Giveaway: Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home

One of my aspirations since moving to California has been to get a reservation at the French Laundry. Hasn't happened yet, although admittedly I've been too busy to chase it down recently. But someday I'm going to get there. Until then, I'll have to experience Thomas Keller's wonderful cuisine in other ways. Next week, for example, I scored an invite to one of the opening celebrations at Bouchon Bistro in Beverly Hills. It's sure to be a star-studded affair, and oh yes, the FOOD! I'll bring my camera and report back, to be sure.

I'm also going to start cooking like Thomas Keller, now that his gorgeous new book is out. It's called Ad Hoc at Home: Family-Style Recipes and is full of the kinds of recipes I might actually cook. Take, for example, the pan-roasted halibut recipe I got permission to share in my LA Cooking Examiner column; it's about as easy as fish can get, and doesn't it look gorgeous? I think that will be on the menu this weekend in my house.

I've got good news for you. I also scored a copy of Ad Hoc at Home to give away right here on my blog. Yes, you heard that right! All you need to do to enter the giveaway is leave a comment at the end of this post and tell me which recipe from either this blog or my LA Cooking Examiner column you like most. (Yes, I'm shamelessly trying to get you to read some of my recipes, I admit it!) You can get an extra entry by tweeting about this giveaway, and then leaving a second comment on this post with a link to the tweet. I'll choose a winner randomly on November 20th at 8pm (Pacific time).

Good luck - and whoever wins the book, will you come over and cook me dinner from it?

Recipe: Apple cider quick bread

I am a girl who is really and truly addicted to carbs. Nothing on this earth makes me happier than french fries. Give me pasta and I'll love you forever. And bread, my love, mon amour, cara mia - is there any form in which you don't send me? Nope. Bread, I'm yours, forever and ever.

A few months ago I saw a recipe for beer bread, and I started experimenting. Now I don't drink beer - never really have understood the yeasty, foamy fuss - but the refrigerator had a bottle or two left over from a party, so I baked one bottle up into this really lovely whole wheat beer bread with wheat germ. If you ignore the melted butter poured over the top of the dough, it's actually a fairly healthy bread option - you know, whole grain and all. Nice toasted, slathered with more butter, or maybe spread with peanut butter and a little jam. Oh, baby. Now that's breakfast.

But then we had another party, and this time, in addition to leftover beer, we had leftover hard cider. And I got to thinking: hard cider. Some grated apple. The same whole wheat and wheat germ base. That might be nice, eh?

And so it was. I like this one toasted and topped with a beautiful slice of cheese - a riff on the old apple-pie-and-cheddar motif. Peanut butter and jam worked also. Plain, still pretty good. I'm a fan.

Apple cider quick bread

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 large apple, peeled, cored, and grated
• 1 12-oz bottle hard apple cider (the alcoholic kind)
• 4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) butter, melted

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, wheat germ, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Add the grated apples and toss so the apples are coated with the flour mixture. Add the hard cider and stir with a spatula just until the ingredients are combined; do not overmix.

Pour the dough into the loaf pan, smooth the top, and pour the melted butter over the dough. Bake 45-50 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown on top and a tester comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then turn the loaf out onto a rack to rest.

Recipe: Pork green chile posole stew with nopales

Last week I was lucky enough to attend A Taste of Santa Fe, a meet-and-greet put on by the Santa Fe and New Mexico visitors' bureaus and American Airlines at the Hotel Shangri-La in Santa Monica. The event was mostly for travel professionals, but a few food bloggers made the list, and I'm glad we did, because we got to meet a couple of the folks who run the Santa Fe School of Cooking. They'd brought in a few dishes from Santa Fe restaurants - yes, flown the food in that morning ready to warm and plate - to show us what their Santa Fe restaurant tours are like.

