Back On Track: Cooking Basics

This is a new blog in search of an identity, truth be told. And as long as we're being candid, since I'm writing this for myself and one politely interested family member [hi sis! Love you!], it's probably fair to say it's a blog in search of an audience, too. Which is probably why it's been twenty-one days since my last post. Forgive the delay, kind (and solitary) reader. I did know when I began this blog that I wanted it to be a place where I could write about food and food preparation and all that that entails, from the food sources themselves to nutrition and diet to what makes good food good to techniques in the kitchen to high level gastronomy to guilty pleasures, and any and all points in between. Considering that the one reader I know of is basically a culinary novice, I have also taken a sort of instructional tone, and will continue to do so.

In our first encounter, I introduced my first rule of good cooking, which is that great food begins with the market and the decisions that are made there. Buy the best of whatever you're buying. Vegetables and fruits must be fresh and firm and vibrantly colored and, generally,  should smell like what they are. Don't buy "Parmesan" cheese in a green plastic cylinder for $2.99; buy a wedge of real, imported Parmigiano Reggiano for $9.79. "But Sagredo," you cry, "we can't afford champagne tastes on a beer budget." Yes, I know, I know. Look, don't get me started! I could rant about quality and how, when, where, and why to get it all day. I know that in the real world, sometimes your family's meals will come out of a freezer or a can and get hot in a microwave. That's reality. But some things you should just do without if you can't or won't get the real thing-- parmesan "cheese" being one of them. If your olive oil is used to dress a salad, say, or tossed with pasta, it needs to be a high-quality olive oil. Not because I say so or anything, but because there is a marked difference between the cheap knockoffs and the good stuff-- and you deserve the good stuff! It's a quality of life issue. And these are the kinds of things you should permit yourself to "splurge" on: the Parmigiano, the olive oil, whole spices you toast and grind yourself, these kinds of things that anoint a finished dish or bring a massive flavor impact. See, it doesn't mean you have to buy filet mignon for dinner every night. That's not what I'm suggesting at all. Take your coffee. Contrary to what your Great Depression-era grandparents told you, you can taste the difference between Folgers and Starbucks. That's what I'm saying. Ok. 'Nuff said.

Delicious, Versatile, and Vegan- Three Bean Shoepeg Corn Salad

Packed with protein, fiber, and vitamins, this tangy, satisfying dish stands up on its own as a main course or pairs up beautifully with sandwiches, roast chicken, and seared fish. Serve it cold or room temperature. I make big batches of it and eat it just like that, but that's not all it can do. After a couple of days when I'm tired of eating the same dish,  I take a couple cups of it and heat in on the stove with a can of pureed tomatoes and add some chili powder and whatever else I think it needs to make it more like a Southwestern chili. Serve that with some fresh onion, finely diced, and some chopped cilantro... maybe a little grated low fat cheddar or a dollop of sour cream or yogurt (also low fat, preferably). Another variation still is to take a similar amount, a cup or two, and whiz it up in the food processor with a couple cloves of garlic and a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil until it resembles hummus, which it pretty much is at that point. Serve that with toast points or whole wheat pita. Incidentally and for the record, I copped this photo (but not the recipe) off the internet because, again, I'm too lazy to make a batch and break out the digital camera. Which is too bad because my recipe is much prettier than this black bean and corn salad. Mine has deep red kidney beans that glisten like little jewels and earthy garbanzo beans in addition to the black beans... but I'll spell out the specifics, below. The important thing is that the recipe is a guideline, not a divine commandment.

I've used yellow corn when I couldn't find white corn, for example. I have used corn freshly cut off the cob, and corn from a can. I've sauteed the corn with onions before adding it to the dish, I've grilled ears of corn and then cut the kernels into the dish, and I've simply drained a can in a colander and called it a day. I use black, kidney, and garbanzo beans, but if I happen to not have one of those when I want to make a batch I don't feel the need to rush to the store to grab a can. Cans... usually I use canned beans. It's easier. But I have soaked the beans overnight and cooked them until tender, and then put the salad together, and I do recommend that you try that if you have the time- it is better that way, but not so much better that you should avoid the canned stuff. I put mandarin orange segments in the recipe, but I also sometimes add (or use in lieu of oranges) dried cranberries, raisins, or currants. I usually dress this salad very simply with fresh-squeezed lime or lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil, but I have also used a basic dijon mustard vinaigrette to good effect. You get the idea. Here is the basic structure of the dish. Feel free to embellish or adjust it as you like. All measurements are approximate. 

