::pop-up general store::

2010-10-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

Hi there, friends!

Our new website is finally up! We were using this blog as a temporary way to distribute information about Pop-Up General Store, so now that we are all set to go with the new website, we'll no longer be posting here. If you want to catch up with us, check things out over at www.popupgeneralstore.com

Thanks!

Recipe Ideas and Cooking Instructions for September 15th Pop-Up

2010-09-15T22:10:00.000-07:00

Pizza Dough

Tips for a successful pizza!

Take the dough out of the refrigerator an hour before you want to use it. Form it into a ball by placing it on a work board, and cupping your hands around it, use a circular motion and the tension formed by rolling on the work surface to form the ball. Transfer it to a lightly floured surface, dust the top with flour and cover with a towel. Let it rest for an hour to relax the gluten. Preheat your oven with a pizza stone to 450 degrees. Generously sprinkle a flat pan or pizza peel with semolina and set aside. You will be assembling the pizza on this.

Transfer to your semolina sprinkled pan. While you are assembling the pizza, check a few times that the dough isn’t sticking to the pan by gently wiggling it. The pizza dough should slide readily on the semolina. If you have a sticky spot, just lift the dough a bit and toss some more semolina under the sticky spot.

A good base for the bottom of the pizza is a mixture of finely minced garlic in some good olive oil slathered on. Top your pizza with whatever makes you happy, but resist “loading” the pizza, a light touch with the toppings is best.

Slide your pie onto the preheated stone in the oven and bake, rotating for even brownness until desired doneness. You can use a pizza peel or metal spatula to lift the pie a bit and check the color of the bottom to help guide you. This should take about 15-20 minutes. However, pay more attention to how the pie looks while it’s baking, rather than the time. All ovens are different and baking times are merely guidelines in many cases, nothing more.

Slide finished pizza onto a cutting board, brush the crust with olive oil, slice it up and get to it!

Happy pizza making!

Spicy Calabrian Sausages

Savory and fiery, these sausages will definitely wake up your palate! Cook the sausages over medium heat in a cast-iron skillet, or on the grill, 8-10 minutes in total, until cooked through. The juices should run clear but freely. Turn them every 3-4 minutes to avoid burning on one side.

Kept in your refrigerator, they will last 4-5 days, or they can be frozen for up to a month.

A few ideas on how to serve them:

These sausages would be delicious served alongside some sauteed bitter greens, such as rapini, and roasted potatoes.

Or, remove the sausage from the casing and crumble it onto a pizza before baking for a delicious topping.

One of our favorite things to do is to make sausage sandwiches with arugula, pecorino cheese, caramelized onions, and sauteed sweet peppers. Yum! Don't forget the aïoli!

The other night, we cooked up a big staff meal of bronze-cut pasta with these spicy sausages, some of our tomato sauce, and basil, and it was fantastic (see full recipe below).

Heirloom Tomato Sauce with Basil

This sauce can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen for up to a month. To use, just gently bring to a boil.

For pasta, always add hot pasta to hot sauce. For pizza, just ladle room temperature or cold sauce onto the dough before baking.

One special thing we love to do with heirloom tomato sauce is to poach fresh farm eggs in it for breakfast. Simply thin out the sauce with a little bit of water, and use it as the poaching liquid for your eggs (be careful not to add too much water--the sauce will definitely be thicker than what you're used to poaching eggs in). You can add a few chili flakes, and if you like a little flair, some crushed cumin seed and a splash of sherry vinegar to the sauce. Serve with grilled or toasted bread rubbed with garlic.

Fresh Bronze-Cut Rigatoni Pasta

This rigatoni is extruded through traditional bronze plates, which leave the pasta micro-grooves that encourage sauce to cling to the noodle.

Keep refrigerated. Though the pasta is fresh, it can be dried for a few days in the refrigerator and then stored in the cupboard. If you'd like to try that, then spread the pasta out on a cookie sheet, let it dry out in the fridge until it's hard, and bag it up and store in a dry, cool spot.

The rigatoni can be cooked just like any other dry noodle you've made before: simply boil 2 gallons of water per pound of pasta you plan to cook, heavily salt it until it tastes like ocean water, then add the pasta. Stir from time to time, and cook until al dente, which depending on the freshness of the pasta can take anywhere from 3-10 minutes.

Serving suggestions:

At this time of year, think about serving the Rigatoni with Basil Pesto, Green Beans and Cherry Tomatoes.

For the pesto:

Pick the leaves from: 1 bunch of basil, to yield about 1 lightly packed cup

In a mortar and pestle, pound to a paste: 1 garlic clove, peeled with a pinch of salt

And continue to pound: 1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted

Add: 1/4 cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese

Transfer this mixture to a bowl. Coarsely chop the basil leaves and put them in the mortar. Pound the leaves to a paste. Return the pounded pine nut mixture to the mortar. Pound the leaves and pine nut mixture together. Continue pounding as you gradually pour in: 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Taste for salt and adjust if necessary.

(If you don't have a mortar and pestle, you can make pesto in the blender.)

Boil 1 pound of pasta as described above, adding 1/2 pound of trimmed green beans to the water, cut to the length of the pasta, when the pasta is half-way cooked.

When the pasta is cooked, strain it and toss in a large bowl with 1 1/2 cups basil pesto and salt. Mix in a pint of stemmed and halved cherry tomatoes and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

Durum pasta always pairs well with tomato based sauces, so anything from marinara to puttanesca sauce would be perfect. We made a delicious pasta the other night when we were making the sausage:

Bronze-Cut Rigatoni with Spicy Calabrian Sausages and Heirloom Tomato Sauce

Chop and saute one small onion in a few tablespoons of olive oil until soft and brown. Add two cloves of chopped garlic.

Uncase and crumble 3-4 sausages in large pinches into the pan and cook over medium heat until golden brown.

Add 1 1/2 cups heirloom tomato sauce into the pan and bring to a simmer.

Boil 1 pound of pasta as described above. Drain and add into the sauce and toss. Add a handful of torn basil leaves and garnish with grated parmesan if desired. Serve immediately.

Amy Cakes: Cupcake Perfection

2010-09-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

The great thing about cupcakes is their ability capture all the best parts of cake--all in a smaller, less guilt-inducing portion. with maximum frosting to cake ratio. And voila! A few bites of heaven.

Amy Hatwig, a core member of the Bakesale Betty team, and founder of Amy Cakes, knows how to take these phenomenal goodies to the next level. This week, she is offering two of her most delicious flavors: Chocolate with Chocolate Ganache, as well as Banana with Whipped Crème Fraîche. As cute as they are, once you try one, you'll be glad they come by the half-dozen!

Pizza Politana: Neapolitan wood-fire oven

2010-09-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

Pizza Politana brings Naples to you...on a custom-built trailer...in the form of an authentic Neapolitan wood-fired oven!

And after the oven, everything else stays local-- Pizza Politana uses organic, seasonal ingredients from farmers and artisan producers in the area. Come by Pop-Up this Wednesday (September 15th, 5-7pm, Grace Street Catering) to try a slice-- or a whole pie.

For the first time this week, you can also take home their signature pizza dough and try your hand as a pizzaiolo. Pre-Order your dough before 1pm today, and then start brainstorming about what other goodies you'll toss on top!

Mike the bejkr: Artisan Bread

2010-09-12T12:13:00.000-07:00

What is more basic, and more essential, than a loaf of bread? As a true canvas for flavor, a great slice of bread can feature a favorite cheese, make a phenomenal sandwich, be topped with the season's best vegetables, or simply be eaten with a generous slather of good butter. While the possibilities are endless, they all start with a good quality loaf of bread.

We love Mike [the bejkr] Zakowski's bread, and we are so excited to feature three of his unique loaves, both for pre-order and for direct sale this Wednesday. Try his Pain de Campagne, a rustic country miche including rye and spelt flour. There's also his Pain Biologique, a hearty whole grain seed loaf including hemp, sesame, flax, and pumpkin seed. Not to be missed, his Farro Spezzato Batard is a delicious whole wheat bread with cracked spelt. Whatever you do with your bread, when it's this good, it's almost impossible to go wrong...

Blue Chair Fruit: Preserving the Season

2010-09-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

Blue Chair Fruit knows their fruit. Rachel Saunders founded Blue Chair Fruit in 2008 after nearly ten years of preparation and intense study of fruit and fruit preserving techniques. Their jams and marmalades are sourced directly from local organic farmers, and their tiny batch process captures the best textures and flavors in each ingredient. Poised perfectly between sweetness and tartness, and ranging from complex flavors (Black Plum Jam with Candied Citrus and Bay) to timeless classics (English Marmalade), Blue Chair Fruit truly is a our favorite way to preserve the season.

Available for Pop-Up pre-order for the first time, Blue Chair Fruit will be offering duo packs of their jams: Dolly Plum Jam and English Three-Fruit Marmalade. Even if you don't pre-order, make sure to stop by and see them during Wednesday's Pop-Up, as they'll be offering wider variety of delicious flavors (will it be Strawberry-Rose? Early Girl Tomato and Plum?).

Perhaps most exciting of all, Rachel has written her first book, The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook! Set for release September 21st, the cookbook offers more than 100 original jam, jelly, and marmalade recipes. Her creative, modern, and sustainable approach is a must-have resource for home and professional cooks everywhere. You can now pre-order signed copies of the book directly from their website!

Pop-Up General Store next Wednesday, September 15th

2010-09-09T08:09:00.000-07:00

photo by Sara Remington

Hi there!

We wanted to let you know that we'll be popping up next Wednesday, September 15th!

Next week, we'll be offering some of our favorite foods, including Spicy Calabrian Sausages, perfect for grilling. We'll also be making Heirloom Tomato Sauce and Fresh Bronze-Cut Rigatoni.

We're also happy to share with you offerings from several of our friends: Soul Food Farm, Becker Lane Organic Farm, Peko Peko, Ghost Town Farm, Amy Cakes, ebcb, Katz, Four Barrel Coffee, Pizza Politana, Mike [the bejkr], Devil's Gulch Ranch, Grace Street Floral, Chris Weiss, Studebaker Pickles, and Blue Chair Fruit.

