Great Site for Cooking and Recipe Videos

If you haven't yet been, go check out ImCooked.com. There's a great video of Christopher Walken roasting a chicken with pears, as well as Alton Brown's appearance on David Letterman. There, he frosts a cake using an old record player and shows Dave how to make homemade yogurt, amongst other things.

Well worth a visit.

Car Buying

A bit off-topic, but John and I are looking at buying a new vehicle for him and have narrowed the list down to two: Subaru Forester and Jeep Patriot.

We've looked at loads of others, but none come close to our list of needs and still has "reasonable" mileage at a price we can afford.

So, please leave a comment if you have direct experience with either of these because we're having a tough time choosing between the two.

Thanks!

Ratatouille Review

John and I finally saw Ratatouille yesterday. I hate to say it, but given the insane amount of hype surrounding its release (especially in the blogosphere), the film didn't live up to the hype.

Which is not to say that I didn't appreciate the high level of detail in the animation and the cooking/food. Technically, the film deserves an A+. However, the story was sadly lacking. While I do enjoy most Disney movies -- because I know exactly what I'm going to get from a Disney movie -- this one was a bit too Disney for me.

I'm not going to spoil the ending for anyone, but I just have to say that the rat-in-the-kitchen bit made me lose my appetite completely. John weighed in saying that the short film shown before Ratatouille was better than the full-length feature.

It's no Finding Nemo, that's for sure. B-

Yuca, Not Yucca

I recently saw an episode of Daisy Cooks, where she makes meat-filled fried dumplings with yuca. Yes, that's yuca, not yucca.

Having never cooked with yuca before, I paid attention to the directions Daisy gave as she cooked. First, use a peeler to take the bark-like skin off the vegetable. It peels like a carrot, but it cooks like a potato. When it's fried, though, it reminds me of rice-battered dim sum. Much lighter tasting than a potato.



Next, it's important to boil it first before doing anything else with it because yuca contains cyanide. Don't worry, though. Once you cook it, it's not a problem.



After it boils for a bit, the yuca breaks down, and you can see the fibers that hold it together. Take note of the fibers because you'll need to pull them out later.



After I drained the boiled yuca, I mashed it up like a potato. I added a variety of spices, especially salt.



Really does look like mashed potatoes, doesn't it?

Because I don't cook meat, I decided to stuff my yuca fritters with either montasio or mozzarella cheese and some fresh basil. There's a technique to doing this.

First, plop some of the mashed yuca in the palm of your hand and use the back of your spoon to make an indentation for your stuffing.



Then, place the stuffing in the middle of the indentation and pull the yucca around it to cover it completely.



The stuffed yuca should look like this:



Next, deep fry the yuca dumplings in hot vegetable oil. I tend to use grapeseed oil most often.



When they're golden brown, take them out of the oil and let them drain and cool slightly on paper towels. Then, enjoy!

Tasty Crab Cakes and Mayo with a Zing

As a Williams-Sonoma shopper, I receive their lovely catalogs. For a while, I waited to try a recipe printed in one of their most recent mailings -- Crab Cake Salad. I wasn't so interested in the salad as I was the crab cakes. I had a couple of cans of crab in my cabinet for a while, so it was time to put them to good use.

Typically, I make some sort of change to a recipe, and this one was no exception. Instead of breadcrumbs, I used the crumbs left from a bag of corn chips (Santitas, if you must know) mixed with some salt and pepper matzo I'd crushed with a rolling pin.



Additionally, the recipe calls for 1 lb of fresh crab meat, but I just had 2 6-oz. cans, so I ended up with 14 small patties, rather than 8 large patties. The frying is supposed to take place with butter and olive oil, but I used butter and grapeseed oil instead. The recipe also says to use only the white part of 4 green onions, but I found this to be incredibly wasteful, so I used 2 entire green onions instead.

They tasted delicious. I froze a few for a visit from Mom and Dave this coming Sunday. They'll make a good appetizer for a large luncheon I have planned.

The dressing isn't so much a dressing as it is a nice dipping sauce, or rather, a pretty spicy mayo. It works really well with the crab cakes. They are best served as part of a larger salad. I placed mine on some fresh baby organic spinach, and that was just lovely.

Here's the recipe along with some photos to show you how I made it.

