Spicy Curry Love

Let me start off by saying that I fall for everything. I have recently found myself in a most peculiar situation that is challenging me to be bold... to be the proverbial "fireball" in a situation that is so outrageous and fascinating... Let me just say, horse races are involved.

Ultimately, I am gullible... Someday I'll wise up, I'm sure of it. Until then, it's best that I continue to pursue my evolving and revolving list of short-term goals. Explore tide pools, pet purple starfish, slip around on some green algae shag carpet... check. Hot tub hop around the campgrounds and hostels of northern California... check. Picnic in the park... check. Thanksgiving, in fact (pictures coming soon!). My dear friend (same friend from brunch!) & I adventured our way up to San Francisco for a superbly lovely Thanksgiving Picnic in Golden Gate Park, with a few of the finest people I know. Check out the view.

Superbly delightful is an understatement. Look at the view.

Picnic time!

We don't need no dang turkey!

We walked to Strawberry Hill after dinner. Perfection.

We had ants on a log; Shepherd's Pie with lamb and curry; heart-shaped beets; marinated green bean, red bell pepper; cornbread & salted honey butter (salted butter + organic "beach blossom" honey from my hood); roasted fingerling potatoes & shiitake mushroom gravy; walnut sourdough bread from Arizmendi; $2 bottle of red wine; seasonal holiday Anchor Steam ale; pumpkin pie with whipped cream! So dang delicious y'all. I am spoiled.

Anyway, shit happened once I returned to real life. I have been working non-stop. Can't stop, won't stop. I gotta pay bills, and I'm too young & poor to be a cougar in cougar town. The holidaze is in full force all around me. Parties, presents, and fanciness.

I had to make something spicy! I need a slap in the face and a kick in the pants. I made a festive holiday curry, using non-perishable ingredients. A recipe we can all use... it's bright, it's cheery, and spicy as hell. It's especially great when you feel like you're coming down with something. When it rains, it pours.

Funny enough, this curry was made possible by a can of curry paste I brought with me all the way from Sarasota, FL. If you reside in the wonderful city of Sun Coast, please stop by Phuoc Loc Tho Oriental Supermarket on 12th to pick up a can of this spicy ass curry.

So effing hot.

It astounds and delights me to know I can make a profoundly delicious meal from a few fresh veggies and three non-perishable food items - coconut milk, curry paste, and rice.

Fortunately and unfortunately, no one was around to be assaulted by this hot mess, but of course I brought it for lunch the next day. It's so hot it made the girls get all flushed at lunch. Especially Ciena!

Festive curry & baked Basmati rice. Hot shit.

Obsessed.

The recipe for the rice came from my stunning new cookbook, My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family, and Big Sur. Nepenthe is my dang dream house. Good lord. Can I please live in a baller tree house with an amazing fire pit, in the middle of the redwoods with a wide open view of the ocean?!

Spicy Hot Holiday Curry

• 1 can Maesri green curry paste (or your favorite spicy blend)
• 1 can coconut milk for those who are brave; 2 cans for everyone else
• 1.5 - 2.5 cups of your favorite fresh veggies - I used a leftover baked potato, sliced; a big handful of fresh broccoli; a small handful of fresh cauliflower; 1 small bunch of baby bok choy; handful of lacinato kale
• 2/3 cup (or to taste) diced tomato - trust me
• Salt & pepper to taste

Combine curry paste and coconut milk. Stir in chopped veggies and simmer until cooked al dente.

Baked Rice
from My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family, and Big Sur.

"Perfect rice every time with no attention."

• 1.5 cup water
• 1 cup of your favorite rice

"Preheat the oven to 375 F. For every cupful of rice, either brown or white, use 1.5 cups water. Place in a baking dish, add a knob of butter if desired, and cover tightly with foil. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed. Fluff with a fork before serving." 

Notes: I made Basmati rice and it was done after 40 minutes. Also, this recipe fits well into a standard-sized loaf pan.

That's it! Challenge yourself to bold & spicy y'all.

So Hott

Jalapeños and lavender. Oh baby, you so cray cray. Sometimes accidents happen and the results are beautiful.

Let me start from the beginning. I came across some promising jalapeños at the farm today, so I do what I always do when I have killer jalapeños.

