Bottom of the Barrel: XIV

I keep counting and re-counting how many recipes I have left. Then I go to the calendar (again) and count how many days left in August. Today it’s ten left, with 14 days to go. Totally do-able if I double up on a few days, because I know I won’t be in the kitchen for at least five of those days. (Going to the living food fest up in Ft. Bragg next weekend!)

Here’s what I have left: just one in the appetizer section: Pear Napoleon with Porcini Mushrooms and Artichokes (I’ve been saving that one for pears to come in season, and they’re just beginning!); two soups: Shitake Mushroom Soup with Lime Radish and Winged Beans. Wait, let’s just stop there. Can you guess why I haven’t made this one yet? What is lime radish? What are winged beans?

Can anyone help me out here? Suggestions for any likely substitutes??

The last soup is Butternut Squash and Ginger with Spaghetti Squash. In the salad department I only have one left: Carpaccio of Artichokes, Bleeding Heart Radish, Carrots and Golden Beets. What’s a frickin’ bleeding heart radish? Last in the entrée department is one with the same problem: Bleeding Heart Radish Ravioli with Yellow Tomato Sauce. It’s going to be bleeding heart too bad, but I doubt that I will find a bleeding heart radish to satisfy either of these recipes, but I’ll start to make the round of calls….again. Maybe I’ll get lucky like I did with the salsify and find that it will suddenly come in season.
Radish print courtesy of Rigel's beautiful art you can see at: http://www.drenculture.com/prints/vegetables/index.htm

I get to end with quite a few from the dessert department: Fig Tart which I’m doing tomorrow, then Tropical Fruit Spring Rolls with Coconut Sorbet – since the “roll” is made from paper-thin cut pineapple, this one is a calamity just waiting to get it’s picture taken. I won’t be able to put it off for much longer though, will I? Trio of Gelatos – this should be no problem, except she calls for persimmon and they won’t be in season until Fall…what to do, what to do…
Apple-Quince Pave, well, that one looks hard and also quince isn’t in season. And lastly, Chocolate Chip Cookies – they call for sprouted wheat flour with no indication of how to make it, but I can guess and also sprouted meal. OK meal of what? Again, no clue of what it is or how to make, so I’ll be improvising and testing them out on the choir girls next Wednesday.
God help ‘em.

Are you Allergic to Wheat?

I hear more and more of people discovering they are allergic to wheat. I find this ironic since wheat is like the first grain humans discovered to cultivate that kept them from starving and is probably why our species was able to thrive. How could we now, so far down the line of evolution, be allergic to something so basic? It isn’t genetically modified from what I’ve learned. Could it be because it’s been hybridized? Maybe the way it’s being processed. Or maybe we’re just getting too much of it.

Practicing this diet all summer (even though worlds have collided and I have not been pure), I have probably eaten more cleanly than ever before. I haven’t had a drop of dairy ice cream in months and months and very little bread or cooked wheat. Yesterday I picked up some wheat hot dog buns for tofu dogs. We were going to the county fair so I thought we’d eat some junk food at home to avoid the truly poisonous junk food at the fair.

I noticed after dinner my nose was markedly stuffy. Could this be a wheat allergy?? I suspect so. I bet many of us have a mild allergy to wheat and we’ve just learned to live with it. We think our stuffy nose or irritated throat or tendency to get colds is normal. Having been off wheat, as well as other cooked foods, I have noticed my usual slightly runny nose disappeared. It was all too telling when I reintroduced wheat yesterday and immediately had a runny nose all evening.

With that said Roxanne does use wheat in some of her recipes, for example the chocolate chip cookies. In fact rejuvelac, hailed to be so healthy by the raw foodists because it’s loaded with good-for-your-gut microbes, is made from sprouted wheat. But maybe it’s in the cooking?? Because I’ve not had an allergic reaction to the rejuvelac or the cheeses I’ve made from it. Or the tart shell I made the other day from the sprouted wheat flour.

So this is a curious thing. It is surprising how many food items (mostly processed) you’ll find that wheat has been snuck into, to cheaply thicken it or like in so many vegetarian items, to give it that more chewy “meaty” consistency. It’s like the pervasive GMO corn syrup found in countless processed foods.

So I invite you to question. If you’ve been feeling slightly under the weather, or downright sick, you may want to cast a suspicious eye toward that fluffy, innocent looking loaf of bread on your counter.

Salsify Appetizer / Cucumber Soup/ Mushrooms with Kohlrabi

I think they should make the word “salsify” into a verb. For example, I found it very salsifying to finally, at long last make salsify into a recipe. Would that work?

