On Being a Careful Consumer and Spring Lamb Stew

The main reason I went to cooking school was to learn how to truss a chicken and butcher stuff. This grosses some people out. It behooves the carnivore to know just what it takes to bring the main course to the dinner table – the whole bloody story. When we are mindful of the animal’s life (not just the life it has yielded, but the animal’s quality of life in terms on confinement and feed) we are more responsible and careful consumers.

Earlier this year my good friend friend Jeff began neighborhood cooperative farm out in Washington. They started with chicks. In a matter of months Jeff’s become something of a slaughter master. Bainbridge Island photographer Stephen Sloan captured the day with a series of photos that begin with a shot of a dozen or so plump, gorgeous chickens, grazing freely, and end with a little boy, age 6 or 7, carrying home the family dinner in a clean Ziploc bag.

Looking at the slaughter day photos made me realize that my animal protein purchases don’t provide much evidence of a completely careful consumer. Because of dietary restrictions I only purchase leaner proteins - flank steak, leg of lamb, boneless/skinless chicken breasts. The eater in me has come to terms with this but the Champion of the Good Farmer in me wants to patronize the beef famers at my local farmers market even though I cannot assess the saturated fat content of their product. Were I a neighbor I surely would’ve purchased and eaten Jeff’s chicken, but felt at odds with the mandates of a lower fat diet.

It’s hard - and costly - to be a careful consumer, especially when balancing footprint and health considerations. For me it means shopping as locally as I can. It means saying no to gorgeous, organic produce that is more well-traveled than I am. It means purchasing leaner cuts from animals that lived a natural animal life and died at the hands of grateful consumers. A natural follow-up and future post will examine how the high-and-rising cost of healthier lean foods prevents the population at large from careful consumerism.

Returning to where this started, a home cook may have no real use for butchering skills, especially when she only buys boneless leg of lamb. But the experience has solidified the this former cooking school student's connection between the animal and the main feature in a spring stew.

Spring Lamb Stew
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As an adolescent traveling in Ireland I admired the sheep dotting the landscape by day and dined on lamb chops or stew by night. This routine suffered a brief interruption when my sister pointed out the disconnect, only to resume 24 hours hence. My recipe is adapted from one printed in a Williams Sonoma catalog.

In a Dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot heat 2 T olive oil over a medium flame.

Working in batches, brown:
• 2 # boneless leg of lamb, trimmed of all visible fat and cut into 2-inch pieces

When all the lamb is browned return to the pot and add:
• ½ medium yellow onion, chopped
• 2 shallots, chopped

Cook for a few minutes until translucent. Add:
• 1 T flour

Stir and cook flour for 1-2 minutes. Add:
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 ¼ cups water
• 1 T beef base or demi glace
• 1 small bay leaf

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for about 15 minutes. Add:
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• Small bunch baby carrots, peeled (the ones with the greens still attached, but trim the greens down to about 1 cm)
• 6 baby turnips, peeled

Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir, cover and allow to simmer another 30-4 minutes. Add:
• Small bunch asparagus, top 4 inches only – trimmed down to 2” pieces

Simmer 5 minutes until asparagus are cooked through. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

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Tabouli Time

It’s full on warm today in Chicago; the AC came on automatically in my car this afternoon. I love these warm days of spring. The new leaves are turning a deeper green, promising warmer days ahead. I’ve started planning my container gardens. All I can think about are the summer fruits and vegetables I’ve missed so much. In the middle of Whole Foods I thought Tabouli! There will be tabouli tonight! I sped over to the bulk foods aisle and filled a bag with bulgar wheat, tabouli’s principal ingredient.

Bulgar is durum wheat that has been parboiled and had the bran removed. Despite the de-branning, buglar is considered a nutrient rich cereal, with a low glycemic index (low GI foods release glucose more slowly and steadily).

The Arabic salad also known as tabbouleh is a heavily dependent on access to good ripe tomatoes. I make mine with garlic, lemon juice, parsley and tomato. Because cut tomatoes need to be consumed quickly, leftover or day-old tabouli is never delicious. When my kitchen was in disrepair a few weeks ago I sampled the tabouli from a new restaurant nearby whose friendly proprietors made me optimistic about the quality of their food. Turned out they’re more charming than talented. The tabouli was not fresh and thus inedible. Shortchanged, I’ve had a hankering for the good stuff ever since.

