101 Cookbooks

Toasted Four Grain Cereal

2012-01-30T20:27:34-08:00

Somehow, I've managed to pass the weekday breakfast baton. Wayne has always been the house barista, keeping me (and any visiting friends) adequately caffeinated. At some point, a couple years back, he started adding a toasty overnight oatmeal to his morning repertoire. Actually, he usually does a blend of oats and other rolled grains, but if you like oatmeal, you'll like this. Lynn, from Satsuma Press, stayed with us recently, was asking about the recipe. This is for her and any of you who are looking for a hot, filling, wintertime breakfast cereal that you can trick out with all sorts of different toppings.

There are a number of four or five-grain breakfast cereal blends you can buy ready-mixed. That said, it is incredibly easy to make your own blend, and keep it on-hand in a jar. We've been using a blend of rolled oats, rolled rye, rolled barley, and rolled spelt. But don't sweat it if you can't find those exact grains. Browse the bin section of your grocery or natural foods store, see what they have, and go from there. The only rolled grain I haven't loved as a part of our mix was Kamut.

One of the things I love most about this ritual is the one thing that might put some of you off. The "day-ahead" factor. The night before Wayne makes his cereal, he toasts the grains in a bit of butter. You have to plan ahead a bit, but the trade-off is a house that smells like a batch of oatmeal cookies is baking. Here, the scent drifts from the kitchen at the back of the house, up the hallway, and into each room along the way. It's one of the last things he does at the end of the day, and it let's you know breakfast is going to be good.

I kept track of some of the toppings I've used over the past couple off weeks and listed them below. Allow me to highlight the buttermilk maple butter, which I make for waffles, but use it here as well. Creamy, sweet, with a bit of tang - a generous drizzle is all you need.

A couple other links: I had some fun with the Remodelista ladies, for their new Style Counsel feature. Aaaand my run at the Piglet over at Food52 ended abruptly with a Momofuku Milk Bar face-off. :/ Looking forward to watching the next few rounds from the sidelines though.

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Miso Sesame Winter Squash

2012-01-24T21:35:43-08:00

In the last week I've done a bunch of things. I returned to a vintage shop, just up the street, to buy a pair of old metal kitchen stools (painted a muted shade of robin's egg blue). Someone beat me to it. I baked a granola pound cake (a bit of a miss), brewed two batches of California common, and bought a sack of stinging nettles at the Farmers market to work into the cottage cheese pancakes I can't seem to get enough of. There were three loads of laundry, two runs of the dishwasher, and lots of friends who've stopped by. And I made this Miso Sesame Winter Squash for lunch yesterday.

It's a riff on one of the recipes in Bryant Terry's new cookbook - his Molasses, Miso, and Maple Candied Sweet Potatoes. I swapped in some delicata squash and tofu for his sweet potatoes, and had myself a pretty spectacular one-pan meal. I'm a big fan of Bryant's recipes (remember these?) They're always flavor-forward, and across the span of a book he tends to pull from a global pantry. He has the ability to put together unexpected flavor combinations, and he's just the sort of person I like to turn to when I need someone to yank me out of one of those occasional culinary ruts every cook finds themselves in.

Here's how today's recipe shapes up. You've got your primary ingredients tossed with a citrus-spiked, maple-molasses marinade of sorts. The sappy sweetness is balanced by the salty complexity of miso and tamari/shoyu, and a toasted sesame backdrop is added for good measure. It works brilliantly. Thinking more about it, I imagine you could use the sauce/marinade to roast any number of ingredients beyond winter squash or sweet potatoes - for ex: tempeh, broccoli, cauliflower. Let me know if you do a take on this that works particularly well.

Thanks for the inspiration B. :) Cheers, and congrats on the new book.

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Citrus Salt

2012-01-18T18:30:36-08:00

I'm not kidding when I tell you it looks like a citrus orchard shook out its limbs in my kitchen. There are sweet limes and Meyer lemons on the counter near the sink, wild limes in the corners of window sills, oblong mandarinquats and petite kalamansi oranges scattered across other flat surfaces. And then, the prize of all prizes, a massive, electric-yellow Buddha's hand (direct from a very special Southern California garden) putting off more fragrance than the rest combined. So, I set to work making a spectrum of citrus salts.

