Moderating a day of gluttony

Food Rules #3: There are days that are meant for gluttony, and that is just fine. Then after the gluttony, eat something simple.

Now this is not to say that we all need to be beached whales by the time we are 30. That is not what my overall healthy eating habits are all about. But there are some days that I don’t want to start the day with oatmeal, fresh fruit, and flax seed meal. So today was one of those days: a visit to the food ditty we call New York City.

The day begins with a nosh at a Greek diner. Piccolo Café is more subdued than most East Coast Greek diners and the menu is half the size. But honestly, I can’t get away from healthy completely. So I opt for the poached eggs Florentine, which they do not serve with hollandaise. A quarter pound of chopped spinach perfectly seasoned with feta cheese (note I said seasoned) with two eggs, I only eat one yolk, on a toasty English muffin (which has no butter on it). Pretty good as a healthy Greek diner breakfast (an oxymoron to be sure, but nothing like congressional thriftiness) goes and the coffee just kept flowing (no cream added).

When we head back to the apartment we catch a bit of Rick Bayless having his own version of gluttony. Then it was off to Savore.

My man Eddie is one of the finest line cooks and chefs I have ever worked with. Here is the gluttony menu:

• Goose ravioli with white and black truffle butter.
• Buffalo mozzarella ravioli with a tomato fonduta (butter)
• And a beef braised in red wine ravioli with herb butter and balsamic drizzle.

That was one plate.

• Parsley papardelli with porcini and butter
• Pan-seared branzino with baby scallops in roasted garlic pinot grigio butter sauce.
• Cavatelli with pancetta and mixed vegetables
• Linguini with broccoli rabe, garlic, and olive oil (this was a special request)
• Asparagus grilled with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic, with a warm asparagus and ribolla cheese.
• Soft polenta (with just the right amount of fresh bay leaf)
• Marinated shrimp with wilted spinach and chickpea sauce. And……..

Just because I’m stupid we tried three great truffles from across the way with passion fruit ganache, Thai Chili ganache, and Balsamic ganache (just to keep with the overall theme). Thai Chili won by a calorie.

What do you come away with? A need for a long walk or a hundred-mile bike ride. I think that is enough pasta for a while.

The basics of pasta are true no matter what the shape;

1. Choose the best quality you can afford.
2. Once you cook the pasta a little over three-quarters of the way you should finish the cooking in the final sauce. Another way to describe it is “just about done” or “needs another minute.”
3. Make a little extra for a salad to take to work the next day.
4. Plenty of freshly grated cheese is just the ticket to finish seasoning your pasta dish (note cheese is a seasoning) so buy little bits of great cheese as you need them.

So when I went back to my cousin is was a simple pasta of Italian sausage, fennel, and tomato tossed with whole wheat spaghettini.

She got the idea from an article online and the inspiration was a recipe from Lidia Bastianich for penne with Italian sausage (no fennel seed in it) with fennel. Spaghettini was in the house so I figured that we could approach it differently. Since this basic combination (a savory vegetable with sausage and good grating cheese) is a favorite of mine I suggested that we purchase an Italian sausage seasoning blend (or you can make one of your own) so that you can turn any ground meat into sausage. With regular sausage the ol’Lipitor will have to make an appearance. But if you can season up some lean meat and add a touch of olive oil you can significantly lower the saturated fat while maintaining a richness to the dish.

Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil with 2 T salt, add pasta and cook according to instructions. Remember, you will finish the cooking of the pasta in the sauce utilizing a bit of the cooking water. Since the water is salted and you’re going to use pecorino cheese, do not salt the sauce until the very end.

1 bulb of fennel (or two if you really like the flavor), cut into sixths.
1 ea can of Italian peeled tomatoes
½ medium onion chopped
5 ea cloves of garlic chopped
1 # meat (ground pork, beef, turkey, bison, whatever)
1 ea pinch of sugar, and two pinches of salt
1 T sausage seasoning (poultry seasoning will also work)
1 t pepper or 10 turns of your pepper grinder
2 T paprika
1 t chili flake
1/3 C olive oil
¾ C Pecorino or similar grating cheese
2 T chopped parsley

Take three pieces of the fennel and put in a microwave, with a little water and pinch of salt, cover, and cook for four minutes or until just the beginning of tender. At this point you can either set it aside to add to your sauce or you can toss them in olive oil with salt and pepper and finish them on the grill, whichever you like.

