Sesame Noodles: A Great ‘Use-it-up’ Dish

I have just added Sesame Noodles to my roster of dishes that I turn to when I need to use up leftover vegetables. This light but tasty Asian-influenced pasta dish is perfect for lunch or a supper side. It tastes good hot and freshly made or cold out of the refrigerator. And it readily takes to whatever veggies you can throw at it. To make it heartier, chicken can also be added, but that’s purely optional.

Sesame Noodles

Time to make: ~20 minutes
Yields: 2 servings

• ¼ cup tahini or substitute 2 tbsp. peanut butter and 2 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
• 3 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tsp. brown sugar (regular sugar may be substituted)
• ½ tbsp. rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp. chili-garlic sauce
• 6 oz. Chinese noodles, soba noodles or linguine
• Enough vegetables for 2 servings, cut up for stir-frying
• ¼ lb. boneless chicken, cut thin or pre-cooked chicken (optional)
• Peanut or canola oil for stir-frying
• 1-2 tbsp. sesame oil
• Sliced scallions, cucumber and/or carrot for garnish (optional)
• Food processor

In a food processor, combine the tahini or peanut butter and sesame seeds, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, rice wine vinegar and chili-garlic sauce. With the food processor running, pour in hot water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until a smooth sauce is formed. Set aside.

Cook the noodles in plenty of hot water until done and drain. Heat a small amount of oil over high in a large skillet or wok. Stir-fry the vegetables and chicken, if using, until cooked. Toss with the cooked noodles and sesame oil. Mix with the sauce. Garnish as desired. Serve immediately or chill and serve cold.

Quick Bites from the Web

I have a large selection of tasty links stored up for you:

• A study shows that children who drink whole milk weigh less. I think the same is true for full-fat cheese!
• Interesting op-ed from Nicolette Niman on the “carnivore’s dilemma.” Conclusion: paying attention to how your meat is raised and processed is most important for environmental sustainability. (New York Times)
• Also, corporate agricultural and food interests are pushing back against the growing movement to support locally and sustainably grown food. (Food Politics)
• Here are some interesting musings on how to organize your refrigerator and pantry for healthier eating (Internet Food Association).
• What is the right way to eat sushi? Learn how in pictures. (Snippets)
• Tried out Twitter’s new lists feature yet? I have built two lists you may want to follow: one list of bloggers talking about food, green issues and life in general; and another of prominent chefs and food writers. P.S. If you are on Twitter, let me know, because I’d like to follow you.

Review: The Cookbooks of Sara Foster

Cover via Amazon

Sara Foster is the owner of Foster’s Market, a couple of local gourmet markets and casual eateries best known for their breakfasts and sandwiches. So I was already familiar with her style of cooking when I bought her two cookbooks, Fresh Every Day and Sara Foster’s Casual Cooking. Still, I did not expect that they would become the go to cookbooks in my kitchen.

Foster’s cooking style is very similar to my own. She favors simple, highly adaptable dishes that rely on fresh, seasonal ingredients for flavor. These cookbooks, with plenty of full-page color photographs, will make your mouth water. It’s become a routine in our house, whenever we have something particularly good for dinner, for my husband to ask, “Did the recipe come out of one of Sara Foster’s cookbooks?”

Fresh Every Day is a fairly straightforward cookbook of favorites from Foster’s Market, adapted for home cooking. I really appreciate the numerous tips, shortcuts and variations that Foster provides for her recipes. My favorite chapters are “Breakfast for Anytime,” “Simple Soups,” “Seasonal Salads and Salad Meals” and “Seasonal Sides”; I think the chapter titles say it all.

Favorite recipes: One-eyed Jacks; Fresh Mozzarella Salad with Avocado, Roasted Corn and Grape Tomatoes; Black-Eyed Pea Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese; Roasted Tomato, Corn and Potato Salad with Wilted Spinach; Roasted Red Bell Pepper and Carrot Soup; Wild Mushroom Soup with Sherry and Thyme; Grilled Buffalo Chicken Strips; Chicken Cacciatore; Lemon Icebox Pie with Gingersnap Crust

Sara Foster’s Casual Cooking focuses even more strongly on home cooking by providing not only recipes but also lots of ideas for day-to-day cooking, so that you can put together a great meal even when you’re tired or haven’t been shopping.  Most recipes include lots of ideas for variations as well as tips for putting together full menus. My favorite chapters were “Party Platters” for its snack as well as party ideas; “Sandwiches, Wraps and Rolls,” which is replete with great ideas; and “Anytime Eggs,” because I love eggs anytime.

