Bar Tartine: Techniques & Recipes

By mastering such techniques as dehydrating, curing, picking, sprouting, and fermenting, Balla and Burns, co-chefs of San Francisco's Bar Tartine restaurant, have elevated pantry stocking to an art. Their first cookbook, split between methods of food preparation and meticulous recipes, demonstrates the many ways humble ingredients can be transformed. Oranges, for instance, can be processed into jams and syrups, dried and blended with tea, or dehydrated and ground to a powder. Many of these techniques are doable for home cooks, though it's hard to imagine amateurs making their own bottarga (which involves drying cured sacs of fish roe for five to seven weeks). Creative dishes (e.g., smoked potatoes with ramp mayonnaise; grilled tripe with paprika and fennel; steamed parsnip cake with cider, kefir, honey, and bee pollen) feature strong Asian and Hungarian influences and refer readers frequently to instructions for making their own vinegars, cultured butters, and spice blends.