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The Five Top Tastes of May, 2018

May's top tastes are mostly Asian--ramen, two terrific Indian dishes and a cute Korean cake shaped like a fish. The exception is Good Measure's crispy pork rillette, a shredded pork cake coated with crumbs and fried until the coating lives up to the word "crispy" in its title.  


1. Tortillas don't come with this spicy tuna nori taco at California Ramen Factory. The wrappers are squares of nori (crisp seaweed), which you can wrap around the tuna--this gets sort of messy--or you can eat the taco with chopsticks.  There are other taco toppings, but the spicy tuna is so good, why look further?   

California Ramen Factory, 4010 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA 90020. (213) 908-6838.

2. Chicken Roast Biryani is a spring special at Grand Bawarchi in Canoga Park. It's a newer version of biryani from Hyderabad, the Indian city famous for this dish. Grand Bawarchi's owners are from Hyderabad, so they serve it too.

The chicken is cooked with rice and vegetables, then removed, coated with a rice flour and cornstarch batter and fried until crisp. Rather than mixed with the rice as is traditional, it's served on top so you can admire the glowing colors.

 Grand Bawarchi, 7257 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Canoga Park, CA 91303. (818) 340-7500.

3. Crispy Pork Rillette from Good Measure in Atwater Village. The pork is cooked like carnitas, shredded and bound with egg, then formed into little cakes. These are coated with house made sour dough crumbs and deep fried, emerging nice and crunchy and really delicious when you eat them with the rhubarb mostarda that comes on the side.  

Good Measure, 3224 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039 (inAtwater Village). (323) 426-9461. 


4. Fish mango masala from Anarbagh in Beverly Hills. It's unusual to find Indian dishes this sweet, but it really perks up an otherwise savory meal. The thick red cashew and tomato masala that coats the fish (seabass) gets its sweetness from mango chutney, not from a jar but made at the restaurant using fresh mangoes.

Anarbagh, 138 S. Beverly Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90212. (310) 888-4011. 

5. Speaking of fish, if you're shopping at Zion Market in Koreatown, go to the food stall area there and pick up a few of these sweet goldfish cakes. Hot off the griddle, the soft, cake-like fish are filled with your choice of custard or sweetened red bean paste.

Zion Market, 3500 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90020. (213) 351-9900.

The Sweetest Kind of Addiction

TV cook Siri Daly confesses that she's an addict.

Her addiction is to sweets. And it's so serious that she limits consumption in her household to four nights a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. These are known as treat nights, and everybody (a husband and three kids) looks forward to them.

No wonder, when the treat might be intensely rich, seriously addictive lemon bars. These had lots of takers when Daly introduced her debut cookbook, "Siriously Delicious," at Melissa's Produce.

The lemon bars have her own touch--she adds crushed gingersnaps to the shortbread crust. 

An equally addictive rival at her appearance were these Perfect Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies, topped with flaky sea salt. "I've made about a billion chocolate chip cookies in my lifetime," she said. This is her favorite.  

Is all of her cookbook so decadent? Not really. It's family friendly, with plenty of homey comfort foods, like pulled pork, tortilla soup, a pasta salad, meatloaf, tuna casserole and a spaghetti pie. "I'm a passionate home cook," she said.

You may have seen Daly cooking on the Today show--her husband is Carson Daly, Today's co-host and host of The Voice. When motherhood sidelined her for a spell, she began the food blog Siriously Delicious, and this led to the cookbook.

It's subtitled "100 Nutritious (and Not So Nutritious) Simple Recipes for the Real Home Cook." Instead of the usual recipe categories, it's divided into breakfast, lunch, happy hour, dinner and, finally, what must be her favorite section, Sweet Treats. Here you'll find the lemon bars, the chocolate chip cookies and plenty of other goodies for your own treat nights.

"I'm not very good at depriving myself," Daly confessed. And she demonstrated that by  adding more chocolate chips than the recipe called for when she made cookie dough during her demo at Melissa's. 

LEMON BARS
From "Siriously Delicious" by Siri Daly

2 3/4 cups plus 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus more for dusting
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 gingersnap cookies, crushed
1/4 teaspoon table salt
2 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs
2 teaspoons lemon zest, plus 1 cup fresh juice (from about 10 lemons)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line a 13x9-inch glass baking dish with parchment paper, allowing 2 to 3 inches to extend over sides.

Place 2 3/4 cups of the flour in a large bowl, and stir in the 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Add the butter, cookie crumbs and salt and use your hands to incorporate the mixture into a crumbly but smooth dough.

