How Beet!

Yottam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's cookbooks are all the rage these days, and with good cause.  There is even a Facebook page devoted to "cooking the book" Jerusalem.  I've had Plenty and Jerusalem since each was published here and both are filled with wonderful recipes and photos that leap into your kitchen and make you want to eat everything in them.  Now, their first book, called simply, Ottolenghi, has just been released in this country with American style measurements. I received my copy yesterday!

This beet puree of Ottolenghi's is surprisingly wonderful and easy to make.  I found it in his cookbook, Jerusalem, but this version is his submission to Food & Wine magazine.  There are a few differences between the two versions.  The main one, though, is that in the book, Ottolenghi calls for date syrup while in the magazine he substitutes in the same amount of maple syrup.  Maple syrup is widely available and most people keep it handy so I suspect this is a change that he felt would make the recipe more accessible, but really, if you have sourced za'atar, it's possible that you've been in a store that also carries date syrup.  I've also read online that people have substituted pomegranate molasses.

A second difference is in the method of cooking the beets.  I'm really not sure why he's changed this out as either method works just fine.

I skipped the goat cheese and just garnished with the hazelnuts and scallions.  Pistachios would also be delicious.

And for any interested locals, Ottolenghi and Tamimi will be speaking with Joan Nathan as moderator, at the 6th and I Synagogue in October.  Just check the Politics and Prose schedule for details!

No Crust Quiche-Like Food

I have read many a kale recipe over the last few years, and many an article in a food publication touting kale as not only a superfood but one that any proper food lover should embrace.  In my house, however, we simply call this dish "no-crust quiche," because, really, despite all its hype and hoopla, most people still turn their noses up and their taste buds off at the sound of the dreaded "K word." My husband is a perfect example of such a person.  I have served kale in all its varieties and all its splendor and blogged about it several times.  However, my unscientific tests have shown that if I say a dish has kale in it, it receives a much frostier response than it would if the taster thought the green bits were something other... say, spinach, maybe.  Not that anyone is actually fooled, but at least I don't have to see sad faces at the beginning of dinner.

So, in order to ensure that this dish got its fair shot (I won't even address the quinoa issue), I renamed it for my family's purposes.  In actuality, this is Hilarybee's famous Quinoa and Kale Crustless Quiche from food52, and there is a reason that so many love it.

I recommend it highly, for those times when you think you'd like a quiche-y kind of eggy thing without all the fat.  Don't get me wrong, this is not completely virtuous, what with some cream cheese and cheddar, but it's got all the satisfaction of a full-on quiche without the crust, many fewer eggs, and no cream.

I use 1/3 less fat cream cheese with no loss of creaminess and I also like to grate a little cheddar over top to brown.  Last time I made this, I used Cotswold cheddar, the one with the bits of chives in it, and it was delicious.  I like to use lacinato kale (also known as Tuscan kale) for this.  You can even use frozen kale, just thaw it in a strainer and then press out all the water.

A couple of other tips: first, don't skimp on the onions (in fact, add more if you like them); and, second, make extra quinoa to keep in your refrigerator for a quick salad later in the week.  Although Hilarybee recommends this be served hot or room temperature, I much prefer it hot out of the oven, when the cream cheese is oozy and, well, creamy.  Leftovers are delicious microwaved to that same state of creaminess.

Many thanks, Maddy, for the beautiful photos!

Crispy Lentils with Lamb

The combination of lamb and lentils is not one I would have easily come up with, but I love cumin so when I saw this featured on food52, I immediately tried it.  I've made this dish now several times and have adapted it to suit our family composition of two omnivores and one vegetarian (although Maddy has asked that I no longer refer to her as Veggie Girl, the moniker remains oh-so-fitting).  It's an easy weeknight dinner and even possible to make, as I do, in two pans simultaneously.  I will explain how I do that below, for any of you likewise mixed families.

But first, a couple of tips.  This dish is equally tasty made with ground beef, and, I have to come clean, with pre-coooked lentils from Trader Joe's refrigerated section.  When I used the pre-cooked lentils, I deglazed the pan with white wine left over in the fridge instead of the lentil water called for.  I serve with large leaves of lettuce in which to wrap a few spoonfuls of the mix and with some warm pita and yogurt or labne (please, please try Rivka's which is delicious and save for a little advance planning, incredibly simple to make.  I use 2% Greek yogurt for this).  For a vegetable side dish, roast some cauliflower  or diced eggplant on an oiled pan in a 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes or so.

I make this in one larger pan and one smaller one, using the smaller one for a lentil only version.  In the smaller pan, I skip the lamb and just put the lentils in with a little olive oil.  I use about 1/3 of the lentils for the vegetarian version and 2/3 for the one with lamb.  In step 2, I add the spices and garlic and wine proportionally to the two pans and watch and stir both.  Both versions taste great!

