Strawberries Down Under Are Tops -- Cooloolah Berries

There is a little dirt road that goes inland from the Sunshine Coast and it's there you can find your strawberry bliss. Cooloolah Berries is more than a family farm, it is also a mission for better strawberries and and a fulfilling lifestyle in Wolvi (Gympie).

Kim Watson and her husband Jason had been growing berries for commercial sale part time when the price dipped about 60 cents a punnet (basket) less than they cost to grow and harvest. The pair decided to buy their own farm and sell the best berries they could retail grown naturally and not treated with anti-ripening agents. 

And the berries are amazing. We visited the farm towards the very end of the growing season and bought a basket of Albion-variety strawberries. The berries were deep red with little or no white shoulder, a nice texture and deliciously sweet with a hint of acid. They lasted us for three days and we wished we could have had more, but by that time we were far south.

Visit Kim and family (she is also raising a crop of boys) during the Australian spring for berries (including pick your own) or come any time to sample her homemade scones, jams, ice creams and sorbets or other treats.

Sundays they often offer alfresco paella feasts.  We weren't lucky enough to be there for their Sunday cookout, but Kim says her paella is full of chicken and chorizo and Watsons have been known to take their giant paella pans and cooking rings on the road for special events. 

I don't have a new strawberry recipe for you from Kim, but here are a few favorites of mine: ice cream, strudel and soup!

How to Find my j. Weekly Columns and More (Including Playing Jewish Geography in the Produce Aisle)

For the last five years, I have had a regular Jewish cooking column every other week at the j weekly, a print and on line publication based in San Francisco and covering the Bay area and northern California.

It is a joy to work with my editors and the publication and I get a lot of opportunity to speak to Bay area groups about Jewish food, especially some of its international roots and traditions because of my connection to the j.  I also get to talk to and share recipes with some pretty amazing folks from home cooks to restaurant owners to cookbook authors as part of the research for my j. pieces.

I also get recognized a bit, usually in the supermarket and usually in the produce aisle.  Folks will stop me and we will play "I know I know you, I just don't know how" for a bit and then it will finally dawn on me that we really don't know each other and they have just seen the photo the j prints alongside my column (see photo at left.  The j uses a cropped version of it).

I'll ask if they subscribe to the j.  Then I'll ask if they read the recipes.  If they say yes but still don't have a clue, I'll ask if they ever cut out the recipe columns and hang on the fridge. Bingo. My face is staring down at them as they work in the kitchen and I've become so familiar it seems like I'm an old friend.  

An encounter like this makes my day, to say the least.

I do often get questions from non-subscribers (you really should subscribe, it's a great paper.  For a free four week subscription to the j, click here and be sure to let them know Faith sent you!) out-of-area readers and those who have misplaced their clipped out columns how to find my recipes and other writing on the j. website. 

The easiest way to find a relatively current column is to go to my author archive at the j at

http://www.jweekly.com/article/author/959/faith/ for the last five or six months worth.  If it's longer ago than that, check out the paper's cook archives at http://www.jweekly.com/cook/archives/ and select the appropriate year.  The archives also feature the work of my co-columnist Josie A. G. Shapiro, and the columnists that came before us.

One of the great resources the j (formerly the Jewish Bulletin) offers is the recipe index where you can search my and others' recipes by ingredient (use keyword sort), holiday (use category sort), etc. 

Try it out at  http://www.jweekly.com/search/recipes/

I am always reaching out to folks with ideas for columns and recipes (I especially like to feature locals with a foodie connection, long-time family recipes, or cuisine expertise but always with some sort of Jewish connection).  If you have an idea or question for me - leave a comment on this post or email me at clickblogappetit AT gmail DOT com.

Learn to Swirl - Cupcake Decorating Tips from a Pro

A "Cupcake" Monster

According to Leah Miller, team member and a production decorator at the Oakland (CA) Whole Foods, the number one trick to creating cupcakes that are as good to look at as they are to eat is to make sure your cupcake is room temperature before you begin covering it in frosting.

"It's best to make them ahead," she said. "Or even the day before. If your cupcake is not totally cool, the frosting will melt or drip off."

Even if a bright blue (from natural food coloring) pastry rendition of Sesame Street's favorite Cookie Monster is not in your cupcake decorating future, Miller had some suggestions at a recent hands-on cupcake decorating class at the store that could be adapted for any style of cupcake. 

Here's some of her tips:

• Use metal tips inserted in disposable plastic pastry bags for piping the icing on top of the cupcakes
• Choose tips with larger holes, either round or star.  Star tips create ridges perfect for catching sprinkles.  Round tips give a softer, piled on look to the frosting.
• Make sure the frosting is "loose" by stirring it before putting it in the pastry bag.  She uses Italian butter cream frosting, which is very silky and smooth but says store bought is fine, too - just place in a bowl and whisk it well before using.
• Use natural food colors and be sure they are mixed in well.  She does warn that too much red coloring will end up tasting like beets, so go with pink rather than red this Valentine's Day.

To decorate a cupcake, pick your metal tip, insert in a pastry bag (or use a gallon-size heavy duty plastic storage bag with a corner cut off for the metal tip). Push in a bit of the plastic bag inside the tip and give the bag a twist.  Spoon in the frosting, pushing down to avoid air bubbles.  When you are ready to decorate, untwist the bag and pull up so the inside of the tip is no longer covered by plastic. (Doing this does two things - it helps prevent air bubbles in the frosting and makes sure frosting doesn't drip out of the tip while you are loading the pastry bag.) Twist top of bag and holding one hand at top and the other towards the tip, press down from top so frosting flows out smoothly.

Decorating tips are available at some supermarkets and at craft stores.  Miller uses the metal tips made by Wilton.  (The tips she used for piping the swirls of frosting seem closest to open star size 8b and round size 1A.)

Miller recommends starting at the middle of the cupcake and working out to the side, swirling frosting in circles upon it self to cover and create an attractive decorative effect.  Once  you have your swirl, Miller recommends decorating with colored sugars, candy bits, sprinkles or other toppings.  Or you can use a smaller tip to make decorative shell or star shapes along the edges or on top.

For the Cookie Monster cupcake, the Oakland Whole Foods best seller, she adds a half cookie as a mouth, covers her piped swirl with small stars for fur and adds white chocolate eyes.

While Cookie Monster was a big hit with the two little girls at Miller's demonstration, us adults appreciated her tips for a "flower" cupcake.  Use a large round tip and pipe petals a little out from the middle to the sides.  Fill in center with small stars or a colorful jam or curd.  At the store, Miller says a "sunflower" cupcake with yellow petals and brown center is very popular.

