Thanksgiving Festival at California Culinary Academy

After roaming in the woods for 3 days with little sleep and hyperactivity, I came down with bronchitis. For the last 3 days, I drowned myself in organic tomato soup, pork ramen soup, and hot lemon honey tea. I also slept whenever I could with the help of Benadryl. Last night when I woke up from another nap and saw the invitation to attend Thanksgiving Festival at California Culinary Academy, I figured I was ready to go out again. I once considered enrolling in California Culinary Academy for its one year pâtisserie and baking program. I attended one of their open houses a few years ago when they were located off Civic Center BART station. Before heading out this morning, I thought that I'd double check the direction from the BART Station. I was surprised to find that the Academy has moved! It is now located at 350 Rhode Island Street, San Francisco. I decided to drive there since it is not exactly close to a BART station. It turned out that there is plenty of free all day street parking on Saturday and Sunday.

The event started out with a tour. The new facility is very modernized compare to the previous location, which was in a historical building in downtown area. After the tour, we got seated in a room for a Thanksgiving dinner cooking demonstration. As we entered the room, I got a cup of hot lemon apple cider which was perfect for my recovery from bronchitis. I wanted the recipe for that more than anything else. Chef Steve Moore demonstrated a main dish and two side dishes - Turkey Roulade with Sausage & Apple Stuffing, Sweet Potato Gratin, and Fresh Cranberry and Orange Relish.

I am not particularly into turkey, so I was more interested in the way that sweet potato gratin was made. This particular recipe uses curry powder, sour cream, and shredded extra-sharp white cheddar. I was curious what it would taste like compare to the traditional super sweet gooey Thanksgiving sweet potatoes with marshmallows. At the end of demonstration, we all got a small sample plate. You know that I ate everything. I was starving for some solid food after 3 days of soup. The sweet potato gratin worked for me. The curry powder and ground cumin gave it an Indian flair. The white cheddar gave it a semi-savory taste. It was a good balance of both sweet and savory. This is a dish that I will make because the sweet potato is ranked number one in nutrition of all vegetables by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), and the recipe is not as labor intensive as the turkey dish.

Sweet Potato Gratin

Ingredients:

4 pounds of red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams; about 3 1/4 pounds)
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sour cream, divided
3 cups shredded extra-sharp white cheddar (about 12 oz.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook sweet potatoes in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 20 minutes (do not overcook). Drain well and cool. Peel sweet potatoes; cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices.

2. Mix curry powder, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, and salt in small bowl to blend. Completely line bottom of 9-inch-diameter spring form pan with sweet potato slices, filling in any spaces with cut-up sweet potato slices. Press down slightly. Spread 1/2 cup sour cream over sweet potatoes. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon spice mixture over sour cream. Sprinkle with 1 cup cheese. Repeat twice with remaining sweet potatoes, sour cream, spice mixture, and cheese. Place pan on rimmed baking sheet; bake until cheese is melted and sweet potatoes are heated through. about 40 minutes. DO AHEAD Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover and chill. If desired, reheat in 400 degrees F. oven until hot. about 15 minutes.

3. Remove pan sides from gratin; cut into wedges. Serve gratin warm or at room temperature.

Mendocino Mushroom Camp Weekend - Day 3

I am going to miss this place

On the 3rd day, some people stay near the camp for workshops while others head out for one more foray. From my cabin to the dinning hall, I have to pass a pond and a meadow. The surrounding reminds me of Lothlórien, home of the elves in The Lord of the Rings.

All these tall trees also remind me of Ents, the tree people from The Lord of the Rings. I guess it's not a surprise that I find the woods so beautiful and surreal.

Some bright yellow mushroom on the hill (not slippery jack)

I find a bunch of Slippery Jack (Suillus luteus) on the hill side. Many people regard it as an edible mushroom of low quality, while in Russia, where they are popularly known as maslyata "buttery ones." Slippery Jacks are frequently marinated and are considered a delicacy.

Around 1 p.m., the last few people start to leave the camp since we have to be out by 2 p.m. Well, this is goodbye for now until next year.

Mendocino Mushroom Camp Weekend - Day 2

Coral mushrooms can be seen all over the forest

Day 2 is filled with both long and short forays plus various classes - Mushroom Identification, Polypore Paper Making, Cultivation Seminar, Cooking Demo, etc. There is no way anyone can attend everything. Although I wanted to go wherever Master is going, I end up going on a long foray with Norm's group. I am focusing on finding some porcini.

We stop at 4 different spots. At the second spot, I find 2 golden chanterelle, one candy cap, and a baby porcini among many other non-edibles. I find it odd that I am finding such a small amount of each. Normally when you spot one of these mushrooms, you are likely to find a bunch of them nearby.

