In the Kitchen

What?s New at Paulding & Company

April 2010

New Video

We?ve just gone live with a new Paulding & Company video! Get an up close look at what we do in the kitchen! Produced, filmed and edited by two great students (now graduates) of Berkeley Digital Film Institute, Brandy McNeal and Saleah Askia, to whom we are profoundly thankful, and featuring our friends and Emeryville neighbors at Lithium Technologies, during their team building session. The piece excites us all?and we hope it will excite and inspire you too ? enough to enter our ?

? Great New Contest!

In conjunction with the video release, I?m pleased to announce a special, celebratory contest! The prize is a catered office lunch for up to 30 people?and all you have to do to enter, is book an office team building session at our regular prices, and bring the group in between now and June 15th, when the contest ends. We?ll automatically enter your company in the drawing. Contact Us to set up your event.

Contest Winner Drawing and Open House!

On June 16th, we?re holding a little open-house get-together. Come between 5:30 and 7:30 PM, meet some of our great teachers, our summer camp staff, have a bite or two and a glass of wine, and watch as the grand prize winner is drawn from the hat! We?ll tell you more about the open house next newsletter.

We?re all over the internet!

Get Connected with Paulding & Company with our Facebook Fan Page and join our fun COOK! Culinary Programs fan page. Get updated on our culinary adventures and tell us about yours!

Cook! Culinary Programs Open House

Tracy is gearing up for a summer packed with fun camp activity for the 9-17 year olds in your life! If you?re thinking about joining our summer programs, but want to come meet us first, you?re invited to join us on Sunday May 2nd, from 1 - 3 pm for a mini culinary adventure. Meet the staff, tour the kitchen, even make a few tasty morsels, if you want! If you can't make this date, but want to come meet us before signing up, give us a call or email Tracy. We are always happy to arrange a time to meet you.

New Blog

We are thrilled to introduce our new COOK! Blog, where COOK! Teen-Blogger Kevin Imah and COOK! Director Tracy Paulding will be bringing you recipes, recipe reviews, food talk and more on a weekly basis. Share it with your friends.

Classes

Next Monday we have another great knife sharpening class with Eric E. Weiss?this one with a twist! You get to learn how to sharpen SERRATED knives. Eric was recently featured in a brief story online at the Meathenge website?check it out!

Rosetta has a full roster of great classes, some of which have a few spaces left?check the calendar or go directly to her website. I?ve mentioned Rosetta?s Garden Blog before, and can?t mention it enough?her entries are a wonderful inspiration to bay area gardeners!

We?ve had some tasty and well-received Ethiopian food classes with Selome Halleleoul, and she?s about to schedule one more but we don?t have it on the calendar yet?so do keep watch!

In the Garden

My home back yard garden is going crazy right now. Mint and oregano are at war, both trying to take over an entire area. Horseradish, another plant you have forever once you put a one-inch root in the ground (in other words, don?t do it!), is erupting from the ground in ever-spreading mounds. Rosemary needs to be cut back, as it has grown to alarming proportions. The scallions are flowering?gorgeous white puffs here and there. Among the crazy herbs, I have planted fava beans which are covered with little baby pods, although the recent heavy rains beat down the plants, which need staking. My fig tree has more baby fruit than it does leaves so far?a balance that will change rather quickly, but the early crop looks great. The Satsuma mandarin, a sparse producer last year, is covered with blooms so we know next crop will be enormous again. The Kaffir lime, a gift plant (thanks Cheryl!) that has grown by leaps and bounds, gave us it?s first three fruit, and has set a few more little babies. My Meyer lemon trees are laden with delicious fruit, leading to this month?s recipe?one of the easiest tastiest lemon desserts ever. Spring in the garden inspires so many good meals!

At the kitchen, we also have a garden although it?s small. I?ve battled the snails to harvest a few early peas, and always have tasty herbs for cooking, as we grow parsley, tarragon, marjoram, thyme, lemon thyme, lavender, sage, rosemary, scallions, and when they work out, a few more things?we get great chives, for instance, briefly and then the swarms of aphids come and kill them in a day. We?ve had tomato plants, and just like last year, one lived through the winter?we have several small, green tomatoes on it already.

At the Farmer?s Market

Spring days are longer, and it shows. Gorgeous little lettuce heads, bright purple, deep green, incredibly tasty. Spring carrots, lots of fennel, beets, chard and still some great kale. Broccoli is at it?s peak, cauliflower snowy white and delicious, and green garlic and spring onions are just starting. I bought out all the early English peas from Ledesma farm at Grand Lake on Saturday, and they were sweet and wonderful with a leg of lamb on Easter Sunday; they?re still scarce, but there are plenty of snap peas to be found. Artichokes are good now, and avocados, the healthy-fat food, are getting richer and creamier. Strawberries are coming in sweet, after a long winter of white walls and uninspiring flavor. We?ve still got Mandarin oranges, although the varieties are new, the Satsumas are finished. Everyone has Meyer lemons, and naval oranges?including the neighborhood trees, which all seem particularly heavily laden this year. Maybe it was all that great winter rain? Cherries should be in mid-May, followed by apricots, and then the summer fruit will be with us as the days lengthen even more, and we (maybe) get some warm weather.

Lots of baby bedding plants at the market too, tomatoes, peas of all sorts, plenty of lettuce and herbs. Time to get inspired and plant something!

Recipe of the Month

This Lemon Pudding Cake is taken from Classic Home Desserts, by Richard Sax?I?ve tried a few different versions, but his seems the best balanced. A dessert that can be put together in about 5 minutes, baked for 35, and served to rave reviews. It?s Lenny?s favorite (hi Lenny!). Never fails to impress his dates ? You get a creamy pudding bottom with a light cake on top?all in one pan, from one batter. One guest described it as ?like lemon bars without the icky crusty part,? although I have to say they?re not so over-sweetened as most of the lemon bars I?ve tried. They work well with Meyer lemons, but I add a bit more juice than the recipe says?with regular Eureka?s they nicely tart.