Mac and Cheese - a quick and healthy twist on an old favorite

I know for a purist, this twist on Mac and Cheese would be considered sacrilege. There is hardly any cheese in it, and there are actually vegetables snuck into it too. There is a time and place for the delicious super cheesy version, just ask my friend Jason Sobocinski of Caseus and The Big Cheese and he will pontificate about it. The only catch is, too much of the old stand by (or even the fancy locally sourced four cheese variety) and I'll have a stomach ache, not to mention, a big stomach.

I invented this paired down Mac and Cheese one night for my son. This version still has the crispy melted cheese on top, but forgoes the loads of cheese from inside the dish. But don't worry, it is creamy, flavorful and totally satisfies your Mac and Cheese craving, without all the heaviness of the original. If you have some leftover pasta in your fridge, it is quick to make, and much cheaper too, since there is less cheese in it, so it's great for a simple weeknight dinner. We'll save the rich Mac and Cheese loaded with atisnal curds for a special occasion, and enjoy this one whenever we feel like it.

Too many "cooking words" like rue, or buerre blanc can seem intimidating and difficult. This is one of those recipes that is actually very simple, and works just as well if you have a little less, or a little more of any ingredient, so I'm including simple instructions for those of you that like to cook by feel. There is a recipe below with measurements as well if you are more comfortable with that.

In a nutshell, here's how you do it:

Melt a pat of butter in a frying pan.

Add a spoon full of flour, stir around until it is bubbly, about 30 seconds.

Add milk to reach 1/2 inch up the pan edge, and stir until the flour dissolves and the milk thickens.

Season well with salt (and pepper if desired)

Stir in any veggie you like: fresh spinach, peas, chopped cooked broccoli, etc

Stir in cooked whole grain pasta, enough to fill the pan and be coated with the sauce.

Cover with thin slices of extra sharp cheddar cheese.

Place under the broiler until the cheese is melted and crispy.

Enjoy!

Measured Recipe:

Simple Healthy Mac and Cheese

8-10" frying pan with oven safe handle

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

1 cup milk 

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

1 cup cooked broccoli or 1+ 1/2 cup raw spinach or other vegetable

3 cups cooked whole grain pasta 

Extra sharp cheddar thinly sliced, enough to cover the top of the noodles
Follow directions above....

  

  

   

           

Use any noodles you like for this dish....and let me know how it works for you! Enjoy!

Big Food Exhibit at The Peabody Museum

Lately I have been very busy with a whole range of food justice projects, and I'm eager to get them up onto the blog to share. Time being the limited substance it is, we'll have to settle for this little bit here....for now. There is a great new exhibit at the Peabody Museum, in New Haven, CT called Big Food. It's a fun, interactive exhibit about the history of food and the rise of obesity. I helped out with with a few parts of this exhibit as it was taking shape, and it was a very interesting experience to see how a museum exhibit is created; man is that a lot of planning and work!! A few cool highlights are the hall of food eaten by the average American in a year, the teaspoons of sugar in sodas and sweet drinks, and this super fun computer game called Smash Your Food. The exhibit will be up from now until December 2nd, and is excellent for adults and kids, and well worth the trip. There is a fee to enter the museum, and it is open free to the public on Thursday's from 2-5pm. This project is lead by CARE and the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. 

Did you know that a medium movie popcorn and soda is the nutritional equivalent of eating 4 hamburgers with 12 pats of butter?!

Do you know how much sugar is in that iced tea or soda you like to drink?
And, what about all the marketing $ that goes into getting little kids to crave a lot of unhealthy food?

The coolest teens ever from Common Ground High School, making delicious smoothies with bicycle blender power! I couldn't stop drinking their samples....The scary thing though was to watch some kids try the smoothie and say "yuck fruit". We have a long way to go....

The New Haven Food Policy Council set up a table and handed out fresh fruits and veggies, along with information about the work we are doing to write a Food Action Plan for New Haven.  It is always exciting to get a people to try new things! The big winner this day was fresh papaya with a squeeze of lime, delicious and great for digestion!  People loved it!

Thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who made the opening day a great one! Special thanks to Cara, the Vista/Americorps staff at CitySeed for all her help!

Check out this exhibit and all the up coming events that are happening around it!

And, let me know what you think!  

