vegetarian – Food Woolf

Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese

Just about everybody loves macaroni and cheese. Kids and adults. Vegetarians and meat lovers. Even gluten free folks and carb-loaders alike crave the instant comfort of the satisfying combination of cheese and pasta.

Though most people may enjoy the indulgence of a ooey-goey macaroni and cheese, not everyone seeks to become a modern day expert on the subject of marrying dairy and pasta. Few go out of their way to become fluent in the way of whey; cow, goat, and sheeps’ milk, and dried pasta.

Thanks to the journalistic skills and writing talent of Garrett McCord (VanillaGarlic.com) and Stephanie Stiavetti (TheCulinaryLife.com), the work of understanding the art and mechanics of making truly great macaroni and cheese dishes is served up for you to enjoy in their newest cookbook: Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese.

Garrett and Stephanie are great food writers who elevate macaroni and cheese to a whole new level. They lavish their readers with entertaining stories and important insights on cheese and pasta. Melt, The Art of Macaroni and Cheese is a cookbook filled with well-crafted recipes that are a pleasure to cook with year-round.

Beautifully photographed and elegantly styled by the epically talented duo of Matt Armendariz, photographer, and food-stylist Adam Pearson, this book is as educational as it is visually stunning. Melt is a perfect holiday gift for the difficult to buy-for food lover: the book is filled with unexpected gems of information (like a comprehensive guide of artisanal cheeses and a primer on the fundamentals of pairing specialty cheeses with pasta), witty headnotes, and fascinating research. The book oozes with inspiring food photos and over 75 original recipes.

While some single-genre cookbooks might veer too far into the lane of kitch, Melt, The Art of Macaroni and Cheese navigates an enjoyable path for the home cook who seeks to create satisfying gourmet comfort food.

Organized in stylized chapters, Melt is an incredibly versatile cookbook that gives readers different ways to approach cheese and pasta: creamy stovetop macs, hearty casseroles, refreshing salads, and surprising sweets.

Continue reading “Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese”

March 11March 7

Service 101: Building a Consulting Business That’s Built on Faith

Living the life of an entrepreneur is exciting and rewarding. Especially when it isn’t harrowing and daunting. Being a consultant, an artist, or a specialist for hire means you have to be uniquely talented, work hard, and be patient for the next right job to come in. Never having a set schedule is a benefit, but freelancing requires a strong belief in one’s self and trust that you’ll get through difficult stretches between jobs. In short, we gotta have a lot of faith.

Faith as a business model?

Yes, operating from an intuitive place isn’t a concept that works for everyone. It’s an idea that can make most people’s skin crawl, especially those who rely on market trends, data, and poll results. But for people like me who work from the gut, intuition as a business model is something that requires practice and a lot of vulnerability. For every gutsy move or courageous jump, there are plenty of uncertain moments that cause white-knuckle indecision and fear.

Being isolated and working in a way that’s opposite of how most mainstream business people operate can make for some truly uncomfortable moments. That’s where having like-minded friends comes in.

We need others who share the same business challenges and have a similar mindset to run big ideas by. When we’re feeling crazy, fearful, and generally uncertain of ourselves, it can really help to have like-minded people who know what you’re going through to share their insights, advice, and good will. When the going gets rough, it’s good to know there’s someone else out there who knows exactly what we’re going through.

One of my freelance cheerleaders is Vivien Kooper, an LA-based ghost writer who makes a living helping ordinary and extraordinary people tell their life stories in book form. My friend is funny, smart, and shares a common language for the big, esoteric ideas.

What I value most about Vivien’s friendship is how common her un-common language is to me. Her language of faith, fear, and a willingness to surrender over to a higher power is part of her daily language. “I’m just staying in faith that I’ll be taken care of,” Vivian said to me after a particularly lean couple of weeks. It was exactly what I needed to hear. “I just know that the right job is going to come in when it’s supposed to.” Faithful words like that comfort me and offer a sense of relief. She reminds me it’s okay to believe that one of my job requirements is to surrender to the unknown.

