World On A Plate

Secretos de Salsa

Anderson Valley, in Mendocino County about 100 miles north and almost 3 hours from San Francisco, depending on the weight of your foot, is a world onto itself. A true escape, with hills covered with thick groves of redwood and live oak. It's a great place to drive in the fall as it's the closest I come to New England without getting on a plane. There are quant inns, wineries and picnic spots to build an entire weekend around.

Fog creeps through the valley and cools the climate making it ideal for the ripening process of cool-weather northern European grape varieties such as Pinot Noir, Gewürztraminer, and Chardonnay. The area's population is full of ex-hippies, loggers, farmers and upscale vintners such as the Navarro Winery. The county pops up on the local news often when hippies who farm have their crop confiscated.

In a 2003 Travel & Leisure article Guy Trebay captured the local values in an article on the valley.

Along with this willed separation has come a preservation of the communitarian values that in much of America today seem about as vital as the dodo.

At some point, any conversation with an Anderson Valley local will turn to talk of potluck dinners for the rancher whose house burned down, of fund-raisers for a sick kid in need of chemotherapy. People speak with passion of pulling together to hold off the forces of monoculture and thus preserve the integrity of this extraordinarily unspoiled locale.

In California the backbone that keeps our agricultural economy going are the Mexican laborers. This area is no different. In the town of Boonville, population 975, the Anderson Valley Adult School teaches English twice a week to those new to the area from Mexico. During the three-hour class students bring snacks usually with salsa.

A few years ago the teacher Kira Brennan was looking for ways to make the school's teaching methods more useful to the area's large Spanish-speaking population. She came upon the idea of putting the various recipes into writing as a way to teach English as well as preserve some regional Mexican recipes. What she ended up with was a 25-recipe book titled, "Secrets of Salsa: A Bilingual Cookbook by the Mexican Women of Anderson Valley."

According to a SF Chronicle article the monies raisesd from the sale of this collection go toward the annual cost to run the English program, which is supplemented by state money as well as grants and countless hours of volunteer work.

This collection is so endearing. The salsa recipes are given in English and Spanish, and include the sauce's flavor profile, heat rating and serving suggestions. There are also instructions for the roasting of chiles, tomatoes and tomatillos, and for blending and grinding ingredients.

I tracked down the book through the publisher, Chelsea Green if you are interested in purchasing the book.

...continue on for Salsa Verde de Miel recipe

Community Cookbooks

"Everyone feels nourished and replenished, body and soul, no matter what else is going on in their lives. And in these moments they are reminded that food has always been--and will continue to be--the tie that binds people to the past, to the future and to each other."

---pg. 308 Celebration Cookbook
Nancy Butcher, Saratoga Springs, NY

It's not as intense as the annual wedding dress sale at Filene's Boston. It does reach it's own level of intensity. Be assured that here's always someone looking in your cart or peering over your shoulder to see if you hold something that they desire at the annual book sale fundraiser for the Friends of the SF Public Libary. Readers can be an idiosyncratic bunch. My annual outing is primarily for one reason--the ongoing expansion of my personal cookbook library, which has been at about 300 assorted volumes.

As I walked the rows of old cookbooks I started to give some consideration to my collection and wondered if I could benefit with specialization. I need to be honest with myself; in this lifetime I am not going to collect every recipe and cookbook out there. Right?

Many serious collectors have bents to their efforts. Building libraries around Pillsbury Bake-Off cookbooks, corporate public relations cookbooklets, single subject cookbooks or cooking method like baking or braising or children's cookbooks, just to name a few possibilities.

Another area, which seems vast, is the category of community cookbooks. Several of my new weekend additions included these fundraising recipe collections. The style of these bound recipes range from spiral bound and folksy looking to the more polished and professionally published and edited Junior League editions.

The cookbook fundraiser dates back to the Civil War, when the Ladies' Aid Societies came together to raise money for military casualties and their families. After the war ended the beneficiaries of these efforts moved to hospitals, churches, orphanages and veterans' groups. Compiled by nonprofit organizations such as Junior Leagues, art museums, religious groups, historical societies, service and charity leagues they reveal entertaining styles of the time and a living history of the community the fundraiser serves.

