Culinary Adventures with Camilla

D and I have been watching A Mind of a Chef . On one hand, I love that he enjoys the creative side of cooking - it's definitely not drudgery - but I'm torn between whether or not I appreciate his ardent insistence on his ingredients. But I do know where he gets it. Here's the Mind of the Wom... It began with some extra pumpkins from our High Ground Organics CSA . I had ordered them for myself. But D saw them the same day that the request came for his class Thanksgiving feast sign-up.  "I'll bring those...stuffed with barley and kale," he announced, pointing at my pumpkins.  What? You'll bring what?!  "Those pumpkins, Mommy. I'm going to cook them for my class."  I bit my lip, silently bid my visions of pumpkin puree goodbye, and encouraged him, That's a great idea, Wom. I know it will be delicious.  I especially appreciated the ' I'm going to cook them' part as we are in the middle of moving. I h...

There was no question in my mind what I was going to do with my homemade crabshell stock : risotto! And since risotto is always my "use-whatever-you-have" kinda dinner, I had an onion, fresh shitake mushrooms, and purple cabbage. Feel free to use whatever you have in your fridge. Be creative! Ingredients  makes 8 servings 1 onion, peeled and diced 2 T butter splash of olive oil 2 C sliced fresh shitake mushrooms 1 C sliced purple cabbage 2 C arborio rice 1 C Jade pearl rice* 6 C  homemade crabshell stock  (or whatever stock you have on hand) 2 C boiling water 8 oz marscarpone cream juice from 1 lemon roasted lobster (I used 1/2 tail per person for topping the risotto) fleur de sel freshly ground pepper *I didn't have enough arborio rice on hand, so I supplemented with Jade pearl rice. This is flexible. You can make it with rice or even barley! Procedure Bring your stock and water to a boil. Then reduce it to a simmer and keep it on a burner...

I always knew that I was going to have Jake grill lamb lollipops for our Easter table. It's a family favorite! We've made Garlic-Salt Lamb Lollipops   and  Rose-y Lamb Lollipops with a Morello Cherry Glaze for instance. But at the last minute, and after I had already done all of my grocery shopping for Easter, I discovered black garlic . Or, more accurately, I finally had the gumption to pick some up. So, I headed out to the store and picked up three cloves. Thanks, girlichef , for the nudge. Black garlic doesn't taste like garlic at all. It's sweeter, molasses-like but with a little bit more tang. This was delicious! Ingredients 2 heads of black garlic, peeled and divided 3 T ground coffee 1 T coarse sea salt 1 T smoke paprika 1 T organic coconut sugar 1 T freshly ground pepper 1/2 t ground coriander olive oil 1 C shitake mushrooms, sliced fleur de sel Procedure Mash one head of black garlic with a mortar and pestle till a chunky paste...

This round Simona, at Briciole , selected Twain's Feast: Searching for America's Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens by Andrew Beahrs   for our February-March  Cook the Books   project. I thoroughly enjoyed this book which was rooted in the past - with the food history - and the present - with the writer's own kitchen trials. If you like reading about food, give this tome a try. I really had no clue that Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens was such a champion of American foods; while others were lauding the sophistication of European cuisines, he longed for some down-home cookin'. Here is Twain’s “little bill of fare,” in full, from A Tramp Abroad, 1880. About eighty different American foods that he wanted as soon as he repatriated... Radishes. Baked apples with cream. Fried oysters; stewed oysters. Frogs. American coffee, with real cream. American butter. Porter-house steak. Fried chicken, Southern style. Saratoga potatoes. Broiled chicken...

This is a Thanksgivukkah variation on my Oven-Roasted Brussels Sprouts . 1 onion, diced 4 slices of pastrami, chopped 2 handfuls of fresh shitake mushrooms*, washed, dried, and thinly sliced Saute the onions begin to caramelize. Stir in the pastrami and mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms soften. Toss that into the oven-roasted Brussels sprouts. Serve hot. *These shitake mushrooms are from Far West Fungi in Moss Landing. Love our local farmers!

It's  Food'N'Flix  time - where we watch movies and head  into the kitchen and cook or bake or make something based on a recipe they actually make in it or just something we were driven to make after watching it. This month's film - A Good Year - was selected by Tina at Squirrel Head Manor . You can see her invitation: here. What a delicious foray into life in Provence! While the wine flows freely and the scenery makes me want to buy a one-way ticket to France, food doesn't have a starring role in the movie. Wine, yes. Food, not so much. The sole exception: dinner at Francis and Ludivine's home. Francis gestures at various home-cooked dishes at the table: caviar of eggplant, headless larks, mushrooms, and, finally, civet of wild boar, marinated in red wine, and blood pressed from the carcass. And that - those few lines - was enough to launch me on a culinary adventure to make a civet for myself.  The only thing I asked my boys: duck or rabbit? Tho...

