I Miss Julia, Emeril, Jeff and Ming

Ya’ll know I love to cook.  It’s why I left my very cushy career as a corporate senior project manager behind to become a chef.  I always read cookbooks like novels, spend time shopping for food in the local stores and markets when traveling, and I think nothing of spending an entire day in the kitchen working on different projects—which I did yesterday as a matter of fact.  Preparing food is fascinating to me; whether it’s making homemade stock, preserving lemons, fermenting vegetables, or grilling a steak—I love it all!

While I did attend culinary school, I am self-taught in many cuisines and techniques.  I will read, watch videos, and practice until I’ve mastered whatever it is I am trying to make.  So, this post is a lament to the loss of the real cooking shows.  I learned how to laugh at myself when I watched Julia Child.  My favorite episode is when she dropped a leg of lamb on the floor while preparing it, picked it up, brushed it off and just kept going.  I loved watching Emeril get people excited about pork fat, Jeff Smith teaching us about frugality, and Ming Tsai teaching me about exotic ingredients and how to meld them with common ones to make a fantastic and memorable dish.  What is presented today as cooking shows are vapid and insulting.  I don’t learn things from a chef who wears an anchor around her waist trying to compete with another chef who is preparing food in an Easy Bake oven.  I don’t learn from chefs who criticize dishes that are made with gummy bears and seaweed.  I don’t learn from chefs who scream at their employees until the veins pop out in their neck and spittle flies into the camera lens.  These are not educational or intelligent representations of what chefs have to offer to the general public.  They are better than that and they should know better, but money talks loudly and wearing an anchor for fame and glory is not so bad, or is it?

I teach recreational cooking classes as part of my business and I take the task very seriously.  I have been given an opportunity to pass along the knowledge I have gained to those who have hired me.  I love it when I run into a client somewhere and they tell me that they made the recipe I had provided and the dish came out delicious, or that they were inspired to buy a pasta machine and now make their own fresh pasta.  It makes me feel good and that I have done my job well.  That’s what Julia, Emeril, Jeff, Ming and a host of others have done for me.  It saddens me to see the cheapening and dumbing down of cooking programs today.  When there is actually a cooking program on one of the channels, it’s lacking in energy and enthusiasm, or there is more cleavage and makeup than real cooking.  I can only hope that someday, those real educational shows will come back and enable us to learn again how to laugh at ourselves and pick up the leg of lamb off the floor, rub it with more butter and carry on.

No Cheap Food Compromises

Happy New Year—a phrase we say to each other often in December and January.  The old year has ended and the new one, with fresh possibilities has begun.  We start diets, we slough off bad habits, we try to recycle more, we join gyms, or we vow to eat less sugar.  Whatever the resolution or declaration, we always begin with the best of intentions, but very rarely follow through to the end of the year—speaking for myself, of course.

This year, my resolution is not to compromise on the quality of foods I cook for my clients. When I first started my business in 2010, I was willing to take on just about anything to get my name out there and get business, but over time I realized that I was cooking cheap food to keep the price point low for those who hired me.  Cheap and processed food is not who I am.  If I wouldn’t eat it myself, why cook it for others?  So, this past year, I increased my minimum pricing and refused to take work for anything less.  Sure, I lost quite a bit of business, but the work I did take, was rewarding because I was able to provide a quality result due to the ability to procure quality ingredients.

Good wholesome food is not cheap.  Visit a farmers’ market and you will clearly see that prices are much higher at the farmstand than they are at the grocery store.  But, what are you really getting at the grocery store?  A product that was picked too soon, is most likely out of season and has no nutritional value.  Whereas the product from the farmstand was probably picked that morning, fully ripe, bursting with flavor and nutrition.

Many people I encounter through my business are not interested in quality food for a variety of reasons, and the biggest one being that we have been trained by our society to appreciate price over quality.  Yesterday, I overheard someone looking at a grocery ad in the paper and exclaim, ‘look, tomatoes are 89 cents a pound!’  As if it was a great deal to rush down to the store a buy up every one of them.  What is missing from the equation is that those tomatoes should not be at the grocery store at this time of year as they are not in season!  They cannot possibly taste good or have any nutritional value so what is the point in buying them at any price per pound?  I cannot tell you how many people ask for asparagus in August, or strawberries in December, or eggplant in February.  I do my best to explain to the client that seasonality brings the best produce at the best price with the best flavor.

Asparagus with Hollandaise is much better in April, and strawberry shortcake will be divine in June and eggplant Parmesan will explode with flavor in July.  Even Dungeness crab is better in the winter when the season starts, not in August when it is ending and the crabs are molting and their meat is mushy.

