Royan, France

When I was 17, my parents bribed (no joke) me into living in France for a summer. They wanted me to perfect my French ("because languages are very important"), while my dreams were of traveling the Caribbean via yacht on some program called something like Sail Caribbean. Ah, sunlight, boat, tan...what could be better? My parents were not into the whole waste your summer away thing so that was a point of contention. And then, my friend Jess invited me on a cruise with her family during winter break. And I really wanted to go. Really. And I had never been on a cruise before (my parents were vehemently against anything pertaining to cruises and laying out in the sun unproductively). And my dad is a lawyer. So what did we do? We struck a deal. I would be allowed to attend the cruise with Jess if I agreed to move to France for the summer. Deal. (Do I have great parents or what!?)


(I actually found a shot of Avenue Pontaillac, the street I lived on with my French fam.)

There are many stories pertaining to my summer-long sojourn in Royan, France including Nick the half French half American surfer that I fell impossibly in love with for that summer or longer- however my most brilliant memory was in fact...(hold your breath this is a toughie) my French cooking class and MOUCLADE.


Seriously, I can still remember how heavenly they were (though I can't remember the exact recipe). For some reason, it was hard for me to find a mouclade recipe for a long time and then I went through a period of thinking that the name of the dish wasn't mouclade and rather something else...but I have decided that it was in fact mouclade. Mouclade is made something like this (and I don't completely remember how it is done, like I said): As I recall, we cooked the fresh mussles in some white wine and leeks until they steamed open. Then separately we made this decadent cream sauce. We then carefully took each mussel, removed half the shell so each piece of mussel meat was inside 1/2 the shell and placed them meat up on a baking sheet. We then poured this amazing cream sauce over them. As we ate we sucked the mussel out of the shell, cream and all. When I get back to LA I plan to make this recipe asap (I found a French cookbook with this recipe).

When home for the holidays...

Eat. Usually, when I return home to NY after an extended stay in LA one of the first things I do is hit up Whole Foods. I need to start by saying that I do not like Whole Foods. I accept it. I like Farmer's Markets, but unfortunately no such animal exists in Scarsdale during winter, actually (sadly) nor does it exist during the summer either. Scarsdale isn't exactly the farming community...rather, it's more the I-don't-even-cook-I-order-in-food-or-go-out-type-community. Whatever. The only decent shops in the area are Balducci's- and before I even continue on to mention WF in this scenario I need to discuss my deep abhorance for Balducci's. So, I am going to start by saying the highest quality chocolate they carried is Ghirardelli and I know this because I have twice attempted to buy chocolate there for some dessert I was making. The first attempt made me angry, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt thinking that maybe they were just out....after the second attempt I realized they actually don't carry anything better. Wow, how sad is that. Do they think Ghirardelli is good? Because it is not.
It's unfortunate because before Balducci's was Balducci's is was Hay Day and Hay Day was actually solid. They made this ham on the bone situation that my mom would always buy and they would slice it like half an inch thick and sometimes it would still be warm because it was freshly made...o.m.g.
So, back to store and shopping. OH AND...I forgot this recent incident. So, I was home for TG like a month ago and was on the lookout for burrata. In my mind burrata is a very basic ingredient that all stores that sell mozzarella should carry. It seems to be rampant in LA, so i just figured since NYC (and surrounding areas) are more gastronomic than LA, that I wouldn't have a problem finding it. Ha, silly silly me. The cheese guy didn't even know what burrata was. Like seriously- I can't even respond to that.
So, yeah I hate Balducci's. So my next best bet ends up being the ubiquitous Whole Foods. I mean, I shop there in LA when I miss a Farmer's Market...so I guess it's oookkkkaayyy...and I was able to find my Valrhona chocolate there for baking.
So, back to my original statement...when I am home I eat well. Very well.
This morning my dad went to (gasp ugh gr) Balducci's to pick up some breakfast items, one of which included salami aka "salumi." Hm, salami/salumi, what does she mean. Ok, they are the same thing. I used to call the cured pork roll salami, and somehow along the way working at Bon App I switched over to the more pretentious terminology pronounced sa-loom-e. I always just figured this was the way the Italians said salami. Recently, I referred to this item with the latter name and received a confused response from a fellow foodie friend who didn't know what "salumi" was? Then I started wondering, what iiisssssss salumi? I mean, come on. It is a bit pretentious (we areeee in America). Let's think about one of the most American foods...um, a hamburger. Or, to be more specific...a MacDonalds Quarter Pounder. Well, it's totally American but do you think they call it a MacDonald's Quarter Pounder? Hell NO. Firstly, MacDonalds in French is MacDo. Seconds a Quarter Pounder is a Royale (with cheese) or wait, maybe that is just from Pulp Fiction.
Whatever! So, sometimes I say salami, sometimes salumi...subconsciously depending on the company too (I think). As I write this i really started wondering whether there is a differene between the two names, and here is the answer: "Salami" [sal-AH-mee]", and "Salumi" [sal-UU-mee]. "Salami" is a specific style of cured Italian sausage, fermented and air-dried. Salami is a sub-set of salumi. "Salumi" on the other hand, is the general description for all Italian preserved meatproducts which are usually cured and predominantly made from pork.
I bet that my fellow BAers didn't even know that, they just went with and fancier name!
So, my dad came home this morning with some salame that was very delish and unique. It was made by Columbus (columbussalame.com) and cured with fresh porcini. It was literally jam=packed with porcini flavor so much that I ran (yes, I ran not walked) back to the counter to examine the paper around the salame. A bit salty, a bit porky sweet, and some earthy nuttiness from the porcini, all in a chewy round. If you ever see it, BUY IT!

