101 Cookbooks

Autumn Potato Salad

2009-11-06T16:55:30-08:00

I did that thing the other night, Halloween actually, where you're invited to a party and can't decide exactly what to bring. At first I said I'd bring a hearty salad of some sort, but as soon as I heard the word salad leave my mouth, ideas for savory tarts started flitting around my brain. And wow, is that a pâte sucrée tart shell in the freezer? Maybe I should make something with that. I also decided, right around the same time, that it would be a good idea to bake cookies for trick-or-treaters instead of handing out candy. It was looking at a long day in the the kitchen for sure.

I got an early start, and in the morning I collected ingredients from all my favorite shops. It was beautiful and sunny out, and hey, we should really go for a walk. And do you want to try someplace new for lunch? And, and.....and somehow the day snuck away from me in a hundred fantastic ways. In the end, a spinach tart made it next door, and the neighborhood kids got freshly baked cookies, and the chocolate tart made it out of the oven, but not to the party. And this salad never made it out of my head. It had to wait until later in the week to make an appearance. But I thought I'd share it with you because I liked how it turned out.

The idea was a simple roasted potato salad incorporating a couple other seasonal root vegetables like parsnips and carrots. I served it on a bed of wild rice - all with a simple mustard vinaigrette. I've think I've subliminally been on a bit of a mustard bender since I returned from Paris.

Also, I should mention, embarrassingly enough - that when all these roasted beauties finished their term in the oven, I noticed the parsnips waiting patiently on the sideline, quiet as church mice, raw as ever. They never made it onto the pan. I'll include them in the recipe though, because they were supposed to be there.

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Broccoli Cheddar Soup

2009-11-01T15:59:54-08:00

I'm going to argue that this is the type of soup that needs to be made to order. While many soups and stews get more complex and enticing after a day or so in the refrigerator, I don't find that to be true when it comes to soup of the broccoli variety. Am I alone here? Day-old broccoli soup always smells very strong (and not in a good way) and tastes overcooked, as if from a can. The good news is this version couldn't be simpler to make, and it's perfect for those times when I feel like I need something with a serious nutritional punch - say, the day after a sweet-packed Halloween. I give the soup a bit of an unexpected twist by topping it with golden, crunchy, mustardy croutons. Which you can skip, but I wouldn't.

Aside from the croutons, this soup likes crusty, toasted walnut bread, or olive bread. It likes a good sheep feta in place of cheddar if that's what you happen to have on hand, or a kiss of harissa whisked into a bit of olive oil. I know people like to pair broccoli with blue cheese. Personally, I find that to be over-powering, but if you really love blue cheese, that might be another direction to explore. If you have any other ideas, let me hear them - I make this soup often enough that I need fresh angles to work!

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Halloween Recipes

2009-10-29T08:35:52-08:00

I suspect that some of you might be on the lookout for a few Halloween recipes, or Halloween-inspired recipes might be a better way of phrasing it. There are a bunch hiding in the archives, so I thought I'd bump a handful back up to the top here. A few of my favorites include:

Roasted Pumpkin Salad - A roasted pumpkin salad made with wild rice, tiny, caramelized red onions drizzled with a simple, honey-kissed, creamy sunflower seed dressing. A colorful harvest salad perfect for Fall festivities.

Thai-spiced Pumpkin Soup - From deep in archives, this Thai-spiced Pumpkin Soup couldn't be easier to make - roasted winter squash, coconut milk, Thai red curry paste, and sea salt come together in a pot of vibrant, rich, flavorful soup. Total crowd pleaser.

Caramel Apples - a caramel apple recipe made from apples, honey, cream, and salt - all-natural, with no processed corn syrup or other funky ingredients.

Spice-kissed Pumpkin Pie - a favorite, easy pumpkin pie recipe. Made from a rich, roasted pumpkin and coconut milk base, and baked in a hazelnut-lined crust.

Spooky Ghost Meringues - a fun meringue recipe that enables you to shape the meringue into seasonal shapes - ghosts for halloween, or snowmen for the holidays.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds - Don't let all those pumpkin seeds go to waste, toasting pumpkin seeds is easy. Here are a few different flavor combinations: Sweet & Spicy Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, Black Tea & Butter Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, and Curried Toasted Pumpkin Seeds.

Here is where all the pumpkin recipes live. Some are also filed under: winter squash recipes as well. Happy Halloween!