In 2015, I will do a better job of educating my potential client with the beauty of seasonality and help them to understand why my food costs more than the other guy.  I am not out gouge anyone, I just want to have the opportunity to cook for others as I cook for myself. It is for this reason I decided to become a chef, and this is the reason why I continue to pursue the vocation.  I will not be wildly successful as I live in a place where cheap food is king, but for those few clients I am able to cook for, I will have opened the door a little wider to where I want to be in the end: a chef known for her quality ingredients and delicious food.  No more compromising with cheap food!

May your new year be full of health, happiness and deliciousness!

How Do You Celebrate the 4th of July?

Happy Independence Day!  Summer has truly arrived with the celebration of our nation’s independence.  Everyone looks forward to picnics, parties, backyard barbeques and parades.  When I was growing up in Southern California, my family would celebrate the day with a trip to Mission Bay on our boat.  My father purchased a 23-foot motorboat when I was about 12 years-old and we would take it out in Mission and San Diego Bay on weekends and holidays.  We would cruise around the bay for a few hours, water ski and then haul out for the BBQ in the park.  Mission Bay had a very large picnic area with tables and BBQ’s dotted all over.  You had to get there early to get your spot on the 4th of July, because the fireworks would be set off over the bay (near SeaWorld) later that night and the park would get crowded.

Our celebration feasts were the usual American fare of hamburgers, hot dogs, potato or macaroni salad, chips, beer, soda and of course, corn on the cob.  My father was a corn-on-the cob junkie and we ate it as a snack in our house after dinner with lots of butter and salt.  No BBQ with Big Al was ever without corn-on-the-cob!  As it got dark, we would put away the picnic and settle in for the fireworks.  My brothers and I were always excited to see the fireworks show.  It was spectacular and seemed to go on for hours.  Once the show was over, we would pack up and drive home sunburned, wind blown, and happy.

I celebrated a little differently after I moved to San Francisco.  Sometimes it would be by going to a concert, or a street fair, or away for the holiday or by going to Crissy Field to hang out and wait for the fireworks over the Golden Gate Bridge.  And after moving here to the Oregon Coast, the celebration continued with different foods, different friends and fireworks over Yaquina Bay.   My most favorite recent memory of the 4th of July was when I was in Italy in 2010.  I was working at Alla Lanterna completing my culinary school internship.  I was in the kitchen that morning doing my usual job of prepping fish (gutting anchovies) with the chef & other cooks, when Chef Elide said to me in English: ‘Happy 4th of July, Patrizia’.  I thanked her and the other cooks asked what Americans ate on the 4th of July to which Chef Elide promptly answered (this time in Italian): “Americans eat turkey on this day.’  I started laughing and said, “no, that’s on Thanksgiving in November.  Americans eat hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, salads, watermelon and corn-on-the-cob to celebrate the 4th of July”.  That made them laugh as the only hot dogs the Italians eat are on top of pizza (I’m not joking), and hamburgers are just as foreign.  Their idea of BBQ is a spit-roasted pig dripping with fat and stuffed with herbs and its own entrails!

So, I was asked to explain the tradition of food on the 4th of July to my Chef & cooks.  They didn’t care about the history of the event; no, they wanted to know why Americans ate what they ate and where did the tradition come from.  I really didn’t have a historical answer for them; I just said (as they often said to me when I asked such a question) that it’s just what we do.  It’s a holiday to celebrate with family and friends outside, because it’s summer, and the foods that are chosen are easily transportable.  I told them about my experiences growing up with our boat, barbequing and watching the fireworks afterwards.

After I was finished with my explanation (which took a while in my Neanderthal Italian), Chef Elide asked me if I wanted a hot dog to celebrate as she knew where she could get some.  I thanked her and said “no, I don’t eat hot dogs anymore, but I would sure love some fritto misto (fried fish) instead.”  I got a laugh out of her and an order to Andrea, the fry cook, to make me fritto misto for lunch.  I wasn’t in my own country, but I had a great celebration that day anyway as I was with my new family and friends and I celebrated with food that I love…..what better way to commemorate a holiday?

I hope you do the same on this day as you honor our nation’s independence with family, friends and good food!  Buon Appetito!

Eating Saturated Fat Doesn’t Make You Fat

I read on the internet that butter and other saturated fats have recently been found ‘not guilty’ of causing any of the crimes they have been accused of in the past!  Woohoo!  These quotes are from an article from The Boston Globe:

Decades after Americans began switching from whole milk to skim, from butter to olive oil, and from red meat to turkey breast — all in an effort to cut saturated fat — nutrition researchers have concluded that saturated fat might not be so bad for our hearts after all. A new study that received a lot of attention last week analyzed a trove of data from 27 clinical trials and 49 population studies and found no difference in heart disease rates among those who had the least amount of saturated fat compared to those who consumed the most.

