Eating Dirt

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Sometimes life is hard, especially when there is vomiting or bad behavior involved. And on those sorts of days, I like to offer treats to those at my table who eat their dinner and try their repulsive vegetables. But not too much.

Three Cheers for Kohlrabi!

Kohlrabi is something I remember vaguely from my childhood. My mother presented it to us in the kitchen, a strange alien form she found either at the grocery store or in her garden. It was not purple, but a pale greeny white, as though it might taste minty or sweet like a honeydew melon. She peeled it, cut it into cubes and then, announcing her love for the thing, served it to my brother and me with toothpicks. It was not minty, or sweet. Maybe a little bit refreshing with a strong whiff of broccoli, and all around objectionable to our young palates. We squealed in horror and ran out into the yard, never to touch kohlrabi again.

So imagine my surprise when a modern, giant version arrived in our CSA box. Not sure what to do, I consulted my cookbooks. Nigel Slater seems to have avoided this vegetable, Alice Waters didn't include it in her latest book, nothing in Mad Hungry or Canal House, and all Joy of Cooking had to recommend was kohlrabi with parmesan. Not terribly appetizing, but at least I'd learned it could be cooked. Eventually Stephanie Alexander emerged as the Queen of Kohlrabi. She is Australia's Kitchen Garden Master, with multiple pages of kohlrabi recipes in her book Kitchen Garden Companion, plus a paragraph on how to select a good one.

"It is best picked at about the size of a small apple," she says. Closer to the size of a football, ours served us well through three meals, after having its woody bits removed. We ate roasted root vegetables with lentils from Eat Good Food, Kashmiri-style slow cooked kohlrabi leaves and my favorite, Kohrabi and chickpea soup. The best part about kohlrabi? I told the kids it was potato, and they believed me. Maybe next time one arrives with the produce I'll get out some toothpicks and reveal my duplicity.

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Kohlrabi and Chickpea Stew (adapted from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion):

1 t cumin seeds (or ground, to speed things up)
1 t coriander seeds (or ground)
1/2 t chili flakes
1/2 t ground turmeric
2 T olive oil
1/2 lb kohlrabi, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 can or about 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained
1/2 lb tomatoes (green ones work fine)
1 T tomato paste
4c water (or so, whatever looks right to you)
1 t salt (or more to taste)
1/2 small handful chopped coriander (aka cilantro) or flat leaf parsley

If you have five spare minutes, dry roast the cumin and coriander seeds in a small skillet until they are fragrant, watching carefully because they burn quickly. Then grind them with a clean coffee grinder or mortar and pestle. They are more flavorful this way than pre-ground, but you can use pre ground spices if you are in a hurry. Either way, mix the chili and turmeric with the cumin and coriander.

Heat the olive oil in a medium pan until it shimmers, then fry the spice mixture for one minute. Add the kohlrabi and sauté for a couple minutes more, then add all remaining ingredients except the coriander or parsley leaves. Bring to a simmer, then continue to simmer for another 15 minutes, or until the kohlrabi is as tender as you like it. Taste and add salt if needed.

Ladle into bowls and garnish with parsley or coriander.
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Pizza Pizza!

Summer has finally arrived in San Francisco. It's been in the high seventies for the past four days. If we're exceptionally lucky, this heat wave will continue through the weekend. If that's also the case in your town, then I have got the dinner for you!

A homemade pizza is not something that can be thrown together at the last minute, but this one is surprisingly easy and enjoyable, especially when the weather is good. My family and I make a point of calling over friends and thundering out into the yard anytime the temperature spikes above seventy degrees around here, regardless of what sorts of things we already have planned. And that is just what we did three times this past week, to hone our pizza grilling skills.

Over two week nights and one weekend, after school and swim class and soccer and track (and work), we perfected instructions and tested ingredients. Not only did we figure out how to reliably produce a near perfect, crusty, cheesy delight, but we also discovered that scheduling is equally important. Our advice?  Don't try this one on a school night. Gathering around the grill with friends on a beautiful late summer evening really requires good beer and pink wine, two things that lead to late bed times and slow mornings for all involved. So save your pizza grilling for the weekend.

