Fish, Truffles and Graduation

Just got back from dinner at Hundred Acres in Greenwich Village with Nicola, my “table mate” at school. Had a lovely meal of deep fried squash blossom stuffed with ricotta; dandelion and escarole salad with anchovy dressing; and crispy smashed creamer potatoes accompanied by a couple (okay three) of glasses of Entre Deux Mers Chateaux Turcaud from Bordeaux. It was a wonderful way to debrief from the last two weeks at the Natural Gourmet Institute. Nicola is an amazing young woman from New Zealand who has been traveling for the last year to explore new opportunities and came to the Natural Gourmet Institute because of her passion for healthy eating and natural foods. Ironically Nicola and I discovered just today that we had both worked as auditors for the same international accounting firm – Coopers and Lybrand – and now here we both were at cooking school! The last thing Nicola said to me when we said goodbye was “stay true.” I will keep those words with me as I continue my journey.


Today’s menu – our last day of class – was about fish. Here are Chef Judith’s tips for buying a whole fish:

1. Poke the fish and make sure it is “taut.”
2. Smell the fish to insure that it doesn’t smell “too fishy”
3. Check the fish’s eyes – they should be clear and bright – not cloudy
4. Look at the fish’s gills – they should be red
Chef Judith took us through three recipes – wild salmon en papillote (parchment paper), roasted whole branzino (a Mediterranean fish), and braised Alaskan halibut. I had never done “en papillote” before and it was fun to wrap the fish along with potatoes, carrots and fennel but I have to say this is a challenging way to cook fish. The problem with “en papillote” is you can’t check the fish for doneness so you’ve got to be a pretty good judge as to how long to cook the fish. As it turned out ours was overdone.

Salmon en Papillote

The branzino was cooked whole on a bed of sliced onions, tomatoes and limes. We prepared the fish by cutting of the fins and scoring the fish on each side with a cut every inch or so. We then salted the fish, filled the scores or cuts with thinly sliced garlic and filled the cavity with thyme and lemon slices. This was baked in the oven then finished off in the broiler until the skin crisped up. Our third fish was Alaskan halibut. The fish was braised in a mixture of sautéed onions, garlic, tomatoes and seasonings. All these dishes were flavorful but I have to say for me there is nothing like salmon on the grill. Just doesn’t seem worth all the extra work. Unless of course it is my friend Bill Dunn’s famous salmon dish. If I can wrangle the recipe from him I may share it with you on the blog some day.

Whole Branzino

After lunch we made chocolate chipotle truffles and celebrated our last day with Prosecco and watermelon. Chef Judith presented us each with a certificate of completion as part of our “graduation.” So hard to believe it is all over.

Graduation Day

Tomorrow afternoon I leave my home in the city to return to my life in Maine. Many of you may ask (and I ask myself the same question) – what’s next? As Shakespeare once said, “Ay, there’s the rub.” What is next? Anything, everything, nothing at all. I guess that’s up to me. What I’ve learned about myself these past two weeks is that in spite of the wonderful life I have in Maine I don’t want to return to the same exact life. I am somewhere between wearing Dorothy’s ruby slippers that will take me home and Cinderella’s glass slipper that will bring me to a new life. At least I’ve already got Prince Charming so that part of my life I’ll keep. As for the rest, only time will tell. I do plan to keep my blog going but will turn it into a weekly recipe blog hopefully smattered with new and exciting stories about my journey. I hope you will check back from time to time.

Thank you all for sharing this experience with me. I hope you all get to follow your passion some day. My advice to you is to talk about your passion and your dreams with your family and friends because I know one thing for sure. I would NEVER have done this if it weren’t for the positive vibes I received from the people I love. Seems they have a lot more confidence in me than I do! Thank you all.

That’s all for now folks. Eat, drink and be merry and above all stay healthy!

Maura

Greenwich Village, Sea Vegetables, Soups & Stocks

Today was a gorgeous day in New York City! The humidity has FINALLY subsided (but not for long) and the temps were only in the 80’s rather than the 90’s. Had a great run in Prospect Park this morning before heading off to school for Day 9. Yikes – only one more day left!

Before I tell you about our class day I want to talk about my evening. After school I headed Downtown on foot to Greenwich Village. What a great place! It if full of trendy people, shops and restaurants. A far cry from the days of Beatniks in the 1960s. Wish I could go back in time and see it like it was! Found a sidewalk table at an Italian restaurant where I enjoyed a couple of glasses of Pinot Grigio and did some great people watching. Also eavesdropped on a conversation between two women at the table next to me. They were French and one was trying to figure out how she could rent out her house so she could spend more time in New York. Something I would love to figure out myself! After that I headed down MacDougal Street to Mamoud’s for a falafel sandwich. I knew this was the place to go because earlier when I walked by I saw at least ten women standing outside the shop eating falafel – they were all wearing Berkas. A good sign!

