Mushroom Ragu with Polenta & Arugula

Posted on by
Reply

Well. It’s been some time, hasn’t it? I’ve spent the past several weeks reading, thinking, and writing about conflict termination in West Africa. I’m doing a senior thesis in African Studies, and I’ve spent the past month writing about conflict termination and sustainable peace. We had a full rough draft due a week ago. In the lead-up to the draft, I went into self-imposed solitary confinement.  Mostly, this involved creating a zone of peace and tranquility around my desk, complete with a scented candle and two bowls full of reward candy to motivate me. It’s all about the ambiance. These tactics were successful to varying degrees (for a while there, I had very sticky teeth and very little written), but in the end I wound up with an eighty-page draft and two empty bowls of candy.

I finished the draft a week ago, but I couldn’t face the thought of writing a new blog post for another week after that. Both in my work as a student and in my actual job, I spend most of the day writing. Most days, I tend to write over a thousand words. Generally, I enjoy this. Certainly I would much rather spend my day writing than trying to wrap my head around calculus or physics. I’ve tried that already, without much success. Let’s play to our strengths, shall we?

Even still, after a week of intensive writing it is an immense relief to take some time off. I had several other school assignments due around the same time as the thesis draft. This meant that I mostly abandoned cooking for those few weeks, reverting primarily to take-out and many, many eggs. The weekend after I turned my draft in, I made a lemon cake. I’m not much of a baker, but it was such an enormous relief to be able to concentrate on something so completely different than I had been thinking about.

Zesting lemons, sifting flour, creaming butter and sugar. These skills all use a different part of the brain from the one I rely on for those mountains of words. When I’m cooking, my ever-whirring mind, the one that keeps me up at night considering how best to escape my bedroom in case of fire, flood, or ruffian, quiets down for at least a little while. I find this silence useful, both rewarding and refueling. Since finishing that draft, I’ve been in the kitchen nearly every night. Most everything I’ve made has been fairly good, but this dish in particular won Dan’s hearty approval. When he’d finished, he licked his bowl clean and then began eyeing mine.

Mushroom Ragu with Polenta & Arugula

Ragu adapted from Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food; Dish inspired by al di là

Ingredients (Serves four):

1 large onion, diced

1 large carrot, peeled and diced

2 celery stalks, diced

1 tbs. olive oil

6 sprigs parsley, chopped

4 sprigs fresh oregano, leaves removed from stems and chopped

1 bay leaf

1/3 cu. diced tomato

1 pound mushrooms, cleaned and sliced (I used a mixture of white button, maitake, and shitake)

4.5 tablespoons butter (divided use)

1/3 cu. heavy cream

3/4 cu. vegetable stock

1.5 cu. arugula, cleaned and dried (divided use)

1 cu. polenta

4 cu. water

1/3 cu. grated parmesan

4 eggs

1 tbs. Vinegar

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add onion, carrot, celery and some salt. Cook until tender, but do not let the vegetables start to brown. This should take about eight minutes.

2. Add the fresh herbs and bay leaf. Stir to combine, and allow to cook for another minute. Then add the tomatoes, and cook for five minutes more. Take the mixture off the heat and set aside.

3. Start your polenta. Boil four cups of water in a heavy pan. When the water begins to boil, whisk in four cups of polenta and a tablespoon of salt. Allow the mixture to remain at a bare simmer, and stir occasionally over the next hour.

4. Set three pans (if you’re using three different kinds of mushrooms) over medium heat with some butter and olive oil. I used about half a tablespoon of butter and a splash of olive oil per pan. Once the butter is melted, sauté each kind of mushroom in its own pan until the mushrooms are starting to brown. Remove from the heat and chop each batch of mushrooms finely, until the mushrooms are the same size as the diced carrots and celery. Add the mushrooms to the carrot/celery/tomato mixture, and stir to combine.

5.Turn the heat back on under the vegetable mixture. Add in the vegetable stock and the cream, as well as half a packed cup of the arugula. Bring the mixture to a simmer and allow to heat for fifteen minutes. Then, turn the heat to low and keep warm until the polenta and egg are done.

6. After your polenta has been simmering for an hour, remove it from the heat and stir in the parmesan and butter.

7. Poach your eggs. Bring a saucepan full of water, with a tablespoon of vinegar in it, to a simmer. Crack each egg into its own separate ramekin. When the water begins to simmer, take your spoon and stir the water in circles until it begins to swirl. Drop an egg into the swirling water. The swirl will cause the egg to turn into itself and prevent it from spreading out into the water. Allow it to cook until the white is set, then remove it with a slotted spoon. Repeat the process with the next three eggs.

8. Put it all together! Ladle in two spoonfuls of polenta to each bowl. Top with a packed quarter cup of arugula and two spoonfuls of the mushroom ragu. Place one poached egg on top of each bowl. Now all you’ve got to do is protect your serving from Dan.

