A little bit of Persia in an Italian restaurant......

One of the best parts of starting a small Jam Biz is the amazing support from my friends. One of which has so generously opened her restaurant kitchen to me and my crazy vision of simple seasonal and local fare ......Kitchen space can be one of the biggest expenses for a young small food product company and this gift of kitchen time paid in jars of jam,my fresh chevre and lots of hugs is a gift I'm not sure I could fully repay....
Well in this kitchen I have the foods of the world at my finger tips. A Turkish Bar tender(Zafir) who gave me the recipe for Turkish meat balls and yogurt. Or the adorable server Flower from Egypt but grew up in Brazil who makes the meanest Hummus around. The Italian bus boy who eats but is useless otherwise. Jalisco, Micheuacan, Sonora, Mexico City is all represented in the kitchen and staff lunch represents from Caldos to blk Chili Pollo stew. ohhh and Ruchi  the book keeper from India with all her colorful vegetarian recipes from her Mothers book of kitchen tricks....Sigh I'm in heaven.
Ohh back to why I'm writing this diddy. The owners are an amazing Mediterranean mix of Italian and Iranian. Hmmmm love it. I posted this picture of my baby grape cluster up here on the Ghetto Vineyard and Carolyn let me know there is a phenomenal Persian Stew that uses un ripened grapes. REALLY.......off I went to pour over the web, books and picked the Persians brain and after a few trials n errors here is a classic KORESHT-E BADENJAN egg plant stew with un ripe grapes. I tweaked the various recipes and came up with this gem...hope you enjoy.
KHORESHT-E BADENJAN
Egg Plant Stew
5T cold press Kalamata olive oil
3lbs any egg plant ,I'm digging the Asian white little bombs. Slice in strips and salt both sides to leach
1 large yellow onion diced not too small you want the texture.
12 oz of loin, leg or Butt(shoulder) of Lamb. Cube.
1t. Ground turmeric, fenegreek,mustard seed and fresh coriander

2T tomato paste
2 ripe in season tomatoes seeded and diced
3 C of veggie stock(of course home made)
1/2 C un ripe grapes( no one will say if a particular varietal is in order say Shiraz?origin would be correct)
Zest and juice of one lemon.
Sea salt n white pepper to taste
Ok let's go...
Sweat the onions with half the olive oil and herbs . Put aside.
Brown the lamb.
Pat the salted egg plant to remove the excess moisture and brown in the pan the onions were sweated to pick up the rich pan flavours left behind from the onion spice blend.
Now pull out your big soup pot reserved for this very chore and toss everyone in the pool. Remove the baby grapes from the stems and no need to worry about pips the young grape should not have the pip at this stage.
Simmer till all the flavours have meshed and the lamb is cooked through.
Savory, sour and filling. A dollop of cultured cream(sour cream,creme fraiche , yogurt etc...) A zest of lemon, Batsmati rice with a pinch of Saffron and a pile of warm Naan bread. Voila a little Persia in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountain wine region.

Thank you Carolyn and Jalil for having faith and love for me and my little Jam co.  I couldn't do this with out your support and kitchen time.

Thank you Beto, Ricky,Jose, Manny, Isreal, and the rest of you boys in the kitchen who have made me feel like family and sharing your recipes, stories and camaraderie. I so love my Tuesdays with all of you.
Big respect for my kitchen family you work so hard for beauty with so little recognition.

Next time you have a rocking meal out ....try to give a tip to the kitchen . It will mean the world to them that you realize the hard thankless work happening behind the scenes.

party on......




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Mother Nature trained in La Honda with a belly full of LSD

Two jars of my Lavender Plum jelly(recipe to come) so amazing to stand back and look into Mother Natures eyes. Just like children, every plum brings something a little different to the outdoor table. Two different trees same yard same varietal. Two vastly different colours. I get dark in the summer my sister is fair. Same parents different circumstances. Same but different. Shit I love this......Summer is here......
Now off to the Bacon Takedown at the Thirsty Bear in SF. Gotta get my judge tounge some rest......why yes a Bourbon will do the job...ADIEU
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Who said I can't have chicks in the house?

