Resurrection

Happy Easter weekend. I love Easter weekend and the whole holiday - both religious and secularly. You cannot beat the candy at Easter or the general spirit of joy (at least, that's how I read it). Everyone is excited for spring, for pastels, for short skirts, for the time of renewal. And the end of school. Hallelujah! I happen to enjoy the food aspect of Easter. Lamb, vegetables that are in-season or at least almost there. I'm Catholic, so theoretically the past 40 days have been marked by restraint, conscientiousness, and solidarity with the less fortunate. Hence the lack of meat and renouncement of enjoyable, sumptuous things like candy or baked goods. I, frankly, like this focus on food. I become so aware of how much excess there is in my life - tons of leftovers, wasted produce, milk gone bad. How can I more effectively manage the food, the resources, the details of my life? How can I be more conscious of myself? People view the season of Lent in such a negative way, but I think the sacrifice is good. Just as you spring clean your closet, you should spring clean your spirit. And it's impossible to do that without considering your food. Mind-body, people.

<Random Lenten reflection done>

As I was saying, I like the Easter food because it is so highly symbolic and a focal point for joy. I imagine it is similar at Eid, after all the fasting and sacrifice and charity, you have a feast to be glad. Easter food, besides being symbolic, is also just cool. Most people don't have lamb often, and probably have mint jelly rarer, yet these are traditional foods (I'm sure there are more...but this is what I know personally). My Easter menu consists of lamb and ham, roasted potatoes with rosemary, a load of fresh vegetables, and some desserts like angel food cake.

Anyways, just wanted to post and say happy Easter/Spring! Take the time to be joyful and reflect on your life, food, etc. etc...

<3 katie kate

Also, you'll notice I've moved to my blog; I've chosen to keep that one India-devoted, and move this one to blogspot.com since more people use blogspot and it's easier to do the following/sharing thing this way. Forgive me as I get used to it!

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

So I just got back from Beantown, aka Boston. Now, normally I really don’t like Boston for some reason, but going to a Celtics game, seeing the State House, and having delicious diner food can alter your perspective. Also, something about attractive men on the T after the game late at night might have a little something to do with it.

Last post I made mention of two things that are simple, fresh, and tasty, though very far apart on the food spectrum. First were those thin delicious Swedish pancakes…yum! And second was the spicy chickpea sauce that I mentioned I used as a salsa substitute with my quesadillas. Let’s start with the second recipe…

Spicy Chickpea-Tomato Sauce

This is a great recipe that yields a lot of sauce – and it’s great because it is a thick, creamy, protein-packed sauce that can be used in a lot of ways: a dip for pita, on pasta or rice, over steamed veggies. It’s a wonderful way to get cheap protein – a 16 ounce can of chickpeas is faster and much less expensive than meat. I love cooking with chickpeas in place of meat sometimes. The American diet could do with a legume-boost. I use canned beans and tomatoes because they are reduced the amount of time and prep involved; also, tomatoes are expensive in winter!

You’ll need:

• A small sauce pan and some oil for sautéing
• 1 small onion – chopped
• 1-2 cloves of garlic – chopped
• 14 ounce can of diced or chopped tomatoes
• Herbs of your choice (Fresh or dried - use what you have on hand!)
• 1-4 tbsp of red pepper flakes*
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 16 ounce can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup of water.

*DO NOT under-estimate the heat that red pepper flakes can pack. I think I used 2 to 2.5 tbsp and the sauce was plenty spicy. In fact, I would recommend using the minimum amount unless you like the heat.

To create the sauce:

1. Over medium-high heat, sauté the chopped onion and garlic until the onions are translucent and the garlic cooked through, but not burnt.
2. Add whatever herbs – fresh or dried – to the sauce pan. Cook for 2-4 minutes more.
3. Add the tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to the mixture, until the tomatoes are warmed and softened.
4. Add about 2/3 of the can of chickpeas to the mixture, along with the 1 cup of water; heat through.
5. Turn off the stove top and remove the tomato-chickpea mixture.
6. Blend the mixture in a food processor or blender until smooth, like a puree. Add the remaining chickpeas to this sauce, and serve over pasta or rice.

