Citrus Salsa

Sorry for the intermittent posting, folks, but I am trying to focus on my literary and personal lives as well as exercise and eating well. No time to blog!

Please accept this salsa recipe from Mark Bittman in today's New York Times - it's made with citrus. Substitute another orange for the grapefruit if you don't have grapefruit trees. There's still plenty of citrus hanging around our neighborhood gardens.

April 8, 2009
Recipe
Maya Citrus Salsa (Xec)

1 orange

1 small grapefruit

1 large lemon

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1/2 habanero or other chili, seeded and minced, or to taste

Salt to taste


Cut orange in half horizontally and section it as you would a grapefruit; do this over a bowl to capture all its juice. Remove seeds and combine flesh and juice in bowl. Repeat with grapefruit and lemon. Stir in cilantro, habanero and salt.

Tuna Beans (Tonno e Fagioli)

When the cupboard is looking really bare, make tonno e fagioli for a filling pantry supper.

2-3 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 onion, chopped fine
Olive oil
1 can tuna (packed in oil is yummier)
1 14 oz. can of tomatoes - San Marzano best, but any will do in a pinch
Basil
1 14 oz. can of white beans (other beans will do; chickpeas make a decent variation)
Chopped parsley for garnish
Salt and pepper

Saute the onion in olive oil over medium heat until it is clear and softened, at least ten minutes; then add garlic and saute until tender but not brown. Add tomatoes with their juice, breaking up fruit if whole. Simmer for fifteen to twenty minutes until tomatoes are cooked. (By the way, this is a marinara sauce - if you have no tuna or beans, you can serve this over pasta). Add dry or fresh basil to taste. Add drained tuna and drained beans, stir all and heat through. Salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped parsley.

This is really good served with a loaf of crusty bread. It makes a nice topping for toasted bread rounds, too. If it's your main course, then just add a green salad and you have a meal. White wine? Yum!

Written on Monday afternoon, posted Tuesday through the magic of scheduled posting. Yes, I really am offline on weekday mornings and all weekend.

Safeway specials for your emergency kit

I shop Safeway for staples, paper and cleaning supplies, and other household necessities. I also keep an eye on the specials to stock our pantry. Remember I told you to build up your cupboards so that you have two weeks' worth of food stored in case of an emergency? And of course, eat what you store - use the food regularly and replenish.

Well, this week Safeway is running a $.75 cent sale: mix-n-match. I bought lots of Dennisons' Chili and canned tomatoes. If I needed canned green beans or corn I would have bought that, as well. I may go back for more of the chili before the sale runs out - my husband is eating it. I had thought it would be good to have some cans to take camping this summer, but clearly ten cans is not enough chili to keep in storage.

The Fruitvale Safeway across from Dimond Library also stocks an unbelievable value in chickpeas. It's a 29 oz. can sold in the Mexican food section - $1.19 regular price, on sale for $1.09. The cheapest price for a 14 oz. can of chickpeas is usually $1.25 on sale, and right now those 14 oz. cans are around $1.99. So the 29 oz. can is nearly ONE QUARTER the price.

Of course you can always make hummus with one of these cans! Double the linked recipe.

But we enjoyed the chickpeas dressed with a lemon-garlic vinaigrette and garnished with chopped parsley, scallions and cumin. I thought I was making a lot of this salad but my family demolished it all in one sitting.

The Safeway on Redwood Road carries Chicken of the Sea solid tuna packed in olive oil that was on special for under $2 a can. It's better quality than the usual sale tuna. I've been eating it dressed with lemon and pepper. Yes you should limit consumption of tuna due to mercury worries, but once or twice a month is fine, and the Omega 3s are so good for you, they make up for the mercury (so claims Erik Peper, Ph.D. and exercise physiologist).

We Made Marmalade!

Last Saturday the ladies of the Laurel District canning group got together for our first project: making and canning orange marmalade from foraged citrus.

We also preserved some lemons, Moroccan-style, for good measure. I brought along Claudia Roden cookbooks and we discovered recipes for chicken tagine with green olives and preserved lemon; sweet potato salad with preserved lemon, and artichokes stewed with the salty fruit.

