Canning It: Working under pressure

When most people think of canning, they think of boiling water canning; taking food that has been placed in jars and boiling it for a recommended amount of time to make it last.

When you make fruit jam or pickles that way, you have something to eat and perhaps some handsome gifts to give away. But there are limitations to what can be boiling water processed and you can’t really feed your family on jelly and pickles. This is where pressure canning comes in.

Pressure canners (which are different than pressure cookers) are huge industrial-looking pots that have clamps and gauges, weights and valves and 12-page instruction manuals that are downright intimidating.  But don’t let that stop you. It’s simpler thank you think. All you have to do is follow the directions.

Learning the farm-to-table lesson

 
Ray Garcia, the executive chef at the swanky restaurant Fig in the Fairmont Miramar Hotel, arrived each week at Olympic High to teach, but also to learn and to try to open the teenagers' eyes and palates. Together, they planted kale and eggplant, tomatoes and more in a narrow strip of land outside the school. What the students didn't eat went to Garcia's restaurant kitchen.

That made the work of growing food real.

But it didn't necessarily make the students so eager to eat it. "These kids feared food. Not only are they disconnected from it, they fear it," Garcia observed one Friday. "They have few reference points to describe their culinary experiences." But slowly, they came around. And one warm evening last week, Garcia gave seven of them their graduation present: a sophisticated, eye-opening taste of the meaning of farm to table. Mary MacVean has the rest of the story in today's L.A. Times.

Richard Urena, 19, left, Jenny Morrow, 18, and Krystal Kelley, 18, right, speak with chef Ray Garcia at his restaurant. (Francine Orr, Los Angeles Times / Jan. 26, 2011)

Lindy & Grundy: Two tough babes with a soft spot for sustainably raised meat

Erika Nakamura and Amelia Posada barely clear the 5-foot mark, but they have quickly become social media giants. During their road trip from New York to California in August, the duo already were making a push to connect with their new demographic. The cleaver-wielding butchers have tapped into the L.A. culinary scene, networking with fellow female butchers and foodies along the way.

Don't be fooled by their size; the young women nicknamed Lindy & Grundy have a thing for breaking down big animals. In fact, when we set up our photo shoot, I'd talked with Nakamura about shooting the couple preparing a humble meal in their kitchen. When our photographer Genaro Molina arrived on the scene, they busted out half of a grass-fed cow, whipped out their hand saws and got to work.

Nakamura and Posada's sustainability-focused butcher shop, Lindy & Grundy, is set to open at the beginning of February, and the story of the road to the L.A. opening is told here. We've also compiled a list of other locations that carry sustainably raised meats. Please feel free to tip us off to any of your favorite purveyors in the comments.

--Krista Simmons

Follow me on Twitter @kristasimmons

Photo: Amelia Posada and Erika Nakamura in their home. Credit: Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times

3 food events you should know about: Sabor da Bahia at Angeli Caffe; 'History of Wine Making in San Gabriel Valley'; Artisanal LA [Updated]

Brazilian street food: Street Food Mondays continue at Angeli Caffe with Evan Kleiman and Street Gourmet LA. On Monday, get Brazilian street food and beach cuisine from Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. Reni Flores and Ilma Wright are baianas, women from Bahia, and they'll be serving acaraje (Brazilian falafel) and abara (Brazilian tamales) -- the way they do at local festivals where samba singer Reni occasionally gives a command performance. The menu also includes shrimp skewers sauteed in palm oil, Bahian-style crab cakes with butter-toasted yucca flour and shrimp stew with chayote. 7274 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA (323) 936-9086. 

[Updated 10:30 a.m. 10/18/10: An earlier version of this post misspelled baianas as baiananas.]

L.A.'s wine-making roots: Charles Perry will tell the "History of Wine Making in San Gabriel Valley" at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, followed by a wine tasting, on Sunday, Oct. 24. 

