Food tips

There are certain dishes that no matter how many times I make them, I’m always looking for a better recipe. Macaroni and cheese is one of them. You know a good macaroni and cheese when you taste it. For me, it’s rich but not oily, gooey with melted cheese and with no graininess to the sauce. It’s also got a little sharp edge to it. I usually start with a bechamel, but I’ve never been convinced that it’s the perfect sauce base.  I eat a lot of cauliflower and I’m by no means the first to discover that pureed it can stand in for all kinds of creamy sauces. For this recipe I was inspired by two recipes, one from Mark Bittman and another from Michelle Obama. Yup. Michelle Obama. It’s a recipe that is floating around the internet but I really couldn’t find very many comments from readers who had tried it, so I just went for it. The whole grain pasta and cauliflower addition make this a healthier recipe than some, but I still wouldn't call it healthy.  My version of this recipe di...

When I was growing up one of my favorite dishes was veal parmigiana. I adored the tender scallops of veal, breaded and fried then coated with tomato sauce and topped with gooey mozzarella. It wasn’t an everyday meal by any means, but I do remember requesting it for my birthday. These days when you hear the word veal it unfortunately brings to mind “veal crates.” Veal has become the poster child for the inhumane treatment of animals. But the truth is, individual confining veal pens are outlawed in many states and are being phased out altogether. By the end of this year, veal crates will become a thing of the past. But that’s just the beginning of the misperceptions about veal. According to the American Veal Association , 100% of US veal farms are family owned, most are also family run and very small scale. No growth hormones are used and the animal's tails are not docked, their horns are not removed. Recently I met with Julie Rossotti of Rossotti Ranch . Julie comes from a Swiss dai...

Is a spiralizer necessary? I got one to review, but truth be told I’m unconvinced. It turns out there are lots of ways to get strands and ribbons from vegetables and fruit. The most common kitchen tools, a grater and a vegetable peeler work remarkably well. I'm also a fan of the  mandolin  which can be used to make many more types of cuts.  But if you really enjoy creating these textures and want a single gadget, the Deiss Pro Julienne & Vegetable Peeler is really a three in one. It’s great for peeling potatoes and carrots, but it’s also good for creating those slithery ribbons and shredds for salads. It also has a nifty feature on the side that allows you to remove the "eyes" from potatoes without resorting to a paring knife or use it to create a peel strip from citrus fruit.  I’ve been using this gadget on zucchini. I use the larger ribbons with chunkier pasta and the shreds with skinny noodles. I blanch the zucchini for a minute or two with the pasta, to get...

When I think of the wines of the Alsace I think white wine. After all 90% of the wines produced in the Alsace are white. But there’s growing interest in one particular red wine, Pinot Noir. This is a recent development, in part due to changing climate conditions. The Alsace already has a staggering 15 different soil types and now it has a longer growing season. Limestone and clay ensure that Pinot Noir will develop the right acidity and tannins. Good Pinot Noir never happens by mistake! I recently enjoyed a wine dinner with a number of different bottles of Pinot Noir from the Alsace. They had all the characteristics I expect from Pinot Noir—notes of strawberry or raspberry, smoke, leather, sometimes spice, fresh acidity. Some were fresh and vibrant, others more complex and earthy.  But the wine I enjoyed the most? Allimant Laugner Crémant d’Alsace Rosé. It's bright with strawberry and lemon, and deliciously fizzy and can be found for under $20. I love sparking wines and Brut ...

Chef Rachelle Boucher shows off our cherry jam If you’ve been to the store or maybe the farmers market recently you might have seen cherries. The sweetness of bing cherries is both intense and fleeting. Cherries don’t last long after being picked, unlike apples or oranges. That's why I'm glad to be a part of the Canbassador program. The past few years I’ve received a crate of fresh sweet cherries from Northwest Cherry Growers . Every year I experiment preserving something different. I’ve prepared cherry barbecue sauce , canned cherries for pie, put up bourbon cherries, made cherry  vanilla  shrub and even dried and frozen cherries. This year I decided to make cherry jam. It turned out to be a very special cooking experience for me because I wasn’t in my kitchen, but over at the Miele showroom in San Francisco, with my pal Chef Rachelle Boucher. She kindly invited me over to do a little cooking. To be honest, working with Miele appliances will spoil you. Here’s how it went an...

Here's one of my strategies for dinner in a hurry--tweak a classic dish by loading it up with vegetables and creating a one pot meal. Recently I worked on a  shrimp and feta recipe , it started out very much the same as many other recipes, but I added lots of fresh fennel. Basically this shrimp curry recipe started with a simple coconut curry recipe to which I added sugar snap peas, bell peppers and cherry tomatoes. I happened to have some sugar snap peas from Mann's produce (another great time saver because they are stringless and don't need any prep), but I could have added broccoli or sweet potatoes or some other study vegetables. Just add rice or noodles and dinner is done! This recipe comes courtesy of  American Shrimp Company , they kindly sent me some more of their fresh wild gulf shrimp. The shrimp are bursting with flavor and can be used in so many dishes. They arrive clean, deveined, peeled, fresh, not frozen, perfect for when you don't have much time for...

Yesterday I wrote about Pecorino Romano , today Pecorino Toscano and Pecorino Sardo , two other kinds of  Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)  Pecorino you are likely to find in the US. Pecorino Toscano I ate the fresh version of Pecorino Toscano practically daily when I lived in Tuscany. In Florence, fresh Pecorino Toscano was like the Italian version of Monterey Jack, the cheese I grew up eating in California.It's mild, slightly herbal, sweet, approachable, easy to love. It's really great in a sandwich--either cold or grilled. Pecorino Toscano is made from milk produced in Tuscany, Lazio and Umbria. As with all cheeses, it gets harder and drier as it ages. In the US it used to be much easier to the find the aged versions than the really fresh soft ones. The fresher version is particularly mild and creamy. The aged version is buttery, sometimes nutty with a peppery finish It’s just a great table cheese, perfect for an antipasto platter. Even aged it tends to be much milder...