Chef Yoko is currently on sabbatical tending to various Real World Concerns, which means that SW&SR has been left to my tender mercies for the duration (cue demonic organic chords and fiendish laughter.)  I’ll see if I can pull any recipes out of the archives, just to prove that I do actually put pans to heat once a while.  In the meantime, we’d both like to offer the following article for your consideration:

It’s Time for a New Relationship with Food

Neither one of us agrees whole-heartedly with the sentiments expressed by the author, but it’s an interesting discussion nonetheless, and there’s been a lot of elucidation of the positions both for and against in the extensive commentary.

Thanks to Orchidwile for forwarding the link.

I am not a collector of cookbooks, but I seem to have a growing collection of them. The shelf above my counter space in my kitchen seems to be maximum capacity right now. I try to keep cookbooks that have recipes that will stand the test of time, that I will thumb through again and again.

These two cookbooks fit the criteria because they reflect how I’ve been eating for some time. I feel at my healthiest when the majority of what I eat are fruits and vegetables, with judicious amounts of meats and grains. It’s also the way I like to cook.
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Caught our fine friends at Nabisco (subsidiary of Kraft “no, we’re not owned by Philip Morris anymore” Foods) in the much-practiced but little-acknowledged act of brand repositioning, so egregiously that I couldn’t help but document it.  In each of the pictures below, the box on the left is the old Triscuit box;  the box on the right is the new Triscuit box.

FRONT

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“…Eurasia’s west-east axis allowed Fertile Crescent crops quickly to launch agriculture over the band of temperate latitudes from Ireland to the Indus Valley, and to enrich the agriculture that arose independently in eastern Asia.  Conversely, Eurasian crops that were first domesticated far from the Fertile Crescent but at the same latitudes were able to diffuse back to the Fertile Crescent.  Today, when seeds are transported over the whole globe by ship and plane, we take it for granted that our meals are a geographic mishmash.  A typical American fast-food restaurant meal would include chicken (first domesticated in China) and potatoes (from the Andes) or corn (from Mexico), seasoned with black pepper (from India) and washed down with a cup of coffee (of Ethiopian origin.)  Already, though, by 2,000 years ago, Romans were also nourishing themselves with their own hodgepodge of foods that mostly originated elsewhere.  Of Roman crops, only oats and poppies were native to Italy.  Roman staples were the Fertile Crescent founder package [emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley, pea, lentil, chickpea, bitter vetch and flax, plus beef, mutton, pork and goat meat], supplemented by quince (originating in the Caucasus);  millet and cumin (domesticated in Central Asia);  cucumber, sesame and citrus fruit (from India);  and chicken, rice, apricots, peaches, and foxtail millet (originally from China).  Even though Rome’s apples were at least native to western Eurasia, they were grown by means of grafting techniques that had developed in China and spread westward from there.”

–from chapter 10 (”Spacious Skies and Tilted Axes”) of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel:  the Fates of Human Societies

I wanted an alternative to the juices and flavored waters on the market. I don’t like consuming all that sugar. On the other hand, drinking straight water out of the tap isn’t terribly exciting or appealing to me either.

Any one of the ingredients for Sassy Water is a tasty addition, but all of them at once pack great flavor without sugar. This may be my go-to drink as the weather gets warmer.

The recipe is adapted from the Flat Belly Diet, which I am not endorsing. The Sassy Water, though, I can support.

Ingredients
2 quarts water
1 small knob of ginger, sliced (the original recipe calls for grated ginger, which has more flavor, but then causes you to have to filter out the bits, as they’re not great to swallow. In the photo above, however, I used minced ginger, since I had some leftover from another recipe.)
1 medium cucumber, peeled, thinly sliced (I use 1/2 of a hothouse English cucumber)
1 lemon, thinly sliced
12 small spearmint leaves (I use a small handful of leaves, plucked from the stems)

Place ingredients in a pitcher. Stir well. Refrigerate. Drink chilled. Keeps for about 4-5 days.

Tags: cucumber, ginger, lemon, spearmint, water

Lipby and I went to Florida this past winter to visit his parents. We arrived, coincidentally enough, during the Kumquat Festival, and we just had to go. We all took a shuttle bus into Dade City, and were treated to kumquats, whole and in various preparations. Lipz and I bought a huge box of meiwa (the round, sweet variety) and brought it back home with us.

