Archive for April, 2008
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
When I mention that beets are included in a recipe, I fully expect to get a cringe in reply. It seems that beets are a vegetable that nearly everyone loves to hate. I think the main culprits behind beets’ bad reputation are childhood memories of the vinegary, acidic taste of beets that emerged from a can and household rules that demanded a clean plate. If this is your history with beets then it might be time to give beets another chance.
Beets that are fresh from the garden are tasty and loaded with nutrients (bearing no resemblance to their canned counterparts). Beets have a strong nutritional profile and have historically been used to stimulate circulation and promote detoxification. Beet greens are rich in calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C. They can be prepared the same way you would cook chard, kale, or spinach. Beet roots come in a wide variety of colors and can be served raw or cooked. They are an excellent source of fiber, manganese, and potassium and studies have shown anti-cancer properties. (more…)
Posted in anytime recipes | 2 Comments »
Friday, April 25th, 2008
After a fun and exciting trip to Vermont, it feels good to be back home. I have spent the last couple of days getting life organized and nursing a cold that I picked up during my travels. Now that I am unpacked and my body is beginning to revive, I am looking forward to getting out to the farmer’s markets and back in the kitchen.
Even with a few sniffles I managed to throw together a nice dinner last night that was inspired by a dish my friend Kerri enjoyed at The Kitchen Table Bistro in Richmond, Vermont. The Kitchen Table Bistro is a chef-owned restaurant run by a husband and wife team who met while training at the New England Culinary Institute. Their experiences working in some of the best restaurants in San Francisco and Napa inspired them to open an upscale but casual restaurant with an emphasis on the use of seasonal and local ingredients. (more…)
Posted in spring recipes | 5 Comments »
Friday, April 18th, 2008
This week I am lucky enough to get away for a bit and travel through Vermont, and while I don’t have a new recipe to share (boo!), I do have a neat restaurant review with a great story (yeah!). As you may have guessed from the picture above, the name of the restaurant is The Farmers Diner and it is located in Quechee, Vermont.
Quechee is a small town located on the well traveled Route 4 that connects the I-89 to the ski region of central Vermont. It is impossible to visit the area without checking out Quechee’s claim to fame, the Quechee Gorge, or Vermont’s little grand canyon. Becoming equally famous is the Farmers Diner, with reviews in USA Today, The New York Times, NPR, and Grist Magazine. For a restaurant garnering so much praise and notoriety you would think it was something fancy, but the Farmers Diner menu offers typical diner fare with an important twist: the majority of the ingredients are local, seasonal and natural. (more…)
Posted in local foods | No Comments »
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
It might be my inner-hippie coming through but I really try to pay attention to coincidences – you know, those moments when it seems that the universe is trying to tell you something and all things converge to point you in one direction. For all of you skeptics out there, don’t worry, I have proof: the banh mi sandwich. Here is my story…
It all started on a typical Monday morning when I was doing typical things, chatting with my friend, Dara, while we prepared for a catering event. Like everyone else I know, a good part of our Monday talk is catching up on what happened over the weekend. Unlike everyone else I know, our Monday conversations are usually centered on what we ate, what we cooked and what was new at the farmer’s market. This is when the banh mi first entered my life, as Dara casually mentioned she had been out to a Vietnamese sandwich shop and ordered one of these tasty delights. It sounded interesting (crusty baguette, meaty filling, tangy carrot and fresh cilantro), so I made a mental note to find out more. (more…)
Posted in anytime recipes | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
Dining out lately in San Francisco and Portland, Oregon I have spotted more and more offal dishes on restaurant menus and I hope this trend continues. Once prized by our ancestors as nutrient-dense sources of vitamins and minerals, offal has fallen out of favor in the current standard American diet (S.A.D.).
I think it’s a good idea to bring offal back into favor as it offers rich sources of vitamins A and D, essential fatty acids, and macro and trace minerals. Perhaps more difficult to quantify, but certainly no less important, is the ethical element of eating offal. In our current culture, which views animal products as a commodity, many animal parts are abused, neglected or simply thrown away. By consuming offal you are respecting an animal in a full and holistic way by leaving nothing to waste. (more…)
Posted in holiday & party recipes | 4 Comments »
Friday, April 4th, 2008
A couple of weeks ago I was shopping at the natural foods market in Berkeley and was surprised to see an entire refrigerated section dedicated to kombucha tea. It seems that after a long history of popularity among the alternative health crowd, kombucha tea is going mainstream (although I don’t think it will outsell Pepsi anytime soon).
Often referred to as a mushroom, kombucha is actually a living culture composed of yeasts, bacteria and cellulose living in a symbiotic relationship. During the fermentation process the kombucha culture is introduced to a medium (black tea sweetened with white sugar), and over time the yeasts break down the sugar and the bacteria digests yeast byproducts, resulting in kombucha tea. (more…)
Posted in anytime recipes | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
If you haven’t had a chance to check out Barabara Kingsolver’s new bestseller, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, it is worth a trip to the bookstore or getting on the library waiting list. Based on Kingsolver’s own life experience of a year of eating seasonally and locally, the text is both informative and inspiring and is a perfect read for early spring when the seasonal produce slowly begins to diversify, bringing a variety of fresh vegetables and new excitement into the kitchen.
The excitement in my kitchen the past couple of weeks has been the arrival of asparagus at the farmer’s market. Knowing that the local asparagus season is only going to last a little over a month, I have been emphasizing it in my dinner menus, which means it is on the table a few times a week. One of the challenges of eating seasonally is enjoying ingredients without falling into a food rut. (more…)
Posted in spring recipes | 3 Comments »
