California Cuisine

Serve a chilled crisp California Chardonnay throughout the meal.

Get two of your daily fruit servings with this diet-friendly dessert from Annie Clemmons, pastry chef at Cyrus in Healdsburg, California.

Gemma Sanita Sciabica of Modesto, California, writes: "My husband's family produces olive oil, and I'm the company's recipe developer. We often hear from customers who love our oil but complain that they don't have the time to cook. Their comments inspired me to share my favorite recipes, which show just how simple great Italian food can be."

Here's Hill's take on a tart he had at Chez Panisse in Berkeley.

Lynn Brown of Houston, Texas, writes: "For me, it's fun to see how much I can simplify or revise a recipe to make it my own. That's what I've done with the soup here (it's one of my favorite things to make). And the cioppino came from an old magazine, but I've changed a few things, plus I save time with canned tomatoes and peeled shrimp."

"Last summer we spent a week in Paso Robles, California, and had an excellent dinner at Bistro Laurent," say Rusty and Stacey Willi of Santa Rosa, California. "To our delight, dessert—a warm raspberry clafouti topped with vanilla ice cream—turned out to be one of our favorite vacation memories." This dessert has a more cake-like texture than a traditional clafouti. The version here is even better topped with ice cream.

In the early days of California cooking, savory puddings were often served, a reflection of the fact that eggs and dairy have historically been mainstays of the state's agriculture. That was a legacy from the mission padres who, in addition to growing field crops such as corn and beans, usually kept cows and chickens to help feed their communities. In Northern California, Dungeness crab season begins around the first of November. The crab lends rich taste and nice texture to the first-course pudding.

Alice Waters, who opened Chez Panisse in 1971, took salads to new heights with unusual, farm-fresh greens; she also popularized the use of goat cheese, which was being made by Laura Chenel not far from the Berkeley restaurant. Those ingredients come together in this delicious salad.

Oyster stuffing is more traditionally associated with the New England states, but this one teams the shellfish (also common to Pacific waters) with a classic ingredient from Northern California—sourdough bread. It's an outstanding rendition of an old-fashioned stuffing.

If you have a set of clay tiles or a baking stone, place it on the oven rack while preheating the oven. It will absorb the heat, and putting a pizza pan or baking sheet directly on top will ensure a crisp crust.

Delicious with toasted bread, as presented here, or with celery sticks, red bell pepper strips or Belgian endive leaves.

If you are looking for a chowder that is deeply flavored and hearty but not overly rich, this is it. It's perfect for a casual occasion, but the "meatballs" deliver an element of surprise, along the lines of an optical illusion, and make it really quite special. The idea for this chowder came from an old San Francisco recipe for "Force Meatballs" in a cookbook called Joe Tilden's Recipes for Epicures (1907), reprinted in Richard Hooker's Book of Chowders. The "meatballs" were actually made from crabmeat, a fun idea that I knew had great potential. Tilden, a renowned Bay Area amateur cook, left only these instructions for his meatballs: "Serve in any fish chowder or soup." So I paired my version of his meatballs with a chowder that had flavors similar to cioppino, the famous San Francisco seafood stew flavored with garlic, onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes. I served it to my wife and kids, telling them only that it was "meatball chowder." The well-browned meatballs look like the real thing, so they were all a bit dumbfounded when they tasted them. My son, J.P., said "Wow, they taste like crab cakes!" Everybody loved the chowder!

(Spicy Chicken Crêpes)

This recipe originally accompanied Fruit Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

A sophisticated dish from chef Roy Breiman of The Restaurant at Meadowood in the Napa Valley. If you can't find duck breasts in your area, purchase two whole ducks, and ask the butcher to remove the breasts for you. Freeze the leg-thigh portions for another use.

Hangtown Fry This omelet hails from Hangtown, a town northeast of Sacramento that was named for the notorious hangings once held there (it's now called Placerville). The dish seems to have come into existence during the Gold Rush, as the high-priced breakfast of a lucky miner, and later became a specialty at San Francisco's Tadich Grill. It is traditionally served with bacon.