I don’t do a lot of smoking. I won a smoker a few years back for a photo of some meat, and guess what – I never used it. It stayed in garage, unopened in the box. Well, honestly, that was mainly because it was one of those that used these dicey pellets of reformed wood and with me being the hippy that I am I didn’t want to smoke my food with a bunch of unknown substances that hold that reformed wood together. I imagined it to be kinda like smoking food using MDF. Nah, not for me.

One book, which shall remain nameless because honestly it isn’t all as bad as this, recommends smoking in a wok using sugar as the fuel if you want to smoke food indoors. Since it is winter and raining here in Seattle, that seems like a good idea. Guess what – it tastes like burnt sugar, and that is being polite.

Instead I decided to try my hand at using the wok smoking technique but with proper wood chips – apple wood chips to be precise – I thought that might be a rather nice way to cook delicata squash. Turns out it is, especially if you smoke for 10 minutes and then finish in a very hot oven or under a broiler to caramelize.

A favorite restaurant of mine here in Seattle, Sitka & Spruce (which unfortunately seems to have doubled their lunch prices and halved the portions of their oh so lovely food) does some great stuff with marinaded feta, and frankly I want some of that action too. I have been pairing feta with a lot of stuff recently and I really enjoy the sharpness of it with this smokey rich squash. Pair that with a lovely spice and herb tang from the marinade and I reckon this whole thing is a bit of a winner.

Smoked Squash with marinaded feta recipe

1 delicata squash

handful of wood chips of choice

1 packet of decent feta cheese

olive oil

a few sprigs of rosemary

2 tablespoons fennel seed

2 tablespoons coriander seed

sherry vinegar – about 1 tablespoon

1 clove of garlic, peeled

small bunch of chives

salt and pepper to taste

24 hours ahead of time break the block of feta up into 1″ squares. Toast the fennel and coriander seeds briefly in a hot pan until fragrant. Yank the leaves off the rosemary stalks. Put the feta in a bowl with the coriander and fennel seeds and throw in the rosemary. Cover liberally with olive oil, and a few grinds of black pepper. Let this sit covered, in the fridge for a day or so.

Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Cut these two halves across in to half-rounds about 1/2″ thick.

Toss with a little salt and pepper.

Soak your wood chips of choice in cold water for about 20 minutes. Line a good sized wok with a double layer of foil. Drain the wood chips and place in the bottom of the wok. Torch the wood chips with a blow torch (plumbers blow torches are the best for this, and lighting charcoal barbeques!) until they are smoking. Turn the heat up under the wok to keep the smoke going constantly. Put a small rack in the wok – making sure it sits an inch or so above the smoking chips. Carefully put the squash on to this rack in a single layer. Cover the wok and smoke the squash for about 8 minutes. Turn the squash over and smoke for 7 or so more minutes.

As the squash is smoking make the dressing. Smash the clove of garlic up with a little salt until it is paste-like. You can use garlic confit here, which will give a far superior taste (just gently simmer garlic cloves in olive oil for 20 minutes to confit them). In a small bowl whisk together 1 tablespoon of sherry vinegar with 3 tablespoons (roughly) of good olive oil. Whisk the garlic in to this. Season with salt and pepper.

Finely chop the chives.

Once the squash seem to have taken on a mellow smoke aroma, remove them from the smoker. Finish them under either a very hot broiler, or a hot oven – 450F or so until nicely browned – say 5 minutes for the broiler, 15 minutes for the oven.

NOTE: I have a very hot ceramic salamander style broiler that does a brilliant job of very even browning on food – it does in a few minutes what it takes an oven 20 minutes to do. I do a lot of root veg under it these days, cutting down my cooking time. If you broiler isn’t so even, I suggest sucking up the extra time and roasting them in an oven.

Take the feta out of the olive oil marinade. Worry not if some of the spices stay on the feta. Arrange the feta and squash in a bowl, and toss with the chopped chives. Pour over the garlic dressing, and finish with some good sea salt. You know, the British stuff.

Many months ago I got en email from a bloke at a new online magazine startup called Spenser. He was looking for a story. Apparently he likes the stuff I do on my blog here and wanted an article about how I got started in charcuterie, the stories of the successes and failures, and just how you go about curing meat at home.

“sure!” I said “that sounds like fun”. Turns out it was. Even better than that it turns out that this online magazine is absolutely fantastic. Stocked full of great stories and photography. My kind of publication. In future editions I will be delving more in to different aspects of charcuterie, but to start with this article is about how I got started doing what I love.

So, go read. The whole magazine. It is awesome, and you can view it for free. That makes it doubly awesome. Oh, and they have a really nifty viewer to read it in too. Yep, you guessed it – now triple awesome. Here is the link: Spenser Magazine

Beets are my favorite root vegetable. My favorite to grow in our back yard, and my favorite to chow down on come the cooler months. They have, I have to say, been one of our great successes in the yard. We aren’t experienced gardeners, especially when it comes to vegetables. Many things have died from either our neglect or over attention, but beets have never been one of them. The seeds we sowed this year even survived a ridiculously wet spring and early summer that left most of our other crops bait for slugs. Each year we grow a couple of different varieties, some golden, some of the standard red ones and my personal favorite the chioggia beet. The chioggia is hands down the prettiest beet in the patch. I love how they look simple and beetish in the ground. You pick them and the slightly more red/orange root still looks like a standard beet, albeit a slightly odd colored one. But once you cut in to one raw and see the magnificent strips of brightly colored flesh you are sold. Unfortunately they loose some of that when cooked, however – which just means they should be eaten raw more often. For some reason it always reminds me of cutting in to a watermelon radish, a similar spectacular display of colors and patterns.

I can, and have, eat a roasted beet straight out of the pan with a little olive oil and really good salt when I was meant to be cooking them for a family meal. That is frankly my favorite way to eat the things. It feels like you are having a midnight feast of chocolate, only far far healthier. A recipe of such limited description however doesn’t make for a good blog post and sometimes it is nice to put on those great Italian shoes instead of functional work boots.

