Well, I made it. What an epic. This year my schedule was very tight because I was up at the Culinary Insititure of America for the Harvard Healthy Kitchens Healthy Lives conference and my fish for the gefilte fish was flying in on Saturday and I was up in Napa. So my daughter Rachel volunteered to go to Monterey Fish to pick up the white fish and Lake Trout ( no Pike this year for some reason)  and to get my green garlic at the Farmer’s Market for my Turkish lamb stew.  Brilliant team planning. Only she got a flat tire.  Eventually AAA got her on her way, just in time to get to the fish market before it closed. And the green garlic came from Whole Foods, near where she was having her tire repaired. Crisis number one averted.

I came home and on Sunday started the fish stock and the grinding of the fish. Only as I was cleaning my pots and pans and the ktichen semlled of fish, and the phone was ringing, the disposal jammed and the sink stopped up and a geyser of filthy water spewed up.  The last time this happened was at Thanksgiving. My sink seems to know when a holiday is on hand . After a few minutes of cursing and panic, my son in law came over and unjammed the disposal, I mopped up the mess and I was back in business. Crisis number two  averted.  Gefilte fish made and delicious, all 45 pieces, and stock reduced to a perfect gel. Before I left for Napa I had put up the pickled salmon as it needs a week to cure. So the fish course was done.  

The next day  I did the rest of my marketing, picking up the preordered chicken fat, chicken livers,lamb for the stw and a million other items to make this the Seder of Seders. I had 14 coming for dinner and lots of work ahead. I had to find room in the refrigerators for all this food! Sort of like sedeing how how many clowns you can fit in the Volkswagen. A tight fit.  I dug out the  4 gallons of home made chicken soup and a container of lamb stock for the stew from the freezer. 

Next  I had to opening the table to its maximum dimensions and find extra chairs in the basement. Standing on a ladder to get to the upper reaches of my cabinets I brought down 5 sets of plates for all the courses and all those wine classes. I unearthed the Seder plate and the Haggadahs. I made the Sephardic dried fruit haroset. Really good this year.  Finally, pooped, I made the prep list for the next few days.  The  Passover count down had begun. 

The next day  was the 12 onion day.  6 chopped and 6 sliced. I did this before I put on my mascara, tired of streaks.  I cut up the chicken fat and started it rendering on the stove. I trimmed all of the chicken livers. I boiled eggs.  Finally I added the sliced onions to the fat and made our favorite forbidden treat, the gribines ( crispy browned fat cracklings and onions. )Yum. I have to hide them so I don’t eat too much. I made the chopped liver.   I only make these once a year as they are  not really good for you. But delicious. Only once a year do we indulge.   

Now it was stew time. I trimmed the lamb and browned it. Green onions and green garlic were trimmed and blanched.  While the stew simmered I made the flourless hazelnut cake. Another 10 eggs.

I set the table and did the flowers. I was ready for a glass of wine.  One more day of cooking ahead .

Seder day was upon me! Vegetables to prep, horseradish to grate, and matzo balls to prepare. All 70 of them as they are very very popular with the family . I make floaters, not sinkers and  everyone wants more than 2 or 3. The last items on my to-do list were to chop herbs, assemble the Seder plate, slice the berries and pour blood orange juice over them.  I also pulled wine from the cellar. A big crowd called for big bottles.

One of our guests was wine maker Bob Long so I pulled a double magnum of his 1979 Cabernet Sauvignon from the cellar to go with the lamb. The cork was old but Bob and my son Evan managed to get it out without breaking it and they poured it carefully into 4  decanters. Crisis averted. My neighbor Jon Bonne who is the wine editor at the San Francisco Chronicle brought a magnum of 2004 Vouvray Brut to go with the gefilte fish. And we had some other wines as backup for the intervening courses  Finally I chilled some Brachetto for the berries and cake.

Everyone arrived on time. The grandkids asked the 4 questions and answered them. We took turns reading  from the Haggadah and cheers went up when the meal was announced. We had a great evening.

I ran the dishwasher twice before going to bed and ran it again this morning.  Dishes and glassware put away. All I can say is thank goodness fo leftovers. I am going  to enjoy the whole meal again tonight, with the last of the wine.  And maybe eat some more the next day  A successful Seder and no crisis today. So far.

