The Mountains of Irpinia
Jan. 26th, 2011 09:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purejuice1.
You know what? Old people who complain never get invited anywhere. People of any age who complain every time you see them pretty much don't get invited anywhere.
2.
Mark Bittman is leaving the minimalist column at the NYT after thirteen years. I think he's a genius of a cook, and proof that a great editor is always a good idea. Rick Flaste, the founder of the dining section, perceived -- no doubt from reading the downscale Woman's Day magazine -- that women work fulltime jobs and must come home and cook for their children. The previous NYT take on the 20th century needs of their readers had basically been the cock rock gourmet take -- Pierre Franey's 60 Minute Gourmet -- which, while great for food snobs and food scholars and technique freaks and food porn people and knifework heads and Francophiles of the classique yadda, like me, resulted in no actual cooking.
Bittman brought a Mediterranean soul food palate to the enterprise and created new recipes and techniques to get the tuna (with lemon zest and canned canellinis and vinaigrette!) ON THE TABLE. (Here, his immortal take on 101 summer salads.) His most famous recipe is the no-knead bread, which in his farewell column today he generously credits to its creator Jim Lahey.
November 8, 2006
Recipe: No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.
1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.
He charts his move to less meat for planetary reasons, about which he will be writing on the OpEd page, as well as blogging and doing recipes for the Sunday mag. I was interested the other day to see his three recipes for the planet -- his thoughtful pieces on really using your refrigerator freezer -- and his pointing out the sacreligious idea that frozen vegetables are way more sustainable than "fresh" ones flown from Peru -- and the broiler instead of trendy and expensive grills and trophy appliances are typical of what he's calling his populist attitude.
This also includes cooking with others (Franey wouldn't ever think or admit such a thing), learning from them (Jean-Georges' watermelon and tomato salad, genius, one of his 25 favorites from the 13 years) and then going to the kitchen to think. Braised turkey, genius.
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December 31, 2010
Chop, Fry, Boil: Eating for One, or 6 Billion
By MARK BITTMAN
Correction Appended
“Revolutionary” diet books flood the market this time of year, promising a life changed permanently and for the better — yes, in just 10 to 30 days! — but, as everyone knows, the key to eating better begins with a diet of real food.
The problem is, real food is cooked by real people — you! — and real people are cooking less than ever before.We know why people don’t cook, or at least we think we do: they’re busy; they find “convenience” and restaurant foods more accessible than foods they cook themselves; they (incorrectly) believe that ready-to-eat foods are less expensive than those they cook themselves; they live in so-called food deserts and lack access to real food; and they were never taught to cook by their parents, making the trend self-perpetuating.
Yet Americans watch 35 hours of television a week, according to a Nielsen survey. (Increasing amounts of that time are spent watching other people cook). And although there certainly are urban and rural pockets where people have little access to fresh food, about 90 percent of American households own cars, and anyone who can drive to McDonald’s can drive to a supermarket.
But perhaps most important, a cooking repertoire of three basic recipes can get anyone into the kitchen and beyond the realm of takeout food, microwaved popcorn and bologna sandwiches in a few days.
One could set off a heated argument with a question like, “What are the three best basic recipes?” but I stand behind these: a stir-fry, a chopped salad, and the basic combination of rice and lentils, all of which are easy enough to learn in one lesson. (“Lessons” might be called “recipes,” and need no “teacher” beyond the written word.) Each can be varied in countless ways. Each is produced from basic building blocks that contain no additives, preservatives, trans fats, artificial flavorings or ingredients of any kind, or outrageous calorie counts; they are, in other words, made from actual food. The salad requires no cooking; the stir-fry is lightning fast; the rice-and-lentils, though cooked more slowly, requires minimal attention. The same can be said for other recipes, of course, but not for all of them, and certainly not for the food that most Americans rely upon most of the time.
These recipes offer other benefits: They’re nutritionally sound and environmentally friendly. They’ve sustained scores of generations of societies worldwide, using traditional farming methods and producing little negative impact on the earth. (Almost without exception, your ancestors relied on something like one or more of these dishes.) All of them can be made with meat, poultry or fish, but they can be satisfying and delicious when made vegetarian or even vegan. In fact, if you cooked only variations on these three dishes you’d be well on your way to becoming an intuitive, fluid cook (the fanciest pilaf is essentially a rice-and-bean variation), eating more healthfully and with a lighter carbon footprint.
