by Sam Tackeff | Sep 26, 2010 | Asian, Books, Challenge, chicken, Filipino
“Filipino food is delicious because it is cooked with love and always served with generosity and hospitality.”
One of the greatest pleasures of working at Omnivore Books is getting to learn about different cultural cuisines.
For the second Foodbuzz Next Food Blog Star assignment, we’ve been tasked to tackle a classic dish from another culture. My immediate thought: Chicken Adobo. Pungent, tasty, and shockingly easy to make, Adobo is a staple of Filipino cuisine.
Filipino food is finally getting its moment in the sun. In Los Angeles, good Filipino restaurants are ubiquitous and the younger generation are clamoring to embrace their cultural food roots. In New York, Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan created a sensation with their restaurant Cendrillon in Manhattan, and more recently moved out to Brooklyn to open the Purple Yam. Here in the Bay Area, Filipino restaurants are on the rise too, and food trucks Adobo Hobo, Hapa SF, and Senor Sisig are producing both contemporary and traditional versions of Filipino classics.
A few months ago, Filipino chef and cookbook author Amy Besa came for a talk at Omnivore Books. To be honest, having grown up in New Hampshire, I had never experienced true (or even bastardized) Filipino cuisine. While Besa spoke, I feverishly took notes.
In addition to being an incredibly warm and friendly woman, Besa is above all an intellectual. “If you are going to write a cookbook,” she elaborated, “I would recommend that you read a lot first. And use food to learn about history. If you try to trace back to where your food came from, you are doing history, and all of a sudden [history] is very exciting!”
(Photo: Allison Michael Orenstein, Time Out NY)
“Filipino food is fundamentally about balance, subtlety, nuance and harmony.”
People tend to itemize Filipino dishes rather than contextualize them. A good way to think about any cultural cuisine is to look at it from a historical perspective: food that is ours, and food that is borrowed. The Philippines experienced a long history of colonialism and occupation, and the food culture was greatly influenced over time. Besa noted that “Filipinos were very good at borrowing foods – the foods that they liked, they indigenized.”
Arab traders had been passing through for eons, and over several hundred years the Philippines were ruled by Spain, and then really ruled by Mexico. You can see this in influences such as Pampanga Bringhe – the Filipino version of Paella (made with sticky rice with coconut, turmeric, and native chicken.) There were very few influences from Mexico, but those include tamales made with rice, and other crossovers such as the use of lye.
Existing in Southeast Asia, they also had many influences from across the region. Immigrants from the Fujian mountains couldn’t use a lot of vegetable oils because they were cost prohibitive to the poor Fujian, so they used pork as fat, which was brought over to the Philippines. Then the Cantonese came with their cultural influences, and as richer communities they brought lighter foods such as stir fries.
In the 50’s, the United States came to occupy the country. Besa noted, regretfully, “Television came on in the 50’s and the big companies started cooking shows to promote their products (and in doing so destroyed generational culinary transfer).The new medium got totally divorced from the values of food you got from your grandmother.”
Besa made it her mission to preserve some of the old ways in her book “Memories of Philippine Kitchens“.
“No matter how rich or poor – Adobo is always on the table, and there are universal rules.”
In many Filipino dishes — including Adobo – a traditional marinade technique, Sinigang – a soup of meat or seafood with tropical fruits, and Kinilaw – a seafood preparation similar to ceviche — the common flavor is sourness. Besa explains this as defining the Filipino palate. The ingredients are the key to the culture, and “Every ingredient you put into your food has got to mean something”. In her restaurant, Besa imports coconut sap vinegar, heirloom rice, and salt from the Philippines. “Everytime I use heirloom rice, I eat up the price – it supports a farmer – that’s the taste of our soil. Of our culture. For me, that’s how I show my pride. It’s not always the best business model, but it is what makes us happy.”
When I set out to choose a recipe for Adobo, I thought about Amy’s rules for creating a recipe and the importance of dealing with ingredients and showing respect for the dish. A good recipe will explain how the dish came about into being, and what you are trying to do with it. You find a lot of truths in classic combinations. You use the very best ingredients.
There are endless combinations of Adobo recipes, but the key components are the sweet, sour, and slightly spicy flavors infused in the meat and vegetables. The technique has been native to the Philippines for centuries, and it was only after the Spaniards came that it was renamed. (Adobo is a Spanish word for the marinades in Spain and Mexico that slightly resembled the Filipino dish.)
