Food And the Fury: Return to DC

I realize I disappeared for a bit. Ok, for almost four months. Without notice.

It's a key struggle, which I realize balancing profession and passion is a petty complaint compared to juggling things like job and family, or finances and necessities.  But Albert Camus once said that pain is a gas, great or small it fills a room. I think that applies beyond just pain.

While I was gone, I did not have time or access to my kitchen to experiment, but I was able to try some interesting foods and learn a little along the way.  And I continued my self-education in flavor, texture, and techniques.

One food I ate A LOT was soup.  Soup is comforting, versatile, and flavorful.  My favorite soup right now is lentil. I learned how to make it in the traditional Arab way (my favorite), which is much thinner and And get this, it is EASY to make. Seriously!

You need the following: small lentils (the orange kind--I brought mine back from the Middle East but you can get them at most stores), part of a yellow onion, stock or broth (chicken, beef, veggie or combo), cumin, (I also add cayenne pepper), lemon, mint, cilantro, salt and pepper:

So I used about 1 c. lentils for 4 c. broth. I had to add water, so I would say maybe 2/3 c. - 3/4 c. lentils for 4 c. broth. I sauteed about 2/3 onion minced in the bottom of a large pan.  After they were nice and golden and mushy, I added the broth and lentils. Let it simmer; add cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper to taste. Keep simmering until the lentils are almost dissolved into the soup. The soup should still be relatively thin.  This will take about 40 minutes.

Finely chop the cilantro and chiffonade the mint. Add.  Right before serving, squeeze the lemon in individual soup bowls for added freshness.

And serve--it's that simple!

Microwave Fritatta

"L'art :
Green arsenic smeared on an egg-white cloth,
Crushed strawberries! Come, let us feast our eyes." -Ezra Pound

**Written last night...then I fell asleep before publishing.**


I just wrecked my diet. For the last few weeks I have been carefully tracking my caloric intake--revising my diet to include high amounts of lean proteins and reduce my intake of sugars, simple carbs, and processed foods.

This started when I hit a wall and realized I have choices regarding my life. Sure, I won't ever be a "skinny" girl; I will always have curves. I need a wide variety of flavor profiles. But I can determine how "not skinny" I am, and how healthy I want to be. Some people don't have that choice, so I should feel some sort of obligation in that regard. Inspired with the efforts of a few people, I stopped making excuses and started pushing through the fatigue, busy-ness, and other excuses I felt were keeping me from making choices that would give me the results I wanted.

Three weeks, 35 workouts, and the above diet later I lost four pounds! I was so excited.

Until tonight.

My Easter basket of sweetened temptations resurrected from the foot of my bed to the forefront of my mind and I caved. :( I ended up eating a Reese's snack egg thing, a dove chocolate, a few skittles, and a few sour patch kids. Now I have a tummy ache.


But tomorrow, I start fresh. So to celebrate my climbing back on the relentless wagon of the pursuit of good health in my life, I'm offering up a simple but effective egg dish. What I call a "work breakfast" because it is convenient for those of us who sometimes get up at 0530 to hit the road. There's really no excuse not to eat the most important meal of the day. But I've heard and used every excuse there is. So please enjoy, this one's for us :)

For breakfast, I've started making microwave fritattas because I got sick of boiled egg whites and I don't have time to make a real breakfast in the am. It's easy:

I separate 2-3 eggs, throwing away the yolks. I put the whites in a pyrex or microwaveable dish.

To the whites I add a few chopped pieces of any of the following: 

• kale 
• broccoli
• asparagus
• spinach
• green onion
• shallot
• fresh basil
• fresh cilantro

I add salt, pepper, a few herbs, and just a teeny bit of olive oil.  Other things to consider adding: zucchini, squash, mushrooms, peppers, olives, tomatoes (be careful if you're doing low-carb--they're fruits and therefore have sugar!)

If you want to make ahead of time, this is where you pause and then resume the following day in the microwave at work (or am I alone on that one?)

Put the dish in the microwave and heat for about 1.5 minutes. 

