Video Series #3: Cooking With Cast Iron

Here’s the visual version of this post on the wonders of cast iron pans. Jesus, why did I wait to get a haircut until AFTER this video? Well, at least I put a sweater on!

As always, feedback please!

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Mmmmatcha!

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Ok, we’ve gone a little cuckoo for matcha lately, with all the blind-tasting going on. Daphne’s even salivating for her first taste!

Before I got turned on to seriously great matcha — and I’m talking really, really, seriously great, as in the best in the world — most of my matcha experiences were of the “eh” variety: good, interesting, certainly healthy, but life-changing? No. It took me a while to figure out the reason: I was drinking matcha that was, essentially, meant to be used as a culinary ingredient, not consumed as a beverage. Almost all of the matcha on the market today is actually culinary grade matcha:  much of it does well in desserts and baked goods, and culinary-grade matcha makes good matcha salt, but it’s really not very good for drinking (and some of it is downright nasty, even for baking). One can make it work, and appreciate the many, many health benefits of it (more on these in another post to come), but to enjoy as one would a truly excellent wine? I don’t think so.

It took forever to dawn on me: ceremonial grade matcha, the matcha meant to be drunk straight up, is in a league all its own. Do you remember the first time you had a world-class sip of wine? If you’re like me, prior to that precious moment,  you had only had everyday drinking wines (or worse). But that one taste was such an aha! moment: NOW I get what all the fuss is about! I still remember mine: I was with my friend Jack, who took me to Trumps, in West LA. It was a bottle of Chambertin, and it was like drinking Eden.

Drinking real matcha the first time was an equally epiphanic experience. It was so different from any kind of tea, or even any hot beverage for that matter! It had the complexity of a great wine — electric color and dozens of simultaneous notes, including bamboo, sugar, grass, herbs, earth . . . and it had a long, powerful finish. It was almost like tasting photosynthesis itself. No baking with this stuff: using this grade of tea as an ingredient to bake with would be every bit as folly as using Romanee Conti  ”cooking wine.” It would destroy everything that’s wonderful about it.

I’ve gone from a once-in-a-while cup (when I was drinking culinary grade) to three or four a day, once I discovered ceremonial grade. It is expensive? Well, it’s deceiving because it certainly LOOKS expensive at about $45 or so for 30 grams. But since I only use about a gram per cup, that’s only $1.50 a cup for a Romanee Conti-like experience, which starts to sound not only reasonable, but in fact a great bargain, given the pleasure, not to mention health benefits, it delivers. And considering that no one ever blinks at spending  three or four dollars for a fancy cup of coffee . . . it also dawned on me that ceremonial grade matcha at a buck fifty a cup probably represents one of the best bang-for-the-buck epicurean experiences available anywhere.

Where to buy it? It’s not easy. Whole Foods sells a brand called DoMatcha, which isn’t bad, but it’s not ethereal, either. Nijiya, in Japantown in SF — where one would expect an excellent selection, and where they carry all kinds of wonderful artisanal Japanese ingredients — sells some truly dreadful matcha, really bottom-of-the-barrel stuff. A whole slew of places on the net claim to sell ceremonial grade, but the problem with buying from many of these places is that they are so damn secretive about who actually makes their matcha. Many of them clam up if you ask even the most basic of questions (the manufacturer, date it was picked and processed, exact place it was grown, use of fertilizers, which tea masters prefer it, etc.).

I find this really odd. Imagine a great winemaker who simply says “I can’t tell you even the most basic information about my wine, including year, varietal, terroir, etc., but trust me, it’s good.” Not everyone is like that, of course. But enough are to make the entire matcha business a bit, I dunno, shadowy. Come out into the light, matcha people! It’s much more pleasant in the sunshine.

I’m working with an innovative and quality-driven matcha producer with a venerable history on a “breakaway blend” that, I hope, will set new standards for quality and accessibility. Much more on that as it unfolds!

There’s lots more to say about matcha, which I will be doing in future posts. I also need to get a video up of how, exactly, I make it, and to explain why I think it’s important to drop the Japanese weightiness of it all and to just enjoy it the way Italians enjoy coffee.