I liked the bison short ribs from Rio Chama, something I'd never tasted before; they were bolder than beef but just as tender. The Frito pie from Plaza Cafe, served in an actual Frito bag, didn't do much for me. But the grilled shishito peppers that went with a sheep's-milk cheese and quince paste, from La Boca, were both adorable and tasty, and the roasted piquillo pepper stuffed with paella from Amavi was very nice. (See more photos from A Taste of Santa Fe.)

I was drawn to the prep table, which sported, among other things, a large bag of posole, the traditional New Mexican lime-treated corn. Nicole, the manager of the Santa Fe School of Cooking, kindly gave it me after I drilled her with questions about how to cook it and where to buy it locally. "You can't," she said, and handed me the bag. One less thing for them to pack to take home, so a win-win, but still, I was thrilled and grateful.

I must have been thinking about New Mexico earlier this fall, because when I saw New Mexico Hatch chiles at my wonderful local Bob's Market in Santa Monica in September, I bought a few pounds, roasted them, and froze them. Good thinking, hm? because they're perfect for posole. I got a few pounds of pork butt, cut into cubes. And then, at the farmer's market last weekend, I bought a little zip-top bag of cleaned and diced nopales - cactus paddles. I'm not actually sure if nopales are consistent with New Mexico, but what the heck.

I got up very early yesterday - darn clock change - but that gave me enough time to make this stew before I left for work. The whole house smelled like toasted corn, and meat, and warm spicy tangy. Made it hard to leave for the office, but gave me something to look forward to all day.

If you can't find dried posole, you can use canned hominy, but the dried stuff is really much better. The Santa Fe School of cooking has an online market where they sell all kinds of local foodstuffs. Note that the dried posole needs to be soaked before you cook it in the stew. And yes, it's spicy. Give your kids macaroni and cheese, just this once.

Pork green chile posole stew with nopales

• 2 cups dried posole (substitute canned hominy if you must)
  
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
  
• 2 lbs pork butt or other pork stew meat, cubed
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
• 4 New Mexico Hatch chiles, roasted, peeled and diced (substitute 1/2 cup canned green chiles)
• 2 cups cleaned, diced nopales (cactus paddles)
• 2 chicken broth cubes or packets (I am partial - no, maybe addicted - to Savory Choice Liquid Chicken Broth, thanks to my wonderful friend Rachel)
• 1 tsp dried ground chipotle powder, or other chile powder (but NOT chili seasoning mix, which is mostly salt, anyway)
  
• juice of 3 limes

The day before you plan to make the stew, put the posole in a pot, cover it with water by a few inches, and leave it to soak overnight.

Time to cook: In a large pot over high heat, heat the oil, salt and pepper the meat, and brown the pork on all sides. Remove the meat to a plate. Add the onions to the pot and stir to coat the onions with the pork juices. Saute the onions for 3-4 minutes, until they soften. Add the garlic and stir 30 seconds more.

Now add the pork and any juices on the plate, the soaked posole, the chiles, the nopales, the chicken broth cubes or packets, and the dried chile powder, and cover the whole mess with water. Bring it to a boil, turn down the heat, cover the pot, and simmer for about two hours, or until the pork is tender and the posole is chewy and some of the kernels have started to - well, not explode, exactly, but open, sort of like little flowers. If, at this point, the stew looks too watery, take off the lid and simmer it a while longer, until things have reduced to your liking.

Add the lime juice - you'll definitely want a shot of acid at the end to balance everything out - and add more salt if you need to. Serve just as it is, with lots of broth, and maybe some fresh corn tortillas on the side.

Recipe: Risotto with Oregon white truffle oil and wild mushrooms

In case you were wondering, my complete obsession with the truffles of the world is going strong. It's white truffle season, and I can't stop thinking about the toothsome and extremely expensive nuggets my friend Franco at Sabatino Tartufi showed me a few weeks ago. In fact, thanks to his generosity, I'm hosting a multi-course truffle dinner fundraiser for my kids' school, and he's coming to the dinner to talk about my favorite fungi. More on that another time.