They're pretty, and provide a pop of surprise, and your friends will love you even more when you hand them little jars to take home. Mostly, I use these as finishing salts. I love the wild lime salt sprinkled over coconut milk-based curries, or as a finishing touch on spring rolls. Mandarinquat salt sprinkled over homemade sea salt caramels? Give me a minute while I add that to my to-do list. Later in the year, the clementine and Meyer lemon salts are perfect on fava beans and asparagus. Beyond that, heirloom tomatoes.

I'm going to give you my basic technique down below. You can use that as a jumping off point and go from there. A lot of what this comes down to is personal preference. You'll notice I call for flaky sea salt. For this sort of thing, I like the kind of light, flaky salt crystals you can crush between your fingertips. I use Maldon. You give this salt a good, long toss with the citrus zest and then bake the mixture dry. You can certainly leave the salt like this, but I like to give it just a few pulses in the food processor to break it down a bit. It's still light and flaky, just less so. All said, feel free to experiment with different salts. And process them powder fine if you like. I typically use about 1 tablespoon of zest to 1/2 cup of salt, but you might want to increase or decrease the amount of zest. Again, play around. Make blends. Take notes related to which ones you like, and how you're using them.

One other note. You'll only use the zest here. But you don't want all that amazing juice to go to waste, so zest the citrus first, then juice it as well. You can freeze the individual juices for later use, or, I like to make riffs on this sort of strong citrus ginger juice.

Thank you!: The Food52 Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks is on. Heartfelt thanks to Nigella Lawson for writing such a thoughtful review and for putting me through to the next (crazy!) round.

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Black Bread

2012-01-12T20:46:08-08:00

As promised, black bread. It's what I crave when I think of winter-time baking, and I've been making consecutive loaves over the past few weeks. Caraway-crusted, flecked with dashes of grated carrot, it's dark and hearty, and perfect when toasted then topped with a fat smear of dill butter. This is a hodgepodge of a recipe that isn't shy with the rye flour, and stems from a version of black bread in Dan Lepard's Short & Sweet. I use Dan's ingredient list and the method of bread-making I learned as a kid. Pretty much - mix, rise, punch, rise, bake.

What you end up with here is a rustic, elbows-on-the-table style of crusted loaf with an assertive caraway-molasses streak. Once it's out of the oven, use your best butter to top it. Or, let a slab of it sit under a broiler topped with your favorite melty cheese - either gruyere or goat cheese does the trick. Beyond that, allow me to tell you what I've made of it. For lunch: An open-faced sandwich on toasted Black Bread, with the dill butter from SNED, a bit of sauteed kale, and a fried egg. Remains of a two-day-old loaf? Cubed, tossed in a bit of garlic butter and toasted into croutons. And dare I tell you that this bread was made for fondue? Because it was.

I hope all of you are enjoying the start of the new year. The citrus flood has hit, and I find myself binging on sweet, sweet clementines. Now I'm just waiting on the kishus. xo -h

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Favorites List (January 2012)

2012-01-09T20:32:27-08:00

Hi everyone, how about a favorites list? I feel like I have enough good stuff to roll it out a bit early this month. Not to mention, it'll give me a chance to focus on jotting down a recipe for the bread I've been baking every few days for the past couple of weeks. This bread is dark and hearty, yeast-leavened, and perfect for soup-dunking. Or crouton making. Or tartine broiling. I think you'll like, or at least I hope you will. In the meantime,

- A Polaroid a day for 18 years.

- Sequin photobooths.

- Fantasy real estate listing.

- Joan Didion's packing list.

- On the list to cook: this, and this.

- EAMES: The Architect and the Painter

- Revisitng this soup.

- Anna's Daughters' Chocolate Rye Bark

- Get-away.

- This photo series.

- This lovely lady.

- A box of dirt.

- Bookmark this for the holidays next year.

- Fireworks.

- Teenage Bedrooms: It was Miami Vice meets the interior of a van...

- The Woodmans.

- Bookmark: Tamarind Margarita.