All to come! But meanwhile: are there any hardcore matcha fans here? Has anyone had the really good stuff? Would you compare it to a world-class wine?

Video Series #2: Creative Use of Salts

Back with the next video. I’m sure you knew this was coming eventually, but this one’s on creative use of salts. At least I used a different shirt!  But seriously: I really value all the feedback you’ve given me, both in the comments below and in private. PLEASE keep it coming. Thanks!

And: I’m open to ideas you’d like to see covered here, so let me know. It’s been great fun doing these things; I’m really looking forward to doing actual dishes, start to finish, for the new book. If it wasn’t so bloody time-consuming and expensive, I’d do hundreds of them! But it’s also next to impossible in my tiny kitchen; it’s quite the ballet to move around at all with all the lighting equipment and the two cameras. Man I’d love to have a studio kitchen … if anyone has ideas on how to get one, please tell me!

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New Video Series, #1: Mastering Tang — Using Citrus Effectively

A little while ago it struck me that it might be useful to outline some key ways to achieve breakaway tastes. I’ve done this in previous books and have talked about breakaway cooking in countless blog posts, so I thought I might try to express some ideas in video, since so much of good cooking IS the visual. Sometimes watching in two dimensions conveys things the printed word cannot.  So I asked my videographer pal Henry Hopkins to help me make a series of short videos (at least 10) on different aspects of breakaway cooking, and he graciously agreed.

The whole series will, at least I hope, outline the basics of breakaway cooking. And since citrus plays such a big role in my own cooking, we might as well start with that one.

More to come! Feedback/criticism is HUGELY appreciated.
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Matcha Soba With Veggie Medley, PLUS Exciting Matcha News!

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I’ve described a similar “matcha soba salad” before, but it’s so easy and so good, and I’ve been making it so often, that I just can’t help myself. Here is what I do:

1. put a big pan of water to boil the noodles
2. root around in your fridge, and pluck out whatever vegetables you find
3. chop them up and saute in some olive oil, ghee, or butter (or a combo of all three). Season to your liking with plenty of good salt and pepper.
4. While the veggies cook, add the soba to the boiling water, and cook until al dente. Drain, and thoroughly rinse with cool water (this reduces the considerable starch of soba so that the noodles don’t clump together)
5. Gently combine the soba and the veggies. You may wish to tart it up with some umami by adding a splash of Bragg’s amino acids (or, you can achieve increased umami by adding some pulverized shiitake and/or pulverized dried tomato to the veggies as they cook), or make it tangy by adding some citrus zest and juice or a small drizzle of your favorite vinegar. Top with fresh herbs for the full effect.

I’ve made this with every conceivable vegetable: Chinese long beans, broccolini, cauliflower, edamame, sweet peppers, habaneros (yes!), lotus root, all the winter greens. It’s that versatile. Give it a shot! You can buy matcha soba in most Asian markets, but certainly all Japanese markets have it. Not expensive — I think it’s a little over two bucks for a pack of three servings.

But do the noodles really taste like matcha? No, they don’t. They’re just pretty, and it’s somehow comforting knowing there’s matcha (albeit a lower food-grade matcha) in them. If you really want to taste matcha in this dish — and you should! — top it off with matcha salt.

And speaking of matcha: I’ve written to just about every company in Japan that makes the really good stuff, asking for samples so that I can conduct some blind tastings. It’s been extremely educational (not to mention fun). Some are sublime beyond belief. I’m currently striking a deal with the blind-test winner to make me a special blend that will be called (what else?!) “breakaway matcha” that I want to share with anyone who’d like to try this remarkable and ridiculously healthy tea.  Stay tuned for more on this very exciting development!

The Beginner’s Checklist To Becoming An Outrageously Good Cook

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I‘ve said it before, and I’ll say it forevermore: it’s EASY to become a great cook nowadays. In stark contrast to just a few generations ago, today most of us can cruise out our doors and find quality raw ingredients, we have access to the world’s great cuisines just by visiting some ethnic markets, and we can order just about anything on earth with the click of a button and a credit card. The earth continues to radically shrink, and home cooks continue to be the beneficiaries of it.

