To hunt and gather

This I know for certain:

I will not forage. A walk in the woods for me is just that, a walk. I can not fish. I do not have the time or ability. I will not hunt either. I can not ever see myself picking up a gun and shooting something.

But I can appreciate Hank Shaw's efforts in doing so. And I can appreciate the meticulous way in which he writes about his favorite foods in "Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast."

On fruit, to wit:

"North America is home to so many native fruits that all but the most obsessive of foragers will never taste them all. There is the hackberry, the barberry, the mulberry, the mayapple and so many varieties of gooseberries and currants that even taxonomists have trouble keeping track of them all.

"There are, of course, wild strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries; these you know already. But they have friends, like the huckleberry, cloudberry, dewberry and thimbleberry.

"Crab apples are native, as are Juneberries and hawthorn. There is wild plum, goose plum, beach plum and Canada plum. There is a sweet cherry, sandcherry, chokecherry and chokeberry..."

The list is mind-boggling.

Shrimp on the brain

Edited by C.J. Jackson, director of the Billingsgate Seafood Training School at Billingsgate Market in East London, "Seafood: How to Buy, Prepare, and Cook the Best Sustainable Fish and Seafood from Around the World" is a comprehensive volume with more than 300 classic and contemporary recipes. It checks in at a remarkable 400 pages.

I find myself flipping past sections on tuna, trout and scallop, for example, but hone in immediately on shrimp. I have two-pound bags of shrimp in the freezer waiting to be cooked. I have shrimp on the brain. I begin to think of shrimp gumbo with okra and bell peppers, of pan-fried shrimp with olives and tomatoes, and of spicy shrimp with garlic. And I smile.

Shrimp Gumbo
from C.J. Jackson's "Seafood..."

6 Tbsp. butter
2 1/4 pounds raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined
4 Tbsp. crab meat
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, grated or finely chopped
4 ounces okra, trimmed
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 14-ounce cans tomatoes
4 1/4 cups shellfish stock
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs of thyme
grated zest of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp. file powder
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the shrimp in batches and stir-fry over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes or until cooked. Lift onto a plate to cool.

Add the crab and flour to the butter, cook over low heat for 3 to 4 minutes or until the flour is golden brown. Add the cayenne, onion and garlic, and cook for a further 3 minutes.

Stir in the okra and bell pepper. Pour over the tomatoes, stock, herbs and lemon zest. Bring to a boil and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes until thick.

Stir the shrimp into the gumbo to warm through, add file powder, and season to taste. Serve with rice and Tabasco sauce. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Pan-Fried Shrimp, Olives, and Tomatoes
from C.J. Jackson's "Seafood..."

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, grated or finely chopped
12 large raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined, tail left intact
splash of dry sherry or dry white wine
6 tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped
large handful of mixed olives, pitted
salt
freshly ground black pepper
handful of basil and flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion, and saute for about 5 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for a few seconds, then add in the shrimp and cook over high heat, until they are just turning pink.

Add the sherry and continue cooking for 5 minutes, stirring, until the alcohol has evaporated. Add the tomatoes and olives and cook for a further couple of minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes start to break down. Season well, and stir in the herbs. Serve immediately with fresh crusty bread. Makes 4 servings.

Spicy Shrimp with Garlic
from C.J. Jackson's "Seafood..."

4 Tbsp. olive oil
6 garlic cloves, grated or finely chopped
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp. dry sherry
9 ounces raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat, add the garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook gently for 2 minutes.

Add the sherry and shrimp, increase the heat and stir for 5 minutes, or until the juices have reduced by half. Season and serve with crusty bread and a crisp salad. Makes 4 servings.

Cake and company

Because sometimes we just need a slice of cake. (And, apparently, onion rings.)

Meals on wheels

Heather Shouse does the legwork so we don't have to. In "Food Trucks: Dispatches and Recipes from the Best Kitchens on Wheels," the Chicago resident chases down a number of meals-on-wheels in cities across the United States.

She talks to the women and men behind Curry Up Now in the Bay Area, for example, and RoliRoti, whose chicken, potatoes and porchetta I have yet to taste. She tracks down Roy Choi in Southern California, whose "fleet of four Kogi trucks reportedly did $2 million in sales its first year on the streets."

She goes to Portland and Seattle, too, to New York and Philadelphia, New Orleans and Austin, and points in between, giving us plenty of food ideas to pursue the next time we find ourselves in those places. She makes us hungry.

