Claudina's Kitchen

First Signs of Spring: Green Garlic!

I love going to the farmer’s market in the early spring and seeing the first signs of the new growing season: green garlic, spring onions, asparagus, pea greens, among the many wonderful green things!  Green Garlic in particular inspires me: the mild, almost sweet, yet still garlicky flavor blends so well with all of the other fresh choices of this time of the season.  Here are a few new recipes that inspired me this past week:

• Green Garlic, Celery Root, & Turnip Soup
• Pea Green, Green Garlic, Red Spring Onion, and Orange Roughy Papardelle
• Grilled Green Garlic, Spring Onion, Fennel, and Asparagus Frittata

All of these recipes are quick to make, as the early spring ingredients tend to be quite tender and barely need to be need to be cooked to reach optimal flavor - which makes these all easy and pleasing creations to celebrate the start of spring!

Kumquats: Gems of the Citrus Family?

 When I first moved from the east coast to the west, I was mystified by the little orange-like fruits growing on the bushes outside my house.  They looked ornamental, and when someone first told me they were edible and I tried a nibble, I wasn't quite sold -- imagine an eye-popping sour sensation!  Over the years, however, I've become a huge fan -- it's hard to find a better source of sweet, flavorful citrus rind -- and they are wonderful in uses ranging from candied highlights of dessert, to flavorful bursts in salads and sweet, citrus-y additions to a Morrocan stew.  A few of my most-recent favorite recipes are as follows:

• Kumquat, Sweet Pea and Ricotta Dip
• Tomato, Chickpea, Fennel and Kumquat Tagine
• Baby Arugula Salad with Blood Oranges, Kumquats, Toasted Almonds, Sheep’s Feta, and a Blood Orange-Pomegranate Vinagrette

Fall is for Figs!

One of the sweetest things about fall is the arrival of figs! Their colors and flavors are beautiful, and they're delicious eaten whole or in so many wonderful fall recipes.  My newest discovery this year was the candy-striped fig -- this little gem tempted me at my local organic market with it's $1 price tag (per fig!) and beautiful coloring... it was described to me as "biting into strawberry jam".  I couldn't resist splurging for one -- and you know what? As an occasional, special treat it was SO worth it!

Here are a few of my favorite old and new fall recipes for figs:

• Walnut, Lemon & Goat Cheese Tartlets with Honey-Thyme Fig Compote
• Black Fig - White Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Grilled Fig, Nectarine & Arugula Salad with Toasted Pistachios, Sheep's Feta and Black Fig-White Balsamic Vinegar
• Grilled Figs Stuffed with Gorgonzola
  

Welcome Spring Peas!

One of the most welcoming signs of spring are the arrival of peas.  As I've learned from my favorite farmers at my local neighborhood market (and from experience in my own garden), pea plants like the cold and pop up from the earth much more readily than many other vegetables.  This year I can't get enough of peas and treasure the short window when I can get both the greens and the fresh shell peas at the farmer's market, along with sugar snap and snow peas too!

As part of the legume family, peas are high in protein and fiber, low in fat, and are a good source of many vitamins.  I have often wondered why fresh shelling peas rarely make an appearance at the grocery store -- it turns out that the sugar content of fresh peas begins to turn to starch almost immediately after harvesting, so unless you can get them fresh from your garden or farmer's market, you're probably better off using frozen.

A few of my favorite pea recipes this spring include:

• Spring Garlic and Fresh Pea Soup
• Pea Green and Fava Bean Soup
• Fresh Spring Pea & Mint Hummus
• Sugar Snap and Fresh Pea Pasta

Beautiful Blood Oranges!

Blood oranges are usually available beginning late winter here on the west coast, and I am excited by their arrival every year! Not only do they have a wonderful flavor, but their dramatic color brightens up those winter meals at just the perfect time. 

In doing some research on this  lovely and striking fruit I found out that its dark coloring comes from a pigment called anthocyanin (a flavenoid which is an antioxidant) that isn't typically found in citrus, but common in red fruit and flowers.  And as nutritional guidance suggests, darker color often means more nutritional value, so be sure to try this great fruit when you see it!

