my favorite pie

If you’re looking for the best pizza in town, don't miss TONY'S PIZZA NAPOLETANA at 1570 Stockton St, near Washington Square in North Beach. Late this afternoon, Lauraine Jacobs, a fellow food writer from New Zealand, and I stopped for a late lunch of pizza margherita and a half-bottle of Umani Ronchi Lacrima di Morro d'Alba 2008.

Tony was away in Naples defending his title as top pizza maker in the world, but his chef produced this amazing pie with a chewy yet soft and delicate yeasty thin crust, and ever so slightly charred on the edges to give it great smoky flavor. It was topped with San Marzano tomatoes, fresh buffalo mozzarella and sweet, sweet basil. I could have eaten two pizzas they were so good. I closed my eyes and for a minute I was eating pizza at L'Antica Pizzeria Da Michele in Naples.

And as we left Marni, the wine buyer and manager, handed me a big bag of '00' flour that had just arrived from Italy. So maybe homemade pizzas are on the menu in my kitchen tonight... As you know I pray that my last meal on earth will be a big pizza pie.

my love affair

I don’t know if my love affair will ever end. No, you silly thing, I’m not talking about my love affair with Joe, that's solid, I’m talking about Australia!

It all started very innocently. I love to travel. But this time, it was a special trip, I was invited to teach in Australia. When they asked me, I acted really cool and calm and said, “Oh, that sounds interesting.” Yet inside, I was screaming “OMG AUSTRALIA, I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! OMG PINCH ME, IS THIS FOR REAL?”

The year was 1990. That first year I taught 24 classes and did 4 guest chef dinners in a month. The second year I went for two months and did almost twice as many events. I traveled to Australia every year for next 10 years until I got really busy with television in the US. The rest is history!

In my work I do a lot of different things but do you know what my absolute favorite is? I love doing my weeklong culinary journeys in Andalucia, Spain, sipping amontillado sherry watching flamenco dancers… I love my classes in Provence, going from outdoor market to outdoor market, buying everything from striped espadrilles to lavender and salt cod. Or then there's cooking with my students at Il Leccio villa in the heart of Tuscany? And what’s not to love about taking my students to the Veneto where we ride the water taxi up the Grand Canal and eat small plates of Venetian food called cicchetti in dark little bars called bacari. I love these weeks that I put together along the Mediterranean but this time I was planning something different. I knew I was taking a chance. Would they get it?

I was asking people to sit on a plane for 15 or more hours and travel 10,000 miles to see kangaroos and koalas. I really didn’t know if I could convince them that Australian food was more than throwing shrimp on the “barbie.”

I decided to go for it… I put together a fantastic itinerary and sent out an email to 20 friends asking who would be interested in a weeklong culinary journey around McLaren Vale and the Barossa Valley, two of the most gorgeous wine regions of South Australia. And to my surprise, 12 people got back to me immediately and said, “Where do I send a check?”

I worked on organizing the trip for a year and then just two weeks ago on March 24, we all met in downtown Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. We got on the ”coach,” as the Ozzies say, and headed out of town towards McLaren Vale, the land where the vines meet the sea. Here we all were at last, riding along through rolling hills and never-ending vineyards, through some of the most beautiful countryside in the world. I heard John say, "Hey, this looks like Tuscany!" I couldn't have agreed more. An hour and a half later, we landed at Chapel Hill Gourmet Retreat, our home for the next half week.

Imagine, we got off the bus, hot and sweaty, and were greeted with a cool glass of Chapel Hill Unoaked Chardonnay 2009. White linen-clad tables were set outside under huge white umbrellas and a lunch of roasted Tasmanian salmon with a crunchy spiced dukkah crust was served. All the while, views over the Onkaparinga National Park and in the far distance, the Gulf of St Vincent, were before us.

I looked around and the stress from work and tension from flying were gone. Everyone’s shoulders weren’t up around their ears anymore. I noticed that people stopped texting and cell phones weren't glued to their ears. People were sitting back in their chairs relaxing, talking and laughing. “This is the life!” I heard Lynn say as another cork was popped. It was then that yes, they got it. I saw it in their eyes, they too had fallen head over heels in love with the land I love so much.

