Christine Christy, Haley Marquette and Olga Marquette of Patton’s Caterers serve a combo plate with crawfish beignets, crawfish sack and oyster patties, a favorite of Chuck Maddox, chef-owner of Cajun Pacific in San Francisco.

He made a dish he’d been playing around with in his head, a combination of crawfish, pasta and a spiced cream reduction. He named it Crawfish Monica that night after his new wife, Monica Davidson.

Two years later, the pair, who started a food manufacturing business called Kajun Kettle Foods Inc., pitched the dish to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. It sold and sold, becoming a favorite of the masses, including many Bay Area chefs with Louisiana roots who shared with us their favorite Jazz Fest dishes.

“It is a Jazz Fest sensation,” says Chuck Maddox, chef-owner of Cajun Pacific in San Francisco. “Mention Jazz Fest food and Crawfish Monica comes up immediately.”

The annual festival, now in its 43rd year, wraps up Sunday following two weekends of music that include international and local entertainers ranging from Billy Joel, the Black Keys and Dave Matthews Band to Rebirth Brass Band, Galactic and Trombone Shorty.

But the festival is also known for food from nearly 70 vendors, who’ll serve everything from gumbo and etouffeé to fried chicken and more than a dozen variations of the po’ boy sandwich. In honor of the event, we asked Bay Area chefs for their most memorable Jazz Fest dishes. We noticed familiar themes — and lots of emotion.

“This is the food that I came up on,” says Michael LeBlanc, a New Orleans native and owner of Picán Restaurant in Oakland. “It brings back memories of family, friends and distinct cultures — the epitome of Laissez les bons temps rouler. This food inspired me to launch Picán.”

Ronnie New, chef at Magnolia Gastropub and Brewery in San Francisco, says it’s hard to go wrong with anything he eats at the festival. He is now in New Orleans, attending Jazz Fest’s second weekend.

“I may be biased but I truly think it’s by far the best food at any festival,” he says.

Below are their favorites, in no particular order.

Crawfish Monica

Crawfish Monica is a blend of crawfish, rotini pasta and a spiced cream reduction.

This year’s festival marked the 30th anniversary of Crawfish Monica’s first appearance at the festival. It’s a favorite of Justin Simoneaux, chef at the Boxing Room, Brenda Buenviaje, chef-owner of Brenda’s French Soul Food, and New, of Magnolia.

“We’ve fed this stuff to four presidents, Pope John Paul and all kinds of people,” says Hilzim. “It’s taken us places neither of us would have gone without it.”

He predicts he’ll sell enough Crawfish Monica to fill a semi-truck during the seven days of Jazz Fest.

Simoneaux is featuring a dish inspired by Crawfish Monica at the Boxing Room this weekend. You can also find Creole crawfish and pasta on the menu at Cajun Pacific (Maddox once called the dish Crawfish Monica until he received a very nice letter from Hilzim’s company.).

There is also the possibility that Hilzim and Davidson will serve Crawfish Monica at this summer’s Outside Lands in San Francisco, being held August 9-11.

Soft Shell Crab Po’ Boy

These soft shell crab po’ boys are made with crabs from throughout the Gulf of Mexico, including Lake Pontchartrain, Hopedale, La., and Florida.

Dennis and Vicky Patania have been selling soft shell crab po’ boys at the festival for 36 years. The soft shell crabs are dipped in the Galley Seafood Restaurant‘s house batter of cornmeal and spices before landing on a Leidenheimer French roll with nothing but a couple slices of pickle.

“We don’t put any filler, no lettuce or tomato,” says Vicky Patania. “We also have (on the side) homemade tartar sauce, ketchup, hot sauce, lemon juice and butter. A lot of people don’t want lettuce and tomato because they want to taste the crab.”

The soft shell crabs are only available twice a year, Patania says, the result of crabs shedding their hard shells.

“Soft shell crab really is like a miracle seafood,” she says.

Nothing says Jazz Fest to Maddox of Cajun Pacific more than a soft shell crab po’ boy.

“It’s the very beginning of crab season and the burst of juicy crab flavor and crispy fried crunch means summer is on its way,” he says. “We won’t see soft shell crabs for another three weeks in San Francisco until the Chesapeake crab season starts. They are the ultimate po’ boy for me.”

He’ll serve his rendition at Cajun Pacific in the next few weeks through the summer.

Crawfish Bread

John Ed Laborde first made sausage bread, but thought crawfish would make a fine substitution.

While nothing reminds Maddox of Jazz Fest like a soft shell crab po’ boy, the crawfish bread has the same effect on several Bay Area chefs. It’s the best, says Mitch Rosenthal, co-owner of several Bay Area restaurants, including the Southern-themed Town Hall in San Francisco.

“I only see it at Jazz Fest,” he says.

The crawfish bread was the inspiration behind the crawfish beignets at Brenda’s in San Francisco, according to Buenviaje. Simoneaux also added it to the Boxing Room’s menu through Sunday.

“If I had to pick a favorite it would have to be crawfish bread, because I enjoy the kick and the cheesiness of the filling and it’s also much easier to eat in a festival environment,” Siminouex says in an email.

John Ed Laborde is flattered that the recipe he invented decades ago has made such an impression on people. It took years of petitioning Jazz Fest organizers before he finally received permission to sell the crawfish bread because it was an original recipe, not an indigenous food that is part of Louisiana’s culinary heritage.

He cooks and cools the crawfish tails before adding spices, onions and four types of cheese. The filling is rolled into a basic yeast dough and baked. Laborde goes through about 6,000 pounds of crawfish during Jazz Fest.

“Twenty-seven years ago, it was exactly the same way it is today,” Laborde says. “It is handmade in Marksville, La. I have about 15 ladies with rolling pins, they measure out the dough, they portion out the ingredients and each one is handmade. That’s why not every one is exactly the same.”

Hot Sausage Po’ Boy

The Vaucresson Sausage Co. has been making Creole sausages since 1899. It was one of Jazz Fest’s original food vendors.

When LeBlanc of Picán heads to Jazz Fest, his makes a beeline for a po’ boy made with a hot sausage or crawfish sausage from Vaucresson Sausage Co., which has sold sausage po’ boys at Jazz Fest since 1970, its inaugural year.

“Over the course of the seven days, we’re selling thousands of pounds of sausage,” says President Vance Vaucresson, a third-generation Creole sausage maker.

Over the years, the family has brought variations of other sausages to the festival — turkey sausage, green onion sausage and turkey andouille, to name a few — but its hot sausage po’ boy has been a mainstay. It’s a fresh, all-pork Creole sausage made with spices and fresh vegetables, such as garlic, green onion and bell peppers, served on a roll with lettuce and tomato.

