Darina Allen: A trip to California, nettle pizza and this weekend's recipes
I’M JUST back from a flying visit to California, a mini book tour with a few days in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Ojai (pronounced O hi) — a beautiful valley, north of Los Angeles, carpeted with orange and avocado groves and surrounded by the Topatopa Mountains.
In Los Angeles, I was invited to appear on the Home and Family Channel to talk about my latest book, Grow, Cook, Nourish. I cooked one of my favourite easy peasy recipes, Tortillitas with Aioli, the crew absolutely loved them. I grasped the opportunity to spend a few days in LA, not nearly long enough. One could easily spend two weeks and eat beautiful creative seasonal food for breakfast lunch and dinner. I had difficult choices to make with just four meal slots, I came straight from the airport at 9pm to meet some Ballymaloe Cookery School alumni at a restaurant called The Tasting Kitchen in Venice, a hip and happening area in LA. We shared 10 or 12 little plates of delicious, very Californian food; we loved the little pillows of deep fried bread dough called gnocco fritto, served with San Daniele ham. Chef-owner Casey Lane is definitely a name to watch.
I stayed in a hip boutique hotel designed by Phillipe Stark, called Mama’s Shelter, close to the Universal Studios, but you might want to try Chateau Marmont.
There were no farmers’ markets on while I was in town but I greatly enjoyed nosing around Grand Central Market which has a new lease of life. It’s a brilliant spot for adventurous food lovers, check out Clark Street Bakery, Belcampo Butcher, Sari rice bowls, G & B Coffee, Tewasart Tacos and Eggslut (a great name, it’s on the Broadway side of the market and serves all day breakfast to hundreds of people, daily. Their signature dish is The Slut, a coddled egg on top of smooth potato purée, cooked in a glass jar topped with grey salt and chives, served with slices of baguette is comfort food at its best).
On a more general level there seems to be huge nutritional confusion and a desperation amongst many to find healthy wholesome food they can trust. Tons of money is invested to promote super foods, free-from foods and supplements. The vegan/vegetarian and plant food movement is huge and growing and there are now some fabulously good restaurants and cafés serving exclusively vegan food.
Some of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten have been in the US, particularly California and this time was no exception.
At Chez Panisse in Berkley outside San Francisco, Alice Waters made me a nettle pizza from the fresh new season’s growth.
I’m still dreaming about a Turkish inspired pizza with minced lamb topping drizzled with yoghurt and tahini, scattered with feta and lots of flat parsley sprigs and a sprinkling of sumac that I ate at Boulette’s Larder beside the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco.
Down in Los Angeles I made a pilgrimage to Nancy Silverston’s new Pizzeria Mozza and enjoyed a bubbly Pizza Bianco with Fontina mozzarella, sottocenere al tartufo and crispy sage leaves from a long list of temptations and so wished I had space for the tomato and zucchini blossom pizza.
Dessert was Meyer lemon gelato with champagne vinegar sauce.
Nancy Silverston’s Mozza Lemon Gelato with crystallised lemon and champagne vinegar sauce
Melt the butter and stir in the crushed biscuits, press into the mould in an even layer. Refrigerate while you make the filling.
To make the ice cream, separate the egg, whisk the yolk with the milk and keep the white aside. Gradually mix in the sugar. Carefully grate the zest from the lemon on the finest part of a stainless-steel grater. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and add with the zest to the liquid. Whisk the egg white until quite stiff and fold into the other ingredients. Freeze in a sorbetiere according to the manufacturer’s instructions or put in a freezer in a covered plastic container.
When the mixture starts to freeze, remove from the freezer and whisk again, or break up in a food processor. Then put it back in the freezer until it is frozen but still slushy. Pour into the crust, cover and freeze.
To serve remove from the freezer. Cut into pie shaped pieces. Serve on a chilled plate. Put a dollop of softly whipped cream on top. Add some crystallised lemon and drizzle with some champagne vinegar syrup. Enjoy.
Nettle and Ricotta Pizza
At Chez Panisse in Berkley, California, Alice Waters incorporates local wild foods into her menu — I enjoyed this delicious pizza straight from the oven.
Preheat the oven to 475F/250C/gas 9. Preheat a heavy baking sheet in the oven.
