6 posts tagged “food”
Mr. ESB & I made it to our fourth year together yesterday!
We celebrated today at a local breakfast/lunch place, Starling Diner. We're both on such restricted diets right now that dinner would've been ludicrous and our absolute favorite restaurants too problematic.
This was my poached Eggs Benjamin with microgreens, smoked salmon, and sauteed spinach. Mr. ESB got my potatoes & bread (which he opted not to eat).
And Mr. ESB got a salmon sandwich with sauteed spinach instead of soup/salad. The soup had dairy in it -- A LOT -- of dairy. The salad was cold, raw food, which is verboten for him right now. Of course, we noticed later that the tomatoes & sandwich greens were raw, but doused it all not with champagne (verboten, too), but hot herbal tea (one of the few drinks we can both have right now besides water).
It's a little uncommon to correct health problems through diet, but we're both strong believers in using restrictive diets prescribed by our acupuncturist instead of expensive medicines not backed by good lifestyle choices. Not that we don't miss naughty foods -- ice cream, chocolate, even fruit is out of bounds for both of us and salads....
I had my hair & make-up done at Meleesa the Salon -- hair by Meleesa and make-up by Marie. This picture shows me there, wearing my Noro Aurora Twist Top Dress (with Fiesta Yarns Heaven mohair not shown forming the short skirt portion of the dress). They had me stand on a ladder to reach this backdrop. I was actually so short that I just barely cleared the counter with my shoulders.
Lately, I've been reading books where people prepare an amazing dish (or even meal). I've wanted to do a Literature Dinner Party for a while -- one where I assign what people bring (I hate bad food combination, but I'm open to very good cooks bringing whatever) and we eat a meal, referring to the books that each dish came from. My very first Vox entry ever referred to what French Colonel Mercier craves from Polish cafes when he meets with Polish Colonel Vyborg in 1933 and in Alan Furst's novel, : ponczki.
(This being a visual culture, I insert random photos that illustrate, sometimes with just the barest of tangents, my point.)
Now, I'm reading Walter Mosley's The Right Mistake and there's a blue crab gumbo that one of the characters makes:
Billy Psalms was in the kitchen making gumbo from a recipe his grandmother, Rita Psalms, had passed down to him. He fried the slime out of his okra and make a dark brown roux from white flour sprinkled into blistering hot Crisco oil. It was real gumbo made with blue crabs, Andouille sausages, dried shrimp, and even a few oysters thrown in. The base was a chicken stock, made from a whole fryer, and it was finished off with powdered thyme and sassafras leaves for extra thickness and spice.
Socrates had worked an entire month doing pickup work down on Exposition to raise the money for the meal....
"You want Darryl to come out here an' make the rice, Billy?" Socrates asked. "He cain't do much in the kitchen but I taught him how to make a pot'a rice."
"Naw, baby. My mama told me that if I want to be proud'a what I cook then I got to do the whole thang. An' you know I learnt almost everything from my mama"....
Antonio and Mustafa rushed over to grab hold of the big pot. As soon as they had taken the weight the gambler announced, "Louisiana blue crab gumbo is in the house"....
Next to the gumbo pot stood stacked a pile of a dozen porcelain bowls, also borrowed from Miss Northford. Billy used a teacup to put a dome of rice in the bottom of a bowl and then ladled the dark green stew on top of that -- making sure that each serving received at least one of the small crabs.
Leanne carved the cornbread. People took the large squares as the platter was passed down the center of the table toward the front....
"I thought you called these blue crabs," Wan Tai sad across the broad plank to Billy. "But these are red."
"They turn red when you cook 'em," Billy said. "But you know them li'l suckers got the best tastin' crab meat anywhere."
I have some opinions that would probably repel true foodies/gourmands. Here's a brief set of anecdotes that illustrate them.
THE HEALTHY BEEF STEW
Busy sewing for LotusMonkey Boho Fall Fashion Show, I neglected to cook for a few months anything more complex than boiling noodles or microwaving takeout/ready-to-eat food. Nevertheless, Mr. S brought home angus beef and left it in the refrigerator for me to do something with. Why, I can't explain. Finally before the meat spoiled, he froze it.
A few days after the fashion show was finally over, I mounted a quick search-n-destroy mission on the refrigerator, pulling out months old nectarines and peaches (not rotten, just very stale and mostly dry), a bag of apples, several limp old carrots, completed wilted celery, and potatoes (from the cupboard) with hairy eyes ready for cutting and planting into the earth. The fruit I turned into fruit pies -- the apples were still fresh so they made a lovely apple pie with homemade crust, the peaches and nectarines got mixed up with a dried ginger root sugar-n-pastry crumb topping. The old vegetables, which I think any decent cook would've thrown away, I grimly washed, peeled, and chopped into 1-inch chunks with some onion, the frozen beef, a can of diced tomatoes, some beef broth I had stored in the cupboard, and voila, the beef stew.
