Fundamentals of Bread Baking at San Francisco Zen Center -Green Gulch

If you haven't been to Green Gulch, I recommend it. If you haven't taken the bread baking class, I recommend that too. We spent last Saturday, August 17 learning  how to make bread in a class of about 15 people taught by Mick. Mick has a long history of bread baking including at Tassajara Bakery for many years.  He's an inspirational teacher.


The first part of the class was about the theory of bread baking, what each ingredient adds to how the bread turns out, water, flour, yeast and salt.   In the second part of class, using one type of dough, we practiced making different shapes, letting them rise while we learned how to make the dough, and then finally baking the different shapes, we go to taste how different each one tasted, although they  were all from the same dough.

We had a lovely vegetarian lunch too Delicious salad, soup and of course bread.

if you have a chance to visit, you really should. the class was well worth the price, we had a lovely time and learned a lot too!

Umami in Spice with Oaktown Spice Shop

Oh My! I would give this class a very high grade. It was totally worth it to drive to the Oaktown Spice Shop in traffic on a week night. John the owner of Oaktown Spice and the co-owners of Umami Mart, Yoko Kumano + Kayoko Akabori, all were equally as delightful.

The evening was filled with education about umami and samples of spices and Japanese tidbits to help train our palettes to taste umami as well as the other flavors we learned about.

I'm so happy we got the last two seats in the second class they opened after the first class sold out so quickly.

I can't wait to see what other classes both Oaktown Spice Shop and Umami Mart offer next.

I wish I took pictures, but I was so into it, I didn't even think of it. Let your imagination go, and visit both stores. We plan to go to Umami Mart this weekend when we are at the Eat Real Festival, it's within walking distance of Jack London Square

Biodynamic Beekeeping and Alternative Bee Hives with Michael Thiele

Last year, I volunteered at Montalvo Gardens in Saratoga, weeding and planting at the organic garden there under the guidance of Niki Ford. Niki Ford is now the Culinary Director at the SHED in Healdsburg.

Last weekend, April 27, 2013, Diane and I went to SHED, to listen to a talk a book signing, and to explore this new event center, restaurant and retail center and sampled some recipes from the book prepared by Niki Ford. It is an interesting place if a bit too upscale.

This weekend We again went to the SHED to hear a presentation from Michael Thiele about biodynamic beekeeping and alternative bee hives.

It was an extremely interesting talk, about how feral bees behave in the wild and how they build their hives. Bees typically build their hives in a circular pattern, with the , the brood, and the honey in a particular order.

 Man interferes with this natural process by putting bees in boxes with artificial comb inserts which have the wrong sized cells.  They disturb the bees by pulling out these artificial combs to take the honey out. Bee keeping these days is about making money off the bees, not about taking care of a very important living being. Bees are considered by Michael and now us as a living being, not as individual bees.

Bees need to be cared for whereever they decide to create a hive. As long as they don't cause harm they should be left alone. We need bees to pollinate plants and are important for life on this planet they need to be honored and protected.

More on this in a later post

Nice weekend in wine country

Two weekends ago we went to a Slow Money event in Sunol. Dave will blog more about it, but I just had to write about my favorite participant, CropMobster. They are a new company that reduces food waste by sending email alerts announcing surplus foods to anyone who wants to use it, sometimes it is free, and sometimes it's being sold at a very reduced price.  I've seen both cookies and excess kale going to good use.  Anyone can sign up for alerts, and use the food in anyway they see fit, for example, perhaps a neighborhood could schedule a canning party around a batch of surplus fruit that would have otherwise ended up in the compost heap, and the farmer will still make some money.

This weekend Saturday, we went to a party at the HelloCello distillery in Sonoma They had a successful kickstarter to purchase a new still, and it is lovely.   We got to meet the owners, Fred and Amy, and other interesting people. It was a very lively party, the music and food were  great, although we could have done without the 100+ temperatures. They make assorted spirits, try their lemoncello,

 

 

On Sunday we went to the San Francisco Zen Center, Green Gulch location.  It was a spontaneous decision. We arrived too late to listen to the Sunday lecture, however we arrived in time for the tea and tiny farmer's market, where they sell garden vegetables and bread. 

