Recipe for survival

Onto a bed of arugula I grated 1/2 an  apple, thinly salad sliced half of a red onion, 2 sliced radish, capers, a cup of couscous topped with fresh dill and pieces of smoked trout – drizzled with olive oil and a spritz of a lemon wedge.

I pan seared lightly dusted silken tofu slices with unbleached flour & Salt of D Earth in a saute pan w/olive oil tamari sauce. I made some sushi rice and topped this with fresh scallions and gomasio. Gomasio is a Japanese condiment of sesame seeds, seaweed & sea salt. OH, The four brown blobs between the tofu slices is Hoisin sauce – YYUUMM.

I also made Bunashimeji – commonly known as Beech Mushrooms. They are just adorable. Brown topped white stemmed mushrooms. I cut the bunch in half, put them on to a sheet of aluminim foild, tossed in about a half dozen garlic cloves, tamari, a small pad of organic Earth Balance margarine & a good splash of Old Grouse! I balled-up the foil and put it under the broiler for about 15-20 minutes. I served these on top of the sushi rice, again with the scallions and gamasio.

I know the title of this entry sounds sO boring but I must admit, I’m happily full and each dish was really flavorful. I must also add, all ingredients are organic and I doubt I spent $4 to feed myself – two dishes.

CHA!

Not so pretty ~ but oh so good.

I came across these small, fist sized, not so pretty looking artichokes at the Manhattan Fruit Exchange in Chelsea Market earlier this week on one of the coldest days this season. The motto, Frost Kissed Artichokes, not so pretty ~ but oh good, written in Sharpie and with a very reasonable per pound price I grabbed four of them.

I cut the top off of two of the four artichokes with a serrated knife and then snipped the thorny top off of each leaf with a heavy duty kitchen scissor. As The Utilitarian Chef, gadgets are one thing I don’t feed into but good kitchen sheers is one of the few pieces of equipment I think is great to have in ones kitchen. So is a serrated knife.

I was reheating left over sushi rice I had from my first try at hako/press sushi, I got a press box as a holiday gift, so I decided to thrown these two artichokes into the steamer along side the rice. I added a pinch of Kosher salt, a wedge of lemon and a 2 dents of garlic to the water that came to just below the bottom of the steamer in a heavy bottomed pot. Artichokes are ready in 15 – 20 minutes. The rice was certainly ready.

While the artichokes and rice were steaming I flash wilted well washed, dark green, curly kale in a very hot saute pan with just a little olive oil. I also whipped up a cup of organic mayonnaise and capers – for the artichokes.

I served the wilted kale on top of the rice and put the artichokes in another bowl. All I can tell you is, these Frost Kissed, battered looking artichokes are so Dlicious I ate the first one w/out even dipping one leaf or nibble of the heart into the traditional sauce I made for it. Another surprise from these Dlectable chokes is that when you get to the heart and have to remove the thistles, they’re so soft they wipe away with a swipe of your finger.

Get them, the season is short. You can eat the whole thing: leaves, heart and stem – right to the bottom.

Twas the night before Christmas when I spoke with a friend.

I asked what was stirring… if even a batter.

A loin was in the oven, trusseled with care and with the hope that broccoli and corn would soon be the sides.

From being nestled in my bed to bolt upright at the visions of a warm creamed corn pudding danced in my head.

Me in my sweats I reviewed a recipe or two and then settled in to make a corn pudding with what I had at hand.

From out of the cabinets, freezer, and cubbies there came such a clatter as I sprang into action.

I tore to the freezer and opened a bag of TJ organic corn. I threw half of the corn into a hot saltwater bath in a sauté pan.

The sweet smelled filled me with joy like new fallen snow. I pureed the warmed corn. Milk would have glistened this concoction – but not from my kitchen.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a colorful bag of farina de granoturco/polenta, two beautiful organic eggs, an onion, a small pad of butter and a fresh sprig of basil.

With all the ingredients together, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment what would be my trick: I blended, sautéed, mixed, soaked, scrambled and poured all as required by name!

I sautéed a diced onion. I soaked 1 cup of polenta in 1 cup of water. I added this to the sautéed onion, a dab of butter and stirred.  I whisked till it was creamy. Now a dash of salt. A dash of pepper and Salt of D Earth went into the creamy polenta!

