I am exhausted!  Five days in a row at Bread & Roses and teaching every afternoon at the Culinary Training Program at St. Joseph Center makes for one tired monkey!  But it was a great week, I feel inspired and empowered.  Shit, I fed several hundred people a free meal this week!!!

It’s a big, big week for me.  I’m crazy busy with work, with life and in less than a week I will be IN FRANCE.  Yes, that’s right, I am finally going to the motherland of all gastronomic delights.  Visiting friends in Paris and Valence and planning on spending some extra time in Provence and along the Mediterranean, all over the Rhone and into Burgundy.  But more posts, photos, recipes and stories about Europe later, first I have to get through the week.

CAST IRON IS KING!

“If Teflon is nonstick, how do they get it to coat the pan?”  I first heard this silly joke in high school while watching a cooking demonstration as the speaker slid an omelet out of a pan.  I was impressed, not so much by the eggs but by the Teflon and its mysterious nonstick abilities.

I did this on a whim.  I didn’t feel like going outside to pick rosemary and looked around the kitchen to see if there was anything interesting to go with my potatoes.  Earlier in the week my neighbor Hina gave me a couple stems of curry leaves and I knew their smoky, Earthy aromatic quality would be a great match for the potatoes.

Which crab tasted better?  The yellow male or the red female?  I should have gotten two males or two females to make this a more balanced taste test.  Some fishmongers swear that female crabs have a sweeter flesh.  I’ve definitely found that to be the case when it comes to Blue Crabs from the Atlantic.  But with the Rock Crabs of Santa Barbara the opposite was true!  The red female had a more pungent briny flavor…a little bit of scallion on the finish.  The yellow male had way more sweetness and was the favorite of the day.  The male also had slightly larger claws with boatloads of meat inside.  I was surprised because the crew at Sea Fever Seafood said there wasn't any difference, yet these clearly were two different crabs.  Don't get me wrong, both of them were fantastic and very easy to clean.  I think one thing that made the female stronger flavored was the fact that she was full of roe which was wicked pungent but beautiful in its rusty color.

CRAB!

What a treat!  

For quite a while I’ve been eyeing the amazing seafood that the gang from SEA FEVER SEAFOOD has been bringing to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market on Sundays.  In addition to the crabs, they also have a few beautiful fish (almost always some gorgeous rock and ling cod), nice looking spiny lobsters and Pacific conch which are smaller and less flashier than the Caribbean variety.  This week the boat brought in some outstanding ridgeback shrimp that really tempted me but when I got a look at the crabs I knew what I was having for lunch!

I had to take a snap of these beauties at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market last week.  I love the way they are stacked up, a wall of root veg.  And all the colors—red can be so redundant.  Why is it that we always think radishes are red?

For Thanksgiving in 2009 (well, it was actually the day after Thanksgiving since I was catering on the big day) my wife and I had a few friends over for dinner.  The lovely Melanie (that’s my misses) took care of all the apps and the first thing she chose—and insisted on—was radishes with butter and sea salt.  It was like an obsession for her.

I had a tough time with the letter A ‘coz the choices were so great. I was really keen to make the inaugural episode all about the artichoke—my favorite thistle! Then there’s almonds, avocados, asparagus…all things I love, love, love.

Yes yes, just completed shooting the first episode of ORGANIC A to Z and am now working in Post. Should have the bastard served up in a couple o' days. SHOOTING a cooking show is a hell of a lot harder than I had thought it would be...the technical aspect is a nightmare.