Reflection 9

Couscous. A food memory.

The first time I had couscous was my sixteen birthday. My grandparent took my family to the Checkerberry Inn, in Goshen Indiana. It was a gorgeous european style country inn on 100-acre wooded private estate amidst Amish farmland. I remember we played croquet with my grandparents, on the lawn out in front of the inn on that golden August evening. But truely one of the most memorable thing about this evening was a food item we were served. No one at the table had ever encountered it before and there was to ensue much discussion as to what it actually was. Was it a pasta? Was it a grain? Well what ever it was it was good and served tossed with sauteed wild mushrooms. It was couscous.
My family soon sought to make couscous a regular part of our diet in the Vila house hold. To the extent that my brother came to dread it . My mother would roll her eyes when it showed up again and again at the dinner table. But neither my father or I (the cook and the shopper) ever tired of the miraculous couscous.
Now I stated the location of my first couscous experience and should state the year (1996) this predates the appearance of the Near East brand couscous in the Midwest. If you were living in Indiana in 1996 and had never lived anywhere else the likelihood that you would have experienced the wonders of couscous was practically nil. And the distance you had to go to procure it - from where we lived would have at least been the next town over.
Today couscous is popular. It is carried in grocery stores from coast to coast. But I still remember the first time I ever saw it and the novelty of it has never worn off. It is a grain. And incredibly versatile as to the innumerable ways you can dress it up, which is why today I am still eating lots of couscous. It can accompany an amazing variety of cuisines from Middle Eastern curries to Mediterranean vegetables. You will find it a perfect side for Kenya styled braised chicken or tossed with feta and mushrooms. The list goes on and on but the couscous remains!

Plus it cooks in less then 10 minutes!

Here is out household favorite couscous dish:

Mediterranean Couscous Toss (Serves 2)

1 box of Near East Couscous (garlic and oil version)
Cook as package directs - I throw mine in the rice cooker
for ten minutes and it comes out perfect every time!
toss cooked couscous with the following:
measure to your liking . . . .
sun dried tomatoes
feta cheese
crimini mushrooms
fresh basil
shallots
jalapeno pepper
fresh baby spinach
diced pan seared chicken or pork.

Mix it up - use whatever you have what ever you like.

The strongest flavors will be the basil and feta. The sun dried tomatoes will give it a smokey bright flavor and the peppers will give it a kick! spinach and the meat just fill it out to make more of a meal out of it. They can easily be left out and this dish can become vegetarian or a simpler side dish to serve on the side.

Reflection 8

The ubiquitous Mac and Cheese, a perfect cold weather comfort food. Now before you say: I would never eat That! Just imagine the calories!!! I ask you this; if I had a mac and cheese recipe that had half the calories and twice the flavor AND no low fat, skim milk, skinny on the anything in it- would you try it? Hmm. You don't have to answer out loud. Just think about it. Now I have always had very high standards for macaroni and cheese, and that is my grandmother fault. A a child I was most disappointed by the many glutenous dished that were passed off as mac and cheese. I saw powder packages that with a magicical stick of butter could turn into neon orange sauce. I saw the Velveta tube cheese that would take the form of any container you saved it in. And last but not least there was the dreaded cafeteria white sauce mac and cheese (that looked like glue and tasted worse) But I had been spoiled as a child. Fed by my grandmother, mac and cheese that actually had cheese in it. Not butter, not velveta and definitely not glue. And she also put jalapeno peppers and a dash of paprika in her mac and cheese. Then she baked until the noodles turned chewy on the top and edges and that was my favorite part. That WAS mac and cheese. And as an adult what I find so amazing about my grandmother's mac and cheese is that it has half the sodium and calories of most traditional mac and cheese recipes. It has about half the amount of cheese, no butter and hardly any milk. The trick is to use extra sharp cheddar. For me mac and cheese is all about flavor and texture. It should have a sharp kick from the cheddar and peppers and a warm smokiness from the paprika and an almost dry and chewy texture.

Here is what goes into my
macaroni and cheese:

Fills an 9x6 baking dish. (2-4 servings)

8 oz. Fusilli (100% Durum Semolina)
.25 lb Cheddar Extra-Sharp
1 Jalapeno pepper
1 Tsp. Paprika
1/4 cup Milk
3 Tbsp. Bread Crumbs

That's it.

