Vanessa Barrington

A Healthy, Restorative Meal with Sablefish and Dal

I rarely cook a protein, starch, veg meal anymore. And I rarely eat fish either. Our oceans are just so endangered, that it’s a once-in-awhile treat these days. And it’s gotta be on Seafood Watch’s green list, or I’m not even eating it as a treat.

If you’ve never cooked sablefish, you’ll find that it’s a reasonable substitute for the overfished rockfish and snapper usually used in dishes like fish tacos, and other preparations where you want a mild, white fillet of fish. It has a moist texture that lends itself well to a variety of preparations. I always find myself wishing it were a little flakier and a little less gelatinous, but it works pretty well. You may also see it as Black Cod at the fish counter.

This was a really easy dinner to make with little prep time and few ingredients. Its only down side is the number of pots and pans I used. One for the fish, one for the rice, one for the greens and yet another for the dal. If you cook the dal on a different day, that will make it a little less dish intensive.

For the dal, I use red split lentils and just cook them in water with a little turmeric and salt until tender (takes about 20 minutes) Then I sauté chilies (either fresh green or dried red) with mustard seeds, cumin seeds, garlic, shallots, and whatever else I’m feeling like adding, over high heat in oil or ghee and then quickly add the sizzling hot mixture to the dal, stir in and cover to permeate the dal with flavor. Ratio of lentils to water is about 4 to 1. The rest you’ll have to eyeball.


For the fish, I followed a recipe in Niloufer King’s fabulous James Beard Award winning My Bombay Kitchen for masala seafood. You don’t even need a recipe. It’s basically cayenne, turmeric and salt rubbed into scored fish fillets that are then fried quickly in a very small amount of oil. It’s wonderful and wonderfully easy. The rest of the meal is just sautéed mustard greens and Massa Brown Rice with some sprigs of fresh cilantro.

And Hey! I’m going to Mexico for two weeks so you might not hear from me. I might try to blog from there, but not sure. At any rate, expect some good posts about Mexican food when I return. I’m staying with a family and I hear the Senora is a very good cook and I’ve been assured that I’ll be welcome in her kitchen. Qué Bueno! Feliz Navidad Y Año Nuevo!

Magic Pumpkins: Pumpkin Pie and Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

I bought one of Annabelle’s magic white pumpkins on her recommendation. She said they were the best for pie. I always believe her. Even though I never make pumpkin pie (I always have the Thanksgiving guests bring it so I can concentrate on the savories) I thought I might as well give it a whirl.

I cut into it and I couldn’t believe the otherworldly day-glo quality of the flesh. And the beautiful line of pale green between white and orange. I couldn’t stop gazing. But into the oven it went in a glass casserole dish with a half-inch of water, covered in foil. I baked it until soft (about 30 minutes). It looked stringy but I scooped it into the food processor and gave it a whirl and it became a flawlessly smooth puree.

 
Then I made pie from the Jimtown Store Cookbook. It’s a wonderfully robust pie, not at all insipid. Filled with dark brown sugar, molasses and spices, including black pepper. Fantastic!

Then I froze some of the puree until this week and decided to make pumpkin bread. I’ve never made pumpkin bread before either, but I’ve eaten a lot of it. I like the kind with a cream cheese layer, so I Iooked around for recipes and found this one. But I wanted the quality of my bread to be robust, like the pie, so I made the recipe my own by adding more spices, molasses, dark brown sugar and a pecan streusel on top. It turned out great.

Here’s my version:

Pumpkin Bread:

1 cup pecans

1 cup butter , plus more for pans

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Pinch of allspice

A few grindings of black pepper

4 large eggs

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed (divided)

1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree

1 tablespoon molasses

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


Cream Cheese Filling:

8 ounces package cream cheese

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons all purpose flour


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and toast the pecans for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, melt the butter and set it aside to cool. Butter and lightly flour two  9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pans. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and black pepper. Set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk the eggs until lightly beaten. Add the granulated sugar, 3/4 cup of the brown sugar, and melted butter and whisk until blended.  Whisk or stir in the pumpkin puree, molasses, and vanilla extract.

Make the cream cheese filling:
In a food processor, process the cream cheese until smooth, add the sugar and process until blended and smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, processing just until incorporated, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.  Add the flour and vanilla extract and process briefly.

Add the flour/spice mixture to the pumpkin mixture and stir just until the ingredients are combined, without overmixing.