Today the princesses of community cookbook land are the numerous Junior League editions. Since their initial publication in the 1950s, more than 18 million copies of local chapter cookbooks have been sold, with proceeds supporting programs that further the organizational mission of improving social conditions, promoting volunteerism and developing the potential of women.

The Junior League founded in 1901 celebrated their 100th anniversary and 50 years of community cookbook leadership with The Junior League: Celebration Cookbook a collection of recipes from its 295 local chapters around the country. More than just a best of the best it is a strong presentation of the act of preserving regional food traditions and a recipe for community strength and growth through the many stories of how proceeds have literally changed the quality of life in each community.

The all time best-selling book in the collection is River Road Recipes produced by the Baton Rouge chapter. The most recent in the series called River Road Recipes IV, Warm Welcomes. The series, according to their website has sold more than 1.8 million books since late 1959.

What I particularly like about community collections is that the pages reflect the way people cook and eat regionally and stylistically rather than the way professionals think the home chef should actually cook. The recipes reflect simplicity and no fuss. That's not to say that there's not complexity. The older books reflect many recipes such as Bear Pot Roast and Veal Kidneys Flambé. The recipe below Thai Spicy Prawn Soup is not exactly up Rachel Ray's alley either!

The recipes often lack number of servings, tips on technique and occasionally references such as 'cook in the moderate heat of an oven.' The more comfortable and experienced home chef can easily work through these small hurdles. A small price to pay in exchange for a treasured family recipe that is often the first time it has been written down.

This week I'm going to share recipes and stories from these new additions to my library that chronicle and preserve local culinary traditions--American Regional cooking at it's best.

Bringing Greece to the Table

Watching the Olympics over the weekend got me to thinking, naturally, about Greek food. What came as a surprise was that noticeably absent from my cookbook library is a tome featuring this cuisine. So I took to the virtual library to learn some more about signature cookbook authors of a Hellenic nature.

The doyenne of Greek cookbook writing is Diane Kochilas. Born in raised in New York City and now residing in Greece she has written four books on her native cuisine: The Food and Wine of Greece , Greek Vegetarian, The Glorious Foods of Greece: Traditional Recipes from Islands, Cities, and Villagesand Meze: Small Plates to Savor and Share. Her restaurant reviews appear in Greece’s largest newspaper the Athens-based, TA NEA where the reviews are both anticipated and feared. Someday I would like to learn firsthand from the writer-chef by participating in her one-week “Glorious Greek Kitchen” cooking school program. The sybaritic week includes hiking, cheese-tasting, wine and olive oil tastings and cooking lessons. In the September issue of Food & Wine there's a great feature article about the school, 8 recipes, Greek wine profiles--great for afternoon coffee break daydreaming. (I hope the link works; I'm a subscriber so I don't know if my cookies allowed the link.)

Another top goddess of the kitchen is Aglaia Kremezi, who won a Julia Child award in 1994 for best “First Book” with The Foods of Greece, The Foods of the Greek Islands, The Mediterranean Pantryand Mediterranean Hot. This last book intrigues me as I have been known to enjoy a spicy dish. Throughout the Mediterranean spicy means the use of one or more of the following spices--capers, chilies, cilantro, cumin, garlic, onion, paprika, or hot pepper. The UK-based Food Illustrated provides a bit more insight into this chef-author in a 2001 interview that took place in Aglaia Kremezi’s Athen’s apartment with a view of the Acropolis. Another vacation option exists with Ms. Kremezi on the island of Kea where she now lives
The culinary week also includes hands-on classes, artisanal honey tastings, learning how to make homemade phyllo and plenty of hiking and a picnic on the beach.

In the hot off the press category, The Olive and the Caper, by Susanna Hoffman, an anthropologist and author of nine books, has written a 700-plus-page book that is dubbed “a sensuous adventure of luscious recipes, itinerant travel, and historical anecdotes.” In 1971, she was part of a group of friends who opened Chez Panisse. It’s quite a hefty book. There are 150 recipes plus dozens of essays about the origins of Greek food, village life, history, language and custom.

