Healthy, Meet Delicious

I really enjoyed this new monthly column by Mark Bittman in the New York Times Dining section: Healthy, Meet Delicious. Bittman’s philosophy of eating vegan before 6pm and having what he likes for dinner seems like an easy way to eat more healthfully and make sure you get your vegetables in. I have been trying something similar, although I allow myself yogurt and occasionally eggs. But I like this method because I don’t feel deprived and because it is an easy lifestyle change to adopt.

I tried Bittman’s recipe for chopped salad last week and I liked it a lot. If you shred a lot of cabbage and carrots at one time, they will keep for a while undressed and can then easily be incorporated into chopped salad, coleslaw, other salads, stir-fries and so on. I have found that the easiest way to prompt myself to eat more vegetables is to have them prepped and ready for when I get hungry, so I don’t default to an easier and less healthy option at lunchtime.

The smoothie recipe also looks good, and is very similar to one I make often, especially during the summer months.

New Cookbook: 101 Classic Cookbooks

101 Classic Cookbooks: 501 Classic Recipes (2012) is a beautiful compendium of recipes from 101 great cookbooks that span time and encompass many types of cooking, cuisines and ways of eating. I was pleased to see many of my favorite cookbook writers included, such as Mark Bittman, Alice Waters, Patricia Wells and Marcella Hazan. The book opens with a summary of each selected cookbook and scans of interior pages, showcasing the cookbook’s unique style. Following are 501 recipes selected from the cookbooks to illustrate what makes each one special. If you like to cook broadly and try new cookbooks, you can’t go wrong with a compendium like this.

Related articles

• The Only Cookbooks You Need (simplycooking.wordpress.com)

The Only Cookbooks You Need

Cover via Amazon

This week, as I was developing my weekly menu, I got to thinking about the cookbooks I have versus the cookbooks I use. Like many home cooks, I have acquired more cookbooks than I can ever possibly use on a regular basis. I love to browse through cookbooks, especially those with beautiful photography, even if I don’t make very many recipes from them. I have noticed that I used to buy a lot more cookbooks than I do now, because I used to experiment a lot more. Now, I’ve settled on the kinds of dishes that I like to cook at home and that my family like to eat, which keeps me returning to the same cookbooks again and again.

If I had to ruthlessly pare down my cookbook library, I think I could easily make do with just eight cookbooks and spend a lifetime happily cooking from them. These are the four basic cookbooks I consider essential:

• The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters
• How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
• The Joy of Cooking
• The Foster’s Market Cookbook

The Waters book is essentially a home-cooking course for beginning cooks, and I return to its classic, simple recipes again and again. The other two contain pretty much every recipe I’d ever want to make, and they offer lots of variations so I don’t get bored. However, these all-purpose cookbooks tend to skimp on categories that I consider essential: breakfast, easy entertaining and cookies. Luckily, the Foster’s Market cookbook does a terrific job filling in those gaps (especially cookies).

Every now and then, I like to cook something more elaborate, from one of the four basic food groups: Italian, French, Mexican and Southern. I could buy hundreds of cookbooks in each of these categories, but I really only need one that’s definitive and comprehensive for each style of cooking I want to do. Over the years, I’ve settled on these four:

• Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan
  
• Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells
• Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless
• Sara Foster’s Southern Cookbook

Of course, your favorite regions or types of dishes will be different than mine, so I would suggest researching the cookbook offerings and locating that one definitive cookbook in each category. It’s so much easier cooking out of just a few books and getting to know them very well than it is trying to find that one recipe you want to make from among hundreds of cookbooks.

Braised Vegetables with Bacon

Continuing to post some of my favorite recipes, this particular side dish is a simple one from Mark Bittman‘s book, Food Matters. I love this recipe because it is quick, easy and completely adaptable to almost any vegetable. Just throw whatever vegetables you have in the pot together to create a unique side dish.

Even picky eaters will enjoy this dish because everything tastes better with bacon in it. If you don’t have bacon, though, or you’re looking for a change of pace, you can substitute prosciutto or pancetta.

