November 19, 2012

Thanksgiving: All the Recipes You Need

November 19, 2012/ nonreactivepan

Thanksgiving is here. It's time to make all the wonderful dishes you and your family and friends love. Here's a guide to many of my favorite recipes.

April 06, 2012

Shredded Brussels Sprouts and Potato Salad

April 06, 2012/ nonreactivepan

A version of this recipe is featured on The Fruit Guys website.

Please meet my new favorite way to prepare Brussels sprouts: shredded. What a delightfully easy way to make a very healthy salad, using something other than your standard issue salad greens.

I first came across this method in the Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food cookbook. Their version (which I made and wrote about here) includes bacon. Which, in so many ways, makes me so happy. But, I've found that I need to cut back on the pork products (oh wait, I have a rack of pork ribs in the oven right now....). Therefore, I've created a new recipe using the shredded Brussels sprouts in not only a vegetarian recipe, but also a vegan one. A girl's got to keep her sleek physique and all of the lovely recipes I've been writing have begun to add up on the I-think-my-pants-shrunk-in-the-dryer meter.

The potatoes are the only cooked item in the whole shebang. You can either roast them, dice them or fry them, just do whatever you prefer. And, I didn't include how many this recipe feeds. Seems that the shredded sprouts really go on for days. I've taken to shredding a while bunch of them and storing them in a zipper bag in the fridge. That way I can make any kind of salad I want whenever I want to.

Please do make this or the other recipe referenced above. It really tastes great and is a nice change in your salad repertoire.

Brussels Sprouts and Potato Salad

INGREDIENTS

1 to 2 cups shredded Brussels sprouts
2 cups potatoes in 3/4 inch dice, steamed, roasted, sautéed, or boiled until tender but not mushy
1 /2 cup fresh chopped carrots
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine or sherry vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced finely
½ teaspoon minced tarragon
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

Shred the Brussels sprouts. You can use either a mandolin slicer or the slicer blade on your food processor. And, cutting them by hand is perfectly fine, just make them as thin as possible.
Place the shredded Brussels sprouts, diced and cooked potatoes and carrots in a large bowl.
Mix together the olive oil, vinegar, garlic, sage, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper.
Add the dressing to the vegetables and mix well.

February 15, 2012

Cookbook Review: Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food

February 15, 2012/ nonreactivepan

Remember how my friend got me a quail to roast for my birthday a few weeks ago? Well, that same friend got me a great cookbook for Christmas, too.

The book, Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food, by Sam Mogannam and Dabney Gough, with photographs by France Ruffenach, brought me back to the re-opening of the Bi-Rite Marketin 1998.

At the time, we lived on 17th street and Dolores, just a block from the market. The book lists June 8, 1998 as the opening day of the market as it operates today. That would put me at about 3 months pregnant. Which, as I recall, makes total sense, because by the time I was in my third trimester and had little to no interest in cooking, many a take out dinner came from the Bi-Rite Market. Lucky me!

The book talks about creating community through food, and the relationship the owners and his family had throughout the years with the neighbors. I experienced this day in and day out, whenever I went in to buy some meat or fish or prepared food, the people behind the counter always recognized me and knew what I was going to ask for before I even asked for it. From the outset, the atmosphere was always inclusive, never condescending and truly inspiring. It was a new take on an age-old traditional local grocer: organic, locally produced foods, where you might pay a little more, but what you got was well worth the investment.

My baby's first solid food (other than rice cereal and cheerios) was a piece of Bi-Rite's roasted chicken. I think that kid ate more Bi-Rite meals than I did in her first few months of solids. It was a good routine: walk down the hill from work, pick up some delicious food, walk the block home and enjoy. Did I also mention that the job I was walking home from was through a random connection that was made in front of the prepared foods case at the Bi-Rite?

I was in the market one afternoon, with my baby in her stroller. A woman approached me, said she liked my shoes and mentioned she had a baby about the same age as my girl. We talked for a bit longer, during which time she asked what I did for a living. At the time, I was managing trade shows, and told her this, and proceeded to ask her what she did. She had just launched an ecommerce start-up that was looking for some people and would I want to send her a resume. Email addresses were exchanged, communication ensued and I eventually became employed by a woman I met at the Bi-Rite.

So, yes, for me, creating community through food holds a special meaning in my heart when it comes to Bi-Rite. And, the book is organized in such a way that it's as if you're going on several visits a week to the store. You can read about pantry staples, locally sourced cheese, wine and produce, as well as get some awesome recipes for all of the above ingredients and more. The book presents the recipes within a story about the ingredients and why the buyer may have chosen to bring a particular variety of a fruit or vegetable into the market. It's written as a whole piece, not just story-then-recipe-then-story. It's more about the nature of how you might shop if you were to shop for your ingredients each day (which I love to do), versus how to make a meal in 30 minutes or less.

