Summer is ending, but it doesn't mean an end to great food.

As we transition into shorter days we get to enjoy the beautiful bounty of what the longer days gave us.  Heirloom Tomatoes are at their peak right now, flavorful bundles of sunshine will fade into the fall sunset.  Juicy plums and nectarines won't be appearing in our fresh salads at Thanksgiving.  Our menus will be shifting from summer squash to the heartier butternut variety.  Thankfully we can always count on the immaculate organic produce from out local farmers here in The San Francisco Bay Area.

But we are a little bummed we will be missing the sweet corn from Brentwood, that makes for an amazing salad with a little feta cheese and toy box tomatoes, with a hint of mint and a little spice of roasted jalapenos.  Unfortunately these amazing seasonal items, remain just that.  The sweetness of their yellow kernels wont be enjoyed at our holiday parties in December, but don't worry there will be fresh fennel and plenty of citrus coming into season.

Our hands on cooking parties wont be delicately pulling the tops of of strawberries at corporate events in November.  No, we will fondly miss the fresh cherries that are already out of season in our desserts and fruit salads.  But will have the opportunity to use dried cherries to amp up the flavor of an freshly baked apple crisp come this fall and winter.  The transition of the season is more than just making a pumpkin spice pretzel.  The fall and winter gives us so much more.  There is probably no more traditional cooking season than the fall and winter in America.  It is hard to imagine a Thanksgiving table without a turkey on it.  But we look forward to putting spins on some of the classics and creating bold and flavorful dishes that our guests will love and enjoy making.

Our mission will always to deliver a great team building event with fantastic fun creating delicious creations no matter what the season.  We may miss the long kiss of the sun of the summer but we look forward to embracing the heartiness of all the fall flavors.

At Add Thyme we can help your team create a memorable, fun and delicious time.  Contact us and lets create something great.

Raven Wings

Not only do we host interactive cooking classes and team building events, we also love our home town team the San Francisco 49ers.  We are looking forward for them to beat the Baltimore Ravens, in next Sunday's Super Bowl.  In honor of the 49ers we created a recipe for you to serve at your Super Bowl party, Raven Wings.  It's also a great dish to make for a Chinese New Year celebration too.

We don't really use raven for the recipe, we use black bean sauce to color our regular chicken wings a little darker.

Raven Wings

6 pounds Chicken Wings,  remove wing tip, and separate drumette from the wingette. 

Dry Rub

3 Tbs Kosher Salt
1 Tb  Dried Ginger
1 Tb  Gralic Powder
1 Tb  Onion Powder
1 Tb  Chili Powder
1 Tb  Vinegar Powder



Mix all of the dry rub ingredients together in a small bowl. Coat the wings with the dry rub, tossing the wings in a bowl till coated.  You may not use all of the dry rub, use enough just to coat.


Marinade

2 Tbs Soy Sauce
2 Tbs Sesame Oil
2 Tbs Black Bean Paste







Then pour the marinade ingredients over the coated wings and toss until the wings are also coated with the marinade as well.  Place the wings in a vacuum bag and seal the wings in a single layer, you will probably need to use 2-3 bags.  

Next place your sealed bags in a pre-heated water bath at 165 degrees Fahrenheit, for two hours up to four hours.

Preheat your broiler or BBQ.
Once the wings have cooked sous vide drain the liquid from the bag and remove the wings.  At this point you can either place the wings directly over high heat on the BBQ or place the wings under a broiler.  This is to crisp up the skin.  Be sure to turn the wings, so both sides crisp up nicely.

Crisped wings

Sauce

Butter melting

1/4 Cup Rice Vinegar
1/2 Cup Sambal Oelek
2 Tbs Butter

While the wings crisp up, use a double boiler to melt the butter into the Vinegar and Sambal Oelek, and mix until the butter has melted.   Then add your crispy wings to the sauce mixture and serve right away! 

Crafting for you

Not only do we provide fun and interactive cooking classes and cooking parties in the San Francisco Bay Area. We can also craft a variety of items with our person chef services.  Say you are having a party and and you don't have time to create an awesome spread to serve you guests, you can always contact us and have us help you in creating fun and festive food for you and your guests.  Best part is you can take all the credit for the deliciousness.

Some examples of the items we have made for clients in the past include and picnic lunch of Buttermilk Fried Chicken with housemade coleslaw, roasted beet quinoa salad and coconut cake.

We also handcraft the Tasso Ham used by the nation's largest mobile culinary events company.