I have just returned from teaching at Rancho La Puerta Spa in Tecate, Baja California, a really beutiful place. Gorgeous landscaping, fine facilities, cozy casitas, a great sports program, where you can hike, bike, do Pilates, Yoga, cardio drummning, work and stretch all of your muscles, and also get massages and facials. Sounds like heaven. The also have a beautiful cooking school. I was there to teach three hands-on classes . What I did not realize is that many of those who signed up for a class had never cooked anything ever! It was pretty scary watching beginners wield a dull 10 inch chef’s knife. We all survived,  had fun cooking  in teams and made some very tasty food. In fact the food we cooked was tastier than the too fussy food at the Ranch. Every dish they served either had too many ingredients or not enough real flavor  for me. I know I am spoiled but I think I was not alone in this opinion.  The saddest news to report is that after walking miles, no wine at meals and eating tiny portions of a mostly vegetarian menu. I did not lose an ounce.   How bummed am I.

I just found out that my most recent cook book, Mediterranean Fresh, has been nominated for a James Beard Award, in the single subject category. It is a book about SALADS and dressings. It is up against one book on Fat and another on Casseroles.  Both worthy topics for exploration but if gods of good health, freshness, and seasonality are listening, Salads will prevail. So I have fingers and toes crossed and will find out about the results on May 4 in New York.  

I wrote this book after doing many years of restaurant consulting work where I learned that most chefs had no idea how to construct a great salad. To them it was use the least experienced cook or trainee, put some greens in a bowl and throw on some gloppy dressing. Like many a home cook.

Salads  have been the Rodney Dangerfield of the restaurant  business. Salad bars have produced even worse results because they put out a range of ingredients that may or may not belong in the same bowl and let the diner pick and choose and then put on a dressing that 9 out of 10 times does not go with half of the ingredients in the bowl.  Mediterranean Fresh shows how to design a great salad and what dressings work with the chosen ingredients.  I think this book shold be required reading in cooking schools and for anyone who loves salads but wishes for more culinary diversity

Anyway, please keep your fingers crossed for my book, too. That would be much appreciated.

I will be teaching a class on Mediterranean Small Plates at Draegers in San Mateo on  March 31. These classes are always a hit and everyone goes home to cook the food. A high compliment to this chef!

But the big news is that on April 16 also at Draegers I will be cooking with my son Evan giving his fabulous wine commentary alongside. This is a rare opportunity to get us teaching together as we are both so busy and traveling all the time, it’s hard to get us in the same place at the same time. It’s a Perfect Pairings reunion.  Hope to see you there. Contact Draegers cooking school  650 685 3704 or 800 642 9463

On Saturday I gave a talk at Omnivore Books, a new store dedicated only to cookbooks.  What a great place to browse and shop.  The crowd was lively and not afraad to ask lots of questions. my favorite  kind of audience. And they scarfed down all of the food I brought  for them to taste. I made a fava bean puree seasoned with toasted cumin, lemon and garlic, from my book Mediterranean Fresh. And then I made Sicilian sweet and sour artichokes cooked in three citrus juices: orange, lemon and tangerine, from Italian Slow and Savory, and another version from Mediterranean Fresh. Those vanished in a heartbeat.

My biggest surprise was to hear that many in the audience had been following this blog, so now I feel guilty for not having wirtten more often.  I’ve been unaware of this silent readership. Speak up, please, from time to time.  

I will return to Omnivore on June 20 when my nerw book. Tapas, Sensational Small Plates frolm Spain, will be published by Chronicle Books.  Hope we have another good crowd. I think it’s fun for people to get to taste a recipe or two before buying a book.

Here is one of the dishes I cooked on Saturday.

Carciofi ai Quattro Succhi

Artichokes Braised in Citrus Juices

Artichokes and citrus are a magic combination.  I have braised artichokes in orange juice in recipes from Morocco and Turkey. This Sicilian classic, however, combines three citrus juices and vinegar, adds salt in the form of anchovies, and sugar for sweetness and flavor balance.  These spectacular artichokes are best served at room temperature. They are stellar in an antipasto assortment.

