Christmas Day in Oaxaca

It was kind of an odd day. We started the day with breakfast with our host family and decided it must have been leftovers from their Christmas Eve feast rather than some sort of traditional Christmas breakfast. We started with bananas, then thick slabs of caramel jello and chopped bits of bright green apple jello, then spaghetti in a creamy mushroom sauce, then chicken breast stuffed with fruits, then finished with sandwiches of thin sliced ham lunchmeat with mayo on Pan Bimbo (the Mexican Wonderbread equivalent). Z and I rushed off to church, but found it locked and empty and had to assume they had cancelled because it was Christmas.

We wandered back to our place, stopping to sit in a park and talk for a while, then found C moving all our things into a new room when we got back. Our new room is upstairs, and we have a kind of balcony (without any railing) where we can sit in the shade of a pomelo tree and listen to all the songbirds while we eat or work or relax.

For lunch we ate at the fantastic La Olla Restaurant. Z ordered tacos with nopales (cactus) and after finishing about half decided that their sliminess was grossing her out a little too much. C & I agree that nopales are mucous-like and that we don't really like them any more than we like okra, but we were pleased that she wanted to try them.


C ordered chiles rellenos, Oaxacan style. I had some a couple days earlier at the restaurant Flor de Oaxaca and they were tasty, but made me pretty sick that night. At La Olla, they came in two types of chiles - one was stuffed in a dried Oaxacan Pasilla chile (smaller and smokier than the chiles called pasillas in other parts of Mexico), and the other in a chile de agua, which is light green and thin-skinned and usually medium spicy. The stuffing here, called picadillo, rather than the ground beef or cheese that you might get at a Mexican restaurant in the U.S., is made of shredded chicken with almonds, raisins, capers, green olives, herbs, tomatoes, onions and a long list of other ingredients that make it as complex and lovely as a good mole. They stuff the chiles, dip them in a batter made of whipped egg whites mixed with the yolks and a bit of flour, then fry them and bathe them in a light tomato sauce. There's a recipe from Diana Kennedy here which looks pretty accurate. These at La Olla were the best I've ever had.

I, however, won the best ordering prize for the day - I got a thick white fish, perfectly seared in garlic and olive oil, served with spinach and over mashed plantains. It doesn't sound so great, but the three together were perfection.












We also ordered ponche, which is a hot fruity punch kind of like spiced cider, with tiny apples, spears of sugar cane and cinnamon sticks, and hibiscus blossoms.











And we finished with a delicious cake of freshly ground oaxacan chocolate and cinnamon and a bit of passionfruit puree on the side, and then a very tasty flan.









Yum.

That evening we went down to the Zocalo briefly, hoping there would be a replay of the fireworks from the night before (which I missed because I was sick from those darn chiles rellenos from Flor de Oaxaca), but we were out of luck. Just lots of people walking around. We read the Christmas story and watched some fireworks from our balcony before we said goodnight to Z. Overall a pretty merry Christmas - I hope yours was good too!

Mexico City

Mexico City. No matter how I try to describe it, I'll fail. It was a madhouse, the entire zocalo packed with thousands of people there for the - wait for it - ice-skating. Although it was in the mid-70's while we were there, they somehow had set up a big ice-skating rink in the middle of the zocalo and another area that pumped out snow as fast as it melted, where kids wore helmets and threw snowballs at each other. It was so much more crowded there than when we were there in 1995, even during the indepence day celebrations, that I had to look it up, and yup, it is a substantially more crowded city. The population has increased from 15.6 million to 21.2 million (compare this to NYC's 8 million). I'm so used to my isolated life that I sometimes find it frightening to be around so many people and to picture a future world where it's hard to find a city that isn't so densely populated. The subways are extremely efficient, but while in 1995 I found them cleaner and in better condition than the New York subways, the intervening years haven't treated them as kindly. So crowded and dirty and smelly - they're far worse than in NYC in 1990. There's no subtlety to the commercialism. A 50-foot Christmas tree was decorated entirely with flashing Pepsi logos. Giant logos and characters everywhere you look.







