A Night of Two Miracles

Acclaimed New York chef Mark Bittman presented a marvelous alternative to potato latkes – a potato nik. The grated potatoes, onion and egg mixture simply fill a large non-stick pan (with 1/8″ of healthy safflower oil), cook for 15 minutes, flip and voila – done! The customary sour cream accompaniment met a new partner this evening. Instead of apple sauce, I made a persimmon sauce. My recipe creation included persimmons, Muscat raisins (thanks to Tory Farms), a cinnamon stick, honey and lemon.OMG – delicious, Miracle #1! Filet Mignon and artichokes, grilled stovetop, completed the entree. A velvety Alexander Valley Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon on this second night of Chanukah was Miracle #2!

Persimmon Salsa

An adventure in food and Greek mythology! According to Wikipedia, a persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees of the genus Diospyros, in the ebony wood family. The word Diospyros means “the fruit of the gods” in ancient Greek. We feasted on a manifestation of this fruit of the gods — a persimmon salsa. With thanks to Carole for the fruit and Rachael for the recipe, the sweet Fuyu persimmon was transformed with a combination of onion, lime, ginger, parsley and mint. Braving 35 degrees, I found the last sprig of mint in our garden! The salsa topped a grilled chicken breast, served on a bed of whole wheat couscous. Both the kosher chicken and couscous were purchased at Trader Joe’s. Our dessert of dark chocolate disks from TCHO would have delighted the Greek gods too!

Spaghetti Squash with Prawns

Never Before Eaten – Spaghetti Squash! A new culinary adventure beckoned with a recipe from Everyday Food, a Martha Stewart publication. After baking, you use a fork to remove the squash creating spaghetti-like strands. Combined with roasted prawns, lemon, extra virgin olive oil and parsley, and voila! a delicious, healthy dish. The wonderful Pezzini Farms market in Monterey yielded the squash as well as the artichokes we ate with this. Pumpkin pie from Swanton Farms, lush with spice and a delicious crust, was devoured afterwards.

A Simple Sirloin Supper

K-I-S-S Keep It Simple Stupid — the watchwords of my wonderful mother-in-law. Grace would have heartily approved of this Marin Sun Farms sirloin steak, grilled along with fingerling potatoes — crowning a bed of wild arugula. Worcestershire sauce, Stonehouse Farms extra virgin olive oil and fresh thyme dressed this delicious dish. Cosentino Winery‘s Zinfandel created an atmosphere of further relaxation for our simple supper, concluding with left-over Halloween candy. A salute to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kat Wafer Bars!

Sizzling Shrimp Scampi

Food & Wine’s October issue featuring Sizzling Shrimp Scampi set the theme for this delicious dinner. Gulf of Mexico prawns, surrounded by a bubbling butter flavored with lemon, garlic, parsley, basil and thyme, took center stage while also providing the dip for our artichokes and bread. The Acme Bread sweet batard and prawns were purchased at Bryan’s; the artichokes from Richmond Produce Market, a wonderful local shop. Although Julia Child has been renown to say “nobody has to know” about your food travails, mea culpa that the artichokes set off the smoke alarm making it a completely sizzling meal. A William Hill Chardonnay from Bevmo cooled everything down!

Italian night

A private tasting and tour of A.G. Ferrari Foods for members of the San Francisco Professional Food Society inspired the dinner for this evening. In fact, the featured pasta – artisan produced organic Fusilli Napoletani – topped with incredible San Marzano tomatoes were gifts from that wonderfully educational, epicurean experience. Eggplant from the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market (grilled stovetop and dressed with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Trader Joe’s goat cheese) along with Gallo Italian salami from Safeway and olives from our huge Costco jar continued the theme. An Italian Primativo wine, “A Mano”, from BevMo helped transport us from Land’s End to Italy!

Summer Salads

Simple, one dish salads are the entree of choice at ChezHelvetica this summer. For this weeknight meal, we dined on whole grain Barilla penne pasta and Trader Joe’s organic garbanzo beans nested on a bed of Little Gem greens. These heavenly greens were purchased at the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market. Crostini topped with a tapenade made of kalamata olives and sun dried tomatoes (a recipe adapted from Giada de Laurentiis “Everyday Italian” cookbook) accompanied our salad. We delighted in our Powder Keg wine selection that evening but felt like we were shot from a cannon the next morning. That will teach us!

A Berry Good Breakfast

“A Mixed-Berry Dutch Baby” recipe, presented in the July issue of Food & Wine’s dinner-party fruit desserts, intrigued me since mentioning it would also be great for breakfast. This “German pancake” was exactly what I was seeking for my Sunday breakfast with visiting family! With blackberries picked the day before by my husband from the Florins beautiful garden in Mill Valley and organic Driscoll rasberries purchased at Cal-Mart, this delicious “Baby” was just the right dish to accompany lox (garnished with Early Girl tomatoes, red onion and fresh dill) and Everything bagels from The House of Bagels. (NB: The wonderful lox was purchased from Bryan’s Meats now in a new location within the general market at Laurel Center, a testament to these economic times.) A note of nostalgia – the linens on the table traveled with me from the Reid’s Palace gift shop in Funchal, Madeira to San Francisco in the last century!

Bastille Day

Bastille Day seemed like a fun occasion to celebrate with French-related cuisine, wine and national colors. Our Bakers of Paris baguette was topped with a walnut-parsley pesto, a great side for the farfalle pasta with summer squash and mushrooms. No specific recipe was used in the creation of this dish, but knowing my ingredients were the finest from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, as well as Barilla Multi-Grain pasta, I forged ahead. While the wine wasn’t French, the name is: Folie a’ Deux. This wonderful Zinfandel is from a Napa Valley vintner with grapes from Amador County. Dreyer’s French Vanilla ice cream, accompanied by sweet red cherries, concluded our tribute to France and the storming of the Bastille!

Summer Fun

Stone fruit, berries, grilling and company all add up to summer fun. My sister and niece were leaving and my mom arrived later that day. With bounty from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco and the Fruit Basket in Sonoma, we feasted on grilled chicken sandwiches with red onions and a whole grain mustard and creme fraiche dressing, tomatoes in garlic oil and grilled fingerling potatoes in vinegar and salt, all recipes from Martha Stewart Living’s June issue. A word of caution about those potatoes, the vinegar was somewhat overwhelming. Now for the dessert – a delectable Almond cake with berries from Jacque Pepin’s “fast food my way.” Along with almond paste, the ingredients called for a syrup made of either whiskey, rum or cognac. Given that my 15 year old niece was going to be eating this, I had to make a substitution. Happily, my concoction of pomegranate syrup and vanilla was a success! During the dinner with my mother we enjoyed a luscious chardonnay from Pine Ridge Winery as we watched “In Wine Country” and “60 Minutes” featuring a segment on Alice Waters. We felt like we were in the wine country and that Alice Waters would have enjoyed our meal!