My oh my, what a decadent cherry pie. Rich dark chocolate, deep purple cherries and sweet agave nectar nestled inside a flaky butter crust, laced with finely ground graham crackers.

Here’s another thing to add to my “you can’t get this in New York” list–cheap cherries. No matter what time of year it is, cherries never get as inexpensive as they are right now in the Bay Area. I bought these at Yasai Market on College Ave. in Oakland for $1.50 per pound, and the farmers’ markets have them for $2.50 per pound. That’s right my New York City friends, this means you can bake a cherry pie and still have money left over to pay the rent.

And what pairs with cherries better than chocolate? I used organic, fair-trade dark and milk chocolate from Dagoba. Chopping up the chocolate before you mix it with the cherries helps prevent an all-chocolate bite of pie, and helps it completely surround the cherries as it melts. There is not a pinch of white sugar in this recipe (except for garnish, and I did that for the sake of pretty pictures). The agave nectar and super ripe cherries give it all the sweetness it needs. Don't expect your run-of-the-mill syrupy cherry pie. This one is full-bodied and balanced, much like a fine glass of Cabernet.

There are a zillion flaky pie crust recipes to choose from online. There’s all-lard, all-butter, a combo of both, or even olive oil pie crusts. I prefer all-butter, but also sifted in ground graham crackers with the flour for texture, flavor and because they go so well with dark chocolate. Homemade pie crust is so simple, and as long as you keep all the ingredients as cold as possible, I guarantee it will bake up ten times better than store bought.

Ingredients for Chocolate Cherry Pie

One 9 inch pie dish

Crust:
1 ½ cups organic, all-purpose flour. If you can, put it in the fridge overnight.
14 tablespoons of unsalted butter, frozen or very cold. That’s 2 sticks, minus 2 tablespoons.
1 teaspoon of salt
½ cup finely ground honey graham crackers. Use a food processor and chop them until they are the consistency of flour.
1 cup of icy cold water
1 egg, beaten with 2 tablespoons of water to make an egg wash.

Cherry filling:
2 ½ pounds of fresh cherries (about 2 pounds pitted)
½ cup agave nectar
4 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
½ cup of shredded chocolate. Use mostly dark, with some milk chocolate mixed in, also chopped in a food processor.

First the butter
Chop the butter into small cubes and place in the freezer while you prepare everything else.

Next the filling
Pit the cherries using a handy cherry-pitter and put them in a large bowl. This contraption also works very well for olives. Add the chopped chocolate, 4 tablespoons of flour and the agave nectar. Gently toss until the cherries are well coated.

Prepare the crust
Preheat your oven to 400F. Sift together the flour, salt and ground graham crackers. Add to the bowl of a food processor fitted with the dough blade. Make sure the cup of cold water is within reach. Add the frozen butter to the bowl and pulse. Add the water one tablespoon at a time until the dough looks like course breadcrumbs. Try not to add too much water or your dough will be soggy. The dough should not form a ball in the food processor–it should just come together when you pinch it with your fingers.

I would have made the dough by hand using a pastry blender, but mine is apparently MIA. Next time…

Remove the dough from the bowl and work it with your hands to form a ball. Divide it in half. Lightly flour your surface, rolling pin and hands, and roll out one half of the dough until it fits into a 9 inch pie dish. Carefully pick it up and place it in the dish, cutting off the overhang.

Fill the dough with the cherry mixture.

Roll out the second half of the dough and place it on top of the pie. Pinch the sides closed with your thumb and forefinger, and use a sharp knife to cut three vents into the top of the crust. Brush with the egg wash. Bake for 25 minutes in the middle of your oven. Lower the heat to 350F and bake for 25 more minutes.

Cut it while it's hot and watch all the molten chocolate seep onto your plate. Enjoy.

Pine nuts turn sour, so buy them fresh, use them quick and store them in the fridge. I buy mine at Monterey Market, where they are far cheaper than anywhere else in the East Bay – about $11.50 per pound compared to $14 at Berkeley Bowl. You may notice that the Chinese variety are more affordable than others, but really, it is not worth it. Do a simple google search for "bitter taste and pine nuts" and I think you'll agree.