Pre-order and pay for your items, then come visit our pop-up location in the historic Temescal streetcar depot that houses Grace Street Catering. We'll be there next Wednesday, September 15th from 5pm to 7pm awaiting your arrival! We'll have lots of extras for sale, so feel free to pop in even if you don't place an order!

Don't forget your reusable shopping bags! And please remember, for day-of purchases, we can only accept cash or checks at this time.

Best,
Chris & Samin

How it Works:

For Pre-Orders: Place your order and pay online by Monday, September 13th at noon. When you click on the link above, it'll take you to Page One of the order form--make sure to scroll down to the bottom and click over to Page Two to see everything we're offering!

Please note that your order will not be considered complete until you pay with a credit card. You'll know everything went through when you receive an automated confirmation email.

At the Pop-Up, proceed to a different line on the side of the building facing 47th Street. Volunteers will pull up your order and assemble your purchase!

For Day-Of Purchases: You can now pay each individual vendor for your purchase, instead of paying at a general cashier. Vendors will take both cash and checks (made out to Pop-Up General Store)!

Parking: Please keep in mind that the Pop-Up General Store occurs in a residential neighborhood with limited parking. While we are working on securing a nearby parking lot for future Pop-Ups, at this time, only street parking is available. We encourage you to be respectful about where you choose to park so as to not disturb our neighbors.

See you in September...

2010-08-02T07:56:00.001-07:00

We won't be popping up this August...

but we look forward to seeing all of you for the next Pop-Up in September.

We hope you enjoy the rest of your summer!

Home Ec: How to Pull Fresh Mozzarella

2010-07-31T12:03:00.000-07:00

Have you been wondering what that hand-pulled mozzarella on every restaurant menu is all about? Have you noticed that it's impossibly tender, better than even the most expensive imported Italian mozzarella?

Come spend an afternoon with chef Samin Nosrat for a delicious and demystifying hands-on cheese-pulling class. Put your mozzarella-making skills in practice and get ready for the arrival of tomato season!

Samin will talk and walk you through the intricacies of pulling the perfect ball of fresh mozzarella, and then it'll be your turn! Everyone will then get to pull several balls of mozzarella (it takes a while to get a hang of it!) under her guidance. You'll even get to try your hand at making a creamy burrata mozzarella!

After we gather around the table to enjoy some of the mozzarella we pull together, each student will take home his/her mozzarella, as well as a recipe book with ideas for cooking with your fresh mozzarella, step-by-step instructions for pulling mozzarella, and a list of trusted cheese purveyors and resources.

You'll leave empowered and informed, knowing how to make delicate, tender fresh mozzarella for the perfect salad, pizza or antipasto plate.

WHAT
How to Pull Mozzarella with Samin Nosrat

WHEN
August 14
4 pm- 6:30 pm

WHERE
4629 Martin Luther King Junior Way
(At the corner of 47th and MLK)
Oakland, CA 94609

TICKETS
$75
To Enroll: Visit the event page at Brown Paper Tickets

CLASS SIZE
18 students max.
Each student will pull and take home several balls of his/her own fresh mozzarella and a recipe guide.

ABOUT SAMIN NOSRAT
A professional cook and freelance writer, Samin Nosrat looks to tradition, culture and history for inspiration. Trained in the Chez Panisse kitchen, she cooked there for several years before moving to Italy, where she worked closely with the Tuscan butcher Dario Cecchini and chef Benedetta Vitali for nearly two years. She spent five years as the sous chef and "farmwife" at Eccolo restaurant, butchering, brining, and preserving nearly everything in an effort to make the restaurant as self-sustaining as possible. Her writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Meatpaper, and Edible San Francisco, as well as on her blog, Ciao Samin.

Home Ec: The Pasta Course

2010-07-25T09:30:00.001-07:00

Come spend an empowering afternoon learning the intricacies of fresh pasta-making with chef Samin Nosrat.

After discussing the history and science behind pasta fresca, Samin will take you into the kitchen to demonstrate the ins and outs of making, rolling, and shaping fresh pasta. She'll cover such topics as which types of flours to use, tips for rolling smooth, even sheets, and how to best store and cook handmade pasta.

Then, it'll be your turn to work with fresh farm eggs and a variety of high-quality flours. You'll learn how to make several shapes, including rustic hand-torn straccetti, traditional tagliatelle, farfalle, and delicate ravioli.

Each student will receive a recipe guide and some pasta to take home.

You'll leave empowered and informed, knowing how to make delicate, tender sheets of pasta whenever you like.

WHAT
How to Make Fresh Pasta with Samin Nosrat

WHEN
August 1
4 pm- 7 pm

WHERE
4629 Martin Luther King Junior Way
(At the corner of 47th and MLK)
Oakland, CA 94609

TICKETS
$99
To Enroll: Visit the event page at Brown Paper Tickets

CLASS SIZE
20 students max.
Each student will make and take home several types of fresh pasta and a recipe guide.

ABOUT SAMIN NOSRAT
A professional cook and freelance writer, Samin Nosrat looks to tradition, culture and history for inspiration. Trained in the Chez Panisse kitchen, she cooked there for several years before moving to Italy, where she worked closely with the Tuscan butcher Dario Cecchini and chef Benedetta Vitali for nearly two years. She spent five years as the sous chef and "farmwife" at Eccolo restaurant, butchering, brining, and preserving nearly everything in an effort to make the restaurant as self-sustaining as possible. Her writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Meatpaper, Edible San Francisco, and TheAtlantic.com, as well as on her blog, Ciao Samin.

Recipe Ideas and Cooking Instructions for July 21st Pop-Up General Store

2010-07-21T17:00:00.000-07:00

Pizza Dough

Tips for a successful pizza!
Take the dough out of the refrigerator an hour before you want to use it. Form it into a ball by placing it on a work board, and cupping your hands around it, use a circular motion and the tension formed by rolling on the work surface to form the ball. Transfer it to a lightly floured surface, dust the top with flour and cover with a towel. Let it rest for an hour to relax the gluten. Preheat your oven with a pizza stone to 450 degrees. Generously sprinkle a flat pan or pizza peel with semolina and set aside. You will be assembling the pizza on this.
Generously flour a work surface and dust the top of the dough ball with flour. To form the pizza you can either roll it briefly with a rolling pin, or stretch it by hand, or a combination of both. I recommend by hand as this will teach you how to handle the dough. Begin by dimpling the dough with your fingertips, leaving about an inch at the edge for the crust. Pick up the dough and using your fists, start from the middle and gently stretch the dough, working outward, to an even thinness. Don’t worry about the shape, it will look beautiful when you take it out of the oven.
Transfer to your semolina sprinkled pan. While you are assembling the pizza, check a few times that the dough isn’t sticking to the pan by gently wiggling it. The pizza dough should slide readily on the semolina. If you have a sticky spot, just lift the dough a bit and toss some more semolina under the sticky spot.
A good base for the bottom of the pizza is a mixture of finely minced garlic in some good olive oil slathered on. Top your pizza with whatever makes you happy, but resist “loading” the pizza, a light touch with the toppings is best.
Slide your pie onto the preheated stone in the oven and bake, rotating for even brownness until desired doneness. You can use a pizza peel or metal spatula to lift the pie a bit and check the color of the bottom to help guide you. This should take about 15-20 minutes. However, pay more attention to how the pie looks while it’s baking, rather than the time. All ovens are different and baking times are merely guidelines in many cases, nothing more.
Slide finished pizza onto a cutting board, brush the crust with olive oil, slice it up and get to it!
Happy pizza making!

Spicy Calabrian Sausages

Kept in your refrigerator, they will last 4-5 days, or they can be frozen for up to a month.

A few ideas on how to serve them:

These sausages would be delicious served alongside some sauteed bitter greens, such as rapini, and roasted potatoes.

Or, remove the sausage from the casing and crumble it onto a pizza before baking for a delicious topping.

One of our favorite things to do is to make sausage sandwiches with arugula, pecorino cheese, caramelized onions, and sauteed sweet peppers. Yum! Don't forget the aïoli!

The other night, we cooked up a big staff meal of bronze-cut pasta with these spicy sausages, some of our tomato sauce, and basil, and it was fantastic (see full recipe below).

Heirloom Tomato Sauce with Basil

This sauce can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen for up to a month. To use, just gently bring to a boil.

For pasta, always add hot pasta to hot sauce. For pizza, just ladle room temperature or cold sauce onto the dough before baking.

Fresh Bronze-Cut Gemelli Pasta

This gemelli is extruded through traditional bronze plates, which leave the pasta micro-grooves that encourage sauce to cling to the noodle.

The gemelli can be cooked just like any other dry noodle you've made before: simply boil 2 gallons of water per pound of pasta you plan to cook, heavily salt it until it tastes like ocean water, then add the pasta. Stir from time to time, and cook until al dente, which depending on the freshness of the pasta can take anywhere from 3-10 minutes.

Serving suggestions:

At this time of year, think about serving the Gemelli with Basil Pesto, Green Beans and Cherry Tomatoes.

For the pesto:

Pick the leaves from: 1 bunch of basil, to yield about 1 lightly packed cup
In a mortar and pestle, pound to a paste: 1 garlic clove, peeled with a pinch of salt
And continue to pound: 1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
Add: 1/4 cup grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese

Taste for salt and adjust if necessary.

(If you don't have a mortar and pestle, you can make pesto in the blender.)

Boil 1 pound of pasta as described above, adding 1/2 pound of trimmed green beans to the water, cut to the length of the pasta, when the pasta is half-way cooked.

Durum pasta always pairs well with tomato based sauces, so anything from marinara to puttanesca sauce would be perfect. We made a delicious pasta the other night when we were making the sausage:

Bronze-Cut Gemelli with Spicy Calabrian Sausages and Heirloom Tomato Sauce

Chop and saute one small onion in a few tablespoons of olive oil until soft and brown. Add two cloves of chopped garlic.

Uncase and crumble 3-4 sausages in large pinches into the pan and cook over medium heat until golden brown.

Add 1 1/2 cups heirloom tomato sauce into the pan and bring to a simmer.

