48 out of 100

Top 100

As he does every year, today the well-known food critic at San Francisco's most prominent newspaper published his Top 100 which lists the restaurants that he considers represent the best examples of local dining.

I was simply curious to see how many of the restaurants on the list, I have eaten at too, and how many times I have visited each of them:

1. A16 (definitely more than 20 visits)
2. Antica Trattoria (twice)
3. Aziza (once)
4. Bar Crudo (5 or 6 times)
5. Betelnut (at least 3 times)
6. Bistro Aix (just once)
7. Bix (once for food, many times for drinks)
8. Bocadillos (twice)
9. Bouchon (once in Yountville, once in LV)
10. Boulevard (once)
11. Buckeye Roadhouse (probably about 10 times)
12. Canteen (4 or 5 times for breakfast or lunch only)
13. Cesar (once a long time ago)
14. Chez Panisse (once, upstairs only)
15. Coco500 (at least 10 times)
16. Cyrus (once, very recently)
17. Delfina (just once so far)
18. Dosa (once, must go back though)
19. Farallon (twice, years ago)
20. Firefly (twice)
21. Foreign Cinema (5 or 6 times)
22. Gary Danko (just once)
23. Incanto (twice)
24. Kokkari Estiatorio (once)
25. La Taqueria (once)
26. Limon (twice)
27. Manresa (twice)
28. Maya (once)
29. Mecca (2 or 3 times)
30. Michael Mina (once)
31. Myth (once)
32. Nopa (once)
33. Ozumo (once)
34. Perbacco (twice)
35. Pesce (two or three times)
36. Piperade (three times)
37. Pizzeria Picco (four times)
38. PlumpJack Cafe (once)
39. Quince (once)
40. Range (twice)
41. Slanted Door (once)
42. Slow Club (At least 5 times, probably more)
43. The Matterhorn Swiss Restaurant (twice)
44. Ton Kiang (twice)
45. Town Hall (3 or 4 times)
46. Tres Agaves (four times)
47. Zarzuela (once)
48. Zuni Cafe (10 times, at least, and counting...)

© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

48 out of 100

Hot Cross Buns for Easter - How to Make Them?

The Smell of Sweet Spices to Perfume your Spring Kitchen



As young girls my sister and I would often dash to open the front door whenever the door bell rang, slipping and sliding on the polished wooden hallway floor as we raced to be the one who would enquire about the business of the caller, before relaying the information to our mother. Usually an adult face would greet us from beyond the other side of the double glass doors that protected our small porch and we would have no qualms about politely grilling them to find out what they wanted.

Once a year, however, we would be caught out by the gruesome sight of a gangly group of nerdy little boys dressed in spiffy uniforms shuffling nervously, patiently waiting to deliver their important message. These were miniature Boy Scouts, collectively known as Cubs.

When met with a group of expectant faces nearer our own age and of the opposite sex no less, we would fast lose our usual nerve and bravado, shyly rudely turning away from the youngsters to holler "MUM!" in the most anxious and blood-curdling of tones, knowing full well she would rush from whatever she was doing to save her little darlings from the monsters who had apparently invaded our castle.

As she approached the door, we would each take position, behind a crack in the door or beyond the safety-net of a curtain, to watch as she made a deal. "I'll have a dozen" she'd say, as one of the boys scribbled some details on a notepad before scrabbling off our property as fast as their little high sock and short-adorned legs would carry them.


What my mother was doing was ordering Hot Cross Buns. In those days, you didn't buy a pack and then get one free at your local supermarket, oh no! On Good Friday morning (a public holiday in the UK), the Boy Scouts and Cubs would deliver freshly-baked Hot Cross Buns right to your front door.

I am ashamed to confess that because of my aversion to dried fruit I screwed up my little face until it was as wrinkled as the currants that dot the insides of a hot cross bun just at the mere thought of eating one. I watched jealously as my mother and sister toasted the halved yeasty morsels, before slathering them in salty butter and devouring them with sheer delight. The heady aroma of spices that marked the household was so alluring I would nevertheless sometimes secretly toast one for myself and try to pick out the currants.

Please explain: I really don't understand American Hot Cross Buns where the cross is piped from a sugar icing when the whole point of this once-a-year treat is to toast it until golden and indulge in the decadent consequences of doing so: Butter, aroma, then Heaven. I've never tried to put icing in the toaster and I am not going to start now.

But starting now, I have decided, just like that, to at once overcome my unjustifiable fear of the wee currants. Raisins - they are still on my hate list, where I hope they will stay, but this year I bravely insisted to myself that from now on, in moderation, currants are OK. It was the smell that drove me to taking this drastic move. I missed it. I needed it. It was imperative in 2007 that I should eat a hot cross bun.

