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Easy Morning Glory Muffins

Description

These easy and tasty muffins are a glorious way to start any day. They combine the great taste and chewy texture of carrots with the wonderful flavors of apple, raisins, coconut, walnuts, and cinnamon.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
1 apple - peeled, cored and shredded
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups, or line with paper muffin liners.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the carrot, raisins, nuts, coconut, and apple.

In a separate bowl, beat together eggs, oil, and vanilla. Stir egg mixture into the carrot/flour mixture, just until moistened. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Nutritional Information
Servings Per Recipe: 12
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 422

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Sodium: 289.0mg

Protein: 5.0g

Dietary Fiber: 2.7g

Cholesterol: 52.9mg

Carbohydrates: 45.4g

Fat: 25.4g

SPECULAAS

Speculaas, a cross between a spice cookie and a shortbread, are traditionally eaten on St. Nicholas' Eve in the Netherlands. In "The Gourmet Cookie Book" by Gourmet magazine (2010), where I found the recipe, it said speculaas are one of the oldest cookies on record. They began life as gifts to the gods, left in fields as offerings to ensure a good harvest. They remind me of the classic Archway windmill cookies - only better.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

3 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground aniseed

1/2 teaspoon ginger or white pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened

1-1/2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1/4 cup flour (for rolling dough)

1 cup slivered blanched almonds

1 egg white, lightly beaten

To prepare oven, cookie sheet: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter cookie sheet. Set aside.

To make dough: Into bowl, sift together 3 cups flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, aniseed, ginger and salt. Set aside. In bowl of electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in milk. Gradually add flour mixture, stirring until well combined. Form dough into a ball.

To make dough: Knead dough on board sprinkled with flour. Roll dough into rectangle 1/4-inch thick. Using sharp knife or cutter, cut dough into 2-1/2-inch-by-1-1/2-inch rectangles. Put rectangles on prepared cookie sheet. Sprinkle rectangles with blanched almonds, gently pushing nuts into dough. Brush cookies with lightly beaten egg white. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until firm.

Raw, Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting (raw, vegan, gluten and soy free)

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 cup walnuts (not soaked)
1 cup dates
2 heaping cups carrot pulp OR grated raw carrots
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
Dash nutmeg
1/8 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup raisins

Raw, Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting (makes over 1 cup)

1 cup cashews, soaked 1+ hours
6 pitted dates, also soaked 1+ hours (you can soak them together!)
Dash sea salt
1 tsp lemon juice
Water

1) Process the dates and walnuts in a food processor fitted with the S blade till they resemble a Larabar mix.

2) Add carrot pulp or grated carrots and spices. Process till the mix has taken the form of a smooth “dough.”

3) Add raisins and pulse to combine.

4) For the frosting: rinse cashews and dates of their soak water, and place in a food processor with salt and lemon. Process until the mixture is pasty and well combined. Add just enough water as the motor is running to get the frosting consistency you want.

5) Push the carrot cake dough into six muffin tins or ramekins and refrigerate for about an hour. Remove from the fridge, and get frosting!

6) Serve, snack, and savor.

Franni Franken’s Holiday Recipes

Can you believe it’s already Thanksgiving? It seems like the time just flies by -- it’s hard to believe I’ve been sharing these Franken family recipes with our extended family of supporters for five straight years now.

But sharing these traditional recipes with all of you has become one of my favorite traditions. And if you didn’t get a chance to try them last year, we find they’re good every year. So without further ado, here are some of our most cherished and time-tested Franken family recipes. I got hungry reading them -- and I bet you will, too.

As we celebrate this holiday, I hope you know how grateful Al, the kids, and I are to have your support and friendship. And I hope that you and your family enjoy a wonderful -- and delicious -- Thanksgiving.

Best wishes,

Franni

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AUNT CARLA'S PUMPKIN CORNBREAD
It is impossible to just have one piece. Be sure to make it the night before so you can have some with your Thanksgiving morning coffee.

Ingredients
2 cups cornmeal
2 cups white flour
1 cup sugar
2 tbs. baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 1/4 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup milk

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. On the first speed of a hand or standing mixer, beat together the eggs, oil, pumpkin puree, and milk.
4. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry in three batches with a rubber spatula. The batter will be smooth, and is more fluffy than liquidy.
5. Pour the batter into a 9 by 13 baking pan (or two loaf pans), and place in the middle rack of the oven.
6. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick stuck in the middle of the cornbread comes out dry.
7. Let the cornbread cool for ten minutes, and then cut into pieces and serve.

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THOMASIN'S ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH
Ingredients
1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1 in. cubed chunks
3 tbs. unsalted butter, cut into small chunks, plus more for greasing the pan
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tbs. light brown sugar

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Grease a cookie sheet, and scatter the squash chunks on it.
3. Evenly spread out the chunks of butter among the squash, and sprinkle the cinnamon and brown sugar evenly on the squash.
4. Roast in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until the squash is tender. You can poke the squash with a cake tester, a fork, or a small knife to test.

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FRANNI'S PUREED BUTTERNUT SQUASH
Ingredients
1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 in. cubed chunks.
3 tbs. unsalted butter
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
1. Bring the butternut squash chunks to boil in a saucepan.
2. Turn the heat down to medium, and let cook until the squash is tender, approximately ten to fifteen minutes.
3. Drain the squash, and mash with a masher or a hand mixer.
4. Add the butter and salt and pepper to taste.

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AL'S WILD RICE STUFFING
It's great alone, but Thomasin loves mixing it up with peas, mashed potatoes, and gravy.

Ingredients
1 lb. Wild rice (Mahnomen)
one stick butter
ten cloves of garlic
3 medium sized yellow onions
4 stalks of celery
2 lbs. White button mushrooms
salt to taste

Preparation
1. In a colander, rinse the wild rice.
2. Put the rice in a pot, and cover with 3 inches of water. Boil in a pot, uncovered, for about 20 to 25 minutes. If you're using Mahnomen wild rice, it will cook more quickly than the paddy variety.
3. While the rice is boiling, slice (do not mince) the mushrooms, onions, garlic, and celery.
4. Melt the butter in a skillet, and sauté the onions, garlic, and celery until they begin to bleed a little liquid into the butter. Then add the mushrooms. The celery and onions should not be totally soft.
5. Once the rice has cooked, drain it and add to the sautéed vegetables.
6. Add salt to taste, and stuff into the turkey before roasting. The rest can be eaten as a side dish at dinner.

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FRANKEN FAMILY POST-THANKSGIVING TURKEY SANDWICH
This is my favorite use of left over turkey.

Ingredients
2 slices of rye bread
1 tsp unsalted whipped butter
turkey breast
2 iceberg lettuce leaves
salt to taste

Preparation
1. Spread unsalted whipped butter on the rye bread.
2. Sprinkle on salt.
3. Place turkey and lettuce on top of one piece of bread, and place the other piece of bread on top.
4. Slice in half and enjoy!

Butternut Squash, Ricotta, and Sage Crostini

Perfect for Fall and Winter fare. I use Splenda Brown Sugar or the real thing.

I dare you to try these as a party appetizer. Goes great with white or rose wine or champagne.

Ingredients:

1 2-pound butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 1/2" cubes (about 4 cups)
3 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for drizzling
1 1/2 teaspoons (packed) light brown sugar
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
24 fresh sage leaves
3/4 cup fresh ricotta
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
12 3/8"-thick baguette slices, toasted
Fresh lemon juice

Method:

Preheat oven to 425°F. Toss squash, 2 tablespoons oil, and sugar in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Arrange in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast, tossing occasionally, until squash is golden and tender, 25-30 minutes. Let cool on sheet.

Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add sage; cook until edges begin to curl and turn dark green, 1-2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, carefully transfer to paper towels to drain. Mix ricotta and lemon zest in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD: Butternut squash, sage leaves, and ricotta can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill squash. Store sage airtight at room temperature. Cover and chill ricotta mixture. Bring squash to room temperature before serving.

Spread 1 tablespoon of ricotta mixture on each baguette slice. Top each with a few squash cubes. Drizzle crostini with lemon juice and olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top crostini with 2 fried sage leaves each.

Corn Shucking with no Silk Bits

You have to see this to believe it.

Something Corny

Super Sweet Corn has hit the produce stands and it is delicious. There ae four main ways to prepare it and here they are:

Boil or steam It;
Soak it in ice water, strip the corn hair out, close it back up and grill it in the husk;
Strip it and roast it on a hot grill;
Prepare it any of the ways above but then coat it with melted butter and spicy cayenne pepper.

Any of these ways is good. If you use cayenne pepper use a light hand remembering that others may not like things as spicy as you do. Better yet, let them put their own spices on the corn.

Old Fashioned Corn Chowder

Corn is in season here in the Midwest. It's plentiful, delicious, nutritious, cheap, and perfect for the occasional rainy day meal when outdoor grilling is cancelled but the corn is on hand. Here is a really good recipe:

Ingredients

1/2 cup diced bacon
4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups water
3 cups cream-style corn
2 teaspoons salt
ground black pepper to taste
2 cups half-and-half

Directions

Place the bacon in a large pot over medium-high heat, and cook until crisp. Drain and crumble, reserving about 2 tablespoons drippings in the pot.

Mix potatoes and onion into the pot with the crumbled bacon and reserved drippings. Cook and stir 5 minutes. Pour in the water, and stir in corn. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and cover pot. Simmer 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until potatoes are tender.

Warm the half-and-half in a small saucepan until it bubbles. Remove from heat before it boils, and mix into the chowder just before serving.

Note: If you like a thicker chowder then thicken with instant potato flakes, adding just a tablespoon at a time. For Clam Chowder I just replace half of the water with a bottle of clam juice and replace the corn with 2 cans of clams. Delicious every time. If you like a richer broth you can use chicken broth in place of water. If you choose to eliminate the bacon then replace it with 2 Tbsp of canola oil and a pinch of hot pepper flakes. As you can see this is a flexible recipe.

Calories: 256 | Total Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 26mg

Monkey Bread – Easy and Delicious

Paul Munnis

It is pretty easy to knock off a pan of Monkey Bread.

What you need is three 10 oz cans of store bought Crescent Rolls or similar bread biscuits.

Melt a stick of butter in the microwave and add 2 tsp of cinnamon to flavor it.

Grease or butter a pan like a Bundt or tube cake pan -- use cooking spry if desired.

Remove a roll segment from the stack taken from one of the three cans, dip it in the butter and line the pan with the pieces in a circular fashion overlapping to build up the layers without collapse.

