February 28, 2012: Squashed Hopes

My sisters all tell me that I could not possibly remember this story as I was very young. I have to admit that is possible that this is not a memory as I DO have quite a vivid imagination. All I know is that I seem to have a number of memories from a very young age: I remember well that unique marriage of bobby pin and electrical socket as a toddler (“OH! I’ve seen the adults do this! I know just where this goe…ZAP!!!!) I remember my crush on Mighty Mouse’s girlfriend (…and I DO feel a tad guilty that I can’t remember her name. Such is the capricious nature of young love.) And…I remember this story.

Wind up the Way-Back machine to my family household, early-60′s: Dinnertime in the Vedder household was a lively affair in those days. At this time, we had seven kids, with another one due in a couple of years from this point. [Let's put it this way, if the Weasley household could compliment an entire Quidditch team, the Vedder household could provide the team, a coach and a cheerleader to boot!]

Barely a toddler, I’m still in the baby chair. At the main table, there is the classic test of wills between my parents and my older sisters.. The kids are boycotting eating their vegetables, in this instance,  winter squash. My parent’s rule with this kind of thing was simple: you don’t finish your plate, you don’t get dessert. End of story. Now, with a household full of many, energetic and strong-willed children, my poor parents had a tough job. They did a lot of pretty cool things to raise us all, but the “dessert rule” was not one of their more stellar ones. Making dessert special turned us all into raging sugar-fiends!

At the point where my sisters are debating the value of eating something they absolutely hate to get to eat something they love, my parents (as if they didn’t have enough to do) are drawn downstairs with some kind of household emergency. It was then that the kids have a revelation: over in the corner, happily munching his squash, is me. “Welllll, then.” they think, “If Stevie likes squash that much, we know where there is lot more of that!” They then proceed to pile all their own squash into my bowl, to then skip downstairs to inform my parents that they are ready for dessert!

Now, this is the part I will never be able to convince my sisters. I’ve seen distinct character traits like this in the very young. I dunno..are we hardwired to have fairly sophisticated emotions from day one? Is it reincarnation? All, I know, is that if this same thing happened to me today, I would feel exactly the same…and that is PISSED! I loved squash then (still do) but I was NOT about to eat all of my sibling’s squash! So, in my toddler’s mind, the solution was easy: take that bowl and fling it!

Of course, as soon as everyone came up from downstairs it was immediately evident that the jig was up! No dessert for anyone that night, for which my sisters have never forgiven me.

So, when this story comes up, I am castigated by my sisters for my transgression (and that part I understand…preventing a sweet fix is a cardinal offense in my family.) But, when I recollect a clear memory of it happening, and get called “fibber”…well, it can’t really be proven one way or the other. Luckily, I have spent years developing my mature reason, mellowed with dignity, and tact. I just reply to them, “I know YOU are, but what am I?”

September 08, 2011: A Summer Harvest

Green Tomato Relish

This last weekend, I had the chance of doubling up on social occasions as Teja and Barb were christening the patio we built together with a party, the same day as my former student, Isaac, was moving not too far away from Teja’s. I started at Isaac’s and got to meet his friend Kelly, and her friend Andrea, who was helping them to move also. Isaac and Kelly had a nice garden in the back and they cleverly transplanted all they could, into buckets they could take with them.

For years, I had a really good vegetable garden, but the squirrels that live in my oaks ate everything they liked and dug up all the rest. I was loath to kill the squirrels and so, switched to flowers, which they leave alone. These days, I have no money for even the flowers, so the garden had gone to seed and weeds. I do miss the fresh-grown veggies very much.

As if a good days work and the congenial company weren’t enough compensation, Isaac had harvested what they couldn’t take from the garden, and gave me a full bag of delicious fresh foodstuffs. He included herbs, squashes, beets, heritage carrots, peppers, and green tomatoes that I turned into relish. Isaac and Kelly’s tomatoes yielded about 4 cups.

Green Tomato Relish:

• 4C. Green Tomatoes (diced)           •  4C. Green Cabbage (thinly sliced)
• 1 Onion+3 Cloves Garlic (diced)    •  2C. Mixed Peppers (diced)
• 2 C. Veggie Broth                              •   2C. Cider Vinegar
• 1 Tblsp. each of Brown Sugar and Crushed Hot Peppers
• 1/2 Teasp. of seeds of each: Fennel, Dill, Celery, Dill, Cumin,
• 1/2 Teasp. of Sal de Mer & Peppercorns + 2″ Cinnamon Stick (all spices tied up in cheesecloth and tied w/twine)

Over medium heat in large pan, fry onion and garlic in about 4 Tblsp. vegetable oil until soft, with crushed hot peppers. Add tomatoes and cabbage. Continue cooking. Add diced peppers shortly after and cook. Add stock and vinegar, and bag of spices. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Cool relish with spice bag, then remove. Seal relish in sterile container and chill.

