the petite pig

celebrating "mastering the art of french cooking"

our finished coq au vin

julia child inspired me to cook; julie powell inspired me to blog; and meryl streep just makes me want to watch movies.  so i don’t think it surprises anyone that i was pretty friggin’ excited for last weekend’s opening of “julie and julia.”  since this was no ordinary movie to me, i couldn’t make it just any ordinary movie outing.  it had to be an event that celebrated the real star of the movie, julia child’s gift to the culinary world, her book “mastering the art of french cooking.”  my own 684 page voluminous copy sits on a shelf in my living room as a testament to my love of jc (not to be confused with the jc of “what would jesus do?”).  i couldn’t think of a better way to honor her than cooking a few of the french recipes she shared with us in her first publication. 

thickening the coq au vin with a beurre manie

this past sunday, six of my favorite female foodies joined me in my kitchen to remake julia’s ratatouille, coq au vin and crepes fines sucrees (filled with strawberries and nutella) to get us in the mood for our afternoon matinee.  with three dutch ovens on the stove, you knew we weren’t messing around (and yes, i own three – ergh, actually 4 – dutch ovens).  under her trusted direction, we fearlessly poured cognac over the chicken for our coq au vin and lit it on fire (though she does warn us to avert our faces).  with great conviction, we shook the casserole back and forth until the flames subsided, just like she told us.  the sauce of our coq au vin came out silky and rich enough to get drunk off of.  the chicken cooked to perfect tenderness filled with flavors of the wine it basted in.  our ratatouille reminded us how decadent vegetables can be, and our crepes brought us to back to the crepes stands in paris.  snacking on cheese, pate and bread, we diced, chopped and seared, all the while channeling the voice of julia, just as julie powell did for a year while she cooked all 524 recipes from the original jc bible. 

if you haven’t heard of julie powell, she is a secretary turned blogger turned published author turned subject of a movie.  powell’s unexpected rise to fame started when she took on a unique personal mission – to cook every recipe from “mastering the art of french cooking” in 365 days and blog about it.  eventually the blog was turned into the book, “julie and julia,” which is now a movie playing under the same name at your local movie theatre starring the glorious meryl streep as jc.  competing with julia’s romantic and inspiring life journey and paris in the 1950’s is no small challenge, but i’d consider powell a bit of a modern day hero.  to twenty-and-thirty-something’s still wandering aimlessly in life, her story reminds us that fame is just 524 recipes and 365 blog entries away.  ok, maybe that’s not the real lesson, but her story does provide all of us that want more than our office day jobs some hope, right?  maybe all it takes is that one recipe (or 524) to help us find our way in life.  in the meantime, i'm happy to just find my way in the kitchen. 

thank you julia child for helping all of us to find our way in the kitchen; thank you julie powell for doing what you love; and thank you meryl streep for bringing julia child back to life for us. 

bon appetit!

some lovely french tunes that i imagine jc would love to cook to, as well as a playlist for your julie / julia party:

french tunes julia child could cook to

for more photos of our "mastering the art of french cooking" celebration:

still playing with dirt: volunteering at the alemany farm

i was the kind of kid that enjoyed playing with dirt.  i spent my time after school digging up worms and slugs, slicing them in half and watching them regenerate into more worms and more slugs.  although my squeemishness threshold is not at the same level as my five year old self, i definitely can while away a few hours in a pile of dirt.  while more and more americans are getting closer to their food by shopping at farmers markets and subscribing to community supported agriculture (csa) programs, there's nothing like working in the field, whether it's your own little garden or a farm that nourishes many. 

