Thursday, May 31, 2012

Ab ovo usque ad mala

Intro to the Intro: Guys, I'm sorry for falling off the face of the blogosphere! Now, with two months of (willful) unemployment post college graduation on the horizon, I have more than enough time to devote to the blog. I have a backlog of pieces and topics I want to chat about and am excited to get started again! This post has been wallowing in my drafts folder for months. Enjoy! 


Reflections on Being Off Meal Plan: This year is the first time I've been responsible for procuring/preparing my own food for an extended period of time. I quickly realized that real life is not like a Food Network TV show. One does not just "whip up" a 20 ingredient dish; first, its doubtful that one (okay, me) even has all the ingredients on hand, second, what is one supposed to do with the rest of the parsley after adding a tablespoon to the sauce? Chopping takes a long time, it is not just a quick take away shot before a commercial break. Cooking a meal doesn't end when the credits roll, normal people have to wash all the pots and pans... and while a food processor may make it incredibly easy to make pesto, it is incredibly annoying to clean. 

These are some of the dishes I go back to again and again (except for #1, which I just tried today). As a somewhat lazy and busy college student with no expected income for at least another 4 years, I put a big emphasis on quick and easy dishes that require minimal ingredients and minimal clean-up later. The deliciousness:effort ratio also needs to be pretty high. All of these dishes have passed the test! 

1. English Muffin French Toast! (Food.com): Loyal FTW,G readers, all English muffins are not created equal. The most delicious (yet affordable) ones I have come across are Bays. They are a bit more expensive than Thomas' but infinitely more delicious (I am certain that Case in Point would approve of my thorough analysis of the breakfast bread space). They don't have that cheap and crumbly  faux bagel-ness of Thomas' muffins, or the glorified sandwich bread-ness of Whole Foods muffins; instead they have a really delicious yeasty quality (yeasty doesn't make them sound great; perhaps "tangy" is more delicious sounding?) and a great chewy texture that warrant English muffins their own niche in the breakfast bread space. They are the perfect snack or on-the-go breakfast! (Also, they are on sale at East Side this week! Buy a lot and freeze them! (I posted this two months late... I am sure they will eventually go on sale again...)) 
A chimera! from Wikipedia
I normally just put them in the toaster for a bit and then slather on butter but I saw a recipe on the back of the muffin box this morning for French Toast English Muffins and thought it was an inspired combination! It is indeed delicious!  I think the problem with normal French Toast (in the experience of an inexperience French toast maker) is that often times the bread used is not substantial enough to handle the egg batter and pan flippage. The bread dries out pretty easily and is too crumbly to stay intact. Quality muffins solve these issues. Because English muffins only have one open face and are pretty thick, surface area:volume related moisture-loss issues that plague ordinary sandwich bread are minimized. Also, their smaller diameter makes them easier for normal people to flip without toast disintegration. 

I didn't actually use the specific recipe I linked to but there is not a lot of deviation in french toast recipes. I added some vanilla extract to the mix and sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top. 
Truly haute fusion cuisine!

2. Parmesan Roasted Broccoli -Barefoot Contessa (Food Network, 2008): Ina adds a lot of things that are delicious but not necessary for a normal week night iteration of this dish. Pine nuts and julienned fresh basil are nice and all, but not worth it if time is an issue. There is a lot of wiggle room in this recipe: the main things to take away are: preheat the oven to 425 F, drizzle olive oil, garlic, and some salt and pepper on the broccoli, put it in the oven for 10 minutes, take it out and toss it around, put it back in for another 10ish minutes, and then throw in some lemon juice and Parmesan (I use Pecorino Romano... I would say cheese is optional though) and serve! To make it super easy, I buy the big 5 pound bag of pre-washed pre-cut broccoli (and pre-minced garlic... look the other way, Alice Waters). The time I spend actively preparing this is probably around 3 minutes, tops. 

The true magic of this dish though (for college students like me, at least) is
 its synergy with frozen chicken tenders! When preparing multiple dishes, its annoying to juggle between them; when you are working on one the other gets cold, when one needs to be sauteed, the other needs to be drained. It's stressful! Roasted broccoli and chicken tenders take exactly the same time/heat level/toss increment so they are perfect to cook together. They can even be prepared on the same baking sheet. Preheat the oven, put some broccoli on one side, toss with olive oil and seasonings, and add a few tenders to the other. At 10 minutes, flip the chicken and toss the broccoli. At 20 minutes, both are done and ready to eat! Clean up is minimal; there is only one baking sheet. 

