Category: On ingredients

As a general rule in restaurants, I don’t want a chef cooking my food who looks like a marathon runner. Like Shakespeare’s Caesar, “Let me have [chefs] about me that are fat, sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights.” I want people who love to eat, who have a hard time saying no to something good, and whose bodies bare the imprint of a rich, varied and luscious diet.

With that said, I must confess that I’ve spent a lifetime on diets of one form or another. This is because everyone in my family succumbs, eventually, to circulatory and heart problems. So, at one time or another I have given up or restricted virtually every type of food – meats, cheeses, eggs, chocolate, sweets, dairy products, salt, sugar, bread, pasta. I have fasted for, I think, up to three days (trivial to serious fasters, but tough for me). And, please understand, none of this has been easy. I am not someone for whom food is fuel. Food is keen pleasure. 

At this time of my life, I’m sorry to say, I eat nothing white (a concession to an overworked pancreas). That is as restrictive as it sounds if you think about it, and  particularly if you add sweets to the list – these, even if not white, act like it, according to my medical advisors. If you add to that a personal and intense aversion to fast food of any kind, to processed food, to factory food, you can see some real limitations here.

For the most part, though, I live with it just fine. The reason is that I know how to cook and if you know how to cook, you have a world of interesting things to choose from, even if none of them can be white or sweet. There are meats, crustaceans and fish, poultry, eggs, butter, vegetables, beans, nuts, herbs, olive oil, cheeses, fruit and all the lovely things one can do to prepare them. And, there’s foix gras (not a nice food but absolutely wonderful) and sausage and barbeque, also not nice but definitely on my list.

The diet works for me, but I would be hesitant to recommend it, nor do I think, like reformed smokers, that everyone absolutely must eat like I do. I love what I don’t eat and I cook it very well. So sweet desserts and all good things made with sugar, flour, eggs and butter – pies, cobbler, cakes, candies, mousse, fudge, ice cream, egg custard, creme brulee. Roasted potatoes, French fries, mashed potatoes, homemade potato chips. Crepes and waffles with maple syrup.  Lasagna and all forms of pasta dishes. Pizza. Foccacia bread. Sandwiches. Burgers. Bread pudding with bourbon sauce. And on, and on.

As a dieter, I can also cook for other dieters. It comes easy.

And another consolation is that when I get the chance to cook verboten things, I do have to taste them. Sometimes more than once. After all, your food has to be perfect.

When I was an inexperienced cook experimenting with different recipes and culinary traditions, I was often amazed to learn what could be done with one or two ingredients. A sack of tomatoes becomes marinara. An egg and oil becomes mayonnaise. Water and corn meal morph into polenta. And a small piece of cheap beef and four or five onions becomes a dark, rich oriental meal for four.

I made this Chinese dish recently and was again rewarded and delighted by what a little technique can do to humble ingredients.

The cheap beef would be tough and unappetizing cooked whole. Certainly nothing you would grill for your friends. But, chill it till almost frozen, slice it paper thin against the grain and cut the slices into tiny julienned sticks. Then toss these with an egg white, coat with corn starch and a little salt, heat oil in a wok and deep fry briefly. Remove and drain. That takes care of the meat.

For the onions, you slice them in half and stand each half on end. Then you slice these to get thin, julienne-ish pieces. Cook a wok-full of these onions slowly with a little oil for twenty minutes or so, stirring as you go. The onions get soft, then they start to brown and soon they caramelize and become sweet and soft.

Then you stir in the cooked beef, a little sugar, a little soy sauce, taste, adjust the seasoning, smile and serve it forth.

No one who tastes it would believe it’s humble origins, how little it costs and how simple it is to make.

It’s one more demonstration that some of the most interesting dishes in Chinese, French, Italian, Cajun, Southern American and other great traditions were created by inventive cooks who were scared of starving to death. Far from the kitchens of the rich, they originate in scarcity and necessity. And, we who wallow in an overabundance of everything, inherit the result of their genius. I am grateful.

“What’s that?” she says, spinning the drum with pictures of vegetables next to the register.

