Category Archives: Recipes (Savory)

20/20 Carrots

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They might not improve your vision, but they sure taste good.

For the longest time, I was both proud and perhaps a bit smug that I was the only person in my entire family — extended included — who did not need glasses.

That’s quite the achievement, too, considering how many Asians tend to be myopic.

I thought I had escaped that fate, as I remained spectacle-free through my teens, despite the fact that my parents, brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles all grew up wearing those familiar round or cat-eyed black, plastic frames.

My dreams came to an abrupt end, though, when my older brother Dale took me to the Department of Motor Vehicles one day to get my driver’s license. I had studied the manual like crazy so that I’d do well on the written and driving tests. But who knew it was the simple eye test that would do me in?

I guess I should have known what was in store as I stood in line and stared at the eye chart hanging some feet away behind the counter. As hard as I squinted, I still could barely make out anything on it. Once I got closer, though, I thought surely I would. My brother even coaxed me to get out of line, inch closer to the counter and try to memorize the chart before my turn was called. I did give that a try. But as luck would have it, they closed the line that I was in, and shifted us to another line — with a totally different eye chart. Curses!

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Melissa Clark’s One Dish Wonder

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With only five ingredients, this dish delivers big-time in flavor.

On time-pressed weeknights, I like nothing better than a one-pot dinner that cooks up in mere minutes and leaves you soulfully satisfied far, far longer.

Melissa Clark’s “Sauteed Scallops with Tomatoes and Preserved Lemon” is such a dish.

It’s from her new cookbook, “Cook This Now” (Hyperion), of which I recently received a review copy. Its 120 recipes are arranged by season and month to take advantage of your local farmers market offerings. I’ve already got half the pages bookmarked, as these are wonderfully straightforward recipes that not only entice with their flavors but with their ease of preparation.

This particular recipe by the famed New York Times food writer has only five ingredients (not including salt and pepper), but tastes like so much more.

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Kokkari’s Greek Meatballs & A Food Gal Giveaway

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Meatballs with tomato sauce and green olives from San Francisco's Kokkari restaurant.

Shaped like flattened footballs, and heady with dried mint, cumin and Greek oregano, these meatballs are mighty meaty and plenty juicy.

They can be served as a meze or appetizer with bread. But I enjoyed them as a satisfying main course with couscous and a green salad.

“Spiced Meatballs with Green Olive & Tomato Sauce” is from the new cookbook, “Kokkari: Contemporary Greek Flavors” (Chronicle Books), of which I recently received a review copy. The cookbook was written by Erik Cosselmon, chef of Kokkari, the acclaimed upscale Greek restaurant in San Francisco; and food writer Janet Fletcher. It’s filled with favorites from the restaurant, including whole fish roasted with tomato, potato, fennel and olives; egg-lemon soup with chicken and rice; and okra with tomato, saffron and dill.

Kokkari, along with its sister restaurant Evvia in Palo Alto, have been long-time favorite establishments of mine. Step into either and you can’t help get caught up in the warmth and vivacity of the ambiance, as well as by the the bold flavors of the food, bright with lemon, olives, feta, tomatoes and lush olive oil.

Made with a combo of ground lamb, ground beef and grated onion to keep them very moist, these hefty meatballs are seared, then finished cooking in a simple sauce of canned tomatoes and green olives.

As an appetizer, the dish serves six, with one good-sized meatball per person. As an entree, it probably serves three, with two meatballs per person.

These meatballs are wonderfully tender and with a lovely hit of cumin and mint — a nice change-up from the usual Italian version.

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win a copy of the new “Kokkari” cookbook. Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST Oct. 22. Winner will be announced Oct. 24.

How to win?

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Red Pepper Jelly Pork Chops

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Juicy pork chops with sticky red pepper jelly.

With a couple of jars of red pepper jelly in hand, I couldn’t help but dollop some over soft cream cheese for the old-school cracker spread we all adore.

But I wanted to do something beyond that with the rest, something a little more out of the norm.

I found what I was looking for in this wonderful recipe for “Pepper Jelly-Glazed Boneless Pork Chops with Steamed Baby Bok Choy.” The recipe is by Sara Foster of North Carolina’s Foster’s Market and can be found in the cookbook, “A Twist of the Wrist” (Alfred A. Knopf) by Los Angeles Chef Nancy Silverton of Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza.

We all know how pork takes to sweet, spicy and fruity in great Southern barbecue. It marries as beautifully with pepper jelly’s sticky goodness.

Good on almost anything.

I got my pepper jelly as a parting gift at the conclusion of a cookbook party at San Francisco’s Town Hall. But you can find pepper jelly in most well-stocked supermarkets.

The pork chops are marinated in pepper jelly whisked with red wine, rosemary, red wine vinegar, garlic, orange zest and orange juice. You can marinate the chops for an hour just before cooking them. But to do them real justice, marinate them overnight for a bigger boost of flavor.

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Judging the 2011 Foster Farms Chicken Cook-Off

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It was a clucking good time at the CIA last Friday for the Foster Farms chicken cooking contest.

Last Friday at the Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone Campus in St. Helena, it was an all-out fowl time.

The second annual Foster Farms Fresh Chicken Cooking Contest, brought together six contestants — two each from California, Washington and Oregon — to pit their best chicken dish against one another.

The judges (left to right): Liam Mayclem, the Food Gal, Narsai David and Natalie Haughton.

Yours truly was invited again to be a judge, alongside fellow judges, Liam Mayclem, host and producer of the CBS show, “Eye on the Bay”; Natalie Haughton, cookbook author and food editor of the Los Angeles Daily News; and Narsai David, food and wine editor at KCBS radio.

More than 2,000 recipes were entered in the contest that showcases everyday recipes for fresh chicken. Both homecooks and professional ones were allowed to enter.

The Culinary Institute of America's St. Helena campus.

Whose chicken dish will be victorious?

The cook-off was split into two rounds, with three contestants cooking at a time at the CIA’s Williams Center kitchen. They each had 90 minutes to prepare their dishes.

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