Good Food on KCRW.com

Master Gardeners

Coming up on this week's show, Yvonne Savio of the UC Cooperative Extension's Master Gardener Volunteer Training Program talks to us about how gardening can transform your life and make a difference in your community.

Applications for the spring session are only available until January 15, so get moving!  Find out more here.

Harissa

A listener recently emailed looking for a place to buy Harissa:

"I bought a bottle of harissa about a year ago at Sur La Table that I use to mix with non-fat greek yogurt for a wonderful spread for moraccan style turkey burgers or a healthy dip.  I cannot find it anymore.  Any ideas where I might locate it.  If not, could you provide a recipe?" - Leslie

I recently found some at Cube - 615 N La Brea Ave Los Angeles, CA 90036 323-939-1140.

However, it's really easy to make.  I love the recipes in Kitty Morse's books on Moroccan cooking. 

Here's a great recipe from About.com that is similar to Kitty's:

For a very spicy harissa: use a blend of cayenne, chile de arbol, or cayenne with a milder chile like ancho chilies.  For a medium spiciness: use a blend of New Mexico chilies with guajillo chilies.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

10-12 dried red chili peppers
 3 cloves garlic, minced
 1/2 teaspoon salt
 2 tablespoons olive oil
 1 teaspoon ground coriander
 1 teaspoon ground caraway seeds
 1/2 teaspoon cumin

Directions:

Soak the dried chilies in hot water for 30 minutes. Drain. Remove stems and seeds.  In a food processor combine chili peppers, garlic, salt and olive oil.  Blend.  Add remaining spices and blend to form a smooth paste.  Store in airtight container. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil on top to keep fresh. Will keep for a month in the refrigerator.

Woolly Mammoth

10,000 years ago, when the woolly mammoth was becoming extinct, humans started looking for alternative food sources.  So, they turned to plants.  Some of these prehistoric plants, like lily bulbs and wild onions required extensive cooking times.  Cooking over hot coals didn't cut it so they turned to piles of hot rocks, where they could cook something for days.

Here's a fantastic article from the LA Times about prehistoric slow food.

According to a study done by a team at the University of Wales, there is some similarity in Prehistoric food to what we eat today - except for a hedgehog or two.  Nettle Pudding was one of the most popular prehistoric dishes:

Nettle pudding

Ingredients
1 bunch of sorrel
1 bunch of watercress
1 bunch of dandelion leaves
2 bunches of young nettle leaves
Some chives
1 cup of barley flour
1 teaspoon salt

Directions
Chop the herbs finely and mix in the barley flour and salt. Add enough water to bind it together and place in the centre of a linen or muslin cloth. Tie the cloth securely and add to a pot of simmering venison or wild boar (a pork joint will do just as well). Leave in the pot until the meat is cooked and serve with chunks of bread.

Taken from Prehistoric Cooking by Jacqui Wood (Tempus, 2002)

Tagliatelle with Endive and Bacon

There wasn't much in the larder except a couple of Belgian endive and some bacon, when I remembered a pasta dish I hadn't made in a long time -- tagliatelle with endive and bacon, compliments of the mistress of simplicity, Marcella Hazan.

Bon Appetit,

Chef John

Tagliatelle with Endive and Bacon

Ingredients:
1 pound of tagliatelle
1/2 pound of slab bacon or pancetta
butter
4 medium Belgian endive
1/2 cup of heavy cream
parmesan cheese
fresh parsley

Directions:
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Salt.
2. Melt 2 tbsps of butter in a deep-sided sauté pan with a lid.  Cut bacon into 1/4 inch pieces and brown in the butter. 
3. Meanwhile, trim ends off endive.  Slice lengthwise in quarters, leaving about an inch at the base, so the endives hold together. 
4. Add endive to the bacon, salt lightly and season with ground pepper.  Cover and cook on a low flame for about 15 minutes, until the endives have collapsed and rendered their liquid.
5. Raise heat and cook off most of the liquid.  Add heavy cream and reduce by half.
6. Put the pasta in to boil.  Cook 6-8 minutes or until the tagliatelle is al dente.  
7. Drain and dump into the pan with the endive.   Raise heat and toss tagliatelle with the endive so it absorbs some of the liquid.  Sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese.  Toss lightly.  Garnish with Italian parsley. 