Braised Vegetables with Bacon

• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 lg. onion, sliced
• ¼ lb. chopped bacon
• Salt and pepper
• 2 lbs. any vegetable (alone or in combination)
• 2 cups stock, wine or water
• ½ cup chopped parsley or other herbs

Put 2 tablespoons of the oil in a Dutch oven and turn the heat to medium. When hot, add the onions and bacon. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions begin to color, about 5 minutes. Turn the heat down a bit and keep cooking, stirring once in a while, until the color deepens, another 5 minutes or so. Remove everything with a slotted spoon.

Trim and peel the vegetables as needed, and cut them into 2-inch chunks. Return the pot to medium-high heat, add the remaining oil, and when it’s hot, add the vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until they start to brown a bit. Return the onion mixture to the pot, add the liquid and bring to a boil. Lower the heat so that the mixture gently bubbles, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, anywhere from 5-30 minutes. Garnish with parsley or other chopped herbs to serve.

Eating Better in the New Year

A common New Year’s resolution is to eat better. This year, I definitely want to focus on eating more healthy foods. I have resolved to eat more soup, for one thing. I found that when I was eating a lot of soup last month, I ate less but felt just as satisfied, which is great if you’re trying to lose or maintain weight. Also, it’s easy to pack vegetables into soup. So I want to keep soup on the menu most days of the week.

Here are some resources I’ve found to help meet those healthy eating goals:

• Going semi-vegan: Mark Bittman advises us to eat at least one vegan meal a week. That doesn’t seem too hard.
• Ditch the recipes: The idea behind simplifying your cooking efforts and not relying so much on recipes is that you’ll cook more often and that you’ll eat up the produce you buy instead of letting it spoil. So, it leads to more healthy eating and less food waste.
• Eat more whole grains: If you replace refined grains with whole grains, at least partly, you’ll eat less and they’re better for you.

Related articles

• No More Food Waste! (simplycooking.wordpress.com)

Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?

 Is Cooking Really Cheaper Than Fast Food?

If you follow the “junk food debates” — in other words, why do people continue to eat so much junk food instead of cooking healthy meals for themselves? — you’ll often see the argument that junk food is cheaper. These days, especially, cheap is king. Mark Bittman recently argued that cooking at home was cheaper than buying junk food, but as the post linked above points out, he forgets to take into account the cost of labor. Labor counts for a lot.

If we want to encourage people to cook for themselves, we need to show them that cooking can be easy and fun. It took me a long time to learn that. I think the message should be that you can cook a yummy and healthy meal in less than 30 minutes, that it’s okay to try new things in the kitchen, and it’s definitely okay to mess up every now and again (and get a pizza on those nights).

Related articles

• Is Junk Food Really Cheaper (nytimes.com)

Here Come the Wings

This week’s challenge was to make chicken wings, in honor of March Madness. (Apparently, chicken wings are a favorite for snacking while watching sports.)

Now, I am not a huge fan of wings. I usually find them too fatty and greasy for my tastes. So I think I’ve only cooked them once or twice before.

When I don’t know what to start, I turn to one of my reference cookbooks. First on my list is Mark Bittman‘s How to Cook Everything (Revised Edition), and sure enough, I found a recipe for chicken wings in the Appetizers section. Bittman’s recipe promised the tastiness and crust of deep-fried wings without the deep frying. It sounded like the perfect solution. (Since I didn’t modify the recipe, I won’t reprint it here, but if you don’t own a copy of Bittman’s cookbook, you really should.)

Bittman’s method is to first roast the chicken wings with a little olive oil, salt and pepper — turning and basting them halfway through with their own fat — for close to an hour. You then baste them with the flavorful sauce of your choice and turn the oven heat up high to achieve that brown, crusty skin.

Bittman offers six variations of sauces, and we tried three. Of those, we liked the traditional hot sauce (I used my leftover barbecue sauce from a previous challenge) and the ginger-soy glaze the best. Both of these darkened nicely and developed a crunchy skin, while soaking up lots of flavor. The beer-and-butter sauce was a bit too subtle, though, and those wings didn’t get nearly as brown.