Between layers you can place raisins or dried cranberries or dried cherries or dried apricots, or nothing – to taste.

Once the pieces are all assembled place the pan into a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes. Then place a piece of aluminum foil on top to prevent scorching. Resume baking for another 30 minutes unless the pan is made of Teflon. If it’s Teflon then resume baking for only another 25 minutes.

Tip the monkey bread out onto a serving plate and serve warm for dinner.

Great with Stews or use garlic powder in place of the cinnamon and serve with a pasta meal.

People tear pieces of the bread off to eat with their meal.

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Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage Recipe

A traditional Austrian dish and made Danish by adding caraway seed; or, Polish by adding bacon and bacon fat in place of the butter. Apples are a German addition. However you finish it, it’s fast, easy, economical and goes good with poultry, pork, or sausages.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
• 1 2-pound red cabbage, thinly sliced (about 12 cups)
• 6 Tbsp sugar
• 2/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Method

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add cabbage and sauté until slightly wilted, about 5 minutes. Add sugar, toss to coat evenly. Add vinegar. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover, simmer until cabbage is tender, stirring often, about 30 minutes.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serves 6-8

Sweet Potato Casserole

Green Bean Casserole might be the hit of the Church supper circuit in the mid-west but it does not go over well as family food on my table -- especially at holiday time.

Sweet potato casserole is always asked for and it goes well with an Easter Ham, or slow roasted turkey. With a steak or roast beef it is not out of bounds.

This recipe uses good old fashioned molasses to kick it up a notch and eliminates the marshmallow and overdone amounts of brown sugar found in similar recipes.

Enjoy.

SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE

1 lb. can sweet potatoes or yams

1 sm. can crushed pineapple in juice, undrained

Dash each of cinnamon, nutmeg & cloves

3 tsp. butter

Molasses

Heat sweet potatoes through. Drain. Mash. Add pineapple and juice, spices and butter. Stir to blend. Spread into 1 quart casserole. Drizzle with molasses. Dot with additional butter. Bake at 450 degrees until lightly browned. About 30 minutes.

Dawn Wells: Quick and Easy Potato Peeling Video 01:48

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Dawn Wells, aka Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island demonstrates her secret way to peel an Idaho Potato.

To view more cool potato videos, visit http://youtube.com/group/iTuberContest.

For great Idaho Potato recipes and more cool stuff, visit http://www.idahopotato.com.

The Temporary Vegetarian

Vegan Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash and Apple With Candied Walnuts

By ELAINE LOUIE
NY TIMES

Carmen Quagliata, the executive chef at Union Square Cafe, is often at the Greenmarket near the restaurant.

In the fall and winter, he is drawn to brussels sprouts, butternut squash and apple. Cooked with candied walnuts, they make a perfect cold-weather dish.

Mr. Quagliata halves the brussels sprouts, and cuts the butternut squash and the apples into asymmetrical chunks. He suggests you do not stir the vegetables and fruit as they cook in the oven. “You want sharp, roasted edges,” he said. “You don’t want it fuzzy.” And look for the Honeycrisp apple at the market. “It holds its shape and won’t turn into apple sauce,” he said.

The candied walnuts add a luxurious crunch. If you are in a rush, you can substitute store-bought candied walnuts. But if you have the time, make them yourself. They have a fresh, light crispness to them, and just the right amount of sweetness. You might want to triple the recipe, for they can be stored for three days; the oil can be skimmed, refrigerated and reused.

To serve the dish as a complete meal, Mr. Quagliata suggests serving it with toasted walnut bread.

Yield 2 to 3 servings, Time 1 1/2 hours

Adapted from Carmen Quagliata, Executive Chef, Union Square Cafe

Ingredients

For the brussels sprouts:
* 1 1/2 cups brussels sprouts, trimmed, halved
* 2 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch asymmetrical chunks
* 2 cups (about 1 large) Honeycrisp, Cortland, or Granny Smith apple, cored and cut into 1-inch asymmetrical chunks
* 1 shallot, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch slices
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 5 fresh sage leaves
* Salt and freshly ground pepper
* 1/2 tablespoon maple syrup

For the walnuts: (purchased candied walnuts may be substituted)
* 6 cups vegetable oil
* 6 ounces walnut halves
* 2 cups confectioners' sugar
* kosher salt

Method

* 1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large, shallow, baking dish, toss the brussels sprouts, butternut squash, apple and shallot with olive oil and sage leaves. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bake without stirring until vegetables and apple are wrinkled, slightly brown, and the edges of the squash are beginning to crisp, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Meanwhile, prepare the walnuts.

* 2. For the walnuts: Place a deep fryer or high-sided saucepan over high heat, and add vegetable or canola oil to come no closer than 3 inches from the top of the pot; when walnuts are added the oil will bubble and rise. Heat to 375 degrees. If using a saucepan, reduce heat to very low to hold temperature.

* 3. In a medium pot over high heat, bring 4 cups water to a boil. Add walnuts and boil for 10 seconds. Drain well and immediately toss with confectioners’ sugar. Spread flat on a baking sheet and allow to dry for a few minutes.

* 4. Have baking sheet lined with paper towels nearby. Working in batches if necessary, add walnuts to oil and stir once or twice. Fry until amber-brown, about 30 seconds. Using a wire skimmer or heatproof slotted spoon, remove walnuts from oil, and transfer to paper towels. Sprinkle lightly with salt and allow to cool for 5 minutes before handling. May be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.

* 5. To serve: Remove vegetables from oven, drizzle with maple syrup and sprinkle with 2 to 3 tablespoons of halved or roughly crumbled walnut pieces. Serve, if desired, with walnut bread.

Very Fast and Easy Baked Goods

Paul Munnis

Rachael Ray has kicked off a couple of food fads that are sweeping the nation.

The first is the quick muffin fix.

The second is waffle maker cake.

In the first, a box of dry cake or muffin or cookie mix is taken and incorporated (dry) with a can of apple sauce or a can of pumpkin. (One very nice combo is spice cake mix and a can of pumpkin). Nothing else is added to the batch, just those two things and they are spooned into cupcake papers and baked in muffin tins.

Quickest dessert you ever made. Today I’m going to use a golden cake mix and a can of blueberries to make blueberry muffins.

In the second method , a box of brownie mix has just the oil and eggs added and mixed in. Then a liberal dose of PAM is put onto the pre-heated waffle iron, a half cup mix per frame of the waffle iron is placed, the lid closed, and after ten to fifteen minutes the brownies are ready to eat. They come out as cake brownies. Kids doing this should be supervised around the hot waffle maker.

In both methods all sorts of cake mixes can be substituted and lately Rachael has been making ham and eggs waffles using instant Eggo’s .

You can look up more about this under her online recipe collection.

Slow-Baked Beans With Kale

February 1, 2011
Slow-Baked Beans With Kale
By MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN
NY TIMES

Beans baked very slowly for several hours develop a creamy texture, while the liquid they cook in, which thickens to a syrup, acquires a caramelized flavor. The kale practically melts in this casserole, going from bitter to sweet. I love using lima beans in this dish because they’re so big and their texture is so luxurious.

1 bunch kale, stemmed and washed in two changes of water

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 rib celery, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 2/3 cups white beans (3/4 pound) or dried lima beans, picked over and soaked for at least four hours and drained

1 6-ounce can tomato paste, dissolved in 1 cup water

3 cups additional water

A bouquet garni consisting of 4 parsley sprigs, 2 thyme sprigs and a bay leaf

1 teaspoon herbes de Provence

Salt and a generous amount of freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt generously and add the kale. Blanch for two minutes, then transfer to a bowl of ice water. Drain, squeeze out water and cut into ribbons. Set aside. (I blanch the kale to extract some of the bitterness, but you can skip this step if you wish).

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat in a large ovenproof casserole. Add the onion, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is tender, about five minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds to a minute. Add the dissolved tomato paste, and bring to a simmer.

3. Add the drained beans, the remaining water, the bouquet garni, herbes de Provence and salt and pepper.. Stir in the kale, bring to a simmer, cover and place in the oven. Bake three hours until the beans are tender and creamy. Taste and adjust salt.

4. Mix together the remaining olive oil and the bread crumbs. Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the beans, and continue to bake another 30 minutes to an hour until the bread crumbs are lightly browned. Remove from the heat and serve; or allow to cool slightly and serve.

Note: Make sure that the beans come to a simmer on top of the stove before placing them in the oven. Do not use old beans, which will not soften no matter how long you simmer them. If the beans do not soften in the oven after a couple of hours, raise the heat to 300 degrees. If you live at a high altitude, raise the oven temperature and let the the beans bake for longer.

Yield: Serves six.

Advance preparation: You can make this recipe through Step 3 and store it in the refrigerator up to four days ahead of serving. Top with the bread crumbs, and reheat in a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes until the beans are bubbling and the bread crumbs lightly browned.

Nutritional information per serving (six servings): 370 calories; 8 grams fat (1 gram saturated fat); 0 milligrams cholesterol; 58 grams carbohydrates; 12 grams dietary fiber; 191 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 19 grams protein

Martha Rose Shulman is the author of "The Very Best of Recipes for Health."

The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work

By MARK BITTMAN
NY TIMES
November 8, 2006

INNOVATIONS in bread baking are rare. In fact, the 6,000-year-old process hasn’t changed much since Pasteur made the commercial production of standardized yeast possible in 1859. The introduction of the gas stove, the electric mixer and the food processor made the process easier, faster and more reliable.

I’m not counting sliced bread as a positive step, but Jim Lahey’s method may be the greatest thing since.

This story began in late September when Mr. Lahey sent an e-mail message inviting me to attend a session of a class he was giving at Sullivan Street Bakery, which he owns, at 533 West 47th Street in Manhattan. His wording was irresistible: “I’ll be teaching a truly minimalist breadmaking technique that allows people to make excellent bread at home with very little effort. The method is surprisingly simple — I think a 4-year-old could master it — and the results are fantastic.”

I set up a time to visit Mr. Lahey, and we baked together, and the only bad news is that you cannot put your 4-year-old to work producing bread for you. The method is complicated enough that you would need a very ambitious 8-year-old. But the results are indeed fantastic.

Mr. Lahey’s method is striking on several levels. It requires no kneading. (Repeat: none.) It uses no special ingredients, equipment or techniques. It takes very little effort.