So back to school at the Natural Gourmet Institute. This morning we had a fascinating lecture and demonstration about sea vegetables by Chef Jill Gusman.  Sea vegetables are near and dear to my heart because it is something that Maine is well known for. Sea vegetables are amazingly healthy. They are packed with minerals – iron, phosphorous, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iodine and niacin. They are more alkaline forming and are anti-inflammatory. They contain Vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, D, E and K (in small amounts). Sea vegetables also contain “alginic acids” which can bind with heavy metals in our system and help us to detoxify. You don’t need much to obtain these results – ¼ to ½ cup a couple of times a week plus small amounts daily in soups, etc. is more than enough. Some of the recipes we made this morning included: arame caviar, hijiki snow peas, smoked dulse and basil infusion, kidney bean dip with kombu, crunch ‘n brine seaweed salad and apricot pudding (kanten) made with agar flakes. If all that sounds to exotic for you buy some kombu (this comes dried in packages and can be found in most Asian sections of grocery stores) and add a piece to the cooking water of beans or to soups. You can use kombu in place of a bay leaf in any recipe. This will add flavor as well as minerals.

Arame Caviar

Sea Vegetable Lunch

The afternoon’s session featured stocks and soups. We made a simple carrot, celery and onion stock which is very traditional. This stock can serve as the base for hundreds of different soups. One tip - don’t add salt to your stock. Salt should be added as needed when preparing the final recipe. We used the stock in two different soups – a carrot soup and borscht (made with beets). The carrot soup was fabulous! After cooking we ran it through a blender and it came out oh so creamy! The borscht was really interesting - something I had never had before. This particular recipe was apparently different from traditional borscht and was not blended. As such it had tiny bites of onion, beets and cabbage that gave it a wonderful taste and texture. The third soup we made did not include stock – this was a chilled cantaloupe soup made with white grape juice, cantaloupe and a peach. Great for a dessert soup or for a brunch.

Mis en Place - Carrot Soup

Making Carrot Soup

Carrot Soup - The Final Product

Tomorrow is the last day of class. How sad : ( We will be doing fish in the morning then having a graduation party in the afternoon. After that I am going out to celebrate with a classmate so I may not be back to the blog until Saturday morning. Ciao until then!

Tempeh, Tofu and Balance

One of the things that I love about New York is its diversity. On any given day in any given neighborhood I will walk down the street past people of all shapes, sizes, colors, religions and ethnicities. I’ve actually met people from Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Nicaragua, New Zealand and Spain. I’ve walked past Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Hassidic Jews and Asians. I’ve overhead conversations in Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and sometimes even English. New York is where the world comes together and the variety of restaurants here represents that diversity.

This morning’s session at the Natural Gourmet Institute was brought to us by Chef Rich and featured Tempeh and Tofu. Although these food products are both made from soy, Tempeh is considered the more healthful of the two. That is because tempeh is a fermented food made from whole soy beans whereas tofu is basically coagulated soy milk – a highly processed food in itself. One thing to remember with any soy product is to BUY ORGANIC. Almost 80% of the soy produced in this country is GMO (genetically modified) so the only way to protect from this is to buy organic.

We made some pretty interesting dishes with these soy products including tempeh scaloppini (sautéed marinated tempeh simmered with mushrooms), tempeh Bolognese (grated tempeh in tomato sauce), pan glazed tofu and barbecue tofu. My favorites were the tempeh scaloppini and the pan glazed tofu.

Grilled Tofu

Nicola with the Barbecue Sauce

The afternoon’s session was pretty special. We were honored with a lecture by the founder of the Natural Gourmet Institute – Annemarie Colbin. Annemarie is a Ph.D and the author of several books including “Food and Healing”, “The Book of Whole Meals,” and “The Natural Gourmet.” You may be thinking, just as I did, that Annemarie would be very rigid in her philosophy about healthy eating when in fact just the opposite is true. Those of you who know me best know that I have been stressing about food for the last couple of years – what should I eat, what shouldn’t I eat, how much should I eat, do I drink too much alcohol? Although Annemarie is an advocate for healthy eating she is also a realist. Her philosophy is called the “Three Bears Rule.” “Too much is no good, too little is no good, in between is just right.” In other words “moderation” – wait a minute isn’t that what my mother has been preaching for years????? Annemarie also says, “Don’t feel guilty if you eat something bad. Consider it research. No more guilt!” Wait a minute, isn’t that what my husband has been trying to tell me for years???

Annemarie does have some concrete thoughts on food. She basically categorizes foods as either expansive or contractive with Drugs/Alcohol being at the top of the list (expansive) and eggs and salt being at the bottom (contractive). Our goal should be to achieve a balance somewhere in the middle – land vegetables, sea vegetables, roots, beans, grains and fish. Basically if you have too much of one food you should combat it with the other.  For example: if you have too much alcohol (expansive) you should combat it with a salty food such as Umeboshi paste (contractive). I won’t even attempt to further explain her philosophy but I encourage you to read it for yourself in her book “Food and Healing.” She has some great home remedies for colds and headaches including Kuzu drinks, garlic soup, lemon tea and ginger tea. Also remedies for digestive problems which many of us have.

