The tasty improvised salad roll
I finally started the Omega Diet a week ago, failing to blog about it because Don't Trust Snakes is not my diary. I'd forgotten how it's pretty easy to stay with a sensible diet once it is underway, and that the hardest thing is starting and getting into the right frame of mind (these are things I should know from other segments of my life, but never mind). Anyway, I've been on this diet once and been told I looked like a movie star once, and the two events were related, so, reasonably enough, I'd been meaning to get back to it these past few years for the greater glory of my inner movie star.
This started out to be a food blog interlude, and it's going to veer in that direction very, very soon. But if you're in the market for a very sound book on diet and nutrition, or a diet, I highly recommend
The Omega Diet by Artemis P. Simopoulos, M.D., and Jo Robinson. This is very much not the latest fad approach, and the book provides a very understandable, educational discussion of the physiology involved. Of course, the more you understand why you should be doing something, the easier it is to convince yourself to do it. One example may suffice. You know how they always say how the best way to lose weight is a combination of diet and exercise? There is a whole dimension to that I'd never understood, despite being an amazing genius in most other areas. Logically, of course, it makes sense that if you both dieted and exercised you would lose weight faster than if you just did one or the other. But you could just diet more, right, consume some still smaller number of calories, and achieve the same result? But . . .
When you diet without exercising, you can lose one pound of muscle for every three pounds of fat. It's important to hold on to every muscle fiber you have because your resting metabolic rate (the rate you burn calories while resting) is largely determined by your amount of lean muscle. If you have sixty pounds of muscle, for example, you burn about 1,600 calories to fuel your body while at rest. If you lose five pounds of muscle, you will be burning 150 fewer calories a day. Over a years time, this could amount to 54,000 extra calories, which could cause you to regain eighteen of those twenty pounds! If you maintain your body mass, however, those twenty pounds are far less likely to come back.
That's a very interesting insight, isn't it? Did you know that? Maybe you did. I, however—a key member of the team that stormed to the Health Occupations Students of America 1985 Oregon "Brain Bowl" Championship with less effort that I'm taking to craft this sentence—did not.
Let's shift gears as promised so I can tell you about the healthy snack I whipped up earlier. Since this is neither my diary nor a food blog, and it's late, I'm not going to give much detail at all here about the provenance of the idea or the ingredients, or the technique (not that there is much).
I improvised a quick Vietnamese-style salad roll with the following in it:
- Fuji apple
- cucumber
- pea vines
- mint
- purple basil
- sriracha (hot sauce)
The wrapper requires a 30-second dip in warm water. For guidance beyond that, consult your favorite Vietnamese cookbook or elsewhere on the web. The whole process was very pretty.
For a dipping sauce,
nuoc cham or peanut sauce would be traditional. I just mixed some fish sauce, mirin and sugar, which wasn't bad. Elapsed time for the whole endeavor was about five minutes. Well, maybe ten. But it seemed like only five!
Labels: food blog interlude, what passes for introspection
Rediscovering raw tomato sauce
It's bothersome and also kind of fun to forget little things about cooking, neglected recipes and the like. As long as you remember them again at opportune times. Tonight it was the notion of a raw tomato sauce (for pasta, of course). I'm pretty sure you could find an excellent discussion and recipe in Viana La Place's
Verdura, by the way (some kinds of things I don't forget).
I wasn't thinking about a raw sauce at all when I grabbed some Roma tomatoes at the store this afternoon. Mostly I was thinking it was silly to buy San Marzanos in a can at this time of year. And I just felt like whipping up something simple. (Wow, I can see how the food bloggers end up with those sorts of entries they do . . . let me tell you my life story and what I made for dinner . . . .)
I halved the tomatoes (6 or 7) and squeezed out the seeds. Feeling too lazy to peel them (which you do have to do—sorry), I chopped them roughly and put them through the food mill. I love the food mill (mine is the classic plastic Moulinex) because just when you're sure something's wrong, you start to see results (I'm sure Gen. Petraeus is a big fan of the food mill). If you don't have a food mill, you will have to peel the tomatoes, as I mentioned—sorry. Otherwise the recipe won't turn out and your family will hate you.
