everything is going wrong, but I’m so happy

From Donia by Donia Clark

November 9, 2009

Ben Bernanke recently declared the recession over, which may very well be true for him and those on Wall Street, but the company I work for doesn’t feel the same way. They recently gave me a raise, then cut me down to part-time in order to save money.

They no longer have to pay for a full day’s work or any benefits. I’ve decided to look on the bright side of this event. With the raise they gave me, I’m bringing home as much working part-time as I was working full-time and I don’t have to come in until 11:30 a.m. each day, so I get to sleep late and be leisurely in getting ready for work. If there’s two things I don’t like it’s getting up early in the morning and being rushed.

I decided to celebrate having a little more slack in my life by splurging on something I don’t get to eat too often because it’s too expensive: fish. I was in luck that day because I found a great deal on some salmon, which is one of my favorite fishes.

I decided I would throw together some salmon and lentils. I heated up a couple teaspoons of olive oil in a Dutch oven and tossed in about a tablespoon of chopped shallots and a couple teaspoons of chopped garlic, then added a few cups of chicken broth, about a cup of lentils, a small onion with a clove pressed into it, about a half teaspoon of thyme, a dash of salt and about a teaspoon of pepper. I brought it to a boil, then turned it down to simmer, covered it and left it alone for about a half hour.

At that point, I peeled and chopped a couple carrots and a couple small turnips, put them in the pot and simmered them for about another 10 minutes. After that, I took the clove out of the onion, threw it away and chopped up that clove-flavored little allium and dumped it back in the pot.

I added a little more salt and pepper into the soupy mass of lentils and veggies. Then I laid half of the the salmon fillets I bought on top, covered the pot and simmered it for about another 10 minutes. I squeezed some lemon juice over it, made a martini (another luxury) and served up the tender salmon on a bed of lentils. It was heavenly.

The next night I continued the decadence after I read this article by Matthew Amster-Burton about searing fish:

http://www.culinate.com/columns/bacon/searing_fish

I followed his directions for searing thin fillets with one exception. I didn’t cut the fillets into smaller pieces to practice until I obtained the perfect sear. I’m not a fussy eater and I figured my cooking skills are good enough that any mistake wouldn’t be horribly inedible.

My audacity was rewarded with some excellent beginner’s luck. The four fillets I placed in the pan came out with a beautiful golden crust. I took the fillets out and put in a little more oil, turned the heat down, scraped up the crispy bits from the pan, tossed in some spinach, onions, garlic, basil and a little salt and pepper, put the cover on and let it wilt. Once again, I squeezed some lemon over the fish and spinach, made a martini and enjoyed yet another supremely delicious meal.

I’m only working part-time, I’m living paycheck to paycheck with no health care, no vacation, no sick days, no benefits whatsoever and I’ll soon have to turn back to the inexpensive minimalist dinner recipes I’ve stored from Mark Bittman, but until the leftovers run out, I’m in a land of plenty and the future looks bright.

it’s a fatty affair

From Donia by Donia Clark

September 3, 2009

About a month ago, it was my friend Jynell’s birthday and I gave her Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything. This was hard for me to do because I have a crush on Mark Bittman and I’ve been wanting that book for a long time. While Bittman’s not bad looking, my crush stems from his way of cooking. We share the same philosophy that cooking doesn’t need to be as difficult, time-consuming and over-loaded with ingredients as many people make it out to be.

While he’s been writing for quite some time, I wasn’t turned onto his minimalist concept of cooking until a few years ago when I ran across his column, aptly titled The Minimalist in the New York Times. It was shortly after I had broken my ankle. The cast was off, I was on crutches and back in my own apartment doing DIY physical therapy to literally get me back on my foot. I was jobless. My unemployment covered my rent and nothing else.

Food came from $10 a month in food stamps, visiting food pantries and the kind donations of friends. I was eating a lot of beans, rice and pasta. That first Bittman column I read focused on minimalist dinners. I copied down each of the vegetarian recipes into a notebook and discovered not only a lot of recipes that featured beans, rice and pasta, but the ones that didn’t were also cheap and easy to make with the added benefit of being highly delicious.