Boil 1 pound of pasta as described above. Drain and add into the sauce and toss. Add a handful of torn basil leaves and garnish with grated parmesan if desired. Serve immediately.

ebcb: Salty Sweet Treats

2010-07-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

Chelsea Pence, a cook at Chez Panisse, started ebcb (East Bay Cookie Baker) last year. She brought with her a passion for not only sugar, but also for its usual opposite, salt. And boy do we love the results! From her Salty Chocolate Cookies to her Fleur de Sel Caramels to her Bacon Praline Cookies, Chelsea has really driven home the power of opposing forces and the beautiful contrast created when the best of the savory world meets the land of sweets...

And for the first time this Pop-Up, Chelsea is offering many of her sweets for pre-order! Make sure to place your order by noon Monday (today)--but don't despair if you read this too late. Chelsea will definitely bring some extras to blow you away at this Wednesday's Pop-Up...

Katz: Extra Virgin Olive Oils

2010-07-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the ultimate kitchen staple-- and having a quality bottle of it in your pantry is indispensable for most home and restaurant cooks. At Chez Panisse, Katz is the oil of choice. And once you taste it, we're pretty sure you'll see why...

For the first time on Pre-Order, Katz will be selling a selection of their local, organic artisan Olive Oils! They will be offering not only their signature Chef's Pick Extra Virgin Olive Oil(the robust, fruity oil used in the Chez Panisse kitchen), but also the fantastic Rock Hill Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a grassy oil with floral overtones. And don't miss their Meyer Lemon Extra Virgin Olive Oil, made by pressing organic Meyer lemons to unleash the fantastic oils and aromas in their skin.

We didn't yet mention that they've also made their artisan vinegars available for Pre-Order. But those incredible flavors would require a whole other Blog post in themselves...

Be sure to place all your Pre-Orders by Monday, July 19th at 12 noon!

Pop-Up General Store next Wednesday, July 21st

2010-07-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

We wanted to let you know that we'll be popping up next Wednesday, July 21st!

Next week, we are so excited to be offering Spicy Calabrian Sausages, perfect for grilling. We'll also be making Heirloom Tomato Sauce and Fresh Bronze-Cut Gemelli.

We are also excited to have new offerings from several of our friends: Soul Food Farm, Becker Lane Organic Farm, Peko Peko, Jojo's Goodies, Ghost Town Farm, Amy Cakes, Siew-Chinn Chin, Goulash, ebcb, Katz, Four Barrel Coffee, Diana Fayt, Pizza Politana, Mike [the bejkr], Devil's Gulch Ranch, Grace Street Floral, and Blue Chair Fruit.

Pre-order and pay for your items, then come visit our pop-up location in the historic Temescal streetcar depot that houses Grace Street Catering. We'll be there next Wednesday, July 21st from 5pm to 7pm awaiting your arrival! We'll have lots of extras for sale, so feel free to pop in even if you don't place an order!

Check out the Pop-Up General Store blog for more information about our purveyors, recipes and cooking instructions for our artisan foods, and details about other projects we're involved in.

Don't forget your reusable shopping bags! And please remember, for day-of purchases, we can only accept cash or checks at this time.

Best,
Chris & Samin

How it works...

For Pre-Orders: Place your order and pay online by Monday, July 19th at noon. When you click on the link above, it'll take you to Page One of the order form--make sure to scroll down to the bottom and click over to Page Two to see everything we're offering!

Please note that your order will not be considered complete until you pay with a credit card. You'll know everything went through when you receive an automated confirmation email.

At the Pop-Up, proceed to a different line on the side of the building facing 47th Street. Volunteers will pull up your order and assemble your purchase!

For Day-Of Purchases: You can now pay each individual vendor for your purchase, instead of paying at a general cashier. Vendors will take both cash and checks (made out to Pop-Up General Store)!

Though we strongly suggest placing an order to guarantee availability, we always do our best to make extras, so if you forget to place an order, please do stop by!

............................................................

Next week, we'll be offering these items for pre-order:

Spicy Calabrian Sausages are perfect for grilling or adding to a pasta dish. Made with Niman Ranch Pork, Calabrian chilies, and garlic, these robust fresh sausages are great on their own, on a roll, or paired with seasonal vegetables for a simple summer dinner. There are approximately 3 sausages to a pound and they should be consumed within 3 days of purchase, or frozen immediately.

Made in the tradition of Italian grandmothers who spend their summers preserving pomorola sauce for their families to enjoy throughout the year, quarts of Heirloom Tomato Sauce are made with organic tomatoes from Happy Boy Farm, fresh basil, onions and garlic. Perfectly paired with the Fresh Bronze-Cut Gemelli Pasta or Jojo Goodies' Pizza Dough, this tomato sauce can be eaten fresh for up to a week or frozen for up to a month.

Made with high-quality organic durum wheat, Fresh Bronze-Cut Gemelli Pasta, is extruded through traditional bronze plates, resulting in more porous, rougher pasta that virtually begs sauces and seasonings to cling to it. With an incomparable chewy texture, bronze-cut pasta catches flavor in its grooves like no other. The pasta will come in 1-pound boxes and is vegan-friendly(!).

Alexis Koefoed will be offering Soul Food Farm Pastured Chickens, the chef's favorite at many Bay Area restaurants including Chez Panisse, Camino, Frances and Coi. The chickens come shrink-wrapped whole, in either small (3 to 3.75 lbs) or large (3.75-4.5 lbs). Alexis will also be offering her delicate Chicken Leg Confit, described by Mark Bittman in his New York Times blog as "a simple, no-fuss main course that can be crisped up in about 15 minutes. The chicken is good whole or shredded over a bed of lightly dressed greens. Another option is to shred it into a pot of beans with the garlic and some of the olive oil. Or you could go all out and integrate it into a cassoulet." The confit can be kept refrigerated for up to 12 weeks, or frozen for up to 2 months. Lastly, Alexis will be selling Stock Birds, our meat birds, that have had their thighs and legs removed (to make the confit) and are now two breasts, wings, and a carcass. Perfect for stock or roasted for a simple dinner or lunch.

Becker Lane Organic Farm will be offering fresh Whole Rack Pork Spare Ribs, vacuum packed and ready to cook. The Becker family has been raising pigs the old fashioned way in Dyersville, Iowa since 1850. Jude Becker is a sixth generation farmer who took on the management of his family's farm in 1999. He started out with a small herd of six sows, and converted the farm to an organic operation. The farm now supports close to 500 sows, producing approximately 6000 pigs per year. Jude is a full time farmer who works alongside his small staff to raise the pigs, farm the land, mill the feed, and market his pork. Becker Lane Organic is one farmer, one farm.

Sylvan Mishima Brackett of Peko-Peko will be offering Deluxe! Heritage Pork Gyoza made with with local ginger, garlic, and cabbage in handmade wrappers--and this time, he's added pork knuckle stock for extra juiciness! Frozen, the gyoza comes with special Peko sauce and cooking instructions.

Mary Jo Thoresen and Curt Clingman of Jojo Goodies will be offering two-packs of Summer Berry-Buttermilk Panna Cotta, and two-packs of 10-ounce Pizza Dough Balls.

Amy Hatwig of Amy Cakes (and core member of the Bakesale Betty team!), will be offering six-packs of cupcakes in two flavors: Strawberry with Meringue or Chocolate with Chocolate Ganache.

Chez Panisse pastry cook Siew-Chinn Chin, will be making Chocolate-Caramel and Apricot-Pistachio Macarons, exquisite enough to rival Paris's finest. She will also be offering Meringues Geantes: big, light, and soft in the center, these invitingly delicious meringues are like those you see in a typical patisserie in Paris. And this week, she'll also be making her wonderful bags of Chocolate-Hazelnut Meringues for you to try!

ebcb (east bay cookie baker a.k.a. Chelsea Pence) will offer some of her signature handmade sweets for pre-order: Fleur de Sel Caramels, Almond-Tangerine Biscotti, and Salty Chocolate Cookies. She'll also bring some Bacon Praline Cookies, Handmade Marshmallows, Graham Crackers, and Lavender Caramels along on Wednesday for you to try at the Pop-Up.

Ghost Town Farm will be selling Mixed Produce Boxes, full of delicious, organic fruits and vegetables straight from the farm. During the Pop-Up, you can also pick up other treats such as figs in syrup, preserved lemons, and copies of Novella Carpenter's hilarious memoir, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer.

Katz will be offering a selection of local, organic artisan Olive Oils and Vinegars for pre-order, including their signature Chef's Pick, Rock Hill Ranch, and Meyer Lemon Olive Oils, as well as Late Harvest Sauvingon Blanc Agrodolce, Gravenstein Apple Cider, and Late Harvest Zinfandel Agrodolce Vinegars, all staples in the Chez Panisse kitchen.

Available for the first time for pre-order, San Francisco's Four Barrel Coffee (our favorite!) will be selling a selection of two types of coffee beans by the pound--Brass Tacks Blend and Decaffeinated Ethiopia Shoye Sidamo. As usual, they will also be offering iced coffee and pour over coffee on site to enjoy right away!

And new this week, Mike [the bejkr] Zakowski will be offering his delicious artisan breads. Come try his Pain de Campagne, a rustic country miche including rye and spelt flour, his Pain Biologique, a whole grain seed loaf including hemp, sesame, flax, and pumpkin seed, and his Farro Spezzato Batard, a whole wheat bread with cracked spelt.

Mark Pasternak of Devil's Gulch Ranch in Marin County will also be joining us for the first time with his delicious Rabbits, raised free of hormones and antibiotics. Their rabbits are fed a pelleted feed along with grass and hay to ensure complete nutrition-- but the proof of quality is really in the taste...evidenced by their constant appearance on some of our most beloved Bay Area restaurant menus, including Chez Panisse, Zuni Cafe, and Quince.

............................................................

The following items will be available for direct sale at the Pop-Up--no need to place an order, just stop by:

Lori Podraza of Goulash will once again be offering Handmade English Muffins, including Plain and Cheddar-Scallion flavors! She'll also be bringing along her beautiful Recycled Market Bags.

You may have seen Diana Fayt's work for sale at The Gardener or at the Heath Ceramics shop in Sausalito. Diana has been hard at work on a special line of oven-safe ceramics just for Pop-Up customers! Perfect for serving and eating all of your Pop-Up goodies from, Diana's beautiful Hand-Etched Ceramics will make your heart sing!