Obviously children dictate the terms of the family Christmas photos - the Alameda had not just carnival rides and hundreds of vendors selling everything from roasted bananas to plastic buckets, but about 50 gigantic Christmas photo stands, each flashier than the last, about 2 stories tall and 20 feet deep, with all the latest characters. The one that I tried to convince Z to take a family photo in was a rather tame Simpsons theme, with life-sized Simpsons characters, big clouds painted in the back, "Los Simpson" written over the top, and, of course, Santa dancing to Shakira. The Smurfs were rather popular, but I saw one girl holding out for it all: she turned down a stand that had the Smurfs, woodland creatures, Disney Princesses, Tinkerbell floating overhead, and blue glitter-coated reindeer, complete with the metallic din of digital carols from flashing Christmas lights.






We tried lots of new foods we've never tried before. In Coyoacan, we ate at Tostadas Coyoacan, a stand in the middle of the market with rave reviews doing raging business that dished up tostadas topped with things like ceviche, cochinita, salpicon, champinones, chicken mole, and camarones.

We also tried tacos de canasta, which we've heard is a favorite food of Chilangos (people from Mexico City). At a mere 4 pesos (about 25 cents) each, these tacos come filled with spiced mashed potatoes or refried beans or chopped beef or mole verde with shredded pork. They're traditionally wrapped in a cloth and stacked together in a big basket while they're hot, so the corn tortillas are kind of steamed by the time you eat them. The place we ate served them out of big stainless steel buckets.

Not knowing what to expect, but wanting fish and seeming to remember that bacalao was a type of fish, I ordered the bacalao at Cafe Tacuba, which was deliciously prepared with a flavorful sauce, peeled almonds and pinenuts, but the fish itself was shredded, tough and salty. It seems to be a traditional holiday food, showing up on lots of the special Christmas menus, along with Romeritos, which I never dared try after the bacalao. I saw one store selling cans of bacalao, imported from Norway, and an internet search revealed that it is dried salted cod. Not my favorite.

I got a bit sick from a spinach salad at a vegetarian restaurant (Vegetariano Madero) - I knew the raw spinach was risky, but figured it was the type of place to disinfect the veggies. I figured wrong. I was smart enough to recommend that Z choose the salad with cooked veggies. It was great to have veggies again after so much meat and tortillas, so I got a bit over-excited in my ordering, I guess.

A safer source of veggies was the juices at Jugos Canada, just across the street from our hotel. We watched them squeeze the oranges and juice the carrots before they poured it into a glass. My favorite was the "Canada Especial" with papaya, guava, orange and carrot juice. C preferred the orange and carrot blend, and Z liked her "Antigripal" (flu-fighter) with lime and honey added to her pineapple, papaya and orange juices.

As a follow up to the churros and chocolate we had in Madrid a couple of years ago, we had fantastic churros with hot chocolate at Churreria el Moro, where they had two enormous vats of boiling oil into which they cranked the batter, spinning the tubes of dough into big wheels, then cutting them up to serve sprinkled with sugar or cinnamon sugar. They have 4 different kinds of hot chocolate and we tried 3 of them. I have to say the place in Madrid was better, even though this one has also been serving churros and chocolate for over 100 years.







Our best meal, though, was probably at the fancy"El Cardenal", where we ate an appetizer with avocado, queso fresco, and a fresh tomatillo salsa. I had chicken with a sauce made from "natas" (some kind of thick cream) and chiles. C had small beef steaks beautifully served over tortillas and beans and topped with a sauce made from a type of cactus fruit we'd never tried before. Z ordered the quesadillas with flor de maguey - cactus blossoms. We finished with a decadent "flan de queso" - a richly cheesy flan, that was made with something similar to ricotta cheese.

Happy 14th Birthday!

So, for a Halloween/Day of the Dead themed party, I made the darkest chocolate cake I could find and Clay decorated it with a stencil and powdered sugar. Pretty awesome looking!

Among other things, guests got to make their own Ultimate Caramel Apples. Which really turned into a bit of a disastrous mess, as you can see in exhibit #2. The girls had a lot of fun, and the apples were quite tasty, with all the topping options and the homemade caramel and all, but the caramel was a little too runny and slowly slid off the apples while they were supposed to be cooling. They looked great when we left them, but when we came back, all the toppings had drooped to the bottom.