Total Carbs: 150

Carbs per serving: 37.5

One Year Diabetes-aversary (Leek Fritters & Bulgur Pilaf)

Posted on by
1

About a year ago today, Dan was first diagnosed with diabetes. That dismal week aside (raise your hand if you enjoy spending spring break hanging out in intensive care!), we’ve both been fairly cheerful when it comes to navigating this new world of diabetic cooking and eating. Of course, let’s be fair here. For me, it means reading more recipes, thinking more carefully about what I buy at the grocery store, and making an effort to try to have dinner made by about the same time every night. I enjoy doing the first two of those things immensely, often to the neglect of other more pressing matters (I’m looking at you, Serious Eats and Saveur, you time-snatchers!). And the third? Well let’s just say there’s room for improvement.

So for me, this process of learning how to cook for someone with diabetes has been, okay, not fun, but fine. Informative. Interesting. Invaluable (okay, that last might be stretching it a bit). But whatever else it’s been, it’s also been voluntary. Dan and I don’t eat dinner together every night, and on the nights that he’s in class or out of town, I’m free to cook as lazily and unhealthily as I like. Usually, this means Pasta Puttanesca. When I’m feeling fancy, I’ll make a salad. Usually not. These evenings are a break from the everydayness of diabetes, a respite from considering carbs and servings of vegetables. Of course, these are things that it’s always important to think about. But some nights, it’s pleasant to be able to make a ten-minute pot of pasta, pair it with a stiff drink and call it a night.

Dan, on the other hand, has to live with this disease every day. There are no vacations from diabetes for him. It’s not impossible—most days it isn’t even very difficult. But for a guy with an undeniable sweet tooth, who fell for me in large part because I used to work at New York’s number one dessert café, it is a challenge.

Here are a few tips we’ve sussed out over the course of this longa$$ (I take my punctuation from Ke$ha) year:

1) Invest in Popcorn—No, seriously. The wonders of popcorn. Low carb, low calorie popcorn is a fantastic snack. Oh, the toppings that can top popcorn! Barbecue! Kettle corn! Parmesan! The possibilities are endless. For Dan’s upcoming birthday (spoiler alert), he’ll be receiving a three-month popcorn of the month club membership.

2) Try Vegetarian—Lapsed Episcopalian though I may be, I decided to give up eating meat for Lent this year. This is a decision with oh-so-many caveats. I’m still eating meat when I go out to other people’s houses, or if the restaurant I’m at doesn’t have vegetarian options. I’m also still eating fish, because (as Kurt Cobain would say), they don’t have any feelings. Vegetarian cooking allows you so much more room to play with different textures and flavor profiles. It all but ensures that at least half of every plate is made up of vegetables. I’ve also found that it eliminates the desire for carbs in every meal. When you serve a whole hunk o’ meat, you tend to feel the need to “round out the meal” with potatoes or pasta. Not so with vegetarian cuisine.

3) Order the Cheese Plate—Let’s be serious. This is more wishful thinking than reality. Dan and I almost always split dessert when we go out to eat, and while my taste runs to crepe dusted with powdered sugar, he tends to be a fan of the ones that include “caramelized mango slices” topped with ice cream, whipped cream, and berry melba sauce. My ideal dessert is a cheese plate and a glass of good whiskey, both of which are very low carb.

In honor of this one-year anniversary, I’m posting two recipes adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s fantastic cookbook Plenty. Whether you identify as vegetarian or not, do yourself a favor and buy this book. It’s one of the most beautiful and useful cookbooks I’ve seen in a long while. A word to the wise, however: these recipes are not un-fussy. There’s a lot of prep going on, and they take a while to complete. I made these on a Monday night, and let me tell you, this is not a Monday night dinner. More of a Sunday-night supper. But very enjoyable. The leftover bulgur is delicious microwaved in the morning with a  poached egg on top.

 

Leek Fritters with Bulgur Pilaf

Bulgur (Serves 8) or Eight)

A little over 1/3 cu olive oil

4 small onions, thinly sliced

3 red bell peppers, thinly sliced

2.5 tbs tomato paste

1 tbs sugar

1 tsp pink peppercorns (whole)

1 tsp ground coriander

2/3 cu currants

1.5 cu bulgur wheat

2.6 cu water

salt and pepper

Fritter Green Sauce

1/2 cu Greek yogurt

3/4 cu sour cream

3 crushed garlic cloves

2 tbs lemon juice

3 tbs olive oil

1/2 cu chopped parsley leaves

2 cu chopped cilantro

Salt, to taste

Leek Fritters (Serves 4)

3 medium leeks, cleaned and chopped into 1 inch slices

5 shallots, finely chopped

2/3 cu olive oil

1 fresh red chile, seeded and finely chopped

1/2 cu parsley, chopped

3/4 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp tumeric

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cu flour

2 tsp baking powder

2/3 cu mlik

4.5 tbs butter, melted

Salt

1. Make the green sauce for the fritters. Combine all ingredients in a Cuisinart and blend until they form a smooth green sauce. Scoop into a pretty bowl and refrigerate.

2. Begin the bulgur dish: Heat olive oil in a large skillet and sauté the onions and peppers over medium heat until completely tender, 15-20 minutes.

3. When tender, scoop the onion/pepper mixture into a Very Large Pot. Add the tomato paste, sugar, spices, and currents. Stir to combine, then cook for 2 minutes.

4. Add the bulgur, water and some salt and pepper. Mix, then bring to a boil. As soon as it boils, cover, remove from the heat and set aside for AT LEAST 20 minutes. Letting it sit a little longer won’t hurt anyone.