Meanwhile I made a flavor base, sauteing three crushed garlic cloves in a few tablespoons of olive oil, adding about 1/4 of a red onion (in small slices), a thick-middle-finger-sized bit of salt pork (medium diced) and some salt and freshly milled black pepper. Oh, and a modest spritz of Thai fish sauce for its flavor-deepening qualities. It's basically liquid anchovies, you know.
Then I added the raw tomato puree along with some full leaves of Italian parsley, some red pepper flakes and more black pepper. At this point I was thinking I would let the sauce cook down, but I had the good sense to taste it.
Oh, my goodness, how delicious! Suddenly I remembered all about raw tomato sauces. You just heat it through and Bob's your uncle. So that's just what I did.
Yes, it's quite a story.
(The tag is something my uncle once said to me when I was running through menu options for a cookout.)
Labels: "I'm just looking for a simple side dish--not some big ethnic tribute.", food blog interlude
MWR entertains
I hosted a brunch this morning for a dear friend who was in town from NYC for her first brief return visit in several years. (Translation: Don't you be asking for your own brunch.) It was all a great success. Because Don't Trust Snakes Is Not A Food Blog
TM, and because I'm weary, I'm not going to include recipes here, but just the menu and a few illustrations. With the dishes not yet all done, the thought of giving recipes and directions daunts me greatly, and renews my respect for my friend(s) who can produce a fabulous meal and then turn right around and craft a blog entry about it worthy of
The Way to Cook by Julia Child or that early Jacques Pepin book. If you would like a recipe or more information, please leave me a comment and I will provide something in the fullness of time.
Menu- Pastrami-cured gravlax with assorted bagels and scallion cream cheese
- Frittata with lemony roasted cauliflower, zahtar and sage
- Salad of shredded raw parsnips, chopped dates, yogurt and mint
- Cardamom-and-honey-scented red-grape clafoutis
- Fresh fruit
- Orange juice
- Coffee
Everything was delicious, and one guest pronounced me "ready for marriage." (Moreover, it was a great opportunity to use those Twin Peaks / Double-R Diner mugs so laboriously assembled some fifteen years ago.) Surprisingly, most of the guests had gorged on parsnip/date/yogurt/mint salad at dinner the night before, but everyone was good sport. I had made the gravlax as part of a Thanksgiving spread in the mid 90s, and this time had the wisdom to take David Burke's recipe with a grain of salt, so to speak. Let's just say that last time it was way too hot and spicy and this time I have a jelly jar of unused rub left even after leaving out two of the specified four tablespoons of cracked peppercorns.
Damn fine clafoutis and coffee mugsI was especially happy with the clafoutis, a last-minute addition that I improvised after spotting some nice-looking grapes. Take your favorite clafoutis recipe (what, you don't have one?—and you call yourself a metrosexual!) and replace half the sugar with honey, add maybe a bit more honey (these grapes were fairly tart) and instead of any vanilla add a tablespoon or more of fresh-ground cardamom. Be sure to grind the cardamom fresh . . . otherwise, the recipe won't turn out, and your family will hate you. (Free
DTS t-shirt for the first person to correctly source the bit after the ellipsis.)
Here are some gravlax-assembly shots. Allow five days if using fresh salmon, including 24 hours in the freezer to kill any parasites and nearly that long for a gradual thaw in the fridge.
What is it, and how can it be cured?
Cilantro, parsley, shallots . . . and the extra ingredient, love
"You stupid f***! Look at you now!"
Don't throw out that leftover Who Hash!
Gone but not forgotten
A Le Creuset saucepan frolics in its new home.
A year's wages in ancient Rome
Coming soon to eBay, my extra spice rub
The painterly grace of MWR
And then these people showed up and
ATE IT ALL.Labels: "And then even Benno Schmidt had to admit that there vas something to my . . . modesty.", food blog interlude, MWR entertains, our friend the parsnip
Random food blog interlude
How do the food bloggers do it? I'd go crazy. This is why Don't Trust Snakes Is Not A Food Blog
®. But, occasionally I get some odd culinary-literary urge. Tonight it is probably because I'm sublimating my sudden interest in determining whether I can improve on the classic peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich (idea below). Instead of doing more than some quick proof-of-concept exercises for that using some Wasa crackers, I thought I'd offer some random food ideas I've come up with or discovered over the years. All are beloved MWR originals unless otherwise noted.
