The best salad

I've made in a long time:
Little gems, arugula, fava beans, avocado, chives, lemon vinaigrette.

EGGS & GREENS

This is the first in a series... because who doesn't eat a meal of eggs and greens at least once a week(or day)?
Let's share.
Above is the best I've done in a while: sauteed asparagus, chopped tarragon, fried eggs, mascarpone.  Yumtron.

Sexy Salad at The Hub SoMa

Early stages of a spinach-celery-fennel salad

A few days ago I did a little guest-chef stint at The Hub SoMa, a sustainably-designed co-working space/resource for change-makers... 
They do a "Sexy Salad" day involving a guest chef and a CSA-style box of produce from Albert and Eve, an organic-produce delivery service, hoping to inspire its members to sign up for a produce delivery.  I had a pretty good idea of what would be in the box, but there were still some surprises and it was pretty challenging and fun to make salads out of the contents.

Raw chard and green mango salad with citrus vinaigrette

Plus, there isn't really a kitchen at The Hub - so collards and onions went on the griddle and diced sweet potatoes went in the rice cooker with quinoa, and it all worked pretty well! 

Blood orange and grapefruit salad with cilantro

Overall, a great time - The Hub's members were super excited and ate everything.  And I had two awesome helpers, Jake and Yonghwan, who washed all my produce and picked herbs and were so cheerful and diligent!  
All of these photos came from The Hub's facebook page, link below if you want to see more of the Sexy Salad scene.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=291067&id=105486047944&l=0260ac70f2 

Miel on DailyCandy!!

Thank you Karen Palmer, editrix extraordinaire of DailyCandy San Francisco!  Check out the article...

Hummus with Ras-el-hanout

Next time you're making hummus, throw in some Ras-el-hanout - it's delish!  The name means "top of the shop" in Arabic, meaning a personal combination of the best spices a shop has to offer.  With anywhere from 10 to 100 ingredients, it contains all the usual suspects in North African spicing.  Of course you can find it pre-made, but it's also fun(and fresher!) to find a recipe and toast and grind your own.  It will transform your humble hummus into a warm, complex, spicy delight!

Corpse Reviver #2 - a tasty cocktail

First, apologies for the awful name.  I did actually see it written somewhere recently as just 'Reviver #2'.  Behold the recipe and its variations.

Equal parts(1 ounce?) of:
Gin
Lillet
Cointreau
Lemon juice
and a few drops of pastis
Shake with ice and serve however you like.

Tonight's version was made with Luxardo triple sec instead of Cointreau, and my homemade vin d'orange in place of the Lillet.  We tried it up but added some ice because it was too strong for our delicate constitutions. It was quite refreshing.

p.s. A pint or quart canning jar makes a great shaker!  After shaking, unscrew the band and remove it, and use the flat lid as the strainer by moving it aside a touch.
p.p.s I learned of this cocktail a long time ago from my bartending colleague Keli Rivers - one of those people who's been rediscovering old cocktails for many years now.

Cardamom-Pistachio Brioche Morning Buns

It has been a very long time!  (Sorry.)
So here is today's breakfast treat: brioche, flavored with some orange flower water(thanks, TofC!), rolled up with sweet pistachio-cardamom butter.  Definitely not a gooey, sticky-bun-type thing.  Much more civilized, I'm sure.

the pistachio-cardamom schmoo in the mortar

ready to rise

These were actually pretty easy, plus my Mom helped me!  I used Madeleine Kamman's recipe for Brioche de Boulanger - "bakers' brioche", as opposed to Brioche Mousseline, or Brioche de Patissier - "pastry chefs' brioche", which is much richer(and more difficult).  Most old French standard cookbooks will have two recipes, and this one is made all in the mixer and rises overnight in the fridge.  You just let them warm up a bit and then bake for 15-20 minutes - and this can all be done while you're still on your first cup of coffee!

A vague recipe:

2 standard muffin tins - brushed with 2 tbs melted butter.  I suppose you could use one of those giant muffin tins and get half as many... 

1 cup toasted pistachios - or other nuts, to your fancy

1/2 cup sugar

6 tbs butter - the rest of the stick after the brushing of the tins - at room temp

a dash of vanilla if you want

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 - 3/4 tsp freshly crushed cardamom, according to your taste.  I think it should be quite strong when you taste it because it's going to be distributed among 24 buns...

Pound the pistachios in the mortar until they are mostly finely-chopped and getting a little pasty.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.  Or you could do it in a food processor.

1 recipe of a simple brioche - for 1 standard loaf.  If it makes 2, cut it in half...

Add 2 tbs orange flower water to the dough with the wet ingredients.  

Follow instructions up to the shaping point, when instead of shaping it into brioches à tête or a loaf, you will pat it into a large rectangle on a lightly floured board.  Spread the pistachio butter evenly on the dough, leaving an inch or so border at one edge to seal - no need to be exact.  Roll it all up tightly and cut into 24 slices, putting each into a slot in the muffin tin.  You could probably line them up in a baking dish, too - just give them some room to puff!  (If they seem small, well, they kind of are.  I meant to do 12, but they were going to be way too big, so I cut each one in half.  This demure size just means you get more crust and caramelly bits.  And you have to eat more of them.) 

Now cover and let them rise according to your recipe - I gave them an hour on the counter and then into the fridge overnight.  Another hour or so in the morning to warm up and then I baked them at 400 for about 15-20 minutes.  (If you use a giant muffin tin and only shape 12 buns, after 15 minutes I'd turn down the oven to 375 and give them another 15 or so to finish, so they don't get too dark.)   

Happy breakfasting!