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Oatmeal embellishments 1: Apples and cinnamon

Marcia February 22, 2009 Cooking, Recipes 0

This morning I discovered a recipe from the William-Sonoma Kitchen Library’s Breakfasts & Brunches that actually needed no lightening—the Apple-Cinnamon Oatmeal was a low-fat healthful winner compared to that book’s Zucchini Frittata, an unnecesarily oily version of a potentially healthful dish.

The oatmeal recipe was simple: Cook  1 cup of  your favorite coarsely ground oatmeal (we use Bob’s Red Mill Steel-Cut Oats) as you normally do, preferably according to the package directions “for the precise proportion of water to oats and the necessary cooking time.” Then, when the oatmeal is done, leave it in its saucepan and grate two sweet apples, halved and cored, directly on top of the oatmeal using a box grater. Add one teaspoon cinnamon, and stir it all together. Plop into serving bowls, and add honey to taste. The recipe says it serves four, but between me and my hungry husband, we eked out two servings: for me, my one-and-a-half cupper, for him, the rest of the batch.

He eschewed the honey in favor of pure Grade B maple syrup; we both sprinkled broken walnuts over our oatmeal.

My best stab at oatmeal photography:

Apple-cinnamon oatmeal. Those black things that look like bugs are the walnuts.

Apple-cinnamon oatmeal. Those black things that look like bugs are the walnuts.

Comments: I liked the idea of adding the fresh shredded apple directly to the cooked oatmeal in the pan. Saves me from dirtying a separate saucepan trying to improvise a nice apple topping using on a second burner. But shredding the apples directly into the pan with the box grater was cumbersome at best: I guess I’m not strong enough to hold the grater in place while my other hand was pressing and scraping an apple half against it. And apple shavings were flying everywhere! So, next time, I’ll shred onto a cutting board, then add the apple to the pan. By doing this separately, you can also have the apple ready to add as soon as the oatmeal is done — the oatmeal cooled off too much while I was shredding the apple. Last, a little more spice would have been nice; I’ll up the cinnamon measure next time, or add another spice, such as nutmeg or cardamom.

Za restaurant’s pizza and salads show off fresh ideas and ingredients

Marcia February 17, 2009 Restaurants 0

Za
Fresh and creative pizzas and salads
138 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington, Mass.
www.zarestaurant.com

Za's specialty pizzas feature unexpected topping combos

Za's specialty pizzas feature unexpected topping combos

My husband and I were eagerly anticipating a Valentine’s Day dinner of gourmet pizza. We’d kept our occasional pizza yearnings at bay for many months, but we had planned a February splurge, V-day being the perfect excuse (hey, pizza’s red, right?). We were saddened to hear one of our fave pizza parlors, DiMio’s of Cambridge, had closed. Hopefully, we thought, Za might be able to lessen the loss.

We had called ahead for a spot on their waiting list but got there early anyway, and so we sat on a side bench while we waited for our seats. I felt bad for the dining couple we were practically sitting on top of while we waited: breathing room was minimal in this corner of the restaurant. After waiting only 10 minutes or so, we were seated.

The Za waitstaff was helpful and friendly, despite the full house and tight quarters.

Although several of Za’s pizza concoctions were intriguing, with themes such as mac ‘n cheese, ham sandwich (with dill pickle slices!), and salmon fillet with fontina and capers, we veered toward the conservative: he with mozzarella and tomato with additional toppings of sausage, caramelized onion and portabella mushrooms, me with the specialty pizza of portabella mushrooms, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions, roasted garlic, and goat cheese ($10.50, if I remember correctly). Had we discussed or choices before ordering, I’m sure we’d have adjusted our overlapping selections.

The salad menu also lured us in with claims of farm-fresh vegetables, though our waiter did point out that in the dead of winter, the salad offerings are not as varied as they are in the spring and summer months. Again, I was interested in several of the salads, but went for the conservative iceberg lettuce, grated carrot, and blue cheese. Gary went for the slightly more seasonal greens, dried cranberries, and walnut mix. We both loved the mixtures and the freshness of our salads. I was distracted, though, by the description of a roasted sweet potato salad I noticed on their specials blackboard after I had already ordered. I wish I’d seen it earlier; I would have ordered it! The guy who seated us said the blue “specials” menus he handed us had the same specials that were listed on the chalkboard. He was wrong!