5. In the meantime, begin your fritters. Saute the leeks and shallots over medium heat until soft, about fifteen minutes.

6. When soft, transfer the leek/shallot mixture to a large stainless steel bowl. Add in the chiles, parsley, spices, sugar and salt. Stir to combine and allow to come to room temperature.

7. Combine the flour, baking powder, one of the eggs, milk and melted butter in a bowl. Stir so that it forms a batter.

8. Separate one of the two eggs, discarding the yolk. Whisk  the white until soft peaks begin to form. Fold the egg white into the cooled leek mixture, then gently mix the leeks into the batter.

9. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat in a large frying pan. When oil is hot, use a ladle to scoop four fritters into the frying pan. This should take up about half the batter. Let fry for about four minutes per side, then remove to a warm plate and fry the remaining fritters.

10. Check your bulgur for seasoning. It will almost certainly need salt. Stir and taste again. More salt? Thought so.

11. Serve the fritters immediately with the bulgur and sauce. You should have at least a cup left over of the bulgur.

Carbs in Bulgur: 300

Carbs per serving in Bulgur: 37.5

Carbs in Fritters: 78

Carbs per serving (2 fritters) 20

Total carbs: 378

Total carbs per serving: 57.5

Valentine’s Day: Eggs à la Daniel

Posted on by
Reply

Dan and I tend not to go all out on the whole Valentine’s Day thing. This is the result of a whole confluence of factors, none of which have to do with either of us being curmudgeons who disapprove of occasions for chocolate-eating and flower-viewing. The holiday, however, comes directly between the winter holidays and the March holidays (namely our birthdays), right when we are smack-dab out of ideas for presents. It also has an unfortunate tendency of falling on an inconvenient day of the week like, for example, a Tuesday when the two of us are preoccupied with necessities like writing papers and making sure there is something clean to wear the next day. We’ve generally decided to skip presents and pre- or postpone the day’s celebrations to some time later in the week.

Still, say what you will about me, but I am no fool. I fully recognize Valentine’s day as the perfect opportunity to buy something pink and bubbly to drink that Dan will graciously choose not to complain about. It’s also the best time to cook up simple indulgencies. Sure, it’s probably unwise to use a full stick of butter in every meal, but on Valentine’s Day? It’s just another way to say I love you.

This dish is based on one published by Martha Stewart. Martha named the dish after her “editorial director of decorating” (not sure what that means), Kevin. I’ve adapted the dish slightly, and the name completely. This is one of the first things Dan and I cooked together and very likely one of the main reasons he’s decided to stick around so long. I usually serve with a few strips of good bacon and part of a baguette. A perfectly indulgent treat for Valentine’s day!

 

Eggs à la Daniel

Ingredients (Serves two):

2 tomatoes, peeled and halved

2 large cloves of garlic, crushed

1 sprig fresh rosemary (optional)

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

4 eggs

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon sugar

2 large onions, sliced

Sharp cheddar cheese, thinly sliced

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

2. Scoop the seeds out of the tomatoes and rub them with olive oil. Place the tomatoes cut side down on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Insert some of the crushed garlic and some of the rosemary leaves underneath each of the tomatoes. Sprinkle each tomato with salt and pepper, and place in the oven. Let bake about 45 minutes, until soft.

3. Heat the butter in a small pan over medium-low heat. When melted, add the onions and the tablespoon of sugar. Stir to coat the onions in both sugar and butter. Leave to caramelize, stirring occasionally. Add a few drops of water if it looks as if the onions are beginning to burn.

4. Remove the tomatoes from the oven when they are done and set aside. Preheat the oven to broil.

5. Heat 1/2 tablespoon of butter in a small, oven-proof, non-stick skillet over medium heat. Crack two eggs into the skillet side by side and heat until the whites are just set. Place two tablespoons of caramelized onions on the whites between the two yolks.  Put two tomatoes over the onions to cover. Cover the whole concoction with the thinly sliced cheddar.

6. Transfer the pan to the broiler, and leave until the cheese is melted, about 30 seconds.

7. Slide the whole delicious mess onto a plate and enjoy!

Carbs: Negligible, unless served with bread.

Super Bowl Champions and Peanut Butter Cookies

Posted on by
Reply

I’m not sure if you are all aware of this, but the New York Football Giants won the Super Bowl a week ago today.  Victor Cruz celebrated with a salsa dance, the city of New York celebrated with an awesome ticker tape parade,  and Ava Frances Manning celebrated by being especially adorable.

I was a nervous wreck in the time leading up to the game. I come from a family of long-time Eli-lovers. Over the years, we’ve had to listen to our fair share of Manning-bashing. Some of these criticisms were justified (he did, perhaps throw one too many interceptions during the 2010 season), and some were absurd (complaints about Eli’s body language, which have suddenly morphed into praise for the quarterback’s icy calm in the wake of two super bowl victories). My confidence in Eli is unshakable. I think he is every bit as good of a quarterback as his brother is, and I believe the New York Giants have built a solid foundation over the last five years that allows Eli to shine.

