Archive for January, 2009
Botany and Cooking Memories
During the holiday break from classes and work, I had the opportunity to read a fun little book I got from my sis-in-law. Botany, Ballet & Dinner from Scratch is penned by Leda Meredith, a ballerina-turned-botanist who works at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I wish I had known about her when I visited there earlier this year so we could have chatted about her lovely memoir. Inside the playful cover you’ll find short stand-alone chapters and at least one recipe attached to each. Leda talks of her childhood, adolescence and adulthood in the context of food, travel and relationships, among which she sprinkles some very handy gardening and botany tidbits. Her experience as an urban forager was right up my alley. She discusses the importance of proper plant identification in foraging situations and also gives a mini nomenclature lesson that even the complete gardening beginner can understand.
While I didn’t learn terribly much from this book since I’m already heavily immersed in horticulture and in cooking with ingredients grown in my own garden or other nearby source, I still recommend it for beginner and expert alike. For the reader just starting out in either gardening or eating locally (or, ideally both), Leda’s straightforward writing style is easy to understand and it’s not nearly the snooze that some other related books might be. For the reader that’s got an existing green thumb and well-worn apron, this book will make you smile and think about long-forgotten experiences that may have shaped who you are as a gardener and cook. It did for me.
I haven’t tried any of the recipes yet. Many of them are meat-heavy. But there are a few, such as dilly beans and raspberry cordial, I’ll be sure to try when their seasons come back around. Leda has a blog about being a locavore in NYC. I haven’t read through it much myself, but take a look here if you’d like.
Santé Magazine
I was pleased as punch to see my photos in print in the October issue of Santé, a premier magazine for restaurant managers and chefs. I just received a quality PDF of it, or else you would have seen it much sooner. The recipe these photos were shot for was Vegetables and Gravy in Pastry Boxes. Link to the full magazine article is here. Thanks to the editors of Santé for featuring my work!
Squash Apple Cheddar Tart
When I was living in Belfast, I giggled a little at some of the culinary cultural differences that popped up regularly when I visited the Tesco for groceries or went out for a bite – take away or sit in – with classmates or coworkers. I worked in a small café that made “toasties” (think homemade grilled cheese meets Hot Pocket) filled with what I considered to be outrageous filling combos. I wish I could remember some of the more shocking flavor marriages, but the one that’s stuck with me the most is cheese and apples.
The Brits seem to really like putting apples and cheese together. Perhaps I was still a bit of a backwoods babe with not a lot of diverse food experiences under my belt or maybe every American feels the same at first, but I really thought putting these two things together was weird. Then I had dinner one night at a friend’s (who just happened to be the daughter of a real live duke; yes, I was enamored as she was exactly everything a duke’s daughter should be) where we nibbled on a block of high-quality sharp cheddar and apple slices while we sipped a fantastic French white. It was one of those “a-ha!” moments, one that chisels your spiritual silhouette just a little more and leads you down new roads.
I’m still not overly fond of most cheeses with apples, but any time I hear cheddar + apple, my stomach growls just a little in anticipation. Can’t explain it. Just does. So, naturally I had spied this recipe for Squash Apple Cheddar Tart in the Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden book way back when I bought it and it was the first page to be dog-eared. But I made myself wait for the heart of winter to indulge, figuring it would give me something to look forward to during the doldrums of cold-weather eating.
I smacked my lips in anticipation and wasn’t the least bit disappointed (aside from my own stupidity in allowing it to get just a bit overdone). The squash has a silken texture with subtle flavor against the smoky onions and the tart apples. And of course the cheddar was the tiara on top. I had a slice right out of the oven and enjoyed it for sure. But I liked best the slices I had out of the fridge the next day for lunch. It was just the change of pace I was looking forward to and an excellent dish for showcasing winter produce: cheese, squash, apples and onions are all easily sourced locally, even in January.
Of Colds and Lil’ Black Dresses
‘Tis the season for the sniffles…I got ‘em, you got ‘em, everyone’s got ‘em. Misery loves company right? Another love of those of us dogged by the flu or a cold is soup. Nothing beats a steaming savory bowl of soup when you’re sick, or, for that matter, any other time the mercury drops below 40. How fitting then that January is National Soup Month here in the States.
Last winter I did some thematic weeks of posting, including two separate Week of Soup events. These proved to be a very popular series here on SFTF so I know several of you love soup as much as I do. A pot of soup gurgling on the stove is the ultimate in comfort food. Quite often, as in this particular instance, it’s incredibly healthy too, crammed full of vitamins and minerals.
But I also know there are others of you that are a bit intimidated by making homemade soup. I have a wonderfully easy recipe to share with you today that will make even the most timid cook a quick study on stews. Anne Bramley’s Eat Feed Autumn Winter is the source for this hearty rustic Quick & Easy Italian Soup. As Anne does so often in the cookbook, she introduces this recipe with a keenly accurate and witty description: “This is the little black dress of the winter cooking world. Everybody has that simple little number to throw on without much fuss.”
It’s true! Just like that dress (or that shirt, for you fellas) in your closet that’s the workhorse of your wardrobe and somehow still manages to always elicit at least one compliment every time you wear it, this tasty soup is very simple to make and yet ridiculously flavorful. Dress it up or down with a few accessories – crusty chewy rolls for instance – and you’ve got yourself a soup that will take you from a quick workday lunch to a cozy romantic dinner for two.
Kohlrabi & Carrot Salad
Here we are once again, standing on the doorstep of a brand-spankin’ new year. Every January there’s a sense of resolve in the air around my house. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I make resolutions. I don’t have a mind that operates in those clearly defined terms. But I do assess my current situation in life and think about where I’d like to see myself heading over the next 365 days.
I’ve never been a slender woman, although since high school I have been a fitness fanatic with a nicely toned body. Unfortunately, the chaos of changing careers, moving into our first house, taking on freelance assignments to supplement the drop in pay by going back to school, and giving up my daily bike commute, my hips have been sadly spreading over the past year. So, for the first time in years, I find myself starting this particular new year with the same misgiving about weight that so many do.
To that end, I’m on the hunt for recipes with fresh flavors but fewer calories and lower in saturated fat. This recipe for Kohlrabi and Carrot Salad is a bright colorful way to start off and tasty enough to help me keep my resolve. It’s a quick lunch, crunchy enough to make you feel full, or it’s a nice little starter to curb your appetite at the start of dinner. Kohlrabi in particular seems to me to be a great vegetable for satisfying some of the more common cravings out there: it’s got the crunch of a pretzel but the slight sweetness of an apple. Sprinkle it with a little salt and it’s surprisingly satisfying.
Recent Comments