East Bay Appetizer November 7, 2013

Autumn Celebration 

We’re busy at work on Edible East Bay Winter Holidays 2013 (the print magazine) which should be on the streets shortly after November 15. Meanwhile, here are some fun things to do now.

 

First Annual Novemberfest
in the Temescal Alleys

Sunday November 10, noon–4pm
In the block bounded by Telegraph Ave,Clarke St, 49th St, and 51st St in Oakland

 

If you like beer and have never visited the Oakland hot spot called Temescal Alleys, this is the time! Local craft brewers Linden Street Brewery, Drake’s Brewing, Ale Industries, Calicraft, and perhaps a few others will be pouring draughts that pair perfectly with the tasty sausages Pizzaiolo will be grilling up. Buy a tasting glass and enjoy the whole range of choices. All proceeds go to support a great cause: Walk Oakland Bike Oakland!

Walk Oakland Bike Oakland
Temescal Alleys

 

Real Food Media Project Contest Seeks Entries

Are you a food-system changemaker or a member of a grassroots organization doing work in the food field? Have you ever wanted to have a powerful short film made about the work you’re doing? Something you can show community members, allies, and funders? Coming up with resources for making such a film can be quite a hurdle, but read on below:

Anna Lappé’s Oakland-based Real Food Media Project is running a contest aimed at encouraging up-and-coming filmmakers; students of film, communications, and food studies; and anyone hungry for a deeper understanding of the nation’s food system to create short films about food, farming, and sustainability. They’re also willing to help the filmmakers find local food-system changemakers and grassroots organizations to partner with on subject matter for the films.

Prizes include a $5,000 first prize and debut at the Food and Farm Film Fest in San Francisco. Contest closes February 3, 2014. See guidelines and get registered for exclusive opportunities at realfoodmedia.org, where you can learn more about the Real Food Media Project, a new initiative to spread the story of our food with creative movies, an online movie contest, a web-based action center, and grassroots events. The mission is to help grow the movement for sustainable food and farming around the country and the world. Find their movies at foodmyths.org

Festival of the Commons

Neighborhood takes to the Streets
for a Common Celebration of Peace!

Saturday, November 9, 10am–5pm
At Intersection of 64th and Marshall streets in Oakland

Ever had a bicycle-powered smoothie? No? Well then, it’s time to try one! Phat Beets Produce will be making them when Oakland’s Golden Gate District hosts a re-imagination of the public commons in a street celebration featuring several public place-making projects: yard transformation/garden installations, cob bench, public bulletin board, compost worm bin, and an intersection painting project. This event also showcases local artists, musicians, re-skilling workshops, a bicycle repair station and bike safety obstacle course, community organizations, local merchants, and family friendly activities including a puppet show, magician, ventriloquist, and eco-themed carnival games.

PLACE for Sustainable Living has organized the event with the long-term plan of visiting a different neighborhood each month, helping to activate a similar re-imagination of the public commons by planting gardens and building benches, planters, and public art.

For updates please go to their Facebook Event Page.

 

 

Book Reviews and a Recipe
Reviews by Kristina Sepetys

Here are two new cookbooks by well-loved British cook-writers. Both are chock full of excellent food writing, delicious recipes, and handsome photographs.

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook
by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

Reprinted with permission from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi, copyright © 2012.
Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.
Photo credit: Jonathan Lovekin © 2012

Yotam Ottolenghi’s eponymous London restaurants—each a combination patisserie, deli, restaurant, and bakery—are among the city’s most popular culinary destinations. Finally available in the U.S. is Ottolenghi: The Cookbook. Written by Ottolenghi and his partner and head chef Sami Tamimi, it features 140 of the best recipes from the restaurants, which are inspired by the diverse culinary traditions of the Mediterranean. Ottolenghi and Tamimi were both born and raised in Jerusalem, Yotam in the Jewish west and Sami in the Arab east, and their heritage is reflected in their food. You’ll find bright, vibrant vegetable and herb-intensive dishes, intriguing combinations like figs with young pecorino and honey over wild arugula and basil, fennel and feta with pomegranate seeds and sumac, and the “archetypal Ottolenghi salad,” which is roasted eggplant with saffron yogurt. Recipes rely upon just the sort of produce which spills out of the bins in our local markets. This book, his third, following Plenty and Jerusalem, may be the best yet.

Notes from the Larder: A Kitchen Diary with Recipes
by Nigel Slater

Reprinted with permission from Notes from the Larder:
A Kitchen Diary with Recipes by Nigel Slater, copyright © 2013.
Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.
Cover photo credit: Richard Learoyd © 2013

Londoner and Guardian columnist Nigel Slater describes himself as “a home cook who writes about food.” In his Notes from the Larder he shares a daily chronicle of his cooking: “Nothing flashy, or show stopping, just straightforward and everyday stuff. The kind of food you might like to come home to after a busy day.”

This is the kind of food we’d all love to come home to: “quinces baking in the oven on a winter’s day . . . a bowl of sweet potato soup for a frosty evening . . . a steak tossed with chile sauce and Chinese greens.” Among the autumn offerings are dishes with leeks, roast pork, pumpkins, and squash, together with pies, crumbles, and fruited desserts. These “small kitchen celebrations” add up to 250 dishes. Recipes are mostly easy to prepare and rely upon simple ingredients. Slater’s thoughtful, evocative reflections on kitchen and garden life through the seasons make for enjoyable and inspiring daily reading.

Nigel Slater’s Pear and Chocolate Oat Crumble    
Reprinted with permission from Notes from the Larder:
A Kitchen Diary with Recipes by Nigel Slater, copyright ©2013.
Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.

Enough for 4

4 large ripe pears
1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup golden baker’s sugar

For the crumble:
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup demerara sugar
3 tablespoons jumbo oats
2 1/2 ounces dark chocolate (80 percent cocoa solids)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Peel the pears, rubbing each one with the lemon half to stop it from discoloring, then cut them in half and discard the stem. Scoop out the core with a teaspoon.

Melt the butter in a shallow pan. As it starts to sizzle, add in the peeled and halved pears and the sugar. Let cook until the fruit colors lightly. As the pears soften, let the sugar caramelize here and there, leaving them patchily golden. Transfer the pears and their sweet, buttery juices into a 6-cup baking dish. (If you prefer, make this in individual dishes.)

Make the crumble by rubbing the butter into the flour with your fingertips or using a food processor. When the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs, stir in the demerara sugar and jumbo oats. Add a tablespoon of water and shake the crumble mixture until some of it sticks together in gravel-size lumps. Chop the chocolate into small pieces, about the size of coarse gravel, then fold it through the crumble.

Sprinkle the mixture over the pears, leaving the surface quite rough and making no attempt to pack it down. Bake for 45 minutes, until lightly colored.