How To Stretch a Chicken - Part I

I'm back on my "leftovers" theme again. What can I say? I work and don't always have time to cook when I get home at night.

I bought an organic chicken and decided to do something simple for a change. I had some lemons from a friend's tree, and some tarragon in my garden, so it was going to be roast lemon-tarragon chicken.

I washed the chicken thoroughly, patted it dry, and rubbed about a tablespoon of kosher salt inside and out. I then ground some fresh pepper. After squeezing one half lemon (which gave me 1/4 cup of juice), I lifted the skin of the chicken and poured a little juice in there, put tarragon leaves and slices of lemon between the skin and the breast. Another whole lemon, poked many times with a toothpick went into the cavity of the bird along with the rest of the juice. I had the oven heated to 350, and I put the bird in after dotting the top with some Earth Balance. (Butter works, of course, but I only eat that on occasion.)

Meanwhile, I washed and quartered some red potatoes and added them along with some organic baby carrots - halved.

Dinner was ready in about an hour and fifteen minutes. My friend Jeff came over and we had that time to relax with a glass of Fat Cat Pinot Noir before enjoying this simple, delicious meal.

Tomorrow, we will go into Phase II of the Chicken Saga. Photos will be posted this eve. when I get home from work!

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Birthday Dinners

Jeff, me, Kathye, Ellen, Jim

Yes, that's dinners. In the plural. I had dinner on my birthday itself with 4 friends at California Cuisine. http://www.californiacuisine.cc. Most of us started with the greens/hearts of palm salad. The hearts of palm were julienned, and pine nuts and feta added just the right balance. The sherry vinagrette dressing complimented, rather than overpowered the salad. For the main course, I ordered the venison loin with truffle-celery root puree, braised red cabbage, with black pepper-red currant pan sauce. Of all the dishes the 5 of us ordered, I think this was the best. The venison was not gamey at all. It was cooked medium rare, and the celery root puree was to die for! My friend Kathye ordered the crab cakes. Being from Maryland originally, she's got a very discerning palate for crab cakes, and her assessment was that they didn't quite measure up to her standards. She did enjoy them, though, as did Ellen. Jim ordered the Nieman Ranch pork chops with sweet potato gratin, vegetable medly, apple compote and bourbon glace. He really enjoyed them - especially the sweet potatoes. (Of course, he's from Ohio and enjoys anything that includes meat and potatoes!)

Jeff picked the wine, and it was a perfect compliment for both his Kurobuta pork short ribs with ancho-port sauce. We had a Deloach cabernet, 2000. If I had to be stranded on a desert island for the rest of my life with only one kind of red wine, this would be it. Rich, jammy, fruit forward with a smoooooth finish. Ahhhhhh............

Two desserts for the 5 of us were sufficient, as they were both rich and decadent. One was their chocolate truffle torte with raspberry coulis and pistachio dust. Delicious, but nothing that made it stand above all the other versions of this. The other was their warm chocolate amaretto tart, which left us all melting in our seats. Fortunately, we ate this one second. I'm not sure anyone spoke for about 3 minutes by the clock!!!

Jeff and me.

The next day I drove up to LA to have dinner with some friends I met on my trip to Vietnam last fall. Jack and Jan are foodies, and they both love to cook. We started with 3 appetizers - fresh spring rolls with shrimp, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce and cilantro. Also had their chicken and shrimp squares as well as sweet potato balls encrused with sesame seeds. 4 different sauces for dipping made each bite special. Jack gave us the details of his search through half of LA county looking for kaffir lime leaves. So many places which usually carry them were out! I don't remember where he finally found them, but clearly it was a great victory to have produced them. And well worth the effort. Jan made a fantastic aubergine with coconut milk and lime leaves. Melt me! Jack made an equally fabulous rice noodle dish with shrimp and mint. Together, these 2 dishes complimented each other with subtle flavors and just the right amount of spice. Jan promised me that she would send me the recipes, and when she does, I will pass them along. I HIGHLY recommend them. We could have been in one of the better restaurants in Saigon eating this outstanding meal.