A while ago I discovered the joys of horseradish root. More correctly it paired with smoked fish. Trout in fact, if I remember correctly. Ever since then I have tried grating some of the root over lots of different things. My second favorite next to fish has to be over beets. When paired with something cooling (creme fraiche does the job here) you get this remarkable earthy yet robust complex and fresh flavor coming out of it all. I decided to push all this much more fall-like (if beets aren’t enough already) and throw in some hazelnuts into the mix as well. These are, without question, my favorite of all nuts. To my total happiness we happen to have a filbert tree right outside our house. To my despair we also have a whole army of rather vicious squirrels that seem to like them as much as I. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall says, in one of his books, “if you want to find a hazelnut tree follow a squirrel. If you want any hazelnuts, shoot the squirrel”. Well, I don’t have a gun and I think it might possibly be illegal to shoot the tree rats here in Seattle. With this in mind when I want hazelnuts I have to forget about climbing a tree and pop down to the store instead.

This dish needed a little more acidity when tasted, so I decided to toss in some preserved lemon too. I opened the jar of my lemons sitting in salt only to find that it was in fact a jar of lemon flavored salt. It had appeared I had used all the lemons. Not to worry, sitting right next to it on the shelf was my jar of preserved limes. I had been waiting to use these until the best moment – perhaps this would be it. Turns out, it was. They have more complexity than a preserved lime and work wonderfully well with the beets, toasted hazelnuts, creme fraiche and horseradish.

I wanted a little herbage in there, so at the last minute decided to put some dill fronds on as well. I really like dill with beets (I like dill with almost anything being honest) and especially the lovely creme fraiche. This might all seem like there is a jolly lot going on in this dish – far more than usual on my blog. Why yes, yes there is – however it all works together very well – complimentary flavors that each add a little nuance (if I wanted to sound all poncy)

oh crap, nearly forgot.. this would make a great side for the Yank Turkey Day that is quickly descending on us..

Roast Beets with Creme Fraiche, hazelnuts, preserved citrus and dill

4-5 medium to small sized beets

1 small tub of creme fraiche (you won’t use it all..)

1 small preserved lemon or lime

1 handful of hazelnuts, toasted and skins removed

1 small horseradish root for grating

olive oil

hazelnut oil (really good olive oil at a pinch)

sea salt, and some really good sea salt to finish

a small handful of very fresh dill fronds

Preheat oven to 375F. Scrub the beets and remove any stems and leaves. Keep those for a nice salad, or wilt and have with rice and eggs. Put the beets in a roasting pan with a good glug of average olive oil, a splash or two of water and a large pinch of salt. Toss the beets to coat. Cover the pan tightly with foil and roast in the oven for 30 minutes or longer, until the beets are tender when pierced with a knife.

Remove the beets when cooked and allow to cool until OK to handle. Rub the skins off the beets with a towel. Cut the beets into wedges through the center of the beet. Slice if you wish, I don’t care, I just think wedges look nicer.

Scoop out the guts of the preserved lemon and discard. Finely chop one half of it and finely slice the other half. Mix the finely chopped half with 4 tablespoons of hazelnut oil and let sit.

Coarsely chop the hazelnuts.

Put the beets in a large bowl. Toss in the hazelnuts and dill fronds and some of the slices of preserved citrus. Pour in the hazelnut oil mixture. Toss with your hands to gently combine.

Take a few very large tablespoon scoops of creme fraiche and put them in a bowl. Beet it with the spoon until smooth, then spread this in to the center of two plates. Serve the dressed beets over the top, making sure to get a decent amount of the hazelnut oil dressing on the plates too.

Finish the plate with a good grating of horseradish and sprinkle of top notch sea salt.

Eat.

It is about this time of year that I start doing quite a lot with locally grown peppers. They crop up at the farmers markets everywhere and it is pretty much impossible to walk through without picking up at least one bag. Over the years I have started to stray away from the usual red bell peppers, in search of more interesting shapes and colors. I actively hunt out the odd looking ones. Those deformed ones seem to have more character and I think they taste better to boot – or maybe just photograph with more charm..

My food takes an odd turn when it hits late summer, early autumn, as I am sure it does most peoples. One night I might just eat some lightly grilled vegetables, a slice of cheese and some salami. The next I am braising oxtail with polenta or potatoes. Light one night and heavy the next – depending how the unpredictable weather fairs this time of year.

These past few weeks I have been plagued with a nasty hit of gastritis and not a lot of food has sounded good. Strangely enough I almost totally lost any passion for cooking and preparing food. It was starting to worry me some I have to say. Meat certainly didn’t sound that great at all and seafood was only just palatable. Rather out of sorts you might say. Thankfully all that stuff seems to be done with now, and my hunger has returned with much vigor.

One good thing to come out of that mess was this lovely little stuffed pepper recipe. I have been a long time fan of millet. For some reason I always compare it to quinoa for no other reason than the fact that the two look pretty similar. I prefer millet. It is nuttier, more interesting and has better texture. I am sure some hippies with grubby hair will most likely at this point stop singing kumbaya around a campfire to start yelling things about quinoa being an almost complete protein, food of the Inca’s and all that crap. Sure, but millet tastes better and photographs better too.

I like my grains pepped up a bit and this case is no exception. Recently I have really been enjoying the Egyptian spice mix Dukkah (also Dukka, Duqqa). It has a real complexity and interest to it and just brings a lovely warm happiness to a lot of things (try it on some good feta, drizzled with olive oil for instance). Dukkah goes quite merrily it turns out with grains mixed with soaked raisins and apricots and hazelnuts. VERY WELL one might say. If you were to top this off with a dip of cool yogurt with spices and lime zest then it would make the whole thing even happier. These peppers use a somewhat bastardized version of the spice mix, just based on what I had in the kitchen and my own personal taste.

When doing stuffed peppers I like to go “open face” which is the exact opposite of how I like a good sandwich. I like to roast the peppers a bit first, cook the filling separately, then combine it all on a baking sheet. This gets finished off in a very hot oven for 10 minutes just to get things sizzling. That way I can prep everything the day before, and focus a bit more on individual components.