In his columns, he takes a loose approach with recipes. His book recipes are a bit more structured, but still leave plenty of room for tailoring food to personal taste. Ingredients are mixed, matched, substituted and suggested. Measurements and cooking times are approximations. The message is: “Experiment. Play. Have fun. Let go.”

Soon I was making “ghetto” versions of gazpacho, chile rellenos, migas, etc. These recipes spoke to me. They weren’t for purists. They were for people who only had three ingredients and a frying pan. They were for poor people like me and they were delicious. They made my meager food supply into enticing entrees. Sure, some of his recipes are too insanely expensive for my budget (caviar and octopus don’t come cheap in Illinois), but there’s usually an acceptable substitute or if not, another recipe to mess around with. After that, I started reading his column faithfully.

When I came across How To Cook Everything at a book sale, I couldn’t believe my good fortune. Finally, I had a Mark Bittman cookbook! For $2! Then, I remembered Jynell’s birthday and figured this would make a good gift for her. She likes to cook and she would probably appreciate adding the knowledge of how to cook everything to her set of mad skillz, so I wrapped it in newspaper and presented it to her when we were on our way to a White Sox game. Parting was sweet sorrow for Mark and I, but I did copy a few recipes from the book and I absorbed some of his tips along the way. Hopefully, karma will work its magic and I’ll once again come across a cheap copy of How To Cook Everything or one of his other books. The other day, I made his recipe for basic burgers and reveled in its bloody juiciness (I like my beef rare). Listen to Sly & The Family Stone’s “There’s A Riot Going On” while making. It’s as greasy and sizzling as the patties on the grill. You can find Bittman’s Basic Burgers here:

http://www.culinate.com/search/q,vt=top,q=basic+burger/39390

soul apple compote

From Donia by Donia Clark

August 27, 2009

I haven’t been able to post here as much as I might like to because I don’t have a computer and while my boss is fairly cool about me using the Internet for personal purposes, it has been insanely busy, so no play until work is done.

I also moved recently, making this the fourth move in a year. Hopefully, I’m done with that for awhile. Through it all, I’ve still been cooking in my Gen X style. As a matter of fact, I’ve been cooking even more now that I don’t have to share a kitchen with roommates whose domestic skills are minimal, at best.

Last night, I made a baked apple compote. It was a great comfort in a summer that has been dominated by rain and cold. I took a few apples, sliced them in half and stuck half a cinnamon stick on one side and a clove on the other side of each half. Then I put them cut side down on a cookie sheet in a 325-degree oven for about the time it takes to listen to Aretha Franklin’s “Soul ‘69” album. I let the apples cool for about 15 minutes, then scooped the flesh from the skin into a bowl, tossed in about a teaspoon of lemon juice, mashed it up with a fork, sprinkled on a little salt and some pepper. I took the bowl onto my porch and slowly ate while I watched yet another rainstorm come down.

baba ganoush

From Donia by Donia Clark

May 18, 2009

For some reason, I always thought baba ganoush would be hard to make. I’ve been craving it a lot lately and while there is an excellent Middle Eastern restaurant near me that makes great baba, my budget doesn’t allow for me to go there as often as I would like. Last night, I decided it was time for me to take the recipe into my own hands. I looked at a bunch of recipes online and in cookbooks, found out what the common ingredients were and tweaked it to my taste.

I poked a bunch of holes in an eggplant to keep it from exploding, then tossed it in the oven to roast for about half an hour. When it was done, I wrapped it in several layers of plastic wrap and let it sit for about another half hour. I then cut the tip off with some kitchen shears and squeezed the eggplant out of the plastic wrap like it was toothpaste. That awesome trick came to me from Alton Brown. Usually, that dude annoys me with his dork schtick, but that is one tip worth keeping. I find him much more palatable to read than watch.