 

Some tips for first time visitors:

• The signs are not very clear - when  you arrive you'll see a sign with parking to the left - park there and walk a few minutes down the path towards the right to get to the farm.
• They suggest you come for the entire Sunday program
• Definitely stay for the delicious vegetarian lunch. We ate soup, salad and bread. I get the feeling this is the usual lunch menu.
• Find the "Office" and ask questions -
• Visit the gorgeous gardens
• Take a class if they are offering one
• Walk to the beach -apparently it's about a 15 minute walk though the gardens

We enjoyed the class on crafting, cultivating and cooking with Lavender. We drank lavender lemon-aid, ate lavender lemon bars, studied different lavender cultivars, made lavender oil, and then picked fresh lavender and learned how to make beautiful lavender wands.

Definitely a recommended destination. The next time we go, we plan to take a bread making class, and spend more time walking though the gardens on our way to the beach.

First Tomato of the Season - Grafted Green Zebra

Well, it's June 22, 2013, and I have just eaten the first ripe tomato from the garden, and I must say, it was delicious and very much worth waiting for.  I don't know about you, but I can't bring myself to buy $4-5 /lb organic tomatoes from the farmers market. I just can't do it. Especially knowing, if I can be a little more patient, I will have my own home grown.  

This year, we planted 5 different types of grafted tomatoes. Green Zebra was the first one that produced a ripe tomato. I think it's about time we did a nice fertilization of the tomatoes with some worm castings. I want to make sure we get a very high yield so I can do a lot of canning later this summer. By the way, Happy Summer!

Turk One-Piece Forged Iron Fry Pan - Can you love a pan?

I think I may just love my new pan from Turk. Made in Germany and purchased from Kaufmann Mercantile. I bought the smallest one to try it out, and I may just have to get the next size up. We've already seasoned it so it doesn't stick, it makes "to die for" potatoes, with the crunchy bits, you just can't get with non-stick pans. My goal is to replace all of my non-stick pans forever, so I splurged on the one-piece instead of the riveted pans that are a bit less expensive.  I also recommend the flax seed oil method of seasoning pans. I used it on my new Turk pan, and I added a few coats to my wok. There is some chemistry behind the type of oil you use to season the pan, and it works great.

Healdsburg Shed and Deborah Madison's Book Vegetable Literacy

Dave had volunteered with Niki Ford in the Kitchen Garden at Montalvo, so when we found out she was at the Shed in Healdsburg as the Culinary Director, we kept a close watch on the opening, and since we like the wine country anyway, we thought it was worth it to take a short trip up from Cupertino to see it.

We were there to see what the Shed was all about and to attend  A Conversation with Author Deborah Madison led by local food and radio personality, Michele Anna Jordan. Deborah has a new book out called "Vegetable Literacy" and the conversation was centered around that.  The room was quite full, the conversation was interesting and lively. Afterwards, Niki Ford prepared some of the recipes from the book for sampling, and there was a book signing.  Michele Anna Jordan also had her book there called " Vinaigrettes-Other-Dressings-Sensational-recipes"

Solar Dehydrating

I started researching solar dehydrators because my electric one is noisy, and of course uses electricity. I can't wait to try out the solar dehydrator that Dave made. After looking at several different types,  including the "Appalachian box" we settled on one that uses a theory of the "hot tin roof".  We found so much excellent information here, and paid for the downloaded book called "Feeding Ourselves" to get more detailed information.  We ended up with a 2' x 4' single layer dehydrator, that gives us about 8 sq.ft of drying space.  Dave has lots of pictures and will explain in detail how he made it. I'll be showing what I dehydrate in a future post.

My Biochar

Biochar, a charcoal designed for soil enhancement. Biochar helps sequester carbon in the ground, provides habitat for microbes that are important in rebuilding overused and depleted soils.

The process to make biochar is called pyrolysis, which is burning under low oxygen conditions to reduce or eliminate carbon being released into the atmosphere.