Pizza Politana will be cooking Neapolitan-Style Pizzas in their wood-burning oven in the courtyard. We strongly suggest stopping at their stand to order your pizzas on your way into the Pop-Up so it can be ready for you on your way out.

Rhonda Stoffel, the in-house designer on the premises at Grace Street Floral, has been doing floral design for over 20 years in the Bay Area. Primarily known for her wedding and event work, she takes great pleasure in using the wonderful locally grown materials that vary so dramatically with each season; floral elements, of course, but also branches, foliage, mosses and lichens to name just a few. She will be offering for sale an interesting and detailed selection of Cut Bouquets, Mini Arrangements, and Unusual Recycled Containers as floral and plant vessels.

Blue Chair Fruit will also be at the General Store, offering a wide array of jams and marmalades, all cooked in small batches in a copper kettle. Flavors have included Strawberry-Rose Jam, Early Girl Tomato & Plum Jam, Lemon Marmalade with Pear and over a dozen more. Stop in for a taste!

Please submit orders by 12 noon on Monday, July 19th. Items not available for pre-order will be available for direct purchase at the Pop-Up on Wednesday.

June 30th Pop-Up Cooking Tips and Instructions

2010-06-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

Chris & Samin

Bucatini with Clams, White Wine and Chili Flakes

1 pound fresh bronze-cut bucatini

5 pounds manila clams, rinsed

3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thinly

1 spring onion, sliced thinly

Chili flakes

Dry white wine

2 tablespoons butter

Salt

Parsley

Lemon zest (optional)

Extra virgin olive oil

In a large pot, bring 2 gallons of water to a boil. Season with salt until it tastes like sea water.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat, then lightly coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil. Add the spring onions and garlic and cook until translucent, then add the clams and a splash of white wine and cover the pan with a lid. After you allow the clams to steam open, season with chili flakes, lemon zest and parsley, and then reduce the wine by half.

Add the pasta to the boiling, salted water. Stir from time to time, and cook until al dente, which depending on the freshness of the pasta can take anywhere from 3-7 minutes.

Drain the pasta and add into the pan with the clams. Add the butter, stir with tongs, adjust seasonings to taste, and garnish with more chopped parsley.

Some people (including us) love, love, love to garnish clam pasta with parmesan cheese. Other people think this is heretical. You can be the judge…

Italian Fennel Sausages

Cook the sausages over medium heat in a cast iron skillet, or on the grill, about 12 minutes in total, until cooked through. The juices should run clear but freely. Turn them every 3 or 4 minutes to avoid burning on one side.

Kept in your refrigerator, they will last 4-5 days, and they can be frozen for up a month.

Summer Squash and Basil Corn Soup

Simply bring the soup to a boil on the stove! You can thin it out with a little water if you like.

Enjoy the soup fresh by Saturday, July 3rd or freeze for up to a month.

Jojo's Goodies

Tips for a successful pizza!

Slide finished pizza onto a cutting board, brush the crust with olive oil, slice it up and get to it!

Happy pizza making!

Potato-Nettle Gratin

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Put the foil covered gratin on a sheet pan in the oven. Bake for 20 – 30 minutes, or until it is hot throughout. You can test this by inserting a paring knife into the center of the gratin for a few seconds and if the knife is hot, then the gratin is hot.

Remove from oven and let the gratin sit for about 10 minutes to settle, it will cut better this way. Using a serrated knife usually works best, using a sawing motion rather than just downward pressure. Lift portions out with a small metal spatula.

We hope you enjoy your gratin!

TODAY IS THE POP-UP!

2010-06-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

Pop-Up day is finally here again-- come by the Pop-Up General Store, located in Grace Street Catering, between 5pm-7pm today to get your hands on some delicious artisan foods.

We can't wait to see you!

Pop-Up Vendor Spotlight: Jojo's Goodies

2010-06-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

At tomorrow's Pop-Up, Mary Jo Thoresen and Curt Clingman of Jojo's Goodies will be offering delicious foods for you to serve at home and enjoy in a flash. A restaurant quality meal to enjoy at home? Acquired by supporting small, local food artisans? In a fun, community Pop-Up setting? Yes, you read right! Now read on...

Mary Jo and Curt, the beloved duo of Jojo restaurant in Berkeley (now closed), are back to offer the public their much missed foods. This week, Jojo's Goodies will be selling their incredible Strawberry Buttermilk Panna Cotta (Note: Mary Jo also worked in the pastry department at Chez Panisse. For years.). They will also share with you their Potato-Nettle Gratin with Grana Padano Cheese, as well as their two-packs of 10-ounce Pizza Dough Balls, (Another note: Curt also worked at Oliveto's. For years.) The gratin is fully cooked and needs only to be reheated, while the pizza dough comes with recipe ideas! It couldn't get any easier.

Check back Wednesday night for specific cooking tips and instructions on enjoying the very special treats!

Pop-Up Vendor Spotlight: Becker Lane Pork Ribs

2010-06-27T20:45:00.001-07:00

Michael Pollan once said: "Whenever I hear that Becker Lane pork is available anywhere in the Bay Area, I go out of my way to get some of it." And who can argue about Michael Pollan when it comes to food?

Not us.

Which is why we are extra proud to feature--and make accessible to you--pork from this organic, sustainable, and delicious farm. Becker Lane Organic Farm focuses on raising pigs the way they've always been raised: heritage breeds, who stay mainly outdoors, and eat only natural ingredient. The proof is in the meat's marbling, color, texture, and most importantly the TASTE. Unforgettable.

But don't just trust what you're reading on this screen--please try it for yourself! This week's Pop-Up will feature Becker Lane Pork Ribs, straight from the farm. Remember to pre-order your ribs. Or if you're too late to make the 10am Monday June 28th deadline, try to get some by just stopping by for the extras... Trust us, it's worth it.

Pop-Up Vendor Spotlight: Siew-Chinn Chin

2010-06-26T12:52:00.000-07:00

Siew-Chinn Chin's Macarons should clearly be on everyone's list of not-to-be missed treats in the Bay.

This crazy Malaysian cook has worked in the Chez Panisse pastry department for years, and sugar-spoiling friends and family for much longer. While she makes a mean organic dog biscuit and an unforgettable meringue, die-hard sweet-tooths will be particularly in love with her rendition of these French gems.

Queens of the Parisian patisserie, Macarons are tricky to make at all, much less to make well. At their best, they have a delicate, almond cookie exterior which gives way with crackling satisfaction to a melting, buttery core, ripe with flavor. Complex in texture and bright in taste, they are indulgence at its most sophisticated.

The next Pop-Up General Store, Wednesday, June 30th from 5pm-7pm, will feature Siew-Chinn's Macarons in Raspberry and Chocolate-Espresso. Don't miss out! Pre-order or stop by for your taste of heaven.

2010-06-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

Pop-Up General Store

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30TH FROM 5-7 PM

Hi everyone!

We wanted to let you know that we'll be popping up next Wednesday, June 30th!

Next week, we are so excited to be offering Italian Fennel Sausages, perfect for grilling. We'll also be making Summer Squash and Basil Soup and Fresh Bronze-Cut Bucatini.

Pop-Up Pantry will return, featuring a carefully curated selection of specialty dry goods and cook's tools, including premium Madagascar Vanilla Beans, Amarena Cherries, Valrhona Cocoa Powder, Tcho Cacao Nibs, Anson Mills Grains, and more.

We are also excited to have new offerings from several of our friends: Soul Food Farm, Becker Lane Organic Farm, Peko Peko, Jojo's Goodies, Ghost Town Farm, Amy Cakes, Siew-Chinn Chin, Goulash, ebcb, Katz, Four Barrel Coffee, Diana Fayt, Pizza Politana, Grace Street Floral and Blue Chair Fruit.

Pre-order your items, then come visit our pop-up location in the historic Temescal streetcar depot that houses Grace Street Catering. We'll be there next Wednesday, June 30th from 5pm to 7pm awaiting your arrival! We'll have lots of extras for sale, so feel free to pop in even if you don't place an order!

Check out the Pop-Up General Store blog for more information about our purveyors, recipes and cooking instructions for our artisan foods, and details about other projects we're involved in.

Don't forget your reusable shopping bags! And please remember, for day-of purchases, we can only accept cash or checks at this time.

Best,
Chris & Samin

How it works...

There will be a few changes to how the Pop-Up works this week, which we hope will streamline your whole experience.

For Pre-Orders: You will pay for your items online in advance and proceed to a different line, on the side of the building facing 47th Street. Volunteers will pull up your order and assemble your purchase!

IF YOU CANNOT MAKE THE POP-UP TO PICK UP YOUR PRE-ORDER BY 6:30PM, PLEASE LET US KNOW BY E-MAIL (popupgeneralstore {at} gmail {dot} com) OR WE WILL ASSUME YOU CAN'T MAKE IT AND WE MAY SELL YOUR ORDER! If you do not pick up your pre-order and we are unable to sell it, you will still be charged for the entire order.

For Day-Of Purchases: You can now pay each individual vendor for your purchase, instead of paying at a general cashier. Vendors will take both cash and checks (made out to Pop-Up General Store)!

Soul Food Farm Chicken Confit

2010-06-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

Have you seen this sweet article in San Francisco Magazine about Soul Food Farm's chicken confit? If not, take a moment to check it out.

Here's some info from the Soul Food Farm website about how to use chicken confit:

Chicken confit

How do I heat up the chicken confit?
We recommend you warm up in the oven (some people use microwave) skin side up, approximately 10 to 5 min at 400 degrees or until warm through. Since they are cooked you could also serve them at room temperature.

What do I do with chicken confit?
As Mark Bittman said in his New York Times Bitten blog, chicken confit can serve as "a simple, no-fuss main course that can be crisped up in about 15 minutes. The chicken is good whole or shredded over a bed of lightly dressed greens. Another option is to shred it into a pot of beans with the garlic and some of the olive oil. Or you could go all out and integrate it into a cassoulet."

How long can I store the chicken confit?
12 weeks refrigerated, 2 years if frozen and seal is not broken.

