Food is Food

There are cooking oils, and then there are finishing oils. Finishing oils are used as a condiment, to finish a dish. They add flavor and texture and generally a little goes a long way. Use finishing oils on salads, pasta, pesto, vegetables and grilled meats. Some finishing oils can also be used in cooking or baking, but that's not their primary use. The less heat they are exposed to, the more nutritional value and the more you will be able to enjoy their flavor.


The roasted nut and seed oils from La Tourangelle are made from local ingredients, pressed in a traditional French oil mill. They are particularly great for salad dressings. If you are using pistachios, hazelnuts or walnuts, adding a splash of these roasted nut oils really intensifies the flavor. Because they are roasted, they have a natural sweetness to them. But they are very delicate and need to be stored in a cool dark place. You can also use them in baked goods, especially nut cakes and tossed with pasta. My favorite is the roasted pistachio. La Tourangelle offers plenty of recipes online.


This past Summer I was sent samples of 
Stoger Oils--tomato seed, chili seed and organic pumpkin seed oil. They are very intense, and really complement the raw or cooked flavors of tomatoes, chili and winter squash. They are not just infused, but made from the actual seeds of the fruits and vegetables. I liked the pumpkin seed oil best (it's also the least expensive), and used it in a butternut squash filling for an appetizer. Stoger recommends using the pumpkin seed oil on ice cream too! It has a rich warm flavor with a hint of sweetness. The tomato oil definitely reminds me of the smell of tomatoes cooked in olive oil.



If you're interested in local oils, you need to check out Round Pond Estate. In addition to making a reasonably priced Rutherford Cabernet, they have a beautiful garden and they not only grow olives, but press them at their own olive oil mill. They offer various opportunities for the public to visit the olive mill and experience fresh olive oil. The next “Fresh Olive Oil Day” is on December 8. Free and open to the public with a reservation (required), Fresh Olive Oil Day gives you the chance to taste different oil varieties both Spanish and Italian, before they are blended and get the freshest, purest oil available. The cost to purchase the fresh pressed oil is 12 cents/ml, with a 250ml minimum. Empty bottles will be provided by Round Pond at $4 per bottle.

Nudo offers the opportunity to "adopt" an olive tree and reap the rewards in olive oil. You choose the orchard and variety of oil tree and receive oil shipments. It's a really unique idea and just reading the different stories behind the different groves transports you. Today only, December 2, 2013, Nudo is offering $20 off your first delivery on all Adopt-an-Olive-Tree personal subscriptions (just use code CYBERNUD69), as well as 20% off their Adopt an Olive Tree gifts (with code CYBERNUD49).

You can also buy extra virgin olive oils from Nudo. I've tried their citrus oils at the Fancy Food Show and recommend them. Today only (December 2, 2013) use the code AMYCITRUS to receive 50% off the Citrus Club Box, which contains a tin each of extra virgin olive oil, zesty lemon oil, and stoneground mandarin oil. Perfect for any dish that needs some brightness.  $19 with discount code.

Or use the code AMYFLAVOR to receive 40% off the Flavor Box Set, which contains 8 tins of Nudo's freshly pressed, beautifully packaged flavored olive oils, including Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Lemon, Chili, Mandarin, Thyme, Basil, Garlic, and Mint. $60 with discount code.



Disclaimer: I received some, but not all  of these oils as review samples. I was not paid to write this post and there are no affiliate links. 

I don't write about events very often, especially ones I haven't been to before, but I'm excited to tell you about LUCKYRICE, an Asian food and drink festival coming to San Francisco. 

LUCKYRICE was created by Danielle Chang a Bay Area native and has seen success in NY, LA, Miami and Las Vegas. I'm not sure what took so long for the festival to come to San Francisco, home of so many fantastic Asian cultures and cuisines! 

Chefs participating include some of my favorites like James Syhabout of Hawker Fare, Azalina Eusope of Azalina's, Alexander Ong most recently at Betelnut, Frances Ang, pastry chef at Fifth Floor, Greg Dunsmore of Nojo and Preeti Mistry of Juhu Beach Club. 

Other chefs include Masaharu Morimoto, Sharon Nahm of E&O Asian Kitchen, Kyle Itani  of Hopscotch Restaurant and Bar, Kathy Fang of House of Nanking and Fang, as well as chefs from Izakaya Yuzuki, Ichi Sushi, M.Y. China, Pabu, Roka Akor,  The Slanted Door, Spice Kit, Tacolicious and more. 