If you are having digestive problems here are two quick tips from Annemarie:

1. CHEW YOUR FOOD. At least 25 times. As Annemarie says there are no teeth in your stomach. You should chew your food into mush before you swallow. This will make it easier to digest. And don’t drink until after you have chewed and swallowed your food. If you take a sip of water or wine or beer while you have food in your mouth you are only washing down pieces of food that will be difficult to digest.

2. Drink water after a meal even up to two hours later. This will help your digestive system process your meal.

Today is Wednesday. Do I really only have two days left in New York???? Hard to believe….

Seitan Part 2 and Stir Fry

Every day is a new experience here in New York City and tonight was no exception. For the first time since I lived in Boston in 1984 I had to go to the Laundromat to do my laundry. There was a young kid working there and I had to ask him how to run the washer. He looked at me in disbelief and said, “You don’t know how to do laundry?” I laughed and said no. He must have thought it was pretty funny. I did.


Lots of recipes today. If you remember yesterday’s blog I talked about making seitan (pronounced say-tan) – a protein product make from wheat gluten. In its final state seitan resembles a small brain and has a spongy consistency. It can be eaten at this stage but it is best cooked in stews or marinated and grilled. During this morning’s session we put seitan to work in three different recipes – seitan stew, seitan kabobs and seitan burgers. The stew was made along the same lines as beef stew and included onions, carrots, butternut squash (including the skin!), burdock (a root vegetable that doesn’t taste like much but is supposed to have “healing powers”) and zucchini. The seitan was browned separately in coconut oil and added towards the end of the cooking time. Very tasty stew although most of the students didn’t really like the idea of eating lumps of wheat in their stew!

Seitan

The second recipe was quite good - marinated seitan kabobs with zucchini, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and onions. The seitan really crisped up nice on the grill and the smoky flavor from the char gave the seitan more resemblance to meat. The third seitan recipe was burgers. These were seasoned to try to resemble sausage using sage and fennel. The seitan was ground in food processor to resemble ground beef and the consistency was pretty close. Not a bad recipe but again – not a favorite among the students.

Marinated Seitan and Vegetable for Kabobs

For me the recipe of the day was a side dish Chef Elliott made to go along with the seitan dishes – lacinto kale (also known as dinosaur kale) with sundried tomatoes and toasted pine nuts. What wonderful flavor!!! I could have eaten an entire platter of this kale and it is so good for you. The sundried tomatoes were cut into slivers and added a wonderful sweetness to the dish.

After lunch we made three more recipes. The first was a vegan version of Caesar salad. The dressing included miso and umeboshi paste to simulate parmagiano reggiano cheese and toasted nori to replace the flavor of anchovies. This was a very nice alternative to the traditional raw egg based Caesar dressings.

One of my favorite recipes of the two-week intensive was Baba Ghanoush. This recipe had a great smoky flavor as we “charred” the eggplant directly on top of the gas burners. Once this step was completed we put the eggplants into a bowl and covered it until it cooled. Then Chef Elliott slipped off the charred skin and blended the flesh with tahini, garlic, lemon juice and salt. This dip has a wonderful smoky flavor and is fabulous served with warm pita crisps.

Stir Fry

I don’t know about you but I’ve been struggling with stir fries for a few years now. I’m never sure how to cut my vegetables, how much oil to use, how long to cook it, when to add the liquid or for that matter what liquid to add. The first thing we learned today is that stir fried vegetables should be sautéed and not steamed. To properly sauté a vegetable it needs high heat and lots of room. Most people use a wok for this but in American kitchens woks sit on top of burners with the heat only on the bottom. In an authentic Chinese kitchen woks sit in a well and are surrounded by heat on the bottom and up the sides – something we just can’t get on top of a stove. To make up for this Chef Elliott suggests that you cook each vegetable separately (he uses a “matchstick” cut on his vegetables by the way) in just a little bit of oil (1-2 teaspoons). After each vegetable is cooked you can add them all together to reheat along with some Shoyu or Tamari. Chef Elliott also adds a “slurry” of Kuzu (similar to arrowroot) to thicken the sauce but for my taste this made the dish a little “slimy.” I might add some miso at the very end for a little more flavor. We used red peppers, carrots, onions and zucchini today. I often add shitake mushrooms and boy choy. You can also add tofu, tempeh, chicken, beef or even shrimp. That’s the nice thing about stir fry – there are endless combinations. Serve with rice or noodles and you’ve got the perfect meal.

Vegetable Stir Fry

Tip of the Day

To clean a cast iron pan, wok or grill DO NOT wash it in water. I repeat – NO WATER! (Of course I’ve been doing this for years – Oops!) The way to clean cast iron is to pour kosher salt onto the pan and use a cloth to scour the pan. Wipe out the salt and finish off with a thin layer of canola oil. That’s it! If you store your cast iron with other pans you might want to line it with parchment paper or by one of those nifty cookware protectors from Pampered Chef.

