Dining out yesterday, I had the most lackluster piece of salmon. Good fish doesn't need much, but it needs SOMETHING. Maybe some salt to bring out the sweetness of the flesh. Maybe some citrus to combat the richness of all those Omega-3's. At any rate, this restaurant decided plain-Jane style was good enough. I found some hot sauce on the table and did my own seasoning, because I prefer a lot of flavor.
Getting a lot of flavor isn't that hard. In fact, you can probably do it with items you already have in your pantry. I've thrown together a list of my can't-do-without spices and condiments. Used alone, or in combinations with one another, you can create a whole lot of flavor with relative ease and economy.
Here's my personal pantheon of the flavor gods:
1. HAIN IODIZED SEA SALT: I love this stuff because it has a delicious saltiness (I love that a little goes a long way) and it has a very fine texture, dissolving easily into whatever you are cooking.
2. FRANK'S RED HOT SAUCE: Spicy without being too hot, Frank's has the most incredible piquant flavor and pairs well with so many things.
3. NATURAL NUT BUTTER: My default is sugar free peanut butter, but I do change things up with tree nut butters from time to time. Calorie and nutrition dense, nut butter can actually double as a meal replacement. Gives the most interesting flavor to exotic sauces.
4. GARLIC POWDER: The foodie elite, chopping their fresh cloves of garlic, collectively gasp, "Garlic Powder?!!!" I love fresh garlic, too...but the fine powder is more effective as a pre-cooking sprinkle. I love it on roasted veggies. Easy enough to sprinkle on meats when you are just too lazy to chop whole cloves of the stuff.
5. LEMONS/LIMES: The juice, the zest...the appeal! I love the light, bright flavor of citrus in so many things from cocktails to osso buco.
6. AGAVE NECTAR: Healthier than cane sugar (your body metabolizes it more slowly so your pancreas doesn't flip out) and less-assertive than honey. This is a nice, mellow sweetener to have on hand.
7. DIJON MUSTARD: Great straight as a condiment on meats and cheese or emulsified into sauces and dressings, I consider Dijon to be a very important staple.
8. CUMIN, CORIANDER, CRUSHED RED PEPPER: The three "C's" of the spice drawer. Cumin gives complexity, coriander gives freshness, and crushed red pepper gives heat. Yum....
9. SOY SAUCE: I actually don't much like soy sauce straight. I find it heavy and salty. But a drop of soy into another sauce, (lots and lots of UN-Asian sauces, too!) lends real depth.
10. FIVE SPICE POWDER: "What IS that flavor?" I like this seasoning because it is different. It takes plain meals and gives them an unusual taste. Slightly sweet, it's wonderful with a little lime zest on grilled fish.
How about you? What are your favorite flavor staples??
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Old School Lunches in the New School Lunch Room
I hope to heaven that Jamie Oliver, Michelle Obama, Rachael Ray, and whoever else is involved all have great success re-vamping the school lunch philosophy because I don't want any kid to go through what I went through.
I grew up in a different time where kids walked unsupervised to elementary schools, and often walked home for a luxuriously long hour-long lunch break. Tres Francais, n'est pas? The kids who had impossibly long walks, working moms, or took the bus found it more practical to stay at school and have a brown bag lunch on neato-keen picnic tables they set up in the auditorium. When the corny, old, nonsensical joke: "do you walk to school or carry your lunch?" was first posed to me in jest, I didn't get it. What? I walked to school. The kids who took the bus or got dropped off carried their lunches. What?! I was definitely in the "walk to school" demographic, as my house was literally across the street from my primary school, BUT, from time to time I wanted to hang out with my pals who carried their lunches and ate at school, so I started brown bagging it, too.
Well, I did it for a short while anyway.
You see, my mother and grandmother were very involved in making sure I had a nutritious and, dare I say it, sophisticated lunch. They didn't call it "foie gras", rather just plain old "goose liver", but the super-fatted liver of some delectable creature was a frequent lunch staple, dressed with spinach between two pieces of dense-as-deep-space brown bread. There was usually some fruit or leftover cobbler as dessert.