I'm often asked how to serve it. I think of it as an Arabic micro-panzanella, a bread salad. I'd never eat bread salad with bread, so I eat tabouli as a side salad. Others can't resist having good pita bread on hand. Certainly a pita stuffed with sliced lemon chicken and several spoonfuls of tabouli would make a delightful sandwich.

Tabouli
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Serves 6-8
Combine, cover and let stand 20 minutes:
• 1 cup dry bulgar wheat
• 1 ½ cup boiling water

Add and combine:
• 1 ½ t salt
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 T garlic, pressed or minced
• 2 T olive oil

Cover and refrigerate 2-3 hours. Then add:
• 2 cups chopped tomato, seeded
• 1 cup parsley, finely chopped
• Fresh ground pepper

Taste, adjust seasoning as necessary and serve.

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Delicious Kung Pao Chicken (宫爆鸡丁)

Lucky us - we have so many choices when looking for a recipe. But how do you know which to choose?

When I need a recipe I start online with a basic Google search. I'll run a food blog search, too, if the Google search seems inadequate but Google does a decent job of picking up recipes from food blogs. Open several browser tabs with a different recipe in each and skim them. I immediately make cuts based on the ingredients or how convoluted they sound, or if it's immediately apparent that the recipe author hasn't a clue about what they're doing.

In the case of searching for recipe for Kung Pao I read 10 or so recipes. I immediately closed out recipes that called for powdered ginger and carrots since neither have a place here. I also jettisoned a few that called for marinating the chicken. Really? you're thinking. What could possibly be bad about a marinade? Nothing. I just find I don't tend to cook recipes where I have to make both a marinade and a sauce. I prefer to sauté the chicken with lots of garlic and ginger and let flavors infuse that way. Also, it takes time and I wanted a quicker recipe.

The last few were discredited for listing water as a sauce ingredient or for calling for just a few teaspoons of liquids for the sauce. I like to have lots of sauce to drizzle on my rice. Plus, I'm still getting used to cooking on my carbon steel wok from Chinatown. It seems a bit thirsty and sauces dissipate quickly. I can almost hear the water sauce recipe author shouting, "I told you that you needed water to compensate for the heat of the wok!"

In the end I chose a recipe that I had stashed in my cookbook from a 2002 Food and Wine magazine. I also like Rasa Malaysias recipes, but in this case she calls for Shaoxing wine as an ingredient and I have been unable to procure it. Shaoxing wine is a Chinese rice wine. In the past I have substituted mirin or dry sherry or a combination, but I want to find the real thing. I'll have to get help next time I'm in Chinatown.

Kung Pao Chicken (宫爆鸡丁)
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Serves 4

Mix together in a small bowl:

* ½ cup orange juice
* ¼ cup rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
* ¼ cup soy sauce or tamari
* 1 T sugar
* 2 t cornstarch

Cut chicken breasts into bite-sized chunks, pat dry and sprinkle with a pinch of kosher salt. Reserve.

In a wok or large skillet heat:

* 1 T canola oil

Add to the wok and sauté:

* 8 small dried red chilis, or 2-3 t chili flakes
* 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped or pressed
* 2 T fresh ginger, finely chopped or grated

Add the chicken to the wok and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, or until browned all over. Transfer to a bowl and reserve.


Add 1 T canola oil to the wok and heat. When hot add:

* ½ red bell pepper, sliced in thin strips
* ½ green bell pepper, sliced in thin strips
* 1 small onion, halved and sliced crosswise


When the peppers have softened (allow about 5 minutes cooking time), add the chicken back to the wok and stir to combine. Heat thru and cook everything together for a few minutes.

Add the sauce to the pan and cook until thickened, another minute or two. Stir in:

* ½ cup roasted peanuts or cashews
* 1 t sesame oil

Taste for seasoning and serve with basmati or other long-grain rice.

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On Entertaining with Ease

Life passes quickly. It's imperative to stop and smell the slow roasted tomatoes - and savor them with friends.

When entertaining I consistently have to remind myself of what’s important: friends first, food second, domestic order a distant third. Erma Bombeck said it best, “If I had my life to live over I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.”

My house is rarely as tidy as I’d like but I still align myself closer to Martha along the Stewart-Ray spectrum. Martha Stewart sets the bar at great food and sophisticated presentation while Rachael Ray eschews elegance all together and suggests the unthinkable: Mini Cheeseburger Salad.

