Category Archives: Ginger

Bakesale Betty Cookie Mix

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Bakesale Betty's ginger molasses cookies to bake at home.

The good news is that you no longer have to brave the humongous lines if you want a Bakesale Betty ginger molasses cookie.

The bad news is that you still will if you want Betty’s famous fried chicken sandwich.

That’s because blue-wigged Betty, aka owner Allison Barakat, has now packaged her popular cookie in a mix that you can buy to make at home. The Ginger Molasses cookie mix is sold exclusively at Williams-Sonoma stores. It won’t be available on the store’s Web site until the fall, though.

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Take Five with Pastry Chef Rodney Cerdan of the Village Pub, On His Candy-Filled Childhood

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Rodney Cerdan, executive pastry chef of the Village Pub, who is never far away from a good cookie.

Rodney Cerdan is a very dangerous man.

If left to his own devices, he will ply you with chocolate honey mousse cake, peanut butter brownie bars with fluffs of toasted marshmallow, chewy almond cookies and bags of homemade sticky caramels to no surrender.

He can’t help himself. As executive pastry chef of the Village Pub in Woodside, Cerdan, 33, has been baking since he was 7, when he’d commandeer his mom’s toaster oven before taking on the full-size one.

After stints at Roy’s Restaurant in San Francisco, Delessio’s Market in Bakery in San Francisco, and Bi-Rite Creamery and Bakeshop in San Francisco, Cerdan took over the head pastry job at the Village Pub in October 2010.

Recently, I had a chance to try a sampling of his newest desserts (about $10 each) on the house that reference homey favorites, but have been reborn with contemporary flair. They included a fluffy, airy chocolate honey mousse cake with spicy ginger ice cream; and a Meyer lemon pudding cake with an ethereal texture made all the more luxurious with dollops of lush white chocolate.

Cerdan's chocolate honey mousse cake with ginger ice cream and ginger chocolate bark.

Cerdan, who is of Spanish-Basque and El Salvadoran heritages, joined me at the table to chat about his failed attempt at an acting career, what it was like to grow up with a mom who worked at See’s Candies, and what his all-time favorite dessert is.

Q: Your Mom wrapped candies at See’s. That must be every kid’s fantasy, right?

A: She used to bring home 10-pound boxes. The fruit-filled chocolates were always my favorite. I used to take a knife to the bottom of each candy until I found the ones that I was looking for.

I got pretty good at identifying them just by sight. But it’s been a while. I’m not sure I could do it now. I’d have to brush up on it.

Q: When you were 7 years old, you wanted an Easy-Bake oven?

A: Yes, but I couldn’t have one. But I found that the toaster oven was better. There was none of that pushing a tiny pan under a light bulb.

I would grab a box of Bisquick and make all the recipes. Then, I’d make my own coffee cakes and pigs in a blanket. I made my own pasta at 9.

I’d watch all the PBS cooking shows, especially Julia Child and ‘Yan Can Cook.”

Q: So was this how your love for baking started?

A: My Mom would come home smelling of chocolate and vanilla. That pretty much did it. (laughs)

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Meaty Memories

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My Dad taught me to love this unconventional cut of beef.

Oxtails.

The name alone may make some people blanch.

But to me, the tail never fails to get me in the heart.

You see, oxtails were the very last dish that I cooked for my Dad before he passed away. And so, they always make me think of him.

He’s the one who taught me true appreciation for this once-shunned, once-inexpensive cut that has such brazen beefiness.

If you like short ribs, you’re sure to go crazy for oxtails, which cook up even more tender with even more profound flavor. You can find them easily in the butcher case of Asian markets.

Sure, there’s more cartilage and bone in oxtails. But that’s what adds to their flavor and makes eating them such messy fun.

My Dad would cook up a cavernous pot on weekends, simmering the cut-up oxtails with star anise, soy sauce and ginger in a brothy cross between a soup and a stew. He’d throw in carrots and turnips, then let the pot simmer for hours until the meat was as tender as can be.

Then, he’d ladle big scoops of it into flat bowls filled with fluffy steamed rice, with the grains absorbing the aromatic broth so perfectly.

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Gingery Sips

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Three new ginger ales by former Bay Area chef, Bruce Cost.

Long-time Bay Area foodies probably remember the addicting fresh ginger ale served at the now-shuttered restaurants, Monsoon in San Francisco, Ginger Island in Berkeley and Ginger Club in Palo Alto.

Now, Bruce Cost, the chef and proprietor of those restaurants, has finally bottled that fizzy goodness. His “Fresh Ginger, Ginger Ale by Bruce Cost” says it all. The soda is made with cane sugar and fresh, whole ginger. In fact, you can see bits of actual ginger root floating in the soda, which is left unfiltered.

Cost, who went on to start the Big Bowl and Wow Bao restaurants in Chicago, brews and bottles the ginger ale in Brooklyn.

The ginger ale comes in three varieties: “Original,” “Pomegranate with Hibiscus,” and “Jasmine Green Tea.” A 12-ounce bottle has 160 calories.

The "Original'' with lovely bits of ginger floating in it.

The “Origiinal” has nice heat with balanced sweetness. There’s a real purity of ginger flavor here. The “Pomegrantate with Hibiscus” has the most subtle ginger flavor of the three varieties. It’s a beautiful ruby color, too. My favorite was the “Jasmine Green Tea,” which is infused with whole leaf green jasmine tea from Taiwan. The warm spiciness of the ginger is a wonderful match for the floral, slightly tannic notes. It’s a memorable sip, indeed.

It’s now being served at restaurants such as the Slanted Door in San Francisco, and is available for about $2 per 12-ounce bottle at select Bay Area Whole Foods, Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco, Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco, and the Pasta Shop in Oakland and Berkeley, where I bought a bottle of each to try recently.

Another refreshing ginger beverage is Fentiman’s Ginger Beer. Made with ginger root extract, it has a more medicinal taste than the Bruce Cost beverage, as well as a faint citrus note.

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Wing-ing It

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Asian-style chicken wings from a talented Basque chef.

They are sticky, sweet and just a little spicy.

They’re everything you want in a finger-licking good chicken wing.

And would you believe these Asian-influenced wings were created by a Basque chef?

That would be the talented Gerald Hirigoyen of Piperade and Bocadillos restaurants, both in San Francisco. With both of his establishments within walking distance of Chinatown, he’ll often head to a nearby Chinese restaurant when he’s craving something different than his own food.

This dish, from his cookbook, “Pintxos” (Ten Speed Press), has become a favorite staff meal with rice at his restaurants.

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