Crushed Pakistani Mulberries
A Sea of Strawberry Lemon Sugar Scones + Share Our Strength
I live boldly in ritual. For me, it’s drinking morning coffee, getting outside, cooking with friends, exercise. It’s playing a record, baking a favorite banana bread recipe, hearing a special song on repeat, or taking in the salty air at an oceans coastline while proceeding with an impulse instagram shot of my cute running shoes on the sand, obviously right? You get where I’m going with this :) We can rely on these minutes and activities to find strength, to get us through the weird and uncertain. Not just routine, rituals reinforce our life and what matters to us most. They define our sense of self, the feelings we find having for others, and they bind our connection to the world. Our surroundings. They define values.
This Saturday, my plans are to start a new ritual actually, in hopes of it becoming an annual one, I will be in the company of some fantastic bakers and food bloggers from the San Diego area as we participate in the Share Our Strength Bake Sale at Great News Cookware and Cooking School in Pacific Beach.
And lucky are we the ones with an opportunity to support the fight against the childhood hunger epidemic. The San Diego Food Bloggers Bake Sale is hoping to raise atleast $2,500 to help give some hope to the lives of children who have faced this sad struggle. And we can’t do it without the help of our family, friends, and community.
In the meantime, take a peek at the official website for the San Diego Branch of the Food Bloggers Bake Sale. There you will find a menu of the items we are selling and also some of the lovely people behind the event. I want to give a quick thanks to Marie—of Meandering Eats for your coordinating work. You’ve been so great :) And to Kelsey and Shaun —of Happyolks for the strawberry scone inspiration :)
So, crazy cool people of San Diego, come over and say hey, see our smiles, and pick up tasty things! Join me in a new ritual, and make a difference this weekend. Hope to see you :)
I’ll be there with these strawberry lemon sugar scones. First come, first serve.
Crispy Horseradish Gnocchi : Stewed Black Grapes. Scarlet Turnip Shavings. Goat Gouda Cheese and Greens
It’s just another day around these parts lately. Low moods, transition, awkward mind, an accumulation of nameless energies really. My attempts with most things around me seem a little lost at the moment, so it’s just different coming to this space carrying on like everything is great, when they just don’t feel to be some days.
But that’s the way it will be in life, and that is okay. We transition. We accept, we grow, we heal, and we learn us. And the delicate, complicated minds we’ve yet to keep up with. To understand.
And on we go. But in the meantime, cheers to a little something, welcome spring! Isn’t it beautiful out there? I’m living for it.
Here, I’ve returned with something fun and I think equally as bright as spring, these gnocchi. They have this delicate interplay of horseradish added to their dough, and this stellar second cooking method they’ve been granted. You guessed it, we fry them. Why not. It happens to be the ethereal treat I’ve been after, finally executing crispy gnocchi, I can cross it off my unofficial list that spends its time floating off along the brain somewhere, sweet really, and weird.
So, more about this recipe. The other night I spent some time finding the good in gnocchi, I came across this recipe here. It called for Yukon Gold potatoes over the standard Idaho Russets, no eggs, just some olive oil, and it was carried by two flours, “00″ and cake flours. I thought wow, interesting, sounds perfect. Well, the entire experience was that, and the consistency even more so. I believe the addition of cake flour helped to decrease the chances of having the gnocchi turn out like chewy rubber thumb things. And instead, give a much lighter, more delicate mouthfeel.
These gnocchi are light, fluffy, and perfectly crisp, encased in a very exciting potato-ey crunch when fried. This dish is studded with a few slightly stewed black grapes for a favorite contrast of mine (think sweet and tangy ketchup with salty french fries), then they were dressed up with seasoned greens and spiky red scarlet turnip thinnings, each bite garnished with grated horseradish and goat gouda cheese. Throughout the shoot, I would make perfect sneak bites, with each forkful consisting of one crispy horseradish potato pocket against one deflated little grape—and its sweet juices, some greens, and a lacing of the buttery goat cheese. That is all.
It was a good day. Hope everyone has a beautiful and grateful Easter weekend.
ps. I recommend saving a few crispy gnocchi to enjoy with the regular ketchup routine. They were delicious that way.
Octopus Salad : Roasted Tomato. Potato. Red Onion. Celery. Garlic. Sea Salt Capers. Lemon. Chili Oil
Just a week ago at around 11:30 on a Wednesday night, I started thinking about Octopus. My idea for my next post and recipe was so engrossing, and the urge to set out for some cute little suction cups was setting in with a power. So the next day I made it happen. I found myself in 66 degree weather, my mood was electric, with good reason don’t you think? :) And this day was just beginning to be a special one, this air was just breathtaking. I really do cherish it most when it’s super refreshing like that.
So as this beautiful start to my day was picking up, there was no way I was making the mission happen in a quick subway ride away. No. I made sure I enjoyed this feeling in a pleasant stroll worth a long and solid ten avenues. And I arrived at a very special market here in NYC. The Lobster Place.
This company not only supplies some the greatest quality seafood at wholesale to best name restaurants in nyc, but it also holds a very busy retail store inside The Chelsea Market. It’s not just about their lobster here, they offer the widest selection of fish, prepared sushi, chowders, and specialty frozen products that I have seen in a New York seafood market and it’s also one of the few places that sells sushi grade fish in the city. Super plus plus. Talk about absolute godsend.
So here we are. Octopus, the cutest little legs ever!
My most favorite way to enjoy them is in some form of a salad. Here, I slowly cooked the baby octopus in seasoned simmering water for about an hour until tender, let them cool in their own liquid, sliced, and then tossed these little tentacles in a salad with savory and spicy pieces of red onion, baby potatoes, celery, sea salt capers, and roasted cherry tomatoes. It was carried by a combination of good olive and chili oils, crunchy garlic pieces, chopped parsley, and lemon juice. The octopus was perfectly tender and it’s accompaniments were divine. I wanted it to scream from the East.
It did. Straight up Mediterranean.
Hope everyone has just been fabulous lately of course..
Cheers. sb
-Recipe will be up shortly.
Juicing
Two different gluten-free muffins made from two simple and energizing juice recipes:
Carrot, Mandarin, Lemon Juice — Carrot Mandarin Chia Seed Muffins
Celery, Green Apple, Parsley, Lemon Juice — Apple Celery Cinnamon Muffins
