Robin Asbell's Real Food Digest

Ripe, by Cheryl S Rule and Paulette Phlipot

Those of you who buy and use cookbooks may already have suspected this, but we cookbook authors are an odd lot. Our passion for food leads us away from the sociable table and the friendly farmers market to the confinement of the testing kitchen and the computer room, where we slave for hours on end, usually alone. Because of this, we need to band together and support each other.

I’m proud to say that I’ve found support and friendship with a whole host of talented cookbook creators, and we keep each other sane. At least, a little saner, in my case. We watch each other bring these labors of love from vague ideas to polished proposals, and eventually, into the light of amazon.com, all with the happy understanding of just how hard, and how rewarding, the whole process really is.

It is with great expectation that our growing community awaited the first book of Cheryl Sternman Rule and Paulette Phlipot. I met Cheryl, years ago, at a food writers conference, where we were both just starting out. Since then, Cheryl has found her place in the writing world, and in so doing, forged a place where her unique voice and style ring out. Her blog, 5secondrule, is the result, and after years of consistent, wonderful writing, the blog won Best Blog at the International Association of Culinary Professionals awards this year.

Writing like Cheryl’s is rare. Her style is whimsical, funny, and down to Earth. When you read something she has written, you know who wrote it. On any given day, in Cheryl’s world, she might take a flight of fancy and run from house to house, delivering pomegranates out of the sheer joy of it, or imagine replacing all the pencils with asparagus spears, just to see who would laugh. And thanks to her blog, 5secondrule, we can all go along on these lyrical trips, all while looking at lovely photos and collecting great recipes.

If you follow along, you will see that Cheryl is somehow a busy Mom, who makes chunky, luscious cookies and stores them in big antique glass jars, or builds amazing salads that look so good even kids eat them all up. All while making us laugh, which is as nourishing as half an avocado, by my calculations.

So, when Cheryl met Paulette, a talented photographer, and the two of them decided to make a book together, with no compromises of their shared vision, well, the rest of us waited. Like aunts, on pins and needles over the latest baby in the clan, we hovered, we hoped.

And now it’s here. Ripe, A Fresh, Colorful Approach to Fruits and Vegetables (Running Press $25.00) has burst from the presses, and we are just so dang proud. The book is in Cheryl’s voice, her recipes are the kind of simple that it takes real talent to come up with, and the photos are evocative and color saturated. It makes your mouth water, with each turn of the page.

So, to celebrate this genuinely gorgeous, tasty book, I made a few of the recipes. The Green Beans with Smoky Pistachio Dust leapt out at me. Like a souped up version of Gomasio, the dust should be a must have condiment for all vegans and vegetarians-you will devour it on the beans, then want to put it on everything. Seriously.

I also made the super simple Meyer Lemonade with Agave, a tasty and refreshing way to celebrate the nuances of the Meyer.

Lemonade Time!

Ovo-lacto vegetarians will find everything in this book within their pantry limits, while vegans will need to modify some things. Eggs, butter and cheese can be subbed, if you know how to veganize. Or, you may just buy the book for the pictures.

It’s really that pretty.

My photo pales in comparison to Paulettes's, but YUM!

Green Beans with Smoky Pistachio Dust

1 pound green beans, trimmed

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

3/4 cup roasted shelled pistachios

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then drop the beans in for 2-3 minutes, until desired degree of tenderness is achieved. Drain well.

2. In a food processor, grind the pistachios, paprika, salt and pepper together until the nuts are dust.

3. When the beans are drained, return them to the pan and toss with the olive oil. Sprinkle with pistachio dust to taste, and save the rest in a jar to put on everything else.

4. Serve the beans hot.

Fresh Turmeric

I have been buying fresh turmeric lately, and keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that it will keep appearing on my local grocer’s shelf. I used to drive across town to pick it up at the Indian grocery, but I don’t want to write about things that are too hard to find, because I know it frustrates readers to hear about exotic ingredients that you can only get at special stores. So, now that it seems to be coming in regularly from Hawaii, I feel that I can sing its praises.

Yes, it comes from the Islands, bringing warm, tropical energy to my latest cooking obsessions. If you have not seen it, it looks alot like fresh ginger, at about 3/4 scale.

These fresh tubers occupy that wonderful intersection between gourmet, authentic food and health nut food, which makes them a double bonus food. Anyone who loves Indian food will enjoy the superior flavor that fresh turmeric imparts to a recipe. It’s much sweeter and less bitter than the powder. The health nuts, well, they have good reason to seek out the golden roots.

Whole Roots

Yes, turmeric is making a name for itself by having lots of well-researched health benefits. It’s a potent anti-oxidant, and eases aches and pains, in one Italian study, Italian arthritis sufferers reported a 58% decrease in pain, and their blood level of inflammatory marker CRP was reduced sixteen fold. I’ve been taking turmeric capsules for years, just for this reason.