There were so many kumquats that we couldn’t eat them all, so I decided to freeze them whole and make something of them later. A few weeks ago, I pureed the remaining kumquats and made kumquat refrigerator pie, which we first had a taste of in Dade City. It’s really delicious, and very easy to make, but I felt a little guilty posting this recipe. It calls for non-dairy whipped topping, which as you know, contains hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup. It seems irresponsible to tout something which has questionable ingredients in it. However, as a lactose-intolerant, I loved eating what tasted like a kumquat ice cream pie without the usual ill effects I get from eating dairy.*

I still had some kumquat puree left, so I made another dessert that doesn’t have those ingredients. Kumquat nut bread has only 2 tablespoons of oil, yet is very moist from the eggs and the puree. The result is a dense bread that is a little tart, a little sweet, and yummy. The recipe is here.

You can visit Kumquat Growers website for more information about the fruit.

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*This recipe also calls for evaporated milk, which somehow doesn’t affect me, either.

Tags: baking powder, baking soda, eggs, flour, kumquats, milk, nuts, oil, salt, sugar

I don’t like burgers.

This is one of two pronouncements about my food preferences that inevitably shock people.* When I say this, most people think I’m a freak. “How can you not like burgers?” they ask in disbelief.

I’ve never been a fan of ground beef in general. I don’t like its consistency. My stomach is also very sensitive to grease. I’ve had my share of hamburgers and cheeseburgers, and I’ve concluded that I’m better off without them.

My friend Jess has a started a Burger Club that is growing wildly in popularity and getting great publicity. She knows that I don’t dig that scene, but I told her I’d be there in spirit.

I recently bought the new cookbook Almost Meatless, by Joy Manning and Tara Mataraza Desmond, and came across the recipe for the B4 (Beef Bulgur Bean Burger). In the interest of trying something new, and in homage to Jess’s new venture, I gave this a try.
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Tags: black beans, bulgur wheat, egg, garlic, ground beef, hamburger buns, ketchup, lettuce, mustard, onion, pepper, salt, scallions, tomato, water

In other frivolous matters, I’ve become completely obsessed with this series of videos. Francis, a cute poodle, hosts this show about cooking Japanese dishes. I’m strangely enamored by the narrating voice, and the food– well, it’s making me positively homesick for my mom’s cooking, and I will really just need to start making washoku again.

Cooking With Dog

And why didn’t I think of this? I cook, and I have a dog– a dog who will not sit still like Francis and will eagerly wait to pounce on anything that falls on the floor while I’m cooking… hmm… that won’t film well, I guess.

Take the quiz: http://newyork.timeout.com/quiz/705/705-quiz-gourmand

This quiz, from a NYC site, obviously contains references to places in the city. But for those of you outside the Big Apple, do the best you can.

I am not a food snob, which is a common misconception of me. (More about that in a later post.) My score was “You’re a Discerning Diner. You know what you like and it often includes gussied-up grub. But you’re just as happy scarfing a Papaya Dog any day of the week.” It’s true.

It’s been a recent tradition of mine to usher in the spring with a colorful salad. The niçoise salad is one of my favorites (a poetic recipe can be found here), so when I saw a version on Bellini Valli’s site, more than burnt toast, I knew I had to make it.

Some changes I made:
1. I thought I had eggs in my fridge, and didn’t realize I ran out until I was well in the process of making the salad. A serious omission– eggs are symbolic of spring, and really shouldn’t be left out. But, I carried on without them.
2. I made my dressing with red wine vinegar and snipped fresh dill that I have growing in my kitchen garden, rather than using tarragon vinegar, which I don’t have. I also inadvertently used the lemon I had for another recipe (what can I say– I was having a rough week)– it’s fine without the lemon, but I would have liked the brightness of it.
3. I used jarred, marinated artichokes, and kalamata olives instead of niçoise olives.
4. I omitted the anchovies, but used 2 cans of tuna instead, because I like tuna in this salad.
5. Finally, I just drizzled the dressing over the entire salad and tossed.

Thanks for Ms. Valli for posting the recipe, and thanks to Taste & Create for allowing me to participate in their project! If you’d like to be paired with another food blogger and try each other’s recipes, you can view how it works here.

Tags: artichoke hearts, basil, dijon mustard, eggs, garlic, green beans, lemon juice, lettuce, olive oil, olives, pepper, potatoes, red onion, salt, tomatoes, tuna, vinegar