People given fish oil supplements in clinical trials were no less likely to have a heart attack or die of heart disease than those who took placebos. Ditto for those who switched to olive oil — a monounsaturated fat shown to improve cholesterol levels — as well as for those who embraced polyunsaturated fats, like vegetable oil.

 

The research, published last Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that only trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils were linked to a moderately higher rate of heart disease, but these artificial fats have largely been taken out of the food supply and will likely be banned altogether by the US Food and Drug Administration.

“I think the evidence is really clear that the dietary guidelines shouldn’t be focusing on reducing saturated fat,” said study coauthor Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an epidemiologist at Harvard School of Public Health. “There is no good evidence that low-fat dairy products are healthier than high-fat dairy.” His previous research found that those who ate butter, whole milk, and cheddar cheese had a lower diabetes risk than those who opted for skim milk and fat-free yogurt.

So, saturated fat, like eggs, are once again OK to eat (our grandmother’s knew this) and if they don’t make us fat what does?  How about excessive amounts of SUGAR! 

According to another article from The Huffington Post and Christiane Northrup, MD:

Fat is not the enemy when it comes to cardiovascular disease, weight gain, brain health, and so many other issues. It turns out that sugar — in all its many guises — is the real culprit for making you fat. What it also means is that because sugar causes inflammation throughout the body, it increases your risk of cardiovascular disease — and just about everything else!

We’ve all been sold a bill of goods about so-called healthy low-fat foods like cookies and muffins. When you begin to read labels, you’ll quickly see how much sugar is added to just about everything, especially to low-fat foods. When the fat is removed, so is the flavor. To make it more palatable, sugar, sugar substitutes, and salt are added in its place. And as you continue to read labels, I think you’ll be surprised by how much sugar is also in so-called healthy foods, like yogurt, tomato sauce, many fruit juices — even some salad dressings.

I can tell you without a doubt, it’s the sugar that so many of us struggle with, not the fat. Think about it. It’s NOT the burger with cheese and bacon that’s the issue. It’s the ketchup, the bun, and the fries. These are all carbs that instantly raise your blood sugar, because they are higher on the glycemic index than plain old table sugar. This is what I mean by sugar in all its guises.

Foods with little fat and loaded with sugar don’t leave you satiated after a meal — at least not for long. We need the fat to feel sated. Without it, we crave more sugary foods — until we learn to switch to or at least incorporate better food choices. It’s like being on a blood sugar roller coaster. Your body is subjected to the blood sugar highs and lows, and you literally NEED the sugar to feel OK when you’re in one of the lows.

So let’s not kid ourselves anymore about what’s really making us fat. Sugar is the leading culprit today in causing inflammation. Here are some specific stats from anarticle printed in February 2014 in the Journal of the American Medical Association [JAMA], which are worth sharing: [2]

• Sugar is connected to an increased risk of heart attack and dementia, as well as other inflammatory diseases, such as insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes, obesity, liver problems, arthritis, reduction in beneficial HDL cholesterol, increase in triglycerides, and cancer.

• Those with the highest sugar intake had a 400 percent higher risk of heart attack than those with the lowest intake of sugar. Note the current recommendation by the American Heart Association: One’s daily intake of sugar should be only 5-7.5 percent of one’s total caloric intake.

• It takes only one 20-ounce soda to increase your risk of heart attack by 30 percent.

• If you consume 20 percent of your calories from sugar, your risk of heart attack doubles.

These statistics were determined after adjusting for independent risk factors for heart attack, such as smoking, high blood pressure, alcohol intake, and other factors.

If that’s not bad enough, it is sugar, not fat, that creates abdominal fat.

Did you know that the average American consumes 132 pounds of sugar a year? [3] And the rise in sugar intake in recent years has played a key role in the increase in the cellular inflammation — and the soaring obesity and diabetes rates?

I couldn’t have said it better myself!  I always tell my students in the cooking classes that I teach that whole foods, not low fat food are better for us because in order to provide the mouth feel, taste, texture or whatever is needed to replicate the whole food, ‘stuff’ is added (usually in the form of sugar) to low-fat foods that are not good for us.  I only use whole dairy products, and I am an avid user of saturated and healthy monounsaturated fats for cooking.  That means butter, ghee, lard, duck and chicken fat, beef tallow, coconut oil and olive oil.  I sparingly use sesame, peanut, sunflower and grape seed oils and I look for the ones that are organic, unrefined and expeller pressed.  Any other oil can be toxic because of the way it was processed/refined.  And canola oil is a GMO no matter if it’s organic or not, so it is never even considered.