I googled for a recipe and was presented with two stellar-sounding choices: Delia or the BBC, both of whom are usually stalwart sources when researching British recipes.

I read through them both a couple of times before deciding on the BBC version for a number of reasons:
1) The BBC uses fresh yeast, Delia uses dried. I prefer to work with fresh yeast which is 100s of times cheaper than the dried stuff. It also seems more real to me. It is alive.
2) Delia's version used milk. I never have milk in the house so it would have been a special purchase. Then I would have wasted the leftovers, no doubt. I didn't want to do that when instead the BBC version contained an egg. I always have an egg in the house, and good eggs at that.
3) Delia's version called for dried peel. Have you tried to get dried peel in California? No! Don't bother. The BBC recipe called for fresh lemon zest. How convenient, therefore, that I was recently given a bag full of Meyer lemon's from a colleague's tree.
4) Delia makes those perfectly formed crosses that look stuck on. I favour the BBC recipe where the cross is piped into place before being baked into the bun resulting in a much more natural, organic-looking product.
5) Delia goes to the palaver of making a sugar syrup glaze. Why bother when you can follow the BBC's suggestion and use the Golden Syrup you already have in your pantry?

BBC Hot Cross Bun Recipe Notes
- In Britain you can buy a jar of 'Mixed Spice' which is exactly what you would use in a Hot Cross Bun recipe. There is no such thing in the USA. I used a mix of ground ginger, cloves, allspice, nutmeg and ginger cinnamon instead, with perfect results.

- I used bread flour - the US equivalent of 'strong white flour'.

- After brushing the baked buns with warmed golden syrup they are gloriously sticky. By the next day however, most of the syrup has soaked in to the dough. This is probably just as well since you are about to pop it in the toaster.

- OK - currants are OK, but I don't love them like they are my new best friend. In my opinion the currants inside hot cross buns should be few and far between. Hence I reduced the amount suggested to just a couple of ounces. Perfect.

- I found scissors much easier than a knife for snipping the cross shape on the top of the bun.

- I served the Hot Cross Buns, toasted with freshly churned Spring Hill salted Jersey butter. 'Awesome' is what I think one of my colleagues emailed me after he'd partaken of the Hot Cross Bun ritual as instructed.

Are YOU going to make Hot Cross Buns this year?




PS I am really glad I went with the BBC version after just reading about this less successful Delia attempt over at Cooking for Engineers.

Other Resources & Further Reading
This post was produced as a dedication to my family for Waiter, there's something in my ... Easter basket! hosted by Johanna at The Passionate Cook.

+ For lots more Easter recipes from food bloggers check out this amazing list here.

Archives
2005 | Bristol Farmer's Market, England (can you spot the hot cross buns?)



© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

Hot Cross Buns for Easter - How to Make Them?

Your First Stop For Restaurant Reviews

Poll Results Are In:



This poll ran between 11am on March 25th and 8.30 am on March 28th, 2007. The top three results are even as far as I am concerned. There is no clear winner here. I would have expected the results to skew slightly in favour of food blogs so I suspect running the same poll in a non-food blog location might have put Yelp and Newspaper Critics in more of a clear lead.

© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

Your First Stop For Restaurant Reviews

More on The Cost of Food

Your Questions Answered

Last Night's Dinner of Farro with Green Onion Sauce, Toasted Walnuts and Asparagus, taken from Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson, was all local apart from the Farro. This recipe made enough for five healthy meals at an approximate cost of $3 per portion.

Yesterday's post, designed to find out how my shopping list compares to other readers' backfired on me and instead I was grilled by the commentors. I purposely did not add too much extra information to the original because my purpose was to highlight he shopping list itself. But now its clear some extra information will help put it in perspective.

The green onions were expensive (two bunches $3.50): Yes they were, but they were rather large with a more developed bulb and they just looked so beautiful.

Just curious, will that feed both of you b/l/d for a week? Not exactly. Fred doesn't eat breakfast and he takes care of himself at lunchtime. Aside from the two nights I will be out this week, this (along with ingredients I already had in the fridge/pantry) will feed me for lunch, dinner and breakfast. Mealtimes at weekends are a bit Topsy turvy for us and don't usually fit into a regular mealtime pattern.

What's the average number of meals you eat at home during the week? Also do you only shop once per week?: Evenings we probably average four or five meals at home a week. Apart from the rare time when I absolutely need an ingredient I don't have and have to rush to the local grocery, yes, I only shop once a week.

