As they say, you eat with your eyes first, so this year, I’m going for the pink! No, not to worry, I’m not caving and adding any of the powder. Yes, it’s touted as a necessity by most of the meat-curing world for its properties of bacteria control, specifically botulism, but you can achieve the same effect without the synthetics.

To get my 2012 pink on, I’m opting for adding natural nitrates via celery seed/powder and sea salt. This is the technical end-around used by producers of “no nitrates added” cured meats. Technically, no, they are not adding nitrate itself, but natural ingredients that will break down into nitrates. You’ll find a lot of debate in the food world about whether this is cheating or not, talk amongst yourselves. I fall on the side of less is more, as in less Pepto-Bismol-pink-synthetically-produced-powder and more celery powder.

That said, I am an unapologetic fan of sandwiches, especially the delish deli-ish variety, so no, I don’t adhere to my mania when I’m eating out. Hypocritical? Probably, but I love me my bacon, sausages, and deli meats, so I confine my obsession to what I purchase for my own consumption at home (Applegate Farms’ products, for example )… and when I’m making homemade corned beef.

So why bother with any sort of distinction? Mainly because of what’s been in the news about nitrates lately. Call me paranoid, but the words “carcinogen,” cellular degeneration,” “Parkinson’s,” “diabetes,” colon cancer,” and Alzheimer’s” get my attention. Again, as with most such issues, you can find an argument to defend any side of this. In fact, throughout your lifetime, you’re probably going to consume more nitrates from leafy green vegetables than from hot dogs, and sodium nitrate itself is a naturally occurring compound element. However, consider this little gem from Wikipedia … “Sodium nitrate may be used as a constituent of fertilizers, pyrotechnics and smoke bombs, glass and pottery enamels, as a food preservative and a solid rocket propellant. It has been mined extensively for these purposes.”

I’m going with celery powder.

But, of course, there’s a catch. Turns out that celery powder and sea salt need some lactic acid to get their nitrate mojo on. So unless I buy “lactic acid starter culture,” I’ve got to find naturally occurring sources of lactic acid … such as sour milk, such as yoghurt. Now, now, I can see your grimace from here. Let’s remember that sour milk products are the yummy love behind sourdough bread and cheese.

So, yes, let the 2012 Pink Corned Beef Experience begin, yoghurt, celery powder and all! If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, I’m heading to one of my favorite delis on St. Patty’s Day for a piled high corned beef sandwich.

Homecured Corned Beef

This is more or less the recipe I’ve used in the past, although I like to kick up the spices a bit more, adding more garlic and even hot pepper flakes. For this year’s experiment, I’m using 3/4 cup kosher salt and 1/4 cup Fleur de Sel sea salt, and also adding 1 Tablespoon of ground celery powder and 2 Tablespoons plain yoghurt.*

1 beef brisket, approximately 3-4 pounds
2 quarts hot water
1 cup kosher salt*
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 bay leaves
2-3 teaspoons black peppercorns
2 peeled garlic cloves, mashed
1 Tablespoon pickling spice
1-2 Tablespoons white or apple cider vinegar (optional)

Trim beef of extra fat, then wash and dry, and rub with 3 to 4 tablespoons salt.
Dissolve remainder of salt in hot water.
Stir in spices and vinegar.*
Place beef in enameled or glass pot or stone crock (be SURE not to use a reactive metal one) and pour the salted water over it.
Weigh down meat with plate or other heavy object so that the meat is completely covered by the brine.
Cover pot and refrigerate for about three weeks, turning the meat once or twice a week.
When ready to cook, discard marinade, wash meat well to remove the brine and prepare according to your favorite corned beef recipe.

Poutine at Relish Gastropub in downtown Vancouver

I’m just recently back from a first-time ever visit to Vancouver, and must say that the city and citizenry deserve high marks. A lot of tasty treats to be had, and thankfully downtown and nearby areas are very pedestrian-friendly as well so we could walk off all (well, some of) the yummy calories.

Particularly memorable dishes ran the gamut from Chinese, to Moroccan, to locally sourced fare, and we’ll get to those in a minute, but first let’s talk poutine. I’d only vaguely heard about this dish, and thought it was pretty well confined to its native Montreal, but evidently it’s spread across Canada faster than a puck off Cody Hodgson’s slap shot. (Yes, he’s a Canuck – I was in Vancouver, so all you Leafs and Flames fans just settle down.)

