On leaving San Francisco

...and the push-pull of the bucket list vs the overflowing pantry

Hi friends! It’s been a few months, but I promise I’ve had good reason for being absent — Sam and I are moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts at the end of June! That means weekends lately have been taken up with purging / organizing / logistics, leaving me without too much time to write. Leaving San Francisco after six years is deeply bittersweet — some of our closest friends are here, and I feel real regret about putting distance between us and many loved ones. Not to mention leaving behind beloved restaurants, creators, old haunts, and the amazing nature, weather and produce that make living a full and healthy life much easier.

But as we emerge from several years of semi-isolation and approach a new phase of life, being close to family feels more important than ever; we’re deeply fortunate to both have jobs that allow us to make that choice. I’m so grateful to be moving to the same neighborhood as my lovely brother- and sister-in-law, to the same coast as many other family members, and to be a much shorter flight from family in Turkey and the UK. So I’m digging up my old winter coats and summer sandals, researching local CSAs, and relentlessly quizzing everybody about their favorite Boston-area eats. (If you’ve got recommendations, send them my way - and if you’re in the area, please reach out!)

I also want to acknowledge that the last few weeks have been heavy ones - first with the Supreme Court leak indicating the likely end of Roe v Wade, and more recently, with the horrifying shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. I don’t have anything new or insightful to contribute here; like many of us, I’m just feeling sick to my stomach about the future of our country. If you’re looking for good places to contribute, you can join me in giving to Everytown and your local abortion fund. And if you ever have questions about abortion access, birth control, or insurance coverage for either - please don’t hesitate to use me as a (discreet!) resource.

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As we prepare for our move, I feel like I’m battling two warring instincts: the first, to try every bucket list item on my San Francisco to-eat list, and the second, to purge my pantry of as much as possible so we don’t end up wasting things. That first instinct led me to finally try two local tortilla makers — Xulo, which offers handmade flour tortillas made with everything from duck fat to coconut oil, and Bolita Masa, offering corn tortillas made from fresh masa. (If you’re not familiar with masa & nixtamalization, check out this podcast interview with Bolita founder Emmanuel Galvan.)

Both are amazing in different ways - it’s truly night and day from a regular mass-produced tortilla. I admit to being lazy about fillings; sometimes I’ll make a batch of Daniel Gritzer’s refried beans, but my favorite way to use a great tortilla is still breakfast tacos, featuring scrambled eggs, pickled red onion and a little chili oil. Unless anybody has a Boston-area recommendation, I guess I’m finally going to have cough up for a few orders of Caramelo.

Xulo flour tortillas made with bacon fat and topped with soft scrambled eggs. Alas, I was out of pickled onions (which is not a valid excuse, because they take about 5 minutes to make a quick version.)

On the pantry item side, one major category I’m trying to use up is all the various bags of rice and grains that have accumulated over the last year or so — one of them being arborio rice. I love risotto and always like the idea of making it, but am mostly too lazy to sit there stirring for hours. (This is also my gripe with polenta, which is why I like Alexandra Stafford’s oven polenta so much.)

Because of this, I was thrilled when I recently came across Samantha Seneviratne’s instant pot carrot & saffron risotto in NYT Cooking. I knew a thousand Italian grandmas just cried at the concept of making risotto in a pressure cooker, but hear me out: it’s honestly pretty close to the real thing, with a fraction of the work. I first tried this technique years ago with the pressure cooker corn risotto Sohla El-Waylly created for Serious Eats but had honestly forgotten about it, and I’m so glad it got dredged up in my memory!

After my success with the carrot risotto, I figured I could adapt this Smitten Kitchen bacon, egg and leek risotto for the IP as well. Sure enough, I just reduced the amount of broth to be more in line with the former recipe, and hey presto! Worked a charm. This technique’s definitely going in the regular rotation for nights when you want something cozy, comforting and a little fancy, without too much work.

Of course, something you want something cozy, comforting, but also whole grain. That’s where “risotto” made with farro comes in. I’ve long loved this Smitten Kitchen one-pan farro with tomatoes (remember that Martha Stewart pasta fad where you stick pasta ingredients in a pot all together with the water and boil? It’s like that, except less mushy.) So when I busted open Joshua McFadden’s latest book, Grains for Every Season, and saw a recipe for cacio e pepe style “farroto”, I was sold. It hits all the same comfort notes as risotto, but with more chew and heartiness; I haven’t tried it in the instant pot yet, but just you wait.

