Creamed

I have a long and tragic history with cream sauces and cream soups. In one of our earliest experiences cooking together, J-P and I set out to make his favorite, New England Clam Chowder. He had a fail-safe technique that he had learned from his mother and had used time and again himself. Meanwhile, my experience with cream-based soups was limited to what I had gleaned from watching the Food Network. But that, of course, didn't stop me from taking over the chowder-making reins, and I proceeded to overheat the cream and milk and ended up with curdled soup. Which, of course, J-P has never let me forget.

Now, I know it's easy to avoid this result by heating the cream before adding it to the hot pot, or by cooling the pot before adding the cold cream. But usually my impatience trumps logic, I jump the gun, and I end up with more curdles, not to mention a gloating husband.

So, I am proud to present to you the following:


You might be inclined to think that this is merely a picture of potato leek soup. And you would technically be correct. But oh, it is so much more than that. Because this is a picture of me NOT SCREWING UP A CREAM-BASED SOUP.

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Potato Leek Soup

3 or 4 russet potatoes
3 large leeks, cleaned well
3 tbsp. butter
1/4 c. dry vermouth
2 c. vegetable or chicken stock or water
4 c. whole milk
1 tbsp. horseradish

Use three or four potatoes, depending on size. (I used four large, and it seemed like a little too much. So if they're big, use three, and if they're smaller, go for four.) Peel and dice the potatoes. Thinly slice the white and light green parts of the leeks.

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes and leeks, salt well, and saute until the leeks start to soften. Add the vermouth to deglaze the pot. Add the stock, lower heat, cover pot, and simmer until the potatoes soften, about 15 minutes. Remove the pot from heat and let cool.

Here's where the patience comes in: WAIT until the pot cools. It's OK if the potatoes and leeks are still a little warm, but if they are hot you will curdle the milk. So just wait. And then wait some more. Alternatively, you can heat the milk in a small saucepan and then add it to the hot potatoes and leeks.

Once you've added the milk, turn the heat to medium and simmer, stirring frequently, until the milk thickens a little and the potatoes are falling apart (another ten minutes or so). Stir in the horseradish (a totally odd-ball variation I came up with, because otherwise the flavors seem a little bland to me. If you don't like, don't use). Remove from heat, and give the whole thing a whiz with a hand blender. (You can also use a regular blender, but be careful transferring and blending while the soup is hot.) If it's too thick, add a little more milk or stock. Taste for seasoning, and add salt if necessary.

This made about 6 cups.

The Summer of Slaw

I am so in love with our Cuisinart. Except it's not really a Cuisinart, it's a Kitchenaid. I just can't get used to calling it a Kitchenaid because our stand mixer is a Kitchenaid, and I can only imagine the confusion that would reign if we called them both Kitchenaids: egg whites for a cake batter abused by the sharp blades of the food processor, and chick peas for hummus bouncing aimlessley around the bowl of the mixer. I suppose the brand-neutral "food processor" is an alternative, but it's so unwieldy. I just can't be bothered with all of those syllables.

Anyway, I have recently been playing around with the various attachments to the Cuisinart Kitchenaid food processor and have discovered how versatile this contraption really is, especially when it comes to slaw. It does all the heavy lifting. I feel like I should be tipping it and buying it a beer or something.

So yesterday, I made my third slaw of the summer, which is probably more slaw than I've made in my entire life. The first, a vinegar-based concoction based on an Emeril recipe (don't judge), was rather bland and disappointing. The second, mayo-based, was a success, but too ordinary as to warrant a post of its own. Yesterday's recipe was driven by the contents of last week's CSA share and was dressed with a melange of Asian flavors, and was, at last, a post-worthy success.

Of course, I forgot to take a picture. Blame the heat and humidity. But, really, it's just slaw, people. I'm sure you can picture it just fine.