Awesome, right?!!
Not when you are eight years old.
Oh, the insufferable ridicule I was forced to endure by the glamourous types with one piece of a malnutritous Kraft American single between two pieces of Wonder Bread (no condiments, EVER!) coupled with an Oreo dessert. I also caught hell from the PB&J set who got Twinkies for dessert in their lunch box. My lunch was, um, weird. Everyone else, it seemed, had a "cool" All-American lunch. I had the scary stuff of Eurasian peasants. Ooof.
I gave up, after a while, and just walked across the street where I could eat my foie gras in peace while enjoying the added benefit of black and white "Gomer Pyle" re-runs in the comfort and privacy of my own home.
Meanwhile, at another school, not 2 miles away, a pair of sisters, first generation German-Americans, and now among my best friends, suffered a similar fate. Oma's "braunschweiger" had them ostracized to the far corner of the lunch room. We connected on this point years after the fact, but I took great comfort in knowing that I was not alone in being ridiculed for eating something slightly more advanced that the garden-variety All-American junk of the day. These gals of good German stock are my soul sisters in more ways than this, but I'll be honest, this lunchtime ostracism continues to stick out in my mind as an important connection.
I've heard similar stories from Italian-heritage kids, Greek-heritage kids, and Lebanese-heritage kids whose parents took the time to give them nutritious lunch-box delicacies only to be met with abject social grief at the communal table, where "crap" is the norm.
I sincerely hope things are changing. Not everyone can slink across the street like I did, so I hope a healthy lunch now looks "cool".
Please, parents: start a movement. Make no child squirm like my German friends and I did. Talk about the movement, stretch your children's taste buds, embrace your culinary heritage, and pack the things your grandmother would have packed for you. Remind your kids that those addictive junk items lead to the obesity problem that WILL get them picked last for the kickball game. Remind them that we are pushing through to a new era..by eating old-school stuff in the new-school lunch room.
I grew up in a different time where kids walked unsupervised to elementary schools, and often walked home for a luxuriously long hour-long lunch break. Tres Francais, n'est pas? The kids who had impossibly long walks, working moms, or took the bus found it more practical to stay at school and have a brown bag lunch on neato-keen picnic tables they set up in the auditorium. When the corny, old, nonsensical joke: "do you walk to school or carry your lunch?" was first posed to me in jest, I didn't get it. What? I walked to school. The kids who took the bus or got dropped off carried their lunches. What?! I was definitely in the "walk to school" demographic, as my house was literally across the street from my primary school, BUT, from time to time I wanted to hang out with my pals who carried their lunches and ate at school, so I started brown bagging it, too.
Well, I did it for a short while anyway.
You see, my mother and grandmother were very involved in making sure I had a nutritious and, dare I say it, sophisticated lunch. They didn't call it "foie gras", rather just plain old "goose liver", but the super-fatted liver of some delectable creature was a frequent lunch staple, dressed with spinach between two pieces of dense-as-deep-space brown bread. There was usually some fruit or leftover cobbler as dessert.
Awesome, right?!!
Not when you are eight years old.
Oh, the insufferable ridicule I was forced to endure by the glamourous types with one piece of a malnutritous Kraft American single between two pieces of Wonder Bread (no condiments, EVER!) coupled with an Oreo dessert. I also caught hell from the PB&J set who got Twinkies for dessert in their lunch box. My lunch was, um, weird. Everyone else, it seemed, had a "cool" All-American lunch. I had the scary stuff of Eurasian peasants. Ooof.
I gave up, after a while, and just walked across the street where I could eat my foie gras in peace while enjoying the added benefit of black and white "Gomer Pyle" re-runs in the comfort and privacy of my own home.