So, the salads were a success, and the iced tea — earl gray — was pleasantly fragrant, not too harsh. I enjoyed it without sweetener. Very refreshing.

The pizzas, however, were disappointing. Gary found little to sing about with his pizza, rating it merely “not bad.” I, too, had hoped for a little more zing from my ‘Za , but even the several dozen cloves of roasted garlic could not wake up this bland pizza. I did like that they were very generous with the portabella mushrooms–nice big chunks, not just slices–but was saddened that the roasted red peppers I was so looking forward to were barely noticeable. It was almost an afterthought: “Hey, where’s are my peppers? Oh, are those ten little pimentos my peppers?”

In a nutshell: Salads great, pizza just okay. But we will make a trip back later this year to sample their spring or summer menu. I swear I’ll order more adventurously next time, or at least make sure there’s one topping on my pizza I’ve never had on pizza before. But it probably won’t be a dill pickle.

Adapting Ramsay’s sautéed chicken breast recipe

Marcia February 15, 2009 Recipes 0
zucchini_img_8322_

zucchini

(Yes, it calls for zucchini.) The original recipe can be found on the United Kingdom’s Channel 4 Web site.

Here is my adaptation I’m about to try and report on later in this post. I’ll adjust the recipe as I go along. My goal is to lighten it up from about 600 calories and 20 grams of fat per serving to 460 calories and 16 grams, respectively. Most of the lightening comes from shunning the butter and reducing the amount of olive oil from over 6 tablespoons to three. Removing the chicken skin will also save fat and calories, but by how much I don’t know offhand. I’m also making a potentially disastrous attempt of converting British measurements and terms to American equivalents.

Sauteed chicken breast with ratatouille couscous and apple and lemon olive oil, slightly lightened and Americanized

4 chicken breasts (I’m assuming half breasts)
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
Olive oil cooking spray
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 Granny Smith apple, cored and sliced
1 lemon, sliced
Handful of fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped
1-1/2 cups canned low-sodium chicken stock
1 cup whole-wheat couscous, uncooked
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 medium eggplant, cut into half-inch cubes
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 zucchini, cut into half-inch cubes
1 tomato, skinned, seeded, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Spray nonstick skillet with cooking spray, heat skillet, then fry the chicken, skin-side down, for 5 minutes until the skin is golden and crisp. Turn the chicken over and sear the other side, 1–2 minutes. Transfer the chicken to an ovenproof dish.

2. Drain fat from the skillet. Add one tablespoon of the olive oil, then cook the apple and sliced lemon for 2 minutes until they start to release their juices and soften slightly. Pour into the dish with the chicken and roast for 15–18 minutes or until cooked through. (After-note: Cooking through to 170˚F added at least 30 minutes to this cooking time.)

3. Put couscous in large bowl. Bring the chicken broth to a boil. Add hot broth to couscous. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to soak for 5–10 minutes. Remove the plastic wrap then fluff up the couscous with a fork or cooking chopstick to separate the grains.

4. Meanwhile, add 2 tablespoons oil to another sauté pan on medium heat. Cook the onion for 3-4 minutes then add the eggplant and cumin. Cook for another 2 minutes, then add the zucchini. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Keep warm until chicken is almost ready.

5. When chicken is almost ready, remove vegetable mixture from heat then stir in the tomato and coriander. Check for seasoning. Mix the couscous into the vegetable mixture.

6. To serve, pile one-fourth of the vegetable-couscous mixture into the center of each of four plates. Slice the chicken on the diagonal then arrange on top of the couscous. Drain the juices from the baking dish into a bowl, check for seasoning and stir in the chopped coriander. Spoon chicken-juice mixture over the chicken and serve immediately.

A close-up of the couscous mixture (before the cilantro was added)

A close-up of the couscous mixture (before the cilantro was added)

Per serving (1/4 recipe, including chicken skin and assuming the chicken breast isn’t enormous): 458 calories, 16g fat (0g trans fat, 3g sat fat), 56mg cholesterol, 925 mg sodium, 56g total carbohydrates (12g fiber, 11g sugars), 28g protein. Percent daily values: 29% Vitamin A, 38% Vitamin C, 6% Calcium, 22% Iron The good: This food is a good source of protein and niacin. The bad: None, apparently.