But the truffles in my kitchen this week are somewhat more local, and also somewhat more affordable. Did you know that white truffles grow in Oregon? They're not the same as European truffles, but it's not really a question of better or worse, to my mind. They have their own magical powers. And the fact that they grow right here in the U.S. continues to blow my mind.

I first discovered the Oregon whites at the Santa Monica farmers market, where the mushroom forager sometimes sells marble-sized white truffles from up north in small styrofoam containers with plastic lids. I think he got in trouble for it - Santa Monica has strict rules about "local" when it comes to selling at the markets - but they do appear sometimes, if sub rosa. I'd buy a small container, an ounce or two for $20, take them home, make some pasta or scrambled eggs, and shave the whole thing over for a luxurious lunch for one. Or two, if my husband happened to be home. I remember calling him once from the market, discovering he hadn't left for work yet, and telling him to stay right where he was until I got home with the loot.

So I met Jack Czarnecki on Twitter (@TruffleOil), which is how I ended up with the unbelievably aromatic bottle of Oregon white truffle oil pictured above. Jack, who runs the Joel Palmer House Restaurant in Dayton, Oregon, and won a James Beard Award for A Cook's Book of Mushrooms in 1996, forages for truffles. And makes this amazing Oregon white truffle oil, right in the kitchen of his restaurant. And sells cases and cases of it, every year. When I opened the bottle and put my nose above it, I was literally moved to tears. I've been drizzling it on everything: salad, pasta, scrambled eggs, toast with melted cheese. It's not that I like it more or less than the beautiful Italian stuff - it's just different. A little more forceful, somehow. Kind of like the difference between a Rolls Royce and a Corvette.

In case you're wondering what to do with Oregon white truffle oil, Jack's site has a list of possibilities. Including a non-culinary suggestion, and I'll just leave it at that - you can click through for details. But here's one recipe from his restaurant I can't wait to make. Oh, and you can buy Jack's Oregon white truffle oil online, of course - I can't imagine a better gift for a fellow food lover.

Joel Palmer House wild mushroom risotto with Oregon white truffle oil

• ½ ounce dried porcini
• 1 quart water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• ¼ lb unsalted butter
• 1 cup long-grain rice
• ½ ounce dried onion
• Grated parmesan cheese
• 2 ounces Joel Palmer House Oregon White Truffle Oil

In uncovered saucepan, bring water, dried mushrooms, sugar, salt and soy sauce to a boil. Add rice and reduce heat to simmer. Strain out the liquid and reserve. Chop the mushrooms finely.


In a medium sauté pan melt the butter and add the dried onion and rice. Stir for 1 minute, then add the reserved mushroom liquid. Cook uncovered and stir gently until water is absorbed and evaporated, about 15-20 minutes.

Portion rice, drizzle lightly with Parmesan cheese and truffle oil, and serve. Serves 10 as a small starter or 4 for a main course.

Recipe: Beta carotene soup with sweet potato, carrots and pumpkin

So last week, home sick with a mild flu, I looked in the refrigerator and found a bag of carrots that needed a home. Then, from the 99 Cents Only store (yes, they have good produce, if you go early and are willing to take what they've got), came home two small pumpkins - not the good baking sugary ones, but still, pumpkins. And the box of sweet potatoes I picked up at Costco last week was staring at me, too. Sick equals soup, and thus that's what I made.

What is it about that craving for orange vegetables in the fall? I'm thinking it's some primal need to hone our night vision, knowing that shorter days and longer nights are ahead. I can never pass up butternut squash, and I am deeply indebted to Costco for carrying large packages of pre-cut butternut squash cubes at this time of year. I buy them four at a time, toss them with olive oil and salt, roast good and hot, and eat them like french fries.

But the soup: It's thick and creamy, but dairy-free. I like the flavor of coconut milk with orange vegetables. I used a very small amount of Thai curry paste to appease my kids - the kind I get is spicy - but use more if you like. And if you don't have a hand-held immersion blender yet, please, I beg you, make that your next kitchen purchase. If nothing else, you will cook more soup, because it makes it so, so easy.