Salt N Peppa hanging on the Horse head thinking about the corn cobb jungle gym snack fest I'm gonna give them tonight(left over cobbs from the fourth, we won't tell S n P about the spring chicken we ate ssshhhh). Yes I have chickens in the house. They can hang til pin feathers then BOOT to the COOP.
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Hail to the Tannins......

 

My baby English Black walnuts growing away. Between me laying in my hammock below while La Quita my near tame PREGNANT Squirrel(she's a floosey I can't control) loads up on these tender green morsels.
My grand plan this season is one with two countries in mind.....To Make batches of Nocino and jars of Pickled walnuts. A little bit country a little bit Roman. So here I patiently wait for another week or two while the tannin filled green cocoons are still intact.
I'll get back when the time is right, I just wanted to whet your appetite for what's to come. A little Liqueur to go with a Charcuterie Terrine studded with this English delight. Behold the tannins and rope them into submission I say!
Ok enough procrastination my Dragons Lace seedlings are glaring at me, time to plant .....good day from the GHETTO VINEYARD in the SKY

OK I'm back and have alot to report...so hang tight and learn a little bout this hard nut to crack the WALNUT. Now as you know there is history lesson we need to cover before we get in the nut and pickle her.

In the early 1800's Spanish Franciscan monks established missions along the California coast. Part of their taming of the natives included the cultivation of food, plants, trees and fermentation(wine baby wine)  in the areas surrounding the missions. One area that eventually became the city of Walnut, California, was home to the San Gabriel Mission named for the Gabrielino Indians, originally of Shoshone origin. Many acres of walnut trees, originally brought from Spain, were planted here and became known as "mission walnuts." These first walnut trees produced small nuts with very hard shells. Good to have a mighty farm truck to run them over to get at the meat...just sayin.
During the first half of the 1800's, land grants of several acres were issued, and ranchos were established. Walnut groves became well established on these land grants by the1870's in Southern California near Santa Barbara.
In 1867 Joseph Sexton, a horticulturist, initiated California's first commercial walnut enterprise when he planted a grove of English walnuts in Goleta, a small town in Santa Barbara County. Within a few years, 65% of all fertile land in this region was planted with Sexton's English walnuts.
In spite of this early success, by the late 1930's the commercial walnut business was destined to move northward to Stockton, California, where improved irrigation, better pest control, ideal climate, and rich soil were more conducive to larger yields.
Today, the California walnut has found its ideal home in the center of the state, an area that produces 99% of the commercial United States walnut supply which is odd to me, I grew up in Fresno a nary a walnut tree did I spy.. On the global market, California produces two-thirds of the world's supply of walnuts. Other countries that grow commercial walnuts include Turkey, China, Russia, Greece, Italy and France.
Though the first walnuts to arrive in the United States came from Spain in the early 1800's, the French contributed many of their varieties during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Ofcourse the French wanted a piece of the action.

La Quita spying on us while we picked the green nuts....she was chattering away about my cat Oscar Wilde having a mad crush on my surley Old English Speckled Hen Aunt Sponge..humph who'd a thunk. K back to history of das Nut.
So anyhoo let's back up a touch and get a bit of sense of how this baby has all sorts of cultures claiming the walnut as thier own. The walnut has a very hard shell and lasts for several months without much thought or care making it a perfect travel snack for the Neolithic traveler(not the Irish type in a caravan)thus showing up in the Himalayas, Persia(claims origin) Turkey, Shanidar caves of Iran and was also found in an ancient shit pile in Switzerland. Alrighty then. The Greeks clain first to cultivate but failed . Small nuts with small oil yeild.Persians did much better. Same period in Perigord France petrified Roasted shells have been unearthed. Traveling nut she was.....
Point being this mighty one was all over in a very short peiod of time and was highly regarded...Persian Walnut were only consumed by the royal family and in 2,000BCE tablets were discovered with great details of the Mesopotamian (Iran)Gardens of Babalons large walnut groves....
ok enough I'm bored too.