- Midway through watching this.

- This exhibit. And, coming up - this one.

Bread to come in a few... -h

Lead photo: One of the nicest sunsets I've seen lately, at the park just a short walk from my house. The air has been brisk, and crisp, and the skies so clear.

Continue reading Favorites List (January 2012)...

Oregano Brussels Sprouts

2012-01-03T19:50:27-08:00

2011 was the best kind of chaotic year. There's no other way to say it. I flew to London, Portland, Palm Springs, and West Virginia. I rode rails to Paris, drove to Marfa, and walked my way through the soles of three pairs of shoes. I moved. Not far, it took the moving truck just under four minutes to drive from house A to house B. But how we filled that beast of a truck with our stuff, I'll never understand. What else? I took a lot of photos. There was a five-alarm fire scary close. I turned my kitchen / basement into a brewery. I spent time, in person, with people I'd previously admired from afar. And I spent a good number of quiet hours on Saturday mornings trimming flowers. A hobby that helped, because at exactly this time last year I was quite nervous/excited/apprehensive about sharing this with you.

Now that we've crossed into 2012, I feel like there is a clean stretch of road in front of me. I have projects I'm excited to spend more time thinking about, places I can barely wait to visit, friends I hope to cross paths with again. And, of course, plenty of cooking to do. I threw these brussels sprouts together as part of my lunch on New Years Day. Honestly, the brussels sprouts I had on hand we're a bit brutish - larger than I like, cosmetically rough, and past their prime. But after giving them a good scrub, and preening all the raggy outer leaves, they came around quite nicely. I browned them in a pan, the oregano "pesto" I seem to always have around these days made for a nice drizzle, and a handful of toasted almond slices was just the right nutty, crunchy finishing touch.

Happy new year all. If nothing else, let's make 2012 interesting. -h

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Green Lentil Soup with Curried Brown Butter

2011-12-28T18:02:57-08:00

From where I sit, I can see the laundry piled high knee-high. The trash, compost, and recycling are overflowing, threatening to take over the kitchen entirely. When I glance down, I can see my toenails are painted a shade of vampy maroon, my feet sit flat against a white tile floor covered in a hideous patina of flour, sugar, and fiber particles that have migrated from the jute runner in the hallway. It's just gross.

That said, this is the first time in the past ten days I've had a moment to sit down and spend some time with a growing pile of magazines and media (including the new Kinfolk), and I have no intention of moving anytime soon. I did a short little essay about winter in the new Kinfolk (volume two), it goes along with some pictures Wayne and I contributed. I thought you might like to see a few of the (photo) outtakes from the shoot, and have the recipe for the soup in the photos. It's one of my favorite cold-weather soups - green lentils (or split peas), topped with a curried brown butter drizzle, and pan-fried paneer cubes. Some of you might recognize it from SNED.

We shot it as we sat down for an early dinner one night. The soup was leftover, the bread from Tartine, and the beer home made. Wayne threw some cubes of paneer cheese in a skillet, at the last minute, as an added touch.

Happy New Year everyone. And thank you all for making this year extra special - it was a genuine treat to meet so many of you at various events/book signings. Stay warm and safe. And we'll reconvene in the new year! xo -h

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Blood Orange Gin Sparkler

2011-12-22T21:16:24-08:00

For a good part of the year I have rosemary floating about the kitchen. It's typically crowded in a wide-mouth jar, standing stick-straight, quietly waiting to be called upon. Sometimes it sits on the windowsill here, other times it migrates to the island, or, on rare occasions, the dinner table. I tend to buy a bunch, then work my way through it little by little (you've likely seen it in the background of photos on previous posts). Said another way - rosemary is often in my line of sight, and I'm always looking for ways to use it. This cocktail caught my attention a couple weeks back, and I've been making my own citrus-spiked riff on it in the days since.

So...my initial idea was that I'd do a winter citrus version using freshly-squeezed pink grapefruit juice, gin, and tonic water or sparkling water. I thought the evergreen notes in the gin would blend nicely with the tart pucker of grapefruit, and I'd take the edge off with a hint of rosemary syrup.

Not meant to be.