Capers, olives, chili peppers, basil and other sharp notes balance the understated character of pine nuts, and highlight why they are worth three times as much as other nuts. Toasting them brings the nuttiness forward while softening the sweetness, and adds more of a crunch to the otherwise soft consistency. To toast, simply heat up a cast iron pan and shake around on low heat for about 7-10 minutes until golden.

For this recipe I picked up a head of cauliflower at the Temescal market, chopped it small, and sauteed it with olive oil, freshly crushed chili peppers, garlic, salt-packed capers and fresh parsely. I added mashed and whole pine nuts to subdue the bite, and tossed it all with whole wheat spaghetti.

If you are a spice fiend like me, crush the chili peppers yourself. Much better than the bland powdered stuff you find topped with a red cap.

What are your favorite non-pesto, pine nut recipes?
 Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Ingredients for spaghetti with spicy cauliflower and pine nuts

1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets and chopped small
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 bunch of parsley, chopped
1/3 cup of salt-packed capers, soaked for 30 minutes in water
1/2 cup of mashed, toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup whole, toasted pine nuts
Dried chili peppers, ground in a food processor–store extras in an airtight container
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Heat up a large saute pan and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Throw in one tablespoon of the ground chili peppers and turn the heat to low. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Turn the heat to medium and add the garlic. Cook for 1 minute and add the chopped cauliflower.

Saute for ten minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon, and add the capers, mashed pine nuts, salt and pepper. Cook for an additional 5 minutes, add the parsley, the whole pine nuts and another pinch of crushed pepper.

Toss with whole wheat spaghetti and drizzle some Sicilian olive oil on top.

I would have walked right past these speckled little eggs at the farmers' market, but Alejandro stopped to inquire and discovered that a pack of ten eggs cost only $1. One dollar? This was the beginning of the cheapest breakfast I have ever had.

I've been served quail eggs before at fancy restaurants, but never has one perched in my own kitchen. When I was short on ideas for what to do with them, I put some feelers out on facebook and twitter. Darya from Summer Tomato suggested sushi, and although it sounded oh so tempting, I didn't have all the ingredients on hand. The light bulb eventually went off (or on?) when my friend Jason mentioned eggs and potatoes. What could be simpler? And, along with showcasing the sweet flavor of the quail eggs, I could use the spicy Sicilian arugula that flourishes in my backyard.

This breakfast is exactly what I love about local, seasonal cooking. A few simple ingredients can produce an extraordinary meal that also happens to be extremely inexpensive. Besides the grilled bread that I made out of a whole wheat loaf from Wild Flour Bakery, this meal for two people cost me about $1.50 – total. Take that Mickey D's!

Ingredients for Quail Eggs with Smashed Potatoes and Arugula

4 quail eggs
3/4 pound of mini white potatoes, washed (don't peel)
1 handful of fresh arugula, roughly chopped
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
Sea salt, ground pepper

First the potatoes:
Set a pot of water to boil. Add the potatoes and cook for about 20 minutes. When tender, drain. Next, heat up a skillet and add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When hot, add the whole potatoes. Use a fork to gently smash up the potatoes while they cook. I say "gently" because if you're not careful, they will bounce around, splatter, and may burn you (I speak from experience). When the potatoes are broken up into large chunks, add salt and pepper and let cook for about 5 minutes on high heat. Turn off the heat, add the arugula and toss to combine.

Next the eggs:
Start the eggs when the potatoes are done. Cracking quail eggs is tricky business, but after a few mishaps I figured out a handy technique. The shell is really thin, but under it is a thick membrane that doesn't allow you to break it open like a chicken egg. I used a sharp paring knife, and with a quick swoop, chopped off the narrow end of the egg. From there, pour the egg out into a hot cast iron pan with a glistening layer of olive oil. Cook the egg for a little over a minute and add some salt and pepper.

Assemble the dish:
Dish the potatoes onto a plate, and top with an egg. Drizzle a touch of your expensive olive oil on top, and serve with fresh grilled bread.

