Romancing The Strawberry

In early August, I took a random trip to Mexico and ended up neglecting my blog so that I could rearrange my life and do a complete career change. This still holds true today. I am sorry I have not posted in forever, and have not posted anything worthwhile in forever. But everyone likes photos right? Well, I have some here. 

Salad at 100% Natural in Playa Del Carmen

 

Mole, Watermelon, and Fried Chicken at a random little stop near the Dos Ojos Cenotes.

 

Fried Grasshoppers at a Bar in Playa Del Carmen.

 

A basic tomato, basil, mozzarella salad in Merida at Casa de Frida. 

Also at Casa de Frida. Counter Clockwise from Left: Something I forget, Duck Mole, Mushroom filled  Cuitlacoche tortillas. 

 

Mind blowing Garlic Shrimp near Celestun on the west coast of the Peninsula. 

Rolandi’s Pizza, Isa Mujeras 

Gorgonzola Cheese Pizza

Proscuitto, Mascarpone, and Basil Pizza - beats the hell out of Delfina anyday!

Fresh Dragonfruit.

What was the best. Rolandi’s Pizza and the Cuitlacoche. God they were both so good!

I’ve mentioned my love for the two books French Women Don’t Get Fat and Japanese Women Don’t Get Old or Fat in this blog, but now something new has come about! British writer Lorraine Clissold has now informed us that the Chinese also have a thing or two to teach us about healthy eating in her book Why the Chines Don’t Count Calories. It is not yet available in the States, but you can purchase it threw the UK amazon.com here. 

None of these three books are traditional diet books, and the Clissold’s book seems especially exciting given that it showcases traditional Chinese food. At this point traditional Chinese food seems like a rather mysterious concept to me. Living in San Francisco, I thought I had access to it, but apparently it’s healthy so I have not. Wouldn’t that explain why the Chinese tend to be thin? Hmm, I knew my Kung Pao chicken wasn’t the real thing! 

Check it out, and tell me all about it. There is no way I can afford to pay anything in pounds these days.

Dear All,

Not that you’ve been refreshing the page or anything, but no I have not quit my blog. I have been out of town for some time and frankly writing blogs at an internet cafe or hostel where people are looking over your shoulder waiting for you to hurry the hell up and get off isn’t very inspirational. Not to mention the fact that I’ve been out of the kitchen and have gotten food poisoning more than once. But alas, that is life. 

Hopefully I can get a post up here in the next week so that you will truly believe that I am still alive and I do still care about food, and maybe I won’t lose you just let dear readers - if you’re out there.

Embarassingly yours,

The Strawberry Junkie

Some of you may have noticed that I have been gone for awhile. No, it’s not that I have given up food blogging! Unfortunately I’ve been really sick, and unable to eat almost anything. Acidic foods are especially daunting as are fried foods and anything heavy. Strangely enough though, ice cream seems like a friend during these times. Somehow I’ve convinced myself that its creamy texture coats my stomach better than Pepto Bismol. What can I say, some people will believe anything.

Funny enough the day before I fell ill I interviewed ice cream expert Bruce Weinstein on his book the Ultimate Ice Cream Book. Weinstein is traveling throughout California with locally inspired ice cream recipes in celebration of National Ice Cream Month. Thanks to the featured publisher program at Food Buzz (see badges on right), I was alerted about Weinstein’s arrival in San Francisco and an interview was set up. About a week ago, I caught up with him to talk about his love for ice cream, his reason for creating the book, and his belief in the benefits of using California dairy products when making ice cream. I also learned more about the tricks of publishing, and what sells. Hint: Chocolate is not necessarily the answer!

RS: You have a number of cookbooks in the Ultimate series. What is special about the ice cream version?

BW: The ice cream book was the first book I wrote in the series and we were just looking for a book that was going to be a subject that was fun that everyone loves and the first thing that came to mind was ice cream.

RS: Why are you touring with the book now?

BW: July is national ice cream month. I’m actually here in California to help celebrate that with some fabulous recipes we created with the California Milk Advisory Board that are specific to San Francisco, San Diego, and other areas. We came up with a sundae called the Cable-”Car”-a-mel sundae and the Ascoop from Alcatraz. Also some festive fourth of July recipes too. I think it’s shocking to realize that on average people eat 25 pints of ice cream a year in this country. We love ice cream. What we also don’t realize is that most of the ice cream made, most of the milk made comes from California. California makes more milk and more ice cream than any other state.