Norm, Sebastian, and Master Ken (left to right) cooking up some hay for Sunday's cultivation seminar

Dinner is pork loin with creamy chanterelle sauce, Brussels sprouts with bacon, and candy cap mashed sweet potatoes. I am not a fan of Brussels sprouts. In fact, I even made fun of them when I saw them being prepped last night. Now I am helping myself with second serving of Brussels sprouts. Dessert is mixed fruit granola cobbler with fresh whipped cream on top. Needless to say, everything is excellent. After dinner, we all head over to the other meeting hall for David Arora's presentation.

MycoMendoMondo takes place at midnight

Around midnight a group of us gather back in the kitchen for Master Ken's MycoMendoMondo. Master Ken explains that we are going to cook up various unusual wild mushrooms for taste test, make a candy cap cheesecake, brew some apple mead, etc. This is for the hardcore adventurous people as it goes on until almost 4 A.M. Half of the people give up shortly after. Some people return after a nap. Scaly chanterelle, puffballs, gomphus clavatus (pig's ears), and amanita muscaria are cooked separately for everyone to try.

Master Ken holds a kombucha mother while he explains how to make kombucha tea

I cook up a quart of "oriental tea" and add a cup of sugar to it. After it is cooled down, Master Ken talks about Kombucha tea making and adds the sweet tea to the Kombucha jar to feed the mother.

All the mushrooms taste excellent especially since we have Chef Pauly cooking them. My favorite is the puffballs. I will need to start hunting for them. After we all have a taste of candy cap cheesecake, we begin to clean the kitchen for tomorrow's breakfast crew. What a day!

Taste testing

Mendocino Mushroom Camp Weekend - Day 1

My cabin in the woods

The biggest annual event of MSSF (Mycological Society of San Francisco) is the 3-day Mendocino Camp in November. I am attending the camp for the first time since I joined MSSF five years ago. It's a 4-hour drive from El Cerrito to Mendocino. Since I have never attended an event like this before, I packed everything according to the "list of the things to bring" that Lou, MSSF President, emailed to all attendees.

As I enter Mendocino Woodlands Camp, it is as if I am entering a parallel universe. I am surrounded by tall trees, green moss and other vegetation. I can see mushrooms on both sides of the road as I drive further into the woods.

I arrive the camp around 2:30 PM. There are only a few early birds at the parking area. I check in shortly after and head over to my cabin, #35. The cabin in the woods looks like something out of a fairy tale. The cabin has a fire place, 4 beds, and a balcony. There is a shared bathroom with showers about 30 feet away. After I unload my stuff, I hike back to the dinning hall for the Early Bird Foray lead by Norm.

The kitchen inside of Dinning Hall

About 20 of us head over to Camp 2 with Norm in a 15-passenger van. Some people come as far as Salt Lake City and some come with their little kids. The attendees range from age 6 to 70 something (my guess). We all become fast friends as we roam in the woods. It gets dark around 4:30, so we have our mushroom ID session in the dark with flashlights. Each of us carries a flashlight as soon as the sun goes down. The forest is pitch black at night, and there is no lighting in our cabins.

Norm (wearing brown hat) IDs wild mushrooms for us

For dinner, we have wild mushroom lasagna loaded with porcini and chanterelle. After dinner, I see that Master Ken has gathered a full basket of beautiful golden chanterelle already! He is setting up his dehydrator to dry his chanterelle. I am going to follow Master Ken anywhere he goes tomorrow!

Master Ken and his basket of golden chanterelle

Devil Mountain Wholesale Nursery

Josh of Backyard Food Gardens introduced me to several places for landscape needs when his crew worked on San Village Farm. Devil Mountain Wholesale Nursery is his favorite nursery. I was curious because it is in San Ramon, and there are a few good nurseries in Berkeley area. As we existed the freeway on our way to the nursery, it seemed like we were going through a residential area. He made a U-turn and turned into a drive way, and that was when I saw pots and pots of plants as far as my eyes could see.

We started from the "Shade Area" then native plants and then sunny plants. There were a lot of plants to see. If you are looking for variety, this is the place to go. Everything is out in the open. You are not only there to shop but also get to take a walk in a park full of plants. Ideally, I would go take a hike in Mt Diablo and then stop by the nursery to pick out a few plants.

Since Devil Mountain Nursery is a wholesale nursery, you should do some homework before you go shop there. The staff is friendly in helping you with locating the one you are looking for in the sea of plants, but you shouldn't rely on them to teach you everything about gardening and plants. This is a place for gardeners who know what they want.

The place can be a little overwhelming for someone who's only been to small and cramped urban nurseries. If I had gone there by myself, I wouldn't even know where to start. It takes a while to go through everything, so give your self at least an hour to browse if you are going.  It's nice just being out and walk around all the plants that are available to take home with you.

P.S. You must be in or with someone in the landscaping or nursery business to purchase at Devil Mountain Nursery.