Where I shopped:
Quail eggs and small potatoes: Old Oakland farmers' market
Arugula: my backyard
Whole wheat bread: Wild Flour Bakery

This may upset a few people. Before I even say it, I'm going to apologize up front because I do not mean any disrespect. The thing is, I've traveled through Spain, I've been to Valencia, and I was not impressed with the paella. That sounds crazy, doesn't it? Logically, it would mean that I just don't like paella. But that's far from the case.

My issue with the paella from Valencia was the ratio of rice to, well, everything else. There was way too much rice, and not enough meat and seafood to make it worth the 25 euro price tag. When I finished eating it, I felt slow and sluggish, much like a carb-filled meal tends to do, and not ideal when you're sightseeing around a beautiful country.

I wanted my paella to be different. I kept the technique of traditional Spanish paella, but used ingredients that are closer to home. My first thought was to only use local ingredients, but I fell short after visiting The Spanish Table in Berkeley, where I bought paella rice from Spain. This was an all seafood paella. I purchased the fish at Ver Brugge in Rockridge, and it must have been my lucky day because they had homemade seafood sausage available, a perfect substitute to chorizo. I also used fresh squid, scallops and local halibut, combined with tomatoes, peas, chickpeas, capers, olives and mint. The mint was the biggest surprise, lending its refreshing aroma to the entirety of the dish.

I didn't use broth in this recipe, and that was semi-intentional. I wanted to use either vegetable or seafood broth, but when I didn't have time to make it myself, I opted for water instead. I thought it a much better solution than ruining the meal with processed stock from a box – after all, you don't drink wine from a box, do you?

Ingredients for California Paella

1 1/2 cups of Valencia rice
1 pound of seafood sausage (this one was salmon with herbs.)
1/2 pound halibut fillets, cut into chunks
1/2 pound of cleaned squid, cut into rings
1/2 pound of sea scallops
3 tomatoes, skinned and crushed
1 sweet onion, diced
3 stalks of green garlic, chopped (discard about 3 inches of green from the top)
1 red pepper, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 cup dried chickpeas – soaked overnight and cooked until tender
1/2 cup chopped black olives
1/4 cup salt-packed capers, soaked and drained
1 cup fresh peas, blanched
1 lemon – juiced
1 handful of fresh mint, chopped
Saffron threads
Spanish paprika
3 cups of water or homemade fish stock

Start with the base:
Heat up a large, shallow pan, and add about 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. Throw in the chopped onion and green garlic. Cook for about 2 minutes, then add the crushed tomatoes, a small handful of chopped mint, sea salt, fresh pepper and 1 tablespoon of paprika. Turn the heat down a notch, and cook until all the liquid from the tomatoes evaporates and the sauce thickens – about 15 minutes. Spoon the sauce into a bowl and set aside.

Add the rice:
Next, add one tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, and cook the red and yellow peppers and chickpeas for 10 minutes. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of rice, the reserved sauce, the olives, capers, 3 cups of water or stock and a pinch of saffron. Stir to combine. Leave on medium heat for 10 minutes. Next, lower the heat and cook for an additional 25 minutes. Take a small taste of the rice to see if it's cooked. If so, turn the heat to high for one minute to brown the rice on the bottom of the pan – then remove from heat. If it's not done, add a tablespoon of water and cook for 5 more minutes. Don't stir the rice at all while cooking.

Make the fish while the rice cooks:
Set the heat to medium-high on a cast-iron skillet. Add the sausage and brown on all sides. Remove and set aside. Add the halibut to the same pan, season with salt and pepper, and cook for about 5 minutes until opaque. Remove the halibut form the pan. Next, throw the calamari rings in the pan, cook for 1 minute, and set them aside as well. Last but not least, season the scallops with salt and pepper, cook on both sides for 2 minutes each.

Assemble the paella:
When the rice is done, top with the blanched peas, then scatter all the seafood on top of the peas and squeeze a lemon over the whole thing. Cover with foil and let sit for 10 minutes. When serving, be sure to get an ample amount of seafood in each plate. Garnish with mint leaves.

