Fish is Fishy

Tomorrow is Friday; for Catholics everywhere, this means substituting fish for the regularly scheduled meatloaf meal.  However, there are so many questions regarding this particular protein choice nowadays.  Is it sustainable?  Is is wild or farm raised?   Does it contain toxins such as mercury?  Is it what it really says in the wrapper?  Is it fresh?  How do I cook it without ruining it?!  (Psst...see my Parchment paper - not just for the Magna Carta post for a great method)

Confused?  Me too.  Good thing there other suitable protein choices for Fishy Fridays (and any day, really) that need little if any pondering.  

For reference, the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) of protein for an average, healthy adult is in the neighborhood of 50 grams a day.  This can be gained by eating chicken breast (4oz = 34g) and steak (4oz = 32g) or, for Fishy Fridays, cod (4oz = 26g), salmon (4oz = 30g) and tuna (4oz = 34).  However, for a twist on the main dish, how about lentils (1cup = 18g), yogurt (1cup = 13g), peanut butter (1/4cup = 16g), navy beans (1cup = 16g), or edamame (1 cup = 29g).
 

Eda-what, you say?  Edamame are young, green soybeans.  This Asian favorite (served with icy cold mugs of beer as a bar snack in Japan) is now readily available in the frozen food aisles throughout the US and is delicious eaten straight up or served in a stir fry or salad.  Grab a bag next time you are in the store, drop in lightly salted boiling water for 3-5 minutes (depending on your taste), drain, sprinkle with a bit of kosher salt and eat hot or cold. 

Tonight for dinner, my family and I dined on edamame and miso soup made with tofu, wakame (seaweed), and nameko mushrooms.  I estimate we each had 40 grams of muscle building, tissue healing protein between these two nutritious dishes - and they were delicious. (miso paste = 4g per 1oz serving and tofu = 9g per 4oz serving) 

Miso Soup
1 14oz cake tofu (cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
1/3 oz dried wakame
1 scallion (chopped)
4 cups dashi
4oz red miso

Place dashi in pot, bring to a boil.  Soften miso by adding small amount of hot dashi and add to pot.  Add tofu and wakame and boil briefly until wakame unfurls.  Top with chopped scallions and serve (feeds 4)

If you still want fish - and I do - here are a few "good" choices from both a health and environmenal standpoint: wild-caught Pacific salmon, herring, pollock, sardines and cod. 

Check out this Sustainable Seafood Guide from the Virginia Aquarium: www.virginiaaquarium.com/research-conservation/pages/sensible-seafood.aspx  

(Thanks to www.whfoods.com/ for the protein and fish info.)      

Substitution Sidetrack

I planned to write about substitutions for a few more posts and will probably get back to it eventually, but my Butter's Better post prompted one of my readers to send me this fabulous video. It is a hysterical MUST WATCH!

Jim Gaffigan - Hot Pockets http://video.yahoo.com/watch/4653268/12437422

The above clip (albeit crudely) supports my point of view that many convenience foods are ultimately, well, inconvenient (for health, grocery bills and the environment).  Along with filling our bodies with excess additives (and over-inflating our grocery bills), these items likewise fill trashcans with excess garbage. I do believe the nutrition to packaging ratio in the following landfill fillers (and countless others) to be massive:

~Lunchables
~Single serving snacks including Pringles, Mount Olive Pickles, 100 calorie snack packs (buy the big one and divy up into smaller portions using reusable plastic containers)
~Bisquick Shake and Pour (one of the worst - this one-time use plastic bottle comes less than half-filled with powdered mix to which water is added to make batter for fifteen pancakes).   

I also heard from a butter basher and thus must state this key point - Everything in moderation.  This goes for all foods and beverages - including butter and my previously mentioned penchant for Spam.  (I eat it only occasionally).  So, have your Hot Pocket, your Doritos and your Oscar Meyer B-O-L-O-G-N-A, but just don't eat them every day!  

Butter's Better

Speaking of substitutions, I don't believe there is any substitute for real butter.  Yes, I caved and bought margarine (Smart Balance) for spreading on toast (not that we eat much toast around here), and I use cooking spray occasionally as well.  As far as baking and cooking go though, there is no substitute for the real thing.  The flavor alone is reason enough but not my only rationale for choosing butter. 