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Apple and Carrot Shortbread

2009-10-25T22:01:39-08:00

I discovered a small pile of cookbooks the other night as I was cleaning out a bedside cabinet. I must have pushed the books behind closed doors, (and conveniently) out of sight, while tidying up the house at some point. There they've been, undisturbed, for many, many months. When they re-emerged, I felt as if I'd come across a brand new pile of books - a little dusty, but aside from that there they were ready to provide me a few hours of reading on a particularly stormy afternoon. I tagged a few things to try, but one recipe in particular jumped out at me, the Apple and Carrot Shortbread from Good Tempered Food by Tamasin Day-Lewis.

It's not as if we need another shortbread recipe highlighted on this site - there's already this one and that one. But this promised to be a shortbread of a different breed - this one was buttery, sweet, and flecked with shredded apples and carrots. Even better - I had nearly everything on hand to make them.

I switched things up a bit from the original recipe, opting for a slightly more rustic version. For the sweetener, I thought a light Muscavado brown sugar would be nice alongside the apples - in place of white sugar. And I used a powdery-soft whole wheat pastry flour in place of unbleached all-purpose. And because I couldn't help myself, I tossed in some lemon zest for a bit of brightness.

For those of you who are more particular about your shortbread, I should mention, these cookies don't have quite as much snap as a shortbread made without moist, shredded apples and carrots in the dough, but they are charming (and delicious) all the same. I had a couple alongside a cup of one of my favorite white teas - and I have to say, it was not a bad way to spend a few moments looking out our big windows at the trees whipping around in the wind outside.

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Tassajara Warm Red Cabbage Salad

2009-10-20T22:20:04-08:00

The other day one of my neighbors asked me how often I cook. I think he was curious to know if I cook everyday. But, now that I think of it, I'm not actually sure what he was asking me - maybe there was a subtext to the question? I'm not sure. Anyhow, I told him I cook most days, and most of the meals most days. While this might have kicked off visions of elaborate brunch buffets, or of me standing over simmering pots of risotto stirring for hours on end, actually, it usually means I'm doing something simple like reheating a leftover pot of soup for lunch. Or pouring some muesli from a jar into a bowl of yogurt. Other times it does mean starting from scratch, pulling together a quick everyday favorite.

But(!) at least a few times a week I like to try something completely new, something I've never tried before. Sometimes it's my own idea, other times the recipe comes from elsewhere. For example, I came across a Warm Red Cabbage Salad with Dried Fruit and Feta in the new Complete Tassajara Cookbook I bought a few weeks back. I liked the idea of a warm winter salad - sweet and salty, rich with color, texture, and flavor. I was excited to give it a go.

I used the recipe as a jumping off point, tweaking it to my preferences. I cooked the cabbage uncovered, and for less time than the recipe called for (to retain a bit of structure), used considerably smaller amounts of cheese and fruit, and generally trusted my own instincts and tastes along the way. You can use my version of it as your own jumping off point, and play around with it to suit your tastes as well.

Some things I thought about along the way - I used golden raisins, but I imagine any number of dried fruits would work nicely. A few toasted walnuts or hazelnuts tossed in the pan at the last minute might be a welcome way to up the crunch factor. A bit of cabbage used to top off a bowl of risotto or polenta might be striking. Or as a filling for a piadine. Or how about using it as the finishing touch on a savory spinach tart? A recipe like this one can launch me in a hundred different directions.

So, when I think about how often I cook, I naturally think about why I rarely get tired of cooking. And I think it's because I find the task endlessly challenging and continually inspiring. A bit of a rhythm has emerged through it all - it goes something like this: old, new, me, you. Meaning - I cook an old favorite one night, next I might explore a technique or region that is entirely new to me, then maybe I'll try out an idea of my own, and then a recipe I've learned about in a book, magazine, website, or from a friend - like this one.

And I have to say, it's rhythm that works for me. Despite the hours I spend cooking, I still enjoy pulling my apron over my head, tying the knot behind my back, turning the knob on the stove and hearing the whoosh of the flame catch on the gas burner...

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Red Lentil Soup

2009-10-15T22:18:49-08:00

I tend to follow the sun around the house each day. From room to room, not unlike a cat. I like how it warms cushions on the couch in the morning, streams into my breakfast bowl at the kitchen counter not long after that, and then beckons me to the office through our west-facing window later in the afternoon. On particularly nice days I like to take my lunch out onto the back porch, settle into one of the mossy, rain-damaged chairs, close my eyes, and let the sun shine through my eyelids for a minute or two. And well, that was the plan when I made myself a pot of this unassuming (but tasty!) red lentil and brown rice soup last weekend. Then, bowl in hand, I opened the back door and walked straight into a four foot spider web.