After moving Isaac and Kelly, it was on to Teja and Barb’s for a cookout. Dan, once again brought his fine sous-vide chuck steak done to a tender, pink perfection, which I cubed and made kabobs with, then grilled. See my August 21, 2010: Welcoming Party for the Girls article for more details on this dish. It was a splendid night of superb company in front of the warm fire on the new patio.  My friends have been exceptionally supportive through my recent hard times with my struggle to find work. When I consider how much they have given me: the advice, emotional (and sometimes economic) support, and just knowing they are out there somewhere in the world, has made all the difference. I think of Isaac, of Teja, of Barb, of Dan, of Deena, Carolyn, Lisa last week, Yoshio the week before: kind and generous friends, all.

When I was a gardener, it often occurred to me that there was an analogy between the garden and the affairs of the human heart: you plant with promise and hope that all those tiny seeds will survive to full term. They don’t. Animals take some. Winds, heat, disease…even water, which the plants need so much, take others. Even if all seeds start to grow, there is that awful culling which a gardener has to perform, so that some of the plants survive. (That was the only part I hated about gardening. I always wanted ALL the seeds to grow!) Like relationships, gardening can be a tough, time-consuming, and often a dirty, nasty business. You do it with the devotion it deserves, because both gardens and relationships are worth it and that for the simple fact that this kind of devotion is love personified.

I stand at the edge of my present garden and the physical reality is a fallow mess, with nothing to harvest but weeds. However, when I think of the pleasant company and good will of my friends…I realize that I already have my summer harvest (both physical and emotional) and I could not ask for a more bountiful one. So, I face the reality. I close my eyes, and dream…of a more perfect garden.

June 09, 2011: Iced Green Tea

Iced Green Tea is a perfect summer libation. The trouble with most of the consumer-made green tea that they sell at the supermarket is that it’s mostly sugar (oh! and that it’s fairly expensive.) Sugar adds unneccessary calories to this drink and tends to make you more thirsty! I like the clean, simple, taste of green tea and (if it’s made right) it’s a perfect summertime thirst quencher. I don’t want the empty calories of the excess sugar (and cost) of the supermarket stuff, so I make my own.

I buy bulk green tea bags from the store. In 2 Qts. boiling H2O I steep 8 bags of tea [I tie the bags to a chopstick to hang in the H2O] for about 5 minutes in a heat-proof container. Remove bags and compost. Before the tea cools I stir in about 1-1/2 Tblsp. each of honey and lemon juice and cool. Add ice cubes or have straight. Simple, cheap, flavorful, healthy, and best of all: very little sugar!

Try variations: add some herbal tea bags for a more complex flavor. Japanese make “mugicha” or a roasted barley tea that has no caffeine, served chilled. They do not add any sugar to this tea. An interesting variation to any tea recipe is to steep (in cool H2O) the tea, in a large, clear, covered, container  all day long in the sun. Add honey and lemon, then cool. This is “sun” tea. Kids enjoy making this as a summertime activity and enjoyment. It’s like drinking liquid sunshine!

January 03, 2011: Smiley Cakes

Photo via IPhone

After a fun New Years Eve with lots of wonderful company and good food (Dan brought sous vide steak for kabobs cooked over the grill. I made pasta e fagioli and Katie and I made a fruit “boar’s head”) we also did some Scottish New Year’s celebrations like “snapdragons” (making a New Years wish and plucking a raisin from a plate of lighted brandy) and “First Footing” (where a someone…in our case, Nicole, is sent out to guard a lighted candle for a time and is let in to light all the candles in the house.)

In the morning, on New Year’s Day,  I made “smiley cakes” for Teja and the girls. These are whole wheat pancakes made with flour ground right down the road from me at Longfellow’s Wayside Inn Grist mill:  http://www.wayside.org/tour/wayside-inn-grist-mill) and decorated with fruit.