Before attempting any swirls, stars or other designs on your cupcakes you might want to do what Miller had us do before we graduated to piping onto the cupcakes.  Trace a few circles onto parchment paper and practice squeezing the icing out of the bag into the swirls or other shapes.  To avoid frosting "tails" stop squeezing before lifting up the tip.  Once you are done practicing, use a spatula or knife to scoop up the frosting from the parchment paper and reuse.

All this reads as much more fussy than it is in real life.  Even the three-year-old in the class was decorating cupcakes with aplomb after a few practice circles.  We got to eat the mistakes as well as bring home our more successful creations.  Plus the event was a benefit for the Whole Planet Foundation.  

Blog Appetit Goes to the Winter Fancy Food Show

Opening day crowd. Photo by NASFT, used with permission

My feet are sore.  My belly is bulging.  My mind is full of great recipes I'd like to create, products I'd like to highlight and human interest stories I'd like to write.  That's because I spent two days at this year's National Association for the Specialty Food Trade's Winter Fancy Food Show here in San Francisco.  

That's a convention center full of goodies to sample, discuss, photograph and ponder.  I can't believe I covered so much and still missed the guy in the bacon costume or the cheese company making free flip books with participants costumed as over endowed milk maids or saucy cows. 

The place was packed and more than a little overwhelming with more than 80,000 products, so I tried to concentrate on just a few subjects and just take the rest in.

Here are just a few of my favorite new-to me products. I'll be featuring more in the coming weeks, but these made a mighty good first impression on me:

Numi Organic Tea's new savory tea line:  These are flavorful light vegetable broths I think taste amazingly good and are nice restoratives or refreshers by themselves, I think they would be interesting to work into recipes for everything from soups to curries to aspics.  I hope to play with these veggie teas a bit and develop a few recipes.  The line is not listed on the website yet.  The beverages just use vegetables and seasonings for flavor and do not contain any tea so they are naturally caffeine free. Each variety has five calories or less.  Introductory flavors are Tomato Mint, Carrot Curry, Fennel Spice, Spinach Chive, Beet Cabbage and Broccoli Cilantro.Watch for more info from Numi (and me) on this.

Brad's Raw Kale Chips: Kale chips were not hard to find at the show, but these were raw, relatively unprocessed and addictive.  I also liked Brad's raw flavored onion rings and the company's zucchini sticks.  At some point I realized I was eating an inappropriate amount of samples because they were so tasty.  I rationalized it by saying I'd mention them on my blog, so here you go.

Coconut Bliss:  This company managed to combine two of the biggest themes I saw on the convention floor -- coconut and salted caramel flavor.  Unlike many of the flavor combos involving these trendy tastes, though, Coconut Bliss pulled them off in an amazing vegan ice cream. The flavor is so new it's not on it's website yet, but watch for it in local stores.

Oh, and a special shout out to Hudson Valley for it's rich and delectable foie gras product and for the generosity in which they welcomed (repeat) samplers. (Please go to their site to read about their cage free and other innovative methods of humane raising of the ducks that provide the livers they market.)

Watch for me from me on the show and related goings on.  Below are excerpts from the NASFT news release for what it's "trendspotters" saw as up and coming at the show.  To see the complete news release, please go here.

Almost Ethiopian Food -- Recipes for a Kinda Doro Wat (Chicken and Egg Stew) and Kale and Mushroom Saute

Kay's vintage cookbook.

I find my friends Welch and Kay Warren very inspiring in so many ways, but their recent visit to Ethiopia really had a major impact on me. They brought back stories about people, places and food that were vivid and involving. Their connection with Ethiopia goes back decades, since Kay had been among the first Peace Corps volunteers there in the 1960s. She generously shared an Ethiopian-American cookbook she brought back from that experience with me that really added insight into traditional ingredients and techniques.

I've made some adaptations in those traditional ways, however. Berebere, a basic spice mixture, can be hard to find, although more and more markets are carrying it and it is available online from a variety of resources.  Just in case you are like my friend Sam and live far from a specialty market, you can't wait for the spice to be delivered by UPS or you get the urge to cook this when the stores aren't open, I've given an alternative based on chili seasoning.  

An important component of any Ethiopian meal is injera, the teff-based, fermented flat bread used as a platter as well as a way to scoop up the food and eat it.  (Traditionally, Ethopian food  is eaten with one's hands.)  It is available in some specialty stores and can be bought to-go from Ethiopian restaurants, but these dishes taste just as good served with crusty bread, ladled over rice or millet and eaten with a fork.

My local resource for Ethiopian products also has a thriving mail order business for spices and other ingredients and I recommend Brundo very highly.  If you are in the Oakland, CA, area, try Brundo's affiliated restaurant, Cafe Colucci and consider attending one of the organization's excellent Ethiopian cooking classes.  The Brundo website also has many Ethiopian recipes.   I buy my injera from them as well.  I have noticed that local Whole Foods and other specialty supermarkets have started carrying a packaged brand of injera (sometimes spelled enjera) from Sheba Foods of Oakland (watch for the opening of Sheba's online store).

The recipes below were adapted to celebrate the Ethiopian Jewish holiday of Sigd (celebrated earlier this week) which commemorates the acceptance of the Torah.  Accordingly the recipes have been adapted to not mix meat with dairy products.  The chicken recipe is my verison of a wat (also spelled wot), or stew.  The kale dish is based partly on some the the vegetable dishes I've eaten at Cafe Colucci and elsewhere and Welch's description of a dish he ate with gusto during their recent trip to the country.

Chicken and Egg Stew
(Kinda Doro Wat)
Serves 4-6

Although a more authentic recipe would use spiced clarified butter and not offer a substitute for the berbere, this very satisfying dish is firmly rooted in Ethiopian seasonings and cooking technique. 

3 lbs. chicken thighs, bone-in
Juice of 1 lemon
6 cups chopped red onion
1/2 cup water
2-3 Tbs. spice mix (see recipe below) or berbere
2 tsp. minced fresh garlic
1 tsp. minced fresh ginger
1/4 cup spice oil (see recipe below) or canola oil
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. plus 1 Tbs. tomato paste
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled

Place chicken in bowl, add lemon juice and cover with water.  Let sit 1 hour.  Place onion in a Dutch oven over medium heat.  Cook, stirring frequently, for 10-15 minutes until onions are softened and beginning to color. (Yes, you cook the onions without oil at first.) Add 1/2 cup water, spice mix, garlic, ginger, spice oil, pepper, salt and 1 Tbs. tomato paste. Mix and add drained chicken (discard lemon water) and stock.  Stir.  Raise heat to high, bring to a simmer, cover and adjust heat.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.  Uncover and keep at simmer.  Mix in 1 Tbs. tomato paste.  Prick eggs with fork, add to stew.  Cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chicken is done. (If necessary, remove chicken and eggs. Boil down sauce, stirring frequently, until it is thick but still a bit soupy.)  Remove chicken skin before serving if desired.