Crab Cakes and Zingy Mayo (adapted from Williams-Sonoma's summer catalog)

Ingredients:

Crab Cakes

2 cans (6 oz. each) of crab meat drained well
1 egg lightly beaten
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1/4 cup crushed corn chips
1/4 cup crushed salt and pepper matzo (regular will do, but you'll need to season more later)
2 green onions thinly sliced
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more if you like things very zippy, but the mayo's zippy, so keep that in mind)

Zippy Mayo
1 cup mayonnaise
the juice of half a large lemon
1 teaspoon mustard powder (I used this in place of the 2 teaspoons of dijon mustard)
salt, pepper and cayenne to taste (I used about 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne)

Directions:

1. Mix together the crab meat, egg and mayonnaise until well combined.



2. Add the crumbs, green onions and seasoning until well combined.

3. Form 2-in patties and place on a dish or in a container that can be closely covered. Refrigerate the patties for at least 2 hours.



4. Make the mayo by whisking the mayo, lemon juice, mustard and seasoning together until smooth and well blended. Refrigerate until ready to use.



5. Heat butter and oil in a skillet until the butter browns slightly. Add the patties and cook approximately 4 minutes per side, until they are golden brown and crispy.





6. Drain on paper towels before serving on a bed of your favorite fresh greens. Serve with a small dish of the zippy mayo on the side.



Enjoy!

Local Farmer's Market a Big Disappointment

Wish I could say otherwise, but it just wouldn't be true.

At 9 am (the reported opening time of the market), I arrived at what amounted to a tiny farm stand in the parking lot of a dying strip mall. I'd planned on taking photos to post here, but there just wasn't much at all to snap.

The variety was small, and the produce was pretty pricey. The enormous man working the table (OK, there were 4 tables in total, three of them his) seemed more concerned with selling his pies than the grown goods. Nothing had prices displayed, and some of the groceries had been tagged with store-coding tags -- a big turn-off for me because I expected them to be straight from the farm like the other produce there.

I left with some green beans, 2 squashes (zucchini and yellow), and some hugely overpriced basil. To the basil's defense, it was delicious in a sandwich I just made with fresh mozzarella cheese and roma tomatoes with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

After leaving the parking lot, I went to our local "Farmer's Market" store, which had far more variety and better quality produce. I'm just sad about having to do that since I wanted to support local growers. Oh well. I'll try again when I visit Mom's local market in Morristown.

Speaking of supporting local folks, I also stopped at one of my local health food stores, the George Street Coop in New Brunswick. I'm not a member, but I've been shopping there for at least 7 years. They have a local Lebanese baker who makes the BEST whole wheat pitas and spinach pies. The prices on these are super-cheapie, so don't miss 'em if you venture to the Coop.

A Big Day for A Great Kid

On Friday, I had the honor of treating my older nephew to a day in New York City to celebrate his 12th birthday. Young Tyler's been a guest on this blog before, but it's been a while.

We had a bit of a foodie adventure between sightseeing. Our first stop was Rockefeller Center to see if we could secure tickets to an NBC studios tour. No dice, the next available tour was two hours away, and we weren't having it.

So, we had our first bit of food in the city.



We shared this sandwich at Bunchberries. We walked from Rockefeller center to 53rd Street, then east to 2nd Avenue for this sandwich. Well, not really. We intended to go somewhere else, but the menu was so uninteresting that we ended up a few doors down, at Bunchberries. The sandwich is made from multigrain bread spread with roasted garlic and stuffed with spinach, plum tomatoes, black olives, grilled portobello mushrooms and goat cheese.

The big news there was that Tyler had never tried goat cheese before and really enjoyed it. One of my favorite things about Tyler is that he's so open to trying new things, like goat cheese. I believe I was in my 30s before I tried goat cheese.

From there, we hiked to a subway that would take us all the way down to the Staten Island Ferry.



The thing about the ferry is that it's FREE. OK, that and it gets pretty darn close to the Statue of Liberty.



As we walked from the Staten Island Ferry terminal up South Street on our way to Chinatown for our next foodie stop, we saw the biggest police presence I've ever experienced. I later found out that it was due to car bombs in London that fortunately had been diffused.



These mounted police were kind enough to pose for the photo. Right afterward, the two in the middle gave me the thumbs-up sign and winked. Oh those wacky mounties!

From the seaport, we hoofed it another 2/3 of a mile up to Chinatown to dine at the Vegetarian Dim Sum House. Unlike typical dim sum spots, where the waitstaff brings you the little plates on a cart to your table, this one had us fill out a card with our choices, and they brought our selections to us afterward. This first dish was a "Mashed Taro Treasure Box." Inside a lightly fried shell was mashed taro and sweet bean paste. It was delightful.