For my version of a Filipino Adobo, I used chicken, soy sauce, rice vinegar, coconut milk, bay leaves, black peppers, and chiles. I made some modifications based on what was in my own kitchen (ie: low sodium soy sauce, and lite coconut milk), but the beauty of Adobo is that as long as you have that wonderful sour flavor from the vinegar, and the sweet coconut, it tends to turn out well every time.
“Cookbooks are a roadmap to our identity, our history, and our roots.”
When Besa spoke about creating the cookbook, I immediately felt moved by her influences and how thoughtful she was about the process.
“I first had to make my cookbook really personal – my love of food comes from my grandmother. It’s a way of preserving memory. Ask a person who is dying about food memories. … Every family should record their treasured recipes…. In generations past, you knew where your food came from. Your Grandmother wouldn’t take shortcuts – it would be the best.
Her first rule of writing cookbooks is to find a muse. For her, it was Doreen Gamboa Fernandez – whose books led Amy to learn more about Filipino foods. She re-read them every year to make her understanding of Filipino food and culture deeper.
It took Amy and Romy four years to put together this book. They traveled back to the Philippines, where she hadn’t been since she had left Manila 30 years before, during a period of political unrest. She traversed the country taping oral histories. What’s your name? How do you do this? “[It is] amazing what you can discover. You become very attuned to the ingredients. The knowledge of the people [like being acutely aware of the stages of a coconut] – just amazing – once you accumulate all that information, you raise the level of information by seeing universalities of all things.”
At one point, an external editor tried to take it over. Besa was adamant: “You can not take out Mahjong. She wanted to cut out the personal. Her notes were kind of racist – too much about grannie, boring.”
For me, “Memories of Philippine Kitchens” has become one of my most treasured cookbooks on my shelf. The material was totally new to me, and I realized that there was so much to discover about my own food and cultural roots — it has inspired me to start writing my own food histories.
“If you really love and respect your culture and food, you would not come up with anything less than the best.”
Chicken Adobo
Excerpted from Memories of Philippine Kitchens by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2006).
Serves 4 to 6
This is the recipe we use at the restaurant. The coconut milk helps keep the chicken moist and it makes a rich sauce. We serve this with Mushroom and Bamboo Shoot Rice (recipe follows) and sautéed mustard greens or bok choy. There are countless variations of chicken adobo; Mary “Inday” Gancayco serves a memorable mixture of chicken and pork adobo coated with mashed chicken livers and topped with fried garlic.
Marinade:
1 1/2 cups rice vinegar
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup soy sauce
12 garlic cloves, peeled
3 bay leaves
3 whole birdseye chiles
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
One 3 1/2-pound whole chicken, quartered and cut into pieces
In a large nonreactive bowl or heavy-duty, resealable plastic bag, combine all of the marinade ingredients. Add the chicken pieces and turn to coat in the marinade. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
In a large casserole or Dutch oven, heat the chicken and marinade over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally to make sure the chicken is covered in the marinade, until the chicken is cooked through and tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
Transfer the chicken pieces to a large bowl, raise the heat to medium-high, and reduce the sauce until it is the consistency of heavy cream, about 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and chiles. Return the chicken to the sauce and cook until just warmed through.
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Inspired by Besa’s suggestions in her book, I served the Adobo with a rice made with Shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and turmeric. For two people, I sauteed a half an onion (chopped) with a grated carrot, for a few minutes until soft. I then added 3 cloves of garlic (minced), and cooked for another minute. I then added 1/4 pound of shiitake mushroms, and 1/2 cup of chopped bamboo shoots, and 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric. I stirred, and added 1 cup of Koda Farms Multi-grain blend (brown rice, quinoa, etc.) from Rainbow Grocery, and topped with an inch of water. I brought it to a boil and set it to simmer for 45 minutes until cooked.
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F0r more good reading – a few food bloggers whose posts on Filipino food have inspired me:
Arnold @ http://www.inuyaki.com/
Marvin @
MarketMan @ http://www.marketmanila.com/
Connie @ http://homecookingrocks.com/
Erika @ http://ivoryhut.com
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 19, 2010 | Books, Challenge
There is nothing quite like a little forced introspection to make you sit down and realize that you’ve had one of the most jam-packed years of your life. (Literally, lots of jam.) In this case, a competition — Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog is the name of the game. Their first challenge requires me to define why I should be the Next Food Blog Star. Perhaps I should start be re-introducing myself to them, and to you.