Kale and Mushroom Sauté
Serves 2-3 as main course, 4-6 as a side dish

Beef this vegan dish up by adding 2 cups of cooked lentils when you add the water and tomato paste, adding additional tomato paste and water to taste. 

2 cups chopped red onion
1/2 cup plus 1 cup water
2 Tbs. spice mix (see recipe below) or berbere
1/4 cup spice oil (see recipe below) or canola oil
1 tsp. minced fresh ginger
2 tsp. minced fresh garlic
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 lb. small brown or white mushrooms, trimmed and quartered
1 Tbs. tomato paste
1 bunch (1/2 lb.) kale, chopped
2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes

In a large skillet, cook onions until softened and beginning to color, stirring often.  Add 1/2 cup water, spice mix, spice oil, ginger, garlic, salt and pepper.  Mix well.  Add mushrooms and sauté until just softened.  Add 1 cup water and tomato paste.  Stir. Add kale.  Sauté until cooked through.  Remove from heat and stir in tomatoes.  

Spice mix --  Mix together the following ground spices:  4Tbs. chili seasoning powder, 2 Tbs. paprika, 2 tsp. cayenne pepper, 1 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. each cardamom, dried ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, cloves, black pepper and allspice.  Store in airtight container.

Spice oil -- Heat 1/2 cup canola oil until hot.  Turn off heat.  Add 1 tsp. grated fresh ginger, 1 tsp. chopped fresh garlic, 2 Tbs. chopped onion and the following ground spices: 1/4 tsp. turmeric, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/8 tsp. cardamom.  Once cool, strain, discarding solids.  Store in airtight container.
--------------------
Adapted from my column which originally appeared in j. weekly.

All the Colors of the Rainbow - Gay Pride at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza and Farmers' Market

The Saturday of Gay Pride Weekend I visited the San Franciso Ferry Plaza stores and farmers' markets and was struck by all the colors of the rainbow.

Cooking with Tea -- Beef Short Ribs in Smoky Tea Sauce and Frozen Sweet Tea Recipes

I have an affinity for tea. Since I was young, it's been an important part of my life.

In my earliest memories it was Lipton tea in a bag.  Then an English cousin introduced us to Red Rose. Then, with the aid of a trusty immersion coil (to boil water in my dorm room in those years before the residential microwave), I discovered the world of loose, herbal and flavored teas at McNulty's Teas in New York City.

I continue to drink tea of all sorts from complex chai to floral jasmine to delicate linden and more.  I have also used tea in cooking.

For several years I have wanted to develop more recipes with tea.  Recently, I took some time and did just that.  The recipes below were developed for a column in the j. weekly I did about a Bay area-based national tea firm, Republic of Tea.  The company started in 1992 and is located in Novato, CA. It distributes more than 200 products nationally. To see the version in the j., please click here.

Two of the company’s teas inspired me to create these recipes. I used its lapsang souchong tea (for more on lapsang souchong tea in general click here) combined with fragrant spices to give the beef short ribs a slightly smoky, wonderfully complex flavor. I used British Breakfast tea (a variant of English Breakfast tea) for the Frozen Sweet Tea, but any unflavored black tea (or decaffeinated black tea) will work. The third recipe, for an ice tea using Republic of Tea's Jasmine Jazz green tea, is adapted from the Republic of Tea website. (For some background on  jasmine teas in general, click here.)

Similar teas from other sources can be substituted. 

I have plans for more recipes using tea.  If you have some you'd like to share, please leave a link in the comments section below.

Boneless Beef Short Ribs in Smoky Tea Sauce
Serves 4

This blog would need smell-o-vision to help you really appreciate the deep, wonderful, exotic scent that wafts through the house as these short ribs braise.  And, once they are done, fork tender, moist and meaty, the taste does not disappoint.  A fine company dish, especially when made in advance and gently reheated.

Note: A coffee grinder does a great job of processing the tea and spices. Grind bread into crumbs and discard to clean before and after.

2 Tbs. plus 1 Tbs. lapsang souchong tea
1/2 tsp. Sichuan OR black peppercorns
4 whole OR 2 tsp. ground star anise
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. salt
2 lbs. boneless beef short ribs
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock or water
2 Tbs. oil plus more if needed
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
½ cup chopped celery
2 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro OR parsley

Grind 2 Tbs. of tea, peppercorns, anise, ginger and salt until very fine using a spice mill, cleaned coffee grinder, blender or mortar and pestle. Rub spice mix all over short ribs. Let coated meat sit for 30 minutes.

Heat the stock to boiling. Take off heat. Steep remaining tea in hot liquid for 5 minutes using a tea ball or strainer. Remove tea leaves, reserve liquid.

Heat oil on high heat in a large, deep pan and brown short ribs on all sides. Set aside. Add more oil to pan if needed, reduce heat to medium high, sauté onion until lightly browned, add garlic, sauté until golden. Add carrot, bell pepper and celery, sauté for a minute and put meat back in pan, adding 1 cup of the reserved tea liquid. Bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to keep at simmer, turning meat and stirring occasionally and adding additional tea liquid if needed. Cook about 1 1/2 to 2 hours until very tender. Remove meat and keep warm. Cook sauce uncovered on high until reduced about in half. Pour sauce over short ribs. Sprinkle with chopped herbs.

Frozen Sweet Tea
Makes 6-8 Servings

This is a sorbet version of the popular Southern drink. The tea is brewed double strength as if for ice tea. Stop the freezing when the tea is slushy and still a bit liquidy and serve it in a glass with a straw for a "Slurpee" or "Icee" version.  If you are serving it as a sorbet, I think a little chopped mint on top is an appropriate garnish.

2 cups boiling water
8 bags or 8 tsp. loose unflavored black or decaffeinated black tea
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 Tbs. lemon juice

Pour boiling water over tea bags or loose tea (in tea ball or strainer). Let steep for 5 minutes. Remove tea bags or leaves. Combine the other 2 cups of water with sugar in a small pot. Heat until sugar has dissolved and water is simmering, stirring occasionally. Mix tea and sugar water together. Stir. Refrigerate until cold. Add lemon juice. Stir. Pour into ice cream machine and process according to directions. It will be soft and slushy. Serve immediately or store in freezer. If frozen, let stand at room temperature 20 minutes before serving.

