The Holidays (And Guests) Are Upon Us So If You're Coming To Sonoma, Check This Out!

   I live in a tourist town. I suppose I always have in one form or another. I grew up in San Francisco (where I was the little kid sticking my tongue out at tourists at the Powell and Market cable car turnaround) definitely a tourist town. I've lived for years in Santa Monica which I never thought of as a tourist town... though there are a lot of vacationers there, and now we're in Sonoma, aka Wine Country California... which hosts visitors from all over the world who come here to sip and savor the wine, gourmet food, and the rural atmosphere.

   I'm always asked by friends where do we go, what do we see when we visit Sonoma County? One way to check out local events anywhere you are is to use Eventbrite to look up and purchase tickets on line for all sorts of local happenings. I've used them myself to buy tickets to events going on here in Sonoma... and also just to find out what's happening locally. So now I've changed from the kid sticking her tongue out at tourists, and I'm willing to share my town.

   Over the years I've given a lot of recommendations on places to eat drink and be merry here in Sonoma during all sorts of  holidays, and Summer vacations. Christmas time is magical here in Sonoma. The plaza glows with lights.

 The whole town shines.

There are events at The Mission with docents in costume...

...and of course caroling inside.

During the Winter holiday season we get a LOT of visitors to our town, and I'm frequently asked about where to go and what to see. I always talk about my favorites and now I have a new favorite to add, CocoaPlanet Tasting Room and Modern French Cafe.

 If you read this blog with any regularity, I've written about working with the CocoaPlanet people Anne and Jeff McKibben on their gluten free Modern French menu. They've finished constructing their chocolate factory where all the delicious CocoaPlanet is made, and now they've added their tasting room along with a Modern French Cafe. Here's part of the restaurant and tasting bar...

A great place to curl up in front of the fire with a mug of hot cocoa...

...and of course the garden, made for outside dining and relaxing near the fire pit.

CocoaPlanet opened about a month ago, just in time for holiday entertaining, and they're serving all sorts of tasty stuff there, from Cassoulet to Crepes. All of the food and chocolate is certified gluten free since Anne and her family are gluten intolerant.

   This is a real neighborhood place, locally owned and operated. Anne and her family live just a few blocks from us and I can easily ride my bike to CocoaPlanet, a good idea when one is enjoying such tasty chocolate. I've been working with her organic, free trade, vegan and gluten free chocolate for several years now in my cooking and I love it. One reason is it's also naturally low in sugar thanks to their patented Pearls of Flavor process. When Anne asked me last year to sign on and help develop gluten free savories and desserts for the new Tasting Room I was in!       

   Even though I'm not gluten intolerant many of our friends are, and over the years I've developed a number of flour blends that work for anything from cakes to breads. With what they're serving up at CocoaPlanet, you'll never miss the gluten, in fact you won't even notice it's not there. The menu is locally sourced and changes seasonally and includes Pizza Provencal...

...garden tomato soup  with gluten free cheese gougeres...

...Little Gem Lettuce Salad with Cypress Grove goat cheese, sunflower seeds and tangerine...

...Croque Monseiur on delicious gluten free bread from a local bakery...

...Croque Madame...

...Carrot Potato Soup...

All the desserts are totally gluten free and made by our talented pastry chefs in-house. Apple Walnut Tart with Fig Glaze...

..."Edible Dirt" with a Chocolate Pots de Creme...

...Pear Almond Tart...

...Pear Almond Cake...

...Fig Gallete...

...Dark Chocolate Bouchons...

...and Brownies.

These are just some of the things you might find on the menu.

   So if you have friends and family visiting Sonoma this Holiday Season, after you've checked out our Plaza, sung some carols, looked at all the lights, and vineyards, I'd suggest you drop by CocoaPlanet. Say "Hi! " to Anne and Jeff, enjoy a fine tea or espresso, sample some chocolate, eat a meal and take some chocolate home with you.

   It's been really thrilling to watch our friends build this place with love from the ground up  so that's my Holiday recommendation this year. Also, if you're planning an event or just want to find out what's going on locally around your town check out Eventbrite.

Coming up next, more Holiday treats and fast meals for company follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Greta Garbanzo and The Secret of Vegan Marshmallows. Fast, Simple, and Above All Easy!

 
   I've never been a big lover of marshmallows. When I was a kid we toasted them on sticks at CYO camp, as a girl scout we learned to make S'mores, and of course all those Thanksgiving and Easter dinners when someone would serve me a casserole of sweet potatoes dotted with baked marshmallows. So marshmallows haven't been on my mind in a long long time.
  
