This is my favorite OITF location. You can’t beat the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean and the sandstone cliffs forming the cove. The wind is a bit much but, being from the area, I knew and came prepared. Those who didn’t could borrow blankets which is an excellent plan. I brought many layers that I slowly added and used all of before I ventured to the bonfire.
No surprise, the food was amazing under the direction of Central Kitchen and Flour and Water’s Thomas McNaughton. The fish came from my longtime fishmongers, H&H Fresh Fish. We actually ended up sitting with them so it was nice to visit all evening and talk about life beyond what fish I was buying.
My favorite dish of the night was the grilled squid. I could have eaten all 8 portions put in front of us family style. I’m always interested in squid done in new ways. It’s a seafood that I’ve made and it’s been amazing and other times just not right or slimy and blechy. This was amazing.
Sadly, we aren’t able to attend another Outstanding in the Field dinner until December. I’ll just have to savor the pictures and memories of this one until then.
Thomas McNaughton and his pet pig
Thomas’s pig
The first view of the table
The table
Jim and Leah
The crowd is released to the table
The menu
Finding seats
Finding seats at the table
Smoked salmon with asparagus, dill, roe
Grilled squid with potato, fennel and squid ink aioli
My dad brought me tomatoes. He seriously grows the sweetest tomatoes I have ever had. When summer starts I begin dreaming of the tomatoes and waiting for them to ripen. I remember how sweet they are and then I get one and I taste it and it’s even sweeter. It’s like my brain can’t contain the awesomeness of these tomatoes from year to year.
He also brought Armenian cucumbers and basil. GAZPACHO TIME!
All I put in gazpacho when it’s with these amazing tomatoes is a couple of garlic cloves, a ton of basil and salt. I used the blender for this one since it’s so juicy. I garnished with a drizzle of chili oil and cucumbers and this time a borage flower because our plant is blooming and they look so pretty!
Then I made inside-out gazpacho. It’s a modified white gazpacho but I didn’t have any bread that would work in it so I just used about 2 cups of almonds, 4 or 5 cucumbers, a handful of parsley and more basil, garlic, a bit of water to thin it out and a dash of cayenne. I used the food processor for this since there was very little liquid. My blender just whirrrrrrrs and does nothing without lots of liquid. It turned out more like dip than soup. The texture was a bit grainy from the almonds (I only had whole almonds…also from my dad!…No blanched or sliced ones). But the flavor was nice. I topped it with tomatoes for color and served with crostini since it was dip-like anyway!
I’m getting paint in my kitchen today. Soon there will be cabinets.
Making food in the garage actually hasn’t been that difficult. I can’t make anything that has to simmer for a long period of time (I’ll run out of propane) or go into an oven larger than the toaster oven, but other than that, it’s been working.
I made one of our favorites with my CSA Salmon:
And another night made a quick appetizer of grilled padrons with olive oil and Bali Kechil salt.
I’m still making frittata just about every Sunday with the weeks CSA goodies. Sometimes greens and pancetta, sometimes squash and basil, sometimes all of the above!
There are nights that I just keep it simple and BBQ. Sometimes steak and onions:
Sometimes chicken marinated in red wine, mustard, onions and rosemary:
One day I got ground pork from my CSA and some nice white fish from my CSS and thought I was making fish soup with pork. Turns out it was pork soup with fish and MAN, was it GOOD! My son would have had the whole pot if we let him but we wouldn’t give ours up!
The hardest part is getting the food from the garage through the sliding door, through our bedroom, down the hall and to the dining room table, then the drinks, silverware, and us before it gets cold! It’ll be nice when we have our kitchen door back.
Everyone’s reaction to me telling them I’m remodeling my kitchen is first, “FINALLY!” and second, “Where are you cooking? When we remodeled our kitchen it was a lot of microwaving.”
No way! Not for me!
Pasta and broccolini boiled on my camp stove…garlic sauteed and pine nuts browned on the other burner. Topped with fresh CSA basil and a dash of chili flakes I made with last year’s crop:
Pasta with broccolini, pine nuts, garlic, basil and chili flakes
Locally caught sand dabs cooked in foil on the grill with CSA garlic, garden parsley and marjoram and olive oil. Served with grilled CSA leeks and grilled CSA lettuce (romaine-like but not actually romaine) topped with caesar dressing:
Sanddabs with garlic, parsley, marjoram, grilled leeks and grilled lettuce with caesar dressing
I think I’ve used my microwave twice and that was for warming up leftovers for lunch. No kitchen does not mean no Food Porn!!
The first event of the year. Route 1 Farm is just a little way up the coast from Santa Cruz. We left our house when it was sunny and hot. We got 3 blocks from our house and it was socked in fog and freezing. I was numb by the end of the night but full and happy! A great start to the season. Just like last year, the Fogline chicken was the highlight of the evening. So incredibly good that I took a picture of an empty plate!
Appetizers
Route 1
Fennel frond cracker with salmon and pickled dandelion
Jim and Leah - The make this all happen
Jeff from Route 1 Farms
Nettle ravioli with pork belly and milk thistle butter
Butter lettuces with beets, prosciutto, ricotta salata and balsamic
The table
Caleb from Fogline Farm
That was good chicken
Strawberry tart with lemon verbena and meyer lemon cream
I made this soup a couple of month ago for a Soup Night gathering at my house. I had vegetarian friends coming so I simmered veggies in water all morning to make really flavorful stock for the soup. I had some dried cranberry beans from the farmers market in the pantry just screaming to be used. I had also seen a cranberry bean soup recipe in Eric Ripert’s A Return to Cooking that ultimately inspired this one.
