The late Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Rest in Peace, sage lady. But I don’t think anyone will soon forget all that you have said and done.
Little known fact about Maya Angelou—she got her start singing a Calypso act. At a night club, Angelou met Billie Holiday (sigh), who told her that she would indeed be famous one day, but not for her singing. Perhaps this is also what Billie would have told me, however without the assuring twinkle in her eye.
People will surely forget what I’ve said about this dish once they taste it, because the overwhelming feeling of deliciousness will have overcome them to a bliss for which there are no words–akin to a place where I hope Madam Angelou has gone.
In a bowl, mash the avocado with a fork. Stir in the yogurt, lime juice, onion, jalapeño, cumin and 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
In a large nonstick skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the chicken in an even layer and cook over moderately high heat until crisp on the bottom, about 3 minutes. Scatter the mozzarella and Cotija cheeses over the chicken, cover the skillet and remove from the heat. Let stand until the mozzarella is melted.
Split the rolls and spread the mashed avocado on the bottom halves. Top with the chicken mixture, then add the pickled jalapeños, tomatillo salsa and lettuce. Close the tortas and serve right away.
Not quite a Calypso tribute but certainly a Spanish attempt. Extremely savory.
Happy Memorial Day! Amid weddings and backyard barbeques and garden-starting, don’t forget to stop and salute the flag, in your oatmeal.
Patriotic Baked Oatmeal
Adapted from Penzeys Spices
1 Cup milk
1/2 Cup sugar in the raw (or white sugar)
1/2 Cup fat-free or low-fat vanilla yogurt (or plain)
2 eggs
1/4 tsp.
1 TB. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 Cups old-fashioned oatmeal or rolled oats
2 Cups fruit (blueberries, raspberries)
1 tsp. cinnamon/sugar
additional vanilla yogurt and fruit, optional
Grease a 9-inch square baking pan and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the milk, sugar, yogurt, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and oatmeal. Mix well. Spread a layer of oatmeal mixture on the bottom of the baking pan. Fold in the fruit, or layer it in a pattern that represents your patriotic spirit, like so.
It occurs to me only now that this order of red, blue and white is unfortunately the colors of the flag of Russia. Shh. Not my intent.
Spread more oatmeal mixture in the prepared pan over the fruit and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Cover and refrigerate overnight (or at least a few hours). Bake, uncovered, in a preheated 350° oven for about 30-35 minutes. Serve warm. Good with yogurt and even more fruit (and sugar).
I just can’t help myself. I have to include yet another silly Izzy picture that captures her jowls from a strange angle. This photo makes my bulldog look like an English Sphinx, who feels perhaps a sense of foreboding. Haha.
It’s Memorial Day Weekend and the Fun Meter is on Max. Three day weekend means three opportunities to lavish in a home-cooked breakfast. You must try these. WoW.
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Caramelized Apples
Adapted from Food and Wine
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
2 crisp red apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
Kosher salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups whole milk
4 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup fresh ricotta cheese
Warm pure maple syrup, for serving
In a large skillet, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the apples, cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of the lemon zest and a pinch of salt and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until the apples are just tender and golden, about 5 minutes; keep warm.
In a large bowl, whisk the flour and baking powder with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. In a medium bowl, whisk the milk with the egg yolks, ricotta and the remaining 3/4 teaspoon of lemon zest. Whisk the mix into the dry ingredients until just incorporated.
In a clean, large stainless steel bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form (this is key—makes the pancakes so fluffy!); fold them into the batter.
Preheat a griddle and grease it with butter. Scoop 1/4-cup mounds of batter onto the griddle. Cook the pancakes over moderately high heat until bubbles appear on the surface, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip and cook until the pancakes are risen and golden brown on the bottom, about 2 minutes longer. Transfer to plates, spoon the warm apples on top and serve with warm maple syrup.
Izzy’s Fun Meter is also on Max. She is in the mood for a weekend roadtrip—possibly, to Mount Rushmore? She has been giving me profiles all morning, hoping I’ll carve her likeness into the rock wall next to the chicken coop. I told her it would take a sculptor far more skilled than I to manage her facial landscape of fat folds, cascading like an Elizabethan dress under her chin. So beautiful.