Thin Swedish Pancakes

Now that you’ve gotten your protein and a little bit of spice at dinner, you’ll want something sweet to wake you up. Just recently I have fallen in love with breakfast, and this is a sugary but beloved way to do it.

Sweet way to start the day

You’ll Need:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/3 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk

Such simple ingredients! These are staples of any kitchen.

1. Blend the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt)
2. Add the milk and egg
3. Mix until the batter is smooth

Batter is done!

1. Heat a griddle or iron frying (I buttered mine because I do not have non-stick pans, and the butter made it easy to flip the pancake)
2. Pour a small amount of the batter onto the center of the griddle (5-6 inches in diameter)
3. Cook on one side; flip and cook on the other.

So, that’s all there is to it. These pancakes don’t have baking powder or baking soda, so they don’t rise or get fluffy. This was my first time making these family-loved pancakes, and I found them hard to flip. Because they are small and thin (only 5 inches in diameter or so), a fork worked great to flip. Chances are you will burn the first couple and you may need to play around with how you flip them or keep them from sticking. Also, turn on your fan and open your windows…you wouldn’t want to set off the fire alarm and wake up your roommates like I did. 

Recommendation: Syrup is good but it isn’t the healthiest thing in the world…it’s really just sugar being poured atop a flat sugary cake. So, a healthful substitute is frozen fruit! I took half a cup of frozen fruit and heated it in the microwave. Because the ice on the fruit melts, you end up with a fruity syrup with chunks of the fruit itself…a GREAT topping for pancakes 

Eat well!

<3 katie kate

Fruit for Dinner?

Fruit for dinner? Ever consider it?

It never ceases to intrigue me that Americans don’t cook with fruit more. Fruit is reserved for breakfast (anyone want some strawberries with their cereal?) or after dinner (think fruit salad on a summer night). There are some notable exceptions: Hawaiian pizza glorifies the ham and pineapple combo. Or what about some good old-fashioned pork chops and apple sauce? Though there are times and places in American food for a fruit-meets-meat meal, it is much rarer here than in other places of the world. What would South and South East Asia cuisine be without fruit in its meals? 

Never fear! Fruit for dinner is an interesting and quick way to bring a new flavor to your kitchen. Busy people – especially budgeted college students – get into a routine: cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, chicken/pasta/salad for dinner. Fruit brings different tastes, textures, and nutrients to your cuisine.

Some Examples of How to Welcome Fruit into Your Meals

Peanut butter and jelly, with bananas and strawberries on toasted wheat bread

• Sweet and salty, with a chance to vary the texture of the typical sandwich

Cardamom-infused rice with nuts, grapes, diced apples and raisins

Simple staple food made even better

• Heat some oil in a pot, heat the cardamom and any herbs, then cook the rice in the same pot. As the rice is nearly done cooking, add in your fruits: sliced grapes, diced apple, and raisins and nuts are a good choices. Play around, use what you have. 

Chicken with Green Apples Baked in a Brown Sugar-Apple Juice Sauce

• I just made and ate this for dinner, and it was a success. I browsed through a bunch of recipes and, with some ideas and inspiration, got cracking on my own adaptation on the chicken-apple combo. I’ve included an abbreviated version of my recipe below (for one whole chicken breast).

What you need:

• Chicken breast
• Butter or oil
• Sliced Granny Smith apple (or other tart apple) – about 1/2 will suffice
• Teaspoon of brown sugar
• Quarter cup of apple juice
• Quarter cup of plain yogurt, sour cream, or heavy cream (whatever you have on hand!)

