by Sam Tackeff | Nov 12, 2009 | Food Travel, Ingredients, Local stores, Pantry Staples, Soups
A few weeks ago we headed down the California coastline to a tiny town named Pescadero, on a quest for beans. Pescadero, at the midway point between San Francisco and Santa Cruz – is known for a lovely beach, antiques, the historic artichoke soup at Duarte’s Tavern (which apparently Guy Fieri is a fan of), and the burrito joint in the gas station – but if you drive farther down the road you will get to a mystical and magical place named Phipps Country Store, which has both an unusually large selection of beans, and an unusually large selection of birds, small furry animals, livestock and antique stoves.
So, truthfully, I drove over an hour just to buy beans. But, oh what beans!!! Phipps brags over 50 types of beans, most of which are grown by them, using no sprays/chemicals. While I was there I picked up some chickpeas, runner beans, soup mixes, and chestnut runners, all glorious stuff.
Included in my purchase was one really great package of red lentils and barley – that came with a recipe which I adapted for dinner.
This soup is perfect for the winter weather, and like most soups, tastes absolutely delicious for lunch the next day even if you are eating it cold. My twist is the miso – I use white miso, which adds a really nice depth of flavor to soups without it tasting miso-y or exotic. You can easily find white miso paste in the refrigerator section of any asian market, and I would highly recommend buying it to have on hand. If you can’t find miso, you could substitute bouillon.
Phipp’s Red Lentil Barley Soup
makes 8-9 1 cup servings
1 slice thick cut bacon (I use Niman Ranch)
1 cup (or 1 large) onion, chopped
1 cup (or three stalks) celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (28 oz) tomatoes, or 4 cups diced fresh tomatoes
3/4 cups red lentils, rinsed
3/4 cup pearl barley
4 cups water
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon white miso paste
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup shredded swiss cheese, or sharp cheddar (optional)
In a large heavy bottomed soup pot, place the slice of bacon over medium heat, until most of the fat is rendered. Add in the onions, celery and garlic, and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.
Add the water, chicken broth, miso paste, tomatoes, lentils, barley, rosemary oregano, carrots and pepper. Bring to a boil, and then turn down the heat and simmer gently for 40 minutes or until the barley, lentils and carrots are tender. Top with swiss cheese or sharp cheddar if desired. (It goes well with or without!). I made a small batch of salt and olive oil rolls from my refrigerated master dough from “Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day” and it went perfectly with this.
Nutritional Information: (Per 1 cup serving, not including cheese) Calories: 158, Total Fat: 1.6 g, Sodium: 115.9 mg, Total Carbs: 29.3 g, Dietary Fiber: 6.5 g, Protein: 7.7 g
Phipps Country Store and Farm
2700 Pescadero Road, Pescadero, CA 94060
(650) 879-0787
Hours: 10:00 – 5:00 during winter, Closed Mondays
by Sam Tackeff | Aug 9, 2009 | Farmers Market, Local stores, Shopping, Vegetables
It’s something terrible we have all experienced. Accidentally eating a light pink, mealy, and flavorless tomato. Or perhaps eating a bland, completely tasteless melon. Or worse eating slices from an unripe slightly green banana. How do you ensure that you are eating the tastiest and most nutrient rich fruits and vegetables? Start eating seasonally and locally!
Eating seasonally means eating whats ripe when it reaches its natural point of the seasonal growing cycle. Heading to your local farmer’s market or green market is a good way to start, a level up would be joining a local farm’s CSA to get yourself fresh fruits and vegetables ever week or two through the summer, and even in winter. Here are my favorite go to resources:
For the Fridge: Because I live in San Francisco, I’m blessed to be able to use the Local Foods Wheel which shows both foods that are in season all year round on the inner circle, and foods coming into season on the outer circle. So far there is a New York version and a San Francisco version – let’s hope they expand soon! (If you are in SF – you can pick up your own copy at Omnivore Books! We have ’em in stock)
Portable for the tech crowd: the Seasons iPhone application will give you seasons information for “fruits, vegetables, lettuces, herbs, fungi and nuts,” for wherever you happen to be. You can view local seasons versus import seasons and see a graph that shows how “in season” a given food is. It’s $1.99, but you can take it everywhere!
