Weir - Weir cooking in the city: more than 125 recipes and inspiring ideas for relaxed entertaining

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ALSO BY JOANNE WEIR

Joanne Weirs More Cooking in the Wine Country:
150 New Recipes for Living and Entertaining

Weir Cooking: Recipes from the Wine Country

You Say Tomato: Peel, Chop, Roast, Dry, Freeze, Preserve, and Enjoy

From Tapas to Meze: First Courses from the Mediterranean Shores of Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa

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Copyright 2004 by Joanne Weir

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

SIMON & SCHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Designed by Laura Lindgren

Jacket photographs 2004 by Penina Meisels

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Weir, Joanne.

Weir cooking in the city : more than 125 recipes and inspiring ideas for relaxed entertaining / Joanne Weir ; photographs by Penina Meisels.

p. cm.

Includes index.

1. Cookery, International. I. Title: Cooking in the city. II. Title.

TX725.A1.W37523 2004

641.59dc22

2003067192

ISBN 0-7432-4663-2

ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-5362-8 (eBook)

To the great cities of the world and the people who make them so...

I dont think theres ever been a better time to live in a city. In just about every neighborhood, you can find dozens of interesting restaurants, gourmet food markets, farmers markets and outdoor stalls selling seasonal produce, artisanal bakeries and cheese makers, and little shops stocked with shelves of amazing ethnic food specialties.

Dont think I have anything against small towns. I grew up in one and my mother would kill me if I said anything bad about our life there. In my books Weir Cooking, Recipes from the Wine Country, and Joanne Weirs More Cooking in the Wine Country, I write reverently about life in a pastoral California valley (where they just happen to make some of the best wines in the world, but still...).

Cities are where most of us live and something amazing is happening in them. New restaurants and markets are stocked with ingredients from all over the world; grocery shelves strain under the weight of specialty oils and vinegars; bins overflow with exotic grains and spices and dizzying arrays of fresh produce, breads, and meats.

Not surprisingly, our level of sophistication about ingredients, food, and wine is at an astonishing level. Our friends, our kids, for heavens sake, know so much now about food. (I was in a supermarket delicatessen recently and watched a preschool-aged girl point at the dolmas and sushi with as much familiarity as I might have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich a generation ago.)

In the small New England town where I grew up, our choice of ethnic food was Chinese or pizza (and it wasnt very good at that), and the most unusual ingredient you could get at the market was, say, pickled herring. Nobody under the age of thirty will even believe that you couldnt buy coffee beans at the market then!

But all this sophistication comes at a price, and I think most of us would like things to be simpler, slower, easier. Wouldnt you like to be able to make food with a lot of style but without so much effort; to have friends over for dinner without having to plan it too many days in advance; to be able to entertain spontaneously for once; to be able to spend a whole day making something special and then leisurely enjoy it with people you care about?

I can help. You dont need more stuff to do. I can show you where to go and what to do to make fresh, delicious meals for every season and occasion. Ill give you ideas about how to talk to the fishmonger or butcher to get the best cut of meat or the freshest seafood. Ill show you how to pick the best wine for a dish or how to make the dish fit a favorite wine; how to incorporate specialty foods and how to put your own twist on ethnic recipes; how to entertain with greater ease and pleasure.

It all starts with learning to use the amazing cities we live in to their fullest. As Ive traveled and cooked my way through many of the worlds greatest cities, from Boston to Seattle to the cities along the Mediterranean and through Italy and France, Ive learned to see the resources of the city much as a forager might, full of small treasures that are almost as much pleasure to seek as to find.

In San Francisco, where I live, I found one of the finest bakeries in the city just a few blocks from my house, and not much farther, a small, family-owned shop where I can buy the highest-quality meats and fish. Downtown, there is the new, permanent farmers market where I can buy the very best produce from local organic farmers.

I can wander into Chinatown to my favorite place for Shanghai noodles and then into one of the tiny, crowded markets around the corner to buy all the ingredients to make my own at home. In the Italian neighborhood of North Beach, I found a bakery that sells fresh focaccia so now I can make my own panini. And in the Mission, I came across a produce stand selling the most beautiful Mexican limes and bouquets of cilantro for a dollar, and fresh plantains and plum tomatoes for a song.

When I make these trips through my city and into some of the neighborhoods that have been transforming themselves into mini food meccas, its as though there is music playing in the streets. Its a city infatuated with food. As Julia Child said, Who wouldnt become ravenous in such a place?

But so it is everywhere. In my work as a teacher, I travel all over America and the world. Ive seen it. Yeah, were cooking in the city! This book honors all the amazing things that have been happening with food and the people all over this globe who are making our cities places where great food is being created and enjoyed and the differences between us are being celebrated and savored.

Most of you probably dont remember that old TV show that opened, There are eight million stories in the naked city. This is just one of them. Well, Im just one person, but millions of you are creating this incredible time in the life of cities. This is your book. Enjoy!

Joanne Weir

San Francisco

Spring 2004