Serves 6 

6 artichokes

1 lemon

3 onions, cut in half and sliced thin

½ cup olive oil plus 1 tablespoon

1/2 cup orange juice

½ cup tangerine juice

¼ cup lemon juice

¼ cup white wine vinegar

2 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons salted capers, rinsed

 4 anchovy fillets, finely minced

 2 tablespoons sugar or to taste

Chopped mint, optional

Fill a large bowl with cold water and squeeze the juice of the lemon into it. If the artichoke stems are tender, trim them to 2 inches and peel. If not, cut the stems off close to the base. Remove the tough outer leaves, trim the tops of the artichokes with a sharp knife, pare away all the dark green parts, until you reach the pale green leaves. Cut the artichokes in half. Carefully scoop out the choke with a melon ball scoop, or a small pointed spoon. As each artichoke is trimmed, drop it into the lemon water.

In a Dutch oven heat ½ cup olive oil over low heat. Add the sliced onions and the drained artichoke halves along with the juices, vinegar, water and salt. Cover the pan and cook very slowly, over low heat, until the artichokes are tender, about 35 to 40 minutes.

With a slotted spoon carefully remove the artichokes to a serving bowl.  To the juices remaining in the pan add the rinsed capers and reduce the sauce over high heat until thickened, about 10 to 15 minutes.

In a small sauté or sauce pan warm the anchovies in a tablespoon of oil and when they are dissolved add them to the sauce, along with sugar. Cook for 5 minutes longer, adjust sweetness ratio and then spoon sauce over the artichokes. Serve at room temperature.

Garnish with chopped mint if you like.

So here we are in the throes of the new economy.   Bye Bye beef, Hello beans. But do not despair. Today I made the most delicious Persian inspired yogurt soup called ashe maste which has chickpeas, lentils, basmati rice,  little tiny meatballs and green onions, parley and mint. It will feed me for a few days and it only used $3.00 of ground beef.  This is the new economy and I will eat well. So can you.  This recipe is in my book Solo Suppers and it’ s a keeper.

The Mediterranean is loaded with such creative and yummy meals in a bowl. Moroccan harira, bean soups with greens from Southern Italy. We need to think differently. Forget the giant piece of meat at the center of the plate.  Use protein for a hint of flavor and let vegetables, and grains and beans do the heavy lifting.

Persian Meatball Soup  From Solo Suppers  about 3 bowlsful  YUM!

When I am in the mood to cook, I enjoy preparing meatballs as a mildly meditative activity. I usually make a double batch, use some for a pan sauté, and save some for a soup supper, or maybe for pasta. Certainly the guazzetto of white beans with greens (page xx) would welcome meatballs instead of seafood. My favorite meatball soup, however, is Persian. It has a yogurt base bound with an egg and flour and must not boil, or the yogurt will curdle. Just keep stirring. The soup is a lovely pale yellow, which is set off by the green of the mint and green onions and the brown of the meatballs. When pomegranates are in season I sprinkle a few of the jewel-like red seeds on top.  

1/4 cup dried chickpeas

1/4 cup green or black lentils

1/3 pound ground beef

3 tablespoons grated yellow onion

1 egg, lightly beaten and then divided in two

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup low- fat plain yogurt

1 teaspoon flour

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 tablespoons basmati rice

3 cups chicken stock or water

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 tablespoons chopped green onions, including the tender green tops

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 clove garlic, very finely minced

Pomegranate seeds garnish (optional)

Pick over the dried chickpeas and remove any stones or debris. Rinse well, put in a saucepan and cover with 1 cup cold water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and cook for a few minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand for 1 hour. Drain the beans and return them to the saucepan with cold water to cover by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low, add salt, cover and simmer until beans are tender, about 40 to 50 minutes. Drain and reserve.

Pick over the lentils and remove any stones or debris. Rinse well, put the lentils in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer until firm‑tender, about 25 minutes. Drain and reserve.

In a bowl combine the ground beef, grated onion, half of the egg, salt, pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon of the cinnamon. Mix well with your hands. Fry a tiny patty of the mixture to see if it is seasoned to your taste. Adjust seasoning if necessary, then form the beef mixture into tiny meatballs, about the size of a nickel, or smaller if you have the patience. Refrigerate.

To make the soup base, spoon the yogurt into a medium saucepan. Whisk in the remaining half egg, the flour, the turmeric and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. Add the rice, the reserved lentils and two cups of the stock.  Place over low heat and cook gently, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Add the reserved chickpeas, the parsley, green onions, and most of the chopped mint. Simmer for 10 minutes more, then add the meatballs and simmer 10 minutes longer. Add the remaining stock if needed.

