cooking

The documentary  City of Gold  is very much a love letter to the culture, the cuisine and the spirit of Los Angeles. It follows the career and life of the Pulitzer prize winning writer Jonathan Gold. Gold writes about food, but food is just a lens through which he sees the world and perhaps most importantly, the people in it. While the food in this film is tantalizing, it's the stories from the restaurateurs and even street food vendors that are particularly compelling. These are the stories that Jonathan Gold tells. Every city ought to have a Jonathan Gold. By that I mean someone who has an uncanny sense of finding great food, is a marvelous writer and is truly passionate about his home turf. Gold, the longtime food critic first with the LA Weekly and now with the LA Times , explores, discovers and importantly, does his homework to learn about various cuisines before writing about them. He's also as democratic an eater as ever, happily eating hot dogs and tacos from carts o...

As a child I wasn�t crazy about vegetables with one notable exception. I loved artichokes. My mother served them with lemon butter or garlic mayonnaise and upon retrospect I think that was in no small part why I loved them so much. All other vegetables were served plain, but artichokes got the royal treatment, and frankly, what isn�t better with a dip in lemon butter or garlic mayonnaise? There� s a popular dip with canned or frozen artichoke hearts. spinach and loaded with cheese and mayonnaise. I�ve remade the recipe, creating a creamy dip made with fresh spinach, herbs and Greek yogurt. Dip the artchoke leaves and heart into the dip and you get the flavor of that dip but in a much fresher, lighter and healthier way.  Artichokes are good hot or cold and are a very good source of dietary fiber, vitamin c, vitamin k, folate and manganese and a good source of niacin, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and copper. They do require a little prep work. You need a good pair of kitchen shea...

Recently I�ve gotten back into baking bread. First I tested a bread recipe using Einkorn flour in anticipation of reviewing an Einkorn cookbook. And when my friend Jerry James Stone asked if I would contribute a recipe to his Three Loaves project, I couldn�t say no.  Three Loaves is a project where participants make three loaves of bread, one for themselves, another for a friend and a third for someone in need, every month. After signing up, each month you receive a new recipe to try. Since my recipe uses a bread machine, you won�t be baking all three loaves at once, but the concept is the same�bake and share.  My baking supplies were rather low and I didn�t have any bread flour in the house so I decided to look for a recipe I could make in my mini Zojirushi bread machine (it makes one pound loaves) that used all purpose flour. I found the basic recipe on the King Arthur Flour website for Sandwich Bread for the Mini Zo Bread Machine . The comments on this recipe were very en...

This year marks the 10th San Francisco International Chocolate Salon . I�ve been a judge and moderated panels and even spoken a couple of times at this fun event. It offers the opportunity to discover new chocolates, new flavors, new creations and even meet some chocolatiers and chocolate makers. There's also usually some wine and spirits for those over 21.  At the upcoming SF Chocolate Salon I recommend checking out chocolates from some of my favorite local producers�melt in your mouth truffles from NeoCocoa , pretty bon bons from Jade Chocolates and Socola Chocolatier and scrumptious chocolate covered marzipan from Nuttyness .  My other favorites are William Dean Chocolates from Florida and Amano Artisan Chocolate from Utah. Don�t miss either of them!  The reason I enjoy attending (not to mention judging) the Chocolate Salon is I get to catch up in person with some of the best chocolate makers and chocolatiers I know. Nothing beats finding out what they are up to and...

Winter is citrus season. I had a bounty of blood oranges and tangerines harvested from various backyards, so I made a mixed citrus marmalade. It�s a little soft and fairly bitter which is the way I like it. In addtion to being good on toast, scones or biscuits. Marmalade, whether you make it or buy it, is a great ingredients to have on hand. It can be used in many different recipes. Orange marmalade is particularly versatile. It works in both sweet and savory dishes. You can use it flavor plain yogurt, whipped cream, cream cheese, vanilla ice cream or even with a mild goat cheese. It�s featured in quite a number of cake recipes and as a glaze on sticky buns. Mixed with a bit of lemon juice it makes the perfect dressing for a fruit salad. I recently wrote about marmalade cocktails  for OpenTable. It also pairs particularly well with chicken, ham or pork.  A few weeks ago I was contacted by Napa Grass Farmer, a locally based, �beyond organic� meat farm located in both Napa and ...

Are you celebrating Chinese New Year? It�s typical to celebrate the holiday for a full week. I am still learning about this most important holiday which comes with so many traditions relating to food. There are many symbolic foods that ensure good fortune. There are also foods which are served to friends, family and guests and given as a gift. Bak Kwa is one such food. It might resemble beef jerky, but it�s much tastier and is much more than just a snack and considered a must-have for Chinese New Year celebrations in Malaysia.  I recently tried locally made Bak Kwa from  Little Red Dot  for the first time at the Fancy Food Show  where it was a big hit. The Singaporean founders of the company missed eating it so much, that after unsuccessfully trying to get their parents to send them some from Singapore�it never made it out of customs�they set out to make it themselves. Several years later the product is finally showing up in stores. Because it�s something that ...

I enjoy Greek yogurt and have been eating a lot of it lately. But I�ve also been cutting back on sugar. While fruit, granola, jam or honey are classic toppings for yogurt, I�ve been wanting to take yogurt in another direction. Since I tend to favor savory breaktasts rather than sweet ones I decided to try some savory Greek yogurt toppings, something I've seen around the web recently.  I brainstormed some ideas and was inspired by flavors from Korea, the Mediterranean, Scandinavia and Morocco--and everything I tried turned out really well. I imagine that the variations are really endless, I just stopped at four. That said, a little flaky salt really helps to marry the flavors. Use kosher salt or your favorite flaky sea salt for added crunch. While I choose to eat these for breakfast, they are also very good as an afternoon snack or as part of a light lunch. I recommend using 1/2 cup of yogurt as the base, but you could use more if you prefer. Greek yogurt is thicker than regular yog...