When a Ham is a Roast

"Rabbi, you must help me! I bought a roast, but when I brought the package home and opened it, I found a ham!
Two packages must have gotten switched... We're really short on cash
and this roast was supposed to last us until payday. What can I do?"
"Go ahead and cook the roast."
"But I just told you, it's a ham!"
"Don't worry. God will understand. I promise you, this one time, the traif is kosher!"

After MOCA, a Mocha at Bottega Louie's

COLLECTION: MOCA'S FIRST THIRTY YEARS

11.15.09 - 05.03.10

More than 500 art works by more than 200 artists, 1940-NOW. On the occasion of its 30th anniversary, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), debuts Collection: MOCA's First Thirty Years, the largest-ever installation of its renowned permanent collection featuring more than 500 artworks by over 200 artists.....more fromt MOCA 

....A perfect Saturday, and both for less than $10

street parking in front of Louie's is $4 per hour.

MOCA, the library, and Staples Center are all nearby

Bottega Louie
700 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90017

Om Carrot, Pink Lentil, and Pistachio, Mint Salad

Pink lentils have a delicate flavor, and cook in 5-7 minutes, as opposed to the stronger flavored, longer cooking (40ish minutes) green lentils.  Do not boil pink lentils, a medium simmer, and not overcooking preserves the shape.  While the lentils cook shred carrots, Eastern purple, and yellow carrot mixed with the the traditional, Western orange carrots are fab in this salad, chop plenty of fresh mint, or basil as shown, or combine cilantro and mint,allow lentils to cool, add pistachios, chopped mint, combine with carrots, and toss with vinaigrette...enjoy!

this is also the beginning of an excellent veggie burger

Citrus vinaigrette: equal parts citrus juice, orange in particular, Extra virgin olive oil, and fresh mint, or basil, minced fresh ginger.

Carrots of many colors 

Mad Hatter Cake

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Santa Monica Farmers Market CEO Flash Mob?

Santa Monica Farmers Market November 18, 1009

Did anyone else see this?

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Healthy, One Pot Lusciousness

 

So easy! Brown rice, short grain is best for this dish, assorted vegetables, fresh herbs, a few small pieces of fish, and a 2 quart saucepan with a lid.  Bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add one cup of brown rice, return to a boil, add root veggies, reduce heat to a simmer and cover with lid, simmer aprox 35 minutes. ...DO NOT REMOVE LID BEFORE 35 MIN*...Turn off heat, add fish, fast cooking veggies, tofu if you have it, and fresh herbs, cover, and let stand 15 minutes-with no heat...

  serve with a splash of soy sauce and a few drops of sesame oil, or a drizzle of olive oil.

As shown with cilantro, mushrooms, eggplant, green beans, carrots, and cilantro. The above dish was prepared with a cutting board, sharp knife, and a single burner hot plate in an artist studio with no kitchen.  Ingredient cost was $6.00 using sushi grade fish, and a hand full of veggies from a local Korean market.

*The secret to steamed rice is very simple, after bringing rice and water to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low, and Do Not Remove the Lid. That's it, just that easy.

   

Om Roasted Vegetables

Most any vegetable can be roasted for a fast, and delicious meal with minimal preparation time. Shown above, rough chop carrots, pink, purple and gold fingerling potatoes, and garlic, simply glazed with a drizzle of olive oil, a generous squeeze of lemon, fresh rosemary,  thyme, and a plenty of kosher salt, and fresh cracked pepper.

Heat  oven to 450,  this takes awhile, but ultra high heat is the secret to fab roasted vegetables.

Use an iron skillet if possible, heated with the oven, and roast veggies for 8-12 min, turn once during roasting time, and definitely toss the squeezed lemon in as well.

  Serve hot or at room temp with salad

Make extra, roasted vegetables are even more delicious the next day! Serve last nights roasted vegetables thinly sliced, no need to reheat, with toasted, grainy bread, such as la brea whole grain, or mix vegies with leftover short grain brown rice, parmesan, minced garlic, and splash of olive oil with lemon.
Late night feast above: roasted carrots and broccoli with brown rice, salad of spicy greens with fresh raspberry and balsamic vinegrette, heirloom tomatos, cream cheese, and Ballard Lox, lox

Mad Hatter Tea Pary, Florence

Fab Julia Child Interview

Part one of six

Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Croissants with Fresh Strawberries

okay, technically this is a puff pastry turnover.
A croissant would need to be crescent shaped........but, a turnover allows for smaller pastries with a higher chocolate to pastry ratio ......either shape results in delicious decadence.....and so easy!

