Culinary Adventures with Camilla

When your Thanksgiving pie - D's  Perfected Pecan Pie - needs to be à la mode, you turn to the experts. I sent to the boys downtown to Chef Ron Mendoza's Revival Ice + Cream shop. You can read our Tasting Notes from our first trip there last month...just after he opened. They selected Sweet Potato and Kelp + Caramel. Wow. So delicious. And so unique.

While I don't find using cuttlefish ink that bizarre, the boys decided we should cook with cuttlefish ink for my Bizarre Foods SEM because "other kids might not have ever tried it." Okay. That makes sense. Ingredients  makes 2 to 3 servings 1 C flour (I used a blend with semolina, bread flour, and all-purpose flour) 1 egg water, as needed 2 t cuttlefish ink Procedure Spoon the pasta flour blend into a large mixing bowl and make a hollow in the center, like a volcano. Spoon the cuttlefish ink into the crater of the flour volcano. Use a fork to begin incorporating the flour. Making a whisking motion with your fork, starting in the middle and blending in the flour from the bottom moving upwards. If your dough is too wet, add a small amount of flour; if your dough is too dry and crumbly, add water 1 t at a time. Turn the dough onto a lightly dusted board and knead for 5 minutes until the dough is elastic and smooth. Roll out as thinl...

Last night was my second artisan pasta class with Jenn, the Culinary Arts guru at a local high school and friend from college. Remember the first session when we made Hand-Rolled, Hand-Cut Spinach Papardelle ? Yesterday we made 3 different pasta doughs and laminated them together - basic dough, pink beet dough, and red pepper dough. Jenn jokingly called it a 'Tequila Sunrise' dough when we laminated it all together. So pretty! On another note: I am blown away by how quickly you can put a dough together with a food processor. I don't have any space in my cabinets for one, but- wow! - I'm impressed. Basic Pasta Dough adapted from Making Artisan Pasta (my review of that cookbook  here ) Ingredients 350 g pasta flour 3 eggs, room temperature 1 egg yolk 2 to 3 T tepid water Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Dough Ingredients 350 g pasta flour 2 ounces red pepper puree 3 eggs 1 T sweet red paprika Beet Pasta Dough Ingredients 275 g pasta f...

" Food Fest ,"a write up on Edible Monterey Bay' s blog, pointed us to the hippest place to be on the Monterey Peninsula tonight: the very first Independent Marketplace. So, off we went to Sand City where sandwich-board signs and beaming volunteers direct you to parking lots tucked behind industrial storefronts. A vibrant mural on a brick wall greeted us. "Welcome to the Westend." Picture local farmers showcasing their freshest, in-season produce. Sunny lemons, crisp peas, amethyst-tipped baby artichokes, and creamy parsnips. I enviously eyed a bundle of fuzzy, pale green stalks that a man was carrying out on his shoulder. Cardoons by the bushel. This was my kind of market. Add to the farmers' market displays table after table after table loaded with artisinal foods from bakeries, dairies, apiaries, jam makers and others from all over the Monterey Bay area. Things to buy. Things to try. Things that make you pause a...