The past week on Instagram

Top Row: Farmer's market florals, Bryan enjoying high chair time.
Middle Row: Saturday errands and candied apples at the farmer's market.
Bottom Row: Post mid-century architectural tour lunch by hubby, farmer's market florals

Immerse thyself

A while back I bought an immersion blender for Scott, king of the kitchen gadgets.  The blender sat in the kitchen cabinet for several months until recently when I started getting CSA deliveries with various fall veggies such as squashes, potatoes, carrots and celery.  In previous years, I'd made a few blended soups, always resulting in a big mess with the blender, pots and pans and a lot of cleanup.  Now, I can't get enough.  We've made all kinds of blended soups this season requiring just one pot and a little hum from the immersion blender.  Here is a little something I made with some butternut squash, potatoes, celery and cilantro I received the other day.  Healthy and yummm!!!

The Cultural Revolution Cookbook

I am proud to announce that my Godfather or 干爸爸 Scott Seligman recently finished writing a cookbook jointly with sociologist and fellow foodie Sasha Gong.  The Cultural Revolution Cookbook comes out December 1 and hopefully all of you readers will purchase a copy for your own kitchen.   Being one who is always up for a bit of culinary adventure, I was super excited when I heard about the cookbook.  Not only does it have great recipes, but the book is also chock full of information about China's cultural revolution and fascinating political art from that period in Chinese history.  In Uncle Scott's own words:

The cookbook has the unlikely theme of China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), of which Sasha was a veteran. On the surface of it, it sounds like an absurd proposition, because food was anything but plentiful during the Cultural Revolution and some people were reduced to eating tree bark and insects to survive. The 17 million young people whom Chairman Mao ordered to the countryside in 1968 by and large felt that leaving their education behind to work side by side with the peasants was a tragic waste of their productive years.

Our thesis, however, is that one of the things that they actually did learn from the peasants was how to make do with what there was. They learned to cook with fresh, wholesome foods that were in season, to conserve scarce fuel and to prepare remarkably tasty and healthful dishes with enough nourishment to get them through long, arduous days in the fields. We think the book will resonate not only with people interested in China, but also those committed to eating locally grown, preservative-free, unprocessed food. In addition to dozens of recipes, the book contains some history, a chronology of the Cultural Revolution, some personal stories and a slew of anecdotes relating to food and ingredients used during that era. It’s also profusely illustrated with socialist realist art from the period –those colorful propaganda posters showing Chinese peasants building socialism. The recipes include few prepared ingredients and pretty much everything needed is available at a well-stocked grocery store.

Here is a sneak peek at one of the recipes that looks especially delicious to me.  Can't wait to try it out! 

Crab with Ginger and Scallions  姜葱焗蟹

Ingredients

4 small or medium-sized blue crabs

3-4 scallions (spring onions)

1 large piece ginger (1 inch, or 2.5 cm., on a side)                 

3-4 Tbsp. (45-60 ml.) cooking oil

1 Tbsp. (15 ml.) rice wine (but any other wine will do)

2 eggs

Recipe

The most unpleasant aspect of this recipe is cleaning the crabs. If you’re not up to the task, have the fishmonger do it for you. Just don’t plan on cooking first and cleaning after – it will ruin the taste.

Clean the crabs, removing inedible parts such as the gills, which are the spongy white tissue under the shell, and the eyes. Rinse thoroughly. If the crabs are medium-sized, use a cleaver to crack the shells and hack them into smaller pieces. If you are using small crabs, you can work with them whole.

Cut the scallions into one-inch (5 cm.) lengths and smash the ginger with the side of the cleaver. Heat a wok and add the oil to it. When the oil begins to smoke, add the ginger, and a few second later – after you can smell the aroma of the ginger – add the scallions. When you can smell them, add the crab and the wine. Cover the wok tightly and cook for seven minutes.

Beat the eggs, add them to the wok and stir. In about 10-15 seconds, after the eggs have cooked and the sauce has thickened, remove everything from the wok and serve.