It is spider season here, and if you forget, you pay. I can't count how many times I've walked into spider webs in our back yard. It freaks me out every. single. time. In part because the spiders that live in those webs are so large. Too large to smash with a paper towel large - not that I'm in the spider smashing business. I find the ones with the bulbous golden-yellow bodies particularly alarming.

Without going too far down the spider track here, I'll just say, my outdoor lunch quickly became an indoor one after I counted five spiders, webs in full span, within a ten foot radius of my desired lunch spot.

Spiders aside, I thought this soup was good enough to share. It's a single-pot soup made by browning some onions, adding the rest of the ingredients, and cooking the whole lot until its done - however long that takes. The rice is the component that takes longest to cook, and mine was tender in about 25 minutes. I topped each bowl with what I had on-hand at the time: toasted almond slices, some crumbled feta, and a few oil-cured olives that I chopped into little black flecks.

I used red lentils, but as you can see in the photo, the soup is actually more yellow-orange than red. Red lentils (unlike black lentils, or lentils du Puy, or yellow split peas) collapse and lose structure quite quickly - and in this case they shift color a bit. Don't let that throw you. And it's actually the rice that retains it's texture here, while the lentils provide the body for the soup. So don't be alarmed when your lentils stop looking like lentils after about ten minutes in the pot.

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Favorite Cookbooks: Andrea Nguyen

2009-10-10T22:51:55-08:00

Andrea and I have been friends for a few years now. She writes inspiring articles about people and their deep connections with food. And she writes books that dive head-first into the topic at hand, while remaining wonderfully accessible. Truth be told, when I first met her I was a bit intimidated. But that feeling didn't last long. She's light, with an easy smile, and a sense of humor that had me at go. On the culinary front, she up for anything. We got together for drinks at a friend's house recently and she showed up with jars of homemade Maraschino cherries, one jar made using one technique, the other jar using a different approach -an impromptu tasting ensued. Not long after that, I saw on her site she was reverse engineering her own Sriracha chile sauce (!). I don't see her as often as I'd like to, and I regret that she doesn't live just a little bit closer to me.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with her debut cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. It was among the finalists for a James Beard Foundation award (best Asian cookbook) and two International Association of Culinary Professionals awards (best first book and best international book). For all you dumpling fans out there, her second book, Asian Dumplings, tackles the subject spanning samosas, lumpia, pot stickers, momo, gyōza, wontons, bāo, and then some. She's a contributing editor to Saveur magazine, writes for newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury News, and teaches cooking classes regularly. When I asked Andrea to share some of her favorite cookbooks, she replied with the following...

A woman I know lost her entire cookbook collection in one of the recent Santa Barbara fires. I winced when I heard about it as I've often wondered what I'd grab or miss the most should disaster strike. My collection of cookbooks fills several seven-foot-tall bookshelves in my dining room and office. It is comprised of my mother's notebook of handwritten recipes that she carried from Vietnam when we fled, works that I perused during my youth, gems discovered overseas or hunted down at used bookstores, and many acquired online during late night shopping forays. I'd be heartbroken if I no longer had certain ones as they are special, irreplaceable artifacts of time and place. However, if my entire library of cookbooks were to vanish, I would find my bearing and seed a new collection with these works:

Eastern

Irene Kuo's The Key to Chinese Cooking (Knopf, 1977) was my first Chinese cookbook. After my family arrived in the U.S. in 1975, we started going to our local library to checkout cookbooks and then eventually joined Book-of-the-Month clubs to start our own cookbook collection. My three sisters and I read all the fine print and took turns joining so we could get multiple deals on cookbooks. Kuo's was among our family's favorites. She was spot on back in '77 and still is today. I own two copies, one with a broken spine and the other has hardly been cracked open as it waits for the first one to completely fall apart.

If I lost those copies, I'd track down a third copy. But I'd supplement Kuo's Chinese recipes with those by Grace Young in The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen and The Breath of a Wok (Simon & Schuster, 1999 and 2004). All the recipes work in Grace's books, and she has a great palate.

