who doesn't love a BLT?

Especially when Gary Danko makes it!

Years ago, during a previous administration, I went to eat at the Ritz Carlton Dining Room knowing that Gary Danko was chef there. I'd met him a year earlier when Madeleine Kamman introduced the two of us. Both of us studied with Madeleine, Gary was with her in 1984 and I got a Master Chef Diploma in 1985. You see if Madeleine had had a daughter, I think her name would have been Joanne and if she'd had a third son after Neil and A.D., I think his name would most certainly have been Gary. We were lucky, she loved the two of us and forever I will be thankful for two things,- the extraordinary depth of knowledge she shared and for introducing me to my best chef friend, Gary.

And this past Sunday, during SF Chefs 2011, Gary and I did our usual song and dance routine that we've done since the inception of SF Chefs,- we taught a class together.

The first year it was all about tomatoes, the second year we had fun playing with raspberry schrub and on Sunday, we each did a riff on America's favorite sandwich, the BLT. I did a BLT salad and Gary did a BLT soup.

I think you might have the salad recipe already but I thought I'd include it again along with Gary's recipe for the soup. Treasure Gary's recipe! It's rare and very special to get a recipe from him. (I can't wait until he writes his first book.) And make sure you join us next year for our class at SF Chefs 2012.

Read more about BLT at:
Simplyrecipes
Food52
Steamykitchen

BLT – Bacon Lettuce and Tomato Soup

Ingredients

1 pound fresh ripe tomatoes, cored seeded, diced
½ large (4 ounces) red pepper, cored, seeded, diced
1 – 2 small Persian (4 ounces) cucumbers, peeled seeded and diced
2 large leaves (2 ounces) Romaine lettuce
¼ (1-1/2 ounces) red onion, peeled, diced
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 small cloves (1/8 ounce) garlic, peeled and smashed
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 teaspoons kosher salt

Puree all ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth. Strain through a sieve and chill completely. Serve cold.

Garnishes

Chopped Romaine lettuce
Avocado
Diced tomatoes
Diced red peppers
Diced rendered bacon
Mayonnaise
Brioche Croutons
Chopped chives

BLT SALAD WITH CREAMY AIOLI DRESSING

½ loaf coarse textured bread
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
6 slices thick-slice apple-smoked bacon, ½" pieces, about 6 ounces
12 cups mixed baby salad greens
8 ounces various colored cherry tomatoes, halved
1 clove garlic
3 tablespoons homemade mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat an oven to 400F.

Tear the bread into ¾ to 1-inch pieces. Alternately you can cut the bread into ¾-inch cubes. Place on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt. Bake in the oven, tossing half way through, until crisp and golden, 8 to 10 minutes.

Place the bacon in a large frying pan over medium heat. Cook, turning occasionally, until the bacon is golden and crisp, 5 to 6 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove the bacon and drain on paper towels. Reserve. Remove the pan from the heat. Let the pan cool 5 minutes.

In the meantime, place the salad greens and cherry tomatoes in a large salad bowl.

Drain all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat from the pan. Add the garlic, mayonnaise and vinegar to the pan and whisk together. Season with salt and pepper. Add the vinaigrette and the bacon to the lettuce and tomatoes and toss together. Serve immediately.

Serves 6

trip around the mediterranean

I stopped by Wayfare Tavern the other night to give Tyler a phone number he'd asked me for. He wasn't there but Alan, the manager, came by to say hi.

"Aren't you going on a huge trip leaving Monday?" Alan asked.

I had to wrack my brain. When you travel as much as I do, you take things one day at a time. Monday didn't ring a bell. "No, I don't think so, not this Monday," I said.

"Yes, I read it on your website. Aren't you going on a trip around the Mediterranean?" Alan asked.

"Oh," I smiled as it finally dawned on me, "Yeah, I'm going on a trip around the Mediterranean right here in my San Francisco kitchen."

That was last Monday. I did a weeklong cooking class and on the calendar on my website it listed my week as "A Trip Around the Mediterranean."