Los Angeles County was the first place in the country where premium wine varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon were made, starting in the 1830s. In the late 1880s, L.A. was still producing more table wine than either Napa or Sonoma, and its wines were being exported to the East Coast and Europe. The San Gabriel Valley was our premium wine country.... 

Perry was a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times food section, has published widely on food history, and is the president and co-founder of the Culinary Historians of Southern California. $25 members, $30 non-members. Call for reservations. 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia,  (626) 821-4623,  www.arboretum.org.

Weekend marketplace: Artisanal LA kicks off on the weekend of Oct. 23. On both Saturday and Sunday the event will host producers of sustainable and handmade edibles in the penthouse of downtown's historic Cooper Building. Expect a local craft beer and spirits tasting; arts and crafts workshops; speakers and chef demos; giveaways and door prizes; DJ Bryan Davidson; and shopping from more than 75 local craft vendors such as I Heart Pies and All Jarred Up. $10 in advance online (tickets are available through Eventbrite) and $15 day of event at the door (cash only), capacity allowing. Part of the proceeds benefit LAUSD Edible School Gardens. 860 S. Los Angeles St., 11th-floor penthouse, Los Angeles, www.artisanalla.com.  

-- Betty Hallock 

Photo credit: Bill Esparza/Street Gourmet L.A.

25 delicious deals

There are deals, and then there are delicious deals. But at a time when restaurants' offers of "buy one get one free" and "half-price on Wednesdays" are as commonplace as tuna tartare or beet salad, sometimes it’s tricky to distinguish the two.

This is definitely an eater’s market — but just because it’s cheap doesn’t mean it’s a bargain. If a $5 cocktail isn’t well-crafted, or an appetizer that costs less than a cup of coffee fails to excite your palate, then it’s not a delicious deal.

So, wading through the low-price hype, L.A. Times Food section writers found 25 of the best values around, including $1 specials at a favorite San Gabriel Valley noodle house, a 10-course Indian thali feast, a $14.95 lobster dinner with a million-dollar view, the happiest happy hour and our top spots for all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue. Check it out:

Photo: At the Beachcomber in Malibu, the $14.95 lobster dinner special is too good to pass up, especially since they throw in the million-dollar view for free. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

 

Kogi truck rides on to more accolades; Viet Noodle Bar makes the Bon Appetit grade

The Kogi truck is one food trend that shows no sign of stalling out.

Kogi truck founders Caroline Shin-Manguera, Mark Manguera, and Roy Choi have been honored with a Bon Appetit award "for being true innovators as grassroots guerrilla restaurateurs."

When it comes to the intersection of food and technology, we love following Kogi, L.A.'s Korean barbecue taco truck; each day, fans are alerted to its location via Twitter and the blog kogibbq.com. Founded by Mark Manguera, Caroline Shin-Manguera, and Roy Choi, Kogi is for the kalbi lover on the go. With the grill helmed by pedigreed executive chef Choi, expect multi-culti innovative weekly specials like Brie-stuffed French toast and kimchi puerco pupusas in addition to stalwarts like short-rib tacos and spicy beef tacos. Not in the mood to track down the truck? Kogi has found a bricks-and-mortar home in Culver City's Alibi Room. But we love Kogi most of all for bringing high-concept, creative cuisine directly to the streets. Find out the rest of the winners of the 12th Annual Bon Appetit Awards here.

Also in the Bon Appetit spotlight: The Viet Noodle Bar tops its list of the nation's Top 10 noodle joints:

For many, their first taste of Vietnamese food is pho. This satisfying soup is made with various meats, seafood, and rice noodles. At this Atwater Village noodle bar, pho comes topped with ingredients like organic chicken and cilantro. 3133 Glendale Boulevard; 323-906-1575; vietnoodlebar.com

--Rene Lynch

Photo: the Kogi truck; credit: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times

Put up or ... : Saving the Season, a new blog about preserves

 
A new Los Angeles-based blog, Saving the Season, celebrates the art of home canning (or "putting up") and all things deliciously jammy -- preserved huckleberries, blueberry butter, white peaches in lavender syrup, apricot jam with maple and vanilla, mulberry-plum preserves and more. 