Put one-quarter of the pumpkin batter into the two loaf pans, spreading it evenly. Top each one with one-half of the cream cheese filling.  Top the cream cheese with the remaining pumpkin batter.

Chop the nuts coarsely and toss with the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar. Sprinkle evenly over the top of each loaf pan.

Bake the breads for about 60-80 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Place pans on a wire rack and let cool for about 10 minutes before removing breads.

Give one away and keep one! Or freeze one.

Fall Chicories Salad and Free Soup Class this Friday in Emeryville

This is one of those salads I could eat every day for months. All local from the farmers' market. Annabelle's puntarelle and escarole, Blossom Bluff persimmons, Art Davis' pecans (spiced with a little brown sugar, cayenne and other spices), and Somebody's pomegranates but I don't remember whose. It's bitter and sweet and crunchy and spicy and refreshing and it's just a great salad. I usually make a lighter vinaigrette with shallots (no garlic) and lemon juice or Champagne vinegar.

In other news:

Nishanga and I will be teaching a FREE soup class this Friday at The Cog.

Ways with Soup
 
Join CoG members and cooking teachers Vanessa Barrington and Nishanga Bliss in an exploration of the many ways of making economical, nourishing, delicious soups.  Veggie stocks and bone broths, the wonders of miso, cream soups and bean soups, soups and fermentation, recipes, and much much more!  Bring a mug and spoon for tasting.  FREE! If you're not a member come and learn from Susan Fleming how The Cog can save you money.
 7pm at The Cog 67th and Hollis in Emeryville.

Delicious Spiced Lamb Patties

Last month when I was working my shift at The Cog, I happily discovered a rancher selling lamb out of a refrigerator in the back of a truck parked just up the street.

How exciting is that? I couldn’t help but wonder how many other illicit direct-from- farmer-to-consumer meat purchases were happening all over the Bay Area on dark, deserted side streets. Of course I later discovered that it wasn’t an accident that the truck was on that particular street on that particular night. Turns out my friend Nishanga (another COG member) actually told the rancher it might be good to park there.

The lamb was there, so I had to buy some. I bought one pound of ground lamb because that’s all he had that he could sell without a preorder.

Back when I used to eat more meat, I used to make deliciously seasoned lamb patties often. They’re quick, easy, satisfying, and really tasty.

It was fun to revisit these in a slaphappy sort of non-measuring way. Below is a list of all the ingredients I used, but since I didn’t measure you’ll have to eyeball and then cook up a little to taste for proper seasoning.

And here’s an excellent idea: The holidays are approaching. Mini lamb meatballs nestled in small lettuce cups with yogurt might make a nice little appetizer. Think I’ll try it.

1 pound ground lamb

Freshly toasted ground cumin

Freshly toasted ground coriander

Finely chopped shallot

Garlic pounded to a paste

Chopped Parsley

Chopped Cilantro

Hot paprika

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Mix everything together and fry up a small amount to taste for proper seasoning. Form into patties, pan fry until just cooked through. Serve with a dollop of plain yogurt, and whatever else you like. Lentils are a good choice as is any kind of rice and seasonal vegetables.

Turning Sunburned Persimmons into Persimmon Butter

Blackened organic persimmons for 75 cents a pound vs. around $3 a pound?

Sign me up because I’m making persimmon butter. Bought these from Kaki at the Berkeley Farmers' Market. They told me the alarming-looking sooty skin wouldn’t affect the fruit and they were right.

This and the galette I’m using it for are the last two recipes for the book. I really wanted both recipes in the book so I’m thankful that Chronicle let me go past deadline until the persimmons came into season. I wavered between using Hachiyas (the more obvious choice) or Fuyus. Fuyus are more readily available and I figured they would behave like apples when turned into butter. Whereas the Hachiyas are lovely to eat and put into puddings and cakes as long as they are gooey ripe, which can take forever. I think I made the right choice, but I’ll be trying this with Hachiyas as well just to be sure.

I was also going for an interesting flavor profile so I settled on cinnamon, cardamom, rum, vanilla beans, and lime. Wow. It’s really good. Visions of holiday gifts are now dancing in my head.

Here’s the method:
Peel and cut the fruit into chunks and put it in the food processor.

Process until smooth and then put it through a potato ricer or food mill if you have one. If you don’t, it won’t make that much difference. 