I titled this "healthy beef stew" because actually, the food tasted more nutritious and fresh than the ready-made takeout and frozen entrees we'd been buying. My point for those who haven't gagged over the use of stale vegetables: even fresh produce, with barely any nutrient value left if any, has some merit. To be honest, I kept remembering that scene in Gone With the Wind where Scarlett O'Hara digs into the plantation for ANY food the soldiers have left and she finds a dirty, shrunken carrot that she eats without bothering to clean it -- crying, greedy, and full of self-disgust. Although we're not suffering from a lack of food or resources as SO was in that moment, I still have a hard time buying fresh vegetables that I'm not going to use right away when I can see if there's a salvageable meal to be made with ingredients on hand.
TOO MUCH PUMPKIN-GINGER PIE
For months, I'd coveted the opportunity to make a ginger-pumpkin pie recipe I'd spotted in a magazine. Finally, I found the perfect opportunity and while I was busy measuring and mixing away and the crust for two pies was happily browning in the oven, I realized that I should make extra filling for the pie because I was skipping the meringue (too expensive and not necessarily welcomed by the recipients, who confessed later to eating all pie a la mode anyway). Usually doubling or tripling a recipe doesn't cause me problems when baking. People are happy to eat a dessert with generous portions when the have a sweet tooth and when they think the dessert tastes good. In this instance, I simply ran out of pie crusts to fill. I briefly considered making another pie crust to fill but realized that the filling was close enough to muffin batter, except that the flour, baking soda, and oil were missing.
So I added them to the pie filling and the tossed in some heavy cream in addition for lightness and an extra egg for more of a "cake" versus "custard" quality. My point: don't toss out your leftover ingredients. Evaluate them: what are they close to? And then make something of them. Be creative. Cooking hint: keep some staples of flour, sugar, eggs, cooking oil, and paper cupcake liners on hand at all times.
During the making of the pumpkin-ginger pies, I ran out of the essential sweetener (white sugar accounted for only 45% of the sweetness): maple syrup. I had mixed up an infusion of ginger-honey (cut up ginger root, insert in glass jar, cover with honey, leave in fridge) a week before and found that I had put in too much ginger so the honey was runny, gently-flavored with ginger, and yummy.
We poured it in to make up the difference and the result was a hit.
TOO, TOO, TOO MUCH ZUCCHINI
I wrote earlier about the problem of letting your summer garden continue growing in Southern California when you're too busy to garden.
Yes, your zucchini grows bigger than recommended, bigger than your cutting board. In my haste to use some of that "free" squash right away (yay free vegetables!), I boiled capellini noodles (the only pasta I could find in my pantry); sauteed onions, mushrooms, garlic, and zucchini in olive oil and white wine; then when both were done, I ripped open a bag of grated mozzarella cheese I had on hand and made a casserole. Actually, I called it a vegetarian lasagna, even though it wasn't lasagna noodles. It was a quick 15-minute bake in the oven in my 13-inch pan. My point: casseroles are really whatever you have on hand as a focal point (onions, meat or mushrooms, a vegetable) and a pasta held together by cheese (or sometimes by egg as the binding agent). Don't stress it. Just season it with herbs and spices you have on hand. Usually garlic, ground pepper, and sea salt taste great with every home-cooked casserole. Cooking hint: keep a bag of grated cheese in your refrigerator to dress up your cooking whether it's an aging batch of stew that needs a little pep or variation to it, toast with sundried tomatoes from a jar and sprinkling of pepper and cheese on top, or a last-minute casserole.
DAN DAN MIEN OR CHINESE COLD SESAME NOODLES
One problem with being an improvisational cook is that sometimes I prepare too much of one ingredient.
While I was making the above-mentioned vegetarian casserole, I ended up with too much capellini. Well, look at those lovely noodles. Sure they don't cost all that much, but what a chore to have to go hunt and gather more food (takeout, pre-packaged, or home cooked) when I can just improvise with what's here now. Everyone has their own version of dan dan mien. I like to improvise something close based on what's in my kitchen. My cheap and desperate version that would probably make my Taiwanese friends cringe in horror is peanut butter mixed with Sriracha hot sauce or any of those little containers of hot sauce that my local Thai eatery has given me with my takeout order.
On this particular day, I'd lucked out with some of the more traditional ingredients. I had sesame paste that I mixed with creamy, unsalted peanut butter and unfortunately without any hot sauce in the house except tobasco, I settled for red pepper flakes. The crowning spice is my personal favorite that is NOT included in a lot of versions: coriander seeds. I could've ground the coriander, but I wasn't in the mood to fuss so I just whipped all the ingredients together in a saucepan until they mixed, then mixed in the leftover noodles.
