Category Archives: Recipes (Savory)

Craving Chinese Food, Part 1

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Long beans and olives? Yes, it is Chinese.

I could say that it’s the sight of all those Olympic sprinters, synchronized swimmers, and gymnasts competing at full throttle that’s working up my appetite. But really, as I’ve watched the Summer Games, it’s China itself that’s really got me hungry for some delectable Chinese food.

So out came my wok during a break from all that athleticism. I decided to try my hand at these two dishes because they each make use of an ingredient we don’t normally associate with Chinese food. Enjoy one dish today, and the second dish in tomorrow’s FoodGal posting. Make both dishes together and serve with steamed rice for an easy, quick meal. The two dishes especially complement one another because one is a little on the salty side, while the other has a natural, subtle sweetness.

Today’s dish incorporates dry-cured black olives, of all things, which, surprisingly, turn out to be a little-known but traditional Chinese ingredient. “Wok-charred long beans with black olives” was published in the July 2008 issue of Saveur magazine. It’s an adaptation of the recipe from “Around the World in 80 Dinners” (William Morrow). Cheryl Jamison says the olives give the dish a salty pungency akin to Asian shrimp paste. I heartily agree. The beans get a nice smokiness from the high heat of the wok, and the olives, garlic and black vinegar make magic together.

Wok-Charred Long Beans with Black Olives

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Titillating Tomatoes

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German pink tomatoes. Photograph by Victor Schrager.

When I leaf through the pages of the glorious looking new book, “The Heirloom Tomato, From Garden to Table” (Bloomsbury), I fairly blush.

I’m just going to come out and say it: This is tomato porn.

Rippling, curvy, plump, and with bodacious glistening seed sacks, tomatoes have never looked so utterly sensual as they do in this book written by gardener, seed savor and heirloom produce advocate, Amy Goldman, and photographed by the incomparable Victor Schrager, whose works have graced the Museum of Modern Art in New York.Â

Talk about tomato on tomato action; wait until you see these photos of half a dozen beefsteak tomatoes piled pyramid-style on top of one another, with each a different glorious color and size. It’s tomato as high art. It’s tomato as sex object. It’s tomato beauty you can’t stop staring at.

Thankfully, though, you don’t have to hide this book under your bed or pull it out only when nobody’s looking. This can proudly grace your coffee-table. And anybody who grows tomatoes _ even I, who can barely keep my plants alive half the time _ will lust after the beauties in this book.

Goldman produces hundreds of tomato varieties on her farm in New York’s Hudson Valley. She offers growing advice, as well as information on dozens of varieties, including what shape and color fruit they produce, what the flavor is like, what the texture is like, and what its origins are. Fifty-five recipes are included in the book, as well as more than 200 of those luscious photographs.

Cherry tomato focaccia. Photo by Victor Schrager. Recipe follows.Â

Yearning for more tomatoes? Head to Sutro’s at the Cliff House in San Francisco on Aug. 13 for a very special tomato dinner. Guest Chef Ron Siegel of the Ritz-Carlton Dining Room in San Francisco, and his pastry chef, Alexander Espiritu, will be on hand to create a four-course dinner that will showcase the organic, heirloom tomatoes grown by Cliff House General Manager Ralph Burgin on his family’s Sonoma farm. Think grilled skirt steak with tomato compote, and tomato tart tatin with yogurt mint sorbet.

The dinner is $55 a person ($80 with wine pairings). A portion of proceeds will benefit the non-profit Community Alliance with Family Farmers, which fosters family-scale agriculture.

Sutro’s Chef de Cuisine Brian O’Connor also will be featuring heirloom tomatoes in dishes on the daily summer menu in an “Ultomato” celebration.

At PlumpJack Cafe in San Francisco, Executive Chef Rick Edge gets into the tomato spirit, too, with a four-course tasting menu featuring lovely heirlooms. The tasting menu, $45 per person ($21 more with wine pairings), will run through the end of September or when the tomatoes run out. Dishes include seared day boat scallops with golden tomato vinaigrette, and tomato-braised Kurobuta pork shoulder.

Additionally, more than 52 San Francisco restaurants will be participating in “Heirloom Tomato Week” (which is actually longer than a week since it goes from Aug. 14-24). The restaurants will feature heirloom tomatoes in a la carte dishes or in tasting menus. Its their way of trying to help farmers who were impacted during the recent salmonella scare that mistakenly identified tomatoes as the culprit.

Every diner who pays with a Visa card also will receive a commemorative book with tomato recipes from the participating restaurants, which include Coi, Piperade, and Poleng Restaurant & Lounge. View a complete list here. Reservations are available on OpenTable.com.
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Showcasing Wild Alaskan Salmon

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Salmon mousse at the cook-off

CORDOVA, Alaska — How spectacular is the salmon here?

Allow me to let Regan Reik, executive chef of Pier W restaurant in Lakewood, OH, answer that. Reik was one of three chefs who created the magnificent 5-course dinner ($50) spotlighting Copper River salmon at the Reluctant Fisherman Inn’s July 12 gala event. Like me, Reik has tasted salmon before in the lower 48, but this was his first time — and mine — to Alaska.

His summation: “The fish from the Copper River is the best damn fish I ever had.”

Indeed, it is. Brilliant pink-orange, buttery flesh with a rich flavor that just fills your mouth.