Our other picks were "Mini Vegetarian Spring Rolls," "Vegetarian Mock Shrimp Dumplings," and "Bar-B-Q Pork." Reluctant as he was, Tyler did eat half the broccoli with me. Otherwise, we really enjoyed the spring rolls and the dumplings. The mock pork wasn't that great.



Here are the innards of the spring rolls and the mock shrimp, respectively:





Filled with dim sum, we headed back downtown to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was filled with tourists and their cameras. The walk over to Brooklyn and back is about 2 miles. Tyler was a trooper because we'd already hoofed it around town for a few miles prior to approaching the bridge.

If you've never done the walk, you should during your next trip to New York. On the bridge, you have fantastic views up the Hudson River and out to the Statue of Liberty. Plus, it's a pretty historic site.

Once we'd rested a bit, we headed over to Babycakes bakery for some agave nectar goodies to actually have cake for Tyler's birthday. He ordered the blueberry coffeecake, while I requested a raspberry lemon cupcake. We saved them for later, so John could visit with Tyler a bit after we'd arrived home.



Our final foodie destination was probably our favorite. I'd first heard of Han Bat Korean restaurant from Robyn.

Although I'll probably never get as good a photo as Robyn's, I gave it my best shot.



On her recommendation, I ordered the Pajun (above). It's a rice flour, shellfish and green onion pancake fried to perfection. We nearly ate the whole thing (about the size of a large plate).



A close-up reveals the shellfishiness of the thing. It was one of the tastiest dishes I've had in a long time. Tyler loved it and became an instant convert to Korean food.

On our train ride home to New Jersey, we looked at our Babycakes goodies and remembered what a big, fun day we had together. I'm truly fortunate to have such a wonderful nephew. Furthermore, it is a huge blessing that we had the time to spend together because you just never know...

Putting the New Dutch Oven to Good Use, Beans and Rice Style

Last week, I used the new le Creuset Dutch oven to make one of the best beans and rice dishes I think I've ever made. I don't think I'll use another pot or pan for this in the future.

Here's a short film about my making the rice and beans:

Poor Woman's Frozen Yogurt

Last week, I had a fridge full of yogurt, but no desire to eat it then. However, the due dates were approaching on the little cups of fat-free goodness, so I decided to make frozen yogurt from them.

Because the Cascade Fresh brand of fat free yogurt just uses fruit juice concentrate as its sweetener, it worked great for me. I only added unsweetened carob chips to the mixture of cherry vanilla and boysenberry yogurt. The only thing I'd do differently next time is not be so lazy and use the ice cream maker instead of using the method shown in the little film below.

In advance, I apologize for the quality of the video. I hope someday to buy a good video camera instead of using my good digital camera that just happens to have a weak video setting.

Before you see the film, here are before and after shots of the yogurt:



Above, you can see the markings of the cheese cloth on the yogurt after it's been drained over night.



Above, the finished product.

Now, sit back, have some popcorn and enjoy the show.

A Painful Week

Last week was one of the more physically painful weeks I've endured in quite some time.

It started with a massive sinus infection that lead to a blinding three-day headache. Then, I had yet another dental surgery on the implant on Thursday. So far, after the injections wore off, it was the most painful day yet.

Now, I've experienced a range of different types of major pain in my life -- kidney stones, other dental surgeries (including all four impacted wisdom teeth--there's a story), foot surgery and more. But this last one took the cake.

I don't take any narcotic pain medication, so it was a matter of toughing it out with anti-inflammatories and ice. Rather, ice water. I filled my mouth with ice water and held it there, nearly passing out with the pain until the cold helped numb me while I waited for the NSAIDs to do their jobs.

It took a while, but I survived. John was a dear. Poor guy was at his wits end trying to help me, but there simply wasn't anything for him to do.

Almost a week later, I feel much better. The gum is still sore, and I'm certainly not smiling my largest smiles, but I'm on the mend.

In the meantime, I'm eating softer food. Which brings me to my next homemade treat, frozen yogurt.

Next post will be on that. Hope your weeks are never painful.

Yet another reason biofuel is NOT ecofuel

Please visit the Des Moines Register to read more on this serious issue.

A Rant

I'm really steamed. I've been particularly peeved about one issue for some time now, but now that John and I have to replace one of our cars, this issue has risen to the top like some kind of toxic cream. "What is it, Deb?" you ask.