There is one notable thing these recipes are not: magic. You cannot produce them without having a functioning kitchen (a sink, a refrigerator and a stove will do it); some minimal equipment, including a pot, a skillet and a bowl (though in a pinch, the salad could be made in the pot); a couple of knives; some utensils; a strainer and a cutting board; and the ability (and money) to stock a pantry and at least occasionally supplement it with fresh food. These requirements cannot be met by everyone, but they can be met by far more people than those who cooked dinner last night.
(It’s worth noting, furthermore, that the stir-fry and the rice-and-lentils can be made entirely from the pantry, if you allow for the fact that frozen vegetables are a completely acceptable substitute for fresh, especially in winter, when “fresh” may mean “flown in from Peru.”) This pantry list can be as simple as oil, vinegar, grains, legumes and a few other things, but as people learn to cook it inevitably grows.
Given ingredients, a kitchen and equipment, all that is left is some time, and with a well-stocked pantry that time can be about the same as driving to Burger King and back. You can make a chopped salad in 15 or 20 minutes, practicing knife skills and producing a vegetable-heavy dish quickly and easily. Anyone who can boil water can whip up a batch of rice and lentils in just over half an hour, providing fiber, protein and one of humankind’s classic comfort foods. And anyone who’s learned how to chop (primitively is fine), apply heat to a pan and stir can produce a stir-fry — really the epitome of a traditional dish based mostly on plants with just enough meat or other protein-dense food to contribute additional interest, flavor and nutrition — in less than half an hour.
Make these three things and you’re a cook. And with luck and perseverance, these foods will crowd out things like (to single out one egregious example from hundreds of its competitors) KFC’s Chicken Pot Pie, which costs about $5 (so much for the myth of cheap fast food; a terrific meal for four can be put together for $10); contains nearly 700 calories, more than half of which come from fat; and has well over 50 ingredients — most of which cannot be purchased by normal consumers anywhere — including things like “chicken pot pie flavor” and MSG.
By becoming a cook, you can leave processed foods behind, creating more healthful, less expensive and better-tasting food that requires less energy, water and land per calorie and reduces our carbon footprint. Not a bad result for us — or the planet.
Correction: January 9, 2011
The directions for a recipe last week with an article about ways to change the way we eat and live gave incorrect ingredients for the broccoli stir-fry with chicken and mushrooms. Add 1 cup coconut milk — not water or stock — after stir-frying the vegetables in Step 2. (The list of ingredients did not include a reference to any liquid.
Broccoli Stir-Fry With Chicken and Mushrooms
Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4 servings.
2 tablespoons good-quality vegetable oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
4 scallions, chopped
1 pound broccoli, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces, the stems no more than 1/4-inch thick
8 ounces button mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and sliced
Salt
1 cup water
8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1/2- to 3/4-inch chunks or thin slices and blotted dry
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Freshly ground black pepper.
1. Put a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, add half the oil, swirl it around, and immediately add half the garlic and ginger. Cook for 15 seconds, stirring, then add the broccoli, mushrooms and all but a sprinkling of the scallions. Raise heat to high, and cook, stirring, until mushrooms release their water and broccoli is bright green and beginning to brown, 3 to 5 minutes.
2. Sprinkle with salt; add 1 cup water. Stir and cook until almost all liquid evaporates and broccoli is almost tender, another minute or two more, then transfer everything to a plate.
3. Turn heat to medium, add remaining oil, then remaining garlic and ginger. Stir, then add chicken and turn heat to high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken has lost its pink color, three to five minutes.
4. Turn heat to medium. Return broccoli, mushrooms and juices to the pan, and stir. Add soy sauce, sprinkle with more salt and some pepper; add a little more water if mixture is dry. Raise heat to high and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced slightly and you’ve scraped up all the bits of chicken. Taste and adjust seasoning, garnish with remaining scallion and serve.
Notes
Stir-fries work with virtually any combination of vegetables; protein-dense food (meat, poultry, fish, tofu, etc.) is optional. Use pork (like shoulder), shrimp, beef (like sirloin), or tofu instead of chicken; slice the meat thinly or the tofu into cubes.
Use cabbage, cauliflower, asparagus, green beans, snow peas, carrots or spinach in place of either the broccoli or the mushrooms or both. Or use other mushrooms.
Use fish sauce instead of soy sauce and finish with a squeeze of lime to give it a Southeast Asian flavor.
Use olive oil, skip the ginger, use onion instead of scallion, and substitute 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary or thyme to give it a Mediterranean flavor profile.