And that was only day #1!
Stay tuned!

ANZAC cookie recipe

Last night, Joe and I watched Gallipoli and today I made a batch of Anzac cookies! What’s all the fuss about Australia? I’m leaving on Saturday for a 3 week trip Down Under and I'm very excited! I’ll be teaching in Sydney, Melbourne and taking 12 people on a culinary journey around the Barossa, McLaren Vale and Clare Valley, three beautiful wine regions of South Australia.
It isn’t my first trip to Australia and it definitely won’t be my last. I’ve been teaching and working there since 1990 when my friend Gwenda (from Melbourne, pronounced Mell-bun, of course) saw me teach when she was visiting San Francisco. “Would you ever want to come to Australia to teach? I think Australians would love your style of food!” she said. I acted really cool but I was jumping out of my skin. Honestly! Four months later, I was getting on a Qantas flight with my knives and chef’s jacket bound for Sydney.

I have truly fallen in love with this place. I love spirit of the people, the food, the wine, and I love the geography! I’ve always said that if I didn’t live in my favorite US city—San Francisco, I’d live in Sydney. I've returned year after year teaching and being guest chef in every major city plus the wine regions--Margaret River and the Swan Valley in Western Australia, The Hunter outside Sydney, the Yarra Valley next to Melbourne, Coonawarra, the Barossa, McLaren Vale and Clare in South Australia. I’ve held koalas, sparred with kangaroos, waited at dark for the little penguins in tuxedos to appear and visited Ayers Rock. Australians say I’ve seen more of Australia than they have.

In anticipation of my visit, today I made a batch of ANZAC biscuits. This traditional recipe is associated with the joint Australia/New Zealand public holiday, ANZAC Day, which commemorates the Gallipoli landings during WW1. ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.
The lore surrounding the cookie and the holiday is a little murky. Some say the soldiers made the biscuits in the trenches with what they had on hand. I kind of doubt that! More plausible is that they were made by the Australian and New Zealand women for the soldiers. These early cookies were pretty durable, rock hard at best, and could withstand overseas travel from Australia to troops in Europe. In 1915, can you imagine how long it took for cookies to arrive by boat?

The ANZAC biscuits I made today are a far cry from the ones they made in the early 1900’s. Mine are chewy, rich and buttery with a hint of coconut. I love the addition of the golden syrup. I thought I had some in my pantry. I searched but I didn't. The challenge was finding some at the grocery store but after a couple stores, I found it next to the corn syrup, honey and maple syrup.

Golden syrup, also called cane syrup, light treacle or sugar cane juice, is an amber-colored liquid sweetener with a slightly toasty, buttery flavor that’s popular among British, Australian, Caribbean, and Creole cooks. It's made by evaporating sugar cane juice until its thick, syrupy and rich. The brand I see most often on the West Coast is Lyle’s Golden Syrup. You can’t miss the green and gold can with the picture of a dead lion surrounded by buzzing bees. Weird, right? According to Lyle, "Samson was travelling to the land of the Philistines in search of a wife. During the journey he killed a lion and on his return past the same spot, he noticed that a swarm of bees had formed a comb of honey in the carcass. Samson later turned this into a riddle--Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness." It actually says that riddle on the can!

And you’re wondering what you can substitute for golden syrup? Some chefs say absolutely nothing while others say you can combine two parts light corn syrup plus one part molasses OR equal parts honey and corn syrup OR maple syrup OR dark corn syrup (the last two are thinner and not as sweet as golden syrup). Or you could try reducing light corn syrup in a saucepan to thicken it. Have I tried any of the substitutes? No, I've always used golden syrup.

I really should have been packing my suitcase today instead of looking for golden syrup and making ANZAC cookies. But right now, I'm dying for a little taste of Australia.

My blog is also taking a little vacation for the next three weeks with me. The best way to follow my journey is on facebook or twitter @joanneweir1.

G’day Mate!


AUSTRALIAN ANZAC COOKIES

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup sifted all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut
8 tablespoons (4 oz.) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon boiling water

Preheat an oven to 325oF.

