Friday Links: February 17, 2012

On fruit day in my food prep class, some genius made Thai green papaya salad. (Find me on Instagram: anjaliruth.)

 

What I’ve been reading:

McDonald’s Teams Up With Humane Society To Phase Out Pig Crates – NPR

Heart Attack Grill Customer Has Heart Attack — While Eating 6,000-Calorie Burger – LA Weekly

Charles McIlvaine, Pioneer of American Mycophagy – The Smithsonian

Why Farms Want Cold Winters – Gilt Taste

 

What I’ve been cooking:

Perfect Baked Polenta – LA Times

Spicy Oven-Roasted Chickpeas – The Kitchn

Asparagus & Ricotta Tart – Apples & Onions

…and thinking about cooking:

Lamb-and-White-Bean Chili – New York Times

Bay-Smoked Potatoes – LA Times

When To Put Down the Olive Oil (and Give Grapeseed Oil a Try)

Extra-virgin olive oil is a magical elixir, right? You should pour it over your salad greens and drizzle it over roasted vegetables and dip your first-born child in it to ensure a long life and no heart disease. Right?

Almost right. There’s one thing extra-virgin olive oil is not good at, and one very important reason why you shouldn’t use it in all your cooking.

It comes down to this: smoke point. I used to just think of smoke point as the annoying temperature at which an oil started to get smoky and stink up the kitchen. I thought it might also have something to do with an oil not working as well and letting food stick to the pan. Totally scientific and based on factual data, clearly.

In actuality, smoke point is the temperature at which a specific oil begins to break down, not only smoking and releasing unwanted flavors, but also generating toxic fumes and free radicals*, those scary cell-damaging molecules that only antioxidants can tame.

Extra-virgin olive oil has a smoke point of 200-300°F, depending on how refined it is**. (The more refined an oil, the higher its smoke point.) That’s low, too low for searing a piece of meat on a cast-iron skillet or stir-frying vegetables over a high flame.

So save your extra-virgin olive oil for salads or low-heat cooking, and give grapeseed oil a try. This oil, extracted from — you guessed it — grape seeds, is high in healthy polyunsaturated fats, which lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase HDL (good) cholesterol. It also has a high smoke point, around 425-475°F and is virtually flavorless, so it lets the flavor of your ingredients shine through.

Look for expeller pressed grapeseed oil, which has been extracted without chemicals. (Because grape seeds are so low in oil, many manufacturers use the solvent hexane to extract the oil. You probably don’t want to be eating that.) Spectrum Organics, La Tourangelle, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s brand grapeseed oils are all expeller pressed. So get a bottle and go to town!

 

* Guide to Oils, Whole Foods Market

** Is it OK to cook with extra-virgin olive oil?, WHFoods

Beans From Scratch: The Slow Cooker Method

I’m serious about beans. For many years, I didn’t understand what the big deal was. I used canned beans in my chili and thought they were fine, but nothing to get excited about. Like tofu*, they seemed to be a vehicle for other flavors, not something to enjoy on their own.

Then I started cooking them properly from scratch and everything changed. I became a bean girl. What does a bean girl do, besides eat lots of beans? Try to figure out the best way to cook beans and store beans. Bookmark a lot of bean recipes. Spend an inordinate amount of time in the bulk foods aisle at Whole Foods.

I’ve soaked, I’ve simmered, I’ve slow-cooked. And I have two favorite methods for cooking beans from scratch; this is the first. If you don’t have a slow cooker, you’ll have to wait for part two.

In the meantime, this burning question: To soak or not to soak? I always soak chickpeas — they’re so hard, you have to — and only soak other beans if I happen to think of it either hours or a day before. But let’s speak briefly about the unspeakable: the digestive effects of beans, henceforth referred to as “the toots.” When I am eating beans at least once a week, I am not afflicted by the dreaded toots. Regular intake of fiber seems to keep things running smoothly and, uh, silently. If you aren’t so lucky, there are some who say soaking your beans and discarding the soaking water before cooking will help. With the toots.

I hope that answers your question because I’m not going to go into more detail.

So what to do with all your lovely, non-gassy, perfectly tender beans? Once cooked, they can be used immediately, or stored, covered in their cooking liquid, in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for several months. Then they are as convenient as canned beans, but with a better texture and a kajillion times tastier.

Many recipes for dishes with from-scratch beans to come. I am a bean girl, after all.

* Some other time, I will discuss eating tofu to eat tofu, rather than eating tofu to pretend it is meat. It’s all very Zen.
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Friday Links: February 10, 2012

Cuppow + canning jar = my new travel mug. (Find me on Instagram: anjaliruth.)

 

What I’ve been reading:

Get Your Goat On – Wall Street Journal

How I Bought 3,500 Cookbooks and Got 6,317 – Huffington Post

With Coffee, the Price of Individualism Can Be High – New York Times

Who Doesn’t Like Brussels Sprouts – Mario Batali Voice

 

What I’ve been cooking:

Pan-Roasted Sea Bass with Citrus and Avocado Oil – Bon Appetit

Thai Stir-Fried Greens with Oyster Sauce - my recipe on The Kitchn

Lemony Green Beans With Almond Breadcrumbs – The Kitchn

…and thinking about cooking:

Harissa Chickpeas with Spinach – Not Without Salt

Smoked Trout and Cabbage Salad

I’m really into cabbage. For a long time, cabbage conjured images in my mind of long winters in Eastern Europe, root cellars and hardscrabble farmers wearing woolen underclothes. Smoked trout had a similar connotation, so perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise they fit together so perfectly.

I changed my mind about cabbage when I started making Orangette’s simple red cabbage and Parmesan salad, which is so crisp and sweet and peppery and a little funky from the cheese. Who knew cabbage was so sweet? It must really take the mind off the itchy underthings.

My smoked trout revelation came at the hands of my friend Jessica, purveyor of all things good, who recommended Trader Joe’s canned smoked trout. This came at a time when I was looking to replace Rob’s mercury-heavy tuna melt habit with something slightly healthier. He has thus far rejected sardines, the superheroes of the sea, but loves smoked trout, so it has gone into our weekly meal rotation. I usually mix it with mayonnaise, lemon juice, pepper and fresh herbs and spread it on good toasted bread. He calls it “trout crostini,” which makes us both feel fancy.

But one day, making an Orangette-esque salad with a head of green cabbage, I decided to throw in a little smoked trout in place of the cheese, and ended up with this beguiling mix. It’s a little smoky, a little sweet, savory yet totally crunchy and refreshing. The leftovers were just as good the next day for lunch and I was sold. Those Eastern European farmers in my mind really have it going on.