I make hot sauce, duh. Fortunately, I also had a bit of cilantro in the fridge that was nearing the end.

Green on green action = brilliant.

Hott Sauce

Combine 3 large spicy jalapeños (de-seeded) with 1 clove of garlic and as much cilantro as you can handle. Add 1 Tbsp (maybe 1.5 Tbsp) of apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp sea salt, and a squeeze of lime if you're feeling extra verde. Blend until smooth. Store in the refrigerator.

So hott.

Ready for immersion.

Simultaneously I was making 3 other things, as I so often do, one of which was a veggie barley salad from my fav vegan cookbook.

Barley Corn Salad
(modifications below)

• 8 large brussel sprouts, steamed & quartered
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup pearl barley
• 1 cup corn
• 1/4 cup (or more) red bell pepper, diced
• 1/4 cup green onion, diced
• 2 Tbsp flax oil or olive oil
• 1 Tbsp Italian parsley, minced*
• 1 1/2 tsp tarragon, fresh minced*
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
• Sea salt, to taste
• Black pepper, ground to taste

*left out

"Place water and barley in a medium pot and bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook until barley is tender and liquid is absorbed, approximately 45 minutes."

"Fluff grains with a fork, add to large mixing bowl with remaining ingredients and mix well."

Based on ingredients I already had, like some dang lavender sea salt, I made the following modifications.

• Replace plain Jane sea salt with a pink sea salt, lavender blend (you can do this, ask me how)
• Replace Italian parsely with lacinato kale
• Add 1/4 cup finely sliced carrot
• Add 1/4 - 1/3 freshly grated Parmesan
• Add 1-2 Tbsp jalapeño hot sauce (from above recipe)

lavender sea salt

jalapeño, lavender, barley ménage à trois

your body wants this

 Like I said, sometimes accidents happen and sometimes it's so dang beautiful. I must also admit, barley is one of my favorite grains, right up there with whole oat groats. I could go into more detail, but as I read out loud anything I try to write about barley, it sounds wildly inappropriate. Let that be your official barley advertisement.

Life Changes & Tacos

Once again it feels like I am beginning a new chapter in life (wtf, enough already). Despite my tendency to be cranky about changes, I am as grateful as the horizon is wide.

This is the view from my new neighborhood - sunset after a rain storm reminiscent of the east coast.

I am at the end of my first weekend in my new home. Most of what I have is still in boxes (most of what I have is still in a storage unit on the east coast), but more importantly I am grateful. I am grateful it rained this weekend versus last weekend while I was moving; I am grateful for my cozy, bright kitchen in my sweet little beach bungalow; I am grateful for the generosity of the beautiful people who helped me get here (with a lovely new collection of dishes, eating utensils, and cute Ikea storage containers); I am grateful for the little Mexican store across the street where they make the tiniest little tortillas, so I can make tiny little tacos for my super cute friends.

breakfast-for-dinner-tacos + mango avocado salsa

breakfast-for-dinner tacos deconstructed

 My friends are so cute - they came over and dolled me up for a vintage housewife photo shoot in my new kitchen while I made tacos (like a nice southern Californian vintage housewife).

"Do vintage housewives make tacos?"

"In southern California, they do."

We were banking on shrimp tacos, but I spent all my money moving and making ends meet, and there was no more money in the pot. Fortunately, I spend my Saturdays working at a charming little farm stand, and when I hang around colorful, luscious produce all day, I spend what little money I have left on the most necessary and/or seductive options.

The menu of my first beach bungalow dinner party included breakfast-for-dinner tacos with fried eggs, cabbage carrot slaw, avocado, and salsa fresca. We also had mango avocado salsa, made with some seriously seductive mangoes. They were so sweet and juicy, it was freaking inappropriate. The girls found cane sugar Coca Cola & rice pudding at the little Mexican store across the street, so we had sweet beverages and a sweet dessert to top it all off. It was so so dang delicious!

Beach bungalow dinner party #1

Let me just say, I am so easily torn apart by life changes, I don't know how I would have made it through this weekend without such wonderful friends. What is life without friends and food? and music? I should mention, the soundtrack to the photo shoot was provided by the most lovely, Zee Avi.