Serves 4

CellarWise Wine Pairing

A common temptation in matching wine with food is to try too hard.  This regional Italian dish will benefit from a similarly-traditional wine, and Piedmont’s signature grape, Nebbiolo, is the ticket.  While that might mean Barolo or Barbaresco if you’ve got $60 - $300 to throw at tonight’s wine, a more useful choice would be the “common” wines from many of the region’s best producers.  These wines, labeled either Nebbiolo d’Alba or Nebbiolo delle Langhe, are 100% Nebbiolo.  Three recent examples are the ’07 Elio Grasso Nebbiolo d’Alba “Gavarini” ($24), the ’06 Produttori del Barbaresco Nebbiolo delle Langhe ($17), and the ’06 Ruggeri Corsini Nebbiolo delle Langhe ($18), all of which are excellent.  Note:  wines labeled “Langhe Rosso” can contain Cabernet, Syrah, Merlot, and others.  While fine wines, their style and price typically miss the spirit of this match.

Actor John Pleshette has been delighting his friends for years with his weekly recipes.  We're so pleased that he will now be sharing with them with us here on the blog.

Here's a little background on John in his own words:

"I came from a food-obsessed family.  God help the one who returned from France and couldn’t remember their appetizer in some tiny bistro in Lyon.  I started cooking in college when I got my first apartment and worked my way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  I do most of the food shopping and cooking at home, leaving the last course to my wife Lynn who is the best dessert chef in Los Angeles.  When someone gave us a digital camera I began photographing our dinners and e-mailing the recipes to friends.  The list has grown from 40 to 400.  I met Bruce Cole two years ago and after reading a few issues of Cellar Wise, asked Bruce if he’d be interested in teaming up.  It’s proved a good marriage; Bruce’s recommendations are usually less than $20 and work well with the dishes I send him." 

Stay tuned for John's recipes and Bruce's wine recommendations.

Jonathan Swift

In last week's Good Food, Christophe Happillon referenced the above quote.  It turns out that it's from Jonathan Swift who was quite fond of the oyster.  He wrote this poem called "Oysters":

Charming oysters I cry:
My masters, come buy,
So plump and so fresh,
So sweet is their flesh,
No Colchester oyster
Is sweeter and moister:
Your stomach they settle,
And rouse up your mettle:
They'll make you a dad
Of a lass or a lad;
And madam your wife
They'll please to the life;
Be she barren, be she old,
Be she slut, or be she scold,
Eat my oysters, and lie near her,
She'll be fruitful, never fear her.

After the November 29 show, we posted Padma Lakshmi's recipe for Francesco Clemente's Amazing Hot Sauce.  A listener wrote us with this question:

"I love spicy food and often use chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.  I have never seen "Pickled" chipolte peppers in adobo sauce.  Are they the same thing as regular chipotle peppers in adobo sauce?  I can't imagine using 13oz of regular chipotle peppers in a chutney.  When I make chili I use 2 or 3 chilies (a 7oz can will have 5 or 6 chilies) and it heats up the whole batch.  If this is a different type of chipotle pepper, and where can I find it?" - John.

Wow.  That is a lot of peppers.  Perhaps Padma's Indian palate has inured her to the flames of hell that 13 oz. of chipotles in adobo provides the rest of us.  That doesn't explain her friend Clemente's ability to handle the heat though.  I would just cut the amount of peppers down to a level I can stand.

Here's one place that sells pickled chipotle peppers.

A Whopper

If a man wears cologne to boost his self confidence, what exactly will happen when he puts on Flame, Burger King's latest body spray?  That's right, I said Burger King, complete with burger scent.  The home of the Whopper boasts that Flame has "the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat."  As of yesterday, Ricky's in New York City was already sold out.  

If anyone knows where to buy it in Los Angeles, let us know.