That’s certainly not the kind of feedback I get from every business contact I make. Continue reading “Service 101: Building a Consulting Business That’s Built on Faith”

July 20January 3

Melon Salad with Chili and Lime

Working in the restaurant industry can be a wonderful thing, especially for someone who loves to cook. Some days can be more inspiring than others, but the love of food and a constant desire to create beautiful things in the kitchen is the twine that holds the front and back of house of the restaurant together every day. Coming to work has been especially exciting and fulfilling since I began working with the talented and Michelin star rated husband and wife culinary team, Karen and Quinn Hatfield.

My work assisting the pair open their newest restaurant, The Sycamore Kitchen–a bakery/café and bakery located in the Fairfax/Miracle Mile area of Los Angeles– gives me the opportunity to work with a team of highly skilled and passionate people who express themselves beautifully through the wholesome and flavorful food they make.

The flavors of the food at The Sycamore Kitchen are approachable, wholesome, and ever so sneaky because you find yourself needing to get more and more of the stuff. You just can’t help yourself. In fact, in just a few weeks the restaurant has been open, Sycamore Kitchen has garnered a dedicated following. Not only do customers drive across town for a Salted Caramel Bobka roll, or the Double BLT sandwich with braised pork belly, they return day after day for savory and sweet favorites with determined gusto.

Even though I’m at the restaurant more than full time, I find myself craving certain dishes frequently. It’s almost haunting, these flavors. The cookies and pastries are constantly on my mind and dishes like Sycamore Kitchen’s heirloom watermelon salad with aleppo pepper and lime make me pace my apartment until I can’t take it anymore and have to go to the store to buy all the ingredients so I can recreate the dish (to the best of my ability) at home.

Why? Because these sublime flavors aren’t something I can get out of my head so easily. Just take one nibble of this spicy, salty, sweet dish and you’ll see what I mean. Continue reading “Melon Salad with Chili and Lime”

January 11January 11

No Time Comfort Food: Super Easy Kabocha Squash Recipe

Have I told you I have a new job? I’m super excited about joining the team of Milo + Olive, a wonderful little pizzeria and bakery that’s just opened up in Santa Monica, as a General Manager. Getting to be part of a family of restaurants like Huckleberry, Rustic Canyon, and Sweet Rose Creamery is a dream come true. So I’ve put the freelance service coaching business on hold so I can help run a growing business that’s dedicated to beautiful, handmade food that’s served by people who really care.

Let me just tell you, I’m more than a little bit busy. Working at a brand new restaurant is like caring for an infant. It requires constant vigilance. The hours are long but the work is incredibly fulfilling. The challenges keep my heart, body, and mind constantly engaged and stretched to the limit. I survive on very little sleep and even less time for food. I power myself through the day with huge dose of excitement, a thick piece of toast slathered with almond butter and jelly, and tall cups of coffee.

Since I only have had one day off a week, the one thing I crave more than anything else is rest and a warm meal with my husband. We keep things simple. For breakfast we like to sauté kale in olive oil with a generous splash of fish sauce and top them with a couple of fried eggs. Or I’ll make soft-curd scrambled eggs with feta while he puts together a citrusy-yogurt vinaigrette for a butter lettuce salad. We brew a big pot of coffee, sit at our tucked-in-the-corner dining room table, and fortify ourselves with food and stories of our week.

Exhaustion dictates the menu at dinner time. Sometimes we go out for a comforting bowl of soup and noodles at our favorite Thai restaurant (Pa Ord) or other nights I muster up the power to roast a chicken and some vegetables. Those meals together refuel so much more than my belly. Since I’ve written here before about my favorite method of roasting a chicken (a la Zuni Café), I thought I would share with you my favorite new comfort food that doesn’t take much time or effort to make.

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Super Easy Roasted Kabocha

If you have a super loud timer, you can take a nap while this squash roasts. Just slice the thing in half, add some butter, and roast for a little more than a half hour. It’s just that simple.

1 Kabocha
4 tablespoons butter (I prefer Plugra)
3-4 sage leaves
Finishing salt

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Slice the pumpkin open (horizontally across). Remove the seeds. Place on a sheet tray slice side up. Add a generous pat of Plugra butter (about 2 tablespoons per side) and few sage leaves. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, or until soft.

Serve warm. Finish with Maldon sea salt.

