Week 4: No Misery Here (Salade Lyonnaise or Salad with Bacon and Poached Eggs)

This week a couple of things are going on. First The Geek is heading out of town for several days to attend the Microsoft MVP Summit in Redmond, WA. The other is that the DVD of the Les Misérable 25th Anniversary Concert arrived in the mail. This just happens to be one of The Geek's all-time favorite musicals (and mine too). I decided to take a break from healthy eating and make a fantastic French meal to share with him before he went out of town as we watched the concert.

What do they say about best-laid plans? French cooking is a very time-consuming process and the day got away from me. Having to work this morning meant no time to carmelize the onions for French Onion Soup (a three-hour process). Parent-Teacher conferences after lunch took Coq au Vin off the menu. And running errands in the afternoon meant no Créme Brulée for dessert. By the time 5 p.m. rolled around, I was down to Garlicky pasta (Yes, I know it's not French but I told The Geek that it was from the Mexican part of France and I think he bought it!) and Salade Lyonnaise, a fabulous salad made with warm bacon dressing and poached eggs. Dessert was an apple pie from the grocery store bakery.

The idea for the salad came from one of my newest cookbook acquisitions, The Best International Recipe by America's Test Kitchen. You see, you cannot go to just any website when it comes to French cooking because most dishes involve many complicated and temperamental steps. Screw up just one thing and the whole meal is potentially ruined. And since I don't own any books by Julia Child, I knew ATK was my next best bet.

Lyon, the region of France from which this salad hails, is thought by many to be the home of the world's BEST French food. And I have to agree: Every meal I enjoyed while visiting there several years ago was fantastic. This salad was no exception. I could not find the recipe online and so I am posting it below.

The salad comes together very quickly. My local grocery store did not carry frisée and so I bought a packaged mix of European and spring lettuce. First make some croutons. Then you fry up the bacon, fry the shallots in the bacon fat, add oil and mustard and a little olive oil, and then toss with the lettuce. Poach an egg or two and you're done.

The Results
The pasta and the salad complemented each other nicely. The Geek raved about the yummy garlic in the pasta and the bacony-eggy salad. I thought the runny egg yolk gave the salad a creamy richness that was absolutely decadent.

Ratings

• Difficulty: Medium difficulty due to the fact that poaching eggs takes a little practice
• Time to prepare:  The salad came together in ten minutes
• Prognosis: Will definitely be making this again!

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Salad with Bacon and Poached Egg
From The Best International Recipe by America's Test Kitchen
Serves 6

CROUTONS
4 sl high quality white sandwich bread, cut into ½ inch cubes
1 Tbsp Olive oil
Salt and ground black pepper

SALAD
6 oz frisée
3 oz dandelion greens
3 oz maché
4 ½ oz thick cut bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces
1 medium shallot, minced
1/3 c red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/3 c olive oil

EGGS
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp distilled white vinegar
6 large eggs

For the CROUTONS: Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the bread cubes with the olive oil, ½ tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper and spread out over a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until the croutons are golden brown and crisp, 8 – 10 minutes. Set aside.

For the SALAD: Toss the lettuces together in a large bowl; set aside. Cook the bacon in an 8-inch skillet over med-hi heat until golden brown and crisp, but still chewy, 4 – 6 min. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate, leaving the rendered fat in the skillet. Add the shallot to the fat in the skillet and cook over med heat until softened, 2 – 4 min. Stir in the vinegar and mustard, scraping up any browned bits and cook until slightly thickened, about 2 min. Off the heat, stir in the oil and set aside.

For the EGGS: Fill a 12-inch nonstick skillet nearly to the rim with water. Add 1 tsp salt and the vinegar to the water and bring to a boil over high heat. Crack 2 eggs each into 3 small tea cups with handles. When the water boils, turn off the heat and immediately lower the lips of the cups into the water at once and tip the ggs into the water. Cover and poach the eggs off the heat until the whites are cooked, but the yolks are still runny in the center, about 5 minutes.

To assemble the SALAD: While the eggs poach, drizzle the vinaigrette over the greens and toss thoroughly to coat. Divide the greens among 6 individual serving plates and sprinkle the bacon and croutons evenly over the top. Using a slotted spoon, quickly and carefully transfer the eggs, 1 at a time, to a large clean plate, pausing briefly to let the water drain back into the skillet. Once all the eggs have been transferred, use your fingers to gently slide 1 egg onto the top of each salad. Serve immediately.