Pat into an even layer in the prepared baking dish. Freeze for 15 minutes, then transfer to the oven, and bake until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the granulated sugar and eggs until well combined. Whisk in the lemon zest and juice. Whisk in the remaining 2/3 cup flour until smooth. Pour the mixture over the hot crust; return to the oven, and bake until set but the mixture still moves together as a unit when lightly shaken, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

Run a paring knife along the edges of the cooled baking dish to loosen the parchment, if needed. Using the parchment handles, lift the bars out of the baking dish. Cool completely on a wire rack, about 1 hour.

Using sharp knife, cut the bars into 24 squares. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving.

Makes 24 bars. 

A Master Class in Artesa Wines

Six glasses of wine face me, but only two are finished wines, the 2016 Estate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Artesa Vineyards and Winery. They're at the right in the photo above. 

The other four are components that went into these wines. To the casual palate (mine), they seem good enough to stand on their own, but they've been bottled for educational purposes only, not to sell. 

Their role this day is to assist Artesa's head winemaker Ana Diogo Draper (above) as she conducts a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay master class.

My head spins as she talks of clones and climate, punching down and puncheons, basket presses and barrels, oak integration and blocks (not wooden cubes to play with or something that hinders what you are doing but sections of a vineyard. Artesa has more than 50 of these.) 

To show how dizzyingly complicated winemaking is, or at least how it seems to those of us not involved in it, the glasses next to the Chardonnay are only two of its 20 components. The Pinot Noir tops this with 25 components, including the one above.

Imagine how subtle your palate must be to figure this out. Consider too all the other techniques and sensibilities required to take grapes from the vine to their elegant finish in a fine bottle.

Fine is the right word, because Artesa is in Los Carneros in the Napa Valley, and Carneros Pinots and Chardonnays are legendary, thanks to ideal weather, topography and soils. 

Here the class listens as Diogo Draper explains these factors in detail.  

Interestingly, the winery was founded by Codorníu Raventós, the Spanish company known for cava and other bubblies. The intent was to produce sparkling wines, but within a couple of years, the potential for the classic Carneros varietals became apparent. Sparkling wines are still made there, however. 

Just 150 of the 450 acres are farmed, most of these planted to Pinot Noir, followed by Chardonnay and then much smaller plantings of two Spanish varietals, Albariño and Tempranillo. The smallest planting is of Cabernet Sauvignon.  

The Tempranillo and Cabernet are planted on the highest ridges, which are considered to be part of Mount Veeder, a Napa AVA (American Viticultural Area) where Cabernet Sauvignon thrives.

Suddenly an inky dark wine appears (the glass at the right). This is Galatea, a Cabernet-Tempranillo blend that reflects the way Artesa links California and Spain. From the 2014 vintage and bottle-aged for two years, it hasn't been released yet.

Galatea has the "beautiful nose of Tempranillo," with softening from Cabernet, Diogo Draper says. It will sell for about $90 and only at the winery. The label (above, center) is beautiful too. 

Then came lunch--the tasting took place at Good Measure in Atwater Village, the first restaurant for Matthew Kaner, known for his involvement in wine bars. Not surprisingly, Kaner plans to hold more wine events there.   

This is the lunch buffet, with tasters delving into cheeses, salumi, almonds, olives, and, from the restaurant menu, pork rillettes, a shaved cauliflower salad and vegetable frittata.

Two more Artesa wines come with lunch, the 2015 Pinot Noir (above) and 2017 Albariño. 

The Pinot Noir is distributed nationally, but the Albariño (above) has not yet been released. It's "an incredible variety with great potential in Carneros," Diogo Draper says. The wine was made with 70% estate grapes. The remaining 30% came from a local grower.

But Artesa's primary focus is on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Speaking of the Chardonnay featured at the master class, Diogo Draper says, "I love it. I'm really happy with the 2016 vintage. It's a fantastic vintage for Chardonnay and Pinot." These two varieties "really shine" in Carneros, as she says.  

You'll Love These Crunchy Indian Fries

These are the crunchiest fries you could ever crunch on.

They're not potatoes, they're idlis, South Indian steamed cakes made from a rice and lentil batter (above). Sliced and deep-fried, they turn into an incredible snack that kids go crazy for, especially because they come sprinkled with tomatoes, onions and cilantro, almost like salsa.  

But they don't lose their Indian identity entirely. The traditional idli accompaniments come with them too. These are sambar, which is a thin lentil and vegetable soup for dipping or pouring over, and fresh coconut chutney, made extra creamy with ground cashews. 