How To:
Shred cheese. Dice pepper.Boil water. Add pasta, cook till al dente. Drain the pasta and set aside. melt cheese and add milk and paprika to melting cheese. Once the cheese becomes melted toss pasta and dices peppers into pot. Stir until mixed well. Pour into baking dish. Sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake at 425 for 30 to 60 mins - depending how chewy/crunchy you want it.

200 calories per serving

Reflection 7

If I was only allowed to eat one food on the face of the earth - it would be Pad Thai - hands down. Not restaurant Pad Thai, definitely not Pad Thai from a packaged kit. And if you feel insulted because you like either of the aforementioned, let me tell you the truth about Pad Thai. There are restaurants that make great authentic Pad Thai using all native ingredient (we'll get to those in a minute) but these restaurants charge you a lot of $$$ for the lowly dish called Pad Thai. Which if you know about Pad Thai is absurd. In Thailand Pad Thai is cheap street vendor food. No expensive ingredients, no years of grand culinary school are require to perfect this dish. I do contend that the right ingredients do matter and many of them will not be found in you local grocery store. I order a lot of my Thai cooking ingredients online from ImportFood.com . They are incredibly reliable - even with fresh producc which I order every other month or so. They also have great free videos of Thai street vendors making traditional dishes, which are great to watch for learning how to cook dishes. This is where I found the video of a street vendor making Pad Thai. The Pad Thai recipe I'm sharing is off the Import Food website. They have at least 150 great recipes.
The three must have ingredients that are a bit hard to come by are the Kaffir Lime Leaves, palm sugar and tamarind. They are not expensive ingredients, but unless you have a specialty Asian food store in town they may be hard to come by. I made Pad Thai for a long time without these three ingredient, and when I finally got them - it turned Pad Thai into a completely different dish. Palm sugar is is much mellower that cane sugar, closer to maple sugar or honey in taste. Tamarind is a must have for all kinds of South East Asian cuisines. It is a tart fruit paste. It can be found in pulp form and as a concentrate. I recommend the concentrate, it's easier to work with. You may have an easier time finding the pulp (also the pulp is cheaper) but you have to boil and strain it. Kaffir lime leaves I discovered when learning how to make Tom Yum Soup (a story for another day . . ) the leaves when fried in cooking oil with give off a citrus fragrance that masks much of the fried oil smell from the dish.

I make Pad Thai for lunch about once a week.
Prep time 20 mins Cook time 10 mins.

First, prepare your Pad Thai Sauce:

Ingredients for Pad Thai Sauce

1/4 cup palm sugar
1/4 cup fish sauce
4-6 tablespoon tamarind concentrate
1/4 cup Sriracha sauce

Method for Pad Thai Sauce

Put tamarind concentrate into a measuring cup, and add enough water to make 1/4 cup, stir, this is your tamarind juice. Combine shaved palm sugar, fish sauce, tamarind juice, and sriracha sauce. You can make this Pad Thai sauce ahead and put in a jar in the fridge up to a week.

Ingredients for Pad Thai (makes 2 servings)

1 egg lightly beaten
1 cup fresh shrimp or chicken (optional)
1 tablespoon sliced shallot
1 handful rice stick noodle
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
1/4 cup fresh scallions
2 tablespoons chopped unsalted peanuts
vegetable oil for frying
2 Kaffir Lime Leaves

Method
Boil water, once boiling turn off and soak the rice stick noodle in the water for 15 minutes, leave noodles in water while you prep and cook. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok at medium-high heat. Add egg and cook it quickly, scrambling into small pieces. Remove, set aside. Add 2 tablespoons of oil in wok. Add shrimp/chicken and cook until done. Remove, set aside. Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the wok. Add shallot and Kaffir lime leaves fry until aromatic. Increase the heat of your wok. Add a handful of soaked noodles. Stir-fry this mixture for until the noodles start to get soft. Add 1/4 cup of Pad Thai Sauce and mix well. Add cooked egg, bean sprout, scallions and cooked shrimps. Stir well for another 1-2 minutes until everything blends together. Turn off heat, transfer to serving plate with sliced fresh lime, roasted peanuts.

