Heart healthy dried cherries liven up roast pork tenderloin

Dried tart cherries and rosemary add flavor—and health benefits—to roast pork tenderloin. Recipe below.

Talk about perfect timing. My friend Carolyn, who works in science communications, is always sending me interesting articles and links. Last Thursday morning, she sent me something about the health benefits of tart cherries. On Friday afternoon, Marion and I left for a weekend in Michigan, the largest producer of cherries in the United States. Before we’d even packed up the car for the trip, I knew I’d be seeking out dried red tart Michigan cherries at their source and cooking with them for this week’s post. Continue reading “Heart healthy dried cherries liven up roast pork tenderloin” →

This is your brain on rosemary and wine

While I’m on a health kick this week, I thought I’d revisit a story I first wrote at WTF? Random Food for Thought about health benefits of rosemary and red wine.

By now, anyone not living in a cave has heard some of the health benefits of moderate wine consumption, so let’s start with the rosemary. I’ve said in the past that it’s my favorite herb. Whether making Tuscan beans, an elegantly simple French dessert with rosemary and apricots or rosemary sage chops, rosemary imparts an unmistakable fragrance and flavor, a mix of lemon and pine.

Turns out it also imparts good stuff for your brain. According to an article in ScienceDaily, the carnosic acid [CA] in rosemary protects the brain from the free radicals that contribute to strokes, neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s and the ill effects of normal aging on the brain.

A collaborative study by the Burnham Institute in California and Iwate University in Japan found that “CA activates a novel signaling pathway that protects brain cells from the ravages of free radicals” and, in fact, “becomes activated by the free radical damage itself.” Yet another reason to like rosemary.

If you drink to forget, you may be out of luck

A study by the University of Auckland and Ohio State University, published in the September 2007 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience and reported in Wine Spectator, suggests that moderate consumption of alcohol may improve memory. That’s actually any alcohol, not just red wine—but red wine has so many other health benefits going for it [see below], why not stick with it? Continue reading “This is your brain on rosemary and wine” →

You can keep your apples—baked pears make for a great seasonal dessert

Pears baked with currants, walnuts and cinnamon create a simple, luscious fall dessert. Recipe below.

I don’t know what it is with me and apples. They have so much going for them. Apples are sure signs of autumn, one of my favorite seasons. They come in a dazzling array of varieties, creating beautiful, bountiful displays in the produce department. They have a signature crunch when you bite into them too. That sound even inspired a brilliant advertising tagline: “Washington apples. They’re as good as you’ve heard.” How can you not like a fruit with that much going on?

I don’t know, but I don’t. I don’t like their vaunted tartness. I don’t care for the hardness that gives them that crunch. Add them to a fruit salad and they immediately take over. And call me un-American, but apple pie is one of my least favorites.

Give me pears instead. They’re another unmistakable sign of the season, with every bit as much a distinctive flavor as apples. They’re just about as varied too. In decent produce markets, you’re likely to find Bartlett, Anjou, Bosc, Comice and even Asian pears. Where they shine for me, compared to apples, is that the balance between tartness and sweetness is skewed more to the sweet end. And their soft flesh is less combative than that of apples, often delivering a run-down-your-chin juiciness.

So as a seasonal chill sets in, sending us looking for excuses to fire up the oven, I suddenly remembered some baked pears I’d made a couple of years ago, adapting a recipe from Bon Appétit. Luscious and satisfying and tasting of fall, they’re lighter than many desserts and relatively low in fat. A perfect, clean finish to an autumn dinner. Continue reading “You can keep your apples—baked pears make for a great seasonal dessert” →

Stuff we like: Totes, canvas and otherwise

Through the combined efforts of consumers and retailers, reusable tote bags are showing plastic bags the door. This is an update of a post I first wrote at WTF? Random Food for Thought.

Those awful plastic grocery bags are fading fast. On April 22 [Earth Day, get it?], the entire Whole Foods grocery chain went plastic bag-free. Grocery stores and general retailers alike are now selling reusable totes, usually for a buck or two, to encourage customers to just say no to plastic.

And China, not exactly a shining example of environmentalism, has banned plastic bags from the entire country. As of June 1, all stores, from the largest to the smallest, have gone bag-free. For the practical Chinese, it’s a matter of not wasting 37 million barrels of oil a year on bags. It was also a chance to polish their image for the Olympics. Whatever the reason, it’s good news for the planet.