The only place you can get the fries is Udupi Palace, a South Indian vegetarian restaurant in Artesia's Little India.  And you have to know the password, because they're not on the menu. Just say  "fried idlis," and you'll be rewarded with a sensational snack.

Udupi Palace has another innovation that you won't want to miss. It's a sort of South Indian quesadilla (above), with a golden brown dosa subbing for tortillas as the wrapper.

Inside are Jack and Cheddar cheeses, tomatoes, onions and jalapeños (above). Like idlis, dosas always come with sambar and coconut chutney so these are provided too. 

The name is Spicy Chilly Cheese Dosa, and it's in a long list of dosas on the menu (above). These large crisp crepes are as typical of South India as tacos and quesadillas are of Mexico. Maybe that's where the idea came from.

After this spicy food, you'll want something cooling, like rose lassi (above). Flavored with rose syrup, it's topped with ice cream sprinkled with pistachios. Sweet basil seeds (sabja) are mixed in, and the one in the photo includes translucent falooda noodles too.  

Also, be sure to ask for a milky Mysore coffee. One taste and you'll know why South India is as famous for its rich, deeply-flavored coffee as for its unique cuisine.  

Udupi Palace, 18635 Pioneer Blvd., Artesia, CA 90701. Tel: (562) 860-1950.

Learning to Cook Under Pressure

To make these carrots, I had to conquer terror--horrendous, knee-shaking terror.

But it was worth it. Vibrantly flavored with harissa, lemon and cumin, plus a dash of sweetness from maple syrup, this dish is now in my permanent repertoire. I'll take it to potlucks, set it out like meze or pickles to accompany a dinner or serve it in place of a salad. 

Why scary? The recipe is easy enough. But you have to make it in a pressure cooker. Not just me, but all my friends quail at these words. My mother's old pressure cooker is in the garage. The little pressure cooker I bought in India is stored, unused, in its original box (above). 

Never would I willingly undertake this frightening method of cooking. Then suddenly I acquired a pressure cooker, a new model, shiny, alluring, designed to be safe and begging to be used.

And I heard from an expert how easy it is to cook this way, how excellent the results are, and I tasted her food, which was very good.

That expert was Jill Nussinow (above), known as The Veggie Queen and author of four cookbooks including two on pressure cooking.

Her latest, "Vegan Under Pressure," is packed with guidelines that are so clear and thorough that even I couldn't go wrong.

I began by trying one of her easiest recipes, Three-Minute Spiced White Basmati Rice (above). And I was shocked. It was true, In only three minutes, yes, three minutes, I had perfect rice, flaky and tender, and a clean pan, no rice caked to the bottom and sides.

Now inspired, I soldiered on, producing wonderful food, like Nussinow's polenta with fresh herbs (above), shown here as part of an Italian dinner.

And her Atakilt Wat, an Ethiopian stew of cabbage, potatoes and carrots seasoned with ginger, turmeric, fenugreek and an optional dash of hot sauce (above). 

These are the ingredients for a healthy dish of freekeh (cracked roasted green wheat) with eggplant and tomato from her book. 

Nussinow's Lemongrass Cabbage Soup (above) was one of the most popular dishes at Melissa's Produce, where I heard her speak. 

I've even had the nerve to develop a couple of my own dishes, Mexican rice following her basmati rice procedure, and tomatillo chicken--I am not vegan.

Yes, there is a learning curve, which I am still on. Twice I burned food onto the bottom of the pan, the second time so severely that soaking for days with dish soap and then vinegar and water didn't help. To the rescue came The Barkeepers Friend and my pot is like new again. 

That's because it's a really good, strong pressure cooker, the SitraPro from Sitram, a French company. Here is an army of SitraPros lined up at Melissa's, ready for food bloggers to give them a try.

Why pressure cook? Speed isn't the only objective. The food tastes good because all the flavors are kept in, nothing escapes into the atmosphere.  For the same reason, the nutritional value of pressure-cooked food is greater. And the flavor is fresher and superior to slow-cooked dishes, Nussinow said.  

"If you like to cook, this is the tool for you," she said, speaking of stovetop pressure cookers, not electric cookers. She should know because she has taught pressure cooking for more than 20 years and knows her way around the equipment.

It's easy to write in glowing terms about pressure cooking, but safety has to be addressed.  Here is what Nussinow says:

"The new pressure cookers are much safer than the older models. The new electric models are basically foolproof and will even shut off if anything starts to stick and burn. The newer (without jiggler) stove top models work well, too, however the biggest issues often occur with user error."

