Antonio Lambert, a self-taught ex-convict turned mental health educator, has relapsed into crime and drug use before. But now, he says, “I know when it’s time to reach out for help.”
December 8, 2011Extreme cleaners get to work during the holidays, making sure floors and toilets shine as brightly as holiday lights.
The turnips we get now are not sweet and tender like young spring turnips, which are almost a different vegetable altogether. They stand up to longer cooking times, so they’re perfect for soups, stews and gratins. But I found them equally welcome in a frittata and a stir-fry. I’ll be using the young ones next spring in tender vegetable braises, but for now I’m very happy with my robust winter turnips.
Couscous With Turnips and Sweet Potatoes
This spicy, comforting couscous demands little in the way of prep time. It’s the long simmer on the stove that results in the tasty broth. As it simmers, the sweet potato falls apart into small bits that tint the broth.
1 onion, chopped
1 leek, white and light green parts only, cut in thick slices and cleaned
4 large garlic cloves, minced
Salt, preferably kosher salt, to taste
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, lightly toasted and ground
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, lightly toasted and ground
1 teaspoon caraway seeds, lightly toasted and ground
1/2 teaspoon cayenne (more to taste)
A bouquet garni consisting of 8 sprigs each parsley and cilantro
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon harissa (more to taste), plus additional for serving
1 large sweet potato (about 10 ounces), peeled and cut in large dice
1 pound turnips, cut in wedges
1 large carrot, peeled and cut in thick slices
6 cups water
Salt to taste
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed, or 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley or cilantro, or a combination
1 1/2 to 2 cups couscous, preferably whole-wheat couscous (1/4 to 1/3 cup unreconstituted couscous per person)
1. Combine all the ingredients except the chickpeas and chopped parsley or cilantro and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 hour. Taste and adjust salt. The stew should be spicy and flavorful. Stir in the chickpeas and parsley or cilantro and heat through.
2. Reconstitute and steam the couscous. Serve the couscous in wide bowls or mound onto plates and top with the stew and a generous amount of broth. Pass more harissa at the table.
Yield: 6 servings.
Advance preparation: The stew can be made a day ahead and reheated. Leftovers will keep for 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator. The couscous can be reconstituted up to a day ahead, then steamed before serving.
Nutritional information per serving: 363 calories; 0 grams saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 1 gram monounsaturated fat; 0 milligrams cholesterol; 76 grams carbohydrates; 14 grams dietary fiber; 330 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 14 grams protein
Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”
1 cup (6 ounces) black-eyed peas, rinsed
1 quart water
1 onion, cut in half
3 garlic cloves, minced
A bouquet garni made with a bay leaf, a Parmesan rind and a sprig each of parsley and thyme
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 red bell pepper, cut in small (1/4-inch) dice
1 12-ounce bunch spinach, stemmed and washed, or a 6-ounce bag of baby spinach
Freshly ground pepper
8 ounces soba
Freshly grated Parmesan
1. Combine the black-eyed peas and water in a large saucepan or soup pot and bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat. Skim off any foam, then add the onion, 2 of the minced garlic cloves, the bouquet garni and salt to taste. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer 40 minutes, or until the beans are thoroughly tender but intact. Taste the broth and adjust salt. Remove the onion and bouquet garni and discard.
2. Fill a large pot two-thirds of the way full with water (soba will bubble up, and if you fill the pot too full the foamy water will overflow) and bring to a boil.
3. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet and add the red pepper. Cook, stirring often, until it is just tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until it is fragrant, 30 seconds to a minute. Add the beans with their liquid to the pan and bring to a boil. Boil over medium-high heat until the broth reduces a bit, and stir in the spinach. Stir just until it is wilted, and remove the pan from the heat. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
4. When the soba water comes to a boil, add salt to taste and the soba. Let the water bubble up until it is just about to reach the top of the pot, then turn the heat down to low so that the water retreats. Turn the heat up again and let the water come back up, then turn the heat back down. Repeat one more time. The soba should be cooked by the end of the third round. If it is not, repeat one more time. Drain and toss with the bean and spinach mixture, either in the pan or in a wide bowl. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan.
Yield: 4 servings.
Advance preparation: The black-eyed peas can be cooked ahead through Step 1 up to 4 days ahead and stored in the refrigerator.