Supposedly, poutine originated in Quebec, the earliest claim dating back to 1957 at a restaurant named “Lutin Qui Rit,” which I believe translates to “Laughing Mischievous Sprite.” According to a website about all things poutine (www.montrealpoutine.com), a take-out customer at the restaurant requested French fries and cheese in a bag, to which the restaurateur responded, “Ça va faire une maudite poutine,” or “That’s going to make a damn mess.”

Indeed, poutine is a bit of a mess. Essentially, it’s typically a bed of French fries that’s sprinkled with cheese curds (which should squeak a bit when you bite them, if they’re fresh) then topped with gravy. The fries and gravy should make the cheese melt into a mass of gooeyness. As I’m not even a fan of the chili-cheese fries we have here in States, nor even especially of gravy, I was skeptical, but when in Canada, eh?

Deciding that this dish could really be a disaster in lesser hands, I chose to make the poutine plunge at Relish Gastropub in downtownVancouver. Though I suspect that greasy fries and lumpy gravy might plague many a poutine, this certainly wasn’t the case at Relish. Though the dish is always going to be challenging visually, their hand-cut fries, fresh curds, and silky gravy (a sublime velouté, really, that’s five days in the making) definitely had me smiling over poutine instead of pouting. 

Other Inviting Vancouver Vittles …

One of the hottest spots in town is the stylish Bao Bei in Chinatown, which has racked up awards for both food and restaurant design since it opened last year. The menu tempts you with a couple dozen of tasty small plates meant to share, and it was amazing how different each and every one was in terms of taste, texture, and visual appeal. Of course, among the favorite several dishes we tried was the crispy pork belly, but I’m still thinking about the sliced Lotus root that was delicately stir-fried in Chinese chive, curry and black bean.

Next door to Bao Bei is the recently opened Keefer Bar, which takes the Chinatown concept to a whole level by using apothecary as the predominant theme throughout the restaurant’s design and drink menus. It’s hard not to love a spot that calls its drink “Prescriptions,” but here they mean it – most of the potent potables are prepared with ingredients such as astralagus root that have purported health properties. Would that the entire drink menu were online because it’s quite a read!

I would have liked to run through the entire menu at Edible Canada, a fairly new bistro on Granville Islandnear the wonderful Granville Market. Specializing in local fare is a winner, but I admit they also had me at duck fat fries! Yes, they were ridiculously tasty, as was the bacon Bloody Mary. Favorites on this menu included the duck confit hash with wild mushrooms, and the lightly battered and very fresh fish and chips.

A Moroccan place for breakfast? Decidedly yes when it means Medina at the edge of the Gastown section of Vancouver. This hip little bistro serves up Café Americano for its “regular” coffee, so you can imagine the attention to detail, but there’s nothing snobby about it. For breakfast we tucked into a Fricassé – fried eggs atop braised short ribs, arugula, roasted potatoes and caramelized onions – and Saumon Fume – two housemade slices of ciabatta topped with a delicate mixture of smoked salmon and caper cream cheese; one had sliced avocado and arugula for a savory emphasis, while the other had a peppadew and artichoke salad that tended more to the sweet; and both were topped with a just runny enough sunnyside up egg. We debated having one of the housemade waffles, but discretion won out – a rare moment of restraint.

After a rainy morning wandering around Vancouver’s West End neighborhood, we stumbled across the cozy Central Bistro, offering locally sourced fare that absolutely hit the spot for brunch (which they serve daily until 3 p.m. – now that’s civilized). My Central Benny (eggs benedict) featured the bright yellow eggs of free-range chickens, local organic ham, caramelized onions, freshly-made Hollandaise, and some of the best pan-fried potatoes I’ve ever had – chunks of potato with the perfect amount of crisp.

The den of iniquity otherwise known asLas Vegas might seem an odd place for lessons on sustainability. Yet there, in the middle of all things Vegas, sits the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, and no, it has nothing to do with card sharks.

This impressive facility is North America’s only predator-based aquarium, which means that although sharks are the main event, you’ll also see crocodiles and Komodo Dragons, piranhas and pythons, lionfish and stingrays. Over all, it’s got a fairly small footprint compared to other aquariums, “only” 95,000 square feet, but it still manages to sport over 2000 animals and 100 different species of sharks.