So, to all my friends, far and wide, please know how much you mean to me. I cherish the gifts and the memories more than you know... I only wish we could all get together for tacos more often. <3

Indulge Like You Mean It

Close to the end of a weird and exhausting week, I found myself having dinner with two hella fine ladies at a super romantic restaurant in the heart of Orange County. Let's not beat around the bush here. My friends & I were seduced by a professional... charming, talented, and capable of pleasantly obscene combinations of flavors, this man was entirely successful in catering to our complete delight.

Two words: Cinnamon Smoke

Cinnamon smoke, bitchez.
Beginning presentation of the cinderella pumpkin bisque.

Sophisticated girls often appreciate a delicate and assertive kind of attention. The kind of attention you get when the chef comes to the table to introduce himself and his romantic establishment; the kind of attention when the chef offers to prepare your dinner so it includes a little bit of everything on his impressive menu; the kind of sweet attention you get when the chef serves you seven courses of the most amazing and seductive food on this side of the Mississippi.* Jason Petrie, of Pinot Provence,  I can't thank you enough for one of the most fabulous food experiences of my life.

Cinnamon smoke demo, at our table. Geek out like you mean it.

So dang delicious, so dang outrageous! When I asked him about the cinnamon smoke, swirling around the bacon, trapped in the champagne flute, he offered to do a demo for me! (I was wondering if it was smoked cinnamon, like smoked salt) He waited until we had thoroughly enjoyed our cindarella pumpkin bisque, house made yogurt experience - so we could fully experience the highly educational cinnamon smoke experience, obvs.

I realize you can barely see the smoking contraption, so I'll tell you how it works (as far as I can tell, having watched a table-side demo). Torch pieces of whole cinnamon, which have been placed in a small contained area, in front of a fan, funneled directly to an attached tube, making it possible to smoke some dang cinnamon, in a controlled fashion. Aromatic seduction. Yes, please.

Seduction, you say? Look what happened next.

Shut the fuck up, I know. They're not truffles from China; they're not truffles from Oregon; they are black truffles from France y'all. Jason Petrie is serious. At this point, I was completely enamored with the whole experience. Between the three of us, we shared an entire one of these truffles. I'm not even sure how to classify shaved black truffle... is it a garnish? It is a damn showstopper, whatever it is! Warning: it's about to get pornographic. Food porn, y'all, don't be rude.

"wild mushroom risotto
organic carnaroli, roasted wild mushrooms, parmigiano-reggiano"

yes y'all, risotto is sexy.

I love the way JP loves food.

Frankly, I can't help but feel like both the cinnamon smoke and the French black truffles happened partly because we are three totally lovely women and partly because we weren't shy about enjoying amazingly delicious food. Girls, take note. Boys, don't let JP steal your gf.

I have to stop here. Save room for the main course - I haven't even mentioned JP's black truffle, pork belly sausage yet. That man is so talented, it's criminal.

*It was so difficult not to swear in my description of Jason Petrie's restaurant. It's just entirely too classy for me to trash it up like that. Full disclosure: it's so good it made me swear out loud during my seven courses, in between courses, and after dessert. Yum.

Fancy Pants!

Check out SDD's new fancy pants over at Four Corner Foodies. I have been invited to join their fabulous group of foodies & bloggers, because they're so dang sweet.

The launch of this delicious website is for the benefit of Florida Wine Fest 2012. FWF is a 501c3 and they raise money for children's charities. 99% of the money raised is given back to the charities which is rare for any non-profit.  Winefest has 1 paid staff person and 400 volunteers! It's a massive machine and has been aiding kids in Sarasota/Manatee area for 25 years. Winefest has been classified as the top three winefests in America and if you are a foodie it's an amazing festival to attend.

The festival is April 12 - 15, mark your calendar! I am hoping to attend, so maybe I'll see you there!

Bachelor Life

Dang, the other day I felt like a total bachelor... for a couple reasons. Reason #1: I was eating dinner alone. Reason #2: I had garlic bread & Sierra Nevada IPA for dinner. Immediately after the garlic bread, I had a Theo chocolate almond bar... the salted almond, dark chocolate bar in the hot pink wrapper. I ate the chocolate so quickly, I couldn't technically call it dessert. Garlic bread, beer & dark chocolate for dinner. Bachelor status.

