Category — Healthy Eating

Okay, I love corn–so why is it that I had never heard of a Corn Zipper before? I admit this is kind of a wacky idea, but I can see how beneficial this could be for someone like me who would put corn on my salad, and in my soup, and maybe swim in it if I got the chance. OXO makes a nifty Corn Zipper that catches all the kernels so you’re not on your hands and knees cleaning up a corny mess.

OXO Corn Stripper

There are some different Corn Zippers that resemble vegetable peelers. Store your kernels in some sort of food storage set, ’cause you’re going to have a lot of kernels.

OXO® 10-Piece Pop Container Set.

My favorite dessert in the world are fruit tartes . When I eat pies or tartes I go straight for the crust! But instead of just using the tartes for dessert, I thought it would be a delicious alternative to eat tartes for lunch or dinner, made with the one and only Le Creuset Tarte Pan. The stainless steel spatula will be an important part of getting your polenta ready and this All-Clad Stainless Steel Flexible Spatula is perfect. The recipe and beautiful images are via Elizabeth from the Guilty Kitchen!

Zucchini Tarte Tatin with Polenta

Polenta method is adapted from Marcella Hazan

4 cups water or low sodium broth
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whole grain cornmeal (medium to coarse grind)
2 small zucchini (approximately 6″ each)
1 tsp. veg oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 oz. Chèvre
1/2 cup asiago, grated
1 Tbsp each of fresh thyme, chives and basil, chopped
1 egg, beaten (room temperature)

1. Bring water and salt to a boil, whisk in cornmeal a little at a time to avoid clumps.
2. Cook over medium high heat for 2 minutes, whisking constantly.
3. Reduce heat to low and cover. Cook at a low simmer for 45 minutes. Stirring every 5-10 minutes for at least 1 minute.
4. Meanwhile, slice your zucchini into 1/4″ rounds.
5. Add oil to skillet and heat to medium high. Add zucchini and salt & pepper. Sauté for 6-8 minutes (or until slightly softened).
6. Grease an 8″ round baking dish . Arrange cooked zucchini in concentric circles around bottom of dish. When finished, crumble chèvre over zucchini. Preheat oven to 400°F.
7. After 45 minutes, remove polenta from heat & stir in cheese and herbs.
8. Let stand 15-20 minutes, add beaten egg and stir quickly to combine.
9. When polenta is ready, pour gently over zucchini. Spread evenly with spatula.
10. Bake for 40 minutes for a soft centre. Longer if you want it more set.
11. Take tarte out of oven and slide a knife or spatula around the edges to loosen. Place a large round plate on top of baking dish and flip everything over together to get the tarte out.

via The Guilty Kitchen

Thomas Keller recently opened his Beverly Hills restaurant Bouchon , but to get his food at home is a dream come true. This is the award-winning Keller’s Favorite Simple Roast Chicken Recipe, which I added one simple step of injecting Keller’s roast chicken with a marinade injector.

Thomas Keller’s Favorite Simple Roast Chicken with Marinade Injector

One 2- to 3-pound farm-raised chicken
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons minced thyme (optional)

Unsalted butter
Dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Rinse the chicken, then dry it very well with paper towels, inside and out. The less it steams, the drier the heat, the better.

Salt and pepper the cavity, then truss the bird. Trussing is not difficult, and if you roast chicken often, it’s a good technique to feel comfortable with. When you truss a bird, the wings and legs stay close to the body; the ends of the drumsticks cover the top of the breast and keep it from drying out. Trussing helps the chicken to cook evenly, and it also makes for a more beautiful roasted bird.

Now, salt the chicken—I like to rain the salt over the bird so that it has a nice uniform coating that will result in a crisp, salty, flavorful skin (about 1 tablespoon). When it’s cooked, you should still be able to make out the salt baked onto the crisp skin. Season to taste with pepper.

Place the chicken in a sauté pan (like this 3-qt. Mauviel Saute Pan with Lid ) or roasting pan (like this Le Creuset Roasting Pan ) and, when the oven is up to temperature, put the chicken in the oven. I leave it alone—I don’t baste it, I don’t add butter; you can if you wish, but I feel this creates steam, which I don’t want. Roast it until it’s done, 50 to 60 minutes. Remove it from the oven and add the thyme, if using, to the pan. Baste the chicken with the juices and thyme and let it rest for 15 minutes on a cutting board.