I’m Samantha. And I love food.
Two years ago I needed a change of scenery and decided to move three thousand miles from the comfort of New Hampshire to bustling San Francisco. To be honest, this decision was probably made years earlier when I first watched the film Mrs. Doubtfire. Few things live up to the wide eyed optimism of a seven year old, but San Francisco held up its end of the bargain. I love it here.
Continuing with the spirit of reinventing myself, I started a food blog upon my arrival.
Little did I know where it would lead me. Shortly after joining Foodbuzz, I participated in Foodbuzz 24,24,24 and got an amazing dream meal at chef Chris Cosentino’s Incanto. This connected me to an internship at a Food P.R. firm. I started working with chefs and restaurants on recipe organization, development and testing, and fell in love with all the hard work behind creating a dining experience. Okay, truthfully this love started when I became a stagiere in a local restaurant at the age of 12.
Somewhere along the line I also became the research assistant and recipe tester on a cookbook by “Jam it, Pickle it, Cure it” author Karen Solomon (see, lots of jam). I became involved (re: obsessed) with Omnivore Books on Food, and eventually ended up pretty much moving in, thanks to Celia Sack offering me a mercy job. All the while, I took control of my own health, got back into shape, and I went back to school at Integrative Nutrition to become a Health Coach and help others do the same.
And for the sake of full disclosure, I should confess the number of cookbooks I own now well exceeds the bookshelves I own to store them.
Why do I blog you may ask?
Ultimately, it comes down to the people I get to meet and be truly inspired by. For me, food blogging is not just about the chow, but integrally about those who are a part of it. I realized early on I wanted to share their stories with you. And in many ways, that’s what The Second Lunch has become.
In the past year, I’ve met so many wonderful chefs and insiders of the industry — I truly feel blessed for where my passion for food has led me. For this post, I decided to make a list of some of the folks I’d met, thinking that I’d get a good paragraph out of it. I did not expect this brick wall of superstars. This shocks me every time I glance down at it.
The short list includes: the wonderful folks from Big Sur Bakery, Polly Adema, Arthur Allen, Nate Appleman, Rose Levy Beranbaum, Ed Behr, Amy Besa, John Besh, Carole Bloom, Mark Bittman, Kim Boyce, Bruce & Eric Bromberg, Frank Bruni, Novella Carpenter, Mark Stewart Cassidy, David Chang, Nan Chase, Anita Chu, Andrew Coe, Langdon Cook, Chris Cosentino, Temra Costa, Elizabeth Crawford, Dave Cruz, Tod Davies, Penny De Los Santos,Tracy Des Jardins, Elan Drucker and Brett Emerson, Tara Duggan, Gordon Edgar, Elizabeth Falkner, Sarah Max Feldner, Jeremy Fox, Zoe Francois & Dr. Jeff Hertzberg, Fran Gage, Marcia Gagliardi, Anna Getty, Barbara Ghazarian, Darra Goldstein, Evan Goldstein, Joyce Goldstein, William Grimes, Giuliano Hazan, Dierdre Heeken and Caleb Barber, Jaden Hair, Pauli Halstead, Gerald Hirigoyen, Fergus Henderson, Lauren Hoover, Dianne Jacob, Madhur Jaffrey, Michael Kalanty, Niloufer Ichaporia King, Thomas Keller, Shelly Lindgren, David Lebovitz, Matt Lewis & Renato Poliafito of Baked, Barbara Lynch, Kermit Lynch, Deborah Madison, Jacqueline Mallorca, Harold McGee, Nancy Mehagian, Dr. Daphne Miller, Kate Moses, Marion Nestle, Cynthia Nims, Andrea Nguyen, Barbara Passino, Greg Patent, Cindy Pawlcyn, Georgia Pellegrini, James Peterson, Gayle Pirie, Michael Pollan, Michael Recchiuti, Peter Reinhart, John Relihan, Sara Remington, Tori Ritchie, Chad Robertson & Liz Pruitt, Lorna Sass, Rachel Saunders, Jennie Schacht, Lisa Schwartz, Kim Severson, Andrew Smith, Karen Solomon, Andrew Swallow, Heidi Swanson, Michael Symon, David Tanis, Pim Techamuanvivit, Corinne Trang, Patricia Unterman, Alice Waters, Max Watman, Tara Austen Weaver, Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, Ari Weinzweig, Joanne Weir, Laura Werlin, Kathy Wiley, Victoria Wise, Molly Wizenberg, Paula Wolfert, Scott Youkilis, Grace Young, and Jane Ziegelman – Not to mention the hundreds of other food lovers that I’ve had the pleasure to meet over the past two years. (They would fill another post in itself). And I already know I’m forgetting some wonderful people on this list.
