Author Archives: foodgal

The Easy Way To Zucchini and Herb Fritters

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These zucchini fritters are so golden and crisp, you'd think I'd slaved over a hot frying pan making them. But I didn't.
These zucchini fritters are so golden and crisp, you’d think I’d slaved over a hot frying pan making them. But I didn’t.

Standing at the stove, frying latkes, small Korean scallion pancakes, or any other kind of veggie fritters can be not only a royal pain and time suck, but a real splattering mess.

This clever, alternative technique eliminates all of that — and seems so obvious, you’re sure to think, “Duh! Why didn’t I think of that sooner?”

The solution is oven-frying. Yes, letting your oven do all the heavy lifting by heating up a sheet pan with a generous amount of oil before dropping spoonfuls of your batter onto it, then returning the pan to the oven to cook and crisp up everything.

That’s the method behind these delicious “Zucchini and Herb Fritters.”

It’s a recipe from the new “The Secret of Cooking” (W.W. Norton), of which I received an early review copy.

The cookbook, which comes out on Sept. 26, is by By Bee Wilson, a British food writer and co-founder of TastEd, a food education focused on giving children more opportunities to experience fresh vegetables and fruits.

As the title implies, it’s filled with enticing, doable recipes that just might teach you a new, easier or faster way to prepare something.

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Let’s Hear It For Wrinkles

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Creamy roasted eggplant gets dressed with yogurt and Calabrian chili.
Creamy roasted eggplant gets dressed with yogurt and Calabrian chili.

Like many women, I bemoan the fine lines around my eyes and forehead that have come with age (and wisdom, I might add).

While I may not be fond of them on my face, I rejoice in wrinkles whole heartily when it comes to cooked eggplant.

Specifically, long-cooked eggplant that gets a little shriveled, signaling the interior has taken on that coveted custardy texture.

That’s exactly what “Whole-Roasted Eggplant with Calabrian Chili Crisp” delivers.

The recipe is from the new cookbook, “Let’s Eat” (Union Square), of which I received a review copy.

It’s by New York’s Dan Pelosi, who calls himself the “Italian meatball” behind the popular Instagram account, GrossyPelosi, and Food52’s YouTube video series, “The Secret Sauce.”

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Sustainable Tinned Salmon to the Rescue

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Safe Catch Wild Pink Salmon with summer tomatoes and chive blossoms.
Safe Catch Wild Pink Salmon with summer tomatoes and chive blossoms.

With fresh wild Alaskan salmon a pretty penny and California’s commercial salmon fishing seasoned cancelled this year because of dwindling wild stocks, what’s a salmon lover to do?

Open up a can.

Canned salmon has come a long way since my childhood, when my economical mom would pry open the top of a tin and plop out the contents, bones and all that were soft enough to actually eat, but perhaps not the most attractive looking.

Sausalito’s Safe Catch takes canned salmon to new heights, First, it sources sustainable salmon from the Alaska Salmon Fishery or northern Pacific Ocean, following the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Guide. Second, every salmon is tested for mercury, with Safe Catch accepting only those that are 25 times lower than the FDA action limit. Third, each can contains no fillers, just salmon and salt.

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Dining Outside at the New Sekoya

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The unique chicken liver mousse with banana bread doughnuts at Sekoya.
The unique chicken liver mousse with banana bread doughnuts at Sekoya.

If you get the inkling that Sekoya, the newest restaurant to open on California Avenue in Palo Alto, might be named for the majestic, hardy, and giant tree, you’d be correct.

From the English elm and walnut tables in the lounge, and the dramatic, curving, live-edge dining table by the bar to the plates that mimic cross-sections of trees, it’s clear that sequoias and their ilk are an inspiration for this bar, lounge, and restaurant that opened in mid-August.

It’s the latest restaurant by Steve Ugur, co-owner of San Mateo’s Pausa with Chef Andrea Giuliani, who also happens to be director of butchering at his father’s San Mateo restaurant, Porterhouse. Unlike the former, which is Italian, and the latter, which is a classic steakhouse, Sekoya draws from many global influences, primarily French and Mediterranean.

The bar with neon focal point.
The bar with neon focal point.
The sculptural live edge table in the lounge.
The sculptural live edge table in the lounge.

Chef de Cuisine Jason Johnson — formerly of Chez TJ in Mountain View, and Wayfare Tavern and Quince, both in San Francisco — oversees the menu that is heavy on starters and shared plates.

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Napa Cabbage — Your New Best Veggie Friend

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An easy and fast side dish to any Asian-inspired spread.
An easy and fast side dish to any Asian-inspired spread.

You want a best friend whom you can count on.

One who has lasting qualities.

One who rises to any occasion.

In short, in the world of vegetables, you want napa cabbage.

Crisp, sweet, slightly mustardy, super versatile, and able to last weeks in the fridge, it’s what you can loyally turn to time and time again.

I love it shredded raw in salads, roasted in the oven, steamed gently, and stir-fried as in this recipe for “Sour and Hot Napa Cabbage (Suan La Bai Cai).”

It’s a fast and easy side dish recipe that first appeared in the March/April 2023 issue of Cook’s Illustrated.

It’s based on a favorite dish from a local Sichuan restaurant that the staffers of the magazine frequented before it closed.

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