I use blood oranges most frequently in green salads, fruit salads, salad dressings, salsas, and sometimes candied for a dessert.  Favorite recipes include:

• Citrus Salsa with Blood Oranges, Minneolas, Meyer Lemons, and Kumquats
  
• Strawberry, Blood Orange & Arugula Salad with Feta & Pistachios
• Blood Orange and Meyer Lemon Dressing

Nutty, Delicious Sunchokes (aka Jerusalem Artichokes)

Sunchokes are another of my winter favorites and I look forward to them every year.  They are also known as Jerusalem Artichokes --  although they do taste a bit like an artichoke heart, they are actually the tuber of the sunflower plant -- and to me, they have a buttery, nutty, distinctive flavor of their own.  They are a good source of Thiamin, Phosphorus and Potassium and a very good source of Iron (one serving is 28% of Daily Value) -- which make sunchokes a particularly great addition if you're cooking vegetarian. 

Sunchokes needed to be peeled in a similar way to ginger, and I like them best sliced thinly and sautéed slowly until they are softened and carmelized.  They do take a while to soften, when just partially cooked have a consistency similar to a water chestnut (in many recipes they are also used raw).  I like them in all sorts of dishes, in pastas or soups, with fish or chicken, and have included a few of favorites recipes on this site:

• Sunchoke, Kale and Vacharo Bean Soup with Tomato-Rosemary Drizzle
• Chestnut, Sunchoke and Swiss Chard Pasta with Brown Butter Sauce
• Fennel, Sunchoke & Spinach Frittata with Tomato-Thyme Pesto

Chestnuts Roasting....

This holiday season I have been intrigued by chestnuts: not just roasting and eating these delicious morsels on their own, but experimenting with new and interesting ideas for including them in my meals.   

I was also curious about the nutritional characteristics of chestnuts and have been interested to find that they are more similar to a whole grain than to other tree nuts.  They're low in fat and protein and are mostly carbohydrate and water, meaning they are much lower in calories than tree nuts.  They are also high in fiber and minerals, including calcium, potassium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium.  So while they won't give you that "good fat" boost and protein "staying power" of other nuts, they can be a nice addition to your diet in terms of other nutrients, as well as being a unique, seasonal, and tasty touch to your meal.

A few of my favorite recipes so far this chestnut season are:

• Appetizer: Candied Chestnut and Brie Crostinis -- a fun and interesting winter hors-d'oevre to delight your friends
• Soup: Chestnut & Lobster Soup (from Bon Appetit, January 2002) -- a lovely soup that tastes decadent but yet is very healthy with its milk base and seafood and chestnut ingredients.  I topped this with a thyme-infused crème fraiche and used a very good madeira, and it was perfect
• Salad: Arugula with Candied Chestnuts, Stilton Blue, Dried Tart Cherries and a Fig Balsamic Dressing -- a delicious winter salad
• Entrée: Chestnut, Sunchoke & Swiss Chard Pasta -- a new creation of mine for a lovely mid-winter meal

Cheers to chestnuts!

Soup Season is Here!

So it's finally cold enough in my temperate town of San Francisco to again warrant (at least in my book) regular (weekly if not more frequently!) soup creations!  Some of my friends find soup-making challenging -- but once you get the hang of it, there are very few easier, healthier, more satisfying meals. 

If you want to really enjoy soup making, just be sure to have a few basics on hand.  Then add in whatever veggies and meats you have in the house or find at the market, and with a few added ingredients you can make tons of wonderful soup combinations.  Here are some of the key ingredients  I'd recommend having on hand (all can be shelf stable so you can stock up):