Put the pulp in a heavy enameled cast iron pot and add a whole cinnamon stick, a whole vanilla bean, split and scraped, and the crushed seeds from one cardamom pod. Cook it down over low heat for at least an hour until it darkens and thickens, stirring occasionally and watching carefully so it doesn’t stick and burn. 

 

Add two tablespoons of white rum and continue to cook for 10 minutes. Add the zest of one lime grated on a microplane. Stir and taste. Cool and refrigerate. I used about 2 1/2 pounds of persimmons and it yielded about 2 cups of persimmon butter.

For the galette, I used about 3/4 of a cup of persimmon butter. I simply spread it on thinly leaving a border and then laid the apples out on top. The dough for the galette was my usual dough from this recipe but instead of all butter, I used 4 tablespoons leaf lard bought from Prather and 3 tablespoons butter. That turned out to be a very good decision. I brushed the apples and crust with a little butter halfway through baking. 

This was served in the Headlands kitchen to Eduardo, his baking assistant Megan, and a few people who wandered in. It was a hit.

The rest of the butter is being eaten on toast. Yesterday, I spread a little on a piece of whole wheat toast and added thin slices of gruyere. What a sublime afternoon snack!

PS: I’m not sure that I want to think about why the persimmons are burning.

Happy Glorious Delicious Fall!

Here's how I recovered from the Hunger Challenge. I went to the Berkeley Saturday Farmers' market. Wowie Zowie, so much to buy and cook and eat. I was so happy being there after a three week hiatus caused by various and sundry commitments. Pictured above is my haul. And below, my lunch: roasted River Dog delicata, County Line Farm Wild Arugula, Quetzal Farm Dry Farmed Tomatoes, Morell's Bread, Sierra Nevada Cream Cheese (from the store), and the last of the cheap eggs from the Hunger Challenge. This lunch illustrates how easy it is to eat healthy, high quality, veg-centric, local meals without spending hours and hours in the kitchen.

I also think the amount of food I got for my money was quite amazing. I was more aware than usual of how much money I was spending too and actually, it wasn't that bad. I think about $65. That's a lot of good quality food for $65. Why no eggs? Well, I joined the Soul Food Farm CSA and the first delivery was last night. 2 dozen gorgeous eggs (some of them huge!) and 1 chicken with it's head still wrapped around its body in a restful pose, and feet too! Wanna join? The CSA is still open. I got to meet farmer Alexis too and she's lovely and vivacious and seems to be recovering nicely from the devestating fire last month. Looking to support the farm? There's an event on Sunday the 11th at Pizzaiolo. Admission is $14 and you can support Soul Food Farm by buying raffle tickets. You may even win a fabulous prize!

One more good piece of fall news! We have a book title that everyone is happy with:

DIY Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food from Scratch.

Chronicle Books Fall 2010. Galleys arrive next month and the designer is terrific, so it's going to be beautiful!

Shopping for the Hunger Challenge

I shopped for the hunger challenge two days before the challenge was to start. The plan is to shop one day and then, on the following day, cook some dishes ahead for the week.

I was allowed to spend $56 for a household of two and, in addition, I can include certain items from one of the San Francisco Food Bank’s pantry distribution centers. A list of typical items was supplied ahead of time so I’d know what I had to work with. I picked those up too and then left them out of my budget.

The photo above is not representative of my list. I shopped at the new Berkeley Bowl in West Berkeley. Thankfully it isn’t as crowded as the original so it was pretty easy to find a spot where I could use my calculator to see where I was budget-wise. The plan is to make big batches of chicken enchiladas using a whole chicken, a soup with the broth I poached the chicken in and my mom’s cabbage rolls. There were also some Chinese noodles on the food bank distribution list. I planned to do something involving those and the bok choy I planned to pick up at the farmers' market. My plan was to alternate those foods for dinners and some lunches. And then fill in other lunches with sandwich type items. Breakfast would be a daily alternating menu of eggs and oatmeal. I assumed I'd have fruit from the San Francisco Food Bank’s pantry distribution list and that would be the only snack available.

I had a shopping list and knew what I needed but I had no idea what to expect. I don’t usually look that closely at what things cost in the grocery store. I tend to buy all my vegetables, meat and eggs at the farmers’ market and only use the grocery store for dairy and bulk. I don’t usually buy snacks or processed food. I had a pretty good idea that I could get by on the budget I had if I made those recipes, but I wasn’t sure.

