Sunday, Funday Breakfast – As If By Magic
Who knew, nectarine & tomato salad? Some fancy chef I came across on instagram did and now, boy do I. Truth be told I was craving my egg salad on toasted olive ciabatta that started this Sunday breakfast jag, similar to what I prepared for my Stone Henge Solstice eats.
Another tale I’ll wind in to here at some point is the meal I made for my return from London back to JFK on Norwegian air which turned to be Vamos Air but in any case, back here now… The only think I needed to get was an olive roll, loaf, bun, or ciabatta. Thank you Union Market. Once I was home I remembered my friend that left for Paris yesterday left me a beautiful nectarine, a tomato, an avocado, an orange & a grapefruit and like I mention at the top, now my attention was diverted to working with the nectarine & tomato.
So here’s what I whipped up: #nectarine & #tomato #salad w/an orange, pineapple juice, shallot reduction dressing & orange section bits, chiffinod basil & mint, salt of D Earth & fresh ground tri-colored pepper. Egg salad w/toasted sour dough olive loaf croutons & tea – not shown
Now you can too.
Keeping it Raw
Last Friday I was editing a voiceover track I recorded earlier that day so I had my headphones on but I sensed & heard a kerfuffle at the door. Thinking it was my friend with RhODy I yelled out, “Let yourself in for Christ sakes!” only to remove my headphones & head to the door which was still being pounded on When I opened the door standing before me were five NY firemen, in full garb, one wielding the harpoon looking axe, and one guy, the Chief who’d already made his way around me was holding a device that looked like a Ghostbusters prop basically headed directly to my stove. He was followed by a guy dressed in plain clothes tho his shirt boasted a C0nEdison patch.
The Ghostbuster prop continued to flash green and the buzz or alarm rang faster & louder as they came closer to the back left burner on my stove when the ConEdison guy determined the stove to be passing or leaking gas. He and the fire Chief pulled the stove out from the wall as I moved my kitchen table back to make some room for this operation. Next the Con Edison guy declared my stove, ‘red tagged’ and the gas line to the stove was cut off. He instructed me to call my landlord or building manager and told me exactly what to say to him. I did this and in less then half an hour the plumber was in my apartment and he said there would be no fixing the stove I’d be getting a new one.
On Monday at around 1pm I put a call into property manager because with situations like this, no news is not necessarily good news. Remarkable he answered my call straight away with, “Oh HI, I’m glad you called.” At which point I took a deep breath and a pregnant pause on top of that, then I chimed in, “Phil, what’s going on that you’ glad to hear from me? How about you calling to tell me what’s going on? Which is when he tells me he’s having trouble finding me a replacement stove. To this I shed one of my favorite words of wisdom on him, “ Phil, I worked for a Production Manager for over 10 years. When he asked me to do something, whether that be to book 60 hotel rooms or research the leasing of a jet plane, he expected I’d be getting that done. All he wanted to know from me is when & if I wasn’t getting something done and if I needed help.” Phil didn’t see it my way, told me I must be having a bad day and that I was in a bad mood. I assured him, that was not the case and in a huff he told me I’d be given a $45/pd
Most people would be thrilled thinking about the great meals they could have out. I was bummed because I was all set to make and record a stuffed Pablanos episode. By Sunday morning I resigned myself to try and go raw. Forget the cooking. I’ve always wanted to try this.
The first dish I came up with was inspired by these beautiful early season purple & young green asparagus but what compelled me to know hoe great they would go with Asian Pear is still a mystery to me but boy oh boy was this delicious w/my daily, mother Dijon dressing. The other salad I prepared and sustained me two or more meals was my Faith salad of Napa cabbage, sectioned blood orange sections toasted nuts and a mirin lemon vinaigrette
The Root of the Matter
The day I first made my Beet the Flu soup I rushed out of my apt to get a nice, new, fresh, young, piece of ginger root which is called for in the recipe I came across that inspired me to take up my knife and turn up the heat.