• a stock base: I prefer a vegetable stock, but chicken is a wonderful option too -- and both work in almost every recipe.  You can make this yourself or find good quality versions in most stores (I go for the cartons vs cans, organic if possible).
• fresh or canned tomatoes: when you're not doing a broth base (or even if you are), tomatoes are wonderful as a base or flavor accent for many soups.  I prefer unsalted, peeled, seeded whole (organic if possible) tomatoes because they give me the most options for use (they can be pureed or chopped as needed)
• a dry white wine: this is a wonderful flavor boost often added early in the soup-making process when sauteeing the vegetables. This wine doesn't need to be expensive, a cheap sauvignon blanc or other drier varietal will do wonderfully.
• sherry cooking wine: here, I would go for a mid-priced option and - those labeled as "sherry cooking wine" in the vinegar section of your grocery store are a decent alternative but if you can find a mid-level sherry in the wine section I'd choose that first (you usually get more for your money this way -- in volume and quantity)
• vinegars: a few good ones such as balsamic and sherry vinegar
• a selection of fresh or dried herbs: if you have an herb garden, parsley, oregano, rosemary, and thyme are "standards" and easy to grow indoors in the winter.  Dried herbs such as basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary, and marjoram are great options too.  And remember -- you can always make substitutions -- it's hard to ruin a soup by  mixing up the herbs and can often add a new and interesting twist!
• beans: especially if you are eating vegetarian (but regardless), these are a wonderful and important component of many soups (especially cold-weather soups).  The easiest are canned varieties such as garbanzo, cannelini (white kidney), black beans.  If you can plan ahead and have a bit more time, dried beans offer much more variety, are usually less expensive, and need only be soaked overnight and boiled for about 1 hour before soup-making.  Some dried options (in addition to those above) that I love are cranberry beans, white runner beans, fava beans, black garbanzo beans, and flageolet beans.

A few autumn-inspired (i.e., flavorful, fall ingredients -- but not quite as hearty as I'll be looking for in the middle of winter!) soups I made this past week (I was inspired by the fresh beans still available at the farmer's market!) are:

• Cranberry Bean and Baby Leek Soup
• Fava Bean and Sweet Potato Soup

Less Pasta, More Veggies

I recently read a NY Times article entitled Serving Pasta? Forget What You Learned.  I love seeing pieces like this in the media for a few reasons: First, it gives me ammunition when my spouse complains about the fact that he can't find enough pasta in my pasta dishes (I do tend to tip the scales in favor of the veggies and lean proteins!)  But more importantly, I like to see this sort of article because I'm always thrilled to see mainstream press supporting a healthier perspective on eating.  The average restaurant pasta meals usually offers several times the recommended serving of pasta/grains, with a paltry representation of vegetables and protein.  This leads to the inevitable result that the eater leaves the table full of lots of empty starch calories, only to be hungry again a short while later...not to mention the heavy sauces that can often accompany these dishes (or the fact that almost 100% of the time those pasta are refined grains -- a whole additional topic!)  [And don't get me started on the obesity epidemic fueled by eating patterns like this!]

Give this approach a try -- it's easy.  A few things to keep in mind:

• A good target for an adult pasta portion is two "servings" (about 2 ounces) of pasta -- which equates to about 1 cup cooked pasta, or dry spaghetti or linguini that when "bunched" is about the width of a quarter. 
• Add double or more of veggies --  at least 2 cups cooked -- remember that many vegetables "cook down" so this can mean 3-4 or more cups raw (even more if you are cooking veggies with lots of water content such as mushrooms or spinach).
• If including meat, try to keep it lean and remember that an adult portion should be about 3 ounces.
• Lean towards sauces that are broth or tomato-based if possible.
• If going vegetarian, think about adding nuts and beans for flavor and staying power.
• Add extras for flavor such as fresh herbs and small amounts of high-flavor cheese like parmesan reggiano, goat cheese, sheep's feta. 
• And give those whole-wheat pastas a try too!

The result will be a nice-sized dinner plate which will both satisfy your appetite and your body's nutrient needs. Try this Wild Mushroom & Baby Swiss Chard Pasta recipe to get a delicious veggie fix that won't leave you looking for more pasta.

Who Should Make Your Food Choices?

