Category Archives: Fruit

Food Gal Featured in the New “Cooking for Geeks”

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I’ve made no secret of the fact that me and technology don’t always get along.

So, it’s with both great flattery and some bemusement that I find myself included in the new “Cooking for Geeks” (O’Reilly) book by self-professed computer geek and cooking aficionado, Jeff Potter.

Potter studied computer science and visual art at Brown University. This is his first book, which looks at how science works to create so many delicious dishes we love.

Potter includes not only recipes but interviews with folks, including yours truly. I’m in good company, too. Some of the other profiled in the book include Dave Arnold, instructor at the French Culinary Institute in New York; Harold McGee, author of the seminal “On Food and Cooking” (Scribner); and Brian Wansink, author and Cornell University professor, who studies how people interact with food.

In the book, you’ll find me rhapsodizing about making preserved lemons, a process that always leaves me spellbound by the transformation that occurs when you add copious amounts of salt to fresh lemons, and let the mixture sit for a few weeks.

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Abracadabra — Nectarines!

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My hubby makes fun of me because I often whine, “I hate technology!”

You know the feeling — when your server goes down or your email has the hiccups or some dastardly virus has infiltrated your otherwise peaceful online existence.

At times like that, can you blame me for uttering those blasphemous words? I think not.

But a couple of weeks ago, you might have heard me proclaim instead, “I adore technology!”

You see, it all started when I tweeted that I had bought some fabulously soft, juicy, drippy-licious Suncrest peaches at the Frog Hollow Farm store at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

Then, what happens, but two days later, I find a huge box on my porch of just-picked nectarines, courtesy of Frog Hollow Farm.

Big Brother at work?

Big nectarines is more like it. Sweet, with just the right amount of tang, too.

Most of them, I just enjoyed out of hand. But I saved a few choice ones for extra special treatment: “Nectarine-Frangipane Galette.”

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Guaranteed to Make You A Fig Fan

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Fresh figs are the cilantro of the fruit world.

People tend to either lust after them or loathe them.

If they grew up hating Fig Newtons, most likely they never even dared to bite into the plump, intensely sweet fresh version.

More’s the pity.

Because people, I’m here to tell you: Give fresh figs a chance, OK?

How can you not love a fruit so squishy soft, so uniquely gorgeous looking, and nearly port-like in flavor?

I sure do. That’s why when I was leafing through the new cookbook, “Good to the Grain” (Stewart, Tabori & Chang), which I recently received a copy of from the publisher, it was the recipe for “Fig Compote” that jumped out at me.

It’s a cinch to make using fresh figs, a little butter, a bit of honey, some dark brown sugar and a pinch of salt. It cooks in a flash on the stovetop, then under the broiler. In mere minutes, you have a compote that’s thick, glossy, and syrupy, almost like fig caramel sauce.

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Fruit- and Veggie-Packed Muffins

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Who doesn’t need to eat more fruits and veggies? (You know who you are.)

I like to get mine in the form of tender, moist muffins.

OK, my idea of fruits and veggies comes wrapped in butter, eggs, vanilla and sugar. But that got your attention, right?

These “Zucchini, Carrot, and Cranberry Muffins” come courtesy of “The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook” (Clarkson Potter). The new cookbook is by third-generation baker, John Barricelli, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, NY, then worked at Le Bernardin in New York and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, before opening his SoNo Baking Company & Cafe in South  Norwalk, Conn.

If you’ve got zucchini taking over your backyard like zombies with no place else to go, this is the recipe for you. If you have cranberries stashed in your freezer from last Thanksgiving and have been wondering what the heck to do with them, this recipe is for you.

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Good Eats in Australia

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VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA — Traveling opens your eyes, as well as your taste buds.

My recent week-long trip to Australia, sponsored by Boundary Bend Ltd., was no exception.

Both in Melbourne and throughout the outlying countryside of the state of Victoria, there were so many wonderful new ingredients and dishes to revel in. Here are some of the highlights:

Prahran Market:

I could have stayed for hours meandering through the stalls at the famous Prahran Market, Australia’s oldest continuously running central marketplace. The covered marketplace, teeming with produce, seafood, fresh pasta, flower, soap and olive oil vendors, originated in 1864 at a smaller locale in Melbourne, and moved to its present location in 1881.

If there weren’t those pesky agriculture and customs laws (for good reason, of course), I would have brought back to the Bay Area armloads of the mesmerizing finger limes (above and below photos). The fragrance alone is intoxicating — beautiful enough to be a perfume that you’d want to dab on all the time. It smells of kaffir lime, with a bright floral, refreshing and very complex nose.

What’s really fascinating, though, is that this lime doesn’t have much juice at all. Instead, give one a squeeze and out will come these little globules that look for all the world like caviar. Damian Pike, a wild mushroom specialist, whose stand was selling these, explained that the fruit can be used in marmalade and all manner of dishes. One taste of the chewy globules that burst with tangy delight and I was dreaming of them atop sashimi.

Pike’s stand also sold fresh pepper berries, which I had never seen before, having only been used to the dried variety that fills my pepper grinder at home.

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