I’m in Mountain View staying with my cousin Claudia and her family. She made some amazing cookies and chocolate candies and I just wanted to display pics I took. I helped her make the chocolate candies but the ones I made have the weird color combinations.
I’ve been to a lot of farmer’s markets in Chicago, Evanston, Oak Park, Madison, Dallas but none of them can compare to the beautiful bounty on display this morning at the San Francisco Farmer’s market in the Ferry Building off the wharf. Here are some pics of things I couldn’t bring home. I spent a lot of money on items that would fit in my suitcase so you can see firsthand the cool things they sell. I also had a cup of drip coffee (there’s pic below) and a donut muffin (what a neat idea!) for breakfast.
These are all scenery pics. Beautiful morning. Californians get up late. At 8 am at the Evanston or Chicago farmer’s markets, the place would have been already bustling and packed with people. Here, the vendors are kinda still sleepily setting up.
My breakfast: Drip coffee. Literally! and bird.
Here are finally the good pics–of the food items.
And of course, my passion–grass fed beef and the charcuterie stand for Ben.
I’m in San Francisco this week for the American Geophysical Union fall meeting. It’s mostly for earth and space scientists but as a NASA fellow studying atmospheric chemistry, I wanted to check it out. This meeting also has a few sessions on biogeochemistry which is what I’ll be studying during my postdoc at Johns Hopkins. In preparation for my big meeting, I’ve taken a few photos of the amazing view outside my room at the Courtyard Marriott, which is only 2 blocks from the Moscone center where the meeting is held. I’m sharing the room with two other girls–both are researchers in Scot T. Martin’s group at Harvard. Their Dreyfus postdoc (Amanda Mifflin) completed her Ph.D. with my advisor, Franz Geiger. I am also posting a few pics of the yummy fruit (purple fruit are figs, orange-colored fruit are kumquats) I picked up at the grocery store this afternoon. Gotta get some sustenance to attend all those talks and present my poster on Friday morning!
Dorrie’s dark and stormies (chocolate chip cookies with chocolate dough)
These cookies are awesome! They won second place in the Chicago tribune cookie contest and are easy to make and light (like a rice wafer) and addicting.
1 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small bits
1 Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together in small bowl; set aside. Beat the butter until smooth in bowl of an electric mixer at medium speed. Add the sugars, vanilla and salt; beat 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low; add the flour mixture, mixing until incorporated but still crumbly, and being careful not to overwork the dough. Stir in the chocolate pieces.
2 Turn the dough out onto a smooth work surface; squeeze it so that it sticks together in large clumps. (If you need to, it’s OK to lightly flour the work surface.) Gather the dough into a ball; divide in half. Shape each ball into a log 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap logs in plastic wrap; chill at least 1 hour.
3 Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Gently slice logs into 1/2-inch rounds using a serrated knife (some will crumble; simply press broken bits back onto cookie). Place 1 inch apart on the baking sheets.
4 Bake, one sheet at a time, 14 minutes; cookies will not look done or be firm. Cool on pan 5 minutes; transfer to cooling rack. Cool to room temperature.
Note: Dough can be made ahead and frozen. Frozen dough doesn’t need to be defrosted before baking; just slice logs and bake 1 minute longer. Packed airtight, cookies will keep at room temperature up to 3 days or frozen up to a month.
Checkerboard cookies: These cookies are hard to make. Dyann doesn’t specify how long you need to chill the dough but 1 hour is not enough. Also, you need to chill the dough in between each step and I made a pretty big mess. The shortbread is not very sweet and good for tea. If I can make it look better, I think it will be very striking.
Recipe is from Dyannbakes.com (see also her instructional video)
Vanilla Shortbread
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) of unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup of granulated sugar
1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
Chocolate Shortbread
8 tablespoons (1 stick) of unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
1/3 cup of Dutch processed cocoa powder (sifted after measuring)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon of table salt (not kosher)
When I get back from San Francisco, maybe I’ll try this recipe from Gourmet’s top cookie recipes. Thea made them last week and they were very tasty!