Sidebar

Three He-Crabs, One She-Crab

“The Gang of Four Shows Their True Colors,” 1977.

When the leftist “Gang of Four,” which had persecuted thousands and which included Mao’s wife Jiang Qing, was purged in 1976, no one dared celebrate openly until the rumors were confirmed. Beijing’s crab sellers jumped the gun, however, hitting the streets with a special, symbolic deal on three males and one female crab. Because “walking sideways” is a Chinese term for disregarding the rights and feelings of others, crabs were a particularly appropriate symbol for the hated quartet.

Guest Post: Spooky Sandwiches

My friend Maia is a wonderful violinist and chef and writes the blog Sweet Alchemies where she combines her love to cooking with her love of music.  Today she is guest posting with some ghostly monte christo sandwiches for the upcoming holiday.  Thanks Maia!

Halloween is big in our house. Last year around this time, my husband had been traveling extensively for work. He had Halloween night free, however, and flew all the way back to LA just to spend it with me and our friends at a small gathering at our place. Naturally, I had to make the journey worth his while from a culinary standpoint. I spent every spare moment of the three days leading up to pumpkin day preparing an elaborate feast that would have made Martha proud.

{Gumdrop toppers for "Devil's Food Cupcakes." Get it? Not sure what got into me last year...}

Everyone's favorite snack, by far, was the "Ghost of Monte Cristo" sandwich. As luck would have it, these babies were the simplest to prepare. I will not be outdoing myself to nearly the same extent this year; in fact, I've elected to have a potluck, to which my contribution will be a repeat of last year's standout offering.

Monte Cristo Sandwiches

(The "Ghost" Idea c/o Martha Stewart; the recipe, my own)



For two large sandwiches:



4 slices rich white bread (such as buttermilk or potato)

Two slices of swiss cheese

Two slices of Muenster cheese

Red currant jelly

Dijon mustard

2 slices of turkey sandwich meat

2 slices of ham sandwich meat

1 egg

Spalsh of milk

1/4 tsp salt

Powdered sugar to taste (optional)



Spread a thin layer of currant jelly on two slices of bread, and a thin layer of mustard on the remaining two slices. Put the swiss cheese on top of the jelly-coated bread and the muenster on top of the mustard-coated bread. Next, layer one slice of turkey on each jelly/swiss piece and one slice of ham on each mustard/muenster piece. Put the halves together and cut into the sandwich with the cookie cutter of your choice.

In a bowl big enough to dip the sandwich without ruining its shape, beat the egg well. Add a splash of milk and the salt and whisk again. Dip both sides of the sandwich in the egg mixture.

Butter your griddle and cook the sandwiches over medium heat for about 4 minutes per side, or until golden brown and the cheese has melted.

Dust the sandwiches with powdered sugar and serve immediately.

For a musical pairing, enjoy Beethoven's "Ghost" Trio. The piece is so named for the simple reason that the music is incredibly haunting. It's extremely special to me personally, as it was the first piece of chamber music I performed live on the radio as a teenager. I'll never forget the experience of sharing such truly miraculous music onstage with my friends for an audience. The experience was instrumental in leading me to aspire toward not only being a violinist, but specifically a chamber musician. I hope you'll enjoy it even a fraction as much as I do.

Oh yeah... and Happy Halloween!

{Our pup, Poochini, in his costume last year}

Ruby Yams

Last week I received some Ruby Yams in my Farm Fresh To You CSA box.  One of the best and worst things about being part of a CSA is receiving veggies that you've never prepared before and being forced to figure out a fun and delicious way to eat them.  I combined these with some carrots that we also got, chopped them up and roasted them with garlic, rosemary, thyme and oregano from the garden. A little sea salt on top made for a delicious fall-flavored treat.

Caveat - trying to play around with focal lengths on my camera only semi successfully (the one drawback of it not being the traditional bulky SLR). Hopefully I will get the hang of it one of these days.