Try with a tasty valpolicella from the Veneto or primitive (aka zinfandel) but nothing too heavy.

With olive oil in pan over medium heat, add meat and begin to brown. When you're halfway done you add the onion, garlic, sausage seasoning, pinch of salt and sugar, and chopped fennel. Finish cooking the meat.

Tips: If you’re microwaving the rest you can add a bit of the cooking liquid to the sauce for more fennel flavor. Go ahead and use sausage, then skip the spices, enjoy the tasty fat. The spaghettini cooked in about 6 minutes and held a good bite to it. I know that in Denver you have practically double the amount of cooking time for the pasta.

Add the tomatoes, bring to a simmer, stir, add pasta (which should still be al dente), taste, add pecorino or like grating cheese, toss and serve. A little fresh chopped parsley is always nice as well.

Spice is nice

So I had a hankerin' for some habanero spice with a touch of curry so I made this sauce. It would be good on chicken, grilled or seared fish, or tofu if you have to. I was inspired by a jar of pickled habaneros that were $3.99 but I weighed out the same number of habaneros fresh and it cost 80 cents. I'm cheap! What can I say.

12 ea fresh habaneros
2 C water
1/2 C apple cider vinegar
1 t chopped garlic
3/4 C chopped onion
1/2 t green curry powder
1 ea star fruit
1 T crystallized ginger
4 T butter (optional) or try 1/4 cup vanilla soy milk instead
1 T honey or sweetener of your choice

Throw your garlic, onion, water, and vinegar in a pan and boil until it is almost dry (5 minutes).

Add your habaneros and 1 more cup of water and boil dry (3 minutes); turn your flame down low.

Add your starfruit, curry powder, honey, and butter and simmer for 3 minutes. Pour into a blender or hit with an immersion blender until smooth.

Strain. Season with a touch of salt. You get that great habanero flavor then the heat makes you sweat.

I thought this would make a great chicken wing sauce as well, but it seems a bit elegant for that. I had a bunch of pieces left in the strainer so I rinsed the strainer over the pan to save all the extra flavor. Use this in rice water to set some rice.

Refried beans and "Pork Fat Rules"

Food Rule 3: “Fat is good, but…..”

As I write this I am snacking on dark chocolate covered blueberries from Trader Joe's. Think of all the anti-oxidants I am getting. We all have our addictions.

The WW2 memorial was very moving and reminds me of why we must always fight to keep what these and all of our soldiers have fought for. It was also damn cold so we moved rather quickly to the indoors for a cup of coffee and dessert of a chocolate dipped macaroon. But back we go to change and bottle the baby, put the Crockpot chickens on ice, make “refried” beans, have a taco, plate some dinner for the husband, and get ready to go out for dinner. I still weigh 170 pounds.

Pork fat does rule when it comes to many of my favorite foods; bacon, pork carnitas, sopressata, braunschweiger, bratwurst, a number of pastries, pie crust, speck, prosciutto, biscuits and gravy, and refried beans. But there is always a “but,” isn’t there. After years of fat consumption I have accepted that I must balance the fat in my diet. The following recipe for “refried beans” is a good starting point.

When you check out Rick Bayless’ recipe for refried beans (or any other really) you realize there is a hefty caloric and cholesterol price to pay for the real thing (using lard). There is a day or two a year when I am more than happy to pay the price, but for the rest of the year I will do this hummus-like version.

The “hummus method” for making any legume spread allows for your House Cuisine to add serious high quality nutrition to your menu. All those infused oils and cold pressed oils that you may have now can have a home. Here are my rules for oils:

1. When edible oils are full of their vital nutrients you end up using them like a seasoning.
2. When cooking, bringing oils to the smoking point is not good nutritionally; use oils like avocado and rice bran that have higher smoking points. Don’t sear on higher heat than medium.
3. Buy your basic oils in spray cans. You avoid waste and the vital nutrients are not lost because the oils are not exposed to the open air like in a bottle. Spectrum offers a number of high quality oils in spray cans.
4. The nutrition in oils should be consumed like the nutrition in fruit juices. They should be consumed in the form they are created: flax seed meal, hemp meal (not ganja, Mr. Marley). Toasted sesame oil is one exception because it is so intense that you won’t over-consume it, and it stays vital for much longer than any other oil.