RS: In general what would you say about the quality of milk in California? Do you have a favorite dairy brand?

BW: Well there are 2,000 dairy families and with that much production it’s the amount of milk, there’s organic milk non-organic milk. There runs the gamete. 

To know that you’re getting California milk the California Milk Advisory board has come up with this real California milk seal which is coming on every container of milk produced here and butter yogurt, crème frachie and ice cream. It will be on all these products soon and that way you know you’re getting real California products.

RS: Has the dairy craze in CA been going on for a long time?

BW: Yes, California has always been a huge dairy state it’s just that people don’t realize that. They think oh Wisconsin or Vermont. California is an amazing agricultural state and that includes dairy products.

RS: That leads to another thing I wanted to ask. There are a lot of different ice cream parlors here. A lot of them are really popular and there are huge lines to get ice cream. What are your favorite ice cream places? What are some of your favorite milks to work with? Are you allowed to answer this question?

BW: What I like is just ice cream made with really fresh ingredients. As long as the ingredients are high quality the ice cream will be spectacular. So California makes the best and in my book the recipes are to make your own ice cream and you use the best quality of ingredients you can find. That’s always the trick of any cooking but especially with ice cream, so look for that real California milk seal and if you don’t’ see it ask your store manager .

RS: If may ask you this question, what are your favorite milks to work with?

BW: I look for the seal. As long as it comes from Ca I know it’s going to be really good quality.

RS: I ask because I know some people are pretty particular about which milks they drink here. A lot of people argue as to whether Mitchell’s or Bi-Rite are the best ice cream shops. Most people say they like Bi-Rite because it’s creamier, and Bi-Rite makes a point to say that they’re ice cream is made with Strauss dairy products while others

BW: In terms of ice cream texture being different it also relies a lot on the machines that you use. You’ll have the best taste if you have the best quality milk, but in terms of the mouth feel it depends on the machine. The texture of ice cream whether it’s dense and chewy, or creamy, or foamy is all about what we call over run and over run is the amount of air that’s pulled into ice cream as it’s churned. The more air the foamier it will be, the less premium, the less air the denser and creamier.

RS: I recently did some research on the history of ice cream and realized it was a favorite amongst the elite. I heard that George Washington once spent approximately $200 on ice cream in one summer!

BW: That was an enormous amount! The problem was trying to have it off season when you live in a warm place before refrigeration. Ice was a big commodity. It was hard to store. Sometimes it lasted sometimes it didn’t, but it was definitely food for the rich.
Now, given how much we eat ice cream, I think it’s food for everybody.

RS: How do you see ice cream’s evolution, something that is now such a staple that was once only for the rich?

BW: I think when anything that’s exclusive becomes available all the sudden we have ice boxes at home, have ice delivered, people jump on it. I mean look at airlines. More people fly now than ever before because flying doesn’t really cost anymore than it did 20 years ago. So if airline tickets had gone up people wouldn’t have flown.
Now everybody has cell phones. Fifteen years ago not that many people had cell phones, except rich people.

RS: Do you feel like your recipes like the Cable “Car”-a-mel sundae captures San Francisco? What kind of other popular flavors do you associate with San Francisco?

BW: Well I always associate chocolate with the bay area, like Sharffen Berger and Ghiradelli. We did also create the Ascoop from Alcatraz which is a waffle cone with rocky road ice cream and then you take chocolate syrup and you make prison bars so it’s kinda cute and it’s a way to get Alcatraz and the chocolate. It’s more than just what flavor really represents San Francisco but how much fun can we have to create something that says san Francisco and things that say san Francisco to most people are the cable cars and Alcatraz and things like that.

RS: Have you experimented with making vegan ice cream?

BW: Vegans are not going to want to have dairy products but I think in general given the amount of ice cream that is eaten in this state alone let alone the whole country I don’t think that that’s really a big enough market and I think for the most part people want ice cream.

RS: Do you have any interest in experimenting with vegan recipes in the future?

