The Fuzzy Chef & Friends

Ten New Orleans Cookbooks

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 15:10:00 -0800

Thanksgiving this year was a NOLA theme, and we had some fairly specific requirements in terms of food preferences and seasonal availablity (especially after the California crab harvest was delayed). So I borrowed all of the Cajun and Creole cookbooks the San Francisco Public Library had available and went through them. Here's a series of one-paragraph reviews of various New Orleans cookbooks, so that you'll know what you want for yourself. Click on through ...

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PG-13 Rice

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:34:51 -0800

Cajuns make a type of fried rice they call "Dirty Rice". It consists of cooked rice, fried with chicken gizzards & livers, sausage, peppers, onions and spices. Since I avoid meat, I developed a version which uses no meat products and, while not authentic, is still quite tasty. We call it "PG-13 Rice" since it's not quite "dirty".

Click through for recipe.

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Non-Traditional Thanksgiving, Part 4

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:01:00 -0800

I don't much like turkey, and neither do my in-laws. So for the last several years we've been doing something else entirely for American Thanksgiving ... and because I do most of the cooking, without meat. Usually I do something around a specific ethnic theme. Past Thanksgivings have included: Turkish food, Austrian food, and Cioppino.

This year, it was time for Cajun/Creole. Accordingly we requested every New Orleans cookbook available at the San Francisco Public Library, and I went browsing for recipes. I'll have cookbook reviews later; in the meantime, click through for pictures.

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Belgian Calzone

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 03:57:00 -0700

I seldom get a chance to eat brussels sprouts because my sweetie doesn't like them. So for this recipe I sliced them thin and hid them within the dough of a calzone. The results were surprisingly delicious. And high in vitamins!

Click through for recipe.

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Greek Islands: restaurant review

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 10:17:00 -0800

Best restaurant for the Chicago Greektown experience

Overall: 4
Food: 4.5
Service: 3.5
Atmosphere: 3.5
Wine List: 4 (see below)
Authenticity: 4
Noise: @@@
Price: $$
Paid: $50ea (see below)
Location: Chicago, Greek Town
Genre: Greek Traditional

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SF Election 2011: Anyone But Lee

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:06:00 -0700

There's an election next month. You did know that, right? Good, because you need to go to the polls and vote against Ed Lee.

In less than two weeks, San Franciscans must once again elect a mayor and other officers, as well as the usual horde of initiatives. Those of you who don't live and vote in San Francisco can just tune this one out. If you're voting in SF, though, please read through for my recommendations on who to vote for and who not to.

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Purple Pig Chicago: review

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:55:49 -0700

More than just charcuterie; fantastic, creative small plates

Overall: 4.5
Food: 5
Service: 4
Ambience: 3
Dessert: 4.5
Wine List: 4
Vegetarian: 3.5
Noise: @@@@ inside, @@@ outside
Price: $$$$$
Paid: $80 ea.
Location: Chicago/Downtown
Genre: Pan-mediterranean

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In Search Of Chicago's Best Pizza

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 07:09:00 -0700

I was recently staying on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago for a software conference. Software geeks being what they are, this meant I ate a lot of pizza -- and that I now have a pretty good handle on what's the best deep-dish pizza in downtown Chicago. Read through for my verdict.

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Vegetarianism is back and there's gonna be trouble

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:26:21 -0700

Apparently being veggie, or at least pretending to be veggie, or at least talking about being veggie, is back in vogue. I just got this month's Sunset Magazine and half the recipes in there were vegetarian -- and the food focus of the issue was food for camping. Even the recipes which were meat had "or tofu" in the ingredients, although how one would "shred" cooked tofu for taco salad is beyond me.

Celebrities are jumping on the bandwagon, too.

Having been around a bit, this feels really familiar. Kinda like 1993. We were in a recession then, too, weren't we? Makes me think that, if the economy ever recovers, everyone who's a 25-year-old vegan now will be all steak and "new comfort food" in 2015.

Of course, since we are talking about a lot of newly minted vegetarians, there's the usual dietary flailing about. Meat substitutes, tons of tofu and pasta, unsustainable combination diets, and mostly not knowing how to cook. This is another repeat of the 90's; if you don't like to cook, you're not going to stay a veg. It requires too much thought and time in the kitchen.