There are also a few websites that are great resources: the Northeast Regional Food Guide for the New England area, and in Europe, BBC Food runs the What’s In Season page . A little more obscurely, a Swiss couple runs a site called Laughing Lemon, that also shows what is in season each month, and points out some rarer vegetables and fruits. Because the northern hemisphere has similar growing zones, these sites can be helpful for anyone in that general region. (via Maki)
For further reading, there are several cookbooks that discuss eating seasonally that I love:
– Jamie Oliver’s Jamie at Home (discusses growing and cooking methods for seasonal veg)
– Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries (his eating journal for a year of dinners)
– River Cottage Vegetable Handbook – the River Cottage makes the best little handbooks on the planet. They have ones for mushrooms, preserving, bread making, and seafood as well.
Do you go to your local farmers market? Are you a member of a CSA? (Actually, if you are a member of a CSA that you love in San Francisco, gush about it here in the comments. I need suggestions! )
by Sam Tackeff | Jun 1, 2009 | Local stores
There is nothing like spending a few minutes a day in your neighborhood markets finding the perfect food for dinner. I know that many people have stressful days and they just want to get home and kick back with some takeout, or whatever you can make the fastest, but for me, spending a couple of minutes in the cheese shop making small talk and getting free samples, picking up some meat at Drewes and saying hi to the staff who know us by name, or walking down the street to Church Produce to find the perfect heirloom tomato and chat with my neighbors for a few minutes – is a really great stress reducer.
Here are a few snapshots of my beautiful neighborhood yesterday – it was cloudy and gray, but that only makes the roses more brilliant! These beauties were at the very top of the hill on Noe street. Someone has a lovely green thumb – I think I need to leave them a note on their door letting them know how jealous I am of their roses. They make for great incentive walking the steep way from my house to 24th street.
Here is St. Paul’s church, I’m guessing it’s why they call it Church Street, and it’s pretty impressive. We snuck inside once during afternoon mass, and it’s just beautiful inside – Gothic arches, buttresses, and intricate stained glass. One of my favorite classes in college was a course about spirituality and architecture, and regardless of what you believe in, walking into a church like this is sure to make your heart soar.
When I have a house, I’m going to paint it gray and grow some of these flaming climbing flowers. Look at the pop!
It’s not hard to shop in the markets every day when you have such a beautiful walk to look forward to. And it sure beats shopping for an hour in the terrifying/overwhelming Safeway on 30th. And then you have the added bonus of the freshest of produce and ingredients. Win!
by Sam Tackeff | Feb 11, 2009 | Local stores, Meat
The first week we arrived in Noe Valley, we spent almost all of our time moving, unpacking boxes, and putting together several items of Ikea furniture. One night, we found ourselves very, very, hungry, and had nothing in our fridge. We set off to find some food. Fortunately, Cecilia, the incredibly kind woman who works behind the counter at Drewes Bros. Meats, opened the doors for us an hour after closing, and after learning our names and our situation, gave us some really fantastic steak with a special discount. “Welcome to the neighborhood!” she waved enthusiastically as she locked up behind us. There was no doubt that we had moved to the right place.
We live two blocks away from Drewes Bros. Meats. Drewes has been opened since 1889, which is a fairly fantastic legacy, one of the oldest meat shops in California. When it almost tragically closed ten years ago, it was bought by two young brothers, Josh and Isaac Epple who had been working in the store since they were teenagers, and couldn’t bear to see it go.
There is no doubt why Drewes is an integral part of the neighborhood. Every time we are in there, people stroll in excitedly to purchase their evening meal. If it’s busy, you take a number from the old school deli counter reel. Everyone is in a good mood at Drewes; sometimes a game is broadcast on the little mounted television, often something is cooking on their mini grill in the back, and everyone chatters about what they want for dinner (with the helpful staff ever offering suggestions).
You can get all types of meats and fish, including rabbits, venison, and dungeness crab- and if they don’t have it in stock, they will find it for you. The only flaw is that Drewes doesn’t actually butcher on site. I learned this last week when I went in asking if I could learn to butcher a pig (a skill that I have been wanting to learn for years), and I was apologetically informed that this wouldn’t be possible. Alas, I’ll have to continue my search, but I’ll still continue going to Drewes.
We frequent Drewes a lot, and the best thing there is their award winning meatloaf. They wrap it up for you with instructions, and you just have to go home and pop it in the oven for an hour. Tonight we had it with corn, green beans, and a mixed salad, but it has gone equally well with mashed potatoes and broccoli.
Drewes Bros. Meats – 1706 Church St (at 29th St.)- Tel: (415) 821-0515 – Hours vary. We find them open later most of the time.