To all my fellow bachelors, you can make dinner with only 5 ingredients & actually feel pretty accomplished. A baguette, garlic, butter, beer, and chocolate. The dark chocolate is an excellent source of antioxidants, which could mean nothing... or could mean everything! and ultimately, you have a legitimate buzz at the end of dinner and no hangover in the morning (assuming you drink water appropriately).

Homemade garlic bread is like homemade croutons, and if you don't know what that's like, what the fuck have you been doing all this time? Ultimate comfort food. Mmm Mmm Mmm. So, 2 recipes in 1 here, y'all. Recipe #1: Garlic bread. Recipe #2: Cut garlic bread into crouton-sized pieces, and you have croutons. Impress any child you know with this trick.

Impress your company with your croutons.

Garlic Bread

• Fresh baguette*
• ~ 1Tbsp room-temperature butter** - you're choice, salted or unsalted (hopefully you always have room-temp butter on hand, because you keep your butter in a butter dish on the counter like every other person from the South - it makes toast a much more delightful experience)
• 1 clove garlic
• Sea salt
• Fresh Italian parsley, if you want to feel fancy

*If you're a bachelor and you're making this for yourself, half of a small baguette will do (a small baguette is usually 10-12"). If you're anyone else, not eating dinner alone, this recipe covers 6" of whole baguette, so double or triple appropriately.

**Substitute olive oil if you're making croutons.

Preheat oven to 350 (can be made in the toaster oven!). Cut baguette in half, lengthwise. One way to determine the "freshness" of your baguette is whether or not it is pre-cut. What I'm tryin' to say is your baguette better be fresh.

Mince the garlic like you mean it. Combine the garlic with the butter. If using unsalted butter, I recommend a few grains of salt. Nothing crazy... the garlic is gonna take care of the crazy.

Spread garlic butter on the 2 cut halves of the baguette. Pop in the oven. Wait 7-9 minutes. The garlic should be hella fragrant.

Parsley & freshly grated Parmesan make everything fancy

Enjoy your garlic bread with beer. The beer will make the bread taste better, and the bread will make the beer taste better. Win win.

Miso Delicious

Early autumn basil is in abundance and the fragrance literally seduces me every time I walk by. Earthy, calming, and refreshing. Yes, please. It's totally lovely.

What is a girl to do when there is no Parmesan in the fridge and no pine nuts in the pantry?!

Dang girl, get creative. Use some of that amazing, miraculous miso paste that's always in the fridge, and make some crazy good, vegan, pro-biotic, earthy pesto without all those fancy pants ingredients!

Miso Basil Pesto
(Luna Circle Farm, as published in the book, From Asparagus to Zucchini)

• 3 cups basil leaves
• 2-3 large garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or sunflower seeds
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2-3 Tbsp miso (mellow variety is best)

Puree everything in a blender, food processor, or with a handheld immersion blender until a thick past forms.

Makes 3/4 - 1 cup. You may need to add salt to taste if you're a crazy salt fiend, which I am, but I think it's SDD without it.

It's beautiful y'all, in more ways than one. Miso delicious love.

What A Pickle!

My great grandmother used to tell me I was going to turn into a pickle. I guess she thought I ate too many pickles. She probably just wanted me to stop eating all her pickles but I don't know when to stop. Story of my life! If they weren't so dang delicious, I wouldn't have this problem.

I am still settling into my new kitchen, slowly re-acquiring all my kitchen supplies & gadgets from the old storage unit on the east coast (ask me how you can contribute to the kitchen supply shipment fund!). Meanwhile, beautiful friends of mine gifted some of the most beautiful deep, dark red Swiss chard my way, and I knew I finally had to make this brilliant recipe for pickled chard stems.

 

Luscious

I modified the recipe a little, ate all the pickled chard stems (my friends helped) with a quickness, and then pickled sliced cucumber in the same brine! After I ate through all the cucumbers (in one sitting), I pickled sliced beets in the same sweet sweet brine. I'm dirty like that.

I have to preface this recipe with a quick story: I am currently teaching a cooking class - how to prepare and cook in-season produce, and we made fresh salsa. It was totally fantastic, but the students I had that day are super anit-tomato :( C'est la vie.