Quick Quesadilla

Uff. It wasn’t even 9:30 a.m. when I set off my fire alarm today. You know when you see something about to happen but can’t stop it? I was making my mother’s thin Swedish pancakes when I could tell that my stovetop fan was about to fail…Luckily two of my roommates were already awake, and God bless my 4th roommate who came out of the room with her jacket on. “It’s the whole building!” Nope, not a fire-drill … just a Thursday morning failure! I was pretty embarrassed honestly (hey! these are hard pancakes to make!) but one of my roommates made me feel better: “Hey, at least now it feels really nice in here with all the windows open.” Nothing like pancakes burnt pancakes to offer some fresh air to the apartment.

Sometimes you screw up, even multiple times (R.I.P. 3 burnt pancakes)…but sometimes, you don’t. Things go how you expect and look pretty and taste good and fill you up. Simple quesadillas are an example of how simple, tasty ideas can go right. Now, in college there are levels of eating: cooking for yourself, using your microwave for meals (mac n cheese, Lean Cuisine, popcorn), using the caf, and ordering in. Now, don’t get me wrong: I don’t want to say you ever NEED crab rangoons…but it comes close to that. So ordering in or getting over-priced food from the caf is necessary. But it gets expensive, especially since most college students don’t have cars and/or are too lazy to drive to pick up food. Also, the $6 you pay for the quesadilla at your campus center is waaaaay too much considering you can spend that money and get the tortiallas and cheese for at least 3/4 homemade plain cheese quesadillas. Cooking at home is often much more cost-effective (not to mention, personally satisfying).

Making a quesadilla is pretty simple, quick, and filling. You can add whatever your heart desires…peppers, onions, anchovies.

Quick and tasty meal, easy enough for a college kid

I kid you not: this is a filling meal that requires minimal skills. Do you have a skillet, frying pan, or wok of some kind? Tortilla? Cheese? A little smidge of butter or oil? Good to go. Wanna get fancy? Grab a knife and veggies.

To make one filling quesadilla, you’ll need:

• A frying pan/skillet/wok
• A little bit of butter or oil (just enough so that the tortilla doesn’t get stuck)
• Grated or shredded cheese: you could get a block of something like cheddar or monterey jack and shred it yourself, or, as my lazy self prefers, just get a bag of shredded cheese. I use the Mexican blend variety…it’s got cheddar, monterey jack, and a few others)
• Large (8-10 in. usually) tortillas (a single one is actually quite filling, especially if loaded with veggies/meat/beans!)
• Optional: onions, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, beans, shredded beef or chicken…etc. etc. Possibilities are endless, really.

To assemble the quesadilla:

Prep: If you are adding ingredients beyond the shredded cheese (veggies, meats), get that ready first. It pays to be prepared. If you like, sauté veggies beforehand for the filling. It’s not necessary, I love cooked onions and peppers in a quesadilla. However, this is really personal preference; if you like raw, keep it raw.

1. In a large frying pan or skillet, heat a little oil over medium-high heat. Use enough so that the pan gets coated well, but not so much that the tortilla will get overly oily and greasy.
2. Place 1 tortilla in the hot pan. Using a fork or tongs and good judgment, flip the tortilla every 10-20 seconds. You want the tortilla to get a little golden-brownish and toasty; you’ll notice air bubbles forming in the tortilla. Don’t worry —you’re doin’ it right!
3. Once you notice the air pockets, begin adding the cheese to be melted. Again, it’s up to you how much cheese you wish to use; I use somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 of a cup. (If you are adding more fillings, keep in mind that you have to close the tortilla, so you don’t want it to be too stuffed). Make sure the cheese is evenly distributed.
4. As the cheese starts to melt, add any other fillings you have.
5. Use a fork or whatever utensil seems workable, fold the tortilla in half. I like to give it a good push with the back of the fork so that it really sticks together.
6. Turn off the stove, slide your quesadilla onto a plate, and cut it into a few nice slices. Eat and enjoy with some salsa or sour cream. 

