my ma-po

in

Last night I continued our week of healthy dinners with Mark Bittman's Ma-Po Tofu. Bittman's premise is that a little meat goes a long way so he suggests more tofu and tomatoes than ground pork. (The traditional dish is fairly heavy with ground beef and also more complicated with chile paste and fermented black beans.) I doubled the recipe below and probably added a touch more ground pork that suggested. I also added a tablespoon of cream to bring out the creaminess of the tofu; and of course a squeeze of lemon. Served over Soba noodles, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. Super simple and hearty, and more or less healthy.

Simmered Tofu With Ground Pork (Ma-Po Tofu)

  • 1 tablespoon peanut or other oil
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon minced ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, plus more to taste
  • 1/4 to 1/2 pound ground pork
  • 1/2 cup chopped scallions, green part only
  • 1/2 cup stock or water
  • 1 pound soft or silken tofu, cut in 1/2-inch cubes
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • Salt to taste
  • Minced cilantro for garnish, optional
  1. Put oil in a deep 10-inch skillet or wok, preferably nonstick, and turn heat to medium-high. A minute later, add garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes, and cook just until they begin to sizzle, less than a minute. Add pork, and stir to break it up; cook, stirring occasionally, until it loses most of its pink color.
  2. Add scallions and stir; add stock. Cook for a minute or so, scraping bottom of pan with a wooden spoon if necessary to loosen any stuck bits of meat, then add tofu. Cook, stirring once or twice, until tofu is heated through, about 2 minutes.
  3. Stir in the soy sauce; taste, and add salt and red pepper flakes as necessary. Garnish with cilantro if you like, and serve.

transforming kid food

in ,

I actually made these panko-breaded chicken breasts for the kids because I was tired of the frozen kind. I used fresh organic, free-range, local chicken, panko, Parmesan cheese, pasteurized eggs and high quality oil. Neither boy touched them. Nate said they were brown.

So I reinvented them for night two of veggie/healthy/detox week. Reheated in a dry frying pan and topped with a simple, light tomato sauce (recipe below) and served with baked zucchini (375 for 20 minutes) and whole wheat shells (which when covered in Parmesan tasted kind of like pasta. I get why the kids don't eat the whole wheat pasta...but the chicken breasts? they were amazing. why do the kids hate everything I actually make from scratch. why? why?!

Tomato sauce

  • 1 can tomato diced
  • salt, balsamic, lemon juice, garlic.

Bring to a boil and reduce for 20-30 min

time for beans and greens

in

It's veggie/healthy/detox week here at the Casa Moshan. We have indulged in rich food and drink for too long and need a break. So this weekend I got out my healthy cookbooks: Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food II. And last night, as the temperatures outside dropped to 5 degrees, I made an adapted version of her White Bean and Broccoli Rabe Soup (recipe below).

A few months ago I paid $65 to see her speak about food and wound up drinking a plastic cup of water in a middle school auditorium while the speakers crackled and buzzed and I could barely hear her answers to inane questions like "How did you start cooking?"

But I gotta say this soup was perfect. I altered the original a bit: bacon instead of pancetta, canned white beans instead of dried chickpeas, and simplified it (ie no fresh herbs which I never have on hand.) But it was super satisfying and a good model for hearty winter soups in general-use any beans, any greens, etc.

White Bean and Broccoli Rabe Soup

  • 2 slices bacon, chopped
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 2 celery stalks, diced
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 tsp spices: dried oregano, cayenne, salt, pepper
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 can white beans
  • 2 cups stock and 2 cups water
  • 1 bunch of broccoli rabe; washed, drained, and coarsely chopped
  1. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and bacon and cook for 3 minutes.
  2. Add carrots and celery and cook until soft, about 15 minutes. Turn down the heat if the vegetables start to brown too quickly.
  3. Add salt, pinch of cayenne, 1 tsp dried oregano, pepper, garlic and beans. Cook for 3 minutes
  4. Add beans and their liquid, plus 2 cups broth and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil then simmer for 10-15 minutes.
  5. Throw in the broccoli rabe and cook for another 10 min.
  6. Taste for salt and garnish with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.

genius?

in

Michael was in the Berkshires on a boy's weekend (read drinking Tequila and sleeping late) until Sunday. Alone, I ate bagels with cream cheese, pickles and nachos and whatever the boys didn't finish. Michael got home Sunday, hungover, and took the boys for a couple hours so I could do something that didn't involve legos.

Even though Pasta Sunday had been cancelled I decided to make pasta. Crazy, I know. I wanted to try  this recipe from Food52. I had been thinking about it because it was this week's "genius pasta." The word genius is very compelling. I don’t think I’d be sucked in by ‘best” or “greatest” or “number one” but genius speaks to me because there can be more than one genius pastas and I'll respect them all. 

The most exciting part was caramelizing the onions. I love watching how they transform over time.

I also added small broccoli florets (frozen) and canned mushrooms, making it a super easy dish and kinda of healthy dish.