My husband and I both enjoyed the end result very much. (The toddler refused to sample them.) The meat was falling off the bones and flavorful, without being too fatty or greasy, which is what usually turns me off about wings. During the long roasting time, most of the fat cooked away, but the meat did stay tender. Adding the sauce just at the end ensured it didn’t burn or get cooked away. I only wish I had made extra sauce for dipping.

I served these with crudites: celery sticks, cherry tomatoes and quartered mushrooms, plus a simple blue cheese dip, also from Bittman’s book, which I made by mixing blue cheese, lemon juice and plain yogurt. I would definitely prepare this yummy meal again for a party or sports-watching event. I think the wings would taste good at room temperature, and so also would make great picnic food.

All in all, a successful challenge! My husband hasn’t issued next week’s challenge yet, so stay tuned to see what it will be.

Hearty Asian-style Chicken Soup

This week’s challenge was to make a hearty-style soup, preferably with chicken in it. The twist was that it had to be a kind of soup I don’t normally make, since I make soup just about every week. My husband mentioned pho, as an example, which put me in mind of a hearty, Asian-style soup. That would be change of pace for us, since I don’t usually cook Asian-style dishes.

The result was an Asian-inspired soup featuring slivers of chicken, rice noodles and bok choy. This dish was a hit with everyone. My husband and I both drained our bowls, and even my toddler enjoyed the noodles. (He is not into soups these days.)

While this was a hearty soup, what really made it was the broth, which was packed with flavor. I didn’t have time to make chicken stock from scratch, as I would normally do, so I took some shortcuts. I think the result was just as delicious, and I may make this “shortcut” broth more often than not in the future. I began with Penzey’s chicken stock base, but you could also use store-bought chicken broth. To that I added vegetables, garlic, bay leaf, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. My house smelled terrific while it was simmering! But what really kicked up the flavor was the wine, soy sauce and tomato that went into the broth, which contributed an umami quotient. If you aren’t familiar with the term, umami is the taste of savoriness, found in such foods as tomatoes, soy sauce and Parmesan cheese. That’s why adding a little soy sauce or Parmesan can wake up the flavor of a dish.

The broth imparted its flavor to everything that went into it. Pho is usually made with beef, but we don’t eat beef at home, so I substituted thin slivers of chicken instead. I added rice noodles and bok choy to make the soup more hearty. One small, minced jalapeno contributed a background sensation of heat without being overwhelmingly spicy. A little lime squeezed over the top provided brightness.

This was a terrific soup. I should acknowledge Mark Bittman’s recipe for Hanoi Noodle Soup (in How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition) as the inspiration for the recipe, but I did make a lot of changes to it. I would definitely make this soup again, and the recipe is fast and easy enough to prepare on a weeknight.

For this weekend’s challenge, we are celebrating  March Madness with chicken wings — not something I cook very often. Come back next week for the results.

Hearty Asian-style Chicken Soup

Yields: 4 servings
Time: 1 hour or more, depending on how long you simmer the broth

To make the broth:

Begin with 8 cups water + 1½ teaspoons Penzey’s chicken soup base or 8 cups store-bought chicken broth in a large pot. Add:

• 1 carrot, unpeeled, roughly chopped
• 1 celery stalk with leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 onion, unpeeled, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 canned tomato
• ½ cup white wine
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 inch fresh ginger, unpeeled
• 4 whole cloves
• 1-2 teaspoons five spice powder

Bring to a low boil. Lower the heat, partially cover and let simmer for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour.

In the meantime, soak 1 pound rice noodles in hot water to cover until softened, 15-30 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Strain the broth and return to the pot, or use a skimmer to scoop out the solids. Raise the heat a little to bring it to a steady bubble. Add:

• the soaked rice noodles
• ½ pound boneless chicken, cut into thin slices (You could substitute thinly sliced beef or pork, if you like.)
• 1 medium or 2 small heads bok choy, chopped
• 1 small jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, cut into small dice
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• A lot of freshly ground black pepper

Cook until the chicken is no longer pink and the cabbage is tender, which should only take a few minutes. Taste and add more soy sauce, if needed. Serve with lime wedges.

