Keep it simple

I don't spend a lot of time reading about studies with the latest fad diets and health claims. It does seem like what was good for us yesterday is no good for us today. My favorite was when dark chocolate was declared good for you. I didn't hesitate to embrace that concept, regardless of what new research might come and say some years from now. A square or two a day keeps me happy!   I don't remember where coffee is these days?  Villain?  Savior?  Use in moderation and I think I'll be OK.

This article, Eating Brown Rice to Cut Diabetes Risk, in the New York Times caught my eye."Just replacing a third of a serving of white rice with brown each day could reduce one’s risk of Type 2 diabetes by 16 percent, a statistical analysis showed. A serving is a cup of cooked rice."

Pretty simple.  Pretty low risk.  Easy to try.  Big payoff, because you can do so much with brown rice.  The simple concept that I remember most vividly from my reading of the books by Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman about the health effects of a simpler diet was the difference between whole grains and processed grains, how our body handles them, and what it means for keeping weight in check.  Whole grains and vegetables make you feel more "full", so you don't overeat.  And if you DO eat a lot of these, they don't make you fat.

Brown rice is a perfect example.  Brown rice is as easy to make as white rice, it just takes 45 minutes instead of 20.  Make some extra and you'll have some for another meal or two, in different incarnations.  It's a perfect start to any meal. 

So, if you've been looking to make some changes, start with the brown rice.  Give it a chance to shine in a tasty pilaf or cold rice salad with bold flavors.  And once you get the hang of brown rice, you might find yourself wondering about other whole grains for variety -- wheat berries, buckwheat (kasha), quinoa, and more that I haven't tried yet.  Get a cheap rice cooker, and you can do any of these grains as easily as you can do white rice.

Bittmans's book, Food Matters, suggests that entry to this world of whole grain, real food cookery starts with a pot of beans.  Good idea.  But a pot of brown rice may be so much simpler and less intimidating.  Try starting there.  It's simple.

Thinking one or two moves ahead

I'm on a little weekend retreat on a lake in Maine.  There aren't any grocery stores within easy driving distance, so I needed to do at least a little thinking about what food I'd bring, so  I didn't end up eating crackers, cheese and peanut butter for two and a half days.

I didn't know exactly what I'd have, but I knew I had stuff in the fridge that could easily be transported in a cooler -- basically moving my food stores up north.  But I had to be selective.  And I only wanted to "cook" one night.  So, the food puzzle became, "what food can a bring that will be cooked once, and lend itself to multiple interpretations?"

Into the cooler/provisions bag went:

• Shriveling Asian eggplants (2)
• Flat leaf parsley
• One cup of brown rice tossed into a plastic bag
• One avocado
• One lime
• One half a large red onion
• One half a long English cucumber
• One heckuva lot of marinating Korean style beef from the HMart, needing to be eaten.
• Granola
• Milk
• Assorted fruits and snacks (which don't count for this little exercise)

One the way up, I thought some corn on the cob and tomato would be good too, in unspecified ways.  I bought more corn than I needed for one meal, because cold corn cut into salads is fantastic.

There was plenty of meat for a crowd, so I figured if I grilled it the first night, it would be useful for several meals to come, in various ways.  I'll probably end up bringing some home.

It was still pretty hot out by the time I was ready to cook, so doing almost everything outside made some sense.  I got the rice going, because that would take the longest -- 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, I sliced the eggplant and brushed them with oil for grilling on low heat, and removed the silk from the corn to roast on the same low fire, encased in the silkless husks.  The eggplant were ready in ten minutes, the corn in 15.  I created yet another variation on the "dress the eggplant after you grill them" theme, this time with oil, cider vinegar, habanero pepper sauce (a few drops), regular paprika (didn't have smoked), garlic powder (forgot the fresh garlic, doh!), salt/pepper.

So the first night was pretty straight-ahead, after I grilled the meat.

For lunch today, I had a pretty good assortment of things from which to create something tasty.  Cut the kernels off a couple of ears of the corn, chunked the avocado, diced some tomato, pulled the leaves off a good handful of parsley, tossed in about half the leftover corn, and remembered the red onion at the last minute.  Dressed in a little olive oil, lime juice and salt/pepper and it was a meal, accompanied by a little beef sandwich. Forgot I had cucumber, which would have been a good addition -- perhaps for tonight's rendition.  And the leftover eggplant is still waiting to be used.

Nothing fancy, but a satisfying lunch -- one that I'd pay for if I were out somewhere.  I still have a couple of meals to go, and I now have the salad plus a few other items.  No need to cook everyday, just leave some open ended opportunities for the use of the leftovers.

Back from Europe, Now Exploring Asia

Wake up! Wake up!

While in Europe for 11 weeks, this little blog as been on sabbatical too. It's time to wake it up!