Polenta and Seitan

Another hot day in New York City!  This morning's cooking demo by Chef Elliott taught us about black eyed peas, polenta, ratatouille and how to make almond milk and almond cream.

The black eyed peas were used in a cold salad with greens and dressed with a simple emulsion of EVOO, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and dijon mustard.  Chef showed us how to emulsify the  dressing by slowly pouring the oil into the other ingredients while whisking constantly.  If done correctly the oil and vinegars will not separate.

Our ratatouille consisted of onions, celery, garlic, zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes consasse simmered over low heat.  This was served over polenta which is basically a porridge or gruel made out of course corn meal.  Polenta can be served either creamy or in a solid form such as triangles, squares or circles.  The trick to polenta is to cook it without lumps - this can be done using a cold water method. In spite of what your recipe might say, Chef Elliott says to put the polenta into cold water and bring up to a boil.  Then simmer until a wooden spoon or whisk can stand up by itself.  If you want to make shapes, pour the polenta onto a sheet pan and add a little olive oil on the top. Spread with a spatula to the desired thickness then set aside.  When solid cut into shapes. Polenta sqaures, triangles circles can be grilled or baked before serving.

For dessert we had Berry Parfaits with Almond Cream.  The cream was made from almond milk which is basically blanched almonds and water blended in a blender.  To make the cream we added Agar flakes ( a vegan substitute for gelatin) dissolved in water to the almond milk and added maple syrup for sweetness.  This concoction is left to set and then blended in a food processor to make it creamy.

After lunch we made Seitan.  For those of you who are not vegetarians/vegan you may not have heard of this food product. Seitan is a protein substitute made from flour and water which is basically broken down into vital wheat gluten.  WARNING - this is obvious not a good product for Celiacs!  To make Seitan you basically form a dough from flour and water, soak the dough in water for 30 minutes then rinse under running water unti it looks like a human brain. Once the gluten is "congealed" you break it into small balls and simmer for two hours in garlic infused shoyu (tamari) and water for two hours.  Hey I'm not making this stuff up!!! Once the seitan is done you can use it as a meat substitute in my recipes including stews, chiles, piccatas, etc.  We will be having it for lunch tomorrow so I will let you know what we do with it.  If you want to try it but don't want to bother making it pick up a package at your local Whole Foods.  The store bought versions are pretty good.

Had dinner tonight with Mike and Kim before they headed back to Massachusetts.  Nothing exciting - stayed local to my apartment in Brooklyn and had a couple of beers (and a few french fries) at the Double Windsor then dinner at the Windsor Cafe.  One of those places that has hundreds of choices on the menu  - nothing to rave about but filling and cheap food.  Hoping that something fits me in the morning. Ugh!  I have definitely gained weight this past week!!!! 

Weekend Update

They say timing is everything and I guess that's true.  Friday night just so happened to be the annual summer concert by the New York Philharmonic in Prospect Park - just three blocks from my apartment.  Since we didn't know what the drill was we had dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant - Enzo's - then headed to the park about 30 minutes after the concert started.  What we saw was amazing - literally thousands of people, children and even dogs spread over what they call "Long Meadow" (similar to the Great Lawn at Central Park) sitting on blankets, chairs, etc.  Most had brought food and drink (lots of wine flowing), some even had candles going!  The mood was calm and festive as the Philharmonic played pieces by Tchaikovsky (Polonaise), Bernstein (West Side Story) and Prokofiev (Romeo and Juliet) from a huge stage in the background.  To top it all off the concert ended with a fireworks display.   And this was all for free courtesy of the City of New York!

On Saturday Tom and I headed to Atlantic Avenue to check out the famous Sahadi's Market and the Damascus Bakery.  At Damascus we bought falafel, humus, taboule, stuffed grape leaves, spinach pie and pita bread.  We packed up our feast and headed to the Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsburg for a picnic lunch.  This wasn't such an easy trip.  It took us a while to find the correct Metro station that would take us to the right train and when we finally got on the G train it discontinued service after two stops.  We then boarded a shuttle bus that wound it's way through the city stopping at each Metro stop.  After more than an hour we finally made it to Nassau Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where we walked a few blocks to the Brewery.  What a zoo!  The Brewery has a big warehouse space that they basically set up as a beer garden on weekends.  Beers are $4 each (or 6 for $20) and people come with their friends to drink, eat (they let you bring your own food or order takeout), play cards and some even take tours of the brewery.  What a hoot!  We met Tom's young cousin Shawn there.  Shawn graduated from college last year and Tom helped him get a job with American Spirit.  His territory is NYC and he has an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.  He is one happy boy. Having the time of his life and looking forward to a promising career in sales.

After a "nap" Tom and I headed to the Ditmas Park neighborhood for dinner a the Purple Yam - a self described "pan-asian filipino" restaurant. (http://www.purpleyamnyc.com/).  We shared several dishes including the Purple Yam's version of bibimbap - with fesh edamame, burdock, beansprouts, spinach and Phillipine heirloom rice. Also had a beautiful salad with fresh greens, watermelon, fresh peaches, papaya and mango.  Such a great dish for a hot night. We also had a dish called Jap Chae which was comprised of sweet potato noodles with shitake mushrooms and asian greens.  Perfection!