There are two unrelated food endeavors that I wanted to write about. 1. My rice cooker. 2. Julie & Julia.
At about age 11 I became addicted to sushi rice. Really, I did. At my old house on Ferncliff Road we had these Japanese neighbors with two kids and Peter and I would go over to their house to play. In retrospect I think I probably just went over for the rice because their daughter Rie (yes, it's almost like rice) was about 3 years old at the time and their son Tatsuya was probably about 8? Maybe? I dunno, but for some reason I was over at their house around dinner time and I was always served a bowl of sticky white rice. (And I would always finish and want more but was too polite to ask for seconds.) I was in heaven. They had this amazing huge rice cooker that would keep the rice warm all day...and while my parents were more than experienced cooks- the rice maker just didn't fit in with our fam. At some point, circa grade 8 maybe, my mom bought this ghetto rice maker (ghetto to me compared to the bomb one my neighbors had!) and I was so angry that she bought the "bad" kind because...did it keep rice warm? NO. Did if even make sticky rice? NO. My dad claimed it was the type of rice used, but no matter what kind of rice we bought, no sticky rice ever emerged from that cooker. UGH. All I can say...is that they should have listed to me back then...same thing about when they bought me the ghetto ice cream maker, remember that? And then last year for christmas I got the super fancy kind....I see this as a trend here. Because...about a month ago I bought a ZojiRushi rice cooker and let me tell you....helloooooo sticky rice! White, brown, black, I don't discriminate based on color, I make it! And, guess who jumped right aboard the rice boat? Yup, my mom. And guess who is totally beyond obsessed....yup, both parentals, and brother as well! What do we learn from this story? When I recommend a cooking product don't pitter patter around for 10 years debating the pros and cons- just buy the damn thing!
But seriously, my rice cooker has changed my life, no joke. I am not Asian or anything, but I wake up in the morning, make rice, eat it for lunch, let it stay warm allll day and roll it up in nori as a snack later in the day. I even experimented and made brown rice with coconut milk in lieu of water. As Ali G would say, Success!
One last thing on the subject of my ZojiRushi that I forgot to mention...when you press Start and when the rice is finished cooking, the cooker sings twinkle twinkle little star. No joke. How...Japanese.
Ok, on to less important things. Well, not really less important. I am reading that book by Julie Powell, Julie & Julia. I only bought it because a year ago I was at Barnes and Noble with my friend David Lasky and he told me it was awesome...I was skeptical but hey, it was on sale for $6.99 so I went with it. Now, here I am a year later finally half way though. So, I had this idea...I am a huge Barefoot Contessa fan (I used to shop there when I was little with my parents in East Hampton before it (sigh) sadly closed) and Ina Garten...she has like 4 or so cookbooks so why not cook through those the way that Julie Powell cooked through MtAoFC? So, that is my newest idea and will decide what to do with that thought when I get back to LA. If anyone has any feelings on this matter, please feel free to share.