Use coconut milk instead of water and 1 tablespoon curry powder instead of soy sauce to give it an Indian flavor profile.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: January 9, 2011
The directions for a recipe last week with an article about ways to change the way we eat and live gave incorrect ingredients for the broccoli stir-fry with chicken and mushrooms. Add 1 cup coconut milk — not water or stock — after stir-frying the vegetables in Step 2. (The list of ingredients did not include a reference to any liquid.)
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December 31, 2010
Lentils and Rice With or Without Pork
Time: About 45 minutes
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 medium onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
4 ounces bacon or sausage, chopped, optional
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups lentils, rinsed and picked over
1 cup long-grain brown rice
3 or 4 bay leaves
Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish.
1. Put the oil in a large, deep saucepan over medium heat. When it’s hot, add onion, celery, carrot and meat, if using. Cook until vegetables begin to become tender and meat begins to brown in places, 5 to 10 minutes. Add garlic and some salt and pepper and cook for another minute or two.
2. Add lentils, rice, bay leaves and 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then lower heat so liquid bubbles gently, and cover.
3. After 30 minutes, if rice and lentils are tender and liquid is absorbed, the dish is ready. If lentils and rice are not tender, add enough liquid to keep bottom of pot moist, cover and cook for a few more minutes. If rice and lentils are soft and there is much liquid remaining (which is unlikely), raise heat a bit and cook, uncovered, stirring once or twice, until it evaporates. Discard bay leaves. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary, fluff with a fork and serve, garnished with parsley and drizzled with more olive oil.
Notes
Use any grain instead of brown rice; you can even substitute white rice. (Cooking time for white rice is half or less that for brown, so add later.)
Similarly, use any bean: cook longer as needed and keep an eye on the water to make sure the beans stay submerged in about 1 inch of water during cooking; wait to add the rice until the beans are tender.
Stock will add flavor, but don’t waste money on the canned stuff; use water instead. (The dish will taste like lentils and rice.) For more flavor, add onion, carrot, or other vegetables and an herb like thyme.
For the dish called Moors and Christians, substitute a red bell pepper for the celery and carrot, black beans for the lentils, and 1 cup chopped tomato for some of the liquid; let the beans cook until half done before adding the rice.
For smoky red beans and rice, add 1 tablespoon tomato paste and 2 teaspoons pimentón to the vegetables. Use red beans instead of lentils and cook until they’re half done before adding the rice (which should be short-grain). Simmer for another 15 minutes, then bake uncovered at 450 degrees Fahrenheit until the beans and rice are tender.
For mujaddara, skip the meat; cook two sliced onions in a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat until they’re dark brown but not burned, and serve on top of the rice and lentils.
For lentil and rice soup — or any bean and rice soup — use more water, or stock if you have it.
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December 31, 2010
Crunchy Cabbage Salad
Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
2 tablespoons or more white or red wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic, or more to taste
Salt and black pepper
2 celery stalks (preferably from the heart), chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 small red onion, minced
3 or 4 radishes, chopped
1 red or yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
1 small cabbage, cored and shredded.
1. Combine vinegar, oil, garlic, a large pinch of salt and a smaller one of pepper in a salad bowl. Beat with a fork until combined.
2. Add the vegetables, sprinkle lightly with more salt and pepper, and toss. Taste and adjust seasoning, and serve immediately.
Notes
Use lettuce or other greens instead of cabbage.
Add 1/2 cup chopped nuts.
Add 1/2 cup chopped dried fruit or a cup or so of fresh fruit.
Add a couple teaspoons of mustard, chopped fresh herbs, tomato paste, minced fresh chilies, yogurt, soy sauce, one or two anchovies, or some spice (like curry powder or fennel seeds) to the dressing.
Add leftover cooked beans, grains, meat or fish.
Crumble feta or other cheese into the salad.
Use any other cooked or raw vegetables you like: carrots, snow peas, avocado, tomatoes, cucumber, fennel, beets, corn, potatoes, green beans, asparagus or broccoli.
His all time favorite?
August 17, 2005
Recipe: Corn Salad with Soy and Tomato
Time: 20 minutes
Pan-grilled corn with chile
4 or 5 scallions, trimmed and cut diagonally into 2-inch lengths
2 tablespoons corn oil
4 medium tomatoes, cored and quartered lengthwise into wedges
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons soy sauce, more to taste
2 teaspoons sesame oil, more to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chopped chives, parsley or cilantro for garnish, optional.
1. While corn is still in skillet, but with heat off, stir in scallions and let sit for a minute, stirring occasionally. Remove to a bowl.
