A Good Dish

making food simpler

What a Difference an Ingredient Makes – Even Better Soup!

Split pea soup with boosted flavor
Porcelain cup by Rachel Donner

What a difference a small amount of an ingredient can make in preparing soup! I make split pea and lentil soup quite often during the colder months and think they are both terrific recipes. But when we had dinner at a friend’s home last week, his yellow split pea soup had me reconsidering mine. Paul told us he had not only added smoked paprika, which I do as well and which resulted in a big discussion of how to pronounce paprika, but also some chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. It increased the depth of flavor, making it not just spicy but also savory and smoky. My husband often adds hot sauce or Japanese red pepper to his food but this was hot and complex enough that it didn’t need any more heat.

Chipotle in Adobo sauce is widely available in small cans like these. Store unused contents in a glass jar in the refrigerator.

Other simple additions to soup recipes have big flavor boosts, such as adding fresh herbs. Try dill in lentil or chicken soup or cilantro in split pea, lentil or chili. Ditto a can of chopped green chilis to pozole, a cup of cut up watermelon to gazpacho, Parmesan rinds or pesto in white bean or some turmeric or curry to your butternut squash soup. And certainly use up any leftover cooked vegetables, greens or salsa by adding them to the pot. There is always the reliable splash of vinegar or lemon juice at the end of cooking to zing up an otherwise bland sauce or soup.

Coincidentally, I had just made a big pot of green split pea in preparation for a couple of nights when we would be getting home later than usual and would need dinner at the ready. Having a fennel salad (which improves with sitting) and freshly made sauerkraut in the fridge meant we could have a complete meal on the table both nights in about 10 minutes. When warming the soup, I added a spoonful of the chipotle chili with adobo sauce (you can buy it at most groceries or supermarkets-if canned, put it in a glass jar once opened to store in the fridge) and let the soup simmer for about 5 minutes. I topped each bowl with some fresh cilantro and put out hot sauce in case anyone wanted his soup spicier (which he didn’t). Don’t be afraid to try a new addition. As I found this week, even the most reliable recipe can be varied and improved. Thanks, Paul – it was delicious!

Spiced split pea soup
Porcelain bowl by Rachel Donner

When Autumn Gives You Apples, Make Applesauce!

Homemade applesauce in a Maiolica bowl
by Stanley Mace Andersen

Fall is apple season and right now bins of fresh crisp red, green and yellow apples are ours to buy – the markets are full of them. When you have more than you can eat out of hand, cooking apples is a way to intensify and diversify their flavor. Making applesauce is the simplest means by which to transform apples to another level and doing so will generate wonderfully sweet aromas in your kitchen. Homemade applesauce tastes great served with pork, chicken, potato pancakes, with walnuts, pumpkin and chia seeds or on its own. It can be tailored to your own preferences for spice and consistency and is much more flavorful than the generally bland jarred varieties. You can substitute some applesauce for part of the butter in a muffin or cake recipe and it supplies a healthy amount of fiber, always a positive. I make it because I love to eat it and it is one of the easiest things I know how to cook.

A potful of cut apples with cinnamon ready to be cooked

There is almost nothing to it except cutting up the apples. We like to eat applesauce made with the skins (which also adds lovely color) but if you don’t, all you have to do is put it through a food mill after cooking or peel the apples before cutting (although the peels add color and flavor). I usually buy the 2 bags for $5 of sometimes bruised and sometimes perfect apples that one of the farmers at our market offers but any variety you like will work. Just cut up an assortment of apples (composting the cores), add 1/2 cup of water to get things cooking, toss in a cinnamon stick, sprinkle liberally with cinnamon, cover and simmer until mushy (about 20-30 minutes), stirring occasionally. Really – that is it!

Mason jars of applesauce can stay in your refrigerator for weeks

If you like ginger or cardamom or nutmeg, add some. If you like the consistency thinner, add more water or a little apple juice or cider. If you have a ripe pear, plum or a handful of cranberries or raspberries, toss them in to cook along with the apples. Apples and cinnamon together are sweet enough that I never add sugar of any kind. The finished applesauce keeps for weeks in a covered glass jar in the refrigerator or you can process it in a water bath like jam and keep it on a shelf until summer. If you make it now, I’ll bet it will be gone long before we even get to winter!

