It's hard to spend time with Ruth Alegria, and not want to jump on the next plane to Mexico City. To say she knows Mexican food would be an understatement. Ruth has lived in Mexico City for almost 10 years and before that studied the cuisine with luminaries including Diana Kennedy and Enrique Olvera. She also opened the first Mexican restaurant in Princeton, N.J., in 1980 and received two stars from the New York Times.

Her culinary tours and cooking classes at Mexico Soul and Essence are not just beloved by her students, but were singled out by Saveur magazine as among the best in all of Mexico. But it's not just the recipes, it's the techniques and insights into shopping, ingredients and the history and culture that make her such a wonderful teacher and guide.
This past Sunday at the lovely Tamarindo Antojeria restaurant in Oakland, proprietor Gloria Dominguez hosted a cooking class with Ruth. We made salsas, agua fresca, a creamy poblano soup, an ensalada with nopales and another with grilled spring onions, cochinita pibil and pollo pibil, fish wrapped in hoja santa and more. I learned so much, it's hard to know where to start! But here are a few tidbits:

* Seek out Mexican oregano, it is much different than the Mediterranean variety, and very fragrant (a bit sweeter I'd say).

* Toast herbs on a comal, in addition to spices and vegetables. A cast iron comal is probably better than non-stick.

* Cook your salsas, if you want them to last longer in the fridge.

* Add chia seeds to agua fresca.

* Cut chayotes in half, then boil them just until a knife will pierce them, not till they are soft!

* If dried chiles are brittle, do not buy them. They should bend, not break.

* After grilling poblano peppers, put them in a paper bag, not a plastic bag, before scrapping off the peel otherwise they will continue to cook.

* Use only Mexican Jamaica flowers in vegetarian dishes, not the Sudanese variety which turns pink after steeping to make agua fresca.

I am looking forward to trying some Ruth's recipes, especially for salsas, and Gloria's recipe for Capirotada, a Mexican style bread pudding (with no eggs!).


Ruth is spending time in the San Francisco Bay Area, to take a class with her or to find out more about her tours and classes in Mexico, visit her Facebook page.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. It's the people I meet (online and in person) that make food blogging so worthwhile. It's been a long time since I've shared links to blogs that I love. Here are a few to bookmark (from upper left to lower right). Get to know these bloggers, you'll be glad you did.

Joumana Accad
Joumana is a Lebanese American food writer and home cook and the voice of Taste of Beirut. I learn so much from her blog where she shares recipes but also food traditions and ingredients. She offers a peek into a world that I know very little about. Also her photos are lovely. She's top on the list of bloggers I hope to meet in person one day.

Michael Procopio
I've known Michael and his blog, Food for the Thoughtless for ages, since we both blogged for KQED over eight years ago. This year seems to be his moment in the sun with nominations for awards for digital media and humor from IACP and James Beard. And it's about time! His humor is risqu� and not for everyone, but it's always original and more often than not, witty. Always thoughtful, he also writes more poignant and provocative pieces.

Alice Medrich
I've been a fan of Alice Medrich since I worked in a gourmet food store as a teenager and got to know her Cocolat line of truffles very, very well. In addition to writing award-winning cookbooks she's now blogging. She's always on to something new--from pioneering low fat baking to working with unusual sugars and flours. You probably know her recipes too, but did you know she has a blog? Thank goodness! Because we need to keep tabs on this woman.

Irvin Lin
Irvin just won an award for best photography at IACP and I'm so pleased! He's not just a talented photographer but a baker, designer and all around nice guy. His blog, Eat The Love is a great place to go to get inspired. He travels, bakes and takes stunning photos.

Do you have some favorite bloggers at the moment? Let me know about them in the comments...

Would you like a sample of the new aged goat's milk cheese from Coach Farm? I couldn't say no to that offer, and I'm guessing you can't either! The wonderful cheese magazine Culture is hosting a naming contest for the new cheese and invited me to describe it. Head over and read my post, then you can submit your own ideas for names.

"The new cheese reminds me of snow on a spring day, bright and clean quickly dissolving like snowflakes in my mouth. It's mostly crumbly, soft and smooth but has a creamy layer (aka paste) just beneath the rind."

 I'm also giving away a special package of Coach Farm's goat cheese! The winner will receive three cheeses: Fresh Farmstead Goat cheese, Triple Cream and a sample of the new aged goat cheese.



Share your favorite way to use goat cheese in the comments section, and one lucky winner will receive the Coach Farm gift package containing three cheeses. This giveaway ends at midnight PST on April 24, 2013. One entry per person, please. I will draw a winner at random on April 25. Open to US residents only. Please note that if you register your comment with your email, only I will see it.

Disclaimer: Culture magazine and Coach Farm's provided me with this cheese, I was not paid for this or any other post. 

I started blogging ten years ago and since then, everything has changed. Blogging has changed, my career has changed, my shopping, cooking and eating have all changed. Hands down, the best thing about blogging is not the food, but the people I get to meet. I meet chefs, fishermen, farmers, policy makers, politicians, scientists, nutritionists, artisanal food producers, editors, other food writers, photographers and more. And all of those folks help me to appreciate and learn more about food. I'd like to think I also make more informed choices today than I did ten years ago.

A few years ago I got to attend the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Sustainable Foods Institute. Not long after I was invited to New Orleans to learn about seafood in the gulf. Both of those experiences have made me a much more thoughtful consumer of seafood. I believe in the sustainability, safety and deliciousness of gulf seafood. When I buy shrimp, it is always gulf shrimp.

It's easy to get so caught up in the idea of eating seasonally that we forget that there are certain things that aren't necessarily seasonal, for example vegetables grown in hothouses or greenhouses like Belgian endive, cucumbers and mushrooms, also preserved produce--jams, pickles, chutney, frozen and canned foods. Which brings me to canned tomatoes, which are a great choice for recipes since fresh tomatoes are in season for a fairly short period of time.

While I wouldn't use a canned tomato on a sandwich, they are a must for most tomato based sauces. Lately I've come to appreciate canned fire roasted tomatoes for their lovely smoky flavor. They are great in stew or chili and a sneaky shortcut when making this zippy soup. A nice option in this shoulder season when somedays still feel like Winter, it's something you can make from pantry staples--a few aromatics, cans of tomatoes and broth. Having tried many brands of fire roasted tomatoes, I like Hunt's best and while I prefer homemade, Swanson's is the only canned chicken broth I use.

Another little trick in this soup is the addition of cream cheese. I don't typically keep heavy cream on hand so I am always looking for other ingredients to add creaminess to recipes. In this case a tiny bit of cream cheese adds a lot of richness. But in all honesty this soup is really wonderful even without it.


Smoky Tomato Soup
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

2 14.5 ounce cans fire roasted tomatoes
2 14.5 ounces chicken broth (or homemade)
2 Tablespoons cream cheese, optional

Instructions

Heat a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions and carrots and cook, stirring frequently for 8 minutes or until soft and golden, but not brown. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the smoked paprika and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and broth and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes, or until fairly thick and saucy.

Add the cream cheese if desired. Blend the soup in batches or use a hand blender. When the soup is smooth, it's ready to serve.

Enjoy!