Remove the twine. Separate the middle wing joint and eat that immediately. Remove the legs and thighs. I like to take off the backbone and eat one of the oysters, the two succulent morsels of meat embedded here, and give the other to the person I’m cooking with. But I take the chicken butt for myself. I could never understand why my brothers always fought over that triangular tip—until one day I got the crispy, juicy fat myself. These are the cook’s rewards. Cut the breast down the middle and serve it on the bone, with one wing joint still attached to each. The preparation is not meant to be superelegant. Slather the meat with fresh butter. Serve with mustard on the side and, if you wish, a simple green salad. You’ll start using a knife and fork, but finish with your fingers, because it’s so good.

Image and Recipe via Lawyer Loves Lunch

I’ve added a recipe for a simple Green Bean and Potato Salad that I think would go great with Thomas Keller’s Chicken Roast!

image and recipe via Weekof Menus

Green Bean Potato Salad
Serves 6-8

8 oz green beans, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
3 lbs small red or white skinned potatoes (I did the small round dutch yellow that you can get at Trader Joe’s)

1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 large shallot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons Italian parsley, finely chopped
1 tablespoon dijon mustard

Cook green beans in well-salted, boiling water.  Cook for 4 minutes.  Drain, rinse with cold water and pat dry.

Place cut potatoes in well salted water.  Bring to a boil.  Cook for 8-10 minutes until potatoes are just tender.  (Poke a fork to see as cooking time will ultimately vary based on size of potato.)  Drain and set aside.

Quickly mix together white vinegar, olive oil, shallot, parsley and mustard to make a dressing.  Pour over the still warm potatoes and toss well to coat. [Side note: with a salad with this many ingredients, these 8 piece glass prep bowls let me get cooking and eating quickly!]  Cool completely.  Once potatoes are cooled, add green beans.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve room temperature or cold.

This past weekend, I went on a road trip to San Francisco with my girlfriends. It was more a culinary adventure than anything else and every meal we ate was insanely good. One of the standout dishes was the Tea Leaf Salad from Burma Superstar located at 309 Clement Street, San Francisco.

I’ve never had anything like it. Blogger Tea & Cookies describes it perfectly:

“The tea leaves are fermented, apparently hand-carried back from Burma, and have a deep vegetal flavor unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before. It is mixed at the table with romaine lettuce, peanuts, fried garlic and split yellow peas, sesame and sunflower seeds, tomato, and dried shrimp… It is crunchy and crispy and the flavor is out of this world, a musky, fragrant taste I’ve found nowhere else.”

There are no exact recipes, but Kitchen Caravan has one that apparently comes close:

• 4 cups thinly sliced Napa cabbage (about 2/3 head)
• 2 T unsalted roasted peanuts
• 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
• 6 medium shrimp, shell on
• 2 garlic cloves + 2 T oil for frying
• 3 T sesame oil
• 2 T green tea leaves
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1 juicy lime
• 2 T cilantro, finely chopped
• ½ tomato, seeded and diced (optional)

Shell and de-vein the shrimp.

Fill a medium sized saucepan with water and bring it to a simmer. Poach the shrimp until just cooked through, which only takes a matter of minutes.

Remove them from their poaching liquid as soon as they are done cooking, cool, and refrigerate.

Clean the shrimp shells under running water. Dry them well.

Heat up the sesame oil in a small pan, (like this Swiss Diamond 8″ frying pan) and add in the shrimp shells along with the tea leaves. Let them infuse in the oil on moderate heat for 5-10 minutes, then turn off the heat and continue to let them infuse while you prepare the rest of the salad.

Slice the poached shrimps in half lengthwise.

Heat up the 2 tablespoons (I like the Anolon 4-piece measuring spoon set ) of oil in a skillet, and fry the garlic until golden brown. Remove the garlic with a slotted spatula and set it on some paper towel to soak up some of the oil.

Combine the cabbage, peanuts, sesame seeds, shrimp, and tomato (if you are using) together in a bowl.

Drain the infusing oil of the shrimp shells and tea leaves, pressing hard on the solids, in order to extract all of the flavored oil.