From the get go, messages about sustainability are everywhere. The visitor “passport” has tear-out guides for buying both sushi and seafood, signs at several points encourage and explain the need for paying attention to fisheries, and – a big AND– this place is big on hosting school groups and educating them about our oceans.

 The Shark Reef Aquarium also has a major wow factor going on with their reef tunnel. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like – a glass tunnel going right through the tank showcasing the reef exhibit. There are sharks swimming to the left of you, sharks to the right of you, sharks above you. Okay, usually not all at once, and there are several other species roaming about as well, but you get the point.

For anyone that knows me, you will be quite amazed that I managed to keep my heart rate below 200 bpm while in the tunnel. Yes, I have a lifelong shark phobia, and before you get started … it predates Jaws by many years; you will not be able to talk me out of it; and no, I really do not like those new, freakish, helium-filled, radio-powered shark balloons! 

However, although I have an utter and abject fear of sharks, I also have an immense amount of respect and admiration for them. It did become mesmerizing to watch these stunning creatures glide around me. We were both in our own elements of air and water, and although just yards apart, we are worlds apart in terms of the sheer experience of existence.

The earliest sharks appeared about 420 million years ago. Our first ancestors only date back about 2.5 million years, give or take a fossil dating. Yet, as usual, it’s our activities that are threatening sharks and countless other species on the planet.

Having said that, yes, I am all for the ban on shark finning for shark fin soup. I am the first person to defend ethnic food and cultures, but not when it comes to such wanton destruction of life. Yes, I understand the soup is a centuries-old delicacy that can bring over $50 per bowl in China. However, to get the fins, the sharks are caught, the fins are lopped off, and the maimed sharks are thrown back into the water to die. How good can that soup really taste? In fact, it’s not even the fins that give it taste – the fins just provide cartilaginous texture.

Recently, a massive shark slaughter was discovered off the coast of Columbia– in a wildlife sanctuary! It’s certainly not an isolated incident, just among the most recent. Officials reported “that as many as 2,000 sharks have been killed in a single incident for their fins. … Shark species found included hammerhead, Galapagos, and silky sharks.”

This slaughter isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s happening because of the law of supply and demand. If the cachet for shark fin soup goes away, sharks won’t be slaughtered for their fins. By the same token, if you find ways to use the whole shark and not litter the bottom of the sea with their carcasses, then by all means, enjoy your shark fin soup.

It all started so innocently. I got an assignment to do a short article on pairing wine with bacon. Since the tasting room staff at Hope Family Wines (HFW) here in Paso Robles had been doing such an event for the past two years for Harvest Wine Weekend, I was asked to interview them.

Seriously? I’m being asked to sit and catch up with some fun wine industry folks I’ve known for years over a discussion of wine and bacon? Um, well, okay.

After the interview, I graciously offered to “help” scout bacon/pork products for the event. That’s just the sort of gal I am. Much to my delight, HFW’s marketing manager Whitney Hrdlicka actually took me up on it! Was I in hog heaven, or what?

Fast forward a couple weeks … I’m reading through some food-related emails, and come across a mention of bacon peanut brittle at Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream in San Francisco. Hello and how convenient! I was going to be up there about a month before the Harvest event, so I (again, graciously) offered to check it out for Whitney.

That just left the task of breaking it to my two friends (JK and JK) that I would have to squeeze in a bit of “work” while in SF. Being the kind of friends they are, they not only agreed to be my trusted assistants, but somehow also decided that we would just go big or go home and have an entire “Wrap It In Bacon / Salted Pig Parts” themed day.

Yes, “oink” applies on many levels, but we had a squealing good time, although it was a full week before I could think about having bacon again. Thankfully I recovered in time to have a bacon maple bar from SLO Donut at the annual Savor the Central Coast event, but I digress.

The WIIB/SPP itinerary follows, hope it doesn’t “boar” you with details …

The Buckshot – Chicken Fried Bacon (oh yes we did!) and Miss Piggy’s Mac ‘n’ Cheese (loaded with bacon, of course). The chicken fried bacon was okay, especially because we dipped it in maple syrup and Sriracha, but don’t know if I ever need to have it again. The mac ‘n’ cheese was actually some of the best I’ve had – al dente rigatoni and creamy, creamy, creamy.

(En route towards the Mission District and eventually Humphry Slocombe, had to take a sidetrip pilgrimage to the awesome Bi-Rite Market  because one of the JKs had never been there and that had to be rectified. When we continued, we did go by a bar that had bacon bloody marys, but it was just too smoky – see we did still have some restraint and standards!)