It accomplishes all of this by combining a number of unusual though not unheard of features. Most notable is that you’ll need about 24 hours to create a loaf; time does almost all the work. Mr. Lahey’s dough uses very little yeast, a quarter teaspoon (you almost never see a recipe with less than a teaspoon), and he compensates for this tiny amount by fermenting the dough very slowly. He mixes a very wet dough, about 42 percent water, which is at the extreme high end of the range that professional bakers use to create crisp crust and large, well-structured crumb, both of which are evident in this loaf.

The dough is so sticky that you couldn’t knead it if you wanted to. It is mixed in less than a minute, then sits in a covered bowl, undisturbed, for about 18 hours. It is then turned out onto a board for 15 minutes, quickly shaped (I mean in 30 seconds), and allowed to rise again, for a couple of hours. Then it’s baked. That’s it.

I asked Harold McGee, who is an amateur breadmaker and best known as the author of “On Food and Cooking” (Scribner, 2004), what he thought of this method. His response: “It makes sense. The long, slow rise does over hours what intensive kneading does in minutes: it brings the gluten molecules into side-by-side alignment to maximize their opportunity to bind to each other and produce a strong, elastic network. The wetness of the dough is an important piece of this because the gluten molecules are more mobile in a high proportion of water, and so can move into alignment easier and faster than if the dough were stiff.”

That’s as technical an explanation as I care to have, enough to validate what I already knew: Mr. Lahey’s method is creative and smart.

But until this point, it’s not revolutionary. Mr. McGee said he had been kneading less and less as the years have gone by, relying on time to do the work for him. Charles Van Over, author of the authoritative book on food-processor dough making, “The Best Bread Ever” (Broadway, 1997), long ago taught me to make a very wet dough (the food processor is great at this) and let it rise slowly. And, as Mr. Lahey himself notes, “The Egyptians mixed their batches of dough with a hoe.”

What makes Mr. Lahey’s process revolutionary is the resulting combination of great crumb, lightness, incredible flavor — long fermentation gives you that — and an enviable, crackling crust, the feature of bread that most frequently separates the amateurs from the pros. My bread has often had thick, hard crusts, not at all bad, but not the kind that shatter when you bite into them. Producing those has been a bane of the amateur for years, because it requires getting moisture onto the bread as the crust develops.

To get that kind of a crust, professionals use steam-injected ovens. At home I have tried brushing the dough with water (a hassle and ineffective); spraying it (almost as ineffective and requiring frequent attention); throwing ice cubes on the floor of the oven (not good for the oven, and not far from ineffective); and filling a pot with stones and preheating it, then pouring boiling water over the stones to create a wet sauna (quite effective but dangerous, physically challenging and space-consuming). I was discouraged from using La Cloche, a covered stoneware dish, by my long-standing disinclination to crowd my kitchen with inessential items that accomplish only one chore. I was discouraged from buying a $5,000 steam-injected oven by its price.

It turns out there’s no need for any of this. Mr. Lahey solves the problem by putting the dough in a preheated covered pot — a common one, a heavy one, but nothing fancy. For one loaf he used an old Le Creuset enameled cast iron pot; for another, a heavy ceramic pot. (I have used cast iron with great success.) By starting this very wet dough in a hot, covered pot, Mr. Lahey lets the crust develop in a moist, enclosed environment. The pot is in effect the oven, and that oven has plenty of steam in it. Once uncovered, a half-hour later, the crust has time to harden and brown, still in the pot, and the bread is done. (Fear not. The dough does not stick to the pot any more than it would to a preheated bread stone.)

The entire process is incredibly simple, and, in the three weeks I’ve been using it, absolutely reliable. Though professional bakers work with consistent flour, water, yeast and temperatures, and measure by weight, we amateurs have mostly inconsistent ingredients and measure by volume, which can make things unpredictable. Mr. Lahey thinks imprecision isn’t much of a handicap and, indeed, his method seems to iron out the wrinkles: “I encourage a somewhat careless approach,” he says, “and figure this may even be a disappointment to those who expect something more difficult. The proof is in the loaf.”

The loaf is incredible, a fine-bakery quality, European-style boule that is produced more easily than by any other technique I’ve used, and will blow your mind. (It may yet change the industry. Mr. Lahey is experimenting with using it on a large scale, but although it requires far less electricity than conventional baking, it takes a lot of space and time.) It is best made with bread flour, but all-purpose flour works fine. (I’ve played with whole-wheat and rye flours, too; the results are fantastic.)

You or your 8-year-old may hit this perfectly on the first try, or you may not. Judgment is involved; with practice you’ll get it right every time.

The baking itself is virtually foolproof, so the most important aspect is patience. Long, slow fermentation is critical. Mr. Lahey puts the time at 12 to 18 hours, but I have had much greater success at the longer time. If you are in a hurry, more yeast (three-eighths of a teaspoon) or a warmer room temperature may move things along, but really, once you’re waiting 12 hours why not wait 18? Similarly, Mr. Lahey’s second rising can take as little as an hour, but two hours, or even a little longer, works better.

Although even my “failed” loaves were as good as those from most bakeries, to make the loaf really sensational requires a bit of a commitment. But with just a little patience, you will be rewarded with the best no-work bread you have ever made. And that’s no small thing.

No-Knead Bread
Yields one 1 1/2 pound loaf

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Simmered Black Beans

By MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN
NY TIMES
Published: March 9, 2009

Many of my vegetarian dishes were inspired by the savory, brothy black beans I lived on one summer in Oaxaca, Mexico. Today, when I yearn for Mexican food, I know I am really pining for black beans. If you’ve spent time in Central and Southern Mexico, in Guatemala or in Brazil, you know how wonderful a bowl of black beans can be if properly cooked.

This series offers recipes with an eye towards empowering you to cook healthy meals every day. Produce, seasonal and locally grown when possible, and a well-stocked pantry are the linchpins of a good diet, and accordingly, each week’s recipes will revolve around a particular type of produce or a pantry item. This is food that is vibrant and light, full of nutrients but by no means ascetic, fun to cook and a pleasure to eat.

Beans are nature’s health food. They have an exceptionally high fiber content, and they’re a fine source of protein, as well as calcium, iron, folic acid and potassium. Black beans stand out because in that shiny black coating, there are at least eight different flavonoids, which are antioxidants. Called anthocyanins, they’re found in red grapes and red wine, red cabbage and other dark red fruits and vegetables. Black beans also contain small amounts of omega-3 fats, three times as much as other legumes provide.

Any successful dish made with black beans begins with a great pot of beans, sufficiently seasoned and slowly simmered with lots of onion and garlic until the beans are soft pillows suspended in a thick, inky, savory broth. There’s no comparison between that pot of black beans and the black beans that come in a can. Canned beans lack both flavor and nutrients.

Simmered Black Beans

The key to a great pot of black beans is using enough onion, garlic and salt for seasoning, and then cooking the beans for a long time at a slow simmer. In Mexico, a sprig of epazote or a few dried avocado leaves are usually added to the pot. Those ingredients aren’t as easy to find as cilantro, which is what I routinely use to season the beans.

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound black beans, washed and picked over for stones

2 quarts water

1 tablespoon canola oil or extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 large garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup chopped cilantro, plus additional for garnish if desired

Salt, preferably kosher salt, to taste

METHOD:

1. Soak the beans in the water for at least six hours. If they will be soaking for a long time in warm weather, put them in the refrigerator.

2. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy soup pot or Dutch oven, and add the onion. Cook, stirring, until it begins to soften, about three minutes. Add half the garlic. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about one minute. Add the beans and soaking water. The beans should be covered by at least an inch of water. Add more as necessary, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and skim off any foam that rises. Cover and simmer one hour.

3. Add the salt, remaining garlic and cilantro. Continue to simmer another hour, until the beans are quite soft and the broth is thick and fragrant. Taste. Is there enough salt? Does it need more garlic? Add if necessary. Let sit overnight in the refrigerator for the best flavor.

Note: If you can get hold of a sprig of fresh epazote, add it to the beans in step 3.

Yield: Serves six

Advance preparation: The cooked beans will keep for three to four days in the refrigerator and will freeze well.

Scalloped Corn

“This is one of my favorite recipes and my family loves it,”

“It’s been handed down from generation to generation.

I love that it can be made the day before!”

* 5 Servings
* Prep: 20 min. Bake: 25 min.

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
* 1/4 cup chopped onion
* 5 tablespoons butter, divided
* 2 cups soft bread crumbs
* 2 cans (8-1/2 ounces each) cream-style corn
* 1 can (11 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained
* 2 eggs
* 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs

Directions

* In a large skillet, saute green pepper and onion in 4 tablespoons butter until tender. Stir in the soft bread crumbs, corn and eggs. Transfer to a greased 8-in. square baking dish.

* Melt the remaining butter; toss with dry bread crumbs. Sprinkle over casserole. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until bubbly.

Yield: 5 servings.

Nutrition Facts: 3/4 cup equals 321 calories, 15 g fat (8 g saturated fat), 116 mg cholesterol, 729 mg sodium, 39 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 8 g protein.

Cabbage Soup In A Flash

This soup can be pulled together when you get home from work, left to simmer while you change and scan the newspaper; in an hour it’s ready to eat.

Smells good too when cooking. I do not use as much of the ground meat as called for and sometimes I add an ounce or two of cider vinegar to make a sweet and sour variation.

As a substitute for tomato soup I have used low sodium vegetable juice and it is very tasty.

Good with a crisp bread and salad.

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef (or ground turkey)
2 (16 oz.) cans tomato juice
1 pkg. Lipton onion soup mix
1 lg. head cabbage (I use a bag of cole-slaw mix bought at the super market).

Cook beef; drain fat. Add tomato juice, onion soup, chopped, washed cabbage (not too fine) to a large kettle or Dutch oven along with the beef. Simmer one hour on medium heat.

Can be made in the crock pot too and simmer on low while you are at work and it will be ready when you get home. If you do this then be sure to brown the meat before adding it to the crock pot.

Cabbage’s Sweet Side

By ELAINE LOUIE
NY TIMES

CHEFS praise cabbage. They embrace its sweetness. They delight in its crunch in raw slaws and its melting smoothness in cold-weather braises.

More often than not, their customers do not share this love.

“I personally love cabbage,” said Floyd Cardoz, who was the executive chef of Tabla in Manhattan until it closed last month. He offered lightly caramelized cabbage wedges that had been spiced with cloves, black mustard seeds, shallots, garlic and ginger. Mr. Cardoz brought out the sweetness of the cabbage, and in the plating of it, its beauty. But few people ordered it.