Tip: When I say “vital” I mean unoxidized. A simple example is seen in extra virgin olive oil. I remember that half gallon of EV Olive Oil from Costco when I bought it, the smell and taste. I also remember the lack of smell and taste six months later when I was still trying to use it up. This is why I have gone to small containers and spray cans. Whatever I saved in volume, I lost in quality and nutrients. For any food budget, it is about cost ($ and total nutrition) per use, not cost per gallon.

Ok, refried beans.

Pour the beans and their water into a colander and rinse with water. Rinse out your pan, (we left them in the sauté pan to soak - one less pan to clean) add the beans back and cover with fresh water and simmer. Do not salt the water as this toughens the bean and it will not cook correctly. If you want to use canned prepared beans, then go ahead. They are a fast way to the same result. Just rinse the canned beans well, and off to the next step.

After 30 minutes the beans should be close to the soft creamy stage (i.e. cooked). Pour off the beans and water into a colander to drain. Put the pan back on stove over medium heat. We added 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil and 2 tablespoons of the “gourmet taco seasoning” (which had salt in it) and 3 cloves of garlic mashed. (You could also use chili powder or curry powder the same way.) 20 seconds later the smell of the seasoning and garlic began to waft upwards.

Add the beans back to the pan; I brought the pan to the sink where the beans were to avoid dripping on their new tile floor! Cover the beans with water (or chicken stock) and bring back to a simmer. Stir, taste the cooking liquid, then season with salt and pepper until it tastes like soup. Simmer for 10-15 minutes or until tender (or 5 minutes with canned beans). Turn off the beans. You will use a cup of the beans for a small batch of refrieds and most of the rest for your chop chop salad. Get out the food processor. It is time for the toys.

If you have a big ass Cuisinart food processor you will tend to make big batches of things. I do love horsepower. But this was a small batch and Cuz had a nifty immersion blender with a food processor attachment (big enough for about one cup of anything). Cool tool! Add one cup of beans covered in their liquid to the processor and puree. It is bland at this point. We found chili oil in a pretty bottle (roasted garlic oil or any vegetable oil will do), added 3 tablespoons, a healthy pinch of salt and pinch of cilantro leaves. Puree and taste, we were in the ball park and set it aside for tomorrow’s tacos. Great for bean dip, seven layer, or a bean sauce too.

Look at any hummus recipe on the web and you’ll see the same basic process. The nice thing with this process are the many opportunities to add high quality nutrient dense ingredients like oils, fresh herbs, antioxidant laden spices, lots of roasted garlic, etcetera. Bean purees and seasoned beans are a fundamental weapon in my healthier food arsenal. I don’t use garbanzos for my diabetic brother-in-law due to the high glycemic impact.

A mother, a daughter, and a “frozen” lunch

When we began the assault on the home kitchen after the stores, we were hungry for lunch. So it was time to cook the first dish, sockeye salmon fillet over “Pad Thai” noodles. We called these “Pad Thai” noodles because the base of the sauce for the noodles was called “Pad Thai Noodle Sauce.” Cuz wasn’t sure how long she owned the sauce but was sure that it was from one of two trips either two or three years ago. I wasn’t worried about it being good or not because it is sugar and soy sauce. So off we go.

Chicken soup and roasted chicken will also be going by the time we sit down to lunch. The roasted chicken will make the husband/babysitter happy tonight while we go out for Indian food at a friend’s restaurant. Search “stir fry noodles” or “pad Thai” and you’ll get the idea of where we are going here.

Put a pot of water on to boil the noodles -- the Japanese vermicelli that she already had in the cupboard.

Open the sauce and taste so you know what you have. This one was the consistency of honey and would just need some heat, fresh cilantro, chopped garlic and onion, chopped almonds and/or peanuts, and a fresh squeeze of lime juice.

Chop the above veggies and put the onion in a wok or sauté pan over medium/low heat and let cook until translucent, add garlic when onions are translucent.

Grab one of the sockeye fillets out of the bag and put in the microwave on defrost for 3-5 minutes. Cut a slit in the salmon package so there is no steam trapped in the bag. If it is still solid then throw it back for another couple of minutes, microwaves vary in power and effectiveness.