1- can (16 oz. ?) black beans

1- can ("  "   " ) kidney beans

1- can ("  "  " ) garbanzo beans

1- can (about the same size as the cans of beans) white "shoepeg" corn

[I typically open all of the above cans and drain them in a colander in the sink all at once, rinse well]

Put all of the above in a large bowl. Add to that:

1- red bell pepper, finely diced (to about the size of the black beans, or smaller)

1/2- red onion, very finely diced (brunoise is the classical French term for this dice)

1- jalapeno, very finely diced (add this to taste, you may want less or more heat)

1- bunch cilantro, chopped fine

4- scallions (green onions), chopped fine

1- can (8-10 oz.) mandarin orange segments, whole

1- Tablespoon kosher salt

1- teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1- teaspoon of ground cumin

the juice of 2-4 limes, depending on size and moisture content, or of 1 lemon

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Fold all ingredients together gently so as not to break the orange segments or damage the beans, but make sure it is combined well. You can serve it right away but I recommend letting it sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to marinate first. Enjoy.

Organic Or Vegan? Either, Both, Or Neither?

My answer is: at least a little of both. There are all kinds of controversy and debate swirling around these approaches, particularly the organic foods question. When it comes to fairly big issues like animal cruelty, human health, world hunger, food shortages, sustainable food supplies, farm subsidies, crop yields, and corporate profits, to name some of the issues at least tangentially related to veganism and/or the organic food industry, passions can run pretty hot. There are very strong opinions, pro and con, for both of these diet models. The organic foods industry has become a $48 billion a year industry, globally. The indication is that people are becoming more and more concerned with what they shove down their pie holes, and that those who can afford to will shell out a few extra bucks for the peace of mind that comes with a USDA Certified Organic label. 

There have been dozens of peer-reviewed studies comparing the nutritional value of organic vs. conventionally grown foods. For the most part, these studies show rather conclusively that there are no appreciable benefits to consuming organically grown foods as opposed to conventionally grown foods in terms of nutrient content. That distinction is important. It means that these studies are primarily comparing the relative amounts of nutrients between two sample populations. Huh, you say? What I mean is, well, let's compare apples to apples These studies are starting with the premise that there are either more, the same, or less measurable quantities of known nutrients (vitamins, minerals, enzymes) in organic apples than conventional apples. To find out, they cut samples of each and put them through centrifuges and spectral microscopy analysis and whatever else they do to measure how much Vitamin A, B-complex, C, D, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, potassium and other minerals and so on, are in each sample from the same species grown in the two ways mentioned.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are no significant differences between organically grown apples and conventionally grown apples when the differences are measured this way. We should probably not be surprised to find that apple O (for organic) and apple C (for conventional) have nearly identical nutrient profiles. We should expect them to have about the same amounts of Vitamin C or D or whatever nutrient you'd care to measure. However, what these studies do not reveal (or even approach) are the differences in pesticide content and genetic modification, nor any long term effects on the health of those who regularly consume genetically modified, pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables, and hormone-injected, antibiotic-fed chickens, pigs, and cattle. Factory farmed chickens no doubt have about the same amount of protein and other nutrients in their meat as cage-free chickens. To me, that whole "there's virtually no difference between the two" is a misleading argument because everyone agrees that there are differences: in one, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, genetic modification, hormones, and/or antibiotics were used, and in the other they were not used. Those are the differences. Any meaningful study must measure the long term effects on the human body after regular consumption of those compounds. It is not meaningful or convincing to say "See? They have the same amounts of niacin and potassium so there's no difference at all."

The debate over veganism vs. carnivorism or omnivorism is similarly contentious. For me the evidence is pretty convincing that a strict vegan diet is not as healthy for us as a mostly vegetarian diet that contains some lean animal protein. But the crux of my argument in support of a mostly organic and mostly vegetarian diet is not founded on any study claiming this or that. It is based on simple logic. Homo sapiens, like every other living species, is a current end-point along an unbroken evolutionary line going back to the origin of life on Earth (if you're a creationist or think that the jury is still out on evolution then don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out). Like all living species, we have managed to adapt well to our environment and be reproductively successful. What this means is that our bodies are tuned to the resources that nature provides. Organisms don't evolve in a vacuum; they evolve in concert with the biosphere in which they exist-- the foods available, the predators, the microbes, the weather, the topography, and all other environmental pressures. We are here today because our forebears avoided predation, developed resistance to deadly microbes, took shelter against the elements, and most relevant to our discussion, adapted to the food supply.