The weirdest thing about shopping for the hunger challenge was that I was also shopping for a picnic that same day. You know, a picnic…complete with fancy cheeses, pickles, good bread, rosé, that kind of thing. I had two sections in my cart. One for the picnic and one for the Hunger Challenge. It was a funny brain exercise to one moment hope I could afford the cage-free eggs and feel resentful that good quality cooking oil is so expensive and the next to be considering buying a cheese that costs $22 a pound.

I had a very hard time thinking about buying a factory farmed conventional chicken.  After I finished shopping I was well under budget so I actually went back at the end and switched out my large, $4.76 Foster Farms chicken for a small organic chicken that cost nearly $9. I was happy I could afford that, and cheese, and cage-free eggs, and I still had a cushion at the end of the shopping trip. I decided that was a good thing. How do people afford cleaning supplies, toilet paper, and things like that without a cushion?

 Also, I knew the cushion would allow me to use the soy sauce for a noodle dish I had planned and a small amount of brown sugar in my cupboard for my oatmeal without buying new foods I didn’t need. (I do have my real budget to consider!) I also liked the cushion because I thought it would help me if I needed a treat, coffee, wine, or ran out of food.

Random Learnings:
Almost everything cheap has a ton of sugar in it. I was happy to pay ten cents extra for the bread that didn’t have high fructose corn syrup. Thankfully, the Adam’s brand of natural peanut butter was cheaper than the crappy processed kind. Bulk bins are a godsend, as is butter by the stick. I was really happy to include the food bank grocery items in our menu. Fruits and vegetables are expensive, except for sweet potatoes on sale. At .49 cents a pound, you can get a lot of nutritional bang for half a buck. Also, canned enchilada sauce is super expensive. I wavered on that one because I always make my own sauce. It seemed better to use the canned in this case as I didn’t want to assume that people had much time to cook when developing recipes, nor did I want to assume they had a blender. I was hoping it wouldn't taste too bad.

Here's my shopping list:

Berkeley Bowl

One Stick Butter  .88
Cooking Oil $2.59
1- Quart Milk $1.39
1 Organic Chicken  $8.85
Peanut Butter $2.99
Long Grain Rice from Bulk .75
1/2 pound Pinto Beans from Bulk .55
3/4 pound Ground Beef $2.47
Dz Cage Free Eggs $2.85
1 Loaf Wheat Bread $2.49
Oatmeal from Bulk Bin $1.08
Corn Tortillas $2.39
Canned Tomato Sauce .79
Canned Enchilada Sauce $3.89
Monterey Jack Cheese $3.09
1 pound Sweet Potatoes $.54
1 piece fresh ginger .49

Farmers Market

1 bunch cilantro $1
1 bunch green onions $1
1 bunch bok choy $1

Budget for Two: $56
Total Spent: $41.08

Cushion: $14.92

Assumed From Food Bank
Chinese Pasta
3 onions
4 garlic
2 melons
1 cabbage
5 pears
4 peaches


 

Halibut Ceviché and Mexican Corn

Last week it was brutally hot around here and all I could think about was the Mexican corn I had at the Eat Real Festival. See my post about the festival on EcoSalon.

I had some corn in the fridge that needed eating so I went out shopping for more food and inspiration. I walked into the fish store at Market Hall in Rockridge and I immediately thought, “Ceviché!” And there you have it: Mexican corn and ceviche on a hot night. Perfection.

For the Corn:
Boil, grill, or steam it. (I steamed because it was too hot to boil water and it’s both energy efficient and water saving, and I’d never light the grill just for corn)

Slather with thick, plain, Greek yogurt (for all those people that are freaked out by mayonnaise) Sprinkle with Mexican oregano, Aleppo pepper, and Parmesan cheese.

For the Ceviché:
3/4 pound halibut (I used two sea scallops for part of it, but you could use all halibut) cut into bite-sized pieces
Juice of 3 limes
Chopped cilantro to taste
One-half of an avocado, in bite-sized pieces
1 firm, tart plum, sliced thinly into wedges
One-half of a large jalapeno (or a whole small one) quartered, seeded, and diced
1 small shallot, sliced thinly
Salt
Pepper
Aleppo pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients and refrigerate for about 45 minutes before serving.

Plums? you say? I don’t know where the plum idea came from. It just popped into my head. Too much Top Chef? Anyway, it worked, playing the same role as tomato would in ceviché. I freshly fried corn tortillas before serving and I’m telling you it was good. I have no idea why I don’t make ceviché more often.

