Good Real Food

I only recently figured out that a person could, if they wanted, just soak bulgur overnight and never heat it at all. I’m a master of forcing legumes on myself by setting them out to soak in the morning which means I can’t laze out and not cook them into food when I get home. I left our bulgur soaking thusly overnight, with only half a mind to what I was going to do with it, mostly thinking “aw crap. we’ve got a crust and a half of bread which is not going to make lunch for both of us tomorrow.”

In the morning it had soaked up its water and I just put it in tupperware with cucumber, tomato, one hard boiled egg for each of us, sliced, some cubed up jack cheese because it was there and some lettuce. (which, despite my upbringing in a house where there was always washed lettuce in the fridge, except while we were washing it, I only recently started washing right away and storing in a ready to use sort of state).

I think the trick (the trick besides soaking) was to just dress the bulgur. I love pomegranate molasses, Vivian hipped me to it years ago while she was gathering provisions in NYC in preparation for her move to law school someplace in Ohio where she wasn’t sure there’d be an arab grocery. With balsamic and olive oil it makes a lovely dressing, especially for grain-type salads. Sometimes I add sumac, oregano and thyme, sometimes I forget. This time I forgot. So I just dressed the bulgur and then dumped everything else in and put the lettuce at the very top (actually N. arranged the sliced eggs artfully on top, but the idea was to keep the lettuce mostly up off the dressing so that it wouldn’t be all wilted by lunch time).

I do have a question for youse, though. A few, actually. Starting with, are you still eating out of plastic containers? We’ve got a few of these clear rubbermaid containers that comfortably hold about as much grain salad or leftovers as an adult person needs for lunch. They stay closed and don’t leak and generally rock, but they are plastic. I’m just curious about the rest of you. What do you pack your food in?

1 Comment »

I’ll probably accidentally write this again before summer is over but nothing goes better than fresh zucchini and fresh mint. Good thing since both are more prolific than anyone really wants them to be. Hot iron skillet, onions, garlic, patience, patience, sliced squash, patience, salt and pepper, patience, lots of chopped mint and just a little more patience.

We had it with romano and tortellini this week, but it goes nicely with tofu and rice, too.

We cooked it to softness but you can leave out some of the patience and have a fresher squash and a fresher mint and call it salad. Maybe with bulgur or kasha and a bit of feta.

3 Comments »

Scrambled eggs have a publicity problem. They are taken for granted to be boring, hurried, week day morning affairs with two eggs tossed together in the pan with nothing to keep them company. Or, they are the cold slabs of congealed bland eggs we often find in buffet lines as we scan ahead for the baked goods, or (please please!) the fresh crab legs. Today I am on a mission to put the scrambled egg dish back at the center of the weekend brunch. Forget the pancakes…who wants to be standing over a hot stove flipping those little buggars all morning and then feel their heaviness in the heat of the afternoon?

Eggs are the most versatile of all foods, and they go well with almost anything, so you can really use them to highlight seasonal vegetables and herbs and to try out different spice combinations. The trick to really good scrambled eggs is to, first, use the very best fresh local eggs possible. Second, you want to cook them over low heat, patiently moving them around the pan with a spatula as they cook. The rest is all about getting creative with what you put in them. The scramble I made this morning highlighted what is available right now in our garden and locally, so lots of basil, zucchini, tomatoes, chives, spring onions, and garlic scapes. Inspired by Simon Hopkinson, I also added fried bread cubes at the end.

2 Comments »

if you haven’t heard the news, my family has recently (like, last week) welcomed a new addition. Our new daughter is doing well, and as we return to somewhat normal, I return to thinking about food. I was lucky - no more than lucky - to have friends who jumped in and organized a week of meals brought to us. It was, hands-down the most wonderful gift anyone could have given us. More that just giving us food, they gave us, and especially me, the precious gift of time - with our new daughter, with each other, time to soak up the energy and excitement that comes with a birth.

And while that energy is still very much here, I’m back on food duty. Which is great, sort of. I’m surprised, more than anything, by how little I actually manage to accomplish in any given day beyond laundry, tidying up, and trying to keep on top of keeping the kitchen tidy. Time for thinking about food hasn’t been front and center.

My saving grace right now? My CSA. Every week, I get a box of stuff that is so good, it barely needs anything done to it. So, recently, we’ve been taking a page from Mark Bittman and doing the minimal cooking route - think lightly sauteed greens tossed with some garlic, cheese, and pasta, or enormous salads with maybe some bread or eggs on the side.

I’m just hoping that we’re a bit more together by the time the CSA box stops. In December.

I think I’ve got time.

No Comments »

Yet another salad to make and keep cold in the fridge, to pull out and serve with weekend grilled things, or to take to a spur of the moment potluck or picnic. Take two cups peas, two cups lima beans, and two cups of edamame beans and steam them for just about 5 minutes or untill just tender. Toss with olive oil, red onion, white wine vinegar, fresh garlic, salt, pepper and whatever fresh herbs you happen to have around. It is a fun take on the traditional bean salad as no one ever thinks that lima beans are much to squawk about.

2 Comments »

I had never seen this cut of lamb before at the market. It was so great on the grill. I just let it sit with some olive oil, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper and lemon juice for about three hours before putting it on a hot grill for 5-7 minutes on each side. The salad was made by cooking the couscous and tossing it with olive oile, kalamata olives, garlic, onion, spinach, grilled egg plant, and red onion.