A few recipe ideas and heating instructions

2010-06-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Thanks to everyone who showed up to Wednesday's Pop-Up! We're working on some new systems to help streamline things in the future.

Here are, at long last, some cooking instructions and recipe suggestions for some of our items:

Chorizo Fresco

These pork sausages are packed with spices, sherry and garlic for optimal flavor. They are mildly spicy, but won't burn your palate. Enjoy fresh by Saturday, June 12th or freeze for up to a month.

The sausages are raw and need to be fully cooked. We recommend using a cast-iron pan or a grill. Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes per side, until brown on the outside and cooked through on the inside.

Chorizo is delicious for breakfast or dinner with eggs and fried potatoes (and Fig & Miel's Cuban Black Beans!). You can also crumble the raw sausage onto pizza as a topping, or fry it up and add it into the rigatoni pasta with some onions, garlic and English peas for a simple meal.

Ingredients: Niman Ranch pork, olive oil, sherry, salt, paprika, chilies, cumin, fennel seed, coriander, clove, garlic.

Fresh Bronze-Cut Rigatoni Pasta

This rigatoni is extruded through traditional bronze plates, which leave the pasta with micro-grooves that encourage sauce to cling to the noodle.

Keep refrigerated. Though the pasta is fresh, it can be dried for a few days in the refrigerator and then stored in the cupboard. If you’d like to try that, then spread the pasta out on a cookie sheet, let it dry out in the fridge until it’s hard, and bag it up and store in a dry, cool spot.

The rigatoni can be cooked just like any other dry noodle you’ve made before: simply boil 2 gallons of water per pound of pasta you plan to cook, heavily salt it until it tastes like ocean water, then add the pasta. Stir from time to time, and cook until al dente, which depending on the freshness of the pasta can take anywhere from 3-10 minutes.

Serving suggestions:

Durum pasta always pairs well with tomato based sauces, so anything from marinara to puttanesca sauce would be perfect.

At this time of year, the rigatoni would be perfect with some asparagus, parmesan and black pepper. Simply snap and peel your asparagus, then slice it into 1/4-inch slices on the diagonal.

Get the rigatoni going as suggested above in salted, boiling water. In the meantime, heat a large sauté pan and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. When you can smell the garlic, add and reduce 1/2 cup of cream until thick. When the pasta is almost fully cooked, add the asparagus into the pasta water for about 1 minute.

Drain the pasta and asparagus when they are cooked and add to the reduced cream. Add some grated parmesan cheese, freshly ground black pepper, 2 tablespoons of butter, and some chopped mint. Toss and serve immediately.

Ingredients: Extra fancy organic durum flour, water, extra virgin olive oil.

Sweet Corn Soup

Simply bring the soup to a boil on the stove! You can thin it out with a little water if you like. Serve with a spoonful of the cilantro-jalapeño garnish.

Enjoy the soup fresh by Saturday, June 12th or freeze for up to a month.

Ingredients: Organic sweet corn, water, organic onions, butter, salt. Garnish: Cilantro, jalapeño, extra virgin olive oil, salt.

Pizza Dough

Take the dough out of the refrigerator an hour before you want to use it. Preheat your oven with a pizza stone to 450 degrees. Generously sprinkle a flat pan or pizza peel with semolina and set aside. You will be assembling the pizza on this.

Generously flour a work surface and dust the top of the dough ball with flour. To form the pizza you can either roll it briefly with a rolling pin, or stretch it by hand, or a combination of both. I recommend by hand as this will teach you how to handle the dough. Begin by dimpling the dough with your fingertips, leaving about an inch at the edge for the crust. Pick up the dough and using your fists, start from the middle and gently stretch the dough, working outward, to an even thinness. Don’t worry about the shape, it will look beautiful when you take it out of the oven. Transfer to your semolina sprinkled pan. While you are assembling the pizza, check a few times that the dough isn’t sticking to the pan by gently wiggling it. The pizza dough should slide readily on the semolina. If you have a sticky spot, just lift the dough a bit and toss some more semolina under the sticky spot.

Slide finished pizza onto a cutting board, brush the crust with olive oil, slice it up and get to it!

Happy pizza making!

(This dough freezes beautifully. Just take it out of the freezer the night before and let it defrost in the refrigerator overnight. Take it out of the refrigerator about an hour before you want to make your pizza. It will handle and stretch much better when the chill is off of it.)

2010-06-06T22:52:00.000-07:00

Due to an overwhelming response to our order form for Wednesday's Pop-Up, we are no longer taking pre-orders. All of our vendors will be making extras to bring to the Pop-Up for folks who didn't get a chance to place an order before we sold out. We can't wait to see you on June 9th from 5-7pm!

2010-06-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends!

There has already been an overwhelming response to the newsletter for the June 9th Pop-Up General Store, so we are going to have to start marking certain items as SOLD OUT based on our production capabilities.

We are committed to making restaurant-quality artisan foods for you, and since we make do nearly everything by hand ourselves, there is only so much we can do in the two days we have to cook preceding each Pop-Up.

Fear not, though, because there will be lots of things for sale that are not available for pre-order, and we're planning to make extras of everything (even things we have designated as SOLD OUT) in order to get as much tasty food to as many of you as possible.

Thank you so much for your amazing response and enthusiasm! We can't wait to see you next week!

Best,

Chris & Samin

SF Chronicle Photos of the Pop-Up

2010-06-03T09:10:00.000-07:00

pop-up general store

samin's fresh bronze-cut rigatoncini

peko peko gyoza

sylvan mishima brackett of peko peko

blue chair fruit jam

Wowzers!

2010-05-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

Yikes!

We were not prepared for this sort of response from the piece in the Chronicle today!

Thanks so much for your interest, everyone!

Here are a few answers to commonly asked questions:

The next Pop-Up General Store will be on Wednesday, June 9th from 5-7 pm at Grace Street Catering (4629 MLK Jr Way in Oakland).
To receive full details and an order form next week, please add yourself to our mailing list here.
You don't need to reserve a spot to come to the Pop-Up, but we do recommend placing a pre-order to ensure you get the foods you want. We always try to make extras of everything, and there are certain items that are not available for pre-order and are direct sales on the day of the pop-up (such as produce, English muffins, pantry items, and most sweets), so please do come even if you don't place an order!

Email us at popupgeneralstore{at}gmail{dot}com with any further questions!

Thanks, and see you soon!

Upcoming Home Ec Classes with Samin Nosrat

2010-05-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

Home Ec: The Chicken Course

Come spend an afternoon with Alexis Koefoed of Soul Food Farm and Chef Samin Nosrat for a hands-on butchering and cooking class.

In the first half-hour, Alexis will describe her chicken husbandry practices at Soul Food Farm, where she raises exquisite pastured chickens for some of the Bay Area's finest restaurants, including Chez Panisse, Camino, Coi and Frances. She'll talk about how she got into the chicken and egg business, as well as answer any questions you might have about backyard birds.

Next, we'll move into the kitchen where Samin will show you the ins and outs of butchering a chicken, including how to truss it for roasting. In 2008, Diablo Magazine called Samin's technique for spit-roasting chicken "masterful," and she will share with you all of her tips on roasting, spit-roasting and frying up delicious chicken every single time. You'll also receive a recipe book with tips on making stock, brodo and a few simple chicken dishes.

The class will end with some hands-on work: each student will receive a Soul Food Farm pastured chicken to break down into primal cuts under Samin's guidance. You'll leave empowered and encouraged to start buying whole chickens at the market, knowing how to economically and deliciously use every part of the bird!

WHAT

The Chicken Course: How to Butcher, Roast & Fry a Chicken with Samin Nosrat

WHERE

4629 Martin Luther King Junior Way

(At the corner of 47th and MLK)

Oakland, CA 94609

WHEN

Saturday, June 12th from 4-6.30pm

TICKETS

$99

To enroll: visit the event page at Brown Paper Tickets

CLASS SIZE

20 students max.

Each student will butcher and take home his/her chicken and a butchery and recipe guide.

Home Ec: The Rabbit Course

Rabbits are the new chicken. As one of the most sustainable meat choices available, rabbit is quickly becoming a favorite for conscientious home cooks. Come spend an afternoon with Mark and Miriam Pasternak of Devil's Gulch Ranch and Chef Samin Nosrat for a hands-on butchering and cooking class.

In the first half-hour, Mark will describe his rabbit husbandry practices at Devil's Gulch Ranch, where he raises rabbits for some of the Bay Area's finest restaurants, including Chez Panisse, Zuni Cafe, Quince Restaurant and The French Laundry.

Next, we'll move into the kitchen where Samin will show you the ins and outs of butchering a rabbit—then it'll be your turn: each student will receive a rabbit to break down into primal cuts. The class will end with a cooking demonstration of how to extract the most flavor from your rabbit, with recipes for a rich stock, kidney and liver paste, Tuscan rabbit ragu and tips on how to best season, grill and braise rabbit meat.

WHAT
A rabbit butchery and cooking class with Samin Nosrat

WHEN
Saturday, June 26
4 pm- 6:30 pm

WHERE
4629 Martin Luther King Junior Way
(At the corner of 47th and MLK)
Oakland, CA 94609

TICKETS
$99
To Enroll: Visit the event page at Brown Paper Tickets

CLASS SIZE
20 students max.
Each student will butcher and take home his/her rabbit and a butchery and recipe guide.

ABOUT SAMIN NOSRAT
A professional cook and freelance writer, Samin Nosrat looks to tradition, culture and history for inspiration. Trained in the Chez Panisse kitchen, she cooked there for several years before moving to Italy, where she worked closely with the Tuscan butcher Dario Cecchini and chef Benedetta Vitali for nearly two years. She spent five years as the sous chef and "farmwife" at Eccolo restaurant, butchering, brining, and preserving nearly everything in an effort to make the restaurant as self-sustaining as possible. Her writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Meatpaper, and Edible San Francisco, as well as on her blog, Ciao Samin.

Recipes and Cooking Instructions for May 19th Pop-Up

2010-05-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

Boudin Blanc

Boudin blanc, which means “white pudding,” is the most esteemed of all French sausages. Ours is made with pork, chicken, onions, breadcrumbs, cream, and spices. The sausages are fully cooked but need to be gently browned and warmed through. Kept in your refrigerator, they will last for 5-7 days, but no longer.