Pepperidge Farm puff pastry, your favorite dark chocolate, raspberry jam, a 400 oven and 14-16 minutes

Valrhona.com

Cheese Ravioli Alfredo

for those fortunate ones who need to gain weight

Perfect Hash Browned Potatoes

Begin with fresh potatoes, never frozen, preferably yukon gold. Shred with an old fashioned hand shredder, not a food processor, place in colander to remove liquid-pat dry with paper towel, add fresh cracked pepper and sea salt (fresh, minced herbs if desired), toss into hot pan ( just about to smoke) with a TB of olive oil, cook 4-5 minutes, turn and cook additional 5 minutes...
....do not disturb spuds in between turns. ..serve immediately...tiny splash of malt vinegar is heavenly!

Broiled Crispy Skin Salmon

Fajita Quesadilla and Black Beans

Rice Noodle with Spicy Shrimp Balls

Felberg Faves

Peking Style Roast Chicken

Thai Shrimp Spring Roll

Thai Noodles

Pork Loin Chops with Roasted Apples

Traditional Greek Salad

Summer Menu Sampler

Small Plates & Starters

•Figs and prosciutto

•Duck Confit

•Crab Spring roll

•Crab Strudel

•Ceviche

•Peruvian corn cake with potatoes, saffrito, queso blanco

•Platter of smoked Northwest seafood & pickled vegetables

•Prince Edward Island mussels in white wine and herbs

Northwest-Style Prosciutto?

Oregon Live.com:
Portland's charcuterie-obsessed chefs are prompting local farmers to feed hazelnuts to hogs, in the quest for a distinctive Northwest-style prosciutto

Motoya Nakamura
For a special-occasion splurge, a roast of hazelnut-fed pork is hard to beat. Local chefs say the nuts create lots of sweet, almost nutty-tasting fat that makes for super-succulent meat.

Bacon fans, it's time to meet the new pig in town.
Get ready for hazelnut-fed pork, the latest entry in a hog-happy food scene that echoes what can only be called a national obsession with swine.
Nuts and pigs have nurtured a happy marriage for centuries -- think paper-thin slices of Prosciutto di Parma from pigs fattened on chestnuts and whey, or Spain's incomparable Iberico ham, from free-range hogs that gobble acorns as they roam.
Recipes included with this story: Pork Carnevale, Basic Pork Roast

The reason: Pigs that eat oil-rich nuts in great quantities, especially in the last months before butchering, build up extra (and extra-tasty) fat; that's especially true for old breeds with genetics that encourage it. A well-marbled leg, with months of curing, becomes a succulent ham streaked with sweet, some say nutty-tasting, fat................
As for the cured meats, Brownlow and Silverman don't want to duplicate Italy's product so much as develop a Northwest prosciutto, unique in flavor, texture and appearance.
The pigs, a cross of Duroc, Berkshire, Yorkshire and Landrace, are raised according to their specifications by Pure Country Pork near Yakima, an established producer certified by Food Alliance for its sustainable and humane practices. Silverman worked with a nutritionist and rigorously tested the feeding program to come up with the right balance of nuts to grains for ideal weight gain and flavor......
Where to find nut-fed pork
Nut-fed pork typically ends up as dry-cured hams, but the well-marbled fresh meat often is more tender and juicy than standard pork. Fresh pork from Northwest hazelnut-fed pigs, if you can find it, costs a few dollars more per pound than premium pork. Here are some local sources:
Chop Butchery & Charcuterie, in City Market
(in the meat case every two to three weeks, call for availability)
735 N.W. 21st Ave.
503-221-3012

Eastbank Farmers Market, at Tails & Trotters booth
Laurelhurst Market
www.laurelhurstmarket.com
Long's Meat Market
81 E. 28th Ave., Eugene
541-344-3172
.........................more from OregonLive.com

Nigella and the Return of Fab Fondue

Fondue is a delicious example of slow food, and it need not be expensive or complicated.
The original recipe for Fondue can be found in Homer's Iliad: grated goats cheese, Pramnos wine and a little white flour.
The Swiss survived long cold winters with this simple formula, turning it into a communal gathering.
Cheese made in the spring, and so hard by winter an axe was often employed to chop it up, was heated with the addition of wine
turning it into a melted mixture of yumminess ready for stale dry bread to be dipped in and transformed into a delectable, leisurely feast.



