Jordan - California home cooking : 400 recipes that celebrate the abundance of farm and garden, orchard and vineyard, land and sea

THE HARVARD COMMON PRESS
535 Albany Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02118
www.harvardcommonpress.com

Copyright 1997 by Michele Anna Jordan
Illustrations copyright 1997 by Melissa Sweet

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jordan, Michele Anna.
California home cooking : 400 recipes that celebrate the abundance of farm and garden, orchard and vineyard, land and sea / Michele Anna Jordan.
p. cm.(America cooks)
Originally published: Boston : Harvard Common Press, c1997.
Summary: "A comprehensive and authoritative cookbook covering California cooking and California cuisine, one that unites several different cuisines: Spanish, Mexican, Asian, and Italian, and that makes use of California's year-round harvest of produce. To pull together four hundred recipes, the author combed through old and current newspapers, cooking magazines, and restaurant menus, and talked with home cooks"Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-55832-119-9 (pbk.)
1. Cooking, AmericanCalifornia style. I. Title.
TX715.2.C34J67 2011
641.59794dc23
2011023283

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Cover design by Night & Day Design
Cover photography by Joyce Oudkerk Pool, assisted by Morgan Bellinger; food styling by Jason Wheeler
Text design by Kathleen Herlihy-Paoli, Inkstone Design
Text illustrations by Melissa Sweet

14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5

For John, Nancy, Annie, and Andrew
For David Browne
and
For Ginny Stanford

"Well, you have to eat," my friend John Kramer said more times than I can count. "Come on over."

"Please come to dinner. We really want to see you," Annie, a delightful, beautiful, and talented young teenager would urge on my answering machine when I was attempting to hide.

But shouldn't I still be working? No, John was right, I did have to eat. I would force myself, fatigued and guilty, to go.

I'd drag myself away from my computer and away from the manuscript for California Home Cooking that grew, in its most unwieldy period, to over a thousand pages. I'd make the short drive to the beautiful Tuscan-style home where John, his wife, Nancy Dobbs, and their two children, Annie and Andrew, welcomed me with just the right amount of sympathy, with endlessly entertaining stories, and with intelligent conversation. Andrew, one of the most amazing young humans I've ever had the pleasure to know, made me tiny clay tacos and charmed me with his adventurous palate. We've peeled a lot of garlic together, this enchanting six year old and I.

Most nights, I would help John in the kitchen as we cooked with garlic, tomatoes, and green beans from their garden, pasta from the pantry, clams from the coast nearby. Andrew picked little lettuces for salad and strawberries for dessert. John and Nancy were always there with more pinot noir whenever my glass was empty. During the comet Hale-Bopp's appearance, they got out the telescope, and when they abandoned me for a three-week vacation in PortugalI had to decline their invitation to join them, of course, deadlines being what they arethey returned with a remarkable gift, a rare bottle of that forbidden aperitif, absinthe. That I've made it through the last couple of years has had a great deal to do with their warmth and friendship. This is what California home cooking really is about: the pleasure of sharing it with close friends.

David Browne has played an enormously important role in my life, urging me to take difficult steps, teaching me to be brave, and helping me to achieve distance when necessary and to establish closeness when I'd rather run in the opposite direction. For more years than I can say, he has been a kind and knowledgeable shepherd as I've struggled to grow into myself. Thank you so much, David.

To Ginny Stanford: What a year, eh? Ginny has seen me through each of the nine books I've written so far and has never wavered in her faith and belief in me. She listens to my laments with patience, and reads draft after draft after draft of a single essay. And every time I think I won't make it through some new hella pugnacious copyeditor, the latest broken heart, an IRS auditshe'll present a convincing argument not only about why I will but why I'll be glad I did. Her prodigious appetite is a great asset to a food writer, and that she'll gossip about virtually anything at a moment's notice is almost more than I could have hoped for in a best friend. I'm very glad Ginny, who was born in Missouri, heard the siren song of California.

Shortly after I began working on California Home Cooking, I got a phone call from my old friend Scott Murray, at the time general manager of KRCB-FM, the new National Public Radio affiliate in Sonoma County. He asked me to do a show about food, wine, and agriculture, and it wasn't long before "Mouthful with Michele Anna Jordan" aired for the first time. That was over two years ago. Several people have been instrumental in making "Mouthful" a reality: Robin Pressman, the station's talented and dedicated program director; my friend Nancy Dobbs, president of the station; Evelyn Anderson, who produced and engineered during the show's first year; and Rob Cole, my perverse musical muse, who provides all manner of assistance and inspiration. More than anyone else, Albert Casselhoff, who loves radio as much as I do, has shared his talent, technical expertise, and inspiration. As engineer, he's worked to give the show the shape and sound I've wanted. He also brings a sensitive palate and intelligent curiosity to the show. Recently, Albert has forced me to overcome my fear of electronics, so that I now do what I've wanted to do since I was a kidplay music on the radio, proof indeed that dreams do come true. Thank you, Albert.

Doe Coover is a wonderful agent, insightful, intuitive, hard-working, and supportive. Had it not been for a chance meeting between us in Nancy Harmon Jenkins's rental car, I wouldn't have known about this book until I saw it on a store shelf, with someone else's name on the cover. But in our brief conversation, Doe realized quickly that I've longed to explore the culinary traditions and personalities of my home state. Writing this book allowed me to do so and to make invaluable connections for future research. Thank you, Doe. I will be forever grateful.

My editor at the Harvard Common Press, Dan Rosenberg, is smart, talented, and possessed of a delightfully perverse sense of humor. I've learned a tremendous amount working with him.

As I worked on this book, I met wonderful, generous, and fascinating people, too many to thank by name here: farmers, cheesemakers, farmers' market managers, librarians, newspaper food editors, and many wonderful home cooks, who provided information, tips, inspiration, and recipes along the way. I couldn't have written this book without them. I offer a special thank you to Pat Keats of the California Historical Library, who was patient, helpful, and understanding as I plumbed the depths of their archives.

Thank you to Betty Ellsworth, for continuing to interpret my recipes with talent and an intuitive sense of what I want, often realizing it before I do, and for being a good friend during difficult times. To my assistant of many years, Lesa Tanner, thank you for your enthusiasm and unwavering support, your calm efficiency, your good sense, and for that first bottle of absinthe, perhaps the biggest surprise I have ever received.