November 28, 2010: Thanksgiving

Nothing makes me more happy than to make a meal for my good friends, so I was delighted when conditions were such that I was able, for the first time, design and create a Thanksgiving meal for Teja, Barbara, Nicole, Katie, Dan, Jen, and Marlis. Dan provided a huge, healthy, free-range turkey from Chestnut Farms [http://chestnutfarms.org/] Barb helped organize the cooking schedule as the turkey totally dominated one oven and we had to rotate the sides in the other oven. Nicole and Katie did a great job assisting me in the kitchen, as they always do. After the meal, we hung out and watched one of my favorite versions of “A Christmas Carol” after. The menu was:

• Almonds toasted with Olive Oil, Sea Salt, and Crushed Rosemary
• Gruyère Cheese and Sherry Fondue
• Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup with Wheat Rolls
• Turkey and Gravy
• Duchess Potatoes
• Sweet Potato baked in Butter and Maple Syrup and Lemon Zest
• Whole Grain Stuffing with Apple, Craisins, and Toasted Walnuts
• Cranberries Sauce with Orange Zest
• French Bean Casserole with Button Mushrooms and Bread Crumbs
• Apple Pie with Walnut Crumb Topping and Vanilla Ice Cream

The soup turned out very well, one that I will definitely make again. I made a stock of all the veggie leavings from the other parts of the meal, and this made about 2 quarts. I skinned and deseeded two fairly large butternut squash, then chopped into pieces about 2″ pieces. Same with carrots. The proportion was about 3/4 squash to 1/4 carrot. I diced 1/2 Vidalia onion and one clove of elephant garlic and sautéed them in about 4Tblsp. butter. I added the stock to cover vegetables and spices (2 bay leaves, about 4Tblsps. diced fresh parsley, 1 Tblsp sal de mer and about 1/4Teasp each of: ground black pepper, basil, thyme, oregano & about 1/8Teasp each of: cinnamon, ground clove, nutmeg, and allspice) and brought to a boil. When it came to boil, I lowered the heat to simmer for about 1/2 hour until the veggies were soft. I removed the bay leaves and ground soup with an immersion grinder until smooth. I then added 1 pint of cream. I topped off the soup with diced parsley and a swash of sour cream.

August 26, 2010: Irish Cuisine at Showa

Photo by Ayuka; student at Showa

Thanks to Yoshio for once again inspiring me to push my ideas about cooking..and yes, Yoshio…you are truly the master in any style of  cuisine! Your corned beef and cabbage was perfect! Thank you to Showa for having me, and special thanks for the young women of Yoshio’s class that were so cordial listening to my talk about Irish-American and Irish cuisine. I really enjoyed meeting you all and your help with the setup and breakdown of the meal was especially gracious! I had such a fun day!

Here the recipes (and the influences) we made for you:

Corned Beef and Cabbage (Irish-American, a variation of New England Boiled Dinner)

• 4 lb “Corned” Brisket of Beef (“corned” is Anglo-Saxon for “salted”)
• 6 Large Carrots-peeled, ends taken off
• 3 Small Parsnips-peeled
• 3 Large Turnips-peeled and halved
• 1 Head of Cabbage-cored and quartered
• 6 Medium-sized Potatoes-peeled (Yoshio had a variety of types)
• Spices/Flavors: 1 heaping Tablespoon of each: Whole Pepper, Juniper Berries, Cloves and Corse Salt. A few sprigs of fresh Parsley-chopped

What you want to do is get each of the harder veggies (carrots, parsnips, turnips and potatoes) in about 2-3″ chunks. Yoshio cooked this dish in a pressure cooker. If you’ve never used a pressure cooker before, please, PLEASE get someone who knows, to show you!!!! You can get same results with a steady boil & simmer in an open pot, but this takes about two hours! Either way, please consult “The Joy of Cooking (JOC)”, p.412 for cooking all the ingredients, in their proper  order for both pressure cooker and open pot.

Colcannon (Irish: “cál ceannann” a truly Irish dish. Essentially, mashed potatoes, onions and/or leeks and kale or cabbage.)

• 2 Lbs. Potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 Lb. Kale (best) or Cabbage (OK), washed, cored. chopped well
• 2 Leeks OR 1 Leek+1 Medium Onion, peeled washed really well (see below);  chopped well.
• Spices/Flavors: Salt & Pepper, 1/4 Lb Butter, 1/4C Milk

I love leeks, but they can be the most dirty of the onion family. It takes a couple of washings, but they are worth it. First chop off the “beard” end (roots) and the green top (save for soup broth…yumm!) and wash stalk well in H2O. Chop well and wash the pieces in a colander and dry by putting colander in bowl for 10 minutes. When leek and kale are dry (I use a salad spinner) fry in wok with a little oil or butter until leeks are wilted…almost brown. Put aside. Boil cubed potatoes until soft. Remove from H2O and dry potatoes in a pan in 300°F oven for 10 minutes. Add to a bowl with S&P, butter and ,milk, mash, then beat until whipped. Fold in kale/leek. Put in buttered pan and bake @ 350°F oven until top is browned.