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Grilled Pizza (adapted from Canal House Cooking: An Italian Summer):

The dough takes less than fifteen minutes to assemble (no kneading needed!), and a total of about three hours to rise, plus some time to roll and pre-cook before pizza assembly can begin. This is enough for dinner for four to six people. A salad is perfect alongside. If you're really ambitious, maybe some grilled peaches or homemade ice cream for dessert.

For the dough:

2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting

6 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup semolina flour 

1 1/2 teaspoons salt 

cornmeal for dusting (if using a pizza peel)

For the tomato sauce: (If you're short on time just use sliced tomatoes instead. I'm going to try it next)

1 1/2- 2 pounds ripe tomatoes

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup strained tomatoes or tomato purée

4-6 tablespoons good extra-virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

For the pizzas:

2 large balls fresh mozzarella or 2 cups grated mozzarella or a combination of both

extra-virgin olive oil

large handful of fresh basil leaves

pepperoni, if you want it

You'll need a charcoal grill. I'm going to guess that a gas grill will probably make a perfectly fine pizza, but one that is really delicious requires a wood fire underneath. Yes, it's bad for the environment, but it tastes good. Just take the kids to school on the bus for a week to offset the damage you've done. So back to the burning - buy some nice charcoal, made from actual wood. Skip the briquets and lighter-fluid powered varieties. If you're not confident in your grill management skills, check out Everyday Food's photo essay on setting up a charcoal grill . I'll review the steps later in this recipe.

To make the dough, dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup warm water in a medium sized bowl. Stir in 1/2 cup of the flour and set aside in a warm location for 30-60 minutes. I turn on my oven to its lowest setting for about ten minutes, then turn it off and put my dough mix in there.

After 30-60 minutes it should be pretty bubbly. Stir in 1 1/4 cups warm water and 2 Tablespoons of olive oil into the yeast mixture. Put 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a bowl and set aside. Pulse the remaining 3 cups of flour, semolina flour and salt together in a food processor with the steel blade. Keep the machine running and pour the yeast mixture in through the feed hole, letting it run until a loose ball begins to form. Process the dough for an additional minute after this happens. Put the dough into the oiled bowl and gently form it into a ball, if it isn't already. Roll it around to coat it with oil, cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towl and let it rise in a warm spot for about two hours. Your dough should double in size.

For the tomato sauce, Canal House recommends a raw sauce, which is delicious but too runny. I think thinly sliced raw tomato would work well, or you can make the canal house sauce and let it drain in a strainer lined with cheesecloth for a while. We cooked down some leftover tomato soup  by accident one time, and that worked fine too. To make the Canal House sauce:  grate the tomatoes over a box grater into a large bowl and throw away the skin. You'll want two cups of tomato pulp. Add the garlic, strained tomatoes or purée, oil, and some salt and pepper, until it tastes good.

As soon as the sauce is ready, assemble your toppings. Once your dough's two hours are up it's time to light the grill and roll out the dough. My husband likes to roll the dough in the house and then bring it out to the grill pre-prepared, piled up with sheets of parchement paper in between. I prefer to put a tablecloth out on our picnic table and have the kids roll the dough out (with some assistance) while the grill heats up. Either way,  you'll need a rolling pin, a pizza peel (just wing it with a cutting board or plate if you don't have one) a rolling surface (a cutting board is fine) flour for dusting, cornmeal to dust the peel,  tongs and olive oil for brushing.

Too light the grill, crumple a few sheets of newspaper into a the bottom compartment of a chimney starter, place the starter on the bottom grate of the grill, fill the top compartment with charcoal, and light the crumpled paper in a few places. Let the charcoal burn for 20-30 minutes, until the top is ashy white. When it is ready, pour the charcoal out onto the grate and spread it evenly. An even spread is particularly important, so that the pizza crust doesn't burn. 

To roll the dough, flour your hands and divide it into four balls. If it seems too sticky just flour the outside of each ball. Spread a bit of flour on your rolling surface, then stretch and roll the dough to make a thin, flat round, about 1/4 of inch thick. Flip the dough frequently to make sure it doesn't stick.