The closer we stay to the natural state of a food item, then the better it is for us.  Too much processing and refining strips away vital nutrients we need for our health and man made replacements are really no comparison to the real thing.  Sure, I occasionally eat fast or processed food, but I don’t make a habit of it, and who doesn’t love a Marie Callender’s pot pie?     I can honestly say, however, that 95% of my pantry contains only whole foods while the remaining 5% is refined or processed.  I am certainly not going to grind my own grains for flour, or mill my own rice, or make my own baking soda or powder, but I am conscientious of what I buy and I make sure it is as additive free as possible (with exception to the occasion frozen pot pie—I just avoid reading the ingredients label).  We don’t need all of that excess ‘stuff’ in our food and the only way to keep from ingesting it is to make our own.   So, yes, I do make my own pot pie and many other dishes that can be found in the frozen food section.  It takes a little longer, but is so worth it in the end.  And now I don’t have to feel bad about eating saturated fats as I now know, and so do you, it’s not fat that makes one fat!  Buon Appetito!

Courageous Cooking

When Bruce & I lived in San Francisco, we would go to a Chinese restaurant in our neighborhood on Sunday mornings for dim sum.  We had to go early as the place would fill up quickly with hungry diners waiting to eat those delightful little dishes.  We had our favorites, of course, and were always willing to try something new on occasion.  Once we moved to the Oregon coast, our weekly dim sum breakfast tradition became a memory as there are no restaurants that serve it here in the same way.  I always felt that making those dumplings myself would be too hard or too much trouble, so I didn’t bother with trying, or I should say I lacked the courage to try.  Whenever Bruce & I traveled anywhere on vacation, we would always look for a dim sum  restaurant to go to, but were so often disappointed by the lack of flavor and/or quality we were used to.

Late last year, I discovered a wonderful video class website called Craftsy.  They have all kinds of DIY classes you can take and cooking is one of them!  Top notch chefs teach the classes and you can view them again and again as often as you like as your access never expires.  One of the classes offered is an Asian dumpling class taught by Andrea Nguyen, a well know Asian food chef and author.  I bought the class and watched the videos and realized that dim sum is really no more difficult to make than ravioli which I have been making for over 30 years!  I was so excited that I immediately bought Andrea’s book Asian Dumplings to learn more.  I went to see Mai at Mai’s Asian Market here in Newport and bought all the ingredients I needed to make my first batch of dumplings.  Mai is a godsend here in our little town.  She has just about anything and everything you would need for any kind of Asian, Indian, or Middle Eastern dish and I love her for that.

I started out by making Korean Mandu, a dumpling that is filled with tofu and kimchee and served with a tangy dipping sauce. The dough is a simple one of flour and water; however, I added rice flour to mine to make it extra chewy, used shrimp instead of tofu in the filling and they turned out delicious!  The shape of this dumpling is called ‘big hug’, but it also looks like an Italian tortelloni.

The next dumpling I made was Shanghai Soup dumplings, which are Bruce’s absolute favorite. They are filled with pork and a gelatinized soup that melts during steaming, so when you bite into it, you get a mouthful of soup along with the rest of the filling.  They are served with Chinese black vinegar and finely shredded fresh ginger.  The shape of this dumpling is called ‘closed satchel’ because it looks like a purse.

I was on a roll now.  I made shrimp dumplings next and upped the game by using wheat and tapioca starches instead of flour for the wrapper.  This dumpling is pure white and turns translucent when it is steamed.  I had always thought these dumplings were made with rice flour and making them could not be achieved at home, but I was wrong as they were so easy to make and delicious to eat!.  This type of shape is called the ‘pleated crescent’.

My final dumpling was Japanese pot stickers or Gyoza.  Like Chinese pot stickers, they are fried, steamed and fried again to obtain a crispy bottom.  My mom made Gyoza when I was growing up with wonton wrappers, so I was familiar with making and eating them.  I made my own extra chewy dough with rice and wheat flours again. This shape is called the ‘pea pod’ and they were yummy!

Since my exploration into Asian dumplings, I have made others too numerous to mention here.  All have been easy to make and all have been delicious.  The sky is the limit on the fillings just like ravioli or other stuffed Italian pastas.  I have realized through this exploration that the only thing that gets in my way is myself.  I left San Francisco for the Oregon coast in 1997 and have been pining for dim sum ever since.  Almost 17 years later, I discovered that I can make my own with as good or even better results as the beloved restaurant I used to frequent and I can have them whenever I want.  I thank Craftsy and Andrea Nguyen for showing me how easy it is to make my own Asian dumplings and I hope I have inspired you to go and make something you’ve been wanting to try, but just haven’t had the the courage to do so. Courage is all you need to master cooking any type of dish or cuisine.  Once you try it, you realize, like me, that it’s easy, fun and good to eat.  A presto!

