Alone Together

For me spring means artichokes and asparagus.  So let's tackle the thornier one.  It must have taken a hungry or ingenious person to first eat an artichoke.  Historians generally agree that artichokes, one of the oldest cultivated vegetables (as early as the  fifth  century BC), started somewhere around the Mediterranean, most likely Sicily or Northern Africa. As member of the Asteraceae family, with cousins of sunflower, dandelion, ragweed, and wormwood, an artichoke is an improved version of the Cardoon which people also ate but preferred their stems to their smaller and pricklier buds. The  Greeks have a myth for the  creation of the plant suggesting their very creation is wrapped up in concupiscence. According to Aegean legend, the first artichoke was a lovely young girl, Cynara, who lived on the island of Zinari. Zeus was visiting his brother Poseidon when, as he emerged from the sea, spied a beautiful young mortal woman, ...

One of Provence's most iconic springtime dishes, artichokes à la barigoule, meets up with halibut and becomes a meal in itself.  Classic artichokes à la barigoule uses young artichokes braised in white wine and olive oil, with onions, carrots, and other aromatics. This one adds mushrooms, basil puree, and beans.  If video is your thing you can watch the great  Roger Vergé cook  artichokes à la barigoule, but after you skip the ads you still need to fast forward to about the 1:50 mark.  He sort of piddles around pealing the artichoke, for a more proficient job check this  Italian green grocer  out.  He does 4 in under 55 seconds and he still has all his fingers.  I've seen the dish paired with fish before, here I started with a recipe from The Balthazar Cookbook.  One of my favorites for bistro style cooking, especially fish.  Usually restaurant cookbooks are useless, dishes are pulled together from multiple elements all on ha...

In this blog I try to connect what's on the table with the natural world.  Food does begun as something shrink wrapped in plastic.  It can even be found in the wild or the wilds of one's backyard.  Our sorrel patch pictured lives in a very shady spot under a large rosemary bush.  Too much sun will burn the leaves, and too many snails might leave nothing for me.  The plants in this patch moved from our old house so they've provided us sorrel for the past 40+ years. Year after year no matter how much we and the snails eat. Once upon a time when America's taste buds were newly awaking thanks to Julia Child, James Beard, and Jacques Pepin the kitchen gadget everyone bought was a Cuisinart.  Ok now that we got one what the heck do we do with it.  Cuisinart themselves responded to the need for knowledge with a very fine magazine called The Pleasures of Cooking .  A wonderful publication with no ads?  Unbelievable! They introduced us to...

Well it's March and time to pick nettles.  If you're having trouble with this social distancing thing try standing in a patch of nettles.  Don't forget long pants, long sleeves, and gloves. Our family has competing schools of thought on nettle harvesting, just pull leaves vs snip the whole top of the plant.  If one just pulls leaves it takes longer to fill your sack but when you get home your done, snip the tops and you still need to pull leaves from stems at home, but you fill your sack much faster.  This patch of nettles is in Discovery Park, just above the north parking lot and yes almost everything green on the forest floor will sting.  You want the nettles before they start to flower but that give you the next six weeks.  So now what, let's make nettle soup.  Fortunately nettles loose their sting when cooked.  It had to have been a brave or hungry person that first tried eating these. So blanch the nettles for two minutes in a big pot o...

Strange times, we went from the fullest March calendar I can remember to being "Alone Together".  Something like fifteen concerts or club dates all cancelled and now they're dying in April as well.  At least we've had nice spring weather so we don't have cabin fever.  Along with no live music, no restaurants are open so lets cook the books.  Starting with Mary Taylor Simeti and Sicilian cuisine. In 1962 fresh out of college she landed in a small Sicilian town eventually married a Sicilian and raised a family, that story is in her book On Persephone's Island but here we dive into Pomp and Sustenance Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food . I bought my copy more than 25 years ago and many of the seafood related recipes appear on our table with some regularity.  I haven't checked to see if it's still in print.  As the title implies she covers more than recipes.  The two books together provide an enlightening view of Sicilian life and their table....