The problems with plastic bags are many. First, they don’t biodegrade, as paper does. They photodegrade—which is to say that light causes them break up into tinier and tinier particles, but they never stop being plastic. According to a New York Times article [first brought to my attention by Kirsten over at Gezellig Girl], “Altogether, each year the country is estimated to use 86 billion bags, which end up blowing down city streets, or tangled in the stomachs of whales and sea turtles, or buried in landfills where, environmental organizations say, they persist for as long as 1,000 years.” And even if you recycle them, as more communities are now mandating, plastic degrades in quality with each recycling, so it’s not truly sustainable. Continue reading “Stuff we like: Totes, canvas and otherwise” →

Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty, hunger and coming to terms with meatloaf

Blue cheese and Italian sausage add depth and richness to this ketchup-free meatloaf. Recipe—and ways you can help fight hunger—below.

Today is Blog Action Day. Marc over at the always eclectic, always intriguing Creative Spark first alerted me to this international event in which bloggers were asked to write about poverty from the perspective of their individual blogs.

Writing about food as I do, poverty and hunger seemed like a natural subject to tackle: A staggering 800 million people around the world go to bed hungry every night, one of the most devastating effects of poverty. But then I remembered an article I read in the New York Times last year that led me down a more nuanced path. In “The Class-Consciousness Raiser,” Paul Tough profiles Ruby Payne, a woman who was raised middle class, married into poverty and then, through her husband’s work for the Chicago Board of Trade, found herself socializing with wealthy people. These wildly varied experiences taught her that each group has its own views of life, its own “hidden rules.”

Codifying these rules into a series of books and lectures, Ms. Payne has created a career for herself an educational consultant. She works with school boards, administrators and teachers who work with students living in poverty, helping them better understand their students. She also shows them how to help these students understand the “hidden rules” of the middle class and lift themselves out of poverty.

So what does this have to do with food? One passage in the article stuck with me, describing how each group thinks about food and discusses it: “The key question about food in poverty: Did you have enough? In the middle class: Did you like it? In wealth: Was it presented well?” As a food blogger, I concern myself primarily with the second and third questions, as we all do. The growing fascination with food in our culture has democratized presentation, making it something we all think about. Growing up, though, the first question mattered most in my house.

I never really thought of us as poor when I was growing up in St. Louis. We lived in a neighborhood surrounded by people just like us, after all, so I had no basis for comparison. Grown-ups worked hard, usually in low-paying, low-skilled jobs. Paychecks stretched for a whole week only if you were careful. That’s just how life was.

And food was respected. Not in the way chefs and food writers, myself included, talk about respecting food, preparing it simply with careful technique and a few perfect ingredients. It was respected in a much more elemental sense. For parents, making sure there was enough food on the table for your family was a matter of pride. And as a kid, you could take as much as you wanted, but if you put it on your plate, you ate it. Food mattered too much to be wasted.

I don’t mean to paint too grim a picture here. There were plenty of picnics and birthday cakes and heaping platters of fried chicken and laughter around the dinner table. There were occasional dinners out too. There was always enough food to eat, and we always had a roof over our heads. We weren’t desperately poor—we were really more working class, sliding in and out of being what is now called the working poor.

There were occasional desperate times, though. Once when my father was out of work, we ate biscuits and gravy three meals a day for a long stretch. You might think this would have put me off biscuits and gravy. Actually, though, I love them and still seek them out in restaurants—especially if we’re traveling in the South—even though I know they won’t live up to my childhood memories of this dish.

I can’t say the same for meatloaf. I know that for practically everyone but me, meatloaf is one of those ultimate comfort foods. For many, it evokes memories of childhood, family and home. Interestingly, for our Brooklyn friend Ronnie Ann, meatloaf conjures up the exotic. Her father was a butcher, so the family routinely dined on beautiful steaks and lamb chops, not ground meat. When she finally tasted meatloaf—in her high school cafeteria, no less—it was a revelation.

But for me growing up, meatloaf just tasted like poor food. Drier than the more honest [and more fun, especially to a kid] hamburger. It didn’t help that my mom dispensed with making bread crumbs and just tore up slices of white bread to mix in with the ground beef; with each little bite of unincorporated bread, you could taste the family food budget being stretched before payday. And I hold this same meatloaf personally responsible for my lifelong low opinion of ketchup. Especially as an ingredient in a recipe—it falls in that same “oh, never mind” category as margarine or miniature marshmallows, as far as I’m concerned. Continue reading “Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty, hunger and coming to terms with meatloaf” →

Chicago’s Field Museum presents a visual feast, “Food: A Cultural Journey”

Penny De Los Santos is an award-winning documentary photographer known for her sensitive and evocative food, travel and landscape photography. Based in Austin, Texas, she’s a regular contributor to a number of publications, including Saveur, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, Time, Latina and Texas Monthly.