Photo credits: Maddy Bazil

Aging and Advil

Aging is hard.  I don't mean to state the obvious, but as we get past a certain magic number in years, it really does seem that, physically, the road is just more challenging.  While exercise and eating well can hopefully keep us relatively healthy for years, the body does not behave as it did when it was 20.  Or 25.  Or 30.

Complaining about this seems petty, what my daughter would call "first world problems." Obviously, if we are complaining about things like plantar fasciitis, bunions, lower back pain, herniated discs, rotator cuff injuries, tennis elbow, or even a stomach ulcer from too much Advil taken for a wrist injured while playing tennis, we are lucky enough to bear the marks of an active life, not a life threatening ailment.

Nonetheless, it does seem that as one approaches a certain age, the body must be coddled a little bit more.   We might need insoles in our shoes or maybe different types of shoes entirely, different tennis rackets or different stringing tension, a better mattress, better posture, better diet and lots of Advil.

There's the rub.  What to do when the Advil you've taken for years becomes the cause of an entirely new pain?  One that feels like someone's lit a match under your breastbone every 3 or 4 minutes.  Well, what you don't do is eat tomatoes, garlic and onions.  I speak not from personal experience here, but as official cook to the Advil wounded. 

Here's what you do eat: oatmeal, eggs, bread, potatoes, grilled chicken.  Notice a color pattern here?  A little splash of orange from carrots, sweet potato and salmon. 

This is what Maddy and I ate one night, while Paul was enjoying his skinless rotisserie chicken with a baked sweet potato:  Turkish style pasta with a sauce of Greek yogurt and ground pistachios and garlic.  This recipe could not be easier to make and was surprisingly delicious for such simple flavors.  I have now tried this with whole wheat spaghetti combined with regular Greek yogurt, and, despite the recipe writer's admonition,  2% Greek yogurt with traditional pasta.  It was delicious both ways.  In future I will probably go with whole wheat or farro pasta and 2% yogurt.  I might even try fat free yogurt just to see how it turns out.  The first time I made this recipe, my garlic cloves were particularly pungent and made the dish a little too garlic-y, so when I reheated the leftovers I added a little more yogurt and pasta.  I recommend you start with 2 small cloves of garlic and taste the sauce while it's still in the food processor.  You can always add another one or two, as the recipe says "to taste."

This is perfect with a simple salad (we used a dressing of hummus thinned with lemon juice and a touch of olive oil) or would also be terrific with some roasted chunks of eggplant and maybe some green beans for color. 

James Beard Awards

I just found this post in my draft file and I'm not sure why I never completed it when it was timely.  Though the James Beard awards were back in May, I found after reading my notes, that my thoughts are still relevant even months after the event.   So here is what I wrote back in May (with just a few current edits!):
   

Soon after the awards, Jane Lear, writing in her blog, noted the incogruity of the James Beard award for best cookbook going to Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking at the same time that Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking and More Home Cooking were inducted into the Cookbook Hall of Fame (I wrote about Colwin and her books here).  This is providing me with the impetus to marshall my helter-skelter thoughts on the subject, something I've been wanting to do for a while but just haven't been disciplined enough to do. 

While an occasional, very special and very costly dinner is all well and good, it is the day to day cooking that most interests me.  I'm much more about how one keeps dinners coming night after night, for family and friends who also have opinions about what they like to eat, and keep everyone happy, healthy and well fed.

I don't hate science, but let's just say that with cooking, as with most aspects of my life, I am much more intrigued with art than science.  I don't even like to bake much as it smacks of method and rules. I feel like I should write up a lab report if I try to experiment a little.

I don't like being reigned in by cooking that gives you too many rules.  Maybe this is why in addition to avoiding any real baking, I don't even like to can the jams I make.  I love the creative part of the process - putting together fruits and flavors - but I'm not much for the scientific-feeling follow-through of the actual canning process.   There is too much at stake if I get it wrong.

I wrote, a while back, about chef Sara Jenkins' explanations that although she is proud of what she cooks in her restaurant, it is home cooking that really turns her on. I've eaten in her restaurant and it is what you'd cook at home if you were a trained chef and everyday was Sunday.  However, this is still not molecular gastronomy.

I love Jose Andres' restaurants here in Washington, and as a chef and businessman, he seems never to take a wrong step. He is a leader and yet his food in most of his restaurants is completely accessible. I have even attempted to recreate some of his dishes at home. Yes, he trained with Ferran Adria, one of the fathers of molecular gastronomy, but he saves his edgier preparations for his smaller, experimental restaurants and chef's tables. 

I've long been puzzled by the visceral and vituperative attacks on Rachael Ray in online recipe fora. On food52's "hotline", for example, many participants write diatribes against her brand of corner-cutting home cooking.  I don't really see what's wrong with someone taking the time to help others feel that cooking at home is not as intimidating and time consuming as many think.  Why hate? Don't we want more people cooking at home?

The James Beard awards celebrate the chef, the pinnacle, the cutting edge of cooking, and maybe that's how it should be.  But I am thrilled that Laurie Colwin's little books of wisdom and great home cooking were also honored.