And she goes on to say, "The fear of pressure cooking (with a modern pressure cooker) is mostly irrational."

I would add that it is important to study the safety precautions in the user manual that comes with your pressure cooker and to observe them strictly. This includes keeping vents clean, making sure the gasket is in good condition and properly seated, closing the cooker securely and opening it with the lid tilted away from you so that escaping steam doesn't scald your face.

If you're working with a stovetop model, it's essential to watch the timing carefully and not get distracted and forget that it's on the stove. 

For more tips and recipes from Nussinow, go to her website, www.theveggiequeen.com. 

HARISSA-GLAZED CARROTS WITH SMALL GREEN OLIVES
From "Vegan Under Pressure" by Jill Nussinow

2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 to 2 teaspoons olive oil, optional
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 to 2 tablespoons harissa spice blend (there's a recipe for this in the book. I substituted readymade harissa paste)
1/4 cup vegetable stock or water
1 pound carrots (6 medium), peeled and sliced on the diagonal
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted and crushed
Sprinkle of salt
2 to 3 ounces small green olives such as Arbequina or Lucques, pitted or left whole (I didn't have these so used larger olives)

Combine the lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, if using, maple syrup and 1 to 2 teaspoons (to taste) harissa in a small bowl.

Add the stock to a 6-quart or smaller pressure cooker, then add the carrots. (My pot is 8 liter, but the bigger size worked fine too.) Drizzle the carrots with the lemon juice mixture. Do not stir.

Lock on the lid. Bring to high pressure; cook for 4 minutes. Quick release the pressure [follow manufacturer's instructions on how to do this]. Remove the lid, carefully tilting it away from you.

Check to be sure that the carrots are cooked through. If not, bring back to pressure and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, then quick release. [My carrots did not need additional cooking.] Remove the lid, carefully tilting it away from you. 

Transfer the carrots to a bowl or platter and sprinkle with more harissa if desired, the cumin and salt. Add the green olives and serve.

Makes 4 servings.  

Doing More with Less in the Kitchen

My kitchen is a cheerful clutter of spices, spoons and ladles, CDs for dinner music, cat toys, even a small Buddha.

Doesn't everyone need to line their counter with Thai butterfly pea flowers, Salvadoran red beans, five kinds of rice and jars of homemade ghee, like me?

Absolutely not, says Melissa Coleman (at the top), author of "The Minimalist Kitchen," a guide to reducing kitchen mayhem to a minimum.

Does she make me feel guilty? No, I think her book is wonderful, ideal for setting up a first kitchen, for redoing the kitchen in a new home, for minimizing when moving to a smaller space and to rescue anyone suffocating from stuff.  

Coleman is practical, not preachy, supportive rather than judgmental. And you can trim down in easy increments, according to her plan. 

By having less, you'll actually be able to do more, she said when talking about the book to food writers at Melissa's Produce (above).

Is her cooking minimalist, like spartan food with only three or four ingredients? Again, absolutely not. 

It's good, homey, realistic food, the way she cooks for a husband and small daughter. There's nothing fussy or daunting in the book but lots of appealing recipes, and I will be using them in my not-so-orderly kitchen.

Like, for example, tortilla soup (above).

You could make a meal just from the condiments for the soup (above).

This is a chipotle-garlic chopped salad (above). Canned chipotles in adobo is one of her kitchen staples. They're in the tortilla soup too.

Here, she's assembling tacos with black beans and red cabbage slaw.

Beans are essential to her kitchen and appear in many of her recipes, including ancho-ladas (above), which are enchiladas with an ancho chile sauce.

This dates from college days, when she and her husband cut expenses by replacing meat with beans. Coleman cooks with everything now. But many of her recipes will appeal to vegetarians and people on plant-based diets, like baked falafel pitas with tahini sauce, roasted vegetable sandwiches and open-faced sweet potato tortas. 

If there's a Tex-Mex accent, it's because that's what she ate growing up in Texas. After lunch she showed how to make the bean and slaw tacos and Tex-Mex style Spanish rice. Here, she's shredding cabbage for the slaw, which turns a pretty purple. 

Why should you listen to her advice on organizing? Because she's an expert, a graphic designer who created the award-winning blog The Faux Martha. Photos in the book show what she has done with her own kitchen, which is as warm and inviting as it is simple.

Chapters detail how she stocks a pantry and how she shops, which she learned in the trenches as a new mom.