2. Wipe skillet with a paper towel, add oil and turn heat to high. When oil is almost smoking, add tomatoes. Cook, undisturbed, until they are nicely browned and slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Turn, sprinkle with sugar and cook for another 2 minutes.
3. Combine tomatoes with corn in bowl and drizzle with any pan juices. Sprinkle with soy sauce and sesame oil. Cool to room temperature, then taste and adjust seasonings with soy sauce, sesame oil, salt or pepper as needed. Garnish if you like, and serve.
Yield: 4 servings.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections XML Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map Back to Top
3.
As it happens, I am preparing a cock rock recipe from the strangely snotty Paula Wolfert, one of the big swinging dick cookbook authors, who prefaces every (bumpin') recipe with three oleaginous snot grafs, these from the Chickpea, Celery and Porcini Soup with Pecorino Cheese and a Side of Attitude from her amazingly good and yet snotty Slow Mediterranean Kitchen, which delectates on a two-day process for hydrating and cooking dried chickpeas in the oven for three planetarily unsustainable fucking hours before you get to use them in the soup. Nobody but kept women has time to do this, raising the cost of these cheap meatless peasant dishes to about $721 an hour (this would be for a cheap kept woman), as Woman's Day knows. They have somebody working on translating all these delicious whole food Mediterranean flavors to the crockpot, a real contribution to American health and women's lives.
Nutrition Facts
Yield 6 servings
Servings 6
Amount Per Serving
Calories 479
Total Fat 8g
Saturated Fat 3g
Cholesterol 90mg
Sodium 822mg
Total Carbohydrates 95g
Dietary Fiber 14g
Protein 40g
Lamb Tagine Recipe
By Woman’s Day Kitchen from Woman's Day | September 1, 2010
Slow-cooking brings out the aromas of this Eastern-inspired lamb dish that’s simmered with dried apricots and prunes, tomato paste, pumpkin pie spice and sweet potatoes, and served atop whole-wheat couscous.
Active Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 7 hours
Recipe Ingredients
1 large sweet onion, sliced
2 lb boneless leg of lamb or lamb stew meat, cut into 1 1⁄2-in. pieces, visible fat trimmed
1 cup each dried apricots and prunes
1 Tbsp each minced garlic and pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 bay leaf
1 can (14.5 oz) reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
3 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed and rinsed
1 box (10 oz) whole-wheat couscous
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds, optional
Recipe Preparation
1. Mix onion, lamb, apricots, prunes, garlic, pumpkin pie spice, salt, pepper and bay leaf in a 4-qt or larger slow cooker. In a bowl, whisk broth and tomato paste until combined; pour into slow cooker. Nestle whole sweet potatoes into stew.
2. Cover and cook on high 5 to 6 hours or on low 7 to 9 hours until lamb and potatoes are tender.
3. Remove potatoes with a slotted spoon to a cutting board; discard bay leaf. Cut potatoes into wedges.
4. Prepare couscous as package directs; serve with stew and potatoes. Serve with almonds if desired.
Variations
1. Use 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs instead of the lamb. Cook on high 4 to 6 hours or on low 6 to 8 hours until chicken is tender.
2. Substitute 4 lamb shanks (12 to 14 oz each) for the leg of lamb or stew meat. Cook on high 6 to 8 hours or on low 8 to 10 hours until lamb is tender.
3. Instead of whole sweet potatoes, add 4 carrots (halved lengthwise, then cut into 1-in. pieces) and 2 cans (15.5 oz each) chickpeas, rinsed.
Finishing Touches
Top with sesame seeds instead of almonds.
Sprinkle with chopped cilantro or mint.
Before serving, add 2 tsp grated orange
Two words, Paula. PRESSURE COOKER. (Which as it happens, has solved all my bean cooking problems previously complained of in this space. Cook's Mag tested them and recommends the Fagor Splendid six-quart, which just cooked my soaked chickpeas in seven, count 'em, seven, minutes. I havegarrity's husband to thank for this life-altering tip.)
Oh Paula, you slow food slut you:
This fine recipe employs the same [food porn, three hour bake] cooking method described in the preceding recipe....It was inspired by a soup served at the restaurant Oasis in the mountains of Irpinia....Members of the Fischetti family who run the restaurant.....Papa Generoso gardens and provides fresh vegetables and herbs. When Maria Luisa and Puccio came to the United States to teach at the Culinary Institute of America in the Napa Valley....simple yet delicious....authentic flavorful chewy pastas....I was especially inspired and charmed by this one....each proving that long, slow cooking....can result in food one never tires of eating.