We had a bonfire and a taco bar and they watched "Wait Until Dark", which they deemed the scariest movie they'd ever seen in their lives (old-fashioned suspense!). Overall it was a success, but we worked so hard on the whole affair that I've sworn to just order a pizza next year and let them hang out.

So here are the recipes:

Caramel for Apples

Chocolate Beet Cake

The first time I made the caramel (test run), it seemed like it was going to have big crystalline chunks of sugar because of the way it melted while I was stirring, so the second time I added a bit of water to help it dissolve, which is, I think, the reason it all dripped off the apples at the party. The first batch didn't do that. So just follow the recipe and don't try to second guess it. I just used salted butter, though, because that's what I had on hand. Don't do this with the frosting for the cake without reducing the salt, though, because it will be too salty. My favorite apple topping is currently sea salt and toasted pecans. Mmmmmmmm.

Pasta Georgina

I've been working lately on assembling a binder full of our favorite recipes - the ones that we eat and say to each other, "Why don't we eat this every week?" My hope is that if I have them indexed in one location that I'll remember them better when I'm doing my meal planning, but the problem is that there are so many of them. I also have a binder of recipes I want to try, and a third binder of recipes I like well enough to keep... The "Foods We Eat" project is taking much, much longer than I imagined it would.

I have the recipes organized by categories that I have listed in my four week menu plan. My menu plan has general headers for each day of the week, like Mexican on Thursdays or leftovers on Wednesdays, then within each I have slightly more specific ideas like for Italian I have pasta, pizza, and polenta. Then when I'm planning my menu for the week, if the idea is pasta, I choose a pasta recipe based on what sounds good and what produce is seasonal and what I happen to have on hand. I haven't much stuck to the days of the week thing - I tend to switch the days around based on what ingredients need to be used before they spoil and what our schedule is and how long the meals take. In general it has helped me a lot with my meal planning and has worked better than any other system I've tried because of its flexibility.

Z is in Hershey right now for a big cross-country meet. They got a hotel suite and cooked their dinner last night. Her coach recommended a dinner of pasta on Thursday, so we had Pasta Georgina - one of our last chances to have it this summer, as the season of fresh tomatoes and basil is coming to an end. I got this recipe from Kretschmanns, our CSA farmer and I can't find the recipe right now, so I'm going to write it from memory. Sorry no photos lately - our camera is getting repaired.

Pasta Georgina
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbs. minced fresh ginger (this is the surprise in the recipe)
4 large summer tomatoes, chopped (about 4-5 cups)
1/2 lb cubed mozzarella
1 bunch fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the garlic and ginger in olive oil until fragrant. Add the tomatoes and simmer until most of their liquid is gone (I've also added 2 cups chopped kale with the tomatoes, and it's good). When you're ready to serve the pasta, stir in the mozzarella and basil, add salt and pepper to taste, and toss it with about a pound of your favorite pasta, then serve. This is a recipe that is strong enough to work well with whole grain pasta.

Zucchini Carrot Muffins

In case your gardens are still producing zucchini (my squash vines have all succumbed to powdery mildew), I present for your consideration Zucchini Carrot Muffins.

These are yummy, relatively healthy, and freeze well. I usually freeze whatever we don't eat when they're fresh from the oven and throw them into Zoe's backpack for snack time. I used to send one of these with a yogurt for a lunch, but she eats a lot more than that now. The frozen ones are best reheated a bit in the toaster oven to get that crunchy top back. I also often freeze extra zucchini (shredded), in the amounts for my favorite recipes, and this is one of them.

I've adapted this recipe from one my sister sent me for Trail Ride Zucchini Muffins. I substituted carrot once when I was short on zucchini, and I like the flecks of color - I would do about 2 c. zucchini and 1/2 c. carrot. I also like the extra brightness the lemon peel gives them.

Zucchini Carrot Muffins
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 egg, beaten
1/3 c. oil
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. nonfat dry milk
2 1/2 c. zucchini and carrot, grated
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon extract
1/2 c. raisins (optional - I haven't used these yet)
1/2 c. chopped nuts
zest of 1 lemon (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Sift flours, soda, baking powder and cinnamon together in a bowl; set aside. Combine egg, oil, sugar, dry milk, zucchini/carrot, vanilla and lemon extract in another bowl; beat thoroughly. Stir flour mixture into egg mixture just until smooth. Stir in raisins and nuts. Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until done. Other whole grain flours are good.

