Category Archives: Food

Cooking Food

Poached Steelhead Trout

I procured recently a bottle of omega-3 supplements after reading about how our brains shrink a quarter of a percent (.025%) per year after age 30. The good news is that I probably won’t live long enough for my brain mass to get to zero, but the bad news is that I don’t think I’m getting any smarter year over year, and I kept forgetting to take these memory pills. Wait, who are you again?

My friend Patricia, who is currently using her brain to become a nurse practitioner, told me that you can get equivalent benefits by eating just 3 grams of fish per week. So I’ve been trying to up my fish repertoire since I rarely forget to eat.

I like fish, but:

1. It has to be moist. Eating dry fish is kind of like gnawing on socks.

2. It can’t smell or taste fishy. I know, I’m the same person who doesn’t like protein in her fruit. It also cannot make my house smell fishy.

3. It must be easy to prepare. I am lazy.

Steelhead trout is one of my favorite fish. Check out this blog which talks about the difference between steelhead trout and salmon (in his opinion, there really isn’t any). I actually prefer the steelhead, and it might just be because of the color — it’s a deeper orange-red, which goes a little better with my decor.

Here’s one of my go-to recipes — given the above you can use steelhead trout or salmon and you probably won’t be able to tell the difference — because it’s so quick and easy and comes out perfect every time.

Before you pick your saucepan, make sure that the fish can lay completely flat across the diameter of the pan. If it doesn’t, pick another pan or cut the fish in half so that each half lays flat in the pan.

First, we’ll prepare the poaching liquid. This can be made in advance, which I often do, and I just heat the liquid to a boil when I’m ready to poach. I freeze the liquid after a poach and reuse it again for a future poaching, which makes for a 10 minute meal the next time around. Chop up half an onion, heat up a tablespoon of oil in the saucepan and cook over medium heat until browned, about 7-10 minutes. Add enough white wine into a saucepan to completely cover your fish. Add in a bay leaf, 3 slices of lemon, 3 sprigs of thyme, 1/4 cup dill, 1/4 cup parsley and 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer covered for 20 minutes.

Return the liquid to a boil, off the heat and immerse the fish into the poaching liquid, ensuring that it’s completely covered. Not like I did below, because if it’s not in the liquid, it’s not getting cooked. If you underestimated the liquid, you can add a bit more wine to the pan to top it up.

Let the fish poach in the liquid for 10-15 minutes, until the flesh is firm. I like the flesh slightly rare, so pull it out at the 10 minute mark, but let it sit for longer if you prefer it well done.

Remove from the liquid, add salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with dill and lemon slices. It’s delicious served with Lemonaise as a dipping sauce.

POACHED STEELHEAD TROUT

Ingredients

  • 1 pound filet of steelhead trout
  • 1 TSP olive or vegetable oil
  • 1/2 onion, roughly chopped
  • 2 cups dry white wine (enough to immerse filet in pan)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3 slices lemon
  • 3 springs fresh thyme
  • 1/4 cup dill
  • 1/4 cup parsley
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a saucepan and sautee until browned, about 7 minutes. Add in the wine, bay leaf, lemon, thyme, dill, parsley and salt. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Bring liquid back to a boil and off the heat. Put the trout in the liquid, immersing completely (top up with water and bring to boil again if you need to) and poach in liquid for 10-15 minutes, until flesh is firm. Remove from the liquid, add salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with dill and lemon slices. Serve hot or cold. Lemonaise can be used as a dipping sauce.

Serves 4.

Food

Want Some Protein With That?

You think back to the fresh mulberry pie you had last year. You go to your friend’s house and pick mulberries. You wash them inside with your friend who informs you that after soaking, refrigeration drives the maggots out of the berries. You look closely at the berries and watch in vivid horror and fascination the writhing of fruit fly larvae. You cannot unsee this. You put the mulberries in the freezer because Google tells you that this kills the maggots. You pull them out of the freezer and stare at them because you realize that though the maggots are dead, their carcasses remain.

