Field to Food

Recipe: Pumpkin Gnocchi

Tuesday was windy, rainy.  The power went out just in time for dinner.  I didn't want to go to the store because of downed powerlines and falling tree limbs.  There wasn't much in the fridge, either.  Pumpkin is a favorite and we had some leftover puree from cookie baking.  I've made potato gnocchi several times, but never pumpkin.  The key is to bring the dough together without over working it and to keep it light.  We had a cup and a half of pumpkin and combined it with a generous cup and a half of flour, an egg and a pinch of salt.  We rolled the dough into long thin logs and sliced it into bite size pieces.  Simply boil water and drop in the gnocchi.  Once cooked, the little buggers float.  We cooked ours in several little batches and worked quickly to get through the dough. 

We tossed the gnocchi with some leftover red-cooked pork.  The Chinese five spice flavored pork complimented the pumpkin flavor well.  I think that a sprinkle of cotija would have been perfect, but it worked even without it.  Yum.

 

Thanksgiving Menu Generator

Bon Appetit magazine has a Thanksgiving menu generator that lets you choose a set of recipes scaled to your party size and palette or theme.  Check it out. 

June Taylor

I love June Taylor's conserves, fruit cheeses and candied peels.  I mentioned that I was planning to take June Taylor's conserve class, but failed to share my delight.  I feel fully equipped to make conserves (not jam because of the low sugar content).  The class was really fantastic.  June covered all the basics, but provided a great deal of background information and food history.  I love old cookbooks, so I particularly enjoyed that she peppered her discussion with bits of history.  During the class, we had two tastings.  At the beginning, we tasted fruit and heard June's take on what would work well and what wouldn't.  Her opinion, given that she personally makes 25,000 jars a year of this stuff, is worthwhile to hear.  We then watched her cook a batch of conserves and then as a class cooked our own, from fruit we prepped and set to macerate in lemon juice, orange zest and sugar.  Watching June work and then having her help us duplicate her process really cemented the lessons for me.  We then finished class up with a tasting of a variety of jams, jellies, conserves and other fruit concoctions.  It was fun to hear her take on mass market and other artisan conserves.  I feel like my knowledge level quadrupled.  We also sampled many of June's tasty creations, which alone would have made the session.  June is knowledgeable, patient and friendly, so I give the class 5 stars!  As students, we received a discount, so I bought a jar of the Meyer Lemon and Lime Marmalade.   Amazing on just about everything.  Great with pork and chicken.  Yum. 

I am sorry that I didn't take the class earlier in the summer, but I have to say that I am anxious to try my hand at marmalade this winter.  Although past the prime of the season, we still have a fair amount of fruit available at the farmer's market for a trial run.  I thought I would follow up with a post of my first solo experience.  That post will have tips and pointers from what I learned... like roughly 1 pound of fruit per 8 oz jar. 

Cold Brew Coffee

We mentioned Pachamama Coffee once before, but I had to sing its praises again.  I tried the cold brew at the Davis Farmers Market last Saturday.  I am not sure what type of coffee I was drinking, but the taste was incredibly smooth and flavorful.  My uncle proudly displayed his Japanese cold brew contraption to us this summer (it looked something like this), but Pachamama uses the method that became very popular a while back, described here and here.  (I know that it is fall and we should be focusing on warm drinks, but we are in California and it is still in the 80s here.)

ETA: The inspiration for this post came from the incredibly bitter cup of coffee I bought today.  Daydreaming of better coffee.

Eccolo Sous Chef Samin Nosrat on American Public Media's The Story

The former sous chef at Eccolo, the great Berkeley restaurant that went out of business this summer (see here), is featured on an episode of the radio show The Story.  It's a great listen.  She talks about her own interesting background, and how she came to be a line cook at Chez Panisse and then sous chef at Eccolo.  Nosrat also talks about how Eccolo couldn't survive, especially with the high cost of sustainable and locally grown produce.  It's a great story, because she's so passionate about the food and Chris Lee really tried to make something special happen with Eccolo.  It breaks your heart to see it fail.  It's a fun listen, I definitely recommend it.

San Francisco Ferry Building

Sarah and I spent some time in San Francisco the other day, and we traveled to the Ferry Building.  The building was renovated in 2003 to feature food shops on the inside, with regular farmers markets on the outside.

 

Peanut Butter Cookies - In Progress

We made my grandmother's peanut butter cookie recipe this weekend.  Tasty cookies.  My grandmother taught me most of what I learned about baking.  I enjoyed giving Matt many of the pointers she gave me.  A trip down memory lane, for sure.  Now that I worked through the recipe, I want to experiment.  These cookies contain shortening, which makes them a lot less healthy than I would like.  The texture and crispiness that the shortening creates really adds something to the cookie, but I want to rework the recipe with a different fat.  (Any ideas?)  We did use peanut butter that contained no fillers or hydrogenated oils.  It tastes great, but we definitely need to up the amount.  One cup of peanut butter to three cups of flour just isn't the right ratio.  I know that most peanut butter cookies I have been eating are of the oh-so-trendy flourless variety, so I might experiment with less flour.  Also, substituting whole wheat flour might be fun to try. Once I decide on a new recipe, I will post both versions. 

Gourmet No More

The New York Times Media Decoder blog reports that Conde Nast will cease publishing Gourmet magazine. Its last issue will be November 2009. Gourmet has been published since 1941, and in recent years you may know it by its affiliated tv show Diary of a Foodie. It's shocking that a magazine with such a long history has tanked.

There are so many voices on the internet, and so much information, that it's hard to see how a general interest food magazine can effectively compete.