Recently, she spent a year traveling to 13 countries, photographing food and spending hours chatting with culinary teams—from chefs, to sauciers, to line cooks—as they shared stories of their cuisine. The result is a sumptuous journey through Mexico, Brazil, India and Europe, exploring how growing, gathering, preparing and enjoying food are rich expressions of culture and geography.

On this culinary odyssey, De Los Santos met Sweden’s Locavores—creators of the movement to eat locally, reduce the carbon footprint of food and support local growers. De Los Santos photographs everywhere—from dhabas [truck stops] in India, to all-male private dining clubs in Spain’s Basque region. Her photographs demonstrate that no matter the setting, true enjoyment of food is our most common thread.

The Field Museum in Chicago is hosting an evening with the photographer Tuesday, October 21, as part of their National Geographic Live! at The Field Museum series. The series features some of the world’s top photographers, scientists, explorers and adventurers on stage for an evening of animated conversation, multimedia presentations and audience participation. You can purchase tickets for this event online from The Field Museum.

“Food: A Cultural Journey”
Tuesday, October 21; 7:30pm
The Field Museum
James Simpson Theatre
1400 S. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago

Simple details, beautiful results: Seared salmon with mixed greens and miso vinaigrette

Thin slices of salmon cook quickly and slightly warm the mixed greens, green beans and snow pea pods tossed with a Japanese-based miso vinaigrette. Recipe below.

Sometimes a single detail can make all the difference in a dish. Recently when Marion and I had lunch at Lulu’s dim sum & then sum in Evanston, she ordered a salmon salad that, as words on a menu, had done little for me. But when the dish arrived at our table, it was a whole different story. Instead of the expected chunks of cold salmon tossed with greens, there were thin slices of fillet, still warm from being quickly cooked, simply arranged on top of the salad.

Suddenly, it had my attention. I visually dissected the salad as Marion described it, bite by bite [this treatment of restaurant meals is an occupational hazard—or benefit, depending on your point of view—of writing a food blog]. Yes, the salmon was slightly warming the greens. Yes, those were green beans and snow pea pods. And yes, you could taste the miso in the light dressing.

Miso [MEE-soh] is a Japanese culinary mainstay, used in soups, sauces, marinades, dips and as you’ll see here, salad dressings. Marion often uses it to make a miso soup, the kind that begins many Japanese restaurant meals, when anyone in the house is feeling under the weather. It is simple, soothing and restorative. Miso is a thick fermented paste made of cooked soybeans, salt and often rice or barley. It comes in a variety of flavors and colors, from the so called white miso, which we use most often, to golden to reddish brown. White is the most delicate flavored; the flavor deepens and intensifies as the color does.

Miso paste is readily available in Asian markets, particularly those catering to Japanese shoppers. And you can occasionally find it in supermarkets in larger metropolitan areas. It is also popular among vegetarians and vegans for creating flavorful, protein-rich broths. You’ll find it in the refrigerator case, and it will keep pretty much indefinitely in your fridge.

Creating our own take on the restaurant dish that so captured our attention took Marion and me working together in the kitchen, experimenting and tasting, especially to create the miso vinaigrette. But now that we’ve figured it out, it will be quick and easy to recreate. And it was so good that, trust me, we will. Continue reading “Simple details, beautiful results: Seared salmon with mixed greens and miso vinaigrette” →

Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand: A fresh stop for Chicago locavores and food lovers

Chicago just gets it. Quality of life, greener living, supporting local food producers… The latest proof is Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand, a city pilot program and downtown retail outlet for “edible local products, all produced within 250 miles of Chicago,” as their website says. Run by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with Chicago’s existing local and sustainable food communities, the store just opened October 1. It promises “fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs in season; a full range of condiments, preserves, seasonings and other dry goods items; baked goods and other seasonal items as available.”

We visited this past weekend and found a wide selection of precisely that. Heirloom tomatoes from Illinois, pasta from an Amish community in Indiana… And this gorgeous partially baked pie made with cherries from Michigan, from First Slice Pie Café in Chicago, a self-funding charity that provides access to wholesome food for those living in poverty. We finished the pie in our oven at home and all but finished it off in one sitting [we did have company, I’d like to point out]. There were fresh herbs and produce, dried beans, jams, pickled mushrooms and more from small, independent local producers. One of our favorites, The Spice House, was well represented with a selection of dried herbs and spices.