this weekend, tim and i rolled up our sleeves and got to know our food a little better at the alemany farm.  between 9 lanes of the 280 highway and the projects lies a quaint 4 acres of agricultural oasis just on the outskirts of san francisco.  our farm tour guide gave us an incredibly informative tour about the farm and its philosophy.  jason our guide was probably a better speaker than anyone i've come across in business and definitely knew his food and farm facts.  not surprisingly, the highlight of the tour was when we got to the composting bins and got to search for worms - the childhood memories just came rushing back.  the next best highlight was finding out that my backyard just might the perfect environment for growing some mushroom spores.  before you know it, i'll be jess dang, the mushroom forest nymph.  but before i got to indulge my mushroom fantasy, we had some work to do.  unfortunately, i didn't get to layer in the fresh horse manure to form a compost lasagna (perhaps i'll be luckier next time) but spent the day wiping out the native plant garden of all non-native invaders - dang pest control to the rescue!

if you want to learn to be your own forest nymph or take a turn at being a trusty farm hand, alemany farm has volunteer days the first and third sunday of each month and all the saturdays in between.  maybe i'll see you there.  i'll be by the dirt looking for worms.

eating out: a stimulus we can believe in

no one in the restaurant industry will deny that it's a tough industry to be in.  it's one of thin margins with the probability of survival against you.  as the daughter of an ex-restauranteur, i know firsthand how difficult it can be.  a few years before i went off to college, i watched my dad declare personal bankruptcy due to an ailing restaurant.  it was a painful, painful affair for our family, and now with our country in a dire recession, i'm sure more and more restaurant owners have been forced to make the same painful decision.  over the past few months as americans tighten their belts, we've all had to witness the pervasive effects of the economy.  i've seen many neighborhood, ma-and-pa restaurants hang up their hats.  i've been the only occupied table at restaurants that typically see a generous amount of traffic.  i've been able to get reservations at choice restaurants that would have been impossible to get your foot in the door a year ago.  as someone who's still haunted by the ghosts of restaurant bankruptcy, i find this all so incredibly sad and frightening. 

everyday we hear the word "stimulus" in the news.  i personally have no idea when all our tax dollars will actually trickle down and stimulate the economy but as food loving americans, it's time to take matters into our own hands.  if you've got the money, if you've got a stable job and if you're not retiring anytime soon, i encourage you to go out and eat.  show your favorite restaurant that you want them to survive this downturn.  restaurants, unfortunately, don't work like most other businesses.  there is no severence.  based on the highly specific and non-transferrable skill set, there aren't many options for an out-of-work restaurant employee.  the cost of closing a restaurant is high, and re-entry is even higher.  for all those reasons, and because food will always be our greatest comfort and has the power to soothe in the toughest of times, go pick up that fork and dig in.

a makeover for the eggplant

while i'm a huge fan of eggplant (or aubergine for some of you), i have to admit it's not the most attractive of vegetables.  your typical globe variety, perfect for making eggplant parmesan, reminds me of a purple mr. potatohead.  and lets not even start about the phallic shape of the japanese variety (not that there's anything wrong with phallic shaped vegetables.  some of my favorite vegetables happen to be shaped like, well, you know . . . ). 

but it seems that the eggplant has gotten a bit of a makeover.  while strolling through farmers markets this summer, i've noticed some real cute eggplant that i can't help oogling over.  yesterday, while making my routine wednesday stroll at the heart of the city farmers market, i couldn't help but bring some of these cuties home with me.  i picked up about a dozen of miniature egg-shaped eggplant (so that's where the name comes from!) and also some light green round-shaped eggplants that more resemble an unripened tomato than its purple mr. potatohead sibling.  these tomato-like eggplants are actually called the thai round eggplant, popular in southeast asia.  however, i have no idea how i should prepare these petite varieties.  if you have a recipe, please send it along and i'll be sure to blog about how it goes.  but for now, i'll just keep on oogling.

the autumn moon festival

the mid-autumn moon festival was celebrated by east asians around the world yesterday.  for those of you who missed it, it's not too late to get to the asian grocers and pick you up some mooncake (i know because i was one of those people).  this holiday is an incredibly important one in chinese culture, celebrating the end of (hopefully) a fruitful summer harvest.  families gather to admire the moon at its fullest while chowing down on mooncakes and of course, many other chinese dishes. 