It might look like this recipe has quite a bit going on, but it is really just a marry of warm and cool. All the spices and nuts great this great intensely flavored warmth throughout the dish – with sweetness brought about by the peppers and fruit. This all gets cooled down by the yogurt which has been pepped with a little of the spice to help things blend, and a good job lot of lime zest. Be sure to use unsweetened yogurt for this one. In Seattle we have a great local producer Grace Harbor farms that makes my favorite yogurt of all time. Strauss also makes a good organic variety that is free of sugar and other junk.

One tiny addition that is also rather swell is a quick sauce made from tahini paste and some olive oil – simply scoop a big dollop of tahini in to a bowl and start mashing in some olive oil. Use a whisk if you want – you want the tahini brought down to a sauce consistency. Spoon some of this on to a plate, top with a pepper and some of the yogurt.

Roasted Stuffed Peppers recipe

6 peppers – look for some interesting shaped ones

1 cup of millet

small handful of hazelnuts, toasted and skin removed

small handful of dried apricots

small handful of raisins

1 tablespoon coriander seed

1 teaspoon cumin seed

1 tablespoon sesame seed

1 teaspoon fennel seed

1 tablespoon mustard seed

1 teaspoon of black peppercorns

salt to taste

small handful fresh mint leaves

1/2 cup of yogurt

zest of 1 lime

2 tablespoons of tahini paste

olive oil – about 1/4 cup

lime juice to taste – 2 limes or so.

Preheat the oven to 450F

Put the millet in a saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook partially covered until the grains are soft – about 20 to 30 minutes. Drain any remaining water from the millet. Meanwhile toast the coriander seed in a heavy pan. Crush it coarsely when cooled. Toast the fennel, cumin, sesame, mustard seed but leave those whole. Grind the black peppercorns. Mix all these spices together with a generous pinch of sea salt.

Soak the raisins and apricots in hot water for about 10 minutes until they soften and puff up. Chop the apricots relatively coarsely. Chop the hazelnuts coarsely also. This is a dish of texture as well as flavor. Finely chop the mint leaves

Cut the peppers in half lengthwise and remove core and seeds. Toss with olive oil and a little salt. Arrange on a baking sheet, skin side up. Roast for about 15 minutes until softened and blackened in places.

In a large bowl mix the cooked millet with the spices, nuts and apricots and raisins – reserve some of the spice mix (1/2 teaspoon for the yogurt if you wish). Pour in a good amount of olive oil to lubricate the whole thing. Add in the chopped mint leaves. Squeeze in some fresh lime juice to taste. Give it all a good mix up.

Flip the peppers over and fill the cavities with the millet mixture. Back in the oven they go for 10 minutes just to heat through.

Mix the yogurt with the lime zest, and add a little of the spice mix to it if you wish.

To serve – spoon out some of the tahini sauce on to a large serving plate. Place the peppers on top. Serve with the yogurt on the side, because some freaks apparently don’t like yogurt.

As I start getting old in my years, I am starting to realize there are two things that you shouldn’t mess with. The first is your mother-in-law, and the second is a pot beans. I am not even going to go there with the first – I happen to have a great MIL, so no worries there. The pot of beans is a far more complex issue anyhow (not calling the MIL “simple” you understand) because it needs subtly, which as we all know mother-in-laws can never have (hi Nell!)…

Beans are a favorite of mine, not just because they go so darn well with pork. Oh, and lamb to that point too. Beans have the ability to soak up so much flavor from whatever they are cooked in, yet remain delicate and individually nuanced if you want them to be.

We were recently lucky enough to spend a few weeks in Florence, Italy. My wife was taking an art class (she is an amazing figure artist) there for a couple of weeks, so the lad and I tagged along, with my folks too. We of course had a great time. Drank so much really good house Chianti, so much really good coffee, and ate a crap-ton (technical term) of really good cured meat.

Two things stuck in my head the most from the trip. The first was the Sant’ Ambrogio market in Piazza Lorenzo Ghiberti, the second was the pot of beans I learned to cook, thanks to the chain smoking bean lady that had a stall there.

Market Sant’ Ambrogio is the peoples market. Not the overpriced and spotlessly clean touristy one by the train station (Market Centrale). Ambrogio looks run down. It is run down. The people there have character. They also have some of the best produce in the city, and prices that are far better than we are accustomed to here ($4/lb for chanterelles anyone? 75c for a huge head of fantastic butter lettuce?). There was so much to love about that market. Little English was spoken, but I always seemed to be able to have a laugh with the stallholder and get what I was after. The outside stand with a whole massive porchetta everyday and prosciutto had to be seen to be believed. You learn quickly not to pickup produce yourself (slapped wrist pretty quick), but rather direct the seller to what you want. You watch the old Italian woman in front of you and get what she is getting. You buy the pecorino that the guy in front you with the basket stacked full of salumi and cheese is buying. You never seem to be able to leave the market without a lot of samples of bread, cheese, and meat. Lunch can easily be made by just trying to chat with the sellers. The sample of porchetta I got given to taste was surely bigger than most I would find in a sandwich here in the US. The bread guy took a shine to our son, and would always offer him a decent hunk of bread to eat as I ordered some cured meats from the next stall. It was a blissful market, full of Italians, full of character, and full of chain smoking stallholders…

That was the first thing that struck me walking in to this market. Everyone smoked. Everyone smoked a lot. Not just the people buying food, but the stall workers too. They would flick the ciggy out of their mouth into a dish before grabbing your produce with the same nicotine stained hand. The most expert at this was “the chain smoking bean lady” (as we called her). Right at one corner of the market was a woman selling vegetables and fruits. For the most part the produce looked pretty fantastic. She had the best looking fresh podded cannellini beans in the market. She had the cheapest too.  Her salad greens and tomatoes were top-notch. She was, in a word… awesome. Wrinkled face, grubby hands, cigarette constantly hanging out the corner of her mouth. A voice that had been honed by her 30 a day habit and the bottle of wine she surely consumed at every meal. She seriously taught me to see beans in a totally different light.

I bought a few handfuls of her cannellini beans on the first day of visiting the market. She asks me if I have garlic. When I say “er no, just here on vacation, I don’t have much” she gives me a look as if to say “for fuck sake, these bloody tourists not knowing how to cook anything”, and shoves a few cloves of garlic in the bag along with my beans. She then says “tell me you have sage”. I smile, laugh, and just give her another smile. She sighs, and dumps a whole shed load of sage in the bag too.

