Hello Again Dear Friend and Goodbye My Love

I received quite a shock from my doctor this month. Apparently I've been allergic to far more foods than I ever thought - well, actually I never really considered myself to have food allergies at all. But I've been told that I'm allergic to corn, milk, wheat, soy, peanuts, seasame seeds and walnuts. What a list! It seems that all of the food I've been eating my entire life has been affecting me negatively and I never made the connection. That's some serious denial.

So now I'm trying to cut out all those foods from my diet, but it's definitely hard-going. Corn is in everything, and so is wheat. I tried out a brown rice loaf bread - GROSS!! For someone who is so in love with food, this could have been devastating. But, sitting at the table writing this and eating what could very well be called the best meal  I've had in ages, I have to admit that I could easily get used to it.

On tonight's menu is ribeye steak and lightly steamed broccoli. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, it actually is. I have avoided broccoli for so long - so many bad experiences from chinese take-out. But I used to consume this power veggie all the time when I was a child. My favorite preparation was raw, dipped in a bit of ranch dressing. Second to that, broccoli with cheese sauce. I'm going to avoid both preparations now that I'm an adult, but tonight I have definitely re-discovered my love for broccoli. My dietitian has stressed the need to eat broccoli raw or lightly steamed. So when I started dinner tonight, I put two tablespoons of water in the bottom of a skillet, added several cloves of garlic, a salt-free all-purpose seasoning, a half teaspoon of olive oil and the broccoli. I covered the skillet and steamed the veggies until they were a bright green. That's it! I took them off the stove. This was an amazing preparation, I'm very much looking forward to repeating it tomorrow! I paired this meal with a glass of Sweet Red from Barefoot.

The ribeye was good too. I used a Montreal steak rub and simply pan-fried it to medium done-ness. Ribeye is my favorite cut of steak. I haven't had steak since the early summer (not big on red meat) but it was well worth the hiatus. I only had half of the steak - the other half I will find a use for tomorrow.

In general, I can say that today's meals were all very good. For brunch I had stewed chicken with okra over brown rice. In a nutshell, I took my summer veggie dish and substituted the corn for roasted chicken breast cut into pieces. It was quite tasty; I hardly missed the corn! Afternoon snack was a small portion of rice salad: brown rice mixed with smoked herring, green peas and golden raisins. Filling and well-balanced.

I feel like I'm off to a good start. But I keep looking longingly at bakeries, and cereal, and pretty much everything in the inner aisles of the grocery store. I feel like I did well today, but the fight continues to kick the simple carb habit. Gluten-free cookies just don't cut it. Here's hoping that absence with make the heart forget.

Dinner with the Folks

My godparents came up to New York to visit a week or so ago and I offered to make them Sunday Brunch. I haven't seen them in 10 years or so, so it was really a special occasion. Being that it's summer, and it's ridiculously hot here in the city, I decided that lighter fare was better fare. So, I pulled together the following menu:

      Guacamole with blue chips
      Corn salad
      Red Inca Quinoua pilaf
      Sauteed shrimp and chicken in terriyaki sauce
      Stir-fried beans and mushrooms
      Pound cake with fruit salad and yogurt

The entire dinner was a success. I made the guacamole from scratch, but didn't put any hot chilis in it - I will try to remember that for next time. In the next few days I'll post all the receipes as they were all quite excellent. The pilaf I have posted about already.

Experiments on the Healthy Side

I am always attempting to cook food that is healthier and better tasting. In that vein, I picked up a box of Inca Red Quinoa and decided to make a pilaf with it. I combined yellow onions, baby bella mushrooms, red peppers, carrots and pre-cooked roasted chicken with some oil in a dutch oven and added the quinoa and water. Brought everything to a boil and let simmer for 15 minutes. The only ingredient that I didn't add which I could have used was salt, but I often leave that out for personal taste. This was an excellent dish that sat lightly on my tummy but also kept me full for the rest of the evening.

I picked up the quinoa at a local health food store called Good N Natural. Though I greatly appreciate large chains like Wild Oats and Whole Foods for their ability to mainstream healthy and responsible grocery items, I can't help but prefer the smaller, mom-and-pop stores for their intimacy and ability to cater to their clientèle. The staff at Good N Natural is knowledgeable and gracious. They have a good selection of products and always have something I've never tried before. I also notice that they often have sales, which is always appreciated. Having a local store means that I don't have to face a long subway trip to get my healthy fix, but as I always believe in balance, I still make the trip to Whole Foods and the Union Square Farmer's Market (my favorite in the city), as well as my local asian market and chain supermarket. It may seem like a lot of running around, but it really makes a difference when you find the perfect place to buy what you love.