Does this feed you and Fred without eating out? Fred and I always eat out every week so it is difficult to judge. However, I do believe that I could stretch this bunch of ingredients, in conjunction with what is in my pantry/fridge, to feed us well for a week if we weren't to go out. In fact I think I bought too much here. For example - the avocados will probably last me three weeks in total.

Where is Acme selling the sandwich? Inside?: Yes the sandwich was inside - you'll have to double check which days it is available.

Do you cook everyday? Do you plan your meals ahead of time? If you do cook everyday, What time do you get home from work and what time do you eat dinner? I cook every day that we are not eating out. Usually when I go to the market I have one or two recipes in mind for which I have a physical list of ingredients and then I pick up what else looks good to make dishes ad lib. When I choose recipes in advance, of course I only [plan recipes I know will be in season. I get home from work at about 7.30 pm. I spend anything from 20 minutes to an hour cooking dinner and we don't eat until after 9pm. (We're European). I make staples like bread at the weekend and freeze it.

[Your List] seems to be lacking in proteins aside from eggs and sausage: Well there are only two of us - I think we have proteins every day and that is a dozen eggs there. That bacon will last us for two meals at least.

I guess during the week you both eat at work: Fred does but I don't. I can't bear to eat at the icky office cafeteria when I could take a healthful packed lunch full of these delicious ingredients instead. I always have leftovers when I cook a recipe - this is a good way to make sure they get eaten.

Not trying to nitpick: maybe Fatted Calf could let you know where their meats come from: I split the list into the Artisans and Farmers. I could have gone farther by detailing each of their ingredients as you suggest but this would have been difficult, to cover every ingredient in a clairesquare or Taylor's charcuterie. I have talked to Taylor about where his meat comes from in the past, but like you say - it is a mix I believe so it would be too difficult to track in a post like yesterday's. I think supporting local artisans over buying processed foods in a supermarket is a better way to go.

If we drive to the Ferry Building, and the food comes from 100 miles away, are we really eating local? That's a good point. After making that shopping list I was thinking I should probably support Star Route Farms over Heirloom Organics, because they travel less distance to get to the market.

Oh, how lucky you area: This is something I should remember every day. I realise eating locally is a no-brainer here in California.

How on earth do you find the time for this kind of important examination of your food habits??? If you keep notes as you go along it's not so hard. That said, I'm going to play devil's advocate a bit. I know you guys eat out a fair bit, which probably puts your $104 a little over-budget on a relative basis: Of course you are right. We can easily spend $100 on just one meal when dining out. I originally included a paragraph in yesterday's post about restaurant dining but later removed it because I wanted to keep the focus on the shopping list. However, I do think that I could actually live extremely well on $144 worth of local produce for a week if we weren't to dine out. It seems like more than enough money for two to me. I am not sure about having a family. That question is beyond my level of experience.

© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

More on The Cost of Food

How much do you Spend on Food?

And Does Your Shopping List Look Anything Like Mine?



I have been conducting a study for a while of how much I spend on food ingredients. It is #2 on my list of Food Resolutions for 2007. Every week since February 10th I have been keeping track of how much I spend on my weekly shop. Below is a copy of my latest shopping list for last Saturday. I am wondering how it compares to yours? Perhaps you think I am not eating locally enough (Yes, I have an insatiable weakness for Gruyere cheese)? Here in San Francisco we think of anything within 100 miles as local, but when I lived in London I would never have considered my home town of Bristol, 100 miles from London, to be local which raises an interesting point about what local actually is. Perhaps you think I spend too much money on food? Perhaps you think I am cheap? Perhaps you wonder how I get by without any processed foods in my basket? (It's easy, I like to cook.) Perhaps you wonder about staples - my pantry is always well stocked with flours, sugars, spices, grains, vinegars and oils which I will use to complement the fresh produce. If you care to share, I would be interested in your thoughts or comments about how your own shopping lists compare to mine.

The Eat Local Challenge have just announced their Penny Wise Challenge for April which encourages participants to try and eat locally on an average American food budget. (For us that would apparently be $144 per week which seems a reasonable amount to me.) For more details of how to join in check here.