“Quick” Soda Bread (Irish: “arán sóide” a traditonal Irish and Irish-American dish.) I was pleased how this came out. I followed JOC p. 575 verbatim. Why fool with success?! Remember to cut a cross to “let the fairies out” and find someone else (like me!) to drink the rest of the buttermilk!

“Codling” Cream (also: “Coddling” Cream; f/ 1600′s; Irish w/British influence)

• 8 medium peeled, cored, sliced green apples
• 1+1/4C Wine (recipe called for white, I used port for that pink color)
• 1+1/4C H2O
• 3 Tblsp. Sugar (I used brown sugar)
• 1 Pint Heavy Cream
• 2 Egg Yolks
• 1 Tblp. Rose H2O (optional, if you can find it)

Again, while working cutting the apples, I keep them in H2O to keep from browning. Heat H2O and Wine with apples until they are soft. Strain and discard liquids. Add sugar to apples, mash and cool. Whip cream until stiff. Whip egg yolks separately until foamy, fold into whipped cream. Fold egg/cream into cooled apples. Add rose H2O last. Keep cold.

April 22, 2010: Review LifeAlive Restaurant in Lowell, Ma

LifeAlive Natural Food Restaurant-Lowell, Ma. (photos by Y. Saito via IPhone)

To be honest…it’s not the easiest thing to get great taste with the most healthy ingredients.  As much as we all know that raw vegetables are the best thing for us, it takes knowledge, imagination, and skill to make raw vegetables not only palatable but a culinary feast.

So, while visiting Yoshio today, and he knowing I’ve been a vegetarian for many years, he recommneded having lunch at LifeAlive, an organic cafe located at 194 Middle St. in Lowell, Ma. They say first impressions are the most important: LifeAlive has a cozy “New Age” decor with real art on the walls and comfortable furniture that made the place feel like a friend’s house. The staff was cheery and informative: whenever Yoshio goes to a new place he seems to query the staff for their opinions on the best food. The staff person immediately replied that while all the food was very good, his current favorite was “The Adventurer” which is base of short grain brown rice and quinoa topped with pieces of kale, chopped beets, bits of tofu, toasted almonds, and melted cheddar cheese with a sauce of sesame-ginger-nama. “The Adventurer” was delicious combination of tastes with each ingredient having a distinct character of its own, yet combined wonderfully together. Special touches like the warm toasted almonds and especially how the slightly sour of the beets combined with the creaminess of the cheese were wonderful. I asked Yoshio if he knew what “nama” was, and when he said “no” I asked the clerk and she said that it was “raw” shoyu (soy sauce)! When I went back to Yoshio to say that I think “nama” was Japanese, he asked me to spell it. He took a second and had that “AHA” look and said “Oh, yeah “nama” is “fresh” in Japanese”

[Yet another example of how bad my Japanese is. Whenever I cook Japanese meals at Teja's house and I ask for "mirin" (Japanese sweet-ish vinegar) Teja...every time...and Teja, I love you man, but is every time, he get's these curly eyebrows and asks "What's that?" After saying 'mirin" three times and then spelling it, he looks at me and says "OH! mirin...yeah I've got some"]

My “Seductress” wrap was also very good: a slightly toasted wheat tortilla warpped around shredded beet and carrot, kale, broccoli and hard-poached egg. Delicious!

We met the owner, Heidi Feinstein, who it turns out is a nutritionist who clearly loves providing this kind of food that is “closer to the source” with 95% of her food from raw ingredients. Bostonians will be pleased to know that she will be opening a LifeAlive at 765 Massachusetts Ave,  Central Sq. this September. Visit their website: http://www.lifealive.com

LifeAlive: tasty, healthy, fun. Food doesn’t get any better (or better for you) than this.

March 04, 2010: The “French Paradox”

Sometimes as I am preparing the calorie-rich dishes at the French restaurant where I work, I wonder how it is, that a people of a culture, with the most sybarite foods in the world (possibly excepting traditional Chinese…as opposed to American-Chinese foods, which has it’s own dietary problems) that routinely serves a huge portion of meat, minimized vegetable emphasis, all lathered in rich sauces and garlic butter, remain much trimmer than most Americans.

