Alemany Farmer's Market

It's hard to believe that I live only about 1 mile from one of the best and most affordable farmer's markets in the city, and I had not visited! Alemany hosts a farmer's market as well as a flea market; that's next on my list! But, that all changed at 6:30 this morning. The girls at Mission Pie have developed a weekly habit of arriving early on Saturday to ensure a good parking spot. While there, it's easy to cart away several cases of peaches from Regier Family Farm in Dinuba. A quick stroll around also guarantees ingredients for savory pot pies and treasures for the home kitchen.


Ben was, of course, still sleeping when I returned. I decided to surprise him with a country-style breakfast made from market goodies. Wookie, our new cat, made himself comfortable at the table. Sorry, buddy, blueberries aren't for wookies.


Morning can't start without coffee. So,I put together something that felt a little bit more luxurious than our normal routine: french press brewed from Taylor Maid's goat rock.


While the produce was amazing, I have to admit that I was most impressed with the poached duck eggs. All the rumors that you have heard about fresh eggs - be they duck or chicken - are 100 percent true. It was like nothing I've ever had before but something I plan to have again.

A Lazy Wednesday

This morning brought a little bit of a much needed adventure. The last few months have been full of the humdrum of everyday life. So, when the San Francisco Professional Food Society posted a meeting and tour of the Hodo Soy Beanery in Oakland, I jumped at the chance. It was even on a Wednesday! That never happens!


Making tofu, as it turns out, is very similar to cheese. The first step is to re-hydrate dried soybeans (Hodo uses only organic, non-GMO beans), mash them up, and "cook" them in very hot water. The result is soy milk.


Once the soy milk is drained off, the pulp must be emptied out. Hodo sells this to hog farmers in the area since there is still a great deal of nutrition left in the shells, etc.


The now warm milk is transferred to large bowls where a coagulant is added. After curds form, they are broken in a process not unsimilar to a paddle turning in an electric mixer. The broken curds are poured out into trays lined with cheesecloth. A tofu master is responsible for distributing the curds evenly and wrapping them in the cloth. The large block is then transferred to the pressing area. Large hydraulic presses are used to press the tofu to the desired thickness, releasing a significant amount of "whey". Once the blocks are set, they are cut (again by hand) and transferred to a cold water bath to cool.


Yuba is another popular product made from soy milk. As soy milk is heated, the proteins and fats coagulate, forming a thin sheet on the surface of the liquid. Once set, a tofu master first cuts the sheet loose.


The sheets are then hung to dry briefly. They are later folded and packaged. Hodo delivers to restaurants and farmers markets. Their products are sold within one day of production and are therefore the freshest tofu products available in the Bay area.


Fortunately, there were samples of some of the very delicious ways that tofu and yuba can be prepared!


When we returned to SF, I dropped Ben off at work and headed over to the Ferry Building to slurp down some Hog Island oysters for lunch. Paired with Acme bread and a glass of Domaine Carneros pink bubbly, they made the perfect snack.


Feeling somewhat gluttonous, I strolled down to Blue Bottle, where they misheard my request for an affogato (Humphry Slocombe ice cream topped with a shot of espresso) for a macchiato (a shot of espresso with a dollop of steamed milk). So, instead, I just had both! All in all, it was a lovely afternoon.

Lamb and Pita Dinner

A couple of weeks ago, we bid bon voyage to our friend, Suzan, who was on her way to visit family in Turkey. Inspired by her travels, we put together a quick dinner consisting of a few bits and pieces of a lot of eastern Mediterranean cuisines. We started the night off right with a Greek style saganaki, made popular in our home town of Chicago: fried Haloumi cheese, flamed in the pan and finished with a squirt of lemon juice. Let's just say that we were lucky not to have to call the firemen!


The rest of the meal consisted of an eclectic collection of cucumber salad (similar to tzatziki), brown basmati rice cooked pilaf style with pine nuts, marinated olives, and homemade pita.

Rustic Lamb Stew
Serves 4

2 3/4 pounds bony lamb stew meat
flour, for sprinkling
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, sliced
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 sprig fresh oregano
1 teaspoon dried Greek oregano
1 large tomato, chopped
2 preserved lemon quarters, finely chopped
4 cups water


1. Set the oven at 375 degrees. On a plate or a rimmed baking sheet, spread the flour. Season the flour with salt and pepper, mix well. Lightly dredge lamb pieces in seasoned flour.
2. Place a metal rack on a rimmed baking sheet. Place dredged lamb pieces on metal rack. Roast for 1 hour.
3. In a large flameproof casserole, heat oil over medium high heat. Cook onion and garlic for 5 minutes or until tender. Add fresh and dried oregano,tomato, and lemons. Cook, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes.
4. Add lamb, water, salt, and pepper. Bring liquids to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 2 hours.
5. Remove lamb pieces from stew. When it is cool enough to handle, pick off meat and stir it back into stew. Reheat if necessary. Taste for seasoning, and add more salt and pepper, if you like. Serve with brown basmati rice.


And, of course, a walnut pie from Mission Pie. It was superb paired with fresh black Mission Figs, lightly whipped cream, and Jim Beam Rye. (For those of you who don't know the story, Mission Pie chooses to make a walnut pie instead of pecan. The reason stems from local, environmental choices. The selected walnut farm is only 60 miles away from the shop, whereas pecans would have to be trucked in all the way from Georgia. The result is delectable.)