Regretfully late to the party, I just found out that it is National Vegetarian Week. I am not card-carrying, so to speak, however, I do love my vegetables. Spinach goes well in smoothies, but I wanted to know if I could just toss it into bread willy nilly. Turns out, not so good on its own, but with the right spread and toasted, Spinach Bread is a delight.
In a small pan, saute the garlic in the oil until lightly golden. Set aside to cool.
In the microwave, warm 1/4 cup of the reserved spinach liquid to about 110 degrees. Combine the warm liquid, sourdough starter and sugar in a bowl.
Add the remaining 1/2 cup spinach liquid, garlic + oil, thawed spinach, and nutmeg and mix with the paddle. Add the flour and salt and mix until flour is absorbed.
Knead on a floured surface for about ten minutes.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled, about 1-1.5 hours.
Pour the dough onto a floured countertop. It will be very wet and sticky, but you will work more flour into the dough as you shape. Don’t punch the air out. Shape into a round loaf and place on a baking sheet dusted with cornmeal. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Using a razor or sharp knife, slash the top of the loaf in a “V”. Bake on the middle rack for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven to 400 degrees and back for 30-35 minutes more. Cool completely on a rack before slicing.
As I mentioned, this bread isn’t the greatest all by itself. Tastes like a chalky salad. I wanted to enjoy it, though, because it was so packed with good ingredients. Thankfully, I whipped together a spread that makes it to die for. Toast thin slices of the spinach bread with olive oil in a toaster oven.
Art on the Ave 2014 was a tremendous success. After a year’s work putting the event together, the block party on 4th Ave went by too quickly. The best part of the day, for me, was when staffing the Tibetan prayer flag booth, at which kids decorated squares of cloth with designs and messages drawn in Sharpie, one little boy wrote on his flag “You are luky to live here.” A small and innocent truth with which I could not more whole heartedly agree. Luky, luky, luky. Best neighborhood in Rochester. We are the Boho Quarter to be sure. Compassion, as this year’s event theme, chosen by cardiac rehab nurse AND neighbor extraordinaire Janelle, was practically pulsing from each of our chests on these sweet T-shirts designed by Tastes Like Paint (and hand screen printed by KP).
I should have made more of these rolls and sold them at a bread booth. Would have done some mad business with these if I had teamed up with the hot dog stand. Hard to compete with People’s Food Coop, though.
Papo Secos—Portuguese Rolls
4 cups bread flour (one of which is wheat flour)
1 cup fermente (starter)
3/4 -1 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups tepid water
Mix the ingredients and knead until smooth. About 10 minutes of hand-kneading.
Cover and let rise overnight. 10-12 hours is normal. You can make the dough at night and by morning it is ready to finish and bake.
Divide into balls – divide the dough into several balls – a little smaller than the size of a tennis ball
Roll on a lightly floured board until you have a smooth ball of dough
Crease the ball of dough with the side of your hand – press firmly almost to the board.
Twist the ends – now you must grab about an inch in from each end and twist the dough to for the ends – this technique holds the shape of the roll. Some people use a little rice flour in the crease to keep it from sealing up. Lay the roll CREASE side DOWN onto a floured tea towel or clean cloth – push the towel up slightly to the roll as you form the next roll – this keeps the rolls from spreading out.
Cover and let rise – 1 hour – when ready, carefully lift the rolls onto your baking sheet, this time with the CREASE side UP.
Pre-heat the oven to 425F and set a pan of water on the bottom rack. Bake the rolls for 25 minutes or until done – they should be golden brown when they are done!
Papo Secos in English means literally ‘dry stomach or pouch.’ Got Portuguese on the brain as World Cup is less than a month away.
My internal medicine attending asked me a flattering question today: she wanted to know how I got my patients to like me so quickly. I told her that I must have learned it by epigenetic osmosis from my mother, who has been a charismatic woman for decades straight, and still going strong. She probed further, “Some people do not come by this skill naturally. If you were to teach what it is specifically that you do to build quick rapport with your patients, how would you design your lesson?
