I've begun exploring kamut and spelt flours in no-knead bread. They are easy to find here in San Francisco in the bulk section of Rainbow Grocery. These are old varieties of wheat have slightly different flavors, nutritional profiles, and baking properties than whole wheat. Kamut tends to have less gluten than modern wheat varieties so I've [...]

The variations possible with no-knead bread continue to expand. I was teaching a no-knead bread class and discussing ideas for the San Francisco Food Bloggers' Bake Sale (We raised over $1400 for Share Our Strength this past Saturday, 28 April!). We were making the fig-fennel variation that is one of my favorites and riffed on [...]

    Get ready, get set. Bring a full wallet and an empty stomach to Omnivore Books, 27th and Church, San Francisco between 11 am and 4 pm Saturday, 28 April. There you will find one of the most eclectic and amazing bakeries ever. You can feel good about indulging, too, since the proceeds go [...]

Even those of us who think we know better make mistakes. I show you this picture of my foot, not to show off my bunion, as impressive as it may be, but to show you a burn made by boiling water and to demonstrate the stupidity of  cooking in bare feet. Things--knives, pots, hot water, [...]

It's morning at Fleur de Lys restaurant in San Francisco and Hubert Keller stands at the stove with a pan of potatoes sizzling happily in front of him. I had written the recipe for this dish, pommes paillasson--shredded potatoes cooked in oil and butter until they are crispy outside and meltingly soft within. Easy right? [...]

Are you ready for the bake sale of the year? Yesterday I refreshed my sourdough starter. After some (who's counting) weeks of negligence it looked pretty sad. But this morning it was awake, puffy, full of life, ready for work. So I took the very few minutes needed to mix up batches of no-knead bread destined [...]

Oh boy, this is going to be a good one. (Whoops, I think that's a line from the movie Don Juan de Marco but true nonetheless.) Last year's SF Food Bloggers bake sale earned over $1500 to support Share Our Strength's efforts to end childhood hunger in America. The items for sale rivaled any fantasy [...]

You cannot predict where researching and writing a recipe will lead. Last week the path led to Anchor Brewing in San Francisco. A recipe for Hubert Keller’s upcoming cookbook called for pale malt. Pale malt??!! I knew malt was made from barley and that brewers use malt in great quantities. Wikipedia, while helpful to an [...]

The little dough that could. Alison Ashton of Nourish Network and I were talking about a favorite subject---no-knead bread---and soon enough found ourselves wondering whether the dough would work as a pizza crust. I was sure it would but had not specifically tried it. Naturally, that meant I had yet another reason to stir up [...]

Goldilocks knew a good thing when she tasted it. Whenever a bout of “gastrointestinal distress” causes Kit (the dog) to go off his feed, I cook him a pot of chicken porridge—chicken, white rice, carrots, garlic, thyme, a little salt, and lots of water. Once I thought it would be healthier to use brown rice. [...]