There's an alternate title for this post, by the way: The Power of Croutons. By which I mean that in my house, if there are croutons on top of a bowl of soup, I am sure that bowl of soup will end up in the belly of my younger son. I never worry about the elder - he's a true gourmand - but the little one can be picky, in that maddeningly "But you ate it and loved it a week ago!" sort of way. I buy an extra loaf of bread every week or two, cube it, toss it with olive oil and garlic salt, and bake it until the bits are golden. When cool and stored in a sealed plastic bag or container, homemade croutons keep a good long time, and they have this magical soup-enhancing power - in my house, at least.

Beta carotene soup

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
  
• 1 onion, chopped
• salt to taste
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp Thai yellow curry paste
  
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 2 cups grated or diced carrots
• 2 cups roasted pumpkin flesh (canned is fine)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 4-6 cups chicken or vegetable stock

 Heat the oil in a large pot. Add the onion, sprinkle with salt, and saute over medium-high heat until the onion is softened but not browned. Add the garlic and stir 30 seconds; do not let the garlic brown, either. Add the Thai curry paste and stir until the vegetables are well coated with the spices. Now add the sweet potato, carrots, pumpkin, coconut milk, and stock, bring to a boil, turn down the heat, and simmer uncovered about 30 minutes, or until the sweet potato is soft. Puree with a hand-held immersion blender in the pot (or in a countertop blender if you have no other choice - but I'm not coming over to do the extra dishes). Taste, add more salt if necessary, and serve hot, with croutons on top if you, like me, have a picky child. Crispy fried onions or shallots also make an excellent garnish.

Blogging school

Today's post comes to you from the third-grade classroom of my younger son. (Yes, that's him above; yes, he's a little bigger than that now.) His class is learning about blogging and contributing to a class blog, so I thought it would be fun to do a little blogging project with them. It's a food blogging project, of course! They're going to tell you about their favorite Halloween recipes. We're using their super-secret code names to protect their privacy, by the way. Okay - ready?

Teacher's favorite recipe: Spider cupcakes
"I like this recipe because I am no longer scared of spiders. This one looks yummy!"

EA2's favorite recipe: Edible eyeballs
"I like this one because because it looks like a creepy mess."

AB3's favorite recipe: Bug juice
"I like this one because bugs are cool."

GC4's favorite recipe: Mini witch's brooms
"I like this one because witches are too big to fit on these brooms."

SF5's favorite recipe: Halloween cupcakes (check out the mummies!)
"I like this one because they look weird. They look sort of googly and funny."

MG6's favorite recipe: Spider cupcakes
"I like this one because my teacher inspired me with some other spider cupcakes so I decided to try these."

KG7's favorite recipe: Edible eyeball treats
"I like this one because it looks yummy and it has some of my favorite colors - purple, blue and red."

NH8's favorite recipe: Black bean cat crudites
"I like this one because - well, I just picked that one in a hurry because it was almost time to leave."

EH9's favorite recipe: Hairy daddy longlegs cupcakes
"I like this one because it is really cool and I think that the eyes are the funniest part on them."

MJ10's favorite recipe: Salty bones
"I like this one because it was very creative and it looked very good and it was easy."

WK11's favorite recipe: Sweet monster cupcakes
"I like this one because it looked good, it sounded good, and, well, it looked weird and I like tasting things that look weird. And I like Frankenstein."

CK12's favorite recipe: Spooktacular haunted house
"I like this one because you get to mess around with food when you make it."

NK13's favorite recipe: Roasted ghosts (mashed potatoes)
"I like this one because mashed potatoes are delicious and everybody will get scared of these. This recipe says the kids get scared of the big ones."

RL14's favorite recipe: Brain cupcakes
"I like this one because I like things that looks like brains because I like things that look scary and tasting things that look scary."

CM15's favorite recipe: Hairy daddy longlegs cupcakes (these are popular!)
"I like this one because it has a lot of chocolate."