And last up but yet another award-winning food writer, Clifford Wright, and his collection entitled Little Foods of the Mediterranean, features 500 recipes including an introduction to the way people eat in the Mediterranean region and an awe-inspiring collection of all sorts of appetizers, snacks, and little foods served across the region, from Spanish tapas bars and Italian cafés to Tunisian and Moroccan open markets and Greek and Turkish meze tables. Mr. Wright is my kind of writer. He seeks out recipes and endeavors to understand the historical roots of foods we eat today. He won a 2002 James Beard award for A Mediterranean Feast: The Story of the Birth of the Celebrated Cuisines of the Mediterranean a comprehensive history of Mediterranean cusines from A.D. 500 to 1650. He’s currently in production on a 13-part PBS an eye-opening tour of the Mediterranean and tells surprising historical stories of a now famous cuisine. He also writes for Saveur and other food publications.

But now I’m getting into collections that are shifting ever so slightly toward the all encompassing dishes of the Mediterranean region. It's clear to me there's a world of food from Greece that goes beyond the always present Greek Salad.

Garides Saganaki
Shrimp Baked in Tomato Sauce with Feta

excerpted from
The Foods of the Greek Islands Cooking and Culture at the Crossroads of the Mediterranean
By Aglaia Kremezi

Makes 4 servings
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2-1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or
1/4-1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 garlic cloves, minced
1-1/2 pounds medium shrimp,
peeled and deveined, tails left on
1/2 cup finely diced tomato,
drained in a colander for 5 minutes
Salt
2/3 cup coarsely grated hard feta cheese (see note below)
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a large skillet, heat the oil and sauté the onion over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the pepper or pepper flakes and the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and sauté for 2 minutes, or until they start to become firm. Add the tomato and salt to taste and cook for 2 minutes more, or until the sauce begins to thicken.

Transfer to a baking dish or four individual gratin dishes.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly. Sprinkle with the cheese and bake for 2 to 3 minutes more. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve.

Note:
If you leave feta cheese uncovered in the refrigerator overnight, it will dry a bit and can then be easily grated.

You say tomahto I say tomayto

A family of Brandywines, a herd of Green Zebras and the Costoluto Genovese have taken over my kitchen table. Over the years I’ve developed a passion bordering on obsessive for heirloom tomatoes.

It’s that time of year when the colors, aromatics and bounty of the farmer’s market is almost too tempting for me to go. The French once called the tomato pomme d'amour or “the apple of love," and in Italian similar sounding to French, pomodoro roughly translates as golden fruit while German translates to "the apple of paradise”. All due to its reputed aphrodisiac properties. And love them all I do.

The tomato originates from the Peruvian Andes and Mexico where it was grown by the Incas. The word tomato comes from the Aztec word ‘tomalt’ meaning ‘fleshy fruit’. Christopher Columbus discovered it and brought it back to Europe where it enjoyed great success in the Mediterranean. Peter Hertzmann captures the tomato's history from a French perspective. The recipes and facts go beyond the historical journey from South America to Europe, then back across the ocean to North America.

With so many books on tomatoes from gardening, to cooking to folklore it’s a challenge to find the right one. I’ve picked a few that are more on the history, cultural and cookbook side of the fence to help those of us dealing with our current addiction.

In Praise of Tomatoes : Tasty Recipes, Garden Secrets, Legends & Lore by Ronni Lundy shows us many ways to love the tomato. The book is part cookbook, part history and shows a passion for tomatoes that is impressive. What’s impressive is not so much the number of recipes but the unique ways that tomatoes show up. Recipes such as Spicy Red Tomato Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, a North Carolina soup called Muddle, and a Thai salad of papaya and tomato.

The tomato is used around the world. After all where would Italy's repertoire of tomato-sauced pastas, cacciatores, minestrones, pizzas, to name a few, be with out pomodoro? French dishes have featured the tomato since the days of the Great Careme. Mexicans have a range of tomato based salsas. The Spanish are known around the world with their famous soup, gazpacho. In India and Indonesia hot-tomato chutneys are a staple. In the United States where would our burgers and fried be with out ketchup?

A helpful and recent discoveries, in understating the importance of the showcasing tomato in various cultures around the world is Tomatoes: Easy, Delicious Tomato Recipes by Manisha Gambhir Harkins. The collection of recipes pulls together a global survey of tomato-based recipes such as Lebanese bread salad, called fattoush, Italian Bean and Tomato Soup, Provencal Tomato Tian, and of course the Sunday brunch reviver the Bloody Mary.