***

Asian Slaw

1/2 head of cabbage (or one very teeny tiny one, like the one in my CSA box)
2 carrots
1 green bell pepper
2 scallions
6 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp. mirin
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. peanut butter
1/2 tbsp. sriracha
1 inch piece of lemongrass, chopped finely
1 tbsp. chopped fresh ginger
1 handful cilantro, finely chopped

Slice cabbage and green pepper in food processor (Kitchenaid or Cuisinart will work fine), using the thin slicer attachment. Shred carrots using the shredder attachment. Slice scallions on the bias, and mix all vegetables in a large bowl.

Separately, in a small bowl, whisk together rice wine vinegar, mirin, soy sauce, peanut butter, sriracha, lemongrass, and ginger. Dress the vegetables (you may not need all of the dressing, so go slowly). Mix in the chopped cilantro, and chill.

Serves 4-6 as a side dish.

Wrapping up The Cleanse

I know I promised I would stop talking about The Cleanse. (Recap: for a week and a half I ate a vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, caffeine-free, and alcohol-free diet.) But people keep asking me about it, and so it just makes sense to do a little postmortem here.

What I ate: For breakfast I usually had oatmeal, or beans with corn tortillas and tofu sour cream. Lunch was salad or leftovers. Snacks were nuts, nuts, and more nuts. When I got home after work I was usually ravenous, and immediately fixed some quick and dirty guacamole and corn chips, a nice bowl of edamame, or some hummus and vegetables. Dinner was a mixed bag: I’ve already chronicled my experiments with quinoa and rice noodles. Stir fries with rice, more beans and tortillas, a bean and kale soup made with vegetable stock, sweet potato oven fries, and sauteed greens all made appearances. Dessert was fruit, or those little Chinese sesame rice balls. I drank OJ with breakfast, a lot of water during the day, and only had a cup of decaffeinated coffee once or twice. I don’t usually drink caffeinated coffee, soda, or sugared drinks, so that was no big deal.

What I missed: The hardest part definitely was giving up dairy. I could manage quite happily on a vegetarian diet, but take away my ability to cheese up a pasta or risotto dish, and that whole swath of foods becomes completely unpalatable to me. Seriously, I’d rather not eat pasta than eat pasta without cheese. I also missed sour cream for my beans, and my morning bowl of yogurt. I fared fine without milk, switching over to soy milk for my cereal and (decaf) coffee. Gluten was next hardest, because I usually crave carbs like nobody’s business. And for the first few days, I still did. But the cravings waned as the days wore on, and I was able to get enough of a carb fix from rice, rice noodles, and potatoes. Animal products were not that hard to give up, but after a few days I would have traded my first-born for a single poached egg. (Eggs were the food that I craved the most, which totally surprised me.) Alcohol was tough, I won’t lie, but I think that was mostly psychological. Caffeine wasn’t a problem because I’ve long since kicked that habit, and sugar wasn’t bad either, because I don't have much of a sweet tooth. Plus, I sort of bent the rules by eliminating refined sugar, but keeping honey and palm sugar in the repertoire.

How I cheated: There was one meal, about a week in. A friend had smoked a variety of animal products in his backyard smoker. And another friend wouldn’t take no for an answer with the margaritas. So I gave in, a little bit, for one afternoon. But, to my credit, I only had one margarita and a tiny, itty-bitty portion of meat, which is far, far less than I ordinarily would have had of either. Also, as a general rule, I allowed myself fish sauce and soy sauce. (Did you know there is gluten in soy sauce? I sure as hell didn’t.) With cheese and butter so many key flavoring agents verboten, I needed something to round out my meals, and just a tiny smidge of either fish sauce or soy sauce adds a disproportionate amount of flavor. Other than those exceptions, though, I was pretty good.

How I felt: It took me a while to get the hang of the thing and make sure I was eating enough. About day three I felt a little light-headed and woozy, which can be attributed to the fact that I probably wasn’t getting enough calories or enough protein at first (which would also explain the craving for eggs). But I went home that night and had a whole can of beans, a half a sweet potato, and a half a bunch of kale, and I started feeling better. The rest of the time I felt good, although I don’t know that I felt better than I do on a regular good day. I definitely appreciated the lack of any hangover-type effects from alcohol, which have been plaguing me more and more frequently (and on the basis of fewer and fewer drinks) as I get older. Other than that though, I’m not sure I could say that I felt especially cleansed. I did lose two pounds, though, so that's something.