My Shopping List Saturday March 24th, 2007
$03.50 LOCAL 70 Miles 2 bunches green onions | Everything Under the Sun
$03.00 LOCAL 80 Miles bunch asparagus | Zuckerman
$06.50 LOCAL 90 Miles 1 lb of walnuts | Alfieri
$12.00 LOCAL ARTISAN 0.2 Miles bacon and tolouse sausages | Fatted Calf
$08.00 LOCAL 40 Miles 1 dozen eggs | Marin Sun Farms
$06.00 LOCAL 70 Miles 3 x Plain Yogurt | St Benoit
$03.75 LOCAL 60 Miles mixed arugula rapini, green garlic, pea shoots | Knoll
$03.00 SEMI-LOCAL 125+ MILES bag of four Wills Avocados
$05.00 LOCAL 40 Miles Freshly Churned Jersey Butter | Spring Hill
$01.00 LOCAL 100 Miles bag of pepper cress | Heirloom Organics
$03.00 LOCAL 25 Miles three romaine hearts | Star Route
$01.50 LOCAL 90 Miles bunch of slender leeks | Dirty Girl
$06.00 LOCAL 60 Miles | Straus Butter
$06.87 NOT LOCAL Swiss Cave Aged Gruyere
$04.25 LOCAL 40 MILES Fromage Blanc | CowGirl
$02.50 LOCAL ARTISAN 2.3 Miles Plain Chocolate ClairesSquare | La Cocina
$18.50 LOCAL 100 Miles Olive Oil | Bariani
$02.90 LOCAL ARTISAN 2.7 Miles Pain Au Levain | Acme
$01.90 LOCAL ARTISAN 2.7 Miles Epi | Acme
$05.00 LOCAL ARTISAN 2.7 Miles *NEW* from Acme - Fra'mani Salami sandwich with butter and cornichons to take home for Fred's lunch. He was raving about this sandwich! He didn't even let me try it. He told me it far surpasses their croissant which until today was the weekly treat he was more than happy with. Darn it, the sandwich costs $3 more than the croissant. Oh well..

$104.17 TOTAL SPENDS



PS For further reference, prior shopping lists can be viewed on my food calendar here. (Check under 'Food Spends', generally posted on Saturdays)

Archives
2005 | Hot Cross Buns - Funny that two years to the day later, I was making my own Hot Cross Buns!

© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

How much do you Spend on Food?

Professional v Amateur Restaurant Critics, San Francisco Chronicle Weighs In:

Saying "Formerly formal discipline of reviewing becomes a free-for-all for online amateurs"



Results of the poll I ran between March 25th and March 28th 2007

Almost a month ago I agreed to be interviewed by journalist Justin Berton at the San Francisco Chronicle for an article about online restaurant critics that was inspired by the Jeffrey Chodorow palaver. Since Berton does not work for the food section, it was interesting to collaborate with him - in my view he approached the question about online food criticism from a more objective view point than a food journalist might.

They sent photographers around... took my picture... in silhouette to preserve my anonymity... and I waited... and nothing. I learnt that the Food Section was apparently writing a similar article and so Berton's piece was put on the back burner. I had simply accepted that the piece would never run. So imagine my surprise this morning when I woke up to a congratulatory email from a friend several friends alerting me to the fact that today I am in the paper.

The article is quite different from the one that Berton originally talked to me about. I am quoted as saying my 'training' comes from "eating food every day for the past 40 years". This designedly flippant remark of mine was supposed to be a humorous response to the journalist's questioning about whether critics should have formal culinary training or not although that argument isn't really touched upon so thoroughly in the final article.

Restaurateur Teo Kridech of Senses is rightly bitter after being shafted on Yelp, saying "Everyone has become a food critic. They think they're real big shots. They probably can't even make scrambled eggs.".

To him I would counter back that the rather arrogant view of his customers, would be better kept to himself if he hopes to attract good will and clientele since some of us 'amateur critics' certainly go beyond simply making scrambled eggs and actually go so far as to experiment to see if we can make them even better.

Today's article in The Chronicle is rather tired and dull. It doesn't really say anything new. Michael Bauer doesn't even bother to give his fellow bloggers the time of day when he states "I do think the traditional critic still has the most singular influence, but the playing field has been leveled significantly with sites such as Chowhound, Yelp, Citysearch and even Zagat," he said. "No longer does the newspaper have a lock on the information. It keeps us all on our toes." Same old, same old.

Mr Bauer - get with it. Haven't you heard of Blog Soop? Forget Chowhound, Yelp and all those other forums for anonymous online contributors to mouth off with barely care or thought for anyone. Show some respect to your fellow food bloggers, the ones who who take the time and the trouble to write restaurant reviews. The ones who really make efforts to go beyond emulating you. The writers who actually spend some time and thought on their words, people who might display some ethical judgements and who operate transparently. Food Bloggers might be a minority, but they are a stellar one.