OK, lunch is going so let’s get the rest of the groceries into their proper places. When you grab the frozen veggies, snag two handfuls for your lunch then put the rest in the freezer. We both try the dark chocolate cashew clusters with a fresh cup of coffee from the French press. I turn back to close the bag quickly -- we could eat a lot of these in just a tiny bit of time.

Take two of the chickens and put them in a crock pot or stock pot with chopped carrots, onion, and celery, cover them with water and slow cook for three hours or until the meat is tender but the chickens are not falling apart. If you are good with a knife, take off the breast meat before cooking and freeze them for a separate dinner. If not, the meat will be good for tacos or the stuffed shells.

Freeze the third chicken and get ready to roast the fourth. Quarter an onion, leave the skin on, and place in the roasting pan to make a rack for the chicken along with halved russet potatoes, carrots, and celery if you like celery. Put the chicken on the bed of veggies and rub with salt and smoked paprika and whatever oils you happen to have in your pantry. Toss some cloves of garlic into the cavity and roast the chicken in the oven for an hour at 350 degrees. If you have a convection oven, it will take less time. Great -- it is time to finish lunch.

Tips: use timers so you don’t forget (they have saved me countless times) and have plenty of hand soap and surface sanitizer to avoid cross contamination. Funny how they don’t emphasize these things on cooking shows.

Now you know why the veggies in the wok were on low: it helps me to not burn things when I get distracted. Add your garlic, turn up the heat to medium high and let’s go. Look at the noodles you are going to use. Whatever the cooking time is on the package, tells you when to drop them into your now boiling water. If you are using a vermicelli (angel hair thin)-type pasta, it takes 2-3 minutes. You should smell the garlic by now, so pour the veggies into a bowl, add 2 tablespoons fresh oil, salt and pepper your salmon fillet and place into the wok. You’re going to brown both sides so it doesn’t matter which side goes in first about 3 minutes per side or more if you like your salmon well done, I don’t.

When the salmon is done, set aside on a plate, and turn your wok to high. Add your onions and garlic back in, your pasta with a little bit of the water, ½ cup of the pad Thai sauce, the frozen veggies you have set aside, cilantro, and whatever heat you want. I added a healthy squeeze of Sriracha chili sauce. Toss and let the sauce thicken. I like the sauce to still be a bit soup-like, or you could add a cornstarch slurry (2T cornstarch to ¼ cup water) or arrowroot slurry to thicken instantly. When it is the way you like it, add the squeeze of lime juice and chopped cilantro. Toss toss. Place on a stylish platter of your choice, cut the salmon in half and place on top and serve.

Lunch for two for $5 -- that includes sockeye salmon (much better nutrition than farm-raised) and veggies are as good. Fresh would be better but good quality frozen veggies are tasty and a real time saver. Not to mention there is no waste.
As we have lunch the roast chicken is done so just pull it out of the oven and let it cool to room temp.

We finish lunch and clean a bit. The pasta water pan gets rinsed out and we pour the bag of dried red beans in, cover with water, and bring to a quick bubble (to hurry the soak process) then turn off to soak in the fridge (we chilled things outside today since it was 28 degrees in the shade). The wok is rinsed with soapy water, dried, and sprayed with a fresh coat of oil and wiped down with a paper towel since this is a more traditional metal wok. If you have a non-stick wok it is basically the same process, you don’t use harsh detergents or scrape the cooking surface of either one. R packs up junior, I put the chicken in the fridge, and off we go to the WW2 memorial.

Cooking for two and the brand new mother of one

House Cuisine is about cooking your favorite foods, healthy and fast. It helps if you enjoy cooking too.

When I enter someone’s kitchen I look to see what he or she has in equipment. The next thing is to see what they already have in usable food. I am a personal fan of the three- and four-year old condiments sitting in the fridge door, especially mustard. (My cousin on the other hand, is big into curries.) The third step is to find out what the owner of the kitchen likes and doesn’t like to eat. The end goals are a decent pantry that allows for healthy meals fast. Now my definition of healthy may not be yours, but we’ll get to that as we move along.

Cousin R is the subject of this week’s blog, and maybe next week’s too.