You know what? Old people who complain never get invited anywhere. People of any age who complain every time you see them pretty much don't get invited anywhere.
2.
Mark Bittman is leaving the minimalist column at the NYT after thirteen years. I think he's a genius of a cook, and proof that a great editor is always a good idea. Rick Flaste, the founder of the dining section, perceived -- no doubt from reading the downscale Woman's Day magazine -- that women work fulltime jobs and must come home and cook for their children. The previous NYT take on the 20th century needs of their readers had basically been the cock rock gourmet take -- Pierre Franey's 60 Minute Gourmet -- which, while great for food snobs and food scholars and technique freaks and food porn people and knifework heads and Francophiles of the classique yadda, like me, resulted in no actual cooking.
Bittman brought a Mediterranean soul food palate to the enterprise and created new recipes and techniques to get the tuna (with lemon zest and canned canellinis and vinaigrette!) ON THE TABLE. (Here, his immortal take on 101 summer salads.) His most famous recipe is the no-knead bread, which in his farewell column today he generously credits to its creator Jim Lahey.
November 8, 2006
Recipe: No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.
1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.
He charts his move to less meat for planetary reasons, about which he will be writing on the OpEd page, as well as blogging and doing recipes for the Sunday mag. I was interested the other day to see his three recipes for the planet -- his thoughtful pieces on really using your refrigerator freezer -- and his pointing out the sacreligious idea that frozen vegetables are way more sustainable than "fresh" ones flown from Peru -- and the broiler instead of trendy and expensive grills and trophy appliances are typical of what he's calling his populist attitude.
This also includes cooking with others (Franey wouldn't ever think or admit such a thing), learning from them (Jean-Georges' watermelon and tomato salad, genius, one of his 25 favorites from the 13 years) and then going to the kitchen to think. Braised turkey, genius.
Reprints
This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article. Visit www.nytreprints.com for samples and additional information. Order a reprint of this article now.
December 31, 2010
Chop, Fry, Boil: Eating for One, or 6 Billion
By MARK BITTMAN
Correction Appended
“Revolutionary” diet books flood the market this time of year, promising a life changed permanently and for the better — yes, in just 10 to 30 days! — but, as everyone knows, the key to eating better begins with a diet of real food.
The problem is, real food is cooked by real people — you! — and real people are cooking less than ever before.We know why people don’t cook, or at least we think we do: they’re busy; they find “convenience” and restaurant foods more accessible than foods they cook themselves; they (incorrectly) believe that ready-to-eat foods are less expensive than those they cook themselves; they live in so-called food deserts and lack access to real food; and they were never taught to cook by their parents, making the trend self-perpetuating.
Yet Americans watch 35 hours of television a week, according to a Nielsen survey. (Increasing amounts of that time are spent watching other people cook). And although there certainly are urban and rural pockets where people have little access to fresh food, about 90 percent of American households own cars, and anyone who can drive to McDonald’s can drive to a supermarket.
But perhaps most important, a cooking repertoire of three basic recipes can get anyone into the kitchen and beyond the realm of takeout food, microwaved popcorn and bologna sandwiches in a few days.
One could set off a heated argument with a question like, “What are the three best basic recipes?” but I stand behind these: a stir-fry, a chopped salad, and the basic combination of rice and lentils, all of which are easy enough to learn in one lesson. (“Lessons” might be called “recipes,” and need no “teacher” beyond the written word.) Each can be varied in countless ways. Each is produced from basic building blocks that contain no additives, preservatives, trans fats, artificial flavorings or ingredients of any kind, or outrageous calorie counts; they are, in other words, made from actual food. The salad requires no cooking; the stir-fry is lightning fast; the rice-and-lentils, though cooked more slowly, requires minimal attention. The same can be said for other recipes, of course, but not for all of them, and certainly not for the food that most Americans rely upon most of the time.
These recipes offer other benefits: They’re nutritionally sound and environmentally friendly. They’ve sustained scores of generations of societies worldwide, using traditional farming methods and producing little negative impact on the earth. (Almost without exception, your ancestors relied on something like one or more of these dishes.) All of them can be made with meat, poultry or fish, but they can be satisfying and delicious when made vegetarian or even vegan. In fact, if you cooked only variations on these three dishes you’d be well on your way to becoming an intuitive, fluid cook (the fanciest pilaf is essentially a rice-and-bean variation), eating more healthfully and with a lighter carbon footprint.
