Newsletter: In the Kitchen: More beer, hot chocolate
Smog City Brewing Co. began brewing beer in 2011 and opened their taproom in Torrance in 2013.
Will this summer ever end? School’s started. The markets are full of apples, pears and even winter squash — and still the temperatures are in the triple digits. At a time like this, the only thing to do is huddle under the air conditioner and dream of cooler days ahead.
Exploding beer
It seems like it was only three or four years ago that knowledgeable Southern California food lovers were asking one another when we would finally join in the craft beer craze. There were no more than a half-dozen local breweries that could remotely be considered “crafty.” The local crop was far overshadowed by San Diego. San Diego, for goodness sake. That has all changed in a hurry. Today, reports beer columnist John Verive, the number of craft breweries in Los Angeles is growing so fast it’s hard to get an accurate count. Best guess? More than 50, and more than half of them have opened in the last 20 months.
Chocolate tips
Alice Medrich is the long-reigning queen of chocolate. And taking a class with her, as Test Kitchen director Noelle Carter did last week, is a master course in working with the stuff. Among the best tips: Why a water bath is superior to a double-boiler for melting chocolate; what’s the best way to taste chocolate (hint: smell it first); and all about cooked ganache — chocolate, cream and sugar steamed together for 10 minutes. Oh boy.
Stale blessings
There are two constants in most summer kitchens — ripe tomatoes and stale bread. The first is a blessing, the second not so much. Until you think about it. Pa amb tomaquet anyone? Or even better, panzanella? These are summer dishes that will take your stale bread to new heights.
Dairy woes
Karoun Dairy might be the most prize-winning cheese maker you’ve never heard of. Located in the San Fernando Valley, its Latino and Middle Eastern cheeses are longtime favorites at the annual American Cheese Society competitions. But last week it halted production of some of those cheeses after they were linked to a multistate, multi-year outbreak of food poisoning. None of Karoun’s products has tested positive for the bacteria, but many of the victims reported having eaten their cheeses shortly before falling ill.
More wine
It took Karen MacNeil 10 years to write her “Wine Bible” and in the almost 15 years since it was first published, it has sold more than 750,000 copies. Next month she’ll be coming out with a new edition. And oh how the wine world has changed since 2001. MacNeil says she rewrote more than 80% of the book in the last five years with the finished manuscript running more than 5,000 pages.
Civilized television
American food television is filled with towering egos, insane competitions and pressure-cooker tension. Which is why an import from Britain is such a pleasant relief. “The Great British Baking Show,” which airs on PBS in this country, is understated, polite even. The contestants — amateur bakers — actually seem more interested in creating something beautiful than in embarrassing their opponents. How civilized.
What we're reading
The bitter fight over the closing of the Drakes Bay Oyster Farm on Tomales Bay was epic by any account. It lasted more than 10 years, ably recounted by author Summer Brennan in her new book, “The Oyster War.” But reading the book inspired Grist’s Nathanael Johnson to ponder some deeper questions. Such as: Is it inevitable that every political disagreement turns so vicious?
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