Nigella creates the classic Gruyère and Emmental cheese fondue

Nigella's Chocolate Croissants

Fast and fabulous!

93 yr old Clara on Depression Cooking

Clara Cannucciari gives straight forward, simple cooking instruction
using recipes from her childhood during the Great Depression.
This is an excellent, informative and charming series of videos!

Depression Cooking.com

Gordon Ramsay Finds Sustainable Caviar in Andalucia Spain

Fascinating field trip to Andalucia Spain and an amazing Sturgeon farmer.
With fewer than 1,000 beluga sturgeon left in the Caspian Sea,
the world’s chief source of caviar, and with experts predicting that they will be extinct in 14 years,
Caviar farmers such as this are critical to the Sturgeons survival.

Caviar de Riofrio.com

Smoked Salmon, Spinach Turnover

Simple, but decadent appetizer that comes together in minutes.
A package of Puff pastry should be in everyones freezer
for the unexpected guests or the occasional indulgence.
Puff pastry can be filled with almost anything,
this is a great place to be creative and use whatever you have on hand.
Here I have used smoked salmon*, frozen chopped spinach, red onion, and a little cream cheese as a binder. An egg wash is brushed along the edges of the pastry before folding over to help with the seal, as well as across the top of the turnover to enhance browning and add a nice gloss when baked. I substituted a small amount of mayonnaise for the egg wash, and sprinkled with red Hawaiian rock salt.

•canned Alaska pink or red salmon is available at all major grocers, and works equally well All canned salmon is wild caught making it that much better. 
A fab online source for Wild Alaska Salmon at fab prices, wild pacific salmon.com
Family run and fisherman direct, it doesn't get better than this!

Tay Marinara Sauce

A fresh, simple 20 minute Marinara Sauce requiring little more than ripe, high flavor tomatoes such as Roma, garlic, olive oil, sea salt, and a dab of butter adds a nice gloss.
Saute 3 cloves minced garlic in 2 Tablespoons olive oil until golden, add 4 chopped tomatoes and simmer 15-20 minutes, sea salt to taste, finish with 1 Tablespoon butter, remove from heat.
A few drops of mild honey or a pinch of sugar may be added if sauce is too acidic

Dress it up:
Crimini(baby bellas, brown button) mushrooms, onions, tomato paste, a splash of red wine if you have it, and fresh Oregano or Basil are a yummy addition,( but it's no longer a Marinara)...saute chopped onions and sliced mushrooms in olive oil over high heat in small batches, add mushrooms/onions and chopped Basil/Oregano to Marinara sauce during final 5 minutes of simmer.
Carnivores may add a one or two sweet and hot Italian Sausage, cooked and drained, added to Marinara during last 10 minutes of simmer

Ferran Adria: Cooking with Liquid Nitrogen

Warm Calamari on a bed of Mixed Greens, with Lime Cilantro Vinaigrette

Calamari is one of the few seafoods not in any danger of over fishing.

Delicious, inexpensive, versatile and cooks in only 1-2 minutes.


Safe Squid: U.S. wild squid, Atlantic trap or net-caught longfin, Pacific market ("California")

Salad is a simple mix of greens, tomatoes,
red onion, red potato, and avocado

Calamari steaks are scored, briefly (10min)marinated in Lime juice,

soy sauce, garlic, cilantro, and a few drops of honey.
Heat saute pan with a tablespoon of olive oil,
saute Calamari steaks 1 min on each side, white wine may be used to de-glaze pan.

Monastery Mustard

Monastery Mustard

Mark Bittman, food Matters

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Mark Bittman.com

Bottega Louie Inspired, Stuffed Cherry Stone Clams, Green Lip Mussels, and Conch

Bottega Louie Baked Clams

Om Chef Stuffed Mussels, Conch and Clam
Basic: flat leaf parsley, bread crumbs, garlic, white wine, onion, butter, optional: crab, bacon, or spinach

Italian: flat leaf parsley, bread crumbs, garlic, onion, white wine, olive oil,
Parmigiano Reggiano fresh oregano, basil, optional hot or sweet Italian sausage
Turkish: rice, pine nuts, currants, white wine, flat leaf parsley, pinch of allspice