Stretch or roll the dough into a thin round. Sprinkle a little cornmeal onto a paddle. Lay the pizza on top. Brush with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with chopped garlic and roughly grated mozzarella. Top with a mound of young nettles. Mist generously with water, season with salt and freshly ground pepper and top with a few blobs of ricotta or Ardsallagh goat cheese.
Cook for 7-8 minutes depending on the intensity of the heat.
Remove from the oven, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve immediately with a few flakes of Maldon sea salt sprinkled over the top.
Egg Slut
This little combination of modern industrial coddled egg and potato puree was inspired by a visit to Egg Slut, the egg-centric food stand in Grand Central Market in LA. This irresistible nursery food reminds me of my childhood and certainly seems to hit the spot for a whole new generation also to judge by the length of the queues.
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil; put 2 heaped tablespoons of well-seasoned buttery potato puree in the base of each jar. Crack an egg into each jar. Cover with the screw top lid. Bring back to the boil for 10-12 minutes.
Remove the lids. Sprinkle with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and a few finely chopped chives. Serve with some toasted focaccia, sourdough or baguette and with a teaspoon to scoop up the little feast.
Mix the egg and potato together and slather on toast.
Tortillitas à la Patata
The crew of the Home and Family programme loved these little potato fritters which Sam and Jeannie Chesterton of Finca Buenvino in Andalucia, introduced me to. I keep wondering why it never occurred to me before, they are so easy to make and completely addictive. Children also love them and they make perfect little bites to nibble with a drink, preferably a glass of fino or manzanilla.
Whisk the eggs in a bowl, add the potato dice, season with salt and freshly- ground pepper, add the freshly chopped herbs.
Heat about 5mm extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan on a high heat, cook a teaspoonful of mixture and taste for seasoning.
Correct if necessary.
Continue to cook the mini tortillas as needed, using a scant dessertspoon of the mixture. Allow to cook on one side for about seconds, flip over and continue to cook on the other side for a similar length of time, or until slightly golden.
Drain on kitchen paper. Sprinkle with a few flakes of sea salt.
Serve hot, or at room temperature with a blob of aioli.
Put the egg yolks into a bowl with the mustard, garlic salt and the white wine vinegar (keep the whites to make meringues). Put the oil into a measure. Take a whisk in one hand and the oil in the other and drip the oil onto the egg yolks, drop by drop whisking at the same time. Within a minute you will notice that the mixture is beginning to thicken. When this happens, you can add the oil a little faster, but don’t get too cheeky or it will suddenly curdle because the egg yolks can only absorb the oil at a certain pace. Add the chopped parsley. Taste and add a little more seasoning and vinegar if necessary.
If the aioli curdles it will suddenly become quite thin, and if left sitting the oil will start to float to the top of the sauce. If this happens you can quite easily rectify the situation by putting another egg yolk or 1-2 tablespoons of boiling water into a clean bowl, then whisk in the curdled aioli, a half teaspoon at a time until it emulsifies again.
Hot tips
Remember how grateful we were to our small local shops and butchers who came to the rescue of many during the extreme weather conditions of a few weeks ago. Let’s show our gratitude by continuing to support them into the future – use them or lose them. Both urban and rural Ireland would be much poorer not to mention less colourful for their loss.
What are we like, virtually the whole country went into spasms of panic at the prospect of bread scarcity — civilised, sophisticated grown-ups were virtually tugging sliced pans from each other.
Time to take a look at what we’ve inadvertently allowed to happen in our crazy busy lives, we’ve become increasingly deskilled and helpless, consequently dependent on others (ie, supermarkets and multinational food companies) for our basic needs, so if you haven’t already had a eureka moment — resolve now to learn how to make a loaf of bread. It’s not beyond the wit of any man, woman or child to put a few ingredients into a bowl, stir in some buttermilk, scoop out the dough into a bread tin and pop it into a preheated oven. Hey presto you’ll have a delicious loaf of bread… I’ve been making bread all my adult life and most of my childhood but every time I still get a “oops” in the tummy every time I take a loaf of bread out of the oven and you will too and your family will hug you for it…
“Bake your own bread and bring it home” on Friday, May 18, see www.cookingisfun.ie.
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