More seriously, turmeric appears to prevent destructive plaque from forming in the brain, and be protective against Alzheimers. People in India, who eat turmeric every day, have 1/4 the rate of Alzheimer’s of the US population. It stops and slows tumors from growing, and if taken before chemotherapy, makes tumors more vulnerable to the treatment. It also helps delay liver damage caused by heavy drinking in rats, which I choose to extrapolate to think that it will protect my own liver from the occasional couple of drinks. It also has been shown to reduce the levels of cancer-causing chemicals created when meats are grilled over high heat, so if you grill meat, go with Tandoori spices. It’s anti-fungal, antibacterial, and more. In Traditional Chinese Medicine it’s a treatment for depression.

Now that turmeric is one of the requested ingredients of the health food aficionado, natural food stores are making the effort to seek it out. If you come across it, buy it. It can be frozen, as is, and shredded with a microplane right into the saute pan. Use it in your favorite curry recipes, and start with the standard conversion of three times as much fresh as dried. You may want to add even more, after you taste it.

I love eating curries and Indian food, but to be honest, I don’t eat them every day. So, I stock up on the turmeric roots and grind them up with all my kale and cukes to make juice-and sweeten the mix with an apple or two. You can make a lively tea by steeping slices of the root in boiling water, add a slice of ginger, for a little kick. Experiment with adding chopped turmeric to stir fries, soups and salsas, where the earthy taste and golden hue will add a new twist.

Red Lentil Dal

Red Lentil Dal with Fresh Turmeric

In this recipe, you will actually use individual spices, instead of curry powder. It’s worth the effort to buy them and use them, I promise. If you don’t cook with them often enough to buy a whole jar, try to find a place to buy in bulk, and just get a little baggie. Asafetida is probably hard for some of you to find, so it’s optional. It’s a powder, made from the dried resin of a plant, and it’s always described as tasting like garlic and onions. I never get the garlic/onion thing, but it does make your curry taste more like it does in a real Indian restaurant, so use it if you can.

Makes about 8 cups, serves 4-6 as a main course

1 teaspoon cumin seed, whole1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh turmeric, minced
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped
3 jalapeno, chopped
1/2 teaspoon asafetida (optional)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 small cauliflower
1 medium potato, diced
1 cup red lentils, rinsed
5 cups water
1 tablespoon jaggery or raw sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt, to taste

In a soup pot, heat canola oil. Add mustard and cumin seeds and bring to a sizzle. Add onion and saute until softened. Add turmeric, ginger, and jalapeno and cook, stirring. When softened and fragrant, add the asafetida, cumin and coriander and stir, cooking until fragrant, just a couple of minutes. Add cauliflower and potato, lentils and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cover tightly. Simmer for 30 minutes, checking and stirring halfway. When lentils are falling apart, take off heat and stir in sweetener and lemon. If you want it smooth, puree all or part of the soup. Salt and adjust seasonings to taste.

Vegetable Dumplings at HanGawi in NYC

If you read last week’s post, you got a peek at my fabulous macrobiotic meal at a restaurant named Mana. We shared two kinds of steamed dumplings, one filled with a mash of lightly curried sweet potatoes, the other stuffed with greens and vegetables. This was not my first dumpling experience in the Big City. In fact, pretty much every time there is a veggie dumpling on a menu, I order it. The photo above is of a lovely veggie dumpling I had at the vegan Korean restaurant HanGawi, just a few days before. Although they are somewhat obscured by lightly steamed broccoli florets, you can see that they are folded in a tortellini-style shape. They were filled with tender greens, and perched on a puddle of sweet-sour hot sauce.

I couldn’t stop there, and when I had dinner at The Spice Market, a Jean Georges Vongerichten restaurant, I had another version. This time, they bobbed in a tasty soup.

Fresh Pea Soup with Sweet-Pea Miso Dumplings (sorry, it was dark)

This was definitely an upscale soup, a sweet and subtle puree of absolutely fresh, shelled peas, with a few chopped greens and herbs. The dumplings were tiny and tender, filled with miso-spiked pea puree. It was a celebration of the English Pea, a seasonal and fleeting delight. It was delicious.

Of course, then came the dumplings at Mana, where we shared them, dipped in tasty soy-based sauces.

Macrobiotic Veggie Dumplings

When you come right down to it, a plump, juicy dumpling is irresistible. Little pillows of deliciousness that they are, they are like a present, specially wrapped just for you. The sauce is the bow on top. You get to eat them with your fingers, if you want, or pick them up with chopsticks, which is also pretty playful. So, if you can see where this is all leading, I thought I should make some steamed veggie dumplings when I got home.

Steamed Chinese Style Veggie Dumplings at Home

Steamed Chinese-Style Vegetable Dumplings

I’ve made versions of this recipe for years, and found that they benefit from the complexity and funk that a bit of preserved or pickled cabbage adds. I used easy to find wonton skins in the photo, which are thinner, and kind of flop over in the steamer, but are just as yummy. If you are vegan, look at the ingredients on your wrappers, many brands are actually egg-free.