There is one notable thing these recipes are not: magic. You cannot produce them without having a functioning kitchen (a sink, a refrigerator and a stove will do it); some minimal equipment, including a pot, a skillet and a bowl (though in a pinch, the salad could be made in the pot); a couple of knives; some utensils; a strainer and a cutting board; and the ability (and money) to stock a pantry and at least occasionally supplement it with fresh food. These requirements cannot be met by everyone, but they can be met by far more people than those who cooked dinner last night.
(It’s worth noting, furthermore, that the stir-fry and the rice-and-lentils can be made entirely from the pantry, if you allow for the fact that frozen vegetables are a completely acceptable substitute for fresh, especially in winter, when “fresh” may mean “flown in from Peru.”) This pantry list can be as simple as oil, vinegar, grains, legumes and a few other things, but as people learn to cook it inevitably grows.
Given ingredients, a kitchen and equipment, all that is left is some time, and with a well-stocked pantry that time can be about the same as driving to Burger King and back. You can make a chopped salad in 15 or 20 minutes, practicing knife skills and producing a vegetable-heavy dish quickly and easily. Anyone who can boil water can whip up a batch of rice and lentils in just over half an hour, providing fiber, protein and one of humankind’s classic comfort foods. And anyone who’s learned how to chop (primitively is fine), apply heat to a pan and stir can produce a stir-fry — really the epitome of a traditional dish based mostly on plants with just enough meat or other protein-dense food to contribute additional interest, flavor and nutrition — in less than half an hour.
Make these three things and you’re a cook. And with luck and perseverance, these foods will crowd out things like (to single out one egregious example from hundreds of its competitors) KFC’s Chicken Pot Pie, which costs about $5 (so much for the myth of cheap fast food; a terrific meal for four can be put together for $10); contains nearly 700 calories, more than half of which come from fat; and has well over 50 ingredients — most of which cannot be purchased by normal consumers anywhere — including things like “chicken pot pie flavor” and MSG.
By becoming a cook, you can leave processed foods behind, creating more healthful, less expensive and better-tasting food that requires less energy, water and land per calorie and reduces our carbon footprint. Not a bad result for us — or the planet.
Correction: January 9, 2011
The directions for a recipe last week with an article about ways to change the way we eat and live gave incorrect ingredients for the broccoli stir-fry with chicken and mushrooms. Add 1 cup coconut milk — not water or stock — after stir-frying the vegetables in Step 2. (The list of ingredients did not include a reference to any liquid.
Broccoli Stir-Fry With Chicken and Mushrooms
Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4 servings.
2 tablespoons good-quality vegetable oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
4 scallions, chopped
1 pound broccoli, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces, the stems no more than 1/4-inch thick
8 ounces button mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and sliced
Salt
1 cup water
8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1/2- to 3/4-inch chunks or thin slices and blotted dry
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Freshly ground black pepper.
1. Put a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, add half the oil, swirl it around, and immediately add half the garlic and ginger. Cook for 15 seconds, stirring, then add the broccoli, mushrooms and all but a sprinkling of the scallions. Raise heat to high, and cook, stirring, until mushrooms release their water and broccoli is bright green and beginning to brown, 3 to 5 minutes.
2. Sprinkle with salt; add 1 cup water. Stir and cook until almost all liquid evaporates and broccoli is almost tender, another minute or two more, then transfer everything to a plate.
3. Turn heat to medium, add remaining oil, then remaining garlic and ginger. Stir, then add chicken and turn heat to high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken has lost its pink color, three to five minutes.
4. Turn heat to medium. Return broccoli, mushrooms and juices to the pan, and stir. Add soy sauce, sprinkle with more salt and some pepper; add a little more water if mixture is dry. Raise heat to high and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced slightly and you’ve scraped up all the bits of chicken. Taste and adjust seasoning, garnish with remaining scallion and serve.
Notes
Stir-fries work with virtually any combination of vegetables; protein-dense food (meat, poultry, fish, tofu, etc.) is optional. Use pork (like shoulder), shrimp, beef (like sirloin), or tofu instead of chicken; slice the meat thinly or the tofu into cubes.
Use cabbage, cauliflower, asparagus, green beans, snow peas, carrots or spinach in place of either the broccoli or the mushrooms or both. Or use other mushrooms.
Use fish sauce instead of soy sauce and finish with a squeeze of lime to give it a Southeast Asian flavor.
Use olive oil, skip the ginger, use onion instead of scallion, and substitute 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary or thyme to give it a Mediterranean flavor profile.