Reference: The Association of Food Journalists Food Critics' Guidelines

Related reading from the Becks & Posh archives:

Michael Bauer 's Power in the City of Fog
Bauer - A Restaurateur's Perspective
Dear Jeffrey Chodorow
When you Piss upon a Star
The 'Becks & Posh' Restaurant Reviews Rules
The Launch of the Becks & Posh Restaurant Review Rating System

10 San Francisco-based Restaurant Review Blogs:

Dive
Kevin explores the culinary hole-in-the-walls, the greasy spoons, the lunch counters looking for that diamond in the rough.
Confessions of a Restaurant Whore
A San Francisco a girl's down and dirty adventures in the culinary playground, Joy has eaten at more fine dining establishments than anyone I know. (*X-rated language)
VinDivine
Who are John & Janine? I am not sure, but one thing is for sure I want to live it up like they do. They must have a fabulous life.
Yummy Chow
Our favourite Bunrabs dine out with lots of pictures.
The Finicky Lawyer:
A job-hating attorney celebrates the only agreeable side effect of her heinous job - dining out frequently - and shares the experience online.
A Few Reservations
In this left-wing, local-produce, low-mileage, Alice Waters-worshiping city, it's tough to find a genuinely exquisite vegetarian meal. Join the search here.
San Francisco Gourmet
A lawyer with a heart of gold, high-end tastes and a tendancy towards fine dining.
The Short Exact Guide
An everyday, law-abiding citizen who has a passion for exploring the planet’s diverse and inexhaustible cuisines.
Chuck Eats
All I can say is that I want Chuck's life. He even has a 2007 eating itenary planned! He lives in San Francisco but attempts to eat in the best restaurants all over the world.
Burritoeater
Only in San Francisco - the top local resource for taquerias and mustaches.

Dine with Me at Acme Chop House on April 26th and help support Stop Aids.org



© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

Professional v Amateur Restaurant Critics, San Francisco Chronicle Weighs In:

Bistro Des Copains, Occidental, Sonoma, CA

Très Charmant



A new dining choice in the small Sonoma town of Occidental is Bistrot Des Copains (Fred's translation: 'Buddies Bistro'). As soon as our host for the weekend, Tina Wolsborn, at The Occidental Inn heard we had a Frenchman in our party, she encouraged us to book a table there.

We arrived for their latest reservation at 9pm and the small room was packed and buzzing. Living up to its name - this place is certainly friendly - we were on first name terms with our server and the owner Michele in a matter of minutes.

Our waitress was practising her newly learnt French on Fred. She explained to us that Michele, who only opened the Bistro last summer, had recently closed up shop for a couple of weeks and taken several members of the staff team on an inspirational field trip to France. How cool is that - seriously?

For Francophiles, the choices on the menu are familiar and homey. I started with a Goat cheese in puff pastry with celeriac apple remoulade. I am certainly no mustard whimp but the hot, pungent, eye-watering wholegrain mustard (sourced from Fabrique Delice, I was told) that dressed the celery root, unfortunately overwhelmed everything else on the plate.

My main course of Rabbit braised with a much milder mustard pan sauce and served over wide noodles was far more successful. The rabbit was tender, the portion was generous and the pasta was perfectly al dente.

We washed the meal down with a bottle of 2004 Cuvee Les Petis Plats Nuit-St-Georges Rouge from their large and very reasonably priced wine list featuring many local wines too. Although chocolate cake is not my usual choice of dessert, I am glad I ordered Bistro Des Copain's version which was as light, fluffy and as good as they come. I really didn't like the bitter 2005 Mayo Family Winery Zinfandel Port from Ricci Vineyard that was recommended to us as a pairing. Next time I would something stickier and sweeter. Yes - there is always a next time...



This review was a first impression.

© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

Bistro Des Copains, Occidental, Sonoma, CA

Wild Flour Bread Bakery - Freestone - CA

Fresh out of the Wood Fired Brick Oven...


Driving along Bohemian Highway in Sonoma on a weekend, just off Highway 1 not too far from Bodega Bay, you can't fail to notice throngs of people hanging out next to a small building to the side of the road. As you fly by the first time, you might notice in your rear view mirror that you've just passed by a Bakery. A Bakery, in the middle of nowhere, with crowds of people outside. It's worth an investigation, surely?

The second time you journey in that direction, you are sure to remember to stop to see what is happening. As you open the door to Wild Flour Bread you are almost knocked out by the strong smell of the goat cheese that flavours a batch of flatbreads that have just come out of the brick oven. You buy one, of course, and nibble on it as you continue on your journey. It floods your car with the scent of freshly baked bread making you feel far more hungry than you really should be.

Wild Flour's breads are hearty, heavy, peasanty, wholesome and all made with sourdough starters - there are no commercial yeasts in this kitchen I was told. It's not really the kind of bread you'd used for a light French-style baguette sandwich, (believe me, Fred tried that later, disaster!), but it is great toasted with a steaming bowl of vegetable soup.

