Menus for Busy People

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Life is too short to heed other people’s potato preferences. Or, baked potato lunch.

What do you think of when you think about baked potatoes? I used to think of school cafeteria lunch with bright yellow shredded cheese, fake bacon, and a mouth full of bland potatoes.

This memory had me avoiding baked taters until a cold day a couple of months ago. All I had in the kitchen were some sweet potatoes. I wanted to use the oven, so I decided to see what Mr. Bittman had to say on the topic of baked potatoes. Et tu Mark? There it was- russet potatoes. Why does every recipe for baked or mashed potatoes recommend the use of russets? They all insist that these yield the fluffiest texture. But it’s not true. Good potatoes yield good baked and mashed potatoes. Russets are mealy and dry- the equivalent of a Washington Red apple. I won’t judge you if you decide to use them, but know that you don’t have to. 

So back to that cold day. I did follow Bittman’s other instructions to scrub the potato, dry, poke a few holes, coat with olive oil, and rub with coarse salt. I put it in the oven for about an hour at 450. It was a revelation. The sweet potato oozed its sugar through the holes, caramelizing bits of skin. I cut it open and dressed simply with a pat of butter and some salt flakes. 

Today, I tried the same with a purple sweet potato. I’m feeling fancy so I’m smearing it with leftover miso-sesame paste. Pictured with leftover farro and roasted butternut squash. 

Don’t let "the experts” force you into using mediocre potatoes. You know best.

Baked Potato a la Bittman sans russet

Pre-heat oven to 450

Wash, scrub, and dry potatoes (literally any kind except russets)

Poke a few holes in the taters. Drizzle with olive oil. Rub some coarse sea salt on them. 

Bake for about an hour. Smaller ones might only need 40 minutes.

Cut open and dress however you want. Butter and salt are the simplest, but you can get crazy with cheese, sour cream, chives, sriracha. Anything.

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Freelance lunch no.2 - the egg sandwich

What’s it like working for yourself? Late mornings, working in PJs, meeting friends for coffee in the middle of the day right?

No. In reality, it’s more work than ever before, feeling like you are juggling eggs when it comes to finances, and barely ever seeing friends. I think especially when you’re starting out, every free moment is given over to work. And when you’re in the weeds, you kind of have to figure it out for yourself. When I see those posters that say “When you do what you love, it doesn’t feel like work” I get mad. It does feel like work. Very, very hard work. A lot of work.

But, am I happy? Yes. A couple of people this week raised their eyebrows and asked me, “wait, you want to be a freelancer?” And the answer is yes. It’s hard, and sometimes you don’t know how you’re going to do it. But I wouldn’t trade this in to go to an office everyday and sit at a desk. Today, while I’m kicking off a project with a team, and sending out a proposal, I’m also making a pie for a potluck later tonight. That’s the kind of thing I wouldn’t be able to do if I worked in an office. And I’ve realized that having the freedom to do that is important to me.

Now to lunch. In one of my favorite cookbooks, Japanese Farm Food, the author talks about being newly married, not having a lot of money, and basically eating eggs all the time because it was cheap (her husband was also an egg farmer). Freelancing forces you to eat on a budget. And eggs, as well as what I call immigrant food (rice, lentils, yogurt, cheap vegetables like sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions), become your staple. There haven’t been any fancy micro greens here lately.

Egg Sandwich

Slice and pan toast some good bread (it’s cheap, but splurging just a little makes it exponentially better)

Scramble some eggs in butter (hot pan, and then low and slow once the eggs go in)

On one side of the bread, butter, on the other side, mustard. Top with eggs and scarf down before getting back to work.

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Freelance lunch no.1 - Panfried tofu sandwich with peanut sauce.

One of the best things about being a freelancer and working from home is making yourself lunch. Contrary to popular belief, as a freelancer, I’ve found that I usually have LESS time for lunch than when I worked in an office. But the act of cooking, and my lunchtime view is worth it. 

Today’s lunch has three components: leftover baguette, tofu, and peanut sauce.

Baguette

Cut and toast in oven.

Tofu

Cut into slices about 1/4 inch thick. I might be making this width up. Eyeball it. 

Heat some neutral oil in a pan, and fry the slices 3-4 minutes on each side. Drain on a paper towel and salt.

Peanut Sauce

A big tablespoon of Skippy peanut butter. Don’t scoff, it has excellent consistency for mixing and sauces.

Mix the peanut butter with some chopped garlic, sriracha or chili flakes, lime, and soy sauce. 

The Sandwich

Spread peanut sauce on baguette, place tofu slices, and add a bit more sriracha if you’d like. I hope you have just as nice a view as I do. Bon apetit!