Favorite recipes: Caramelized Onion Dip; Tomato-Mozzarella Cheese Toasts; Pan-Seared Tuna Tacos with Mango-Avocado Salsa; Grilled Bacon, Egg and Cheddar Sandwich; Rotini with Sausage, Cannellini Bean and Swiss Chard Ragu; Poached Chicken Breasts with Spring Vegetables and Horseradish; Classic Cucumber Salad; Green Rice; Mini Baked Potatoes

If you are looking for cookbooks that inspire you to get into the kitchen, both of these will do the job. Even after having made most of the recipes, I keep returning to them again and again.

Find recipes adapted from Sara Foster’s cookbooks on this blog.

Use It or Lose It Day

I designate one day a week as “Use It or Lose It Day.” This is the day when I go through the fridge and methodically take care of all the leftovers, vegetables about to go bad, and other odds and ends. By having one day a week when I regularly do this, I’ve found that I’ve cut down a lot on food waste and am using leftovers more wisely.

Usually, I pick Friday, Saturday or Sunday as the Use It or Lose It Day, depending on what’s going on that weekend. I go through the fridge and pull out:

• cooked leftovers in their various containers
• fresh vegetables and fruits in danger of going bad soon
• raw meat remaining from the last grocery trip
• any small bits of cheese, salami, that one remaining tortilla, etc.

First, I try to assemble a picnic. I cut up fruits and vegetables for snacking. I prepare pretty trays with bits of cheese, cooked meat and salads. Or if inspiration hits me, I throw everything together into a salad, stir-fry, omelet or similar pot-luck dish. The point is to actually eat these tasty bits before they turn on me.

Whatever doesn’t get eaten is marked for freezing, if possible. Large amounts of leftover soups, stews and casseroles are packaged, labeled, dated and put in the standing freezer for later consumption. Vegetables are cleaned, sliced and steamed or blanched, then frozen. Uncooked meats are packaged in single-meal portions, dated and also frozen.

Sometime there is a little bit of food that isn’t palatable for eating or freezing and must get thrown away. But ever since I’ve gotten systematic about using it or losing it once a week, I’ve noticed that I’m throwing away a lot less. I’ve even made it a recurring task in my to-do list.

What do you do to reduce food waste in your kitchen?

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• The Eat What You Have Challenge (timesunion.com)

A Rant About Cookbooks and Cookbook Publishers

Recently, I’ve heard a lot of cookbook writers complaining about the Internet in general and food blogs in particular. The complaints run along the lines of: “They’re reposting our recipes without our permission and hurting our sales!” and “They’re just throwing up awful, untested recipes so people will make bad food instead of turning to good sources like our cookbooks!”

First let me say that I love cookbooks, and I prefer to cook out of them than to cook recipes that I’ve found online. I find it a lot easier to open a cookbook on my kitchen counter than to print out a recipe or risk getting melted butter on my computer. I turn to food blogs for good writing, gorgeous photos, ideas and tips. And the occasional unusual recipe that I haven’t seen anywhere else. If a food blogger I like adapts a recipe from a cookbook they like, I’m actually more likely to remember and buy that cookbook.

The Internet is nothing more than a gigantic recipe exchange, and recipe exchanges have existed for as long as there has been cooking. Instead of passing down recipes orally or writing them on index cards, we now type them into our computers. All that’s changed is the technology, which makes it easier to share and access recipes. Cookbook writers and publishers have absolutely no hope of controlling or limiting an activity that cooks have been engaging in forever, so they should just stop fretting about it.

But I have a real beef with cookbook writers and publishers — probably the publishers more than the writers. Last time I walked into the cookbook section of a bookstore, I was overwhelmed. There were just so many cookbooks, most of them newly published. I believe it takes a lot of time and expense to write a cookbook. You have to test all the recipes, which probably means hiring assistants, and you have to have photos to be at all competitive, another big expense. How do they hope to make any money when the outlay is so high and the market is so glutted?