Cook the boudin blanc in a mixture of half light olive oil and half butter, or in all clarified butter, if you have it on hand. Use a heavy fry pan or, preferably, a cast iron skillet. First warm the pan to a sizzle, then turn the heat down very low. Add to the pan a thin coating of the oil-butter mixture (or clarified butter, if that’s what you’re using). Cook the sausages for four minutes on each side, turning once. Do not brown them too darkly, as this will make the sausage skin bitter, and you will risk bursting the sausage. Do not cover them, as they will most definitely burst.

Serve the boudin blanc with good Dijon or grain mustard, and, as we like to do, with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut (or failing that, stewed or roasted cabbage).

We like to drink with boudin blanc a cru Beaujolais, such as Morgon or Brouilly, Bourgogne Rouge of character, or a delicious Chinon. Then there’s always Minervois, Anjou and…

Bon appetit!

Fresh Bronze-Cut Rigatoncini

This rigatoncini is extruded through traditional bronze plates, which leave the pasta with micro-grooves that encourage sauce to cling to the noodle.

Keep refrigerated. Though the pasta is fresh, it can be dried for a few days and then stored in the cupboard. If you’d like to try that, spread the pasta out on a cookie sheet, let it dry out in a dry, cool place until it’s hard, and bag it up and store in a dry, cool spot.

The rigatoncini can be cooked just like any other dry noodle you’ve made before: simply boil 2 gallons of water per pound of pasta you plan to cook, heavily salt it until it tastes like ocean water, then add the pasta. Stir from time to time, and cook until al dente, which depending on the freshness of the pasta can take anywhere from 2-10 minutes.

Serving suggestions:

At this time of year, rigatoncini with peas, mint and pancetta makes a really special and easy springtime dinner.

Ingredients:

3-4 pounds fresh shelling peas in pods

1/2 pound pancetta or bacon, thinly sliced and diced

3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1 small red onion, peeled and diced

1/4 cup heavy cream

Few sprigs of mint, leaves picked and chopped

Few sprigs of parsley, leaves picked and chopped

Olive oil

Salt

1 pound fresh rigatoncini

Parmesan or pecorino cheese for garnish

Shuck the peas.

Bring 2 gallons of water to a boil and season with salt until it tastes like the ocean.

Gently heat a large, heavy-bottomed sauce pan and add 1 teaspoon of olive oil and the pancetta or bacon. Cook over medium heat, stirring from time to time, to render the pancetta a bit and get it golden brown.

When the pancetta is done, remove it from the pan. Retain the rendered fat, reheat the pan, and cook the onion over medium heat in the pork fat until it is soft and caramelized. Add the minced garlic and pancetta back into the pan, then turn off the heat.

Cook the pasta until al dente. When the pasta is about 90 seconds from being done, throw the peas into the pasta water and let them cook.

While the pasta is cooking, heat the pancetta pan over high heat, and add the cream. Let the cream reduce and thicken for a minute, then reduce the heat and add the drained pasta and peas to the pan. Add an ounce or two of the pasta water if needed to loosen the sauce and help coat the pasta.

At the last moment, add the chopped parsley and mint and toss.

Garnish with freshly grated parmesan or pecorino cheese and serve immediately.

Soul Food Farm Chicken Stock

This chicken stock is perfect to use as a base for soups, sauces and braises. It also makes for fantastic risotto and paella.

Use fresh within 5 days or freeze for up to a month.

Pop-Up General Store next Wednesday, May 19th

2010-05-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

Hi there!

We wanted to let you know that we'll be popping up next Wednesday, May 19th!

Due to popular demand, we'll be offering Boudin Blanc Sausages! We'll also be making Soul Food Farm Chicken Stock and Fresh Bronze-Cut Rigatoncini.

Pop-Up Pantry will return, featuring a carefully curated selection of specialty dry goods and cook's tools, including premium Madagascar Vanilla Beans, Katz Organic Olive Oil and Vinegars, Valrhona Cocoa Powder, Tcho Cacao Nibs, Anson Mills Grains, and more.

We are also excited to have new offerings from several of our friends: e.b.c.b., Peko Peko, Jojo's Goodies, Soul Food Farm, Little Bee Creamery, Ghost Town Farm and Blue Chair Fruit!

Pre-order your items using this form, then come visit our pop-up location in the historic Temescal streetcar depot that houses Grace Street Catering. We'll be there next Wednesday, May 19th from 5pm to 7pm awaiting your arrival! We'll have lots of extras for sale, so feel free to pop in even if you don't place an order!

Don't forget your reusable shopping bags! And please remember, we can only accept cash or checks at this time.

Best,
Chris & Samin

Next week, we'll be offering:

Boudin Blanc Sausages* will be made with chicken and pork, and be poached and ready for the grill or fry pan. There are approximately 3 sausages to a pound. The boudin should be consumed within 5 days of purchase, or frozen immediately for up to one month.

Rich Soul Food Farm Chicken Stock* is made with Soul Food Farm's unrivaled pasture-raised chicken. Full of deep-bodied chicken flavor and balanced with a hint of aromatics, the stock will be sold in quarts and can be used fresh for soups, stews, sauces and braises. It can also be frozen for up to a month.

Made with high-quality organic durum wheat, Fresh Bronze-Cut Rigatoncini Pasta*, is extruded through traditional bronze plates, resulting in more porous, rougher pasta that virtually begs sauces and seasonings to cling to it. With an incomparable chewy texture, bronze-cut catches flavor in its grooves like no other. The pasta will come in 1-pound boxes and is vegan-friendly(!).

Sylvan Mishima Brackett of Peko Peko will be offering Heritage Pork Gyoza* made with with local ginger, garlic and cabbage in handmade wrappers. The gyoza will come frozen and ready for the frying pan.

Alexis Koefoed will be offering Soul Food Farm Pastured Chickens* the chef's favorite at many Bay Area restaurants including Chez Panisse, Camino, Frances and Coi, will be available. Averaging four pounds, the chickens come shrink-wrapped whole. Alexis will also be offering her delicate Chicken Leg Confit*, described by Mark Bittman in his New York Times blog as "a simple, no-fuss main course that can be crisped up in about 15 minutes. The chicken is good whole or shredded over a bed of lightly dressed greens. Another option is to shred it into a pot of beans with the garlic and some of the olive oil. Or you could go all out and integrate it into a cassoulet." The confit can be kept refrigerated for up to 12 weeks, or frozen for up to 2 months.

Novella Carpenter of Ghost Town Farm will be joining us once again with some of her hyper-local produce, including salad mix, braising mix, fava beans and candied citrus peel. She'll also be signing copies of her hilarious memoir, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer.

Stacie Pierce of Little Bee Creamery will be offering pints of freshly-churned Stracciatella Ice Cream with Tcho Chocolate*. She'll also have 10-ounce balls of organic Buttery Tart Dough* which can be rolled out at home to make sweet or savory tarts, galettes or crostatas. Stacie will also include a few recipes and cooking instructions with your purchase. The dough can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Mary Jo Thoresen and Curt Clingman of Jojo's Goodies will be offering two-packs of Black Currant Tea Panna Cotta*, two-packs of 10-ounce Pizza Dough Balls*(recipe ideas included!), and Potato-Chard Gratin with Grana Padano Cheese*, which is fully cooked and needs only to be reheated.

ebcb (east bay cookie baker a.k.a. Chelsea Pence) will offer some of her signature handmade sweets: organic Vanilla Bean and Lavender Caramels, Salty Chocolate Cookies, and Blood Orange-Pistachio Biscotti with housemade candied peel. She will also bring some of her beautiful Almond Nut Crescents and S'mores Kits with Homemade Graham Crackers, Handmade Marshmallows and Artisan Chocolate.

Blue Chair Fruit will also be at the General Store, offering a wide array of jams and marmalades, all cooked in small batches in a copper kettle. Flavors include Brown Turkey fig jam with fennel and marsala, Pear-Lemon jam and over a dozen more. Stop in for a taste!

Items marked with an asterisk are listed on the order form, which you can find by clicking here. Please submit orders by 10 am on Monday, May 17th. Items not listed on the form will be available for direct purchase at the Pop-Up on Wednesday.

Pasta-Making Class at Soul Food Farm with Samin Nosrat

2010-05-13T08:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 29th

12 pm - 2 pm, followed by lunch

Come learn how to make rustic hand torn pasta, traditional tagliatelle, farfalle, and delicate ravioli filled with spring vegetables, using Soul Food Farm eggs. Samin will discuss the ins and outs of pasta-making, including which types of flours to use, tips for rolling even, smooth pasta, and how to best store homemade pasta. Each student will receive a recipe guide and some pasta to take home.

After class, we'll sit in the shade to enjoy a lunch of our pastas and a few other light dishes.

Come prepared to get your hands dirty, because this will be a (very) hands-on class!

Cost: $75 per person; includes lunch. Soul Food Farm CSA members get $10 off one ticket

Recipes and Cooking Instructions for April 28th Pop-Up

2010-04-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

Italian Fennel Sausages

Cook the sausages over medium heat in a cast iron skillet, or on the grill, about 12 minutes in total, until cooked through. The juices should run clear but freely. Turn them every 3 or 4 minutes to avoid burning on one side.

Kept in your refrigerator, they will last 4-5 days, and they can be frozen for up a month.

Ribollita Soup

Ribollita literally means “reboiled” in Italian and originated as a way for Tuscan grandmothers to use up left over bread. Over time, it has evolved into a hearty bean, bread and kale soup thick enough to eat off a plate with a fork.

To heat the soup, place it in a medium saucepot with a little bit of water and heat it over a medium-low flame, stirring constantly, until it comes to a boil.

Garnish with extra virgin olive oil and parmesan cheese if desired.

You can keep the soup in the freezer for up to a month.
Fresh Bronze-Cut Bucatini Pasta
This bucatini is extruded through traditional bronze plates, which leave the pasta with micro-grooves that encourage sauce to cling to the noodle.

Keep refrigerated. Though the pasta is fresh, it can be dried for a few days and then stored in the cupboard. If you’d like to try that, spread the pasta out on a cookie sheet, let it dry out in a dry, cool place until it’s hard, and bag it up and store in a dry, cool spot.