The blog is about "jams and other fruit preserves, pickles and briny things, canned vegetables (above all tomatoes)," according to its author, Kevin West, who is also West Coast editor of W magazine. Though it's just a couple of months old, there already are several recipes for jams and fruit butters, as well as one for cocktail onions -- for Gibsons, of course.     

It's also rife with good reading, punctuated by canners' secrets (such as the judicious use of gin), literary references (Pablo Neruda's "Ode to Tomatoes"), and even personal advice from Alice Waters ("do everything neatly always").

On Saturday, West and Bettina Birch of BeeGreenFarm will give a free canning demonstration at Surfas in Culver City from noon to 1:30 p.m. They will show how to make peach jam and how to can tomatoes, with a tasting to follow. (Surfas is at 8777 Washington Blvd., Culver City; (310) 559-4770.)

-- Betty Hallock

Photo credit: Kevin West

Sampler Platter: Magnolia Bakery coming to LA, Top 10 food trucks, vegan cults & hip matzoh

Today's food news roundup features a rolling abattoir (who hasn't dreamed of that?), some amazing cakes and GQ's obviously inadequate list of the "top 10" food trucks in the United States.

-- Thinkbread attempts to cleverly rebrand matzoh for the off-season. Consumerist
-- GQ lists the Top 10 food trucks in America. L.A. has two. Hint: One beings with a K.
-- Slaughterhouse on wheels aids 'locavore' movement. Seattle Times
-- Brief Rundown of LA's first Korean BBQ festival & cookoff. SinoSoul
-- Brainwashing never tasted so delicious: Top 5 vegan cult restaurants. Powell's
-- It's no longer a rumor: Magnolia Bakery is coming to West 3rd St. Blackburn + Sweetzer
-- The winners of the amazing Threadcakes cake/t-shirt contest.

--Elina Shatkin

Photo: Customers decide on what sweets to buy at New York's Magnolia Bakery, which will soon open an outpost in Los Angeles.. Credit: Yanina Manolova / AP

Sampler platter: Sonic boom, Las Vegas restaurants go bust and eating meat to help the environment

Ontario grocers band together to slip out from under the boot heel of corporate tyranny; a small town where Sonic is king; and a German chef has a tragic accident with liquid nitrogen in today's food news roundup.

• Pity poor Totowa, N.J., so bereft of fast-food options that the opening of a Sonic causes near-chaos. Baristanet
• German chef blows off his hands cooking with liquid nitrogen. The Local
• Food She Thought blogs about Friday's East L.A. Meets Napa event.
• Buy-local push prompts Ontario, Canada, grocers to go independent. CBC
• Do less attractive people have to eat grosser food in the "lookist" world of food TV? Jezebel
• After the Las Vegas restaurant boom, the bust. New York Times
• I only like science that tastes good: eating meat for the environment. Utne

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: A fog of liquid nitrogen surrounds Steven Rojas' compressed watermelon dessert at the Rancho Bernardo Inn in Escondido. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Mozzarella, saucy tofu and the sad facts about counting calories

 

More L.A. Times Food news:

From Travel: Italy's Campania region is where fresh mozzarella roams. Near Naples is where you'll find the real thing: silky-soft cheese from unpasteurized buffalo milk. Eat it on its own and, preferably, as soon as you buy it.

From National: All Kelley Coffman-Lee wanted to do was broadcast her love of tofu to the driving public.
So the Colorado vegan applied to the state's Department of Revenue for a vanity license plate for her Suzuki SL7 carrying the message: ILVTOFU. Request denied. Why? "It could be misinterpreted in a way that suggests that she likes something other than tofu," explained revenue department spokesman Mark Couch.

 

From Health: Counting calories is a tough math problem.  Losing weight is nothing but a numbers game. If the number of calories burned is greater than the number of calories consumed -- bingo! Weight loss.

-- Rene Lynch

Photo credit: Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times