A sophisticated butter cookie

Orangette. How do I love thee? Let me count thy ways.

This blog has been the source of endless food inspirations. I mean, I don't even like butter cookies all that much, and yet, I have been fantasizing about these buckwheat butter cookies for months. Part of the appeal was the novelty factor. Another part of it was the intrigue factor: buckwheat with nibs? Hmm. I wonder how that will taste? But mostly, I was drawn to this recipe b/c I really like both buckwheat and nibs. I just never had them together, and what better excuse than in a little cookie?

It took me a while to find nibs, but I found some last week at Whole Foods and then had the perfect excuse to make these this weekend.

This is a very sophisticated and understated cookie. The buckwheat gives it that perfumey earthiness and really complements the bitterness of the nibs. The bitterness, the grainy texture and the buttery-ness all round each out quite nicely. I couldn't stop eating these.

At first glance, they kind of look like they can be mistook for stiff chocolate chip cookies.
But then you bite in expecting to taste chocolate and the flavors are much more intense, yet subtle. I love the burst of not-quite-chocolate flavor from the nibs. I am in cookie bliss. . ..

Barley risotto

Ah, asparagus, the harbinger of spring.

In graduate school, my then-roommate and I once kept a picture of asparagus in our living room. Its green caps symbolized the advent of spring.

Well, there hasn't been an asparagus sighting at the farmer's market quite yet, but yesterday, I saw a bunch of asparagus for $1.99 per pound at the grocery store, and while I generally don't like buying imported versions of any veggies that are otherwise available in California (e.g. buying garlic from China at a grocery store, when I live 50 miles from the garlic capital of the world? Come on.), I couldn't resist the asparagus. At $1.99 per pound, organic and buying local be damned.

I had a Mark Bittman recipe for a turkey barley risotto that I had been meaning to try, but needed a good substitute for the turkey and the asparagus delivered.

I also had green garlic (another herald of spring), so I modified Bittman's recipe and concocted a green garlic asparagus risotto with sundried tomatoes. I was a bit skeptical of the barley as rice thing, but the result turned out quite well.
Plus, unlike regular risotto, there is none of this constant monitoring of rice and adding of broth. In this risotto version, you just pour in the liquid all at once and are done with it. It's quite low-maintenance that way, but with satisfying results. The barley imparts a nice "crunchy" texture. Not "cookie" crunchy, but an earthy texture that has a pleasant mouth-feel. I think I might even prefer it to regular risotto. Next time, I need to cook the asparagus a bit longer, but otherwise, I was impressed with the results.

More lentils

I have been on a lentil kick lately. I made a lentil pilaf, then a lentil soup a few weeks ago, and now this past week, I tried spiced lentils. This SF Chronicle recipe (scroll down to the very bottom till you get to "lentil and vegetable stew (Dhansaak)") piqued my interest. This recipe calls for hand-grinding a zillion spices, then making an herb paste. I cut the recipe in half, but kept the proportions of the herb paste and spices, figuring that more flavor couldn't hurt.

Since I don't have a food processor or spice grinder, I pounded and ground each of the 9 herbs (except the cinnamon stick, which I grated) with a mortar and pestle. Had I realized that I would have to grind my own herbs, perhaps I may have never tried this recipe, but then I would've missed out.

I don't think I'd make this on a weeknight, but the grinding of the herbs was well worth the effort. The melange of freshly ground spices really added oomph to an otherwise comforting but frumpy lentil dish.
(And now, thanks to fabulous photo-taking tips from my downstairs neighbor, I can actually take close-up pictures that make any dish look quite appealing. )

I lived on this dish for almost an entire week.

Gluttony at A16

I've been away for a while, but it doesn't mean I haven't been skipping out on food gluttony. I just have been remiss about updating this site.

Several weekends ago, Celadon, M and I went to the city and caught the Marie Antoinette exhibit at the Legion of Honor. The exhibit was interesting, less for the displays and more for the historical and biographical background that it presented of the queen. The weather was lovely, if a tad brisk. After taking a few pictures of the clouds as the sun set, we headed to A16. We had been wanting to try this place for its burrata cheese (and in my case, pizza) for a while.

For appetizers, we ordered the prosciutto sampler and burrata cheese.
Even I, who theoretically don't eat meat, got excited at the slabs of prosciutto. The Burrata cheese is the white stuff on the plate on the right. It is a very creamy, rich version of mozzarella cheese. There were three different kinds of prosciutto. I don't remember which kind I liked best, but it was the darkest one pictured above.

M and I ordered pizza--margherita for him;

mushroom for me. while Celadon ordered the chestnut pasta.
Everything was delish, though by the time I started on my main course, I unfortunatelyhad a bad stomach ache. My pizza had that wood oven-fired distinctive smoky charred taste that I really like. I did not like it quite as much as the pizzas they have at Pizzaiolo, but this was a pretty mean pizza. (In fact, it tasted even better the next day.)

Overall, we were very happy with this restaurant. The service was very attentive without being overbearing. The food was excellent, and the ambience was quite good.

I don't believe in silly scales, but if I were to rate it on a 1 to 10 scale, I'd give it an 8.