On my weekly visit to the farmer’s market last Thursday I stumbled upon a seasonal booth. They have these every year; a group of vendors who only come to market at holiday time. This particular booth was selling preserves and oils. I know that preserves are a great way to get your fruit fix in the winter, when a lot of trees are barren, but I’ve never actually attempted to make my own.
They had two particular items that caught my eye: Meyer Lemon infused Olive Oil and Meyer Lemon curd. If you remember, I have a meyer lemon tree in my yard, and am still on the hunt for ways to maximize my bounty. My orange tree is ripening up, my pomegranate tree looks just about ready for harvest, and my meyer lemons are going to be plump and orangy-yellow within a month.

So I’m really curious about making some fruit preserves and some home-bottled flavored oils.
Right now I’m hunting for glass bottles and jars that I can use. Pretty vintage glass ones would be nice (provided they still have seals). You can boil the glass to sterilize and then you’re good to go.

I’ve found two methods for creating flavored oils:
cooking the oil and bottling or
cold pressing the oil

The heating method involves sauteeing the oil and herbs/juice/spices before straining it into a jar and sealing. This oil will keep for up to two months in the fridge.

The second method simply involves bruising the herbs/squeezing the juice/chopping the spices and putting them into the bottle with the oil, allowing it to sit for two weeks. The second method takes longer to make, but doesn’t run the risk of burning the oil.

Here’s my plan for the holiday:
Hazelnut infused oil
Meyer Lemon olive oil
Rosemary and thyme oil

Also, preserved meyer lemons
and jars of lemon curd.

Guess what you’re all getting for a holiday gift?

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It’s that time of the year. The time when you cash in the remaining paid sick days you’ve accumulated at work and find yourself suffering from some miserable virus your coworkers/roomates/significant other has bestowed upon you. It is times like these that call for two things: someone to graciously listen to you whine about how awful you feel AND something spicy enough to knock your virus clear into next winter. For the latter I choose dishes with either gallons of hot sauce or mounds of chiles.

Last week, I was battling a vicious cold of epidemic proportions, and needed something cheap and quick that
1) made me feel better
2) could be made effortlessly on my meager amount of energy
3) capitalize ingredients I already had in my fridge.

While chicken noodle soup is fine and all, it doesn’t have the spice I require. I tend to order take-out Pho when I’m sick because of the abundance of broth and because the flavor goes so well with both jalapenos and rooster sauce.
After a recent trip to the asian market with George, however, I found Pho bouillion cubes that I’ve been wanting to try out. They look like this:

I can’t actually read the packaging, but it was vegetarian and seemed like you could estimate the water to cube ratio based off of what you would do with normal bouillion.

Rare steak pho is my poison of choice when I order vietnamese take-out, but I’m uncomfortable with the idea of trying it out at home. So this was a vegetarian dish all around. I already had baby bok choy in my fridge, as well as some thai basil, and a lime. Even though you would normally use a lemon, I chose to stick with my on-hand goods.

I did end up picking up fresh bean sprouts, some rice noodles and a jalapeno, totalling all of $2 at my neigborhood asian market. These places are gems. Locate one near you, if you can.

I estimated four cups of water to one pho cube and brought it to a boil. This seemed to be about right. You can add more or less depending on the concentration you want. After that I threw in the baby bok choy (I usually just cut the very ends off and let the stalks separate from there) and rice noodles. Both of these ingredients cook up quick.

Once cooked, I transfered them to a large bowl (in my case this was a large pyrex baking dish- all of my kitchen supplies play double duty) and garnished with lime slices, bean spouts and an entire diced jalapeno. I let the jalapeno soak into the broth for a while before I eat it. (IF you do choose to use meat, this would be the point where you throw in the raw meat and let it cook in the broth).

It made a huge 10 minute meal for under $5 and knocked my cold out like a heavyweight punch in the first round.

Finish with a grapefruit for dessert. YUM.

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There comes a point in every fashionistas busy schedule when s(he) decides to host a most personal affair.

Enter the dinner party.

And at said dinner party you need a dish that wows. Something that will impress and astound your guests. A twist on an old dish is often fine, but wouldn’t you like to add something extra to your arsenal? An entrée that will win you five stars and have your dinner companions impressed at your culinary expertise?