Got to spend Sunday with my nephew Mike and his wife Kim.  Another hot day in New York but that didn't stop us from seeing the sights.  I showed them the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood which is similar to Beacon Hill in Boston but sits on the water (East River) and has amazing views of the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty.  We then headed across the Brooklyn Bridge on foot and walked over to the World Trade Center site to see the progress of the new tower.  Not quite a tower yet but they are getting there.  Dinner on Sunday night was at the infamous Momofuko Noodle Bar. This restaurant is all the rage in Manhattan and was recommended to me by several different people. (http://www.momofuku.com/noodle-bar/) You can tell it's trendy because almost everyone there seemed to be under the age of 30.  The chefs didn't look like they were much more than 20!  Food was eclectic (fried chicken is their specialty - go figure) and delicious.  I had steamed shitake mushroom "buns"; a side dish with roasted corn, miso and fingerling potatoes; and a bowl of ginger scallion noodles with pickled shitakes, cucumber and menma (lactate fermented bamboo shoots).

That's all for now folks. Off to school.  Check back tonight for my post on today's lesson.  Hope you all had a great weekend!

The Spiralizer

Exciting day today - got to see a demonstration of the "Spiralizer."

This gadget (http://www.amazon.com/World-Cuisine-Tri-Blade-Plastic-Vegetable/dp/B0007Y9WHQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1279318397&sr=1-1) can make beautiful spirals out of your raw vegetables in just minutes. Chef Rich "spiraled" zucchini and summer squash then added a basil and walnut pesto which was out of this world.

She also made a beautiful vegan corn chowder thickened with potatoes instead of cream. The chowder, which included onions, garlic, tomatoes concasse, corn and carrots, was blended with an immersion blender at the end to make it creamy. This was served for lunch with grilled salmon steaks, arugula and beet salad with a walnut oil dressing and the squash. And no - we didn't stop there - topped off by a peach cobbler with shortbread topping. Yikes! I've had dessert every day this week and sometimes twice in one day.

Speaking of dessert the second half of our day was spent learning to make vegan vanilla cupcakes with chocolate almond butter frosting, vegan shortbread jam cookies and a fruit salad spiced with cardamom. What a wonderful flavor! Problem is we had to taste them all.  Too many calories!!!!!

Couple of tricks I learned today:

1. Concasse (kon-kah-SAY) means to peel, slice and seed a tomato. To peel make an X in the bottom of a tomato, dip into boiling water for 15 seconds then quickly plunge into ice water. The skin should slip off easily. Quarter the tomato then cut out the seed pod.

2. When making cupcakes or muffins put your muffin tin on a parchment lined baking sheet. It will be easier to move in and out of the oven.

3. Poor muffin or cupcake batter into a small pitcher and pour into lined muffin tins. Be careful not to drip!

Quote of the day:

“When you make a recipe the first time you follow the recipe. When you make a recipe the second time you start to get it. When you make a recipe the third time you understand it.” – Barbara Rich

That’s all for tonight folks. It’s Friday night and my lover (a.k.a. Tom) is here for a visit. We are off to dinner then to Prospect Park to listen to a free concert of the New York Philharmonic and fireworks (if we can stay awake that long). Have a great weekend everyone and happy Clam Festival to the folks in Yarmouth!

Enchiladas and Eggs

Today’s Chef Instructor: Barbara Rich

Today’s Menu: Black Bean Enchiladas with Chili Tomato Sauce and Pumpkin Seed-Tomatillo Sauce; Guacamole; Jicama Orange Salad and Coconut Pineapple Flan.

This meal was fabulous! So flavorful yet light. We were taught how to “segment” oranges so they look pretty in a salad. Mine didn’t quite come out like Chef Rich’s but I will work on that.

One of the things that Chef Rich taught us right off the bat is “Efficiency is your best weapon in the kitchen.” That means you need to be organized! The French term “mise en place” means put in place. If you watch Food TV you will see that the chefs have all the ingredients pre-measured into little bowls or plates. At NGI the ingredients for each course are measured out and place on a parchment lined tray with the name of the recipe written on the parchment. When the Chef is ready to start the dish the tray comes out. Mise en place is something I have always been bad at and have vowed to do in the future. Another way to stay organized and efficient in the kitchen is to clean up after yourself. Keep you prep space clean and free of clutter. It may take a few extra minutes but sometimes you need to go slow to go fast.

Another of life’s cooking lessons that Chef Rich taught us is NEVER buy minced garlic in a jar!!!! Personally I do not do this but have seen it in other people’s refrigerators. The problem with this item is you just don’t know how old it is. Chef Rich did say that many restaurants do buy the whole garlic cloves that have been peeled but come on folks – for the amount of garlic we all use at home it won’t kill you to use fresh garlic and mince it yourself. You really should use a knife to do this as opposed to a garlic press and definitely don’t mince it in the food processor – it will get too mushy. If you want to know how to mince garlic I’ll come over and show you.