   For a year or so, I've been working on the gluten free menu for the new CocoaPlanet Chocolate Factory and Tasting Room here in Sonoma. This is a totally gluten-free establishment as the owners, the McKibbens are themselves gluten-free. They got me involved because even though I am not gluten intolerant a lot of my friends are, and I have a long history of cooking and baking gluten-free food using my own flour blends . So in between my regular work as a screenwriter, I've been turning out and testing recipes for cakes and cookies, scones and pies, and donuts. all to be used in CocoaPlanet's certified gluten free menu.
   
   One of the best things about CocoaPlanet is their great hot chocolate, and the other day Anne McKibben, the owner, asked me if I could come up with some marshmallows  that could be made without corn syrup and to serve on top. So after a few failed experiments I came back with these. They're easy, this recipe makes a ton of them, and you can make them in any shape you desire. Also, they're vegan and ready for your cocoa or sweet potato casserole in less than an hour. A few simple easy to find ingredients and you're golden.

   These marshmallows use Aquafaba, (aka bean water) which I have been working with over the past year. I first heard about it from my friend Sanjana who runs a killer vegetarian website over in the UK. When At first my reaction was ...Uh NO!  Bean water? You gotta be kidding me. No way. But as I was curious I decided to give it a whirl and boy howdy! What a great idea! This stuff doubles for egg whites in nearly everything, requires far less sugar to prepare, tastes delicious and you can use the beans for hummus. So after a year plus working with this Aquafaba stuff I have developed a whole bunch of dessert recipes and am thinking of writing a book. So without further ado, just in time for cold weather...marshmallows!

Marshmallows

Here's What You Need:
The liquid from one 16 oz can of no added salt garbanzo beans
1/2 cup plus !/8 cup of caster (bakers) sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp xanthan gum (available at most markets )
a pinch of salt
1 cup of cornstarch
1 cup of powdered sugar

Here's What To Do:
Drain the liquid from the can of garbanzos.

You should have about 3/4 of a cup. Save the beans for another use.
Pour the liquid into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a balloon whisk.

Beat on medium speed for four minutes.

It will start to get nice and foamy.
Kick the speed up to the highest setting and add in the other ingredients gently, and one at a time
xanthan gum...

...sugar...

...vanilla...

...and salt.
Beat  everything for about 10 minutes. It will turn glossy and stiffen up.

After 10 minutes turn the mixer off. This is what you'll have.

Now there are many ways to take this from here...different shapes, sizes etc..but since these are destined to go floating on top of hot chocolate I thought I'd pipe them into shapes that look like whipped cream.

Next step:

Set your oven to 200 degrees and cover a cookie sheet(s) with a silpat or parchment paper.
Place the marshmallow fluff (yes if you want you can make Fluffernutter sandwiches with this right now. Since I'm not late stage Elvis and my mission was marshmallows I got out my piping device. I don't do well with bags ( I've used them and it's not pretty) so a few years back I purchased this device which can be run thought the dishwasher and has many piping heads.
Fill whatever device you like to use with the marshmallow fluff...

...and start piping away.

You will get a lot of marshmallows...A LOT!

When the oven is up to speed, pop them in.

Bake them for 20 minutes and then remove them.

Whoops one fell over!
Sift the cup of cornstarch together with the cup of powdered sugar.
When the marshmallows are cool enough to handle, (they cool down really fast) dust them with the sugar cornstarch mixture.

Let them a dry for a minute or two, and then store them in an airtight container. Hey Presto! Marshmallows!

   I must warn you that if you make small ones like these, you will get a lot of marshmallows, but you can make them bigger and fatter and then toast them on a stick. So, next on the colors of Indian cooking, I give a new zester a test run, and something sweet for Thanksgiving. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Have A Cookie My Dear. Buckwheat Gluten Free Macarons.

   When I was planning my North Festival menu a few weeks ago, I felt I was doing great until it came to dessert. Cloud Berries? Not hardly. Not around here at least. I was also not about to run across any birch syrup easily. I looked though all the recipes I could find, searching for something that would go along with the various other dishes I'd be serving. My only childhood run-in with a Danish dessert was those tins of Danish Butter cookies my mother would bring home from the dollar store that had a shelf life longer than the half life of uranium. Definitely not those. Then once again, Claus Meyer came to the rescue. The co-founder of the famous restaurant noma saved the day with a recipe that did not require my foraging in the Arctic. He had a very simple cookie, made of humble buckwheat. It spoke to me.



   Buckwheat Macarons sounded like just what I was looking for. Rustic, earthy, not icky sweet and not too much for a dessert after a long meal. Plus, buckwheat, not really being wheat but a fruit seed related to rhubarb and sorrel is gluten free which meant no special dessert for my celiac friends. Something for everybody.