Hog & Rocks – The Ham Sampler! Started to get carried away and order about 40 more yummy sounding things, but thankfully one of the JKs came to her senses and talked us out of it. Our hogs-down favorite was the La Quercia Prosciutto Picante  from Iowa served with pickled grapes – not too salty, with nice flavors from the hot pepper and fennel rub. (It’ll be in the lineup for the HFW Harvest Weekend event too!) The Monte Nevado Jamon Serrano from Spain was good as well, served with olives and aged Mahon cheese — a nice classic Serrano and very tender.

Humphry Slocombe – the little bag of Bacon Peanut Brittle that started it all! I would have liked a little more bacon, but maybe I just had porcine palate fatigue. Still yummy though, especially when paired with the Secret Breakfast Ice Cream made with bourbon and corn flakes … yes, bourbon and corn flakes!

Ham Sampler at Hog & Rocks

A forwarded email from Shanley Farms came floating into my inbox at the end of August, explaining about something called Finger Limes. Huh? My eyes skimmed over the text and caught on the phrase “citrus caviar.” Double huh??

Well, having finally experienced these micro-citrus gems of delight, all I can say is “Finger limes, where have you been all my life?”

Native toAustralia, these limes are indeed the size and shape of a finger, a pinky to be exact. When you cut them open, you’ll find that all the little “lime pockets” are spherical, and their membrane is just tough enough so you can gently squeeze them out. Once you taste them, however, is when the fun really begins.

The Shanley Farms website explains it perfectly: “Finger Limes are prized by chefs because the interior pulp has a caviar-like appearance and a delightful lemony lime taste with a pop rock texture.”

Yes, caviar meets citrus meets pop rocks. Molecular gastronomy a la Mother Nature! Think about the little orange roe that sits atop California Rolls – how it gives your teeth just a little resistance before it lightly pops. Same goes for finger limes, except when these pop, you get a micro burst of lemon-lime flavor.

So far, my favorite use has been atop salmon sashimi – the pop of citrus is a perfect balance to the rich, sweet fish. Other suggested uses have been with raw oysters, abalone sashimi, atop something almost too cloying sweet like frosted mini cream puffs, or – and you knew this was coming – off-the-chart tequila shots.

Granted, finger limes aren’t cheap – the Shanley website is offering them at $20 for just six ounces – but a little goes a long way and makes a great impact!

Well, I was a bit late on making the first pesto of the year, but basil late than never, right?

Basil has reported been cultivated for over 5000 years in its native India, where it was revered and thought of as sacred. That elevated status earned it its regal “basilicum” name in our part of the world, which is derived from the Greek word for “king” or “royal.”

If Wikipedia is to be believed, basil supposedly grew at the spot where St. Constantine and Helen discovered the Holy Cross, but I’m skeptical. I mean, seriously — who would have jotted down that little culinary tidbit in the midst of finding one of the world’s most significant religious relics? “Oh look, this is the spot where Jesus was crucified and here’s the cross on which he was crucified, but wait … anyone up for some pesto?”

According to the Our Herb Garden website, basil has been thought of as many disparate things throughout the centuries. Because it was thought to “wither in the hands of the impure,” it was a method of determining chastity, yet it was also thought of as a love token to place at gravesites. Also, smelling it might either clear your brain, or cause scorpions to grow in your brain.

Thankfully, we see basil these days as the wonderful culinary herb that it is. Part of the mint family, it loves some heat and plenty of water while growing. I have mine in a spot where it pretty much sits in a little bit of standing water all the time, so I have me some happy little Ocimum basilicum plants.

I prefer to make my pesto pronto in late spring, giving the plants a pretty severe crew cut. By doing that, they’ll bush out even heavier in coming months. Just make your snips low on the stalks, and right above where at least two leaves are branching out from the main stalk. Those will then grow into two separate stalks, which you can trim in the same way when they get a little bigger.

When I’m making pesto, I always make a too big batch so I can throw the extra in some ice cube trays and freeze for later use. Typically, I omit the cheese for this so the cubes are a little more versatile for tossing in salad dressings, etc. You can always add the cheese in later for pasta or pizza topping. (Check out the latest Saveur issue for tons of pesto history and recipes.)