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Accidental Combo

Sometimes you forget to put water in the rice cooker. You come home expecting the smell of freshly cooked rice wafting through your apartment, only to find almost burned rice kernels. So what to do? Improv.

I had just sautéed dandelion greens and was going to serve them over rice with a chickpea and tofu salad on the side. With no rice, I crushed up some blue corn tortilla chips and combined the leftover chickpea salad with the dandy greens.

Dandelion greens

Wash greens, chop off bottom of stems and discard. Chop remaining stems and leaves in to 1-2 inch chunks.

Mince and sautee two huge cloves of garlic in olive oil. Stir so the garlic doesn’t burn. Throw in the chopped stems and sautee. After a minute or two, throw in leaves, add the tiniest bit of water, cover, and steam. 

Remove lid after 2 minutes, add chili flakes, salt, and pepper. Add chickpea tofu salad (recipe below).

Stir around for another minute. Switch off heat and squeeze a liberal amount of lemon on top. Serve over hot rice if you can get it together.

Chickpea tofu salad

In a glass bowl, thrown in some minced garlic and squeeze a good amount of lemon in along with a healthy pinch of salt and pepper. Let it hang out for a minute.

Drain and rinse a can of chickpeas.

Cube some tofu (use the good, fresh stuff-- it’s worth it).

Add these to the garlic. Toss with olive oil, chili flakes, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and za’atar, if you have it. 

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Wisdom potatoes

If you read this whole blog, you'd think that I every meal I have is rice based, and I just keep getting my wisdom teeth out. The first part is pretty accurate. 

Yesterday, I got my second, and hopefully last wisdom tooth out. It wasn't as easy as the first time (I was in and out in 20 minutes). They had to saw the tooth into 4 pieces, and spent a lot of time digging, prying, cutting, and of course sawing, with heavy, unfriendly looking metal implements. At the end of it, they told me to get a head start on the pain medication, and also gave me a shot to keep the swelling down. If it's working, I don't want to see what I would have looked like without it.

This is what I came home and made since rice is in the no-fly zone for a few days.

Peel, quarter, and boil 4-5 potatoes (I had red). 

Boil until a fork goes in easily, and drain in a colander.

Back into the pot and mash on very low heat (I used my housemate's old school hand crank mixer, and a wooden spatula)

Add in a liquid- milk, or cream is traditional. I had neither, and I used chicken stock I'd made the week before, and a few glugs of olive oil. Mix well and turn off the heat.

Add in fat- butter is traditional. I used butter and ghee (handmade from the chef sister).

I also grated in a chunk of cheese. 

salt. pepper. serve with a dash more of olive oil if you wish.

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Mushroom rice

It's cold. I have a cold. The (not bad at all) doom that was snowpocalypse 2015 has come and gone. But it's still cold, and there's still snow on the ground. I don't like being sick. But I do like being home to cook myself lunch. 

Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel (do not rinse them! they will turn into little rubber balls), and take off stems.

Chop the mushrooms, 2 scallions, and a clove of garlic (or more if you like). I had some dill in the house so I chopped this up as well.

Sautee the mushroom, bottom halves of the scallions, and garlic in a hot pan with olive oil. No salt and pepper. Use high-ish heat to get the water out of those mushrooms and evaporated. (pro-tip from chef sister)

While this is happening, gently fry an egg. Use plenty of grease (I used olive oil) so that you are not fighting the pan for the egg. 

Once the mushroom/scallion pan is ready, scoop in some brown rice from the cooker. Add salt and pepper and mix well. Turn heat off. 

To assemble, put the rice mixture in a bowl, sprinkle with dill and the top halves of the scallions. Slide the fried egg on top.

As you can see, I put a few tortilla chips on the side. 

Enjoy, and take your vitamins.

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Life is full of compromises- tonight's dinner is one of them.

Getting home from a weekend workshop this evening, I had a hankerin' for a stout and some fries. But I also had laundry to do, groceries to buy, spreadsheets to make, and Bollywood music to edit. No time to pub it. 

At the grocery store, wondering if I was really going to soothe the craving with yogurt or a banana (no), I decided to have the beer and fries at home. As I eyed the bag of frozen sweet potato fries, I thought, "wow, is this happening right now? frozen fries?" The practical, non-judgmental side of me didn't wait for a reply, and I tossed the package into the basket.

Of course, I wanted the meal to be substantial, so I reached for the thing of hummus to dip the fries in. But this was crossing the line even for me. It's just too easy to make at home. And it was all for the better too -- it gave me something to do while I was waiting for the fries to cook. And lest you feel too sorry for me, I paired the meal with a pint of Allagash Belgian stout (not pictured because I am drinking it).