So, it is something AM...let's see, that would be 1:38 plus 3 hours because I am now on east coast time, so 4:38 AM and I obviously am not sleeping. Oh, and the above listed photo of my grandmother after she downed a beer has nothing to do with this post, I just thought I had to get that shot in somewhere! And, PS- she is 90 years old!
Anyway, in my unsleepableness I am pondering Christmas desserts. My brother Peter is going to be my sous and we have slightly decided our menu. Firstly, we are going to make Mont Blanc, one of my absolute fav desserts, but we are making a version derived from the pastry chef Miho Travi (I dunno if she is even still the pastry chef) at Fraiche in Culver City. Instead of using chestnuts, we will be using Japanese sweet potatoes aka satsumaimos. Secondly, I am going to attempt the up until now unattemptable...to make a recipe from my grandmother's (not the one pictured above) ancient Viennese cookbook titled, (shocker) Viennese Cooking. It's a somewhat tattered red book with black writing, about 1-inch thick and dates back to probably the 50s. You may wonder why this book is..unattemptable, even for a somewhat knowledgeable baker. I will clarify. I am pretty good with following recipes. To the point where I frequently don't measure ingredients, I rather eyeball an estimation and add (though there are occasional mishaps like the time I added too much butter to a brownie recipe, resulting in an interesting burned situation which I was ready to toss in the garbage until my boyfriend's friend Lukas started snacking on them and declared them his favorite thing I had ever made. I was confused...to say the least).
But back to the book. I find Julia Child to be a bit unclear with vague references in various recipes- and this Viennese Cooking book totally pulls a Julia. Here is an example: ok so literally I just randomly opened the book to a veal goulash recipe and the first order is "heat the fat and add the salt pork and fry slightly." Here is what runs through my head where I read this: Fat? What kind of fat? Salt pork? What's salt pork? Pork that has been salted? Or is there some type of pork that has been cured in salt or something that I don't know about? And fry slightly? How long is slightly?
With that said, I think you get the idea. I am going to attempt a torte that my grandmother used to make for my dad--from that book yeaaah. Those are my prelim thoughts, with more to come.

I am a Finalist!

So, I entered a silly recipe contest and was chosen and a finalist, so I would be thrilllllllled if you could vote for my recipe! Thanks!!

Varnish

I am a HUGE fan of NYC's cluster of "sophisticated" cocktail bars/speakeasies like Milk and Honey, The Little Branch, Pegu Club, Death & Co., and I am dying to try ahhh can't think of the name right now but it begins with an A and it's totally hidden and they serve cocktails with vitamins...
Anyway, my top LA cocktail picks are currently Hungry Cat and Comme Ca (they hired the MnH people to consult on their bar menu), but I am SO excited to check out Varnish, which JUST opened in that old school resto, Cole's. Varnish is a project of Sasha Petraske (MnH) and two other guys (one of which who used to work at MnH and the other who reopened Cole's).

The Big TG

Of course, I went home to NY for Thanksgiving. The night before my flight to NY I basically got no sleep because at first I couldn't fall asleep, and I had to be up around 5 am for my flight so...yeah, I was tired. Anyway, I get to NY and decide not to take a nap like I normally would, so I forced myself to stay awake until about 10 when I finally fell asleep. However, I woke up at 3 am and was WIDE awake and couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided to start cooking. I decided to make this flourless hazelnut tart, but I realized the recipe called for Frangelico (hazelnut liquor), and my parents didn't have any, so I switched to another Bon Appetit flourless chocolate hazelnut tart recipe that also calls for homemade Jack Daniels ice cream (it's actually SOO good)- but I decided to omit this part (since my bomb ice cream maker is in LA).


So, when cooking with chocolate, my chocolate of choice is definitely Valrhona, but since it can be pricey Callebeut is a good substitution. For my tart I used Valrhona and it was a big success, but keep in mind that this tart is VERY rich. It's like a hazelnut truffle in tart form.
That was my contribution, in addition to mulled wine, and some apps.
My dad took over the rest of the kitchen with my mom as the sous.