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

I've been meaning to try this recipe for a couple of months. It's fantastic and pretty easy after all. It works with frozen raspberries and other berries or even rhubarb. It's tender and delicate, sweet and tart. Buttery, but not so rich you couldn't consider having it for breakfast. I gave the recipe to my daughter and her friend after they picked black raspberries. It was easy enough for them to make it and they devoured it all before I got a chance to try it. Her friend's family has made it multiple times since, and I finally got around to it this week and have regretted not trying it before. It takes about 15 minutes, plus cooking time. I really wish our raspberry bushes were still fruiting now, but I can still get them from the farmer's market, I think.

(from the June 2009 Gourmet)

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 stick butter, softened
2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 Tbs. sugar, divided
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries (about 5 oz)

Preheat oven to 400 with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-in round cake pan. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar at medium high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then beat in vanilla. Add egg and beat well.

At low speed, mix in the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.

Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 Tbs. sugar.

Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, about 24-30 min. Cool in pan 10 min, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10-15 min. more. Invert onto a plate.

Blackened Tilapia with Cilantro-Lime Slaw

I need something a little perky and fresh to help me through these cloudy days. This is a recipe I keep coming back to because it tastes great and it's pretty good for you, too. Although I might prefer the tilapia with black bean mango salsa, that one requires fresh tomatillos and mangos, which are hard to come by and keep on hand. I almost always have cabbage and a lime on hand, plus tilapia in the freezer, so it doesn't require extra shopping. I've found the cilantro is such a small amount that it's ok if I leave it out.

This slaw recipe is tangy and salty and it's kind of addicting. Even Clay, who generally dislikes coleslaw, really likes this one.

(adapted from Fine Cooking 96)

Blackened Tilapia with Cilantro-Lime Slaw

serves 2

1/2 small clove garlic
kosher salt
1 med. lime
3 Tbs. mayonnaise
about 2-3 cups cabbage or Savoy cabbage, thinly sliced (I use my mandoline)
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro leaves
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp ground cumin
two 5-oz tilapia fillets, cut in half lengthwise
1 Tbs. unsalted butter

Mince or finely grate the garlic, zest and juice the lime, mix with garlic and mayonnaise. Toss in the cabbage, scallions, cilantro. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

In a small bowl, mix the chili powder, cumin, 1/4 tsp salt, and several grinds of pepper. Sprinkle the spice rub all over the tilapia.

Melt the butter in a 10-inch cast-iron or nonstick skillet over med-high heat. Cook the tilapia on both sides until browned and cooked through, about 3 minutes total for the small pieces and 5 minutes for the large. Transfer to a plate. Toss the slaw and add more lime juice, salt, and pepper to taste. Serve the tilapia with the slaw.

I like to serve it with warmed corn tortillas.

Mexican Beans and Greens

I love this recipe. It's hearty, healthy, and just so yummy! This comes from Rick Bayless's "Everyday Mexican" and has become a regular staple in our home. I'm surprised that I haven't posted this one yet, because we have it more often than any other recipe I can think of. I brought it to a potluck last night and got more food compliments from men than I ever have.

In the past I've used the pork chorizo from Walmart (the only place I could regularly find it), which has a fine grind and is a little weirdly pasty, but has a good strong flavor once it's mixed into the beans. Last night I used some chorizo from Costco (which I snatched up when I saw they had it because it looked really good). It's more like the texture of italian sausage, and the flavors are a little less strong than the other brand, but it's quite lovely. I added a little smoked paprika to the pot to add another layer of flavor to make up for it being less strong. I've wanted to try it with soyrizo, but haven't found it lately.

Now, I use these amounts really as just general guidelines and I never measure anymore with this recipe. I use whatever greens I have around: bagged spinach in the winter, kale in the fall, chard and beet greens in the summer.