She then proceeds to tell me in broken English, which was far better than my Italian, to cook the beans in water with a good amount of garlic and sage. Then drain, dress the warm beans with olive oil, salt, and lots of pepper. “Rightio” I thought, and headed back to our apartment with son in tow, chewing on some lovely bresaola and bread.

That evening we cooked up the beans as directed by the chain smoking bean lady. They were perfect. Absolutely perfect. Smooth, warm, gentle and delicate. They were pure bean, but much more complex. Light and simple, but with enough going on to be interesting. Something you ate with a light summer meal of some tomatoes, cured meat, salad and bread.

A couple of days later we returned to the market, since we were out of beans (and cured meat..). This time I bought the sage and garlic. The chain smoking bean lady smiled and said “you liked the beans then”. Yes, yes we really did. So much so we ate them almost every night we ate at our apartment (which was quite a bit). We even tended to order the same bean dish when eating out too. They were always served very soft, warm, and with lots of good olive oil.

Whilst it is pretty hard to find fresh cannellini beans here in Seattle, they are easy enough to find dried. Borlottti beans (cranberry beans in the US) would also be a good fit – as would almost any mellow white bean I would think.

Bean recipe with garlic and sage

NOTE: I am not going to get in to the debate of whether to soak beans beforehand or not. I always do – not because I think they taste any different really than cooking them straight, but because I like to soak them overnight so that cooking them the next day is much quicker.

3 good sized handfuls of dried white beans (cannellini are good)

4 cloves of garlic

small handful of fresh sage leaves

water

really good olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Put the beans in a pan, and cover by 2″ with water. Cover the pan, and let soak overnight.

Drain the beans once soaked. Put them in a large saucepan, and again cover the beans with water – again have the water line a couple of inches above the top of the beans. Throw in the pealed garlic cloves and sage leaves. Tie the sage leaves together if you wish, it makes them easier to retrieve later.

Slowly bring to a simmer. Try not to boil them – they can break up pretty fast that way. Simmer gently until the beans are cooked – this can be anywhere from 45minutes to 90minutes, depending on your type of bean and how old they are. The cannellini beans I use take about an hour, or just under. Keep taste testing a bean after about 45 minutes. You are after a really smooth mouthfeel to the bean, nothing coarse at all. When you think they might be done, taste five or six different beans just to make sure. Some have a sneaky ability to be totally mushy, whilst the rest rather hard.

When they are done, drain them and put them in a bowl. Liberally apply a good dose of that decent olive oil you have kept away for special occasions. Season well with good sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Garnish with a fried sage leaf or two if you heart desires.

This blog has been a little quiet of late, and I apologize for that. Things have been busy, really busy. Here is one of the reasons why – Food and Light 2011.

Jen Yu of UseRealButter fame emailed me a while ago and asked if I wanted to be an instructor along with her and Todd and Diane of WhiteOnRiceCouple for this two day photography and styling workshop in Boulder, CO that she was setting up.

Obviously I couldn’t type back “HECK YEAH!” fast enough. These three are some of the best photographers and stylists I know, and just ooze creativity and ability – why the heck would I not want to work with such a committed group of people? I also consider them great friends and all round genuinely lovely people. It would be total insanity to say “no” to this, even if it was the week after I got back from a month long trip to Europe with my family. (I know, poor me..)

Anyhow, yes, things have been quiet. But not for much longer. I have been back from teaching this class for a few days now, and wanted to give a run down on the two days, because they were so darn fantastic, so life changing they are certainly worth talking about.

First off a huge thanks to Jen for inviting me along for this. I thought putting my presentation on lighting and composition together for the class was time consuming, but this pales in comparison to all the work Jen did to make this a knock-out event. Everything was planned out to the detail, all bases covered. Everything thought of. She had it down. Seriously. It was pretty great for this instructor to see, and I would hope it was the same way for the students (attendees?) too.

Secondly – I didn’t take a single photo on the trip. All the photos you see here are from the incredibly talented Jen Yu.

The two days yielded an intensive class. There was so much that we wanted to cover, from camera settings to lighting, to styling – everything that really makes the difference in a good photograph. Jen wanted the class to be pretty unique in that it had a lot of hands-on shooting, and I couldn’t agree more. The best way to learn is by doing, and that is difficult if you are sitting on your butt listening to an instructor rabbit on all day. But we did rabbit on a bit….

Look how fresh everyone looks! this must be the start of the day

Day 1 started at the Rembrandt Yard with a camera basics presentation from Jen. I don’t envy her taking this one. I have taught this before, and it is a total bastard to teach. The concepts can be tricky to get over without  it being technically overwhelming, or boring, or both. Jen had this covered in easily the best presentation I have seen on this stuff. Fun and engaging it was. Packed full of knowledge and useful tips too.

Next up was me with a presentation on lighting and composition. Basics of natural light was covered and some simple composition techniques to get interesting images. This ended up a bit of a meaty presentation to be honest.. meaty in the fact that I used some images of the past year to demonstrate key techniques and it has been a very meaty year for yours truly.

Me!!! now with 100% more glasses!

After an hour and a half of lectures the students were let loose on food and props to start taking shots, based on the knowledge (hopefully) gained from us two yabbering on.We walked around pontificating…

Diane: "get that Canon out of my face, I am a Nikon Girl!!" or more likely "great looking shot, try this, this and this!"

some beets get the rubber glove treatment

With a break for lunch, students were given “homework” to shoot their lunch. We scarfed down some gorgeous takeout from the Kitchen, and started setting up the afternoon.

The afternoon started with a styling presentation and demo from Diane. This was hands down one of the most impressive demonstrations I have ever seen, on anything. Ever. In 15 minutes she had two shots fantastically styled and shot. Each different feels, with great composition and styling. It was jaw dropping to see. Diane gave tips on how to refresh dodgy looking produce (which really worked!!)

Diane and Todd - Diane starting her styling presentation and demo

I followed up with a quick styling demo after that (how on earth can you follow that from Diane?) – and then it was on to attendees doing more shooting and styling.

