Writer, cooking teacher, television host, and author of an award-winning book, Amelia Saltsman is passionate about getting everyone into the kitchen.
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Events
IACP Annual Conference - "The Fashion of Food"Panelist New York, NY
March 29 - April 2, 2012
IACP NY
"Eating for Good" Market Tour & Class
NEW DATE: May 19, 2012
Farmers' Market Tour & Cooking Class
Santa Monica, CA
Scholarships available
YWCA Santa Monica
Culinary Experiences at La Cocina Que Canta
Tecate, Mexico
October 6 - 13, 2012
Rancho La Puerta
1(800) 443–7565
www.rancholapuerta.com
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By Amelia | January 26th, 2012
It always takes me a couple of weeks post-new year to get in the groove, but right about now I start craving lean, clean flavors. The trick is to produce something light, yet satisfyingly warming this time of year.
 That’s when I turn to my nabe, a Japanese pot used for nabemono (“things in a pot”), which are basically cold-weather one-pot meals typically cooked communally at the table.
While it’s nice to swish shabu shabu with friends, the pot itself is a very handy, inexpensive piece of kitchen equipment for everyday cooking. I keep my enamel-lined cast iron version (clay is also traditional), which looks a bit like chuckwagon cookware, on the stove and at the ready.
With a quick “hot pot” in mind, I headed to the farmers’ market. Everything I saw suddenly seemed suited …
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By Amelia | January 10th, 2012
The gift came as the best presents do: unexpected, unsolicited, and a bit of a buried treasure (in this case, my email inbox). My book has been named to Cooking Light’s Top 100 Cookbooks of the Last 25 Years! Who knew the magazine would celebrate their 25 years in print with a  ginormous awards project spanning 15 categories to be unveiled over the year.
My book is in the Healthy Cooking/Lifestyle category, which focuses on fresh ingredients, whole grains, and exciting approaches to healthy eating. Appropriately enough, this category is featured in the January-February issue of the magazine and online here. I’m so pleased to be keeping company with extraordinary authors Nancy Harmon Jenkins, Maria Speck, and Nina Simonds.
It really is …
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By Amelia | December 15th, 2011
I’ve always been a purist of a certain ilk when it comes to Hanukah Latkes: grated, never pureed; thin not thick; pan-fried not deep-fried; and always potato. Until now.
Lately, I’ve been completely entranced by the velvety parsnips showing up at the farmers’ markets. Creamy in color beneath their rugged exteriors, they are sweet, lemony, and spicy all in one package—compelling enough to make me finally wonder, what if I substituted them into my family’s traditional potato latke recipe?
Parsnips are also a bit starchy, which is a good thing, since latkes work best when the vegetable’s natural starch helps hold the batter together so that you don’t have to add too much flour. And in real life (the other 357 days of the year), parsnips seem to me to be a more natural companion …
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By Amelia | November 7th, 2011
Interesting Venn overlap, don’t you think? Seasonal-sustainable meets supermarket in an organic, little “o”, kind of way. Whole Foods Markets have stepped up their source local campaign, with LA-area stores bringing in SoCal crops from such growers as Alex Weiser, longtime farmer-vendor at certified farmers markets (CFMs). Now, they’ve brought in my book as a how-to on cooking in season!
Alex and I have started a series of fall produce/holiday entertaining show-and-tells at all the Santa Monica and Venice stores. I’m glad more small farms can expand their market reach and thrilled to have more opportunities to encourage shoppers and store personnel to expand the number of foods they notice at a market…any market.
Farmer-store partnerships like Alex’s with WFM are an intriguing circling back to an older system. The California …
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By Amelia | November 3rd, 2011
One box Costoluto Genovese tomatoes. Purchased Wednesday, October 19 from Coastal Farms at the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market. Thirty pounds, $30.
 First pass through the box (Wednesday afternoon): Oven Ratatouille. 2 pounds softest tomatoes cut up and tossed in roasting pan with two week-old Rosa Bianca eggplants begging to be used, 6 white zucchini (same), red peppers (same), an onion, also all roughly chopped. Olive oil, salt, pepper, bay leaves, thyme and parsley sprigs. 1 hour in 400-degree oven, no stirring. Time investment: 10 minutes. Equals: 2 quarts menu versatility (Wednesday side dish with roast chicken, Friday tossed with farfalle pasta and Parmigiano-Reggiano, Sunday omelet filling, Monday lunch with cheese).
Second pass (Friday evening): First batch oven-dried tomatoes. 3 pounds halved, tossed with bit of olive oil and salt, roasted cut side up in 300-degree oven for 3 hours. Time investment: 5 minutes. Equals: 3 cups concentrated flavor.
Continue reading Tomato Math
By Amelia | October 8th, 2011
It’s officially fall, and I’ve gone into entertaining overdrive. It might have been the convergence of the Coho salmon my husband caught in Alaska that was now resting in the freezer; the arrival of the Jewish New Year; working a gig with clever butcherettes Lindy & Grundy; and a kitchen full of ingredients demanding to be used. (My version of impulse buying: Cox Orange Pippin apples, must have! Comice pears, can’t live without!) Or maybe these elements simply touched what inspires and makes me happy: family and friends gathered around my table sharing good food.
The end result is that we entertained three times in five days, a record even for me. We were fifteen for Rosh Hashanah, eight for the first night of gravlax, and six for the second. This meant I was pin-boning fish for one meal while my husband carved brisket for another. It was a flurry of delicious activity with a k.d. lang soundtrack.
Continue reading Five Tips for Easy Autumn Entertaining
By Amelia | September 8th, 2011
How long is 30 years? Take a look at this 1981 photo of the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market. It’s hard to remember that this industry leader drawing 20,000 shoppers a week once consisted of some cardboard boxes on a few tables. Next week, in conjunction with FamilyFarmed.org, the market celebrates 30 remarkable years with a multi-day Good Food Festival & Conference that explores every facet of food from policy to pleasure.
What does 30 years produce? A giant, ongoing incubator. Decades of weekly face time for farmers, cooks, writers, and market management to learn from one another in ways no class, conference, or books could teach. Continue reading The Santa Monica Farmers’ Market at 30—Then and Now
By Amelia | May 3rd, 2011
Whenever I’m asked if farmers’ markets are expensive or elitist, I think to myself, when did buying our food from truck farmers in a parking lot become la-di-dah?
On the other hand, there’s a moment in the documentary film,
Food, Inc., when a financially strapped family of four decides it can’t afford to buy broccoli and often resorts to fast food breakfasts for about $14. Where exactly do my everyday farmers’ market meals fit in? How much do they cost? I ran some numbers on a recent midweek dinner. Continue reading The Cost of a Market Meal
By Amelia | March 29th, 2011
Last week, I gave a market tour that told me just how much times have changed. Used to be, we’d plunge right in, intent on learning what’s in season and discovering the flavors of fresh, ripe ingredients. This time, I first spent twenty minutes answering questions on how to gauge the quality of the market itself.
I like this shift. It’s a sign we’re starting to realize that the availability of great produce depends on the excellence of the markets themselves, which can be only as conscientious as the entities that run them. Continue reading Market Integrity Update
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