I usually use dried black beans that I cook myself, but have occasionally used canned beans as called for in the recipe. For the dried black beans, I love to use my pressure cooker: I just rinse them, put in about twice as much water as beans, add about a tablespoon of salt, a couple cloves of garlic, and a couple tablespoons of dried onion flakes, (occasionally some epazote or avocado leaf), pop on the lid, bring it to pressure for about 6 minutes, then turn off the heat and let them sit for a few hours. This is usually enough to cook them, which I figure saves a lot of gas over the slow stovetop method I used to use. If I'm in a hurry, I leave it at pressure for 20 and do a quick release, check to make sure they're done, and bring them back up to pressure if I need to cook them more. If you have a crockpot, it works to cook them on low all day, or if you're doing it on the stove you should probably soak them overnight first, then cook them for 2-3 hours on the stove. (A word about soaking: it's not necessary, but it does speed up the cooking time and usually helps the beans cook more evenly without bursting, so I'd recommend it for when you're doing bean salads - for this recipe it doesn't matter). I put the extra beans in 2-3 cup containers in the freezer so I can use them anytime like canned beans.

Mexican Beans and Greens

8 to 12 ounces fresh Mexican chorizo sausage, casing removed

10 ounces cleaned young spinach (about 10 cups) OR one 12-ounce bunch Swiss chard, thick lower stems cut off, leaves sliced crosswise into ½ inch strips (about 8 cups)

Two 15-ounce cans black beans, drained

1 to 2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped (1 is usually enough for us, so if you don't like things spicy, start with 1/2)

Salt

½ cup crumbled Mexican queso fresco or other fresh cheese such as feta or goat cheese

½ cup chopped green onions or thin-sliced red onion, for garnish

In a medium-large heavy pot (such as a Dutch oven), cook the chorizo over medium heat, stirring regularly and breaking up clumps, until lightly browned and thoroughly done, about 8 to 10 minutes.

While the chorizo is cooking, place the spinach or Swiss chard in a microwaveable bowl, cover with plastic wrap, poke a few holes in the top and microwave on high until completely wilted, usually about 2 minutes for spinach, 3 minutes or so for Swiss chard. Uncover the bowl and set aside. (Sometimes I cook the spinach right in the bag, and if I'm using kale, I add it as soon as I add the beans because it has to cook for a long time to get tender)

When the chorizo is ready, add the beans, chopped chipotles, and 1 ½ cups water. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes to blend the flavors. Taste and season with salt, usually about ½ teaspoon, depending on the saltiness of the chorizo and beans. Add the wilted greens and let the mixture return to a boil.

Ladle into bowls and serve, passing the cheese and onion for each person to add.

Sometimes I add less water or let it cook down more so that it's thicker, more of a taco filling than a soupy chili. We always eat it with warmed corn tortillas. Some fresh cilantro can be nice on top, too, if you have it.

Did I mention it freezes quite well with or without the greens?

Bagels

I've been wanting to try to make bagels for years now, and inspired by this post from Marzipan Mom, I decided to give it a go. The first round I didn't take pictures; they tasted great and had a good chew, but they were kind of flat and just didn't look right. This round I must have used a lot more flour and the pictures looked great, but the flavor didn't have as much depth and they just tasted kind of dry. I think next time around I would not add quite so much flour (I was really fighting to knead in the last bits - maybe I counted wrong), and I would try to allow the dough more time to develop some flavor. Although I was pleased to turn out such lovely bagels, it was enough work that we decided we just need to buy good bagels more often.

P.S. As a side note, I just posted photos for the morels, in case any of you were waiting with baited breath.

morels!

I'm not sure what's better about hunting morels - eating them or walking in the woods. Morels are nearly impossible to find commercially, but in the spring you can find these flavorful mushrooms in the damp woods (often near elm trees). They're easy to identify and are not easily confused with any toxic mushrooms, so they're a fairly safe bet for inexperienced mushroom hunters like ourselves.

C, whose friend took him morel hunting a couple of years ago, scouted out a good location, then took Z and her friend L one Saturday, then took me again the next week. We got to eat a batch of this simple morel pasta each time.