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Birthday greetings

Today's my birthday, so instead of posting something about food and containing a recipe, I thought I'd just say that I'm grateful for my health, my family and friends, for the incredible abundance I have in my life thanks to the wonderful people who are part of it, and for all the good wishes I've gotten today. It's an absolutely gorgeous day here in San Diego, so I'm going to go for a walk. Tonite I'm having dinner with some friends at California Cuisine - yummm! I'll report back with our meal tomorrow. Meanwhile, I wish every one of you health, happiness and prosperity.

Oh - and the photos are my latest attempt at upgrading my photo skills. Here are just a few of the "munchies" I'm having today including Chuao chocolate with hazelnuts and cherries (STOP ME!!) and some beautiful roses sent to me by my brother David. Feedback on the photos welcome!

In Chinese medicine, each season of the year is related to an organ in the body, a color, a flavor, a meat, a grain, an emotion etc. We are now in winter (here in the northern hemisphere), and the color is black. The organ is the kidneys, the flavor is salty, the element associated with it is water, the wild "meat" associated with it is fish, the domestic meat is pork, the "grain" in this case is beans. The emotion associated with the kidneys is fear or fright.

How can so many things be associated with a season? It has to do with the idea that all of life is governed by energetic principles. Those energetic principles are present in your body, in the environment, in everything on earth and in the heavens. They are what governs and orders our world. For example, color is vibration. We know that colors exist because light particles vibrate at certain frequencies. In the human body, each organ also has a frequency, and there is a correspondence between the frequencies of each organ with the associations I mentioned above.

So how do we incorporate this knowledge into our eating and our desire to stay healthy? The idea here is that incorporating the proper amounts of the associated colors, tastes, meats, grains etc. in the appropriate season, will help to strengthen the associated organ. So if your kidneys are weak, for instance, eating modest amounts of pork (or fish) and beans in the winter will help to strengthen them. What kind of beans? Well, black ones are best. But kidney beans or pintos work well, too. Other foods which help to strengthen the kidneys would include mushrooms (the browner ones, especially with dark underneath), eggplant and brown rice. Soups work well in the winter, because they contain a lot of water. And, of course, dark chocolate for dessert!

This is also the season of the year for rest. This is not the time of year to be staying up late, text messaging your friends, checking out YouTube or MySpace. The reason the nights are longer at this time of the year is because you're supposed to get more sleep. Being healthy means living in harmony with the season we are in. Spring is just around the corner. There'll be plenty of time for a change of flavors, colors and activities.

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p.s. If my parents were still alive, today would have been their 76th wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!

Basic Principles

I was 21 years old and in my first apartment. I decided to make a stew since it was winter and that seemed like a cozy idea. I got all the ingredients that the word "stew" conjured up in me - onions and garlic (of course!), plus meat and vegetables. I came home and began preparing my stew, without benefit of a recipe (of course!) I had the pot sizzling on the stove when it dawned on me that stews had some kind of liquid in them. I didn't have a clue what that might be, so I called a friend of mine who was a good cook and asked him what I should use. He asked me if I had any kind of broth. No. Boullion cubes? Nope. What about wine? I had had some friends over the night before, and that was all gone. Well then, it looked like water was my option.

That seemed so.........plain. Uninteresting. I scoured my fridge and found a couple of bottles of beer that someone had left from the night before. Oh well....I didn't particularly like beer, but since it was the only liquid I had other than water, I decided to give it a try.

Incredible! I loved the result! I called my friend back and told him of my ingenious solution. He was pleased with it, and told me that stews were based on a principle. You have some sort of meat, some kind of vegetables, whatever herbs and spices you like, and a liquid. Any of those ingredients can change from one recipe to the next, but the principle remains the same.