Local Resources
Wild Flour Bread
Other Resources & Further Reading
Like to do your own baking? Check out A Year In Bread launched yesterday: 3 Bakers, 12 months, 36 Recipes.

© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

Wild Flour Bread Bakery - Freestone - CA

The Inn at Occidental, Sonoma

A Weekend Away in Wine Country

A typical breakfast at the Occidental Inn

Downtown Occidental is only a couple of Blocks in its entirety



A beautiful collection of antiques decorate the Inn's interior

Once you accept the truth that staying anywhere in Wine Country that isn't a Best Western is going to cost you at least $300 a night, you can relax and start checking out the Bed & Breakfasts and Hotels online. I stumbled across The Inn at Occidental by accident whilst googling for hotels, and although it was 30 miles from where I really wanted to be, I fell in love with the idea of it from the website and so did Fred.

Everything about the Inn is totally charming, not least the owners Jerry and Tina Wolsborn who are so warm and so welcoming, they know every guest by name.

Each room is unique - for food lovers out there, you'll even find one called The Kitchen Cupboard, decorated with old kitchen gadgets. The beds are so comfortable, we are hatching a plan to buy one of the feather top-mattresses with Tina's help. At 5.30pm every evening Jerry and Tina host a reception featuring local wines and a selection of canapes. Breakfast is also included. The daily changing specials, which highlight local ingredients, could be a savoury cheese fritatta with tomato coulis and bacon or a stack of lemon ricotta pancakes with a berry sauce.

What to do? There are plenty of places to eat in the area, and cute little shops to browse. A drive to the beach is a possibility too - Occidental isn't too far from Bodega Bay. We took a tip from Taylor at The Fatted Calf and booked into the nearby Osmosis Spa for a Cedar Enzyme Bath and a massage, which was a great way to wind down and relax. I'll be sharing some more stories from our weekend over the next few days...

Archives
2006 | The English and their Tea


© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

The Inn at Occidental, Sonoma

Ahead of the (LA) Times

New Recipe experiments that took place in the Becks & Posh Test Kitchen during February 2007

The first of my resolutions for 2007 was to "Try a new recipe every week, if possible.". In January I started keeping notes, to remind myself which recipes might grace my kitchen table again in the future, and which ones I might rather put out with the trash. I continue the series today...



Oh verrines! Back in January, when Amanda and I started talking about plans for the first in our series of epic dinner parties, I told her that the next big thing were going to be verrines. I had fallen in love after seeing them on French language food blogs and I wanted an English-speaking verrine of my own. I insisted we put a verrine on our inaugural dinner menu. So when the LA Times declared the week before last that verrines are "the hottest trend you've never heard of", remember that if you were sharp-eyed enough, you saw it here first.

We used the recipe for Roquefort Trifle with French Butter Pear Relish in Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook. Keller's book is often accused of being to difficult to cook from, but some recipes, such as this one, are easy. It just requires some organisation and patience as there are four stages to complete before you put the trifle verrine together. I would definitely make this recipe again or use it to inspire different combinations of fruit and cheese using the same basic structure. I used disposable, plastic shot glasses to present the verrines. It worked a treat, so I have since invested in a dozen glass ones. They are a steal at Ikea.



When following the Christine Manfield recipe for Honey & Sesame Beef with Rice Sticks from The Cook's Book edited by Jill Norman, I made a couple of bad judgement calls I would rectify if I were to make it again, which I might do - we enjoyed this dish, especially since we use Marin Sun Farms grass fed beef which was delicious. The recipe called for Thai chilies which I was unable to source so I used Serranos instead. The recipe said nothing about discarding the seeds so I kept them in and the end result was more spicy than it needed to be. I also cut the amount of (Marshall's) honey by half, scared it would be too sweet for our taste. It wasn't, and maybe more honey would have helped balance the heat a little better, so next time I should follow the instructions more carefully. I was unable to buy the required watercress at the market so I used rocket (arugula) from Star Route instead which was a successful substitute.



I have had been in love with Nigel Slater for almost a year, from the moment I first bought a book of his: Real Food. I can't tell you the number of times I've poured over the pages, salivated over the pictures and agreed with the sentiments he delivers. The book even brandishes one of my favourite food quotes of all time: "I want a sausage that is sticky outside and juicy within. I want its skin to be tight and deep brown, and to be coated in that savoury, Marmite-like goo that comes with slow cooking." Maybe you don't have the foggiest about what he means. I do, you see, and I feel like I am sharing a little secret with him. It makes me feel a little bit warm, a little bit special, a little bit fuzzy, a little bit hot. Yes let's face it. A man who could give you a perfectly sticky, juicy sausage would be ... well, phew, excuse me, I think I have to go and take a cold shower...