He’s not shipping sausages directly to any restaurants on the West Coast, but anyone can order the sausage from the Vaucresson website. Beware: As with shipping any perishable product halfway across the country, shipping costs can be hefty.

Cochon de Lait Po’ Boy:

The legendary cochon de lait po’ boy from Love at First Bite catering company often sells out at Jazz Fest.

When he visits Jazz Fest, New of Magnolia usually doesn’t leave without eating a cochon de lait po’ boy, a sandwich named one of the best sandwiches in the U.S. by Esquire Magazine in 2008.

“It’s pretty simple roasted pork with chunks of crispy skin,” says New, who sometimes features a cochon de lait po’ boy on the menu at Magnolia during the Mardi Gras season.

Wanda Walker has sold cochon de lait po’ boys at Jazz Fest since 2000. According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Walker and her catering company, Love at First Bite, prepare the cochon de lait — French for suckling pig — by slowly smoking a ton of pork butt over hickory for 12 hours. A mound of the shredded pork sits atop cabbage and horseradish sauce on French bread.

Pheasant, Quail and Andouille Gumbo

Bob Guilbeau only makes this particular gumbo for Jazz Fest. At his restaurant in Lafayette, La., he serves a seafood gumbo, shrimp gumbo, chicken and sausage gumbo, and smoked duck and andouille gumbo.

Bob Guilbeau, the founder of Prejean’s Restaurant in Lafayette, La., calls this recipe a gift from above.

Back in the early 1990s, he held several gumbo dinners in Arkansas as a thank you gesture for the help and supplies his community received from the Natural State after Hurricane Andrew. His hosts told him to only bring his roux and spices and they’d furnish the major ingredients. In a 500-gallon crawfish boiler, he and his staff made gumbo with a chicken base instead of salt (he forgot to bring it) and boneless, skinless chicken thighs, another first.

“The chef and I looked at it, smelled it, tasted it and realized we had never cooked a gumbo that good in our whole lives,” Guilbeau says. “It was a gift from God.”

Much of the flavor comes from a dark, silky and nutty roux spiked with a blend of peppers and tender chunks of pheasant, quail and andouille sausage. He cooks the gumbo in 30 gallon batches for Jazz Fest at the restaurant. He’s been selling the stuff at the festival for 20 years.

“This year,” Guilbeau says, “we prepared over 1,000 gallons.”

You can catch a live stream of Jazz Fest online through May 5 at WWOZ, as well as live TV coverage at AXS TV.

Many Bay Area home brewers are trying their hands at growing their own hops.

On a sunny day last week, Sam Gilbert dug a hole in the backyard of BrewLab SF‘s headquarters, into which he placed a hops rhizome.

Over the next several months, the rhizome, which looks like a stick with roots poking out of it, will grow vines that will produce a vital component of Gilbert’s home-brewed beer.

“Every brewer to some extent dreams of making a beer with their own hops,” Gilbert says.

Gilbert, co-founder of the home brewers’ collective, joins other dedicated home brewers throughout the Bay Area who have taken their craft to another level by growing their own hops. As home brewing soars in popularity, so does the allure of raising hops, a climbing vine that is inexpensive and easy to grow.

Sam Gilbert holds a Centennial hops rhizome to be planted in his backyard in San Francisco’s southern Mission District. His home serves as the headquarters for BrewLab SF.

“It comes down to passion,” says Ian Dunbar-Hall, who is part of a home brewing group called Euphemia Ales in San Francisco. “One way to extend that passion is to grow your own ingredients. While we don’t have the ability to necessarily grow our grain, we can grow our own hops.”

San Francisco Brewcraft and Oak Barrel Winecraft in Berkeley report normal sales of rhizomes this year, while MoreBeer in Concord has seen companywide rhizome pre-sales increase about 25 percent compared to last year, says store manager Dave Wonder.

“This has been our biggest year by far,” Wonder says.

More than a few members of the Bay Area Mashers home brew club are finally trying their hand at growing hops this year, says president Justin Unverricht.

“I have seen a large increase in people wanting to grow their own hops,” he says. “More people are aware of how to do it and there is now a fairly large wealth of information for people who are interested. If you have the space, it’s a fun distraction.”

Growing your own hops ensures peak freshness compared to the hops home brewers can buy commercially, Gilbert says.

“Everyone kind of prizes having the freshest hops possible in their beer,” Gilbert says. “There is no better way to control that than for it to be your own hops.”

Sam Gilbert plants a Centennial hops rhizome between cilantro and rosemary plants, which will also be used in home-brewed beer.

Chad Gallagher of Berkeley began growing hops because he wanted to be involved in another aspect of the beer-making process. He started four years ago at a time when hops were very expensive because of a hops shortage.

Today, you can find hops rhizomes at home brew stores in the spring for $4-$5, but with hops being a hot commodity, growing your own ensures a steady supply. It can also be difficult to buy fresh hops to make a wet hops beer.

“There are some varieties that are in such demand that many home brew shops and hop distributors ration them out to a few ounces to home brewers at a time,” Unverricht says. “Large breweries often have direct deals with the hop farmers themselves to secure access to certain hops, but competition is pretty fierce.”

Hops rhizomes produce vines that can reach 20 to 30 feet with plenty of sunlight and water. It takes about three years for a hops plant to fully mature and develop its root system. Gallagher, who grows four hops varieties, has been impressed with how quickly they can grow under the right conditions.

“On a hot day,” he says, “they’ll grow two to three inches.”

But hops need regular maintenance and must be cut down to the ground after each harvest, says James Davids, an enologist with San Francisco Brewcraft.

“It’s a pretty crazy plant,” Davids says. “After a year or two, it could take over the entire side of your house.”

The home brewing supply store sells 10 different hops varieties, but not all grow well in some parts of the Bay Area with its varying microclimates.

“Cascade or Centennial tend to do well whether it’s foggy or sunny,” Davids says.

Gilbert is growing six or seven hops varieties, including Cascade, Centennial, Nugget, Goldings and Fuggles. They are a mix of rhizomes and mature plants donated by a BrewLab brewer, all of which he hopes will produce enough hops to brew roughly 15 to 20 gallons of beer.

Gilbert’s freshly-planted rhizomes join mature hops plants donated by a BrewLab brewer.

Like many home brewers who grow their own hops, he’ll make a wet hops beer. Since hops have a very short shelf life once they are harvested, they are usually dried or pelletized. Gilbert will instead add the just-harvested hops to the boil kettle to impart a fresh, grassy flavor.

“It’s more seasonal than any other beer,” says Dunbar-Hall.

