92! Scratch made fish cakes
Stuffed pepper and poached cod mixed with the leftover potatoes from the fish tacos.
Feta and cucs and tomatoes oh my!
Food related
Return to the Santa Monica Farmers Market
Finally back to the market after nearly 4 months…we tried two weeks ago but protests had it closed down (the same neighborhood had had looters)…there are still lots of boarded up windows:
But the market was busy even though its way spread out for distancing:
On of the prizes and purposes for the trip was mara des bois…from Harrys Berries
Pricey but he loves them.
I went for tomatoes and they finally are debuting:
Also found were lemon cucumbers and german butterballs.
And our first goat cheese in a long while.
This is the closest to normal i have felt in a while even with masks and spacing. I needed a brief moment to be happy….
Recent food finds
I am constantly taking pictures of food that i see and i have fallen so far behind in sharing lately. Im going to try and do a catch up of the last couple weeks of things that I thought were fun enough to share. Passionflowers are blooming, figs and squash are in season. We are like a week or two away from the Southern California summer cornucopia of ridiculous bounty.
My neighbor at the community garden has a full on passionflower wall growing. I have never had the fruit. I was planning to trellis one in my backyard this year but a young plant wont survive our july vaca so after we return.
The van nuys german deli is sooo close to my house:
Usually i will get two smoked brats, 2 swiss and 2 neurenberger for the 2 of us and simmer in saurkraut and wine…
Head cheese anyone?
Does everyone know that i love marzipan! British cadbury chocolate and marzipan enrobed in dark chocolate are two wonderful things.
Gooseberries!
If you zoom in, you will notice flavors of soy sauce in this chinese whisky
Fresh almonds
Dragonfruit
Banana blossoms
No name whiskey shots for your carry on bag
I thoroughly enjoy stroopwafel and if you have had an am flight on United, you have been gifted with a stroopwafel…not sure of the cocktail i would make with this
Last weekend was a roadtrip to the BH branch of Laduree to get the much coveted Barbie box
And of course view the special promo display dolls
Macaron!!!!!
Its fig season! I have some in the fridge waiting to be covered with cheese and balsamic
Its still peach season
Jim is scoping out his fav variety of strawberry
Tomatoes are breaking in. Next week will be full blown tomato explosion
Look close…bok choi and cress flowers
The aquash in unstoppable now.
So that updates like 2 weeks of non restaurant/non home cooking pics….home tou saw something fun or unique.
Be our guest be our guest
So some of you may have noticed my plates, serveware, cookware, is mostly le creuset.
So unbenownst to me williams Sonoma had a limited edition piece like none ive seen so far.
And today it arrived:
So…..opinions please. This is a pan i have wanted for a while, the price is inflate due to limited edition, do i use it? Keep it on “display”? Or sell it? The prices are already up on ebay:-p
James Beard Award Winners
So…Los Angeles didnt represent–except for some finalists. Chicago, who knew there was so much yum there. Heres a link to the James beard award winners…from open table so you can quickly snag a reservation. Has anyone been to any of them…let us know
Speaking of James Beard, i was bombarded by emails telling me to watch his documentary….America’s First Foodie! We havent seen it but here is he Bon Appetit article from last week : Americas First Foodie. The man had a tv show before any of the others but he was before his time…..let me know what you think!
Third street promenade farmers market
We are blessed to have a year round growing season, and we are on the verge of the moment where the most of those riches shine! Saturday at the santa monica third street promenade farmers market, the following are a prelude to the full summer bounty:
Figs! I forgot to take a pic before i cut up the ripe ones…it was a nice basket of 1/2 ripe and half ripe in a day or two
My fav farmers market cheese for years…i got the mozzarella and asiago…dont for one minute think its traditional mozza or asiago…they surely have their own style . Spring hill jersey cheese from nocal.
Lemon cucumbers
Baby red leaf heads
The very first of the tomatoes
Citrus!!!
Cucs abound
Herbs
Its still cherry and peach season
Jim Taylor waits for these puppies all year…high price, small fruit, big taste
One years i will buys these and spend the day shucking them. Can you imagine fresh garbanzos!?!
So tonight the figs will be sharing a plate with goat cheese and a Bordeaux cherry balsamic ibought in palm springs
My new favorite kitchen tool
The oven crisper pan! Jim was watching HSN and a version of these came on the screen..they looked intersting so i was immediatly on the amazon app pricing and then ordering.
My first use was fries
Here they are getting ready for the over and i cannot find my “after pic” (which may mean that i forgot to take one)….
But I did remember to take a picture of my tofu fries when they were all nice and golden top and bottom
I have already bought a second set as a gift. And im looking forward to using them fith zuchini and eggplant in the near future.
My grill gets korean
I wanted to grill. I was thinking how we grill kimchi at korean bbq….somehow i didnt get grilled kimchi but i got kimchi, grilled soy things, grilled rice cakes…
I made some sprouts and cucs as sides:
Since my partner is allergic to sesame…i made it with hot chili oil and gochujang and salt
Found this recipe online…quick marinade. Salt sugar and coconut vinegar and i threw in a few pepper flakes and garlic
The rice cake marinated a bit in kimchi
Soy ginger dressing on the eggplant
Bok choi with hot oil
It all gets grilled
Homemade kimchi on the side
Yum
Kimchi and me
Jim bought me a new cookbook after we heard the authors on the radio
Amongst the treasures was a doable looking kimchi recipe.
And after a trip to the korean market and the farmers market i went to it:
Salted soaked and drain my veg…
Then combined the flavor:
Korean red pepper flakes
Tamari (gluten free soy sauce–aka soy sauce made with so not wheat)
Gochujang
Plus some rice wine vinegar, garlic and ginger
And there she sat for a day at room temp, then six in the fridge.
And today we are making
Stinky tofu will ferment at room temp for 48 hours. Then it will get fried…so monday is probably rice and stinky tofu night
Meanwhile, i totally made another batch of kimchi, and have a jar saved from batch 1 for kimchi fried rice during the week.
Gut shots
Since my stint on two weeks of antibiotics, my stomach hasnt been the same…and today i found this:
Farmhouse Culture makes krauts and kimchis and clearly they are now bottling the juice
This one has a burn!
Bottoms up:
