Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Five years ago, our friends had an Eclipse party. That might have been the first time that we discussed what an eclipse was with the boys. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun. Tomorrow, on Monday, August 21, 2017, all of North America will be treated to an eclipse. And anyone within the path of totality will see one of nature’s most awe inspiring sights: a total solar eclipse. This path, where the moon will completely blot out the sun, will stretch from Oregon to South Carolina. People outside of the path still see a partial solar eclipse where the moon covers part of the sun. Sue of Palatable Pastime is hosting a virtual potluck. She asked us to come up with dark recipes for the event. No special instructions, just "the theme is 'dark'." Okay...here's how we all interpreted it. Dark Recipes for the Solar Eclipse Blackberry Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies by Sew You Think You Can Cook Chinese Mooncakes (Snow Ski...

When I started talking about what to make for this month's  Food'N'Flix  which is a double feature with  Cook the Books  of  The Hundred Foot Journey* , the Enthusiastic Kitchen Elf really wanted to re-do his Spiced Coconut Sea Urchin Soup . You can read the invitation by  Deb of  Kahakai Kitchen   for the Cook the Books portion. Here's  her  invitation ;   here's what D and I made for that event:  our version of  Sungta ani Bende Kodi . But, in our attempt to re-do the urchin soup, we were foiled in sourcing urchin locally. I heard buzzings about an echinoderm epidemic; I also heard it was due to the oil spill in Santa Barbara earlier in the year. Whatever the cause, there have been no urchin to be had. I did think we caught a break when a local seafood purveyor was taking advanced orders for urchin. I placed my order, but kept getting emails - "not this week, maybe next week." I was holding out, hoping that we wo...

It's time for October's  Improv Cooking Challenge  hosted by Lesa of  Edesia's Notebook . I don't know where the weeks are going. The idea of this challenge: we are assigned two ingredients and are tasked to create a recipe with those two things. October's assigned ingredients are actually colors. In  the spirit of Halloween, we're making things that are: orange and black. When I was at a farmers' market this weekend, I saw a pile of peaches called 'Last Tango.' I knew those would be the last peaches I would see till next summer. So, I decided to use them in my orange and black dish. I opted to make one of my favorite Thai dishes using forbidden rice. Note this is  not  a traditional Khao Neeo Mamuang ; it's my own fast and loose interpretation with the last of summer peaches instead of not-local mangoes. I love the nuttiness of the forbidden rice...and I love that name! Plus, it  is  delicious! Ingredients 2 C Forbidden rice* 2 C...

This is  not  a traditional Thai  Khao Neeo Mamuang ; it's my own fast and loose interpretation with seasonal peaches instead of not-local mangoes. I love the nuttiness of the forbidden rice...and I love that name! Plus, it  is  delicious! Ingredients 2 C Forbidden rice 2 C coconut cream 2 C water 1/2 C organic granulated sugar 1 t pure vanilla extract 4 T coconut flakes, toasted ripe peaches, sliced for serving Procedure Place all of the ingredients - except for the coconut flakes and the peaches - in a large saucepan that has a lid. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and let steam until the rice is tender. If the rice is not cooked, but all the liquid has evaporated, add in more water. Once the rice is cooked, fold in the coconut flakes. Spoon it out on individual plates and top with sliced peaches.

This month the  Pass the Cookbook  crew - under the leadership of Kita, the culinary force behind  Pass the Sushi  - is cooking from Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from the Times-Picayune of New Orleans by Marcelle Bienvenu and Judy Walker. The cookbook was intended to connect people who lost their favorite family recipes when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005. The recipes are assembled from local papers that people had clipped and saved throughout the years. After the hurricane, people were hunting for their saved recipes, submitted comments and questions, and other readers did their best to match up the recipes. This book is a collection of some of those. For that reason alone, it is an amazing publication.  As always in this group, we had the choice of three recipes. Our selections this round: Chicken-Sausage Jambalaya, Crawfish in Saffon Cream, or Bananas Foster Pie. I decided to adapt the crawfish option, making a Sea...

With some leftover nori sheets from my Food'N'Flix Onigiri Adventure , I decided to make some rolls for dinner. And, in line with my sheer Saturday laziness, I didn't even cut them. I just served what the boys jokingly called 'nori sausages.' nori sheets, I used 2 per person forbidden rice , cooked and still hot* carrots, julienned yellow squash, julienned Persian cucumbers, thinly sliced *It's crucial that the rice is still hot. That will render the nori more pliable and less likely to crack when you roll it. Lay your nori sheets on a cutting board. You can use a bamboo sushi mat; I just rolled by hand tonight. Spoon 3 T of forbidden rice onto one end of the sheet, pressing down slightly so that it covers about a third of your sheet. Lay your veggies in the center of the rice. Then, starting at the rice side, gradually form a roll with the rice and the nori. Pile them, seam-side down. As they sit, the warm rice will seal the rolls. I served...

Years ago I hosted a sushi-rolling party for my running group. We were 'on a roll' toward a half-marathon and I wanted to celebrate our successes. We were also celebrating a friend's birthday, so I made a Sushi Cake. Well, it was a cake that looked like sushi... I considered doing something like that for this month's  Food'N'Flix   dinner. I had chosen  Jiro Dreams of Sushi   for the group, after all. But, honestly, after watching the movie twice I just felt completely deflated. I was not inspired to cook anything; all I wanted to do was hop on a plane and go to Sukiyabashi Jiro .  I considered taking a trip to the local fish market for both ingredients and inspiration, but ours pales in comparison to the Tsukiji Market. Then I toyed with making a noodle dish like the one the apprentices were eating in the kitchen...something like ramen. No matter what I put on the table, nothing would look as delectable and fresh as his creations. When I started watc...

I went through a phase when I sought to read books that had been banned or requested removed from library collections; if a book were controversial, it was probably on my nightstand during that period in my life. Think - Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and more. Okay, you can almost tell when I was in that phase...since I didn't mention any of the Harry Potter books or Captain Underpants. So, when I glimpsed a bag of "Forbidden Rice" at Cornucopia in Carmel a few years ago, it went straight into my shopping basket.  It's been a family favorite ever since. Called 'forbidden' because originally, in China, it was considered the Emperor's rice and was forbidden for anyone else to eat it.  Black rice is an heirloom variety and is extremely high in nutritional value including iron.  It is a deep black color when raw and turns deep purple when cook...

I had planned to make several traditional new year's dishes, including an Italian dish of sausage and lentils and an American dish with black-eyed peas with collard greens. Feasting for fortune was the theme I had in mind. Traditionally, black-eyed peas represent coins while the collard greens with which they are typically served stand in for paper currency. I am certain that lentils and sliced sausages also stand in for coins on Italian tables. But after a late evening stop at three different grocery stores that were completely sold out of the peas - even in a can! yes, I did look - I said, "forget it" and decided to combine my ideas and improvise a dish. Still wanting the look of the black-eyed peas, I soaked and cooked canellini (white beans) and steamed black Forbidden rice. I soaked the white beans overnight, then changed the water and simmered them until soft - about 90 minutes - with two fresh bay leaves. In the meantime, I cooked the black Forbidden rice in ...

I went through a phase when I sought to read books that had been banned; if a book were controversial, it was probably on my nightstand during that period in my life.  So, when I glimpsed a bag of "Forbidden Rice" at Cornucopia in Carmel a few years ago, it went straight into my shopping basket.  It's been a family favorite ever since. Called 'forbidden' because originally, in China, it was considered the Emperor's rice and was forbidden for anyone else to eat it.  Black rice is an heirloom variety and is extremely high in nutritional value including iron.  It is a deep black color when raw and turns deep purple when cooked. I use it just as I would any other rice.  Tonight I served it with a shrimp-pork stir-fry with wilted arugula.