When your dough is rolled out and the grill is ready, sprinkle some cornmeal on your pizza peel and drop the rolled dough on top. Gently slide it off the peel onto the grill, and brush some olive oil onto the top. Watch the bottom carefully, and when it looks cooked and has faint grill lines, about half a minute,  flip it over for another 15 seconds or so. Remove it from the grill and cook the next crust, you'll want to make all four. 

To finish each pizza, dust more cornmeal on the peel, put a pre-cooked crust on top, spoon some tomato sauce onto the crust and smear it around, then add cheese (grated or thin slices of fresh mozzarella) and top with pepperoni or a few basil leaves. Double check to make sure the coals are well spread and the fire is not too hot, then slide the pizza onto the grill. Put the lid back on the grill partially to help keep the top warm and check every minute or so to see if the cheese is melted and to make sure the bottom isn't burning. When the cheese is melted, remove it from the grill, let it set a few minutes and eat right away. 

Tasty Mush from Garden Gems

If you know me at all you have probably heard that I do not like eggplant. These are strong words, because with adequate salt, I really honestly do enjoy almost all food. But  having nearly no taste of its own and the texture of either a stiff sponge or a gooey mess, depending on how it is cooked, eggplant does not win me over.

Eggplant in the garden, however, is a completely different story. I've seen them in Nigel Slater's and Stephane Alexander's books (see aubergine) and in seed catalogs - photos of gloriously glowing purple, pink and white gems, dangling out of a mass of verdant green. With lavender and white flowers that have tiny yellow centers, and a soft fuzz over much of the stem, they are really delightful. This summer I was excited to discover some in my mother's garden, thin opalescent tubes that somehow managed to beat the Tucson heat, hiding under their sheltering leaves and a bit of shade cloth. I wonder if either she or the javelina have eaten them yet.

So each summer, when our produce box is overflowing with these purple beauties, I seek out new recipes and try to love eggplant. I wish could justify planting them in my own garden, but in addition to not wanting to eat them, I suspect they would quickly suffer a cold and foggy death just like my tomatoes.

This year's big win has been baba ghanoush. The lebanese were onto something when they roasted their eggplants over an open flame - the smokey flavor goes a long way in a vegetable with none of its own. So while you can certainly roast yours in the oven, I prefer a charcoal grill. Not only does it taste better, but if you are lucky enough to have a spouse who likes to escape the house and hang out in the yard with a beer, you can probably share the load and pass the roasting on to him (or her). 

Serve it with pita chips at the school picnic, or plain old pitas for a more discerning crowd. You'll not only impress them with your cooking skills, but you'll get the eggplants out of the house. Enjoy!

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Baba Ghanoush - The Best In The World! (adapted from a recipe on Food.com )

Thanks to my husband Jason, who researched this recipe and has made several large batches of it for me.

1 large eggplant (double this recipe for a crowd)

1/4 cup tahini

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice, plus more if needed

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon Pimentón (aka Spanish Paprika)

salt

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley 

Prepare your grill, you'll want it medium hot, whatever that means. Preheat the oven to 375° F. Poke the eggplant with a fork a few times so that it doesn't explode and place on the grill 5 inches or so above the fire. Grill, turning often, until the skin blackens and blisters and the flesh begins to feel soft, 10-15 minutes.

Put the eggplant on a baking sheet and into the oven. Bake 15-20 minutes until it is very soft. Remove it from the oven, let it cool so that you can peel off the skin and put the insides into a bowl. With a fork, mash the eggplant to a paste. Add the tahini, garlic, lemon juice, cumin and Pimentón, mix well. Season with salt, then add more lemon juice, tahini or salt until it tastes good. 

Transfer to a serving bowl, smooth the top and pat a small well in it, then drizzle the olive oil on top and sprinkle with parsley. Serve at room temperature.

