Yummy Letter YummyLetter.com Homepage Navigation Coupon First Crush Restaurant Shanghai 1930 Glodow Nead Broadway Grill Judy's Cafe advertise about us subscribe advertise about us subscribe sidebuttons advertise about us subscribe Bike and Roll
forward Forward to a Friend! Fan Mail
CookVolume 1 Issue 11 April 15, 2009

Eat Local Every Day

Pork TenderloinsWhen I first read about the eating locally challenge on my friend’s blog, I thought that it would be really easy if I could go to the farmers’ market every day. But, the truth is that like most people, I am too busy, and I usually don’t know what I am eating until I get to the store, let alone have I planned a week’s worth of meals. That inspired me to see if I could complete the challenge and create a meal with local ingredients found at my neighborhood Safeway.

I had to set a few ground rules. The most obvious one is that everything had to be produced locally. This proved the most difficult when shopping, because most labeling I found did not list the city or region of origin, and in many cases, it would only list the country of origin. I decided to only allow ingredients that were grown or raised in California. I thought it would be a breeze for the produce, but it was difficult to find out where it was grown without going in the backroom and shopping directly from the boxes the produce came from.

Invariably, bloggers will add an ingredient to their local meals that they consider a staple, such as that “wonderfully delicate sea salt only found in a mysterious cave purchased from an Aborigine native while vacationing in Australia.” Obviously not produced locally, they will rationalize it by saying it is necessary to the dish and there is nothing like it locally. For my challenge, I did not allow myself any deviations from the concept. If an ingredient was unavailable, I would have to make do without it. This is why my dish does not include salt, which I was unable to find produced locally. Well, at least not at Safeway.

As for the staples, I only used three ingredients from home. One was a locally produced olive oil, which I use on an almost daily basis. The other two were fresh rosemary from my herb garden and fresh Meyer lemons from the tree in my backyard. If that’s not eating locally, I don’t know what is.


spacer

Meyer Lemon Pork Tenderloins
(serves 4–6)

1
package Farmer John California Tender Pork Tenderloins (two to a pack)
2
medium yellow onions from SonRise Farms in Lancaster
6
cloves garlic from Christopher Ranch in Gilroy
2
tablespoons California olive oil
Zest of 2 Meyer lemons from the backyard
teaspoon cumin
1
tablespoon fresh rosemary from the backyard


Cut onions in half and then into ½-inch slices. Spread onion slices over the bottom of a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish. Peel and chop garlic and spread over onions. Lay pork over onions and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with lemon zest and rosemary. Preheat grill or oven to 325 degrees. Bake tenderloins for 1 hour. Remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Slice pork into ½-inch slices and top with onions. Enjoy.

Cheers,
Bill

For more of Bill's recipes, visit

http://www.northsidesf.com/kitchenlesscook.html
E-mail: bill@yummyletter.com

spacer

Home Recipes from GraceAnn Walden

I’ve been eating pho (pronounced fuh, not foe) since 1982. The key to this belly-warming Vietnamese soup is meaty bones, like oxtails or neck bones. There is something close to my heart about using cheap cut-meats to make something good.

spacer

Pho — GraceAnn’s Way
(serves 2)

2
 pounds oxtails, trimmed with paring knife of outside fat
1
 teaspoon five-spice powder
1
 teaspoon salt
1
 thumb of unpeeled ginger, cut lengthwise into 4 slices
3-4
whole cloves of garlic, smashed
1
whole jalapeno, cut lengthwise
3 tablespoons fish sauce (I prefer Squid brand)
  Water to cover
   
1 package Vietnamese rice noodles
2 quarts water for noodles
   
1/3 pound eye of round (optional)
  Clay cooker or Crock-Pot
   

Garnishes:

1
 jalapeno, sliced lengthwise, seeds removed
1/2
 pound fresh bean sprouts
2
 sprigs basil
2
 sprigs cilantro
2
sprigs mint
1
lime, cut into wedges
   
  Fish sauce
  Hoisin sauce
  Sriracha hot sauce

Pho

Cook oxtails for four hours (two rounds if your cooker has a limit of two hours).

Double strain the broth by putting cheesecloth in a mesh strainer. Put broth in refrigerator to chill for one hour.

Carefully, remove the meat from the cooled tails, discarding any fat. Set aside.

Prepare and assemble garnishes on a plate and place the three sauces on the table.

Remove broth from fridge and skim off any fat on the surface. Place eye of round in freezer for 5 minutes for ease in slicing.

Bring water to a boil and add rice noodles. They will cook in about 30 seconds. Strain and plunge in cold water.

Slice eye of round in very thin slices and fan out on a plate.