Seeing green

I am a sucker for orzo. And cooked broccoli.

So I find myself drawn to Heidi Swanson's Orzo Salad, from her second cookbook "Super Natural Every Day: Well-Loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen."

The dish promises to be light, tasty and healthful. It will work itself easily into the rotation. These days I have been seeing green. Happily.

Orzo Salad
from Heidi Swanson's "Super Natural Every Day: Well-Loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen"

fine-grained sea salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat orzo
5 cups raw broccoli cut into small florets and stems
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup creme fraiche
grated zest of 1 lemon
1 small ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Salt generously, add the orzo and cook according to the package instructions. Drain, rinse with cold water and drain well again.

In the meantime, cook the broccoli. Bring 3/4 cup water to a boil in a large pot. Add a big pinch of salt and stir in the broccoli. Cover and cook for 1 minute, just long enough to take off the raw edge. Quickly drain the broccoli in a strainer and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Drain well and set aside.

To make the pesto, combine 2 cups of the cooked broccoli, the garlic, most of the pine nuts, the Parmesan, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice in a food processor. Drizzle in the olive oil and creme fraiche and pulse until smooth.

Just before serving, toss the orzo and the remaining cooked broccoli florets with about two-thirds of the broccoli pesto and the lemon zest. Thin with a bit of warm water if you like, then taste and adjust if needed. You might want to add a bit more salt, or an added drizzle of lemon juice, or more pesto.

Gently fold in the avocado. Turn out into a bowl or onto a platter and top with the remaining pine nuts. Makes 6 servings.

Eating meat

"In central Texas, you don't hear a lot of people talking about the piquancy of a restaurant's sauce or the tastiness of its beans; discussions are what a scholar of the culture might call meat-driven."

Calvin Trillin, in "By Meat Alone" from "Trillin on Texas."

(A review appears in Publishers Weekly.)

Dumpling diplomacy

"'You're the new smoking police,' I tell Thorne when he sits back down. 'From now on you can give out citations.'

'What is a citation?' he asks, and takes a drink of Sprite.

'A ticket,' Tony says. 'You can write up smoking tickets and hand them out on the street to anyone you see smoking.'

Thorne laughs, and then the dumplings come and they're boiled, not steamed or fried, and a little doughy on the outside and delicious. We dip them in a small round dish of soy sauce and vinegar that sits on the table, and our little ship is righted again."

Susan Conley, in "The Foremost Good Fortune: A Memoir."

Lemon like sunshine

We are not into chocolates, hearts or chalky Valentines. But we do find ourselves craving lemon doughnuts. With or without coffee. We want sunshine when the weather has been gray, dull and overcast. We want daffodils when all we have seen in a while have been brown and bare and boring. We want bright light and sweetness. We want spring.

Golden opportunities

Lunar New Year celebrations boast deep-fried dumplings and steamed cupcakes, too. We can not resist either and get to enjoy both.

Still-life with oranges

We try our hands at artistic. We are impressed.

On the table

My mother cooks to mark the Lunar New Year, the start of the Year of the Rabbit. Time flies when we eat. Just yesterday it had been the Year of the Tiger.

Who knew?

NPR has an interesting piece on Lunar New Year's feasts in the Caribbean island of Trinidad.

"(In) Trinidad, Chinese food is staple fare," Ramin Ganeshram writes. "We eat fried rice once a week. Chow mein is as common as a casserole. Stir fries with calabaza pumpkin, taro root and hot pepper are everyday foods, and soy sauce is a regular ingredient in brown stewed meats."

We never suspected.

Sugar, fat, salt

"Countless new foods have been introduced in restaurants, and most of them hit the three points of the compass. Sugar, fat and salt are either loaded onto a core ingredient (such as meat, vegetable, potato or bread), layered on top of it, or both...

"Potato skins, for example: Typically the potato is hollowed out and the skin is fried, which provides a substantial surface area for... 'fat pickup.' Then some combination of bacon bits, sour cream and cheese is added. The result is fat on fat on fat on fat, much of it loaded with salt...

"Buffalo wings start with the fatty parts of a chicken, which get deep-fried. Then they're served with creamy or sweet dipping sauce that's heavily salted. Usually they're par-fried at a production plant, then fried again at the restaurant, which essentially doubles the fat. That gives us sugar on salt on fat on fat on fat...

"Salads contain vegetables, of course, but in today's restaurants they're more than likely to be smothered in a cream-based ranch dressing and flavored with cheese chunks, bacon bits and oily croutons. (Call this) 'fat with a little lettuce,' although there's salt in the salad as well. Even lettuce has become a vehicle for fat."