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Roast Beast

Well, here it is again, nearly the end of Summer. Our vacations are over, the kids are back in school, I'm expecting the fog to lift any day now and, as usual, my tomato plants have died. This time I blame it on not hiring an expensive service to water them while out of town: relying on my babysitter for one week and my husband for the next was, clearly, not the right decision. But Summer here extends through late October and really doesn't arrive until sometime in September anyway, so I've started afresh with two new seedlings. I'll let you know how that goes.

As for the strawberries, they are still in the freezer. The two five pound bags of sugar I measured out precisely for making two pots of jam still clog up the pantry, threatening to spring a leak or invite varmints to chew through their flimsy plastic casings every time my husband opens the door.

"When are you going to make that jam?"

"Honey, are those strawberries going to last another day in there?"

"Will you please make that damn jam so I can fit my spare beer on the shelf!"

As we who were lucky enough to come of age in the late 80's know, life moves pretty fast. If we don't stop and look around once in a while, we could miss it. So instead of blogging or making  jam this Summer, I've been busy looking around, mostly in other peoples' kitchens. I've watched my friends, family, a few people I barely know and myself struggle to cook for our own families and friends, and thought a lot about what makes home cooking so difficult.

For one thing, there is the problem of time. We are all very busy people. Slaving away over a hot stove is not the way most of us want to spend our minutes away from work and outside of the car. So today, I'm going fast and easy...get in and get out. Like Lightening McQueen, I am speed. And not only is this sandwich cool, quick and tasty, but it comes from my absolute favorite, the ladies of the canal house, who will be visiting San Francisco tomorrow!!!

Really, I don't want to gush, but I haven't been this excited for an event since I saw REM on their Green tour in 1989. So we ate their fast, easy and delicious suggestion of a sandwich with great excitement. Or at least I did. My husband loved it for the meat, as, shockingly enough, so did my daughter. And my son could be convinced to take a few bites if offered a bribe. So there you go, its a winner all around!

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Summer Roast Beef Sandwich (adapted from Canal House Cooks Lunch): 

(makes 1 sandwich)

2 slices of whatever good fresh bread you have around

mayonaise

1/16 lb roast beef (1/2 lb makes four sandwiches)

ripe tomato slices, as many as you want

ripe avocado slices, as many as you want

salt

pepper

 Slather some mayo on one slice of bread, layer the tomato on top, then on the opposing slice of bread smush the avocado into the bread and stack roast beef on top. Liberally salt and pepper both sides, then put them together and slice in half. Excellent with a glass of water or chilled white wine and an ice cream cone for dessert.

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Strawberry Jam

Its that time of year again...I spend all winter pining for it and then, before I realize, Spring is nearly over and its time to make jam. All of a sudden my love of asparagus has lost its charm and is stinking up the bathroom. The rain stops and I actually have to go out and water the garden, the rhubarb crisps have come and gone at my favorite restaurants and now I have strawberry duty. Strawberries go bad quickly, so it is an urgent duty.

Every year we try to go to Eatwell Farm's Strawberry Day, as we did last weekend. We eat as many berries as we can hold and pick many more to take home.  Each time I plan to make jam the very next day, or even that night, but it never happens. Except for the one time my French friend Laure came over and forced me to stay up late into the night to do it.  Now on my seventh or maybe eighth year of making jam, I am mature enough to realize that sleep deprivation is no good, and that taking a few days longer doesn't affect jam quality too much - as long as I get the berries into the freezer in short order. But then, I'm no fancy pants jam taster either. I leave true judgement for the experts.

What I did learn from my late night friend is the best way to make strawberry jam. She learned this from her Father, who, for starters, recommends you not wash the berries before jamming. Perhaps it washes away the Terroir? Anyway, this is a practice I follow with restraint. If the berries have been grown organically or without pesticides toxic to humans, by someone I trust, then I follow the no-washing rule. Otherwise I wash them. Then, either way, it is important to check the berries and wash off any dirt you find, and cut away all moldly or brownish areas. There is really only a small chance either mold or brown spots will make you sick, but both most definitely taste bad. So its good to be selective and diligent with your berries. You should also cut off the green leaves, because nobody wants to eat those either.

For now, that is it. Clean your berries and put them in the freezer, in a big ziploc bag.  I'll fill you in on how to actually make jam next post. Below is what five pounds of berries looks like. If you don't have your five (or ten or fifteen) yet, go ahead and get them. I'll wait until you're ready.

