Category Archives: Great Finds

Ricotta Revisited: Part 1, The Pound Cake

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The best pound cake you'll ever make.

Whenever I bake, my husband’s co-workers are usually the lucky recipients of the goodies.

I load him up with the fresh, sweet treats to take to the office. And when he comes home in the evening, I await to hear what verdict has been rendered upon them.

Usually, they get the thumb’s up. But for one co-worker, there has always been a qualifier associated with them.

Ramin will happily nosh on one of my muffins or cupcakes. Then, he’ll tell my husband, “This is good. But when is your wife going to make that pound cake again?”

Apparently, this happens with regularity.

It doesn’t matter if it’s chocolate-chunk cookies or cinnamon-sugar dusted banana bread that I’ve made that week. Ramin will enjoy it, but deep down, he’s longing for the ricotta pound cake.

Since I can’t stand to see a grown-man in pound cake-pain (definitely not a pretty sight), I made him his beloved pound cake two weeks ago.

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Tasting Terroir In A Surprising Way

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Which rib-eye will be victorious?

Its flavor was straightforward. Perhaps a little mushroomy. Maybe a little gamey. And as I swallowed, the finish lingered moderately so.

Nope, it wasn’t a glass of Pinot Noir that I was tasting blindly.

It was a rib-eye steak, of all things.

It was a steak-off in the comfort of my own home, where I tasted four different rib-eye steaks from four different ranches, without knowing which one was which. If you’re used to just chewing without giving it much thought, tasting meat in this way is an eye-opening, palate-awakening experience. When you concentrate on texture (or body), flavors, and finish, just as you do with wine, you pick up a spectrum of nuances you might otherwise miss.

The box of meat.

Santa Rosa-based Oliver Ranch invites you to experience it for yourself. The company, which sources sustainably raised beef from across the country, has created a tasting pack of steaks, each from a different rancher. Choose from filet mignon, New York strip, top sirloin, or rib-eye packages. Prices start at $79.95.

Cook each steak the same way, then taste, jotting down notes with the handy tasting guide that comes with each kit. At the end, you can peek at the pamphlet to discover where the meat was raised, how it was aged, and what breed it is.

“It’s a way for people to enjoy the terroir and provenance of beef,” says Oliver Ranch founder, Carrie Oliver. “The breed, the growing area, the practices of the rancher and of the slaughterhouse — all those things can make a difference in taste and texture.”

Oliver created the kit in 2007, after noticing that when she tasted beef blindly with friends, they all had different opinions on what they liked best. The kits are now the most popular items the company sells.

“It’s not a hard sell,” she says. “I ask people, ‘You like wine tasting? How about trying a beef tasting then?’

“You should see their eyes light up. And it’s not just men.”

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Soup-Sational

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Soup so good, you'll yearn for it.

When my hubby gives me that look of longing, I so know what that means.

When he gets that glint of desire in his eyes, after five years of marriage I totally know what he’s after.

No, not that. Geeze, Louise.

Please, he wants soup. The heavenly Chicken Meatball Soup that he’s loved (well, not as much as me, of course) since I started making it six long years ago.

It’s by Mary Sue Milliken, one half of the culinary duo that oversees Border Grill in Santa Monica and Las Vegas. (The other half is Susan Feniger, of course.)

The recipe is from the cookbook, “Cooking From the Heart” (Broadway Books), a compilation of recipes and anecdotes from 100 chefs that was put together to raise funds for Share Our Strength, one of the nation’s most prominent anti-hunger agencies.

Why is this soup so incredible? Well, it has meatballs for one thing. And who doesn’t love meatballs? It’s also a super-simple broth of chicken stock, onions, carrots, green cabbage, and a couple of plum tomatoes (use canned if they’re not in season), that becomes so much more than the sum of its parts. One or two jalapenos give it just the slightest kick. Orzo makes it substantial enough to be a light lunch or supper. And the final drizzle of white vinegar somehow miraculously ties all the flavors together, while elevating them at the same time, too.

It’s a soup that soothes, comforts, nourishes, and puts a contented smile on your face.

One spoonful, and you’ll be hooked. One spoonful, and whomever you share it with will be giving you that yearnful look, too.

Chicken Meatball Soup

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Your One-Stop Shop For French Gourmet Goods

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Le Fermiere honey yogurt (2-pack for $6.99) in pretty ceramic jars.

See that creamy, dreamy yogurt above?

People drive miles and miles for it. Because once you’ve had full-fat French yogurt, there’s no going back.

The bare-bones Gourmet Corner store, 873 N. San Mateo Dr. in San Mateo, is one of the few retailers in the Bay Area — if not the only one — where you can find it. Surely, no other establishment has the variety of French yogurts that this one does.

Find a good selection of French cheeses.

That’s because proprietor Hugues de Vernou knows his stuff. Well, he’s French, for one thing. And two, he’s been in the food import/export business for more than two decades. For years, he ran the Made In France/Village Imports business that sold European gourmet foods wholesale. It was most famous, though, for its occasional public sales, which would prompt foodies to line up for hours to load up on imported cheeses, wines, olive oils, and canned goods at bargain prices.

Owner Hugues de Vernou

De Vernou sold that business last year. In December 2008, he opened this store in what was once a car dealership. In two rooms, totalling 5,000 square feet, you’ll find an array of French products for sale, including chocolates, cookies, foie gras, dried morels, mustards, dried green lentils, jars of duck fat, canned hearts of palm, frozen escargot, and duck confit. De Vernou recently got his liquor license, and now sells wines, too, $8 to $25 per bottle (you get a 10 percent discount if you buy by the case).

Plans are to expand the store even more, to add a selection of prepared foods, and even a barbecue outside in the summer, when the floor-to-ceiling bay doors can be retracted to create almost an open-air market feel.

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