Obsessive Compulsive Brussels Sprouts...

“We kids feared many things in those days - werewolves, dentists, North Koreans, Sunday School - but they all paled in comparison with Brussels sprouts.”  - Dave Barry


I keep looking here to see if anyone is commenting or reading it or even cares. I think the answer is "no". None of you clowns are actually reading this blog, all the hits are just me checking in because I'm obsessive compulsive and I really don't want to fail at something like blogging. That is just mortifying, really. It's like being a gamer, how can you fail at Dungeons and Dragons? Not lose the game, but let's be honest here and just admit, if you're playing D&D, you probably aren't a candidate of "Most Awesome Person Ever" Award. Leave that to those of us who are Judgy McJudgerson and blog before 6am, buddy. 


I love food. (I know, that's like Michael Jordan holding a press conference to announce he thinks basketball is a-ok. Bite me.) I hate people who are very snobby and inaccessible about food. My pet peeve is when we think we know more about food than we do (I once went to dinner with a woman who insisted that microgreens were spinach. I never went to dinner or talked to her again. I wish I was joking. But that was just one example of how the food quirk manifests itself in me.)  Sometimes I fear that this blog will turn into one of those boring places where people only go because they feel like they should because they're my real-life-friend and therefore obligated to support my online-persona, if only to push me out of the way for candidacy as "Most Awesome Person Ever." 


It is is tough to think that when I've only bothered to write a whole 6 (now 7) times. But that's part of the reason for my month-long silence. In addition to not measuring up to my own standards (see what I did there? In the biz we call that punny. Please don't throat punch me next time you see me), I didn't want to get tied down with a boring, unhelpful, inaccessible, self-absorbed blog. 


Then I realized you guys will send me emails, phone calls, texts, Facebook messages, or sometimes facebook comments/likes (thank you, by the way) so at this point it's safe to think you guys still think there's hope out there for an obsessive compulsive food nerd who lacks the ability to employ standardized cooking measurements, patience to do the step-by-step photo thing or creativity to illustrate my work with neat drawings. After writing that sentence I realized this cannot end well.


Anyway, inspired by my friend Tim, I decided to try my hand at making some brussels sprouts that even your kid (or you as a kid) would enjoy:

What you are looking at was dinner a few weeks ago: brussels sprouts, apple, onion, prosciutto, goat cheese, milk, cayenne pepper, black pepper, sea salt, cumin, chili powder and white wine. Ok, happy eating!


Just kidding. To make your own:


Step 1:  Prep. 
           Wash brussels sprouts and trim. I cut the bottoms off. Put in a bowl. 
           Slice onion--I made pretty large strips as I wanted them to be more than a seasoning/aromatic but as an actual ingredient. I used a yellow onion (see: Things I'd do differently below)  
           Chop apple-- All I had was a yellow one that I wasn't really sure was good because it was so old. But it was good enough. (Again, go to recommended changes at the bottom)
           Prosciutto: Purchased pre-chopped. If you want, you can use pancetta or bacon. If you use bacon, you need to cook and crumble first.  


Step 2:  Blanch brussels sprouts. 
           To do this all you do is get a big pot for boiling water and put a steamer basket in it--you know the metal thing that fits in the big pot with holes in it--add some salt to the water. Make sure the water does not actually come INTO the steamer basket, but sits BELOW it. Put on the lid and turn the heat up until it boils. Once it is boiling, deposit the sprouts into the basket, put the lid back on. Watch it because you don't want to overcook. Overcooked food is gross food. While the sprouts are steaming, get a large glass bowl out and put ice cubes in it and water. A lot of ice cubes. Once those sprouts turn a nice bright green and are a bit less cooked than you would like, remove them from the steamer basket and put them in the ice water. Look at you, you just blanched the $#!+ outta them sprouts!!


