Admittedly, when I first laid eyes on this recipe for “Honey-Glazed Mushrooms with Udon,” I was initially a little skeptical.
Mushrooms with honey? Really?
But James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Hetty Lui McKinnon has never steered me wrong in any of her other recipes that I’ve made.
Ditto for this one. Not only was this recipe quick and effortless, but it showed me just how honey could further deepen the caramelized taste of sauteed mushrooms.
First published in the New York Times, this recipe calls for boiling frozen or fresh udon noodles, then rinsing well to remove excess starch.
San Francisco’s artisan-made Shared Cultures miso gives this coconut rice exceptional flavor and depth.
When the heat is on, food deliberately goes very simple.
Because the last thing you want to do is crank up the oven, ignite all four burners, or linger one moment longer than necessary in a hot kitchen.
Still, that doesn’t mean you have to settle.
On the contrary, a dish like “Miso-Coconut Rice with Greens”may be a cinch to make in one pot on the stove or in a rice cooker, but it’s also soulfully satisfying.
The recipe is from the cookbook, “Cook Simply, Live Fully” (Harper), of which I received a review copy.
You just have to love the philosophy of that title, written by Yasmin Fahr, a New York Times recipe contributor and veteran cookbook author who spends most of her time on the Spanish island of Menorca.
The book includes 120 recipes that are wittily — and conveniently — arranged by your mood. There are recipes for “Lap Dinners” when you need nourishment but barely feel like making anything; “Coffee Table Dinners,” when you have a bit more time and energy; and “At the Dinner Table,” when you want a proper sit-down meal.
A special of porchetta to celebrate Ofena’s first anniversary.
Tim Humphrey’s Ofena restaurant is a passion project if there ever was one, filled with meaningful touchstones from his life.
Located on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco’s Lakeside Village, the building sat empty for a dozen years before the the chef-owner and his business partner, Tan Truong of San Francisco’s Ju-Ni and Handroll Project, took it over.
Named after the town in Italy from where his great-grandparents hailed before immigrating to the United States, Ofena the restaurant just celebrated its first anniversary last month. When he was 30, Humphrey took his mom to that town. After she passed away, he found her travel journals about that trip. Now, her handwriting is immortalized in the lettering for “Ofena” on the menu, as well on the neon sign on the front of the restaurant.
The script used for the restaurant’s name is from the handwriting of Chef Tim Humphrey’s late-mother.Executive Chef Tim Humphrey, who has cooked at a legion of well-known Northern California restaurants.
When you get to the dessert menu, you’ll find an especially sweet tribute to another longtime friend of Humphrey’s, a server who worked at many of his previous restaurants who passed away from leukemia. More on that later.
It’s all characteristic of the warmth you’ll find at this restaurant, which was packed last Saturday night when I was invited in as a guest of Humphrey’s.
Ditch the cornmeal for masa harina instead for this outstanding cornbread.
When a craving for cornbread hit one day, Los Angeles recipe developer Jess Damuck didn’t run to the store upon realizing she was out of cornmeal. Nope, instead she reached for masa harina instead.
And in the process created the very best version of cornbread.
Moist, fluffy yet somehow crumbly, “Masa Harina Cornbread” exudes deep corn taste like there’s no tomorrow.
The recipe is from her new cookbook, “Health Nut” (Abrams), of which I received a review copy.
Don’t let the title scare you, as this isn’t a rigid cookbook filled with good-for-you recipes that aren’t necessarily the most satisfying. Instead, Damuck, a former culinary producer for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, has assembled more than 100 recipes that make use of real butter, real cheese, and whatever type of milk you prefer.
California bluefin tuna with ponzu and bonito at The Wild.
Something wild has happened at 201 Spear St. in San Francisco.
The space that housed Gozu restaurant for the past five years was renamed in August to The Wild.
Chef-Owner Marc Zimmerman, who also owns San Francisco’s Yokai, is still in charge. The layout of the striking, black-box dining room with seats circling the perimeter of a live-fire open kitchen is still intact. But the menu has shifted, giving him and his team, which includes Chef de Cuisine Peggy Tan and Pastry Chef Mark Lieuw, more liberties with both service and dishes. Even the libations that once touted an impressive collection of Japanese whiskies have now shifted to include many Calvados and Armagnacs.
Previously, Gozu was laser-focused on Japanese A5 Wagyu, and using every bit of that luxurious beef — from flesh to fat to bones to tendons — in uncanny ways. In contrast, The Wild’s current menu is noticeably absent of Wagyu. In fact, the restaurant’s dry-aging fridge that used to hold slabs of Wagyu now house Liberty Farms ducks.
“It feels fresh,” says Zimmerman about the change. “It gives us the ability to stretch more.”
Chef-Owner Marc Zimmerman.A glass of Evening Land Seven Springs Chardonnay while taking in the view of the kitchen.
Diners seem to be embracing it all, too. Zimmerman acknowledges that Gozu’s use of Wagyu in nearly every dish may have intimidated some and even turned off others. Now, The Wild has attracted more first-time diners, as well as regulars who come in twice a week for the a la carte or the $130 five-course tasting menu.
