This past week's meals were fuled by produce imorted from Minneapolis.
"What about the local food jive you hypocrite !?!", you shout.
Well, I happened to be there for a wedding, so when it Rome...buy pea shoots.
Menneapolis, and the Upper Midwest in general has been well settled in recent decades by the Hmong people of Laos. Many of them farm, and vend at the local markets; and, if you look during your drive you can see their rented plots tucked into pockets of larger, cash grain holdings. They offer a variety delicacies, some of which may be novel to you. The types of brassica/ chois for example is a study in varietal diversity.
One of my favorite items is pea shoots - flowers and all. Honestly, they beat the pods in flavor, and yield. I guess the protien is the kicker for the peas though, huh? Anyway, they are just wonderful raw as a salad green or in a kick-ass sandwich, but their true delight is in being stir-fried, so I hope you gave 'em the high heat treatment, wilted their substantial structure a bit, and et 'em smokin' hot.
Pea shoots have the great abitily to capture wok hay (breath of the wok) also thought of as wok chi. If you have ever had truly good stir fry, you know what I mean - it is that charrish, rich aroma from stir fried foods delivered to you while the live heat of the pan is still in the food. It is very hard to replicate at home without a 50,000 BTU pit style wok burner of you own. But with a rocking hot, heavy saute ( NOT a wok!) pan gathering your flat flame onto its flat bottom, stir fried pea shoots will get you very close. I don't know what it is , but there is something inherently etherial about peas: their blue/ green, their flavor, their season -and they seem to luff that vapor of life into your mouth when you eat them right out of the pan. Do this and notice how, by the end of the meal the flavor of the shoots remaining will have changed.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Chic Pea Patties & Pasta Bake
The Food Nanny
June 1 & 2 2010
Meal 1: Chic Pea Patties on Challa Rolls, Kohlrabi Soup, & Pea Shoots
June 1 & 2 2010
Meal 1: Chic Pea Patties on Challa Rolls, Kohlrabi Soup, & Pea Shoots
- Warm the patties in the oven, on at 350° for about 10 minutes. Split the rolls and toast them for the last 5 minutes.
- Heat the soup on the stovetop or enjoy it equally well as a chilled soup.
- The pea shoots can be either dressed and eaten as a salad or quickly sautéed until just wilted. Serve immediately.
- Heat the pasta casserole in the oven at 325° for about 15-20 minutes until it is hot through and the cheese is well melted.
- Warm the bread.
- Dress and serve the salad.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Spring Carrots and Asparagus Fougasse
Meal 1: Dal Makhani, Curried Spring Carrots, Grilled Naan
• Warm naan gently in the oven -300 for about 10 minutes.
• Heat the dal and curry on the stovetop. You may want to thin the dal a little. Finish it with yogurt, butter, and/or or cream if you like.
• Consider making some rice to serve with this.
Meal 2: Pasta Fagioli with Grilled Greens, Asparagus Fougasse, Mixed Greens
• Heat the fougasse in the oven at 325 for about 10 minutes – enough to just warm it.
• Heat the fagioli on the stovetop. Add a little water and adjust the seasoning
• Dress and serve the salad.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Asparagus Bisque & Big Fat Burritos
The Food Nanny
May18/19 2010
Meal 1: Asparagus Bisque, Savory Bread Pudding, & an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
Warm the bread pudding gently in the oven -300 for about 10 -15 minutes in the oven.
Heat the soup.
Eat the cookie last!
Meal 2: The Big Fat Burrito and Blue Moon Mixed Greens
Heat the burrito in the oven at 325 for about 10 minutes.
Dress and serve the salad.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Ravioli Primavera and Stir Fry
Meal 1: Swiss Chard Ravioli with Rapini , Sesame Bread Twists, Mixed Greens
• Warm the bread in the oven.
• Toss, dress and serve the salad.
• To heat the ravioli: Gently remove the ravs to a pot of simmering water. Its OK if they stick – they will separate. Plunge them only for a minute or so and drain. Heat the rapini mixture in a little olive oil and when hot add the ravioli. Toss to coat everything evenly and serve.
Meal 2: Stir Fried Vegetables with Toyko 5 Grain Mix and Asparagus Spring Rolls.
• Add the vegetables to a hot pan with a little oil in it. Toss once or twice to heat it through. Remove to a serving plate.
• Heat the 5 grains (millet, amaranth, quinoa, red and brown rice) in the same pan adding a little water to steam it through. Dress with soy sauce and serve.
• Serve the spring roll as is, chilled.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Batting 1.000
Well, it is the return of the baseball analogy season. Oh, and there are a bunch of adults running in circles and swatting sticks at leather wrapped wads of rag too.
The Holy Grail of any performer is ‘batting a thousand.’ The beauty of this goal is its impossibility, and what is more beautiful than a paradox? Now, while I do not consider cooking an art, nor myself an artist ( Food as Art: topic for another day ), I would call my aspirations artisanal. In essence I work as a craftsman to make meals to the best of my ability and with respect to the ingredients. These meals should convey the integrity of the styles and techniques employed, the season, and the captured but unencumbered flavor of the ingredients themselves. But I am not trying to make conceptualized statements about ideas, experiences, emotions, or things.
So, back to the topic: for the artisan, natural variation is a bitch.
When I was an apprentice I initially balked at the weight placed upon doing the same thing the same over and over again. ‘Be free, flaky, and inspired!’ my naïve ego countered to my master’s blunt “Do it like this. Now do it like this 500 times.” For years I cooked without recipes – by feel, instinct, and memory alone. And my goal is still to get home cooks to do without recipes. But, as I have begun to master my own craft, and craft my own style, I am becoming dogmatic about weighing everything, recording my efforts, writing my recipes, and annotating those recipes when I modify them.