And that’s only in the past year. In the next month I’m going to add Rene Redzepi, Tyler Florence, Michael Chiarello, Dorie Greenspan, Jordan McKay, and Diana Kennedy to that list. And who knows who else?
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Just incase you need another reason to push me onto the next round, here are several awkward and embarrassing photos from my childhood revolving around food. From top left: The taste tester, baking cookies with Sarah and Sara, hugging the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut, and picking apples from a tree.
Mostly though, I blog because I love it here. I love being part of a greater community who cares just as much as I do, and doesn’t bat an eye when I whip out a camera at dinner and debate the origin of our meal with my dining companions, purchase another cookbook I don’t have space for because I don’t want to deprive myself of knowledge, wait an hour in line for crispy pork skin because well, it’s crispy pork skin, or wade through thousands of hungry hippies at the farmers market for the perfect summer peach.
Yes, my name is Samantha and I love food.
But equally, I love everything that surrounds it.
by Sam Tackeff | Aug 19, 2010 | Asian, Books, omnivore books, Restaurants
Summer isn’t over yet! (Really, it’s just beginning here in San Francisco). For anyone looking for some good summer food reading – look no further! There is still time to hit the beaches and don your sunhat with a good book! Here is the official Omnivore Books Summer Reading List – for those of you who haven’t seen the newsletter – here is the list (I have in fact, read every single one of these books, and enjoyed them myself):
OMNIVORE’S 2010 BEACH READS
By far, one of my favorite books on this list is Fuchsia Dunlop’s ‘Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China‘. Perhaps I’m biased because one of my oldest childhood friends lives in Shanghai, and I feel a kinship to those who write about China, and perhaps my bias extends from my love of Chinese food instilled from my father’s very good Chinese cooking skills (he learned from an Asian grandmother whom he exchanged grocery shopping for her for cooking lessons), but nevertheless there is something visceral that comes up every time I get to recommend this book to someone.
When people come into Omnivore asking for their next good read, I usually direct them towards this book and start waxing poetic and verging on desperation. You MUST read this book. I’m not sure how I would even describe this woman without babbling about how cool she is and how much I admire her tenacity and how much I want to be like her. Here I am doing it again.
Above all, I love reading books by smart, motivated, strong women. There, I said it. Some of my biggest role models are writers such as M.F.K. Fisher, Elizabeth David, and Judith Jones. These women inspire me every day. In brief, Fuchsia Dunlop is certainly one of these women I admire: a witty and persistent Englishwoman, who rather than taking the safe and comfortable route, decided to study abroad in China during her University years. People just didn’t do that in the 90’s. Her brief stint led to a lifelong passion – she went back to live there, and ultimately managed to stumble her way into becoming the first westerner ever to attend the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine.
Ultimately she went on to write two cookbooks, ‘Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking‘ and the ‘Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province‘ which are both excellent resources for Sichuan and Hunanese cooking. Beyond the cookbooks, it was a good thing she went ahead and wrote her memoir. Her voice on the page is clearly one of a woman I’d love to go gallivanting off to the ends of the earth with.
Throughout the book, Dunlop has this wonderful way of describing the tastes and the essence of food, and ‘Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China‘ is full of amazing, bizarre, and sometimes even shocking tales. I found myself reading through this book – giggling, getting hungry, and experiencing her remarkable journey as a vicarious travel partner.
The Bottom Line: I highly recommend this book.
And then, of course, once you read it, you too can join the ‘Fuchsia Dunlop Admiration Society’ (OK, so I made that up) and can follow her on twitter! Now if only we could get her to come on vacation and speak at Omnivore! We’ll have a party!
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And now, while we are on the topic, here are a few photos from a dinner I had with fellow food bloggers quite some time ago at Sichuan restaurant Z+Y in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Totally Authentic? Not quite, but it was delicious nonetheless.
I’ve had a soft spot for Sichuan since I was a child, mostly because one of the better Chinese restaurants in our slightly sleepy corner of New Hampshire was called Szechuan Taste. There was one in Portsmouth, and then they opened another one in Exeter conveniently located blocks away from my high school. I can’t really vouch for the authenticity of the food, as they became very Americanized over the years, but I loved the place and have fond memories that guided my pursuit of knowledge into Chinese cooking, so I have to give them credit where credit is due.
