A16 Food and Wine

Summer really is over now, but with temperatures in the 90’s today, and more than 100 yesterday, we are still eating dinner on the patio most nights—now in the dark. Our daughter Laura visited two weeks ago, along with her boyfriend Weston, and after they returned to NY, Weston sent us the cookbook A16 Food and Wine, by the restaurant of the same name in San Francisco (unfortunately closed, when they tried to dine there).

Last night I tried out a couple of the recipes, one for sardines and the other for a salad. I had most of the ingredients for the sardine recipe (“Roasted Sardines with Bread Crumbs, Green Garlic, and Mint”), but substituted green onions for the green garlic, which is not in season. They turned out great, though the bread crumbs on top were a bit small (and not as orange as in the picture). I had to improvise a bit more with the second recipe, since it called for cauliflower and I had only broccoli. But “Roasted Potatoes and Broccoli (instead of cauliflower) with Red Onion, Capers, and Chiles” also turned out well—and it may have been more attractive, with the green broccoli. I will be cooking some more things from this terrific new cookbook, as soon as I do a bit of shopping.

We made another tian a few nights after the first one, this time with potatoes, eggplant, onions, herbs and some feta cheese, as well as parmesan. It was good too! I really recommend this method of vegetable-cooking.