Dunbar-Hall grows 32 plants with eight hops varieties on his family’s property north of Napa, which he says would produce more beer than he and his two partners could ever drink. They’ll use some of the hops to make a wet hops double IPA, and will give the rest to other home brewers or possibly team up with a local brewery for a wet hops beer.

On his family’s 85-acre plot of land north of Napa, Dunbar-Hall grows hops on two 16-foot trellis systems.
Photo credit: Ian Dunbar-Hall

Keep an eye out for wet hops beers on tap at local brew pubs around the harvest season from August through late September, he says. Sierra Nevada also makes Northern and Southern Hemisphere Harvest Wet Hop Ales.

With home brewed wet hops beers, there can be a lot of guesswork because unlike commercially-available hops, which are lab-tested, it is harder to determine the bitterness of backyard hops.

“Personally, I’m excited about making a beer completely with my own hops so I think I’ll play that roulette and see what happens,” Gilbert says. “Hopefully I’ll get something that isn’t too bitter to drink or not bitter enough.”

Jennifer Ng’s obsession with ice cream is the foundation for her upcoming book, “The Ice Cream Travel Guide.”

Ice cream is her answer to everything.

When faced with jet-lag and oppressive humidity in Bangkok, Jennifer Ng found solace in a few scoops of sweet corn ice cream. While planning her 30th birthday celebration, Ng, a non-drinker, chose San Francisco’s Ice Cream Bar as the destination, her version of a watering hole.

It’s probably safe to say that Ng has eaten more ice cream than the rest of us. She will combine that passion for ice cream with her interest in travel in the upcoming book, “The Ice Cream Travel Guide.” The book will map the world’s top ice cream destinations, along with recipes and stories that illustrate what this frozen confection means to cultures around the globe.

“It’s a happiness business,” Ng says. “It’s a place where people come and leave happy. Wherever I went, it was a community-sharing experience.”

The 30-year-old mobile designer from San Francisco has visited roughly 40 ice cream shops and other destinations in Seattle, Los Angeles, Columbus, Ohio, Argentina, Taiwan, Canada and the Philippines.

She just raised more than $7,000 through a successful Kickstarter campaign to help fund travel to New York City, Italy and Turkey to continue researching ice cream for the book, which she plans to self-publish later this year. Each city will include a map with notable ice cream stops, history and recommendations, plus recipes and stories from ice cream makers and lovers.

Obviously, Ng is a sugar addict, but she also is clever about food, says friend and journalist Eric Simons. She’s been known to throw interesting food parties, such as an annual Halloween book club gathering where she usually chooses a zombie book and serves brain-themed foods.

As part of her “31 Flavors” project, Ng vowed to create 31 flavors of ice cream in the year before her 31st birthday in May (she’s completed No. 30, an Asian pear-green tea sorbet and started No. 31: horchata with snickerdoodles).

Her favorites so far include strawberry candied jalapeno (a nod to San Francisco’s Humphry Slocombe); goat cheese ice cream with caramelized figs and candied bacon (inspired by a Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream in Columbus, Ohio); and celery ice cream with rum-plumped raisins and a peanut butter swirl (modeled after the childhood combination of celery sticks, peanut butter and raisins).

“There are a billion things you can do with ice cream, but she’s really good about finding different flavors of ice cream, different preparations, and different people who make it with different cultural backgrounds,” Simons says. “It turns out to be intellectually interesting.”

Ng will serve up ice cream trivia in the book, including the story of how William Dreyer gave an ice cream made with chocolate, nuts and marshmallows the name Rocky Road to cheer up Great Depression-era Americans. Or how Ben Coen’s lost sense of smell led to Ben & Jerry’s signature chunkiness as he sought additional texture.

She’ll also delve into some of the cultural differences surrounding ice cream. In Buenos Aires, where gelato, or helado, is commonplace due to the flow of 19th century Italian immigrants, ice cream is enjoyed while lounging with friends and family late at night after dinner, Ng says. In the Philippines, ice cream is often picked up and consumed at home.

Ng will include in the book a map of San Francisco, which she says stands out for ingredients that are high quality, local and seasonal. Those traits are evident at places like Smitten Ice Cream, which features a seasonal flavor of the month, such as Meyer lemon gingersnap or rhubarb crisp.

We asked Ng for recommendations at some of San Francisco’s top ice cream shops. Outside San Francisco, she’s keen on Fenton’s in Oakland, Real Ice Cream in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, Ici Ice Cream in Berkeley, Tara’s Ice Cream in Oakland and Berkeley, Fairfax Scoop in Fairfax and Three Twins in Napa.

Bi-Rite Creamery: Many people know this Dolores Park hotpot for its salted caramel, but Ng really loves the Dainty Gentleman Sundae, made with olive oil and sea salt, which she says adds silkiness and draws out sweetness. She also recommends balsamic strawberry ice cream when it is in season, along with Bi-Rite’s seasonal popsicle.

Bi-Rite Creamery’s Dainty Gentleman Sundae with honey lavender ice cream, hot fudge, blood orange olive oil and Maldon sea salt.

Humphry Slocombe: Ng says this joint isn’t your typical ice cream shop. You’ll find Warhol-inspired art and flavors that range from the familiar to the eyebrow-raising, including banana, carrot and bacon. Ng recommends the Thai chili lime sorbet and the Harvey Milk and honey, made with honey and graham crackers.

Humphry Slocombe’s Thai chili lime sorbet.

Ice Cream Bar: This ice cream and soda fountain parlor offers lots of seating space, Ng says, making it ideal for parties. She recommends the Tropical Split (ask for a similar sundae if it’s not in season) and the Hamilton, especially with basil ice cream and fresh strawberries.

The Hamilton at Ice Cream Bar, made with a spoonful of ice cream, lemon, malt, fountain syrup and soda.

Mitchell’s Ice Cream: This San Francisco institution is known for exotic and tropical flavors such as avocado, ginger, horchata, jackfruit, lucuma and macapuno (coconut from the Philippines). Ng calls Mitchell’s a great example of business owners adapting their offerings to the demographics of their customers.

A scoop of ube — purple yam imported from the Philippines — and the Tropical 4, a mango, guava, banana and pineapple combo at Mitchell’s.

Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous: The menu changes everyday — and sometimes during the day — but this Dogpatch shop always offers 10 flavors. Ng suggests asking for staff recommendations on a house-made cone. Ng admires the consistency in quality and texture, noting that here the ice cream is kept much colder than at other ice cream shops.

Butter toffee and burnt sugar ice creams on a house-made cone at Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous.