I learned about biochar last year and have been making my own and experimenting with it ever since.

I usually make it using wood pellets available cheaply at most garden supply stores. Lately I have been incorporating mushroom growing blocks which are made out of sawdust inoculated with mushroom spores.

I currently use a small stove mad out of a paint can, a No. 10 can which is the big industrial sized cans used in kitchens, and a tall juice can used as a chimney. Here are a few photos:

I hope to build an even bigger set up so I can burn bigger pieces of wood and other discarded biomass.

I have started a local biochar meet-up page.

More on this at a later time.

Sushi Making with Kikka Sushi

Another fabulous class at Cupertino Whole Foods. It was class to benefit the Whole Planet Foundation. For $25, we made both maki and hand rolls for over an hour, learning from our very experienced instructor named Maki of Kikka Sushi. Although it looks relatively simple, there is a lot of tricks and tips. We learned to put a little bit of canola oil on our gloved hands so the rice doesn't stick. Maki came around to each person in the class to make sure we weren't using too much rice, and to make sure we weren't squeezing our bamboo rolling mat too hard, when we rolled the seaweed, he even pinched each of our hands gently to show us how much pressure to use. For each roll, we used a half sized sheet of seaweed, starting with a cucumber roll and then progressing to inside out rolls (my favorite) and three kinds of handrolls, using an assortment of ingredients : cucumbers, mango, grated carrot, raw salmon and avocado.

Pole bean trellis

Last week I built a trellis to grow pole beans that are supposed to grow ten feet long.

Here it is:

I'll let you know how it works out.

Up next...an entry about biochar

Workshop: Egg-Cellent Morning Dishes

Maggie Cattell taught her first class at Love Apple Farms on March 23, and it was terrific.

She started the class to about 20 -25 of us,  with a few demos, then we broke up into groups and had a chance to make all the recipes of the day.  Maggie was very organized and each station was well equipped for the recipes as we rotated around the room. There were dozens and dozens of eggs so we didn't need to be timid about running out of ingredients.  I prefer this style of class compared to others where each group makes a different recipe.


My group was a particularly good one, we were all pretty fearless and ended up with some very good results. Our cheese souffles were high and light. For our eggs benedict,  the poached eggs were done just right and the hollandaise  sauce  was smooth and delicious. I found out that I prefer classic French omelets, that are tender and pale with small curds,  and not the  country French omelets, that are rustic and have beautifully browned bottoms that are not to my liking.

I think eggs are awesome.  Even "expensive", organic free-range eggs are only about 50 cents each, and that is a great bargain for such a versatile protein source.

Probably due to her French training and work at Michelin starred restaurants, Maggie was an excellent instructor. She remained patient and calm through the day. Amazingly, with all the recipes we made, we finished almost on time, and she  treated us to  one final lesson on Sabayone  over fresh strawberries, while we were wrapping up the class. She told us this would be a good recipe if we were traveling, since it took so few ingredients, we could throw it together quite quickly.

I was so thrilled with the class, and everything that I learned, that I treated Dave and my mom to eggs benedict the next day. Although I dirtied a lot of dishes in the process, I thought it was quite worthwhile and, and they agreed!

International Cooking class to benefit the Whole Planet Foundation

Whole Foods Cupertino offers such interesting classes in their Culinary Center. This week I took two,  a  Gluten Free tour of the store and an International cooking class.

I learned that gluten is in a lot more things that I thought! Not that I plan to go gluten free anytime soon, but there is so much interest in it these days, I wanted to find out more. It turns out, if you are super sensitive to gluten, besides the normal stuff, you need to be careful with caramel coloring, seasonings, latex gloves and even the glue on stamps!

For the International Cooking class, we used recipes from x all over the world from people, who received microloans from Whole Foods. We made a Thai Soup, a Mango tea bread, Quinoa drink and a beans and rice dish. We had a lot of fun and got to sample a lot of tasty food too. As always, the Culinary Center director, Jamie, was there to guide us through the recipes, and we end up learning a lot of tips and tricks.