Still. Any game when Eli gets sacked enough to make his jersey this dirty puts me on the edge of my seat. To have to face one of the great all-time quarterbacks two weeks later is enough to make even this true believer just the tiniest bit nervous for Eli.

And so, I cooked. I went over to a friend’s house for the super bowl, and was determined to make myself useful by cooking. At least, that’s what I told myself at first. As I spent Saturday morning in the kitchen, another reason for my dedicated preparation of chicken wings, potato salad and cookies occurred to me. Perhaps, I was trying to bribe the football gods into granting us a win?

Well, all I can tell you is that these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are damn delicious, and the Giants won the Super Bowl. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions . . .

These cookies are based both on this recipe for peanut butter cookies, and on my memory of the incredibly delicious cookies of the Chocolate Room in Brooklyn, NY.

 

Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients: (Makes about two dozen cookies)

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup smooth peanut butter (natural/unsweetened)

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1  large egg, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Sea Salt, for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and cut out parchment paper to fit two cookie sheets.

2. Whisk together the dry ingredients, with the exception of the chocolate chips and sea salt (whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and fine salt).

3. Cream the butter, sugar, peanut butter and egg until combined and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine. You can use either a hand mixer or a stand mixer for this step—just make sure that the butter is soft before you begin.

4. Pour the dry ingredients into the peanut butter/sugar mixture, and stir with a  wooden spoon to combine. Add the chocolate chips, and stir to mix in.

5. Scoop out 1 tablespoon of batter per cookie, and lay on to the baking sheet at least one and a half inches from surrounding cookies. Flatten the cookies using the back of a fork, and sprinkle each cookie with coarse sea salt.

6. Bake for ten minutes, rotating the cookie sheets after five minutes. Let cool on the tray until firm enough to move to a cooling rack. Continue making in batches until all of the dough is used.

Total Carbs: 300

Carbs per Serving: 12

Cast-Iron Chicken and How Mrs. George Would Read a Recipe

Posted on by
Reply

It’s the start of a new semester on campus and (as every magazine’s January issue makes clear) time to realize the promises you made yourself on New Year’s Eve. I’m trying to be less of a sourpuss in general, and smile more like Victoria Grayson in particular (the key is drawing it out—taking three times as long to smile as seems absolutely necessary). I’m also dedicated to putting my Christmas presents to good use, particularly my lovely new cast-iron skillet and the Edible Brooklyn Cookbook. This week’s recipe, Cast-Iron Chicken with Bacon and Sauerkraut, manages to accomplish both goals with aplomb.

Aside from giving everyone an opportunity to admire my new kitchenware, the main point of this post is to talk about how to read a recipe. Growing up with a cook for a mother, I internalized some pieces of kitchen wisdom at a young age. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know how to cut an onion or peel a garlic clove. Assuming knowledge on the part of others, however, can be a dumb choice. There are very few ruder things a hostess can do than accept the offer of help from some friendly guest, only to whirl around in horror upon discovering just how said guest goes about making a salad (as my sister can tell you, the “Lettuce: To Cut or Tear” debate will long live in infamy). So, in the spirit of friendly host/guest relations everywhere, here is how I go about reading a recipe. Reading a recipe sounds so simple, but it actually is an acquired skill. My way of recipe-reading is certainly not the only valid one out there. Like the Pirate’s Code, it’s more of a set of guidelines.

 

How To Read A Recipe (or, to quote my forth grade teacher, “If there’s a dot on that page, read it”)

1. Read the list of ingredients. Think about if you have those ingredients. Then, go and check your pantry anyway. This is how you keep yourself from winding up with four (yes, you heard that right, four) bottles of Worcestershire Sauce. Write down anything you don’t have.

2. Read the rest of the recipe, carefully. Pay special attention to parts that say things like “let chill overnight” or “let simmer for three hours.” Circle these parts. You will be happy you did, and far less likely to miss mock trial meetings on account of wildly underestimating cooking time. Also pay attention to any special equipment you might need. If the recipe calls for a 9 by 8 cake pan and you don’t have one, you’re not going to get very far.

3. Go buy whatever ingredients you need. Make a shopping list, including quantities, beforehand.

4. On the great day of cooking, after you have set aside enough time to complete the recipe in full, including letting that dough chill in the fridge for two hours, read the ingredients again. Assemble them all on your countertop.

5. Complete your mise. This means: render all of your ingredients into the state the recipe demands that they be in. Roughly chop that onion, mince that garlic, julienne those carrots. This practice has apparently fallen out of favor in certain circles. Ignore those circles. Those cooking show hosts have everything pre-chopped and measured for a reason.

6. Read the recipe through once more from start to finish, to get your head in the game.

7. Commence cooking, starting with step one and continuing on through till the end.

 

And now, Cast Iron Chicken with Bacon and Sauerkraut, from the Edible Brooklyn Cookbook (Totally worth a buy, even if just for the inside dust jacket map of Brooklyn!)

Ingredients—Serves 4 (READ THESE FIRST)

1/2 a pound good-quality bacon (I rarely buy cheap bacon. Why skimp on one of life’s great affordable pleasures?)

