeas

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Big, meaty lamb shanks braised with nutty chickpeas.

Big, meaty lamb shanks braised with nutty chickpeas.

 

Besides my KitchenAid mixer, the workhorse of my kitchen — especially at this time of year — is my Dutch oven.

In bewitching cobalt and made by Le Creuset, it’s an investment that has paid off handsomely in the many satisfying soups and stews it has cooked slowly, evenly and nourishingly.

So I grabbed it immediately when I spied the recipe for “Spicy Aromatic Braised Lamb Shanks with Chickpeas” in the newest cookbook by chef, cooking school owner and Greek cuisine expert Diane Kochilas.

“My Greek Table: Authentic Flavors and Modern Home Cooking from My Kitchen to Yours” (St. Martin’s Press), of which I received a review copy, is all about the dishes that Kochilas cooks at home for friends and family, be they classics or innovations inspired by Mediterranean ingredients. There’s everything from “Whole Wheat Baklava Muffins” and “Greek-Style Tuna Melt” to “Artichoke Moussaka with Caramelized Onions and Feta” and “Ouzo-Glazed Chicken Wings.”

My Greek Table

This lamb dish, originally from the islands of eastern Aegean, will require you to use your largest Dutch oven on hand, as six shanks take up quite a bit of real estate.

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Albatross Soars in Danville

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Glorious avocado-hummus at Albatross.

Glorious avocado-hummus at Albatross.

 

My husband likes to joke that up until last year, I’d never ever eaten in Danville. Now, I’ve made the trek to this East Bay suburb three times in short order. This is what happens when you work on a cookbook, “East Bay Cooks” (Figure 1), all about East Bay restaurants, which will publish in September. And it’s what happens when a long-time restaurateur whom you’ve known for years invites you in as a guest a couple weeks ago to try a new restaurant he is consulting on.

Hoss Zare, late of the beloved Zare at Fly Trap in San Francisco, has known Proprietor Mehrasa Bagheri, a luxury residential and commercial developer, for years, as the East Bay resident used to cross the bridge regularly to frequent his restaurant.

“He’s like my big brother,” Bagheri says.

“I’m her big brother, her bodyguard, you name it,” Zare replies back with a laugh.

Consultant Hoss Zare and Owner Mehrasa Bagheri.

Consultant Hoss Zare and Owner Mehrasa Bagheri.

So when she decided to open her gem of a restaurant Albatross in December in a new building in downtown Danville, she knew she wanted Zare’s expertise as a consultant chef. Indeed, she has assembled quite an impressive team that includes Executive Chef Brian Bowen, who cooked with Chef Joseph Humphrey at both the Restaurant at Meadowood in St. Helena and Cavallo Point in Sausalito; and Pastry Chef Andrea Morgan, former head pastry chef for Chicago’s Mindy Segal and a member of the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group.

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Your New Favorite Winter Salad — And It Doesn’t Involve Kale

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A simple salad that hits all the notes.

A simple salad that hits all the notes.

 

From get-go, you know you’re in for a cookbook packed with thoughtful culinary wisdom and wicked, sly humor when it’s entitled, “Almonds, Anchovies, and Pancetta: A Vegetarian Cookbook, Kind Of” (William Morrow).

After all, anchovies and pancetta are as far removed as you can get from being vegetarian. But they are flavor boosters like no other, adding salty, meaty umami notes to anything they touch, even in minute proportions.

And who knows better about that than a chef who cooked at Chez Panisse for 22 years? Cal Peternell is now a best-selling cookbook author and the creator of the marvelous podcast, “Cooking By Ear.”

Almonds Anchovies and Pancetta

Peternell’s newest cookbook will make you a better cook — by offering up easily doable recipes, all written with mouth-watering descriptions, that teach you why certain ingredients work so well with others, and how a dish built around just a handful of items can truly sing. Enjoy everything from “Steamed Clams with Almond and Parsley Butter and No Linguine” to “Caesar’s Gougeres” and “Almond Granita.”

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