From Baklava to Nocino there is a plethora of varied cuisines that feature the walnut. I'm going to my roots for this easy recipe to pickle the young nuts. But before we gotta fight the mighty tannins

So there it is through the eyes of a chemist.

Tannins are a large astringent (meaning it tightens pores and draws out liquid)with proteins.

When you apply ( cant get this sentance to jive sorry)

tannins  to your skin you can instantly see the skin contract. Put them in your mouth and your cheeks pucker. Medicinally, tannins are used to draw irritants out of your skin such as the venom from bee stings or poison oak. Next time you get stung, pull some fresh bark off the twig of a nearby tree, chew it up and apply it to the sting. The irritation will go away within seconds. Tannins are also applied to burns to help the healing and to cuts to reduce bleeding.

Another every day interaction with tannin is in tea (from the tea plant....not herb teas). The tradition of adding milk to tea has the added benefit of causing the tannins to bind to the proteins in the milk rather than to the proteins in your liver and kidneys. When you drink tea without milk, you are literally tanning your insides.

Tannins occur in nearly every plant from all over the world, in all climates. It is found in almost any part of the plant, from root to leaves, bark to unripe fruit (ever bitten into an unripe persimmon?). Algae, fungi and mosses do not contain much tannin. Many plants don't contain a useful amount of tannin.Most trees contain plenty of tannin. It is concentrated in the bark layer where it forms a barrier against microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria (when hides are stuck into tannin baths the bacteria are also killed).

PICKLED WALNUTS WITH ALOT OF INTERPRETATION

Pick the walnuts whilst they are still green and the outer shell is still soft. Most recipes say that June is about the best time to pick them yet this slow to start season has my trees a little behind the nut. We picked the first day of July and there was alot less nuts than I had expected Mother Nature will do as she very well pleases.... The soft shelled walnuts are then soaked in a BRINE (salt water)  salty enough to float an egg and change brine with fresh every five days for up to 12 days. The walnuts are then drained and left to dry in the air(top of my hot tub is a great place but the squirrels just think Ive left scooby snacks so I keep the nuts in a chicken wire basket with a mesh lid to keep the snackers out. . The fluid(tannic acid) in the walnuts causes a chemical reaction to take place and the walnuts turn dark brown to black in colour. The now black walnuts are then placed into jars and a PICKLING solution poured over them. This can vary from a straight forward pickling VINEGAR to a solution containing spices and sugar. The walnuts are sealed and then left in the jars for anywhere between 5 days and 8 weeks depending on which recipe is followed.

Vague I know......6% white vinegar is best and traditionally clove,  ginger,cinnamon, are the classic. I use pink peppercorn, one star anise,one stick of cinnamon, a few pods of cardomon and a bay leaf . The ammounts is up to your taste and  understanding of each spice. Clove or Anise tread lightly yet cinnamon likes to party. Fresh ginger vs dried will bring different atributes as well. For a batch with 10- 8oz jars filled with nuts .......vinegar to fill, 1 star anise, 1 stick of cinnamon, pinch of cardomon, pinch of pink peppercorn and a bay leaf last  3T. sugar. Heat this party up to get the flavours rollin and bring to a boil then fill jars. Seal and put them up.....

Wait ohh wait you will. By Thanksgiving the pickles should be begging off the shelf for a soire'e of cured meats, cheeses and all things fall...nmeat pies, terrines and Bourbon.

Thats my story and I'm stickin to it....

Now the 40 yes 40 gallons of five types of plumb juice needs to surrendered into my plumb lavendar jelly, Persian compote,butter and ice cream(reward for boy racer and all his help). The beauty of living in the most wasteful of societies is there is tons of fruit who have lived out thier life looking pretty on a tree in a suburban hood just waiting for me to glean.

