After googling Saag and looking at a few recipes, I decided this was an adventure I could try. I sliced up a large onion and started sauteing it in olive oil. All of the recipes said to saute the onions until they turned clear. BORING!!! I cranked up the heat and got them lightly browned, really bringing out that delicious onion flavor. Next, I crushed and chopped in 3 cloves of garlic and added 2 cans of organic chick peas. Ok, none of the recipes called for chick peas, but they are delicious and I have been craving protein.

This is where I cheated. Garam Masala, I have been holding onto a packet I scored from The Occasional Gourmet at the Marin Farmer’s Market 2 years ago. I have had no idea what to do with the stuff until tonight. I opened the vacuum sealed packet and a gorgeous scent wafted upwards. I took 2 heaping teaspoons and mixed them in with my chick peas, onions and garlic. Instantly my kitchen smelled like India Garden, awesome! Feeling a little wild, I grabbed the cinnamon and dashed a little in letting everything cook for 10 minutes, covered. Wow, liberating!!!

The chick peas/onions were looking good, so I moved them to half the pan and added in a massive container of fresh washed spinach from Costco, covering the pan. I then sliced 4 smallish tomatoes in half and added them to the spinach. After a minute or 2 I stirred the spinach, adding more until it was all cooked. I took out the Spinach, a lot of the onions and 1/2 the chick peas and pureed the mess in the cusinart for approximately 10 seconds. I squeezed in half a lemon, wondering if Indians used lemons (probably not). I added medium thin sliced of Firm Whole Foods Tofu to my pan, covering it in the sauce and chick peas onion mixture. I then added the pureed spinach back into the pan covering the tofu completely.

The spinach was tasting good, but looking a little to healthy. Every recipe called for yogurt, so I scooped out to nice size tablespoons of Fage 2% and added it to the spinach stirring lightly. I kept looking at the cayenne, not really feeling it but wanting that heat that makes Indian food clean out your system. In a moment of clarity, I grabbed my bottle of Crystal Hot Sauce and dumped a mess of it. Yeah, that’s a technical measurement, mess. If you don’t know Crystal, get some. It blows all of those B.S gourmet hot sauces out of the water and it is cheap, like hot sauce should be. They have the perfect blend of vinegar and heat that is addictive and delicious on just about anything. The consistency and color was looking good, so I did something bizarre, I started stirring.

As the Tofu broke up, I started wondering if soft Tofu would be even better, maybe. I pulled the bottom of the pan up into the spinach making sure I got a nice uniform consistency. As you know, Saag is not pretty to look at.yet the scent and flavor was getting me excited. I added some salt, mixing the Saag gently but firmly with a large spoon. I toasted up some Pita bread and used that to eat the Saag. Delicious. Easy. Exciting. I felt a mild euphoria as I realized I have officially made my first curry. I kept it healthy and it came out delicious. If you are a vegetarian or simply like Indian food, you must make your own version of Saag!

The recipe for chopped string beans comes to the Michaels family from our matriarch, Bubbi, aka Anna Michaels. Most of Bubbi’s recipes come from the Old Country. But this recipe contains peanut butter, not exactly an old-world ingredient. So I once asked her what they used instead of peanut butter in Poland. That’s when I learned that she’d gotten the recipe in this country. They served chopped string beans at a certain deli in the neighborhood. She was friends with the wife, who shared the recipe with the other women.

So here you go, Chopped String Beans from the Lower East Side (of Manhattan):

1 can garbanzo beans
1 can string beans, French-cut or whatever is fine
1 onion, chopped
4-5 hard-boiled eggs
A few tablespoons of peanut butter
Salt and pepper

Get your chopped onions good and caramelized in more vegetable oil than you’re really comfortable with. Meanwhile, de-hull your garbanzos by squeezing each one. In a wooden bowl, chop together your de-hulled garbanzos, your string beans, and your eggs with a chopper (fancily called a mezzaluna these days, not so fancily called a hackmesser by Bubbi). Add in your browned onions. Season with salt and pepper. When it’s good and chopped, add your peanut butter, chop it in and taste. Might need more salt or more peanut butter.

