Monthly Archives: February 2013

A Passion for Peppercorns

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Rose peppercorns. How pretty are these?

Husband-and-wife, Bruce and Angela Morgan of Washington state, have that in spades.

A decade ago they started Pepper-Passion. As the name implies, the company sells peppercorns. Black, green, rose and white. More than a dozen varieties in all — sourced from all over the world. Many not typically available in stores, either.

The company is an outgrowth of two of their hobbies: wood-working and cooking. Bruce designs his own, hand-crafted peppermills, each made from a single piece of exotic hardwood. Of course, with all those peppermills (some of which can fetch up to $900 each), he had to fill them with something.

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A Soup or A Side: Curried Parsnips

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Curried parsnips star as a side or the foundation of a soup.

Before spring is sprung, I had to get in one last fix of my favorite parsnips.

An often overlooked root veggie, they have a lovely nutty, vanilla taste, making them ideal for using in so many ways.

Take these “Curried Parsnips.”

As is, they make for an easy side dish. But mixed with two cups of stock, then pureed, they also make for the base of a comforting, velvety soup.

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Baked Better Introduces A Gluten-Free Bread Mix; Plus New Santa Cruz Organic Jams

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Fort Green Gluten Free bread mix -- just add water and a sweetener of your choice.

With more and more of my friends going gluten-free, I’m always on the lookout for baked goods that fit their dietary restrictions and taste good.

Believe me, the two don’t always go hand in hand.

But at Brooklyn’s Baked Better, they definitely do. The company, founded by two friends, makes organic bread mixes that make baking your own loaf at home a cinch. All you do is add water and a tad of honey or sugar.

I’d already tried their three initial mixes, when they sent me a sample of their newest creation: Fort Greene Gluten Free.

The mix, named after one of Brooklyn’s most historic neighborhoods, contains brown rice flour, light buckwheat flour, teff flour, rolled oats, ground flaxseed meal, sunflower seeds, flax seeds and yeast.

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Chef Daniel Humm to Visit San Francisco, Beer Tuesdays at Boxing Room, and More

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Daniel Humm (right) and Will Guidara (right). (Photo by Francesco Tonelli)

Meet Chef Daniel Humm at A Book-Signing

Daniel Humm, acclaimed chef of New York’s Eleven Madison Park, will be appearing at 7 p.m. April 3 at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.

Humm will be in conversation with the restaurant’s General Manager Will Guidara, with whom he collaborated on the cookbook, “I Love New York: Ingredients and Recipes” (Ten Speed Press). The cookbook, which will be released in April, fuses innovative dishes with New York classics like smoked fish, egg cream, and black and white cookies.

A culinary treat is promised to attendees at the reception and book-signing afterward.

Tickets are $15 to $25, and available by calling the box office at (415) 292-1233.

DIY Dinner Kits at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market

San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza has introduced weekly Farmers Market Chef Baskets, which come complete with recipes to make dinner, along with all the fresh ingredients needed as sourced from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

Each basket has been curated by a particular chef. For instance, Chef Joanne Weir’s market basket dinner includes the makings for fennel soup with Meyer lemon creme fraiche, and fresh spinach and shaved root vegetable salad. The $29 basket serves 2 to 3. All the recipes are gluten free, and can be made vegan, too. If you have hungrier appetites at home, you can opt for the Joanne Weir basket that adds a 1/2 chicken from Mountain Ranch Organically Grown to the mix for a total of $39.

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Ina Garten’s Easy Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese Croutons

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Tomato soup gets a whole lot more fun with grilled cheese croutons.

If ever there was a food that transports us back to childhood with just one sip, it’s tomato soup.

I remember digging a spoon into a deep bowl of that cheerful orange-red, velvety soup as an after-school snack, alongside a stack of saltine crackers. I remember yearning for it on rainy days, especially. And I remember it as the perfect pick-me-up sure to cure any teenage funk.

Of course, back then, my tomato soup did come out of a can.

Now, leave it to Food Network Star Ina Garten to come up with a homemade version of that beloved staple so many of us grew up on. Hers is decidedly more grown-up, yet still maintains the heart and soul we all love about the canned kind.

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