Smitten Ice Cream: This tiny ice cream shop located in a shipping container in Hayes Valley uses liquid nitrogen to make its ice cream on the spot. Among its offerings: two classic flavors, two seasonal scoops and vegan Popsicles.

Ng recommends one of Smitten Ice Cream’s seasonal flavors; March is blood orange with pistachio shortbread.

Related Information:
Blog: Ice Cream Moments
Facebook: Ice Cream Travel Guide
Twitter: @jennism

An aerial photo of Santa Cruz-area food and drink makers. Photo credit: Andrea Blum of My American Pantry and Kenny Blum Photography.

Andrea Blum has spent much of her life following others. She once followed a cheesemaker back to his village in Italy to learn about where the milk came from. That’s also how she ended up in a butcher shop in Switzerland watching the curing of meats, or in a basement in Austria sampling homemade schnapps.

“It’s a passion of mine to go beyond what I’m eating and find the story behind it,” Blum says.

That curiosity about the people behind our food led her to create My American Pantry (MAP), a start-up company that promotes regional food and drink producers across the country. Blum is laying the groundwork for an online marketplace with a series of aerial photos of food artisans with their goods.

“I think of it as a Kickstarter for food artisans, where people can launch their businesses but in a very curated, beautiful and artistic way with recipes, videos, multimedia,” says Blum, who is a culinary artist in residence at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga.

Andrea Blum with her brother Kenny, who built the remote-controlled helicopter used for the aerial photo.

MAP just held its second aerial photo shoot in Santa Cruz on Sunday with nearly two dozen local food and drink makers, including the Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Co., Creative Cultures, Uncommon Brewers and Shelley’s Biscotti. The first aerial photo took place in Marin last month.

The aerial photos are a way for Blum to bootstrap her company while she fine-tunes her business plan and raises capital. She says she may turn to Kickstarter herself to drum up funds so she can travel around the country taking photos of food and drink makers.

Blum plans to stitch the photos together into a multi-layered atlas. Users will be able to view food makers by region, along with their personal stories, recipes and videos. They would also be able to purchase products through the online marketplace, which she hopes to launch later this year. Blum also envisions regionally-focused cookbooks with recipes from the MAP producers.

One of the first videos MAP produced is a profile of Connie Green, who is something of a local legend who leads chefs on foraging expeditions and owns Wine Forest Wild Foods.

“She talks about her passion of collecting things in the woods, collecting mushrooms,” Blum says. “She was able to make it into a business that really represents herself. She made it her life.”

In Santa Cruz, a new group of food and drink makers gathered at the Homeless Garden Project farm in Santa Cruz with examples of their products, including apples, jams, sausages, mini-kegs and even a mild-mannered black duck.

Denise Arasin is a volunteer at the Homeless Garden Project farm and founder of Duck Lovers Adoptions.

The farm is community supported with some 1,200 volunteers, which Blum realized added another layer of meaning to the photo. This gave her the idea of also highlighting non-profits that are contributing to local food systems and economic development in future aerial photos.

During the shoot, Andrea Blum controlled the camera while her brother Kenny operated the remote-controlled helicopter, which he built.

To take the aerial photos, Blum uses a camera strapped to a remote-controlled helicopter built by her brother and fellow collaborator Kenny Blum. It rose above the group of food and drink makers assembled in a grid.

The Blums use two different remote-controlled helicopters for the project, including one with four propellers and one with eight, which is shown here and used in windy conditions.

“As a food producer, you don’t get to lay down very often,” says Melinda Harrower, owner of Melinda’s Gluten Free. “It was nice to just lay in the sun in a field.”

Shelley Fryer, owner of Shelley’s Biscotti, read about the photo shoot in the local newspaper and loved how Blum arranged the first group of artisans in Marin to resemble a quilt. Fryer hopes people will appreciate the diversity of food makers represented in the MAP photos, some of whom she’d heard about but had never met.

Shelley Fryer launched Shelley’s Biscotti 16 years ago in Santa Cruz. She says she hardly ever misses a day at the bakery.

“I work all the time so I don’t really see other people who do what I do,” Fryer says. “I’m aware of them but haven’t had the chance to connect, so it was nice to have that opportunity.”

Kristen Cederquist, co-owner of Serendipity Saucy Spreads, also doesn’t get many chances to hang out with fellow food producers in such a laid-back setting. She even discussed a potential collaboration with Chris LaVeque, a butcher with El Salchichero.

Melinda Harrower of Melinda’s Gluten Free and Kristen Cederquist of Serendipity Saucy Spreads talk shop in between photos.

Cederquist sees the MAP project as another way to tell her story and add a human dimension to her products. She and her mother have been making fruit preserves since they were both children and they created their company out of this family tradition.

“It’s not made in a factory,” she says. “Everything is made with our hands and we love what we do.”

Mavericks “Not yet world famous session beers” contain 3.75 percent alcohol by volume (ABV).

Over the past decade, the alcohol levels of many beers has edged toward — or well into — the double digits. But a couple of new Bay Area brewing companies are betting that bigger is not always better.

Pete Slosberg of Pete’s Wicked Ale fame unveiled Mavericks “Not yet world famous session beers” on Feb. 8. This comes on the heels of the debut of FreeWheel Brewing Co., which introduced a lineup of cask-conditioned English-style ales mostly clocking in under 4 percent alcohol by volume (ABV). Their approaches differ, but both are striving for the same goal: Making low-alcohol beers that taste just as good as their high-octane counterparts.

“What I wanted to demonstrate is that we could make a beer in basically any style and have all the full flavor attributes as a 5 or 6 percent (ABV) beer,” Slosberg says. “So as a consumer, you wouldn’t know the difference, but at significantly less alcohol, you can enjoy it and not worry as much.”

Those worries include waking up with a hangover. Or getting back on your bike after knocking back a couple beers. Or feeling tipsy halfway through your second glass.

Slosberg is marketing Mavericks as a lifestyle beer that won’t interfere with your lifestyle. It was inspired by Slosberg’s own experiences bicycling over the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin Brewing Co., says his son Alex Slosberg, who, along with Will Shelton, are working on the project in partnership with Half Moon Bay Brewing Co.

Pete Slosberg, the man who created Pete’s Wicked Ale in the 1980s, says it can be difficult to make a full-flavored beer with less alcohol. “There was no grey hair when we started this,” he says.

But after a glass or two of 9 percent ABV beer, Slosberg often ended up taking the ferry home to San Francisco. This left him longing for a flavorful beer he could drink without becoming impaired. When Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. sought his advice for getting into the external distribution market, Slosberg suggested a differentiated beer.