On the Home Front

We got this great water jug with spigot from Pottery Barn which is now sitting on our counter providing us with a supply of what I like to call "spa water" flavored with mint from the garden and a splash of lemon.  Maybe we will try cucumbers next!  I love that it has that vintage mason jar feel.

 I also found some time this weekend to create a welcoming little planter vignette on our front stoop.  The yellow planter was meant to go in the bird cage, but alas, it didn't quite fit.  Well, it could have fit but getting it back out would have been an issue.  Nevertheless, I think it will look nice.  My hopes are that the candytuft and petunias start trailing a little.

Farm Fresh To You

After watching the Green Grocer Episode of BBC's Mary Queen of Shops on a recent business trip, I got super excited about the idea of local, seasonal, organic produce delivered fresh to your door.  Prior to now I had been shopping the farmers' market located below my office which was convenient for sure. But lately there's been a lot of hype about these farmers markets not actually selling local or organic and just getting their produce from large distribution centers.  Farm Fresh to You to the Rescue!

Started in 1992 by Kathy Barsotti and her farm in the Capay Valley near the Bay Area, the service has now expanded to the LA region and provides fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables from the Imperial Valley and other areas surrounding the LA area.  What I love about Farm Fresh thus far is that it delivers, so it's super convenient (deliveries are made in the morning prior to leaving for work) and it's super customizable.  Items are loaded on the truck that morning so everything is super fresh.  You can go to their website and change your deliveries, the size of your box and delete items that might not suit your taste (or your food allergies).  You can see what area your foods are coming from online and hold deliveries for when you'll be out of town.  Not only that but the website is chock full (thanks Mom for the spelling correction :) of useful information including recipes for your local seasonal fare.  Each time you get a box, it includes a newsletter about current produce and what's coming up. 

Now, those of you who know me, know that I just can't bring myself to pay premium for Whole Foods (or Whole Paycheck) items, even though I love that place.  FFTY is great because it's economical.  Just $31.50 twice a month for the regular sized box perfect for feeding two people.  Better yet, if you mention the promo code 6164 when you sign up and mention my name (Jessica Davis), you'll get $5 off your first delivery!

Happy farm fresh eating and cooking!

Arugula Redux

Remember when I planted the arugula in our yard?  I posted about it back in October.  Well, it's growing like a weed (it sort of looks like a weed too).

Those of you who have been to Italy know that their rucola or rocket is super nutty, spicy and earthy.... umami to the core.  Baby arugula that you find in the US just doesn't cut it.  Well, what I've recently discovered in harvesting my own arugula is that the larger more mature leaves have the more pungent flavor.  Takes me right back to the Amalfi Coast.  Here's a salad of arugula, radishes, avocado, carrot and salami that we made.  And a quick dijon dressing of olive oil, dijon, lemon juice, salt and pepper (I remember laughing at a coworker who made her own dressings, thinking "who makes their own salad dressings?"  You do. That's who.)

Of course, the stems and centers of the larger leaves are a bit sinewy so you have to take those off and throw them back into the compost.

Mama Mia!

Well, I admit it.  I'm not super into Thanksgiving food.  I like the turkey and gravy ok, but on my list of favorite foods, none of the standard Thanksgiving fare top the list.  In most years I've steered away from the cranberry relish because I have a savory tooth rather than a sweet one. Give me brussel sprouts any day over cranberries.

This year, though, I'm onto something new.  This is the second year in a row that I've heard NPR talking about Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish.  Coolio even did a rap about it on the radio.  So how could I pass it up?  Well, I didn't and you shouldn't either.  This is the perfect tangy relish.  Sweet but perfect for us savory people.  And I can't wait to try it on a post turkey day sandwich.

 Here's the recipe courtesy of NPR:

Every year as Thanksgiving approaches, fans ask NPR's Susan Stamberg for her mother-in-law's recipe for cranberry relish.
"It sounds terrible but tastes terrific," Stamberg says of the Pepto Bismol-pink dish.
Below is the cranberry relish recipe, and a bonus recipe for another Stamberg favorite — garlicky cranberry chutney.

Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish
2 cups whole raw cranberries, washed
1 small onion
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons horseradish from a jar ("red is a bit milder than white")

Grind the raw berries and onion together. ("I use an old-fashioned meat grinder," says Stamberg. "I'm sure there's a setting on the food processor that will give you a chunky grind — not a puree.")

Add everything else and mix.

Put in a plastic container and freeze.

Early Thanksgiving morning, move it from freezer to refrigerator compartment to thaw. ("It should still have some little icy slivers left.")

The relish will be thick, creamy, and shocking pink. ("OK, Pepto Bismol pink. It has a tangy taste that cuts through and perks up the turkey and gravy. Its also good on next-day turkey sandwiches, and with roast beef.")

Homeboy

Recently Homeboy Industries' Homeboy Bakery and Homegirl Cafe have been getting a lot of buzz.  I'd heard on NPR that they were opening a cafe at LAX (Hallelujah! better food options at LAX!).  I'd also seen an article in this month's Sunset, and they just started showing up at the 7th + Fig farmer's market below my office.  Prior to that, riding the Gold Line to work, I'd seen their large facade in Chinatown and wondered what Homeboy was all about.   So I decided to do a little research.

Turns out Home Boy Industries whose motto is "Nothing stops a bullet like a job" was started by Father Gregory Boyle as a way to get gang-involved youth off the street.  Their front to the greater public is the bakery and cafe that they run but they also include an extensive program of case management, education, conseling and job training. Homeboy Industries goal is to get people working and then to send them back out into the real world.  It's such a great concept that their applicant pool is bigger than the number of people they can accept. 

So what can we do?  Help them expand. Support their business. Buy their baguettes (and they make a mean baguette), and check them out for Saturday brunch.  I've heard it's phenomenal and I think I might just go this weekend.   And while you're there get one of their awesome silk-screened Homeboy t-shirts.

Summer Curry!

Squash from the garden
Cherry tomatoes from the garden
Basil from the garden
Asparagus and Malibu onions from the farmers market
Curry medly from local Indian Store

Tasty!

Squash it to me

First squash of the season.  The cukes aren't doing so well.  Thus far they look like prickly cornichons.... but this squash is longer than my hand and certainly edible!

Sriracha!

Well, as many of you know Sriracha has been one of my favorite hot sauces since before Sriracha fever caught on.  My sister-in-law just forwarded me an article about how Jacob Leland recently took Sriracha-mania to a new level by creating an eponymous ice cream flavor.  Delightful or despicable?  Make a pint and let me know.  Now if only I had an ice cream maker.....

Curry on up!

So I made up a little curry dish the other day in our crockpot from various items found at the farmers market and in our garden.  It actually turned out super yum. 

I can't give you exact quantities since I don't cook with recipes (hence my complete lack of ability when it comes to baking).  However, the general gist is:
2 large chicken breasts cut into chunks
3 heaping tablespoons curry mix up
3 large carrots - cut into chunks
3 cups okra- cut into chunks

3 med sized onions - cut into chunks

2 med sized tomatoes - cut into chunks
3 small hot peppers - cut up fine
3 cloves garlic - minced
Sea Salt to taste

Sprigs of: Sage, thyme, lemon thyme
Basil garnish (added at end)
Throw everything together into the crock pot.  Cook on low for 8 hours. Put on a bed of jasmine rice and add basil garnish on top. Enjoy!

Pickle it, jam it, chutney it....

So our Loquat tree is starting to drip with fruit.  Well, maybe droop is the right word.  I helped ease its burden today by picking a few.  The question is though, what to do with them.  They tend to be a little sour.  And I'm not really much of a sweet food jam/jelly type of person.  Perhaps a pork dish with loquat reduction?  Any other ideas?