“It’s eggplant.”

“Oh. What’s eggplant? I’ve never had any. What does it taste like?”

Repeat this conversation with, roughly, half Huntsville’s grocery check-out clerks and it starts to be a theme. And not just eggplant, but shallots, zucchini, leeks, any peppers other than bells or jalapeno, mango, kiwi. There’s a list, and it’s not short. One clerk, somewhat overweight, doesn’t eat any vegetables. None. “How about macaroni and cheese?” she asked a friend as I listened. Is that a vegetable?” No, particularly if you’re mixing an orange powder from a box on top of some noodles.

I guess it could be worse. The British chef Jamie Oliver is finding out that West Virginia children and their parents know very little about what it is that they’re eating. In a recent televised interview, he held out some tomatoes on a vine to some ten-year-olds, asking them, “What’s this?” They had no idea. Never seen such.

It’s the result of sixty years or more of factory food, mixes, frozen entrees and the like, I suppose. Kraft and General Mills, fast-food giants like MacDonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King, packaged-food purveyors like Sysco, factory farm monster companies like Archer Daniels Midland, all have virtually total control over food production and the food messages people get. And the message is all about fast, easy, pre-packaged and never mind the chemicals.

So what can you do?

Just keep pushing fresh, handmade, non-pre-fabricated, non-manufactured food. Nothing from mixes. Nothing, if at all possible, that isn’t fresh. We constantly suggest vegetable-heavy recipes and combinations for our parties and events.

And we’ll be happy to introduce anyone who’ll try it to eggplant. We’ll prepare it sliced, sauteed with herbs in olive oil, and stacked with marinara, pesto and cheeses. Or we’ll use slices of eggplant as a substitute for pasta in lasagna. Or stuff it with shrimp and it’s own pureed insides. Or whip up some with cilantro and scallions. Or, with the long, skinny Japanese variety, grill some with a little oil and herbs and eat it with goat cheese. Or, in the heat of mid-summer, put some in ratatouille. I could go on.

Do your part for the food education. Eat an eggplant today. Give some to your friends. Try a little adventure in good eating.

Though not much a fan of helpful hints for cooks in the Heloise style, I think this one is worthy of your consideration: keep a container of carefully-selected, chopped vegetables in your refrigerator

Just as mirepoix – a mixture of onion, celery and carrots – is the starting point for countless stocks, sauces and stews in French cooking; and the “trinity” (onion, celery and green bell peppers) is the foundation for Cajun gumbos, jambalayas and other dishes, so a carefully chosen vegetable mix can make your life in the kitchen easier and your food more interesting.

There are plenty of good choices. For example, the rough preparation you see in the picture is about half a large white onion, two small carrots, a half a large yellow bell pepper, half a small zucchini and a bunch of green onions. All are roughly chopped.

Onions predominate because they are foundational. I have a friend, an excellent cook, who when asked what’s for dinner, says, “Oh, I don’t know. Go chop me a couple of onions and I’ll think about it.”

So what can you do with your bag of chopped vegetables?

Sauté a handful in olive oil with a dash of thyme, pepper and salt. Whip one egg with a tablespoon of cream, pour into hot olive oil or butter, swirl. Add sauté and a bit of cheese. Instant breakfast.

Or, put half a handful in a pot over very hot oil, add a bit of rub (I make my own, but store-bought work fine), stir until onions start to soften but not blacken, add a cup of rice (sushi-grade is wonderful, but use what you’ve got) and stir to cover with oil. Pour in a 1 1/2 cup of stock (or water), bring to a boil and then simmer covered until done.

Or, sauté the entire bag in olive oil until softened. Add chopped tomatoes, or in winter, a large can of whole tomatoes ( l like to pour in the juice and then hand squeeze the tomatoes to crush them). Season with thyme and kosher salt (no iodine taste) and freshly-ground pepper. Use as a topping for pasta, as the core of a lasagna, or put it on top of a piece of broiled or fried fish.

Make your life a little better – and healthier. Chop up a few vegetables and keep them around.