“With over 2,300 micros and another 1,000 in process, the world doesn’t need another pale or amber or IPA,” Slosberg says. “So I told them if you’re going to do something, do something completely different. Stand out.”

The men behind Mavericks session beers: Head Brewer James Costa, Pete Slosberg, Alex Slosberg and Will Shelton.

Standing out from the crowd

The four co-founders of FreeWheel Brewing Co. in Redwood City reached a similar conclusion.

“The reason we decided on session beers was once we decided to do a brewery, just like any business, you try to figure out how you are going to distinguish yourself and stand out as a business,” says Malcolm McGinnis, who started FreeWheel with Larry Bucka, Gary Waymire and Pete Krausa.

The partners were intrigued by English ales and sought breweries in the U.K. with whom they could collaborate. They hooked up with Ironbridge Brewery and Green Jack Brewing Co., giving them a direct connection to the style of beer they wanted to produce. As part of the relationship, they share beer recipes and collaborate on new ones.

“For them, I think it’s interesting to have their name and beer over here in California,” McGinnis says.

Malcolm McGinnis of FreeWheel Brewing Co. in Redwood City and Dave Goldingay of Ironbridge Brewery in the U.K. share beer recipes and collaborate on new brews.

The brewery makes session beers from an English-inspired tradition, with cask-conditioned ales packaged without carbon dioxide pressure and poured from hand pumps, also known as beer engines. McGinnis personally defines session beer as one under 4 percent ABV, but in California, he sees this definition inching toward 5 percent ABV. FreeWheel’s core lineup will include a bitter and an amber ale in the 3.5 to 4 percent ABV range. It also offers a 5 percent-ABV-plus stout, and may occasionally feature popular higher-alcohol beers, such as IPAs or porters.

Mavericks, meanwhile, is taking a more contemporary approach, with modern styles that include a Belgian-style wit, rye pale ale and chocolate porter. Mavericks is going all-in with session beers by specifically targeting 3.75 percent ABV, but Shelton would like to see them go lower.

Moving target

The definition of session beer may differ depending on whom you ask, but generally refers to low-alcohol beers that can be consumed in larger quantities in one sitting or session. Some industry players, including beer columnist Lew Bryson, advocate for a 4.5 percent ABV threshold. Brian Stechschulte, executive director of the San Francisco Brewers Guild, generally views a session beer as under 4 percent ABV.

“I think that is the traditional idea or thought,” Stechschulte says. “What’s happening now is that definition or target is moving.”

For newcomer Pine Street Brewery, that target has edged higher.

“We’re dedicated to session beers, but our definition is quite a bit bigger,” says Jay Holliday, co-founder of Pine Street Brewery, which just launched ahead of SF Beer Week two weeks ago.

The Atom Splitter, the first beer released by Pine Street Brewery, is offered on tap at bars and restaurants around San Francisco, including Amsterdam Cafe (above), St. Vincent Tavern, Shotwell’s and The Sycamore.

The company’s inaugural beer, the Atom Splitter, contains 5 percent ABV. So do two of its upcoming beers, a stout and saison.

“Here on the West Coast, everything is a little bit bigger, a little more intense, so we interpret that to be 4.5 to 6.5 (percent.),” Holliday says.

There never has been a lot of agreement on what a session beer is, Shelton says.

“I don’t know that there is a definition,” Shelton says, “except that most people are wrong.”

What these brewers do agree on is that this segment of the market is under-served, even though some craft brewers offer lower alcohol beers as part of their lineups.

“There’s a real gap,” Slosberg said. “An IPA might be 6, 7 or 8 percent ABV, but if you’re active, that’ll screw you up for continuing your activity,” he said. “The alternative is going for a light beer, but you get no flavor with a light beer. And by the way, many mass-produced light beers in the U.S. are 4.2 percent ABV.”

Low-alcohol beers don’t have to be thin or taste like water, he says, but don’t expect them to be cheaper. Making a great low-alcohol beer can cost as much as a making a full-strength one.

“That’s our challenge,” Shelton says. “How do we present our beer that’s going to be in the same price range as full-strength beers, and have people say even though it’s 3.75 (percent), it tastes good enough to me that I choose it over a similarly-priced beer that is 6, 6.5 percent (ABV).”

Many say that interest in home brewing has never been greater, with the quality of that home brew never better. Amid this soaring popularity, we’re seeing the beginning of a wave of home brewers in the Bay Area going pro.

In honor of SF Beer Week, which kicks off Friday, we’re taking a look at some of the newcomers who have made the leap to professional brewing in the past year. From Capitola to Novato, Walnut Creek to South San Francisco, they are changing careers or launching second ones while continuing to work full time until the day when beer making may finally pay all the bills.

Several have science or engineering backgrounds. Some launched quietly following months, or sometimes years, of planning and plotting, raising capital and navigating the licensing process. Others, including Pine Street Brewery and Armstrong Brewing Co. this year, and Moksha in 2012, chose to make a splash and their formal debut during SF Beer Week, the pioneering beer celebration that has grown from 70 events to roughly 375 throughout the Bay Area over the past five years.

There is no doubt that it’s an exciting time to be a beer drinker, but these six start-ups show it may be an even better time to become the brewer.

Nick Armstrong with the blackboard of beers available on tap in the tasting room at Armstrong Brewing Co. in South San Francisco.

Armstrong Brewing Co., South San Francisco

Nick Armstrong stealthily opened Armstrong Brewing Co. in a South San Francisco industrial park in November with Pat Hinterberger and Ben Colombo. There was little marketing involved beyond a website, Facebook page and mailing list full of his buddies from Genentech, where Armstrong still works full time.

Using a two-barrel system, the tiny Armstrong Brewery focuses on English and Belgian-style beers, including a malty English Northern brown, a fruity dubbel and a barrel-aged stout. Aside from the beers, it’s worth paying attention to Armstrong’s financing model. The brewery offers a CSA-style club where members commit to buying six bottles of new barrel releases every three to four months at a cost of $60-$75. So far, he’s got 30 members. Armstrong has also partnered with North Carolina State University to try to crack the code for low-gluten beer using a gluten extraction process. If viable, Armstrong may be able to create low-gluten versions of his entire beer lineup.

• Where to find Armstrong Brewery’s beer: The Armstrong Brewery in South San Francisco and the Ale Arsenal in San Carlos.
• The brewer’s personal favorite: Oatmeal porter, a dark English ale with a silky mouthfeel and caramel and toffee notes.
• SF Beer Week events with Armstrong Brewing: Grand opening launch party with food and live music on February 16 at the tasting room.

Alan Atha, a self-described “hop head,” left a career as a cycling coach and personal trainer to open Beltane Brewing with partner Cathy Portje.