During 99% of our species' evolutionary history and development (i.e. from One Million B.C.E. to about 10,000 years ago) we lived off of the fruits and vegetables and some grains we could forage, and the wild fish and game we could catch or hunt. Those foods are what our bodies evolved with. This is the story of our success. For the time that we've existed as a species, we have co-existed and co-evolved with our biosphere. Our physiology is inextricably linked to the foods we were adapted to eat. This is related to an idea put forth by Jean Liedloff that she calls "The Continuum Concept," from her book of the same name. Her primary focus in that work, and since, has been on child-rearing. Her definition, in part, of this concept is as follows (from her website):

"According to Jean Liedloff, the continuum concept is the idea that in order to achieve optimal physical, mental and emotional development, human beings — especially babies — require the kind of experience to which our species adapted during the long process of our evolution."

"...[Determining what is good for us] has for many millions of years been managed by the infinitely more refined and knowledgeable areas of the mind called instinct. ... [The] unconscious can make any number of observations, calculations, syntheses, and executions simultaneously and correctly."


"...What is meant here by "correct" is that which is appropriate to the ancient continuum of our species inasmuch as it is suited to the tendencies and expectations with which we have evolved. Expectation, in this sense, is founded as deeply in man as his very design. His lungs not only have, but can be said to be, an expectation of air, his eyes are an expectation of light... [etc.]"


"...The human continuum can also be defined as the sequence of experience which corresponds to the expectations and tendencies of the human species in an environment consistent with that in which those expectations and tendencies were formed. It includes appropriate behavior in, and treatment by, other people as part of that environment."


http://www.continuum-concept.org/cc_defined.html

Again, her focus is on behavior and child-rearing, based on her experiences with indigenous people in the rainforests of South America, who to this day live almost certainly as all humans had for most of our development: in small familial bands, foraging for berries and root vegetables and leafy greens, and supplementing their diet with the occasional hunted animal. She observed that their infants never cried, and that virtually all of the adolescents and adults were perfectly contented and happy. Then she paid close attention to how they raise their babies from birth. Long story short, the babies are always with their mothers, in a sling on her body or in her arms, as she works, eats, sleeps, whatever, until the baby decides to explore its surroundings a little more (the other women, and the father, share in those duties). Ms. Liedloff concluded (correctly, in my estimation) that this must be how human babies were raised universally before the arrival of agriculture and civilization, and therefore, is how our species is adapted and how babies are supposed to be raised if they're to develop into well adjusted toddlers and adolescents. So the human Continuum is the natural arc of our physical and mental development, and to be in harmony with our Continuum is to keep our environment as close to the one in which we evolved as possible. The human psyche needs to develop in a social environment akin to the one in which it has evolved. The human body needs to be nourished with the same diet it is perfectly adapted  to.

The old homespun saying is true, you are what you eat. We are designed, so to speak, to extract the nutrients we need from food, real food. Everything we ingest becomes part of our biochemistry, part of us. Certain foods trigger or inhibit the production of certain hormones which regulate our bodies--  hormones that tell our bodies to store or burn fat, that make us feel sleepy or stimulate our adrenal gland, and so on. Our bodies are not designed to process artificial sweeteners and colorants, so-called stabilizers, preservatives, genetically modified plants, animals that have been fed a diet of corn which they are not designed to metabolize, and many other artificial food-like ingredients. We are just beginning to understand the havoc wreaked by the modern western diet. Clearly, we are not meant to eat many of the things that have become staples in the modern American diet. I encourage you-- no, I beseech you-- please consider how your ancestors must have eaten (whole, natural foods, mostly raw fruits, nuts, and vegetables, and sparse animal products) and try to eat like that most of the time. It may add years to your life.

Next on SLAKED: Deep fried Twinkies and Spam casserole.

Balancing Act

Previously on SLAKED:

"I can't have you destroyin' the city, playin' by your own rules, Sagredo! We have the mayor to answer to! Not to mention the freakin' public!"

"The freakin' public wants that psycho son of a bitch killer off the streets, captain!"

"Not if you gotta take out half the town to do it! Look, I need your piece and your shield. You're suspended 'til further notice."

"Yeah? Here. Keep 'em. But know this: I'm gettin' justice for that little girl... one way, or another."

Oh, sorry. Thought I was a 1970s boilerplate cop drama screenwriter for a second there. Missed my calling. And my decade.