Adaption for Making without an Ice Cream Maker

This version makes a grainer, more granita-like frozen treat.

Once the tea and sugar mixture is cold, pour it into a metal pan or other freezer safe container that is wide and flat. Place in the freezer and stir and scrape the mixture every half hour with a sturdy fork until frozen. Remove from the freezer about 20 minutes before serving and scrape to break up and serve.

Budget Food Shopping at Whole Foods on $4 a Day --- Or How to Have Wholesome Food without Spending the Whole Paycheck --Hunger Challenge 2010



Whole Foods' Perri Kramer at bulk bins

 Shop Whole Foods Market for a full day’s worth of organic food for a family of four for just $4 a person?

It seemed like an extreme test, but as part of my participation in the San Francisco Food Bank’s Hunger Challenge 2010, I took it on, and thanks to help from Perri Kramer, marketing team leader of the Oakland, CA, store, I was able to do just that. (You can see more about the background on my shopping trip here and the day’s menu and recipes here. To read all of my Hunger Challenge 2010 posts, click here.)

Perri leads regular “shopping on a budget” tours for customers and she offered to walk the store with me to show me how to cruise the aisles for affordable and often locally sourced goods. She helped highlight some items that would work in my meal plan, which was restricted by the Hunger Challenge rules of $4 a day per person (the amount a typical food stamp recipient would have to spend) and by the further constraint that I wanted all the food to be certified organic.

Since some have nicknamed Whole Foods “Whole Paycheck,” I was worried when we started that my options would be very limited. But that just wasn’t true. I had a number of choices, although my dinner pasta sauce recipe really just had just a hint of chicken. Sure some produce might have been less expensive in an organic farmer’s market, and some other items might have been lower priced elsewhere, but the chain offers some good values, especially for those who want to eat organic, and if you shop carefully, some exceptional ones. In some communities one of the chain’s 270 stores might be the only resource for organic products, although in others there are regional, national or local alternatives. Just looking at food pricing and availability of organic products, I found Whole Foods to be an excellent one-stop resource for those who want to eat wholesome foods on a budget.

While Perri's tips are for budget-conscious shopping at Whole Foods, they could easily be adapted to shopping at most large supermarkets.

•  Allow yourself enough time. Budget shopping anywhere takes more time as you compare deals and options
• Pick up the chain’s “Whole Deal” semi-monthly flyer  at the store entrance for coupons, special deals and recipes. On my tour she pointed out that the butcher shop had some sausages on special that had an extra dollar off coupon in the flyer.
• Watch for in-store produce specials, usually towards the front of the produce department. “We always have five to seven on special, and often they are local and seasonal from smaller farmers” where Whole Foods wants to increase demand for the farmers and sell through the perishable item as soon as possible.
•  Choose seasonal produce for the best pricing. In season fruits and vegetables will almost always be the best values.
•  Look for the store branding on packaged produce and other items (such as the 365 Everyday Value brand). If organic is a concern, look for that on the label. When 365 store-branded products are not organic, Perri says they are still as natural as possible and have a higher level of quality control than other sources. 365 produce is also sometimes locally sourced.
• When shopping for fish or meat, consider shopping on Friday, when Whole Foods often has one-day specials in these departments. Also look for the 365 brand  on packaged meat and the store’s “value-packs” which offer per pound discounts on larger packages of meat and chicken.
•  Grocery specials are often displayed near the front the store, so Perri advises checking there first and advises looking for store brands to help pare down costs.
• Buy from the bulk section, but only buy what you need. “You can buy just a tiny bit of a specialty item and only have to pay for what you need,” she said. It is also a great place to stock up on staples such as frequently used grains and beans. Prices are cheaper since you are not paying for packaging.
•  Look for ways to add low-cost flavor to your dish to keep costs down. Buy a bit of a spice or seasoning mix from the bulk section, consider using bullion or broth as a base for soups and stews or for cooking rice or other grains. Perri pointed out a package of organic vegetarian or chicken bullion that cost about 14 cents a serving.
• Watch out for processed frozen, canned or other packaged foods if you are on a tight budget. Perri says that some items on the grocery aisle might be tasty or convenient but that they add to your grocery bill. In general choose foods with as minimal processing as possible to get the most out of your food dollar.

She also suggested checking out the low-cost recipes on the Whole Foods website and contacting your local Whole Foods Market to get your own budget shopping tour.

Note: I was putting together an all-organic menu. Prices at Whole Foods Market for non-organic alternatives were lower. Choosing some of these goods would have lowered my food bill, allowed me to have more fresh produce or chicken or changed what I selected for my day’s menu.

Not the Farmer's Daughter, So I Go to Fisher Farm

My thumb isn't at all green, my idea of a good time is not spent weeding, mulching and perusing seed catalogs, but I do adore fresh grown food and prefer to buy it from those who actually grow it, hence my preoccupation with farmers' markets and farm stands.

One of my family favorites is out in Ripon, CA. We are out that way a few times a year and my husband, the traveling salesman, is out that way a lot, so we get to enjoy Fisher Farm's crop rotations throughout the year.

Take a look at their seasonal schedule and maybe you'll find yourself making a detour to this jewel of a farmstand in the San Joaquin Valley. (With lots of other farmer-run farm stands near by, too.)

In addition to the fruit shown on the schedule, they have lots of heirloom tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables.

Read what else I've written about Fisher Farms in this post, including photos and directions for homemade hot sauce. (We called ours Below the Belt Hot Sauce.)

In the Bay Area -- Local, Seasonal and Delicious

Thanks to Slow Food San Francisco (and the Local Foods Wheel) for what's in season and in the market for us right now.

Here's the list and write up from Slow Foods.

Some highlights: strawberries, kumquats, leeks, king trumpet mushrooms.

If you are not buying from a farmer or at a locally sourced produce market, be sure to check on the food resource. I'm still seeing asparagus from Mexico, for example, even though our own local crops are available.

Update: 12/10/10 -- For year-round info on what's in season when in California, check out this list.  For a national list, check out this link.

Hunger Pains and Shopping for the Hunger Challenge 2009

First a confession -- while I'm developing recipes and menus for the week-long Hunger Challenge, I'm not really following it for a consecutive week. Business, personal, professional and travel commitments made that unwieldy. What I am doing is following the food "budget" of $4 a day whenever I can, including today. Under the guidelines from the San Francisco Food Bank, the Hunger Challenge's sponsor, that is allowed.