Might I suggest forgoing chicken for another feathered friend? Duck, perhaps?

Seriously? I cannot get enough duck. Some of you may have never tried it. Some of you might be afraid to try it… but I’m here to calm your fears. Duck is not only easy to cook, but it tastes great. Crossing that line from average poultry to extraordinary poultry, it should be tender and slightly sweet. Duck is notoriously a fatty bird, but if that concerns you, you can try my personal favorite: Muscovy duck. It’s a less fatty duck that you can find at most Whole Foods and other upscale grocery stores. Two duck breasts is enough for four people. You can pick any sort of sauce, depending on the meal you’re going for. Balsamic cherry reduction is great, but I’ve also experimented with a thai chili duck over a bed of chili onions. Select your cuisine, pick wines accordingly and go to town.

Purchase your duck breasts and bring them home. To cook them you need nothing more than a frying pan and a glass dish for the oven. a little salt and pepper for seasoning is fine… lightly rub it in on each side.

You’ll want to leave the fat on the duck breast for cooking. Score the fat with a knife, just cutting through it. Don’t pierce the flesh. It should be one long cut with three cross hatch cuts per breast, exposing the meat below.

Now that your breasts are ready (insert collective snicker here) heat the frying pan over medium high heat. You don’t need any oil, but place the breasts fat side down (ALWAYS fat side down) in the pan. You’ll want to cook it for 10-12 minutes. Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees while you are doing this. When you are finished cooking in the pan, flip the breast flesh side down in the glass dish and bake for an additional 12 minutes in the oven.

Whatever sauce you’ve prepared for duck should already be reduced and ready to go. Cherry balsamic reduction is one of my favorites, but feel free to experiment with brandy, huckleberries, etc.

Balsamic Cherry Reduction is:
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons minced shallots
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
11/2 cups rich duck or chicken stock
2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage leaves
1 tablespoon cold butter
Salt and black pepper

Get as saucy as you want! My girlfriends and I love getting saucy with our food. Many stone fruits make good reductions and the sweetness really complements the duck.

Now that your guests are properly loose from the lovely wine you’ve served them and are anticipating the meal that will follow the cheese they’ve been noshing on (Roaring 40’s with a baguette or perhaps Humbolt Fog with some rosemary crackers?) you can deliver the goods.

Slice each breast into medalions and arrange them on plate over your vegetable of choice. Spoon sauce over the duck and serve.

Donald would approve.

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That liquor post made me thirsty enough to invent a new drink. I’m calling it “The Loft” in honor of, well, the loft we sleep on. We’ve been spending a (VERY RARE) lazy Saturday at home, cooking, eating, making music, taking photographs. Life is inexorably tough.

Anyhow, without further ado,

(make this!)
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Once you’ve regained conciousness after that last one (I’m still a little floaty myself), I’d just like to take a second to let you know that making really damn good drip coffee is easy. I have a $40-dollar coffee maker from Presto that does a proper job, and even my age-old crap Braun blade grinder doesn’t hinder things too much.

In San Francisco, CA, USA, we are blessed with many, many superlative coffee roasters. Topping the marquee this week is Capricorn Coffees, which I like because they share my zodiac sign, and, well, they make good ish, as they also say in the trade.

I love a good coffeeshop as much as the next guy, and I doubt I’ll ever make as good a cup of espresso as Caffe Trieste (my favorite North Beach haunt), but for drip, jesus, take care of yourself.

For a good cheap easy home setup, I suggest a tabletop drip unit like this or this, or a capable coffee machine like the one mentioned above. There are other methods for making drip, but hell, who has time to talk about that? Someday I’ll go into the cool little device one makes vietnamese coffee with, but today isn’t that day.

If you’re using a device which you need to pour boiling water into, a decent kettle will help you keep from scalding the piss out of yourself, true (says the person who’s tried to do this with a saucepan one too many times).

The only thing is, your water has to be HOT. One-nine-eight-far-en-heit-de-grees, say the experts. A little kitchen thermometer will come in handy for making sure your water is right on. 198 degrees, baybee!