Today's Dinner

Tonight's menu: roasted chicken with pirogies and broccoli.  Not very exciting but far better than take-out. I have some salmon in the freezer, I think I'll take it out to defrost for tomorrow's dinner. It's rather difficult to cook when the weather is hot and humid, but I'm making a concerted effort to not spend too much money on food. Like I always say, keep that pantry full!

Surf n Turf Stir Fry

I came up with this recipe in an attempt to create something filling but well-balanced. I'm pulling back on rice, so I used noodles for this instead, but I imagine it would be equally good with rice. Enjoy!

Surf n Turf Stir Fry

Ingredients

2 small steaks, sliced into strips

1 lb small shrimp

1 chinese eggplant, diced

1 cup oyster mushrooms

2 bunches baby bok choy

1 onion, sliced

Noodles (udon)

Oyster sauce

Braggs aminos

Montreal steak rub

To Prepare

In a wok, heat oil and stir fry steak. Sprinkle with steak rub and cook to ¾ doneness. Remove from wok and set aside. Add shrimp to wok and cook to ¾ doneness. Remove from wok and set aside.

Add some more oil to pan. Add onions and sir fry for 1 minute. Add Braggs and eggplant. Cook for 1 minute. Add mushrooms and bok choy and a little oyster sauce. Cook until bok choy is almost tender, then add back the steak and shrimp. Stir fry for another 2 minutes or so, then add cooked noodles and more oyster sauce (to taste) and toss. Turn onto serving platter and serve immediately. 

Adventures in Breakfastland

So for today I have two entries, one a semi-traditional breakfast and the other quite not. I do not like breakfast, generally. That is, I love breaking the fast and all, but I'm not too keen on western interpretations of what one needs to eat first thing in the morning. I love sweets as much as the next person, but I don't necessarily want to eat them at 7am. I tend to appreciate brunch over breakfast: give me savory dishes that warm and delight any day. As a result of this dislike, I find myself quite the beginner when it comes to preparing a traditional breakfast.

So for starters I have two sunny side up eggs over toast with a side of canadian bacon and sauted spinach. Disecting this breakfast with a critical eye, the eggs are underdone, the spinach overcooked, and the toast not quite crispy enough. This is the kind of breakfast I can avoid at all costs, but it was a good experiment.

I must make a note about the bacon. Usually I don't care much for canadian bacon, but in this case I was compelled to buy it over the traditional kind. This was for one reason and one reason only: fat content. Canadian bacon has .5 grams of fat per slice, as opposed to hickory smoked bacon which has 1.5-3 depending on what kind you get. The fact that it's not even bacon does come to mind, but it's still good.

The second breakfast is a rice porridge chuck full of sausage, turkey and shrimp. I made this with some spinach and onions as well. The sausage is chorizo, a personal favorite. There's not much to this dish; it's hardy and delicious. Not your typical breakfast, but not too outside the norm of western style. Personally, I rather love a fillet of fish and rice with a side of a clear broth soup to break my fast.

On the next post I'll be discussing some asian eats, and my second attempt to make dumplings.

The End of Lent Approaches

So, looking ahead a bit, it seems that two weeks from today I will be hosting Palm Sunday Dinner at my parent's house. It will be a dinner for six; small, intimate, but still a bit a pressure. I'm not quite sure what to do for dinner. Mum doesn't want to have lamb - that's reserved for Easter, she says - but I can't quite figure out what to have on such a feast day. She suggested fish and chicken. Boooriing, but it might have to come to that. Last Halloween I made a great roasted lemon chicken with roasted veggies. It was a big hit and quite easy to pull together. I rather enjoy roasting chicken, once the cleaning of the bird is over and done with. For the fish side, I think of poaching, and salmon. Just the other day I made poached salmon and bok choy seasoned with cumin and cinnamon and poached in gin. I served it over short grain white rice. It was delicious! Out of the ordinary, but the flavors worked really well together. I could, perhaps, do that for Palm Sunday. I would need to revise the recipe, though, as i cannot cook with alcohol for my parents' guests.

I suppose I was looking forward to cooking something more exciting, like duck or cornish hens. Last Easter's lamb shoulder was fantastic. I suppose I can make lamb three weeks from today. ^^

So, if the main course shall consist of poached salmon and roasted chicken, I can imagine some nice little sides to go along. I really like having lots of little sides, Korean style. A pilaf, perhaps of the wild rice variety. Nutty green beans. Chickpea salad with roasted beets. Arugula salad with feta. Hmmmm. More thought must go into this, and there isn't much time left. I should spend some time looking through some cookbooks for inspiration.