For dreaming about and cooking the flavors of South and Southeast Asia, I'd get Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's Hot Sour Salty Sweet and Beyond the Great Wall (Artisan, 2000 and 2008). Their books have fed my creativity, piqued my curiosity, and satisfied my hunger for Asian food and culture for years. The over-sized tomes are not merely for coffee table décor. They are books to cook and learn from.

Latin

I've lived in California for most of my life and Mexican food is a necessity. Rick Bayless has never failed me with his recipes for making uncommonly delicious Mexican Food. I can easily spend a day cooking from his books, especially Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen (Scribner, 1996). For the ultimate from-scratch cooking experience, I'd also pick up Diana Kennedy's From My Mexican Kitchen (Clarkson Potter, 2003).

Western

Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is getting lots of press these days but frankly, I don't often use those volumes. If I want well-honed instructions on classic French and American dishes, I make a beeline for The Way to Cook (Knopf, 1993). She very clearly, and with her signature humor, tells you how to make terrific pate, meatloaf, and pumpkin pie. There's work involved but it's neither nervous making nor laborious seeming. Along with J.C. (and I'm not talking Jesus here), I'd pick up James Beard's American Cookery (Little Brown and Co., 1980). For Italian recipes, Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (Knopf, 1992) has been my kitchen companion since it came out in 1992 and I'd surely bring her back.

These cookbooks by Child, Beard, and Hazan all have an authoritative voice that is friendly, not motherly. (Who wants their mom hovering over them as they cook?) Their thoughtful and straight-ahead approach to home cooking inspires my writing and informs my understanding of American and European fare.

Reference

I'm a geek who LOVES reading cookbook glossaries. Alan Davidson's Oxford Companion to Food is one of the books that I grab to look something up as I research and develop recipes; either the first or second edition would do. For Asian ingredients, Charmaine Solomon's Encyclopedia of Asian Food (Tuttle, 2008) and Bruce Cost's Asian Ingredients (William Morrow, 2000) are my requisite reference works.

Finally, I would be disingenuous if I didn't say that I'd be quick to replenish copies of my own cookbooks. Truth be told, I regularly cook from them and follow my own instructions. The results are surprisingly good!

Cooking is a craft that I regularly practice and these are among the works that I cherish most. My personal and professional life would be incomplete without cookbooks around.

Here's where you can find Andrea:
- Andrea's newest book: Asian Dumplings
- Andrea's first book: Into the Vietnamese Kitchen
- Viet World Kitchen
- Asian Dumpling Tips
- Follow Andrea on Twitter

Photo by: Penny De Los Santos. You can follow Penny's blog here, or her twitter stream. My hope is that I can convince her to share her favorite cookbooks with us at some point too!

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Richard Olney's Garlic Soup

2009-10-05T21:50:07-08:00

I've worked my way through a stack of garlic soup recipes over the years. Some clipped from magazines or torn from newspapers, others scribbled in shorthand on scraps of paper. It is a delicious realm of soups, and there have been plenty of notable bowls amongst them. To that extent, I thought I'd share the one I love most. It's from Richard Olney's classic, The French Menu Cookbook. Creamy and full-bodied without the use of cream, it is made by simmering a dozen or so cloves of garlic in water with a few herbs, then thickening it with a mixture of egg and shredded cheese. It's hard to beat a big ladleful poured over crusty, day-old walnut baguette with a finishing slick of olive oil.

The garlic mellows as it simmers and works itself into something round and mild - not at all harsh or aggressive in flavor or fragrance. It's a restorative soup, one that I make when I want something simple and direct, but with more body than a clear, brothy soup or consommé.

And, it's worth noting, if you've ever made ice cream from scratch, you should have no trouble here. The technique is quite similar.

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Green Soup with Ginger

2009-09-30T21:25:17-08:00

I think it must have been the combination of daybreak pain au chocolates, afternoon tarts, and twilight glasses of Chablis that sent me scrambling for my favorite soup recipes upon arriving home from Paris. Because that's what happened. I've been making soup and stews - big pots - for the past week. Hearty, rustic, chunky soups full of greens and grains and flavor. Remember this lentil soup from a while back? Made that. The cabbage soup? Made that too. But I also made this Green Soup with Ginger from the new Anna Thomas book, Love Soup. It has a short list of ingredients - onions, leeks, spinach, chard, sweet potatoes and ginger - and it's the kind of thing that makes you feel good. I'm not sure it's possible to pack more greens into a single pot.