Navettes Sucrees (Sugar Shuttles)
Sift 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt into a bowl. Add 1/4 cup soft butter, 2 egg yolks, and 1 teaspoon vanilla and knead until the dough is well blended. Chill it in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
Divide the dough into portions the size of a small walnut. Roll each piece of dough with the palm of the hand on a lightly floured board to give it the shape of a small sewing-machine shuttle. Dip each in egg white and roll in granulated sugar. Bake on a lightly buttered baking sheet in a moderate oven (350° F.) for about 8 minutes, or until the little cookies are lightly browned.
Ben and I went to a new restaurant in Chinatown on Saturday night while it was pouring rain outside. It’s called Lao Shanghai (which means old Shanghai). Ben’s Chinese co-worker Huijun Dong recommended it for it’s West Lake soup. We ordered the soup, xiao long bao (steamed juice dumplings, a Shanghai specialty), braised pork belly, Tony Hu’s special fried eggplant and a fancy steamed fish dish. Everything was very good, especially the soup and the bao. Service was very attentive and friendly for a Chinese restaurant and we had plenty of leftovers for a second meal. The prices are somewhat high ($60 including tax, tip and drinks–2 $4 Qingdao beers) but well-worth it in comparison to the unsanitary Chinese places we usually go to in Chicago (Double Li, Ed’s Potsticker House, Mei Shung). We plan to return to this restaurant in the future and take some photos. Lao Shanghai is part of Tony Hu’s mini-empire which also includes Lao Sze Chuan and Lao Beijing.
Irazu is a Costa Rican restaurant in the Bucktown neighborhood about 3 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. We got takeout from Irazu for dinner last night. It’s a cash-only place (which is often a sign that a restaurant means business!) and there’s always a long wait (especially on a Friday night) which is why we didn’t dine in. For an appetizer, we ate fried yucca with garlic oil (which is actually a garlic paste). The yucca is a starchy vegetable but more dense, meaty and sweeter than a potato. The garlic sauce complemented those flavors very nicely. For our main courses, Ben had chicken with rice (which came with plantains and a cabbage salad) and I had pork chops. Ben said the rice was tasty except he found little chicken bones in his dish. I ate pork chops with onions and Costa Rican rice which made a great combination. The pork was a little dry but still very tasty because it was well-seasoned. I like the beets in the cabbage salad and the light, sweet vinaigrette dressing. They also serve these crazy smoothies–we had an oatmeal smoothie which had a sweet molasses, cinnamon flavor and could be a meal by itself. Irazu is better than Chinese takeout any day, but driving on Milwaukee through Wicker Park is very slow and annoying. Best to take the highway and exit at Armitage. Lastly, the guy who works the front register (and takes phone orders) at Irazu is very nice. He’s been there for a long time and is always friendly and gets our orders right.
Spicy baked sweet potatoes (adapted from Joy of Cooking)
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
2 lbs sweet potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces (or thin slices)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp chili powder
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
Put sweet potatoes in large roasting pan and add all ingredients–turn the pieces to coat well. Bake, turning often until browned on all sides (45 min). Add 1/2 inch water to pan and bake until softened (15 min more).
A word of warning: This recipe yields 15+ pancakes when followed exactly. I like to freeze the extras and eat later (can be heated in a toaster oven or skillet quickly).
Pumpkin pancakes
Ingredients:
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 3 tablespoons brown sugar
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon ground allspice
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 cups milk
* 1 cup pumpkin puree
* 1 egg
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 2 tablespoons vinegar
Directions:
1. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt, stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.
Braised lamb shanks
Ingredients:
* 1 large white onions, chopped
* 2 lamb shanks
* 1 cup dry red wine
* 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
* 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons olive oil
* 2 cloves garlic, pressed
* 1/2 lemon (cut into quarters)
* 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
* 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
* 1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
* 1-1/2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Place the onions in a layer in the bottom of a Dutch oven or medium roasting pan with a lid. Arrange the lamb shanks on top of the onions. Pour the wine, balsamic vinegar and olive oil over the lamb. Place a clove of pressed garlic next to each shank, and a quarter of a lemon on each side. Pour the tomatoes over everything, then season with salt, pepper and basil.
3. Cover and place in the preheated oven. Cook for 2 hours (up to 3). Use juices from the pan to make a nice flavorful gravy.
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