I actually like to cook out of my cookbooks. And I only cook so many meals for which I need recipes. So I can expect to consume one or two new cookbooks per year. Even cookbook addicts can only buy so many. Maybe sales aren’t good not because of the Internet but because there’s so much competition in the cookbook section for what really can’t be that huge a market of cookbook buyers.

It’s gotten so I won’t even consider buying a cookbook unless it’s highly recommended by a source I trust. There are so many cookbooks out there, I’m not going to waste my money on poor ones any more. I have also instituted other criteria in order to winnow down my choices:

• unique, interesting recipes — I don’t need another frittata or risotto recipe at this point
• thorough, well-written recipes — I want lots of notes on how long the recipe takes, what I can make ahead, what to do with leftovers, and how to vary or adapt the recipe
• emphasis on seasonal, healthy, fresh ingredients — because that’s what I like to cook
• beautiful photographs — because I also like to browse through my cookbooks

So my advice to all those hand-wringers out there who are worried that food blogs are making it impossible to sell cookbooks: Try publishing fewer cookbooks! Is it really necessary for every celebrity chef to have a new cookbook out every year? Rachael Ray’s section alone contains more recipes than anyone can possibly hope to cook (and her cookbooks aren’t even all that good). Try concentrating on quality rather than quantity, focus on promoting those high-quality cookbooks, and actually work with food bloggers, who are a big part of your market that you really shouldn’t alienate.

Review: The Cookbooks of Rick Bayless

Cover via Amazon

Authentic Mexican, Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen and Salsas That Cook by Rick Bayless

My husband is fortunate in that he sometimes gets to go to Chicago and when he does, he eats at Rick Bayless’s restaurants Frontera Grill and Topolobampo. I am unfortunate in that I have not done either of those things, although I very much want to. But my husband has brought me back three of Rick Bayless’s cookbooks from his visits, and we have tried several of his recipes at home.

Rick Bayless is pretty much the acknowledged American master of authentic Mexican cooking. Even before I saw him win Top Chef Masters, I was a fan. Mexican cooking is not simple, by any means, but Bayless’s cookbooks convert the difficult cooking methods and long lists of ingredients into something achievable by the home cook. I have not tried a single one of his recipes that was not an instant hit in my household, although I will say that many of them are not intended for quick weeknight cooking.

Authentic Mexican is my favorite of the three cookbooks. The recipes are very detailed and include many notes on techniques and ingredients. The section on timing and advance preparation is extremely helpful for planning my cooking strategy; I wish every cookbook included such thoughtful notes. I also appreciate the many traditional and contemporary variations on each recipe provided, which enable the cook to try the dish multiple ways or easily substitute ingredients.

Favorite recipes: Chile-marinated Vegetable Tostadas; Fresh Green Tomatillo Sauce; Quick-cooked Tomatillo-Chile Sauce; Potatoes with Mexican Sausage; Scrambled Eggs with Mexican Flavors

Salsa That Cook is a fun little cookbook from which I have made several very successful recipes. The cookbook opens with a selection of salsas made from a variety of chiles. The recipes that follow use the salsas as key ingredients to enliven such dishes as macaroni and cheese and baked goat cheese. I usually make the salsa ahead of time and hope that I have enough left over for some good old-fashioned chips and dips.

Favorite Recipes: all of the salsas; Tangy Green Guacamole; Seared Red Chile Enchiladas with Chicken and Aged Cheese; Chiaquiles with Spinach, Zucchini and Aged Cheese; Today’s Macaroni and Cheese; Spicy Vegetable “Stew”; Chipotle Mashed Potatoes; Mexican Fruit Pops

I have cooked the least out of Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen, probably because the recipes are the most advanced of the three cookbooks. Once again, each recipe is long and detailed, with notes on advance preparation, shortcuts and variations. I cannot stress enough how helpful these notes are, and I am surprised more cookbook writers don’t take the same approach. This cookbook also includes mouth-watering photographs.

Favorite Recipes: Guacamole; Essential Chopped Tomato-Serrano Salsa; Essential Roasted Tomato-Jalapeno Salsa; Chilied Tortilla Soup with Shredded Chard

If you would like to tackle true Mexican cooking, I think one of Rick Bayless’s cookbooks would be an excellent place to start. I would most highly recommend Authentic Mexican, but from the recipes I’ve tried, it seems like you can’t go wrong with any of his books.

Light Dinner: Calzone and Sauteed Kale

Calzone with marinara tomato sauce and kale with breadcrumbs.