For the Love of Food

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t in love with food; good food.  I grew up in a house where my mother cooked from scratch, so I was exposed to whole foods at an early age.  My knowledge and experience grew exponentially when I moved to San Francisco in the early 80’s to go to college.  There I was exposed to a whole world (literally) of food options: Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Laotian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Russian, Polish, Italian, French, Ethiopian, Persian, Indian and that was just in my neighborhood! I quickly discovered flavor combinations I had never had or even thought were possible.  Salty fish sauce, spicy Thai basil, chiles that were so hot they made me cry, earthy cumin and coriander seed, tangy sumac and tamarind, and bitter greens such as dandelion and arugula made me realize that I could spend the rest of my life cooking different flavor combinations and never cook them all—what a wonderful challenge!

In those years since I lived in and moved away from San Francisco, I have been introduced to Turkish, Jewish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Afghanistan, Lebanese, Moroccan, Mongolian, Tibetan and a myriad of other cuisines.  I have also learned that Italian food, my heritage cuisine, is not quite what my family or the rest America thinks it is.  My paternal grandfather emigrated from a small town east of Naples called Benevento.  It’s known for an anise liqueur called Strega which means witch in Italian.  Anyway, my grandfather came to America with recipes that he enjoyed in his hometown.  However, many ingredients were not available in his new home in northeast Pennsylvania, so he had to improvise.  The recipes that he gave to my mother who moved, shortly after she and my father were married, to San Bernardino, California were recreated with the ingredients my mother had available to her in her new home, which were not necessarily the same as what my grandfather used.  So to make a long story short, the Italian food I grew up with is vastly different from what my grandfather ate in his homeland, what he ate in Pennsylvania and what I ate during my travels throughout Italy.  It wasn’t necessarily better, it was just different.

I had the opportunity to study the food history of Italy while I was in culinary school.  We had a professor, Stefano Bentley, who taught us for an hour or two, once or twice per week, about the various regions—not even a tip of the iceberg of knowledge.  I found that class to be fascinating, so many factors influence a dish, besides season and availability of ingredients, such as religious beliefs, superstitions, taboos, traditions, changes in social class, etc.  I learned that there really is no such thing as standardized Italian food in Italy.  Here, yes, because we treat food as a product for profit instead of what it really is: nourishment for our minds, bodies and souls.  A famous chef perfectly stated what American restaurants are really about: ‘you take some food, fix it up, and then sell it for a profit.’  No server here in America would take away the cheese from you if you were trying to put it on a seafood dish, where they will do that in Italy because you don’t eat cheese with fish—period—end of subject.  There are some chefs here that are taking their food a bit more seriously and not allowing substitutions or a bazillion choices which we Americans love so much.

If I, as a chef, decide that white balsamic vinaigrette will perfectly compliment the fresh picked greens and ripe peach salad I am going to serve you in July, you can bet I will say no to ranch dressing on the side. I want the food I serve to my clients to taste like I meant it to taste.  Now that doesn’t mean that I am a food Nazi; I am more than happy to work with my clients to create food that fits their taste preferences and any dietary requirements they have whether I like it or not, but there are limits to everything. I once made a vegan tiramisu for a client for her birthday because she’s a vegan and wanted tiramisu for dessert.  Yes, it was terrible and no it really wasn’t tiramisu, but she was happy and that made me happy, but I most certainly would have said no to ranch dressing.  I would say no to ranch dressing for just about anything except maybe hot wings and celery sticks; it is pretty good with those two items. 

So, back to my grandfather’s recipes which became my mother’s and then mine.  I decided that I really didn’t like her version of tomato sauce, so I made my own to suit my taste preferences.  I didn’t like her version of lasagne, so have made several variations of my own for the same reason.  I love the meatball, braciole and sausage recipes, so they are as is even today; I don’t mess with them.  Where it makes sense, I do my best to stay as true to the tradition and authenticity of all recipes be they Italian or any other culture, because that is how you learn about that culture—through its food.  Changing my mother’s recipes didn’t change the authenticity, because they were never authentic to begin with.

The same famous chef also stated that while there is no standardized Italian food, there is an standardized Italian expectation that the dish must be made with the best food that is available to you at the time you are making it, and I don’t think that expectation is solely Italian either.  It means if you can’t afford or don’t like ricotta cheese, find a different good quality cheese that you can afford and like to make your lasagne. Make your own tomato sauce and don’t buy one in a jar, because that stuff is what’s expensive.  Good tomato sauce can be inexpensively, quickly and easily made with a can of tomatoes crushed in your hands, some onion, garlic, fresh or dried herbs, salt and pepper.  It will not contain anything you can’t pronounce and will taste better than anything out of a jar.  Put some pride in what you are making as that is what you are ingesting into your body.  Food should never be considered a product or just something to take away the huger pangs; it is life!