I should mention that Anna has a long track record of writing much-loved recipes. She wrote The Vegetarian Epicure in 1973, a classic, while she was a graduate student in film production at UCLA. I'm sure many of you know it well.

For those of you interested in knowing a bit more about the new book, all the recipes in Love Soup are vegetarian, many vegan. If you've ever wondered what to do with this ingredient or that in your farm box - from golden beets to purple cauliflower, this book is a nice catalog of ideas. I made her deconstructed hummus soup before we left for Paris, also good.

The book is 525 pages, b/w with illustrations, no photos. The soups are seasonally organized, and most are as approachable as the one I'm featuring today - unfussy instructions, achievable ingredient lists. Anna also includes a few salad, bread, and sweet recipes to close out the volume.

Let me know if any of you have tried any of the recipes from Love Soup yet. It'll help me decided which one to try next. -h

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Ten Days in Paris

2009-09-25T07:30:41-08:00

It's 5:45 in the morning, the sky is starting to glow ever so slightly near the horizon, and all is still and quiet outside. I'm sitting on my sofa wide awake. My body thinks it's the middle of the day, and there is no way around it - I'm in for a couple more early mornings before I can shake this jet lag. So. I thought I'd make myself some tea, watch the sun come up, and take a bit of time to share my notes on Paris, before the details of this adventure start to slip my mind.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Clotilde and I decided to swap apartments. She came to San Francisco while I went to Paris. Wayne and I spent ten days in Paris criss-crossing the city on foot and by subway, darting into patisseries, taking photographs, and sitting on benches in flower-lined city gardens. We ate well in Paris, and I found plenty to be inspired by in the little cafes serving up seasonal tarts, salads, crepes, and quiches.

We settled into Clotilde's lovely Montmartre apartment just short walk down the hill from the Sacré-Cœur. After the long flight Wayne and I unloaded our bags and walked five minutes to Rose Bakery for a late lunch. I'll tell you right now, I could eat there everyday for the rest of my life and be perfectly content. The curried yellow lentil soup I ordered hit just the right note that first rainy day in Paris. The rain cleared in the afternoon and we eventually walked up the hill to the Sacre Coeur. It was a nice (if not touristy) way to start our exploring. Paris at your feet, the sun threatening to set behind the Eiffel Tower off in the distance, Parisians lounging on the steps with wine in hand.

We then dove right in to the museums, cafes, and hussle-bustle of Paris. There were many things worth remembering about this trip, but I tried to condense it into a list of highlights - places I loved, great food I tasted, the best things I did. Hopefully the list can serve as a bit of inspiration if you find yourself in Paris sometime soon.

Paris highlights: Shopping for seasonal gems at the Saturday morning President Wilson Market - fresh hazelnuts, currants, flame-tinted grapes, pretty flowers and piles of golden chanterelles. // Cartier-Bresson exhibit at the Musee d'Art Modern // Planet Parr exhibit at Jeu De Paume. // Picnic lunch & people watching at the Luxembourg Gardens. // Good pizza with arugula, frosty beer, and friendly service at La Briciola in the Marais. // Browsing hundreds of stalls of books, chandeliers, and vintage wares at the Sunday flea markets in Clignancourt - I should also mention we had a tasty Breton-style buckwheat crepe with egg and a bit of cheese, just down the road a few steps from the market Dauphine stalls. Highly recommended if you need a quick bit of shopping sustenance. // Stopped into Mariage Freres for a few tea-related gifts. // Best fallafel sandwich ever at L'as du Fallafel in Le Marais - enjoyed while standing in a nearby doorway. // Best espresso we had in Paris was close to L'as du Fallafel at Pozzetto (great pistachio gelato too). // Seeing Matisse's Nu aux oranges at the Centre Pompidou, then snapping pics of the Paris rooftops from the escalator and finishing things off with a visit to the easy-to-miss Atelier Brancusi down below. // Walking the city with David was a real treat- bought some rosemary flecked fougasse and pain à l'ancienne at Du Pain et des Idées. Dinner was at Le Verre Volle, a charming little spot with a handful of tables - just my speed. Plenty of seasonal deliciousness, cheese, and wine all around. You can pull bottles from the wall and drink them with dinner, or purchase them to go instead. // We browsed lots of bookstores including: La Chambre Claire, Librarie La Hune, and WHSmith.