“They have eaten overcooked cabbage so often, they begin to hate the mushiness and the smell,” he said.

Cabbage is often an unloved, homely vegetable. It’s smelly. It’s cheap. It’s the food of the poor. But those who can get past this initial aversion know it as one of winter’s quiet overachievers.

Right now, when green beans are selling for $4 a pound, and baby spinach for $9 a pound, red and green cabbages from local farms can be had for around 75 to 99 cents a pound. The low price is in part a reflection of cabbage’s longevity. It stays fresh in the refrigerator from two to five weeks, and even longer in farmers’ bins.

The winter cabbage is a “storage cabbage,” said Joe O’Brien, the owner of Healthway Farms in Highland, N.Y., who sells red and green cabbages at the Union Square Greenmarket after stripping off their outer leaves and trimming them down. “They’re bred for flavor, and picked in the fall,” he said. “These are harder and more dense than summer cabbages, which are softer.”

The cabbage is also a sturdy ball of healthfulness, since it is high in vitamin C and in dietary fiber. It has also been linked to protection against cancer.

All those virtues do not make it an easier sell. Marcus Samuelsson, the chef and an owner of Red Rooster Harlem, said, “Cabbage always reminds people of poverty, when people are limited by food.” Optimistically, he suggested that this may be changing. “We’ve come so far with food, we’ve gone full circle; that the fried chicken, the meatballs, are comfort food,” he said. “And cabbage is also comfort food.”

Mr. Samuelsson, who was born in Ethiopia, makes a dish traditional there that he calls simply warm cabbage and green beans. In Ethiopia, braised cabbage is “poor man’s cooking,” he said. “For fine people, the big pieces of meat and fish came later.” Despite its humble roots, the braise is quite rich, with a subtle and harmonious use of spices.

Clarified butter is simmered with ginger, fenugreek, cumin, cardamom, oregano and basil. More spices are added: garlic; mustard seeds; turmeric; berbere, the Ethiopian spice mix; cardamom; ginger; and nigella sativa. In this profusion, no spice stands out. All meld.

The dish is usually eaten with injera, the slightly sour, spongy Ethiopian flat bread, but it is perfectly good with rice. (It also tastes even better the second day, and the third.)

Zoe Feigenbaum, executive chef at The National on the Lower East Side, says cabbage’s ubiquity hurts its reputation. “Because it’s so plentiful and accessible and cheap, people seek things that are more rare and glamorous, like artichokes, morels and kabocha squash,” she said.

At the restaurant, she pays homage to her late grandmother, Bess Feigenbaum, who served her stuffed cabbage with a sweet-and-sour sauce made of tomatoes, brown sugar, lemon juice, raisins, tomatoes and ketchup. Ms. Feigenbaum transforms her grandmother’s sauce into a cabbage soup with a deeply traditional Jewish flavor.

Because the United States does not have a strong cabbage culture, “people don’t recognize its potential,” Ms. Feigenbaum said. “But as far as my Jewish family is concerned, cabbage soup is a year-round delight.”

Chicken Adobo

By SAM SIFTON
NEW YORK TIMES
Published: January 5, 2011

There are more than 7,100 islands in the Philippines, a nation slightly larger than the state of Arizona, and if you could devote your life to traveling through them asking questions about food, you would discover a different recipe for adobo on each one.

It is the national dish, many Filipinos say: protein braised in vinegar until pungent and rich, sweet and sour and salty at once, sometimes crisped at the edges in high heat, always served with the remaining sauce. Its excellence derives from the balance of its flavors, in the alchemy of the process. Cooking softens the acidity of the vinegar, which then combines with the flavor of the meat to enhance it. Whether consumed in Manila’s heat or on the edge of a New York winter, adobo holds the power to change moods and alter dining habits.

It is a difficult dish to cook just once. For the adobo neophyte, there are always adjustments to be made to increase a diner’s pleasure in one direction or another — a touch more salt or sour, sweet or fire.

Until there is not. Then the recipe — your recipe — becomes set in stone.

As a result, there is great fun to be had in asking Filipinos how to make adobo, particularly when they are in groups. Filipino cooking is an evolutionary masterpiece, a cuisine that includes Chinese, Spanish, American and indigenous island influences, all rolled into one. But where for one Filipino the most important aspect of the dish is Spanish, for another it is Chinese, or both, or neither. (The journalist and food historian Raymond Sokolov has made the point that the ingredients for adobo were present in the Philippines before Magellan — only the name, which comes from a Spanish word for sauce, came later. “Lexical imperialism,” he called this process.)

Husbands argue with wives about adobo. Friends shoot each other dirty looks about the necessity of including coconut milk or soy sauce in the recipe. There are disputations over the kind of vinegar to use, over the use of sugar, over the inclusion of garlic and how much of it. Some use chicken exclusively in the dish, others pork, some a combination of the two.

Some serve the dish as a stew. There are those who call for broiling the meat at the end, to caramelize it and provide a crisp texture alongside the sauce. Others advocate pan-frying. Some demand deep-frying. Or grilling.

“No two people in the same house will cook adobo the same way,” said Amy Besa, who runs, with her husband, Romy Dorotan, the excellent Purple Yam restaurant in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. At Purple Yam, she said, Dorotan makes chicken adobo with a sauce that combines vinegar and coconut milk with soy sauce, garlic and fiery little Thai chilies.

Left to her own devices, Besa added, she and other purists would not use the soy sauce. In Manila, she said, you would find people turning up their noses at the coconut milk. “You can make adobos in many, many ways,” she said. “But the dish must be based in vinegar. You cannot make adobo without it.”

Jose Antonio Vargas, a Filipino journalist who writes about technology and digital culture for The Huffington Post, said his adobo recipe combines chicken and pork, which he marinates overnight in a mixture of vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. “Sometimes I even add brown sugar,” he said, “depending on who I’m cooking it for.”

(Not Besa: “I rail against sugar,” she said. “If it becomes too dominant, then the dish becomes a Chinese sweet and sour.”)

This week’s recipe is derived from the adobo served at Purple Yam. It is a dish Dorotan developed at Cendrillon, a restaurant he and Besa owned and ran together in SoHo until 2009. (A version of it appeared in their 2006 cookbook, “Memories of Philippine Kitchens.”) There is soy sauce in it, and the coconut milk that is common to the southern part of Luzon, the island from which Dorotan hails.

As the mixture cooks, the rice vinegar turns mellow, and the sauce thickens in the heat. There are notes of garlic and bay, of chicken fat and chili fire, coconut sweetness and the nutty saltiness of soy. The combination is ridiculous: a dark and creamy flavor that covers the chicken in silk.

Care should be taken in the assembly of the ingredients. If you can manage to secure Filipino coconut sap vinegar, that would be best, though good-quality rice vinegar from the supermarket will yield excellent results as well, and white wine or even cider vinegar will do in a pinch. (Coconut sap vinegar is available in specialty markets and, as always, online.) A fresh bottle of soy sauce on the lighter end of the taste spectrum would also not be in error, rather than something from that dusty bottle in the back of the larder.

Combine these with your chicken thighs (best-quality again, please), a ton of garlic and chilies, bay leaves and pepper. Allow the marinade to do its work. Then place the mixture in a heavy pot, bring to a simmer, and cook for around a half-hour, until the chicken is tender. Remove the chicken and allow the sauce to reduce. (Really, that’s it.)

At Purple Yam, Dorotan finishes the process by tossing the chicken into a deep-fryer, to crisp and to caramelize it at once. Then he returns the pieces to a reduced version of the sauce and serves the dish in a small clay pot, where it bubbles and steams enticingly. For the home cook, however, some time under the broiler will achieve much the same effect.

Serve with white rice and some steamed or sautéed greens.

Now taste what you have. Next time you may wish to increase the amount of vinegar or soy sauce in the marinade, or reduce it a little or a lot. You may wish to add more chilies or even Vargas’s crazy brown sugar. You may wish to have less coconut milk, or none at all. You may wish to have more.

This is adobo. Every man an island.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RECIPE: Chicken Adobo
By SAM SIFTON
NEW YORK TIMES
Published: January 5, 2011

1½ cup rice vinegar

1 cup coconut milk

¼ cup soy sauce

12 garlic cloves, peeled

3 whole bird’s-eye chilies or other fiery chili

3 bay leaves

1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

3 to 4 pounds chicken thighs.

1. Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a large, nonreactive bowl or resealable plastic freezer bag. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours.

2. Place chicken and marinade in a large lidded pot or Dutch oven over high heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and tender, around 30 minutes.

3. Heat broiler. Transfer chicken pieces to a large bowl, raise heat under the pot to medium-high, and reduce the sauce until it achieves almost the consistency of cream, about 10 minutes. Remove bay leaves and chilies.

4. Place chicken pieces on a roasting pan and place under broiler for 5 to 7 minutes, until they begin to caramelize. Remove, turn chicken, baste with sauce and repeat, 3 to 5 minutes more. Return chicken to sauce and cook for a few minutes more, then place on a platter and drizzle heavily with sauce. Serves four. Adapted from Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan, Purple Yam restaurant, Brooklyn.

Vegan diets becoming more popular, more mainstream

By MICHAEL HILL
The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 5, 2011; 2:47 PM

-- You've come a long way, vegan.

Once mocked as a fringe diet for sandal-wearing health food store workers, veganism is moving from marginal to mainstream in the United States.

The vegan "Skinny Bitch" diet books are best-sellers, vegan staples like tempeh and tofu can be purchased at just about any supermarket, and some chain restaurants eagerly promote their plant-only menu items. Today's vegans are urban hipsters, suburban moms, college students, even professional athletes.

"It's definitely more diverse. It's not what you would picture 20 years ago, which is kind of hippie, crunchy," said Isa Chandra Moskowitz, author of vegan cookbooks like the new "Appetite for Reduction." She says it's easier being a vegan now because there is more local produce available and more interesting ways of cooking.

"It's not just steamed vegetables anymore and brown rice and lentils," she said.

Veganism is essentially hard-core vegetarianism. While a vegetarian might butter her bagel or eat a cake made with eggs, vegans shun all animal products: No meat, no cheese, no eggs, no honey, no mayonnaise. Ethical vegans have a moral aversion to harming animals for human consumption, be it for a flank steak or leather shoes, though the term often is used to describe people who follow the diet, not the larger philosophy.

It's difficult to come up with hard numbers of practicing vegans. There's a blurry line between people who define themselves as vegan and vegetarian and some eaters dip in and out plant-only diets. For instance, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman has described his "vegan till 6" health plan, in which he becomes more omnivorous in the evening.