We've since been eating it with assorted stir-fried vegetables and meats or leftovers (this is what happens A LOT at this time of year: lotsa leftover in our household from holiday restaurant fetes). My point: don't throw it away if you can make something you like with it. Cooking hint: keep some fresh condiment or sauce ingredients in your kitchen as a staple. For Asian cooking, num pla (clarified fish sauce), thick sweet soy sauce (kecap manis), Bragg's liquid amino acids (if you're from Berkeley) or some kind of soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, rice wine vinegar, Chinese black vinegar, Sriracha hot sauce, a nut butter, Maggi sauce (apparently a European staple, too), fermented soybean paste, cooking sherry (or just cheap local wine for $3 or less -- c'mon, it's Asian, not Asian fusion for foodies), and of course sesame seed oil for flavoring.
I LOVE clothes but you wouldn't necessarily know it from the looking at me.
Nah. I'm a big fan of dressing comfortably so that I can move in any I want to -- big, fast, vigorous, rambunctious, sleepy -- without being hampered by my clothing. At the same time, I LOVE beautifully constructed clothes and I LOVE fabric.
So with this flamenco-inspired ensemble of jade green rayon/polyester twill skirt, black rayon velvet jersey fringed sleeveless surplice, and acrylic lasagna scarf, the skirt is deliberately made a size and a half larger than the intended model's size, the top stretches, and the scarf adds a little vibrance so that wherever the wearer keeps the scarf, your eye goes to it. When the model hasn't eaten for a few hours, the skirt hangs down by her hips, but after a full meal, it rides up to the waistline. It's a zippered skirt and even if your silhouette is "rectangular" rather than "pear-shaped," it still works! Believe me. I'm a rectangle. I added fringe to the top so that it lengthens the torso line and adds extra movement which detracts from how flat or tiny one's waistline is, too. And the top is incredibly comfortable. You can workout in it, go to the office in it, go on a date.... I hate having to change all the time into new outfits. That just isn't practical. Because I love fabric so very, very much, I also added more fabric than necessary by putting a long ruffle on the base of a basic straight skirt. When you walk in the ruffled jade skirt, it walks with you and makes you more conscious of your femininity, how you move, and the weight of nice fabric against your legs and hips.
I write these things so that you can get an idea of how I envision attractive clothing for the average-sized woman. I'm actually not in the fashion industry. I've been in the dance performance side of things for a long time and the fitness industry, too. I'm used to being around dancers that DO eat burritos, but its just a couple nibbles in between an arduous technique class and vigorous rehearsal. I've quizzed a dancer/pilates instructor/model who confessed that she stopped runway modeling because she had to force herself to be so much below healthy weight that she was always crabby from being hungry. And I've worked with pilates instructors with the "perfect body" that only eat energy bars or at our annual holiday party at a great restaurant, ate four bites of their entree, no bread, no wine and then said thank you I'm done to the waitress. Hmm.... I actually ate my whole entree and a lot of bread. I do exercise but more to feel calm and happy in my body, to have the great neuromuscular habits that allow me to enjoy ballet rather than feel tortured in class, and to feel confident inhabiting my body. But I don't try to look perfect in a size 2 dress. Nah. I enjoy eating too much to do that. (See previous entry.)
And that's the vision behind LotusMonkey Boho Fashion.
Yum, yum, yum for my tum, tum, tum.
Went to visit Granny today and as usual, picked fruits per her request. She had six very large Fuyu persimmons -- her entire harvest this year -- on her tree that had passed her notice. The persimmon leaves that were barely clinging to the tree were of course identical in color to the fruit itself. She had a bout with cancer this year that left her with a nasty condition resulting in temporary blindness which has been improving. We take her out to eat and that, plus good company, seem to help her recover a little more each time. She no longer looks skeletal, just fragile and slender.
While we can eat her graciously-given beautiful, and festive fuyus now, I think I'll wait until they're soft and squishy like pudding barely held within a thin, deep orange membrane, and pulp them into the key ingredient for that oh so yummy dish "Persimmon Pudding." I don't have a favorite recipe. Just google and enjoy one that appeals to you the most or has ingredients that overlap with what your pantry has already.
My favorite tree in her garden is her meyer lemon tree. It abounds with deeply fragrant, sweet, juicy lemons. A half a lemon with warm water drunk first thing in the morning helps your liver function more efficiently throughout the day. Fish poached in freshly squeezed meyer lemons taste so refreshing and delightful that I end up sucking on the lemon wedges. While most lemons have an intense sourness, meyer lemons have a sweet jubilance. This tree has always produced a large harvest and is happy to share its bounty with my happy belly. I hand juice the lemons, grate the rind, freeze both and bake lemon bars (and other baked goods) throughout the year, or just use this organic juice in any recipe calling for "lemon zest" or lemon juice.