I tried to keep it simple so that the rich earthy flavor of the morels dominates the dish. The leeks and asparagus came from our garden. I just eyeballed everything, so the amounts here are just estimates. When I made it a couple of years ago, I didn't add any alcohol, and I didn't have as many morels, so I stretched them with regular mushrooms. There's really no substitute for morels, but this pasta would probably be good with other kinds of mushrooms, but you'd need to use more because their flavor is not as intense.






Morel Pasta

1 Tbs. butter
1/4-1/2 cup leeks, chopped
a handful of asparagus, trimmed and cut into bite-size pieces (optional)
1 clove garlic
1/4 c. dry vermouth, dry white wine, or sherry
1/2 lb. pasta, cooked
1 lb. fresh morels, cleaned and chopped
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt to taste

Start the pasta water boiling while you prepare the ingredients. About the same time that you throw in the pasta, start cooking the sauce. Saute leeks in 1 Tbs. butter. After a couple of minutes, stir in the asparagus. When those are almost done, add the garlic and cook another minute, then add the morels and cook until they release most of their juices. Add the vermouth and cook until the liquid has mostly evaporated, then stir in the cream, salt to taste, and stir it into the cooked pasta. Serve!




I've finally posted some of the photos, but it turns out I don't have shots of the hunt in the woods - those are on Z's friend's camera. Sorry!

Chicken Veracruzana

I'm surprised I haven't posted this recipe yet. It smells heavenly while it's cooking. It's fairly quick to assemble if you use skinless chicken thighs. This time I'm actually using the chicken quarters with skin on, and it took much longer to peel off the skin and cut off the extra fat. I would prefer to use the boneless skinless thighs again next time. I like to serve it with warmed corn tortillas and a side salad. We have the leftovers in tacos or on tostadas.

Chicken Veracruzana (from Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday)

1 lbs (4 medium) red-skin boiling or Yukon Gold potatoes, cut in wedges
6 (3 lbs. total) chicken leg and thigh quarters, skin pulled off
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes in juice (preferably fire roasted), drained
4-6 canned pickled jalapenos, stemmed, seeded and cut into strips
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped or pressed
2 Tbs. Worchestershire sauce
1/8 tsp. dried thyme
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
salt
1/4-1/2 cup coarsely chopped green olives
1/4 c. roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley

Spread the potatoes over the bottom of a slow-cooker and top with the chicken. In a medium bowl, mix together the tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic, Worcestershire, thyme, cloves, cinnamon and a scant 1 1/2 tsp. salt. Pour evenly over the chicken. Set the lid in place and slow-cook on high for 6 hours (the dish can hold on the warm setting for another 4 hours or so).

Carefully transfer a portion of chicken and potatoes to each of six dinner plates, leaving as much sauce behind as possible. Mix the olives and parsley into the sauce, then taste and season with more salt if needed and spoon the sauce over the chicken.

Thai Tilapia and Banana Curry

It's been almost 2 months since I posted - what's up with that? Boring meals, spring break, and fighting to get past the sluggishness and depression of late winter, I guess. Finally a couple of warm, rain-free days and I'm feeling much more ambitious. Though this recipe doesn't require ambition, just posting about it does. I did try making bagels and mozzarella from scratch (ambitious!), neither of which turned out right, but which I will probably try again. The bagels were tasty but misshapen and flat, and the mozzarella never got stretchy like it's supposed to. I have something more like paneer in the fridge, which I'll probably use for Indian food this week.

Here it is, though, the recipe you've all been waiting for: it's quick and absolutely fabulously delicious! The original recipe from Fine Cooking calls for halibut, but I used tilapia, which worked just fine. I also would add an extra banana next time and take their advice to only lightly pack the cilantro (I was a little too generous with that).

Thai Tilapia and Banana Curry

1 cup well-shaken canned coconut milk (not light)
1 Tbs. Thai red curry paste
12 oz. tilapia fillets, about 1-1/2 inches thick, cut into 2 pieces
Kosher salt
1 medium lime, zest finely grated, then halved
3 medium scallions, thinly sliced (white and green parts kept separate)
1 very large underripe or barely ripe banana (or 2 small), halved lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 1/2-inch half-moons
2 Tbs. chopped salted roasted peanuts
1/2 cup lightly packed chopped fresh cilantro

---

In a 10-inch straight-sided sauté pan, whisk the coconut milk and curry paste until smooth.