If you have pizza dough on hand, it’s a snap to get an easy meal like this on the table on a weeknight. I recently found out how easy it is to make pizza dough and freeze it (here’s the recipe). I think frozen pizza dough works better for making calzones, because you don’t have to stress as much about rolling it out thinly or making a perfect circle (not that I stress about those things anyway).

Just remember to take the dough out of the freezer and let it defrost in the fridge overnight. I like to let it sit on the counter for at least an hour so that it will come to room temperature before working with it.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. On an oiled baking sheet, pat and stretch the dough out into an approximate circle. I think it’s easier to make one calzone for 2 or 3 people, but if you want to try making individual smaller ones, go for it.

Once the dough is stretched out to a good size, cover one-half of it with your chosen filling ingredients. For this calzone, I used chopped sun-dried tomatoes, red onion and shredded mozzarella. No sauce is necessary. I think it’s better to keep a light hand with the filling, because too many ingredients have a tendency to explode out of the calzone during baking.

Brush a little water around the edges of the dough. Fold the dough over the filling and crimp the edges together. Use a knife to make five slashes in the top to let the steam escape during cooking. Sprinkle the calzone with coarse salt and slide it into the oven. Bake 15-20 minutes, until golden-brown.

While it’s cooking, you can make a simple marinara dipping sauce. Heat up a can of tomato sauce over medium-low and add some spices, such as garlic, oregano and hot red pepper flakes. Just let that bubble while the calzone bakes and serve it alongside in a small bowl.

I think sauteed kale makes a nice alternative to salad, especially in the cooler months. You can substitute other greens, such as chard or spinach, of course. I steamed the kale first, then sauteed it with some garlic and breadcrumbs. Here’s the recipe.

Kale with Garlic and Breadcrumbs

Time to make: ~20 minutes
Yields: 2-3 servings

• 1 bunch kale or other greens
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 lg. clove garlic, minced
• Hot red pepper flakes to taste
• 2 tbsp. breadcrumbs, preferably homemade
• 2 tsp. capers
• Juice of ½ lemon

Wash the greens. Remove the stems and roughly tear the leaves. Steam with a small amount of water in a covered pan until wilted, about 5 minutes. Remove to a colander and let drain. (This step can be done ahead.)

Heat the garlic in the olive oil over medium until it starts to sizzle. Add the hot red pepper flakes and breadcrumbs, and stir until they turn brown. Add the capers and greens, and saute until the greens are warmed and coated with the breadcrumbs and garlic, about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and squeeze the lemon juice over.

Quick Bites from the Web

Here is a sampling of tasty food-related links for your weekend reading:

• Why does Lou Dobbs hate vegetables? Could they be the gateway to liberal politics and social activism for impressionable schoolchildren? (Tigers and Strawberries)
• San Francisco begins mandatory composting. I think this is a great idea, but my question is: What about the folks who already compost for their own gardens, and so won’t set out the green compost bin? (Wasted Food)

And now some great tips:

• Preserving almost-bad peaches and other fruit (Bitten)
• Some simple freezer tricks for better food preservation (Lifehacker)
• Clean caked-on messes in pots and pans overnight using a little dishwasher detergent — it works! (Lifehacker)

Slow Cooker Tips

Image via Wikipedia

I recently took a class on cooking soups in the slow cooker, not because I really needed new recipes, but because I was hoping to glean some slow cooker tips for general use. I got my slow cooker last year, but I don’t think I’m really taking advantage of it. I would love to do more general cooking in the slow cooker, rather than having to rely on recipes written specifically for it.

Cooking in a slow cooker is like cooking food in a steam bath, in which there is very little evaporation of liquid. This is important to remember for choosing which foods to cook, how much liquid to add and what prep needs to be done beforehand.

Just so you know, the low setting on the slow cooker is equal to 180 degrees, and the high setting is equal to 300 degrees. To test this, heat 4 cups of water, covered, for 2 hours, then take the temperature of the water. Less expensive slow cookers apparently run a lot hotter, and it may be advisable to only use the low setting on the low-end cookers.

As a general rule, it takes twice as long to cook something on low as it does on high. If a recipe calls for cooking 1 hour on the stovetop, generally that means 3 hours on high and 6-7 hours on low in the slow cooker. The warm setting will keep food at a safe temperature for up to 23 hours. The better slow cookers automatically switch to warm once the cooking is finished.