Week 4: No Vampires Here (Garlicky Pasta with Seared Shrimp, Chipotle and Queso Anejo)

I have a friend, a true Latina Mommy, who makes the most fantastic enchiladas complete with her own roasted pepper sauce. When I saw how much work went into making those enchiladas, and pretty much most Mexican meals that are made from scratch, I thought I'd never get into it. Why roast my own peppers when I can buy a perfectly acceptable can of enchilada sauce at the grocery store?

And then I discovered Rick Bayless. Bayless is the founder, owner, and chief chef at the Frontera and Topolobampo restaurants in Chicago and hosts a PBS cooking show, "Mexico: One Plate at a Time." He has also authored several cookbooks on Mexican cooking. In most of his shows, he begins with a basic Mexican dish like tacos or quesadillas, and then steps it up a notch. Everything I have ever made from his site has turned out absolutely superb. And in the process, I have discovered that Mexican cuisine is so much more than tacos and quesadillas.

Last week, during a show titled "Liquid Gold," Bayless demonstrated a recipe for garlic that is slow roasted in olive oil with some lime juice stirred in, and then used in a variety of recipes including pasta, as a flavoring for popcorn, and fish. I LOVE GARLIC and finally made the Mojo de Ajo yesterday.

The garlic was not in the oven long before it filled the house with the most delicious, luxurious scent. And as soon as I smelled it, I began plotting how I would use it.

For my first attempt at cooking with this luscious concoction, I decided to try Bayless' Garlicky Pasta with Seared Shrimp, Chipotle and Queso Anejo, all things I happened to have in my pantry. With the mojo de ajo and chipotle peppers as the base, how could you possibly go wrong?

It turns out, you can't.

This quick dish was super easy and the results were fantastic, so incredibly flavorful. First you fry the shrimp in a little bit of the oil from the garlic. A minute is about all it takes.

Then you add some of the garlic pieces and oil and a chipotle pepper (or two, if you like it hot) to the fry pan and warm that up.





Finally toss in the cooked pasta just until combined, sprinkle on some cheese and chopped cilantro, and you are ready to eat.

Busy Mom Modifications and Tips
The only suggestion I have is to double the recipe for mojo de ajo because once you've tried it, you'll want to use it in everything. It's that good!

The Results
I made this for lunch for myself but am looking forward to sharing it with the special people in my life. I loved this lunch and I suspect they will too!

Ratings

• Difficulty: Easy
  
• Time to prepare: The mojo de ajo takes about two hours but once it is made, it keeps for up to three months in the refrigerator
  
• Prognosis: This is a new staple in my pantry!
  

My Shopping List Nothing - I made do with what I had on hand.

Week 3: Momo What? (Steamed Pork Buns à la David Chang)

Recently someone gave me a very generous gift card to Amazon and I waited several days to use it, savoring the thought of the spending spree upon which I was about to embark. Finally I couldn't stand it any longer and made my first purchase last week, Momofuku, the cookbook/restaurant autobiography by David Chang, founder of the restaurants of the same name in New York.

This is one of those books that got great reviews on Amazon but had I seen it in a bookstore and been able to inspect it a little more closely, I would not have bought it. The first problem is that most of the recipes are made with pork or lard. I don't have a problem with pork but I grew up in a family that eschewed pork products for religious reasons and to this day, I rarely choose to eat it if there are other options available and I never cook it at home. Another problem is that these are recipes as Chang makes them in his kitchens - they are large quantities and use techniques that people don't normally use at home. I rarely return things when I buy them on Amazon so I resigned myself to trying at least a few of the recipes, adapting them as needed.

A recipe that immediately caught my eye was Steamed Pork Buns. My mother makes steamed buns (which I blogged about here) that are wonderfully delicious and I have been wanting to try my own version but never found quite the right recipe. I decided to give Chang's buns a try. You can find a recipe (also from Chang) very similar to the one in the cookbook on epicurious.com.

Note: This is a "make-ahead" meal that keeps in well in the freezer. You should plan on spending a day making the pork and several hours making the buns.

The pork requires 12 - 24 hours to cure and another 5 - 6 hours to slow-roast. I chose to use the americastestkitchen.com recipe instead of the Momofuku method simply because I had never made pork before and I always have good results with America's Test Kitchen. This was no exception. I used brown sugar (ATK) instead of white (Chang's recipe) and we roasted the meat at 325F the entire time (instead of starting at 500F and then turning the heat down to 250F per Chang's method). The pork turned out superb. Tender and flavorful.

The bun recipe on Epicurious.com makes 16 but the recipe in the book makes 50 tiny rolls. At the restaurant, these buns are served as an appetizer and so they are intentionally small. Next time I will double the dough ball size because they were just too small to be satisfying as a meal. The buns were delicious but I'm not sure I will make them again. They required THREE separate risings, which means it takes almost three hours from start to finish. I am now on the hunt for an easier, less time-consuming but just as delicious replacement recipe.