To go with the warm lobster salad for my dad's birthday dinner, my mom requested braised lamb shanks. I had done them for Thanksgiving last year . So, I did a variation for last night. This time - inspired by a story I'm writing - I decided to braise them in an earthy mixture of coffee, beer, and the soaking liquid from the dried mushrooms. I made a smoked paprika-cherry glaze for my dad's party; for what we ate at home, I left it as a mushroom demi-glace. Ingredients 6 Tablespoons olive oil 1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced 1 leek, trimmed and thinly sliced eight 3/4- to 1-pound lamb shanks white whole wheat flour mixed with 1 Tablespoon ground cardamom for dredging 2 cups coffee 2 cups beer (I used a coffee stout) 1 Tablespoon honey 1 Tablespoon ginger syrup 1 cup boiling water 1 cup dried shitake mushrooms 2 cups sliced fresh oyster mushrooms freshly ground sea salt freshly ground pepper Procedure Place dried shitake mushrooms in a bowl an...

I signed up to test this dish for Food52 , thinking that it might be a contender for my Thanksgiving table. It surely was! adapted from Alexandra V. Jones' Wild Mushroom Couscous This dish comes together quickly since the couscous cooks in a mere five minutes. And it easily serves four as a side dish, two or three as a main dish. I used some local oyster and shitake mushrooms in my version; those earthy flavors blended well with the airy couscous. It was a marriage of layered, elegant flavors and has cemented its place on my table with its lovely texture and complexity of its taste. Couscous: 1 C couscous 1 handful dried shitake mushrooms 2 C organic chicken stock 1 T olive oil freshly ground sea salt Sauteed mushrooms: 1 C sliced fresh oyster mushrooms 1 C sliced fresh shitake mushrooms 1 shallot, minced 2 t soy sauce 1/4 C dry white wine 1 T butter 2 T fresh chopped parsley cracked black pepper, to taste Boil two cups of stock w...

 Bol Renverse (translated as Upside Down Bowl) is a popular Mauritian dish with Chinese roots. It's really versatile. You can add any vegetables you want and you can use any meat that you want. I found recipes that used cabbage; I had chard. And the boys were reading about the religious breakdown of Mauritius and noted that Hindus don't eat beef while Muslims don't eat pork. So, we went with chicken. 2 C cooked sticky rice 3 chicken thighs, deboned, deskinned, and thinly sliced 1 Spring onion, trimmed and thinly sliced 4-5 shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced 1 bunch of chard, thinly sliced 3 carrots, cut into coins 1 egg per person Cooking: (1) Make a stir-fry with all of the ingredients except the rice and eggs. Season with soy sauce and thicken, if desired, with a little bit of flour or cornstarch. (2) Beat the eggs with a splash of water or milk and cook into a flat omelette. Now here's the fun part: assembling your bol... 1. In a small serving bowl, l...

While North and South Korea are listed separately in our Cooking Around the World Adventure list, I did some reading and decided that I would make only one Korean meal. It seems that the differences in Korean cuisine are not so much aligned via north and south, but more between the eight distinct provinces. I decided to make bibimbap with kimchi . With the plethora of restaurants in Berkeley, whenever my parents came to visit me during college, we ate at a hole-in-the-wall Korean restaurant just off of Telegraph Ave. And each time, my dad ordered bibimbap . Until tonight, I had never made it. Bibimbap means 'mixed up rice' and  is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped with namul (sautéed and seasoned vegetables) and gochujang (chili pepper paste). A raw or fried egg and sliced meat - usually beef - are common additions. Since recipes I found were not very specific with what vegetables - though I seem to remember carrots, bean sprouts, and spinach - I went with w...

Foccacia is such an easy thing to make - there's very little kneading required. The yeast does all the work. But with some toppings, it makes a tasty addition to your table. For the 'Fungi Feast for My Fun Guy', I made a double batch and opted to top foccacia with sauteed shitake mushrooms, sliced fennel, and fresh oregano. I served it with a dipping sauce of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and black truffle oil. 4 C white whole wheat flour 2 t pink Himalaya salt 2 t dry active yeast 2 C warm water 2 C sliced shitake mushrooms 1 C sliced fresh fennel 4 T fresh oregano olive oil In a large bowl, stir flour, salt and yeast together until well combined. Saute the mushrooms and fennel in a splash of olive oil till softened. Add warm water and stir well until a sticky dough is formed. Let rise, covered, in a warm place for about 45 minutes to an hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil baking pan and then add the dough to it and using your fingertips stretch the ...

Due to waaay too much vino on Friday night, I am getting a late start on blogging about the food I served that evening. We celebrated Jake's 36th birthday with 'A Fungi Feast for My Fun Guy.'  First up: a triple mushroom pâté. I served this with raisin-rosemary crackers from Trader Joe's. I started with a recipe from Gourmet magazine from 1997 and tweaked a bit to come up with this version. It's a pretty involved recipe, but it's well worth the effort. 1 1/2 C chicken stock 2 C chopped shitake mushroom 2 C chopped trumpet mushroom 2 C chopped crimini mushroom 1 stick butter 2 minced shallots 4 minced garlic cloves 1/4 cup wine 1 C organic heavy cream 4 large eggs 1/4 cup ground almond meal 1/4 C chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 2 t chopped fresh thyme 1/3 cup panko bread crumbs 1-1/2 T fresh lemon juice 2 t pink Himalaya salt 1/2 t freshly ground black pepper Butter loaf pan, then line bottom and sides with parchment paper and butter pape...