Homemade applesauce in a maiolica bowl by Stanley Mace Andersen

Leftovers Make Great Lunches – The Right Containers Make Taking Lunch Easy

 

An example of a dinner that packs up well to take for lunch-sesame soba noodles, soy glazed tempeh and sautéed watercress

A simple suggestion for making life easier – on nights when you prepare dinner, cook enough food so you can take leftovers for lunch the next day. When I worked away from home, I took lunch (or dinner when I taught at night) with me almost every day. It wasn’t that I worked in a place with no dining options. On the contrary, I live in a city with almost every kind of food available. Bringing lunch solved several problems. It meant I knew I had something healthy with me and wouldn’t make bad choices by grabbing the easiest thing. It also saved me the time of having to go out and find and purchase lunch and it saved me money.

Lidded glass containers make refrigerator storage easy

We still pack up the leftovers from dinner almost every night so my husband can take a lunch with him, saving him time in his busy work day and guaranteeing that he will have a healthy lunch. It also ensures that there will be lunch at the ready at home for me in the refrigerator and I won’t make bad choices roaming our pantry shelves. I purposefully cook more food than we need for an evening meal so there will be leftovers for lunch. Cook once, eat twice. And if there are no leftovers, there is always something with which to make a sandwich. (Try almond butter with a thinly sliced apple, pear or celery and a drizzle of hot honey).

Soft insulated lunch bags are lightweight and wipe clean

A couple of things that make taking lunch with you easier are having the right containers and a good lunch bag. The old workman’s lunch box was great and sturdy but bulky. The new insulated lunch bags are not only pretty but also light, foldable, keep your lunch fresh longer and are easy to wipe clean. There are endless varieties. One cute and lightweight notable is sold by a friend’s son on Amazon and comes in several designs. You can find others at HomeGoods, Sur La Table and Zabars, among many other retailers. My husband currently uses an insulated Amtrak tote he received on a train excursion he took last year with a pal. Our reusable containers fit flat in it so spillage is less of a threat. And its roomy enough so I can toss in a piece of fruit or a yogurt.

Wide mouthed vacuum containers come in many sizes and shapes and keep food warm for hours.

Which containers you use make a difference in how fresh your lunch stays and how easy it is to eat. Except for times when we are traveling and can’t save the containers, I have given up using plastic. It is both better for the planet and for us. At home I use lidded glass storage boxes or bowls or glass jars to store food in the fridge and don’t miss the plastic one one bit. To send lunch with my husband or for times when I take lunch with me, we use stainless steel boxes with BPA free plastic lids or waxed paper. For times when we aren’t going to return home, we reuse the plastic deli containers from take out and delivery orders that we wash and save. I don’t feel good about it but we would have recycled them anyway, I suppose. I admit I use zipped plastic bags for convenience from time to time but am trying to wean myself off of them and reuse them whenever possible or used waxed paper bags. A reusable option is better for the environment and us (until a truly biodegradable variety is invented that won’t end up in our bloodstreams).

Stainless Steel boxes come in many sizes and wash up easily

Our current favorite containers are the stainless steel box made by U-Konserve and are available at Zabars, Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Depot and online at Thrive, Amazon and UKonserve. We have many shapes and sizes and use them for everything from sandwiches to salads to snacks. In winter, a small wide neck thermos is perfect for keeping warm leftover chili, rice and beans or soup. Many recipes I have posted on the blog make great leftovers from carrot, beet, bean or salmon salads to split pea or lentil soup to soba noodles and pasta with pesto. Taking leftovers for lunch is great for your health, budget and saving time and having a few sturdy, reusable and lightweight containers and bags makes that task less messy and much easier.

The Rockaways – A Fun Boat Ride and Some Tasty Mexican Street Food

Pepinos y Frutas con Chili y Limon
Porcelain Bowl by Bryan Hopkins

You could always take the A train but now you can take a boat to Rockaway Beach! The ferry from the Wall Street pier to the Rockaways has been up and running for a few months. We took it for the first time recently and it was delightful! For $2.75, the cost of a subway trip, you get an hour long boat ride and end up, after a stop at Sunset Park, just a 5 minute walk from the Rockaway boardwalk. The views of downtown Brooklyn (seeing it from the water helps you understand what a huge borough it is – larger than many cities), the ever changing skyline of lower Manhattan, Governor’s Island, Jersey City, Staten Island, Bay Ridge, Coney Island, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and finally the Rockaways. We sat on the sunny and breezy top deck alongside a woman drawing and writing in her journal, a man who had grown up in Brooklyn and was taking a nostalgic trip back, a group of male pals downing beers (yes, there is a bar downstairs in the air conditioned cabin on the boat) and a swarm of kids who crowded the railing, excited simply to be out on the water.

