Holiday pause

I have stopped the vegetable delivery until after the holidays. It seems likely that I will have little time to cook fresh vegetables either. I have had take-out Chinese and bagels with sundry spreads and canned soup. I will probably snack my way through this week and then show some (!) restraint at Christmas and in Mexico. I love vegetables, but this is the time of year that my eating habits suffer.

Resolutions 2004, here I come!

Homestyle chicken

Regardless of what the title dish is in the South, this is the name of my favorite dish at Hunan Balcony (97 & Broadway). It is chicken breast slices with green beans in a brown sauce with ginger threads (sliced with the grain). Spicy! Before moving to NYC, this dish was unknown to me and I thought it was a specialty of Hunan Balcony. Now it looks like it is available all over town, but I am so pleased with their version that I am reluctant to try other places in the neighborhood.

It is what I ordered tonight as a compensation for the cancellation of my flight to France.

Rome report

No, I didn't do any cooking while I was in Rome. In fact I hardly did much eating. When I travel, especially when I travel alone, I find that I can either do hardcore sightseeing or experience the nightlife. Usually not both. This trip, since everything was new, I hit the sights hard and didn't have much energy for going out.

I did experience a couple of dishes worth mentioning:

At Enoteca Corsi: the artichoke antipasta. Unbelievable! A whole artichoke, trimmed, served in oil and lemon and delicious.

Also, the Spaghetti alla Carbonara was fabulous. Both of these I tasted from my lunch companion's meal. I did not have such good luck ordering my own meal (it was good, not great).

At Due Colonne, the best dish I had was a bruschetta with paper-thin beef, arugula and parmesan cheese. Delicious!

The vegatable market at the Campo dei Fiori was fun to wander around, but I didn't purchase anything. Not there, not in the shoe stores, not in the boutiques. Next time.

Stir-fried green beans

The green beans are the only remaining perishable from the box, so I cooked them up tonight. Tomorrow I go out of town. Rome!

1-2 lb green beans, washed, trimmed
1 small onion, sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 T olive oil
2 T tamari (soy sauce)
1 T rice wine
2 T rice vinegar
1/4 t. red pepper flakes
1 t sesame oil
1 t corn starch
1 T. sesame seeds

Heat the garlic in the olive oil in a wok. Add the onions and beans. Cook 3-4 minutes on med-hi stirring frequently until the onion softens. Add a little soy sauce and water and cover for 5 minutes to steam the beans. Turn down to medium heat. Stir and check that the beans are hot (but not soft). Combine the remaining ingredients and pour over the beans, stir until the sauce thickens.

Verdict: B
Credits
Leftovers? Yes.

Notes: This would have been very good with some steamed rice, the sauce worked well tonight. It was really a just a snack. For a meal, I add some pork or tempeh (fry it first, then set aside and stir in at the end).

Update: I had the leftovers Sunday night after my trip and they were excellent. The pepper had made the sauce very spicy and all the flavors were intense. I am going to try this again as a refrigerator salad (as soon as I get more beans).

Green salad with cheeses and Ginger Miso dressing

Using up the red leaf and green leaf lettuces. The arugula from this week was already yellow and rotting. Bleh. I picked up some cheeses and Onai's Fresh Miso Ginger dressing, which I love at Fairway and a baguette.

Red leaf lettuce, torn
Green leaf lettuce, torn
1/4 C. Black pepper brie, cubed
1/4 C. Emmental, cubed
1/4 C. Gruyere, cubed
Onai's Fresh Miso Ginger dressing

Toss in a big bowl. Tear a baguette and eat from the bowl.

Verdict B, good but nothing special tonight. Maybe a bleu cheese would have helped.
Credits Memories of a green salad and cheese plate lunch at the Musee D'Orsay
Leftovers? Doesn't keep.

Notes This salad dressing and Onai's Wasabi Ginger are my favorites, no oil but with miso as a medium not a bunch of artificial thickeners, emulsifiers, whatever. I've tried to recreate this, with some success. I'll post those results another time.

Kitchen Fire

Last night, my first kitchen fire in my new apartment. I haven't had many. In fact I don't remember any fires, but it seems unlikely that it never happened. This was not too bad. I was heating the oil and garlic in a frying pan and the fire jumped into the pan and was getting kind of big. I turned off the wrong burner, then pulled the pan off the heat and it started dying. I went to set it on the floor while I tried to think of something to smother it with and it was out. I managed to spill hot oil on the floor, so it was a little mess. Plus some scorching on the hood and the cupboard above the stove.

I wasn't very pleased with my reaction, but I am not exactly sure what I should have done. Maybe I'll go get a fire extinguisher soon.

Broccoli and penne, aeolian-style

For tonight's menu, assuming I go get an onion.

3-4 cups of chopped broccoli (one bunch)
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 T. anchovy paste
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil (ribbons are good)
1/4 C. golden raisins
1/2 C. white wine
1 medium tomato, diced
8 oz can of tomato sauce
1/2 box penne
pine nuts, if you got 'em
olive oil
salt and pepper
parmesan

Chop the broccoli, peel and chop the stems if ambitious (or cheap). Cover in cold water, salt and bring to a boil. Fish the broccoli out of the water with a slotted spoon and set aside (or time it perfectly with the sauce).

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and garlic. Add the onion and cook until soft and translucent. Push the onions to the outside. Squirt the anchovy paste in the middle, add the basil and wine and stir to mix the paste in. Let cook with the onions for 2 minutes. Add the tomato and tomato sauce and simmer for 5 - 10 minutes until tomatoes are soft.

Add the broccoli and the raisins to the skillet and return to a simmer. Use more wine or the broccoli/pasta water if the sauce is too thick. Salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the penne in the broccoli water (add more if necessary). When done, drain and add to the skillet.

Serve topped with pine nuts and parmesan.

Verdict: B, the tomato was pretty hard and flavorless and I had to add the tomato sauce that I was going to leave out. Below par for an A recipe.
Credits: based on a recipe from the old Eating Well that I cannot find

Works as Leftovers? Oh yes.

Notes: Usually I use a can of tomato sauce and some tomato paste, but I had fresh tomatoes in the box this week.