Anyhoo, we were talking about fresh, quality ingredients. We were discussing how knowing what to get and where to get it is the first rule of good cooking. We established, in my mind anyway, that the function of the cook is to accentuate the flavors and textures of the main ingredients such that there is either a primary star (think of a good steak) or a melange of flavors and textures in perfect balance (like our tomato and blue cheese salad dressed in olive oil and balsamic). Either way, the cook needs to stay out of the way and not over complicate things. The first secret to very good cooking is starting with good quality ingredients and not ruining them. Isn't this good news?

The second rule of good cooking is about balance and ratios. Sweet and sour. Sweet and spicy (piquant). Sweet and salty. Salty and bitter. Salty and sour. Sour and bitter. Fat and acid. Contrasting textures are also important: creamy, chewy, crunchy. Think of fish and chips, for one example. A perfectly cooked piece of cod or haddock is moist and firm but flaky on the inside, and golden-brown, crispy-crunchy on the outside. Those contrasting textures are what make it so much fun to bite into. And, of course, the fish is also seasoned with salt and doused with malt vinegar (or lemon if you must) providing another level of interest to your palette, salty/sour, and because the fillet was deep fried, the acid in the vinegar or lemon helps cut the oil that is lightly coating your mouth. All in perfect balance.

In this example, the principle of quality is still the dominant factor. You wouldn't bother trying to make fish and chips if you weren't starting with a lovely piece of very fresh fish, I hope. Just like you wouldn't make that tomato and blue cheese salad with under-ripe or over-ripe flavorless or mushy tomatoes. I realize that you need to manage your kitchen and try to use everything you buy. We wouldn't want to be wasteful. Professional kitchens do, too. Herbs that are slightly wilted make bouquets garnis or get chopped and added to stews or whizzed up in a blender with oil to make herb oils.  Vegetables and fruits just slightly past their prime are similarly used in a secondary role. They might get cooked and canned, such as with fruit preserves. They might be used to make stocks.

It's not that restaurants serve rotten fruits and vegetables. I mean just not quite star-of-the-plate quality. You don't make hamburger out of beef tenderloin (unless it's for tar tare) and you don't throw delicate, fresh baby carrots into the stock pot. That would be a waste of quality and money. Similarly, you don't grill a chuck roast or use the week-old carrots with hair roots growing on them to make glazed carrots as your side dish. The carrots aren't rotten or bad for you. They're just not presentable. The chuck isn't bad. It's just not the sort of cut that makes a good grilled steak. It's a tougher cut that needs a long, slow cook time at a low temperature, preferably in some liquid like wine or stock or both (at least water), to break down the connective tissue and tougher muscle fibers. But it is so good when you do treat it right.

"I thought I said you were suspended! You're off this case, Sagredo!"

Let me sum up here because it looks like I'm rambling. In two words, the chief principles we've covered so far are quality and balance. A good piece of meat or fish doesn't need much else from you. Maybe a little salt and pepper and then the right amount of heat applied for the right amount of time. A New York strip steak, a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper, a little chopped rosemary, a few drops of olive oil, and three minutes a side on a moderately hot grill and Bob's yer uncle. Quality came with the nice cut of beef you paid good money for. The balance comes in as you apply the seasoning. Salt is meant to coax out the natural flavor of whatever it touches, so your steak tastes steakier, but too much and it just tastes salty and inedible. A little pepper adds that capricious touch of piquancy here and there. But too much and that's all you taste. A little rosemary plays off of the earthy savoriness of the beef, but too much and it tastes like you're eating a pine tree. Quality and balance. Amen.

Welcome To SLAKED!

Hot damn! The very first post! I've got to pull out all the stops--the kitchen wisdom, the writing chops-- if I'm to have any hope of sucking you in and convincing you to stop by periodically. Well, no pressure. I'm writing this for me, first and foremost, and it's not like anyone's paying me to do it. 

I grabbed this picture on the left (which I hope to hell is not copyrighted. If it is and you contact me, I'll take it down and shoot my own goddamn pic of a banana leaf with a beef skewer) because it pretty well illustrates my phundamental phood philosophy: while highly refined techniques, sophisticated apparatus,  and elaborate preparations all have their place, as a rule, great food is generally simple ingredients prepared simply. This is true even in fine dining restaurants-- especially in fine dining restaurants. Why? Because all competent chefs know that the ingredients themselves are the stars of the show, not the sauces or the garnishes or the knife skills, or even the chefs. 

