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!

To create a recipe you have to know your ingredients and to blend coffee, you have to know your beans. At Peet's Coffee & Tea they don't just taste their coffee once, but three times, once at purchase, once when it ships and finally when it arrives at headquarters they taste it in the coffee tasting room, where they also roast samples of it.

Recently I got to visit that very coffee tasting room, which feels a bit like a cross between a lab and a kitchen with drawers filled with bean samples, multiple kettles, a roaster, espresso machine and timers. I was in the company of a barista and Doug Welsh, coffee buyer and VP of Coffee, who combines beans to create coffee blends at Peet's. At the most basic level blending comes down to three things, says Welsh: Acidity + Aroma  + Body

Coffee tasting is also known as "coffee cupping" and it's not the same as just brewing coffee for drinking, in fact, like wine tasting, you spit rather than swallow the coffee. After visually examining the beans they roast the coffee very lightly so the true flavor of the coffee comes through and is not masked by the roasting, since roasting also adds flavor. After roasting and grinding, you smell the coffee grounds, then a few tablespoons of the grounds are placed in a glass and hot water is added. After a couple of minutes the crust of grounds is broken and you smell it again. The coffee is stirred, the foam removed with spoons and then you take a sip, aerating and slurping to get the most flavor. Finally you can spit the coffee out into a spittoon.

Reviewing the beans, the barista preparing the coffee, coffee samples

There are four varieties of beans in the 2013 Anniversary blend, I got a chance to try the beans from Columbia, Ethiopia and Java.


The Columbian beans lend acidity and have bright citrus notes, they comes from Palestina, from the South Central part of  Caldas, Columbia.


Ethiopian beans make up 40% of the blend, and have very floral aromas.  I also detected some spiciness in the Ethiopian.

The coffee from Java adds body, earthiness and sweetness, maybe even some caramel notes. It has a long finish. While many of the best coffees come from the Eastern part of Java, this coffee in particular came from the West, and has a profile more similar to Sumatra coffee, which is one of the most popular coffees Peet's sells.

The Peet's Philosophy
Do you prefer single varietals of grapes or blends? Single estate chocolate or blends? One really isn't necessarily better than the other.

Welsh explained that at Peet's they believe no coffee is "too good" to blend. They are not trying to cover up defects, but to create something truly unique and greater than the sum of the parts. In trying each component I was able to see how they all add to the final blend, making an even more complex but still harmonious coffee.

The Anniversary blend is seasonal and different each year, based on the supply of beans that they have, and will only be available for about six weeks so if you want to try it, get some soon. In grocery stores it is $9.99-11.99 per pound and $15.99 per pound in Peet's stores and online, with 5% going to a KIMSSA, to support the education of kids in Ethiopia.

If you want to try Hakka cuisine, head to Hakka Restaurant in San Francisco, or read Linda Lau Anusasananan's book, The Hakka Cookbook. I received a review copy of the book in the Fall, and was lucky enough to dine with the author at Hakka Restaurant recently and fell in love with the hearty robust flavors and comforting rich dishes.

Even if you have other Chinese cookbooks, it's worth getting to know Hakka cuisine, because it's mostly home style cooking, ideal to try in your own kitchen. In the book Anusasananan traces her roots and shares stories from the people she meets on her journey into her past.

Since Hakka people moved all over the world, there are stories about the cuisine from places like Peru, Hawaii and certain cities in the US and Canada. There are classic recipes for Fried Pork Hash Wontons, Salt Baked Chicken (which Anusasananan thinks may have been the creation of a crafty salt salesman) and lots and lots of vegetable dishes including Braised Mountain Mushrooms, Pickled Carrots and Radishes and Stir Fried Iceberg Lettuce and Garlic. Anusasananan was previously a recipe editor at Sunset magazine, so needless to say you won't have trouble with her recipes.

According to Anusasananan, the Hakka are like the "Jews of China," nomads, who migrated from North-Central China to the South in the fourth century. They have their own language, and the name Hakka literally means "guest family." Their cuisine is the food of the working person, robust and sometimes fatty. They use a lot of salt-preserved ingredients such as preserved vegetables, cured meats and soy sauce. The food is related to Cantonese, but more rustic. Famous Hakka classic dishes include Steamed Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Greens, Stuffed Tofu, and Salt-baked Chicken.

Some highlights of the meal we enjoyed at Hakka Restaurant:

Chinese Bacon with Preserved Greens

This is a very rich dish of pork belly which are somewhat sweet, served with luscious preserved vegetables.

House Special Pan-Fried Tofu
This was one of everyone's favorite dishes. Lighter and with a delicate sauce. Inside the tofu was a mild ground pork filling.

Fried Pumpkin Strips with Salted Egg Yolk
If you've never had salted egg yolk before, I'd describe it as tasting a bit like cheese. It has a strong umami flavor.

Chicken Stuffed with Preserved Greens
The chicken was good, but the gingery preserved green stuffing was particularly delicious/

Stir-fried Chinese Broccoli with Rice Wine
Another unusual dish, this one had a sweet wine sauce.

Clams with Spicy Salt and Black Beans
I'd say the garlic and green onions were the predominant flavors in this dish.

Home-Style Steamed Sea Bass
Another knockout dish, this one had a thin sauce but was loaded with shredded pork, and sour, crunchy and juicy sliced preserved mustard greens.

Hakka Restaurant
4401 Cabrillo St @ 45th Ave
San Francisco
415-876-6898

More:

Linda's Hakka dinner post

Note: This dinner was organized by the San Francisco Professional Food Society and was open to members.