A friend and coworker made his own cured pork belly and wild boar salami (and I mean real running-in-the-woods, invasive, shot-by-a-friend wild boar, not the Texas-ranch-raised “wild boar”) . And a group of us had a little shindig pairing those with various smoked or barrel-aged beers: The beer highlights for me were the Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen, a smoked beer with a light touch (and I don’t like most smoked beers I’ve had), and The Lost Abbey Angel’s Share (bourbon aged, chewy, >12% ABV, strong– a sour cherry barrel aged version of that at City Beer a few years ago was one of my favorite beers). ...

Hey, this was a more successful than usual “leftovers hash”, and only 20 minutes. (cue typical low-light cell phone photo:) Some good pancetta fried at low heat. A little water added to deglaze the pan and get the crusty bits off the bottom. A minced shallot sauteed in the fat. Then a few brussels sprouts I had (sliced thin), a coarsely chopped head of broccolini, and a few big pinches of white pepper, for variety. With the pan covered, fried/steamed on medium-low heat (stirring occasionally) for about 10 minutes. ...

I splurged a bit on ingredients– some wild-caught (I’d just read Righteous Porkchop) salmon, between layers of sliced shallots, hedgehog mushrooms (so disturbingly spiny-looking when fresh…), black trumpet mushrooms, and kalamata olives, along with black pepper and Meyer lemon juice. No added salt (letting the olives stand in for that). I wrapped the whole stack in foil, crimped the edges, and baked it at 400 for about 17 minutes. Delicious! ...

I’ve taken a dangerous plunge– dedicating a cupboard to stocking some of my favorite not-available-at-corner-stores (though mostly available at City Beer Store or Healthy Spirits) beers, for special (or at least moderately-special) occasions: Sours: Cascade Kriek, Strubbe Flemish Red, Monk’s Cafe Flemish Sour, Russian River Supplication & Consecration, Upright Billy The Mountain Belgians: Rochefort 8 & 10, Westvleteren 10 & 12, Orval, Liefmans Goudenband Belgian-Style US: Allagash Black & Tripel & Tripel Reserve, Russian River Damnation ...

New restaurant in the Dogpatch. Tender, tasty roast Mary’s chicken (though I prefer the skin more crispy), grilled cactus salad, clove soda, and little donut holes on the house (with chipotle powder, honey, pumpkin seeds).

I had a box of turkish delight and some turkish tea from Istanbul, so that seemed like a good theme for a dinner party… while trying to shoehorn in whatever vegetables I got in the CSA. A range of vegetarian mezzes: Kalamata olives (greek, I know) Watermelon radish pickles (three days in rice vinegar, a little sugar, meyer lemon, and mustard seed – it turned the brine red). This isn’t at all Turkish, I just had so many pounds of radish to deal with… and I’d planned to put some powdered sumac on it to have it fill the raw-onions-with-sumac appetizer role in many turkish meals, but forgot. Turkish black tea (5 minutes in a french press, served in the specific fluted glasses and saucers they use in Turkey, which I’d impulsively picked up in the airport). Anchovies, from a can Homemade whole wheat lavash bread, based on an arbitrarily chosen internet recipe but quite successful (1 packet yeast proofed in 1/2 cup lukewarm water, then 3/4 cup more water added, and this added to 2 cups white-whole-wheat flour w/ 1 tsp salt, mixed into sticky dough, kneaded (more flour needed), coated heavily in olive oil and set to rise in a warm place for an hour, punched down, rolled thin, some sesame seeds sifted on top, then cooked on a medium-heat griddle for a few minutes on each side). There was a surprisingly big difference between the perfect fresh-off-the-stove lavash and even the 30-minutes-off-the-stove texture and taste (it became chewy and tough). Roasted parsnips (30-40 minutes at 425F in olive oil, salt, black pepper, turning once) mixed with lots of fresh mint Cacik (pronounced something like jay-juhk): Greek yogurt diluted with perhaps 25% water to thin it out, cucumber, fresh mint, coarse salt, olive oil An attempt at Kısır (pronounced kih-sish), a Turkish salad in the same vein as tabouleh: 2 Tbsp tomato paste and a Nora chili mixed into 2 1/2 cups of hot water, poured over 2 cups dry bulgur to soak for 15+ minutes, then olive oil, a Tbsp pomegranate syrup (strong), lime juice, and a whole bunch of minced fresh parsley added, and served over sliced cucumbers and tomatoes. Plus lots of black pepper. While some people said this was their favorite, I thought it was missing something, and maybe the bulgur should have been further cooked and chilled? Hmm. “Harem’s Delight” brand Turkish Delight, pomegranate flavored. And of course, a few fine beers: Upright Flora Rustica (with spring yarrow and calendula – floral, interesting, and pretty good this time, not gone-bad like the last bottle), Allagash Hugh Malone Belgian IPA (slightly fruity, huge head, an interesting hop taste that I couldn’t place, nice [edit: more info from the Allagash web site]), and a saved bottle of Almanac summer blackberry ale from a friend (a bit more acidic and less blackberry-distinctive than it was originally, unfortunately). ...