Diane helping attendee style a tricky curried bean dish (brown beans are notoriously bad to style)

The great thing about teaching this workshop setup by Jen was the sheer amount of hands on camera time the attendees had and time they had to ask questions. From the get-go Jen wanted these two days to be very much a hands-on workshop rather than a series of dry lectures. You really learn by doing, so this was a great thing indeed.

"Be at one with the soup".. says Todd (I am guessing here..)

It was awesome getting to work with such a darn talented and enthusiastic people. Both attendees and instructors!

Day 2 was over at The Kitchen Upstairs (which rocks out some seriously awesome food I might add). A small wine bar space above their main restaurant. We split the attendees up into three groups, which rotated through three stations – Diane teaching candid shooting in a restaurant situation, Todd covering artificial lighting with speedlites, and myself and Jen covering post production with Lightroom and Photoshop.

Diane chopping, whilst instructing on how to shoot candid, working shots

Todd covers shooting with a speedlite, using a portrait session as an example

Me yabbering on about histograms in Lightroom, before Jen covers Photoshop

It was then on for a jolly nice communal lunch, before people got to do some more shooting in the afternoon

LUNCH! (fabulous it was too)

We wrapped up the afternoon with a judging of peoples submitted images – a competition for which Jen had organized some pretty amazing prizes (er, Kitchen Aid mixer anyone?!). It was tricky I tell ya, so many great images were shot over the couple of days of the class.

I left feeling tired, impressed, and honored to be a tutor in such a fantastically organized couple of days. I had a blast, met some really amazing people, discovered some new blogs I didn’t know about, and learned a lot.

It has taken us nearly a year to perfect this gluten free flatbread dough. The “we” part is my wife and I. For the last couple of years she has had to be gluten-free and that might well never change, so we decided to try and develop a fantastic pizza and flatbread gluten free dough. A regular weekly staple for us was making pizza from the basic “wheat, no knead” recipe that seems to be on every blog these days. We changed it a bit to use a mix of white and whole grain flours, but it was essentially the same. The only problem with it was gluten.

So when Danika first had to go gluten free, this was the one thing we had to make. We started with a recipe from a gluten free baking book. Our hopes were high. We bought the 4000 different flours required, the 20 different bizzare gums that I had never heard of before, and started to mix. We let it rise, then baked it. We wanted to like it. “hey this isn’t bad” I seem to remember muttering. But we knew different. It was bloody lousy. It was also a sodding pain in arse to work with.

We started to make our own. Things got better. We simplified the flours down and only used one gum and an egg. It was better, and at the time I really wasn’t trying to convince myself of that. But it still wasn’t fall to the ground crying with joy good. Far from it.

The one thing that has always bugged us with most gluten free recipes is the amount of bizarre crap you end up bunging in to a recipe to take the place of gluten. We eat a very unprocessed diet, generally stick to local and organic foods, so this bothered us somewhat. I had no idea what “xanthan gum” and “guar gum” were. I find the idea of using potato starch and tapioca flour strange too – two things I generally wouldn’t associate with being dried and ground in to a flour. Our motto for a long time has always been “don’t fuck with food”, and frankly half of this crap we were putting in to our gluten free dough didn’t exactly fit with that.

About 8 months ago we decided to ditch all that rubbish. No gums, no strange starches. Not even putting an egg in to help bind everything. We simplified our flour mix even further. We started to use freshly ground golden flaxseed as the binder. I expected the results to be terrible. Nothing, honestly nothing could be further from the truth. The dough started to behave like a gluten based dough. It was stretchy. It could be rolled easily. It got air bubbles when it baked. Because no egg or oil was in the mix the dough had that wonderful pizza dough mouth feel, rather than something that tasted heavy, and almost fried (if that makes sense). It was floury. But floury in a good way, not a heavy gritty kind of way.

This pizza dough (and flatbread dough) recipe was starting to taste seriously good. Three flours (two whole grain), sea salt, yeast, ground flaxseed and water. That is it. It couldn’t be simpler to make. Then we struck absolute gold. We decided to grill the pizza’s like we had before with the wheat based dough many moons ago. Now, we had also baked dough inside in a very hot (500F) oven on a pizza stone. It was decent, we thought. It always yielded a slightly better wheat dough than the BBQ way back when.

Grilling this gluten free dough over VERY hot coals is fantastic. It gets large air bubbles. The bottom crisps up but the top stays as light as a cloud. This is honestly some of the best pizza doughs I have ever tasted in my life, gluten free or otherwise. It beats the absolute crap out of the no knead wheat dough we made years ago (not that the no knead was bad). But was it just us that thought that? Big headedness, or just painfully wanting decent pizza again? Turns out no.

We invited some friends over one evening for some cured meats, and we decided to try this dough out on them. We would make these grilled flatbreads with home cured calabrese hot pepper lonzino (air dried pork loin) and mizuna from the yard. One of the guests is easily the best home cook I know so I really wanted his opinion on these flatbreads. We didn’t tell him what we were making, or that anything was gluten free. The first thing said was “wow, this bread is awesome”, with no idea there wasn’t an ounce of gluten in it. I was pleased. Very pleased. But also pissed, because he didn’t mention the cured meat first….

It is safe to say we are addicted to this dough. We have used it to make pizza and flatbreads for the last month or two, often twice a week. We have grilled them lightly and used them like a wrap for grilled vegetables. Danika has used them as a thin bun for hotdogs.

some stuff we love about this dough:

1. no strange gums
2. 66% whole grain flours
3. no strange starches
4. quick to make
5. can be rolled out easily, without parchment paper
6. pizza’s can be grilled easily on a BBQ, without pre-grilling dough first

good crust and good chew

“And what about the cured meat?” you ask. Well, this one is pretty great. Lonzino is air dried pork loin. It is lean, clean tasting and very light. Cut really thin on a meat slicer it pretty much just melts on the tongue. I have cured many lonzino’s now, and never grow tired of them. Often when I am working from home and need a snack, I will pop down in to the garage and slice myself some lonzino. With almost no fat it lacks the tongue smacking richness of salami or coppa – but sometimes that is a good thing. You don’t get weighed down if you eat 10 slices in a row (it happens so often, oh so often) and you have no fatty mouthfeel. Pretty great.