Reik, who has cooked at Alain Ducasse in New York, had help with the dinner from chef Jeremy Storm, a Vermont native who fell in love with Alaska and now cooks in Juneau and Cordova; and fellow Ohio chef Dominic Cerino, who learned the art of sausage making alongside Mario Batali’s father, Armandino.

Parfait of Copper River Salmon tartare

Cerino created the dinner as if “you’d had a salmon run in Italy.” Indeed, his family recipe for pillowy spinach gnocchi  with goat cheese fondue was capped off by a sprinkling of Copper River salmon caviar that had been smoked to add an unexpected depth. He and Reik also spotlighted salmon in a robustly-flavored sausage made with Cerino’s house-cured guanciali; and in a beautiful tartare parfait with house-made ricotta.

Salmon sausage, gravalax, and fennel sauerkraut

The chefs had sent a list ahead of time of the provisions they would need. But with only one delivery of produce a week here by plane, and Cordova’s cool, misty weather not conducive for growing much at all, they ended up scrounging for a few key things at the last minute.

But that’s where the generosity and kindness of the town came into play. No kimchee brine to be found in the two main grocery stores in town? No problem. Walk into the “Oriental gifts and jewelry” store and a kind Vietnamese-American woman there will hand over just the needed amount from her own home refrigerator. No rhubarb delivered? The friendly neighbor in town with the organic yard will let you cut just what you need to make your gelato. Amazed by the smoked salmon caviar? The guy who makes it will give you his last jar at no charge just so you can use it for your special dinner.

“It’s that mentality that made us fall in love with the community,” Reik says.

Before the professionals got to strut their stuff, the locals got in on the act. At the salmon cook-off, 18 contestants brought their best dishes forward for tasting by judges that included yours truly. There was everything from salmon tamales to sweet-spicy Thai salmon cakes to salmon mulligatawny soup. Winners included perfectly grilled salmon with fruit salsa, and a show-stopping salmon mousse piped fancily in rosettes over a whole salmon.

If all this talk of salmon is getting you hungry, there’s no better time than now to try this easy salmon recipe from “The New Alaska Cookbook” (Sasquatch Books), which was written a few years ago by noted New York Times food writer, Kim Severson.

Barbecued Salmon

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An Odiferous Time in Gilroy

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Smell that pungent, mouth-watering aroma?

You will as the day draws nearer for the 30th anniversary of the Gilroy Garlic Festival, July 25-27 at Christmas Hill Park in Gilroy.

Over the years, the popular event has raised nearly $8 million for local charities. And it’s fed quite a crowd _ more than 3 million, who have consumed 376 tons of beef, 119 tons of pasta, 68 tons of scampi, 50 tons of calamari, and 72 tons of California garlic.

This year will be more of the same as booths will dish out all things garlic, including garlic frog legs, garlic Kettlekorn, Cajun fried catfish, garlic chicken pizza, lumpia, garlic fried-green tomatoes, and of course, the ever popular, garlic ice cream.

July 26 at 10 a.m., eight amateur cooks from across the country will duke it out in the annual cook-off. This year’s local contestant is Linda Wang of Sunnyvale, who will be trying to sway the judges with her garlic corn creme brulee with pan-seared scallops and garlic pancetta saute. For the first time, the cook-off will be telecast over the Internet on the festival’s Web site.

July 27 at noon, the professionals get in on the act when four area chefs will vie for a top prize of $5,000 and 1,000 pounds of fresh garlic. This “Garlic Showdown” will feature chefs Mark Ayers of the Highlands Inn and Hyatt Regency Monterey; Christopher Preyale of the Fountaingrove Golf & Athletic Club in Santa Rosa; James Waller of the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa; and Ryan Scott of San Francisco’s Mission Beach Cafe and a contestant in this past season’s “Top Chef” show. This “Iron Chef”-style challenge will feature a not-so-secret ingredient — garlic, of course.

Tickets to the festival are $12 for adults, $6 for children ages 6-12 and for seniors, and free for kids under age 6.

For those who want to bring a part of the festival home — well, besides the resulting garlic breath — pick up a copy of “Any Bozo Can Cook,”  a collection of 102 recipes inspired by everyone’s fave smelly bulb. It was written by Sam Bozzo and Gene Sakahara, both festival cooks and former festival presidents. The $16 book will be sold at the festival, and online.

For a sneak taste, try this recipe from the book:

Garlic shrimp with spicy garlic peanut sauce

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Meatball Madness

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Bucci\'s Italian-American meatballs

We’re mad for meatballs. We certainly are.

Consider that loyal diners nearly revolted when San Francisco’s A16 once halted its popular ”Monday Night Meatball” special. No worries, as that curtailment was short-lived, and the meatballs are safely back on the Monday menu.

What is it about meatballs that we can’t get enough of? There’s something so comforting in their rustic presentation. They’re a little more special looking than a hamburger; a little more playful than a big hunk of meatloaf.

When I dined at Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles, the pizza was the star, of course, and the butterscotch budino for dessert was out of this world, too. But the appetizer of “meatballs al forno” nearly stole the show with their incredibly light texture, and subtly spiced tomato sauce. I could have eaten the entire plateful, well, if there weren’t two other people with me.

When I’m jonesing for meatballs, I turn to this favorite recipe from “The Complete Meat Cookbook”by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly. Heap these bold tasting meatballs over pasta or soft polenta, and you can’t go wrong.

 Bucci’s Italian-American MeatballsÂ

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