BW: Not really. I mostly I stick to the real stuff, you know the bigger picture when you’re trying to sell books and you’re trying to get people interested in your recipes you wanna go after the 99% not the 1 percent. It’s a little harsh I guess but it’s also the reality when making, selling ice cream, the concept of ice cream. If you’re vegan you’re interested in other things.

RS: Do you ever experiment with different types of ice cream or even yogurt? We are having an Asian yogurt craze now. I am also hearing more about different flavors that are more popular in other countries like rose.

BW: Asian sounds fabulous. I’ve need to check that out. I have some Asian inspired recipes in my book. I have green tea, lycee, and red bean. I’m trying to do a little more exotic flavors but in terms of coming up with recipes for the California Milk Advisory Board we try to keep things a little more mainstream. If you look at the top ten favorite flavors butter pecan is always number one, vanilla is always number two, chocolate is four, strawberry is three. So it’s always butter pecan, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry those are the favorites. So if you’re going to try and please a big audience you’re probably not going to start with lycee ice cream or green tea you’ll get three people down there who really want that and that’s great. In my book I wanted to do that but you know when you’re doing one or two recipes for a big city you go for something everyone likes.

RS: I’ve noticed that adding something different into something ordinary tends to get people to try things they normally wouldn’t try. Do you have any ways of sneaking more unusual recipes into what seems like something very basic?

BW: What I’ve done in the book is every recipe like passion fruit ice cream is followed with how to mix it up, passion strawberry crunch, passion nut, passion pineapple, the basically flavor making ten to fifteen variations on that stand to make it a little more. That’s actually the theory behind all the ultimate cookbooks I’ve written. They all take a basic recipe and show different ways to make it.

RS: What about people who are really unexperimental?

BW: They’ll go for other things they’ll make themselves peach, or maybe they’ll be daring and make themselves corn ice cream. Made that one on the Today show, the corn ice cream, and the host tasted it and then on air he said “Eww” and someone elbowed him on the ribs saying “It’s good. It’s good.”

RS: So that’s an acquired taste?

BW: No, I think he happens to not like corn. He thought it was a weird combination. There are people who think are open to new ideas of food and there are people who aren’t. We did a combination in the Cable”Car”-a-mel Sundae which to me is the best thing ever, sweet and salty, with the salty nuts and the sweet caramel of the dulce de leche ice cream.

Two days later I was with my parents in the hot sun. It was July 4th and I took them to Bi-Rite Market.

“You have to get their ice cream,” I told them, “It’s unbelievable.”

We picked up a pint of salted caramel and honey lavender. In the process of transporting it back to my parents’ apartment it melted. I didn’t think it had been that long so I was confused. Later it bulked up a bit but not enough. I remember the ice cream being foamy before, but it didn’t come home to me how much so until then.

“I love the flavor,” said my mom, “but it’s not dense enough.”

Fortunately after talking to Weinstein I was now able to figure out why this was.

“There’s too much air,” I proclaimed.

I guess it’s time for me to make my own ice cream, so I can ensure that both the flavor and the mouth feel of my ice cream are exactly the way I want them to be. Good thing Mr. Weinstein gave me a copy of his book. Now all I need is an ice cream machine!

In another one of my attempts to clean the fridge of my many random shopping sprees, I found that I had bought broccoli raabe and summer squash. When did that happen and what was I on? Oh dear. I could see that neither would be good for much longer and I did not want them to go to waste. There are way too many starving people in the world for that. And so I embarked on a mission, a simple one. I will just throw them in a pot. Better yet, I uncovered yet another item which appeared to be bought the same day: an artichoke heart dip.

Now if there’s one thing about dips it’s that they can be rather inconvenient if you live alone and aren’t the munching snack type – especially if they’re preservative free and rot within a week. I have an awfully hard time finishing a container of hummus or anything that comes in one of those small shallow containers no matter where it comes from or who makes it. So….
I took at look at my still freshly delicious artichoke dip, and realized that the whole ‘throw it in the pot trick’ would work for it as well. This is not to say, however, that I didn’t add some other things in as well. Don’t worry I’ll tell you about it. What resulted was far better than you’d imagine a ‘clean out the fridge day’ meal to be. It tasted healthy, scrumptious, and I was even able to throw it over pasta the next day.

While I finished the whole thing off with pecorino, I did this because that’s what I had. I think a nice feta would definitely be more interesting. I suggest the Mt. Vikos brand if you have it available to you. My fellow Yelper Corinna is a feta connoisseur and says it’s the best.