1 chicken, 3-4 pounds

2 onions, chopped

2 sprigs thyme

1 bay leaf

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 pound sauerkraut, rinsed and drained

1/2 cu. chicken stock

*Note: When I made this recipe, I had to use two skillets to fit in the chicken and sauerkraut. My nine-inch skillet comfortably fit in three pieces of chicken, but would not tolerate a fourth.

1. Preaheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Quarter your chicken. To do this, you will need to cut the chicken open using good kitchen shears. Open the chicken so that its ribs are exposed. Here’s a pretty good video demonstration.

3. Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium high heat, and cook the bacon until its fat is rendered. Transfer the bacon to a paper-towel lined plate using a slotted spoon.

4. Season the chicken quarters on all sides with salt and pepper. Brown in the bacon fat on all sides. Remove the chicken to another plate.

5. Brown the onions in the bacon fat, adding some extra oil if needed. Add the thyme, bay leaf, red pepper flakes and paprika and stir together. After about two minutes, add the bacon back in, stirring to mix.

6. Add the sauerkraut to the skillet, stirring to combine with the other ingredients. Arrange the browned and quartered chicken on top of the sauerkraut and pour the stock over.

7. Transfer the chicken to the oven and roast. The original recipe gives a cooking time of forty minutes, although it took more like fifty when I made it. The chicken is done when you stick a knife in it and the juice that runs out is clear.

8. Serve one chicken quarter per person, with plenty of sauerkraut.

I served this with boiled red skin potatoes , liberally buttered, and a salad.

Carbs per person (with two small potatoes per person): 54

Score of the Giants/Packers Game: 37-20 (story here and here).

Ringing in the New Year

Posted on by
Reply

2012 is off to a tragic start. This has nothing to do with many important factors like: Hoya Basketball (we beat Providence, 49-40), the state of Derek Jeter and Minka Kelly’s relationship (rumor has it they’re back together!), or my New Year’s Eve (lobster, oysters, and a damn fine grechetto chardonnay blend). All of these factors, would, in fact, point to a wonderful 2012. I spent last night toasting in the New Year with a flask of whiskey (Irish) and beautiful fireworks. I was feeling so good about 2012.

The Great Lobster Massacre of 2011

But it turns out this new year had me fooled. This morning, I checked the website of Fleisher’s Organic and Grass Fed Meats to see their holiday hours, and my entire winter break fell to pieces.  Fleisher’s is closed until January 10th for training and renovations. I can understand that training and renovations are important in running a business. Still, I don’t think the ladies and gentlemen of Fleisher’s properly considered the implications of closing for a full nine days on my winter holiday. Until discovering this upsetting news, I had been planning a wonderful meat-filled last-week of winter break. Sausages, meatloaf, pork belly, lamb. Bone marrow, bacon, rotisserie chicken drumsticks you can gnaw on while walking down the street. Handsome gentlemen butchers. A beautiful old-fashioned storefront. If you like meat, Fleisher’s is a little piece of heaven.

As I think that last paragraph makes clear, I am really really really not a vegetarian. For all of my interest in fine food, I truly believe that there is no better meal than a gin martini followed by a fine steak. Nonetheless, I recognize that there is something seriously wrong with our country’s food production system—and in particular with our meat-production system. There are many reasons for this, but (as I will happily lecture anyone on when I am in my cups, as my mother’s grandmother would have said) one of the most important reasons is that our cattle are fed on corn. Corn-fed cattle are less healthy and less happy than grass-fed cattle, and this may have serious implications for the people who eat corn-fed cattle. Fleisher’s sells grass-fed meats from local farmers using snout to tail butchering practices. The meat is slightly more expensive, but that extra two dollars a meal goes towards supporting craftsmanship butchery and sustainable farming practices.

This week’s recipe is inspired by the lovely staff of Fleisher’s, who pointed me towards their pork cutlets (a cut of meat they don’t always have) on Wednesday and suggested pork roulade for dinner. Also, the food blog kitchenista. Man oh man, was it delicious.

Ingredients—Serves 3

3 pork cutlets, about 1/4 inch thick

1/2 bunch parsley, chopped

1 head of garlic, roasted

1/2 tablespoon red pepper flakes

Juice of 1/2 lemons

Olive oil

1/4 cup white wine

6 ounces of angel hair pasta

1. Salt pasta water and bring to a boil over high heat. Once it comes to a boil, turn the heat down and let it simmer until you’re ready for it.

2. Roast your garlic. If you are lucky enough to have an adorable small pot the perfect size for a head of garlic, place the garlic in the pot and drizzle with olive oil. Cover, and roast in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour. The garlic is done when it is soft and beginning to brown. If you don’t have an adorable little pot, just wrap it up in aluminum foil. While the garlic is roasting, go read the fantastic new blog Securing Rights.

3. When your garlic is roasted and you are better informed about foreign policy, take the pot out of the oven and let it cool down. In the mean time, chop your parsley and combine with the lemon juice, pepper flakes, and a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a small bowl. When the garlic is cool enough to handle, pop the cloves out of the papery shell and mash them together with the parsley/lemon juice mixture.

4. Lay out a cutlet and brush one side lightly with olive oil. Spread one third of the parsley/garlic mixture over the cutlet. Grate some fresh pepper over that. Begin to role the cutlet up. If your cutlet is a rectangle (which it is), you want to roll from one of the short sides up to the other short side.