The bucatini can be cooked just like any other dry noodle you’ve made before: simply boil 2 gallons of water per pound of pasta you plan to cook, heavily salt it until it tastes like ocean water, then add the pasta. Stir from time to time, and cook until al dente, which depending on the freshness of the pasta can take anywhere from 3-10 minutes.

Serving suggestions:
Durum pasta always pairs well with tomato based sauces, so anything from marinara to puttanesca sauce would be perfect. One of our favorite recipes is for bucatini all'amatriciana, which is one of the most celebrated dishes in Italian cuisine.
Ingredients:
3/4 pound sliced pancetta or guanciale (cured pork jowl)
3 garlic cloves
1 red onion, halved and sliced ½-inch thick
1 ½ teaspoons hot red pepper flakes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 ½ cups tomato sauce
1 pound bucatini
1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves only
Pecorino Romano, for grating
Bring 2 gallons of water to a boil and add enough salt to make it taste like ocean water.
Place the pancetta or guanciale in a large frying pan in a single layer and cook over medium-low heat until most of the face has been rendered from the meat, turning occasionally.
Remove the meat to a cookie sheet lined with paper towels and discard half of the fat. Add the garlic, onion, and chili flakes to the pan and cook until soft and golden brown. Return the pancetta/guanciale to the pan, season with salt and pepper, add the tomato sauce, and simmer for another 10 minutes.
Boil the bucatini in the boiling water, stirring frequently, until al dente. Drain the pasta and add it to the simmering sauce. Add the parsley leaves, increase the heat to high and toss to coat. Top with freshly grated pecorino romano and serve immediately.

Featured in the Pop-Up Pantry: Anson Mills Grains

2010-04-27T18:51:00.000-07:00

We are so pleased to be able to offer our customers exquisite milled-to-order polenta and grits from Anson Mills in South Carolina. Here's a little bit about Anson Mills and its founder, Glenn Roberts:

In 1998 Glenn Roberts, a Charleston-based historic restoration consultant and thirty-year veteran of restaurant and hotel concept design, steered his career down a radical path. He sold his worldly possessions and rented a big metal warehouse behind a car wash in Columbia, South Carolina. He bought 4 native granite mills and 40 chest freezers.

Glenn's plan was ambitious, some might say mad: he intended to grow, harvest and mill near-extinct varieties of heirloom corn, rice, and wheat organically, and re-create ingredients that were in the Southern larder before the Civil War. Grits, cornmeal, Carolina Gold rice, graham and biscuit flour, milled fresh for the table daily, had helped create a celebrated regional cuisine--America's first cuisine, the Carolina Rice Kitchen.

The cuisine was gone, the ingredients that inspired it no longer available. You might ask why anyone cared.

Glenn cared for a lot of reasons. He cared because the dishes his mother described during her girlhood in Aiken, South Carolina could no longer be prepared. He cared because each time he was asked to create a period dinner for an historic project the ingredients weren't around. He cared because local growers lacked the experience to grow old varieties. He cared because he knew this food had been exceptional.

It began with grits. In 1995 Glenn explored rural back roads looking for the famous white Carolina mill corn noted in antebellum plantation inventories and recipes. The corn was revered for its high mineral and floral characteristics, and its creamy mouthfeel. He found this corn in a bootlegger's field near Dillon, South Carolina in 1997, and planted and harvested his own first crop of 30 acres in 1998. Known as "Carolina Gourdseed White," the single-family hand-select dated back to the late 1600's. Gourdseed is a classic Southern dent corn, soft and easy to mill.

The discovery of Carolina Gourdseed White--and other nearly extinct varieties of Southern mill corn--fueled Glenn's efforts to preserve nutrition and flavor in heirloom corn. He knew the corn would have to be milled as carefully as it was grown. Glenn returned to historic documents. He read about an heirloom that had been bred to blow down in late fall for hand harvest under snow in deep winter. The corn, an 1850 yellow dent of Appalachian provenance called "John Haulk," was known to have made the "finest corn bread and mush." The fact that it was milled in freezing temperatures after full field ripening and drying was puzzling until Glenn froze and milled his own Gourdseed White. The resulting flavors were stunning. With this experiment Glenn "rediscovered" cold milling. In so doing, he found a way to offset the heat damage grains experience during milling, as well as ideal storage for seed corn-the freezer.

By 2000 Glenn had ten varieties of Southern dent heirlooms in the ground and was milling grits for chefs in Georgia and the Carolinas. Word got around. A handful of ingredient-conscious chefs across the country--Thomas Keller in Calfornia, Charlie Trotter in Chicago, Tom Colicchio in Manhattan, Ann Cashon in Washington DC, and Jodi Adams in Boston--began to use Anson Mills products and promote them vigorously to their colleagues. The circle widened.

In 2001, sustained by the success of Anson Mills' early efforts, Glenn took on production of certified organic Carolina Gold rice and a "Thirteen Colony" wheat called Red May. Both are currently in full production. In addition to its collection of native heirloom grains Anson Mills grows Japanese buckwheat, French oats and Italian farro. Each produces products of exquisite flavor and texture.

To date Anson Mills has provided grants to resuscitate roughly a dozen types of threatened antebellum mill corn, and has offered its research growers heirloom seed, seed selection expertise and management advice. Glenn works with thirty organic growers in six states.

Finding growers who are prepared to withstand the rigor of organic certification, and to make peace with the lower yields and higher demands of heirloom grains is no easy task. Glenn is indebted to the integrity of the seeds and the fortitude of his growers. He knows there is much left to do.

There are dozens of incredible recipe ideas for Anson Mills grains on their website.

2010-04-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

Hi there!

We wanted to let you know that we'll be popping up next Wednesday, April 28th!

Pre-order your items using this form, then come visit our pop-up location in the historic Temescal streetcar depot that houses Grace Street Catering. We'll be there next Wednesday, April 28th from 5pm to 7pm awaiting your arrival! We'll have lots of extras for sale, so feel free to pop in even if you don't place an order!

Don't forget your reusable shopping bags! And please remember, we can only accept cash or checks at this time.

Best,
Chris & Samin

Next week, we'll be offering:

Italian Fennel Sausages* are flavored with fennel, chili flakes and white wine and are delicious pan-fried or grilled. This is the same recipe we used recently when we made the sausages for Oyster Bliss! There are approximately 4 sausages to a pound and they should be consumed within 3 days of purchase, or frozen immediately.

Ribollita*, a hearty Tuscan white bean, kale and bread soup will be made with a rich chicken stock, plenty of greens and vegetables, prosciutto and parmesan. It will come packed in quarts and can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen for up to a month.

Made with high-quality organic durum wheat, Fresh Bronze-Cut Bucatini Pasta*, is extruded through traditional bronze plates, resulting in more porous, rougher pasta that virtually begs sauces and seasonings to cling to it. With an incomparable chewy texture, bronze-cut catches flavor in its grooves like no other. The pasta will come in 1-pound boxes and is vegan-friendly(!).

We are thrilled to welcome Sylvan Brackett of Peko Peko to the Pop-Up! He'll be offering a Spring Bamboo Bento* made with freshly-dug bamboo shoots cooked with rice, grilled with Soul Food chicken, steamed with egg and dashi. Ideal for a special business lunch or easy dinner with friends (or a memorable airplane meal!), the bento are served in lacquered boxes made of recycled cardboard with bamboo chopsticks.

Melissa Fernández of Fig and Miel will offer oven-ready Argentine Empanadas* filled with Marin Sun Farms beef, eggs, and traditional spices. Melissa will also be making her popular Mariquitas, or sweet and crispy plantain chips.

Lori Podraza of Goulash will once again be offering Handmade English Muffins, as well as Chocolate-Covered Candied Almonds. She'll also be bringing along her beautiful Recycled Market Bags.

Alexis Koefoed will be offering Soul Food Farm Pastured Chickens* the chef's favorite at many Bay Area restaurants including Chez Panisse, Camino, Frances and Coi, will be available. Averaging four pounds, the chickens come shrink-wrapped whole. If the stars align, Alexis will also send us a few dozen of her heavenly eggs to sell!

Stacie Pierce of Little Bee Creamery will be offering pints of freshly-churned Strawberry Ice Cream* made with organic strawberries from Lucero Farm. She'll also have 10-ounce balls of organic Buttery Tart Dough* which can be rolled out at home to make sweet or savory tarts, galettes or crostatas. Stacie will also include a few recipes and cooking instructions with your purchase. The dough can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Mary Jo Thoresen and Curt Clingman of Jojo's Goodies will be offering two-packs of Rose Geranium Panna Cotta*, two-packs of 10-ounce Pizza Dough Balls*(recipe ideas included!), and Potato-Fennel Gratin with Grana Padano Cheese*, which is fully cooked and needs only to be reheated.

ebcb (east bay cookie baker a.k.a. Chelsea Pence) will offer some of her signature handmade sweets: organic Lavender and Fleur De Sel Caramels, Salty Chocolate Cookies, and Almond-Mandarin Biscotti with housemade candied peel. This will also mark the debut of Chelsea's Pop-Up O's!

Blue Chair Fruit will also be at the General Store, offering a wide array of jams and marmalades, all cooked in small batches in a copper kettle. Flavors include Brown Turkey fig jam with fennel and marsala, Pear-Lemon jam and over a dozen more. Stop in for a taste!

Chez Panisse pastry cook Siew-Chinn Chin will return with her Organic Dog Biscuits chock full of Soul Food Farm chicken liver and whole grains, guaranteed to make your pup's mouth water!

Pop-Up Pantry will return, featuring a carefully curated selection of specialty dry goods and cook's tools, including premium Madagascar Vanilla Beans, Katz Organic Olive Oil and Vinegars, Amarena Cherries, Tcho Cacao Nibs, Anson Mills Grains, and more.

Items marked with an asterisk are listed on the order form, which you can find by clicking here. Please submit orders by 10 am on Monday, April 26th. Items not listed on the form will be available for direct purchase at the Pop-Up on Wednesday.