Do you eat the berries? Do you make your pie and jam?

Kathie’s garden: where it began. If you think it looks massive and amazing and like a vacation destination, that’s because it is. In this picture it looks like ancient China to me. Not that I know what ancient China looked like, but that shouldn’t stop me from making similes. Because I’m probably not going to make the jam.

The mulberries have been out of the freezer and in the fridge now for a couple of days. I know we eat two pounds of bugs a year without knowing it. A friend argues that I eat escargot, it is sort of like a really big maggot, but I counter that when I eat escargot,  I am eating it on purpose (and anyway, I haven’t had it since the Great Snail Jihad of 2006, where I battled an infestation in my back yard).

I begin to rethink this whole organic thing. I text Kathie.

ME: Still scared of the mulberries. Want them back? And in other news, a mulberry plant started growing in my yard. It’s mocking me.

KATHIE: If you haven’t eaten them by now, toss them. The maggots are disturbing. Better to sleep well at night.

ME: OK. Read online that we should go for the fruit that’s less ripe. Was reading online that the larvae secrete ripening agents that ripen the fruit. Ewwwww.

KATHIE: Good to know for next year. Just remember, you ate the larvae last year from your friend’s tree. You just didn’t know it until I pointed it out.

I flashback to an image of her trying to pick a maggot off of a berry, but it’s only halfway out. “The rest is stuck inside,” she says.

Ew. Would you use these berries?

Food Travel

Baker & Olive

San Diego is known for its natural beauty, and perhaps even for its artificial beauties, but a foodie haven? Not so much. Having lived collectively in Chicago, New York, Boston, London, Paris and Tokyo before moving here, my husband and I had to adjust to living in a place where people seemed too busy working out to be concerned with food. Which saddened me, because Food, you complete me.

I want to start brewing my own vinegar. That will make for two pets in my home: a 5-year-old sourdough starter named Pete (which is also what my daughter calls the holes in her jeans), and a vinegar mother that will heretofore be known as Wilma. Fermented pets are the best ones.

You can imagine my excitement when Baker & Olive appeared in my neighborhood. You can be excited too, because you can order online.

This is a place where they allow you to drink olive oil and balsamic vinegars out of a cup.

It’s like the land of milk and honey without the milk (but a good selection of raw honey). See those silver things? They’re like kegs of olive oil and vinegar, and when you walk in the staff dispenses these deliciously viscous liquids for straight from the tap. They’ve got beautiful gift sets as well which are a nice way to try a variety of flavors.

Why yes, I do drink gravy, why do you ask?

Back to the vinegars: a nice variety vinegars, both balsamics and lighter ones. I was focused during my visit on the balsamics; you can see some of the varieties here. Their website says that “the density and complexity of our balsamic vinegars are a testament to the fact that they are made in Modena, Italy from high quality grape must, cooked down over an open wood fire and aged in oak barrels without the addition of much else, unlike so many “balsamic-like” products on the market.” Whatever they did, this vinegar is smooth, rich and complex. I bought a bottle of the violet-infused vinegar, which has a lovely fragrant bouquet; I tasted a strawberry balsamic which would be divine over a panna cotta topped with berries.

The violet balsamic, while lovely in concert with olive oil with bread as a convenient carrier, was a bit too floral for my standard vinaigrette — and I make vinaigrettes just about daily, so I need to head back to get a good basic balsamic.

I’m a vinegar novice though, so would love to hear if anyone else has experience making vinegars, or if you have recommendations on particularly good ones.

Excuse me while I have a glass of the violet now.

Cooking Food

Chicken with Fennel and Grapes

Recently, I read Gary Taube’s piece on obesity in Newsweek (for a consolidated summary of the article, read Laura Pappas’ post here). It’s good; you should read it. It reminded of what I already knew: refined sugars, bad; meat and leafy green vegetables, good. But after having spent the last week eating jam, I needed a reminder.