So it was off to my neighborhood Key Food in search of a shiny piece of ginger root only to find a bin full of grey/black styrofoam ‘trays’ of ginger roots that look like a baby’s arm wrapped in enough plastic wrap that the package would be watertight. Disgusted by this I stormed out of the supermarket raging about plastic wrap and why the overkill with an ingredient so simple and organic. So little is needed for such beneficial effects. While on the opposite side of the same coin, a blood orange, touted royally for its antioxidant and nutritional benefits is priced as a luxury food item.
I tried. I try my best to use the neighborhood supermarket but for some things it just won’t fly w/me. Within a few blocks and under a 5 minute walk from where I live is my neighborhood health food store where I happily bought a small piece of young, thin, shiny skinned ginger root, I could touch and pick and choose from a bin filled with them and NO plastic wrap.
I also got myself two beautiful blood oranges and not so much more costly than a standard orange when purchased when they’re in season.
I find this same scenario playing out when I try to buy milk. I can’t tell you what it takes to find a pint of good quality milk, quart sure, pint not. but I’ll take the time because the idea of waste and the overkill mentality keeps me sharp. Buy milk & juices and whatever you can in a paper product vs the plastic.
I’ll sign off so we can all get on w/our busy lives and hope that the root of the matter for me is to try my best to share resourceful, mindful exercises and ways of looking at the world so we’re not taken by the overkill mentality of mass consumerism. Keep things tangible, think about waste. Let’s live mindfully.
Beet the Flu Soup
It was in the February Haven’s Kitchen newsletter that I clapped on to their Ayurvedic gingery beet flu-fender-offer recipe. Their recipe calls for coconut yogurt which adds probiotics and the blood orange which is the most anti of the anti-oxidants. Coconut is just not a flavor or an ingredient in my taste bank. So let me get you on the path I took to make this absolutely fabulous, show stopping, health supportive, flu beeting soup and hopefully, you’ll be Making It Your Own.
4 beets – roasted whole
2 good sized garlic cloves – roasted in the aluminum foil beet bundle
3 or 4 – carrots – peeled and cut into 1 inch logs or medium chunks
1/4 of a large onion – medium dice
1 apple – peeled and medium cubes
Ginger root – 2 inches of fine young, shiny skin – grated, sliced & or finely minced
1 Vegetable bullion cube
4 Cs boiling water
1/2 C apple cider
1 (blood) orange
Preheat the oven to 375° Wash the beets well. Randomly poke holes in them w. a fork. Wrap the 4 beets in aluminum foil which I drizzled with olive oil & then a light shower of my Wolf Moon Salt of D Earth blend. Into the oven for 45 mins.
Not only was a surprised when the nifty kitchen trick to take the skin of roasted beets off with a paper towel did NOT work but when I cut off the bottom of the first beet I found I was bestowed with a golden beet. Thrilled with this surprise I immediately switched from mucking around with my mac knife & whipped out my beautiful, birthday gifted Messermeister olive wood handled 8″ chef’s knife to expertly remove the beet skins.
Now it was smooth sailing, drizzle to coat the bottom of a heavy bottomed soup pot, splash a shower of Salt of D Earth add the diced onion and the roasted garlic, squeezed from their skins, & the grated ginger. Stir to coat and marry the flavors over a medium to low heat. In less than about 5 minutes add the roasted Dlights, the beets and carrots to the mix. Stir, mix & meddle…thoughts. Think good thoughts, health supportive thoughts. Remain mindful when you’re cooking. Hard not to. As in Zen, when you’re in the right posture, you’re in the right mind. Get it, in the kitchen, right posture, cooking, right mind.
Add the bullion cube and about 4 Cs of the boiling water. Stir. This is when I added a nice splash of apple cider, an absolute staple for me. Place a top on the pot, a bit askew, stir and turn the heat down to a simmer.
When the beets have cooked to a point that you can pierce them with a fork, most likely another 15 – 20 minutes. Turn the heat off and let the soup come down to room temperature before blending to a puree.