David A. Kessler, in "The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite."

So Sarabeth

In the beginning, Sarabeth Levine made fruit spreads, jams and preserves, and sold them in specialty shops. Shortly thereafter, she opened a bakery and café "on what was then a distinctly inelegant Amsterdam Avenue on Manhattan's Upper West Side."

These days, the James Beard Award-winning pastry chef has grown her brand and her business significantly, running bakeries and restaurants in a number of New York City neighborhoods as well as in Key West, Florida.

Food writer Mimi Sheraton, among her longtime fans, considers the shop's rugelach "the best rugelach in New York and the best I have ever had this side of my grandmother's kitchen."

In her first cookbook, "Sarabeth's Bakery: From My Hands to Yours," Levine gives a brief introduction to Sarabeth's history and describes the baked goods and sweet treats she and her staff now produce regularly. There are substantial chapters, for example, on morning pastries, muffins, breads, pies, cakes and cookies.

Although recipes that call for homemade puff pastry or croissant dough (e.g. Apple Turnovers, Pains au Chocolat) might prove too complicated for average home cooks, they could provide a decent challenge to those eager and ambitious to up their overall game.

Sections on spoon desserts such as crème brulee, chocolate pudding and bread pudding; ice creams and sorbets; and so-called spreadable fruits, the items that helped Levine launch Sarabeth's three decades ago, also add to the great appeal of this comprehensive volume.

(A version of this review appears in Publishers Weekly.)

Sundae Sunday

A peppermint and chocolate ice-cream sundae from Fentons. Because the diet can start tomorrow.

Christmas gifts

A toast to the holidays.

I eschew an extended-family get-together for some time home alone. It is my gift to myself.

The cherry on top

If the Henri Cartier-Bresson photo show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is the sundae, then "How Wine Became Modern: Design + Wine 1976 to Now" has to be the cherry on top.

The exhibit, up through April 17, looks at contemporary wine culture and the role big-name architecture, for example, has played in its evolution. It highlights, among other things, wineries in Northern California and around the world, calling to mind buildings by designers such as Herzog & de Meuron, Mario Botta, and Zaha Hadid.

It makes a good day in the galleries with a friend even better.

This time this year

This time last year, we were in London eating, exploring food shops and outdoor markets. This time this year, we are not.

Fiona Cairns, though, takes us back a bit to England. Her company, set in Leicestershire, supplies fanciful desserts to British department stores such as Selfridges, Harrods and Waitrose.

The cookbook "Bake and Decorate: Charming Cakes, Cupcakes & Cookies for Every Occasion" lets us re-create many of her sweet treats in our own kitchen.

In it, we find recipes for cakes with penguins or gingerbread men, and cupcakes that resemble butterflies, ice-cream cones or flower pots. What interest us most, however, are her directions for a simple Victoria sponge.

Victoria Sponge Cake
from Fiona Cairns' "Bake and Decorate: Charming Cakes, Cupcakes & Cookies for Every Occasion"

for the cake:

1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened, plus more for the pan
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. organic sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

for the filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup raspberry or strawberry jam
confectioners' sugar, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

You can choose to cook this cake either in one or two 8 x 1 1/2-inch round cake pans. Butter the pan or pans. Line the bottoms with parchment paper. If you use just one pan, line the sides with a 3-inch high collar of parchment paper as well, to allow for the rise.

For this batter, I use an electric mixer and beater attachment, but use a food processor, or a bowl and an electric whisk, if you wish.

Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl, then add the butter (cut into tablespoons), the eggs, sugar and vanilla. Beat together until thoroughly blended, about 2 minutes on high speed. Scrape the batter into the pan or pans and smooth the top.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes if you are using two pans, or 30 to 35 minutes for one pan, until the cake springs back to the touch or a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let cool for a couple of minutes. Run a knife around the rim to loosen the cake from the pan and turn out onto a wire rack. Peel off the paper and cool completely.

Lightly whip the cream until just thickened into soft peaks. If you have baked the cake in one pan, slice horizontally with a serrated knife. Fill with jam and cream and sandwich together, so the cream forms the upper layer.

If you have baked the cake in two pans, be sure to sandwich the flat bases together. Sift confectioners' sugar on top. Makes 8 servings.

Craving carbs

Nor can we resist good bread.

Sweet

We are attracted to chocolates like bees to honey. Sweet.