Farotto alongside Smitten Kitchen’s frizzled baby artichokes and mushrooms squished a la Bettina Makalintal - so good.

While I’m on my instant pot kick, one final plug. You know that famous Marcella Hazan tomato sauce that’s just canned tomatoes, butter and an onion? Well, turns out it works pretty great as a soup, too. I’ve got Nicola Lamb from Kitchen Projects to thank for that revelation, but am patting myself on the back for trying this in an instant pot and finding that it works great in the context too. Just follow Nicola’s instructions for the stovetop version, but cut the amount of water to a half can, cook on high pressure for 15 minutes, and voila! Delicious, nutritious tomato soup in about 20 minutes flat — and the definition of a “pantry hero” recipe.

You know what my current fridge hero is? Good old eggs. In particular, Sohla El-Waylly’s cauliflower eggah - a type of Egyptian frittata, spiked with lemon zest, parsley and lots of spices. (I do not put in the almonds, because I don’t have any and I’m trying not to buy stuff!) It relies on cauliflower that’s tossed with oil and broiled until crispy, which I might just use as a cauliflower prep method in all applications moving forward.

Once everything’s assembled, a quick 20 minutes in the oven results in a very pretty, very delicious dish perfect for brunch. The first time I made it I forgot to put in the lemon zest and served it with a lemony, garlicky tahini sauce, and on both occasions I’ve eaten the leftovers sandwiched between bread, which I can also highly recommend.

Have you ever been in a position where you’ve got to eat some eggs but the regular old scrambled & fried aren’t cutting it? Are you someone who is willing to dip a (metaphorical, PLEASE not physical) toe into the world of deep frying? If so, may I recommend making Thai omelettes? They are extremely fun to make - you pour eggs beaten with fish sauce and other seasoning from about a foot above your hot frying oil, and everything puffs up and soufflés beautifully. It’s a great first deep frying project because you really don’t need that much oil, and it’s pretty fast and easy - not to mention extremely delicious. (I will say that as usual, having a wire spider makes everything much easier!)

This one featured browned ground pork for extra heft, though usually I keep them simple and serve alongside a dry curry

Last but not least - I’m so proud of my (no-longer-so) baby sister, Bella, who graduated from Tufts this past weekend! One of the final pieces of coursework she did was putting together a cooking Instagram account for a class on food media, in particular focused on documenting recipes for her favorite Turkish comfort foods we ate growing up. I’ve made her tavuklu nohut (chicken & chickpeas) twice already and it’s definitely a new weeknight go-to; a super easy, nutritious 20 minute meal.

Bella’s tavuklu nohut, with a side of Ozlem Warren’s olive-oil braised leeks - another recent obsession

What else is on my kitchen horizon for the next few weeks? I’ve got a cabbage in the fridge and bulgur in the pantry waiting to be turned into Özlem Warren’s lahana kapuska, which is not something I ate growing up but looks delicious. I’ve got tons of canned salmon that needs to be turned into salmon cakes (I’ve shared my favorite recipe, courtesy of Nina Perantoni, in a prior edition of this newsletter!) And my cans of artichokes are begging to be turned into the Pioneer Woman’s pasta with artichoke hearts and tomato cream sauce, which is something I ate constantly during my senior year of high school when we were tasked with cooking for ourselves. We’ll see if it lives up to nostalgia!

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Not much else to note here; I’ve had a slow reading period slogging through nonfiction, though I did just breeze through Emily Henry’s Book Lovers which was great (much better than People We Meet on Vacation, in my opinion.) I also quite liked Elder Race by Adrien Tchaikovsky - easy reading science-fantasy with an interesting premise. Anyone have recommendations for my final month with the SF Public Library? (sob)

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That’s all for now, folks! See you next time — possibly from the East Coast?? In the meantime, you can find me on Instagram and Twitter.

And a personal note - if we know each other personally, you live in the Bay and haven’t gotten a Facebook invite to our going-away park hang, please ping me so I can invite you!