Bar Tartine: Techniques and Recipes

Chefs Balla and Burns, at their much-praised Bar Tartine, in San Francisco, have transformed the craft of drying all sorts of herbs, flowers, vegetables, fruits, and meats into an art form. They share their methods for creating dehydrated delicacies, be it via oven-drying, sun-drying, or a food dehydrator, and offer a selection of recipes that utilize those ingredients. It seems a very satisfying task to air-dry a batch of fresh red peppers, and then grind them into a powder to create homemade paprika, which can be used in fisherman’s stew full of catfish and egg noodles in a broth of fish stock and red wine. However, some of the techniques are perhaps best left to professionals. Black garlic is all the rage, but to make it at home, the fastest method is to place whole garlic heads in a slow cooker, set it to warm, and then check back in “about 2 weeks.” (Nov.)