Nowhere is this more in evidence than Portland, Oregon, the nation's City of Vegetarians (not the Vegetarian Capitol, which for historical reasons is Ithaca, New York). With the rest of us squares eating meatless meals, Portland has to do one better, and now every restaurant in Stumptown has a vegan section on the menu. Alongside the "gluten-free" section. It's surreal; nowhere on Earth has so many special diets which don't involve ordained religious leaders.

It's also the only place where someone will call me a caveman for eating eggs. Anne Hathaway would fit right in.

As a non-meat-eater myself, this swing toward the herbivorous pole is certainly convenient. I don't have to check restaurant menus in advance to make sure I can eat something, except for a few ethnicities. Even the French Laundry now has a vegetarian option. But I can't get too comfortable, since I know it'll swing back with a vengeance once people can afford more meat again, or when a new diet fad hits.

Besides, you know what? The vegan cupcakes are surprisingly good.

Alhana Market

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:58:05 -0700

I make a lot of middle eastern food, especially lately. Turkish, Israeli, Syrian, Bulgarian, Greek, Persian, you name it. Partly it's because I find middle eastern food is adaptable to many dietary requirements, especially non-meat. Partly it's because it's healthful. Partly it's because I own a lot of really good middle eastern cookbooks.

However, a lot of those recipes require special ingredients. And in the Bay Area, the absolute best place to get those is Alhana in San Mateo. More ...

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Portugal Day 2011 is Saturday

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 07:22:23 -0700

Portugal Day, celebrating Portuguese independence from Spain with parades, dancers and lots of terrific Iberian food, is tommorrow, June 11th. It takes place in San Jose History park, which is fun on its own. Portugal Day is probably the best ethnic food festival in the Bay Area, at least from a food perspective.

Above is a plate of grilled sardines, potatoes and Portuguese bread -- $9 at last year's festival.

See you there!

Cal-Bennie

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 04:13:21 -0700

Eggs Benedict, or "Benedicts", or "Bennies", in their many variations, are quite popular restaurant brunch items here in California. This is probably because they fall into that class of food which is easy for a restaurant to make, but both annoying and too decadent to make at home. Today, you can order dozens of different "benedicts" which none of the various Benedict families would recognize, including Florentine (sauteed spinach), Cajun (chile-cream sauce and bacon), New York (smoked salmon and tomato), and the Northwestern paragon, the Dungeness Crab Cake Benedict.

This "benedict" aims to be quintessentially California, simple and easy to make at home, and comparatively healthful. The secret is in the organic free-range extra virgin heirloom handmade ingredients. Hence I christen it the "Cal-Bennie". Recipe follows ...

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Amador Wine Country Weekend

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 04:48:00 -0700

For my and Lisa's birthdays (they're about a week apart) we took off Memorial Day for a weekend in the California Gold Country. This weekend was the Rocks & Rhones event at some of the wineries there, plus we thought we'd get some hiking and other fun in.

First thing: Snow? In May? In California? This Global Climate Thrash thing is getting out of hand.

We did get to go wine tasting though, even though the hiking didn't happen. Click through for a review of some of the wineries you probably haven't heard of before ...

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Mango-Tuna Ceviche

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sun, 01 May 2011 03:14:00 -0700

I fell in love with ceviche when my family moved to South Texas when I was 10 years old. I suppose that I already liked all kinds of seafood from the previous four years in Florida. I still adore ceviche today, and am very happy that San Francisco has several Peruvian restaurants which specialize in it.

Since it was nice and warm today and I spend the day working in the garden, I decided to make some ceviche for myself. Based on what Gus the Grumpy Greek Grocer had available (shop Haight Street Market!), I decided to make mango-tuna ceviche, and was very happy with the result. This is not the fiercely acidic, otherwise flavorless whitefish ceviche of your local burrito joint. Here, the tuna and avocado give you a fatty unctousness, punctuated by the citrus bursts of mango. Click more for the recipe.