In the morning I was out running an errand and I was dreadfully thirsty. I forgot to fill my reusable water bottle. I couldn't spare a dollar for a bottle of water, that literally would have taken food out of my mouth. After work, I decided to run out and price ingredients for my menu and shop for some of them at the Grocery Outlet. I shopped until after 8 p.m. and I was starving. There were tempting taco trucks and a southern bbq wagon right by the store but after I priced what I could eat on the remaining budget for the day, I took a pass. I barely said hi to my husband after I returned home before I wolfed down my dinner portion. I was so hungry that it really affected my ability to make decisions in the store and drive home. For me it was a very dramatic and unfamiliar example of what it is to be hungry and try to function at a job or educational environment.

A word about the Grocery Outlet. If you are unfamiliar with this chain, I urge you to check it out. There are real values among popular national brands as well as unfamiliar store brands, near-expiration date refrigerated products and failed-to-sell frozen foods. The chain also carries fresh dairy, fruits, meats and vegetables. You do have to know your prices a bit on some stuff, but most foods are good deals. The store I shopped had everything from organic canned tomatoes and other canned and packaged "health" foods to 10 pound bags of poatoes for $2.54, Be careful though there were also such things as "jumbo" bowls of ramen noodles with almost half of a day's sodium in a single serving. Check out the store's website for "bargainista" tips and locations.

One caveat: You need to be flexible. The only vinegar I saw this trip was balsamic and while it was a deal it wasn't part of my food planning or budget. I wanted to buy one head of garlic, the store only had larger packages. I was revising my menu on the spot or making decisions to make another stop and shop elsewhere to stay with the plan. I was particularly impressed with some of the fresh fruit and vegetable prices. I can work much more of that into this year's challenge than last. (Of course have $1 more a day per person makes a big difference, too.) Bargain food shopping is work, you can't just pick what's appealing or easy. Keeping in mind nutrition and developing recipes that don't take all day to cook have to be considered, too.

Watch for future shopping installments about ethnic markets, 99 cent and dollar stores, and farmer's markets.

Dinner tonight was baked chicken thighs on a bed of tomatoes and potatoes. Recipe to come.

To read more about my participation in this year's Hunger Challenge, click here, including links to the participants and more. For links to last year's recipes, shopping lists, etc., click here.

Korean on a Plate and From the Store -- Spicy Chicken, Potato and Spinach Stew

To say I enjoy exploring ethnic markets is a serious understatement. I love to spelunk the racks of unfamiliar spices, marvel at the vaguely other-worldly produce, climb over piles of not-quite-sure-how-you-use-it cookware and generally try to stuff myself with the food and experiences of another country's cuisine. An ethnic cookbook is always a good guide, especially if there are phonetic or foreign language spellings I can show a helpful clerk. An even better guide is a native eater and cook to help translate the experience for me, recommend products and brands and share recipes.

A few months ago I was driving down Telegraph Avenue in Oakland CA headed somewhere else (I think I was headed toward Whole Foods) when I spotted Koreana Plaza. I made a quick u-turn, parked and entered ethnic market nirvana. The first impression was the scent of sesame oil, garlic and soy. It was heavenly. Then I noticed the aisles of hot and cold prepared foods, a bakery counter, fish market, produce store, frozen delicacies and lots and lots of dried and canned Korean, Japanese and Chinese speciality products were there. There was even a whole aisle of red pepper paste, red pepper flakes, ground red pepper, red pepper threads and other incendiary versions of that spicy capsicum. (I may have been hallucinating because the next time I went it really wasn't a whole aisle.) Plus an entire, separate building of Korean house and kitchen wares.

I was shopping for a Super Bowl party and quickly abandoned my vague plans of fresh veggies and dips for a Korean feast. I bought everything from the ready-to-eat counter. To be honest I wasn't really sure what I was buying but I just dug right in for the adventure. The hit of the appetizers I set out was with the crab pancakes or fritters you see in the photo above.

While I've always enjoyed Korean food, I've never really tried to cook it and didn't even own a dedicated cookbook on the cuisine (quite a feat when you have as many cookbooks as I do). I began some research and have begun exploring more of the store and cuisine. A Korean friend while not exactly dismissive of the store tells me if I think Koreana Plaza is amazing I should see the Korean grocery stores in Los Angeles. My response to her -- when can we go?

A Korean Feast

For the joint birthdays of one of our best friends who is like an aunt to our sons and our youngest son we had a Korean feast. It was a weekday and I didn't have much time so I picked up the appetizers and all the banchan (sometimes spelled panchan), or little side dishes or salads, pre-made at Koreana Plaza. These included a seaweed salad, seasoned black beans, a mung bean sprouts dish, pickled radish, napa cabbage kimchi, Japanese cucumber kimchi, pickled garlic, garlic stem kimchi and more. For appetizers I picked up a kind of Korean sushi made with fish cakes and the little crab crepes that were a hit at the Super Bowl party. I also made some fresh soy beans to munch on and had some Japanese rice crackers.

To serve with all those side dishes, I grilled the pre-marinated beef short ribs ($5.99 a pound) I had gotten from Koreana Plaza. They were juicy, tasty and irresistible. I also made a vegetable and fresh rice noodle dish, white rice, cucumber salad (which I kept on the bland side for those who don't relish setting their palette on fire with all the red pepper taste I had going in the meal) and a Korean-inspired Spicy Chicken, Potato and Spinach Stew.

While I had green tea with roasted barley (a Korean standby), the adults stuck to red wine or sake, the kids grape or mango juice.

Here's the recipe for the stew. Watch for more Korean-inspired food as I continue exploring Koreana Plaza and other Korean resources in the San Francisco Bay area.

Spicy Chicken, Potato and Spinach Stew

Serves Six

This recipe was inspired by the recipe for Stewed Chicken With Potatoes in Dok Suni: Recipes from My Mother's Korean Kitchen by Jenny Kwak. My copy of the book was borrowed from the Oakland (CA) Public Library. Exploring the ethnic cookbooks from the library has always been one of my favorite ways to get up to plan my "trip" to a new cuisine.

This stew is spicy, true, but not the burn your lips and leave you sputtering kind of spicy. The broth kind of excites the taste buds and gives a gentle burn in the back of throat. Feel free to adjust the seasoning to your taste. The combination of pepper, garlic, sesame oil, sesame seeds and soy sauce is unbeatable. This makes a very soupy stew. Serve it in a bowl, with rice if you would like.