I try to live by what I call The Grandma Diet.  My grandma (as well as many of yours) grew up on and raised her children on a "country diet" - whole milk, butter, cheese, eggs, and meat as well as fresh and local (usually homegrown) in-season fruits and veggies, of course.  All of these were minimally processed, close to the earth and still recognizable as single source foods.  I believe this is the way to go.  Period.    

While many of these good, wholesome items get a bad rap, I frankly am amazed at what does pass for food these days.  I'm not exactly sure if margarine (17 ingredients in my Smart Balance), Velveeta (15 ingredients), Twinkies (28 ingredients), and Cool-Whip (14 ingredients) actually count as food, but they sell them at the grocery store.

Now, I don't mean to sound preachy...and, no, I don't exclusively eat from scratch (I happen to ADORE Spam - I buy the light version with half the fat and sodium - that's another topic for another day), but I believe I owe my family's good health to primarily eating foods with minimal ingredient lists containing items that I can both pronounce and would be willing to eat as is (I don't know about you, but I never had any desire to have a sodium stearol lactylate sandwich).            

PS - Watch this cool, disgusting, and hysterical Cool-Whip video: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/video/102-cool_whip.html  

Oh, and of course, how could I forget.  Thanks for the reminder AB:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrvN-yG8P8s

Substitutions

In an effort to bake a better bread, I've been reading Alton Brown's I'm just Here for More Food - Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking.  In among the tidbits, techniques and tips is an intriguing pineapple upside-down cake recipe made in a cast-iron skillet.  Now, I often get the baking bug on weekends and figured this would be a great cure (despite the fact it uses an entire stick of butter and two cups of sugar - yikes!). 

Unfortunately a quick inventory of my pantry revealed no pineapple.  I always have pineapple!  But...I am pretty good with improvisation when it comes to cooking, so I started to look around.  I did happened to have three mangy apples on the counter left from a Christmas fruit basket and decided they would do quite nicely.  The recipe also called for pineapple juice, but having no pineapple also meant I had no pineapple juice.  Further scouting revealed that bottle of apple brandy!  Substitutions in hand, I proceeded with the, uh...pineapple (?) upside-down cake. 

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake (Alton Brown recipe ala me)

-Preheat oven to 350.

-Melt 1 stick unsalted butter in cast-iron skillet.

-Add 1 cup (8ounces) brown sugar and stir until combined.

-Top with 3 peeled, quartered, cored and sliced apples tossed with 3T apple brandy.

-Combine 1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour, 1t baking powder, 1/4t salt. 
-Combine 3 large eggs, 5T apple brandy, 1 cup white sugar (7 ounces) and pour onto flour mixture. 
-Mix just until batter comes together.  Do not mix smooth.  Lumps are ok.
-Pour batter evenly over apples and bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
-Invert on large plate and eat.

This un-pineapple upside-down cake was so good, but it started me thinking about substitutions:

1. What can and can't one replace in a recipe and get away with it
2. Why does one makes recipe substitutions: allergies, health and diet concerns, and my favorite reasons - ingredient availibility and creativity
3. At what point does the recipe cease to be the recipe one started out to make.  (And, does it really matter?)

Stay tuned!

Hot, hot, hot, hot, stuff!

Yesterday I went to the store just for eggs. I didn't even get a cart because I only needed eggs.  Alas, when I passed by the cheese on the way to the cackle-berries, I couldn't resist picking up a package of Cabot Hot Habanero Chedder.

I have a special place in my heart(burn) for spicy foods.  (Indeed, my entire kitchen is decorated in the style.)  If it makes me sweat, I love it.  But, I should quantify that statement; altough I once took 3rd place in the Bayou Boogaloo & Cajun Food Festival hot pepper eating contest, hot is not enough (or perhaps too much) for me - it has to taste good too.  I don't like to suffer unless it is worth it.