I was dismayed to read in yesterday's NY Times that the Pennsylvania Dept of Agriculture has decided to ban milk and dairy labeling that indicates that the cows who produce it have been treated with a bovine growth hormone (known as rBGH or rBST): read Consumer Won't Know What They're Missing.  You probably already know some of my feelings about milk if you read my piece on Ultra-Pasteurized Milk.  I've sought out milk that clearly indicates it is from cows NOT treated with growth hormones ever since I had kids.  I've done the research, and I know that there isn't scientific evidence of negative effects from this milk (although it remains illegal in most of the rest of the world which is suspicious).  And I can't imagine a mother ever taking growth hormones when nursing her infant no matter how lacking her milk supply.  Why should it be OK to feed our kids (and ourselves) milk from cows who are treated to those very things?  [Or, at the very least, be denied the ability to have this choice??]

It's funny, I did not agree with the New York city ban on hydrogenated fat. Why? I believe that informed adults should make their own choices.  Given clear information, consumers will vote with their wallets, and business will respond.  Unfortunately, food labeling information in the U.S. has frequently been obscured due to food industry lobbying efforts: factors such as country of origin labeling have been hard won (and still not really implemented or enforced) and food packaging and marketing often seem to be intended to confuse us into buying products ("whole grain" products, for example, which may be less than a tablespoon of whole grain unless the label clearly indicates "100%").

How can Dennis Wolff, Secretary of Agriculture for Pennsylvania, take away consumers' rights to make their own dairy choices? Even removing health reasons as a consideration, consumers today choose products based on social considerations from animal treatment to environmental treatment to "Organic" certification in almost every other food category.  How can milk, one of the top 5 food groups in the U.S. diet, be exempt from providing consumers this basic information in the state of Pennsylvania (and Ohio may follow soon)? It doesn't take much research into Secretary Wolff's background to see his close ties to the dairy industry -- not to mention, as stated on his department profile, his ownership of a 600-acre dairy cattle operation.  I wonder if his cows are treated with growth hormones? 

If you feel strongly regarding Wolff's decision you can email his office or write to him at: PA Dept of Agriculture, 2301 N. Cameron St., Harrisburg, PA 17110

Training Healthier Tastebuds

My favorite food and nutrition magazine, EatingWell, published a wonderful special report called "Retrain Your Tastebuds" last year.  In my family, we've made a successful transition to healthier foods over the past several years  including migration to whole wheat pasta, brown rice, natural peanut butter and skim milk.  It took some time and an open mind (particularly with the oldest "kid" in my house), but it's been a positive thing for all of us (my husband now comes home to tell me proudly that he chose the whole wheat tortilla for his lunch burrito at work, or the pizza with the whole wheat crust!)

When I tell friends about this, often they tell me that they or their kids simply can't do it -- but still I believe it's possible.  A good example was a dinner I catered last night for my husband and a dozen colleagues.  I wanted the comfort-food theme of a fall gratin, using the deep flavors of Italian pork sausage along with the cheeses that are essential to a gratin.  But as always I added the challenge of how to make this dish healthier -- in this case lighter on the fats, particularly saturated fats. 

So I decided to try swapping 3/4ths of the pork sausage for chicken sausage, and focused on adding extra flavor through the tomatoes, spices, and herbs in this dish (and sparingly using cheeses with the strongest complementary flavors).  The meal was a huge success, and when polled afterwards everyone remarked on the intense and varied flavors of this dish, and no one guessed that it was mostly chicken! (Although, who knows, all of the wine these oenophiles brought along to accompany the meal may have contributed too...)  A few guests even asked for the recipe, so here it is: Zucchini, Fennel and Italian Sausage Gratin.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Everywhere!

Pumpkin season is definitely here, and for the month of October it's hard not to see pumpkins everywhere you look.  Not only are they great for carving jack-o-lanterns, but they are a delicious and healthy recipe ingredient too -- full of potassium, Vitamin A, and Vitamin C, while quite low in calories.  Sweet Pie pumpkins are wonderful if you have the energy to cook down fresh ones (in general, it's always best to go for smaller pumpkins if you want to cook with them -- they are sweeter and more flavorful), and for many dishes, canned pumpkin puree works quite well too (Trader Joe's has a nice organic version this time of year). Probably because they were fresh on my mind, this past week has been filled with pumpkin dishes at our house...so I've posted a few of my favorites:

• Pumpkin, Swiss Chard & Goat Cheese Lasagna
• Pumpkin Cheesecake-Chocolate Ganache Squares
• Pumpkin Bread with Fresh Cranberries

Ricotta Salata and...