Make the dressing by whisking together the infused oil, fish sauce, lime juice, some salt to taste, and the cilantro.

Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well.

Top the salad with the fried garlic.

I don’t think there’s anything in this world that I crave more than ice cream. And not just during the hot summer months: I crave it year-round. I’ve been behaving myself lately and indulging less often since I’m trying to lose weight and train for a half marathon, but I just can’t seem to give up my ice cream addiction. I was discussing this with one of my more health-conscious friends recently, and he shared a little secret with me: how to make banana ice cream using just frozen bananas! Simply place a couple of ripe bananas in the freezer for a few hours and then process them (love my new Cuisinart food processor) until smooth and creamy. To make it even easier, I peeled the bananas, sliced them, and put them in a ziploc bag before freezing.

That’s it! Who knew something so easy (and healthy!) could be such an amazing treat?! Of course, you can always add a little peanut butter or chocolate if you so desire, but I’m telling you, the bananas on their own are sweet enough. It’s a great alternative to throwing away those bananas that are just a little too ripe for my taste. Plus, it gives me another great excuse to use my beautiful tangerine Cuisinart 3-cup food processor!

I’m a huge fan of the cooking TV show Top Chef, DC . This season, one of the most common judge complaints stem from food that had been unevenly cut, thus cooking the food at different rates. An important kitchen tool called a mandoline can ensure even cooking time for cut fruits and vegetables. Get a stainless steel commercial mandoline —it’ll be easier to clean and much safer to use than any old cheapie mandolin. The quintessential recipe to test out your new stainless steel commercial grade mandolin would be Ratatouille ! I will admit, until Disney’s culinary rat Remy came into town, I had no idea what Ratatouille was and now, thanks to Smitten Kitchen , she’s taken this movie fantasy dish and turned it into a reality using her very own trusty mandolin.

Ratatouille’s Ratatouille As envisioned by Smitten Kitchen

1/2 onion, finely chopped, 2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced, 1 cup tomato puree (such as Pomi), 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 small eggplant (my store sells these “Italian Eggplant” that are less than half the size of regular ones; it worked perfectly),1 smallish zucchini, 1 smallish yellow squash, 1 longish red bell pepper, Few sprigs fresh thyme, Salt and pepper, Few tablespoons soft goat cheese, for serving.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Pour tomato puree into bottom of an oval baking dish , approximately 10 inches across the long way. Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in one tablespoon of the olive oil and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper.

Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. As carefully as you can, trim the ends off the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube.

On a mandoline , adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.

Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit.

Drizzle the remaining tablespoon olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs with your fingertips, running them down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the dish.

Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. (Tricky, I know, but the hardest thing about this.)

Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.

Serve with a dab of soft goat cheese on top, alone, or with some crusty French bread, atop polenta, couscous, or your choice of grain.

When I get back to my apartment after work, it is a bonafide sauna. The last thing I want to do is eat a heavy meal—I just want something substantial and simultaneously light.

Here are two recipes, one for a Zucchini Butter and the other is a Chilled Beet soup that are simple and light; the main tool for both recipes is a grater —no need for hot ovens and they’re so perfect for this heat wave!

This unique recipe for Zucchini Butter from a Los Angeles based caterer Jennie Cooks and was featured on TheKitchn . My favorite grater is a Cuisinart box grater because it gives you good control with the handle and the wider base.

Super Easy and Delicious Zucchini Butter (or Marmalade)
Makes about 2 cups. Recipe from Jennie Cook .

2 pounds zucchini, more or less*
1/4 cup olive oil or butter, if you prefer
2 minced shallots, garlic, or combination of both
Salt and pepper

Coarsely grate the zucchini. Let it drain in a colander for 3 to 4 minutes or until you are ready to begin cooking. To hasten cooking time, squeeze the water out of the zucchini by wringing it in a clean cloth towel.

In a deep skillet, heat the olive oil/butter. Sauté the shallots briefly. Add the zucchini and toss. Cook and stir over medium to medium-high heat until the zucchini reaches a spreadable consistency. If you scorch the bottom, turn the flame down! (And scrape those delicious bits into the marmalade for added flavor.) The zucchini will hold its bright green color and slowly caramelize into a nice vegetable jam.

Enjoy on toast, or as a side dish all summer long!