We had some spectacular meals while traveling. Some disappointments. And some that got us adequately fed to keep going from day to day. We discovered that it was tough to pick the memorable meals -- sometimes they just came out of nowhere and surprised us. Like the braised pork knuckle in the beer joint in Regensburg. Or the rotisserie rabbit from the chicken man in Ansouis. Or that dried out gnocchi that I discovered could be pan fried.

But it wasn't till we hit northern Europe that we found meal after meal of reliably great food. Like this one from a fabulous Indonesian restaurant in Amsterdam. Unlike the France and Italy, which seem mired in the past, where you were hard-pressed to find any food other than French or Italian, the Dutch have embraced a wide variety of cultures, and their food has benefited from this. Even in the restaurants that were not primarily Asian or middle-eastern we found a sense of adventure and experimentation that led to fun, tasty meals, prepared by fun, energetic chefs.

I do prefer the bold, knock-your-socks-off flavors that come from Asia and the Middle East over the more subtle flavors of Europe. They take hold of your palate, shake it around, and don't let go. Yum.

Before we left, I discovered the HMart, a relatively new Asian grocery mega store in Burlington, MA. Every aisle is jam-packed with tasty goodies. And I don't know what to do with most of it. An opportunity!

Eleanor and I took our first visit since "the trip" a couple of days ago, and she was pretty good about keeping me for over-buying, saying several times, "Dad...remember, we've got to eat that stuff before it goes bad". Point taken.

My problem in the past with the HMart has been that I don't know what to do with anything. But then I don't remember what the possibilities are when I'm home preparing for the NEXT visit, so I'm never prepared. So this time, I snapped pictures of the stuff that intrigued me, and that I needed to learn more about. And I bought a book on Amazon, still to come, called, Asian Ingredients: A Guide to the Foodstuffs of China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, which promises to help me figure some of this stuff out. Here's some of the stuff I've got my eye on...a SMALL sample. Greens galore. Tubers and roots and fruits and greens. Greens.

And the prices were very reasonable.

And fish. I'm very excited about trying out the fish. They have a spectacular fish counter with LOTS of fish, that mostly looks very fresh, which they will dress for you any way you want. Next time, I'll be prepared. I founds some good recipes in a book that Susan had on the shelf.

In the meantime, I had a lot of greens on my hands -- something called Yu Choy, which looked like a cross between spinach and mustard greens and bok choy. And Shanghai bok choy, which was smaller than regular bok choy, but bigger than baby bok choy. And some hen-of-the woods mushrooms. And a new tamari sauce. So I prepared what to me has been my go-to Chinese food preparation, which I haven't done much of in years:

•  Marinate thinly sliced meat (in this case, frozen chicken thighs from Trader Joes) in a mixture of a few tablespoons of soy sauce and dry sherry, some splashes of rice wine vinegar, and a teaspoon or so of corn starch.  
• Prep all the veggies in advance, minced garlic, bit-sized pieces of scallion, and the chopped greens.
• Stir fry the scallions, then the garlic for 20 seconds or so, then add in the greens, and when the greens are a little wilted and bright green, pull them out of the wok and set aside.
• Stir fry the chicken in a some oil and garlic in batches, until just done.
• Add back in the veggies, turn the heat down, and add a sauce made of the same soy/sherry/vinegar/corn starch mixture as the marinade, till heated through and shiny.
• At the very end, stir in a couple of teaspoons of crab paste.  Secret ingredient.
• Serve over rice (in this case, brown rice).

Anyway.  There's a project a-brewing to experiment my way through the HMart.  It may take a decade or two, but I think I'm up to it.  Stay tuned!

Intermission

For anyone that's following this blog, wondering what's going on, it's that I'm on sabbatical -- intermission.  Blogging my way through that experience.  Will return to this when I return home.

Follow me on Intermission:

Not just rice and beans

Here's why I love cooking. Take a simple pile of dried beans and turn them into something sublime. Without a whole lot of muss or fuss.

A few months ago, I took the hint from a few of the blogs I follow to order some heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo. There were so many beans, it was hard to choose, so I went for the starter pack, which had five types. Those beauties you see up there are cranberry beans. They were the start of the inspiration. It was MLK day on Monday, so I was home, and it was sleety and cold, and I was going to be around for awhile, so around noontime, I put a pound of the cranberry beans (about two cups) in with about four cups of water and a half an onion into the slow cooker on high for as long as it was going to take. This is the Rancho Gordo suggested method, which I'd used once before with good success. No soaking, no preplanning, just some beans, water and a half an onion, and a lazy afternoon.

I didn't know what I was going to do with them, but with a pile of cooked beans, there were options.

Click "read more" to continue...

Linguine ala Carbonara - Extreme

First of all, Happy New Year!  I started this post just after New Year, and am just getting around to finishing it off.