5. Take butcher’s string and loop it vertically around the pork. Then loop the string around the roll-up horizontally. Start a new horizontal loop every inch and half. This is a wee bit difficult for me to explain here, but I think the picture does a decent job of demonstrating what I mean. Tie the string at the end securely.

6. Repeat the roll-up process with the other two cutlets. Re-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

7. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium high heat. Brown the rollups, about three minutes per side, until golden brown on all sides, and remove from heat.

8. Pour the wine (or a mixture of wine and chicken broth) into the skillet, and place the skillet in the pre-heated oven. Set a timer for nine minutes.

9. Cook angel-hair according to package instructions.

10. Remove skillet from oven after the allotted time, and serve one cutlet and two ounces of pasta per person. Top the pasta with the wine/pork sauce that will be left in the pan. Make sure to take that butcher’s string off the pork! Serve with an arugula and red onion salad.

Carbs: 114 grams

Carbs per serving: 38 grams

Lunchtime Noodles

Posted on by
Reply

A year ago today, on November 20, 2010, I woke up at three in the morning to catch a bus from Tamale in northern Ghana to Kumasi, in the center of the country. I’d spent the night in the home of a very gracious stranger who took pity on four students who had chosen to visit Tamale over the weekend of Eid al-Adha.

Most people think of Ghana as a predominantly Christian country, which is absolutely true in the south. Tamale, however, is the largest city in the mostly Muslim north. When my friends and I got back to the city after a visit to Mole National park (no elephants the weekend we visited, but plenty of wildebeests and Star beer. Also, a driver whose favorite musician was R Kelly and who treated us to “Time to Have Sex” on repeat while we drove around looking at monkeys, snakes and deer), we found that every hotel in Tamale was booked up. Every guest house, every inn with a room to rent was booked. I can tell you this with certainty, because we visited each and everyone of those guest houses in an official UN vehicle driven by yet another stranger who took pity on these hapless American tourists.

The hotel at Mole National Park in Northern Ghana

Hospitality in Ghana far eclipses what we think of as hospitality in the US. This is true in every part of the country that I visited, but the hospitality in northern Ghana was especially remarkable. Most of this hospitality was expressed in action: the offer of shelter for the night, or the ride around town in the UN official’s car.

One of the oldest mosques in West Africa

But really, when I first got to Tamale, I was most grateful for the food. It’d been a fourteen hour bus ride from Accra (if you Google map the trip, the internet will claim that it will take you no longer than 8 hours and 14 minutes to make the journey. This is a lie). When we got to Tamale, I wanted nothing more than easy food and early sleep. Luckily there were other students who’d arrived in the city the day before and made friends with a bunch of local dancers our age. One of the women in the group took us to a food stand near the hotel, where (after we were able to find a fork to borrow), we were served hot, delicious, flavorful bowls of. . . ramen noodles.

Or, more precisely, Indomie. Indomie is a really good Nigerian equivalent of ramen, which I ate more often than I would care to admit while studying in Ghana. Much as I like ramen noodles in any quick-eating situation, the noodles I ate in Tamale were better than anything I would ever have associated with an instant meal. This is my remembered approximation of that deeply rewarding and well-deserved meal. It takes about 5 minutes longer than traditional ramen noodles and costs less than $5 a serving. I can’t imagine a more comforting quick and easy lunchtime meal!

 

Ingredients—Serves 1

1 package ramen noodles—50 g

1/2 small onion, chopped

1 egg, beaten

1-tablespoon vegetable oil

1-teaspoon harissa or siracha sauce (or more to taste)

1. Cook ramen noodles according to package instructions. Drain most of the water, but leave enough to keep the noodles moist. Add between a quarter and a half of the included seasonings. I find that either plain chicken or plain beef flavor work best for this. Set aside for the moment.

2. Sautee the onions in a small pan over medium heat until translucent. Then add the beaten egg, and mix around as you would for scrambled eggs.

3. As soon as the egg starts to become at all solid, mix the noodles into the egg and onion mixture. Remove from the heat and continue to stir the mixture until it is blended and the egg is as solid as you would like it for scrambled eggs (this varies from person to person).

4. Pour the noodles into a bowl and add a teaspoon of harissa or siracha sauce. Mix together and enjoy!

Total Carbs: 50 g.

 

 

 

A Little Taste of (Grocery Store) Home

Posted on by
Reply

Dan and I are both incredibly busy this semester. For example: I got home tonight around 8 PM after spending the weekend competing in a mock trial competition. Luckily for me, this weekend’s competition was in DC—meaning I got home at the civilized 8 o’clock, rather than the more typical midnight. I spent the rest of the evening working on schoolwork, which has to get done tonight because I will be at work from 9-4:30 tomorrow and in class starting at 5. You can bet I relished the extra hour of daylight-savings sleep I got last night!

And really, my schedule looks downright leisurely when compared to Dan’s. Dan currently spends a good part of his time working to end genocide and mass atrocities at STAND, the student led division of United to End Genocide. Both organizations do a lot of good, and are really worth checking out if you’re unfamiliar with them. As fantastic as Dan’s work with STAND is, it’s also particularly time consuming. He spends a fair amount of time taking the message on the road, traveling to conferences and meetings around the country.