2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
4-6 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed or minced
3-4 pounds chicken thighs on the bone
6 large new red potatoes, sliced into 1/2-inch slices
4 tablespoons red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup of soy sauce (low sodium okay)
2 tablespoons of sake (Japanese rice wine), Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoon of Asian sesame oil
1 to 1 and 1/2 cups of water (or more)
2 bunches (about 1 1/2 pounds) of spinach, cleaned, stemmed and roughly chopped
Salt if needed
4 whole green onions (scallions), cleaned, roots cut off and sliced into 1" lengths (including greens)
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Put the cooking oil in a large, deep skillet or in a large soup pot. Heat to medium high and add onions and saute until golden. Add garlic and saute until lightly brown. Add chicken, skin side down. Brown top and bottom. (Work in batches if needed). Add potatoes, red pepper flakes, sugar, soy sauce, wine and sesame oil. Mix well. Saute for a minute or two to blend flavors. Add water, stir well to combine. Cover and cook about 20-30 minutes over a medium heat.

Periodically check and add more water if needed. When the chicken is almost cooked through and the potatoes are tender, stir in the spinach. Cover and cook until the chicken and spinach are done, then taste and correct the seasoning with the salt if needed. Add in the sliced green onions. Stir well and cook until the onions are wilted, (about 2-3 minutes). Remove stew from the heat and transfer to a serving bowl if desired. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

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By the way, I started preparing this whole meal at 4:30 and was ready for company at 6:30, mostly thanks to the prepared foods I picked up at Koreana Plaza. In addition to the Oakland location, the store has another location outside Sacramento, CA. Check the website for more info.

Root Vegetable Stew with Gremolata -- Good Without the Bones

I love a good osso bucco oozing with marrow, lush with fat and with the deep meat flavor of veal shanks. But as much as I love the meat, I love the gremolata topping more. Bright and lively with the spritely zip of raw, minced lemon, garlic and parsley it refreshes and enhances the whole dish.

My enchantment with gremolata has led me to experiment. I’ve mixed it with olive oil for a fast pasta sauce enlivened with some red pepper flakes and sometimes freshly made bread crumbs. I’ve sprinkled it over soups, steamed potatoes, cooked vegetables and even salads. I’ve substituted other herbs for the parsley. I even made an Asian version using garlic, lemongrass and cilantro.

One of my favorite ways to use gremolata is as a topping for a hearty root vegetable stew. Somehow the concept of root vegetables resonates with me as a good substitute for the primitive bones of osso bucco, and the gremolata works its tasty magic in a similar way, making this tomato-based stew something really special.

An aside: This was on our Valentine’s Day Menu. My husband spent the morning with me at the Grand Lake Farmers’ Market here in Oakland, CA (one of my favorites), where we got all the fresh ingredients for the dish. We served the stew with wide egg noodles and some sourdough bread we bought at the farmers’ market from an artisan baker based in a former industrial district of the city. Local and global and made with lots of love, it was a swell Valentine’s treat.

Root Vegetable Stew with Gremolata
Serves 6 to 8

Stew
2 Tbsp Olive oil
Medium onion, cut in half and thinly sliced into half moons
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound, new red potatoes, sliced
4 small turnips (about ¾ pound), cut into fourths, sliced
1 large carrot, sliced into rounds
½ of small fennel bulb (white only), roughly chopped
½ tsp of Provencal seasoning
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 large can diced tomato with juice (28-32 ounces)
2 cups water or vegetable stock
1/8 tsp saffron threads
12 ounces of kale, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp chopped fennel fronds (the green feathery part from the fennel bulb above)

Gremolata Topping
1 Tbsp minced lemon zest
2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley
1 tsp minced fresh garlic

Heat oil in a deep sauté pan or a large diameter pot over medium high heat. Sauté onions until golden, add garlic and sauté until lightly brown. Add potato, turnip carrot and fennel. Mix to coat in oil and sauté a few minutes. Sprinkle in the salt and pepper and stir well. Add the tomatoes with juice, water or stock and the saffron. Stir well. Bring to a simmer. Cover, adjust heat and let simmer until the root vegetables just begin to soften. Add the kale, stir, return to a simmer and cover. Simmer until the kale has cooked through. Stir in the fennel fronds. Set aside. Mix the ingredients for the gremolata topping. Put stew in serving bowl. Scatter gremolata on top. Serve by itself or over wide egg noodles, polenta, rice or orzo.

Pancake Day

I just learned today is Shrove Tuesday (we'll it's NOT on my Manischewitz holiday calendar), thanks to food blogging Twittering tweeps. The day is also known as Pancake Day in some parts of the British Commonwealth, since in those lands the traditional way to celebrate this is with pancakes.

Wish I had known that when I was at Trader Joe's this a.m. They had a interesting looking maple-flavored agave nectar for sale in the new item section. I thought it would make a swell pancake topping, but since I had no plans to make pancakes, I just couldn't find a reason to pay the $3.49 (or was it $2.49) for it. Maybe its just as well I didn't buy it since the idea behind the fat and egg laden flapjacks, crepes and similar treats is to USE up ingredients traditionally frowned upon during the more austere diets of Lent.

I'll take any excuse for pancakes for dinner, so it seems like the kind of holiday food I'd flip for (sorry about the pun).

Shame on Me -- Not from Scratch, Not Local, But Still Good Soup

After a busy day (and a few full days of eating at the Fancy Food Show and Food Fete), I needed something light and vaguely nutritious today. My shameful, quickie answer -- another Trader Joe freezer soup special.

Don't get me wrong, I think soups from scratch are the best and I prefer not to base my cooking on a lot of processed foods, but sometimes you just need something quick. I also prefer to source as much as I can locally and not support a German-owned chain, but gosh darn, I love TJ's, so I try to use it in moderation. I don't need a Trader Joe's intervention, yet.

Another Trader Joe's Inspired Soup
Makes about 6 servings

Olive oil or olive oil spray
1/2 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
One 16 ounce bag of defrosted frozen Trader Joe's roasted vegetables in balsamic sauce (okay to microwave frozen to reach defrosted state)
32 ounce box of chicken stock (I like Pacific more than TJ's own brands, but either works) or veggie stock
14-16 ounces of diced, canned tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Oil or spray soup pot. Over medium high heat, saute onions until golden, add garlic, saute until just turning color. Add vegetable mix, saute a few minutes, until pats of seasoned butter melt into mixture. Add stock and tomatoes. Simmer and cover (lowering heat if needed) until vegetables are heated through and it tastes like soup. Add salt and pepper to taste if needed.

