Spice Dish

Share Your Table

My new favorite thing? The print by artist Nikki McClure titled "Share Your Table" that I picked up at Little Otsu on Valencia. It really embodies everything I believe about food.

Enjoy

EB

Tomato Watch 2009

So the good news first... my tomato plant is HUGE. Bad news... the bugs are devouring it! Any non-pesticide suggestions?

Thanks
EB

Contigo!

Contigo oh how I love you. How can one not love a gorgeous little space filled with adorable Spanish servers who claim that the pork belly bocadillos changed their lives? How could a person resist sitting on a warm patio surrounded by a fresh herb garden while eating some of the most amazing flavor combinations in the city. And really…. is there a single individual that can resist fingerling potato chips? I didn’t think so.

 

My dining cohort Bibi and I were a little unsure what to expect. We had both heard great things about Contigo and judging by the line out the door at 5:30 on a Wednesday... so had many others. We were a little overwhelmed by the menu. We wanted one of everything, so we relied on our server for our selections, including wine, and each was exactly what we were looking for. It turned out to be one of the most casual, completely fulfilling, and utterly joyous eating experiences I've had in a long time. 

If you haven't been... simply.... go. 

Contigo |1320 Castro St.| 415.285.0250

Enjoy!

EB

Baked Beignet Strawberry Shortcake

This is a recipe with a fun, festive, yet slightly tragic beginning. The fun, festive part? It is derived from beignets and was made for a birthday party. The slightly tragic part? They’re baked. The birthday gal loves beignets, but due to doctors orders, can’t eat fried foods. Tragic no?

I experimented with beignet dough and plain pate au choux until I came up with something that was light, fluffy, and sturdy but still puffy on the inside. While a single puff would be just fine with a dusting of powdered sugar and a cup of coffee, it was a birthday party so I happened to pile these up in a mound and cover with a strawberry glaze. All I have to say is that topped by fresh, organic strawberries and served with vanilla gelato, this made for one hell of a strawberry shortcake!

  

Could this be made with ‘real’ beignets? Of course, and more power to you if you do! But if you are another tragic soul for whom fried foods is verboten, then give this a shot. I promise you won’t miss the fry.

Baked Beignet Strawberry Shortcake

Beignets:

1 cup water

1 ½ sticks salted butter

1 cup flour

4 large eggs

Preheat over to 400*. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Bring water to boil in a medium saucepan. Add butter and simmer until melted. Remove from heat. Add flour by ¼ cups and stir well until combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating hard with a spoon or thick whisk, until each is incorporated into the dough. Drop dough by tablespoons full onto pans and bake for 30 minutes or until puffs are golden.

Glaze:

½ lb fresh strawberries

½ cup granulated sugar

½ lb powdered sugar

¼ cup cream

Chop the strawberries into small pieces and sprinkle the granulated sugar over the top. Allow to macerate for at least an hour, stirring occasionally. Pour the strawberry liquid into a large bowl and add the sugar. Whisk together. Add the milk a tablespoon at a time until smooth.

 

To assemble:

Spread a circle of puffs on a cake plate. Top with a smaller layer, then a smaller until topped by a single puff. Drizzle glaze as desired over tower of puffs. Sprinkle strawberry pieces around, and on top of puffs. Serve with vanilla gelato.

 

 Happy Birthday Stephanie!

EB

Time At The Counter

It was a grey morning today. My hair was dripping wet from my morning swim and the cold wind was chilling my brain to the bone. My optometrist appointment was 30 minutes off and I needed a warm cup of coffee and some comfort food. West Portal is what I call an 'old lady' neighborhood. There is a plethora of hair boutiques, doctor's offices, fruit stands, two drugstores a movie theater, Old Krakow restaurant and not much else. Except... Manor Coffee Shop. To say that this place is a throwback would not do it justice. This is a true coffee counter diner without the irony. There's a few Marilyn posters up for that 50's diner look, but they don't mean anything by them. Doris Day and Dean Martin are on the jukebox, not to be cute, but because that's the clientele's tunes. This is not a kitschy, novelty food, joint. The patty melts are greasy, the eggs are runny, the waffles have burnt edges and the bacon is perfect. There is nothing better.

