food, and other musings

Shi's Gourmet

It's La Cocina week here at Food Musings. La Cocina is a commercial kitchen that provides cooking space, marketing expertise and support to low income and/or minority women with dreams of owning their own food related small businesses. Since the La Cocina stand at the Ferry Plaza farmer's market opened the first weekend of this month, I've interviewed and sampled treats from many of the participants. This week I'll introduce you to several of those I've met.

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I realize that the photo to the left is devoid of food, but I simply couldn't help myself. Shi's vegetarian spring rolls don't stay in the house much more than a few hours, and when they're gone, all they leave behind are these shiny red and gold carcasses.

Ana Shi is the founder of Shi's Gourmet, a catering company that specializes in vegetarian cuisine that circles the globe, from Vietnam (spring rolls) to Spain (Romesco sauce) to China (spicy fried rice). To make the spring rolls that are sold at the La Cocina farmer's market stand, Ana starts off with her specialty – slow-roasted tofu – then adds a handful of bright green spring mix, peanuts, slippery rice noodles, and carrots before wrapping it all snugly in rice paper. They come two to a box ($4) along with a packet of sweet and sour sauce, which I always mix with chili sauce (2:1 ratio). Starting last week a vial of sweet, silky peanut sauce was also included.

For the last two dinner parties I've had, I've served these as appetizers while we're all sitting in the living room drinking bubbly and catching up, or while I'm working away in the kitchen. I cut each roll diagonally into three pieces and arrange them on a long white platter. Toss over a few cilantro leaves, crush a handful of peanuts between the smooth metal measuring cup and the cutting board, and zip-zap-zing we're ready to eat. I think what I like most about them is how fresh they taste.

The spring rolls last for just under a week in the fridge, and they're the only thing that I've tried from Shi's Gourmet. I'd love to give some of her sauces and dips a try, especially the green olive and jalapeno, as well as what she calls Asian tabbouleh salad -- cold fried rice. Sounds like just the thing for weekend breakfast.

Shi's Gourmet spring rolls available at the Whole Foods in Mill Valley, and the La Cocina stand at Ferry Plaza farmer's market. Other items available for catering events.

Clairesquares

It's La Cocina week here at Food Musings. La Cocina is a commercial kitchen that provides cooking space, marketing expertise and support to low income and/or minority women with dreams of owning their own food related small businesses. Since the La Cocina stand at the Ferry Plaza farmer's market opened the first weekend of this month, I've interviewed and sampled treats from many of the participants. This week I'll introduce you to several of those I've met.

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I used to think that there were only two kinds of people in this world: the kind who like chocolate sauce on their sundaes, and the kind who like caramel. Then I met Claire Keane, founder of Clairesquares, and an unabashed lover of both.

Her Clairesquares, dubbed that by a friend, embrace both cravings. They're built in squat towers of thick, buttery shortbread topped with ribbons of creamy caramel and a stamp of chocolate. Butter. Caramel. Chocolate. I could probably end this post right here and have two-thirds of you stampeding to Ferry Plaza on Saturday to buy some.

But there's more. Claire makes all the squares herself, by hand, in small batches. First she bakes the shortbread, using unbleached flour and premium butter, and lets it cool. She spends the next few hours cooking up a pot of caramel, which also has to cool. She spreads the cooled caramel on the cooled shortbread, adds a layer of imported Belgian chocolate (dark or milk, depending on the batch) and scores them into squares the size of a small fist. Ooo-wee, but they are good. (Right, Sam?)

Though Claire can't be credited with inventing these sweet morsels, we don't love her the less for it -- after all, she brought them to  our personal slice of America. Called caramel squares in Claire's native Ireland (or millionaire's shortbread in Scotland & England), they are often found in cafés but are usually made with cheap chocolate and margarine.  Thankfully, Claire's are preservative free.