No Trader Joe's? You can make this soup with any frozen, seasoned vegetables. Look for a mix that is roasted and maybe add a splash of balsamic vinegar to replicate the taste of this soup.

For a vegetarian option -- use vegetable stock. You need the stock for flavor in this soup, I don't advise using plain water.

To see my other lapses in soup making, check out my recipes for Trader Joe's Chicken Fajita Soup and Trader Joe's Green Chicken Soup.

We ate it with grilled provolone cheese and pesto sandwiches on the side (it's fun having a panini grill!), which perhaps negated some of the lower calorie aspects of the soup.

My Well Fed Report on the Winter Fancy Food Show

Here's a reprint -- My Well Fed report on yesterday at the Winter Fancy Food Show.

This was featured on Well Fed on the Town and the Well Fed "front page." Check it out there to see any comments and the photo of Linda and her laktes.

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Life was sweet in San Francisco this Sunday. It was also salty, sour, saucy and very tasty. It was the opening day of the Winter Fancy Food Show, sponsored by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, Inc.

About 17,000 food buyers and other attendees swarmed the more than 1,200 exhibits featuring everything delicious, at least to someone. Most booths offered some kind of sample. Rare cheeses, serrano ham, and caviar with flavored popcorn, salsa and chips, chocolates and candies, teas, coffees, cookies, and much, much more. In my first relatively quick walk through (which took about five hours) of the 198,000 square feet of exhibit space at SF’s Moscone Center I began to process a bit of what I was seeing and tasting. Some first impressions:

Elvis Lives — Flavored and gourmet peanut butters and bacon-flavored products (including smoked salts and mayonnaise and dips) were in evidence at several booths. One brand of bacon-flavored products was even kosher, a mind boggling thought. Elvis might have especially liked the banana-flavored peanut butter. I know I did.

Sugar and Spice — Flavored and gourmet salts were well represented, besides the bacon-flavored salts. I was intrigued with a chocolate-flavored salt. With all the chocolate caramels I tasted at the show made with sea salt, grey salt, fleur de sel, Hawaiian salt, wine-infused salt, etc, it seems like a natural match. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to sample that. Flavored sugars, spice mixes and spice rubs were also well represented. One exhibitor that caught my eye was The Spicy Gourmet which offers a “grind-it-yourself” assortment of spices (including a spice grinder).

Tea Tease — Each year I attend there seems to be more and more tea vendors. While there are still plenty of traditional tea bags out there, loose teas and more “authentic teas” are gaining favor. I spent some time at the Dragon Pearl Whole Teas booth, learning about the benefits of organic tea. I also noticed that oolong tea seems to be becoming more of a sought-out ingredient, perhaps because of its association with weight loss. Besides Stash’s oolong blends, I also saw other vendors offering bottles of oolong iced tea, oolong energy and antioxidant drinks and more. Puerh tea seems to be coming into its own, too, especially at the Numi booth.

Children’s Hour — Motherhood seems to be the motivation for some gourmet products from Linda’s latkes (potato pancakes) to whole grain porridge. I also saw a number of exhibits with baking or cooking kits aimed at the young. For the young at heart there were jars of buttercream just waiting to be spread on cupcakes, gourmet lollipops and homemade marshmallows.

Around the World — While vendors from around the world were scattered through the show floor, there were some national groups — Canada, Chile, Italy, Spain, France come to mind. I also saw some exhibitors from Tunisia (a lot of olive oil and tuna fish) and even Egypt (frozen vegetables).

Chocolates — The trend toward single “vintage” or single source chocolate continues, as does flavoring chocolate with wines, spices and chilies. I didn’t notice as many sources of hot chocolate as I had in the past, but the one I tried I nearly swooned over. Belgian chocolate ganache on a stick you swirl in hot milk. (I also tried swirling it in my coffee for a luscious mocha.)

Downsizing — I saw some cheeses and even a pate that were boasting they now come in smaller serving sizes. I don’t know if that is a price issue or a way to get into the single serving market, but I thought it was interesting.

Health Matters — Lots and lots of drinks and teas promoted for your health, but I saw a lot fewer mangosteen and pomegranate options than in the past. Flavoring goodies with agave nectar (for a lower glycemic impact than sugar) and offering gluten free products seemed to be new trends. There were also a few booths promoting products to freshen your breathe.

Mix It Up — I saw lots and lots of mixes ranging from packs for slow-cooker dinners to the ubiquitous chocolate lava cake. One I won’t be trying soon is the carrot cake whoopie pie. When I make whoopie, I want chocolate.

I’ll be digesting everything I saw (and tasted) for a while and look forward to writing more about the companies, products and trends I discovered
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Food Fete Update -- I attended a "media" event designed to showcase sponsored brands at the Fancy Food Show called Food Fete on Monday night. As usual, it was a great time (thanks Jeff and Dave and staff). I tend to use the event as background info for future posts not the stuff of a post on it's own. But Ben of Cooking With the Single Guy did a fabulous write up over on his blog, so I'm linking to it here so you can see what we ate, who we met, etc.
Thanks, Ben.
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About the photo — Special for Blog Appetit readers -- Choco-O-Lait's Belgian hot chocolate on a stick.

Winter Fancy Food Show -- San Francisco Treats

Spent the day at the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco.

I wrote a post on my first impressions for Well Fed on the Town. As soon as it posts (which I hope will be first thing tomorrow), I'll link to it or repost it here so you can read all about my adventures in fine (and not so fine) food.

The best thing I ate today was perhaps Choc-O-Lait's Belgian hot chocolate (ganache on a stick you swirl into hot milk). If I wasn't such a chocoholic it might have been some of the wonderful cheese, sausages or other savories I sampled, but I have my priorities.

Things I wished I hadn't put in my mouth -- tofu jerky (original flavor, maybe one of the other variations would have been better, but I just couldn't taste another), a vegetarian "roast," and a chocolate-covered Asian rice cracker (small but deadly).

The best non-chocolate drink I sipped today -- a tie between Zhena Gypsy's Cacaoberry tea (which is good for you, too), Tea Forte's lemongrass mint infuser for spirits and cocktails and Fever-Tree's bitter lemon soda.

The drink I wished I had skipped today -- a bright pink, sugary kid's drink I had been curious about. Amazingly the blue one wasn't that bad.

Food that most surprised me -- Laxmi's Delights' organic golden flaxseed spread with dates and orange juice. It had a taste something like a chutney crossed with halavah and almond butter. I immediately started thinking how I would use it in grilled sandwiches, crepes and dosas.