Food touches all of our emotions, hopes, desires, dreams and nightmares.  It brings happy and unhappy memories; the smell reminds us of places we’ve been to and want to revisit.  It reminds us of parents, relatives, friends, favorite servers, favorite chefs, restaurants, bars, diners, drive-in’s and dives (just checking to see if you are still with me here).  Food that we love and hate makes us who we are.  I had a friend once who refused to eat capers because a jar of them fell on her head once when she was a child—OK.  I don’t like certain textures, like tapioca, and you can’t pay me enough to ever eat it—just don’t ask me to explain to you why I don’t like it.  I’m sure everyone has their likes and dislikes of various foods and when you really stop to think about it, unless you are eating something really heinous like fermented whale blubber (sorry, but that has to be heinous), the reason you probably don’t like it is more emotional than anything else.

My grandfather came to this country in 1917 with no money and only the clothes on his back. When he died, he had a wife, a house, six children and a vegetable garden.  He fed his family as well as he could every day.  Despite the fact that my father grew up poor, he loved good food and could recognize it easily. He clearly passed that love along to me, and I do my best to pass it to every person I cook for and now to you.  So go now and make something homemade from your pantry, garden if you are lucky enough to have one, or local coop.  Do it today or tomorrow and do it for the love of food.  Buon Appetito!

Food Memories of My Lab

Our 14 1/2 year-old Labrador Retriever, Talladega, passed this past week.  He had a very good life and left this earth in peace which is all anyone who loses a loved one can hope for.  Talladega came to live with us on September 18, 1999 when he was 3 months old.  He wasn’t into eating in his first few years with us.  We often had to coax him to eat by feeding him by hand.  His motivation back then was play, play, play and play he did.

We never really fed Talladega people food per se, but we did save him scraps of whatever protein we were eating for ourselves and we cooked him his own steaks on his birthday, which he loved.  As the years went by, he learned to love chicken to the point where if he smelled it, he would come into the kitchen looking for his share.  He definitely was a carnivore as the only vegetables or fruits he would eat were edamame and raspberries.  He once knocked over a basket of raspberries at a farm stand at the Newport Farmers’ Market and was able to eat several before he was caught and another time stuck his head in a lady’s basket and stole one—oops!

Talladega was a polite and gentle eater.  He never inhaled his food, and he would gently take things from your hand with his front teeth.  I would share my fried egg yolks with him after I was finished mopping up the runny yolk with my toast.  I taught him how to eat the yolks from my fork without touching it with his teeth.  He was really good at it until he got older and lost some of his finesse.

He didn’t beg in those early years; we would sometimes let him lie under the table while we were eating and he would place his paw on my foot to let me know he was there but that was it.  He was smart enough to know that if he did anything more he would be banished.  He always got rewarded with a piece of whatever protein we were eating for his good behavior.

We never  worried about Talladega jumping on the table or counter and trying to steal food as that just wasn’t his thing.  He did, however, lick a little kid’s ice cream cone once because it was really close and at eye level (couldn’t blame him).  He knocked a plate of cookies off of a table another time at an agility class, but not because he was trying to get to the cookies.  He was trying to get to the stuffed animal toy that was behind the cookies.  Yes, he loved to ‘eat’ stuffed animals.  He would rip them open with glee and spew the stuffing all over the floor.  He never ingested anything during these acts of violence, he just wanted to take the thing out!

Talladega loved to chew on rawhide sticks, but didn’t like doing it alone.  He wanted you to hold it for him and he would bark at his stick until you got down on the floor with him and held it.  He would put one of his paws over your arm and he would gnaw on that stick until you got tired of holding it or it was gone.

Things changed dramatically when we got our pug Tojo.  Unlike Talladega, Tojo lives for food; it is his #1 priority in life.

Well with the addition of another dog and a piggy one at that, Talladega decided it was time for him to become more assertive about food.  The first thing we noticed was the speed at which he finished his food—he started eating like a normal lab.  He also started begging, and then barking when he felt it was time to eat.  None of these behaviors were rewarded, but he didn’t care.

When we discovered that Tojo liked fruit, Talladega decided he wanted fruit too.  Oftentimes he would just chew it a little and then spit it out after we gave it to him, but by God, he was going to have some fruit because the pug was having fruit.

As Talladega got older, he began having some digestive problems, so we had to dial back on what and how much he was eating.  We switched him off of big rawhides to bully stick and other smaller chew sticks.  He still wanted someone to hold it for him, but they were so much smaller thus harder to hold.  He would be satisfied if you just sat on the floor and watched him chew the stick for a while.  Once you got up and left, however, he would stop.

