May 05
fava beans Digging for gold: The little fava beans come individually nestled inside a stiff cocoon, and these are lined up 3, 4 or 5 in a row inside a fur sleeping bag. From the original pile of pods, to shedding its many layers, to being stir-fried with garlic, it’s definitely a what-you-get-is-not-what-you-eat situation.
Apr 25
osmanthus Guardians: If you’re tooling around Monterey Park you might as well stop in at the San Gabriel Nursery. If you make it past the Orchid zone, the air starts to smell like Sweet Ozmanthus and pretty soon you’ll be trying to fit two pots into the back of your car. Not a bad way to [...]
Apr 25
mangosteens in los angeles If you don’t know what they are, don’t ask: These are the real things, though irradiated, from the garden of the unbelievably delicious. We used to buy them for 20 RMB a pound ($2.50, and that was the local “ben di ren” price”) in China, but these we had to shell out $8.99 a pound [...]
Apr 24
coriander chutney It’s not easy being green: You can get bunches of cilantro for 50¢ at the Hollywood Farmer’s market. What a deal. $1.00 worth gets you at least a day’s worth of chutney. We washed and dried the cilantro, stems and all, and put them in the Cuisinart with shredded coconut, ginger, jalapenos, 2 lime’s worth [...]
Apr 24
ladybugs Natural predators: these guys might not look so tough winding their way up to the best view of the garden but they’re on the lookout for aphids and mealybugs and all sorts of other pests. Grrr!!
Apr 24
navels Globes of light: these juicy balls are just getting pumped up with sugar. Come June we’ll have freshly squeezed juice coming out of our ears.
Apr 24
growing food Teenagers: the progression of our little sprouts have become cauliflower and beets. So far so good.
Apr 23
walnut cheese volcano Cheeeeesy explosion: molten gruyere cheese pouring out of a walnut sourdough boule is among the greatest sights in the baking world. Topping this is letting the overflow dry into what we call “danglers” and breaking them off into an open mouth.
Apr 18
boiling pasta water The sublimity of boiling noodle water. Look for the smiley faces.
Apr 18
almost naked portafilter Training wheels: We can’t find a naked portafilter for our Europiccola La Pavoni (pre 2000), so we did the next best thing by taking the splitter off. Just twist and off it comes.
Apr 18
bison ragù (浆) When in doubt, add soy sauce: Bison from Lindner comes in many shapes and sizes, and ground bison is one of the easiest. You can salt lightly and eat it by the handful like salad in a bag, or you can toss it in a pan with garlic, tomatoes, soy sauce and a little bit [...]
Apr 17
roasted beets, leftover capellini Sometimes all you need is a knife to make lunch: The capellini is leftover from last night, cold and non-clumped because of forethought and olive oil. The beets are from the McGrath Family Farm. We dressed the beets with olive oil, salt and pepper, wrapped them in some foil and set the toaster-oven to 325 for an [...]
Apr 07
personal sized dumplings Open wide: Ever fantasized about a dumpling as large as your steamer? The goal is to get a small steamer! These dumplings are filled with pork, bok choy and gallons of juice. The secret to the juicy exploding soup inside the dumplings is to add pieces of gelatinized broth to your filling. When you steam [...]
Apr 07
potato focaccia Before and after: Dough like taffy. Delicious like Focaccia. Sullivan Street’s Potato Pizza, recipe courtesy of Artisan Baking Across America by Maggie Glezer. Note: That’s four pounds of potatoes, for those that care.
Apr 03
heat the oil The Blue Star: Just a lovely shot of the the oil heating up. The burner pattern underneath from our Blue Star is visible, and it’s patented.
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