Beltane Brewing, Novato

Alan Atha hit the scene at SF Beer Week two years ago as part of a showcase of nanobreweries that had aspirations of one day going pro. Atha finally became legal last fall, transitioning from cycling coach and personal trainer to head brewer of his own operation, which is the only way the 62-year old says he could have gotten into commercial brewing. “At my age, nobody would hire me,” he says with a laugh.

With partner Cathy Portje, Atha opened a petite production facility and tasting room in Novato in October. He uses an all-electric three-barrel system and six strains of yeast to produce a repertoire of about 15 different beers, nine of which are usually on rotation in the tasting room. About 60 percent of Atha’s beers are Belgian-style ales, with the remainder representing West Coast styles, such as IPAs. “If you’re a hop head,” Atha says, “come see me.”

• Where to find Beltane Brewing’s beer: The Beltane tasting room in Novato, St. Vincent Tavern in San Francisco, Beer Revolution in Oakland, Lincoln Park Wine Bar in San Anselmo and Taps Restaurant and Tasting Room in Petaluma.
• The brewer’s personal favorite: Rumpelstiltskin Double IPA, a fruity blend with a huge hop profile. “I brew that one for me,” Atha says.
• SF Beer Week events with Beltane Brewery: Double IPA Festival at The Bistro in Hayward on Feb. 9; Anchor and Hope Shrimp Boil at Anchor and Hope in San Francisco on Feb. 13; Valentine’s Day release party of three new beers at Beltane Brewing on February 14th: Mon Coeur Chocolate Ale; Mon Coeur Sauvage, a chocolate ale with raspberries; En Suite Sauvage, a saison with raspberries.

Blaine Landberg launched Calicraft Brewing Co. following a stint as one of Honest Tea’s original employees.

Calicraft Brewing Co., Walnut Creek

Growing up outside Chico in a family of home brewers, Blaine Landberg knew he wanted to be a brewer since he was 14. He made his first batch of beer in his UC Berkeley dorm in the late 1990s, throwing honey in the mix and calling himself the Buzzerkeley Brewing Company.

He wanted to start a brewery out of college but instead took a job with Honest Tea to learn the beverage industry from the ground up. He used that knowledge to launch Calicraft in May. His core lineup includes three beers: the Cali Colsh, a light, easy-drinking, stripped-down blend of European and California-grown malts; Oaktown Brown, a hoppy, malty brown ale; and Buzzerkeley, a sparkling ale made with Champagne yeast. All beers are made on a contract basis at facilities across the Bay Area, but Landberg is still hunting for his own brick-and-mortar location in Walnut Creek.

• Where to find Calicraft’s beer: Whole Foods, many independent grocery stores throughout the Bay Area, such as Andronico’s and Lunardi’s.
• The brewer’s personal favorite: Depends on the time of day.
• SF Beer Week events with Calicraft: The company is taking part in several events, including the Band of Gypsies at Rosamunde Sausage Grill – Mission in San Francisco on Feb. 9; 4 X 6 East Bay at Creek Monkey Tap House in Martinez on Feb. 11; and the Black and White Beer Ball at the Santa Rosa Veterans Building in Santa Rosa on Feb. 15, among others

Mukul Jain launched Moksha Beer at SF Beer Week 2012, with its first product based on a beer recipe from an uncle in India.

Moksha Beer, San Francisco

Mukul Jain and Anand Chandrasekaran used to bemoan the lack of quality among many Indian beers. When Jain learned his uncle in India was a home brewer with an interesting family recipe, he saw a chance to bring to market a unique amber lager that would pair well with South Asian food.

Jain and Chandrasekaran launched Moksha Beer during the 2012 Beer Week. The pair worked to maintain the flavor profile of Jain’s uncle’s beer using local ingredients. The smooth, malt-forward amber lager is Moksha’s lone offering at the moment, but Jain’s uncle in India is reportedly at work on several other recipes. Stay tuned.

• Where to find Moksha beer: Indian restaurants throughout the Bay Area, including Amber India, Gaylord India in San Francisco and Mint Leaf in Berkeley.
• The brewer’s personal favorite: Amber Lager.
• SF Beer Week events with Moksha: Food pairing at SOMA StrEat Food Park in San Francisco on Feb. 10; Happy Hour at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco on Feb. 15.

David Alexander and Jay Holliday launched Pine Street Brewery on Monday at the Amsterdam Cafe in San Francisco.

Pine Street Brewery, San Francisco

This home brewing adventure began in a cramped apartment on Pine Street in San Francisco about four years ago. After sharing countless concoctions with friends and family, Jay Holliday and David Alexander became licensed in December. Like Calicraft and Moksha, the partners don’t have their own facility so their beers are produced at other breweries in the Bay Area.

Pine Street Brewery officially launched on Monday. Their strategy involves offering just one beer at a time, with the first being the Atom Splitter, a 5 percent pale ale. Other beers up their sleeves include “Black Bay,” a stout, and “Menagerie,” a farmhouse style ale.

• Where to find Pine Street Brewery’s beer: Available only on tap at bars and restaurants including Shotwell’s, The Sycamore, Amsterdam Cafe, The Fishbowl Bar & Grill, St. Vincent Tavern, Pizza Place on Noriega, Columbus Cafe and Chomp N’ Swig, all in San Francisco.
• The brewers’ personal favorites: Holliday likes the Atom Splitter, a crisp, hoppy beer with a mild citrus backbone; Alexander enjoys low alcohol “sessionable” beers and the occasional double IPA.
• SF Beer Week events with Pine Street Brewery: Pizza party at Pizza Place on Noriega on Feb. 10; Fishbowl Bar & Grill in San Francisco on Feb. 12; “Locals Only” at The Sycamore in San Francisco on Feb. 15; “Local Brewery Showcase” at the Amsterdam Cafe in San Francisco on Feb. 16.

Tim Clifford and Adair Paterno, owners of Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, call themselves “beer geeks first, brewers second.”

Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, Capitola

Tim Clifford became obsessed with making beer while working for a home brew supply company in Santa Cruz. After scrapping the original plan to open a brewery and winery under one roof, he opened the Sante Adairius Rustic Ales’ tasting room last May with his wife Adair Paterno, a local attorney and his beer drinking partner for some 20 years.

Sante Adairius makes everything from ubiquitous IPA to robust porters, English-style cask ales and German-style Goses. Clifford brews from a Belgian-inspired tradition, which he describes as whimsical and open-ended, with a willingness to have fun with ingredients. “I’m a home brewer, with no professional brewing experience,” he says. “And as a home brewer, you don’t have to sell your beer so you can be very experimental.”