This one is cured simply with salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme and a little cure #2. After curing for 10 days or so we rolled the thing in some excellent Calabrese hot pepper that I got from my fellow meat curing buddy Scott, who runs an Italian imports business. I highly recommend this hot pepper. It is hot, but also flavorful. It tastes much more of red peppers then any other hot pepper I have tasted. It gets added to salami and cured in Calabria Italy, which is quite a classic of the area. Scott suggested I just roll the cured meat in it before stuffing it in to a casing and drying. With Scott’s knowledge of meat curing, I knew not to deviate from that plan.

A couple of months of hanging and the bad boy was ready. Sliced thin it is a total joy. Herby from the thyme and rosemary, with a really subtle kick of heat. Next time I think I will rub much more of the hot pepper in to the meat before curing, a little more spice would be nice (it is almost non-existent).

Gluten free flatbread recipe

TIPS:

1. weigh out the flours accurately
2. use whole golden flaxseeds and grind as needed. Pre-ground flaxseed can go rancid quickly.
3. the amount of water required will vary depending on the flours. Use feel more as a guide than water amount (more on that in the recipe)
4. use as little flour as possible to roll out the dough. This will keep it light and soft, rather than sandy and floury (in a bad way)
5. yes, I know some oat flour can have gluten in it from cross-contamination. You can find 100% GF oat flour. You can also grind your own GF oats to a flour.
6. Bob’s Redmill in the USA does certified GF Oat Flour. You can also use garbanzo bean (chickpea) flour if you want. I know some people hate that flour, but personally I like it – but then I really like chickpeas. I did some Indian flatbreads with it a few months ago, and threw in some nigella seeds, and they were awesome. It will absorb water differently, so go by the feel of the dough .

3.3oz oat flour

3.3oz brown rice flour

3.3oz white rice flour

1tsp sea salt

3/4 packet of active dry yeast

1 tablespoon golden flaxseed, finely ground

6fl oz warm water (about 120F)

whisk together the flours, salt, yeast and flaxseed until very well combined, and the oat flour is broken up (it can clump). Add about 5fl oz of water to the flour mixture and mix well with a large spoon. Chances are the dough will be dry and sandy still, and not holding together well. Try squishing it together with your hands, get a feel for how dry it is. Add a splash more water, and use your hands to really work this in to the dough. Squish the dough in your hands, knead it between your hands. Keep adding water a splash at a time until the dough is soft and pliable. Working it in your hands it should stick to your your hands a bit, but not leave huge pieces of dough on your palms. If you add too much water then you will have to add some flour when it comes to rolling out, and this will make the flatbreads sandy in texture.

Put the dough in a bowl and cover it with a damp towel. Put it in a warm place for a couple of hours to rise. I often set the bowl on a rack over a pan of pretty hot water. That does the trick. A warm countertop would be fine too. (warm and Seattle are freakishly rare..) After a couple of hours cover the bowl with plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge until needed. The dough will roll out much better if it is a bit cool.

Rolling – dust a board with a little brown rice flour. Take the dough out of the fridge, and let it stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before continuing. Take the dough out of the bowl, and work it between your hands a bit – you should feel it loosen up. Pinch a golf ball sized piece off the dough. Flatten it out a bit on the floured board with your hand. Dust a rolling pin with some flour, and gently roll out the dough. Do one roll, in one direction, then spin the dough through 90degrees. Roll again. turn again, roll again, turn again, roll again. Roll gently. If the right amount of water was added to the dough when making it the dough shouldn’t stick at all, but should be smooth and easy to work.

Heat up your BBQ to a very high heat. I really find that hardwood lump charcoal works best here over gas or other charcoal. Set up a dual heat zone – one side hot, one not so much. Using a pizza slice gently slip one of the rolled out pieces of dough over the hot coals. Shut the lid of the BBQ. Wait for a minute or so, then open the lid and check the puppy out. It should be puffing up nicely. Check the bottom to make sure it isn’t too burnt. Close the lid again and cook for a bit longer if needed, until just cooked through and the bottom a little charred in places. Move the flatbread over to the cooler side of the grill, and start grilling more of the flatbreads. Cook as many as possible in one go.

Drizzle a little really good olive oil over the flatbread. Top with some mizuna or arugula. Put some cured meat (lonzino, fennel salami, prosciutto) between the leaves. Eat immediately with a light glass of red.

It was about a year ago that I met David Pearlstein. He had a charcuterie blog back then, and was making some very decent looking (and tasting) product in his basement. He came over, we shared some of our cured meat (he makes the best duck proscuitto I have ever tasted) and chatted for a while about salty pig bits. Back then there was no mention of his great plans afoot.

About 6 months ago I checked his blog and saw a post on how he was converting his small home garage into a fully inspected, USDA approved meat processing facility, with the view to make awesome fresh sausage from local sustainable meats. Frankly, this didn’t surprise me much. David has spent more than a decade making fresh sausage, so it only seemed natural for him to make a business out of it. What did surprise me however was that he was going to do it legally from his garage. At the time I remember thinking that it will never work. That he would never get USDA approval for something like this. I mean, everything you hear about the USDA is that they are there to support big (BIG) business and giggle with a non-approving look at small artisan businesses.

Thankfully David’s experience wasn’t the case at all. In fact he was quite open about just how well received he was from the USDA, and their small business department.

So, to cut a long story short over the course of a year he converted a small garage in an old house which sits in a residential district of Seattle in to a fully approved, licensed meat processing facility so that he can make and sell sausage legally to individuals and businesses.

Imagine my surprise when friend and writer Matthew Amster Burton emailed me a few weeks ago now and said “hey, wanna take some photo’s of a guy’s sausage?” (I can say with some certainty that wasn’t the exact phrase Matthew used..). He was writing a story on David’s operation for Mint.com’s blog, and wanted some photos done for the article. Small world I thought! Matthew had no idea that I knew David, or that I had planned on taking some photos of David and his meat (ahem) anyhow.

One rainy morning we met David over at his “meat processing facility” for Matthew to get the rest of his story and for me to take the shots. David wasn’t doing full on production that morning, more packing up a crap-ton (technical term) of sausage he had made the day before. Whilst Matthew and David chatted away (with Matthew’s handy recorder going) I squeezed around and took pictures of all the meaty goodness. Then David set to work.