In a 2009 survey, advocates at the not-for-profit Vegetarian Resource Group reported about 1 percent of Americans are vegan, roughly a third of the people who reported being vegetarians. A separate survey released last year by the same group found a similar breakdown for Americans aged 8 to 18.

That makes veganism something short of a fad sweeping the nation like low-carb once did. Consider that while Kraft Foods reports that it shipped out more Boca Original Vegan Burger Patties and Boca Ground Crumbles last year, the increase was a modest 1 percent. Still, there are plenty of signs that vegans have pushed beyond their old, exclusive cocoon that once inspired celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain to mock them as the "Hezbollah-like splinter faction" of vegetarians.

Exhibit A would be the "Skinny Bitch" diet books, which provide vegan lifestyle tips in a blunt, girlfriend-on-the-phone style (Sample passage: "Soda is liquid Satan. It is the devil."). Actress Alicia Silverstone added a dose of star power to the vegan cause more recently with "The Kind Diet," a No. 1 best-seller. Vegan diets also have been touted by other celebrities, including Emily Deschanel in "Bones" and Lea Michele of "Glee."

Veganism has been buoyed by the same health-conscious wave that has drawn Americans in unprecedented numbers to low-fat, vegetarian and organic foods. The idea of eating lower on the food chain is especially attractive to environmentally conscious consumers, since large-scale meat production is a major source of greenhouse gases.

Veganism also provides a safe harbor for the growing number of people concerned about where their supermarket meat comes from. Critics of industrial-scale food processing like writer Michael Pollan have been gaining a wider audience in recent years.

And - sign of the times - some famous guys are eating vegan now, too.

Bill Clinton, known for his burger-loving ways when president, has credited his trim build at his daughter Chelsea's wedding this summer to a "plant-based diet" (though he eats a little fish sometimes). Even former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has talked up his vegan diet.

And vegan cookbooks, once a niche product, are coming out at such a fast clip that there are now sub-niches. Da Capo Press' 20 vegan cookbooks in print include one on vegan soul food and another with Latin vegan recipes. A book of vegan recipes containing alcohol, "The Tipsy Vegan" is upcoming.

Abstaining from animal products is an ancient practice found in cultures worldwide. But veganism never got traction in meat-loving America. Tracye McQuirter, a vegan for 23 years and author of "By Any Greens Necessary," a vegan guide aimed at black women, said things were different until about a decade ago. While she was part of a vegan community in her hometown of Washington, she says there was little understanding beyond it.

"People did not know what it meant," McQuirter said. "There were not a lot of options in terms of grocery stores. There was no Whole Foods... We had to basically cook everything for ourselves."

That's changed. More than half the 1,500 chefs polled by the National Restaurant Association for its new "What's Hot in 2011" list included vegan entrees as a hot trend. Vegan entrees came in at No. 71 out of 226 trends (beating out organic beer and drinkable desserts) - that's far from No. 1, but evidence of veganism making inroads beyond urban strongholds like New York City and Los Angeles. Some chain restaurants like Souplantation and Pizza Fusion even mark vegan items on their menus.

In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Roseann Marulli Rodriguez, a blogger for the SuperVegan website, said while there are not many vegan restaurants in her area, her local supermarket has "fake" chicken tenders and "fake" bacon.

"It's definitely widening in scope," said Rodriguez, a recent New York City transplant who has been eating vegan for five years, "and I think that's why more people are doing it, because it's getting easier."

Chop, Fry, Boil: Eating for One, or 6 Billion

December 31, 2010
By MARK BITTMAN
NY TIMES

“Revolutionary” diet books flood the market this time of year, promising a life changed permanently and for the better — yes, in just 10 to 30 days! — but, as everyone knows, the key to eating better begins with a diet of real food.

The problem is, real food is cooked by real people — you! — and real people are cooking less than ever before.We know why people don’t cook, or at least we think we do: they’re busy; they find “convenience” and restaurant foods more accessible than foods they cook themselves; they (incorrectly) believe that ready-to-eat foods are less expensive than those they cook themselves; they live in so-called food deserts and lack access to real food; and they were never taught to cook by their parents, making the trend self-perpetuating.

Yet Americans watch 35 hours of television a week, according to a Nielsen survey. (Increasing amounts of that time are spent watching other people cook). And although there certainly are urban and rural pockets where people have little access to fresh food, about 90 percent of American households own cars, and anyone who can drive to McDonald’s can drive to a supermarket.

But perhaps most important, a cooking repertoire of three basic recipes can get anyone into the kitchen and beyond the realm of takeout food, microwaved popcorn and bologna sandwiches in a few days.

One could set off a heated argument with a question like, “What are the three best basic recipes?” but I stand behind these: a stir-fry, a chopped salad, and the basic combination of rice and lentils, all of which are easy enough to learn in one lesson. (“Lessons” might be called “recipes,” and need no “teacher” beyond the written word.) Each can be varied in countless ways. Each is produced from basic building blocks that contain no additives, preservatives, trans fats, artificial flavorings or ingredients of any kind, or outrageous calorie counts; they are, in other words, made from actual food. The salad requires no cooking; the stir-fry is lightning fast; the rice-and-lentils, though cooked more slowly, requires minimal attention. The same can be said for other recipes, of course, but not for all of them, and certainly not for the food that most Americans rely upon most of the time.

These recipes offer other benefits: They’re nutritionally sound and environmentally friendly. They’ve sustained scores of generations of societies worldwide, using traditional farming methods and producing little negative impact on the earth. (Almost without exception, your ancestors relied on something like one or more of these dishes.) All of them can be made with meat, poultry or fish, but they can be satisfying and delicious when made vegetarian or even vegan. In fact, if you cooked only variations on these three dishes you’d be well on your way to becoming an intuitive, fluid cook (the fanciest pilaf is essentially a rice-and-bean variation), eating more healthfully and with a lighter carbon footprint.

There is one notable thing these recipes are not: magic. You cannot produce them without having a functioning kitchen (a sink, a refrigerator and a stove will do it); some minimal equipment, including a pot, a skillet and a bowl (though in a pinch, the salad could be made in the pot); a couple of knives; some utensils; a strainer and a cutting board; and the ability (and money) to stock a pantry and at least occasionally supplement it with fresh food. These requirements cannot be met by everyone, but they can be met by far more people than those who cooked dinner last night.

(It’s worth noting, furthermore, that the stir-fry and the rice-and-lentils can be made entirely from the pantry, if you allow for the fact that frozen vegetables are a completely acceptable substitute for fresh, especially in winter, when “fresh” may mean “flown in from Peru.”) This pantry list can be as simple as oil, vinegar, grains, legumes and a few other things, but as people learn to cook it inevitably grows.

Given ingredients, a kitchen and equipment, all that is left is some time, and with a well-stocked pantry that time can be about the same as driving to Burger King and back. You can make a chopped salad in 15 or 20 minutes, practicing knife skills and producing a vegetable-heavy dish quickly and easily. Anyone who can boil water can whip up a batch of rice and lentils in just over half an hour, providing fiber, protein and one of humankind’s classic comfort foods. And anyone who’s learned how to chop (primitively is fine), apply heat to a pan and stir can produce a stir-fry — really the epitome of a traditional dish based mostly on plants with just enough meat or other protein-dense food to contribute additional interest, flavor and nutrition — in less than half an hour.

Make these three things and you’re a cook. And with luck and perseverance, these foods will crowd out things like (to single out one egregious example from hundreds of its competitors) KFC’s Chicken Pot Pie, which costs about $5 (so much for the myth of cheap fast food; a terrific meal for four can be put together for $10); contains nearly 700 calories, more than half of which come from fat; and has well over 50 ingredients — most of which cannot be purchased by normal consumers anywhere — including things like “chicken pot pie flavor” and MSG.

By becoming a cook, you can leave processed foods behind, creating more healthful, less expensive and better-tasting food that requires less energy, water and land per calorie and reduces our carbon footprint. Not a bad result for us — or the planet.

Editors Note: Here is a brown rice and lentils recipe that is good for you and tasty too:

Brown Rice and Lentils Recipe

Ingredients:

1 Cup brown rice – rinsed
1 Cup lentils – rinsed
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 large cloves garlic minced
1 medium onion sliced

Heat a large, heavy duty, frying pan or Dutch oven with a lid over medium heat. Sautee the onions in a little olive oil until they are translucent. Add the remaining ingredients to the pan plus 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then turn down to low, cover and simmer for 50 minutes.

Serve with a green salad and you will have a simple, but hearty and nutritious meal that will serve 4-6 generously.

How Not to Wreck a Nonstick Pan

December 17, 2010
By ALINA TUGEND
NY TIMES

THIS all began when I was trying to come up with a clever idea for a Hanukkah present for my older son. Having exhausted all the sports-themed possibilities, I decided to buy him a griddle since he has become quite the pancake chef.

My son greeted the present with more enthusiasm than I expected. A couple of days later, I realized it would be perfect for making holiday latkes. Usually I use two frying pans, but since we had this nice new nonstick griddle, why not make things easier?

I asked Ben if I could borrow it and he graciously agreed. I fried 89 latkes (but who’s counting) for a get-together. The guests were happy, but the griddle was burned.

I soaked. I scrubbed with little plastic scrub brushes, as suggested. It still looked nothing like new. Before admitting to Ben that I had ruined his present, I looked up “cleaning nonstick griddles” on the Internet.

I came across a lot of advice about cleaning, but also how to use this type of cookware in the first place. And to my surprise, I have been using nonstick pans in an inappropriate manner for, oh, the last three decades or so — in fact, ever since I started cooking for myself.

So as a holiday gift, I am going to share with you what I have learned in hopes of saving you from my mistakes. And as a treat, I’ll throw in a few other cleaning tips as well.

Let’s starting with nonstick cookware. Teflon is the patented product made by DuPont, but most people use the term generically to refer to nonstick pans.

For our purposes here, I am not going to delve into the health issues. I did write a column about these concerns about four years ago, weighing the health risks of using pans with nonstick coatings. I didn’t come down on either side, but the reality, according to Consumer Reports, is that nonstick cookware accounts for about 70 percent of all such sales in the United States.

So millions of us are cooking with nonstick pots and pans. But in the wrong way.

“A lot of people buy pans and don’t read the directions,” said Reed Winter, director of research and development for Nordic Ware, a maker of household goods and the manufacturer of the griddle I bought my son.