I’m not very draconian about avoiding refined sugars, partly because I try to practice moderation, but mostly because I like how it tastes. And you’ll never be able to save a bowl of french fries with parmesan and truffle oil from my rabid consumption. Still, I’m at the mortifying age where friends on Facebook starting to talk about things like cholesterol and blood pressure, so it’s probably time to up the diligence a bit on that end.

All this to say that I feel that for having shared the jam recipe with you, I need to do penance for contributing to the world’s obesity epidemic. (I am reminded of a time in business school where we had to sit through a bunch of presentations on projects we did for a pharmaceutical company. I came in late and Kim, one of my classmates, kept talking about OB City. I was tired and recovering from a spirited evening (meaning an evening that involved imbibing spirits) and getting more confused as she went on. Finally, I leaned over and whispered to another classmate, “Where the heck is OB City?!?” whereupon he looked at me like I was crazy, and said, “It’s obesity.”)

But there’s good news: there is such thing as healthy and delicious! Because I won’t compromise on delicious. So here’s an easy recipe I put together with things that came in our CSA delivery: chicken with fennel and grapes. Salty and crispy with a tangy sweet kick — yum.

So, grab some chicken — here I used bone-in thighs, since I like the size and how they stay tender and juicy. I was cooking for a crowd, so you might use less chicken. Because eating this much by yourself would probably land you in OB City.

Season both sides generously with salt and paprika — take a look at the picture above for a sense of how the paprika should be distributed. Lay them in a baking dish, skin side up, maximizing the surface area that’s exposed on top.

Slice up some fennel bulbs into thin pieces (save the fronds for another use; I put them atop salads or in my Eggs Benedict California), and nestle it under the chicken.

Pull off a handful of grapes, and nestle under the chicken, placing a few on top. You can see in the picture below a better view of how I sliced the fennel.

I had some excess fennel and grapes so I put them on top of the chicken.

Stick it in the oven, bake, baste to make the skin crispy, and serve! I served it with plain quinoa and some simple broccoli.

CHICKEN WITH FENNEL AND GRAPES

Ingredients

  • 4 pieces skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
  • 1 fennel bulb
  • 1 cup of red grapes
  • 1 tsp salt (or to taste)
  • 1 tsp paprika

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel, and season with salt and paprika on both sides. Put into a baking dish skin side up.

Slice the fennel bulb into 1/4 inch slices, saving the fronds for a future use. Separate grapes from stems and nestle bulbs and grapes under and around chicken.

Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Baste chicken skins with juices and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven and serve.

Makes 4 servings.

Cooking Food

Strawberry-Raspberry Dessert Jam

 

Things have picked up for me on the work front and I am kind of embarrassed to even mention that I might have a food blog. The days have been frenzied and though I have had the luxury most of this past week to work from home, I am ashamed to say that I have eaten the following things for lunch:
  • One of my husband’s Men’s vitamins
  • Frozen dinosaur chicken nuggets
  • Burnt (because I wasn’t paying attention) fried eggs
  • Jam
Yup, jam, like straight. off. the. spoon.
The way I ended up with this jam is that my friend Leesa and I spent a morning hiking the canyon in our neighborhood a while back, and she started talking about the jam that her grandmother used to make. Strawberries are going strong right now in our area, so we decided afterwards to head to the store to get a bunch. If this were a reality show I’m sure the ratings would be really high on this episode where we talked about the grocery store strawberry sales.

So we bought strawberries and made this jam.

Did I mention Leesa, raised Mormon, is my personal tutor on Mormon swearing? Frickin’ frickster!

Motherfather this is good jam!

And so easy. Cut up berries til you get 4 cups worth.  I used a 50/50 mix of strawberries and raspberries.

 Toss them with pectin and sugar.

I know, my pictures are always blurry after I type “sugar”.

Boil for a minute and then put into a glass jam jar.

My family went through three jars in about as many days. This works really well if you have tart berries too — I like my jam a little tangy, which is why I mixed in raspberries.

It is fabulous as jam. As a topping on ice cream. As a topping on strawberries (I really did that). And of course, all by itself (nutritional value not provided).