   I have to say here that I have never ever in my life baked a macaron, though I've certainly eaten plenty of them. One of my very favorite places in Los Angeles where we've whiled away more than a few afternoons, is Jin Patisserie on Abbot Kinney in Venice.

It was always the perfect spot to sugar up before a pitch meeting or console oneself over the vagaries of a Hollywood writers life. They display their macarons in little jewel cases set in the wall. it's like Breakfast at Tiffanys if the breakfast was what was in the window.

   I knew I could never duplicate the pastel colors and perfection of those macarons, but hey, I'd be working in buckwheat!  Buckwheat is all forgiving, buckwheat conceals a thousand errors in the mirror-like surface of normal macarons. My macarons would not be pink or girly, they would be the macarons of Vikings. Odin himself would feel comfortable eating one. At least that's what I told myself. I also figured that what would be a better filling for my macarons than Chocolate Espresso ganache made from CocoaPlanet chocolate. Since the Danes love their coffee it would be a natural fit. I had my work cut out for me.

Buckwheat Macarons With Chocolate Espresso Ganache

Here's What You Need:

1/2 cup buckwheat flour
2 cups of almond meal flour
6 egg whites
1/2 cup of superfine sugar (aks caster sugar)
4 3/4 cups of powdered sugar
8 oz semi sweet chocolate ( I used CocoaPlanet Espresso Chocolate)
1 cup whipping cream
1 Tbs unsalted butter

Here's What To Do:

Preheat the oven to 293 degrees.
Cover a cookie sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat. Set it aside.
Bring your egg whites to room temperature. Always do that as they whip up better that way.
Put the room-temperature egg whites into a large deep bowl.

Set them aside.
Sift together the buckwheat flour, the powdered sugar and the almond meal flour.

Set it aside.
Whip the egg whites on medium speed until they start to get frothy.

Then gently add in the superfine sugar a bit at a time.

Do this until the egg whites are stiff and glossy.

Fold the buckwheat flour, almond flour and powdered sugar mixture into the egg whites a bit at a time.

Do this carefully.

   Now here is where my macarons go primitive. Most sophisticated macaron makers will pipe their dainty little cookies onto a parchment or silicone covered baking sheet.  Not I. I dropped them onto the cookie sheet in spoonfuls since I am a danger with a pastry bag. Trust me, I'm not kidding around here. You don't want me anywhere near a nozzle.

So drop those macarons on to the cookie sheet while attempting to make them fairly equal in size so they will fit together nicely when you have filled them.

Once the macarons are on the cookie sheet let them sit out at room temperature for about 15 minutes.
Than pop them into the oven for about 15 minutes baking time.

When they are feeling firm to the touch on top and firm on the bottom with those cute little macaron feet, set them on a cooling rack.

 While the macarons are cooling make your ganache.

Chop the chocolate into  small chunks, place them in a heat-proof bowl and set them aside.
Bring the cream to just under a boil on the stove (about 190 degrees.)
Take the hot cream and pour it over the choclate then stir it all together until all the chocolate has melted. Stir in 1 Tbs of unsalted butter.
Mix everything together well and then pop it into the fridge to chill.

Chill the ganache has chilled to a firm and spreadable form. This usually takes a couple of hours, if it gets too firm don't worry just leave it set out for a bit and it will get back to the spreadable stage quickly.
Now it's time to play Match.com with your macarons.
Pair them up  so that you have macarons of equal sizes.

These two look like they'd get along once filled with ganache. I mean. who wouldn't?

When the macarons have cooled and the ganache has gotten spreadable, fill the cookies  and make them into sandwiches. Once filled, the macarons can be stored in an air tight container in the fridge over night to set. Or you can eat them sooner. No one's looking.

   I set my cookies onto small plates and balanced them on polished beach stones because they seemed like some sort of mollusks when I was done with them, and I thought WWCMD? What Would Claus Meyer Do. Yeah, probably not this, but boy those bags of rocks from the dollar store really caught my attention and I don't have an aquarium. Yet. I scattered a few raspberries among the stones for a burst of fresh juicy flavor against the dark chocolate ganache and the buckwheat accent of the macaron. Geeze, I just heard myself there.

   The cookies were good. Damn, they were real good. And I thought I couldn't bake macarons! I had planned on one macaron per person, but that's not how it worked out as the guests went looking for more. We ran out of them days ago and Alan is still  looking hopefully into the fridge and every time some Tupperware pops he thinks he's getting a cookie. Pavlov move over. Coming up next, hay is not just for horses anymore get your lighters and follow along on Twitter @kathygori