Claire has been making her signature squares since she was a teenager living in County Cork. She even sold them in school to make a little extra cash here and there. The business really picked up steam last year after what she calls a "crazy month of orders in November," so after Thanksgiving, Claires went full-time, spending 2-3 days a week in the La Cocina kitchen and the rest of the time sampling or selling her treats at places like the Alemany Farmer's Market. She also makes flapjacks, oat cookie bars dipped in chocolate, and recently introduced a white chocolate-covered square (which I haven't tried). She's working on getting her product line into local retail stores by late spring, but until then you know where to find them.   

Clairesquares available at: Alemany farmer's market, Ferry Plaza farmer's market, and online.

Kika's Treats

It's La Cocina week here at Food Musings. La Cocina is a commercial kitchen that provides cooking space, marketing expertise and support to low income and/or minority women with dreams of owning their own food related small businesses. Since the La Cocina stand at the Ferry Plaza farmer's market opened the first weekend of this month, I've interviewed and sampled treats from many of the participants. This week I'll introduce you to several of those I've met.

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These delectable looking morsels are Brazilian honey cakes. (Thanks to all who tried to guess.) They're made locally by Cristina Besher, the Sao Paulo native behind Kika's Treats and a member of La Cocina Community Kitchen.

What exactly is a honey cake? Called "honey bread" (pao de mel) in its native Brazil, it is similar to German lebkuchen and is traditionally made with varying combinations of flour, sugar, honey, milk, butter, eggs and spices like cloves or cinnamon before being topped with a chocolate glaze. In Brazil, honey bread comes in different shapes and sizes, but at home it's usually baked in a pan, covered in chocolate, and then cut into squares. It is often served with morning coffee or afternoon tea.

Cristina -- or Kika, as her father calls her -- makes her version from a 40-year-old recipe from one of her mother’s cookbooks. She uses only organic ingredients for the cake and tweaked the original recipe to make it dairy- and egg-free. Once cool, each mini-muffin-sized honey cake is topped with chocolate from local chocolate maker E. Guittard. The crumb is a sultry concoction of cinnamon spice and the sweet, mellow bass notes of honey. It's got a good ratio of cakey interior to chocolate, which snaps cleanly between your teeth with every bite, and it's moist enough to be good on its own or as the perfect snackmate for tea or coffee.

Cristina grew up eating honey cake, but it wasn't until she moved to the U.S. in 1999 that she started baking for a living. While in school, she got a job cooking at La Méditerranée, but soon realized that she wanted to do pastry instead. She worked everywhere from Kokkari to La Boulangerie to Miette before founding Kika's Treats last year.

Originally she intended to make macarons and pots de creme, but on a visit home to Brazil she found herself hunting for honey bread to snack on, and something clicked. "I love everything sweet," she told me over coffee, "and I like something with my daily chocolate." She decided to reenvision her baking business and produce organic, chocolate-covered treats instead. Once she mastered the honey cakes, she moved on to dark chocolate- and milk chocolate-covered graham crackers. They're caramelized, which lends the normally boring graham cracker a strong crunch and a rich toffee note. They're so good, either plain or crushed on top of vanilla ice cream with a spoonful of chocolate sauce, that I'd lie to God to get one.

More organic, chocolate-covered Kika's Treats are in development. They'll be be unveiled at La Cocina's retail & media preview in mid-March and on the shelves shortly thereafter.

Kika's Treats are available at: Rainbow Grocery, Real Food Co., Philz Coffee, The Pasta Shop (Berkeley) and select Whole Foods, as well as at La Cocina's stand at the Saturday Ferry Plaza farmer's market.

shopping bag

This morning at the farmer's market I bought bags of white grapefruits (for sorbet, of course). Also: more mini Fuji apples -- the ones that I fell in love with last week -- some dried shiitake mushrooms for an Asian-style pesto, curls of dark green baby spinach, and more grilled tofu spring rolls from La Cocina.

Unlike last week, spring was nowhere to be found. Mr. Food Musings sat inside sipping coffee and munching an apple turnover. (It's a tough job...) Before we huddled back up and left for home, we picked up a few steamed chicken buns from Out the Door for lunch.

If you haven't yet read this paean to the market in winter, it might change your mind about braving the sharp winter winds.