Nutritional analysis via NutritionData.com

How it went. It became unclear whether or not the breasts should have been deboned before cooking. Or whether they were too big to begin with. But the four breast-with-bone halves I had didn’t all fit in my largest skillet, so I cooked three together, then the last one separately. In the oven at 350 degrees, the chicken took much longer than specified to cook; I added 30, maybe 40 minutes to the cooking time. However, they breasts looked lovely throughout and when they finally were done, they were melt-in-your mouth succulent. Worth the wait. The longer cooking time did take a toll on the chicken and lemon slices, which started to burn. Throwing a sheet of foil over the chicken helped the char from spreading.

Mysteriously, the size of the eggplant was specified (medium), but not of the zucchini. I got a medium  zucchini. But without approximate weights or cup yields given in the recipe, I have no idea if I had too big a medium eggplant, etc. The upshot: I had a lot of veggies, which I cooked in a nonstick wok. I added extra cumin to compensate. I think an extra tomato would have helped bring more balance to the veggie mix, and add a little more color and moisture.

I added to the recipe the instruction to keep the vegetable mixute warm until the chicken was ready. There may be a long wait, and having yummy juicy chicken over a lukewarm bed of couscous can be a bummer — and don’t forget you have to cut the meat off the bone for serving. There’ll be no plopping the breast-with-bone on the serving plate here: pre-slicing the chicken makes it a kinder, friendlier dish, and one that was ultimately very good looking, good tasting, and mighty healthful!

The result (pardon the blurry photos; we’re still learning . . .)

Another photo of the dish

The plated dish (cilantro on side because I forgot to add it to the couscous!)

Ramsay’s F-Word, Form, and Function

Marcia February 13, 2009 Banter 0

Ramsay’s F-Word
BBC America
Wednesday afternoons at 3.

Gordon Ramsay's F-Word

Gordon Ramsay's F-Word

Gordon Ramsay might be as well-known for his excessive on-air expletives as he is for his posh gourmet restaurants, TV shows, and cookbooks. I’m relatively new to the Ramsay world; my first impression of him, after a few moments of watching Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America, was “what a potty mouth!” So I’ll immediately clear up any confusion by saying that in the Ramsay TV series in question, the F-word is food.

If I were to break this food-magazine-like show into main departments, they’d be:

  • Stressed-out Sous Chefs
  • At-Home How-To
  • The Unonscious Consumer
  • Anything You Can Cook I Can Cook Better.

I’ve seen three episodes of the series so far, I believe from series three. I’m finding some parts valuable for a budding small-kitchen chef seeking new ways to cook healthy, other parts a painful waste of time.

Stressed-out Sous Chefs
Each episode opened with what seemed like a sous chefs competition already in progress. I’m not sure of the rules of the game, but, true to the reality show format, one or more people on today ain’t making it back next week; there are indeed saddened sous chefs that are bidden bye-bye.

In the competitions, the success of a dish (and thus the competing sous chefs) is measured by whether or not diners willing to pay for the joy or misfortune of devouring it. Sometimes there are teams of four working together, other times, two soloists competing against each other. While Ramsay’s either supervising a duo of gangly men or a band of sprightly merry maids, within the space of five minutes he’d be serving up helpful gestures, harsh criticisms, and demonstrations of his precise plating procedures.  Useful kitchen wisdom occasionally emerges from these segments: “Season from high so it spreads across it” says Ransay as he sprinkled season atop a dish of scallops, his arm held high and out.

At-Home How-To
In the At-Home How-To segment, Ramsay holds a quick class on preparing one of the dishes featured in the episode’s competition. He makes preparing Beef Wellington look so easy! Though he stops short of presenting a useful ingredient list (if you’re lucky you might find the recipe on the Web site of the British station that carries his show. He’s often cooking with backyard animals such as lambs (Shepherd’s pie) and turkeys (Christmas dinner) he’s raised himself.

While Ramsay demonstrates a dish’s preparation, you hear single-word or short-phrase voice overs—sometimes I’d swear they’re purposefully breathy—accenting key bits of the procedure: Beef fillet. Lean beef. Season. Hot pan. Olive oil. Seal. Mustard. Mushrooms. Season. . . Certainly not self-explanatory, but thankfully each “bullet” comes with further explanation and sumptuous visuals.

