Highlights of Three Months

Delicious Duck L'Orange from the French Restaurant in Epcot-
tasty and safe

I haven’t added a blog entry for three months.  Why?  Yes, I’m very busy but I’ve always been busy, so that’s not the right answer.  Did I cut back on cooking and creating new dishes?  No, because I just reviewed my iOS album on facebook and I have all kinds of food photos uploaded.  Do I tend to not blog as much during the summer?  I thought that was it.  But after scanning through the dates in my blog, it seems to be a cyclical phase.  Blog for a while, stop, then blog for a while, stop and so on.  I wish I could blog during my commutes, but Siri is not that advanced. But even if Siri was advanced, I would most likely only use it to keep a track of ‘to blog’ items.  Words and ideas flow better when we write. 

So it’s time to resume the updates.  A good way to start it up again is to think through the food type experiences of the summer. The three main food experiences of this summer are:

Disneyworld  – outstanding experience

Ahi Tuna Burger - NOT cross contaminated with shellfish

Scotch Eggs at the English Restaurant in Epcot - not fried with shellfish

Delicious appetizer in the French Restaurant in Epcot

In Morocco - NOT contaminated with nuts

We avoided allergens for my son in EVERY restaurant in the park.  While we are down to shellfish, nuts, and peanuts, Disney is known in the food allergy community for being able to readily and accurately cater to special diets (including multiple food allergies).   When the French chef (not Julia Child, while Disney is fantasy, resurrecting people is not one of the themes) comes out and tells you exactly why a certain food is safe for your child to eat, your evening becomes perfection.  Disney kitchens were extremely cognizant of cross contamination.  The best part was dining in the various countries in Epcot. Certain foods are typically cross contaminated with shellfish, but the fish and chips in England was not.   Yes, I gave the allergy ‘speech’ before every meal, but it was understood well and we had so many choices.

Grilling – the backyard and 4^th of July

Traditional beer brats

Marinated chicken kebobs

Skewer I first saw on barbecue U -
 flat items don't turn

Grilling/barbecuing is not my forte.  Yes, I can do it and excel at it, but I prefer the oven and stovetop.   So while my son had the interest, he did grill and with a lot of care and perfection. 

One of my personal favorites was Portabella burger.  These were marinated and grilled and they were delicious (grilled by my son).

A key trick to grilling is indirect grilling.  But boneless meats and vegetables can be directly grilled. And of course charcoal, not gas.  While gas is more convenient, I still prefer the flavor.

Pan Frying and Dutch Oven Cooking

It’s always hard to cook after a long workday.  After a long workday and a long commute, it would be nice to just relax (especially in the summer). Dutch Oven cooking the night before, and pan-frying enable some relatively simpler (with respect to time) dishes.

Crockpots are popular, but I prefer the flavor and
consistency of dishes from the dutch oven (cassoulet)

New food processor

Never Fail hummus

organic spinach garlic pasta 
(note how each shell contains a garlic piece)

One of the easiest dishes I make - rack of lamb with roasted potatoes
(including purple)- has to be served on a pewter plate

Dining Out

Sushi in Cincinnati at Aroma - they really
 understood shellfish cross contamination

Yes, eating out real food is possible even in a restaurant (and outside of Disney World).  I plan on adding some information on this.

I also bought Michael Pollan’s book “Cooked” – this is a great read for any foodie.

One of my favorite quotes from the book (there are many and I’m still reading it):

Koreans traditionally make a distinction between the “tongue taste” and the “hand taste” of a food. (…)
Tongue taste is the straightforward chemical phenomenon that takes place whenever molecules make contact with taste buds, something that happens with any food as a matter of course. Tongue taste is the kind of easy, accessible flavor that any food scientist or manufacturer can reliably produce in order to make food appealing. “McDonald’s has tongue taste,” (…)
Hand taste, however, involves something greater than mere flavor. It is the infinitely more complex experience of a food that bears the  unmistakable signature of the individual who made it — the care and the thought and idiosyncrasy that that person has put into the work of preparing it. Hand taste cannot be faked, (…) and hand taste is the reason we go to all this trouble, massaging the individual leaves of each cabbage and then folding them and packing them in the urn just so. What hand taste is, I understood all at once, is the taste of love.

Michael Pollan, Cooked

Tofu is NOT gross

As people brag on facebook about all the bacon they eat, any post about a dish that contains tofu gets joking comments like “oh that’s not real food,” or  “I’ll keep my bacon, thank you.”  As my dad used to say, every joke has a basis. People for some reason are repulsed with food that doesn't lead to heart disease and other health issues. And no, you don't need to be a vegan to add this great food to your dishes.  My son, a major meat eater, loves it.

Carnivores hate the sound of this word:  tofu.  They imagine it as this gross squishy white thing.  No it is not, the horrid image is due to bad preparation (or lack of preparation).   A long time ago, someone told me they hated calamari, to which I responded, “you must have had badly prepared calamari.”  After this individual tried properly prepared calamari they became a convert and started eating calamari.

While I wrote this blog entry, there must be at least 10 posts up already about the greatness of bacon.  Greatness that keeps doctors their multiple luxury cars, mansion, boats and planes. Greatness that drives my health insurance premium up.  I'm not proposing that people stop eating bacon (I'm lucky, I don't really like it), but in order to stop the horrible health epidemic, people need to start to look at their diets and reevaluate the quantities of unhealthy foods they ingest.  And if not for themselves, at least expose their kids to some better alternatives.

Here are some key preparation tips:

Purchase the right tofu:

            For people who don’t have time to drain and press, I find that Wildwood Super Firm Tofu (pictured in my Holiday Guide) Part I blog entry: http://blogtothenextone.blogspot.com/2011/11/thanksgiving-holiday-guide-part-i.html

 is  the easiest to deal with and it also has more protein.  I don’t need to press, squeeze, etc.  I’ve only found this at Whole Foods and Woodman’s around here.  It saves a lot of the playing around.  Other super firm tofu works too, but you have to drain and press (I haven’t tried any of the tofu presses on Amazon yet).

If you buy another tofu, makes sure it is ORGANIC (fermented, sprouted)-do not buy GMO (defeats the whole purpose of eating it for health).  As a side note, I only buy organic soy sauce as well.

Marinate – tofu takes on any flavor and marinating, seasoning makes a huge difference. If you don’t have time to marinate, season it.

Pan fry in a healthy oil – this makes a huge difference.  It goes fairly quick and gives the outside a nice crunch.  Sometimes I sprinkle some flour on top as I’m frying it.

Throw into any dish instead of meat and you will get a healthier version of your dinner.

Well prepared tofu is similar to paneer in Indian cuisine.

UPDATE:  3/4/14-instead of pan frying, I've been finding myself bake tofu more.  There are many ways to bake it.  First I marinate it (30 minutes), then I place it in a 400 degree oven for about thirty minutes.  I use the no stick foil to prevent sticking....while it's not as crispy as pan frying, it's still fairly crisp and firm.

http://blogtothenextone.blogspot.com/2011/03/dont-feel-like-cooking-convenient.html

If this sounds like too much work, make it ahead and freeze it. I usually make the entire block, and freeze it and throw into dishes as needed.

Tofu is high in calcium and protein.

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