April 28, 2016: Forage

We have an extra special something for you next week: Forage, celebrating the sprouting, fruiting, blossoming, coiled-up, hiding treasures of spring, with smoked quail and huckleberry sauce, wheat berry & morel risotto, fiddlehead ferns & fava beans, bay nut meringues, and more. See, we were not kidding about the extra special.

The basics: We’ll deliver it to Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco, on Thursday between 5:00 and 8:00 pm. We offer a small size, feeding 2-4, and a regular size, feeding 4-6. The regular all-in can feed up to 8. The crate is suitable for one big dinner party, a weekend getaway, or several everyday meals. We’ll include our usual leaflet with serving suggestions, reheating instructions, recipes, and a shopping list for getting creative. The vegetarian version contains the risotto, the omnivore’s version contains the quail, and the all-in contains both.

Orders are open until next Tuesday at 3:00 pm, or until they sell out.

Click here to order one.

The menu:

Whole smoked quails & huckleberry sauce
To enjoy warm or cold with a deep, rich sauce of wild huckleberries.

Morel & wheat berry risotto
A simple, elegant risotto of Full Belly Farms’ Frasinetto wheat berries, to show off the morel mushrooms tucked into it.

Fava beans & fiddlehead ferns
We are just standing on the roof shouting “SPRING” around here.

Flower butter
Nasturtiums, borage, begonias—sharp, spicy, and cucumber flavors, plus butter: tasty and pretty.

Miner's lettuce
The ultimate foraged salad. Look for this growing along your hiking paths this spring and summer, especially where the ground is wet. We love its earthy, succulent character.

Charred beets
A little anchoring sweetness, a foil for all the bright unfurling hallelujahs.

Bay nut meringues
Foraged in the fall, these nuts are dark and taste similar to cocoa nibs, which makes them perfect for studding sweet and crispy meringues.

Extras this week include Morell’s sunflower bread, our own turkey stock, and Nuthouse granola. You can always request an extra of any element on the menu, or a custom version if we are making something you cannot enjoy.

Order yours!

Have a wonderful weekend—we’ll see you Thursday!

All our best,
Jennifer & Laura

April 14, 2016: Ugly Duckling

We have a new spring menu for you, as gangly and full of promise as a wet baby swan: chicken in a salt crust, a spring roots and shoots soup with matzo balls, cardoon salad with fava greens, nasturtium leaf pistou, duck eggs, and more.

As usual, we’ll deliver it to Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco, on Thursday between 5:00 and 7:30 pm. We offer a small size, feeding 2-3, and a regular size, feeding 4-6. The crate is suitable for one big dinner party, or several everyday meals. We’ll include our usual leaflet with serving suggestions, reheating instructions, recipes, and a shopping list for getting creative. The vegetarian version contains the soup, the omnivore’s version contains the chicken, and the all-in contains both.

Order yours!

The menu:

Chicken roasted in a salt crust
A lumpy golden parcel of crust acts as seasoning and oven for the pastured chicken within, resulting in a beautifully moist and tasty bird, not to mention an impressive presentation: the perfect thing emerging from the wreckage of its shell.

Soup of spring roots and shoots, matzo balls
We’re a little early for Passover, so we’re giving this in straight-sided jars in case you’d like to freeze it for next week. It’ll be rich with spring treasures and fluffy matzo balls; you can keep it vegetarian or add some of the chicken to it.

Swiss chard gratin
A pile of Swiss chard with a little cream, Gruyere, and Vella’s Mezzo Secco. Hearty and irresistible.

Nasturtium leaf and green garlic pistou
For your soup, for your chicken; for elevating and brightening everything it touches.

Cardoon, celery and fennel salad
Cardoon is the ultimate ugly duckling: thorny and gawky and requiring lots of attention, but beautiful in the end, tasting a little like artichokes and looking like celery. We’ll do the hard part for you, and pair it with celery, fennel, fava greens and a sweet-tart dressing.

Fresh duck eggs
Rich and silky, wonderful for custards (we’ll give a recipe), for poaching in your soup, or scrambling. Plus, we’re suckers for a metaphor.

Strawberry pop tarts
Our homemade strawberry jam in a flaky butter crust, because we like you.

Order your crate

Extras this week include Morell’s Full Belly Wheat, Nuthouse Granola, and our own stellar chicken bone broth and strawberry jam.

Thanks for supporting sustainable farmers and handmade food! We’ll see you Thursday.