The third lesson pertains to seasonings – “You can always add more but you can’t take it away.”

The afternoon session was a little weird for me. It was dedicated to eggs. As a “wanna be vegan” I haven’t eaten too many eggs in the past few years but I’ve always had some doubts as to whether this food is really that bad to eat. ASSUMING you can get eggs from chickens that are treated HUMANELY, eggs seem to be somewhat of a perfect food. They are rich in protein (they actually have the highest NPU (Net Protein Utilization) rating of any food), vitamins A, B6, B12, D, E Choline, Potassium, Folic Acid and Calcium. Eggs have gotten a bad rap because of their high cholesterol content but there is a school of thought that the human body, which produces its own cholesterol, will compensate when we ingest cholesterol. What is the truth? Who knows? All I can say is I made a poached egg today it tasted fantastic! Guess I’d better change my profile from mostly vegan to part time vegan.

On a more personal note I have been exploring the city by foot and by subway this week. Last night I walked around Brooklyn for about two hours searching for interesting restaurants and shops. I did come across a restaurant nearby called the Double Windsor which is across the street from Farrell’s Bar and Grill. When I got home I Googled the Double Windsor and took a look at a number of reviews from patrons. What I found is an interesting rivalry between the Double Windsor (a Yuppie bar) and Farrell’s (a blue collar bar). Sounds to me like this is something that is happening in many areas of Brooklyn. Farrell’s is a unique place because they only serve Bud and Bud Light. That’s it! The Double Windsor has a variety of micro brew tap and bottle beers and also serves food. The funniest thing I discovered was the Double Windsor had to create a rule prohibiting children from the bar after 5:30 p.m. Apparently there are a lot of young families in the Park Slope/Windsor Terrace of Brooklyn and they and their Cheerios are taking over the bars and restaurants!

After I left school today I headed uptown to Macy’s to buy a pair of comfortable walking shoes. I just never seem to have the right shoes when I come to New York. After buying a pair of Merrell's (very comfy) I continued “north” and walked through Times Square and Rockefeller Center which were teeming with people – mostly tourists I’m sure. Had a slice of pizza from Ray’s Original Pizza which was featured on some TV show recently as being great pizza. It wasn’t.

That’s all for now folks. Is anyone really reading this blog by the way???? If you are please comment. I am getting lonely…..

Nori Maki and Pickles

First things first. What did we eat for lunch today? Miso soup, pressed salad and nori maki which we all got to roll ourselves. The maki I made included short grain brown rice, tempeh (marinated in maple syrup, shoyu, mirin brown rice vinegar and sesame oil), green beans, matchstick carrots, avocado, wasabi and umeboshi paste. Chef Elliott made us a dipping sauce of rice vinegar, mirin and shoyu (shoyu is an “authentic” version of soy sauce). Dessert was a cherry and banana sorbet with sesame currant cookies. I think the cost of this course is worth it just for the lunch every day!

Pickles and Fermented Foods – this was the afternoon session of our day taught by chef Jill Gusman. This is something new to me but it makes sense. The human body needs health supported bacteria and enzymes to help with digestion and to produce a “healthy gut.” One of the best ways to achieve this is to eat pickled or fermented foods. If you’ve ever been to a Korean restaurant you will be served a variety of “fermented” foods prior to your main course. This happened to me last night and now I know why! The Koreans are the largest consumers of “pickles” (i.e. kimchi) in the world. This is an excellent way to combat digestion problems caused from too much processed food, too much sugar, too much stress, eating poor quality animal foods and lack of activity. According to Chef Gusman, the average American is not getting enough vitamins, minerals and probiotics and pickled and fermented foods are full of these. By the way we are not talking about Vlasic pickles here. You want to look for organic, unpasteurized foods such as kimchi, sauerkraut, pickled cabbage, carrots, etc.

Knife Skills, Herbs & Spices and Korean Food

Today we actually got to participate in the making of our lunch. Our instructor, Elliott Prag (contributor to Vegetarian Times by the way), taught us knife skills. Why didn’t I learn this 30 years ago!!! One of the first things they tell you in knife skills is something we all know but most of us ignore – ALWAYS WORK WITH A SHARP KNIFE! How many times do we say – “Oh I’ll just cut this onion quick I don’t have time to sharpen my knife.” Then what happens – it takes you twice as long to cut the onion AND the knife ends up slipping and you cut yourself. So step #1 – make sure you have the following items – a 10” Chef’s (or French) knife and/or a Japanese knife, a paring knife, and a sharpening “steel.” Use the steel every day that you use the knife. (There are lots of videos on You Tube that will show you how to do this). Have your knives sharpened professionally from time to time.