Muffins for a Cool Winter Morning

Life has been a little crazy lately, and my blog posts seem to be forming themselves more in my head,  than on my computer... So, while you wait for some new posts on food justice, urban agriculture and delicious food, you might take another peak at this healthy buttermilk muffin recipe from a while back (you don't actually need to have buttermilk to make them, check the recipe below!). I just made a batch, and they are warm and tasty, perfect for a cool winter morning.

Buttermilk Muffins with Molasses, Orange and Currants
12 muffins

1 cup unbleached white flour (I used white spelt)
1 1/3 cup whole wheat or spelt flour
1/4 cup dry millet
1/3 cup molasses*
1/4 cup agave* (or honey or maple syrup)
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
zest from one orange
1 egg beaten
3/4 cup buttermilk (you can substitute 3/4 cup milk or soy milk plus 1 teaspoon vinegar or 1 tablespooon orange juice)
2/3 cup oil
1/2 cup currants (or other dried fruit)

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease or place muffin papers in one muffin tin (12 muffins).

2. Mix the wet ingredients together, including the zest.

3. Sift the dry ingredients together and stir in the sugar.

4. Mix the wet and dry together and carefully fold in the blueberries.

5. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

* if you don't have agave or molasses, you can use honey or maple syrup. You can also replace both ingredients by using a total of 3/4 sugar in the recipe.

What have you been baking lately?

Cocoa Walnut Truffles - A Valentine's Treat

This is one of those rare recipes that you just can't believe is actually good for you, and it is simple.
Walnuts, Dates, Cocoa...end of story.

I owe the discovery of this recipe to my mother's recent infatuation with raw food. She ingeniously took a raw brownie recipe and turned it into truffles. The tiny bite sized portion is just right for this rich (but still healthy) treat!

Cocoa Walnut Truffles -
An easy, fun treat to make for your Valentine's sweetheart, or sweethearts.

1 1/2 cups Medjool dates
2 cups Walnuts
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (raw cocoa or regular cocoa)
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
+ 1/3 C cocoa for rolling truffles

1. Remove pits from dates. Put dates in a bowl and cover with warm water for 5 minutes.
2. Chop nuts in a food processor until fine. Place in a bowl.
3. Remove dates from bowl and reserve water. Place dates in the food processor with cocoa, vanilla and a pinch of salt. Pulse until mixture is smooth. Add a spoonful or two of reserved date water if the mixture is too thick to blend. Add walnuts and pulse once or twice to incorporate.
4. Using a teaspoon or very small ice cream scoop, portion the mixture into small scoops on a piece of waxed paper. Roll the balls between your hands gently to form a smooth ball. Quickly toss each ball in the cocoa. Place truffles in tiny muffin papers if desired. Store in an air tight container.

These truffles make a wonderful gift, or a nice treat at the end of a special meal. 

Truffles will keep well for several weeks. 

Sizzling Rice Soup at Home

I first had sizzling rice soup when I followed my heart out to the Bay Area, CA the summer after my freshman year of college in the early 90's. On a sunny summer afternoon I was treated to a wonderful lunch at a great Chinese restaurant, and was served my first bowl of steaming sizzling rice soup. The strong memory of the rice crackling & sizzling when it hit the hot soup, and the texture of the chewy rice with the flavorful broth, lingers still. I'd eaten quite a bit of Chinese food in my life, but this soup didn't seem to have made it to the east coast in the early 90's, at least not anywhere I had been. I loved it, and 20 years later (wow!!) that is just about all I remember of the whole meal.

I have seen sizzling rice soup on a few east coast menus, but it's still not common east coast restaurant fare. A year or so ago, while in one of the many good asian markets, I am very thankful exist in New Haven, I saw this package of "instant sizzling rice", I snatched it up, brought it home, and it sat in my cabinet for over a year. Since funds have been low recently, I have needed to cook my way through every random ingredient and dry bean in my cabinet, so eventually I got to these.

It had not occurred to me until I googled sizzling rice soup just before starting dinner, that the rice needs to be deep fried before being added to the soup. I may not have bought it if I had known, but I had it, and a bit of oil too, so why not. They cook up in about 15 seconds, and the oil needs to be seriously hot, about 450 degrees, so the rice doesn't absorb much oil.