Hummus (basic hummus recipe from Jerusalem, but modified)

1 can of chickpeas drained and rinsed (Jerusalem tells you to soak and cook the chickpeas ahead of time- would that I could!)

2 cloves garlic minced (this might have been too much garlic)

juice of 3/4th a lemon

salt

1/4 cup tahini

some olive oil

Follow Jerusalem's method of processing the chickpeas into a stiff paste without any water. Then add the lemon juice, tahini, salt, and garlic. Process again. Then add in some ice-cold water, about 3 tbsp. Process, scoop into bowl, and top with some olive oil.

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Another Day, Another Rice Bowl

By now, you're thinking "why doesn't she just call this 'the rice bowls that I make'?" Listen, on the off chance that I make something else, I can't. There are MILLIONS of people reading this blog, and I have a responsibility to my audience. Just kidding. My friend V just told me that she reads every single post, so I have one confirmed reader.

Anyways, this was Tuesday night:

brown rice

roasted red potatoes (olive oil, many giant cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, Turkish red pepper flakes, roast for 40 at 375, with a shake at halftime)

If you don't have Turkish red pepper flakes that you bought in Turkey, don't even bother-- just get take-out.

half an avocado

store bought babaganouj (gasp!)

For accompaniment, I had ye olde glass of leftover red wine (those wine saver things are amazing) and a persimmon, which I meant to eat, but didn't. 

I really will make something else soon. 

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The Bowl of Oatmeal- humble, yet beautiful

In my dreams I have time for delicious slow cooked steel-cut oats. Or if I got my act together the night before, I could get them into the rice cooker.

Instead I make the quick cook oats (they're organic OK?) and jazz them up.

Here's my oatmeal and stream of consciousness for you to enjoy:

Cook the quick-cook oats (oh, damn, don't overflow on the stove!)

Add bananas (don't chop, use your hands, if you squeeze a piece of banana gently, it breaks into three pieces, which is how the flower is divided. College botany class, I can never unlearn this)

Add maple syrup (no thoughts, just a dash of syrup)

Add ghee (Oops, that's big dollop! It's ok, winter is coming, and I must build up adequate fat resources. Oh wait, I'm not a bear.)

Add tiny chunks of sea salt (I can't wait for that bite with maple syrup and salt)

Eat and then fly, fly to the office you fools!

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Eating Alone in Istanbul

No recipes in this one I'm afraid- just stories of eating. I just got back from a trip to Athens and Istanbul. The food there is better, hands down. And so is, I think, the way of eating. (Don't worry, NYC has better coffee. As I write this, I'm drinking my first proper Americano in almost two weeks and it's heaven.) 

Before I got to Istanbul, I was in Athens with a group of people and every meal I had was communal. Dinner was never quick- we passed around endless plates of small dishes, our small wine glasses were filled continuously, and I always walked away feeling satiated, and happy from all the jokes and stories told at the table. It was like being in an ad for the Mediterranean way of lie.

The best thing I ate in Athens was a pickled herb picked from the sea off of Crete. One of my hosts there swam and gathered it herself in Crete and then pickled it in Athens. It tasted like the ocean and you can't get it at Whole Foods. 

I was excited to get to Istanbul, because, well, Istanbul, and also because everyone told me how amazing the food was. They weren't exaggerating. But I hadn't mentally prepared for experiencing this food culture alone. As in Greece, meals in Turkey are meant to be shared. No one goes out for dinner by themselves. At meyhanes (similar to tapas bars or the places in Greece where you share many plates of food and drink), you order a round of cold starters, then a round of warm starters, then a round of main dishes, drinking raki all the while. Of course, you need several people to make this happen. I was hyper-aware of the fact that I was missing what should have been the rest of my dinner party. So, I had to pep myself up a bit when eating alone at these group restaurants got a little intimidating. Sometimes I told myself to pretend I was a Times food critic. My last night in Istanbul, I ate at Matbah, a restaurant that serves Ottoman food sourced from recipes as far back as the 13th century. There I ordered myself to "sit like a queen!"

But at times eating alone was also exhilarating. I was by myself! I wasn't part of that awkward family dinner where no one was talking to each other. Or at that table with the couple who were both on their cell phones, not talking to each other. 