There was macaroon sampling at Gérard Mulot, and Ladurée Royale. // Nice paper products - notebooks, clipboards, stationary and the like at Papier+ and Calligrane. // Browsed the quiche pans and copper pots at E.Dehillerin. // Walked up to the middle platform of the Eiffel Tower. // Had a simple and perfect "formula" lunch at Cuisine de Bar - your choice of tartine, salade du jour, and glass of chardonnay. Then next door to Poilâne. // Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson for August Sander exhibit. // Gift shopping at Ets Lion in Montmartre. // Gruyere buckwheat crepe with mushrooms, a drizzle of cream, and a pinch of Espelette pepper at Breizh Cafe (reservations required!) // Seeing Monet's Water Lilies (Nympheas) at the Musee de l'Orangerie, then later in the week, a day trip by train to Giverny to see his actual gardens. I can imagine during peak season this could be a mobbed, touristy nightmare, but we enjoyed ourselves. The village wasn't entirely overrun, and we had lunch at La Terrasse - a cute, little unassuming place with a menu of good ciders, crepe, and tarts. // Loved the Degas paintings upstairs at the Musée d'Orsay, a few rooms down from the Van Gogh crowds. // Stumbled on Kitchen while walking around one day - good, healthy eats. You choose from a board listing a daily juice, soup, salad, sandwich, stew, etc. We shared a 9-inch avocado futomaki roll, a simple sandwich, and a lentil and rice "stew" with roasted vegetables. Hit the spot. // Stocked up on easy-to-pack food items like spice blends, salts, mustards and sugars they don't have at home at La Grande Epicerie. // The Ferdinando Scianna and Ara Güler exhibits at the Museum Maison Europeenne de la photographie. // Queueing up at Berthillon for a nice custardy scoop of vanilla. // Diving into a jar labeled "prune sauvage", a treat from David. Limited edition, made from wild plums - it was the prettiest shade of rose, not too sweet, with a whisper of acidity, and a hint of floral in it.

What an amazing city, I felt like I could be there a year and barely put a dent in it. There was so much to see, people in the streets all the time - I feel lucky to have been able to spend that much time there. Thanks to all of you who offered up suggestions and stories about your experiences in Paris. Between you and Clotilde, and David, and Dorie (who I just missed by a couple days!), I felt like I had a thousand little angels whispering in my ear.

- A google map of all the Paris highlights.

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Roasted Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash

2009-09-20T21:45:16-08:00

I have some great vintage and out-of-print cookbooks on my shelves and I thought I would highlight recipes from a few of them in the coming weeks. There are also some exciting new releases out there as well, and I'll try to highlight some of those too. But I thought I'd start off by building on an idea from The Vegetarian Compass written by Karen Hubert Allison, published in 1998. This was the only cookbook written by Karen, and it is full of unexpected and unique combinations of ingredients and flavors. Her roasted squash is filled with corn, milk, anise seed, and chopped scallions. You then bake until the filling has set, and finish with white cheddar cheese.

Let me back up and tell you a bit about the book overall. It's not flashy. It is photo-free, and printed with gray and purple ink. And yet, this is a book I'm inspired by each time I pull it from my shelf. It is full of sophisticated ideas, techniques, and flavors. Many of the recipes have a little story attached, and each recipe in the book seems to have real intent behind it. Said another way, you get the sense that she felt strongly about every recipe she included.

I was too young to know anything about it at the time, but Karen (along with her husband Len Allison) was the former owner of the three-star New York City restaurant Huberts. She taught at the Culinary Institute of America. The Vegetarian Compass was published posthumously after her death from breast cancer in 1997. Josh Wesson was a young sommelier at Hubert's in the 80's and is quoted in Karen's obituary saying,

''Before there was a Greenmarket, there was Karen Hubert and Len Allison seeking out little growers and artisanal makers of cheese and bringing them down to this restaurant.''

Clearly she was ahead of her time. I could go on quite a bit more, but mostly I just wanted you to know that I find inspiration in this book - and I thought it would be nice if Karen's recipes and ideas lived on in more kitchens. If you see a copy in a second-hand store, be sure to spend some time with it.

I've adapted today's recipe from the Acorn Squash filled with Corn Pudding in The Vegetarian Compass. It involved roasting, making a filling, filling the squash, and roasting some more. If you don't have an hour and a half to dedicate to roasting, here's an alternative approach that came to mind as I was making it. Roast the squash until it is cooked through and beginning to brown a bit on top. Then sprinkle each half with grated white cheddar cheese and use the broiler to brown the cheese on top. Serve topped with hot, buttered corn and some scallions and/or herbs.