I walked into a box of beautiful Moro blood oranges at the store, and here we are. The blood orange juice worked beautifully, it added a lovely burst of color, and generally lent itself agreeably to what ended up being a long, bright, winter-time quencher. One that goes down a bit too easily, in fact. As I mention down below, if blood oranges are hard for you to come by, this drink is great with navel oranges as well. I mean it when I say, I hope you like this one as much as I do.

I kept thinking the gin / citrus combo would make for a striking DIY cocktail set-up at a holiday party, or New Year's brunch /gathering. Particularly if you offered a selection of juice mixers. I'm imagining small glass pitchers of blood orange juice, pink grapefruit juice, orange juice, oro blanco grapefruit juice, and or sweet lime juice? It would be a beautiful spectrum. Let me know if you give it a go.

I'm signing off for the weekend. There was a massive fire near my house today, dozens of people lost their homes and everything they had. Luckily no one lost their life. I've never seen anything like it. The fire fighters mounted an impressive and brave campaign to save the entire block - the winds were bad today. And apparently there was a construction crew who dialed 911, then alerted and helped evacuate residents.

My heart goes out to my neighbors.

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Gougères

2011-12-17T18:42:26-08:00

Gougères are my secret weapon this time of year. This means a bag in the freezer, always at the ready. I make the dough ahead of time (any afternoon I have a few extra minutes) then bake them straight from the freezer whenever I fancy. There is something irresistible about the way they explode in size. The way they bake into golden pom-poms of cheese-crusted magic. Like soufflés, I think there is a perception that they're tricky to make. But, I promise, with a little practice (and know-how) you can have an impressive platter piled sky-high with puffery with next to no effort. I made this batch with ale, cheese, and fennel. I love the maltiness beer brings to the dough, set off by the bite of sharp cheddar cheese.

A couple things. There are a number of approaches people take when making gougères. I opt for the path resulting in the least amount of dishes and devices to wash after. Meaning, a one-pan method, stirring by hand. I don't bother with a mixer. And I push dollops of the dough onto parchment lined baking sheets from a spoon rather than piping from a bag.

This recipe calls for beer and milk as the liquids in the batter, but the direction you take the flavors is adaptable. You might trade out the beer for water, tea, or other flavorful liquid. I like a bit of milk in the batter, as I think it helps the dough bake into that lovely golden-brown color. Also, don't feel married to this combination of cheese and herb/spices, it's a favorite, but I certainly vary each batch based on what is on hand.

Important things you don't want to learn the hard way: be sure to use large eggs (not extra-large). Prep all your ingredients ahead of time. And one note related to baking, let the gougères brown all the way, particularly up the sides, before pulling them from the oven. The resulting structure will prevent the tops caving.

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Black Sticky Gingerbread

2011-12-11T18:36:30-08:00

I'm going to revisit a recipe I posted in 2005. I've experimented with a good number of gingerbread recipes in the years since I highlighted Regan Daley's Black Sticky Gingerbread. There were single, double, and triple ginger gingerbreads. Cakes that were spice-kissed, and others with experience at first and second base. They're all good, really. But hers is the one I keep coming back to when it counts. And because it has been hiding in the archives for so long, I thought I'd run my updated version today complete with tweaks, insights, and fresh photos.

Back then, here's what I said, "...The Black Sticky Gingerbread comes together like the cake that it is - straight-forward, unfussy, with a bit of kick and attitude. Melt the butter with the sweeteners, stir in a few eggs, fold in the fragrant spices and flour, spike it with some freshly grated ginger, and pour the batter into the prepared pan. The cake is outrageously dark, dense, flavorful, and delicious. Not the prettiest cake you'll ever make, but one of the tastiest. The burnt-caramel-esque crust that forms on the top of the cake is outrageous, and that was the first part of the cake to go."

