Ingredients

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Mobile Foodie Survival Kit: Organic spices

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

The perfect gift for your favorite Frequent-Flyer-with-Taste-Buds: Mobile Foodie Survival Kit.

Never suffer from bland road food again! The Organic Mobile Foodie Kit features small pots of organic basil, cayenne, cinnamon, ground cloves, curry, dill, granulated garlic, ginger, mustard powder, nutmeg, onion powder, oregano, paprika, pepper, and thyme; plus sea salt, wasabi powder, and Tabasco sauce. Packaged in a slim aluminum tin, with a key to which is which.

This would also be convenient for people who rent beach/mountain houses with kitchens; just throw this together with ingredients you pick up at the nearest grocery store and get cookin’.

Flight 001, $35

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In Season: Quince, rhymes with wince but doesn’t make you

Friday, November 21st, 2008

Spherical, heavy, crispy, yellow-ish green and often covered in bits of moldy cobweb.

That’s how I’d describe quince to someone who needed to buy some for a recipe.

Thankfully, here’s a picture which is probably a bit more appetizing to guide you in the market so you can cook up some holiday dishes… emphasis on cook since raw quince can be toxic.

I need to work on my sales pitch.

A great recipe to convince you how, once cooked, quince doesn’t make you wince and in fact makes you, finally, very happy: Cranberry, Quince and Pearl Onion Compote, a seasonal complement to turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing. I also tried some over vanilla ice cream which was delicious as a sweet-but-not-too-sweet treat.

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When Bananas Go Straight From Green to Brown

Friday, November 7th, 2008

Does this ever happen to anyone else?

You buy a bunch of green bananas.

You leave them to ripen.

They stay green for a long time.

Then brown spots begin to appear (even as parts remain green).

What happened to the middle stage, when they’re ripe and yellow?

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Squash and Pumpkins: Centerpieces… and Edible Too

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

Fall is a great time to be a lazy host(ess) because it’s so easy to throw together a centerpiece of squash and pumpkins.

They’re colorful and seasonal, attractive and long-lasting. They can be arranged and re-arranged.

Then, when you get sick of looking at them (or when you’ve re-arranged to your heart’s maximum content), slice them in half, scoop out the seeds & stringy parts, and pop them in the oven, cut side down on a cookie sheet with an inch of standing water. Bake ’til soft. And eat.

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Cupboard Staple: Organic Coconut Milk

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

Organic Coconut Milk is incredibly handy to keep stocked in your cupboard. It deepens the flavor of both savory and sweet dishes, particularly recipes that don’t have much fat from other sources.

Sometimes recipes call for lite coconut milk, which in many cases is simply regular coconut milk plus water. Why pay the same amount for a can of lite coconut milk when I can add water on my own? A ratio of 1:1 with water works well as a substitute for lite coconut milk.

You may often only use half a can of coconut milk for a particular recipe. I transfer the remainder into a glass jar and keep it in the fridge for up to a week. In that time I can almost always find another use: a meat or vegetable curry, a bread or muffin or scone, a lentil or bean dish… the possibilities are limitless.

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In Season: Pomegranates

Monday, October 27th, 2008

I was the crazy girl walking down the sidewalk at lunchtime today.

After eating a delicious and nutritious salad, chock full of veggies, chickpeas and kidney beans, I was still a little bit hungry.  Not hungry in the truly physical sense, but more like: “I want something else, something satisfying, something to keep me going until dinner, something sweet, something exciting.”

Does this ever happen to you?

As I walked down the block contemplating what else I could buy, I had an amazing revelation.  This morning I had thrown a pomegranate in my purse as I was leaving because I hadn’t had time for breakfast and it was the first thing I saw in the fridge.

One organic pomegranate that had cost me a mere $1.01 at the food co-op.

So, walking down the block in the afternoon sunshine, I ripped it apart, dyed my fingers red, and savored deliciousness.  I got a lot of stares.

So yes, I was the crazy girl.

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In Season: Apples

Monday, October 13th, 2008

There are two types of people: those for whom season dictates food choices, and the rest of us.

Until recently it didn’t occur to me to think too much about seasonality when grocery shopping, choosing a recipe out of a cookbook or ordering at a restaurant. Sure, if a particular item was bountiful I might be drawn to it, but it was more afterthought than forethought.

Reading books about food has helped make local seasonality a prime consideration in my food choices. After foregoing the supermarket’s expensive Australian apples all summer, I am very glad for a dozen apple varieties to be in their prime in New York currently. Today I went apple picking at Weeds Orchard (great name). 89 cents per pound, crisp and juicy, and a perfect complement to brisk October air.

Now if only I can do without asparagus for six more months….

poll by twiigs.com

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Economy Candy: Dried cantaloupe and cats

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

There are two types of people: those who enjoy wandering the aisles of food shops, and those who don’t see the point.

Much like wandering through a bookstore or reading recipe websites, I like to duck into food shops when I’m visiting a new place or just wandering here in New York. I like seeing new products and getting inspiration.

Since my fiance is often with me, and since he’s the type that doesn’t see the point, we’ve come up with a deal: for every food shop he joins me in, I will stop on the sidewalk outside of the next realty company we pass to read all the listings of condos for sale.

My latest food shop was Economy Candy on the Lower East Side. It is a small shop with each nook and cranny filled with chocolates, hard candies, nuts, dried fruits, and even the owners’ cats on the prowl. Better than seeing a rat I guess. I guess?

I purchased dried cantaloupe because I had never seen it or tried it before. It’s quite sweet and delicious. And I’m not really a cantaloupe person.

poll by twiigs.com

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Olives: Delicious, fatty, hopefully on the menu

Friday, October 10th, 2008

There are two types of people: those who eat olives and those who do not.

It is hard for me to be friends with people who do not like them. It is very exasperating. I can understand that they are salty. I cannot understand that they should be limited due to fat content. Olive fat has to be one of the best things we can eat. I eat a lot of olives.

These olives are from Otto. An indication of a good Italian or Mediterranean restaurant is olive quality and selection. These were good. Everything else at Otto is good, too.

One of my dining companions for this meal does not like olives. I can’t remember her excuse reasoning. I do remember that it was very exasperating. However, I did get a slightly larger share myself.

poll by twiigs.com

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In Season: Concord grapes

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

There are two types of people: those who like “purple drink,” artifically-grape-flavored-juice, and those who won’t admit it.

I have fond memories of purple drink, even if I was only allowed to drink it a couple of times over the course of my childhood. It tastes like grapes should taste. My mom is horrified to read this, I’m sure. (She’s very far into the denial end of the purple drink enjoyment spectrum.) And unlike Dave Chapelle, I don’t think skin color is so influential here.

Enter concord grapes, in season currently. My bunch came from a farm in upstate New York. They taste like all of the delicious, sweet goodness of purple drink, and they’re FRUIT. =Healthy! =Nutritious! There are two little pesky seeds inside each grape, which you may choose to ignore the best you can and swallow, or meticulously retrieve and set aside.

Still, though. You can’t go wrong. Best part is? It’s always cool to admit you like concord grapes. Mom?

poll by twiigs.com

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