Brooklyn Heights
Downtown Manhattan from Red Hook
Heading under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge
Detail of the boardwalk mosaic border

The Rockaways or Rockaway is a peninsula on the edge of Queens which was slammed by Hurricane Sandy and in some places is still rebuilding. The gorgeous Atlantic side beach is wide and sandy with lots of recently planted grasses, playgrounds and pounding surf. It is known to have a fierce undertow and the big waves are beloved by surfers, of which we saw many! There is a completely new boardwalk that, when I heard it was made of concrete, I was prepared to hate. But it is great – plenty wide with a lovely mosaic glass border, lots of seating (and well designed, attractive seating at that – you will recognize it from the High Line), accessible bathroom and food pavilions. We had delicious arepas with taro fries at one (unfortunately the good looking organic juice and sandwich bar had just closed) at Caracas Arepa Bar and only passed up the burgers at the next stand in favor of an off boardwalk spot about which we had read.

Taro Fries with Avocado dip at Caracas Arepa on the boardwalk
“Mermaid” at Caracas Arepas on the boardwalk

Rockaway Taco at the Surf Club is a few blocks back toward the bayside of the island in a struggling neighborhood dominated by a Popeye’s chicken joint. The taco bar is set alongside a large outdoor patio with picnic tables (movies were about to be screened as we were leaving), a friendly bar which is the adjacent Surf Club, surfboard lockers and a convivial local as well as day-tripping crowd. We quickly joined the line to order and got pretty good fish tacos and what were called cukes. And not just cukes, this was a cup full of cucumber, mango and jicama sticks doused with lime juice and sprinkled liberally with chili salt. The salad is a common Mexican street treat, the kind of thing you might find at a roadside stand, called pepiños y frutas con chili y limón. When made only with fruit (could be mango, pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew or watermelon) it is referred to as just frutas con chili y limon. Not only crunchy, it was refreshing on a warm night and a good balance to the spicy tacos.

Rockaway Taco at the Surf Club
Two types of chili salt at La Paloma Market on 100th St off Broadway

You can buy the salt in any Mexican grocery (two brands sold here are Pico Limón and tajin) or you can make it yourself by combining ground chili powder or cayenne with salt. And the whole dish is one of the simplest salads to make – it only takes as long as cleaning and cutting the vegetables, squeezing a lemon or lime over them and sprinkling with chili salt. If you want to make a whole meal out of it, add some crumbled cojita or feta cheese and sprinkle with cilantro or parsley.

I had forgotten about this salad and it took a trip to the Rockaways to remind me. It’s good to visit different neighborhoods, especially when you get there via a lovely boat ride, when it includes a walk on a beautiful beach, when it brings to mind the great Ramones’ song and when you wind up eating some delicious food that can be replicated at home. “Rock rock Rockaway Beach ….”

Food Halls – Expanding Options for Dining and Take-out in New York and Beyond

Gotham Market (on the far west side of midtown) offers counter and picnic style seating

The most interesting article on food in The Times last week wasn’t in the food section (although Pete Wells’ pizza review was mouthwatering). Rather it was the piece on Food Halls in the business section that caught my attention. Food halls are growing in popularity and number and not only in New York. These markets are not the old fast food courts; the best of them bring together some of the tastiest and most accessible food offerings in our cities.

Before the advent of chain grocery stores, most major cities had a central food market or hall, or several. But unlike European and Canadian cities with amazing, sometimes multi-floored market halls, we no longer have a traditional covered food market here. What seems to be a growing trend, however, is the newfangled covered food hall – a collection of food venders who are restaurant, food truck, or caterer based – providing creative selections of prepared foods and creating hubs of neighborhood hangouts and destination dining far beyond the offerings of a fast food court.

