A week ago I cooked up a batch of dried borlotti beans that I had brought home from my favorite bean brokers, the Rancho Gordo (www.ranchogordo.com) stand (see my post, February 17, 2011) at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza market.  Had a pasta dish, had a salad, and still had some beans left.  So, I poured them into a big pan and added all the necessary veggies – a couple of carrots, a zucchini, a large onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, some frozen corn and peas, mushrooms, a red bell pepper, lima beans, a large can of diced tomatoes – to make a mammoth pot of kinda minestrone – I left out the bits of prosciutto or pancetta that would have made it authentic.  Once the veggies had cooked a bit, I added some elbow macaroni (that I always have to make the go-to mac ‘n cheese for my currently vegetarian granddaughter) and a good bit of salt and pepper.  It was 20 degrees outside and the big bowls of soup, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with a fresh grating of parmesan cheese couldn’t have been more delicious or more warming when supper rolled around.

I was asked to make a Sunday dinner when we were visiting friends in Mill Valley (California) last month.  The days had been pretty chilly and damp so the menu was highlighted with a rich, winey beef stew BUT the star of the meal was the fresh porcini salad that began the feast.  The porcini had been foraged from the Marin hills just the day before – they were huge, dense, meaty, earthy, and oh! so delicious.  I gave them a quick sauté in extra virgin olive oil, laid them on some baby spinach leaves, sliced some ricotta salata over the top and drizzled the salad with a Meyer lemon vinaigrette.  What could possibly be better – but it only works when you have a skilled forager knocking on your back door!  I can assure you that this doesn’t happen in New York City.

Whenever we visit San Francisco (which is pretty often), we always hit the Mission for tacos and burritos, shop ‘til we drop at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, grab a quick crab lunch at Swan’s, and have at least one dinner at either of Shelley Lindgren’s restaurants, A16 ( www.a16sf.com) or SPQR (www.spqrsf.com).  This last visit we hit both – A16 for pizza just before we caught our plane back to NYC and SPQR for brunch with our delicious granddaughter, Canada.  You can see how much we loved our fried green tomato appetizer by the hugs Canada and I are giving each other – well, we do love each other, too.  SPQR was a special treat as the chef, Matthew Accarrino, is a young guy who began his career with my old buddy, Charlie Palmer, at Aureole in New York.  Just feels as though I have an extended family of cooks spreading great food all across the country.  When you visit San Francisco do put these restaurants on your must-go-to list – you will eat well and be welcomed with exceptional warmth and hospitality.

When we were in San Francisco for Thanksgiving my son, Chris, and I decided to try our hand at sausage making.  Many years ago I had frequently made sausage with my mom using her hand-cranked grinder (which I still have and use), but I had little remembrance of the actual task.  I have no idea where she got the casings we used (perhaps from a local farmer) but Chris got his at the Golden Gate Meat Company ( www.goldengatemeatcompany.com) at the Ferry Plaza where we also picked up the chicken and pork we were going to use as the sausage base.

First we tried our hand at a chicken-apple mix.  We sautéed a large sweet onion with just a clove or two of garlic and some minced thyme and sage.  Chris neatly cut a couple of apples into a fine dice.  We ground the chicken and then mixed the cooled cooked onion mix and apples into it and seasoned it well with salt and pepper.  The apple dice was a little bit too big, but we managed to force it into the casing (which we had soaked in lukewarm water for about an hour) through the tube on the Kitchenaid attachment.  From the grimaces on our faces, you’d think we were mining coal.  Didn’t quite have the technique down, but we had some laughs and the sausage tasted pretty darned good.  Good enough that we went on to make a pork sausage seasoned with roasted peppers and basil.

I’m on an interesting veggie roll – from puntarelle we go to baby red oca yams, also called New Zealand yams.  I had seen them around for awhile but had not tried them.  I was making a pork tenderloin the other afternoon and decided it would be the perfect protein to match with the little yams.  (A bit of arrogance on my part since I had no idea what they would taste like!)

The photo will give a better description that I can.  They are sweet little tubers that, when roasted, were kinda mushy like a baked sweet potato but quite a bit sweeter than the more common cousin.  They were not inexpensive so I’m not sure they going to be my go-to replacement for a good, old-fashioned baked sweet ‘tater, but they were tasty.  Next time, I think I might try them raw in a salad or as an hors d’ sprinkled with sea salt and lime juice.