It all holds true. I'd love to know if any of you give this a try over the holidays, or if you make any personalized tweaks to it. xo -h

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Favorites List (December 2011)

2011-12-07T18:11:01-08:00

I like December more than most months. I like the tinsel, the twinkling lights, hot mugs of tea in the afternoons, and sparkling drinks later on. I like winter flowers, soft sweaters, shortbread (baked a few minutes too long, please), and a dash of Christmas Elvis. I start looking forward to the parade of citrus that isn't far off, and I daydream about places where snowflakes are native. The last few years I tend to get wintertime allergies, effectively balancing out a favorite month with one of my least favorite things :/ Anyhow, I thought I'd post this list on the early side this month, and then follow it up with a few favorite holiday recipes in the coming days. Hope you like:

- Paint pail mittens.

- Meg Ray | Miette

- Picasso | Life

- Rosemary Gin Fizzes

- Tis the season for thank-yous & handwritten letters.

- A year of beans.

- Erica Tanov fabric + magic.

- DIY gift tags

- Soba noodles this way.

- Travel zipper bags:

- The week she turned six.

- Take a class for fun. For ex: SFAI / Center for the Book / Little Flower School / June Taylor / Love Apple Farms / M+T

- This profile on David Kinch.

- Everyone needs a good pair.

- And a gold heart.

- Keep cozy.

- Chunky hand knits.

- Best-of: cookbooks / photo sites

-This salad.

- Canal House + Food52

- Pumpkin & Goat Cheese Hand-pies

- Watercolor Calendar

- And a great desk series (via Amanda H)

One last thing! I nearly forgot to thank all of you who came out to visit (& have books signed) at the Remodelista Holiday Market. It was wonderful to meet so many of you in person and to have your support. -h

Lead photo: There are three tiny trees, side-by-side, on my block exploding in wintertime flowers. I've been out everyday this week to take pictures of them.

Continue reading Favorites List (December 2011)...

Roasted Winter Squash Salad

2011-12-01T17:28:47-08:00

I keep buying kabocha squash. Orange ones. This is despite the fact that, orange or green, they're incredibly heavy. Now, before you jump to the conclusion that I'm a complainer, allow me to add this - the walk home from the farmers' market is best thought of as a summit attempt. Straight up, five blocks. And not only are the kabocha dead weight, but they also threaten to crush the eggs, and smash the little gems in my sack. Bag bullies. But I can't get enough of them, and I've come to terms with the fact that they're actually worth the fuss - just the right amount of sweetness, quick-cooking, velvet-textured, sunset-orange flesh, AND they don't have the stringiness of pumpkins.

My absolute favorite way to eat the orange kabocha is this: roast fat wedges to within an inch of their life at 425F / 220C. They should end up deeply browned, the flesh tender and nearly falling from the sliver of skin lending structure. While still hot, eat straight from the skin - each bite with a smear of butter and a few flakes of good salt.

When you've had enough of that, I encourage you to try this. In short, it's a wintertime riff on potato salad. No potatoes though, just winter squash (kabocha, pumpkin, acorn, etc) roasted until brown-crusted and tender fleshed. Chopped celery and red onion lend crunch, bite, and that familiar flavor profile. The rest of the salad (in this case) came together from whatever was within arms reach; rosemary from the window-sill, the second half of my beer = dressing base, toasted walnuts and currants hopped up from spice drawer.

This is a long way of saying, if you come across these guys at the market, bring one home with you. I suspect you'll agree it's worth the effort. -h

Book signing: Just a quick reminder that I'll be at the Remodelista Holiday Market in Marin this Saturday 12/3 from 10-4. I'll have books to sell, and I'm happy to sign books you already have. Hope to see some of you there.

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Super-eggy Scrambled Eggs

2011-11-25T15:45:53-08:00

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had nice day with family, something I'm always thankful for. I did things like: race a three-year-old up a hill, hand off a huge sack of crushed malt, yeast, and hops to my brother-in-law, bake this, think about Christmas lists, and stand under the old oak tree my sister and I used to swing from. It got me thinking about the way my days tend to be shaping up in such a curious fashion lately. They're a real hodgepodge of tasks and activities. On one hand it makes me feel a bit scatter-brained, on the other I like the mix of creative, practical, and pedestrian. Wednesday, for instance, looked something like this...

