May 2008 Archives

Agretti, also known as Salsola Soda, or Opposite Leaved Saltwort, Roscano, or Barba Di Frate (friar's beard in Italian) has the interesting property of thriving when irrigated with salt water, though I am certain that the sample shown here from Star Route Farms in Marin County used POW (plain old water).

I tasted a piece before buying a bunch and can report that agretti is a bit tart (sour), quite crunchy and tends to have a mild salty taste even when watered with POW. Young enough, it can be used raw as a salad green, but more normally it is trimmed from the root, and then blanched for 10 minutes before being incorporated into salads or used as a side vegetable. Also, from personal experience, I can attest to the importance of trimming away all of the light green bottom stalk, as it is woody and tough. The dark green needles are the delectable part.

Here is a nutritional breakdown in Italian, here's a recipe for a Fritatta with Agretti, and here is a link to the Mariquita Farm's Agretti page which is full of links and recipes including this priceless observation:

.... It was really tasty (though the kids thought I made pine needle salad)!

It was inevitable. Someone was bound to accuse proponents of molecular gastronomy of poisoning their customers. And why not start at the top? Why not accuse Ferran Adria? Santi Santamaria, chef of the three-star Barcelona restaurant Can Fabes, made such a charge while receiving an award for his book La cocina al desnudo - The Kitchen Laid Bare - a critique of modern cooking practices. Read all about it in an article published Thursday in the Telegraph newspaper.

The charge is certainly sensational, and it will probably help sell copies of his book, but it doesn't appear to be entirely responsible. Santamaria is primarily complaining about E461 or methylcellulose. This is an interesting chemical that gels at high temperature and melts at low temperatures. This makes it possible to use in making hot ice cream. (Yummy). It is also used as a laxative when enough of it is ingested, but I'm not sure that makes it a health risk; especially as "like cellulose, it is not digestible, not toxic, and not allergenic." In fact, it appears to be a harmless, widely used food additive, and Sr. Santamaria appears to be blowing smoke.

It looks a bit like a small chef's hat, except that you can see through it—which makes it entirely inappropriate for hiding small chefs. I'm not certain where I first heard about the Superbag, but it may have been from my gourmet-obsessed friend Dave, who claims he makes sauces and stocks almost daily and who swears by his 1.3 liter 100 micron Superbag.

A Superbag is essentially a flexible chinois. You use it for straining, and if you get one with very fine 100-micron holes, you can use it for clarifying things such as consommés. Since it is flexible, you can squeeze it to wring out the moisture and flavor from whatever you are straining. They use them at El Bulli (see Chow.com link, below) to make almond milk, and there are reports on the web of using them to collect tomato water and other concentrated (and very clear) fruit juices.

I've used mine to clarify chicken stock, and to wring out all of the moisture from reconstitued porcini mushrooms when making mushroom stock. I think it's really neat, and like all really neat things, it causes me to think about interesting problems it might solve that I didn't even know I had.

There isn't much on the web about the Superbag, but I've collected what I could find in the links below, including a link to Le Sanctuaire in San Franciso, where they will be happy to sell you a Superbag of your own.

Chow.com story on strainers including the Superbag
Blog entry on the Superbag by Chef Shola Olunloyo of Studiokitchen in Philadelphia
eGullet Superbag thread
Buy your own Superbag at Le Sanctuaire

Other Sweet and Sour Spectator Kitchen Blogging Entries: New Toy (#1)

Michael Bauer (food critic for the San Francisco Chronicle) posted a list on his blog of ten places to dine in the Bay Area that would showcase current food trends. You can click on the link to see the places El Michael picked. It's not a bad list, but it is a bit conservative, and it illustrates some things that aren't really food related, for example Foreign Cinema is listed as "highlight[ing] a location that is fast become a testing ground for cutting edge concepts." Since list-making is fun, and seems to be genetically wired into humans, I've come up with my own list of places and trends:

Coi: the next step beyond the Chez Panisse straight jacket, Coi uses and showcases top quality local ingredients, but adds that extra touch - cooking with technique. Coi is the only Bay Area restaurant I know of that offers only a tasting menu. The food incorporates some modern molecular techniques, but never to the detriment of gustatory pleasure. Let's call it 'mainstream' molecular cooking.

"Fish." Take a close look, that isn't a sentence fragment, it is the name of one of the two best places to eat in Sausalito. Besides the desserts, one salad, a pun, and two dishes pandering to fishaphobes (ichthyophobes?), all you can get at this place is fish. Period.

Set out on a pier overlooking the marina, Fish. is a casual, California kind of place. Except for the Marin County prices, and the lack of surfer dudes, it reminds me of a Southern California fish shack. There are picnic tables to sit at outside, and inside you get the same thing: picnic tables. However, unless it is raining or colder than San Francisco in the summer, you'll want to sit outside and enjoy the California sun and the view of the marina and its inhabitants. (Watch out for the hungry and highly-practiced seagulls though).

The menu is casual, sporting items like clam chowder (both red and white) shucked oysters, and a grilled fish sandwich; but it is also creative. You can also get "The Fish. Parfait" which is a parfait glass layered with Dungeness crab, salsa, tomatillo, lime crema, and cocktail sauce.

I bought this seven years ago. It has been waiting patiently in the celler getting better and better and now...

1997 Ridge Lytton Springs - USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley (4/30/2008)
From a 375ml bottle. Deep brick red color with some lightening at the rim. Clean expressive nose of plums and spice. Palate shows beautiful smooth fruit, acid, and integrated tannins with everything in perfect harmonious balance. A beautiful mouthful of wine at absolute peak right now. This is the kind of wine that makes everything all right with the world. The best Ridge Zins have a restrained elegance that reminds you of a four-star hotel... just like top quality aged Bordeaux. Excellent. (93 pts.)

Recently, I had the chance to try two legendary California chardonnays side-by-side. One is legendary because it is highly rated, expensive, well-made, and hard to acquire. The other is legendary because the winery that made it has been making wine from it's now very old vines (the oldest pinot noir and chardonnay vineyard in the U.S.) the same way for more than fifty years.

• 1998 Hanzell Chardonnay - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley (4/29/2008)
  Dark gold color, crystal clear and gem-like. Flinty nose of ripe fruit and minerals. Medium body with layers of flavors including baked bread, and citrus, with honey on the finish. Clearly new world, but made in a very refined style. Beautiful fresh wine with elegance and complexity. (94 pts.)
• 1998 Marcassin Chardonnay Marcassin Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (4/29/2008)
  Deep golden color, slightly cloudy indicating no filtration. Fairly reserved nose of ripe fruit and vanilla. Medium-full body, big full tropical and lime flavors with just noticeable oak. Good finish, but ultimately lacking finesse and complexity. (92 pts.)