Ivan Ramen is one of the options for a quick and delicious meal at Gotham Market

Perhaps the first of these locations was the Chelsea Market, the repurposed former Nabisco factory which covers an entire block between 15th and 16th streets and 9th and 10th avenues. It was repurposed in the 1990’s to provide vendors enough space to house production and retail operations in the same place and included not just restaurants but also bakeries, grocers, a wine shop, importers and kitchenware. Today it has expanded to include coffee, clothing, a bookstore, delicious tacos, gelato and many smaller vendors. The public spaces include lots of communal seating areas which makes for easy picnicking whether alone or in a group.

Since then, the number of food halls has exploded, especially in recent years, bringing together all kinds of artisanal and chef-run food counters, restaurants, food trucks and stalls and baristas. Some of the best we’ve tried:

Gotham West Market (on 11th Avenue and 44th Street) with excellent ramen and tapas alongside salads and burgers. We recently saw neighborhood folks gathered there to drink/eat at the communal tables and watch the televised US Open.

Turnstyle Underground Market (in the Columbus Circle subway concourse) made a useful, appealing and tasty (not to mention good smelling) dining destination out of a dank MTA passageway. Great for a quick bite in Midtown and handy for grabbing a gift on the run.

The arepa factory in Turnstyle in the Columbus Circle Subway Concourse

Hudson Eats (in Brookfield Place in the World Financial Center) which has a terrific 2 beers for the price of one happy hour at Tartinery and $3 draft beers at Northern Tiger as well as a broad offering of tasty food including Umami Burger.

Plaza Food Hall (under the Plaza Hotel at 59th St and Fifth Avenue) where you can get a lobster roll or just a cup of coffee and a croissant.

Great Northern Food Hall (in Grand Central Terminal) which is really one vendor with many types of offerings from coffee and pastry to sandwiches, a grain counter, liquor and a very upscale restaurant. See my review from last fall.

Some of the fresh vegetable offerings at Eataly

Eataly NYC Flatiron, (23rd Street and Fifth Avenue) which is essentially a segmented grocery store with upscale Italian dining options at counters, restaurants and pizza but with a bakery, cafe, fish counter, food counters, liquor, kitchenware, pasta, cheese and meats plus one of the best produce markets in the city and delicious coffee that won’t break the bank.

The Pennsy (33rd Street and 7th Avenue) Expensive but with some vegan options and a friendly bar in the rear if you need a decent spot to grab a bite or drink near Penn Station.

Gansevoort Market (14th Street near 9th Avenue) calls itself a rustic-industrial food hall since it moved from the actual old Gansevoort Market and has counters for crepes, pizza, empanadas and other snack type meals. There is a pleasant spacious area in the back with tables and is far less crowded than the Chelsea market around the corner.

Really tasty vegetarian and gluten’free option at the arepa factory in Turnstyle

Others I’ve read about that sound good but I haven’t tried yet include Urbanspace Vanderbilt (across the street from Grand Central), Industry City Food Hall (in the Industry City Complex in Sunset Park, Brooklyn), Dekalb Market Hall (Downtown Brooklyn) and Canal Street Market (Canal near Lafayette St.). There is also Smorgasburg, that vast outdoor prepared food fest which lies somewhere between a food truck rally and a food hall. It been so successful that it now exists in 3 locations (Williamsburg, Prospect Park and Canal Street) around the city.

Cupcakes at Georgia’s Bakery would be an easy grab and go gift in the Turnstyle Underground Market

New York is not alone in the food hall explosion; There are terrific food halls in Copenhagen (Copenhagen Street Food), London (Spitalfields), San Francisco (the Ferry Building) and even Grand Rapids (Downtown Market) among many other cities. Sometimes it is a relief to have a place where you can roam around to see what you feel like eating instead of going to dine in a restaurant. You can eat quickly and informally at a counter or just get take out and plop down at a table. And not everyone in your group has to order from the same place. One person might have grilled octopus on mashed potatoes while another may prefer a bowl of ramen or salad. These halls are like a newfangled neighborhood, where people can hang out or take out, all under one roof, great for singles as well as couples or groups. And because they appear to be growing in popularity and to add value to gentrifying and developing urban areas, I think we will see many more soon.

Copenhagen Street Food with indoor and outdoor seating