I now make a drive-by through Eataly, the Italian emporium on 23rd Street in Manhattan, (www.eatalyny.com) about once a week checking out the produce section to see what new, unusual, hard-to-come-by products might be found there.  And, I always find something that I need to try.  For years, I had known about puntarelle but had only tasted it years ago in Rome (its found almost nowhere else in Italy) but the other day on a walk-about through Eataly I found bunches of it stacked in the produce section so, of course, I had to bring some home to test.
Puntarelle is an Italian chicory that is quite bitter and its preparation can leave a cook with more than a little bitterness at the time it takes to make a simple salad.  You don’t seem to eat the leaves, only the tender shoots which must be split, lengthwise, one at a time, into thin strips.  The strips are then placed in acidulated ice cold water to soak for about an hour.  The icy soaking makes the long straight strips curl up into wiggly shoots.  Apparently, prepared puntarelle curls are now available in Roman markets – even traditional Italian cooks are looking for an easier way to put dinner on the table.
Puntarelle is classically served with an anchovy dressing but since Steve is allergic to fish, I pounded and mashed some sun-dried tomatoes (you’ll need plump, soft tomatoes, not those that are dry and wrinkled) which I frequently use as a replacement for anchovies and made a thick, creamy mix to toss into the puntarelle.  The color didn’t look so hot so Steve refused to photograph the finished salad.  You’ll have to be content with a photo of the whole head.

Sun-dried Tomato Dressing for a Bitter Green Salad

    ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, well-drained and chopped  
    4 large garlic cloves, chopped
    1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or to taste
    About ½ cup green, grassy extra virgin olive oil
    Salt and pepper to taste

Combine the tomatoes, garlic, and lemon juice in a mortar and work them into a well-blended mash with the pestle.  Season with salt and pepper.  Transfer to a bowl and whisk in the olive oil.  Taste and season with additional lemon juice, salt, and pepper if necessary.  Serve over any bitter green salad.

What better way to welcome the holidays than with a tray of homemade and colorfully decorated cookies?  Here we give you drying Christmas cookies made by Laurel, our daughter-in-law, and Clara Grace, our beautiful granddaughter with intermittent help from Alexander, our grandson.  All of us whose work appears on the blog – either in word or design – send to each of our readers best wishes for a holiday season filled with joy and laughter and hope for only goodness to be found in the coming year.  Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Blessed Kwanza, and Joyous Boxing Day are but a few of our wishes.  For those of you who celebrate none of these holidays may I send a biblical blessing that I believe is nondenominational “unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all of the earth, Peace be multiplied unto you”.

Cut-out Cookies for Decorating

Makes about 4 dozen, depending upon the size

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Small piece of vanilla bean, ground

1½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

⅓ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¼ cup whole milk

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Decorative Icing (recipe follows)

Combine the sifted flour with the vanilla bean, baking powder, and salt in the sifter.  Set aside.

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle.  Beat on low to combine; then raise the speed to medium and beat until light and creamy, occasionally scraping the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Add the egg and vanilla and beat to blend.  Alternately add the milk and the flour mixture beating to make a soft dough.

Scrape the dough down and remove the bowl from the stand.  Cover with plastic film and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until the dough has firmed.

About 20 minutes before ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Line 2 cookie sheets with silicon liners or parchment paper.  Set aside.

Lightly dust a clean, flat, cool work surface with confectioners’ sugar.  (You can use flour, preferably Wondra, but the end result will be a drier cookie).

Working with about one quarter of the dough at a time and using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to circle about ⅛-inch thick.  Cut out into desired shapes using cookie cutters made for this purpose.  If you wish to use the cookies as hanging decorations, use a small skewer to make a small hole about ¼-inch from the top of each cookie.

Using a metal spatula, transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheets, leaving about ½- inch between each one.

Transfer to the preheated oven and bake for about 12 minutes or until just barely colored around the edges and set in the middle.

Remove from the oven and transfer to wire racks to cool before icing.

Cover and decorate with Decorative Icing as you wish.

Decorative Icing

1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

Pinch salt

1 large egg white

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, strained

Food coloring of choice

Combine the sugar with the salt in a small mixing bowl.  Add the egg white and lemon juice and, using a hand-held electric mixer, beat until smooth.