Stella Lamb hosted us in her lovely, well-stocked kitchen. We divided ourselves into three teams, as there were eight of us, making three pots of marmalade: two bitter, with peel, and one sweet, without.

The afternoon was busy and entertaining; several of us remarked on how this activity reminded us of our grandmothers and mothers long ago, putting up preserves and socializing.

Joann Maggiore and MJ Barnes contributed equipment and canning know-how; Molly Stouffer brought scones and dashed out for more pectin; Sally went and got us more knives; Betsy and Katherine pitched in with peeling, chopping and stirring. People who contributed materials included Meg on Pampas and Dina Bedini.

We produced at least thirty jars of orange-lemon marmalade, plus several jars of preserved lemon which are curing in our kitchens right now. This project was lots of fun for me and the other women - we learned how to put up fruit, and we built ties to our neighbors.

There's talk of a sauerkraut party - I am not able to organize it myself at this time, but anybody who wants to move the project forward, feel free. We need a location and our sauerkraut teacher, Helayne, will discuss scheduling.

Thanks everybody for helping us make marmalade!

My preserved lemons aren't ready yet, but I'm going to adapt the recipe using regular Meyer lemons from our abundant crop; I'll also put it in the slow cooker - America's answer to the tagine. Note that any traditional tagine recipe works in a slow cooker.

Cabbage Salad for Helayne

Today I met Helayne Waldman in person, a Laurel resident and nutritionist who leads workshops and counsels clients. One of her specialties is nutrition for breast cancer. She spent a very productive hour with me, going over research on diet and the disease. I'm so fortunate to have met her - she is warm, dynamic, and very knowledgeable!

Helayne sent me home with copious notes, Meyer lemons, and ideas buzzing in my head. For dinner tonight I adapted a traditional Arabic cabbage salad recipe, adding certain ingredients based on Helayne's recommendations.

Cabbage Salad

1 pound Napa, Savoy or regular cabbage (500 grams)
2 carrots, peeled and grated
2 or 3 green onions, white parts finely minced (optional)
1 or 2 cloves garlic
1 lemon, preferably unsprayed, organic
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (75 ml)
Salt
Pepper
1 cup parsley, minced (60 ml)
Pomegranate seeds for garnish (optional, in season)

Chop cabbage finely, combine with carrots in large, non-reactive bowl.

Finely mince garlic or put through garlic press. Zest lemon peel onto cabbage mixture.

In a small, non-reactive bowl, juice lemon and add minced garlic, salt and pepper to taste, then slowly stir in olive oil until well emulsified. (If using a mortar and pestle or molcajete, then pound garlic with salt, add lemon juice, pounding, then use mortar and pestle to stir in olive oil. Add pepper to taste). Pour lemon-olive oil sauce over cabbage and toss well. Let sit for at least thirty minutes to blend flavors and soften cabbage.

Just before serving, add minced parsley and mix thoroughly. Correct seasonings. You add the parsley at the last minute to keep it from wilting, whereas the cabbage improves with a bit of time in the lemon vinaigrette.

Pomegranate seeds make a nice garnish in late autumn. In summer, use diced red or green sweet peppers (or both).

Recipe by Leila Abu-Saba

My Grandmother's Bulghur and Tomatoes

Last night my husband thought there was "nothing to eat" in the fridge because he saw no meat. Hah! I had just shopped at the farmer's market, and the pantry is full of grains and canned beans.

I made him this bulghur pilaf with tomatoes that my cousin taught me. She calls it "Sitteh's bulghur" because it was our grandmother's favorite dish. (Sitteh means grandmother in Arabic). For extra protein I added a can of chickpeas at the last. Instead of just black pepper, I used Spanish smoked paprika.

A head of cauliflower from the farmer's market got the steam/sautee treatment, using cumin, ginger, turmeric, allspice and garlic. Yum.