Imagine... Monday we were walking through the Provencal markets buying lavender sachets and colorful linens, Tuesday we were in Italy picking olives and figs, and by Wednesday, we were were swimming in the crystal clear blue waters off the coast of Greece. Thursday, we were eating tapas at Cal Pep in Barcelona and on Friday, we were buying spices and preserved lemons in the souks or markets of Marrakesh.

Eight students from all over the US, two assistants, one dishwasher and one teacher "cruising" the Mediterranean together.

Ten o'clock each morning, we started in the kitchen with warm muffins or scones. I think the favorite breakfast were the raspberry and almond muffins, a recipe that I got when I used to taste for Alice at Cafe Fanny. Or was it the millet muffins from the same source?

MILLET MUFFINS

1 egg
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup (80 g) melted butter
12 tablespoons millet
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat an oven to 375oF (190oC). Beat the egg and brown sugar well with an electric mixer. Add the melted butter and 1/2 of the buttermilk. Stir in the millet. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and add to the other ingredients. Add the other 1/2 of the buttermilk. Do not mix the muffins together too much or the texture will not be good! Place in greased muffin tins.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.

And then I'd talk about the cuisine from that particular country and explain the recipes. After dividing into groups, we cooked for the next couple hours together. I dug through my library of music to find the right music from my many trips to the Mediterranean. The students seemed to like Zucchero a lot. Or was it Emma Shappin?

Monday, when we were in Provence, we tasted warm olives scented with wild herbs and drank Provencal rosé. That was just the beginning. We made pissaladiere with crispy golden puffed pastry and lots of caramelized onions. Bouillabaisse was next and for dessert, little lemon souffle cakes that were sweet and tart at the same time.

The next day, we packed our bags and left for Italy. I insisted on starting with spritzers made with Aperol and prosecco (the same drink we served our guests when they arrived for our wedding last August). We rolled bright green spinach ravioli and filled them with ricotta and mascarpone and topped them with a sauce of fresh heirloom tomatoes and really tender leaves of basil. And then we made this really cool main course where we wrapped a baguette around pork tenderloin dusted with fennel pollen, sage, rosemary, coarse salt and lots of black pepper like they do in Tuscany. My favorite Florentine cook, Judy, introduced this to me years ago when I was teaching one of my courses st Il Leccio in Strada in Chianti.

If that wasn't the favorite of the day, it must have been the caramelized chocolate almond budino for dessert. OMG!!!

And what's food without wine, especially when you're on vacation along the Mediterranean? Everyday we have a wine maker or importer come to pour their wine and talk about the wines from that particular country.
By mid-week, it was time to fire things up so we built a really hot fire in the fireplace in the kitchen and spit-roasted a leg of lamb and then slathered it with tzatziki made from Greek yogurt, dill, spearmint and garlic. After all, we were in Greece for the day! I have a special place in my heart for Greece since Joe and I spent our honeymoon in a little villa looking over the sea in Santorini. I recalled lots of memories of my previous trips to Greece, but of course not all of them! We made galatoboureko, Joe's favorite, for dessert.
<GALATOBOUREKO

4 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup fine semolina, sifted
4 tablespoons butter
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
3" cinnamon stick
Pinch of salt
5 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 ounces fillo dough
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
Honey syrup (recipe follows)

Mix milk, sugar, semolina, butter, lemon rind, cinnamon stick and salt in a heavy saucepan and heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Let the custard bubble gently over very low heat for 5 minutes. Take away from the heat and remove the cinnamon stick. Cover with a piece of buttered parchment or waxed paper to prevent a skin from forming.

When the custard mixture is cool, blend in the eggs and vanilla.

Butter a 13 X 9" baking dish. Place about 15 layers in the dish, brushing each sheet with melted butter.

Pour the custard on top of the buttered fillo. Next place another 15 layers of fillo on top, brushing each with butter as it is placed in position. Brush the top with the remaining butter and score through the top 3 sheets of fillo into 3" squares or diamonds. Trim the edges and bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until it is golden brown and the custard is set when tested with a knife.

Remove from the oven and cool thoroughly in the dish. Serve with the honey syrup.

