Beans and Rice

...and cheese.



I recently broke my collar bone so while healing, visits to the market (or to anywhere for that matter) have been kept to a minimum. So... while very hungry and stuck with what's already in my kitchen, resourcefulness became the game.

Mark Bittman was being interviewed on the radio. He has a book about eating healthy and how meat needs to take a smaller role in our day to day eating. Certainly true, proteins from plant sources have long been a regular part of my personal diet. Eating more plants... closest to their natural state... is the single biggest part of changing ones diet for the better. Now I'm not a vegetarian, not by a long stretch, but consciousness of any kind in food choices naturally leads to less animal more plant.

These fun little one pot meals are a examples of full nutrition with out any compromise of taste and richness. Beans and rice together provide the complete set of amino acids that make the protein we all need in our diet.


I used cannellini beans, short grain brown rice, ground carrot and red pepper (ejections form my juicer... still full of flavor), chopped onions and parsley, and finished with small cubes of a mild cheddar cheese in this one. After you add the cheese, it's important not to stir anymore. You let the pockets of cheese melt and bond to what surrounds them. It tasks just a few minutes covered, right off the heat. Then dig in.



Here's another one, with the same rice and the same beans, but with a bit of smoked lamb and kale. A little bit of the flavorful lamb goes along way and the kale adds a huge array of nutrients. Kale is among the vegetables said to contain the highest number of nutrients. Sauteed onions, carrot, and garlic were also added.

You may be wondering why the cannellini beans are yellow and not white. The way I cooked them was this:
- Soak dried beans for 5-6 hours or overnight (you can't over soak)
-Heat a medium sauce pan on high, add olive oil, a small handful of chopped onions, and a spice blend (I used coriander, paprika, sprig of thyme, a small bay leaf (fresh) and turmeric) salt and pepper.
-Let the onion sweat and color just a bit, and the spices will toast and release their flavor.
-Cover with a light veg stock or water just a bit less than an inch over the beans.
-Cook till tender, about 25-35 minutes, on low being careful that it doesn't dry up and burn.
-Drain off excess liquid, remove thyme sprig and bay leaf, drizzle a touch of olive oil, and you're set.

These beans are ready to be added to whatever.



Here's another tasty rice and beans dish that would go great with a piece of fish or some braised chicken or something.


Lots and lots of caramelized onions and a few leaves of wilted spinach folded into short grain brown rice and black beans over some fresh cuccumber and a sauce made from piquillo peppers. I left the English cuccumbers in their full natural state giving lots of pleasant textures to this dish. They were lightly seasoned and dressed in olive oil.

Just email me if you want the full recipes to these or any thing else you see on this blog.

The Kitchen at the Wayne Arts Center
(link to the W.A.C. page)



I'm happy to present these classes which I'll be teaching. Wednesdays in the afternoon. Spread the word!



Workshops, 1 day:
(click the class title to link to the registration page)


Cooking with the Seasons, Fall
Oct 20th, 1:00 to 3:30 PM

As nature slows and a gentle chill begins to clam us after the heat of summer, a new frame of mind in our cooking comes about. Warm soups and roasted autumn vegetables to pair with slow cooked meats and poultry. And with the holidays coming around, we focus on perfecting old favorites and utilizing fall ingredients like squash, nuts, mushrooms and apples.



Farm to Plate
Oct. 27th, 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm

This class will take you through some exciting cooking that focuses on the bounty of food provided by our local farmers and growers. What to do with that Kohlrabi and pasture raised Pheasants? Feel free to ask for guidance on the ingredients that you're not sure about. A variety of cooking techniques will be taught and several finished items will be enjoyed at the table toward the end of class.


Day In the Life of a Pastry Chef
Nov. 3rd, 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm

That pastry chef can be you! Along with the help of a professional and some common kitchen tools, you can make some decadent creations like creme brulee, liquid center chocolate cake, and beautiful french style fruit tarts. John has years experience in restaurant pastry kitchens and will bring those skills to the WAC and share them with you. Observe, prepare, and consume.

Dinner Party Cooking
Nov. 10th, 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm

Learn how to make some exciting recipes that are perfect for your next dinner party. John Blanchet, a veteran of Philly restaurant cooking and an enthusiast of local and healthy food, will instruct and inform you on how to cook dishes suited for entertaining a group of friends. John will give you more confidence to impress your friends and have fun when cooking for a small party. Students will observe and take part in the preparation of the food. Roasted vegetable platter with olives and local goats cheese, lentil salad with roasted duck and figs, and ginger-coriander glazed chicken are some examples of delicious and versatile dinner party fair that you may learn to prepare with this one day culinary workshop. You eat it too.