For the Aleppo pepper in both recipes, you could substitute cayenne (be careful because it’s usually hotter) or some other mild, ground chile. I just really love Aleppo for its heat level and slight fruitiness.

Plum (or Stonefruit) Galette

I love plums. I really do. Sometimes I have a hard time doing anything with them other than just popping them in my mouth. With the last gasp of summer stone fruit upon us it’s time to do a little simple baking. I’m not much of a baker really, and I prefer uncomplicated fruit desserts. This is my go-to dessert all summer long. When I’m asked to bring a dessert to an event, this is it. I’ll use peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, nectarines, or even a combination.

The cornmeal crust is easy to work with and holds up well to the juicy fruit. It also adds a nice crunch to the final product. Try it with apples or pears in a few weeks. Though I’d add some sweet spices to the fruit. The secret to a flaky crust is to keep the ingredients as cold as possible and don’t over mix the dough.

3 tablespoons yogurt
1/3 cup ice water
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon sugar, plus about 1 tablespoon additional for sprinkling on top
1/2 teaspoon salt
7 Tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
About 2 large peaches or nectarines, or 4 to 5 plums, or many cherries, or a mixture (pitted and sliced)

Stir together yogurt and water and keep in the freezer while you mix the other ingredients.

Mix together flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt. Add butter and work in quickly with a pastry blender, leaving some pieces of butter the size of small peas.

Sprinkle the ice water/yogurt mixture over the flour-butter mixture gradually, mixing it in with a fork. Be careful not to over mix. The dough can still be crumbly, but should stick together when pinched. You may not need to use all the yogurt-water mixture.

Gather the dough into a ball, wrap and refrigerate for two hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. F.

Roll out dough to a quarter inch thickness and transfer to a baking sheet. Top the dough with sliced fruit, working in a spiral from the inside out, leaving a border of about 2 inches all along the edge of the dough. Fold the edges of the dough inward to encase the fruit, and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees until the crust is brown and flaky and the fruit soft, bubbling and fragrant, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Flatbread with Za’atar (the herb not the spice mix)

One of my favorite farmers, Annabelle of La Tercera Farm made her seasonal return to the Berkeley Farmers’ Market a couple of Saturdays ago. I’m always happy to see her because she grows really great shelling and dried beans, wonderful hard squash and exotic Italian heirloom greens. Plus I love chatting with her.

Annabelle also keeps me from becoming jaded. Being in the food business and living in the East Bay within biking distance of nearly a market a day and many fine restaurants it would be easy to think that there’s nothing new under the sun. But that’s not true. Annabelle always has at least one item that is completely new to me.

That week it was bunches of intensely fragrant herbs labeled Za’atar. This is the fresh green herb that the spice mix Za’atar is named for. It’s not something you see around here. It looks and smells a little like a member of the thyme family but the leaves are dusky colored and velvety like sage. This bunch was flowering so it had a spicy floral aroma and a pungent, slightly mentholated flavor. The flowers are much stronger than the leaves. Let’s just say it’s not a timid herb.

I asked Annabelle what to do with it and she said: “pound it with olive oil and make flatbread” Annabelle speaks with such authority you’ll likely find yourself following her directives without questioning.

I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never made flatbread before. I make pizza all the time and both flour and corn tortillas—which of course are all types of flatbread, but I’ve never made anything I’d actually call flatbread.

I started with a recipe for Tandoor-baked Bread in an old Indian cookbook I’ve never used and added baking soda and yogurt, omitted the egg that was called for and replaced some of the white flour with wheat flour.

1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons olive oil

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add liquid ingredients and stir with a fork to form a soft dough. Knead in the bowl for 3 to 4 minutes. Let rest for 20 minutes, covered with a towel.

Meanwhile heat a pizza stone in a 500 degree oven.

Pound about 2 tablespoons of fresh za’atar with garlic, salt, olive oil, and Aleppo pepper and set it aside. (You could always do this with thyme, oregano, parsley, or whatever)

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and, working one at a time, roll out the each piece into a round about 1/4 inch thick, brush with the olive oil za’atar mixture, sprinkle with a little coarse salt, and place gently on the pizza stone. Bake until brown and bubbling, keeping the hot breads wrapped in a clean towel while you finish cooking the others. I can’t remember how long the baking time was, but it wasn’t long. The bread came out light, flaky, and crisp, like a delicate pita. We ate it with tomato-cucumber salad, lentils and Toulouse sausage from Fatted Calf. Nobody complained.