Practically speaking this means two things. First, between my mock trial schedule and his STAND activities, we are rarely in the same city at the same time on the weekends. And secondly, I eat a lot of pasta.

When Dan was first diagnosed, I thought that my days of eating big bowls of pasta for dinner were largely behind me. Instead, I’ve discovered that carb-heavy meals are one of the hidden advantages of our conflicting schedules this semester (right up there with Doctor Who marathons and sleeping in until noon). Pasta is undeniably a comfort food: easy to prepare, soothingly warm, and (at least when I make it), full of garlic.

This recipe is my best approximation of the positively addictive Fusilli Pasta Salad at Fairway. The big meaty taste here comes from the eggplant, making it a great vegetarian option (if you omit the Parmesan, it could also make a fairly tasty vegan meal). One of the interesting things about this dish is that it absolutely tastes better the day after it is made. Sitting overnight in the fridge gives the flavors a change to blend in a way that a quick stir around a bowl just can’t accomplish.

 

Ingredients—Serves 8 (or 4 over 2 days)

1 box dry fusilli pasta—340 g

1 large(ish) eggplant—26.6 g

4-10 cloves garlic

4 cups baby arugula, washed and dried

3/4 cup grated Parmesan

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the eggplant into 1/2-inch to 1-inch cubes. To do this, begin by slicing the eggplant into 1/2 inch slices. Then cut each slice into a rectangle.

2. Place all eggplant cubes in a large bowl, and drizzle a heavy drizzle of olive oil over them. They taste best when they’ve had a chance to absorb some sincere amount of oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and mix with your hands to make sure every piece is properly oiled, salted and peppered. Eggplant soaks up oil like a sponge, so move pretty quickly here.

3. Spread the cut eggplant out on a parchment paper- or aluminum foil-lined baking sheet (this isn’t necessary necessary, but it will save you a headache when washing the baking sheet later). Put the eggplant in the oven, and set your timer for ten minutes.

4. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil on the back burner of your stove. Ignore it until it reaches a rolling boil.

5. While you’re waiting for the water to boil, chop your 4-10 garlic cloves. Last time I made this recipe, I used five large garlic cloves and found myself really missing a stronger garlic flavor. Let your own taste be the judge here—if you’re the kind of person who hates bad breath more than you love garlic, take it easy with the garlic.

6. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a small sauté pan over medium heat. Add the garlic, and sauté until softened, about a minute or two. Set aside.

7. When the eggplant timer goes off, check the eggplant. Pull the baking sheet out of the oven. Use a spatula to scrape any stuck pieces of eggplant up, and flip all of the pieces over. Then put the eggplant back in the oven with the baking sheet facing the opposite direction (rotate it 180 degrees from the position you took it out in). Set your timer for five minutes more.

8. When the pasta water comes to a boil, pour the full box of pasta in the water and stir. Cook according to package instructions. When the pasta is done cooking, drain it, rinse it in cool water, and set it aside in a large bowl. Pour a heavy glug of olive oil over the pasta, and stir it to prevent it from becoming sticky.

9. Add the 4 cups of washed arugula, the sautéed garlic and 3/4 cup of grated Parmesan to the pasta. Stir to combine.

10. Check the eggplant again when the timer goes off. It may still need another five to ten minutes. The eggplant is ready when it has darkened and softened. At that point, remove the eggplant from the oven and add it to the pasta mixture, stirring to combine.

11. Taste the pasta and season it with salt and pepper, if needed. For the tastiest result, let the pasta sit in the fridge overnight, and eat it for lunch or dinner the following day.

Total Carbs: 367

Carbs Per Serving: 46

Really Not a Kosher Soup (Vietnamese Noodle Soup with Shrimp or Pork)

Posted on by
Reply

When it comes to fall, I’m downright contrary. The problem, I think, is that I idealize autumn in a way I don’t idealize any of the other seasons. You pretty much know what you’re in for with spring and summer, and winter means Christmas. There is never any doubt that Christmas is going to be wonderful. But with fall, I get too wrapped up in the expectations to remember what the season is really like: Ella Fitzgerald’s “Autumn in New York”! Pumpkin carving! Scarves! Elections! I like all of these things! But then I remember what fall means in practice: Sleety rain! Seemingly never-ending midterms! Requisite sock-wearing! Elections! Who wants that?

One of the things I really do like about fall is soup. Ever since I read Saskia Cornes’ article in Edible Brooklyn about soup as community, I’ve been on a bit of a soup kick. I haven’t tried her idea of a Sunday-soup-day, but one of the things that I do love about soup is its communal nature.

Growing up, one of my favorite stories was Stone Soup. I fell hard for this story for the same reason I fell hard for the Justice League, Friendship Valley, and the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mysteries. I’m a huge sap when it comes to stories that remind us that people (or badgers, raccoons and frogs, in the case of Friendship Valley) working together can be so much more than their composite parts. Which is exactly what soup is: a blend of ingredients that creates something so much better than any individual ingredient.

Soup also brings people together in a way that other dishes don’t. If you’ve got one piece of fish, you’re not going to invite friends to help themselves. There’s no way I’m giving up my swordfish, no matter how much I like you. But soup is easy. Soup is generous. There’s always enough soup to go around.