Recipes are tagged  according to whether they're weekday-simple or more extensive for weekends. And she's willing to go maximalist at times, like in the dessert chapter. "Even a minimalist needs to let loose sometimes," she says in the introduction. 

Splurge desserts include an almond-tart cherry crisp, roasted banana cream pie and chocolate, chocolate cake. Those weren't served at Melissa's, but I can attest that her citrus-poppy seed cookies (above) show she's a talented baker. 

These are almond joy macaroons, sweetened only with maple syrup and chocolate chips.

You'll have to buy the book to get the cookie recipes, but here is how to make her black bean and slaw tacos. This is a weekday recipe and takes only 20 minutes of hands-on work.

BBQ BLACK BEAN AND QUICK SLAW TACOS
From "The Minimalist Kitchen" by Melissa Coleman

Quick slaw:
   1/4 cup lime juice
   2 tablespoons high-quality mayonnaise
   2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
   1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
   4 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
   1 cup shredded green apple, segmented orange, diced pineapple or diced mango
   2 thinly sliced green onions
   1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Beans:
    3 (15-ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
    Scant 1/2 cup BBQ sauce
    3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Garnish:
     12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
     2 avocados, sliced
     1 jalapeño, thinly sliced
     Crumbled cotija cheese

To make the quick slaw, in a large bowl, whisk together the lime juice, mayonnaise, vinegar and salt until evenly combined. Stir in the cabbage, fruit, green onions and cilantro and toss to coat evenly. Set aside.

For the beans, heat the drained beans, BBQ sauce and salt in a saucepan on medium-low for 5 minutes.

Warm the tortillas by placing directly over a gas flame to char the edges. Place on a plate and cover with a towel to steam. (If working on an electric stovetop, heat the tortillas on a warmed pan and cover to steam.)

To assemble the tacos, top each tortilla with beans and a generous portion of the slaw and garnish with a couple of avocado slices, jalapeños and a sprinkle of cotija.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

A Feast of Turkish Food and Wine

If I could have a bowl of yayla çorbasi every day, I would be perfectly happy--and healthy. 

This is Turkish yogurt soup--çorbasi means soup. And yayla means plains, the high places where the best yogurt was made in the days before refrigeration, according to "Samples from Turkish Cuisine," a book I bought in Istanbul.  

But I had the soup here in Los Angeles, not in Istanbul. And not in a restaurant but at a dinner in the Turkish consular residence, hosted by Turkish consul general Can Oğuz. 

The table was beautifully set, with a white damask cloth and silver chargers. Yayla çorbasi (above) looked just as elegant in its gold-rimmed plate with the Turkish star and crescent at the top.

Light and delicately flavored with mint, the soup contained a few grains of rice, nothing more. One day I'll make it and then share the recipe.

Before dinner, we met for drinks outside, and I tasted something rare in Los Angeles, Turkish wine. This is Sevilen Narince Sauvignon Blanc, glowing in the flames from the fire pit.  


This same wine accompanied dinner, along with Pendore Öküzgözü from Kavaklidere, a wine company founded in Ankara in 1929. Kavaklidere's wines come from several vineyard areas in Anatolia. Pendore is its chateau style winery in the Aegean region in western Turkey.

Öküzgözü is an indigenous Turkish grape that produces a lively, fruity, deeply colored red wine. Here it is, being poured during the dinner. 

The next course after the soup was Izmir style stuffed grape leaves, yaprak sarma (above), filled with rice, pine nuts and currants. 

Then came manti, tiny beef-stuffed dumplings typical of Kayseri in Central Anatolia (above). These were topped with yogurt, butter and pepper flakes. Mint, sumac and Urfa red pepper were also set out so guests could season the manti to taste.  

Lamb and eggplant were combined in islim kebabi, cubed lamb wrapped with eggplant slices (above), an Istanbul dish accompanied by rice pilaf with pine nuts and currants.

This shepherd's salad had a California twist, the addition of avocado and cilantro. 

Baklava may be easy to find in Los Angeles, but not freshly made, crunchy, Turkish style baklava only lightly moistened with syrup. This is bourma style baklava, rolled around a walnut filling rather than baked flat. 

Feza Yazici (above left) made the baklava. Her husband Barbaros also cooked that night.

Dinner ended with Turkish coffee (above) and Turkish tea.

The hosts, Consul Oğuz and his wife Hümeyra (above), were accompanied by vice consuls Aylin Şenyüz Eleveld and Nilufer Kanik. 

And here is the table of guests as we enjoyed this rare, home-cooked Turkish feast.