2010 September « le blog de tranny

September 30, 2010

smokin’ hash

…and cornmeal pancakes to boot! Warm Sundays when Caro and I both don’t have work have been the most therapeutic lately. Not only do we actually get to see each other, which in itself seems like a rarity these days (especially when compared to how often we would just hang around the house together when we lived in Oaktown), but we actually cook together. Last Sunday we started off the morning with a trip to the farmers’ market down the street from our house — it was my first time checking it out and I must say it was small, but very solid.

Divis x Grove.

It’s still tomato season. Good to know there’s a place where I can still find flavorful, non-mushy tomatoes this time of year. Indian tomato summer?

This fish stand was so close to cutting it in terms of a local fishmonger but alas, no herring (or other fresh small fish). Berkeley Bowl doesn’t have fresh herring or sardines either. Where the hell is a solid fishmonger around here??

After cruising the farmers’ market, Caro and I came home bearing beets, potatoes, figs, berries and of course, tomatoes and cooked a truly amazing brunch.

Caro broke out the Mark Bittman and set to work making some cornmeal pancakes.

Meanwhile, I started on the red flannel hash. It’s actually quite easy to make. First I peeled and chopped a few carrots and a few beets and then steamed them for 10-15 minutes until they were tender. I chopped some red potatoes and steamed those too. They took a bit longer.

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September 28, 2010

the fried bread trick

Hi friends – it’s been a while. Living in SF has meant a lot of things — perhaps most notably eating and drinking out a lot and not cooking as much as I would like. Not that this has been completely my fault. Let me tell you about our stove. It can hardly be called a stove. It’s more like a stovie, or a stove that’s half the size of a regular stove. A full-sized pizza pan cannot even be fit into this oven. Hell, our oven doesn’t even work unless you take off the back and fire it up manually! Did I mention that the range leaks gas unless we turn off the valve behind it, and that we have to light it manually (with matches) every time we want to use it? Hopefully this all will soon be one of those things we can laugh at in retrospect. Tomorrow I will call the repair man, and I will be forceful. Like with so many other things (i.e. lack of a microwave), we’ve managed to find ways to work around our kitchen’s deficiencies. Cooking without a working oven is actually almost doable.

The other day I had this undeniable urge to make a romesco sauce, like the one they often serve with squid cooked in the wood-fired oven at Pizzaiolo. This requires blanched almonds and hazelnuts (toasted to remove the skins). The latter I did on the stove.

Blanching 101: soak the almonds in boiled water for a minute, then rinse and rub the skins off. News to me!

I attempted to “toast” the hazelnuts by just heating them in the pan (without oil) and shaking them around a bit. They did not toast evenly, nor did all the skins come off, but in the end it didn’t really matter.

I think I discovered the secret to why romesco is so delicious and crunchy! There’s fried bread in it!

Squid was an obvious choice for pairing with the romesco sauce. But when I was cruising the fish counter at Berkeley Bowl I noticed a tastier, cheaper option that I couldn’t resist surprising Caroline with — baby octopus!

She was elated.

Caro seasoned the squid and octopi with lemon juice, lemon zest and red pepper flakes before throwing them on the grill. The lemon zest added the tastiest kick.

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September 9, 2010

breakfast burrito lessons

We’ve all learned these by now; just thought I’d get them down on paper.

1. One tortilla is never big enough.
Tortillas come plenty to a pack, so why do I always end up piling so much burrito filling onto one tortilla that it becomes impossible to actually roll it into a burrito? I can’t count the times that I’ve intended to make a burrito and ended up with a humongous over-stuffed taco. My hand ends up compensating for the surface area that one tortilla lacks. I’ve learned that it’s far more sensible to aim for two reasonably sized burritos from the outset. It’s that one-tortilla mindset that leads us all to being greedy. Why don’t they sell full-sized burrito tortillas at any mainstream grocery store anyway? What’s the deal with this whole, failing to supply things that would probably be really easy to supply and that many sensible people would probably want, thing? Are we in the UK?

2. One can of beans is never enough.
A can seems like quite a lot but its contents always shrivel to a pathetically small mound after simmering on the stove for 7ish minutes (with a bay leaf, some chili powder and oregano — that’s how I like it anyway). Am I deceived by the bean liquid? When there inevitably ends up being only enough beans for three people to each have one burrito with proper proportions I can’t help but wonder why I didn’t just bother to open another can, when they cost like $1.50 each.

It would take a lot more than these hiccups to ruin a breakfast burrito Sunday for me. Eggs scrambled with onions and soyrizo, fried potatoes, black beans, perfectly ripe avocado, grated cheese and fresh cilantro piled on top of the biggest flour tortillas they had at the Health Haven down the street, eaten in the backyard with plenty of Cholula. (Doesn’t that read like a commercial for TB gorditas or some new Del Taco breakfast item that you would hear on the radio minus the fact that not everything is made from either corn or ground kangaroo?) Such little effort for so satisfying a morning. xo

September 4, 2010

an offal saturday, a jaunt along haight

These photos are from that magnificent weekend (two weekends ago?) when both Normy and Kev were staying with us. (Kev stayed with us for a bit over two weeks in toto; Norm’s visit was toute brève.)

After a relaxing morning of breakfast burritos at Bean Bag followed by some SATC on my bed, Norm and I ventured out to Haight, where we decided to give Toronado a try. I had a pint of Death & Taxes while Norm sampled two different sour beers. We’d heard/read that the bartenders here are d-bags but when you know what you want to order and limit your interaction with the bartender to politely placing that order, it seems as though an altercation can easily be avoided. I found Toronado to be quite small, like a porta-potty.

Kevin met up with us and three of us hiked up Haight to the Alembic.
At the Alembic I got a jack rose: apple jack, lemon juice and grenadine. I’m pretty sure Kev got the bourbon old-fashioned and Norm, I would guess, got the sazerac.

Sooo cuties!

I guess it was pretty late in the day by the time we made it over to the Alembic as dinner was already being served!
Normykins got the pressed duck confit.

My dinner consisted of the hiramasa sashimi with compressed watermelon, pickled rind, chili threads and red shiso and the jerk spiced duck hearts with pickled pineapple and thyme salt. (I’d contemplated ordering the duck hearts and the bone marrow but Norm cautioned me that that would make me an ogre.) So began my tummy’s wild and fun-filled ride!

OMFG the duck hearts were SO GOOD. They had the consistency of a really tender, juicy steak, i.e. the texture didn’t weird me out at all. So succulent and impeccably seasoned! Definitely the best thing I’ve ordered here — and that’s saying a lot, considering how tasty their (lunch and dinner) menus are!

I ordered the southern exposure for my second round after sampling Norm’s — junipero gin, mint, lime juice, sugar and celery juice! The celery juice rounded out the flavors quite nicely. So refreshing!