it's one of my favorite chinese holidays, as it celebrates food and i can't think of a better reason for celebration.  as a child, my grandmother would take us out on the balcony and lead my brother and i through a song and dance number she taught us about the moon festival, and then we'd stuff ourselves with all the mooncakes that had been given to us by friends and relatives. 

this holiday also happens to fall right around my birthday, and i remember in fifth grade, my parents tried to serve mooncakes at my birthday party.  what were they thinking: serving "strange" chinese cakes to a bunch of 10 year old white kids who were used to betty crocker chocolate cakes at their parties?  seriously, it was social suicide right there.  despite my embarrassment, my love for mooncakes remains.  i still look forward to the holiday every year when asian grocers and bakeries stock up on these rich pastries which are filled with the sweetness of lotus and sweet bean pastes and salted egg yolks to symbolize the full moon. 

and luckily, i've gotten over the embarrassment factor of serving "exotic" foods to my non-asian friends (except for chicken hearts, which i still stir-fry in secrecy when no one's around) and have every intention of serving up some mooncakes at my birthday party.

a sabbatical from cyberspace

so i received an email last week from jaden of jaden's steamy kitchen (a must read food blog - bookmark it!) commenting that she hadn't seen a blog post from me in awhile.  it's nice to know that my absence has been noted in the community of food bloggers.  luckily this absence has nothing to do with lack of time in the kitchen or playing with food.  in fact, i've been so busy in the kitchen and discovering all the new culinary nooks and crannies in san francisco since moving two and a half months ago that i've had barely any time in front of the monitor (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

so, i thought i'd share a few food-related highlights since my last entry . . .

new food & kitchen retail discoveries i've made in san francisco:
1) for every plate, bowl, platter you've ever eyed at a restaurant, kamei in the inner richmond is the place to go.  i was mesmerized strolling through their 4 aisles of plates.  if only i had a restaurant kitchen . . . 
2) as wonderful as it is to stroll through the ferry plaza farmer's market on a saturday, beat the crowds and the inflated prices and head to the heart of the city farmers market on market street between 7th and 8th streets.  there are a ton of asian vendors offering asian produce at cheap, cheap prices. 
3) for incredibly fresh and well-priced seafood and meats and all your asian cooking needs, head to sunset super at 25th and irving, a miniature version of ranch 99 in the city.

kitchen organization:
i finally had a chance to organize my spice drawer.  to the ordinary person, this is probably not news to blog about but to an anal retentive cook like myself, well, it's pretty exciting.  see for yourself:

now wouldn't you just smile every time you opened up that drawer?   to those who are looking for a cheaper alternative to expensive spice jars, you can order these at specialty bottles for just 68 cents a pop (spices not included).

on the eating front:
there definitely has been lots of eating.  before leaving my day job, i did enjoy a last supper at manresa's five year anniversary dinner which was just delicious.  since then, it's been all about discovering cheap chinese dives and pho places in the richmond, sunset and tenderloin neighborhoods of san francisco.  not quite french laundry caliber but so good and comforting (without the dent to your wallet).  and as i've had a lot of time to experiment in the kitchen and plenty of cooking gigs for clementine culinary productions to keep me busy, there will be many recipes to come soon.

back online,
jess aka "the petite pig"

le sanctuaire: a new spice market in the middle of san francisco

i was a history major back in college and so have always been intrigued by the spice trade and its profound impact on the course of world events. as a cook though, i've come to understand and appreciate spices in a different way.  while the spice trade no longer carries the geopolitical influences it did in earlier centuries, the "globalization" of spices as it exists today has deeply influenced the way the world eats.  chefs have never had as much access to the world's flavors in their kitchen as they do today. 

last weekend i had the opportunity to visit the newly opened le sanctuaire in san francisco and discover the latest spice trade route.  jung tio is known by chefs as "'the man who knows how to get things.'"  in his previous life, tio was an accountant and real estate manager, but now is more famously known for being the source of the latest exotic flavors.  tio stocks his two spice markets (the original le sanctuaire is located in santa monica) and the kitchens of the western world's best chefs through his monthly travels to europe and southeast asia.  some of the spices such as his variety of pepper are even grown on his own land in indonesia. 