Biggest thrill -- Getting to meet Paul Prudhomme, who is one of my sister's favorite chefs. (I got his autograph for her, really nice guy.) My sister swears by his blackened redfish spice mix which she uses for everything from dips to, well, blackened redfish.

Watch for the Well Fed piece for my not-to-serious take on some trends and other products I liked.

The best part of the show for me was getting to meet the people who make the different food products. I hope to research and feature these producers and their products in the weeks to come.
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About the photo: Chef Paul Prudomme at the show today

Quick Market Report -- Whole Foods Cheaper Than Supermarket

I know that conventional wisdom holds that it can be more expensive to shop at Whole Foods, but my experience today was a real eye opener. In Oakland, CA, high quality but conventionally grown peaches and nectarines were $1.99 a pound at Whole Foods. Similar fruit was $2.29 at my local chain supermarket. Regularly priced Whole Foods Brand English muffins were $2.99, at the chain store the national chain muffins were on sale for $3. All in all in items that were comparable I didn't find much price difference plus I had access to the Whole Foods things I enjoy.

On the other hand, it seemed to me that WF had fewer types of organics to choose from than normal. I don't know if that reflects the current crop availability or if that was a marketing decision by WF management to help keep shopping at Whole Foods more affordable.
Also, to be honest, I could have shopped any number of farmers' markets around here and gotten the fruit (probably organic) for the same or less money, but I was out picking up other staples anyway.

Charles Chocolates -- Bittersweet Truffles Just Like Chuck Siegel Makes

On the other side of the plate glass window, maybe a dozen people are peering intently at me. Why not, I must be a sight – wearing a black hairnet like some lunch lady, an oversized milk chocolate colored T-shirt covered with drips of real bittersweet chocolate and my hands covered in more of the stuff. I probably have cocoa powder all over me. I couldn’t care less, I’m at Charles Chocolates’ production facility in the San Francisco Bay area (Emeryville, CA) learning how to make truffles from owner Chuck Siegel, probably the sweetest man in chocolate. For more on my class, please check out my post on Sugar Savvy.

Much of the commercial kitchen at Charles Chocolates’ production facility can be viewed from a 40-foot long window. I imagine the gaping tour group was jealous because I got to go inside Chuck’s chocolate alchemy laboratory where everything comes out tasting golden. It was an amazing day and I hope you’ll check out the Sugar Savvy piece and read all about my experience and Charles Chocolates. Be sure to check out the website for info on the company, products, classes and other events, tours, newsletters and recipes.

Here’s one of the recipes we made that day. You can also find it on the website:

Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles(from Charles Chocolates website)

1 lb. bittersweet chocolate (Chuck recommends E. Guittard 72% or El Rey 71%), finely chopped.
1 cup organic heavy cream or whipping cream (preferably not “Ultra-Pasteurized”)
1 whole vanilla bean
8 ounces unsweetened cocoa powder

Instructions:
"In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the cream to a gentle boil. Remove from heat. Split the vanilla bean open and scrape out the vanilla seed into the cream and let steep for 10 minutes. Bring the cream back to a gentle boil over medium heat. Pour the cream over the finely chopped chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes.

"Whisk the chocolate and cream mixture together until very smooth. This is referred to as ganache, a mixture of chocolate and cream. Refrigerate in an airtight container, for at least 5 hours or overnight.

"Using a small melon baller or a small teaspoon, scoop small balls of ganache into your hand and roll until somewhat smooth and round. These should be approximately 1” in diameter. Place cocoa powder in a shallow bowl or pan. Roll the truffles in cocoa powder to coat.

"Truffles may be stored for up to two weeks at a cool room temperature (55-65 degrees) in an airtight container. Do not refrigerate or freeze; this damages the texture of the creamy ganache."
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Update 11/17/11: Sadly, Charles Chocolates went out of business this year not long after it moved its production facility and cafe to San Francisco.  The website (and links above) are no longer operational.  Sugar Savvy is long gone and the links for that as well, however, thanks to the Wayback Machine -- here's a link to my Charles Chocolate post. Also from the Wayback Machine is this link to the company's defunct website and its recipe page.

In the Raw -- Cool Mint Soup

Back when we were having a heat wave, I went to a local produce/gourmet store and looked for something cool to make. A bunch of mint caught my eye and I decided a cold mint and something soup would be the refresher I needed. I also picked up some cucumbers and zucchini and figured I would figure out exactly how to create my cool soup as I went along.

The line at Farmer Joe's was moving slowly so I started talking to the man behind me in line. The contents of his cart would make any vegan nutritionist proud. Turns out my linemate was Chef Reggie, a "fresh food evangelist," caterer, teacher and chef specializing in raw foods. We chatted for awhile and he encouraged me to keep the heat turned off and make it a raw soup.

I like the idea but wondered what to replace the stock with. His suggestions were orange juice or fresh coconut water. Good ideas, but not the flavors I was trying for.

Once I got home, I concocted this soup. It was cool and refreshing with the snap of mint and a bit of bite from my veggie "stock." You need to start it a bit in advance and make it a day or two before serving for the flavors to meld properly.

Cool Mint Soup
Serves 2-4

Vegetable "Stock"

1/2 cup coarsely chopped onion
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped parsley leaves
1 chopped clove of garlic
1/3 cup of coarsely chopped carrots

Put all ingredients in a bowl. Add 4 cups of tap water. Cover and allow to steep until vegetable flavors are infused from four hours to overnight. (The longer you allow it to infuse, the more pronounced the onion flavor will be. I steeped mine overnight.) Drain, reserving liquid for soup and saving solids for other use if desired.

Soup

1/3 to 1/2 cup of mint leaves (depending on strength of mint and how "minty fresh" you'd like your soup)
1 large cucumber, peeled
1 large zucchini
1 tomato, seeded and finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Finely chop mint leaves by hand or in a food processor. Finely grate or chop cucumber and zucchini by hand or food processor. Add vegetables and mint to "stock." Add tomato if using. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir well.

Cover soup and store in fridge 24 hours before serving.* Options include serving with a dollop of yogurt and a scattering of chopped almonds. (Or you could stir yogurt into the soup to make it a mellower, mint, creamy cool soup.)

*I tasted my soup right away and found the flavors were all distinct and it was not as satisfying as I had hoped. I stored it in the fridge and tried it again a few days later and was blown away how great it tasted. Twenty-four hours is my approximation of how long it takes this alchemy to take place. You may want to sample your soup periodically to find when your batch reaches this magic moment.

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Based on my experience with Weight Watchers, I think this soup, without the optional serving suggestions, would be a zero point soup.