Continue reading Roasted Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash...

Pineapple Rice

2009-09-15T23:11:17-08:00

I've been to Hawaii two times. Once when I was sixteen, and again when I was twenty. Once to Maui, once to Kona. I remember it being lush and vibrant, achingly beautiful. The more miles you put between yourself and the resort areas, the better it got. I think I'd like to go back at some point, so when I realized there was an Edible Hawaiian Islands publication I subscribed to it with the hope that I'd discover farms, producers, markets and restaurants to seek out when we finally get around to going. The latest issue arrived in the mail the other night, and while flipping through it, I came across a recipe for a pineapple rice salad. I rarely cook with Hawaiian flavor profiles, but this looked too good to pass up. I had a good number of the ingredients on-hand, and ended up building on the basic concept to make a meal of it. No canned water chestnuts or peas, but I had a single can of organic canned pineapple at the back of one of my cupboards - I must have bought it with some baking endeavor in mind? Not sure. Anyhow, I'm glad I had it. In the end I had a nice platter of spicy greens and brown rice doused in a spicy-salty-sweet pineapple dressing flecked with seitan. It's good hot or at room temperature.

I used canned pineapple here along with the juice from the can, if you have access to good, fresh pineapple I encourage you to use that in the dressing. Like all fruit, pineapples have varying degrees of sweetness, so keep that in mind as you are making the dressing. Tweak it a bit here and there until it is to your liking. I like dressings for starchy salads to have a bit of strength and assertiveness - they get absorbed, and you don't want their flavors to get lost in the rice (or say, pasta).

If you're looking for alternate ways to play with these ingredients, I should also mention I did an egg-fried rice version of this with the leftovers that really hit the spot. Whipped up an extra thin two-egg omelette, chopped and added it to the skillet of pineapple rice that was re-heating. My kind of lunch.

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Favorite Cookbooks: Emi Guner

2009-09-11T22:57:14-08:00

Emi Guner is my Swedish internet friend. We've never met in person, but we have friends in common, common interests, and I've been a fan of her writing and websites for years. I started reading Letters to Marc Jacobs early on, moved on to Letters from the End Consumer, and now I even Run with E on occasion (when my Nike+ sensor isn't broken). Emi is smart and funny, and in the photos on her site she often has adorable, small children crawling all over her. Her photos make me smile and I particularly love the ones featuring her son clothed in head-to-toe Spiderman.

When I asked Emi to share a bit about herself she said,"I write for money. I write in Swedish or English, I've written about everything and nothing. I used to write letters to Marc Jacobs. I wrote 400 of them before it finally got to me that perhaps he wasn't reading. I love writing, reading and eating, kids, fall, red wine, Scrabble and mummies."

EMI'S COOKING STYLE (in her own words):

I don't really know how it happened, but I've almost quit cooking altogether. Instead I've turned into a female version of a 50's man who comes home and asks "what's for dinner, honey?" Luckily for me, my man cooks great meals. He's a dedicated runner and needs to eat well so I get to savor lots of vegetables, fish, seeds and an incredible variety of bulgur, quinoa and whole grain rice. I cook for the kids, but it's not very passionate. I've lost interest in cooking, but not in eating. I often have a bowl of yogurt while I read about fantastic food and amazing meals. It sounds sad, but it's 100% pleasure. I may be a lousy cook, but I'm a voracious reader. I have a big collection of loved cookbooks that I keep in a special cabinet in the kitchen. I'm a happy eater and will gratefully eat whatever you serve me. Once, a potential mother-in-law served me kidney and very little else. It was the first time I ate at her house, and it felt like a test. I think I passed, because I ate it all and held conversation going. Unfortunately her son didn't pass my own test, but that's a different story.

FAVORITE COOKBOOKS (the ones Emi turns to most often for inspiration):

I use cookbooks to dream, not really to cook, but if you want to dream with me I can recommend Susur-A culinary life by Susur Lee because the level of his cooking is so advanced it's like art.

I also often look to my grandma's vintage Betty Crocker to travel back in time - I'm so happy I'm not the one who has to stand there in her apron serving up casseroles to a man whose profession and pay I'm jealous of. Likewise, I turn to The Fine Arts Cookbook II cause I love the introductions to the dishes. Blizzard Soup "First made during blizzard of '78; make it when you have pork shoulder and put away for the next snowstorm." Thank you Mrs. Marsden P. Earle of the Ladies Committee, the next time I have pork shoulder, I will! And because it offers so much more than just recipes, I love reading Claudia Roden's The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York. It has history, anecdotes, food and a few great jokes thrown it. I also like The Farmhouse Cookbook because the author seems so pleasant and her travels across the states to find great produce gives you the nice opportunity to read about a kind of farming that you wouldn't think existed anymore.