Ahem. I confessed right away to Mr. Winter that that was true in my case. I barely read the manual when I buy a new car. Am I really going to pore over the directions for a pan?

So this is what I should have known. I should have “preseasoned” the pan by rinsing and drying it and rubbing it with a paper towel with a little oil on it. Pretty much any type of oil will do.

It’s a good idea to rub about a teaspoon of oil or butter on a cold pan each time you use it, Mr. Winter said, because despite the name nonstick, most of the cookware needs some kind of lubricant.

Just don’t pour oil or butter on the pan and then slosh it around (my method).

“Then the oil is not adhering to the pan but being absorbed by the food,” he said. Not only will you have butter-soaked pancakes, but after a while they’ll start sticking because there’s no grease.

But what about PAM or other cooking sprays? I often put a few squirts on my nonstick frying pans.

Not a great idea, I was told. After a time, the build-up in the areas where the heat doesn’t burn the spray off — like on the sides of a frying pan — becomes sticky and pasty. I found this to be true of my pans, but didn’t know why.

Mr. Winter said it’s the soy lecithin in the spray that causes that stickiness. Instead, he recommends just using oil or a spray called Baker’s Joy that also contains flour.

For due diligence, I checked in with DuPont, the makers of Teflon, and a spokeswoman said in an e-mail that “it is acceptable” to use nonstick cooking sprays although “not necessary.” And a spokesman at ConAgra Foods, which makes PAM, said, “You should check with your cookware manufacturer” to see if it is safe to use with PAM.

Another thing I shouldn’t have done is put the griddle on a high heat. High temperatures cause the coating to crack, Mr. Winter said, and don’t even cook the food as well. The food tends to be partly burned and partly doughy, he said.

“Using a lower heat means it will turn out perfectly,” he said.

Also, don’t use any metal or sharp objects to stir or turn food, because it can pierce the coating.

Now as far as cleaning, I did scrub with a plastic scrubby sponge (never steel wool). Then I soaked with baking powder and hot water. Then I used some vinegar and water. It looks better, but not perfect.

Although I don’t usually put my cookware in the dishwasher, I did as a last-ditch effort — another bad idea. Most experts I talked to said to hand-wash nonstick cookware, because the high heat and harsh detergents can ruin the coatings.

In the end, the griddle looks, shall we say, well used. I showed it to my son and apologized. He took it with good grace.

A few more tips. Store your pots and pans properly, said Mariette Mifflin, who writes about housewares and appliances for About.com, which is owned by The New York Times.

If you nest them, they can scratch. Putting a napkin between each pot prevents that.

And realize you’ll probably have to replace nonstick cookware more often than other types. Once the cookware peels or looks pitted, you want to get rid of it.

Much depends on how often and how well you use and clean them, but Ms. Mifflin said even with her vigilant care, her nonstick pans rarely last more than five years.

Here are a few more tips regarding questions about cleaning.

Is there a downside to using the self-cleaning mode on your oven? Since it heats the ovens to over 1,000 degrees, does that put wear and tear on the appliance?

Using the self-cleaning option is a good one, and it’s wise to do it at least twice a year, said Doug Burnett, manager for research and development of built-in cooking products for Electrolux. Otherwise, too much buildup, when incinerated, will turn into smoke that pours out of the oven.

If you are going to clean it as often as, say, monthly, it would be best to use a light soil option on your oven if there is one, he added.

Never use chemical cleaners on a self-cleaning oven. Just a little soap and hot water if you need to do a quick once-over, said Chris Hall, president of RepairClinic.com, a Web site that sells appliance parts and gives repair advice.

And he shared with me his own recent mistake — cleaning the smooth glass top of his electric range with the green scrubby side of sponge.

“I scratched it and I feel really terrible,” he said. He now knows that some scrubby sponges are safe for glass, but they have to be labeled as such.

Well, that made me feel a little better about my griddle experience. Nonetheless, I think I owe my son another one. I’ll show him how to use it properly, and teach him another life lesson as well — if you give a present, borrow it and then ruin it, you have to replace it.

101 Simple Appetizers in 20 Minutes or Less

December 19, 2007
By MARK BITTMAN
NY TIMES

YOU want good food at a holiday cocktail party and you want to impress people? You don’t want a caterer, you refuse to heat up frozen food, and you want to show that your expertise extends beyond buying perfectly ripe hunks of cheese and juicy olives? Then think about doing some cooking.

Here is a collection of party foods that are as easy to eat as they are to make. Each can be produced in 20 minutes or less. Many can be served at room temperature. And none require a plate. (Few people can juggle plate, wineglass and fork successfully, let alone gracefully.)

Most of these recipes are beyond minimalist: they never do in two steps what can be done in one, and they need no embellishment. As you scan these recipes for ideas, mostly think this: The ones you find most appealing are the ones your guests will like. Choose a few, spend an hour or two in the kitchen, and you’ll be in great shape.

On Bread or Crackers

1 Red peppers and anchovies: Drizzle piquillos or other roasted red peppers with olive oil, and top with a good anchovy fillet. A caper or two on each is not amiss.

2 Top rye flatbread with thin slices of crisp apple and pickled plain or schmaltz herring (not herring in cream sauce).

3 Sear skirt steak to medium-rare, not more than 8 minutes. Cut into chunks 1/2-inch to 1 inch, first with the grain, then against it. Spread bread with coarse mustard and/or butter. Top with steak and coarse salt.

4 Toss high-quality crab meat with minced shallots, a little tarragon or a lot of parsley and/or basil, and enough mayonnaise to bind. Also good on lettuce leaves.

5 Mash together best-quality tuna, minced anchovies, minced garlic, chopped oil-cured olives and olive oil as necessary.

6 New York comfort food: Spread cream cheese or crème fraîche on small bagels or bagel chips; black bread is also terrific. Top with sturgeon, sable or lox.

7 Slice soft goat cheese and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and chopped herbs, then with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees until soft, about 10 minutes, and serve hot.

8 Might not be the new ketchup, but great stuff: purée skinned roasted peppers or piquillos with some of their liquid, salt and olive oil. Serve alone or with other foods — a piece of cheese, even.

9 Top buttered bread with shaved country ham, prosciutto or regular deli ham and bread-and-butter pickles.

10 Chop shrimp fine, then sauté in a minimum of oil, or poach quickly and drain. Mix premade pesto with mayonnaise so that it is gluey. Combine cooled shrimp with sufficient pesto to bind; chill.

11 Tapenade: Combine about 1 pound pitted black olives in food processor with 1/4 cup drained capers, at least 5 anchovies, 2 garlic cloves, black pepper and olive oil as necessary to make a coarse paste. Can also be a dip. Use sparingly; it’s strong.

12 A kind of Moroccan tapenade: As above, but use good green olives with capers; olive-oil-canned tuna (instead of anchovies); garlic, if desired; and cumin.

13 Chop fresh mushrooms. Cook slowly in olive oil with salt and pepper until very soft. Stir in minced garlic and parsley. Cook a few more minutes until garlic mellows. (Especially good if you add reconstituted dried porcini.)

14 Mix together a bit of flour and good paprika. Cut Manchego or similar sheep’s milk cheese into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Dip in flour, then beaten egg, then bread crumbs, and fry quickly to brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels and serve hot.

15 Beef tartare: Carefully pulse good beef in food processor. For each pound, add an egg, a teaspoon dry mustard, a tablespoon Dijon mustard, a tablespoon Worcestershire, Tabasco to taste, 1/2 cup chopped scallions and a touch of minced garlic. Salt and pepper, if necessary. Amazing stuff.

16 Put a thick film of olive oil in a skillet over low heat with lots of thin-sliced garlic. When it sizzles, add shrimp along with pimentón. Raise the heat just enough to get the shrimp going, and cook until it’s pink. Stir in parsley. Spoon a little of the oil onto pieces of bread and top with shrimp.

17 Season cornmeal with lots of chili powder, salt and black pepper. Heat a thick film of neutral oil (or oil mixed with butter) in a skillet. Dredge shucked clams, oysters or chicken breast pieces in the cornmeal and cook about 2 minutes a side, or until crisp. Serve on bread with mayonnaise, or sprinkle with lemon or lime juice and serve on toothpicks. It’s almost convenience food when prepared with shucked mollusks.

Bruschetta

18 Bruschetta is the basis for so many good things. Don’t make it too crisp, and start with good country bread. Brush thick slices with olive oil. Broil until toasted on both sides. While it’s still hot, rub with cut clove of garlic on one side (optional). Drizzle with a bit more olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and serve, or top with prosciutto or tapenade.

19 More than party food, and an amazing snack: Top bruschetta with white beans cooked soft (or use canned) and finished with minced garlic, sage, olive oil and salt.

20 One more level: Make white beans as above. Toss with good quality canned tuna and mash. Spoon over bruschetta.

21 Top bruschetta with chopped, well-cooked broccoli rabe or other greens tossed with minced garlic and olive oil while still warm. Health food, practically. Also good with a layer of Tuscan beans (above).

On Toothpicks

22 Cut pork tenderloin into 1-inch slices; broil or sauté until done. Cut each piece across into 3 or 4 thin slices, then pile onto round bread slices, toasted or not. Top with slice of Manchego and bit of piquillo pepper.

23 Cut chorizo into chunks. Cook in a lightly oiled skillet until nicely browned. Kielbasa is equally good (or better), if not as hip.

24 Portable Caprese: Skewer a small ball of mozzarella, a grape tomato and a bit of basil leaf. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle with oil.

25 A no-brainer: Cut slab of bacon into 1/2-inch chunks. Cook in a skillet, a broiler or a high-heat oven until nice and crisp. Skewer with a grape tomato.

26 Even jazzier: Cut just-ripe pears in 1/2-inch cubes; sprinkle with a little salt, sugar and cayenne. Spear with bacon.

27 Pair crispy bacon chunks with one cube of beet and one of goat cheese.

28 Angels on horseback: Wrap oysters or not-too-large sea scallops in bacon; skewer with toothpicks. Broil, turning once, until bacon is done.

29 You can call them devils on horseback: Wrap pitted dates (replacing the pit with an almond if you like) in bacon. Skewer with toothpicks and broil, turning once, until bacon is done.

30 Rumaki, a 1960s cocktail food that deserves reviving: Brush canned water chestnuts (or chicken liver halves, or crimini mushrooms, or pieces of portobello) with a little soy sauce; wrap in pieces of bacon. Skewer closed with toothpicks and broil, turning once, until bacon is done.