Luckily, my Turkish hosts had seen enough lone travelers, and knew what to do with me. They always gave me a table with a nice view and were very strong in their recommendations. My favorite meal was at Munferit, a contemporary meyhane, where my server vetoed my own choices and basically ordered the whole meal for me. "You are alone, so you will need one cold and one hot starter, and that will be enough. You should get the mashed potatoes with dill and octopus, and the cheese baked with mushrooms." Um, yes please. When I tried to order the sage ice cream for dessert, he tried to push the chocolate profiterole on me. I stayed strong and stuck with the ice cream, but he gave me the profiterole anyways, saying "I couldn't let you leave here without trying it."

I was touched. It was like he was saying, "you don't have people to share this meal with, so I'm going to take care of you." And I think it's this principle that I could deeply relate to as someone who grew up in a food culture that was about sharing. Food can be excellent on its own, but it becomes truly joyous when you share it with people. 

I was glad to have roamed Istanbul solo and eaten alone. But I want to go back, and take friends with me, to fill up those meyhanes with stories and jokes. 

Oh, and about that sage ice cream at Munferit. I can't even describe how good it was. It was like the chef took a sage plant, put it into an ice cream maker, and then gave me the result. 

I couldn't bring myself to take pictures of the food-- I was already drawing enough attention being alone, so here's a picture of Galata, a neighborhood in Istanbul.

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When life gives you a deceptively unripe peach

make it into a salad

still crunchy peach, splash of tamari, roasted black sesame seeds

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Salt Broiled Fish - round 2

From Hachisu's Japanese Farm Food

Salt Broiled Herring (Nishin no shioyaki)

My paraphrase:

fish on foil sheet over grate (I used the pan with slits that was already in the broiler)

Preheat broiler with rack on third slot from the top. 

Sprinkle fish with salt and broil for 15 mins. Flip carefully and salt the other side. Broil 10 more mins.

Hachisu has dressing instructions for grated daikon, but I'm just serving the fish with leftover brown rice, sautéed scallion, and half a white peach, all splashed with tamari. And instead of herring, I'm using a Spanish Mackerel.

I felt like I won some kind of prize with the mackerel. It was wild-caught, rated sustainable, and it was the cheapest. For a moment I felt bad that I didn't choose a more local fish. Because we know so much about where our food comes from, and how its cultivation affects us, I do feel a responsibility to make conscious food choices. But I also have to balance that with not paying for fish I can't afford. In this case, I think the only thing that could have made me a better human being was if the fish had been caught in the Gowanus.  

It's interesting to think about food choice. I used to be obsessed with going to the farmer's market (which I still love) and buying everything only in season. But I've relaxed a bit in holding myself to stringent standards that sometimes make me feel bad about myself. I do like being conscious and not buying, you know, endangered species, meat without a good source, or blueberries in the winter. But sometimes, it feels good to let go of pleasing external metrics. You can't be everything to everyone.

Thanks mackerel.

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Eat the same thing for dinner and breakfast

Almost. It's kind of like eating cold pizza the next morning. Long days, trying to stay on budget, I want to eat something that doesn't leave me feeling gross the next morning. 

Dinner: Quesadilla with avocado, cheddar cheese, sauteed scallion and shishito pepper. The key is to use good quality corn tortillas. One of the reasons I love living in NYC is that I can get pretty cheap white corn tortillas from Tortilleria Nixtamal at the store by work.

Breakfast: Tacos a la Breakfast Tacos the way they're supposed to be. Nothing compares to the ones from Veracruz in East Austin, but these will do.

Eggs, avocado, cheddar cheese, salsa, and those Queens tortillas. Scrambled egg tips from my sister, the professional chef: get the pan hot, turn down the heat, put in the butter (it should melt, but not really brown), add the beaten eggs and mix around gently on low, salt, take the eggs off the heat while they're kind of runny (they'll keep cooking).

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Getting back to baseline

It's been a rough week. A wisdom tooth came out Monday, and I've been eating soft foods all week. I was hungry all the time. There's only so much bananas, yogurt, and avocado puree (for those times when I was too hungry to go to the store to get other smoothie ingredients) can do for you.

Besides the tooth, it's also been a week of trying to push myself in many ways, and it's left me drained. At one point, this was my grocery list: 

Tonight, I wanted to eat something comforting, nourishing, and uncomplicated. I also wanted leftovers. My base is rice and with the ingredients I already had, I ended up with a sort-of pulao (pilaf).

Pulao 

Make brown rice in the rice cooker.

Sautee chopped green onion and garlic in olive oil. Add to it the cashews and dried cherries you've picked out of the trail mix, and fry a bit more. Mix this with the cooked rice, add salt, a little olive oil, and chopped cilantro. 