This event will create a one night only night market style event. Some of the top bartenders in town will be participating including some of my personal favorites, Kevin Diedrich of Jasper's Corner Tap, Martin Cate of Smuggler's Cove, and H of Elixir.

I can't wait to try some of the slated dishes like beef tart ate, Mendocino uni with chiccharones and lime, beef tendon and squid salad and Taiwanese corn soup with poached quail egg. I hope you'll join me! 

The details:

LUCKYRICE

Friday, September 6 from 7-10 pm

Ferry Building

Tickets are $88 (a lucky number)

VIP tickets are already sold out so don't delay! 

Whenever I'm in London I end up eating at Leon. In a city with frightfully expensive food, Leon serves what they call "naturally fast food." It's healthy, quick and inspired by flavors from all around the world. They source ingredients responsibly and so it's food that makes you feel good and that you can feel good about. Truly a winning formula. The latest book from Leon (there are two others) is Leon Family & Friends. The book has lots of basic kinds of recipes for things like roast chicken and hummus but also amazing stuff like Anna Hansen's Pumpkin & MIso Cheesecake. There are also some Thai recipes and cool stuff like six ideas for "things on toast" hot chocolate five ways, four risottos and three different versions of salmon cooked in parchment. The recipes are generally easy and appealing and suit kids as well as adults. Bravo! It's a particularly great book for anyone just starting out on their own with or without kids. It's a keeper. 

The Monday Morning Cooking Club book is really my kind of book. It's written by a group of Jewish women a "sisterhood" in Sydney Australia. Their recipes are so homey and comforting. There are tinges of Eastern Europe but also intriguing Indian, Moroccan and Persian recipes too. I want in on this group that cooks and shares Israeli Couscous Soup (inspired by a recipe my dear friend Marlena Spieler), Peach Mascarpone and Raspberry Trifle, Beetroot and Chickpea Salad, Quinoa Tabbouleh, and Viennese Apricot or Plum Dumplings. Australia like the US is a country of immigrants and the book tells their stories. The only potential down side to the book is that some of the recipes use grams as a measurement, not a problem if you have a scale however. It's a keeper.

An American Family Cooks is written by James Beard Award winner Judith Choate and her family; it's the recipes her extended family cooks. "Fancy, some not-so-fancy, and some just plain everyday" is how she describes the 100 recipes. These are very solid recipes by a family of foodies. I mean, who else starts Thanksgiving with fried eggs showered in $500 worth of white truffles? The notes with each recipe are really instructive explaining lots of details about techniques or ingredients. There's lots of Americana here, but also some Mediterranean style recipes too, things like Paella, Mom's Potato Gnocchi and Pate de Campagne to go along with Nana's Chicken Pot Pie, Boston Brown Bread and Dungeness Crab as well as Soft-Shell Crab. It's a good book, but not exactly ground breaking. Keeper? Depends on your cookbook collection.

Sunday Dinners: Food, Family, and Faith from our Favorite Pastors is also a compilation of recipes, but from pastors some of whom rely on butter-flavored vegetable shortening, Velveeta and canned pie filling and others who don't. While there are three appealing Vietnamese dishes and lots of American favorites like Scalloped Potatoes and Sunday Pot Roast, many of the recipes like Slow Cooker Macaroni and Cheese and Strawberry Cake made with a cake mix, strawberry gelatin and frozen berries are frankly not my style. If you know someone who would be inspired by wonderfully written stories of pastors and how food plays a role in their life and their family, this might be a nice book for them. 

Disclaimer: I received review copies of these books and this post includes affiliate links

Thanksgiving is a potluck affair at my parent's house. My folks cook the turkey and stuffing but the other dishes are up to the guests who arrive with appetizers, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, salads and dessert. Those who can't cook, are tasked with bringing wine or bread. Everyone contributes and has a chance at bragging rights. 

The feast always starts off with sparkling wine, except for last year when I mixed up a sparkling cocktail, the Aperol Spritz instead. This year, in addition to cooking as I always do, I've settled on a cocktail with port. Fonseca Bin 27 is a lovely and inexpensive ruby port, lush and filled with lots of ripe dark berry flavors. To lighten it up, a fizzy not too sweet sparkling wine is perfect. You want something good and bubbly but not too sweet. 

