I filled in at the last minute for a space in an Ad Hoc brunch reservation with friends (this seems to be a running theme for me and Yountville restaurants). It’s a fixed you-don’t-know-what-it-will-be-ahead-of-time menu, and I really lucked out– it hit all sorts of favorite ingredients for me (anise, cured fish, egg yolk, spicy greens, pickles, etc). We started with bagels with good salmon cured with fennel/Pernod(? – I think that’s what she said), fried capers, and a beet and spicy watercress salad. Unfortunately, the bagels were mediocre– a texture more like a dense bread, not chewy or lactic-acid-fermentation flavorful the way a bagel should be. But as vehicles for the salmon and cheese they were fine. ...

Not homemade-by-me– but a friend hunted and shot a wild boar last spring, and coated a leg in salt and hung it up in his garage to cure for the past six months. We tasted it this week. It was delicious– much more like a cured ham than “wild game”. And hey, I don’t seem to have developed botulism.

The Dandelion Chocolate single-origin bar from Madagascar cacao beans is amazing: bright, with berry and citrus flavors. A+. I like the ingredients list: Cocoa Beans & Cane Sugar. That’s it. This is my new favorite special-occasion chocolate, displacing the Mast Brother Madagascar and the Mast Brothers Maine Sea Salt.

For an improvised meal: I boiled a mix of potatoes, celery root, and parsnips (light on the potatoes). In parallel, I sauteed lots of leeks with some fresh red peppers, shallots, and spices I think of as Moroccan (turmeric, paprika, cumin, coriander, black pepper): I added some good local ground lamb and continued to cook. Then I drained fat out of the lamb and vegetables, topped them with mashed root vegetables and butter in the same cast iron skillet, grated a soft mild sheep’s milk cheese over the top, and baked until the cheese was melted. ...

by D at SoW

After working late, I dropped by flour + water on my way home to see if there was a seat at the bar, sat down within 15 minutes, and had one of the better meals I’ve had there: roasted duck breast with chestnut, roasted squash, walnut & pumpkin seed I do like the time of year when chestnuts make an appearance in food. And this dish was phenomenal– juicy, tender duck with a slightly sweet chestnut puree and a lot of mellow, well-blended supporting flavors. ...

Alas, not a great success, but okay: I’ve cooked fish in foil once before, and tried something along those lines again at a friend’s potluck. I even got to make this version twice in one night, as we expected a late dinner guest. The first time through: Preheated the oven to 400 Laid out about 3/4 pound of cod on a double-size piece of foil (one layer of cod) Covered it with two sliced shallots, rough-sliced ginger root, sliced chanterelles (my favorite mushroom), pats of clarified butter, and about 1 Tbsp of white miso Folded over the foil and crimped it together, like a large empanada… Baked it for about 25 minutes Sprinkled yuzu (a japanese citrus) juice over it and let it rest 10 minutes It smelled delicious, and the fish was pretty good– but the shallots and especially ginger were still fairly raw and strong, and it wasn’t salty enough (and it sat in a pool of butter I drained). I’d give it a C. ...

Last weekend I had friends over for a nice dinner: a delicious whole leg of lamb (from a local farm, slaughtered and butchered by a friend just a few days before), a salad of wild arugula + homemade ricotta + roasted yellow nectarines, roasted eggplant with dry-farmed tomatoes and preserved lemon, and a platter of five kinds of figs. This is the story of the food: The lamb was from Amador Grazers (all grass fed, no antibiotics or growth hormones). If you’re not squeamish about such things, you can see a photo of my friend slaughtering and butchering it here. ...

Fantastic thin-crust pizza. The toppings and flavor on the Bianca (“onion crema, shaved garlic, preserved lemon, aged provolone & wild arugula”) get an A+, probably the best Bianca I’ve ever had. I went into an almost “truffle-style coma” from the flavor combination of cheese, olive oil, and preserved lemon. The Amatriciana (“tomato, pancetta, chilies, pecorino, oregano & an egg”) was also quite good, though not as amazing. The crusts were thin, floppy, a bit less char and crunch than I like but still excellent. Ragazza has climbed into my pantheon of good pizza with good ingredients, along with Pizzaiolo, Boot & Shoe Service, and Una Pizza Napoletana. ...

I have no photos (though maybe a fellow camper will dig one up). So I’ll just say: making grilled cheese over charcoal turns out well. Especially if you use three cheeses, good bread, heirloom tomatoes, and avocados, and brush the bread with huge amounts of melted butter and then grill until crisp.

Using nearly the same ingredients as Tuesday’s dinner, something simpler (about 20 minutes from start to finish, 2 pans) and still tasty: The sauce was a shallot and a huge pile of minced garlic (about half a head), sauteed in olive oil for maybe 5 minutes until golden brown, plus cherry tomatoes, a little chicken stock, olives, black pepper, and red pepper flakes, simmered for another 10+ minutes. The nearly-done bowtie pasta was then finished in the sauce for another 2 minutes. Plus parsley and haloumi. ...

I’d been craving kasha, that staple of russian jewish grandmothers everywhere, so I sat down and made it. A cup of buckwheat groats mixed with a beaten egg and toasted for a few minutes in a skilled until dry. Onion, salt, and pepper sauteed in oil. Chicken stock boiled in a heavy pan and then both of those added to it, and cooked covered over low heat for about 12 minutes, before adding in cooked bowtie pasta. Solid. ...

I have a new favorite place to get Dim Sum in the bay area, edging out my previous favorite (East Ocean Seafood in Alameda): the Hong Kong Lounge, in San Francisco at Geary and 18th Ave. There were about 60 people in line, but a friend got there an hour early to put our names in: The food was remarkably delicious and not heavy. We filled up this table with dishes three times over the two hours we were eating there: ...

The result of canning (with short breaks) from around 11am until after midnight: about 11 pints of peaches, 17 pints of white nectarines, and 15 pints of Juliet tomatoes (plum/grape hybrid, for sauce), all from carefully taste-tested ferry building farmer’s market produce: Whew, that was more work than I realized it would be (I haven’t canned anything except some pickles in, say, 15 years?). More photos and rudimentary recipe/process notes: ...

Among other food adventures last weekend, I went to Noisette, a mix of Noisepop-curated bands (I really enjoyed the new-to-me Pillowfight with Dan the Automator, Kid Koala, and Emily Wells… but I digress from food), Speakeasy beers, and delicious small plates by nine local restaurants. One of my favorites was the rabbit sausage with liver and peaches on a homemade cracker, by flour+water. I’m also a sucker for edible nasturtium flowers. ...