Food/Nutrition

My youngest child, Roy, is going through a growth spurt. Based on what my mom says, it will last at least eighteen years. He was ravenous at lunch today, literally inhaling everything I put on his plate. This included the snow peas from our garden. On a warm summer day, or any day for that matter, they’re a delicious snack. Crisp, sweet and juicy. These aren’t the dry, limp ones you sometimes find at the grocery store. We literally picked these off the vine a few hours ago.

To make it educational and fun, I held a pod up to the light so he could see the peas inside. And of course, he counted them. We then cracked open the husk, and he gobbled the peas up like candy. He also ate the pods whole. There were a few bigger ones that had been on the vine longer and swelled up. The skin was a little chewy and tough but still edible. My middle son, Bruce, came to the table and saw that we had eaten up a ton of snow peas, so he grabbed a mixing bowl and went outside to pick more. While Bruce was picking peas, he was munching as he went.

Having a garden connects us to our food, instead of always going to the grocery store where shelves and counters are magically re-stocked with fresh produce. My boys actually see where their food comes from. Plus they invest time planting, weeding, watering, harvesting, etc.

Nutritionally, peas are a good source of fiber, protein and carbohydrates. Remember that plant cell walls are made primarily of cellulose. Unlike cows, horses, sheep, goats, etc, we humans don’t have the enzyme to break down cellulose. So instead of always reaching for your high fiber cereal, which often tastes like cardboard or has lots of other ingredients to make it taste better, try reaching for some peas. Protein in vegetables? Yes. We often think of meat, poultry and fish as our top protein sources. But let’s not forget our beans, legumes, lentils and peas. Snow peas are 25% protein. Plus they are cholesterol and fat free. Carbohydrates are our primary energy source. Why not choose a food that is low on the glycemic index and won’t make you crave more carbohydrates? Snow peas are also an excellent source of vitamins A, C and K and minerals iron and manganese.

So Eric, are you saying that I should eat snow peas every day? No. Like many foods, they have value. And it’s fun to eat what’s in season. They offer a variety to an otherwise limited and boring diet. For example, when our zucchini are ready to pick, we cook Zuccanoes (Stuffed Zucchini). When the tomatoes are ready, we toss them in salads and make Salsa. Granted we don’t have a long growing season, but it makes cooking and eating all the more satisfying. Be sure to try my all-time favorite soup recipe Split Pea Soup.

A client recently returned from a wonderful trip to Istanbul, Turkey and shared some pics with me. One of the highlights of his visit was taking a cooking class conducted by culinary experts at Cookistan. He learned how to prepare six delicious dishes of Turkish cuisine. Here is one of his favorites, Borecik, a delicious pastry stuffed with ground meat. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 yufta (dough sheet like filo)
1/3 pound ground beef
2 onions, grated
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2/3 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1 1/4 cups yogurt
salt, pepper and red pepper flakes
olive oil

Directions
Cut the yufta sheet into 4 triangles. In a large bowl, mix the meat with grated onions and a dash of pepper and salt. In a small bowl, mix 1/3 cup olive oil with milk. Brush oil/milk mixture onto the sheets. Carefully spoon the meat mixture on the outer edge of the dough sheet and roll it into a tube. Now coil the tube into a flat disc. Place onto baking tray, brush with egg wash and bake at 400 degrees F for 35-40 minutes. While the pastry is cooking, mix yogurt with crushed garlic in a small bowl. When borecik is done, remove from oven and top pastry with yogurt/garlic mixture.

Optional: Additionally, top borecik with melted butter and red pepper flakes.

Serves 4.

When I mention cooked liver, what do you think of? A rubbery piece of meat with a metallic iron taste and grainy mouthfeel? Or maybe foie gras and sweetbreads? My mom use to make awesome chopped chicken liver sandwiches when I was growing up. Yum. My brothers and I still talk about it to this day. She would sauté chicken liver in a cast iron skillet with mushrooms and onions and serve it up on a bed of sticky white rice, Mom Foxman style. Any extra liver would go into a bowl with some sliced hard boiled eggs and a little mayonnaise. With the side of a fork, she would mash and mix the ingredients together. Spread in between two pieces of bread and, voila, a chopped chicken liver sandwich. At lunchtime, friends would ask to feel how heavy my sandwich was. Mom didn’t skimp. I have such fond memories of eating those sandwiches and always associate good home-cooked meals with my mom. As a matter of fact, I just got off the phone with her, and she suggested adding some raw chopped yellow onion to the liver mixture. Thanks, Mom.

In America most organ meats are seen as throw-away or scrap pieces. While in many other places of the world, people eat the entire animal. Nothing is left to waste. We often associate the “need” to eat things like tripe, liver and heart with developing countries or perhaps in many of our families’ pasts when people did not have much money and had to “make do” with what they had. Nowadays many high end restaurants romanticize these peasant foods (perhaps the foods of their grandparents and great-grandparents) by cooking with unpopular animal parts . . . and charging a fortune.

When I told my oldest son that I was cooking up liver, he responded by saying “Ick”. I then asked him if he knew what liver was. He said “No”. I told him where the liver was in the body and reminded him what chicken breast, ground beef and tilapia filets were. . . the bodies of animals. Then he said “Oh”.

How was I going to prepare the beef liver? I checked a few recipes online and found a few ideas. The first thing I did was to rinse the meat and then put it in a casserole dish. I then covered the liver with milk and let it soak for an hour.