In a small sauté pan, melt the butter. Add the garlic and sauté until soft but not colored, about 2 minutes. Add to the soup and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Pour into a warmed soup bowl and sprinkle with remaining mint and pomegranate seeds, if using. .

Note:  You can double the meat mixture and cook the remaining half of the seasoned meat mixture as a pan-fried burger, top it with yogurt seasoned with garlic, and serve it in a pita bread. Or, you can form the rest of the meat mixture into meatballs, sauté them in butter or oil until browned, simmer them in tomato sauce, and then serve over rice with a drizzle of garlicky yogurt.

I serve on the Awards committee fo the James Beard Awards.  This year our theme for the May 4 Gala is Women in Food. Amazing, that after all these years, this is the first time that women will be honored.  We will have women chefs, women wine makers, women sommeliers  and mixologists featured as well as women charcutieres, cheese makers, and bakers. It is about time.

This is not to say that women chefs have not cooked at the awards events but they were always in the minority. One year honoring French chefs, they had to wear can can outfits while the French male chefs wore their whites!!  It was because of this that the organization  Women Chefs and Restaurateurs WCR was formed.   So it will be a proud moment in our culinary history to watch all those women serve their delicious  food. It will be a don’t miss event. The Media dinner the night before will also feature women chefs and sommeliers.  I am so looking forward to this. The late Barbara Tropp would be smiling.

Just returned from an excellent conference at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in the Napa Valley.   It was consponsored by Harvard  Medical School and the CIA. The attendees were chefs from most of the major chain restaurants in the US and some manufacturers of food products. The topic of discussion and the many cooking demos  was to show how  to get more healthy items on the menu: vegetables, fruits, beans and whole grains, without the public recognizing that these foods are healthy.  Can you imagine. We have a nation of big babies who love junk and they have to be tricked into eating healthful food. If the food tastes good, they will eat it and be none the wiser that it is good for them.. that is stealth health.  Part of me is disgusted that we have to use subterfuge to get people to amend their dining habits. 

Reducing portion size was also a topic of discussion. Everyone knew it was the right thing to do. Switching over to smaller plates was deemed difficult, risky from the point of customner perception, and expensive for the restaurant chains to change their dishes. But it is  necessary before all of their clientele suffers from obesity or develops diabetes.  Old habits die hard and so will many of their customers. Alas.

I did a number of cooking demos showing that vegetables, legumes and grains were yummy( no big secret) and had low food costs. All to the good.  Progress will be slow but it is inevitable.

.

Well. 2008 has been an experience.  Work was pretty good until the economic disaster struck. And it hit all of us food writers where we live and eat. Or eat and live. Will we have enough work next year so that we can eat and live? That is the question. Cook book publishers are buying nothing new and do not want calls, manuscripts or anything do do with us food writers.  Thank God for magazines and the newspapers that remain. I will be teaching a great deal more this year.   I guess I should not be too bummed as I do have some projects booked for 2009. I look forward to my work at the CIA in Napa and my restaurant consulting .  My Tapas book will be out in the Spring. But as a workaholic and someone who needs to be occupied with a great project all the time, I am hoping that the opportunity will arise and I will have a new book contract in the coming year.  And a new agent too.

Meanwhile I want to wish you all a Happy Healthy New Year. May you recover some of your retirement account and keep busy . We wish Barack well and hope he can make the changes we need.  It is time to stay home and eat the fruits of your labor. Shop wisely and enjoy your time in the kitchen. Here is to the light at the end of the Bush tunnel.

I know, I know. I have not written for a while.  I was so busy with the  CIA World of Flavors conference  that I am just starting to catch up. The theme this year was A Mediterranean Flavor Odyssey:Preserving and Inventing Traditions for Modern Palates. Which is just what I did with our food at Square One Restaurant and what I do today.  I have great reverence and respect for the old ways of the Mediterranean and I know how important it is to make those flavors relevent to contemporary diners. 