Recipe:

Serves 1-2

Use as a side, a small meal, or as a topping for your pasta!

1 tsp of butter or oil (I used Ethiopian spice butter)

3 garlic cloves
4 summer squashes sliced, not too thin not too thick.
1 bundle of Broccoli Raabe, chopped coarsely with larger stems discarded
1 pinch of chili paper
½ cup of artichoke hearts dip (or fresh artichoke hearts with their juices retained)
½ tsp. of cumin
Salt and Pepper to taste
¼ cup of saved Pecorino (pictured).

1.Heat butter on a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic. After 5 minutes begin sautéing the sliced summer squashes.
2.After about 5 minutes, or when squashes seem a bit moistened (not salad crunch in other words) add broccoli raabe. Sautee for another five minutes. Try to avoid adding more butter or oil as artichokes or your dip of choice will probably contain enough oil. Use salt and pepper to taste.

3.Add your dip of choice or the fresh artichoke hearts (if the latter make sure to add some salt as the juice might water down the flavor). After you have mixed it with the other ingredients add the cheese. Sautee until the squash is tender, you can cut through it with a fork, making sure not to reduce the broccoli raabe too much – same as you would with spinach.

Enjoy!

You would never think that someone would want to get brunch at a place called Absinthe and not order Absinthe, but sometimes things don’t always work out as you think they will. While its big green sign written in cursive letters might make it seem pretty self explanatory, there is a reason brasserie is part of the restaurant’s name. Enter and you will be hit with the site of the long bar to your left, with its plethora of different colored bottles and busy bartenders. There are two dining rooms, the front being more casual and the back more intimate with its distance from the bustling bar. More importantly there is the smell of French food swarming through the air. This is not just a bar.

Absinthe is known for serving a terrific brunch, and my friends and I were able to get a table without a reservation. Had we gotten there later than 11 o’clock though we would not have been so lucky.

The bar was full of opera goers so we had to sit at a small table in the front dining room where we could easily see the bar. I ordered a Mexican Coffee with brandy. Its rim was covered with carmelized sugar and cinnamon making it special amongst the other Mexican Coffees I have tried. Our friendly server instructed us to watch the bartender caramelize the sugar and cinnamon at the bar. He pulled out a torch and a gigantic flame burst out of his hands followed by the intoxicating smell of burnt cinnamon that seemed to would travel throughout the restaurant.

After talking with our server for some time (I am the queen of indecision, especially when it comes to ordering food) we decided on several starters and three entrees. Absinthe has a gigantic menu even at brunch. Fortunately we knew what we wanted as far as the appetizers went, and the server seemed to agree with our choices. To start we ordered the Pommes frites ($6), the French Onion Soup Gratinee ($8.25), four random oysters on the half shell ($3 a piece), and a salad that came with greens, toasted hazelnuts, sliced strawberries and blue cheese($?).

It seems a crime to give away the best feature of a restaurant so early in a review, but I cannot help myself. It was the oysters. My friend, a vegetarian, had ordered the oysters for myself and the woman for whom this occasion was organized around; a collegue from the Chinese sector of her company who she was to entertain during her stay in San Francisco. The young woman, whose name was so foreign sounding that she laughed when I asked her what it was had no idea that the oysters were also meant for her. I bit into one and immedietly wished that we could continue with this understanding. The last of the two I bit into, a fat loose little thing, almost seemed to have an extra bit of meat tucked into itself as it expanded in my mouth. It melted on my tongue like buratta with a soothing juiciness that tasted like it had been dining on upscale sea salt all its life. The look on my face must have given me away as the woman giggled and picked up the last two remaining oysters.

Least impressive were the pommes frites, they came with elaborate dipping sauces but that didn’t make them any more interesting. The fries were skimpy and looked like stumps once they’d been mangled through a few times. I am surprised these are thought to be one of the restaurant’s specialties.

The salad was tasty, the greens fresh, and the hazelnuts were plentiful, easily discernable in a given bite. The blue cheese made what could have been just any salad into something more worthy of addiction. I found myself almost picking it off the plate with my fingers. Fortunately my table manners were restored to me, and I continued my attacking the salad with a fork. The French Onion Soup Gratinee was also delicious, but its broth was somewhat anti-climatic with the taste of beef stock taking full reign over the other flavors.