There is a definite need to know how to get good food out to the table quickly. This book does an excellent job of explaining how to get the best ingredients into those simple (and also the not so simple meals) and to give you an appreciation of what it took to get that carrot onto your plate. I'm a very busy single-parent who loves to cook and sees the benefit in buying the best ingredients I can, so this book is for me.

In closing, I'd like to share the recipe from page 162 for Brussels Sprouts with Pistachios and Warm Bacon Vinagrette. I made this the other night and was thrilled with the results. I've never used raw brussels sprouts (nor the super fine slicing attachment on my food processor), but I most certainly will do so again.

Brussels Sprouts with Pistachios and Warm Bacon Vinagrette

recipe from Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food, by Sam Mogannam and Dabney Gough, with photographs by France Ruffenach

Ingredients:

1 1/4 pounds Brussels Sprouts
6 thick slices Bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
bacon fat drained and reserved
Extra-virgin Olive Oil, as needed
Freshly squeezed juice of 1 Lemon
1 1/2 tablespoons Sherry Vinegar
1 small Shallot, minced, about 1 tablespoon
1 1/2 teaspoons minced Garlic
1/4 teaspoon Honey
Kosher Salt
1/4 cup lightly chopped toasted Pistachios

Method:

Peel off and discard the darker outer leaves of the sprouts and trim any discolored areas from the stem ends.
Cut the sprouts in half lengthwise. then silce them crosswise very thinly - about 1/16 inch.
Alternatively, you can use a food processor fitted with the slicer attachemtn, but the cuts will not be as clean.
Transfer to a large heatproof bowl, add the bacon, and set aside.
Measure 1/4 cup of the reserved bacon fat into a small pan and warm over low heat until liquefied(if you don't have enough bacon fat, make up the difference with olive oil).
Remove from the heat and whisk in the lemon juice, vinegar, shallot, garlic, honey, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
Drizzle the dressing over the brussels sprouts and toss well.
Taste and season with more salt as necessary.
If you have time, let the sdalad sit out for 30 minutes or so before proceeding--in this time, the dressing helps the sprouts soften a bit.
Just befor serving, top witht he toasted pistachio; if using the horseradish, use a microplane grater to shave a little over the top as well.

January 19, 2012

Vegetables

January 19, 2012/ nonreactivepan

vegetables from the ferry building

October 03, 2009

roasted veggies

October 03, 2009/ nonreactivepan

"Kids will eat anything if you broil them in oil (the food, not the kids). Heck, you could probably get her to eat cardboard prepared that way."

So said my oldest sister D. when I reported that my daughter Iz, at the ripe young age of 2 was eating sweet potatoes, cauliflower and brussels sprouts. D. was especially impressed, having a son just one month younger than Ms. Iz, who would not think of touching any of these foods.

I recall Gran Fran making all kinds of food (that might have been considered odd for a home cook, even in NY in the late 70's and early 80's), such as okra, paté, bagna cauda, and any number of other off-the-beaten-path items she was inerested in trying out that week.

There were no options, as I mentioned in some earlier posts. You ate what the parents made. No questions, no exceptions. So, if a plateful of broccoli rabe with red pepper flakes showed up on the table, you ate it. I am not a fan of cooked spinach, never have been , never will be, but that is how it was served in those days on Gran Fran's table, so I had to eat it.

In my own adulthood, I have come to love okra, broccoli rabe and spinach (but uncooked, please). And, I've found a foolproof way to create veggies any kid (almost) will eat: roast the heck out of them. The longer they roast (or the higher the oven heat), the sweeter they become. To be fair, some of the important nutrients do disappate if you cook the veggies too long, but as an introduction to the different flavors and textures of a good variety of vegetables to a young one's palette, you can't beat this.

It is now possible for me to serve brussels sprouts and cauliflower just steamed, hence preserving their vitamins and minerals, to Ms. Iz, and she loves them. Of course, she likes it best when I add some olive oil to either a baking dish or a hot pan on the stove, and saute or roast her veggies, but she will eat them either way with pleasure.

Roasted Veggies

serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients:

1 lb. Brussels Sprouts (or caulifower works well, too), shredded or well chopped
3 Tbsps Olive Oil (best-quality, of course)
Salt to taste (you can add pepper, but not for the little ones

Method:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Take a sheet pan, add some olive oil and salt.
Place the vegetables in question, and toss to coat with olive oil.
Roast in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until the veggies are nicely browned.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes serves 4 as a side dish