I am enamored of my new ricotta salata making capability (my first 3-week aged version of this cheese made its debut on Sunday evening).  Ricotta Salata is a hard cheese (usually cow's milk) that is a dried, aged version of ricotta cheese -- it is salty and tangy and wonderful grated or shaved onto salads and lots of other dishes where you might use parmesan or feta.  I have been finding every opportunity to use it...so far with an heirloom tomato appetizer, with an arugula and grilled apple salad, and last night in a tomato and zucchini blossom dish (I am also enamored of zucchini blossoms whenever I can find them at the farmer's market, but that is another story).  This recipe was particularly tasty so I thought I would share it here: Tomato, Fennel & Zucchini Blossom Sauté with Ricotta Salata.

 

Trader Joes Fan Club

Most of my friends will tell you that I am a self-appointed, unofficial, and unacknowledged promoter of Trader Joe's.  It is one of my absolute favorite places to grocery shop.  To me, it offers the best combination of quality, value, healthy orientation, interesting and new gourmet offerings, and a local sensibility.

Many of the TJs-brand offerings are private-labeled products sourced from local manufacturers, and many others are private label versions of high-quality, well-known brands that are identical to what you might find at a Whole Foods but for significantly less $$.  Just last week I learned that TJ's new European-Style Thick and Creamy organic yogurt is actually from Straus Family Creamery -- an employee told me that it's actually delivered in cardboard cases with the Straus Creamery logo.  I let out my not-infrequent exclamation of: "I love this store!", at which the TJs employee only smiled (I bet he hears it not-infrequently). 

Over my many years of shopping at Trader Joes I have also learned to trust the "healthiness" of TJ's offerings -- I don't need to scrutinize labels for ingredients such as hydrogenated fat and high-fructose corn syrup, and am always thrilled at the latest delicious, healthy, and unique ingredients that are difficult or impossible to find elsewhere, from organic whole-wheat & corn tortillas to sprouted-wheat papardelle to frozen green garbanzos.

And in a better way than Walmart, Trader Joe's is bringing organic to the masses -- nowhere else can you find the consistent range of organic offerings, often local, seasonal, and environmentally-conscious, at anywhere near their price points.  I do have friends who complain occasionally about the quality of TJ's produce -- if you've read this far you already realize that I am slightly cult-like about this store so don't take too kindly to such criticism -- my answer is simply that (1) I rarely encounter this issue and I grocery shop, at TJs and elsewhere, a great deal, (2) just as you would when buying produce anywhere else you still need to inspect it closely before throwing the package in your cart -- and this is still fairly easy to do even through the packaging, and (3) on the few occasions I have complained about spoiled produce, whether I had the food item or packaging with me or not, TJ's has gladly given me a full refund. 

There is one area of criticism that I think is valid -- the comment that "you can't find everything on your grocery list at Trader Joe's".  I do also supplement with trips to other stores when I have the time, but I can (and have on many occasions) made a weeks' worth of interesting meals (adult and kid-oriented), from scratch, almost exclusively from Trader Joe's fresh ingredients.  On that note , whenever I make this statement I have friends ask me to document a series of "Trader Joes recipes" for them -- quick and easy recipes (not pre-prepared packaged meals) that are made from only Trader Joes ingredients.  So, to finally come to a conclusion for this entry -- the TJ Recipes section of this site will definitely have a large representation of these and will be flagged accordingly.  Stay tuned, once I get started I might not be able to stop...

Ultra-Pasteurized Milk

I've recently gotten into home cheesemaking, which once again brought up for me the seemingly endless issues around the topic of milk: do we really need it, where we get it, how are the animals treated...raw, pasteurized, homogenized, organic, rBST, with or without fat.  The milk issue that came to my attention in this case is this: I learned that you can't make a decent cheese with milk that has been ultra-pasteurized (meaning milk that has been thermally processed at or above 280° F for at least 2 seconds).  Why would one do this to milk?  Because ultra-pasteurized (UP or also called UHT) milk spoils much more slowly, increasing shelf life -- as long 30-90 days when kept refrigerated and unopened.

