Results tagged “soups”

Update: Gale Force winds and a small craft advisory will keep crabbers fisher(people?) off of the Bay. Clearly, God hates us. Bastard.

We gobble the various food sections up each Wednesday. Here are our favorite nibbles from today's offerings.

You thought she was gone, but no: Fiona Ma is still coming to us Or Sacramento or wherever she is now.

There is a place not unlike the mythical elephant graveyard that brought Jane to Tarzan, where used kitchen utensils go to rest. Cookin', located on Divisadero between Oak and Page, enjoys all the romance of the fabled elephant burial ground, and boasts of as many hidden treasures

We first learned about sorrel from our food writing idol Ed Behr, who devotes a chapter of to the distinctive herb and its history. Behr takes his cue from French cuisine and uses it in salads, soups, and sauces.We've kept that essay in mind, and pounced on the vibrant vegetable when we saw it at the Berkeley farmers' market.

Though this column usually focuses on farmer's market finds, we want to occasionally offer some advice on common kitchen techniques. Great ingredients make great food, but so do great skills. Have something you'd like us to discuss? Send us an email or leave a comment. A freezerful of stock is a cook's secret weapon. Create buttery, flavorful boiled rice by using stock in place of water. Make extraordinary soups with homemade stock. Finish a dish with a rich, stock-based pan sauce. Braise food in stock to add extra dimensions of flavor. Impress your friends with tales of stockmaking (though this doesn't work for us nearly as often as you'd think). You can buy good stock (hint: not with a Swanson's logo), but if you know how to make your own, you can control the flavors and stretch ingredients a little further. Save the bones from your roast chickens, and convert them to a golden elixir every few months. It's like getting a bonus meal out of the chicken. It's an easy skill. You can find complex instructions, but we prefer the simpler forms. Yes, it takes time, but you don't have to do much work, so set it up before you hunker down for a night of TV, and by the time the news comes on you'll have a richly colored, aromatic addition to your pantry.

An ex used to work around the corner from Jade Cafe, and even after we broke up, we'd still meet there and have a grand old time. It was one of our better shared experiences after moving together to the Bay Area. But we don't go back just for sentimental reasons -- the food is cheap and delicious. A relationship gone awry should never, ever keep you away from a great place to eat.