Growing up in MeatandPotato Town, Ohio, the spiciest thing I ever ate was black pepper - the preground stuff from the shaker can.  Once out in the wide, wide world, I easily became tempted by the forbidden (or should I say forsaken) fruit.  I speak, of course, of the Capsicums, the more popular being:

~Capsicum annuum - jalapeño, pimento, cayanne, and even bell peppers (ok, so I had those before)
~Capsicum frutescens - tobasco (as in the sauce - did you know it has to age THREE YEARS before hitting the grocery shelves?!) and my true love Thai (aka Bird's eye) peppers
~Capsicum chinense - habanero and Scotch bonnet

And, yes, they are fruits - technically berries but not technically "pepper".  (Black pepper = Piper nigrum.  Black peppercorns are the unripe, dried, fermented version, white peppercorns are ripe and dried with the outside husks removed, and green peppercorns are also unripe and usually preserved in brine. PS - The brine is a killer add to a Bloody Mary) 

My first time with this potent produce involved margaritas and a glut of jalapeños.  As a neophyte, I was unaware of the end consequences of my actions (but I digress).  Later in life I was exposed to the fabulous world of Thai cooking (by my neighbor Anne), and learned the hard way the hazards of playing with fire when cooking with the aforementioned Thai peppers.  (Always use gloves and NEVER rub your eyes - especially if you wear contacts. Owich!)  Nevertheless, my consumption of these has matured and is as frequent and varied as possible.

My preferred application of any pepper is salsa.  And, one of my absolute favorites is a black bean and corn salsa I make to top grilled chicken breasts (or often just to eat alone.)  Here's roughly how I do it:

Chicken marinade
1/3 cup olive oil
juice from two limes
1 t kosher salt
1/2 t fresh gound black pepper

Wisk to combine.  Place four thawed boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or equivalent chicken parts) and marinade in zip top bag for minimun one hour (or overnight).

Salsa
1 can yellow corn, drained
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 large vine ripe tomato, diced
1 medium sweet onion (vidalia or walla-walla preferred), finely diced
1 green pepper, seeded & diced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 (or 2) fresh jalapeño, seeded & finely diced
juice from one lime
kosher salt to taste

Combine all and let set at room temperature to allow flavors to meld.  Grill chicken, top with salsa and eat!

Another hot topic - Atomic Fireballs - love me sum cinnamonalicious Atomic Fireballs.  Check out this great site detailing the birth of the fireball!   http://www.ferrarapan.com/html/atomic.html

Admin note!

Stupid blog!  I heard people have been unable to post comments - even as "anonymous."  The way it was set up involved writing your comment, then reviewing your comment, then filling out that annoying little "what word it this" security thingy.  I tweaked it again so you can post without all the run-around.  So...comment away!

Pączki Day

Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Carnival, Pancake Day - whatever name one gives it - this day is synonymous with good eatin'. Today - a day of excess and indulgence - is the last day before the Catholic Lenten period of fasting, prayer and penance. Some feast upon King Cake (I had a slice a few days ago and, for the first time ever, found the baby inside!) and others have their pancakes, but the Polish community has their Pączki.

Oh, to be in Hamtramck, Michigan today!  In my Christmas-time post, I wrote about the vast array of deliciousness found in the Polish bakeries there.  Few things, though, can rival the ultimate indulgence...the Pączki. This traditional Polish "doughnut" (for lack of a better term) consists of a round of deep fried dough filled with jelly, custard or chocolate and covered with glaze or powdered sugar.  In theory, these were made to use up all the goodies "forbidden" for consumption during Lent - lard, sugar, eggs.  (A single pastry can impart 800 or so calories - but who's counting?)

The crowd I encountered at Christmas pales in comparison to those crammed in on Pączki Day - or so I hear. (New Palace Bakery had t-shirts declaring, "I survived the crowds on Pączki Day!") While I once had the distinct privilege of sampling a raspberry jam-filled, powdered sugar dusted version, I long to stand hours in line with several THOUSAND of my closest friends on Pączki Day to buy my own white cardboard box tied with string!

(Thanks to the City of Hamtramck webpage http://www.hamtramck.us/ for the Pączki picture.)