Oddly enough, in the “French Paradox” it is perhaps the French love of good food, and of things sensual, that saves them from the typical American waistline! Making food an important part of ones’ day, is not necessarily a bad thing!

Here are a few things the French do different that allows them to enjoy food, yet remain trim:

First, they really, really enjoy the best possible meal, and will go through more hoops to make it so. This means shopping for (perhaps in different markets) the best food stuffs as materials. The wisest GROW THEIR OWN FOOD, knowing that this will lend the best taste with the most nutrition. Finally, most will PREPARE THEIR OWN FOOD to get the perfect balance of taste. Hey! Guess what all this activity does? Yep, it burns calories. Just like our (trimmer) ancestors did before modern conveniences.

They TAKE MORE TIME eating their meal, enjoying the event to the extreme. As it takes roughly 20 minutes between consuming and the brain getting the signal, they get full sooner. Also, they STOP EATING WHEN THEY ARE FULL, as opposed to most Americans, which tend to the goal-orientated “cleaning their plate”. If you have excellent food, it usually makes decent leftovers.

As eating together is a main (and leisurely) event, they tend to COMMUNE MORE AND EAT ALONE LESS than most Americans do. Not only does this make the meal more fun, to eat with others, but it is usually more relaxing, which is better for digestion than just rushing through the meal. Making a meal a happy event is good for us socially and psychologically.

They, as a rule, DO NOT SNACK. If the meal is an event that you look forward to, you don’t want to spoil it by stuffing yourself between.

Also, as the food is so good and filling, the French tend to EAT SMALLER PORTIONS.

They also CONSUME MODEST AMOUNTS OF RED WINE. Nutritionists shy away from actually recommending drinking wine, for obvious reasons, (everything in moderation) but if you consume a rich food, wine is perfect for cutting through the richness. You can taste it doing so. Also, they RARELY CONSUME ALCHOHOL WITHOUT FOOD.

All of this is just common sense: take the time, create and enjoy the best, everything in moderation, and put aside a part of your day to enjoy good food, your family, friends, LIFE. That’s what is most important. N’est-il pas ainsi ?

August 27, 2009: Mayors’ Dinner

Mayor's Dinner: The Japan Society of Boston, Mayor of Kyoto, Japan, Chef Yoshio Saito, Assistant Chef Stephen Vedder

Chef Yoshio Saito (left) talks about his meal to Peter Grilli (host-center) and Mayor of Kyoto, Japan (extreme right)

On August 27, 2009, the Japan Society of Boston hired Okonomy to design a menu for the Mayors of Boston and Kyoto, Japan.

Chef Saito decided to create an “East meets West” menu, splitting between Japanese favorites and New England dishes to compliment both cultures. The dinner concept was to introduce the tastes of New England to the Kyoto residents (Kyoto being one of the gourmet centers of  traditional Japanese cuisine) and showcased many local New England ingredients, such as: Salmon, Lobster, Maple Syrup, Cranberries and Long Island Duck which was served with Chef Saito’s original Yuzu (Japanese Lime) with Sake Port Wine Sauce. The Menu included:

Traditional New England Lobster Salad

Cold Poached Salmon with Lemon-Dill Sour Cream Sauce

Homemade Spring Rolls

Onigiri with Gourmet Rice [Onigiri is a "sandwich" of rice wrapped in nori (seaweed), filled with either roasted salmon, umeboshi (pickled plum), or shredded konbu (kelp)] Chef Saito chose a Japanese famous brand rice, named Koshihikari, for this dish, which is not grown in Japan, but in California.  Chef Saito specifically chose this brand of rice, because he knew that the gourmands of Kyoto would agree that weather patterns of California create a more  tasty rice grain, that is perhaps better than Japanese one.

Baby Back Barbecue Ribs with Vermont Maple Syrup and Cognac

Potato Karokke [Karokke is a dumpling made from potato and ground beef, coated with panko (Japanese bread crumbs) and deep-fried.

Yuzu-Mirin Rost Duck [Yuzi is a Japanese lime; Mirin is a sweet-ish vinegar]

Kushiage [Kushiage are an assortment of foods, skewered with small sticks. breaded with panko and deep-fried. Chef Saito served a variety: shrimp, squash, asparagus, onion, shiitake mushroom, chicken, scallops, pork tenderloin, tofu, eggplant, and cheese]

Chilled Roast Ham with New England Cranberry-Champagne Reduction

Vegetarian Hosa-Maki [Vegetarian Sushi]