My New Year's eve experiment was to do a recipe out of Jim Lahey's new book, My Bread. Walnut bread, with raisins and a subtle cinnamon flavor. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. Fortunately, it was fantastic!! My first foray beyond the pretty basic no-knead approach I'd been using since Bittman first popularized the technique a few years ago. But I digress. Hopefully, I'll make it again, and report back.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon Dave's Fresh Pasta in Davis Square, where I discovered fantastic sandwiches. Fantastic. If you've never been, go.  You won't be sorry.  It's hard to imagine getting wound up over a sandwich, but check it out, you'll see.

But it's called Dave's FRESH PASTA, so I thought if they were so good at sandwiches, they'd have to be wizards at pasta.  I hadn't ever paid much attention to fresh pasta before, other than the gluey stuff you get at the supermarket. At Dave's they've got four or five basic pasta types (plain, black pepper, tomato, spinach). And they say a pound will serve 3 or 4.  But when I saw the size of a half-pound black pepper linguine, I figured it would never be enough, so got another quarter pound  The half pound would've been fine -- lesson -- listen to the experts.  

I've been making Spaghetti Alla Carbonara for years, and it was always a family favorite.  With bacon as a central character, how could it not be?  This was to be different, however.

First, I used guanciale instead of bacon, that I procured on my last trip to Seattle, to Salumi.  I'd been wanting to try guanciale for some time, and Salumi had some on their special board, so I picked up a quarter pound to bring home.  Guanciale, by the way, is pork jowls.  Cured.

So I got a pot of water going for the pasta, and got the diced guanciale going in the skillet.  Meanwhile, I mixed two beaten eggs with a few glops of half-and-half, and a half cup or so of parmesan cheese made nice and fluffy by my new microplane and quite a few turns of the pepper mill.

When the guanciale was crisp, it was time to immerse the pasta for a couple of short minutes, until al dente tender, a quick drain, back into the pot and add the egg mixture and the guanciale.  Stir quickly to let the eggs cook in the heat of the pasta, and serve while hot.

The pasta was unlike anything I'd ever had.  It had taste. A depth of flavor that I really don't expect from pasta.   And texture -- silky but with some backbone..  And the carbonara treatment was perfect to accentuate all the fun of the fresh pasta.  I think I'm now spoiled.  It's going to be difficult to go back, except that it's not as easy to keep fresh pasta in the cupboard for months on end.

Extreme Coffee

I like coffee, but I'm not obsessed.  A good brew from a good independent coffee bar usually is enough to satisfy me.  Awful diner or convenience store coffee is a big turnoff.

Nothing prepared me, however, from an impromptu foray into the coffee temple that calls itself Barismo in East Arlington.  Susan and I were next door in 13 Forest, checking out potential art, when I remembered that Barismo was right next door, and we had some time on our hands (unlike my usual visits to the area to Thailand Cafe, fantastic fast Thai food).  Time is what we needed, because we found out that we knew NOTHING about coffee. 

It's not immediately clear upon walking in what the business is.  There are small bags of coffee on the shelves, along with a variety of coffee gear, none of which looks familiar.  There is a whiteboard on the wall with different kinds of coffee you can get.  Espresso, capuccino (I know that), then siphon and pour over.  Huh?  No tables and chairs either but two small batch roasting machines behind the counter, along with two friendly baristas, one of whom was happy to answer our many questions the first of which was "what should we order?"  A question that was not as dumb as it sounds, because we were unfamiliar with the offerings.

And the answers.  Well, I had to admit to our new friend that I hadn't understood most of what he'd just told me, regarding growing regions, roasting methods, grind, brew, temperature, equipment.


We started with an espresso.  Which, we were told, would be of uncertain size, because they brew it for optimum quality, rather than for a particular cup size.  OK.  What we got was a thimbleful of espresso that had only what I could call a sour taste.  Not bad, sour, necessarily, but not the usual bitter strength of an espresso.  I thought it was a taste I could get used to, and maybe even like.  Susan was turned off.  But it was gone so quickly that it was hard to tell.  (Well, we did share that little thimbleful).


Next, the siphon.  Two cups for seven dollars.  Actually two little glasses, probably 3-4 ounces each. It took our friendly barista about ten minutes to prepare the device and deliver the coffee.  It was unlike any coffee I'd ever had.  I'm sure there were a lot of adjectives I could have chosen.  Fruity, floral, rich.  It definitely changed taste as it went from hot hot to just hot, to warm.  I'd tell you the kind of coffee they used, if I could remember. You can see the method below, from heating up the water to the prescribed temperature, to cooling it down with a wet towel to get the coffee to descend once the steam pressure subsides.







While we were finishing up these little glass they let us try a capuccino (pictured at the top), which was the best cappuccino I'd ever had. The foam was rich, not airy, and the taste complex. And the cappuccino art stayed intact to the bottom of the little cup. I'd have that again, for sure.

We didn't get to try the pour over method, which looks like using a hand-poured Melitta filter but the filter basket has deep ridges that allow the water to seep through the sides of the basket, not just the bottom, optimizing the flavor extraction. Next time!

So, if coffee is more than just of cup of joe, go here, at least once, just for the experience.