Category Archives: Recipes (Savory)

Time for a V8 Pasta Sauce

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Pasta made with V8. Seriously!

Would you believe that’s the secret ingredient in this lusty pasta sauce?

Yes, V8, the canned and bottled deep-red vegetable juice that’s been around since 1933.

Normally, I might pooh-pooh the idea of pulling the tab on a can of mass-produced tomato-enriched juice to toss with pasta for dinner, especially since I rarely even quaff the stuff straight .

But this recipe for “Spaghettini with Tuna and V8 Sauce” comes from none other than esteemed chefs, Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani of award-winning Terra restaurant in St. Helena. And it was published in the cookbook, “A Twist of the Wrist” (Alfred A. Knopf), written by equally revered Pastry Chef, Nancy Silverton, famed for founding La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles, as well as for her restaurants there and in Singapore in conjunction with Mario Batali — Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza.

Keep a few in the pantry to make this dish on the spur of the moment.

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“Fire It Up” and A Food Gal Giveaway

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How about some coffee with that meat?

The next morning you brew a cup of strong coffee, you might want to save a few cups for dinner.

Not to drink, but to grill with in this wonderful Espresso-Powered Barbecued Brisket, which features coffee three ways — in a rub, marinade and finishing sauce.

How’s that to perk up a meal?

The recipe is from the new cookbook, “Fire It Up” (Chronicle Books” by food writers, Andrew Schloss and David Joachim. It features more than 400 recipes for the grill, including Pork Tenderloin with Candied Clementine and Rosemary; Sesame-Crusted Chicken Paillards with Seaweed Salad; Wasabi-Drizzled Mussels Grilled with Green Tea Fumes; and Smoked Deviled Eggs.

I love the flavor of coffee in baked goods, so I was eager to try it on meat.

The roasted notes of coffee do indeed play well with the smoky taste of grilled beef, amplifying its meaty nature.

Make a rub by mixing finely ground dark-roast coffee with smoked paprika, dark brown sugar, ground ancho chile and lemon zest to rub all over the brisket.  Allow to marinate at least eight hours.

When ready to cook, take a little of the leftover rub and add brewed coffee, molasses, lemon juice and balsamic vinegar to make a mop to baste the meat with. After the meat is done, serve with a sauce made from more brewed coffee, ketchup, dark brown mustard, honey, citrus juice, and a dash of hot pepper sauce.

The result is bold beefiness with a beguiling tangy, earthy, subtle spicy kick.

It’s a dish sure to wake up any weekend grilling rut.

Contest: I’m thrilled to be able to give three Food Gal readers each a copy of the cookbook, “Fire It Up” by Andrew Schloss and David Joachim. Contest is open only to those in the continental United States. Entries will be accepted through midnight PST Aug. 13. Winner will be announced Aug. 15.

How to win?

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An Ode to Potato Salad

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My favorite potato salad recipe.

I did not grow up in a plentiful potato salad household.

With some families, summer is just not summer without a big bowl of potato salad chilling on a shelf in the fridge week in and week out for barbecue get-togethers or sleepy Sunday lunches on the patio.

Growing up, potato salad was a rarity for me, though. My Chinese-American parents never made it. But now and then, my Dad would pick up a plastic pint container of potato salad from the local grocery store to eat on weekends with sandwiches at lunch time.

I remember snapping off the plastic lid to find soft, diced potatoes smothered in mayo with a tiny bit of crunchy celery and piquant minced pickles mixed in. I’d scoop out a tablespoon or two to enjoy, savoring its creamy coldness as it hit my tongue.

Nowadays, I do make my own potato salad. But not very often.

It’s still a once-in-awhile summer treat to me. When you don’t prepare it all the time, you want the one you do make to be something special. This one definitely is.

It used to be served at Gordon’s cafe in Yountville, a family-owned joint that was a favorite of locals and tourists for its generous sandwiches and comforting entrees — all made from topnotch ingredients.

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Cookbook Party Feast at Town Hall in San Francisco

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Jars of pickled veggies decorate the table at the cookbook party at Town Hall.

It’s easy to see why Chef Mitchell Rosenthal would want to throw a party to celebrate his upcoming new cookbook.

After all, the 272-page book took him two years of hard work to put together — all the while running three very successful restaurants in San Francisco.

Last week, he hosted a summer feast to end all summer feasts for a small group of food writers, including yours truly, at his Town Hall establishment. It was a huge spread with all the dishes featured from his new cookbook, “Cooking My Way Back Home: Recipes From San Francisco’s Town Hall, Anchor & Hope, and Salt House” (Ten Speed Press). The cookbook, which he wrote with Jon Pult, will debut this fall.

Chef-Proprietor Mitchell Rosenthal chats with guests.

The entrance to the lively Town Hall.

The cookbook even features a rare forward by celeb Chef Wolfgang Puck, whom Rosenthal worked on and off with for 18 years at Postrio in San Francisco, Granita in Malibu and Coco Pazza in New York. The recipes in the book reflect the arc of his career: New Orleans specialties from his time cooking with Chef Paul Prudhomme, whom he called every Friday for six months straight until he snagged an internship at K. Paul’s; a deft array of global cuisines from cooking at the Four Seasons in New York; and classical techniques from Le Cirque in New York.

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Bodacious Biscuits

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Best. Biscuits. Ever!

When flipping through a new cookbook, you spy a recipe called “Ginormous Biscuits.” You’re going to stop in your tracks completely breathless, aren’t you?

I mean, who wouldn’t with that temptress of a name?

The folks behind the new cookbook, “Tupelo Honey Cafe” (Andrews McMeel), sure knew what they were doing when they coined that name for these bountiful butter behemoths.

The book, of which I recently received a review copy, was written by Southern writer, Elizabeth Sims, and Brian Sonoskus, executive chef of the Tupelo Honey Cafe, which opened in downtown Asheville, NC in 2000 and now has a second location on the south side of the city.

I actually had the pleasure of dining at that adorable downtown cafe years ago, while touring the South after attending a journalism conference. Asheville is a thoroughly charming city. Like so many college towns,  (it’s home to the University of North Carolina at Asheville), it is imbued with youthful energy, culture and artistic spirit. It’s also got one of the best self-guided walking tours around with iconic sculptures marking each significant landmark. One of the most famous ones is the restored boarding house that was run by the mother of American literary giant, Thomas Wolfe, where you can sidle up to his bronzed size 13 shoes at the entrance.

After working up an appetite from all that walking, head to the popular Tupelo Honey Cafe for down-home Southern fare made with seasonal ingredients from Sonoskus’ farm, Sunshot Farm.

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