*Feel free to add extra zucchini. It may take a little longer to cook, but this recipe keeps well and can be stored in the refrigerator for about a month.

There is no better accompaniment to bread and butter than soup. This Chilled Beet Soup with Kefir and Chives from Crumpets and Cakes is a perfect compliment to the Zucchini Butter recipe and also a refreshing diversion from the usual chilled summer soups.

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch baby beets with stems and leaves, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 large radishes or about 6 small, grated
• kefir, I used LifeWay organic
• bunch of chives or about 6 green shallots, finely chopped
• fresh dill about 6-8 sprigs, chopped
• english cucumber, grated
• vegetable stock
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, minced garlic(optional)

Directions:
place chopped beets with their stems and leafs in a large pot , add only enough stock to barley cover them and boil until tender, about 20 min, add salt to taste. Set aside and cool, reserve the stock.
In the mean time, in a large bowl mix all vegetables, finely chopped or grated with dill and chives(or green shallots), add cooled beets and stock. In a final step add kefir , more or less 12 oz, depending on what color and consistency you would like to achieve. There is no hard rules to follow in a preparation of this recipe. I often eyeball amounts and alternate ingredients, always successfully. Add salt and ground pepper to taste. Serve chilled

There is no better meal during Summer than salad. I spotted this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and I love that it adds a dose of hearty potatoes so the salad doesn’t leave you wishing for more. 

With any salad, you have to have a great base–in this case, springy arugula. There is nothing worse to me than soggy arugula so try using this OXO salad spinner to get your leafy greens extra dry.

Arugula, Potato and Green Bean Salad, with a Creamy Walnut Dressing
Adapted from Martha Stewart

Makes 8 small salads or 4 larger ones

1 ounce walnuts (about 1/3 cup)
1 1/2 pounds fingerling potatoes, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
6 ounces haricots, verts, or other green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch segments
2 tablespoons white wine or other mild vinegar
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon coarse salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons walnut oil
3 ounces baby arugula

Preheat oven to 375°. Place walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and toast in oven until fragrant, about 8 minutes. Let cool slightly, then coarsely chop and set aside.

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Add potatoes, and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon , transfer potatoes to a colander to drain and cool. Set aside.

Prepare an ice-water bath; set aside. Return pan of water to a boil. Add green beans, and cook until tender and bright green, about 3 to 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to ice-water bath to stop the cooking. Drain.

Whisk together vinegar, yogurt, mustard and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a small bowl; season with pepper. Add oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking until emulsified. Set dressing aside.

Arrange arugula, potatoes, and green beans on a platter. Season with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Drizzle with dressing and sprinkle with toasted walnuts; toss to coat.

Strawberries are a delicious way to add more antioxidants and fiber to your diet.  According to the California Strawberry Commission, a serving of strawberries, just 8 berries, contains more vitamin C than an orange, and 2 grams of fiber!  What’s even better, is that a cup of strawberries contains just 50 calories.

I’ve found that the best and fastest way to get my daily intake of fruits and veggies is to make a power-packed morning smoothie. Here’s a strawberry smoothie recipe to get you started.  It also contains blueberries–another superfood!

Strawberry & Blueberry Smoothie

• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 banana, peeled
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 1 individual size container of yogurt

Combine all ingredients in a blender, or smoothie maker, and blend until mixture reaches desired consistency.  To add a little zip, replace some of the milk with orange juice.  Yogurt can be any flavor, depending on what you like.  I’ve also added a handful of uncooked quick oats to this recipe for increasing my whole grain intake.

It’s the weekly produce aisle dilemma for me…do I spend more to fill my refrigerator with organic fruits and veggies or just stick with the old standbys?  Have you ever wondered if buying organic food is really worth the money?  According to the green living gurus at Ideal Bite, there are times when organic is definitely better. Here are the top ten picks for food you should always try to buy in organic varieties:

1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Lettuce
9. Pears
10. Imported Grapes

In addition to reducing the risks associated with consuming pesticides and other chemicals,  organic foodies claim that organic produce tastes better, and is more nutritious. Here’s an interesting article on the benefits of eating organic foods.

If you’re trying to make room in your grocery budget for organic foods, consider slashing bottled water from your grocery list. A recent California study showed that bottled water isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.