Roasting Veggies for all week long

I have been thinking about Tamar Adler's book, An Everlasting Meal -Cooking with Economy and Grace, ever since we heard her speak at Montalvo last year. I skimmed through the book quickly when I got it, and now I find myself going back for inspiration.

Today, my inspiration was the How to Stride Ahead section of the book - She talks about preparing roasted vegetables one day and then using them in various ways though out the week.  I made a trip to the local Farmer's Market and loaded up with about  $20 of organic produce, and a beautiful squash purchased from Gospel Flat Farms a few weeks ago, was also part of the plan.

Squash - The first thing I did was slice up the squash, lightly oil and salt on both sides and put it on two separate sheet pans in a 425 degree oven, and then I set off for the Farmers market. When I got back 30 minutes later, the squash was beautifully roasted, I took it out of the oven and got to work on my purchase.

Cauliflower - washed, dried and cut into similar size pieces, again lightly coated in olive oil and salt, and into the oven - for 20-25 minutes

Broccoli - washed, dried, and cut into similar size pieces, again lightly coated in olive oil and salt, and into the oven - for 20-25 minutes

 

 

Beets - wash and remove the greens, lightly coated in olive oil and salt and packed into a roasting pan with a lid, for 375 for 1 hour, let cool, then remove skins under running water.

Greens - from beets and others, wash put in a wok and cook down, sprinkle with a little olive oil and salt.

Everything was cooled and put away in the refrigerator,  the whole process took about 1.5 hour  of my time including clean up.

Solar Oven -I should also tell you that I cooked some garbanzo beans and some yellow lentils in my two tiered enamel pot in the Sun Oven yesterday. I'm cooking some big white  beans today. I really love that thing. If it's sunny out, I almost feel like I'm wasting the heat if I don't get it out and cook something.

Now I'm dreaming about what I can do with all these precooked veggies  and beans all week long.  I bet they will be delicious!

Sauerkraut demo at Common Ground

On Sunday, Diane and I did a demonstration on making sauerkraut at a Garden Share at Common Ground in Palo Alto. It went really well lots of people came and asked questions, We had a young man 10 or 11 years old with a very mature palate who really liked the sauerkraut we brought as a finished product, he even took some home with him and shared it with his family.

I find fermentation to be a fascinating subject. It is another way that humans have been able to preserve harvest from one season to be used in another. I was not a fan of fermentation until i heard Zandor Katz speak after coming home from the first time i heard him speak, i immediately made a batch of sauerkraut and have loved it ever since.

It is very easy to make just cut up some cabbage, add salt knead it with your hands to break down the cell walls, pack it in a jar, make sure the cabbage is submerged in the liquid to prevent molding, cover it, leave it on the counter and let it go. Taste it every few days until you get a taste you like, and then put it in the fridge to slow down the fermentation process.

The fermentation bacteria are already on the vegetables, putting it in salt creates an environment that these bacteria can thrive in, and the bad bacteria cannot. No liquid needs to be added, the solution is created by the liquid in the cells of the cabbage.

This is a mixture of cabbage, golden beets, and carrots we made from the weekend before,that was brought to the garden share.

The mixture put into a pickl-it jar, a fancy krauting crock, one of these is not really needed to do saurkraut.

 

The mixture we made at the demo at the garden share.

 

 

Biochar

Back in November of 2012, Diane and I took a class at the Sunnyvale Community Garden on Biochar. Biochar is basically a charcoal made from any type of biomass and used as a soil amendment. It is produced using a high temperature, low oxygen burn called pyrolysis.

In the class we were introduced to biochar as well as taught how to make a small biochar oven using a one gallon paint can obtained from your local hardware store, a number 10 can (the type used in industrial sized kitchens), and a tall juice can. We also made a biochar oven using a 55gallon drum and a piece of stovepipe which can alo be found at the local hardware store. At home here we use woodstove pellets to make our char. You start by filling the paint can with the dry pellets along with a little bit of them soaked in alcohol. You then light the soaked pellets, the whole process takes about 45 minutes.

This week on Thursday the 7th I started a seed germination trial to see what percentage of biochar to soil produced the best yield. Today Saturday the 9th I discovered one sprout in the 25% mix.