Anyway, that little time and labor-saver was one-half of what made this so easy. The second came from my blender. After I drained the eggplant for about 10 minutes, I combined a couple teaspoons of garlic, a little over a quarter cup of lemon juice (say 5 ounces, for those who like measurements), the eggplant pulp, a few tablespoons of tahini, about a half teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of pepper and about a half teaspoon of honey, pulsed it a few times and baba ganoush! I toasted some pita bread, slathered the baba on and called it dinner. Very addictive! I can see this becoming a staple, especially since it takes almost no effort at all.

you can pick the girl out of the white trash, but you can’t pick the white trash out of girl

From Donia by Donia Clark

March 16, 2009

I grew up in a small town in Western New York. My family wasn’t much into cooking. My grandmother was the first to benefit from the miracle of frozen and processed foods that began being popular in the 1950s. She no longer had to labor for hours to make goulash. She could just fry up some hamburger, boil some boxed macaroni, pop open a jar of sauce, mix it all together and voila! Just like grandma used to make! Sorta.

But with six rambunctious kids, grandma was more concerned with getting them fed right away than getting them fed right. No one knew those salt and fat-laden containers were not the best thing to load up on, so load up on them my family did

While my father was alive, he expected a meat-and-potatoes meal when he came home. Mom usually broiled or boiled (blecch!) some meat (Thursday was always liver night, ugh!) and served them with frozen vegetables that had been boiled (ewww!) and instant potatoes or one of those flavored noodle or rice packages where you could just add some hot water and have a salty side dish in minutes.

After my father died (of a heart attack), we were much poorer and my mother gave up the meat and two sides dinners in favor of one-dish Hamburger or Tuna Helper with frozen or canned (yuck!) vegetables thrown in. Hot dogs and ramen noodles also became staples. The rest of my relatives cooked much the same way.

In 1977, Western New York was buried under a blizzard that dumped about 14 feet of snow on the ground in three days. My mother was in Buffalo visiting my father in the hospital. My brother and I were stranded at one of my aunt and uncle’s house.

It was there that I had my first taste of “Mexican” cooking. My aunt Debi made salsa chicken and baked corn. I think she got the recipe off a can of corn. She took a couple cans of corn, drained them and mixed them in a saucepan with half a package of small brick of cream cheese and a few tablespoons of butter.

She heated the whole thing until the cream cheese was melted. She then drained a small can of diced green chiles and stirred them into the corn along with a little garlic. Then she poured the whole concoction into a small baking dish and put it in the oven for about 30 minutes. In the meantime, she threw some chicken in a pan and smothered it with a jar of salsa.

At the time, I thought it was the best thing ever. My mom didn’t like spicy stuff, so our diet was very bland. This “Mexican” dish seemed so exotic to me. I carried the recipe around in my head for years until my mom let me get near the stove. I used to make it quite often.

After I started thinking I needed to eat healthier, it fell by the wayside, but once or twice a year, I get a craving for that “Mexican” dish. Last night was one of those nights. For a moment, I was back in my small-town, white-trash youth. Now that I live in a big city where I get authentic Mexican cooking and make serviceable variations, that dish no longer seems exotic, just a quaint throwback to a time I’m glad has passed.

KISS Army

From Donia by Donia Clark

February 20, 2009

I made this last night as my theme of Keeping It Sweet and Simple continues.

Roasted cauliflower with olive oil and salt.

This is something one of my ex’s mother used to make when we went to his parents for Sunday dinner. She was straight off the boat from Napoli and an excellent cook. Basically, you cut a head of cauliflower into florets, mix it with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, a little salt, spread it out on a cookie sheet and throw it in a 450 degree oven for about a half hour, flipping the florets about half way through. So sweet, so simple! Delizioso!!

Dinner last night and lunch today

From Donia by Donia Clark

February 9, 2009

From The Minimalist column by Mark Bittman (“101 Dinners In 20 Minutes Or Less” New York Times August 2007): Grated carrots topped with soft boiled eggs, olive oil and lemon juice.