Lifting the lid during cooking will add 20 minutes to the cooking time. Most people can’t resist lifting the lid, though, so many recipes add in the lid-lifting time to the total time required.

Here are some other tips I got from the class:

• Saute aromatics like onion before adding them to the slow cooker. This may seem like more work compared to the “dump and run” method, but it results in a better balance of flavors (no overwhelming raw onion flavor). You can prep the recipe the night before, but bring the food to room temperature for 30 minutes before adding it to the slow cooker.
• Fill the slow cooker between half (minimum) and three-quarters (maximum) full.
• Never put anything frozen in the slow cooker. That’s because defrosting it adds to the cooking time and also adds more liquid that usually isn’t needed.

• The slow cooker is great for simmering homemade chicken stock. Well, duh! I don’t know why that didn’t occur to me; I should definitely pull it out for making stock whenever my reserves get low.
• The slow cooker can also be used to poach a large amount of chicken or a turkey breast. Just add broth and cook at 2 hours on high. Save the broth to make soup.
• Casserole recipes like lasagna work very well in the slow cooker. If you use a liner, you can lift out the cooked casserole, wrap it up in the liner and transfer it right to the freezer.
• If adding pasta to a soup or stew, cook it first and then add to the slow cooker at the end of the cooking time. Otherwise, the pasta will absorb all the cooking liquid.
• Generally, you should use dried herbs rather than fresh because you are cooking the food longer than 30 minutes. If you want to use fresh herbs, add them during the last hour of cooking.
• You can also cook creme brulee and other recipes that require a water bath in the slow cooker. Set the ramekins on a rack in the water.

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• How to Poach Salmon in the Slow Cooker (simplycooking.wordpress.com)
• Reader favorites: Crock Pot recipes (timesunion.com)

Blog Action Day: Simple Actions to Reduce the Effects of Climate Change

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

Today is Blog Action Day. This year’s topic is climate change. This is my contribution.

When I think about the problem of climate change, it seems so huge that any action I can take can’t possibly put much of a dent in the problem. But the truth is that we humans brought about climate change, and if we want to reduce its effects, we are all going to have to make some changes. For too long we have put blinders on to the effects our personal buying choices have on our environment.

Probably nowhere can we have more of an effect individually than on our personal food-buying choices. The food industry consumes a lot of energy and is a major source of carbon emissions. By making some small changes, and being more conscious when we purchase food for our families, we can reduce the impact.

Here are some things I’m doing:

Buy local whenever possible. The energy costs of shipping food across the world are staggering. Buying local reduces the distance traveled and the energy consumed in the trip. Both of my grocery stores now clearly label the local produce. If yours doesn’t, ask if they will start. Shopping at farmers markets is also a good option during the growing seasons.

Reduce the amount of meat you eat. You don’t have to cut meat out altogether, but try to incorporate more vegetarian meals into your weekly routine. Particularly focus on reducing beef and pork consumption, where factory farming contributes most highly to environmental degradation and carbon emissions. When you do eat meat, source humanely raised, grass-fed beef. Since you are buying it less often, the extra cost isn’t as noticeable, and it really does taste better too.

Cut out processed foods as much as possible. In addition to shipping costs, processed foods use more than their fair share of energy and natural resources in processing, packaging and storage. Most convenience foods, such as soups and frozen dinners, can be replicated easily with whole foods and a good recipe, and they really don’t take that much more time to prepare. You’ll probably enjoy your dinners more, as a bonus.

Compost first; recycle or reuse second; throw away last. It is very easy to start composting your food scraps, and you can reduce the amount of garbage you throw in the landfill by up to half once you do. Also try to recycle or reuse as much food packaging as possible. Bring your own bags to the grocery store and buy in bulk when possible to reduce packaging as well.

Stop buying bottled water. Bottled water is the biggest scam ever perpetrated on the American consumer. Most often the water is municipal tap water, which you can get out of your own tap for pennies. The fossil fuels used to manufacture the plastic bottles and ship them all over the country cannot be justified. Invest in a good reusable water bottle and fill it with perfectly safe tap water instead.

These are just a few ideas. In addition to the earth’s resources you save by implementing these small changes, they all have the added benefit of saving you money and creating a more healthful diet.