This recipe is inspired by Nigella Lawson’s Vietnamese Pork Noodle Soup, from her Kitchen cookbook. I’ve substituted the pork for shrimp, but both recipes are delicious.

 

Ingredients – Serves 2 to 4

1 lb peeled, deveined shrimp, washed with tales removed

2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoons fish sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 a package (about 4.5 ounces) soba buckwheat noodles – 84 carbs

1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 chopped scallions

2-4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes (according to personal tastes)

1 quart chicken stock

1 bak choi, first several inches of the tough white bottom discarded, torn into pieces – 18.5 carbs

 

1. Bring a pot of water to boil on the stove. Add the noodles, and cook according to package instructions (about 8 minutes). Drain them, and rinse under cold water.

 2. Meanwhile, place the clean shrimp in a medium sized bowl. Pour the lime juice, soy sauce, and fish sauce over the shrimp. Add the paprika, and stir to ensure that all shrimp are marinating in the mixture. Do not let this sit together for more than ten minutes.

3. Bring chicken broth to a simmer in a small pot on a back burner.

4. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok over medium heat. Add the ginger, garlic, scallions, and red pepper flakes and heat until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

5. Add shrimp and its liquid to the pan. Cook, stirring, until the shrimp is just beginning to turn pink, about 2 minutes.

6. Add the simmering chicken stock to the pan, and bring to a boil again. Put in the torn-up bok choi and let simmer until wilted.

7. In the meantime, place about an ounce of pasta in each bowl (a quarter of the total). Spoon soup over the noodles, and serve.

Total Carbs: 102.5

 Carbs Per Serving: 25.6 to 51.25, depending on how hungry you are

Comfort Me with Avocado (Toast)

Posted on by
Reply

The problem with most so-called “comfort foods” is that they are a heck of a lot of work. My mom’s homemade chicken soup is fantastically fantastic, and could beat your mom’s chicken soup in a chicken-soup-battle-to-the-death any day of the week—but if my mom’s not here to make it, it’s just not quite as comforting. The best comfort foods are simple enough to make even when recovering from a three-day fever and an overnight trip to the emergency room. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you avocado toast.

This is not avocado toast

 I woke up early on Thursday morning to get in some last-minute studying for my midterm later that day. Then I swallowed and realized there was no way that was happening. My throat was in excruciating pain. For some reason, perhaps because I think very very slowly in the morning, I decided it was still a good idea to try to sit through my econ lecture on . . . actually, I have no idea what the lecture was on. Half way through I bolted, bags, umbrella and all, and made my way over to student health.

After much debate, the friendly people at student health came to the conclusion that they had no idea what was wrong with me, or with my throat, but that if it got any worse, I should probably go to the emergency room. They did give me a note to get out of my midterm, which, considering I was running a 102 fever at that point was probably a good thing.

So instead of the weekend Dan and I planned, (Eastern Market, Capitol Hill Books, Nando’s Piri Piri Chicken and 50/50), there was much whining (me), comforting (Dan and my mom, over the phone), watching of the Hour, and a midnight trip to the ER on Friday night. Well, the only thing that needs to be said about that is that I was by far the soberest patient in there that night and, unlike the other patient in my room, did not threaten to throw an apple at any of the nurses.

Anyway, I am well on the road to recovery now, which is a big relief. But, since swallowing even water had been a serious problem, I ate nothing on Thursday or Friday. So the challenge of today, the first day I could walk to the kitchen without taking a break to lie down on the couch, was to find something to eat that was delicious, fatty, and easy to make. Enter avocado toast.

This time last year, I was on study abroad in Ghana. It was an all-around wonderful experience that I will try to address more in a future post (I am planning on trying to make fried yams at some point), but one of the few things I did not love about Ghana was the spiciness level of the food. I am not quite as much of a wimp as Dan is when it comes to spicy food, but I lean towards the wimpy side. So one afternoon, when I could not stomach the thought of any more jollof rice, I invented avocado toast.

Some other delicious Ghanaian produce: white pineapples and papaya

(I cannot take credit for this as an invention in the grand scheme of things—I am sure avocado toast has been invented by hundreds of people all around the world. But for me, then, it was a new idea, and a pretty cool one at that).

Avocado toast is comforting, high in all the best kinds of fat and fiber, creamy and delicious. Best of all, you can make it sitting at your kitchen table if you’re feeling too weak to stand!

Ingredients

1/2 a small-ish Calafornia avocado- 6 carbs

1 piece of whole wheat bread, toasted- 20 Carbs

About a tablespoon of olive oil

Salt & Pepper

1. Cut your avocado in half. Wrap the other half in saran wrap, with the pit still in it to keep it from turning brown (it won’t keep the exposed part from turning brown, but it will prevent air from getting to the part under the pit and oxidizing it).

2. Slice the avocado flesh horizontally, and then vertically, and use a spoon to scrape it into a small bowl, just like you were making guacamole.

 

3. Pour a tablespoon of olive oil over the avocado. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. Mash it all up.

4. Spread the avocado on the toast. And there you go: you’ve got a comforting piece of avocado toast!

Total Carbs: 26

Muppet Toast!