I can’t be the only one who rearranges the pre-checkout conveyor from least-crushable to most-crushable:

I just had my first Montreal bagel (someone I know paid to have cases of them shipped overnight, from Montréal): I did appreciate the slightly smoky taste from the wood burning oven, and the variation in surface browning, but they were also a bit sweeter and lighter (less chewy) than I like, so I still prefer the New York style. I may have to try making an unholy hybrid at some point– a New York style bagel cooked over a wood fire… not quite what the gas-grill-BBQ bagels were. ...

This pulled pork sandwich (marinated in coconut milk, with some jalapeno plantain pickles) by Hil’s Cooking was excellent: The internet tells me she’s going to have a mobile sandwich Airstream in Oakland.

Another (busy-at-work, forgot-to-invite-anyone-over) Tuesday CSA, another attempt to cheat time with the pressure cooker. I’d give this one a B+. Similar to the last lentil soup: I sauteed some home-cured-by-a-friend and deliciously fatty/salty lambcetta, shallots, celery, carrots, and onions. Then I sweated a pound of lentils with it over medium heat for 5 minutes. Plus a few dried Nora peppers, chipotles, cayenne, a pinch of smoked paprika, 8 cups of water, and the lid came on, for 10 minutes at pressure. I opened it, added salt and black pepper to taste, and simmered it another 5 minutes. A whole Meyer lemon squeezed into the bowl for the last-minute acid. Pretty good. Could have used more meat or a meaty stock. ...

(warning: pig carcass photos below) I just found photos from a pig roast & camping trip in Stanislaus National Forest organized by some friends last summer. It was everyone’s first time roasting a large whole pig, but the pork ended up delicious, moist, and not too greasy. Success! I wasn’t involved in the planning, and don’t really have a detailed “recipe”, but here’s the general approach: 1. Rub the whole pig with salt (there wasn’t really space or room to store a big tube of liquid brine) ...

Last weekend I went up to Russian River Brewing Co with a group of friends (by bike, in fact, a 130-mile round trip from San Francisco, but that’s a story for another day or blog…) for their two-week window of Pliny the Younger on tap. After three hours waiting in line to get in (which passed surprisingly quickly due to good company and a boom box with some James Brown), I had a glass of this triple IPA in hand: ...

Amazingly delicious Japanese curry in the Tenderloin for $8.50 (Kare-Ken). I got the Katsu curry plate, spicy:

A low-key Feb 14th– catching up at home after a few whirlwind weeks, and making a quick and tasty hash starting from a homemade “lambcetta” (like pancetta, but lamb, air-cured with salt) given to me by a friend who’s been going all-out on the butchering and meat-preserving front recently. It was delicious sliced thin on its own, and I don’t think it would kill me. But to make it last, I just used a bit of it, minced up and fried with minced shallots, and then coarser-cut onions, fennel (yes, I’m an addict), and carrots. ...

If you don’t want to see pictures of hog butchering, stop reading now. Yesterday I went to a combination beer release party ( Almanac Beer’s Winter Wit, with kara kara oranges, blood oranges, and ginger from local farms– they pointed out that while Wit is typically a summer beer, winter is citrus season in our neck of the woods… I liked it quite a bit, as well as the High Water Brewing No Boundaries IPA), pork dinner (shoulder with some sort of spicy gravy was my favorite, followed by the fatty pork-and-beer sausage and chicharrones), and hog butchering demonstration by Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats. ...