Also spotted at the market: Chef Daniel Patterson of Coi, and Alison McQuade of McQuade's Celtic Chutneys (the Elgin habanero is my favorite).

guessing game

Anybody know what these are? If so, leave a comment. Otherwise, tune in next week for a post on one of the city's most delicious new organic treats.

centerpiece

The Market has sprung to life again!

Is spring here? According to tomorrow's rainy weather forecast, not yet, but all the same, the feel and smell of it wafted on the breeze at the farmer's market this morning. Just look at these happy tulips!

I brought home some freesia to perfume the living room; a hefty bag of blood oranges for more sorbet; smooth Meyer lemons; a bag of dark chocolate, caramel and shortbread Clairesquares; two jams from CMBsweets; and veggie spring rolls. The last three items are all from La Cocina's new stand. If you haven't made it over to them (next to Fatted Calf) you must. Jason Rose, culinary director, and Caleb Zigas, program director, are just so damn happy to be there selling everything from fried plantain chips to South African meat pies (and they're cute besides).

I also nabbed the last cylinder of unsalted butter from Spring Hill, just churned yesterday, and an army of crisp Fuji apples (they'll be around another 3 weeks, says the farmer). Thankfully the Marin Sun Farms chickens are laying more eggs now that the seasons are changing, and even someone as lazy as myself was able to nab a dozen as late as 9:30 a.m. (Though I was too late to catch up with friends.) Anyone else going on MSF's upcoming farm tour? David Evans promised me it would be warm and sunny permanently by then...

Also spotted at the market: chefs David Kinch of Manresa, knee-deep in a conversation I hated to interrupt, and Chris Cosentino of Incanto.

Hail Caesar!

When Mr. Food Musings announced he wanted to make a Caesar salad last night, I was a bit unenthusiastic. (I hid it, naturally.) But that first bite reminded me why the salad is so ubiquitous (though often poorly made): the crisp, crunchy Romaine leaves, croutons laced with a hint of garlic, and a creamy, tangy dressing that just won't quit. I highly recommend you give it a go in your own kitchen and see if you don't develop a newfound fondness for this classic.

Caesar salad
Serves 6
(from The Gourmet Cookbook)

3 garlic cloves
1 tsp salt
9 TBSP olive oil
5 slices whole-wheat sandwich bread, cut into squares
2 large egg yolks
1 TBSP fresh lemon juice
1 TBSP white wine vinegar
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3/4 tsp minced flat anchovy fillet (about 1 fillet)
2 large heads Romaine lettuce, chopped into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
fresh ground black pepper

Make the croutons: Preheat the oven to 350º. With a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic and 1/4 tsp of salt into a paste. Stir in 4 TBSP olive oil, then force the mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl. Discard the solids. Meanwhile, bake the bread for 10 minutes. Remove it from the oven, toss it with the garlic oil until well-coated, then return to the oven until golden and crisp, 3-5 minutes.

Make the dressing: In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining 5 TBSP olive oil, egg yolks, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, remaining 3/4 tsp salt and anchovy. Add the lettuce and toss to coat, then sprinkle with cheese and croutons and toss again. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Circa redux

Last time (first time) I went to Circa I loved it. Then I went back. My second visit was a let-down. All the food -- ALL of it -- was brought out within a 5 minute span. That means close to 10 "small" plates hit our table almost instantaneously. That is bad, bad service, folks. What we loved? The swanky decor, the ribs, the ceviche, the lamb lollichops and the remakes of classic desserts like ho-ho's and Oreo cookies. What we didn't? The scallops, the lobster mac-n-cheese -- my former love has turned into a nearly lobster-free zone and was served only lukewarm -- and the swarms of singles that descended on us after 9 p.m. Circa is now a restaurant I liked...circa 2006.

Poisonous peanut butter?

Nearly 300 people have gotten sick with salmonella poisoning from eating peanut butter. Luckily, they've isolated the problem at a facility in Georgia, and the affected cans are from brands Peter Pan or Great Value. Look for product code "2111" on the lid. Most of the outbreak was contained on the East Coast, and the FDA is investigating how the peanut butter was contaminated in the first place.