on that saturday morning, koko who came to le sanctuaire from the dining room at the ritz carlton gave me a guided tour of tio's spice route.  i started off my journey intoxicated by one of tio's many secret spice medleys.  appropriately named aphrodisiac, i could only compare it to waking up to morning sex.  my journey continued to a wide spectrum of salts.  i happened to be in the market for finishing salts and after sampling about a dozen, settled on three by halen mon: 1) a traditional sea salt; 2) a vanilla flavored salt; and a 3) roasted sea salt.  from salt, i naturally progressed to peppers sampling all of tio's homegrown crops as well as several others.  the range of scents and shapes were wide: some were earthy; some were flowery; some were not even shaped like your typical peppercorn.  by the end of my visit, i had opened up nearly every box of spice they carried and was overwhelmed with the possibilities for all the new flavors i had encountered and left excited about the new sensory playground i had discovered.

le sanctuaire is located on the fifth floor of 315 sutter street (@ grant).  call 415-986-4216 to make an appointment for your tour of the hottest spice trade around these days. 

my introduction to western food

i think when people find out that i love to cook, the first question i usually hear is, "what kind of food do you like to make?  chinese?"  i'm never offended by the assumption.  after all, i did grow up in a very traditional chinese family and ate my share of native fare.  however, i think because i grew up mostly eating chinese food, i found everything non-chinese to be the exotic.  as an adolescent, all you want is to "fit in."  you don't want to be that weird kid who gets fed worm juice instead of cherry-flavored robitussin when you have a cough (yes, this is a true story - my grandmother is quite the human eastern apothecary).  for us eating out meant going for a bowl of pho (vietnamese beef noodle soup), dim sum or a noodle joint.  for my parents, the thought of going out for a western meal was just too foreign for them to handle.  a meal without jasmine white rice on the side was not a meal at all in their eyes.  i remember asking my mom if she could make some spaghetti for me, just like all my friends got to have for dinner.  her response to my request was spaghetti noodles stir-fried in ketchup.  you have to give the woman credit for trying to please her brat of a daughter.  yes, for years i thought spaghetti with tomato sauce was spaghetti with ketchup.   

i think the first western restaurant (not counting my many trips to mc donalds and popeyes chicken) i got my parents to take me to was a t.g.i.fridays when i was about eleven.  to me, this little trip to a national chain restaurant was the treat of my life.  in my head, i was going to three-star michelin dining (not that i knew what michelin was at this point in my life aside from the tires).  my parents delegated the duty of ordering to me, something my dad always got to do when we went out.  i felt like the responsibility of introducing my parents to the world of western food was on my shoulders.  yes, this was my chance to convert them from chicken's feet (which i happened to love anyway) to chicken tenders.  i felt completely lost perusing friday's classic red, white and black menu.  after all, my breadth of exposure to western food consisted of what my friends'  parents fed me at their homes and school lunches of tater tots and grilled cheese.  i can't remember what i chose for myself, but i decided on nachos for my parents.  as most of you know, dairy is not a big part of the chinese diet.  my mom and dad didn't know quite what to do with this platter of tortilla chips with this blob of orange goo on top of it and this sour curdled milk? -  what was this big mass of "stuff"?  yes, my desire to turn my parents onto american food didn't go over too well.  their tastes for food has definitely broadened since then (most probably forced by me).   and well i have since learned that spaghetti with tomato sauce doesn't involve america's favorite condiment.

so, the answer, "yes, of course i love to make chinese food."  but i also love to try out the exotic, which to me is what most americans consider the traditional.  this past sunday dinner, i entered the exotic world of southern cooking.  i decided on something new and something i knew was going to be good: chicken & dumplings and mac 'n cheese.  the chicken & dumplings came from one of my new favorite cookbooks called all about braising mostly because it's provided me many excuses to use my dutch oven.  the dumplings (made by my roommate michelle) were dropped and they really were fantastic.  different of course than chinese dumplings which are filled with meats and vegetables, the south defines their dumplings as light nuggets of bread.  these involved a mix of flour, parsley and nutmeg and then were simmered in the braising liquid of the chicken which infused them with rich flavor.    

liz, an experienced southern dumpling maker, found the petite pig through a blog written by a future literary magnate friend of mine who has set out to rescue the aspiring writer.  i found out through her that southern dumplings are rolled and not dropped and she was kind enough to pass along her grandmother's recipe to me.  hope she doesn't mind me sharing it with you all. 