Hubby calls this "hippie food." Since he grew up in Berkeley, he doesn't mean this in a kind way, but he has had to acknowledge his secret inner hippie in recent years. He likes Harbin Hot Springs, he likes quinoa salad, he likes this pilaf. He is finally tired of Atkins and has begun eating high fiber whole grains: hippie food.

Laurel Farmers Market

I just got back from the Laurel Farmers Market.

The take, all organic: rainbow chard ($1.50 a bunch) broccoli, cauliflower, artichokes ($1 each) potatoes (3 for $1), kale, honey and organic eggs ($5 a dozen). I had to read the honey labels carefully for the local California stuff - some of it was from Brazil.

For lunch we had steam-sauteed chard with garlic and lemon juice; leftover lentil soup.

Stay tuned for Moroccan and Middle Eastern recipes for our seasonal greens. I want to try cauliflower with tahini/garlic sauce. Also beets with yogurt sauce, and stuffed artichokes.

The dry goods counter is part of the information booth - they're selling dried beans, popcorn, and spices.

Adina Sara, the Imperfect Gardener of the MacArthur Metro newspaper, was buying greens too, and told me she has a memoir coming out this week! Titled, The Imperfect Gardener - life and the garden. I love her column - gardening for those of us who are NOT Martha Stewart.

Lebanese Fusion Chard Tortilla

I needed a decent, vegetable-heavy snack today, with some protein. Little of interest lurked in the fridge: cabbage, carrots, celery, and a large bunch of chard that really needed cooking. The weather is cold and rainy here and I didn't want to eat a raw slaw - I wanted hot food. I was also busy and did not want to prep chard and cook it in laborious stages the way I usually do, carefully cutting out the ribs and sauteeing them first.

Pamela Anderson gives this formula for "Steam/Sauteed Vegetables": prep a pound of veg, add 1/3 cup of water, a tablespoon of fat, salt, and optional aromatics. Bring it all to the boil in a heavy pot (my All-clad big saucepan works fine; she suggests a Dutch oven or heavy skillet with a lid.) Cover and steam over medium-high heat until the vegetable is brightly colored and just tender, 5 to 10 minutes, depending on vegetable size.

Remove the lid and continue to cook until the liquid evaporates, 1 to 2 minutes longer, adding optional fresh herbs and other flavorings at this point. Saute to intensify flavors, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Adjust seasonings, including pepper to taste, and serve.

I did this with the chard sliced crosswise, not bothering to separate the ribs; minced garlic (3 cloves!) water and lemon juice, olive oil and salt. At the end I added pine nuts (ideally toasted but I hadn't thought ahead - next time). Then I heated a whole-wheat and corn tortilla, piled half the chard on it, and covered with a dollop of plain yogurt.

OMG that was so good and it took so little time. It's Lebanese-style chard because of the flavorings - tastes just like the fillings used in spinach or chard pies. The whole-wheat tortilla is pure California.

I'm choosing "low-glycemic" foods more often now, and working hard to eat more vegetables and less white flour and cheese. When I'm hungry for a snack I pick a protein, veg or fruit, and only whole grains. This "snack" fit the bill. I'm making it again.

Other vegetable ideas in "How To Cook Without a Book": asparagus with garlic, basil and soy; broccoli with garlic and green pepper; green beans with onions and thyme; cabbage with butter and caraway; and carrots with cumin. These are not cordon bleu recipes, granted. However, they create flavor quickly with whole ingredients. This recipe meant I ate hot chard and yogurt on that tortilla instead of melted cheese.

Frugal Cassoulet

Mark Bittman used to be a far-leftist community organizer. He's a top food writer and personality now, but he still holds onto his communitarian values. This week he cooked with kids at a charity event in New York, and published his recipe for a cassoulet that has less meat, more vegetables, and is good for the planet as well as your purse.

Farmer Joe's carries smoked pork chops sometimes, and always has smoked turkey legs. You could use any sausage in this recipe. Bittman further gives you the option to use cabbage instead of zucchini - a good thing, since cabbage is in season and local.

This recipe is similar to the supper soup I posted yesterday, although mine was more about kale than beans or meat - one starving sausage in the whole pot.