Another nice reason to use Fonseca Bin 27 is that for the holidays they have released a bottle with a limited edition Artist Label which raises funds for Waterkeeper Alliance, a non-profit organization that promotes and protects clean waterways worldwide, this is an important cause for Fonseca as they are committed to sustainable viticulture with respect to the Douro Valley in Portugal. This year the label features the work of artist Barnaby Furnas, whose paintings are exhibited in the various museums including the Museum of Modern Art.  Based on one of Furnas’ popular “rock star” paintings inspired by the music of The Velvet Underground, the painting’s vibrant hues are intended to echo the fruity intensity of BIN 27. No matter which bottle you choose, the port is sweet and luscious. It is also be lovely as an after dinner drink, especially with something chocolate.

This recipe originally was created by spirits writer David Wondrich, but I chose a slightly sweeter sparkling wine.  For more port cocktails visit PortCocktails.com

Ruby Sparkler

2 parts sparkling wine, something lightly sweet and fizzy such as Extra Dry Prosecco, chilled

1 part Fonseca Bin 27 ruby port, chilled 

Garnish of fresh berries or cranberries

Combine the sparkling wine and port in a Champagne flute, garnish and serve.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I was provided with samples of Fonseca Bin No.27. I was not paid to write this or any other post on Cooking with Amy. 

There are plenty of macaroni and cheese cookbooks, and some of them are quite good. So do we need another one? That was my question when I heard about both of these new books, The Mac + Cheese Cookbook and Melt. Coincidentally both books are from renowned Northern California food bloggers. 

Out first and in a small format is The Mac + Cheese Cookbook, 50 Simple Recipes from HOMEROOM, America's Favorite Mac and Cheese Restaurant. The subtitle really tells it all. These are recipes from Allison Arevalo (her blog Local Lemons is no longer being updated) and Erin Wade's darling restaurant in Oakland. While the recipes are creative, they are straightforward, uncomplicated and fairly simple really. The ingredients are good quality but not particularly expensive or exotic. The book rounds out the mac and cheese recipes with side dishes and desserts. 

It's not a traditional restaurant cookbook, but rather very practical. Some of my favorite recipes in this book are actually not mac and cheese but the Brussels sprouts with bacon and apple cider vinaigrette and the peanut butter pie. 

It's not a ground breaking cookbook, but a good choice for mac and cheese fans and beginning cooks. Want to find a vegan mac and cheese recipe? A version of mac and cheese with blue cheese and walnuts? Or a "trailer" version with hot dogs and crushed potato chips? This is your book. Visit their restaurant Homeroom in Oakland.

Melt The Art of Macaroni and Cheese was written by two food bloggers I know and adore, Stephanie Stiavetti, The Culinary Life blogger and Garrett Cord the blogger behind Vanilla Garlic. So I was particularly concerned when I heard about the book.  But that was before I got a chance to see it. It is groundbreaking. If The Mac + Cheese Cookbook is a lifestyle book akin to the brand Target--think a little retro in style, mainstream and accessible--then Melt is practically the opposite--it's extremely innovative, sexy, and exotic. Frankly, it's a game changer. It redefines macaroni and cheese through the use of artisanal cheeses, many generally relegated to cheese plates, to wild combinations and new categories like salads, soups and desserts composed of noodles and cheese. 

One of the most iconic and exceptional specialty foods of Spain is jamon de bellota, Iberian cured ham from acorn fed pure bred pigs, pata negra. It's intensely flavored and served in thin slices that are glossy, deep red, silky tender and wonderfully sweet and savory. It is simply the best jamon you will ever eat. The first time I tried it was in Seville at Casa Roman, a well-known tapas bar that specialized in it. The next time I ate it was in Barcelona, where I ordered it every chance I got. But I don't think I fully appreciated it until I went to the Basque region of Spain. 

In San Sebastian the tradition of tapas and pintxos is almost an art form. People eat small exquisite bites of food at bars all day and all night. Each little nibble is more delicious and amazing than the next, often made with traditional ingredients like jamon, Cantabrian anchovies and Guindilla pickled peppers. Spain is one of the leaders in innovative and modern cuisine, and while jamon Iberico is revered in Spain, it's also used in unconventional ways, like in a tapa with mango, foie gras and a coca cola reduction. Competitions abound to discover the best new tapa, including the Cinco Jotas International Award.