Combine the rolled oats, flour, sugar and coconut. Place the butter and golden syrup in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir over gentle heat until the butter is melted. Mix the baking soda with boiling water and add it to the melted butter mixture. Stir in the dry ingredients.

Place heaping tablespoons of the mixture in your hand and roll or form into a ball. Place them on a lightly greased baking sheet 2-inches apart and with the heel of your hand, flatten them slightly to make a 1 to 1-1/2-inch cookie. Bake until golden, 14 to 15 minutes.

Immediately remove them from the baking sheet and place them on a cooling rack.

Makes 2 to 2 1/2 dozen cookies

chocolate cake, part two

This is the email I got from my mother yesterday after reading chocolate cake, part one!

Hi Joanne,
Excuse me, what is part 2? And how much better can it get?
Love you, MOM
P.S. I'm crossing my fingers for all who try to make this cake--- trust me, it will turn out really, really well!

She makes me laugh....

Back to my story.... Probably a year ago I submitted the story and the chocolate cake recipe to AARP. I even sent a photo of me at my 6th birthday party eating the cake and licking the icing off the candles. Everything was under control with the magazine, so I thought. Or was it?

A few weeks later, the editor called, "One little glitch, we have to cut the story a little and edit the recipe. We ran out of room! We've got to squeeze the whole story onto one page."

"No problem, do what you need to!" I said.

Months went by and I completely forgot about the chocolate cake story. And then early January, the phone calls, texts and emails started trickling in. Friends, family, students and subscribers got the magazine and loved reading the oh-so-charming story I'd poured my heart into. Making the cake was something else. Let's put it this way.... The chocolate cake hit the fan!

The first comment was about the frosting. Seems in the editing, somehow it went from frosting between the layers and the top to that plus the sides. I knew there definitely wasn't enough frosting in the recipe to frost the whole cake. That brought a few dozen emails. I decided to test the cake and the frosting recipe to see if I could stretch the frosting to make it go around the sides. No way! You'd have to double the ingredients for the frosting!

And then what do you do with the boiling water in the first paragraph? The recipes says to "melt the chocolate and butter in boiling water over medium heat, until smooth." Maybe to an experienced cook that makes sense? To the novice cook, that's complicated. I got a hundred emails about that. So I tested the cake again. Yup, still perfect!

Then there's another cup of hot coffee added later. One person wrote and asked if it was a cup of ground coffee or hot liquid coffee. My, oh my! I had a hot flash!

Someone wrote and said they put the batter into two 8-inch cake pans and as it baked, it ran over the sides and cooked onto the floor of the oven? Oh, that's right, I originally wrote DEEP cake pans. And to think... Removing one little word can make such a difference!

A few people said the cake was crumbly.... And I thought that's what you're looking for in a delicious homemade chocolate cake?

Someone wrote and said "I haven't baked a cake in 53 years but I loved your story so much I decided to make your chocolate cake for my daughter. The flavor was delicious but it was a soupy mess. And my cake was much lighter in color than yours in the picture." I asked her what kind of chocolate she used? "Hersey's chocolate chips," she said. I checked the recipe again. Yup, I said unsweetened chocolate. "And my oven isn't really working very well. It doesn't get hot at all!" she said. "Riiiiiiiiiiiggghhttt!" I said.

"Why was my cake batter so liquid?" a few people asked. Another flash and I decided to make the cake again for the third time. Perfect, nothing had changed.

Someone asked, why was their cake filled with air holes and tunnels? That's easy, I thought, you beat it too much. When you add the dry ingredients, make sure you fold them into the batter gently just until the dry ingredients are incorporated. "Fold?" he asked, "I've folded clothes, how do you fold batter?"

The cake didn't come out of the pan? Did you grease and flour the pan well?
Did you run a knife around the edges before inverting the cake? Did you let it cool enough?

The emails have started to subside now. Little did I know that AARP magazine goes out to 5 million subscribers. I have to admit I kind of miss those emails. I really loved everyone who wrote and told their story, asked their questions. I learned a lot, they learned a lot. And I'm still holding out hope that every once in a while someone in a dentist office will pick up a dog-eared copy of AARP Magazine and see the story. They'll tear out the page, make the cake and write me an email.