The flip side: it’s also easier than ever to buy packaged crap and frozen just-heat-up crap, to get take-out crap, and to eat crappy meals in restaurants. It’s almost as if the “work” of feeding ourselves has been outsourced to those that can do it the cheapest and who can make it the most convenient.

What’s missing in all this convenience, however, is the concept of “taking ownership” of what you put into your body. Huge food processing companies have figured out ever-more profitable ways of manipulating a few basic –and heavily subsidized — staples like corn, wheat, and soy, tarting them up in increasingly bizarre ways with increasingly bizarre ingredients no one can pronounce, let alone understand, adding way too much salt and fat, and packaging it all in consumer-friendly designs, colors, and materials to entice us to just outsource the whole business of eating to them.

This is nuts on so many levels one doesn’t know where to begin, other than the beginning: feed yourself! It’s easy if you follow these three superbasic guidelines:

1) It’s not about the gear! Some of the most inventive, knowledgeable cooks I know have the crappiest kitchens. Good cooks can make a lot happen with very little (check out Mark Bittman’s bad kitchen). That said, quality stuff is, of course, nice, and will last longer than crappy gear. But don’t rush out and buy a set of something. Avoid sets like the plague. Just buy what you need, and nothing more.  Cast iron is my favorite, and it happens to be the cheapest. See also this post on cooking well in a minimally equipped kitchen.

2) Use good salt, and pepper, wisely. Undersalting, and using crappy salt (that is to say, iodized table salt) are major obstacles to good cooking. Get yourself some kosher salt, some good sea salt, and some good whole black peppercorns; “good” doesn’t necessarily mean expensive. And for the breakaway leap into salts as culinary nirvana, begin to adapt flavored salts into your cooking. For lots of juicy details, check out my essay, “On the Massive Importance of Salt.”

3) Be fearless. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes! A good friend recently told me, “the best cooks are those that make the most mistakes.” It’s true — there’s no better way to learn. It’s also the best way to get to know your own palate. By varying and playing with levels of salt, sweet, herbaceousness, acid/tart, and umami, you begin to learn what lights up YOUR taste buds. No one else’s matters! Play and learn. You get to practice three times a day for the rest of your life — you WILL get this right. And the quicker you make your mistakes, the tastier and healthier your food will be for the rest of your life. Start simple, and start now. Today.

Supertasty, Superquick Daikon Salad

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I love this salad. You get the daikon ribbons just by using a vegetable peeler — they come off in wonderful little strips. You then rinse them in cold water, which really improves their taste (I think it rids them of that property that many people find unpleasant: that bitter, superradishy taste). Blot dry in a tea towel.

That’s the base — you can then add whatever. Here I’ve added pomegranate arils — is there ANY dish that isn’t improved with pomegranate arils? — avocado, some orange bell pepper strips, and some cooked edamame I had in the fridge. Dressing of choice is a combo of some neutral oil (walnut oil is one of my faves, as is avocado oil) plus a tiny drizzle of sesame oil. And a squeeze of lemon (or yuzu, or other citrus of choice) for tang. Dust with s&p. Inhale, feel great. Top off with a cup of matcha for the full antioxidant high!

Top 10 Food Trends for 2010: All Breakaway Related!

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Imagine my surprise when the folks at The Food Channel published their “top 10 food trends” for the year, and almost all of them were directly related to breakaway cooking! I’m borrowing their graphics here, and adding my own commentary; you can see their original posting here.

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I’ve never considered cooking from scratch to be a trend — considering it was the ONLY way to cook throughout 99.9999 percent of human history — but hooray anyway! Using great raw ingredients in very simple ways is the very heart of breakaway cooking. Nothing very fancy, and never anything fussy, just simple honest food, prepared with a global perspective in mind.