Fresh tomato salsa & corn, avocado, basil salsa

The tomato salsa was super juicy. The recipe was simple: tomatoes, fresh-squeezed lime juice, cilantro, red onion, garlic, jalapeño, and salt. With so much extra juiciness, the salsa was slightly unappealing and hard to eat, so I strained the liquor out, but then I couldn't just pour it down the sink -- what a tragic waste that would be. Tangy, sweet, spicy... it would be oh so delicioso in some kind of crazy pickle concoction!

Sweet & Spicy Pickled Swiss Chard Stems

• 1 large bunch of chard stems, leaves mostly removed
• 3/4 cup unfiltered apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 rounded Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp sea salt
• 1/8 tsp coriander seed
• 1/2 jalapeño, sliced crosswise, pith & seeds removed
• Approximately 1/3 cup salsa liquor

Rinse the chard stems well and slice into batons to fit into whatever glass container you're using. I don't have any Mason jars, so I used a Pyrex storage container.

Blanch & shock the chard stems prior to pickling. This will give them a longer shelf life in the refrigerator if you're not canning them. I reserved 1/2 cup of the boiling water, post-blanch, for the pickle recipe.

Combine the vinegar, water, salt, sugar, and coriander in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar and salt.

 Stack chard stems in your clean glass container and cover with brine. Add the sliced jalapeño and the salsa liquor.

Allow to marinade in the fridge for at least 24 hours, in a sealed container.

Last step, invite me over when they're ready. You might actually want to double the recipe if you are going to share with me (or any other pickle lover). They are completely fabulous right out of the jar and they're utterly brilliant in a salad.

Succulents Steal My Heart

My own personal dreamboat

These adorable little guys are from the Saturday Irvine Farmers Market, at the corner of Bridge & Campus. The succulents booth must make a killing from suckers like me!

The little ones in the bottom right corner of the box are called "baby toes" & the little fatty pink gordito on the top, second from the right is called "pork and beans"!! Shut up, I know. The baby in the top right corner is like a little fractal explosion, and the little grayish guys are pretending to be mushrooms, obviously. I have to tell them to stop being so cute all the damn time. It's distracting.

Not to mention that they are all trying to propagate in the coolest ways... and they're totally the opposite of fussy. They're so dang cool. I <3 succulents.

Maple Apple Pancake

 

Pretty much a slice of heaven. Imagine a pancake and custard and apple pie all together, in the same hot pan... it's indecent.

side shot. oh baby!

Brand new to southern California - new job, new life, etc. etc. - I am beyond lucky to have a supportive network of family & friends to help me through this mind-blowing transition. Mostly, I don't have a place to live, and I'm depending on a few super outstanding, fabulous people to let me sleep on their couch, use their shower, hog up space in their pantry and fridge -- so, in other words, I'm a big fat freeloader.

Somehow I have to compensate for the fact that I take up space, otherwise who's going to want to have a girl like me around?? As per usual, I go the route of culinary seduction. This pancake has saved my ass more than once. There is a reason my doggy is named after this culinary delight.

Maple Apple Pancake

• 2 large eggs, at room temperature if possible
• 1/4 cup spelt flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp kosher sea salt
• 1.5 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2 large, firm eating apple (Fuji, Gala, Pink Lady, etc), peeled, cored & thinly sliced

Heat the oven to 425°F.

Combine the eggs, flour, cream, maple syrup, and salt in a blender. Blend on high to combine well.

Melt the butter in an 8-inch (measured across the top of the pan) heavy-duty ovenproof nonstick skillet (such as an omelet pan) over medium heat. Add the apple slices and sauté until soft and slightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes.

Whiz the batter in the blender again until frothy, about 30 seconds. Carefully pour the batter into the skillet (coax a few apples back to the center of the pan with a heatproof spatula), let the skillet sit for just a few seconds, and transfer it to the oven.

Bake until the pancake is puffed, golden, and set, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove the skillet and let the pancake cool for a few minutes in the pan (it will deflate)*. Slide a flexible spatula or two under it and transfer to a cutting board or plate.

Sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar or confectioners’ sugar and a little cinnamon, cut into wedges, and serve warm.

Many years ago, when I would spend hours poring through cookbooks and cooking magazines, I found the above recipe in Fine Cooking. I knew right away, it was worth keeping. It's practically made of magic.

*This is usually the point at which I try to grab the handle of the pan, forgetting that it's been in a 425 degree oven, and burn the bejeezus out of my palm and fingers. Please be aware of the consequences of your actions.