There were some other surprises too, proving that pride for local food production knows no size. They carry Morton Kosher Salt and Bay’s English Muffins, for instance, both local favorites produced for decades right here in Chicago. And salsas and chips from comparative upstart Rick Bayless’ Frontera Foods.

For farmers and local producers, Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand offers an outlet besides the seasonal weekend Farmers Markets in the city. And even better, they don’t have to be on hand to make sales. But the store’s mission goes beyond selling food. Organizers say that it will “serve as a hub for the local sustainable food industry, offering educational programs and activities, including classes, discussions and seminars, designed to foster interaction between local growers/producers and Chicago residents and visitors.” The store will operate as a pilot program through mid-December this year; plans are for it to reopen full time next spring.

Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand
66 E. Randolph
Tuesday – Friday, 11am – 7pm
Saturday, 11am – 4pm

Homemade pizza, quick enough for a weeknight

Mushrooms, arugula, red onion and mozzarella come together with [gasp!] ready made dough for this Mostly Wild Mushroom Pizza, about as fast as delivery. Recipe below.

Let me start with a confession. This is the first pizza I’ve ever made. We love pizza, and Marion occasionally makes it, always a treat. But mostly when we want pizza, we order out. That’s because when we think of having it, it’s often either [a.] close enough to dinner that we don’t have the time or patience to make pizza dough or [b.] a weeknight and we’ve been at work all day, which means see [a.].

So when I was invited to test a ready-to-bake thin crust pizza dough, Pillsbury® Thin Crust Pizza Crust, I jumped at the chance. It’s not that I’m afraid of making pizza dough [okay, well maybe I am just a little]; it’s more that I hate to plan ahead. And even though pizza dough is decidedly unfinicky and nonfragile, unlike many bread doughs, there’s also a bit of the pain-in-the-ass factor at play here, at least for me.

But if someone else were to make the dough and I was free to concentrate on the toppings, I would be intrigued. And I was. I was even further intrigued by the fact that this was thin crust dough. Despite Chicago’s reputation as a deep dish town, there’s an ever-growing contingent that prefers thin crust. Count me in that group.

Okay, so I had some dough to play with, courtesy of Pillsbury. [Full disclosure time: They sent me the pizza crust dough for free, and that’s how I’m reviewing this product, for free.] Now I had to figure out what I wanted to do with it. First, I nosed around Deb’s excellent Smitten Kitchen archives. Deb loooves pizza and shares great ideas for making it on her blog from time to time. I’ll include links to some great tips she has in the Kitchen Notes below. You’ll find more about how the pizza dough performed there too.

Next I hit the library. I came away with a few books on pizza, including one by noted Italian chef Wolfgang Puck. But the one I gravitated to and learned the most from was a practical little volume, stuffed with recipes, helpful tips and gorgeous photographs, called Pizza! It’s by two London-based food writers, Pippa Cuthbert [by way of New Zealand] and Lindsay Cameron Wilson [by way of Canada]. They talk about equipment, give recipes for various doughs [and yes, I will make my own at some point] and devote an entire chapter to classic pizza recipes. And then they take off in many directions, just as pizza itself has done.

Reading through numerous recipes in Pizza!, I came up with lots of ideas to try. More important, I got a good sense of basic techniques for working with topping ingredients and the encouragement to experiment. Continue reading “Homemade pizza, quick enough for a weeknight” →

“Please, sir, may I have more mushrooms?”

Last week, I explored other food blogs in search of inspiration. Now with a surplus of mushrooms in the house, I’m digging into the Blue Kitchen archives for some ideas.

Chicken and Mushrooms with Farfalle. This dish came together quickly after a last minute smash-and-grab run through the grocery store, improvising the meal in my head as I snatched ingredients. The post is as much about the process of improvisation as it is about the specific recipe. But thanks to a little dried tarragon and some cheap brandy, the end results tasted far more elegant than they deserved given how rapidly the ingredients went from store shelf to table.

In praise of the basic button. Yeah, I know. I used three fancypants mushrooms for my pizza. But two recipes here—Sautéed Mushrooms with Garlic Butter, in which humble buttons mascarade as escargot in an elegant first course, and Julia Child’s Sautéed Mushrooms, which beautifully elevate mashed potatoes—prove that the button has a few tricks up its sleeve. And they’re packed with antioxidants; bet you didn’t know that [me either].

Crêpes with Poulet aux Champignons Filling. Oh, la! Crêpes are fun to make and really fun to eat. And this chicken and mushrooms filling with white wine, garlic, herbes de Provence and cream does them justice. Just toss a small salad, open a bottle of wine, put on some Edith Piaf and you’re set.