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It appears that, finally, Americans are getting more comfortable experimenting in their own kitchens. Hooray again! I’ve said it a million times, and let me say it again: it’s all about YOUR palate, not someone else’s. You can, and should, tweak away in any way you see fit. You’re the one eating the results. Every culture has a kind of culinary canon, but that doesn’t mean you have to follow it. Ignore what doesn’t resonate, and dive into that that does. Canonical dishes became canonical because they tend to work, and lots of people like and reproduce them, but seriously: experiment! The food tradition police aren’t watching!

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More and better stuff in grocery stores, especially in the produce aisles. I would add to this: more ethnic markets! Don’t forget: for things like fresh spices, fresh herbs, rice, and of course global flavor blasts, ethnic markets are far superior to, and vastly cheaper than, the megastores like Safeway. If you think about it, this isn’t surprising: the majority of people who shop in ethnic markets (think Mexican, Korean, Middle Eastern, Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Indian) actually cook a ton at home, and actually USE spices! This means turnover is higher, which means their supplies are ipso factor fresher and better. Take full advantage of these markets, people!

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They said it so well I’ll just quote. It’s pure breakaway!

“This is all about flavor delivery. Immigration has come to the plate, and we are now defining a new Global Flavor Curve. Part comfort, part creativity, the latest flavors are coming from the great American melting pot. So, it’s about grandma’s food, but the recipes may be written in Japanese. American food is distinctive in its lack of identity outside of the hamburger—until, that is, you mix in our heritage. This is the year we’ll do it in a big way. The presentation of food, the flavor, and the experimentation is coming into its own in 2010.

It’s really a redefinition of “ethnic” to take it beyond even traditional thinking. Flavors from Africa and Japan and Asia are joining with Mexican and Italian as top-of-mind choices—“Let’s go out for Thai” is as common in many American cities as “I’m craving Mexican.” And, the menu in that Thai restaurant may well offer a side of French fries.

It’s not just about restaurants, of course. The true American ethnic is a merging of flavors at home. We’re taking those old recipes, and we’re applying our own cooking knowledge and available spices to make them “original” all over again. We’re pairing things differently, too—a little from this country, a little from that, and we have a new flavor and texture combination that is distinctly American. It’s a great time to be a spice.”

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Vet your food, folks. If you eat meat, try to find a local farmer/rancher who’ll sell you a little; you really owe to yourself and your family to KNOW where it comes from. Small family ranches will often sell you a whole animal that you can share with some friends if you have a small, inexpensive freezer. And they’ll butcher it, wrap it, label it, and freeze it for you, too. Often for LESS than you’d pay for industrial meat, whose practices you really don’t wanna know about.

Sourcing local veggies and fruit is obviously much easier: you just have to go to your local farmers’ market. There really is no reason to do your main shopping for your food staples at supermarkets (occasionally, of course, convenience and circumstances dictate that we must, but it’s more the exception than the rule for breakaway-style cooking).

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Sort of the same point as #5, but throw in packaging: buying your food from farmers and ranchers you meet in person necessarily means better — that is to say, less — packaging. Just bring your canvas bags!

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To use Pollan’s phrase, “edible food-like substances” are necessarily concerning themselves more with boosting the nutritional values of foods — mainly because they sell better with messages like “more antioxidants!” — but we’re not concerned with that at all, since “nutritional” processed foods are largely still crappy processed foods. Avoid them like the plague. And stock up on the real nutritional superfoods (and breakaway staples) like matcha, pomegranate, blueberries, all leafy greens, wild salmon, turkey, squashes, beans, oats, walnuts, citrus ….

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Well, need we say more! This was the most personally pleasing of the ten for me. Do a search on umami in the upper right corner of this blog to get a glimpse on how often we talk about umami around here. Boosting the umami levels of your home-cooked food will make you a far, far better cook, guaranteed!

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I love trading cooking classes, private dinners, or anything else for services I need and can’t really afford (things like web design, web development, legal advice, accounting advice, etc.). If you grow some of your own food, and have more than you can use, you can even trade that!  Check out Veggie Trader.

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Not sure I quite get what they’re driving at here, except maybe that individual palate is king. And that many, many people these days are doing lots of DIY food projects like pickling, making jerky, making flavored salts, etc. Breakaway projects, all of them!

