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
Good Food with Evan Kleiman
Market Report: Cherry Almond Salad
KCRW 89.9 FM
May 18, 2013
11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Good Food on KCRW
Santa Clarita Certified Farmers' Market 20th Birthday Celebration
Cooking Demo
Santa Clarita, CA
July 14, 2013
8:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.
College of the Canyons, Parking Lot 8, 26455 Rockwell Canyon Road
Santa Clarita Certified Farmers' Market
Cooking Experiences at La Cocina Que Canta
Cooking Class and Retreat
Tecate, Mexico
October 12-19, 2013
Rancho La Puerta
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By Amelia Saltsman | May 15th, 2013
 A person can get pretty biblical talking about olive oil, but Scripps College’s Best of Show win last month at the Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition brought to mind this particular passage from Ecclesiastes: there’s nothing new under the sun (1:9).
Founded in 1926, Scripps is one of the Claremont Colleges located in L.A. County’s Pomona Valley. This little factoid bears fruit later in this story, so pay attention. Anyway, as part of a campus-wide sustainability project, students harvested and pressed the olives from the campus’ trees, some of which are over 80 years old, and many of which had been rescued from destruction in a 1960s campus protest.
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By Amelia Saltsman | May 9th, 2013
 Oh, is it Mother’s Day this Sunday? Here is one of my favorite desserts from my own cookbook: a simple Meyer Lemon ice cream (more like a sherbet, actually) with pretty segments of pink navel oranges and deep orange tangelos in a “sauce” of the fruits’ juices, topped off with a generous splash of Moscato d’Asti (a lovely, reasonably priced, light and fizzy Italian dessert wine). Yes, I know, I’m not supposed to play favorites, but I felt particularly inspired when I created this recipe.
Late-season citrus is a fabulous thing. The fruits have been hanging on their trees for a long time, soaking up the …
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By Amelia Saltsman | April 25th, 2013
By the looks of the photo above, you might think I spent this week frolicking through garden and market with my wicker basket. While it’s true that this was yesterday’s market haul for a cooking class and luncheon for my Garden School Foundation pals who “bought” me at a benefit auction, it’s only a piece of the story.
Here’s the rest of the tale:
Can you relate? Amongst other desky and writing projects, I’ve been working hard on state legislative policy for farmers’ markets. Put this way, it sounds important–and it is–but the reality feels more like …
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By Amelia Saltsman | April 17th, 2013
 It’s one thing for home cooks to swear allegiance to local/seasonal and try to convince stubborn family members who insist on tomatoes in their salad no matter what. But it’s quite another thing when you’re a farmer or restaurateur looking to make a sale. Can you count on your customers being as fully committed to the cause or to be as patient with harvest delays as you are? How far can you push the seasonal envelope without alienating or losing customers?
Nothing draws a line in the “seasonal” sand like the tomato. We’re still a ways away from its true season, but the expectation for year-round tomatoes is so ingrained that chefs and farmers worry that even a temporary absence on plate or …
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By Amelia Saltsman | April 11th, 2013
Some of the food people I admire most won writing awards at the International Association of Culinary Professionals awards ceremony on Tuesday in San Francisco. Notice how I structured that sentence? Not all these authors are writers first–some are restaurateurs, anthropologists, or even waiters–but all have compelling food stories to tell, which makes them food people. And all, as writing coach extraordinaire Crescent Dragonwagon would say, are “deep feast” thinkers, giving us writing rich with multiple layers of meaning. Here are a few highlights you might like to check out (click here for the complete list of 2013 nominees and winners).
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By Amelia Saltsman | April 4th, 2013
 Some of the most inspired recipes start in the humblest ways. Take this pretty bowl of pasta. A number of its ingredients bear a striking resemblance to those in my recent savory matzo brei post. Well, that’s because not long after that successful experiment, I was in need of a quick dinner (as usual), and there lurking in my fridge were the leftovers: a half-package of smoked salmon, a half-carton of crème fraîche, and a bunch of garlic chives. I also had a bunch of plump farmers’ market asparagus begging to be used (and still astonishingly fresh after a week in the crisper), a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano, and some goat cheese.
Within moments of my staring at …
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By Amelia Saltsman | March 28th, 2013
 I was listening to David Karp’s rhubarb segment on KCRW’s Good Food the other day, and was reminded of the roasted rhubarb recipe I created for my own segment on the same subject last spring. Roasting cut-up rhubarb with a relatively small amount of brown sugar and a little black pepper makes an easy and unusual sweet-tart condimento for a cheese platter, gorgeous for spring holiday entertaining. I like to think of it as the spring equivalent of autumn quince paste.
Technically a vegetable, rhubarb is mostly used in desserts, often with strawberries, which I think unnecessarily overpowers rhubarb’s tart personality. Rhubarb is commonly stewed or sautéed, and many pie and crisp recipes call for too much sugar. So I did what I …
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By Amelia Saltsman | March 18th, 2013
 There are two schools of thought about matzo brei: scrambled egg-style, or the firmer frittata-Spanish tortilla-okonomiaki style. I’m definitely in the latter camp.
It’s a simple enough mixture of crumbled matzos and eggs cooked in a skillet that, when done right, has the right balance of crust and tenderness. Unfortunately, there’s enough carelessly made matzo brei to give it a bad rap: greasy, burnt, soggy, or tough and overcooked.
To reach the textural bliss point, I use a ratio of one …
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By Amelia Saltsman | March 4th, 2013
Remember vertical food? Where the elements of a dish are stacked to penetrate the third dimension in a big way just because? I was reminded of the fad last night as I put together a quick dinner. This time though, form followed function to build flavors and keep clean-up to a minimum.
Let me back up a bit. I’m trying out the Los Angeles Wild Salmon Minyan,* a fish-buying club that sources from Lummi Island Wild, a sustainable-practices fishery based in Washington. This means I’m constantly looking for different ways to deal with the stash in my freezer, particularly the five pounds of black cod steaks. A little goes a long way with this rich, silky fish, more aptly known as sablefish.
Here’s …
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By Amelia Saltsman | February 14th, 2013
I love my lemon square recipe. Seriously love it. Easy and supremely lemony. I got the original recipe from my college room mate, who’d gotten it from her mother, who’d gotten it from the local Avon lady. That should tell you about how long ago that was. I tried a few other lemon-square recipes around that time, but soon realized I was already in possession of the goods. Really, who makes a lemon square using 2 tablespoons lemon juice. A half cup is more like it!
Then, a few years ago, I started to play with all the different citrus varieties available at my local farmers’ market. Could I do a simple swap in my favorite recipe and have a rainbow of colors and flavors to …
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