Its Sunday and more and more sprouts are coming through I will count them on Monday.

Seedlings

I wish I would have documented exactly when I started these seedlings. I say that every year! However, they are doing nicely for the most part. I started tomatoes, peppers and eggplant seeds in 6-packs and used the heating mat to help germinate. The tomatoes came up first, followed by the peppers and then finally the eggplant. As the seedlings get their second set of leaves, I've been transplanting them into 4inch pots. I am hoping I will not need to do an additional transplant to a bigger pot before putting them into the ground. However, if I have to do it for the tomatoes I won't mind since each time you transplant them lower in the soil than they were the time before, it makes them stronger and develop a better rooting system. I'm just somewhat lazy bringing the plants outside everyday and then back in at night. I don't want to be doing that for gallon pots if I can help it.  Cynthia Sandberg of Love Apple Farms said in a class one time " they don't call it a plant nursery for nothing" that has always stuck with me. These little seedlings are really like babies, you have to nurture them quite a lot before you actually plant them. I would never think of leaving them outside over night. Don't get fooled by the beautiful day time temperatures we've been having.

The other thing I'm doing this year, is  simplifying my plant choices. Last year I had more than 10 types of pepper plants, the identification tags got lost for some of them, I didn't like all of them etc. This year, I've got two types: Fresno Chili and a hybrid Jalapeno. I have one type of eggplant and two types of tomatoes. However I do plan to buy some grafted tomato seedlings this year. I'm fascinated by them. 

I've got a little herb seedling garden started with : parsley, basil, oregano, cilantro etc. these annuals will supplement my other herbs that made it through the winter like sage and lemon grass.  There is also some cucumber and zucchini seedlings getting ready to germinate any day now.  Dave loves the huge sunflowers, so this year, I'm trying to start a lot of seedlings, usually we lose some to our chickens and other critters. I've got 16 hopeful sunflowers currently waiting to germinate in peat pots. 

The other pleasant surprise is that the kale, collards and chard seedlings that were planted in early winter are finally beginning to grow and the fava plants are over two feet tall now. I'm beginning to start thinking about making fava pesto. It's delicious!

Whole Planet Foundation International Cooking Class Benefit

For the month of March, Whole Foods Cupertino is offering events and cooking classes to benefit the Whole Planet Foundation. This  week I attended the Sangria /Bingo benefit and an International Cooking Class. 

The Sangria/Bingo benefit was a lot of fun. There were only 8-10 of us, Whole Foods provided snacks, Sangria for $1/glass and Bingo cards- $2 for the first one, and $.50 for each additional card. As prizes they gave away some healthy products like organic wine, chocolate and snacks.

The International Cooking Class used recipes from the folks benefiting from the Whole Planet Foundation. Jaime, the Culinary Director, put together 3 recipes from around the world: Honduran Coconut Bread, Indian Vegetable Biryani, Haitian Pumpkin Soup. There were about 8 of us in class, so we each contributed to one or more recipes. At the end of class we got to try everything, and it was quite delicious.  I was on the coconut bread team. It was fun to make something with yeast, I hadn't done that in a long time. Although the recipe called for a 15 minute yeast proofing, a 1.5 hour first rise, 45 minute second rise and a 25 minute bake, we were able to speed up those steps and have some really delicious bread within the 2 hour class period. Jamie has a no fear attitude when it comes to cooking and she knows where you can make adjustments to the recipe. It was also great to learn from her the proper way to shape a roll. Another tip I learned   was "studding". One of the recipes called for a jalapeno studded with cloves. This made it easy to remove the cloves and the jalapeno when the right amount of spiciness was achieved. 

These Whole Foods cooking classes are a remarkable value. This class was only $20, and that was a little bit higher than usual because of the benefit to the Whole Planet Foundation. - I give this class  a "spoons -up"

Exploring the Seasonal Color + Taste Palette - Winter

 I was looking forward to this class that I found on Good Eggs  for several weeks, and I was not disappointed.  Sasha Duerr and Kelsie Kerr gave us a fabulous day long experience in a beautiful setting in Bolinas, CA.  We spent the day alternating  between learning how to dye natural fibers with colors derived from plants from Sasha, and eating wonderful food prepared by Kelsie.