When you deal with a lot of sausage, you know what makes a tasty one, and what doesn’t (OK this post is going to be full of double entendre’s). The first thing to notice is the thickness. They should be decently full, but not bursting (OK.. I will stop..). The second most important thing is fat ratio and separation. You can tell a bad sausage when the fat isn’t clearly defined in the sausage, and looks more smeared around. This is going to cook up badly, taste greasy and mealy. Too little fat and the sausage is dry and bland. Too much and it is heavy and greasy. Finally you have seasoning and salt – which really you can only tell by cooking up the sucker. David’s work is impressive. You can tell he has been at this game for a while. Great form, perfect fat ratio and separation. These were going to be a joy to photograph. Secretly I was hoping to take a stash home with me…

As David cut, divided, vacuum sealed and labeled I ran around and took pictures of everything he was doing. The space was tight, but that lends for some far more intimate shots to be honest. It was a fun couple of hours to watch David work and chat. Anyhow, I thought it might be fun to share these pictures, and my approach to taking these shots:

1) when you don’t know what the lighting is going to be, pack your lights. This room was incredibly bright, given the overhead florescents. Normally these are the devils spawn for photographers, but somehow because a lot of this room was white, they gave a great clean crisp light that was quite a joy to photograph in. I was surprised.

2) when taking shots of people working or talking (or both at the same time… David!) take lots of shots. Hold that finger down on the trigger. Mouth shapes look incredibly odd when talking. Interrupt the person you are shooting (if they are talking) with something funny and down right stupid, to get a raw emotional smile or laugh. Make it unexpected. Don’t do it too much to piss the person off however…

3) In a bright environment I tend to deliberately underexpose my images a touch when shooting. I can always kick up the exposure a bit in post production, but having to recover blown out highlights is a bitch.

4) In a small space with someone working, work fast and light and don’t get in the way. Whilst I took a lot of gear, I had it all in the car and just grabbed what I needed, then headed back in. I wasn’t going to drag gear in there that I didn’t need and have people working trip over the stuff.

5) Tight spaces cry out for wide angles. Work with the distortion and flare it gives, it can yield fun images. Remember to always try and keep a good mid-ground element to set the composition, and have the background and foreground tell a story too. Most of these shots were taken with either a 20mm prime, or 50mm prime.

6) Take lots of shots. You can never have too many. Be selective however in the ones  you keep. The pictures have to tell a story. Ditch those that don’t.

So how do they taste? Well you know how I was secretly hoping to get some to take home? It happened. I took quite a bit home actually. The sausages I tried were awesome. Easily some of the best you can buy here in Seattle. The sweet Italian had great flavor without being too sweet (which is my problem with most sweet Italian sausage). The bratwurst has a great boozy taste. Because of the decent fat ratio in his product the skins brown up beautifully and give that perfect snap when you bite in to them (the sign of a good sausage).

You can get more information on David and his sausage business “Link Labs” here: http://linklabartisanmeats.com/

To read Matthew Amster Burton’s article about David and how his business came about check here: http://www.mint.com/blog/goals/sausage-garage-startup-05172011/

“You need to eat more protein” said my naturopath, “preferably at breakfast” she added. Being honest, I wasn’t totally surprised. My breakfasts recently had been cereal mixed with nuts and apples, covered in yogurt (Grace Harbor Farms for the world!). Looks like there is less protein in yogurt than I figured.

To some readers of this blog, that might be a shock. Given that my world the last couple of years has revolved around cured meat, pig and fish. This might be a tall order to expect you to believe this, but I honestly don’t eat much meat. In fact, a lot of the stuff I cure I give away. So, with all this in mind I set about coming up with a few fast breakfasts that revolved around my number 1 favorite food.

Eggs.

LOVE EM. Cannot get enough of them. Fried are great. So are soft boiled. My all time lovely favorite however is poached. Get yourself a good farm egg, gently poach and serve seasoned and steaming hot. It just cannot get better. I have recently been in a “put an egg on it” mood, where almost anything I cook I top with either a fried or poached egg. I gotta stop to be honest, but holy crap we are in asparagus season here in Seattle, so that is kinda hard..

I digress. Back to breakfast. I am addicted to this at the moment. I have eaten it almost every morning (with some changes..) for the last week. It is filling, yet light. Clean, but flavorful. But what the heck is it?

Quinoa, fresh fines herbs, miners lettuce, sherry vinegar and olive oil. Topped with a poached egg. I cannot begin to describe how darn addictive it is. Dare I even say “spring-like”? What is more, it all comes together in the time it takes to cook the quinoa. I have found that quinoa reheats pretty well too (if heated slowly with a little water).. so I have been known to make this to take to work for lunch too..

Right now at the farmers market we have some great wild greens coming through from a local forager. Miners lettuce is a favorite of mine. Crisp small green heads that are so tender and taste so delicate. If there was a green that reminded me of spring – this would be it. If you cannot find miners lettuce, you could use either arugula (rocket) or perhaps watercress. Some French sorrel might be nice too, if not a little bracing in this quantity.

“Fines herbs” is a French mix of delicate or fine herbs that get added to a dish at the last minute. I like to dress my green salads with it, or some lentils or chickpeas in the summer. Typically it is a mix of the freshest parsley, chives, dill, tarragon and chervil. In our garden we only ever really have parsley, chives and tarragon in any abundance, which seems to work well – they are honestly the main flavors of the mix anyhow.

Breakfast – Quinoa, Miners Lettuce, fines herbs, sherry vinaigrette

NOTES: If you cannot find miners lettuce, use arugula, watercress or French sorrel. If you want to make this for lunch at the office here is what to do: Cook the quinoa ahead of time, let it cool. Chop the herbs. Wash the miners lettuce. Mix up the oil and vinegar. Put it all in containers, separately. Poach the egg, then when done plunge it in to ice cold water. Put the egg in another container, covered with the cold water. When it comes time to eat, reheat the quinoa (add some more water to it), toss the herbs, lettuce and vinaigrette. Drain the poached egg and pour some boiling water over it to reheat it fast. Season the egg, and eat.