In a medium size bowl mix one large egg and an egg sized lump of Crisco.  I mix this up with a fork.  It won't be smooth, just get it sort of worked together.  Then add in an egg shell of water. Add a pinch of salt.  Mix a bit more.  Then slowly....add in your flour...little bits at a time, say no more than a 1/4 cup. Mix it up. It will become pasty.  Once it looks a bit like wet dough, cover your work surface with a good bit of flour. Dump the dumpling mixture onto it and knead until the dough won't take any more flour. Then you get out the rolling pin and roll it out. It should be a bit thinner than pie crust.  Then take your knife and slice them into 2x3 inches rectangles, or close to it.

 

Now, I cook the chicken, a whole one, first off with about 3 onions.  Remove the chicken, set aside to cool.  Once cool, debone. Strain the broth to remove the onions and some of the fat.  Bring the broth back to a boil.  Now drop the dumplings in, I collect about 6-12 in my hand and dump them in one at a time.  Repeat until they are all in there.  Give it a stir and turn the heat down, put the lid on and let them steam.  I usually cook them 15-25 minutes.  Stir periodically....when they look done, they will be a bit puffy.  Add the chicken back in.

 

There is a definite knack to this....I've been making them for 15 years now and mine still don't compete with my grandmother's...but she is 88!!  Guess she's had a bit more practice than I have.

thanks liz.  if any of you southerners have some of your exotic recipes to share, please pass them along.   i always look forward to something new in my kitchen, chinese or not.

a preview of what's to come . . .

all photos by allan hsu.

i found out this past weekend after two full days of non-stop cooking that orchestrating a food photo shoot is not an easy task.  i set out on this great adventure this past saturday thinking that i could put together fourteen dishes in one day.  by the time six o'clock rolled around and i was just halfway through my menu, i realized that maybe i started out a bit ambitious.  so one full day of cooking turned into two to take all the photos i needed for a new website i'm launching in two weeks time.  don't fret though!  the petite pig is not going anywhere.  i'll still be here once a week (twice a week if we're lucky) to talk shop but i have to admit, all this food blogging has gotten me hungrier than ever about food.  after lots of profound (or perhaps just confused) existential thought, i decided to take a sabbatical from my career as a living-out-of-my-suitcase consultant.  i now work a normal, home-by-six 40 hour week and have rediscovered time, time to do things.  it's pretty amazing. 

so you ask, what have i been doing with all this time?  have i figured out the meaning of life?  well, no, and probably never will but i have figured out one thing: that i love food and it's about time i take this show on the road, so i'm trying to get two food businesses up and running.  the first is going to be my own personal chef/private dinner party thrower/cooking instructor/just let me feed you business.  i may have to end up naming it just that unless one of you readers have any suggestions for me?  if you do, deadline is until saturday to email me.  if i choose your name, a multi-course dinner for you and three friends awaits you.  the second business is still too fledgling to reveal much, but i'll make an announcement when the time is right.

back to this photo shoot.  no food website would be complete without lots of shameless food porn.  as a result, my friend allan hsu (anyone need a photographer?  cause after you see these photos, you'll want to pay him just to come take pictures of your bowl of 5 cent ramen) endured two full days of the type-a chef that i can be to help me capture the food porn that i envisioned.  fifteen dishes . . . lots of food requiring lots of 1) help and 2) eaters.  i emailed a dozen friends to do just that.  they responded to my plea for help and came bearing gifts of wine, appetites and bravery.  they acted as makeshift sous chefs, photo-assistants, food-stylists, taste-testers, but most importantly, wonderful supporting friends.  there were a lot of moving pieces, food scattered everywhere, a summer roll wrapping lesson thrown in there but twenty plus hours of simmering and searing later, we had exactly what i was hoping for: beautiful make-you-salivate photos.  drained, i fell into a chair, my body ached but it was definitely the most rewarding cooking i had ever done.  stay tuned for www.jessdang'spersonalchef/privatedinnerpartythrower/ cookinginstructor/justletmefeedyou.com.