31 Wash mussels or littleneck clams well; steam open in covered pot. Let cool, remove from shells, and serve with aioli, flavored mayonnaise or vinaigrette.

32 Cook real bay scallops in hot butter or oil for just a couple of minutes. Sprinkle with lemon juice and parsley and serve hot.

33 Crab cakes: For each pound crab meat, add an egg, 1/4 cup each minced bell pepper and onion, 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons bread or cracker crumbs, salt and pepper. Shape into small cakes and refrigerate, if time allows. Dredge in flour, then brown in oil (or oil mixed with butter). Serve with lemon wedges, aioli or tartar sauce.

34 Meatballs: Combine 1 thick slice white bread with 1/2 cup milk; let sit for 5 minutes. Squeeze milk from bread and gently mix bread with 1/2 pound not-too-lean ground sirloin, 1/2 pound ground pork, 1/2 cup chopped onion, 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves and salt and pepper. Shape into 1-inch balls. (If mixture doesn’t hold well, add more bread crumbs and an egg.) Broil about 5 minutes, turning once or twice.

35 Cod cakes with sauce rouge: I’m hedging on time here, but you’re really getting two recipes in one: Combine 1 pound chopped boneless cod, an egg, 1/4 cup mayonnaise, a tablespoon Dijon mustard and some salt and pepper. Add bread or cracker crumbs until you can shape the mixture into cakes. If possible, refrigerate for an hour. Meanwhile, cook chopped canned tomatoes in olive oil with salt and cayenne until saucy. Shape small cod cakes. Dredge in flour, sauté in butter and oil until nicely browned. Serve hot or at room temperature, with sauce on the side.

36 The banderilla: The first tapa created, or at least that’s what people tell me. Skewer a crisp pickled pepper, an anchovy and a pitted green olive. Incredible with dry (fino) sherry.

37 Toss peeled shrimp with lots of minced garlic, pimentón or paprika, cayenne, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Broil until done, turning once, about five minutes.

38 Marinated mushrooms: Cut button mushrooms into chunks and toss with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Let rest five minutes. Spear two chunks with a piece of Parmesan about the same size.

39 Cut tuna or tenderloin of beef into bite-size pieces. Sear in hot pan until browned on one side; turn; smear browned side with dark miso slightly thinned with sake. Continue to cook another minute or two.

40 Flash-cooked squid: Marinate whole baby squid for 5 minutes in olive oil, a little sherry vinegar, salt and pepper. Sear on both sides in a very hot pan or broiler for less than 3 minutes total. Cut into pieces and sprinkle with more salt. You can do this with shrimp and scallops, too.

41 Soak a couple of tablespoons of black beans in sherry. Blast bite-size shrimp in a little peanut oil until just about cooked through; add minced garlic (and chili and ginger, if you like), then cook 30 seconds. Add black beans and their liquid, and toss. Turn off heat and add a little soy sauce. Serve on toothpicks.

42 Chicken meunière: Sounds fancier than it is, and works with veal, turkey, pork, oysters, clams, shrimp, etc. Cut boneless meat into bite-size pieces (not too small). Dredge in flour, brown quickly in a combination of butter and oil. Serve with lemon wedges.

43 Cut tenderloin or other tender beef into bite-size chunks. Toss with a lot of roughly chopped basil (say, 1 cup basil per pound of meat) and peanut oil. Stir-fry with garlic and red pepper flakes until rare. Sprinkle with soy sauce or nam pla and lime juice.

On Skewers

44 Chicken kebab, Greek style: Cut boneless, skinless chicken thighs into 1-inch chunks. Toss with minced onion, minced garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, crumbled bay leaf and oregano. Skewer. Broil, turning occasionally, until browned.

45 Chicken kebab, South Asian style: Cut boneless, skinless chicken thighs into 1-inch chunks. Toss with equal amounts ground cardamom, minced garlic, ground allspice, ground turmeric and thyme leaves; add a dash of nutmeg and peanut oil to moisten. Skewer. Broil, turning occasionally, until nicely browned.

46 Chicken kebab, faux-tandoori style: Cut boneless, skinless chicken thighs into 1-inch chunks. Toss with yogurt, chopped onion, minced garlic, minced lime zest, ground cumin, coriander, paprika, cayenne and lime juice. Skewer and broil, turning occasionally, until nicely browned.

47 Chicken teriyaki: Cut 1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken thighs into 1-inch chunks. Toss with 1/4 cup each soy sauce, sake and mirin, and a tablespoon of sugar. Skewer. Boil remaining sauce for a minute or so. Broil the chicken, turning and basting with the sauce after a couple of minutes.

48 Pork kebabs, West Indian style: Mix 1 tablespoon garlic, 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice, a pinch of nutmeg, a teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves, 1/4 cup chopped onion and the juice of a lime. Toss with 1 pound pork shoulder (you need some fat or these will be tough) cut into 1-inch cubes. Skewer and broil about 5 minutes.

49 Pork kebabs, Iberian style. Mix 1 tablespoon garlic, 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1 tablespoon ground cumin, 2 teaspoons paprika, 1 tablespoon grated or minced lemon zest and 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice. Toss with 1 pound cubed pork shoulder (with fat). Skewer. Broil about 5 minutes.

Finger Foods

50 The egg’s gift to cocktail parties: Hard-cook eggs, peel, and cut in half; carefully remove the yolks. Mash yolks with salt, mayonnaise, good mustard and cayenne. You can also add minced radish, snow peas, scallions (or any crunchy vegetables) or curry powder. Spoon back into the whites, sprinkle with paprika, pimentón or parsley.

51 Even more fabulous: Cook eggs as above. Mash yolks with cooked and minced shrimp, a little chopped olive, minced onion, parsley, salt, pepper and mayonnaise to bind. Spoon back into whites. Garnish with parsley or a piece of anchovy or shrimp.

52 Aioli with steamed cold vegetables: Make the mayonnaise yourself or flavor bottled mayonnaise with lemon, garlic, anchovy (if you like it) and a little saffron (if you have it) for amazing color. Serve with lightly cooked carrots, snap peas, purple potatoes, seafood, etc.

53 Shrimp cocktail: Combine ketchup with chili powder, pepper, lemon juice, Worcestershire, Tabasco and horseradish. Make lots, because people will be double-dipping. Serve with cooked shrimp.

54 Sprinkle rib lamb chops (rack of lamb, separated) or loin chops with good coarse curry powder, or any spice mix you like. Broil quickly, until crisp but not well-done. Serve hot, with yogurt mixed with same spice rub. These will go very fast.

55 Stuff Medjool dates with a piece of Parmesan or Manchego or an almond. Or fresh goat cheese. Or mozzarella, and bake until the cheese begins to melt.

56 Wrap small pieces of melon, figs and/or dates with thinly sliced prosciutto.

57 Buy the best anchovies you can find. Curl each around a tiny ball of butter. Eat.

58 Teeny tiny hamburgers: The hardest part is finding teeny tiny buns, but you can use toast squares. Make them small from beef mixed with salt and pepper. Cook quickly in a hot skillet and serve with ketchup and bits of onion and tomato.

59 Nachos: Yes, nachos. Top a layer of tortilla chips with grated cheese (something orange is traditional) and bake until cheese melts. Top with warm beans seasoned with chili powder, along with chopped scallions. Other possible toppings: jalapeños, sour cream, cilantro, tomatoes, olives.

60 Hot wings: Cut chicken wings into three sections; discard the tips. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and broil until browned on one side, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, melt butter with vinegar, garlic and hot sauce to taste. Pour off excess fat, baste the wings with hot sauce, turn them, baste again, and brown. Baste once more and serve, with napkins.

61 Sweet wings: As above, but melt the butter with Dijon mustard and honey or maple syrup.

62 Soy ginger wings: This time baste with equal parts vinegar and soy sauce, mixed with a couple of tablespoons each minced ginger and sesame oil. You can sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on the wings.

63 Put peeled raw shrimp in a food processor with garlic, chili, ginger, shallot or red onion, salt, pepper and cilantro; chop finely. Shape into small patties and shallow-fry or broil, then serve with napkins or on buns, with lime juice or spiced mayonnaise.

64 Gently cook raw nuts in oil or butter (or a mixture) with salt and spices — pimentón, chili powder, curry powder, ginger, sugar — whatever combination you like. When they’re fragrant, bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool or they won’t be crunchy.

65 Beyond simple: Buy decent tortilla chips; sprinkle with lime juice and chili powder. Eat fast, before they get soggy.

66 Coat good olives in olive oil mixed with crushed garlic, rosemary, thyme, and/or lemon or orange peel; spices, like chilies, are O.K. Let sit overnight if time allows.

67 Little pizza bianca: Cut prepared dough into small pieces and press out. Brush with oil, sprinkle with rosemary and good coarse salt. Bake at about 500 degrees until browned. Cut up to serve.

68 Quarter quail, rub with olive oil or peanut oil. Broil, skin side down, about 3 minutes. Broil, skin side up, until brown, crisp and cooked through, about 5 minutes more. Brush lightly with pesto or soy sauce and sesame oil, and serve hot or warm.

69 Popcorn parmigiana: Make real popcorn, pour melted butter over it, and toss with fresh Parmesan.

70 Cut baby back ribs into individual ribs; sprinkle with salt and pepper (lots). Broil, turning as needed, 10 minutes or so. Sprinkle with lemon juice.

71 Fill endive leaves with crème fraîche or sour cream and caviar or salmon roe. Or use drained ricotta mixed with chopped parsley, thyme, a little olive oil and a little minced garlic.

72 Steamed asparagus wrapped in prosciutto. That’s the recipe.

73 Cucumber and caviar: Take 3/4-inch-thick slices of cucumber. (The quality of the cuke is more important than that of the caviar; it has to be good enough to leave the skin on.) Scoop out most of the seeds, leaving the bottom of each slice intact. Fill it with a spoonful of yogurt, sour cream or crème fraîche mixed with dill, and top with caviar or salmon roe.

74 Boil frozen or fresh edamame in pods for 3 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle with coarse salt. For this they charge you eight bucks.

Dips and Spreads

75 Purée white or other beans (if canned, drain them) with garlic and olive oil in food processor, adding olive oil as needed. Stir in lemon juice to taste. Garnish with chopped scallions or red onion. You can add cumin or chopped rosemary with lemon zest.