Sprinkle the fish with 1/2 tsp. salt; then sprinkle with the lime zest. Squeeze a lime half over the fish.

Bring the coconut-curry mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat and then arrange the fillets in the pan. Add the white parts of the scallions, cover the pan, and simmer, adjusting the heat as necessary, for 2 minutes. Add the bananas and half of the peanuts to the sauce. Sprinkle half of the cilantro over the top. Cover the pan and continue to simmer until the fish flakes easily but is slightly translucent rather than fully opaque at the very center (check with a paring knife), 2 to 4 minutes. Squeeze the remaining lime half over the fish. Top with the scallion greens and the remaining peanuts and cilantro, and serve.

Serving Suggestions

Serve with Steamed Jasmine Rice and Gingery Sautéed Carrots.

nutrition information (per serving):
Calories (kcal): 550; Fat (g): 33; Fat Calories (kcal): 300; Saturated Fat (g): 23; Protein (g): 42; Monounsaturated Fat (g): 4.5; Carbohydrates (g): 28; Polyunsaturated Fat (g): 3; Sodium (mg): 520; Cholesterol (mg): 55; Fiber (g): 5;

photo: Scott Phillips

From Fine Cooking 109, pp. 68

December 30, 2010

Eating down the fridge

I'm going to list some of what we ate this week because sometimes I think it's helpful just to get ideas of what to eat.

I read about this idea of "eating down the fridge" somewhere last year, and though I'd never thought to call it that, it was something I'd tried to do occasionally. The idea is that you don't shop for a week or however long it takes to eat what's in your fridge. Now, I've already confessed that I'm obsessed with food. A part of that obsession is some food hoarding tendencies. So if I combine what I have in the fridge with what I have in the pantry and the freezer, we could theoretically do this for a long time. My current goal is to try to eat most of what we have in the freezers, at least to the point where I'm more aware of what's in them. I've tried keeping lists, but never seem to manage keeping them updated.

This coincides with another current goal of mine, which is to strictly stick to the current iteration of our budget. I'm really good at making budgets, and not so good at following them. Luckily we sometimes have little injections of extra cash in the form of painting (and now pottery) sales that cover the overspending.

Here's our menu from last week:
Sun: Golden Cheddar Cheese soup, Irish soda bread. I should post the recipe for that soup - it was really good (potatoes, carrots, onions, butternut, pureed with boullion, buttermilk and cheese). I prefer biscuits to the soda bread.

Mon: shrimp and scallop linguini, green salad with nectarines, almonds, cranberries, orange segments and goat cheese, pear tart from Whole Foods (Valentine's Day was an exception)

Tues: burritos. Refried beans and corn from the freezer. Whole wheat tortillas, cheese, cabbage, salsa were in the fridge. Tomatoes and avocado purchased for this purpose.

Wed: leftover seafood pasta

Thurs: shredded pork tacos (shredded pork barbacoa from the freezer)

Fri: Ate out with a Living Social Coupon at Tana Ethiopian. It was good, but for the money, I'd rather have Udipi or Green Mango. If you do go there, we all agreed the spicy lentils were the best dish we had. Then we went to see the animated shorts at Regent Square theater (I had a couple of free passes from PCA)

Sat: lunch: Use-it-up/make-it-up pasta (I had some leftover cooked linguini in the fridge that I mixed with sauteed onions, carrots, and celery and other assorted odds and ends in the refrigerator: black olives, calamata olives, a bit of goat cheese, chopped sun-dried tomatoes. Dinner: vegetarian chili from the freezer and homemade cornbread (used powdered buttermilk, since I didn't have fresh)

Sun: Southwest style hamburgers (ground beef and buns from the freezer, topped with chipotle mayo, canned green chiles, avocado, tomato, lettuce and cheddar), oven fries and sweet potato fries, and roasted turnips (I got them from the farmer and have been postponing using them, but they weren't bad this way).

