“Oh my Gawd, it’s like an oven out here!” This is a not-uncommon refrain heard in Sacramento in summer. Well, if life gives you an oven, use it. This is one of the few places in the country where I can consistently dry things without an oven: Sacramento typically sees summer days over 95 degrees [...]
I needed yesterday, on several levels. I spent yesterday from dawn to dusk with my friend Harry fishing, shooting the shit, lounging on the Sacramento River, drinking wine and eating fish. No projects, no appointments, nothing but a lazy Sunday. I also needed the lesson in adaptive cooking I got when it came time to make [...]
I present to you: mocetta. It is my first-ever dry-cured ham, and because I am generally abnormal, it does not come from a pig. Mocetta (MOE-chet-uh) is a Northern Italian air-dried goat ham. I wish I could tell you I have an old recipe handed down by the nonnas from Alto Adige, but that’s be [...]
Salmon, especially king salmon, are the pigs of the aquatic world. Large, fatty, with significant differences in flavor from cut to cut, the salmon is, like pork, equally good fresh or cured. And if there is a fish you can get all nose-to-tail on, it is the chinook. After Holly and I caught three gorgeous [...]
Jon had always talked about springers. Holly and I’d been fishing with Jon Harrison of Five Rivers Guide Service for several years, and every time we went out he never failed to talk about two things: the Trinity River and spring-run king salmon. He even named his dog Trinity. But for years, I never really [...]
I’ve made a lot of escabeche in my time, and read scores of recipes from all over the world. This vinegary, bracing sauce make a perfect summer lunch or dinner and is ideal for weekly lunches because escabeche keeps for days in the fridge. It’s one of my go-to dishes when the heat arrives. But [...]
Frankly I am a bit surprised. Everywhere I read on the internet, it said that elderberries don’t come ripe until September — and what’s more, they follow blackberries and precede wild grapes; our blackberries are still green. But few of those online sources are from California, where drought and sun ripens everything early. Friday morning [...]