Cracker Magic- Saltines spread with butter and topped with Walker's Wood Solomon Gundy spicy fish paste
- Original Wheat Thins topped with good cheddar and a slice of cornichon
Flavor-rific Pizza-Topping Combo- black pizza olives, strip bacon (not Canadian bacon) and fresh garlic
Amuse Gueule FormidableSlice a tender Brussels sprout into thin tangles with a Japanese mandoline (or do your best "freehand"). Make a little mound, top with a few tarragon leaves and dress with new-harvest extra-virgin olive oil, a little squeeze of lemon juice, and some fleur de sel. This is surprisingly delicious.
This is the time of year when the new-harvest olive oil is at its best. The very fresh oil has a distinct grassy-olive taste that fades away over time. The bottle must clearly indicate that it is from the 2006 harvest (95% of bottles don't state the year). I got a very nice and reasonably-priced one at this time last year, Neus Especial from Catalonia, a bargain at $15 for 350 ml.
SYP's Favorite Moghul-licious SoupLamb and Yoghurt Soup (Dahi Shorba)
(from Moghul Cooking by Joyce Westrip)
1 tbsp butter
1 finely sliced large onion
1/4 tsp finely chopped garlic
8 oz lamb shank, meat cut up; reserve bone
1/4 cup dried yellow spit peas; cover with water and soak for 1 hour
1/2 cup well rinsed rice
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp chili powder
6 cups water
2 cups lightly-whisked yoghurt
A few finely-cut rings from the green end of a scallion
Heat the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, sauté the onion and garlic until light brown, add the meat pieces and cook until they turn brown. Add the soaked split peas, rice, salt, cumin, turmeric, pepper and chili powder and mix well. Add the water and the bone. Cover the saucepan and simmer gently for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Remove the bone and discard. Leave the soup on a gentle simmer. Remove the meat and grind to a paste in a food processor [bet you didn't see that one coming - MWR]. Skim off any fat globules that may have surfaced on the soup. Return the meat paste to the saucepan and gradually stir in the yoghurt. Overrun substantial portions of Indian subcontinent.
Serve hot, garnished with green onion.
Oh, my goodness, I almost forgot to tell my idea for the better Pb&J (which is not replacing the peanut butter with delicious lead). It is to spike the grape jelly with some amount of pomegranate molasses.
Labels: food blog interlude
Food blog interlude
As you know, Don't Trust Snakes is not a food blog. This is not because I don't know all sorts of amazing things about food, cooking and restaurants. Rather, it is because food blogs are tiresome and written by losers. Except for that one I always forget to read where your friend writes about what she made for dinner. That one is "a rocket-ship ride of a food blog, emanating rare deliciousness" (Paul Fischer, DARK HORIZONS). What, you think I'm talking to you? Your friend really does have a blog like that?
Get over yourself.
I'm going to take a short hiatus from not writing a food blog so that I can favor you with some really great tidbits of food-related information. Just because I'm in the mood. Prepare to receive knowledge.
- Seattle's best Ethiopian food: Enat Ethiopian Restaurant, 11546 15th Ave NE, in the Pinehurst neighborhood (closed Mondays). Trust me on this one. It's the best. As a bonus, there are shakers of berebere on the tables. Order the vegetarian combo, which you will find is the best vegetarian combo to be found anywhere in Seattle, because this is Seattle's best Ethiopian restaurant. (When did MWR become such a search-engine whore? Or start referring to himself in the third person?)
- Keep your eyes open for this delicious hot/sweet sauce from Indonesia.
- Try the following combination of pizza toppings: black olives, fresh garlic and bacon. Not Canadian bacon, but regular salty bacon. I invented this combination. It is best executed by V&T Pizzeria, Amsterdam Avenue between 110th and 111th.
- This delicious dip will delight your guests. You probably think I'm exaggerating because I seem to be in one of my moods, but I'm not. I once took this to a party and almost every single person there asked for the recipe.