A Little Motherly Love: Lamb, Carrots and Fava Salad

This year I made my desires for Mother's Day known well in advance: no gifts, just a day at home in the garden and a big dinner, cooked as a family.  It was delicious, and I got gifts anyway - three of Andy Goldsworthy's books, much loved by my kids after we watched his Rivers and Tides together a week or two back.

I spent the day puttering out in the yard, planting this, pulling that, occasionally enlisting the help of our kids and more occasionally having a glass of wine. Rose, of course, since the sun was shining. I collected favas, spring onions, mint, arugala and snap peas for the salad, which was the only part I had to make myself. Fresh favas are the best thing in the world, picked from the garden and eaten hours later. The flavor difference between them and the ones from the store, or even from the CSA box, is surprising. Perfect to go with some spring lamb.

These recipes are from David Tanis' A Platter of Figs, the first spring menu in the book. Its not something I would make every day, but a little fancy, with two kinds of meat (lamb wrapped in bacon) a salad, vegetable and a cake for dessert. All good springy things to enjoy with your Mom!

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Roasted Lamb and Saffron Carrots (adapted from David Tanis' A Platter of Figs):

(serves 4-6)

for the lamb:

 

 

1 boneless shoulder roast of veal, 2 to 3 pounds

 

salt and pepper

3 garlic cloves, sliced

olive oil

a few rosemary sprigs

a few thyme sprigs

3 ounces thinly sliced pancetta (or bacon)

1 T butter

2 spring onions, finely chopped

water or dry white wine

For the carrots:

1 lb carrots

1 T butter

2 cloves garlic

1/2 t grated lemon zest

Season the roast well with salt and pepper. Insert the garlic slices into the lose flesh on the underside of the roast. Drizzle a little olive oil over the meat. Lay the rosemary and thyme sprigs on the meat, then wrap the pancetta slices around the roast, tie it all together with kitchen string and place in a roasting pan. Refrigerate for a couple of hours or over night.

Bring the meat to room temperature and preheat the oven to 400°F. Roast the lamb for 45 minutes to an hour, until the internal temperature is 130°F. Let the meat rest on a platter, loosely covered, for at least 15 minutes before carving.

While the meat is cooking make the carrots and prepare the salad (recipe below). Peel the carrots and slice into thin coins. Saute them in 1 T butter with a little crumbled saffron and a couple minced garlic cloves. Season well with salt and pepper and a half teaspoon of freshly grated lemon zest. Add 1/2 cup of water and simmer, covered for 5 minutes, or until the carrots are tender.

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Fava Bean Salad with Mountain Ham and Mint (adapted from David Tanis' A Platter of Figs):

2-3 pounds fresh young favas (sub in peas or snap peas if you don't have enough)

 

1 large fennel bulb

2 spring onions, thinly slivered

 

salt and pepper

fruity olive oil

1/2 lemon

1/2 bunch mint

4 slices cured ham, such as jamon, serrano or prosciutto

arugala leaves

Shuck the favas, then blanch the beans in boiling water for 10 seconds, cool them in a large bowl of ice water. Pinch the skin and pop the bean out. This is a good task to share with kids.

Trim the top, stems and core from the fennel, and when you are ready to make the salad slice it into thin shreds or use a mandoline. Put them in a bowl with the favas (and peas), onions and some salt. Drizzle generously with olive oil to coat. Coarsely chop the mint leaves and add them, and squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the salad. Toss well, taste and correct if it needs more salt, oil or lemon.

 

Pile the salad onto a large platter, surround with the ham or tear it into strips and scatter over the salad. Grind some pepper on top, garnish with some arugala and serve immediately.