Verdict: I thought it was good, not genius. The sauce -- consisting of greek/strained yogurt and pasta water-- wasn't quite rich enough to carry the dish. (I like the idea of using greek yogurt as a creaminess enhancer-- ie in place of cream-- and mixing it with starchy liquid. I guess that's the genius part,) But it needed a lot of cheese and salt and even then seemed missing something. Butter, probably. 

farmer's market pasta

in ,

This picture is misleading.

The tomatoes don't figure prominently in this dish. But they are what I am most proud of about this recipe because they were entirely my invention.

This is how I usually decide what to make: 1. Have a general idea in my head 2. Do a lot of research on sites/books I trust. Like a lot. Probably too much. 3.Think about it for awhile. 4. Look in my fridge. 5. Put all materials away and make my version.

So for this one, I read several recipes about broccoli rabe sausage pasta and then made this one up based on what I bought at the farmer’s market (turkey sausage, mustard greens, kale) and the fact that Mack somehow put two boxes of cherry tomatoes in our grocery cart without me seeing them. (He obviously thought they were balls. He loves balls so much! It's almost weird. )

Anyway, since tomatoes aren’t even in season I knew I had to do something to concentrate their flavor which is why I crushed the hell out of them, reducing them to a sticky, quite tasty, pulp.

Farmers Market Pasta

  • I pint cherry tomatos
  • ! tbsp oliveoOil
  • ¾ lb sweet turkey sausage
  • 1 head mustard greens
  • 1 small head kale
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 small yellow onion
  • 1 lb Rigatoni
  • 1 c parmesan
  • ¼ c cream
  1. Heat olive oil in pan over med-high heat. Add tomatoes, cook for 10-15 minutes to soften. If they start to burn, turn down head. Use a wooden spoon to squash them down and release their juices. Turn to low and let them for another 10 minutes. Mash and scrape them some more until you have a loose paste.
  2. Blanch greens for 4 minutes then shock them in ice water.
  3. Cook sausage (out of casing) until almost brown (5-10 minutes). Add onion, cook for 5 minutes, and then add garlic. Cook for 10 minutes adding some water if dry. Add greens. Cook for a while adding water if needed.
  4. Cook pasta reserving 1 cup cooking liquid. Add pasta to sausage mixture along with water (1/4 cup at a time) to make it saucy. Add ¼ cup cream and one cup cheese. Serve.

early morning beans

in

It’s not even 8am and I’m eating spicy cilantro and jalapeño humus with a baby spoon straight from the container. Mack decided to preempt daylight savings time and get up at 4am. Michael’s instinct when we hear these early (middle of the night?) cries from the boys’ room is not to run in and separate the two so Nate will at least sleep until a normal time, but to debate the matter. “Why is Mack doing this to us?!” “It’s 4 fucking fifteen in the morning…unacceptable.” So it’s mostly me doing the running, saving, changing of diapers, baba making and entertaining of our 1 year old with a vocabulary (so far) of “boat” and “cheese.”

It’s been a long morning. I’ve watched multiple movies, made cauliflower soup, done laundry, cleaned the house, run the dishwasher, gotten both boys dressed, broken up many fights, punished Mack, woken up Michael and now with everyone finally out of the house (where? dunno. playground maybe...) I’m alone with my humus, looking for recipes for dips for tonight’s pasta Sunday.

And I’m thinking…White bean dip, a close cousin to humus. It’s not a hard thing to make. In fact it is almost too easy (even Rachel Ray promises a 2 minute version which comes out fine.) So how to make this a little more exciting? And do I even bother since I’m feeding the Moshan-Gesser clan who think any cooking is “magic.” 

A little research and I found some inspiration. Mark Bittman said Marcella Hazan told him that grated lemon peel is this dish’s the secret; David Lebowitz who I now adore suggested using the bulk of the oil on the top rather than blended in to maximize it’s contribution. Also, I’m feeling a bit lustful towards the huge rustic garlic cloves from yesterday’s lovely fall farmer’s market; and I have a whole lot of fresh Thyme about to depart for a better world. So here goes:

My White Bean Dip

  • 2 cans white beans
  • 1 lemon
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1 tbsp chopped thyme
  • ¼-1/2 cup olive oil
  • salt/pepper; sea salt
  1. Blend beans, lemon juice, garlic and thyme in blender (or Vitamix). Slowly add olive oil until it’s creamy, reserving some for garnish.
  2. Grate zest of entire lemon and add to dip. Adjust with salt/pepper to taste. Top with olive oil and sea salt for a little crunch. Serve with crudite or pita chips.

borschtpacho

in

Michael heard Anya Von Bremzen being interviewed on NPR talking about Russian cooking. (She's that awesome cookbook writer/traveler who recently wrote a memoir about her childhood in Cold War Russia.) She was friendly with my old boss and I heard wonderful stories about her travels. But now she is writing about her native Russian cuisine. "What is Russian food?" Michael asked. "Can you make it?"

I found an article about her in Food and Wine along with recipes for her take on Russian classics. The only one that even slightly appealed to me was the Borscht meets Gazpacho.