I’ve found my new go to soup. I hope you’ll find that too.
Much love and here’s to Sharing Earth’s Delights Whole Heartedly
PS: The next piece I’m working on, inspired when I was shopping for the beets for this soup is titled, Ginger, Right to the Root of the Matter. Stay tuned. Looking forward!
President’s Day, Greenbacks and Oysters Rockefeller
I’m sure you’re all wondering, ‘ How can Oysters Rockefeller be a Recipe 4 Survival?’ I’m not going to labor over the point but on some level, Oysters Rockefeller is a perfect Recipe4Survival. Short of only a few ingredients that are not staples the benefits of the vitamins & minerals intake balance it all out in my book. The dish is quite reasonable to prepare, whether you’re up to shucking your own oysters not. If you’re not up to shucking oysters they can be opened painlessly by par boiling them.
Over the weekend, a few years back, I was an oyster shucker for an Open Oyster party at The Diamond in Greenpoint. Obsessed with these Fisher Island oysters, I asked if I could take a dozen home with me as my ‘tip’. My request was obliged kindly .
As I sat down to write this piece I had almost forgotten why I even thought to make Oysters Rockefeller in the first place, then I remembered. I got the iDea because I have creamed spinach & butter in the freezer from my crepe making caper last week and 9 unshucked oysters in the vegetable crisper draw in the fridge.
So I began my research into Oysters Rockefeller. Thanks to Wikipedia I learned that the closest anyone can get to a recipes which of course is top secret and may even have been taken to the grave is that there is no spinach in Antoine’s Oyster Rockefeller. The dish was conceived at New Orlean’s Antoine’s Restaurant after the craze for escargot waned. It is said that there are 18 ingredients in Antoine’s recipe. Legend has it that a patron exclaimed with delight after eating this dish, “Why, this is as rich as Rockefeller!”
Seeing that Pernod, Herbsaint or Absinthe is a traditional ingredient in the recipe I was out the door like a bolt to support the liquor store round the corner to get a bottle of Pernod which I love and couldn’t imagine why it’s been absent from my top shelf. In any case it was a more reasonably priced bottle of Absinthe, Absinthe ordinaire liqueur that I took home vs. the name brand Pernod which was substantially more expensive and certainly not necessary for this recipe or my gentle sipping – when the mood might hit. With this bottle in hand I then trucked down to the Essex Street Market to get a bunch of Italian, flat leaf parsley, scallions & watercress. Breadcrumbs, garlic & capers are staples to me.
So that’s it. Oh, a stick of butter warmed while I was out getting the absinthe & the greens. Immediately upon getting home, out came my compact Cuisinart to make a compound butter. That’s it folks, Oysters Rockefeller is flash baked oysters, with a green, herbal compound butter. NO spinach. To make a compound butter:
I roughly chopped half of each bunch of the greens, parsley, watercress & scallions. I added this to the warmed stick of butter I broke down into 4 pieces in the Cuisinart. Then I added 3 minced garlic cloves, 2 Ts, capers, & 2 Ts of the Absinthe.
I was so excited I completely forgot to add the breadcrumbs nor did I top them with Parmesan, again not called for in what I think is the closest I could get to the traditional recipe. Tarragon & celery are believed to be in the traditional recipe. I did not feel these ingredients to be necessary but if I had easy access to tarragon, believe me, I’d use it. I’d also use fennel in place of celery but let me tell you – by making a compound butter with basic greens like I did – I believe you can feel confident saying you made Oysters Rockefeller.
Preheat the oven to 375 °
Make the compound butter as described above.
Shuck or steam to open the oysters
Cover each oyster with at least a tablespoon of the compound butter.
Place on bed of salt in an oven proof pan and cook off for 7 minutes.
Serve to your friend with a wedge of lemon, a cold bubbly drink of any kind and MMMmmmm.
You’ll want more and more, straight away.
Because we were still hungry I whipped up a rice dish with sauteed scallions, parsley & the watercress.