We learned lots of knife cuts today – matchstick (or julienne in French), roll cut, dice, mince, chiffonade, etc. Cut onions, garlic, carrots, celery, fennel, and escarole. All these went into the making of a vegetable stock which eventually became a white bean and escarole soup. This was served for lunch with a salad and a vegan mint and pistachio nut pesto on toasted whole wheat baguette slices. OMG this pesto was incredible! Since Vegans don’t eat cheese the pesto included umeboshi paste and sweet miso to replicate the taste and saltiness of cheese. The pistachios are a nice change from pine nuts and the mint was not as overpowering as I thought it would be. You could also use walnuts (which as we learned yesterday has Omega 3).

Herbs and Spices were next. Before we talk about this I want you all to leave your computer, walk into your kitchen, open your spice cupboard and throw out all the spices that you’ve had longer than a year. That’s right – throw them out! My guess is that if you smell them they won’t have any smell and if they do they won’t actually smell like the original spice. Key thing here – buy your herbs and spices in small quantities from a market that has a high turnover. Buy Organic! This is important. May spices are irradiated and buying Organic can help protect from that. Now here is another part you won’t like – you really should buy your spices whole then toast them lightly in a dry pan and grind them in a spice grinder (a small coffee grinder that is reserved just for spices). Okay, okay I know you aren’t going to do this. So just please try to buy the freshest spices you can. The taste is amazingly different. I’ve had a bottle of Chinese Five Spice powder in my kitchen for a couple of years and every time I’ve used it the spice didn’t seem to do much for my dishes. Yesterday Chef Elliott made it from scratch and it was unbelievable. He took pitted dates, filled them with whole roasted almonds and dusted them with the Chinese Five Spice. I know this sounds weird but the combination of the sweet date, crunch almond and spices was fantastic!

Okay I am running late this morning so I need to wrap up. The reason I didn’t post last night was because I didn’t get home until 10:30! Very exciting to be out on the town. Met up with my young cousin Jeremy who has been living in New York on an off for the last seven years. I haven’t seen Jeremy since he was 12 or 13 and he has turned into an amazing young man. About seven years ago Jeremy decided he wanted to move to New York so he packed his belongings in two boxes, bought a plane ticket to New York, grabbed a cab and told the cab driver to take him to the cheapest hotel in Times Square. The rest is history. I wish I had half the “chutzpah” that he does. So Jeremy and I had drinks on the roof terrace of 230 Fifth Ave overlooking the Empire State Building. What a spot! Jeremy is also a big "foodie" and loves to cook so we talked about food a lot!  He took me up to Korea Town where we had Bi Bim Bop with lots of little appetizers – Kim Chi, eggplant, some green leaves that I didn’t recognize, seaweed salad, etc. Great stuff.

Off to school now. I’ll be back tonight!

P.S  One correction or addition to yesterday's blog.  While Chef Judith likes to preheat her pan before adding oil Chef Elliott does not.  He likes to put the oil into a cold pan and bring it up to temp.  Cooking, like everything else in life, has many options and you need to find what works best for you.

What a day! Where do I begin? Well I guess I’ll talk about food since that’s why most of you are checking in to begin with. So today was the first day of the two-week intensive at the Natural Gourmet Institute and we started out with a cooking demonstration by Judith Friedman. Chef Judith is an instructor and program director of the NGI. She attended the NGI ten years ago when she started her THIRD career. (Sound familiar to anyone?????) I felt quite at home with Judith because she could be the twin to my good friend (and cooking buddy) Rosie Powers. Her New York accent even sounds a little like Rosie’s Rhode Island accent! The class is pretty interesting.  There are 18 women in my class and many came from other countries - Qatar, New Zealand, Brazil, West Africa, Spain, Nicaragua. What do we all have in common?  Love of food and the desire to be healthy and help others be healthy.  Pretty cool that the NGI seems to be a leader in this field.

Judith spent the morning taking us through a summer menu of Chick Pea Stew with Spinach, Brown Rice, Tahini Caesar Salad and Peach/Blueberry Crisp which we got to eat for lunch – YUMMY!!!

I won’t go through all the recipes – you’ll have to come to my house for dinner to find out just how good they are but in the mean time here are some things I learned today:

1. When cooking rice apply “hot to hot” for a fluffier rice. That means you should “toast” the rice first in a pan on top of the stove. While it is still hot add boiling water and simmer for 45 minutes. Shut off the heat then let sit for 15 minutes.

2. Cooking beans in a pressure cooker can reduce cooking time by more than 40 minutes! Well worth the investment.

3. Cooking whole spices in oil is called “Tarka”. Chef Judith did this with whole mustard seeds and coriander. The aroma was amazing!

4. NEVER smoke the oil you are using to cook in. Smoking oil creates “free radicals” that are very bad for you. On that note only use Extra Virgin Olive Oil to sauté at 325 to 350 degrees. If you need to “fry” or cook at higher temps use coconut oil (non virgin) or macadamia nut oil

5. Speaking of oil – NEVER heat nut oils (except for macadamia nut oil)

6. Stay away from HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) – but you knew that already….

7. Also stay away from soy protein “isolates” found in soy cheese, tofu, soy dogs, “fakin bacon” – soy protein isolates are highly processed at very high temperatures

8. VARY your diet – eat different colors, different textures, foods cooked with different methods (baked, sautéed, steamed, raw, boiled, etc.)