So a little vote of confidence from me and my mother. I promise you, the cake is tried and true. I've made it, my mother's made it. We've eaten it our whole lives. Remember what she said in yesterday's email.... She's crossing her fingers for all who try to make this cake--- trust her, trust us, it will turn out really, really well!

photo credit Alexandra Grablewski

chocolate cake, part one

The first time I got an envelope with the words AARP on it, I checked to see who it was addressed to. It certainly couldn't be me! I never thought I was old enough to receive AARP magazine, let alone read it!

And then the request came.... The food editor from the magazine called and asked if I'd share the chocolate cake recipe that my Mom and I made together on my TV show way back when I shot in the wine country.

"Sure!" I said thinking nothing of it. I love the cake, I love to write, why not?

Little did I know however, they'd need a photo of my Mom and I together. That may sound easy to you but I live in California and my mother lives in Massachusetts. "Of course!" I said in my usual way, thinking nothing of the ping pong ball I was becoming as I bounce back and forth from the West to the East Coast.

As I flew from San Francisco to Massachusetts, I took out my laptop and started to write. AARP wanted a little intro to the story about where the cake recipe came from, what it meant to me and why I loved it so much. Until that moment, I don't think I'd ever thought about all the memories that were centered around that cake.

The next morning, my Mom and I were up bright and early for the photo shoot. We chose our outfits and had our make-up done. And for the next couple hours, we sat with smiles on our faces, cups of coffee in hand, and a slice of chocolate cake between us (two forks, of course). The photographer shot photo after photo. After a while, I could see my mother's smile was less cheery. She leaned close and said, "I didn't know your job was so hard!"

Here's the story I wrote. It went something like this...

When I was a kid and it was my birthday, my mother always asked me what kind of cake I wanted for dessert? You see, she wasn’t just any mom, she was a professional cook at a private school and also tested recipes for cookbook author and good friend of Julia Child, Charlotte Turgeon. You can imagine the possibilities of what she could and would make for me were endless. When she asked, I always answered that question the same way, “Your chocolate cake!” Don’t get me wrong, I liked her Boston Cream Pie, the hot milk sponge cake she made and filled with homemade jam and her spicy applesauce cake, but it was that good old chocolate cake with a hint of coffee that I loved the most.

This was my mother’s favorite too, as well as everyone else’s in my family. She’d gotten the recipe from a family friend many years before but couldn’t recall the exact recipe anymore, she’d changed it so many times. She replaced 1 cup of the boiling water with leftover hot coffee because she loved the combination of chocolate and coffee together. She also used less vanilla and sugar to bring out more of the savory qualities of the chocolate. She upped the salt a touch and used unsalted butter to compensate. I think that’s how some of the greatest recipes are born.

When I first started baking, I insisted I wanted to make the cake all by myself. I was probably about 8 years old. I remember telling my mother that I could measure everything out myself. As I was scooping the last little bit of the baking soda out of the box, I yelled to my Mom, “You’d better put baking soda on the grocery list!” She said, “That’s funny, I thought I just bought a new box.” As I poured the last bit of batter into the pan, I licked the spatula. It tasted kind of bitter but I thought, after it bakes, it will be yummy.

We turned the oven light on to watch it bake. It rose really quickly and then in an instant, it fell! “How much baking soda did you use?” my mother asked. “Just what it said, 2 cups!” As we scraped the last bit of the cake out of the pan and into the trash, my Mom broke off a crumb and tasted it. “It still tastes good honey,” she said not wanting to hurt my feeling.

Needless to say, for the next couple years, I made the cake with my mother’s guidance.

Stay tuned for part two of this story. It gets better!

MOM’S BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE

cake:
1 cup boiling water
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
½ cup unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup leftover hot coffee

frosting:
½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons milk or cream
1 1/3 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
2 ounces excellent quality unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the boiling water, chopped chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler over medium high heat. Stir until the mixture is melted and smooth. Remove from the heat.