Reflection 6

There were not posts over the weekend because I was out of town and did not cook. Do you know what happens when I do not cook? It's like being on vacation and all my rules and good behavior goes right out the window. Mostly for conivence and sociability sake. But really why do I do this? It is not like there aren't healthy options. I watched people eat healthy things all around me all weekend. but here is what I ate:

Saturday
2 large coffees
1/2 packaged croissant
McDonald's breakfast burrito
pint of clam chowder
1/4 lb cheese burger
1/2 vanilla Sunday

Sunday
3 large coffees
1 waffle
1/2 chicken sandwich
1 piece of fried breaded cod w/ fries
McDonald's Angus burger

Ugh.

Admittedly, this puts me in the Eater's Hall of Shame and in no position to do anything but continue to cook for myself and stay home. Sigh I really will try harder next time I say that even knowing that thanksgiving is coming just a week a way - but that is a food topic for another day.

Reflection 5

Who doesn't love pizza? I love pizza. My husband loves pizza . But I love my husband, so I don't let either of us give into our pizza cravings very often. A great compromise is to say to one's self, if I really want pizza I will make my own. This almost guarantees that it will be healthier that the pizza at your local pizza shop. I will concede that homemade pizza is not a cheap meal or quick to make, but if pizza is what you are craving then it is well worth it to take the time and make it yourself. In our house we are great fans of the personal sized pizza. Rather than dough we use pitas for the crust, it's a pretty good substitute and will crisp up when baked. Homemade pizza has very different rules and expectations from pizzeria pizza. When I go to a pizzeria, I'm looking for quality cheeses, tangy flavorful sauce and an incredibly light crisp crust. Homemade pizza is an entirely different food as far as I am concerned. I do not have a brick oven or a multi-generational sauce recipe. What I do have is a corner vegitable market - and that's a great place to start for making homemade pizza. Fresh ingredients are the key to making pizza at home. fresh tomatoes, basil, and real cheese - not processed. Unlike the pizzeria where every topping adds .99 cents to you bill, when you make pizza at home you can afford to indulge in toppings and what you do use up can simply be co-opt for another meal. The grand master of pizza at my house is Todd, so I'm sharing his pizza recipe with you today. (shown above)

Basil And Garlic Personal Pizza

Serves 2

⅓ lb Fresh Mozzarella
4 Fresh Garlic Bulbs
1 Red Onion
2 Baby Portabello Mushrooms
1 Cup Of Organic Marinara Sauce
1 Vine-Ripened Tomato
1 Red Pepper
3 Sun Dried Tomatoes
1 Fresh Basil Stalk
2 Pieces Of Rounded Flat Bread
1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
1 tbs Olive Oil
1 tsp Oregano
2 tbs of shredded Romano cheese

Dice your veggies to size, lightly crush and finely chop your fresh garlic. Shred your basil and Cut your mozzarella into thin slices

Drizzle your olive oil over the flat bread and spread with a spoon until evenly coated. Now spread a light coat of marinara sauce over your bread, mixed with a little bit of fresh garlic and basil.

Lay your mozzarella out evenly over your pizza. Generously top with red onion, portabello mushrooms, sliced fresh and sundried tomatoes, red pepper, and fresh garlic. Sprinkle with crushed red pepper and oregano to taste.

Cook on low heat in a frying pan lightly greased with olive oil until bottoms are crisp. Then bake in oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, until cheese is lightly browned and veggies crisped. Take out and let cool for 5 minutes, and top with the rest of your fresh basil.

Reflection 4

Naked Pasta. Do not cover it up. Do not hide your pasta. You have nothing to be ashamed of! Put it out there in the open. The biggest problem with eating pasta is what we pour over it or that we eat pasta as though it were the only thing in the bowl.

I have instituted a new pasta rule in my kitchen. Equal parts pasta to other ingredients in the bowl. This actually mean that my bowl of pasta will only be 1/3 pasta and the rest will be either veggies or meat. Obviously the less meat the better it is for you - but I'm an omnivore - so toss meat in. But that's what's so great about this kind of tossed pasta, everything goes a long way, so you don't need much of anything. Now there is an unlimited variety of ingredients you can toss with pasta, but tossing is the key. Nothing but the pasta and meat needs to be cooked. The less you cook your ingredients the more you will individually taste them. So it's a bit of personal preference as to how much you want your ingredients to stand out in the final dish as to how long you should cook them.