The kitchen situation is solid, which means there are plenty of BTUs and horsepower. The only weakness is a small freezer. As she has an affinity for kitchen gadgets and spices, this is more about just making a menu and having Cuz begin to understand her new flavor friends: Sweet, Salt, Sour, Hot, and Fat. So we move on to the food she already has.

“You have five different curry blends up in the cupboard,” I say. “And you have curry flavor ketchup in the fridge.” Yes, I get the message. She and her husband also like spicy and have traveled to Southeast Asia, India, Eastern and Western Europe. The only things off the food options list are zucchini and sweet potatoes. Starches on hand are dried red beans, black beans, pinto beans, three different pastas, three different types of rice. We pull everything out of the limited cupboard space she has and rearrange it a bit so she has her morning needs on shelf one, sauces on the shelf above that, and starches on the shelf above that. If you really want to go to town, you can write this inventory on a three by five card and tape it to the inside of the door of the cabinet. Then cross items off as you use them.

The spice rack is full of the basics so we’ll work around what she has. This is key to avoiding the expensive purchase of more spices and it tells me a lot about what they like. Also, the kitschy spice blends (“gourmet taco blend”) and sauces (pad thai) in the cupboard should bring back some memories and keep the stories flowing. The joy of food is not ramming it down your gullet, but the people and places that surround the experiences of shopping for it and eating it. The key fun item in the spice rack for me is the smoked paprika. I love this stuff!

House Cuisine Rule #1: Your stomach is not one of your five senses, and making chocolate sauce part of your sex life isn’t bad either…

Cuz has fresh cilantro, parsley, celery, 1% milk, and half n’ half. Not a bad start at all here. But we need to head to Costco and get back before the baby has a meltdown. So we grab our shopping shoulder pads and head over to the store.
This particular Costco is just across the bridge from downtown DC and as we walk into the door we are handed a flyer saying that former secretary of state Madeline Albright will be signing her new book. “Wow,” I say and as we move into the store we begin to look for the line for her book signing so we can avoid the crunch. There is no line.

“She needs a new publicist,” my cousin laughs.

“But it’s a first edition. I’ll have her sign it and give a copy to my father - a conservative - and another to my sister - I think she’s half lib and half conservative,” I say. “Besides, it’s 35 percent off. She does need a new publicist.” The thing that pissed me off the most was that here is someone with a valid opinion to offer and she is in a Costco while some douchebag named Peterson is on national TV earlier that morning with Matt Lauer trying to convince people that he didn’t kill his two previous wives. Does anyone wonder why the fourth estate doesn’t get any respect?

So here is the short list of what we need to buy: Manchego cheese, frozen stir-fry veggies, oatmeal, pork tenderloins, mixed greens for salad, one turkey, good parmesan, ricotta, frozen mixed organic berries, and frozen sockeye filets. We impulse-buy pineapple spears (she loves pineapple), Marcona almonds (I love them), dark chocolate cashew crunch snack (we both love the whole idea), two two-packs of whole fresh chicken (substitute of the turkey), and a guacamole three-pack (two can go into the freezer and a lot cheaper cost per avocado). What we don’t buy is just as important. We don’t buy any more spices (don’t need ‘em), real maple syrup (love it but don’t need it this time), soy milk (a healthy alternative in the diet but we don’t need it now), potato chips (wanted them though), Nutella (a passing subject in a conversation), Bare Naked trail mix (they didn’t have it and I didn’t need it!). We got out of there for 179 dollars. The starting menu:

• Roast chicken seasoned with smoked paprika, sea salt, and thyme
• Seared Sockeye salmon with pad thai noodles and veggies (for our lunch when we get home)
• Chicken Soup
• Chop Chop Salad with chicken, red beans, carrots, celery, Manchego, Anaheim chili, orange segments, Marcona almonds, and a avocado/orange/yogurt dressing... We made it spicy. Skip the cilantro if you don’t like it.
• Quesadillas with low fat “refried beans.” Add salsa and tortillas if you don’t already have them
• Chicken liver pate canapés with Manchego or orange segments or Sriracha chili sauce or spicy mustard or sweet pickles. Mix and match your favorites.

House Cuisine Rule #2: “Like your job, you only want to really work in your kitchen when you absolutely have to.” This rule is my motivation and gets me through this project.