Meanwhile, at another school, not 2 miles away, a pair of sisters, first generation German-Americans, and now among my best friends, suffered a similar fate. Oma's "braunschweiger" had them ostracized to the far corner of the lunch room. We connected on this point years after the fact, but I took great comfort in knowing that I was not alone in being ridiculed for eating something slightly more advanced that the garden-variety All-American junk of the day. These gals of good German stock are my soul sisters in more ways than this, but I'll be honest, this lunchtime ostracism continues to stick out in my mind as an important connection.
I've heard similar stories from Italian-heritage kids, Greek-heritage kids, and Lebanese-heritage kids whose parents took the time to give them nutritious lunch-box delicacies only to be met with abject social grief at the communal table, where "crap" is the norm.
I sincerely hope things are changing. Not everyone can slink across the street like I did, so I hope a healthy lunch now looks "cool".
Please, parents: start a movement. Make no child squirm like my German friends and I did. Talk about the movement, stretch your children's taste buds, embrace your culinary heritage, and pack the things your grandmother would have packed for you. Remind your kids that those addictive junk items lead to the obesity problem that WILL get them picked last for the kickball game. Remind them that we are pushing through to a new era..by eating old-school stuff in the new-school lunch room.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Slammin' Salmon Salad
I thought I would be dining alone. It's been a long day and, in terms of a magical dinner, the only rabbit I felt I could successfully pull out of my hat was going to be Salmon Salad. Of course mi esposo would complain bitterly. Of course he would demand more substantive protein. Of course he would bemoan the light eating that the humid weather is calling for.
So I was utterly chagrined when he loved my Salmon Salad.
He said it was good! Coming from him, this is a glowing endorsement.
The Salmon Salad was pretty slammin', if I do say so myself. It was far from fancy (remember, I didn't feel like cooking and this brainchild was concocted out of the dregs of my cupboards), and yet I defiantly challenge any salmon afficianado to dislike it...especially on a hot, humid, summer evening.
I had mine on baby spinach and accompanied it with sauvignon blanc and a mild, white strawberry chardonnay cheese. My better half made a sandwich on whole grain ciabatta and chose milk and some cheddar as pairings, but the entire household is now sated and resting comfortably.
You probably have most of this stuff on hand and can make it in 5 minutes flat:
SALMON SALAD (for two or three):
-15 oz of canned, wild Alaskan salmon, drained (save fresh fish for grilling or poaching, not drowning in condiments)
-3 stalks of celery, peeled and chopped
-1 t white wine or lemon juice
-1 tablespoon of mayonnaise or "vegenaise" (more if you like it gloppy)
-1 tablespoon of dried dill weed
Mix all ingredients well. Canned salmon is canned with salt. It is unlikely that even the most jaded tastebuds will require any additional seasoning.
For such a naive culinary attempt, it's mind-bogglingly good.
You can thank me later....
So I was utterly chagrined when he loved my Salmon Salad.
He said it was good! Coming from him, this is a glowing endorsement.
The Salmon Salad was pretty slammin', if I do say so myself. It was far from fancy (remember, I didn't feel like cooking and this brainchild was concocted out of the dregs of my cupboards), and yet I defiantly challenge any salmon afficianado to dislike it...especially on a hot, humid, summer evening.
I had mine on baby spinach and accompanied it with sauvignon blanc and a mild, white strawberry chardonnay cheese. My better half made a sandwich on whole grain ciabatta and chose milk and some cheddar as pairings, but the entire household is now sated and resting comfortably.
You probably have most of this stuff on hand and can make it in 5 minutes flat:
SALMON SALAD (for two or three):
-15 oz of canned, wild Alaskan salmon, drained (save fresh fish for grilling or poaching, not drowning in condiments)
-3 stalks of celery, peeled and chopped
-1 t white wine or lemon juice
-1 tablespoon of mayonnaise or "vegenaise" (more if you like it gloppy)
-1 tablespoon of dried dill weed
Mix all ingredients well. Canned salmon is canned with salt. It is unlikely that even the most jaded tastebuds will require any additional seasoning.
For such a naive culinary attempt, it's mind-bogglingly good.
You can thank me later....
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