Preheat an oven to 350F. Butter and flour 2 deep 8-inch cake pans, tapping out the excess flour from the pan. With an electric mixer, beat the eggs in a bowl until foamy, 15 seconds. Add the sugar and vanilla and continue to mix until creamy, 15 seconds. Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and mix together. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Add the dry mixture to the chocolate mixture and mix until almost incorporated. Add the coffee and mix until well combined but do not over-mix. Pour into the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan, 25 to 30 minutes.

In the meantime for the frosting, place the butter, cream or milk, confectioner’s sugar, melted chocolate and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until smooth, about 1 minute.

When the cake is done, remove from the oven and cool on a cooling rack for 20 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pan and invert the cake onto the rack. Cool completely. Using one-half of the frosting spread it onto one of the cakes. Top with the other cake and frost the top.

To serve, cut into wedges.

Serves 8 to 10

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?

nettle recipe

"Ouch, something bit me!" I said to my mother. "Nettles, yes, stinging nettles!" she said as we walked near the stream at my grandparent's farm in the food hills of the Berkshires.

I was scared to death. I was just a kid and I didn't want to get stung. I hated bees. What was a nettle anyway? I couldn't imagine. Was it an insect or an animal? Could it be a plant? I'll tell you... From then on, I walked close to my mother's side whenever we walked near that stream.

Years later, when I was cooking at Chez Panisse, it was springtime and nettle pizza was on the menu. There was that word again. Nettles! I couldn't help but flashback on that walk I took with my mother so many years before. Obviously, knowing that we were serving nettles at Chez Panisse, made me realize they had to be safe. And yes, when I saw them, I realized they were a plant.

Right now is the time of year when young, tender nettles come into season here in the Bay Area. You may have to either forage for them yourself or find them at your local farmer's market because you're definitely not going to find them at your local Whole Foods. I usually get them at Star Route Farm at the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market or in my CSA box.

You'll laugh... I was so stupid the first time I worked with them at home. I didn't use gloves and my hands were itchy and almost numb afterwards. What happens is the leaves and stems are very hairy and those little hairs have tips on them that come off when you touch them. This kind of transforms the hairs into little needles that injects chemicals into your skin that cause a stinging sensation or itching. Usually it lasts for only a few minutes but I've heard people say it lasts much longer. Want to avoid the pain? Wear latex gloves!

Here's a fantastic recipe for risotto with nettles. People always ask me, "What do nettles taste like?" All I can say is GREEN! Really GREEN. I just love the fresh flavor and they're so good for you!

By the way, last time I made this risotto for friends from Paris, I served an Albarino, a crisp, dry white wine from Galicia in Spain. It was a fantastic combination. I would imagine an herbaceous Sauvignon Blanc or Soave Classico would work equally as well.

RISOTTO WITH NETTLES

6 ounces nettles, stems removed
2 cups homemade chicken stock
2 cups water
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion, minced
1 cup arborio, vialone nano or carnaroli rice
3/4 cup dry white wine, preferable Sauvignon Blanc
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
¾ cup finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

To remove the stems from the nettles, be sure to use latex gloves.

Place the chicken stock and water in a sauce pan and heat until it is hot but not boiling. Reduce the heat to low and maintain the heat just below a simmer. Place a ladle in the pan.

Warm the olive oil in a large heavy casserole over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, 10 minutes. Add the rice and nettles and stir for 2 to 3 minutes to toast the rice and coat with oil.

Add the wine and simmer, stirring constantly, until the wine has reduced by half, 3 to 4 minutes. Add a few ladlefuls of stock to the rice and stir to wipe the rice away from the sides and the bottom of the pot. Continue to stir until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Add another ladleful of stock and continue to stir until the liquid has been almost absorbed. Continue to add stock and stir in the same manner until the rice is no longer chalky, 20 to 25 minutes total, depending upon the variety of rice. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the pan from the heat and add another ladleful of stock, the butter and the half of Parmigiano. Cover the pan and let sit covered off the heat for 5 minutes.

Remove the cover and stir. Place the risotto in a bowl and serve immediately. Pass a bowl of Parmigiano alongside

Serves 4