A fascinating prompt. So, this is my secret, and not just for the doctor-patient relationship, but for life:
I would suggest a lengthy syllabus of novels. Lifelong regular reading of long novels. Perhaps Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain to start. Then Dostoyevski. Then anything by Chekov. In addition to that, I make two simple decisions, daily.
1. Before we meet, I have already decided, irrevocably, that I’m going to like you. And this isn’t a Minnesota Nice thing or the Southern Gentility smarmy I’m-going-to-pretend-to-like-you-but-really-I-can’t-stand-you. In sincerity, my eyes are bright with the thought of you before we’ve met because all humans deserve proper welcome. I have learned from reading novels that ALL characters have some fascinating aspect that can, with careful observation and moral imagination, endear them to their reader. So, upon greeting, my first few seconds will be spent gathering likeable facts and features about you, in the same way that I, as a writer, might search for distilling details to portray you as protagonist. I am looking for that very specific feature that will solidify you in my mind as a fellow human being who has the same core emotions as I do; who, like me, wants to feel loved, wants to be heard, and wants to belong to something greater than themselves, but who has their own take on the world, their own strange and alluring personal flair—and when I discern that delicious idiosyncrasy that, at least in my mind, makes you a lovable protagonist, this discovery will serve to reinforce the second important thing I have already decided about you:
2. We are now family. It is my personal sensibility to treat you like I would my own family member. I will internalize your concerns as I would take to heart those of my mother, my brother, my aunts and cousins. This decision of kinship changes everything. Patient given verisimilitude to family transforms work into quality time. No longer do I “go to work” or show up to “do a job” or “give a performance” –what I do is spend time with loved ones and make sure they are well cared for. What a privilege to do this for a living!
These attitudes, which are simple decisions fundamentally (and therein the lesson), can turn any office into a hearth—can make any hospital hospit-able. I think patients can tell instinctively that I like them, and, curiously, that I’ve always liked them. If you had a good mother or father, I imagine an encounter with the ease of automatic approval is much like the consoling hunch you must have had as a child, the hunch that this parent has always loved me, and that their always-love comes from a deeper well of care and affection that goes beyond mere habitation within them, an always-love that transcends the fickleness of feeling, and that the locus for this goodness remains mysteriously elsewhere. Perhaps life is a long lesson in learning to turn to face this goodness so as to feel its endless warmth, and radiate some of it ourselves in passing. Some sort of cosmic goodness here. Affection as reflex being something like the cornerstone of human decency—this is my secret.
Perhaps you are wondering what all of this has to do with tomatoes and bread. Well, it’s hard not to like tomatoes. And breaking bread together is an automatic family-making sort of activity.
Pane al Pomodoro (Tomato Bread)
Adapted from The Italian Baker
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
2 tablespoon oil from oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup water, at room temperature
1/3 cup to 1/2 cup coarsely chopped sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil
3 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 large egg white, beaten, for glazing
Lightly saute the garlic and shallot in the oil; let cool to room temperature.
To mix by hand: Stir sourdough starter into the 1 cup of water and the garlic and onion with the oil; then stir in the tomatoes. Mix the flour and salt and stir 1 cup at a time into the yeast mixture. Knead on a lightly floured surface, sprinkling with 2 to 3 tablespoons of additional flour as needed, until the dough is soft, velvety, and slightly moist, 8 to 10 minutes.
First Rise: Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
Shaping and Second Rise: Punch the dough down on a lightly floured surface and knead briefly. Shape the dough into a ball. Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet or a peel sprinkled with flour, cover with a towel, and let rise until doubled, about 45 to 55 minutes.
Baking: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. If you are using a baking stone, turn the oven on 30 minutes before baking and sprinkle the stone with cornmeal just before sliding the loaf onto it. Make three parallel slashes on top of the loaf with a razor. Brush top with egg white. Bake 10 minutes, spraying the oven three times with water. Reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake 25 to 30 minutes longer. Cool completely on a rack.