The Minimalist Retires

You may have heard that Mark Bittman is retiring his Minimalist column in the New York Times Dining section. Even though he will still regularly appear in the opinion page and the Sunday magazine, I am sorry to see the Minimalist go. I looked forward to it every week, and cooked quite a few of his suggestions. If you will miss the Minimalist too, you can find every column here, and here are 25 of Mark’s favorites.

A Down-Home Meal: Barbecued Chicken and Coleslaw

This week’s challenge was to make barbecued chicken and coleslaw: a summer meal in the middle of winter. I really enjoyed this meal. It was comfort food with a down-home feel, and it brought a little sunshine to all this winter weather we’ve been having. I think everyone else at the table liked it too. Even my toddler asked for a little of everything on his plate, and though he didn’t eat very much, that is still an improvement.

I have made the coleslaw recipe many times before, but this was an opportunity to really perfect it, and I think this was the best batch I have ever made. I’ll post that recipe tomorrow. (How come it is impossible to make coleslaw except in prodigious batches? I have some ideas for what to do with the leftovers, which I’ll also post.)

But let’s talk about the barbecue. I have never made barbecue sauce before, and I didn’t really know how to start. So I picked up How to Cook Everything, of course. Mark Bittman’s recipe for barbecue sauce begins with 2 cups of ketchup, which I thought might be overwhelmingly sweet. I consulted a few other recipes and Bittman’s long list of variations, and finally decided on a base combination of 1 part ketchup, 1 part tomato paste, 1 part hoisin sauce and 1 part stock to thin it out some. To this I added apple cider vinegar and bourbon (although I think dark beer would also work well).

All of the recipes I looked at called for chili powder as the main seasoning, but I decided to use Penzey’s BBQ 3000 mix instead, since I have a large bottle of it in my pantry (given to me as a gift). Chili powder can be substituted but will make the sauce a bit hotter, I think. To that I added salt, pepper, toasted onion powder and garlic powder.

The sauce tasted good, but it was still very sweet and lacked a certain depth. I consulted all the recipes again and decided to throw in a couple of spoonfuls of mustard (I used Coleman’s yellow) and Worcestershire sauce. That was better, but one last finishing touch was required. A few dashes of Tabasco did the job nicely. I let the sauce simmer for about 30 minutes to meld the flavors.

My husband really liked this sauce, so I consider it a big success for my first attempt. He wants me to make it the standard for barbecue sauce in our house.

I dug up some old instructions for oven-barbecuing chicken, which basically consists of browning the chicken first, then slathering it with sauce and baking it until done. A quick broil at the end adds some “char.” I used bone-in, skin-on breasts, so if you add thighs or legs, your cooking time may be longer.

To serve, I pulled chicken off the bone and plated alongside the coleslaw and the traditional white roll. I reserved about half the sauce for dipping.

Oven-Barbecued Chicken

Serves: 2 but this recipe probably makes enough sauce for 4 large pieces of chicken

For the sauce, combine:

• ½ cup ketchup
• ½ cup tomato paste
• ½ cup hoisin sauce
• ½ cup stock (chicken or vegetable)
• ½ cup bourbon (or substitute dark beer)
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Penzey’s BBQ 3000 mix (or substitute 1 tablespoon chili powder or to taste)
• ½ teaspoon toasted onion powder
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons mustard
• 1-2 dashes Tabasco

Bring to a simmer. Let simmer over low, uncovered, 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large, oven-proof skillet, drizzle 2 bone-in chicken breasts with a little olive oil, and sprinkle on both sides with salt and pepper. Brown both sides over medium-high and remove from the heat.

Pour about half of the sauce into a bowl. Reserve the remainder and keep warm on low heat, covered. Slather the chicken thickly on both sides with the sauce. Bake until the chicken is almost cooked through, turning and re-basting as needed. This can take 20 minutes or more, depending on the size of the chicken pieces.

When the chicken is almost done, turn on the broiler and cook a further 5 minutes, turning once. Serve with the reserved sauce on the side.