I have mentioned before that when I was little, I was always the kid with the weird lunch...and this is because my dad was always trying out new recipes and the leftovers became my lunch. This year, he decided to go the Thai route with one of the sides (using a NY Times recipe as inspiration) he made butternut squash (sounds normal so far...), but he baked the squash in a mixture of coconut milk and chile paste...it was interesting but definitely NOT traditional TG.


In addition to that we had the requisite turkey, which my dad brines in salt and sugar and star anise among other spices for 2-3 days, then mr.turkey gets wrapped in cheese cloth (to help keep the bird moist) and baked for several hours.


Last year I made my dad buy one of those awesome heirloom turkeys that the NY Times wrote about, but that turkey was like anorexic or something, and there was so little meat that this year we went the regular store-bought turkey route.


Then there was stuffing. Last year we had a chestnut stuffing as I recall, but this year we had one with mushrooms. To make the stuffing my dad toasts bread until it great really hard and crusty, then chops it into small cubes and adds...umm, actually I don't know exactly what he adds....stuff...turkey stuff...and 2ish eggs to bind it all together.


Then we had his famous roasted potatoes (which I am going to teach at an upcoming cooking class), which is just potatoes cubed and roasted in olive oil and salt then mixed around, and they are seriously my favorite thing ever. Oh yeah, then there was cranberry sauce (which I don't really like- I've never been a big cran sauce person), but my dad makes his with cranberries and oranges...and I think we had more but now I cant remember the rest.
I did wake up at 3 am again that night after dinner and go to the kitchen to scarf down leftover turkey--sooo goood, the leftovers are the best part!
This year, my 20-year old brother, Peter, missed TG because he was on term abroad studying in London. Yeah, Peter grew up in a super gastronomic family, but he never really expressed much interest in food (which is not to say that he didn't like good food because he was def a food snob...though he probably didn't know it at the time...but just didn't show interest in actually cooking himself) except for when I would force him to cook with me. I would say, "Peter, let's make falafels" and he would never say no, but rather..."uhhh okkkkkkkkkk."


(This picture was stolen off Peter's Facebook page-I think this is a TG dinner shot but not 100% sure! And Peter is the one in the middle, kinda hidden.)
ANYWAY, I was both thrilled and shocked to find out that a- Peter had requested truffle oil from my parents to be sent to him, but more importantly that b- he made Thanksgiving dinner for all his friends including a roast turkey with stuffing and some other items. I actually had quite a funny phone conversation with him the day before he started cooking: K: I heard you are making TG dinner, thats amazing. P: Yeah, we decided last minute and it was so hard to find a turkey. We called every store and finally found a 50 pound one at Whole Foods. K: They have Whole Foods in London? 50 pounds? Really? That turkey must be HUGE. P: Yeah. Yeah, that was the only one left. K: Wow, Peter, how big is a 50 pound turkey? Did you tell Dad you are making a 50 pound turkey? P: No, I didn't tell him. Wait no, it's 50 pounds, like it cost 50 pounds, not that it weighs 50 pounds. K: OMGGGGG I thought you bought a turkey that weighs 50 pounds I was like that must be huge. P: Hahah no, that was how much it cost.
Yeah, so, everyone in the fam cooks.

Cook with Me!

So, I started teaching cooking classes and they are going really well. Since I want to have my own cooking show on tv, and because I have many friends who love good food just don't know how to cook it- I thought it would be a grand idea. All my recipes are simple and I want people to feel like they can go home and create what we created in class. Very happily, I have heard many success stories of students who went home and were able to recreate what we made in class! In the first class we made pasta with a tomato- basil white wine sauce and a salad with a balsamic vinaigrette. The next class was roasted broccoli and wild mushroom quinoa.


I then held a holiday appetizer class where we made garlic-rubbed crostini with burrata and heirloom tomatoes, as well as chevre with pink peppercorns and fennel pollen, and chevre with garlic and pomegranate molasses. The most recent class we made roasted butternut squash with hazelnut oil, chevre and thyme, in addition to fettuccine with roasted walnuts, parmesan, and herbs. Big successssssssss.