Why? What is the impetus behind this shift. Well, for one thing I’ve got more on my mind these days. For another, my once photographic memory has been corroded into a crappy Polaroid from the bottom of an attic storage box. But really, the answer is this: natural variation is a bitch.
Someone told me this story: Alice Waters was speaking to a fundraising group. “Dinner at Chez Panisse will always be good,” she said. “Sometimes it will be sublime. Sometimes it will just be excellent, but it will always be good.” Get it? Natural variation just happens and as an artisan you want to minimize the amplitude within that variation – and consistency is the most effective tool to achieve that.
That being said, I was not happy with last week’s meals. Sure, E for effort but B- ,at best, for execution. That’s the risk we share and it underscores the CSK relationship of you and I. Some meals will be great, some will just be OK, but they will all be good. They will feature outstanding local foods. We will put our best effort into preparing them. But some ideas just don’t pan out. Some don’t transport or finish at home well. Sometimes what worked last time varies just enough to come out not quite as good this time. Often I can feel it – I can feel how the food will come out. It’s like taking a swing. Sometimes every hit’s a smash, and sometimes it’s just a dribbler off the end of the bat.
We once were given the very kind criticism that we do not repeat dishes often enough. There was too much variation in our meals. Home meals, they told us, should be familiar, consistent. We’ve taken this to heart and try to repeat dishes seasonally or quarterly, but in general I like the challenge of presenting you with new, inspired meals. Besides, menu redundancy seems like cheating. Membership is not for everyone and ultimately we have unintentionally selected for people who like the surprise every week, who enjoy the adventure of being “on the bus” with the Food Nanny. Nonetheless, it is like home cooking. Not everything will be your favorite, but it will all be done well, and it will all be good for you. Thanks for riding the wave with us.
The Holy Grail of any performer is ‘batting a thousand.’ The beauty of this goal is its impossibility, and what is more beautiful than a paradox? Now, while I do not consider cooking an art, nor myself an artist ( Food as Art: topic for another day ), I would call my aspirations artisanal. In essence I work as a craftsman to make meals to the best of my ability and with respect to the ingredients. These meals should convey the integrity of the styles and techniques employed, the season, and the captured but unencumbered flavor of the ingredients themselves. But I am not trying to make conceptualized statements about ideas, experiences, emotions, or things.
So, back to the topic: for the artisan, natural variation is a bitch.
When I was an apprentice I initially balked at the weight placed upon doing the same thing the same over and over again. ‘Be free, flaky, and inspired!’ my naïve ego countered to my master’s blunt “Do it like this. Now do it like this 500 times.” For years I cooked without recipes – by feel, instinct, and memory alone. And my goal is still to get home cooks to do without recipes. But, as I have begun to master my own craft, and craft my own style, I am becoming dogmatic about weighing everything, recording my efforts, writing my recipes, and annotating those recipes when I modify them.
Why? What is the impetus behind this shift. Well, for one thing I’ve got more on my mind these days. For another, my once photographic memory has been corroded into a crappy Polaroid from the bottom of an attic storage box. But really, the answer is this: natural variation is a bitch.
Someone told me this story: Alice Waters was speaking to a fundraising group. “Dinner at Chez Panisse will always be good,” she said. “Sometimes it will be sublime. Sometimes it will just be excellent, but it will always be good.” Get it? Natural variation just happens and as an artisan you want to minimize the amplitude within that variation – and consistency is the most effective tool to achieve that.
That being said, I was not happy with last week’s meals. Sure, E for effort but B- ,at best, for execution. That’s the risk we share and it underscores the CSK relationship of you and I. Some meals will be great, some will just be OK, but they will all be good. They will feature outstanding local foods. We will put our best effort into preparing them. But some ideas just don’t pan out. Some don’t transport or finish at home well. Sometimes what worked last time varies just enough to come out not quite as good this time. Often I can feel it – I can feel how the food will come out. It’s like taking a swing. Sometimes every hit’s a smash, and sometimes it’s just a dribbler off the end of the bat.
We once were given the very kind criticism that we do not repeat dishes often enough. There was too much variation in our meals. Home meals, they told us, should be familiar, consistent. We’ve taken this to heart and try to repeat dishes seasonally or quarterly, but in general I like the challenge of presenting you with new, inspired meals. Besides, menu redundancy seems like cheating. Membership is not for everyone and ultimately we have unintentionally selected for people who like the surprise every week, who enjoy the adventure of being “on the bus” with the Food Nanny. Nonetheless, it is like home cooking. Not everything will be your favorite, but it will all be done well, and it will all be good for you. Thanks for riding the wave with us.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Savory Blintzes and Soba with Tat Soi
• Warm the kugel in the oven at 400° until the sides begin to brown evenly; 7-10 minutes.
• Toss, dress and serve the salad.
• To heat the blintzes: Heat some butter in a sauté pan over medium high. You may substitute veg ( not olive) oil, or even a dry pan but I highly recommend good ol’ butter. When hot but not burning, lower the flame a little and add the blintzes SEAM side down. Pan fry them until golden brown (about 3 minutes) then flip and fry the other side. Eat ‘em hot.
Meal 2: Soba Noodles with Tatsoi and Soy Sprouts, Miso Vegetable Salad, Korean Rice and Bean Salad .
• Serve all at room temp.