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Sweet Potatoes with Chard, Green Garlic and Spring Onions aka Indian Spinach

 

Sometimes dinner needs to be fast and furious, and a plan made in haste goes badly awry. But occasionally a crazed forage through the pantry yields exciting surprises, like last night. In this case, Nigel Slater's Indian Inspired Spinach and Potatoes were on the menu (from Tender, my second favorite kitchen garden cookbook), but after dumping my son in front of TV and gearing up for dinner, I found no spinach and only a single potato in the house. Luckily, we had some sweet potatoes leftover from a past CSA box, fresh chard, spring onions and green garlic, all of which remade a semi-traditional take on saag aloo into a delightfully Springy Californian version. For a little extra protein, and something besides rice that the kids would eat, I warmed some frozen chickpeas with a little bit of curry powder and tossed those on top.  

Here's the recipe below. For more info on what I did with the rest of this week's produce box, check out the CSA section of this site.

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Indian Inspired Spinach or Springy Californian Indianesque Chard (adapted from Nigel Slater's Tender)

1 large bunch spinach or chard

3 medium potatoes, sweet potatoes or a mix of both

2 T vegetable oil (I like canola)

1 large onion or 2 large spring onions

2 cloves garlic or stalks green garlic

1 inch piece of ginger

1/2 t black mustard seeds

1/2 t turmeric

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 c cooked chickpeas

1/2 t curry powder

rice to serve

Start by putting on a pot of salted water on to boil, enough to cover the potatoes. This is good over rice, or with naan, so start the rice now if you're having that or send someone to collect some takeout naan. In a small pot, stir the chickpeas and curry powder together and warm over low heat.

Wash and scrub the potatoes (peel the sweet ones), then slice into 1/3 inch rounds or so and put them in the pot. While the potatoes boil until tender (5-10 minutes, just keep poking them with a fork to check), wash the spinach or chard, remove and discard the spinach stems or  if using chard, separate the leaves from the stems (the easiest way to do this is just grab the stem with one hand and pull toward the outer edge of the leaf with the other, tearing leaf off the stem as you go).  Chop the chard stems finely and put them aside. Next wash and chop the onions, garlic and ginger.

By now the potatoes should be tender. Dump them in a strainer in the sink, wipe out the hot pot with a towel and put it back on medium heat. When it is dry, add the oil, then onions and saute for a few minutes until softened and add just a pinch of salt. Next add the chard stems and cook for a few minutes, then add the garlic, ginger, mustard seeds and turmeric, stirring occasionally. Add the cooked potatoes and about 1/2 cup of water. Bring it to a boil and simmer until the liquid is absorbed, just a few minutes.  Add the spinach or chard leaves  and cook until they are wilted to your liking. Add a squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice, with chickpeas on top.

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Salmon Cakes

 
I've been struggling with pan frying cakes and patties of all varieties for a long time now.  They never turn out right - sometimes they stick, sometimes they fall apart, sometimes they burn to a crisp. But tonight I asked my husband for advice, knowing that he has a tendency to remember everything he reads (but nothing I say) and that he read Russ Parson's How to Read a French Fry a thousand years ago when it first came out.  Parson's book is all about kitchen science, and  I seem to remember it deals with sticky patties.

"Protein molecules will stick to the pan until they have been cooked long enough to denature the protein," he told me. So this time I strictly followed the frying time recommended by my recipe, and actually set a timer to really get it right. And low and behold, it worked. The patties didn't stick, they didn't burn (once I turned the heat down low enough) and they didn't fall apart. 

And as an extra bonus,  both my children gobbled them up and asked for more. As usual, my daughter ate her salad and my son did not. "No," he told me, " salad has vegetables in it. I don't like vegetables".  I did manage to get him to swallow two bites after bribing him with strawberries, though.

But whatever, we managed to polish off nearly an entire bag of produce box lettuce, along with some cilantro and mint. I've found that sometimes the key to a really good salad is tossing in a couple small handfuls of whatever fresh herbs I happen to have around. They add just enough to push lettuce past the edge of humdrum and boring to unusual, exciting and delicious. So far I have yet to find an herb combo that falls flat, though really strong flavored ones (like sage) must be used in moderation.

As for the chives, grow a pot of them outside your kitchen door. Otherwise they molder in the bottom of the fridge and get slimy. Yuck!