Use coconut milk instead of water and 1 tablespoon curry powder instead of soy sauce to give it an Indian flavor profile.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: January 9, 2011
The directions for a recipe last week with an article about ways to change the way we eat and live gave incorrect ingredients for the broccoli stir-fry with chicken and mushrooms. Add 1 cup coconut milk — not water or stock — after stir-frying the vegetables in Step 2. (The list of ingredients did not include a reference to any liquid.)
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December 31, 2010
Lentils and Rice With or Without Pork
Time: About 45 minutes
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 medium onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
4 ounces bacon or sausage, chopped, optional
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups lentils, rinsed and picked over
1 cup long-grain brown rice
3 or 4 bay leaves
Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish.
1. Put the oil in a large, deep saucepan over medium heat. When it’s hot, add onion, celery, carrot and meat, if using. Cook until vegetables begin to become tender and meat begins to brown in places, 5 to 10 minutes. Add garlic and some salt and pepper and cook for another minute or two.
2. Add lentils, rice, bay leaves and 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then lower heat so liquid bubbles gently, and cover.
3. After 30 minutes, if rice and lentils are tender and liquid is absorbed, the dish is ready. If lentils and rice are not tender, add enough liquid to keep bottom of pot moist, cover and cook for a few more minutes. If rice and lentils are soft and there is much liquid remaining (which is unlikely), raise heat a bit and cook, uncovered, stirring once or twice, until it evaporates. Discard bay leaves. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary, fluff with a fork and serve, garnished with parsley and drizzled with more olive oil.
Notes
Use any grain instead of brown rice; you can even substitute white rice. (Cooking time for white rice is half or less that for brown, so add later.)
Similarly, use any bean: cook longer as needed and keep an eye on the water to make sure the beans stay submerged in about 1 inch of water during cooking; wait to add the rice until the beans are tender.
Stock will add flavor, but don’t waste money on the canned stuff; use water instead. (The dish will taste like lentils and rice.) For more flavor, add onion, carrot, or other vegetables and an herb like thyme.
For the dish called Moors and Christians, substitute a red bell pepper for the celery and carrot, black beans for the lentils, and 1 cup chopped tomato for some of the liquid; let the beans cook until half done before adding the rice.
For smoky red beans and rice, add 1 tablespoon tomato paste and 2 teaspoons pimentón to the vegetables. Use red beans instead of lentils and cook until they’re half done before adding the rice (which should be short-grain). Simmer for another 15 minutes, then bake uncovered at 450 degrees Fahrenheit until the beans and rice are tender.
For mujaddara, skip the meat; cook two sliced onions in a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat until they’re dark brown but not burned, and serve on top of the rice and lentils.
For lentil and rice soup — or any bean and rice soup — use more water, or stock if you have it.
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December 31, 2010
Crunchy Cabbage Salad
Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
2 tablespoons or more white or red wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic, or more to taste
Salt and black pepper
2 celery stalks (preferably from the heart), chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 small red onion, minced
3 or 4 radishes, chopped
1 red or yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
1 small cabbage, cored and shredded.
1. Combine vinegar, oil, garlic, a large pinch of salt and a smaller one of pepper in a salad bowl. Beat with a fork until combined.
2. Add the vegetables, sprinkle lightly with more salt and pepper, and toss. Taste and adjust seasoning, and serve immediately.
Notes
Use lettuce or other greens instead of cabbage.
Add 1/2 cup chopped nuts.
Add 1/2 cup chopped dried fruit or a cup or so of fresh fruit.
Add a couple teaspoons of mustard, chopped fresh herbs, tomato paste, minced fresh chilies, yogurt, soy sauce, one or two anchovies, or some spice (like curry powder or fennel seeds) to the dressing.
Add leftover cooked beans, grains, meat or fish.
Crumble feta or other cheese into the salad.
Use any other cooked or raw vegetables you like: carrots, snow peas, avocado, tomatoes, cucumber, fennel, beets, corn, potatoes, green beans, asparagus or broccoli.
His all time favorite?
August 17, 2005
Recipe: Corn Salad with Soy and Tomato
Time: 20 minutes
Pan-grilled corn with chile
4 or 5 scallions, trimmed and cut diagonally into 2-inch lengths
2 tablespoons corn oil
4 medium tomatoes, cored and quartered lengthwise into wedges
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons soy sauce, more to taste
2 teaspoons sesame oil, more to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chopped chives, parsley or cilantro for garnish, optional.
1. While corn is still in skillet, but with heat off, stir in scallions and let sit for a minute, stirring occasionally. Remove to a bowl.