The pug loves to chew as well and would often walk around with a partially chewed bully stick looking like George Burns with a cigar.  The day came however, when Tojo was introduced to Bonies which are chews much like Greenies except they are shaped like bones.  Tojo is a Bonie addict—he will chew nothing else now.

Talladega stopped eating right before he passed which is a significant sign that a dog’s time on this earth has come to an end.  I tried feeding him by hand like I did when he was a puppy, but he was having none of it.  Talladega’s leftover food and treats were donated to the local animal shelter along with a dry dog food bin and biscuit bucket.  I’ve saved his stainless steel food bowls as I am not yet ready to part with them.

Now that he is gone, I will try to train Tojo to eat my discarded egg yolks from my fork—-we’ll see how that goes.

In memory of Talladega (aka BooBoo) June 16, 1999-December 16, 2013

We miss you

What’s in Your CSA?

We invested in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this year with a local farm in Toledo: Sitka Springs Farm.  The way it works (for those who do not know) is that you pay the farmer up front, usually in early Spring, for a share in the produce they grow during a specified time-period, usually Summer and Fall.  The farmer uses the funding they receive to plant the produce the shareholder will receive; it’s like having your own personal farmer!  Once the season begins, the shareholder receives a container full of fresh produce every week.  The upside is that you get freshly picked produce every week and the downside is that you get freshly picked produce every week.  A typical selection might be onions, garlic, shallots, kale, chard, collard greens, mustard greens, zucchini, peppers, potatoes, radishes, cabbage, tomatoes, broccoli and various other items.  One week we got artichokes; another, chanterelle mushrooms; and another, a beautiful blue squash called an Oregon Sweet.

Our challenge has been to keep up with what we get.  Onions, shallots and garlic keep well, so there is no problem there.  Hardy greens can sit in the fridge for a few days or a week or so with no harm, but others have a short shelf life.  Zucchini is always a prolific vegetable and this year I got very creative with it.  I made chocolate zucchini muffins, Korean zucchini pancakes, zucchini tarts, stuffed zucchini, grilled zucchini and the ubiquitous zucchini bread (but with pistachios—yum).  Peppers were also bountiful, and are not on readily eaten here as Bruce doesn’t like them—especially green bells.  I had to process the peppers in ways that they were hidden from both sight and flavor. I made pepper jam, pepper salsa, pepper enchilada sauce, roasted pepper tarts and added them to the Korean zucchini pancakes. 

I’ve made the traditional kind of sauerkraut and a Mexican variation called Cortido with cabbage; I’ve preserved sour cherries; I’ve fermented carrots and beets, and yesterday, a rutabaga that was the size of a small child!

What I love about my produce challenge every week is that I am learning new ways to  prepare various vegetables as well as how to preserve them for later use through fermentation, pickling, or other techniques.  We all get into cooking ruts, and even though I do my best to challenge myself with new techniques as often as I can, it’s easy to just whip up a vegetable dish I’ve been making for years.  For example, I love roasted greens, any greens, be they spinach, kale, chard, mustard greens, bok choy, tatsoi, mizuna or others.  I have a tendency to want to roast every bunch of greens I receive because it’s easy to do and they taste really good.  However, I have challenged myself to do different things with the greens this year. I simmered some kale and chard in coconut milk and Indian spices a few weeks ago.  I made an Asian noodle soup with chopped greens, tofu, and fish sauce that was delicious; I grilled chard and kale one beautiful afternoon and ate them with olive oil, lemon juice and anchovies.  I have chard, kale, and collards waiting for me tonight; I’m making grilled duck breast, so am thinking I’ll treat them like cabbage and make a warm salad with vinegar and onions.

In the picture above, I roasted the greens and topped them with sliced Spanish olives.  The red sauce on the steak is Romesco and was delicious with everything on that plate!

I’m going to miss my CSA when it ends on October 22nd.  I will have to go back to scrounging for nice produce from our local coop and the various grocery stores here, but I’ll be first in line come next year when our local farms begin offering shares for purchase.  I’ll be ready for those zucchini, peppers and that huge rutabaga—bring it on!

For more information on CSA’s and how you can get involved with a local farm, click here

A Posto had a Birthday on September 1st

Yeah!  We had our third birthday on September 1st.  It’s been a very busy year so far, and I am so grateful I was able to make my long-time dream of cooking for a living a reality.  Grazie Mille to all of those who have offered support, love, good karma, positive thoughts and taste buds throughout this journey; especially to Bruce, my husband, without whom I couldn’t have done any of this.

We’ve done the usual mix of wedding, birthday, anniversary and other types of celebrations.  The most memorable was a lesbian wedding we cooked for back in April on a miserable Thursday afternoon at a boy scout camp in the forest north of Pacific City.  The family and friends in attendance didn’t care that it was pouring down rain; they were there to celebrate the special day of two special people—a beautiful event.