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Salmon Cakes with Greens (adapted from Epicurious)

 1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon chopped shallots

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, divided

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 pound salmon fillet, skin removed, finely chopped

2 egg whites

5 tablespoons drained capers

1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoon olive oil, twice

4-8 cups lettuce or mixed salad, depending on who will be eating

2 small handfuls of herbs

Mix together the mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon shallots, 1 teaspoon mustard, buttermilk and juice in a bowl, then set aside. This is the dressing for your salad.

Chop and wash your salad greens and herbs, dry them, wrap them in a towel, place in a plastic bag and put in the fridge. You can even do this a few days in advance.

In a larger bowl, combine salmon, egg whites, the remaining 1/4 cup shallots, capers, breadcrumbs, remaining 1 tsp mustard, salt and pepper. Mix well and shape into eight 3-inch-round patties. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook four salmon cakes until their bottoms are golden, about 6 minutes. The cakes will not be easy to remove from the pan until they are fully cooked, so resist the urge to scrape at them if they don't come up in one piece, and make sure to turn down the heat if your pan starts to smoke. When your time is up, flip and cook until golden, 5 minutes more. Toss greens with half the buttermilk mixture; divide salad among 4 plates; top each with 2 salmon cakes. Garnish with a dollop of creme fraiche or mayo and a sprinkle of chives. Serve with remaining dressing on the side.

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Community Supported Agriculture, Farm Shares and Spring Soup

Its spring again!  The plum trees have bloomed, asparagus is in the stores, the end of the school year is fast approaching and I am officially another year older. These are the usual markers of my favorite season beginning, or as is often the case, being halfway over by the time I get around to giving it my full attention.

With all the rebirth and new beginnings that come with spring I've done a little makeover on my blog. Like a good boob job I've added more, but not so much as to shock old friends.  This year I will focus on cooking from my (or your) CSA box or farm share. In case you don't know the jargon, a farm share is the produce delivery system more and more people are using these days, where you sign up ahead of time and support (thats the S in Community Supported Agriculture) a particular farm or group of farms by subscribing for a set amount of time. Paying ahead allows farmers access to funds for growing food in advance, locks in the price of that food and insures that there will be a market for it.

So what to do with all those cabbages, dandelion greens, collards, leeks, green garlic, celery roots, pomelos, dried peaches, eggs and various other goodies we get every week?  I haven't found too many cookbooks that offer up an unending supply of new and exciting ways to make delicious meals from leaves, eggs and roots, so I'm putting together an easily searchable collection. Plus, after more than a decade of CSA membership with Eatwell Farm, my husband and I have a few tricks for feeding ourselves and our kids healthfully, deliciously, and with the smallest amount of work possible.  So here it is - Eating Dirt 2.0, a lazy parent's guide to using up the produce.

There are some new tabs across the top - now you can keep up on the latest news in food and urban ag  by following my twitter feed, search for something to do in San Francisco on the urban ag calendar, see what's in my CSA box this week ( in case you don't get your own and need to know what to buy at the store), and follow what I'm making for dinner each week.  Soon you'll be able to read reviews of cookbooks and other food writing and access past recipes by searching the printable 4x6 card recipe box.

Seasonal, local, organic and delicious. Come on and join in the fun!

And now, a recipe.  I recently purchased Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking.  I love Heidi's blog, and I now I love her cookbook too.  This soup is quick, simple and delicious, especially if you use your own homemade chicken stock. I'll cover the lazy way to do that later. Maybe tomorrow. 

-- Spring Soup (adapted from Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks)

2 T olive oil

2 shallots, thinly sliced

1 clove green garlic, minced

3/4 cup brown basmati rice

6 cups chicken stock (of course you can substitute veggie if necessary)

1 cup sugar snap or snow peas, cut into small pieces

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and diagonally sliced into 1 inch pieces

1/2 cup green peas

salt

pepper

Heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the shallots and saute for a couple minutes. When the shallots are soft, add the garlic. Then add the rice and stir, cooking for a minute or two. Add the stock and bring to a boil, then cover and simmer over low heat for 35  to 45 minutes, until the rice is tender. Then, add the vegetables and simmer for just a few minutes. Add salt and pepper as needed.

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