(serves 2)

2 really fresh eggs

1 cup of dry quinoa

handful of miners lettuce (or greens of choice)

small bunch of fresh parsley

a few stalks of fresh chives

a few sprigs of fresh tarragon (not too much, it is a powerful one..)

good sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

great olive oil

great sherry vinegar

Start by cooking the quinoa.  Put the quinoa in a saucepan and cover with two cups of water. Bring to the boil with the lid on. Once boiling, turn down to a simmer, and leave the lid half on. Let this bubble gently for about 10 minutes, until all the water is just absorbed and the grain is just fluffy.

Finely chop the parsley, tarragon and chives together.

Fill a small pan with about 2″ deep of water. Add a splash of white vinegar and a bit of salt. Bring to a simmer. Crack the eggs in to separate small bowls. Gently pour the eggs in to the hot water (shouldn’t be bubbling) keep as much distance between both eggs as possible. Leave them well alone for three minutes. Lift an egg out of the water and gently press on the yolk. It should have give, but the white around it shouldn’t wobble. If the white still seems a bit liquid, then back in the water for another minute or two.

Mix together the miners lettuce, warm quinoa and fresh herbs. Drizzle over a little vinegar and some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Divide between two bowls. Top with the poached egg. Eat immediately.

If I was to get all swanky on ya, I would call this salami “finocchiona salami”, however whenever I use some authentic name I seem to get emails from twerps telling me that it isn’t in fact XYZ because of this this and this. So I am not going to.

To be a true finocchiona it should have both fennel pollen and fennel seed in. I doubt the port should be in there either. No doubt it also has to be made by a certain old man named Giovanni who lives in a hut in the back of Tuscany somewhere. You can only contact him by a secret bird call, and he will only make finocchiona salami when he has the exact breed of pig required and at the right time of year so that the one certain kind of natural mold will settle on said salami, which of course gives it is characteristic taste.

I am guessing only part of that is true..

As with all historic Italian food, its origins are somewhat shaky at best, and often involve a story of love, betrayal or both. This time, the story goes that a thief stole a salami (thieves in Italy never steal Ferrari’s apparently, just salami) and ran from the bungling coppers. He hid the salami in a field of fennel (I shit you not) and when he came back to it months later he found the salami was scented with fennel.

However the whole fennel salami started, I know one thing – it tastes bloody fantastic, poetic story or not.

This here be mine and Becky Selengut’s version of the classic. The more I cure the more I like to cut flavors right down and keep it simple. Start with great pork and work with just a couple of flavors at the most. When dealing with whole muscle cuts like lonzino or bresaola I have even stopped using any herbs or spices at all – just salt and pepper. Let the pork shine people!

So here we are just talking fennel and white port. The white port was really an afterthought to be honest. We opened the fridge to get the pork out, and saw the bottle of white port Becky brought over a long time ago to do a previous salami with. OH! fennel and port we thought. That cannot be bad. Turns out it really isn’t.

Most of us know fennel seed pretty well. A lovely pungent anise flavor that can be a bit of brute if not treated with a delicate hand. Fennel pollen is more like it’s quiet brother, not as in your face but far more interesting once you get to know him. Fennel pollen is much more delicate and gentle than the seed. It is also far more complex. It has layers of flavor that a fennel seed just doesn’t have. Course all of this will often yield a relatively high price tag for the stuff, which isn’t so good because frankly the stuff is really addictive. Thankfully a meat curing mate of mine runs a great food imports business online and has some great stuff at rock bottom prices. Thanks Scott! (also perhaps one of the best company names out there.. go check it out to see).

So. that is it really. A simple thick salami cured with fennel pollen and white port. I cannot even begin to tell you how happy this salami makes me. It is light, clean on the palate, rich from the hand cut fat pieces and just absolutely perfect for a spring picnic (or setting by the sodding fire trying to warm up, because here in Seattle we have had the coldest, wettest April on record).

Fennel pollen and white port salami recipe

NOTES:

1) In this recipe the fat is hand cut. You can grind it if you like, but you won’t get such awesome separation of meat and fat.

2) The directions here are more of an overview – for detailed instructions on how to make salami at home, read my post here – the technique is the same, just different herbs.

3) Some ingredients are given as a percentage of the trimmed meat+fat weight. You will need to work out how much you need for you given meat+fat weight.

pork shoulder, trimmed of sinew and most fat – 4lb

pork fat back – 1lb

total meat weight – 5lb

kosher salt – 3%

cure #2 – 0.25%

Dextrose – 0.5%

Sugar – 0.2%

freshly ground black pepper – 0.4%

fennel pollen – 0.65%

T-SPX fermentation culture – 2teaspoons

Distilled water – 1/4 cup

white port – 1/4 cup

beef middle casings – 6 ft or so

1) soak the casings overnight in cold water. Rinse a couple of times during soaking, change water once. rinse casings through

2) Cut the pork shoulder in to 1″ cubes

3) Hand cut the back fat in to 1/4″ cubes, or if grinding cut in to 1″ cubes

4) mix the salt, cure2, dextrose, sugar, pepper, fennel pollen together in a small bowl

5) mix the pork shoulder very thoroughly with the spice mix

6) dissolve the T-SPX in the distilled water – let sit for 30 minutes to “wake up”

7) grind the meat through the large die, grind fat if not hand diced

7) Add the the TSPX solution and white port to the meat+ fat mix

8.) Using a mixer, or your hands, mix the meat until the meat gets sticky and seems to bind together well

9) Stuff into the beef middle casings, squeezing down as you go to get a tight pack

10) Prick casings to remove any air bubbles

11) hang to ferment at 75F 90% humidity with some air movement for 36hours.

12) Check pH – you want something between 5.0 and 5.3

13) if pH is good, hang to dry at 55F 75% humidity for about a month – or until salami feels hard throughout and has lost at least 35% of its starting weight. If pH is still high, let ferment for another 12 hours, and retest.

All of these specialist ingredients can be ordered online at:

Sausage Maker

RECOMMENDED READING:

How to turn an old fridge in to a meat curing chamber

How to make salami at home

Charcuterie – Michael Ruhlman

Art of making Fermented Sausages – Marianski

Cooking by Hand – Paul Bertolli