Serves 12

Thursday brought us to Spain. It's summer, so naturally we began with a bowl of iced gazpacho. Later, we made our way outside to my balcony where we cooked a huge pan of paella over the open fire just like they do in Valencia. And on Friday, we started with the sensuous flavors of spicy eggplant jam smeared on crispy levain croutons followed by couscous and lamb and artichoke tagine. For dessert, we made this really aromatic crispy fillo layered with orange custard, cinnamon and toasted almonds.

Very fun week. I didn't need to pack, I didn't need a passport and I could sleep in my own bed. Yup, I did go on an amazing trip but I did it right here at home!

i love you beans

I'm obsessed with beans! If I had a choice of one food on a desert island, it would probably be beans. I'd have no problem eating them daily.

I love warm beans simply drizzled with virgin olive oil and sprinkled with Maldon salt or as fussed over as Rioja beans I've carried home from Spain, stewed with pork shoulder, chorizo (preferably also smuggled home from Spain), Basque choriceros, the sun-dried red peppers from the Basque Province, tomatoes, pimenton and espelette.

You can imagine my excitement this week when a box of beans was delivered by UPS from my friend, Cesare. I'm so lucky to have friends in the biz....

Cesare Casella, a NY chef friend, owner of Salumeria Rosi on Upper West Side in Manhattan, grew up in Tuscany, the land of the bean eater. He loves beans like I do! The smart guy that he is, started a company called Republic of Beans, selling all kinds of heirloom beans he grew up eating in Italy,--cannellini, barlotti, fagioli del papa, corona, diavoli, rosso di Lucca and zolfino, just to name a few.

Cesare is really a character... He's very funny, very crazy (in a good way), a fantastic chef and truly Tuscan. Though he's been in this country for a few years, he still has a strong Italian accent. I really have to concentrate sometimes to understand him. He seems to add an "a" onto the end of every English word.

He was in San Francisco this week and we had dinner together with a few other friends. We got on the subject of beans. The first thing he said was "You have to sucka the beans." I looked at him for the longest time trying to figure out what he was saying. "Sucka the beans?" I said. "Yes," he said "Sucka the beans." Finally I realized, "SOAK the beans!"

"Why do some beans cook inconsistently?" Mariangela asked. "Is it the age?" Cesare said that it had to do with the amount of water the beans are cooked in and how you store them. "Where should you store them?" I said. We were all surprised when he told us he stored his beans either in the refrigerator or freezer. They dehydrate less.

"And what about the cooking process? Should they be cooked in a small amount of water or a lot of water?" Cesare said beans like a lot of water. "Temperature?" we asked. "Maka sure the beanza waltz-a in the water nota do the rock and rolla." Now that's true Cesare style.

So today I cooked up a batch of fagioli del papa, a large flat purple and beige speckled bean. I soaked them for a couple hours, drained them, put them in the pan with plenty of water and let them waltz for about 40 minutes.

Just now I took a big scoop of warm beans, drizzled them with Tuscan olive oil and sprinkled them with salt. The flavors are rich and deep, almost tasking like chestnuts, and the texture is dense and meaty. Am I happy of what?

tyler florence, chuck williams, whose next?

Everyone loves tequila including Tyler Florence! I did a talk with him last week at his "newish" store in Mill Valley. Huge turnout of tequila fans which resulted in a very spirited evening! We started with my recipe for margaritas made with Siete Leguas blanco and Tyler's first question, "Why did I write a book about tequila?" I explained Agave Girls, the group I founded a few years ago for tequila-loving women and how Ten Speed Press came to me and asked me if I wanted to write a book about the spirit I loved so much. I talked about my trip to the highland and lowlands of Jalisco where tequila is produced and the process of making tequila.

I dispelled a lot of misconceptions about tequila and agave... Why you get a headache from mixto tequila, that the blue agave plant is closely related to the lily family, that it takes 8 to 12 years for an agave plant to mature. Fernando Gonzalez de Anda, the owner of Siete Leguas and one of the most generous men in the business, couldn't be with us but donated his fabulous tequila. Where does the name Siete Leguas come from? It was inspired by none other than the revolutionary hero General Francisco Villa (Pancho Villa) himself, who named his horse Siete Leguas (Seven Leagues). David Grapshi, who reps Siete and is a true tequila aficionado, kept everyone's glass full of blanco, reposado and anejo.