Exit bed. Realize house is freezing, put on extra sweater. Immediately take sweater off after noticing excessive pilling, spend next ten minutes with sweater stone de-pilling. Put sweater back on. Start making scrambled eggs for breakfast. Burn toast. Repeat. Drop off film. Run dishwasher. Bottle beer in the dungeon/basement. Shower. Empty dishwasher while thinking some more about whether there should be a follow up to Super Natural Every Day. Jot a few related notes on back of photo, pin to idea board. Book hotel for February adventure. Mail car registration. Observe damage to herb-garden by cilantro-loving raccoons. Lunch. Purchase couch so living room isn't empty for another six months. Play around with 4x5 camera while thinking about what I might want to cook next week. Walk through Golden Gate Park (pics above). Assemble random day-before-Thanksgiving dinner from straggler ingredients in refrigerator while prepping my contributions. Help Wayne make rochers (below). And, related to today's recipe - write up a few notes related to the eggs I've cooked three times in the last week.

While I suspect another scrambled egg recipe is the last thing most of you need, this one caught my attention. I came across it while paging through the new Serious Eats book - the idea is to use whole eggs plus egg yolks to make your eggs extra rich, creamy, and flavorful. A bonus, I might add, is the color the extra yolks bring to the finished preparation (particularly if you're using good, well-sourced eggs). They end up looking bright, vibrant yellow, and more appetizing than your average plate of eggs. I tricked mine out a bit with a drizzle of oregano pesto, a few toasted sunflower seeds, and a side of thick toast topped with a bit of Gruyere (then left under the broiler for a flash). Thanks Ed and crew - and big congratulations on the book.

SF Bay Area - I'm going to be signing books at the Remodelista Holiday Market on December 3rd (10-4pm). Hope to see some of you there :)

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Favorites List (November 2011)

2011-11-20T16:53:26-08:00

Thanksgiving ideas - you ready? Here are a few favorites from years past. These green beans, this roasted delicata squash, this corn bread, these brussels sprouts, and these mashed potatoes. This kale salad should be a contender because it's awesome and delivers a healthy hit of green. And I'm considering doing this pumpkin pie with the rye crust from this berry pie. I also can't help but sneak this brussels sprout & apple dish I like so much onto the list too. Now, I'm also a believer that even the most traditional holiday spread should attempt to incorporate something new, and I suspect you'll agree that Megan's Fall Shandy, Tina's Autumn Quinoa, and Lora Zarubin's Green Beans with Pickled-Onion Relish all look delicious. Beyond the plate? Let's see...

- Fantasy listing, and another one. :)

- Reading this, and this is next up.

- So happy I ordered one of these.

- Murmeration

- Sparkling Americanos (video / the details)

- Watched this documentary.

- this made me laugh (thx @jeffersonb)

- Love's oven is warm. (via Souris)

- Maggie's boxes of deliciousness.

- Something Wayne has been working on.

- Nancy Silverton on salads. (via Luisa)

- This idea.

- Jen's pic of my baked oatmeal.

- The Right Color

One more thing relevant to those of you in the SF Bay Area - I'm going to be signing books at the Remodelista Holiday Market on December 3rd (10-4pm). There's a great list of vendors, and I would (of course) love to meet more of you in person. -h

Lead photo: I took this standing on the shore of the Salton Sea last weekend.

Continue reading Favorites List (November 2011)...

Ginger Soba Noodles

2011-11-14T17:31:31-08:00

Some things I liked about the past few week: The girl with red tights and a banjo at the bus stop. Standing at Ocean Beach to watch the surfers. Roasting a pan of teensy delicata squash seeds. The skater kid wearing Japanese paper tape as rings. Happenstance meeting with Joy & Tracy outside Tartine. Seeing my girl Bea get married in Palm Springs. Reading all your nice notes. Me, Wayne, & lots of pelicans standing the shore of the Salton Sea. And eating these soba noodles for lunch.

For those of you who cook/roast/bake as many delicata squash as I do this time of year - their seeds are really fun. They're tiny and tasty, and because everyone else throws them out, you rarely see them around. It's a bit of fuss, but they're great in salads, pastas, brittle, and the like. Just clean them, dry them, and roast them tossed in a bit of olive oil and salt at 350F until extra golden.

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