2. Wipe skillet with a paper towel, add oil and turn heat to high. When oil is almost smoking, add tomatoes. Cook, undisturbed, until they are nicely browned and slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Turn, sprinkle with sugar and cook for another 2 minutes.
3. Combine tomatoes with corn in bowl and drizzle with any pan juices. Sprinkle with soy sauce and sesame oil. Cool to room temperature, then taste and adjust seasonings with soy sauce, sesame oil, salt or pepper as needed. Garnish if you like, and serve.
Yield: 4 servings.
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3.
As it happens, I am preparing a cock rock recipe from the strangely snotty Paula Wolfert, one of the big swinging dick cookbook authors, who prefaces every (bumpin') recipe with three oleaginous snot grafs, these from the Chickpea, Celery and Porcini Soup with Pecorino Cheese and a Side of Attitude from her amazingly good and yet snotty Slow Mediterranean Kitchen, which delectates on a two-day process for hydrating and cooking dried chickpeas in the oven for three planetarily unsustainable fucking hours before you get to use them in the soup. Nobody but kept women has time to do this, raising the cost of these cheap meatless peasant dishes to about $721 an hour (this would be for a cheap kept woman), as Woman's Day knows. They have somebody working on translating all these delicious whole food Mediterranean flavors to the crockpot, a real contribution to American health and women's lives.
Nutrition Facts
Yield 6 servings
Servings 6
Amount Per Serving
Calories 479
Total Fat 8g
Saturated Fat 3g
Cholesterol 90mg
Sodium 822mg
Total Carbohydrates 95g
Dietary Fiber 14g
Protein 40g
Lamb Tagine Recipe
By Woman’s Day Kitchen from Woman's Day | September 1, 2010
Slow-cooking brings out the aromas of this Eastern-inspired lamb dish that’s simmered with dried apricots and prunes, tomato paste, pumpkin pie spice and sweet potatoes, and served atop whole-wheat couscous.
Active Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 7 hours
Recipe Ingredients
1 large sweet onion, sliced
2 lb boneless leg of lamb or lamb stew meat, cut into 1 1⁄2-in. pieces, visible fat trimmed
1 cup each dried apricots and prunes
1 Tbsp each minced garlic and pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 bay leaf
1 can (14.5 oz) reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
3 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed and rinsed
1 box (10 oz) whole-wheat couscous
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds, optional
Recipe Preparation
1. Mix onion, lamb, apricots, prunes, garlic, pumpkin pie spice, salt, pepper and bay leaf in a 4-qt or larger slow cooker. In a bowl, whisk broth and tomato paste until combined; pour into slow cooker. Nestle whole sweet potatoes into stew.
2. Cover and cook on high 5 to 6 hours or on low 7 to 9 hours until lamb and potatoes are tender.
3. Remove potatoes with a slotted spoon to a cutting board; discard bay leaf. Cut potatoes into wedges.
4. Prepare couscous as package directs; serve with stew and potatoes. Serve with almonds if desired.
Variations
1. Use 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs instead of the lamb. Cook on high 4 to 6 hours or on low 6 to 8 hours until chicken is tender.
2. Substitute 4 lamb shanks (12 to 14 oz each) for the leg of lamb or stew meat. Cook on high 6 to 8 hours or on low 8 to 10 hours until lamb is tender.
3. Instead of whole sweet potatoes, add 4 carrots (halved lengthwise, then cut into 1-in. pieces) and 2 cans (15.5 oz each) chickpeas, rinsed.
Finishing Touches
Top with sesame seeds instead of almonds.
Sprinkle with chopped cilantro or mint.
Before serving, add 2 tsp grated orange
Two words, Paula. PRESSURE COOKER. (Which as it happens, has solved all my bean cooking problems previously complained of in this space. Cook's Mag tested them and recommends the Fagor Splendid six-quart, which just cooked my soaked chickpeas in seven, count 'em, seven, minutes. I have
garrity's husband to thank for this life-altering tip.) Oh Paula, you slow food slut you:
This fine recipe employs the same [food porn, three hour bake] cooking method described in the preceding recipe....It was inspired by a soup served at the restaurant Oasis in the mountains of Irpinia....Members of the Fischetti family who run the restaurant.....Papa Generoso gardens and provides fresh vegetables and herbs. When Maria Luisa and Puccio came to the United States to teach at the Culinary Institute of America in the Napa Valley....simple yet delicious....authentic flavorful chewy pastas....I was especially inspired and charmed by this one....each proving that long, slow cooking....can result in food one never tires of eating.