Or if you aren't in a savory mood and are looking for a little sugar rush, Barbara's Chocolate Pecan Graham Crack(er).  We like to leave off the "er" because once you taste it, it is as addictive as crack!

And our scones will put to shame the flavorless dry ones you you find at from that Seattle based coffee chain.  Buttery rich and dreamy is the best way to describe our scones.  Baked with love and the best quality ingredients, make them so wonderful.

So feel free to drop us a line and see if we can help you create a meal, dish or dessert to help you shine.

OK OK We'll tell you

The one question almost always asked of us when we tell people we cook for a living they always want to know what places we like to go to eat out in San Francisco.  But we aren't restaurant critics, nor do we want to just make arbitrary lists of our fav places to go in the City, instead we'll share new places that we discover and find worth sharing.  We'll leave distasteful places alone, there is enough of that on other sites.

Anyway, we enjoyed a fantastic meal of Lebanese Cuisine at Mazzat in Hayes Valley.  Bibby our friend and CEO of PTC invited us out and we enjoyed a splendid meal of Mid Eastern delights.

The one starter that knocked our socks off was the Fatet Batinjan, a mix of fried eggplant with a garlic yogurt sauce with the crunchy bite pine nuts and pita croutons.  It was a terrific mix of textures and cinnamon spice.  Make sure you order it if you do.

The other larger dish to order if you go is the Bamia a lamb and tomato stew with okra.  Talk about an umami bomb, the sauce was deep and rich with a savoriness that made my smile.  Not heavy on lamb pieces, it was the perfect topping for the side of jasmine rice it came with to enjoy all the meaty flavor of the sauce.

It is also one of the rare places in SF that doesn't break the bank when going out to dinner.  None of the mains were over $20.  You could also do an option of having nothing but a selection of their hot and cold Mazzat (appetizers) for $18 and go home stuffed and happy without feeling pain in the wallet.

And who knows maybe you'll see the Fatet Batinjan or the Bamia show up on one of our menus for our interactive cooking classes we teach in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Football Foods

Nothing brings folks together like the excitement of the NFL post season!  As a San Francisco native Barbara is cheering on her Niners today by whipping up a batch of Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Bacon makes everything better

Be sure to come to our Bacon class on Saturday Jan 19th.  We will be making a variety of porky good treats from sweet to savory with everyone's favorite smokey delicious bacon.  As I have said before if bacon were a vegetable I would be a militant vegan.

Our bacon class is perfect for finding the best recipe to make for your Super Bowl Party.  Guarantee a victory of taste with The Bacon Explosion!  For the past 5 years I have been making a Bacon Explosion to match the culinary delights of one or both of each team's hometown.   For example last year I paid homage to the New York slice with a pizza edition of the bacon explosion, by adding peperoni, mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce to the homemade Italian sausage wrapped in a bacon weave.  When New Orleans was in the Super Bowl a few years back I made a bacon explosion of savory bread pudding.

This year I am hoping to make a Green Chile Bacon Explosion in honor of Denver.  Barbara is hoping it will be more of a San Francisco inspired one.  Maybe a Dungeness Crab Bacon Explosion?

An any event it will be a delicious and fun time at the Bacon class in the beautiful Dacor Kitchen Showroom in South City.

mmmmm, bacon

Amazing Pork Butt

Recently we cooked a 5 pound pork butt via sous vide.  If you do not have a sous vide system in place here is a recipe using a crock pot that should give you near the same delicious results.

5 Lbs of Pork Butt (Pork Shoulder), cut into large chunks.

2 Tablespoons of each Coriander Seeds & Fennel Seeds

1 Tablespoon Cumin Seeds

1 Tablespoon Onion Powder

1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder

1 teaspoon paprika

2 Tablespoons Kosher salt

Toast Coriander, Fennel and Cumin seeds in a hot pan for about a minute or two or until they become fragrant.  Then use a spice grinder and grind them into a fine powder mix in other ingredients in a small bowl.  Once well mixed, coat the pork with the dry mixture.

If you have a sous vide, vacuum seal the meat and place the bag in the water at a temp of 106 F for 24 hours to 36 hours.

If using a traditional crock pot place the with 1 1/2 cup of dry white wine or a bottle of a beer.  Set to high and cook for 8 hours or over night.

After the cooking process is finished, use two forks and pull the pork apart, taste for salt and add a splash of cider vinegar (2 Tablespoons).

You may find yourself eating it with your hands straight from the bowl, but a less savage way to enjoy would be on a slice of crusty baguette with a dill pickle, or serve over crispy potatoes.

You could also spice it up this way.