Stuffed Red Peppers & Three Bean Chili

The Food Nanny
May 26&27, 2009
Meal 1: Stuffed Red Pepper, Pesto Pasta Salad, Chic Pea Salad
· Warm the pepper(s) at 350° until just warm.
· Serve the accompanying salads at room temp.

Meal 2: Three Bean Chili, Corn Bread Muffins, Cumin Cole Slaw
· Heat chili on the stovetop or microwave. Careful, it is spicy. Cool it a notch with some yogurt, sour cream or cheese.
· Warm the muffin if you like and eat the slaw cold.

Futomaki & Enchiladas

The Food Nanny
May 19 & 20, 2009
Meal 1: Pea Shoot Futomaki, Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup, Noodle Salad
· Heat the soup on the stovetop. Add some extra hot seasoning if you like.
· Serve the futomaki and noodles at room temp. Enjoy the maki with soy sauce and wasabi if you have it!

Meal 2: Swiss Chard Enchiladas, Yellow Rice with Sunflower Seeds, Mixed Greens
· Heat the enchiladas gently at 350° until just hot and maybe a little bubbly.
· Enjoy the rice at room temp or heat it in a pan or microwave.
· Dress the greens and serve.

Hand Cut Manacotti & Miso Hot Pot

The Food Nanny
May 12 &13,2009

Meal 1: Hand Rolled Manicotti With Grilled Asparagus and Herbed Chevre, Chick Pea Salad, Mixed Greens
· Heat the manacotti in the oven at 350° for 15 -20 minutes, or until the sauce begins to bubble.
· Serve the chick peas at room temp, and dress the salad.
Meal 2: Miso Hot Pot with Bok Choi, Udon, and Marinated Tofu

· Allow the vegetables etc. to come to room remp in their container or another vessel if you prefer.
· Heat the Miso soup to just under a boil – do not let it boil- and pour it over the vegetables etc. Allow the dish to steep a minute or two and then dig in with spoon and chop sticks!

Local Notes:

Boc Choi is perhaps the most elegant of the cabbages, or brassicas to be more accurate. Yes, its true that broccoli, cabbage, turnips, canola, and the chois are all the same species Brassica rapa.

As for the choi, just look at those lines, the graceful curve of its vase-like profile, the seamless integration of leaf and petiole, and its helix pattern of growth. Study brassicas enough, especially cauliflower, and you will get some serious insight about the nature of our cosmos.

These are Jon's chois and they are just scrumptious. I could not help but ordering more after last week and planning a menu just to fit them. I love to peel the petioles from the stem and cook them whole so as to eat that whole thing with its transition in texture from the undulous leaf to the fat crunchy suculence of the petiole base. However, you may also opt to cut them for politeness or even safety. In which case, cut them at the dividing point of the leaf and the petiole ( if you can find it), and cook them separately as the thin leaf parts will cook faster than the thick petiole parts.

Technique:

Sick of Sidedishes

We ordinarily eat vegetarian when dining out, or even out of home. In a nutshell, we only eat meat when we know and approve of its provenance. Previous to this we ate a vegetarian diet for a few years. When out or say, at a wedding, this typically meat eating those side dishes that did not contain meat. This is not a satisfying gustatory experience and I get tired of it pretty quickly.That being said it is important to understand that vegetarian cuisine is not just cooking the remainders from other cuisine.

Now that there is a vegan among our members, I have to remeber that vegan cuisine is not just vegetarian food with certain things omitted. It has its own ways of achieving all the concept I have been writing about lately: body, complexity, satiety, richness, fattiness, umami, etc. It is a challenge to me to approach this, as in all honesty vegan cuisine is one in which I claim no expertise. But, the concepts for how to approach it are there in the head and hand. This is why I stress technique over recipe.

This weeks pasta is made of egg, and the filling contained cheese. So, how solve it ? Well, for the pasta I used store bought dried ("...Know when to fold 'em...") but for the filling I rehydrated some of our shiitake mushrooms, and made a nut paste to bind it with the grilled asparagus pieces. This paste consisted of toasted almond, olive oil, and spices ground in a mortar and pestle. The mushrooms are laded with satisfling umami falvors (glutimates). The nuts gave the mixture a savory, rich, and unified composition, while the olive and nut oils, plus the nut protien, gave the filling a satisfying, fatty aspect that the tongue and body appreciates.

I even like it myself.

Asparagus Fougasse & Stir Fried Baby Bok Choi

The Food Nanny
May 5 &,6,2009
Meal 1: Asparagus, Roasted Red Pepper & Chevre Fougasse, Asparagus Soup, Spinach Salad
· Warm fougasse in the oven at 325° for 10 -15 minutes.
· Heat the soup and dress the spinach as you like.

Meal 2: Stir Fried Baby Bok Choi with Green Garlic Sauce,"Egg Roll,” Sweet and Sour Rice Salad
· The omelet and Rice may be served at room temp or warmed briefly. Warm the egg in an oven or microwave. Heat the salad in a frying pan with a little oil and a splash of water.
· For the stir fry: Heat some a couple/three T of oil in a fry pan over medium or med high. When it is nearly or just smoking add just the vegetables carefully – it will be loud and splattery. Stir them around and shake the sauce vigorously. After a couple of minutes add the tofu and quickly thereafter the sauce. The sauce will thicken in a minute or so. Stir and serve immediately.

Local Notes:
After pestering him incessantly for the past month or so, Jon's asparagus is finally here. I'm so glad it worked. I'll have to employ the same technique for tomatos.
Today's menu has been on my mind for weeks: Asparagus Two Ways.
First the fougasse, a breathtaking little bread if ever there was one. Stuffing it with asparagus and Prairie Fruits chevre in addition to the traditional roasted red pepper seemed only logical...even when we first made this item for FN, several months ago.
Secondly, the soup.
I love the frugality of this soup. My business motto is: Quality Pays. And good asparagus, is an epitome. The majority (tender part) of the asparagus is used for a feature dish; in this case the fougasse. But the tail end is useful also. These ends were combined with a white mire poix ( 4/28/o9) and pureed to make the soup. I could have also infused custard, or muffins, or myriad other things, but not so with the aged, woody crap commonly available, especially in January. So, my aspartagus pays me twice rather than costing me once, and I wish more restauranteurs and chefs knew this. A real chef loves the shrimp shell more than the shrimp, for the shrimp is his master's, and the shells are for him. Savvy?
Plus, did you notice the size of those asparagus1 Some dwarfed my thumb and were pure succulence. Despite the 'pencil' asparagus fad of 1996, I was taught by Max Hansen himself to prefer " the big fat f****ers," and Jon's deliver. More to the point, however, uniquely excellent food enhances a cook's ability to differentiate himself, to offer something unique, and perhaps better. And, that pays. Enjoy.

Technique:
The Stir Fry
Wow. Where to begin. The stir fry is perhaps the most elegant, effective, and economical cooking technique of all.
This should come as no surprise. Consider its inventors and their needs:
Make delicious a rice based diet with minimal animal protien or fuel.

Hot. Fast.
This is how to stir fry.Intensely sear bite sized pieces of food in small batches and then combime at the last to finish as one, with minimal loss of nutrients or labor time, over the stove at least. Many stir fry dishes require a considerable investment in planning and preparetion.
I have heard that traditional Chinese restaurants have two Chefs. One who cooks, and one who cuts.