The chopping is really important and it’s a workout. Bubbi once grabbed the bowl away from me because in my New World sissy way, I wasn’t chopping vigorously enough. At ninety, she could still chop better than me.

A note of warning: you need to eat your chopped string beans within about four days, otherwise it starts to ferment. The above recipe makes quite a lot. On this particular day, I made a half-batch. I had garden green beans, so I just steamed a few. And with the other half-can of garbanzos, I made some hummus.

Chopped string beans is delicious served with challah bread, but any kind of bread or cracker will do.

When chopped string beans is mentioned in my family, we all go crazy with nostalgic food lust. I’d be curious to know if it becomes a tradition in yours. My nine-year-old granddaughter tasted it the other day and said, “Bubbi! I like it!”

“Good,” I replied. “It’s my Bubbi’s recipe and someday it’ll be yours.”

Chopped string beans is a great vegetarian alternative to chopped liver, and can be substituted in any way in which chopped liver is normally used, as in the following: “So what am I? Chopped string beans?”

Hot in Cleveland – Cool Hand Cuke
1 slice fresh jalapeno chili (cut lengthwise into slices that are 1/4 inch wide, seeds removed)
1 ounce freshly squeezed cucumber (seeds removed if any are present)
1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
2 ounces Tequila
3/4 ounce agave nectar

Garnish: Rub edge of glass with left over lime dip edge of glass prior to filling in chili salt dip.

Procedure:
1. Place jalapeno and agave nectar in cocktail shaker. Muddle to break up jalapeno slice.
2. Add lime juice, cucumber juice, tequila and ice.
3. Cover and shake vigorously.
4. Pour into garnished glass.
5.Drink with friends.

For some bizarre reason I was thinking about this conversation as I headed into Whole Foods today. I picked up some Potatoes and decided to try making Gnocchi. I made mistakes right from the start, yet still it kind of worked out. First mistake, I got Yukon Gold potatoes. Next time, I will get good old Russet potatoes. My second mistake, I used whole wheat flour. Next time, I will use good old white flour. So, what happened?

I boiled 6 potatoes, and mashed them up. Why? Because I discovered that I don’t have a “ricer.” Claudio told me to “rice” the potatoes, if you have a ricer you will get the fine consistency that will make your Gnocchi better than mine. I added a heaping teaspoon of baking soda, a splash of salt and a splash of vegetarian broth. I mixed and mashed while I added handfuls of flour until the consistency became that perfect non-sticky dough. I have fear of doing things like this, but for some reason Claudio gave me the confidence to try it. What is the secret? Put the love in.

I rolled out the dough and my line chef, Eileen cut off little chunks. Dropped the “Gnocchi” into nearly boiling water and cooked them. I added my olive oil and spices and called it disgusting. Turns out the little chunks were way too big. I didn’t account for them growing. I made six more batches experimenting with size and cooking time. The missing ingredient is the sauce. I should have made the Pesto sauce or even a red sauce.

It was really fun to make potato pasta, I am feeling motivated to make some normal pasta and even try some wild mushroom ravioli. The Gnocchi was not delicious, but it was edible. It reminded me that experimentation and the thrill of cooking something new is AWESOME. Sometimes you have to leave the books and take a risk. Screw things up. Have fun. Then hit the books, the internet and talk with your people. Next time will be delicious.

This is what I call "pesto on the hoof," aka basil

Ingredients:

Basil leaves, about 3 cups
1/2 tsp salt
2 large cloves garlic
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tsp lemon juice
Olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts or pecans or mixed

Wash and spin, sort of like laundry but without the soap

It's this simple

Wash and spin dry your basil. Put it in a food processor with the salt and pressed garlic and grind it up. Add cheese. Add lemon juice. While it’s spinning, add the olive oil through the top and listen for it to sound a little sloppy. Add the nuts. I like the nuts to still have some recognizable bits, so I don’t grind it that much after adding them. Throughout the process, scrape the sides down so all the leaves grind up and so all the ingredients get mixed together. Taste!