When faced with finite time and infinite aspirations, entertaining comes down to choices. If you have all day you can entertain like Martha. I’ve done it – it’s gorgeous and exhausting and burns me out from hosting subsequent gatherings. If you’d like to entertain with more regularity, which I recommend since it really is fun, then something has got to give. But it doesn’t need to be the food. It’s more important to greet your guests with a welcome calm than an immaculate kitchen.

Other advice:
1. Rely on purveyors to help you out. I usually take a Yes, You Can! approach to cooking. This is the exception to that rule. When you have access to people and products that will be time and stress saving for you, use them. Sushi from your neighborhood counter is a great appetizer (your guests will love you for it) and store-bought sorbets and berries make great desserts.

2. Greeting guests with a drink is a welcome touch. My favorite pours right now are Blood Orange Cocktails (blood orange soda with vodka) and prosecco, though the gents prefer beer or wine.

Here’s a few themed three-course menus I regularly cook from when entertaining. Each one is sophisticated enough to separate you from Everyday mediocrity and simple enough to give you time to enjoy a glass of wine before the doorbell rings.

Asian
1. Sushi – allow 4-5 pieces per person
2. Asian Grilled Salmon Salad
3. Lemon and raspberry sorbet

Italian
1. Antipasti platter (roast vegetables: beets, red peppers, onions; fresh mozzarella; olives; charcuterie; crostini)
2. Family style pasta: Pesto or Pomodoro
3. Poached pears or simple almond cake or seasonal berries with mascarpone mousse

Mexican
1. Chips & Guacamole
2. Carnitas or tacos
3. Kahlua Truffles – Yes, you can!

Americana
1. Cheese/charcuterie/crackers or baguette
2. Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken or Salmon
3. Brownie sundae – make or purchase good brownies and chocolate sauce. Serve on a plate with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and top with chocolate sauce.

One more thing:
“Housework, if you do it right, will kill you.” - Erma Bombeck

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Making Crêpes for a Weekend Breakfast

Crêpes get a bad rap for being difficult. Heck, I basically agree. My family eats such a quantity of them that whoever is on cooking detail is stapled to the stove while the rest of the family languishes about eating and barking out orders: One cinnamon! Two raspberry!

That can be difficult.

Kitchen equipment purveyors exacerbate the perception by selling crêpe pans. You don't need one. I just use nonstick omelet pans.

The truly difficult thing about crêpes is waiting. Once the batter is mixed it must sit in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes. This gives the gluten time to relax after whisking the heck out of the batter. Gluten is a protein in flours. Different flours have different amounts of gluten. Cake and pastry flours, which go into more delicate bakery items, have less protein. Bread flour has higher protein, giving breads and bagels a dense and chewy bite. All purpose flour is right in the middle. If you cooked a crêpe right after mixing it would be rubbery and unpleasant.

When I cut butter from my diet I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to make crêpes. Happily, I discovered canola oil makes a fine substitute. I often have a hard time with substitutes, thinking them at best silly and at worst an affront to cuisine. Both add necessary fat - canola is just a healthier one - and very often canola oil quietly replaces butter much like a televised awards ceremony seat filler. Feel free to re-substitute an equal measure of melted, unsalted butter if the substitution offends. I won't lie: butter provides a better taste and texture. But try substitution yourself - you may be surprised.

Crêpes
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Serves 4-6

Sift together in a large mixing bowl:
• 2 cups flour
• ½ t salt

Add and combine:
• Zest of 2 lemons

Whisk together:
• 6 eggs
• 2 ½ cups nonfat milk
• 3 T canola oil
• 2 t vanilla extract

Make a well in the dry ingredients and slowly whisk in the liquid. When completely combined cover and allow to sit for 45 minutes in the refrigerator.

Cooking method
Preheat 1 or 2 nonstick omelet pans over a low-medium low flame.

Spray with high heat canola oil. Holding the pan at an angle, ladle a small amount (about ¼ cup or less) directly into the center of the pan. Tilt slowly to allow the batter to evenly coat the pan.

If this is your first crepe-making venture, allow yourself 2-3 crepes to get a hang of it. Crêpes should be as thin as possible while still coating the entire bottom of the pan. Just experiment with the amount of batter you use.

When the surface looks cooked through (about 45-60 seconds of cooking), slide a spatula around the sides to loosen and flip over. I use my fingers to do this, and sometimes it’s pretty hot, but it’s really the easiest way. Cook the other side for about 10-15 seconds, then flip onto a plate or surface to fill and roll them. I use a cutting board here.