I saddled up on a red bar stool and was given hot diner coffee, a glass of water and a hearty "good morning" by the uniformed waitress.  I ordered a #2 (yes by the number), read the paper, eavesdropped a bit and waited for my perfectly crispy hashbrowns.

Sated by my breakfast and warmed by a few cups of promptly refilled coffee, I paid in cash (no cards of course since their register is from 1940), bundled up and headed back out into the modern world.

Manor Coffee Shop
321 W Portal Ave # A
San Francisco, CA 94127

Enjoy!
EB

Summer Fling!

Okay. Yes I’m a teacher. When people find out they invariably say “ooh you’re so lucky to have summers off!” Yeah. No. I don’t get summers off. I’m a newbie on the professorial circuit and I’m still paying my crappy schedule-summer session-not getting paid dues. However, I do get a day or two off a week during the summer. Which yes, is awesome (although a paycheck would be awesomer!) I am going to take full advantage of these few precious days. I plan to not only catch up in the blogging world but to also to make the most of the summer by doing all those things I've yearned about all winter like:

Photo by pedrosimoes7
1. Go to PARIS!

2. Go to a ball game or two.

3. Catch up on This American Life at the gym.

4. Go organic in the garden.

5. Improve my Spanish.

6. Explore my city with Mundane Journeys.

7.Read. For fun. Honestly. Just one book!

8. Drink beer and go for the brass ring.

9. Cook from my sorely neglected, ever growing collection of vintage cookbooks.

10. Go to the park. Manshelf?

What will you be doing with your summer?

EB

 

Creamy Snail Mail.... Mmmmm

Mail is a good thing right? I mean, when it's not a bill? Like when it's a postcard from someone nice? Someone nice who really likes ice cream? Would you like some nice, not bill-related, but ice cream offering mail? The real kind? In your actual, attached to your house mailbox kind? Yes, I thought you would.... 

Join the Ice Cream Recipe Postcard Swap from Scoopalicious!

Have Fun (and send me mail :)

EB

CSA Comin' My Way

I've had a bit of a dilemma lately. For starters I really only want to eat local, organic produce. Not much of a dilemma, no, but I've been working every weekend so my farmer's market trips (as much as I love them) have fallen by the wayside. I've wanted to re-sign up with a CSA (that too had fallen by the wayside during a bout of unemployment) but even while employed the expense was something I couldn't pony up for these days.

Thanks to a little soap boxing on my part, I've convinced a few friends to split the cost. My CSA box delivery from Terra Firma starts this week.

I can't tell you how excited I am to eat the way I want, in a way that is good for the earth, to convert a few friends and to support a local farm. Does this make me a food-dork? Sure. Fine. I'm ok with that.

If you don't belong to a CSA... get on the bandwagon! Know your food, know your farmer, know that it will be delicious.

Enjoy!

EBS

School Girl Crush

 

www.travelchannel.com

Each and every day as I arrive to campus I am confronted by a large billboard sized, Lite Brite style, events board that proclaims in all its shimmering glory "Anthony Bourdain Coming in May!"

Do I want to go? Hells yeah!? Will I be going. Um no. See I teach. This is not a "cash cow" type of gig. This is an "I don't know how not to do it" type of gig. Why do I bring this up? The cheap seats. The very far away, high up, bad acoustics seats? 50 clams. Each.

Is he a star? Yes. Am I begrudging his production the cash? Nope. I will just be absent on that day Mr. Bourdain. Guess I'll have to turn in some extra credit?

You may be excused-

EB

Look Ma I'm A Farmer!

Look Ma I'm a Farmer! Ok not really. Actually every time I try to grow something... I kill it. Black Thumb.... definitely not green. But strangely I always try again. This Spring I've decided to grow my own tomatoes. Now, I live in an apartment. One that most definitely does not have a backyard. There is a slab of concrete where I get to park my car (yes I have a space!) and on that slab my neighbor has set up a makeshift 'garden' comprised of lots o' pots of flowers lined up against the other concrete slab that is the wall. I really wanted to grow something, but since this is the space I have to work with, I got one of these upside down growing things, stuck a tomato seedling in there and hung it from a bamboo pole. But check this out... Voila! It's growing!!

A week of constant watering and check those out. Those are little yellow blossoms! If this whole, me growing another life form thing, works out... I'll keep you updated on the progress. If not... well, those blossoms were nice.

EB