Sizzling rice cakes originated as the dry crispy rice stuck on the bottom of a cooking pot. Many rice-loving cultures have a name or dish for this crispy delicious rice. In Dominican communities it is called Concón, another fabulous culinary creation. 

For this soup I just made a simple clear broth soup with some turkey stock that was in the freezer from Thanksgiving. I added some slices of ginger, a little soy sauce, kale, tofu and some sweet potato. I sprinkled some delicious sambar curry powder on the crispy rice before adding it to the soup. Totally not traditional sizzling rice soup, but it was good and fun. 

Do you have any good winter soups that you love? Or Chinese New Year treats you want to share?

Favorite Food Spots 2011 - instalment #1 - Saray Turkish Restaurant

Ok, I know I'm a little late for the look back on food in 2011, but as I scanned through my food photos from this year, there were a few great food spots I visited but never got the chance to share, so better late than never!

Saray - Turkish restaurant, West Haven, CT

The menu at Saray is large. There is a great selection of cold appetizers (see photo above) which are on dsplay in the front case, such as baby eggplants stuffed with onion and garlic, red pepper and eggplant salad, hummus, and much more. The cold appetizer plate is great accompaniment to any meal (or a main course for vegetarians), although sadly, they no longer make one of my favorite spreads: muhamarah, a mix of walnuts, red pepper, pomegranate molasses and olive oil. The grill and bread oven at this large family friendly spot are always busy. Every meal is accompanied by their delicious hot, freshly made bread. Saray has a number of vegetarian dishes, and a few grilled fish items, but the most of the menu is packed with beef and lamb dishes: kebabs, ground meat, and shwarma style marinated/roasted and then sliced meat. I have found the ground meat and doner(shwarma) to be more flavorful than the cubed kebabs. While I don't generally eat meat that is not sustainably raised, I sometimes make exception for lamb, which I imagine (but do not know) is not as likely to be raised on feedlots as beef.

My favorite, and probably the most unhealthy dish on the menu is the Yogurtlu Doner Kebab - sauteed slices of marinated lamb and beef over hot buttered pieces of fresh bread topped with thick cool yogurt. 

Most of the main courses are served with the same simple side dishes of seasoned rice, grilled tomato and pepper, but the various spreads from the appetizer selection add more flavor, and as a whole it's a nice meal.

The tea and spiced Turkish coffee are always nice, and there is a large selection of Turkish desserts with many baklavah style sweets, and a wonderful light custard with burnt sugar resembling flan called Kazandibi. Saray is a fun restaurant suitable for small or large groups, a romantic meal, or a dinner with kids. The menu is large, the food is good, and I think they have live music on weekends. The restaurant is located at 770 Campbell Ave in West Haven, just off I-95, so any of you passing through the area, shouldn't hesitate to make a quick detour. 

Go to: Saray Menu

Coming up:
Bharat Bazar - Indian Market - Orange, CT
Smorgasburg - Food "flea market" adventures - Brooklyn, NY

Latkes and Doughnuts

The festival of lights and oil is nearly upon us; that once a year time for frying. While I eat a pretty healthy diet and don't generally promote fried foods, I do on occasion fry some platanos, or make some homemade eggrolls. I've tried pan frying these and find that deep frying in oil that is the right temperature actually produces a less greasy food, (I know it is hard to believe). While these days we generally need to minimize our fat consumption, Hanukkah is the one time of year when myself and many other Jewish people break out the oil and get frying.

Recipes:
Here is my recipe for LATKES (potato pancakes).
Here is my recipe for JELLY DOUGHNUTS.

If you want to get creative with your fried foods, you can make eggrolls with wonton or eggroll wrapers often found in the produce section of grocery stores and at any Asian market. You can make any filling you like: meat, vegetables, tofu, shredded cabbage and carrots with ginger...let your mind go... or search for recipes on line.

Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!!

Cardamom Bread Time

As xmas draws near, the Jew in me has some sweet envy. While I start thinking about fried potato lakes and jelly doughnuts for the celebration of Hanukkah, the world around me is ablaze in candy canes and gingerbread houses. I am lucky that I get to enjoy some of the xmas festivities with extended family and in-laws, and share in some of their distinctive traditions. I posted about this cardamom bread last year. It is a fabulous Swedish bread, and as Cardamom is hands down my favorite spice, I just must repost this for your baking pleasure!

Read Cardamom Bread Post