• Where to find Sante Adairius’ beer: Don’t expect to see many Sante Adairius beers outside the Capitola tasting room in the immediate future, or at least the first half of 2013.
• The brewer’s personal favorite: Hard to choose, but one would be the West Ashley, a saison aged in Pinot Noir barrels with apricots.
• SF Beer Week events with Sante Adairius: Beer pairing dinner at St. Vincent Tavern in San Francisco with Craftsman Brewing Co. on Feb. 10; Sour Sunday at Triple Rock Brewery & Alehouse in Berkeley on Feb. 10; Meet the Brewer at Triple Rock Brewery & Alehouse in Berkeley on Feb. 12; Dinner pairing at Good Karma Vegan Cafe on Feb. 15.

Hungry Globetrotter's madras curry with chicken, the main dish from the South Indian Sampler meal kit

Vijay Rajendran has a philosophy: Life is too short for food to be boring.

It became the slogan for his company Hungry Globetrotter, which sells boxes of unusual spices and other ingredients that can be made into a meal. Rajendran launched the startup in September, becoming the latest in a string of Bay Area entrepreneurs, nonprofits and chefs to experiment with do-it-yourself meal kits for home cooks.

“Hungry Globetrotter offers a monthly subscription of recipes, sauces and spices that help you cook the cuisine of a different country every month,” Rajendran says. “We think of ourselves as being an international culinary adventure right in your kitchen.”

Whether it’s a desire to learn about new cuisines or a way to get a healthy dinner on the table, people are hungry for these types of boxes loaded with the makings of a nice meal, Rajendran and others say.

Some kits include all the spices, vegetables and meat you’ll need to cook dinner, while others require shopping. A few are ready to eat with little, if any, cooking.

Hungry Globetrotter’s customers sign up for a yearly subscription and receive a monthly kit with branded products that may be hard to find at mainstream grocery stores, such as Cobra Corn Mumbai Masala popcorn or curry simmer sauces from Maya Kaimal.

Vijay Rajendran, founder of Hungry Globetrotter (photo: Christophe Testi); The South Indian Sampler meal kit; Madras curry with rice and yogurt raita

The kits cost $34.95 but require you to buy fresh ingredients, such as chicken, pushing the final price tag higher for a four-person meal that can be cooked in about an hour. Since September, he’s sold a couple hundred kits saluting the cuisines of Southern India, Japan, Morocco and Argentina. Rajendran hopes to add a few thousand customers by late 2014.

“I think there is a huge market out there,” Rajendran says.

So does Liz Hunt, director of marketing and public relations at the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA), which operates San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Next month, the nonprofit will begin selling meal boxes ($19-$29) stocked with just about everything you need to make a vegetarian dinner for two, with recipes developed by local chefs. The goal is to get some of the pristine produce from the market into more hands — and mouths.

“Teaching people how to cook is a huge part of what we do,” Hunt says. “This is a natural extension of that. There are great, hand-selected ingredients in the box with a recipe, so they’re guaranteed to have an awesome experience with some of the best produce you can buy in San Francisco.”

CUESA’s Chef Market Basket resembles the Chef’s Market Box, a product tested last year by another nonprofit, the Mission Community Market (MCM) in San Francisco. The program is on hiatus until spring.

MCM’s Chef’s Market Box ($17-$30) seemed like the perfect way to bring together local farms, chefs and food lovers, says Jeremy Shaw, MCM’s executive director.

“The biggest lesson is that people really value fresh and local food,” Shaw says. “They just have trouble getting it sometimes because they’re so busy, so this is a way to solve that problem.”

Meal kits from CUESA, Mission Community Market and Luke's Local (photos: Colin Price, Good Eggs)

No muss, no fuss

These meal kits all require prep and cooking, such as chopping and simmering, but others make it even easier.

Ben de Vries, chef and owner of Luella in San Francisco, began selling “Luella in a Bag” last year, a kit that makes a three-course dinner for two for about $40.

“At most, someone has to lightly sauté mushrooms that have already been lightly sautéed, just to heat them up,” de Vries says. “They can feel like a professional chef without doing all the work.”

The meal box from Luke’s Local is similarly no-fuss. The San Francisco-based company has been contracted to curate and deliver CUESA’s Chef Market Basket. But it also offers its own line of ready-to-eat meals created by area chefs, as well as organic produce and other foods. The company calls its offerings a mix between a CSA, personal catering and artisan food shop. Its meal boxes, along with the CUESA and MCM meal kits, are sold through the Good Eggs online marketplace.

Owner Luke Chappell has sold about 100 meal boxes each week for the last three months, but expects that number to grow in 2013. “I see a much bigger opportunity than what we’re doing right now,” Chappell says.

De Vries of Luella sells as many as 50 meal kits per week. The response has been great, but his chef friends are also keeping tabs on how the kits sell. With the various costs of doing business in the city, he says, chefs are constantly looking for more revenue streams, such as prepared foods and pop-ups.

Luella in a Bag (photo: Matt Pinna)

Turning a profit

Luella in a Bag becomes profitable if de Vries sells more than 20 meal kits per week. That’s because his restaurant already covers related expenses, but he suspects it becomes more challenging when meal kits are a company’s sole revenue stream.

Sales and funding were two obstacles faced by San Francisco’s Culture Kitchen, a company that sold ethnic meal kits with spices, nuts and other ingredients sized to make Iraqi, Thai or West Indian meals. The company announced today that it is shutting down its shop after roughly 18 months in business.

“There were a lot of costs associated with the packaging,” says Abby Sturges, a Culture Kitchen co-founder. “It made it difficult to reach the price point we needed to reach. Our day-to-day operations were consumed with getting product in and out the door.”

Sturges will continue to blog as a way to focus on Culture Kitchen’s larger vision of building a community around ethnic food and getting people back into the kitchen.

People truly do want the opportunity to cook more often, says CUESA’s Hunt.

“The reason we see more of these boxes is people really love to cook, but there’s a real challenge in planning a menu and going to the grocery store,” Hunt says. “If we can make this a viable alternative, I think we can really improve the quality of people’s lives.”

All Photos: Joseph Wrye

My boyfriend and his green thumb managed to coax nearly a dozen heirloom tomato plants into growing well over six feet tall in our often-chilly backyard in San Francisco.

We’ve eaten those tomatoes as fast as they ripened, but the 12 hot pepper plants growing alongside them required a bit more thought.

Hot sauce has become my go-to plan when I come across a nice batch of hot peppers. This year I was also pulled in another direction, intrigued by a new crop of local food entrepreneurs who’ve launched businesses focused on pickling and preserving.

