I've Bean the One

There are worse thing to do than eat at home, you know, even meatlessly eat at home. Yes, the margarita doesn't hurt (and lately we've taken, instead of going for a full salty rim, to giving the actual cocktail a light pinch of smoked sea salt). And in this case I was even luckier as my sweet partner whipped all this together--all I had to do was shake the cocktail shaker.

That said, the star on the plate are the beans, as they aren't just any beans, they're cooked from scratch and come from Rancho Gordo. If you don't know RG you should, and while the ones in the photo came from the Ferry Building in San Francisco, we now have the good fortune to be able to buy them right here in Santa Barbara at Lazy Acres. So do so, so they keep ordering and a happy feedback loop of good consumerism happens.

Rancho Gordo was created by Steve Sando, and those who had the good fortune to attend the Edible Institute back in January might remember his great presentation, as basically he's a complete character, larger than life and full of dry asides. At one point he decided to change his life and grow tomatoes to sell at the farmers' market in Napa, only to realize everyone grows tomatoes and he wasn't the best at it, and then you can't grow tomatoes for a big part of the year. That got him to try beans, as he discovered they had heirloom varieties just like the tomatoes. It wasn't necessarily going well till one day a famous chef ambled by and made a purchase. That chef--Thomas Keller. Soon, everyone wanted the beans the French Laundry wanted. And Rancho Gordo took off.

As I said, they're heirloom beans, and there really is a difference from type to type, from color to consistency to taste. The ones above, a bit obscured by cheese (yum), are Ojo de Cabra or Goat's Eye, a lovely beige-tan with a dark curl through it.

They cook to a spot where the skins are still firm but the inside is soft, but even better, they create a broth all their own (well, the mirepoix didn't hurt, but still). They end up tasting like they're cooked in some porky product without ever going near bacon. It's about as rich and fulfilling as you could care for a meal to be. When in doubt, a big salad alongside doesn't hurt--all that green balancing the dark. Plus you need someplace to put the avocado that should be part of pretty much every meal. For if you're going to celebrate New World beans--and Rancho Gordo is party central for such a celebration--you need to go for it.

Word Soup

As you might know, April is National Poetry Month, so I figured before the month was up, why not* drag out an old poem of mine about food?

RESHELTER
My world is nailed into its genuflections--
ah ginger root, ah psalm, ample indigents all.
Outside the sky is cobalt and heaving,
a baby nattering its bib, bleary
like eyes propped open with onions.
So I turn my kitchen into church,
my scraps into oddments, a bloodless coup.
King of nothing more enormous than home,
and yes, alone, but what of it when garlic
sidles across the skillet and the air fills
with sleeves of scents to hold me in.


*If you figure out why not, please be polite enough to keep it to yourself. Thank you.

I Will Raise Him Up

I suppose it's too late to ask, in so many ways, but am I doomed to hell for celebrating Easter with what sounded to me like the perfect libation, a Corpse Reviver #2?

Foraging for Borage

Ok, that title is pretty much a lie, as the forage in our case means go out into the backyard and grab some, but that's just part of what makes this new cocktail creation from last evening a spring is sprung delight. Borage can either be good for you or bad for you (anti-inflammatory and good for PMS or bad for your liver, but you're drinking anyway, so moderation, my friend!) depending on who you believe or what part you eat (flowers ok, leaves not so much). The blooms certainly are a beautiful addition to a drink, and even add a bit of a cucumber taste (Pimms once was made partially from borage flower).

If you're worried that maybe some bugs came in on the blooms and that's what's afloat in the glasses in the photo, you shouldn't, for that's some mint, also fresh-cut from the backyard too. And then that's a lithe little lemon twist for both essential oil zippiness and yet more color. Not to mention you might be lucky and have lemons in your yard, too, or hanging over a neighbor's fence or something.