On the possible list for next week:
*pozole (freezer)
*mediterranean lentil salad
*black beans and rice with a little appetizer of shrimp and avocado ceviche to use some of the *shrimp in the freezer from Valentine's day)
*fresh green pea soup with homemade bread
*shrimp pad thai
*leftovers
*chinese stir-fry if there are enough vegetables left in the crisper, with dumplings (freezer) from TJ's
*maybe cheesy hashbrowns with ham (freezer)
*breakfast for dinner
*frittata with the leftover potatoes from the oven fries

I'll just need to buy some cilantro, but I think I have everything else. I will need more bananas and milk for breakfasts. Creepy, huh? And I think I can do a 3rd week, too. TMI?

Pumpernickel with Olive and Walnut Spread Tea Sandwiches

I think it was a need to do something other than sit at the computer working on taxes and financial aid applications and look out at the grey skies and snowy landscape that led me to issue an open invitation to my bookgroup buddies and their daughters to come have a girly tea party. We ended up with 22 of us, and with everyone's contributions, we had a pretty impressive spread of assorted tea sandwiches, scones, mini muffins, cupcakes, fresh fruit and other goodies. We had a decent showing of tiaras and fancy dresses, too. And, really, I had a lot more fun than it looks like from this photo. It was a good party, and the sun even came out briefly! Thanks, everyone, for coming and cheering me up!

I made my favorite celebratory sandwiches from the original Moosewood Cookbook.

Here's my easy version:

3/4 cup walnuts
1/2 cup black olives
8 oz. cream cheese
1 scallion stem, chopped
1 red bell pepper
mesclun greens or spinach leaves, washed
cucumber (optional)
1 loaf pumpernickel bread

Toast the walnuts in the microwave for 3 minutes. Pulse to chop in the food processor. Remove to bowl. Pulse black olives to lightly chop. Add the cream cheese and chopped scallion and walnuts and pulse until blended but not too pureed. Spread on pumpernickel, top with red bell pepper (I diced it first, but slices work fine), greens and optional cucumber. Cut as desired. (I cut off the crusts and cut them in triangles).

Five-Spice Salmon and Sesame Green Beans

I thought I had about the best honey/lime/soy glazed salmon recipe ever, but this new recipe made all of us question that. It's a healthy meal served with brown rice, and really, when you find your family picking at the bits of crusty salmon left on the serving plate and rubbing their green beans against the salmon skin hoping to get a bit more sauce on them (that kind of grossed me out a little), you know it's good. This one is from Fine Cooking, issue 107.

This is fast and easy, and it's great that you do it all in one pan. Don't make the mistake I did and forget to start the rice until after you put the salmon in the oven, or you'll end up eating all the salmon and having none left to eat with your plain brown rice. Start the rice first. And if you happen to substitute frozen green beans, thaw them first or start them before the salmon. Another note is that I found the salmon needed more time to cook through, and using the broiling method meant that the top was over-done before the fish was opaque. I might switch to a high oven temp to finish it next time. Oh - and I'd make a little extra sauce to set aside and drizzle over it after it's cooked to avoid that whole practically licking the salmon skin thing.

Five-Spice Glazed Salmon and Sesame Green Beans

1/4 cup honey
4 tsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce
1-1/2 tsp. five-spice powder
2 large cloves garlic, minced
Four 6-oz. skin-on salmon fillets (preferably wild), pin bones and scales removed
Nonstick cooking spray
1 lb. slender green beans, trimmed
2 tsp. canola oil
1 tsp. Asian sesame oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbs. toasted sesame seeds
1 tsp. lemon juice

---

In a small bowl, whisk the honey, soy sauce, five-spice powder, and garlic. Put the salmon skin side down on a large plate and pour the honey mixture over it. Flip the fillets so they are skin side up. Let the fish marinate for 15 minutes at room temperature.

Position a rack 6 inches from the broiler and heat the broiler on high. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil and coat with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, toss the green beans with the canola and sesame oils. Arrange the beans on one half of the prepared baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the salmon skin side down on the other half of the baking sheet. Brush the salmon with any remaining marinade from the plate.

Broil the salmon and green beans for 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, toss the green beans with tongs, and reposition the salmon pieces as needed so that they cook evenly. Continue to broil until the salmon is just cooked through and the beans are crisp-tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Toss the green beans with the sesame seeds and lemon juice and serve.