I also found salsify delicious and nutritious (salsilitious?). High in fiber, Vitamin C, riboflavin, Vitamin B6, potassium and manganese. Using a vegetable peeler to peel strips made for nice wide paparadelli-like noodles which were marinated in wine vinegar and then mixed with truffle oil and salt. The porcinis were also marinated. The sauce was pine nut puree which brought all the flavors together. Salsify is a very mild tasting root, not bitter, not sweet and I think it does have the slightest hint of the flavor of an oyster. Or else that was just subliminal on my part knowing it is also called oyster plant. The recipe was called Salsify with Black Truffles and Porcini Mushrooms. Mine was simply Salsify with Porcinis. Until I move to Europe I don’t think you’ll see truffles being a stocked item in my kitchen, ever.

Next up was the English Cucumber Soup with Tiny Carrots and Amaranth Leaves and Pine Nut Mayonnaise. She wanted me to somehow find white and purple baby carrots (of course I ran across baby purple carrots this morning, sigh). And what the hell are Amaranth leaves, I mean, PLEASE?! I didn’t even bother. This recipe was basically just pureed cucumber, but the mayo and diced (not baby) carrots on top gave it dimension.

The Marinated Exotic Mushrooms with Kohlrabi and Arugula was easy to make and I had been looking forward to using kohlrabi in a recipe. I ran into it for the first time at the farmers market years ago and feebly tried it a time or two. Since then I’ve read about it being used as a substitute for mashed potatoes because of it’s savory and mildly horseradish flavor. This was a tasty dish I might do again.

What a fun adventure broadening my root horizons between salsify and kohlrabi, and even lotus root.
How very salsifying.

Magic Moments with Morel Mushrooms

There’s hardly anything more pleasurable than trying out weird food on new friends. You know, newly made friends who are still too polite to spit out the food on their plates or gag in front of you. It’s a pleasure because you get to enjoy the challenge they must overcome to maintain pleasant facial features as they chew.

I guess that about sums up Morel Mushrooms and Lotus Root with Beets and Fermented Black Beans. Apparently lotus root is a good source of fiber, thiamin, B6 and vitamin C. I now like lotus root and have incorporated it into several salads. I know that the food combo here may sound a little unsavory but it wasn’t bad, it was tastey. It was just the raw morel mushrooms. Yes, they’re a little strong, but even better, I forgot to wash them. No Queen of Hygenic Kitchen Award for me.

So when one of my new choir friends (it’s Wednesday night get-together with my new choir buddies again) noted that the morels tasted “a little gritty” that’s when I realized I hadn’t rinsed them. I had marinated them, does that count?? My admission of this detail quieted the room for a moment.

But the look on at least one face was priceless and I’ll look forward to future possibilities in food to recreate pleasurable moments like these.

FOUND: Strange Black Carrot-Thing

Salsify, Salsify you elusive thang
I almost didn’t find you and then you came

With just days to go
You arrived just in time
Now I won’t have to replace you
With watermelon rind

All the way from Belgium! Not local, you are
I couldn’t even find you, not even by car

But I could have grown you right here
California climate is prime
If I were a gardener, retired
or not working full time

I called all the stores,
and begged at least one complete stranger
I gave up all hope, put the recipe in the hanger

Then Rigel said, to Berkeley Bowl you must Go!
Salsify Galore
But sorry, the traffic will blow.

And now that I have you
I hope the recipe turns out
They also call you oyster plant
I hope you don't taste like old trout

Shooting Stars and Banana Tart, and oh yeah, Pad Thai too

Last weekend we all reclined on the new magnificent deck that William built up in Sonoma to star gaze at the meteor showers. Tonight we went to Susie’s for dinner where our new dog, Boomer showered her hard wood floor with liquid comets out of his butt.
I think you get the picture.
But Dan is really good at “saves.” As she looked down at the new spot on her floor (after I somehow got through cleaning it up without puking), he firmly told her that the floor has needed to be refinished for years. “It’s high time you got these floors re-finished,” Daniel advised her. “Now you have the impetus. You should thank us.” Daniel is so gifted at turning bad things like these around. Such a helpful man.

To celebrate the prospect of newly refurbishing her floors, I helped out by providing dessert. Recipe 37: Banana Chocolate Tart with Caramel and Chocolate Sauce.