“I hate Borscht and I hate Gazpacho,” Michael said.

“I know me too....but let’s try it. “

The recipe is here. It’s a beautiful soup that I’d someday like to make for my mother-in-law who stores beautiful pottery in her open kitchen cupboards, instead of plates. It was easy enough to make and tasted like a sweeter gazpacho. I served it with all that smoked fish at brunch with Avi and Brook because it seemed to somehow fit into that Eastern European thing. Nobody really loved it though and it wound up sitting in my fridge, dripping beet colored juice for 3 weeks before I finally threw it away.

the long lost pork chop

in

This week's monthly mag entry is The New York Times magazine, specifically the great Sam Sifton's article on Diner's pork chop. Such an important article about how Williamsburg has changed/is changing using food as a metaphor. It's happening so fast right around us that it's good to keep remembering and tasting what's becoming extinct, which is often the best. But this piece is really about Sifton's pining for a bygone dish.- the pork chop served at the seminal Diner restaurant.

I bought the chops through , an awesome service that delivers from farm to your door--whatever you order. Not just what the farm/CSA wants you to have. So it's Fresh Direct meets Good Eggs. 

While I was cooking, there were several animals and dinosaurs calling for help from their cage. A bad guy, perhaps a power ranger?, had landed them there. But when the animals were finally freed (and put away), the boys in bed, we feasted.

The sauce was pretty memorable. It was a little sweeter than I expected but rich and silky and light enough to let the meat shine though. In fact, in the afterglow of our dinner, Michael sent a text to his broker friend, Tina telling her how I made the chops, how delicious it was, and to convey that information to her husband, Sam Sifton.

the closest I'll get to farming

in ,

Last weekend on the way home from my parent’s house in Easton MD, we stopped at a wholesome family farm that was hosting an awesome kids festival with games, rides and a pumpkin patch. So much cooler than anything we could have hoped for in, say, New Jersey where every city family I know heads to show the kids “fall.” Nate was completely not interested in the idea of a farm until we mentioned “a bouncy thing” and he was off running. 

Ten minutes in, Mack had lost his shoes and started looking like the poor dirty homeless barefoot child he seems destined to be. We feared marching the shivering kids through the mud to a distant pumpkin patch so we called it a day with a basket of apples, a mini pumpkin, a bunch of beautiful ($2 a head!) broccoli. 

The best part for me was – nope, not the bouncy thing (though that was surprisingly fun) -- but the squash sale.

I really wanted a snake squash but it seemed a bit excessive so I bought this guy.

I brought it home expecting to turn it into something delicious but I couldn't cut into it without ruining my knives. I thought about cooking it whole to soften it (like a spaghetti squash) but it seemed so hollow, more like a gourd so I decided just to put it on the balcony where it has a lovely view of New York City and can reflect on it's life in the city vs. the farm. 

But I was determined to cook the broccoli we bought. I often just oven roasted broccoli with olive oil and salt/pepper but I wanted to do something more "fall." Soup! The vitamix! My first few attempts at Brocolli soup resembled a thick puree:\.

Although Michael deemed it delicious, we both admitted it wasn't really soup. After a couple more tries, I found a delicious keeper of a soup recipe.

Super Simple Broccoli Soup

  • 1 head broccoli chopped
  • 1 lg clove garlic
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 2 tbsp parmesean cheese
  • 3/4 cup shredded cheese
  • salt/pepper
  • greek yogurt to garnish

    In a large pot cook broccoli and garlic with chicken broth. Let cool slightly and pour into vitamix or blender. Add remaining ingredients (not the yogurt) and blend on high one minute, or until uniform. Top w. a tsp of yogurt. 

carrot mac and cheese

in ,

I'm not a big fan of making something with disguised veggies and protein to trick my kids into getting some nutrients. It's certainly not because I've been blessed with great eaters. Nate will eat hot dogs, apples and pasta with butter (he recently threatened to give up apples until I cried for mercy.) Mack is more adventurous and seems to take more enjoyment in food, but he won't eat anything Nate refuses and it's hard for him to sit still long enough to consume a whole meal. 

I've tried Jessica Seinfeld's recipes with little success. The banana-peanut butter-carrot muffins were sort of dense and nobody liked them, all 24 of them. The chocolate cake made with beets tasted like it was made with beets. And after spending a lot of valuable time on these, I sort of gave up and went back to broiling hot dogs. 

The one "kid friendly" recipe that has intrigued me is Melissa Clark's infamous carrot mac and cheese, adapted from her book here. It's simple to make and beloved by many. It has traveled far and wide into foodie circles as well as "kid-foodie" (there should be a term for this.) circles. So yesterday I gave it a try. The trick is that the shredded carrots look similar to the shredded cheddar and the whole wheat elbows so the child will get confused and not realize he is eating carrots. 

Well, not my kids. Neither of them would even touch it which was a real shame since it was pretty damn good. I ate a good portion for dinner and froze chunks of the rest to try again on Mack in a few weeks. (That kid has no memory!)