Now the recipe:

STRAWBERRY-RASPBERRY DESSERT JAM (adapted from ANY-BERRY JELLY featured in August 2011 FamilyFun magazine)

Ingredients

  • 2 cups crushed raspberries
  • 2 cups diced and crushed (use a potato masher) strawberries
  • 1 1/3 cup sugar
  • 3.5 TBSP powdered pectin

Preparation

Put berries in a large, heavy pot and mix with sugar and pectin. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.

Let berries cook at a boil for about a minute, and then ladle into jars, leaving an inch of headroom for expansion if freezing. Cap, cool to room temperature and eat it like there is no tomorrow.

Makes 3-4 cups.

Baking Food

Whole Wheat Strawberry Muffins

This week, I showed my hairdresser a picture of Jennifer Lopez and ended up with Martha Stewart.

Then, true to form, I had the urge to bake like Martha, but healthier.

Curses, Hairdresser, why do you forsake me?!?

I thought these would be good to take along on our upcoming camping trip. You know, to appease the bears. Remind me not to wear my bacon perfume when we go camping.

Start by mixing all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

I know these pictures are bad but it was late.

Then in the bowl of a mixer, cream and butter and sugar, and then beat in two eggs, one at a time.

Ok, I might have had a drink or two.

Beat in the dry mixture and greek yogurt, alternating half of each at a time. Fold in the strawberries.

Scoop the mixture into 12 muffin cups and bake for 25-30 minutes. If you want to make them prettier, sprinkle them with some raw sugar before you put them in the oven. I adapted this from an America’s Test Kitchen recipe, using whole wheat pastry flour, subbing out nutmeg for allspice and adding in strawberries.

Whole Wheat Strawberry Muffins (adapted from Simple Spiced Whole-Wheat Muffins in the America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook)

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cake flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 1 TBSP baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground allspice
  • 6 TBSP unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups greek yogurt
  • (optional) 1 TBSP raw sugar

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 375. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together flours, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter and 1 cup sugar on medium speed til creamy and uniform, 3-6 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, til combined. Beat in vanilla.

Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in a third of the flour mixture, followed by half the greek yogurt. Repeat with the remaining dry mixture and yogurt.

Scoop batter into baking cups and sprinkle raw sugar on top if desired. Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. Cool for 5 minutes and then let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack before serving.

Makes 12 muffins.

Food Lifestyle

What You Said: Your Favorite Chefs

What I like best about my first giveaway was that it gave me a chance to get to know my readers better. Some of you drop me a line once in a while, or leave a friendly comment; thank you — I love that! But I understand that many of you have lives to lead, people to feed and careers to advance — so I appreciate the time that you spent in answering the question in the giveaway. I’m not sure how many of you love numbers as much as I do but I’m a data dork and I’m not afraid to admit it. Here’s what you said:

The biggest category (22%) was Other Celebrity Chef — in this bucket are mentions of a myriad of talented chefs like molecular gastronomy pioneer Grant Achatz, master of Mexican cuisine Rick Bayless, Hawaiian specialist Alan Wong and the woman who needs no introduction, Julia Child. There were a large number of wonderful chefs mentioned here, but in the interest of making the graph legible, I lumped those with fewer than three votes in this category. The takeaway: our readership community has a refined and open-minded palate. Please feel free to invite me along on your next expensive culinary excursion. I would very much enjoy dining with you.

It seems that many of you are married to men who are handy in the kitchen. Given an open-ended choice, 17% of you chose to stay home and have your husbands do the cooking. Please reveal details on how you were able to procure such gastronomically gifted spouses.

Mothers and grandmothers followed closely, with Bobby Flay (7%) emerging as the leader of the celebrity chef pack. The other obvious conclusion from the data is that I am personally more popular (4%) than Rachael Ray (3%) and Masaharu Morimoto (3%), despite never even having been invited to participate in the studio audience of a cooking show.