Nutritional information per serving (4 servings): 410 calories; 1 gram saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 milligrams cholesterol; 71 grams carbohydrates; 12 grams dietary fiber; 124 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 19 grams protein
Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”
Stuart Bradford
What’s the first step toward cooking and eating better this year? Perhaps you should start by learning how to boil water.
While that may not sound like much of a cooking technique, you will gain a new appreciation for the hidden potential of boiled food after reading the new book “An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace,” by the chef and food writer Tamar Adler. Placing a pot of water on a hot burner allows us to “do more good cooking than we know,” she writes.
Ms. Adler waits for a rapid boil and adds surprisingly large handfuls of salt, tasting until it’s reminiscent of ocean water. (People concerned about sodium can use less.) From that simple starting point, several meals can be created, from pasta adorned with gently cooked vegetables to a chicken, simmered and skimmed, cut up and served with a fresh salsa verde. The chicken leaves behind yet another flavorful dish: richly flavored broth, to be eaten hot with vegetables or added to other dishes the rest of the week.
To listen to Ms. Adler talk about cooking is to be drawn into a rhythmic dance where each step — from washing and chopping vegetables to cooking and seasoning the meal — flows effortlessly into the next, guided by the food itself, as well as by our own basic instincts about what tastes good.
A chapter called “How to Have Balance” focuses on bread; “How to Live Well” is devoted to beans. Her message is that cooking does not have to be complicated, and all anyone needs are a few basics to get started. In instructing readers on the art of intuitive cooking, Ms. Adler offers not just cooking lessons, but a recipe for simplifying life.
“There is this sense that to cook well means to be struck with inspiration,” said Ms. Adler, 34, whose credentials include stints at the restaurants Prune, in New York, and Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, Calif. “We think everything is supposed to be extraordinary.
“But in European and Asian food culture, food is simply supposed to be good and nourishing and enjoyable” — and, she added, far less stressful.
Why are so many of us intimidated by cooking? It may be that this convenience-food generation never got to see our mothers and grandmothers boiling and roasting meals without a recipe, turning the leftovers into hash or stew. Instead we are guided by cooking shows that celebrate the elaborate preparations and techniques that Ms. Adler calls “high-wire acts.”
“Anybody who grew up with a lot of home cooking around them knows that you can have eggs for dinner or that lentils can become pancakes tomorrow,” she said. “But sometimes we just don’t know that we can do that because they don’t do that on TV.”
One of her most important lessons is that we need to spend less time thinking about food and more time just enjoying it. Her suggestions about how to prepare vegetables contradict much of what we have been taught, or think we have.
For instance, while most of us stock our crispers with fresh vegetables and then spend the rest of the week racing to eat them before they turn brown, Ms. Adler buys up basketfuls of whatever vegetables are in season, and as soon as she gets home she scrubs off the dirt, trims the leaves, chops and peels, and then cooks and prepares all the vegetables at once — washing and separating lettuce leaves; drizzling cauliflower, beets and carrots with olive oil and roasting them in separate pans. Beet greens are sautéed, and chopped stems and leaves are transformed into pesto.
Many people, myself included, have long believed that vegetables are best if they are cooked just before they are served. But cooking vegetables as soon as you buy them essentially turns them into a convenience food, allowing them to keep longer and creating a starting point for a week’s worth of meals.
“We’re told that things need to be fresh,” Ms. Adler said, but too often “we all end up watching our food go bad, and then it doesn’t matter if it was fresh, because we didn’t get to eat it.”
Watching Ms. Adler cook vegetables is inspiring. (You can see her routine in two videos titled “How to Stride Ahead” on her Web site, tamareadler.com.) Roasted vegetables can be enjoyed immediately, but most will be refrigerated in jars for later in the week. Warmed to room temperature and drizzled with vinaigrette, they make a savory, earthy salad; or blended with broth and a splash of cream, they can be a hearty soup.
For another meal, the cooked vegetables might be used in a frittata or a warm sandwich. Cooked greens can be turned into a bubbling gratin, roasted vegetables are added to risotto, and everything left over can become an end-of-the-week vegetable curry.
The comforting lesson from “An Everlasting Meal” is that we already know plenty about feeding ourselves, and we don’t need to complicate things by trying to create something extraordinary every time we cook.
“I feel like people are being hit from all sides by a lot of confusing messages, and they are feeling like eating well is really hard,” Ms. Adler said. “This is not a question of expertise. Other than being an expert eater, which we all are by the time we start cooking, we’re already experts at knowing when things are done or whether they need more seasoning.”