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Black Bean Asparagus

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:36:00 -0700

We've had a truly astonishing asparagus season in California this year. Our grocer has been selling coffee-straw thin Delta asparagus for $0.99/lbs for two weeks and I've had to be creative to keep coming up with recipes for it.

Here I'm combining it with Chinese fermented black beans. These are not Cuban black beans. Instead, they are a type of soybean, salted heavily and fermented for months. The kind you want are sold in blocks, dried; they'll keep more-or-less indefinitely in the back of your fridge (the ones I used were over a year old).

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Flatbreads and tarts from Italy, France and Greece

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 13:57:00 -0700

Title: Savory Baking from The Mediterranean

Author: Anissa Helou

Number of Recipes: 75 to 100

Recipe Breadth: 5.0

Recipe Quality (of those tested): 4.0

Extra Information: 3.5

Style: 3.0

Vegetarian Recipes: 70%

Overall Rating: 4.5

Category: cookbook, ethnic food, baking

Availability: New or Used

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A monk's head is a party

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:36:54 -0700

Three weeks ago, I got a rather mysterious surprise in the mail.

"You have a mystery box from Culture Magazine," Kris told me. "Can I open it?"

After forcing her to wait until her glare was sharp enough to open the package on its own, I looked. And was amazed. Two pounds of Tete de Moine cheese and a beechwood cheese shaver. Apparently I'd won a contest I didn't even remember entering, on the Culture web site.

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Sangria Fácil

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 01:09:00 -0800

Since my local wine merchant (Val de Cole) got in a few cases of dirt-cheap Spanish wine, I decided to make 4 liters of sangria for my Open Studio. I may not have sold as much art as I wanted, but the sangria was gone. People complimented me; I don't know why people think sangria is difficult to make (or how restaurants get away with charging $8 per glass). It's easy, home-made fortified wine.

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The Basque Kitchen

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:31:00 -0800

Title: The Basque Kitchen

Author: Gerald (and Cameron) Hirigoyen

Number of Recipes: 100 to 150

Recipe Breadth: 3.5

Recipe Quality (of those tested): 4

Extra Information: 3.5

Style: 3.5

Vegetarian Recipes: 15-20%

Overall Rating: 3.5

Category: cookbook, ethnic food

Availability: Mostly Used

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Holiday Borscht

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 13:27:46 -0800

Yes, it really is that color.

You, too, can make delicious, vegan, nutrient-rich soup which looks like a pot of melted Carmine Red crayons. I've had raves about this hot borscht from people who weren't sure about the whole concept of beet soup but tried it anyway. Christmas Eve was no exception; our guests ate over a gallon of the soup. Better yet, I was able to prepare it ahead and it was done and waiting 3 hours before guests arrived.

Just don't spill it on a white shirt. Recipe follows ...

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Challah for Christmas

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 14:19:20 -0800

For Christmas Eve dinner this year I decided on a "Russian Jewish" theme. Partly this was out of a desire to have all of he food ready and waiting well before our guests were due, as some of them were coming from Christmas Eve services and wouldn't arrive until nearly 9pm. I settled on a menu of borsht, cabbage salad, and perogi with carmelized onions, and Kris did trifle for dessert (which I failed to get a picture of, dammit). Originally, I thought I would make some dark rye bread, but then it occurred to me ... it's Friday night! We should have challah!

After all, the little guy was Jewish, wasn't he?

So that morning, at 9am, I started on a triple-batch of challah. Click more for full recipe and instructions.

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Holiday Cookie Baking Time

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 13:56:39 -0800

Yes, it's that time of year again ... the time when we go through fourteen pounds of flour and two entire rolls of baking parchment. Given friends, family, Kris's clients, and my coworkers, we're baking a ton of cookies and pumpkin bread in order to have something for almost everyone (except those with gluten allergy).

While other years have been all family recipes, this year's cookies were diverse; Kris made a family recipe, one from a fiction site she reads, and another from Smitten Kitchen. I made an Italian cookie recipe from Nick Malgieri.

The whole list of cookies is available on the holiday cookies page.