Other times, I buy and judge books by their covers. That's the reason I bought Breakfast, Lunch, Tea: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery by Rose Carrarini. It's the fastest and easiest trip to Paris I've heard of. Prettiness is also the reason I bought the tempting Made in Italy, a purchase I've never regretted. It stands next to Silver Spoon which I hear is THE book if you're about to cook yourself a great Italian meal, which I hope someone I know will do for me soon!

I sometimes buy books on food just because of their titles. I mean, who can resist a book called Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant - Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone?

And since I'm more interested in the enjoyment of food (and the kind of social interactions that go so well with food), I love books on food that go beyond mere preparation. If you're like me in that aspect, dive into The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook, any of Ruth Reichl's foodie memoirs, or Alan Richman's book Fork It Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater.

Related links:

- Like to jog? Click here if you also want to Run with E. It's a lot of fun, Emi sets up challenges, does interviews - people from all over the world run with Emi.
- Emi's site: Letters from the End Consumer

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Peanut Butter Krispy Treats

2009-09-06T23:37:55-08:00

Most of what I'm going to need in the next two weeks is arranged in small piles on my bed right now. A couple dresses, cameras, and books. Film, lipstick, light meter, passport, hand wipes, ponytail holders, and batteries. I'm getting on a flight to Paris in a few hours. Pinch me, I've never been (!?!), and I can't wait. Last year Clotilde and I started chatting about swapping apartments. The idea was this - she and Maxence would come stay here in San Francisco, and Wayne and I would stay in her place in Montmartre. We settled on dates, bought our tickets, and here I am bubbling with excitement, trying to pack, doing my best not to forget my toothbrush. I made a few little airport snacks to bring along including these peanut butter crispy treats, a riff on the version I made for Super Natural Cooking.

They are made with crisp brown rice cereal (available at many natural foods stores) mixed into a hot, decadent peanut butter maple syrup sludge. I did this version with lots of chopped, toasted pistachios throughout. Also, instead of cutting them into bars, I pressed them into wrapper-lined muffin tins.

You can serve these guys to mixed crowds too. Vegans, vegetarians, and people who avoid gelatin like them in part because I don't call for marshmallows (which often contain gelatin). Instead I use a slightly obscure natural ingredient called agar agar flakes. It's a sea vegetable that you can use to thicken puddings, custards, or in this case to give the peanut butter and maple syrup mixture some binding power. You can find the flakes in many natural food stores.

We have a layover in Chicago, and I'm going to keep these right near the top of my carry-on, for convenient snacking. And no worries - while I'm gone, I'm not abandoning the site altogether. I have a couple recipes waiting on the server to share, and a new favorite cookbook list from a friend in Sweden. Hopefully that'll be enough to keep things lively around here until I get home. If you have any advice, tips, or places not to miss in Paris or Madrid, my thanks in advance. I have quite a list going for both cities, but some of my favorite spots from our trip to Tokyo were ones you suggested! xo -h

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Double Broccoli Quinoa

2009-09-01T20:39:43-08:00

This double broccoli quinoa bowl is a favorite of mine. I cook up lots of broccoli, then puree half of it into a pesto. The other half is cut into little florets. Tossed with some quinoa, sliced avocado, and a drizzle of feisty chile pepper oil, it makes a nice meal and I hope you like it as much as I do.

If you don't have quinoa, you can certainly swap in a pasta or any number of other foundation ingredients. Farro would be nice, millet might work, barley, pearled barley, or even your favorite brown rice. If you're in the mood for something a bit more substantial - let's say for dinner or something - I do different versions. Sometimes I serve the broccoli quinoa over an omelette, other times I might have it with a poached egg on top. Or I might toss in some baked tofu, or pan-fried tempeh. It's hard to screw up.

I should mention that I do like this served with a bit of feta crumbled on top. I wrote that into the recipe as (optional), but if you've got some feta on hand (or goat cheese), go for it. For easy left-overs I make extra quantities of each of the main components, and use them throughout the week - the broccoli pesto, chile oil, quinoa (you can freeze it if you don't use it).

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