from Wikipedia

3. Quick Zucchini Saute -Smitten Kitchen (8/2/2007): When Deb says that something is her favorite side dish that is high praise. It has become one of my favorites as well! The almond + zucchini combo is really unique and unexpectedly delicious. Also, as the title suggests, it is really quick. Like, 10 minutes start to finish quick. And it requires only a few ingredients (zucchini and almonds are the more specialized ones; most people should have olive oil, salt, and pepper lying around I think). Toasting the almonds in olive oil brings out a wonderfully nutty aroma and a satisfying crunch to the dish. Some helpful tips: 1. If you find both thinly slivered and more thickly slivered almonds in your grocery store, purchase the thick sliced ones. The thin ones tend to burn quickly so its difficult to time. 2. It might be tempting to grate the zucchini but this will yield flimsy slices; you want some body to your zucchini. A mandolin would work really well here, but if you slice it by hand, cut it into thin slices length wise first and then chop it into sticks. 3. Don't overcook your zucchini. It literally spends 30-60 seconds in the pan. 4. To achieve nice flakes of cheese use a vegetable peeler. 

4. Pine Nuts- Judith Thurman (The New Yorker, 11/21/2011): In the Food Issue of The New Yorker this year, Judith confesses that her secret to appearing to be a great dinner host is to toast some pine nuts before the guests arrive. It fills her home with a delicious aroma that suggests she has toiled long and hard on the impending meal. Judith totally knows what's up. I too agree that toasting stuff makes it awesome.

from cleananddelicious.com
Besides the almonds in the Quick Zucchini Saute, I think steel cut oats also really benefit from toasting. Add a pat of butter to a sauce pan and when it becomes nice and golden, add the oats. Stir it around so that the butter covers all of the oats. Soon the air will smell of nutty popcorn. Then, I normally add boiling water and cook like normal (I think its done a little faster since you have "pre-cooked" the oats.) I imagine this takes away some of the health benefits of oatmeal but oh well. I also normally add dried fruit, honey (or maple syrup), cinnamon, nutmeg, and walnuts (which I suppose can also be toasted). 

In case you were wondering (I realize you probably were not but will plow on anyways) the best oatmeal on Thayer is at ABP, its not steel cut, but it has a nice texture and there is a good selection of toppings (when Blue State says "home-made oatmeal" they really mean Quaker quik-oats with some raisins and crystallized ginger thrown in). 

5. Indonesian Ginger Chicken- Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, 1999) So I wouldn't really describe this as authentic Indonesian (or authentic anything, really), but it is delicious! I think freshly grated ginger is key. This is a great recipe if you are planning a meal with a lot of people. There are 5 ingredients... how much easier can you get? The marinade takes 10 minutes to make, you let the flavors sink in overnight, then you pop it into the oven for an hour. (It actually takes slightly longer in my oven, so be conscientious.) My roommate and I once made it for family dinner (10+ people) and it was incredibly easy to scale up. Ina uses whole chickens but I think it is a lot easier to use drumsticks or thighs instead. It also makes for great leftovers (not that there should be any)!
Yum!
6. Devil's Chicken Thighs- Suzanne Goin (Sunday Suppers at Lucques, 2005): This is one of those finicky, many-ingredient filled recipes that I railed against a few paragraphs ago. It would definitely not be a weekday thing.  I really want to try it though! It comes from Suzanne Goin's book, Sunday Suppers at Lucques. In the introduction, Suzanne discusses the conceit of Sunday Suppers. It is meant to be a leisurely all-day activity, where the preparation of the food is as much part of the main event as its eventual consumption.

from BonAppetit.com

Suzanne went to Brown, interned at Al Forno (which I recently went to... it was indeed delicious), and now runs a few restaurants in LA. This recipe has been featured on food blogs errywhere. Does it not look absolutely delicious?? Buttery bread crumb encrusted sauteed chicken thighs slathered with mustard sauce slowly roasted to perfection atop braised leeks(which I am possibly even more excited about than about the chicken itself). (It is understandable if you are less than enthused, my real-life pals were not all "we we we so excited" either.)

7. Whole Foods (2012): Also, since I do not foresee another good opportunity to share these fun facts (not that this has stopped me from dropping these Snapple-cap worthy facts on unsuspecting pals), I recently learned from Whole Foods magazine (Yes, they have a magazine! There are coupons inside!) that cinnamon comes from the bark of an evergreen tree and allspice is not a mixture of spices but the unripe nut of a tree in Jamaica. Also, toasting curry powder in a dry pan before using it to season a dish really brings outs its flavor. I also learned that cashew cream exists; supposedly it is a delicious vegan dip for fruits and filling for pastries that one makes by soaking cashews in water overnight and then food processing them with dates and honey.
from HowStuffWorks.com

1 comment:

  1. I will be trying these next year as I begin my life as a "soul-searching" penny-pinching college grad in nyc! -Dudu

    ReplyDelete