 

PERU is in the Hizzouse

This little one is at 26 days

Cyclanthera pedata "Caigua"(Kai-wa)
My beyond wonderful brother in law hails from the ancient place and I've taken on a keen interest in it's cuisine.

This little girl I got from Annies Annuals and well had no clue what to expect other than it is a vine and the fruit looks like a pepper but is called a cucumber.

Soooo came from the Andes and also be found in the Easten Hem. The mighty Peruvian MOCHE culture were facinated with agriculture and represented this in their art. Thank goodness cause I love me my potatoes n Corn...Thank you Peru

The immature fruits can be pickled or eaten raw. They look like a young green pepper and hollow with black pips. But as I read it looks to me as though it was best received as stuffed and fried . Meats rice herbs cacao . Lke Relleno but not.

The shoots n green were cooked like spinach and with a huge boost of vit. C. Minerals,thiamine, antilipemic(fights LDL Cholesterol) No rickets for this culture....

So Peru is the major grower of this amazing find and I'm hoping my soil and climate will receive this girl well. I'm so looking forward to and evening with friends and family and a meal to represent the collection of cultures I'm sure to have at my table.

Crap I know Dragons Lace beans I know...I'm going. Just crazy inspired today.
Mama loves you now bring her a Bourbon.....


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The rough side of Silk

Yesterday was one hell of a storm and the lady birds got the ass end of the wet cold windy LATE MAY storm. Oprah my little black Silkie gives me the best eggs rain or shine this funny chicken never lets me down....So sitting here at home pulling a Yoko Ono and sat in bed all day pouring over my old cookbooks looking for my next kitchen adventure I realized people (in general) dont know how to cook a perfect egg. During my kitchen tenure when a young hopeful wanted a stint working with us, I'd give a test, a seemingly simple test. Make me eggs three ways. I would let the poor victim choose his methods but they had to be perfect. Easy? Hell no. To correctly, scramble, baste, fry,caudle or omlette is not the simple task it seems. The simple things can be the hardest.
    I consulted James Beard, Simca(Julias' Co author)The California Egg advisory, South Dakota Rotary cook book, Girl Scouts cook book, Joy, Mrs. Beeton's Book of cookery circa.1884 on and on a list of a thousand ways to get that egg done right. Do you add water to a egg to be scrambled or milk or cream do you add the salt after it is cooked or before ,it is said to bring toughness to eggs before cooking? arrghghghgh.
    ok. Kid gloves is the first rule. Gentle with this delicate orb of protein. High heat is going to be your enemy every time. Low flame, double burner and patience is the theme. Eggs solidify very fast and if the heat is not just right a curdled hot mess is sure to follow. OHHH and Mrs. Beeton (1884) recomends when choosing your egg , "apply your tounge to the large end of the egg,and,if it feels warm,it may be relied on as fresh."Well there you have it. AND in the winter months when the girls are not laying Mrs. B says I shoud slather my (not MINE but the chickens)eggs in lard and store in sawdust not touching each other in a dry dark place like the larder.Good god I've been doing it all wrong.
JOY OF COOKING 1943 IRMA ROMBAUR
SCRAMBLED EGGS
Melt in iron skillet over LOW heat 1T sweet cream butter browned
Beat and pour into the warm slillet  3 eggs and 3T top cream
When eggs begin to thicken ,break up eggs with a fork into sheds.When they are thick and custardy searve over buttered toast and sprinkle a pinch of salt.

There you have it. Now go practice its not so easy to get the feel for perfect custardy scrambled egg to a dry crusty rubber mess.

Simple, Seasonal and Local will always trump silly,over thought and out of season every time.
Get out of bed and practice the seemingly simple art of the egg. go on ...... 

A moment in time

ROUND ROUND THE WHEEL GOES

Lazy day at the Ghetto Vineyard. Found a great way to repurpose the rings from old cooperage. ahhh the sweet smell of recycle. Enjoy your Saturday perhaps fire up that fondue pot and pop a nice Kabinet. Besos
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