A Good Dish

making food simpler

Don’t Feel Like Cooking? Do It Anyway – Just Keep It Simple

Cabbage and carrot salad with cilantro and pumpkin seeds
Stoneware plate by Maishe Dickman

Cooking has finally become a choice. There is so much prepared food available that we can simply buy or order meals instead cooking. Sometimes that is fine. In fact, sometimes it is the solution. Fish sticks and potato puffs with a bag of frozen vegetables, pizza or Chinese to-go can make a busy week so much easier. But eating that way often gets tired and boring. And too much of it, with too much salt and flour and bad oil and sugar, can leave us feeling lousy both emotionally and physically.

In the New York Times this week, Sam Sifton wrote about cooking something rather than ordering in as a way to feel a little happier. I am with him. I am all for occasional take out meals and understand the need to grab and go from time to time. But, as Sifton points out, “whatever you put together will be palliative”. The smallest effort of making an omelet or sautéing some vegetables or smashing some avocado into a basic guacamole will be more meditative and healthier than anything you could pick up pre-made. You and the people you cook for will feel the love.

Easy guacamole
Porcelain bowl by Larry Bush

Historically, cooking took lots of time. It still can. But we can choose to cook more simply and efficiently and still come up with satisfying and nourishing meals. We can even use some convenience food as a base to make preparing a meal easier. Sometimes just thinking of what to make is the obstacle to cooking. It is summer and you probably don’t want to turn on your oven. Below are some of my go-to, easy to prepare hot weather suppers. You know them so this list is just meant as a reminder. If you have a grill, fire it up! If you stock a few canned (or glassed) things, eggs, seeds and nuts, you will always have meal fixings. Just add some fresh vegetables and you’ll have food on the table in minutes. Just make that small effort. You’ll feel better. 

Chiogga Beets simply boiled and sliced
Plate by Mary Barringer

EASY PEASY MEALS

  • Guacamole with carrot and celery sticks or tortilla chips (just smashed avocado with pressed garlic, lime juice and salt will suffice)
  • Sprats (smoked tiny fish like sardines but tastier) with sautéed zucchini or summer squash and crackers or toast
  • Salmon Salad with sliced red and green peppers and celery and sweet potato chips
  • Cheese and/or Chorizo or your favorite sausage or with olives, any crudités or crackers
  • Hummus with cut up raw vegetables and pita or corn chips
  • Scrambled eggs with herbs and greens (just sauté greens first and then add eggs), perhaps in a tortilla or on toast
  • Simple green salad with cut hard boiled eggs or diced rotisserie chicken. Maybe add sliced beets (you can keep aseptic packages of beets in your pantry) to add interest
  • Regular or gluten-free pasta (don’t over cook it), frozen peas and and pesto
  • A quick stir fry with onions, broccoli, carrots, leftover rice and nuts or your choice of protein
  • A shredded cabbage and carrot salad with cilantro, za’atar, toasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds, peanuts or baked tofu and a sesame oil or tahini dressing with potato chips
  • Sautéed scallops or shrimp with either a tossed salad or sautéed or steamed greens
  • Romaine greens with cut pear, blue cheese (or any kind you like), walnuts and your favorite vinaigrette
  • Defrosted cooked shrimp tossed with sautéed garlic and vegetables, rice if you like
  • Romaine leaves with tuna, salmon, egg or tofu salad
  • Sliced beets (those same packaged beets if you don’t want to turn on your stove) with shaved Parmesan or Manchego (or no cheese) pieces of orange, apple or pear, parsley or cilantro and toasted walnuts or pistachios with a citrus vinaigrette
  • Sliced ripe tomatoes with your choice of (any or all) cucumber, red, green, yellow or purple bell peppers, fresh mozzarella and avocado with fresh basil leaves and a drizzle of a good balsamic vinegar and (optional) olive oil sprinkled with salt and pepper (takes about 10 minutes to get on the table
Caprese salad with heirloom tomatoes
Plate by Bandana Pottery – Michael Hunt and Naomi Dalglish

The New Tonic Waters are a Refreshing Tonic

A Gin & Tonic made with Q Tonic
Tumbler by Nicole Aquilano

A gin & tonic may be the quintessential summer drink but much depends not only on the gin but on the tonic you use. There are many more choices out there now than the old Schweppes, Seagrams or Canada Dry and the good news is that many are made with high quality ingredients, no sodium benzoate as a preservative, saccharin or high fructose corn syrup. The new fangled versions are not your grandparents’ tonic water – these are specialty drinks that are worthy of mixing with your artisanal or small batch gin or vodka. In summer, I often drink an Aperol Spritz as a cocktail. But if I don’t feel like ordering alcohol, I often opt for tonic water so I am happy there are some flavorful, less sugary options.

Fever-Tree tonic comes in single bottles or 4 packs

Originally developed to prevent malaria, tonic was made from quinine (from tree bark) dissolved in bubbly water. It became a mixer for gin (made palatable by the addition of sugar and lime), drunk by British officers stationed in colonial India. The problem with most commercial tonic water now is the high sugar content which makes it just another sweet soda. Some of the newer tonics have less sugar, like the Fever-tree Naturally light Tonic, which uses fructose (fruit sugar but still sugar) and Q, which has a very low sugar content and uses agave instead of actual sugar. None are completely unsweetened. The addition of freshly sliced lime and a little squeeze of fresh lime juice or a slice or spear of fresh cucumber really makes a big improvement no matter which tonic water you choose.