Cinco Jotas is a leading producer of Jamon Iberico, since 1879 and is currently promoting their product in the United States after a successful introduction earlier this year. I recently received sliced samples of the product and highly recommend it. Of crucial importance to enjoyment of Jamon Iberico is the way it is sliced. Cinco Jotas will be bringing a master carver to San Francisco in January and I look forward to learning more about his craft.

Disclaimer: I am not paid by Cinco Jotas, though I did receive product samples. 

The SweeTango is perfect for apple crisp, which is super easy to make, easier than pie or even a cobbler. It's the kind of thing that takes only minutes to prepare, then you can pop it in the oven after or even during dinner. The smell of apples, butter and cinnamon might be the best thing about autumn. 

If you've ever ordered apple crisp in a restaurant, no doubt it was served in some kind of ramekin. Making individual portions of  apple crisp is particularly convenient for my household of two. Each apple crisp uses a single apple. I like adding cinnamon to the apples, but you could add it to the crumble topping if you prefer.

Individual Apple Crisp

makes 1 serving

Ingredients

1 medium apple such as SweeTango, peeled and diced

1/2 teaspoon sugar 

Cinnamon

1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

Pinch salt

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter

1 Tablespoon rolled oats

1 Tablespoon walnuts or pecans chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to at 375° Toss apples with sugar and sprinkle with cinnamon. Place apples in a ramekin, pressing down and compressing the apples so they fit snuggly.  In a small bowl, combine flour, brown sugar and salt; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Blend in oats and nuts. Sprinkle over apples. Bake, uncovered, for 25 - 30 minutes or until brown on top.

Enjoy! 

Disclaimer: I received a sample of apples but was not paid to write this or any other post on Cooking with Amy

I am an impatient person. I hate to wait. While some of the pears my mother gave me from her trees are ripe, others are not. Is there something you can do with not quite ripe pears? Yes! I discovered you can roast them. 

Pears are sometimes added to savory dishes to add juice and moisture, or to make a sauce. My idea with this recipe was to make a side dish, something that could be served with pork chops, roast chicken, pork tenderloin, sausages, tossed with salad greens, on top of a pizza or maybe even used in a sandwich. Most recipes for roast pears call for pear halves or quarters, but dicing them just means they cook faster. You could also include pears with potatoes, parsnips, onions, beets or other similar vegetables that are good for roasting. 

I really love the silky texture of cooked pears. The flavor intensifies too, which is why pears are so good in cakes and tarts. But you can get the same texture and flavor by roasting pears without baking them in a batter or crust. Necessity is the mother of invention and my mother's prolific pear trees accounts for the plethora of pear recipes I've created. Currently I'm really enjoying maple roasted pears with oatmeal or yogurt, but as the season progresses I'm sure I'll find even more ways to use them. 

Savory Roasted Pears

Ingredients

4 firm pears, about 2 pounds 

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Freshly ground pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel, core and dice the pears. Toss them in a bowl with the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. Place pears in a foil or parchment-lined baking dish and roast for 30 minutes or until tender. Time will vary depending upon the type of pears and their level of ripeness. 

Enjoy! 

It's hard to say no to cheese. Since I never tasted Parrano cheese I was more than happy to accept a sample to try.  Apparently it has been around since the 1970's but I can't recall ever seeing it at the market. It's a semi-firm cheese created by a Dutch cheese maker who went to Italy and was inspired to create a Gouda that would be reminiscent of Northern Italian style cheese.  It's aged for at least 5 months and often described as tasting like a cross between Gouda and Parmesan. I'm not sure I agree with that assessment, but I can tell you it's buttery and has a caramel like flavor that complements tomatoes beautifully. 

I've been inundated with cherry tomatoes recently and decided I would use them on a pizza with Parrano cheese. I also happened to have some grilled marinated artichokes and that combination is really something. I added chives for a little color and oniony flavor, but really, just a plain cherry tomato pizza would be delicious too. The good thing about using cherry tomatoes instead of tomato slices and Parrano cheese instead of mozzarella is that neither will make your pizza soggy. That said, biting into a cherry tomato half can be a deliciously juicy experience. 