oh, and just in case you were wondering.  here's the menu from the weekend:

lobster and shrimp chowder
pan-seared shrimp in parmesan baskets with pancetta and pesto
sausage, chicken and bacon rolls with a butter apple, thyme and sage sauce
frisee and orange salad with walnuts
mixed greens with asian pears, craisins and goat cheese
duo of summer rolls: poached shrimp & cucumber and ahi tuna & avocado
duo of salsas and guacamole
sausage and portobello pizza with arugula
pan-seared chilean sea bass with cream of corn and red pepper coulis
rack of lamb with polenta, sauteed mushrooms and fried leek strings
black truffle mac 'n cheese a la dave martin of top chef season 1
viet trio: sweet fried rice with thai basil, caramel chicke and shaking beef with mango
panna cotta with balsamic-strawberry sauce
shots of tiramisu

how i invented sweet potato gnocchi (sorta)

i spend a great deal of my time dreaming up new recipes though i'd like to think of it more as innovating rather than just pure purposeless daydreaming.  a couple weeks ago, i was craving gnocchi and being on a recent sweet potato kick, i experienced a "light bulb over the head" moment . . . why hasn't anyone thought of making sweet potato gnocchi?  my brilliance unfortunately was short-lived as i find out after a quick google search that well, sweet potato gnocchi exists.  it's on the menu of many restaurants (that i've eaten at) and has been featured in many magazines (that i subscribe to).  alas, though the idea wasn't mine, it seemed that it was about time that i try crafting these orange dumplings in my kitchen.

i thought that sweet potato gnocchi was going to be much like normal gnocchi.  simply substitute the amount of potatoes for the same amount of sweet potatoes.  so i started with about one pound of the sweet stuff, mashed it and started adding the flour.  if this was potato gnocchi, probably about one cup of flour would have done the trick but this was not potato gnocchi, this was sweet potato gnocchi and any good chef (not me obviously) would know that sweet potatoes are not nearly as starchy as normal potatoes.  two and a half cups of flour later, i still had a very sticky paste, nothing like the gnocchi i normally make.  but faced with eating a dumpling of almost pure flour, i decided it was time to try boiling what i had.  too sticky to roll out and cut, i used two spoons to shape the orange dough instead and dropped the dumplings into the pot of boiling water.  bracing myself for blobs as opposed to dumplings, i was pleasantly surprised when one by one each gnocchi came floating back up to the surface.  and after taking my first bite, i decided it was okay if just in my head, i thought of myself as the inventor of sweet potato gnocchi.

*sweet potato gnocchi with a sage and brown butter sauce*

serves 2

one pound sweet potatoes
two and half cups flour (more or less)
one teaspoon nutmeg
half cup butter
small handful of sage cut sweet potatoes into half inch cubes. place in a pot and fill with just enough cold water to cover potatoes.  bring water to boil and reduce heat to low-medium.  cook until sweet potatoes are tender and can be easily mashed with a fork.  drain and allow potatoes to steam off any remaining moisture for five minutes.  start boiling a pot of water for the gnocchi and preparing the brown butter.  melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat.  keep butter on heat until it turns brown and smells nutty.  pour the butter through a fine sieve to remove any solids that may have formed in the browning process.    mash potatoes.  add flour and nutmeg.  the dough will be sticky, so scrape two spoons against each other to form a dumpling shape.  drop the gnocchi into the boiling water.  gnocchi is ready when they float to the top.  add some fresh sage to brown butter.  toss with gnocchi.  they may not be gorgeous, but they will be light and filling and a gorgeous shade of orange.