Blueberry Cake

From today's Boston Globe... Lisa's Cake, My Photos...


Blueberry buttermilk tea cake
By Lisa Yockelson, Globe Correspondent | July 14, 2010

Makes one 9-inch loaf

Big handfuls of fresh blueberries belong in a buttery cake, tender with buttermilk. The dark blue rounds float in this vanilla-scented batter and create juicy pockets of flavor. Their taste seems to concentrate during baking. When blues are fresh and plump, with a beautiful silvery sheen, the little rounds retain their shape and offer a mosaic in each slice. On this cake, the finish is a simple dusting of confectioners’ sugar, but many loaves benefit from a glaze. To make one, beat 2 tablespoons milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla into 1 cup confectioners’ sugar just until smooth. Once the loaf is cool, spoon the glaze over it and let it stand until firm. A bowl of whipped cream might seem too extravagant for this loaf. Go ahead and beat cream into clouds. Summer blues only come around once a year.


Butter (for the pan)
Flour (for the pan)
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup fresh blueberries, picked over
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
Confectioners’ sugar (for sprinkling)


1. Set the oven at 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan. Dust the pan with flour, tapping out the excess.

2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to blend them.

3. In another bowl, toss the blueberries with 1 teaspoon of the flour mixture.

4. In an electric mixer at medium speed, beat the butter for 2 minutes. Add the sugar in two additions, beating for 1 minute after each. Blend in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla.

5. With the mixer set on low speed, beat in half of the flour mixture, then the buttermilk, then the remaining flour mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula once or twice.

6. Remove the bowl from the mixer stand. With a large rubber spatula fold in the blueberries and any excess flour in the bowl.

7. Spoon the batter into the loaf pan, mounding it slightly in the center. Bake the cake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake is clean when withdrawn.

8. Set the cake on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Turn the cake out of the pan and return the cake to the rack to cool. Dust the top with confectioners’ sugar. Cut into slices with a serrated knife.

Lisa Yockelson

Cherry Pie

Cherry pie
From The Boston Globe
July 7, 2010

Makes one 9-inch pie

Two Fat Cats Bakery in Portland, Maine, uses sour cherries for this classic, but the season is very short. You can use sour cherries from a jar, but with markets full of fresh cherries, it seems a shame to get fruit from a jar. This version uses sweet cherries with both cornstarch and tapioca to thicken the red juices.

PASTRY

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into large chunks
7 tablespoons cold shortening
1/3 cup ice water, or more if necessary
Flour (for sprinkling)

1. In food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, and salt just to sift them.

2. Add the butter and shortening and pulse until the texture has pea-sized chunks of butter still intact.

3. Sprinkle 1/3 cup water over the mixture and pulse until the mixture forms large clumps. Do not let the mixture come together to form a dough. Add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, if necessary, to form clumps.

4. Turn the clumps out onto a lightly floured counter and shape gently to form a dough. Divide it in half. Shape each into a disk. Wrap separately in foil and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

5. Let the dough sit at room temperature about 5 minutes before rolling.

6. On a lightly floured counter, roll 1 disk of dough to an 11-inch round. Lift it onto the rolling pin and ease it into the pie pan. Refrigerate the pan.

7. Roll out the other disk of dough to a 10-inch round. Lift it onto the rolling pin and ease it onto a baking sheet. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

FILLING

2 3/4 pounds fresh cherries, pitted
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
5 teaspoons instant tapioca
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
About 2 tablespoons milk (for brushing)
Extra sugar (for sprinkling)

1. In a bowl toss together cherries, sugar, cornstarch, tapioca, and cinnamon. Transfer cherry filling to the dough in the pan. Cover with the flat dough. Turn the edges under to form a neat hem all around. Crimp the edges.

2. Freeze the pie for 30 minutes.

3. Set the oven at 400 degrees.

4. Brush the dough with milk, sprinkle with sugar, and cut vents evenly around the pie.

5. Bake the pie 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the cherry juices are bubbling up through the vents. During baking, if the edges of the crust brown too much, cover the rim with foil. Cool pie on a wire rack.

Karoline Boehm Goodnick. Adapted from Two Fat Cats Bakery.

Our First Tomato

Most San Francisco gardeners lament the fact that it never quite gets hot enough to grow a perfect tomato. This could be one advantage that the hotter East Bay has over the city, but I still won't give up my spot in the Mission. Despite the naysayers, we decided to give tomatoes a shot this year. We planted one vine each of two varieties: Roma and Champion.

The roma has been slow to mature with lots of blossoms but very few actual tomatoes. There are a couple of tiny guys on the plant right now, but they are no where near maturity.

The Champion vine seems to be doing slightly better in this climate. It is chock full of fruit, but we probably will not see the half pound beauties that the descriptive tag promises. Instead, it appears that we are growing a whole bunch of cherry sized tomatoes...hmmm...well, maybe they are quite tasty anyway. I harvested the first sample today, but it wouldn't be fair to eat the whole thing (read: mouthfull) before Ben gets home. So, I will wait, and we will divy our tiny tomato amongst the two of us. Heck, I'm just happy that even one ripened!