A Northwest Costal Thanksgiving Part III: Dessert

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 09:58:09 -0800

Dessert was different from the rest of dinner in two ways; one, my sweetie Kris cooked it, and second it came from an internet recipe. Pumpkin-cheesecake bread pudding. It was very rich; she made a half-recipe and it was enough for 2 desserts for each of us. Especially since she served it with nutmeg-spiced cream:

That was all for TY Day for this year. Onward to Christmas, where I need to prepare several meals for family guests.

A Northwest Costal Thanksgiving Part III: Cioppino

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:18:00 -0800

I picked cioppino partly because it's a "one pot meal", which is an excellent idea if you're ever cooking a major meal in a rented kitchen with unknown equipment. All I had to bring was a large wide pot, and knives.

Continued ...
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A Northwest Costal Thanksgiving Part II: Crusty Sourdough

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:39:00 -0800

Since we live in San Francisco, we keep a sourdough starter. Here, it's very easy to get one started and even easier to keep it going ... we just have to make something with it every 3 weeks. I'm not going to explain the care and feeding of a sourdough starter now, but I will give you a basic sourdough bread recipe. I will give you a bread recipe, though ... (continued)

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A Northwest Costal Thanksgiving Part I: Portuguese Salad

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 14:41:00 -0800

Readers will be unsurprised to find out that, given the opportunity, I again decided to make a very non-standard Thanksgiving dinner. This TY Day, we were renting a beach house in Seal Rock, Oregon, so a "local seafood" theme seemed called for. Above is the view from the beach house.

Continue for the salad recipe and pictures ...

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Surly Tab Holiday Catalog 2010

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 14:58:00 -0800

Catalogs have gotten downright boring over the last few years. Gone are the timpani-playing salt-hunters of yesteryear, and for that matter anything which distinguishes SLT from W-S or Cook's. I often have to recheck the cover to remember which catalog I'm reading.

This week it's the Sur le Table holiday special catalog. Bring on the roasting pans! Click "more" for the snark.
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Three Intensely Ethnic Cookbooks from the SFPL

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 05:02:00 -0700

My sweetie recently discovered that the San Francisco Public Library actually has a very impressive collection of cookbooks, and that we can order others through inter-library loan. So she's started borrowing; what better way to find out if we want to own a cookbook?

Well, it didn't take long for our friendly Bookmobile staff to learn our tastes and start pulling books for us on their own. Following are brief reviews of 3 cookbooks they lent us. Read on!

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Second Cooking Class: Crepes!

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:48:21 -0700

I love crepes, and they don't have to be hard. It just takes a good recipe and a little practice. Join me on June 24th at Noisebridge and learn how to make basic white-flour crepes, and at least 3 dishes you can make with them.

New bakery in the Opera District

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sat, 15 May 2010 02:45:28 -0700

Returning the space to its original purpose before a failed flirtation with Spanish food, the corner of Laguna & Hayes is once again a bakery and cafe. While Terra is a bit more upscale than Pendragon was, it's still good bread and pastry, and very affordable for the neighborhood. Haven't tried the cafe food there yet; will write a full review when I do.

Saffron, fava bean and shrimp risotto

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:39:00 -0700

For my second trick, I taught how to make a more complicated, "company" risotto for entertaining or special evenings. This one involves a lot more work, primarily because of the requirement to separately prepare a lot of the ingredients and the "stir continuously" rice cooking method. In the picture above, it's the yellow one. Click through for recipe.

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Risotto cooking class follow-up

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sun, 02 May 2010 02:43:00 -0700

I taught my first cooking class on thursday at Noisebridge. While it was small, the class went really, really well. We had a good time and cooked some great risotto! Above are my three students, Renee, Matt and Mike. There will definitely be more classes after this.

The subject of this first class was risotto, the traditional northern Italian rice dish. I wanted to both demystify risotto, which I think many Californians regard as very gourmet rather than the simple country dish it is, and show the basic techniques. Once you have the techniques, you can make any kind of risotto you want, based on what you find in the market or what you happen to have in the fridge. I'll follow up this post with recipes.