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Spring Salad Nicoise

When my children were smaller I always got a chuckle out of watching them play in a sprinkler. They would scamper around the yard shrieking with ecstatic anticipation. How do you describe the absurdity of a child’s thrill with something as predictable as a sprinkler? Will it come around again? Aaaaahhhhh! Here it comes!!!

Though I have discovered the timed rotations of the sprinkler I am equally enthralled by the predictable. Case in point: I am consistently captivated by the change of seasons as if their change were not guaranteed.

I think (I hope) I’m not alone here.

It seemed that the winter of 2008 would never end. It has. It seemed like I’d be eating stew and brussels sprouts and slurpy hot things in bowls forever. But hearty fare has given way to a small bounty of spring vegetables. I’ve been gazing with childlike wonderment at the small bounty of produce suddenly available. Spring greens! Rhubarb! Asparagus!

Salad Niçoise is a favorite spring dinner. Topped with fresh tuna and plated with a variety of color, you’ll hardly recall the long winter from which we’ve emerged.

Salad Niçoise
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Serves 4

YOU WILL NEED:
• 1# fresh or 2-3 cans tuna
• Salad greens
• 3-4 tomatoes, quartered
• 1 cup olives - Niçoise olives are traditional. I'm not a fan so I substitute kalamatas.
• Asparagus - roasted or steamed. Green beans can substitute.
• 4 hard boiled eggs, quartered
• 8-10 small Yukon gold potatoes, steamed and sliced. Other smaller variety potatoes can substitute.

Dressing:
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup walnut oil*
• 3-4 T red wine vinegar
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 2 t dijon mustard
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 t honey
• Kosher salt and fresh ground white pepper* to taste

* The walnut oil and white pepper lend a decidedly Provençal flavor to the dressing. You can substitute olive oil and black pepper and still enjoy the dressing.

METHOD:
Roast asparagus. Trim tails (and peel the thicker ones), line them on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, kosher salt and fresh ground pepper and roast in a 425° oven for about 10 minutes until bright and tender. Cool to room temperature and reserve.

Brush tuna with olive oil, salt and pepper and cook to your liking (grilling or searing both work well here).

Assemble salad ingredients on individual plates. I like to center the greens and then scatter the other ingredients in small piles around the plate. Have fun with the design.

Top each plate with tuna and drizzle with dressing. Serve immediately.

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Two Takes on Eggs: the scramble and skillet

People are notoriously picky about how they like their eggs: wet, dry, over medium. It can be as convoluted as a Starbucks order and make any eater sound like Sally Albright.

Enter the scramble and skillet.

A scramble is eggs scrambled up with your choice of meat and vegetables. It's an omelet station in the comfort of your own home (with the added benefit of not having to eat an uncooked omelet). A skillet, pictured above, is just a scramble with potatoes. Both are all sorts of delicious and pretty hard to ruin. Add what you like and cook as long as you like. In our house I take my portion out and allow the rest to cook a bit longer, per my husband's specs. The addition of jalapeno, ham and green onion turn ordinary scrambled eggs into something you'd eat at a great breakfast spot.

Breakfast Scramble
Print recipe only here

Serves 2

YOU WILL NEED
Equipment:
10" Nonstick omelet pan
Heat resistant spatula

Ingredients:
5 eggs
1/2 cup thick cut ham, cubed
1 jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed, finely chopped
1-2 green onions, finely chopped
1 t canola oil
1 tomato – optional (don’t make a special trip)
Kosher salt

METHOD
1. In a nonstick pan, heat the canola oil over a medium flame
2. Add the jalapeno and green onion and sweat briefly
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs well and reserve
4. Add the ham to the pan and cook for a few minutes
5. Add the tomato when the ham is a bit browned. Cook for a minute or so, until it softens and the color deepens.
6. Add the eggs and a pinch of kosher salt. Allow to sit for a moment.
7. Using a heat resistant spatula, gently scrape the bottom and sides of pan, releasing and turning the cooked eggs. Allow to sit a moment between scraping again. You’re aiming to form large pieces of scrambled egg. Continue to turn and scrape gently until the eggs are cooked to your liking. Serve with a good hot sauce.

TO MAKE A SKILLET:
Cut potatoes into small dice. Follow Step 1 above, but add the potatoes to the pan and cook for about 10 minutes (nearly cooked through) before proceeding to Step 2. Follow remaining method instructions in order.

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