Here's what's in the bowl above:
Cheese Tortellinis (1 small package). 1 chicken breast. 4 sundried tomatoes cut into strips. 3 cremini mushrooms diced. 2 small ripe tomatoes diced. 1 shallot sliced. 1 stem of fresh basil cut into strips. 1/2 lemon. Shredded Romano cheese.

My personal secret to naked pasta of all sorts is pan frying my pasta. Here's how. Boil your pasta as usual. While it's boiling, start cooking your meat. Lets say for example it's chicken. I mixed my chicken chunks with olive oil, rosemary and thyme. when the meat is almost completely cooked, squeeze half a lemon's juice into the hot pan, it will cause the meat (and the pan) to caramelize the sugars in the lemon juice, giving you a rust colored rich savory glaze, turn down your heat enough to not burn it. Drain you pasta and toss it in the pan with your meat and let it fry in the caramelized glaze. The pasta will brown as it frys. Then turn off the heat and throw everything else in and toss! You can do this same trick with pork/sherry and beef/red wine.

Reflection 3

Lets talk about lunch. How much time did you take off for lunch today? How much time of your lunch time did you actually spend preparing food or eating food. My guess is not very much. That you most spent time in line or waiting in a booth or standing in front of a microwave. Did you know that there is a direct correlation between how much time you spend preparing food and how healthy the food is you eat. Almost nothing you can buy in less than five minutes is a good for you as something you spend thirty minutes making.

Now I hear you. Who has thirty minutes to make lunch? Who has a miraculous chefs kitchen in their office? Probably no one you know - and that includes me. But do not be discouraged! Be creative. There are so many good things you can make in the morning and take to work with you. I'm going to share one of my favorites today. (and yes it was featured for my lunch today.) You need 15 to 30 mins to make. That's it and you will not find yourself in a vendors food line tomorrow.

Vietnamese Summer Rolls
5 Rice papers. 1 endive. 1 shallot. Teriyaki marinated pork(3oz). 2 shitaki mushrooms. Side: sliced tangerine and lime, Nuco Cham dipping sauce and Teriyaki sauce

The best thing about Summer Rolls are that you can really put what ever you want in them. It's quick, because the only cooking is the pork. And there's so little meat that it's in and out of the pan in under 5 minutes. Unless you have experience working with rice paper - I suggest trying this recipe out on a Saturday and NOT when you are shot on time. There is a bit of a learning curve for using rice paper if you didn't grow up with it. But like most things - you will get the hang of if you keep going and don't freak out when the very first one sticks together and them rips apart as you try to smooth it out. It's okay, there are like a hundred in a pack, just get a new one and try again. the end result is worth it!

Reflection 2

There will be recipes here.
Todd's illustrations of my edible creations.
Other things than my lamentations about dieting.
So check back.

Reflection 1

I love to cook. I like the pictures of food in magazines, cookbooks, on people food blogs. Glistening veggies and caramelized meats! I want to make food that looks just like it. Then I want to share it with people who will enjoy it. I almost never cook a recipe twice, and there is almost no cusine I won't venture into even if it fails. This is the basis on my relationship with food.

But this blog is to reflect on my food issue which is two fold. First - very few recipes are for two. And there are just two of us at my house. Second - I have not learned the art of saving some for later. I am a traditional - eat everything on you plate person and then lick the pot clean (actually some night we fight about who gets to lick the pot) kind of person. So portions are a big issue for me. All these delightful recipes that say they serve for to six servings end up inside two bodies and over time this has begun to wreak havoc.

They say the fist step to recovery is acknowledging that there is a problem. Hopefully I will come up with many ways to creatively remind myself in this blog that two bodies get two servings (one each!!!) and that there is no fool proof path to balanced diet. Also up front, I am one of those people who does not like to eat breakfast. Noon is typically my first meal of the day. I'm working on this. . .

Today's Food:

7:00
3 cups coffee

12:00
2 6inche fajitas
Ingredients: corn tortillas, steak, onions,
peppers, cheese, 1tsp sour cream

7:00
Sesame Pepper Steak Sir Fry
Ingredients: 1 cup white rice, 1 strip steak (7 ounces) onion, peppers
Sauce: 1tbsp lght. soy sauce, 2 tbs sherry, hot pepper flakes,
1 tsp brown sugar, 1 tsp corn starch