Things got more complicated when we picked out our entrees. I wanted to order the omelet with morels, spring onions, gruyere cheese and fresh herbs provided ($13) but somehow doubted that an omelet would really be able to bring out the morel’s unique flavor. Considering how expensive morels were this year, it seemed a shame to hide them in an omelet where they could risk being over cooked and under seasoned. I decided to go with the Fried Green Tomato Florentine that came with the usual poached egg but was also topped with a ’smoky’ hollandaise sauce ($15). The young lady ordered the omelet and my friend ordered the Banana-blueberry soufflé pancakes coated with syrup and whipped cream ($11).

As I suspected the omelet did nothing for the morels. Upon a bite of the omelet I got a punch from the gruyere which had become so soft within the hot dry egg that it had liquefied. The soft texture of the mushrooms matched well with the cheese, but they suffered from a lack of proper seasoning that could have more readily brought out their unique flavor and hollow texture. Instead they ended up tasting like any other mushroom.

I preferred my poached eggs, though the smoky hollandaise had a sweet taste that was far less enchanting than the creamy yellow hollandaise one usually finds. The egg tasted especially good on top of the buttery bread it was served with especially when mixed with the fried green tomato. I was told the tomato was cooked in cornmeal but I did not notice this. I then tried my friend’s pancakes, but found them disappointingly dry. I later watched her order more syrup. Maybe she felt the same?

Then came the cheese. Oh thank god for the cheese. We ordered the Pierre Robert ($8) a triple crème with a ‘mild buttery flavor’ served with strawberries. Creamy it was, almost melting on the plate. But I would debate about it being mild. While it was texturally quite soft, its taste was rather pungent leaving a sting in the back of my throat. I liked it anyway, but I would probably order something else next time.

Fortunately Absinthe’s menu is huge, with plenty of things to try. For these prices I was quite happy with our experience and look forward to visiting again. Hello dinner here I come, oh and let’s not forget about the oysters.

Right now you may have noticed that there’s little thing called a recession that we’re all experiencing. Dieting during a recession seems a cruel rule to impose on oneself, especially since a new kind of diet, one usually consisting of cheaper foods from places like Safeway, would seem to be the solution to such a problem. That in itself is bad enough, but learning how to eat cheaply and healthy? That’s a lot to ask no?

But this week I had to do something. Due to a previous spending spree I was down and out with cash, and for once didn’t have a huge urge to simply charge my next restaurant check on my credit card rather than scrounging the kitchen. So I scrounged the kitchen. And what do you know, I found Arugula.

A week ago my friend Rochelle bought me a bunch of Asparagus at the Farmer’s Market when I was sick. Turned out that I was sick for long enough not to be able to utilize it right away (ok, I wasn’t sick I was actually going out to eat, so punch me). I could easily just go out again, and let the Arugula waste away. To be frank there are some nights when I get home and I’m simply saladed out. I want greens, but not all by themselves, not in their original earthy form.

Then comes Jen the Left Over Queen to the rescue. I am reading her blog about how avoid wasting left over herbs and I’ve found the recipe that saved my Arugula’s life: Arugula Pesto.

I followed Jen’s recipe to some extent, but I didn’t have good cheese around, nor did I especially know if I wanted it after all my healthy eating. I wanted to stay good, and I wanted to avoid going to the market. I was utilizing what I had damn it!

Fortunately not only was I able to use up what was in my fridge, I was about to use it in multiple ways. My blender successfully made me both a sauce and a salad dressing – thank god, oil and balsamic is great but you need a change every once in awhile. My recipe is slightly different than Jen’s as I made mine in a blender. I also copied my former roommate’s method for making basil pesto which is to blend the garlic, oil, and salt first then add the leaves. In any case, this is how it turned out.

Part One

Arugula Pesto:

Serves 3

2 Cups of Fresh Arugula, washed
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
4 Garlic Cloves, whole cloves
1 tsp of Cinnamon
Salt and Pepper to taste
Desired amount of pasta, preferably something whole wheat.

1.Boil a pot of water for the pasta.

2.Place oil, garlic cloves, and a tsp. of salt in blender. Turn on low, then progress to high as garlic becomes part of the mixture. Let sit for 2 minutes.

