Food Bank Volunteers

If you’re a regular KCRW listener, you obviously know by now that we are in the midst of our Winter Member Drive.  It’s that time of year when we come on the air to tell you all the reasons you should support us.  Today I have one more reason why you should join. Become a member today and you will also support another organization that is critical to Southern California: the LA Regional Food Bank.

KCRW Volunteers

The Food Bank services over 900 organizations across the southland.  In 2010, they distributed 62 million pounds of food. “During the holidays there is so much attention paid to those in need. We started thinking about what happens after that.  The need is still there and we wanted to give our members an option to support more than just KCRW with their donation,” said KCRW General Manager, Jennifer Ferro.

With a $100 donation or more to KCRW, you can choose to give 40 meals to LA Regional Food Bank.

“The Food Bank thanks KCRW and its members for their commitment to fight hunger in our community. Only with the help of organizations such as KCRW, is the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank able to continue serving more than 1 million children, seniors and adults who count on us every year,” said Michael Flood, President and CEO, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.

So pick up the phone (800-600-KCRW), go online (kcrw.com/join) or text us (“KCRW” to 69866).  You’ll be supporting KCRW and the LA Regional Food Bank.

This Saturday on Good Food, Laura Avery talks to Shiho Yoshikawa about her seasonal ice cream and sorbet flavors at Sweet Rose Creamery in the Brentwood Country Mart. Right now Shiho is using a lot of citrus in her scoops, including this recipe for Oro Blanco Mint Sorbet. She also likes to candy the Oro Blanco peels and dip them in chocolate. She says the pith is quite bitter, so when juicing the Oro Blanco try to avoid getting any white pith in with the juice.

Keep reading for the complete recipe…

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Every Thursday on the Good Food Blog we share a recipe from our archives.

Chef Jerry Traunfeld of The Herbfarm tells us how to cook with fresh farm ingredients. His book, The Herbal Kitchen : Cooking with Fragrance and Flavor, explores how we can use herbs in our kitchens at home. He first shared this recipe for Lavender-Rubbed Duck Breast with Apricots and Sweet Onions on January 14, 2006.

Keep reading for the full recipe…

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Every week, Good Food’s Music Supervisor Gary Mecija selects a song to cook by. All of Gary’s music selections are added to Good Food’s Music to Cook By Playlist which lives on the right-hand sidebar of the Good Food Blog. This week’s selection is O Pato (Un Pato) by Natalie Y La Forquetina . Enjoy!

Every Tuesday I answer a question from a Good Food listener. You can email me a question, leave one on Facebook or add one in the comments section here. This week’s came from Nancy:

I have a basic question about butter. Other than the salt content, is all butter the same?  There are so many brands and so many prices, if it is all the same why should we pay for the name brands?

Every week on the Good Food Blog we celebrate Meatless Monday by sharing a vegetarian recipe from our archives.

Breakaway Cook Eric Gower shares a tofu recipe that’s a quick, tasty, and nutritious way to start a meal, and is one of his favorite ways to serve tofu. The top stays crispy, yet the rest absorbs the pungent citrus sauce.  If you can find organic silken tofu, so much the better, though you can use regular tofu. Excellent with a chilled, bone-dry sake like a daiginjo (and, even better, one from Niigata Prefecture, Japan, where it tends to be citrusy and clean-tasting). It’s equally good with a glass of well-chilled champagne.  He first shared this recipe for Crispy Tangy Tofu on January 5, 2008.

Keep reading for the full recipe…

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Today on Good Food, Laura Avery talks to Chef Nathan Lyon. Chef Nathan is a tv chef on PBS and the author of Great Food Starts Fresh.  A recipe for his Sweet Potato-Carrot Soup with Candied Spiced Pecans is below…

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I asked my buddy Darra Henigan, Farmers Market Coordinator at the Santa Monica Farmers Market, what delicious ingredients should make it into my cart this weekend at the Farmers Market. She recommends…

-Cirtus!  Navel oranges, kumquats, clementines, blood oranges, cocktail grapefruit

-First of the season English peas (Tamai Farms has them)

-Broccolini

-Kale

Can you believe it? English peas already! Gotta love Southern California…

This recipe comes from Off the Menu: Staff Meals from America’s Top Restaurants, written by Marissa Guggiana. This Saturday on the show, Evan and Marissa talk about how staff meal, or “Family Meal,” is prepared and eaten at restaurants across the country. Blackbird’s Chicken Fried Duck Legs with Waffles and Coleslaw is by far the most extravagant staff meal in the book.

Keep reading for the complete recipe…

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This week on Good Food Evan talks to Tamar Adler, author of An Everlasting Meal: Cooking With Economy and Grace. In this outtake, Tamar discusses the myriad possibilities in a pot of boiling water.

Tamar Adler talks to Evan Kleiman about How To Boil Water by KCRW