One other secret, as an aside: I try to talk to my patients about food routinely. Not diet scolding, but about tantalizing things one might do with an eggplant or cauliflower for example. For some reason, talking about food seems to make everyone a little happier–food thoughts snuggle up to a dense emotional center in the brain– and perhaps the next time they see me there will be something like a full-body Pavlovian response, but with happiness, not drool.
If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is
better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate
of the temple and take alms from those who work with joy.
Kahlil Gibran
Substitute the word “work” here with “cook” and Gibran’s adage remains true (and reminiscent of the film Ratatouille.) Also, switch out “alms” for “cauliflower” and what follows is this dish.
Cauliflower Tots
My fabulous neighbor Janelle clued me into this recipe adapted from here
2 1/2 cups raw cauliflower florets (about 2 cups when cooked)
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 tsp garlic, minced
2 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
1/2 cup Colby Jack cheese, grated
1/2 cup seasoned Panko breadcrumbs
salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
First, cook the cauliflower florets by pouring 1/4 inch of water into a large pan over medium heat. Once the water is simmering, reduce the heat to low and add the cauliflower. Cover with a lid and let simmer for about 5 minutes. The cauliflower should be tender, but not mushy when done.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Chop the cauliflower into fine pieces and place 2 cups of the cauliflower pieces into a medium bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and stir.
Shape about 1 1/2 tablespoon of cauliflower mix into an egg-shape and place on a prepared baking sheet. Be careful not to overcrowd the baking sheet.
Bake for 25 minutes, flipping the tots occasionally to brown each side.
Serve immediately.
These really taste like tater tots. The cauliflower is SO incognito, it’s splendiferous. Just as good as my cauliflower fritters which tasted just like crab cakes.
On the way in to take my pediatrics shelf exam yesterday, I stepped in a steaming pile of fresh dog turd—an unpleasant but accurate foreshadowing of the boards test-taking experience. I am ever flummoxed that one’s mastery of understanding a medical specialty can be assessed by one hundred arbitrary multiple choice questions. For the next 24-48 hours (only) I will still remember which enzymes are deficient in the rarest-of-rare glycogen storage disorders and congenital metabolic syndromes. The sensation of that knowledge crumbling into the precipice of the forgotten is an almost euphoric awareness of loss.
On this warm Saturday between rotations, as I stare upwards from the bed of green grass in my backyard, it is as if the white clouds above are hulky muskoxen slowly towing away the burden of all my memorized clutter—clearing my mind to match the bright spring sky, the serene blue that is always there beyond the weather. Happiness, literally a piece of cake.
Brown Butter Polenta Cake with Maple Caramel
Adapted from Bon Appetit Jan 2014
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
¾ cup pure maple syrup
2 cups almond flour or meal
1 cup quick-cooking polenta
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup plus 1 Tbsp. sugar
3 large eggs
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup sour cream
Preheat oven to 350°. Butter a 9”-diameter cake pan and line bottom with a round of parchment paper; butter parchment.
Melt ¾ cup butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, then cook, stirring often, until butter foams, then browns (do not let burn), 5–8 minutes. Pour into a medium bowl; let cool. Chill brown butter until cold.
Fit a clean medium saucepan with thermometer and bring maple syrup to a boil over medium-high heat; cook until thermometer registers 265° (syrup will be thicker and a shade darker). Pour into prepared pan and spread with an offset spatula or a spoon to cover bottom; let cool (syrup will harden as it sits).
Whisk almond flour, polenta, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat chilled brown butter and ¾ cup sugar until very pale and fluffy, 5–7 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating to blend between additions. Beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Reduce speed to low, gradually add dry ingredients, and mix just to combine. Scrape batter into pan; smooth top.
Bake until cake is golden brown and pulls away from sides of pan, 50–55 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack; let cake cool in pan 20 minutes. Turn out onto rack and let cool completely.
Using an electric mixer, beat heavy cream, sour cream, and remaining 1 Tbsp. sugar in a medium bowl until soft peaks form. Serve cake with whipped-cream mixture (I skipped this part. Kept it classy.)
This cake I made for a dinner party and as a gluten-free dessert, it was incredible. The best part is the glaze—simple and yet just the right amount of sweet. I had no idea what it was to “brown” butter. I think it is similar to making ghee—it just clarifies the butter and does a little Maillard reaction to give it a toasty-coffee-dark-and-rich aroma. Ooh, yum. What a treat to have the time it takes to do this.