3.Add Arugula, once again starting out low and working your way up high. Stop the blender before you are finished adding the cinnamon. Finish blending. Do not over blend. Make sure your pesto is thick and creamy and not too thin.

Part Two:

Arugula Pesto Salad Dressing:

1 tsp. Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 cup Arugula pesto

Mix Vinegar and pesto in small bowl/plate.

Enjoy these two items together as I did, and save the sauce for other experiments.

I plan to use it to cook some steamed veggies before it goes bad (it has lasted me a long time, I cook for one after all).

The salad dressing was especially exciting because I could bring it to work. I had a fancy smancy salad, the pesto dressing over arugula. Who knew that one quick little experiment would lead to so much convenience not to mention so little money?

“These days, those who suffer from the dire hunger situation in Haiti refer to their condition as “Clorox” or “battery-acid” hunger, for the way it seems to erode their insides. I have never known hunger of that degree, but if you had asked me that morning how mine felt I might have used similar terms. At church, I sat close to my aunt, glancing up every now and then at her worried face, and wondering whether she might have overlooked a few gourdes, or at least a piece of candy, at the bottom of her purse.”

- From Crabs by Edwidge Danticat featured here in the New Yorker

Crabs, published yesterday, is part of the Faith and Doubt series that is in the current issue of the New Yorker. Though the ending to the story has a twist I can’t help but connect it to a Times article published today about the possible state of our next harvest. The article, entitled Worries Mount as Farmer’s Push for Harvest discusses the effects of recent intense weather on farmers world wide, especially those harvesting corn, soy beans, and rice - the things we apparently need most.

So much of my own life revolves around food, and very little in me ever worries if I have the resources to get it. I imagine there are many people who are like me and don’t necessarily think about hunger so much as desiring food. After reading this article, after reading about anything of this nature, I realized I have not really felt hunger before. Each and every day, I am grateful that I can eat at all, and thinking of these things makes me even more so.

I hope that food, as well as war, is of high consideration to our next president. I have been reading some of Obama’s proposed plans for the Department of Agriculture and have gathered that he is interested in funding small family farms, and will try to help people buy their first farm. What this will do to the economy at this point I don’t know, but I am sure that it wouldn’t hurt shortages to have more farmers.

Along with a sketchy political climate, where money for killing is taking away money for living - hey you need food to live - we are now faced with sketchy weather, the most unpredictable thing of all at the worst time possible. But what can we do?

Eat vegetables?

So I’ll be honest with you. I have been on a diet this week and have been trying to satisfy whatever cravings I have while simultaneously shrinking my waste line. I guess I just hit one of those points, I always do come 140 pounds. Of course, diets never work without some good food, but whether or not good is synonmous with healthy is another story.

My method this week has been to give into my cravings via small portions during lunch time. This is when I’m most anxious for a good meal. When I get home from work I am just as interested in getting exercise and reading as I am eating, so it’s easier for me to eat lightly then. But on the day I made above recipe, I just wasn’t satisfied with my lunch, filling and utterly unhealthy as it was.

It was Tuesday, and I was walking home from City Hall after voting. I got hungry on the way walking down Valencia street. There were so many good places to eat. I passed by Ali Baba’s and seriously considered ordering a falafel. I thought of their creamy hummus, not quite the best I’ve had, but good enough with the tender eggplant and other veggies that make their falafels so good. I was also dreading passing by Dosa, a southern Indian restaurant, for fear that I might run in and order a Dahi Vada appetizer (Lentil dumplings, topped with cool Strauss organic yogurt, piped with tamarind and mint and mildly spiced) to go. You can smell Dosa almost a block away, and the smell of spices is so strong you’d never know that anything else came along with that. Maybe I could convince myself that it was completely healthy? No, I held up, but it got me thinking about what I really wanted. And then it came to me: White Beans.

I wanted something with veggies, but that had at least one hearty element to it. I remembered that I had just made a stock of Ethiopian Spice Butter (Nitter Kebbeh) which would give the beans an extra umph that might be somewhat reminiscent of the the flavors I would experience at Dosa: Aka spices of all kinds.