I hate the fact that eco-fuel is food raised for fuel instead of previously used cooking oils. It really ticks me off that there are millions of fast-food restaurants that PAY to have their cooking oils removed and disposed of, while they could easily be used to fuel diesel cars that have been retrofitted to use eco-fuel.

It costs much, much less to repurpose the cooking oil than it does to grow the crops and process them into fuel. Plus, the restaurants would save tons of money by not having their oils carted away and processed elsewhere.

Most importantly, there are people starving all over the world, and our government wants to raise food for fuel?!?! Why can't we just use the resources that we already have? This issue really makes me mad.

If we lived in a state where we could easily get the repurposed oils, it's wouldn't be as much of a question. However, we're still in New Jersey, where it seems that conservation sits way in the back of the bus while over-consumption takes up the first five rows.

Grrr.

Does this get under your skin too? Let me know.

"Ratatouille" in the Dining Section of the Times

I had to look twice, but there it is -- not a movie review at all, but a review of the movie as if it were a virtual restaurant experience. I'd bet that the editors of the Times had a bit of a challenge deciding where to put the article because it so closely examines the filmmaker's process. But on the other hand, the story focuses on French Laundry chef Thomas Keller and his affect on the film.

Either way, "Ratatouille" has been on my must-see list of films since the first preview was floated last year. It opens on 29 June.

One Thing I Wish I Hadn't Seen A Server Do

First, let me say that I'm a regular reader of Diary of The Food Whore. Her accounts of bizarre things that customers do at her restaurant and on her catering gigs are a scream. But, it's not as funny being on the other side of the table, as it were.

Yesterday, John and I attended my cousin Aaron's bar mitzvah in Westchester County, New York. The ceremony was very, very long, but the kid did very well, especially considering that he'd just begun his preparations only 8 months prior to the ceremony. Pretty impressive indeed.

After the ceremony, we drove about 20 minutes north to a very fancy resort with a hotel, golf course and banquet facilities. The reception was pretty high end, with tasty, expensive food; rented Segways to try (more on those below); caricature artists; great music via a dj; and more.

Here's where it gets a big scary. Well, for John and me, at any rate. Between dinner courses, our server came around to give us more rolls from a large basket draped over his arm. At first we didn't think anything of it until, across the table from us, the server picked up my brother's uneaten roll with his tongs and placed it into the same basket.

John and I both gasped. I'd already received my new roll, but had not eaten it. Moreover, I began to panic that my first roll had been someone else's not-eaten first roll! What if he'd done that at all the tables??

Now, if you're still saying to yourself, "What's the big deal? The roll would go to waste?" Well, the big deal is that it's not sanitary. How many times have you been in a restroom where someone who just finished didn't wash their hands before exiting? Or, more common, do you cover your mouth when you cough? I do. Do you wash your hands after ever time? I can't honestly say that I do.

While my brother, or anyone else for that matter, may not have done much with the roll, he might have picked it up. With possibly unclean hands. OK. I'm just pushing it this far because I'm also aware of each knob I turn when I open a door, or each time I push a door open (whether it's from a restroom or otherwise).

Regardless, I just don't want to be eating someone's recycled roll!

On to the Segways. One of the most touted advantages of a Segway is that it's supposed to be tough to knock off balance. It's also supposed to be easy to maneuver. At this same bar mitzvah reception, the mother of the celebrant and the celebrant both were riding Segways around the dance floor. They collided, and down she went, with the Segway on top of her.

It was almost in slow motion. He approached from the left, she from the right. He caught her left wheel with his right, her body swerved and the Segway didn't. Luckily, no one was hurt, and she got right back up on the Segway, speeding away.

Have you ever tried a Segway? I was wearing a long flowing dress and didn't want to chance it.

As I said in my other blog, I'm battling a cold, so when I'm feeling better, I'll have more cooking photos/movies/recipes to share. For now, more herbal tea, raw garlic, and rest.

Grounds for Sculpture

If you haven't yet been, you should definitely visit the Grounds for Sculpture park and museum in Hamilton (think Trenton), New Jersey. I snapped the photo above at the park while walking the grounds with my next door neighbor. This particular artist crafted quite a few works around the grounds. You can actually sit with the art, if you wish.



The sculptures are fabricated from all manner of materials. The artwork above is made from blown glass and metal. We saw Richard Jolley's unique glass work in the beautiful and airy museum building.



We also witnessed several male and female peacocks wandering around the Domestic Arts building and the cafe. We thought someone was shouting at us, but it was just the peacocks doing their mating thing.

If you want to see my very short film of the peacocks, click here.