Set table with chopsticks, a ceramic spoon and small saucers for sauces. In the center, you will have the garnishes and raw beef.

Boil broth. Add cooked noodles. Serve soup very hot. Diners place jalapeno slices, bean sprouts and herbs in the soup. Taste hot broth and add fish sauce and a squeeze of lime, if you like.

If you are eating the raw beef, place a bit of hoisin and Sriracha sauce in the small sauce plate.

With your chopsticks, swirl a slice of beef in the hot soup, then dip into hoisin and Sriracha, using your spoon to convey saucy beef to your mouth.

Enjoy!
GraceAnn


spacer

Cookbook Review

Asian CookThe Asian Cook
By Terry Tan
Laurel Glen Publishing, $27.95
ISBN-10: 1903221501

First published in 2003 and republished in 2005, this book didn’t get any buzz. I’ve been around the food biz long enough to know that unless you’re connected to major food writers — the establishment — you’re out of luck.

But this is a wonderful book. It even has a plastic overlay cover for serious cooks who want to roll through some recipes and might splatter.

As we all know, Asian cuisine is one of the most popular, although there are many subtle variations of cuisine and culinary styles within Asia. The Asian Cook not only looks at the cuisine of each country or region, but also at the ingredients and tools that give each country its own particular brand of cuisine. All of the tools from the regions are featured with instructions on how to use them. This is accompanied by a collection of recipes that characterizes all of the cultural variations.

You will find background and recipes covering the foods of China, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Kampuchea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

More important than a clutch of recipes are the terrific photos of ingredients and techniques. In the China section, the recipe is a unique Peking-style caramel walnuts; another is fish in chili bean sauce, braised five-spice pork belly, and a fabulous fried rice recipe. One of my absolute faves is steamed winter melon soup.

Don’t expect dozens of recipes from each country, but what is there is choice.

Terry Tan is a food writer, chef and cookery teacher. From Singapore and of Chinese/Thai and Indonesian extraction, Tan has written several books on Asian cooking, including The Complete Asian Cookbook, Oriental Cooking and The Manya Cookbook. He is culinary consultant to Singapore Airlines, does food development for Amoy Foods, and lectures on Asian cookery.

Because I have included my recipe for pho, I have also included a fantastic recipe for Vietnamese Cabbage Salad from Tan’s book. It is a perfect vegetarian main dish, or side dish to grilled chicken, for example. Because of the inclusion of peanuts in his recipe, which are a problem these days (salmonella), I have substituted cashews.

Vietnamese Cabbage Salad
(serves 8-10)

1
 head white cabbage
1
 cucumber
2
 carrots
1
 bunch green onions
5 cloves garlic
1-2 teaspoons shredded ginger
6 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons white vinegar
  Juice of 2 lemons or limes
2-3 teaspoons sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon dried chili flakes
2 teaspoons light soy sauce or fish sauce
3 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoon mint, chopped
6-8 tablespoons cashews, chopped
  Pinch of salt

Core and thinly slice the cabbage. Thinly slice the carrots, green onions, garlic, and cucumber.

In a large bowl, combine these four aforementioned ingredients and sprinkle with salt.

Set aside for 30 minutes to drain, then squeeze out excess moisture in handfuls.

Add all the remaining ingredients to the vegetables. Taste for balance. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Before serving, drain the salad again. Serve garnished with cashews.

— GraceAnn



spacer


Tools & Toys: Kamado-Style Charcoal Grill Dome Infinity Series With Stainless Auto Hinge

With summer around the corner, our thoughts often turn to cooking outdoors. Kamado is a traditional Japanese wood or charcoal-fired earthen vessel, considered extremely versatile because it achieves temperatures up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit, and the excellent heat retention of the ceramic alloy not only aids in barbecuing and smoking, but also in pizza and bread making. The ventilation system offers precise airflow control, making it similar to a wood-fired oven, meaning you can also roast and bake as you would with an indoor oven.

Grill DomeThe most famous modern take on the kamado is the Big Green Egg, which retails between $800 and $900 for the 18-inch version. But Grill Dome’s version is not only sleeker, it comes in an array of stylish colors (black, red, green, blue, and copper metallic) — and, at $630 for the 18-inch model, it is considerably less than the Big Green Egg.

Grill Dome is made of a priority blend of ceramic materials that are designed to enhance the taste and juiciness of foods and withstand high temperatures. It starts in less than five minutes and cooks faster than gas grills. It is also extremely fuel-efficient, using roughly 30 percent of the charcoal of conventional smokers and grills.

Kamado-style Charcoal Grill Dome: $630 at

Kamadoguys.com

— Susan

previous column Read Archives
 


Bookmark and Share Print Page

 

 
Navigation Panel contact