Because I am on a pediatrics rotation, I felt permission to disregard the age-old adage to not play with your food. I carved canoes out of baking potatoes while singing “Just Around the River Bend” from Disney’s Pocahontas. Two hours and several skinned knuckles later, I realized that the recipe implied (which is something a good recipe never does–good recipes are explicit) wanted you to boil the potato first to soften the innards, which I highly recommend. No, I stress. Boil the potato first, then carve them into canoes, only to restuff them again with poutine gravy, topped with olive-oil fried potato-skin berets and chives. SO SO good.
6 ounces thick-sliced bacon, cut crosswise 1/2 inch thick
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Sour cream, thinly sliced scallions, parsley leaves and celery leaves, for garnish
MAKE THE GRAVY In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until deep golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add the stock, demiglace, sage and thyme and cook until thickened to a gravy-like consistency, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and heavy cream and season with salt and black pepper. Keep warm.
PREPARE THE STUFFED POTATOES Cut one 1/2-inch-wide strip off the top of each baked potato and reserve. Scoop the (here they imply that the potato is already baked/boiled, somehow softened and cooled) potato flesh into a large bowl. Place the potato shells on a baking sheet. Using a ricer, mash the potato flesh with the butter into another large bowl; add the warm milk and mix until blended. Stir in the sour cream, Parmigiano, mustard, cayenne and chives and season with salt and pepper.
In a small saucepan, heat your oil to 350º. Scrape the flesh off the reserved 1/2-inch strips of the potato tops. Cut the skins into wedges and fry until golden and crisp, about 2 minutes. Drain the skins on a paper towel-lined plate.
Preheat the oven to 450º. In a small nonstick skillet, cook the bacon over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until golden and crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Drain the bacon on paper towels.
Spoon about 2/3 cup of the mashed potato mixture into each potato shell and make a well in the center. Bake for about 20 minutes, until heated through and golden on top. Spoon some gravy into the well of each potato, then top with the shredded mozzarella. Bake the potatoes for about 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Transfer the potatoes to a serving platter and top with the bacon. Garnish with sour cream, scallions, parsley and celery leaves and the crispy potato skins.
Really tasty!
Do my pictures in this post look a little yellow? A little, jaundiced? Since my week with neonates, I’ve been asking everyone that. Are you jaundiced? I asked my husband last night while we were on a jog. I pointed out that a soccer player on TV looked jaundiced. I’m seeing the whole world, apparently, through xanthine-tinted glasses.
Happy Cinco de Mayo! Be sure to put on a flat-brimmed hat festooned with dingle balls and bust out your maracas as you fasten your apron. Hominy is an ingredient I had never used before this dish, and probably in a trivia game would have confused with something liturgical, or musical. It is a Mexican white corn that looks like wet popcorn. Curiously, it moves through the digestive tract like a fiber cannonball, so watch out. This soup was so divine, especially as a dip for tortilla chips. After KP and I polished off the first pot, we promptly set to making a second. Ole. And Ole.
Taco Soup for Cinco de Mayo
Adapted from Penzeys Spices catalogue
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 15oz can crushed tomatoes
1 4oz can green chiles
1 26 oz can tomato juice/sauce
1 15oz can Rotel tomatoes with green chiles
2 15oz cans black beans
1 14oz can hominy
2 TB buttermilk ranch dressing mix* THIS IS KEY
2 TB taco seasoning (or fajita seasoning)
½ tsp black pepper or to taste
1 jalapeno, chopped and deveined
*If you were like me, needing to Google such an ingredient, Google no further, I made up my own version of this that goes like: ¼ tsp salt, sprinkle of chives, ¼ tsp pepper, ½ tsp onion powder, ½ tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp dill, ½ TB parsley, 1 TB buttermilk powder.
In a large stock pot over medium heat, cook the onions and then add the beef to brown, 6-10 minutes. Drain well. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer for 45 minutes. Serve with tortilla chips and shredded cheddar cheese. Yum.