If you wish only one icing color, add the food coloring drop by drop until you get the shade you desire.  For a variety of colors, divide the icing as you wish into small bowls and mix each color individually.

Use quickly as the icing will begin to set.  It is a good idea to cover each bowl with plastic film as you work to lessen the chance of a film forming on top.  If the icing does set or get too thick, add cool water, only a drop at a time.

I love ponzu sauce, the wonderful Japanese sauce that is, for want of a better description, a lovely vinaigrette-like sauce used for dipping, scenting, or saucing.  I had been told that you can’t really make a traditional sauce at home ‘cause you needed the juice of the Asian citrus yuzu to authenticate it.  Well, I found fresh yuzu and splurged (it was $8.99 a pound) so I could get a taste of the real thing.  I hunted around my myriad number of cookbooks to see if I could get a hint of how to make the real thing and then went to the internet.  Found too many variations and none that particularly pleased me so I devised my own.  Here is my version should you find fresh yuzu and feel like splurging – or maybe it is now being grown commercially in California and Florida and it will soon be ubiquitous, just like kiwi and we can all have fresh ponzu in our fridges!

1 cup fresh yuzu juice

1 cup soy sauce

¼ cup mirin

¼ cup rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon orange juice concentrate

1 strip dried kombu 

2 tablespoons dried bonito flakes

Combine the yuzu juice, soy sauce, mirin, vinegar, and concentrate in a nonreactive container.  When blended add the kombu and bonito flakes and stir.  Cover and set aside to marinate for at least 3 hours before using.

When ready to use, strain through a fine mesh sieve, discarding the solids.  If desired, add a couple of chopped scallions just before using.  Ponzu sauce will keep, covered and refrigerated, for 2 weeks.  It may be frozen.

It’s a little late in the season to can peaches but we were looking through some photos of cooking experiences this summer and came across some inviting shots of peaches being pickled and canned.  Once upon a time (and perhaps still in Amish country), pickled peaches were always on the farm dinner table.  My mom and aunts made them by the bushels and in younger days I did too.  Now, I just make a few jars but I still follow my aunt’s advice to use a disposable aluminum roasting pan and cook them in the oven.  This is because the high sugar content always caused scorching when you cooked them in a large pot on top of the stove.  When disposable pans became available my aunt quickly adapted this smart new method – cleaning up after canning is chore enough without having to spend hours (or sometimes days) trying to clean the burned bottom of the cooking pot.

The following recipe should yield about 8 quarts.

9 pounds fresh ripe but firm peaches, peeled

3 to 4 whole cloves per peach, optional

5 pounds sugar

2 cups cider vinegar

3 cinnamon sticks, broken into smaller pieces

1 teaspoon ground allspice

Preheat the oven to 300ºF.

If using, stick the cloves into each peach.

Place the peaches in a large disposable aluminum roasting pan.  

Combine the sugar, vinegar, cinnamon sticks, and allspice in a mixing bowl, stirring to dissolve some of the sugar.  If you have chosen to not stick the cloves into the peaches, you might want to add a few whole cloves to this mix. Pour the mixture over the peaches, tossing to mix well.

Cover the entire pan with aluminum foil and place in the preheated oven.  Cook without disturbing for 1 hour.  Remove from the oven, uncovered, and carefully mix so that all of the peaches are coated with syrup.  Recover and return to the oven for an additional hour or until well-flavored and softened.

Turn off the oven and allow the peaches to cool in the oven.

When cool, pack into hot, sterilized jars, cap, and refrigerate until ready to use.  If canning, place the jars in a boiling water bath and process for 10 minutes.  When canned, the peaches can be stored in a cool spot for up to a year.  Refrigerated they will keep for a few weeks.

Don’tcha just wonder where all those heirloom seeds are coming from?  Here it is late fall moving into winter and between the farmers market and the specialty produce stores I’ve come across piles of “heirloom” tomatoes.  Like the sucker I am for beautiful produce, I bought a few – pricey, they are, eh? – and you know what, they were delicious.  I was in the process of cutting one to make Steve a breakfast sandwich of fresh mozzarella, basil, and tomato when he slid by, camera in hand, and shot this big one that I had just sliced – bright red with a tinge of deep green circling the mid-section.  Doesn’t it make you long for an extended tomato season?