The best part of the day for me was when Judith talked about using kitchen timers. My chef nephew Mikie always teases me about using timers. As a graduate of Johnson and Wales culinary they were taught to cook by instinct but Judith has a different theory. Her rule – if you are over 40 use a timer, over 45 use two timers, over 50 use three timers!!!! Good advice – I almost started a fire in my apartment tonight cooking Tempeh without a timer. How embarrassing would that be!

Tomorrow – Day Two – we are practicing knife skills and learning about herbs and spices from chef Elliott. And tomorrow night I have a date with a handsome young man. Okay so he is my cousin but he is still young and very handsome!!!

That’s all for now folks. Deb thanks for the bottle of Dry Creek – I’ve been enjoying a glass or two while writing this blog. Life is good!

Day One - I've Arrived in Brooklyn

Well here I am in the Big Apple - well actually Brooklyn.  My apartment is perfectly located on 11th Avenue - across the street from a grocery store and two blocks from Prospect Park - the Central Park of Brooklyn.  My apartment is on the fourth floor with NO ELEVATOR!  Boy I thought I was in shape but not so.  My goal is to make it up the stairs without heavy breathing before I leave in two weeks.  Of course the heat doesn't help.  The weather forecast is high 80's/low 90's for the next two weeks.  Am grateful for the two AC units in my apartment! After settling into the apartment we took a tour of the neighborhood.  Headed up to Prospect Park where there were hundreds of people biking, running, roller blading, skate boarding.  There were entire families having cookouts and birthday parties and even some having World Cup parties.  It was amazing to see all the diversity - so different from Yarmouth, Maine.

The people here are very friendly.  Within minutes of leaving my apartment I was greeted by a neighborhood dog who gave me a great big wet lick on the hand!  A few more feet down the street and I met the owner of a nearby Yoga studio who is giving free lessons in the park on weekends.  A little later we had a chuckle with a young man who was trying to coach his female friend into parallel parking her car in a very tiny space.  We ran into them on the next street because she failed to complete her mission.  It was easier for her to park on a less busy street and walk a few extra blocks.  Too funny!  After walking a while in the heat we got a little thirsty so looked for a bar to have a couple of beers.  Not easy to do in the middle of the World Cup final game.  And so it was Kismet that we stumbled across a Greek restaurant - Okeanos - that served beer and had the game on.  Enjoyed some Mythos beer from Thessalonika and a fabulous Greek dip platter - humus, skordalia, taramasolata and tzatziki.  So here is the thing you will be surprised at the prices were actually cheap and the portions were huge.   We would have paid double in Portland, Maine.  Go figure.  After we left Okeanos we started to wilt in the heat so headed back to the apartment via the local grocery store then trudged up the four flights of stairs - groceries in hand.  I have to remember not to buy anything too heavy! This so reminds me of the days when I lived on Beacon Hill in Boston and had to walk to the grocery store and the laundromat.  That will come on Friday.

So tomorrow is my first official day at school.  Will take the F Train from the 15th street station near Prospect Park to the stop at 23rd street in Manhattan then a quick walk to the school.  School starts at 10:00 and ends around 5:00 with lunch included.  Can't wait to see what cooking secrets they will reveal.

New York New York

Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today, I want to be a part of it New York, New York!!!

Two more days until I leave for NYC!

Two more days until I leave for NYC and lots to do.  I am soooo thankful for the internet.  How did people plan trips before this?  Am researching places to do my laundry, places to drink coffee (I don't really drink a lot of coffee but do like coffee shops), places to swim (must do some lap training before the Triathlon in August), places to run, places to eat, etc.  I even mapped out my subway ride from the apartment in Brooklyn to the Natural Gourmet Institute using Google Maps.  Very cool.  Have heard the weather is going to be hot in NYC - not looking forward to that.  Right now in Maine it's a beautiful, cool 70 degrees.  Hope the AC in my apartment works....  Off for a bike ride.  Talk to you soon.

New Life

Today is day one of my new life.  As of 7:00 pm last night I was officially unemployed.  Yesterday was much sadder than I expected.  I have been Finance Director for the Town of Yarmouth for almost 9 years and in that time I have worked with some great people.  It was tough to say goodbye.  In the last few weeks I even wondered why I was leaving but in my heart I know it is the right thing.  Onward and upward! When I got home last night (after a few celebratory beers) I found a letter waiting from the Natural Gourment Institute welcoming me to the Annual Basic Cooking Technique Intensive class scheduled for July 12-23rd.  It's not exactly a chef's training class but who knows what inspiration I might take from this experience.  My mantra is always keep your options open. For the next 11 days I am going to sit back and enjoy some vacation time.  A little hiking, biking, swimming, running, good food, a few libations and spending some time with my husband Tom.  Oh yeah - and hosting a family reunion on July 4th. Happy Independence Day everyone!  I'll check back in next week.