How to make your own tomato paste, Sicilian style. Patience is needed, but if you have it, you’ll be rewarded.
How-To (DIY stuff)
The Courage to Cook with Borage
What do you do with too much borage? Most people barely even know what borage is, let alone that a) it is edible and b) what you might do to highlight its flavor. Borage arrived in my garden years ago when I planted it not to eat, but as a bee attractant: The more bees
Drying Tomatoes Without an Oven
“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
How to Make Chicory Coffee from Scratch
For a time, my favorite coffee was New Orleans style, where the coffee is cut with roasted, ground chicory root. Chicory coffee is smooth, a little more acidic than normal coffee, with a taste and aroma similar to a mocha — and it makes a drink darker than the inside of a cow. I used
Wild Salsify – Right Under My Nose
I see salsify. It’s everywhere. And I didn’t know it was salsify. Until now. I just wrote about how most of the people who use the American River Parkway have no idea about the bounty that grows all around them. Well, as it happens I am not immune to that blindness. We have had wild
How to Make Paprika at Home
Why bother making homemade paprika? Fair question. After all, the Spanish and Hungarians are better at it than we ever will be, right? Why not just call up Penzey’s or somesuch and order some? Well, I do. But making something like paprika at home is not so much something I did out of necessity as
How to Break Down a Game Bird
A basic skill I use all the time is breaking down, or cutting up, ducks, geese and pheasants. Not every bird is worthy of a full-on roast: To me, such a bird needs to be fat, young and not terribly shot-up. For those birds with broken legs, shot-up breasts, that are skinny or very old,
Venison Stock
Making stocks and broths are among the core skills of any good cook, and it is a labor or love I embrace wholly. As a hunter, angler and a gardener, I can often make a first-class stock solely with ingredients I’ve grown, caught or shot. This to me is deeply satisfying. Venison stock is one