Where I Shopped:
All the seafood: Ver Brugge in Rockridge
Tomatoes, sweet onion: Wilson Farms, Old Oakland Farmers' Market
Green garlic, fresh mint: Temescal Farmers' Market
Valencia rice, saffron threads: The Spanish Table, Berkeley
Red / yellow peppers, dried chickpeas: Monterey Market, Berkeley

Wait! Keep reading – don’t turn away just because I said the “A” word. Why is everyone so afraid of anchovies? Why do anchovy virgins cringe at the very sight of them? If I can convince just one reader to give these little fish a fair chance, I will have accomplished my good deed for the day.

Anchovies–and especially good anchovies–bestow a piquancy that you can’t achieve any other way. It’s an understated, salty, and complex taste that complements so many other flavors. Isn’t that reason enough to at least them a whirl?

I’m going to share some tips about buying anchovies, so you have no excuse for not trying them. There are a few different kinds – in a jar, in a can, marinated and whole. Salted, whole anchovies are my top choice when cooking – but if this is your first experience, save the whole ones for another time. If you do buy them whole, soak them first to remove the salt, and carefully fillet the fish away the from the bone. Ever had fish sauce? It’s also made with anchovies.

When buying them in a jar, look for those from Spain or Italy, and count on spending about $6 or $7 per jar. Although cheap, I’m not crazy about the Roland brand anchovies – they have the overpowering fishy taste that gave anchovies a bad name.

Here’s the best way to get introduced to the unique world of anchovies. Take three fillets from the jar, and mash them up with a fork or knife. Then heat up some olive oil in a saute pan. Turn the heat to low, and add the anchovies. Using a wooden spoon, mash them up until they dissolve. And there you go – the beginning of an amazing clam sauce, puttanesca, sauteed spinach or this delicious string beans recipe.

Ingredients for Italian String Beans with Anchovies and Breadcrumbs

1 pound of string beans, washed
1 sweet onion, sliced thin
1 cup of homemade breadcrumbs (I made mine from a loaf of whole grain)
6 anchovy fillets
Extra-virgin olive oil

Prepare the breadcrumbs:
Preheat the oven to 300F. Toss some day-old bread in a food processor. Even better if it’s whole grain, or from a local bakery. Spread the crumbs on a foiled baking dish, add salt, pepper, oregano and olive oil. Toss with your hands to coat, and bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden.

Start the beans:
Mash up four of the anchovy fillets with a fork. Heat up a large cast iron skillet, and add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Turn the heat to low, and throw in the anchovies. Flatten with a wooden spoon until they dissolve. Then, turn the heat up to medium and add the onions. Stir around until soft and translucent, about five minutes. Add the string beans, a few grinds of fresh black pepper, and cook for 10 minutes. Add the breadcrumbs and stir to coat. Cook for one more minute and turn off heat. Serve with a anchovy fillet draped on top.

Where I Shopped:
Blue Lake Green Beans: Monterey Market, Berkeley
Anchovies: The Spanish Table, Berkeley
Whole Wheat bread: La Farina Bakery, Oakland

Doesn't this look like a dish that would please any mother?

For this month's Paper Chef contest, the ingredients were floury potatoes, thyme, and prosciutto, with the theme being Mother's Day. As soon as I saw this list, I had visions of fluffy gnocchi floating around in a buttery springtime sauce. After all, there's no better way to say thank you to your mother than the labor of love that is homemade gnocchi.

I baked russet potatoes, passed them through a ricer, and slowly added the sifted flour and egg yolks to produce light pillows instead of gummy lumps. You can mash the potatoes with a fork, but the texture turns out much smoother when you use a ricer. I found one for a dollar at a garage sale.

 For the sauce, with a mortar and pestle I mashed a pesto of fava beans, walnuts, meyer lemon zest, parmigiana reggiano and lemon juice. Then, I made thyme butter which I slowly browned before throwing in the gnocchi, fava beans, pesto and thin slices of prosciutto d'parma.