At Z+ Y, we ate (somewhat gluttonously, between eight of us): Scallion Pancakes, Spicy Numbing Beef Tendon, Yunnan Style Steamed Chicken Soup in Clay Pot, Peking Duck, Pea Sprouts with Garlic, Special Pork Belly (not on the menu), Chicken with Explosive Chili Peppers and Hot Braised Sea Bass, Cured Beef Wrapped In Scallion Pancake, and Red Bean Buns for dessert.
There is something really reassuring about eating dinner with food bloggers. For one, you don’t have to feel any embarrassment about taking photos of the food, and really the phrase “WAIT – let me just snap a few photos please!” even remains unsaid. Although, to be fair, Devon is very good about waiting patiently for me to take my photos at dinner.
Bloggers in attendance: @cookingwithamy @chefjen, @urbanstomach, @summertomato, @alphaprep (yep that’s me), @divinacucina, @heatherhal and @Jeters.
Another thing about eating with food bloggers is that you can order half of the menu and not skip over the bits and pieces of the animal for fear that your dining partners will not be so keen on your choice. And so here, a dish that we all (or mostly all) enjoyed: Tendon. It’s not just for pho! I can’t get over the fact that it looks like I’m being served food on an easel. I really got a kick out of this dish. The beef tendon was shaved thinly, and served with a tingly numbing sauce.
We food bloggers also really appreciate highly photogenic foods, such as this Chicken with Explosive Chili Peppers. Massive piles of fiery peppers in contrasting red and green! I’m fairly sure this had more peppers than would be needed or wanted in the home, but it made for an exciting presentation.
And then there was the duck. Apologies to @jeters for the “in the moment eating shot”, but I had to put this in as it was the only shot of the duck I managed to take. I’ve been a devotee of duck since my childhood where my favorite memories of Chinatown were the ducks hanging in the windows. I’m sure my parents were slightly concerned about my excitement – I was at that point fully aware of the live happy farm duck being the same, in theory, as the dessicated hanging duck in the window – and I still would ask to eat it pleadingly.
A great part about the food blogging community is that you can eat with people that you greatly respect and admire, and even if their work is heralded across the globe, perhaps in bookstores, or written about in famous magazines, even the best food writers will gather to share a meal – food is something we all have in common. The lovely and talented Divina Cucina in the background (for whom this dinner was in honor of), and quick pickled cucumbers in the foreground.
Food bloggers also have gumption and forethought to order in advance, and throw their hands into the air and say feed me the best you can! The Japanese have a word Omakase, or Chef’s Tasting Menu, that is in the spirit that I like to eat – allowing the chef to choose the best, the freshest, the most interesting foods, and as a rule, I always defer to their suggestions for which I’m often highly rewarded. The pork belly – not on the menu, but at the recommendation of the chef was delightful – a current food trend, pork belly has been a delicacy for hundreds, if not thousands? of years, and prepared simply, this was one of the better experiences with pork belly I have had to date.
And then there is that moment in many a meal, where sometimes, even seasoned food bloggers are slightly perplexed. In this case, the moment was when we were served the cured meat wrapped in scallion pancake – Chinese-Jewish fusion food? I wasn’t able to grasp the influence, but I liked it!
Finally, we ended with red bean buns, and slices of orange, which, although I do have some fabulous photos of friends making awkward orange smiles, I’ve held back at posting them, perhaps though, they’ll serve as future blackmail.
For more perspective, check out Alex’s write-up (same dinner, lens across the table). And for even more convincing, Marcia (The Tablehopper) also had a great writeup of her dinner a month ago.
Z&Y Restaurant, 655 Jackson St, between Grant & Kearny
415-981-8988
Monday-Sunday 11 AM-10 PM
Pre-Ordered Nine Course Meal For Eight: $200 after tax and tip (sans beverage)
by Sam Tackeff | Jul 2, 2010 | Books, Food Travel, omnivore books, Soups
I have a little secret to share with you. Ok, so it’s not a secret to anyone who knows me, but, I happen to be obsessed with Jamie Oliver. It started in 1999, right around when we first got cable television, I discovered the Food Network, and then I discovered the Naked Chef. It was one of the first cookbooks I cooked through. I should have blogged about it. Oh well. When Jamie married Jools, I put his photo up next to my bed (which I had clipped from my grandmother’s People Magazine) and cried a little bit.