I also enjoyed exploring the Male Celebrity category, where some of you indicated you would choose a T-shirt-optional Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Gosling or Zac Efron (over 18; I checked). One person chose Martin Luther King, Jr. and though I didn’t find any references online to his culinary prowess, the company would more than compensate for that.

Thanks for participating; can’t wait to learn more!

 

 

Cooking Food Popular

Guest Post: Creamy Zucchini Soup

My wedding anniversary’s coming up, so I just had a flashback to the first time I was going to cook for my mother-in-law, and my then-fiance just let it slip that his mother “used to run a cooking school in France.” Oh. Thanks for letting me know, because the last time I trained at the Cordon Bleu was never.

Needless to say, my mother-in-law is an amazing cook. I’ll be putting forks on the table or something and then turn around to her making a flambe of some sort that, had I tried, would have resulted in loss of eyebrows and hair. She’s also a well-known art journalist, whereas I am a famous…uh, let me get back to you on that one.

So when she said she’d share a recipe for my blog, I was excited. And she has shared one that even I, trained only by cookbooks and the seat of my pants, can execute.

*  * *

GUEST POST: MY MOTHER-IN-LAW GEORGINA

Here is an addition to the SOUP KITCHEN that is so darn easy that it seems unfair, if not outright EVIL. I mean, how can you possibly produce a delicious soup with just TWO ingredients? (Not counting water, salt and pepper). And one you can have hot or cold?

My family has forbidden me to say “this is soooo easy” so let me just say, this is not difficult. Not even a tiny bit difficult. In fact, a child could make it. And kids generally love it!

Ingredients for four:

Three average size zucchini (we in Britain call them courgettes, which must be French originally, showing how multicultural we are…)

three squares of Kiri, or Philadelphia cream cheese

water, salt, pepper

Er- that’s it.

 

Wash the zucchini, top and tail them, slice into one inch rounds, just cover with water, season, boil until soft.

Use a wand blender to liquidize until smooth with the cream cheese (I use low fat but of course it tastes better with full fat). Adjust seasoning.

That’s it! You can serve hot, sprinkled with chopped chives, basil or parsley; or cold in small glasses as a pre-starter.

* * *

Thanks Georgina! And before we close I just had to share one of the shots that I took. As you’ve probably guessed, I do my own photography and styling (with lighting courtesy of the sun). I was trying to unwrinkle the cloth under the soup but it was stubborn, so I tried sliding myself under the table stretching out the fabric, holding an ab-crunch position to stay out of camera view, while using the remote function on the camera. It didn’t work out so well.

CREAMY ZUCCHINI SOUP

Ingredients

  • 3 zucchini
  • 3 oz cream cheese
  • water (enough to cover zucchini in pot)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Slice the tops and tails off the zucchini and cut into 1 inch rounds. Place in a pot and fill with water enough to just cover the zucchini. Season with a dash of salt and boil until soft, about 15 minutes.

Using a blender, blend the zucchini and water mixture until smooth. Add in the cream cheese and blend to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4.

Baking Food

Dolphin Cake Pops (and a Cake Pop Trick)

What are the chances that a bird poops on me twice in 30 minutes? And what are the chances that that happens AND the Winklevii become VCs? 100% apparently. (Though, having lived through a couple of fundraises, I would say in general that the likelihood of getting funding is generally somewhere between the Winklevii becoming VCs and getting pooped on twice in 30 minutes.)

It’s enough to make you want to eat a cake pop.

The girls and I made some recently. And I discovered a new trick. See, the candy coating hardens fairly quickly into something that requires a hammer and chisel to remove. So this time, I put the candy coating in a little ziplock baggie, and then slid that into a mug, folding the mouth of the bag over the top of the mug. Did you know bags had mouths?

So what’s cool about this is that you after you’re done with the coating for the day, you can just pull the ziplock out of the mug, zip it up, and plunk it back in when you’re ready to work with it again. This time, I added in a teaspoon of shortening to help the coating go on a little smoother.

Maybe everyone else already knew this.

