FamilyFood

Black Bean Soup (make this and dinner's ready by lunchtime)

This morning at breakfast, since I was in the kitchen preparing food for breakfast and lunches anyway, I started a pot of black bean soup for dinner.  After simmering all morning, it was done by noon and now I don't have to worry about dinner for the rest of the day.  I snuck a taste at lunch time and, after adjusting the seasonings, I'm going to give it a little more time to mellow. It'll be just right by dinner time, and even better the next day.

BLACK BEAN SOUP

Saute the following together in a big soup pot until onions are lightly browned:

• a couple of glugs of olive oil
• a 1/4 pound hunk of nitrite-free salt pork, leave whole (Avail at Whole Foods)*
• 1 red or yellow onion chopped
• 1 clove of garlic chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped finely
• 1 4 ounce can of fire-roasted diced green chilies
• 1 stalk of celery, halved lengthwise and chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 sprig (2-4 small leaves) of fresh sage
• a palmful of ground cumin

Then add:

• 8 cups of cold water
• about 2 cups of dried black beans, picked over and rinsed

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with tasty recipes

I have a special place in my heart for PR people who send me recipes. Check out the recipes below if you need some culinary inspiration via Latina Magazine. (Hispanic Heritage Month runs September 15 until October 15.)

Or you can try some of my "faux-spanic" recipes as well!

Chicken Drumsticks Two Ways

I can't resist a good five pound pack of chicken drumsticks. I prefer dark meat anyway, so scooping up a pile of chicken for around five bucks is no big whoop to me (and easy on my wallet).

Drumsticks (and thighs) are the best for shoyu chicken anyway, and once cooked they make great additions to a lunch box or are yummy to munch on at midnight while standing over the sink. Because they are so versatile, I like to cook them all different ways, some fancier and more time consuming, some completely the opposite.  If I'm going to cook a whole package and I am short on time, I will often do two super-easy preparations at once. Like this.

You'll need:

•five pounds of chicken drumsticks, thighs or wings

•1 bottle each of any of the following *two* sauces (I used barbecue and garlic black bean sauce):

• barbecue sauce (my preference is Noh's Hawaiian because it doesn't have that fake smoky taste)
• teriyaki sauce
• chipotle-raspberry sauce
• Jamaican jerk sauce
• oyster sauce*
• hoisin sauce
• garlic black bean sauce* (super yum!)
• chili-garlic-black bean sauce* (delicious mixed with equal parts honey and spooned over chicken)

*These are salty and very flavorful. A little goes a long way, so use sparingly.

Make a couple of shallow slashes through the meaty part of each leg or thigh (not too deep, do not cut all the way to the bone). This helps to speed cooking and allows the sauce to work down into the meat.

Place half the chicken in to a pan and slosh some of your chosen sauce onto it. You could shake it up all together in a bag, but I don't even bother.  This is a very forgiving technique and great if you are in a hurry. The chicken still tastes great, even when the sauce doesn't evenly coat the chicken.

Place the rest of the chicken into another pan. Slosh some of the second sauce onto that. For the saltier sauces like the garlic-black bean,  I spoon 2-3 tablespoons of of the sauce into a bowl. Then I spoon/shmear the sauce onto each chicken leg, applying sparingly. (Put the sauce into a bowl so you don't dip our raw chicken spoon back into the jar.)

Bake at 325º for 50 minutes to an hour.  Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serves four with plenty of leftovers for lunches, or 6 without leftovers.

Panzanella: Italian Bread Salad

This classic Italian dish is the perfect way to transition from summer to fall. You combine hearty leftover bread—the drier the better—with juicy tomatoes, basil, and olive oil. Some people like to add all manner of things like cucumbers or peppers or olives. I'm a purist and I like to keep it simple. I might add some thinly sliced sweet red or yellow onion or a splash (just a splash) of red wine vinegar, but I try to let the tomatoes shine through.