These are yeast buns that are steamed rather than baked. I bought a bamboo steamer last year when it went on sale but had never used it. I LOVED IT! The two stacking baskets enabled me to steam 10 buns at a time and the results were perfect. I read somewhere that the bamboo prevents the steam/water from collecting and dripping onto your buns resulting in wrinkled skin. There may be some truth to that because my buns on both levels were perfectly smooth and delicious.

The Momofuku recipe calls for the buns to be served with Chang's Quick-pickled cucumbers and thinly-sliced green onions. I had neither so I made a green salad with slivered red cabbage and onions. The addition of bottled Hoisin sauce rounded out the dish.

The Results
This is a recipe where the sum is greater than the parts. Each individual ingredient was good but when we put them all together with the hoisin sauce, the pork buns were OUTSTANDING! The Geek declared this the best pork he had ever eaten.

Ratings

• Difficulty: The pork is easy, the buns are challenging if you have never made bread before.
• Time to prepare: Two days (several hours each day, although a lot of it is waiting around time)
• Prognosis: Will definitely make the pork again for The Geek using this method. And I'll make the buns again once I find a better recipe.

Week 3: Ceviche

Today The Geek and I are experimenting with slow roasted and smoked meat, the results of which I will report on another day. But the slow part is going a lot slower than we had expected and lunchtime has rolled around and there is nothing to eat in the house, which is not unusual de la casa De Geek.

As I've mentioned before, The Geek does not keep a lot of food in his kitchen. While I am happy to run to the grocery store, I do not want to make something that is going to require a lot of ingredients that he does not have and result in adding to his mostly empty pantry.

Fortunately, one of our favorite dishes is ceviche, a South American dish that is sort of like salsa but includes raw seafood that is marinated in citrus juice until it is "cooked," a process that takes several hours. I have made ceviche this way, using chunks of fresh (never frozen) white fish (like cod), and it's best to let it marinate overnight to ensure full penetration. But who has time to let food sit around that long?!!!

My trick for making a quick ceviche is to use already-boiled shrimp that I buy from the seafood counter.

Here's how I make it (makes 4 - 5 cups):

• Fresh Juice from 6 limes
• 3 Roma tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1/2 a cucumber, peeled and diced
• 1 lb cooked shrimp, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
• Salt to taste

Combine everything in a bowl and let it sit for a few minutes to let the flavors combine. Serve with chips.

By the way, if you want to make the traditional ceviche, simply add a 1/2 pound of chunks of a mild white fish, fresh and raw, and let marinate for 4 - 12 hours (depending on the thickness of the chunks). Also very yummy!

The Results

DEEELISH! So light and fresh and no worries about eating raw seafood. We have this a couple of times a month.

Ratings

Difficulty: Easy
Time to prepare: 20 minutes
Prognosis: A favorite that we make over and over

Week 2: An O'Hare-Inspired Niçoise Salad

I have spent a fair amount of time in airports and eaten my fair share of awful airport food. Unrecognizable "Chinese" (CLE). Dried out, bland Tex-Mex (LAX). Greasy fried chicken (ATL). Stale, soggy cheese sandwiches (CDG and LHR). Overpriced fast food (EVERYWHERE!!). But I've also eaten some really good meals, like yummy seafood (MHT), passable udon not to mention sourdough bread (SFO), and surprisingly good beef curry (NRT) - although this is not something I recommend eating just before strapping yourself into a a metal box for 12 hours with 200 other people.

One of my airport favorites is Saladworks in Terminal 1 at O'Hare Airport in Chicago (ORD). I realize they are a chain and I'm sure you're thinking that there can't be anything all that special about a salad bar chain restaurant in an airport. But when you've been sitting in a cramped plane for hours eating nothing but pretzels and drinking soda, a counter laden with fresh veggies and a variety of other salad options, not to mention a fantastic balsamic vinaigrette, is a welcome sight.

I always get their Niçoise Salad - iceberg lettuce, black olives, canned tuna, tomatoes, chopped egg. I'm sure the people of Niçe would be utterly dismayed at how Saladworks has compromised their namesake, but again, it is less about the quality of the food and more about the circumstances.