In my family, giving someone cleaned and sliced up bowls of exotic fruit always meant "I love you" and "you are my treasure so I am giving you this juicy treasure." Guava is no exception. Granny has 2 guava trees. One produced four oversized guava -- so large that they looked at first like softballs-sized bartlett pears. The other tree has a few dozen fruits on it -- mostly unripe -- and several average-sized guava. See the smaller guava below the larger fruits. When eating guava, simply wash the skin with water and slice up. You can eat the skin, just don't eat the seeds, as they tend to give one constipation.
It's unclear how yet Granny came by a variety of grapefruit called Cocktail. She is so proud of her Cocktail tree and I find myself partial to it, too. Unlike most grapefruit, the rind has none of the bitterness that ruins grapefruit for its detractors. The meat of the fruit itself is particularly juicy and sweet. I handjuice several at a time and end up drinking 6 Cocktail for a meal. It's my secret December diet. After drinking the juice, my sweet cravings have veered from endless varieties of squishy, comfort (baked) foods to filling stews or simple Asian noodle soups with a cup of overbrewed (my preference), slightly bitter, but very warm teas.
Have you tried organic fresh fruit in December recently? IT WAKES YOU UP. It's so alive! Years ago when I was a kid, I read this story about these Jewish kids -- Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. They didn't eat rich foods or imbibe in spirits all the time like their more decadent cohorts. I guess I should specify that they were youngish, but not under 20something. Their mental acuity was so pronouncedly precise and present than their colleagues that they became singled out by the primary ruler of the time for promotion -- far above the norm for someone of their racial and cultural background. When I eat whole fresh fruits and vegetables either raw or lightly cooked, I feel more alert and alive, too. Try it on for size.
Granny has 2 kumquat trees -- one that abundantly produces fruit and one with moderate fruit harvests. She detests the abundant one because she finds the fruit of this tree too sour. I picked maybe 3% of that tree's current harvest as they other tree has only unripe fruit. These kumquats, as pictured above, have pendulous shaped fruits. I noticed the other tree has very circular kumquats -- as if they were miniature oranges. I intend to experiment with more tart kumquat recipes and fear no tartness here! I found one recently either in the New York Times or the San Francisco Chronicle for
Spiced Candied Kumquats
Use to top Roasted Brussels Sprouts.
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3 kaffir lime leaves, bruised
- 1 Hunan chile
- 1 teaspoon green cardamom pods, cracked
- 1/2 inch ginger, peeled, sliced and smashed
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups kumquats, sliced
Granny has a lime kaffir (aka kefir) tree that I'll harvest when I see her next week and I have about a pound of cardamon pods from my last foray into Little India 15 minutes away.
Since LotusMonkey Boho Fashion Week is over, I've finally begun chipping away at our garden. I had neglected to dig up our summer plants -- sunflowers, okra, German green tomatoes, and zucchini -- and look what happened! I put a dessert spoon against the zucchini for comparison. It turns out that our zucchini didn't realize that summer was over and we now have A LOT of zucchini. I'll chop it up and put it in vegetable stews. I'm so pleased to have my own harvest of vegetables!
Lastly, I'm experimenting with making chocolate nut clusters for my mom's Christmas present. She LOVES chocolate and particularly clustered nut chocolates. I don't have high-grade chocolate in my culinary stash, but I'd like to see how low or medium grade chocolate nut clusters tastes compared to the store-bought kind. As with most cooking, it seems that homemade tastes better 90% of the time. Even a recent beef stew with superior meat but almost stale vegetables really hit the spot: home-cooked beats canned and manufactured foods most of the time.
Lately, I've been storing foods in cleaned glass jars. I've been reading and hearing about how food reacts with compounds in plastics to create more toxicity in the body. So here're the nuts on my kitchen shelf waiting for my Wednesday chocolate experiment!
In preparation for setting up a blog, I recorded some entries before I could make my first post. Here they are:09-06-08This is what French Colonel Mercier craves from Polish cafes when he meets with Polish Colonel Vyborg in 1933 and in Alan Furst's novel, : ponczki. Got curious, and found a recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ponczki/Detail.aspx
09-07-08
Have been looking at NY Fashion Week for Spring Ready To Wear collections 2009. My preferred website of course is Style.com
Some lovely lines and cuts from ThreeasFour. A dress in bias cut layers like a flower blooming from the wearer's being. A silvery ensemble for a gamine girl -- all light layers of silver encasing a slenderly formed boyish-bodied figure in a practical, silken set of mobile sheaths. A lovely top of red lines and swirls over orange print tights where the lines refer from top to bottom, drawing forth an image of dynamic movement and grace even when the wearer is still. And then the wholly impractical, fanciful white sleeveless dress with hundreds of shell discs sewn from the top bodice band to the floor -- a heavier, gently effulgent version of the paillette dress that would seem brassy and loud by comparison.... Brava. Bravo.
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