Raita 

Yogurt, dry roasted and ground cumin seeds, cilantro, chili flakes, olive oil, garlic, salt, chopped cucumber all mixed up.

Dessert

I finished this all off with a few squares of fancy Brooklyn dark chocolate and some roasted barley tea. Restoration, begin!

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Liquid Diet

I'm in wisdom tooth hell. This vestige of evolution has erupted in my lower jaw, and I have to wait until Monday to see someone who can help me. In the meantime, I'm switching to a liquid diet-- smoothies and cocktails.

Smoothie first. When my family moved to the United States in 1990, one of our first friends was a Brazilian family. The mom in the family, Gislane, took care of my sister and me a lot and fed us too. Gislane was amazing-- she was warm, strict, and when I was with her, I never missed my parents. She was a fantastic cook and introduced some foods that were very new to my immigrant palette: carrot cake, flan, feijoada, and what she called a milkshake (batida). The batida was a banana, milk, oatmeal, and sugar, whipped into liquid goodness in a blender. When I started cooking for myself, Gislane's batida was my framework. My go-to smoothie recipe is still almond milk, banana, peanut butter, and oats. 

For wisdom-tooth-weekend, I wanted to try something different. I did banana, almond milk, sunflower seed butter, avocado, and a drizzle of olive oil and salt to finish. Batida meets salt lassi.

And now ladies and gents, for the cocktail portion of the evening. This is my first attempt at a Manhattan. I'm a pretty snobby Manhattan drinker. I live around the corner from one of the best cocktail bars in Brooklyn, if not NYC, and they make the best Manhattan I've ever had. I also got this book for my birthday from a couple of special people.

Here's the what the book says about making a Manhattan:

Manhattan (Attributed to Jenny Churchill, the mother of Sir Winston Churchill)

7/10 Canadian whisky, 3/10 red vermouth, a few drops of angostura bitters, 1 cherry in eau-de-vie

Pour the ingredients into a mixing glass then into a cocktail glass and drop in a cherry in eau-de-vie. If you use a stick to hold the cherry, make sure the end of the stick passes the glass by at least 1 1/4 inch. 

I have neither cocktail glasses or cherries in eau-de-vie. But I do have mason jars chilled in the freezer and fresh cherries (they've been the real theme of the week).

I'm working with Old Overholt rye, Angostura bitters, and Carpano Antica formula vermouth, with a fresh cherry.

And results?

Not bad. Not fancy cocktail bar level. But not bad.

And then…I CHEATED. My best friends came over and told me how bad drinking from a straw was in terms of creating pressure in the mouth. And then they fed me some of the best chicken I've had. Slow boiled with ginger, star anise, and garlic, and cooled overnight in broth. Recipe coming soon. But one of the best things I've had. And easy to eat through pain. 

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Trying to be perfect in the morning

I wanted oatmeal this morning. I started putting the dish together in my head: "Oatmeal, nuts and dried fruit, yogurt, drizzle of honey. Ooh, that sounds good, and I'll take a pretty picture of it for the blog. Set. Done. Got it. Good job."

When I actually started trying to make this, I realized I didn't have oatmeal.  And no rice either, to make a porridge. And then I laughed at myself. For having this built up idea of how something was going to play out, and then being told by the universe: NOPE, you're not getting what you thought you were getting. So here's what I made for breakfast instead. A lot of the same ingredients from earlier in the week: Yogurt, cucumbers, avocado, and cherries. I put some olive oil, salt, and za'atar on everything but the cherries. Sometimes it's good for me to work with what I have, instead of fantasizing about things in my head, food and otherwise. 

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Bowls

My go-to for the past few months has been putting together bowls based around brown rice. 

Why bowls? They're definitely the most efficient dish to eat in. You can put all components of the meal into one dish, and there's less to clean up. You also don't necessarily have to cook each element. 

Here's what my meals will look like for the next few days--until I run out of these ingredients. This bowl has brown rice, egg, avocado, cheddar cheese, blue corn chips, and salsa. Fry the egg in butter (trust me), and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. 

But bowls are also comforting. As children, they're what my sister and I grew up eating out of day in, day out. In my mind, the bowl symbolizes an everyday way of eating--something that fuels action, and not to be dawdled over. Plates are for vacation.

In stories about Zen or Hinduism, wandering mendicants always have a bowl with them, used for food and for alms. I can't imagine the refrain of 'bhiksham dehi' (give me alms) being used with anything else but a bowl. 

Bowls also remind me of Anjali mudra from Bharatanatyam. 

The shape of two hands meeting (the original bowl) can be used both to offer and receive. Take part of the generosity that is shared with you, and in turn, offer from and of yourself.