The confreence was a bruiser. There were over 700 attendees, plus chefs from Spain, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia and the Italian regions of Apulia and Sicily. I worked really hard. But it was great fun. I did two cooking demos and coordinated two panels with Israeli chefs, moderated a panel with young chefs from Castile LaMancha, interviewed a chef from Lebanon, sat on a tasting panel of newly pressed  olive oils which was amazing. I also worked a booth for the Produce Marketing association,serving one of my salads from Mediterranean Fresh every day for 500 guests. The salads were really well received. Above all I enjoyed meeting the chefs from other countries and talking with them about their food. It was a reunion of sorts, seeing old friends like Diane Kochilas and Agalia  Kremizi from Greece , food writers Nancy Jenkins,Paula Wolfert, Joan Nathan, Clifford Wright,  and Martha Rose Schulman, baker  Mark Furstenberg from D.C., chefs Paul Bartolotta ,Ana Sortun, Nate Appleman, Mourad Lahlou.

Anyway I got home just in time to plan recipe for the next conference in January, the World of Healthy Flavors. More good Mediterranean food: grains, greens, legumes and vegetables.

Here are two of the salads that I served at the conference.  They might be a great way to start Thanksgiving dinner. and they are ideal for this time of year.

Grilled Radicchio Salad with Beets, Oranges and Orange Balsamic Dressing

A recent restaurant trend trickling into the home kitchen is grilling lettuces like romaine or radicchio for salads. Grilling adds a smoky undertone to the greens while wilting them a bit.  This dish is really pretty, all tones of red, pink and oranges. We are playing with many kinds of sweetness: sweet beets and raisins, and the tart sweetness of oranges. You might wonder why I didn’t dress this salad with a citronette. Orange juice is just too sweet and mild to brighten the salad by itself. You need the tang of vinegar for depth to keep the dish from becoming too cloying or wimpy, and to stand up to the smoky grill factor and bitterness of the radicchio. . 

Serves 4

2 large heads Treviso radicchio (or 4 small)

Olive oil

About ¾ cup balsamic vinaigrette

¼ cup golden raisins plumped in water, orange juice or marsala

¼ cup pine nuts, toasted

4 small beets, cooked and cut in eighths or thinner ( see page00)

2 blood or navel oranges, segmented or cut in rounds if small

Make a fire in a charcoal grill or preheat a broiler or ridged stovetop grill pan.

If large, cut the radicchio in quarters lengthwise. If not, cut in half. Pull apart the leaves. If they seem in any way gritty, wash quickly and dry really well. Brush the wedges of radicchio lightly with the vinaigrette and cook on a grill or a ridged grill pan on stove top. When charred on the outside but still tender within, transfer to a platter or 4 salad plates. .Top with sliced beets and orange segments. .

Pour the vinaigrette into a small sauté pan and add the plumped raisins and pine nuts. Warm the dressing for a few minutes then pour over the radicchio, beets and oranges. .

Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette:

Yield: about 1 cup

¾ cup fruity extra virgin olive oil or a combination of 1/2 cup pure olive oil and 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 or 4 tablespoons artisan produced balsamic vinegar or condiment  

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette

Yield:  1 1/3 cups

2 tablespoons artisanal balsamic vinegar or condiment

2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

2/3 cup pure or mild and fruity extra virgin olive oil 

2 tablespoons grated orange zest

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

Salt and pepper

Roasted Pumpkin Squash with Bitter Greens

Contrast is the theme of this autumn dish: sweet against bitter, soft versus crunchy. While I like a creamy Middle Eastern dressing on this dish, it would be equally delicious with pomegranate dressing and garnished with pomegranate seeds, or tossed in a citrus balsamic dressing.

Serves 6

1 ½ pounds butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces

Olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 small bunches arugula or 4 large handfuls assorted bitter greens or mesclun

½ cup thin tahini dressing with garlic and cumin (page 000)

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds or toasted pine nuts or walnuts

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. On a baking sheet, toss the squash with oil, salt and pepper. Roast until tender, about 30 minutes. Let cool.

Toss arugula with some of the dressing. Then top with squash and drizzle the rest of the dressing on top. Sprinkle with sesame seeds or toasted pine nuts or walnuts. .

Tahini Dressing:

1 cup sesame tahini, Al Wadi preferred

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 cup cold water or more as needed

Salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

Pinch cayenne red pepper, optional 

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, optional 

Combine tahini, lemon juice and garlic in food processor or blender and puree. Add water as needed to thin to a spreadable consistency for a dip, and even thinner for salad dressing. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne red pepper and cumin, if using.