KO16's favorite recipe: Pumpkin pie-sicles
"I like this one because I love pumpkin pie and I love really cold foods."

DR17's favorite recipe: Mini witch's brooms
"I like this one because if it has Fruit Roll-ups in it, I always eat it."

ES18's favorite recipe: Mini witch's brooms (also a popular one, apparently)
"I like this one because they're really cute and it would be really fun to eat."

GS19's favorite recipe: Graveyard cake
"I like this one because I thought the idea was really funny."

SS20's favorite recipe: Melon brain
"I like this one because it looked very creepy. I think it might be very smart."

AD21's favorite recipe: Melon brain (popular!)
"I like this one because it looks really funny."

AS22's favorite recipe: Scrumptious skeletons
"I like this one because it looked good and there were skeletons on top of the chocolate."

AT23's favorite recipe: Old fashioned caramel corn
"I like this one because I like caramel corn and I thought the old-fashioned kind would be cool."

SW24's favorite recipe: Halloween mud pie
"I like this one even though it didn't have a picture - I read the recipe and knew I would like it."

GZ25's favorite recipe: Ghost toasts
"I like this one because it looks very artistic and I love eating toast for breakfast."

So now we've got the menu all planned out for our Halloween party, right? Tell us what YOUR favorite Halloween recipe is - leave a comment below!

Nobody knows the truffles I've seen....

(with thanks to Melvin Orange for the title of this post)

See those very few knobby lumps of strangeness above? Well, friends, what you're looking at above is roughly $1,500 of Italian white truffles, by my estimation. That's wholesale, by the way. This week's to-the-trade price: nearly $2,500 per pound. And, I'm sorry to say, they'll cost more next week.

Today I was lucky enough to lunch with Franco De Gaetano, the West coast senior manager for Sabatino Tartufi, one of the U.S.'s biggest importers and producers of truffles and truffle products. The truffles above spent the morning in a cooler in the trunk of his car, which is where I caught up with them. They spent the afternoon being handed over to chefs at great restaurants all around Los Angeles, or at least that was the plan when Franco and I parted.

Franco is to me what the dealer is to the heroin addict: He feeds my habit, and it really gives him a thrill to be able to do so. Specifically, my ever-intensifying truffle habit. Remember the pound of black summer truffles I got over the summer? Franco's. The truffle oil in my pantry? Franco's, too. And today he was nice enough to shower me with gifts: a jar of truffle honey, and samples of truffle slices, truffle crema, truffle salt, and truffle popcorn.

I should take him to lunch more often.

Actually, I learned a lot today about the different kinds of truffles, particularly how to tell whether a truffle product uses the real thing (Italian or French), or is cut with impostor Chinese truffle shavings. The giveaway: price. If you think "Hey, what a bargain!" it's Chinese. The real thing comes with a real price tag. But I smelled those babies in the white bag above. They're worth it.

We also talked about truffles' affinity for white food: rice, pasta, cream, cheese, eggs. And how Oregon white truffles, while nice in their own way, aren't a substitute for the Italians.

And how Italian and Jewish mothers are cut from the same cloth: Both of our mothers a) hate that we've moved so far from home, b) seem satisfied with (a) as long as we're happy, and c) called while we were at lunch.

I've decided that one of my primary goals as a food blogger is to introduce home cooks around the world to the simple elegance of the truffle. As my husband put it: "Anyone who's willing to spend $500 on wine for a dinner party should spend $300 on truffles instead." Which is why I can't seem to stop writing truffle recipes. I'll leave you with a list of the ones already in my repertoire - more to come, I'm sure.

• Emery's salad with truffle oil and bacon
• Truffled deviled eggs
  
• Frisee and endive salad with truffle vinaigrette
• Pasta with black truffle sauce 
• Crostini with ricotta, thyme, honey and truffle
• Potato chips with fontina and truffle
• Tartines with radishes and truffle butter
• Photos from my nine-course truffle dinner