Lots of fun cooking with the kids at the Wayne Arts Center with the new Teen Culinary Class.

Sustaining Interests

The event was a small group of ladies brought together for a bridal shower. They wanted a real focus on local sources for the food and so the good people at Fair Food Farm Stand gave them my name. It was a lunch affair of causal nature so I decided to make things that were easy to come back and forth to in a buffet type arrangement. Here is the menu:

Local Artisan Cheese selection
Wild Alaskan salmon rillette hors d'oeurves on cucumber
Chilled seasonal vegetable soup
Summer savory tart made with goats cheese, heirloom tomatoes, herb, organic wheat crust
Chicken Salad from whole roasted Canter Hill Farm chickens
Wimer's Organics green beans in pesto
Bread by Wild Flour Bakery

They had me do a little talk about buying local and the importance sustainability in our food choices. Farmers markets, and the Monterrey Bay Aquarium Sustainable Seafood Watch were mentioned.

In the morning

After catching up on rest the next morning after a catering event, it's fun going into my kitchen and seeing what I get to eat for breakfast. Generally, with left overs, the client will get everything that was prepared neatly put away and labeled. As for the extra produce and ingredients that require more work before they're comsumable, I split them up between the client (they get things that are special and in good condition) and myself.


Looks like goats cheese omelet and heirloom tomato salad to me.




My breakfast, thanks to the farmers at the Bryn Mawr Farmers Market and my client from Fort Washington. Summer salad and sloppy goats cheese omelet.

Oh yeah, I must also thank Bill our handy man here at the Haverford residence for the beautiful tomatoes he brought me. Those tiny ones in the photo at top are his Sunburst tomatoes which are officially the sweetest tomatoes I have ever tasted. Candy!

Good food for a picnic... pasta salad.



I really like the way udon noodles fill the pasta role in pasta salad as a change from the old macaroni product. This soft, wheat based Japanese noodle swells up when cooked and then takes on a the flavors of whatever else is around. Balancing the moisture when creating a dish with this noodle can be tricky especially when it needs to hold for a while before eaten.

Peas and Parmesan where my 2 key ingredients which inspired the notion of a pasta salad. The next move was to render some bacon and boil some eggs. I love the way cooked egg yolk breaks up and then dissolves into the sauce. Here, I sauteed onions in butter, added red pepper, then the peas, crispy bacon, chunks of avocado, the cut up pieces of 2 boiled eggs, then the udon noodle and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano . Also, it's good to save a bit of the noodle cooking liquid. You use it to moisten the dish to the right level.



Herbs can really take this dish in many good directions, but sometimes.... when we're in the full on summer season.... it's nice to let the simple flavors of the origianl ingredients shine on there own. I was glad in the end that I didn't have herbs handy today.



Watashi no men wa oishiidesu

Summertime cooking; dinner on the porch


first course
Soppresata, pears, figs, prosciutto de parma



second course
chilled cucumber soup



third course
Pennsylvanianized Salad Niciose



third course part 2
grilled pesto bread, grilled chicken breast



dessert
baked chocolate and vanilla ice cream
thanks Wendy! (she made it)



9 minute hard boiled egg, just right. Cook, crack, cool in ice water... it helps for peeling.
Thank you David Tanis!





Chicken for the grill, marinade before and after cooking! (see explanation below)
Thank you Larbi Dahrouch!




This was food from a clients birthday dinner. The vegetables on the salad are (in order from egg and to left) boiled Lancaster organic eggs, grilled asparagus, grilled red onions, grilled gold beets (just boil them first...slightly underdone), locally grown green beans, articokes, grape tomatoes, grilled zucchini, nicoise olives and pinenuts. The salad is red oak, arugula and Belgian endive parsley.

The chicken was marinaded with lemon peel, garlic, herbs, olive oil. But more importantly... as soon as it came off the grill, it was covered in a second marinade which also helped to cool it to a nice warm place after the hot grill. A chef I worked with many years ago would have us cook chicken breast at the beginning of lunch service. Then, when any chicken dish was ordered, we would slice it and put caesar dressing all over it.... then stick it under the broiler for just a minute. It yielded great results... so flavorful! I expanded this technique to serve many different dishes and flavor applications....as in this meal.


Served with grilled bread and pesto. The second marinade served as a cool down AND a sauce once combined with the juices of the grilled chicken.

For the cuccumber soup, just peel em, blend em, add lemon juice, jalapeno, greek yogurt, olive oil, salt and pepper. Chill.

Happy Birthday Linda!

