Ferry Building Marketplace ( San Francisco)

Iknow it is now several months since my trip to San Francisco but I still have a few photos that I want to share. Anyone who follows Sam's blog will know of her love for some of the stalls at her local market. So I really wanted to share these photos with you, taken on a Saturday.

The Acme Bread Co makes the most delicious bread using only organic flour. As you are queuing you can see the bread being baked in the background and it's fascinating to see the speed these guys are working to produce enough bread. It is very difficult to make a choice as everything looks and smells wonderful. If you ever get the opportunity do try it. Actually I'm glad I was only visiting because I would definitely eat far too much bread if I lived there!

Rancho Gordo is a wonderful stall with so many varieties of beans. As a beginner to cooking beans I got some good advice and suggestions on what to buy. I was treated very well because Sam is so well known!
I'll let you know how I get on once I use them!
I mentioned in a previous post how fascinated I was with the mushrooms and I was drawn back for another look as I was mesmerized by the many varieties on offer.
As well as the ferry building all the stalls are set up around the outside on a Saturday. It gets very busy and it takes time to get a really good look at the most popular stalls. You might notice they have a 'Sur La Table" shop (see below) and this is where I bought a new knife.
When Sam said Saint Benoît's is the best yoghurt she had ever tasted I thought she was exaggerating but, having tasted it, I think I am inclined to agree with her. In addition to these little pots they do sell a larger pot but you need to be there early because they sell out quickly, as we found to our cost. The little pots are actually pottery and you pay for them but get a refund when you return the empty pot. So this is helping the environment as well. Oh I nearly forgot to mention you can get different flavours, I chose lemon which has lovely subtle flavour and combined perfectly with my muesli that Sam made using a recipe from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking Book.


Remember Sam's post about June Taylor's Tomato Ketchup. I visited her stand and bought some home and even though I do not normally like ketchup I have to say it's every bit as good as Sam says.

I can see why Sam loves shopping here and I know I would be a regular if I lived in San Francisco.

Archives:
2007: What a Coincidence

Fruit Bread

My mother wanted some cake to give her friend and I didn't have time to make anything but I remembered that I had a fruit loaf in the freezer. Although it had been in there for simply ages I knew that it would be a lot more moist than when fresh cooked. I tend to make these in batches of three as I happen to have this number of tins and it's better use of the oven. So if you like dried fruit and are looking for an easy recipe that freezes well (in my opinion freezing actually improves the texture) then I would recommend you give this a try.
The recipe comes from this little book which I have written about in the past; if you are interested in finding out more about the book and a lemon cake recipe look here.
Once thawed this is what the fruit bread looks like, it is meant to be buttered but I actually like it as it comes.

The recipe is written in cups, Sam has written some imperial measures alongside but that is far too much sugar. I have always used an ordinary half pint coffee mug and this works fine. It's fairly quick to put a cup of sugar, All Bran and fruit into a bowl then heat up a mug of milk in the microwave and pour over. You can then get on with something else for a couple of hours, then stir in your cup of flour and bake. I would start checking at 45mins as cooking time does vary depending on your cooker.
I have never had one that was a failure and this was very popular with members of my tennis club when I used to make the tea.