All our best,
Jennifer & Laura

May 7, 2015: Brunch

Hello there,

We like to celebrate the national day of the mother with brunch for everyone. If you feel like bringing it to someone in her bed while she sleeps, we will not object; you could also put together an elegant noshy supper or three with this one.

This year, we’re curing wild salmon, gravlax-style, and making big lovely quiches with our current favorite spring finds: favas, peas, green garlic, mint. There are lots of little treasures of the season to accompany it all, from pickled scapes to strawberry rhubarb compote. Oh, and bagels, from our neighbor Dan Graf of Baron Baking, which the New York Times calls “as good as Brooklyn’s.”

As usual, these will be available on Thursday for pickup at our sunny Berkeley kitchen from 3pm to 7:30 pm, or delivery in San Francisco from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. The vegetarian version contains the quiche, the omnivore’s version contains the salmon, and the all-in version contains both. Everything is available in a regular size, feeding about four; or a small, feeding one or two.

Vegetarian: $129/$102
Omnivore: $141/$104
All-in: $177/$128

It’s like this:

Cured salmon (12 ounces/6 ounces)
Gravlax-style, with herbs and lemon.

Fava & pea quiche (large/small)
Green garlic, mint, pecorino. It’s okay if you say “ta da!” when you serve this to people.

Red flannel hash, vegetarian (quart jar/24 ounce jar)
Beets and potatoes and carrots, equally wonderful for handling your poached eggs or as a sustaining side dish for any meal.

Pickled scapes (8 ounce jar)
Scapes! The flower stalk of the allium. Milder, sturdier—perfect for pickles, and for noticing that it is spring.

Stone fruit and lettuce (one pound and 1-2 heads)
The very first stone fruit of the year always knocks us sideways. Lettuce will be a small red romaine variety we love, breen, or another similar one.

Sesame Baron bagels (four/two)
Three words: “pretzel-like crust.” Extras are available, if you’d like more!

Fromage blanc vegetable spread (8 ounce jar/4 ounce jar)
To fancy up your bagels.

Rose syrup (8 ounces/4 ounces)
A champagne cocktail for mama, or a very special soda, or a heady drizzle for any simple cake you like to make.

Strawberry rhubarb compote (12 ounce jar/8 ounce jar)
To eat on toast or swirled into yogurt.

Local flowers, one bunch
To give, or to keep.

Extras this week include Morell’s singular scones, granola from Nuthouse, our own chicken bone broth,pickled green strawberries, and of course, more bagels.

See you soon, and thanks for supporting Potliquor!

All our best,
Jennifer & Laura

April 23, 2015: Spring

Hello there,

We have a pretty and indulgent spring menu for you: fried chicken, goat milk macaroni and cheese (with quinoa macaroni from our friends at Edison Grainery), collards with green garlic, strawberry refrigerator jam & biscuits!

It’s available for pickup at our kitchen in Berkeley between 3:00 and 7:00 pm and for delivery in San Francisco from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm on Thursday, April 23. The vegetarian version contains the macaroni and cheese, the omnivore version contains the fried chicken, and the all-in has both.

All in: $188/$132
Omnivore’s: $148/$99
Vegetarian: $114/$91

It’s like this:

Lemony fried chicken (whole/half)
Lemon-brined, buttermilk-dipped chicken, for your picnic blanket or table.

Quinoa macaroni and cheese with goat cheese and spring peas (quart jar/24 ounce jar)
We love Edison’s quinoa macaroni; you may remember it from our last version of macaroni and cheese, back in September. This one will be made with goat milk and cheese, creamy-white, with springy little peas.

Spring collard greens & green garlic (24 ounce jar/pint jar)
Some deep green, to balance the crunchy and creamy.

Sea island red pea salad (24 ounce jar/pint jar)
Sea island red peas from Anson Mills, in a classic salad with crunchy vegetables and vinaigrette.

Chile paste (4 ounce jar)
Smoky, spicy, velvety, deep; equally suitable for dolling up your fried chicken or your mac.

Craquante D’Avignon lettuce (one or two heads, depending on size)
Gorgeous, flower-looking heads from Paul’s Produce in Sonoma.

Tarragon buttermilk dressing 8 ounce jar/4 ounce jar)
For dipping and spring salads.

Strawberry refrigerator jam (8 ounce jar)
Because strawberries just got good; for your…

Homemade biscuits (six/three).


Extras this week include Morell’s sesame bread, chicken bone broth, and our truly special pickled green strawberries.

Have a wonderful weekend, and we’ll see you soon!

All our best,
Jennifer & Laura
Potliquor