For this recipe, I used about 1/3 of a loaf of very stale La Brea Bakery whole grain loaf, three large and juicy heirloom tomatoes, a couple handfuls of fresh basil, about 4 glugs of fruity olive oil (use the best you have), half a thinly sliced onion added just before serving, a slug of red wine vinegar, and salt and pepper.

You need to start the recipe at least two hours before you serve it.  The best part about it is that it needs no refrigeration, in fact, refrigeration destroys the flavors, so make sure to keep and serve it at room temperature.

The procedure is as follows:

• Dice bread into 1-inch cubes, and layer into a bowl.
• Placed chopped tomatoes (no need to seed) and any accumulated juices into the bowl atop the tomatoes.
• Salt the tomatoes, drizzle olive oil over everything, scatter basil over the top, and just let the bowl hang out on your kitchen counter for 2-4 hours.
• Just before serving, add the onions and a splash of vinegar.  Toss well. Salt and pepper to taste, and add a touch more olive oil.  Serve. Serves 4.

You can also omit the last step and just serve it after the bread has had a chance to absorb the tomato juices.

Gravlax: Easy and elegant appetizer

Wild coho salmon topped with salt, sugar, and dill, ready to go in the fridge.

While my mom was visiting this week, she whipped up a batch of the most delicious gravlax. Following her recipe, it's very simple to make—the hardest part is waiting the three days for it to cure. We're heading into holiday season and this would be a perfect appetizer for any holiday party. I'm definitely serving it this Christmas.

TATA'S GRAVLAX

• 1 pound best-quality wild salmon fillet, skin removed (ask the fishmonger to do it)
• 5 tablespoons sea salt
• 4 tablespoons light brown sugar (less if you don't want it sweet)
• 1 bunch of dill (stems removed), finely chopped

Combine the sea salt and brown sugar and pack firmly onto both sides of the salmon fillet. Sprinkle half the chopped dill onto a sheet of plastic wrap then place the salmon on top of it. Put the remaining dill atop the salmon. (For a spicier twist you can add a half-palmful of crushed juniper berries to the salt/sugar mixture. My mom doesn't do this, but I like it.)

Tightly wrap the salmon fillet and place in a baking dish. Put in the fridge for three days before eating. Do not disturb the salmon, but you can drain off any liquid that collects in the dish.

After three days, unwrap, scrape off the dill, slice, and enjoy!

Tata's tips:

• Fill pre-made vol-au-vents (available at Bryan's in San Francisco or any speciality/gourmet grocer) with mascarpone, a slice of gravlax, and garnish with a small slice of lemon and a sprig of fresh dill.
• Slice and serve the gravlax (with mini-toasts or crackers) accompanied by a sauce made from sour cream, chopped green onion, honey, mustard, and balsamic vinegar (the sauce a tip from my Finnish friend).
• Gravlax freezes beautifully so you can make several batches at once.

Farmer's Market Inspiration and Motivation: Fall is upon us!

Last week we trotted off to the farmer's market and were disappointed to learn that for that week only, our beloved market was replaced by a cultural fair. It was all jewelry and candles and pottery and not what we were looking for, so we were forced to duck into our local natural foods for our weekly supply of peaches and nectarines, but it wasn't the same.

The farmer's market was back in effect this weekend ,and because I can feel a chill in the air in the mornings (and our heat even kicked on one day), I was hunting for fall ingredients.

The mesclun lettuces—accented with autumal-colored flowers—looked gorgeous (my camera phone doesn't do it justice) and the fresh okra and golden cauliflower looked mouth watering. Several vendors had heirloom squash out and even pumpkins. Fall is here!

Bunny woke up in the middle of the night last night complaining that she wasn't feeling good, so we decided to make a big batch of vegetable soup today. She chose beautiful dark green green beans, red and yellow chard, curly spinach, and zucchini for the soup. I got a rotisserie chicken, boned it for our lunch then threw the carcass into a large soup pot along with a parmesan rind to start the stock.