Basil is also showing up as a versatile mixology ingredient too, especially in any drinks using things like cucumber, tomato or even strawberries. Because it’s akin to mint, it can be used almost anywhere where mint would be. I doubt Basil Juleps will be showing up at the Derby anytime soon, but a Basil Mojito is a refreshing twist.

Hhhmmm … is it five o’clock somewhere yet?

Well, it’s Fourth of July, so the watermelon recipes are flying! I must admit though, that the ones that have been catching my eye are for adult beverages like a basil watermelon cooler with vodka and a watermelon tequila cocktail aptly dubbed “The Party Starter.” (Nix the simple syrups though – the watermelon is so sweet on its own you really don’t need more sugar.)

As someone who earnestly tries to pass off a margarita as a legit fruit serving, I’m all for this new “farm-to-glass” approach such as Luna Red inSan Luis Obispo,CA is doing. After all, one does need to keep hydrated in the summertime, and fruit in a glass is still fruit. Right? Even if it is mixed 1:1 with a potent potable?

In the interest of advancing my cocktail-as-fruit-serving agenda, I decided to look up some of the actual health benefits of watermelon, and according to watermelon.org there are quite a few. (Yes, the fruit does have its own website; evidently it is a not-for-profit arrangement.)

The short list of watermelon benefits includes: Vitamin A — “important for optimal eye health … and boosts immunity,” Vitamin B6 – “helps the immune system produce antibodies,” Vitamin C – “can protect a body from harmful free radicals that can accelerate aging,” Potassium – “mineral necessary for water balance … people with low potassium can experience muscle cramps,” and watermelon is very high in Lycopene – the red pigment that acts as an antioxidant.

Well, put that in your cocktail shaker and mix it on up. Perhaps my theory of fruit servings might be right after all!

Lots of great things at the 2011 Earth Day Food & Wine Festival this year – char siu tacos from Porter’s Gourmet on the Go, homemade shortbread and blackberry balsamic reduction from Chaparral Gardens, only 1.75 pounds (yes, pounds) of landfill trash generated from the entire event …

Clearly, I could go on and on, but one of the coolest finds was Chamisal Vineyards’ Stainless Program, as in stainless steel wine tanks. Following a trend that’s really starting to catch inNorthern California, Chamisal (located in the Edna ValleyAVAof San Luis Obispo County) has introduced 5-gallon, re-useable kegs that hold about the equivalent of 25 750ml bottles of wine.

Yes, keg wine – get over it, this is definitely not swill – it’s Chamisal! Also, the design of the stainless tank can be gassed so that the wine stays fresh for up to three months after you tap your first glass. As Assistant Winemaker Michael Bruzus explained, “the consumer (most likely a restaurant unless an individual has a keg setup at home) will use their existing pressurized gas infrastructure for beer. We will come to the restaurant or bar and make sure the pressures are low enough to get the wines out of the keg without charging the wine.”

Nitrogen or argon are the best gases to use in this application. Though carbon dioxide will work, Bruzus noted that “the tricky part with carbon dioxide is if you use too much, you will inadvertently make the wine ‘spritzy’.”

Bruzus further justified the use of stainless tanks as offering not only numerous environmental benefits, but also cost savings in terms of packaging, waste and energy use. Each stainless keg represents …
25 fewer bottles in cases to be manufactured and shipped to the winery
25 fewer bottles to be thrown away or recycled if it had been bottled
2 corrugate paper printed boxes with inserts
50 fewer labels to be printed (front and back)
25 fewer screw caps to be manufactured and shipped
25 fewer screw caps to be thrown away or recycled if it had been bottled

The bottom line — “We are saving 30 pounds worth of material (post consumer waste) per keg!” he wrote.

Also, in terms of energy savings, “maintaining the wine in tank and filling kegs on demand saves an enormous amount of energy because the added thermal mass of glass and corrugate requires more energy to cool the same volume of wine in a tank or a keg.”

In addition, “the kegs are completely re-usable. Once you’ve emptied the keg, you simply affix a pre-addressed FedEx label to it, drop it off at a local FedEx store, and it is returned to us. When it arrives at the winery, we sanitize it and fill it back up.” Even with this system, shipping costs are reduced because a full keg of wine weighs 44 pounds as opposed to the 74 pounds that those 25 full bottles in cardboard cases would weigh.

Arguably, this treatment isn’t for every varietal, but it suits Chamisal’s existing production of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay very well. In fact, the winery was already producing a stainless-only Chardonnay available by the bottle!