Grind your beans until they are just larger than powder- there should be some graininess but not chunks like a french press grind. Pour the coffee into your filter cone, and shake it a little settle the coffee (don’t overdo it!). Some old italian gents in shadowy alleyways tell me that making a little indentation in the center of the coffee will help optimize the water’s flow and help the flavor, especially with a machine. Makes sense to me..
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Ah, one-pan dishes. What could be quicker? What could be easier? Easy prep, little cleanup, chop, fry, stir, flip, season..

..done.

Taking a page from the Chinese tradition, however, I’ve found that sometimes it pays to keep things separate. Say you’re eating some workaday tofu scramble. You’ve got your onions, your peppers, your tofu, your tomatoes, mushrooms, seasonings ad infinitum. All of the veggies are fairly happy to lap up whatever cooking juices and seasonings you throw at them, so your yummy glaze permeates them all, and what’s more- their own juices also commingle like drunken coeds at a keg party.

What’s the fuss, eh? Flavors marry, seasoning spreads, the love is felt. You cry silent tears of jubilation.

But what if you took a bite of tofu and had a lemon-ginger explosion in your mouth, then you followed it up with a craftily-speared little stack of peppers and mushrooms and took a roasted chili-dill hit? When you least expect it, that fallen bit of onion that you guiltily ate right off the table conjured cumin-soaked spasms of…

Ok, yes, I’m taking this a bit far, but multidimensionality is something I love in my food, and it’s not all that difficult to come by, if you’re crafty.

I hereby command thee to make this scramble next Saturday morning. If you like it, feel free to drop a comment!
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As the next few educational posts will focus on outfitting your kitchen and getting some good ingredients into the house, I figure I’ll give you something really simple to start with. Maybe that’ll get you going, and win me a little of your trust! For this one, all you need is half an onion, a tomato, some fresh basil, a lime, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. This stuff can be used as a bruschetta mix over grilled bread, a pasta salad dressing, or simply an elegant little side dish. It’s uncommonly yummy. The title of the dish, however, will not net me any awards.

Fresh Basil Salad with Lime

1. Cut a white onion in half on its vertical axis. Slice the top 1/2″ off of the stalk end of one of the halves. Peel the skin off in one piece (taking the first, thin layer of meat with it makes this easier). You’ll end up with a skinned half onion, still joined at the root. Cut 5-7 slices through the onion vertically, ending just before the root. The root will keep the onion together, making the next step easier. Dice the onion horizonally, stopping just before the root. Whee! You’ve diced an onion. Put the result into a bowl or lipped square dish.

2. Dice a tomato. Heck, you can even re-use the technique above if your knife’s sharp enough! Add to the bowl, and try your best to take most of the juice with it.

3. Choose 10-15 bright green leaves from your bunch of basil. Stack them vertically, roll them into a squat cylinder, and then make fine slices through the cylinder, creating pretty little shreds. (watch your fingers toward the end). Corral them into a little pile and beat on them a little bit with the handle of your knife (if it’s burly enough) or roll them with the side of a pint glass. Manhandling them a little bit will help to release their flavor. Add to the bowl.

4. Add a minor squirt of vinegar (I like rice vinegar for this task), the juice of one small lime or half a large one, a splash of olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a couple of grinds of black pepper (if you don’t have a pepper grinder at this point, I’ll forgive ya- but it’s something you’ve just gotta have for total flavor alignment, and mine cost $4 at Ikea). Stir. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes.

You’re done. The process probably took you roughly 3 minutes of prep, cost 40 cents in veggies and condiments, and tastes pretty darn out of this world (especially when made with organic veggies). It can be massaged and morphed to fit your tastes. You can chop finer and have a savory, meditteranean salsa. You can add a little minced garlic, up the oil to a tablespoon, cook in a saucepan for 10 minutes, and have a decent red sauce. You can throw in some spinach (wash it!) and have a larger-scale salad. Just repeat after me: You are the kitchen king*, you can do anything.

Next up, get ready to blow a little money and suddenly have a set of cooking tools that will let you work with little hindrance.

Till next time,
-george C

* (or queen)

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