How to Pull Mozzarella with Samin Nosrat

2010-04-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

Home Ec: Cooking Basics with Samin Nosrat

Have you been wondering what that hand-pulled mozzarella on every restaurant menu is all about? Have you noticed that it's impossibly tender, better than even the most expensive imported Italian mozzarella?

Come spend an afternoon with chef Samin Nosrat for a delicious and demystifying hands-on cheese-pulling class. Put your mozzarella-making skills in practice and get ready for the arrival of tomato season!

Samin will talk and walk you through the intricacies of pulling the perfect ball of fresh mozzarella, and then it'll be your turn! Everyone will then get to pull several balls of mozzarella (it takes a while to get a hang of it!) under her guidance. You'll even get to try your hand at making a creamy burrata mozzarella!

Each student will take home his/her mozzarella, as well as a recipe book with ideas for cooking with your fresh mozzarella, step-by-step instructions for pulling mozzarella, and a list of trusted cheese purveyors and resources.

You'll leave empowered and informed, knowing how to make delicate, tender fresh mozzarella for the perfect salad, pizza or antipasto plate.

WHAT
How to Pull Mozzarella with Samin Nosrat

WHEN
May 1
4 pm- 6:30 pm

WHERE
4629 Martin Luther King Junior Way
(At the corner of 47th and MLK)
Oakland, CA 94609

TICKETS
$55
To Enroll: Visit the event page at Brown Paper Tickets
There are two scholarship positions available at a reduced price. Scholarship students are responsible for minimal help with class set-up and breakdown. Please contact Samin directly at saminnosrat@yahoo.com for details.

Recipes for April 13th Pop-Up

2010-04-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

Crépinettes

Crépinettes take their name from the light, membranous fat – called crépine, in French – that they are wrapped in. The classic version, from Bordeaux, is a simple breakfast sausage with a very restrained, precise seasoning: salt, white pepper, and nutmeg. There are other regional incarnations: caillettes, a Burgundian version, that include organ meats; with chard, from farther north; a Bordelaise sophistication with truffles, from the Périgord.

Along the coast and in Bordeaux, crépinettes are often eaten alongside the local, flat-shelled oysters from Arcachon with sauce mignonette, the sharp-edged, perfectly delicious combination of shallot, crushed peppercorns, and white wine. Purists argue this is but a Parisian affection, and many aficionados feel oysters are best eaten “au nature,” that is, as they are, with no accompaniment. But, as the French say, “à chacun, son goût.” Kept the in your refrigerator, crépinettes will last 4-5 days, but no longer. If you must, you can transfer the sausages to an airtight bag and freeze them for up to a month.

Cook your crépinettes in a mixture of half light-bodied olive oil and half butter, or in clarified butter, if you have it on hand. Use a fry pan or, preferably, a cast iron skillet. First warm the pan to a gentle sizzle, and then turn the heat down low. Add a thin coating of the oil-butter mixture (or clarified butter, if that’s what you’re using), and cook the sausages for five minutes on each side, turning once, until firm all the way through. They are wonderful on the grill, too, cooked for the same amount of time.

Serve the crépinettes with buttered baguette and arugula salad, or with oysters, if you’re living large! Some people sacrilegiously serve them with Dijon mustard (it’s good!). We do, if there are no oysters.

We like to drink Kermit’s lovely Savennières from Château d’Epiré with the crépinettes; it’s a stunning combination! Failing that, try a good Pic St. Loup or fill-bodied Entre-Deux-Mers.

Bon appetit!

Ingredients: Niman Ranch pork, organic garlic, white wine, red pepper flakes, fennel seed, brandy, salt, white pepper, nutmeg.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Fresh Bronze-Cut Rigatoni

This rigatoni is extruded through traditional bronze plates, which leave the pasta with micro-grooves that encourage sauce to cling to the noodle.

Keep refrigerated. Though the pasta is fresh, it can be dried for a few days at room temperature and then stored in the cupboard. If you’d like to try that, then spread the pasta out on a cookie sheet, let it dry out in a cool place until it’s hard, and bag it up and store in a dry, cool spot.

Serving suggestions:

Durum pasta always pairs well with tomato based sauces, so anything from marinara to puttanesca sauce would be perfect. If you have some ragu Bolognese from the last Pop-Up, that’d be pretty delicious, too!

At this time of year, the rigatoni would be perfect with some asparagus, parmesan and black pepper. Simply snap and peel your asparagus, then slice it into 1/4-inch slices on the diagonal.

Ingredients: Durum flour, water, extra virgin olive oil.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Moroccan Carrot and Saffron Soup

This exotically spiced vegetarian soup is made with Riverdog Farm's legendary carrots, Persian saffron, and a variety of aromatics. It can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen for up to a month.

Since the soup is a bit spicy, we love to eat it with a cool yogurt sauce flavored with fresh herbs such as cilantro, parsley and dill. Simply chop some herbs, mix with yogurt and a pinch of salt, and spoon over the hot soup.

Ingredients: Riverdog Farm organic carrots, organic onions, water, fresh ginger, serrano chiles, cilantro, parsley, coriander, cumin, saffron, cardamom, extra virgin olive oil, salt.

2010-04-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

Stop by the next Pop-Up General Store on Tuesday, April 13th from 5-7 pm!

We are located at 4629 MLK Jr. Way in Oakland (on the corner of 47th and MLK).

We can't wait to share what we've been cooking up with you!

green string farm

e.b.c.b. sweets

fig and miel

samin's bronze-cut pasta

blue chair fruit

goulash's sweets

goulash's famous english muffins

Next Pop-Up: Tuesday, April 13th

2010-04-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

To place an order, please click here. All orders must be placed by Sunday, April 11th at 10am!

Crepinettes* are classic French pork sausages wrapped in caul fat, ready for pan-frying or grilling. There are approximately 5 sausages to a pound. Made with Niman Ranch pork, the crepinettes should be consumed within 3 days of purchase, or frozen immediately.

Moroccan Carrot and Saffron Soup* is made with sweet Riverdog Farm carrots, saffron, and a variety of exotic spices. The vegetarian soup will be sold in quarts and can be frozen for up to a month.

Made with high-quality organic durum wheat, Fresh Bronze-Cut Rigatoni Pasta*, is extruded through traditional bronze plates, resulting in more porous, rougher pasta that virtually begs sauces and seasonings to cling to it. With an incomparable chewy texture, bronze-cut catches flavor in its grooves like no other. The pasta will come in 1-pound boxes and is vegan-friendly(!).

Melissa Fernández of Fig and Miel will offer pints of Mole Verde Queretano, a fruity golden-green mole from the state of Queretaro. Made with fresh poblano chilies, tomatillos, almonds, peanuts and sweet spices, this mole is paired perfectly with fish or chicken. The mole should be used within 5 days or frozen for up to a month. Melissa will also be making her popular Mariquitas, or sweet and crispy plantain chips, along with a few batches of Empanadas.

Lori Podraza of Goulash will once again be offering both plain and cinnamon-currant flavored Handmade English Muffins, as well as a few sweet treats. She'll also be bringing along her beautiful Recycled Market Bags.

Emily Su will be offering Shanghai-Style Red Braised Pork*, made with tender Niman Ranch pork shoulder, cooked with soy sauce, sugar, ginger, garlic, scallions and star anise. The classic Chinese balance of savory and sweet, it makes a delicious and quick meal paired with steamed rice and some sauteed vegetables. It can be eaten fresh within 5 days or frozen for up to a month. Emily will also be making Vegetarian Spring Rolls* and Szechuan Pickles.

Now that strawberries and rhubarb are back in season, Chez Panisse pastry chef Stacie Pierce will offer 10-ounce balls of organic Buttery Tart Dough*, which can be rolled out at home to make sweet or savory tarts, galettes or crostatas. Stacie will also include a few recipes and cooking instructions with your purchase. The dough can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Mary Jo Thoresen and Curt Clingman of Jojo's Goodies will be offering two-packs of Tangerine-Grand Marnier Panna Cotta*, two-packs of 10-ounce Pizza Dough Balls* (recipe ideas included!), and Spring Garlic-Potato Gratin with Matos St. George Cheese*, which is fully cooked and needs only to be reheated.

Novella Carpenter of Ghost Town Farm will be offering some of her hyper-local produce, including leeks and escarole. She'll also be selling and signing copies of her hilarious memoir, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer.

ebcb (east bay cookie baker a.k.a. Chelsea Pence) will offer some of her signature handmade sweets: organic Fleur De Sel Caramels, Salty Chocolate Cookies, and Almond-Blood Orange Biscotti with housemade candied peel. Chelsea will also be making Bacon-Praline Cookies(!) and Carrot Cupcakes.

Blue Chair Fruit will also be at the General Store, offering a wide array of jams and marmalades, all cooked in small batches in a copper kettle. Flavors include Brown Turkey fig jam with fennel and marsala, Pear-Lemon jam and over a dozen more. Stop in for a taste!

You may have seen Diana Fayt's work for sale at The Gardener or at the Heath Ceramics shop in Sausalito. We are thrilled to welcome her to Pop-Up General Store, where she'll set up shop at the Pop-Up whenever her busy schedule allows! Perfect for serving and eating all of your Pop-Up goodies from, Diana's beautiful Hand-Etched Ceramics will make your heart sing!

We also welcome Chez Panisse pastry cook Siew-Chinn Chin, who'll be making Organic Dog Biscuits chock full of liver and grains, guaranteed to make your pup's mouth water!

Items marked with an asterisk can be ordered using this form. Unlisted items will be available for direct purchase at the Pop-Up on Wednesday.

Come pick up your items on Tuesday, April 13th from 5pm to 7pm at 4629 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way in Temescal, Oakland! We'll be waiting for you at the Pop-Up General Store!

At this time, WE ARE ONLY ABLE TO ACCEPT CASH OR CHECKS. Please remember to bring your reusable shopping bags!

If you have any problems ordering, questions or would like to order other amounts of any of our items, please email us at popupgeneralstore@gmail.com

To place an order, please click here. All orders must be placed by Sunday, April 11th at 10am!

2010-02-07T01:28:00.000-08:00

More info to come soon, but in the meantime, if you want to be added to our mailing list, send us a note at popupgeneralstore{at}gmail{dot}com.