I turned to the nice people behind Emmy’s Pickles and Jams, Jarred SF Brine and Paulie’s Pickling for advice and they served up loads of tips on preserving peppers so we can continue eating them long after the season ends. Each of them makes a version of pickled jalapeños, some inspired by the classic blend found at taquerías throughout the Mission District.

“Jalapeño-carrot was one of the first products we started with,” says Emmy Moore, who co-founded Emmy’s in 2010. “We used to be based in the Mission and wanted to do something that spoke to that community.”

She ran through six trials before settling on her final recipe, which includes whole jalapeños, carrots and black pepper. Emiliana Puyana of Jarred uses a base recipe of sliced red and green jalapeños, carrots and red onion, but admits she never stops trying to perfect her formula.

Red and green jalapeños share the spotlight in Jarred SF Brine’s pickled pepper medley.

“They are super yummy and delicious, spicy and can go on pretty much anything — a sandwich, taco, salad, you name it,” says Puyana, who began selling pickled products in late 2011.

The process they each use is basically the same: They sanitize canning jars before stuffing them with cleaned vegetables. The vegetables are covered with a hot brine of vinegar, water, salt, aromatics and possibly sugar. The lids are sealed tightly and submerged in boiling water. Paul Ashby of Paulie’s Pickling, however, skips the canning process and instead refrigerates the pickled peppers immediately after adding the brine, which he believes helps the vegetables to retain their texture.

The same process may be used with pickling sweet peppers and other vegetables, though the recipe would differ. Moore and Ashby only pickle hot peppers, but Puyana also sells a grilled corn and sweet pepper combo made with sweeter brine kicked up with chili flakes.

It’s important to taste peppers beforehand because the heat level may vary, especially later in the season when they seem to get hotter.

“One may taste like a green pepper, one may set your mouth on fire,” Ashby says. “Find out what the flavor is like, and if there isn’t enough heat, add dried peppers to get a consistent heat throughout the product. That’s a good way to get it to the heat you want without effecting the flavor.”

The vegetables should be processed when they are as ripe as possible. In other words, don’t wait until the peppers are about to turn before breaking out the canning jars.

“Use the freshest stuff possible,” Moore says. “You want it to be crisp, fresh.”

Ashby recommends local farmers’ markets as the top source for fresh vegetables. Keep an eye out right now for end-of-season peppers at farmers’ markets throughout the Bay Area.

“That’s always your best bet,” he says. “Things start to break down, become mushy, and as they deteriorate you get off flavors. One off flavor and that could ruin the whole batch.”

Puyana recommends using medium, fleshy peppers for pickling that won’t disintegrate over time, such as jalapeño, serrano, bell, gypsy, banana, cherry and piquillo peppers. Padrón and shishito peppers may be too delicate, she said, while hotter peppers, such as habanero and cayenne, may be used to enhance recipes but are often too hot for most people to eat on their own.

When it comes to pickling, cleanliness and sanitation are key, Ashby says.

“You have to be super vigilant about how clean you are,” Ashby says. “There are a lot of rules you have to stick to.”

Make sure the brine completely covers the vegetables but leave a little bit of “head space” so you can create a seal, Moore says. Or you can take Ashby’s cue and simply store the vegetables and brine in a container in the fridge.

One last thing: don’t throw out that pickling juice. It can be reused in several ways, such as adding some punch to salsa or a Bloody Mary.

“Throw more peppers in it, wait a week or two and they will be pickled again,” Moore says. “The brine will become infused with pepper flavor. It’s good for meat marinades and you don’t have to worry about bacteria.”

Recipe: Jarred SF Brine’s Pickled Jalapeños
Yields: 2 16 oz. jars

Preparing the Jars:
1. Fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil, making sure that the pot is large enough to hold the filled jars. Do not overfill the pot because the water level will rise when the jars are submerged.
2. Place the empty jars in the boiling water for one minute.

   
   Submerge the jars in boiling water

3. Remove the jars with a pair of tongs.

   
   Carefully remove canning jars from pot.

4. Place upside down on a counter lined with parchment paper.

   
   Set sanitized jars aside on parchment paper until ready to use.

5. Repeat this step with the lids.

Vegetables
Ingredients:
• 7 jalapeños, a mix of red and green, sliced into 1/4-inch coins (should yield about 2 cups)
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced carrot (approximately 1 medium carrot; use a mandoline if possible)
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion rings (approximately 1/2 of a small red onion; use a mandoline if possible)

Instructions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix, wearing gloves if mixing by hand. The yield should be roughly 3 cups of vegetables.

   
   Red and green jalapeños, red onion and carrot are ready to be jarred and pickled.

For the Brine
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon coriander seed
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 sprigs of fresh Mexican oregano

Instructions:
1. Combine all ingredients except the oregano in a stainless steel pot and bring to a boil.

   
   This hot brine includes white wine vinegar, salt, sugar and aromatics.

2. Place one spring of oregano in the bottom of each jar. Fill the jars with the prepared vegetables (each jar holds about 1 1/2 cups).

   
   Pack vegetables snugly into jars, but leave enough room that will allow the brine to penetrate.

3. Strain the brine into a measuring cup and pour over the vegetables. Make sure to leave a 1/4 of an inch of space and place the lid on securely. The jar is now ready to be processed.
4. Completely submerge the jar into the pot of boiling water for 3 minutes. Remove the jar from the water with tongs and let cool at room temperature.

   
   Boiling the jars helps to create a tight seal and kill any lurking bacteria.

5. The pickles will be ready to eat in 10 days.
Resources recommended by the pickling experts in this story:
• Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving
• Tart and Sweet: 101 Canning and Pickling Recipes for the Modern Kitchen
• The Preservation Kitchen: The Craft of Making and Cooking with Pickles, Preserves, and Aigre-doux
• Canning for the New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry
]]> http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2012/10/28/local-experts-dish-on-the-art-of-pickled-peppers/feed/ 3 Jarred SF Brines version of the classic taqueria pickles. Photo: Joseph Wrye Red and green jalapenos. Photo: Joseph Wrye Submerge the jars in boiling water. Photo: Joseph Wrye Remove jars from pot with tongs. Photo: Joseph Wrye Set sanitized jars aside on parchment paper until ready to use. Photo: Joseph Wrye Red and green jalapenos, red onion and carrot are ready to be jarred and pickled. Photo: Joseph Wrye Hot brine includes white wine vinegar, salt, sugar and aromatics. Photo: Joseph Wrye Pack vegetables snugly into jars. Photo: Joseph Wrye Boiling the jars helps to create a tight seal and kill any lurking bacteria. Photo: Joseph Wrye