Muhamarra
2-1/2 lbs. red bell peppers
1-2 small hot red chilis, or harissa
1-1/2 cups crushed walnuts (6 oz.)
1/2 cup wheat crackers, crumbled
1 tbsp. lemon juice or sherry vinegar
2 tbsp. pomegranate molasses or more to taste
1/2 tsp. ground freshly-roasted cumin
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
2 tbsp. olive oil
Roast, seed and skin peppers. Process walnuts, crackers, lemon juice, molasses, cumin, salt and sugar until smooth. Add bell peppers and process until smooth. Drizzle in oil with motor running and add chili. Adjust flavors with more molasses, etc. (I often add significantly more molasses, lemon/vinegar and/or salt here). Optionally, garnish with chopped pistachios mixed with cumin or nutmeg.
Serve with pita wedges, crudités, etc.
Since this is a beautiful brick red color, people are unlikely to refer to it as "hummous."
- Don't miss my other tasty tips!
Labels: food blog interlude
Chock full of anachronistic goodness!
"Inspired by the original chocolate crafted by the Mayans more than 2500 years ago, we blend rich dark chocolate with a hint of cinnamon for a magical Mayan offering." - Häagen-Dazs promotional materials
First of all, let me say that this
Häagen-Dazs Mayan Chocolate ice cream is one of the tastiest ice cream flavors around. Not quite up there with
Toscanini's Grape Nut Raisin, but you can't get that at your local store. And not quite up there with
Blue Bell Buttered Pecan, which along with decent barbecue is the best reason I can think of for living in
any of these places (Memo to residents of such places: Did you know that not only do we not have
flying cockroaches in the Pacific Northwest, we basically don't have
any cockroaches to speak of? But I digress.)
But, being a
pedant, I must point out that
cinnamon is an Old World spice that would have been unknown to the Mayans until their contact with the Spanish conquistadors in the early 16th Century. By that time I'd guess the Mayans had more important things to worry about than making delicious ice cream.
I've been doing a fair amount of rambling, so let me just summarize the takeaways I had in mind when I conceived of this entry:
- Delicious!
- Cinnamon is an anachronism.
- Doesn't contain any human blood.
Labels: food blog interlude
Tapenade
- 8 oz. black or green olives, stoned (always double check if the store purports to have done it)
- 1-3 cloves garlic
- 2 oz. can anchovy fillets
- 2 tbsp. capers
- 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
- 4 tbsp. olive oil
- black pepper
- pinch each nutmeg (freshly-grated is best) and fresh thyme
- 1 tsp. lemon juice or brandy
Combine olives, garlic, anchovies and capers (rinsed first) in food processor. Add mustard and drizzle in oil with the motor running as if making a mayonnaise. Season with freshly milled pepper, add thyme and nutmeg. Finally, add brandy or lemon juice. Correct seasonings.
(Best made the day before. I never use brandy but sometimes substitute sherry vinegar for lemon juice. I often substitute summer savory or, indeed, anything called savory for the thyme, especially in the green olive version. I’ve used a variety of olives but never wrinkly oil-cured ones or kalamatas—too strong—and never little nicoises—too much work to get the pits out. Obviously you can’t use canned olives.)
Labels: food blog interlude
Taramasalata
Just whipped up some delicious taramasalata from an improvised recipe:
- 1 10-ounce jar tarama (carp roe). Make sure not to buy already-made taramasalata sold in similar jars. You could substitute other fish roe that hasn't been given a caviar treatment.
- 1-2 cloves garlic
- approximately 1/4 small onion, finely grated (I used a microplane)
- dash salt
- juice of one lemon
- about 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- four slices cheap white bread and some stale pita, soaked in water
- fresh-milled black pepper
Ingredients should be at room temperature. I used a large mortar and pestle, but a food processor or blender would also work.
Crush the garlic, onion and salt into a paste. Add the lemon juice and tarama and pound for a while to break up some of the eggs. Whisk in olive oil in a thin stream as if making a mayonnaise (which, indeed, you are). Squeeze out excess water from the soaked bread and pita; break up and whisk into the mixture and season with fresh-milled pepper. Adjust seasonings (if too salty, add more lemon juice).
Serve with wedges of pita, etc.
Labels: food blog interlude