Let me introduce to you, then, the All the Rage Cocktail:

2 oz. citrus vodka
1 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 oz. Citronge/Cointreau
the leaves from a healthy stem of mint
lemon twist
2 borage flowers

In a cocktail shaker rip up the mint leaves and add 1 oz. of the vodka. Muddle thoroughly to get the mint to express some of its oils. Add the rest of the vodka, the lemon juice, and the Citronge. Add ice and shake vigorously. Pour into an up cocktail glass. Add the lemon twist and float the 2 borage flowers.

French-Mex and More Wheels into Town

Turns out that a business plan built around gourmet pizza, no matter how good the pizza, isn’t the soundest of ideas when the economy tanks (see economy, recent).

That’s what Liz Bradley found out with her Olive Street Pizzas, lusciously seated on a buttery pâté brisée pastry. After seven years in business selling through Williams-Sonoma, Costco, and Bristol Farms, “We just got spanked by the economy,” Bradley admitted. So she knew she needed to reinvent her company, and that led her to think, “We’re all trend-conscious to some extent, so the food truck, a trend for the last three or four years, seemed to be a good way to go. L.A. invented it, and I’m importing it to Santa Barbara.”

Want to read the rest, then go read it at the Indy's site.

Thought for Food

Sometimes things just sneak up on you even when you hope to have an ear to the ground (perhaps it's because they are silent, and then your eyes are so slow, it's hard to see too far into the future). But there's a lecture coming up for free at UC Santa Barbara that's probably worth checking out if you're into the big picture food issues like "where the heck are we going to buy our food?"

Dorceta Taylor, Associate Professor in the School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, will give the talk "Vacant Land and No Supermarkets in the Inner City: Food Insecurity and New Initiatives for Sustainability" on Wednesday April 20 at 12 noon in the UCSB MultiCultural Center Theater. According to the press info from the Department of Black Studies that's sponsoring the event, "This talk will demonstrate how the growing problems of abandoned housing, vacant land, and deinstutionalization (including the flight of grocery stores) are affecting black neighborhoods. Dr. Taylor will detail the impacts of such processes on the life of cities, the ways cities are trying to cope, and the way that a research agenda can be built around such topics.

"Professor Taylor’s research interests include green jobs and other environmental labor market dynamics; social movement analysis; environmental justice; leisure and natural resource use; urban and rural poverty; and race, gender and ethnic relations. Her current research includes an assessment of the green job sector. Other recent research activities have included four national studies of racial and gender diversity in the environmental field. Her book The Environment and the People in American Cities, 1600s-1900s (2009) won the Outstanding Publication Award from the Environment and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association."

Cruel to Be Kind

As much as we'd all like to deny it, at least to the folks to our south, we're part of the "greater Los Angeles area" (when you put it that way it does make sense--we're the greater). That means, if nothing else, that TV doesn't mind stretching its cably-tentacles in our direction, to grab at any of us willing to be part of reality TV. We can argue at another time if someday we will all have our own reality TV show, and by watching the show we will then know what we're doing in our lives.

To cut to the current food chase, we now have our opportunity to sic Gordon Ramsey of Kitchen Nightmares on a restaurant of our choice. Here's how his casting company puts it or you can go directly to their website:

Has your favorite restaurant gone bad? Have you tried a new eatery only to discover it doesn't cut the mustard? If so, we need your nomination! FOX's hit show, Kitchen Nightmares is currently searching for new restaurants to be featured in the upcoming season. If you know of a restaurant that desperately needs expert guidance, we want to know about it! Send us the restaurant's name, location and a brief description why you think Gordon Ramsay should take over. e-mail us at KitchenNightmares2011@yahoo.com or call the hotline with restaurant info at 1-866-226-2226

That's right--there's a toll free number to bring in Gordon Ramsey. We live in a magical world. And if there are masochistic entrepreneurs who feel they need to bring in the Ramsey Kitchen Cavalry upon themselves, they can self nominate, for a cry for help is the first sign you want to be (in)famous on television, just ask Dr. Drew.