I don't measure the olive oil, I listen to it

Yum. But does it need more garlic?

We make pesto on a nearly industrial scale. It takes several hours (which is an improvement from the early days, when it took a full day). For this particular batch, we harvested three or four basil bushes (of the size pictured above), used two heads of garlic, over a block of cheese, over half a pound of nuts, and about a liter of oil. Ben picked and washed the leaves. I mixed batch after batch, mixing each batch together in a large mixing bowl. Pine nuts were very expensive this year ($32/pound), so I used all pecans. I tried one batch with walnuts and when we did a taste test, Ben thought the pecans were better.

Vat o' pesto

We let that bowl sit in the fridge for a day, so the ingredients have time to come into their flavors before we freeze it.

The final step is to top each container off with olive oil, after it has set in the freezer, to protect the product from freezer burn.

Top off the frozen pesto with a protective layer of olive oil

This is about 7 pounds of pesto, and will get us through to next summer. I use a large, sharp knife to hack off a portion from the frozen block. You need surprisingly little to be plenty for spaghetti for two. Use it on pasta, pizza, lasagna, soups. Just dip crackers or bread into it!

I said the final step was to top it off with olive oil, but of course, the final step is to enjoy the fruits of your labor and your garden. Buon appetito.

On the menu they claim to serve “Fresh Made To Order Guacamole.” On Wednesday night I watched the person at the Guacamole station bring out a VAT of Guacamole and put it under the counter in a fridge.  Suddenly the brown edges on the Guacamole started to make sense (prolonged exposure to air turns avocado brown, kind of like it does to apples). My buddy Mike put the hard questions to the waiter and he truthfully confessed the guacamole is made every 3 hours. Freash? Made To Order? Drop the BS and just call it Guacamole. It doesn’t taste fresh or look fresh (this should be embarrassing for any Latin restaurant).

I try and support restaurants that are locally owned, especially by young people. This is a deal breaker, however. The most important ingredient you put in any meal, is the LOVE. Without the love you might as well be any other crappy chain. I am officially done with Paladar. See another equally scathing review I posted about them on Yelp, my account is http://sonicallstar.yelp.com

But the focus of the evening when Mike and I get together is usually drinking. The 2006 Pride Cabernet is not ready to drink. That is all there is to it. This wine is ok. It needs to breathe and we just drank it. Blame us, or just say let this wine sit for 2 more years and it might deliver upon the promise that lays below the muddled mess of body and soft tannins. Mike has tried this wine twice and says it under performs. For me, I think it is just a matter of time. Hold this wine for 2 years and it may be ready to drink. Or, invite me over and we can try your bottle whenever you are ready, I’ll bring the cheese.

I opened up the bottle and could smell the richness of this young Pinot Noir. Abandoning my trusty Vinturi aerator, I recklessly poured three glasses. At first waft, I knew this wine had more body than I could handle. The first sip was glassy and gentle, cascading into a delicious lush flavor. The Kosta Browne is surprisingly full bodied for a Pinot, delivering smoothly and elegantly. I didn’t have a good cheese pairing on this night, but in my mind I could see this pairing up well with a baguette from On The Rise Artisan Breads and some Red Hawk  from Cow Girl Creamery or maybe even a Taleggio. This is the kind of wine you can drink a bottle of in a night and wake up in the morning without a hangover (not exactly proven). It was the perfect wine to start the night with, next time I’d like to compare this to their Sonoma Coast Pinot. Don’t expect to find a bottle of Kosta Browne sitting on the shelf at your local grocery store…but there is one waiting in my cellar for 2011.