Anyway, we made dolphins. Bakerella has great detailed instructions on how to make pops on her site, but here are the basics. First you bake a cake. Let it cool. Then, crumble it into a large bowl.

You may have noticed above that I grew two more hands to do this more efficiently.

Next, squish the cake together with some frosting. Again, see Bakerella for expert advice, but if you use canned frosting, use no more than 3/4 of a can or the pops will be too slippery to stay on the sticks.

Now go to your local police station before you wash your hands and see what happens.

Next, shape them into balls…or in this case, dolphin-ish things. Stick them in the fridge to chill overnight.

When the dolphin-ish things are firm, take them out five or so at a time and dip. We decorated these with just candy coating and edible pen.

Maybe you can’t tell these are dolphins. Some of them have tumors. Our waters are very polluted nowadays.

Some look like T-Rex. I believe he was an ancestor.

Oh, whatever. Cake pops are for eating. So we ate them.

Whatever you do, don’t forget to enter the *nora fleming* giveaway! You get an autographed rectangular platter (you will faint from its cuteness) plus three adorable minis that will change your life and make you lose weight.

 

Cooking Food

Eggs Benedict California

I’m ashamed to say that I missed National Eggs Benedict Day, but I am recovering from a malady for which I am taking Mucinex DM for cough and chest congestion. And though I know there is nothing hotter than hearing a woman talk about taking Mucinex DM, I will move along to the recipe at hand.

I was inspired by eggs benedict (can you say eggs benedict without saying Eggs Benedict Arnold? I wish Benedict Arnold were Patrick Henry though — you know, “Give me liberty or give me eggs”) but wanted something a little more lively. The sharp and creamy taste of the goat cheese is a nice complement to the carmelized tomatoes and lemony hollandaise — it just works.

First, make the hollandaise sauce — I like this easy version that you make in a blender.  This version is for 4-6 servings, so quarter it if you’re just cooking for yourself. Set it aside.

Toast both sides of an English muffin. While they’re hot, spoon some crumbled goat cheese on them like so:

Next, poach two eggs. Do not poach any giraffes in Africa. If you’re not sure how to poach eggs, click here for instructions.  When the eggs are done, lift them out of the water with a slotted spoon, let it drain (I wiped the bottom of my spoon with a dish towel to get rid of excess water) and place them on top of the goat cheese while hot, so the cheese begins to melt.

Hm, looks like I stopped taking pictures after that. I blame Mucinex DM.

Slice some sweet tomatoes (I used campari cocktail tomatoes, but some nice big cherry tomatoes would work nicely too), heat up a splash of oil in a pan, and put the tomatoes face down in the hot oil for about a  minute, til they start to caramelize a bit. Flip them over and let them cook on the other side for another minute. Remove the tomatoes from the pan and spoon them over the eggs and muffins.

Slice up half an avocado, and put it on top. Drizzle your lemony hollandaise sauce over everything. I had some fennel fronds so I snipped some leaves over it all for garnish. Enjoy!

EGGS BENEDICT CALIFORNIA

Begin with the hollandaise sauce; recipe found here. This recipe makes 4 servings, so adjust accordingly depending on your serving size. Set it aside.

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 English muffin, halves separated (for a gluten-free version, use gluten-free muffins)
  • 4 tsp crumbled goat cheese
  • 1/2 avocado
  • 3 campari cocktail tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 tsp oil
  • (optional) fennel leaves for garnish
  • salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Toast the English muffin. While toasting, poach eggs (for instructions on poaching, click here).

Remove English muffin halves from the toaster and place cranny-side up. Sprinkle goat cheese across the faces, and top with poached eggs, one on each half.

Heat the oil for a minute and place the tomato halves cut-side down in the oil for a minute until it begins to caramelize. Flip the tomatoes and allow to cook for another minute on the other side.

Slice the avocado half into long slices lengthwise and place between the eggs. Garnish with fennel leaves if desired, drizzle hollandaise sauce on top and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Makes 1 serving.