I’ve increased the number of cooking classes I teach, both privately and at the Culinary Center in Lincoln City.  My ultimate goal is to become a full-time cooking instructor and I believe that I get closer to attaining it every year.

We implemented a mobile website in June, so we have a smartphone presence now; obviously an important investment with the myriad of smartphones and tablets in use on a daily basis out there.

We also continue to give back to the community as often as we can.  I’m lead chef for a farm to fork fundraiser dinner this upcoming Saturday in support of the Siletz Community Food Program.  90% of the food we are serving is coming from within a 50 mile radius—pretty cool!

I am excited to see where this journey leads over the next year; I haven’t missed my old corporate life yet!

Buon Compleanno A Posto!

Cucina bene; mangia bene (tonno favoloso)

It’s albacore tuna season here on the Oregon Coast.  Starting in mid-to late July, every summer, these beautiful fish migrate within 50-100 miles off the Washington and Oregon coasts.  The tuna are caught using hook and line methods, which minimizes bycatch.  All tuna species are warm-blooded so they must be handled very carefully once caught.  Here in Newport, there are fishermen that have special licenses which allow them to sell whole fish directly to the consumer.  For a small fee, the fishermen will fillet the tuna for you (highly recommended).  The tuna caught here on the Oregon Coast are smaller than the albacore tuna caught for commercial production.  These fish are younger and are usually between 10-30 lbs, and they have little to no mercury in them because of their youth and size.  An added benefit is is that they contain the highest amount of Omega 3’s over any other tuna species.

Most of the locals home can the tuna they purchase; I just canned 15 lbs. myself last week with the help of my next door neighbor. The locals might grill 1 or 2 loins at the time they purchase the fish, but the rest goes into the canner.  Home canned albacore tuna is far superior in flavor over the commercial varieties sold in the grocery stores, but we are going to focus on discussing fresh tuna in this post.

There are few restaurants here that serve fresh albacore.  If they do, they wrap it with bacon and mask the flavor, or they overcook it.  Tuna is a very dense fish, much like swordfish, and it needs to be cooked medium-rare to medium in order for it to have good texture or to taste good.  Albacore tuna is best grilled, but can be seared or roasted with good results.  One of my favorite ways to enjoy fresh albacore is to marinate it in soy sauce and wasabi, then roll it in sesame seeds and grill it.  I like to serve it with more wasabi and soy sauce, steamed rice and sautéed shiitake mushrooms and spinach.

Fresh Grilled Albacore Tuna with Wasabi, Soy Sauce and Sesame Seeds

Here on the Oregon Coast, we get fresh albacore tuna in the summertime which we can buy directly from the fisherman.  This recipe is one of our favorite ways to serve it.  We like it with steamed rice and sautéed mushrooms and spinach.  Serves 4.

Ingredients:

1 tuna loin sliced into 4 pieces (about 5-6 ounces each)
2-3 tbsp. wasabi paste
1/4 cup soy sauce (we use San-J Tamari; you could also use Bragg’s liquid amino’s too)
3/4 cup sesame seeds
Togarashi pepper

Method:

Mix the wasabi and soy sauce together.  In a non-reactive container (I use a large zip-lock bag) add the soy sauce-wasabi marinade and the tuna pieces; marinate for 2-8 hours.

Put sesame seeds in a pie plate.  Remove the tuna from the soy sauce-wasabi marinade (discard the marinade), season with togarashi pepper and roll in the sesame seeds.

Heat a grill on medium and grill the tuna pieces for 6-8 minutes for rare, and 10-12 for well-done.  Tuna cooks fast, so be careful.  Serve with more wasabi and soy sauce.

Tuna also does well simply grilled or seared and served with sauces such as Nuoc Cham, Romesco, Salmoriglio, Salsa Verde, and Green or Yellow Mole.   We’ve made Asian tuna  balls that have been served in lettuce wraps with Nuoc Cham, tuna tacos with green or yellow mole, tuna ‘mayonnaise’ (Tonnato Salsa)  served over pasta, tuna rolled in fennel pollen and panko and served with Romesco,  and  grilled with olive oil and served with Salmoriglio.

For more information on Albacore tuna, see the following links:

Oregon albacore Commission: http://www.oregonalbacore.org/index.htm

NOAA FishWatch:

http://www.fishwatch.gov/seafood_profiles/species/tuna/species_pages/pacific_albacore_tuna.htm

If you are lucky enough to visit the Oregon Coast during albacore tuna season, or have it available to you in the local fish markets, I hope this inspires you to try it if you’ve never had it or cook it in a different way if you have.  Buon Appetitio!