Q tonic water

I actually couldn’t find some of the tonic waters I had read about (Fentiman’s, Indie and 1724) so I can’t recommend them. Plus if they are hard to find in NYC, they aren’t easily obtained. If you find them, please let us know where and how they taste. I can recommend the Q, which is hardly sweetened and quite quinine-ish, and the Fever-tree naturally light, which is a bit sweeter and more traditional tasting but with less sugar than the grocery brands. They are both widely available in grocery stores and gourmet markets. Gin isn’t my drink but judging from a recent party we had, Death’s Door Gin from Washington state is a very well-liked brand as well as the more commonly seen Hendricks and Bombay Sapphire. Not being a scientist or nutritionist, I don’t know the facts on the supposed curative properties of tonic (banishes leg cramps, fights malaria, etc). My understanding is that you would have to drink too much of it to be effective to be practical. Instead of thinking of it as a “tonic” in the medical sense of the word, I just like to think of it as refreshing.

A little lime and cucumber add more flavor to tonic
Tumbler by Nicole Aquilano

Salad for President Gets My Vote!

Salad for President
by Julia Sherman

Julia Sherman is more than a good writer and her cookbook, Salad for President, is more than a collection of recipes. She is an artist, interviewer, gardener and cook and her book is an eclectic mix of artist biographies and interviews, charming illustrations, appealing recipes and, by the way, some pretty nice handmade plates and bowls. The recipes are from both Sherman and the artists with whom she talks. Included are the well known like William Wegman and Laurie Anderson but so are many others who I didn’t know but with whom I was happy to become familiar.

An introduction to two of the artists who are interviewed and contribute a recipe to the book
From Salad for President

The biographic essays, interviews and ingredient discussions are good reading. But more than a good read, Salad for President (from the blog of the same name) is a cookbook full of interesting but not too complicated recipes. When there are exotic ingredients involved, like labneh, like thick yogurt, or myoga, a wild ginger flower, she tells you where to find it or how to make it or if you can do without it. Sherman explains ingredients (like pomegranate molasses), discusses technique (like shredding cabbage finely enough so it fluffs) and offers helpful indices   (grouping recipes by season, ingredients, dressings and one on types of greens). Rather than a small index of artisans without any information, just pagination, I wish she had captions with her photographs of bowls and plates, but that is a minor quibble.

One of the charming drawings from Salad for President

There are other wonderful artist-centric cookbooks out there (The Artists’ and Writers’ Cookbook, Cooking for Artists, Artists’ Recipes, etc.) but Salad for President is both fun to read and to browse and full of recipes I actually want to try. Here salad is art, metaphor, practical technique and a source of inspiration for conversation, creativity and connection as well as, at its core, some delicious looking meals. Whether you buy it or take it out of the library, I am sure you will enjoy many dimensions of this artful book.

Chimichurri – The Verdant Argentinean Sauce that Brightens Almost Any Meal

Freshly made Chimichurri
Porcelain Bowl by Rob Sutherland

When it’s too hot to do much cooking, Chimichurri, the deep green Argentinean sauce will brighten even the most boring rotisserie chicken. Typically served as an accompaniment to grilled steaks, Chimichurri can enliven not only beef and chicken but also fish, pork, eggs and vegetables. It is quick and easy to make and so delicious that in our home we consider it more of a side dish than a condiment. My husband, usually quite moderate in his eating habits, has been known to empty entire jars in restaurants spoonful by spoonful! I secretly fear it was this consumption that caused the demise of our beloved local Argentinean cafe some years ago.

Chimichurri even moistens and flavors a bland rotisserie chicken

Chimichurri recipes vary by type and amount of greens but the constant ingredients in all of them are parsley, oregano, garlic, olive oil and salt. Some call for cilantro while others prefer mint. Most list red wine or white vinegar but you might see lemon or lime juice or zest in others. I’ve read recipes that call for red onion, crushed red pepper, regular or smoked paprika, roasted garlic, scallions or onion powder. They are probably all delicious.

The simple recipe I follow most often is based on the one in Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way by the grill master Francis Mallmann. He doesn’t use cilantro but I add some because we love it. Use a flavorful green olive oil and you will notice the difference. If you like it spicy, add 1-2 teaspoons of red chili flakes. Mallmann’s recipe calls for an entire head of garlic so if you find that shocking, try using less. If you don’t have fresh oregano (it is plentiful in farmers’ markets right now), you can use a smaller amount of dried. The amounts are flexible and the Chimichurri lasts a few weeks in the refrigerator. You can use a blender or food processor but I like to chop the herbs with a knife to keep them from getting mushy. It is best made a day or so ahead for the flavors to merge but it will be delicious on the day you make it, as well. Just make sure to prepare a large enough batch so you have some left to refrigerate!

Chimichurri
Bowl by Rob Sutherland

CHIMICHURRI

1 cup boiling water
1 T kosher or sea salt
6-8 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
1 heaping cup fresh flat leaf parsley, mostly leaves with some tender stems included
1 cup fresh oregano, leaves only (or 1/4 cup dried), or substitute half with fresh cilantro, leaves and fine stems
Big pinch of black pepper or 1-2 t crushed red chili flakes
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Dissolve the salt in the boiling water and let cool.
Put the minced garlic in a quart jar.
Chop finely the green herbs and add to the garlic.
Add black pepper or red pepper flakes.
Pour in the vinegar, oil and cooled salted water.
Screw on the lid tightly and shake well.
Let sit at least a couple of hours, preferably overnight, before using.
Store in the refrigerator.