No Comments »

This was definitely a night for boiling some water while considering my options.

Kale in a hot skillet with some olive oil and a few sun dried tomatoes. Onions and garlic would have been nice, carmelized onions even better, but I was feeling about that lazy tonight. Toasted walnuts (on the skillet that was still out from an ill advised beans and tortillas lunch prep; note to self: don’t make lunches that want a toaster oven if you work in a microwave-only office.) A good size glob of red pepper paste from a tube (it is french, so it must be good for me, right?). I forgot this is why I keep capers around–they would have been good. Some mascarpone because I got it on special so we have to eat it until we have a collective butterfat heart attack. Some cheddar and parm because they were there. Toss with some type of pasta.

What do you throw on pasta when you want to feel like you made dinner but don’t feel like making dinner?

2 Comments »

I had no idea that this was such an easy meal to make, or that pork tenderloin is one of the leanest meats you can get. My Dad and step mom are big fans of pork tenderloin on the grill, but I was lazy, and, being as it is not quite summer yet, and no risk of overheating the kitchen….I went with an easy inside version. Take a fresh pork loin, salt and pepper it, then brown in a heavy skillet on both sides with a little oil. Transfer to a baking pan and roast in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes. At this point, pour on a sauce or glaze of some kind. I used about a 1/2 cup of maple syrup mixed with cinnamon and cloves. Other recipes I have seen call for orange juice and ginger. Roast for another 5-10 minutes–but check, as it as it is really easy to overcook these babies, leaving them dry. D liked the finished product with a bit of the extra glaze drizzled on top. I served the sliced tenderloin with summer squash and kale made by sautéing both in sesame oil with onion and garlic and sesame seeds added just before serving. The combination of sesame infused veggies with the maple syrup taste of the pork was divine.

No Comments »

years ago, when my father was starting to teach me about cooking, he shared with me the single best piece of cooking advice I’ve received:

He said “you have to be patient. The food will get done in the time that it needs to get done. If you’re patient, it will come out well”

And he was totally right. Nothing likes being rushed, but least of all food and I remember that lesson often as I sit there waiting for my onions to get just dark enough or my risotto to be properly tender, or any of the million other things I do in the kitchen that get done in their own time.

Another great piece of advice I’ve had was to start boiling a pot of water when you start cooking - you’ll either need it for your food (thin a sauce, moisten your gravy, etc), or you can make a cup of tea. This has been mostly replaced by my electric kettle, but it still a very very good thing to keep in mind.

What’s the best cooking advice you’ve given or received?

2 Comments »

I won’t be this prolific for long, I’m sure, but I’ve had a few posts stewing in me, which is why I finally decided I should just dive in.  Continuing on the theme of my sister (and quietly laying the groundwork for my master plan which is to get her writing about her own recipes) and her coworkers, she told me another story, on the same trip to Costco to buy reading glasses and an EZ pass for dad. I don’t remember what the story was supposed to be about, but it wound up being about her mac and cheese and her coworkers who don’t cook. About how they ooh and awww when she brings mac and cheese to a potluck “when I just put some Wensleydale and a swiss and it isn’t any big deal.” So she starts into how she was trying to explain to her coworkers that home made mac and cheese is easy and you just have to start with a white sauce, but no one knew what a white sauce is. So she says “first you make a roux” and they all stare at her like she’s speaking french. Which she is.

This story was on my mind, this story about “first you make a roux” and all the blank stares, when I called Noah to tell him that we had broccoli and some fresh pita and not a whole lot else. He asked after our cheese stocks and whether we couldn’t have some cheese on our broccoli. And so I made a roux. I haven’t done that in 10 years, but I cracked open Joy and found a cheese sauce recipe (Sauce Mornay, to be precise) and ignored it entirely. Not entirely. Actually, I followed the first half pretty closely, and then tripled the amount of cheese. If you don’t have the Joy, find a standard cookbook, the kind that might have a recipe for at least Bechamel. When it is done, stir in 3/4 cup of cheese and spoon it on some food that needs cheese sauce.

The Joy recipe has you simmer the milk with  half an onion, a few cloves and a bay leaf  before you add it in to the sauce. You don’t have to, but that was a nice touch.

So we had a lot of steamed broccoli and some cheese sauce along with some  manaeesh, which is just bread and zaatar, which was good.

As a rule, I file cheese sauce under “well sure, anything tastes good with enough butter on it” but, well, it is true. So it was good.

Zaatar is just oregano, thyme, sumac, sesame seeds … and some kind of secret ingredients, which is why when I buy Sahadi’s zaatar mix it tastes better than when I try to mix my own spices. You take the spice mix and mix it with enough olive oil to make a paste and you spread it on, if you are lazy, pita bread. If you are classy, you make fresh flatbread, which probably tastes fantastic. You put it in a hot oven (500) for as long as it takes for the bread to get nice and hot.

Since we almost always have pita in the freezer, this was a serious scraps of the fridge meal.

PS. I was thinking about Winnie and her Wensleydale and almost bought some Wensleydale today but it had ginger and figs in it and even though right now that sounds amazing, when I was standing in line at the cheese store it sounded like the kind of thing that could go either way, even at $3/lb.

2 Comments »