As far as I'm concerned, the most important skill any aspiring cook needs to develop before anything else is shopping. I know you're busy, Doreen, with the long work days and the parent-teacher conferences and dropping kids off to soccer practice and so on. But if you're a "foodie"* (shudder!) then quality is not only worth your time and effort, it is your birthright... as I channel Mario Batali for a second. Get your produce from your local farmers market, if you have one. The selection is almost certainly more varied than you'll find in the local supermarket, and the quality is definitely better.  Taste peaches and pears that were not picked prematurely and shipped in hot tractor trailers from two states over, but picked fresh from a local farm when they were good 'n ready to be picked. Buy tomatoes that were actually ripened on the vine and picked that very morning. Compare that to the tasteless, woody things they try to pass off as tomatoes in the supermarkets. There is no comparison.

Which reminds me of one sublime starter I had at an upscale restaurant. It was a tomato and blue cheese salad, and it was amazing. There was nothing particularly unique about it: slices of tomatoes stacked vertically, sandwiching slices of blue cheese, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Maybe a sprig of basil. So, basically, there were five ingredients... no, not basically; there were five ingredients: tomatoes, salt, blue cheese, olive oil, balsamic vinegar. Okay, six with the basil. The presentation was nice, but how fancy can you get with a simple salad? The tomatoes were sliced perfectly at about 3/8'' and all were about the same in diameter (they probably use the off-cuts for tomato gazpacho and ragu and such). Between each tomato slice was a little bit of cheese, and it was stacked up like a pretty little cylinder. A drizzle of syrupy balsamic framed the tomatoes on the plate and extra virgin olive oil glistened off the ripe fruit and pooled at the base. A fresh sprig of verdant basil adorned the top. 

I don't recall exactly, but it was probably about a $15 to $20 starter at this place (now defunct, sadly).  This dish may have been, as they say, greater than the sum of its parts, but only because those parts were amazing in their own right. These were locally grown, sun-caressed, vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes (grown from seeds directly descended from a lineage dating back decades, sometimes centuries, with no grafting or hybridizing or genetic modifications so prevalent in today's produce that must have a long shelf life). They were sliced, as mentioned, then perfectly seasoned with fleur de sel (French grey sea salt). They sandwiched generous slices of Stilton, a much prized blue-veined cheese from England, so creamy, with an unctuous mouth feel. The balsamic was imported Italian aged vinegar, probably 8-12 years old, that becomes thicker and syrupy as it slowly evaporates in oak barrels and concentrates in flavor. And the oil was top-shelf, first-press Italian virgin olive oil. 

The purpose of this anecdote is not to share a simple recipe, or to suggest that you too can make this at home for a mere... let's see... carry the 2... $98.74. No. The point is that this simple dish was so outstanding because the tomatoes were specimens of quintessential tomato deliciousness. The cheese was world renown as one of the finest of its kind. The vinegar is often copied but never equaled, and there is a distinct difference which is why it fetches such a high price. The olive oil is not your mom's $9 bottle of Bertoli (no offense to Bertoli, a fine product that I do use), it's the very best oil pressed from specially selected olives with carefully monitored acidity, with complex flavor notes and incredible balance. It's the sort of thing you use sparingly, in raw applications, mostly, when the oil is going to stand out. You fry eggplant in the other stuff. The dish was special because the quality was special. 

Good food doesn't mean big bucks. But it does mean high quality. The chef's job is to accentuate the quality of the ingredient and celebrate its flavors. My little anecdote was of a celebration of the tomato. What could you possibly be accentuating and celebrating with tasteless, woody, tomato-like things drizzled with caramel-added cooked vinegar and $9 olive oil? Mediocrity? Bad cooking? Summer is upon us and high quality tomatoes are soon to be had, if you want them. Get thee to thy local farmers market. You really owe it to yourself. Too hard to drag the kids there? You drag the kids to the Safeway or Kroger's or Food Lion, where they grab coloring books and candles and cookies and cakes and say, "Mommy, I need this! Please, Mommy! Buy it!" Why not take them to the farmers market where the only things to beg for are fresh fruits and vegetables? Plus, they can begin to learn about quality, healthy foods and savvy shopping from you. Look at you, setting such a fine example.

To sum up, you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear. Garbage in, garbage out. A team is only as strong as its weakest member. "I" before "E" except after "C." If you start with good quality ingredients that taste good already, and you don't mess them up too much by overworking them and over-thinking the process, you'll probably end up with a dish you can serve proudly. Egesegedre!

*overused, over-hyped, media-created buzz word that made me throw up a little in my mouth as I typed it.

Testing One, Two, Three

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.