If there were ever a recipe that reminded me of my Mother's Day, this is it. The citrus and the fava beans brought in the flavors of May, while the thyme and prosciutto added a unique character that made this dish worthy of the occasion. The love that went into this dish started with the organic, farm fresh ingredients that I picked up at the Old Oakland farmers' market, and ended with the meticulous pressing of each little piece of gnocchi. It's truly the meal that will prove to your mother how much you care.

Ingredients for Thyme-buttered gnocchi with fava beans, walnuts and prosciutto

1 1/2 pounds of russet potatoes
1 1/2 pounds of fava beans
1 Meyer lemon
1 cup of walnuts
1/2 cup parmigiana reggiano
1 cup of sifted flour
2 egg yolks
1/4 pound of prosciutto d'parma
1 bunch of fresh thyme
1/2 stick of butter

First the potatoes:
Preheat the oven to 350F. Bake the potatoes for about one hour, or until tender. Let cool only slightly (enough so you don't burn yourself), and remove the skins. Pass the potatoes through a ricer into a large glass bowl. Add the egg yolks and 1/2 cup of sifted flour to the potatoes. Mash together with your hands. Slowly add more flour, one tablespoon at a time. Continue to work the dough with your hands until you feel it come together. When the dough is still a touch sticky, stop adding the flour and knead until smooth. I had about 2 tablespoons of the flour leftover.

Cut the dough into four pieces. On a floured surface, roll each piece into a rope using a back-and-forth motion with your hands, until the rope is 1 inch thick. Using a pastry scraper, cut the gnocchi into one inch pieces. Set aside on parchment paper and repeat with the remaining dough. To make the ridges, press each gnocchi into the top of a whisk (or fork), with your thumb on the other side. This will create a star-like shape on one side, while the other side is concave from your thumb.

Next the fava  beans:
While the potatoes are baking in the oven, start preparing the favas. Put on a large pot of water to boil. Shell the beans and blanch for 30 seconds. Scoop the beans out with a slotted spoon and shock them in ice water. Drain and remove the second shell, exposing the vibrant green of the favas.

And the butter:
Remove the leaves from the thyme branches and chop them. Leave the butter out until it is very soft. Then, in a small bowl, add the butter and the thyme leaves and stir until combined. Roll the butter back into a log and put in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

The pesto:
Add the walnuts to a large mortar and mash them up. Zest the lemon (try not to include any of the white pith), and chop it finely. Add the minced lemon zest, the shredded parmigiana reggiano, half of the fava beans and the juice of one lemon. Continue mashing until the beans are broken up. Add a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Now cook:
Add the gnocchi to a pot of boiling water. Cook just until all the gnocchi float to the top. Drain, but reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water.

Melt the thyme butter in a large saute pan. After it foams and turns light brown, throw in the gnocchi and shake the pan around. Next add the fava beans. After about 30 seconds, add the pesto and half of the reserved cooking water. One minute later add the sliced prosciutto, and shake the pan around for another minute, making sure everything is coated in the sauce. If it's too thick, add a touch more the cooking water. Add salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with sprigs of thyme.

Where I shopped:
Potatoes, thyme, Meyer lemons, fava beans, chandler walnuts: Old Oakland Farmers' Market
Prosciutto: Star Grocery, Oakland

Wish me luck in the Paper Chet contest, and be sure to check out all the great mother's day recipes for yourself.

I can’t yet compete with 40 years of experience, but I’d like to think that my homemade fresh mozzarella at least comes close to that of Giuseppe’s, the master cheesemaker at Caputo’s in Brooklyn.

Since I was young, one of my favorite things to eat was creamy mozzarella cheese with olive oil and tomatoes from our garden – I know, my parents fed us well. But, my standards rose along with my age, and after traveling through Italy and living in the old Italian neighborhood of Carroll Gardens, the mozzarella must be exceptional to get my stamp of approval.

It’s rare these days to find fresh mozzarella with the texture and richness that I once took for granted, so I often rely on my own two hands to get the cheese I want. It’s actually quite easy – I use the recipe from  Ricki’s Mozzarella Cheesemaking Kit, which I purchased about two seconds after reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal. Vegetable. Miracle.