The foreplay between me and Nigel had really lasted too long. I needed to get down to the nitty gritty and do it with him. It wasn't hard to choose, I needed his pork.


Pork with Cashews, Lime and Mint. OK, this recipe sucked when I made it. It looked almost exactly like the tempting picture in the book, but the lime element totally overpowered the other ingredients. Here is a copy of the (unedited) notes I made at the time of cooking:
pork with cashew nits and lime from Nigel Slater
Disappoinitng - too much lime! fred loved it? did mise en place which really helped the organisation - don't like slater's suggest meanwhiele... (like chop all thos ingredients in the time it takes to cook the pork = < than 3 minuutes I dont think so) next time - less lime, more fish sauce, more nuts, more herbs, maybe extra herbs on top maybe by a ok or do it in the non-sick because it overcooked a bit on the bottome of the all-clad - all the other flavours were drowned out by the lime, check i read the recipe right - he said big juicy limes and CA limes really ARE fat and juicy
That was an apalling paragraph, I know, but it's about time you got to see what kind of material I have to work with here, seriously. You can't get the staff these days! When I was moaning about this recipe to a friend, she sensibly asked me "why didn't you taste it as you went along"? Normally I would, but because everything had to come together so quickly over high heat, I was far more organised than when I usually cook, getting everything ready in advance, mise en place. Less lime next time. I might give it another go with some heavy changes. After all, I couldn't say no to a second date with Nigel, could I now?



Pork Belly Medallions of Braised, Rolled Pork Belly
This was one of the most popular dishes from the dinner party we held in February. We found the recipes in [Englishman] Marcus Wareing's Meat section of The Cook's Book. Several people have asked me for the recipe. Since it is not my recipe to give, I recommend anyone who is interested should simply buy the book instead. You won't regret it. The fact that I have given away no less than nine copies of this book as gifts to friends and family in the past year should be enough to persuade you that I think this is a cook book definitely worth owning.

The recipe asks for an entire pork belly. Ask your butcher to trim if for you. We made two dozen medallions - which fed twelve people perfectly. It could even have been stretched to feed twice as many people. Once cooked, keeping the medallions warm in the oven until we were ready to eat them, simply made the fatty pieces of meaty even more gooey than they would have been had we served it straight after cooking. This is a fantastic recipe for entertaining crowds. We highly recommend it. But beware - you have to start it a day ahead of when you will need it.



Beef Stroganoff
By coincidence, not by design, Marcus Wareing was also responsible for me cooking this Beef Strogoanoff, also found in The Cook's Book. This is so easy to make, it hardly even needs a recipe. Making sure you only use top quality ingredients will ensure fantastic success. We used a Marin Sun Farms grass-fed filet tip which was the mutt's nuts, Bellwether Farms creme fraiche, mushrooms from Far West Fungi, butter from Straus and onions and parsley from Chue's Farm.



Pine nut rosemary tart from The Last Course by Claudia Fleming. I can't take too much credit for this tart because friend Amanda Berne made the filling. I just made the pastry - using my favourite pâte sucrée from, you guessed it, The Cook's Book.

Other February Recipe Experiments Already Posted on Becks & Posh
Three Citrus Bundt Cake
Wine Pancakes
The Sweet Kiss of Almond Oil



PS. Apologies for not having posted for a few days. This post was actually intended to go up for Friday, explaining that we would be away for a few days, and to tide readers over the weekend. But we had internet connection problems on Thursday night, before we left town, and so I simply had to scarper and leave the blog untended. We were staying somewhere that didn't even have cell phone connection. It was blissful and there are small food stories to be told - I hope to fill you in over the coming days.

Archives
2006 | Sweet Napa
2005 | Eggbeater [Two Years of Bay Area Blogger of the Week!]

© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

Ahead of the (LA) Times

fine Photographs in fine Cooking

Hand Crafting Salumi in San Francisco



A couple of moths ago I was approached by Fine Cooking Magazine who wanted to use a couple of photographs I'd taken for The Fatted Calf. I agreed and they used two of my photographs - you can see them in the bottom left: Antonio Jeronimo, one of The Fatted Calf's workers, stuffing a sausage and some salamis hanging to dry. The pictures, which are the first I've ever had published, are in the May issue.



PS - I apologize for having neglected the blog over the past few days. It's a combination of putting in extra time at work to meet a deadline, being rear-ended on the 101 (don't worry - I am fine), and not having enough hours in a day.

© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

fine Photographs in fine Cooking

Heidi Swanson's Do-It-Yourself Power Bars

Super Natural Cooking with Super Delicious Results



Last year, when local blogger Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks first told me about the book she was writing, I wasn't 101% convinced. Talk of nutrition, healthful ingredients and using whole grains reminded me of some of the bad food I ate during my vegan days and when I cook, I like to make dishes that people will love simply because they taste good, regardless of what ingredients were used. "Heidi", I said, "I'll never get that stuff past Fred."

Recently published, Heidi's Super Natural Cooking appears to dispel the myth that healthy food is not delicious food. But having only tried a couple of recipes so far, don't expect a solid confirmation of that statement just yet, and in the interests of transparency let me confess straight up that my copy was a gift from the author herself.

Heidi's gorgeous pictures and my first successes with Super Natural Cooking have already got me hooked and I am now fired up to try out more of Heidi's suggestions. In fact, it is completely Heidi's fault that I found myself at Rainbow Grocery yesterday, filling my basket with all manner of things I normally pass by without a second glance like wheat berries, farro, oat bran, rice syrup and brown crispy rice. Look! Already she is changing the way I eat and the way I shop.

The first recipe I tried was Heidi's Do-It-Yourself Power Bars. Wanting to highlight local fruit I swapped out the cranberries for dried pluots which are a personal favourite of mine. I also included almonds along with the walnuts suggested in the original recipe.

My sister, Beccy, is hosting her first blogging event this week - she is part of a group who participate in a regular challenge called Fun Mondays. It is not generally a food event, but Beccy has declared it to be so this week and she has asked for entrants to post an inspiring recipe. Because I genuinely am feeling inspired by Heidi's book and because Beccy has recently been on a Flapjack roll, which apparently her kids love, I thought Beccy might like to try out these bars which could be a similar way to deliver nutritious ingredients to her children without using too much sugar. Beccy probably won't like ginger (although it is subtle, not overpowering in this recipe), but these bars are adaptable and you can swap out the nuts and fruits for your own favourites without ruining the result. You could even add chocolate chips if you wanted (I thought about it).

I think Fred must have overheard me talking words of self congratulation to myself when I first sampled the results of my power bar efforts. After a short wait I noticed him sneak into the kitchen to try it for himself. "Oh, F***!" he exclaimed, clearly surprised, "yes it's good. Mmmmmm". Like a grown up rice krispie cake - all gooey and crunchy at the same time and they are so unbelievably delicious without being too sweet, this is a recipe I know I'll experiment with again and again.

Here follows my adaption of Heidi's recipe which, apart from the couple of ingredient swaps already noted, follows the original pretty closely. For your information, these bars are soft set, prone to falling apart and are fairly sticky and gooey too. All adds to their deliciousness.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon coconut oil (this is basically just to grease the pan so you could conceivably replace it with a healthy nut or vegetable oil)
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup walnuts or nut of your choice(toasted and chopped)
1/2 cup flaked almonds or nut of your choice (toasted)
1/2 cup oatbran
1 1/2 cups crisped brown rice cereal
1 cup chopped dried fruit (I used pluots)
3 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger
1 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 cup unrefined cane sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

Method:
- First grease a 9" x 13" baking pan with the coconut oil
- In a bowl gather the next seven dry ingredients.
- In a small saucepan stir together the remaining ingredients over a medium heat until they start to bubble and boil and thicken slightly.
- Pour the hot liquid in with the dry ingredients and mix until they are fully coated in the syrup.
- press down the mixture in the baking pan and leave to cool.
- cut into bars before serving



PS - Plutos can be fairly sour and sharp. I like them but Fred is not so keen and he asked me to choose a different fruit next time I make these bars.

PPS I have also made the Tangeloquat version of the Clemenquat Salad in Heidi's book which is fabulous if you are a celery fan. (Fred clearly isn't.) I have never really cared much for Kumquats, because of their tart rinds but in this recipe, once they are sliced wafer thin and then married with celery, parmesan, toasted walnuts, citrus flesh and a lemony dressing the Kumquats show what simple magic they are capable of working.

Local Resources
One stop shop for a wide range of natural ingredients | Rainbow Grocery
Dried Pluots | from Bella Viva
Walnuts and Almonds | Alfieri
Grown in California | Lundberg Organic Rice Syrup
Heidi Swanson blogs | Mighty Foods and 101 Cookbooks

Archives
2006 | XYZ at The W
2005 | Marin Sun Farm Eggs - two years later I am still buying these delicious eggs despite their increase in price to $8 a dozen.


© 2007 Sam Breach at "Becks & Posh", becksposhnosh.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact becks.posh.food.blog[AT]gmail[DOT]com to report any suspected violations. Thank you.

Heidi Swanson's Do-It-Yourself Power Bars