The class was held at Gospel Flat Farm, a lovely setting, it seemed like we were in a different world, after traveling the 15 miles of winding roads,  with what seemed like endless curves, and quite a few bicyclists to maneuver around. If you have a chance to visit, you should stop in, at the honor farm stand, which had a really nice selection of fruits and veggies, and an art installation too.

Sasha had the dye pots already bubbling by the time we arrived at 10 am. There were shades of blue from the cabbage, and yellows and greens. She gave us a little lesson about mordants (we used alum) and how to go about dying the napkin that we would later use for our lunch ( awesome !)

Kelise kept us well fed, from the morning snack of bread, jam and honey, the afternoon snack of farm fresh hard boiled eggs with fava bean tendrils and lunch of a delicious kale -bean soup, salad, cabbage salad and bellweather farm cheese with artichoke, ending with lemon curd cookies all very delicious and mostly from the farm.  Another highlight  was when  Kelsie led us in a tasting of 18 different citrus.  She really knows her citrus. 

We each  dyed  napkin and a table/runner scarf made from silk. We came home with a packet of information that included recipes for some of the food we ate, and some recipes for making plant dyes at home. I can't wait to try this on my own. Plus I just bought Sasha's book from Amazon.

Tree Collard Pesto

We have some tree collards that have gone crazy over the winter, they are over 10 ft tall and very prolific. I don't know about you but I find the tree collards a little tough. Over the winter I made some soups and cooked the collards for a long time, perhaps 30-45 minutes.  I was thinking of ways to use a lot of collard greens and some preservation methods. Next time, I will try dehydrating the collards so we can use them in soups and stews. Today, I was inspired to make a pesto to serve with the white gigante beans I'm cooking in the solar oven. 

After a bit of inspiration via the Internet, this is what I did:

Collect 15-20 good sized  collard leaves, remove the stems, put in a pyrex container with a couple of tablespoons of water, cover and microwave for 7 minutes.  Cool drain and squeeze as much water out as possible, set aside. Put 1.5 ozs of romano cheese in the food processor and pulse until finely chopped set aside. Put the collards in the food processor bowl with 1/2 clove of garlic, collard greens, 1 teaspoon of vinegar, 2 T of olive oil, 1 T of fermented peppers, or hot sauce to taste (a previous project), 6 San Marzano tomatoes halved, roasted ( a previous canning project), and pulse until well blended. Add the cheese and pulse a few more times, then spoon  into a canning jar pour a bit of olive oil on top to prevent oxidation, and store in the refrigerator until use. I would imagine this should last about a week. 

You can use this pesto in many ways. I even ate it off the spoon and it was delicious. The best part, is this is very healthy and every spoonful is like eating a big collard leaf!

Sauerkraut pancakes

Ever since I sat next to the owner, Kathryn Lukas, of Farmhouse Culture at the Happy Girl Kitchen pop-up dinner with guest Sandor Katz a few weeks ago, I'm a bit more obsessed with fermenting things than usual. Dave made a gallon of sauerkraut with kohlrabi and cabbage that tastes delicious, so today I made saurkraut pancakes. I did a little bit of Internet research, and there were not a lot of recipes. However I was inspired by one here, which is basically mixing 250 g of sauerkraut (water squeezed out before weighing) with one cup of flour, one egg and one cup of milk. For those who have made pancakes before, you'll notice this is the basic pancake recipe. I did add a pinch of baking soda and a pinch of baking powder to the mix, but skipped the salt you would normally find in a pancake recipe, because the sauerkraut had some salt already in it. These pancakes were very tasty and very filling on their own. I bet they would be good as a savory side dish, at room temperature, as a nice lunch with a salad. Next time I make them, I will experiment and add more onion powder, paprika and other spices. Basically 250 grams of any kind of sauerkraut with a pancake batter made from one cup of any type of flour, with your own spices, would be lovely!