How I broke it: So, the best part. A friend tipped me off that everything on the bar menu at Morton's is $5 after 10pm. So when J-P flew into town around 10pm a few weeks ago, with both of us in need of dinner and ready to throw in the towel on The Cleanse, it was a no brainer. We shared a half-dozen oysters, an iceberg wedge salad with blue cheese dressing and crumbled bacon, a plate of mini cheeseburgers, and french fries topped with more blue cheese. And martinis. Of course. And it was so, so good. The oysters were fresh and briny, and the burgers nice and juicy. Somehow the kitchen managed to cook them medium rare even though they were barely bigger than golf balls. I love french fries, and couldn't imagine that they could possibly be improved with the addition of blue cheese, but they were. And the martinis! So smooth.

Whether I’d do it again: I might do it again as a way to jumpstart a pattern of healthier eating. But even without doing the all-out, full-on, whole-shebang cleanse, it’s a good template for improving one's eating habits. So now that I’m back home after a week of unadulterated vacation eating, I’m starting a modified cleanse. I’m not cutting out animal products altogether, but I am eating a lot more vegetarian (and even vegan) meals. When I do eat meat, I’m focusing on eating healthier proteins like fish and chicken. Eggs are back (thank god), although I’m cutting back on the frequency and quantities of cheese that I consume. As for other dairy, I see no reason to cut out the low fat yogurt I eat for breakfast, or the occasional dollop of sour cream. I’m also cutting back on alcohol (again, frequency and quantities). All of which are really just good ideas generally.

It's funny, my mom did The Cleanse at the beginning of June, and at one point she mentioned that it was the easiest weight she'd lost "without being on a diet." Which struck me as funny, because this is a diet, just like eating fast food every meal is a diet. A diet isn't just counting calories or fat grams. It's the choices we make as to what to put into our bodies every single day. You add those choices up over time, and they constitute a diet, whether good or bad, healthy or unhealthy. The real trick is to learn to moderate what, and how much, we eat, and I know that I sometimes lose focus on the issues of what and how much. By virtue of being so restrictive, The Cleanse broke me of some bad habits and made me pay attention to every single thing I ate for a week. Which is a good habit to have, even as I reincorporate a broader range of foods back into my diet.

Latour de France

So the night before I started The Cleanse (which, by the way, has been over for more than a week now, and I promise to stop talking about it after this), I figured I might as well make it worth my while by making sure my body was nice and dirty before hand. That was my goal when we set out for my mom’s birthday dinner at Latour.

Latour is a disarmingly friendly but unmistakably upscale restaurant that bills itself as a “French-American Grill.” Located near the train station in downtown Ridgewood, New Jersey, the decor evokes the French countryside without trying too hard. Tables are small, so a party of six can share an intimate dinner instead of shouting at each other across yards of table linen.

As with so many restaurants, the appetizers at Latour are winners across the board. The foie gras was deliciously smooth and very generously portioned, and was accompanied by a small salad of frisee with vinaigrette and dried fruit to cut the richness of the goose liver. A foie gras special that paired a smaller portion of liver with two pepper-crusted scallops was a very decadent spin on surf and turf. Lobster bisque was every bit as rich as it should be, and tasted like distilled essence of lobster. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on the quality of the escargot, as they disappeared from my mom’s plate before I had the chance to try one.

The main courses were similarly classic and indulgent, ranging from seafood thermidor to beef wellington. The only objection that we had—and my description of the dishes may have already tipped my hand here—was that the menu was unseasonably heavy for late June. Short ribs, venison, pork tenderloin, duck—all seemed very wintery in both ingredient selection and in preparation. The short ribs, for example, were accompanied by root vegetables, rather than something lighter and more seasonal. Both the venison and the scallops in the appetizer special were coated with a thick pepper crust that leant a cold-weather feel to those dishes. And even the soft-shell crab, that ultimate summer protein, was somewhat overwhelmed by a cream sauce and a crust that was a touch too heavy for the delicate flavor and texture of the crab. Of course, there is something to be said for a diner’s choice. We knowingly bypassed a number of fish options; the one lighter dish we did try, seared tuna in lobster broth with herbed orzo, was fresh and very satisfying. And although the dishes we selected may have been heavy, there wasn’t much left when our plates were cleared.