We picked up a jar of Happy Girl Kitchen's pesto which will be our "pistou" to top our veggie soup along with shavings of salty, earthy pecorino romano. And on the side, a loaf of freshly baked whole grain bread.

I love the farmer's market when summertime produce is bountiful, and indeed, we are lucky to live in California where we get great produce all year, but I also love it in the fall and winter (our market is year-round) when the pickings are slimmer forcing one to be more creative about what to cook.

Just when I think I can't eat one more leaf of basil or one more heirloom tomato (who could ever imagine thinking such a thing!), fall is upon us with new culinary possibilities. Just in time.

Matisse & Jack's DIY energy bars are fun to make and eat

Mmmm! Chocolate chip bars!

We're huge fans of Matisse & Jack's bake-it-yourself healthy energy bars. These are the best-tasting energy bars I've ever had—they are like eating a treat rather than something healthy which means they are perfect for a "guilt-free" dessert night.

Mixing up a batch takes about a minute and best of all kids can help. You add 2/3 cup of applesauce and 1/2 cup of vanilla yogurt to the dry mix, then you spread the mixture into a pan and bake for 30 minutes.  One pan makes enough bars for two girls to have a school snack every day, but since most kids like variety, you can also freeze them and take them out as needed.

We've tried cranberry walnut and the chocolate chip. Guess which version mamma likes better and which version the girls like better?

Points to Matisse & Jacks for being a local (to me) company—which I'd rather support than some huge granola bar conglomerate.

Impulse Buy of the Week: Wacky plates

I'm a white plate kinda gal, but every once in awhile I branch out.  While staying at my aunt's house this summer, I fell in love with her arty, glazed ceramic plates. When I saw these, they reminded me so much of her plates that I knew they were meant to be mine.

They remind me of warm climes with their water and tropical flower motifs. Each one is painted with a slightly different pattern—some are more orange, some are more green—and they are the perfect accent plate (slightly smaller for lunches or first courses) so I can still use my white dishware with them. Best of all, they are dishwasher safe.

Anthropologie, $12.

Korean Beef Stew (Jang Jolim)

This simple beef stew is one of the first things I ask my mom to cook whenever she visits or when I visit her. The beef is fork-tender because it's braised in a sweet (but not too sweet) soy sauce. It's a comforting crowd pleaser and, because it's better the next day, you can cook a batch on the weekend and serve it during the week.

Don't be put off by the amount of chili peppers in the stew—it needs that many to give it its special flavor. Despite the abundance of chilis, it never gets beyond mildly spicy.

Try this the next time you want to make beef stew but don't want to make the same ol' recipe.

KOREAN BEEF STEW

• 2 pounds chuck steak cut into 2 inch chunks (Whole Foods has chuck steaks)
• 10 green jalapeño peppers, leave whole
• 1 cup of soy sauce (Korean preferred)
• 1 cup of light brown sugar (not packed)
• 1/2 cup of water (if needed)

Place all ingredients into a heavy-bottomed pot (Staub or Le Creuset enameled cast iron Dutch ovens also work well for this).

Just whack it all into a pot.

Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for at least an hour, preferably longer, until beef is tender but not falling apart. Even better the next day. And the sauce is delicious on rice. Serves 4-6.

Accompaniments: steamed rice, kimchi, vegetables.

Pre-dinner snack: Cheese Plate

This is what "'doing it up' looks like" says my chef/sister.

The cheeses—from the Bronx grapes going clockwise: robbiola, idiazabal, stilton, and pepper cheddar. In the middle are picholine olives (my absolute fave).

We also had truffle honey served along side to drizzle over the cheeses or figs.

We opened a bottle of Archipel 2002 (a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, and malbec) and it went perfectly with the strong cheeses which we prefer in my family.

Yum! Now on to dinner!