I am exhausted!  Five days in a row at Bread & Roses and teaching every afternoon at the Culinary Training Program at St. Joseph Center makes for one tired monkey!  But it was a great week, I feel inspired and empowered.  Shit, I fed several hundred people a free meal this week!!!

It’s a big, big week for me.  I’m crazy busy with work, with life and in less than a week I will be IN FRANCE.  Yes, that’s right, I am finally going to the motherland of all gastronomic delights.  Visiting friends in Paris and Valence and planning on spending some extra time in Provence and along the Mediterranean, all over the Rhone and into Burgundy.  But more posts, photos, recipes and stories about Europe later, first I have to get through the week.

CAST IRON IS KING!

“If Teflon is nonstick, how do they get it to coat the pan?”  I first heard this silly joke in high school while watching a cooking demonstration as the speaker slid an omelet out of a pan.  I was impressed, not so much by the eggs but by the Teflon and its mysterious nonstick abilities.

I did this on a whim.  I didn’t feel like going outside to pick rosemary and looked around the kitchen to see if there was anything interesting to go with my potatoes.  Earlier in the week my neighbor Hina gave me a couple stems of curry leaves and I knew their smoky, Earthy aromatic quality would be a great match for the potatoes.

Which crab tasted better?  The yellow male or the red female?  I should have gotten two males or two females to make this a more balanced taste test.  Some fishmongers swear that female crabs have a sweeter flesh.  I’ve definitely found that to be the case when it comes to Blue Crabs from the Atlantic.  But with the Rock Crabs of Santa Barbara the opposite was true!  The red female had a more pungent briny flavor…a little bit of scallion on the finish.  The yellow male had way more sweetness and was the favorite of the day.  The male also had slightly larger claws with boatloads of meat inside.  I was surprised because the crew at Sea Fever Seafood said there wasn't any difference, yet these clearly were two different crabs.  Don't get me wrong, both of them were fantastic and very easy to clean.  I think one thing that made the female stronger flavored was the fact that she was full of roe which was wicked pungent but beautiful in its rusty color.

CRAB!

What a treat!  

For quite a while I’ve been eyeing the amazing seafood that the gang from SEA FEVER SEAFOOD has been bringing to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market on Sundays.  In addition to the crabs, they also have a few beautiful fish (almost always some gorgeous rock and ling cod), nice looking spiny lobsters and Pacific conch which are smaller and less flashier than the Caribbean variety.  This week the boat brought in some outstanding ridgeback shrimp that really tempted me but when I got a look at the crabs I knew what I was having for lunch!

I had to take a snap of these beauties at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market last week.  I love the way they are stacked up, a wall of root veg.  And all the colors—red can be so redundant.  Why is it that we always think radishes are red?

For Thanksgiving in 2009 (well, it was actually the day after Thanksgiving since I was catering on the big day) my wife and I had a few friends over for dinner.  The lovely Melanie (that’s my misses) took care of all the apps and the first thing she chose—and insisted on—was radishes with butter and sea salt.  It was like an obsession for her.

Hello amigos!

I am back again after a bit of a hiatus. I was on a journey, a journey that reminded me I really love to write and I really enjoy working on organicatoz.com my original site, blog and web series. A lot has happened since we launched this little rabbit and I haven’t been around to fill you in on my adventures. So before I start blogging about all things food, here’s a brief recap of my culinary exploits in the world of media!

The good people at the Discovery Channel asked me if I'd put ORGANIC A to Z on their PLANET GREEN website.  My answer?  HELL YES!

I'm really excited about this.  Planet Green rocks and I FINISH THE ALPHABET!  That's right, they gave me the kick in the ass I needed to complete this series.  We recycle content from the first several episodes but things get REALLY GOOD once we hit the letter K and they don't stop till we fly to Z. 

So click the link and get an extra helping of organic love at PLANET GREEN!

I first took note of Spring when I found Asparagus and Morel Mushrooms growing in my backyard! I was doing the dishes one day and looked out the window to see these poofy looking things all over the ground. I figured my dog, Midnight, had taken a crap and went outside to clean it up. But oh no, those were not turds but gorgeous morel mushrooms! I picked a handful, ran to a farmer’s market and got a positive ID on the fungus. Indeed, California Black Morels!