As dry leaves before a wild hurricane fly, into the creamy polenta went all the creamed corn.  With well scrambled eggs frothy with air I poured in the creamy corn pudding mixture and glared.

And then, with  a twinkle, I added a pinch more salt of D-Earth. A Tablespoon of Turbinado sugar because it was here. I pulled it all together, snapped a picture and turning around to grease up a Pyrex loaf dish in nearly a bound.

With the oven preheated to 350 Dgrees, I chiffonade a small pile of fresh basil leaves. I mixed this into the creamed corn mixture and poured the whole mixture into the greased Pyrex loaf dish and flung open the oven.

OH how it twinkled! The texture so merry! The surface like a new fresco.  The smell like sweet heaven.  My mouth was drawn up like a bow and the oven door was closed.

I caught a glimpse of the time.

With my broad face a smiling I turned over an hourglass and laughed as I took to my desk chair and created a blank page.

The next half hour went by quickly in spite of myself! A wink in my eye and a twist of my head, I knew I had nothing to dread.

I spoke not a word, but went straight to work researching and writing.

Then at about 25 minutes I turned with a jerk and peeked in the oven.

Giving a nod, it was off with the heat and oven door closed and pudding in place!

5 minutes later I sprang into action. I did not give a whistle, but dug through a draw for a spatula and pulled out a plate. I flipped the pudding over, onto the plate.

Like new falling snow I sprinkled the top with more finely chiffonade fresh basil.  I exclaim, to myself. I’m starving and couldn’t be happier with my Christmas corn pudding…and to all, have a rock’n good-night!”

After a long hot weekend and witness to money foolishly spent on groceries that would go to waste I almost fell into that trap tonight when I looked at the bag of produce I returned from the East End with thinking I needed feta cheese to make a ‘Shepard’s salad’. I had a perfect, oversized August tomato, a cucumber, a red onion, a lemon.

Checking out of the market, the self scanning, self service computerized register wouldn’t read my debit card. It didn’t take long for me to realize I was going to make a perfectly fine cucumber, red onion & tomato salad, sans fromage.

I’m also not going to call this Shepard’s salad just because I’ve seen it in numerous neighborhood Middle Eastern chow joints. I’m calling this salad, East End Salad.

SO you know the ingredients: Cucumber, red onion, tomato, lemon for juice, olive oil, vinegar and Salt of D Earth.

Now to MAKE THE SALAD

Cut a section out of the red onion, slice across the top and chop for minced pieces.

Sprinkle w. S&P but if you’re really lucky – Salt of D EARTH which everyone should have. Please contact me for SALT of D Earth – all organic salts, a variety of peppers,& herbs.

NOTE: salt helps to draw moisture out of vegetables, especially cucumbers & cabbage.

Next the cucumber – peel and 1/4 the cucumer lengthwise. You can do this in shorter sections from the cucumber if you’re not so confident of your knife skills. I used your everyday, regular cucumber, no fancy hothouse variety. Once the cuc is 1/4d remove the seeds by slidding the knife under the ‘row’ of them if you will. Slice the 1/4d section, in 1/2 pieces across the 1/4d sections for bite size pcs.

In this salad I only used 1/2 of the tomato I had because you’ll see it is quite the gorgeous specimen. In any case, cutting the tomato, again, 1/4′d sections, pull out the pulp, seeds and interior walls and thinly slice each section of tomato lenght wise and then a cross, again to make bite size pcs.

Squeeze some lemon juice from a section of a nice sized lemon.

I think that’s it – sprinkle with olive oil, more salt & a small amount of vinegar, maybe 3 or 4 Tablespoons, Dpending of course on your palatte.

So, the next time you see a Shepard’s salad in your friendly,neighborhood, Middle Eastern chow joint, order the fava beans – they’re much more time consuming and expensive to make. Be resourceful, wise and eat well.

Keep it SIMPLE, keep it CLEAN.

Tomorrow morning I’ll make a fruit salad with the nectarine, orange & peach I also picked up this weekend.

CHA!

FoodD*