Step 3: Caramelize onions. You can start this between Step 1 and Step 2 if you have the time. 
            To not waste the nice taste of butter, put a large non-coated (if you have it) saucepan (or just large pan) on high heat on the stovetop range. Wait until pan is hot. You know it's hot when it blisters your finger. Or when you put a little water on it and it sizzles. 
            Put the onions on this and THEN add a little butter, olive oil*, fresh cracked pepper, and fresh cracked sea salt. You want the butter/olive oil to coat the bottom of your pan and your onions. You will LOVE the smell and crackly sounds this will make. 
            Reduce heat. As the fats disappear, add white wine to the saute mixture. I used pinot grigio (see things I'd change).


Step 4: Add chopped apple and prosciutto. 
            Once the onions are translucent but before they are caramelized, kick the heat up to about medium, and add the apples and the prosciutto. You want all these ingredients to get a nice brown crispiness to the outside, but not burned. Eyeball the liquids--you probably won't need more fat now that you have the nice moisture of the caramelizing onions and the fat from the prosciutto. But if you need more, add some white wine or a little water. 


Step 5: Add spices: Chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, cayenne pepper.**
           Once your onions, apples, and prosciutto are all in the pan, you want to add cinnamon, chili powder, cumin, and cayenne pepper. To taste.  For me, I added enough chili powder to have the ingredients look like a red crack had rained down on them--a decent dusting. I added about 2/3 as much cinnamon--it is heavier, looks heavier, feels heavier, and the taste is heavier. I wanted the dish to taste bright, so I just put a light dusting. Same with cumin--it is distinct. I love it, but I didn't want people to only taste cumin . You could put cardamom in this dish too, I may have added about a pinch or a dash, I'm not sure though. Since I love spicy, and I have a slight addiction to cayenne pepper, I used a heavy hand. Cayenne pepper can be quite hot and the heat builds, so if you don't want it too spicy, hold back. 


Step 6:  Making your Cheaters' Cream Sauce
             By now your sprouts should be blanched. In a microwave-safe measuring glass, pour some milk and microwave to heat up. Now is not the time to ruin your dish with curdled milk. Add the heated milk to the saucepan of onions, apples, and prosciutto. Let reduce a bit. If you feel like it, add a little cream. I also added some goat cheese. Reduce the heat and simmer on low until the milk/cream/cheese is now a cheaters' cream sauce. Add the sprouts (I cut the large ones in half). Mix it all together and cover and let it keep simmering until it looks cohesive, smells uniform, and the sauce is creamy. 


Step 7: Enjoy.


Always always always be tasting. Throughout each step and each sub-step taste. This will help you go in the direction YOU want your dish to go. 


Things I'd do differently:  
        Use shallots or a red onion. Yellow was fine but red onion is stronger and more flavorful. Shallots are more flavorful and more fun to say. 
        Use a tarter, firmer apple. Like Granny Smith. Like I said, this was a whimsy, I used what I had.
        Used a spicier, fuller, stronger white wine. The pinot grigio added a sweetness that went well with the apple. But I think a different wine would be superior--sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, or another fuller, spicier white wine. 

        Roast the blanched sprouts. While the onions, apples, and prosciutto are cooking, turn the oven on high broil; put the sprouts on a pan, and roast them. Watch the sprouts though because high broil burns quickly. Turn them over so they are all nice and browned. Remove.  I would do this because the roasting would add another dimension to the flavor profile (smokiness) and texture (more crunch--which would be consistent with the apple and prosciutto).

This is what happens when you're cooking on the fly though, folks. Improvise, adapt, and eat happy!


* (do NOT use extra virgin. Extra virgin olive oil is to be eaten raw, NEVER cooked. Use just plain olive oil. If you write me and tell me "oh but the cooking channel or celebrity chef so-n-so uses extra virgin olive oil on heat" I will send a throat punch to your house addressed to you. Well to your throat. That's just how strongly I feel about this.)


** Spices: The bottom line is that you want the spices to be present enough to add dimension, depth, fullness to your dish without people taking a bite and only tasting the spice. Spices really need to draw out the natural flavors and qualities of the various products they are highlighting. Think of spice as megaphones. Their job is merely to amplify whatever goodness it is you are cooking.