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Easy weeknight mushroom-red wine risotto

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Mon, 03 May 2010 14:40:00 -0700

This is the first of the two risottos we made for the class, to demonstrate the easy, low-attention way of making risotto, for weeknights when both you and your sweetie are tired and you can't deal with a high-attention dish. It's the dark-colored of the two risottos above. Pictures of the cooking steps supplied by Matt Sonic! Click through for recipe.

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Wine, Cheese, and Chocolate Tasting 2010

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 13:27:00 -0700

Ages ago I posted an article on how to do home tastings. I thought I'd show you putting my comestibles where my dentition is, from a recent tasting at our apartment. We threw this little party because we had too much fine wine around, and too much chocolate, and our local grocer (Haight Street Market) had just broadened his cheese stock.

We invited over our upstairs neighbors plus five friends who had all worked at the same businesses at different times, but had not yet met each other. Continue reading for tasting notes.

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Parada 22: Puerto Rican on the Haight

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:49:00 -0700

Puerto Rico, next to Cuba, on the Haight

Overall: 3.5
Food: 3.5
Atmosphere: 3.5
Service: 3
Dessert: 0
Vegetarian: 3
Beer/Wine: 2*
Noise: @@
PPPIE: $13

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Where to Eat on the Upper Haight

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 04:22:00 -0700

The Upper Haight, or "Haight-Ashbury" to you tourists, is the portion of Haight Street between Divisadero and Stanyan in San Francisco. It lies West, uphill, and slightly upmarket, from the other half of Haight Street, which is known as the "Lower Haight". It is also where I live, so I'm going to give you a rundown on where's good to eat here. Aside from my apartment, of course!

Because of the tourists, there are a startling number of eateries here. There's also a lot of bars, so I'm going to do my "Where to Drink on the Lower Haight" sometime later. There are a couple of combination places on this list and they are listed below only for their food. Other than that, the list below should be comprehensive.
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Pasta Fra Diavolo

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:03:00 -0700

Continuing my recipe contest participation, I recently won the above dried ground hot pepper of Calabria from The Foodie Blogroll. The pepper is medium-hot, about the same level as Gephardt's chili powder, but has a hint of smokiness about it kind of like Aleppo Pepper. I have no idea how I'll use 1/2 a kilogram; I've already given 8oz away.

I also adore the phonetic italenglish spelling of the label. Shows you what the Italian on many American brands looks like to someone who actually speaks it.

As part of the victory, I had to promise to post a recipe to go with it, so here goes. What else would you do with pepperoncini di Calabria? Pasta fra Diavolo, of course! This is an easy-weeknight version. Click through for recipe.

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Doing my first cooking class. Sign up now.

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 05:34:46 -0700

Since I like food, and I like to teach, I'll be teaching my first cooking class on Thursday, April 29th at Noisebridge. This class will be on risotto.

I'm looking forward to it, I've needed a creative outlet since I had to give up my studio.

Please take a look, and if you're in San Francisco, sign up for the class! If this first one goes well, I'll start doing a series of them, one every month.

Simple Malaga-style Chard

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 11:59:43 -0700

This weekend we went to a family friends' place for my mother-in-law's 75th birthday. The friends made some terrific grilled food (steak and shrimp), potatoes and bread, and I was in charge of the green vegetable. My sweetie, of course, did dessert (a chocolate ganache & lemon tart). However, we were only at the in-laws for a short time and I had a lot of errands to run, so I needed something tasty I could find the ingredients for at Fred Meyer's in Medford, and make in less than 40 minutes from grocery bag to portable serving dish.

Fortunately, I remembered Janet Mendel's Malaga-style Chard recipe fairly well. Or, at least, my adaptation of it; the original has rather too much in the sweet, poached raisins department for my taste. This version is a little more savory, and our family liked it a lot.

No picture this time, sorry. Click through for the recipe ...
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Underdog is here to save the day!

nospam@example.com (The Fuzzy Chef) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 06:04:51 -0700

Underdog (Lunch)

Great California-style sausages in SF.

Overall: 4
Food: 4
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 3
PPPIE: $11
Noise: @
Wine/Beer: 0
Veggie: 4.5
San Francisco, Sunset District
American Food, Sandwiches

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