Category Archives: Great Finds

Preview II: Ad Hoc Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Recipe

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My first attempt at pineapple upside-down cake.

I’ll let you in on a secret: I’ve never made this iconic Americana dessert before.

Sure, I’ve made my share of pineapple compote for glistening slabs of baked ham. I’ve chopped mounds of pineapple for salsa for grilled fish tacos. And of course, I’ve enjoyed plenty of fresh pineapple au naturele.

But pineapple upside-down cake kind of frightened me, I must admit. Maybe it’s because so many recipes call for baking it in a cast-iron skillet that you then have to flip over to invert onto a serving plate. Yeah, flipping over a scorching hot skillet containing molten caramelized syrup (and we all know how cast-iron retains its heat) just seemed like a recipe for not just cake, but third-degree burns to boot.

Then along came the promotional brochure in the mail for the upcoming “Ad Hoc At Home” cookbook (Artisan) by Thomas Keller with his rendition of this homespun cake.

The book won’t be out until November. But after trying the fantastic recipe for Ad Hoc’s “Chocolate Chip Cookies” last week, I decided to put my fears aside to attempt Ad Hoc’s “Pineapple Upside-Down Cake.”

A silicone cake pan makes it a breeze.

No cast-iron skillet needed here.

Instead, Keller uses a 9-inch silicone cake pan.

He doesn’t melt and caramelize the sugar and butter in the pan beforehand, either, like many other upside-down cake recipes. Instead, he creates a “schmear” of softened butter, light brown sugar, honey, dark rum, and vanilla that gets spread all over the bottom of the pan.

Then, a light sprinkle of salt goes over the top. Next, quartered rings of fresh pineapple are overlapped in the pan before the cake batter is added.

After baking, the cake rests in the pan for a short while. Then, you invert it onto your serving platter — with no fuss, no bother, and no dialing 911.

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An Ode to Cowgirl Creamery Cottage Cheese

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Cottage cheese that will change your mind about cottage cheese.

My early recollections of cottage cheese are not the best of ones.

Like so many of you way back when, I ate it — but not happily.

It was, of course, diet food, associated with canned cling peach halves or bare burger patties alongside a forlorn leaf of iceberg lettuce. We ate the white, creamy curds because they were supposed to be good for us, because we were counting calories, because we wanted to feel virtuous.

We certainly didn’t spoon them into our mouths because we wanted to.

But I do now.

That’s because I’ve discovered a cottage cheese that actually makes me revel in eating cottage cheese. It’s the clabbered cottage cheese crafted by Cowgirl Creamery of Point Reyes Station.

It starts with organic non-fat milk from Marin County’s Straus Family Creamery. Clabbered cream (similar in taste to creme fraiche) is then added. The result is a creamy, rich cottage cheese. Unlike the standard mass-produced ones that have a sort of sour milk-taste to them, Cowgirl Creamery’s has a pure, fresh milky flavor.

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My Kind of Bread

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Bread -- made with oodles of chocolate.

Yeah, yeah, yah. I know I’m supposed to eat more whole wheat, whole grain, whole lotta fiber-fabulous bread.

But can you blame me for choosing this “Double Chocolate-Honey Bread” instead?

After all, it’s got all the best characteristics of your favorite artisan loaf — but with cocoa powder suffused throughout, and big chunks of gooey deep, dark chocolate hidden inside.

The recipe is from the new “Kneadlessly Simple” (Wiley) by veteran cookbook author Nancy Baggett.

It’s a bread book all about making loaves using the slow-rise, no-knead method that’s all the rage now.

To be honest, I haven’t been all that tempted by this new trend. So ya don’t have to get your hands dirty by kneading dough. Instead you have to figure out what exact time to stick the dough in the refrigerator, when to take it out for the first rise, then when to put it in a pan for the second rise, and lastly, when precisely it’s ready to go into the oven.  Advanced calculus was easier than this.

Dough, just after the first rise.

When it comes to chocolate baked goods, though, I’ll go to great lengths. So for this chocolate bread, I was willing to give it a go. And the results were so extraordinary, I’d gladly put myself through these timing gymnastics again.

This is definitely not a cake, even if from the outside it might resemble a tea loaf of sorts. There’s no delicate, tender crumb here. This is honest-to-goodness bread with a sugary, crisp hard crust and a dense, yet soft interior that’s shot through and through with chocolate. If you like the French tradition of nibbling on a baguette topped with a piece of good dark chocolate, you’ll find this bread a pure slice of heaven.

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Nature’s Most Magnificent Cocktail Nibbles

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You'll end up eating these by the bowl-full. That's how good they are.

That bowl of blistered, tender peppers above?

Yup, those skinny, dark green beauties are nature’s best cocktail snacks.

These pimientos de Padron are grown by East Palo Alto’s Happy Quail Farms.

I was first turned on to them eight years ago when I wrote a story about them for the San Jose Mercury News Food section. Farmer David Winsberg, whom I fondly call Dr. Pepper for obvious reasons, grows a cornucopia of exotic peppers on his network of backyards and other rented properties in East Palo Alto.

He’s probably most famous for his Padron peppers, though. They are one of the oldest non-hybrid peppers around and were supposedly brought back from the New World to Spain by Christopher Columbus. Named for the town of Padron in northwest Spain, the peppers are a treasured delicacy found in tapas bars around the region during the summer, when they are harvested.

They have a mild grassy, sweet flavor. Cooked, they’re downright juicy in your mouth.

Pimientos de Padron -- before cooking.

Winsberg started growing them in 1998 after a friend of friend brought him back some seeds from Spain. Now, you’ll find Happy Quail Farms’ Padron peppers on Bay Area restaurant menus, as well as for sale at the San Francisco Ferry Building farmers’ market on Saturdays, the Palo Alto downtown farmers’ market on Saturdays, the Menlo Park downtown farmers’ market on Sundays. Deeper into summer, when production is at full steam, you’ll find Happy Quail Farms at additional farmers’ markets. Check the farms’ Web site for more information.

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A Four-Star Taco Truck

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Chow down on a seafood chimichanga.

One of my favorite seafood restaurants has no fancy cutlery, no pressed linen tablecloths, and no crystal wine goblets. Heck, it doesn’t even have a front door.

It’s a taco truck that’s permanently anchored in a parking lot in San Jose.

I have my friend Sarah to thank for turning me on to Dia de Pesca, a quirky, lovable eatery that’s been around for about two years, churning out impeccably fresh Mexican seafood dishes.

Plus, who can resist a place whose name translates into “Gone fishing”?

You've come to the right place.

Get in line — as there’s almost always one — to place your order at the taco truck. The wipe-board lists that day’s fresh seafood offerings. Pick your favorite and enjoy it in soft tacos, enchiladas, bouillabaisse, salads, fajitas, or tostadas. There are oysters on the half shell ($6.46 for a half dozen), or done up “Mejicana”- style with chorizo and pico de gallo ($8.50 for six).

The seafood comes from nearby Race Street Seafood retailer/wholesaler. Dia de Pesca goes through so much fresh seafood each day, its owner told me, that the owner of Race Street Seafood came by once to see for himself. He couldn’t believe a taco truck could be selling that much seafood each day. He left duly impressed.

The hardest part is figuring out what to order. You want the entire menu.

Once you’ve placed your order, grab a table in the parking lot, where a server will bring your food out to you. You have to give the Dia de Pesca folks credit; as far as parking lots go, this one has uber ambience. Heavy, tiled benches and patio tables with umbrellas dot the parking lot, along with big, brightly colored planters filled with lush greenery that help shield the busy intersection of N. Bascom Avenue and W. San Carlos Street.

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