Normally I am a very organized person when I write these diaries. I collect, test, and develop recipes; I consider a theme; I compile and photograph and write and edit and publish. Sometimes, though, Lady Chaos takes over and things don't get done the way I would like.
Tonight, then, welcome to the Random Access Memory edition of What's For Dinner? I don't have an overriding theme, but I have some unrelated interesting things to talk about. Just for one evening, let's all be disorganized together while we -
- oh, look! Over there! A chicken!
Seasonal Vegetable Currently Being Cooked a Lot at My House: Bok Choy
These little guys are tiny -- not much longer than a finger. When I saw them in the store I had to buy some even though I had no idea what to do with them.
I knew that bok choy (or pak choi: "white vegetable") is related to cabbage, so I assumed they would taste somewhat like Brussels sprouts. They do - and they don't. Try these two simple and easy recipes and see what you think:
Braised Bok Choy
2 pounds baby bok choy or mature bok choy
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
- Trim the base of the bok choy, then chop off the leaves. Cut the base in half lengthwise, then cut the halves crosswise on a diagonal into 1/4-inch-thick strips. Cut the leaves crosswise on a diagonal into 1 1/2-inch-wide strips.
- Place a large wok or a pot large enough to hold all the bok choy over medium heat. When it is hot, add the olive oil and rotate the wok or pot a bit to coat it evenly. When the oil is hot, add the onion and stir-fry until softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the bok choy and season with the salt and pepper. Cover and cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Stir in the vinegar and serve hot.
Serves 4 to 6.
Thai Bok Choy
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 pound baby bok choy trimmed and chopped as above
1 can coconut milk
1 teaspoon fish sauce
Heat the pepper flakes in the oil. Add the bok choy and coconut milk. Stir-fry for about 10 minutes or until tender.
Serves 4.
I will confess that the first time I made this I used cream rather than coconut milk because that was what was handy. It wasn't bad and I might make it that way again, but if I do it will definitely need tweaking; the flavor was pretty flat. Suggestions are welcome.
Soup of the Evening, Beautiful Soup
April here, as it has in much of the country, has been unseasonably cool and I've still been making soup. Because my standby chicken noodle soup has been off limits (no wheat allowed), I have been playing with barley and came up with this one, a sort of hybrid between Scotch broth, chicken vegetable, and Italian Wedding soups:
Barley Chicken Chaos Soup
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, sliced thinly
1-2 ribs celery, sliced thinly
6 cups flavorful chicken stock
1/2 cup pearl barley
1 teaspoon dried oregano
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 cup cooked, diced chicken
8 ounces baby spinach, washed and chopped
salt and pepper to taste
grated parmesan cheese
- In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and sauté the onions, carrots, and celery for about 10 minutes until soft and the onions are translucent.
- Add the stock, barley, oregano, and lemon juice. Stir well. Turn heat to low and simmer for 30-45 minutes or until barley is tender. (You may need to add more stock if the soup gets too thick.)
- Add the cooked chicken and chopped spinach. Simmer another 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. If desired, top each bowl with a sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese.
Serves 4.
Here's another hybrid that I came up with this week. It's based on a beautifully simple recipe developed by Cookiecrumb of I'm Mad and I Eat, which I had to try as soon as I saw it. CC's soup, which she calls "Don't Step on My Blue Spud Soup," included blue potatoes, Point Reyes blue cheese, cream, chicken stock, and salt -- all locally sourced and frugally put together. I had the Point Reyes blue (I ordered three pounds of it a couple of months ago. It's a serious weakness.), the homemade chicken stock, the cream and salt. I had red creamer potatoes from the spring crop, so I made the soup according to her directions.
It needed something. As an intro to a meal it would have been fine, but I was looking for a meal-in-a-soupbowl. I'd made a double batch of it, so I had several meals ready for soupbowls. I put the leftovers in the fridge for a day while I thought about it.
The next afternoon I was rummaging through the spice cupboard looking for the French thyme, and I came across the smoked paprika I bought and used in my Killer Smoked Tomato Soup a couple of weeks ago. Et voila! I peeled and cubed another couple of potatoes, tossed the cubes with a little olive oil and the smoked paprika, roasted them, and stirred them into the soup. Excellent!
Not Cookiecrumb's Cream of Potato-Blue Cheese Soup
1 pound red or gold waxy potatoes
about 2 tablespoons olive oil
about 1 tablespoon smoked sweet paprika
2 cups homemade chicken stock
1 1/2 ounces Point Reyes Farmstead blue cheese
1/4 cup cream
Salt to taste (plus more for cooking potatoes)
- Preheat oven to 375°. Choose one fist-size potato, setting others aside. Peel and cut into about 1/2" dice. Toss with olive oil and smoked paprika until all sides of potato cubes are covered. Place potato cubes on a baking sheet and roast for about 20 minutes, turning halfway through, until potatoes are slightly browned and softened. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- While the potato cubes are roasting, wash and cut the remaining potatoes into quarters. (Don't bother to peel them.) Cook in salted, boiling water until just tender, about 20 minutes. Drain. Press cooked potatoes through a ricer; discard potato peels. Add riced potatoes to cooking pot.
- Add stock and cheese. Stir over gentle heat until melted. Pour in cream and roasted potato cubes; stir well, warming to your liking.Taste and add salt if needed.
Serves 2.
Random Tidbits That Other People Have Written So Well I'll Let Them Tell It
What Does 200 Calories Cost? The Economics of Obesity
WiseGeek has an interesting article on What Does 200 Calories Look Like?, where it photographs the portions of several foods that equal 200 calories and sorts them by weight. Here’s broccoli next to peanut butter on the same plate:
I thought it would be neat to extend this idea and see what 200 calories costs. So I extended my usual grocery trip by finding out the price per weight for each of the food items they selected.
>-- more --
The Penny-wise Eat Local Challenge
"I'd love to eat local, but it's just so expensive to do."
Those of us in the Eat Local community probably hear this statement more than any other. As the editor of this site, I often cringe to hear it because I don't really have a good answer for it. Eating locally seems to be more expensive than other ways to buy food. Since this hasn't been tested, what better experiment than to challenge ourselves by eating local within the budget of an average American.
<snip>
Generally, those of us who agree to take the Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge are going to try, from April 23 to April 29 to stick to the budget of an average American. What's the budget, you ask?
The Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out some very detailed statistics about how much Americans spend on different parts of their budget. Part of that, obviously, focuses on food. The most recent data that they have published is from 2005, so we are going to use those dollar amounts for our challenge.
1 person in the family, one wage earner: $68 a week
2+ persons in the family, one wage earner: $121 a week
2+ persons in the family, 2 wage earners: $144 a week
2+ persons in the family, 3+ wage earners: $184 a week
>-- more --
Updates on Previous News
The Wheat Elimination Trial: Yes, it does look like I am at least mildly allergic to wheat protein. (Note: This is not celiac disease and it fortunately isn't stomach-related. I've been having mysterious attacks of hives and we are trying to find out what is causing it.) However, wheat's not the whole problem -- I still had itchies several times during the three weeks I ate no wheat or wheat products -- so the search for mysterious allergens continues. I will, however, continue to eat wheatless because I did improve and I felt better. I may diary this process if there is interest.
And that's all from the Random Junk Drawer of My Mind this week.