I’m loving that so many of the above fit so nicely into the approach we’ve been trumpeting here for years. So bravo to you, Food Channel!

Bitterly Delicious, Two-Minute Salad

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Pickings are somewhat slim these days at the local farmers markets, so I was doubly pleased to find one of the most beautiful displays of winter greens I’ve ever seen at the stand of Jesse Kuhn’s Marin Roots farm. He probably had ten kinds of bitter lettuces and chicories, all surreally gorgeous and deliciously bitter.

“Deliciously bitter” may sound like a contradiction, but it’s not (it also sounds better in Japanese: “nigakute oishii” is high praise there). The trick to enjoying these beautiful, healthful salad greens (“salad purples” is more like it) is to introduce a tiny amount of sweetness in the dressing to offset the bitterness. So my two-minute prep of this salad went something like this:

1. Tear up enough leaves for your salad (Jesse washes his lettuces meticulously, so I often don’t even bother with rinsing and spinning)
2. Drizzle on your best fruity green unfiltered olive oil, along with a drizzle of something sweet. My favorite sweetener for this use is jaggery syrup (watch for a video on how to make this soon in this space), but you could also use agave, ginger syrup, simple syrup, or maple syrup). A brief squeeze of Meyer lemon or other citrus for acidity.
3. Toss on pomegranate arils, a few marcona almonds, and flowers, and dust with s&p (yuzu salt or tangerine salt are especially nice).
4. Declare victory, and get ready for an entirely different — and thoroughly pleasant — salad experience.

You could tart this up a million and one ways — with more fruit, smoked fish, other veggies — but sometimes the simplest salad is the best, provided your ingredients are top-notch.

Does anyone else here like bitter lettuces?

Fantastic Breakfast: The Savory Sourdough Strata

I suspect I’m not alone in my breakfast rut: we have a decent rotation of morning dishes — killer oatmeal (made with persimmon goop this time of year), homemade granola over Greek yogurt and fresh fruit, poached eggs, fluffy herby eggs, baked eggs, orange yogurt pancakes, Dutch babies, and a few more — but I often find myself pining for something new.

So I was cruising around the web, hoping to find something good to make on Christmas morning, and happened upon something I had never heard of called “strata”: a casserole dish layered with aromatics and bread. The idea is to alternate layers of bread and veggies and to pour an eggy custard over them, refrigerate overnight, and bake in the morning. I don’t normally do much overnighting of anything, but I figured what the hell, I wanted out of my rut.  You do have to have a modicum of energy at night to assemble it, but it only takes 10 minutes or so to prepare, and you’ll be glad you did in the morning: you just have to turn on the oven, take it out of the fridge, and plop it in the oven.  It’s especially great as a stress-free way to serve a hearty breakfast to guests, along with a bowl of fresh seasonal fruit (it’s fantastic with fuyu persimmons).

I naturally wanted to up the overall savoriness of the dish, so I added my umami standbys of pulverized dried tomato, shiitake dust, and parmesan. All the recipes I’ve seen use milk, but I think it’s better with yogurt. I think it tastes better in a claypot, too. Here’s how I did it:

• 3 cups cubed sourdough bread
• 1 cup finely grated parmesan
• ¼ cup minced shallots
• 1 cup diced crimini (or other) mushrooms
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 tablespoon pulverized dried tomato
• generous sprinkling of salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon shiitake powder

1) Place half the bread into a large claypot or other earthen vessel, or casserole dish that’s been lightly buttered. Sprinkle in half the parmesan, half the shallots, and half the mushrooms. Follow with the rest of the bread, parm, shallots, and mushrooms (this creates the “strata”).

2) Whisk together eggs, yogurt, salt, and pepper, and pour this over the strata. Top it with the shiitake powder. Cover tightly and place in the refrigerator overnight.

3) In the morning, preheat oven to 325. Bake for 30 minutes, then crank up the heat to 425 for another 10 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned and crusty. Serve in the claypot, at the table, with some fruit.

Has anyone ever made a strata before? Does anyone have any can’t-live-without breakfasts you’d like to share?