Not so hard but packed with lots of flavor and nutrients. Hooray! I made my own spicy chickpea sauce for dipping, but I’ll save that for another day!

Four slices, a full meal

<3 katie kate

Delicious With A Side of Yum

Hey friends,

I haven’t blogged in awhile but I’ve been struck with a moment of inspiration. Lately, my inner foodie has been bursting at the seems. I mean, our treadmills at the gym have personal TVS, and I run while watching the Food Network. Judgement free zone, please.

Anyways, I like to write and in this Lenten season I’ve been all about getting back to my roots, which happen to be food and writing, and these things, I think, go great together. So I am going to try to document my experience as a poor college student with limited time and a big appetite. I have to say, first of all, that I am not a good cook but I’m also not a bad one. Actually, in terms of college students, I’m above average but there’s a long way to go. I simply like to play around in the kitchen, replicate recipes, and use inspiration to turn my small college kitchen into a haven for simple, healthful, and pleasurable food. I don’t have the best equipment or sufficient funds for the food I’d like to use, but that’s okay. The next trend of this blog will be a college student’s experience with feeding herself well.

People all have different food philosophies, even if they don’t realize it. Vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, locavore, lover of foods from abroad, raw food diet, beef-less diet, protein-not-carbs, carbs-not-protein, no fat, good fat, McDonalds!, etc etc etc. We all make food choices, which say something about us. What’s the best way to eat for ourselves, our health, our culture, our environment? Some people choose only local foods for sustainability; some shun dairy and meat for health and political reasons; some try to subsist on raw foods and kale juice. Good for them, I guess, though in my opinion it sounds sucky to give up meat and dairy (MILK! PIZZA! CHOCOLATE!), or subsist on local foods (New England already sucks enough in winter without taking away my veggies! A girl cannot live on … I don’t know, cereal and potatoes.) All the choices, I would like to point out, are actually indicators of class/income/etc. Ideally, I’d like to eat arugala and fennel salads with a billion other delicious, fresh foods; I’d also love to butcher my own meat and get fresh dairy, but I will graduate next year, have lots of debt, and likely want to spend a lot of time working to pay off that debt and work on a career. Which means, I’ll spend my $5 on a head of organic lettuce  canned beans by the dozen.  Okay, sociology lesson done.

I have been developing my food philosophy, as it were, throughout my time in college. My first approach to food is that it must be healthful. When I eat a meal, I want to know that I am giving my self  sufficient fuel. Tasty, tasty fuel. It also should be simple. I don’t mean unflavorfull or limited in ingredients, but I don’t like overly complicated recipes that require you have 100 gadgets and be a Parisian trained fresh. I’m a human being, not an Iron Chef (yet?). I’ve developed kind of a “fresh-a-tarian” and “real-food” approach to my diet, meaning: buy fresh vegetables and fruits often and focus on foods that look like what you might come across in nature. Cheetos do not look like anything natural, so I probably should avoid them (for the most part).

My second philosophy is that food should be tasty and delicious and has much more value than just being fuel. We imbue it with so much meaning! I admit that this part of my philosophy is driven by my sweet-tooth. I am a baker by nature and crave sweets always. (Hello, Ghiradelli chocolates in my cabinet…) Which is kind of…contradictory to my “eat fresh and whole and healthy” motto for most of my food. But food is fun, it is for both body and soul, and being too healthful and too much of a foodie makes you annoying. You know why people like Paula Deen? Because she uses too much butter, cream, and fat than is healthy, and that is delicious. So, have that egg-white omlette for breakfast, but have banana pancakes with fake (sorry) syrup the next. It will be O.K.

That’s it for now…I plan on posting some recipes/pictures/meal inspiration that has sustained my appetite as a student. On the horizon: homemade sauce and meatballs, linguine with pecarino romano cheese, spicy chickpea sauce, and cardamom-infused rice with fruit. Nothing special, but it beats “Hey let’s order Dominoes and watch Teen Mom 2.”

<3 katie kate