This is suppose to help lessen the bitter taste. You will notice blood coming out of the liver. While the liver was “marinating”, I heated up my favorite seasoned cast iron skillet. Once hot, I added a tablespoon of olive oil and some sliced yellow and red onions.

Remember that a hot pan with room temperature oil will help the food not to stick. I added a dash of salt and pepper and cooked the onions until soft. I like onions with some texture and didn’t want them to breakdown too far and caramelize. Be sure to stir frequently to prevent burning. I removed the onions from the heat and set aside for later.

Next I dried the liver pieces. In a shallow dish, I added 1/2 cup of all purpose flour with a 1/8 teaspoon of salt and pepper. I gently coated the meat in the flour and set them in the hot skillet with another tablespoon of oil. Depending on the thickness of the liver, cook about 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Just like a fine steak, let the meat cook and don’t disturb it by moving it around or poking it. Also do not overcook the liver or it will be chewy and rubbery. In the last minute of cooking, return the cooked onions to the skillet. Just remember that when you take the meat off the heat, it is still cooking. So if you try to cook the meat until it “looks” done, chances are that it will be overcooked by the time you plate it up and eat it. There’s one more slice of liver left in the fridge. I know what I’m having for lunch. Enjoy!

Last week I picked some kale from our vegetable garden. When I went back inside I realized that I had never cooked with kale before. What was I going to prepare? My wife suggested a kale chip recipe that she had recently been given by a friend. Problem solved.

I started by preheating the oven to 275 degrees F. I rinsed several kale leaves, patted them dry and removed the ribs. Then I cut the leaves into 2 inch pieces. Next I added them to a large bowl and drizzled some olive oil (1-2 tbsp) on top. I mixed the greens thoroughly so they were well coated. Finally I lay the kale on a baking sheet and sprinkled them with sea salt. The kale was baked for approximately 15 minutes and ready to serve.

Depending on your oven, you may need to vary the cooking time and temperature. For a little heat, you can sprinkle cayenne powder or red pepper flakes. The boys really enjoyed them, and I knew they were a hit when my youngest ate a small bowl full of kale chips. When he was done, he reached up to the counter for more and said “Chips.” Enjoy!

Freshly picked kale. If you plant kale late in the summer,
you can harvest it from fall until the ground freezes in winter.

Kale is ready for the oven.

Voila! Kale chips are ready to eat.

One of the things I aspire to is to cook like my mom. I have such fond memories of watching and helping my mom prepare meals in her kitchen. As I grew up, I became aware of how good her cooking truly was when my friends continued to ask to come over for dinner. Mom always had something simmering on the stovetop or baking in the oven. Nothing has changed. When I go home to visit, she is often in the kitchen (her domain), chopping, mixing, and stirring.

One of my absolute favorite dishes is her pancit recipe. She learned it from her father, who was born in Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines. Like all great chefs, she personalized the dish by adding her own personality. The dish is unbelievably simple and that is why I like it so much. Not a lot of competing or over-powering flavors. If you have never had pancit before, it can best be described as a Filipino chow mein or lo mein. Most pancit recipes that I have seen do not include garlic, and when I asked my mom why she added garlic to the dish, she just looked at me and said because she did. That’s chutzpah in cooking. I love it! Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 lb dry thin spaghetti
1.5 lbs shrimp (deveined with tail off)
2-3 tbsp peanut oil
3-4 cloves garlic, diced
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice (or lemon wedges)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1 cup frozen peas (this is not in Mom’s original recipe)

Optional Garnishes
2-3 green onions, chopped
3-4 eggs, hard boiled and sliced
1/2 cup peanuts crushed, roasted and unsalted
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1/4 cup brown sugar

* Note: Mom’s original recipe called for 1.5 pounds of sliced boneless pork shoulder. I did not intentionally leave it out. I just didn’t have it in my freezer or fridge. So I made an adjustment.

Directions
1. Fill a 4-quart pot with water and set heat on high. Add a teaspoon of salt. Once the water is boiling, add the spaghetti. Be sure to stir noodles occasionally so they cook evenly and don’t stick to the pot or to each other. Cooking time is approximately 9-10 minutes. When done, strain noodles in a colander and run cold water on top. This will stop the cooking process. Otherwise, the pasta will continue to cook and get overdone.
2. Because I don’t like washing more dishes than I have to, I rinse and reuse the same pot. Place the pot on the stovetop, add peanut oil and heat on medium/high. Then add the onions and garlic. Stir continuously for two minutes.
3. Add the shrimp. Be sure to stir so they cook evenly. Once you see their gray color start turning pink (a sign that they are done), add the drained spaghetti back into the pot. (If you cook the shrimp longer, they will be overdone and feel rubbery.) Add paprika and mix thoroughly so the paprika coats the noodles and shrimp. Then add peas and reduce heat to low.

Serves 6.

Condiments can greatly affect this dish. Personally, I enjoy pancit with slices of boiled egg and crushed peanuts. Raw green onions add a nice kick to it. If you like green onions, just not raw, add them to the pot in step 3. For a milder flavor, scallions are a nice substitute. A sprinkle of brown sugar adds sweetness and nicely balances the green onions. Beans sprouts add a light and fresh crunch. Try a few garnish variations and let me know which is your favorite.