So the next time you look at a recipe that intrigues you, and perhaps it's snowing out or raining furiously, or you're just feeling too lazy to head to the market to get all the necessary ingredients, try experimenting. If the recipe calls for wine and you only have beer, don't let that stop you. You won't get the exact same results, but you'll probably wind up with something delilcious. Recipes are great starting places, and sometimes they're worth following to the letter. (I do that when I bake.) But lots of times you can create a fantastic meal without having to be so precise in your approach. Remember, it's supposed to be fun!

Enjoy!

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Baked Apples

I was reading the 28 cooks recent post "Behind The Apron Roundup", suggesting that we post our photos on our blogs so that others will see whose wonderful recipes we are enjoying. So if I can figure out the technical part of this, my photo will appear at the bottom of this post. If not, I'll have to do another posting just for that.

But today's blog is about baked apples, one of my favorite winter comfort foods. Baked apples take me back to my childhood on Long Island, where the winters were cold and the kitchen was warm. Baked apples make me think of dragging my sled up the little hill on our front lawn and coasting down it, or "bellywhoppin'" down the street with our sleds. Baked apples meant mom's in the kitchen, all's right with the world.

So here is my own variation on baked apples, which is a cross between my mom's recipe, my friend Lisa's, and my own inability to follow anyone else's recipe. Abysmally simple, and absolutely scrumptious.

4 large rome apples

4 TBS butter or substitute (Smart Balance, Earth Balance etc.)

2 heaping TBS brown sugar

dash of cinnamon

3/4 tsp orange extract or orange liqueur

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl. When thoroughly blended, add the extract.

Wash apples thoroughly and core. (That's the biggest job.) Place them in a shallow baking dish. Place equal amounts of the butter/brown sugar mixture in the center of each apple. Bake for 50 minutes, or until apple skins start to split.

Note: I don't like to peel my apples for this dish. I love eating the baked skins. They're delicious and add fibre to the food.

I like serving this dish with plain yogurt in the center. You can substitute anything else that appeals to you - vanilla flavored yogurt, sour cream - whatever.

Hey! This worked! OK, so you already know that I grew up on Long Island. I've migrated west since then. I lived for 12 years in New Mexico (future posts on my love affair with chili) and worked as a potter. Now I live in San Diego and am an acupuncturist and herbalist. Food and photography are my hobbies, though obviously food photography isn't my strongest suit. (I'm a people photographer primarily). But I'm learning!

Rx: Chocolate

I confess I love chocolate. Especially dark chocolate. I love it plain and with dried fruit in it. From chocolate liqueur poured over ice cream to mole sauce, I will find a way to incorporate it into my eating life.

Is this anything a legitimate health care professional should confess in public? Well, as it turns out yes. For a couple of reasons. First of all, it seems that dark chocolate can actually be good for you. Well, in "modest" amounts, anyway. It used to be said that an apple a day kept the doctor away, but recent studies have shown that a square of dark chocolate a day can actually cut in half your risk of heart disease . So from a health care perspective, you can say you're in it for the medicinal purposes. (Just don't tell that to anyone but the cat.)

And then there's another, and perhaps more important medical reason why eating chocolate can be good for you. I spoke with a friend recently whose sister-in-law died of cancer at a young age. She had been following a very strict, raw-foods diet in her attempt to combat her disease. Apparently, when she was on her deathbed, she told her husband, "I wish I had eaten more McDonald's french fries."

What a sad thing to be looking back, wishing you had eaten something "sinful"! Not that I counsel my patients to chow down on donuts or pork rinds. But it's so clear to me that living a healthy life is much, much more than always doing what's "right". The food that is good for your body is fine to eat as a basic diet . But let's not forget the spirit. Sometimes when you get those cravings for something "bad", it's a sign that your spirit needs nourishing.

In his introduction to MFK Fisher's "The Art of Eating", Clifton Fadiman writes that "the palate persists in glory almost to the very end." So let's not forget to celebrate our daily lives in ways that honor our bodies and ways that honor our spirit. Yes, it's important to eat a healthy diet. And it's equally important to enjoy those fries.

Or that chocolate.

Enjoy!

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