Taste



When things taste good to you, it is because of so many reasons. Just as we acquire a taste for something we did not like as a child, we move through and gain a taste for things that make sense to us. It is the unending adaptation of our senses.
Making sense of our health and why we want to consume certain things for our better wellness will actually make them taste better. And/Or... making sense of cheap crappy foods will make processed flavors more palatable. The point is the relevance of association to what taste good to you. What is important to you in life as you consume something and perceive it. Do you really enjoy it? Be open and be mindful... someone once said.

Ground Elder, seen here consuming the lower branches of a Rhododendron, is the most difficult weed in my yard. I've fought it out of the garden for the most part, but the struggle is unending.

One day recently while madly ripping at the stuff, I noticed that the smell of it was somewhat appetizing. I wondered is it was safe to eat and headed to the world wide internets. I learned that not only is it safe to eat, it's a member of the carrot family! If you compare the leaves from carrot tops to ground elder, then you'll see a the kinship.

Fantastic, I thought, now... I just need to make it taste good. A free and abundant leafy green veg (the best food type for your health)!
First try : Fava beans , ground elder, and ham cooked with butter on crusty baguette. Pretty good, but the elder wasn't really standing out. So I started thinking about giving it more of the spot light.

Since it does taste kinda like carrot greens (though less harsh and more sweet) it needs something to smooth it out and yet highlight it's pleasant zing. I've read that most people don't like it's taste on the first try. Another important point is to avoid it once it flowers. Unless you need a strong laxative.

Here is my second try:

Ground elder and avocado soup, braised artichoke, escarole, fried quail egg.

I was lucky with what I had around the house because this turned out good. I'm backin it. I should be making my own creme fraiche then I'd have a better garnish to the soup then just the barigoule oil.

These are images from a private chef event last weekend. The menu was 6 courses and mostly spring oriented with a few winter projects of mine respresented. Here's how it read:

vegetable bisque with coconut, red curry, brown butter shrimp

mache and arrugula salad with parmesan terrine, gold beet sauce

olive oil poached tuna with mint, red quinoa, and black hummus

NY strip cooked "parlet", spring vegetables, sunchoke puree, thyme shallot sauce

beet halwa, vanilla legere, crispy cashew cookie

chocolate hazelnut panna cotta with steamed hazelnut milk, espresso chocolate brownie, chocolate crunch bar and whipped cream

A few thoughts from the process:
When we had that stint of very warm weather, the soup course changed from miso based to Thai curry based. There's an element of drama when eating this soup as it turns from off-white in color to red (and gets more flavorful) gradually. The small spheres of potent red curry sauce melt into the hot soup as the eater stirs and siawdawdps.

Bagna Cauda is a dipping sauce made from mostly olive oil with anchovies, garlic, chile, herbs, etc. I wanted the flavors to bring more dynamic to the salad course... and in honor of the great Italian Parmesano Reggiano, why not use a classic Italian sauce. However, in a not so classic fashion, I emulsified it into salt roasted gold beet puree. This gave it a texture better suited for the dish, smooth and sweet instead of just oily. So in the end, it can not really be called Bagna Cauda, though that was the origin of my thinking.

I was really really happy with the tuna course. Why pair quinoa with hummus and tuna you ask? Well, I worked out a simple way to gently poach (or confit) the tuna in olive oil....without having sous vide equipment... while I was working at Marigold Kitchen in Philadelphia. The chef, Israeli influenced, made amazing hummus and used it in fine dish composition. I must have tried the too together cause it clicked. The red quinoa fit in because I thought it had a nutty-buttery taste.... like tahini... so.... add some small diced cuccumber for a fresh/crisp bite and there it is.

And I must mention the wines! Really great pairings! Thanks to Zach for his help. Here they are in relative order:

Soup course: Kunde Estate 2007 Viognier Sonoma valley

Salad course: August Cellars 2007 Pinot Gris Oregon

Tuna course: Jean Boillot 1998 Volnay 1er cru Les Chevrets

Steak course: 1986 Leoville Barton

First Dessert: Chateau Pajzos Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos 1993

Chocolate: Coume Del Mas 200, "Quintessence" Banyuls

Jim and Amy over for dinner in Haverford. These dishes are part of some experimenting I've been doing. Nearing the end of winter, root vegetables are a "go to". The vegetable gratin was adapted from a Fair Foods Farm Stand recipe featured in the Inquirer as was the beet halwa (that's the colorful stuff under the vanilla ice cream). Braised pork and a Red Russian kale/white bean/shallot situation make up the rest of the main course. We happily realized while eating it all that this was an extremely healthy meal for tasting so good. I love you FFFS!

A selection of photos form the very exciting holiday party at 03world.  Hazelnut hot cocoa, Goldrush  apple tarts, braised pork and pickled red onion sliders, chestnut soup with pumpkin emulsion and cocoa.  Photos by Andrea Monzo.