The Unconscious Consumer
The original F-Word Web site claims this section “turns up the temperature on some of the hottest issues in the food industry today.” My take: <yawn>.  Topics ranged from those the everyday cook loses sleep over, such as Is force-feeding duck for foie gras karma-friendly? to issues only a moron needs clarified, including the earth-shattering expose that products labeled “low fat” could actually have tons of sugar. Duh.

Anything You Can Cook I Can Cook Better
In this segment, we’re back in the restaurant kitchen, where Ramsay has invited a popular British personality or two to a recipe challenge. So far only the lovely ladies from the show How Clean Is Your House?, Kim Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie, are familiar to me. Before their face-to-face  peach-trifle bake-off, Woodburn had Ramsay come face-to-face with his restaurant’s loo’s potties. That scenario was not as appetizing as Ramsay’s caramelized peach trifle looked. Oooo, I want some!

Ramsay’s F-Word’s structure is loose and the pace frenetic. He jumps from one segment to another with little warning. The show reeks sophistication with its trendy celebrity guests and artsy-modern interiors but at the same time seems folksy, especially the at-home segments.

The show is useful for picking up some new cooking and preparation techniques, especially of dishes I’d never think of preparing in my own little kitchen. (You can find some of Ramsay’s basic but helpful video shorts on the Channel 4 Web site.) But I’d have to learn to adjust my brain to British/European/Metric measurements and cooking terms before really tackling any recipe for real. Speaking of which, I think I will try Ramsay’s sautéed chicken breast with ratatouille couscous and apple and lemon olive oil recipe and get back to you.

After the episode with Woodburn and MacKenzie came to a close, I was bopping around our kitchen humming the F-word’s theme tune when my husband noted, “Hey, those cleaning ladies didn’t tell him how dirty his mouth was!”

Polenta and vegetable casserole, Italian-style, take one

Marcia February 3, 2009 Recipes 0

Polenta is one of my favorite comfort foods. Like mashed potatoes, it’s warm, rich, and smooth and complements many an entree. But even when made from scratch, polenta can be worlds easier to prepare than mashed potatoes. And it can be made mighty tasty without adding too much fat. An easy, satisfying dish consists of coins cut from a prepared tube of polenta, baked in the oven with pasta sauce and mozarella cheese on top.

Though my last foray (years ago) into preparing polenta from scratch had been woefully unsuccessful — the dang concoction never thickened — I thought I’d try the Chicken, Black Bean, and Corn Enchilada Casserole from the Weight Watchers Web site. I used canned enchilada sauce instead of the mix specified. I loved the casserole, especially the generous polenta underbelly, but I couldn’t help thinking, I’ve gotta try this with pasta sauce.

Here’s the ingredient list for trial numero uno. If you’re at all familiar with cooking with zucchini or mushrooms, you’ll know where this is going:

36 ounces bottled pasta sauce, Classico Tomato and Basil, specifically, which I now find too sweet
5 cups water, divided
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 medium garlic cloves
1½ cup uncooked cornmeal
1 medium or 1 large zucchini (forgot to weigh the zuchini), sliced into coins then cut in strips
1 lb. mushrooms, sliced
1½ pound very lean ground beef
1½ cups Kraft Free Shredded Mozarella Cheese

I more or less followed the directions of the original recipe.

The result? Er . . . see for yourself:

aka Polenta Goop, this casserole was more soup than solid

aka Polenta Goop, this casserole was more soup than solid

Admittedly, this looked great straight from the oven, and I let it sit for about 7 minutes, but once I removed the first slice, a flood of tomato juice and vegetables took its place.

The casserole looked great straight from the oven

The casserole looked great straight from the oven

Overall, the goop was tasty, but could use a little more zest, perhaps from some fresh basil or oregano. And I should have perhaps covered the casserole with foil for the first 30 minutes or so of baking, to avoid that big mass of nearly impenetrable mass of mozzarella. (Yeah, real mozzarella may not have done that.) But the biggest challenge for next time is how to absorb all that liquid without adding too many calories. More cornmeal? Couscous? Tomato paste? Better drainage of the cooked vegetables?   We’ll find out in a few weeks when I try again. . .