Presby Memorial Iris Gardens 2007

If you're in the New York metropolitan area for the next 7 days, you should definitely visit the Presby Memorial Iris Gardens in Upper Montclair, New Jersey. They are utterly spectacular this year.

It's the 80th anniversary of the gardens, and the gardeners have placed new placards in front of each plot that state the years the irises in that plot were initially cultivated and/or collected. They even have a few from 1500!

My entire Picasa Web Album of the gardens is here (mind you, the first few photos are of my garden).

If you don't feel like viewing the entire display, here are a just a few of my favorites:

Deb Does Dutch Oven

The Unedited Fridge

Seems there's a bit of a fridge meme making the rounds these days. Above is my little fridge, complete with its many magnets. Some are from Mom (5 fruits/vegetables a day), while others are magnets I've picked up in my travels (London, Memphis, Utah, etc.).

But what's inside, you say?


From the top down:

• First shelf -- (in ziplock bags) spinach, whole wheat pitas, cauliflower, salsa, bread, more bread, leftover rice and beans, thawing frozen salmon, and John's pork chop (in the container).
• Second shelf -- two cartons of eggs, fake chicken strips, fake sausage patties (in the plastic bag leaning on the fake chicken strips), organic apple sauce single serving cups, fat-free cream cheese (it's awful! I won't get it again), canned crab meat (for a future recipe), and the leftover dulce de leche (in the container under the meat drawer).
• What you can't see in the meat drawer -- a container with John's turkey for lunch, sliced swiss and provolone cheeses, and montasio cheese I've been saving for fricos.
• Bottom shelf -- water, 1% milk, Sprite, two containers of pineapple juice, vanilla Rice Dream, lemon-lime seltzer, chives, can of baking soda, and the stuff you can't really see is rolled oats and organic pastry flour.
• What you can't see in the crisper drawers -- apples, lemons, pears and kiwis in the one on the left; baby carrots and salad greens in the drawer on the right.
  

I think the door of the fridge deserves its own photo.

• Top shelf -- butter and vitamins in the butter keeper; vitamins and supplements.
• Second shelf -- really good no-sugar-added fruit spreads, mustards, horseradishes, tahini, chopped ginger and garlic, pesto, and pickles.
• Third shelf -- ketchup, mustard, mayo, maple syrup, hot sauce, A1 sauce, tamari, salad dressings, parmesean cheese, and worchestershire sauce
• Fourth shelf -- taco sauce, lime juice, sundried tomato pesto, barley malt, peanut butter, cashew butter, carob candy, lemon juice.

But what about your freezer, Deb? OK, I'll show you.


You can tell I just went shopping for meat for John, it's all piled up on the left.

• Top shelf -- giant pile of assorted meat for John (chicken, turkey, pork chops, sausage), fake sausage for me, shrimp, salmon, tilapia, lots and lots of bread, my wee ice cream maker, lots of frozen veggies you can't see, popsickles, and baking soda.
• Bottom shelf -- coconut flour, fake bacon, cheese, my tomato sauce, more popsickles and knishes.

Finally, the freezer door, which is more a testament to our injuries than anything else.

• Top shelf -- raw cashews and walnuts, veggie burgers, carob chips, ice packs, and ice cubes.
• Bottom shelf -- whole wheat flour, lots of ice packs, baking soda, and more bread.

I feel so exposed! What's in your fridge??

Coming Clean

In the previous post below, I wrote about "my" rice and beans. While saying this recipe is mine is true to some extent -- I have tweaked the recipe to make it mine -- it's not entirely factual.

Many years ago (probably close to 15 by now), I shared a house in Passaic with some really great folks. One of them, Julie Covello, used to make a great big pot of rice and beans on a regular basis. I watched how she did it and made my own versions along the way. She really knew how to eat healthily on a limited budget.

The Famous Rice and Beans dish that follows is an homage to Julie's creativity and resourcefulness. Go see her documentary on master drummer Jojo Mayer. It's in five parts, so be sure to see the whole thing.

My Famous Beans and Rice

Yesterday, my dear friend Judie came down for a visit. One of the dishes that I usually make for her is my ultra-healthy, vegan beans and rice. As John says, "It's different every time."

This time, it was slightly spicier and saltier, but definitely tastier than the last batch. Usually, I err on the bland side, but probably all the Pensey's Shallot Salt did the trick. I also used boullion cubes instead of pre-packaged broth, and that tends to be saltier.

Lucky for you, I made a short film about the experience, so you can see how I make my famous beans and rice.