I haven't been on an airplane in over a year and am feeling nostalgic for the days when I used to travel at least once a month. For lunch today I decided to make a Niçoise Salad as a way to placate my wanderlust. I went online to find out what is traditionally in this salad and came across such interesting components as green beans, anchovies and boiled fingerling potatoes. In the end, I settled on the following:

• A mixture of iceberg and red leaf lettuce
• Slivered red onions
• Chopped, hard boiled egg
• Tuna (Packed in water, in a pouch instead of a can)
• Lightly steamed green beans
• Chopped tomatoes
• Kalamata olives
• Hass Avocado
• A few Anchovy fillets, packed in oil
• A generous sprinkling of freshly cracked black pepper
• A dressing made from a 3:1 ratio of olive oil and lime juice

The Results

The salad was light yet filling; perfect as a light lunch. The Geek declared it to be  the perfect combination of flavors.

Ratings

• Difficulty: Easy
• Time to prepare:  20 minutes to chop everything and steam the green beans
• Prognosis:  Will definitely be making this again and again!

Week 2: A Vegan Choice (Vegetable Udon and Stir-fried Spinach)

I am an unabashed carnivore, a fact I've mentioned in previous postings. I can't imagine being a vegetarian because, even though I can easily go weeks without eating any meat, I like having the option of eating a steak (or chicken or seafood) if it's available. And a completely vegan lifestyle (no animal products of any kind) is not in even the remotest realm of possibilities for me.

I am also an unabashed Oprah fan and have watched her show religiously for years. Over the past few seasons she has done several shows about food trends and the food industry. She introduced me to Michael Pollan, a journalist and author who advocates eating real food (check out his hilarious recent turn on NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me to learn more), and Kathy Freston, an author who promotes veganism.

Little by little, these shows have been impacting my food-shopping and eating behaviors. Some of the changes I have made over the past year include seeking out farmers' markets and buying locally-grown produce. I switched to organic milk and now buy eggs from cage-free, vegetarian-fed chickens. I stopped buying many of the pre-packaged and convenience food items that used to line my shelves, opting to cook from scratch as much as possible. And I read labels now, choosing foods without chemical additives whenever possible, even if they cost a little more.

Recently both Pollan and Freston were on Oprah, talking about changing the way we eat. The approach they both recommend is that we begin by becoming aware of what we are eating, where it comes from, how it is grown, handled, and manufactured. Then "lean into change," meaning we adopt healthier eating habits a little bit at a time. I decided to try eating one vegan meal a day this week. This is much less of a sacrifice than it sounds since I eat a lot of Korean food prepared by my vegetarian mother. I also eat a lot of food from other countries (Mexican, Japanese, Italian, etc) that either are normally not made with animal products or can be tweaked to leave them out and still produce delicious results.

There are just a couple of problems with cooking vegan, namely my son and The Geek. If I'm an unabashed carnivore, then they are both AVOWED meat-eaters. When I told my son about this idea he asked (and quite mournfully, I might add), "What will I eat my cereal with? What will I put in my sandwiches?" The Geek, who is much more pragmatic about these things, joked "It's been nice knowing ya!"

So the challenge is to create vegan meals in which avowed carnivores won't miss the meat. Hmmmm...

The Solution is Savory
I received a pasta maker for Christmas and I was eager to try it out so I decided that my first vegan meal would be homemade udon. I've blogged about this dish before so I won't go into too much detail. I used the Memmi soup base again but, since I was eating with The Geek, I added mushrooms to add depth of flavor (referred to as umami) that you would get from a meat-based stock.

I also stir-fried some spinach with carmelized onions and bacon salt (a completely vegan seasoning).

Busy Mom Modifications and Tips

• I used Andrea Nguyen's udon recipe. It is super easy to do if you have a food processor.
• To minimize the mess, I knead my dough in a large glass bowl instead of on a floured surface.
• I made the udon over two days. I mixed and kneaded the dough the first day and then rolled and cut the noodles using the pasta maker the second day. When done this way, it is certainly do-able for a weeknight meal.
• Even though I refer to these noodles as udon, technically they are not. Unfortunately the pasta maker made the noodles too flat to be udon, which is typically thick and round. I'm not familiar with all the different types of Asian noodles and their proper names but in Korean we call this kind of noodle kalgoogsoo. In the future I will use the pasta maker to roll the dough to the desired thickness but then cut and pull the noodles by hand to achieve the udon shape and texture.
• I think a soup base made just with Memmi broth tastes just fine but it definitely benefits from the addition of vegetables such as mushrooms, onions, and root vegetables such as carrots and potatoes.

The Results
The Geek LOVED the meal and was quite content when we were done eating. He said that he did not miss the meat at all due to the fact that the meal was so savory.

Ratings

• Difficulty: Easy
• Time to prepare: 20 minutes to make the dough, 30 minutes to cut (using the pasta maker) and cook
• Prognosis: Will definitely make both these dishes again