February 4January 3

Healthy Edamame Dip for Super Bowl Sunday

edamame dip one — Forever Green Edamame Dip

Okay, so I’m not a sports fanatic. But count me in as a front row enthusiast if there’s a lot of great food involved. Take for example this healthy dip for Super Bowl Sunday. Throw a handful of fresh ingredients like garlic, parsley, and bright green edamame into the food processor and in just minutes you’ll have a fresh and easy dip that’s high in protein, big in flavor, and makes eating it a guilt-less pleasure. What a great change from the high fat onion dip of my past!

I grew up in Massachusetts eating chips and salsa, submarine sandwiches, and cherry-red chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday. My friend Jason Travi, the former chef of Fraiche and Riva, showed me that a Super Bowl party could be a culinary opportunity. This Massachusetts chef never even thought about serving popcorn and cheap beer, and instead offered us caviar on blini, handmade meatball subs, champagne, and artisan beers. It was, by far, the most elegant spread I’d ever seen for a Pats game. I was a changed woman.

Continue to Snag this Great (and Healthy) Super Bowl Sunday Edamame Dip Recipe »

June 19January 4

The Rosetta Shallot

Sometimes it’s the smallest lessons that have the power to change every aspect of the way you think. Some people call that life changing moment a “shift”. Oprah branded the concept and named it the “Aha” moment.

If I were an influential branding agent, I think I would find a word to signify the transitional moment in the kitchen when cooking is forever changed by a single lesson. Maybe I’d call it “the cast iron moment”, or maybe I’d go with something quite simple, like “shallots.”

My culinary brain was irrevocably rewired the day I understood shallots. Not long ago, while dining for the first time at the Chez Panisse Café, I found myself marveling at the tiny outbursts of sweet and crunchy acidity hidden between leafy mixed greens. I pulled the plate closer to discover the delicious source of the complex flavors. My charming waiter, Daniel, stepped up to the table as I inspected the perfect, tiny cubes of purple and white hiding underneath the wild arugula on my plate.

“What is that amazing flavor?” I asked him with awe. “Onion?”

Daniel smiled politely. Without a bit of judgment he blew my mind with these three words: “They are shallots.” Well drop a pin in my map of culinary time and mark it “shallots”. My salads and mignonettes have never been the same since.

Pre-Shallots (PS)

Before I truly understood the subtle power of the shallot (the 12th century crusaders called the shallot “valuable treasure”), I mistakenly thought them to be a smaller, more expensive version of the onion. Though shallots may have a similar structure to onions —concentric rings and a papery skin—they are a different species altogether.

Rosetta shallot

Now that comprehend the role shallots play in simple salads and gorgeous mignonettes, I can, so to speak, understand their language. Now whenever I go to the farmers’ market, I’m sure to pick up a couple of tight, heavy shallots (I prefer the smaller ones for their mild flavor and sweetness) for my week’s menu.

At home, I transform the shallots into a pile of tiny, mignonette squares, drizzle them with red wine vinegar, cover the stuff, and leave the precious mix in the refrigerator. Having this shallot mise-en-place on hand saves time and creates the most incredible salads in just seconds.

Shallots can be found year round, but the prime time for them is from April through August. When choosing shallots, look for firm ones that are heavy for their size. Avoid shallots with soft spots or are sprouting.

[print_link]Simple Salad with Shallot Vinaigrette
One of the best parts about learning basic technique, is that you don’t need to have recipes. Salad making is one of the best places to learn how to create by feel and with your taste buds. Allow this to be a simple guide.

Two big handfuls of greens (washed and dried)
2-3 fresh radish (or another lovely market vegetable), thinly sliced
great olive oil like Oleificio Chianti extra virgin olive oil (Alice Water’s olive oil of choice)
Salt
Pepper
1 shallot, cubed uniformly
good red wine vinegar

Toss the cubed shallot into a small bowl and drizzle with red wine vinegar. Let sit for at least 15-20 minutes. Fill a salad bowl with enough mixed greens for the number of people you are serving. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle lightly with olive oil. Gently toss with clean hands. Take a generous pinch of the wine soaked shallots and add to salad. Toss and taste for balance. Drizzle more vinegar if needed. Add some of the sliced radish and toss again. Taste and then plate the salad onto cold plates. Add the final amounts of radish to the plate for color and serve.

[print_link] Super Easy Roasted Kabocha

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Super Easy Roasted Kabocha