East of Eden Cooking

2011/11/192017/12/26

Scharffen Berger Bakery Crawl

San Francisco Weekend

“Kate, when you close, you tap on my door. I’ll have a little surprise for you. What kind of surprise? Oh, a secret surprise! Will you ask the cook to come in as you go by the kitchen? Sounds like a cake surprise.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

I was delighted to participate in Scharffen Berger’s Bakery Crawl in San Francisco with a group of local food bloggers. The event was an October kick off for the contest: Elevate a Classic Dessert with Scharffen Berger Chocolate. We boarded a Cable Car trolley at the Ferry Building Marketplace and roamed the city to visit four iconic bakeries where we savored amazing chocolate desserts created just for our bakery tour. Anthony Lucas from Anthony’s Cookies shared an exceptional Double Chocolate Chunk Cookie, best enjoyed with a glass of cold milk served right at the bakery. Elizabeth Faulkner of Citizen Cake and Iron Chef fame wowed us with a Chocolate Gelato Sundae with Chocolate Cake Crumbles with homemade Marshmallow Cream. Chef Faulkner magically created the gelato for us with a mixer and liquid nitrogen gas; we were awed with the foggy demonstration! At Kara’s Cupcakes we savored The CandyBar, a caramel filled cupcake topped with a milk chocolate peanut butter ganache frosting, sprinkled with sea salt. Returning to the Ferry Building Marketplace we stopped at Miette for a spectacular Triple Chocolate Cream Cake. This sumptuous cake was a chocolate lovers delight! Our afternoon ended with a cooking demonstration by Yigit Pura, winner of 2010 Top Chef Just Desserts. The demonstration was an incredible way to end our Bakery Crawl. Chef Pura’s Chai-Tea Spiced Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes put us all on chocolate overload! It was my first opportunity to meet other bloggers and even though the event was 100 miles from home I met Athena. She lives close enough to me that we have become friends with our shared interests of photography, cooking and blogging. It’s great to have someone else who is as excited as I am to visit a new farmer’s market, apple orchard or baking demo! This has been a delightful legacy to my weekend in San Francisco. READ MORE . . .

2011/10/302017/12/26

Kamut Pumpkin Bread

What is Kamut?

“Time interval is a strange and contradictory matter in the mind. It would be reasonable to suppose that a routine time or an eventless time would seem interminable. It should be so, but it is not. It is the dull eventless times that have no duration whatever. A time slashed with interest, wounded in tragedy, crevassed with joy– that’s the time that seems long in the memory.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

What is Kamut? I had never heard of Kamut until my brother Nick made the introduction. Kamut is a high protein grain with a sweet, nutty, rich buttery taste. Nick grinds all his own whole grain flour in a burr grinder, by hand: Kamut, spelt, soft wheat and red wheat. Even more surprising is that I was unaware he has been grinding his own flour for almost twenty years! Where has the time gone? I was actually shocked. Clearly, I need to spend more time with my brother. When we both lived in Salinas, we used to bake together from The Tassajara Bread Book, by Edward Espe Brown. We both have kept our original copies, which are well worn from lots of baking. The years have flown by. We married, had families, worked and didn’t really stay in touch. When we visited, our conversations were never centered around food. Recently, when we talked about cooking and my blog, he shared his passion for whole grains as a source of protein and its importance in our diet. Nick and his wife Nancye make fresh yeast rolls for their breakfast from a mix of freshly ground flours. When he sent me samples of his marvelous flours, it was Kamut that that I found inspiring. Kamut is the trademarked name for an ancient grain, Khorasan wheat. It’s history and current production is described in this video. If Kamut flour is not available to you locally, the web site has a list of sources. You won’t be disappointed! READ MORE . . .

2011/10/162017/12/31

Salsa and a Tomato Story

Mary’s recipe

“On Saturday the fourteenth of October the first wild ducks went over Salinas. Faye saw them from her window, a great wedge flying south. When Kate came in before supper, as she always did, Faye told her about it. ‘I guess the winter’s nearly here,’ she said.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

It was late September; the traditional summer months were gone. Where were the ripe juicy tomatoes I had waited for? Early this spring I planted six tomato plants. With an unusually foggy summer my plants got confused and scraggly. Lots of sprawling growth with just a few of those precious yellow buds. Even the Early Girl and San Francisco Fog resisted the temptation to flower, hiding under the blanket of coastal fog. I was envious of all the beautiful tomatoes I was seeing, especially San Marzanos and Heirlooms. Not wanting to be left out of the summer tomato mania, we went to Mariquita’s Hollister farm to pick tomatoes in late September. Hollister, California is only twenty-five miles away and perfect for growing tomatoes; inland from the coast with lots of sunshine and heat. I was waiting for the day. I had planned ahead with boxes, garden clippers, sunscreen and a hat. And yet, I faltered and was fraught with indecision, how many tomatoes did I want? What was I planning to do with them? How many tomatoes do you need for salsa? Will I harvest enough for canning? Do I really want to get involved with canning? These are excellent questions to answer before going to the farm to pick tomatoes. I brought home enough tomatoes for lots of salsa, but only enough to make three half pints of San Marzano tomato paste. Next year I will have a more strategic contingency plan for my coastal tomatoes! After my initial hesitation I purchased more heirlooms locally from The Farm: Early Cascades, Striped Germans, Brandywines, Carbons and Chocolate Stripes. I canned the heirlooms whole, and made sauce with them. The little Early Cascades were slow dried in the oven and are residing in my freezer. But the San Marzano’s had slipped through my fingers. READ MORE . . .

2011/10/112017/12/26

Lake Tahoe Autumn Salad

Sierra Nevada comfort

“And summer passed into a hot and fragrant autumn.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

Each summer we vacation at the north shore of Lake Tahoe, staying at my husband’s family place at Northstar. Northstar is between the town of Truckee and the north shore of Lake Tahoe. This year we vacationed in early September, rather than in August. Most of the other vacationers had returned home. Tahoe was stunning in it’s beauty, serenely quiet. Autumn had found its way into the bright sunny days interspersed with days of Sierra Nevada thundershowers. A crispness was already in the air, especially at night. The trip was bittersweet for us, as it may be our last vacation at the family place. In anticipation of its sale, Mr. R spent time on repairs and logistics. The possibility of our last stay remained with us. We quietly savored each day, imprinting the memories of our favorite places. We lingered over breakfast and coffee, before spending an afternoon at the pool or venturing out for a day trip. It sounds quite overdone, and full of hype, but one must see Lake Tahoe on a sunny day to grasp the intensity of its color. I am drawn by Lake Tahoe’s irresistible pull to return again and yet again. READ MORE . . .

2011/09/222017/12/26

Salad with Chicken and Curry Dressing

“He walked to Stone Street where the Catholic church is and turned left, went past the Carriaga house, the Wilson house, the Zabala house, and turned left on Central Avenue at the Steinbeck house.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

The Steinbeck House, John Steinbeck’s childhood home at 132 Central Avenue in Salinas is open for lunch and tours. The Valley Guild has published a cookbook with the much sought after lunch menu recipes, Steinbeck House Cookbook. A favorite is broccoli with chicken and a curry dressing, Poulet de Broccoli. I had thoughts of updating this Salinas classic and found inspiration in a salad I had at the The Portola Café at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. My recipe is a major shift from casserole to salad, and from broccoli to lettuce, but both recipes include iconic Salinas Valley ingredients with chicken and a curry dressing. READ MORE . . .