So what's wrong with it? Well, from my perspective, it starts to resemble the same issues as with Twinkies...should something organic last for this long without spoiling? And from the cheesemaking perspective, it's a non-starter (in more ways than one): expert cheesemaker Ricki Carroll, author of "Home Cheese Making", considers UHT milk to be dead, describing that "the protein structure is damaged and the enzymes are destroyed" and urges us to lobby our grocery stores to provide alternatives.  When I went looking for organic cow and goat's milk to begin my cheese-making projects, I was dismayed to find that at least half of the organic cow's milk and almost all of the goat's milk options available to me were ultra-pasteurized...and I am guessing the trend is towards more of this type of processing, not less. 

I've not drawn a final conclusion on this topic -- beyond cheesemakers' concerns I have not found any definitive information on any nutritional difference between UP milk and pasteurized, but it does make me thing twice about the importance of milk for myself and my children -- it it's "dead" anyway, what's the difference between drinking it versus a glass of water and swallowing a calcium pill?  Food (or in this case, drink) for thought.

It's Soccer Snack Season Again...

...And each year I am faced with the same dilemma -- should I:
(1) Conform to the perceived "requirement" of agreeing to organized Snack Duty among the parents.   This means taking turns providing bag-fulls of drinks and snacks for my sons and their teammates at the end of each practice and game.  This choice also means adhering to what other parents think are appropriate snacks for the kids (some of my least-favorite examples include tattooed fruit roll-ups, "10% real juice" juice boxes, mini-bags of Oreos and Cheetos).  I never feel that my children are "deprived" by the healthy snacks we eat home, but when my delighted son runs over to me clutching three or four of these packages (as excited as though he'd just opened a goody bag from a birthday party!), I have to restrain myself not to snatch them away.
OR
(2) Be the "bad cop" (aka very-annoying parent) and ask that we refrain from organized snacks, thereby allowing each parent to decide for him or herself.

Last year, I finally found ammunition for my preferred option (option 2, if it wasn't obvious!) in a wonderful op-ed piece published in the NY Times: Will Play for Food by Harlen Coben.  This empowering article asks us to re-think the "super-sizing" of soccer snacks -- in terms of both quantities and junk-iness -- and go back to the days of orange slices and water.  When I read this wonderful article and forwarded it along to the team's parents for comment, I was thrilled and delighted in the supportive responses from many parents who were afraid to voice similar concerns.  We made a decision to cancel snacks and I think many of us were relieved.

I now have this article saved and bookmarked, and pull it out for soccer (and other sports) seasons to engage parents in this same discussion -- I hope you will find it to be useful "ammunition" too!

Chocolate! (and discretionary calories)

So, while I do absolutely believe in healthy, delicious, eating and cooking -- and the discussion of that theme is what I want this blog to be about -- I have to start my first entry with my current, favorite hobby: chocolate.  I recently took a chocolate and baking class at the Culinary Institute in St. Helena and have become -- at least for this holiday season -- addicted to chocolate making.  It is a beautiful art, and the surprise and delight when giving friends handmade chocolates is so much fun.  So far I've been trying interesting combinations of "toppings" such as pistachio/dark cherry, espresso/cocoa powder, lemon/thyme/almond, toasted candied pepitos, and turbinado sugar/sea salt.   So how do I rationalize this with "healthy"? Well, there are all of those studies (Hersheys-sponsored and other) pointing towards dark chocolate having healthy effects (none of which, to my knowledge, are conclusive).  But regardless, I am a firm believer in discretionary calories as a reward for generally good eating and healthy lifestyle (a concept I am trying to instill in my children -- without getting too neurotic about it!).  And at least based on my priorities, a few especially tasty pieces of chocolate (preferably dark) are somewhere at the top of list of eating "rewards" (along with good wine, cheese, and occasionally french fries!)