I’ve made this cheese many times, and a few small tweaks have transformed it into cheese that’s great melted on something, to cheese that you want to savor all on its own. First, the quality of the milk is the most important. My top choice is the organic, whole, cream-on-top milk from Straus Family Creamery. I’ve also used their raw milk with great results, but I like the flavor of their whole milk better. On their website, Straus explains it’s the combination of the fog, salty coastal air and special vegetarian diet they feed their cows that give the milk its unique aroma and taste. I can’t attest to their methods, but I can say that their milk is the best I’ve ever had – actually the second best. First place goes to the almost mythical dairy products that come from Valle d’Aosta in Italy.

Another trick to this cheese is the kneading process. I try to work the cheese as little as possible. Ricki suggests stretching the cheese before you shape it into a ball, but I often leave that step out to produce an ultra-creamy texture similar to mozzarella di bufala. It also improves the texture if you only let the curds set for three minutes instead of five. It may take a few turns to get your cheese exactly how you like it, but I’m sure every batch will be even tastier than the last. And the best part? It only take a half hour to make.

See the “About me” photo at the top of the page? That’s me making cheese in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen. When I told my neighbor I was making homemade cheese, he just had to run over and take a picture. You’ll find that’s a common response when you tell people you’re making cheese from scratch.

Ingredients for Fresh Mozzarella Like Guiseppe
(Adapted from Ricki's Cheesemaking Recipe)

1 gallon of organic milk – the cheese will not work if you use ultra-pasteurized milk. It must be pasteurized at low temperatures or raw to make cheese. Cream-topped milk works great, and you can usually find it at your local farmers' market.
1 1/2 teaspoons of citric acid
1/4 tablet of vegetable rennet – crushed and dissolved in 1/4 cup of cold water
cheese salt

Equipment:
thermometer that starts at 80F
8 quart stainless steel pot
large glass bowl
stainless steel slotted spoon

First, warm the milk
Pour the milk into the stainless steel pot, and put the burner on low. Stir in the citric acid, and slowly heat the milk to 93F. Turn the heat off when the thermometer reads 93F, and pour in the dissolved rennet. Stir continuously for exactly 30 seconds. Then, let the milk sit still for three minutes. At this point, the curds will separate from the whey. Take a sharp knife, and cut the curds into one inch cubes while still in the pot. Be sure to cut all the way to the bottom of the pot. Next take the slotted spoon and scoop out the curds into the glass bowl. Try to drain as much of the whey as you can from the bowl.

Next, form the cheese
Put the glass bowl in the microwave on high for one minute. Then, drain out more of the whey, pressing down on the cheese with your hands to remove as much of the whey as possible. Microwave again for 30 seconds, and again drain the whey.

My in-laws are in town from Bogota, Colombia, so along with all the shopping and sightseeing, I've been trying to show off my kitchen skills. They've had my cooking before, but not since we moved to Berkeley.

Instead of the usual chocolate chip cookie or cranberry pie, I opted for a true taste of the bay with these crunchy little citrus bars. I used fresh lemons and oranges, walnuts from the farmers' market, local honey and agave nectar instead of sugar.

My tactics worked, and they were impressed – so much so that they ate them for breakfast as well. It always makes me happy when I try to make a dessert a bit healthier and my guests don't notice the difference. Just goes to show that there really is little need for white sugar when there are so many tastier substitutes available.

Ingredients for Citrus Nut Bars:

Crust:
2 cups of sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
3/4 cup diced butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

Citrus Filling:
4 eggs
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup local honey
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon lemon rind
1 teaspoon orange rind
3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons of fresh orange juice

First the crust:
Preheat the oven to 350F. Sift together the flour and icing sugar into a large bowl. Add the diced butter and chopped walnuts and hazelnuts, and stir until it looks like course breadcrumbs. I used a pestle to help break up the butter a bit. Stir in one tablespoon of water until the dough comes together in a ball.

Press the dough into a 13×9 dish, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove and let cool while you work on the lemon filling.

Next the filling:
Beat together the eggs, honey, agave, flour, baking powder, citrus rinds and juices until smooth. Pour over the crust and bake for 25 minutes. When cool, cut into bars. Garnish with a little icing sugar on top.