I love artichokes, but mostly the marinated ones available in jars are not very good. Recently I found Cucina & Amore  grilled marinated whole artichoke hearts in a local grocery store and decided to given them a try. They are now a staple in my pantry!  They are all natural and I think the grilling is what really makes them so outstanding. If you can find them, give them a try. 

Cherry Tomato Pizza 

Two 10 inch pizzas

Ingredients

1 lb pizza dough, at room temperature

Olive oil

2 cups parrano cheese

2 cusp cherry tomato halves

2/3 cup drained marinated artichoke hearts, preferably roasted (optional)

1 Tablespoon chopped chives

Instructions 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Divide the pizza dough in half. Lightly oil pizza pans and push the pizza dough into the pans, until it reaches the edge, if if shrinks, gently stretch it back into shape. Top each pizza with 1 cup of cheese and 1 cup of cherry tomato halves. Tuck 1/3 cup artichoke hearts between the tomatoes. Bake until the crust begins to turn brown around the edges and is crisp, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle chives on the pizza before serving.

Enjoy!

Over the past year I've gotten to try a lot of speciality foods. Here are some of my absolute favorite sweet and savory treats. 

This year I fell in love with the products from Tonewood Maple. They make maple products in many different forms, but also highlight different styles and flavors of maple. If you think as I did, “maple is maple” there’s a reason for that. In many places, such as a certain well-known province of Canada, all the maple products are processed together. So you don’t get different flavors from different estates, just different grades. 

Tonewood offers single estate maple syrups in their grade collection in golden delicate, amber rich and dark robust flavor profiles, and each are completely different. These are maple products that reflect place, just like wine! Some are earthy, some are spicy, but they all have a depth of flavor missing from other maple syrups. Honestly this is the best maple syrup I’ve ever tasted. 

In addition to syrup, they offer maple cream, which has the most divine, melt-in-your-mouth buttery consistency. You’d swear there is butter in the product but it’s just pure maple. 

The other very cool product they offer is their award winning maple cube. It’s solid and you grate it to get chips or flakes that are lovely on a cheese plate but also can be a great topping for ice cream, salads, cereal or more. 

Another award-winning product that knocked my socks off this year at the Fancy Food Show was Pistacchiosa, a Sicilian pistachio spread with extra virgin olive oil. This unbelievably creamy smooth and lucious spread is intensely flavored with the best pistachios in the world. While you could just smear it on toast, because it’s not very sweet, you can use it in recipes as well. Try it in ice cream or gelato, add it to whipped cream or pastry cream to make a cake or eclair filling or slather it on fresh ricotta or goat cheese. 

I have to admit to being more in the savory than sweet camp. And I love Dijon style mustard! In Paris just past the famous Ladurée tea shop, famous for French macarons, you will find at the Place de la Madeleine  the wonderful food shop Fauchon and the Maille mustard boutique. Step into the shop and there are so many different flavors of fresh, pungent and scrumptious mustard on tap! 

Maille makes outstanding mustard, so much brighter and more intense than what you can get from most other brands. Fortunately their products are available online, especially the more fantastic flavored mustards like the ones in the Exotique collection. It features mango and Thai spices, fig and coriander, apricot and curry and saffron and Isigny creme fraiche. This gift will make any mustard lover swoon! 

Last but not least I recently attended a party thrown by Touch of Modern, which is a rather masculine site that has flash sales. They have a gourmet category that often has some pretty amazing deals on really great stuff. You never know what they will have, but I recently saw the best price I’d ever seen on jamon Iberico de bellota as well as Three Jerks beef jerky made from filet mignon. 

They also offer some other quirky things like Himalayan salt shot glasses and Stu's Mixology Set for making bloody mary's, which includes powdered key lime and sweet corn to rim your glasses. 

And now the 

Thanks to Tonewood Maple and Maille mustard I am giving away a maple cube and a set of the Exotique mustards. 

Please let me know if you prefer savory or sweet treats, which ONE item you are interested in winning. You must have a US mailing address to win. You MUST leave your email address in the field where it is requested, it will not be visible to the public only to me. DO NOT leave your email address in the body of your comment, if you do, I will delete it. Only one entry per person! I will choose the winners at random on December 18th, 2015.