I stopped at the market and, remembering a recipe for brussels sprouts with white beans and ginger, decided to add brussels sprouts to the mix. Shitake mushrooms also looked like a good idea - well to me they always look like a good idea. So I was set: Shitake, brussels, sprouts, and white beans cooked in Nitter Kebbeh. When I got home, though, I decided I better use up some of the mesculan I’d just bought, and of course there was that whole bunch of eggs I had my roommate buy me….

Besides the Nitter Kebbeh, which I imagine you don’t have lying around, the recipe is incredibly simple. Sauteeing the veggies in butter with garlic, ginger, and other spices might help to bring on the effect if you don’t have the patience to make Nitter Kebbeh, but I suggest you do since it can be used almost indefinitely and for oh so many purposes. Here is a link to the recipe from Kittee’s Ethiopian Recipes site. I’ve been using this recipe since I started learning to cook Ethiopian food, but there are many more recipes for Nitter Kebbeh worth looking into. As you’ll see Nitter Kebbeh is fundamental in Ethiopian food, so using it in this experiment will also provide you with the foundations for possible future journeys into the Ethiopian culinary landscape.

Now onto the recipe. The recipe was made for little old dieting me at home alone. It can easily be increased. I especially added a smaller amount of beans than one usually would to cut down the calories. This also helped to diminish the chances that the beans, and the juices they are kept in, would overwhelm the flavor of the nitter kebbeh.

I recommend cooking the egg sunny side up and simply drizzling the cooked beans and veggies over it (not all of them though) so that you can taste all the ingredients better. I think that this gives everything more flavor than if it had been made as an omelet, and I bet you’ll agree.

1 Tbsp Nitter Kebbeh

2 Tbsp Water

3 garlic cloves; coarsely chopped

6 medium shitake mushrooms; sliced in half including stem

6 brussels sprouts, slice lengthwise; not too thin, not too thick

1/2 white beans. If taking it from a can make sure to take beans out with a spoon so as not to use too much of bean liquid.

1 egg

a handful of salad, I used mesclun, but I suggest something less bitter.

salt and pepper to taste.

1. In a small-medium skillet (small if cooking for one) simmer 1/2 Tbsp. of the nitter kebbeh on low-med. heat. After two minutes add the garlic, let simmer for 3 minutes.

2. Add the Brussels sprouts and mushrooms, turning the heat to medium and making sure to coat them in the butter. This would be a good time to add some salt. After add water.

3. Add beans, and mix with the rest of the ingredients. Cover for 5 minutes to ensure veggies are tender.

4. Add the remaining 1/2 Tbsp of nitter kebbeh, coating the veggies, then push them to the side to make room for the egg.

5. Crack egg over the part of the pan you have sectioned away from the rest of the veggies. You are cooking the egg sunny side up. While it is still liquefied, quickly toss on some of the veggies and beans so that they will be encoded within it as it solidifies.

According to cooking preference, either remove the remaining (the majority by far) of the veggies from the skillet to cool or allow them to cook longer. Egg will need to cook for 5-7 minutes after it is put on skillet depending on your stove’s temperature.

6. Arrange the salad leaves on a plate and top with remaining veggies and beans. Once the egg is cooked place it on top.

Enjoy!

Today the New York Times published an article on the ways that restaurants are handling shortages in New York city. Below is a quote giving you an idea of the ways that prices have increased in the recent past. It is scary:

” A 30-pound sack of rice has risen steadily this year to $43 from $22, while a 15-pound bag of flour has gone to $22 from $8 and a 4.6-gallon container of canola oil is up to $34, from $18 or less at the start of the year, Mr. Saran said.”

You can read the article, written by Patrick McGeehan here.

Out of curiosity, how have you all been experiencing these shortages? Do you notice any particular item that you usually buy has gone up?

How much rice, eggs, and flour do you use in your cooking?

I notice I use very little of all three of these things. Eggs, though I love them, often upset my stomach. Rice has never excited me, and flour..well..when most of what you do involves sauteeing veggies, you don’t tend to need it all that much.

Also, can you offer any recommended readings: News stories, articles, books, that give more info on this subject? I want to learn more.

See you later. I’m going to the Dine About Town Premiere at Macy’s Cellar tonight. For $10 I can eat food from tons of famous San Francisco restaurants, and there is also wine tasting….ooooo. Let me know if any of you other SF foodies will be there!