I can’t believe that it was over 10 years ago. Now, 14? 15 books later? He has come out with a new one – except it isn’t out in the states yet. Jamie Does is another brilliant book from Jamie Oliver that I encourage you to get your hands on. Don’t be put off by his media presence – he is legit – I assure you this man can cook seriously good food.
I took home a copy of ‘Jamie Does‘ about a month ago from Omnivore, and could not be more excited about it. It’s a fantastic cookbook. The premise is based on Jamie’s travels across Europe and North Africa (Lucky Bastard!) : he heads to Spain, Italy, Sweden, Morocco, Greece and France, searching for the flavors, techniques, and recipes of each country.
There are so many reasons I love this book (aside from the fact that everything Jamie Oliver does is wonderful,) but my favorite part are these beautiful spreads of the main flavor components and ingredients of each country. The tagline of ‘Jamie Does’ is “Easy twists on classic dishes inspired by my travels”. So many people are afraid to cook new types of cuisines, but as long as you have the flavors and the general cooking techniques, you can fiddle around and make things taste delicious and fairly authentic.
Each page of this cookbook is filled with beautiful spreads and photographs by David Loftus – real food that you want to eat, and feel empowered to prepare. You don’t have to go to these places to eat, you can travel right in your own kitchen. (Although, frankly, this cookbook makes me yearn to whip out my passport and my credit card and make reckless financial decision…) And yes, there is a tv show. I’ve been watching the grainy version on youku, because British networks are cruel, cruel people and will not stream online to the U.S. audience.
Here are links to more of Jamie’s recipes: head over to his website to access hundreds of his recipes . An incredible resource!! And of course, he’s on twitter, too. Now if only we could get him to Omnivore Books for a signing….
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Last night I put together a quick summer minestrone soup with some of the contents of my farm box. I also had a loaf of bread that our neighbor baked, which needed to be eaten, and I decided that soup would be the perfect accompaniment. After searching for the proper treatment for my veg, I was inspired by the ‘Spring and Summer Minestrone’ in ‘Jamie Does‘
Spring Minestrone with Pesto
adapted from ‘Jamie Does’
Serves 2-3, 25 minutes
In a heavy bottomed pot, heat a glug of olive oil. Saute an onion, a couple of chopped carrots, a few cloves of garlic, and a few slices of really good thick cut bacon, chopped. After those have been going for about 5 minutes, add in two chopped zucchini, and cook for a few more minutes. While that’s going, chop up a tomato, and a bunch of parsley, and whatever greens you have in the fridge, and stir it all in. Swiss chard? Kale? All I had was lettuce. It worked just fine. Add a handful of peas if you have them (I didn’t.) And then cover with some good organic chicken or vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, and add a small handful of pasta (I used 1/2 cup israeli cous cous). Season with salt and pepper, and turn down to a simmer for 10 minutes.
While the soup is going – you make your pesto. A classic pesto will have fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil. I had basil, garlic, walnuts, Kerrygold Dubliner with Irish Stout, and olive oil. It worked out just fine. I dumped a large handful of the basil into my mortar and pestle with a pinch of coarse salt, and bruised them well. I added a few cloves of garlic, a couple of walnuts, and made a paste. I grated in about an ounce of cheese, and loosened it all up with a few good glugs of olive oil.
When the pasta was cooked, I ladled it into bowls, and topped with a dollop of pesto. I toasted thick slices of the bread, and topped them with a pat of Kerrygold Butter.
by Sam Tackeff | Jun 23, 2010 | Books, Chocolate
Alright, almost wordless. These lovely spoonfuls were made for us at Omnivore by Barbara Passino, author of Chocolate for Breakfast, and proprietress of the Oak Knoll Inn in Napa, California. She bakes them right on the spoon! I found them delightful when dipped in her home made chocolate sabayon.
by Sam Tackeff | May 21, 2010 | Books
Yes, I’m here, there and everywhere.
Head over to The Good Taste Review for my review of Lucinda Scala Quinn’s ‘Mad Hungry Feeding Men and Boys’. Plus, there is a great recipe for these delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I reckon I’ve made about 20 recipes from this cookbook so far, and it is one of my favorites this year.
Don’t be thrown off by the title! This cookbook is for you.
Yes, even if you are single woman living on Lake Itasca in Minnesota. It’s for everyone, I swear.