76 Hummus: Truly one of the great culinary inventions. Mix four parts well-cooked or canned chickpeas with one part tahini, along with some of its oil, in a food processor. Add garlic, cumin or pimentón and purée, adding as much olive oil as needed. Stir in lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste; garnish with olive oil and pimentón.

77 Drain good whole-fat yogurt in cheesecloth for 15 minutes; squeeze to remove remaining liquid. Add salt, pimentón and olive oil. Thin with a little more yogurt to use as a dip, or serve on crackers or bread.

78 Mix four parts drained yogurt (as above), farmer cheese or cream cheese with one part sour cream, until creamy. Add thyme and chopped parsley (or any fresh herbs), minced garlic, salt and pepper.

79 Start by draining yogurt as above but do not squeeze; or use sour cream. Stir in chopped seeded cucumber, bell pepper, scallion, dill, then add salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste. Or use chopped arugula and/or cress, with some herbs. Or use horseradish and/or Dijon mustard, with or without vegetables. Or minced or puréed onion or shallots and chopped fresh parsley. Always taste for salt.

80 Drain yogurt as above but do not squeeze; or use sour cream. Add flaked smoked trout or whitefish, or minced smoked salmon, along with chopped parsley, cayenne and lemon juice. Or add minced onion with salmon roe or caviar.

81 Taramosalata: Take 3 or 4 slices good white bread, preferably stale, and soak in water to cover for a few minutes. Squeeze out water, purée bread with 2 or 3 cloves garlic, 8 ounces fish roe (tarama) and at least 1/4 cup olive oil, adding more as needed. Stir in lemon juice and pepper to taste.

82 Mix four parts cream cheese or fresh goat cheese to one part chopped walnuts. A little spice mix (chili powder, curry powder, whatever) is nice in here. Or, replace the nuts with roasted peppers, olive oil and minced anchovies.

83 Boursin: Maybe you have a few Ritz? Mash cream cheese with minced garlic (if you have roasted garlic, so much the better), pepper and small amounts of minced thyme, tarragon and rosemary.

84 Mix three parts cream cheese, one part minced cooked shrimp, a few mashed capers and pepper.

85 Mash four parts goat cheese with one part fig jam.

Little Sandwich Triangles

86 Layer cooked ham and cheese (Gruyère, Cantal or good Cheddar) on thin bread, then press and grill in a not-too-hot skillet with butter or oil.

87 Finding top-quality roast beef is worth a little legwork. Slice it thin and serve with horseradish on rye.

88 Dice cooked shrimp, toss with chopped onion and/or celery, and bind with aioli or well-seasoned mayonnaise.

89 Extra seasoning takes this egg salad higher: Toss chopped hard-cooked eggs with scallions, chopped anchovies and parsley. Bind with well-seasoned mayo.

90 Toss shredded or cubed chicken with minced shallot or red onion, chopped black olives, olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, pepper and chopped herbs. Adjust seasoning to taste. Serve on slices of toast.

91 Cheese quesadillas: Use 4-inch tortillas; on each, put grated cheese, scallions and minced canned green chilies or chopped fresh poblanos. Salsa and beans are optional. Top with another tortilla. Griddle with oil, turning once, about 5 minutes.

You Might Need a Fork

92 This is easier than carpaccio: Cut trimmed filet mignon into 1/2-inch or smaller cubes. Toss with arugula, parsley, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

93 Make parsley pesto (parsley, garlic, oil, lemon juice) in a food processor. Sauté whole shrimp or small pieces of fish in oil. Arrange fish on small beds of the pesto. You can put this on bread and forget the plates.

94 Ceviche: Thinly slice — or cut into 1/4-inch dice — sea or true bay scallops (or any really fresh fish). Toss with a bit of peeled and minced bell pepper, some lime zest and about 1/4 cup lime juice per pound. Add salt and cayenne to taste. Garnish with cilantro.

95 Mock ceviche: Briefly poach a mixture of (for example) shrimp, scallops and squid, cut to bite size. Drain, then combine with olive oil, minced fresh chili, red onion, and (optional) garlic. Finish with lime juice and cilantro and serve in lettuce cups.

Soups and Wraps

96 Bisque: Heat shrimp, lobster, fish or chicken broth with minced onion and chopped tomato for 5 minutes. Add chopped shrimp or lobster to the simmering stock, and cook another two minutes. Purée, then add heavy cream or half-and-half, along with salt and pepper. Serve in small cups garnished, if you like, with a piece of cooked shrimp or lobster.

97 Avocado soup: Put 2 cups avocado flesh in a blender with 3 cups whole milk along with some salt and cayenne. Purée, then add fresh lime or orange juice to taste, and adjust seasoning. Refrigerate or serve immediately in small cups garnished with a piece of avocado or cooked shrimp.

98 Gazpacho: Chop 2 pounds of tomatoes and a cucumber; blend with a couple of slices of day-old bread, torn into pieces, olive oil, sherry vinegar, garlic (optional) and anchovies (optional). Add a little water (or more oil) to the blender, if necessary. Taste and adjust seasoning, then serve in small cups. Optional garnishes include minced bell pepper, a drizzle of olive oil, a piece of anchovy, and/or parsley.

99 Buy roast duck and take meat off bones; toss with hoisin sauce and roughly chopped scallions. Roll in small tortillas.

100 Roll prosciutto and Parmesan in small tortillas. Bake gently to soften the cheese.

101 Broil a good hot dog, roll in a good tortilla spread with brown or Dijon mustard. Slice. You know everyone will eat them.

How to Carve a Turkey

Our Thanks to Epicurious.com for providing this video. We hope it is useful to you over the holidays.

Video requires Adobe Shockwave and Java for viewing

Brined Holiday Turkey Breast

Some folks prefer to eat just the white meat of the Turkey and to fore-go all the issues of roasting, carving, and serving a big bird. For you, the turkey breast could be the answer. Here is a recipe for preparing a turkey breast that you might enjoy:

Brined Holiday Turkey Breast

• 1 cup lemon juice
• 3/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 1 cup Kosher salt
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion
• 2 oranges, cut in half
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 2 tablespoons whole cloves
• 2 tablespoons whole allspice berries
• 1 cup brandy
• One 6 to 6 1/2 pound whole turkey breast
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning

Directions:

1. To make the brining liquid, combine all the ingredients, except for the poultry seasoning and the oil, with 1 gallon of water in a large non-reactive container and stir to dissolve the sugar and salt.

2. Put the turkey in a large colander and rinse under cold running water. Add the turkey breast to the brine, cover, and refrigerate, turning the breast occasionally, for at least 12, hours and up to 24 hours. (If you don't have a large non-reactive container, put the turkey breast in a large heavy-duty plastic garbage bag. Make the marinade in a large bowl and pour the marinade into the bag. Put the bag inside a large container or roasting pan in case it should leak or drip.)

3. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

4. Remove the turkey from the brine (discard the brine) and put it breast side up in a large heavy roasting pan. Pat the turkey dry with paper towels. Rub the turkey with the vegetable oil, and sprinkle on both sides with the poultry seasoning.

5. Roast until deep golden brown and an instant read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the breast reads 160 degrees F, about 1 1/2 hours. Transfer to a platter and let stand for 15 minutes before carving.

6. Carve the turkey and serve.

Note: For Poultry Seasoning I like Old Bay Seasoning but by all means use whatever you prefer.

Holiday Cranberry Sauce

Good Eats

Alton Brown Makes a Bowl of Wiggly Jiggly real old fashioned cranberry sauce for the holiday table.

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Orange-Scented Sweet Potato and Fruit Gratin

by Martha Rose Shulman
NY TIMES

The vegetarians and vegans at your Thanksgiving table will love this, but so will the meat eaters. Orange is a flavor that complements sweet potatoes, and the walnut oil contributes a subtle background nuttiness. Make sure to stir the mixture every 15 minutes as it bakes, so that the sweet potatoes on the top layer don’t dry out. The apple and pear slices may fall apart, but that’s fine, they won’t disintegrate and they’ll contribute wonderful flavor to the dish.

Ingredients:

2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced about 1/4 inch thick
2 tart apples, such as Pink Lady, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 large ripe but firm pear, peeled, cored and sliced
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons mild honey, such as clover (substitute agave nectar for vegans)
2 tablespoons walnut oil, plus more for greasing the pan
2 teaspoons finely chopped or grated orange zest
2 1/2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Oil a 3-quart gratin or baking dish with walnut oil. Toss together the sweet potatoes, apples and pear in a large bowl. Season with salt to taste.

2. In a small saucepan or in a microwave at 50 percent power, heat the honey (or agave nectar) and the walnut oil together just until warm. Add to the sweet potato mixture, add the orange zest and toss together well until the fruit and vegetables are well coated. Scrape into the baking dish, making sure to scrape out all of the honey and oil using a rubber spatula. Pour on the orange juice. Set the baking dish on a sheet pan and place in the oven.

3. Bake 1 hour, setting the timer so that you remember to stir the mixture at 15-minute intervals. Cover the pan with foil and continue to bake for another 1/2 hour, or until the sweet potatoes are thoroughly tender and the liquid in the pan is syrupy. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes (or longer) before serving.

Yield: Serves 6 to 8 (8 as part of a Thanksgiving menu).

Dr. Andrew Weil’s Roasted Winter Squash and Apple Soup

Ingredients:

1 large winter squash (about 2 1/2 pounds), such as butternut, buttercup or kabocha; peeled, seeded and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tart, firm apples, peeled, cored and quartered
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and red chili powder to taste
4 to 5 cups vegetable broth

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large roasting pan, toss the squash, onions, garlic and apples with the oil to coat. Season well with the salt and chili powder. Roast, stirring every 10 minutes, until the vegetables are fork tender and lightly browned, about 40 minutes.

2. Put half of the vegetables and 2 cups of the broth in a food processor and purée until smooth. Repeat with the remaining vegetables and broth. Return puréed mixture to the pot. If the soup is too thick, add more broth. Correct the seasoning and heat to a simmer.

3. Serve in warm bowls with dollops of cilantro-walnut pesto. (See recipe below)

Dr. Andrew Weil’s Cilantro-Walnut Pesto

Ingredients:

1 cup walnut pieces
2 cups cilantro leaves, washed, drained and stemmed
1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 tablespoons cider vinegar

Method:

1. Put the walnuts in a food processor and grind them fine.

2. Add the cilantro, jalapeño, salt, vinegar and 2 to 3 tablespoons of water and blend. Blend in a little more water if necessary to make a thick sauce. Taste and correct the seasoning, adding more salt if necessary.