1 package potsticker or gyoza wrappers
canola oil
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/4 cup szechuan preserved vegetables or kimchee, rinsed and minced (not everyone has access to szechuan veggies, but kimchee is close enough)
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups minced bok choy
1 cup chinese chives, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pinch white pepper
2 tablespoons shao xing rice wine or sherry
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar

vinegar, chili sauce, and soy sauce

1. Use 1 teaspoon of the oil to stir fry the vegetables until almost wilted. Add salt, pepper, wine, soy sauce, and sugar, cook until thick. Remove from heat, scrape into a bowl and cool completely.
2. To assemble, get a pastry brush and a cup of water, and a steamer or plate, and cut some parchment pieces for each dumpling. Lay out several wrappers and place a scant tablespoon of filling in the center of each. Brush the top half of each wrap and pull the two sides up around the filling, and form a flat bottom. Pleat the top edge and set each on a piece of parchment on the steamer. Cover with plastic as you go. These can be covered and refrigerated for a few hours, or frozen raw to be cooked frozen.
3. To cook, set up to steam. When the water is boiling, put the steamer over it, cover, and steam for about 8 minutes. When the dumpling wrappers are tender and the veggies are hot all the way in the center, they are done.  Let diners mix the three condiments to suit their tastes on the plate.

With a little Sriracha

Our Meal: L-R Okinomiyaki Pancake, Sauteed Greens with Shiitakes, Kidney Beans, Brown Rice, Sweet Potato Dumplings, Veggie Dumplings

When I started learning about vegetarianism, way back in the 70′s and 80′s, the word on everyone’s lips was “macrobiotics.” While American vegetarians were eating mac and cheese and pizza, followers of Macrobiotics were into something else. If you are not familiar, Macro is a way of eating that is all about balancing the energy in the food, and balancing your body and mind in the process. It’s based on Japanese ways of thinking about food and the Universe, and the food reflects a deeper Asian aesthetic, as well.

In a macro way of looking at healthy eating, food is analyzed as to its yin and yang qualities. Yang foods are heavy and dense, and bring heat to the body. Meat and dairy are very yang. Yin foods are light, diffuse, and cold. Sugar is very yin. All foods have some balance of yin and yang within them, but generally, whole grains are the most balanced, and therefore balancing, foods. Macrobiotics eat 60% whole grains, 20-30% vegetables, and 5-10-% beans and soy, and sea vegetables, fruits and moderate amounts of fat. Small amounts of fish might be consumed. Foods like miso soup, seaweed, sesame and kanten are important. Eating local, low on the food chain, and organic, with no processed or refined foods is a core principle. A seasonal emphasis also promotes balance, with heavier roots and beans in winter and more leafy, light foods in summer. Certain foods, like nightshades eggplant, tomato and pepper and tropical fruits are not recommended.

Of course, that is just a quick summary, but you get the gist of it. Macrobiotics is very plant-based.

Somewhere along the line, Macro just kind of took a back seat to vegan, in recent years, even though the two have much in common.

I was excited to get a chance to go to a macrobiotic restaurant in New York City, accompanied by vegan blogger Sharon Nazarian (her blog here) and vegan pastry expert, Fran Costigan (her website, here). The restaurant, called Mana Organic Cafe, is run by owner Sung Lee, who graciously introduced herself to us, probably because we were photographing our food. It was a treat to share a spread of modern macrobiotic, vegan food.

Of course, when I saw dumplings on the menu, I had to have them. We shared two kinds, one filled with curried sweet potato and one with chopped vegetables. With dipping sauces, they were wonderfully comforting and fun to eat. I also ordered the Okinomiyaki pancake, in part because I created a recipe for one in my book, Big Vegan, and wanted to see how they did theirs. It was a lovely, dense cake, made up of sauteed cabbage and vegetables and mashed tofu, topped with a sweet tomato sauce and some salad greens. On the menu it was billed as macrobiotic “pizza.”

Okinomiyaki

Sauteed Bok Choy, Broccoli, Kale and Shiitakes

I love it when I can get beans, greens and rice in a restaurant, and it was great fun to share a meal with some vegan ladies. It would have been fun to try some nori rolls, soups, and other entrees, which all looked delicious, as we watched them being delivered to other tables. A specialty of the house is the Mana bowl, a big steaming bowl of broth, noodles and vegetables that smelled divine.

Vegans and vegetarians would do well to take a walk on the macrobiotic side, and get into the centering, nourishing foods at the core of the macro way. It can be fun to eat a vegan version of the Western diet, but if you are eating alot of refined food and forgetting your grains and beans, it’s time to start balancing the yin and yang on your plate.

You’ll feel better for it!

Mana, 646 Amsterdam Ave. (212)787-1110

Mana Restaurant’s Menu