But now I realize I forgot to post a recipe! You can tell I’m getting busier at work by my lack of postings. The Young Pad Thai with Almond Chile Sauce was so perfect! Email me for the recipe, it’s a winner and easy to do. . I had a chance to use tamarind for the first time, very interesting. And the spicy cashews with it really gave the dish dimension. I brought it to the Concert in the Park last week and it was well received by Rick and Alane. It had that wonderful nutty sauce and coconut flavor that’s so good in Thai food. Very authentic, I recommend.

The Banana Chocolate Tart? Well it was delicious, but the “tart” that I first had to soak wheat berries overnight, then sprout them (2 days), then dehydrate them (hours), then grind into flour, to then mix with some oil, maple syrup and salt and dehydrate for ten hours (getting up at 3 in the morning to remove the parchment paper)…oh, that and then she tells me (because I never read recipes through before I cook, that would be too grown up) …because the tiny shells are fragile and time-consuming, make extras in case of breakage. Well, honey, I can tell you, there was no danger of breakage with these puppies. They had the integrity of week old bread. No breakage here, Roxanne.

So I would say the trouble of the “tart” was not worth it. But the delicious “caramel” sauce (cashew milk, dark honey, date paste, maple syrup) YUM, and the fudge (made from almond butter, cocoa and syrup) drizzled over the bananas: YES! The honey walnuts were a great accompaniment.

After dessert Susie made us sit through a movie we had already seen while she disappeared into the other room. Maybe to cry about her floor. You know how they have make-up sex? Well I’m hoping my dessert is make-up dessert. I hope it was delicious enough to remind her of what a sweet friend I am next time my dog lets go on her floor.

Life’s a Peach and then you Die

It’s raining peaches, nectarines and plums in the Valley right now. Yellow peaches with firm, golden insides that are juicy, called Baby Crawfords. Mariposa Plum, Heavenly White Nectarine, Green Gage Plum, Gold Dust Peach, Speckled Egg Nectarine. These are just a few I learned about (and some I tasted!) at Andy’s Orchard http://www.andysorchard.com/index.shtml. Rare fruit grower and preserver of over 200 varieties, Andy Mariani, collects rare varieties and has saved many heirlooms from extinction.

Most of us have only seen a single species in the grocery stores. You see, the heirloom varieties don’t ship well and they don’t always “look” like that rosy red and orange peach color that consumers think taste good, so if a grower wants to sell his peaches, he will go with a peach that can stand up to the beating of being shipped and still “look” good. They will also pick these peaches before they’re even ripe. Hey, if they’re hard, they’ll ship better.

Unfortunately, once a peach is picked it will not ripen any further and never develop another drop of sweetness. Of course these don’t taste anything near as delicious or unforgettable as a heritage peach. Next time you buy a peach in the store, look at the stem. If it’s green, they picked it underipe.

Well, I had the great pleasure last week of visiting Andy’s Orchard and tasting 80+ succulent, juicy peaches, nectarines and plums. I went down with the Bakers Dozen group http://bakersdozen.org/ and Andy rolled out the red carpet with over 80 heirloom varietals cut up and labeled there for us to taste and learn more about. They even served peach cobbler! We were gorged with stone fruit as we descended upon the orchard where Andy talked to us a little about fruit farming and allowed us to pick!

All this time I thought a nectarine was some kind of a peach-tangerine cross or something. All a nectarine is, is a peach without the fuzz! Only one gene difference between them. He told us about a peacotum (apricot-peach-plum mix)! He showed us that all you should do when picking a peach is to gently cradle it. If it drops in your hand, it’s ripe and should be picked. If not, leave it until it’s ready.

Andy does not sell underipe fruit and because he is getting a reputation for such fine fruit, and consumers are beginning to catch onto this buy local = quality thing, he is now shipping boxes of his dazzling fruit out to some choice markets.

He told us a story about an heirloom variety known as the Dinosaur Egg. It had a happy reputation as a very delicious variety and the farm was beginning to get known for it’s famous plum, which is a good thing when a farmer can make a living. Unfortunately a marketing company decided this was a terrific name, patented it and began labeling inferior plums (but ones that had the same interesting “egg” look of mottled skin and solid fruit inside) as Dinosaur Eggs. The farm was prohibited from ever using the name again. Greediness is sickening, isn’t it? These kinds of stories make me so sad. But then I see how well Andy’s Farm is doing, how committed they are to quality and goodness, and I see Good overpowering the Bad.

It’s like the seasons. Now we have so much fruit, tomatoes and fresh veggies, it’s like a cornucopia! Then the season will change and the last peach will fall from the tree. The peach will rot and feed the soil, which will feed the tree for next summer’s delicious fruits. Nothing ever dies, really, it just recycles. Compost the bad to feed the good. Now, Go eat a Peach!