Today I’m taking soup to friends who just had a baby last week and they’re vegan. I thought this would be good to take them since it’s packed with protein and it’s freezable. But when I came onto the site to find my recipe, I hadn’t ever posted it! Hopefully I got all the ingredients right and this will be just as tasty as last time.
—–
Soak 3 cups dried cranberry beans for at least 4 hours.
Sweat until soft:
1 onion, diced
1 fennel bulb, diced
2 medium leeks, chopped
Add:
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Cook on medium-low with the lid on for about 15 minutes (don’t let it brown, just soften)
Add 3 cups cranberry beans and 6 cups stock. I have used homemade veggie stock both times I’ve made this since it’s been for vegetarian or vegan friends but chicken stock would work just as well.
Bring it to a simmer and let it simmer for at least 2 hours or until the beans are soft.
Puree it all up into a lovely, creamy (without cream) soup.
Finish with a dollop of parsley-lemon puree and a drizzle of lemon oil and some crusty french bread.
This has been sitting in my drafts since December. *Sigh*. I figured I’d better put this up before the next round of Outstanding the Field tickets go on sale!
The previous two OITF dinners were amazing. We went to the first one of the season at Fogline Farm. One mid-season at Everett Family Farm and ended with the last dinner of the year at Pie Ranch.
The event started with a reception, appetizers and wine, as usual and,as usual, everything was lovely. The wine was provided by John Locke of Birichino Wines.
After the introductions and explanations, we headed into the hills for some fungus foraging. My husband found two porcini and got to proudly show them off to the group and explain how he found them (in the insanely dry forest!).
After the hike straight up the hill and back down again, we were STARVING! We trekked back to the barn and found a place to park it for the night and enjoy the amazing spread. We sat next to a wonderful couple from Texas who are retired and they plan their vacations around OITF events. That will be us! At least I hope so!
All the dishes were amazing but the highlight had to be the chanterelle and cornbread. It was so good in fact that people asked Chef Ryan Harris of Station 1 Restaurant in Woodside (the evening’s chef) for the recipe. He obliged and posted it on his Facebook page!
Greens
Fort Mason, Building A
San Francisco, CA 94123
415-771-6222
Spring Rolls
A friend and I were meeting up to see Tim Minchin at the Palace of Fine Arts…Brilliant show by the way. We needed food first so she got us into Greens at the last minute. I thought I hadn’t been there but as soon as I parked and started heading past the harbor boats I had a de ja vu. Yeah, I’d been there but it had been years and years and I think we were there for lunch. I really don’t recall anything about the meal then so this was a brand new experience!
Sampler Plate
We ordered a number of things and split them all, starting with the Spring Rolls (with grilled tofu, carrots, jicama, Thai basil, mint and rice noodles. Served with hoisin, grilled shiitake, beech mushroom and radish salad). These were good but I’m going to rename them Mint Spring Rolls…not a subtle flavor.
The sampler was great because we could easily split the things between what I like and don’t like! My friend got the beet salad, olives and marinated Yarra Valley feta, we shared the taboulleh, grilled artichoke, mummous and pita. All very tasty.
Paparadelle wiht Peas
The Green Gulch Lettuce and Little Gems salad (with Hidden Star Orchard cherries, Point Reyes Original Blue, slow roasted almonds and golden balsamic vinaigrette) was lovely and the cherries were a nice addition.
The Pappardelle with snap, snow and English peas, pine nuts, spring onions, meyer lemon butter and chives tasted like spring. I know it’s July but we had winter here through June so we’re just getting our spring! It was wonderful to have pine nuts again. I haven’t had them in ages since there is apparently a shortage although that’s hard to believe when I drive around California surrounded by pine trees! I know, they’re from a certain type of pine…but still! I miss them.
The dishes at Greens aren’t complicated. They aren’t piled with a million conflicting flavors. They are vegetarian. They are flavorful, fresh, seasonal, beautiful. You can’t beat the view—the boats in the harbor with a peek at the Golden Gate behind them if the fog lifts enough.
Parking can be a challenge if there is event at Fort Mason but if there’s not, the large parking lot should have a space available somewhere. I love that Greens set the standard for locally source, vegetarian fare *years* ago and it still going strong. It’s a classic.
I host a soup night, ideally once a month, but really it happens when we have a free weekend night. I make a huge pot of soup, customized each time for the number of people coming and the allergies/preferences/aversions of the guests. It’s really, really fun and it gives us a way to actually get together with our friends regularly even when life is hectic. It’s a different group of people each time…and if there is every a time that everyone on the invite list can show up, I’m not sure what we’ll do, our house isn’t nearly big enough!
This time I live-tweeted the making of the soup, just for fun. A sort of step-by-step recipe without instructions! This is enough soup for 16-18 people.
3 onions:
Onions
4-5 quarts chicken stock simmering on the back burner:
Chicken Stock Simmering
3-4 carrots (mulitcolored, they looked cool!):
Added Carrots
1 fennel bulb and 4 stalks celery:
Fennel and Celery
Cooking all that stuff down, entertaining myself with the camera:
Waiting for veggies to cook down
4 yellow potatoes:
Potatoes will go in next
3/4 bottle white wine and 6 cloves garlic:
Added white wine and garlic
One bunch kale, somewhat “julienned”…I’d say finely shredded:
Shredded Kale
6 small zucchini:
Zucchini
Snap peas, halved:
Lastly, snap peas
In there with the zucchini went 3 cans of cannellini beans and then the soup was ladeled over spaghetti that I broke in half before boiling (so it would be possible to eat it with a spoon!)
To serve it was first pasta, then soup, pesto on top of that (basil-walnut-lots of lemon), and for everyone but me, shredded parmesean.