Not to be done in by the rest of the meal, we ended with a selection of desserts. Although the menu was somewhat predictable—chocolate mousse cake, cheesecake, and creme brulee featured prominently—each dessert that we tried was entirely satisfying and generous enough to share. And the cheesecake, light and laced with Grand Marnier, was a particular success.

Perhaps its best feature, Latour is BYO, which helps keep the bill down and enables diners to supplement their meal with the wines they prefer. And although the restaurant is high-end with prices to match, it offers a five-course prix fixe menu on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday nights for under $50 per person, exclusive of tax and gratuity. I may be going out on a limb here, but I’m willing to bet that’s the best fine-dining deal in all of Bergen County.

NOTE: This is my first restaurant review. I know that food bloggers the world over have made cameras in restaurants de rigeur, and I’m glad they have so I can gawk at their meals, but I can’t help but think that it’s crass to whip out a camera in the middle of a nice meal. So there will not be any pictures in my reviews here, at least at high-end restaurants. Hopefully my descriptions will capture the essence of these places anyway.

Curried rice noodles with zucchini and tofu

Holy hell, was this was an unmitigated success!  Eating this dish for dinner, and for lunch, and then for dinner again did not feel like a sacrifice in the slightest.  And even better, this was a dish that sprang fully formed from the recesses of my mind.  I will often have ideas for dishes I'd like to try, but to execute those ideas and have them take shape as I'd pictured them is a rare and wonderful thing indeed.

The inspiration for this dish came from a number of places.  First, zucchini, because the vegetable drawer in my fridge was overflowing with them.  Second, curry, drawing on the curried Singapore noodle dish that you sometimes see at Chinese restaurants.  As I understand it, that dish is an American creation, but damn it's tasty.  And finally, rice noodles, because I'm steering clear of gluten for the time being.  I've been using this brand from Nashville's K&S International Market:


They come in different widths, simply labelled small, medium, large, and extra large.  These were the large, although I might try a narrower noodle next time.  I'd steer clear of the super-narrow vermicelli rice noodles though, because I find they are much harder to mix in with whatever sauce you're dressing them and are better suited for use in soup.  Here's how the execution went, and apologies for the lack of measurements.  I was so skeptical at the outset that I didn't think this dish was going to qualify for recipe status. 

I cooked the noodles in a large pot of boiling water until they were tender, and drained them.  Meanwhile, in a hot wok, I sauteed some grated ginger and chopped garlic in a little canola oil.  I added a small chopped onion and two zucchini, which I had halved lengthwise and sliced into 1/2 inch pieces.  To that I added a goodly amount of cumin, coriander, turmeric, and saffron, maybe a couple teaspoons each or thereabouts (less saffron).  Once the vegetables got a little soft, I added about a cup of coconut milk, some soy sauce and fish sauce (maybe a couple tablespoons each), and sriracha for heat (probably a couple teaspoons).  Then I tossed in a brick of extra firm tofu that I'd cubed, and let it all cook together for a few more minutes.  I tossed the noodles in and stirred it together. 

This made a big portion, and if I were just cooking for two (or one, or even three) I would halve it.  As it was, I shared this with friends and still had plenty left over for another few meals, plus the occassional nibble right out of the fridge.

Now, this is technically not gluten-free, because of the soy sauce.  It's also technically not vegan (or even vegetarian) because of the fish sauce.  I know, I know.  I hang my head in shame.  But really, I decided that there were just going to have to be some exceptions to the rules of The Cleanse if I was going to be able to keep it up.  And soy sauce and fish sauce are the exceptions.  So sue me.

The man has opinions

J-P has a few thoughts on vegan eating, posted here.